Lions Club of Lae needs your help

It will be smiles all round for the Lae Lions and Lioness Clubs members on Saturday, Nov 20,  as they gather for a special occasion as part of the reformation of the Lae Lions Club.

Club cecretary Jerry Manjawi with sick boy at the Angau Hospital children’s ward

Lae Lions Club branch president, Lion Namon Mawason, has confirmed that the immediate past district governor of Lions for Papua New Guinea and Northern Queensland, Lion John Muller, will be visiting Lae on this day to meet with the members of both the Lions and Lioness Clubs and to update them on Lions activities and programmes right around the world.

Muller said: “It is a great honour for me to return to Lae and to represent our current district governor Patrick Lynch for this formal visit to the club.

“Many years ago Lions had a strong presence in the local Lae community, and it is great that I am here and able to assist the new club as it continues to grow membership and build towards again being a chartered Lions Club.”

The Lae branch club currently has 15 members, and needs to recruit further community-minded people so that it can reach the minimum number of 20 Lions required to enable the club to again charter and be recognised as a club in its own right.

Mawason said: “The Lae club branch members and their families recently celebrated Papua New Guinea’s 35^th independence day on Sept 16, 2010, by visiting the Angau Hospital children’s ward and presenting some gifts - drinks, biscuits and ice cream - to the children as part of the service activities we do for our community.”

Club members preparing at Coronation College before proceeding to the hospital

He thanked Lae Biscuit Company and Laga Industries Ltd for contributing biscuits and ice cream for the Children.

Lions Club International is the largest service club organisation in the world, with over 1.36 million members in more than 48,000 clubs in 205 countries world-wide. Membership in Lions is by invitation, is open to all community-minded people, and does not discriminate on the grounds of race, gender, colour or disability.

Anyone wishing to know more about Lions should contact Mawason on phone (675) 76863219 or secretary Jerry Manjawi on (675) 4721011.

“We would love to see many new interested people at past district governor Muller’s visit on Saturday evening, Nov 20, so that they may learn more about Lions and also be invited to join our club,” Mawason said.

For further information and photo opportunities:  Namon Mawason (675) 7686 3219 / namon.mawason@lbcgroup.com.pg

Agriculture support services project launched in Chimbu

By SOLDIER BURUKA of DAL

Fr Garia unveils the official plaque watched by Dr Lahis and other officials

The people of Chimbu have been urged to utilise their land and resources for agriculture farming which will help improve their livelihood.

Chimbu Governor Fr John Garia called on the people to be more innovative and use whatever little resources they had to seek income-earning opportunities and reduce poverty and food insecurity.

He told the people not to use the rugged and mountainous terrain, inadequate infrastructure, ineffective services and other issues as an excuse.

Fr Garia was speaking at the official launching of the smallholder support services expansion project (SSSEP) in the province last week.

 Provincial administration staff, farmers, women’s leaders and provincial leaders attended the launching in Kundiawa.

He also presented K40, 000 as counterpart funding to help establish the new project office.

The programme will be introduced into the Kerowagi and Sinasina-Yonggomugl districts.

Central together with Chimbu are the two new provinces to be included in the expansion phase after the project was trialed in Morobe and Eastern Highlands for several years.

 It was trialed as a way to address the inadequate and ineffective delivery of agricultural support services in PNG, and the approach included contracting individuals and institutions to deliver support services to smallholder farmers.

The overall goal is to improve the quality of life of smallholder farmers by increasing their access to agriculture support services.

The Governor, whilst expressing his appreciation to the Department of Agriculture and Livestock for accepting his province, said SSSEP would boost agriculture development and provide opportunities for the farmers to improve their livelihood.

He expected the majority of the rural population to gain maximum benefit through their involvement in the project and urged all stakeholders to support the new system.

Fr Garia acknowledged the efforts of many farmers in food crops, rice, fish farming, livestock and coffee who had worked tirelessly without government assistance to become successful.

He said people should not always rely on the politicians for cash handouts but try to become self-reliant.

Fr Garia said he never encouraged handouts and always gave out seedlings and farming tools to farmers who requested for assistance.  

