BY ILYA ‘SCOOP’ GRIDNEFF WHO FIRST BROUGHT THE STORY TO THE WORLD
KEVIN RUDD MAY HAVE LOST the headcount as the Labor Party tribe went to war, but one support group he can always count on is in a remote Papua New Guinea village.
A family in the isolated Eastern Highlands village of Degi is forever barracking for Rudd - especially because they named their first-born son after the former PM.
Kevin Rudd Junior was born in Goroka base hospital minutes after then PM Rudd visited during a whirlwind tour in March 2007.
Esau and Lina Kitgi were so impressed by Rudd’s visit they named their baby in his honour and have never given up being a true Rudd believer.
''We will always stand with him, we are diehards for Kevin,'' Kevin Rudd junior's Port Moresby-based uncle, Loven Forapi, said.
''Namesakes mean very big thing to us in PNG.”
Interestingly, another Eastern Highlands family, inspired under similar circumstances to Kevin Junior, named their daughter Julia Junior when Ms Gillard became Australia's first female prime minister in June 2010.
But Mr Forapi pointed out Mr Rudd had been to PNG three times - once to trek the Kokoda Track when in opposition, once after being elected PM and most recently as foreign minister. Prime Minister Gillard has never been to PNG.
''Rudd is a PNG man, when you ask any ordinary person on PNG's streets and in villages they will say K-E-V-I-N, not Julia. He is a household name here,'' he said.
Mr Forapi said despite Australia's political machinations the family was excitedly preparing for Kevin Junior’s fifth birthday celebrations on 7 March. Julia Junior's family was uncontactable.
THE YEARS ARE RARELY KIND to any of us both physically and spiritually, and friends and admirers can be like rats on a sinking ship who can’t get away quickly enough from declining fortunes.
With the present state of Sir Michael Somare’s health and his recent political manoeuvrings, he himself and people at large are forced to face his mortality and assess his undoubted influence on the fortunes of Papua New Guinea now and over more than the past 40 years.
This first photograph of Michael Somare was taken in 1973 at the Angoram Hotel; the one below was taken at the Wewak Yacht Club in 2009.
Radiating from the first snap is the face of a young, dynamic, enthusiastic, and likeable man.
In this second snap, the young man is gone but one can still see a man smiling, perhaps less enthusiastically, but still, I think, likeable. The old Somare charm is intact. I also see some sadness and disillusionment in the older man’s face.
There are those people who revere Somare as the father of the nation and others who say that, although he came into political life to do good, he certainly did well for himself and his family. Between these two extremes, maybe, lies the man.
Somare has always had that rather intangible quality of personal charm, an immense asset for a politician. So many people I’ve talked to over the years have not been impressed with his performance in power yet, after talking to him, often describe him as such a nice man.
Charm, of course, can be beguiling and, in the words of Evelyn Waugh’s character, Anthony Blanche, in Brideshead Revisited, “it spots and kills anything it touches.” An ‘English blight’ in Anthony’s terms, but perhaps more universally applicable. Of course, in its positive aspect, the charm of an idealist is an embellishment to the human condition.
I well remember meeting and speaking to Michael Somare in Angoram on the Sepik River in the early 1970s and being most impressed with his personality. And later in Konedobu, I saw the concern he had in approving the proposed Ok Tedi Mine in the then Western District.
Sir Michael was, and I’m sure still is, an extremely sensitive man. In 1972, I was on my way to the Philippines to marry my future wife and, as a help to me, he gave me a letter of introduction to the Australian Ambassador in Manila.
Subsequently, Deborah, my wife, returned with me to PNG and got a job as press secretary to Matthias Toliman and then with Tei Abal of the United Party, a political rival of Somare’s.
I felt that Somare considered that this in some way was an act of disloyalty to him on my part. Years after - in 2009 in Wewak - I mentioned this to him and, in his usual charming way, he brushed it off as of no consequence.
Some people consider that Somare always had a sense of his own importance as PNG’s prime minister, and online references maintain that in 1975 he wasn’t impressed with Australia’s gift of an official residence and asked for and got a much grander building.
PHILIP BATARI, A PASSENGER on the ferry Rabaul Queen which sank in rough weather last Thursday, was updating his Facebook page just before the disaster.
Mr Batari was one of more than 350 people on board the vessel which sank after being hit by three large waves.
The Sydney Morning Herald said Mr Batari, a mechanic, was excited when he boarded the ferry in Kimbe and used his mobile phone to post a series of Facebook updates.
His posts included pictures of the wild seas pounding the ferry. Batari said he was having a "bloody rough time" at sea and his last post said he was "experiencing the worse moment of my life".
His Facebook page has not been updated since and it is not known if he survived the sinking.
Dianne Michaels has posted on his Facebook page that her "poor brother Philip Batari is probably somewhere floating out @ sea."
In another post, Daniel Maisu talks of a strong man who has "a wife and two children to come home to".
TUCSONANS WHO KNOW HIM WOULD AGREE, Ron Perry has enjoyed one hell of an adventurous live. For more than 40 years he collected what is considered by experts to be the finest museum of quality Papua New Guinea artifacts.
Ron Perry's life of adventure began after he graduated from Tucson High School and the University of Arizona. Perry and a friend went to Hawaii to become surfers. But it didn't take long for the Army draft to catch up and he was deployed to Korea.
After the Army, Perry returned to Hawaii where friends persuaded him to follow them in Australia, where he caused a bit sensation with his slick Malibu surfboard.
He got married to Barbara and the Perrys spent several years working on her father’s sheep station in Australia before moving to Sydney.
On his first artifact collecting trip to the Sepik River in the mid sixties, Perry learned to deal with tough conditions and clouds of malaria-carrying mosquitoes. After being denied assignments to areas where the local people carved good artifacts, Perry quit his job as a surveyor for the government Lands Department.
At one point Perry hiked with an Australian patrol officer for 10 days through New Guinea's rugged Southern Highlands south of Mendi. The group's 25 carriers were prohibited from commercial activity so Perry, carrying $250, could buy only as much as he could carry. A shield that cost him $5 then would sell for thousands of dollars in today's market.
Fred Buck, owner of the Polynesian Bar in Honolulu, was Perry's first fine art dealer. For about 10 years, Perry's artifacts could be found in the Art Primitiff gallery on San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf.
Perry believes New Guinea's finest artifacts are carved in the Sepik area. To get there required an immense amount of preparation. He would send money to a bank in Wewak, building up the account to $40,000. Then he would catch a ride on one of the weekly mission flights or book a charter to Angoram.
Perry would stock up on tins of sardines and other supplies, rent a motorised canoe with a native driver and crew and set out for six weeks or so exploring river villages. He would leave his purchases in each village's government house.
"I would tell the headman that I don't want anyone to steal this stuff," Perry recalls. "There were times when I had to hire a second canoe and lash them together with cane then build a rough platform on top to stack my artifacts.
“In Angoram, I rented a storage shed from Jim ‘Deadly Dudly' McKinnon while I built shipping cases using timber from his sawmill. Then I would wait for a coastal freighter to pick them up. Jim charged me a $1 a night to rent a small room."
When McKinnon was elected to the House of Assembly, Perry took over running his mill and other businesses, which included purchasing crocodile skins, operating gas stations and running a general store.
Life has not always been easy for Perry. In the early years, he fought bouts of malaria. "Now, if I start the meds immediately, I am over it in three days, quicker than recovering from a cold," he says.
Perry remained in PNG after the territory won independence from Australia in 1975. He managed the government-run artifact center Village Arts and led boat trips on the Sepik River.
In 1978, as manager of Village Arts, Perry accompanied a collection of PNG art to the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Anthropologist Margaret Mead served as guest of honor to open the exhibition.
Perry's reputation and knowledge about PNG artifacts is world renowned. And it continues. "We don't advertise our artifacts," Perry says. "Collectors know about them."
PROMINENT PAPUA NEW GUINEA BLOGGER Martyn Namorong has been commended by the United Nations for his work to expose injustices suffered by indigenous people affected by the Ramu Mine.
United Nations Resident Coordinator in PNG, David MacLauchlan-Karr, presented the certificate of commendation to Mr Namorong today.
Presenting the Award, Mr MacLauchlan-Karr expressed grave concern for the people of Madang whose lives will be affected by the dumping of toxic mine wastes into the Bismarck Sea.
He encouraged Mr Namorong to continue writing about the plight of the people of Papua New Guinea.
Mr MacLauchlan-Karr also stated that the UN will be sending a team to assess the landslide in Southern Highlands that has killed an estimated 60 people.
He said the landslide was triggered by construction activity related to the LNG Project.
AFTER EIGHT YEARS OF SERVICE at St Dominic’s parish in Broadmeadows, Father Michael Watae is leaving Australia.
The parish priest is returning to Papua New Guinea after a decision by his church superiors.
“I have mixed emotions. I’m excited for a new beginning but sad because I’m leaving beautiful people,” he said.
Father Watae has been the parish priest since 2006 after serving as assistant from 2003.
He will move to Aitape in March.
“My most immediate task is to work with the bishop in the local parish. I’ve been asked to do vocation work to encourage young men to become priests and women to become religious.”
Father Watae said he would miss his strong congregation.
“I’ve tried to develop a community where people are loved, respected and honoured.”
PAPUA NEW GUINEA’S ONLY WOMAN member of parliament and the driver of a scheme to create reserved seats for women has confirmed her mid-year retirement.
Dame Carol Kidu told a Melanesian Alliance Party fundraising dinner that she was leaving politics satisfied she had made significant contributions to the nation.
She said that was something women and children, the disabled and youths could be proud of.
Her bill to create 22 reserved seats for women in parliament fell short last month of the number of votes required to pass it.
Dame Carol, who will have served in parliament for 15 years when she retires in July, also commended her party executives for continuing to keep one of PNG’s oldest political parties alive.
She says she’s enjoyed working with the National Alliance party led by Sir Michael Somare who trusted and allowed her to continue to be a minister in his coalition government.
She says the future of the Melanesian Alliance Party lies in young people’s hands and she’s urged party executives to recruit them to bring back a vision for the future.
One of the more low profile but most satisfying functions of PNG Attitude is the way it regularly brings together people who the years have separated. Now it’s done it for me, as JIM LEIGH, the man who gave me my first management job in broadcasting, has got in touch through his Ireland-based daughter, Kelly. I’ll be catching up with Jim on the Sunshine Coast later this month. Meanwhile, it’s worth repeating the story – first published in 2008 – that triggered this reunion four years later….
I WAS LEAFING THROUGH the Pacific Islands Monthly for May 1963 when I happened upon this photograph. It shows the then station manager of Radio Rabaul, HH ‘Jim’ Leigh, posing in a studio with some staff members and two tape recorders.
Jim was to become a rather bellicose and impetuous Controller of Broadcasting with the Department of Information. He plucked me from the ABC and into his managerial ranks in 1969.
One of my tasks as the new manager of Radio Bougainville in 1970 was to recruit and train young Bougainvilleans to work as announcers and producers. I was under special orders to hire people from the dissident (secessionist) villages around Kieta.
Jim Leigh, who later became general secretary of the Queensland National Party, called me on the radio-telephone from Port Moresby to proffer some unsolicited advice on how to conduct selection interviews.
“Father,” he said (he called everyone father), “there are only three rules for selecting staff, and I want you to note them carefully.
"One. Be rational not emotional. Got that, father? Over."
I agreed I had got that.
"Two. Put ‘em under pressure, real pressure. Know what I mean, father? Over."
I affirmed I knew what he meant by real pressure.
"Three. Check their references. Over.”
As chance had it, Jim was in Kieta for his annual inspection of the station at the time I’d scheduled a number of interviews.
The inspection included intense scrutiny of the S-bend of the toilet, since Jim had recently had hepatitis and blamed unhygienic radio station latrines for this misfortune.
He’d been unsettled by his arrival in Bougainville. The DC3 undercarriage warning light had triggered and there was some anxiety before an ultimately safe landing at Aropa airstrip.
