Everyday superhero in trouble for using city asphalt to fix potholes

I found this story so heartwarming and relevant to Papua New Guinea where potholes are an everyday nightmare, costing millions of kina, and people waiting for the government to do everything. Here, an ordinary citizen known to the community as "the Robin Hood of potholes", works under cover of darkness to fill up potholes in Jackson, Missisipi, USA.PNG needs a superhero likes this..Malum

gawker.com

Jackson, Mississippi's longstanding and widespread pothole problem is finally getting fixed. Not by the city, mind you, but by an ordinary citizen known to the community as "the Robin Hood of potholes."

The "rogue road worker," as the Clarion Ledger calls him, is actually a mild-mannered screenprinter named Ron Chane.

On at least five separate occasions, Chane, who also goes by "The Pothole Patchman," has taken to the so-called "Six Flags streets" of Jackson under the cover of darkness armed with buckets of asphalt and a sense of civic duty.

According to Chane, he has filled over 100 potholes so far, leaving his mark behind like all good superheroes in the form of a spray-painted message that reads "citizen fixed."

Chane's selfless efforts to fix the city's bumpy infrastructure have been met with approval from other residents who say the city is simply too backed up and underfunded to fix the problem itself.

But the city sees Chane's unsolicited assistance as its problem: He's taking city asphalt without permission.

The source of Chane's pothole filling is a "large mound of road-building material" located near State Street.

"We do not accept any use of the city's resources without going through the proper legal channels," Jackson's newly elected mayor Chokwe Lumumba said in a statement.

But Chane insists he's just "putting [the asphalt] back where it belongs."

"I’m probably stealing from the city, but there’s not a sign saying ‘Don’t take this and put it in potholes," he said.

The 43-year-old hopes his actions will prompt the mayor to act aggressively against the pothole problem, but says the flip side of his mission is to let citizens know that "you have to sometimes take matters in your hands, in a creative and constructive way."

"Hopefully someone else will come behind me," he said. "I don't want to do the city's work forever."

Youth set to take on Kokoda track

Erin Pearson   |  July 12th, 2013

Geelong Advertiser

AN EXCITABLE group of at-risk Geelong youth are preparing to embark on an educational trip of a lifetime that'll see them retrace the footsteps of Australian war heroes.
Ten youths, aged 16 and 17, were recently selected to walk with police and sponsors for eight days along the rugged Kokoda track in Papua New Guinea.
Kirsty O'Loughlin, Leah O'Brien, Kassandra Cowle-Henry, Tyler Sheaf, Lachie Todd, Jackson Barlow, Blake Barry, Alesha Henare, Cameron Blacksell and Ben Deluca will head off in September to complete the gruelling eight-day trek through the same tough terrain as World War II heroes more than six decades ago.

Policeman Michael Reid with youth training. From left: Kirsty O'Loughlan, Leah O'Brien, Kassandra Cowle-Henry, Tyler Sheaf, Lachie Todd, Jackson Barlow and Blake Barry.

Leading Senior Constable Andy Brittain said the program was a first for Geelong following a number of similar initiatives run in Melbourne.
He said the 10 teens were selected from a shortlist of 81 and were eagerly preparing for their life-changing mission.
"They've all had struggles in their lives but we hope this experience will change them forever," he said.

"These kids want to help themselves, they just need a bit of guidance."
Kassandra Cowle-Henry said while the intensive training program was getting easier the looming addition of bugs, heat, limiting showering and no hair straightening irons was unsettling.
"It's going to be a challenge," she laughed.
"But I feel honoured to be going.
"I didn't realise until I started training how much stamina I actually had."
Leah O'Brien said the group was already bonding after just a few weeks of training practise.
Senior Sergeant Michael Reid said it was a daunting challenge the kids were embracing with open arms.
He said all 10 had progressed through the Operation Newstart program before acknowledging they needed further guidance.
As part of the program the teens will also raise money for an Isurava school, identified by Kokoda Track Foundation as a school requiring assistance, he said.
"What we hope they'll get out of it is to be able to see that when they put their minds to anything they'll be able to achieve the most challenging of challenges now and into the future. They'll really get to understand how another community and culture live as many have never experienced that before or even left the country," he said.
"Their confidence is growing and you can see that when speaking to them each week.
"It's already having an impact."
The sponsors include Hodges Real Estate, St Laurence, Geelong Rotary, St John of God, R&R Group, Decuba, Costa Group, Leopold Uniting Church and Karingal Yo

Multi-billion dollar LNG project top of Rudd's PNG agenda

Brendan Arrow for Pacific Beat

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's two day visit to PNG will focus on investment and trade issues, particularly a multi-billion dollar gas project.

