This forum established after an incident of witch hunts and tracing attempts was observed to occur against students who spoke out on a topic others wanted silenced, on another forum. Our site is dedicated to those students.
>

VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, [7] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 18:45:38 01/29/00 Sat
Author: Anonymous
Subject: What purpose does 800 languages serve? What purpose does culture serve?
In reply to: 's message, "IS PNG TRYING TO BECOME THE BIGGEST MUSEUM IN THE WORLD?" on 19:03:58 01/23/00 Sun

> Are we trying to build a nation or a museum? Doesn't
> anyone else see this? What purpose does holding onto
> the past serve. Don't you think we need to move on and
> start building a country and a population that is
> equipped to deal with the 21st century!
>
Maybe so and maybe not. Look at the purpose of those
things you doubt.

Everyone wants to think they have something that no one else has.

Obviously we've already got those things right here and now!
Culture and the tropical wildlife that beats almost everyplace else.

For what other reasons does anyone ever hear about PNG? A dead Ok Tedi mine or a big hole in the ground called Panguna? Big deal. That's like having POM known as the raskol capital of the world.

Unless you want all 5 million plus PNGeans to wait for a centory or more to have something new that makes us different and more special than anyone else, the only way most PNGeans are going to really going to hold onto some pride is to keep those things that make us stand out from the rest of the world.

Without pride people become lifeless.

Culture is pride.

PNG is culture.

Why would we want to cut out the foundation of society as you suggest?

That's the purpose of holding onto the past.

That's the purpose of holding onto 800 languages.

That was your question right? What was the purpose?

The purpose is to keep one's self respect and pride that they have something no one else can lay claim to.

Sorry, maybe you have higher expectations but that's all most of us have right now.

Ever been to a developed country?

Maybe you have noticed how many craftsmen, artists, musicians etc there are, all holding onto the past and their own culture.

Go look at their museums, cultural centres, art centres, music centres, etc.

Holding onto the past. Pride in their culture.

Ever heard of how pride relates to satisfaction and happiness?

Ever heard of how satisfaction and happiness are the whole point of this development thing we're all trying to get?

Maybe you should study this question more carefully.

Or maybe you presented the question just to make us think.

Anyway.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.