Stolen aid and charitable donations in Sri Lanka

From John Fowke

Malum: Regarding this item, I myself gave K2000 -( I was born in Sri lanka and my family goes back there to around 1660)-to a fund raised in Mt Hagen by a Sri Lankan and never received any news of what happened to the money. Most unsatisfactory- it happens too often.

John

COLOMBO – Nearly half a billion dollars in tsunami aid for Sri Lanka is unaccounted for and over 600 million dollars has been spent on projects unrelated to the disaster, an anti-corruption watchdog said Saturday.

Berlin-based Transparency International demanded an audit of the money received by the Sri Lankan government to help victims of the Asian tsunami which hit the island on December 26, 2004, killing 31,000 people.

The group's Sri Lankan chapter said the public have a right to know how the aid money was spent as the tropical nation marked the fifth anniversary of the tsunami.

The group alleged that out of 2.2 billion dollars received for relief, 603.4 million dollars was spent on projects unrelated to the disaster.

Another half a billion dollars was missing, the group said.

"There is no precise evidence to explain the missing sum of 471.9 million dollars," the Transparency International statement issued in Colombo added.

An "audit should be done by the government to explain the utilisation of the money received and the challenges faced," the group said.

An government official declined comment Saturday on the allegations but Colombo has consistently rejected such accusations in the past.

An initial government audit in 2005 found that less than 13 percent of the aid had been spent, but there has been no formal examination since, Transparency International said.

This post was submitted by AFP.

Papua New Guinea Livestock officer trained in Japan

Wandamu Palau of NARI (right) and poultry training participants on practical in Japan

Wandamu Palau of NARI on a practical during poultry training in Japan

Wandamu Palau of NARI (standing second from right) with poultry training participantsin Japan

A Papua New Guinea livestock research officer returned recently from Japan armed with new and improved skills and information on poultry production.
Keravat-based National Agriculture Research Institute officer, Wandamu Palau, attended a three-month poultry training at Fukushima, facilitated by the Japanese National Livestock Breeding Center (NLBC).

The training, sponsored by the Japanese International Corporation Agency, eventuated from Sept 1 to Nov 28.
Mr Palau said some useful information he learnt from this training which would be useful to NARI poultry development initiatives, especially at its Islands regional centre at Keravat, including specific skills in:
· Nutrition physiology in poultry;
· Feed analysis methods;
· General hygiene management and inspection methods in broiler and layer farm;
· Manure fermentation and utilisation;
· Science in chicken meat;
· Breeding local specialty chickens;
· Artificial insemination;
· Vent sexing of day-old chicks; and
· Sensory testing of different poultry meat.
Mr Palau said all or most facets of Japan’s poultry production system were mechanised and there is limited human input in poultry operation.
It was an experience to see and compare how PNG differed from the developed world like Japan, as far as production systems are concerned.
A number of field activities were undertaken as part of the training.
One practical was in disease prevention technology in which fecal samples of pintail migratory birds were harvested in Lake Towada in Northern Japan and HA and HI lab tests for detection of HPAI virus (Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Virus) were performed.
The Pintail migratory birds migrate to North of Japan to rest in winter season and travel widely between Russian, California, and Alaska.
Nine countries benefited from this training which included Bangladesh and Ghana in West Africa (two participants each) while Malawi, Uganda, Egypt, Myanmar, PNG, Sri Lanka and Ukraine (former Russian Republic) had one participant each.

I have a quite Christmas

I had a quite Christmas with my children and am now back at work here at The National newspaper, all fired up and raring to face the New Year 2010.

I pretty much stayed at home with my kids over the last two days, as well as caught up on some much-needed sleep.

At Gerehu, next to where I live, we had the launching of our new fountain by National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop on Christmas evening.

My elder son, Jr Malum, is still in Lae, has been since my Mum’s passing in September, so I only had Gedi (7), Moasing (5) and Keith (2) to keep me company.

I’m looking to Jr joining us later this week.

