Scientists ask PNG to support conservation research

mongabay.com

 The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC), the world's largest group of tropical researchers, is calling on the government of Papua New Guinea to increase support for biology training programs in the densely-forested and wildlife-rich country.
In a declaration issued at the conclusion of its annual meeting, held this year in Cairns, Australia, ATBC also urged the PNG government to establish a new system for funding biological research in the country.
"These initiatives are essential for the documentation, understanding and protection of the globally important PNG biodiversity," said the group.
ATBC went on to recommend that PNG increase the number scholarships available to Papuan biology students. It also called upon the government to approve several proposed conservation areas.

Faith healing replacing medication for HIV in PNG

ABC

Australia's near neighbour Papua New Guinea is a deeply Christian society.

Most mainstream churches in PNG are trying to improve attitudes to those living with HIV and AIDS.
But with poor medical facilities and a widespread belief in sorcery, belief in faith healing is growing.

Correspondent: Liam Cochrane, Port Moresby correspondent
Speakers: Margaret Anton, President of the Women Affected by HIV & AIDS organisation; Timothy Pirinduo, PNG writer and journalist; Pastor Godfrey Wippon, revivalist preacher

LIAM COCHRANE: Ten years ago, Papua New Guinea was on the brink of an aids explosion.
Stuart Watson, is the country coordinator of UNAIDS.
STUART WATSON: The original thinking in Papua New Guinea, given the facts and figures around sexually transmitted infections around unwanted teen pregnancies - behavioural information - certainly gave us the idea that we were heading towards a sub-Saharan African style epidemic.
LIAM COCHRANE: But that generalised epidemic hasn't happened.
Instead the virus has been mostly localised to the highlands, Morobe province and the national capital district.
High risk communities include sex workers, men who have sex with men and transgender people, as well as those who travel for their work.
Margaret Anton is one an estimated 25,000 Papua New Guineans living with HIV.
And like many she's faced discrimination from family and friends.
MARGARET ANTON: When people found out that I was HIV positive, when I had TB, no they didn't want anything to do with me. I had to walk, sometimes I would spend nights on the road. With shelters, I would find a tree to you know, sleep under.
LIAM COCHRANE: That sort of discrimination even finds voice in Papua New Guinea's mainstream media.
Timothy Pirinduo is a columnist in PNG's only locally-owned newspaper.
Mr Pirinduo believes HIV was created in a lab by crazy scientists and wants new laws to make HIV testing compulsory.
TIMOTHY PIRINDUO: Once we identify those with HIV/AIDs, then we can like separate them from those who are not affected, keeping them in a confinement.
LIAM COCHRANE: In prison?
TIMOTHY PIRINDUO: Yeah kind of a prison kind of set up.
LIAM COCHRANE: While Timothy Pirinduo's HIV prison is just an idea, deadly preaching is a reality.
Pastor Godfrey Wippon is a former journalist who now heads the revival centre of PNG. He says it's the fastest growing religious movement in the country.
GODFREY WIPPON: It is growing because of healings, miracles, wants the signs happening in this ministry. The lord heals.
(Sound of PNG revivalists singing)
LIAM COCHRANE: Standing on a beach in Port Moresby revivalists gather to sing and watch on as new recruits are baptised and speak in tongues.
(Sound of revivalists speaking in tongues)
Pastor Wippon believes baptism and prayer can cure AIDs and even bring the dead back to life.
Health workers have told the ABC revivalists visit hospitals and clinics telling HIV patients to throw away their medication.
In a case that shocked many, one of Papua New Guinea's first openly HIV positive women Helen Samilow (phonetic) fell prey to the revivalist message. Even though she was working as an advocate for anti-retroviral treatment, Helen Samilow joined a revivalist church, stopped taking medication and died in August last year.
Margaret Anton was her friend.
MARGARET ANTON: It's just the revival church that told her not to take her medication, that's… they were responsible for her death.
LIAM COCHRANE: Pastor Wippon sees Ms Samilow's death differently.
GODFREY WIPPON: Spiritually speaking, she has been healed spiritually, she died physically, naturally. But spiritually she's right with the lord, put it this way.
LIAM COCHRANE: The mainstream churches in Papua New Guinea are working with the United Nations and non-government organisations to help people access services.
Catholic Archbishop John Ribat is a member of the Christian Leaders Alliance.
JOHN RIBAT: Our concern as churches is to come together to address this HIV and AIDS and fight against the discrimination that continues to divide us.
LIAM COCHRANE: But that division and discrimination has also created enclaves of hope.
Margaret Anton and philanthropic business women Veronica Charlie are planning to build a permanent care centre to accommodate 50 people ostracised by their communities. These men, women and children currently sleep in tents or in the open and rely on charity to survive. For Margaret Anton helping others which HIV is part of positive living.
MARGARET ANTON: I started seeing that God did preserve me probably for my little boy, probably because I'm going to work along with this wonderful women who has decided to take us along and now establish this care centre.
Using my status to help, decided to come out openly and publicly so that I want to be a voice for women out there who have been through stigma and discrimination.

