THE BIRTH OF YACA
Youth against Corruption Association
Fr. John M. Glynn OL
The Birth of YACA – 1
Founder and Patron of YACA
By John M. Glynn AFSC
jonmglyn@gmail.com
Throughout almost forty years living in the New Guinea Islands of New Ireland and Manus, I had experiences that inspired, motivated, and empowered me. In the sixties and seventies I was a teacher, initially a Primary teacher and then a High School teacher. I learned about village life, about what it is like to be a child and a young person growing up, and what it meant to be an adult caring for a family in traditional society in the islands. I was impressed.
711 806 91 As I began to settle into the life of the city I became deeply concerned by the complacency of people generally, and of my students in particular, in the face of the abuse, violence, corruption and dishonesty that seemed to impinge on the lives of everybody in the city. Like fish in a polluted river they were tolerating the poisonous environment in which they lived, with complete acceptance of it, as natural. ‘This is Papua New Guinea. This is how it is. This is who we are’.
In the eighties and nineties, I was a priest in the Diocese of Kavieng and served in New Ireland, on Manus, and in the remote atolls of Ninigo. Even more than as a teacher, I found myself immersed in the lives of Papua New Guineans in their ancient natural environment. I was inevitably drawn into the lives and experiences of the people I served over all these years. The acceptance I experienced from everyone was open hearted, genuine and unreserved.
Many of our young people have a very negative self-image, and have a very poor sense of national identity. Could a Malala Yusafzai or a Greta Thunberg emerge as a spokesperson for PNG youth, and if one did, would he/she get any support? As a teacher I felt I had to respond. I challenged my students by asking them to examine their negative attitudes that caused them to undervalue themselves, accept as natural the abuse they suffered, and tolerate the denial of authenticity forced on them by dysfunctional society. I initiated the YACA Pledge. The Pledge has now morphed into the YACA Affirmation, which is designed to instil a strong sense of personal identity as one who is committed to Honesty, Integrity and Good Citizenship.
The few trips I was able to make back to Ireland for short holidays only served to convince me that, while I greatly enjoyed these visits, (and still do), Papua New Guinea was where I truly belonged. And so in 1987 I became a naturalised citizen. On retiring from active ministry I came to Port Moresby in 2001, and began teaching again, first at Port Moresby Grammar School, and then at Jubilee Catholic Secondary School where I still am.
MAMBU MAGAZINE
17
2020 ISSUE 2
