Lae caught in gunfight

By PISAI GUMAR

 

A TWO-hour gun battle, allegedly between settlers from Mt Hagen in Western Highlands and the Lufa people from Goroka residing at Four Mile in Lae yesterday morning, marred what has been a peaceful festive season in the Morobean capital, The National reports.

Lae metropolitan commander Supt Nema Mondiai could not confirm the seriousness and the cause of the battle, including deaths, as he was awaiting a situation report from the police task force sent to contain the situation.

Reports said the incident had stemmed from an ongoing ethnic clash, which led to some deaths on both sides and the burning down of houses, last year.

Mondiai said it had become obvious that in today’s city ethnic conflicts, rival parties had resorted to the use of unlicensed firearms.

“People in communities are not reporting the suspects to police,” he said.

“To ensure justice, peace and harmony prevail within our families, neighbours and the community, let us all be responsible and work with agents of law and report people who possess unlicensed firearms to police.”

Meanwhile, armed hold-ups and sexual offences against women were rated the highest among other crimes in Lae last year.

This was followed by breaking and entering commercial buildings and shops, including planned robberies.

Mondiai noted that most robberies were inside jobs involving staff. Based on crime scene investigations, most of the robberies happened outside banks.

He called on companies to use police for security purposes when delivering daily or weekend takings for banking.

Lae ended last year with one reported wilful murder, two suspicious deaths, two armed hold-ups and two rape cases at various city locations.

Mondiai said a 45-year-old man from Gumine in Chimbu was murdered and dumped at the Markham Bridge.

A man was also shot and another wounded after police intervened and saved a man who was held at gunpoint at Three Mile.

Police said two girls were also raped at Five Mile and one of thesecondary schools in the city.

 

 

Volcanologists issue warning to villagers

By ELIZABETH VUVU

 

THE Rabaul Volcano Observatory has confirmed the level three alert for the Manam Island volcano in Madang, The National reports.

Volcano experts yesterday said despite a decline in eruptive activity, people on the island had been advised to stay away from the four main radial valleys.

They said people should refrain from working on the upper slopes of the volcano because they might be affected by falling lava fragments and scoria from strong explosions.

“The depositions of new loose eruptive material on the upper slopes of the volcano, and the rainy season, have the potential to trigger mudflows,” the observatory said.

It said people must take precaution by staying away from places where mudflows occurred in the past, and other potential water flowing catchments areas where mudflows could easily form.

Officials said a stage three alert allowed for voluntarily evacuation from the island.

However, due to ongoing eruptive activity and the sporadic phases of strong activity and the possibility of more catastrophic events as observed in 2004-05, experts recommended that the national and provincial disaster committees consider evacuating people from critical locations on the island at an appropriate and convenient time.

Last Saturday, mild eruptive activity picked up again at the southern crater after a short lull following strong activity last Thursday. These included weak to moderate volumes of dark grey ash clouds rising about 200-300m above the summit crater.

RVO said no audible noises were heard and, at night, very bright continuous red was visible.

The main crater released weal to moderate volumes of grey ash clouds and low booming noises were heard for a brief period.

Power problems prevented data transmission to RVO since 6pm last Thursday due to a faulty fuse and battery.

 

 

 

Acting Prime Minister clears air on top job

By JEFFREY ELAPA

 

PRIME Minister Sir Michael Somare can resume work at any time, acting Prime Minister Sam Abal said yesterday, The National reports.

He said what mattered was that the programme of government must and would continue.

Abal said in order to realise Vision 2050, the government’s plans and strategies, like the medium-term development plan 2010-15, must be implemented in line with the government’s 2011 budget.

The acting prime minister said at his Morauta Haus office that the implementation process would start with the recalling of all departmental heads and government ministers for a briefing on Friday and Saturday.

A meeting with all governors was also scheduled for next Monday. Parliament will resume next Tuesday to vote in a new governor-general.

Abal said the prime minister was on leave after stepping aside when he was referred to a leadership tribunal.

“We must understand that stepping aside and resigning are two different things.

“We must understand that the prime minister is on leave and can come back and take up his substantive post when he feels like it.

“He can start at anytime,” Abal said.

He also brushed aside claims that the National Alliance highlands branch was shaky after his elevation to deputy prime minister and acting prime minister while demoting fellow Engan and Kandep MP Don Polye.

The deputy prime minister said all coalition partners were intact.

 

 

 

 

Four killed, two knifed in Western Highlands

By JAMES APA GUMUNO

 

FOUR people were killed and two men were stabbed between Christmas and New Year in the Western Highlands, The National reports.

Two women were killed after having domestic arguments with two other women over their husbands at Kindeng and Kaiwe in the South-Waghi and Hagen districts respectively.