"Head between my legs, father. Thought I was gonna kiss my arse goodbye. Know the feeling?"
I stated that, while the feeling was not known to me personally, I had a vivid imagination.
Early next morning was interview time. The first was with a young hopeful from one of the dissident villages near Kieta.
Jim reminded me of his three rules for conducting effective interviews - rationality, pressure and references – and told me he'd sit in to see how I conducted the session.
I was unimpressed by this, but he was the Controller and I was his subordinate and that was that.
The first applicant was a strikingly beautiful 18-year old woman.
As she walked into my office, Jim simpered, “And what's your name, my dear”.
“Perpetua Tanaku,” she replied, “but my friends call me Pepi.”
Then she added, “You can call me Pepi.”
“Pepi,” Jim sighed.
“Pepi is short for Perpetua,” she breathed. “It comes from the English word 'perpetual' which means ….. everlasting."
References on my desk in front of me, I was just about to ask the first rational question that I hoped would put Miss Tanaku under real pressure when Jim leapt to his feet.
"You're hired," he said.
Photo (left to right): Matthais Tiamani, Jim Leigh, Nellie Exon, Joe Gohan, H Vue and Danes Tagi
THE PRESIDENT OF THE Simbu Children Foundation, Jimmy Drekore, has thanked supporters – including a number of PNG Attitude readers – for their “efforts in 2011 to making a difference in the lives of sick and disadvantage children in the rugged mountains.”
Mr Drekore expressed special appreciation to SCF Team Western Australia for shipping a 20ft container of gifts to the children of Simbu and to SCF Team Ok Tedi in Tabubil for raising K28,000 for the Foundation.
During the year, SCF also sent seven “Brave Hearts” to Operation Open Heart in Port Moresby and held a successful end of year ball in Kundiawa with a unique twist - a visit to Mingende Rural Hospital.
“2012 will be the year to make SCF stand upright hence projects are underway in line with our strategy,” Mr Drekore said.
“We need each other to make Simbu better, hence please help out where you can so we can be proud of our achievements come end of the year.”
Mr Drekore also sent a message to candidates in the forthcoming PNG national elections.
“To all you potential candidates, best wishes in your campaigns. Unfortunately SCF won't support you. If you win, you need to support SCF and the elites of Simbu will witness that because you know these elites are very influential in their communities.”
FORTY YEARS SEEMS A LONG TIME in abstract. It also seems an eternity when we project forward. But as we look back, it seems to be not much further than this time last year. Such are the elastic perceptions of time.
This photograph, provided by Barbara (Neasmith) Short (fifth from left in the front row) pictures the teaching staff of Brandi High School as they were in 1971. "It was a very good year at Brandi," writes Barbara. I can assure Barbara that it was a very good year wherever we were. I happened to be enjoying myself at Radio Bougainville in Kieta.
The image is characteristic of the time: short skirts; neat, belted shorts with (except for one miscreant, excused because he's the agriculture master) long socks; open necked shirts for the Sepik tropics; youthfulness (plenty of hair still on head). A fine body of young men and women.
Pictured (back): Miss M Peters (home science); V Martin (history, maths); CA Baker (headmaster, guidance); J Renaud (maths master, science); Miss G Holland (english, science, physical education); J Phillips (science, music); J Hughes (science master, drama); Mrs P Miller (art, social science); P Lorimer (social science master); K Kiou (maths, social science); N Gregory (english, social studies); M Petchell (maths, science); (front) DC Chester (deputy headmaster, agriculture); C Freeman (commerce, agriculture); G Miller (english master, drama); A Loi (manual arts); Miss B Neasmith (geography, music); J Yandanai (manual arts); Miss B McDonald (science, english); D Lillyman (agriculture master); Mrs A Cassidy (social science, english); T Rabona (manual arts master); H Kaiyaoko (maths, physical education); Fr W Shadeg (english, social studies).
Recent unrest in PNG was the eruption of long simmering tensions, says Martyn Namorong. DOUG HENDRIE talks to the political blogger who sells betel nut by day and tackles the ruling class by night.
MARTYN NAMORONG IS ANGRY. And he’s got a right to be. From the poorest province in Papua New Guinea, Namorong was able to come to the capital, Port Moresby, to study medicine. His future seemed certain.
Instead, he dropped out of medical school and had to make his living on the street, selling betelnut.
As he sat at his small stall, he watched the urban poor fight to survive, and he began wondering why this was so.
Since independence from Australia in 1975, the state had slowly and steadily atrophied, forcing ordinary Papuans to rely on old methods to survive: intensive food gardens in their communally owned land (which accounts for around 97 per cent of the entire country).
Widespread corruption funnelling money from mining and logging companies to the Port Moresby political classes had entrenched a sense of abandonment among the urban poor, villagers who had moved to the big city hoping to find work or forced to leave as the rural population swells.
Namorong watched all this, and wondered, and his anger grew.
He began penning missives on his blog, The Namorong Report, excoriating the political and economic system in PNG. His focus shifted from medical and public health issues to the wider picture.
In 2011, he won the PNG’s top award, the Crocodile Prize, for essay writing. He wrote:
MELBOURNE SCULPTOR JAMES PARRETT loves to surf and ride the waves. And it was to the sea that he turned when seeking inspiration for the design of the Rabaul and Montevideo Maru Memorial.
Like most Australians of his generation, James (35) knew little or nothing about the Japanese invasion of the New Guinea Islands in January 1942 or the subsequent sinking of the Japanese prison ship Montevideo Maru with the loss of more than 1,000 Australian prisoners of war and civilian internees.
It was not until James stood in Canberra among the memorials to Australians who’d fought and died in the nation’s various military campaigns that he realised the daunting challenge ahead of him.
“To those tens of thousands Australians who served in all the wars - and to those they left behind - this was indeed a sacred place.
“I felt I had to do justice to them and their memory and this special place by designing an abstract sculpture, outside the traditional memorial box, yet with a modern feel that will speak to future generations.
“Hopefully, it will not age. People will either like or dislike it but what matters most of all is when they walk around it, or stand under it, that they wonder and think about the event it commemorates.
“To me it is most important that the people who died in the tragedy are at peace and that everyone who comes to know about the event also feels at peace,” he said.
James surfs along Victoria’s west coast beaches and it was while paddling in the calmness awaiting to be picked up by the right wave that he realised the ocean’s power.
All was calm out where he was but he could see in the distance the fury of the waves as they crashed onto the beach.
He decided then to create a memorial that symbolised the ocean; his design picks up the circular wave-like-forms while the angled base is evocative of a ship’s bow.
James only started thinking about art and the possibility of a future career while in his senior high school years at Kingswood College, Box Hill, Melbourne.
He could not decide what he wanted to do until his teacher showed him images by two American artists and sculptors, Jasper Jones and Frank Stella, noted for their pop art and abstract expressionism.
“They spoke to me, blew me away, and started me off,” he said.
What followed was a Bachelor of Arts (Sculpture) degree from Monash University, then Honours in Sculpture from the Victorian College of Arts.
Since then he has exhibited at galleries in Sydney and Melbourne, and has been a finalist in several of Australia’s most important sculpture exhibitions, including Sculpture by the Sea at Sydney’s Bondi.
James spent two years teaching English in Japan. But it was in Melbourne five years ago that he met his Japanese-born wife Chiyoko.
She was studying English; he was learning Japanese. They have a daughter Haruki and live in Coburg just north of the Melbourne CBD.
The dedication of the Rabaul & Montevideo Maru Memorial will take place at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra at 11.30am on Sunday, July 1, 2012 – the 70th anniversary of the sinking of the unmarked prison ship by an American submarine.
The help of Melbourne journalist Bruce King is greatly appreciated - DH
THIS IS ESSENTIALLY a story that is of great shame to the Australian government, and especially to the military awards protocol people in the Defence Department.
The story of a man who led a heroic charge against a superior enemy force in Vietnam – resorting to bayonet when the bullets had gone – and who then served his country as a kiap and teacher in Papua New Guinea – and who traversed the country from north to south for something to do in school holidays.
Frank ‘the mad Spaniard’ Alcorta, now 75, was born in the Basque region, migrating to Australia in 1960 “without a word of English, no profession, ten shillings in my pocket, a pair of strong shoulders and a willingness to work hard.”
In 1961, with drover friend, Alexander ‘Dutchie’ Holland, he prospected for opal, shot dingoes and kangaroos for bounty, built fences and did odd jobs in cattle stations in outback Queensland.
Taking a break in Brisbane with Frank at the end of that year, Dutchie pointed to an Army recruitment centre in Mary Street – and on 17 December they both joined up.
Four years later, on 18 August 1966, a day he’ll never forget, Sergeant Frank Alcorta stepped off an armoured personnel carrier (APC) into a swarm of enemy soldiers at the edge of a rubber plantation in Vietnam.
In the village of Long Tan, four kilometres east of the Australian base at Nui Dat, Australian troops had made contact with the forward units of 2,500 Viet Cong guerillas and North Vietnamese regulars. There were just 105 men in D Company, and they were engaging a force over 20 times their strength.
Let the Federal MP for Hinkler, Paul Neville, take up the story (Private Members' Motion on the Battle of Long Tan, 31 May 2010):
[Alcorta's] A Company came forward with 10 APCs, seven of which were heading towards the battle. About a kilometre short of Long Tan they too met a group of Vietnamese of company strength. They took them on. One particular man whom I know in Bundaberg rolled off his APC [this was Alcorta].
He and his machine gunner lay on the ground, then got up and went straight into the face of the enemy, firing at them as they went. When their ammunition ran out they went with bayonets. It was such a convincing assault that the company of Vietnamese withdrew—turned and ran….
Sgt Alcorta’s A Company was able to break the enemy line and make it to D Company in the thick of battle. Mr Hinkler continued:
By the time they got to the battle proper it had been completed. Major Harry Smith and his men—105 of them—took on wave after wave of battalion strength enemy who tried as they would to pierce the perimeter. Not once did they cross the Australian perimeter and, in fact, some of the battle occurred at the range of only 15 metres….
They were recommended for awards, and in fact two senior officers received DSOs. Harry Smith’s likely award, originally to be a DSO, was downgraded and he received the Military Cross. Two of his lieutenants, Sabben and Kendall, were downgraded to MIDs, and his 12 men that he recommended did not receive awards, including one who was killed in action. Unbelievable stuff.
HAVING SPENT MUCH of his working life in Papua New Guinea, petroleum geologist Mike McWalter has seen the development of the petroleum industry within PNG, and has come to call that country his home.
“I haven’t lived in England for oodles of time, so yes, PNG is very much home,” said Mr McWalter, advisor to the PNG Department of Petroleum and Energy.
Mr McWalter joined the PNG Geological Survey Petroleum Resources Assessment Group in 1987, just as PNG had “our first real oil discovery at the Iagifu 2-X well, which subsequently became part of the Kutubu field. This was real black oil, and I was there at the actual well testing. It was an absolutely enthralling time.”
The discovery was made about 500 kilometres north-west of Port Moresby in the remote Southern Highlands Province by New Guinea Gulf Oil (later acquired by Chevron Corporation, when that company acquired Gulf Oil’s assets worldwide.)
“The New Guinea Gulf Oil geologists were good explorers,” said Mr McWalter. “When they found the real black stuff, they realised they had found something quite valuable: they had shown that PNG really had geological structures that could contain commercial quantities of oil.”
“These were extraordinary days, because after this discovery, every oil company in the world was piling into Papua New Guinea. They were very exciting times, with a lot of licensing work, the delineation of the oil discovery, and the evaluation and approval of the first oil development proposals” he said.
By 1990, Mr McWalter had been promoted to Chief Petroleum Geologist, with a role that was very much involved in technical and operational review, the technical aspects of licensing, and the negotiation of agreements.
Shortly after, the Department of Minerals and Energy became the Department of Mining and Petroleum with two large Divisions: one covering mining and one petroleum activities.
