I am a PNGan, a male though and would like to seek your permission to post a message on the general subject of PNG women. If invited then I would at least feel welcome to post what I intended to submit here otherwise I say all the best in your endeavours.

Sincerely

Please do... Men are interested in womens issues or they should be anyway. Just think of this Forum as your Mom's place or your Sisters house and you'll be fine.

Sipanda

This post concerns rape and what I have in mind about what I may practically do to equip my two daughters to defend themselves in such events. As a father with young daughters(minors) and living crime infested urban area I tend to worry about this social disease and I am thinking of protecting them with some of my knowledge. You may be wondering what I am getting at here. To put in plainly, I am thinking of teaching them the art of extracting toxics from plants and carry them in syringe then use them when physically suppressed by the would be rapist.

If the attacker thinks he will walk away after the fun, good on him but his life would be terrible or he may not live to see the next day. This is against christian principles and PNG law but if they cannot protect defenless women then what is there to stop the potential rapist to think this evil. As a Papa I have natural obligation to protect my cute daughters and here I have unveil one of my secret thougts. My wife has not agreed with me saying that I may be turning my daughters into SANGUMA MERIS. My response was both yes and no. I believe I will be putting my scientific knowledge and skills into what I consider neccessary. Ol meri wantok, I would be happy to hear your views and comments on this, what my wife called a crazy idea.

The idea of equiping my girls was a reflection of what I had itially withnessed from their mother(my wife). I found out that she always had that sharp and thin-blade knife tucked in her bra before leaving for work. Out of curiosity I asked, since when did you had that friend with you? Her answer was, eversince my teens. I said well, then I would try to use the chemical weapon, which I am more familiar with their easy of use, potency and what devasating effect they may cause. I believe I know sufficient knowledge about "chemical ecology" from the stand point of plants especially with my specialist training and background. Plants produce toxic substances to inhibit occurences of their immediate rivals where as others to keep off the herbivores(insect and animal that feed on plants). If that is what I derived from nature, then why should I not take advantage of it and use it where natural defence is called into question.

From A Papa

Hi Treecophy!

I tend to agree with you in that it is good for your two daughters to have a plan of defence. My question to you is why do you consider a syringe instead of a knife? Aneedle can break easier than a knife. Even though the syringe may prove to be more lethal it is still an awkward instrument to carry on oneself and awkward still in using against an attacker.

I hate the fact that we even have to consider such safety measures but such is the enviroment we live and saftey should be everyones prority.

If you feel that your daughters would be better protected by using your methods then I would say go ahead. Use and arm your daughters with every tool and information you have. As a parent that is your responsibility to protect your children.

I commend you for being so honest here on this forum. I don't think your daughters would be considered "Sanguma meri's". Any attacker who tried to mess with them would be messing with the wrong girls!

Em tasol.Sounds like your a good papa.

Cheers,

wasmama.

Hi Wasmama,

Thank you for sharing your views. I know that not all conceivable ideas would go smoothly. I agree with you in that I would have to make choices especially when such act is deemed illegal and repercussions could be severe. I would have to educate my girls about the need of self-defence and as much as possible include various conventional methods. I shall feed them with information and training regarding this technique but the decision to either apply or not will be theirs. Sometimes I think PNG women are not so psychologically tough to make bold decisions. Howver I am seeing some changes and I am determined to toughen my girls mentally to drive out feminine fear and be prepared to face opposition. I will have to convince my daughters that self-defence or punishing their assailant is their natural right regardless of religion or other-human made laws!

Treecophy
wanpela papa

I'm very pleased that you have such concern with your daughter's safety.

What worries me is giving your daughters syringes to use.

Using a syringe means that your daughters, if confronted by an attacker, must somehow manage to get the syringe out and use it properly while actually being in close contact with the attacker.

This leads me to suspect that the attacker could easily turn the tables on your daughter, and your daughter be the one who was injected.

Or, after your daughter plunged in the syringe, the attcker would have time enough before collapse to strangle your daughter or do more harm to her on account of feeling the attack.

Thus your daughter would have a great risk of physical harm made greater by the use of that syringe. That risk would occur whether or not she was successful in injecting the chemical into the attacker.

It is better to do something than do nothing and just agonise over what has all ready happened. If they are over-powered too quickly then it is about punishing the assailant. The intension is not to be equiped and then they go take unnecessary risks endangering their lives. Regarding techniquires of using the shringe that can be mastered. There are ways of achieving this without being direct and wrough. If shringe is too diffcult, contact poision is an alternative. As a concern papa I want to do something but the decision to either use or not will be theirs. Iam begining to have less faith in what religion and law enforcing institutions can do to contain the rape problem. How my girls play the game and whether they win or lose, live or die, the results will somehow remains forever. All of us will die anyway.

