A sense of deja vu

FROM Pacific Islands Monthly  of JULY 1985-   PIM OPINION was the monthly editorial/op-ed piece featured in this once-popular periodical.

 

PIM OPINION…………………………JULY 1985

 

GRIM MEASURES IN PNG

 

    Assailed on all sides by cries of rage and fear, Mr Michael Somare has acted firmly against Port Moresby's horrendous law and order problem by declaring a state of emergency and slapping a war-time-style curfew on the city, enforced by troops. His action followed yet another vicious pack rape in which a gang of "rascals" as PNG calls its murderous villains, cut through a security fence and attacked a woman and her daughter in their own home. More or less concurrently several other girls were pack-raped at knife-point in suburbs of the sprawling capital of 160,000 people.

    In addition to the 10 pm to 5 pm curfew the Government has given the police much wider powers of search and arrest and has put the national capital district under a special controller with almost the powers of a military governor.

 

    Violent crime " presents a real threat to the survival of our young country," Mr Somare said in parliament as he announced his measures. " Public order has deteriorated to the point where the lives and safety of all law-abiding citizens is at risk."

 

    "The threat these criminals represent has spread rapidly," he said. "The police can no longer control it using their normal powers. Robbery, murder and rape have become almost commonplace events. The crime wave.....attacks the security of all."

 

    Earlier Mr. Somare startled the world by saying he would seek to introduce castration and public floggings and hangings for violent rapists and murderers. Even as he spoke, nobody believed he was likely to push such measures through, although in various demonstrations large numbers of people of all races have demanded such punishments. The last hanging in PNG occurred in 1958, and it was not public. Capital punishment was struck off the books in 1971.

