Papua New Guinea - truly the land of the unexpected

Two things happened to me in Port Moresby at the weekend that really had me shaking my head and agreeing with that old tourism catch cry that Papua New Guinea is truly the “land of the unexpected”.

Last Saturday, I really wanted to eat some fish and vegetables, so my two elder sons Malum Jr (8) and Gedi (6) accompanied me to Rainbow Market at Gerehu.

After buying the fish and veggies, the boys wanted to have some guavas, so we went to one of the women selling guavas and the boys got five guavas for 40 toea each, which works out to 2 Kina.

They collected the guavas and we walked happily down the street, they munching on the succulent fruit, when suddenly, we hear a scream behind us an angry woman with her hands over her head.

She accused me, at point-blank range in front of a large group of people, that I had stolen her guavas.

I told her that I had inadvertently not paid and pulled out a 2 Kina note from my pocket.

However, she wanted me to go back to the market, and pay her the money, which I very reluctantly did.

And after paying up, she calls out for the entire world to hear, that I am a “stilman (thief)”.

No one took her seriously, and I told her that if she had been a bit more diplomatic, I would have bought off her whole table of guavas.

The next day, I went to my office at The National newspaper, and worked for the whole day.

After 7.30pm, as the driver was dropping us off in pouring rain, we almost had an accident at Tokarara.

A vehicle suddenly drove straight at us, on the wrong lane, and had it not been for the quick instincts of our driver Joe, who veered to the edge of the road, we would have had a head-on collision.

That errant vehicle, meanwhile, drove head-on into another vehicle behind us.

Our driver wanted to stop and see what happened, however, I advised him not to do so and drive off.

Who knows what would have happened to us on that dark, rainy night?

Papua New Guinea is truly the “land of the unexpected”.

And Then They Came For Me

After reading through the lively discussion on the state of the Pacific's media, I came across this: An editorial penned by Sri Lanka's Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, who had been targetted for assassination, just three days before he was actually killed. He knew "they" were coming for him because the reporting of the newspaper he co-founded. The calmness with which he awaited his fate is awe inspiring. While it is symptomatic of the dangers some journalists have to work with, how Wickrematunge confronted those responsible for his death from beyond the grave should be an inspiration to all of us.

--

The editorial also featured on the Guardian's website here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/13/wickrematunga-final-editorial-final-editorial

The Sunday Leader website is here: http://www.thesundayleader.lk/20090111/editorial-.htm

--

And Then They Came For Me

 

No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honour to belong to all those categories and now especially the last.

I have been in the business of journalism a good long time. Indeed,

2009 will be The Sunday Leader's 15th year. Many things have changed in Sri Lanka during that time, and it does not need me to tell you that the greater part of that change has been for the worse. We find ourselves in the midst of a civil war ruthlessly prosecuted by protagonists whose bloodlust knows no bounds. Terror, whether perpetrated by terrorists or the state, has become the order of the day. Indeed, murder has become the primary tool whereby the state seeks to control the organs of liberty. Today it is the journalists, tomorrow it will be the judges. For neither group have the risks ever been higher or the stakes lower.

Why then do we do it? I often wonder that. After all, I too am a husband, and the father of three wonderful children. I too have responsibilities and obligations that transcend my profession, be it the law or journalism. Is it worth the risk? Many people tell me it is not. Friends tell me to revert to the bar, and goodness knows it offers a better and safer livelihood. Others, including political leaders on both sides, have at various times sought to induce me to take to politics, going so far as to offer me ministries of my choice.

Diplomats, recognising the risk journalists face in Sri Lanka, have offered me safe passage and the right of residence in their countries.

Whatever else I may have been stuck for, I have not been stuck for choice.

 

But there is a calling that is yet above high office, fame, lucre and security. It is the call of conscience.

The Sunday Leader has been a controversial newspaper because we say it like we see it: whether it be a spade, a thief or a murderer, we call it by that name. We do not hide behind euphemism. The investigative articles we print are supported by documentary evidence thanks to the public-spiritedness of citizens who at great risk to themselves pass on this material to us. We have exposed scandal after scandal, and never once in these 15 years has anyone proved us wrong or successfully prosecuted us.

The free media serve as a mirror in which the public can see itself sans mascara and styling gel. From us you learn the state of your nation, and especially its management by the people you elected to give your children a better future. Sometimes the image you see in that mirror is not a pleasant one. But while you may grumble in the privacy of your armchair, the journalists who hold the mirror up to you do so publicly and at great risk to themselves. That is our calling, and we do not shirk it.

