Hubble telescope gallery

This is really worth looking at and bookmarking.

Even in the era of hourly declarations of  "its awesome, man!"- this really does fill one with awe.

And the knowledge of the apparently endless nature of this, "our" universe,let alone other universes which are believed to lie out there, unnumbered, this, "our" universe's internal dimensions expressed in tens of thousands of lightyears is the genesis of awe.

Even though one expects to be so struck by pix of this sort!

 

http://hubblesite.org/gallery/

 

Gulf mourns

From The National, Papua New Guinea’s leading daily newspaper

 

Governor Kavo points finger at Government

 

GULF Governor Havila Kavo yesterday blamed the poor condition of the Hiritano Highway for the horrific accident that claimed 17 lives and injured several others at the weekend.

Mr Kavo said the National Government should be held responsible for the poor state the highway was in.

He said the highway, which he described as a national asset, was littered with potholes, making driving from Port Moresby to Malalaua and vice-versa very dangerous.

He said thick shrubs and bushes had grown tall and onto the road, often obstructing the views of drivers and making it difficult to negotiate corners and give way to oncoming vehicles.

The governor held a press conference yesterday to announce that the Gulf province was mourning the loss of lives in the tragedy. Two PMV trucks collided near Bereina on Saturday, killing 17 people and leaving many more injured.

Mr Kavo said the provincial government would assist with the funeral costs and urged relatives and people of Gulf to also contribute at this time of mourning.

He expressed his sorrow at the loss of lives and added he had travelled to the crash site on Sunday.

He blamed the National Government for turning a blind eye to a “national asset”.

“The Government is pumping money into roads in Lae and the Highlands Highway while we have more than 300 lives lost so far of people trying to seek services in Port Moresby,” Mr Kavo said.

He said because of the poor road condition, people often resort to long boat trip in dangerous conditions, and only last week four people were lost at sea and a search was still continuing.

Meanwhile, eight people injured in the accident continue to battle for their lives at the Port Moresby General Hospital (POMGH).

The two doctors on duty,

Dr Posing Posanau and Dr Gary Nou, said yesterday that the number of reported deceased victims remained at 17.

Those injured include eight people who are in a critical state and another 13 who sustained multiple injuries, bringing to 21 the number of people admitted to the hospital.

Dr Posanau said he had certified another two bodies which where taken to the funeral home directly from the accident site, and there was a possibility that other bodies were also taken directly back to their villages after the accident.

So the total death toll could be higher, according to the senior medical officer and coordinator of the emergency unit, Dr Sam Yockpua.

Dr Nou said that Saturday night was quite chaotic, with family and relatives flooding into the emergency room.

But he commended the efforts of the health workers of the Bereina health centre whom he said did a brilliant job in ensuring that the patients’ injuries were prioritised and well taken care of, which made his job much easier when the casualties were brought to the POMGH and, most importantly, saved lives.

Police are investigating the cause of the accident.

Attempts to contact senior police officers in Port Moresby yesterday were unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, POMGH also reported another road accident in Port Moresby that allegedly resulted from drunk driving during the early hours of Sunday morning.

A couple crashed their vehicle along Bava Street, but neither of them sustained any serious injuries.

 

Resource ownership law review before Parliament

By HENZY YAKHAM

 

Twice Prime Minister and New Ireland Governor Sir Julius Chan introduced during the May session of Parliament a motion seeking comprehensive review of the Mining Act 1992 - to transfer all natural resources ownership from State to Papua New Guinean landowners.

The motion is a most revolutionary change and opens the gateway for majority citizens, which if gets the blessing of Parliament and subsequent changes to the law, will enable the resource owners to be meaningful  partners with rights protected and become real PNG citizens of the 21st Century.

Since the idea of the motion was mooted and its eventual introduction in Parliament, overwhelming support has been received from law makers, customary landowners and resource owners from new project areas.

On Thursday May 14, 2009, Sir Julius articulated the reasons why resources ownership must be removed from the State and given to the landowners in a well presented speech delivered to his colleague legislators.

The motion was introduced while State negotiators and landowner representatives were struggling desperately to break the impasse over equity participation in the multibillion PNG Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project Benefit Sharing Agreement (BSA) in Kokopo, East New Britain province.

Sir Julius has, on a number of occasions warned that “the agreement you sign is not worth the paper you’re signing on, if the State is not going to honor its obligations,” making reference to over K350 million owed to the New Ireland Provincial Government by the National Government in outstanding payments as per the Lihir Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) they signed in 1995.

That MOA specifies for among others the National Government to allocate each year major infrastructure grants, SSG and major infrastructure projects. The major infrastructure projects include an international airport, an international seaport, a modern well equipped hospital at Namatanai and major redevelopment and sealing of the Bulminski Highway. To date, none of the major projects have been undertaken.

