Two more pictures of Busu High School in the 1980's

Champion Busu allround sportsman Bob Aaron wins an inter-house 100m race in 1981.

A high school soccer competition in 1982 with Busu, far left, followed by Bugandi and Lae International high schools.

A song for Jan Scharlach and Busu High School

The late Jan Scharlach (right) with huband Jim (left) and Busu head boy John Singas after graduation in 1983.

The author (seated) with fellow Busu High School graduates in 1983.

Left to right are Bosi Sayama,Ali Yapi, Edward Misob,John Cates, Malum Nalu and Ire Zuhuc (front) posing for a last shot at Busu High School in 1983.

Busu High School Class of '83

Last Sunday, while I was in The National office preparing my work programme for the week, I happened to check my GMail and received the sad news from my ex Busu High School teacher Jim Scharlach in Canada.
Jim sent me a couple of lines to let me know of the death of his wife Jan last weekend.
It was quite distressing for me, as the Scharlachs were good friends of me and so many other students who passed through Busu High School, Lae, in 1981, 1982 and 1983.
I was at lost for words, and the memories of the good old days of Busu, where I did Grades 7 to 10 from 1980 to 1983, came rushing to mind as I stared blankly at my computer screen.
There were great teachers in those days such as the Scharlachs, British headmaster and history buff Nigel Stanley, his fellow Briton maths/science teacher Roger Dallimore (who went to great lengths to teach us how to play chess), inimitable Filipino practical skills teacher Tony Socan (who taught us how to build houses and so many other things), and several other expatriates and nationals.
There was a sizeable expatriate community in Lae in those days, and around Busu, a sizeable missionary community at the Martin Luther Seminary and Lutheran Church headquarters at Ampo.
There were few if any potholes in Lae in those early days of independence, crime and settlement-related problems were unheard of, we neither smoked marijuana nor indulged in homebrew (apart from the occasional cigarette or bottle of beer out of teenage curiosity), didn’t engage in cult-related activities in school, or carried knives and homemade guns to fight against other schools.
There was respect for all, especially our teachers, something that is very much lacking these days, and I wondered how Lae and Papua New Guinea could deteriorate so fast in just one generation.
“I wanted to let you know that Jan passed away last night,” Jim wrote.
“She had been fighting cancer for many years.
“She is now in a better place.”
Jan, Jim and their three wonderful young children were in Lae in 1981, 1982 and 1983 and they played an important role in shaping so many students of Busu, many of whom now hold senior positions in both government and private sectors.
Jan was a great teacher who has had a great influence on my life, particularly in reading, writing and literature.
She imparted in me a love of poetry, the classics of literature, Shakespeare and writing and these have been with me all my life after leaving Busu in 1983.
Those who were at Busu in 1981, 1982 and 1983 will remember the great Jim Scharlach, our sports master extraordinaire and maths/science teacher who coached the school on to greater heights in basketball, volleyball, softball, athletics, rugby league and soccer against our rivals such as Bugandi, Bumayong, Lae High and Lae International.
Sports rivalry between Lae high schools in those days was intense, and under Jim’s coaching, Busu brought down traditional powerhouses such as Bugandi from their lofty pedestals.
National representatives such as champion high jumper Michael Elisha, basketballers Hilda Roy, Bob Aaron and Casey Stafford, and towering Kumul rugby league forward Kera Ngaffin – to name a few - were all protégés of Jim.
Jan was our English teacher and her literature lessons were unforgettable.
Last November, 25 years after leaving Grade 10 at Busu, I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from one Jim Scharlach in Canada – whom I had not heard from all these years - apparently after he had read my blog so many times and was wondering if I was indeed the same ‘Malum Nalu of Busu’.
“Good day Sir,” he wrote.
“Was wondering if you were the Malum Nalu who attended Busu High School in the 80’s?
“I have enjoyed your articles.
“Thanks for your time.”
Since then, we have been corresponding, and I shared with Jim the tragic loss of my wife last Easter and he told me that Jan had been fighting cancer for the last six years.
“It has been a tough go, but she is surviving,” he wrote.
“The kids are doing well and as a group have given me five grandchildren.
“I am still teaching and enjoying it.
“I think back to our time at Busu and am so thankful to have been able to experience that.
“It was great to have been able to work with students who wanted to be there and worked so hard.
“I had always planned to return but conditions back here made it so difficult.”
Last Christmas, the Scharlach family sent me an email with their Christmas greetings, in which Jim poignantly told of a Christmas in Lae so many years ago at the Burns Philip store.
The Burns Philp store, which over the years became Best Buy, was burned to the ground just before Christmas last year.
Jim was quite saddened at the burning of the old Burns Philp store and the ongoing violence and law and order problems in Lae and throughout Papua New Guinea.
“I remember taking my kids to Burns Philp (Lae) to see Santa Claus,” he wrote.
“They were very apprehensive until Santa called each of them by name.
“Thanks to Santa, Simeon (a Busu Grade 10 student in 1981), my kids had an opportunity to meet their real Santa.
“I continue to enjoy reading your blog but am saddened by the violence that continues to be prevalent in your major cities.
“It is so sad that a few people – rascals and a few politicians – have given a beautiful country with the majority of people being great caring people such a negative image.
My cousin Peter Sayama, who went to school at the same time at Busu (under the name Bossi Sayama), was also saddened to hear of the death of Jan.
“The likes of you, Jan, and of course our principal at that time, Nigel Stanley, have no doubt shaped the lives of those of us who have come in contact with you all that taught us at Busu,” he said in an email to Jim.
“I can vividly remember Jan and her imposing figure in classroom: the way she reads a novel that can captivate our attention in class that we get so disappointed when the bell sounds for the end of English period and we have to wait for another time for her to continue.”

