KEITH JACKSON

BRISBANE ~ My stay in hospital has been longer and harder than I thought likely and I’ve found it impossible to keep the blog going.

There have also been technical issues frustrating my internet access, so for the first time in 15 years we’ve had a big gap in communications.

I’m now recovering and expect the blog to be back to full blast soon.

Hang in there.

Image source: https://insidestory.org.au/shakespeare-goes-viral/ Text source: https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/diction

MICHAEL DOM

Noun: diction

The choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing.
"Wordsworth campaigned against exaggerated poetic diction"

The style of enunciation in speaking or singing.
"She began imitating his careful diction"

PORT MORESBY - It could be argued that ‘diction’ is what poets are all about, but we all know that that’s too simplistic a notion and we don’t get off the hook so easily with trying to know what poetry is all about.

However, diction is undoubtedly an important element of a poem, or for prose writing and, in fact, for language use in general.

John Momis today - guided Bougainville through some stormy seas to the threshold of independence

John Momis as a young leader, 1970 - mature and already wise 

NEWS DESK
| Radio New Zealand

AUCKLAND - In his last speech in the Bougainville parliament last Thursday, president John Momis spoke passionately about a political career that began nearly 50 years ago.

He spoke of how it began in the early seventies when he was anointed by chiefs in Kieta in a cultural ritual and sent on a mission to help the people determine their own future.

PETER KINJAP

PORT MORESBY – A campaign to plant more trees in Port Moresby and Papua New Guinea has been initiated by Travel4Green (T4G) PNG, a not-for-profit project in partnership with Catholic Bishops Conference.

The campaign has adopted the ‘Keep It Clean. Go Green’ under Pope Francis’s Laudato Si statement and the PNG Conservation and Environment Protection Authority’s recently launched ‘10-million trees in 10 years’ target.

RAYMOND SIGIMET

Ssssssh! 
Silence
Listen 

Can you hear the soil?  
Can you hear the trees? 
Can you hear the leaves?

The falling leaves
The sprouting shoots 
The condensing mist

A billboard advertising Justin Parker's company, Golden Valley (Australian Financial Review)

ANGUS GRIGG
| National Affairs Correspondent | The Australian Financial Review

SYDNEY - The lockdown has been good to gold. Since early February it has rallied more than 10% as investors predictably sought shelter in the precious metal during these uncertain economic times.

But some of that sheen has come off this rally in recent days after The Australian Financial Review revealed industry standards around ethical sourcing, or ‘conflict gold’, were hollow at best.

MAIKEL DOM

English translation follows the Tok Pisin original

Eh, mi seksek long meri ia
Lek, han na lewa guria
Taim maus blong em singautim mi
Taim em lukluk long ai blong mi
Bun bilong mi tanim wara

Aiyo mama, aiyo lewa 
Meri em naispla samting ia 
Tasol nogut em less long mi
             Eh, mi seksek!

WARDLEY BARRY

he didn't plan to leave, he never wanted to
he wanted to stay, to build, to see things through
it started off with the doors slamming
then followed the swearing and the shaming

a punch to the head and kick to the balls
whenever his sister or father calls
once she kicked his mother out of the house
and said she has the right to as the spouse

The Yucatan meteor strike left a crater 150km wide and caused climate disruption that made extinct 75% of Earth's plant and animal species including any dinosaur that could not fly

CHRIS OVERLAND

ADELAIDE - In the very midst of the Dark Ages of Europe, the coming of the year 1000 was viewed with fear, trepidation and alarm.

This was the year many theologians of that era believed would see the end of all things and the second coming of Jesus as foretold in the Bible.

There was a palpable sense of expectation throughout Christendom which grew steadily as the year 999 CE progressed, reaching a crescendo on New Year’s Eve.

Expatriate primary school teacher , 1960s (PNGAA)

ED BRUMBY

MELBOURNE – Keith Jackson’s recent account of the displeased response to his reforms, including increased staff accountability, at the International Training Institute reignited my own reflections on such matters during my time in the Papua New Guinea teaching service in the 1960s.

As a good public service should, the PNG education department had a range of monitoring and accountability mechanisms with which we chalkies had to comply.