Mr Rudd announced plans to visit PNG saying issues like regional security, heath and aid will be discussed with PNG's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill.

Photo: Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd speaks to locals soon after landing in Moreguina in Papua New Guinea on October 1, 2011. (AAP: Eoin Blackwell)

Australia's parliamentary secretary for the Pacific, Senator Matt Thistlethwaite, says PNG's multi-billion dollar Liquid Natural Gas project is on the top of that list.

Audio: Brendan Arrow for Pacific Beat (ABC News)

"We're working with the Papua New Guinean Government to ensure that they develop a sovereign wealth fund to ensure the proceeds or the benefits of that project are shared amongst the Papua New Guinean population," Mr Thistlethwaite said.
Apart from key trade partnerships, Australia and PNG also have a deal regarding asylum seekers.
Australia has re-opened detention centres in Nauru and PNG's Manus Island to try and deal with the number of asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat.
The PNG site has been criticised by the United Nations High Commission for refugees with its most recent report stating that while there has been some improvement, it fails to meet the terms of a memorandum of understanding between the two nations when it was established.
The report highlights poor living conditions and slow processing arrangements as key problems.
Mr Thistlethwaite says he doesn't believe the issue will be discussed between Kevin Rudd and Peter O'Neill as PNG is already keen on developing a regional solution with Australia.
"Papua New Guinea has shown great support for a regional solution to the issues of people smuggling," Mr Thistlethwaite said.
"There has been some constitutional court challenges to processing up there but they've been dismissed.
"So, we're really enthused by the commitment that Peter O'Neill and his government has shown to working with Australia on finding a lasting solution, a regional solution to the very difficult issue of people smuggling," he said.
Part of the discussions between the two prime ministers will also cover health service concerns in PNG.
Dr Curt von Boguslawski, World Vision PNG Country Program Director, says he hopes Mr Rudd's presence will help shine a light on health issues the pacific nation faces.
"It has been a hard road to really try and convince the government to do more on health and education," Dr Boguslawski said.
"Especially with the health system, there is a lot to be done.
Dr Boguslawksi says while funding through AusAID programs has helped improve the health situation of many Papua New Guineans, he would like the organisations providing real services on the ground to be involved in future discussions.
"Service delivery is very difficult. It's a rugged country and some of the primary health services are not delivered," Dr Boguslawksi said.
"So, malaria and TB are the result of not being able to deliver primary health services and awareness.
"Schools, education institutions need to work together to make sure health messages as well as lifestyle messages are passed on," Dr Boguslawski said.
Mr Rudd visited Papua New Guinea last year as Foreign Minister and before that in 2007 when he was Prime Minister the first time around.

InterOil CEO Says PNG talks with Exxon progressing

By James Paton

July 12, 2013

Businessweek

InterOil Corp. (IOC:US), the explorer in talks with Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM:US) to develop natural gas discoveries in Papua New Guinea, said negotiations are progressing with the world’s largest energy company by market value.

“It’s moving along nicely,” said Michael Hession, the former Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL) executive named yesterday as InterOil’s chief executive officer. “I’m not disturbed in any way, shape or form. I’d emphasize that Exxon and this negotiation are going to be my number one priority.”
InterOil said in May that it started exclusive discussions with Exxon to develop the gas fields in Papua New Guinea. Exxon is interested in the assets because they may help expand the oil producer’s $19 billion liquefied natural gas project in the country, Mark Nolan, vice president for the Middle East and Australia, told reporters in Brisbane in May.
Hession, who brought PetroChina Co., Mitsubishi Corp. (8058) and Mitsui & Co. into Woodside’s Browse LNG project in Australia in agreements reached last year, said he carried out extensive research into InterOil before joining the company.
“I’ve been in discussions with InterOil for some months, since before I left Woodside,” he said. “It has been a careful and measured courtship.”
InterOil has been searching for international partners to help fund a Papua New Guinea natural gas project since 2009, when Bank of America Corp. (BAC:US)’s Merrill Lynch sold its 35 percent stake in the venture. Phil Mulacek, who founded the company, retired as chief executive officer in April.

