A Changing CapitalWelcome to Port Moresby, "Pom" for the intimate. The Papua Capital has a very bad reputation. According to the prestigious economic intelligence of the British magazine The Economist, Port Moresby would be the «least livable» city. A demographic explosion, a poverty rate of around 40%, a security situation among the worst in the world, the young capital of Papua New Guinea has many challenges to face to become the showcase of the country it aspires to be. That's how we could describe Port Moresby until very recently. Moreover, many people still hold this speech and there is a need for persuasion to change their minds. Yet the city, with nearly 500,000 souls in official estimates (more likely between 700,000 and 900,000), driven by many mining investments, is booming and reborn after two decades of abandonment and decline. Named by an English captain named John Moresby, who landed in the region in 1873, the site was chosen as a port because of its protected bay of storms and the beauty of its hills of Stanley Range in the background. However, the city does not take advantage of its frame, except for the chic neighborhoods on the hills overlooking the bay. Located in the Gulf of Papua, east of the south coast, facing Australia, Port Moresby seems to have dispersed its neighborhoods at random from the hills, without understanding the meaning of empty spaces left between each of them. The westerners settled on the hill closing the bay side east, which dominates the current port. Today pompously designated as the city center, this neighborhood is just a few narrow streets with a few administrations. On the other side of the hill, Ela Beach (Ela Beach) could be a dream place in the heart of the city; A walk along the beach makes it possible to take a breath of the good humor and carelessness of the Papous. People bathe and walk as if they did not see the big oil tankers at the bottom of the bay and the waste on the beach… Fortunately, the industrial and commercial port was transferred more to the west of the city, limiting the harmful effects of the pollution generated by these activities. However, many real estate development projects have emerged, transforming the city center gradually. At the end of Ela Beach is the village of Koki, built on pilings, where many ethnic groups come together. Despite its postcard aspect, the place is not for foreigners, unless it is introduced. But its market deserves a detour for the quality of its fish caught in the area, for its motu specialties and for its almost villageous atmosphere in the heart of the city. Gordon's market, however, rather frequented by the Highlanders, the inhabitants of the highlands, has a very bad reputation. It's hard to feel comfortable and nobody would think about taking tourists. Entering Hanuabada, the great motu village of Port Moresby, is once again changing people. Glued to the capital, the village remains independent, neither English nor Pisin tok, the motu. Here, there are only "central", such as the inhabitants of Port Moresby province, which are recognizable to their clear skin and their curved and uncrested hair. Two kilometers inland, Boroko's popular neighborhood is much more effervescent with its shops and the ceasing ballet of PMV, local buses. Its small local craft market makes it an interesting place for travelers. A little further north, Waigani would like to be a chic neighborhood, with stadium, embassies, administrations, Parliament with remarkable architecture and National Museum. But the avenue leads to vague terrain… Everywhere in the city there are storekeepers of betel, unit cigarettes, sunglasses, in anarchy assumed by all. Streets, sidewalks are red spillovers of betel and garbage dumps are flowing… but no great misery here, or very little, the solidarity from the "wantok system" still operating, even in town. Port Moresby's main problem remains its isolation. Capital of a country with unrivaled diversity, it is linked directly to a few villages of the Motu, these original inhabitants of the region, and to the sleeping city of Kerema… Between the capital and its country stands the great chain of central mountains! It is said that a road will never pass through this obstacle, but a motorway project linking Lae, the country's economic lung, in the capital would be under development by Chinese developers. But today, to join or leave Port Moresby, you must take the plane or, as the poorest do, walk several days through the mountains. Not really ideal for business. And yet the capital, like all the capitals of the world, attracts. Thousands of Papies from all over the country, but mostly mountains, win the city, often without real project, and settle in the slums that now surround it all. So the city is growing, the names of the districts showing that enlargement: 5 miles, 6 miles, 7 miles… Like all over the world, this rural exodus leads to a dramatic rise in violence. Port Moresby is the fifth most dangerous