Ordinary Simbu people and some business people have donated money to the bushfire appeal, saying this is one way of repaying Australia for all she has done for them

FRANCIS NII

KUNDIAWA - In a critical economic situation like now in Papua New Guinea, when even a single kina matters a lot to many families, the generosity shown by the Simbu people toward the Simbu for Australia bushfire fundraising appeal is amazing.

Simbus from all walks of life poured their hearts out for the fundraising effort to help the people of Australia affected by devastating bushfires.

Bill Biscoe with his Police Overseas Medal (Stuart Taverner)

STUART TAVERNER
| Barossa Herald

ANGASTON, SOUTH AUSTRALIA – Bill Biscoe, a former kiap, who spent some years in Simbu in the 1960s, said he was shocked, surprised and filled with humility to receive an Order of Australia Medal for his service to the Barossa community.

Since moving to the wine region 23 years ago, Bill, who resides in Angaston, has become a pillar of the community.

The Sandline debacle was a political scandal and a defining moment in the history of PNG, particularly influencing the Bougainville civil war

PHIL FITZPATRICK

Operation Kisim Bek Lombo by Baka Barakove Bina, Independently Published, 2019, ISBN: 97819744332366, 350 pages, my copy cost AU$34.28 from Amazon.com but there’s an eBook that costs US$4.94.

TUMBY BAY - We are probably all familiar with the term ‘alternative facts’. It is part of the bizarre tableau of language that has emanated from Trumpian America and sits alongside other questionable expressions like ‘fake news’.

Similar expressions are commonly found in literary fiction, particularly historical fiction. Historical fiction seeks to fill in the gaps between known or accepted facts to flesh out obscure and fuzzy periods in the past.

David Kitchnoge - explains the loan should never have been

DAVID KITCHNOGE

PORT MORESBY - As the infamous UBS loan inquiry commences here in the national capital, let's take a quick look at how we got here.

The Papua New Guinea government had a 17.6% interest in Oil Search when Oil Search merged with Orogen Minerals in 2002.

When the PNG LNG project crystallised in 2009, and the final investment decision had to be made, the government's legislated funding obligation kicked in.

Giselle Wakatama and Archie - abused by some ugly Australians. Unfortunately we have too many of them amongst us

PETER KRANZ

MORISSET - I was shocked to see a recent story on ABC Television about the racism experienced by one of their presenters in Lake Macquarie and Newcastle.

This was particularly disturbing as it is our neck of the woods. Hey that can’t be happening here!

To their credit, the local council took some action. You can find the story here, ‘Why I will never forget the day I was racially abused in front of my young son’.

CHRIS OVERLAND

ADELAIDE - In referencing the great unwashed, Phil Fitzpatrick has set me thinking about democracy and its origins.

Many readers will know that the concept of democracy arose in ancient Greece, notably in the city state of Athens. The word democracy is derived from the Greek words demos (people) and kratos (rule).

DAVID KITCHNOGE

PORT MORESBY – I’ve been reading about guys in the forestry business and thought I might share some of my own experiences.

Cloudy Bay Timbers, owned and operated by the Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Program before the expropriation of Ok Tedi Mine, was a perennial loss-maker although it was operated with all the right intentions and using 'industry best practice'.

PHIL FITZPATRICK

Life on a Coral Atoll: Australia’s Cocos (Keeling) Islands by Paul Oates, 2020, ISBN: 9798602004854, 174 pages with heaps of b/w photographs, US$4.90 + postage paperback or US$2.00 eBook, available from Amazon.com

TUMBY BAY - There is now a slim but veritable genre of kiap memoirs available in print. Some of them have been published by mainstream publishers but most are self-published.

The simple fact behind the preponderance of self-published work is that the general public, in Australia at least, is not especially interested in the subject.

Brenda Samson and Lilly Be'Soer of Voice for Change (Gemma Carr)

PHIL FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - One of the most striking things about Papua New Guinea is the profusion of happiness and laughter.

I noticed this when I first went to the then Australian colony in 1967 and the picture hasn’t diminished over the years.

Whenever I arrive at Jackson’s Airport in Port Moresby I am greeted by happy, smiling faces.

