Government told to stick to maintenance

THE government has been urged not to compete with LNG project developers and concentrate on maintenance work on existing infrastructure of transport, health centres, schools and colleges and plan ahead for the utilisation of the trained and skilled workers after all the gas is harvested, The National reports.

Bank of PNG Governor Loi Bakani said the government should direct its development budget and implementation capacities to other priority areas of education, health, law and order, environment and conservation and, especially, the agriculture sector.

Bakani was speaking at the national development forum in Port Moresby yesterday.

“The need to invest in agriculture is vital for PNG to ensure the so-called ‘Dutch disease’ will be avoided,” he added.

Dutch disease, in economics, referred to the decline in manufacturing sector due to increase in exploitation of natural resources.

The theory is that an increase in revenue from natural resources will affect a country by raising its exchange rate, making manufacturing and agriculture sectors less competitive.

Bakani said LNG project developers were building the “infrastructure corridor from Southern Highlands to Port Moresby in the form of roads, pipeline, power and telecommunication”.

The government should, in turn, concentrate its effort in areas that the developers were not extensively using their resources on, he added.

Bakani also said, among other things, BPNG was extending its expertise to the rural majority through financial literacy, micro banking and technological innovation through the use of mobile phone banking.

Education - an important road map

By HENZY YAKHAM

 

Education, be it parent-paid, government subsidised, free or in other forms have been on the lips of every pupil, parent and politician in recent times than ever before.

Today, there are thousands of school-aged children throughout Papua New Guinea who are not sitting is a classroom because of school fee problems.

Many parents get reminders, threats and warnings of outstanding school fees from school managements for not being up to date for childrens’ tuition fees.

Some school managements are understanding and allowed kids to continuing their learning while parents and guardians honour their commitments to pay up.

That is understandable and could have worked for parents who are able to pay the school fees.

But, the stark reality is that thousands of parents in PNG are facing this practical problem of having to find money to pay for school fees.

This is an ever increasing nightmare for most ordinary grassroots people amidst the rising cost of goods and services.

Simply put, most parents just cannot afford to keep up to date when it comes to paying school fees.

Most parents will not buy into the argument that they (parents) are fully responsible for the education of their product, as argued by some including certain politicians.

For genuine reasons to assist, some individual parliamentarians and few provincial governments have made education their priority and assisted in providing subsidies.

New Ireland Provincial Government under the leadership of Governor and former Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan and Enga Governor Peter Ipatas are two examples.

While Governors Sir Julius and Mr Ipatas have come to the aid of parents, others continue giving lip services with empty promises sending thousands of school-age kids out of classrooms.

The national broadcaster reported last week that the new Wewak MP Dr Moses Manwau has joined up with the party Mr Ipatas leads, People’s Party because of the party’s education policy.

On August 9 2010, Post-Courier reported that North Wahgi MP Benjamin Mul was “boosting education services in his electorate because he knows that education is more important than any other services and has disbursed more than K1 million to support education services alone”.

For the records, both Dr Manwau and Mr Mul were officially endorsed PNG Party candidates for their respective electorates in the 2007 general election.

 PNG Party Leader Sir Mekere Morauta was the first Prime Minister to introduce and implement the free education policy in PNG during his short term in office from July 1999 to 2002.

Sir Mekere has a proven track record of performance - free education being one of them.

Reforms his government undertook in the three short years were in five main areas: political, financial sector, economic, institutional strengthening and public sector and international relations

Worthy of noting is that when Sir Mekere was in office he shifted public expenditure concentrating on free education, and transport rehabilitation.

However, after the 2002 general election, the Somare Government did away with free education policy.

The direct results today - burden on thousands of parents in PNG faced with school fee problems.

Over the years, critics of free education have been giving the lame excuse that there is not enough money to fund free education.

However, Sir Mekere proved the critics wrong and maintains that if expenditure is controlled with wasteful spending reduced, up to K300 million can be found from with the national budget for free education in PNG.

He notes that with the school fee problems faced by parents will continue as long as the costs of goods and services keep increasing.

