Final approach Omkolai, late 1960s (PNGAA)

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – This photograph and the one below it emerged on Facebook not so long ago.

They brought back many memories of a time now long gone in a place dear to our hearts.

Omkolai airstrip is about 20 km south of Kundiawa. It doesn’t sound that far to me now. But the road from Kundiawa – precipitous and riven with landslides – always made it seem much, much further than that. Still does, I hear.

A graduation ceremony at Pacific Adventist University in Port Moresby

SIMON DAVIDSON

PORT MORESBY - It is 12 years since I attended Dr Carol Tasker’s class on Spiritual Formation at the Papua New Guinea Union Mission study centre in Lae.

Dr Tasker is an Australian who studied for her doctorate, with a special focus on Adventist pastors’ spirituality, at Andrews University in the United States.

James Marape and Joko Widodo meet over tea in Jakarta

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – Papua New Guinean prime minister James Marape’s flying visit to Jakarta late last week drew much criticism on PNG social media because of the size of the accompanying delegation.

The cheap criticism obscured the mini-summit’s importance as an encounter where Marape and Indonesian president Joko Widodo were able to meet privately and face-to-face.

CHRIS OVERLAND

ADELAIDE – In his thoughtful exposition, ‘What should we do with Bougainville’, Joe Ketan neatly outlines what is described as a 'wicked' policy problem, meaning one for which there is no good solution.

It is abundantly clear that, if Bougainville's demand for independence is not acceded to by the Papua New Guinean parliament, it is likely a unilateral declaration of independence will be declared by an angry and frustrated Autonomous Bougainville Government.

ISHMAEL TOROAMA
| Bougainville News

BUKA - It has been a year since my government launched the Bougainville Independence Ready Mission on 1 April 2021.

The mission takes a three-tiered strategic approach to the preparations for independence that must be implemented internally, domestically and internationally.

Hewago 'Ace' Paul Oea (left) in action for the Gold Coast Suns

DAVID BRIDIE & JARROD LANDELLS
| Wantok Almanac | Edited extracts

Link here to read the full article. Wantok Almanac is a collaboration between Wantok Musik’s David Bridie and The Footy Almanac’s Jarrod Landells. Both share an affinity with our Pacific neighbourhood and its stories

MELBOURNE - On the streets of Port Moresby, there is a fervour and life for rugby league that mimics any passion worldwide.

Think Rio Janeiro’s favelas bristling with Ronaldinho acolytes, or Delhi devotees playing cricket every day to become the new Sehwag in the hearts of a billion people.

The ANU-UPNG Bougainville referendum observer team in Central Bougainville, November 2019

JOE KETAN

PORT MORESBY - In November 2019, the voters of Bougainville turned out and voted overwhelmingly for independence at a referendum expressly giving them the opportunity to have a say on their political future of their island.

I was in Bougainville for the referendum as a member of the Australian National University’s accredited international and domestic observer team.

JUSTIN KUNDALIN

KANDEP - I believe in books. In fact I’m planning to write a book called ‘Books Live Longer than Man’.

When people write a book, they speak to people through its pages. But sadly, many people don’t have the guts to put in the pages of a book the knowledge and wisdom they have gathered.

KEITH JACKSON

Manasseh Sogavare and Xi Jinping - security deal caused an Australian meltdown

NOOSA – In late October 2010, then United States’ secretary of state Hillary Clinton was in Honolulu nearing the end of a comprehensive tour of the Asia-Pacific region.

In two weeks Clinton was to visit Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Australia, and high on her agenda were discussions about military cooperation and action “to respond to a more complex maritime environment”.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - if you haven't made this journey, can you really help us?

PHILIP KAI MORRE

KUNDIAWA – Papua New Guinea needs to reform its outlook on development by changing our behaviour so as to transform our society.

But so much of the planning for us - planning that uses foreign concepts and ideologies - does not work.

A planning matrix needs to be home grown and an integral part of our holistic development.

Dependency Theory

STEPHEN CHARTERIS

CAIRNS – “We have the local knowledge, we live it -” Dr Momia Teariki-Tautea, PNG Attitude, 29 March 2022

I thank the doctor for his truism, but I would ask whether Papua New Guineans have applied it?

