BY MARTYN NAMORONG
AWARD-WINNING businesswoman Sarah Haoda-Todd [pictured] has challenged the PNG government to include women in the team investigating the crisis in Lae caused by communal rioting.
"Team formed to probe ethnic tension... is made up of men. Aren't there any good Morobean women out there,” Mrs Haoda-Todd wrote in the Facebook group Sharp Talk.
She mentioned the names “Enny Moaitz, Lady Nohorahnie Bogan, Loujaya, and ol mama Geamsao” as being suitable candidates.
“It is high time that women are included, so that there are fair views and come up with short/long term solutions from both sides for our city. After all, women make up more than half the population of our city.”
Mrs Haoda-Todd, who won a Westpac Entrepreneurship Award, owns and runs a Lae-based business. She highlighted that women have been most affected by the crisis yet their voice has not been taken into consideration by the authorities.
“It is us women who have been the victims. Enough of thinking that men have all the solutions to all our nation's problems!
“A wise man will include women in all decision and policy making of this nation going forward because he realizes that she is his ‘help-meet’. So God help us PNG!” she said.
Mrs Haoda-Todd’s call has had support from many people. One commentator highlighted the pivotal role played by the women of Bougainville during the Bougainville peace process that ended civil war in the region.
This blogger fully endorses Mrs Haoda-Todd’s call.
Hi Martyn - There seems to be a collective memory loss about the input of Lady Kidu and her advisors in the establishment of the street vendors.
The Informal Sector Act is her Act and I can date the influx of troublemakers into urban centres from the passing of this Act.
They are not covered by health or council regulations and they pay no fees to any authority. It is a bad Act and should be repealed. Some reasons are below.
Roadside vending has become endemic in most urban areas in PNG.
Many or most of these vendors are not self employed. They do not use their own money. They are firmly connected to mainly Asian traders and are cheap labour.
No holidays, no sick pay, no long service and nobody knows if they are making a basic wage.
I believe that the street vendor regulations are a gift to the mainly Asian shopkeepers. I respectfully suggest that any street vendor who is tied by credit to a supplier should be considered by law to be an employee and receive the basic wage and conditions.
The supplier should have a vendors' licence for each person. Where are the unions, or is this too hard?
I believe that the intention of Lady Kidu was to protect the non formal activities of poor people selling buai, smokes, roadside markets etc.
I also believe that Lady Kidu is the right person to bring amendments to allow the Act protect only the small people and to exclude tradestore items from the protection of her Act.
This correspondence could be seen as pissing against the wind or farting against thunder.
Posted by: Tony Flynn, Wau | 09 November 2011 at 07:52 AM