Keith Jackson & Friends: PNG ATTITUDE

My aging Dad

DAVID WAPAR

An entry in The Crocodile Prize
Kina Securities Award for Poetry

The change of color in your hair moves me dad
Wavy folds of skin appear on your forehead
I suddenly realized how regretful aging could be
Though at least for now it doesn’t mean so much to me

Dad your figure was once that of a Greek God;
Strong arms almost as solid as rods,
A pair of firm feet that walk the stony shores,
And a bold shoulder where once I used to rest on

Students end era of ‘localisation for sake of localisation’

OFFICE OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSIDER
PNG Blogs

THOSE of us old enough to remember the late 1970s and well into the 80s will remember the strong spirit of nationalism and “can do” spirit that captured our newly independent PNG.

An overwhelming sense of optimism grabbed the minds of our nation’s first university graduates and propelled them into a variety of jobs formerly occupied by Australians. No goal seemed out of reach. Nothing but bright skies beckoned us to march into our future with confidence.

Here’s why you need to be an innovative person

MARTYN NAMORONG

An entry in The Crocodile Prize
PNG Chamber of Mines & Petroleum
Award for Essays & Journalism

THE nation has evolved to a point where its populace are either predators or scavengers heavily dependent on sucking out the last economic juices out of its natural resources.

Papua New Guineans have throughout recent history been either mere spectators or passive participants in the process of development.  This rather sad indictment on the people is manifests in the debates and discussions about the realities of today.

That is not to say we aren’t good technicians. In the 38 years we have had political control of this land, we have achieved more than what the British and Germans achieved in the 40 or so years they controlled the Protectorates of Papua and New Guinea.

About-turn as PNG agrees to resettle asylum seekers

SARAH WHYTE | The Age (Melbourne)

PAPUA New Guinea will now resettle all asylum seekers who are found to be refugees and the Australian Federal Police will assist the investigation into the death of asylum seeker Reza Barati if requested.

The announcement comes only weeks after PNG prime minister Peter O'Neill made it plain that PNG would only resettle "some" of those whose refugee claims are recognised, insisting other countries in the region should "carry the same burden as we do".

Now all asylum seekers who are found to be refugees will be resettled in PNG, with the first group of refugees moving into temporary accommodation as early as June, Australian immigration minister Scott Morrison said.

Schram is back in town: Hero’s welcome for exiled Unitech boss

SALLY POKITON | PNG Edge

THERE was jubilation at Nadzab airport yesterday afternoon as exiled Unitech vice-chancellor Dr Albert Schram arrived to a big welcome by Unitech students.

Students travelled in truckloads from their campus to the Nadzab airport to welcome Dr Schram with what they described as ‘PNG Style’ welcome as they carried him through the crowd.

Members of the Students Representative Council were in Port Moresby this week to receive the vice chancellor who flew in from Cairns and they returned with him to Lae.

Schram restoration shows that democracy flows from below

FR GIORGIO LICINI | Catholic Reporter PNG

NOW the struggle by students to get vice-chancellor Dr Albert Schram back at Unitech has succeeded, we know a few things:

1.       Democracy works from below and not from above. Don’t expect well fed and firmly established leaders to guaranty your rights and freedom. You still have to earn them. It may seem unfair. But this is the way things work in history.

2.       Thanks to God’s gift of intelligence and a few Americans in Silicon Valley, the fight for freedom and rights now has new and powerful tools called social media. Some yesterday-men resented Unitech students and Dr Schram use of social media in this battle. They just share the same view of a number of authoritarian leaders and unelected governments all over the world.

A face without eyes

GEORGE KUIAS

An entry in The Crocodile Prize
Kina Securities Award for Poetry

It bothers me a little since his eyes I can't see
The bloke wearing dark sun-glasses who is looking at me
The windows of his soul from the world he disguise
There are few things more strange than a face without eyes
He stands there unsmiling just looking my way
I try to be friendly to him, say good day
My greetings meet with silence, he does not reply
His right to his silence, non can deny
Though the evening is overcast without sunlight
To wear dark dark glasses is surely his right
But what bothers me is not his refusal to smile or to me say good day
But the windows to his soul in dark shades hidden away,
I cannot say whether he is soulful or wise
Since I can see is his face without eyes.

Bringing a university leadership program to the community

JANE PUMAI AWI

LAST week during the mid-term break at the University of Goroka, students Imelda Divina and Arie Uwata and I spent a week at the St Arnold Jassen Human Resource Development Centre at Migende in the Simbu Province.

