Compensation

Compensation

Law & Order, at the community level in PNG, begins and ends with compensation. In PNG terms, compensation is simply a settlement that resolves a dispute. This settlement is typically cash, but can also include livestock or land. Every dispute, every insult, every ‘wrong’ has a price. This is compensation.

A ‘wrong’ is loosely defined. More to the fact, it is not defined at all but rather conjured by the wronged party. Some are legitimate, some are not. For instance, vehicles (specifically pick-up or flat-bed trucks) are routinely spilling over with people hitching rides.* If a member of the cargo is drunk on home-brewed liquor* and falls out of the cab, compensation will be claimed on the driver. In a more extreme case, two men gang raped a woman infected with HIV. Upon discovering this, the villains claimed compensation on their victim.

Compensation is usually of a domestic nature. True story: a PNG volunteer was approached in a bar by a local woman who claimed she was single. He took her home – it is impossible for a white man to do anything discreetly in PNG so their exit was witnessed and the news spread like a rash.

The woman was married. The husband found out while the sheets were still warm and was undoubtedly shamed. Compensation was in order. The volunteer had two choices: go to the village court and have a judge decide an appropriate monetary amount or settle it in the bush. He went to court.

The court was described to me as an open field. Also, since this was a particularly steamy case, quite a crowd was gathered. The cheated husband brought a contingent of his ‘Wontoks’ as a show of force. I imagine the desired effect was achieved. The judge awarded the man 100 Kina (equivalent $34 USD) in compensation: case closed. Once compensation has been agreed upon this issue is wholly and completely resolved – there are no residual effects from the offense. The husband has restored face in the community. The woman’s scarlet letter is removed. The animosity between the male spouse and the backdoor man has been erased. In fact, they can now (and sometimes do) become friends.

A friend of mine likes to say ‘in PNG, life is cheap’. Unfortunately, this statement is all too true. If I were to run a man down in the road, my first action would be to flee the scene (and this is suggested procedure). Next, the family would then require that I pay (regardless if it was my fault or not) compensation for their loss – on average, 1000 K. I am better off killing a man than a prized pig because the compensation amount would be larger for the swine.

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There is also a favor system in PNG that revolves around compensation. If a person or tribe provides assistance, somewhere down the line a return is expected – and the equality of the return is closely scrutinized and remembered. If I give you a pig, and a month later you give me a chicken, you are still indebted to me at least 15 more chickens and a sack of buai.
Quid pro quo in action.

There are three tribes that border Rosary Secondary School. Last year, one of the tribes was threatening to raid the campus (for reasons worth another story). Another of the tribes came to the rescue and guarded the perimeter of the school until the cause of the dispute was sorted out. This weekend, the protector tribe (tribe A) is paying compensation to another tribe (tribe B) to settle a dispute (you can make yourself dizzy trying to make sense of the overlapping treaties, rivalries and debts). Apparently, a male member of tribe A ‘accidentally’ killed his wife, a member of tribe B. This was the exact explanation I was given – when I asked ‘how do you accidentally kill someone?’ everyone just giggled. Tribe A has asked Rosary to contribute to the kitty – sighting last year’s defensive help. Now, Rosary could refuse. However, you can bet that this tribe will no longer protect the school if a situation arises. You could call it the PNG version of disaster insurance.

I went with the group of men to deliver the cash ‘gift’. We were greeted with a series of wild chants by the men, echoed by wails from the women. My group gave a series of speeches I could not understand, presenting the donation and making reference to the years of friendship the school and tribe have shared. The tribe’s chief responded with a speech of his own, making reference to ‘Brother Mark’. This was followed by more chants and wails and an invitation to a feast this weekend. It was damn cool.

An old man, keeping himself upright with two sticks, loudly shouted above the crowd in. His voice was powerful despite his feeble stature. No one seemed to pay him any mind, as his monologue continued on and on. I asked the guys from my group what he was saying but they could not make it out(again, PNG has approximately 800 different languages – this man live 2 MILES from Rosary yet speaks in a vernacular that only people in his village can understand). A member of his tribe deciphered for us and said that hewas talking about the fighting he did in WWII and how proud he was to fight alongside Americans and Australians against the Japanese. He exclaimed his pride to see an American man in his village. We all nodded in agreement.

*Pick ups and flat bed trucks will sometimes transport over 50 people, absolutely jammed into every available space. It’s quite a sight to seethese trucks bounce around the decimated roads.*

*PNG home brew is made of an assortment of fruits including bananas and pineapples. There is some sort of rudimentary fermenting process that produces liquor that can be as strong as 80 proof. Nasty stuff. Getting drunk on this stuff is referred to as getting ‘steamed’ and it is an ugly display. These fellows just get staggering drunk, get into random fights and often pass out in the middle of the road.*