I'm not so sure that people in PNG are not reading books. In fact, I think plenty of people read books. I've seen them doing it and I've lent people books to read. It's just that they are not reading books by PNG writers.

The reason they don't read books by PNG writers is because they are hard to find.

If PNG writers were helped to publish their books and those books were stocked in a good public library system then people would read them.

The trick is to get them published and into the libraries.

In Australia we have a system called Public Lending Right. If one of your books is in a public library they pay you an allowance. It's to cover the fact that people borrow the book instead of buying it and sometimes,if it's an academic or technical publication, if people photocopy it. I've got a few books registered with them and get a cheque most years.

Thank you for that good news Daniel.

Try discuss with Library for All if they can extend their program to Oro Province, Caroline.

Caroline, don't ask, tell. That is, inform Mr Juffa of your next plans and extend an open invitation.

Like suggesting that he can join in if he feels your cause is valuable enough.

The more often your invite is disregarded or the longer time between unattended events will give you a better measure of his leadership.

But the first measure is if you have raised your voice loud enough at the most appropriate venue to have been heard and consequently ignored.

No response is an answer: the person has no thoughts worth sharing.

Phil and Keith, in relation to this, it is now very clear that PM Marape is aware of PNG Attitude writing/voices, if the last private message to Phil regarding the Maserati sale scandal is to be believed.

There are messengers.

We can then assume that our other less volatile messages have been ignored on purpose.

PS, I wonder if he's read my poem about him. I've grown rather fond of it and intend to put it in print.

This article exposes the greatest need that PNG has in the area of education.

Education is not true without reading. We have more teachers in PNG who I believe don't encourage students to read and that's why, in many working sectors of this country, many people are educated but still illiterate.

I have noticed in PNG we graduate become illiterates again and the cycle continues on forever.

I believe one of the greatest contributions the government can do to PNG is to build more libraries and donate more books written by our own authors and a few from overseas that can help move students to be smart in their education journey.

Thanks Caroline for raising the concern and also letting the public know about the need.

When Keith and I were managing the Crocodile Prize we debated whether seeking support from the government was a good idea.

On the one hand the funding they could have injected into the prize would have been valuable but on the other hand the meddling, self-aggrandisement and corruption that might have come with that money was a definite possibility. If they were to supply financial support it would have had to have been with no strings attached.

In any event they showed a distinct lack of interest and all our approaches were a waste of time. Clearly they did not put a value on reading and literature. Why this is so is still a mystery.

Do politicians actually read books? Who knows. At a guess I'd say few of them do. Maybe they see an educated and literate public as a danger. Maybe they are just plain dumb. That's a big hurdle to overcome when seeking assistance from government for literature.

The question then becomes whether it is actually worth trying to get them interested. Most politicians when they see something working well and is popular with the public will fall over themselves to take credit for it.

The Crocodile Prize was working really well for a while and a few politicians jumped on the bandwagon but when it began to falter they lost interest.

The current campaign with the writer's petition and the problems being encountered to even speak with the prime minister seems to me an indication that getting government support is a lost cause. This is terribly sad and an indictment of the quality of politics in PNG but it seems to be the reality.

That leaves the job firmly in the hands of the PNG writers and readers themselves. Ways have to be found to make literature work with the government.

Professor Winduo is right. There is no point in writing and publishing books if people don't read them. This suggests the key to promoting writers and literature in PNG begins with building up a reading public. To do this the logical place to start is in the schools. In this sense Caroline is well and truly on the right track.

In the small town where I live in country South Australia we have a combined school and public library. The library is located on the school premises but is also available for the general public. It is linked to a very efficient interconnected state run library system.

Adult readers are strong supporters of the library and carry out a lot of voluntary work there. One of the things the volunteers do is coach problem readers among the school pupils.

If I want to read a book that is not in the local library I can order it via the state library which will source it from the many libraries in the state and send it to me via the local library.

The key elements of the success of the library seems to be the mix of adult and child services, strong support from the reading public and strong state government support. An important point here is that people, children and adults alike, don't steal books.

This proven system could be replicated at the provincial level in PNG. A well-resourced library in the provincial capital could supply and manage libraries based in the provincial schools used by both pupils and adults. Controlling theft would be a problem but introducing a shame factor might mitigate it.

With this in mind maybe the current petition campaign should be re-directed towards the provincial governors.

It would be worth talking to people like Gary Juffa to see what they think.