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Date Posted: 15:50:24 02/15/00 Tue
Author: Anonymous
Subject: Isn't it a case of ownwership?
In reply to: 's message, "I am tired of excuses." on 12:46:04 02/15/00 Tue

I had a little discussion with someone (non-PNG) who was lamenenting the plight of women folk in PNG, how they would need total revolution to have any semblance of the basic human decency compared to a certain cultural, political, "human rights", etc. context in the developed world, I wondered how easy it is to see the ills of the community from a position aloof from the community and rationalize the solutions so easily. Everybody does it. The NGOs do it, the missions do it, the government advisors do it, the Waigani bureaucrats do it, the elites of the communities do it, we all do it.

We see something as a problem, for example, the water situation of the community you helped, the people say, yes they need it and on the basis of that affirmation of our view of the problems and solutions, we act to make water flow from the river below to the village atop the hill. In the end, it was "ol lain blong America (Peace Corp)ol i wokim blong mipela". It was good, but who owns it? Who owned the project from its inception to its conclusion? What does it take to have communial ownership of a project such as the one in which you were involved? I think some of it involves what the priorities of the community is versus an outsiders more long term views of the community's situation. We may think we have obtained the commitment of the community because they either did not disagree or said yes to the project because they were asked to respond. Perhaps, the yes response is a cultural expression of respect to the agents of change, the outsiders (the local politician, Peace Corp, Jica, VSO, AusAid, other NGOs, government machinery, churches, teachers, health workers, the educated from the community, etc.).
In the ensuing enthusiasm of the agents of change, they may have overlooked a simple test of the origin of the initiatives, and therefore the ownership of the project inception, installation, and final product.
My reading of your good works and its dismantling after you left would point to the original place of the project in the community's set of priorities versus the good intentions and generous gifts from the change agents.
One possible explanation.

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