“These were both really much like departments, and I was responsible for the geological work, technical policy and handling all legal and other affairs of the PNG Government in the re-organized Petroleum Division, which had its own legal, economic, licensing and landowner coordination capacities.”
Mr McWalter became the first Director of the new Division, in which there was a great emphasis on localisation.
“We sought to progressively re-organise the Division and take on plenty of young PNG graduates. Then, we had a series of World Bank funded technical assistance programmes through which we deployed experts in all manner of disciplines to train the staff.
“Over the period from the mid-90’s through to about 2007 much learning was done, and eventually some 33 people had gone through Masters’ programs, and a high level of competence was developed within the Division.”
Mr McWalter left his position as Director in 1997, and moved into the first of the Advisory roles he has continued to play for the Department.
“I stood down from being Director because of the emphasis on localisation, which I have always thoroughly supported,” said Mr McWalter. “After all, that is the whole point – to develop the local skills.”
In 2007, the Division made another transition and became the Department of Petroleum and Energy.
“The PNG experience can be a bit indelible, once it is stamped in your heart and your passport; it is hard to shake it off,” Mr McWalter said.
IN THE HOURS FOLLOWING news of the 13 October plane crash near Madang, Reginald Renagi Jr [pictured] hung on to every inkling of hope that his mother may still be still alive.
The fourth year Information Systems student sits with his hands clasped in front of him in a Divine Word University student services conference room as he recounts those anxious hours.
“I was clinging to the hope that the plane had gone down in Transgogol (along the Lae-Madang highway),” he said. “I don’t know where the information came from but they said the plane crash-landed near the highway and that there were no casualties. It was quite relieving to think that.”
Reginald, along with senior members of DWU’s Student Representative Council, were setting up a tent and making other preparations for a celebration on the weekend – a celebration that included their parents – when a sudden storm interrupted the preparations.
Like many Papua New Guineans in such situations, he knew something was wrong even before news of the crash arrived.
“My palms were sweaty and they felt like pins and needles. They felt numb. There was this overwhelming feeling and I knew something was wrong.”
At 5pm, Reginald dialled his mum’s phone number. Then he sent text messages. No answer. At 5.05pm he made another call. Then another at 5.10pm.
Around that that time Allan Kwalu, another student who was there helping with the preparations, got a call from students who had gone to Madang airport to pick up their parents who were supposed to arrive on the Airlines PNG flight.
“Someone called and said they got news that there had been a plane crash,” Allan said. “That message… I couldn’t pass on to Reggie. I was thinking hard about what to say to him when he got a call on his phone.”
Allan didn’t hear exactly what was being said but he knew the content of the message when Reginald began crying.
For many, those hours just passed like a blur. Paula and John Paul Matlam lost five members of their family. Maggie Wata lost her mum and her aunt. Cecilia Bula, a fourth year PNG studies student, lost both her parents. Grace Bid lost a brother and Clara Bal her mum.
When evening came, the Divine Word University community continued to piece together the information that was trickling in from various sources. At the police station, Allan said there was already some indication tha the news wasn’t good but he also tried to push that thought out of his mind.
“We couldn’t find the words to tell them. There is nothing that you can say that will bring comfort to those who lost a mum or mum and dad.”
Reginald Renagi’s determination to find his mother took him all the way to Raikos. It took him and a cousin four hours before they reached the site of the crash. Reginald said he tried preparing himself mentally but still hung on to the hope that his mum was somewhere.
“I kept calling her phone and it said: ‘Your call will be charged…”
Reginald and several others remained at the crash site until daybreak. When the sun began rising he said he couldn’t call his dad.
“I called my sister. I said: Michelle… and I didn’t know what to say....
“I said: ‘I can’t see mum anywhere. I think mum is gone’.”
A NUMBER OF PEOPLE have asked me about Mavo (Sadam) Manu [pictured] and whether he received the money that readers of PNG Attitude collected for him.
When we were in Port Moresby in September for the Crocodile awards, we met Joe Gurina, the journalist/photographer who had written the original story about Sadam.
Joe had arranged for his wife to bring Sadam up from Domara in Cloudy Bay so that we could hand the money directly to him.
Unfortunately there was heavy rain down that way and the roads were impassable. As you might know the highway from Moresby to Kupiano is pretty good, but beyond it deteriorates rapidly.
In lieu of Sadam, I handed the money to Lydia and Peter Kailap. They had graciously offered to accommodate Sadam if he made it to Moresby.
Lydia and Peter have undertaken to get the money to him as soon as the opportunity arises. That probably means when one of his close relatives gets to Moresby or someone gets down to Domara.
In the meantime we are trying to arrange for Sadam to visit the eye clinic at the Port Moresby General Hospital run by Dr Jambi Garap.
Alternatively, she will see him next time the mobile clinic is down Domara way. Our emails have gone unanswered but we are still hopeful.
You know how these things work. We’re on Papuan time now.
IT WASN’T QUITE by accident that I first met Reg Renagi in the flesh. On my recent visit to Port Moresby, we’d had a loose arrangement to meet some time after I arrived at the Crowne Plaza.
It was one of those Melanesian sort of arrangements where a matter is generally agreed without being nailed down with final certitude.
So it was around 7.30 pm that, having checked in late, I was wandering around the hotel trying to get my bearings when a tall, good looking man approached me and said: “You must be Keith”.
Reg had been hanging around for the best part of two hours, honouring a vague arrangement with far more loyalty than it deserved. And so we had a beer and dinner and talked about all the things good friends talk about.
Two days later, after the writers workshop and Crocodile Prize awards ceremony at the Australian High Commission – throughout which Reg was a diligent and active participant – I briefly met his wife, Myria (Lulu), an attractive woman in both looks and demeanour. From the way Reg deferred to her, I guessed that I was talking with a real anchor point in a relationship.
A month later, Lulu was dead – killed in the Madang Dash-8 crash, along with 27 other innocents.
Reg Renagi is well known to readers of PNG Attitude. Three year ago he became the first Papua New Guinean to contribute regularly to these columns as both a feature writer and a commentator.
And, in lending his name to all he wrote, he encouraged many other Papua New Guinean writers to do likewise - and if you don't know that that takes courage you don't know PNG.
“I write about certain key strategic issues our government needs to address in PNG’s national interest,” he told readers two years ago. "Concerned citizens have to keep reminding them."
Through his writing – most frequently on matters of government, ethics and defence - he built up a strong and loyal following of readers, who felt here was a man they could have a conversation with – even though they had never met him.
In September 2007, Reg and Lulu had lost their beautiful daughter, Jeannie, after a long illness.
“She failed to respond to the long term regime of medicinal drugs, special diet, family love and support, and left us to meet her maker,” Reg told readers.
“It was such a gut-wrenching experience for an anguished father and a desperate family - watching our beautiful daughter’s life slip away daily in the terminal stages of her illness.
“I miss my daughter terribly and still mourn for her in my quiet moments and say a short prayer for her before I start my day and before I go to sleep each day. The healing will take some time as she was my favourite girl since she was a baby.”
And now tragedy has struck again with extraordinary cruelty – Lulu killed on the way to Divine University in Madang for the graduation ceremony of their son.
We have started The Renagi Appeal to give readers the opportunity, in the most practical way, to express their condolences to Reg, to assure him that we share his grief and to thank Reg for what he has done in the past and for all that he will do.
I hope you’ll see fit to contribute. You can do so by making a deposit to: Keith Jackson BSB 082-302 Account No 50650-1355. In the Description box, mark your gift ‘FOR REG’. And drop me an email
PAPUA NEW GUINEA is preparing for its first ever state wedding for the nation's ninth Governor-General, Sir Michael Ogio [pictured here with prime minister Peter O'Neill].
Sir Michael is to wed Esmie Ereoli from the Solomon Islands. Ms Ereoli, a former employee of Pacific Casino Hotel, was said to have met Sir Michael in 2009 when he was a cabinet minister. The couple have maintained a very private relationship to this day.
The Governor General's official secretary, Tipo Vuatha, in an interview with Radio Australia, said that the wedding will be the first of its kind in PNG staged in public.
"We cannot make it a private one," he said.
"All the previous Governor Generals came with their spouses. He was a widower."
The PNG government will pay for the public wedding, said Mr Vuatha, which will be held at St Mary's Cathedral in Port Moresby followed by a state function in parliament.
Mr Vuatha said that the wedding will take place next Saturday.
Sir Michael Ogio GCMG, CBE was born on 7 July 1942 was leader of the People's Democratic Movement Party.
He became acting as governor-general in December 2010 when Jeffrey Nape resigned after one week without explanation. He was elected as Governor-General in his own right on 14 January 2011 when he defeated Pato Kakeraya 65-23.
He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II on 26 April.
Source: Solomon Times, 17 October Spotter: Martin Hadlow
THE AUSTRALIAN pilot who survived the horrifying Madang crash had only recently returned to his passion of flying.
After years of running a home brew business on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, Bill Spencer started teaching young pilots at Maroochydore Airport and then returned to flying with Airlines PNG a year ago.
The 64-year-old was only a few shifts away from heading back to his Bli Bli home when he survived the horror crash in the PNG jungle on Thursday night.
Yesterday his family gathered by his bedside at the Royal Brisbane Hospital.
Mr Spencer suffered leg injuries in the terrible crash, which claimed all but four of the 32 people on board the plane.
"He's pretty shattered," son-in-law Conal Hanna told the Sunshine Coast Daily.
Mr Hanna, the husband of Mr Spencer's daughter Meghan, said the family was in shock.
“They're extremely relieved that Bill has survived but are feeling quite emotional about those that have lost their lives," Mr Hanna said.
"Their thoughts and prayers are with all those in Papua New Guinea who are going through the grieving process."
Mr Hanna said his father-in-law had been excited about returning to work in PNG when he took the job last year.
He and Mary moved to the Sunshine Coast 10 years ago and ran Stews Home Brew at Maroochydore.
When a job teaching pilot students for Singapore Airlines opened up at the Maroochydore Airport, Mr Spencer jumped at the opportunity. Mr Hanna said his father-in-law could not resist the new job in PNG.
"He's addicted to flying. He loves it," he said. "Outside of his family and his dog, it's probably his number one passion in life."
Mr Hanna said an investigation would look at what caused the crash but initial reports have suggested it was a mechanical fault and not pilot error.
"I think whilst they're relieved Bill's okay, the reality is a lot of other people have died. They feel that.
"This is the start of probably a pretty long process where I'm sure there will be an investigation. Bill will have a long journey ahead of him."
I’M DR WENDY and I grew up on the outskirts of Washington, DC, and lived most of my life in Virginia (USA). I currently live in Lae, Papua New Guinea.
1. Why did you move abroad?
I finished my Ph.D. and started looking for university jobs….. Papua New Guinea? Sure, I’ll apply….
2. How do you make a living (working? Tell us about your experience)?
I work as the Director of Teaching & Learning and oversee faculty development. I also just took over training for all university staff, so I’ve been busy developing plans for that area, too. I “work” here, but honestly I get paid as much as I work (not much work for not much pay….).
3. How often do you communicate with home and how?
I have a prepaid plan on my Blackberry, so I use my minutes to call my kids back in the States. The Internet is pretty expensive and the connection is poor, so I don’t get to video chat with them except on rare occasions. I get my American news and gossip through Facebook on my phone. The internet is slowly getting better and when the time zones work out, I love texting with friends and family back in the States.
4. What's your favorite thing about being an expat in Papua New Guinea?
PNG is very laid back and that’s probably my favourite part about being here. Coming from the United States and always on the go, PNG is a stark, stark contrast. There is time for everything… and we fit in work, too!
5. What’s the worst thing about being an expat in Papua New Guinea?
I’d probably say that it’s not the “worst” thing, but one of the more frustrating things about being an expat here is the inefficiency of things. It can literally take a couple of days to get a very mundane task done.
As an expat, you’ve been hired to come in for a position that a local person is not qualified to do and yet I spend a lot of my work time chasing down or trying to do a very basic task. It can be frustrating to take an entire afternoon off work to go pay a bill, and yet, it’s a normal thing here.