Papua New Guinea's Oil Search calls on private sector to support AIDS response

by Sen Lam and staff

ABC

Photo: File photo: a nurse informs a patient that she has contracted AIDS from her husband at Mount Hagen General Hospital, PNG (AFP PHOTO / FILES / Torsten BLACKWOOD)

 

Papua New Guinea's largest oil producer is calling on the corporate sector to commit to regional health projects and embrace public-private partnerships for development.

Oil Search is working with PNG's national Department of Health to combat HIV and AIDS, malaria and TB in local communities.
Managing Director Peter Botten is attending the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne to encourage other corporations to do the same.
"Part of being here is trying to mobilise the corporate sector and look at successful public-private partnerships to help deliver services to the people," he told Radio Australia's Asia Pacific.
"There is a moral compunction when you see people dying, outside your operations to try and do something about it but theres also a compelling business model to actually become involved and help the government in delivering these services.
"Theres growing support for these sorts of programs in the corporate sector and certainly from our shareholders"
Oil Search's Health Foundation runs scores of clinics across five provinces, providing services to many thousands of people.
The company runs programs for HIV treatment, maternal health, ART distribution, malaria and TB in conjunction with the government and NGOs.
Mr Botten says the program grew from internal health programs for Oil Search employees.
"When you address the health of your people and they come from the local communities we immediately extrapolate that exercise out into those communities and they're dealing with malaria, they're dealing with HIV, so it was a natural extension from our own health programs," he said.
Oil Search controls more than 60 per cent of PNG's oil and gas assets.
He says given the amount of revenue raised by LNG production, it has become an expectation among locals that funds should be put into benefitting the community.
"Especially in the remote areas of the country, they expect to see schools, hospitals, roads, power, and if you don't start addressing those issues int the future you're going to have problems with community dislocation and potential security issues," he said.
In May, Prime Minister Peter O'Neill sought a loan to purchase shares in Oil Search, after having to relinquish the country's 14 per cent stake in March.
PNG's government currently has a 0.8 per cent stake in Oil Search and is its 10th largest shareholder.
Mr Botten says the cooperation of private and public sectors has mutual benefit.
"Working with the department of health and others we can leverage our skills from all sides, and deliver much better outcomes than just on our own," he said.
People living with HIV in PNG feel stigma and face strong discrimination.
Mr Botten says his corporation has to play a role in changing this.
"Everywhere you go, unfortunately, there is stigma and largely ignorance about HIV/AIDS," he said.
"The best thing we can do is go out and explain the disease go and explain it in the communities, explain it in the churches, explain it [to] the various stakeholders and that way people can be seen as human beings rather than something with an issue and that's where we have to play a role."

