It was then the team leader informed us of the royal visit to Papua New Guinea, including a trip to Boera village. The Prince of Wales would officially launch our mangrove conservation project

Prince Charles plants the mangrove seedling at Boera village during his visit of 2012

DUNCAN GABI

WEWAK – On this morning in 2012, I stood inside the greenhouse surrounded by mangrove seedlings and in a state of high anxiety.

Soon I heard distant singing and the beating of kundu drums followed by cheering.

"Australia's apparent inability to assist in this most basic of legal processes does not sit well with its broader anti-corruption and security intentions in the region" – Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary

Samson Jubi was granted Australian permanent residency more than a decade ago (Facebook)

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP
| ABC Investigations | Extract

SYDNEY - A Papua New Guinea government minister and top justice officials say they are "extremely frustrated" with Australia for harbouring a Cairns resident wanted for one of the biggest alleged frauds in the country's legal history.

In an early test for the Albanese government's Pacific strategy, PNG immigration minister Bryan Kramer and the country's national police force have spoken out to the ABC about "unacceptable" delays in Australia's handling of an extradition request for PNG citizen Samson Jubi.

RAYMOND SIGIMET

I still cherish those first words
Strings of harmonious chords

I will not forget their worth
Spoken with sincerest thought

I wonder about their measures
Entangled down many years

Gifting me revelations
Ticking off recollections

The thoughtful anecdotes
The inspirational quotes

These I cherish as I rummage
Through these maiden messages

Chiselled on life's pages
To live on down the ages

The cost of eking out a living on islands threatened by sea level rise eventually becomes too much to bear, causing families to leave and the nation to disappear. "This is how a Pacific atoll dies. This is how our islands will cease to exist”

Marshall Islands president David Kabua addresses the United Nations General Assembly last week (AP Photo by Jason DeCrow)

PIA SARKAR
| AP News | Extracts

NEW YORK - While world leaders from wealthy countries acknowledge the ‘existential threat’ of climate change, Tuvalu prime minister Kausea Natano is racing to save his tiny island nation from drowning by raising it four to five meters above sea level through land reclamation.

And while experts issue warnings about the eventual uninhabitability of the Marshall Islands, president David Kabua must reconcile the inequity of a seawall built to protect one house that is now flooding another one next door.

"Corruption boils down to the attitude of individuals, which needs a complete change. The onus is on everyone to end this disease that continues to eat away the fabric of the nation"

PNG deputy prime minister John Rosso

NEWS DESK
| National Broadcasting Corporation

PORT MORESBY - The Marape government has vowed that it will work closely with key government agencies to combat corruption in Papua New Guinea.

Acting prime minister John Rosso said the government cannot tackle corruption alone, and needs a collective effort from government agencies and every individual.

“When people are too dependent on the government for handouts, their mindset is positioned in one direction only. Their minds become stagnant and they will not prosper"

PETER WARI
| The National

PORT MORESBY - Poor judgement has resulted in Southern Highlands been riddled with law and order issues and this needs to change, says Mendi-Munihu MP, Raphael Tonpi.

“We need to respect and comfort them and find ways to assist and make Mendi town regain its glory days,” he said.

Dwellings damaged by a storm surge on Iama Island (John Rainbird)

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – The United Nations has declared that Australia has violated the human rights of a group of Torres Strait Islanders by failing to adequately protect them from the impacts of climate change.

Torres Strait Islanders are Indigenous Australians who live on small clusters of low-lying islands between Australia and Papua New Guinea.

When the Bougainville Revolutionary Army succeeded in routing the PNG police and military from Bougainville in 1988, the BRA turned their violence upon Bougainvilleans they believed to be enemies or just ‘easy pickings’

The young Leonard Fong Roka and torture scar picked up in a refugee camp during the Bougainville civil war. When still a schoolboy, Leonard was deployed to serve in the bodyguard of Joseph Kabui, later president of the Autonomous Bougainville Government

LEONARD FONG ROKA
| From Our Archive, 23 September 2012

MADANG – In October 1992 I was a kid roaming around parts of the Kieta and the Bana districts in South Bougainville with Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA).

