Lutheran team in Germany

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea general secretary Isaac Teo heads a four-man ELCPNG delegation which is currently in Germany.

The team, which left for Germany on Monday this week, comprises of Mr Teo, Pr Kinim Siloi of inter-church ecumenism at ELCPNG headquarters at Ampo in Lae, Siassi district president Joshua Max and youth co-ordinator Peter Konga.

They will spend three weeks in Germany and a week at Lutheran World Federation headquarters in Switzerland.

“The purpose of my trip is to strengthen relationships with our partners,” Mr Teo said before leaving for Germany.

“The other thing I will be doing is visiting the LWF in Geneva, Switzerland.

“Our visit to LWF will portray a good image of the country.

“We’re going to have a very tight schedule, one in which it will also be an opportunity to meet with former missionaries who used to work in PNG.”

Mr Teo said Siassi district president Mr Max would use the opportunity to establish contacts before Siassi celebrates 100 years of Lutheran presence in April 2011.

The team returns to PNG at the end of July.

 

Montevideo Maru tragedy remembered

Australia’s worst maritime tragedy, which intimately involves Papua New Guinea, was remembered in a stirring commemorative service and unveiling of a plaque at Subic Bay in the Phillipines on Wednesday.

This was the 67th anniversary of the sinking of the Montevideo Maru (pictured) off the Philippines coast on July 1, 1942.

Japanese hospital ship Montevideo Maru was carrying 845 troops from Australia’s Lark force and 208 civilians – 1,053 men – taken prisoner of war after Japan invaded Rabaul, East New Britain province, in Jan 1942.

The youngest was a boy of 15.

“There were fathers and sons, civilians and troops, missionaries and traders, businessmen and administrators,” Australia’s Ambassador to the Phillipines Rod Smith, who presided at the Montevideo Maru memorial service at Subic Bay, said.

“They had all been captured and interned by the Japanese in Rabaul.

“They all died.

“The youngest, the 15-year old, was Ivan Gascoigne, recorded as a clerk, the son of Cyril Gascoigne, who also died.

“The sinking of the Montevideo Maru at 2.40 am on Wednesday July 1, 942 was Australia’s greatest disaster at sea, then and now.”

The unmarked Japanese ship left occupied Rabaul on June 22, 1942, but nine days later on July 1, American submarine USS Sturgeon torpedoed it off Luzon in the Philippines.

The saddest thing is that the wreck has never been found to this day, and both Australia and PNG do not know the names of those killed, as the official nominal (katakana) roll – which might give a clue to the identities of those on board – has not been located

 “To the best of our knowledge, she carried 1,053 prisoners from the Australian Territory of New Guinea, one as young as 15,” Mr Smith said.

 “It remains one of our country’s worst disasters.

“This memorial to the Hell Ships of World War 2 now includes a commemorative plaque to mark the tragedy of the sinking of the Montevideo Maru 67 years ago today.

“The plaque has been placed here as a result of the generosity of a number of private organisations - the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles/PNG Volunteer Rifles Ex-Members Association, the Lark Force Association, the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia and the Greenbank Returned Services League Club in Brisbane.

“This tragedy is not forgotten.

“The families are not forgotten.

“These men are not forgotten.”

Call for review of Sorcery Act

By PISAI GUMAR in The National, Papua New Guinea’s leading daily newspaper

 

A CONFERENCE in Madang has called for a major review into the Sorcery Act of 1971.

There were recommendations that the act be redrafted with clear definitions.

The “Law on sorcery and sorcery-related killings” conference was held at the police training centre in Madang.

The conference was organised by the Public Prosecutions office and was attended by Divine Word University academics and officers from the law and justice sector nationwide.

Acting Public Prosecutor Jim Wala Tamate told the conference that the courts were dealing with “belief systems and not mere criminal acts, or rather, with criminal acts based on belief systems”.

He also said that sorcery was deeply rooted into customs and traditions.

Mr Tamate said that belief in the effectiveness of magical and sorcery practices were widespread in the country in various ethnic groups and levels of society.

He stated that sorcery was a very broad field because the practices were performed based on various general and personal interests including land matters, courtship, family and marriage relationships and much more.

Mr Tamate said that the subject needed proper research by knowledgeable researchers from different fields to define clearly the meaning of the various sorcery practices in PNG.

He also said that the penalties on sorcery-related crimes also had to be tougher for the sorcerers and “torturers” based on how serious the matter was.

“Sorcery should be clearly defined to help police and the courts to perform their duties effectively,” Mr Tamate said.

He added that sorcery practices had both good and bad side.

Good sorcery, he said, related to social support services to individual, family and community while bad sorcery meant killing a person without good reason.