The Governor also called on public servants to stop being bottlenecks and assist in getting the flow of services to the rural communities.

He said new concepts such as the SSSEP could work effectively if public servants were committed and honest in the delivery of services.

Chairman of Kerowagi farmers’ co-operative society, Jacob Kerenga, on behalf of the farmers of Chimbu, thanked DAL and the provincial administration for selecting his province to be included.

He said people had the land and resources but they were lazy.

 They also lacked regular extension and technical advisory services and hopefully this would change through the SSSEP.

“This is the opportunity we have all been waiting for to improve agriculture farming activities,” Kerenga said.

“How can we improve our livelihood if we don’t go back to agriculture- the backbone of our economy?”

 Kerenga said while the people were being encouraged to produce more food crops, there were inadequate markets available.

He said this was one of the constraints faced by the farmers and urged DAL to do something.  SSSEP project coordinator Dr Sam Lahis thanked the Governor for the counterpart funding, which is a commitment towards supporting the SSSEP in the province.

He also acknowledged the New Zealand Government through the NZ Agency for International Development (NZAid) for providing grant funding worth over K3.7 million in support of the SSSEP in PNG.

Questions about outcome based curriculum and outcome based education

By BAPA BOMOTENG

 

The outcome based curriculum (OBC) and the outcome based education (OBE) policy will forever change the phase and the scenario of high school education after 2010.

 The grades 10s in 2010 are sitting for two weeks of grueling exams. 

How bad was the one-week, basic core subjects examinations to be flexed out to two weeks?

 What new re-defined subjects have been included? 

I bet there is a good mix of everything in each of these subjects spiced with a lot of culture. 

 There seems to be less of international English writing and reading skills. 

With a lot more village-based practical activities trying to direct students to be village-based, land cultivation-oriented. 

Where does that leave PNG in the 21st Century, modern English-speaking world of e-world?

 Does it all lead up to Papua New Guineans applying to Australia must complete an English competency exam before being admitted in to Australian universities?  

 The results of OBC in 2010 will be known in 2012 when applications are processed for university entries. 

Will our students be strong in pure mathematics, science, social science and English exams for university entry?

Our village-based elementary graduates, taught by unqualified teachers, already are disadvantaged against all our urban elementary entries into high schools.

There is a big gap between the elementary scholars and private school students from kindergaten, grades 6 and onwards.

Will wait until these Grade 10s are let loose in two years time after grade 12.

 

Bapa Bomoteng

LAE

 

 

 

Miss South Pacific pageant launched

Reigning Miss South Pacific Queen 2009 Merewalesi Nailatikau (right) with Miss PNG 2010 Rachel James Saperi at the launching of the Miss South Pacific Pageant 2010 in Port Moresby last night. – Nationalpic by AURI EVA

By ANGELINE KARIUS

 REIGNING Miss South Pacific Queen 2009 Merewalesi Nailatikau, 25, officially launched the Miss South Pacific Pageant 2010 last night at the Lamana Hotel, The National reports.

This year’s pageant will be hosted by PNG with NCD Governor Powes Parkop as patron of the pageant.

Other South Pacific Island countries taking part included Tahiti, the Cook Islands, Samoa, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands as well as the US state of Hawaii.

Accompanied by her chaperon mother Latu, PNG-raised Fijian Nailatikau said: “I am happy to revisit Papua New Guinea and willing to learn new things too.”

She said it was important that young women be given the attention at such events to have a voice and speak their minds to address various issues including HIV/AIDS. 

She said as a BSP Go Green ambassador in Fiji, she was adamant about raising awareness on the environment and its importance to humans.

Nailatikau added that last year’s theme on “climate change campaigner” reflected that importance during the event.  

Nailatikau lived with her parents at the Sopas medical college in Wabag, Enga, from six months old to five years before her parents, who were medical missionaries, returned to Fiji.

Law student axed to death

Brutal killing payback by rival clan, say police

 

By JUNIOR UKAHA and THOMAS HUKAHU

 

A FIRST-year law student at the University of Papua New Guinea has been hacked to pieces by rival Enga clansmen in an apparent payback killing in the Port Moresby suburb of Morata, The National reports.