Partnership proposals

InterOil said in 2011 that it hired Morgan Stanley, UBS AG and Macquarie Group Ltd. to evaluate partnership proposals. Mulacek said in an October 2011 interview that he expected to sign a partner by the end of that year.
Included in the discussions with Exxon is the potential sale of a stake in a license that comprises the Elk and Antelope fields, InterOil said. Hession declined to provide more information about the talks or say when he expected the negotiations to be completed.
Hession left his position overseeing Woodside’s Browse venture in May after Australia’s second-biggest oil and gas producer scrapped a plan to build the project at an onshore site in Western Australia because it was too expensive. Woodside now is considering using floating LNG technology to develop the Browse project.
InterOil is incorporated in Canada’s Yukon, has offices in Cairns, Australia and Singapore, and is traded in New York. Elk and Antelope hold an estimated 9 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas, InterOil said in its 2012 annual report.

Kiaps of PNG recognised at long last

By Max Blenkin, AAP Defence Correspondent

July 12, 2013 1:28PM

CHRIS Viner-Smith was a cadet Papua New Guinea patrol officer when the trawler taking him to his first posting ran into a reef and sank.

He survived. But worse was to come during his 10 years working in the wilds of PNG.

CHRIS Viner-Smith

"There were many close calls. I was locked up in an Indonesian jail in Merauke after I was captured on the border. I thought I was going to be shot," Viner-Smith recalled.
Now 72, retired and living in Canberra, Viner-Smith has for the past decade campaigned for official recognition for this little known part of Australia's colonial history.
This week, Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare awarded the Police Overseas Service Medal to 55 former Australian members of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary in recognition of their service between 1949 and 1973.
"They have never been properly recognised for the work they did to maintain order in Papua New Guinea. The ceremony today is righting a wrong and providing long overdue recognition of the important work they did," the minister said.

Patrol officers were invariably known as "kiaps" - a PNG Tok Pisin language derivation of the German kapitan (captain) from the era pre-World War I when northern PNG was a German colony.
Kiaps were the tangible representatives of the Australian administration in remote areas of the nation, travelling accompanied by only a few local policemen and juggling the multiple roles of policeman, ambassador, explorer, farmer, engineer and anthropologist.
After leaving school in South Australia in 1961, 19-year-old Viner-Smith spotted an advertisement for a cadet patrol officer.
He applied and - after passing medical tests to ensure he was fit to walk the mountains, valleys and swamps of PNG and a psychological test to ensure he could cope working alone - was given the job.
He did training in Sydney and more in Port Moresby. As a cadet, early patrols were under the guidance of an experienced officer.
Viner-Smith's first foray didn't end well. The trawler transporting to his first posting hit a reef and sank. He returned to Moresby and finished the journey aboard a Catalina flying boat.
Subsequently, he served for a decade in PNG. At the height of tensions over Indonesia's confrontation with Malaysia, Viner-Smith was on the border adjacent to Indonesian West Papua.
"They (the Indonesians) had just taken over from the Dutch. A lot of the refugees who were a bit scared of the Indonesians were running across to our side of the border," he said.
"The (Australian) army wasn't allowed anywhere near the border and it was up to us as patrol officers to stop the Indonesian army coming across into Australian territory.
"Being a one man patrol post, it was just me against the Indonesian army."
Hence, the unwelcome trip to Merauke in Indonesian West Papua.
Viner-Smith said the life of a kiap was to live on a patrol base in the middle of nowhere, patrolling a specified area on foot or in boats for any time between three weeks and three months.
"We weren't resourced very well. There was no radio backup while you were on patrol. There was no medical assistance of course. You were miles and miles from anywhere. You lived on your wits the whole time and survived that way," he said.
Kiaps travelled from village to village with the prime mission of maintaining law and order, acting as a travelling magistrate to settle disputes. Sometimes there was specific missions such as conducting a census or introducing local government as a precursor to national government.
"We did many other things. We were the chief officer of all government departments in our area and we built bridges and we built airstrips. We were the post master and we gave weather reports. Everything there was to do we did."
Viner-Smith said this was an enormous job, unknown to most Australians.
"It was perhaps one of the most magnificent colonisations of a country, bringing it from a primitive state to nationhood in 25 years with very little violence. It's never been done anywhere else in the world," he said.
Of the 2000 kiaps, official records show 23 died on duty, although Viner-Smith believes it could really be as high as 40.
"That's a higher death rate per capita than the Vietnam War," he said.
Tribesmen murdered some kiaps. Others died of accidents and illness.
Each was issued with a World War II Smith and Wesson revolver and ammunition, which didn't always work.
"Even though we were armed, it was very very rare that any patrol officer would use their arms," he said.
"We were on a mission of getting to know the locals, earning their respect and using the Queen's law in the form of the Queensland Criminal Law and mixing that with native custom to administer justice in a way which they understood."
After leaving PNG in 1971, he returned to Australia, working in a variety of jobs including the Queensland Department of Aboriginal affairs and emergency services.
"It was very hard settling down back in Australia, having lived on your own wits and ingenuity for 10 years, coming back and being bossed around by somebody," he said.
Viner-Smith launched the campaign for recognition of the kiaps in 2002 after talking with a senior Australian Federal Police officer who said what he had done in Somalia was nothing compared to what the kiaps had done in PNG.
"Every day, 600 or so young Australians were out there in the middle of the jungle at the Australian government's request, bringing a country to the brink of nationhood against incredible odds," he said.
"There were snakes and spiders and spears and arrows and axes and horrific things up there which we and the government didn't publicise very much."

