"Her gentle spirit and unwavering commitment to others made her a true angel among us,” said prime minister James Marape. “Her life exemplified selfless service, embodying the very essence of Christian values. Leaving behind her birthplace and family, she embraced Papua New Guinea as her own, becoming an integral part of Gulf Province's extended family.”

HOW ABOUT A NEW AUSSIE SPORTING CHANT

Lindsay Bond has had enough of the embarrassing Australian chant, ‘Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie, Oi Oi Oi!’, which has long since taken over the sports arenas gracing this magnificent land. “It seems to me that the OiOiOi mob are in need of a more inclusive moniker,” quoth Lindsay, whose mob is scattered throughout Australia, New Zealand and PNG.

I tell Lindsay that I like Uzmob, certainly upmarket from OiOiOi, I like it a lot. But it must be rendered into a chant, otherwise the mob have nothing to sing. The first raw thought that comes into my mind is, ‘UzUz/UzUz/Uzmaaaawb!’ in a continuous ascending crescendo shriek. This would certainly bring new heart to tired spirits and fresh energy to melting muscles on the sports field.

“A quick check on some options shows that Uzmob is unlikely to run afoul of the copyright fiends,” says Lindsay, who thinks the chant might go something like this:

Chant Leader – Yair/Yair/Yair
Chanters – UzUz/UzUz/Uzmob

“The mob word would need care in lifting it from its current status to a more widely appreciated configuration,” cautions Lindsay. “But t this moment, all I can do is leave the tackling to persons more adept at incitement.” To which all I can add is, UzUz/UzUz/Uzmob.

Bungaree circumnavigated Australia with Matthew Flinders

BUNGAREE, AUSTRALIA’S FIRST INDIGENOUS LEADER

Linda Bergin is co-founder of the Headland Preservation Group seeking to conserve the legacy of Middle Head, Mosman, which includes the old Australian School of Pacific Administration, ASOPA.

She writes of Bungaree, who lived on this fine harbour headland. Bungaree was “an esteemed early colonial Aboriginal leader, maritime adventurer and international diplomat who, with Matthew Flinders, was the first Australian to circumnavigate the continent”.

In 1815 and 1822, Governor Lachlan Macquarie gave ‘Boongary’, as he spelled it, and 15 other families land at present-day Mosman. It was part of the more progressive Macquarie's experiment to “civilise the Black Natives". The governor described Middle head as a "native farm" and a "pretty place" accessed by a "romantic road", but its exact location remains a mystery. However, Linda has come across relevant new evidence in the historical records, focused on written descriptions by people who visited the farm.

CHINA’S ANSWER TO BAD NEWS: SKIP IT

China has decided that bad economic news is not to be shared. This week it decided to stop publishing youth unemployment figures after they escalated to 21% of the eligible workforce. China’s economy is in a prolonged slump and retail sales and industrial production also both missed forecasts in July. But before you celebrate, this is not just a China problem – it poses challenges for global growth.

Andrew Ross Sorkin writing in the New York Times Deal Book newsletter says: “Increasing opacity won’t help international investors. China has been publishing less economic data since Xi Jinping rose to power. In recent months, authorities have reportedly told Chinese economists to avoid discussing negative trends and Xi has ordered officials to ‘tell China’s story well’ as a way of enhancing confidence at home.”

SAMARITAN AVIATION SAVED MANASSAH FROM HIMSELF

Snakes are greatly feared among Sepik people because of both their physical harm and their spiritual undercurrents. Recently Samaritan Aviation was called to rescue an 8-year old boy, Manassah, who had disobeyed his parents and gone with friends to a bush garden and was bitten by a death adder. “Afraid of what his parents would say when they realised he had disobeyed them; he frantically ran away, causing the venom to spread more rapidly. When his parents finally found him, despite the obvious effects of the venom, , he took off again!” You can read the full story here.

PROTEIN MAY BE CHRONIC FATIGUE CULPRIT

I’m always interested in news about developments in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), which I’ve struggled with for more than 20 years. Catherine Offord, a Barcelona-based science journalist, writes in the most recent Science Adviser Newsletter that researchers have identified a protein present at unusually high levels in the muscles of people like me and that disrupts cells ability to generate energy. The US National Academy of Sciences says this could point to new therapies for ME and similar illnesses such as Long Covid.

ANOTHER ATTITUDE HOUR: TUESDAY 15 AUGUST

9:00 AM           /2019/09/tell-robert-oeka-mi-go-lukim-pinis-lo-kerema.html
8:59 AM           /2021/05/after-8-years-of-terror-alotau-says-enough.html
8:56 AM           /2016/02/on-the-hunt-for-a-new-language-in-papua-new-guinea.html
8:55 AM           /2012/12/fifty-shades-of-kiap-of-stayers-players-neer-do-wells.html
8:54 AM           /2015/03/mother-tongue-at-the-crossroads.html
8:50 AM           /2019/10/the-challenge-of-tribal-conflict-in-png.html
8:45 AM           /2011/07/radio-in-png-is-really-on-the-move.html
8:42 AM           /2009/04/where-are-the-missing-jap-graves-in-png.html
8:42 AM           /2018/03/the-reckoning-the-leahy-family-revisited-30-years-on.html
8:41 AM           /2018/08/mathias-legacy-a-major-history-of-the-simbu-people-emerges.html
8:40 AM           /2021/05/after-8-years-of-terror-alotau-says-enough.html
8:38 AM           /2021/04/a-kiaps-chronicle-30-tightening-of-the-screw.html
8:38 AM           /2012/04/who-am-i-an-independence-poem.html
8:37 AM           /2012/06/the-tradition-of-the-pig-killing-ceremony.html
8:35 AM           /2011/03/creator-of-mista-grasruts-bob-browne-dies.html
8:34 AM           /2019/10/the-challenge-of-tribal-conflict-in-png.html
8:32 AM           /2021/07/a-brief-history-of-png-literature-part-1.html
8:31 AM           /2019/06/a-kiaps-chronicle-25-the-administration-versus-the-people.html
8:31 AM           /2021/07/a-brief-history-of-png-literature-part-1.html
8:29 AM           /2021/06/readable-novel-connects-two-worlds.html
8:29 AM           /2011/01/karo-araua-papuan-policeman-hanged-for-murder.html
8:28 AM           /2013/07/the-literary-journal-that-pioneered-png-writing.html
8:25 AM           /2015/07/ok-tedi-copper-closes-leaving-a-shocked-western-province.html
8:25 AM           /2015/06/more-about-grace-nugi-miss-png-scientist-team-cheerleader.html
8:25 AM           /2011/07/rudy-buckley-montevideo-maru-witness.html
8:23 AM           /2013/07/the-literary-journal-that-pioneered-png-writing.html
8:15 AM           /2017/05/ato-still-chasing-millionaire-png-knight-over-tax-debt.html
8:05 AM           /2020/09/i-spent-a-bit-of-time-in-new-guinea.html