When arse-grass came to Livinton Hall

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

Crown Lane Cover

Crown Lane: A rural boomer’s tale by Robert Forster, UK Book Publishing, Whitley Bay, 2024. Available from Amazon Australia for $21.99 plus postage

TUMBY BAY - Although born in the heart of it, I’ve never been able to truly fathom the feudal but still very much extant English class system.

From the bone-headed parasites and inbreeds in the royal family to the lowliest members of the working class the existence of the archaic system and its acceptance by both its beneficiaries and victims is truly mystifying.

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Buin's Johnny Auna is new boss at BCL

MEDIA RELEASE
| Bougainville Copper Ltd
 
 
BCL Johnny and team
New Bougainville Copper CEO Johnny Auna and team. "A once in a lifetime opportunity," says Johnny.

BUKA - Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) has announced the appointment of Johnny Patterson Auna as chief executive officer.

Mr Auna, from Laguai Village, Buin, in South Bougainville, joined BCL in March last year as chief financial officer and company secretary.

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‘Diplomatic doyen’ Charles Lepani dies at 77

OBITUARY
| Exepreneur Magazine

Sir Charles Lepani
Sir Charles Lepani - the last of 'The Gang of Four', who significantly influenced PNG's governance before its independence


PORT MORESBY - Sir Charles Watson Lepani, KBE CBE OBE, born on 28 October 1947 in the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea, was a prominent public servant and diplomat whose career spanned several decades.

He passed away on 10 January 2025 after a battle with stage four cancer, leaving behind a legacy of dedication to the development and growth of PNG.

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At 80, reflections on a life in journalism

KEITH JACKSON

_grad
Graduating from the University of Papua New Guinea, 1 August 1975

NOOSA - Time can play strange tricks. Just past my 80th birthday, I find myself inhabiting two worlds: one where my mind remains as agile and adventurous as ever and another in which my aging body increasingly has difficulty in matching its desires.

Yet this contradiction has given me an unexpected gift - the ability to traverse time effortlessly in my thoughts, particularly back to that sweltering day in August 1975 when, just weeks before Papua New Guinea’s independence, I graduated from the University of Papua New Guinea.

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Champion for women Tess dies at 35

KEITH JACKSON

_Tess
Tess and her son, now aged 13, after her graduation from the University of PNG


NOOSA – Theresa (Tess) Gizoria, one of Papua New Guinea’s most talented women leaders, died last Saturday, two years after being diagnosed with Stage 3 Lobular Cell Carcinoma - an advanced form of breast cancer.

Her initial treatment in PNG was found to be flawed after she was referred to specialists in Australia but Tess refused to allocate blame and instead used her illness to seek better treatment for all cancer patients in the country.

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New book cuts through Bitcoin hype

JAMES KOYAPO *

_Colonel (ret) Reginald Renagi (left) receives a copy of Bitcoin Dream from Peter Kinjap
Colonel (ret) Reginald Renagi (left) receives a copy of Bitcoin Dream from Peter Kinjap


PORT MORESBY - 'Bitcoin Dream: Hope Hype and Chaos' by Peter Solo Kinjap is interesting, catchy and of educational benefit not only to Papua New Guineans readers but to readers everywhere.

Its purpose is to educate people about the facts underpinning society’s attitudes towards money and recent developments in how our conception of money is changing.

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If you want to enter a book prize

BAKA BINA

Covers

PORT MORESBY - Happy New Year 2025 to all of you who are deep in literature as writers or readers.

For writers, 2024 wasn’t easy and I’m sorry to say things looks just as bleak going forward.

Elders and keepers of our national repository of traditional stories, songs and dances will die and take with them all of these lovely parts of our Melanesian culture.

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PNG writing adopts its own expression

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

Image created by Adobe AI
Papua New Guinean authors are giving PNG writing its own unique style derived largely from their own lived grassroots experiences (Image created by Adobe AI)


TUMBY BAY - After reading a review of Marlene Potoura’s new book, Remembering, Father and Me, I was prompted to go back to Leonard Fong Roka’s Brokenville, his memoir of the crisis years in Bougainville.

I was not so much interested in making comparisons with Marlene’s experience but to identify commonalities in their experiences and the way in which they presented them.

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A conversation with AI assistant Claude

KEITH JACKSON

A humanoid AI holds a print copy
Humanoid AI holds a printed page

NOOSA - Some readers will have noticed that I've been experimenting with Claude, an artificial intelligence assistant, to explore how it might help writers, especially those in Papua New Guinea.

While I've always been a capable and fast writer, my ME/CFS illness has worsened in recent years, impairing my ability to write and edit – and at its worst, even read.

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