Last week I was fortunate enough to hitch a ride to Kwikila market (two hours drive from the Nations Capital) in search for good prices for good value veggies, fruits and of course a chance to get out of the dusty, noisy city - just what the doctor ordered!

As I was looking at the scenery (whilst trying to entertain a bored, hyperactive toddler) it hit me that the houses I was looking at were actually quit well structured and looked durable and safe! Not at all like haphazard built shelter that I mentally associated with settlements!

Before you leave Mosbi and get on any highway, it seems that there's an unwritten rule that you have to pass a settlement. On the Maggi highway it’s the 6-mile settlement that you have to pass, on the Hiritano Highway it’s 9-mile settlement.

Kone settlement along the Poreporena Freeway in Mosbi

If you have really lived in Mosbi (as in gone to all corners of Mosbi and spent a weekend or two, not just the areas that have been given security clearance) you would’ve have realized that yes these settlements have grown in size and at the same time the houses within them are being built better with permanent and rather attractive structures. Some of these houses are larger than the little flat I grew up in!

The occupants observe proper hygiene, some of them are well educated (degree holders in some) and earn a reasonable salary, their children attend school regularly, have nice toys…you know the average Mosbi family. The only difference being that they live in an area that is a settlement.

I grew up hearing adults around me comment on all the negatives about settlements and the menace to society all the occupants are. When I used to hear ‘settlement’ I used to think: poverty, lifestyle diseases (diarrhea, malnutrition, alcohol abuse) and broken society filled with violence. Well I recently have had to adjust my mentality.

If that saying ‘Curiosity killed the cat’ were literally true? Let’s just say that I’d be a very dead cat by now. My greatest flaw in character is a rather rude curiosity about people, their lives, what they think about things that I think about. So one of my most favorite things to do is sit at a buai market and listen to people telling stories, you know eavesdrop on a conversation that has absolutely nothing to do with me, or my life whatsoever! When something especially interesting is said I can’t help but ask a question and most times the story-teller takes one look at me, decides that I’m harmless and fills in all the details, so you know the who, what, when, where and how’s.

If you sit at a buai market just outside a settlement you hear the most typical, average stories. No different to any other street or neighborhood in PNG (well aside from those neighborhoods with the high fences, brick walls and security guards who have no contact with their neighbors and only know their school mates, workmates and golf or country club members). They have the same values, they want their children to succeed, and they want to be able to meet family and cultural obligations. Typical ol Papua Niugini.

So the change in mentality I mentioned earlier? Most peoples’ (well people that I usually associate with) resentment with  ‘settlement’, ‘squatter’ or ‘illegal settlements’ is the fact that they pay no rent, they pay no water or electricity bills and they (apparently) all harbor criminals. BUT – here’s the thing, if you really think about it, settlements are no worse than those foreign corporations that have been granted ridiculous tax exemptions by our government. At least when our people living at the so-called settlements buy something or work – they pay tax.

The amount of tax they contribute is nothing compared to the tax that those foreign monstrosities pay in the end - but then again the resources our people use and the income they make from this use is microscopic compared to the resources the foreign giants exploit and the billions they make from this exploitation!

Maybe we should make it fair??? How about if at an organizational level those businesses that have been given exemptions were to pay the same percentage of their TOTAL income as tax as an average Papua New Guinean then this would make it fair? And it would most certainly mean that PNG benefits right?

Uh but then again it would mean investment in PNG would be discouraged right? I think NOT – as long as we have raw materials, rare earth metals and mineral resources businesses will always want to come and hit on the PNG government for one chance! Why don’t we even out the playing field just a bit? Who could it hurt?

©Klaireh