The historic first meeting between U-Vistract's Noah Musingku and Bougainville's President Toroama (Anthony Kaybing)
KEITH JACKSON
NOOSA – The Bougainville government continues to make headway in unifying his people as it prepares for consultations with the Papua New Government on independence for the autonomous province.
And on Friday it was with unity in mind that Bougainville president Ishmael Toroama met with U-Vistract leader Noah Musingku.
Continue reading "Toroama reaches out to ‘King’ Noah" »
A small group of government officers approach Mt Lamington after the 1951 eruption (Fred Kleckham - PNGAA)
FRED KLECKHAM & MARJORIE KLECKHAM
| Library of the PNG Association of Australia
Fred Kleckham - The last surviving expat remembers
BRISBANE - 21 January 2021 commemorates the 70th anniversary of the eruption of Mount Lamington, near Popondetta in Papua New Guinea’s Northern Province.
Mt Lamington was probably the most destructive volcano to human life in modern history, taking the lives of an estimated 4,000 people.
Continue reading "Calamity of the mountain in the mist" »
DAVID JAMES
| Business Advantage PNG | Extracts
PORT MORESBY - A World Bank report on the economic and employment impact of Covid-19 on Pacific island countries has shown that harm to Papua New Guinea’s economy, labour market and education has been extensive.
The report, Pacific Island Countries in the era of Covid-19: Macroeconomic impacts and job prospects, notes that PNG has been hit hard by the pandemic, with GDP growth dropping to minus 3.3% in 2020.
Continue reading "Covid creating ‘new PNG poor’: World Bank" »
At the time heavily forested. Mt Lamington was not believed to be a volcano until shortly before it exploded
SCOTT WAIDE
| My Land, My Country
POPONDETTA - It’s early morning at Hohorita village, a few kilometers outside Popondetta town.
Organisers of the 70th anniversary commemoration of the Mt Lamington eruption on 21 January 1951 are putting the final touches to preparations as they wait for the guests to arrive.
Continue reading "Mt Lamington: Remembering the 4,000" »
The Global Times depicts Australia as a United States puppet in its conflict with China
PERCY ALLAN
| Pearls and Irritations
SYDNEY - Post Covid, it will be hard for Australia to grow quickly without China’s market, capital, people exchange and know-how. Finding a détente is essential.
However, Australia targeted China before it targeted us. After signing a free trade and investment agreement with China in 2015, we:
Continue reading "Australia, not China, initiated trade conflict" »
You may buy something that looks like real medicine on the street. It might look genuine but there is no way you can really know
BEE DURESI
| Duresi's Odyssey
AUCKLAND - There’s no other ways to put it but bluntly – buying medicines off the street can kill you.
Here are important reasons why people should not buy medicines off the street, or from unlicensed shops.
The source of the medicine is unknown. It’s anyone’s guess where the medicines were obtained and it’s anyone’s guess how they were manufactured.
Continue reading "Buying medicine off the street can kill you" »
Under the watchful eye of Huawei, PNG DataCo lays the Kumul submarine cable off Vanimo
BERNARD YEGIORA
| The Yegiora Files | Edited
MADANG - Technology is increasingly becoming an important part of human life and most of what we do today is influenced by our use of technology.
As a developing country, Papua New Guinea is seeing technological changes unfold with the help of China.
Continue reading "Huawei’s vital role in digital rise" »
Manki masta Kure Whan at Balimo, 1972
PHILIP FITZPATRICK
TUMBY BAY - When writing about their experiences in Papua New Guinea, many old kiaps mention the special relationship they enjoyed with members of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary.
Very often they highlight the sense of teamwork enjoyed with the policemen under their command – those wise old sergeant majors and sergeants get special praise.
Continue reading "The indispensable manki masta" »
Amanda Gorman - "I want my words to be a point of unity...."
KEITH JACKSON
NOOSA – Papua New Guinea is not only a nation of mountains and minerals, it's a place of music and poetry.
Those of PNG’s many poets, young and old, who got to see young American poet Amanda Gorman, 22, perform yesterday would have been astonished.
Continue reading "Young poet astounds at US inauguration" »
Kerenga Kua - spoke about an embarrassing experience with a cup of tea during his high school days
DUNCAN GABI
LAE - Kerenga Kua, Papua New Guinea’s petroleum and energy minister, has occupied senior political positions since he was first elected as the member for Sinasina-Yongamugl in Simbu Province in 2012.
My story, though, is about his student days at Aiyura National High School as told by the man himself in 2014.
