individual,

I'm glad to see that Australia has finally realised that jumping into bed with the Chinese was a bad deal.

Problem now is how to turn back the clock.

I reckon cancel their visas and citizenship and send them packing to China.

Bite the bullet and do it asap because the longer we wait the worse it will get.

Let the Chinese be other people's problem, not ours.

I wonder if the one talk system is breaking down these days. From memory PNG had about 200 languages, & a couple of thousand dialects. Those who speak your dialect are your one talks.

It is a wonderful system for primitive tribal societies, but causes real problems in a more developed economy. If you have something your one talk needs or wants, you must give it to them. This is great in a tribal subsistence farming situation, but a catastrophe if someone tries to run a trade store. Hence the plantation manager, or Chinese run the trade stores. The individual only owns what he can carry in a shoulder bag.

I had fun dealing with this. When a village needed a major part for the village truck, like an engine, half a dozen men would come in to pay for it, each with their shoulder bag. When asked to pay they would look from one to the other, finally all settling on one man. He would open his private bag, & count out some money. When I said not enough, the process was repeated & another man would count out the same amount. It could take half an hour to get a $350 invoice paid in full.

There are thousands of Chinese trade stores through out the islands & particularly PNG. They supply most staples like rice & tinned corned beef, which have become staples. One plantation owner complained that he had brought in quality tropical cattle to graze under the palms, but the locals would not buy his fresh beef, preferring corned bully beef in cans, from the Chinese trade store in the next village.

He reckoned that the locals would have trouble surviving today with out the Chinese trade store, such was their penetration into the food chain.