Keith Jackson & Friends: PNG ATTITUDE

Brain not hard wired to link numbers & space

BY ANIL ANANTHASWAMY
NEW SCIENTIST

IS OUR ABILITY TO MAP NUMBERS onto a physical space – such as along a line – a cultural invention rather than an innate ability? Members of a remote tribe in Papua New Guinea understand the concept of numbers but do not map them along a line, which suggests that the 'number line' must be learned.

Researchers have long thought that the human brain is hard wired to associate numbers with physical space, and we naturally associate numbers with physical space. The idea received a boost in 2002 when it was discovered that people with brain damage who were unable to fully perceive one side of their body had trouble interpreting the number line – they claimed, for example, that five lies between three and six (Nature, DOI:10.1038/417138a).

In 2008, Stanislas Dehaene of the National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Saclay, France, and colleagues found a subtle variation of the concept in the Mundurucu, an indigenous group in the Amazon with little or no formal education.

The Mundurucu map numbers on to a line, but use a logarithmic scale rather than a typical linear scale – they allow plenty of room for small numbers but scrunch larger numbers together at the far end of the line.

The finding suggested that the linear number line is a cultural invention, but the number line itself remained intact as an intuition shared by all humanity (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1156540).

This is now being called into question by Rafael Núñez of the University of California at San Diego and colleagues. Núñez's team trekked into the remote mountains of Papua New Guinea to study the Yupno, an indigenous group that live without electricity, roads or even domestic animals. "But they do have numbers," says Núñez. "They are number-savvy."

Núñez asked 20 Yupno adults (14 of whom were unschooled, while others had attended middle school) and 10 controls in California to place the numbers 1 to 10 along a 22-centimetre-long black line printed on a white card.

The numbers were presented randomly, either as pre-recorded words in Yupno dialects, or as a sequence of tones, or as a set of dots printed on white paper.

The team found that both the controls and the schooled Yupno mapped the numbers on to the line, though the schooled Yupno did so less evenly, tending to place the numbers towards one of the two endpoints.

But the unschooled Yupno completely ignored the extent of the number line. They lumped numbers 1 and 2 at one end of the line, and all other numbers at the other end.

Back tracks in history - TPNG in the news, 1956

 

Mystery email: Could this be the protest that isn’t?

BY KEITH JACKSON

EVEN AS GREAT UNCERTAINTY remains about Papua New Guinea’s general election proceeding on time, a general strike has been called for tomorrow – but without a start time, a gathering place and any indication of who’s behind it.

A statement in circulation in PNG today says the strike will be “massive” and “nationwide” and is being organised by unnamed “trade unions”.

It asks “all Papua New Guineans both private and public sector … to stop work on Tuesday and join the march”.

The statement says that airports and wharves will be closed and that all essential services will be shut down.

The aim of the alleged strike is to “prove to parliament that the ultimate power lies with us the people and not a few disillusioned parliamentarians who think they can trample over the constitution and fundamental pillars of our democracy.

“See you all on Tuesday,” it concludes. But where?

Limerick for our times / That just about rhymes…

BY PAUL OATES
WITH SOME HELP FROM KEITH JACKSON

Pastaim igat wanpla lida? Itok, Nau mi lukim ples klia, Bai mi baim ol lain, Na stap longpla taim, Tasol husat igiaman yumi a?	There once was a veteran leader, Who said: "Now I see all the clearer, If I buy off the clan, I'll be here quite a span, And who will be any the wiser?
Lukim ol lain igat wori, Buk blo nem ino redi, Ol Em Pi, itok, 'Maski eleksion', Mipla les lo eleksion, Watpo yu laik girapim hevi?	You all know that everyone’s worried And it looks like the roll isn’t hurried So who needs the vote To elections say nope Our egos don’t need to be sullied.
Moa beta mipla stap yet, a? Long mekim ol lo igutpla Yu noken wori, Mipla gat savi Lo mekim planti tokgris a?	We really should stay as we are We all make the best laws by far So don’t cry in vain Forget you’ve a brain We’re the sweetest of talkers so far!

Renewable energy offers answers for rural PNG

BY CATHERINE WILSON
INTERNATIONAL PRESS SERVICE

IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA, which has no national power grid but large river systems and abundant sunshine, renewable energy has tremendous potential to transform remote rural lives with clean and sustainable electricity.

Ten years ago Nick Nait, who lives in a small village near Mount Sion in the Eastern Highlands with his wife and children, introduced electricity to his household for the first time.

While working for a missionary organisation, Nait learnt how to make solar power systems and subsequently built a small one for his two-room dwelling. The single solar panel powers a radio, lighting and television.

For Nait, solar power is affordable and dependable. "It depends on the weather, but when there is sun, there is no problem," he said, "It is very reliable and I rarely have to do repairs."

After the initial cost of making and installing the solar unit, he has had few ongoing expenses and, once fully charged, the system will provide light in his home for one month.

Like Nait, many people living in the rural highlands face economic and environmental challenges.

Garaio Gafiye of Clean Energy Solutions, a consultancy for renewable energy projects in PNG, told IPS, "The highlands is a very rugged area and there are so many communities.

“Renewable energy is very important, especially hydro, there is so much of it, and solar also. But the problem is incomes are very low in the Highlands and managing money can be quite difficult."

Families have been forced to become very resourceful in order to access energy at minimal expense.

"Solar is very easy to install," Gafiye continued, "Now if you go to some of the communities, (at least) one or two people have solar systems, just simple ones. They just get the panel and a battery and put it together."

Obtaining sustainable electricity has made a vital difference to Nait’s family.

"We now have lighting in our home, access to information and the news from radio and TV and my children can do their school work and study in the evenings," he explained,

"Although we do not have an electric stove, my wife finds it very helpful to have lighting while she is cooking at home."

Now he plans to expand the capacity of his solar unit to drive a water pump and eventually bring clean water from a nearby well to his home.

PNG Power, the nation’s only power provider, claims it is unfeasible to construct a national grid system due to dense mountainous topography and long distances between load centres.

Therefore, many villages still rely on traditional biomass, such as firewood, for cooking and heating, with diesel generators providing a popular alternative. But the high price of fuel means that generators are used sparingly, often for no more than a few hours each day.

Geeks spot French rifles in PNG coup attempt

THE FIREARM BLOG

THERE IS NOTHING QUITE LIKE a military coup to bring dusty rifles from the depths of secret armouries and into the light of day.

The attempted coup in support of one of the pretenders to the prime ministership of Papua New Guinea ended just days after is began.

The mutineers, about 30 soldiers led by a retired Colonel, symbolically handed in their weapons in surrender (they were subsequently pardoned and their weapons returned).

What is interesting is that some of the mutineers appeared to have been armed with French FAMAS rifles.

A reader emailed me a couple of theories of how the [PNG Defence Force] might have acquired these rifles ...

There are two possibilities. PNG forces use the M16A2 and FN FAL, so they probably got the FAMAS rifles from Vanuatu, a relatively nearby French colony that got 350 of them in 1994.

In 2006 {PNG and Vanuatu troops] did peacekeeping missions together and in the 1980's PNG forces fought against rebels there, so that might have been their illegal weapons connection and source.

The FAMAS F1 rifles, few in number and not very reliable, could have been put in storage and improperly secured.

Another possibility is they got them from the Indonesian special forces, which have bought the FAMAS but aren't known to use them.

There was suspicion that the coup had Indonesian support not only due to Indonesia having a history of interfering with PNG, but also because the retired colonel who led the coup had just come back from a six month embed with the Indonesian military.

Despite crisis, vibrant Port Moresby hums along

BY CATHERINE WILSON *
Crikey.com.au

AS THE PMV (LOCAL MINIBUS) came to a grinding halt at an intersection in the centre of Port Moresby, I came eye to eye with a sign straddling the traffic light pole declaring “Treat our City as Your Pikinini”.

The city as “child” is an engaging new metaphor for metropolitan city space, but particularly apt for this organic, idiosyncratic and human-centred city.

It offers a clue as to why PNG’s capital, its functioning logic a mystery to many visitors, remains persistently calm through tempestuous and challenging political times.

The day a military mutiny occurred not far from our route, dominating the nightly television news, the city and its bus drivers didn’t miss a beat. From the north of town, our driver maintained his aloof attention to the road, roaring in and out of bus stops, disgorging dust and passengers in rapid succession. If you missed this bus, the next one would be along in two minutes.

Gordons Market was still full of peri-urban food gardeners intent on selling their produce, people were relaxing along Ela Beach in the heart of town and street vendors would not think of abandoning their roadside market tables and potential sales of betel nut, cordial and cigarettes.

The following morning my fellow PMV passengers were brandishing copies of The National and Post Courier newspapers, reading the latest accounts of the city’s dramatic events, but with detached demeanours, soon distracted by their need to get to work or complete their daily errands.

In a nation where 85% of the population support themselves through the informal economy, the reality is that, for most people here, the lives and exploits of the elite occur in a separate parallel universe.

They are not fazed. Governments and politicians come and go, while their lives remain, for the most part, unchanged.

Fifteen per cent are employed in the formal sector, but for the majority, a livelihood depends on self-generated microeconomic initiatives, many associated with cultivating food gardens on the city’s periphery and local market-based selling.

At Gordons fresh produce market, Bire, one of many vendors who works with his wantoks to grow, market and sell produce, is unhesitatingly proud of the fact that “we do all of this ourselves”.

The forthcoming 2012 national election will be an important opportunity for people to select their desired leader, but, in Port Moresby communities, it is not individual politicians’ personalities or parties, but the real issues affecting their lives that generate discussion.

Informal settlements on the outskirts of the capital are home to diverse communities from every province in the country. Residents include public servants, professionals, university lecturers and remarkable achievers, such as distinguished artists and decorated civic leaders, as much as those who are unemployed. Here there is no ambiguity about the real issues.

On asking a bloke to write some words

BY KEITH JACKSON

THE EMAIL from Post-Courier features editor Patrick ‘Big Pat Looking For Love’ Levo, is written in riddles.

“We would pay you half a muruk for 500 words,” it says.  “But bank will only accept whole muruks.  So, sorry, cannot pay.”

I immediately think of going for full thousand words to get complete muruk, beady eyes and all, but soon realise a thousand is both beyond my powers of concentration and your patience, dia rida.

So I email BP back: “Send whole muruk and I give you change in kapul.”

Heard nothing yet by way of response.  I don’t think BP really has muruk; I think he pusitman.

That is 100 words and I feel level of exhaustion creeping close up to knees.

It all begins with BP bringing good news that Post-Courier is relaunching Weekend Courier.

Let’s hope it float, unlike ships of Costa Line.

“I would like to invite you to join me as guest columnist, waste some of your spare ink on a weekly basis,” emails BP thoughtfully.

“You can choose to write on any subject that displeases or pleases your disturbed mind.

“Please let me know when you can start so I can book myself into the Laloki mental hospital.”

This is an offer Jackson can’t refuse, since he like visiting hospitals.

“Happy to be weekly columnist,” I reply, “and will invent some ludicrous paragraphs that will keep you in Laloki's tender care for life.

“You upside down in chains strumming ukelele; me visiting you and trying to remember old jokes.

“Let me know when you want this extravagant project of self-promotion to begin.”

BP reply comes at lightning speed, like pukpuk descending on stuck pik: “Your clock is ticking till the next cock crows.”

Riddle.

So, dia rida, now you know how this newspaper business works.  By accident.

That’s over 300 words has given me heart arrhythmia and triggered arthritis in one good typing finger.  Still 200 words to go.

How to write newspaper column, by Jackson….

………

………

………

This going nowhere.

Start again. First, you need idea.  Any idea.  Like muruk.  That idea.

Next ask yourself: “Where do I think this idea would like to go if it had a brain?”

Idea say: “I would like to go to logical conclusion with elegant words and whimsical humour to impress dia rida.”

Then ask yourself: “How come I always end up with smat as ideas that want to rule world?”

Idea say: “Need to engage reader with powerful language and leave message that will resonate for life, or at least a minute.”

Then you finally rausim idea by saying: “Mi not Charles Dickens, you not Albert Einstein, get real.”

See how it works?

Experts (kakaruks who try to tell us to do what they can’t do themselves) say: “Hey you, find your own genuine voice – and write in it.”

Jackson say, if you hear voices forget about writing.  Go visit BP in Laloki and check yourself in for a spell.

He play half decent ukulele.

(Will that do? It’s 500 words and Jackson is totally exhausted.)

Thoughts & reflections at the start of a new year

BY DAVID WALL

I, LIKE MY GREAT FRIEND, THE COMMANDER, like my coffee to be of the instant variety – none of this percolated type for us.

The Commander always asks for an instant coffee even in the most fashionable restaurants, and he often gets a response like this: “where were you dragged up, in a prison?”

I’m really a tea drinker and I like my tea of the straight kind – none of the likes of the scented and organic brands for me. As regards fish, always give me tins rather than fresh. My taste in biscuits, runs to Saos, and I like butter, not margarine.

By this stage you’ve a fair idea of what type of bloke I am. You might well ask, how do you like your women? To a question like this I refuse to give an answer, but I will say that variety is the spice of life.

One of my saddest times during 2011 was when I heard of the demise of the Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il. I was only sustained in this time of grief when I heard that he was to be succeeded by his son, Kim Jong-un, the Great Successor.

I didn’t quite know what to think of the events in Papua New Guinea about Mr Peter O’Neill replacing the Father of the Nation, Sir Michael Somare, as Prime Minister. Could he be called a Great Successor? I wonder if Kevin Rudd would see Julia Gillard as a Great Successor.

Mr Howard now has his Order of Merit, perhaps Sir Michael might also get an Order of Merit. In a strange historical way I see something about PNG, and the Order of Merit. Gilbert Murray, the Australian classical scholar, received an Order of Merit, and he had a brother, Hubert, who was  the Lieutenant-Governor of Papua. Does this create some sort of association of the Order with PNG? I can hear you say, “I think not”.

It has been suggested that I write another book, particularly by John, a Premillennialist awaiting the Parousia – his book is also in the pipeline, but alas, his coming book and mine might be akin to the Second Coming.

