By ZACHERY PER
THE Chinese national killed in Goroka over the weekend fired shots to disperse thugs raping his female passengers and looting his vehicle, Goroka police said yesterday, The National reports.
Initial police investigations showed the man, his friend and two females were struggling to push their mini-dyna truck out of the drain, after it went off the road, when opportunists and thugs converged on them.
The thugs raped the female passengers, robbed them of cash, mobile phones and other valuable items, Eastern Highlands provincial police commander Supt Augustine Wampe said.
He said Alex Seng Da then fired the shot from his pistol that hit a youth in the crowd, which then turned and killed him instantly.
“The pistol used in the incident remains missing but police are aware of who is in possession of it, so arrests will be made soon,” he said.
Wampe said investigations were still going on with reliable information coming in as a result of good cooperation from Asariufa community leaders.
William Morea, a youth from Sinasina, Chimbu, was shot dead by the Chinese man.
In retaliation, relatives killed him on the spot.
The deaths occurred at around 8pm last Saturday at the Asariufa section of the Highlands Highway.
Police stepped up operations not only in Goroka but in the neighbouring Kainantu town to contain opportunists who may try to loot shops.
The Seng Da chain of supermarkets and other Asian business outlets in Goroka remained closed yesterday.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Pact with European Union will boost tuna industry
A EUROPEAN Union (EU) economic partnership agreement (EPA) is major boost for the Papua New Guinea fishing industry, Fisheries Minister Ben Semri said, The National reports.
Semri said the agreement would benefit the country through direct foreign investment, employment and poverty alleviation.
The EPA between the two parties was signed in 2009.
The agreement provided access for PNG canned tuna into European markets without any import duties.
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Trade and Immigration Don Polye thanked the EU delegation who supported PNG to secure global sourcing for fisheries exports into EU market.
He said the government was taking measures to ratify the deal quickly so it could implement the provisions in the agreement.
Polye said this at the first meeting of the trade committee under the EPA with EU representatives in Port Moresby last Friday.
Polye said local canned tuna could be found on European markets at a competitive price be¬cause it enjoyed no import duty.
He encouraged other Pacific Islands to sign EPAs with EU to enjoy similar benefits.
Polye encouraged local fishermen and women to embrace fishing as the agreement had added va¬lue to fisheries.
Semri thanked the European countries that voted 80% in favour of allowing direct export of PNG canned tuna to European shores.
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Thompson said both parties agreed with the EPA PNG could inspire other Pacific nations to join the agreement.
“The EU remains committed not only to supporting PNG in implementing the agreement, but to strengthen it further by deepening its coverage – to include provisions on development, services, investment and sustainable management of fishery resources – and widening its membership to other Pacific Island Countries,” Thompson said.
Polye said PNG could become the tuna capital of the world should all go well in the agreement.
He said that the EPA added value to PNG’s as¬pirations which other Pa¬ci¬fic island counties could benefit from as well.
“To make PNG the tuna capital, we must grasp the opportunity available and take ownership of the development,” Polye said.
He stressed the EPA would promote other spin-off businesses outside the fisheries industry.
“Most important of all is the engagement of women and youth in this business, women and children being significant component of our population,” Polye said,
Semri said: “The beauty of it is that huge revenue associated with the tuna market where no duty or taxes will be charged on every tonne of tuna lands on EU market”.
“Not only our tuna is very competitive in the EU markets and that will greatly benefit our economy,” he added.
Meanwhile, the two-day African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) review seminar meeting will start at Lamana Hotel today.
The EPA between EU and ACP countries is aimed at promoting trade between the two groups through trade development, sustainable growth and poverty reduction.
EPA set out to help ACP countries integrate into the world economy and share in the opportunities offered by globalisation.
Pasquarelli decries loss of House of Assembly
By MALUM NALU
A former member of the first House of The House of Assembly in 1964 has decried the selling its selling to Lamana Development Group to be turned into a hotel.
John Pasquarelli, MP for Angoram Open Electorate from 1964-1968, said today that building should have been preserved because of its historical significance.
He said, however, that the history of the first House of Assembly should be reflected in the new building.
“The site is, of course, very prominent in the Moresby CBD and to be honest it has no outstanding architectural features that would warrant preserving it,” Pasquarelli said.
“But it is the birthplace of PNG's democracy and the new building to be erected must feature clearly that history.
“I don't know about the new building being a replica of the old - I would have to see an architect's model first and the design, I assume, would be debated by the government and the people.
“The entrance foyer and environs would be the obvious place to illustrate the history of the site and, at the risk of appearing vain, maybe a plaque detailing the names of the members of that first House Of Assembly should be included in any recognition.”
