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The tweets that drew the crowds in June

TwitterKEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – I have previously mentioned that the Typepad platform I’ve used to disseminate PNG Attitude these last 15 years is unable to provide readership data for particular articles or other creations.

However it is possible to gain an understanding of what subjects draw the interest of readers from how they respond to specific items in my Twitter account @PNGAttitude.

This was launched in 2009 as an adjunct to this blog and has accumulated more than 7,700 followers and unlike Typepad provides statistics for impressions (the number of times people saw the tweet) and engagements (the number of people who interacted with it in some way).

An engagement might be a retweet, a reply, a ‘like’, following a link or some other action.

So in Covid lockdown on a rainy Noosa afternoon, I spent half an hour sating my curiosity about which tweets had triggered the most impressions during June.

Here were the top 10:

11,200 impressions - PNG prime minister James Marape has announced that he wants to employ expatriates in key anti-corruption and policing roles to combat out of control corruption and nepotism. It's a risky strategy as powerful domestic forces will try to derail the idea.

6,700 - 56% of Australians believe their politicians are corrupt. And 90% of Australians say politicians lie if they feel the truth will hurt them. These figures should not make PNG feel better about its politicians but shows big changes are required in Australia.

2,900 - This man is stripping all he can out of PNG, and boasts a political career full of lies and broken promises. Justin Tkatchenko has invested heavily in a compliant Australia and is building a mansion in Brisbane he can flee to when required.

2,700 - Scott Waide writes that the PNG government's endorsement of a casino for Port Moresby "is a dangerous and destructive move" that will cause great harm to the country. "Our society cannot handle the impact of large scale gambling."

2,300 - The Guardian has produced a marvellous piece along with useful data and interactive diagrams that illustrates just how PNG and the Pacific have been looted of their precious resources.

2,200 -Man who blew up PNG economy complains that PNG economy has blown up. [Very short tweet on a comment by Peter O’Neill]

2,000 - More on those six remarkable high achieving PNG Highlands Pi brothers with a heap of PhDs and Masters degrees. It's explained why they all have different surnames and why one was named after Webster's Dictionary.

1,900 - Another year's gone by and the annual ranking of global cities has appeared. Port Moresby PNG languishes at 138 of 140 - about the same it has been for a few years now.

1,700 - Former PNG finance minister Don Polye will give evidence to the judicial inquiry into the K4.2 billion Union Bank of Switzerland scandal. Polye will say the loan was illegal and unconstitutional, that he warned fellow ministers and was sacked as a result.

1,700 - US secretary of state Antony Blinken told the Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders (minus PNG) in Hawaii that "economic coercion across the region is on the rise and every country should always be able to make choices without fear of retribution”.

And what might these have in common to enlighten us on what turns on PNG Attitude’s  followers (on Twitter anyway)?

Well, it seems it's hot issues around corruption, crime, politics and, to a slightly lesser extent, out of the ordinary social glimpses.

Here were the runners up that seem to validate this overview:

1,500 - Bougainville vice president Patrick Nasira says the province is economically able to become an independent state. “We have the Panguna mine (that) bankrolled the independence of PNG in 1975 & that same mine will bankroll the independence of Bougainville”.

1,400 - Michael Kabuni and Gov Allan Bird on the appalling behaviour of some male students at the University of PNG. "If you say you are the elite, act like it. If you say you are future leaders, act like it. If you say you are a good man, act like it".

1,300 - The Baha'i Faith in PNG has submitted its concern about the government move towards making the country a Christian theocracy, highlighting its inherent exclusivity in a diverse country with "a myriad of cultures".

1,300 - PNG academics write that “The idea of [PNG as] a ‘failed state’ is coming from countries that have exploited [it] at some point for their own development. If our resources were used for our own development, maybe we wouldn’t be failed states".

1,300 -If you think PNG's 'men problem' is restricted to ignorant villagers, you're very wrong. It's also a toxic issue amongst elite males as recent intimidation of UPNG women students demonstrates - yet again.

1,300 - Chief of the PNG police fraud and anti-corruption squad, Mathew Damaru, explains how the Marape government has cut his budget so much he's unable to effectively conduct investigations.

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