The transcript is very interesting, thanks for that.
One of the basic errors we keep making is projection our own cultural norms, expectations, economic drivers etc. onto other cultures. PNG is
utterly different to what most of us are familiar with. Tanking about an 'economy' with our expectations is just one facet of that.
bdk wrote:
If the locals had business acumen at all,...
They've probably got about as much business acumen as you or I have ability to survive in PNG without a guide. And the jungle nasties you might see coming. The human sharks in PNG are less manageable. Why would they have 'business acumen' where would they get the funding and tools? It's about as appropriate as you or I looking for leeches on the high street.
Sure, it's easy to postulate what 'they' should do there, given almost total ignorance of the local environment and factors - and factions.
The subsistence economy doesn't mean that people there don't have aspirations like this - they are just mostly impossible to fulfil.
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The Maldives, Tahiti and Hawaii don't have any better scenery than they have there.
Slightly different 'economy' for a start and rule of law, I'd suggest, even from my limited understanding. Business tends to be a bit 'different' and less tourist friendly where there's serious political and civil instability.
warbird1 wrote:
The other thing I don't get is why the locals are so attached to these airplanes. If they held them in so much respect, they wouldn't have cut pieces of aluminum from them and use airplane pieces for their daily existence.
Think about it, you've answered your own question.
If there was a better alternative than using bits of old aircraft, don't you think they might just use those alternatives? Life's
tough there. Fooling about with old aeroplane junk comes a long way after subsistence work. The fact they're interested at all is amazing - the fact that they can't do much about it, and are essentially at the mercy of whichever westerner who hives over the hill isn't to the west's credit.
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Also, they claim that once the planes are gone all of their W.W. II history will be gone and forgotten also. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a TON of W.W. II artifacts, besides airplanes lying around? Surely, there are bunkers, tanks, grounded Japanese ships, AAA artillery, and a lot of other junk lying around. Is the removal of 11 airplanes really going to make their history "disappear" like they claim?
That surely doesn't stack up. If we read the above statement without having our historic aircraft enthusiast glasses on, it would almost be funny. It's all the same war; why should they be keen to let you have the toys you want, leaving the (your words) 'junk' that's just as valuable to other enthusiasts?
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I would think that the airplanes, after they're restored, and on display in Australia, the U.S. or wherever, would create a lot more attention on their background, and where they came from. Would this not inspire other people outside their country to possibily visit them to see the rest of the war remains?
A good test is what do we know.
It hasn't created tourism in that way so far. There are numerous recovered ex-PNG aircraft in Australia, NZ, and the US,
today. The main reason I've heard and seen for people to go to PNG was to get 'the others' or to look at what's left. I've yet to hear of anyone going to see 'where there used to be an aircraft'.
The people of PNG had a hard war, not of their making, advantage or profit. The main interest expressed on WIX is about the aircraft, representing, in the main 'our guys' and as above quite casual ignorance and lack of care over what the was in PNG was really like and whose lives it wrecked beyond a three year war tour.
We've spent more than thirty years regarding these aircraft as irrelevant curio wrecks (books in the 70s, such as I was reading yesterday document that). Yet we now want them to just give up our old junk because, like a spoiled brat, we want our toys back. From the transcript above, it's clear some locals have a better idea of the local history of W.W.II and of the western interest in these aircraft than some of us here. As you've mentioned, there's a lot more to it than some old aircraft wrecks.
No I don't think it's a black & white case, and I don't know what's best, but like the Swamp Ghost situation, it's clear it's easy to screw up a stable scenario through trying to do business / recover / loot (as you prefer) because it's not viable at the moment.
Another assumption that pops up here is of some group of 'them' over 'there', often from the same posters who bewail the lack of understanding of their own elected representatives and restrictions on what these WIXers are allowed to do by their government. Yet, this aspect does translate. There
are issues with the elected leadership of PNG not agreeing among themselves (pork barrel motives or others) just like in other countries we can think of.
These leaders don't seem to act in the best interests of the locals, and I'm sure there's
also dissent among the local native groups. Thus far it sounds just like the leadership of the USA or Australia and the happy band that is a restoration organisation.
No personal criticism of anyone implied, just perhaps raising some issues to consider.
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