LEONARD FONG ROKA

HAILING FROM THE MOUNTAINOUS Orami cluster of villages in the Panguna District, Robert Keruta rents a room in a flat in the Section 18 residential area of Arawa.

He was a student of the Saint Joseph High School at Rigu before the Bougainville conflict affected his education. With peace gaining ground, he decided to be a businessman helping Bougainvilleans.

In the 1990s, when the PNG government enforced its brutal Australia-backed blockade over Bougainville, Robert Keruta joined the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) to defend his island and people.

MARLENE DEE GRAY POTOURA

An entry in The Crocodile Prize

My days I spend, with the cute little ones I teach.
I only have simple words, to describe their daily plights.
A silent epidemic,   that has taken the lives.
Of so many white, brown, black and yellow
Wingless angels.

In a world ruled by the undefined authority
Like you and me.
Aye, the little ones!
It is not their choice that each day
They are born into this cruel world.
Our wingless angels.

MININGWATCH CANADA

BARRICK GOLD IS THUMBING ITS NOSE at a recommendation by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights calling for an independent review of its handling of victims of rape by security guards at Barrick’s Porgera mine in Papua New Guinea.

Rather, Barrick’s remedial program is reportedly processing rape victims this month and requiring legal waivers in exchange for benefits packages.

In August, MiningWatch Canada received a 13-page opinion from the UN High Commissioner in response to letters MiningWatch had written to alert her to the fact that Barrick’s handling of rape victims at its mine in PNG is further undermining their rights.

DAVID WALL

From time to time PNG Attitude offers pen pictures of unsung Australians who quietly made a significant contribution to Papua New Guinea and its people….

THE DEATH OF Dr David (he was never called Arthur) Parkinson (1935-2009) ended a life of service and dedication, particularly in Papua New Guinea.

He first came to PNG in 1956 as a 21 year old Medical Assistant, or in the terminology of the time an EMA – European Medical Assistant.

These young men, and some not so young, were the frontline medical providers in much of PNG in those days. David himself did extensive medical patrols in the Sepik and Highlands.

PETER KRANZ

WELL IT'S 31 OCTOBER EVE – Halloween in Port Moresby as well  - so allow a bit of indulgence.

My first 18 months at the University of Papua New Guinea were a bit of a learning experience.

There'd been riots, shots fired over my head, my house was burgled, and I was held up at gunpoint.

JEFFREY MANE FEBI

An entry in The Rivers Prize

PACKED IN SMALL PACKETS as powder juice, it comes in different flavours. Orange, strawberry, mango, pineapple, etcetera.

Good refreshing drinks these: orange, pineapple and mango flavours being popular with consumers.

It is served at barbecues, picnics, feasts and mumus, oh yes, and at meal times. Kids love it. It’s also student’s favourite lunchtime drink, and buai sellers and chewers prefer it as a mouth rinse.

PHIL FITZPARICK

THERE IS A PERENNIAL DEBATE in Australia about privatising the Australian Broadcasting Commission and allowing it to raise revenue by introducing paid advertising.

The proponents of this idea invariably come from the conservative side of politics, especially the Liberal Party, which represents the interests of big business.

The idea is fiercely opposed by the left, which purports to back the interests of the common people and the workers.  Academia mostly comes in behind the lefties.

PITT RIVERS MUSEUM, OXFORD | Extracts

BEATRICE MARY BLACKWOOD was born in London in 1889. From 1908-12, she studied English Literature and Language at Oxford University, returning there in 1916 to study for the Diploma in Anthropology.

Later, Blackwood made two 18-month field trips to New Guinea in the 1920s and 1930s, collecting 2,300 artefacts which now reside in the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford.

She spent her early career in the Human Anatomy Department at Oxford, under Arthur Thomson, Professor of Anatomy.

ROBIN SUANG

PAPUA NEW GUINEA IS KNOWN as the only country in the world to have rugby league as its national sport.

Rugby league means more than money. It’s about pride, about clansmanship, about identity and, most importantly, it defines the passion of a thousand traditions.

Papua New Guineans love rugby league. The magnitude of their love of the sport can be measured by a paradoxical metric: property that has been destroyed and spectator violence that has brought this sport to the brink of a law and order crisis.