There we conducted a leadership workshop sponsored by the Simbu Provincial Government through the office of Governor Noah Kool and his deputy, James Kendiyagl.

The workshop brought together 22 ward councilors and five young leaders from upper and lower Koronigle LLG (Kerowagi) to receive leadership training.

It was conducted by Fr. Joseph Sakite, the founder of the Centre and me. Two senior administrators at the University of Goroka, Dr Kapa Malpo Kelep and Dr Gairo Onagi, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Goroka, also participated through a five minute talk recorded on DVD and screened to the ward councillors.

Voice over PNG – a tribute to my mother, Jane Belfield

LOUISE TIGCHELAAR

WHEN Jane Belfield (1932-2013, pictured) arrived in Australia on a migrant ship in 1954 at the age of 19 she was living her dream of travel and adventure.

That she was pregnant with her first child and travelling alone, with her husband obliged to follow later on a Merchant Navy ship, she took in her stride – as she did with the many hurdles in her life.

She was to travel extensively over the course of that life; living almost half of it in Papua New Guinea, forging an enviable career, and acquiring countless friends and admirers along the way.

Newly married, she’d given up a cherished position as an editorial assistant in London to travel across to the other side of the world and live on a sheep farm in Western Victoria. But writing was always her first love, and she fulfilled a lifelong ambition when she graduated in journalism in the late 1960s.

Abonas Alotau – a place to refresh the mind & the spirit

GARY JUFFA

I HAVE almost given up writing about anything. There is nothing left to inspire me. Or even agitate me.

It is that terrible space writers find themselves in when they are completely loath to write about anything. I am sure many have been here. I have. Several times.

I want to write. It itches within me like it’s dying to be scratched. But I open a word document and I start. And give up after several lines.

I just gave up writing about corruption several minutes before I started writing this. Before that I had started on a piece about transnational crime. And before that about the state of our environment and the recent findings that prove that global warming is real and will lead to more adverse natural happenings around the world.

How to become a poet

MICHAEL DOM

If your heart is glass,
You must shatter it,
Then run the slivers into your hands and
Feet; a leisurely feat –
Piece by piece.

If your eyes are dim
You must gouge them out,
With a sharpened pencil, in your best hand,
Neat; deliberately neat –
Each and each.

A letter to Unitech students from a committed vice-chancellor

ALBERT SCHRAM

IT IS the fourth week of the boycott, and we are all tired, and we still don't know whether I will be allowed to come back on campus.

I understand your feelings. Trust me that my wife and I are sick and tired of waiting for the government to do the right thing.

You will also appreciate that with an aggressive opponent like Mr Saulep, we must not expose ourselves to court orders, which would force me to leave the country again after a few weeks, or be banned from entering it for a period of up to five years. We would be back where we started.

Remember we have been through this before with 2 Ministers and the Chancellor Sir Nagora waiting outside the Jackson's Airport on 9 March 2013, and me being manhandled on a plane for the second time, because of a supposed "travel ban" which I never was allowed to see.

Oil Search share acquisition a strategic investment for PNG

FRANCIS S NII

An entry in The Crocodile Prize
PNG Chamber of Mines & Petroleum
Award for Essays & Journalism

 

THE Papua New Guinea government’s 10.01 % share acquisition in Oil Search with A$1.2 billion UBS loan is a vital investment for the people of PNG. 

For ages we have been complaining about multinational companies reaping our natural resources and giving us scraps … so rich yet so poor has been our cry for donkey’s years.

The gas and oil business is booming. Apart from Exxon Mobil's LNG Project, in which the PNG government holds a 17% stake, InterOil's Elk and Antelope gas fields - described as the country's largest gas deposits - are about to be developed. And there could be more gas and oil elsewhere.

So how can we get equity for our citizens and maximise our gains?

A day in Port Moresby

DAVID WAPAR

An entry in The Crocodile Prize
Kina Securities Award for Poetry

Sweaty necks and straining eyes
Exhaust fumes and dusty streets
Mountains and savannah, but the buildings rise
Welcome to my city Port Moresby

Unsightly betelnut spittle everywhere
Greet a wantok with a mouthful of our favorite fruit
Cigarettes and gossip at 12, as those are what we share
Change for my K10 note and I’m back under the roof

Terror Australis: The truth about Reza Barati must be told

BEN ELTHAM | New Matilda

WHEN will we know the truth about the death of Reza Berati (pictured)? The Iranian asylum seeker was killed while under Australia’s care following an attack on asylum seekers at Australia’s offshore detention centre at Manus Island, in Papua New Guinea, on 17 February.