I suggest the knowledge Dr Teariki-Tautea speaks of is ignored by nearly all administrative arms of the PNG government.

The architect John Amory-designed residence in Warrawee sold to Lynda Babao for K16 million

A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CANBERRA - In August 2020, the Australian media reported that former prime minister Peter O’Neill’s wife, Lynda Babao, had bought a $6 million (K16 million) house at Warrawee on Sydney’s upper north shore.

A few months before, another Sydney residence associated with the family had been quietly sold for $12.35 million (K33 million).

Solomon Islands prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare (SBM screenshot)

ROBERT IROGA
| Asia Pacific Review | SBM Online | Edited

HONIARA – Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare has denied that China is being allowed to establish a military base in his country, which is 2,000 kilometers north-west of Australia.

Sogavare confirmed a security treaty had been finalised with China but said “there is no intention whatsoever to ask China to build a military base.

MICHAEL KABUNI
| Academia Nomad

PORT MORESBY - Among the things to be mastered in Papua New Guinean politics are the subtleties and allusions of conversation, figurative speech, presentation and present-giving.

It’s a form of speech known as ‘tok-bokis’ – to speak in metaphors.

Russian troops ford a stream at the Battle of Tannenberg in what is now Poland, August 1914. The battle lasted five days and ended in a German victory (Popperfoto)

ROBERT FORSTER

NORTHUMBRIA, UK - In 1973, Kaiyer Auwin, a fight leader of Milep village in Jiwaka, let me into his inner thoughts.

Kaiyer, who had once carried a spear against early explorer and prospector Jim Taylor, told me he could scarcely believe the benefits that followed the Kiap Administration’s subjugation of everyday inter-clan fighting.

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - If you want to about the art and demands of writing, then dipping into the autobiographies of successful writers, past and present, is a good way to go.

At present I’m working my way through the two volumes, 1,000 plus pages, of Nicholas Monsarrat’s autobiography, Love is a Four-Letter Word.

Dr Joe Ketan - "Foreign consultants who piggyback on development aid have often been responsible for bad advice"

JOE KETAN

PORT MORESBY - A quick glance at Papua New Guinea’s recent history will tell you that there are certain things that you would have done it differently if you had your time over again.

But time does not stop or rewind, although sometimes history seems to repeat itself over and over.

Illustration - Hindustan Times

Chris Overland:
Social Stability vs Individual Rights

ADELAIDE - Democracies are both difficult to create and difficult to govern successfully.

First and foremost they require a remarkably self-disciplined population willing to voluntarily conform to a broadly agreed set of ideas about how their society is ordered and governed.

Something of a metaphor. Ulli Beier with monkey idling in the shadows on his shoulder

ED BRUMBY

MELBOURNE - It is 52 years since I attended Ulli Beier’s classes in African literature at the University of Papua New Guinea.

Now as then, and like many others, my view of him remains conflicted.

Maebh Long has laid bare, eloquently, his hypocrisy and deceit which, back then, was a matter of considerable gossip, on and off campus.

MICHAEL KABUNI
| Academia Nomad

PORT MORESBY – Recently, there have been two gun incidents in Port Moresby involving politicians.

The most serious of these occurred when a gun allegedly belonging to a PNG politician was accidentally discharged killing a bystander.

Michael Dom - "Beier, Fitzpatrick and Jackson were opening up avenues for PNG writing". Dom and his associates are more likely to develop a design that will  enable it to flourish

MICHAEL DOM
Ples Singsing

A Tok Pisin translation of this article follows this English version

NARI STATION, MOROBE - It was my impression that one of the questions bothering Philip Fitzpatrick around 2010, as he ruminated about his once adopted Melanesian home, was that, if Papua New Guineans are writing, then where is the published evidence?

The question I raise is about the field of literary endeavour rather than the academic and workplace necessity of writing.

I refer not to that boring stuff which earns money but the thrilling stuff that returns to us nothing but self-satisfaction and relief.

SIMON DAVIDSON

I once walked the city’s dusty streets,
Homeless, aimless, penniless
Dropped-out, poor, no future,
Surviving on crumbs and goodwill
But with undying hope in my soul

I scraped a few coins to study,
And paid my way right through,
Sat in the university’s honoured halls
Now nothing to lose, all to win
And sensed God’s call in my life

Illustration by Dola Sun (National Public Radio, USA)

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - Politicians and other reprobates are known to rely on a suite of well-worn axioms as they go about their nefarious dealings and machinations in office.