I was a member of the ‘A’ Company bodyguard unit.

As deadly earthquakes pose catastrophic risks to communities, all levels of government have been asked to pause the Wafi-Golpu deep sea tailings pipeline proposal until consent has been given by affected communities

A large crack in a highway near Kainantu following the 7.6 magnitude Morobe earthquake that killed at least seven people

NOOSA - Following the deadly Morobe earthquake 10 days ago, a coalition of Papua New Guinean and Australian civil society organisations have called for a pause to the Wafi-Golpu gold mine project.

The quake had a magnitude of 7.6 and the organisations want the geology to be fully understood and for Morobe communities to be consulted, especially on the risks of deep sea tailings placement (DSTP) to their livelihoods and health.

"I have been reading history for 60 years now and one of the things I have realised is that the human urge for conquest and the instinct to dominate others transcends geography, ethnicity, language and culture" - Chris Overland

Assyrian Empire (2025-605 BCE)

CHRIS OVERLAND

ADELAIDE - The death of Queen Elizabeth II has led to some reflection upon the British Empire and its legacy.

Commentary has ranged from the vile and tasteless to thoughtful consideration upon what is undeniably a very mixed British imperial legacy.

The invigilators didn’t care who won the election, as long as the sitting member’s henchmen were not able to push false votes or influence the counting

Poll workers demonstrate that ballot boxes are empty before voting commences

JAIVE SMARE

PORT MORESBY – ‘Bigmanship’, in Simon Davidson’s, 'Bigmanship: the deliverer of corrupt leaders', is such a strange and new term.

If you look at it in the construct of Simon’s article, it’s like watching the vomit of over-analysis give life to something that is a post-colonial media construct.

BA.4.6, a subvariant of Omicron, quickly gaining traction in the US and the UK, is able to evade immunity acquired from vaccination and prior infection. It is likely to be followed by BA.2.75.2 - an even more evasive subvariant (Illustration by Andrii Vodolazhskyi)

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA - The full weight of nine governments and the public health bureaucracy continue to succeed in persuading the Australian population that Covid is not something to worry too much about.

One result of this nonsense is that in five of Australia’s eight states and territories, Covid infection is showing positive growth, with Queensland and South Australia looking likely to soon burst out into major expansion.

Fego Kiniafa’s tribesmen rampaged through Goroka town armed with bush knives, burning houses and shops and ransacking other buildings

A building burns in Goroka following the slaying of Fego Kiniafa

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA - Goroka was tense last night following the brutal murder of the chief executive officer of the PNG Ports Corporation, Fego Kiniafa, 43, on Saturday.

Kiniafa was killed near his village of Nagamiufa as his tribesmen clashed with clans from Korofeiga and Lower Bena, with the fighting taking to the streets of Goroka early on Sunday morning.

These are youths who sleep in the drains beside the Courts, at Yakapilin Market and in various dirty shanties around Port Moresby

JORDAN DEAN

PORT MORESBY - Whilst others were painting their faces on Independence Day, I spent my day at Jack Pidik Park.

I had been invited to give a little speech at the Human Development Institute graduation ceremony. So, what is significant about that?

Ryan hid in a cave in the mountains of Sarewagat, 1,000 metres above sea level in a steep, densely forested valley with a fast flowing river

Peter Ryan MM - just 18 when called to war

JACOB KUMAI

OLIN – This is my place, Olin; a little village in Nawaeb District, Morobe Province.

Some years ago, I was told by my great-grandfather about a World War II soldier who was assisted by the natives of this area to escape from the Japanese.