We still don’t know exactly what happened. No-one has been charged. Several investigations are ongoing, but these too have been dogged by controversy. So many questions remain.

For instance, why is G4S, the global security firm responsible for the Manus Island detention centre at the time of the violence, reportedly refusing to cooperate with the Papua New Guinea police investigation?

Road to Completion

TRACEY TERRY

An entry in The Crocodile Prize
Kina Securities Award for Poetry

Completion is not an easy road
Darkness of Failure
Glory of Light
Sense of Regret
Questions. What if, maybe, why……
Thankfulness of arriving

Oh My Solomon Islands

LEONARD FONG ROKA

An entry in The Crocodile Prize
Kina Securities Award for Poetry

THE Anglo-German Declaration of 1886 and the Anglo-German Convention of 1899 were the two cruel deeds that sliced the Solomon Islands into British Solomon Islands and Bougainville, which was dumped into German New Guinea. It is our obligation to educate ourselves about the harsh past we endured.

Oh my Solomon island of Bougainville
Oh my Solomon island of Choiseul
Oh my Solomon island of New Georgia
Oh my Solomon island of Santa Isabel
Oh my Solomon island of Guadalcanal
Oh my Solomon island of Malaita
Of my Solomon island of San Cristobel

Peter O’Neill’s exploits are posing a threat to PNG’s democracy

FRANCIS S NII

An entry in The Crocodile Prize
PNG Chamber of Mines & Petroleum
Award for Essays & Journalism

THE WAY Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has been using his position and powers to manipulate legislation, circumvent legitimate processes and mistreat opponents so he can accomplish his goals is akin to tyranny and poses a threat to PNG’s democracy.

Mid last year, Peter O’Neill unilaterally dragged PNG into shouldering Australia’s asylum seekers’ problem when he signed a deal with then Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd without the input of Cabinet or Parliament and against the outcry of the people of PNG.

New film: POM General's maternity ward was like Dante's Inferno

AUSTRALIA NETWORK NEWS

TWO girls from Papua New Guinea and Cambodia feature in an award-winning Australian director's critically acclaimed film about the lives of girls around the world.

Rebecca Barry had wanted to make a film about the unique challenges faced by girls around the world, but it wasn't until she had faced the 2009 Pacific tsunami while in Samoa that she started working on the idea.

"It really kind of kicked me into action that I had to really focus on the important stuff and make a film about girls and why is it like this and celebrate their potential through making a film," she says.

Ms Barry's film follows the lives of six girls. Each has a different story to tell and two of the most powerful stories are from Cambodia and Papua New Guinea.

Ms Barry says she was drawn to PNG as it is Australia's closest neighbour. "It's a very close plane ride and you arrive and it's this other world", she says.

Ode to a Mellow Glass of Chardonnay

MICHAEL DOM

An entry in The Crocodile Prize
Kina Securities Award for Poetry

Marvellous Mellow Glass of Chardonnay

What was my life before you came my way?

My parched throat and tongue, my taste buds were rife,

My heart, my mouth, with the raw taste of life!

I would sweat by my brawn, or by my brows,

Through the days and nights, for a wife and house;

But, with a Mellow Glass of Chardonnay,

My troubles and strife’s seem to wash away!

My heart, my mouth, would taste the sprite of life

If you were woman, I’d make you my wife!

Don't crush the Manus inquiry, says leading Australian newspaper

EDITORIAL | The Age

A HIGHLY unusual and welcome feature of Papua New Guinea's justice system is that any judge, on their own initiative, can commence legal action if they suspect a person or institution has breached or will breach human rights.

PNG's National Court even has a division devoted to managing human rights cases. It is led by Justice David Cannings, the resident judge in the province of Madang.

That Justice Cannings saw fit to initiate an inquiry this year into the human rights environment at the Manus Island detention centre is an indictment of Australia's deplorable policy of dumping asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea.

Is high handed regional diplomacy really in Australia’s interest?

DONALD K ANTON | East Asia Forum

IN recent times reports in the popular press recount too often international actions taken by Australia that appear decidedly undiplomatic — at least undiplomatic in the sense that they belie an effective management of international relations.

