Tragedy in the ring

Pro boxer dies after pounding

 

By PETER PUSAL in The National, Papua New Guinea’s leading daily newspaper

 

TRAGEDY has struck the professional ranks of PNG boxing after 23-year-old Manus welterweight Joel Hayeu succumbed to injuries sustained during his professional debut in a boxing show held last June 21 in Port Moresby.

Hayeu, from the Pontoon boxing club of Manus, who fought a torrid six-rounder against Hohola boxing club fighter Kevin Baki, collapsed in his corner after the bout, having only moments earlier congratulated his conqueror after losing a unanimous decision to the 37-year-old Baki.

He died last Saturday after being comatose for six days.

The young Manusian was commended at ringside by many who witnessed the bout, saying he had shown “unbelievable” courage in a fight he was losing on the cards.

Experienced former Australian lightweight champion and current trainer Jeff Malcolm, a man credited with more than 30 years in boxing business, was distress at the manner in which the bout was handled, saying it should have been stopped earlier.

“That kid was hurt pretty bad, and it was clear for everyone to see that he was taking a beating, but for some reason, he was allowed to finish the fight,” Malcolm said of Hayeu.

“He fought with a lot of heart, and I don’t think I ever saw a braver fighter in all my time.”

The PNG Professional Boxing Federation-promoted “Contender” series was geared towards providing a pathway for aspiring professional boxers in the country to eventually compete for regional titles and gain world rankings.

The PNG Professional Boxing Control Board, the body tasked with regulating pro boxing, is inactive after years of dormancy.

In the shadow of this latest tragedy, calls have been made for the Government to re-establish the board.

A grieving John Hayeu said in Pidgin yesterday he was greatly aggrieved by his son’s demise, adding that his immediate concern was to take his boy home.

 

Children's park to close

Temu classifies playground for commercial purpose

 

By MADELEINE AREK and TRAVERTZ MABONE in The National, Papua New Guinea’s leading daily newspaper

 

THE Unagi Oval and the park and playground for children and residents of National Capital District at Gordon recently created by Governor Powes Parkop for their enjoyment will soon be a thing of the past.

This is because the National Government has reclassified the land as “commercial”.

Lands and Physical Planning Minister Sir Puka Temu, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister, abandoned an earlier decision of his, and decided to declare it commercial.

This week, lawyers representing Virgo 65 and Fairhaven Limited, purported owners of the land, instructed the National Capital District Commission to remove all playing equipment at the children’s playground and Unagi Oval.

The lawyers told NCDC to comply with the National Gazette of May 6, 2009.

In documents made available to The National, Sir Puka appears to have abandoned an earlier recommendation by the PNG Physical Planning Appeals Tribunal.

The land was previously considered as “open space” or public reserve.

Documents show that in December 2007, Sir Puka had upheld the tribunal’s appeal not to rezone Unagi Park into a commercial area.

He had stated then in part that he wished to protect public interest by “ensuring that land is used in accordance with sound physical planning principles (and/or) the need for continuity and consistency of policy or another reason”.

But the May 6 National Gazette now says the land has been rezoned. It is unclear why there has been a change of heart.

NCD Governor Powes Parkop said he would reserve his comments until he spoke with Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare and Sir Puka.

He admitted that he was not happy with the rezoning but would talk to the minister.

“Unagi Park should remain a public reserve for recreational purposes for the benefit of the city’s children and families,” he said.

It is understood NCDC has already instructed a law firm to go to court to fight this decision.

Virgo 65 and Fairhaven Limited are believed to be owned by individuals of Asian origin.

Mothers, children and youths who were using the park yesterday afternoon expressed their disgust when told about this decision.

One of the mothers who took her children out to enjoy the facilities yesterday Pat Nguna was worried and said that “If they removed the facilities then our children wont have a place to go to.”

Mrs Nguna and another mother Cathy Collin said there were no other place safer and convenient than that specific area as Erima is too dangerous and the other places are too far.

Jonathan Wii and Jonathan Kunjil were against the idea of developing the area for commercial.

Mr Kunjil said: “Why remove something that people enjoy, the government should allocate land elsewhere on unused land or remove settlements that occupy prime land to cater for commercial activities.”

A resident of Wewak Steven Tom who was transiting through Port Moresby to Lihir who was taking a break there admired what the governor of NCD is doing to beautify and develop the city’s parks.

He said “You hardly find these sorts of facilities around the country for families to enjoy and Port Moresby is privileged to have them. You should keep them

 

Prime Minister Somare steps in to fix LNG mess

By SUSUVE LAUMAEA

PRIME Minister Michael Somare has taken personal charge of advancing PNG’s second liquefied natural gas project development to project agreement status within days.

The Grand Chief has become the Mr Fix-it for poor showing by his ministerial and public service minions.

He has directed officials to furnish to him a professionally and PNG-produced project development agreement for Liquid Niugini liquefied natural gas project by Wednesday morning, (01 July 2009).

