Ian Downs

Many of those legendary Australian kiaps (patrol officers) who helped develop Papua New Guinea into what it is today were sadly not be around as the country celebrated 30 years of Independence.

Such a man was Ian Downs, who died on Tuesday August 24, 2004, in the Gold Coast, aged 89, one of the greatest and most legendary men who walked this country.

Downs is remembered as the principal facilitator of the contruction of the Highlands Highway – linking the Highlands, Lae and Madang - as well as being a powerful influence in the founding of PNG’s great coffee industry.

He was also a member of the first House of Assembly in 1964, when he collected a record majority of over 100,000 votes – which goes to show the respect he commanded – to win the Seat of the New Guinea Highlands, a constituency in the Central Highlands region with a population of over half a million people.

In the face of an increasingly nationalist style of politics he decided not to stand for re-election in 1968, and retired from parliament to take up private interests.

“He’s the one who got the road (Highlands Highway) through,” pioneer Highlands explorer Mick Leahy once said of Downs.

“He’s a man and a half this Downs.

“A few more like him and New Guinea would really get somewhere.”

A man of intellect and a great strength of character, Downs was also a writer of note.

A former patrol officer who rose to the position of Deputy Administrator in the mid-1950s, Downs was a prominent figure in PNG in the last years of the Australian trusteeship, and possibly the only person who combined the roles of administrator, politician, planter and historian.

Ian Fairley Graham Downs was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1915 and was educated at Brighton and Geelong Grammar Schools between 1926 and 1928.

He entered the Royal Australian Naval College as a midshipman in 1915, and in 1935, joined the New Guinea administration as a cadet patrol officer.

Downs took up his appointment to New Guinea in 1936 and was one of the first patrol officers assigned to the Western Highlands.

He accompanied John Black and Jim Taylor on part of their famous Hagen-Sepik patrol in 1938-39.

From 1942 to 1945, Downs was a Coastwatcher with the Royal Australian Navy in New Guinea waters.

Downs returned to New Guinea after World War II and by 1951 was the youngest District Commissioner in the administration, based in Madang.

Between 1952-56 he held the position of District Commissioner in Goroka, before resigning to take up coffee farming and to enter politics.

Succeeding the late George Greathead as District Commissioner to the then Central Highlands, a huge “middle kingdom” of more than a million people stretching from Kassam in the East to the then Dutch New Guinea border in the West.

Disillusioned with official policy, Downs resigned from his post as District Commissioner in 1956 and in the following year gained election as Member for the New Guinea Mainland in the Legislative Council.

As a parliamentarian he was further elected in 1961 to the Administrator's Advisory Council (later known as the Administrator's Executive Council), a board set up to advise the Administrator on policy issues.

Downs resigned from the Government, where he had long been a member of the Legislative Council, to contest this country’s first national elections.

Downs was elected to the first House of Assembly in 1964 with a record majority of over 100, 000 votes.

For the next four years he held the Seat of the New Guinea Highlands, a constituency in the Central Highlands region with a population of over half a million people.

In the face of an increasingly nationalist style of politics he decided not to stand for re-election in 1968, and retired from parliament to take up private interests.

He involved himself deeply in the infant coffee industry, being instrumental in the creating of the original Coffee Marketing Board in 1964, of the coffee exporting company Coffee International Ltd, of the Highlands Farmers & Settlers Association and its trading arm Farmset Ltd, and was active in many areas of PNG’s early political and social development.

It was during these years that Downs pioneered what became known as Korfena Plantations, a group of coffee plantations centred in the Upper Asaro Valley, as well as one of the first village-based coffee marketing groups known as Upper Asaro Coffee Community Ltd.

His novel The Stolen Land was published in 1970, and he returned to Australian in 1970 after 35 years in the country.

His widely respected publication The Australian Trusteeship: Papua New
Guinea, 1945-75 was published in 1980, followed by his autobiography The Last Mountain in 1986.

Ian Downs’ contribution to the founding of modern-day Papua New Guinea was immense, and thousands who knew him well have mourned his passing.

Zia Writers of Waria

From July 10-15, 2000, in the beginning of the new millennium, a novel development took place in Unu village, along the great Waria River of Morobe Province.

Unu hosted the first writers’ workshop of the new millennium, attracting mostly villagers who started writing two years earlier when a conference on Zia language, culture and traditional knowledge systems was organised in Dona village.

Workshop participants included husbands, wives and children, medical officers, village court magistrates, non-government organisation workers, teachers, village elders and youths.

Their lowest educational standard was grade two and the eldest was about 64.

They all wrote creatively their life stories, histories, biographies and the Zia culture during the week-long workshop, which was coordinated by Zia language speaker and University of Papua New Guinea lecturer Sakarepe Kamene, assisted by his colleague Dr Steven Winduo.

The stories talk about Waria people and how their life style is fused into nature, and how it is nurtured in the rich alluvial plain of the Waria River.

They talk about the river that in ordinary times remains tame and harmless, but in the wet season runs wild like a raging boar, causing destruction and misery to people and the surrounding areas.

Some of these stories capture and exhibit the strong sense of moral lessons.

Other stories show a much bigger picture of how nature is closely linked with society and its people.

There are also stories that recount new and sometimes strange experiences when people relocate themselves into new places or situations.

From the workshop has come an 80-page book titled Raitim Stori Bilong Laip (Writing Stories about Life): Zia Writers of Waria, which was first published in 2004 by UPNG’s Melanesian and Pacific Studies (MAPS) Centre, however, is a publication that very little people know about.

In fact I had never seen or heard of the book until Dr Winduo recently gave me a copy as an example of recent MAPS publications.

The collection of writings by the Waria writers is the first of its kind in Papua New Guinea and could serve as a benchmark for future projects in literacy and awareness throughout the country.

“Even though it has taken a long time for this publication to come out, we hope the end product of this publication will benefit others who will read this book,” Mr Kamene and Dr Winduo wrote in the book’s preface.

“It is a publication we feel confident will stand on its own.

“The stories are written in the Zia language, Tokpisin and English.

“The use of all languages in creativity is encouraged.

“In editing this book for publication, we tried to make sure the way in which the writers expressed themselves was maintained, except for basic production issues.

“Through the initial project, we knew we had moved on from basic literacy to literacy that involves people writing their stories and lives down on paper.

“We wanted to make sure those who received literacy training used the skills acquired to transform their lives.

“In the Zia writers’ workshop, this was accomplished.

“The experience we had in running the Zia writers’ workshop and in the production of this book convince us that literacy programmes and awareness programmes must go beyond basic literacy skills.

“Literacy skills and development of these skills must be encouraged.

“Inclusion of literature and various techniques of reading and writing is a must in literacy and awareness programmes.

“This publication proves that anyone can write and have their books published.”

The Zia experience greatly touched Dr Winduo, senior UPNG literature lecture, established writer, director of MAPS, and chairman of the National Literature Board.

“In a week of enthusiasm and nerves to see that our objectives to facilitate the knowledge and skills already present in the participants’ lives accomplished our goals, we were excited that the workshop was a success,” he observed.

“The participants had begun to write their stories.

“Most of them felt that they had achieved what was impossible.
“They can now write their lives down with confidence.

“The Zia people can write their history, culture and lives in books without having to go to university to study literature or how to write books.

“In my view, these students were the most-serious ones and were able to prove to me that writing is not only for those in schools or those studying literature at the university.

“Writing was always with them!

“All they needed was a catalyst to take them one step further.”

Dr Winduo feels that what has happened to the Zia people is also applicable to other villages in Papua New Guinea.

“They village people, especially youths and women, need new kinds of training that involves skills and knowledge already present in their societies,” he says.

“Indigenous forms of learning need to be encouraged.

“Developing new ways of documenting cultural and traditional knowledge systems was the way forward.

“This is one way to renew and revive the skills of reading and writing.

“People are presented with skills of reading and writing everyday, but are never given the opportunity to use the skills to empower themselves in their way of life.”

Dr Winduo has strong words.

“In a book fair in Port Moresby, a lot of views were expressed about the right to read and write, but many people consider writing as a process that empowers individuals and people.

“Writing has the power to transform a nation’s consciousness!

“If a nation can develop its own works of literature consistently, it can continuously evaluate itself and reinvent its consciousness.”

