Fishy business. The Social Impact of SST.pdf - Act Now!

Most of us here are very unfortunate people. Though we are Wewak town landowners youhardly see anything of the physical development like water supply, power, permanenthouses, etc. Not most of our children go to school because we cannot afford to pay for theirschool fees. That coupled with the damages brought about by the SST and the governmentwith their corrupt and empty promises paints a gloomy picture for our future. It may be tooearly to say much about the pollution level of the sea by the dumping of the SST but thelittle signs we see is enough to predict damages that would last long like completely killingour entire corals and fish habitat which is already happening.They also wish to expand their settlement, now that they have settlers from other places andprovinces. Most of them don’t have jobs and are harvesting the Meni village fish and sago,putting pressure on their limited resources .I am not against any development by the government or private investors such as the SST.To have a win-win situation in development for the investors and all parties concernedis to involve all the stake holders in the process. That is like having better understandingbetween all parties and following terms of agreement in any contract entered into. Theinvestors can allow local landowners and business to participate in spin-offs or providelabor and have better community programs. At the moment, landowners and businessgroups are isolated and SST is on its own. I am so sad that such a company that got so muchattention from Wewak residents and also raised our expectation is completely isolated. SSTis becoming very selfish. They get everything from us at all cost and giving a practicallynothing to us. Even the pay of the poor ladies working in the loining factory is less thanwhat they can make at the market in two weeks time. We are losing everything at the gainof the Asians – we become graceful slaves for our own resources and land. What a shame!Meni Villagers also go out to the fishing vessels by canoe to sell food stuffs, and gardenproduce. The fishermen give them biscuits, cigarettes and alcohol in return. The womencomplain that they are asked for sex and want to pay them money and other bribes for it.There are many stories her, just as there are in Kreer and island villages. In the last few monthsit has slowed down, but we advised young women here that if they have to go out for sales totake along a man or an older woman with them.I know for sure that our corrupt ESP politicians are involved in all the politics of it(SST). We had big gatherings here and they bragged about the multiple economic effects ofthe factory. None of it has happened. They said about the employments, spin-offs and otherservices such as good houses, etc. It was all sweet talk. Michael Somare is a sweet talkerand one of the corrupt men who blinded the people of ESP and PNG into thinking of him asa good man. To me he is just a thief. Now joining the ranks of thieves is his son Arthur andHugo Berghuser. They have their hands in all kinds of projects in East Sepik Province.They are involved in logging, the SST plant, awarding all contracts to their company SBAwhich stands for Sana, Betha and Arthur. He and Kimson Kare made all kinds of lies togive us false hope and expectations about benefits from the SST factory.A Storm Water Project for better drainage throughout town, funded by the Korean government,failed in 2001. It had included the Meni Village area. SBA was contracted to do the job butdidn’t do any thing except to clear the place. No storm water drains were constructed at all.My plea to the government and the developers including SST is this: You have taken awaymy land and I allowed it for far too long thinking I will benefit from it. My people havebeen isolated from any business in Wewak and we have not benefited from any basic113