Manus standards still inadequate: UNHCR

AAP 

July 12, 2013 5:02PM

THE United Nations refugee agency has criticised Australia's immigration detention centre in Papua New Guinea, saying it does not meet international standards.

In its second report on the Manus Island processing centre, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said although there were some improvements since its last visit in January, there were still major shortcomings.
Freedom of movement was still "extremely limited", and living conditions "harsh", especially for those in the single adult males compound.
"Cramped living quarters were observed, while asylum-seekers reported issues with the heat, privacy, hygiene and access to medical services," the UNHCR said of its visit in June.
The refugee body also criticised the lack of certainty faced by asylum seekers on Manus, and the slow pace of establishing processing arrangements.
It was "contributing to an all-pervasive sense of frustration and despondency".
If left for a protracted period it was likely to lead to increased levels of psycho-social harm.
In its first report on the Manus centre, released in February, the UNHCR was scathing of the mandatory detention of children and their families.
The government removed the last remaining children from Manus last week, a move the UNHCR said was a positive development.
"Viewed as a whole, UNHCR considered that the physical environment, restricted legal regime, and slow processing mean that the arrangements currently in place still do not meet the required international protection standards," it said.
Immigration Minister Tony Burke said he would review the UNHCR report as part of "ongoing considerations into future decisions" about the processing centre, which would next year be replaced by a permanent facility.
"The UNHCR reports continue to provide an important input to benchmarking the progress of the work at Manus Island," he said in a brief statement.
Australian Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young repeated her call for the Manus Island centre to be shut down.
"These island prisons are factories of mental illness and the government's indefinite detention of refugees is creating a damaged generation," she said.

Grave fears for seven fishermen missing in Torres Strait after boat capsized

Michael Serenc

Friday, July 12, 2013

© The Cairns Post

AUTHORITIES are searching for seven fishermen feared drowned after their boat capsized in the Torres Strait earlier this week.
A vessel carrying 10 men left Daru Island, south of Papua New Guinea, on Sunday to fish near Warrior Reef, about 20 nautical miles west of Yorke Island.
"Some time on Sunday or Monday the vessel overturned, throwing all on-board into the water," police said.
Three of the men were rescued by a passing fishing boat on Monday and returned to Daru Island.
The remaining crew are still missing.
The boat was found washed up between the villages of Mabuduan and Old Mawatta on the PNG mainland on Wednesday.
Thursday Island water police were notified this morning and an air and sea search was launched.