NIUGINI NIUS | Edited extracts

REPORTS OF A PENDING VOTE of no confidence in the government have emerged despite moves to restore stability in the Papua New Guinea polity.

Speculation along the corridors of Waigani are that a number of members of parliament will attempt to block the Budget next month in an effort to remove prime minister Peter O’Neill.

A notice for a motion for a vote of no confidence must be registered for at least one month in advance and signed by 22 MPs. The reasons for the motion must also be published.

PHIL FITZPATRICK

AS I TALK TO PEOPLE in Papua New Guinea, it becomes increasingly obvious that the greedy politicians who claim to be the leaders of the country have pushed its citizens to the point of revolt.

These angry citizens are teetering on the brink of rebelliousness and it probably will take only one or two more outrageous actions by the politicians before they crack.

If I was a politician in Papua New Guinea, I’d be getting very nervous right now.

KEITH JACKSON

LEON TROTSKY, who famously met his death by ice pick, reckoned you can only trigger a revolution after an acute changes in people’s consciousness when a bunch of social and economic rocks drop from the sky, deeply upsetting everyone.

Well, he probably said it better than that.

In his book Revolutions and Revolutionary Movements, academic James DeFronzo identifies five crucial factors in the development and success of a revolutionary movement.

LEONARD FONG ROKA

AFTER THE DEVASTATING SETBACK of the 10-year Bougainville crisis from 1989, the provincial township of Arawa is getting back to its once booming economic and social status.

Arawa is fast becoming a centre for all sorts of activity and a transit point for travellers.

With Bank South Pacific now established, most central and south Bougainville people do business here.

KEITH JACKSON

EMINENT AND OUTSPOKEN Governor of Oro Province and Papua New Guinea member of parliament, Garry Juffa [pictured], has endorsed trenchant criticism by PNG Attitude commentator, Phil Fitzpatrick, that PNG’s political leadership is “an international disgrace”.

Fitzpatrick, an author whose recent book Inspector Metau, on the surface a detective story, delves into the murky world of PNG politics, last week wrote a pungent article, The scum that they call politicians in PNG, which accused the PNG parliament of being “one of the biggest cabals of thieves, robbers and rogues on the planet”.

Responding to the criticism, Governor Juffa said, “You are absolutely right. Your article is nothing but the truth. I am sad to say that the trend is indeed worrisome. This nation, as great as it is, is being packaged and sold fast.”

KELA KAPKORA

SOME K200 MILLION of Papua New Guinea’s money has been invested in Australia by fat cats through corruption and money laundering.

Sixty-seven people have been arrested so far by Task Force Sweep (TFS) and K170 million has been recovered in PNG and up north.

The Australian Federal Police has started investigations into assets and bank accounts in Australia and is helping TFS.

PAUL YABOB

An entry in The Rivers Prize

IN 1932, JUST AS THE Sydney Harbour Bridge was being opened with some crazy guy on horseback charging the barriers to be first to cut the ribbon, the Leahy brothers became the first outsiders to bridge the gap between the known and the unknown.

They trekked the foreboding and formidable hinterland of the highlands of Papua New Guinea. The highlanders found them weary, lost, undernourished and wanting of feminine companionship.

After the enterprising highlanders discovered their faeces smelled just like their own, they gave their sisters and daughters to them, who in turn spawned tens more families and tribes, urban and rural dwelling.

KEITH JACKSON

YOU MAY (OR MAY NOT) have noticed that I’ve recently created a new topic in the Categories section in the left hand column of this page.

It’s called simply Crocodile Prize 2014 and it contains all the articles, stories and poems written by Papua New Guineans and published in PNG Attitude since last Independence Day, 16 September, when Crocodile Prize 2013 officially came to an end.

If you, the author approve, all your work published in PNG Attitude since then will be eligible for entry to PNG’s national writing contest. Automatically. It’s that easy.

But there’s a proviso. An entry form needs to be completed. One entry form covers all entries, but we do need it. Why don't you download this entry form now.

DOMINIC BROCK | NRL.com

Papua New Guinea v France: 1.30am Monday 28 October, Craven Park, Hull, England. Televised live – 7mate

RUGBY LEAGUE IS PAPUA NEW GUINEA's national sport and the Kumuls will be keen to get their World Cup campaign off to the right start against France.

