Pope Francis, in resource-rich PNG, urges that workers be treated fairly

Diversity and superdiversity are come to stay. Creating, maintaining, and enhancing harmony and cooperation among fellow pilgrims is a massive challenge. Wishing the inhabitants of PNG peace, harmony, and prosperity.

Whenever I see poorer countries being exploited, I immediately think the govts there should require 50% of the profits from any mining activities and use that money for infrastructure, safety, and educational improvements for the region and country.

Having safe drinking water from the tap, proper sanitation handling, and requiring that toxic cleanup of any mining activities be fully funded as-they-go, not some promise for later.

As anti-Catholic as I am (very personal reasons for this), the Pope has many things correct above. Francis, being from Argentina, knows about poverty and he knows that using his celebrity can help many people.

Every time I see "East Timor", mentioned, I chuckle a little. "East East" is the translation.

As anti-Catholic as I am (very personal reasons for this), the Pope has many things correct above. Francis, being from Argentina, knows about poverty and he knows that using his celebrity can help many people

Fair point.

As much as I agree Francis can use his position to do some good, the idea of the Catholic Church ‘preaching’ about spreading the material wealth while sitting on extravagant material wealth is a bit rich.

Flog off your trinkets to give to those in your flock and other flocks the basics.

I’m pretty sure Jesus would approve if he were around today.

Camels and needles and kicking over tables and all that.

The wealth of the Catholic church is in real estate and books that aren't seen by the public.

I think the wealth the outside world thinks the Catholic leadership holds is like Trump's wealth - perception, not reality.

Whenever I see poorer countries being exploited, I immediately think the govts there should require 50% of the profits from any mining activities and use that money for infrastructure, safety, and educational improvements for the region and country

I worked in PNG for just less than a year as a helicopter pilot. Our company was supporting some oil development projects there. Since there were no roads anywhere in the highlands at the time everything had to move by helicopter. We built whole oil rigs by stacking sections one upon the other using the helicopter. We'd disassemble and move the whole rig and all the associated buildings piece by piece over a period of weeks.

What I saw was the oil companies required by the PNG government to build roads and other infrastructure as part of the deal to drill for oil and gas. In practice things were not so simple. PNG is ruled by tribes and they are constantly at war with each other. More than once we had the road building crews evacuate a job because a tribe threatened to kill them. For them, the road was seen a grave threat making it easier for an adversary tribe to attack them. We had a town we worked at with a golf course. Kind of ridiculous to have a golf course someplace that experiences 20mm of rain or more each and every day. But there it was. It became a battlefield for local tribes who would fight it out with spears on the greens. PNG cities are extremely dangerous due to what the locals call "rascals", tribal gangs. Politics are similarly tribal. A member of their Parliament is expected to deliver for their tribe at the expense of any other tribe. PNG is not an easy place to develop.

One other consideration. PNG is traditionally a matriarchal society. The women own the farms, control the money and make the decisions. Men have to pay a "bride price" to marry, often a certain quantity of pigs. Pigs are valuable. I have seen live pigs and chickens on regional airliners there. Then you have foreign companies arrive and hire men to work for them. Suddenly the men have money and stop doing what their wives tell them to do. This is a huge disruption to traditional PNG family life.

I worked in PNG for just less than a year as a helicopter pilot.

Thanks for the info. Sounds worse than the Amazon tribes. Things are never as simple as they seem to outsiders.