A former member of the first House of The House of Assembly in 1964 has decried the selling its selling to Lamana Development Group to be turned into a hotel.
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| An Australian newspaper cutting from 1964 show from left John Pasquarelli, Simogen Peter, Sinake Giregire and Graham Pople. |
He said, however, that the history of the first House of Assembly should be reflected in the new building.
“The site is, of course, very prominent in the Moresby CBD and to be honest it has no outstanding architectural features that would warrant preserving it,” Pasquarelli said.
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Opening of the first House of Assembly in June 1964.
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“I don't know about the new building being a replica of the old - I would have to see an architect's model first and the design, I assume, would be debated by the government and the people.
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Members of the first House of Assembly in 1964.
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Joe Leahy's Neighbours: A parable for mordern-day Papua New Guinea
By MALUM NALU
Joe Leahy shot to fame as the star of internationally-acclaimed movies, Joe Leahy’s Neighbours and its sequel Black Harvest, which have also been widely shown on local television.
Today, at age 72 but still sprightly as ever since the filming of Joe Leahy’s Neighbours and Black Harvest in the 1980s, Leahy is desperately looking for money to revive his rundown Kilma coffee plantation in the Nebilyer Valley of Western Highlands province.
I met him in Goroka, Eastern Highlands, on Tuesday, April 12, when he and other Western Highlands coffee growers had travelled there for the launch of the World Bank-funded coffee project, and we got into a lively conversation.
If Joe Leahy’s story is a parable for modern-day Papua New Guinea, more so our coffee growers and those living in the highlands, perhaps everyone takes his own meaning from it and reads his own life into it.
Having watched both movies several times, unrehearsed documentaries which can make you laugh one moment and drive you to tears the next, I was keen to know how Leahy’s coffee business had prospered since.
Joe Leahy’s Neighbours traces the fortunes of Joe Leahy, the mixed-race son of Australian explorer Michael Leahy, in his uneasy relationship with his tribal neighbors.
He built his coffee plantation on land bought from the Ganiga tribe in the mid 1970s.
European-educated, raised in the highlands, freed by his mixed race from the entanglements of tribal obligation, Leahy leads a Western lifestyle governed by individualism and the pursuit of affluence.
While Leahy may live in Western grandeur, he is still surrounded by his subsistence-level Ganiga "neighbors," who never let him forget the original source of his prosperity.
He spends much of his waking hours just keeping the lid on things.
Australian filmmakers Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson lived for 18 continuous months in 1985 and 1986 on the edge of his plantation, in the "no man's land" between Leahy and the Ganiga.
Their lively, non-judgmental narrative eloquently captures the conflicting values of tribalism and capitalism.
Black Harvest, the final film shot in 1989, charts the progress of Leahy in convincing the Ganiga tribespeople to join him in a coffee-growing venture.
He provides the money and the expertise; they supply the land and labor.
But on the eve of success, world coffee price collapses and tribal warfare erupts in the valley, as the Ganigas team up with the Ulgas to fight the Kulgas.
Always suspect because of his mixed-race status, Leahy is in deep trouble with the tribespeople when his promises of riches fail to materialise.
As he organises to emigrate with his family to Australia, he is a saddened man with an uncertain future.
So much has happened since then, Leahy remaining in his beloved Western Highlands – the Promised Land discovered by his father and uncles in the 1930s and eloquently captured in First Contact – while his Central province wife and children have settled permanently in Australia.
‘The plantation (Kilma), since the movies were shot in the 1980s, has closed, that’s why I’m in Goroka,” Leahy tells me.
“I’ve been trying to get money from the NADP (national agriculture development plan) to revive the plantation; however, all that money has been siphoned elsewhere.
“The plantation has all gone bush.
"I’m still living there.
“I applied for NADP funding but I got nothing, so I’m here to see if the World Bank can help us.
“The government has the ideas in place; however, it is the implementing agencies that are not making it happen
“What I’m doing now is looking for cash to revive the plantation.”
Such was the intensity of the fighting between the Ulgas and the Kulgas in the Nebilyer Valley that it continued unabated, for more than 10 years, claiming countless lives.
"Everything’s been destroyed,” Leahy tells me.
“The infrastructure, everything’s there, and all I need is the money and things will be back again.
“Before the fighting erupted, the plantation was fully operational.
“We borrowed money from the PNGBC (PNG Banking Corporation) and were paying it off.
“Then the fighting broke out and we were in debt with the PNGBC
“I started the plantation in the 1970s.
“In 1975/1976, the plantation was in full production.
“The fighting started in the 1980s and continued for more than 10 years.
