Foreign affairs awaits reports from Brisbane

By JEFFREY ELAPA

 

THE Department of Foreign Affairs is yet to receive a full report on the status of PNG citizens living in Brisbane, Australia, The National reports

Acting secretary Alexis Maino told The National that his office was still waiting for reports to be compiled by the consular-general in Brisbane.

Maino said he had not received updates of how many citizens were affected and what plans were in place to assist them.

Meanwhile, according to unconfirmed reports, many PNG citizens, mostly children of politicians, business people, judges and chief executives and secretaries, were living and studying in Brisbane but it was not known if they were affected.

Several attempts to contact the consul in Brisbane were unsuccessful.

According to an email report, four youngsters from Papua New Guinea managed to get away from the Queensland flood earlier last week.

The three boys and a girl, who were attending a national Christian youth convention on the Gold Coast, and were sent to stay with the Uniting church in the rural Queensland town of Maryborough, were saved by the minister.

The email stated, at the time, no one knew that the town would be swept up in the damaging floods while the youths were enjoying themselves.

Another lucky PNG family to have been saved thanked the national flag carrier, Air Niugini, for holding the flight out of Brisbane for them to be evacuated.

The email read: “On behalf of my family, I would like to thank Air Niugini for delaying the aircraft for seven minutes on Jan 13 at the Brisbane airport so my family could board flight QF379 for Port Moresby.

“We were in a rush to get out of Brisbane due to the recent floods.”

The email said since all major roads were closed, they got on an early train bound for the airport but, again, the train stalled midway.

A quick-thinking Queensland railway staff put them on a taxi to the airport 10 minutes after checking closed, but the plane waited and got the family out of Brisbane.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

McIlwain committed to National Court

By JACOB POK

 

FORMER chief executive of Bank South Pacific Garth McIlwain has been committed to stand trial at the National Court by the Waigani committal court yesterday, The National reports.

 He faces charges of forgery and altering and on appearance before Magistrate Sinclair Gora, who ruled, saying that there was sufficient evidence provided by the prosecution that warranted McIlwain to be committed to face trial.

McIlwain, a respected figure in PNG’s finance and banking industry, was arrested and charged mid last year over allegations of conspiracy to defraud a certain company owned by former politician and Madang businessman Peter Yama.

Yama laid a complaint, claiming McIlwain had falsified a document relating to a fixed and floating charge and heavily debited his (Yama’s) company without his knowledge.

Yama previously pushed similar charges against two other BSP bankers, Robin Fleming and John Maddison, but their charges were dismissed last year by the National Court.

Yama claim McIlwain had allegedly signed the fixed and floating document in 1999 when he was not the director.

Yama further claimed he had never obtained any loan from BSP in the period of May 1999 and was surprised the fix and floating charges were created.

Gora in his ruling mentioned that there were “serious evidence” produced before the court by Yama’s witnesses.

He said one of the evidence was an affidavit signed by deputy registrar of companies, Alex Tongayu, stating that the fixed and floating document signed by McIlwain on May 6, 1999, was altered, in which the front and the back pages of the document were different from the rest. 

The evidence also claimed that several pages of the document were photocopied from previous fixed and floating documents.

Additional evidences by Peter O’Neill tendered in court also claimed that McIlwain was not a director of the bank at the time when he signed the documents. ient to bring the matter to trial.

McIlwain’s lawyers argued that the fixed and floating documents were created to recover loans that Yama never repaid.

 

 

 

Malaria hits Chimbu, drugs low

By ELIZABETH MIAE

 

THERE is shortage of malaria drugs in Chimbu’s Karimui district which has been hit by an outbreak of malaria, The National reports.

The district health office confirmed this yesterday, adding that three surrounding villages Kiridan, Boisamaru and Meyosolita were worse affected having reported a number of cases.

District health officer Jerry Kubu said they were short of drugs but were working hard to provide medical assistance.

He said they would be going to other health centres to seek assistance for supplies of malaria drugs.

Community based health workers were currently on the ground providing assistance to the sick in affected areas.

The National was informed that people in the three villages were too weak to walk to the health centre for treatment.

District administrator Joe Nopo said funds from the supplementary budget had been used to be airlifted to the area tomorrow.

Member for Karimui-Nomane Posi Menai said that funds were released yesterday to assist the people who were affected.

The MP will be travelling to the area tomorrow to assess the situation on the ground.

It was also reported that many people in the area had the flu at the same time as malaria.

According to health research, the emergence of malaria in the Highlands region was a result of climate change.

Highlanders were another group of people classified as most vulnerable to malaria apart from pregnant women and children under five years.

The disease has not been in the region in the past and the people had little or no immunity against it.

They were likely to get very sick if bitten by an infected mosquito.

 

Aldridge Minerals discovers gold in highlands

CANADIAN mining and exploration company Aldridge Minerals Inc has discovered large-scale copper-gold mineralisation in a number of outcrops from its 100%-owned 450km2 licence in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, The National reports.

The company’s licence is located between the giant copper-gold deposits of Ok Tedi (150km west), Frieda River (130km north-west), and Porgera (50km east).

A geological report compiled by Dr Yves Cheze received this year has outlined that the Aldridge 2009 field campaign found copper-gold mineralisation in a number of outcrops, with a total of 357 soil, 65 stream sediment, 76 rock chip and 23 channel samples collected and assayed from an area informally named “Mag1”.

