UNRE prepares for national events

By UNRE Public Relations

 

Head of the University of Natural Resources and Environment’s student support services, Michael Kukne, is confident that the university will fare well in two upcoming national tertiary student activities.

The university is sending a team of eight students to the Papua New Guinea national youth debate in Madang, while a 167-strong men team will participate at the National Union of Students (NUS) games at the University of Technology in Lae from June 28 to July 4.

Mr Kukne said students had been actively preparing for the two activities for the last two months and he had no doubt they would positively promote the image of the university through their participation as well as their interaction with their peers.

He said the purpose of the debate, which would be staged at Divine Word University from June 21-25, was to involve youth, universities and other tertiary institutions in researching, analysing, considering and forming considered opinions on the PNG responses to the HIV epidemic.

He said the debate was facilitated and funded by PNG National AIDS Council (NAC) and was open to six universities.

All costs (travel, accommodation and meals) will be met by NAC.

The topics to be debated are provocative and designed to ensure a range of HIV-related issues are covered.

Mr Kukne said members of the winning team would become the Prime Minister’s HIV ambassadors for a 12 month-period and be offered a Lahara cadetship at the office of the director of the NAC Secretariat.

He said the final eight students who would represent the university, were selected from mini-debates that were held at the university’s Vudal Campus.

The students will be accompanied by Mr Kukne as coordinator and another university staff, George Korowi, as coach.

Another three staff will accompany students participating in the NUS Games.

Mr Kukne said the university would be represented in soccer, basketball, volleyball, rugby league, rugby touch and union; and urged all participating students to pay their levy fee of K100 each.

He also called on the students to remember that as ambassadors of the university they were abide by its governing rules and regulations, which included its “zero tolerance” stand on alcohol.

The teams have approximately two weeks left for their respective training and rehearsals.

The thin edge of the wedge

From PAUL OATES

The Papua New Guinea government has on Friday the 28th of May 2010 introduced new environmental legislation into Parliament that contains the following clause;
"The director's decision is final and cannot be challenged in any court of law!"
This clause in effect, nullifies any future, possible court action by landowners who may try to protect their environment by way of a court injunction.
The PNG Parliament has voted 73 - 10 to stop any further injunctions being issued, such as the one preventing the Ramu Nickel mine from annually pumping millions of tonnes of waste out into the sea off Madang until an environmental impact study is properly reviewed.
On a positive note, at least 10 members had the guts and far sightedness to vote against the Bill. These 10 should be supported for
their refusal to join a 'lemming like stampede' by other members to destroy their country and their children's future.
History will mark this action by the Somare government as 'the point of no return'.
The implications of this new legislation are very important and far reaching. It signifies that the Somare government now intends to effectively gag all future legal action over the environment by concerned PNG citizens. This is the 'thin edge of the wedge'. By this action, the PNG government has shown that it clearly in future intends to ride roughshod over the rights of its citizens and their Constitutional legal system.
This is the 'thin edge of the wedge'. PNG's Constitution is now directly threatened by the very person who helped write it and swore to uphold it. A large, 'red flag' has now been effectively raised that all PNG citizens should take particular note of.

New gate for UNRE

By UNRE Public Relations

 

A second access boom gate (pictured)  is being constructed at the Vudal Campus of the University of Natural Resources and Environment.

The gate, which is located at the campus’s Guangdong Village, is a security measure to monitor and control access to the campus by vehicles as well as pedestrians.

It is also being constructed to provide a safe and peaceful environment for all campus residents.

The access gate will be manned 24-hours a day by university security personnel.

Acting estate and services manager Mike Ambrose said this step was taken following numerous concerns raised by staff residing at the village on speeding vehicles, vandalism and stealing at their residences.

Mr Ambrose said all vehicles including university vehicles would not be allowed to enter the university through Guandong Village after hours (4:06pm) and on weekends.    

All vehicles must use the main university gate during those times.

Once completed, Mr Ambrose said the current access gate near the Guangdong Village monument, would be permanently locked.

Meanwhile, many campus residents have raised concerns about vehicles travelling at high speeds within the campus.

Suggestions offered to control this also include speed limit signs at the main gate as well as within the campus and spot checks by security personnel on offending drivers and their vehicles.

