Monday, February 16, 2009

Port Moresby morgue bodies finally laid to rest

Those of you who have been following the Port Moresby morgue saga would be pleased to hear that the rotting corpses - which caused a big stink recently - were finally laid to rest at Nine-Mile Cemetery last Friday.

A total 75 corpses, including 26 babies, and various body parts (limbs) were mass buried.

I spent the day at the morgue and later at Nine-Mile with two Australian photographers and it was a very 'smelly' affair.

In traditional Papua New Guinea society, bodies of the dead are treated with respect, however, this seems not to have been the case.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous11:04 AM

    Malum.

    Good news is that these dead bodies have been removed from the morgue. But the sad news is that the ignorance of dead bodies by the relatives depicts moral break-down in PNG society. Does this mean that we are shifting into modern PNG? I don't think so because in developed countries like Japan and USA, they give tremendious respect to dead bodies.

    But the ignorance by relatives is the direct result of economic problem we face in PNG today. It is pretty expensive for relatives to treat the dead bodies, either fly them home of treat them at the funeral home.

    The dead body saga is one direct result of current economic problem. And other social problems are also the result of economic situation in PNG. So the government must look at empowering people to make their living by generating PNG economy. This is the only solution for PNG today and in the longer run.

    Mathew Yakai
    China

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