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

development projects. I am a silent looser and you grow and prosper in profit more from myignorance. It is your moral duty to provide me basic services but that too is absent and ifyou the government and your developers cannot do that for my people please, pack up andleave and give me my land back.We had an informal meeting with Francis Manup who represented the company where hetold us about possible participations in spin-off benefits and what he called ‘EconomicBenefit Study’. He never told us any of the environmental impact the loining factory mayhave on our reef, sea and the fish but emphasized more on its economic benefits such asproviding more jobs and bringing more economic development into East Sepik Province.We were never part of any negotiation to tender for any spin-off benefits. That part of theprocess was administered by the Department of Commerce here. Individuals andcorporative groups were asked to tender their application with K50 through the Dept. ofCommerce. To the best of my knowledge none of them got any spin-off with SSTC. Thereare many things local landowners and small businesses could participate in such astransportation for employees, security services, maintenance, catering services, stevedoring,etc. none of them are given to any local businesses except the Wewak Costal Agencies aredumping their factory waste and Wewak Freezers supplying vegetables and food for thecafeteria.The company (SSTC) is operating as they have nothing to do with any landowner issues.This is becoming clear now that the government assured and guaranteed full security of theland so SSTC has nothing to do with any landowner grievances. They will always refer anyland associated disputes to the Provincial Government. The Provincial Government (ESP)are partners in crime with SSTC, because they are shareholders thus it served their interestmore than us. The company too is reaping all our resources and land and giving nothingback to the community in terms of their community participation such as sponsorships andschool fee assistance. Some of our soccer and sports teams have asked for financial and inkind assistance but we never get any positive response from them. We heard from thesecretaries who worked in the SSTC administration that such letters get dumped in therubbish bin. So our relationship between the company is very poor.Three people from Meni have jobs at the loining factory. Two women are employed inproduction and one man works with the security on the gate. We don’t know how manypeople are employed from Kreer or other nearby villages. But what we do know is that a lotof nepotism is going on in the employing of laborers. They are employing mainly thewoman who don’t need to have any special training for the job except for administrativeand specialist work. As long as they are willing to do the work they can learn on the job andwork on the assembly line.114