PNG 2020

One of my mantras in leadership and life has always been to not reinvent wheels. If something has been done well and has been proven to work, why try to reinvent it. Another of my mantras is that we can all learn from each other and from every interaction with each other. These leadership notions coupled with my strong desire to contribute back to my own country has driven me to thinking about how I can combine these sentiments for the betterment of PNG.

One of the thoughts that I have harbored for a while has been to try and replicate the Australia 2020 Summit which was held on 19-20 April 2008 in Canberra, Australia, aiming to "help shape a long term strategy for the nation's future". The summit ran as 10 working groups of 100 participants with 1000 delegates ( a cross section of the smartest people in the country from all walks of life) attended the summit to discuss ten "critical areas". Ideas and proposals were invited from all members of the community in regard to the following:

1. Productivity—including education, skills, training, science and innovation.

2. Economy—including infrastructure and the digital economy.

3. Sustainability and climate change.

4. Rural Australia—focusing on industries and communities.

5. Health and ageing.

6. Communities and families.

7. Indigenous Australia.

8. Creative Australia—the arts, film and design.

9. Australian governance, democracy and citizenship.

10. Security and prosperity—including foreign affairs and trade.

Some of the key ideas presented by delegates at the 2020 summit for some of the relevant areas included:

Climate:

-A sustainability, population and climate change agenda supported by robust institutions.
-A cities program to reduce emissions, save water and encourage public transport
-All new buildings after 2020 to be carbon neutral

Creative:

- Link artists with schools through mentoring programs

-Mandatory creative, visual and performing arts subjects at school

Health

- Establish a health equalities commission

-Create a national preventative health agency

-Make healthy food choices easy

- Promote better research

-Create a self-sufficient and flexible medical workforce

Productivity:

-Establish 2020 scholarships for vocational education and training and higher

education institutions to address skills shortage

- "Learning for life accounts" for every Australian from birth, into which the

government and others can make payments for education, training, parental leave, and superannuation contributions

-Parent and children centers to give communities access to integrated services to support children's

health, development, learning and care.

A full copy of the report is available at the australia2020 website for those interested.

The significance of “2020” for me is what a similar summit could generate for PNG. Clearly, and with all due respect to those in public life, the best and brightest of PNG society do not necessarily find themselves at the pointy end of the decision making tree. A “PNG 2020” would potentially provide the opportunity for those best and brightest men and women to put forward their ideas to help drive the country forward.

For instance, drawing on the many ideas that emanated from the Australian version, some of the specific ideas that resonated for me particularly in the PNG context included:

1. 2020 scholarships: deliver merit-based scholarships to vocational education and training and higher education institutions in skills shortage areas.

2.Teaching first: establish a national program to attract talented graduates and career-switchers into teaching, and reward teachers for working in national priority areas, including in disadvantaged communities, in remote areas and in subjects with teacher shortages.

3. Golden Gurus: retired people acting as mentors in all aspects of economic and social life.

4. A National Preventive Health Agency that would tax hypothecation of cigarettes, alcohol and junk-food products to fund the agency including a 2.5 cent increase in tax on each cigarette, a volumetric tax on alcohol, a tax on high-energy, low-nutrient foods (a junk-food tax) and the abolition of bringing duty-free alcohol and cigarettes into the country.

5. Establish a national housing foundation, with a small percentage from the sale of every property in the country to go to public housing and homelessness.

6. Establish programs for young offenders across a range of industries, such as the automotive industry, where cars are repaired and rebuilt by offenders and then are given to sole parents who have had their car stolen.

7. A new form of national service for young people to travel through the country, visiting a variety of places and performing some sort of community service while in that location.

8. Provide training for parents. The current focus of programs is on birth, not on parenting. The training should be postnatal: antenatal does not work. Also, develop a mentoring system, rather than just mothers groups, especially since the extended family is generally not around.

9. A national civil service, where working for the country could be a profession of first choice; introduce a public service exchange program between federal public service, state and territory public service and the private sector.

The question now is how do I make “PNG 2020” a reality? Stay tuned.

I Stap lo Blut pinis................

Well - given the title of my blog, I thought maybe it was time to try and impart a bit of food for thought rather than the flight sim diatribe I have delivered in recent times. Rest assured however that there will be more to come!!