Aldridge is now planning a potential Mag1 follow up field campaign this year, including further mapping, soil and rock sampling alongside geophysical work to determine sulphide concentrations, to be followed by a first-round drill programme later in the field season. 

 Cheze’s report identified that the main mineralised zone is located on a NW-SE-trending ridge and its southwestern flank, at an elevation of approximately 1,300-1,650m lying above the Logayiu River. 

Aldridge chief executive and exploration manager Dr Martin Oczlon said: “We are thankful to Yves for his solid approach to this project and the amazing job he did in adverse field conditions.

“The mineralisation footprint and geological setting of Ok Tedi are similar to our Magi1 discovery,” he said.

“Not only did he produce an enormous amount of samples in a relatively short time, he also established very good relations with the local population on behalf of Aldridge.”

Oczlon said the size of this mineralised system and the sampled grades open up potential for yet another major discovery in PNG.

 

 

 

 

Moonlighting fish farmer

By NANCY KALIMDA of MMJV

 

The common expression “moonlighting” usually refers to someone doing a second job after hours, without the knowledge of his day-time employer.

But working by the light of the moon is no secondary occupation for a very determined young man from Timini village in the Bulolo district.

Jeremiah Yapu has a full time day job: he is a Year 11 student at Bugandi near Lae.

He also copes with a disability of having one hand smaller than the other, the result of an accident when he was nine years old.

Somewhere along the road of his life, this fourth-born son acquired an interest in fish farming.

His enthusiasm passed to his father Yapu Nason, back home in the village, who supported his son in the construction of two fish ponds, in 2008.

Working by the light of the moon, because it makes the heavy digging a little easier away from the heat of the sun, Yapu now has three fish ponds stocked with breeding and fast-growing fish.

A fourth pond is under construction, driven by the success the father and son team have achieved in selling fish at Zenag market.

Yapu has sold table-sized super tilapia for K10 each, and table-sized common carp for K8.

Father and son, as well as younger brother Mark Yapu, recently attended two weeks of business training for Mumeng local level government (LLG) fish farmers.

Far from seeing himself as disabled, the 19-year-old said the business training, provided by Morobe Mining and the Hidden Valley project, had helped him to see the importance of starting small revenue-generating projects, and keeping them in operation.

 “I thank MMJV and the trainers for the valuable training, where I have learned a lot,” Yapu said.

“The training has helped me to budget the money earned from the sale of my fish.”

The fish farming course was attended by 38 participants, a good number of whom were young men.

Among them were four female participants, and MMJV said it was encouraging to see that so many of the participants were young people.

Speaking at the closing of the two weeks of training, general manager of sustainability and external relations, David Wissink said the company was happy to support this grassroots programme.

Wissink said not everyone would get jobs at the mine and the company was assisting those who will remain in the village so that they also have an opportunity to earn some money through small projects such as fish farming, coffee, cocoa and other products.

He also encouraged the farmers that their fish should not only be for sale, but a new food source for family consumption as well.

 

Workshop on production of agricultural extension material

By JAMES LARAKI of NARI

 

A regional workshop on producing agricultural extension is underway at the Madang Resort Hotel, Madang, designed to improving the capacity of participants in developing appropriate extension materials.

The two-week workshop, organised by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) in collaboration with the Institute for Research and Extension Training in Agriculture (IRETA) of the University of the South Pacific, is to improve production of simple technical information relevant to the agriculture.

Writing and producing simple extension materials is proving to be a difficult task as few researchers and other agents in the agriculture sector posses the know-how to simplify research reports and bulletins in formats that could be easily understood and used by extension field staff as well as farmers in the South Pacific.

The workshop which started on January 10 is being attended by more than 20 participants representing various agricultural research and extension institutions from the South Pacific, including PNG.

The workshop is aimed at improving the practical communication skills of participants and enhance their ability to write and production extension material for extension field staff and farmers. 

It is geared towards enabling participants to identify sources of agricultural information and acquire skills to develop materials in formats appropriate to the farming communities to which they serve.

Upon on completion of the course, participants would be able identify sources of agricultural information and relevant statistics, valid to the needs of their clients and choose appropriate media to disseminate the information.

The workshop also provides an opportunity for the participants to understand the importance of agricultural extension materials in the business of technology transfer and discuss the fundamental principles of communication and look at how existing material can be improved appropriate to their target audience.

The workshop, which is conducted through a mixture of lectures and practical work including field testing and validation of materials produced, will require participants to prepare action plans for follow-up action in their home countries and their respective institutions.

CTA will also be commissioning the development of an extension materials tool kit which will be field tested during the training.

The field testing exercise will enable participants to analyse what they have produced during the training is relevant to the client’s needs and make adjustments where required.

The workshop is a follow-up from a similar workshop in 2009 organised by CTA in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community for participants from the western South Pacific.

 

Rights to land

Women and children were among landowners who stormed a property development taking place along the Poreporena Freeway in Port Moresby yesterday, demanding that their piece of land at portion 2585c be returned to them.
Landowners from the Mavara Idiba clan at Hanuabada accused the developer, Garamut Enterprise Ltd, of stealing their land.
They carried placards denouncing Garamut’s ownership of the land and that they wanted it back.
The villagers are arguing that the developer had engrossed on an extra 5ha of traditional land without their approval. – Nationalpic by JUNIOR UKAHA