Keith Jackson & Friends: PNG ATTITUDE

Addressing women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS in PNG

SR MANASSEH KELLY

Extract from ‘Women’s Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS: The Papua New Guinea Situation’, a master’s degree thesis for Flinders University by Sr Manasseh Ola Kelly. You can read the full paper here:  Download 'Women’s Vulnerability to HIV AIDS in PNG' by Manasseh Kelly

FROM my experience as a nursing sister for 16 years in Papua New Guinea, I have observed and witnessed that poverty is a fact for most young girls and they engage in sex so that they can put food on the table.

I asked one of the sex workers why she was involved in the sex trades in spite of high increase in HIV/AIDS in PNG in 2008. Her answer was (“are you willing to put money into my pocket and willing to meet my daily needs”).

Making Port Moresby public transport safe for women & girls

UN Women

FOR women, getting on a bus in Port Moresby meant an almost guaranteed experience of violence or harassment.

A scoping study conducted by UN Women in 2014 found that more than 90% of women and girls experienced some form of violence when accessing public transport - on buses, at bus stops, walking to and from stops, or in taxis.

This included verbal sexual remarks, inappropriate touching, and indecent exposure in terms of sexual violence, and also extortion, robbery, threats or intimidation.

Rich nations play hard ball on impacts of climate change

ROKOTAMANA VITINAQAILEVU in Marrakech

THOSE countries most vulnerable to climate change, such as those in the Pacific islands, will not be able to reverse the terrible impacts nor recoup the loss experienced.

That’s why the Warsaw international mechanism for loss and damage associated with climate change impacts (WIM) was mooted in 2013.

This year, at the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP 22) in Marrakech, Morocco, it is clear that more evidence and research is still required on the loss and damage faced by many countries as a result of climate change impacts.

But, in a pre-emptive move, the developed countries once again downplayed the scientific evidence to stall the negotiation process.

Pacific states say world must accelerate climate change support

ROKOTAMANA VITINAQAILEVU | In Morocco at the climate change conference

DEVELOPED countries have committed $100 billion a year to build resilience, adaptation and capacity in developing countries to combat climate change.

This further increase by 2020 was agreed during the COP 21 climate talks in Paris in 2015 and was followed up with the presentation of a ‘roadmap’ last month as another clear signal of commitment to climate action support for developing countries.

It is welcome news to smaller developing countries whose opportunities to achieve development objectives have been compromised through the unsustainable activities of developed countries.

Nothing to fear but fear itself? Try telling that to PNG women

PHIL FITZPATRICK

I’M AN old white male who lives in a stable and prosperous country and I’m afraid of nothing.

That is, I have no special fears that keep me awake at night.

There are things that bother me. The aches and pains of getting old, the future of my grandchildren, the increasing cost of living, that sort of thing.

But nothing that creates any sense of panic or great foreboding.

I know my ancestors lived with real fears, perhaps even my parents did, but I seem to have lobbed into a blessed fear-free time zone.

Chinese doctors put lives on line to help PNG health crisis

ZHANG XIAOJUN & MATT BURGESS | Xinhua

IT IS early May and 48-year-old Chinese doctor Zhang Jinsong can barely walk, leaning against the stair railing of his Papua New Guinean apartment. He is battling a high fever, body aches and swollen eyes.

But those ills are not stopping him from treating the local patients.

"We will risk our lives to help them," Zhang said.

Zhang is the leader of the latest two-year rotation of China's medical team providing assistance to Papua New Guinea's health system forged under a bilateral agreement signed in 2002.

The new generation of sons: May they be strong & good

MARLENE DEE GRAY POTOURA

I READ the article by Phil Fitzpatrick in PNG Attitude on how the wonderful hard working and industrious women in Papua New Guinea are mistreated but may one day be in power.

Phil sounded like he lives on my street at 4 Mile in Lae and sees the struggles of the women who sit on the roadside selling their wares while their lazy, bossy husbands dropping by bludging money off them to drown themselves in homebrew and rolled joints.

The result? They make fools of themselves on the roadside. Grotesque froth covered faces, uttering squawks and gibberish, running like fools on the road, swearing like stupids and cussing the mothers who are struggling to sell their wares to put food on the evening plates.