Cedric, another friend of mine, a legend in his own time – a dynamic educator in PNG, and now an energetic helper in WA of his Aboriginal brothers and sisters. He was always and still is a man of action.

The good news is that yang Pita from Wewak appears to have conquered bowel cancer, and he’s set to embark on greater things.

Have your say on Pacific blogs and social media

BY KEITH JACKSON

THE LOWY INSTITUTE's Danielle Cave is conducting an interesting survey on the use and value of social media in the Pacific.  And she needs your help.

The survey can be completed by people in PNG and the Pacific, and people who have an interest in how social media are used in the region.  This, by definition, includes all PNG Attitude readers.

Social media are defined as Twitter and Facebook as well as blogs like PNG Attitude.

Download the survey on Social-media-in-pacific-islands

When you complete the survey, email it to Dcave@lowyinstitute.org

And, in the covering email, tell Danielle whether you are willing for the final report to attribute quotes to you by name, or anonymously.  Danielle wants to make sure you get credit for your ideas.

Short story: The Belt

BY SHAIRYL SRIVASTAVA

JAKE COULD NOT SLEEP because the full moon’s rays were shining upon his face. He tossed and turned but it was no use. Suddenly, there was something falling from the sky, something small, and something fast and in a flash, it landed on the Jake’s garden.

It did not make a bomb blast sound. Instead it sounded like a swarm of talking cockroaches. Jake looked at his garden and saw something black; like a ball with blue rays on its side.

Jake got out of bed, opened the door and ran outside. He came to the hole and saw the small ball with blue rays. The ball started to open and out came a shiny red and orange Belt.

“A Belt from space, how weird is that?”

He moved closer to the Belt, which suddenly attached itself to his body.

“Hey!” Jake said with anger.

The Belt was stuck above his hip. He tried to remove it but nothing happened.

“Jake is that you down there,” screamed his mother.

Jake ran upstairs to bed and pretended to sleep.

Next morning Jake made ready to go to school and magically the Belt stuck to his pants. Jake was astounded. The school bus came, picked him up and dropped him in the school. As he and his friend Nipun were walking together in the playground, Nipun had a brainstorm.

“Let’s see who can jump the highest,” he said.

Nipun jumped but not too high. Now it was Jake’s turn.

He jumped 11 feet in the air and cracked the ground when he landed.

“How did you do that?” said Nipun with two big eyes. “I think you must have grown extra muscles.”

“I’m surprised myself,” said Jake.

During maths, the students were figuring out some problems when they heard a bizarre sound. It became louder and louder and, all of a sudden, a blue ball roared into the room blowing the walls out.

The perfect outing for old (and young) sea dogs

BY PETER KRANZ

I WAS IN SYDNEY ON WEDNESDAY to meet some good Vanuatu and PNG friends who had a young 12 year old boy.

"What would you like to see?"  "I'd like to see some old boats!"

A young man after my own heart, so we went to the National Maritime Museum at Darling Harbour. A fantastic place.

You can climb all over and explore the HMAS Vampire [pictured] - a Daring class destroyer (sister ship the to HMAS Voyager - sadly sunk in a notorious collision with the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne in 1964); and also climb over the Oberon-class submarine Onslow [alongside Vampire], as well as a replica of the Dufyken and the restored sailing vessel, James Craig.

My idea of the best day out.  And my young cousin agreed.

The Vampire saw service in Papua New Guinea - sailing around the country in the 1960's - berthed at Rabaul, Mosbi and Manus many times - and she patrolled the Pacific over many thousand's of kilometres.

I impressed the youngster by saying that the guns on the Vampire in the middle of the city could score a direct on Warringah Mall in Manly if so inclined. (I think that's true).

It is an amazing experience - seeing how sailors lived, their privations and working conditions. I can't imagine what it would have been like. Sailors in the Vampire were lucky - as it was one of the first destroyers to have air conditioning.

If a superior rank was cross, he could order 'kit inspection!'; and no matter what you were doing you had to race to your locker and lay out all of your kit in perfect condition, or risk a penalty. 

This was however preferable to being subject to formal navy discipline.

Worth a visit if you're in Sydney.

Peacewomen who took on the warriors, and won

BY JO CHANDLER

''YOU KNOW THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A FREE BILUM,'' the crusty old kiap - a patrol officer, one of the legion who never made it back to Australia after independence in 1975 - explained to this wide-eyed ''white meri'' on her first foray into Papua New Guinea.

''If you are presented with a spear, the expectation is clear - you should bring back something from the hunt.'' A bilum is used to carry garden vegetables and fruits from the forest. ''It must also come back, bearing gifts.'' A string bag with strings attached.

In PNG the cargo ferried in bilums along the nation's fractured roads sustains families. While bilums are carried by men and women alike, they are powerfully symbolic of the burdens of women in a nation where the state provides them with little or nothing.

Indeed, the crisis teams installed by Medecins Sans Frontieres to help women brutalised by violence in the highlands hot spots of Tari and Lae use a ''bilum scale'' to measure their patients' distress - at one extreme a grim-faced, wretched woman is bent double under her heavy load; at the other end her bag swings lightly from her shoulder as she stands up straight and smiling.

My most prized bilum is a riotous rainbow of yellow, green, red and orange. It was given to me by Mary Kini and Agnes Sil, ''peacewomen'' activists from the highlands village of Kup.

Together with their friend Angela Apa, they brought about a social revolution in their community, where 18,000 people had endured 30 bloody years of tribal war. Teachers and health workers fled, buildings burnt, girls could not collect water without risk of rape, families went hungry because women could not work in their gardens for fear of attack, mothers buried broken sons.

Then Agnes, Mary and Angela began to meet secretly, and at great risk. ''Women were women, just women - for the kitchen and the house, to look after the animals.

They were not allowed to talk in public,'' Agnes explained. Nonetheless, they colluded behind racks of second-hand clothes in the market stalls. They began an underground movement to end the violence.

''What was the fighting about?'' I asked. Power. Prestige. Pigs. Compensation. The settling of old scores. Their men had fought about such things forever - with bows and arrows and then, devastatingly, with guns. Communities were held hostage by paradigms of grief and violence. ''Enough was enough,'' Agnes declared.

They rallied hundreds of women into a march - they wailed and sang behind banners declaring ''No more tribal fights'' and ''Tears and love''. They told the stunned men to shut up and listen.

They gave harrowing testimony to the pain of raising children only to have them slaughtered. ''Our houses are burnt down, and the kids are with no food - we have had enough.''

When the Kup women finished speaking, one of the chief men stood up and declared himself ashamed. Agnes says: ''He said, 'From now on, I am finished with tribal fights. From right now, I am wearing a skirt. I no more wear trousers that say I am a man - I want to become a woman','' He gave the women precious gifts: power and authority. The women used them to broker peace on the battlefields, planting themselves between the warriors.

They brought back the teachers, police, nurses. Aid agencies came in to support them. Programs evolved - law and justice, youth mentoring, agriculture, maternal and infant health, water and sanitation.

After years of progress, the fairytale in recent times has ruptured and endured setbacks from renewed skirmishes. Nonetheless, momentum is sustained by the knowledge that dramatic change can be achieved.

Hidden treasures: early PNG postage stamps

BY HARRY TOPHAM

TO MOST PEOPLE they are mere slips of coloured paper carrying an impost charge receipt for services rendered.

To other more eccentric, iconoclastic types they are miniature works of art encapsulating a small time slice of history.

What are they?  Postage stamps, of course.

I am a “stamp tragic”, having an on/off relationship with collecting postage stamps over a lifetime.

The off /relationship relates to the frustrations encountered in trying to obtain that rare and elusive collectable to fill the missing gaps that through mainly financial constraints eludes capture eventuating in putting the collection away for another day’s endeavours.

The on relationship intermittently resurfaces at a later date when the stamp bug bites again.

Stamps from Papua New Guinea, especially those pre- decimal series have always attracted strong interest from worldwide collectors.

The main reason for this keen interest emanates from the fact that apart from their beauty and quality the early Postal Authorities in Papua New Guinea did not provide any detailed written history of the stamps issued requiring later philatelists to undertake their own research with the aim of identifying all those series produced.

Prior to WW2 both territories of Papua and New Guinea issued separate sets of postage stamps.

The history of postage stamps in Papua is very interesting as it mirrors the history evolving in the region at that time.

Against the political intrigues existing between Britain and the Colony of Australia pre Federation, Queensland through its Premier McIlwraith and acting on it own initiative formally took possession of what was then called New Guinea.

This unilateral action was ruled ill founded as Australia at that time was still a colony and Queensland did not have the formal constitutional authority for such acts and as such the annexation was unauthorised and therefore invalid.

Germany at this stage was looking to expand its interests in the Pacific with prognostications prevailing during the period of negotiations between Britain and Germany over this matter.

Whilst all of this brinkmanship was going on, Germany in the interim had sent a ship to New Guinea to claim northern Papua and the adjacent islands.

The acquisition of northern Papua by Germany thus galvanised the British Government to then formally annex the lower portion of Papua in 1887 to be known as British Papua.

Because Papua was at that time ruled from Queensland, postage stamps from Queensland with various BNG cancellation marks were used in Papua up to 1901 when the first Lakatoi series stamps were introduced.

Beyond the beaten track - a morning at CUMA

BY PHIL FITZPATRICK

WHEN I WAS IN PORT MORESBY in September I visited the Children’s University of Music and Art (CUMA) at Kaugere and met with its its founders, Lydia and Peter Kailap.   It’s not a big campus.

We caught up at the Beachside Brasserie at the Ela Beach Hotel.  In the late 1960s the hotel was called The Davara.  It is now nicely spruced up.

Peter delivered to the restaurant owner a set of the greeting cards he had designed and printed.

After coffee we hailed a taxi and Peter negotiated a fare.  Papua New Guineans tend to pay less for taxis than Europeans.

We went to Kaugere via Korobosea.  There used to be a connecting road between Korobosea Drive and Scratchley Road but it has been cut off to stop the raskols speeding through Kaugere in their stolen cars.  Coming that way also meant we had a downhill walk to CUMA.

Peter and Lydia showed me around the school.  It has expanded either side of a basic one-room shack originally built by a highland settler. 

On one side is an open classroom and library that doubles as living space.  The roof and floor in that section is a present from the Australian High Commission.

On the other side a battered sacsac roof covers a kitchen and a shaded area with a dirt floor.  The privy is down the hill.

One of the teachers made coffee and cut up a sweet coconut cake.  Peter strummed his guitar and we chatted.  A white dog, another CUMA refugee, came to say hello.  I took some photographs.

Afterwards I wandered down to Scratchley Road to hail a taxi accompanied by two lads sent as escorts. 

People waved and said hello from their tightly packed little houses as we walked past.  There are still a lot of Gulf people in Kaugere.

The further down the hill, the bigger the houses.  Down there, opposite the golf course, used to be one of Moresby’s most salubrious suburbs.

We crossed the road near the Salvation Army Hall and caught a taxi within a few minutes. 

I paid the driver at Ela Beach and gave the lads a few kina to spend at the Hiri Moala festival that was going on at the beach.

Wandering among the stalls, I bought a few shell necklaces and some silk screen laplaps, checked out the two lagatoi moored off the beach and hiked up the hill to the house where I was staying.

A pleasant interlude; but one which provided plenty of food for thought.

Photos: Living area.  'Outdoor' classroom.  Kitchen.  That's the entire campus.

Scientists on Saibai island to catch deadly snakes

BY ANTHONY LOCK

PAPUAN BLACK SNAKES (Pseudechis papuanus) and Papuan taipans (Oxyuranus scutellatus canni) are among the deadliest snakes in the world, but handling them is a typical day's work for scientists Tom Parkin and Luke Allen.

Tom, vertebrate zoologist at the Western Australian Museum, and Luke, curator for a venom supplies company in South Australia, made the trip - sponsored by the Australian Geographic Society - to the home of the black snake at Saibai Island.

Basic knowledge about the snakes, such as numbers and seasonal activity, is largely unknown, even by the locals, says Luke, so any snakes caught are invaluable for research.

So the pair went to Saibai Island with the view to teaching residents about snakes, observing the species' habit, and capturing specimens for a captive breeding program - essential for continued production of anti-venom.

Prior to the expedition there were only two male black snakes and a female taipan in captivity in South Australia, so Tom and Luke required a female black snake and a male taipan - the third most venomous reptile in the world to humans - to begin breeding populations.

Snakes are needed to continue anti-venom production because it is produced by taking venom from a live snake.

Tom and Luke were in Saibai for a week in August, and managed to catch two snakes, in spite of bad weather.

The first, a female taipan, was founding retreating down a burrow. Local children crowded to watch the capture, but while they were busy celebrating, Tom and Luke missed a second taipan metres away, they say.

Fortuitously, the female taipan was later found to be pregnant, and a few weeks after returning to South Australia she laid eight eggs.

The second, says Luke, was found at a perfect spot for these snakes, located near a water supply.

"These snakes love water", he says. "If we had had 48 hours more in that area we would certainly have collected many more snakes".

The pair also caught a male black snake, over 2m long, an hour before their flight home.

While a female black snake remained elusive, the two snakes caught can be used to produce anti-venom, Tom and Luke say, and the baby taipans can be put into a breeding program.

In their search for snakes, Tom and Luke also discovered tree frogs that had died while fleeing from a bush fire. "These are definitely a new species", says Luke, "but we need a live frog as a sample for the species to be officially recognised as new".

While on Saibai, Tom and Luke also managed to help educate residents with a poster they created - the first publication about species on the island.

Although residents know the snakes, they don't know so much about how to provide anti-venom first aid, or to properly identify the snakes (to make sure they're not confused with taipans), Tom and Luke say.

Local residents thought they had caught a black snake in the past, says Luke, but it was actually a female taipan, and a bite suffered without adequate anti-venom first aid would have been fatal.

The pair plans to travel back to Saibai, and also to more remote islands to conduct research. If they go back to Saibai, they say they will head back to the wetland where to track more black snakes, says Luke.

Source: Australian Geographic, 11 November

Let’s get real about it, she fights like a woman

BY MARTYN NAMORONG

SOMEONE RECENTLY posted this on my Facebook wall: “She fought like a man.” To which I replied: “No dude, she fought like a woman.”