Sir Mekere has stated publicly that if PNG Party is in government, the free education policy of the party will be reintroduced.

In September 2000, 191 countries including Papua New Guinea signed a global commitment or agreement known as the Global Education For All (GEA) in Dakar with a goal to ensure they honor the commitments in their respective countries.

Following that, respective nations have moved to promote education for all in all aspect of learning, particularly to ensure all school aged children received at least nine years of formal education to among others give basic education to all children promote literacy standards  world-wide irrespective of gender, physical disabilities, socio-economic factors etc.

The 2000 commitment by the 191 nations was in view of the world’s education crisis including:

·        The critical global shortage of trained teachers;

·        Over 73 million children are currently out of school with more than half of them girls;

·        Half of the out of school children are in Africa;

·        Worldwide, one in every five primary age girls are not in school;

·        Globally, one in every five people are illiterate;

·        800 million adults cannot read and write, two thirds of them are women; and

·        39 million children in conflict affected States are not going to school.  

It was intended that by the year 2005, participating nations were to eliminate gender disparities in primary education and at all levels by 2015.

This means PNG, by virtue of being a signatory to this international commitment is obliged among others to:

·        Ensure that at least 20% of the national budget and 6 % GNI are allocated to education;

·        Include specific measures to reach marginalised and excluded learners such as orphans and vulnerable children, ethnic and language minorities, children with disabilities, children in internally-displaced and refugee communities and working children;

·        Introduce policies and practices to achieve gender equality in education, such as gender-sensitive curricula, ensuring an adequate number of females teachers, making schools safe and hygienic for girls and giving stipends for girls;

·        Abolish all fees charges in PNG; and

·        Include specific measures to improve quality of education such as ensuring that all children are taught in class no bigger than 40 by a professionally-trained teacher spending at least 25% of recurrent budgets on non-salary inputs such as teaching and learning materials and enshrining the rights to nine years of education in national law. 

Education is accepted world-wide as a very important roadmap that cannot be simply ignored.

Because of its importance, the global leaders, together with PNG included it as goal Number Two in the United Nations Millennium Summit Declaration, commonly known now as the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

The MDG commits PNG and the other 190 other nations to achieve universal primary education by Year 2015.

This means in five years time, PNG together with the other 190 countries would hope to have children everywhere complete a full course of primary schooling.

PNG, through the Somare Government is lagging behind and how it will ensure PNG fulfils its international commitments in achieving universal education for all remains to be seen.

 

Airlines PNG fighting for survival

By ILYA GRIDNEF of AAP

 

 HONIARA, Aug 18 AAP - There are concerns in Papua New Guinea that Qantas flights to Port Moresby are threatening the survival of PNG's second biggest carrier Airlines PNG (APNG).

The Australian airline entered into the PNG market in July hoping to capitalise on the country's $16 billion ExxonMobil-led Liquefied Natural Gas project.

A subsequent price war resulted in flights to Port Moresby from Cairns being cheaper than to Sydney.

But since the Qantas entry, APNG has reduced its once daily Cairns-Port Moresby run to twice a week.

Qantas, which has a codeshare agreement with state-owned national airline Air Niugini on flights to Sydney and Brisbane, has declined to comment on how this has affected APNG.

But a government letter, sighted by AAP, says "(There is) grave concern about the recent entry of Qantas into the Cairns-Port Moresby route.

"The Qantas entry in its own right was forcing both national carriers out of the market and there could be removal of competition and higher prices as a result".

Meanwhile, several government sources have told AAP that APNG is seeking a merger with Air Niugini.

They said APNG and other private investors were lobbying to get a merger proposal through cabinet.

APNG CEO Geoff Toomey, a former Air New Zealand CEO and before that Qantas deputy CEO and chief financial officer, declined to comment.

APNG spokeswoman Danae Jones did not deny the merger push but said the airline would not talk about "speculation and rumour".

 "Significant improvement in financial performance is expected for 2010," she said.

However, Air Niugini CEO Wasantha Kumarasiri said a merger was not under consideration.