Raitim Stori Bilong Laip: Zia Writers of Waria. Edited by Sakarepe Kamene and Steven Edmund Winduo. Melanesia and Pacific Studies (MAPS), University of Papua New Guinea. Port Moresby, 2004. 80 pages. ISBN 9980-9962-0-X

Storm Boy brings back memories of another day

It was while searching a second-hand shop in Port Moresby for books recently that I found a real gem.

That book was Storm Boy, written by Australian Colin Theile, and which was later made into a classic Australian film of the same name in 1976.

I immediately pounced on the book as Storm Boy was a movie that touched my heart – and those of so many other children - so many years ago as a child in Lae.

And, indeed, my children enjoyed every minute of me reading the book to them, which just goes to show the timelessness of Storm Boy.

It also brought back so many memories of another day, particularly of the now-extinct movie theatres, which once abounded all over Papua New Guinea.

A whole generation in Papua New Guinea has sadly grown up without knowing the experience of watching movies in a cinema.

In the “happy days” of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, cinemas were commonplace all over the country.

Those of us who grew up in the roaring that memorable period will know the joy of watching films on the big screen.

These days, with the advance of television, video, VCDs, and the Internet, the movie projector has become as antiquated as the time-honored typewriter.

Anyway, it was in 1978, when I was 10, that my father brought my elder brother David and I to the Huon Theatre in Lae one rainy night to watch Storm Boy.

I remember sitting with my eyes glued to the big screen, following Storm Boy’s every move, until I broke down and wept with him when his pet pelican Mr Percival was shot by hunters along a lonely, windswept Australian shore.

Every once in a while there is a special film, a film that appeals to all ages, a classic family entertainment that celebrates life and joyfully touches the heart.

Storm Boy is that film.

Storm Boy (Mike) lives with his recluse father, Hide-Away Tom, on South Australia's lonely and beautiful coast.

Years before, when Storm Boy’s mother had died, Hide-Away Tom had left Adelaide and gone to live like a hermit by the sea

Here his Storm Boy’s spirit roams with his pet pelican, Mr Percival, and his secret Aboriginal friend, Fingerbone Bill.

He knows no other world.

Suddenly there are intruders, the local school teacher who wants him to take lessons, a resentful wildlife ranger, duck shooters, hooligans with loud music.

Storm Boy, growing up, is forced to choose between a life of continued isolation and the challenges of the outside world.

One time the hunters are in the area, Mr Percival is shot down and Mike does a mad search through the long grass to find him.

The search is unsuccessful and Mike cries as he walks along the beach remembering times they spent together.

Fingerbone eventually finds Mr. Percival and buries him.

He shows Storm Boy the grave he dug, and there are a few moments of sadness, but this is turned to hope when Fingerbone shows Storm Boy a nest with a freshly hatched pelican in it: "Mr. Percival all over again, a bird like him never dies."

The film was one of the first Australian feature films made for children to become well-known and both the book and film are still widely used in school English programmes.

Young entrepreneur talks about the future of IT in Papua New Guinea

The establishment of digital posters is one of the biggest breaks for young IT entrepreneur, Emmanuel Narakobi, since setting up his company Masalai Communications in 2001.

The 29-year-old, (pictured left discussing digital posters with business associates in Malaysia) who turned his back on a lucrative legal career to get into IT, is, however, confident that IT has a big future in Papua New Guinea.

Narakobi, of mixed East Sepik and Morobe parentage, is a graduate lawyer of the University of PNG who was bitten by the IT bug.

He wears many other hats apart from Masalai Communications such as being general manager of Narakobi Lawyers, president of the University rugby union club, and president of the Port Moresby Rugby Football Union.

He is adamant IT can contribute to business efficiency, and contribute greatly to dissemination of information to and from villages.

Digital posters are a new, dynamic and captivating medium in PNG for products and services to be advertised to consumers, which Masalai is running in major Port Moresby supermarkets such as SVS, Stop N Shop, Boroko Foodworld and Andersons Foodland,

Other major projects Masalai has undertaken are data/voice cabling for the four-storey Post Haus in Boroko; data/voice cabling for the National Fisheries Authority in Deloitte Tower; SMS voting for Ice Discovered on EMTV; and the concept of email to SMS for Australian mobile phones which never really took off.

Right now the company is working on touch screens for customer feedback for ANZ Bank and looking at a number of e-commerce initiatives.

“I started Masalai in 2001 and I used to work from my bedroom with a dial up connection,” Narakobi remembers.

“My interest in IT and initially websites first came from seeing the Trading Post newspaper in Australia in 1999, so I thought to myself, ‘what if we had a website like that newspaper in PNG?’.

“I started the http://www.pngtradepost.com.pg/ website and then set about teaching myself how to design websites from a HTML for Dummies book.

“The Trading Post website, due a lot to my lack of attention, has not developed as much as it could have but this was what led me into website development.

“I met a friend called Phillip Korare who worked in Datec at that time and he taught me a lot of the basic HTML programming to get started.

“Masalai itself then came about from meeting two like-minded friends; we thought that we knew something about IT so we decided to give it a go.

“I was actually still in Legal Training Institute after law school and I decided that I wanted to do something different which could make a difference.

“I know that sounds really cliché but my friends and I really believed that.

“They both have since gone their own ways: one is in London now and the other is Brown Omotosho of Nichtosh.

“Brown and I are still very close and we still do a lot of projects together.

“He specialises in electrical and data/voice networks.

“And just so you know, we have started on redeveloping the Trading Post website.”

Masalai’s progress over the years has been like the proverbial tortoise; however, with the great support of his family and friends, Narakobi is proving that “slow and steady oftens wins the race”.

Masalai’s bread and butter is website development, its Content Management System for updating websites without any need for programming skills, and website analytics with Google.

Its major clients include Coca-Cola Amatil, PNG Ports Authority, National Maritime Safety Authority, Internal Revenue Commission, PNG Events Council, National Fisheries Authority, NASFUND, PNG Gas Project, Autonomous Region of Bouganville, Independent Public Business Corporation, Pryde Furniture, Ela Beach Hotel, Supreme and National Courts of PNG, Pacific Assurance Group and many more medium to small clients.

Masalai has done over 30 websites since 2001 and this year has already picked up about 20 jobs.

“I think you go through a lot of different feelings,” Narakobi says about being a young Papua New Guinean with his own IT company.

“I feel a lot of freedom in what I think and can do; I think that would be the big benefit.

“I guess I’m only restricted by my cash flows and dreams really, so it feels good knowing that.

“Of course, with that freedom comes the responsibility I feel of doing something that changes the country, hopefully, and doing it right.

“I also do feel a lot of pressure to get things right and it does hurt when I fail at anything or I fail clients.

“I currently have six staff with me: three of them are freelance contractors.

“Freelancers help keep down my costs and also allow me to source from a wider pool of talent, so I’m not stuck with one creative type of model.

“It helps me to source the best talent for any given project.

“But I am now looking at increasing my staff numbers this year so I could end up with about 10 by the end of this year.

“I feel fortunate to have met the people in my team, they have been a great support in getting us where we are today and obviously we still have more to do in improving ourselves and our skills and services.”

Narakobi feels strongly that more people in PNG must have to have access to IT.

“IT is a broad area and if you separate it into offline usage and online usage, then you can understand better where we are at in PNG.

“IT’s aim is to share information which means that an online PC or a networked PC in an office will have more usage and demands from the user.

“So in PNG, the most-networked PC’s and the most PC’s hooked onto the Internet are the ones in businesses.

“Papua New Guineans today are a lot more familiar with IT and what it can do for them.

“More people now through Internet at work have email addresses now as opposed to back in 1999.

“But IT usage now is primarily in the business world so the social and personal aspect of IT has not been developed enough yet in PNG.

“The only way for people to personally interact on the net is in their work time.

“Why?

“Because the total costs for accessing the Internet at home or personally through, say your mobile phone or a PDA is prohibitive or non-existent, and that is a direct consequence of the pricing hurdles set by ISP’s and Telikom’s Tiare Gateway.

“Businesses bear a lot of costs for IT now and they can afford to, even though it is expensive, but until the cost for personal access and overall access of Internet is lowered, we will continue to lag by 5-10 years behind the rest of the world.

“So two things need to be done.

“Firstly, Internet prices need to drop so Internet penetration rates can be increased; and secondly, entrepreneurs and businesses need to show consumers how their daily lives can be improved and be more efficient with IT initiatives, and I mean initiatives that can touch everyone in PNG from the cities to the villages.

