Bulolo MP witnesses Barrack Obama's inauguration

Bulolo MP Sam Basil witnessed the inauguration of Barrack Obama as 44^th President of the USA yesterday.

Mr Basil’s trip – sponsored by the US Government and from Jan 13 to 29 - is a huge vote-of-confidence in this businessman-cum-politician, who in only his first term in office has won the admiration of the whole of Papua New Guinea for his hard work, honesty and transparency.

No doubt he will learn a lot from his trip to the USA, be a good ambassador for Papua New Guinea, and be inspired by his role model in Obama.

Mr Basil has set up a blog http://sambasil2009usa-trip.blogspot.com/  in which he will inform those back in his electorate of Bulolo, Morobe province and PNG about his trip to the USA.

You can log on and post your comments on Mr Basil’s blog.

Apart from his blog about his visit to the USA for the inauguration, Mr Basil has also set up another blog about his Bulolo electorate http://sambasil.blogspot.com/,   which also features the Morobe province and PNG.

Mr Basil is the first PNG MP to have a blog, as opposed to a website.

“I never dreamt of going to America in my lifetime but now I have been given the opportunity by the Embassy of the United States of America in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea,” he writes on his blog.

“The trip was announced unofficially before Christmas 2008 and the news spread like wildfire throughout my district.

 “I was very surprised that people from all walks of life enquired during my electoral visit.

“During the festive season, I was summoned by village elders in Mapos No. 1 village to brief them about my trip.

“I thoroughly briefed the leaders.

 “Some of the elders were very concerned about my security as they know and have heard about the evils of this world and some were even worried about my personal security.

“After lengthy discussion, I got many words of caution and advice from the village elders.

“They also prayed for my safety and to return home in one piece as Wau/Bulolo District needed my leadership to deliver the much-needed basic goods and services.

“The elders were right in some cases, as I do still have six projects waiting to be launched in January but postponed to February, due to the trip I will be taking to the United States of America.”

The projects are the  Wagau water project;  Moneyau/Gabansis Road; Upper Watut Local Level Government headquarters office and public telephone installations; Middle Watut public telephone project; Wau Bulolo Urban grader project; and Rural LLGs (Watut, Buang,Wau Rural and Mumeng LLGs) tractors.