“Now is the time to pump money into rural areas so that people can look after themselves.”
After the daylight robbery of the NADP by the infamous “paper farmers” of Waigani, Leahy, and coffee growers in the highlands, see the World Bank project as manna from heaven.
“The World Bank project is a blessing from heaven,” he says.
“The system is there but the people who are there should make it work.
“Bureaucrats live if a dream world.
“They are not looking at reality.”
A look of sadness appears on Leahy’s face as he talks about Kilma plantation, his wife, and seven children, two girls and five boys.
“The plantation’s not operational,” he tells me.
“It’s all bush now.
“Thieves are going there, stealing.
“I just live on the place and do bits and pieces.
“What we need is money and law-and-order.
“My children have all left and are looking after themselves.
“They’re all married and have got kids.
“During the fighting, my wife asked me to leave.
“I said I will never leave this place.
“She’s in Australia with the kids.”
Leahy says the warring tribes now realise the economic development’s they’ve missed out on for all these years because of tribal fighting.
“They accused me of stealing their money and their land,” he adds, forlornly.
“Now they look back and see that they’ve done wrong.
“They’re living a miserable life."
Joe Leahy shot to fame as the star of internationally-acclaimed movies, Joe Leahy’s Neighbours and its sequel Black Harvest, which have also been widely shown on local television.
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Joe Leahy manages a smile amidst all his problems.-Pictures by MALUM NALU
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| At age 72, and fit as ever, is Joe Leahy in boots, jeans, jacket and hat. |
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| A perennial coffee farmer…Joe Leahy (fourth from right, backrow) with other Western Highlands coffee growers in Goroka. |
Having watched both movies several times, unrehearsed documentaries which can make you laugh one moment and drive you to tears the next, I was keen to know how Leahy’s coffee business had prospered since.
Joe Leahy’s Neighbours traces the fortunes of Joe Leahy, the mixed-race son of Australian explorer Michael Leahy, in his uneasy relationship with his tribal neighbors.
He built his coffee plantation on land bought from the Ganiga tribe in the mid 1970s.
European-educated, raised in the highlands, freed by his mixed race from the entanglements of tribal obligation, Leahy leads a Western lifestyle governed by individualism and the pursuit of affluence.
While Leahy may live in Western grandeur, he is still surrounded by his subsistence-level Ganiga "neighbors," who never let him forget the original source of his prosperity.
He spends much of his waking hours just keeping the lid on things.
Australian filmmakers Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson lived for 18 continuous months in 1985 and 1986 on the edge of his plantation, in the "no man's land" between Leahy and the Ganiga.
Their lively, non-judgmental narrative eloquently captures the conflicting values of tribalism and capitalism.
Black Harvest, the final film shot in 1989, charts the progress of Leahy in convincing the Ganiga tribespeople to join him in a coffee-growing venture.
He provides the money and the expertise; they supply the land and labor.
But on the eve of success, world coffee price collapses and tribal warfare erupts in the valley, as the Ganigas team up with the Ulgas to fight the Kulgas.
Always suspect because of his mixed-race status, Leahy is in deep trouble with the tribespeople when his promises of riches fail to materialise.
As he organises to emigrate with his family to Australia, he is a saddened man with an uncertain future.
So much has happened since then, Leahy remaining in his beloved Western Highlands – the Promised Land discovered by his father and uncles in the 1930s and eloquently captured in First Contact – while his Central province wife and children have settled permanently in Australia.
‘The plantation (Kilma), since the movies were shot in the 1980s, has closed, that’s why I’m in Goroka,” Leahy tells me.
“I’ve been trying to get money from the NADP (national agriculture development plan) to revive the plantation; however, all that money has been siphoned elsewhere.
“The plantation has all gone bush.
"I’m still living there.
“I applied for NADP funding but I got nothing, so I’m here to see if the World Bank can help us.
“The government has the ideas in place; however, it is the implementing agencies that are not making it happen
“What I’m doing now is looking for cash to revive the plantation.”
Such was the intensity of the fighting between the Ulgas and the Kulgas in the Nebilyer Valley that it continued unabated, for more than 10 years, claiming countless lives.
"Everything’s been destroyed,” Leahy tells me.
“The infrastructure, everything’s there, and all I need is the money and things will be back again.
“Before the fighting erupted, the plantation was fully operational.
“We borrowed money from the PNGBC (PNG Banking Corporation) and were paying it off.
“Then the fighting broke out and we were in debt with the PNGBC
“I started the plantation in the 1970s.
“In 1975/1976, the plantation was in full production.
“The fighting started in the 1980s and continued for more than 10 years.
“Now is the time to pump money into rural areas so that people can look after themselves.”
