Comments

Thank you Professor Stephen Howes for providing a clear summary of the situation, including a link to Dr Albert Schram's book. A highly respected publisher would not publish a book based on the author's PhD thesis if it is not a real, actual thesis. I attended Dr Albert Schram's presentation at ANU in Canberra in 2016 and was impressed by his efforts to make a positive impact at Unitech and by his frankness about the challenges faced. The situation regarding these spurious court proceedings is indeed worrying. It might give pause to various researchers working in PNG. It certainly makes me a little nervous about what could happen if the wrong person became unhappy about something I said, wrote or did. Thanks again for the blog post, and best of luck to Dr Albert Schram in resolving this situation quickly.

Excellent thinking Clay - we need new thinking to extend the impact of Australia's dwindling aid dollars.

Congratulations, Clay. Well argued. I hope both sides of politics are listening. Obviously, I agree with your essential argument but it will take political commitment to make it happen.

Hilary Smith, thank you for sharing this blog. It is true that language is like a mirror that completely reflects the emotions and the mental state of its users. I liked the way you have explained this fact in your blog. Looking forward to more such informative and interesting blogs.

It's very damaging and yes embarrassing. If Unitec knew all this why let it till some years later? This all sucks

There were/ are so many issues at the University of Technology (Unitech) when Albert Schram was appointed and under his leadership, many of these have surfaced exposing top level executives,and their cronies. The fear of being exposed has triggered these accusations and believe me, as someone who has been living within the Unitech community for a long time, the student body and the community adores and applaud Schram for his contribution. His repatriation is politically motivated. #Justice for Schram#

The PNG police force is simply a collection of guns for hire.

This is a great article and an issue that we in the development world need to face head on. The sexual misconduct scandal is an issue of power, and as you so well point out, Kuntala, so is the positioning of mostly western expatriates as the 'saviours' of the developing world. You are right that all forms of inequality and power abuse are closely connected. We need to face the issues of race and class if we are to achieve gender equality, for example, and poverty itself is a power relation. I do want to make one point, though, and that is that even though sex workers should be supported to achieve agency and power in their own lives and societies, and CARE Australia, for example, does exactly that in the countries where we work, this does not mean that the Haiti situation was anything but an egregious abuse of power. In emergency situations, in particular, INGO representatives are at least perceived to have power over the distribution of humanitarian resources. Lines are blurred between community members and direct program beneficiaries and sex workers themselves are likely to come from those communities. It would be nearly impossible for clients of sex workers to make a clear assessment of whether the worker was empowered or exploited, but in emergency contexts, there would be a good chance it was the latter. To be careless of these issues and to prioritise sexual entitlement is an unacceptable abuse of power. I take your point that the way expatriates (myself included) behave, too often blind to our own privilege, is an issue of power too. But we can't really compare someone dancing to the Bee Gees (horrible as that is!) to the abuse of power and assertion of male sexual entitlement that we have seen through the misconduct scandal. There is not just a spectrum -there are also red lines that cannot be crossed. We INGOs need to do better on all of these fronts, and to recognise our own place in the landscape of power.

Some say that in PNG rule of law is a joke. The Dr Albert Schram incident is to be expected given the trends of recent years. It's no surprise really. There are claims that PNG is ruled by a Mafia and that it is even turning into a Mafia state. Dr Schram's treatment by an apparatus of the state - the police - and the injustice meted out to him supports claims about a Mafia-like state. But this is not just about Schram. it far bigger than that. It's a reflection of the serious situation that the country is in as the rule of law deteriorates.

This is embarrassing for all stakeholders.

Loud & Clear! Thank you Mr. Stephen Howes

Thank you. A very thought provoking article.