 

Prime Minister shocked at reclassification of Unagi Park

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

 

A previous member of the Lands Board may have conducted himself improperly in the sale of the land known as Unagi Park, now the subject of controversy and potential legal action.

The reclassification of the Unagi Park (allotment 4 to 16 section 122 Hohola) from reserve/recreational to commercial had shocked Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare when it first surfaced.

In November 2005, and again in June 2007, the Prime Minister wrote to Lands Minister Sir Puka Temu to investigate this land deal.

Sir Michael said if the land was indeed granted initially to the National Capital District Commission for recreational purpose, then the reclassification (to commercial) should be reversed.

It is unclear if any investigation requested by the Prime Minister was carried out.

Sir Puka refused to comment when contacted by phone yesterday.

He said he would make a detailed public statement today.

The Prime Minister’s Media Unit also declined comment, referring The National to the Lands Department.

Two companies, Virgo No. 65 Limited and Fairhaven Limited, are claiming ownership of the land and have asked NCDC to remove all playground equipment from the park.

The NCDC is opposing this, insisting the land is reserved as a park and is preparing to go to court.

Company documents obtained by The National show that former Lands Board chairman John Tangila was a shareholder of Virgo No. 65 Pty Ltd, a company incorporated on Jan 19, 1998.

The documents show a number of other people, believed to be family members of Tangila, as shareholders.

They all have a Mt Hagen address.

The company was later sold to three naturalised citizens, who now want to have the Unagi Park developed for commercial purpose.

A number of church, women and youth groups, opposed to this land being developed for commercial purpose, approached the Prime Minister to intervene.

In November 2005, the Prime Minister instructed Sir Puka to provide him with an intense brief into how the reclassification of Unagi Park was made.

In the second letter, written in June 2007, Sir Michael expressed “surprise and shock” that his orders in 2005 for an investigation into how the land was reclassified were not adhered to.

Sir Michael had expressed concern that the land was not lawfully obtained by individuals and organisations stating claim to it, and had advised the minister to immediately investigate how it was reclassified.

The brief was to include whether the mentioned parcels of land (allotments 4 to 16, section 122, Hohola, Gordon) were first granted to the NCDC as special purpose; why the lease granted to NCDC was cancelled and the area rezoned to commercial; if there had been any new grants done to other persons or organisations and, if there had, then to whom were the respective parcels granted to and when.

The report was to be made available to Sir Michael “as soon as possible”, as he strongly believed that “if all investigations reveal that these parcels of land were firstly granted to NCDC to be used for recreational purposes, then all or any other grants should be cancelled”.

On June 29, 2007, in another letter to Sir Puka, Sir Michael expressed frustration that despite his Government’s election promise to investigate all unscrupulous land deals in the country as a matter of priority, the Unagi Park deal had been allowed to go through.

 

Latest pictures of my cucumber garden

And for those of you who have been following the saga of my kids, me and our cucumber garden, here are latest pictures of our cucumber patch today.
Nice, green, and flowering.
I'll keep you posted.

Malum

Let's keep the playground

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

 

DEPUTY Prime Minister and Lands Minister Sir Puka Temu cannot just remove from the public a prime piece of land which has been zoned reserve land for recreational purposes.

We understand that the said land has never had its “special purposes lease for recreation” revoked. This piece of land, for those familiar with Port Moresby, is that large tract of land which lies opposite the SP Brewery and extends to the Gordon police station.

Just rezoning the land for “commercial purposes” does not make it right or legal as the particular tract of land in Port Moresby’s Gordon suburb has been subject of dispute going as far back as 1985.

We refer Sir Puka to the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee report into this portion of land which was originally described as section 122 Hohola.

The PAC reported the Lands Board has “granted and the department (of Lands) has issued State leases over land that was, and still is, zoned as Reserved Open Space Land for the benefit of the public”.

The PAC report reads in part: “Consideration of the facts shows a clear pattern of conscious illegality in the Lands Board and (at best) cooperation by the Department of Lands and Physical Planning.

“The dealings also well demonstrate the paralysis of action that attends the Department of Lands, even when the illegalities of lease issue are known to the department and have been publicly acknowledged by it.

“The history of this parcel is complex ... but the grants and issues of private title over all of section 122 Hohola are unlawful and require immediate action from the National Government to rectify the defects and/or reinstate this valuable public asset – if indeed it is not too late to do so.”

The PAC report containing the above comments and recommendations was presented to Parliament long before Sir Puka made his decision.

Apparently, the National Government took no action to rectify the defects or reinstate this valuable public asset and it is already far too late.