One of these is the accepted wisdom that if a lie is repeated often and loudly enough people will eventually come to believe it is true.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton (9 News)

STEPHEN CHARTERIS

"We share with our Pacific family culture, the principles of democracy and freedom, and these are things that are very important to the Pacific Island peoples” – Peter Dutton, Australian Defence Minister, Today

“Time doesn't mean anything when you're about to have water lapping at your door” – Peter Dutton's bad joke about (a) sea level rise in the Pacific and (b) what he sees as his Pacific family’s lack of attention to punctuality, 11 September 2015

CAIRNS – It is my personal observation following 35 years in Melanesia that Australia has hopelessly missed the mark when it comes to development assistance, and it continues to do so.

The total fixation on trying to build the capacity of central and sub-national agencies to the exclusion of an equal focus on communities has sunk almost every initiative you can name.

THIERRY LEPANI
| Twitter @LepaniThierry | Edited for publication

PORT MORESBY – The Papua New Guinea parliament has approved the creation of seven new electorates by splitting seven existing ones in time for the elections.

This came after a majority endorsement of the Electoral Boundaries Commission Report.

The 'sandwalk' where the great scientist. Charles Darwin, did much of his thinking

SIMON DAVIDSON

SONOMA - A fertile brain bubbling with game changing ideas is the by-product of habits consistently practiced.

A fertile brain does not emerge by accident, nor is it given on a golden plate.

It needs to be shaped and transformed through consistent good thinking and good practice over time.

Solomons prime minister Manasseh Sogavare and China's premier Li Keqiang in the Great Hall of the People, 9 October 2019 (Thomas Peter, Reuters)

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA - The Australian government and its tame media are displaying shock and indignation this morning as details come to light about Solomon Islands agreeing to cooperate with China in policing and security, roles historically performed by Australia.

In early February, PNG Attitude reported on extensive negotiations between the two countries that covered a long shopping list including almost every sector and industry in the Solomons.

Professor Henry Reynolds - "It is by no means clear that the world’s authoritarian states see themselves as members of an 'anti-democratic coalition'. Some of the most autocratic are American allies"

HENRY REYNOLDS
| Pearls & Irritations

TOWNSVILLE - “I think we are in a contest,” President Biden declared in June last year, “not with China per se but with autocrats and autocratic governments around the world - whether or not democracies can compete with them in this rapidly changing 21st century.”

Was he referring to particular regimes that assumed a hostile stance towards the United States or were geo-political rivals? Or was it really autocracies anywhere and everywhere that had been put on notice.

A Russian armoured personnel carrier burns amid damaged and abandoned utility vehicles after fighting in Kharkiv (Marienko Andrew, AP)

CHRIS OVERLAND & KEITH JACKSON

ADELAIDE & NOOSA – As the Ukraine War moves to its one-month anniversary, the more important Western nations are tonight holding an unprecedented series of three summits in Brussels - NATO, G7 and European Union, all in a row.

They do so as the outcomes of the war remain uncertain, but as Vladimir Putin’s destruction and terrorism continue.

Dulciana Somare with her father, the late Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare. Dulciana is contesting the seat of Angoram in this year's national election (Dulciana Somare)

THERESA MEKI
| DevPolicy Blog

CANBERRA - While political dynasties are not prevalent in Papua New Guinea, there are several notable political families.

Sir Julius Chan, one of the country’s founding fathers, has been in parliament since 1968 – 54 years. His son Byron was the member for Namatanai, a New Ireland electorate, from 2002 to 2017.

Dr Allan Marat -

MICHAEL KABUNI
| Academia Nomad

PORT MORESBY - Who would you like to see become Papua New Guinea’s prime minister? In this article, the top three candidates are ranked and profiled about why they're good prime ministerial material.

1 - Dr Allan Marat (Melanesian Liberal Party)

Since the passing of Sir Mekere Morauta, there’s probably only one true statesman in the PNG parliament.

