A day at Loloata Island

Dawn is slowly breaking as seen from the top of Loloata Island, Central province, yesterday morning, Saturday, March 17, 2012. All pictures @MALUM NALU

A view of Loloata Island Resort from the top of the hill yesterday morning

Bird's eye view of Loloata Island Resort yesterday morning.

Sunrise as seen from Loloata Island yesterday morning.

Walking track on the top of Loloata Island.

Neighbouring Motupore Island as seen from the top of Loloata Island.

Stairway to heaven at Loloata Island..

Another magical sunrise as seen from the top of Loloata Island yesterday.

Sunrise lights up a path towards Loloata Island yesterday morning.

Sunrise at Loloata Island yesterday morning.

Sunrise at Loloata Island yesterday morning.

Loloata Island jetty yesterday morning.

A view of Loloata Island from the jetty yesterday morning.

That's me after a daybreak walk and hill climb at Loloata Island yesterday morning, waiting for the restaurant to open so that I can wolf down some brekkie

Two very tame goura pigeons at Loloata Island Resort yesterday.

In the midst of our al fresco discussions on Loloata Island yesterday, this fella flew in uninvited, and perched himself on my shoulder. Made me feel like that pirate, Long John Silver, and his parrot in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island!

A child kayaking off Loloata Island yesterday

Walkway around Loloata Island.

Typical waterfront room at Loloata Island.

Crystal clear waters, mangroves, white sand, white clouds and blue sky at Loloata Island yesterday.

The ferry, mv Tahira Cat, about to leave Loloata Island yesterday afternoon.

Bye Loloata Island!

From left are senior staff of The National Peter Martinez (associate editor), Gabriel Singh (former Fiji Times, copy editor), me and former Fiji Times Editor Samisoni Kakaivalu (copy editor) on the top deck of the mv Tahira Cat somewhere in the waters of Bootless Bay yesterday.

Aerial pictures of Lae, Papua New Guinea

ANZ Haus. All pictures by PETER BOYD

Asaewe Village

Bumbu River

Cassowary Road and  Bumbu River

Aerial view of Highlands Highway stretching from Lae

Aerial shot of Lae Port

Lae Port Berth 3

Lae Market

Milfordhaven Road

Lae Port with Markham River in the background

Markham River as seen from Lae Port

Ships line up at Lae Port

Lae Market and looking all the way down the Huon Gulf to Salamaua Point

Raunwara

Roundabout at Bugandi

SP Brewery flats, Aircorps Road

Lae tidal basin

Top Town

Lutheran Shipping Wharf, Voco Point

WW11 plane at Botanic Gardens

Yacht Club

Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr backs down on PNG comment

Greens leader Bob Brown believes Australia should be offering Papua New Guinea greater assistance in having a fair election, rather than threatening it with isolation.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr said last week that failure by PNG to hold its planned mid-year elections would be a 'shocking model' for the Pacific.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr

Senator Carr on Wednesday threatened a sharp Australian response if PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill heeded internal calls to put off mid-year elections.

'We'd have no alternative but to organise the world to condemn and isolate Papua New Guinea,' the senator told Sky News.

'We'd be in a position of having to consider sanctions.'

Senator Carr on Friday issued a statement saying his comments had been 'misunderstood and used out of context'.

In any case, Senator Brown said Australia should support PNG.

'Instead of making the statement Bob Carr made, we should be offering PNG even greater assistance to make sure the election ... is fair, above board and not corrupted,' Senator Brown told reporters in Canberra on Friday.

PNG's Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah has reversed his position on the general election, saying the mid-year poll will now go ahead as scheduled.

Mr Namah inflamed speculation of a delayed poll two weeks ago when he publicly called on Mr O'Neill to delay the poll for 12 months to install anti-fraud election technology and because the electoral roll was only 60 per cent complete.

Senator Brown said there were a lot of concerns about PNG's election process, although he understood 30 observers were going to the country.

He said Australia's nearest neighbour has big problems - the world's second-worst maternal death rate and huge HIV aids problems.

While it has a large resource base, it does mean 'there is potential for money to flow to outside interests, including Australian corporations, at the expense of local people'.

There is also the problem of the takeover of land by foreign companies.

'This election is an opportunity for the people of Papua New Guinea to assert their own control over their own land,' Senator Brown said.

'If their politicians are doing the wrong thing, then throw them out.'

Senator Carr said Australia's approach to PNG is to be supportive.

'PNG is a robust democracy with a proud history of holding elections as provided for under its constitution,' he said

Stret Pasin Stoa scheme attracts huge interest

By MALUM NALU

The revived Stret Pasin Stoa scheme has attracted massive public interest, according to the National Development Bank.

The NDB’s relationship manager – commercial banking, Robert Thadeus, said yesterday that over 4,000 married couples from all over PNG had applied to NDB to participate in the Stret Pasin Stoa scheme it reintroduced this year.

This is where a husband and wife team manage a shop (mini-supermarket) built by NDB and later own it after NDB has recovered its cost.

“We started advertising for expressions of interest at the beginning of February,” Thadeus said.

“At the close of business on Wednesday this week, we received over 4,000 applications from all over the country.

“We’ve closed applications and we are now into screening and processing.

“The response has been overwhelming.

“It’s beyond what we expected.”

NDB managing director, Richard Maru, said it would easily cost up to K100 million to bankroll up to 1,000 applicants under the scheme and urged the government to take this into consideration.

“Successful applicants will be provided 100% funding to acquire and start their own businesses similar to the very-successful Stret Pasin Stoa scheme run by our forerunner, the Agriculture Bank,” he said.