Australia's Newcrest braces shareholders for up to A$2.5b impairment

Sydney (Reuters) -  Australia's Newcrest Mining Ltd on Thursday braced shareholders for up to A$2.5 billion in fiscal 2014 after-tax impairments as it struggles to lower mining costs while bullion prices show little sign of rising.
The latest charge is in addition to a A$47 million impairment included in Newcrest's first-half results.
These follow A$6.229 billion in impairments and writedowns the Australian bourse's largest-listed gold miner took in fiscal 2013, leading to a A$5.78 billion loss for the year.
Newcrest stock fell 6 percent on Thursday to A$10.73, 14 percent below its 2014 peak of $12.50 in early April
UBS maintained its "sell" rating on the stock despite higher-than expected gold production of 2.4 million ounces in fiscal 2014, also reported by the company on Thursday.
"We believe it is the simple function of size and liquidity that keeps Newcrest Mining as the 'go-to' gold stock in Australia for many investors and not a function of asset portfolio quality," UBS said in a client note.
Managing Director Sandeep Biswas said a final decision was yet to be made but the impairment was likely be between A$1.5 billion and $2.5 billion.
Depending on the size, the impairment will lift Newcrest's net debt by between three and six percent from roughly 29 percent now, he said.
The impairment will not impact cash flow for the miner, though a reduction in book values of between A$1.5 billion to A$2.5 billion was under review by the company's board, Biswas said.
Newcrest's Lihir gold mine, located in a long-dormant volcano in Papua New Guinea, faces the biggest deterrent to a turn around for the company despite billions of dollars in capital outlays over the last several years, Biswas said.
"Lihir's cost perfomance was disappointing relative to the improvements made at our other sites," Biswas said.
The need for fresh charges -- also related to performance at mines in Western Australiaand Ivory Coast -- were unlikely to trigger any asset sales to raise cash, Biswas said.
"The first order of business is to see the value of these assets in our stock price," Biswas said.
Nor would the company turn to an equity raising for fresh capital, according to Biswas.
"Our focus is to get our all-in sustaining costs down such that the more margin you have compared to the gold price, the more buffer you have in times of price volatility," Biswas said. "And of course you make more money when the price goes up."
Biswas said Newcrest sold its gold for an average A$1,382 ($1,300) an ounce in the final quarter, providing a margin of A$469 ($440) an ounce.
Australia & New Zealand Bank is forecasting an average gold price of $1,220 an ounce over the current quarter, equating to A$1,151 based on the current foreign exchange rate. ($1=1.0597 Australian Dollars) (Reporting by James Regan; Editing by Richard Pullin)

Wednesday July 23 is Remembrance day in Papua New Guinea

Wedneday July 23  is a public holiday in Papua New Guinea and marks the 72nd anniversary of the first engagement by PNG and Australian forces against the invading Japanese in WWII.
Out of the chaos and death that followed came the enduring heroism of the Kokoda Trail, and the special relationship that has bound PNG and Australia ever since.
One of the bloodiest campaigns of the Second World War began 72 years ago.
And it has forever sealed the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea.
It was on this day, in 1942, that Japanese troops landed on the northern coast of New Guinea and unexpectedly began to march over the Owen Stanley Ranges with the intent of capturing Port Moresby.
Had they succeeded, the mainland of Australia would have come under dire threat.
July 23 - Remembrance Day - marks the 72nd anniversary of the first engagement between the opposing troops on July 23, 1942, and from that engagement, as the Australian force was progressively outnumbered, began the long fighting withdrawal over the Owen Stanley Range.
The 21st Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Potts DSO MC, was rushed to New Guinea and within days, its 1500 men were closing in on the precarious Owen Stanley Ranges in an attempt to position themselves to stop the advance of the Japanese forces - now building up to over 10, 000 men.
The brigade also engaged the ill-trained but gallant militia 39th Battalion at Isurava in the foothills on the far side of the range.
Kokoda was arguably Australia's most significant campaign of the Second World War.
More Australians died in the seven months of fighting in Papua, and the Japanese came closer to Australia, than in any other campaign.
Many of those young Australians, whose average age was between 18 and 19, now lie buried at the Bomana War Cemetery outside Port Moresby.
The famous photograph of "fuzzy wuzzy angel" Raphael Oimbari leading a blindfolded wounded Australian epitomizes the close relationship between Australians and Papua New Guineans which has come about because of the battle of Kokoda.
To read between the lines of "Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels", the celebrated poem by Australian digger Bert Beros, will bring you to tears.
The poem, while sentimental, touches a chord that has endured to this day in the hearts of both Australians and Papua New Guineans.
It tells of the prayers of worried Australian mothers, whose young sons are fighting the Japanese on that rugged trail, and how their prayers are answered in the form of "fuzzy wuzzy angels".

Many a mother in Australia when the busy day is done
Sends a prayer to the Almighty for the keeping of her son
Asking that an angel guide him and bring him safely back
Now we see those prayers are answered on the Owen Stanley Track.