Wolfram Alpha, Google and the future of Internet search engines

Wolfram Alpha founder Stephen Wolfram

Wolfram Alpha page

A brand-new “search engine” called Wolfram Alpha, although it doesn’t call itself a “search engine”, is taking the world – Papua New Guinea included - by storm since its launch last Friday. Just a few days into its launch and Wolfram Alpha, http://www59.wolframalpha.com/, has already been compared to Google and Wikepedia, or some hybrid of the two.
I first heard of the launch of Wolfram Alpha on Channel Nine’s Today Show on EMTV a couple of days ago, while downing a cup of coffee before catching a PMV (bus) to work in Port Moresby, and was immediately hooked
I checked it out on the Internet and found out that, in short, the engine takes a term, like our capital city of "Port Moresby" or my birth date of “August 9, 1967", and instantly produces a scientific report with details (like up-to-date city population, map, current local time, temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and approximate elevation culled from its extensive internal knowledge base.
I also found out that August 9, 1967, was a Wednesday; that I am now 41 years, nine months and 13 days old; that my birth day was the 221st day of 1967; I share the same birth day as American footballer Deion Sanders; and that I was born at the phase of a waxing crescent moon.
In other words, Wolfram Alpha’s not a search engine, which produces articles as results.
It's a knowledge engine that produces answers with explicit information.
It's still a work in progress, but the unveiling is enough to make some question whether it will change the way we search the Internet.But Wolfram Alpha really does provide answers.
No URLs come back in the results, only a page of often dizzyingly detailed and up-to-date information, like a research report culled by mad scientists with complete access to a universal library.
“Wolfram Alpha's long-term goal is to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone,” the engine says on its home page.
“We aim to collect and curate all objective data; implement every known model, method, and algorithm; and make it possible to compute whatever can be computed about anything.
“Our goal is to build on the achievements of science and other systematisations of knowledge to provide a single source that can be relied on by everyone for definitive answers to factual queries.
“Wolfram Alpha aims to bring expert-level knowledge and capabilities to the broadest possible range of people—spanning all professions and education levels.
“Our goal is to accept completely free-form input, and to serve as a knowledge engine that generates powerful results and presents them with maximum clarity.
“Wolfram Alpha is an ambitious, long-term intellectual endeavor that we intend will deliver increasing capabilities over the years and decades to come.
“With a world-class team and participation from top outside experts in countless fields, our goal is to create something that will stand as a major milestone of 21st century intellectual achievement.”
What has now made Wolfram Alpha possible today is a somewhat unique set of circumstances—and the singular vision of Stephen Wolfram.
Stephen Wolfram is a distinguished scientist, inventor, author, and business leader.
Born August 29, 1959 in London, Wolfram is a British physicist, mathematician, author and businessman, known for his work in theoretical particle physics, cosmology, cellular automata, complexity theory, and computer algebra
He is the creator of Mathematica, the author of A New Kind of Science (NKS), the creator of Wolfram Alpha, and the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research.
His career has been characterised by a sequence of original and significant achievements.
“For the first time in history, we have computers that are powerful enough to support the capabilities of Wolfram Alpha, and we have the web as a broad-based means of delivery,” the home page continues.
“But this technology alone was not enough to make Wolfram Alpha possible.
“What was needed were also two developments that have been driven by Stephen Wolfram over the course of nearly 30 years.
“The first was Mathematica—the system in which all of Wolfram Alpha is implemented.
“Mathematica has three crucial roles in Wolfram Alpha.
“First, its very general symbolic language provides the framework in which all the diverse knowledge of Wolfram Alpha is represented, and all its capabilities are implemented.
“Second, Mathematica's vast web of built-in algorithms provides the computational foundation that makes it even conceivably practical to implement the methods and models of so many fields. “And finally, the strength of Mathematica as a software engineering and deployment platform makes it possible to take the technical achievements of Wolfram Alpha and deliver them broadly and robustly.
“Beyond Mathematica, another key to Wolfram Alpha was NKS.
“Many specific ideas from NKS—particularly related to algorithms discovered by exploring the computational universe—are used in the implementation of Wolfram Alpha.
“But still more important is that the very paradigm of NKS was crucial in imagining that Wolfram Alpha might be possible.
“Wolfram Alpha represents a substantial technical and intellectual achievement.
“But to build it required not just unique technology and ideas, but also the experience of 20 years of long-term R&D and ongoing development of robust technology at Wolfram Research.
“Wolfram Alpha’s world-class team draws from many fields and disciplines, and has unique access to experts across the globe.
“But what ultimately made Wolfram Alpha possible was a singular commitment to the goal of making all the world's systematic knowledge computable.”

Signs

'Tis little things that can hurt a lot

A true story.

I’m just a simple, working-class Papua New Guinean, struggling to make ends meet as well as get over the death of my wife last year.

I live with my four young children in a one-bedroom unit at Gerehu, a suburb of Port Moresby.

We have this tiny little backyard stretch which we use to grow vegetables.

Some weeks ago, I bought cucumber and tomato seeds, which I sowed.

It became a daily ritual for my four young children to get up early in the morning and water and weed their vegetable patch.

The cucumbers grew up and started flowering, and every day, the little ones would tell me of how much they were looking forward to eating their cucumbers.

Last Friday, after work, I went home and wondered why they were looking so sad and sullen.

“Dad,” they chorused, “those big boys next door have pulled out our cucumbers.”

It broke my heart!

‘Tis little things like this that can hurt a lot.

 

Any gains from globe-trotting Prime Minister?

Editorial in The National, Papua New Guinea’s leading daily newspaper

 

PRIME Minister Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare does seem to have travelled much in recent times.

Since the Bali environment summit, he has been on official or semi-official trips which have taken him to Africa, the US, Australia, the Philippines, China, Indonesia again last week and this week to Japan.

Each of those trips cost a fair size of taxpayers’ money and the gains are not immediately visible.

Still, in all fairness, the case of the globe-trotting Prime Minister must be put in perspective.

Are the businesses which the Prime Minister leaves unattended by his absence those that only he can perform and perform well?

Are they urgent?

Has the nation suffered by his frequent absences from office?

Similarly, are the businesses he chooses to attend overseas such that only his personal presence would bring the greatest amount of good for this nation?