They've been starved of World Cup success of late after being cruelly drawn in a group against powerhouses Australia, New Zealand and England in the 2008 tournament. Their best performance at a Cup came eight years earlier when the Kumuls advanced to the quarter-finals after going through their group undefeated.

TOM WATERHOUSE | Tom’s Blog

Papua New Guinea v France: 1.30am Monday 28 October; Craven Park, Hull, England. Televised live - 7mate

PAPUA NEW GUINEA AND FRANCE square off in the opening Pool B clash of the World Cup.

Both have been stalwarts of international rugby league for many decades, the two teams who have typically been at the level below the big three but who have enjoyed a deep love of the game.

Both will consider anything less than a quarter final berth disappointing and with this the likely one winnable match for either team, both will be targeting this clash as the defining one of the 2013 campaign.

RADIO NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL

A FORMER TOP Papua New Guinea politician says he had to go against the traditional Highlands mould of character and behave in a passive manner in order to prevent bloodshed when his government collapsed.

Sam Abal was Acting Prime Minister in 2011 when the majority of MPs controversially ousted the Somare government and triggered a political and constitutional crisis that only ended with the outcome of last year’s general election.

Mr Abal, who lost his Wabag seat in the election, was detached from much of the bitter fighting between the two groups claiming to be government during the impasse, choosing to remain neutral in parliament.

THE CHINA POST | AP

TWO SENIOR TAIWANESE OFFICIALS resigned last week over the loss of millions of dollars in a failed attempt to lure Papua New Guinea to officially recognise Taiwan.

The government said Foreign Minister James Huang and Deputy Premier Chiou I-jen were leaving their posts.

The resignations follow revelations that Taiwan lost US$29.8 million in a failed 2006 attempt to establish ties with Papua New Guinea.

WARRINGTON GUARDIAN (UK)

PNG RUGBY LEAGUE HEAD COACH Adrian Lam has named his 19-man squad to play France at Craven Park tomorrow.

The squad is Josiah Abavu, Paul Aiton, Dion Aiye, Wellington Albert, Ase Boas, Jason Chan, Neville Costigan (c), Isreal Eliab, Richard Kambo, Enoch Maki, Larsen Marabe, Bosam Nene McDonald, David Mead, Mark Mexico, Jessie Joe Nandye, Jason Tali, Ray Thompson, Charlie Wabo, and Menzie Yere.

Papua New Guinea captain Costigan wants to use Rugby World Cup 2013 to help inspire a new generation of players in the sport in PNG, starting with the Kumuls’ opening game against France.

TONY FLYNN

“All these were, years ago, little red-coloured, pulpy infants, capable of being kneaded, baked, into any social form you chose” —Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer and essayist

RESENT ME IF YOU WILL but I have a tirade against the pretenders amongst us who believe that a dance and a few feathers doth a culture make.

Ours is a root, fruit and vegetable eating culture, with the odd bit of meat to help things along. But things have changed. Asia has a rice culture; now we have a rice culture.

The high schools in Wau and Baiyune, and probably many others throughout Papua New Guinea, have a strange method of showing support for local farmers by rarely purchasing kaukau, taro, bananas or yams.

JEFFREY MANE FEBI

Like breasts of a thousand Morobe lasses
In tight embrace
Sprawl across the breadth and length
Of a land – Kande land

Upward they point – naked!
Ever in such fine form
At night sons of the sky gather to envy
And by day, their resolve prevail

Solomon Sea crashes on distant shores
Time and again cry over what may be
And what could have been
But is fed dirt – over and over

Sprawl across the land in rolling embrace
These gentle contours
Silhouette of breasts of a thousand Morobe lasses
Into heart of time memories are carved

Oh rolling hills of Morobe
Don’t driving chills down my spine
No skills set carves a curve so fine
More still I dream of Morobe

PAT HOSSACK | The Roar

IN A MOVE which will no doubt buoy all involved in Papua New Guinea rugby league, the Queensland Rugby League has granted the fanatical rugby league nation a license to compete in the 2014 Intrust Super Cup (formerly the Queensland Cup).

In addition to this, Papua New Guinea will also field Under 16s and Under 18s sides in the QRL’s elite junior competitions.