city in the world! Social differences, glaring sometimes, in a society used to egalitarianism, stir up anger, hence violence. Pickpockets, armed attacks, prosecutions and sexual assault are part of everyday life. However, Port Moresby has not stayed away from the huge investments made in the country in recent years. The constructions emerge from everywhere, finally filling the holes left by the strange urbanism of the beginning. Little by little, the nests are plugged, the parks maintained, jobs created. The real estate boom - prices literally soared, the rent of a modern apartment can reach EUR 1 500 a week! - do not frighten hotel investors, who everywhere are expanding, nor to developers who link chic lodges, shopping malls, to the point that one can wonder what has been really planned for the less advantaged… Let's say that many real estate, infrastructure and industrial projects, long the monopoly of Australian companies, are past Chinese capital. The economic and human presence of the Middle Kingdom is becoming increasingly apparent: Many shops are held by Chinese, Asian restaurants are multiplying and it is not uncommon to cross the road of hundreds of Chinese workers who come to work on the many shipyards in the city.Little by little, the city is reborn. From Thursday evening, despite the fear of going out at night, restaurants and boxes are full of a hungry holiday population, ready for everything to forget the isolation of its city. And the inhabitants of Port Moresby are looking back to their city…HistoryPort Moresby was originally populated by Motu, a seafarers' people with Polynesian origins. Less than 2,000 years ago, they would have assimilated the original Melanesian populations. The climate of the region being very dry and rare forests, the Motu practiced traditional exchanges with the Gulf people, several hundred kilometers west, bringing pottery to the west, which they exchanged for food, mainly the saga. These journeys lasted several months and were extremely dangerous. The village of Hanuabada already existed when Captain John Moresby landed there in 1873. Impressed by the local way of living, the captain wondered what civilization could bring to this people. This did not prevent him from immediately declaring the site possession of England in the name of the Queen and appointing him according to his father, Sir Moresby. And thus, the following year, civilization brought the «London Missionary Society» (the Society of Missionaries in London) and labor traffickers displaced by a large proportion of the population to use forced labor. Which was a response to Captain John Moresby's interrogations.In 1888, Port Moresby became the capital of New Guinea's New Territory. The city developed remarkably under English administration until 1906, when it passed under the authority of all young Australia. The first butcher opened it in 1909, the electricity was installed in 1925, but it had to wait until 1941 to see the running water arrive. Soon, the city was overwhelmed by Lae's activity on the north coast, more affected by the rush of the gold rush of the 1930 s. Then the Second World War changed. Port Moresby became the point of entry and cantonment of Australian and American troops who came back to the Japanese. The war ended, Port Moresby became the capital of the Papua and New Guinea territories, somewhat by default, other possible sites such as Rabaul or Lae, having been destroyed by the bombing. In September 1975, the city became the capital of the independent state of Papua New Guinea. New government buildings were built, such as the remarkable Parliament, opened in 1984. After this fanfare, things got complicated… Lack of maintenance or money to complete the work, buildings were abandoned before they had even served, like the «Pineaple Building» in Waigani, or the government offices, which had to be abandoned due to lack of maintenance. Meanwhile, the population had increased unchecked: of 120,000 inhabitants in 1980, we rose to 200,000 in 1990, reaching at least 400,000 in 2008… As the census of the population is almost impossible, the government has only a vague idea of the exact number of inhabitants living in Pom. According to several estimates, Port Moresby population could reach a million by 2025. Urbanization has not followed and today much of the population lives in slums on the outskirts of the city, without water or electricity. If the city has been named by The Economist, among the worst capitals in the world, making it bad neighbor with Damascus or Tripoli, it is because of insecurity (with a murder rate 23 times higher than London) that unemployment is estimated at between 60 and 90%. But things change: Today, the city is resuming its dynamism, a dynamism fueled by foreign investment and the renewed confidence of the World and Asian Banks, and inhabited by an emerging middle class eager to embark on the development train.

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