SIR PAULIAS MATANE has celebrated his eightieth birthday by climbing Mount Varzin (Vunakokor) on the Gazelle Peninsula with 3,500 well-wishers.
Sir Paulias, former Governor-General of Papua New Guinea, has long been an advocate of a healthy lifestyle
“To all of you who joined me on the historical climb to the peak to celebrate my 80th birthday, I thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Sir Paulias said.
“We will always treasure these thoughts.”
SirPaulias said the 3,500 people who joined him on the walk included representatives of many business houses, media people from EMTV, NBC, Radio ENB, The National, Post Courier and Kundu 2, students, teachers, 25 officers of Keravat Corrective Services, as well as church and community leaders.
“I must not forget the members of the theatre group and the two wonderful choirs of my Viviran Village and Bitakapuk N. 2 Village,” Sir Paulias said. “They were the joys of the day.”
Next week, the energetic ex-vice regal will be in Port Moresby to help produce some educational TV programs for EMTV.
“They’re for the public to see and enjoy,” he said. “Please keep watching for these on EMTV.”
ON HIS RECENT official visit to Papua New Guinea, Australia’s foreign minister Kevin (‘Heavy Kevvy’) Rudd exchanged gifts with his long-term protégé Kevin Rudd Junior.
On Saturday Mr Rudd passed on a signed copy of his children's book, Jasper and Abby and the Great Australia Day Kerfuffle, to the three-year-old Goroka boy named on the day Mr Rudd arrived in PNG for his first official overseas visit in 2007.
And what did the Mr Rudd receive as a thank you?
A spear.
“I can think of a few uses for this,” the former prime minister told reporters.
He also received three bilums from Kevin Jr's uncle, Loven, who was eager to meet Mr Rudd.
Kevin Junior is due to start school next year having recovered from a bout of malaria in 2010 but was unable to make the trip from Goroka to Port Moresby to meet his namesake.
Mr Rudd, however, did have a brief phone conversation with the young boy.
“I was very pleased to talk to Kevin Rudd in Goroka,” the foreign minister said.
“I've seen pictures of the little boy growing up and I wish him very well.”
Source: Sky News, 2 October
01 October 2011
One of my closest mates, Murray Bladwell, formerly of Chimbu and other parts, is having his 70th birthday today. And I'm in Brisbane to make sure he does it in style. Murray, a great head teacher of Chuave among other postings, is a fine educator, a top communicator, a hot-house of energy, a great inspiration and a wonderful bloke. Happy birthday, Fums! Taddy.
Yesterday at the 25th Papua New Guinea - Australia Business Forum held here in Madang, the very last session of the day included a presentation by Dr Rona Nadile, the First Assistant Secretary of the Department of Labour and Industrial Relations. I asked her how it is we have a major resource extraction project in Madang where most foreign workers speak no English.
To her credit, Dr Nadile was incredibly candid. Before the entire forum, she explained that when these work permits came across her desk she was told that the Prime Minister's Department wanted her to 'make it happen' and issue all work permits for MCC employees. A collective gasp and giggle could be heard across the room.
ITEM
Rules ‘bent’ for mining project
By Barnabas Orere Pondros
Chinese nationals employed by the Ramu nickel mine were issued work permits despite not meeting Papua New Guinea’s labour laws which stipulate that all non-citizens must be proficient in English.
Department of Labour and Industrial Relations acting executive manager for employment promotion Dr Rhonda Nadile revealed this yesterday at the 25th Australia-PNG Business Council forum in Madang.
She said despite strong opposition from the Department of Labour and Industrial Relations over the legality of the issue, the National Government directed the department to issue the permits “because the agreement has been signed to develop the Ramu nickel project”.
According to Dr Nadile, the National Government overlooked the labour laws because the Ramu nickel project was far more important….
Dr Nadile said if the department tried to question or oppose the issuance of work permits, the applicants only go higher up, “even to the Prime Minister’s office”.
ITEM
Blog post
From The Namorong Report
Prime Minister O’Neill’s vow to tackle corruption and the misuse of public monies is not going to bear any fruit unless the government moves to protect whistleblowers like Dr Rhona Nadile. Nadile has been sacked from the Department of Labour, where she was a senior officer, for exposing gross misappropriation and inappropriate use of trust funds….
One case involved the drawdown of K241,000 to cover the travel costs for Secretary George Vaso and his staff to travel to Fiji for an extended stay of 18 days to attend two conferences which were only for 8 days. Another case involved the use of K500,000 from the Work Permit Trust Account so a delegation could attend an ILO conference in Geneva.
“Enough is enough”, wrote Nadile in a memo to Vaso, “I have witnessed numerous occasions of gross misappropriation and inappropriate use of WPTA funds”.
As a result of her questioning of the payments, Nadile was suspended from duty and charged with gross insubordination and has now been dismissed
Meanwhile a report outlining specific cases of abuse of funds have been given to new Minister for Labour, Martin Aini, but he has failed to make any public statement on the matter.
ITEM
Whistleblower Nadile has car seized in late night police raid
By A Special Correspondent
Whistleblower Dr Rona Nadile, suspended and then sacked from the Department of Labour for revealing misappropriation and misuse of Trust Funds, has had her official vehicle seized by police in a heavy-handed and humiliating late-night raid.
Dr Nadile was at home with church fellowship when, at about 10 o’clock at night, a police vehicle (ZGC 978) with at least five policemen from Waigani Police Station arrived at her house. And if that wasn’t enough, the police vehicle was accompanied by a private registered van (CAX 179).
There were about 14 people in all, cowards and bullies, ever so big and strong and ever so brave to commandeer Dr Nadile’s vehicle, which was her right to hold.
Dr Nadile was allowed no representation and was forced to hand over the keys to the vehicle. Not one of the police would disclose his name. The perpetrators who organised this outrage should be brought to account immediately.
How demeaning is this and what intimidation for any citizen of Papua New Guinea let alone a professional like Dr Nadile. The person(s) responsible for this must be so nasty and mean that he/she is not fit to hold any responsible position.
ITEM
Private communication
From The Waima Kid
Dr Rona is a shining star that should set the pace and the standard for all. She is bigger than the Iron Lady of England. We should hang our heads in shame. We are all nothing but cowards.
I said the last time that [NAME WITHHELD FOR LEGAL REASONS] was only Mr 10% and the Big Fish was out there. I hope he is get punished because he deceived because he contributed to Keravat’s own short comings and the many other projects in PNG. You can run but you cannot hide BIG FISH. You will be caught, scaled and locked up.
Now let’s get support Dr and report more abusers and culprits.
I hear that Dr Rona Nadile, one of our ex-Keravats, has stood up against some corruption in her department and is now in need of support. I would love to help her in any way I can.
If anybody has any suggestions please let me know. I thought maybe I could write an article for PNG Attitude. Lets all get behind her! Tuum Est again!
I WAS STANDING, bored, in an airline queue at Brisbane Airport late yesterday morning, waiting for something exciting to happen, like movement, when a tall good looking man travelling with his wife caught my eye and approached me.
“Are you Keith Jackson of PNG Attitude,” he asked, introducing himself as Charles Abel, who I knew to be Papua New Guinea’s Trade Minister, especially as I’d just posted an article about him on the blog earlier in the day.
Charles was returning from the Pacific Forum conference in Auckland where he’d been a member of the PNG delegation.
And so we got into conversation … about governance issues (which I'd just written on for The National and the blog), about the difficulties of drawing the sometimes fine line between corruption and family affiliation in Melanesian cultures (we’re determined to root it out it, he averred; and see Joe Wasia’s comment yesterday about the difficulties involved), about Peter O’Neill’s skills and strengths as a leader and, briefly, before the queue began some sluggish movement, about Charles' interest in the arts.
I provided a quick briefing on The Crocodile Prize (to be awarded for the first time tomorrow night to four outstanding Papua New Guinean writers), which was the reason I was in a holding pattern in an airline queue in Brisbane.
Charles told me he’d thought from time to time about contributing to PNG Attitude but wondered whether this was an appropriate thing to do.
I enthusiastically suggested it was, and we agreed that – when remarks from him would be useful – that I could drop him an email with some pertinent questions.
And so the queue straggled on; somewhere beyond the end of it was Port Moresby.
SIR JOSEPH NOMBRI was a founding member of the Pangu Pati. For many years he was the Papua New Guinean ambassador to Japan. In later years he became a distinguished elder statesman in his beloved Simbu Province.
In the late 1960s, however, he was a mere kiap and, as far as the Administration was concerned, a very dangerous one.
Such was their concern that they banished him to one of the most distant and muddiest outposts of the realm - Kiunga, on the Fly River.
The Assistant District Commissioner was sympathetic to Joe’s plight and tried to make his enforced exile as uncomplicated as possible. He set him to work keeping open the boggy track to the mission at Rumginae, north on the Ok Mart River.
There was nothing to use for road base within cooee and a lot of the road meandered through swamp. Joe spent his days cutting timber corduroy and building long and windy bridges through the bogs.
Joe and I shared a house at Kiunga. We repainted the old kero fridge in Pangu Pati colours to upset the District Commissioner when he visited. Joe also liked to greet visiting dignitaries at the airport carrying a sign saying “Open season on swans”.
I’m not sure why I was banished there; it could have been for any number of reasons.
The Indonesians had just enacted the pantomime of their Act of Free Choice in Irian Jaya and people were fleeing into Papua New Guinea by the hundreds. I spent my days in the company of a grumpy Australian Army Warrant Officer judiciously avoiding our assigned task of rounding up the refugees and sending them home.
Another misfit at Kiunga was the son of a very prominent Australian cabinet minister, lately of the New South Wales police force, but hastily despatched out of sight upon the discovery of his homosexuality. He was there running jet boats up the Ok Tedi River to some sort of mineral prospecting camp.
We entertained ourselves. Sometimes Joe would stand on a chair and recite pieces of Simbu wisdom. I particularly remember his fine rendition of Mausgras and Kela Man, which is a clever allusion to the battle of the sexes – think about it and it will become clear.
Another avenue of boredom-beating was crocodile shooting. Our mining friend had a boat and a spotlight and we had the firepower in the form of a couple of ancient station .303 jungle carbines.
In those days you could get $2 an inch for a skin, which bolstered the social club’s coffers, and the meat was a happy item on the menu of our local kalabus.
On one memorable night we nailed a particularly big specimen. Joe, who was a good shot, got it right between the eyes. Unfortunately, as we raced over to collect it, the bugger sank.
We pulled up where it had gone down and poked around for a while with the oars but to no avail. Loath to lose such a fine specimen we climbed overboard into about three feet of murky water and began to feel around.
Joe, being a methodical man, suggested we work on a grid pattern. He located a submerged log with his toes and using that as our datum we worked our way out for several yards at regular intervals.
Joe, walking up and down along the log directing operations, suddenly grunted and stuck his hands into the water. It wasn’t a log after all!
By feeling along its body he found the tail and hauled it towards the boat, where we all attempted to lift it aboard. Try as we might it was too heavy.
Joe had another idea. With him on the tail, we hauled it to the nearby sandbar. From there, with a couple of handy branches, we figured we could lever it into the back of the boat.
Imagine this: it’s about 2 am on a sandbar in the Fly River. A short but solid Simbu kiap is standing on the bar clutching a large freshwater crocodile by the tail while his friends are rummaging around somewhere cutting tree branches. The crocodile wakes up!
Joe hung on; he didn’t have much choice. The groggy crocodile started to thresh in circles. As it came past we endeavoured to shoot it in the head. Do you know how hard it is to shoot a croc in the head on a sandbar under the light of a dancing spotlight?
Every miss from the powerful .303 carbine threw up great mounds of sand and left gaping holes behind. Through sheer luck one of the shots eventually hit home and the croc lay still.
After we’d dragged it on to the boat Joe asked whether we wanted to go a bit further; some people had told him about a really big croc lurking upstream. The temptation to throw him into the river was overwhelming.