For those who don't know, my brother John is a musician of some repute in PNG and through the Pacific. His band, "Hausboi" have provided me with a lot of food for thought over the years. His music is, in the best sense of the word, simple... yet it manages to capture the essence of PNG and its people and portrays an overwhelming sense that Papua New Guineans, as fractured and misunderstood as we are, are truly a proud people. The song "Melanesia" below really captures this spirit....

But IMHO, I think Hausboi’s first album is still his best effort to date. From the number one hit “Highway to Paradise”, which recounts the journey to paradise from Lae to Madang (Madang was once crowned the prettiest town in the South Pacific); to the song “David”, which was written in the Bipi language by one of the Bipi Villagers to tell the tale about my father David’s ill fated boat trip in the 1970’s that resulted in my mother and father almost perishing in the wild blue yonder somewhere north of Manus Island; to the beautiful ode to our late mother entitled “Tineh Helenah” (Mama Helen) and the stirring melody penned by my father in memory of his late wife entitled “Mara Sikar”. However, the title track from the album entitled “Niugini Stylee”, I believe delivers the most poignant description about PNG and PNGans, who we are and what we are about. As Hausboi so poignantly put it:

"Emi passin blong yumi

Yumi ol png

Emi stap lo blut pinis

In a niugini stylee"

Translated:

"That is the way we do things

We Papua New Guineans

Its already in our blood

In a PNG style"

For outsiders looking in, to understand PNG and PNGans you must come to accept that indeed blood is certainly thicker than water. Niugini Stylee is in the blood and things that are in the blood are certainly very difficult to eliminate.

For PNG and its leaders, the lesson that Hausboi paradoxically delivers is clearly that real change can only be imparted by looking at how we change “what” gets ingrained in ones blood. What are they things about “Niugini Stylee” that we want to keep and what are the things that we want to change?

In my various leadership roles, I talk about real change and what mindset this requires. In particular, I espoused my particular (and potentially innocently plagiarized) definition of insanity, which suggests that if you keep doing the same thing, you will keep getting the same result or as I put it to some of my team, if you keep walking in that direction, you will keep arriving at the same destination.

I certainly do not have all the answers, but what I do know is that I am immensely proud of “Niugini Stylee” and would not want to change the vast majority of all that is good about my country. Equally though, I fear that if we do not rid our blood of the ills that we confront, then “pasin blo yumi” will ultimately lead us to a destination that we do not want to imagine.

The question for us all is, how can we help impart the change that groups like Hausboi try to deliver with their music!?!

In a Niugini Stylee...........

Pacific Blue in a niugini stylee

Posted one of my flight sim flights on youtube today. Using Pacific Blue 737 800 from Nadzab airport to Jacksons Airport. My brothers hit song Niugini Stylee in the background.....enjoy

The Left Seat

Happy new year everyone. Here's wishing everyone a successful Twenty Ten.....

One of my objectives this year is to continue to work toward my dream of flying. Part of this program is continuing to use my flight simulation hobby as a means of enhancing my knowledge of aviation. Whilst some may call it an obsession, I believe that it is a healthy imperative that we all find our "passion" in life and follow that dream. For me, one of my passions is flight simming and it is something that I have invested heavily in over the past few years with the ultimate goal to transfer my capabilities from the PC environment into the real world.

As part of this program, I recently visited the Flight Experience 737 800 simulator on the Gold Coast, Australia for a little more practice and ended up doing several circuits of Jacksons International Airport in Port Moresby.

I am not sure whether I am ready to sit in the "left seat" yet but I enjoyed myself none the less......

The Aqua Luna Hong Kong

My partner, Tiffany, and I recently returned from the city dubbed the "pearl of the orient". Hong Kong is a place that Tiff and I have always wanted to visit and it certainly did not leave anything to the imagination.

The enduring memories for the trip included Victoria Harbour (the view from our hotel room was brilliant) and the symphony of lights, the majestic view from the Peak and the sheer volume of people in the city.

The highlight of the trip however was the fact that the entire trip was framed around our engagement or at least my putting the question forward (thankfully she said yes). Lets just say that this Chinese junk boat named "Aqua Luna", will forever remain close to our hearts!!