I thank you commentator, for the valid criticms which will undoubtedly help me and my wife to consider every aspect of this plan.

treecophy

Just another thought. What about those pepper sprays or other eye irritants. Are they for sale in POM? Are their local equivalents? Those types of sprays can quickly stop an attack if the spray hits the target. But if your daughter misses, it is not such a death threat that could be turned against her.

Thank you for the suggestions.I will have to check those chemicals(irritants) first to determine what form they come in , their potency and how to use intelligently. Similar and more effective spray chemicals are some insectides already on market in PNG. You find ready-prepared insectides in chemists while some very concentated chemicals are sold at "didiman stores". For desired results, chemicals form didiman stores have to be first prepared then containarised for the purpose. I prefer shringe because they can accomodate minimal but lethal amounts of very quick releasing chemicals that enters blood stream and causes convulsion in relatively shorter time( seconds or minutes. It may be inappropiate on this forum to go in to details about use of chemical poisons on humans so I guess I should stop here. My original intension was about self-defence or punishing an assailant.


treecophy

I think your goal should be not to poison, but to incapacite. You need a chemical that is a quick knockdown. An eye irritant is ideal. Insecticides usually aren't going to achieve the desired result. The pepper spray suggestion is something that immediately affects the attacker, and keeps them unable to do anything for quite a while!!!

Good luck!

Whatever is applied should be determined by situations at hand. For example, an intoxicated person(under drug or alcohol) can be easily incapacitated either physically or chemically compared to a sober person. Having more than one technique of self defence is ideal. Intelligence or knowledge will aid to the success of each method. Knowing or guesing what the attacker can do or is capable of doing and then capitalise over his weaknesses. Using words first to soften him, judge his reflexes and positions then do him right either temporary or permanent damage. If the assailant is equally clever he will walk away and yes things may turn out the other way around but as expected as well. However if he is a fool and falls onto the "trap" , he has met his doomsday.

Thank you for your realistic comments.

Your have a nice day and week-end.


treecophy

These are all excellent comments.
A woman today can get detailed information on how to counteract a rape attack where? Maybe there are some options in Moresby, but where? And outside of Moresby, where can you get information in any detail. All these comes within the supposed domain of the Dept. of Youth & Home Affairs but it has been many many months since they did anything that was effective education.
Take away a couple staff members, and use the salaries to purchase newspaper ads to inform and educate!

With reference to the educational materials you are referring to, they were produced jointly by the Dept of Home affairs and the Law Reform Commission under the leadership of Mrs Kanawi and that was more than ten years ago. It has not been reprinted in recent years for several reasons; I wonder if observer has seen the content of it and if it is applicable today.

Rapists today are strategically violent. Gang rape are the most common. It has become extremely impossible for women to defend themselves with the techniques outlined in the the awareness material observer is referring to.

We can equip our women with anything under the sun but rape will always be here. That's a hard fact, everyone must be united to fight this evil. It is not only a crime, it is deeply rooted in the social structure of the sociey. We have to go deep in the social fabric in society and ask very fundamental question in terms of culture, gender roles, attitudes and address the contemporary role of women in terms of development etc.

No individual person or organisation can eradicate violence, rape in our society. We need collective effort from men and women. We will not achieve anything if we start segregating members of our society. The answer lies in changing the attitudes of the perpatrators.. It's a hard job and the road is long but if you and I have the love for our country men & women, nothing is impossible.

Totally agree. Very good comments. My sentiments exactly!.I'm trying to do my part in changing attitudes every day!

Good points you have made, certainly I was not aware of these materials.

An overall problem is that educational materials which are not integrated into our national education curriculum are always easily lost and forgotten. Does our curriculum for high schoolers deal with rape in any substantive form. I don't recall so.

I agree with your point that educational material which are not integrated into the school curriculum are not sustainable. I have no idea if rape as a current issue for PNG as made it's way into the education curriculum (now that it's magnitude is very visible). It's a pity for us PNG women to know that no-one recognises our problems until it is at the verge of destroying the entire society.

The Education System should definitely incorporate educational material on rape in their curriculum if PNG is seriuos about it. That is the only way it will filter into the system and be sustained.

Other organisations such the Home Affairs & Law Reform Commission recognised this problem donkey years ago because of the effects it had on the women population & that's when those awareness material were produced but at that time few PNG citizens wanted to make rape an issue.

What ideas can we as educated women offer to these organisations precisely the Home Affairs because one of it's target population which is "US WOMEN" is in the centre of the issue. I mean if you were to advise the Home Affairs on how to deal with the issue, what would you say??? I am sure they could be running out of steam now given that they have made rape their problem more than a decade ago.

Over to you sisters...