Boonah Show 16th May 2009 ( Chapter 1)

From Paul Oates in Queensland, Australia

We have been very busy with the annual Boonah Show and here are a few pictures from yesterday. The rest are in Ch 2.

Pacific Media Summit (please click to enlarge)

Pacific Storms Art Exhibition June 3-July 12, 2009

Artwork by Laban Sakale

Artwork by Mairi Feeger featuring various social ills such as sorcery, violence and alcohol. It will go on show in Bundaberg

Joycelin Leahy (centre) with artists Winnie Weoa (left) and Daniel Waswas - both of whom are involved in the Australian exhibition - at Gerehu in Port Moresby last week

Winnie Weoa (left) and Daniel Waswas - both of whom are involved in the Australian exhibition - at Gerehu in Port Moresby last week

Curatorial statement by Joycelin Leahy

Pacific Storms explores the spirit, life, and challenges of the contemporary Pacific peoples. Pacific Islanders are proud of their resources, ocean, land, environment, culture, arts, languages and their traditional knowledge.
The Pacific remains one of the few regions in the world where you can find many hundreds of languages spoken, diverse cultures and some of the most vulnerable communities on the globe.
Being rich in both tangible and intangible heritage provides Pacific people with an endless source for artistic expression.
The unique art forms are evidenced in museum and gallery collections all over the world, collected over centuries.
It is from this valuable artistic source that a selection of well-known and emerging artists across nine countries was challenged to use their heritage to create a contemporary Pacific expression.
In their interpretation of who they are and how they feel about their societies, these new works were developed. In Pacific Storms, the challenge was to draw away from mainstream society’s categories and stereotypes of what is Pacific art and who Pacific people are, to explore new aesthetics.
Pacific Storms is also a platform of contemporary creativity which integrates and addresses the real issues of the modern Pacific society.
The Pacific region is marked by exceptional cultural and biological diversity within spectacular physical landscapes; thus each has their own unique way of building resilience to climate change, globalisation, security and civil unrest, HIV-AIDS and many other social issues.
These expressions are exhibited in hope that wider audiences understand the complex issues through the diversity of art across the Pacific.
In addition, staging Pacific Storms in the Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery links contemporary Pacific expression to the region’s significant history through the Australian sugar industry.
Australia’s sugar industry was founded on the sweat of men and women, some kidnapped and all enticed from more than eighty Melanesian islands including the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, the Loyalty Islands of New Caledonia, and to a lesser extent, the eastern archipelagoes of Papua New Guinea, and Tuvalu and Kiritabati.
Today’s Australian South Sea Islanders are descended from indentured labourers in the nineteenth century.
In the nineteenth century this form of human trafficking was historically known as ‘Blackbirding’ and the individuals were called ‘Kanakas’.
There were about 50,000 Islanders and 62,000 indenture contracts.
Under the White Australian Policy, between 1901 and 1908 Australia ended this migration and deported most of those remaining.
Some were exempted from repatriation, and along with a number of others who escaped deportation, about 2,000 remained in Australia to form the basis of what is today Australia’s largest non-indigenous black ethnic group.
The question of how many Islanders were illegally recruited and how many chose to come remains controversial.
Bundaberg is a major centre for Australian South Sea Islanders.
Pacific Storms re-unites these communities with their ‘wantoks’ (relatives and friends) through a collaborative community engagement at the Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery.

ABAC steps up efforts to uphold anti-protectionism commitments

 

Issued by the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC)

 

Bandar Seri Bangawan, Brunei Darussalam, 15 May 2009 - Key business leaders of the Asia-Pacific region have urged the Leaders of the 21 member economies of APEC to take action to promote the recovery of world trade – expected to decline by 9 percent this year – which they see as vital in overcoming the global economic crisis.

At their second meeting in Brunei, the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) put forward a letter to Leaders on their views and recommendations for immediate action to combat the current economic crisis. In the letter, ABAC urged Leaders to accelerate the efforts to achieve integration among their economies through the faithful adherence to the Bogor Goals and to realizing their vision of a Free Trade Agreement of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP). They also called on the Leaders to show global leadership in rejecting protectionism and pushing for the completion of the Doha Round.

“While applauding the G20 Leaders’ pledge to promote trade and reject protectionism, we are greatly concerned that more and more trade-restrictive measures are being put in place and that protectionism seems to be on the rise. We asked Leaders to abide with their commitment not to introduce any new barriers to trade in response to the crisis even if these appear to be WTO-consistent. This is the time for APEC to show its leadership and to reaffirm the APEC spirit of free and open trade and investment,” said Mr. Teng Theng Dar, the ABAC Chair.

The business leaders also expressed their frustration that the Doha Round remains uncompleted after eight years of negotiations and ask Leaders to push the WTO to set a deadline for the conclusion of the Round in early 2010.

In a separate communication to APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade, ABAC has set out its views and recommendations related to APEC’s agenda: regional economic integration, strengthening capacity building, sustainable development and enhancing connectivity in the region. 

An APEC SME Summit “SMEs in a Turbulent Global Economy: Crisis, Challenges and Opportunities” was held on 12 May, and the three more that will be organised by ABAC in 2009 underline the importance ABAC attaches to the growth of small and medium enterprises (SME) in the region .  

ABAC brings together up to three business leaders from each of APEC’s 21 economies. They provide APEC Leaders with business sector priorities and concerns.

The ABAC members met for the second time in 2009 on May 12-15 in Brunei Darussalam.