When I sat in court recently watching Tiffany Twivvey articulating legal arguments with gusto; I knew a guy couldn’t have done a better job.

The consistency and veracity of her arguments flowed unadulterated by gaps in legal authority. And she represented all the men who claim ownership to a vast stretch of land along the Madang coastline.

I am not a feminist but I do find that, in decolonising my mind, I’ve found in words and phrases the subtleties that create and form our views about women.

Why can’t society accept, at least linguistically, that ‘a woman fights like a woman’? That a woman does not need to ‘fight like a man’ in order to be recognised for her achievements?

Even if women are perceived as the ‘weaker’ sex, that is not necessarily true. I’ve seen how some women handle themselves pretty well during the third stage of labour. I’ve seen women chase a man during a domestic dispute.

Perhaps Papua New Guinean women are the most under-rated strong women. Think of a typical village setting where over 80% of the country’s population resides.

The women go fishing, make gardens, harvest sago, chop firewood, fetch drinking water, do the laundry and dishes, raise kids and pigs, and weave mats, bilums and baskets, amongst other things.

And after a hard day’s work come home and are expected to cook and attend to the tiny tantrums of male family members. What do the men do? Most likely, a minute proportion of the activities a woman does in a day.

Women are becoming the main income earners, if not the sole income earners, of many families. In urban centres, it is the women in settlements who are major income earners for the family.

They sell vegetables, cooked food, water and cordial as well as betelnut in order to make ends meet. In rural communities, they collect coffee beans, make copra, dry cocoa beans and take food to local markets for sale.

Recently, I heard a terrible tale of a woman who used to sell green vegetables and yet she died at child-birth because she was anaemic.

Yet society takes it for granted that this is the role of women while it fails to recognise their efforts. Thus society keeps saying ‘the woman fought like a man’. Well, guess what? She fought like a woman and did a better job than any guy could have done.

Women need to be given more recognition in society for the significant contributions they make silently, while big men boast about their pathetic accomplishments.

A guy once wrote that God did not create men and women equal and that therefore it was not according to God’s will that men and women be treated as equals. To this a woman replied, “I agree, men were created from dirt, women were made in heaven!”

It is little wonder therefore that Shakespeare would write:

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day
Thou art more brilliant and content

Welcome to the website of the Goilala people

BY BRIAN TOBIA

ABOUT 26 MINUTES by air or five hours by road to the north-west direction from Port Moresby, lies the Goilala, one of the four districts that make up the Central Province.

Goilala has some of the ferociously fast flowing rivers running with awesome speed through rough, rugged and thickly dense jungles towards the lowlands in the coast.

Really, Goilala is an unexplored last frontier covered in lush green vegetation extending miles through V-shaped grassy hills, thick jungles and misty blue mountain tops.

It is so close, yet so far away.

The Goilala now has its own website.  You can visit it at http://www.goilala.com/.

Readers assistance required with Tok Pisin resources

My son Simon [seen here with his family on Sydney's Freshwater Beach where he was a surf lifesaver] is soon heading to Papua New Guinea to work as a project safety coach with the Beyond The Break company.  Simon was born in Port Moresby but left PNG at age eight when my stint in the country finished in 1976.  He wants to learn Tok Pisin and I’ve been able to provide books by Mihalic and Murphy.  Can readers assist by identifying other resources?

On Friday the Siar people heard the gospel – in Siar

NEW TRIBES MISSION

  

YEARS OF LEARNING the culture and language of the Siar people of Papua New Guinea by the New Tribes Mission, and months of foundational, chronological Bible teaching, culminated on Friday with a lesson on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Siar people heard the lesson they’d been waiting for since 2003, when they sent New Tribes Mission a letter asking for missionaries to come and share Bible teaching with them.

In 2006, NTM missionaries visited the Siars to determine how serious they were because, sometimes, tribal people who ask for missionaries are actually seeking prestige among neighbouring people groups, or material goods – perhaps even supernatural access.

The visiting missionaries explained that a missionary team would need to move into the village, learn their culture and language and translate God’s Word in order to clearly present the message God had for them.

The Siars welcomed the opportunity.  So NTM missionaries Chris and Erin Lujan and their two children together with Lane and Karrie Sanford and their three children moved to the village in 2007.

Years of hard work have enabled the missionaries to understand the Siar culture – the way the Siars understand the world and interact with it – and learn their language.  The Lujans and Sanfords translated Scripture and Bible lessons with the assistance of a team of Siar people.

The lessons used are designed for people with little or no understanding of the Bible,  often referred to as chronological Bible teaching because they follow God’s story from creation to the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. However, the lessons may be more properly understood as foundational Bible teaching.

And, on this Sunday, the Siar people have Go's word in their own language.

Source: Online PR News, 27-September
http://www.onlineprnews.com/news/171834-1317128385-siar-people-will-hear-the-gospel-on-friday.html

Contemplating Moresby: itchy scab on the belly

BY PHIL FITZPATRICK

I’M SITTING on the veranda of a house on Touaguba Hill overlooking the wharves and the central business district of Port Moresby.

I’m an inveterate walker, too old to be athletic but I’d rather plod than sit in a car.  I’ve just struggled up windy Portlock Road and the cup of tea I’ve got tastes grand.

It’s September and the wet season is just beginning; the cooling south east trade wind, the laurabada, has made the skies murky so that the hills across Fairfax Harbour look ghostly.  The great scar next to the refinery at Napa Napa is a pale and barely discernible wound.

Just below the veranda, perhaps a hundred metres away, workmen are laying concrete where the old House of Assembly used to stand.  The men must be mostly highlanders because every so often they let out piercing whoops; perhaps the valley of the harbour reminds them of greener vales.  Otherwise, a generator on the site is making a noise like a helicopter.

The big bill board behind the high wire fence announces that the site will be occupied by a new historical museum celebrating Papua New Guinea’s march to nationhood. 

There is an uncomfortable Bjelke Peterson-like irony in putting up a new building in the same place to "protect" the heritage of something that has just been knocked down.  On the gate a much smaller sign is blunter and to the point; it says ‘nogat wok’.

The rain that the laurabada has brought overnight has washed all the rubbish down off the hills and the drains on Champion Parade are blocked, creating a gigantic puddle across the road and into some of the buildings. 

No one seems to be unblocking the drains but people are sweeping water out of their foyers and laying down flattened cardboard cartons to walk on so you don’t drag mud into the lifts.

I can see perhaps a dozen high rise buildings from where I sit with my cup of tea.  On the inside point of Paga Hill an old colonial house clings doggedly to its cutting.  The site must be worth millions.

My uphill trudge had begun at Ela Beach where I’d gone for a coffee at the Beachside Brasserie attached to the Ela Beach Hotel, a renovated and upmarket reincarnation of the old Davara Hotel. 

Across the road the sea was gently lapping the beach just below the blue-painted and graffitied Davara Ela Beach Sewerage Pumping Station.

Along the roadway a team of ladies with brand new plastic rakes and spiky hand switches were busily cleaning out the gutters in readiness for the Independence Day celebrations and the Hiri Moala Festival.  The men at Hanuabada and Gabi had built two lagatoi for the occasion in the record time of three weeks. 

Both were really just two big old dugout canoes temporarily strapped together with the requisite platforms, shelters and masts that looked like they’d snap at the first hint of a breeze.  The thought was there but they’d never make it out beyond the reef, let alone down the coast loaded with clay pots.

In front of the concrete amphitheatre a team of people were putting the finishing touches to two houses in the water connected to each other and the land by high walkways.  They were working against the clock and there were still piles of bush timber, thatch and bush ropes in rolls stacked on the ground.

When I went over to say hello I noticed the grey bark mottled with light green moss on the bush timber.  As I chatted to one of the ladies it occurred to me that what they were building, temporary thought it would be, was much more like the real Papua New Guinea than the mess of concrete buildings over the road. 

That museum thing they were building up the hill on the other side of Hunter Street surrounded by its concrete mess of mismatched high rises with their rubbish strewn streets and blocked drains was not the real Papua New Guinea.

Despite what people might say about progress Port Moresby is just another dirty, overcrowded third world city which increasingly owes its burgeoning existence to the minerals and hydrocarbons of the hinterlands.

Port Moresby, when all is said and done, is just an itchy dry scab on the belly of an otherwise beautiful country I thought as I drained the last of my tea.  I hope it isn’t the future.

Three hours & several lifetimes later….

BY KEITH JACKSON

PORT MORESBY is three hours and 35 years away.

In the early eighties I’d had the last word on Tim Bowden’s landmark radio series Taim Bilong Masta when I’d told my story of leaving Moresby for the last time in 1976.

Each other time I’d left on leave or on business (‘best view of Moresby is from the arse end of a south bound 727’), I knew I would return.

But not this time. Colonialism was dead and my next career was just coming alive.

As the jet banked to head towards Australia and the coast;line quickly disappeared from view, I noticed that my son, Simon – then eight, now 43 – had tears in his eyes.

As Taim Bilong Masta records it, I asked ‘What’s up Sime, is it your ears?’ and he replied ‘No, I’m leaving home’. I couldn’t speak because I felt exactly the same way.

And now, for a brief moment, I’m returning to Port Moresby.  Even back in the sixties, we used to say that ‘Moresby’s not PNG’.  Its small town in a big town flavour; its dry season aridity; its population of big timers… my generation of colonials by and large preferred the bush.

It hadn’t been for city living that we’d chosen to go to TPNG.

So now, 35,000 feet above a sparkling Coral Sea, I’m returning.  Not home, there’s no feeling of going home – 35 years is more than enough to put that sentiment to rest.

I’m returning to a place I used to know very well indeed, and that I now know not at all.  A place, let’s face it, with a diabolical reputation.

You don’t travel to Moresby to visit, it’s said, you go there because you have to.

Well, I don’t have to.  Coming back under my own steam because there’s unfinished business for Australians in Papua New Guinea.

When we left in huge numbers in the mid-seventies, we left friends behind.  Papua New Guineans who had believed we were committed to them as well as to ourselves.  But when our flag fell and theirs was raised, with the explicit encouragement of the Australian government we had disappeared.

What a mistake that was.  We should have been prepared to serve under a new flag and to be removed in an orderly, friendly, affirming way.

But it did not happen like that and the bonds that had been created between two neighbours weakened and, on occasion, ruptured altogether.

There were friends we made who we never saw again.

In its own modest way, PNG Attitude seeks to restore some better connection between us rank and file Australians and Papua New Guineans.

And that’s why I’ve headed back, however briefly.  To continue that reconnection.

A parliament of eunuchs? Is corruption biological?

BY PHIL FITZPATRICK

WHAT MOTIVATES these multinational companies hell bent on plundering Papua New Guinea’s natural resources no matter what the cost?

Why do Papua New Guinean politicians, no matter what their original ideals, inevitably become corrupt and join the others at the trough?

Well, at the most basic level, it goes back to simple biological imperative – the need to spread their genes as widely as possible.

After eating, this is the most dire need of humanity.

The logic is straight forward enough.  To spread and perpetuate our genes we need to produce as many offspring as we can manage in our limited life times.

For men this means attracting as many females to mate with as possible.  For women it means selecting and supporting the strongest and most aggressive male in the pack to bear her children.

To this end men, like all males, are driven to collect and display the trappings of power, wealth and the implied virility to attract the best females to breed their children to carry their genes forward.

In this sense, and at its most basic level, there is little to distinguish the CEO of a multinational company from the traditional Papua New Guinean big man; they are both hell bent on mindlessly satisfying the same biological urge.

And they both have a common enemy, the young bucks trying to topple them off their perch and take over their wealth and prestige so they can corner the market on available females and gene proliferation.

The power and potential wealth-generating opportunities afforded by a seat in parliament plays exactly into the hands of this paradigm.

The spinoffs and permutations of this most basic of biological facts are multitudinous and varied.  They include our inventions of such esoteric concepts as love, romance, religion and the sanctity of marriage.  Men beat up women to demonstrate their power and suitability as mates.  The list is endless.

For the young bucks and their mates pushing the grizzled old leaders out of the pack brooks no sensibility.  If you have to accuse them of corruption and other dastardly deeds like environmental destruction so be it.

And where do all these ambitious young bucks and their female offsiders dwell?  Among other places, they occupy the middle classes and, of late, populate the internet.

A bit too simplistic and sexist perhaps?

You can make it as complex and sophisticated as you like and dress it up in the biggest words you can find but it always comes back to the same basic idea.

What to do about it?  Nothing really; it's biology at work.

Perhaps a parliament of eunuchs?

The brown tree snake: a ‘world worst invader’

BOIGA IRREGULARIS – also known as the brown tree snake - is rear-fanged, mildly venomous and has been nominated as among 100 of the “world’s worst” invaders.

The snake can reach three metres in length, but is usually one to two metres. In Papua New Guinea, where it is native, it occupies a wide variety of habitats at elevations up to 1,200 meters, being most commonly found in trees, caves and near limestone cliffs.

The snakes frequently come to the ground to forage at night but hides during the day in the crowns of palms, hollow logs, rock crevices, caves and even dark corners near the roof of thatched houses. They spend most days coiled in a cool and dark location, such as a treetop or a rotted log; it often takes refuge in pandanus trees.

Based on frequent mention of it in relation to buildings, domestic poultry and caged birds, the brown tree snake is common in human-disturbed habitats and second-growth forests.

It will eat frogs, lizards, small mammals, birds and birds’ eggs. In PNG, eggs and chicks are regularly consumed, but mammals are more frequently taken. Having nearly depleted the bird populations on Guam, larger snakes have been found scavenging garbage and even sneaking in to steal a hamburger off the barbeque.

Native island species are predisposed and vulnerable to local extinction by invaders. When the brown tree snake was accidentally introduced to Guam, it caused the local extinction of most of the island’s native bird and lizard species. It also caused the subsequent decline of native plant species.

The snake is an excellent climber, using minute irregularities to ascend almost any structure, is extremely efficient at entering small openings and hiding in them for protracted periods and can survive for months without food. This allows it to be accidentally transported in both sea and air cargo. For example, brown tree snakes can hide in the wheel-wells of aircraft.

