Debt and Deficit

Breaking down the barriers to public understanding and participation in national affairs

Well here I am, not an economist, but I'm trying to water down, not the myths and misconceptions about economical terms and practices, but rather, the barriers that prevent ordinary people from exercising their right to question decisions that affect our lives, especially, the socio-economic and political practices that involve the public from time to time in moments of great distress.

The Widget shows a real time counter showing how much National Debt the US is accumulating by the second, calculated on what it is buying and selling.

Learn more about 

us debt.

Definitions of Debt and Deficit:

National Debt: the accumulated borrowing by a national state, calculated on the difference between what the country has spent so far and still spending and what it has earned and still earning in the time of its existence as a country.

Annual National Deficit: is the money a country does not have to fund programmes according to it's budgetary plan for a fiscal year. It is the shortfall, a deficit, in the budget. This is the money the country may seek to borrow. Deficit can be reduced by reprioritising budgetary items, or a country can choose to borrow so that all the items in the budget are funded. Borrowing money to cover the deficit means a country increases its national debt. 

I have chosen to try to achieve public clarity regarding economic considerations by focussing on "debt" and "deficit", because these are the two terms that are current in the political stand-off in the USA, between Barack Obama on one side, who has in recent months allowed the democrats to drift too far right of left to be able to muster a mass left social movement against predatory capitalism.

On the other side we have the Republicans who are stuck at a critical moment where their right wing policies, that largely support big business in a predatory capitalist system, are becoming more and more difficult to sell to a public that is beginning to see that this grave economic system simply cannot be blamed on Obama, the Puerto Ricans or any other immigrant, religion or anybody else who is against us if they are not with us.

The stand-off in America about debt and deficit is a political power play. It has very little to do with what the country needs to do in order to earn revenue that actually repays its debt and allows the American people the ability to regain ownership of their own country.

This is a home grown problem for America. Because its history and brand of capitalism is deeply rooted in predatory capitalism and the way that thinks and acts. So in spite of the abolition of slavery, America philosophically did not progress very far from exploitative capitalism. Predatory capitalism instead sought immediately to embed itself within the systems of American law by seeking to and succeeding in making government legislate the kind of laws that gave the corporations the same rights as singular individual citizens. Over the years of the life of America, corporate interest sought to reduce the powers of government regulation on its rights and activities. In short, the corporation had become a super individual who was not only above the law but above government as well as we now see when the Republicans and the Democrats are both trying to prove which one of them most pleases the billion dollar corporations that hold America in the palm of their hands.

A Description and Definition of Capitalism

The first pillar of capitalism, is contained within the primary concept of capital itself. It is not restricted to material culture but in all the physical and abstract materials which are recognised and valued individually, collectively and universally. They are included;

• In the goods and services that comprise wealth of a nature which can be consumed by humans or;

• In goods, services and objects that make humans believe that they may be immortal, - like fences, houses, precious stones, perfumes, wedding rings and other jewelry, thrones, subjects, pets and other dependents, slaves, servants, labourers, multiple lovers, experiences, discoveries, monuments, titles, claims to fame, performance records etc.  

The second pillar of capitalism, is concerned with the politics of the acquisition and ownership of the first pillar of capitalism itself. This includes all the things, actions and systems humans and corporations employ in order to acquire and own capital itself.

The struggle between predatory capitalism and a social welfare mindful capitalism is a difference in recognition and agreements about the rules and conditions of engagement. It is a battle between the private interest and public heritage. About the limit to the powers of capitalism in terms of what corporate companies cannot seek to own in the public domain. It is a struggle of communities and nations of people to uphold their collective survival principles, and their right to enjoy the earth without having to pay.

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NOTE: I was looking for publicly available figures showing the PNG national debt and deficit but cannot find any figures online.

Rural Electrification - Where do we need it?

Twenty two years ago, in 1989, I became tasked with the responsibility of being Director of Photography on the film "Tinpis Run", Papua New Guinea's first road movie.

"Papa" Leo Konga always checking me out...

The making of a road movie, in Papua New Guinea very quickly, confronted me with an immense logistical problem, of lighting such a movie in which the film actors would be moving through hundreds of kilometers of Papua New Guinean roads, and where they would live and interact together with rural people in Papua New Guinea, much of which had no electricity.

In Madang - Sugar Village.

Making a small budget movie made me rule out the use of electrical generators, for a myriad of reasons, including sound recording considerations and the fact that I wanted the technical crew to move very fast through the hundreds of kilometers where we had to travel with a permanent cast and crew of 30 people over 9 weeks of filming.


I wanted the "Tinpis Run" cast and crew to work together with our villagers, not become "technical invaders".


How could I make this happen? How could I help the Director I was serving, Pengau Nengo, to place his actors together with the extras of thousands, in markets and other public places and still never bother him with my lighting troubles?


I turned to the sun as the main source of my lighting and used other portable energy sources of electricity to light the "Tinpis Run".


This post is about one idea that I missed in the time I was designing the lighting for the film together with my mentor: Gilberto Azevedo, a cinematographer from Brazil. 


It was when I presented my logistical problems to Gilberto that he said: "You've got the sun. Use it".