Every newspaper has its angle, and we do not hide the fact that we have ours. Our commitment is to see Sri Lanka as a transparent, secular, liberal democracy. Think about those words, for they each has profound meaning. Transparent because government must be openly accountable to the people and never abuse their trust. Secular because in a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society such as ours, secularism offers the only common ground by which we might all be united. Liberal because we recognise that all human beings are created different, and we need to accept others for what they are and not what we would like them to be. And democratic... well, if you need me to explain why that is important, you'd best stop buying this paper.

The Sunday Leader has never sought safety by unquestioningly articulating the majority view. Let's face it, that is the way to sell newspapers. On the contrary, as our opinion pieces over the years amply demonstrate, we often voice ideas that many people find distasteful. For example, we have consistently espoused the view that while separatist terrorism must be eradicated, it is more important to address the root causes of terrorism, and urged government to view Sri Lanka's ethnic strife in the context of history and not through the telescope of terrorism. We have also agitated against state terrorism in the so-called war against terror, and made no secret of our horror that Sri Lanka is the only country in the world routinely to bomb its own citizens. For these views we have been labelled traitors, and if this be treachery, we wear that label proudly.

Many people suspect that The Sunday Leader has a political agenda: it does not. If we appear more critical of the government than of the opposition it is only because we believe that - pray excuse cricketing argot - there is no point in bowling to the fielding side. Remember that for the few years of our existence in which the UNP was in office, we proved to be the biggest thorn in its flesh, exposing excess and corruption wherever it occurred. Indeed, the steady stream of embarrassing expos‚s we published may well have served to precipitate the downfall of that government.

Neither should our distaste for the war be interpreted to mean that we support the Tigers. The LTTE are among the most ruthless and bloodthirsty organisations ever to have infested the planet. There is no gainsaying that it must be eradicated. But to do so by violating the rights of Tamil citizens, bombing and shooting them mercilessly, is not only wrong but shames the Sinhalese, whose claim to be custodians of the dhamma is forever called into question by this savagery, much of which is unknown to the public because of censorship.

What is more, a military occupation of the country's north and east will require the Tamil people of those regions to live eternally as second-class citizens, deprived of all self respect. Do not imagine that you can placate them by showering "development" and "reconstruction" on them in the post-war era. The wounds of war will scar them forever, and you will also have an even more bitter and hateful Diaspora to contend with. A problem amenable to a political solution will thus become a festering wound that will yield strife for all eternity. If I seem angry and frustrated, it is only because most of my countrymen - and all of the government - cannot see this writing so plainly on the wall.

It is well known that I was on two occasions brutally assaulted, while on another my house was sprayed with machine-gun fire. Despite the government's sanctimonious assurances, there was never a serious police inquiry into the perpetrators of these attacks, and the attackers were never apprehended. In all these cases, I have reason to believe the attacks were inspired by the government. When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me.

The irony in this is that, unknown to most of the public, Mahinda and I have been friends for more than a quarter century. Indeed, I suspect that I am one of the few people remaining who routinely addresses him by his first name and uses the familiar Sinhala address oya when talking to him. Although I do not attend the meetings he periodically holds for newspaper editors, hardly a month passes when we do not meet, privately or with a few close friends present, late at night at President's House. There we swap yarns, discuss politics and joke about the good old days. A few remarks to him would therefore be in order here.

Mahinda, when you finally fought your way to the SLFP presidential nomination in 2005, nowhere were you welcomed more warmly than in this column. Indeed, we broke with a decade of tradition by referring to you throughout by your first name. So well known were your commitments to human rights and liberal values that we ushered you in like a breath of fresh air. Then, through an act of folly, you got yourself involved in the Helping Hambantota scandal. It was after a lot of soul- searching that we broke the story, at the same time urging you to return the money. By the time you did so several weeks later, a great blow had been struck to your reputation. It is one you are still trying to live down.

You have told me yourself that you were not greedy for the presidency.

You did not have to hanker after it: it fell into your lap. You have told me that your sons are your greatest joy, and that you love spending time with them, leaving your brothers to operate the machinery of state. Now, it is clear to all who will see that that machinery has operated so well that my sons and daughter do not themselves have a father.