The rapid spread of the snake in Guam after 1960 is unexplained. It is plausible that some people might have intentionally spread the snake to suppress rat populations, which were very high on Guam before the snakes became established.

Source: Invasive Species Specialist Group

On wings of hope fly the birds of metal

BY JEFFREY MANE FEBI

THE RURAL AREAS of Papua New Guinea are the forgotten lands; where the lack of government presence and the consequent high illiteracy and high maternal and infant mortality is a tragedy.

In such places, many people only hear exaggerated stories of the outside world and then conjure up mental pictures to charm their imaginations.  But there’s only one way out to the world they dream of.  This is the way of the metal birds.

These birds come in different shapes and sizes and are the wings of hope that grace the skies of remote rural PNG: Mission Aviation Fellowship, Seventh Day Adventist Aviation and Airlines PNG to name a few.

These birds are the wings of hope for the very ill; they are the transporters of coffee; they are the only connection through which a glimpse of the outside world can be manifested.

For decades, through thick and thin, they have faithfully served remote rural PNG.  Many of those who have piloted these birds over rugged terrain and into deep valleys are very brave.

Some have lost their lives while others continue to fly, not because there’s a fortune to be made but because their hearts are burdened by the tragedy they witness.

This poem celebrates these wings of hope and the men who fly them over PNG’s rugged mountains and valleys.

Wings of hope

On their gentle wings,
Women and children fly.
And sickman eventually finds
Peace, healing and more.

O how they grace the skies,
And hope they bring to many
A forgotten soul who, under
Cloud cover and thick jungles
Speak of dreams of hope.

And gather in enthusiastic crowds,
With smiles the sun and the moon,
Can only hope for in their brightest.

Then their dreams fly,
Into clouds to sing to others who
Can hear and let their hearts beat.

To a disharmony that pervades
Many a fine land on cruel ridges,
In deep valleys and on lonely islands,
Where the sun and the moon
Mock day and night.

O these birds, sounds of technology
That grace our skies thru thick and thin;
Aren’t they our wings of hope?

Thousands have benefitted and thousands more will benefit. Let us all together thank them for the things they have done. Thank you Wings of Hope.

Highest number of longlongs in the world

BY JEFFREY FEBI

“PORT MORESBY has the highest number of longlongs in the world,” my friend uttered suddenly in the back seat of the car.

It may not sound funny but for some reason it was to us that Monday afternoon, and in unison we burst into loud laughter.  We had a really good laugh.

Curious, the driver asked my friend to explain. And my friend said he thought there were just too many people in Port Moresby who couldn’t live a day without doing something against normal social order.

Things like spitting buai juice anywhere one pleases, littering, shouting profanities in public, parking awkwardly, driving recklessly in Port Moresby’s narrow and crowded roads, street fighting by students from different schools.

While he was talking, a passenger (in her work clothes) in a bus running alongside us threw out of the window on to the road a Coke cup with betel nut spittle and my friend exclaimed, “Gosh, this is what I’m talking about!”

I pondered over this remark and thought it was correct.  Through either arrogance or ignorance, many people break simple rules at will and act in ways that make Port Moresby’s streets filthy and unsafe.

The fact that people continue to do this despite much public outrage prompts me to think something is wrong with their minds.

And my friend might be right if we define a longlong as an apparently sane person who continuously doing things against anticipated social order and or continuously does wrong without guilt.

Martyn Namorong suggested in his article Does PNG really have an attitude problem that politicians have an attitude problem and need to clean their backyards before pointing fingers at the ignorant multitudes.

Many politicians and high office holders are the worst law breakers and are serial offenders. These are people who are supposed to know better, but don’t seem to so they fit the definition of longlongs too.

Port Moresby may not have the highest number of longlongs in the world but certainly it has the highest number of longlongs, educated and uneducated, in Papua New Guinea.

Religion as a powerful & beneficial force

BT PETER KRANZ

THERE IS A church on a hill outside Moruata.  It is Evangelical Lutheran. They welcome all comers, are most friendly and it is a great place to celebrate your religion, meet friends and be at peace - whatever your religion may be.

Nobody there is judgmental or exclusive, and they usually have a great communal meal after services. My 'car from hell' managed to make it to the top of the hill several times.

I'm a bit cynical about religion (which I shouldn't be).  I grew up an SDA, went to an Anglican school, moved through a Catholic period while at university, and then 'found religion' again through the Four Square Church.

I don't mean to sound sarcastic, but there are more religions than con-men in PNG. Going to church is a part of everyday life.

I've been to Catholic services in downtown Mosbi, Anglican services in Waigani, Pentecostal services in Morauta, and SDA services at Sogeri.

However the best was a Four Square Gospel graduation of ministerial students at 17 Mile. My brother-in-law was one of the participants - which explains how I got there.

At first it was normal discreet religious worship, and then people started dancing 'in the spirit of the Lord'. It got pretty amazing. Well David 'danced before the Lord' and these graduates lived up to his tradition.

Religion in PNG is a powerful and mostly beneficial force. It produces great beauty, compassion and tolerance, and some amazing ceremonies. People are well-meaning, tolerant and loving - moreso than most Australians.

But it can be easily misunderstood. Go there and experience it for yourself.

I have mixed feelings about the historical influence of religion in PNG.  But when you go to church there, you realise there is a great world-wide community of believers with whom you can feel at peace and at home.

God bless - whether you are a believer or not.

Forgotten species: the Tenkile tree kangaroo

BY JEREMY HANCE

WITH THEIR LONG snout, furry body, soft eyes, and, at times, upright stance, tree kangaroos have inhabited the Earth for at least 5 million years.

But the lack of general public knowledge about the 14 tree kangaroo species - and subsequent dearth of conservation attention - means that, yes, even adorable mammals can be overlooked. Yet if the arboreal marsupials aren't to vanish, this will have to change.

Not only are tree kangaroos ridiculously endearing, but, according to tree kangaroo expert Jim Thomas, they have special adaptations that separate them from their larger, more popular cousins.

"Basically a tree kangaroo is a kangaroo that has adapted to life in the trees," Thomas explained to mongabay.com. "They are able to hop and walk bipedally - no other kangaroo can do the same. Tree kangaroos are also able to raise their arms above their head like a koala, but no other kangaroo can do this. Tree kangaroos are also considered more intelligent than other kangaroos."

Unfortunately, over 20% of the world's tree kangaroos are listed as critically endangered, the direst category before extinction. But none of them is as imperiled as the Tenkile tree kangaroo, otherwise known as Scott's tree kangaroo. Researchers estimate that only around 300 survive in a small area of PNG’s Torricelli Mountain Range.

"I have seen three Tenkile in eight years, all from the wild. Magnificent animals, very placid and friendly and the most inquisitive tree kangaroo I've come across. Tenkile are large, black and have a distinctive smell," says Thomas, who is the director of the Tenkile Conservation Alliance (TCA), the world's only organisation devoted to saving this species from vanishing off the face of the Earth.

As such, TCA has undertaken a herculean task. First, they had to tackle the problem of locals hunting the species. To date a moratorium has worked, allowing the Tenkile population to double from 140 animals in 2004. But new threats are on the horizon, not just for the Tenkile tree kangaroo, but for all of PNG’s forests and species.

"Now logging and oil palm pose a threat to Tenkile. TCA is working hard to keep these threats out of the Torricelli's," says Thomas.

The world's big conservation organisations are largely ignoring PNG, risking countless species, vast forests, and local people. Communities are seeing traditional land handed over to foreign corporations without local consent or even prior knowledge.

If nothing is done, in a decade or two PNG may resemble parts of Indonesia: vast areas of plantations and cleared forest; a people still impoverished but now without the forest resources on which they depended for millennia; and wildlife only hanging-on in a few parks, which are continually under siege by illegal logging.

What to do? In the case of TCA they are doing what they can for the Tenkile by pushing for its habitat to be turned into a protected area. "TCA is establishing the Torricellis as a Conservation Area, and will hopefully have the area gazetted by Papua New Guinea government. The Torricelli's, through TCA, is now recognized by government as a priority area for conservation—which is a huge step," says Thomas.

For Thomas a highlight of his work with TCA was researching a male Tenkile tree kangaroo in captivity. Dubbed 'Neingol', the tree kangaroo was released back into the wild after six weeks.

"I took a team into the mountains to release Neingol. It took two days to reach the area where Neingol was caught. I released him carefully and he was at first reluctant to leave his small wire cage […] He stayed close for 30 minutes or so—I was able to pat him and move freely.

“All of a sudden his nose went to the air, he smelled and he ran off along the ground," Thomas says, adding that, "Seeing a wild caught animal do well in captivity and then releasing it back into the wild was a real highlight of my career and something I will never forget."

For Jim Thomas, his time with the Tenkile was unforgettable. But since most of us will never see a wild Tenkile, the question is will this species—and the conservation efforts that are currently sustaining it—be forgotten?

Source: Mongabay.com

The most powerful truck in PNG

BY GARY RICHARDS

 
IF YOU'VE EVER found yourself thinking: I wonder what the most powerful truck in Papua New Guinea is (it's been keeping Biglorryblog awake at nights), I can tell you. It's this Volvo 8x4 FH16.700.

And why do you need a truck like that in PNG? Well the working environment in PNG is very rugged. For example there's:

Rainfall up to 470 inches, yes, 12 metres a year

The road to the Ok Tedi main camp rises 1,500m in 132 km of winding mountain road

Gradients up to 17% - there is one 30km section that averages 8%

Gruelling' is a bit of an understatement.

Road transport at Ok Tedi recently stepped a significant notch with the most powerful road hauler in the country - the Australian-built FH16 700 8x4 - now doing the main heavy hauling up to the site - up to 110 tonne GCM up those 17% wet, slippery grades.

The truck will bring the heavy gear down those steep wet, slippery grades. The drivetrain combination of Volvo D16G 700, ATO3112 I-shift gearbox and big 3210 hub reduction axles will certainly be earning their keep.

The pic is from its maiden haul up the hill ...on a dry day!

Gary 'Two Hats' Richards looks after product management and sales promotion for Mack and Volvo in Australia

Source: Big Lorry Blog

Can any reader identify this location?

BY JANET WESSLING

 

MY DAD was in Papua New Guinea during World War II with the US Army Corps of Engineers on the Kapa Kapa Trail.

I have a picture that I can't identify of a trail in PNG, or it might even possibly be in the Brisbane area!

Thank you for any help you or your readers may be able to give me.

Janet lives in Falmouth, Massachusetts and you can email here here

Musing on Dre Dragii, the beautiful girl

BY PETER KRANZ

THE DRE DRAGII is a most beautiful orchid which should be the provincial flower of Simbu.

It is widely used in decorations and in traditional cultural events.

My wife Rose says it is especially prized because of it's lovely perfume, which persists long after the flowers have wilted.

In the Kuman language of the Simbu people it is called Dre Dragii, which means beautiful girl and you can appreciate why.

I believe it is the species Dendrobium Habbamesse, which normally grows only on trees and rock in moist conditions above 5,000 feet.

This explains why our cuttings didn't last long in Moresby, even though, as I have written previously, we had the most beautiful garden [pictured below] at our home in the university settlement.

 

Ambai wagai enduwas & other Simbu phrases

BY PETER KRANZ

MY WIFE Rose speaks excellent Kuman and Tok Pisin (natch!) and pretty good English. I speak middling Tok Pisin and even less Kuman. My English is passable.

I've been trying to nail down the translation of some Kuman words. Maybe PNG Attitude contributors can help. Here are a few -

Beans = pinga
Bird = kua
Brother = angra
Chicken = kondwagee
Dog = argh (puppy)
Greens = ambwa or mogwana
I don't like = kinde kaninga
Large bird with the black tail feathers - kua sine mige
Love= kaninga
My wife = embanum mockwa
Naughty bits - tratna
Pandanus = komba
Pig = bugha
Pumpkin = olghwa
Sister = ambai
Sweet potato = kaya
Water = nigl cor
Wife = mockwa

What I have learned is that much Simbu pronunciation cannot be easily translated into English, e.g., the 'ng' sound, or the 'gl'. These are double-consonant africatives or plosives.

Well that's your language lesson for today.

Editor’s note: From the mists of my distant past emerges wagai (beautiful), endawas (come here) and  endapas (go away). But it was a long time ago and my memory may be as bad as my spelling - KJ

Annual report on coasters proves a winner

IT WAS ONE of those bright ideas that don’t seem to make much sense after the first rush of enthusiasm.

But this one actually got somewhere. A South Pacific Brewery annual report, printed entirely on beer coasters, has won a bunch of top awards.

There was a gold medal for design at the Clio Awards and a silver at Cannes in 2010 followed by a gold in the Annual Reports category at the New York Festival of Advertising earlier this year.

The PNG company had its annual financial report printed on to pages made of perforated coasters, each with a unique design.

The pages were hand-stitched and wrapped with a cover, tied together with chunky wire.

Stakeholders in the brewery were literally able to have a drink on their company’s success.

Source: The Inspiration Room

Airstrip work crucial to Bible translation

MANY AIRSTRIPS in PNG are little more than clearings that cling to the side of a mountain or are surrounded by jungle.

Over time, heavy rains and thick vegetation contribute to the deterioration of the landing sites, which represent a connection to the outside world for Bible translators working in relative isolation.

Translators rely on aircraft for the delivery of food and supplies, as well as transportation for themselves and support staff. An air evacuation during health emergencies and natural disasters can mean the difference between life and death.

Wycliffe Associates, an international organisation that involves people in the acceleration of Bible translation efforts, is working to repair and reopen airstrips in some of these areas.

"Air transportation, the lifeblood of support for translators, is at risk," says Bruce Smith, CEO of Wycliffe Associates. "In addition to repairs, we must reopen multiple airstrips this year to begin translation in languages that desperately need God's Word."

Wycliffe Associates needs to raise $50,000 this year to carry out necessary repairs to maintain or reopen crucial airstrips in PNG.

The funds will be used to purchase mowers, shovels, wheelbarrows, airstrip markers and windsocks, and to deliver gravel. In addition, the funding will provide surveys and earth-moving equipment for new airstrips.

