Academia Nomad

Finding Mac: How Search for a Missing Student united friends, colleagues, and a city

Student from the University of Papua New Guinea organizing search party, 17 October 2020. PC Mary Terriette Aseari

A student from the University of Papua New Guinea is reported missing by friends and family. Its reported on every major media outlet, including Post Courier and EMTV. A week goes by and still the student is not found. Rumors emerge on social media that he has been murdered, though it is dispelled. The students conduct one of the biggest search parties in the city. Among all the stress, anxiety and fear, it also brings out the best in humanity. This article was written by one of the students, Mary Terriette Aseari, a third year student at the University and a colleague of the student who had gone missing. She shares her experience in the search, that led to finding Mac.

Mary Terriette Aseari, Third year student, UPNG.

By Mary Terriette Aseari:

“Maclarence Akua, a 22 year old third-year student, a good friend and a course mate of mine at the University of Papua New Guinea had been missing for almost a week. Mac has a mixed parentage of East Sepik and Bougainville but grew up in Kimbe. A search party was organized by his family and friends and we were put into groups and stationed in different locations in the city to cover ground in search for him. All these groups that went out to search for Maclarence were groups that he is actively involved with in school. The different groups were: Peer mentor’s and Clean Generation who covered Gerehu and Rainbow suburbs; West New Britain students who covered the Boroko area; School of Humanities and Social Science students who covered Three Mile (3 Mile) and Manu; Madang and East Sepik students who covered Gordon and Erima; and Lae and Bougainville students, including his family and friends who covered the 9 Mile area. The groups consisted of about 25-50 people each, and the search begin around 9:30 am. Our search was successful and Maclarence was found in the afternoon at Sogeri. Sogeri is an hours drive outside of the capital. Someone from Sogeri saw the posters, approached one of the groups and said Macleren he’d seen Maclaren. The students followed him to the village and met up with him.

The successful location of Maclarence raised countless negative comments on social media. Amidst all the negativity I would like to share with you all, three positive things that I have witnessed/experienced in the search for Maclarence:

In all my 21 years of living in Port Moresby and calling myself a “pikinini POM” I have never been to the parts of Gerehu which I visited in our search for Maclarence. Walking from Gerehu stage 6 all the way to Gerehu stage 1, visiting every little street to put up posters and asking bystanders if they had seen Mac, had allowed me to see these parts of Gerehu and for that I am grateful.

I truly saw the kindness of humanity being displayed in our search for Maclarence. Mothers shed tears as we held up the posters to show them, some even said they would keep him in their prayers. Random boys on the street volunteered to escort us to help find our friend, bus drivers and boss crews willingly posted up the missing persons poster on their buses, tucker shop owners also posted up the missing persons poster in front of their shops. Even when we ran out of posters the people whom we approached took out their smart phones so that they could take a snap shot of the poster to show their families and friends in their efforts to help spread the word. Seeing this made me to appreciate humanity and really appreciate being a Papua New Guinean because I could see that displa passin blon helivim em e still stap strong yet.

The unity that I saw being displayed by the University of Papua New Guinea students and others that volunteered to search for Maclarence was heartwarming. People showed up in numbers and had with them personally printed posters of him. This search has made me to forge friendships with people I wasn’t even acquainted with in school. Through the sharing of water and snacks as we searched for our school mate some life long friendships were formed. And we have the search for Maclarence to thank for that.

Sometimes we have to look past the negativity that life throws at us to see and experience the beautiful things that life has to offer. In the words of marcandangel “Train your mind to see the good in everything. Positivity is a choice. The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts”. Thank God our friend Maclarence Akua has been found.”

Note:

After Mac was found, there were some who criticized the young man for going out of the public eye without notifying his family. But there were many more who have come out to support him, saying we do not know what he’s going through or what his reasons are, and that he must be given the privacy he needs. On the part of his friends and colleagues, they are happy that he is found, and in good health. Apart from finding Mac, the next great thing was the experience of comradeship, and the humanity the nation and city has shown by coming together. We are so strong together. And this experience has shown just how much people really care, even about others not of their own blood. And that is what we should take away from this whole experience.

Mary Terriette Aseari has originally written this piece as a ‘guest blogger’ for Academia Nomad. We thank her for sharing her experience.

Please share the blog, so we can spread the love and compassion our people have towards each other. God bless you all, and take care out there.