“The future is bright and since we still have a long way to go, the only way is up so to speak.

“Internet prices will drop and the different forms of accessing the Internet will increase, whether it be from a PC at home, a PDA at a restaurant, your laptop at a hotel lobby or your mobile phone in your hand.

“This is inevitable with the way the rest of the world has gone, but for us it is only a question of how quickly that happens?”

For further information, visit the website http://www.masalai.net/ or call Emmanuel Narakobi on telephone (675) 323 6266, mobile (675) 683 6231, or email emmanuel@masalai.net.

Melissa Aigilo is Papua New Guinea's leading woman writer

Melissa Aigilo does not hide the fact that she is passionate about writing and its role in shaping Papua New Guinea.

At only 24, Aigilo is currently the country’s leading woman writer, with a book of poetry, Falling Foliage, published in 2005.

A collection of short stories and another anthology of poetry await publication.

This immensely-talented and intelligent young woman has a big following, especially among high school students, and her work is even being studied in the USA and Australia.

Her mentors, especially University of Papua New Guinea literature lecturers Dr Steven Winduo and Russel Soaba, extol the virtues of their protégé.

Soaba compares her writing to that of the great English woman writer Emily Dickenson.

However, as I found out, Aigilo is a quietly-spoken young woman who shuns the limelight to dwell on writing.

“My one book is called Falling Foliage,” she tells me.

“I also have my poems which are recorded on CD and tape in the International Library of Poetry in America.

“Falling Foliage was published in 2005.

“I’ve written two books so far which haven’t gone in for publication.

“One is a collection of short stories and the other is an anthology of poetry.

“ABC has a website where my poems have been aired.

“The University of Melbourne analyses some of my poems in their literature classes.

“Since my book was published, a lot of high schools and international schools have been ordering a lot.

“I think they’ve run out of copies at the university bookshop.

“I can see the support there.”

In saying this, Aigilo empathises with the women of Papua New Guinea, saying that they are not given enough support to air their voices.

“If only other women writers were given that same support, we could change the face of Papua New Guinea because writing is a very powerful political tool.

“Women have as much to offer as men and their views and opinions need to be expressed.

“Some important issues (concerning women) are still not addressed by today’s government and need to be looked at seriously.

“It is my very strong belief that women are the backbone of society.

“So I’m calling on people in authority to give women a chance to voice their concerns, politically, and socially, through writing.

“We have a lot of women writers, but the problem is not identifying them and assisting them to bring out their work.”

Aigilo graduated from the University of Papua New Guinea in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts in Literature degree.

She was at university from 2001 to 2005, including a year studying law; however, she found that she preferred the solitude of writing to noisy courtroom antics.

Before campus, Aigilo attended St Joseph’s International Primary School, Marianville Girls Catholic High School, and then Port Moresby National High School.

She is the eldest in a family of two sisters and two brothers.

Her father, former Police Commissioner and graduate lawyer Peter Aigilo, played a significant role in her opting for a life of writing.

One of her poems The Guardian, published in a recent issue of the literary publication Savannah Flames, is dedicated to her father.

“My dad is my mentor,” she says.

“He’s my strength.

“As a woman, I can say that.

“I like writing anything to do with prose, poetry, short stories, drama, plays.

“I think when I began to learnt how to write, I came up with ideas.

“Basically, because my dad is a lawyer, he emphasised reading and he is a reader himself.

“He used to read to me when I was younger, and that opened up my avenues for creating, so when I learnt to write, I put that creativity on paper.

“Writing is a form of liberation for me because I guess I’m a quite person.

“What I think and feel is expressed on paper.

“…some people keep journals.

“I find that poetry is like my journal.

“I am able to hide behind my words, and the style of poetry that I write is abstract.

“It’s a form of release for me.

“My saving grace!”

Aigilo could be described as a true Papua New Guinean, seeing her family connections.

“I’m from four provinces,” she elaborates.

“My mother’s part East New Britain and Morobe, and my father’s part West New Britain and East Sepik.”

Her future?

“I’ve always wanted to pass on my skills of writing to students, so while writing remains my No.1 passion, my second goal in life is to teach creative writing and literature.

“I look forward to writing more books, with the kind of assistance I’m getting from my lecturers and you in the media.”

Aigilo is blunt about her belief that writing is one of the most-important things in any society.

“I would say that, as I said, writing is a very powerful political tool.

“There are two forms of literature.

“The one that is oral is spoken and forgotten about.

“But the one which is written is preserved, and can be looked at to pave the way for the future in any aspect, whether it be social, political, religious.

“I believe that writing can change the way in which people think.

“The mind is a very complex thing.

“When you change someone’s mind, you are capable of changing a whole democracy.”

SCRIPTWRITERS

Imprinted
Letters so brashly written
Bidding attention
That's what you already have.
Words
They are hard to speak
So they come out as inscriptions.

You and I
Have something in common
You flaunt your inner self
On bus stop seats
And engrave your thoughts
On walls and dust engased shop windows
Scoring for yourself.

What would you like the world to imagine
When it reads your markings?
I create the images of a dramatist
In my mind and I envision you.
Would you remember my concealed scripts?
The way I know yours by heart
If you read them
Would you be able to fashion my personna
The way I mould your form

The words I read
Haunt me at night
Are you really out there

- MELISSA AIGILO

Florence Jaukae makes the world her stage

Everyone under the perennial-springtime climate of Goroka seems to know Florence Jaukae.

She has time for everyone, her smiles are contagious, and she is heavily involved in community affairs and charity work.

I know, because I spent almost five years working in Goroka for the Coffee Industry Corporation, and often passed her on her way to work at Frameworks Architects.

Such is the popularity of this 34-year-old woman that, in a male-dominated society such as that of the Eastern Highlands, Jaukae is a Ward 4 councillor in the Goroka Rural Local Level Government.

And she is known for her no-nonsense approach during council sessions!

However, it is with the seemingly-ubiquitous bilum, that she is making a name for herself, Goroka, and Papua New Guinea.

Florence Jaukae hit the world stage in Melbourne last March when the Papua New Guinea team wore her products at the Commonwealth Games.

The mean wore bilum ties and the women bilum dresses supplied by her Goroka-based company Jaukae Bilumwear.

It was a proud moment for her, more so, when Ryan Pini won gold for Papua New Guinea in that moment forever etched in time.

Another big break for Jaukae came in September 2006 when the Small Business Development Corporation arranged for her to travel to Hanoi, Vietnam, to attend an APEC seminar on supporting and enhancing capacity for women exporters.

Entrants in the Miss Papua New Guinea quest wore her dresses at crowing night last December.

Now, in a seemingly never-ending story, the Investment Promotion Authority arranged for her to attend an expo in Australia.

Indeed, Jaukae has made the world her stage, from very humble beginnings at her Kama village in Goroka about five years ago.

It was then that she started making and wearing dresses made like bilums.

The fad caught on in Goroka, the rest of Papua New Guinea, and the world is now Jaukae’s stage.

“We’re doing very well,” Jaukae says.

“SBDC has been very supportive and this has enabled us to get a loan from the Rural Development Bank.

“We’re got overseas customers, however, that I will not disclose because of increasing competition from other bilum dress makers.

“All I can say is that we’ve got a lot of interest from people overseas, mainly Australians.”

Jaukae Bilumwear involves about 50 women who spin and weave the wool to make dresses and other items of clothing at Kama.

“I buy the wool, give it to them, and they weave the dresses,” Jaukae says.

“They give the dresses to me and I find the customers.

“It is a labour-intensive industry.

“It can take up to two months to make a dress.

“That’s why the average cost per dress is about K300.

“The reality of it is that I don’t benefit.

“It is the women who make bilum dresses who benefit.

“About two-thirds of income goes to them while one-third comes to me, mainly to cover telephone and other administrative costs.

“We’ve come a long way over the last five to six years.”

Jaukae, however, feels that the women weavers need a lot more government assistance, especially in marketing.

She also feels that women must have readily-available access to credit, training in business, and knowledge of computers in this day and age.

“Every woman can make a bilum,” she says.

“It comes to us naturally as Papua New Guinean women.

“The government must help us find a market because the benefits trickle right down to the unemployed mothers.

“It will also fight against poverty.

“This is a new industry we’ve created in the country.

“We don’t want flattering remarks.

“We want your help.