"(Prime Minister Michael Somare) and our minister (Public Enterprises Minister Arthur Somare) have assured us they are dedicated to Air Niugini," he said.

A spokesman from the Prime Minister's Office also played down the merger talk.

"We hope sense will prevail," he said.

The merger rumour comes in the same month APNG marked a year since one of its planes crashed en route to Kokoda, killing all 13 people on board, including nine Australian Kokoda trekkers.

In 2008, the Cairns-based Wild family sold a 50 per cent stake in APNG through a public float on the Port Moresby stock exchange for an estimated 100 million kina ($A40 million).

John Wild remains the largest APNG shareholder with 47 per cent while his son, APNG chairman, Simon Wild, is also managing director of Wild family-owned Queensland-based regional airline Sky Trans.

 Since the float APNG shares have dropped from one kina (40c) to 63 toea (25c).

In the APNG 2009 annual report Mr Wild blamed the company's 24.6 million kina ($A9.8 million) loss on the global economic downturn, the Kokoda crash and even the Icelandic volcanic eruption that grounded planes in the northern hemisphere.

For the same period Air Niugini declared a profit of 68 million kina ($A27.2 million).

 

Innocent inmate at 10 months old

Caption: Tamara Player Tomscoll and her 10 months old prison-born baby Paula outside court yesterday just before boarding a prison van for Bomana. Young Paula has been denied immunisation and other basic health services while inside the prison camp.

 

Courtroom falls silent as Kapris’ aide recalls giving birth on bare floor of jail cell

 

By JULIA DAIA BORE

 

TEN-month-old Paula Player Tomscoll is paying the price for the crime her mother Tamara allegedly committed and is now at Bomana jail for – their temporary residence outside Port Moresby, The National reports.

Paula was born on a bare floor of her mother’s Bomana jail cell at 5.05pm on Oct 5 last year, devoid of basic midwifery help because of the mother’s alleged association with bank robber-escapee-rapist William Nanua Kapris.

Mother and child were denied basic medical help which were available to other inmates, a hushed Waigani National Court was told yesterday.

Such were the conditions for a new mother that Tomscoll even attempted to take her own life, twice.

“I have given birth to my baby on the bare floor of my cells.

“Water was constantly leaking through the walls, cells infested with mosquitoes and we were prone to suffering from malaria ... there is a high rate of tuberculosis (TB) in the jail.

“There are no medical staff to treat us, or my baby when she is sick.”

Mother Tomscoll, tears streaming down her face, told the court of her traumatised account in the “very small” cell she now calls home: “My daughter still lacks immunisation (which babies normally have access to).”

However, Paula is now her constant “innocent inmate” company in and outside the jail – yesterday they were together, again, at the dock at Waigani as her mother described the unhygienic condition under which they live.

Tomscoll, 33, appeared yesterday charged with being an accomplice of Kapris in the robbery of the Madang branch of Bank South Pacific.

She pleaded guilty to two charges under the Criminal Code – the first was of being an accessory after the fact to a crime of armed robbery of the Madang BSP branch robbery and, the second, of receiving stolen property of K127, 000, proceeds of that bank robbery.

Tomscoll’s guilty plea came after the state told the court that she had known that Kapris was the mastermind behind the Madang robbery and, with that knowledge, she had assisted him to escape punishment.

The court was told that she had provided logistics for his getaway from Domara in Central to Port Moresby, after Kapris had travelled by dinghy from Madang and, also, of receiving monies that were proceeds of that crime. 

 Tomscoll started allocutus (a statement before being sentenced) by saying: “I want to say sorry to the court for taking up its time because of this matter. I want to say sorry to Bank South Pacific.”

National Court judge Justice Salatiel Lenalia ordered that there must be a pre-sentencing report of the prisoner presented to court by Aug 31 before he could make a ruling.

The charge of “being an accessory after the fact” carries a two-year jail term while receiving stolen property is punishable by 14 years in jail.

Mother and child will return to the Waigani dock on Aug 31 to hear submissions on sentencing – whether Bomana will be permanent home for the next 14 years.