Jimmy Drekore honoured with 'Nobel Prize for children'

FRANCIS NII

JIMMY DREKORE, founder of Simbu Children Foundation, has been awarded what has been termed the 'Nobel Prize for Child Advocates'.

The World of Children Award is the highest recognition for people who contributed exceptionally to the betterment of children and Papua New Guinea is the first country in the Pacific to receive this global accolade.

Jimmy Drekore is well known to PNG Attitude readers as an entrepreneur, philanthropist and an established poet.

As well as his vital work with the Simbu Children Foundation, he is PNG’s Digicel Man of Honour and President of Simbu Writers Association.

He comes from the rugged mountains of Giu-Emmai in the Sinasina Yongomugl District of Simbu Province and this internationally honour reflects his commitment to improving the lives of sick, orphaned and otherwise disadvantaged children in Simbu over the last 12 years.

Revisiting the home of the world’s first climate refugees

JOHNNY BLADES

IT TOOK over two years to track her down. When she finally replied to my email, Raroteone Tefuarani was more than happy to take a call and chat about her home in the Takuu atoll group, also known as Mortlock Islands.

I assumed it had taken this long because of Takuu's remoteness - the atoll chain is 240 kilometres north-east of Bougainville Island, a far flung outlier within Papua New Guinea.

In fact, Ms Tefuarani was now based in PNG's capital Port Moresby. Like most natives of Takuu - or Mortlock Islanders as they are called - she has left to live somewhere else.

"There are no young people on the island now," she told me. "Only the old people are back home."

Paul Pavol, forest defender, wins US environmental award

SEBASTIEN MALO | Thomson Reuters Foundation

A VEHICLE parts salesman from Papua New Guinea who became an anti-logging campaigner won a United States environmental award on Thursday which he hopes will raise awareness about his country's environmental policies.

Paul Pavol was awarded the fifth annual Alexander Soros Foundation Award for Environmental and Human Rights Activism for his work in the South Pacific nation north of Australia that is home to the world's third largest tropical rainforest.

New measures to control betel nut consumption in Port Moresby

PNG Today

THE National Capital District Commission is continuing its efforts to maintain a clean city by introducing new measures to regulate the movement of betel nut into the city.

NCDC has approved six new markets in the city to be used for trading betel nut: Waikele, Six Mile, 9 Mile, Koki and Epen’s in Gerehu will be the only locations recognised by the commission.

“Just like alcohol, which is prone to abuse in PNG, betel nut is also abused by irresponsible people who chew and spit wherever they want to,” said Governor Powes Parkop.

National disgrace as violence against women soars

PETER S KINJAP

PAPUA New Guinea's Port Moresby General Hospital has recently experienced an increase in admissions due to domestic violence.

The Family Support Centre within the hospital has been conducting medical examinations since 2014 and has found that there’s an increase of cases relating to domestic violence against women and children.

Local online news outlet, PNG Loop, reports that the centre treats over 1,000 victims a year, with about 30-40 patients a month.

Kundiawa Hospital celebrates its achievements

FRANCIS NII

THE MOSTLY quiet corner of Kundiawa town that is home to the Sir Joseph Nombri Memorial Hospital last week came alive with the beating of kundus, singing and dancing as over 3,000 people celebrated its second open day.

The event marked the hospital’s proud track record of community service and development in both its clinical and non-clinical areas under the management of CEO Mathew Kaluvia (in suit).

The activities took place in the outpatient area in which each unit of the hospital had its own stall where staff conducted displays and exhibitions.

The crowd was eager and amazed at some of the displays, especially weird looking surgical tools they had never imagined before. ‘This is just amazing,” said Jane, a guardian from Jiwaka Province.

For embattled Fiji, climate change devastation has already arrived

ROKOTAMANA VITINAQAILEVU

FIJI is a developing country with a population of less than a million, of which 90% are traditional rural villagers who live close to the coast.

Tourism is the main foreign exchange earner followed by remittances coming back from Fijians overseas.

One-third of Fiji’s 332 islands are inhabited and geographical isolation is an important influence on the country’s economic development potential.

According to the fifth assessment report of the International Panel on Climate Change, natural disasters in Fiji are increasing in frequency and intensity.