After the daylight robbery of the NADP by the infamous “paper farmers” of Waigani, Leahy, and coffee growers in the highlands, see the World Bank project as manna from heaven.
“The World Bank project is a blessing from heaven,” he says.
“The system is there but the people who are there should make it work.
“Bureaucrats live if a dream world.
“They are not looking at reality.”
A look of sadness appears on Leahy’s face as he talks about Kilma plantation, his wife, and seven children, two girls and five boys.
“The plantation’s not operational,” he tells me.
“It’s all bush now.
“Thieves are going there, stealing.
“I just live on the place and do bits and pieces.
“What we need is money and law-and-order.
“My children have all left and are looking after themselves.
“They’re all married and have got kids.
“During the fighting, my wife asked me to leave.
“I said I will never leave this place.
“She’s in Australia with the kids.”
Leahy says the warring tribes now realise the economic development’s they’ve missed out on for all these years because of tribal fighting.
“They accused me of stealing their money and their land,” he adds, forlornly.
“Now they look back and see that they’ve done wrong.
“They’re living a miserable life."
Hidden Valley mine supports Coffee Industry Corporation objectives
The Hidden Valley Mine is implementing the Coffee Industry Corporation’s (CIC) plans to improve coffee production in the country.
The CIC is focusing on adding value in the marketing chain for farmers to increase export volume and quality.
Its strategy includes rehabilitation of all aging senile coffee trees, expansion into new growth areas and establishment of nurseries, mobilisation of smallholder coffee growers, promote marketing systems which revolve around quality.
Hidden Valley is helping to achieve these objectives in partnership with Mainland Holdings Limited (MHL) through a coffee training programme.
The mine is funding the trainings which are conducted by MHL for villages located in the footprint of the mining operation in the Wau/Bulolo district of Morobe province.
The objective of the programme is to enhance the income of the rural people through coffee production.
The first training was conducted for Biangai villages in Wau from July to August, 2010.
It involved six Biangai villages including the two principal landowners of the Hidden Valley Gold Mine: Kwembu and Winima.
The training was aimed at enhancing the income of the Biangai community through improved coffee management practices.
It focused on improving the skills and knowledge of farmers on, coffee nursery establishment and field planting, coffee garden management, basic garden rehabilitation and pruning practices, coffee quality improvement through improved harvesting and processing techniques and basic financial management and cash handling practices and Marketing.
The training was conducted in two phases, theory and practical.
It attracted a huge turnout with a total of 95 participants in attendance.
Five came from Winima, 10 from Kwembu, 58 from Biawen, 10 from Werewere, 10 from Elauru and three from Kaisenik and also comprised of 16 females, two of whom were ward councilors, seven church pastors and a grade 11 female student of Grace Memorial Secondary School.
The participants were presented with shade cloth for nursery and drying beds, secateurs and saws for pruning, nails for the nursery buildings, yellow cover cloth for the drying roofs, and topped it off with 17 coffee cherry pulping machines to assist them to continue to take care of their coffee gardens.
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A coffee farmer from Biawen attends to one of his coffee trees during the pruning practical session.
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Its strategy includes rehabilitation of all aging senile coffee trees, expansion into new growth areas and establishment of nurseries, mobilisation of smallholder coffee growers, promote marketing systems which revolve around quality.
Hidden Valley is helping to achieve these objectives in partnership with Mainland Holdings Limited (MHL) through a coffee training programme.
The mine is funding the trainings which are conducted by MHL for villages located in the footprint of the mining operation in the Wau/Bulolo district of Morobe province.
The objective of the programme is to enhance the income of the rural people through coffee production.
The first training was conducted for Biangai villages in Wau from July to August, 2010.
It involved six Biangai villages including the two principal landowners of the Hidden Valley Gold Mine: Kwembu and Winima.
The training was aimed at enhancing the income of the Biangai community through improved coffee management practices.
It focused on improving the skills and knowledge of farmers on, coffee nursery establishment and field planting, coffee garden management, basic garden rehabilitation and pruning practices, coffee quality improvement through improved harvesting and processing techniques and basic financial management and cash handling practices and Marketing.
The training was conducted in two phases, theory and practical.
It attracted a huge turnout with a total of 95 participants in attendance.
Five came from Winima, 10 from Kwembu, 58 from Biawen, 10 from Werewere, 10 from Elauru and three from Kaisenik and also comprised of 16 females, two of whom were ward councilors, seven church pastors and a grade 11 female student of Grace Memorial Secondary School.
The participants were presented with shade cloth for nursery and drying beds, secateurs and saws for pruning, nails for the nursery buildings, yellow cover cloth for the drying roofs, and topped it off with 17 coffee cherry pulping machines to assist them to continue to take care of their coffee gardens.