At any given time, approximately 1,000 adult volunteers, translators, support personnel, and children are in PNG in connection with the work of Bible translation.

Source: Mission Network News

A PNG / AusAID innovation: school in a box

BY PHIL FITZPATRICK

KNOCKING AUSAID HAS become a bit of a tradition on PNG Attitude – unfortunately deservedly so.

Occasionally you hear some good stories, however, and it makes you wonder whether there are actually some good people buried beneath the dead weight of upper and middle management and rampant consultants.

The school buildings and teacher’s houses in flat packs [being transported, above] is a good one for instance.

The flat pack consists of a classroom or teacher’s house in kit form.  It’s basically a building in a box, with a door, walls, window and roof which can be put together quickly with simple tools al la Ikea. 

I think the cladding has to be added on site and I’m not sure whether there are two versions, house or classroom, minor details anyway. That's a teacher's house on the right.

The kits have been designed in PNG and funded by AusAID.  They are made locally of PNG sustainable timber.

I’ve got a Kwila outdoor setting made in PNG which I bought at Barbeques Galore.  If the quality is the same they’re laughing.

Since the timber is sourced locally, the kits made locally and shipping done by locals employment is created locally.

Because they are in a flat pack they can be shipped easily and, if needs be, carried into otherwise inaccessible places by foot.

The idea of having a teacher’s house in kit form is inspired.  Attracting teachers to remote areas is extremely difficult.  A well set up and comfortable house is ideal bait.

There are currently 85 kits going out to schools. So says Stanley Oluwond [pictured], who has just taken a load to Milne Bay.  Stanley works for AusAID’s education team in Moresby.

The only thing I’m wondering, since the whole scheme seems like a brilliant idea, is why it’s not standard practice in the Education Department.

Read more about it in Focus (Feb/May 2011), the free AusAID magazine, also available online at http://www.ausaid.gov.au/focusonline

How to manage a perm (Melanesian style)

BY PETER KRANZ

I HAVE NOTICED an interesting change in PNG women's hairstyle fashions over the last decade.

Ten years ago, Big Hair (Papuan-style) was out and short locks were all the rage - even crew cuts.

Then came dreadlocks and braids. Now there are special PNG-style perms - short tight curls, which to the disappointment of PNG women in Australia, Aussie hair stylists are ignorant of. (My wife is thinking of starting a specialist business, but we need to find an importer for the right preparations).

Now Big Hair is making a comeback! I have persuaded my wife to let it grow and comb it out naturally- à la a 1940's style fuzzy wuzzy look. She has met with many appreciative comments at the local shopping centre and many women have asked how she does her hair. Fijians know all about this.

But to get the right treatment is not easy. Being a man I am woefully ignorant of such matters.

Here is a PNG-style perm recipe from Vanuatu, but pretty close to the original. This is for the tight curls style (1990's fashion). However, for the original Big Hair look you just need to let it grow, comb and wash regularly.

How to do a hair perm

1. Shampoo hair

2. Apply perm creme (wave Nouveau) Phase 1 Shape Release

3. Leave it for ten minutes then rinse out

4. Apply the Shape Transformer (wave Nouveau) Phase 2 Shape Transformer which is the lotion and start to roll the hair by using perm paper rollers. Leave it out by covering with a plastic cap for 30 minutes

5. Rinse out then dry the hair, then continue with (wave Nouveau) Phase 3 which is the Neutraliser. Cover hair with a plastic cap and leave for 15 minutes

6. Take the rollers out and rinse the hair, then trim the split ends and apply moisturiser and style products as desired

7. Dry and comb

8. Wow!

Random thoughts from a weekend warrior

BY PETER KRANZ

A FEW RANDOM thoughts for the weekend. I try and keep up with PNG news and here are a few gleanings.

Watch the latest episode of South Pacific if you can on ABC TV. Amazing photography, including the first film of Dingiso tree kangaroos in PNG.

A new James Cameron-produced film has just been released. It’s called Sanctum and was filmed in Australia loosely based on a true-life, horrific cave-diving incident in Esa'ala, near Ferguson Island. Not really about PNG, but nail-biting entertainment nonetheless.

Some AusAID workers were car-jacked in Moresby last week. It made the headlines, maybe because they were AusAID workers because car-jacking is fairly common place. (It happened to me twice, and never made the news.) So take appropriate precautions, and don't expect to be treated as special just because you work for the Australian government. Unfortunately this comes with the territory if you work in PNG. I'm a cynical old bugger and have a broken nose to prove it.

Tribal conflict between Enga and Tari youths caused the deaths of five people and the closure of Gordons market. This is serious stuff compared with the dilettante AusAID workers who had their cars pinched.

The LNG negotiations with landowners are in chaos, despite the LNG2 deal being signed yesterday.

The court case involving RamuNico and tailings dumping off Madang is due back in court next week. TiffanyNonggorr is holding her own, although she has been subject to scurrilous criticism.

Porgera pollution hit the western headlines with a documentary aired last week about the scale of the damage incurred. This is exercising the Canadian press. Likewise the Nautilus seabed mining project and alleged pollution at Hidden Valley. What is it with mining and PNG? Are westerners so greedy they don't give a stuff about the local people?

Mangi Mosbi 2 has fathered two more piglets. So the world hasn't fallen off its axis.

Memories of those white knuckle flights

 

Here's a reminder of how dangerous and challenging flying into remote airstrips in New Guinea can be. This is Korupun in West Papua, but there are many similar landing places in PNG – Peter Kranz

Aibom - Peles bilong sospen graun na saksak

BY BARBARA SHORT

BACK IN 1974, when I was a teacher at Brandi High School, a group of us made a trip to the Chambri Lakes on the Sepik River.

Here we met up with some of our students who decided to take us to the village of Aibom, noted for its pottery.

We were staying at Chambri village and had to find our way through the huge floating islands of grass which seemed to move at random around the lake depending on the way the wind was blowing.

As we went along in our small canoe, we disturbed large flocks of ducks of all shapes and sizes, black, brown, royal blue and red, with many white long-necked herons and other brightly coloured tiny birds.

The people at that time could not afford ‘shot’ so the Chambri Lakes area was a fantastic wildlife reserve.

Aibom village is on a hill poking up out of these shallow depression lakes, and somewhere close by is the fine red clay the people use for their pots.

Under each house was a varied display of pots and pottery pieces of all kinds for sale. Under one we found a lady busy at work making a large pottery fireplace, which was used for cooking in the large bush material houses. 

Behind her were huge jars used for storing water and sago, smaller jars and drinking mugs, all decorated with faces.

Our group made many purchases including the typical smaller jars plus many exotic creations which cost a few dollars each and would now probably be worth a lot of money on the Primitive Art market!

Later on our trip we called in at Kamindimbit village, further along the Sepik River, and were able to observe a ceremony involving the marriage of a young couple.

We watched as the bridegroom’s family handed over the bride price, which was in a small cash box, and then took photographs of the bride’s dowry. It included floor mats, Aibom water and sago pots, Aibom pottery woks for cooking, a variety of pottery plates (sospen) and tall woven fish traps.

I wonder if the Aibom people still make these pieces. I would be sorry to hear they had lost the art.

Photos from 1974: Chambri Lakes & floating islands; Aibom lady & pottery fireplace & sago storage jars; Bride's dowry, Kamindimbi [Barbara Short]

Why are we here – and what should we do…

BY HENRY SIMS

THERE MUST be more readers than just I, who despair that the discussion on the AusAID Review has died out without much input from PNG writers.

Papua New Guineans are themselves in the best position to bring about reform as recommended by the learned trio of Eric Kwa, Stephen Howes and Soe Lin. (What is the correct collective noun for two professors and a doctor?)

Attitude’s prolific writer, Paul Oates, has worked hard at providing a three-instalment analysis of the review, but his provocative words have failed to elicit the same response as, say, for an article on the Hiri Moale. A last word from Paul is for less aid, more trade.

My thoughts, previously aired, are that Australia will continue to toss bundles of bank notes across the Torres Strait in hope of keeping the near neighbours “friendly” and as a buffer zone between other less friendly neighbours, no matter who sits in the prime ministerial office in Canberra.

Not all taxpaying Australians are in love with PNG and the seeming “black hole” into which billions of dollars has flowed over the years since independence, with little visible effect.

This apparent “waste” will eventually bring about louder calls for better governance and revisions to system of aid.

As a newcomer to Attitude, I have been listing those whom I consider to be the “good guys” in PNG, to see if this forum can achieve something in the way of marketing our concerns to them and promoting the value of the reported recommendations.

Do any of our august fraternity know if Attitude is reaching the movers-and-shakers in PNG? Does it have personal contact with any, or is this a kiaps’ klab tasol? What is our objective: to do something constructive or just talk about it?

Notwithstanding all this, I am enjoying memories of the Hiri festival and would love to chat with Reginald about theories on common words of the Pacific islands languages and more especially those magnificent sea voyages done by intrepid adventurers of yesteryear.

Multiple arrows fired with extreme prejudice

BY ANY criterion, this is a graphic and shocking photograph.

It shows a wounded PNG highlands man receiving surgical treatment after being pierced by multiple arrows in April this year.

The medical team is clearly focussed on analysing the extent of the wounds and planning a recovery strategy.

Albert Speer MBE advises that there are no other particulars nor any identification of where the photograph was taken.

He’s asking readers to help with details about who the photographer might be.

Albert’s also interested in getting some information about the hospital, as he started some of the early medical services for Tari in years gone by.

If you can assist, contact PNG Attitude here.

PNG Attitude’s 2009 - December in review

Events

PNG’s anti-corruption boss is shot and seriously wounded in an assassination attempt outside his Port Moresby home. PNG's Chief Ombudsman Chronox Manek is left for dead after gunmen fire through the windscreen of his Nissan Patrol

PNG’S huge liquefied natural gas project is given the green light in Port Moresby. Venture partners and the PNG government sign the deal for the $10 billion project at a ceremony at Parliament House. The plan to pipe gas from the highlands to Port Moresby for export to Asia is forecast to double PNG’s gross domestic product and create thousands of jobs

Sir Michael Somare says PNG is not up to the challenges posed by LNG. "We have not trained our people for the projects which will require between 8,000 and 10,000 workers," he says. "How do we get 500 drivers in a day?"

There is a growing backlash against Chinese workers among local populations in Asia, Africa and the Pacific. There are increasing episodes of protest and violence, and Vietnam and India have moved to impose labour rules to restrict the number of Chinese workers allowed to enter, straining relations with Beijing

PNG has failed to live up to promises made in 1975 for improving the quality of life of its people, says former Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan. He says huge amounts of wealth has been generated but the people have suffered. “That is not development. That is not progress. That is failure, pure and simple”

An economic study reveals that, despite PNG experiencing an uninterrupted seven years of economic expansion, this has not translated into reducing poverty. Using the international poverty benchmark of US$1 a day, 40% of PNG’s people live in extreme poverty

An editorial in the PNG press asserts that next year’s referendum in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville could have enormous consequences for the country. In the referendum, Bougainvilleans will decide whether they want to be a part of PNG, or become a separate independent nation

Australia's Environment Minister Peter Garrett is to the new patron of the Montevideo Maru Memorial Committee. The committee was established in 2008 to ensure greater recognition of events surrounding the fall of Rabaul in 1942 and the sinking of the Montevideo Maru with the loss of 1,053 troops and civilians. Garrett’s grandfather, Tom Vernon Garrett, was a prisoner on the ship

Australia's international aid agency, AusAID, is afflicted with problems of transparency, accountability and a lack of communication capacity, an audit finds. The 180-page report, tabled in federal parliament, says "AusAID faces considerable management challenges... Its approach to classifying costs is not in line with conventional practice and reduces the transparency of aid program expenditure, and the agency's accountability for costs that it controls”

Ongoing insecurity forces Médecins Sans Frontières to withdraw international staff from the Tari General Hospital. “In the past few weeks, there have been repeated security incidents including threats to our staff that we cannot tolerate,” said Monique Nagelkerke, head of mission for MSF in Papua New Guinea

Over K60 million allocated by the PNG government for relief and restoration efforts after Cyclone Guba devastated Oro Province in 2007 has “gone missing”. Provincial authorities brief Public Service Minister Peter O’Neill of the situation but are not able to say where the money has gone

PNG’s national superannuation fund, Nasfund, raises serious concerns about the country’s 2010 budget. “The recent delivery of the 2010 budget leaves a lot of unanswered questions,” Nasfund wrote in its December newsletter. “Two years ago, we proudly talked about a surplus in trust accounts of between 3-4 billion kina … now it has been revealed that the trust accounts have fallen to K1.5 billion with lack of full accountability on how and why this money was spent

Albert Speer MBE is appointed the inaugural life member of the Montevideo Maru Memorial Committee. Committee member Rod Miller says, “He really is a man of New Guinea”

Keith Jackson is appointed to the role of Adjunct Professor of Journalism and Communication at the University of Queensland

Deaths

Mac Vines, 67, Courier-Mail cartoonist and ex-PNG teacher, dies in Brisbane. “He was always fun to be around and provided another dimension to outstation life,” say friends

Sister Clare Gilchrist, 86, dies in Sydney. She arrived in PNG in 1965 to set up a bush hospital at Pumakos near Mount Hagen. She was one of the 178 Sisters of Mercy who served in PNG for the 50 years between 1956 and 2006, mainly in education and health

Quotes

“Everyone is talking non-stop about the great benefits of the LNG project and what blessings it will bestow upon the poor people of PNG. Yeah, big deal. As usual, it’s all big talk from the government. As usual, there will not be any sustainable 'trickle-down' effect for the grassroots and resource owners” – Reginald Renagi

“This afternoon saw a great outpouring of sentiment from a dozen or more Papuan readers. There was a fiery sense of Papuan nationalism. The corruption and ineffectuality of the PNG government is beginning to have profound effects; starting to get people thinking about some form of autonomy. There are complaints about deliberate manipulation of the electoral system and about a loss confidence and respect in Michael Somare’s leadership. There’s a call for a ‘new generation push’ for autonomy for Papua. I think we should consider ourselves warned” – Keith Jackson