According to staffers, a visibly fuming Prime Minister told ministers and officials after a special cabinet meeting that their deceptive schemes and conspiracies to derail one project and behave as salesmen for another project was not in the nation’s best interest. The Grand Chief made his intervention last Friday after several of his key ministers and hand-picked Waigani bureaucrats connived to undermine progress of locking in InterOil Corporation’s planned two-train liquefied natural gas development project. Sir Michael wants both the InterOil and ExxonMobil projects developed simultaneously and on the same terms offered by the State.

The Prime Minister vented his ire on ministers and officials when he was given a project agreement concocted by a United Kingdom-based law firm called Allen & Overy who were engaged by the Department of Treasury to produce the document a week ago.

The law firm is also retained by ExxonMobil. The document produced at the behest of Treasury Department officials did not carry any negotiated and agreed position both the State and InterOil Corporation negotiation teams worked on over the last two years. The document was worded to deny InterOil’s LNG development company, Liquid Niugini Gas Limited any reasonable concessions and tax breaks that were accorded to ExxonMobil’s PNG LNG project.

Yet the State solicitor was coerced into giving his legal clearance to the hurriedly produced document last Wednesday.

Petroleum Minister William Duma and Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Paul Bengo became suspicious when they realised there were two documents doing the rounds in Waigani and not one.

That was when the Prime Minister made his intervention.

He ordered officials to give him one negotiated and agreed project agreement within five days commencing Friday afternoon and inclusive of Saturday and Sunday. Government officials spend Saturday and Sunday huddled in thought and work at a Port Moresby hotel to meet the deadline on Wednesday morning.

ExxonMobil and its partner Oil Search Limited are progressing towards building an LNG project in PNG for a total development cost of some K12 billion and InterOil is doing similarly for total development cost of some K10 billion.

Most of ExxonMobil’s LNG facility feedstock is located in PNG’s Southern Highlands Province.

InterOil Corporation’s LNG plant will rely on the company’s own Elk-Antelope world-class natural gas and crude oil reservoirs in the Upper Purari River area of PNG’s Gulf of Papua region. ExxonMobil has offered PNG 19.4 percent stake in its project while InterOil has offered PNG 32.5 percent in the upstream, midstream and downstream of its project development. State-owned Petromin Limited is already operating as InterOil Corporation’s partner in InterOil’s upstream exploration program at Elk-Antelope and is positioned to be a significant player in the Liquid Niugini Gas LNG project development. The InterOil project has also allowed for a domestic market obligation of some 40 million cubic metres of gas per annum to be used for PNG’s domestic consumption which the ExxonMobil project does not provide. InterOil will use the project to assist the host province’s long-denied economic development.

• Susuve Laumaea is an award-winning veteran PNG newspaper journalist. He writes a popular weekly Public Affairs column in Port Moresby-based weekly newspaper, Sunday Chronicle.

Crackdown

By ISAAC NICHOLAS in The National, Papua New Guinea’s leading daily newspaper

 

SIX suspects have been rounded up as police moved swiftly with bulldozers demolishing unlicenced liquor outlets and food stall from Erima Bridge to Five-Mile section of the Sir Hubert Murray Highway last Friday and Saturday.

Police, in a joint operation with PNG Power, NCDC and Eda Ranu, cut off illegal water and power connections while chainsaws were used to clear the rain trees, bananas and food gardens.

Almost 100 cartons of beer sold in unlicensed premises were confiscated by police as NCD metropolitan commander Chief Supt Fred Yakasa gave a stern warning to settlers to respect the laws or go back home to their village.

He also told the people that from now on, there would be no more sale, consumption of liquor and gambling along that stretch of road.

“My policemen will patrol these roads and they have been instructed to brukim lek na han (break legs and hands) of people caught breaking that order,” he warned.

Settlers gathered last Friday afternoon at Erima oval where Chief Supt Yakasa and his deputy Chief Insp Anderson Bawa appealed to them to hand in more than 10 people involved in the slaying of Dei MP Puri Ruing’s son and a relative last Wednesday night after the State of Origin II game.

Chief Supt Yakasa said six suspects had been taken in for questioning and appealed to the community to help surrender another 10-12 suspects still at large.

“Enough is enough. We have to do this operation to tell the people that there is law and people must have respect for the laws.” he said.

“I will continue to bulldoze illegal settlements. The Government now has a lot of money and what is a legal suit of K4 million compared to the lost of innocent lives.”

Chief Supt Yakasa said settlers had made illegal power and water connections and had been illegally selling alcohol for a very long time.

“What we are doing is to show you that your behavior and attitude is not accepted.”

He also commended Mr Ruing for not taking the law into his own hands and telling his people not to retaliate.

“Mr Ruing is a strong leader. I admire him and commend him for letting police handle the matter,” Chief Supt Yakasa said.

He also warned other settlements at Vadavada, Nine-Mile, Gerehu and Two-Mile Hill that police would move in and flush out people who harbour criminal elements.