BAKA BINA

PORT MOREBY - IF you come home in the afternoon and if you see no smoke coming from the roof of the house, you must feel sorry for your stomach.

As a little boy at Kotiyufa Village, Iufi-Iufa, that was my father’s rant every time I failed to do my household duties.

Alluvial gold miners,  Dantanai,  Kieta District. A Human Rights Watch investigation found illegal artisanal gold miners around Porgera routinely use mercury,  a poison which has had significant health impacts on both miners and their families

SAM JAY KAUPA

The unlawful extraction and export of gold is a scandal in both Papua New Guinea and Australia. Among the major beneficiaries, it seems from a recent investigation by the Australian Financial Review, even the respectable institution, the Perth Mint. Sam Jay Kaupa is an experienced mining engineer and manager with extensive domestic and international experience - KJ

PORT MORESBY - There is a question people need to ask. Why can’t the central bank of Papua New Guinea buy gold to curb smuggling and build reserves to stabilise the plummeting kina?

The mining sector accounts for about 9% of GDP and the overall resources sector contributes about 26% of GDP. This will continue to rise with the current demand for cobalt, a by-product of the precipitate from Ramu Nickel.

Chert sago choppers

PHIL FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - I pick up quite a bit of money off the ground as I wander around the place. Mostly it’s coins but occasionally notes.

Sometimes other things, like jewellery and useful nuts and bolts. You name it, I find it.

Keeping my eye on the ground is a habit I developed after going to work for the South Australian Museum when I returned from Papua New Guinea.

Prof Pal Ahluwalia addresses staff and students at University of South Pacific

ALBERT SCHRAM
| Edited extract

VERONA - The executive committee of the University of the South Pacific council has decided to suspend the vice-chancellor for alleged 'misconduct and breach of rules and procedures'.

This action came after reports emerged about gross mismanagement and breaches of the rules of the university under the former administration and despite all evidence pointing in the opposite direction.

I had two screws surgically inserted in my foot during a previous hospitalisation. Fortunately they did not much hamper my typing

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – I have left  Noosa’s verdant fields and sparkling shores and driven south along the desolation of the Bruce Highway for a spell in Brisbane, a city I enjoy but rarely get to visit these days.

Brucebane (why not?) is just two hours down the bitumen from Noosa but the reason I’ve become an infrequent visitor is that my back’s not been backward in holding me back.

Which is why Brucebane and Wesley Hospital loom.

RAYMOND SIGIMET

I

The dark clouds and rain from the sea came down heavily during the night. The wind lifted the curtains a few times.

A few papers were blown off their pile and landed on the varnished floorboards.

A series of lightning flashes and thunder razed overhead for some time and then moved across the sprawling city suburbs.

GIDEON KINDIWA

With hope, I chose you
With respect, I honour you
With trust, I held on to you

Speak for me, I whispered
Cry for me, I cried
Bleed for me, I’m wounded

CHRIS OVERLAND

ADELAIDE - The study of history is not likely to inspire belief in the inherent virtues of humanity.

There are so many conspicuous examples of our species’ propensity for violence, venality and depravity that it sometimes takes a certain resolve to stare the facts directly in the face and recognise them for what they tell us about the human condition at a given point in time.

Sean Dorney on the job. His early independence history reveals a significant turning point in PNG's story as a nation

CHRIS BANGA

Papua New Guinea: People, politics and history since 1975 by Sean Dorney, 335 pp. ABC Books, 2000. ISBN-10: 0733309453. Available from Amazon here for $US31.70

PORT MORESBY – In this book, first published in 1990, the noted journalist Sean Dorney gave us a glance of Papua New Guinea, its people, politics and history over its first 15 years after independence.

Dorney lived and worked in PNG for 17 years as the correspondent of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation having previously been assigned there in the early 1970s to work with the embryonic National Broadcasting Commission.

