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, Fiji and Vanuatu to see the difference.

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

* E-mail: max.kuduk@gmail.com

Stop Think Plan Act and always stay safe

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 Port Moresby.
NCD operations superintendent Chief Inspector Andy Bawa said the pilot was stabbed to death as he was leaving a major hotel in Port Moresby.
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 East Sepik, died on the spot.
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 Port Moresby General Hospital. Ten suspects have been detained by police.
The third murder was reported at Vanapa along the Hiritano Highway where a man returning from a function was stabbed to death.
The other two deaths are a result of two separate motor vehicle accidents in NCD and Central Province. One was reported to have occurred at Gaire along the Magi Highway and the other one was at the city’s Waigani traffic lights.
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 Port Moresby General Hospital.
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, Port Moresby residents kicked off New Year celebrations at Ela Beach when they witnessed fireworks at 7pm and were entertained by various musicians before going back to their homes to wait for the New Year.
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

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 Papua New Guinea, we find a group of expatriates, from an eclectic yet progressive Dutch priest to the money
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 Papua New Guinea.
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 Papua New Guinea that spells out his kismet.
About the Author
David Andrew de Bérigny Wall was born in Melbourne in 1936 and educated in Sydney at Saint Ignatius’ College, Riverview.
After leaving school, he worked in Papua New Guinea on plantations and for the Department of Health for 18 years.
In the 1970s he returned to Sydney and qualified as a teacher librarian, subsequently working in high schools for the New South Wales Department of Education.
He resides in Newtown, Sydney with his wife, Deborah.
They have two grown-up children, Andrei and David Augustus.
The years he lived in Papua New Guinea have left him with an abiding interest in the country and its people. Contact Wall on email mahal362000@yahoo.com.au if you want to buy a copy of the book.

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

A Happy and Prosperous New Year

A Happy and Prosperous New Year to the many readers and followers of this blog from all corners of the world.

I spent Christmas Eve with my four children at home.

We all stayed until midnight to watch the fireworks explode all around us.

On New Year’s Day I took them for a spin in a taxi, bought some food, and brought it home to cook.

I’m back at work with The National newspaper where I am supplements editor.

It looks like it’s going to be a very busy year for me.

Malum

Poker machines: luck or computer programmes?

By PANU KASAR

 

The human brain is still by far the most advanced phenomena in the whole universe. Most people deny that fact. That is why many couldn't learn about computers. They are afraid to learn. Always remember that humans created computers. That's why when I teach my technicians on repairs I make sure they have confidence in themselves. Human also using their brains created computers to even trick other humans. Poker machines are standardised systems used to make profit. Computer games such as pokies are simply custom built computers made for generating profit. To think of it a poker machine is calibrated to make money for its owner. Even though how hard you try you can never win. Of course you will win but that will be after the machine gets what it wants. It is designed to let you get only a small percentage of what it collects. Say it collects 95% and you get 5% of its takings. You don't realise that because players who came before you already gave the 95% that it wants and you came in time to collect the 5%. Why would pub owners' waste money on equipment that uses electricity all night making a lot of noise? Simply because it helps them by making you give them your money. They know it and will never tell you.  Most of the time you are so drunk to figure that out.

 

The poker machine runs on a microchip integrated with a computer program written by programmers. Usually it's what programmers call a loop. A loop is a string of codes that run in a repeating sequence to execute its code. The poker machine is a computer program designed to make you contribute to the gaming industry. The machine simply executes how its code is written. The loop executes sequence of its code in many ways some times in random order. The codes are long and can last for months before it repeats making it hard for people to study the winning pattern. Of course the programmers know that nobody will work out the code because usually most players will be drunk. Now you know why the pub is close by the poker and they serve you jugs while you play.

 

Some follow random codes where they pay out on a spree then start collecting to make up their program percentage. Therefore poker players may notice that some machines don't pay for some time even longer periods. Simply because they are executing the program loops where the takings are being collected.

 

In large casinos the owners knows exactly how much a single poker machine will make in a year. Whether you win or lose it doesn't matter a machine will still give its owner how much it is programmed to make. Just like you buying a new radio and realizing that it will produce 200 Watts of sound power output. Poker machines are like that it just give its owner according to how it is designed. Some generate up to K500, 000 per year. When a buyer wants a machine he can choose to buy according to the output. You shocked? Yeah and some of that money comes from you. So if say you own five poker machines in your water hole that keeps spinning the whole year you are a millionaire.