Continue reading "Kerenga Kua & lip ti no swit" »
Lae back in Henry's youth - a safe and pleasant town, unlike today
HENRY MOKONO
Graun Blong Mi (My Land)
PORT MORESBY - I am originally a highlander from Simbu who, like many others from the New Guinea Islands, Sepik, Papua and a few from the upper highlands provinces, migrated to Lae back then and call Lae home. I grew up in Lae from the 1970s to 1990s.
My greatest memories in life come from growing up in Lae City. Later in life I called myself ‘Simbu blo Morobe’, because Lae will always be closer to my heart.
Continue reading "Mi tu Kumul blong Morobe" »
President Toroama speaking at the first Bougainville cabinet meeting held in a rural area
ANTHONY KAYBING
| Office of the ABG President
TONSU – In a first-time initiative yesterday, the Bougainville Executive Council convened for the first time outside the capital, Buka.
The full cabinet met in the Tonsu constituency on Petatz Island as part of president Ishmael Toroama’s policy of bringing governance structures to the people.
Continue reading "Toroama takes government to the people" »
BERLDON TIMAH
Graun Blong Mi - My Land | Edited
LAE – Many years ago, I was working as a cleaner at a power plant at Ok Tedi mine in Papua New Guinea’s Western Province when I saw an advertisement for PNG Defence Force recruitment.
I’d wanted to join the Army since childhood, so I submitted a form and was called for an entry test at Murray Barracks in Port Moresby. I would need travel there by sea.
Continue reading "How a janitor helped me become a soldier" »
MICHAEL DOM
| The National Weekender | Edited
PORT MORESBY - Engan author Daniel Kumbon launched Victory Song of Pingeta’s Daughter, a 400-page book which attempts to trace the history of the Wabag district and Enga, without fanfare.
It is a culturally valuable and epic work and it is unlikely the author will ever make a toea from it. But that’s normal in Papua New Guinea.
Continue reading "Essay competition: 10 days to go" »
BARBARA ANGORO
| Duresi's Odyssey | Edited
AUCKLAND - We all know that Papua New Guinea, with its diverse environment, is prone to disasters, both natural and manmade.
At times of disaster, we as a nation have joined forces to help as best as we can – many times through donations of whatever we can spare.
Continue reading "Donating medicines? What you should know" »
James Marape
JAMES MARAPE MP
| Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea
PORT MORESBY – In the future the world will look for these five products: food (organic food from the land and fresh marine and river food); clean water; fresh air; new plant based medicines; and cleaner and cheaper energy.
These are everyday needs that everybody needs. And we have them all in total abundance here in Papua New Guinea.
Continue reading "My focus: meeting the demands of the future" »
HERCULES PALME JIM
| My Land, My Country
PORT MORESBY - So much has been said on the quality of education in the country.
According to a recent news article only 9,000 Grade 12 students out of 27,000 were selected to attend tertiary institutions in the country (The National, 23 December 2020).
Continue reading "The time bomb of poor quality education" »
Bryan Kramer
BRYAN KRAMER MP
| The Kramer Report
PORT MORESBY -The Allegiance Party headquarters, located in downtown Port Moresby, will open on 16 February 2021.
It is the first of four regional officers the party, established three years ago, will open in 2021.
Continue reading "Kramer’s Allegiance Party shoots for 2022" »
David Manning (centre) took personal control of the investigation into the huge misappropriation
KEITH JACKSON
NOOSA – Papua New Guinea’s police commissioner David Manning has disclosed that a woman has been arrested after the discovery of a K268 million theft in Western Province.
The defendant, Edna Oai, 45, was flown to Port Moresby from Daru last Monday and formally charged with 15 counts of false pretence, conspiracy and misappropriation.
Continue reading "Woman charged over huge Daru heist" »
1997 was a dangerous year in PNG, but it ended more positively with Sir Mekere Morauta at the helm
SCOTT WAIDE
| My Land, My Country
LAE - In the first quarter of 1997, word came out that the government of Sir Julius Chan was in talks with a British security contractor, Tim Spicer, to bring in South African mercenaries to end the Bougainville civil war that had been running for eight years.
The protracted conflict had seen the PNG Defence Force (PNGDF) withdraw from Bougainville, depleted, demoralised and badly in need of rebuilding.
Continue reading "1997 – That turbulent and defining year" »
DUNCAN GABI
| Aunamelo Blog | Edited
MADANG – When dating, a couple may not have expectations of marriage but, when courting, there is an intention to marry.