STEPHANIE ALOIS

‘Twas our forefathers’ definition of fame
A cultural aspect that magnified their name
‘Twas a sport in the primitive days
A method for acquiring land rights
Still, a technique that aroused mournful cries
A taint of the nightmare that kept villagers on guard

‘Twas a custom infused into our grandfathers
Demanding submission to be a tradition of our grandmothers
Whenever the inhumane figure awakened
‘Twas a weapon that guaranteed security
Still, the means that troubled their identity
An inescapable infection that existed in the community

Establishing a sustainable literature in Papua New Guinea has always been a struggle and it's a fight not yet won. Phil's book, 'Fighting for a Voice', tells the story

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY – Someday soon perhaps, Papua New Guinean prime minister James Marape will put away his golf clubs and meet with a delegation of writers.

These writers, twice stood up by Mr Marape already, are hoping to present him with a petition calling for the PNG government to support a national literature that deserves recognition and requires support.

Caroline Evari with students from Caritas Elementary school in Port Moresby

CAROLINE EVARI

PORT MORESBY - It is almost a year now since I started the campaign to promote writing and publishing in Papua New Guinea - also advocating the need to write our own stories as Papua New Guineans.

As I reflect on this journey so far, my memory settles particularly on the preparations leading to a trip I took to Oro Province in late October last year.

Scott Waide - "Diplomacy in the home and outside of it was a skill every man had to learn"

SCOTT WAIDE
| My Land, My Country

LAE - Three years ago, I asked my dad what the role of women was in his culture and how women were treated. This was when another incident of violence came to the fore.

I needed to understand how his culture dealt with women and their place in society. 

My dad is a man of huge contrasts; he is an immaculately patient being with a frighteningly explosive temper.

District Officer Ross Henderson in 1968

BILL BROWN MBE

THE CHRONICLE CONTINUES - Tuesday 7 May 1968. District Officer Ross Henderson and I were dumbstruck at the tone of the on-site meeting at Panguna that morning.

Conzinc Rio Tinto Area Manager Colin Bishop was unusually forceful with his demands.

He wanted more assistance in the coming months when the CRA teams - geologists, engineers, planners and surveyors – would start tramping through the villages and gardens of central Bougainville.

Chris Overland - "Entrenched ideas about the world die very hard"

CHRIS OVERLAND

ADELAIDE - Racism originates from one of the most deep seated aspects of all human cultures, which is an almost instinctive ‘fear of the other’.

I have written previously (see my comment on this article) about this phenomenon and why it made sense in the distant past and, in relation to Papua New Guinea, the not so recent past.

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - Many businesses all over the world have been caught out by Covid-19 through the disruption of supply lines. Goods are not coming into countries because of the closure of borders.

Australia has been particularly affected because home-grown manufacturing has declined significantly and just about everything except agricultural products come from overseas, and China in particular.

Foo Fighter photographs are very rare. Two are seen here following RAF Lysander aircraft during World War II in Europe. There were reports from both sides of sighting these mysterious orbs

RAYMOND SIGIMET

DAGUA – You may know the Tok Pisin term, ‘lait toktok’. Well, if you don’t, it’s used in Madang to describe a phenomenon similar to the ‘foo fighters’ aerial phenomenon observed in Europe and the Pacific during the World War II.

‘Lait toktok’ describes moving lights over the water; luminous objects or lights dancing over the horizon and appearing to move back and forth or remain stationary while emitting their strange glow.

Jelta Wong - Believes a foreign ICAC commissioner will guarantee a fair and just system

NEWS DESK
| Radio New Zealand

PORT MORESBY - Papua New Guinea government health minister Jelta Wong says a foreigner should head the country's new independent anti-corruption agency.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption Bill passed its second reading in parliament last week.

Alphonsa and Judy prepare to sew masks at Mercy Works in Goroka

MERCY WORKS
| Catholic Outlook

PARRAMATTA, NSW - The people of Papua New Guinea have been hit hard by their government’s declaration of a state of emergency to combat the spread of Covid-19.

Thankfully these measures appear to be working with the number of reported cases remaining low.

The impact, however, on the lives of poorer inhabitants has been devastating.

Black Lives Matter protest in front of the White House in Washington DC

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - The United States of America was the largest and most successful economic nation in the world by the time World War II began.

There is compelling evidence to suggest that this success was built on the back of slavery.

During the middle of the 1800s, cotton became the world’s largest commodity. The cheapest and best cotton came from the southern United States.