There's the door: Fossil fuel giants mustn't influence climate talks

ROKOTAMANA VITINAQAILEVU

FOR decades the issues of climate change was shrugged off as nothing more than a natural phenomenon. It took a long time to get the world to pay attention.

Not until we began to witness the irreversible loss and damage in our backyard did we start to wonder if there was more to it.

Now we observe nature reacting often harshly to unsustainable development and the impact of greenhouse gas emissions. But, from corporate giants in the fossil fuel industry, we still hear the propaganda that this is a myth.

When you consider what the planet is facing, it seems unthinkable that effective action at industry and corporate level has been underplayed for decades. Inaction shrouded in lies of unfathomable magnitude.

The story of the huge red ribbon of North Waigani

ALEXANDER NARA

THE LAST red yellow rays of the sun dip behind the hills of Ensisi Valley and cut through the leaves of the fig tree crouching over a long green rectangular structure.

This is the building that houses the Papua New Guinean Anglicare headquarters along Koura Way in Port Moresby,

Flowers line up neatly on the footpath and young palm branches stoop low to the ground, creating an exquisite home for diverse insects that buzz around in assorted voices.

Wild flowers speckle the base of a few young Acacia and Melaleuca trees that in the heat of the day, cast a dense wide shade over what looks like a nature garden.

People want answers on closure of health services

PETER KINJAP

OPPOSITION leader Don Polye says people want answers from prime minister Peter O’Neill as to why Catholic Church-run health facilities around Papua New Guinea have been forced to close their doors.

Polye said this after the church attributed the closure of facilities due to a shortage of funds.

“The prime minister has been boasting about the free-health care policy and its adequate funding,” Polye said.

“A few weeks ago the health minister staged a publicity stunt and said funds for church-run hospitals have been restored.

National health crisis is looming says Governor Juffa

FREDDY MOU | Loop PNG

A NATIONWIDE health crisis is imminent in Papua New Guinea’s districts and provinces, especially in the church-run health services, says Oro Governor Garry Juffa.

Gov Juffa said the government had promised to maintain these services, but they have not been funded.

He added that nurses planned to go on strike because they have not been paid on time.

Juffa told Loop PNG that he had met with the Anglican Health Services in Oro Province and was told that they have not received any budget allocations since July.

Alarming rates of child abuse & violence in PNG: report

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Seventy percent of children in Papua New Guinea suffer physical abuse and 50% face family violence, a new report has found.

The study by Save the Children, UNICEF and Doctors without Borders found children in PNG face high levels of abuse, neglect and exploitation.

Save the Children's country director for PNG, Jennifer El-Sibai, said the findings were "very concerning".

"The research suggests that sexual violence against children primarily happens within the home, which is very concerning — or at least within the extended family unit," she said.

Keep it below 1.5 – impacts of climate change on the Pacific

ROKOTAMANA VITINAQAILEVU

THE CALLS by Pacific small island developing states to curb emissions and reduce climate change impact are gradually being heard post the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The reality is that some of these islands are headed for total annihilation.

A 2014 United Nations report has locked in a 1.3 meter sea level rise over the next 2,000 years, even if we reduce emissions tomorrow.

This was a conservative estimate and other projections suggest that it may already be too late for some populations.

PNG people with disabilities are discriminated against: Polye

PETER S KINJAP

PAPUA New Guinea opposition leader Don Polye has slammed National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop for denying people living with disabilities rights to access facilities in Port Moresby.

A concerned Polye came out hard on the governor following the construction of three overhead bridges in the city without wheelchair ramps.

“Our fellow citizens with disabilities cannot access them,” he said.

“The governor always claims to be a human rights lawyer but he has failed to capture provisions in the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.”

The opposition leader said PNG is a party to the Convention and that it should honour this be eliminating barriers to people accessing facilities and amenities.

It's time we talked seriously about PNG's toilets...

LYNNE SHORI

THINK of it - 2.5 billion people, or 36% of the global population, lack access to toilets.

And according to the United Nations, the comparable figure for Papua New Guinea in 2015 was an incredible 81%.

It’s a big deal.

Poor sanitation increases water borne disease which the World Health Organisation has identified as a key driver of PNGs consistently poor health outcomes.

