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20 posts from September 2024

Unmet bottom line leads to PNG crime

PAUL OATES

Maslow (CNN)
Maslow's hierarchy of needs (CNN)


CLEVELAND - A few years ago, I read a report of some well-meaning people who tried to motivate youthful Papua New Guinean criminals, locally referred to as ‘raskols’, to change their ways and become more law-abiding.

The audience’s general response was, perhaps predictably, ‘So what’s in it for us?’

Continue reading "Unmet bottom line leads to PNG crime" »


Hundreds of millions of kina go missing

EDDIE TANAGO
| Act Now!

Map

PORT MORESBY - While the Papua New Guinea government has been dramatically increasing the amount of funding pumped directly into each District, there is an appalling lack of transparency about how those public funds are being used.

An analysis by community advocacy group Act Now reveals that just 24 of 96 Districts have lodged financial acquittals for 2022 or 2023 and none of those acquittals are publicly available.

Continue reading "Hundreds of millions of kina go missing " »


Our security gets worse, not better

PETER O’NEILL
| Academia Nomad

Extracts from a speech to the Australian Institute for Progress by former Papua
New Guinea prime minister Hon Peter O’Neill CMG MP on 16 September 2024

PNG flag raised 16 September 1975
The Papua New Guinean flag is raised for the first time on 16 September 1975 (PNG Association of Australia)

BRISBANE – Forty-nine years ago, the Australian flag was lowered and the Papua New Guinea flag was raised in Port Moresby. Independence had been granted, not fought for.

Many argue that independence was given too quickly but, given that it was, my country’s leaders at the time did an incredible job of setting the young country on its independent feet with help from Australia.

Continue reading "Our security gets worse, not better" »


Recent Notes 38: A special dictionary

 
Steven Gagau
Steven Gagau

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA - Last week I received a request from Steven Gagau via my good friend, and one of the best friends Papua New Guinea ever had, Andrea Williams.

Steven is a researcher, academic and president of the Sydney Wantok Association. Last year he assisted to curate the Bilas: Body Adornment of PNG exhibition at the Australian Museum in Sydney.

 

Continue reading "Recent Notes 38: A special dictionary" »


Rattling a stick inside a swill bucket

BERNARD CORDEN

Corden  Road signs & billboards Brisbane
Traffic lights, road signs & billboards clutter drivers' vision at this  busy Brisbane road junction

 This is the full text of a letter from Bernard Corden which has just made its way to the desk of the Honourable Bart Mellish MP, Queensland Minister for Transport and Main Roads, and Minister for Digital Services.  I feel sure the Minister will never before have received a letter composed with Bernard’s awe-inspiring literary flourish and precise application of the English language - KJ

BRISBANE - The Queensland Government is currently promoting its Road Safety Week, which it officially launches on Monday 26 August 2024.

The state-wide campaign includes numerous warnings displayed on electronic signs installed over Brisbane’s busy inner-city bypass and implore motorists to keep their eyes on the road and hands on the steering wheel.

Continue reading "Rattling a stick inside a swill bucket" »


The ethics that create a great school

BORANA BONNEY

Keith_and_A_School_Kundiawa
19-year old Keith Jackson and the complement of his Kundiawa Primary A School, 1964


WESTERN HIGHLANDS - Leading and operating educational institutions inevitability pose ethical dilemmas which represent a constant challenge for leaders because of the great variety of issues encountered daily.

It was stated by Mihelič (2010) that “values have a profound effect on a leader’s performance”.

Simply put, ethical leaders are guided by personal moral convictions that fuel their motivation and inspiration in decision-making.

Continue reading "The ethics that create a great school" »


The Great Game: Pacific Islands Style

PAUL OATES

‘When everyone is dead the Great Game is finished.
Not before. Listen to me till the end’ - Rudyard Kipling

CLEVELAND – Are you one of the history buffs who still remember reading about the days when Rudyard Kipling held sway.

When the world map on the schoolroom wall contained innumerable blotches of red or pink to designate the colonies of the British Empire (“this vast empire on which the sun never sets” – George Macartney, 1773).

Continue reading "The Great Game: Pacific Islands Style" »


The parliament of silly old buggers

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - On most mornings of the week, weather permitting, a parliament of silly old buggers convenes for coffee and to discuss the woes of the world at a picnic table under a shady canopy near the Tumby Bay jetty.