“Sweet potato or kaukau is believed to have been introduced to Melanesia in the mid 1600s. The food was brought to Asia from South America by the Spanish and Portuguese, reaching PNG through Indonesia and also as a result of Polynesian migrations. Kaukau grows from sea level to about 3,000 metres, but its maximum yields occur between 2,000 and 2,600 metres. Its introduction resulted in a dramatic rise in population in the Highland areas where it grew best”- Philip Fitzpatrick

“You, the well-educated, largely urban dwelling middle class of PNG, you are the future. You have influence back home in the village because you are members of a support-group. Make your position in life, your ambitions for yourselves, your kids, and the bubus to come the glue that forms another, far more influential and fruitful commonality. Forge a huge linkage of common interest of class and aspirations for the future, as opposed to the bonds of common ancestry that help perpetuate the problems” – John Fowke

“If the PNG government is really serious about combating corruption, then an Independent Commission Against Corruption must be set up immediately. Setting up an ICAC has been mooted many times before, but nothing substantive has resulted. The main reason: successive governments have lacked the political will to stamp out corruption” – Reginald Renagi

“One of the night shift workers came to me one morning stating he had liklik worry. When I asked what the problem was he explained he had taken his false teeth out to eat his Navy Biscuit and, when went to pick them up, he saw a rat racing off with them. Unfortunately he was unable to catch the rat before it disappeared down a hole. He requested if he could have the teeth replaced as they were his front ones. Goroka Hospital came to the rescue at K20 per tooth” – Terry Shelley

“It is curious that there is a hint of nostalgia for the old kiap days among a few Papua New Guineans, not just us old white farts with rose-coloured glasses. That suggests a desire for organisation on a micro level rather than the macro autonomy plan; perhaps every district in the provinces needs a dedicated zealot to get things done” – Philip Fitzpatrick

“Young, educated Papua New Guineans are starting to stand up and challenge the status quo of yesteryear's leaders. Politicians like Sam Basil have been prepared to speak out and be counted when it comes to issues of ethical governance. This is an encouraging sign. Online discussions I have had with a number of PNG people have indicated a growing awareness of their government's shortcomings and what this is caused by. These are the first steps along the road to change” – Paul Oates

“Consider the feelings of Papua New Guineans, at one moment made free of foreign domination and, so soon after independence, once again heavily colonised in terms of influence and take up of business opportunities by aliens who seem free to break all relevant legislated controls. Is there any wonder that they feel aggrieved?” – John Fowke

“It was morally wrong for the government to extravagantly burn K8 million for the Copenhagen climate change conference. We did not need a big delegation of over 40. PNG has nothing beneficial to show for it. The public should be in an uproar over their government’s spending millions for some greedy people to attend a conference that did not reach any viable agreement. This is a total waste of money” – Reginald Renagi

“K20 million to the Kikori landowner associations? This roughly equates to K2500 for each man, woman and child, let alone what it would be if restricted to members of the associations. The truth will probably be seen in a dozen or two big, flash and over-powered luxury game-fishing-type cruisers, and flash houses with satellite phones for the privileged few, and overhead-laden fish-and-sago-marketing schemes presided over by the owners of the boats. One hopes that this will not come to pass” – John Fowke

“National AIDS Council director Wep Kanawi, says family living lies at the epicentre of the national HIV/AIDS response. The Department for Community Development and UNICEF now focus on the role of family in early child development. It is great to see the way the PNG Post-Courier has changed its focus on family living in recent times. There was a time when it lagged behind in presenting itself as a warm and caring newspaper. The nation has spoken” – Bruce Copeland

“The PNG constitution has been compromised by the use of political power. The Office of the Ombudsman - arbiter of correct parliamentary practice – has been either unable or unwilling to act on complaints against political malpractice, burying responsible government in PNG” – Paul Oates

Most commented on

Development & regional autonomy – 14

Corruption – 14

LNG project issues – 9

Violence – 9

PNG Attitude’s 2009 - November in review

Events

Transparency International’s annual corruption index shows PNG slipping down the league table. In the index of 180 countries, PNG drops three places to 154. “We stand the real and dangerous risk of becoming another failed resource-rich economy where our elected leaders end up siphoning off the nation’s wealth,” said TI chairman Peter Aitsi

Sir Michael Somare says he believes PNG public servants are more corrupt than politicians. Sir Michael reveals a report that show many senior public servants are stealing from government

Opposition Leader Sir Mekere Morauta says Sir Michael Somare has “come to his senses’’ by admitting corruption is rampant in his government, but has failed to act. “Everyone is fed up with the evil and destructive effect of corruption [which is] destroying the fabric of the system on which PNG is built,” says Sir Mekere

The PNG parliament is told that K2.2 million disappeared from the improvement program for the Tewai-Siassi open electorate between May and September. Local MP, Vincent Michaels, blames “a Waigani criminal syndicate”

The Australian Senate reports on economic challenges facing PNG and the Pacific. The committee concedes aid “does not always reach the intended beneficiaries or those most in need of assistance” and says it “could be aligned more closely with the needs and priorities of the recipient country”. The Senate tells AusAID it should link its on-the-ground programs with strategic objectives

An Australian National Audit Office performance audit of AusAID questions its ability to deliver Kevin Rudd’s pledge to double the aid budget by 2016

Malaysian conglomerate Rimbunan Hijau – owner of PNG timber, mass media (The National), property development, retailing and technology enterprises - appears before the PNG parliamentary committee inquiring into May’s anti-Asian riots. Its executives strongly deny allegations of human smuggling, drug running and arms trafficking and it accuses “international non-governmental organisations” of trying to sabotage its operations in PNG

The parliamentary committee investigating the May anti-Asian riots is in turmoil following the government’s sacking of chairman Jamie Maxtone-Graham and the resignation of three members – including a vice-minister - in sympathy

A nasty piece of propaganda circulates in PNG instructing Asian businesses to cease trading by 31 December 2009, falsely claiming this is “in line with the PNG parliamentary bipartisan committee findings”. It says that if the businesses do not close, people will take to the streets again. “No need to buy candlesticks on New Years Eve,” it threatens

The Australian parliament highly commends the work of kiaps in pre-independence PNG. Scott Morrison MP moves a private member’s motion calling upon parliament to recognise the service of Australians employed as kiaps between 1949 and 1974 and to acknowledge the hazardous and difficult conditions that were experienced. “The kiaps were an extraordinary group of young Australians who performed a remarkable service for the people of PNG,” Mr Morrison says. “They were some of our nation’s finest”

Relatives of more than 1000 Australian troops and civilians who lost their lives in the sinking of the Montevideo Maru in 1942 have a breakthrough in their campaign for greater understanding of the tragedy. ''I think we all agree now that the detail and the significance of the event have not received appropriate recognition in the past,'' says Veterans' Affairs Minister, Alan Griffin

PNG officials say they are prepared to reopen the Manus Island detention centre to help solve Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's asylum seeker problem. "If there is a request from Australia, our government will consider it," says Foreign Minister Sam Abal

Deaths

Former Keravat high school headmaster John Bowden dies. He arrived at Keravat in 1954, married another expatriate teacher and stayed in PNG for twelve years, eleven at Keravat. He was headmaster of Keravat from 1960-65

Eric Hawcroft, a pioneering educator closely associated with the development of teacher training at ASOPA, dies at the age of 96. Eric was deputy-principal of Balmain Teachers College for many years

Peter Figgis MC dies. He was a Coastwatcher on New Britain for a year in 1943-44

Quotes

“How good is Will Genia? This is the question dominating discussion among Rugby followers around the world. It comes after Genia’s meteoric rise through Australian Rugby this year, and his man of the match performance for the Wallabies at Twickenam. The international media has really taken to the pint-sized 21-year-old scrum half who was born in Port Moresby, and is being hailed as Australia’s long-term solution for halfback” – Donald Hook

“This has not been a good year for trekking. We read in the media that the numbers of trekkers has dropped 27%. Five people died on the track itself and there has been an air crash at Kokoda that killed 13, including nine Australians. We’re waiting for the investigation report. The two engines have been sent to Canada. That should hold things up very nicely” - Bruce Copeland

“Several years ago I was dangling a line in the Kikori River at Kaiam in the Gulf Province hoping to snare a barramundi. I noticed a little procession coming down the road and congregating on the other side of the river. They were evenly spaced about twenty metres apart, with a couple of blokes front and rear toting M16s. There is unfettered illegal immigration to this part of PNG. A lot come in through West Papua” - Philip Fitzpatrick

“I was recently back in the PNG highlands and spent some time in Lufa with little Kevinrudd and his family. Kevinrudd is a delightful little boy, cheerful and easy and not at all afraid of white skin (most children his age are). The novelty and interest has waned a little, but nobody in the area is in any doubt where his name came from” - Mark Binns

“It is time for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to diplomatically tell PNG political leaders to be more accountable for the billions spent in development aid. This is a good time for Australia to pave the way for a new political order in the Pacific. It is time to systematically reduce AusAID funding so PNG is forced to plan better and start living within its own means without being over-dependent on Australia. Today, PNG desperately needs more trade with Australia, not more aid” - Reginald Renagi

“The native men, later named Fuzzy-Wuzzy Angels, were a largely unwilling and confused corps of young-to-middle-aged conscripts. The Fuzzies, all unknowing, were the real pioneers of modern, independent PNG simply by being among those who faced and fought and ultimately subdued the rapacious Japanese Empire, they were heroes in this context and this needs to be said, loud and clear” - John Fowke

Most commented on

Montevideo Maru - 20

AusAID deficiencies – 11

PNG Attitude newsletter - 9

PNG Attitude’s 2009 - October in review

Events

In an interview with Al Jazeera television , Sir Michael Somare sends the clearest signal that PNG is encouraging China to play a greater role to balance Australian influence in the region. “Australia remains our largest and most powerful partner but we are directing our attention elsewhere,” he says

Sir Michael denies corruption among senior PNG politicians - but in conditional words - and calls upon ordinary Papua New Guineans to identify corrupt public servants and tell the government who they are

Governor-General Sir Paulias Matane increases the temperature of public debate by challenging the government to improve its performance. Sir Paulias says PNG will not change and prosper without better leadership. “Ineffective leadership at the political, business, professional, church and community levels has crippled PNG,” he says.

Former prime minister, Sir Julius Chan, says since independence PNG has fallen further in human development than any other country. At independence in 1975, it ranked 77th out of 150 countries. By 2008 it was 149th. “We need to rethink how government works in PNG as the government closest to the people is [local level] government that knows the needs of the people and not the one located in Waigani,” he says

PNG is heading for food security disaster as a result of climate change and needs to act quickly, according to environmental expert Dr David Wellik. He says PNG is “heading for doom” unless stringent mitigation measures are put in place to deal with food and land security problems

PNG Attitude contributor Ilya Gridneff wins a major international award for excellence in environmental journalism. The citation states how he published a series of reports about PNG’s forest carbon market, investigative work that led to abuse, intimidation and death threats

Historian Rod Miller discovers new evidence linking the Montevideo Maru with planned internee exchanges between Japan and Australia in World War II. In a paper, Sunk en route to freedom, Miller says the 1053 men in Rabaul were being shipped to the Japanese-occupied island of Hainan in China for possible prisoner exchange

Sir Michael Somare says Melanesian countries will work to end Australian and New Zealand opposition to Fiji's military regime. He says they should stop shunning Fiji’s military leader, Commodore Frank Bainimarama. “It will be difficult for them to change, but with a lot of explanation and understanding … there could be a change of mind and attitude,” he says

The fight against corruption in PNG is boosted by Transparency International, Port Moresby Chamber of Commerce and the British High Commission combining to implement a new organisation, the Business Against Corruption Alliance. "Corruption is hugely depleting business and national development all over the world,” says British high commissioner, David Dunn. “Fighting it is the responsibility of everyone”

The decision by the police to prevent the Salvation Army and Council of Churches rally against poverty represents a worrying trend in PNG, says opposition leader Sir Mekere Morauta. “This is not the Michael Somare that PNG used to know. Where have our democratic rights and freedoms gone? This is yet another example of this government of turning PNG into a Mugabe-type regime”

Outgoing Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs, Duncan Kerr, is farewelled by more than 100 guests at a Canberra dinner. Kerr has played a major role in strengthening Australia’s presence in the Pacific

Former Australian all-rounder Andy Bichel takes up his new role as PNG national cricket director. Bichel, 39, played 19 tests and 67 one day internationals for Australia

Deaths

Judge John (Jack) Goldring, who taught PNG’s first law students, dies at 66 after a lengthy period with cancer. He was present at the birth of legal education at the University of PNG as an academic in the Faculty of Law from 1970-72

Quotes

“The party political system in PNG is like a drop of oil falling into still, clear water. It spreads in colourful and attractive patterns on the surface, but its depth is infinitesimal. The level of change in society we addressed so breezily in 1964 had very shallow roots indeed. The conversion of an ancient tribal clan-based political belief system to a concept of statehood and personal nationality was a breath-taking goal. The adoption of a national as opposed to a clan-based political structure was an Everest undertaking; of the same magnitude as that which the Christian churches undertook” – John Fowke

“What's been happening with PNG's national parliament of late is not good for the country. The real losers in the present political debacle are ordinary Papua New Guineans. The government seems to have lost the plot since it took office in 2002. Nothing substantial has been achieved to improve citizens quality of life. The plain truth is that the national parliament has become dysfunctional” - Reginald Renagi

“At what point will someone finally objectively agree that PNG has actually collapsed and is in fact a dead man walking? If this is so, what use is it to offer a bandaid to a dead man? Is there anyone out there? Is no one actually putting all the jigsaw pieces together? Hullo?” – Paul Oates

“In August 1942, the poorly trained and ill-prepared 53rd militia battalion went into battle against experienced Japanese troops at Kokoda. It did not fare well. The Japanese infiltrated its lines and the commander, Lt Col Ward, was killed in an ambush. Everybody forgets the 53rd. Because there’s a furphy that they were a mob of rebellious cowardly bastards”- Bruce Copeland

“PNG landowners have been involved in a continuing debate about the use of their trees - and whether they or some other entity benefits when they are cut and milled. A remedy to losing forests seemed to be a carbon credit scheme, where owners of trees are paid to keep them standing and provide a resource that emitters pay to keep intact in exchange for their own damaging emissions. It looked like a great idea for a win/win. However the devil is always in the detail” – Paul Oates

“In the 1930s, there was a thriving social life among expatriates, mainly plantation owners, who travelled the territory in light aircraft. A popular social venue was Salamaua. On some weekends the airstrip saw dozens of light aircraft land. Rows of aircraft would wait for owners to complete the weekend social whirl. Men wore white trousers and shoes, sleeveless cardigans and boater hats. Women wore long white dresses” — Bruce Copeland

“[Kiaps’] service was a significant contribution to the preparation of PNG for independence in 1975 and went far beyond our policing role as sworn officers of the Royal Papua and New Guinea Constabulary. I estimate that police work represented less than 5% of my total duties. This varied depending on where each kiap served, but it’s wrong to suggest that the primary focus of our activities was the police function” - Ross Wilkinson

Most commented on

Governance of PNG – 29

The 53^rd Battalion – 23

Salamaua social life - 21

PNG Attitude’s 2009 - September in review

Events

The death toll in the PNG cholera outbreak is well over 100 with 5000 others ill. Cholera – not seen in PNG for 50 years - has spread from its epicentre in a village in the Morobe Province to Lae as well as to remote highland areas and parts of the north coast

Prof Hank Nelson says PNG independence probably came too soon, but another five years would have seen Australia bail out anyway. The eminent historian says: "The evidence is we got out too early, but it wouldn't have changed anything.”