The Kana people of south Bougainville call this the Oruru Road. Not trafficable at all in the wet season it is their only connection to the outside world and a huge constraint on economic development

LEONARD FONG ROKA

PANGUNA – “When election times comes around,” a Kanauro community leader exclaimed, “I see our three sitting members in parliament are really friendly to us.

“But when they are in power, they are really angry looking. “I fear them.

“So how can I tell them that the Kana people of Paubake need a trafficable road?”

RAYMOND SIGIMET

The money man is coming today
Travelling with his goodies bag
Packed with the sweetest words
Lined with the dollar and the kina.

He'll bare his teeth with smiles
Explaining the valuable ore
And the money you'll make together
Is all he dreams and cares about.

Freda Duma and her mum - on their way to Texas for life-saving heart surgery

CHARLIE LYNN

SYDNEY – Friday was the end of a long journey in our quest to help a young Kokoda schoolgirl, Freda Duma, have a lifesaving heart-operation in Texas, USA.

A chance sighting of one of our Facebook posts by Dr Amyna Sultan at the Pacific International Hospital in Port Moresby, and the coincidence of having an American specialist working with her at the time, led to an agreement to perform the operation free of charge in Texas.

PHIL FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - This week the Doomsday Clock moved its hands to 100 seconds to midnight.

The Doomsday Clock is a symbol that represents the likelihood of a man-made global catastrophe.

It has been maintained since 1947 by the members of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

PHIL FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - I was very interested in art when I was at high school and in my final year visited an advertising agency as part of a school careers program.

It wasn’t a work experience program, just visits to places where people worked in careers that interested us. I was intent on talking to the commercial artists in the company.

RAYMOND SIGIMET

I wonder if there is such a man
Who sits all day behind a curtain 
I wonder what he’s doing there 
Sitting by himself, behind the curtain 

Though I may not see or hear him 
I know that I can feel his presence 
This man sitting behind the curtain 
I’m curious of what he's doing

NEWS DESK
| Transparency International

BERLIN - A regional average of 45, after many consecutive years of an average score of 44, illustrates general corruption performance stagnation across the Asia Pacific.

Despite the presence of high performers like New Zealand (87), Singapore (85), Australia (77), Hong Kong (76) and Japan (73), the Asia Pacific region hasn’t witnessed substantial progress in anti-corruption efforts or results.

Author Leonard Fong Roka - "Why should I vote for the political leaders under which this rot is happening"

LEONARD FONG ROKA

PANGUNA - I re-entered the service of the Autonomous Bougainville Government in May 2017 after a short stint in late 2014-15.

My desire was a permanent career in the Bougainville Peace Agreement and Implementation Department’s referendum directorate. But, as the bosses said, I was kicked out for non-performance.

Sam Koim - former corruption buster, now the new Commissioner-General of PNG's Internal Revenue Commission

SAM KOIM
| New Head of the Internal Revenue Commission | Edited extract

PORT MORESBY - My vision for the Internal Revenue Commission [IRC] is: “building the foundations of a robust, modern and efficient tax administration”.

Albert Einstein once said “intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them”. It is logical, not necessarily genius, to find lasting preventative measures instead of costly and repetitive firefighting solutions.

CHRIS OVERLAND

ADELAIDE - It is pretty clear that those of us who 50 years ago learned what now must be called archaic Pidgin are now hopelessly out of date.

Words like “bilong" have long since been contracted into "blo" and, so it seems, "narapela" has been contracted into "nala".

Deputy prime minister Davis Steven says NGO has been premature in its judgement of PNG's human rights and change is now very close (PNG PM Media Unit)

JOHNNY BLADES
| Radio New Zealand

AUCKLAND - Papua New Guinea's government has defended its efforts to protect human rights.

This follows a damning international NGO report into the state of human rights in PNG.

Human Rights Watch's annual summary on PNG says little was done in the past year to tackle corruption, police abuses and domestic violence.

PHIL FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - My next door neighbour and his wife are in their eighties. He’s a tough old cereal farmer and she’s a retired hospital matron. They are trying to live out their twilight years as happily as possible.

Not a week goes by, however, that they don’t come over to ask me about a concerning telephone call they’ve had or a strange email they’ve received.

