#national-unity

#national-unity

I'm going tell you about an audacious idea that sounds almost impossible, one that is rooted in dreams about symbolic and literal unity of our nation. It is both a distraction from and answer to our country's problems in 2025, and it relies on an unshakeable faith in humanity and community. It reaches into the future while looking into the past, and stepping foot on it can change a person's life.

At one minute past midnight on 16 September 1975, our first governor general, Sir John Guise, declared to the world, Papua New Guinea is now independent, Marape said. Earlier that evening, as the Australian flag was lowered, Sir John reminded the crowd that we are lowering the Australian flag, not burying it', Marape said. Out of many, we became one, united under a single flag that was hoisted for the first time, Marape said.

We're so far from even where I was when I was there, 25 years ago, just would not have happened. And it is happening now. And we as a nation have to figure out a way to pull ourselves back from the brink. We still remain the strongest, most powerful country on the face of the Earth. But oftentimes, it seems post-9/11 that we are that country in spite of ourselves, in spite of our leaders.