Sir Ignatius Kilage’s book, My Mother Calls Me Yaltep, paints vivid pictures of how courting was done in the past.
Continue reading "Courtship past & present: we lost something" »
The Korogu haus tambaran
DUNCAN GABI
| My Land, My Country | Edited
MADANG - On Wednesday 16 December, 2020, the Save the Sepik team of volunteers departed Wewak to begin a one-week patrol to the upper Sepik river to talk to the people about Frieda mine.
We arrived at Pagwi waterfront at about 3pm and from there took a 20 meter dugout motor canoe and headed down river towards Korogu, a village built on the banks of the Sepik.
Continue reading "The day the crocodile god walked" »
ROBERT FORSTER
Death of a Coast Watcher by Anthony English, Monsoon Books, Burrough on the Hill, UK, 2020, paperback. ISBN 9781912049707. Video trailer here. Available from the publisher here.
NORTHUMBRIA, UK - One of the books in my slim pre-1975 Papua New Guinean library is Bilong Boi, written by Keith Pickard.
It was published in 1969, concentrates on miscegenation - sexual activity between humans with different skin colours - and in literary terms is a featherweight.
Continue reading "Tough issues explored with pinpoint accuracy" »
NEWS DESK
| Abt Associates
ROCKVILLE, USA - Gavi, the global vaccine alliance, has awarded Abt Associates a contract to help roll out Covid-19 vaccines in up to 24 countries including Papua New Guinea.
The contract is part of a global strategy to reduce Covid-19 transmission and loss of life and prevent a protracted global health and humanitarian crisis.
Continue reading "Abt to deploy Covid vaccine in PNG" »
CHRIS OVERLAND
ADELAIDE - Michael Dom’s excellent essay, Tok Pisin, Tok Motu na Tok Ples, will hopefully be widely read in Papua New Guinea.
I do not feel qualified to address some of the specifics in the essay but would like to offer some general observations about the development of languages over the course of human history.
Continue reading "Why Tok Ples is probably doomed" »
MICHAEL DOM
“The FODE (Flexible Open Distance Education) students will study the same contents and they will sit for the same exams. So no one should be left behind. All students should be educated equally” - Education Minister Jimmy Uguro, Fee free option for dropouts, The National, 12 January 2021
“Dropout(s), noun: a person who has abandoned a course of study or who has rejected conventional society to pursue an alternative lifestyle, e.g. "a college dropout" (Oxford Languages)
LAE – Some people like to use the synonym ‘hippy’ or ‘free spirit’ instead of ‘dropout’ or, more disapprovingly, ‘rebel’ or ‘misfit’. And, with even less appreciation, ’loafer’, ‘deadbeat’, ‘bum’ or ‘bad boy’ (na ‘bad girl’ tu o?).
Continue reading "Minister, I must say there are no dropouts" »
Sir Mekere Morauta - brought Papua New Guinea back from the brink of economic disaster
MATTHEW MORRIS
| DevPolicy Blog
CANBERRA - Following independence, the Papua New Guinea economy fared relatively well. From 1980 to 1994 it grew at an average of 4% a year.
It was a bumpy ride though, with peaks and troughs in growth, notably the closure of the Panguna mine in 1989 and the start of the Kutubu oil project in 1992.
Continue reading "Morauta’s masterclass in economic reform" »
Biomed chairman Dr Bomai Kerenga. The company has been mysteriously silent since receiving a K10.2 million from the Marape government to find a cure for Covid-19
HERVEY FORSYTHE
WAIGANI - Many residents of Port Moresby’s settlements believe Covid-19 is a hoax used by opportunistic government officials to embezzle public funds.
The PNG National Research Institute (NRI) surveyed perceptions of residents of 10 settlements and found more than three-quarters of respondents thought the pandemic was dubious and an excuse for corruption.
Continue reading "Settlement dwellers smell Covid corruption" »
PHILIP FITZPATRICK
TUMBY BAY – In his essay, Tok Pisin, Tok Motu na Tok Ples, Michael Dom starts with the question, “If Tok Pisin is the language expression of our lifestyle and our intermingled cultures” then what does this language say about us as a people?”
Later in the essay, he writes: "We are educating the native languages out of our societies and along with them entire visualisations and expressions of the human experience.
Continue reading "The importance of language in culture" »
CHRIS OVERLAND
ADELAIDE - I find it curious that culture and its impact on how a nation is governed or how it impacts upon the economy or life generally is an apparently taboo subject.