When Joe got old his health deteriorated and he needed treatment in Australia. A very mean and ungrateful government declined to help.
ON WEDNESDAY Jacob Gubi had life-saving surgery for free at Monash Medical Centre in Clayton, Victoria
Jacob was booked in for a craniotomy under monitored sedation, where doctors opened his head and remove a tumour while he was awake.
Head of neurosurgery Andrew Danks said he performed this procedure, where patients are put under a local anaesthetic and remain conscious, about six times a year.
“We need to have his cooperation to help us work out which areas of the brain are doing what,” Associate Professor Danks said.
“We can tell which areas of the brain control what by stimulating it during surgery. That gives us a guide to what we can take out and what we can’t.”
Mr Gubi is having the procedure to remove a brain tumour which is causing severe seizures and preventing him from working back home in Mendi in the Southern Highlands.
He had his first seizure in 2007. “I was sitting next to a fire and had a severe seizure, and I burned my right foot,” Mr Gubi said.
He spent the next six months in hospital recovering from serious burns, and had all the toes on his right foot amputated.
His seizures continued, preventing him from doing his job as a health extension officer. He held fundraisers to get enough money to come to Townsville for tests in 2009.
Doctors told him a lesion on his brain was causing the seizures, and quoted him $10,000 for an operation to remove it.
“I just don’t have that sort of money,” Mr Gubi said. “I went back, and I could not do anything.”
But then, this year, the 35-year-old met an old friend, Peter Tumu, from Australia who was visiting PNG, and things changed rapidly.
Mr Tumu approached Scots Church in Australia, which donated $10,000 for the operation. Brighton Grammar also donated flights and travel insurance, and Southern Health will donate all other medical costs.
Mr Gubi said he was very grateful for the donations which would save his life.
“It’s a great big relief and I think in Papua New Guinea these things are not possible,” he said. I am one of the lucky ones. I don’t know how I would thank them.”
This week, Papua New Guinea’s only female parliamentarian, Dame Carol Kidu, lost her portfolio after the dramatic overthrow of the Somare-Abal government. In 2007 Islands Business magazine declared her to be its Person of the Year and, to mark the occasion, she was interviewed by SAMISONI PARETI. To honour Dame Carol Kidu’s career as a highly effective minister, we republish extracts ….
HANDBAG BY HER SIDE and wiping her thin-framed glasses, Dame Carol Kidu is one of the world’s hopelessly-armed fighters.
To begin with, there is no army for her to lead, nor a financier with deep pockets to fund her cause. Her armoury of weapons is non-existent. And she’s white, and a woman.
Yet within this seeming paradox, lies the widow’s strength. For Kidu fights a different fight, one that doesn’t require guns and ammunition, or in the context of the country of her late husband and their children, bows and arrows.
There are no arms, just her strong debate skills. No war manoeuvring, just sharp intellect and a strong sense of justice and fair play.
For that fighting spirit, her never-say-die attitude, her sheer grit and determination to take on the might of Melanesia’s largest and most vibrant male-dominated society, for being the face and voice of the poor and the down-trodden, Kidu is the magazine’s unanimous choice for the 2007 Pacific Person of the Year.
For a woman of her stature, her work in social development is of gigantic proportion.
In the context of the islands of the Pacific, the problems in Papua New Guinea are immense and complex. It can even be deadly inside the sprawling shanty towns of Port Moresby or the remote corners of the Highlands. Yet, size it seems doesn’t matter to Dame Carol Kidu.
Slowly and determinedly, she is making a difference. And she is getting people including the male leaders of PNG to sit up and listen. Her community development ministry is now reclassified as a senior ministry….
Being the sole woman parliamentarian, the only woman cabinet minister and being white, Dame Carol Kidu makes no bone about where her allegiance and interest lies; fighting for the poor, the down-trodden and the unfortunate of a country she and her children have come to call their very own.
Thrust into national politics of Papua New Guinea following the sudden death of her husband in 1993, just six months after his term as chief justice was unfairly terminated, Kidu is synonymous with the fight against domestic violence, child abuse, HIV and AIDS, poverty alleviation and community empowerment in the country of her late husband and their children.
As the minister for social welfare and community development, Kidu has been the small ‘general’ leading from the front….
Nobody, least of all Kidu, needs reminding of the enormity of the task and the challenge.
For her, the fairy-tale [began] when the young, handsome Buri Kidu swept her off her feet with a rendition of the popular Neil Sedaka number, Oh Carol, at a school boot camp on Australia’s Gold Coast in the mid-1960s.
Later, when the idea of matrimony was raised in 1969, Buri laid everything bare about the difficult road with his Brisbane-born bride.
“Buri said, ‘Look, just understand one thing, if we marry, don’t ever ask me to choose,” Lady Kidu recalled in an interview she gave ABC TV’s Australian Story in 2004.
“And I said, ‘What do you mean?
“He said, ‘Don’t ask me to choose between you and my people. I’ll choose my people, I will not choose you.”
A NORTHERN TERRITORY couple have returned to Darwin after three years in Papua New Guinea with Australian Volunteers International.
Kate Wheen and her partner, George Butler, went to PNG in 2008. Ms Wheen working on issues including HIV and climate change and George with the anti-corruption watchdog.
Ms Wheen said Port Moresby was like Darwin, but with more political unrest. "You couldn't walk on the foreshore at night," she said. "It was like a big melting pot of cultures.
“Everything was fortified and had barbed wire - but we got used to being security conscious. It is good to be back here."
She said spending so much time in the country had helped to break down cultural differences. "We felt like part of the community. I consider myself a true PNG-o-gram."
"We plan to go back to Papua one day. "But I love Darwin - I enjoy being back."
A large amount of material on Papua New Guinea crosses my desk, and some of the most lurid and unreliable stories are published by people who describe themselves as “missionaries”. Here’s one - KJ
CAITLIN BRANDERHORST calls herself a Christian thrill-seeker. Which doesn't involve roller coasters or skydiving. It’s spreading God's word that gives her a thrill.
Branderhorst, 19, has returned home to the USA from a missionary trip to Papua New Guinea where she spread God's word to the Pukari tribe.
After attending high school in Costa Rica, Branderhorst spent five months at a disciple training school in Australia. She had hoped to do missionary work in Indonesia, a largely Muslim country.
"Papua New Guinea wasn't exactly in my top 10 places to go," she said. "I was going to the most uncivilised country in the world." All she had were God's word, a backpack, two sets of clothes and a mosquito net, she said.
Once she landed in PNG, Branderhorst was driven through the jungle until the road ended and there was just ocean. There was a man in a bamboo boat who would take her to the Pukari tribe.
There had just been a cyclone off Australia and the waves were high, she said, making the boat ride very bumpy. "The driver, who supposedly did this all the time, was praying in tongues," she said.
When the boat descended on where the tribe was, hundreds of people were on shore waving palm branches, welcoming the missionaries. The last missionaries to visit the Pukari tribe in the 1800s were speared and eaten, she said.
One day, a man with a spear came running up to her very fast and stopped right in front of her. "All of these thoughts came to my mind. I was thinking I am going to become a martyr; ... my parents are never going to know I am dead because I am in the middle of nowhere.
"I looked behind me and the whole village was laughing. It was a joke."
The Pukari people's diet consists of wood and leaves. "That's what they ate every day, and that's what we had to eat every day," she said.
The closest hospital is a three-day walk in the jungle. There's no sanitation, no toilets, she said. It was difficult for Branderhorst to communicate because the Pukari speak 800 different tribal languages and Branderhorst's group only had one translator.
"When I prayed in faith, I saw God work at a whole new level," she said. Branderhorst said she cried when a 70-year-old tribal woman came up to her and thanked her for sharing about Jesus.
Branderhorst didn't just come into doing missionary work. Her parents, Mark and Connie Branderhorst, were missionaries in Latin America. Mark Branderhorst said he didn't know where his daughter was going to do her work.
"I had to look it up on a map, and I did a little research," he said. Branderhorst said he is proud of his daughter for her missionary work. "She has not shied away from His will in her life," he said.
Caitlin Branderhorst said she knows that God is passionate and missionary work is what he wants her to do. "Half the world doesn't know him," she said. "That's our job."
DUPAIN BALIM is from Mindre village along the Rai Coast of Madang Province, where she is an advisor of the local Lutheran women’s group at Biliau circuit.
She is also an advocate of the Lutheran Church’s Decade to Overcome Violence project and has travelled widely throughout Madang, Morobe and East Sepik Provinces.
Last Sunday Dupain sat on her woven coconut under the shade of the mango tree and listened as the verdict of the National Court decision on deep sea tailings was being conveyed to the people of Mindre.
She was the only woman to speak during a meeting dominated by male voices.
When the meeting ended I walked over to her and asked if she was willing to have a chat.
When I asked her what was the main concern for women of Mindre village, Dupain replied, “Wara! Mipela save hat wok long wokabaut long Yaganon long kisim wara.” [Water! We (women) have to walk to Yaganon River to fetch water]
She then continued in Tok Pisin, “i nogat gutpela helpim long kisim marasin. Ol i mas apgreidim eidpos long kisim marasin. Ol mama igat bel ino save go long taun long karim bebi. Nogat bebi klinik. Ol lain husait igat moni save go long taun.” [There is little medical assistance. They (the mining company and government) must upgrade the aid post (at Ganglau village). Pregnant women cannot go to town for deliveries. There aren’t any Well Baby Clinics. Only families who can afford to travel to town can attend Baby Clinics.]
The people lost their main cash crops of coconut, betel nut and cocoa when their plantations were cleared to make way for the nickel-cobalt processing facilities. Today only those who do manual labour for the miners are able to earn an income.
“Mipelaol lain stap nating nogat moni. Nogat wanpela gutpela senis!” she remarked. [Those of us who aren’t employed by the mine don’t have any income. There hasn’t been any positive change]. The lines on her face revealing how emotional the issues were.
Then in a dignified voice, she looked at me and said, “mi bin laik go wokim aweness long ol lain wok long Ramu Nico tasol kaunsil i tok maski yu meri, ol i nonap harim tok blong yu.” [I wanted to carry out awareness (on violence) amongst the workers of Ramu Nico but the local councilor said ‘you’re a woman, no one will listen to you’]
THE BOSIN TWINS discovered only recently that they were born conjoined and were separated soon after birth.
The 15-year-olds from Papua New Guinea were joined from chest to navel, with their livers attached.
They were surgically separated at 16 days at the Royal Children's Hospital.
Their parents decided not to tell Eustocia and Eaustina they were conjoined, to give them as normal a childhood as possible, until their recent return to Melbourne.
Dad Henry Bosin explained: "We did not want them to be embarrassed by telling them they were not born 'normal' twins."
The stunned twins found out a fortnight ago when visiting their now retired surgeon, Alex Auldist, who showed them film of their life-changing surgery.
Eustocia said she wanted to give something back by becoming a nurse, while Eaustina hoped to teach.
Former Rotarian Barrie Cooper, who arranged for them to be flown to Australia for their surgery, saw them yesterday for the first time in eight years.
"It was very emotional. I was very deeply moved ... to see them as 15-year-old girls because when I first saw them, I didn't think they had a hope," Mr Cooper said.
PNG Rotary had paid for their education so far, but $30,000 was needed so they could finish school and go to university, Mr Cooper said.
Photo: Eaustina and Eusthocia celebrated their 15th birthday in May [Mike Keating]
THE PLAIN FACTS about Japanese R&B singer-songwriter Emi Maria, who debuted as a major label artist in 2009, obscure a great family tragedy.
Emi Maria was born Maria Komba in Simbu in 1987 to a Simbu father, Mark, and a Japanese mother, Hideko, and spent the first five years of her life in PNG.
Hideko was a Japanese aid worker who went to PNG and fell in love with and married Mark. Those early years in the Simbu were blissful and young Maria and her brother were surrounded by relatives and friends.