Dr Paison Dakulala

NEWS DESK
| Radio New Zealand

AUCKLAND – A new appointment has been made to Papua New Guinea's embattled health department, after the former health secretary's contract expired this week.

Dr Paison Dakulala will take over on a three month contract after Pascoe Kase's contract expired on Monday and was not renewed.

A faction of warlords and fighter arrives for the peace ceremony

KELA KAPKORA SIL BOLKIN

PORT MORESBY – People using the Okuk highway that ploughs through the New Guinea highlands know only too well the frequent tribal skirmishes that have caused fear to the travelling public this past 20 years.

The fighting has erupted violently and unpredictably at Ganigle in the Kerowagi district of the Simbu Province.

NEWS DESK
| Papua New Guinea Today

BUKA - The Autonomous Bougainville Government is set to change its name to the Bougainville Constitutional Transitional Government to reflect the people’s vote for independence.

Bougainville’s post referendum minister Albert Punghau told The National newspaper that because 98% of Bougainvilleans had voted in favour of independence in last year’s referendum, the Bougainville government felt the need to change its name to reflect the overwhelming result.

MARIE-ROSE SAU

There are moments in time when I wonder
if I am ever really true to myself
That’s when I look at the skies, the clouds,
the touch of the wind, the sun kissed rays
The feel of the leaves, the sound of the birds,
tasting feelings that swirl all around
Nature is the lover’s muse, if I may say so
Offering feelings so raw and explicit
Yes, wonderful and frightening
Testing, making me falter in awe
Craving and yearning with burning desire
to see more and feel more and want more
Yet, when rain falls and thunder claps and lightning strikes,
we quiver and shy away

PHIL FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - My copy of Baka Bina’s new book, ‘Operation Kisim Bek Lombo’, arrived in the mail on Friday.

Because he is one of the most interesting writers in Papua New Guinea today, I couldn’t resist a quick skim through the book before slotting it into my reading queue.

(L-R) Greenland managing director Andy Siure, provincial administrator and patron Michael Temai, appeal fundraising chairman Mathias Kin, Greenland co-owner Josephine Siure and fundraising committee member Augustina Gary

FRANCIS NII

KUNDIAWA - In an emotional presentation on Saturday, a Kundiawa company operated by brother and sister Andy and Josephine Siure, Greenland Limited, has presented a cheque for K5,000 to the ‘Simbu for Australia Bushfire Appeal’.

Appeal patron and Simbu provincial administrator Michael Bal Temai received the cheque on behalf of the fundraising committee.

Bound for Oro - the former Australian Defence Force Mercedes Benz four-wheel-drive truck

NEWS DESK
| The Standard (Warrnambool)

WARRNAMBOOL - A Warrnambool man has purchased a four-wheel-drive to help volunteers in Papua New Guinea give residents access to fresh water.

Ian Watson, a team of the Rotary Papua New Guinea Project Group, has taken part in four volunteer missions and discovered the team's biggest challenge was moving the team and its equipment.

Philip Kai Morre - "Culture is meant for change and we are in a global village adapting to new ways of doing things"

PHILIP KAI MORRE

KUNDIAWA - As a son of a Stone Age man, and having experienced the beauty of cultural heritage, I tried to hold back in my naturalistic fallacy of retaining good cultural values, norms and a belief system in the traditional mode. But conditions did not, and do not, allow.

So I go with the current cultural, economic, political and ideological changes and embrace modern science and technology.

Governor Allan Bird - "Right now the only real check and balance is the individual"

ALLAN BIRD
| Governor, East Sepik Province

WEWAK - Our country is overrun with corruption because we do not have effective checks on power.

There is a complete lack of checks and balances in the system. In fact I would say that there aren’t any checks and balances at all.

We negotiate for an opportunity to spend money. Everyone spends public money, from the prime minister all the way to the local level government presidents, ward members and public servants.