The only country in the world that lists rugby league as its national sport, PNG is an area of largely untapped incredible potential for our code.

PHIL FITZPATRICK

LET’S NOT MINCE WORDS.  The politicians of Papua New Guinea are an international disgrace and the Papua New Guinea parliament is one of the biggest cabals of thieves, robbers and rogues on the planet.

If you add up the completely unnecessary deaths and injuries in Papua New Guinea attributable to a dysfunctional health system and moribund hospitals, not to mention the horrendous infant mortality rate.

And add to this realities like the number of victims of violent crime due to the lack of law and order, successive Papua New Guineans prime ministers, with no exceptions, can well be equated to tin pot dictators like Idi Amin of 1960’s Congo infamy who was responsible for the genocide of his people.

LEONARD FONG ROKA

Rivers flood a brawl but they ease a peace
Somewhere where the road is matured a bloom in the sun
For not all seasons are rocks
That smiles away the rage of the winds.

Thus I am not a boulder to sit idle in the strangeness of Madang
To be robbed by street thugs that civilization
Had forgotten…

KEITH JACKSON

South Sea Gold, a novel by Keith Dahlberg. Amazon $12.15 (paperback), Kindle $3.00, ISBN -13: 978-1484991992, CreateSpace 2013. Order from Amazon here

KEITH DAHLBERG IS QUITE A GUY. He worked for 15 years as a physician with the American Baptist Church in Myanmar and Thailand, and then 30 years in private medical practice among the miners, managers, and drifters in the silver mining district of Idaho USA.

After retiring from practice, he worked as a supply doctor (what we call a locum) in America and abroad, including in the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea and in Myanmar, and Thailand.

He has a real claim to fame as being one of the first medical responders in the Cambodian refugee crisis of 1979.

ANNE BENJAMIN

BY NOW, MANY OF YOU will be aware that our dear brother, Bishop Tony, slipped away from us this morning around 8am.

He had developed pneumonia in the last day or so and this rapidly took hold of him. All the great fight that he had demonstrated over the past six weeks (really, two years) was over. He had no resistance left and he was at peace.

Tony always appreciated the messages, phone calls, visits, prayers and encouragement he received from so many of you.

KEITH JACKSON

SO THE FIRST PART of the Francis Nii Appeal is over. It looks like we raised $7,650 over about seven days in both Papua New Guinea and Australia to assist our ailing colleague.

We needed a short, intense campaign so we could get the equipment identified, ordered and quickly on the move all the way to Sir Joseph Nombri Hospital at Kundiawa up there in the highlands of the Simbu Province.

As well as readers (full list of donors below) willing to dig deep to get Francis out of bed and back on track to full health, we also needed a white knight to fund a proper clinical assessment – a simple step if you live in any of Australia’s capital cities but a costly, logistically challenging medivac for a paraplegic living in the middle of PNG.

JOHN MOMIS

“23% of men who raped in Bougainville were 14 years or younger when they first committed this crime… More than 65% of men in Bougainville reported experiencing emotional abuse or neglect as children” - Extract from UNDP media release of 10 September 2013, UN Multi-Country Study on Men and Violence in Asia and the Pacific

THE UNITED NATIONS REPORT on Gender Violence has not yet been formally presented to the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG).

However, if what has been reported widely in the media is any indication of what is contained in the final draft report, then, as President of the ABG, I am forced to condemn the report as being a piece of flawed, imperfect research and without basis or foundation.

RADIO NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL

THE FOUNDER OF A CHARITABLE group in Port Moresby says he is saddened by the number of children being abandoned and wants the government to take action.

Father John Glynn, who some years ago began a foundation for women and children at risk, says it is not uncommon for babies to be abandoned, given away or sold in the marketplace.

Father Glynn says poverty, shame and a lack of education are the key drivers behind the social issue.

LEONARD FONG ROKA

IN THE 1960s when BCL landed on Bougainville, the Kavarong River sucked all the dirt created upstream at the Panguna copper mine.

In many, many tonnes a day it went down the river altering its old beauty.

After the Bougainville conflict that shut the mine, the river began eroding its siltation in search of its original bed. In doing so, however, the Kavarong is changing the Banoni coastline from Matupina to the Koiare.

DAVID GONOL | Edited

PAPUA NEW GUINEA is a unique country in terms of traditional customs and cultures.