Professor Glenn Summerhayes and colleagues at the 4,500 year-old 'Joes Garden' archaeological site in the Ivane Valley

NEWS DESK
| Heritage Daily | Edited

LUTON, UK - New research on what ancient Papuan New Guineans ate has ended decades of speculation on the tools use and staple foods in highlands areas several thousand years ago.

Findings from the ‘Joe’s Garden’ site in the Ivane Valley of the Owen Stanley Range end academic conjecture about what an unearthed mortar and other tools were used for.

GIDEON KINDIWA

It’s still and dark
No sign of light
Nor sound
Except my heartbeat
And breathing

Weight on my shoulders
Rock pressin’ me down
Twice the force of gravity
Pullin’ my heels
Draggin’ my steps

Kavieng from the air - a beautiful place I'd never seen before until my coronavirus-affected travels

DANIEL KUMBON

PORT MORESBY – Last Tuesday the Papua New Guinea parliament extended the coronavirus state of emergency for another two weeks to provide time to pass a new piece of legislation – the Public Health Emergency Bill - that will control how people live in that condition known as the ‘new normal’.

Many people felt the extension was unnecessary, especially when all eight people officially tested positive to Covid-19 have recovered and no new cases detected.

Sue & Paul Oates with Suvista Opal - second prize winning calf at the Boonah Show

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

Phascogales and Other Tales: A Queensland Tree Change by Paul Oates, Independently Published, 2020, ISBN: 9798651038121, 237 pages with 296 colour photographs, available from Amazon.com, paperback US$29.07, eBook US$3.00

TUMBY BAY - One of the core functions that evolved as part of the PNG Attitude oeuvre, if we’re allowed to use such terminology, is the encouragement of writers, both old and new.

This has largely been interpreted as meaning Papua New Guinean writers, as through such endeavours as the Crocodile Prize.

ISO YAWI

LAE - Three o’clock in the morning. The air was fresh; the humidity dense.

The barking dogs could be heard clearly across the stillness. The place was dark and the morning stars glimmered.

Such an hour of the day in the neighbourhood. Sweet sleep for some, snoring into a new day for others. And, for a few nocturnals, a continuing party.

A mural of the famous songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen, one of the original sponsors of the Montreal Prize, looks down on Montreal city (Graham Hughes)

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA - Fourteen Papua New Guinean writers have submitted entries to the Montreal (Canada) International Prize for Poetry, the first time that PNG has been represented in one of the world’s major poetry contests.

The poets - six women and eight men - are Caroline Evari, Michael Dom, Wardley Barry, Bessielah David, Simon Davidson, Jordan Dean, Jimmy Drekore, Raymond Sigimet, Stephanie Alois, Dominica Are, Joseph Tambure, Tattiana Abola, Eric Molong and Melanie Lavaki.

DURRANT PATE
| Jamaica Observer

KINGSTON, JAMAICA - Speculation that mobile phone operator Digicel is considering selling the Papua New Guinea business considered the jewel in the financially troubled telecoms empire has sparked concern within PNG over Beijing's growing influence.

The Digicel conglomerate surprised many of its users in PNG by filing bankruptcy proceedings in May in Bermuda and the United States, where it owes billions of dollars to bond holders who invested in the company some years ago.

PETER KRANZ

MORRISET - I just got back Mum's old watch after having it repaired. It's a 50 year old Roamer Swiss which she found in a second hand shop in the 1970s.

She liked it because she could tell the time despite her poor eyesight.

The inscription on the back reads ‘M D McAuley, 6th Light Horse, AIF, 1971’.

An author's small stash of gold

MICHAEL DOM

"It is a home-grown literature that will amplify the creativity, culture and spirit of Papua New Guineans. But, lacking the required support, literature has not emerged in PNG as an influence capable of playing its vital role in education, in nation building or in people’s lives" - Keith Jackson AM, 'The chasm in PNG's cultural integrity'

PORT MORESBY - Here's the thing. If we want Papua New Guinean literature to have its own life we must do more than create it, we must interact with it, nurture it in our thoughts and conversations, and appraise it to the realities and imaginations of our society.

That means reading and discussing, sharing and critiquing, in mutual respect, the value and utility of our works, with our peers and to our readers.

