Bonne année mes amis. Happy New
Year my friends.
First of all, let me apologise for
taking a very long break from posting on this blog.
Some technical problems prevented me
from updating it.
In the next few weeks, I will be updating you on things
that I did, thought about, or observed in 2014.
But for now, let me share something
with you all.
(This was mainly written for my Facebook
friends and relatives in PNG. I hope you learn something from that too.)
ARTICLE 1 (Jan 7) … LEARN TO CREATE
SOMETHING THIS YEAR … IT will be a goal of mine this year to share with you an
article each week under “LEARN AND CREATE”.
Over the years I have realised the
need to support education/general philosophies that help students/people create
something – a technology, a new design of a house or shirt, writing a
book/story, composing a song, or even writing a computer programme.
In a few years, we will see more
young Papua New Guineans venture out to create stuff, things that we once
thought were not possible to create here.
But that also depends on us the
adults – will we be willing to guide them reach those heights? Or will we like
so many national decision-makers who continue to think “we in PNG cannot be
able to produce this or that?”
As I have shared last week, it is a
case of whether we are going to be BOLD in what we do and say.
PNG has not been bold in a long
time, hence we continue to pay for processed products for decades, even bottled
water which we can produce using the millions of mountain streams that the
country is blessed with.
Last week I read a story about an
elderly man up in the Highlands who produced bleach from local fruits.
I thought that that was a very good
story to start the year.
He learned the technology from a
Catholic priest serving in his part of the country and has since been making a
living out of that.
Think of that. Here is someone who
is not a university graduate and does not know the Chemistry of acids, bases,
hydrocarbons, moles and molarity, etc but is using what little he learned and
is building well on that.
He said he was getting orders from
individuals and companies for his product.
As I was looking at the picture of
him and his daughter sitting with the containers of bleach they were selling, I
was just thinking: If he had a son/daughter who studied Chemistry (or basic
Science, for that matter), this father could be taking his venture to another
level.
That is an example of the
opportunities that are available around us – in our rich country.
Open your eyes, learn and create.
You might also find that what little
you learned in school (as an aside) may be vital in some industry you want to
create back at home.
You know, the best of inventions and
innovations are not always made in universities or some “big name”
establishments.
Open your eyes today and see.
If you cannot start something, you
can help others with what you know to take their initiative to another level.
In the end, generally, it is not
what someone else gives us that will change our lives in a big way – it is what
we take from opportunities around us and turn into something to advance our
people and their lives.
May we all learn and create
something this year.