Speaking on his motion in Parliament, Sir Julius told an attentive audience that times have changed since PNG’s existing resource laws were legislated and time was right for some radical changes to conform to the wishes and aspirations of the resource owners in the 21st Century.

“We must shift the wealth of the nation from the Government to the hands of the individual - the resource owners. The wealth of our nation must be in hands of our people. This truly then is the pinnacle of what democracy defines - the people’s government. For too long those who own the land where resources are extracted have suffered far too many of the negative impacts and received far too little of the benefits of such activities,” the House heard.

The motion is a follow-up of Resolution No. 6 on Mining Benefits of the Governor’s Conference held at Lombrum, Manus province on June 2 2008. The conference unanimously approved and tasked Inter-Government Relations Minister Job Pomat to bring to the National Government to produce a comprehensive review of the Mining Act 1992. 

Sir Julius’ motion is aimed at assisting Minister Pomat to speed up that process and the National Parliament to push to reality. The motion has been referred to the Parliamentary mining committee to deliberate and report to Parliament for consideration.

Whilst stressing the need for landowners to have greater share of benefits from resources on their land, Sir Julius also noted the substantial negative environmental and socio-economic impacts of major resource extraction activities.

He told Parliament that people in affected areas suffered the greatest negative impacts, and since they would realise the financial benefits of the mine for only a limited time, it was only fair that they received a greater share of the benefits.

Currently, the main benefits the people receive are:

•           Royalties which amount to only 2% of the F.O.B. annual revenues of the resource extraction activity;

•           Special Support Grant’s which the National Government has now tried to reduce to only one-quarter of 1% of F.O.B. annual revenues; and

•           Some infrastructure benefits in projects such as schools and health centres.

This Sir Julius was very critical of the huge imbalance because although the province and local communities suffered huge negative impacts, they received only about 2¼% of the financial benefits. 

“This imbalance cannot be allowed to continue, especially since most of the negative impacts of the mine will last for generations.  So, despite the fact the land belongs to Mama Graun and despite the fact that they feel the negative effects more than anyone else the people themselves receive an insultingly small amount of the financial benefits of the mine. The people must benefit more and suffer less from the exploitation of their land.  If they do not, then the people will refuse to allow further mining on their land.  Why should they allow outsiders to come in and take their wealth for such a small payment?  Government should protect the people.  Instead it has been protecting the mining companies and sharing in their profits while denying those benefits to the people,” he said.

Sir Julius suggested for an independent statutory authority, such as the Mineral Resource Development Corporation, will be formally legislated as the first recipient of all payments for which the mining company is liable under the Mining Contract, including corporate tax, PAYG tax, dividends and any other payments due.

The Statutory Body would then be legally responsible to distribute the funds it receives in the following way and in the following order:

•           Distribution 1 - All funds owed to the province, LLG(s) and landowners under the MOA or similar agreement with the State;

•           Distribution 2 - Fifty percent (50%) of all remaining funds are to be deposited into a Reserve Fund to be independently managed by a reputable financial institution outside Papua New Guinea for use for future generations; and

•           Distribution 3 - The remaining fifty percent (50%) of funds are to be transferred to the State on the condition that one third of that total is to be used for PIP (development) activities inside the province in which the resource extraction activity is occurring and two-thirds of the total is to be used for development activities in the rest of Papua New Guinea.

Under this proposal, the province, Local Level Government and landowners will continue to receive payments of royalties directly from the mining company, but the State would receive no funds directly from the company. The State would be the last of the payees to receive funds.

The State would then keep all funds received under mining or related agreements separate from all other income, and strictly dedicate those funds in the way outlined for development activities under the Public Investment Programme (PIP).

Sir Julius called for a reversal of the current imbalance by turning the tide and take a bold step forward in a new path, leading to a new level of opportunity for the majority of our rural population.

“I hope we can stand together today to support this motion and get the government to move swiftly to introduce the changes proposed to revolutionise our economic vision providing a new beginning for greater participation of the majority of our people and resource owners,” he urged the MPs.

The motion before Parliament is calling on the National Government to review the ownership of minerals as part of a comprehensive review of the Mining Act 1992.