According to records, PNG alone accounts for a quarter of the world’s languages and/or cultures. To be specific, there are 700 plus languages and a thousand plus tribes in the country. Each tribe has its own customary laws to govern its affairs.

The Constitution and the Underlying Law Act stipulate that customary law should take precedence over common law and equity in the development of the underlying law, or what I call Melanesian Jurisprudence.

ROBIN LILLICRAP 

AFTER A WEEK OF MUCH activity, it looks like the Francis Nii Appeal has met the costs of providing basic equipment to aid for the healing of one of Papua New Guinea’s most talented writers, paraplegic Francis Nii, this past year confined by pressure sores to a hospital bed.

In this article, I’d like to share with readers the steps we’re taking to ease Francis’s way and enable him to sit again and use a wheelchair.

At a macro level, what you're going to read will provide insights into the flaws in PNG’s health system even in the great population centres like the Simbu, where Francis occupies a place in Sir Joseph Nombri Hospital in Kundiawa.

MAL TURNBULL

I HAVE SOME SOUTH PACIFIC PEDIGREE being born in Honiara in 1960 where my father was chief engineer for the Solomon Islands. We lived on the small island of Tulagi.

My memories of the islands are vague as we left in 1964 and moved to Sydney. But my love of the water and the island lifestyle stayed with me. And deep inside there are parts of me that remain unconsciously South Pacific.

I was surprised a couple of years back when, in Thailand, I bit into a tropical fruit and a flood of memories came back from those early years. Amazing how tastes and smells bring back memories.

LAPIEH LANDU

For the boat people (the seekers of asylum) as I imagine their predicament.…

I wake to the smell of stench
The sound of an angry tide
As ocean spray surrounds
Blinded by cold-thick mist
My hands are all I feel.
Dengan biaya untuk

The swaying to and fro
Shaken by this fragile craft
Fear, anxiety, ambiguity
Of everything about the unknown
My feet, as if planted in ice
Dengan biaya untuk

ANDREW POTTS | Gold Coast Bulletin

ONE OF THE LAST GOLD COAST Kokoda veterans has died. Local icon and decorated World War II soldier Bill Bellairs passed away surrounded by family at 2.15am yesterday after a short illness.

Mr Bellairs, originally from Victoria, lived on the Gold Coast for more than 35 years and was well known as the patron of the annual Kokoda Challenge and a driving force behind the funding and creation of the Kokoda memorial at Broadbeach's Cascade Gardens, which was opened in 2008.

His son Gary flew from Victoria to be with his father in his last days and said he would be missed by his family and the wider community.

STEVE W LABUAN

“But stand a Bougainvillean and a PNG man together and ask ‘Does their skin colour look the same?’ Do New Guineans dance the kovi and sing the siriroi so common across Bougainville and the Solomons?” – Leonard Fong Roka, PNG Attitude, 18 October 2013

I GUESS THE SAME CRY of belonging can be echoed across our nation’s borders from Bougainville to the Sandaun and Western provinces.

The same may be heard within our provincial boundaries. And what's in a colour, especially in Papua New Guinea? Isn't PNG full of colour, not to mention language, dance and song, and islands?

Should we separate according to our respective colours, dancing to our own songs away from each other? The other with whom we have travelled this far through thick and thin.

CHRIS BARIA

An entry in The Crocodile Prize 2014

I brandish hope
That one day soon
We shall climb over the wall
Of ignorance and arrogance
And on common ground we shall meet
To plant a seed
Of understanding, love and respect
That had eluded us for so long

We shall cast aside our pride, our differences
Relinquish those delusions that hold us captive
To unravel what’s in store for us
We shall embark on a journey
of self-realization and discovery
To believe and achieve
Our dreams and goals for tomorrow

DON MITCHELL

I HAVE READ WITH INTEREST the discussion in PNG Attitude emanating from Leonard Fong Roka’s article, A new trend emerges: Avakori culture in Bougainville.

In my own writing about Bougainville (Nagovisi), I wrestled with how best to render Nagovisi lolo, which is cognate with doro.

In Nagovisi (at least when I lived there, years ago) lolo was not a prohibited word, except around opposite-sex siblings, and other tambu relationships.

