Get Your Greek On!

The Biggest Toga Party in Port Moresby

 

 This is a theme party where everyone has to come dressed in a Toga or something Greek-like.

 Gods and Goddesses K30 per person.

All slaves entering without proper attire will be fined K5 for use of a Moresby Arts Theatre Rent-A-Toga.

 Venue: Moresby Arts Theatre

Time: 7pm-onwards

Date: Saturday, 28th February

 Complimentary shooters on arrival plus prizes for best dressed will be handed out.

 Cartoon sketching will be available too!

 A really fun way to get out of the house and network in a safe and creative environment.

 For tickets or other enquires they can contact us on (675) 685 5665 or (675) 687 3591.

 

Termites: Stop them in their tracks

It's estimated that termites cause millions of kina worth of property damage in Papua New Guinea alone every year—imagine what the figure is worldwide!
In Lae, termites have already eaten parts of Angau Memorial Hospital, police barracks, Forest Research Institute and several houses in the city.
While termite swarms and mud tubes are easy to spot, other signs of infestation are more subtle.
Tap at your baseboards to see whether they've been hollowed out from within.
Check for small, brownish-black spots or small piles of “dry powdery muck” that looks like pepper (it's actually termite waste) along baseboards or in kitchen cupboards.
If you think you may have termites, don't dawdle.
Have a certified, pest-management professional inspect your home right away
A giant Australian termite accidently introduced to PNG during World War II has the potential to ravage our cocoa, coffee and timber plantations.
The 1cm termite, known as Mastotermes darwiniensis, is believed to have been introduced accidentally to Lae in contaminated wood imported from Australia during World War 11.
Thought to be eradicated in the early 1970's, the mastoterme has been rediscovered in just over one square kilometre of Lae, where it has already destroyed part of the Angau Memorial Hospital.
Experts say PNG authorities need to eradicate it.
It is a termite which occurs in northern Australia and Papua New Guinea now, and if it gets out of the present wet area in Lae into the drier areas where there are a lot more susceptible crops, the damage could be catastrophic.
Current preventive measures to control termites infesting parts of Lae are limited and inadequate but treatable.
The infestation is treatable with Fripolin, a much less-persistent chemical with good termiticidal properties which is currently used in Australia to eradicate the termites.
This is according to Dr Brian Thistleton, the leader of a team that recently completed a scoping survey on the termite in Lae.
The survey on the termite, carried out in 2005 and 2006, aimed at determining the existence of the termite and the potential problem it posed to the country.
The termite travels through the ground, making it difficult to control and monitor. Research has shown that the termite is very destructive to a wide range of trees, horticultural crops and buildings and can spread quickly, especially in drier areas.
 The termite not only destroys wooden buildings but is also a potential pest of horticulture.
 It is the most common horticultural pest in the Northern Territory, damaging and killing many types of tree crops including mangoes, citrus, cocoa, coconut and forestry trees - all of which are important in Papua New Guinea.
It is completely subterranean, with no mounds, and is one of several species that also damage houses in the Territory.

Campaign against sorcery needed

The National Editorial

Last Friday, The National reported on its front page yet another gruesome sorcery-related killing.

A man was dragged from his home in the dead of night with his wife and teenage son and, after a brief pretence of a trial witnessed by Village Court officials and local pastors from the Baptist, Four Square, Lutheran and Seventh-Day Adventist churches, he was taken away and literally chopped to pieces.

Our report came from a person who buried the “pieces”.

The kangaroo court and the killing were witnessed by many people but be sure nobody will give reliable information to the police should an investigation be initiated.

This is the nature of sorcery killings. It is condoned by the society. That society is unlikely to dob in a person or persons that carry out their collective wishes.

Another man was being slowly tortured to death in the same area when the president of the National Doctors’ Association, Dr Kauve Pomat, who was in the village at the time, is said to have successfully pleaded with the torturers to spare the man’s life.

These latest incidents happened in Unggai-Bena, just a few kilometres away from the Eastern Highlands capital of Goroka.