The review calls for among others:

•           Review the decisions by the State to reduce the rate of Special Support Grant (SSG) calculations from 1% to 0.25% and demand the state to immediately restore the 1% special support grants (SSG) will full compensation to be paid to affected provinces retrospectively to the date of the Governments unilaterally, without consulting the stakeholders or invoking settlement of dispute under Terms of the MOA;

•           SSG calculation be increased from 1% to 10% of annual FOB sales revenue and that SSG be given untied;

•           The principle of derivation revenue (5%) paid to provinces be applied also to mineral exports;

•           The rate of mineral royalty payment be increased from 2% to 5% of annual FOB sales revenue;

•           The 10% equity option offered to Provincial Government and the landowners be fully carried by the State;

•           The supply and procurement of goods and services from within PNG be transferred from within the province where the mining operation is located so that GST to the provinces is maximised;

•           Tax credit scheme be supplemented with more favourable arrangements to enable linking infrastructures to be established right from day one of the mining operations;

•           Mining companies contribute at least 10% of the value of further expansion costs not originally planned for that many prolong the payment of corporate tax;

•           Mining companies committed to support infrastructure as recommended by the Provincial Government and this commitment must from part of the mining contract;

•           National Government immediately settle all outstanding MOA by 30 June 2009; and

•           Amendment to the Mining Act 1992 and transfer all natural resources, (Timber, Fish and Underwater Mining, Oil and Gas), ownership to resource owners with clear and agreed sharing formula.

Since Post-Courier published the first write-up about the introduction of this motion on May 4 2009, there have been overwhelming supports from all sectors.

Among them was former Okapa MP Castan Maibawa, a former Minister for Petroleum and Energy, who said time has come for Papua New Guineans to take higher skate in resource development, particularly from the country’s abundant gas reserves.

“I believe we have come to a stage where we, as a country need to seriously take stock of our natural resources and the decisions of the past. For far too long we have allowed foreigners to come and exploit our natural resources. The basis of inviting foreign investment into PNG in the past was that the country was young and did not have the expertise, capital and know-how to develop these resources, while the government concentrated on collecting tax revenue while promoting employment and spin-off benefits

“Thirsty four years have passed since PNG's independence and in the light of changing time and nationals graduating of highly specialised skills and expertise, time has come for greater change in resource ownership and management by Papua New Guineans. We must not allow our remaining natural resources to be exploited without land owners meaningfully benefiting from,” he said.

Mr Maibawa explained that 30 years ago, the gas market was almost zero, but in the past 12 years there has been great interest in gas development because it is was a multibillion dollar industry.

“Landowners must demand for higher stakes than the current 22.5% for the Government and a mere 2% for resource owner. Instead we demand 30%, of which the State gets 20% and the landowners 10% from any gas development project. Let us forget the infighting for the crumbles and demand for 30% skate in all gas development projects. No 30% no gas,” Mr Maibawa when supporting Sir Julius’s for taking a bold initiative for benefit of the majority landowners.

For comments and full text of speech delivered by Sir Julius on his motion, contact nstar@datec.com.pg

New ride just for one

This is not a toy, not a concept car.

It is a newly developed single seat car in highly aerodynamic tear-shape road-proven real car.

It is ready to be launched as a single-seater for sale in Shanghai in 2010 for a mere RMB
4,000 (US$600)!
Interested? Wait till you learn that it will cruise at 100-120 Km/Hr with an unbelievable 0.99litre/100Km (258 miles/gallon) !
Impressed? Totally, after you have read all the details below about the hi-tech and space-age material input into this car!
The most-economic car in the world will be on sale next year

Better than Electric Car - 258 miles/gallon: IPO 2010 in Shanghai
This is a single seated car
From conception to production: three years and the company is headquartered in Hamburg , Germany.
Will be selling for 4000 yuan, equivalent to US$600.
Gas tank capacity = 1.7 gallons
Speed = 62 - 74.6 Miles/hour
Fuel efficiency = 258 miles/gallon
Travel distance with a full tank = 404 miles

Health Minister urged to impose anti-flu measures

Health Minister Sasa Zibe has been urged to get his department to take drastic measures to combat the swine flu that is sweeping the world.

Bulolo MP Sam Basil made the appeal yesterday as Australia’s swine flu tally had hit 306, while the number of cases around the world rose to 15,000.

He is particularly concerned because there are up to seven international flights from Australia each day, including those carrying fly-in fly-out workers to various project sites around the country, including Hidden Valley gold mine in his Bulolo electorate

Victoria is the Australian state worst-hit by swine flu with 212 sufferers, while NSW has 64 people with the disease, Queensland has 17 confirmed cases, while all other states and territories have six or fewer cases each.

“I’m particularly concerned because in Queensland, the number of cases is up to 17 now,” Mr Basil said, adding customs and health at Jackson’s Airport did not have proper facilities to screen visitors, which posed a serious threat to Papua New Guinea.

He also called on Mr Zibe and the Health Department to spell out clearly what vaccines were in place should the virus hit PNG.

“I’m very concerned,” Mr Basil said.

“What is the Health Minister doing about this?

“What is Papua New Guinea doing?

“Are we going to sit back like this?”

 

A cake for Keith Nalu

A cake for Keith...Keith (centre) blows the candle for his second birthday on Monday night flanked by siblings Moasing, Keith and Jr Malum Nalu.

