Rice growing takes off in Gazelle

Caption: Farmers from Lasul Bainings area at NARI Keravat with their rice for milling.-Picture by GADI LING

By GADI LING

It’s the festive Season and cocoa pod borer (CPB)-affected farmers within the Gazelle area of East New Britain province are rushing with their harvested rice to find mills for milling.

 With the presence of the destructive cocoa disease, these farmers will have less income this festive season to spend on rice, a staple food.

As an alternative solution, they have started growing rice themselves in a bigger way for household consumption, including sustaining intake during celebration periods such as this Christmas/New Year season.

Rice is one of the important crops targeted for food security and income generation in cocoa integrated cropping systems in ENBP.

This is now identified as part of CPB management strategy for smallholders in East New Britain by the CPB management committee.

The promotion on dry land rice farming is being done by various research and development organisations in the province such as National Agriculture Research Institute (NARI), Organisation for Industrial Spiritual & Cultural Advancement (OISCA), END division of primary industry (DPI), Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL), Cocoa Coconut Institute (CCI and University of Natural Resources and Environment’s (UNRE) Integrated Agriculture Training Programme (IATP). under Vudal University’s IATP training programme.

NARI’s Islands Regional Centre at Keravat and DAL Islands region have combined their efforts in promoting dry land rice growing in ENBP through  multiplication and supply of quality seeds and providing a milling service to smallholders.

 So far this year, NARI has supplied over 200kg of recommended quality rice seeds and milled well over five tons of harvested rice.

For the last two weeks, well over one ton was milled for the festive season alone.

Pictures of Rainbow Market, Port Moresby

These are pictures from Rainbow Market, Gerehu, Port Moresby, which were taken yesterday. Port Moresby is now into a brief respite during the December to March period, when the rain comes down in buckets and vegetables abound all over the capital city, as evident in these pictures. During this period, vegetable gardens can be seen all over the city, including precarious hillsides. Apart from the vegetables, you can buy fresh seafood such as fish, squid, octopus and sea shells as well as inland delicacies such as magani (wallaby) and tilapia, to name a few.

Leahy family helped open up Papua New Guinea Highlands to the outside world

By Rowan Callick, Asia-Pacific editor of The Australian

 

THE plane in which veteran pilot Richard Leahy almost died on a Papua New Guinea mountainside was appropriately registered as P2-MJL, the initials of his father Mick James Leahy - one of Australia's most colourful and successful explorers.

This was the feisty figure who led the expeditions in the early 1930s that established for the first time that the Highlands of PNG were not "empty" but packed with vibrant cultures.

Richard was born in Sydney in 1941 but soon with mother Jeanette joined his father, who had been in PNG since 1926.

His first wife Robin said yesterday: "He's been an aircraft fanatic since the age of four, it's his great love and interest. Practically every photo he has taken has an aircraft in it somewhere."

He extended this passion into his interest in history, discovering and photographing World War II plane wrecks all over the Pacific.

Richard learnt to fly in a Tiger Moth in Lae 50 years ago, and completed his training in Australia the following year, 1960. He bought his first Cessna - it was a Cessna in which he crashed on Wednesday - in 1967.

His father Mick - known widely as "Masta Mick" - died 30 years ago at Zenag, on a mountain top in Morobe province, where he is buried.

Born in 1901, he was the fourth of nine children of Irish migrants who had settled in Toowoomba. He and his brothers Paddy, Jim and Danny rushed to the Edie Creek gold strike in PNG in 1926.

There, writes historian Jim Griffin in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, "they learned the skills of prospecting and survival".

In 1930, seeking to trace gold upriver, he persuaded the Australian authorities to allow him to embark on the first of what were to become 10 expeditions into the Highlands.

Conventional wisdom held that the Highlands were virtually unoccupied, because the climate was too cold for tropical people. On an expedition with his brother Danny and Charles Marshall, they gazed over the Wahgi valley that was and remains one of the most populous parts of PNG - the first outsiders known to have ventured into the heart of the Highlands.