For they haven't any halos, only holes slashed in their ears
And their faces worked by tattoos with scratch pins in their hair
Bringing back the badly wounded just as steady as a horse
Using leaves to keep the rain off and as gentle as a nurse

Slow and careful in the bad places on the awful mountain track
The look upon their faces would make you think Christ was black
Not a move to hurt the wounded as they treat him like a saint
It's a picture worth recording that an artist's yet to paint

Many a lad will see his mother and husbands see their wives
Just because the fuzzy wuzzy carried them to save their lives
From mortar bombs and machine gun fire or chance surprise attacks
To the safety and the care of doctors at the bottom of the track

May the mothers of Australia when they offer up a prayer
Mention those impromptu angels with their fuzzy wuzzy hair.

- Bert Beros

In 1942, a seldom-used track climbed from the small village of Buna on the north coast of Papua, over the Owen Stanley Ranges and on to Port Moresby.
The track was fairly easy up the slopes through Gorari and Oivi to the village of Kokoda, which stood on a small plateau 400 metres above sea level, flanked by mountains rising to over 2000 metres.
It then climbed over steep ridges and through deep valleys to Deniki, Isurava, Kagi, Ioribaiwa, Ilolo and, at Ower's Corner, linked with a vehicle road leading from plantations in the hills above Port Moresby down to the coastal plains.
Between Kokoda and Ilolo, the track often climbed up gradients so steep that it was heartbreaking labor for burdened men to climb even a few hundred yards.
Much of the track was through dense rainforest, which enclosed the narrow passage between walls of thick bush.
At higher levels the terrain became moss and stunted trees, which were often covered in mist.
From July to November 1942 this was the setting for a bitter campaign to prevent the fall of Port Moresby.
On January 23, 1942, the Japanese landed at Kavieng on New Ireland and at Rabaul on New Britain where they quickly overcame the Australian defenders.
On March 8, the Japanese established themselves firmly at Lae and Salamaua in Morobe.
But the famous Battle of the Coral Sea from May 5 to 8 averted a Japanese sea-borne invasion of Port Moresby.
The American success at the Battle of Midway in June not only destroyed Japan's capacity for undertaking long range offensives but also provided the Americans with the opportunity to move from the defensive to the offensive.
The Japanese, who were regularly bombing Port Moresby with 20 to 30 bombers with fighter escort, decided on the overland attack across the Owen Stanley Ranges.
On the Kododa Trail the Australian 7th Division resisted the Japanese General Horii's overland attempt to capture Port Moresby, and the advance was halted within 30 miles of the city.
A small force of Australians known as "Maroubra Force" arrived at Buna on July 21st, 1942, as the first Japanese force of 1500 men landed at Gona, eight miles to the west.
What followed will forever go down as one of the most heroic defensive actions in the annals of military history.
The first engagement between the opposing troops was on July 23, 1942, and from that engagement, as the Australian force was progressively outnumbered, began the long fighting withdrawal over the Owen Stanley Range.
Kokoda is a small plateau on the north-east slopes of the Owen Stanley Range and possessed a small airstrip the retention of which, for at least as long as it would take Australia to fly in supplies and reinforcements, was of great importance.
However, the remnants of "Maroubra Force", exhausted by a month's constant fighting, were unable to achieve this. Valiant though their effort was, even recapturing the plateau after being driven out, the Japanese need was of equal importance.
They needed a forward base at Kokoda for their drive over the ranges along the "Kokoda Trail" to Port Moresby and they struck before the Australians were able to muster sufficient strength.
The initiative now remained with the Japanese and Australian withdrawal began again - through Isurava, Alola, Templeton's Crossing, Myola, Efogi, Menari and Nauro until at Ioribaiwa Ridge, beyond which the Japanese could not be permitted to penetrate, a final stand was made.
From August 26 to September 16 in 1942 Brigadier Potts's Maroubra Force, consisting of the 2/16th Battalion, together with the 2/14th, the 2/27th and the militia 39th and scattered elements of the ill-trained 53rd Battalion - outnumbered and outgunned by an estimated 5 to 1 - fought the Japanese to an eventual standstill on the ridges overlooking Port Moresby.
Two main battles were fought during that period (Isurava, August 26 to 29 and Brigade 'Butchers' Hill, from September 6 to 8).
In general, the desperately-tired but determined force kept themselves between the Japanese Major General Horri's South Sea Force and Port Moresby -- defending, retreating and then counter-attacking in a masterly display of strategic defence.
Conditions were almost indescribable.
It rained for most of the time, the weary men endured some of the most difficult terrain in the world and they were racked by malaria and dysentery.
But they kept on fighting, making the enemy pay dearly for every yard of ground. They bought time for those being prepared to come up from Port Moresby to relieve them.
The Australians, however, had a surprise in store for the enemy.
This was in the form of 25-pounder guns brought from Moresby to the road head at Ower's Corner and then laboriously dragged into position at Imita Ridge, opening up on the enemy's barricades.
It was now the turn of the Japanese to suffer what the Australians had suffered in the preceding two months.
Australian shelling smashed Japanese defences and aggressive patrols inflicted severe losses.
On the morning of September 28th, the Australians were closing in and it became evident then the Japanese were withdrawing.
The chase, with the Australians the pursuers, was now on.
The Japanese, despite sickness and hunger, were still formidable and tenaciously defended all the places in their withdrawal as the Australians had in their retreat some weeks earlier.
Kokoda was entered on November 2 and this was the beginning of the end of Japanese hopes in Papua.
The campaign now entered a phase known as "The Battle of the Beaches".
The Japanese were bottled up in the area from where they had begun their drive against Port Moresby some months previously -- Buna and Gona.
This final campaign began on November 19, 1942, and ended on January 22, 1943, when all organised resistance by the Japanese in Papua ended.
Lt Col Honner DSO MC, who commanded the gallant 39th in the campaign, later wrote of these men in the foreword to Peter Brune's book 'Those Rugged Bloody Heroes': "They have joined the immortals." Of those that did not survive, he wrote: "Wherever their bones may lie, the courage of heroes is consecrated in the hearts and engraved in the history of the free."