In an address to the nation, Sir Michael Somare says while he did not anticipate some of the outcomes of 34 years of independence, he is proud of the gains the nation has made. He vows “not to stop until we get it right; I want to leave office knowing that PNG is heading in the right direction. I also call on the people to really commit yourselves to serving our nation”

The secretary of the PNG Treasury Simon Tosali admits that even though PNG has experienced strong economic growth in recent years, the government is lagging in its obligation to provide infrastructure and services. He says unless drastic measures are put in place to address the problem, PNG will not be able to progress

Economist Charles Yala points out that, despite resources booms in the past 20 years, the average person in PNG got poorer while an elite few benefited handsomely. Getting a better return for the people from the liquefied natural gas bonanza will require ''some serious thinking; leadership will count'', says Mr Yala

Duncan Kerr, 57, Australia’s parliamentary secretary for Pacific Island Affairs, is to retire from politics at the next Federal election. His PNG service as an academic and lawyer made him the best qualified person ever to occupy the portfolio overseeing Australia’s relationships with PNG

With Duncan Kerr due to stand down, speculation turns to who might replace him. One dark horse is South Australian Senator Anne McEwen, 55, who has been rising steadily through the political ranks since taking her place in Parliament in 2004

Governor-General Sir Paulias Matane turns 78 – a grand age in PNG, where the average male life expectancy is 54. “I got a very big surprise in my life this afternoon after 2.30 pm,” Sir Paulias told PNG Attitude. “Professor Winston Jacob and staff of Government House prepared a big birthday party. The speech Prof Jacob made caused tears to drop from my wife's and my eyes. I did not expect such nice words”

James Kond, PNG's ruling National Alliance party vice-president, was paid K200,000 in May to "consult" on future carbon trading deals, journalist Ilya Gridneff reveals. The deals are central to a pending PNG government investigation into carbon trade arrangements where money has changed hands well before any international scheme is launched

Reports that Australian Federal Police could be back in PNG in large numbers in 2010 poses the question of what they’ll do in the likely event they run into industrial strength corruption. The AFP is about to go to the Federal government with proposals for the deployment of 150 police

Deaths

Captain Peter ‘Sharpie’ Sharpe MBE, veteran commercial pilot and ocean racing yachtsman, dies at his home in the Philippines after a brief illness that seemed to be of no threat to his life. He learned his PNG flying skills soon after arriving in Goroka from his native New Zealand to work for the late Dennis Buchanan's Territory Airlines

Quotes

“Members of Parliament need to stop their corrupt practices and gain a true nationalist feeling. Nation building is not an overnight job. It takes many people much heart and many years. It takes the courage to change. If the politicians are not serious about building this nation, then who is?” - Gelab Piak

“I am often caught wondering what the future holds for our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I am aware that roads and bridges have deteriorated since independence, while schools, hospitals and government facilities have also reached a point of disrepair. Thirty-four years of ineffective government and public service delivery since independence has resulted in the unfortunate mess we are in today” - Sir Paulias Matane

“PNG is deserving in so many ways of its unofficial title as ‘The Land of the Unexpected’. It is no place for the newly arrived foreign consultant imbued with missionary zeal. The culture is complex, and has moved beyond colonial simplicity. PNG takes Australia’s aid, but it does not necessarily share its values. The place may look straightforward, but it is sinuous. Emmanuel Narokobi writes of neo-colonialism, and he may have point. But I wonder who’s colonising who?” - John Fowke

“By December 1942, the Japanese in the southern part of Bougainville were applying pressure on the local people to disclose the whereabouts of Australians they knew were on the island. Propaganda was spread that Nippon was the new government and the natives would receive good things if they cooperated but be killed if they didn’t. In this time of conflict and divided loyalties, one pro-Japanese group known as the Black Dogs chased the Coastwatchers and, over an extended period, murdered, raped, pillaged and burnt villages of people who assisted the Australians” – Ken Wright

“Yesterday the National Library of Australia sought permission, which I happily and quickly gave before it changed its bibliophilic mind, to “provide public access in perpetuity” to PNG Attitude. “The Library is committed to preserving electronic publications of lasting research or cultural value,” said librarian Edgar Crook. He says the Library will take the necessary preservation action to keep PNG Attitude accessible even as there are hardware and software changes over time.” – Keith Jackson

Most commented on

Corruption – 9

Black Dogs of Bougainville - 7

Racism in colonial PNG – 7

PNG development - 7

PNG Attitude’s 2009 - August in review

Events

There are calls for Sir Michael Somare to resign as prime minister because “he is too old to run the country” and because he has allegedly not effectively dealt with the severe increase in HIV/AIDS. Deputy opposition leader Bart Philemon says corruption is strangling the systems of the country. “Not long the country will collapse,” Mr Philemon says

Wild rumours permeate PNG that Sir Michael had collapsed and died on a visit to Malaysia. Sir Michael’s daughter, Betha Somare, says the PM has been mildly ill and people who have “nothing better to do” are circulating the rumours. “It’s really in poor taste,” she says

Chief Ombudsman Chronox Manek is investigating whether the government has breached the PNG constitution. Sir Michael Somare, Speaker Jeffery Nape and Minister Paul Tiensten face up to 10 years gaol or fines of up to K10,000 if found in breach

PNG high commissioner Charles Lepani offers a blunt assessment of PNG-Australia relations in the John Howard years: “PNG bore the brunt of this patronising and arrogant and abrasive attitude that went beyond the bounds of good friendly relations between the two countries. It was totally disregarding of our sovereignty….it certainly did a lot of damage”

Bob McMullan, Australia’s parliamentary secretary for International Development Assistance, calls for a new approach, saying conditions in PNG are worsening despite Australia’s annual $500 million in assistance. Mr McMullan says PNG is “seriously off track” in achieving its development goals

PNG’s acting chief secretary, Manasupe Zurenuoc, admits that, 35 years after independence, Papua New Guineans are far worse off because government has failed to deliver

The Torokina War Relics Association says it is intercepting many World War II vintage weapons being sold to criminals in Bougainville and other provinces. The ‘mining and rebirthing’ of wartime weaponry and munitions is a major concern to the Autonomous Bougainville Government and the United Nations

A verbal battle breaks out between trekking companies on the Kokoda Trail. The Kokoda Trekking Operators Association seeks to limit the numbers of Australian operators and provide support to local firms. Its formation follows allegations that some Australian-owned trekking companies are doing so illegally and cheating both the Australian and PNG governments of taxes.

A group of women in the Chimbu Province celebrates ten years of the community policing with 60 women graduating as officers. Tribal fights in the Kup area in the late 1990s resulted in the establishment of Kup Women for Peace.

A World Bank study suggests that, rather than pushing economic development down into the villages, it might be better to work on establishing communications and transport links so that people in the bush can tap into the economy from the other direction

New Dawn FM, the pioneering Bougainville community radio station, wins the 2009 Communication and Social Change Award offered by the University of Queensland’s School of Journalism and Communication

Deaths

Don Christie dies at Junee NSW, after stoic resistance to cancer. Don was posted to the Western Highlands in 1958 and later became District Education Officer and Superintendent of the Primary Inspectorate. After returning to Australia he was CEO of Catholic Education in Wagga and CEO of Catholic Education in Canberra

Quotes

“Although I have looked for the logic behind the creation of a Westminster-type party parliamentary system, I have not found a good explanation. Introduced into one of the most egalitarian societies then existing on the face of the earth, what has resulted, in the saddest paradox in this land of many paradoxes, is that the system imposed by the Australians has produced exactly the conditions of class-disparity, lack of equity in society and lack of justice which prevailed in the England of the twelfth century” – John Fowke

“PNG is in a state of crisis. It is a country sinking into itself. This is the grim reality that faces PNG today. It is uncertain whether the PNG we know today will continue to exist, as service delivery mechanisms break down and provinces seek autonomy. The cause is an incompetent bureaucracy, a corrupt government and a prime minister who doesn’t want to let go of his grip on power” - Gelab Piak

“A great many ex-PNG people in Oz, both ex-Admin and others, who meet together socially and express themselves in various forums, come across as disappointed in what has gone on in PNG over the past 30 years. They miss the point entirely in a Colonel Blimpish way which is at best obtuse and in some cases crassly derogatory verging on racist” - John Fowke

“PNG Attitude has not been providing coverage of the Twin Otter crash near Kokoda, which has claimed 13 lives, because the tragedy has been so exhaustively and capably reported by other media. Nonetheless, as I'm sure it did for many of you, the crash brought back for me a host of memories of other air crashes and incidents” – Keith Jackson

“VP Day – 15 August 1945 - marked the end of the war against Japan in the Pacific and the end of World War II. However, as victory celebrations reverberated around the world, isolated groups of Japanese troops continued fighting in PNG. The Aitape-Wewak campaign, along with the campaigns on Bougainville and New Britain, resulted in considerable criticism from Australian and Japanese officers who found it hard to understand why such aggressive actions should be fought as the war was ending” - Don Hook

“A year ago this month, the Federal government announced it would allow 2500 workers from Tonga, Vanuatu, Kiribati and PNG to come to Australia to do seasonal agricultural work such as fruit picking. The scheme is something of a damp squib. It hasn’t gone off with a bang so much as a pffft. Only 56 workers have arrived. None is from PNG” – Keith Jackson

“For the past nine years I have been quietly writing history books for PNG schools: enjoying my daily routine at the National Library, but increasingly frustrated by a lack of financial support. Last week I received news that AusAID has made a complete turnaround and has started to accept textbook tenders for PNG schools. I don’t know what caused this change of heart but I’d like to believe that Keith Jackson, by his advocacy in PNG Attitude and through other means, had something to do with it” -  Eric Johns

“Yesterday I emailed PNG Attitude readers asking for help to transport six sets of computer equipment to Kavieng Hospital. The equipment has been assembled by Dr Alan Lawford, a general practitioner in the Sydney suburb of Arncliffe. Remarkably, nearly 50 readers provided advice on how this equipment could be transported free or at minimal cost from Sydney to Kavieng” – Keith Jackson

Most commented on

Problems of development – 22

Corruption - 11

Kokoda air crash - 10

PNG Attitude’s 2009 - July in review

Events

Angry scenes erupt in the House of Assembly as the Somare government avoids a motion of no-confidence by adjourning parliament for four months. MPs hurl abuse at each other and security officers have to restrain members of the public who voice their frustration when the government wins the adjournment vote

PNG’s bipartisan committee investigating the anti-Asian riots stalls due to lack of funds. Chairman Jamie Maxtone-Graham tells parliament: “We have to listen to our people. It is a time-bomb. The last thing we want is more destruction, burning and looting”

There is unprecedented media and political attention on the 1 July 1942 sinking of the Japanese prison ship, Montevideo Maru. Australia’s Veterans’ Affairs Minister Alan Griffin calls on the nation to pause and remember the 1053 lives lost. “War brings many tragedies and today we remember one of the greatest tragedies of the Second World War,” he says

AAP reveals that Dr Theo Yasause, the sacked director of PNG’s Office of Climate Change, issued lucrative official ‘mandates’ to trade carbon. The prime minister's daughter and media secretary, Betha Somare, says the deals were “not valid”

It has taken 60 years, but the contribution of the ‘fuzzy wuzzy angels’ to the victory against the Japanese in World War II is officially recognised by the Australian government. At the peak of the war, 55,000 PNG males over the ‘apparent age’ of 14 served as conscripted carriers, often under dreadful conditions

Drunken police raid Smain village west of Wewak and hold it to ransom until they are paid K2400 in cash and given a pig worth K1000. An eyewitness says the police fired several shots, harassed people, destroyed property and threatened to burn houses and rape women if their demands were not met

An address by Joe Kanekane, PNG Media Council president, argues that the days of the media as watchdog are long gone. The media’s role is to “offer what the customer wants”. And what they want, according to Mr Kanekane, is reporting “more focused to their parochial needs than that of their country”

Sir Brian Bell, an icon of the PNG business community, is honoured with an award for professional excellence by the Queensland University of Technology, from where he graduated in 1948

PNG-born Will Genia is called into the Wallabies squad and expected to make his Test debut off the bench against the All Blacks at Auckland's Eden Park. Genia spent his early years in Port Moresby before being sent at age 12 to board at Brisbane Boys College where he learned his rugby

AusAID director-general Bruce Davis, 56, leaves his job to “take up a diplomatic post later this year”. The Lowy Institute's Graham Dobell writes: "Davis has epitomised the AusAID contradiction: it controls billions but deploys little bureaucratic weight”

Deaths

Edward (Ted) Kenna VC dies three days after his 90th birthday. On 15 May 1945, Kenna, in an action near Wewak, exposed himself to heavy fire, killed a Japanese machine gun crew and made it possible for his company's attack to succeed. For this he was awarded the Victoria Cross