'The Remnants of Reunion'. Photo taken late afternoon by Harry Redmond. Kiaps still happily chatting when everyone else has gone home. (L to R) Bob Hoad, Chips Mackellar, Ian Thompson, Peter Salmon, Dave Young, Dave Agg, John Blythe and Graham Watts

CHIPS MACKELLAR

In honour of those kiaps who went on their Last Patrol between the 2017 and the 2019 Reunions. May their beers be cold, and may their camaraderie continue up there in that big Patrol Post in the Sky

WARWICK, QLD - It was a joyous gathering at the Kawana Waters Hotel that day, but the years have taken their toll, for the fact is that many of us who attended our last reunion did not make it for this one.

And we have to face it, some of us won’t get there for the next one either.

Daniel Kumbon's open letter to prime minister James Marape was published in the PNG Post-Courier yesterday. Will this finally open official doors to the glory of Melanesian literature?

JUSTIN KUNDALIN

WABAG - “A country without literature and without history is not a country, it’s a collection of disparate people who happen to inhabit the same space,” says Anna Porter about her passion for Canadian literature and her prolific career as one of the country’s most influential publishers.

Imagine Christianity without the Bible, Judaism without the Torah, Muslims without the Quran, Hindu without Bhagavad-Gita, Ramayana and Veda.

JEFF LEWIS & MELANIE BURTON
| Reuters | Extract

MELBOURNE - Barrick Gold is set to elevate its troubled Papua New Guinea mine to its top-tier assets, despite landowner and government demands to cede a larger stake and deteriorating security at the joint venture with China's Zijin Mining.

With a 20-year lease renewal application in the balance, Barrick has faced backlash from PNG landowners and residents.

GIDEON ENDO

KIMBE - It all starts with individual Papua New Guineans changing our mindsets, how we see things.

Our choices must reflect our families, clans, tribes and villages - our communities, not the prime minister by himself.

An elderly aunt in Indiana (not Phil Fitzpatrick's)

PHIL FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - I’ve got an elderly aunt in Indiana, USA, who thinks Donald Trump is wonderful. She was a volunteer in his 2016 election campaign and is thinking about doing it again this year.

My aunt thinks Barack Obama was the worst president that America ever had and that the Democrats are socialists who will destroy America.

"Their endurance was awesome. Since the moment they could walk they had been trained to overcome every discomfort" (Graham Forster)

ROBERT FORSTER

NORTHUMBRIA, UK - Patrol boxes are embedded within the memory of every kiap and, indeed, anyone who went “on patrol” in pre-independence Papua New Guinea.

In difficult country they could be awkward, even brutish, burdens but nevertheless were toted, uphill and down dale for mile after endless mile by village carriers without whose help patrolling, a keystone kiap activity, could not have taken place.

GRANT WALTON & SINCLAIR DINNEN
| Devpolicy Blog

CANBERRA - As anyone who has visited Papua New Guinea in the past 20 years can attest, the private security industry is booming.

Office buildings are often only accessible by passing by rolls of sharp barbed wire, pointed fences and uniformed guards with large caps.

"PNG has not really worked to dig itself out of the hole it was in, and it is only getting worse"

NEWS DESK
| Radio New Zealand

AUCKLAND - A human rights organisation has released a damning report into the state of Papua New Guinea, where a change of prime minister has done little to tackle rampant violence and corruption.

Human Rights Watch's annual report reveals rates of violence, domestic abuse, corruption and foreign debt haven't improved over the past year, where weak enforcement and a lack of accountability fostered a culture of impunity and lawlessness.

President John Momis - a Bougainville hero, but is he pushing too hard to assert control or do the difficult times need him?

RICHARD EWART
| Pacific Beat | Australian Broadcasting Corporation

MELBOURNE - Three proposed amendments to the Bougainville constitution are set to be tabled in the provincial parliament, and one in particular is causing consternation in many quarters.

That change would allow the current president, John Momis, to run for an unprecedented third term at the election later this year.

The deceit began with 19th century 'blackbirding'  of slave labour to work in Australia - and it continues to this day in the form of denying climate change impacts on the Pacific

CHRISTOPHER KNAUS
| Guardian Australia | Extract

CANBERRA - The Australian government is fighting to keep secret draft versions of its strategy for helping the Pacific deal with climate change, prompting concerns it may be hiding changes that weakened the final report.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade released its climate change action strategy in November, detailing how the foreign aid program would be used to help developing nations – particularly those in the Pacific – deal with global heating.