These actions have been perceived as provocative (or worse) by a number of neighbours in the region.

Instead of skilfully managing regional relations, Australia has found itself defending against legal action surrounding disturbing espionage claims and demands for the return of property by Timor-Leste in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).

Seeking nominees for lifetime achievement in PNG literature

KEITH JACKSON

READERS of PNG Attitude are being asked to nominate writers of substance for the Ok Tedi Mining Award Lifetime Achievement in PNG Literature, a section of The Crocodile Prize national literary contest.

The only previous winner of this K5,000 award was Russell Soaba, whose prose and poetry first graced PNG around the years of Independence.

So far three nominations have been made for the Award: Dr Steven Winduo, Sir Paulias Matane and Dr Bernard Minol.

Task Force Sweep chairman says Tiensten’s sentencing is a victory

EM TV

CHAIRMAN of Taskforce Sweep, Sam Koim, says Paul Tiensten’s sentencing on Friday was a victory for Papua New Guinea.

Tiensten (pictured) was sentenced to nine years hard labour for misappropriating a $4 million grant to controversial businessman Eremas Wartoto.

This was the first investigation conducted by the Sweep team after it was established in August 2011.

Land of the Black

ISHMAEL PALIPAL

An entry in The Crocodile Prize
Kina Securities Award for Poetry

The sun rises up on this land
yet the land is still dark
with the beautiful black colour
but you will be sweating in this land
though you will be walking between dark
among the dark black skin color

I been out to other places
but never found  one like mind
where your eyes is always dark
this is really beautiful in these places
because you walk like “never mine”
for we are as everyone “dark”

The Rose Garden

MICHAEL DOM

An entry in The Crocodile Prize
Kina Securities Award for Poetry

    They say there is a rose garden that blooms inside us now and again.

I remember how your breath was so sweet I wanted to swallow it

Whole – gobbling up your gasping wind – to drown my screaming

Caving in Papua New Guinea: between fantasy and reality

PHIL BENCE

THE WORD ‘expedition’ is often squandered and overused (or rather misused) for just about anything.

For us, it means exploring truly uncharted wilderness, meeting local populations and total immersion into a challenging natural environment where humans are simply not meant to travel.

The Papua New Guinean people know little to nothing about the gigantic caverns within their mountains and the current generation had never ventured as far or as high into the range. They were taken aback by our perceived recklessness and the colossal effort we undertook searching for caves, building trails, setting up camps, and pushing ever deeper into the earth.

Resolution! Albert Schram back to work as soon as tomorrow

SALLY POKITON | PNG Edge

STUDENT leaders at the PNG University of Technology have expressed relief and excitement over the announcement of the new Unitech Council headed by Sir Nagora Bogan as well as the approved work visa for vice chancellor Dr Albert Schram.

SRC president Eddie Nagual said that at a university council meeting on Friday “the entire council members resorted to Sir Nagora as chancellor.”

A decision to re-validate the contract of Albert Schram was later announced.

Manus Island 'mission impossible', says former Salvationist

SARAH WHYTE | Sydney Morning Herald

THE Salvation Army was a poor cultural fit and ill-equipped to manage the difficult situation on the Manus Island detention centre, a former worker has alleged.

The worker, who has spoken on condition of anonymity, has described a ''systematic failure'' of the Salvation Army's work on the offshore processing centre in Papua New Guinea, including the way it handled allegations of rape among detainees and incompetent psychological care provided to asylum seekers.

Pabaa-bere – the house warming ritual of the Nasioi people

LEONARD FONG ROKA

An entry in The Crocodile Prize
Cleland Family Award for Heritage Writing

THE dancers gather at the fringes of the hamlet where the new house is located. They’re not far from the new and still unoccupied home.

The suddenly charge at the house hysterically singing the Nasioi songs known as the uuva and the whole world comes to life as everyone around cheers, laughs, sings and dances around the new house to officially declare it open for use by the owner.

All of these practices of the Nasioi people are is connected to the spiritual realm of a life that has existed since time immemorial. And pabaa-bere (sometimes referred to as pabaa-kenaa) is the ceremony that declares a newly completed home open for use by its owner.

The sorry story of conflict in Indonesia’s Papua Region

IRIN

THE clearing of forests inhabited by indigenous people in Indonesia's Papua Region by agribusinesses is fuelling conflict in the southern Merauke Regency, say campaigners.

