Jamie Maxtone-Graham loses 65kg...and saves his life

The new-look Jamie Maxtone-Graham

Less than two years ago, after the 2007 national elections, Angalimp- South Wahgi MP Jamie Maxtone-Graham was a disaster waiting to happen.
Tipping at scales at 165kg, the big man was obese, unfit, depressed, and was basically about to die.
But one day, 18 months ago, Mr Maxtone-Graham decided that enough was enough and turned his back on the lifestyle that was killing him.
He also turned to the Christian faith for answers.
Since then, the big man has lost a whopping 65kg, and looks leaner and meaner than he has ever been in his life.
When I met him last Sunday, the first time I had done so in two years, he was no longer the same fat old Jamie Maxtone-Graham who was living on borrowed time.
Running shoes, sports short and shirt made him look like an athelete, a lot younger than his 50-odd years.
Mr Maxtone-Graham wants Papua New Guineans to give up their bad habits like drinking, smoking, poor diet (including lamb flaps), and drugs as well as exercise more and find peace and solace in the teachings of the Bible.
This is timely as Sunday May 31 was World No Tobacco Day.
He practices what he preaches and sugar, soft drinks, and all processed foods are now definite ‘no-nos’ for him and his family.
Mr Maxtone-Graham already talks on radio about the importance of a healthy lifestyle and wants to write about it in a weekly newspaper column, as well as a blog on the Internet.
“Why did I get interested in my health?” he poses to me.
“Bascially, I had a serious health problem.
“I was a walking disaster.
“I was extremely obese at 165kg.
“I had gout, I had shortness of breath, high blood sugar, and I was extremely tired, fatigued.
“I was a sick animal as a result of my overindulgence in a life of living in the city, being an MP, and all the trappings that go with it like dinners, cocktails, parties.
“That was the life that I was living.
“It forced me to become more depressed and I was eating more and more.
“One day, two years ago, I had serious chest pains.
“I was suffering from angina (chest pain or discomfort that occurs when your heart muscle does not get enough blood).
“The doctor checked me and said my blood pressure was extremely high, my cholesterol was extremely high, my blood sugar was extremely high, my triglycerides (chemical form in which most fat exists in food as well as in the body) was extremely high, my uric acid (chemical created when the body breaks down substances called purines) was extremely high.
“My tests showed that 80% of the blood vessels to the heart were blocked.
“I was clogged up by the fat that I had eaten over many years and I was about to die of heart attack.
“The doctor looked at me and said, ‘you’re in a very critical condition.You need to take stock of your health and do something’.
“The doctor shocked me and I let go of everything.
“I started changing my diet and my lifestyle, and did more exercise.”
Mr Maxtone-Graham, an avid reader, went through several books, the Internet, and watched health programmes on YouTube to get a good picture of health and nutrition.
Cathy and Robert Badui, a couple who preach the message of good health in PNG, were a great inspiration.
Mr Maxtone-Graham found hope in American Dr Thomas Jackson of M.E.E.T Ministry, who teaches God’s plan based on eight health messages in the bible.
M.E.E.T. Ministry - http://www.meetministry.org/ - teaches the body was designed by the Creator to heal itself.
People need to be educated as to how to cooperate with nature, learning accessible, practical life-style principles: Godly Trust; Open Air; Daily Exercise; Proper Rest; Lots of Water; Always Temperate; and Nutrition.
Stress – distress - is killing people, according to the ministry, so it teaches people how to manage stress through the eyes of God.
“My life was in peril until then,” Mr Maxtone-Graham recalls.
“I accepted God as my creator and Jesus as my saviour.
“I now eat home-grown garden food.
“I don’t eat anything that’s manufactured or processed.
“I don’t eat any meat and I’m a total vegetarian.
“I’ve never been sick for the last 18 months.
“I’ve got more energy now.
“I do exercises in the gym, do cardio exercises, boxing, I run on the treadmill, I swim, and I play rugby touch.
“I’ve discovered that health is more valuable than all the gold and money in the world
He encourages fellow Papua New Guineans: “People neglect their health in pursuit of wealth, only to lose all their wealth to regain their health in the final days of their lives.
“Money doesn’t give happiness.
‘Money gives more and more problems.
“As the people reach 50 or 60, they are already falling apart
“Let’s not end up like this.
“Let’s not leave our health too late.
“I’m a believer in preventative measures rather than curative medicine.
“It’s a lot cheaper and wiser to do this.
“I want to share my experiences with other Papua New Guineans as I don’t want to see them dropping dead at an early age.
“I feel that someone has to champion the cause of a healthy lifestyle in this country.
“My message to the people of Papua New Guinea is that we don’t need Western food and Western lifestyles.
“We must go back to our traditional food.
“It’s the healthiest food in the world.”
Mr Maxtone-Graham can be contacted on email jamiemaxtonegraham@gmail.com.