“Marketing is the problem.

“We are looking at the government to help us find markets outside of the country.”

The future?

“I want to see this become a big industry in the country, because it is an industry for the grassroots,” Jaukae replies.

“The government should also look at creating a national dress for the country, and of course, I’m putting my hand up for bilum wear!”

People who wish to purchase genuine Jaukae bilum products can contact Florence Jaukae on mobile (675) 6868994 or email jaukaebilumwear@hotmail.com.

Flower pot man is a university graduate

Chris Dally is familiar sight outside Gerehu Stop N Shop Supermarket, Rainbow Village, and other parts of Gerehu in Port Moresby.

The tall, dreadlocked Dally, 42, from Busamang village in the south coast of Morobe Province, ekes out a living by selling beautifully-crafted flower pots made from old tyres.

Many a house in Gerehu and Rainbow Village is decorated with trademark Chris Dally flower pots.

He fashions them himself at his Gerehu Stage 5 home and then takes them to Gerehu Stop N Shop, and Rainbow Village, where his biggest clientele is.

Dally averages K300 weekly, which is enough to put food on the table for his young family, pay the bills, and put his two children to school.

He is adamant Papua New Guinea would not have such a huge unemployment problem if people eat humble pie and go into such small business.

He is also proud that he is quietly contributing to the fight against pollution and global warming by discouraging people from throwing away and burning old tyres – something for which Papua New Guineans are notorious.

But, unknown to may people, Dally isn’t just a simple flower pot peddler.

The pithy saying, “never judge a book by the cover”, rings true for him.

Chris Dally is a graduate in Building Technology from the University of Technology in Lae and, before that, completed secondary education at Sogeri National High School.

It is with disbelief that former schoolmates of university and Sogeri, friends, and wantoks pass Dally under the shady neem trees outside Gerehu Stop N Shop.

He worked with a number of firms as a building designer before, literally, being run over by old tyres.

It was quite by accident, about two years ago, that Dally took up making flower pots from old tyres.

“I learned through trial and error,” he recalls.

“I had two old types, which I sold to some men from Pindiu (Morobe province).
“They found some faults with the tyres and came back to me demanding their money back.”

Dally fashioned the two tyres into flower pots and, lo and behold, “my neighbours said that they would buy the flower pots”.

“I saw that I could make good money so I continued.

“I make small pots, large pots, and hanging ones.

“Sales are very good.

“Everything I produce is sold.

“I can make up to K300 a week.

“I pick up old tyres all over the place.

“A lot of old tyres end up being burned.

“I try to stop people from burning tyres.

“At Gerehu Stage 5, where I live, I find a lot of tyres in the main drain which runs into the swamps behind Gerehu.

“I collect the tyres, dry them, mark them with chalk, and cut them out.

“I then make holes in the tyres, wire them up, thoroughly clean them up, and paint them.

“I can make six flower pots from an average-sized tyre, which I sell for K10 each.

“So you are looking at K60 from an old tyre!

“I can make K60 per tyre, and in one week, I can work on five tyres, which add up to K300.”

Dally is a crusader for self-employment and believes that there should be no such thing as unemployment in Papua New Guinea.

“I’ve passed on some of my skills to boys on the street and they are making their own money,” he says.

“There are a lot of ways for unemployed people to make money, rather than resorting to crime.

“I think people are just too lazy.
“A lot of people are also too proud to get into such small activities.

“For example, I have brought in some young boys, but they feel embarrassed standing out on the streets selling flower pots.

“Some of my ex schoolmates (from university and Sogeri) see me and they wonder what I’m doing out there, selling flower pots, but I don’t feel embarrassed.

“The problem with Papua New Guinea is that people don’t want to work hard.

“They just want to sit back and wait for handouts.”

Dally does get the occasional building job; however, he plans to stay on in the flower pot-making business.

“At the beginning of this year, I registered a business name,” he says.

“I’m just waiting for the certificate.”

People who wish to purchase genuine Chris Dally flower pots can contact him on mobile (675) 6952966.

Amelia Earhart jigsaw continues 70 years on

The year 2007 marks the 70th anniversary of one of the greatest unsolved aviation mysteries of all time.

The mystery – that of American aviatrix Amelia Earhart – intimately involves Papua New Guinea as Lae was her last port of call before she disappeared somewhere over the vast Pacific Ocean.

Amelia Earhart, darling of American aviation, went missing in July 1937, after leaving Lae for the longest stretch of her around-the-world flight.

The mystery and a long fruitless search –costing many millions of US dollars - had begun.

Today, 70 years after her final takeoff – from Lae in Papua New Guinea’s Morobe Province – the mystery is still to be solved.

World attention was focused on Lae in 1937, and continues to this day, when it was the last port of called for Earhart before she disappeared.

Old Lae residents used to recall entertaining the couple in the Hotel Cecil the night before their departure, and then seeing them off the next morning.

Their plane was so overloaded with its eight tonnes of fuel that it was still barely clearing the waves as it disappeared from sight, flying east along the Huon Gulf coast on its way to Howland Island, 4600 kilometres to the north.

On such occasions Lae-ites, regardless of class or social position, felt they were part of history.

Today, a plaque to her memory stands at the Amelia Earhart Park, opposite the famous old Lae airport.

Up the hill from the park, at the Melanesian Hotel, the bar is named Amelia’s after this great woman.

For the last 69 years, hundreds of rumours and theories – some practical but most the products of overfertile imaginations – have kept the memories of Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, alive for millions of Americans.

One of the popular crank theories is that Earhart and Noonan were on a spy flight for the US government and were captured by the Japanese and executed, something that has been vehemently disclaimed by the Japanese to this day.

Some have searched the sea, believing the plane ran out of fuel.

Others think she survived a crash landing but died on a deserted island.

The conspiracy-minded claim Earhart survived and lived out her life under an assumed name as a New Jersey housewife.

There are even bizarre, out-of-this-world urban legends that she was captured by aliens on a UFO.

To US aviation buffs, she is still ‘Amelia’ and they talk about her as though she only went missing yesterday.

The 39-year-old pilot took off from Oakland, California, on June 1, 1937, on what was reported to be her last record flight.

Slim, almost boyish, reminding one of Katherine Hepburn, Amelia Earhart had been setting records for 10 years.

In 1932, she had set a solo record for her Atlantic crossing and earned the nickname of ‘Lady Lindy’, because her slim build and facial features resembled that of Charles Lindbergh.

A year later, she married New York publishing magnate, George Palmer Putnam.

A university graduate, Earhart spoke five languages.

When not flying, she spent most of her time on welfare work in the Boston slums.

Never satisfied with her records, she was always planning something greater.

This was to be IT – the ultimate in long distance flying!

She wanted to be the first woman to fly around the world!

Navigator Fred Noonan, senior navigator of Pan American World Airlines, was considered as good as any in the United States.

He had already crossed the Pacific 18 times, directing the flight of the company’s famed China Clipper.

Their aircraft, a twin-engined Lockheed Electra, fast and sophisticated for its day, was well suited to the task.

They had reached Darwin, Northern Australia, 40 days after leaving Oakland.

Possibly to save weight for the long over-water legs to come, they had then unloaded their parachutes.

From Darwin, it was a short trip over to Lae.

New Guinea was the departing point for the most grueling leg of the flight – near 4600 kilometres over water to Howland Island, the longest ocean crossing ever attempted.

Their destination was a speck of sand and coral in the mid-Pacific 2.5 kilometres long and just under a kilometer wide.

The Lockheed was to be the first aircraft to land on its newly-constructed airstrip.

“Even with a first class navigator on board, it would be an incredible feat to find the island by celestial navigation and dead reckoning alone,” wrote Australian aviator and Earhart researcher Terry Gwynn-Jones in 1977.

“With an error of only one degree in reading, they would miss the island by 72 kilometres.

“Thus it was that the US government stationed the fleet tug Ontario half way along the route and the Coast Guard cutter Itasca at Howland.

“Besides voice communication radios, the Itasca had a radio direction finder and a radio beacon that could be picked up by the aircraft’s Bendix radio compass.

“Once the Lockheed got to within a few hundred kilometers of the island, the Itasca could guide them in.

“Or so it seemed!”

Earhart maintained radio contact with New Guinea, and then later the Itasca and Ontario, until this was lost.

Her last words were: “We are in a line of position 157-337. Will repeat this message on 6210. We are running north and south. We have only a half hour’s fuel and cannot see land.”