It seems to be too delicate a topic to discuss even for our routinely indelicate political class.
Continue reading "The omnipresence (& denial) of culture" »
MICHAEL DOM
| Full references at end of essay
LAE - If Tok Pisin is the language expression of our lifestyle and our intermingled cultures” (1) then what does this language say about us as a people?
As first-language English-speaking Papua Niuginians, my siblings and I were introduced to Tok Pisin during our late primary and secondary school years.
Continue reading "Tok Pisin, Tok Motu na Tok Ples" »
AMIT JAIN
| My Land, My Country
SINGAPORE - French oil major Total is at the final stages of settling the terms for Papua New Guinea’s second major natural gas development, the proposed $13 billion (K45 billion) Papua liquefied natural gas project that will double the country’s gas export capacity.
Days before its executives were to arrive in the capital Port Moresby to seal the deal, prime minister James Marape’s government was shaken by a political crisis.
Continue reading "Your resources: a warning for poor nations" »
James Marape and Ishmael Toroama exchange the agreement that will guide the joint consultation on Bougainville's political future
KEITH JACKSON
NOOSA – The Papua New Guinea and Bougainville leaders have announced the immediate start of joint consultations on the outcome of Bougainville’s 2019 referendum in which 98% of voters opted for the autonomous province to become independent.
PNG prime minister James Marape and Bougainville president Ishmael Toroama reaffirmed that their governments are committed to the process of consultations on the referendum result.
Continue reading "Crucial Bougainville independence talks begin" »
Words of Paradise: Poetry of PNG (Jacket2 Anthony Madrid)
PHILIP FITZPATRICK
TUMBY BAY - I read quite a bit of modern Australian poetry, as it turns up in the newspapers and journals that I read, but quite frankly most of it doesn't do much for me.
On the other hand, Papua New Guinean poetry and prose continues to be a joy and fascination.
Even some of Australia's much lauded poets, like Les Murray or Clive James, both of whom died in 2019, don't appeal to me.
Continue reading "The special place of poetry in PNG" »
Hiri Hanenamo emi danis, Hiri Moale Festival, 2014 (Stella Blog)
MICHAEL DOM
This new poem in Tok Pisin and English uses the primaquatrain poetic form which I have invented. It is meant for original composition in Tok Pisin and seems to work well that way for me - MTD
Eh, meri nambis ia
Longpela garas bilong yu
Emi tanim ai bilong mi
Na tromoi lewa olsem purpur
Continue reading "Hiri Hanenamo emi danis" »
DUNCAN GABI
| My Land, My Country
MADANG - I joined the long queue outside BSP bank in Goroka at around something to 12 to pick up my long overdue bank card.
I had lodged an application for a new bank card a month ago. About two weeks ago, thinking my card was ready, I went to pick it up.
Continue reading "A brief meeting of two souls" »
Doctor and artist Powesiu Lawes on the beach at Loniu Village, Manus
KEITH JACKSON
NOOSA - Hazel Kutkue, a doctor at Braun District Hospital west of Finschhafen in Morobe Province (and a fine writer), has asked whether the three Sogeri books mentioned in Marj Walker's obituary are still in print.
It so happens that this was a matter I looked into when I was writing the obituary.
Continue reading "Where are those old Sogeri books?" »
George Orwell broadcasting from the BBC
PHILIP FITZPATRICK
TUMBY BAY - Long holiday breaks like those we have been experiencing over Christmas and New Year bring a kind of stasis to most media and it is necessary to seek intellectual stimulation elsewhere.
To that end I’ve been re-reading some of George Orwell’s essays, particularly those written during World War II.
Continue reading "Poetry and the masses" »
The late Sir Mekere Morauta and prime minister James Marape
JAMES MARAPE MP
| Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea | Edited
I delivered this short eulogy in honour of Rt Hon Sir Mekere Morauta at his funeral service on Friday. It is short and succinct. No amount of words can adequately describe this huge persona - JM
WAIGANI - I stand today sadly to offer tribute to this great man who selflessly gave his life in service to Papua New Guinea.
Continue reading "Eulogy in honour of the late Sir Mek" »
HAZEL KUTKUE
| Sipikriva Girl Blog
BRAUN - One of the last frontiers unconquered. Even the attitudes and the ‘bad’ cultures are unconquered.
We have out here, a culture of time-wasting, bad, almost disrespectful attitudes among the whole population.