Bystanders watched in horror as a group of men dragged Christopher George Kalupai, from Wapele village, Laiagam, out of a PMV bus near Tokam police barracks at about 3pm on Monday as he was returning home to Morata 3.

Police criminal investigation division detectives confirmed the killing, adding that no arrests had been made.

Last night, metropolitan commander Supt Fred Yakasa appealed to the suspects of the killing to surrender to police today.

The victim’s aunt, Vicky Kalupai, said frightened mothers in the bus had begged the captors to release her nephew but were warned not to talk or their throats would be slit.

He was put into a waiting vehicle and driven away.

Searching relatives found the chopped-up body about four hours later, near the Pawa station settlement, also at Morata 2.

Relatives believed Kalupai’s killing stemmed from last month’s bashing death of a man from Ambum at a Morota 2 bus stop which was blamed on the Kalupai family.

Yakasa condemned the killing, saying it was a payback killing by another Engan tribe.

“While the authorities in the city are trying to make Port Moresby a model city, some people are taking the law into their own hands and killing others,” he said.

“This must stop. We will not take this incident lightly. We will come down real hard on the suspects.”

 He called on the two groups not to take the law into their own hands.

“This is not the highlands; this is not your village.

“This is the capital of PNG; we are living in a civil society and there is a rule of law and we must all respect that,” Yakasa said.

 

 

Mystery body rotting in cave

By PEARSON KOLO

 

THE body of an adult male is decomposing inside a cave in the bushes of Hal River in the mountains of Nondogul, Western Highlands, The National reports.

Western Highlands provincial police commander Kaiplo Ambane confirmed the rotting body of an adult male, adding it was difficult to remove the body from the bottom of the cave.

He said locals from Nondogul and North Waghi, who frequented the cave to identify the body, claimed it was of an Asian man or a foreigner.

“The locals are saying this because the body has turned whitish after being in the water at the bottom of the cave for too long,” Ambane said.

But, he said, the origin of the corpse could not be confirmed yet because it had decomposed beyond recognition.

“Members of the Western Highlands police are at the scene collecting hair samples and other necessary clues to confirm the identity of the man,” Ambane said.

“It would be difficult to remove the body without special assistance.”

He said locals were claiming that the corpse was of an Asian miner looking for precious stones and gold.

But Ambane could not confirm reports until proper tests and examinations were conducted on the samples collected.

The locals had not reported anyone missing from their communities.

 

 

Villagers struggle after hailstorm

By ELIAS LARI

 

MORE than 50 farmers from Keta and Mungupa village outside Mt Hagen, Western Highlands, have been hit hard by a sudden hailstorm over the weekend, The National reports.

The hailstorm and associated heavy rain lashed the area on Saturday, destroying food gardens, mostly fruit and vegetables for the town market.

Thirteen houses were also destroyed in the storm.

Cost of damage was likely to be several thousands of kina.

Two villages belonging to the Jicka Komopi clan had been badly affected during the three-hour storm which started about 4pm, villagers said.

The compact ice took two days to melt.

Spokesman John Herma, who is also a farmer, told The National at the scene yesterday that they were still trying to come to grips with reality that had been destroyed overnight.

He said the hard-working farmers had estimated losing at least K70,000 worth of fresh produce for the city markets.

Herma said they had planted a variety of food crops such as carrots, potatoes, broccoli, corn, lettuce and sweet potatoes, adding that vegetable farming was a costly business because of the various chemicals and fertilisers they had to buy for their crops and land.

He urged the government, through the national disaster relief office, to provide them some form of assistance so that they could buy new seedlings and chemicals to return to farming.

Meanwhile, Pr John Ku from the Four Square church described it as a disaster which hit the two villages.

He said it was the first of its kind for the villagers.

Ku said some people, whose food gardens were affected, would starve because in a month’s time, all food crops will taste sour and this will be very bad for the people.

He said people were still in a state of shock, trying to get over the disaster.