KHIB KUGLER
| With thanks to Helen Dennett

Her carved woman figurehead  pointed towards the open sea beyond Rabaul and packed to the gunwales with people escaping the Japanese Army, MV Laurabada steams to safer southern shores (Australian War Memorial)

AUSTIN, TEXAS - For several years now, I have been trying to contact anyone who might know anything about Captain William (Bill) Thomas Kelly Howard (deceased), a friend of my late father, Dr Andrew Kugler Jr, who died in (2018.

Captain Bill, from Bundaberg, was the captain of several Papua New Guinean Administration trawlers in the 1950s through to the 1970s, including MV Laurabada II, later renamed to MV Lahara when the original Laurabada was recommissioned.

FRANK CORDINGLEY
| With thanks to Terry Edwinsmith

Dcience class  with Sergeant. Ian Bowen, Murray Barracks, September 1968

BRISBANE - I was in the seventh national service intake in February 1967, having turned 20 the previous October. I had been teaching junior maths and science for one year at Clermont Secondary.

Another first year teacher at Clermont was also called up. His name was Neil Weekes who became an officer, won the MC in the Battle of Coral and I believe finally retired from the army as a Brigadier.

A G SATORI

A heartfelt plea in Tok Pisin and English

Dear plaim minista James Marape
Tenkio lo yu na kavman blo yu, mi no moa nau lukim ol susa meri ya.
Mi save sitaun long asskumurere tiwai na sitaun wantaim pespuk.
Wonem yu na kavman mekim, em pisnis plo yu.
Wonem mi na ol klasrutz mekim, em pisnis plo mipla.
Mipla klasrutz laikim moa yet moa yet pespuk.
Mipla laik mekim moa yet moa yet pisnis plo mipla luksave long ol susa ya O.
Wai na, wai stret yu pasim wok pespuk.
Aiyo, nau ol poromahn ya bun na pol plo ol slek tru tru.
Ol sikaut igo lo yu.
Plis plis, bai mipla amen tru tru lo yu.
Kivim bek pespuk O pikla blo mipla O Plaim Minista
Moneiya, em faifpla tei nau nau pun plo mipla silek nogut tru ya.
Yu laikim mipla pulim pusnaip em ino moa sap moa na ko long wok.
Wonem wok yu laikim mipla mekim.  Bun slek pinis long taim igo pinis.
Nau yu kilim indai nupla wok mipla save mekim.
Oiyo, plis plis O Plaim Minista O, kivim pek pesbuk.
Em wonem? Pangu nogat moa save.  Pangu nogat rot moa.
Pun slek moa ya.  Pangu mas soim rot na iko kisim ikam pesbuk.
Mi ya AG Satori peten stlong long yu O.

Dear prime minister James Marape
Thanks to you and your government, I can’t get in touch with my family and other relatives back in my village
Right now I’m sitting beneath a gum tree where I’m usually with my Facebook
What are you and the government doing with your politics?
What are me and all the grassroots people supposed to do with ourselves?
We grassroots love Facebook
We need to conduct plenty of business, plenty, and also look after pur relatives in this way
Why oh why really have you stopped Facebook from working?
Hey, now all my mates and other friends are hanging around with nothing to do
We’re sick of you
Please, we’d truly, really truly, like to see the back of you
Give us back our Facebook oh leader of us prime minister
It’s been five days now and we’re tired and demotivated
Do you think we can reach for our bush knives? That’s not how we work now
What work is it you actually want us to do? These are not the days we left a long time ago
What you’ve done is kill the new kind of work we do
Eh, please oh please prime minister, return our Facebook
What’s it about? Doesn’t Pangu know anything? You don’t seem to have direction ay more
Our bodies are tired. They’re lazy. Pangu needs to show us the way forward and give us our Facebook
I’m AG Satori petitioning you with all my strength.

EDITED BY KEITH JACKSON

Full complement of the one teacher Kundiawa Primary A School in 1964 - Keith with members of the Johnston, Bond, Heagney, Male, Doolan, Finch and other families [thanks to Dr Rob Johnston, far right]

A famous (not) game of Scrabble
| Keith Jackson AM

Journalists Judy Tudor and Jack McCarthy cycled - in the sense of visiting, not pedalling - through Kundiawa a couple of times in the early 1960s when I was there running my little school.

Judy knew of my affinity for words because she would plunder articles for Pacific Islands Monthly (always attributed I hasten to add) from the fortnightly Kundiawa News published by Murray Bladwell and me, the only mint set of which is these days to be found in the National Library of Australia.