Continue reading "A cultural setback" »
Dame Rose Kekedo
CATHY KEIMELO
| Ples Singsing | Edited
Dame Rose Kekedo by Eric Johns, pamphlet, Famous People of PNG series, 27 pages. Pearson & Longman Publisher, South Melbourne, Australia, 1 January 2002, ISBN-10: 0733933300. Available on Amazon for US$39.99 at this link
WAIGANI – This is a short biography of Dame Rose Violet Kekedo (1942-2005), the first Papua New Guinean first woman to venture into fields and roles that had been traditionally reserved for men.
Like her mother, Dame Mary Kekedo, she was knighted for her services to the government and people of PNG before and after independence.
Continue reading "Rose Kekedo’s string of firsts" »
BARBARA ANGORO
| My Land, My Country
AUCKLAND - Couple of things but I’d like to talk about. First, the kind of food we are giving our babies and, second, the implications of being an underweight baby.
We all can be advocates for our future generation. If you have a family member who is under five, be that child’s advocate.
Continue reading "Malnutrition: What you need to know and do" »
HAZEL KUTKUE
| Sipikriva Girl
BRAUN - I walk past men almost wherever I go. They sit on large rocks that somehow end up on the roadside. They lean against power poles, rusted in the winds of time.
Whenever I walk past men, I have to be decent. If I am ‘not decent’, I will be the subject of stares directed at my ‘indecency’.
Continue reading "The eyes of men: toxicity & ridicule" »
Nebula and her new family members. Nebula found an inconvenient place to give birth
SCOTT WAIDE
| My Land, My People
LAE - Two years ago, my son’s dog-daughter, Nebula, ‘adopted’ me as her human parent.
She seemed to claim me even more after he left to join the army last year and I became full-time parent, or Nebula adopted me as full time parent, whatever.
Continue reading "The dog that took over my abode" »
The Essayist (acrylic by Ida Lawrence, 2018)
PHILIP FITZPATRICK
TUMBY BAY - Who can remember the dreaded Monday afternoon announcement by your lecturer, “I want a 500 word essay on what we’ve been discussing on my desk by Friday morning, no excuses!”
Essays are the bane of every student’s life but what exactly is an essay?
Continue reading "Essays are a beauty not a beast" »
HAZEL KUTKUE
| Sipikriva Girl Blog | Photographs by Dominica Are
'Prized Possessions: A Collection of Poetry’by Dominica Are, paperback, 132 pages. Independently published, March 2020. ISBN-13 979-8622956454. Available here from Amazon for $US8.73
BRAUN - Poetry makes for beautiful literature.
Sipikriva Girl, despite not entirely embracing poetry, had the opportunity to speak to 34-year old writer, poet and accountant, Dominica Are, who recently published her first collection of poetry, Prized Possessions.
Hailing from the highlands of Papua New Guinea, Dominica works full time as an accountant with PNG Coffee Exports Ltd in Goroka.
Continue reading "Dominica Are & her Prized Possessions" »
Marj Walker and students pose outside the Sogeri High School Museum
KEITH JACKSON
NOOSA - Marjorie (Marj) Walker, a highly respected teacher at Sogeri national high school, died at Mount Waverley in Victoria on 31 December aged 84.
Marj was the head of expressive arts at Sogeri from 1972-85 and made a number of return visits to Papua New Guinea over the years including one in 2013 to meet former students.
Continue reading "Marj Walker, respected Sogeri teacher, dies at 84" »
Baka Bina
BAKA BINA
Tales from Faif by Baka Barakove Bina with contributions from Emily Sakepe Bina, Amazon KDP Edition, December 2020, $5.00, link here to purchase
PORT MORESBY - Such is life for me that I have published my last three books (Antics of Alonaa, Volume One, Musings from Sogopex and Operesin Kisim Bek Lombo) just before the end of a year.
The result is that during the festive season announcements about them usually get pushed to the side and there are no fanfare.
Continue reading "Covid, a Facebook dare & then - a new book " »
Youths at Roreinang Catholic mission listen to President Toroama discuss the challenges ahead
ANTHONY KAYBING
| Office of the ABG President
BUKA - President Ishmael Toroama has urged Bougainvilleans to stand firm in the region’s aspirations for political independence as Bougainville begins the new year.
Speaking to youths from different Christian denominations throughout Bougainville gathered at Roreinang United Church Mission, the president asked: “Are we one of those patriotic Bougainvilleans willing to go the distance to achieve Bougainville’s aspirations for independence?
Continue reading "Toroama outlines challenges for 2021" »