Miss PNG sees real life in remote Nabak
By ELLEN TIAMU
MISS Papua New Guinea Rachel Sapery James visited a remote village in Morobe last Friday morning, describing it as the highlight of her visit to the province, The National reports.
She visited Sakarang village, Nabak district, as part of her Red Cross Miss PNG duties to spread the word on the work of the organisation.
She told villagers of the importance of keeping clean, using clean water and keeping food clean to combat cholera and tuberculosis.
James encouraged the villagers to take care of their environment, saying it was their livelihood and any destruction of the eco-system would mean possible threats on their lives.
Helicopter company Manolos Aviation assisted her with transport to the inland village, which highlighted to her the plight of many women in the province, and country, who needlessly die because they could not easily access health centres and hospitals.
Manolos Aviation flies women, men and children from remote areas of Morobe needing urgent and life-saving medical attention into Lae’s Angau Memorial Hospital.
James described her visit to the village as the best part of her visit to Morobe.
MISS Papua New Guinea Rachel Sapery James visited a remote village in Morobe last Friday morning, describing it as the highlight of her visit to the province, The National reports.
She told villagers of the importance of keeping clean, using clean water and keeping food clean to combat cholera and tuberculosis.
James encouraged the villagers to take care of their environment, saying it was their livelihood and any destruction of the eco-system would mean possible threats on their lives.
Helicopter company Manolos Aviation assisted her with transport to the inland village, which highlighted to her the plight of many women in the province, and country, who needlessly die because they could not easily access health centres and hospitals.
Manolos Aviation flies women, men and children from remote areas of Morobe needing urgent and life-saving medical attention into Lae’s Angau Memorial Hospital.
James described her visit to the village as the best part of her visit to Morobe.
Attorney general: State owns all resources
ATTORNEY-General Sir Arnold Amet is adamant the state owns all resources found six feet or deeper in the land, The National reports. This included minerals and oil, he said.
Refuting ambassador Peter Donigi of Warner Shand Lawyers, who claimed that the state did not own natural resources, Sir Arnold said the Petroleum Act and Mining Act vested ownership of minerals and petroleum resources with the state.
The former chief justice said, as such, the state was the proper party to the gas agreement and it had validly executed the gas agreement (PNG LNG Agreement of May 22, 2008).
“Both the Oil and Gas Act 1998 and the Mining Act 1992 vest ownership of minerals and petroleum resources with the state,” Sir Arnold said in a statement last Friday.
“These two acts adopted state ownership rights for minerals and petroleum resources from pre-independence laws.”
Sir Arnold said Donigi had previously raised the issue in the National Court on a number of occasions and, each time, the court had ruled ownership rested with the state.
“Donigi has and continues to incite landowners from the LNG project areas with his vague argument, instead of pursuing legal redress through the higher courts to have the matter resolved,” the attorney-general said.
Attempts to get comments from Donigi failed as he was said to be in Hela.
The relevant laws state that all minerals and petroleum resources lying six feet below the surface of the land belong to the state.
There is a private member’s bill promoted by North Fly MP Boka Kondra that seeks to amend those particular clauses to vest all ownership of minerals and hydrocarbon resources in the owners of the land on which the resources are found.
It is yet to be made into law.
Refuting ambassador Peter Donigi of Warner Shand Lawyers, who claimed that the state did not own natural resources, Sir Arnold said the Petroleum Act and Mining Act vested ownership of minerals and petroleum resources with the state.
The former chief justice said, as such, the state was the proper party to the gas agreement and it had validly executed the gas agreement (PNG LNG Agreement of May 22, 2008).
“Both the Oil and Gas Act 1998 and the Mining Act 1992 vest ownership of minerals and petroleum resources with the state,” Sir Arnold said in a statement last Friday.
“These two acts adopted state ownership rights for minerals and petroleum resources from pre-independence laws.”
Sir Arnold said Donigi had previously raised the issue in the National Court on a number of occasions and, each time, the court had ruled ownership rested with the state.
“Donigi has and continues to incite landowners from the LNG project areas with his vague argument, instead of pursuing legal redress through the higher courts to have the matter resolved,” the attorney-general said.
Attempts to get comments from Donigi failed as he was said to be in Hela.
The relevant laws state that all minerals and petroleum resources lying six feet below the surface of the land belong to the state.
There is a private member’s bill promoted by North Fly MP Boka Kondra that seeks to amend those particular clauses to vest all ownership of minerals and hydrocarbon resources in the owners of the land on which the resources are found.
It is yet to be made into law.
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