Thursday 12 September 2019

PUTTING POSITIVE LIVING ON THE MAP

The Positive living message was put on the map in this country the result of a small column in The National in 2005-6 supported by editor Frank Kolma and late Yehiura Hriehwazi who saw great value in a column that promoted healthy lifestyle to people living with HIV/AIDS.

The column was only tolerated by the foreign officers of the newspaper who were more concerned with keeping the AusAID and United Nations gays, lesbians and paedophiles happy.

The column went on for  18 months every week. So many people today recall the small column with an arrow going up for living long and arrow going down to signify dying quickly.

The gays and lesbians of the National AIDS Council hated the column and claimed that it was fake as the author could not possibly know what he was writing about. I was paid K100 a month which hardly kept me afloat.

Many people advised that they never read the column as they refused to buy The National newspaper in protest against the Rimbunan Hijau logging policy that cyber troll Malum Nalu made famous. That was their contribution to climate change in Papua New Guinea.

One day I went to see the accountant in his office to ask politely for a raise. He screamed at me saying I was trespassing in the building. I had been coming and going with my column for a year and a half. A journalist was assigned to check the work. Dennis thought he was the Ming emperor nor a humble scumbag bean counter. 

He ordered me out and promptly closed down the column in consultation with the Managing Editor. I always thought the Managing Editor was on side as he had a wife who was a devout Catholic. Wrong!!

About 3 years later, I approached Yehiura Hriehwazi about starting again. He reported back that the foreign owners accepted the column but would not pay any fee. 

They were real foreign trash more concerned with making money and logging than the welfare of the community.

Today there has been a change with a focus now on family and love in The National that grew out of the new paradigm shift of the Government to responsibilities of men and boys in families. 

It took so long for the foreign owners to develop a social conscience. Perhaps the women journalists have made a  difference.

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