In the wake of my death I know you will make all the usual sanctimonious noises and call upon the police to hold a swift and thorough inquiry. But like all the inquiries you have ordered in the past, nothing will come of this one, too. For truth be told, we both know who will be behind my death, but dare not call his name. Not just my life, but yours too, depends on it.

Sadly, for all the dreams you had for our country in your younger days, in just three years you have reduced it to rubble. In the name of patriotism you have trampled on human rights, nurtured unbridled corruption and squandered public money like no other President before you. Indeed, your conduct has been like a small child suddenly let loose in a toyshop. That analogy is perhaps inapt because no child could have caused so much blood to be spilled on this land as you have, or trampled on the rights of its citizens as you do. Although you are now so drunk with power that you cannot see it, you will come to regret your sons having so rich an inheritance of blood. It can only bring tragedy. As for me, it is with a clear conscience that I go to meet my Maker. I wish, when your time finally comes, you could do the same. I wish.

As for me, I have the satisfaction of knowing that I walked tall and bowed to no man. And I have not travelled this journey alone. Fellow journalists in other branches of the media walked with me: most of them are now dead, imprisoned without trial or exiled in far-off lands. Others walk in the shadow of death that your Presidency has cast on the freedoms for which you once fought so hard. You will never be allowed to forget that my death took place under your watch. As anguished as I know you will be, I also know that you will have no choice but to protect my killers: you will see to it that the guilty one is never convicted. You have no choice. I feel sorry for you, and Shiranthi will have a long time to spend on her knees when next she goes for Confession for it is not just her owns sins which she must confess, but those of her extended family that keeps you in office.

As for the readers of The Sunday Leader, what can I say but Thank You for supporting our mission. We have espoused unpopular causes, stood up for those too feeble to stand up for themselves, locked horns with the high and mighty so swollen with power that they have forgotten their roots, exposed corruption and the waste of your hard-earned tax rupees, and made sure that whatever the propaganda of the day, you were allowed to hear a contrary view. For this I - and my family - have now paid the price that I have long known I will one day have to pay. I am - and have always been - ready for that. I have done nothing to prevent this outcome: no security, no precautions. I want my murderer to know that I am not a coward like he is, hiding behind human shields while condemning thousands of innocents to death. What am I among so many? It has long been written that my life would be taken, and by whom. All that remains to be written is when.

That The Sunday Leader will continue fighting the good fight, too, is written. For I did not fight this fight alone. Many more of us have to be - and will be - killed before The Leader is laid to rest. I hope my assassination will be seen not as a defeat of freedom but an inspiration for those who survive to step up their efforts. Indeed, I hope that it will help galvanise forces that will usher in a new era of human liberty in our beloved motherland. I also hope it will open the eyes of your President to the fact that however many are slaughtered in the name of patriotism, the human spirit will endure and flourish. Not all the Rajapakses combined can kill that.

People often ask me why I take such risks and tell me it is a matter of time before I am bumped off. Of course I know that: it is inevitable. But if we do not speak out now, there will be no one left to speak for those who cannot, whether they be ethnic minorities, the disadvantaged or the persecuted. An example that has inspired me throughout my career in journalism has been that of the German theologian, Martin Niem”ller. In his youth he was an anti-Semite and an admirer of Hitler. As Nazism took hold in Germany, however, he saw Nazism for what it was: it was not just the Jews Hitler sought to extirpate, it was just about anyone with an alternate point of view.

Niem”ller spoke out, and for his trouble was incarcerated in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1937 to 1945, and very nearly executed. While incarcerated, Niem”ller wrote a poem that, from the first time I read it in my teenage years, stuck hauntingly in my mind:

 

First they came for the Jews

 

            and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

 

Then they came for the Communists

 

            and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.                                         

 

Then they came for the trade unionists

 

            and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

 

Then they came for me

 

            and there was no one left to speak out for me.

 

If you remember nothing else, remember this: The Leader is there for you, be you Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, low-caste, homosexual, dissident or disabled. Its staff will fight on, unbowed and unafraid, with the courage to which you have become accustomed. Do not take that commitment for granted.  Let there be no doubt that whatever sacrifices we journalists make, they are not made for our own glory or enrichment: they are made for you. Whether you deserve their sacrifice is another matter. As for me, God knows I tried.

