I was on the bus this morning when I noticed the number of people chewing betelnut and spitting without a concern for the world.
This is a major regressive habit that has been declared as public enemy No. 1 by National Capital District governor Powes Parkop.
It has become so acceptable that the authorities do not haul up anyone who defaces public properties, bus-stops, walkways, roads, buildings and even government offices with betelnut spit.
Betelnut chewing habit affects work ethics, cleanliness, and hygiene and the red stains have become an eye-sore on our streets, roads, airports, shops, markets and office buildings.
Some years ago, Singapore banned chewing gum when it became a problem with proper disposals.
Anyone caught doing so faced a fine.
Governor Parkop’s message to rid Port Moresby of the eye-sore betelnut stains and careless spitting habits should be seriously adhered to by all concerned citizens to see changes not only in our capital city’s image but the country in general.
And this should be taken seriously by all citizens in other provinces as well and not just Port Moresby residents.
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Port Moresby morgue stinks
I was about to have dinner with my children last night when I saw this story on EMTV that made me want to throw up.
It was about the deteriorating state of the Port Moresby General Hospital morgue to such a state that the many bodies there are literally decomposing.
The morgue is basically a shipping container!
Relatives of the deceased are also to blame as they do not collect the dead bodies of people who die.
Television footage showed people with their hands to their noses at the morgue.
What a shame, given that the Papua New Guinea government has so much money in trust accounts, and yet cannot have a good morgue in its captal city.
My gut feeling now is that if the government does not do something drastic about our deteriorating health and education facilities this year, our social problems are going to get worse and worse.
So rich, and yet so poor!
Meantime, yuck, yuck, yuck at the Port Moresby General Hospital Morgue!
It was about the deteriorating state of the Port Moresby General Hospital morgue to such a state that the many bodies there are literally decomposing.
The morgue is basically a shipping container!
Relatives of the deceased are also to blame as they do not collect the dead bodies of people who die.
Television footage showed people with their hands to their noses at the morgue.
What a shame, given that the Papua New Guinea government has so much money in trust accounts, and yet cannot have a good morgue in its captal city.
My gut feeling now is that if the government does not do something drastic about our deteriorating health and education facilities this year, our social problems are going to get worse and worse.
So rich, and yet so poor!
Meantime, yuck, yuck, yuck at the Port Moresby General Hospital Morgue!
Mythbuster about climate change debate?
THE official figures are not yet in, but 2008 is widely tipped to be the coolest year of the century.
WHILE the official figures are not yet in, 2008 is widely tipped to be declared the coolest year of the century.
Whether this is a serious blow to global warming alarmists depends entirely on who you talk to.
Anyone looking for a knockout blow in the global warming debate in 2008 were sorely disappointed, The Australian reports.
The weather refused to co-operate, offering mixed messages from record cold temperatures across North America to heatwaves across Europe and the
Even in
A cool 2008 may not fit in with doomsday scenarios of some of the more extreme alarmists. But nor, meteorologists point out, does it prove the contrary, that global warming is a myth.
In
Last year it was 22.48C. In 2006 it was 22.28C, and in 2005 22.99C.
Senior meteorologist with the National Meteorological Centre Rod Dickson said that based on data from January to November, 2008 might be the coolest this century but it was still Australia's 15th warmest year in the past 100 years.
"Since 1990, the Australian annual mean temperature has been warmer than the 1961-1990 average for all but two years, 2008 being one of those years," he said.
In
Worldwide, 2008 was expected to be about 0.31C higher than the 30-year average to 1990, of 14C.
Read more on this story at The Australian
Article from: News Digital
A need to review our policies
The following article, written by young Madang-based businessman Allan Bird, appeared in the letters page of The National newspaper on Tuesday, December 30, 2008, and reflects on the various problems affecting
By ALLAN BIRD
LAST month, I was privileged to speak at a business and Government leaders summit at the
I wondered what it was that kept Sir George here when many of our well-off nationals, including politicians, were buying homes in
A man of few words; his great deeds and achievements will outlive him.
Will our Government ever deal with the root cause of this problem?
Are we going to forget this after we laid this great man to rest?
After all, this is what we do in PNG, isn’t it?
We all have very short memories: we are masters of the art of knee-jerk reactions.
Sadly, many lawyers are already rubbing their hands with glee, knowing full well the cash cow is waiting to be milked at Tete now that our well meaning, hard working police officers have razed it.
I sympathise with the police commissioner and his men whose job was to remove a viper’s nest.
To begin with, our laws were written to protect criminals, not the innocent.
