http://ourpacificways.wordpress.com/about-our-pacific-ways/

Our Pacific Ways reflects on Our Pacific traditions for inspiration to move Our Pacific People forward.

It challenges the current systems of exploitation and asks: What if we did things Our Pacific Way?

What if we told you that Our Ancestors were the best navigators using the sun and the stars to travel the Liquid Continent?

By Martyn Namorong

Papua New Guinean film maker Scott Waide’s recent video (see below) featuring the squalid living conditions of police in the Madang Province, highlighted the humanity and fragileness of these men in blue in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

No doubt there are shit cops who in many ways have defined the way the public sees the police force. But when one is presented with shit living conditions yet chooses to continue to serve the public, surely such service is beyond “just doing one’s job”.

The National Development Bank, backed by multi-million kina funding from the government, has launched a new campaign to return control of the nation’s small business sector to Papua New Guineans.

Bank managing director Richard Maru says it is an “eye sore” and a crime against the people that 90% of retail shops, particularly trade stores and food bars, are being run by foreign nationals and migrants.

By Catherine Wilson

Although Papua New Guinea is known as a resource-rich country, 85 percent of the population depends on the informal economy for a living.

Photo: Women at Gordons market (Catherine Wilson/IPS)

The need for a grassroots-led economic enterprise to aid equitable and sustainable development is nationally recognised, but awaits better governance, infrastructure and facilities.