One man was killed at Bunowau, North Waghi, after an argument with another group over a piece of land while a young man from Lenki village in the Wabag, Enga, who worked as a waiter at the Highlander Hotel in Mt Hagen city was killed by some drunken youths at Mt Hagen Tee School.

Provincial police commander Supt Kaiglo Ambane said yesterday that two women who killed the other women over their husbands surrendered to the police and were now in police custody.

Ambane said police are still investigating the two other murders that occurred at Tee School and at Bunowau.

He said that one man from Moge tribe living at the back of Holy Trinity Teachers college was stabbed with a knife in a drunken brawl while another drunken man was stabbed at Kaiwe market after he smashed a windscreen of a 15-seater bus owned by Togoba people living outside the city with a beer bottle.

He said the two stabbed men were now in stable condition and recovering at the Mt Hagen General Hospital.

Ambane said that two deaths were caused as a result of domestic argument, one through land dispute and another committed by youths under the influence of alcohol.

He said that so far the province was quiet during the New Year and Christmas periods.

He said that police carried out foot patrol in the city and the city was quiet.

Ambane said that police detained about 15 men for drinking in public and put them behind bars. They released the men later when they became sober.

He said that there was not much celebrations on the road and commended the people for their cooperation to make the New Year trouble-free.

He added that majority of the people celebrated the New Year peacefully in their homes or residential areas.

 

 

 

 

Drunks can contribute to disease spread

By ELIZABETH MIAE

 

DRUNKENESS during the festive and New Year period played a part in the spread of cholera, The National reports.

According to NCD cholera task force leader Dr Timothy Pyakalyia, when there were celebrations that involved the consumption of alcohol, people were bound to get drunk and pay no attention to good hygiene and proper waste disposal.

He said despite continuous awareness people in the city were playing up and continuously taking the risk that led to the contraction and spread of the disease.

However, he commended his staff at the Port Moresby General Hospital’s cholera treatment centre who had been working very hard since the outbreak in the city in April last year.

He said a total of 295 admissions had been recorded at the centre last month which was the highest since the outbreak.

Pyakalyia told The National Pari village in Moresby South was the only village that did not record any case.

He said this was something commendable for a village that had been facing problems with water supply for more than 20 years.

He added that when the outbreak first occurred, Pari recorded a few cases then afterwards, no more cases was reported from that area.

“We are dealing with a major cholera issue in the city and I don’t know how loud we can speak,” he said.

“We cannot blame those people selling cooked food on the road sides. You have to think before you put something into your mouth.”

He said Eda Ranu and city authorities are well aware that they have a major challenge in their hands to improve water and sanitation in the city to prevent cholera.

 

If the 20th Century was American, will the 21st Century be Chinese?

By BOB VINNICOMBE

 

At the beginning of the last century US Historian and Senator Albert J Beveridge said "The twentieth century will be American, American thought will dominate it.American progress will give it color and direction. American deeds will make it illustrious".

 If this was so will the 21st century be Chinese?

When nearly all Western economies went down in a screaming heap in the GFC, Communist China with its state-run regulated banking system, slave labour and pegged currency didn't bat an eyelid, in fact it has been calculated that now the US owes China is $2905 per head of population. 

While the West wastes billions on wind farms and other futile projects  to generate "alternative power"  due to  the global warming hoax China builds three  new nuclear power stations a year and still can't get enough of  our coal to fire its fossil fuel power stations.

China already has 97 per cent of the world's rare earth elements, vital for modern electronic components, and   buys the mining rights to them in other countries who have them. 

They buy the arable land in other countries so they can guarantee their own food supply, while the natives of those countries starve.

Millionaire Chinese buy whole streets of houses in Australia for investment, and mansions in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs to live in that most Australians could never afford. 

The CCP has set up so-called Confucius Institutes in overseas universities, to promote the aims of the CCP.

While America fritters away billions of dollars on the pointless wars that it sends its sons to die in, the two million strong Chinese army hasn't seen a shot fired in anger in 30 years (except in Tibet or in the Tiananmen Square massacre) and Beijing simply does deals with any corrupt dictator who can sell them the resources they want.

Every manufactured product you buy comes from the factories of China while we de-industrialise our own country and call China a developing nation.

The Chinese Communist jackboot came down on Tibet, thanks to the cave-in by the West with its gibberish about Tibet being part of China, so now as Tibet is the source all the major rivers of Asia, China controls all mainland Asia's water.

 Yet the Chinese Empire expands, not by military force, but because they have the money to buy anything and anybody,

However, it will only be a matter of time before Beijing with its two million strong standing army, weapons of mass destruction and a gargantuan navy, uses its military might to perform necessary “regime change" in countries where its interests are threatened just as the United States did in Panama, Granada, Iraq and Afghanistan, and no-one will stand in their way.

China has leapt to economic super-power status because the west is infected with the mass-hallucination that free trade and de-regulation are good, yet China doesn't practice either free trade or de-regulation.