The message blasted through loud and clear over the radio of the United States Coast Guard ship Itasca.

The woman’s voice betrayed anxiety.

Quickly, the operator switched to the 6210 kilocycle band and waited for her call.

It never came.

Her silence was shrouded by the crackling of static interference out over the vast Pacific Ocean.

Amelia Earhart, darling of American aviation, was missing.

The times they are a-changin’

Bob Dylan’s 1963 classic The Times They Are A-Changin’ well applies to what is happening to Papua New Guinea’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) landscape.

Back in 2005, when mobile phones were still in their infancy, I spoke to Pacific Mobile Communications’ managing director Noel Mobiha about the use of mobile phones and the Internet.

How times have changed since then with the arrival of new kid on the block Digicel, however, we lag behind in Internet with the outdated and exorbitant Tiare Gateway.

“…you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.”

Below are excerpts from the article that I wrote in July 2005 for the 30th anniversary of our Independence:

Many technical innovations have hit Papua New Guinea since Independence 30 years ago.

Record players were replaced by cassette players, which were in turn displaced by CD players.

Radio, once the most-powerful form of communication in pre-Independence and immediate post-Independence Papua New Guinea, was literally killed by video and then television.

How true were the words of that famous 1970s pop song ‘Video killed the radio star’!

The cinema (haus piksa) – once popular all over the country – has become as extinct as a dinosaur.

However, the Internet and digital mobile phones are probably two of the biggest technical innovations that have hit Papua New Guinea since September 16, 1975.

Pacific Mobile Communications (PMC) – 100 per cent owned by Telikom – is the only licensed provider of Internet and digital mobile phone services in the country.

Its two sections are mobile phones and Internet gateway

Internet hit Papua New Guinea big time in the late 1990s while digital mobile phones became a hit in 2003 and wiped out its predecessor, the more-expensive analogue mobile phones.

The number of digital mobile phones has, since 2003, eclipsed standard telephone line users.

PMC buys its Internet telecommunications capacity from Telikom and in turn makes it available to users.

“We connect to the Internet outside PNG and distribute the capacity to the four ISPs (Internet Service Providers) which are Datec, Daltron, DataNets and Global Internet,” explains PMC managing director Noel Mobiha.

“They are our partners in the Internet business.

“They sell the service through dial-up or lease line, on our behalf.

“The Internet growth in the country is limited by the available bandwidth from Telikom.

“However, this picture is going to change in September when more capacitators are provided by Telikom.

“We expect to double the current capacity we have in September.”

Mr Mobiha agrees that Internet growth is limited in Papua New Guinea to mainly those in the urban areas and with a good education.

“The growth (in Internet usage) is linear,” he says.

“The factors that are limiting growth are firstly bandwidth cost is too high, secondly because of costs and affordability of computers, and thirdly because of low literacy levels.

“These are the key factors hindering the growth of Internet in this country.”

To help alleviate these, PMC – as a community service obligation (CSO) - is investing in the universities to build a Papua New Guinea education research network (ERNet).

“That we hope will give us a subscriber base that is more information literate – an information society - for the future of the country,” Mr Mobiha continues.

“Because we believe that if we don’t invest in education and research, our future is dim.

“We are giving a grant of K250, 000 per year to assist develop this network, which will tie all the universities together.

“They will be bound under the agreement to provide support services to national high schools and lower education.

“In other words, they will serve as hosts and schools can dial in under them.

“That’s what we’re doing as a community service obligation (CSO) project.”

PMC launched its GSM900 service in May 2003, under the trade name Bee Mobile.

The digital GSM brought Papua New Guinea on par with the majority of countries in the Pacific region and the rest of the world, who have digital mobile networks.

Before that, few Papua New Guineans had the expensive analogue mobile phones, and the thinking among expatriate consultants was that digital mobile phone usage wouldn’t go pass the 20,000 mark.

How wrong they were, as Papua New Guineans took to the new ‘toys’ with glee, and the number of users is now near the 70,000 mark.

“Initially, there were 3000 subscribers,” Mr Mobiha says.

“The network was designed for a ceiling of 20,000 users: 12,000 in Port Moresby, 4000 in Lae, and the balance around Madang, Goroka and Mount Hagen

“Mobile phone growth was then very slow.

“Consultants thought that usage wouldn’t grow, and that the 20,000 ceiling would be reached by December 2005.

“The 20,000 ceiling was reached in December 2003 – two years ahead of what consultants predicted.

“The network has grown to more than three times what it was designed for, with currently 60,000 to 70,000 subscribers.

“We didn’t do anything to cater for this.”

“We have now reached a stage where we are logging 2700 new customers per month.

“That’s going to change to more people once the network expands.

“It’s going to grow, this (mobile phone) technology.

“What we see now is ‘going forward’.”

•For feedback and comments, email malumnalu@yahoo.com or SMS 6849763/72580278.

The Hunt for Amelia Earhart

I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email recently from Douglas Westfall, a book publisher in Southern California, USA, regarding a new book about the hunt for famed American aviatrix Amelia Earhart.

Apparently, Westfall caught my January 2007 piece on the Earhart saga in The National, and saved it until he got in touch with me and sent me an electronic version of the new book (e-book).

The year 2007 also marks the 70th anniversary of one of the greatest unsolved aviation mysteries of all time.

The mystery – that of the disappearance of Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan – intimately involves Papua New Guinea as Lae was her last port of call before she disappeared somewhere over the vast Pacific Ocean.

Amelia Earhart, darling of American aviation, went missing in July 1937, after leaving Lae for the longest stretch of her around-the-world flight.

The mystery and a long fruitless search – costing many millions of US dollars - had begun.

Today, 70 years after her final takeoff from Lae, the mystery is still to be solved.

Old Lae residents used to recall entertaining the couple in the Hotel Cecil the night before their departure, and then seeing them off the next morning.

Their Lockheed Electra was so overloaded with its eight tonnes of fuel that it was still barely clearing the waves as it disappeared from sight, flying east along the Huon Gulf coast on its way to Howland Island, 4600km to the north.

Today, a plaque to her memory stands at the Amelia Earhart Park, opposite the famous old Lae airport.

Up the hill from the park, at the Melanesian Hotel, the bar is named Amelia’s after this great woman.

The just-released new book co-authored by Westfall and the late Richard K Mater, The Hunt for Amelia Earhart, tells the story of the 16 days following Earhart’s disappearance.

The US Coast Guard with the US Navy and nine ships, 66 aircraft, and some 3,000 men searched over a quarter of a million miles for the Electra and survivors.

The book contains seven first person accounts.

It has a man from most of the ships including a Navy man on the deck of the USS Lexington aircraft carrier (still alive) and an airman (also still alive) from the USS Colorado.

They all give such great detail within their account of the search.

The book has 260 illustrations including 160 photographs over - 100 unpublished - plus the diary of Associated Press reporter onboard ship James Carey.

The book has four hooks.

1) It's a first person account piece, with unpublished diaries, interviews, and memoirs.

There are seven first person accounts in the book, from the young men who were on the Earhart Search, three of whom are alive and the rest have family who can be contacted for interview purposes.

One of these young men was James Carey.

He was a student at the University of Hawaii, who was working at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and was a representative for the Associated Press.

His complete diary, photographs, and letters are included within the book including: a letter to Carey from AP’s Clark Lee, and a letter to Fred Noonan from AP’s Russell Brines.

Other than some web access, none of these materials have been published before.

2) It's a hero piece, what the boys did for Amelia.

“And I have seven of the boys; it's a real flag waver,” Westfall boasts.

Nine ships, 66 aircraft, and 3,000 US Navy and US Coast Guard men searched 260,000 square miles of open sea plus 24 islands within a 600 mile range of Earhart's target: Howland Island.

The book contains the accounts of sailors and flyers who in their early 20s were risking their lives on the Earhart Search.

“Two of these boys are still alive and can be contacted,” Westfall says.

3) It's a new theory piece, different than the two primary theories.

The splash-and-sank theory of Nauticos who have spent some US$3 million on three ventures to search for Earhart's plane at the bottom of the Pacific at 18,000 feet.

The book has the Lockheed man who built the aircraft, who is still alive, and can be contacted in Southern California.

The crash-landing theory of TIGHAR who have spent somewhat less on five trips to search for Earhart on Nikumaroro (Gardner) Island.

