Language of art

fijitimes.com
April 2, 2018

By MATILDA SIMMONS

HE calls himself an "internationally homeless guy".
Tote Gallardo has been to so many countries around the world that he says he has no one to return to back at home.
He says he comes from one of the countries that border the famous Amazon forest.

In the hills of Papua New Guinea, Tote Gallardo teaches children some art. Picture: SUPPLIED

While he is not forthcoming about his home country, it may be Brazil or Peru judging by his accent.
"You can write whatever you like," he says with a laugh.
"But I am an internationally homeless guy.
"I have travelled to 76 countries and practically worked and lived on the streets including right up to the most remote jungles and forests."
The 53-year-old is an artist.
He has been travelling since he was in his early 20s, making a living from his art exhibitions and travelling whenever the bug hits him.
From Korea, Cambodia, Russia, to the jungles of Zimbabwe and other African countries, Tote has enjoyed every moment sharing his art with children in orphanages and vulnerable communities.
"I first started doing this work when I was in Africa.
"I saw how the children suffered from social ills including diseases such as cancer and AIDs.
" It touched my heart and I wanted to make them smile.
"After many art sessions with them, it gave me the idea to visit many children around the world, from the disabled to the sick.
" I always find happiness when I get a smile from them."
Tote was just in New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea prior to touching down in Fiji. This is the first time he is in the Pacific.
"Papua New Guinea is beautiful, I felt right at home there," he said smiling.
"I enjoyed trekking through the mountains to reach some of the most isolated villages as well as travelling by boat to reach some of the remote coastal islands.
"It was fantastic.
"That country is my favourite place so far."
The language of art can certainly help make a connection with any person.
Tote described how he was able to overcome the language barrier in some of the developing countries by using his artwork.
"I once met this disabled young man in Cambodia, who was quite suspicious at first and did not take to what I was trying to tell him," said Tote.
"But when I brought out my artwork and my tools for drawing, he started warming up and we spent most of our conversation making signs to each other as we drew art.
"It's the same in other societies.
"People often keep to themselves and don't open up easily, but once I strike up a conversation and show them what I do, they are very receptive.
"There is no language for art, it is universal and you can connect with anyone through it."
Tote will be in Fiji for a month to visit orphanages and children's hospitals to hold art sessions.
He has also asked for any organisations willing to allow him to share his work to contact him on newartglassrevolution@gmail.com

Old Royal Adelaide Hospital medical equipment to help people hit by earthquake in the PNG highlands

news.com.au

EQUIPMENT from the old Royal Adelaide Hospital will be put to good use in the highlands of Papua New Guinea with help from a Flinders University student.

Shila Paia, a PhD student, comes from a community devastated by the recent earthquake and mud slides in remote mountain areas.

Her contacts in PNG’s health services have enabled her to identify goods available from the decommissioned RAH that will help to cover shortfalls in medical supplies.

Equipment ranging from ultrasounds to theatre and surgical goods will help in everything from childbirth to basic primary health care.

“Every piece that has been made available from the old RAH will be useful,” she said.

“I’m especially pleased to have secured a surgical microscope, which I am hoping to donate to the Angau Memorial Hospital in Lae.”

Shila’s project is one of 29 endorsed project applications for equipment from the old RAH.

She is now seeking help to pack a shipping container.

SA’s Dr Yasmin Endlich, Dr Chris Acot, Dr Robert Young and nurse Sharon Philip will travel to PNG to install the equipment and train locals.