 

Keeping in touch with Sam Basil in the USA

My good mate and Bulolo MP Sam Basil, one of the most dynamic and productive young politicians in Papua New Guinea right now, is in the USA for the inauguration of Barrack Obama as US President on Tuesday, January 20.

It’s a huge vote-of-confidence in this businessman-cum-politician, who in only his first term in office, has won the admiration of the whole of Papua New Guinea for his hard work, honesty and transparency.

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

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

Log on and post your comments on Sam’s blog.

 

Malum

 

Education Minister stresses importance of paying school fees

Minister for Education James Marape (pictured) has called on parents to start preparing for their children’s school fees before classes resume on February 2 this year.

The Minister said the National Education Board (NEB) had approved the maximum fee per child in 2009 as K100 for elementary prep to grade 2, K250 for grades 3 to 6 and K250 for grades 7 to 8 in primary schools.

For grades 7 to 10 day students in secondary and vocational schools, the fee is K825 and K1, 200 for boarders.

For grades 11 and 12 in secondary schools and national high schools, the fee for day students is K900 and K1, 400 for boarders.

For students at the Flexible and Open Distance Education (FODE) the approved maximum fee is K90 per subject.

The fees for pre-service teacher training at primary teachers colleges and the Papua New Guinea Education Institute will be K1, 100 for students who are fully sponsored under the Higher Education Contribution Assistance Scheme (HECAS) and K1, 125 for self-sponsored day students and K2, 225 for self-sponsored or corporate-sponsored boarding students.

For technical and business colleges, the fees have increased by 5% for all the courses offered as of January 2009.

The tuition fee for a full year (44 week) diploma or technical training certificate (TTC) course is K4, 830.

This includes the messing fee of K1, 800 for boarding students.

There is an increase by 10% in the fees for all sectors except secondary and vocational schools.

 Following is a table showing the break-up of fees as per the NEB fee limits in 2008 in order to guide parents and guardians.

 

Break-up as per 2008 NEB Fee Limits

School Level	NEB Fee Limits	Government Contribution	Parental Contribution
Elementary EP – E2	90	70	20
Primary Gr 3 – 5	230	110	120
Primary Gr 6 – 8	230	110	120
Sec/Voc Gr 9 – 10 (Day)	750	225	525
Sec/Voc Gr 9 – 10 (Boarder)	1100	330	770
Sec/Voc Gr 11 – 12 (Day)	800	240	560
Sec/Voc Gr 11 – 12 (Boarder)	1300	390	910
FODE	80	24	56
Permitted & Special Education		14

 

“I call on all parents and guardians to start organising school fees, uniforms and stationery, which children need to start school with,” Mr Marape said.

“Children are excited about going back to school after a long holiday therefore we must start them off on a good and happy note and make sure to maintain that momentum throughout the year.

“This will help them concentrate and do well in school.”

Minister Marape said that he would announce the break-up of the 2009 fees as soon as he confirmed the funding with the Department of Treasury.

He added that the Department of Education would also need to confirm the enrolment data in order to work out the component of fees to be paid by the Government and parents in line with the NEB limits.

The Minister has urged all school authorities not to turn students away from school at the start of the year for non-payment of school fees.

“While parents are responsible for paying fees, I also appeal to all school authorities to allow students to enroll and attend classes even if they have not paid any fees while their parents and guardians sort out their school fees,” Mr Marape said.

“Children should not be deprived of their right to education.”

“The Ministry of Education recognises that many parents are finding it difficult to pay school fees.

“Those students whose parents are able to pay a portion of the fee must also be allowed to enroll for classes while parents sort out the remaining fees to be paid.”

He added that schools should not be demanding full payment during enrolment but should accept payment of fees in installments.

The Minister said that parents must also realise that schools needed money to operate and at this time of the year, schools would need money to purchase materials and resources for teachers and students to use to start the school year on a good note.

The Minister added that the fees parents paid contributed a lot to the operations of the school therefore parents must ensure that they played their part by paying fees for their children.

 

Three million hit by Windows worm

A worm that spreads through low security networks, memory sticks, and PCs without the latest security updates is posing a growing threat to users, BBC reports.

The malicious program, known as Conficker, Downadup, or Kido was first discovered in October 2008.

Although Microsoft released a patch, it has gone on to infect 3.5m machines.

Experts warn this figure could be far higher and say users should have up-to-date anti-virus software and install Microsoft's MS08-067 patch.