The book has the Navy flyer who flew over Gardner on the Earhart Search, who is still alive, and can be contacted in Utah.

4) It's a history piece, the story never told, with unpublished photos, charts, and maps.

A surprise ending where the Japanese officially tell Washington DC that they are out looking for Earhart, but never report back.

Two days after they would have picked her out of the sea, they attacked Beijing, China, on July 7, 1937, the start of the Pacific War.

Four-and-a-half years later on December 8, 1941, one day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, they bombed Howland Island - some 1900 miles southwest of Hawaii.

There were only a few shacks, four boys, and a three-tube radio on the essentially deserted island at the time.

The Japanese had investigated the island, six months before Earhart was to arrive.

The Hunt for Amelia Earhart. By Douglas Westfall and Richard K Mater. The Paragon Agency Publishers, 2007. 262 pages. ISBN 1-891030-24-8. Email: Paragona@Pacbell.net . Website: http://www.specialbooks.com/.

ICT in Papua New Guinea: Blind leading the blind

The Government still seems to have no clear directions for its Information and Communications Technology (ICT) policy, if this week’s National Budget is any yardstick to go by.

This is despite the Government allocating K20 million specifically towards the ICT policy in the 2008 National Budget.

There is no clear indication yet if the ICT monopoly held by Telikom – particularly in its outdated Tiare Internet Gateway - will be broken.

As an aside, a couple of weeks ago, I sailed to Salamaua on the MV Rita and almost everyone on the boat was using mobile phones at sea to call their loved ones in Lae or around the country.

Competition is good, anyone will tell you, except a handful of narrow-minded Government Ministers and politicians.

And ironically, National Planning and Monitoring Secretary Simon Tosali, at the National Budget lock-up which I attended on Tuesday this week, indicated that mobile phone competition had made a huge contribution to the growth of the Papua New Guinea economy this year and would continue to do so next year.

Digicel’s entry into the local mobile phone industry to compete with Telikom and its subsidiary B-Mobile has sparked a 0.7 per cent boost to the growth of Gross Domestic Product this year.

During the last six months, Digicel has invested about K450 million in the country and generated 300 regular jobs with about 4,000 indirect jobs around the country.

It also generated substantial revenue from its sale of mobile handsets and call credits that went into the local economy.

I have said before, and will say it again, that the ICT monopoly in Papua New Guinea, exorbitant telephone and Internet costs, as well as lack of knowledge about ICT all contribute to the massive digital divide in the country.

Papua New Guinea will continue to remain light years behind the rest of the world if we do not jump on the ICT bandwagon in this globalised world.

The digital divide within the country is an enormous barrier to the ability of the people to participate in and benefit from the digital economy.

Access to Internet, adequate infrastructure, human capacity building and appropriate policies on ICT are central issues in addressing the digital divide.

Success in this globalised world is predicated on ICT knowledge and successful knowledge-based economies will be based on the efficient and widespread use of ICT by all sectors within any given country.

It’s a classic case of “the blind (Government) leading the blind (people of Papua New Guinea)”.

And in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king!

Our leaders in Government should know that the greatest problem the country faces in the area of ICT is the Telikom monopoly through the Tiare Gateway.

A former Papua New Guinea resident now residing in New Zealand highlighted this very point in an email to me this week.

“I was interested to read your views in the online edition of The National,” he said.

“After 17 years in PNG, the online papers are one way to remain in touch with what’s happening there.

“Although you make some good points in that article, there was no mention of the greatest problem PNG faces in this area: the Telikom monopoly through Tiare.

“It’s all very well to have a limited broadband locally but the true benefits are achieved with an international network.

“The tiny ‘pipeline’ linking PNG with the rest of the world means outside communications are too slow and their charging policies restrict most people from utilising them.

“Whilst I am able to implement a VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) solution in my home and talk to friends in UK for free, I can’t use it to reach friends in PNG (unless they work for The World Bank).

“A caring government would axe the monopoly, allow the ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to actually compete and enable the people to use the technology.

“Telikom is a government ‘cash cow’ and that’s the reason they don’t want to open everything up.

“They’re billing Internet connections as a toll call whereas, elsewhere in the world, it’s a local call.

“Many people over here (New Zealand) never turn it (Internet) off!”

Telikom – through the Tiare Gateway - is the only licensed provider of Internet services in the country.

The four Internet Service Providers (ISPs) - Datec, Daltron, DataNets and Global Internet – buy their Internet telecommunications capacity from Telikom on wholesale.

The ISPs in turn sell the service through dial-up or lease line at hugely-inflated prices.

The Internet growth in the country is limited by the available bandwidth from Telikom.

University of Technology electrical electronics and telecommunications lecturer Elias Mandawali says people within Telikom are not doing enough research into new technologies in telecommunication systems.

“There is a lot of confusion in the World Wide Web (WWW) applications of Broadband Internet and the telephony Broadband Internet offered by the Public Switch Telephone Network ( PSTN ),” he said.

“The Tiare runs on the old 4 kHz frequency and bit rate at 64kbps, which is too narrow for Broadband, and one will find that the information can be lost or congested.

“We have to educate Papua New Guineas to use the latest WiFi-function telecommunication networks on the World Wide Web.

“This will enable triplay bandwidth … and is the answer to PNG’s ICT policy.”

•For feedback and comments, email malumnalu@yahoo.com or SMS 6849763/72580278.

You know you're a Papua New Guinean when:

*You can have cordial 4 breakfast.

* You have Buai for Lunch.

* You still live with your parents even though you're 30.

*U bring your boyfriend/girlfriend to the house and everyone's concluded that you are married!

* You wear board shorts to cruz in town even though u r not going 4 a swim (KBS 2 the max!).

* You share one cigarette with five other people.

* Your Mother gives your father Black eyes.

* You have about 3 families living in one house.

* Still keep drinking even though you can barely talk and walk.

* At any major function, instead of a plate, your food comes in a plastic container.

* You run into a mountain of Slippers blocking the front door.

* Your staple diet is rice and tin fish or Ox & palm.

* You have a huge gap between your first two toes, (excessive thong wear...).

* Swimming pool is filled with people wearing t-shirts, (Females).

* You can sprint barefoot on sharp stones and rocks.

* You wake up and go straight to work or classes.

* At crossings, u r supposed 2 wait 4 the car to stop b4 crossing, not the other way around.

* Your first and last names are the same. (John John).

* You have a perpetually drunk Uncle who starts fights at every family gathering.

* You call a friend - (squad).

* Every time you greet someone he says "YOU"?.

* You have sat in a 4-seater car with up to 8 other people.

* You can speak with your face - eg. Twitch like a rabbit to ask, Where you going?"

* Your Grandmother thinks Vicks Vapor-Rub is the miracle cure for everything> (including broken bones ....).

* You're getting a hiding and your parents yell at you as to ,"Why you are crying for?" ("you karai lo wanem ah ......").

* You've been shamed and belted up by your Mother in front of schoolmates at the Supermarket.

* You're a Tycoon on your payday by shouting everyone and scab money off people till the next fortnight.

* You invite people over for dinner and your family all of a sudden says the grace.

* You've had an afro at some stage in your life (boys AND girls) and thought you looked cool.

* You're at your Aunties and see your 6 year old cousin doing household chores.

* Your Aunty visits and she's talking to you at the same time as looking in your pots for food...

* You go to your village rich and come back poor.

* You have lap laps for curtains in your house.

Now, stop laughing and send it over to other Papua New Guineans!

Kalamanagunan Primary School gets a timely boost

Kalamanagunan Primary School at Kokopo in East New Britain province is the proud recipient of K1100 from Kokopo Micro Finance (KMF) project.

The money is a loan that the school secured through the KMF facility to help it promote its making a living in agriculture project.

This money will be paid to OISCA School for additional seedlings and other agriculture-related projects that the school is promoting as part of its community-based curriculum.

The loan was made possible through a school account that was opened with KMF in April 2007.

The purpose of this move is inline with a board decision that is aimed at making the school self-reliant rather than depending too much on board funding for its school projects.

Kalamanagunan has been involved in numerous development projects like poultry, backyard gardening, brick making, ice block making, roasted peanuts and a few others as part of its making a living program.

The school has been working closely with other education institutions like OISCA, Vunamami Farmers, Kokopo Secondary School and Woolnough Vocational as part of its community based projects to make learning more appropriate to today’s needs.