Soldiers of the Australian 39th Battalion,  Kokoda campaign,  1942 (Australian War Memorial)

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – After graduating with a BA in history and English literature, Adrian Clack spent six years as a history teacher and school counsellor.

He then served 12 years as a police officer before, in 2017, making his passion for military history a major pursuit.

Since then Adrian has completed 15 crossings of the Kokoda Track as a guide and historian for On Track Expeditions.

The first printed plan of Port Moresby was compiled from surveys made in July and August 1886 by Walter R Guthbertson

THERESA PATTERSON
| From a story originally published in
  the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier

Eda Moresby: Our Moresby by John Brooksbank, K250 each (K200 each for five or more). To Australia: $100 + $15 post. Link Facebook and find Eda Moresby here or email here

PORT MORESBY – ‘Only in PNG!’ People might think this catch-all phrase for our country’s extraordinary quirks is a relatively recent addition to our lexicon.

But if the outrageous stories in John Brooksbank’s new book, ‘Eda Moresby’ (Motu for ‘Our Moresby’), are anything to go by, the expression would have applied way back to before Papua New Guinea existed.

Graphic by Greg Rosenke

SIMON DAVIDSON

The inspiration for this poem came as Dr Unia Api,
a lecturer at Pacific Adventist University, spoke in
the chapel to Sonoma Adventist College theology
students on Wednesday 16 March, 2022 - SD

At Simon’s saddest banquet feast,
a costly perfume of purest nard
was poured on the body of Christ.
The sparkling oil flowing down,
and aroma sweet filling the room;
‘Christ smelled like a king’

Ulli Beier and President Léopold Senghor at the exhibition Neue Kunst in Afrika, 1980. Senghor, a poet and cultural theorist was Senegal's leader from 1960–80 (Archive Iwalewahaus)

MAEBH LONG

This article offers edited extracts from ‘Being Obotunde Ijimere and M. Lovori: Mapping Ulli Beier’s intercultural hoaxes from Nigeria to Papua New Guinea’. The complete essay by Dr Long was published in The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 11 October 2020

HAMILTON, NZ - Ulli Beier was a hugely influential figure in Nigerian and Papua New Guinean literature from the 1950s to the 1970s.

He founded and edited numerous literary magazines, including Black Orpheus and Kovave, fostered unappreciated talent, and provided publication opportunities when few were available.

Justin Olam - rugby league champion (nrl.com)

JUSTIN KUNDALIN

KANDEP, ENGA – Papua New Guinea is a developing country doing everything it can to catch up with the Western world.

In my view, easily the greatest Western influence in shaping PNG has been education; although other transformational forces, such as building a minerals-based economy, have been crucial.

Jaivet Ealom - taken from his Manus identification card on which a sharp-eyed Australian immigration official misspelled his name

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

Escape from Manus: The untold true story by Jaivet Ealom, Viking Australia, 2021, 352 pages, softcover AU$22.00, ebook AU$14.99. ISBN 9781761040214. Available here from Amazon Australia

TUMBY BAY - In 2014 I carried out a social mapping study on Manus Island and got a first-hand look at Australia’s regional processing centre for refugees.

What I saw was deeply disturbing and not something easy to forget.

CHRIS OVERLAND

ADELAIDE – There are confirmed reports in the media that the Russians have begun to fire hypersonic missiles at selected targets in Ukraine.

Last night one of these weapons struck an underground ammunition depot in the western sector of the country.

The Mariupol theatre, with its vivid red roof, was packed with 1,300 people taking refuge and presented the softest of targets

SVITLANA ZLENKO
| Translation by Roman Sheremeta

Last Tuesday, Svitlana Zlenko fled the besieged eastern Ukraine city of Mariupol with her young son. After finding safety, she used Twitter to share this account of life under siege. Dr Roman Sheremeta is an associate professor of economics at Case Western Reserve University at Cleveland, Ohio, in the USA. He prefaced this translation with a warning: “The faint-hearted should not read this” - KJ

SOMEWHERE IN UKRAINE - We collected snow, warmed it on a campfire and cooked macaroni. My family was in the bomb shelter of High School No 2.

1,300 people had sought refuge in this theatre in Mariupol, bombed earlier this week. Only 130 have been rescued

CHRIS OVERLAND

ADELAIDE – The ugly war in Ukraine is not proceeding according to Vladimir Putin’s wishes.

