B & B

Ask a Papua New Guinean why his country has remained poor and you will get varied answers. However, three common answers pop up each time the question is asked, the first one being the rampant corruption in the government, second the country’s addiction to buai (betel nut), and third, beer. Corruption needs no explanation; it’s all over the world, but buai and beer? How can alcohol and some local palm fruit influence a country’s economy?

Alcohol apparently was not in the nation’s vocabulary until a local brewery was set up a few decades ago. Of course the expatriates had access to imported beer and other alcoholic drinks for the longest time but the locals up in the highlands and islands did not have much access. Unlike in other countries, there are no local brews in PNG. People have not been aware that one can make wine out of almost any fruit, palm or grain that was growing in the backyard. Filipinos have been drinking ‘tuba’ from coconut fronds for ages while Japanese ‘sake’ from rice is as old as time itself. So when the brewery was put up, all hell broke loose. And thus the country’s fascination for beer began. The problem with beer, however, is that it has a rather low alcohol content (SP beer has 4.9%) compared to wine for example (20% alcohol?) or the deadly vodka (40%) so strong I can imagine how it would sear my lungs. For a seasoned tomador, a bottle won’t be enough to kick and make ones spirits soar (though in my case I’m already spent by the time I finish a bottle). For a lowly worker who earns 120 Kina (40 USD or PhP 1,800) every fortnight (every 15 days), and who goes drinking ‘til he drops every pay day consuming around 10 bottles of beer which sells at 2-3 Kina per bottle, there is hardly anything left for the family for the next 15 days! No wonder almost every housewife would frown upon the sight of the ubiquitous SP beer outlets found in every nook and cranny of the city and the suburbs.

Have Buai will get high. Chewing buai is another national pastime and addiction. Buai is actually the fruit of the betel palm, which more or less resembles a thin coconut palm tree. The concoction is actually a combination of three ingredients: the nut of the betel palm (Areca catechu), part of the Piper betel vine and lime (sorry I can’t do away with the scientific names!). The reaction of the three ingredients plus the saliva in the process of chewing creates a red poultice that stains the teeth, forever. Buai is actually a stimulant and will actually give the chewer a sense of euphoria, it should keep you smiling the whole day. It also stimulates the salivary glands which makes the chewer drool (ugh!). No wonder most establishments have “no kaikai buai” (no chewing of buai allowed here) signs plastered all over! A single buai costs 1 or 2 Kina (PhP 15/piece) and is consumed by both women and men, even by young children!!

Chewing buai has social, health and economic implications. While it is a source of income for many, it has somehow encouraged people to become lazy. Rearing betel palm hardly needs any farm inputs since they grow almost anywhere. So if you happen to own a few trees you can simply climb the tree in the morning (while praying that the stem doesn’t snap since the pseudo stem is just about the diameter of an arm), harvest a few fruits, secure a corner at the local market, lay the nuts on top of a mat, sit there the whole day while high on buai and presto! You’ll have 20 Kina by the end of the day to buy more SP beer. The next morning you do the whole thing all over again. Life is good! Meanwhile the rest of the population is dying of mouth cancer.

Lately, a significant number of betel palms have started dying of a mysterious disease causing a steady decline in yield and therefore supply of buai. Scientists think it’s a fungal or viral disease, some people believe it’s an act of God.