Microsoft's new search engine throws the gauntlet at Google

Captions: 1. Screenshot of the Bing homepage 2. Bing tour page with a banner image of Huli wigmen from the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea

Internet search engines seem to have been all the rage for the last couple of days, first with the nerdy Wolfram Alpha a fortnight ago, and just last weekend Bing – Microsoft’s (AKA Bill Gate’s) answer to the Google juggernaut.
What if there was a better search engine than Google?
Microsoft has released its latest iteration of its search engine platform, Bing, into the marketplace in an attempt to take on Google.
Microsoft quietly launched its new search engine without fanfare and sans parade.
Such is technology, and just when I was getting used to Wolfram Alpha, as well as people from all over Papua New Guinea and the world, including well-known journalist and columnist, Frank Senge-Kolma, who was also bitten by the bug.
“It’s so marvelous,” wrote Bethuel Kotty from the Divine Word University in Madang after trying out Wolfram Alpha.
“I have tried and every calculation in mathematics, money and finance has been done and all the answers are given.”
The emergence of Wolfram Alpha made people start questioning Google and the whole future of Internet search engines.
And just when they were starting to do so, along comes the new kid on the block, Bing.
Bing has a PNG flavour to it as on the top of its tour page is a picture of a group of Huli wigmen from the Southern Highlands province (I’m wondering if they’re going to send a bill to Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world, for use of their picture).
But Bing’s entry has been very controversial, as throughout this week, bloggers and Internet safety experts quickly discovered that one of Bing's ‘features’ is that it takes only a few clicks for anyone — of any age — to view explicit pornographic videos without even leaving the search engine.
Today Show’s technology editor Charlie Brown, well known to Papua New Guineans as we watch the Nine Network breakfast show every day, believes that Bing can take a chunk of the Google cake.
“Some pundits are probably asking ‘why bother?’” he writes on his blog http://www.charliesblog.com.au/.
“Such is the strength of the Google brand.
“With between 70-90% of the market share in most western countries, to try and knock it off its perch seems almost impossible, and would be a very expensive exercise.
“Its current rival, Yahoo, only has about 15-20% share depending on the country, and that hasn't varied for a long time, and doesn't look like changing soon.
“Sure, others have tried to take a chunk off Google, but have failed.
“Wolfram, the most-recent example of a search engine device, is too narrowly-focused in its objectives to have any impact on Google.
“So is it a fait acompli? Is there no hope for any fledgling entrepreneur – or current player for that matter – to take on Google's seeming monopoly and win?
“Absolutely! I am of the belief that it is only a matter of time before Google is taken down a peg or two.
“What needs to happen is for one of the other companies to give their tool something that blows the company away.
“Think about it. If I was to say to you, ‘hey try this search engine, it's better than Google because of X, Y, Z’ and you tried it, and I was right, then like a virus the word would spread. That is all it will take.
“I'm not saying Bing will do this, because I haven't had the chance to have a good play with it yet, but what I am saying is to all those cynics out there – it can be done.
“And I believe it will only be a matter of time before some starts eating into Google's market share.”
In its bid to beat Google, Microsoft has unveiled a slate of convenient features for Bing, including an ‘auto play’ tool that lets users preview videos simply by hovering a mouse over them.
That asset may become a liability, because users can get a taste of porn videos on Bing instead of having to go to a smutty Web site — an innovation other search engines have yet to offer.
Technology blogger Loic Le Meur (http://loiclemeur.com/) noticed the issue early Monday after testing video search on Bing.
What he found was a cornucopia of pornography that he said transformed the search engine into its very own pornographic Web site.
"You are now on a porn site without leaving Bing. Amazing," Le Meur wrote on his blog.
Bing, like other major search engines, lets users set filtering preferences at one of three levels — strict, moderate or simply off.
Online safety advocates argue that search engines need to do much more to cut off underage access to pornography — because the filters can be circumvented easily with just one click.
Content-filtering companies have also been reviewing Bing — and have found the same gaping problems.
Microsoft said in a statement that it was up to users to turn off the filters, and provided instructions on how to toggle the settings on its blog.
"By default, Bing filters out explicit image and video results,” the statement read.
“Consumers must take action to turn off the Safe Search filter in their settings in order for explicit image or video content to appear in Bing's results," the statement read.
Other major search engines like Yahoo and Google come up with similar video and image results when electronic filters are turned off — but don't provide automatic playing of videos within the search-results page.”
The abundance of pornography is something child health experts say is simply a fact of life.
"Kids can access pornography on the Internet no matter what the search engine is," Dr. David Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media and the Family, told FOXNews.com.
Walsh said it's particularly important that kids be protected from the worst excesses of pornography during their formative years.
"Because they're at the very age when they are developing their whole attitudes about sex and sexuality," he said.
“It's bad for them to be visiting porn sites where sex is basically a commodity to be bought and sold and where women are treated like objects.
“The attitudes that they're going to pick up there are not the attitudes we want them to have for life."
Protecting kids from pornography or other potentially harmful materials must ultimately rest with parents, Walsh added.
"I don't know that search engines can be programmed to do the job that parents need to," he said.

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?”