Overview:
Palau’s future will depend not only on its natural resources or economic opportunities, but on the values and habits taught to its young people today. This commentary calls for greater emphasis on ethics, integrity, responsibility, respect for the law, hard work, saving, productivity and punctuality — arguing that resilience and discipline must become part of how Palau prepares its next generation.
Let me share with you what history is teaching us: the difference between nations that prosper and those that struggle is not age, race, or natural resources. It is attitude.
Nations that rise teach their children ethics, integrity, responsibility, respect for law, love for work, saving and investing, productivity, and punctuality. These are the secrets of developing nations, and they are lessons we must begin to teach here in Palau.
But here is our obstacle: we are too comfortable. We do not want to struggle. We do not want to learn new things. Comfort has made us slow to change in the excuse of “Palauan Time” or this is just Palau. Yet if we remain this way, our children will inherit complacency instead of resilience. Proverbs 22:6 tells us: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” If we train our youth in these principles now, they will carry them into adulthood, shaping the future of our islands.
Imagine a Palau where children grow up practicing punctuality, respecting laws, saving before spending, and working with pride. Imagine communities where integrity is the norm, and productivity is celebrated. These habits will not only strengthen families and villages but will prepare our nation to stand firm in a globalized world.
We cannot say, “Let it be,” when we see something wrong. We cannot raise children who expect comfort without effort. We must teach them to see problems as lessons, to value responsibility before reward, and to understand that true success comes from discipline and service. Failure must be seen as payment for success, not as shame. Work must be seen as love, not as burden.
The Palau Constitution calls us to this vision: “We venture into the future with full reliance on our own efforts and the divine guidance of Almighty God.” Our own efforts must be disciplined, ethical, and productive. Divine guidance will bless us, but we must also act with courage and responsibility.
So let us begin with our children. Let us teach them the secrets of developing nations:
1. Ethics, as basic principles.
2. Integrity.
3. Responsibility.
4. Respect for Laws and Regulations.
5. The respect from majority of citizens by right.
6. The love for work.
7. The effort to save and invest.
8. The will to be productive.
9. Punctuality.
Not as foreign lessons, but as timeless truths. If each one of us commits to training our youth in these ways, Palau will rise as a nation of builders, guided by the Almighty, and prepared for the future.
By Tutii Chilton