JOHN MENADUE

On almost every measure, Australia has gone backwards on engaging with our region, and particularly with China, and it is time to do something about it.

As a settler society we cling to our history with the UK, Europe and now the US. We are fearful of our geography. We have failed so far to reconcile our history and geography.

KEITH JACKSON

MV REGATTA, EN ROUTE TO SHANGHAI – I never bloody learn. Never. My travelling days should be over. Don’t have the back for them. Nor the neck, nor the hips. Can’t feel my feet. Knees OK.

But, even though I rarely leave the ship, I enjoy travelling with Ingrid. Who brings me tales from ashore. The markets. The price of kimonos in Nagoya. The street dramas. The drum orchestras. Purchasing shoes in a foreign language.

NEWSROOM
Radio New Zealand

 “Back to square one in PNG by the look of it. Finally they have understood
why all those DIES District stations on shortwave were so successful in
nation building and information sharing” – Martin Hadlow

AUCKLAND - Papua New Guinea's National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) is aiming to reintroduce shortwave radio to achieve the government's goal of 100 percent broadcast coverage by 2030.

This week, the state owned broadcaster hosted a workshop on the reintroduction of shortwave radio transmission, bringing together key government agencies and other stakeholders.

EDITED BY KEITH JACKSON

SMART TRAVELLER ADVICE FOR PNG
| Foreign Affairs Department Australia

CANBERRA - We continue to advise exercise a high degree of caution in Papua New Guinea due to high levels of crime, tribal violence and civil unrest. Higher levels apply in some areas.

Local level elections will take place across the country between May and August 2025. Be alert to the possibility of tensions and violence during elections.

BERNARD CORDEN

I have never seen a situation so dismal that a
 policeman couldn't make it worse - Brendan Behan

BRISBANE – In my estimation, one of the most repugnant rednecks in the Morrison ministry was the federal member for Dickson who eventually took the poisoned chalice and became leader of the opposition.

The socially awkward malapert was a former walloper with the Queensland Police Service and reached the dizzy heights of detective senior constable.

BERNARD CORDEN

I don’t hold a hose mate - Scott Morrison

BRISBANE - Every nation gets the government it deserves and the appointment of the so-called Liar from the Shire as Australia’s 30th prime minister must have been a belated payback from Papua New Guinea following its hastily granted independence back in 1975.

If you search the internet for kakistocracy, it would more than likely generate an irritating mugshot of a smirking sanctimonious mooncalf.

PRISILLA MANOVE
| Prisilla's Notes

HIGHLANDS - Isau and Iningeh are a father and daughter team. They lost their wife and mother when Iningeh was an infant, and since then it has just been the two of them.

In Marawaka and along the coffee belt, most of the labour for subsistence agriculture and coffee production is done by women.

DOUGLAS PATIKEN BARARA

PORT MORESBY - On the eve of Papua New Guinea’s fiftieth anniversary, the identity of our country is slowly being erased by Western influences.

But none of us cares about it, let alone wants to stop it. Cheerfully we rejoice in the destruction of our motherland.

BERNARD CORDEN

When politicians offer you something for nothing, or something that sounds
too good to be true, it's always worth taking a careful second look - Malcolm Turnbull

After the leadership spill, Tony Abbott was replaced by Mr Harbourside Mansion and the subsequent farewell party at parliament house with his flour gang was a boisterous affair.

Damage during the cabinet anteroom shenanigans was limited to a shattered ornate Italian marble coffee table and several shards were later discovered in ministerial offices.

BERNARD CORDEN

There are no factions in the Liberal Party - Tony Abbott

BRISBANE - The cracks under Rudd rapidly turned into chasms and provided an ideal opportunity for yet another unflushable turd on the neoliberal gravy train to seize power.

Tony Abbot, the former seminarian and surrogate love child of John Howard and Margaret Thatcher was a renowned bruiser and head kicker without a skerrick of emotional intelligence.

IN MEMORIAM

CARDIFF, SOUTH WALES - It is with great love and deep sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved father, Arthur John Frederick Williams, who died peacefully at Heath University Hospital on 09th April, aged 86 surrounded by loved ones.

Arthur was a man of great integrity, compassion, and wit. Born and raised in Cardiff, South Wales, he spent over 30 years in Papua New Guinea, where he served with dedication as a kiap—a colonial patrol officer—navigating remote terrain, bridging cultures, and contributing to the development of local communities.

BERNARD CORDEN

I am not a socialist. I have never been a socialist
and I never will be a socialist - Kevin Rudd

BRISBANE - Rejecting capitalism and replacing it with an authentic democratic socialist society is much more imperative today than it was since voting was first granted in Australia over a century ago.