Massive gas find in Gulf

By SHEILA LASIBORI in The National

 

THE discovery of a large reservoir of top quality natural gas in the country has placed Papua New Guinea among the top producers of liquefied natural gas at world markets, Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare said yesterday.

He was speaking when officiating at the flow and flare ceremony for a massive gas find at Interoil’s Antelope One site in Gulf province.

InterOil Corporation needed to raise US$5 billion (K14 billion) to complete the infrastructure for the project, including the construction of a pipeline to its Napa Napa oil refinery on the outskirts of Port Moresby.

At yesterday’s test flow, Sir Michael opened the first valve, which flowed and flared gas equivalent to 105.5 million cubic feet per day (mcfd) (yesterday’s figure, as different testing schedules produce different measurements).

The second flare was measured to produce a “world record” 383mcfd and it could have been more as technicians allowed the gas to flow through a three-inch pipe instead of the full six-inch diametre to control the heat.

Antelope One can produce up to 545 mcfd of dry gas, which, when flowed, measures 382mcfd and this can produce up to 5,000 barrels of condensate per day (gas in its condensed state), or equal to a total of 68,600 barrels of oil per day.

The productivity of this well was way above the 350-550mcfd of gas production needed to start a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.

The company said a third party-confirmed capacity of 17.7 billion cubic feet per day (bcf) of gas, places PNG as one of the best quality gas producers in the world with a 760m column of gas.

InterOil’s chief executive officer and chairman Phil Mulacek said this was a world record as no such discovery (to date) had happened prior to Antelope One.

“The well flowed enough that in a little bit of time, just one minute, it would have filled up a pipeline from Port Moresby to here, in one minute.

“We took an hour and 30 minutes to fly the same distance,” he said.

“We understand it to be a record for the world; we’re not cheating, we’re not horizontal; it’s a straight vertical column.

“It proves that the nation has one of the highest quality reservoirs on this planet,” Mr Mulacek said.

The discovered oil well is the largest onshore vertical hydrocarbon column in the entire Asia-Pacific region with more than 2,600ft (792m) of gas and condensate, which is a new resource discovery estimated by InterOil engineers at more than 10 trillion cubic feet (tcf).