Are such businesses important and urgent for the well-being of the nation of PNG?

In this age of international terrorism, is our Prime Minister not endangering his life by frequent trips?

There is yet another line of inquiry and that is that a wandering Prime Minister might actually be signalling that he has lost interest in the affairs of State.

Let us examine each of these closely.

The type of government we practice in PNG ensures that no position is left unfilled if the incumbent leaves it temporarily. When the Prime Minister or indeed any other minister is called away on business, there is always another minister who is appointed to act in his or her place.

In the case of the Prime Minister, it is always the Deputy Prime Minister and if both are away, the most senior minister would normally do the honours.

Deputy Prime Minister Dr Puka Temu has shown himself on the occasions he has been acting Prime Minister to act decisively and responsibly.

So in the time that the Prime Minister has been away, has any serious affair of the State been mishandled or mismanaged?

To our knowledge the Prime Minister’s regular trips overseas have not resulted in any serious mishandling of affairs of the State back home.

He is not missed – and in politics that can be read negatively too.

If his presence in country was not missed, of what importance were the trips that the Prime Minister has chosen to take personally rather than delegate his ministers, most immediately his Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Abal?

The Prime Minister’s personal presence at the global conference on the environment at Bali, Indonesia, had immediate appeal and put PNG on the map.

As a small country, PNG has always been a keen supporter of environmental issues from a nuclear-free Pacific to the Kyoto Protocol but nowhere has it made the impact that its position on the environment at Bali did.

The environment is today the most important issue on the agenda of most governments. To be on top of environmental issues and to be recognised as a leader can bring tremendous goodwill and tangible benefits. There the Prime Minister has done well to be personally involved.

And as always, only heads of Governments can attend a Commonwealth Heads of Government meet, so the PM can be excused there. All the other trips could have been delegated to other ministers, many of them first timers who need the benefit of international exposure.

The Prime Minister does not need the experience and should only attend those conferences where his personal stature and seniority can gain PNG maximum benefit.

In this age of international terrorism, frequent trips by our Prime Minister abroad places him at greater risk of being involved in an incident and that would be a calamity that should be avoided.

The other matter is, of course, the cost of any one of these travels.

We would like to invite the Government to publish regular details of the cost of travels by any one of our important leaders, both public servants and politicians.

Along with this information, we would like to know what benefits there are that have come off these trips.

And finally, can we read in these frequent trips signs of a Prime Minister who is weary and perhaps no longer interested in the affairs of the State?

There is a thought but we are not qualified to answer this question either way.

Sepik agricultural college to be re-opened

Bush-covered classroom at Sepik Agricultural College. Pictures by PROF PHILIP SIAGURU

Entrance to the Sepik Agricultural College in Baiyik, East Sepik province, which is a ghost of its former self

Prof Philip Siaguru checking out a rundown classroom at the Sepik Agricultural College

