Post-card from ‘Stone Age’

Ppl just read this .....are we still living in the stone age????

Post-card from ‘Stone Age’

THE Tourism Promotion Authority (TPA) and tour operators and agencies in Papua New Guinea need to lift their efforts to educate the world about PNG.
That is the message from two major operators yesterday after being informed of the contents of a post-card that was intended for recipients in Texas, United States, written by a couple travelling on the cruise liner Queen Elizabeth Two (QE2).
The post-card was accidentally dropped by the couple during the QE2’s 10-hour stop-over in Lae last week. It was picked up by youths at one of the sites that the tourists visited, and after reading its content, they decided to hand it to the Post-Courier.
The content of the post card reads: Tues 2/24 Lae New Guinea. Hard to find postcards in this primitive village. Thousands of natives came out of the mountains to see the white people who came on the big ship. Very uncomfortable in the village — the (sic) stare at us like wild — there are still cannibals in the hills so we don’t want to end up in the soup.”
The post card had the names of the sender as well as the intended recipient and a K4.60 stamp attached.
Inter-Government Relations Minister and one of the country’s biggest tourism promoters, Sir Peter Barter, said he has in the past read postcards sent by tourists, especially those on cruise ships, which had “loose comments”.
He said this was because tourists on cruises do not spend enough time in PNG to know what the country was really like. Sir Peter said he did not think the post card was written as a joke but that it was written by people who were “ignorant, insensitive that send a wrong message about PNG.”
“We have every reason to be proud of what they (tourists) see in PNG and, perhaps, there is a great need for more awareness from the TPA and the agencies involved,” Sir Peter said.
He said he intended to pass the offending message on to Cunard Lines, the operators of the QE2, so that “they can make their passengers better informed of the places they visit”.
Dianne Cross. of the Morobe Tourism Bureau (MTB), which co-ordinated the QE2’s visit to Lae, said it was unfortunate as the bureau had received mostly positive feedback from the tourists on their Lae visit.
“But the message is clear. The TPA, Morobe Tourism Bureau and all the other operators and agencies dealing with tourism in the country need to really lift the image of PNG to the outside world,” said Mrs Cross.