Villagers near the town of Bereina in Central Province

ZENIT
| Catholic Leader

BEREINA - When the villagers of impoverished Bereina need to quell their famine, they reach for the noxious betel nut.

In the town of Bereina, in the Central Province of Papua New Guinea, the addictive seed, which is prohibited in Australia, is often the only food source for the local villagers.

Tess Newton Cain

TESS NEWTON CAIN
| Devpolicy Blog

BRISBANE - As we enter not only a new year but a new decade, there is much to anticipate in the Pacific islands region.

Elections and domestic politics

A number of countries in the region will have elections during 2020: Kiribati, Niue, Palau and Vanuatu.

The lingering discontent in Kiribati surrounding last year’s switch in diplomatic relations from Taiwan to China may have an adverse impact on the incumbent government.

PHIL FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - Papua New Guinea has a myriad of problems. Most of them are self-inflicted, caused through either ignorance or greed.

Politicians have played a large part in creating this parlous state. So too have the so-called elite, especially those involved in business.

David Noifa - made the rest of the world XIII in rugby league

NEWS DESK
| Radio New Zealand

AUCKLAND - Papua New Guinea's rugby league fraternity is mourning the death of former PNG Kumul legend, David Noifa.

Noifa died last weekend at his Warala village in Jiwaka province, after a short illness. He was 56 years old.

James Marape and Australian high commissioner Bruce Davis - PNG's problems are bound to be Australia's problems too

JONATHAN BARRETT & CHARLOTTE GREENFIELD
| Reuters

SYDNEY & WELLINGTON - Papua New Guinea’s annual debt repayments to China are forecast to increase 25% by 2023, new budget figures show, at the same time as the Pacific nation falls to its largest ever deficit.

The resource-rich country, which is at the centre of a diplomatic tussle between China and the United States, has blamed extravagant spending by the previous administration for its souring finances, which will require the government to borrow even more to pay the bills.

'Simbu for Australia' bushfire appeal rally in Kundiawa last week led by author Francis Nii in his wheelchair

KATE LYONS
| Guardian Australia | Extracts

SYDNEY - When Scott Morrison thanked governments of the world for their assistance with Australia’s bushfire crisis, he particularly singled out “the loving response from our Pacific family”.

Across the Pacific region – a collection of developing and least developed nations that are themselves almost uniquely at risk from climate-induced catastrophes – the response to the Australian bushfires has been immediate and generous, but it also reveals something of the problematic fraternity that Australia has with the rest of the region.

AZRIL ANNUAR
| Malay Mail

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian companies from Sarawak are allegedly trespassing while carrying out logging activities in Papua New Guinea and contributing towards deforestation in the island nation, says Sarawak Report.

The online investigative portal accused Sibu-based Rimbunan Hijau Group (RHG) and WTK Group as well as Amanab 56 Timber Investments Limited as among those stripping the resources of PNG.

Dr Albert Schram when vice chancellor of the PNG University of Technology

ALBERT SCHRAM
| Extract

VERONA, ITALY - Despite having lived in four different developing countries outside Europe for more than 12 years, when I became president (vice-chancellor) of the Papua New Guinea University of Technology I realised I faced many challenges in trying to understand how and why people there were behaving in specific manners.

It turned out to be almost impossible to eradicate traditional concepts of leadership which revolve around status, rather than working together towards concrete objectives and a vision.

Justin Kundalin

JUSTIN KUNDALIN

WABAG - The deafening silence from prime minister James Marape about the writers’ petition on the importance of Papua New Guinea literature is challenging but writers must not give up.

A country that neglects to promote the power of literature is destined to become pregnant with more illiterates.

PHILIP CITOWICKI
| Foreign Policy | Extracts

Link here to read the complete article

WASHINGTON DC - A decade ago, then-US president Barack Obama billed himself as the “first Pacific president” and announced, several years later, a foreign-policy “pivot to Asia.”

But the pivot proved largely illusory, and the region only grows more complex. The growing challenges faced by Pacific island countries requires significant reassessment as the region becomes one of the tensest political battlegrounds in the world.