Papua New Guinea Foreign Minister praises New Zealand’s new focus on the Pacific

Ministry of Foreign Affairs 

 Papua New Guinea’s Minister for Foreign Affairs  Rimbink Pato has welcomed the renewed focus on Papua New Guinea and the Pacific recently announced by New Zealand.
 Pato conveyed his views at a meeting in Wellington on March 28 with his counterpart,  Winston Peters, who is also Deputy Prime Minister.
 He expressed deep gratitude for the “quick and generous” earthquake recovery assistance extended by New Zealand.
Later, in an address to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs,  Pato said he welcomed with great enthusiasm the “Pacific reset” policy as described by Peters in a recent speech to one of Australia's foremost think tanks, the Lowy Institute in Sydney.
 Pato said the whole of the Pacific would be pleased to hear that New Zealand intended to move its Pacific relationship past the donor-recipient interaction into a genuine mature political partnership.
“This is exactly the type of relationship we want with the biggest partnership donors to our region, New Zealand and Australia,” he said.
“Such is the population mix particularly in New Zealand but also in Australia, that it is clear the blue ‘continent’ of the Pacific has its deepest cultural relations with Australasia, relations with deep roots in our history, our economies, our families."
 Pato praised the “legendary generosity” of New Zealand.
“This was demonstrated most quickly by its quick and extremely bountiful assistance to us after the recent devastating earthquake in my country,” he said.
 Pato said New Zealand gave  immediate practical help,  including the use of a C130 aircraft to take supplies to the affected  areas, and an assistance package of more than $3.5 million.
“We are most grateful to the New Zealand government and people," he said.
" We will never forget this.
"And we will also be forever grateful for the major contribution New Zealand is making to the APEC summit we are hosting in November.”
 Pato said New Zealand’s continuing and renewed focus on the Pacific was in the interest of  both countries.
“For New Zealand, I see it clearly in your interest to have economically developed partners and allies in the Pacific, all with a clear commitment to democracy, transparency and accountability," he said.
 Pato referred to advice and assistance by New Zealand in hydro-electricity schemes,  agriculture and the environment, gender equality programmes, education and other training, small and medium business, fisheries protection and climate change resilience measures.
He said PNG was a strong advocate of a rules-based international order founded on justice.
Pato praised Minister Peters “for his complimentary remarks about our chief security and development partner, Australia” and for his views that New Zealand and Australia needed to join together more than ever to face the challenges of regional instability and global uncertainty.

Papua New Guinea Kumul Kurt Baptiste waiting in the wings

nswrl.com.au
March 31, 2018 

While the Sydney Roosters lick their wounds off the back of an uncharacteristic defeat to the Warriors, Kurt Baptiste waits patiently in the wings.

It’s been a whirlwind few months for the crafty hooker; forced out of the Canberra Raiders due to salary cap constraints, playing for Papua New Guinea in the recent Rugby League World Cup, signing with Leigh in the English Super League before joining the Roosters.
All that came after rupturing his Achilles in the 2017 pre-season meaning he didn’t play NRL until Round 14.
He played only one game for Leigh Centurions before making the decision to come back to Australia due to personal reasons and is now in the mix for a Roosters spot. For the moment, Baptiste is playing for the Wyong Roos in the Intrust Super Premiership NSW as he searches for that NRL opportunity.
“Obviously I’ve got to play well for Wyong and hopefully I’ll get a shot at some stage,” Baptiste says to NSWRL.com.au.
“I got forced out of Canberra for salary cap reasons, and it just wasn’t for me over [in England].
“I’m just glad to be back in Australia now.”
The Roosters have enjoyed success with long-term hooker Jake Friend while rising star Victor Radley has the capacity to play both hooker and in the back row.
There is certainly scope for all three to fit in the starting 17 should coach Trent Robinson go that way, particularly if he is looking for something different after the Warriors defeat.
Baptiste has the utmost respect for Friend and is learning off him every day as he settles into Bondi life.
“[Friend] is a great player, he’s playing really well,” Baptiste says.
“I’m learning a lot off him at training, so it’s been good.
“I’m really enjoying myself here, it’s a great club and a privilege to be a part of this club.”
The Wyong Roos went down to the Warriors by a field goal in what was Baptiste’s second game for the club, where he came off the bench for a 42-minute stint in the middle of the game.
He played a similar role in his first game last week, where ironically, they won by a field goal.
“I’m looking to build my minutes up gradually and getting a bit of that game fitness back,” Baptiste says.
The Roosters play the Cronulla Sharks on Friday night while Wyong play the Bulldogs on Saturday, and it will be interesting to see who Baptiste lines up for.

