” It is said that some of one’s best personal and country’s successes in life follow after great adversities and disappointments.

How many of us have come through the best of times, the worst of times or when adversity is likely to take us to the brink.

It turns out sometimes this disposition may be a sign from heaven that some marked successes may follow.”

Simon Pentanu : Photo above : A welcoming society that prides in showing its land and its natural beauty, its cultures and traditions, sharing and caring and peace and wellbeing in its communities speaks volumes.

Following are some personal perspectives that are true to Bougainville where we have as private individuals, businessmen, as political leaders, church leaders and as emerging women leaders and youths have the best opportunities in the country to change things in the Region for the better.

This is especially so when the Island has gone through and dealt with every conceivable problem that brought a people to its knees, only to genuflect to a Higher Force and refuse to be broken.

Opportunities

WHY shouldn’t we make our world a new place, a multi-racial, cross-cultural Island of shared benefits and opportunities. We must grab the opportunities we have with both hands. Let us not squander these opportunities and gains we have created. It will take and involve people from other nationalities alongside Bougainvilleans to rebuild the Island. This is what it takes in nation building.

Resilience

A resilience to pursue what we know to be true and believe into the future. Resilience means accepting our reality even if the situation is less desirable than that we were in before. Let us continue to be resilient, a trait that has become an integral part of the people’s leavening modus operandi out of a devastating crisis. Resilience always pays.

Care

We must always care. Care as a people, care for each other. The Government must care and assume responsibility and obligation in rebuilding Bougainville in the conventional sense, for its people, particularly in the ommunities that comprise the population.

With caring comes the duty to protect, provide without expecting anything in return but with leaders and public office-holders exuding clear sense of responsibility for the greater good.

In caring and in our duty of care we must be all too aware that that the greatest threat to Bougainville, and to any  society in the long term is not arms or weapons but carelessness often giving rise to bad governance.

The Bougainville society will be made or unmade by how much attention, commitment, personal and communal care and respect we give to one another and to the land of our birth and upbringing. And too, by asking ourselves how much of what we say do we practice in reality starting at a personal level.

Perceptions

The perception of other people, other societies, other countries about us is important. Confidence and assurance in what we offer and how we offer ourselves as a good and safe product is an important part of this perception.

Tourism and travel to Bougainville can give us a good indicator in how we are perceived by the outside world that is out there. Law and order in society also ranks high in this regard. So too good investment policies and safe investment climate. No nation is an Island, much less so a hermit.

Governance

Let us care enough and hold ourselves to the highest accountability standards starting at the base as individuals and expecting as well as respecting  our government to live up to the same virtues and standards. Let us not just utter or give lip service to good governance. Good governance is the most important standard of measure that will make or break Bougainville. This responsibility must be borne equally in many respects by the governers and the governoned alike.

Respect

Let us also care about and respect other people. Respect transcends all barriers. Let us not do unto others what they would not do unto us.

There is a lot going for Bougainville.

Politically a lot of the important aspects of the political journey has been jointly mapped out with the National Government. It was never going to be easy but the BPA and the amendments to the national constitution gave legal effect and recognition, as well as imperative, on both sides, to tread through this in a careful, considered and measured way. It can be an example to the rest of the world that bellicose rhetoric or behaviour has not got in the way of any of the negotiations thus far.