Cultural Conflict in a Globalising World: The Case of Papua New Guinea
Isaac M. Mwaura

During the last few days, I have been interacting with the local people of Papua New Guinea (PNG) with the aim of getting to understand the dynamics of the country in which I had just started my tour of duty. So far, I have found that people are quite hospitable and sociable, a sharp contrast from the negative coverage that you get from media, especially the Internet.
My previous thoughts about PNG, and indeed the little island nation states of the Pacific – PNG itself, Tuvalu, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Kiribati and Vanuatu – were that they are the last frontier in a world that is gradually shrinking in size from all angles. I have slowly come to discover that the challenge of the Pacific countries and many of the so called ‘developing nation states’ in the world is backwardness and not poverty, a situation that can be attributed to neo-colonialism and the effects of a globalising market economy. I choose to call the phenomenon ‘backwardness’ in order to address and challenge the notion of cultural advancement within the global context.
The region (while hesitating to generalise to the whole world) is experiencing a huge cultural conflict and crisis due to two sides which are pulling the nations in different directions. On one hand is the traditional way of doing things, the proven and tested way of the local people. On the other is ‘modernity’ as championed by international norms which greatly inform development assistance and the universal intervention mechanisms.

Colonial legacy

Colonialism has had a great effect on the locals in the Pacific nation sates. One can pick its legacy in the day-to-day mannerisms of the various administrations that once occupied them. PNG has been colonised by the Germans, the Japanese, the British and the big brother (and neighbour) Australia. Indeed, in order to comprehend regional politics of the Pacific, it is important to note that Australia is the regional economic powerhouse exercising authority over many little tiny nations. 
While colonialism and neo-colonialism have had names and well-defined characteristics, what is happening today seems to have neither name nor definition. PNG is grappling with a major crisis owing to the various multifaceted cultural layers that characterise the nation; here, we are talking of a country which has over 867 ethnic communities within a population of 6.3 million people. The cultural diversity now espouses conflict among the various ethnic groupings
As the world caves in and identities are being lost due to uniformity and things familiar, so do community rights seem to dissipate. The ways of doing things of a people is being questioned in a way that has not been experienced before. This, one may observe, could have been more prevalent in ancient times before the information age. Then disputes were resolved based on tested and familiar economies of the local people with proper safety nets to cushion certain societal vices.
The above scenario has in itself provided a great ground for journalists and anthropologists alike to closely study and document the change as it happens. One of the efforts has been the establishment of the institute of PNG studies.

Capitalism

The world as we know it today is gravitating towards individual accumulation of wealth otherwise known as capitalism.  My observation is that the combined forces of inbuilt obsolescence (which in essence is the lifeline of capitalism) are its sidekick, consumerism, and the bane of durability plus the Japanese principle of continuous improvement – kaisen, which is the breeding ground of product diversification. And for the various markets that the Chinese have used to put their economy on the fast track have succeeded in keeping the whole world in perpetual need and want hence maintaining and fuelling the status quo.
Capitalism continues to grow, while the human face in world trade continues to diminish especially when challenged by emerging super economies of the Asian Tiger rim, in particular China.  What this has meant to traditions in PNG is quite interesting and revealing. The role capitalism has played in shaping individual choices through thought processes and how these have had an impact on culture in an otherwise obscure manner can possibly answer the question as to why some practices that were hitherto in vogue, being the essence of cultural functionalism, are eventually being discarded.
Recent media reports in PNG indicate that tribal conflicts continue to escalate as patterns of compensation take shape. During these fights some people end up being killed, hence necessitating some form of reparation for the affected community and families. While one would expect the locals would seek legal redress in a modern court of law (as established by the Australian administration), they always result to their traditions within the small micro nationalities. For example, it is common for the bereaved family to ask for compensation from the attackers. Interestingly, the colossal sums of money demanded do not end up in their hands but in the whole clan. Inevitably, this creates a situation where certain killings are triggered in order to create grounds for compensation; payback has subsequently become big time business.
What does this portend for the cultural conflict? This scenario may sound simplistic, but it provides a basis in the understanding of culture subjugation and its complexities. At the global level, the mind of the consumer is already captured through advertisement.  We see how the thought process is drastically altered eventually affecting cultural norms. In the past, cases of killings (including murder) in PNG were successfully resolved using the above method; the compensation usually entailed things such as a crop harvest or livestock. Today, compensation is usually by way of legal tender.
This means of compensation has resulted in greed occasioned by the capitalistic tendencies; individual accumulation of wealth supersedes community well-being. In this situation, the family under siege is easily impoverished in a quest to meet societal obligations and penalties. Traditionally, whatever was given out as compensation would only meet short-term goals and was usually within the barter economy.
The point here is not the cultural practice of compensation, but the motivation behind it. Extortion has grown to such extent that it is no longer about settling down disputes, administration of justice, healing and moving on together; it is money for the sake of it as that is what seems to count in the new world order. The clan leader, together with individual members of the community, no longer perceive the death of their clansman as untimely, but as a new income avenue that has opened 
With the barter trade gone, the community is now controlled by a mercantile economy from faraway places within the wider global village. The community finds itself caught up within the conflicting civilisations pursuant to the law of self-preservation and in remaining on familiar territory. As the alternative modern courts are riddled with corruption, they find it unjustifiable to seek justice from a non-jurisprudent judicial system.
The above conflict puts into perspective the manner in which indigenous cultures and beliefs end up in question. After undergoing global bashing and rejection, they eventually pass as bad practices.