The horse and cart days

Down Memory Lane with PAUL OATES in Queensland, Australia

When I was a small child, most of our family’s daily requirements except meat, were delivered by a horse and cart. (Ice, Bread, Groceries, Milk, etc)

We didn’t have refrigerators in those days and used ice chests. Ice chests were galvanized zinc lined wooden boxes with a flap on the top opening into a self draining box. The bottom of the chest held a small, enameled metal cool area not unlike a very small bar fridge. This was how everyone kept their butter, milk and meat to ensure they didn’t go off in the heat.

The Ice man came early in the morning twice a week, to deliver ice to our house. His cart always had a slow drip of water trailing out the back. He knew we only had a smaller, ‘half block’ ice chest although some people had a larger ice chest that took a whole block. The Ice man would grab hold of a large block of ice with his two ice hooks and slide it out from under the hessian bags that kept the ice blocks insulated. He would then pull the block onto the back of the cart. A large block of ice was about two feet long (2/3’s of a meter in length) and a foot (a third of a meter) square. The Ice man would then break the large block into two halves by expertly striking the block in the middle with his ice pick and turn the block over and strike it again in the middle. The block would split neatly into two halves but often leave some small ice chips that would fall onto the road. Small boys used to follow the ice cart around and grab the ice chips and suck them like highly prized lollies.

The Ice man would grab hold of the half block and lift it onto his shoulder using his ice hooks. He wore a leather cape made up of a shoulder guard and a hood covering his head to protect him from the ice he carried. With his yell of “Ice Oh!” people would open their front doors and have the top flap of the ice chest open ready. The Ice man would deposit the block or half block into the top of the top of whatever was left of the last bock. Sometimes in the cooler weather, the last block hadn’t completely melted and the top flap of the ice chest wouldn’t close for a while until the ice had melted down and drained away.

The Ice man’s leather head and shoulder guard was very similar to one that the sanitary carter used when he picked up and carried on his shoulder the sanitary bins from the outside toilet. He would then replace the ‘full’ bins with empty ones from the ‘Honey Wagon’. The sanitary bins were two foot high and about 18 inches in diameter and when full, were very heavy. It took a strong man to be a sanitary carter in every sense of the word and in those days, the sanitary carter was reputedly one of the most highly paid workers. Everyone knew why. You always checked the outside ‘loo’ for any undesirables like snakes and spiders before use.

Milk was also delivered early in the morning, in bulk and direct from the dairy at the end of the street. The dairy farmer, who had milked his cows before dawn, would make his deliveries via his horse and cart. The Milkman’s cart had a large metal barrel on the back of it and the Milkman would ladle out the fresh milk from a hole in the top of the barrel into a large Billycan and carry the milk to each house. Each family had a servery built into the side of the house about a foot (1/3 of a meter), square where the milk Billycan would be left at night. When we sometimes were locked out of the house if the wind had blown the door closed, my job was to crawl through the servery and open the front door from the inside. The milkman would then pour the milk delivery into the family’s quart pot (2 pints or about 1 and ½ liters) Billycan and close the outside door to keep the milk out of the sun. Some larger families might have half a gallon (4 pints) delivered in the same way.

Later in the day, the baker would also use the servery to deposit the family’s bread delivery. Baker’s carts were often painted in a very artistic manner with colourful scrolls and the name of the bakery painted on the side. The back of the cart was open and the loaves were held on shelves. Our bread was usually a high topped loaf although some preferred a square loaf. Wrapped, sliced bread was not available then. Grandfather would slice the loaf in a peculiar way using an old bread knife. He would hold the loaf with his left arm around it and with his right hand slowly saw towards him a slice off the top of the loaf. I understand this was a traditional English way of slicing bread and Grandfather’s parents came from Cornwall and Devon. Breadboards were apparently a more recent invention. As a child, I can remember waiting impatiently for the next slice of bread to be available but nothing would hurry Grandfather. Butter, fresh out of the ice chest, was usually ‘as hard as goat’s knees’ and you had to wait a while for it to become spreadable. My favourite lunch was bread and treacle.

The horses pulling all these delivery the carts would remember where the next delivery was to be made and automatically halt outside that house. Each horse would have a nose bag with grain and chaff in it and would slowly ‘munch’ its way along the road and occasionally deposit a pile (on a winter’s morning), of steaming horse dung. The road outside our house often had lumps of horse manure in the middle of it and people would collect this and put on their roses. This had a good effect on the roses but always sprouted unwanted oats seedlings that the horse had eaten but not digested.

Talking to my Aunt recently, she related a story about when my Grandfather (her brother) was working at McIlwraith's Grocery Store in Parramatta. He borrowed the pony the family used to pull the farm sulky and took it on the rounds to collect and deliver grocery orders. My Aunt said that it turned out to be a bit of a nuisance for when the family decided to go on a sulky ride somewhere, the darned pony would continually stop and wait every time it arrived outside each house that Grandfather used to visit with a grocery order.