RAYMOND SIGIMET

It's raining like sprinklers on a farm
My ears soak up the patter on the roof 
It’s spattering like food in a deep fry 
or the sound of rousing applause

It's raining like I can feel the damp,
sleeping inside as I wake and turn,
the only warmth in my foetal position 
I pull at the cover that refuses to move

Spokesperson Rifai Darus said Governor Enembe's home is being closely guarded by thousands of people, including his close relatives

Governor Enembe undergoing medical treatment. He's believed to be the target of an Indonesian power struggle over Indigenous administrations in Papua (Pacific Pos)

LAURENS IKINIA
| Asia Pacific Review | Edited

AUCKLAND - Governor Lukas Enembe of Indonesia’s Papua Province has been banned from travelling abroad, preventing him from undergoing vital medical treatment in the Philippines.

It is believed the popular governor of Melanesian Papua is the target of an Indonesian power struggle over Indigenous administrations in the region.

"We must stop getting drunk in public. We must stop playing pokies all night. We must stop cutting deals & compromising the public interest. Our public servants must turn up to work on time"

Governor Allan Bird

GOVERNOR ALLAN BIRD

WEWAK -Independence is not free, it comes with Responsibility.

In my address to the Sepik people on the occasion of Papua New Guinea’s 47th independence anniversary, I stressed that it is important we understand independence as meaning that the people have the right to do everything themselves.

As an emerging Pacific Island state, Bougainville will work towards building mutual government relationships that will enhance trust, trade and investment

NEWS DESK
| Bougainville News

BUKA - The Autonomous Bougainville Government continues to make headway with its strategy to make practical the people’s 97.7% vote for Independence in 2019.

The Bougainville Independence Mission, launched by president Ishmael Toroama in April 2021, marked the beginning of the implementation of a Trident Strategy to prepare Bougainville for independence.

"The emergent PNG elite was mightily enamoured with aspects of monarchy, notably the awarding of various medals and honours. Such bilas never lost its allure, whether in PNG or elsewhere in the remnants of the former Empire"

In PNG, the imperial awards system is maintained alongside the home-grown Order of Logohu. The Post-Courier records the knighting of business leader Sir Mel Togolo in June 2018

CHRIS OVERLAND

ADELAIDE - I guess it is baffling to most outside observers that a foreign Queen, who was formerly an Empress, should have been the Head of State in Papua New Guinea and generally held in high regard.

In pre-independence times the Queen's status must have mystified Papua New Guineans.

Britannia defends Law, Monarchy and Religion against Violation from the Great Political Libertine. Despite its many flaws, inequities and inequalities, a constitutional monarchy remains the least easily manipulated governance system humans have devised

Death or Liberty! Cartoon by George Cruikshank, London, 1819

CHRIS OVERLAND

ADELAIDE - Raymond Sigimet's perfectly competent and informative article about the death of the Queen triggered a remarkable outpouring of venom about the monarchy from those who want to replace it with a republic.

There is no denying that the monarchy is an archaic and elitist institution. Also, there are plenty of examples of royals behaving badly.

"The old justice is dead, and lost to time / Where once in the hausman it chanted at night  / Amidst broken betel nut and waft of lime /  Spoken in a chanted glow of embers’ light"

RAYMOND SIGIMET

The old justice is dead, and lost to time
Where once in the hausman it chanted at night 
Amidst broken betel nut and waft of lime 
Spoken in a chanted glow of embers’ light

Burnt and buried, the old justice of the past
Where balance and order were societal norm 
Calling upon ancestors and act not in haste 
To pass judgement from man’s earthly worm

The potential of TAFE-delivered vocational education and training has been relegated to mark it as a pathway for students who do not have the academic ability to progress in regular schooling. It hurts to write this, but it is the truth

JOHN KURI

PORT MORESBY - The education sector in Papua New Guinea has gone through various structural reforms in an attempt to ensure that principles and directives enshrined in the Constitution are realised.

Education as a development pillar is also highlighted as a key sector in PNG’s Development Strategic Plan 2010–2030, in the Medium Term Development Plan 2011-2015, in the Medium Term Development Plan III and in Vision 2050.

