Papua New Guinea is situated at the northern tip of
Australia. It is the second biggest island in the world after
Greenland. It has a landmass of over 2000 sq km with rugged
mountains and virgin covered forests with white sandy beaches
that covered its cost lines. It has some of the world most unique
flora and fauna and is home to third world's untouched rain
forests.
Papua New Guinea is a merged colony of Britist Papua
and German New Guinea, Germany colonized the northern part
and the Papua, the Southern half of the land was under the
British protectorate until World War II when German fled.
British gave Australia power to colonized the two as Papua and
New Guinea and later "and" was removed to make Papua New
Guinea, one united territory till its independence in September
16, 1975.
It has over 800 languages spoken by its 5.13 million
people. 80% percent of its people are rural subsistence farmers.
The main cash crop produce that people actively participates, as
smallholder growers where they benefit directly economically are
coffee, copra, cocoa, oil palm, tea and a few recently introduced
spices. Timber, gold, copper, oil, nickel, marine products and
gas are harvested at the largest scale by foreign owned multi-
national companies. In short, Papua New Guinea is very rich in
natural resources but is still very poor.
Illiteracy and infant mortality rates are the highest in the Pacific. The income per
capita is also the lowest in the region despite its rich resource. With these social
and economical problems, Globalization is a too big a jargon to grasp with. It
may all have started when Papua New Guinea became to the member of the
WTO. As a member it has to implement policies. Many national policies
regarding protection of business interests of citizens were deregulated. Many
foreign companies come into the country in the name of foreign investments and
economic growth and put small people out of business. The citizens lack capital,
training and management skills to compete with the foreign companies.
Corruptions at the bureaucratic and politic levels see
PNG in one of the worst economic recession since
independence. As result, IMF and World Bank step in and
advice PNG government to comply with its condition before
release the loan. Some of these are conditions are: Structural
Adjustment Program, Privatization of all government owned
businesses and statutory bodies, introduction of a new taxation
system- Value Added Tax (VAT) and land mobilization.

As PNG government tries to implement these
conditions, there is stiff opposition from various sectors of the
community. Sectors like national students union, trade unions,
and churches, and general public. The threat is here is that all the
corporations and business that provide services to people with
will be taken away and people in the rural where services which
are not business viable will be closed, thus affect the very
existence of the people. That will leave about 80% of the
population with little or no basic services at all.
.
One of the most nagging conditions is the issue of land
mobilization. All land (currently about 85% of the PNG land is
owned by people and 15% is state owed) according to the
recommendation by IMF and World Bank is to be registered
and titles be given to land owners. Then land can become a
commodity that can be used as a guarantee for commercial
purposes. However, Papua New Guineans concept of land is
totally incompatible with the recommendation. Land has many
dimensions: economic, social, and spiritual. The land is the life
giver and sustainer, can to be just stripped off its unique function
since time immemorial and given a monetary value that can be
adequately quantify to meet standards of Papua New Guinea
concept of Land.

In 2001, a huge demonstration led by the students of the
University of Papua New Guinea to petition the government to
halt all World Bank and IMF sanctioned exercise. They
demanded that the people be educated of its impacts and effects
of the exercise and let people decide. The demonstration turned
violent where many properties destroyed and three people killed
by police, including two students. Many were injured and
imprisoned. In many other parts of the country, foreign
businesses (especially Asians) were targeted and their properties
were looted and destroyed.
The government seems to be relaxed on other conditions but
went ahead on privatizing the government owned and the biggest
bank in the country, PNG Banking Corporation.
The issue is not dead as at the time writing this article,
soldiers in one of the six barracks of the country mutinied and
took control of the barracks, chasing all the commissioned
officers away and demand many things from the government,
two of them are related to the IMF and World Bank conditions.
They demanded all withdrawals of foreign interference in the
national affairs of the country and cease all operations of
Privatization, land mobilization and introduction of new tax
regime, Value Added Tax also an IMF and World Bank
recommended system.
For ordinary uneducated or semi-educated man and
woman, globalization is a terminology that is out of the grasp of
his/her limitation of understanding, but the effect are concrete,
damaging and permanent. People are marginalized to the
periphery in their own land in their socio-economic
developments. They watch helplessly as foreigners run and reap
benefits of their God given resource.
Many multi national companies in the county merged and
create monopoly. The examples are British American Tobacco
Company, shut down of Pepsi drink and other local soft drinks
company and Coca Cola Amatil is the sole international soft
drink company in Country, even the financial sector of the
economy is streamlining their operation, and big banks are taking
over small banks which are trying to compete.
What is need now in PNG is an intensive education on
the work and aims of Globalization, what kind of effects it will
have on them and their future with the globalization, and how can
they resist or even cope with such imminent aggression of
powerful and rich people and their countries.
The effect of globalization felt by ordinary people is so
enormous. The huge multination companies are taking over
business and monopolize the price of basic goods and services
that deprives people from affording these necessities. The influx
of Asians in the country is an explicit example. They control
simple business like buying empty recyclable bottles and tin cans
to cutting our huge rain forest at an unbelievable rate. They build
bush tracks and makeshift schools and hospitals and call them
development. Bribery, and backdoor dealings with the 'so
called developers' and the politicians and bureaucratic has gone
to unprecedented heights. Theses effects are reflective in PNG's
standing in socio-economic
Development indicators of the world. PNG stands the highest in
the infant mortality rate, illiteracy, basic health services and living
standard. Globalization can be seen a Western and Rich
instrument of predatoring weak, poor, and young rich countries.
Usage of the slogan, 'rich getting richer and poor getting poorer'
can to be confined to domestic use but to international levels
where people in the developed and rich countries can see what
their government and their multi -national organizations /
businesses do to innocent, unsuspected, ordinary people in the
so called third and poor countries.
Only through such awareness, more understanding,
responsibility and co-operation can be achieved for a better
world with a caring attitude towards humanity and its reasonable
survival of the gift of life.