 Papua New Guinea Anglican Church backs ecumenical earthquake response project

anglican.ink
March 28, 2018

The Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea (ACPNG) announced their support for the joint church earthquake response through the Church Partnership Program (CPP).

The attached press release was read to the Provincial Council meeting on Thursday,  March 22,  2018 in Lae, PNG.
The joint church response team are currently assessing and finalising preparation for response activities, which will focus on supporting affected communities to have access to food and non-food relief items, access to health and hygiene kits, temporary shelters, and counselling support.
The support will be facilitated through Anglicare PNG and the existing CPP network comprising of the seven mainline churches.
To donate to ABM’s PNG Earthquake Emergency Appeal in support ACPNG and Anglicare’s response, please visit www.abmission.org/png-earthquake-emergency

Barrick Gold founder and philanthropist Peter Munk dies at 90

IAN BICKIS
TORONTO
THE CANADIAN PRESS

Barrick Gold Corp.’s visionary founder Peter Munk, a man of lofty global ambitions who fulfilled them like few others, died Wednesday at the age of 90.

Peter Munk, founder and chairman of Barrick Gold Corporation puts on his trademark fedora at the conclusion of the company's annual general meeting April 30 2014. He died at the age of 90.-FRED LUM/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

He racked up an impressive series of accomplishments in everything from custom stereos to tropical resorts, and established himself as one of Canada’s great entrepreneurs.
Mr. Munk will always be most renowned, however, as the founder and builder of one of the world’s largest gold mining empires while at the helm of Barrick Gold. It was there where he most displayed his willingness to take risks, spot overlooked opportunities, and challenge the status quo.
Peter Munk: The extraordinary life of a business legend, philanthropist and national champion
He was born in Budapest in 1927 and fled Hungary with his family in 1944 when Nazi Germany invaded. He arrived in Toronto in 1948 at the age of 20 and undertook a number of entrepreneurial business activities before founding Barrick in 1983.
“This is a country that does not ask about your origins, but concerns itself with your destiny,” Mr. Munk said in 2011.
He leaves Melanie, his wife of 45 years; five children, Anthony, Nina, Marc-David, Natalie and Cheyne; and 14 grandchildren.
Mr. Munk, whose cause of death was not disclosed, leaves behind a legacy of business success, charitable donations, and was an outspoken defender of the benefits of capitalism.
Toronto-based Barrick Gold grew into one of the world’s biggest gold producers under Mr. Munk’s leadership.
“When I joined Barrick in 2002, the company was in the news on an almost daily basis,” Barrick president Kelvin Dushnisky said.
“Words like innovative, entrepreneurial, instinctive, agile and astute were used regularly to describe the company. They could just as easily have been talking about Peter Munk himself, and, in many ways they were. Barrick is, after all, an extension of Peter’s personality.”
Starting in 1983 with a small Ontario underground mine producing 3,000 ounces of gold a year, Mr. Munk set Barrick on a path of exponential growth.
The company’s biggest break came in 1986, when he bought an underperforming mine in Nevada called Goldstrike. Few saw the potential of the mine, then producing 40,000 ounces of gold a year, but Mr. Munk made a bet on it and struck it big.
Before long, the mine was producing more than two million ounces a year and remains one of the company’s core mines, producing more than a million ounces a year.
Not one satisfied to settle on a tidy profit, Mr. Munk would continue to buy mines and take over companies.
By 2006, Barrick would established itself as the world’s biggest gold producer after gobbling up miner Placer Dome for US$10.4-billion.
Mr. Munk was able to continue to grow Barrick in part because he was an outsider to the mining world and approached it from a financial perspective, bringing in innovate hedging programs and financial discipline.
His continuous push for growth, however, also led him to trouble. Multibillion-dollar bets on Zambian copper and a megamine in the Andes at the height of the recent commodity boom weighed heavily on the company, and threatened to tarnish Mr. Munk’s legacy at Barrick.
And as the company’s mining empire expanded, so too did the social criticism, with accusations of abuse at mines in Papua New Guinea and Tanzania drawing protests and reprimands.
But Mr. Munk was unapologetic, and held fast in his convictions that the company was overall a source of good as part of a globalized world of capitalism.
“Someone has got to create and generate wealth,” Mr. Munk said at his last annual general meeting in 2014.
“I count Barrick’s biggest achievement in Canada ... the fact that we’ve been able to successfully employ young Canadians, young people globally, and provide them with opportunities.”
Mr. Munk had always been grateful for the opportunities that Canada, and his alma mater the University of Toronto, had provided him.
Born into a wealthy Jewish family in Budapest in 1927, Mr. Munk was forced to flee to Switzerland 1944 after the Nazis invaded.
Later following his uncle to Canada, he picked tobacco to fund his electrical engineering tuition, then got his entrepreneurial start with a Christmas tree business on the holiday break.
He went on to co-found Clairtone Sound Corp. with his friend David Gilmour, selling high-end custom stereo systems that were popular among the likes of Frank Sinatra and Oscar Peterson.
A move into manufacturing in Nova Scotia for subsidies, however, proved a flop. By 1971, the company was in trouble and Mr. Munk was forced out amid insider-trading accusations, leaving the province on the hook for more than $20-million.
From there Mr. Munk looked abroad to Fiji, helping to transform a single hotel holding into a $150-million enterprise eleven years later, before selling it and setting his sights back on Canada to start Barrick.
While growing Barrick, Mr. Munk would also establish himself as a real estate investor though Trizec Properties, which was sold to Brookfield Properties for US$8.9-billion in 2006, and as a marina developer for super-yachts after buying a port in Montenegro.
With the significant wealth Mr. Munk generated from his exploits, he was able to donate many millions in charity through his Aurea charitable foundation.
He became one of Canada’s best-known philanthropists, including a $175-million donation to the Toronto General Hospital in 1997. Barrick said he donated nearly $300-million to causes and institutions over his lifetime.
A Toronto cardiac centre bears his name thanks to more than $65-million in donation, as does the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs after a $40-million pledge.
“Peter Munk frequently told me that he derived the most joy and satisfaction from people that would stop him on the street, ask if he was Peter Munk, and when he said ‘Yes,’ they went on to thank him for saving their mother or father or other family member’s life through the care that was provided at the PMCC,” recalled Dr. Barry Rubin, medical director at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre.
Mr. Munk’s entrepreneurial and philanthropic legacies were made possible by his soaring ambitions, as rival Canadian gold miner Goldcorp’s chairman Ian Telfer said ahead of Mr. Munk’s retirement in 2014.
“He wanted to build a Canadian champion, he wanted to build a world class Canadian company, and we have very few world class Canadian companies.”