Rio Tinto's billion-dollar mess: 'unprincipled, shameful and evil'

DANIEL FLITTON | Fairfax Media | Extracts

Read the complete article here

THE gaping hole carved into mountains was at one point the world's largest open-cut copper mine.

Right on Australia's doorstep, it delivered riches beyond imagining and a mess big enough to tear a country apart.

This controversial pit became the flashpoint for a bitter civil war in Papua New Guinea in the 1990s that cost as many as 20,000 lives.

Big program looms for PNG writers on major Australian tour

KEITH JACKSON

THE first ever appearance by a group of Papua New Guinean writers at the Brisbane Writers Festival in September has just been upgraded to a prime lunchtime slot.

Francis Nii, Martyn Namorong, Rashmii Bell and Daniel Kumbon will participate in the one-hour panel discussion that organisers have entitled, ‘PNG: A State of Writing,’ from 12.30 in Auditorium 2 in the State Library of Queensland conference venue.

Collectively the four writers represent a splendid cross-section of contemporary PNG writing, ranging across the spectrum from novels to poetry, commentary and journalism.

Their names are well known to PNG Attitude readers, of course, and also to those many Papua New Guineans interested in public affairs.

Man of Honour Drekore in finalists for international award

FRANCIS NII

The 2015 Digicel Man of Honour and founding president of Simbu Children Foundation (SCF), Jimmy Drekore, is one of the finalists for an American award for services to children’s health.

The San Francisco-based World of Children Award is run by a non-profit organisation founded  in 1998 by husband and wife team Harry Leibowitz and Kay Isaacson Leibowitz.

The award is the ‘Nobel Prize for children’s advocacy’ and its mission is “to improve the lives of vulnerable children by funding and elevating the most effective change makers for children”.

The buai story: A problem beyond traditional boundaries

PETER S. KINJAP

IN Papua New Guinea today, it is normal to offer and accept betel nut (buai) without question.

Buai is often the first thing given to visitors to your home, friends you meet or at large gatherings like funeral feasts or weddings ceremonies.

It was previously only sold in the areas where it grows, but it has become a commodity and has found its way into almost all parts of Papua New Guinea.

There are no formal statistics on the number of betel nut chewers in PNG but we can safely say that two-thirds of the population chew it regularly, from children as young as eight to the elderly.

The betel nut trade is no longer a coastal phenomenon; it has become a major money earner for grassroots Papua New Guineans in the informal sector.

Highlanders now trade and chew betel nut. Every day along the Highlands Highway truckloads of buai make their way from the coastal buying areas of Lae and Madang into the mountains.

Let me tell you of the pulse of Papua New Guinea

KEVIN PONDIKOU

HESELIBI Aid Post is in the Middle Fly District of Western Province. I had just finished weekend work at Rumginae and had taken a 6:00am Mission Aviation Fellowship flight to Heselibi via Kiunga.

"Doctor, there's a woman who has a breast abscess for you to review."

An innocuous phrase; a common phrase I've heard time and time again.

Hearing it from community health worker Fauwena Maliabu, staff member at Heselibi Aid Post, was not unusual.

"That's okay. Where is she?"

"She's in the house. She's too sick to come to the aid post".

In praise of those dedicated & skilled rural health workers

ARTHUR WILLIAMS

WITHOUT Papua New Guinea’s rural health workers I wouldn't be alive today.

Lavongai Island never had its own doctor during my more than 40 years connection with the place.

The best we had were health extension officers who had to be able to deal with all sort of medical emergencies and were generally as good as a doctor.

Here in far off Wales where I now live, if I ring for an appointment to see a doctor they ask which one. After the PNG years of my life, I always say anyone will do and give thanks. Similarly with dentists.

The Papua New Guinea echo

KEVIN PONDRIKOU

I WAS sleeping this morning when I got a call on the two-way radio. I was glad to wake up because I was having a weird dream. The dream was stopped by the call, but it continued to echo.

The story began a year ago when a 13 year old girl was admitted feeling tired and weak. She had experienced weight loss and fever and was thin. She sat there very quietly and didn't utter a word.

At a loss for a diagnosis, I started her on treatment for sputum negative tuberculosis. Within a week she had improved and regained strength.