Globalisation

While the superficial appearance of globalisation is based on the premise of best practices, this in itself presents a real threat to individual and community rights. This is in favour of collective individual uniformity, gratification and universality against collective communal diversity and individual consciousness. Globalisation seems to emphasise on universality against diversity without questioning whether what we want to introduce everywhere is what will work and if so, at what and whose expense. Perhaps, in the community lies a better way of doing things that serves the intended goal with little or no adaptation
The argument for globalisation is that there is a superior way of doing things, usually that of the forces of dominance. It may not matter what other societies have to offer to themselves and the world. For example, PNG offers tolerance in the midst of exponential diversity with its concrete safety nets in the Wantok system. The system ensures that members of the community are not left to suffer on their own. This is similar to African socialism, which has been slowly discarded after acquiring a negative tag occasioned by the need to reduce dependency on each other in order to maintain self-sufficiency.
Thus, globalisation introduces new cultural dimensions to communities. Where individuals of a given community enjoy collective care and responsibility, globalisation favours the dominant protagonist with predatory instincts. For example, in Luo Nyanza (of East Africa) someone will inherit a wife not because he wishes to protect her, but in order to gain access to the property of the deceased. This principle is detrimental and has been a key plank – if not the hidden mantra – of the politics of domination, capture and dependency. It is perpetuated within the international macrocosm of mercantile states, trade, the resultant conflict and a multifaceted philanthropy engendered in the interstate development cooperation and partnerships.
At the global level, the idea of markets without borders is highly inclined towards the major economies such as the US, European Union and recently, China. While the World Bank and IMF are shifting their market investment priorities towards socio-economic provisioning, this may not succeed since the aim is largely geared towards window dressing the ravages of the dominant economies on the weaker nation states. Here, richness and backwardness usually intertwine as is poverty and advancement creating a symbiotic gridlock that is undeniably the euphemism for development assistance.

Conclusion

As the world brazenly hastens to become one, the little paradises in the Pacific are rapidly facing extinction both at the socio-cultural, economic and climatic levels. At the same time, oceanic seashores are receding due to rise in temperatures and new superpowers like China are going for resources to feed their growing industries without caring as much about sustainable development.
What this simply means is that money is the basis of shifting cultures towards the so called modernity.  Poverty and backwardness are unrelated continuums; the former is a creation of material wealth, while the latter is an acknowledgement of different stages of culture states. In between the confusion lies opportunities that we quickly bring to a closure in our quest to make the world a uniformity.
The fact that societies evolve in a similar pattern does not justify supremacist ventures in given cultures for in the quest to copy-cat societal mores, we miss simple solutions contained within the ever ebbing local knowledge. We miss out on what various civilisations can bring to the world to make it a better place for all of us to live in.

Isaac M. Mwaura is VSO Program Development Advisor, currently working in Kina Beach Madang City, Papua New Guinea. He can be reached on email:    isaac.mwaura @vsoint.org