Of late, the prognostications have become darker and darker.

The resident biblical eschatologist is now talking about the end of days, and both history buffs are competing in their comparisons of the present to the 1930s and the bleak days prior to World War II.

Continue reading "The parliament of silly old buggers" »


Honour not glory is memorial’s aim

PAUL OATES

CLEVELAND - It appears in the minds of a few detractors that the recognition of those who died in the service of Australia and Papua New Guinea has yet again been conflated with accusations of desire for personal aggrandisement.

The issues of recognition and aggrandisement or glory could not be clearer in my mind and they have always been separate.

At an event at the National Archives some years ago, we paid tribute to those many dedicated people who went before us and who continued to work to help Papua New Guinea progress into the modern world.

Continue reading "Honour not glory is memorial’s aim" »


Heavenly Visits: A elegy of love & loss

WEDFINE DAI

MADANG - If heaven had visiting hours, I would be the first one there waiting in line to visit you.

I would be the first person there waiting to see your beautiful smiling face again, to touch your hand, and to feel the warmth of your comforting hugs.

I would be waiting there in line with a heart full of love and longing. I would wait eagerly counting the moments until I could see you again - my better half, my beloved twin sister.

Continue reading "Heavenly Visits: A elegy of love & loss" »


People-watching in Port Moresby

GORDON PEAKE

| Inside Story | Extract
| Read the full article here

 

WASHINGTON DC - From Port Moresby’s founding early last century — when it was little more than a dozen corrugated iron shacks, a tennis court and McCrann’s tin-shed tavern — to the sprawling city it is today, Papua New Guinea’s capital has always been a place of intrigue and melodrama, its novelistic cast of characters drawn from near and far.

Nowadays, the largest city in the Pacific Islands is the setting for a much larger plotline, a new cold war tussle between China and the United States for presence, influence and the favour of a local political elite enjoying its moment in the sun.

Continue reading "People-watching in Port Moresby" »


How Carolyn was smuggled from Wewak

SARAH KANOWSKI
| Australian Broadcasting Corporation

 

BRISBANE - It was when Carolyn Blacklock's passport was confiscated at Port Moresby International Airport that she realised how much trouble she was in.

Carolyn, who headed up the national power company in Papua New Guinea, had faced charges of corruption after a change in government.

Despite a court clearing her of all wrongdoing, she was detained in PNG.

Continue reading "How Carolyn was smuggled from Wewak" »


PNG's welfare does not rest on elites

CAROLYN BLACKLOCK
| East Asia Forum

Carolyn Blacklock (Ipsum Pacific)
Carolyn Blacklock (Ipsum Pacific)

 

BRISBANE - Political and economic pressures are rising in Papua New Guinea, with escalating social tensions suggesting a need for focused regional support.

Critics argue that given ongoing civil unrest, political instability with Rainbo Paita’s challenge to prime minister James Marape and substantial economic challenges such as a stagnating minimum wage and increasing poverty, financial aid and strategies should be directed towards supporting the PNG populace rather than bolstering the political elite.

Continue reading "PNG's welfare does not rest on elites" »


The great experience of saving lives

MARK PALM
| Samaritan Aviation Newsletter

Samaritan

WEWAK - One of our amazing stories is about the first patient Samaritan Aviation ever flew in 2010.

Her name was Antonia and she had been in labour for three days. She was unconscious when we got the call on Good Friday from the Timbunki Health Centre, located along the Sepik River.

Continue reading "The great experience of saving lives" »


PNG Attitude's hack, er, technical problem

NOOSA - A blue screen with a phony 'survey' form and three purported 'questionnaires' appeared on screen when you try to access PNG Attitude. 

This was some geniuses way of indicating I had not renewed the blog's domain name.

With some help from the USA I've now got on top of this, parted with a few bucks and we should be back in business.

Nobody was hurt in this process, although my feelings are telling me they were shamed.


Prominent ABC broadcaster Tim Bowden dies

BOB LAWRENCE

Tim Bowden
Tim Bowden reviewing tapes in the process of producing Taim Bilong Masta

SYDNEY - Hobart born author, radio and television broadcaster, producer and oral historian, Timothy (Tim) Gibson Bowden AM, who was part of the trio who produced the book, tapes and radio program ‘Taim Bilong Masta: the Australian involvement with Papua New Guinea’, died in his sleep on Sunday aged 87.