It is somewhat paradoxical that throughout those years most of its progressive governments have done very little or absolutely nothing to achieve their fundamental aims and objectives.

BERNARD CORDEN

Soon, if we are not prudent, millions of people will be watching each other
starve to death through expensive television sets - Aneurin Bevan

BRISBANE - Aneurin (Nye) Bevan was the visionary architect behind Britain’s National Health Service, which was inspired by the Tredegar Medical Aid Society’s scheme and established immediately following World War II.

It encountered some stubborn resistance from the British Medical Association even though it was a major piece of social reform that offered a free health service for UK citizens, irrespective of their socioeconomic status.

ALLAN PATIENCE
| Pearls & Irritations

MELBOURNE - In October 2012, Australia’s prime minister Julia Gillard released a White Paper titled Australia in the Asian Century.

The paper offered a lightweight commentary about a coming Asian century and provided a few thought bubbles on how Australia might respond to such a development.

LUKE COOPER
| Australian Broadcasting Corporation | Extracts

Link here for full article

Family members comfort a boy as he receives a polio
immunisation in Papua New Guinea (ABC News)

PORT MORESBY - Two cases of poliovirus type 2 have been detected in children who live just over 500 kilometres north-east of Queensland's Cape York, and a "national emergency response" has been triggered by Australia's closest international neighbour.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed on Thursday that polio was detected in Papua New Guinea from a wastewater sample in the city of Lae and an environmental sample in the nation's capital, Port Moresby.

MICHAEL DOM

“In order to find solutions for socioeconomic improvement it is very important to define precisely what is good for a society within its cultural context”

LAE – A few years ago, Papua New Guinea’s prime minister, James Marape, was incredibly foolish not to support the development of a literary culture when it came knocking at his door in the guise of writers Daniel Kumbon, Caroline Evari and Betty Wakia (see photo).

Or perhaps he wasn’t being foolish. Perhaps the snub was purposeful.

EDDIE TANAGO
| Act Now

PORT MORESBY - A new report calls for urgent action by Papua New Guinea and overseas authorities to address long standing issue related to illegal logging, human rights abuses and environmental harm.

The report, published by community advocacy organisation Act Now and the Jubilee Australia Research Centre, focuses on Forest Clearing Authorities (FCAs), a type of logging licence.

AG SATORI

POT MOSBI - Wantok blo mi ya toksave olsem klostu em bai go long ples bilong maloons long kaikaim lanz wantaim ol lain First Nations Writers Festival.

Mi gat bikpla hamamas long em.  Mi yet mi bin igat bikpla halivim long em long despla buk.  Tok ‘moto-moto’ em toktok bilong mi na sapos yu rit insait long buk, yu ken tok tenk yu lo mi.

MICHAEL DOM

LAE - In my line of work as a research and development agent, I’ve often had the time to contemplate how we as a country could possibly figure a way out of the mess that our politicians always seem to drop us into, apart from those socioeconomic challenges that are a natural result of our environment.

There are definitely no quick–fix solutions, and I think the last fifty years of nationhood have taught us that much; for my generation, it seems we’re not getting out of this one alive.

MATHIAS KIN

KUNDIAWA - This article explains the significant Chimbu custom of gi alla paunga which in the Keri tokples of South Simbu literally means girl sleep inside at first menstruation of a young girl, which marks the transition from girlhood to womanhood.

The article features Olmi of Sua village of the Keri Horagan clan. I delve into intricate isolation rituals, the alla paunga, typically lasting about seven days but can take fewer depending upon the wealth, standing and ability of the family,.

PETER S KINJAP

Albert Maori Kiki visiting the hospital at Saiho 1951 (Albert Speer)

Ten Thousand Years in a Lifetime: A New Guinea Autobiography by Albert Maori Kiki, FrederickA Praeger (First Edition), New York, January 1968, 190 pages. This book is widely available in various editions from second hand bookstores. You need not pay more than $20 - $40

‘Ten Thousand Years in a Lifetime’ is more than an autobiography; it is a bridge between two worlds.

In this ground-breaking autobiography, Sir Albert Maori Kiki recounts his life journey from a traditional village upbringing in Gulf Province to becoming one of the key political figures in Papua New Guinea’s push for independence.

EDITED BY KEITH JACKSON

Michael Somare and John Momis - architects
and builders of the PNG Constitution

Call out for video & pictorial material
| Keith Jackson

NOOSA –Following the House of Assembly elections of early 1972, the Papua New Guinea parliament appointed a Constitutional Planning Committee to make recommendations for a constitution for the then self-governing territory, with a view to eventual independence.