 

The music from the poker machines also plays a part. Of every invention there is psychology involved. The music teases the mind and the color from the display develops an inviting lust for the drunken victims. Therefore as for the victims it's a matter of winning a game getting hooked and even losing sometimes but managing to win back. The winning then suddenly stops but the memory of the wins keeps the gambling going. The losses are not remembered by the way. As one gambler said "In all the time I've spent in the proximity of poker machines, I've never seen one taking anything from anyone who didn't willingly give it. I have never seen a poker machine preventing someone from doing what they want to do, or imposing its own personal will or preference on a single inhabitant of planet Earth".

 

Usually the maximum payouts are a fraction of the annual profit generated by the machine. A machine having a maximum payout of K5, 000 may have an annual profit of K500 000 but when it makes the payout the music and the lights celebrate with you making the small payout a grand event. These figures are just an illustration of the revenue concept of poker machines they real figures may never be known. Well kept secret of the industry.

 

Game programming is a lucrative trade; the industry employs the best computer programmers to design the best profit making machines. That is why poker machines are perfectly designed to lure money. The new designs do not have gears or matching slots like you see on the screen. They are just visual representations. When you open a machine you only see a main board with an integrated micro chip.   

 

The gaming sector is simply the cash cows of the entertainment industry. That is why the government cannot get rid of it. To them it is simply a way of making people willingly pay their taxes. A person will criticise huge tax cuts in salary then retire to the pub to play poker.

 

On our path we help you realise that as far as computers are involved there is no such thing as luck. Computers work on a chip programmed to execute code and just that. In pokies your wins are set ups. You get so hooked that you forgot how many times you lost. In fact the losses were more than the couple of wins. What a sad story, being fooled by a machine which was designed to exploit hard earned salaries.

 

In Australia about 90% of clients who attends Wesley Gambling Counseling services are addicted to poker machines. ''Most of the people we counsel have hit rock bottom and about 10 per cent have thought about suicide,'' said Wesley Mission, Sydney superintendent, Reverend Keith Garner. These counseling services fortunately are funded by the gaming industry. Just like the warnings on cigarette packs.  

 

In Papua New Guinea most people in the working class who frequent pubs are hooked into poker machines. It is the main cause of domestic financial strains. I think by now you all should know how mean these machines are. This article is my New Year gift to the citizens of this country, hope it helps those resolutions you have in mind. Happy New Year 2009. Keep those emails coming: pkasar@mail.com

King tides force fuel rationing in Wewak

Fuel rationing has been introduced in Wewak because of a "critical shortage" at InterOil's regional terminal.

 The situation follows recent king tides that caused widespread disruption to northern coastal areas and damaged port facilities at Wewak.

 On two occasions, InterOil's supply vessel has been unable to berth.

 The company is now low on all fuels including gasoline and diesel.

 InterOil Products Limited General Manager Peter Diezmann said, despite the current situation, the company intended to provide all its customers with limited supplies of fuel until regular deliveries can resume.

 "We will do our best to keep our customers operational, at least to some degree, during this difficult period".

 Mr. Diezmann said he believed that "careful management of fuel stocks" was the most responsible course of action.

 "It will help ensure that everyone receives some fuel until the next scheduled delivery midway through January".

 Regular deliveries, into the area, were disrupted prior to Christmas when sea swells damaged wharf and unloading facilities.

 "The damage was quickly repaired but continued swells made the berthing of the fuel tanker extremely hazardous".

A pre-Christmas delivery voyage was diverted away from Wewak, by the master of the vessel, on the grounds of safety.

 "Since then, only a single shipment of fuel has been received", Mr. Diezmann said.

 "It came via a tanker vessel that was able to come alongside during a break in the unfavourable conditions".

 Because the seas had temporarily abated, the vessel was able to discharge its cargo of fuel.

 However a second planned berthing, over the Christmas weekend, had to be aborted because of conditions.

 Mr. Diezmann said the next scheduled cargo vessel is not due to arrive in Wewak until January 14^th.

 "Until then, we will have to make the fuel we have go as far as possible", he said.

 

 For further information

 

Susuve Laumaea

Senior Manager Media Relations - InterOil Corporation

Ph: 321 7040

Mobile: 684 5168

Email: susuve.laumaea@interoil.com

A Happy New Year

A Happy New Year 2009 to all readers and followers of this blog from all corners of the world.

Thank you for your support in 2008 and I look forward to that continuing in 2009.

I would like to have more feedback from you readers so that I can make this blog even bigger and better in promoting Papua New Guinea.

Thank you and God Bless You All Real Good!

 

Malum Nalu

Port Moresby

Papua New Guinea

 

PS: That’s me in the red shirt and the bushy beard which I’ve been growing since Easter Sunday this year, when my wife Hula passed away so suddenly and tragically, leaving me and the four young children all alone. On my shoulder is my eldest son Malum, aged eight,   and to the right in the background is my only daughter Moasing, aged four. The other two children Gedi, six, and Keith, one, are not in the picture.