A 150 Year Obsession: Soccer & Christianity in Morobe

The obsession Morobe Province has with soccer goes back to the 1900s. Some 150 years ago, Lutheran Missionaries from Finchafen, Morobe, and Lutheran Missionaries from Madang met at village in Kerowagi, between Jiwaka and Chimbu. They were among a group of missionaries pushing into the frontiers of the Highlands of PNG, evangelizing the people. They called themselves Songangs, a term popular with Lutheran circles connoting a leader in the Lutheran Church, which is used to this day. At Kerowagi, the two Songang groups had a dispute over who should take over Kerowagi as their ‘wok miti’ area (or Wok Mission, or Mission Area). Once you claimed a village or tribe as your wok miti area, your group was responsible for teaching, converting, and baptizing the people. You also had to bring waring groups together to make peace, build schools, teach and train the people in your wok miti area. Miti means Gospel in Finchafen. Wok Miti means sharing the Gospel.

Both groups, the Finchafens and Madangs, wanted to claim Kerowagi as their wok miti area. Since they couldn’t compromise, they decided to settle it through a game of football. These two missionary groups were trained by Lutheran missionaries from Germany. Germany of course was, and still is a giant football nation in Europe. The German Missionaries brought the Gospel and football – soccer. The two Songang teams selected their best reps. In what is probably the first soccer tournament in that part of the Highlands, the two Songan teams played out their hearts in the cold muddy field of Kerowagi.

They played barefoot. They did not have uniforms. They wore targets and malo. Prayers were said on both sides of the camp. Their audience had probably never seen a game of soccer. And they watched two foreign tribes from the coast chasing around a ball like kids.

The Songangs from Finchafen won the evangelism soccer tournament. The Madang Songangs moved on, whilst the Finchafen Songans settled, set up camps, and began their wok miti.

I was told this story in December 2019, when I travelled up to Nondogul, Jiwaka.I was there taking photos and observing the 30 years anniversary of PNG Lutheran Renewal in Nondogul. The Lutheran Renewal is an offshoot of Evangelical Lutheran Church of PNG (ELC PNG). ELC PNG itself has more than 150 years presence in PNG. The Renewal Lutherans as an offshoot started later. It was the ELC PNG missionaries who met at Kerowagi that day.

I returned to Lae after two days in Jiwaka, and one afternoon I was reading a book titled “Cloud of Witness” I bought bought the book at Ampo book store. It documents the life stories and work of Lutheran missionaries in PNG, as they pushed inland, converting “heathens” to Christianity, stopping cannibalism, pay back killings, tribal fights, polygamy and establishing schools. It’s a really great book I recommend to anyone interested in such history, but also on how to halt the same instances in our time. Most of the stories are about missionaries from Finchafen, understandably so, given that the German missionaries were largely based in Finch.

As I finished a chapter of the book, Lae City FC players drove into the Lutheran Church of Hope Parish ground at East Taraka, Lae. It was the team’s prayer time – they pray every Monday evening with their Club Chaplin Pastor Dulan Zairing. I was visiting the pastor. I shook hands with a few, went back to reading as they went into the hall. A minute later, I could hear them sing the worship song “Aba Father….” The entire team worshiped and prayed.

Lae City FC (formerly Toti FC) has dominated soccer in PNG in recent years. And after every win when Raymond Gunemba, the captain, or any of the players are interviewed, you always hear them thank “Anutu”, Kote word for the “Great Spirit” or “God.” Kote is main language spoken by people from Finchafen. It was the same language used to train early missionaries (Raymond and Nigel left Lae City FC and joined Hekari later in 2020).

10 months after I was told this story, Lae City FC won the NSL for the 2019-2020 session.

Well, I kind of saw that coming 🙂

Congratulations 🍾.

Correction: Initially the blog said the two missionary groups met at Nondogul. However, one of the decedents of the Madang missionaries corrected me after reading it on LinkedIn: it was Kerowagi, not far from Nondogul. His grandfather was on the loosing team. The separation of Jiwaka and Chimbu as separate provinces has put Nondogul within Jiwaka, and Kerowagi within Chimbu. Initially both were within Chimbu.

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Happy 45th Independence: My Sons Are Coming

On a visit to Australia in 1963, Kondom addressed an audience at Canberra with these famous words:

“….In my village I am a chief among my people but today I stand in front of you like a child and when I try to speak in your language you laugh at my words. But tomorrow my son will come to you and he will talk to you in your language, and this time you will not laugh at him….”

Entry Requirements for PNG Universities: UPNG, UOG, Unitech, PAU & DWU

This 25 page pdf document contains all the necessary information, from entry requirements, how GPAs are calculated, how the quota systems affects selection etc. This is a helpful guide to Grade 12s and non-school leavers applying to PNG Universities.

Click online below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZWhHAOrDA-0Ny578WCJ8_6lcHFuD0abr/view?ts=5b80423e&fbclid=IwAR2PbZQAS6QnpW08rvalYImVzCeLzun8KzxXg-iUowj60r4zZNlZPgdfxzg

Would legalizing prostitution increase security for PNG women because it is better regulated?