Sir Michael said the “world record natural gas discovery” will place PNG as a co-leader with Australia in supplying LNG to Asian markets.

“InterOil has elevated the status of PNG in global energy markets and has positioned our country to become the dominant source of new LNG for the growing energy markets in Asia for decades to come,” Sir Michael said.

“We (Government) introduced a new upstream fiscal policy and InterOil is the only company that believed in PNG and is willing to commit significant capital to our future development.

“InterOil stepped up to the plate with a US$125 million (K349 million) drilling commitment, the largest exploration programme in our history.

“The next steps to realise that vision has become clearer and it is now our turn to commit to clearing the path towards first production with our loyal and dependable partner, InterOil,” Sir Michael said.

Meanwhile, Petroleum and Energy Minister William Duma announced that InterOil’s petroleum licence, scheduled to expire on March 23, was extended for another five years based on advice by the petroleum advisory board.

Wayne Andrews, InterOil’s vice-president on capital markets and investor relations, said InterOil might start condensating next year and, in the next five years, might start producing for world markets from its Elk/Antelope One field for leading LNG markets like Japan, South Korea and Spain.

 

Seeking the region's best and the brightest: APEC calls for papers

Singapore, 2 March 2009 – An all expenses-paid trip to present their views at the annual APEC CEO Summit – a gathering of the Asia-Pacific’s top business people, which will be held in Singapore this November – may just motivate business students to knock out one more paper. 

Celebrating its 20^th anniversary this year, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) invites senior level and postgraduate students from business schools in APEC member economies to write an original essay discussing: “What can APEC do for business?” 

The topic, intended to stimulate discussion surrounding APEC’s core mission and long-term goals of free and open trade and investment, has been kept broad, to allow for the greatest range of perspectives and ideas.

“We put a good deal of thought into the best way to celebrate our anniversary,” says Michael Tay, Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat.  “We decided that the most appropriate way to reflect our values as an innovative and inclusive body would be to stimulate discussion – and maybe even debate – surrounding APEC and business and how they can work together in the new economic landscape.”

Three winners will receive prizes totalling USD 5,000.  The top essayist will present his or her work at the CEO Summit taking place in Singapore in November 2009 and will have the chance to meet his/her economy’s Leader.  This experience includes the cost of flights to Singapore, hotel accommodation and a per diem allowance, in addition to a USD 500 cash prize.

The second prize winner will be awarded USD 1,000 and the third prize winner USD 500.

For complete submission details, please visit: www.apec.org/20years

 

For more information, contact:

 

Linda Carroll at lac@apec.org or at (65) 6890 9672

Carolyn Williams at cdw@apec.org or at (65)9617 7316

 

 

Carolyn D. Williams

Media Manager, APEC

35 Heng Mui Keng Terrace / Singapore 119616

D: (65) 6891 9671 / M: (65) 9617 7316 / F: (65) 6891 9600

 

Today in history

Yahoo! Is Incorporated (1995) In 1994, two Stanford PhD candidates began indexing interesting websites as a hobby. "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web" launched as Yahoo! the following year, and it has since grown to become the largest information portal on the Web. Initially, Yahoo! called itself a "directory" because it employed indexing specialists to categorize websites, but the Web has since grown so large that the use of automated spiders has become a necessity. What is the name "Yahoo!" an acronym for? More...

 

Malcolm Turnbull linked to mass logging operation in Solomon Islands

By Linda Silmalis

February 28, 2009 10:00pm

(http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,25119923-949,00.html)

 

 

JUST as Malcolm Turnbull tries to outsmart Labor on environmental issues, a file of documents has emerged linking the Leader of the Opposition to a mass logging operation in the Solomon Islands.

The tiny island of Vangunu is a speck on the world map; a dot in the Pacific and home to just over 2000 people. It forms part of the collection of thousands of land masses that make up the Solomon Islands.