 

For more information, contact:

Mr. Martin Yuoon, ABAC Executive Director 2009 at (65) 6827-6886 or mkhyuoon@sbf.org.sg

Mr. Antonio Basilio, ABAC Secretariat at (63 2) 845-4564 or abacsec@pfgc.ph

Ms. Tran Bao Ngoc, APEC Secretariat at (65) 6891 9616 or tbn@apec.org

 

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

 

What goes round comes round

By a former Papua New Guinea resident

 

The rioting and looting by youths in Lae is graphic evidence of just what pressure is building up inside the "social sospen"- that big saucepan inside which dwells the  majority of PNG's population; dwells with the lid firmly wedged on and the heat of impoverishment slowly increasing. 

 

Years of the disgraceful "eyes-shut, pockets open" policy maintained by the authorities are now likely to be challenged by a growing unity in this

previously split, multi-tribal society. A  unity never engendered by  the fulsome words and flamboyant promises of "their lordships," those who govern and administer in situations of personal security and comfort unseen and unimaginable to the boys who rioted in Lae.

 

Many have wondered over the years at the lack of any appearance of a youth-based radical political culture within this potentially-rich but desperately-underprivileged population. Usually tolerant and inclined to talk before acting, PNG's people may have reached the point where an increasingly hard and frustrating life-situation pushes them to a tipping-point.

 

Those big houses and 'permanent resident' status in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and elsewhere may soon prove to be very wise investments for their owners."

Betha Somare explains her father and brother's purchase of property in Australia

This article was first posted on November 14, 2008, however, because of the interest in it, I have decided to repost...Malum

Hi people.

It maybe a sad fact but it is a fact anyway that apart from the fortunate Papua New Guineans that have access to the internet there are scores of Papua New Guineans out there that trust my family.

This is because in all the years of my father’s politics he has not dipped into public coffers to fund family investments.

There are many facts out there that confirm my assertion and if he had, I believe he would not have lasted these 40 years.

In the same way that all my siblings were educated in Australia we have all come back to Papua New Guinea to live and make our contribution.

I cannot speak for my nieces and nephews but I hope that they will also do the same.

If you are interested in checking where my father got his money to get a place close to his grandchildren, please call the National Parliament, Retirement Benefit Funds office and I am sure Graham Whitchurch can help you.

My brother has also explained that he sold his house to get a loan in the interest of his children.

That is his personal choice.

We will always be a public family whether we want to be or not.

I urge you to begin from the premise that not everybody is a thief that is in government.

Betha Somare

Mass looting of Chinese shops in Lae

* Thousands storm Eriku, Top Town and main market areas

* Lae top cop unsure of cause of riots

* General blame on ‘peaceful’ protest march in National Capital District

 

Asian shops hit in Lae

 

By PISAI GUMAR in The National

 

THOUSANDS of men and boys stormed Chinese shops at Eriku, Top Town and the main market to bring Lae to a standstill yesterday morning, catching the public, businesses and the police off guard.

Lae metropolitan commander Supt Nema Mondiai said he did not know the cause of the melee but ordered police onto the scene following the first riot at the Lae market.

Just after 9am, a Chinese shop near the Bank South Pacific branch was attacked by youths claiming that the shop owner should not be operating in the country and the business was restricted to Papua New Guineans.

The shop closed before any damage could be done and its hired security guards alerted police and newspapers.

One youth was reportedly chopped to death and another hospitalised in an attempted break-in of a Chinese shop at the main market area.

Before 10am, all shops, Chinese and local, all over the city were forced to close in fear of being looted.

There were no PMVs, no motor vehicles, but thousands of human traffic.

As the riots gained momentum, members of the mob were seen and heard calling their friends and relatives on cell phones to come into the city from Kamkumung, West Taraka, Buimo and Bundi Camp, Papuan Compound, Tais, Bumbu and the Miles areas.

The Momase police Mobile Unit responded and set up surveillance with the help of several major security firms to control the situation.

That did not prevent two shops at the just-opened Chayter House at Eriku, one in Top Town and Golden Apple at the corner of Kisere and Malaita St from being looted of undisclosed cash and items.

Old timers Papindo, Seeto Kui, Wan Jih Wah, PC & JY Woo and Stevens Trading were unaffected but closed their doors.

Super Value Store and Raumai 18’s wholesale and department shops were also forced to close.

Using cell phones, the youths, who were also engaged by small Chinese shops to sell cheap items at bargain-basement prices on the streets, gathered, mobilised and attacked.

They rushed into the shops and grabbed tills and items of their choice.

The guards were left helpless.

Police arrived immediately and fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse the rioters.

Stubborn rioters were thrashed with vehicle fan belts and batons.

Supt Mondiai noted: “It was the first of its kind that the city experienced mob looting that struck three major shopping areas at once.” He said he was baffled about the motive. He did not know who the organisers were.

Word on the streets yesterday was that the incident was sparked by a protest march in the National Capital District on Tuesday in which youths had wanted to petition NCD Governor Powes Parkop over restrictions on foreigners operating small businesses.

Supt Mondiai warned other provincial centres to take precautionary measures and monitor their areas.

Some youths, who requested anonymity, said: “We are frustrated with small Asian shops sprouting unnecessarily, selling cheap items around the city.

“Who is allowing these Asians to come into our country and own small businesses which should be owned by Papua New Guineans?

“Even they do businesses here (in Lae) using cheap items, ripping us off and invest our money back in their countries.”

“Mip’la tait na les pinis long ol Kongkong nabaut ya. Mip’la ino wari lo polis tu. Tokim Gavana Wenge redi lo sanap lo kot na rausim ol Asians. Inap em inap.”

They said they were tired of the Chinese and did not care about the police. They wanted Morobe Governor Luther Wenge to go to court and remove all Asians.