According to Microsoft, the worm works by searching for a Windows executable file called "services.exe" and then becomes part of that code.

It then copies itself into the Windows system folder as a random file of a type known as a "dll". It gives itself a 5-8 character name, such as piftoc.dll, and then modifies the Registry, which lists key Windows settings, to run the infected dll file as a service.

Once the worm is up and running, it creates an HTTP server, resets a machine's System Restore point (making it far harder to recover the infected system) and then downloads files from the hacker's web site.

Most malware uses one of a handful of sites to download files from, making them fairly easy to locate, target, and shut down.

But Conficker does things differently.

Anti-virus firm F-Secure says that the worm uses a complicated algorithm to generate hundreds of different domain names every day, such as mphtfrxs.net, imctaef.cc, and hcweu.org. Only one of these will actually be the site used to download the hackers' files. On the face of it, tracing this one site is almost impossible.

Speaking to the BBC, Kaspersky Lab's security analyst, Eddy Willems, said that a new strain of the worm was complicating matters.

"There was a new variant released less than two weeks ago and that's the one causing most of the problems," said Mr Willems

"The replication methods are quite good. It's using multiple mechanisms, including USB sticks, so if someone got an infection from one company and then takes his USB stick to another firm, it could infect that network too. It also downloads lots of content and creating new variants though this mechanism."

"Of course, the real problem is that people haven't patched their software. If people do patch their software, they should have little to worry about," he added.

Technicians have reverse engineered the worm so they can predict one of the possible domain names. This does not help them pinpoint those who created Downadup, but it does give them the ability to see how many machines are infected.

"Right now, we're seeing hundreds of thousands of unique IP addresses connecting to the domains we've registered," F-Secure's Toni Kovunen said in a statement.

"We can see them, but we can't disinfect them - that would be seen as unauthorised use."

Microsoft says that the malware has infected computers in many different parts of the world, with machines in China, Brazil, Russia, and India having the highest number of victims.

New blog for Warakamb Adventist Elite and Clergymen's Association

Greetings Brothers, Sisters and Friends,
We have had lot of requests about photos and stories about Warakam Adventist Elite and Clergymen’s Association (WAECA) and Warakamb, PNG.
Putting all photos on our web site has been time consuming and sending photos one by one to people has been too much,  so we have opened a new blog for Warakamb with stories and lot of pictures..
Please follow the URL and see photos and stories about Warakamb and the 2008 WAECA convention.
 Blog: http://warakambpng.blogspot.com/
Web site: http://waeca.com
Contact: info@waeca.com or eungil2@hotmail.com

Belated happy new year and God bless.
 
Eric Ungil
WAECA Secretary

Is Port Moresby a 'murder capital' of the world?

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ 

SOMETIME ago, a fellow-Filipino posted a message on the email service of the Pinoy community here in Port Moresby asking about the law and order situation in Papua New Guinea.
Signing his post with an alias, he said he was expecting to come to PNG as a contractual worker in a national government agency and was very concerned over the state of personal security in the city. He further said he read some news items on PNG crime situation and would like to know if the stories were true.
I understood his worries, something that I felt for the first time when I first set foot on PNG soil more than 15 years ago.
The man who fetched me at the Jackson International Airport outside of Port Moresby in the early morning of December 5, 1993 said casually that I was now "an expatriate" and should take precaution for my personal safety.
"You're now an expatriate and "raskols" would be after you," the man said, referring to thugs or hoodlums that infested the city during those days (and even up to now) like bedbugs with almost impunity to the chagrin of police authorities.
During the first four years of my stay here, I was hit three times and each encounter with the criminals was traumatic. Friends who learned of my experience jokingly said that three (hits) in four years was good enough, and considering also that the culprits let me live.
Replying to the email-sender, I did not answer his query directly. But instead told him about my father who lived in PNG for almost 10 years while earning his keep as a mechanic.
Dad, who based himself in Lae, the country's center of industries during the 70s located on the northern coast of PNG, had no trouble with "raskols".
From Lae, he drove cargo haulers up to the Highlands to deliver goods and came back to the city in one piece.
As a colony of Australia, the country was peaceful -- everyone could move freely in and out of the urban centers without having to bother much about safety.
Raskols then were almost unheard of as everybody was busy earning a living. There were no reasons for anybody to steal from, or rob, other people. And killing for reasons of the stomach was something unheard of. And houses then were not fenced in with steel structures like they are nowadays.
In short, life in PNG during those days was peaceful and quite sufficient economically for everybody to enjoy a modest living.
Of course, I also told the email-poster that for us present-day Filipino expatriates here in POM (short for Port Moresby), personal security is of great concern; that we go about our daily lives day in day out, without forgetting that the world outside our homes is not that safe for everyone, whether you're Papua New Guinean or otherwise.
So, in our survival kit, safety precaution is the No. 1 item.
"Is it true there's a lot of people being killed by raskols?" was the email-writer's parting, worrying question.
I was unable to answer this for I did not have the statistics to show. But it is a common perception among city residents that crime takes place everyday -- from hold-up to mugging and outright armed robbery -- victimizing helpless people, which sometimes led to their death. It is in fact, the order of the day.
BUT TODAY, I have big news for the email-writer.
Because on Wednesday, January 7, his query was answered squarely by news report carried by the country's leading daily The National on the front page, screaming in bold headline fonts.