“Indigenous peoples rely on their land for their survival and therefore any incursion onto their land creates serious problems for any community,” Sophie Grig, a senior campaigner for Survival International, a UK-based indigenous rights advocacy organization, told IRIN.

"These incursions in West Papua generally also involve the presence of the military to protect the project [which] leads to human rights violations.” 

HIV education & prevention in PNG: A case of too much pessimism?

CHERYL CHE, RUTH TAY & STEPHEN HOWES
DevPolicy Blog

THE Office of Development Effectiveness (ODE) released an evaluation of AusAID’s HIV program in Papua New Guinea in 2012.

The report assessed the program between 2006 and 2010 and it painted a rather gloomy picture. What was particularly worrying was the finding that HIV education and prevention activities were largely ineffective.

These efforts constituted the largest proportion (20%) of AusAID funding to the PNG HIV response.

The evaluation concluded that the overall effectiveness of AusAID’s $174 million intervention was “less than satisfactory” and that, while there was an effective contribution to counselling and testing, other areas, such as education and prevention, were “mostly ineffective.”

Governor Juffa cracks down on rampant public service fraud in Oro

ORO PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT

ORO Governor Gary Juffa’s efforts to clean up corruption from the province continue with ongoing investigations into fraud.

There have been more arrests of public servants working for the Provincial Administration and Ijivitari Treasury. Police charged Ijivitari district accountant Penny Jiregari with false accounting and Treasury examiner Foster Dira with misappropriation.

The charges flow from allegations that the officers had intentionally made false entries into public documents and dishonestly applied to their own use various amounts of public money.

Police also charged former National Housing Corporation officer Jack Nunisa who is alleged to have fraudulently obtained K13,500 from the Popondetta Urban Local Level Government and Deputy Administrator Kila Sibolo for misappropriation, abuse of office and official corruption.

There’s much more to diarrhoea than meets the eye

EMMA WAKPI

An entry in The Crocodile Prize
Steamships Award for Short Stories

SHE stood by the blackboard beside a picture of a crude tree that she had quickly sketched. In the middle of the trunk was the word ‘diarrhoea’ and underneath it was written the word ‘problem’.

Seated around her were health professionals; nurses and community health workers experienced in remote and urban clinical work.

The question seemed very basic, almost an insult, but they were there to learn how to facilitate a community training so took it in good faith- after all they were pretending to be community members for this lesson.

The background & implications of that Oil Search loan deal

PAUL BARKER | Business Advantage PNG

THE proposed Sovereign Wealth Fund(SWF) is somewhat jokingly referred to by some as the Sovereign Wealth Vacuum, as we await the government to release its revised legislation setting up the fund.

The original idea was to put income from resource projects into the fund (held largely in safe offshore securities) and use those investments to stabilise the currency and provide some core development expenditure, whilst providing confidence for investors etc in PNG’s economic management.

But the government’s planto borrow K1.7 billion for a stake in Oil Search, and by extension invest in PNG’s potential second LNG project, means it is effectively pre-borrowing from the fund.

Exiled vice-chancellor fights to return to his PNG campus

DAVID MATTHEWS | Times Education Supplement (UK)

ALBERT Schram is a university leader in exile. He is the vice-chancellor of Papua New Guinea University of Technology (Unitech), but in February 2013 he was deported and has been forced to live in Australia ever since.

Schram has even been declared a “threat to national security” by the country’s former higher education minister.

His bizarre tale sheds an extraordinary light on the parlous state of higher education in Papua New Guinea, where, according to Schram, tribal fights erupt on campus, support staff live in slums and scholars are cut off from the wider scholarly community and current research.

Mateship on refugees no substitute for good policy, decent conditions

MICHELLE GRATTAN | The Conversation

TONY Abbott was desperate to paint his just-completed trip to Papua New Guinea in highly positive terms but as far as asylum seeker policy is concerned, it has just thrown up more problems and questions and exposed what a shambles the “PNG solution” is.

Where some of the people who come out of the process as genuine refugees will then go is now one of those “known unknowns”.

Whether the processing itself is being done with sufficient competence and integrity surely has to be a concern. And both countries appear to care less and less (if that’s possible) about the human rights of the people on Manus – their prime preoccupation being to limit information coming out that might be embarrassing or damaging.

Manus asylum detainees suffer mental torture & humiliation

CATHOLIC REPORTER PNG

GENERAL Secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of PNG & Solomon Islands, Fr Victor Roche, recently visited the Manus asylum seekers centre. FR GIORGIO LICINI interviewed him….