Today a woman died: glimpses of life at a rural mission hospital

KEVIN PONDIKOU

A CRITICALLY ill mother of eight children was flown in to Rumginae from Yehebi on Tuesday.

She was flown here by our Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF) pilots based in Rumginae in what was a last ditch effort to save her life.

This courageous woman was suffering from what turned out to be disseminated tuberculosis with cor pulmonale, heart failure secondary to lung disease.

A long term missionary at Yehebi, Dale, and his wife had sponsored her and her husband’s tickets to fly to Rumginae.

It was another glimpse into the awe-inspiring work that missionaries continue to do for rural Papua New Guinea in 2016.

Rio Tinto should toe the line on global mining principles & ethics

JOHN MOMIS | President, Autonomous Region of Bougainville

In this article Dr Momis criticises what he calls the “greedy irresponsibility” of Rio Tinto following the global mining giant’s decision to end its majority shareholding in Bougainville Copper Ltd.

RIO Tinto’s predecessor, Conzinc RioTinto Australia (CRA), made immense profits from operating the Panguna mine – so much so that BCL was often described as the ‘jewel’ in the CRA crown.

But in operating the mine, it was Bougainville that bore severe environmental and social costs.

PNG may escape seabed mining: Nautilus Minerals facing collapse

Act Now

CANADIAN mining company Nautilus Minerals is facing a severe financial crisis that threatens its plans for experimental seabed mining in Papua New Guinea and the future of the whole company.

Nautilus says not it is delaying further project spending and it desperately needs short-term emergency funding to continue company operations and allow staff more time to look for significant additional funds.

It says “there can be no assurances that the company will be able to obtain the necessary bridge financing or project financing on acceptable terms or at all”.

This may lead to it suspending or terminating the development of the seafloor production system and the PNG Solwara 1 Project.

Mining threatens the mighty Sepik River with utter ruin

GLEN BARRY | EcoInternet

A PROPOSED large-scale copper and gold mine in Papua New Guinea will irreparably harm the relatively pristine Sepik and Frieda Rivers, and devastate the region’s primary rainforests and indigenous cultures.

The Sepik is one of the largest wild river systems left in the Asia Pacific. The Frieda River runs for 100 kilometres from the mine site in the steep, forested highlands before it joins the Sepik which flows another 600 kilometres through a wetland-dotted plain before reaching PNG’s northern coast.

Something clearly unhealthy with PNG’s health service

PAUL OATES

AS IF chief secretary Isaac Lupari didn’t have enough headaches this week, there’s a crisis in the Papua New Guinea health service.

Initially, doctors and nursing staff at Mt Hagen general hospital went on strike over mismanagement and corrupt practices, threatening mass resignations which the health secretary construed as a “disrespect for due process”.

Mr Lupari subsequently met with health minister Michael Malabag and senior health officials to “ensure a multi-sectoral response to address the issues.”

A high powered delegation was to be “briefed and instructed to make further investigations and make required recommendations.”

Australian Doctors International – working for a healthier PNG

PHIL FITZPATRICK

WHEN I was a kiap in Papua New Guinea in the 1960-70s we endeavoured to patrol to every village and settlement in our areas at least twice a year. Often we visited villages three or four times a year.

Part of our training at the Australian School of Pacific Administration was in basic first aid and medicine. As a 19 year old Cadet Patrol Officer, I recall having been taught how to deliver a baby, treat broken limbs and sew up wounds. Passing the course was mandatory.

Every patrol we had a medic. Every patrol post and base camp had an aid post. Occasionally we evacuated sick people and sent them to the nearest hospital.

Government changes endorse illegal & fraudulent land grabs

Act Now

THE Papua New Guinea government is seeking to use changes to the Land Act to retrospectively endorse a huge illegal land grab covering about 12% of the whole country.

Despite the government promoting its new bill as a move to clean up the administration of land and tackle corruption it will actually have the opposite effect, legitimising and compounding previous illegal acts and depriving a very large number of customary landowners of justice.

Between 2003 and 2011 the Department of Lands issued seventy-seven Special Purpose Business and Agriculture Leases covering more than 5.2 million hectares.