The land was zoned as “Reserved Land” as far back as 1985 and for a time, the entire lot was used as public recreational land.

It acquired the name Unagi Oval after the late former lord mayor of Port Moresby and Moresby Northeast MP, David Unagi.

That land has been subdivided into many lots and according to the PAC, has been “unlawfully granted to private ownership”.

The entire tract of land was declared in 1969 as section 122, Hohola. The first subdivisions were made in 1982 and the land was divided into lots 1-7.

On Nov 28, 1985, allotment 1 section 122 was “reserved from lease” for the purposes of “public recreation”, published in the National Gazette and a trusteeship was vested in the NCD Interim Commission.

In 1990, further subdivisions were done and others subsumed under the new lots. A 15m wide road was then carved out from part of the land. After yet another subdivision and merging action in 1997, lots 1 to 5 and 11 of section 122, Hohola were cancelled. They ceased to exist.

Although these sections ceased to exist subsequent dealings were conducted with allotments 1, 2, 12 and 13 by the Lands Board and the Department of Lands and Physical Planning.

This is the confusing state of affairs surrounding this piece of land which the minister has now decided to pass off as commercial land.

While it is his prerogative to do so, we are alarmed and disturbed that the minister has chosen to do so when the capital city is deprived of recreational land.

The PAC concluded, following its examination of the relevant details that “the State has been deprived unlawfully, of a large and valuable tract of land for no or no adequate recompense, that the State has been exposed to liability by departmental actions and failures and that the public have been deprived, quite illegally, of prime recreational land”.

The PAC report refers to certain illegal deals and transfers of titles between certain private companies, various Lands Board chairmen and the Department of Lands but we will not go into that.

Suffice it to say that the NCDC and the public had lost zoned Reserved Land, the State had received no recompense and there are questions about the legality of the entire process.

More worrying is the failure of the department to protect this asset in the first place.

The whole saga is very complicated and should be the subject of a deeper inquiry not to be bundled off and forgotten by a rezoning decision. It just will not do, Mr Minister.

 

Activist campaigns to save Unagi Park.

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

 

A WOMAN activist has gone on the campaign trail following the reclassification of the Unagi Park at Five-Mile in Port Moresby from a public reserve to commercial.

She is calling on everyone in the city to help her fight against the commercialisation of the park.

The park has been reclassified from an open space or public reserve to a commercial area by a May 6 National Gazettal notice authorised by Lands and Physical Planning Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Sir Puka Temu.

Dorothy Tekwie, a staunch human rights yesterday initiated the “Save Unagi Oval/Children playground Campaign” in a bid to allow the area to remain as it currently is – a park to be used by city residents, especially children.

In an email note to friends and colleagues, Ms Tekwie said for far too long, the Government had stood by and watched recreational areas being sold off to “greedy foreign business interest” and she would not watch the same being done to the

Unagi Park.

She said her campaign was to “save these last pieces of limited public recreational land in the city for our children to play and enjoy”.

She urged city residents to join her expose another insensitive, irresponsible and corrupt decision by the Government to deny children and others the right to recreational services in the city.

Since The National ran the story yesterday, city residents have expressed disgust at the Government over its actions, calling it an act of greed that was in the interest of foreign businesses.

Several people The National spoke to raised concerns over the manner in which Sir Puka had gone back on his earlier decision to allow the land to remain a public reserve.

They also expressed concern that in future, Port Moresby would run out of parks and public reserves.

Michael, who lives at Hohola Four, makes the weekly pilgrim there with his daughter Aliya, who has fallen in love with the slide.

When told about the reclassification of Unagi Park, he asked: “Where else can we take our children to play and enjoy themselves outdoors?

“Take a look around the city and you will see new buildings springing up everywhere. But there’s no place for our children to play and enjoy themselves.”

Janet, who lives at Erima and regularly commutes to work along that route, said “it’s a bad decision”.

“The park is nice as it is.

“It allows a break for the eye, especially when you’re bombarded with ugly buildings all over the place and betelnut vendors plying their untidy trade,” the young mother said.

She continued: “I don’t know who the developers are but if they want to change that into an amusement park or someplace where families can retire to, then okay, but another ugly building smack bang in the middle of that beautiful peace of land would be a disaster and the minister should seriously reconsider his decision.”

Linda, a betelnut vendor who has been enjoying the facilities with her children since NCD Governor Powes Parkop “lit up the place”, was extremely annoyed when she sighted The National yesterday and said the minister had lost the plot.

“He said something and then went back on his word.

“These businesses who have title to the land should go to Eight-Mile or Nine-Mile and conduct their affairs.  “Leave the park alone,” the disgruntled Engan woman said.