 

Malum

A farmer in the making

Story and picture by  SOLDIER BURUKA of Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL)

 

Seith Nick is a six-year-old and attends elementary class at Erap primary school near Lae, Morobe province, Papua New Guinea.

He stays with his parents at the Department of Agriculture and Livestock station at Erap.  where dad works as a laborer taking care of sheep, goat and cows.

For young Seith his spare time is spent tending to the livestock as this picture shows.

700 YEAR OLD VILLAGE IN IRAN

Troglodyte village in IRAN  700 years old - In the north west of Iran at the foot of Mount Sahand in Kandovan, The villagers live in cave homes carved out from the volcanic rock. The age of some houses is more than 700 years.

Release of 'Through The Eye Of The Storm'

 Dr Limbie Kelegai's much-acclaimed autobiography Through the Eye of the Storm (http://malumnalu.blogspot.com/2009/10/weathering-eye-of-storm-book-review.html) has been released and is now available from the Christian Books Melanesia at Garden City, Boroko, Port Moresby.

This powerful book by Dr Kelegai tells of how he overcame being a quadriplegic to achieve his dreams.

Dr Kelegai, from Ialibu, Southern Highlands province, sustained a spinal injury in 1980 in a rugby league accident in Lae and became a quadriplegic while studying at the University of Technology.

On the night of Sept 22, 2005, Dr Kelegai received his PhD in information technology from the vice chancellor of the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia.

His two sons were on either side proudly groomed in their traditional Ialibuan attire.

The rest of his family was very close in the rows soaking the accolade with pride and joy - it was a momentous evening.

This was the pinnacle in Dr Kelegai’s career.

This is the story of how this young man lived through trauma with hope to achieve his dreams: never giving up regardless of the enormity of the trauma.

It is a love story of how he met his wife Rose, a nurse at the Angau Memorial Hospital in Lae, and how she stuck with him through good and bad times,

In these times, this book reminds us of the values we have lost: self-worth, self-belief, courage in the face of adversity and the power of hope.

It is a celebration of our heritage and our people and is a much-needed source of inspiration to instil hope in the hearts of many throughout this country

Sri Lankan tsunami aid misappropriated - watchdog panel

From PAUL OATES

It's very hard not to be cynical when you see these reports. I wonder what happened to the billions sent to other countries in the region?
This is an excellent example of what happens when 'guilt' money is extracted from so called developed nations and given to so called developing nations. There is a very close parallel between this example and what will happen to any carbon credit money extracted from the 'developed' nations and given to the 'developing' nations.
No wonder the 'developing' nations don't want any independent monitoring of where the money goes. If they are worried about so called 'sovereignty' issues, why take the money in the first place? Since when did 'sovereignty' ever worry the leaders of these countries anyway when there was a quick, non accountable billion to be made?
_________________________
Sri Lankan tsunami aid misappropriated - watchdog panel
Article from: Agence France-Presse
December 27, 2009 07:45am

NEARLY $537 million in tsunami aid for Sri Lanka is unaccounted for and over $686 million has been spent on projects unrelated to the disaster, an anti-corruption watchdog says.
Berlin-based Transparency International has demanded an audit of the money received by the Sri Lankan government to help victims of the Asian tsunami which hit the island on December 26, 2004, killing 31,000 people.
The group's Sri Lankan chapter said on Saturday the public have a right to know how the aid money was spent, as the tropical nation marked the fifth anniversary of the tsunami.
The group alleged that out of $2.5 billion received for relief, $686.23 million was spent on projects unrelated to the disaster.
Another $536.68 million is missing, the group said.
"There is no precise evidence to explain the missing sum of $536.68 million," Transparency International said.
An "audit should be done by the government to explain the utilisation of the money received and the challenges faced," the group said.
A government official yesterday declined comment on the allegations, but Colombo has consistently rejected such accusations in the past.
An initial government audit in 2005 found that less than 13 per cent of the aid had been spent, but there has been no formal examination since, Transparency International said.