My name is Madu Rimau. I am from Rigo, Central Province. My dad is from Girobada, but when you write it down you spell it like ‘Girobada’. My mum is from Geresi, that’s inland Rigo. The Local Level Government is Rigo Central.
I am 46 years old and lived in Port Moresby all my life. There are five of us in the family, two girls and three boys. Two of them have passed away and there are three of us left. I’ve got two children, sons. I am self-employed. I don’t do much but I buy vegetables from Gordons market and re-sell where we live.
Life is a struggle because nothing comes easy. But we try to live from the best of whatever we have here. We take the opportunity to get us going. In life there are all sorts of hardship especially for people who are unemployed like us. We try to live day by day but each day comes with its difficulty and we try to make use of it just for survival.
Now that the children have gone back to school we have to work extra hard to support them because there’s no more free education. We have to do something to earn some money to meet their school fees and all their needs eh? As it states in the bible, we have to sweat to live. We can’t just sit around relax and expect things to happen. You have to struggle, sweat to earn a living.
What I want to say is about the living standard. If the government can reduce the cost of goods and services as the main problem. Cost of goods and services is skyrocketed unlike in the 80s, when 1 toea and 2 toea have value. I can remember in the 80s when I could buy a lolly for 1toea. Everything was easy and maybe because of that we took like for granted. Now that those times are gone and in late 1990s and 20s it’s been very expensive to live in the city.
If the government can look for ways to reduce the cost of basic goods and services, people will be happy. The health services are getting expensive because the government facilities like Port Moresby General Hospital don’t have the medicines. When we get sick the hospital doesn’t have the medicine so they write the prescription which patients have to buy from pharmacies. Many people can’t buy the medicine because they don’t have money.
The people who control the costs in the country must help the people by controlling the rising costs of goods and services. It will be a big help to the people.