It is the electorate of Minister for Environment and Conservation, Benny Allen, a soft-spoken, God-fearing and peace-loving man.

So many prominent and educated people hail from the district, among them Dr Pomat. If their pleas fall on deaf ears, then nothing short of a state of emergency will sort out this matter of sorcery. And it might well come to that.

Even the purported plans by the chairman of the Constitutional Planning Committee, Joe Mek Teine, to introduce tougher legislation will not do it.

Mr Mek Teine knows very well what goes on. His own Simbu province is the bastion of rumours of sorcery practices and the manner of killings in these parts would rival the most cruel and painful tortures anywhere.

Those accused of sorcery have been roasted over a slow fire; nailed to crosses; hung in public places and beaten to death; tortured with burning rods; locked inside homes and burnt; weighed with stones and thrown into rivers; bludgeoned to death; chopped up; poured over with kerosene, set alight and released to become a human torch.

PNG is made up of close-knit tribal groups. Conflict is resolved amicably within that setting now as it has been for eons. When the tribe accuses one of its own members or a group of practising sorcery, the accused group is ostracised and cut off from that tribe. Death is the punishment.

Sorcery and witchcraft are not exclusive to PNG. They are practised in many parts of the world.

Witchcraft and related-killings were as prevalent in Europe among the English, French, Welsh, Dutch, Germans and all other Europeans whose distant relatives today might frown upon the practice in PNG.

Like religion, sorcery is related to a set of stories, symbols, beliefs and practices, most often with a supernatural or superhuman quality that is associated with evil. Indeed, Christianity branded sorcery and witchcraft stories and practices the world over as the work of the devil.

The concept of the devil was easier to understand and associate with in most societies as a result, while God remains still a mystery beyond our sensory perceptions.

Sorcery is practised, it is believed, through rites and rituals, in the utterance of arcane incantations, and in the way of life of those who choose to live the life. It is not hereditary in that it is not passed through the genes but passes through familial ties normally, it is believed.

Like religion, sorcery cannot be proven but is believed in with a kind of faith that is most difficult to expunge. Place yourself in a circle of very well educated Papua New Guineans and there will be a number of them who believe in sorcery. Indeed, many educated people believe that they are being sought after by jealous relatives or less fortunate tribesmen who have hired and set sorcery assassins after them.

This is why sorcery and witchcraft in PNG, like in Europe, is likely to pass out of the system given time and education, not by legislative dictate or political edict. Nothing short of a massive awareness campaign costing millions of kina will begin the process to eradicate the belief system.

Belief in sorcery is prevalent in all parts of PNG but sorcery killings are prevalent in only some provinces. Most killings have been reported in Eastern Highlands, Simbu, Western Highlands, Morobe, Madang and East Sepik provinces.

 

Sorcery Act lacks bite: Law agencies

By ZACHERY PER

TWO legal organisations in the country have pointed out that there is no effective enforcement of the Sorcery Act 1991, resulting in a good number of people brutally murdered in sorcery-related cases, The National reports.

The Constitutional Law Reform Commission (CLRC) and the Public Prosecutor’s office made this known following the brutal killing of a 40-year-old man in Eastern Highlands province for alleged sorcery practices.

CLRC chairman Joe Mek Teine and acting Public Prosecutor Jack Pambel separately said there was a need to immediately review and amend the Act.

“Sorcery accusations and killings is a very serious issue facing our society, where innocent lives have been lost.

“Reviewing the Sorcery Act is on the agenda of my commission,” Mr Mek Teine, who is also Kundiawa-Gembogl MP, said.

He said sorcery-related killings were not serious in the colonial days, however, sorcery accusations and killings had become worse today.

“The situation warrants us to immediately make amendments to the Sorcery Act and implement it,” Mr Mek Teine said.

Mr Pambel said there was no effective implementation of the Sorcery Act.

“Whether the Act is being implemented or not is a question that has to be looked at,” he said.

Revisiting the Sorcery Act was a major topic at a workshop Mr Pambel conducted in Goroka last Friday.