Murder capital

Port Moresby listed among world's worst

The report said: "Port Moresby has been placed among the top five murder capitals of the world, a ranking by a foreign publication that has got Police Commissioner Gari Baki fuming.
"The Washington DC-based Foreign Policy publication, in its edition last September, lists Port Moresby alongside Caracas (Venezuela), Cape Town (South Africa), New Orleans (USA) and Moscow (Russia) as cities where you have a very good chance of getting murdered.
"The Foreign Policy website (www.foreignpolicy.com)  on which the listing is still available (http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4480),  says when it comes to brutal, homicidal violence, these five cities stand in a class of their own.
"The publication said Caracas, which has a population of 3.2 million, had a murder rate of 130 per 100,000 residents; Cape Town had 2.5 million people and a murder rate of 62 per 100,000 residents; New Orleans had 220,000 people and a murder rate of 67 per 100,000 residents; Moscow had 10.4 million people and a murder rate of 9.6 per 100,000 residents; while Port Moresby had a population of 254,000 (2000 population census) and a murder rate of 54 per 100,000 people.
The website www.foreignpolicy.com noted that "Port Moresby might seem like a surprising addition to this list. But its high violent crime rates, along with high levels of police corruption and gang activity, helped earn the city the dubious title of 'worst city' in a 2004 Economist Intelligence Unit survey.
"With gangs called "raskols" controlling the city centers and unemployment rates hovering around 80 per cent, it's easy to see how Port Moresby beat out the 130 other survey contenders.
"Port Moresby's police don't seem to be helping the crime situation -- last November, five officers were charged with offenses ranging from murder to rape.
"And in August, the city's police barracks were put on a three-month curfew due to a recent slew of bank heists reportedly planned inside the stations by officers and their co-conspirators.
"Rising tensions between Chinese migrants and Papua New Guineans are also cause for alarm, as are reports of increased activity of organized Chinese crime syndicates."
Shocked over the report, the Police Commissioner questioned the validity of the website's listing of the world murder capitals. He said: "As commissioner of Papua New Guinea police, I was shocked and upset over Foreign Policy's listing because it is simply not true." He expressed his disgust in a letter distributed widely for publication.
"I have been a law enforcement officer for more than 35 years and I know for a fact that we have not had 54 murders in Port Moresby at any one time over the last 10 years," Mr Baki stressed.
Just a few days before Christmas Day, one of the nation's respected citizens and a businessman-investor, Sir George Constantinou, 78, was murdered by a group of young hoodlums near the Tete settlement located on the outskirts of the city. He was driving home from his timber company compound nearby when he was attacked.
Tete is notorious for being home to all types of criminals who preyed on city residents and these young thugs who were just after Sir George's wallet and cell phone had to kill him to get them.
And on New Year's Day, Timothy Houji, 26, a pilot of Air Niugini, was also attacked and killed by a group of thugs just outside a premier hotel in downtown Port Moresby.
OBVIOUSLY, the PNG government hierarchy is totally upset, especially now that the country is posting some impressive gains in vital sectors of its economy -- from job generation to investment and development of the nation's natural resources like gold and copper, oil and gas, timber and tuna, mostly funded by foreign capitals.
And negative news like this is the last thing it wanted to read in the news because it could easily drive away potential investors wanting to come in and become a major player in the country's economic agenda.
It is expected that the news on Port Moresby being a murder capital has already been picked up by news agencies especially those based in Australia, and distributed to client-newspapers around the world.
When Powes Parkop, governor of the National Capital District (NCD), led the demolition of Tete settlement just a few days before Christmas, he got his mind focused on one thing: To rid the city of criminals who are holding out in some 63 settlements around the city.
For him, the settlements continuously supply the city with its raskols year-round. If not, how come they continue to operate in the city despite the police's drive to round up and lock them up?
And the burning down of Tete, which has been supported by the general public, by the Prime Minister, Sir Michael Somare, and by the city business chamber, would be a good start, it being the most notorious among the 63.