Fr Victor, what prompted your visit to Manus Island on 17-20 March?

I went as an observer of the Catholic Church to the hearings initiated by Justice David Cannings with the specific purpose of establishing if there was any violation of human rights in the refugee camp.

Bougainville Manifesto 12: Protectionism for Bougainville

LEONARD FONG ROKA

THE lack of a powerful leadership that exerts influence over all Bougainvilleans is an issue that time has offered the island and its people, and that has resulted solely from the half-heartedness in the history of struggling for self determination since the 1960s.

Furthermore, post-crisis Bougainville should produce Bougainvilleans who are well aware of the long struggles of the island but adults and leaders tend to ignore the past as a tool to design the future. It is here that Bougainville should invest.

In history most Bougainvillean pro-self-determination organisations and independence movements, like the 1969 Napidakoe Navitu formed to foster unity across the island, failed because they did not strategically built themselves.

The night club scene – another tale of Peter in Port Moresby

PETER KRANZ

LIFE in Port Moresby for me and Rose and me wasn't all flowers and sweet talk. One weekend Rose went missing. Around midnight I got worried and (perhaps foolishly) decided to trawl the nightclubs and discos to try and find her.

I eventually ended up at the 21 Club, Boroko, not perhaps the best place for a single waitman on a Saturday night. But they let me in, and I got chatting to some local barflies and eventually learned that she had been seen earlier but had moved on.

A lovely young lady came up to me and said, "If you buy me a drink I can tell you more." Which I did, but something was not quite right. She was very friendly, but through the bar's rather dim illumination I realised she was not a she but one of the Gay Night entrants I had not voted for at the Shady Rest a few weeks before.

Greed

GARY JUFFA

An entry in The Crocodile Prize
PNG Chamber of Mines & Petroleum
Award for Essays and Journalism

MY people have lived on this land for thousands of years. I grew up loving this land; learning from my father and forefathers to respect it, to appreciate it and at all times protect it from harm.

Our principles were based on respect, honour and honest work. There was no demarcation of sexes; elders were revered and loved and taken care of; widows and the weak were always considered; women were to be respected not beaten.

There was no class system and every one had an opportunity to rise and be someone.

Our political systems were superior to those that were introduced by those who entered our land, declaring superiority and ownership and demonstrating it with violence and disrespect.

My people are warriors, all of them. We defended what we believed in: our land and our way of life.

My people are a compassionate people who love their kin and their land and weep with heart wrenching grief at any loss of such.

I recall your virgin blossom

An entry in The Crocodile Prize
Kina Securities Award for Poetry

MICHAEL DOM

I recall your virgin blossom:

How you thrilled me,

With your naked potential

Wrapped around me,

As I embedded all of me, in you,

In your sacred receptacle,

In the depth of you,

Gasping on the verge of inception,

At the very ache of it!

I had to behold you.

To possess you; I alone,

To draw back the raiment that closeted your perfection

And jealously guide you into the world of men.

Not yet for them. Not quite yet. Not then,

When there was only you and I,

When you were all of mine, my precious;

Until now, that you have become, my poetry.

Leonard Roka’s ‘Brokenville’ latest entry in PNG Book of the Year

KEITH JACKSON

Brokenville by Leonard Fong Roka, Pacifica Sene 2014, 248 pages. Available from Amazon in paperback, $9.50 here; Kindle edition, $3.00 here. ISBN-10: 0987132199. ISBN-13: 978-0987132192

An entry in The Crocodile Prize
Ok Tedi Mining Book of the Year

LEONARD Fong Roka, who is emerging as Papua New Guinea’s most prolific author, has submitted his Bougainville civil war memoir, Brokenville, for the recently-established Ok Tedi Mining Book of the Year award.

It is the sixth book entered in this inaugural award and joins Michael Dom’s poetry collection At Another Crossroads, Sil Bolkin’s history The Flight of Galkope, Francis Nii’s novel Fitman, Raitman & Cooks, and two other collections – one of poetry, one of short stories – by Leonard Roka.

Judges Dame Carol Kidu, Trevor Freestone and Phil Fitzpatrick certainly have their hand full with three months still remaining before the closing date for entries.

Abbott commits to improve visa system to New Zealand status

MELANIE VARI | PNG Edge

THE swift processing of entry visas into Australia will be executed as soon as information sharing capabilities between Australia and Papua New Guinea are improved, says Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

The issue has been discussed on a number of occasions with PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said on his recent visit to Port Moresby.