MATHIAS KIN & KEITH JACKSON

Peter Tsiamalili Jr is a smart guy, but the police minister needs to avoid sweeping government decisions that throw out the babies with the bathwater.  

MATHIAS REPORTS....

Mathias Kin and Ingrid Jackson on the road to Gembogl many moons ago

KUNDIAWA – I know that people in Australia have been watching closely the recent political developments in Papua New Guinea. In recent years, there have been numerous threats by the government to ban Facebook and other social media sites.

Then yesterday, when our Facebook accounts appeared on our phones and tablets, they gave this message, "Please check your internet connection and try again.”  Since then, Facebook accounts across the country have not been working.

VANN R NEWKIRK II
| Staff Writer, The Atlantic Daily | Extract

Ku Klux Klan members parade down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the Treasury in Washington DC, 8 August 1925 (with acknowledgement to Bettmann/Getty)

 For a couple of years now, as the USA showed increasing signs of going off the rails, I’ve subscribed to a number of American publications, including The Atlantic. The brief extract that follows is taken from the beginning of a much longer article, They Always Followed the Flag, in the most recent issue of the magazine. We should never underestimate racism as a compelling factor in US affairs. In the present day, it seems to be a fear of demography pushing aside white hegemony that's underpinning events.  I hope you may be able to link to the extract here - KJ

WASHINGTON DC - A century ago, in 1925, the Ku Klux Klan came to Washington, D.C. The Klansmen had arrived in early August: the Kleagles and Dragons and Exalted Cyclopes, regalia folded and packed, families in tow.

MARIAN FAA & THECKLA GUNGA
| Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Link to the complete article here

PORT MORESBY - A confidential Papua New Guinea cabinet document containing outlines of 70 development projects has been leaked to the ABC.

The ideas include developing a space agency, acquiring a luxury island in partnership with a Congolese rapper, exploring the potential for a world-class Formula 1 track, creating a Silicon Valley style hub for entrepreneurs, developing post-quantum cryptography and setting up a spy agency with training from Israel.

BAKA BARAKOVE BINA

‘Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanise. While stories can break the dignity of a people, they can also repair that broken dignity” –  famed Nigerian writer Ngozi Adichie

LAE – I’m currently out of Port Moresby and, opening my laptop with Hot Spot at 10.00 pm, was pleasantly surprised to see all three of my present books on the First Nations Writers Festival website. Thank you FNWF.

This means that all three books in my Farmer Brings on a Wife trilogy are now in circulation and available for you to buy!

EDITED BY KEITH JACKSON

The  United States Coast Guard Cutter Hazard arrives in Port Moresby at the invitation of the PNG government in August 2023 (US Coast Guard Forces Pacific)

Matupit islanders rile Trumpy bigly
| Thanks to Rod Pearce and Rob Parer

RABAUL - The US Coast Guard has been in town with quite a large vessel. Half a dozen of the crew decided to climb the Matupit volcano, as you do.

Unfortunately they got the ‘Hands Up!’ by local rascals who stole everything the matelots had on them – backpacks, bugs, plugs, cell phones and ‘Make Matupit Great Again’ caps.

KEITH JACKSON
| With great assistance from AI Claude

Australian Indigenous smoking ceremony (City of Mandurah)

NOOSA - There is a document circulating on social media and by email that purports to be from the controversial Indigenous Australian political figure Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who is Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians and, most recently, also Shadow Minister for Government Efficiency (terminology with thanks to Elon Musk).

The document contains a number of assertions claiming that a number of well-known Aboriginal cultural practices are modern inventions and not of traditional origin. In this article, with AI Claude's help, we contest the truthfulness of each claim.

BAKA B BINA

“A Farmer Brings On a Wife is perfectly structured for a television series. Imagine a village in PNG, a son needs a wife and the whole village is involved. PNG’s 860 languages means 860 customs and in PNG this is just one of 860 ways to be wed. Multiple characters, well defined, and familiar. A fast paced and episodic read with lots of relevant side stories: laugh out loud, be a little shocked at the racy moments, cry a little, and ultimately….. well, buy the trilogy. It will be available online soon. The book award judges still speak of it. Every corner filled with ancient wisdom and culture. It is a readers ‘find’. Cannot be put down. Congratulations Bina Baka. A triumph!” - First Nation Writers Festival

MICHAEL KABUNI
| Academia Nomad

PORT MORESBY - I’m working on a paper looking at possible explanations of how Papua New Guinea has survived as a democracy despite lacking strong democratic principles.

I am reminded of the introduction in Ron May’s book on the first 25 years of PNG’s independence, State and Society in Papua New Guinea: The First Twenty-Five Years.