Yakasa: Sex crimes against minors up

By WALLACE KIALA

THE police sexual offence squad and NCD metropolitan command have been alarmed over the reported increase in the number of rape and sexual assault cases against minors, The National reports.

Latest reports indicated that many of the victims were primary school-aged children and many of the perpetrators were known to the families of the victims.

NCD metropolitan police commander Chief Supt Fred Yakasa said incest cases were also on the rise. However, he could not provide any figures.

“We have the most vulnerable group within our families and communities that are being targeted, and community leaders and parents must help clamp down on offenders,” Yakasa said.

“Parents and guardians must be mindful of people, or even relatives, whom they leave their female children with to look after,” he added.

A senior investigator with the sexual offence squad confirmed the reports yesterday.

The officer, who declined to be named, said the office had received an average of 10 cases a day in the last few months involving female and male victims under the age of 15.

“Most of the cases reported involved parents and children from broken marriages and homes.

“Even male children aged between four and 10 are being victimised by older male relatives,” she added.

She said because of cultural reasons, many of these offences were not reported to police and were often settled outside of the law.

 

 

Mysterious disease kills 13

By ELIZABETH MIAE

 

A MYSTERIOUS disease has killed 13 people, including three children, in the Murray Valley area of North Fly district, Western, The National reports.

The villages affected are Sanganabip, Fakgubip, Kwerimin and Dahamo.

These villages are near the Juha and Hides liquefied natural gas (LNG) project areas on the border of the Southern Highlands and Western.

District manager Michael Rameng told The National from Tabubil yesterday that according to reports they received, the “mystery” illness caused vomiting, stomach aches and people were defecating with blood.

He said they received the report of the outbreak two weeks ago from villagers who had to walk a day to the nearest aid post at Serbang village to use the two-way radio to get in touch with the district administration.

Rameng did not specify how many people from which village had died but said a team of health officials, with the help of officers from the Ok Tedi Mining Ltd, had flown into the area on Monday to assess the situation and give a report when they returned on Friday.

He  said at this point, they did not know what the disease was but they were not ruling out cholera.

Rameng said the area had experienced heavy rain recently and the village’s water sources could be contaminated from flood waters.

Bolivip ward councillor and former governor Norbert Makmop said people did not have any access to health facilities and had to walk long distances to get treatment.

Olsobip LLG manager and North Fly district manager were informed of this and they forwarded reports to the North Fly authorities for urgent medical teams with medical supplies to be flown in.

“Whatever the killer disease, we fear it could spread to other villages in Western, SHP and West Sepik,” Makmop said

Western Governor Dr Bob Danaya said last night that he was briefed on the deaths while visiting Kiunga over the weekend.

“From what I have heard, it sounds like a viral attack.

“The complaints sound pneumonia-like, but it could be severe malaria.

“Children are affected because many children in the areas are not immunised because the area is very remote.

“We will have to wait and see the results of tests before we provide the appropriate and adequate response,” Danaya said.

Please pass these to your teacher friends

Dear friends,

 

It would be useful if PNG students and teachers learned the derivation of words based on Latin and Greek roots. Combine these with an understanding of prefixes and suffixes and there is access for all to hundreds of words.

We are long distant members of the Roman Empire that brought Latin to England, France, Italy and Spain. Then Normans came to England and brought French words based on Latin. So English double-dipped into Latin. Australians brought English to Papua New Guinea.

Let us explore a selection of Latin and Greek roots. We have a new way of looking at English. There are not just thousands of words. There are dozens of word groupings.

It would be good if the roots of words were returned to the class room.

Students would enter a new world of language.

 

 

Latin                                      Greek

 

Every day                                   Official & scientific

words                                         words

 

****************

 

Ago (actus) – I do.

agent, act, actor, react, reagent, agile, action, interact,

interaction,

 

Ameas (amat) – Love, happy

amorous, amicable, amamas (tok pisin), amour (French)

amo (Italian), amiable.

