I am a White man living in a Black nation. Because of the color of my skin I can walk through the ever present security checkpoints in nearly all retail establishments without being stopped or my bilum/basket searched. Because of the color of my skin I can jump the epic cues at many financial institutions and breeze into the VIP customer service sections without ID and based solely on the smile on my face and the authority in my stride. Because of the color of my skin when one of my brothers and I walk into a barbershop in Mosbi I am charged on average K5 - K10 more than my friend and immediately escorted to the higher end side of the salon where a Asian stylist will cut my hair and I will be offered a cold drink... meanwhile my friend has joined a cue to wait in the rundown section without being offered a drink. Because I am White, I can often circumvent the dress codes of many hotels and restaurants and breeze past reception in a pair of flip flops.... while my Black friends are told to go home and change into proper shoes. Because I am White when I get into a taxi often the driver will roll up the windows and turn on the air-conditioning. Because I am White when I go out to eat with my Asples friends, although we may order the same dish off of the same menu, there is often a significantly larger portion on my plate than theirs. I am granted all this favor because I am a White man living in a Black nation. But I am no ordinary White man.... I am a Divinely appointed agent of transformation. I chose to open my basket and spread my arms at the security checkpoint. I chose to wait in the Banking cue along with everyone else. I may not have a choice but to pay the higher expat price at the hair salon but I can chose to go wait in the rundown section for a Asples barber to cut my hair. I chose to leave any establishment that refuses entry to my Asples friends based upon the fact that they are wearing the same shoes that if placed upon my White feet would miraculously be deemed acceptable. I chose to leave the extra portion untouched on my plate. Daily I chose to not allow the color of my skin to grant me favor in Papua New Guinea... and on the rare occasion that I inadvertently or impatiently allow my skin color to grant me unmerited favor... I repent. I would encourage my other expat friends here to do the same.... we cant bemoan the unjust system in this nation and still chose to benefit from it. But the saddest thing for me about this situation is this... 38 years after God in His grace allowed a sovereign nation to be interwoven out of a thousand tribes and after a generation has been educated and grown up celebrating independence... this archaic system of preferential racism is being kept alive by the Asples lain themselves. Papua New Guinea will never truly be sovereign and self-sustaining until the mental residue of colonialism is abolished. Freedom starts in the mind.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 23:37:46 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015