FRANCIS S NII

I CANNOT FIND THE right words to express my heart’s gratitude for all my friends in Australia and PNG who have poured out their heart so compassionately to support and ease my physical condition … only silent tears say it all.

In my life as a paraplegic I have been confronted with all kinds of challenges, both physical and spiritual, and some of them are very painful but I don’t whine and cry.

I have always asked myself: would whining and crying help me? And I find that they don’t. They only weaken my spirit and my strength and make my condition worse. So I have developed an iron-hearted approach to the challenges that come my way.

Crocodile Prize 2013 Anthology, Philip Fitzpatrick (ed), pp 178, Pukpuk Publications 2013, ISBN978-0987132116. Available from Amazon here for $9.50 as a paperback or you can purchase it as a $5 e-book from Kindle

THE CROCODILE PRIZE 2013 ANTHOLOGY, just released as an Amazon paperback and a Kindle e-book, is the third in the annual series of new Papua New Guinean writing that once again provide an abundance of original and representative literature.

The impact of The Crocodile Prize must not be underestimated. The contest is not only encouraging Papua New Guinean writers, it is not only making PNG writing available to Papua New Guineans, it is bringing PNG writing to the world.

CLARICE KIMLIN | New Internationalist Blog

IT’S HARD TO BEAR THE THOUGHT that less than 2,000 kilometres from where I sit today in Darwin, just a stone’s throw over the Torres Strait, women and infants are at such disadvantage compared to the Australian families I meet through my midwifery training.  

Our closest neighbour, a tropical oasis in the middle of the South Pacific, is Papua New Guinea. However, this jewel of Melanesia is also a place where 40% of people live in absolute poverty and for women, complications in labour mean a death sentence.

Over $1 billion of funding from AusAID is poured into PNG every year, yet the disparity between PNG and Australia is almost insurmountable.

SCOTLAND GOT EVERYTHING they wanted from their only pre-World Cup warm-up - apart from a win.

Papua New Guinea took advantage of the many changes Scotland made throughout the game and scored two late tries to turn an entertaining and close encounter into a 38-20 victory.

It was a rare chance to see international rugby league on Post Office Road, with the exotic Kumuls brightening up a dull but very mild afternoon.

LEONARD FONG ROKA

THE LATE FRANCIS ONA’s will to reign over Bougainville met with disaster early in 1990; and BRA strategist Sam Kauona’s smell of Bougainville’s political jeopardy was too late to rescue the island’s 100,000 people.

Amidst this chaos, two figures stood out as the key leaders of the Bougainville rebellion – Francis Ona and Joseph Kabui. But their views of the conflict were not harmonious and this greatly affected the Bougainville people.

The late Joseph Kabui got into the wheelhouse of the provincial government in 1987. The following year brought challenges - militancy against the Panguna mine and the PNG government being the most outstanding.

PHIL FITZPATRICK

THE AUSTRALIAN HIGH COMMISSION in Papua New Guinea has reaffirmed its commitment to the Crocodile Prize for 2014 and the years to come.

A few days ago I spoke to Tim Bryson, the First Secretary (Politics) who has responsibility for public diplomacy.

The AHC’s view is that the Crocodile Prize is one of the very few platforms for developing and encouraging PNG writers, young and old.

SIONI RUMA

An entry in the Rivers Prize

ONE MIGHT SUGGEST NOWADAYS that Blood is not thicker than Water. Back then, knowing that a brother was definitely fighting against the odds, to stand up for him in counter attack was the only way forward.

Many development mentors argue that our cultures and traditions are old-fashioned; that they hold back progress in nation building and that we should completely forget about them and adopt new ways of life.

I’m not opposing this or supporting it, but I will try to shed some light of how I perceive a good life for the Melanesian Way.

JEFFREY MANE FEBI

I ENTERED THE CROCODILE PRIZE literary competition in 2010 on the premise I could write and write well. Upon reading other contributors’ work, I immediately realised their superior inherent qualities.

They knew how to use words, and did so eloquently. As I read their works, words maneuvered seamlessly into beautiful phrases and these phrases began to dance to otherworldly tunes and conjure up memorable images.

This was the power of raw talent. The quality of work that appeared on PNG Attitude was astounding. I knew right away there was more I had to do to elevate my writing skills.