While the people may remember him as compere of the ABC television program, Back Chat, most of his media work included reporting the Vietnam War, as the ABC foreign correspondent in the USA, founding the Current Affairs programs This Day Tonight on television and PM on radio and heading the ABC's Social History Unit.

Continue reading "Prominent ABC broadcaster Tim Bowden dies" »


The trials & tribulations of the kiapry

KEITH JACKSON

Posm-o
The Kiaps' Award  -  Police Overseas Service Medal

NOOSA – I am told that the sometimes bitter division between a small group of former kiaps and the great majority of their ageing comrades continues.

I had thought it all over until recently, when it was brought to my notice that some of this seriously ageing and rapidly extinguishing band of brothers want further public memorialisation for themselves in the form of a public monument paid for and constructed by the government.

Continue reading "The trials & tribulations of the kiapry" »


Covenant Day: Its true meaning

SAHAR SHALOM
| Academia Nomad

Screenshot covenant picture (The National)

“In my view, the so-called covenant, which then prime minister Sir Michael Somare signed, was an idea that originated from without, and imported to PNG. Whether the prime minister sought biblical counsel from the PNG Council of Churches, the Evangelical Alliance or other theological institutional academics to ascertain its biblical soundness and originality before signing the so-called covenant, is unclear” – George Mombi (The National, 1 January 2020)

PORT MORESBY - I wanted to share with you how the Covenant Day tradition of 26 August started and clarify some misconceptions and distortions in relation to it.

In 2007, Michael Somare, the nation's then grand chief and prime minister, signed on behalf of the people a new covenant with the God of Israel.

Continue reading "Covenant Day: Its true meaning" »


PNG: Achieving a change in direction

PAUL OATES

This article was written by a reflective and analytic Paul Oates 16 years ago. It is both prescient and insightful.

Indeed, it makes me regret that an emaciated PNG Attitude, limping along at my own slow, health-restrained pace, ain’t what it used to be. But who is?

I compliment Paul on his literary output over the years.  His articles and books have made a real contribution to our knowledge about Papua New Guinea and other issues. 

Son in 2008, concerned about events and trends in Papua New Guinea, Paul has written a paper describing how these problems manifest themselves and making some recommendations for their alleviation. So here is a brief extract from ‘PNG: How to achieve a change in direction’. Unfortunately the link to the full paper has been lost - Keith Jackson

CLEVELAND - At Independence in 1976 Papua New Guinea was on the threshold of developing into a stable and prosperous nation.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Australia built up a regional government infrastructure throughout the country that provided essential law and order, education, medical assistance and all manner of essential support services in every area in PNG.

Australia then had a wonderful opportunity to bring PNG into the modern age and stand together with it as a friend and neighbour. Unfortunately, that opportunity was allowed to atrophy for want of interest. There was a mutual disregard.

In 2008, 33 years after Independence , much of the PNG government infrastructure has disappeared completely and yet the wages bill for PNG public servants continues to rise. Why is this so?

Among the recommendations I have made for securing a change in direction in PNG are:

  1. Fund, strengthen and reform the PNG government infrastructure as a first priority for AusAID.

  2. Reissue an updated PNG Government Code of Conduct and Ethics agreed to by government, unions and business. The Code of Conduct must be signed on behalf of all citizens by the PNG Prime Minister and disseminated to all levels. This must be encouraged by Australia as a matter of priority.

  3. Issue a deadline for correct, ethical practice to commence. Offer an amnesty for people to come clean and testify.

  4. Institute anti corruption tribunals and, after the deadline expires, use them to investigate and send new cases for trial to the PNG courts.

  5. At the same time, improve Public Service wages, salaries and conditions of service on the premise that all PNG government employees sign performance based pay agreements specifying compliance with the new Code of Conduct.

If Australia does nothing, PNG will continue on a downhill slope to further poverty and corruption, notwithstanding increasing amounts of external aid funds.

If the process of ‘sweeping the dust under the carpet' continues, then potential to prevent a humanitarian disaster on our doorstep will be lost forever.