PNG will have what New Zealand currently has for its citizens travelling to Australia – swift processing of visa applications.

Taking up the challenge of a culture once thought only for men

OK TEDI MINING LTD

THE mining industry can be a dirty and rough environment to work in, but even this does not deter women from taking up the challenge of a work culture that at one time was considered suited only for their male counterparts.

At Ok Tedi Mining Limited’s (OTML) current Safety Week exhibition, a section is dedicated to the company’s female employees from various career streams to show young women that they too could be like these working women; whether driving a 793 haul truck at a mine pit operation or becoming a geologist and studying rocks for precious metals.

Having tea for your country: lots to say; not much time to say it

A number of guests at the 'emerging leaders’ afternoon tea for Tony Abbott in Port Moresby last Friday by way of preparation publicly canvassed issues they might raise with the Australian prime minister. Good intentions that were thwarted, as EMMANUEL NAROKOBI of the Masalai Blog explains. The event was managed tightly to be incident free, but what about the residual impressions left in the minds of those ‘emerging leaders’?

LAST week Friday I had the pleasure of attending afternoon tea with Australian prime minister Tony Abbott. Turned out also that our own PM, Peter O’Neill, was attending as well so we had both of them there at the Australian High Commissioner’s (Deborah Stokes') residence up on Paga Hill.

It was a sweltering 3pm afternoon and every single person that walked in strode past the delicately laid rows of tea cups and headed straight for the Esky to ask for a glass of water.

Beloved fatherland – a true story of trust & betrayal

MARLENE DEE GRAY POTOURA

An entry in the Crocodile Prize
Steamships Short Story Award

In loving memory of my late father, Nehemiah Potoura. Rest in peace, beloved. God is our only judge

WE WERE all fugitives, hiding in the bushes and jungles, fleeing from both the rebels and the government soldiers.  

We crawled through the jungle like bush beings, not domesticated creatures. I was totally fed up with this kind of ‘forced and at your own will’ banishment. I was restless and dreamt of fish and chips, hamburgers and ice-cream.

I dreamt of civilization, where there were shopping malls, theatres and I wanted to watch television and see who was who on the red carpet.

I wished I was with my dad in Rabaul where he went to sort out logging royalties for the landowners. But, because of the blockade, we were separated from him. I was at my wits end and couldn’t stand being exiled in the jungles any more. That night, I had a big argument with my mother.

Fatherland to the daughter

LEONARD FONG ROKA

An entry in The Crocodile Prize
Kina Securities Award for Poetry

Dear daughter,
Our land was condemned to the gallows
So we dabbled in pools of tears and blood
Behind their imperialistic curtain walls of the 90s;
The gaffer from the north-west beyond the Solomon Sea
Lost his heart to the opulent land
You were born on and into
So they cried and cried and fought us for it—and
They are weeping still.

The fatherland cries and moans
Looking back through misty weary eyes
That cruelty you were born and nurtured in
Politicians and warlords had lost the waging tail
Of the long road our land made through in tears and injustice
And are insanely warring for own power and prestige
But not the freedom of this land and you, my daughter.

Historic Saiho Hospital receives a long overdue facelift

ORO PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT

SAIHO Hospital in the Sohe District of Oro Province during the colonial period was a first class hospital and training facility.

First constructed in 1951 as a tent hospital (picture) by Roger Claridge to cater for victims of the Mount Lamington eruption, it evolved into a premier facility under the colonial administration that trained many health workers and served the populous Central Kaiva area and surrounding areas.

Oro Governor Gary Juffa’s mother trained and served at the hospital and the Governor spent a portion of his early childhood in its precincts.

Breakthrough in Schram crisis: vice chancellor to be invited back

FRANKIY KAPIN | PNG Edge

THE first step to solving the Unitech boycott has been reached with the agreement of a platform for two-party while students steadfastly maintain their ‘No Schram, No School’ policy.

A government delegation led by Minister for Higher Education Delilah Gore and consisting of Ministers Kerenga Kua, Ben Micah, Richard Maru and Robert Atiyafa (pictured) had a successful first dialogue with the Unitech students on campus in Lae.

Both sides agreed the court action involving Dr Schram must be dismissed to enable the exiled vice-chancellor to return, with a plan to get Cabinet approval this week.