Boralani and the Question of Jobs: Why We Don’t Have PNG’s Crisis — And Why We Still Pay Attention
News traveled across the water this week: Papua New Guinea is facing what its leaders are openly calling a jobs crisis, and there is renewed discussion about agriculture as a solution — not as nostalgia, but as necessity.
In the report, PNG’s numbers are blunt. A country with roughly ten million people, yet fewer than one million in formal employment, needing tens of thousands of new jobs each year simply to keep pace with the population. The Prime Minister has spoken of shifting recruitment online, even using artificial intelligence, but the larger message is simpler: a great many citizens want work, and the formal economy cannot absorb them. Meanwhile, agriculture is being pointed to as the only sector large enough — and honest enough — to handle the scale of the problem.
It is a serious situation, and it deserves more than slogans.
On Boralani we read these reports with a familiar kind of attention — the attention of islanders who know that big countries can struggle in ways that small places sometimes avoid, and that small places can struggle in ways big countries don’t always notice.
So how does Boralani compare?
The answer is: we do not have PNG’s jobs crisis.
But we do not have a perfect job market either.
We simply have a different kind of problem.
PNG is looking for jobs. Boralani is looking for people.
If you live in a big country, the question is often: “How do we create jobs fast enough?”
In PNG, that is the basic arithmetic of the nation. Millions of people need opportunities to earn money, raise families, gain dignity, and step into adulthood with prospects.
On Boralani the question is more often: “Who is left to do the work that must be done?”
We are only a few thousand at most. Our labor market is not shaped by overflow, but by scarcity.
When a young man leaves the island and does not return, it is not an abstraction. It is:
- one less carpenter
- one less nurse
- one less boat mechanic
- one less person who can teach the next one
A small population makes many things easier. But it makes one thing harder: you cannot afford to lose skills.
“Formal jobs” are not the whole economy here
One of the quiet truths in PNG — and in many Pacific nations — is that the “job market” described in reports often means the formal wage economy.
But island life, whether in PNG or elsewhere, contains a much wider economic reality:
- gardens
- fishing
- bartering
- informal services
- building and repair
- shared labor
PNG has that too, of course, and it matters immensely. But there is a difference.
In PNG, informal and subsistence livelihoods often exist because the formal economy is too small and too distant. It is survival by necessity.
On Boralani, it is also a deliberate design.
We have never tried to become a nation where every adult must earn a cash wage just to remain alive. We never wanted that trap. We have seen what it does to people: it makes them dependent on systems they cannot control.
So yes, Boralani has paid jobs:
- government service
- health care
- school staff
- port and airstrip services
- policing and administration
- small hospitality
- trades and maintenance
But the deeper truth is this: Many Boralanis are not “unemployed.” They are simply not salaried.
There is a difference.
PNG is pivoting away from extractives. Boralani never stepped into them.
The article makes a sharp point: mining and gas projects create revenue, but they do not create enough jobs for a young population. They are too specialized, too capital-intensive, too foreign-owned in their skills pipeline.
This is the tragedy of extractive economics. It is very good at producing:
- a small number of wealthy winners
- a thin layer of professional employment
- a lot of political drama
It is not good at producing broad-based livelihoods.
Boralani does not say this with superiority. We say it with relief.
We have never built our future on a promise that the earth will “save” us if only we dig deeper.
We kept our scale small. We kept our expectations realistic. We chose to remain a place where agriculture and fishing remain normal, respected, and economically meaningful.
That choice has costs — but it also has consequences we are grateful for.
On PNG, agriculture is the solution to employment. On Boralani, it is the solution to stability.
What PNG is trying to do — and what the report suggests — is build agriculture as a mass employment engine, tied to:
- processing
- value-added products
- export chains
- farm productivity
- rural incomes
It is a development strategy in the classic sense, and it is not foolish. In fact, it may be the only realistic option at scale.
But on Boralani we don’t speak of agriculture in that way.
We speak of it more quietly.
For us, agriculture is:
- food security
- price control
- storm resilience
- social cohesion
- independence from shipping schedules
- a way to keep elders respected and youth grounded
If PNG is asking, “How do we employ millions?”
Boralani is asking, “How do we make sure nobody is cornered by cash need?”
These are different questions. Both are serious.
Technology can modernize hiring — but it can’t replace opportunity
One part of the report mentions PNG moving toward online applications and even AI in recruitment.
Technically, this may be modern.
Politically, it is risky.
Because you cannot digitize your way out of structural shortages. You can make recruitment smoother, yes — but if people lack internet access, stable education, or connectivity, then “online-only” becomes another gate.
On Boralani, we don’t have that problem at national scale — mostly because we are too small to pretend hiring is anonymous. We know one another.
That has benefits:
- human judgment
- local accountability
- community knowledge
It also has dangers:
- favoritism
- quiet bias
- “who you know” habits
So if Boralani ever adopts digital systems, they must not be used to hide decision-making. They must be used to document it.
Our job market is not a crisis — but it is not effortless
There is a temptation on small islands to say: “We have no unemployment.”
But that is often a rhetorical trick.
The real issue is whether young people can build meaningful lives here without being forced out, and whether elders can age with dignity without the whole system depending on a handful of tired public servants.
Our problems are not those of PNG — but they are real:
- shortage of skilled trades
- fragile private sector
- limited “career ladders”
- high cost of imported goods
- youth leaving and returning late, or not at all
In a small place, the job market does not collapse dramatically. It erodes quietly.
What Boralani learns from PNG
We do not read about PNG to congratulate ourselves. We read it to stay wise.
The lesson is not “agriculture is good.” Islanders have known that forever.
The lesson is: A nation must not confuse revenue with livelihoods.
If a country builds an economy that produces money but does not produce employment, it will eventually produce instability.
If a country builds an economy where citizens can feed themselves, repair things, share labor, and earn some cash without desperation — it can withstand far more than outsiders expect.
That is not romanticism. That is resilience.
And it is why, on Boralani, we still plant gardens — even in the age of satellite internet and imported rice.
Because a garden is not merely food.
A garden is freedom, growing quietly in the soil.
Read more here: Boralani Policy on Employment