 

Arche – rule

Monarchy, oligarchy, anarchy

 

Aster – a star

Aster daisy ( flower looks like a star), asteroid,

astronomy, astrology, asterisk, astronaut

 

Aves –the birds

Aviation, aviary, aviator

 

Baros – weight

Barometer, barometric,

 

Biblos – a book

Bible, bibliography, bibliotheque (French)

 

Cado ( cassus) – I fall

accident, cadence, cascade, decay, decadent, decadence.

occasion,

 

Capio (captus) – I take

Capture, captive, captivate, escape, captivity

 

Caput – the head.

Cap, captain (English), Kapitano (Italian), Kapitain (Spanish) capital,

caption, decapitate, recapitulate.

 

Cedo (cessus)  - I go

Proceed, procession, recede, recession, concede, concession

intercede, intercession, cede, cession, precede, precedent.

 

Centum – a hundred

Century, cent, centurion, centavo (Spanish), centenary,

centenarian

 

Claudo (claussus) - I shut

Exclude, exclusion, include, inclusion, clause, cloister,

recluse,

 

Cor – the heart

Cordial, core, Coeur (French), courage, courageous, courtesy,

Sacre Coeur ( French Catholic)  Cor blimey ( English slang)

 

Corpus – the body

Corporal, corpse, corpulent, corporation. Corps, Corpus Christi

(Italian) , incorporate

 

Culpare – guilty

Culpable, Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa ( Latin Catholic)

 

Curro (cursus) – I run

Current, incur, incursion, recur, recurrent, course, cursory, cursive

discourse, cursor

 

Decim – ten

Decimal, decimate, decade, December (Julian calendar)

 

Demos – the people

Democracy, democratic 

 

Dens (dentis) – a tooth

Dentine, dentist, dental, denture, indent, indentation

 

Dico ( dictus) – I say

Predict, prediction, indict, indictment, diction, indicate,

indication, dicta-phone, dictionary,

 

Duco (ductus) – I lead

Duct, viaduct, oviduct, conduct, conductor, conduction

Duce ( Italian), reduce, reduction, deduce, deduction,

produce, product, production, introduce, introduction.

 

Eo – I go

Exit, exeunt (Shakespeare)

 

Facio ( factus) – I make

Factory, manufacture, facile, faction,

 

Fero ( latus)  - I bear

Refer, transfer, confer, reference, conference, relate,

translate, translation, collate

 

Finis – the end

Finish, pinis (tok pisin), finite, infinite, final, finality,

finissimo (Italian), finale, refine, refinery, finery

 

Flecto (flectus) I bend

Flexible, inflexible, reflect, reflection, deflect, deflection.

flex, inflexion. Reflex

 

Fluo – I flow

Fluid, fluent, fluency, influence, affluent, effluent

 

Fort (fortus) – strong

Fort, fortitude, fortissimo ( Italian),  Codral Forte,

comfort, comfortable.

 

Frango ( fractus) – I break

Fragile, fraction, fracture, fragment, fractious,

 

Fundo (fundus) – I pour

Fund, funnel, profound, refund

 

Ge –the earth

Geology, geography, geophysical,

 

Gradior (gressus) – a slope

Grade, gradual, gradient, gradually, degrade,

progress,

 

Grapho – I write

Photograph, telegraph, graph, graphite, graphic,

 

Homeo – the same

Homo sapiens, homophobia, homosexual, homogeneous

 

Jacio (jectus) – I throw

Inject, injection, project, projection, projector, reject, rejection

eject, ejection, ejaculate, deject, conjecture, interject, interjection

 

Judes – a judge

Judiciary, judge, judicial, judgment

 

Jungo (jungtus) – I join

Junction, juncture, adjunct, injunction, conjunction

 

Legis – law

Legal, illegal, legislate, legislation, legislature

 

Lego (lectus) - I gather

Lecture, college, religion, lecturn, collect, collection

 

Logos – a study or discourse

Biology, astrology, geology, anthropology, anthology,

monologue, catalogue, dialogue, epilogue

 

Luna – the moon

Lunar, la lune (French), lunatic (people believed to go

mad a the full moon)

 

Manus – the hand

Manual, manuscript, manage, management

 

Mater – a mother

Maternal, matron, ma’am, mama,

 