Every commercial enterprise in China is an arm of the Chinese Communist Party, the currency is pegged to suit Beijing's interests and no overseas entity can run a business in China except as a joint venture.

What sort of a world will it be dominated by China?

While the Americans,  in some sort of a way, stood for democracy and  freedom of the individual,  the Chinese Communist Party stands  for the total subjection of the individual to the State and  the debasement of human beings to the status of  a commodity to such an  extent that political dissidents there  are killed and "recycled"  by cutting them up and selling their organs for transplant and women who violate the one child policy are dragged to clinics and forced to have late term abortions.

Australian politicians and the Australian media should therefore stop grovelling to the Beijing regime and live up to the liberal and humanitarian  ideals they give lip service to by blocking, instead of assisting, the path of the Chinese Communist Party to the position of Superpower of the 21st Century.

 

Statement released January 3rd, 2011 by Bob Vinnicombe, 16 Kara St Sefton NSW

More information Bob Vinnicombe 0407949963 / 02 96454910

www.chinainformation.com.au

 

Expose: Migrant Saffirs Living in Australia

By A SOUTH AFRICAN EXPATRIATE

I’m not quite sure who coined the novel yet politically incorrect term Saffir but it seems oddly appropriate and has a certain resonance about it. I suspect that bitter and twisted migrants, wholly disillusioned with what they have left and now come to, invented this colourful term. It’s definitely a non-racist, non-sexist and non-sense term applied to all South Africans who have migrated to Oz (not to be confused with the Oswald State Penitentiary or any other penal complex, but a ready reference to Australia) in recent times. 

What follows is a tongue-in-cheek expose of how ordinary Saffirs adjust and manage multi-faceted life in an extra-ordinary country. In many respects, it’s a piece on cultural appreciation, nostalgia and fondness of dinge or things, both lost and found. It’s a journey that should be shared and will, hopefully, infuse would-be travellers with humility and encouragement to undertake similar opportunities that may present themselves.   

Lingua franca

Conversational Aussie is best described as “minimalist.” Whereas South Africans would use any number of superlatives to describe something noteworthy or memorable (eeish, befok, pragtig, radical, kiff) Aussies tend to opt for a modest “very good.” If feeling generous and demonstrative, the very best you’ll get is AWESOME!

In keeping with the frenetic pace of Aussie life (I’m too busy mate, can’t talk now), general interactions are curt, often one-way and purely functional. One way to really confuse an Aussie is to actually respond to the perfunctory

“Good day mate, how are you doing?” by throwing in a pleasantry “Fine thank you, and by actual engaging through a “How are you doing?”

There are exceptions, of course, and I’ve had wonderful discussions with cabbies (taxi drivers), workmen and women, the odd professional and elderly people. The youth and young adults appear to be lost in their own world of electronic gadgetry and gizmos (ipods, mp3 players, gameboys, and hi-tech mobiles). A perpetual glazed stare seems to suggest that they do, indeed, derive some form of pleasure and nourishment from the surrogate umbilical cords – headphones that attach them to their “alternative” life force – electronic devices. When required, out of absolute necessity, to engage in verbal intercourse it’s a form of undecipherable code and gibberish that does little to promote healthy respect and understanding between successive generations.

Affluence

A liberal, affluent Aussie society has spawned, what seems to be, a generation of ill-mannered, over-zealous hedonists. Mind you, this could merely be the Green, bleeding-hearted, silly old-fart in me that is genuinely concerned with global warming, environmental degradation and carbon credits.   Aussies are generally well-heeled, financially, and have huge carbon footprints in this part of the world – not surprising because they do “own” the Australian land mass and surrounding waters. Multiple vehicles (4x4s, AWDs, SUVs, jet-skis, water craft, utes aka bakkies), multiple and a huge array of electrical appliances - televisions, fridges, air conditioners, water coolers, coffee making machines and the list goes on and on…. Pretty much a case of I’m all right mate…. no worries…. we’ll do something about our planet another day. Of course, in an election year everyone hops on the ossewa and suddenly everyone is crowing of the same “green sheet” from our revered leaders and pollies (politicians) to big business.

Another interesting observation is that Aussies are generally well and continuously shod – perhaps a product of being well heeled. Except when on the beaches, they always seem to wear shoes and this has, seemingly, little to do with the abundance of ugly biting or stinging creepy crawlies – especially ants! (quite unlike those found at the bottom of countless swimming pools in SA). One way to pick out a Saffir and his or her offspring, in a public place, is to spot the shoeless wonders or the kaalvoet klontjies – Shame!