A gift from the heart of a child

Tulani Suitawa (back) with staff and students of UNRE Honey Bee Play School after her presentation

By VERONICA MANUK

A little school girl selling her belongings to help other children with their education is a rare sight for many.
Eleven-year-old Tulani Suitawa, a grade six student at Sacred Heart Primary School in Rabaul recently raised and donated K200 and other items to the recently-established Honey Bee Play School of PNG University of Natural Resources and Environment.
It was not known to many, why the youngster spent a Saturday afternoon two weeks ago behind the university mini-mart selling her old school bags and bilums; and clothes and shoes she had grown out of.
After the sale, Tulani told her family her intention to donate her old toys to children at the Honey Bee Play School.
She and surrogate sister Lamella packed the toys and other items, which Lamella delivered to school committee chairperson, Naomi Gioven.
Mrs Gioven, however, insisted that the donation was special and requested that Tulani personally present the items to the children, so Tulani and her family went to the school to make the presentation.
Apart from donating the soft toy collection that she amassed since she was born, Tulani also donated two soccer balls, two basketballs, her entire collection of crayons and colour pencils, pages from her old exercise books and magazines for the children’s arts and craft class.
She also donated a box of band-aids and cotton balls towards the school’s first aid kit.
During the presentation, she and Lamella also presented the K200 that they had made from the sales of their second-hand items to Mrs Gioven.
They had made K100 each that day and had decided that children at the school needed it more.
Mrs Gioven, who appreciated the assistance, described it as timely.
She said for a child to give at an early age was a challenge for many adults.
Mrs Gioven said: “Many of us are at the receiving end; we do not want to give, even if it is finance, love or respect. Life is all about giving.”
She said when it came to helping others; most people looked outside for bigger donations.
“Little Tulani’s donation shows us that we can make things happen with what we have,” she said.
Mrs Gioven has since written a formal letter to Tulani, on behalf of the school committee thanking her for her gesture.
It is the youngster’s first important letter and she has placed it carefully amongst her other prized possessions.
Tulani’s mother, Lythia, expressed pride at her daughter’s act of kindness.
“At first I didn’t really take notice of what she and Lamella were doing. My husband and I are always giving so it just seemed natural that Tulani would do something like that. Not really worth a fuss,” she said.
“It wasn’t until Mrs Gioven and other members of the Honey Bee school committee expressed their appreciation that I realised how truly a selfless act it was, especially for a child. Like any mother I am very proud of her and of Lamella for putting others before themselves.”
Ms Suitawa said, however, that the donation also taught her daughter a valuable life lesson.
“On the day Tulani made the donation, she didn’t know that as she was giving away four balls, two new soccer balls had already been bought for her. Not just any soccer ball but the one she had always wanted, with pictures of soccer greats on it,” she said.
Tulani’s father had bought the balls before he heard that she was giving away her toys.
“Through her small donation Tulani learnt that God does bless those who give. She sold her old clothes and shoes, gave away most of her toys, crayons and colour pencils but is now eagerly looking forward to receiving not one but two new soccer balls that she thought she would never have,” Ms Suitawa said.
When asked what prompted her to make the donation, Tulani said it was because she wanted to help the children.
“I am always reminded by my mother that I am blessed to have the things that I have so I wanted to share with other children,” she said.
“It wasn’t really hard to do because giving is a way of life in my family. My grandparents are always helping others and at home I see my parents give all the time, even to people we don’t know.”
Tulani said it made her sad to part with toys that had been with her since her earliest memories, but she knew that she did not need them anymore.
“I’m older now so the children will appreciate them more. That makes me happy,” she said.
Tulani said, however, that her biggest satisfaction came from making her parents proud of her.
“My father called just to say he was proud of me and my mother couldn’t stop smiling so I was glad Lala and I made the donation.
“It proved that what my parents do and want to teach me is true. It is better to give than to receive.”

Preserving our environment for our children

By UNRE Public Relations

 

One thing we owe the future generations of Papua New Guinea, is to ensure that we leave them with an environment which is at least as good as it is today.

This is according to University of Natural Resources and Environment (UNRE) lecturer, Joachim Pitala.

Mr Pitala, who lectures in natural resources and plant nutrition, said managing our natural resources, land, water, plants and animals was one of the greatest challenges facing PNG today.

He said present data indicated that over the past 30 years, the major causes of deforestation and forest degradation in PNG had been logging and subsistence agriculture with net forest changes of 48.2 % and 45.6 %, respectively.

Mr Pitala said the question one might ask is if there were ways of combining agriculture and forestry management practices that could provide goods and services to people while at the same time, play a role in the protection and conservation of our major natural resources, particularly renewable natural resources.

He said a variety of land-use practices exist that combined the production of agricultural crops, livestock production, forestry and other production systems which provided ecological stability and sustainable benefits to uses of land.

Those practices are commonly known as agro-forestry land-use interventions.

Mr Pitala said agro-forestry was not a new system or concept to PNG.

He said while the term was new, the practice was very old.

“Papua New Guineans have been raising trees and crops together traditionally on the same garden land.