Front page, The National Newspaper, 9 September 2020

“If we all become atheists tomorrow, you will still have kanderes [relatives] raping their nieces, ol man kukim meri lo name blo sanguma [women will be burnt alive in the name of sorcery]. Christian-nation/non-Christain-nation argument is nonsense. Our problem is twofold: break down in law and order, and kids raised with total disregard for women. And that’s a problem that will not be solved by making porstitution legal. Fix the law and order, and teach your kids right. You also have to ask: if these women were educated, would they prefer another profession? If they had other employment opportunities that paid for their living, would they pursue porstitution? If the answers are yes, then what you need is provide better training/education for the womenfolk, and job opportunities. There’s nothing noble about prostitution. It takes away their human dignity, and reduces women to mere sex objects…” Facebook comment.

Would legalizing prostitution increase security for PNG women because it is better regulated?

Eight men raped a woman in Papua New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby, and left her on the street. This follows recent proposals to amend the constitution of PNG and make it a Christian country. Opinions are divided on whether prostitution should be legalized, with some sectors of the society arguing that PNG constitution should not be amended to make PNG a Christian country because it would make decriminalization of prostitution difficult. The other side thinks prostitution should remain illegal, and PNG constitution be amended to make it a Christian country. Though predominantly Christian, the constitution does not make explicit reference to PNG being a Christian country.

Here I argue that both groups are missing the point.

1. Legalizing prostitution increases security of women as it’s better regulated.

Would this argument work for PNG? The answer is a resounding NO. Burning women accused of sorcery is illegal in PNG. So is rape, especially by close relatives. But you read about it every month in newspapers and perhaps weekly on social media. It’s the most disgusting form of torment and murder when objects are inserted in their private parts and burnt to death. According to the police, most of these rapes are underaged aged girls, and they are raped by their own relatives: uncles, cousins, grandpas, and this week a young girl was raped by her step-dad. They are being raped at the safest place possible: their homes.

Safety for womenfolk is a real problem for PNG. And legalizing prostitution will not solve this problem.
Not when women are being raped at their homes.

What then is our problem: Our problems are two fold:

A. A break down in law and order. Our police-to-citizen ratio is 1 : 1, 121. That is, one policeman/policeman responsible for 1, 121 citizens in PNG. This is about three times worse than what the UN recommends 1:450. Files of rape cases pile up at the police stations as officers respond to “more” serious cases of robbery, tribal fights etc. Furthermore our police are under-resourced and poorly equipped.

Shouldn’t the real debate be about increasing police personnel, equipping the police, increasing their budgets and giving professional trainings?

B. Kids raised with total disregard for the lives of womenfolk

We have to admit that some of our cultures (not all) and some households do not regard women with the same respect as their male counterparts. I’ve seen it in my own. When the husband commits adulatory, especially with a young women, it’s the young women’s fault. If the wife commits adulatory with a young men or a married men, she should be automatically divorced. This double standard sucks at all levels. Kids watch this as they grow. You have your own cultures, and experiences may vary, but you get the idea.

Teach your kid to respect everyone. Treat your wife with respect, so your kid can know first hand how to treat a woman.

2. Prostitution pays for the bills

There are those who argue that prostitution should be legalized because that is how women who practice it make their living.

Well ask yourself these questions;

A. If the women were better educated, would they prefer another profession? Is the problem because of a lack of education that limit women from job opportunities? If the answer is yes, then the debate should move towards improving access and quality of education for the womenfolk.

B. If the women engaged in prostitution had employment opportunity that paid the bills, would they pursue prostitution? If the answer is no, then the debate should move into improving trainings/education and providing employment opportunities.

Alternatively, ask a well educated women, employed in a job that pays for her bills, whether she thinks prostitution is an option for her. Sorry about that. Don’t dare ask her. If she doesn’t punch you in the face, you’ll be know as the most stupidest person in the community for even thinking about it.

Security: Everyone need protection. Pastors and Prostitutes. What they do for a living is a debate for another day. But as far as humanity goes, both need protection. Improve law and order for Papua New Guineans. All Papua New Guineans.

Prostitution debate: Raise your kids right. Give our womenfolk the best education we possibly can. Give them employment opportunities. If, after we’ve strived for these, and young girls still go into prostitution then start your debates on decriminalizing prostitution.

Christianity debate: We can all become atheists tomorrow, and you will still have relatives burning their wives, sisters, grandmas in the highlands down to city suburbs. This Christian-nation/non-Christian-nation diverts attention from the real issue.

The problem with trying to addressing symptoms rather than the cause of the problems, is that you spend so much, and end up with the same problem.

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