Once covered in pristine rainforest, the island and the surrounding Marovo Lagoon were the subject of lobbying by the New Zealand government and environmentalists to have it World Heritage-listed in the late 1980s.

Almost two decades later, the island is again being talked about - only this time for different reasons.

The emergence of a carefully-documented file detailing mass logging operations and the ongoing impacts in the region has Vangunu back in the spotlight.

More specifically, the file - obtained by The Sunday Telegraph - records the involvement of Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull over that time.

Mr Turnbull was the chairman of a company called Axiom Holdings after he and fellow investors purchased a 16.21 per cent stake in the company in 1991.

The company was one of several companies with logging activities in the Solomons.

It was also one of the largest.

According to the documents, it was under Mr Turnbull's time as chair that the company boosted its activities and profits, with devastating consequences on the environment.

It is not the first time that the former environment minister has been scrutinised over the issue.

His critics began digging around his past business interests during the battle for the seat of Wentworth in 2004.

With environmental issues a key issue at the time, his opponents were keen to challenge Mr Turnbull's green credentials.

It emerged that he had been chairman of Axiom Forest Resources from late 1991 to to July 1992 -- a company that had earlier been the subject of a series of damning AusAID reports.

Published in the early 1990s, the reports likened Axion and its operations on Vangunu to "a clear-felling operation" that made little attempt to be sustainable.

Responding to the issue at the time, Mr Turnbull told ABC radio that he had had no hands-on role in the logging operations on the Islands.

Describing himself as a "corporate doctor", Mr Turnbull said that after he saw the consequences of poor forestry he had tried to encourage local owners to change their ways. Mr Turnbull said he was unaware the companies had been described as having some of the worst logging practices in the world.

He said he was aware of some companies having "difficulties" and that Axiom had acquired them to clean up the mess.

"The vision of the founders of Axiom, of which I was not one, was to acquire these logging companies and then restructure them and sort of reposition them so that they became sustainable operations," Mr Turnbull said. "My only involvement with the company was as a corporate doctor."

Three years later, when John Howard announced plans to help fight deforestation in South-East Asia and the South Pacific, the issue again arose as Labor circulated press clippings in Parliament House, again detailing the AusAID reports.

The clippings were an embarrassment for Mr Turnbull who had just described forests as "lungs of the world".

When questioned at the time, Mr Turnbull said he had visited the Solomons but never been to the site of the logging operations. The issue again disappeared.

However, just as Mr Turnbull struggles against internal critics and tries to shift the focus onto his policy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, documents about his Solomon Islands dealings have surfaced.

So just what do they contain?

Plenty. Enough, to suggest Mr Turnbull may have been driven more by profits than saving forests.

Mr Turnbull was chairman of Axiom for almost seven months.

In July 1992, the South China Morning Post published an article that states Mr Turnbull sold out of Axiom for HK25c per share, or a representing a sale return of over $A4.3 million.

While it has never been confirmed just how much Mr Turnbull pocketed from the venture, it is speculated that the profits from the exercise may have been as high as $25 million.

Three months after the sale, the Australian-government funded AusAID study was released which catalogued the logging activity of Axiom and its subsidiaries: Integrated Forest Industries, Rural Industries, Silvania Products and Isabel Timber Co. The report found that the companies had massively increased logging activities in the region while Mr Turnbull was chairman.

Specifically, Axiom increased its production from 25,500cum to 40,900cum between 1991 and 92.

Production was able to be increased because of a new Silvania operation that had begun on the island of Vangunu, it said. The operation had contributed an additional 70,000cum to its quota.

"The degree of canopy removal and soil disturbance was the most extensive seen by the authors in any logging operation in tropical rainforest in any country," the report said.

Asked about the details of the report, Mr Turnbull's office referred The Sunday Telegraph to an e-mailed transcript of his earlier interview with the ABC.

Labor has long believed Mr Turnbull has failed to explain his role as a corporate doctor and, specifically, what he did to improve logging practices given production effectively doubled under his watch.