Outlawed & abused: criminalising sex work in Papua New Guinea

Amnesty International

IN PAPUA New Guinea, it is illegal to live off the earnings of sex work and to organise commercial sex. Homosexuality is also criminalised and is the primary basis for prosecuting male sex workers.

Amnesty International’s research found these criminal laws allow the police to threaten, extort and arbitrarily detain sex workers.

Sex workers in Papua New Guinea suffer extreme levels of stigma, discrimination and violence, including rape and murder.

A survey conducted by academic researchers in 2010 found that, within a six-month period, 50 percent of sex workers in Papua New Guinea’s capital Port Moresby had been raped by clients or by the police.

United Nations calls for action on SABL land grab

EDDIE TANAGO | Act Now!

THE Papua New Guinea government needs to urgently take action on the SABL land grab and increase scrutiny of the logging industry was the message from the international community during a review of human rights in PNG by the United Nations in Geneva.

Countries from Central and South America, Asia and Europe all spoke of the need for the PNG government to do more to better protect the rights of customary landowners.

Chile recommended PNG strengthen the work of the SABL (special agriculture & business lease) commission of inquiry that exposed the irregularities in almost all the leases investigated and recommended they be revoked.

We need a united Pacific approach to climate change

ROKOTAMANA VITINAQAILEVU

THE impact of global climate change is one of many pressures faced by Pacific island states.

One of the approaches to address this problem is to identify local factors and practices that contribute to climate change.

This includes poor agricultural practices, animal herding on a commercial scale, excessive use of wood for fuel, burning household waste and similar bad habits.

Local practices that change weather dynamics must be identified, like increased deforestation leading to issues that may affect rainfall or wind patterns.

The cynical deceits that deny PNG landowners their birthright

PAUL OATES

THERE are now many documented cases worldwide of how traditional owners and dwellers in native forests have been virtually disinherited by timber clearing.

The exploiters believe they can't make a quick buck if they let the forest survive, whether it be the extensive land clearing in Brazil or Papua New Guinea or elsewhere in the world.

Why don't we just call it for what it is? In the eyes of the greedy entrepreneur, a rainforest is only a commodity to be exploited. The fact that some people depend on that rainforest for their livelihood is a factor that is easily overcome.

PNG conservation leader wins 2016 Whitley Award

THE Princess Royal has presented the prestigious international Whitley Award, a nature conservation prize valued at K160,000 in project funding, to Papua New Guinean conservationist Karau Kuna.

The ceremony was held at the Royal Geographical Society, London, and honoured his work in bringing together landowners to ensure protection of the YUS conservation area, home to many diverse and endangered species including tree kangaroos and birds of paradise.

Situated on the Huon Peninsula and named after three main rivers, the Yopno, Uruwa and Som, the 1,500 square kilometre YUS area harbours more native birds and mammals than any like-sized area in mainland New Guinea.

Women’s advocacy in PNG: Where is it going wrong?

RASHMII BELL

THE same week I read The Embarrassed Colonialist, in which Sean Dorney identifies Papua New Guinean women as a strength of the nation, prime minister Peter O’Neill stood before a crowd and responded to ever-increasing political controversy and dissatisfaction with his leadership.

He refuted public criticism of him with the words, “Mi stilim meri blo ol na ol laik karabusim mi or” (did I steal their wife to make them want to arrest me?).

That was met with deserved but sparse outcries of misogyny. And some people who riposted with humorous rhetoric, musing whether the ‘theft’ of the prime minister’s wife might be in order.

Indeed no argument in PNG seems to endure full navigation without the often convenient and fallback assertions of custom, traditional practice, language, the ‘Melanesian way’ and what not being employed.

Pacific leaders need to act on fossil fuels immediately

ROKOTAMANA VITINAQAILEVU

EMISSIONS from burning fossil fuels have increased over the years and now account for two-thirds of all carbon emitted since the beginning of the industrial era, that’s 63% of all carbon dioxide produced.

Researchers have confirmed that when it comes to identifying who’s responsible, it’s not so difficult to pinpoint the biggest emitters worldwide.

In a recent detailed and exhaustive research by Rick Heede, who spent eight years combing through data, the major emitters can be limited to 90 entities. These ‘carbon majors’ have been burning fossil fuel for the last 150 years and continue to do so with greatly deleterious impacts on humanity.