Then Mark got a job in Port Moresby and the family went to live in Gerehu. One day when Mark was at work in Waigani, raskols broke into their house and raped Hideko.
Understandably distraught, and with the help of the Japanese Embassy, Hideko left Mark behind in PNG and returned to Japan with Maria and her brother. Heartbroken, Mark died a few years later.
Much later, the brother returned to PNG to explore Mark’s legacy and link up with his family and studied at UPNG, where he graduated in 2008.
Emi Maria stayed in Japan, became a singing star and is now poised to break into the western market.
AFTER A TWO-YEAR training stint in Australia, my first sea patrol as a ship’s third officer started off in typical fashion.
The executive officer spoke into the ship’s PA system: “Special sea duty men and cable party close up. Assume damage control state 1, condition yankee! Single up all lines! Let go all lines, all hands fall in for leaving harbour”.
The Captain ordered “Revolutions 650 charge, coxswain steer 085. Navigator, take us out of harbour”. I answered “Aye, aye, sir”.
After leaving Seeadler Harbour and the Admiralty Group (Manus) over 48 hours earlier cruising at 12 and a half knots, the sleek fast Attack Class patrol boat, HMAS Aitape transited the China Straits, passing Samarai Island on her port beam en route for Port Moresby.
It was still pitch black in the wheelhouse when I struggled up the ladder at 20 minutes to the hour to relieve my captain from his middle-watch (“the guts” are from midnight to 0400). The ship was being tossed about like a floating cock in a basin so that climbing up the stairs was a gymnastic feat in itself.
“Good morning, sir” saluting him. “Morning, Nav (short for navigator). Ready to take over?” “Ready when you are, sir”.
The Captain went through the motions of handing over the watch to his third officer. The Officer-of-the-Watch (OOW) was doing the morning watch-handover in the small wheelhouse.
It was over in 20 minutes and before leaving to retire to his cabin below, the Captain appeared somewhat uncertain. I could sense this and said, “Go on Sir, it’s been a tough watch and you do need to take a break. I’ll be fine”.
“Are you sure, Nav? This weather’s rough as guts”.
I grinned back saying, “She’ll be right, sir, and I’ve seen worse…” and did not finish as he appeared about to chuck all over the wheelhouse deck.
The captain’s face appeared to have changed colour. He hesitated as if about to change his mind on leaving a still inexperienced OOW on his own to make one last-minute reminder to his third officer.
“Well then number two (navigator), remember, don’t forget to call me as per my Captain’s Night Orders if you are in any doubt whatsoever. Is that clear?” “Aye aye sir”. “Well then, that’s it from me.
The morning watch weather was very rough. Amidst a cacophony, I barely heard the captain’s voice as another loud crashing sound violently shook the small warship from stem to stern, sending a series of never-ending vibrations throughout the ship. It was as if the small ship was about to break into many pieces as she rolled heavily on her side into the wave’s deep trough.
I saluted; the skipper turned and was gone from sight, disappearing in the shadows down below. There would not be any sleep for the captain this morning.
As the ship’s navigator, the lives of 18 sailors rested entirely on me and my skills as the OOW for the next four hours of some of the roughest weather one can ever experience in our tropical waters.
I looked at the big sailor at the helm and ordered: “Steady,” he immediately responded in the standard manner: “Steady on two-seven zero degrees, sir.” “Steer two-seven zero.” “Course two-seven zero, sir.” “Roger leading-hand” (acknowledging the response).
I continued with my last conning order to the helmsman who by now was struggling to stay on course in this wretched weather. His hands were gripping the spokes of the steering wheel so hard that I feared the linkages would snap under the strain.
“Look here sailor, I know it’s hard on you, but we don’t want to break the steering wheel so go easy on it. We will maintain this course as much as possible for the next hour. When we passed the Hood Point light off our starboard beam, we will make a ten degree further change of course to 280 and hug the coast as much as possible until daybreak”.
“Hot brew, sir?” “Great stuff, and thank you, lookout. Keep your weather eye peeled. We don’t want to run into anything solid in this godforsaken weather”.
I was suddenly jolted by a big wave crashing down on the foredeck where the 40-60 Bofors gun was situated.
It seemed to go on forever as I kept peering through the thick windscreen glass with wipers going at full speed. “Another cup of brew, sir?” “Yes, thanks”. “The usual, sir?” “No, coffee will do”.
“Standard navy brew, sir?” “No, a little different this time.” “How different sir?” “Just like my woman?” “Pardon me, sir?” “Sorry, make it black and strong, no sugar and milk, thank you.” The chef flashed me a wide grin.
“And would you like your breakfast now too, sir.” “What’s for breaky, chef?” “It’s standard navy, sir.” Oh, that’s great!
The chef disappeared aft into the small galley. Within seconds he was back holding a huge plate. Here you are, sir. Breakfast for champions from the finest chef onboard!”
The plate was filled to the edges with bacon and eggs, poached, scrambled or fried sunny-side up, bangers, tomatoes, fried onions, ham, pineapple slices and other stuff. “Why thank you chef, that was my favourite on the Stalwart!”
“I know sir,” and before I could ask him how he knew, he had already disappeared into the small galley where the familiar sweet aroma of coffee and fried eggs and bacon was floating through the galley-doors in the starboard passageway leading to the wheelhouse.
In another 20 minutes the lookout would pipe the ‘wakey wakey’ call throughout the ship calling all hands to breakfast.
I thought I was going to enjoy cruising the Papuan waters for the next 21 days. Ah, what a life for a seafarer.
IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA individuals and households primarily produce food, health, peace and so forth. The agriculture, health and the police departments make policies and plans and supervise their implementation. They do not produce.
How feasible is it for a health worker to come to the doorstep and check to see if you wear a condom before sex or wash your hands before dinner? It is not possible.
The thought that the health department will produce health or the police peace and the department of agriculture food is fallacy. That is why we say individuals and households are the primary producers of health, peace and food.
I want to introduce a village court magistrate to you so you can appreciate what she does in a tough and treacherous environment to produce peace and tranquility in a rural remote dark corner of the Simbu Province.
Alim Yuana is her name. She is slim and has a dark brown skin but has a good voice and talks with authority.
She is from the Yuri tribe and is married to Yal Ole of the Nimaikane clan and lives with her husband in the northern foot of the Kubor range. She has five children who are all married with children of their own.
Alim is a village court magistrate in Ward 10 of the Digine local level government of the Kerowagi district even though she has not been to grade school.
The Nimaikane, Daral Gauma and Mor Gauma clans make up Ward 10. These clans are known for tribal warfare, killing, indiscriminate burning, and the plundering of property since time immemorial.
They are also known for fighting over meagre issues like stealing, swearing, debt and marriage breakup.
In the midst of this volatile environment, Alim Yuana sits in the male-dominated forums with her badge of authority hanging on her neck courtesy of a dog chain, listening attentively to disgruntled individuals and groups as she threads a way to dissipate animosity and bring peace.
She does this officially on Mondays and Thursdays. However, when there are emergencies and she is needed to broker peace, she attends to it with diligence at any time. In her free time she tills herd land for food and looks after the pigs.
She earns a monthly stipend of K50 month for being a village court magistrate and doing this noble job.
To Alim Yuana, K50 is just enough to buy a packet of salt, some cooking oil, a bar of soap and a roll of tobacco for her husband and herself, since the children look after themselves. She has yet to complain and ask for a pay rise.
A FORMER MISSIONARY who spent 10 years in Papua New Guinea is preparing to return to the country, but this time as a bishop.
Father Rolando C Santos CM who was elected a bishop on 3 April, will head the Alotau-Sideia diocese where he served as formator of seminarians and as executive secretary of the Episcopal Conference of PNG and the Solomon Islands from 2000-2010.
He goes back to PNG after having served as the head of the Congregation of the Mission Philippine Province as its eighth Provincial Visitor.
Bishop-elect Santos will be ordained and installed in PNG next week.
Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales gave the bishop-elect his blessings. “God works in mysterious ways. We thank you for accepting to be bishop to the people of PNG. We may not be there in person but rest assured that our prayers go with you,” the cardinal said.
Bishop-elect Santos was born in Malabon City in 1949 and ordained a priest in 1974. He and served as director of the Daughters of Charity from 1988-2000 before volunteering for missionary work in PNG.
YOUNG FRANCISCAN Fr Lukasz Kwiatkowski joined the Franciscan Order because he was drawn to its founder’s connection with nature. He’ll get plenty of it when he embarks on his first mission to PNG, a 26km hike to the nearest airport.
In late May, Fr Lukasz, 29, ordained two years ago in Krakow, arrived in PNG and trekked the 26km to a remote church built by Fr Piotr Rzucidlo who accompanied him on the trip.
Fr Lukasz will work for a number of months in the Sandaun Province with Fr Piotr, who will help him with acculturation; then it’s just him and three other New Guinean Franciscan Friars. Franciscans have worked there since World War II.
Fr Lukasz could be there 10 months or 10 years. Such is the life of a missionary called to serve God through the instructions and life of his religious order.
While Fr Lukasz isn’t sure how he’ll handle the culture shock, as “Poland has become very western and people have everything they need”, Fr Piotr said it doesn’t matter how long a missionary priest stays.
“Even if you stay a few days, you have celebrated the Eucharist. That is the most important thing,” Fr Piotr said.
Fr Piotr, 42, was on his own for most of the 10 years he spent in Nuku between 1998 and 2008, because the other Franciscan who volunteered as a missionary to the PNG outpost went home after a few months.
Not a few missionaries have returned home after initially volunteering in a blaze of good intentions. Fr Lukasz admits he’s scared, but is confident that God will give him the strength to endure.
Fr Piotr, now 42, stayed those 10 long years because he always wanted to be a Franciscan missionary since he was a young boy watching Pope John Paul II on the television in Communist-repressed Poland.
More than that, he drew strength from the many elements that have driven lesser men back home, including malaria.
“I had fear, but I drew strength from it. I knew that if God wanted me to stay, He would give me support – and, sure enough, it came.”
“The people love God and love us as missionaries because we bring Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, so they go to church every Sunday; they have a sense of sin. Our modern world can learn a lot from these people, especially about simplicity and hospitality,” Fr Piotr said.
TWO MEN who have contributed much to Papua New Guinea over the years, Graham Pople and Peter Macdonald, were honoured in the recent Queen’s Birthday awards.
Former NSW independent MP, Dr Peter Macdonald [right], was awarded the Medal of the Order (OAM) of Australia for his services to local government and medicine.
As a Sydney general practitioner from 1973 to 2006, Dr Macdonald founded and is president of Australian Doctors International, which is working to improve the health and living conditions of people in PNG.
Dr Macdonald said the medal will give him and others involved in Australian Doctors International the encouragement to keep going. “I think the rest of my life will be dedicated to this,” he said.
Graham Pople [left] is a PNG citizen, ex-kiap, ex-MP and entrepreneur who has been in PNG since the 1950s.
He was elected as a member of the first House of Assembly in 1964 as the Member for Gumine, always with the intention of handing over to a local leader at the first opportunity – which he duly did.
Graham was awarded an MBE for his services to the PNG community. He is an avid reader of and an occasional contributor to PNG Attitude.
ELEINA BUTUNA is an especially proud mum. That’s because she’s the mother of up-and-coming US hip-hop music buzz, Prote-J [pictured], who we profiled in PNG Attitude last weekend.
“I was actually very surprised, and of course elated at the same time, to read your comments [in PNG Attitude],” Eleina wrote me this morning.
“My son’s real name is Jayhugh Smith, but he is now popularised by his hip hop artist name of Prote-J.
“Initally I objected to the name,” said Eleina, “but then I relented - ha!” Was there ever a mother who didn’t relent over a son?
“I note that you gave Jayhugh some name as his real name, so I was going to write and correct it but now you know his real name” After extensive research PNG Attitude decided Prote-J’s ‘real name’ was Jabre' Trawick. As everyone reading this now knows, we weren’t even close.