South Australia medical equipment to save PNG lives

By Benjamin Weir, armidaleexpress.com.au
March 30, 2018

Life-saving medical equipment from the old Royal Adelaide Hospital will soon be on its way to earthquake-ravaged Papua New Guinea.

Medical equipment from the old Royal Adelaide Hospital will be donated to earthquake-hit PNG.

Shila Yukuli Paia from Flinders University has been leading the effort to collate and identify where the equipment will be most critically needed.
"I know that every item we send to PNG is going to be of great value, it is going to help save lives," she said.
One of the items, Ms Paia is most pleased about donating is a surgical microscope, which will go to the country's only cancer treatment centre.
But the PhD student said even simple items taken for granted in the developed world would be useful.
"Things like syringes are going to make a lot of difference because it means a mother can take her child to a clinic for immunisation," she said.
The country's already under-resourced highland regions were hit by a 7.5-magnitude quake in late February, killing more than 100 people.
"Access to services isn't there, basic primary health care isn't there, women are dying giving birth and children are dying," Ms Paia said.
The PNG donation is around one of 30 different countries including Tanzania, Timor Leste and Nepal that will benefit from equipment from the old RAH.
The hospital closed its doors in September 2017 after the opening of a new $2.3 billion facility on the outskirts of Adelaide's CBD.