351 days to go

351 days to go before the Pacific Games on July 4, 2015: I don't know what our visitors will think of all the plastic, flotsam and jetsam among the mangroves along the back road from Kanudi onwards,

At least that's what I thought while taking a drive along the back road yesterday. 
The poor mangroves are being choked by the trash of humanity in Port Moresby!

PNG fraud squad arrest police commissioner's lawyer Sam Bonner

ABC

A lawyer representing Papua New Guinea's new police commissioner has been interviewed by fraud squad officers on suspicion of misappropriation.

PNG's Police Commissioner Geoffrey Vaki says the case against Prime Minister Peter O'Neill requires more investigation. (Credit: ABC)

The fraud squad in Papua New Guinea has arrested a lawyer acting for the country's police commissioner, accusing him of stealing and money laundering.
Sam Bonner was arrested outside the National Court House in Port Moresby by police investigating corruption allegations against Prime Minister Peter O'Neill.
Mr Bonner has been assisting newly-appointed Police Commissioner Geoffrey Vaki in his attempt to set aside arrest warrants for the premier.

Audio: Another arrest in PNG corruption saga (ABC News)

 

Mr O'Neill was issued with an arrest warrant in June after the country's anti-corruption agency Taskforce Sweep accused him of authorising fraudulent government payments to law firm Paraka Lawyers.
PNG correspondent Liam Cochrane says the fraud squad interviewed Mr Bonner to try to lay charges of stealing, conspiracy to defraud and money laundering.
"The fraud squad are alleging that Mr Bonner is involved in the Paraka legal corruption scandal, saying he was a conduit for money that was improperly gained," he said.
"The way [his arrest] took place was rather dramatic.
"There was an attempt to arrest Mr Bonner, he resisted and the fraud squad officers used force and physically detained him.
"There was quite a scuffle. I think he was injured slightly and perhaps some of the police officers were also injured."
Mr O'Neill, who created Task Force Sweep in 2011 to investigate the Paraka case, dismantled the watchdog last month after being served with an arrest warrant for corruption.
The arrest warrant has been deemed valid by the National Court, but Police Commissioner Vaki - recently appointed by Mr O'Neill in the wake of the corruption scandal - has said he will not be arresting the prime minister.
Liam Cochrane says fraud squad officers who arrested Mr Bonner on Wednesday are operating on their own terms and not in line with the instructions of Mr Vaki.
"This is concrete evidence of that fractionalisation within the police which is broadly those who are in favour of going after the prime minister's arrest warrants... squaring off against those who have aligned themselves with the new Police Commissioner Vaki, who are more interested in protecting the prime minister."