It is about providing lighting in dark homes in rural PNG using the sun in creative ways and there are many solutions that aspiring inventors can come up with.


It was with great pleasure to come across this new lighting invention that is featured in this post.


Across America, there are many great inventors solving the problems of energy for lighting and production. 


But living in a world dominated by the human dependence on fossil fuel energy, these inventors are largely not recognised in America itself, but as they share their generosity with the world  through the internet, affordable and free energy becomes available to the poor. In this case, the idea became popular in Brazil and now also in the Philippines.


Please spread the idea and let our people have lighting for their homes that they can afford.



In the region, this technology is already spreading in Manila as this YouTube video shows.


Another Version:



In this blog post, I touched on filmmakiing just to extend the use of the lighting idea for filming in dark houses. Sunlight is really beautiful for filmmaking - the best light in fact, when harnessed properly in various arrangements. Try building your own studios in the rural villages using this kind of lighting. You'll see the difference immediately.


Water bottle lights came to my attention when it was shared on a mailing list by Dr. Roderick Ewins who is a material culture researcher, mainly focused on Fijian material culture. He posted that:

"This is an interesting concept that would work well in Pacific villages - as the second URL shows, it is already in use, apparently fairly widely, in the Philippines."


There are also many designs using reflected sunlight, already in use in modern architecture. Below is an example of such innovations in using natural lighting inside offices and homes.




Installation demonstration of a solar tube:





The above technology works like a periscope so if you can't afford this technology and the special materials they use, you can build it yourself, maybe using cheap mirrors, that you can position inside plastic tubes or down pipes.

The Anti-Corruption Movement in Melanesia - Introduction

The anti corruption movement has been around since the late 80s and today it is part of a big network of a grassroots movement that extends all across Melanesia.

Two main interruptions to that movement included the Bougainville crisis and the Australian RAMSI occupation of the Solomon Islands.

In the beginning it was civil society and the churches alone, although there were many very qualified people from government who were resigning from their government jobs to be involved in actions that reached the people at the village level.

Video: NGO workers and their community leaders 

travelling on the Aramia River, Western Province 2002

This movement saw in the  late 80s, the creation of the first ever national volunteer service in a third world country - that was the "National Volunteer Service of Papua New Guinea" - an NGO and civil society organisation that was placing NGO technical, social, health and literacy workers etc. all over Papua New Guinea especially in the rural areas.

The National Volunteer Service was probably the best aid organisation in PNG, because it was local and it's philosophy is still:

• Community self determination and organisation, 

• Individual and Community Empowerment. 

That means that the projects it was involved in were community funded and managed through the effort, energy and drive of the target community itself.

Along the way, some crooked politicians have used the movement to launch their political careers and the civil society has seen and experienced that. So they have mainly been disabused of any previous hope and trust they had in upcoming promising politicians. Now all they concentrate on is the war against corruption and  looking beyond the pretense of the rule of law to see the underlying injustices.

The creation of the world wide web in 1991 certainly helped the movement through the use of emails and when facebook started, that whole movement also migrated to the new platform. On facebook there are several groups and pages that carry the determination of Melanesians to regain the independence they lost through the corporate take over of their governments. 

The main advantage of moving to this platform is that it provides greater networking capacity and it is a great rally platform for the masses of voices that were once denied representation on the public forum of the Newspapers and the "National Televisions". Facebook is a space that many governments are trying to control for various reasons. But so far the civil society movements of Melanesia have taken to the internet like fish to water.

Tick Tock Ticking

Old writings from my hard drives, I was trying to imagine a scene for a film. There was a clock in the corner ticking away the timing of a robbery operation taking place down in Waigani. But as it happens the story was being told by the clock and would end not with the heist itself but with the clock becoming the observer, witness and the actual narrator of the story... because it keeps drawing people back to the scene of the crime while counting down to a day of reckoning and finally becoming the stress factor that brings about the conclusion...

Tick Tock Ticking:

It may sound very funny
but one day you'll be running
and you will turn to see
that once you were a story
this Tik Tok really ticks

You try to be convincing
when stood before the judges
articulate your version
your lawyers have a flair
but time will make you stop

The rules are always bent
and justice serves the rich
money frees corruption
the law is bought and sold
and poorest do the time

Our house is in a mess
rains fall through the thatch
the cats have grown too fat
so rats are hard to catch
we try to last the season

So overcome with fear
we fail to see and reason
so hopeful for reward
we stand for this injustice
our minds can hear the silence

They cruise our nation calmly
in steaming hot Waigani
their cars have air condition
and windows bullet proofed
they fear no ammunition

If you have so much power
why then must countless suffer?
we don't want all your money
you've promised that to others
Why don't you spare the lies?

You print your propaganda
to tell us of your worth
but think about your powers
how money gives them colour
yet time will bleach you bare

Once in that position
you start to scheme you scum
that chair is not your own
the people put you there
and they can throw you out

Tik Tok Ticking
your fear will fake some rhythm
you'll die without a drama
no twenty one gun salute
you failed to live with us

Martin Maden 1995


Goroka, the 16th of March 1995