The sad remains of a house at Sepik Agricultural College

The way it is now at the once-thriving Sepik Agricultural College

The once-thriving Sepik Agricultural College at is to be rebuilt under an ambitious plan spearheaded by the PNG University of Natural Resources & Environment (formerly University of Vudal) and East Sepik MPs including Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare.
Details of the plan, which would cost several million kina and see the rundown college become a campus of the UNRE, were outlined at a meeting between university vice-chancellor Prof Philip Siaguru and East Sepk MPs Gabriel Kapris (Maprik, Minister for Commerce and Industry), Tony Aimo (Ambunti-Dreikikir, Correctional Services), Ronald Asik (Wosera/Gawi), Commerce and Industry secretary Anton Kulit, Investment Promotion Authority board chairman Prof Albert Mellam, staff of the national agriculture development programme (NADP) and support staff of the three MPs in Port Moresby last Friday (May 15).
Until its closure in 1992, the Sepik college at Bainyik, Maprik, was a lively agricultural training centre which produced quality extension officers for Papua New Guinea and overseas countries such as the Solomon Islands.
It is now, however, a shocking skeleton of its former self with rundown and vandalised property covered by thick grass.
Prof Siaguru gave a well-received PowerPoint presentation which started an animated discussion at the meeting.
The UNRE would provide K1 million under the NADP.
Mr Kapris at the beginning of this year wrote to Prof Siaguru to get the ball rolling, after similar letters to Pacific Adventist University, University of Techonology, Divine Word University and University of PNG failed to get any response.
He also allocated K100, 000 from his district improvement programme – with another K400, 000 to come – to kick start the project.
The re-opening of the Sepik college – to be tentatively known as Greater Sepik College of Natural Resources and Environment - also comes at a time when there is major agricultural development in East Sepik province through the K2.5 billion Sepik biofuel project by Cosmos Oil of Japan, and K900m agri-business development by Australian-based Chinese company SPZ Enterprises.
Prof Siaguru said a memorandum of understanding signed between South China Agricultural University and the UNRE last March would also work for the good of the re-opening of the Sepik college.
He plans for a feasibility study to commence as early as this month (May), a skeleton staff and infrastructure to be put in place next year and 2011, and the first student intake to be in 2012 for the diploma/degree programme in agriculture.
Under Prof Siaguru’s plan, the Sepik college would also cater for fisheries, forestry, tourism and the timely-subject of climate change.
“Total basic infrastructure establishment will be about K20m,” he said.
“At first enrolment in 2011, if all planning has been well, government funding should take over and the college should roll out on an annual budget of about K4m.”
Mr Kapris commented: “It’s very timely.
“The Asian Development Bank has also earmarked K1.2b for PNG.
“The timing is very right for us.”
Mr Aimo concurred: “I’m very happy with today’s meeting.
“Mr Kapris wrote to me for a master plan for development and this is now on the way to becoming a reality.”

Quick action by police prevents looting in Goroka, Mt Hagen and Kundiawa

From The National, Papua New Guinea’s leading daily newspaper (click to view this and other related stories)

QUICK action by police prevented opportunists from looting Asian-owned shops and supermarkets in Mt Hagen, Kundiawa and Goroka yesterday.
The strong police response was accompanied by condemnation of the looters’ actions by a host of politicians and civil society leaders including Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Abal, Eastern Highlands Governor Malcolm Kela-Smith, ousted Madang governor Sir Arnold Amet, Opposition leader Sir Mekere Morauta and PNG Trade Union Congress general secretary John Paska.
The Chinese Embassy in Port Moresby also expressed grave concern over the safety of its nationals and their businesses.
“It is our sincere hope that the PNG Government will take effective measures to prevent such incidents from recurring, so as to ensure a peaceful environment for all people in PNG to live and work safely and harmoniously,” a spokesperson for the embassy said.
Lae police, meanwhile, reported yesterday that two men had been killed in the mad rush to break into Chinese-run shops at Eriku last Thursday.
One of them was shot dead while another was trampled in the stampede.
Business activities in Goroka came to a complete standstill yesterday morning as anti-Asian protesters converged on the township calling for the removal of all Asian businesses.
Mr Kela-Smith addressed more than 5,000 protesters at the Peace Park and called on them not to loot shops and attack people.
He said he would convey their concerns to Parliament when it convenes this morning.
In Mt Hagen, police fired more than 50 gunshots into the air yesterday morning to disperse hundreds of people who had gathered at Pope John Paul oval.
Police said they had to fire in the air to chase the people away after they refused initial orders to disperse.
Similar police action stopped a group in Kundiawa from looting Asian-owned shops yesterday.
Simbu provincial police commander Supt Joseph Tondop confirmed last night that quick police action stopped a group of opportunists who tried to copy the situation in the other major centres.
Meanwhile, Enga provincial police commander Supt Michael Chare said the province was quiet.
Supt Chare said many Chinese-owned businesses in the province operated normally yesterday but were told to look out for any large gatherings near their shops.
He said his men were closely monitoring the business houses owned by the Chinese in Wabag town and also in Porgera.