The celebration of a nation

FRANCIS NII
| First published in PNG Attitude on 16 September 2019

In 2019, James Marape replaced Peter O’Neill as prime minister and briefly the nation breathed a sigh of relief that better days were to come. Francis Nii reflected upon the change of mood. The great author was to die before the disappointment set in

KUNDIAWA - In the last eight years, when other Papua New Guineans celebrated their country’s independence anniversary on 16 September each year, to me it was just like any other day.

I didn’t feel anything special about the occasion. Independence was meaningless and unimportant to me.

The new Kumul flag is raised on Independence Hill

DAVID MARSH
| First published in PNG Attitude on 16 September 2015

In 2009 former long-serving PNG district commissioner, the late David Marsh, who died in 2015, reflected upon what happened on that first Independence Day in 1975

PORT MORESBY -In late June 1975, Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam asked Papua New Guinea chief minister Michael Somare to provide a date for PNG Independence.

Somare set the date of 16 September the same year. Then he gave me the job of organising the event. We had ten weeks. Getting people to join me to get the job done was difficult.

The main issue was that too much experience and expertise deserted PNG in those few years immediately after Independence. But that was in the seventies, and nothing can change what happened then

KEITH JACKSON
| First published in PNG Attitude on 16 September 2010

In 2010 I sought to draw back the curtains of gloom and identify some of the important areas in which PNG was doing well. Twelve years later, I leave it up to readers to assess how things are going. Plenty of space for Comments below

NOOSA – I was at that first Independence Day in Papua New Guinea and was amazed and impressed in how such an important and complex national event could be was organised in a heck of a hurry.

With only ten weeks’ notice, chief minister Michael Somare gave District Commissioner David Marsh the task of organising events both on the day and for the six days of celebration from 14-19 September.

Before independence, our leaders chose and promoted a people-centred approach and enshrined this in our Constitution. But successive governments have steered another course

EDDIE TANAGO PAINE

PORT MORESBY – It’s Independence Day for Papua New Guinea, marking 47 years since a new country was born.

But while we celebrate 47 years of political independence, we must acknowledge that, as a nation, we have failed to fulfil our aspirations.

The power elites in Western countries resort to self- delusion, distortion, evasion, lies and hypocrisy to justify and defend policies and actions they believe or pretend are in the national interest

CHRIS OVERLAND

‘The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: A History of Now’ by Michael Burleigh
Pan, July 2018, 432 pages, paperback. Available here from Amazon Books $9.99

ADELAIDE - I have just finished Michael Burleigh’s acclaimed book, The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: A History of Now’ (Macmillan, 2017).

Burleigh is a distinguished academic specialising in the Nazi era, and he has held teaching positions, including professorial roles, at New College, Oxford, the London School of Economics and the universities of Cardiff and Stanford.

The sea took away my kin not long ago, but the sea is not the enemy. I do not blame the sea, the sea will always serve its purpose

ROBIN-LUKE SUANG

PORT MORESBY - As the Bismarck moonlight shines so  bright, I can recall early memories of being on a canoe with my uncles at night, fishing the pristine waters near our island for crayfish and reef fish.

This was where I was born and where I spent my first few months when isolation was at its greatest.

John Kerr was looking for  friendship and support wherever he could. Prince Charles allowed himself to be drawn into the collaboration to bring down an Australian government

King Charles III (then Prince Charles) in 1976

JOHN MENADUE
| Pearls Irritations

SYDNEY - In the heat of early spring 1975 in the New Guinea highlands, Australian Governor General Sir John Kerr sidled up to Prince Charles and suggested a quiet chat.

The topic? The possible dismissal of the Australian prime minister.

"I know how honoured Her Majesty is to be your Queen, a title borne by her with immense pride and renewed by the people of this great country upon independence in 1975" - King Charles III, speaking as the Prince of Wales, in 2012

Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh visited PNG in October 1982

RAYMOND SIGIMET

DAGUA - Papua New Guinea, as a member of the Commonwealth, is mourning the passing of its head of state, Queen Elizabeth II.