Saffir-spotting and “perving” prove to be interesting pastimes being a John-come-lately, fresh meat, or straight of the boat ie new migrant. Talk about flaunting it or letting it all hang out – that’s were the ogling or “perving” comes in… Recollections of my first summer in Oz centre around tits, bums, and tats (tattoos) constantly in your face because, more often than not, the tats always seem to be “strategically” placed in or on the mammary or nether regions.   

Aussie Icons

Qantas Airlines is regarded as one of the “untouchable” Aussie icons. Troubled in recent years with declining maintenance and passenger service standards, Aussies appear to be fiercely loyal and protective towards their own national carrier. No different, perhaps, from SAA which has been propped up by the SA government in recent years. The Asian Tigers are beginning to” muscle in” on international routes in the region and I’ve become an ardent Singapore Airlines supporter, preferring customer service that is understated but highly rated, genuine in warmth and commitment.

Aussie barbecues – barbies and SA braais are up there as national icons and favourite pastimes. Barbies are a phenomenon on there own and I tend to think of them in sexual terms as “quickies.” Little or no lead up, but down to business immediately. Vivid recollections of braais, on the other hand, (Naasism intended) include a tantalising slow but steady build up. Wood fires fuelled by sweet-scented soetdoring blazing away whilst moderate amounts of alcohol, familiarity and conversation wash over everyone. It’s all about age-old rhythms and timing and just when the desire (for some inyama) reaches fever pitch – the coals are ready. On go the boerie, sosaties, steak, chicken and toebies – toasted cheese, onion and tomato sandwiches.

Most South African males are very good at it – (give credit where credit is due) - braais that is. Smoke hardened eyes and lungs, they stand, calmly, Castle in hand, tongs in the other expertly appraising the offering before them. It’s all in the wrist action, so they say, and within the blink of an eye, the entire contents of the rooster have been turned. The odd splash of beer and errant flames are tamed.

My Aussie mates – boys and their toys – struggle to domesticate their gas-fuelled cookers….. too many knobs and settings, hood up or down, wok on or off…. gas incinerating snags (sausages), kebabs (sosaties) …burnt offerings. What a let-down……one can’t help but salivate at the thought of a damn good braai!

They say that rugby is played by men with odd shaped and sized balls…. never a truer word was spoken and this is certainly the case in Oz. In the spirit of being BIGGER and BETTER, the Aussies have footy! Three distinct codes of rugby where the only similarity is the shape of the balls and experts will argue ……that size does count!

Of the three codes, Australian Football League (AFL) is played with the smallest of the three sized balls and has the greatest following in Oz. True “footy” is played on a huge park – field by high flying and prancing, testosterone-charged (hopefully of the natural form) men. Clad in “second skin” fitting sleeveless tops and “ball-busting” short shorts, it’s little wonder that players prance and float around the park like Duracell-powered bunnies. Not quite my cup of tea.

In my time in Oz, I’ve become a National Rugby League (NRL) convert and follow the opposing National Rugby Union (NRU) code with less fervour. It’s true to say, despite my personal bias, that all codes are played by exceptional athletes displaying true grit – yakka, high levels of fitness and uncanny ball control.

Besides the annual NRL premiership competition and an international Tri-Nations fixture featuring the Aussies, Kiwis and the Brits, the mother-of-all NRL events is the State of Origin. Contested between the states of New South Wales (blues) and Queensland (maroons), the best of three game fixture is the holy grail of NRL. Despite being a national fixture, it has huge international following in all NRL playing countries. Deserving players “originating” by birth, from the respective states qualify to play in the competition and the rivalry verges on all out war.

Conventional, 15-man rugby union completes the trio. This code struggles to compete with the others in terms of popularity, sponsorship and revenue generating capacity and is only played in a few Oz states. Seemingly, forever in the shadow of Kiwis and the Bokke, South Africans would be more familiar with both the on and off field antics of some of its better know personalities including David “Goose Stepping” Campese’s coaching involvement with the Sharks; Georgie “The Lip” Gregan’s refereeing skills; Wendell “White Powder” Sailor’s SA night club dust ups and Clyde “Born in the RSA” Rathebone’s love affair with the SA media.

Spare a thought for some of the former Wallaby “whinging wannabes” who have returned to the game “recycled” as visually and linguistically “challenged” rugby commentators. Their bias and parochial views are worn on their sleeves alongside the branding of the sport’s primary “high-low flying” sponsor.

Friday afternoon drinks and nibblies (snacks) are an institutionalised work place arrangement where drinks and eats are enjoyed within work time and are gratis – nogal! These civilised sessions are fairly sociable and it’s exceptionally rare for them to descend into protracted drunken orgies and or violent dispute resolution exercises – BORING!

What more can one say about Aussies and life in Oz – fok maar voort or carry on regardless….its a strange amalgam of contradictions…..   belonging and alienation; acceptance and intolerance; love and hate; humility and arrogance but that’s LIFE, I guess. What’s really important is to get on with it!!