He said police would move into Two-Mile Hill settlement on Wednesday and he would close all bus-stops along Two-Mile Hill where there have been numerous hold-ups and bag snatching from passengers.

 

Limitations (please click to enlarge)

 

Aussie families remember Montevideo Maru

By Ilya Gridneff of AAP

June 28, 2009 - 2:59PM

 

The hardest thing for families who lost relatives in the sinking of the Montevideo Maru (pictured)  during World War II was not knowing the fate of their loved ones.

But for those families, closure may finally come on Wednesday when a plaque is unveiled at an official ceremony marking Australia's worst maritime tragedy.

Ailsa Nisbet, 82, along with her daughter Marg Curtis and cousin Ron Hayes, will represent one of 15 Australian families at the July 1 memorial at Subic Bay, on the Philippines west coast.

They leave Melbourne on Monday to pay respects to Nisbet's brother Private John `Jack' Groat, who was on board the Montevideo Maru when it sank on July 1, 1942, carrying 845 prisoners of war from Australia's Lark Force and 208 civilian men.

The troops had been taken prisoner after Japan invaded Rabaul in Papua New Guinea's East New Britain province in January 1942.

The unmarked Japanese ship left occupied Rabaul on June 22, 1942 but nine days later an American submarine, unaware it was carrying allied prisoners, torpedoed it off the Philippines coast.

The sinking of the ship was not reported back to Australia, and for several years the fate of the prisoners of war was unknown.

Nisbet said for years it was a mystery as to what happened to her brother.

"The family was first told he was missing," she told AAP.

"Then they said `missing presumed dead', then we got a message he was a prisoner of war, then we got a letter from Jack saying he was being looked after by the Japanese.

"But that's all. Mum didn't hear what happened until late 1945.

"And there is still doubt about it," she said.

In 1997, Nisbet visited Rabaul to see where her brother was stationed and earlier this year for Anzac Day, Curtis and Hayes completed a three-day trek retracing the escape many Larkforce men had to make during Japanese occupation.

"It's a very emotional trip," Nisbet said.

"It's been many, many years and nothing has been heard of the Montevideo Maru and it's just all coming out now.

"I'm the last member of the family and it will be a closure for me to go up there."

Former federal Labor leader Kim Beazley, whose uncle Reverend Sydney Beazley was lost on the ship, is the patron of the Montevideo Maru Memorial Committee.

Phil Ainsworth, in the Philippines for the event, said the committee aims to get more national recognition for the tragedy.

"This memorial will give the families some comfort because even now 67 years later they still feel discomforted and in grief," he said.

Another attendee is Andrea Williams whose grandfather and great uncle were on board. She wants a government response similar to that for the recently-found HMAS Sydney, another World War II sea tragedy that claimed 645 lives.

"There is a fair amount of literature on the Montevideo sinking but there are some nagging specifics, like why there was no inquiry into the fate of these men," she said.

"It is still a secret as to why these men were left to their fate."

Australian archives had several passenger lists but they were inconsistent and there was no passenger manifest, she said.

"What has happened to the nominal roll of the men apparently on board?"

Veteran Affairs Minister Alan Griffin marked the 67th anniversary of the sinking of the Montevideo Maru by giving a speech to parliament last Friday.

Griffin said the Australian government put $7,200 towards the memorial and the Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Rod Smith will attend.

"I've spoken to individuals who lost family members as part of the Montevideo Maru and I know these things remain with people forever," he said.

"I express my heartfelt sympathy for their loss.

"I told parliament it was shrouded in mystery and that must have added to their loss."

 

How life in Asia has changed...13 ways

Adapted from an article by Nuri Vittachi, sometime journalist with the Macau Post and other newspapers in Asia.

 

1. The phrase 'Big Mac' referred to a large Scottish tourist.

2. The Queen of England was generally considered to be the Queen of the Whole Wide World.

3. At government offices you had to pay a special fee to do anything, including paying special fees.

4. Hairdresser referred to anyone who did haircuts, shaves and amateur surgical operations such as circumcisions [still true in certain parts of Asia]

5. Each city had just one TV station a few cinemas but there was a better choice of what to watch then even though we have over 500 channels and even fewer cinemas now.

6. If you wanted to withdraw money from a bank you had to take a day off work.

7. All light-haired, round-eyed people were referred to as Europeans, no matter where they came from. Former President George Bush is still referred to as a European in some parts of Asia.

8. Europeans were generally hated and despised but if one invited you to tea, it was considered a very great honour.

9. All toffee-coloured, curry-devouring people were known as Indians, even if they had been born raised and had lived and died without ever having been within a thousand kilometers of India.

10. Petrol was bought in tiny quantities, often in jam jars [still true today in parts of Indo-China and other places].

11. If you asked children their mother's name, they would often reply,'Which one?'.

12. Blood donating was seen as a legitimate way of earning money, and so was blood spilling.

13. When children got a boyfriend or girlfriend, the first question parents asked was 'What passport does he/she have?'