Criminals know this; that is why they are emboldened and, to some extent, empowered to do what they do. There is no doubt most settlements are the perfect breeding ground for criminals.
I know as I grew up in a settlement 30 years ago. It was only through divine intervention that I did not choose a life of crime like the many friends I grew up with.
Illegal settlements full of young men with little or no education, no skills and little chance of getting a job are going to turn on the rest of us eventually unless we do something about their situation.
Razing the settlements will only move the criminals to another location.
In addition, the police action has given those animals one more reason to make our lives more terrifying; we have destroyed their homes and put their families on the streets.
Quite simply, they will be back to kill some other poor soul in the same manner in some other location.
Today, it was Tete. Tomorrow it could be Morata, Nuigo, Sisiak, Bumbu or Papua compound.
There are many more places with young men who have no jobs, no life, no hope and no future.
To them their life has little value, so why should your life or that of our loved ones be worth anything?
They have nothing to lose while we have everything to lose.
It is my hope that what happened to Sir George will end there but I am not confident because, in this country, we have a poor record of solving problems.
For starters, we need to plan resettlement areas for people in settlements. Such areas need to be properly zoned, have services like schools, health centres and so on.
These places need to be located in areas where the population density is low. These people need to be engaged productively so that they can pay for the land they have been given over a period of time.
This will give them meaning and a chance at a future, better than no future at all.
We need to make drastic changes to our education system. We have to decide how to train our young people. Should we train all of them for a life in urban areas or rural areas? For as long as I can remember, we have been training people for life in towns. But we have not been able to generate employment opportunities.
When that fails, we try to solve the problem by relocating our half-educated, non-skilled young citizens to the villages and expect them to become farmers.
They have no rural skills, having just spent eight to 10 years in a classroom. They don’t know the meaning of hard work, sweat and toil and we expect them to become farmers?
We need to change the way we educate our children and be more honest about their chances of getting jobs in towns and cities.
We should take a hard look at how we distribute wealth in this country.
Since independence, we continue to spend 80% of PNG’s wealth in the National Capital District and, to a lesser extent, Lae city. I am not aware of plans to change this anytime soon.
How are we to provide opportunities for our people, direct them away from crime and make them useful citizens when we lack the will to move a fair share of the nation’s wealth outside NCD and Lae?
I have not seen coffee or cocoa plantation, a mine or even an oil well anywhere in NCD, yet the best part of the PNG cake is consumed there.
How do our policy makers expect to make even the tiniest amount of difference in this country when they lack the courage to move sufficient resources elsewhere?
We have 20 provinces in this country, not two.
The riches of Bougainville, Ok Tedi, Misima, Porgera, Lihir and Kutubu are miles from NCD. This situation needs to change.
We need to toughen our laws so that murderers and rapists are summarily put to death.
Just because other nations say it does not work is a lame excuse not to exercise this punishment here.
My people used to put murderers and rapists to death in the past; it was part of our culture and we accepted it.
Such crimes were unheard of in the past but now they are common.
We are not Europeans. We are Melanesians; we should act like one and hold onto those facets of our culture that served us well in the past.
Even the least educated of our people understand this.
Lastly, the leaders of this land need to lead by example.
How can we expect our people to live life away from crime when our leaders live lives that leave little to the imagination?
Every nation on Earth succeeds or fails as a direct result of leadership or lack thereof.
It is ironical that Sir George, a man who strived to create work for so many less fortunate, it was those very people he tried to provide opportunities for who took his life.
The nation owes him a great debt. PNG is now a poorer nation because one of our giants was cruelly taken from us.
Allan Bird
Madang
Friday, January 02, 2009
Condolence for death of Tim Hauji, Air Nigini pilot
Fellow citizens,
Sad beginning of the year 2009 where the country is deprived of a young professional through a very unnecessary and tragic situation (see story below).
Everyone in PNG citizens need to have a drastic change of mind set.
Planti ol jealous pasin istap namel long ol "professionals" na ol lain olsem policeman na soldiers, which we all have seen and experienced one way or another.
Another is the general "mi tasol no care attitude" to our other fellow citizens and visitors. One just needs to travel to Melanesian countries like Solomons,
We are all Melanesians, and God has made us all the same with same intelligence etc, but we in PNG still have this very bad attitude and of course the result is the generally bad image of PNG citizens.
May God Bless his soul and give courage to his wife and other family members
Regards
Max Kuduk
Post Courier, Thursday 02 Jan. 2009
Bloody New Year
By TODAGIA KELOLA
THE killing of an Air Niugini pilot and the murder of a father trying to rescue his daughter from criminals were among five New Year deaths reported by police in
NCD operations superintendent Chief Inspector Andy Bawa said the pilot was stabbed to death as he was leaving a major hotel in
According to the police brief, there was an argument inside the hotel between the pilot and some others guys gathered there to celebrate New Year.