Elizabeth II, called Misis Kwin in PNG Tok Pisin, died aged 96 one week ago, Thursday 8 September.

In 17 years since the first Autonomous Bougainville Government was formed there has been little practical action to utilise the powers to hold political and bureaucratic leaders to account

Joseph Nobatau found himself targeted as he sought to bring senior Bougainville leaders to account. He lost his influential job as chief secretary, but was later completely exonerated by the courts

JOSEPH NOBETAU

BUKA - Bougainville president Ishmael Toroama recently announced his government’s intention to enact a new anti-corruption law. 

The president, who campaigned on a platform of eliminating corruption, has since his election advocated for reform and should be commended for his focus on corruption.

KEITH JACKSON

WARD 9, WESLEY HOSPITAL, BRISBANE – A return to the keyboard. I type this haltingly, and with much error and correction.

Eight days ago, in a four hour operation, I had my seventh major spinal surgery. Two days ago I began to walk again, with acceptably little pain and great steadiness.

Keith, September 2020

KEITH JACKSON

“The game's afoot: / Follow your spirit, and upon this charge / Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!” (Henry V by Wm Shakespeare, c 1599)

“Old age sure ain’t no place for sissies” - Bette Davis, movie star (1908-1989)

“I'll be glad to leave here. I feel like eating palm trees. I don't like this place. It's for people with arthritis. They come here to play golf and to die” - Ernie Holmes, American football hero (1948-2008)

“We are here to help each other through this thing, whatever it is” – Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)

NOOSA – Well, here we go again: 120 kilometres to Brisbane and the Wesley hospital for more surgery on my spine.

It feels like it may be the denouement of an unfinished 40-year long drama about the steady creep of arthritis.

BARBARA ANGORO
| Duresi’s Odyssey

AUCKLAND - On Sunday my daughter and I went to the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

As usual, we ended up spending time looking at the Pacific section and its artefacts. I had to photograph this meri blaus.

I remember the style well from growing up in the 1990s. My elder sister had a few. I think I may have owned one. Meri blaus styles change over time and I don’t think this style is still made.

“It’s probably because of the arms,” my daughter observed. “They’re very constricted, unlike the styles of today.”

Perhaps she’s got a point.

Happy Friday to you all!

“I want to warn the country about ‘lazy man expectations’ that money from oil, gas and mining would be a permanent solution for our economy; far from it” – James Marape

James Marape speaking in parliament this week

JAMES MARAPE MP
| James Marape News Page | Edited

WAIGANI – The story of Papua New Guinea is not bad as many people make it out to be.

By 2027, the Budget will be in surplus and by the mid-2030s PNG will have paid its total sovereign debt on the way to becoming a K200 billion economy.

"I wonder if the consultants ever get beyond the boundary of Port Moresby or any of the provincial capitals? Have these people spent even a month living in a community?"

STEPHEN CHARTERIS

CAIRNS - As Chris Overland writes, corruption is an insidious cancer, and nothing will change at the top until outcomes are changed at the base.

I think it’s fair to say that elected representatives are a reflection of the expectations of the people who vote for them.

Corruption is a huge problem in PNG and has a huge economic cost. PNG is ranked by Transparency International as one of the most corrupt countries in the Asia-Pacific region

"Research by Act Now! showed how just a one-point improvement in PNG’s corruption score could boost the economy by K10 billion a year or 14%, equivalent to over K1,200 for every woman, man and child in PNG" - Eddie Tanago

NEWS DESK
| Act Now!

PORT MORESBY - Effective action against corruption is essential for economic growth and it should be the number one priority for the new Marape government.

Recent findings by the National Research Institute has reaffirmed the importance of good governance and the rule of law in attracting new investment, increasing employment opportunities and boosting government revenues.