PHIL FITZPATRICK
IT wasn’t so long ago that getting into a Port Moresby taxi was an act of faith. You might get to your destination or you might be driven out to a settlement and mugged.
However, like most things in modern Port Moresby, things have changed for the better. Nowadays taxis are a great way to get around Papua New Guinea’s national capital.
Any visitor contemplating hiring a car and driving themselves around the choked, colonial-era road system will quickly discover they are dicing with death.
There is an unwritten code of conduct among Port Moresby’s drivers, which includes frequent use of the car’s horn.
If you are not au fait with these rules you can get into all sorts of strife. In the interests of personal survival it is better to take a taxi driven by someone who knows what they are doing.
The taxi drivers conveniently hang around the hotels and other areas where they are likely to pick up passengers. You can’t call a company and order a taxi in Port Moresby.
When Australian novelist Trevor Shearston and I stepped out of the Weigh Inn for the first time a couple of weeks ago, there were two taxis to choose from. We picked the cream one, beige not being my favourite colour.
By the time we were halfway up the Poreporena Freeway the driver had introduced himself, given us his mobile phone number and we had negotiated a fee. He drove us around for most of our stay.
Jack comes from the Dei area in the Western Highlands. It is an area that Trevor and I were familiar with in the 1970s, me as a kiap-come-council advisor and Trevor as a teacher. When Jack gave us the name of his hamlet it was a one we both recognised.
He has a wife and young son who live there. His son is in elementary school. Jack communicates with both by mobile phone. He sends money to his family, including his elderly parents, on a regular basis. One day he hopes to return.
Jack drives a Toyota Camry, the vehicle of choice for Port Moresby’s taxi drivers. These come by ship from Japan as secondhand cars. Jack paid K20,000 each - straight off the boat - for his two cars.
They were only a couple of years old with low mileage. It is against the law in Japan to drive old cars, hence the lucrative trade in secondhand vehicles to countries like Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.
Jack has only got one taxi license. When we had done our deal for the week he whipped the taxi plates and roof sign off our car and swapped them with the plates from his other car. A wantok took off in the other car looking for passengers.
At this point we were effectively being chauffeured around Moresby in a private vehicle. The insurance implications were horrendous.
When we asked why he didn’t just swap cars, Jack said ours was newer and a better vehicle, he preferred driving it and it was more suitable for us. Who were we to argue?
Taxi drivers around the world are renowned for their conversation and opinions and it was no different with Jack.
He had a smattering of English but Tok Pisin was his preferred medium. And the major current topic in Moresby, as in Brisbane and other cities in Australia, is terrorism and Muslims.
Jack’s tirade began when we drove past the mosque in Hohola. Among his concerns were the increasing numbers of Muslim converts in Papua New Guinea. In Jack’s opinion the followers of Islam adhere to gamin lotu. We got the impression that religious tensions in this deeply Christian country are on the rise.
Next year PNG hosts the Pacific Games. A new sports facility is under construction at the Hubert Murray Stadium and a huge, circular conference centre is being built in Waigani. New roads and overpasses are also being built. The International Terminal at Jacksons is undergoing a facelift.
Jack reckons the Games will be an ideal time for the terrorists to strike.
There were huge billboards at most of the major intersections and roundabouts in Moresby carrying an image of Peter O’Neill and a short Independence Day message. The elaborate signs somehow reminded me of similar things in China and North Korea.
Jack was dismissive about the ability of the PNG government to protect its citizens from terrorism but was fully expecting an Abbott-like scaremongering campaign. It will be interesting to see if this happens.
I’ve still got Jack’s mobile number and I’ll be passing through Moresby later in the year. I might give him a ring to see how he’s going.