Kokopo Micro Finance board member Henry Tavul said it was time students were encouraged to adopt “education for Life” principles rather than “education for employment” as this was no longer true today.

A strong advocate of micro enterprise/informal sector training programmes, Mr Tavul believes this is the way to go today if we are to celebrate 32 years of “real independence in PNG”.

“The move that Kalamanagunan has taken is more inline with the Education 10-Year Development Plan and it is good that schools are taking the initiative to develop such programs,” Mr Tavul said.

“This type of loan is the first of its kind by the district micro finance to be given to a school in the district and province.

“I believe this is also a right move in line with capacity-building exercise in the institution that the district and province has been embarking on.

“I encourage other schools to follow suit and make learning more realistic for our children.”

After completion of this loan the school intends to get a bigger loan that they can use to increase production of bricks under rural technology areas of learning Grades 7 and 8.

Headmaster Mark Petelo, in accepting the money on behalf of the school, thanked his board and Kokopo Micro Finance for their support and pledged the school would do its best to pay off the loan to enable them to get bigger amounts in future

Youngsters become young stars at Kokopo Secondary School

Kokopo Secondary School in East New Britain province is undergoing a quite revolution as its students become real-life entrepreneurs.

To see the determination of these youngsters to be young stars, especially at a time when so many of their peers all over the country are sinking into a quagmire of poverty and unemployment, gives you so much optimism for the future.

Kokopo Secondary School is indeed a parable for the youth of Papua New Guinea.

These young men and women – Grade 9, 10, 11 and 12 students - are into various businesses such as vegetable growing, tailoring, trade stores, poultry, cooking food, laplaps, meri blouses, coconut oil, baking, and many more.

They are trained by their teachers in all facets of small business such as producing, buying, marketing, selling, bookkeeping and banking.

They are independent and no longer rely on their parents for school fees and pocket money.

Young female Grade 10 student Catherine Kereku – in something out of the ordinary - designs, builds and then sells coffins in her own workshop.

Justin Malana, another female Grade 10 student, is the sole breadwinner for her siblings after their father deserted them and the subsequent death of their mother.

Male Grade 10 student Angelo Buak – who is into selling iceblocks, baking and sewing – recently used some of this money to buy his own personal computer.

Female Grade 10 student Coran Dan, whose vegetable garden is a walk-in market for customers, has made over K3000 this year.

These are just a few of the many success stories from Kokopo Secondary School.

The enthusiasm of these young people for business and life in general greatly touched and moved a group of visitors to the school last week.

The Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) programme is offered as an integral part of the school curriculum at Kokopo Secondary School to create awareness of and promote entrepreneurship to students, their parents and the community at large.

The SIYB programme, run by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) through the Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC), was first introduced to Kokopo Secondary School in 2003 by SBDC-accredited master trainer Henry Tavul.

“He (Tavul) successfully trialed and pioneered the program with a class of about 100 business studies students who graduated with a certificate,” said Kokopo principal Patrick Jerome.

“The success immediately had a positive impact in the school, which resulted in having SBDC training 24 teachers to be trainers in 2004.

“Since then the program has taken root in the school and has grown bigger and better.

“It is our strong desire to pro-actively participate in the government’s nationwide programs in the drive to alleviate poverty in PNG by teaching young people to learn and adopt business culture at a young age.”

Tavul recalls that the SIYB programme was treated with suspicion by both students and parents when he introduced it at the school in 2003.

“They (students and parents) were not very enthusiastic,” he remembers.

“They were looking forward to white collar jobs.

“Now, they can see that they have something to fall back on if they don’t get a white collar job.”

The history of the SIYB programme at Kokopo Secondary School goes back to 2003 when it became a secondary school.

Its Business Studies Department took a huge step to add more value to the courses offered by inserting SIYB into the curriculum.

“So far, we have trained more than 400 students,” said school’s SIYB coordinator Alfred Bare.

“The majority of them are SYB certificate holders and the rest of them are IYB certificate holders

“The criteria used to assess were purely based on the training outcomes: precise and realistic business plans and tests at the end of the program.

“Some went for further studies and some went hack to their villages and lived meaningful lives, starting up their own micro businesses.

“This is what it means to be self-reliant and participating meaningfully in our economy.”

The school’s head of business studies Adrian Balagawi believes the SIYB programme is the way of the future “to be taught to the students in all high and secondary schools.

“I believe if this course is accepted and implemented by the authorities as a productive module, it will enable our students to generate revenue by establishing micro-businesses at an early age.”

So what better judges than the student of Kokopo Secondary School themselves?

“…this project has contributed to my wellbeing and has prompted the desire to become a businessman,” said coconut oil producer William Toliman.

“It has built up a type of confidence on how to deal with money in real life situation.

“In this real commercial and business world, the application of knowledge is what matters.”

Iceblock, baking, and sewing tyro Angelo Buak comments: “I think this is one of things that can help to reduce crimes involving young people.

“Encouraging young people to start up similar small business like this one will enable them to concentrate on his/her own business, not the peers, so that they can feel the thrill of holding hot money in their hands and forget about breaking and entering stores, pick-pocketing and also to prevent them from becoming beggars.”

Vola Vinarang, a Grade 11 male student, is into making meri blouses women.

“I found out that this course is very vital for us young Papua New Guineans,” he says.

“We need to start saving now.

“This course, I believe, will make us students come out of our shells and explore how the world of money or business is.”

Another Grade 11 student, Muro Igo, believes the SIYB programme can help students become better citizens.

“I think this is a way in which students can excel and become good citizens of this great nation,” he said.

Tavul has the last word: “If you don’t have a job, create your own job!”

For more information on the SIYB Programme, contact Manager Peter Piawu on telephone 3235816 or email pdpiawu@sbdc.gov.pg or ILO Chief Technical Adviser Julius Mutio on telephone 3235816 email jmutio@hotmail.com.

ICT in Papua New Guinea

One of the staunchest supporters and critics of this column has been my good friend and University of Technology electrical electronics and telecommunications lecturer Elias Mandawali (pictured left).

Mr Mandawali is a visionary who has strong views about the status quo of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Papua New Guinea.

I often engage in tech-talk with him over the phone or through email and seek his technical expertise on the massive Information Revolution currently sweeping the globe.

Mr Mandawali will next month run a short course conducted by the Department of Electrical Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering Department at Unitech as part of an educational campaign to provide necessary information and education to IT sections in this country.

The hi-tech workshop - geared towards Internet Broadband fundamental concepts and implementations in Papua New Guinea – will cover topics such as Wireless Radio Systems Technology, Wireless Internet Access Technology and Application, Practical Computer Laboratory Sessions, and Powerline Communication Systems.

It comes at a time when a massive Information Revolution is taking place in this increasingly-globalised world as economies use ICT as a passport to what economists call the “New Economy”.

Mr Mandawali explains that the short course aims “to make everyone aware of the technology and to remind us here that this technology is taking the world by storm”.

“What does ICT means to you and I and the bulk of the Papua New Guineans?” he asks

“If we can firstly define the three words, we are then able to make good important decisions that will benefit the bulk of the Papua New Guineans, and then we can talk about making the policies on the ICT.

“If we blindly make a policy without understanding of ICT and its applications and if the policy does not suit us, then we have become ignorant in the technology and we can just forget the policy because it is going to be someone else that is going to benefit from the ICT.

“It is my firm believe that everyone must firstly be made away of the advantages and disadvantages of the technology so everyone can appreciate its implementation and support it in every means.

“Information – may include voice and data.

“Communication – means the exchange of information and the information must be received understood and be returned or replied and or transmitted.

“Technology – means the mechanisms which the information is communicated and the mechanisms which we can refer to in this explanation are the PSTN and the WWW as in the digital systems.

“By way of understanding and the proper meaning of the ICT, we tend to think of the ICT as transmission/reception of information technology in terms of ‘0’, and ‘1’ or bits.

“A bit can be sent via a transmission network or many bits can be sent via a transmission network.

“And so the ICT is actually the telecommunication network that provides a network in telecommunication engineering systems and network for the exchanges of bits which contains information of voice or data or mixture of both.

“By definition the two telecommunication networks - the World Wide Web (WWW) and Public Switch Telephone Networks (PSTN) - are not the same.

“These two systems are referred to as providing ICT

“The Broadband Internet provided by either system is not the same and is not equal.