In just one day operation, Parkop's demolition team with backing from the police had almost annihilated all shanties -- torching and bulldozing them except for the remaining small block that had been spared due to incessant rains in the area.
But a surprise court restraining order on the second day of the shanty assault has stalled Parkop's campaign for the meantime. With this, he has to await court ruling on the legality of destroying the shanties and sending the illegal settlers home to their original provinces.
OVER THE YEARS, the influx of rural people -- most of them jobless -- into the city has remained unabated, with almost all of them ending up in these settlements, shacking up with their extended relatives.
It is estimated now that NCD's 63 settlements involve around 50,000 households, home to close to 300,000 with most of them jobless while the rest just depending on the city for menial jobs as source of livelihood. NCD's settlements are just part of the 657 scattered on the outskirts of urban centers across PNG.
With most of them having no employable skills, they could not land a sustainable paid job until such a time when they are forced to hook up with criminals to steal or rob people just to survive, and sometimes to kill their victims when they could not help it. To avoid police arrest, they would hide away deep into the settlements while sympathetic settlers kept the pursuers at bay.
With demolition being untimely halted by court, thus giving the criminals continuous "accommodation" at the settlements, Parkop has stepped up his on-going campaign against betel nut (buai) selling in the city. One obvious reason is that buai chewers are messing up the city with their betel nut husks and dark-brown spittle.
Just a few days before Christmas, I happened by at the Boroko shopping center, supposed to be the city's premier place to shop at, and my eyes were immediately assaulted by wind-blown plastic bags as they rolled across the parking lots and walkways and betel nut husks and brownish spittle strewn all around the place.
Selling of betel nut is the major source of income of settlement residents; it is a thriving business because the addiction to buai is deeply embedded in the psyche of almost all Papua New Guineans. It is a national pastime, to say the least.
Of late, may city residents had argued that this traditional village habit handed down from generations has no more place in a growing and modernizing city like Port Moresby and therefore should no longer be tolerated by city authorities.
Betel nut chewing, they said, belongs just to the village now and not Port Moresby which is trying its best to be more relevant to the outside world.
But selling the nut is the only available means for most of the settlement dwellers to eke out a living in the city. Or else, they would grow hungry.
Therefore, preventing them from plying their trade as they do now, or relocating them outside the city so that the rubbish they produce from betel nut husks and spittle would not create an unsightly scene all over the city for foreign tourists to photograph and post on the Internet, is tantamount to killing them softly.
As it is now, the city government, much less the national government, has yet to come up with an a lasting solution to the exploding number of settlement dwellers; while it can force them to pack up and go home to their villages using the muscle of the police, it has nothing to offer them in terms of jobs and services right in their home villages that would improve their lots.
This is one reason why they continue to move away from their home villages into the urban areas like NCD where there are relatively good roads and service facilities like health centers and schools, fertile farmlands and accessible markets for whatever food they could produce.
As Parkop's betel nut offensive progressed, settlers have warned the city government and the police that the problems with the city raskols would escalate. This is because what they (authorities) are doing to their immediate families is depriving them of an honest source of income.
Translating this, the settlement dwellers are actually saying: "Take away our source of livelihood and we will take away whatever is available to us ..."
With this threat, the city and police authorities are in quandary. "What to do?" remains the biggest question the city government and police have to deal with and for which they have to come up with the right solution.
Suffice it to say that the stakes for both the peace-loving city residents and the settlement dwellers are great; both sides demand a workable ending to the burning issue at hand so that they could co-exist peacefully and move about productively.
Meanwhile, we, the Port Moresby expatriates, are holding our breath. We badly need a safe and peaceful city like Port Moresby because, for all intents and purposes, it is home to all of us.
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alfredophernandez@thenational.com.pg