Quotes

“PNG is not in political limbo but now in hell" - Sir Julius Chan, former PNG prime minister

“The Somare regime uses project funds to threaten or manipulate members and the decisions they make on the floor of Parliament. The ruling clique is a law unto itself. They are clearly scared of facing a vote of no confidence, so they have shut down parliament” - Sir Mekere Morauta, PNG opposition leader

“Asians are crossing illegally into PNG. They do not need to come in containers any more. They just breathe fresh air and cross the border into PNG in broad daylight” – Belden Namah, PNG Forest Minister

“Though I live comfortably here in the US, deep in my heart I still feel for my siblings and my mom from a remote village in the Western Highlands, who find it hard to afford such things as school fees and basic food items. I look at how the government is treating its people, widespread corruption and high unemployment rates among others issues” - David Ulg Ketepa, author of the Kange Nga Kona blog

“This country is on the brink of falling apart. The Somare-Temu government, in power for seven years, has turned a blind eye to the deterioration of works and supplies, health, education, a proper welfare system. Fisheries, foreign affairs, migration and forestry have been plagued by corrupt deals over the years. The defence force has been neglected and the security of PNG is at stake. The police are falling apart” - Gelab Piak

“Macquarie Bank has been in discussions with the Office of Climate Change, offering to broker carbon trade deals and retain 15% of profits. If the voluntary carbon market turns out to be worth billions of dollars in the next couple of years, as predicted by a number of players, the Bank’s 15% would be very handsome income indeed” - Sir Mekere Morauta

"I am a loveable larrikin. I've done nothing wrong, we're doing good things. I am the most beneficial foreigner to this country right now" – Kirk Roberts, self-styled carbon trader and cock fighting impresario

"Very little education and training happens under our aid programs, even though billions of dollars are spent" - Dr Tim Anderson, spokesman for the independent group Aidwatch

“Despite its ‘palm trees and paradise’ image, the Pacific region has the worst wildlife extinction record on Earth. More than 80% of plant and animal species in eight Pacific nations are threatened by land clearing and urban development”- Prof Richard Kingsford, James Cook University

“If faith can move mountains then right now faith has brought us a private jet flying, multimedia, multi-staged, multi-screened, multi-million kina concert extravaganza. All they want are your souls” - PNG blogger, Emmanuel Narokobi, on preacher Joyce Meyer’s flying visit to PNG which attracted a crowd estimated at 400,000

“In the Gospel of St Matthew, Jesus says, ‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.’ Ms Meyer would seem to believe she can make the squeeze” - St Louis Post-Dispatch editorial on the $100 million a year evangelist

“Due to unpopular demand this is the last post. Sadly Papua News Guinea is to die a very premature death due to AAP concerns the 30 per day who daily read it are undermining the nature of their news service”- sign off to AAP correspondent Ilya Gridneff’s last blog

“We were sitting on the balcony drinking wine and saw a huge plume of smoke from downtown. Like any good PNGer we immediately raced towards the disaster and saw the final moments of the famous yet flammable Burns Philp building. A few brave firemen trying to save it with some very leaky hoses. It was a communal affair; well ordered and quite solemn at times" – blogger Mad Dog of Madang

“In March 2002 I commenced a lone campaign to have the service of Kiaps in the Australian External Territory of Papua and New Guinea formally recognised under the Australian Honours and Awards System by the Australian Government” - Chris Viner-Smith on a sterling effort that yielded some, but not all the desired, results

“This tragedy is not forgotten. The families are not forgotten. These men are not forgotten. We honour them all” - Rod Smith, Australia's ambassador to the Philippines, speaking at the Montevideo Maru memorial service in Subic Bay, providing official recognition 67 years after the event

Most commented on

Montevideo Maru – 10

Beeps burns - 8

PNG Attitude’s 2009 - June in review

Events

Hundreds of people rampage in Popondetta, looting Bank South Pacific, Air Niugini and Asian-owned shops. The riot is sparked after oil palm growers, in town to collect money, are turned away by the bank

Governor-General Sir Paulias Matane leads 4000 people on an early morning walk against corruption in Port Moresby. Despite bad weather hundreds of people also march in Kokopo

PNG Police Commissioner Gari Baki says his force will grind to a halt unless hundreds of millions of kina are spent to resurrect it. PNG has 4800 police: 50% having reached retirement age and 25% approaching retirement. Baki says the situation has reached crisis point

In the only contested committee election in its 60 year history, the PNGAA for the first time elects two Papua New Guineans to its leadership group

Former PNGAA president, Harry West, is awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to the Association. He was a distinguished district commissioner in pre-independence PNG

PNG athletes perform well at the Arafura Games in Darwin, winning 40 medals. “They enjoyed themselves; were polite and friendly; were enthusiastic yet fair; and, above all, were great ambassadors for their country,” says official, Don Hook

Deaths

The death occurs in Brisbane of Sir James Jacobi, 83, a key figure in the development of rugby league in PNG. Jim was also the best known doctor in Port Moresby for 40 years, president of the PNG rugby league for 25 years and a member of the international rugby league board

One of the leading figures in Pacific studies, Emeritus Professor Ron Crocombe, 79, dies in Auckland of a heart attack while on a bus to Mangere for a flight to his home in Rarotonga

Reg Thomson, 89, ASOPA graduate and former director of child welfare in PNG, dies in Queensland. His memoir, Looking for a Good Book, had just been published

Dr Geoffrey Gibson, 79, dies in Cooranbong NSW. He began his long association with education in PNG at Sogeri High School in 1956 and later became head of teacher education before lecturing at UPNG

Quotes

“It seems the Australian Government and its minions in DFAT and AusAID are beginning to appreciate a little of the reality of what is needed by PNG, as opposed to ‘what Mother orders’. Lets get in there an help in a really practical way; a way which will have a long-term positive effect. PNG is our neighbour, and we are theirs, for the rest of humanity's existence upon earth” – John Fowke

Most commented on

Popondetta riots - 5

Death of Jim Jacobi - 4

PNG Attitude’s 2009 - May in review

Events

There are anti-Asian riots in Port Moresby, Lae, Madang and Goroka. Police commander, Augustine Wampe, says thousands of men, women and children rampage around Goroka, outnumbering police and security guards

It is revealed that Chinese workers employed by the Ramu nickel mine were issued work permits despite not meeting labour laws stipulating all non-citizens must be proficient in English

PNG will receive $414 million in development assistance from Australia in 2009-10, an increase 6% over the previous year

Sir Michael Somare heralds a major shift in policy on development aid. A key feature of the new approach will be the recruitment of more Australian judges, doctors and teachers. Sir Michael says the time has come for PNG “to assert and accept more responsibility for our national development. We must forge a new relationship of equitable partnership with Australia”

The head of AusAID in PNG, Bill Costello, says AusAID is keen to work directly with provinces. The reason for the new direction seems to be criticism from Kevin Rudd that AusAID funds have been “misspent" and "not enough delivered to essential assistance in teaching, infrastructure and health services on the ground in villages across the country”

Documents obtained by journalist Ilya Gridneff reveal that 300 advisers consume half of AusAID’s $400 million a year allocation to PNG

Bougainville Copper is prepared to invest more than 11 billion kina to recommission the abandoned Panguna copper mine. The plan includes the creation of 2500 new company jobs, which will generate an estimated 10,000 other jobs in small businesses

The PNG Attitude blog receives its 100,000^th visitor and restates its aims as keeping a weather eye on the Australia-PNG relationship and remaining as a point of contact for people with an interest in PNG

Bob Hawke is made a Chief of the Grand Companion of the Order of Logohu for his services to the development of PNG in establishing the trade union movement, fighting for wage justice and, as prime minister, presiding over a period of great harmony in Australia-PNG relations

Former Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister, Kim Beazley, accepts the role of patron of the Montevideo Maru Memorial Committee, established to gain official recognition of the World War II disaster, determine precisely who was on board the ship at the time and encourage further research into events in Rabaul that led to the tragedy

Deaths

Distinguished ABC journalist Albert Asbury dies in Brisbane aged 69. He was with the ABC for 50 years, including a term in PNG from 1969-75 as political correspondent and the first news editor of the National Broadcasting Commission

Veteran PNG educator and ASOPA graduate, Allan Jones, 70, dies in Adelaide after a heart attack. He retired from teaching in 1999 as principal of Cameron Secondary School at Alotau after 45 years in PNG

Sir David Hay, 92, Administrator of Papua New Guinea from 1967-70, dies in Melbourne. John Farquharson writes in the Sydney Morning Herald: “Hay’s period as PNG Administrator was the one shadow over the urbane proconsul's otherwise serene career path. His high hopes foundered on the obduracy of George Warwick Smith, then secretary of the Department of External Territories, who insisted that all decisions be run across his desk”

Quotes

“There is significant resentment amongst the grassroots and the most visible targets are Chinese shop owners who have come in over the last 10-15 years and pulled the carpet from underneath grassroots Papua New Guineans. No one is angry at Australian businesses nor about old Cantonese” - Ilya Gridneff

“Yes, things are simmering in PNG. I think the big driver is poverty and frustration amongst the young. Only 10% of the population is in the formal economy while the rest are left behind, with nothing but hardship and hunger down the track. Youths are no longer hunter gathers or gardeners. They are unemployed, poverty-stricken urban mobs and, yes, there is more to come” - Terry Shelley

“The recent riots in PNG against Chinese businesses is cited as a symptom of a nation in crisis. The looting has been condemned and the government has vowed to set up a bipartisan team to investigate the riots. As we probe deeper we realise our problems are complex. Our leaders must be prepared to address the issues, and must investigate the recent unrest” - Gelab Piak

“Resentment builds up through the spoken word and is not being publicised. Asians seem to have no respect for our laws and way of life. They seem to think they can do whatever they like and, if they get into trouble, can buy their way out by bribery” - Graham Pople, long-time PNG resident and citizen

“It is the new breed of ‘rogue Chinese’, not those of the old school, who have brought about a feeling of hatred and animosity among indigenous Papua New Guineans against Asians. [The disaffected] are mainly settlement dwellers who are poorly-educated and unemployed and for whom home brew, marijuana and guns are very much a part of life. These people, for too long, have been neglected by the government, and things have now reached boiling point” - Malum Nalu

“We are frustrated with small Asian shops sprouting unnecessarily, selling cheap items around the city. Who is allowing these Asians to come into our country and own small businesses which should be owned by Papua New Guineans? Mipela tait na les pinis long ol Kongkong nabaut ya. Mipela ino wari long polis tu. Inap em inap” – rioter

“Chasing Chinese business people from our city or country will not solve our problems and those who are inciting our people to engage in such cheap and mindless agendas, should stop now” - Port Moresby Governor Powes Parkop

“There are likely to be some more problems coming. Some Asians may close up and leave PNG to find greener pastures elsewhere. We hope not” - PNG Governor-General, Sir Paulias Matane

“It is almost certain that Chinese triads will establish a presence in PNG” - academic James Chin

“Yes, we lack material wealth in rural areas where the vast majority of our people live but they are not short of food and water” - Sir Michael Somare

“The recent events in PNG are explosive and threaten to destabilise our immediate region. There is an inescapable truth gradually emerging here. The Australian government doesn’t seem to know how to respond to the complex political and social dynamics of its nearest neighbour. PNG abuts our nation and, with six million people, has real scale. It’s a saga waiting to unfold. There is high emotion here for Australians, too. PNG was once our territory and our people died there in peace and war” – Keith Jackson

“PNG school students and people in general [are] ignorant of the main forces and motives that shaped their nation” - author Eric Johns

“Papua New Guineans need a consciousness of what they have in common. A knowledge of a shared history is basic to the building of a nation-state. For a country of six million, PNG has one of the world’s poorest distribution of books” – ANU historian Prof Hank Nelson

“As public servants, no one ever asked us what we thought about the fast tracking of independence or whether the people we spoke to at village level thought it was a good idea. We were just expected to do what the government directed. Most people in the villages that I spoke to thought the idea was crazy. They didn't want Australia to throw them out of the peaceful development phase they had only just entered” - Paul Oates

Most commented on

Death of Allan Jones – 26

Australia/AusAID are failing PNG - 16

PNG Attitude’s 2009 - April in review

Events

Australia’s former Governor-General, Major General Michael Jeffery, says that, “without the Patrol Officers performing their policing, legal, agricultural, governance and administrative functions, PNG would simply not have been ready for nationhood in 1975”

On Bougainville the last of the Mekamui rebel groups agrees to join the peace process. Mekamui commander, Chris Uma, asks the government to accommodate his group in the chiefly system under the Bougainville Constitution

ASOPA graduate, ex chalkie, medical doctor and veterinarian, Dr Howard Ralph, receives the Sunday Telegraph nomination for a Pride of Australia medal. He has spent the last 30 years working with injured Australian native wildlife

Quotes

“[I am] totally disappointed and sickened by their work attitudes and inefficiency. Whose interests are the public servants serving? Are they serving the interest of the public, or their own?” - Governor-General Sir Paulias Matane

"We demonstrated the power of the .303 rifle by lining up five shields, making a dum-dum out of a bullet, and showing how it would come out a great gap on the other side. To these people [the rifles] were just sticks and had no meaning until we demonstrated their power" - veteran PNG politician and ex-kiap Sir Barry Holloway, recalling his first trip into an uncontrolled area

“I have been letting readers know for a month now that their supply of a monthly medication hitherto known as The Mail is about to dry up. Although there has been a proviso: should you advise me that you are alive, compos mentis and capable of absorbing information, said supply will continue” – Keith Jackson, trying to determine whether a newsletter was still required in the Age of Blog [the response was overwhelming and PNG Attitude was born]

“Phil Fitzpatrick’s novel, Bamahuta – Leaving Papua, is a beautiful book. Fitzpatrick is not only a powerful storyteller with a keen eye for the descriptive detail that makes you feel you're there, he writes with a beguiling sense of humour and the ability to draw characters who are real (sometimes because they are real) and who we can sympathise with, even when their personalities are less than appealing” – Keith Jackson

Most commented on

New PNG Attitude newsletter – 15

PNG public servants - 5