Eleina continued: “'Jayhugh/Prote-J is an American but Papua New Guinean at heart. I like his new positive approach to the hip hop music which is good to my ears rather than the vulgar bits of the traditional hip hop popular culture.”
Right now, Eleina – who lectures in demography and population studies at the University of PNG – is also busy planning Prote-J’s impending tour of PNG, which will be a real homecoming.
Eleina also shares with Reg Renagi the distinction of being an executive member of the PNG-USA Alumni Association [pictured below].
“I look forward to sharing news, views and ideas in the PNG Attitude forum,” she writes, “and of course will share my son's upcoming tour to PNG.”
Lots to look forward to!
Photo: PNG-USA Alumni Association: Front row - Alisha Barampataz (extraordinary member), US Ambassador Teddy Taylor, Simon Kenehe (Chairman), Eleina Butuna (Secretary), Dr Rona Nadile (extraordinary member). Back row - Samson Komati (Treasurer), ret'd Colonel Reg Renagi (Deputy Chairman), Vincent Malaibe (extraordinary member), Solomon Kantha (Deputy Treasurer)
MEDIA NIUGINI Limited has announced the appointment of Bhanu Sud as CEO of EMTV, the PNG national television service.
MNL Chairman Kafora Muaror said it was important for the strategic direction and growth of the company to appoint someone familiar with the PNG market and business community.
Mr Sud was previously with Steamships Trading Ltd and holds a Bachelor of Technology and MBA degrees.
Source: Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. Spotter: Martin Hadlow
JOSEPH L CANNON was an unlikely figure to become a global missionary. He spent his early years in a gang in Canada. Yet, God broke into Joe's life, changed his heart, and gave him a calling that would take him to four foreign mission fields over 60 years.
It was 1947, shortly after WWII, that Joe and his first wife, Rosabelle, began mission work in Japan. Then, in 1971, Joe and Rosabelle moved their family to PNG. Over a 13-year period they established several schools including the Melanesian Bible College in Lae.
After the death Rosabelle, Joe married Betty Dollar. Betty had left full-time work in Memphis to do mission work in the Ukraine in the 1990s. She laboured there for years and was joined by Joe in 2002. Few have given their lives to strangers like Joe and Betty.
They were recently honoured by the congregation at Highland Church of Christ in Cordova for their years of mission work in Japan, PNG and Ukraine.
Late last week, Opposition leader Sir Mekere Morauta stepped aside in favour of Belden Namah to trigger a significant generational shift in PNG politics. Here, Reginald Renagi looks at his substantial legacy….
WHILE HE DID NOT remain long in office, former prime minister Sir Mekere Morauta will long be remembered as a great political reformer.
Among important policy changes he instituted as prime minister, fundamental reforms in the financial sector loom large.
Unlike previous prime ministers, who lacked the political will to make a difference, Sir Mekere inherited his predecessor’s liability and immediately cleaned up remaining problem areas in the country’s financial sector.
Minerals Resources Development Corporation. Key actions involved protecting landowner interest groups, pushing for legislation to remove political interference by MPs, outsourcing investment management, Central Bank oversight and a ‘fit and proper persons’ test.
Workers Mutual Insurance. To protect many thousands of contributors, Sir Mekere re-established Worker’s Mutual Insurance at a cost of K19 million, outsourcing investment management and conducted a major inquiry into its collapse as prelude to reforms of the existing Insurance Act.
Pacific Balanced Fund. He acted on major Inquiry recommendations and resolved an impasse by appointing new trustees and an investment manager.
Securities Commission. The commission was revamped to strengthen its weak and ineffective status. This gave it stronger powers and independence to pursue white-collar criminal activity.
Rural Development Bank (now the National Development Bank). The NDB was continually undercapitalised and suffered much political interference. A review of the Act protected the interests of small rural-based entrepreneurs.
These financial reforms greatly improved the efficiency of the economy. Furthermore, the phasing out of the former Telikom monopoly by increasing competition in telecommunications achieved positive job, service and tax revenue outcomes.
There was also a full review and reform of the Electoral Commission including an audit of existing roles, the registration of eligible voters and more voter awareness education.
To further boost the national economy, his plans to phase in competition in the airlines and establish an Independent Commission against Corruption with sweeping powers were mooted widely, but Sir Mekere had not finished what he started when he had to hand over to a new administration after the 2002 national elections.
The two political regimes since have consistently demonstrated an inability to initiate much-needed reforms from where this great reformist prime minister left off.
Papua New Guineans are hoping and praying that our country gets another reformist leader like Sir Mekere Morauta after the 2012 national elections to make the required political reforms we so desperately need.
THE MEMBERS OF the PNG chapter of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have elected Fr George Tami MSC as new provincial superior for a period of three years from next December.
Fr Tami is a Tolai from Matupit, which lies in the shadow of Tavuvur volcano near Rabaul. Matupit is the island where the MSC Missionaries first arrived in New Guinea on 28 September 1883.
He is currently doing his masters degree on comparative religion at Gajah Madah State University in Jogyakarta, Indonesia.
He is writing his thesis on the issue of violence and will return to Jogayakarta to complete his studies prior to taking up his new appointment.
In this chronological account, PNG Attitude profiles the colourful career of PNG’s new opposition leader, Belden Namah MP. Readers will detect that this man is both tough and that he has an acute policy orientation
March 1997 – As an Army Captain in the PNG Defence Force, Namah plays a key part in Operation Rausim Kwik - the secret Defence Force operation that saw UK Sandline mercenary Tim Spicer and his hired guns rounded up and disarmed. Ten days later prime minister Julius Chan is forced to resign
July 1997 – Involved with four other officers in an action to obtain amnesty for a cessation of further persecution of soldiers and officers who had carried out Operation Rausim Kwik
1997 – Gaoled with two other officers, Captain Bola Renagi and Second Lieutenant Linus Osoba, for six years in his case, after being found guilty of of mutiny
December 1997 – Spokeswoman for Bougainville Freedom Movement calls for release from gaol of Namah and other officers. "They stopped the murderers, Sandline International. They are heroes with a conscience. The wrong people are behind bars!"
May 2000 – Along with Captain Belden Namah pleads for the mercy of the court
August 2000 –Supreme Court refuses application for bail by lawyers for the officers pending the hearing of the appeal against their conviction and sentencing. Bougainville leader Joseph Kabui says their actions prevented a lot killing on Bougainville
2002 – Released on parole from Bomana Gaol with two fellow officers
September 2005 – Granted a pardon by Governor-General Sir Paulius Matane on the advice of the National Executive Council on the occasion of PNG 30th Independence Day
2007 – Elected to parliament as the Member for Vanimo-Green River in West Sepik (National Alliance Party)
August 2007 – Appointment as Forest Minister causes controversy because of perceived potential for conflict of interest as a forest landowner and principal of a company involved in logging in West Sepik Province
October 2007 – Calls for called for army bases in Wewak and Vanimo to be relocated to better monitor the border with Indonesia
March 2008 – Signals that PNG will stop raw log exports from new timber concessions from 2010 in a bid to make downstream processing the norm
April 2008 – As new Forest Minister tells parliament that logging companies routinely flout laws with the help of corrupt officials. Says "most" of his departmental officers responsible for monitoring forestry operations had ignored the laws and that many were "in the pockets" of logging companies. "I have noticed a lot of corruption going on within the Forest Department"
June 2008 – Says economic development has taken precedence over conservation. "Over the past decades we have imagined that our forests are limitless. If in 50 years, PNG is left only with scraps of forest inside national parks, then we have all failed."
June 2008 – States government is taking steps to review its logging policies. "There's a need for rapid action to replace trees that have been cut. And I believe for every tree that has been cut, we should plant three more new trees. That is one major policy I am looking at"
August 2008 – Heated exchange in parliament with his predecessor as Forest Minister, Patrick Pruaitch, after press reports that a minister had received $40 million in allegedly corrupt payments. Pruaitch had previously rejected claims of corruption in the logging industry
September 2008 – Rejects Greenpeace claims of illegal logging. rejected the Greenpeace claims. "As far as I'm concerned all the logging activities in PNG have been legally sanctioned,"
July 2009 - Samoa Observer reports that he has purchased three properties in the country for a total of $1.5 million. After initially denying the story, he admits making the purchases on behalf of unnamed business associates
July 2009 – Transparency International PNG says if Namah wants to facilitate business for his overseas partners he should stick to business and leave the task of representing the peoples’ interest to persons who will be committed to delivering services to the people.
February 2010 - Describes the Public Accounts Committees statements about the Forest Authority as outdated and misleading. The Committee had said the Authority was a corrupt institution with no financial systems
March 2010 – Says “carbon trade is a cargo cult” and reiterates there is no legal framework for carbon trading in PNG and no guarantee that carbon trade could bring in the tangible development and services. He also says logging will benefit the local people more than carbon trading
July 2010 – Defects from National Alliance Party with former deputy prime minister Sir Puka Temu and former culture and tourism minister Charles Abel. A plot to remove Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare does not succeed. He says later: “I made a very important personal decision in my short political career to break ranks with the National Alliance-led government. The decision was tough but I did so after careful and much consideration. My conscience was absolutely clear when I decided to forego the perks and privileges I was enjoying as minister for forests. I had to make a choice between self-interest and that of PNG as a nation and, to me, PNG’s national interest was paramount and above my own. It is with this firm conviction that I decided to leave the government, which is tainted by scandals and controversy”
October 2010 - Takes over leadership of PNG Party from founder and former prime minister Sir Mekere Morauta
October 2010 - Commits to initiate proceedings against the government to challenge the constitutional legality of amendments to the Environment Act. “I am doing so in my own right, as a landowner and member of Parliament”
November 2010 - In an open letter published in PNG’s two major newspapers, he launches a scathing attack on the PNG Government because of amendments to the Environment Act and the Ramu NiCo project, questioning the Somare Government’s commitment to the national interest and good environmental management. He claims amendments to the Environment Act ignore the constitutional rights of Papua New Guineans.
November 2010 – Calls on police to investigate alleged role of Michael Somare in the kidnapping of activist Noel Anjo and call upon him to resign [see video clip]
December 2010 - Accuses prime minister Somare of condoning rampant corruption and calls on him to act decisively in dealing with the Treasury and National Planning offices. Says it is common knowledge that corruption is rife in Treasury and National Planning, but Sir Michael continues to pretend that all is well
January 2011 - Says illegal activities along the PNG-Indonesia border are a national security threat. “We have incursions by Indonesian soldiers. We have opium elements and presence. There's an increase in the illegal trade of firearms, drugs, human trafficking"
January 2011 - Expresses grave concern over a directive from acting Prime Minister Sam Abal for his arrest and detention over the Border Rangers issue. “The Border Rangers in Vanimo was merely set up to carry out similar functions of the City Rangers in Port Moresby – to keep the Vanimo town clean and prevent people from selling cheap smuggled goods form Papua province of Indonesia”
March 2011 – Calls Leadership Tribunal’s decision to suspend the prime minister for 14 days “a complete mockery of the laws and the constitution of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea”
April 2011 - Former Morobe provincial government Speaker, Issac Narol, says Namah’s regular and opposing views against Sir Michael Somare are unintelligent personal attacks and that the public at large have had enough of reading and listening to him
May 2011 – Calls on Attorney-General and Justice Minister Sir Arnold Amet to immediately retract “highly inflammatory racial comments” against Sumkar MP Ken Fairweather or resign as a State Minister
5 May 2011 – Takes over from Sir Mekere Morauta as Opposition Leader. “Belden Namah is a strong leader and I have confidence in him and the young leaders around him to form a strong team to carry PNG Party into the future. [The] Party now has stronger foundations to face the next elections,” Sir Mekere said
This chronology has been derived from public sources. We will be grateful to readers who can supply more information or correct any inaccuracies
THE CHILDREN'S UNIVERSITY of Music & Art, established by Peter and Lydia Kailap in 2007, has predominantly funded itself and its programs through the sale of greeting cards featuring Peter's unique PNG tribal art.