After witnessing the New Year, he left and was walking to his vehicle when he was allegedly stabbed. The man, whose parents were from Manus and
Another wilful murder occurred at the Erima Wildlife settlement when a man from Enga was attacked after 15 men went to his house and tried to abduct his daughter.
He went to rescue his daughter but the mob turned on him and bashed him to death.
Two other people who tried to help him were also attacked.
Both are in a critical condition at the
The third murder was reported at Vanapa along the
The other two deaths are a result of two separate motor vehicle accidents in NCD and
Police say the one at Waigani was allegedly caused by drink driving. The driver of the vehicle did not stop for the red light, police say, and ran into another vehicle.
One person died instantly and three others were admitted to the
A police officer, who declined to be named, said most of these deaths could have been avoided if there had been a total ban on alcohol during this festive period because most of these deaths were linked to alcohol consumption.
Meanwhile,
Many flocked to nightclubs in the city and partied all night with friends and relatives while some treated it as just another night of the year and slept through the noise and revelry of the New Year celebrations.
Antelope-1 gas strike
InterOil has struck gas at its Antelope-1 well in the Gulf Province.
The top of the subterranean reservoir was intersected at 1,748 metres with gas being encountered at the same depth.
It’s the third gas strike made by InterOil during drilling at its Elk-Antelope prospecting site.
Previous test results from the Elk-1 and Elk-4 sites have shown the existence of a major gas reservoir of “potentially substantial deliverability”.
Rates of up to fifteen million cubic feet per day have been achieved while circulating out gas kicks during drilling operations in the upper section of the structure.
Further testing will be required before the exact size and potential capacity of the Antelope-1 find can be fully assessed and determined.
InterOil President Bill Jasper said the company is “most encouraged” by the initial test results.
“I am extremely pleased with the confirmation of gas and the associated gas flow”.
“It bodes well for the potential of Antelope-1”.
Mr. Jasper said Antelope-1 is currently being evaluated by independent experts.
“Based on what we’ve seen to date, we are hopeful that Antelope-1 (an appraisal well) will eventually go on to become a significant gas discovery”.
“This recent find is in line with our initial expectations of this field”.
It is expected that gas from the Elk-Antelope structures would feed the proposed Liquid Niugini Gas project (of which InterOil is a foundation partner) should it proceed.
For further in formation please contact
Susuve Laumaea
Senior Manager Media Relations InterOil Corporation
Ph: 321 7040
Mobile: + (675) 684 5168
Email: susuve.laumaea@interoil.com
Sepik Blu Longpela Muruk
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I was please to receive an electronic version (e-book) of the novel Sepik Blu Longpela Muruk, written by Australian David Hall (pictured), a former resident of the East Sepik province, recently.
I’m currently going through the e-book and will do a book review as soon as I complete reading it.
Below are details of the book and the author:
In the seclusion of pre-independent and post-independent
grabbing John Pietro.
Among them is James Ward, an Australian Malaria Control Officer in the East Sepik District where this story begins.
James Ward, in confronting his own values and those of the New Guineans, is on a humorous path of life, at once real and imagined.
Tortured by religious scruples and sexual desires, James’s life becomes a trajectory of impulses and aspirations without lasting resolutions.
In this novel, the many personalities are scrutinised, as it were, in a fishbowl, exposing the traits and attributes that distinguish them in their frontier society.
Some cope and endure, while others simply enjoy life.
They are at times like the haughty and elusive cassowary or muruk of the jungle; at other times, they are attractive and tender like the Sepik Blue orchid or Sepik Blu.
In the colonial Sepik District, many expatriates had an adventurous lifestyle in their personal relationships, and in implementing administration policies of justice, political education, health and
commerce.
The expatriate legacy, for better or worse, is part of the history of
The characters of Sepik Blu Longpela Muruk are portraits of people formed by the time and place they lived in.
There are no easy answers to the complex question of the morality of colonial rule in the lives of many of the expatriates.
For James Ward, he embarks on a quixotic adventure in early independent
About the Author
David Andrew de Bérigny Wall was born in
After leaving school, he worked in
In the 1970s he returned to
He resides in
They have two grown-up children, Andrei and David Augustus.
The years he lived in
Malum, thanks for the piece on my novel. I would be happy to send an online copy to anyone; just email me: mahal362000@yahoo.com.au or there is a version available on my blog: http://deberigny.wordpress.com/I read your blog with interest. Kind regards, Dave
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