It is understood that the ministerial committee on law and order, chaired by Attorney-General Dr Allan Marat, has sorcery-related killings as one of the eight major issues to be looked at.

Meanwhile, Eastern Highlands provincial police commander Supt Teddy Tei yesterday said police would investigate the killing of the 40-year-old man at Lampo village in Unggai-Bena district last week.

The man was allegedly chopped to death after a kangaroo court found him guilty of sorcery. 

 

Papua New Guinea hell

This joke shows the lighter side of a country with an absolutely useless public service service which is a liability to the whole of Papua New Guinea. We have constant power black outs, water problems, etc, etc, etc, while the public servants and their politician masters continue to turn a blind eye

 

A man dies and goes to hell.

There he finds that there is a different hell for each country and decides he'll pick the least painful to spend his eternity.

He goes to the Australian hell and asks:” What do they do here?"

He is told: "First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the Aussie devil comes in and whips you for the rest of the day".

The man does not like the sound of that at all so he moves on.

He checks out the New Zealand hell as well as the USA hell and many more.

 He discovers that they are all similar to the Aussie hell.

Then he comes to the Papua New Guinean hell and finds that there is a long line of people waiting to get in.

 Amazed, he asks: "What do they do here?"

He is told:” First they put you in an electric chair for an hour, and then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. The PNG devil comes in and whips you for the rest of the day."

The man asks: “But that is exactly the same as all the other hells why are there so many people waiting to get in?"

He is told: "Because most of the time there is never any electricity because of frequent blackouts, so the electric chair does not work. The nails were paid for but were never supplied, so the bed is comfortable to sleep on. And the PNG devil used to be a public servant, so he comes in, signs his time sheet and goes back home for private business!!"

FOR ONCE, IT PAYS TO BE A PAPUA NEW GUINEAN!

 

Pictures and thoughts for today

I took these pictures of roadworks along Gerehu Stage 2 in Port Moresby this morning while awaiting a bus to work.
Credit to National Capital District Governor, Powes Parkop, although same cannot be said of the rest of Port Moresby and Papua New Guinea, where the infrastructure is absolutely deteriorated.
Where has all the money gone to?
Last night, we had continuous power blackouts in Port Moresby, water supply is unreliable, and we aren't even guranteed of our safety.
School starts for our children tomorrow but many, if not most, will not go to school because their parents can't afford school fees.
Our health system is an absolute joke and countless people all over the country die needlessly every day.
Rental in the major urban centres has skyrocketed while the workers have not seen a corresponding increase in their salaries.
The politicians and elite of Papua New Guinea continue to buy prime real estate in Australia,
All these while our politicians and elite continue to drive around in luxury cars, have back-up electricity and water, send their children to private schools in Australia and other countries, and go to hospital in Australia and other countries when they have the slightest headache.
And when there is any sign on discontentment among the people, they simply fly off to Australia and relax in the comfort of their luxury homes – why worry?

Questions the Papua New Guinea government must answer

 

• Julian Moti affair of October 2006 in which an international fugitive was spirited out of Port Moresby to Solomon Islands in a clandestine operation on a Papua New Guinea Defence Force aircraft, apparently ordered by the Prime Minister as revealed by the PNG Defence Commission of Inquiry;
• Failed $US29.8 million (K85 million) Taiwan diplomacy scandal in which Papua New Guinea citizens are alleged to have received bribes. In May 2008, allegations were made of a government minister allegedly signing a draft communiqué for Papua New Guinea to set up “full diplomatic relations” with Taiwan in September 2006 in Port Moresby.
• $US40 million (K145 million) in Singapore accounts, money from log exports, allegedly sitting in a bank account of a Papua New Guinea government figure and looked after by a “consortium” in that country;
• Prime Minister allegedly not declaring his shareholding in Pacific Registry of Ships Ltd. The official registry showed Sir Michael is a shareholder “in trust for the Independent State of PNG”.
• Prime Minister’s continued court actions to stop the Ombudsman Commission and the Public Prosecutor from performing their mandated duties on allegations of the Prime Minister not completing or providing annual returns since 1992.