“The crops provide foodstuff, whilst trees provide foods as well as wood for construction of houses, fuel wood, shelter, clothing, tools, recreation and many more,” he said.

The lecturer said the International Council for Research in Agro-forestry (ICRAF) defined agro-forestry as a “collective word for all land-use systems and practices in which woody perennials are deliberately grown on the same land management unit as crops and /or animals”.

He said it was a multi-tiered concept that could be broadly divided into three functional elements: agriculture, forestry and environmental functions.

Mr Pitala said from the ICRAF definition it was clear that the aim of agro-foresty was twofold.

This was to conserve and improve the site, which was, land; and to optimise the combined production of forestry and agricultural crops and animal husbandry.

 

Cocoa production increases at Vudal

By UNRE Public Relations

 

Cocoa production at the University of Natural Resources and Environment’s Vudal campus farm has begun to pick up.

This has been through the tireless efforts of cocoa unit supervisor Michael Humbuku and his men.

Since the invasion of cocoa pod borer (CPB) in East New Britain in 2006, the cocoa unit has been working hard to combat the pest using manual control.

This is because chemicals are expensive.

According to Mr Humbuku, cocoa was a good revenue source for the university.

He said before CPB hit the province, the farm produced more than 20 bags of dry beans every month.

More than K40, 000 was lost when the plant disease spread through the university’s cocoa plantations four years ago; however, Mr Humbuku said his unit did not give up.

They cut down all the cocoa trees and replanted new ones with proper management.

Cocoa seedlings that were planted in July 2007 in blocks 19 and 20 are being harvested this month.

The seedlings planted last year will be harvested next year.

Mr Humbuku said so far a total of six bags of wet beans had been harvested this month and production was expected to increase in the coming months.

The unit has planted a total of 14 hectares of cocoa seedlings with 31 hectares more to go.

The cocoa unit uses a simple technique to control CPB, which can assist local farmers greatly.

Mr Humbuku said its management skill did not require money, only labour and commitment.

Local farmers can get more information from Mr Humbuku at the university farm.

 

Shocking facts about smoking in Papua New Guinea

Information supplied by National Narcotics Bureau

 

A past survey done in selected Schools in National Capital District indicated the following grim statistics:

·       31.3% of students have tried smoking

·       14.8% of students in NCD smoke regularly

·       The most-common age of initiation is 12-13 years.

·       Peer pressure and desire for experimentation are two important factors for initiation.

·       Students are exposed to environmental smoke both in their homes and in public places

·       Half of the students were taught at school the dangers of smoking

 Equally alarming, statistics available from the Health Department indicate the fact that hundreds of persons who have never smoked, die each year from diseases caused by breathing second-hand tobacco smoke.

 The collateral damage is equally alarming.

 Cigarette smoke contains thousands of identified chemicals, at least 250 of which are known to be carcinogenic or otherwise toxic.

Among those chemicals and toxins are the deadly, odourless, colourless gas - carbon monoxide, increased levels of acetaldehyde, acrolein, formaldehyde and many other substances.

 When inhaled, these poisons are concentrated and quickly spread throughout the body, leading to a range of serious diseases which can affect both adults and young people. Young people are particularly vulnerable to respiratory infections, asthma and middle ear infections.

 We have made considerable advances in socio-economic development and yet we continue to live in ignorance of the dangerous consequences of Tobacco.

To date, Papua New Guinea has yet to formulate and implement a comprehensive tobacco use policy and legislation to complement other health, education and social sector policies and legislations.

To this end, the National Narcotics Bureau has been over the years requesting the National Government for funding support to implement such policies, but to date nothing tangible has transpired.

We are now working on a submission to be submitted to the National Planning Department to carry out a nationwide drug abuse survey (including tobacco). 

We have to act in a responsible way, both at the individual, family and collective level.

 World No Tobacco Day 2010 is a challenge for re-assessing our attitude to smoking and to smokers.

This special day is also an opportunity for smokers to think seriously about giving up; and for non-smokers to strengthen their determination to stay non-smokers.

This day marks a useful time for us as a nation to raise awareness about the dangers associated with tobacco products in order to help people get accurate information, remove the disguise and unveil the truth behind these products.

And it is very important that people, especially our youth population, start speaking up for themselves and assert their rights to health and clean air, for themselves and for their families.

Everybody must be warned that nicotine is a highly-addictive substance and adolescent experimentation can easily lead to a lifetime of tobacco dependence.

We all now recognise smoking for what it is; an addiction. Substances like tobacco, alcohol or other dangerous drugs bring down our ability to do our best and progress in life.

Let us all, on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day 2010, begin with a personal commitment not to smoke out the health and happiness of those who are close to us.