Malum Nalu

Friday, August 14, 2009

A rare opportunity to invest in a landmark film

Producer John Schindler reports that production of his documentary The Tragedy of the Montevideo Maru is progressing well and the series will be complete late October ready for screening on Foxtel.

This project has been the beneficiary of a great deal of John’s personal as well as professional commitment.

John mortgaged his home to achieve a budget to make a film that would live up to and be worthy of its epic subject matter.

“I had to invest $96,000 of my own money in the series; it just had to be done,” says John. “The story deserved to be told well and, to achieve this, our team needed to have a reasonable budget.”

John is now seeking two investors prepared to commit $48,000 each against future sales of the documentary.

“Even if we found just one it would take a big weight off my shoulders,” he says.

Investors will share in proceeds from the series, except for the Foxtel license fee which has been invested back into the project.

Other revenue sources to be negotiated include::

· Australian and worldwide DVD sales;

· Sales of the series to the USA, UK, Norway, Japan and elsewhere;

· Australian sales two years after the series goes to air on Foxtel; and

· A book

“Investors will also be contributing to the making of a landmark television series that will make many Australians aware of the Montevideo Maru tragedy and the events in Rabaul that led up to it,” says John.

“I will keep them personally informed of developments, they will be honoured guests at the Sydney and/or Brisbane premier, they will be invited on location for the filming of re-enactments and, of course, their names will feature in the credits.

If you are interested, or know someone who might be, get in touch with John Schindler at (07) 3267 0515, john@schindler.com.au or at PO Box 303, Northgate, Queensland 4013.

If potential investors wants to know more about legal and accounting aspects they are welcome to speak with the film’s lawyer Hendrik De Korte on (07) 3340 5193 and the film’s accountant Robert Edwards on (07) 3391 6300.

Certified products can command better prices on world market

Coffee being dried in a typical Papua New Guinea Highlands village. Our coffee can command premium prices if organically certified

Tom Kukhang…products must be properly certified

Prominent scientist Tom Kukhang has called for the establishment of a supervisory body to monitor certification in Papua New Guinea.
Mr Kukhang, who is country representative for Certification of Environmental Standards (CERES), told the National Development Forum that the National Agriculture Development Plan (NADP) must seriously consider financing of smallholder agricultural organisations for Organic and Fair Trade certification.
He called for a study to be conducted into potential smallholder food crops for exports.
Certification is the labeling of commodities or agricultural produces that meet a certain requirement - humanitarian, environmental, biological, chemical, origin, methodology or a combination of these – for specialty or a common market.
Common types of certification are Organic, Fair Trade, Global Gap & UTZ, Rain Forest Alliance, Starbucks CAFÉ Practices and Bird Friendly.
Mr Kukhang said certification was a marking tool which ensured responsible trade and should be used for reasons of social, economic, environmental and product quality.
He said certification also ensured personal trust, private associations, independent certification and professionalism – which all led to increasing volumes of trade.
Mr Kukhang produced graphs showing that demand, yield and prices of organic produce were increasing worldwide.
Rural communities in PNG can get their food crops, commodity crops, livestock, apiculture, flowers, wild fruits, native fruits, sea foods, coffee, vanilla, cocoa, honey, rhododendrons, sugar fruit, ripe bananas and prawns properly certified and command higher prices.
Those in PNG who can be certified include producer units, processors and packaging units and exporters.
In PNG, those who can certify include CERES (PNG/Germany), NAASA (Australia) and FLO (Germany/Australia).

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Pictures of Moasing's 5th birthday party

Our Princess Moasing turned five today and her three brothers Keith (2), Gedi (7) and Jr Malum (8) had a party tonight with lots of cake and ice eam as Moasing wanted.

She really is the apple of my eye and gets more and more beautiful every day

Bittersweet, however, with Mum, my dear wife Hula, not around to celebrate with us.

Thank you to all those wonderful people from around Papua New Guinea and the world who sent in their birthday greetings to Moasing.

There have been countless number of calls from the Opposition, NGOs and unions for the National Alliance-led government to step down.

Is this not a cause for concern by the current political leadership?

Whose voice can the leaders hear?

The Ombudsman Commission has been rendered toothless?

The Supreme Court?

Some areas of the judicial have been ineffective.

Parliament and the Speaker have been almost hijacked by the butt of a cheque leaf. Who knows what the amount may be?

Who next would be the voice for the NA led leadership to listen to?

Where is the effective voice of the masses of the population, when the Police Commissioner puts stop to any form or size of protest or rally nation wide?

Why the suppression tactic?

Whose interest is the Commissioner covering?

Where is the democracy and the freedom and the right to expression by the people?

Our nation needs a voice so badly, apart from the media, is there not a cause for concern?

Only God can raise up a man with a voice that can make a difference.

Bapa Bomoteng

LAE