The result so far is a strategic failure that seems to be engendering a situation within Russia that is quite unstable.

Dictatorships rest largely upon an ability to enforce control by inspiring fear, and they employ large security apparatuses to do this.

Sylvia Pascoe - “I’m not the type of person that sees an issue and just walks away from it”  (Godfree Kaptigau,  The Guardian)

LEANNE JORARI
| Guardian News & Media Ltd | Edited
|  Supported by the Judith Nielson Institute for Journalism & Ideas

PORT MORESBY – In June, entrepreneur Sylvia Pascoe will attempt to take her leadership to the highest level by contesting the country’s national election.

Pascoe, who began the Port Moresby city markets, is passionate about creating opportunities for business owners and entrepreneurs, especially other women.

MICHAEL KABUNI
| Academia Nomad

PORT MORESBY - Following the 2021 Port Moresby Northwest by-election, we conducted a small survey among 120 UPNG students and working class residents of the electorate.

One of the questions we asked was about the criteria they used to cast their votes in the by-election.

CAROLINE MIMBS NYCE
| Senior Associate Editor, The Atlantic

WASHINGTON DC - One year has passed since a gunman took the lives of six Asian women and two others at spas in the Atlanta area.

The shooting spurred new activism and awareness around violence against the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in the United States.

Ben Micah lived the high life while, along with many cronies, stealing the money that kept PNG and its people poor. Micah's now dead but corruption is well and truly alive

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – The veteran New Ireland politician Ben Micah died on Wednesday morning after a suspected heart attack. He was aged about 63.

Micah had previously been admitted to Port Moresby’s Pacific International Hospital.

I republish below an extraordinary mea culpa Micah wrote two years ago, when he seemed to realise his political career might be over (although cronies say he was contemplating standing again in this year’s national election).

CHRIS OVERLAND

ADELAIDE - The idea that Pacific Island nations will not be dragged into the emerging great power conflict is risible. More poor joke than serious contention.

Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands are already involved, and there is no way out.

Cedric Agurope and his uncle, Cr Max Okm (Max Okm)

MARIAN FAA
| Pacific Beat, ABC | Edited extracts

PORT MORESBY - Hundreds of students in a remote Papua New Guinean school have repeated the same grade for eight years because teachers are abandoning their jobs.

Cedric Agurope, a former student of Jangit Primary School in East Sepik Province says he did not make it past Grade 3.

Kerenga Kua - “I must say that personally I am ashamed of the government” 

NEWS DESK
| Pacific Mining Watch

PORT MORESBY - Petroleum minister Kerenga Kua says he is ashamed of the PNG government for delays of up to 13 years in K120 million of payments to LNG project landowners.

Kua announced the outstanding funds will soon be released by the PNG Treasury after landowners from the Hides petroleum precinct gave the government 14 days to release the money and respond to other outstanding issues.

Samoa prime minister Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa skipped a recent summit between Pacific Island leaders and China (AFP)

CHARU SUDAN KASTURI
| Al Jazeera | Edited extracts

DELHI, INDIA - Flanked by senior diplomats in Beijing, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi addressed leaders from Pacific Island nations last October.

The president of Kiribati, prime ministers of Fiji, Tonga and Niue, and the foreign ministers of Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Federated States of Micronesia and Solomon Islands appeared in windows on a screen, their video summit meant to herald a new promise in China’s relations with their region.

NOTE TO READERS & CONTRIBUTORS
You may or may not have noticed a tendency to slackness in providing the usual fare
over recent times. Entirely due to the publisher experiencing a rough patch which,
he hopes with a certain desperation, will pass as quickly as the autumn storm it feels like - KJ

Auditor General Gordon Kega - 1,500 entities to audit, many eight years in arrears, is an impossible workload

LORRAINE WOHI
| PNG Bulletin

PORT MORESBY – Papua New Guinea’s auditor-general, Gordon Kega, says a large percentage of the 1,500 government entities his office is mandated to audit have not submitted financial statements, some of them for the past eight years.

They include 42 national departments, 21 provincial governments, 20 hospital boards, 321 local-level governments, 432 service improvements plans, 487 statutory authorities and 155 business arms