The sun beats down on the shirtless teenager at the roadblock. He pockets his mobile phone, wipes sweat from near his mouth, hoists his rifle and saunters towards my car. It’s June 2012 and I am in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, on a dirt road leaving the gas field township of Tari. It’s national election time. This kid -- no older than 17 - peers into my tinted car window for the briefest of seconds, assessing me and my two colleagues with his rifle still in hand. We hold our breaths.