PNG government plan to convert SABL leases must be rejected

ACT NOW!

THE Papua New Guinea government is planning to convert unlawful SABL (special agriculture and business leases) leases into registered land and community advocacy group Act Now! says there are strong reasons why the government’s plan is wrong and should be rejected.

“The Department of Lands is drafting amendments to the Lands Act which will allow the government to endorse the unlawful SABL land grab,” said program manager Effrey Dademo (pictured).

“We have identified seven reasons why this is a dangerous move and must be rejected. Most importantly, under the government plan, customary landowners will still lose control of their land which is a vital resource for them and the illegal logging will be allowed to continue.”

Land grabs, illegal logging & seabed mining on Geneva agenda

EDDIE TANAGO | Campaign Coordinator, Act Now!

GENEVA - THE Papua New Guinea government’s human rights record and its failure to protect the interests of customary landowners is under the spotlight in Switzerland this week.

Community advocacy group Act Now! is in Geneva briefing United Nations diplomats on the SABL land grab, illegal logging and experimental seabed mining.

The PNG government must appear before the United Nations Human Rights Council in May as part of a process called a Universal Periodic Review.

The United Nations will be looking at our government’s human rights record so we are here in Geneva to make sure the international community is fully briefed on issues affecting people in PNG and particularly customary landowners.

Drug-resistant tuberculosis at crisis levels in PNG

GEORGIA ECCLES | The Diplomat | Extracts

WITH one of the highest tuberculosis (TB) infection rates in the world, Papua New Guinea’s TB pandemic is referred to by national health authorities as a “national emergency.”

About 30,000 people are newly infected with TB every year and there are increasing incidences of drug-resistant strains and limited access to adequate healthcare.

TB is a communicable, airborne infection that can lie dormant within the body for many years. For people with compromised immunity, TB develops into a disease that destroys organ tissue – most commonly in the lungs. It can be fatal if left untreated.

PNG’s mental health woes as Laloki struggles to make ends meet

FLORENCE JONDUO

IN EVERY Papua New Guinean town, you will find people who are mentally affected roaming the streets day in and day out.

They seem to have no families or relatives or carers. They eat whatever’s been left in trash bins. There is no formal data collection system for mental disorders in PNG.

According to a 2004 world mental health survey, 13% of a country's adult population will experience a mental disorder over their lifetime; for three percent of people it will be serious.

I’m disgusted as MPs laugh at PNG health cuts

GARY JUFFA | PNG Exposed

YESTERDAY I watched in absolute disgust as members of parliament giggled and laughed as the Minister for Health made light humour of the government slashing funding by K50 million for Church run health facilities.

I had sought an explanation about the cut to our health services by the government and asked the Minister to explain exactly by how much the budget would be reduced and what programs would be cut.

Minister Malabag confirmed that the government had cut K50 million from the wages component of church-run programs.

But the most remote areas in PNG where most of our people live are serviced only by the churches.

Cuts will affect health services says Catholic church

RADIO NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL

HEALTH services in Papua New Guinea run by the Catholic Church face a major shake up after cuts in their funding from the government.

Catholic Health Services provides up to a third of PNG's medical services through more than 200 sites around the country - many in remote areas of the Highlands.

It relies on government funding but the O'Neill administration has cut this back, and this will mean staff layoffs and others leaving because salaries will be lower.

The director of Catholic Health Services, Justine McMahon (pictured), said the government has reduced its support to the level paid in 2014 and for some staff this will mean 40% pay cuts.

She said they will lose staff. "Staff will have to be put off but other staff will leave because they will not put up with that level of cut."

PNG has world's worst access to clean water

CARLA KWEIFIO-OKAI | The Guardian | Extract

PAPUA New Guinea, where 60% of the population live without a safe water supply, has the poorest access to clean water in the world, according to a study released to mark World Water Day.

A report on the state of the world’s water showed Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Chad and Mozambique joining PNG in the bottom five of a table ranking countries according to the percentage of households with access to clean water.

Globally, 650 million people are living without an “improved” source of drinking water, which includes public taps, protected wells, rainwater or water piped into households.