As a Labor source said: "Malcolm's biggest problem is everyone's let him off the hook because it has been written about before." However, he has never confessed that things actually worsened under his watch.

As the file states: "Malcolm Turnbull has repeatedly said that he's an environmentalist, particularly during his hard fought election win in 2007 in his leafy and well-educated seat of Wentworth.

"He's also sought in recent days to position himself as an active campaigner against climate change. But Malcolm Turnbull's past as a logger in the Solomon Islands calls into question how strongly he really holds these views."

More embarrassingly for Mr Turnbull, the file also contains scientific articles published in international journals detailing the impact logging has had on the local Solomon Islands community.

A 2002 report by marine biologists published in The Status of Solomon Islands Coral Reefs said the unique reef and Marovo lagoon system was still suffering from the effects of logging.

"Villagers report huge sediment plumes following heavy rain," it said. "Once the rain has stopped, the water may clear within 24 hours to a week. In the rainy season that means the plumes are a semi-permanent feature."

A 2005 Melanesian Geo article by local resident Douglas Pikacha said the lagoon may never recover from the damage.

A further paper published last year said large algal blooms from sediments in the catchments were wreaking havoc on the delicate reef system.

Mr Turnbull may believe he has already dealt with the issue in the past but, so long as the devastating impacts of the logging activities on the islands keep emerging, Labor will be ensuring it won't go away.

At the very least, the file is an embarrassment for a leader trying desperately to out-green Kevin Rudd on environmental policy. Coming smack bang in the middle of the debate over an emissions trading scheme, it is an unwanted distraction.

At worst, it suggests profit has been placed over the environment and with devastating consequences.

In the same way Environment Minister Peter Garrett and Midnight Oil frontman wishes he had probably never penned US Forces, Mr Turnbull might well be wishing he had stuck to banking.

 

Digicel to launch 'solar' handsets in June

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

THE Digicel Group will launch in Papua New Guinea and Samoa the world’s first-ever low-cost solar-powered cell phone in June to cater for people not connected to the power grid.

In an announcement at the recent mobile world congress in Barcelona, Spain, the Caribbean-based Digicel said it had partnered with China’s ZTE to make the technology available to 90% of PNG’s population and to those in Samoa.

Digicel-PNG confirmed the solar handset’s launch, saying it would cover “selected markets” without commenting on the June launch in the country.

ZTE, one of China’s biggest telecoms equipment providers, manufactures the solar-powered handset Coral-200-Solar (pictured above) which would be available below US$40 (K120).

ZTE and Digicel believed sales in the first year would reach “several hundred thousand”.

“We estimate in the world there are more than two billion people who have limited or no access to electricity,’’ Wang Yong Zhong, general manager of ZTE cell phone handsets, told reporters at the Barcelona expo.

An Asian Development Bank paper on PNG’s power situation said 90% of population, or 5.4 million, had no access to electricity.

To tap this huge market, Digicel will be erecting cell sites in areas across the country not covered by PNG Power service to connect the solar-powered handsets to the telco’s nationwide network.

Coral-200-Solar uses technology developed by Dutch company Intivation to boost the current from a single mini solar panel located on the back of the phone.

A charge of one hour in full sunlight would offer 15 minutes of talk time, Digicel and ZTE said, adding that the phone could be charged normally with an electricity supply.

“Once the handset’s battery power weakens, the solar power charging starts, “Digicel said.

The handset comes in colour display without fancy functions.

“In our lives (in the rich world), an interruption of power is a nuisance ... but it is infrequent,” Digicel-Jamaica executive Tom Bryant told reporters.

“But where we conduct business, the absence of power is a daily activity,” he said, referring to PNG, Samoa and poor countries in South America where Digicel is the dominant cell phone communications provider.

Intivation, the Dutch company supplying the technology linking the solar panel to the battery in the ZTE model, claimed the Chinese-made device was “twice as effective” as anything else on the market.