“Therefore PSTN Broadband Internet cannot be called Broadband Internet because it is riding on 4 kHz which never and cannot become Broadband according to the telecommunication technologies.

“The Public Switch Telephone Network goes back as far as 1920s when first radio link was invented and used in the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s, and ‘80s.

“The ‘90s saw the emergence of digital technology where half-synchronous digital hierarchy was developed to replace the analogue 4 kHz voice frequency telephony systems used in history.

“In Public Switch Telephone Network, the frequency division multiplexing technology is used to send more than one signal through the main transmission network through cable or microwave radio relay links.

“One system is limited to a maximum of 960 channels only.

“The PSTN is provided on the circuit-based telecommunication network.

“The World Wide Web is based on the latest packet technology and the information is transmitted in bits of ‘0’, and ‘1’ digital bit stream and so the bit rate and the terms capacity tends to used in ICT to rate the information flow within the various transmission and user networks.

“With the present latest WiFi-function computer Broadband telecommunication network, the network and the last-mile solutions are brought closer to the user base to effect simple solutions on cost-effective simple-to-install networks and user components at the last-mile.

“The last mile is where WiFi-function wireless Local Area Network providing Broadband Internet becomes very effective at 54Mbps.

“Every WiFi function wireless local area network shall operate at 54 Mbps at 450 meters,
the latest IEEE 802.11 standard.

“The individual WiFi wireless local area networks are inter-connected via the IEEE802.16e standards.

“The WiFi-function mesh network configuration computer telecommunication network is illustrated in this article.

“The Wi-Fi Mesh Network Configuration is believed to provide unlimited Broadband Internet capacity on IP Address to anyone person anywhere and shall be done at homes on wired access points and on WiMAX and Wi-Fi standards and protocols as stated above.”

Those who wish to engage in tech-talk with Mr Mandawali or find our more about next month’s short course can contact him on email emandawali@ee.unitech.ac.pg .

•For feedback and comments, email malumnalu@yahoo.com or SMS 6849763

Malalo celebrates 100 years

Laukanu village kasali arrives in Malalo

 By MALUM NALU

It was one of those typically-beautiful Huon Gulf days on Friday, October 12, 2007, when we sailed from Lae to Malalo on Lutheran Shipping’s MV Rita for the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the historic Malalo Lutheran Mission Station.
It was a sunny day, not a cloud was in the sky, as if they did not want to spoil the celebrations.
Hundreds of people from all over Salamaua, Morobe Province, converged on Malalo that Friday for the centenary celebrations.
Work started on this icon - overlooking idyllic and historic Salamaua – exactly 100 years ago on October 12, 1907.
Surrounding villagers and guests from Lae, other parts of Morobe, and Papua New Guinea, converged on Malalo for the 100th anniversary celebrations.
The people of my mother’s Laukanu village rekindled memories of yore when they brought a kasali (ocean going canoe) to Malalo in a re-enactment of the arrival of the first Lutheran missionaries.
The people of Laukanu were among the greatest mariners of the Huon Gulf, making long ocean trips throughout the Huon Gulf to exchange goods, long before the arrival of the white man.
When the first Lutheran missionaries arrived in Finschhafen in the late 1880s, the Laukanu made the long sea voyage to Finschhafen, and helped to bring the Miti (Word of God) to the villages south of Lae.
The launch of the kasali celebrated not only the great seamanship of the Laukanu, but more importantly, coincided with the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Malolo Mission Station - overlooking idyllic and historic Salamaua – on October 12, 1907.
The people of Salamaua and surrounding villages, who make up the Malalo Circuit, converge on Malalo last week for this momentous occasion.
It was a time for all to celebrate the important role the church had played in their lives, as well as remember the many expatriate missionaries and local evangelists, who worked through the dark days of World War 1 and World War 11 to bring the Miti (Word of God) to the people.
These legendary missionaries include Reverend Karl Mailainder and Rev Herman Boettger (who started actual work on the Malalo station), Rev Hans Raun, Rev Friedrich Bayer, Rev Mathias Lechner, and Rev Karl Holzknecht.
Rev Raun suffered the humiliation of being interned by Australian authorities during WW1 while Rev Holzknecht (whose family has contributed much to the development of PNG) suffered the same fate during WW11 – their only crime being Germans.
Rev Bayer was taking a well-deserved leave in his homeland of Germany when he lost his life on July 24, 1932.
The heart-warming and touching story of Rev Bayer and his wife, Sibylle Sophie Bayer, is told in Sophie’s autobiography He led me to a far off place.
Rev Holzknecht replaced Rev Lechner in 1939 and was there when World War 11 broke out and wiped out Malalo and its famous neighbour of Salamaua.
Missionary’s wife Helene Holzknecht accompanied her husband on all but the trips along the Black Cat Trail into the Wau and Bulolo valleys, ministering to village women and helping the sick she found in these areas.
The outbreak of war in Europe in 1939 brought this idyll to an end.
Karl Holzknecht – being a German - was taken prisoner as an enemy alien by Australian authorities, leaving a pregnant and heartbroken Helene at Malalo.
Her eldest child and only daughter, Irene, was born at Sattelberg, on February 1, 1940, after Karl’s removal to Australia.
Helene and Irene were returned to Malalo, but were eventually evacuated after Japanese bombers attacked Lae and Salamaua.
Helene often talked of seeing those planes skimming the hills on their way to Salamaua, and the horror of the bombing of Salamaua.
Soon after their evacuation by DC3 to Port Moresby, Japanese aircraft also bombed the Malalo Station, destroying all the family’s possessions.
Reverend Karl Mailainder and Rev Herman Boettger started work on the Malalo Mission Station exactly 100 years ago last on October 12, 1907.
They had already checked out other places from Busamang to Kelanuc before settling at Asini at a place called Poadulu.
At Poadulu, work started on Malalo.
The local people were very happy and gave a large piece of land to the Lutheran Church.
The Laukanu people had two kasali so they sailed all the way to Finschhafen and brought missionaries’ cargo back to Malalo.
When Rev Mailainder was clearing land at Malalo, he had a surveyor, Mr Mayar, who worked alongside him.
Work had already started when Rev Boettger arrived and the station was established.
At that time, a church was made of sago leaves.
This was after the congregation membership increased to 500.
Work started on Malalo Mission Station on October 12, 1907, and the opening was on December 20, 1907.
In 1908, the work of confirmation started and work started on a new church building with proper roofing iron.
One missionary gave 1000 German Marks, while Munchen in Germany gave a big bell and a bowl for baptism.
Work started on the new church building and on January 30th, 1910, it was opened with Holy Baptism.
Malalo 100th anniversary organiser Elisah Ahimpum was pleased with the hundreds of people who turned up for the occasion, which also featured a cultural show.
Plaques with the names of all missionaries and evangelists who worked at Malalo were unveiled on the day.
Invited guests to the 100th anniversary celebrations include Evangelical Lutheran Church of PNG leader Reverend Dr Bishop Wesley Kigasung, Morobe Governor Luther Wenge, Lae MP and prominent Lutheran Bart Philemon, Huon Gulf MP and Health Minister Sasa Zibe, as well as Bulolo MP Sam Basil as the Miti filtered into his area from Malalo.
Unfortunately, not all were able to attend, with only Assistant ELPNG Bishop Zao Rapa representing the church and Mr Philemon and Tewai-Siassi MP Vincent Michaels representing the government.
However, that did not spoil the occasion, with hundreds turning up to witness celebrations marking the centenary.

Lae becoming overrun by potholes

The once-beautiful garden city of Lae is virtually being overrun by potholes.

All over the city, potholes – resembling moonlike craters – are appearing.

The bitumen in many parts of the city has disappeared and been replaced with dusty roads found in rural areas of the country.

Lae, in fact, can no longer be called a “city” if the terrible road conditions are anything to go by.

A case in point is the main Town bus stop at Eighth Street (pictured above) where the bitumen has all but disappeared.

“This place doesn’t deserve to be called a city,” said concerned Lae resident Philemon Nalusi as he pointed out the dusty track which is Eighth Street bus stop (pictured above).

“It’s more or less like an undeveloped rural area.”

Former residents of Lae would be astounded at the atrocious roads conditions if they were to visit.

The people of Lae are complaining that they don’t seem to have leaders who can push for the roads to be fixed.

The city is also falling into anarchy with law and order problems all over the city every day.