Peter was born at Badili in Port Moresby in September 1959 and is the eldest of seven children. His father was a surveyor and kiap from the I’are tribe in Gulf Province and Mum was a mix of Koriki (Gulf) and Keapara (Central).
He has been a musician since he was six years old and has been often referred to as the best bass guitar player in PNG. He performed with many PNG and international bands during his career.
It wasn’t until Lydia told him how good she thought his drawings were that Peter started to take it seriously.
Many people who see his work make comments about how it is “real but unreal”, as Peter blends reality with traditional patterns and his own unique tribal designs.
Now you can buy some of his art for yourself while assisting CUMA and its important work in Port Moresby’s Kaugere settlement.
The all-purpose cards are sold in packs of 10 different drawings, and blank inside so they can be used for any purpose.
They sell for $23 per pack of 10 cards (with envelopes) or $20 per pack for sales of 10 packs or more. They are available in 5 different colors - lime green, orange, fluro yellow, sunny gold and purple.
Orders can be placed by emailing Lydia and Peter at cuma-png@live.com and payment and delivery arrangements made.
THE CARDS (notes by Peter Kailap)
1 and 3 - Bush University – a father and son hunting together as Dad teaches his son about hunting and nature. This is the most popular picture so there are two in each packet. 2 - Kumul & Puk Puk – traditional emblems of PNG: the bird of paradise and the crocodile. 4 - The Warrior – a typical Baiso (from Baimuru) hunter with wild hair and his bow and arrow. 5 - Mother Love – a village woman carrying her baby in a bilum. 6 - The Beauty and Strength of a Woman – women carry the burdens of the family in reality and emotionally. 7 - Warrior with Bird of Paradise Head Dress – a tattooed warrior holding his spears and wearing a head dress made from the dried remains of a bird of paradise. 8 - Tribal Music – a kundu drum with a set of hunting spears. 9 - Bowman – a hunter poised with his bow and arrow. 10 - Bird of Paradise – PNG’s beautiful bird that defines our nation.
THE ERA OF the Australian colonial administration held some memorable times for me. For a young impressionable student, life was pleasant growing up in Port Moresby in the 1960s.
During this era, I was educated by good teachers for four years (1966–69) of secondary schooling at Kila Kila High School.
Most of my teachers were Australians with a few from New Zealand together with about half-a-dozen local teachers. These early ‘chalkies’ were skilled educationists who contributed a lot towards student learning their subjects properly and developing their character as good citizens.
The teachers who taught me and my peers prepared us well for higher learning and for a good public service career thereafter.
At Kila Kila, I learnt many interesting topical issues and subjects (as taught in Australian schools) that PNG high schools do not teach these days. We learnt good English expression in our literature classes (my favourites being poetry, novels, book reviews, creative writing, composition) which stood me in good stead in later years.
Apart from expatriate teachers, I also remember to this day an exceptional local English teacher I came to admire. What struck me most was his personnel demeanour which was somewhat different from his peers.
Although he was newly-posted, he spent little time with his peers in the staffroom during recess and lunch breaks.
He would instead interact more with students and liked talking to them to show he was genuinely interested in what they learnt. For this, he was well respected by all who came into contact with him.
He was of quiet disposition and very patient with students. I came to admire this quality. He not only had command of his subject matter, but also was able to clearly explain answers to students’ questions. He was dedicated and wanted his students to understand the subjects he taught.
This great Papuan educationist already saw what was to come later to our country, so told us often how important it was for us to get a good education at that stage of our country’s development.
He was also a strict but fair disciplinarian and corrected students in a firm and caring manner.
This exceptional teacher who taught us English was Ebia Olewale (1940-2009, pictured), who was in time knighted by the Queen.
In later years, the public knew of Sir Ebia as a Pangu Pati stalwart within the inner circles of the PNG government under the leadership of the present prime minister.
Years later, Sir Ebia left the education department and ran for public office, becoming a highly respected Member of Parliament. After politics, and as a private citizen, he assumed many roles; one being a board member to corporate entities.
Ebia Olewale hailed from Western Province and, as an educationist, MP and corporate board member, contributed immensely in many ways to the development of Western Province and PNG.
This humble and soft- spoken English teacher was one of the great educationists PNG has produced since the 1960s. I consider him to be one of a very few and best qualified local teachers who set exceptional standards even by the measure of today.
Nowadays, despite all the resources at hand, teachers still cannot really give students a quality learning experience like those yesteryear teachers we had from the 1960s to the late 1980s.
Today, I often still wonder how many students this great Papuan educationist taught during his distinguished teaching career before taking up public office. They must have been quite a number to tell a good story to today’s younger generations.
I salute a great Papuan educationist. Thank you, Sir Ebia for the English that you taught me.
"THAT'S A COOL NAME," I told Sasa Zibe. He thanked me. We then talked about his journey to Brigham Young University-Hawaii. He told me of his conversion and faith, of his education, and of the opportunities that await him after graduation.
Sasa said, "My dad [also Sasa Zibe, PNG’s minister of health] was always into education. 'Whatever [educational opportunity] you can get, go for it,' he'd say."
It has been said that education opens doors. For Sasa, education was his door to church membership. When a relative introduced the Zibe family to the church and its emphasis on education, they recognized a rare opportunity.
But Sasa was the only member of his family to join the church. He went on to graduate from the church's Liahona High School in Tonga, to serve a full-time mission in PNG and to enroll at BYU-Hawaii. He has been in Laie for three-and-a-half years and will graduate this April.
“I've learned a lot about the church organisation since being here,” Sasa told me. “I've learned how to look after the church, how to be an organised leader and why home teaching is important. I'm excited to go back and help build the church.”
Already Sasa has three job opportunities in PNG. “I've juggled work, school and church, and when I go back home, I'll do the same.”
Many people in PNG have an annual income that is less than one month's rent in the United States. If it were not for the donor-supported I-WORK program, a BYU-Hawaii education would be unobtainable for many of the university's international students.
“I'm just grateful that I got an education, Sasa said. “And I will always owe a lot to those who made a difference for me by paying for my education for the past three-and-a-half years.”
Source: Mormon Times. Brad Olsen is one of four bloggers for “Of One Heart,” which appears in MormonTimes.com each Wednesday. Email: brad_olsen@byu.edu
THE BIRTH of a baby boy outside Goroka, Eastern Highlands, named Kevin Rudd Jr rates among the highlights of the three-year career of Australian Associated Press Papua New Guinea correspondent Ilya Gridneff [pictured].
Gridneff was mistaken for Rudd when he visited Degi village, outside Goroka, that he was feted like royalty and carried on the shoulders of singing villagers when he went to visit the birthplace of Kevin Rudd Jr.
The boy was given the name five minutes after the then Australian prime minister visited a local hospital on 7 March 2008. Kevin Jr has become somewhat of minor celebrity in PNG, with media attention and international tourists visiting.
Gridneff, 31, leaves today after three memorable years in PNG covering the good, bad and ugly from the ‘land of the unexpected’. His success is Eoin (pronounced Owen) Blackwell.
Friends and colleagues gathered at the botanical gardens in Port Moresby on Saturday to say farewell to a good mate.
“I’ve covered many memorable things,” Gridneff told me. “It’s hard to pick one which stands out, however, the hospitality of Eastern Highlands people when visiting Kevin Rudd Jr, and them thinking I was the prime minister, stands out.
“And also of an all-in brawl with hundreds of angry Sepik pukpuks, in the car park of Wewak yacht Club, at the Sepik Iron Man in 2009 – it’s something I will never forget.
“But it’s also some of the small things like a night out with local journos, ending up at Baret Club or Club 22, and coming home when the sun is shining are some of the things I’ll never be able to forget.
“I’ll just go bek to village blo mi, Sydney, and just malolo. Mi no klia what I’m going to do, maybe write a book about PNG, or enter into politics for Moresby South in 2012,” Gridneff says with a laugh.”
Gridneff’s last words: “PNG, you deserve much, much more, and taim blo yu to question ol lida bilong yu, because you’ve got all the talent, resources, cash flow and ability but are being let down by all the conmen who call themselves leaders and bikman.”
Keith Jackson writes: I thank Ilya for his regular reports published in PNG Attitude and for his comradeship. Over the last couple of years we’ve shared a lot of information and, during his visits to Sydney, a quiet and reflective drink or two.
Ilya has always shown a good journalist’s commitment to and respect of his subject – in this case a nation and its people – while never shying away from the hard reporting. He is also a photographer of rare ability.
In his time in PNG he was threatened by the guilty, shunned by diplomats and fought a constant battle with his AAP superiors in Sydney to get a better run for PNG stories.
It seems hard to believe that PNG has heard the last of Ilya. But AAP probably has. One of the news organisations final messages to him sought the return of $61.32 because of “0.7631 days (of leave) which needs to be recovered”.
When you think of the hundreds of unpaid hours that journalists like Ilya put into their job each year, not to mention the dangers and discomforts they face, this final act of bureaucracy seemed unnecessarily ungenerous and insensitive.
I can't believe that AAP let him go. He should be up there on the shiny bum floor helping run the show. Be prepared to see this talented young journalist go places.
I FEEL SURE that PNG Attitude readers will be delighted to learn of the recent success of senior civil servant and occasional contributor to this blog, Mari Ellingson.
Mari, who is the Director-General of the Office of Tourism, Arts and Culture in PNG, has just been appointed to the board of Nambawan Super Ltd as an independent director.
Announcing her appointment, Nambawan Super chairman Sir Nagora Bogan said he was delighted to welcome a high calibre person onto his board.
Mari brings with her extensive PNG and international experience, including several years in senior roles within the Commonwealth secretariat in London.
Sir Bogan said he was confident that Mari’s skills will stand her in good stead in key areas like strategy development, strategic planning, mentoring, negotiation and conflict resolution.
Sir Bogan said her background “would be invaluable in the context of promoting the best interests of our large and diverse fund membership”.
On a personal note, on behalf of all school friends from our alma mater, Sogeri Senior High School in 1970, I’d like to convey my best wishes to Mari on this outstanding achievement.
I HAVE A ‘NEW’ CAR. For ten years I have been driving a 1992 Honda Civic, much battered and scarred in body, like its owner, but running well.
I finally decided to cash in my savings and get something more comfortable and reliable - and bought a late model second-hand Mitsubishi Colt. It is a dream to drive, thank God!
I also have a new house. Thanks to the most generous of benefactors, the house - to be known as The Chaplain’s House - is finally finished being built on our school land.
It is a small steel kit house and perfect for me. It took two years to get permission from the Building Board (we didn’t bribe anyone) and another six months to build, but at last it is ready and I move in next week.
Two years ago the school decided it was time for me to stop regular classroom teaching - too old and decrepit - but this year we are short of teachers and I’m back! It is just for a couple of terms and I only teach six periods a week of Religion to the Grade 12s.
I love it and am having a great time trying to give lively and stimulating lessons to a great bunch of students.
My medical adventures in Ireland last year were not terribly happy ones, and I returned here not feeling at all like my old self.
Happily, I have been experiencing a slow but steady improvement in my health and fitness over the months since then. Apart from some weakness in my legs I am now feeling very fit and well indeed.
May God bless you all.
_________________
Fr John Glynn is the founder of WeCare! PNG, which has been in operation for nearly five years providing modest grants to village soup kitchens and sending hundreds of Port Moresby children to school. WeCare! guarantees a minimum subsidy of K400 a month to every care group and pays school fees for children who are either orphans or have only one parent.
Fr John started WeCare! out of his own pocket after seeing the dire situation of neglected and abandoned young women and children in Port Moresby. The Digicel Foundation came to his rescue with funding enabling him to put hundreds of children into school.
Fr John worries about the fate of WeCare! once he is out of the picture. “I am just a bush priest who came to Port Moresby in retirement after almost 40 years in remote parishes in New Ireland and Manus. If anything happens to me - I am almost 74 – that will be the end of WeCaRe! [unless] it is established as fully locally-owned, self-sustaining NGO.”
Recent Comments