“The future of the 4,000 applicants will depend on the O’Neill/Namah government providing funding to bankroll the scheme, and bring back the reserved activity legislation to restrict foreigners from running retail shops and kai bars in PNG.”

“Now that we know the level of interest, we will prepare a submission to the government to provide seed funding to start the scheme, and reintroduce the reserved activity list legislation for citizens to take back and run all trade stores, kai bars and similar business in the country.”

Maru commended Minister for Trade and Industry, Charles Abel, for making a commitment to bring back the reserved activity legislation, which would lawfully disallow foreigners from engaging in retails shops and kai bar business.

Belden Namah backs June election

By JEFFREY ELAPA

BELDEN Namah says his Papua New Guinea Party is ready to go to the polls and has no plans to defer the general election, The National reports.
 Namah denied claims he was behind plans to defer the election for at least 12 months.
He said he only said that because he wanted a fair election to be conducted after Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen had admitted that the electoral rolls were not ready.
 “We want the election to proceed as scheduled. I have no powers to defer election,” he said.
But he said the Electoral Commission had failed to prepare the electoral roll properly.
He said only two million eligible voters had been registered and that 2.6 million others had not been registered.
He said some places had an inflated number of voters, while many people had their names omitted as was the case in Koroba-Lake Kopiago district, Southern Highlands.
Namah also called on Australia not to interfere with the running of the affairs of the country.
“Australia should mind its own affairs and not continue to suppress and bully us,” he said.
“They should let us run our own country the way we think is right.”
He was responding to Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr who announced that Australia would consider sanctions on PNG if the election was deferred

Foreign Minister: Australia must say sorry

By LESLIE OMARO

THE government has demanded an apology from Australia after its fo­reign affairs minister warned that sanctions could be imposed if the general election is not held as scheduled in June, The National reports.
 Foreign Minister Ano Pala told a media conference in Port Moresby yesterday that he had summoned acting Australian High Commissioner Margaret Adamson to express the government’s disappointment over Bob Carr’s comments.
Pala said he had also telephoned Carr, who recently replaced Kevin Rudd in Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s cabinet.
“I have spoken with Carr.
“He has explained the context from which he made the statement and I have accepted the explanation.”
However, Carr has to make a public apology and withdraw his comments.
When asked what explanation Carr gave, Pala said it was a “hypothetical case” and it was in the best interest of the two countries not to dwell too much on that issue and move on.
“I summoned Adamson this morning to express the PNG government’s disappointment over the reported public statement by Carr.
“I requested Australia to verify and ascertain the true nature of Carr’s public statement of a threat against PNG.
“If indeed it is true, I have strongly requested that the statement be retracted and withdrawn and that a public apology be made in the same manner.
“I reaffirmed PNG’s view of the friendly, constructive and mutually beneficial bilateral relationship that exists between PNG and Australia.
“Our neighbouring ties allow us to keep a close check on each other as sovereign countries within the spirit of friendship and cooperation,” Pala said.
“The PNG Constitution provides for the conduct of national elections and as a true constitutional democracy, we will observe the Constitution which has been vigorously tested over the last six months and has so far withstood those tests.”
Carr told Sky News on Wednesday night that it was absolutely vital that the government of Prime Minister Peter O’Neill “commit unequivocally to this election”.
Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah had said the polls should be pushed out by 12 months to allow the government more time to implement policies. It would also give time for the voter rolls to be completed.
Carr said any move to delay the poll would be a shocking model for the Pacific and would invite
a sharp response.
“You’ve got Australia placed in a position where we would have no alternative but to organise the world to condemn and isolate Papua New Guinea.
 “We’d be in a position of having to consider sanctions.”
Charles Lepani, PNG’s envoy to Australia, said in Canberra the tone of Carr’s comments – the first interaction Carr has had with PNG – caught him by surprise.
“’When you talk about sanctions, it is a serious international weapon,”’ he told Australian media.
Lepani said parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs Richard Marles was in Port Moresby last week and had been assured the election would go ahead.
“’It has come as a surprise for us and the Papua New Guinea government that a good friend of ours would in his first discourse, first contact, issue a statement that can be misconstrued as unfriendly,” he said.
He said as Carr’s comments were made during an interview with former Labor hardman, Graham Richardson, they could be best viewed as “a knee-jerk reaction”.
“These things pop up. I understand and Bob Carr is Bob Carr,” Lepani said

Belden Namah: I am not gay

By JEFFREY ELAPA

DEPUTY Prime Minister Belden Namah has described the Australian media reports about him as unfounded and malicious, The National reports.
 He said yesterday he did not want to talk more on the alleged drunk scenes at a Sydney casino last year, adding that all he had to say was reported by his lawyer Greg Shepherd of Young & William Lawyers.

Belden Namah...'I am not gay'

It was reported that Namah had sexually harassed a Star Casino employee in Sydney last April, while he was in the opposition.
His lawyer has denied outright that his client had misbehaved and that he was not the person named in the casino internal reports which the Australian media cited on Wednesday.
Namah demanded that the Fairfax Group retract the “misleading and unfounded claims”.
He also demanded an apology.
He said he was not gay as allegedly implied in the Australian press.
“I want to make it clear that I am not gay,” he said.
Namah said his lawyer would engage three Sydney-based Queen’s Counsel to take the Fairfax-owned newspaper Sydney Morning He­rald to court for defamation.
He said their report was unfounded and baseless with intent to discredit him and his reputation