They found substantial gold only at Kuta in the Western Highlands. Mick summed up the Highlands to fellow expeditioner Jim Taylor: "Jim, good country, good climate, good kanakas, too good to find gold in."

Danny went on to become a coffee farmer, marrying a Highlander and establishing a separate dynasty that included Joe Leahy, the central figure in the widely applauded films of Bob Connolly and the late Robin Anderson, Joe Leahy's Neighbours and Black Harvest.

Connolly and Anderson had earlier made First Contact, which included footage of early expeditions of the Leahys.

Another Danny Leahy, a nephew of Masta Mick, who co-founded a distribution company, Collins and Leahy, became a major figure in rugby league and died a year ago as Sir Danny Leahy, the only member of the extraordinary family to be knighted - so far.

 

 

Hello, my name is Keith

Hello, my name is Keith Nalu, and I'm two years old, the baby of the Nalu family.

Dad took these pictures of me yesterday - New Year's Day - at our place with my red ball.

Dad took my sister Moasing, brother Gedi and me to the recreational park at Gerehu Stage Two yesterday where we had fun while he took pictures.

The eldest in our family, Malum Jr, is still in Lae where he has been since Grandma's death last September.

Dad then took us for a bus ride to his office at The National newspaper at Waigani, and after that, he treated us to ice cream at Big Rooster.

We caught a bus back home to Gerehu and Dad took pictures of us at the new fountain.

A Happy New Year to you all!

An icrecream for the New Year

I treated my three children Moasing (left), baby Keith and Gedi to a generous serve of icrecream at Big Rooster Waigani, opposite where I work at The National newspaper, for New Year's Day.

My eldest son, Jr Malum, is in Lae with my family and will be back in time for school.

International peacekeeping is not national priority

BY REG RENAGI

 

Madeline Arek’s recent National newspaper report, “PNGDF for peacekeeping duties” and Defence Minister Dadae’s media statements compels me to add that international peacekeeping is not a national priority as discussed here. 

 According to this news report, Parliament also recently passed the PNGDF Amendment Bill 2008 to allow among other things, committing our military to international peacekeeping duties in future.  A youth and school cadet programme towards nation building and national security are also in the pipeline. 

 The Minister’s statements have important strategic implications for PNG.  It surprisingly comes amidst no real parliamentary discussions on this issue and on related national security matters. 

 This important Defence Bill and others over the years are passed with little or no in-depth debate by politicians in parliament, and excludes the public.  Ongoing public opinion do determine much of our public policy considerations in formulating strategic government policies, hence, it is most crucial parliament fully debate all strategic implications with this bill before any legislative decisions can be made for obvious reasons.  

Defence must plan its future roles and activities better from here on as despite two Defence White Papers in 1996 and 1999 respectively and a near 62% cut in 2001, core Defence capacity has substantially eroded.  This seriously has affected Defence’s effectiveness to rapidly respond to national emergencies in recent years.  Here is the way ahead. 

 First of all, overseas peacekeeping missions for the PNGDF should not be a national priority at this stage.  Today’s national priority must be to now focus on homeland security by seriously addressing the most basic things lacking with our military.  The government must fully ensure the PNGDF is well equipped to deal with the many transnational security concerns PNG has now.   

 Secondly, get the PNGDF to start doing its basic functions well and fully resource it with a realistic budget of some 2.8% of GDP.    

 Thirdly, implement a realistic action plan now to systematically upgrade all three force elements in the next decade sound management synergies with all levels of the Defence organisation. 

 Fourthly, rather than deploy troops on peacekeeping duties overseas, get our Defence Force to do more national development programs in rural PNG.  The government must immediately establish a “Reserve Force” to directly contribute towards national security and development.  A ready reserve scheme can be activated immediately today in the provinces to ensure effective management of government goods and services to all provinces. 

 Last but not the least, develop and implement a creative youth and school cadet programme.  We must inculcate general, positive attitude and strong committed ethos of service to others by our young people.  It is time we fully harness them in leadership endeavours. 