As new communications minister Gareth Evans wanted to give the ABC a shake-up. That never happened in history without a major brawl

KEITH JACKSON

SYDNEY 1988 – After my first go at the ABC in 1966-69, I spent the best part of four years in the organisation the second time around between 1985 and 1988.

They were years full of incident, drama, stress, occasional misadventure and gritty management. I rarely had so much joy in a job and never so much fear.

Councillor Muka winces as turns away from the heat of burning weapons (Ian Douglas)

ROBERT FORSTER

NORTHUMBRIA - Kunimeipa used to be home to Guari Patrol Post. In 1975 it was the most isolated government station in the Goilala.

But it has since been abandoned, and its brick buildings either gape windowless or have disintegrated into rubble.

When I discussed the reasons for, and the consequences of, this administrative desertion in a magazine, to my surprise the loudest response was criticism of my spelling of the word ‘Kunimeipa’.

SCOTT WAIDE
| My Land, My Country

LAE - We have to get this right if we are to thrive in this country.

The quality of transport infrastructure – especially roads and bridges – determines the price of food.

Apart from consumption, this single factor influences the rate of supply and demand to a large extent.

ABC chairman Ken Myer, managing director Geoffrey Whitehead and deputy chair Wendy McCarthy, 1985

KEITH JACKSON

SYDNEY 1987 – Australia’s centre of government and ‘bush capital’, Canberra, looms large in the life of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, both because 90% of the its money comes from there and because the government of the day appoints the ABC chairman and board.

Furthermore, federal politicians tend to have a proprietary view of the ABC. And, to give this an edge, right wing politicians have a belief, neatly expressed by my onetime business associate and Liberal Party heavyweight Grahame Morris, that the ABC is a manifestation of “my enemy talking to my friends”.

GIDEON KINDIWA

You’re chasin’ the wind
Your feet’s dancin’ thing
The ground is hot coal
Jus’ burnin’ your soul
You couldn’t stand firm
With this world’s turn

You’ve had enough
But you can’t rebuff
You just want more
Your heart’s so sore
You couldn’t look back
And say, ‘What the heck?

‘I’ve got all I need
‘I don’t need to feed
‘It’s nothin’ but greed
‘That’s mak’n me bleed’
But instead you chase
Your greed into space

STEPHANIE ALOIS

             She fell for the sparkle in his eyes
                          His final smile each time he leaves
                              Blinded her vision, detained her speech
                                     Oh, such a feeling!
                                       She longed for more
                                            But he just stood
                                               The love left unsaid

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - My wife, Sue, and I own our home and we have a retirement income that is sufficient for our daily and longer term needs.

Without the need to work we are, in theory at least, able to enjoy the freedom to do pretty much as we please.

But are we really free?

Professor Ted Wolfers

President John Momis

NEWS DESK
| Radio New Zealand

AUCKLAND – Australian academic Professor Ted Wolfers says Bougainville's John Momis will be remembered for his ability to draw people together.

In February the Bougainville parliament voted down an attempt to change the Constitution to allow a president to contest a third term.

David Hill - an exhilarating and exhausting man to be around. He left the ABC, where he was Chairman then CEO from 1986-95, much better than when he found it

KEITH JACKSON

SYDNEY 1986 – In mid-August 1986, I had just got back to my desk after what I considered a well-earned week’s break in Bali when I was called into managing director Geoffrey Whitehead’s office, on the twelfth floor of Broadcast House overlooking Hyde Park.

Geoffrey had just returned from Canberra with new ABC chairman David Hill, in his first week in the job, and Geoffrey was looking worried.

WILLIAM W ELLIS
| Inter Press Service | Edited

TORONTO, CANADA - By now, the impact of the coronavirus on our daily lives has been well-documented, especially in advanced economies.

Anxiety about the future continues to grow. But often neglected in news coverage is the position of Pacific Island states.

NEWS DESK
| Transparency International

BERLIN - The future is always uncertain, but rarely in our lifetimes has it felt more so.

As many countries begin to cautiously relax limits on public life put in place to control the spread of the coronavirus, thoughts turn to what kind of world those emerging from lockdown are stepping into, and what comes next.