Metron – a measure

Meter, barometer, anemometer, thermometer,

 

Mitto (missus) –I send

Emit, emission, transmit, transmission, promise, commit, admit,

committee, commission,  admission, permit, permission

 

Moveo – I move

Mobile, automobile, mobility, immobile, movie

 

Nascor (nativitis) - I am born

Native, national, international, nativity, felice nativitat (Spanish) 

 

Pars (partus) – a part

Part, particle, particular, partition, participate, apartment, compartment,

repartee, separate, separation, impart

 

Pater – a father

Papa, paternal, patron, pastor,

 

Pathos – feeling

Pathos, pathetic, sympathy, apathy, empathy, antipathy

 

Pax – peace

Peace, compassion, Pacific Ocean, pacify, pacification

 

Pendeo (pendus) – I hang down

Pendant, pensive, penis, pendulum, suspend, penchant

 

Pes (pedus) – a foot

Pedal, pedestrian, pedometer

 

Phonos – sound

Telephone, phonetics, phone,

 

Phos – light

Photograph, phosphorus, photosynthesis, photogenic

 

Pleo – I fill

Complement, implement, implementation, supplement

 

Plico – I fold

Application, apply, reply, imply

 

Porto (portus)  - I carry

Port, report, transport, transportation, import, importation,

export, exportation, deport, deportation, deportee, important.

 

Premo (pressus) – I press

Press, pressure, express, depress, impresario (Italian) supreme,

impress, impression, compression

 

Primus – first

Prime, primary, primeval, primitive, imprimateur

 

Rex (regis) – a rule

Regal, vice-regal, tyrannosaurus rex

 

Polis – a city

Police, metropolis, metropolitan,

 

Pono (possus)  - I place

Postpone, opponent, expose, impose, repose, depose, deposit,

composite, composition,  position, expose

 

Sacre – holy

Sacred, sacristy, Sacred Coeur ( Catholic French)        

 

Scando (scandus) – I climb

Ascend, ascent, descend, descent, scandal

 

Skopeo - I view

Telescope, periscope, microscope, scope,

 

Secto (cidus)_ - I cut or kill

Dissect, dissection, bisect, intersect, intersection, suicide,

genocide, insecticide, spermacide, resection, section, sector,

sect, insect

 

Scribo ( scriptus) – I write

Describe, description, inscribe, inscription, conscription, scribe

scripture, scribble, prescribe, prescription, script

 

Specio (spectus) I see

Special, specialty, inspect, inspection, respect, spectacles, species,

introspect, introspection

 

Tango (tangus) - I touch

Tangible, intangible, tactile, tact, tactless

 

Tenio (tendus) – I hold

Tender, tendon, extend, intend, intention, contend, contention,

pretend, pretension, portend, tension, extension 

 

Terra – the earth

Terrestrial, terra firma, inter, interred, interment, extra- terrestrial,

Mediterranean ( middle of the earth) Terra nova, subterranean

 

Therme – heat

Thermal, thermometer, hypothermia, thermostat

 

Traho (tractus) – I draw

Tractor, traction, contract, extract, retract, contraction, retraction,

detract, detraction, distract, distraction

 

Video (vissus) – I see

Video player, DVD, vision, visible, invisible, revise, advice,

advise,

 

Venio – I come

Venture, convene, convention, invent, convent, veni-vidi-vinci

(I came- I saw- I conquered), prevent.

 

Verto (versus) – I turn

Revert, reverse, inverse, converse, convert, conversion, versus

 

Vinco -_I conquer

Convince, vanquish, invincible, HMS Invincible.

 

Volvo (volvus) – I roll

Revolve, revolver, Volvo car, involve, revolution, convolution,

convolvulus (flower)

 

Zoon – an animal

Zoo, zoology, zooplankton, zoological, spermatozoa, protozoan

 

If you are interested in words, please keep these on your computer and run your eye down the list from time to time. I learned these words from Grades 7-12 from 1958 to 1963. I will never forget. 

 

 

Regards,

 

 

Bruce Copeland BA BEdSt