PNG can now adopt a military reserve force concept to develop the mindset of our growing young population to serve their country to their fullest potential with pride, dedication and commitment.  This is one good way to protect PNG as a well secured and developed nation tomorrow.

Notwithstanding, I want to commend Minister Dadae in trying his best these past two years to improve Defence under very difficult conditions.  Defence is a difficult portfolio for any MP in recent years to successfully manage, especially when the government and parliament clearly lacks the required knowledge and skills in most matters concerning national security of PNG.  What Defence Ministry urgently needs now an immediate increase in manpower and budgetary support from the government and parliament, the department and defence force, Industry and general community. 

·        The writer is a former Defence chief, now a maritime school trainer and  freelance writer

 

What will it take, Papua New Guinea, to open the can of worms?

By REGINALD RENAGI

 

A popular Papua New Guinea blogger recently raised some pertinent questions: what will it take, what is the PNG Ombudsman Commission doing about this; and whether a written deal exists between the government and this public watch dog not to go after certain MPs referred to it for investigation? 

It embarrasses many Papua New Guineans to explain to anyone why the average politician in his/her country seems undeterred by public opinions of any kind.  Unlike some democracies, where politicians caught in misconduct cases will either resign, or step down to be investigated, but not so in PNG.  

In such cases to date, an implicated MP usually denies publicly any adverse reports about his alleged actions.  The errant politician will accuse the media of being misrepresented, misquoted by inexperienced journalists; and that local papers are spreading false stories to discredit his reputation. 

The MPs involved do not even feel disgraced at all, or feel compelled to temporarily step down from office to await  investigations (if any).  Despite public outrage, politicians unashamedly hold on to their jobs with the prime minister failing to take tough action to ensure parliamentarians (mostly in government) do the ‘right thing’ under the circumstances.   Over the years, successive prime ministers have all failed in this regard.

The citizenry today do not even bother about writing another useless letter of complaint to their local MP.  It is a complete waste of time.  Except for a handful, most ‘pollies’ are just big disappointments to their electorates.  The so-called ‘big men’ are either too busy doing something unrelated to their constituent’s interests, or simply ignores the complainant as a mere trouble-maker.

As for the PNG Ombudsman Commission (OC), it may soon be made powerless if the government has its way.  The OC started off well with a new Chief Ombudsman's (CO) appointment with ’gusto’. The new incumbent discontinued master’s studies in Australia to take up his political appointment under a newly elected government after the 2007 elections. From the outset, the CO publicly reminded the 'pollies' and senior beauracrats; the commission will do its job without fear or favour and keep public office holders on their toes.  This message was fully embraced by the public. But in recent times, this earlier passion may have somewhat waned.  This must not be so.

The familiar trend under all former COs repeats itself as political inertia takes over.  This sound familiar and the government know this.  It is a real pity it won’t fix the problem as the whole thing works in its favour.  As with most state institutions, the commission has limited resources with so much to do to clear a huge backlog of outstanding cases.  With little capacity and money, the OC has become like other state agencies waiting to be given adequate resources to do its job well.

Is there any secret written deal between the government and OC?  I do not believe there is, even if that is a perception now. The CO has found out what all his predecessors were frustrated about.  He is doing his best but is being swamped by the magnitude of the job.  

On the whole, the OC has to date done a sterling job, but it must do more than what it is doing now, or not doing; to put away some bad politicians behind bars.  It will need the help of the Attorney General’s office and all law enforcement agencies working as one team.

However, if that is not bad enough, the government now plans to pass a bill to further regulate the watch-dog.  It shows the government has something to fear to curb the powers of the commission. If this regulation bill is ever passed in parliament then PNG will experience more gross political abuses of power.  The end state will be the PNG Ombudsman Commission becoming a mere ‘paper tiger’ with no powers to stop ‘crooks’ occupying public offices in future.

In addition, PNG needs a chain reaction to be started by committed Department secretaries, government board chairmen, public and private sector, civil society and the general public to point-blankly tell their MPs just …’where to stick it’.  This may be just what it will take to stop them.