Now film-maker and journalist Max Uechtritz has taken on the difficult task of honouring in film the work of the committee. Difficult because 53 years later the people involved have died or are aged and pictorial material of the committee and its work is rare and hard to come by.

DANIEL KUMBON

Iron bridge built across the Lai River at my Kondo village.
The road is now sealed but was previously
a log bridge and before that a vine bridge

KANDEP - I was born into a primitive world. I didn’t fully understand what independence was about. It was only after about 12 years schooling I saw my country gain its independence

But nobody - teachers, patrol officers, nobody - told us independence would come so early.

EDITED BY KEITH JACKSON

The Chinatown district of Honiara on 26 November 2021, the third day of violence (Genocide Watch)

Pacific unrest: Solomons & New Caledonia
| From Foreign Affairs Department, Australia

HONIARA - We continue to advise exercise a high degree of caution in Honiara. Political unrest can occur in Honiara during parliament sittings, elections and times of political uncertainty. Petty crime, break-ins, robbery and more serious offences including sexual assault can occur. There has also been an increase of mosquito borne illnesses, including malaria and dengue fever.

BUSA JEREMIAH WENOGO

Busa Jeremiah Wenogo (right)

Commemorating my attainment of a Master of Economics & Public Policy degree
on 30 April 2025 at the University of PNG’s 70th Graduation Ceremony

This is for you Papa,

For being rejected in school because of no school fees many seasons ago.

For leaving behind all that you know to come to a strange and foreign land.

For braving the harsh working environment at the risk of your own life to pay for my school fees.

PETER S KINJAP

My Mother Calls Me Yaltep by Sir Ignatius Kilage, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, January 1984, 121 pages. This book is widely available in various editions from second hand bookstore. You need not pay more than $30 - $40

My Mother Calls Me Yaltep is a deeply personal and culturally rich narrative that charts the journey of a young Papua New Guinean boy growing up in the Highlands during the transformative years of colonial rule, missionary influence and eventual national awakening.

EDITED BY KEITH JACKSON

Australia warns on local violence
| From Department of Foreign Affairs, Australia

DFAT continues to advise travellers to exercise an elevated degree of caution in Papua New Guinea due to high levels of crime, tribal violence and civil unrest. Even higher levels apply in some areas. Local level elections will take place across the country between this month and August 2025. Be alert to the possibility of tensions and violence during elections.

DANIEL KUMBON

The pig being lifted up for another person to kill as a sacrifice during a ritual performance at an Enga cultural show (Daniel Kumbon)

KANDEP - I was born a kanaka at Kondo village in Kandep, Enga Province, sometime in the mid-1950s.

As a small boy, when I played with other children, there were no roads: we followed bush tracks to play on the village square (kamapu).

EDDIE TANAGO
| Act Now!

PORT MORESBY - World Press Freedom Day was observed on Saturday, as it is every year, to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to uphold and maintain freedom of expression.

Papua New Guinea is one tough environment to be a journalist or an advocate for good governance and human rights.

EDITED BY KEITH JACKSON
| From a patrol report by Rob Barclay

NOOSA - In the mountains of Chimbu District in March 1973 a tragedy unfolded. A Council Services Unit vehicle, driven by a man from the Kamanagu clan, struck three people near Kundiawa township. Two died—a man and a woman from the Endugwa clan—while another woman suffered injuries.

What followed reveals the complex interplay between traditional compensation practices and modern administrative systems in pre-independence Papua New Guinea.

MICHAEL DOM

Illustration by Bing AI Image Creator

I must hold things inside until they are
mature and dried. I must bury them well,
so that they become a seed, sprouting with
beauty of life, in a new expression.

I must speak, not when the time might seem right,
not might nor right; my time must be needful.
The root that cracks the pavement has not might,
nor might it be right. Truth is powerful.

KEITH JACKSON & AI CLAUDE

NOOSA – I was casually browsing through my collection of the six Anthologies produced under the auspices of the Crocodile Prize between 2011 and 2016 when I came upon the hand-made card pictured here.

It was a thank-you card from barata blo mi the late author Francis Nii, whose death in 2019 was a great tragedy to the continuing development of a vibrant Papua New Guinean literature.

PETER S KINJAP

Sana: An autobiography of Michael Somare, Niugini Press, Port Moresby, 1975, 152 pages including 20 pages of illustrations and portraits. Sana is widely available from second hand bookstores and you need not pay more than $40 - $50

PORT MORESBY - As Papua New Guinea celebrates its 50th anniversary of independence, it is fitting to reflect on the legacy of the nation’s founding father, the late Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare.

His autobiography, Sana, is not just a personal account of his life but a profound historical document that chronicles the struggles, triumphs and aspirations of a nation that was emerging from colonial rule to sovereignty.

KEITH JACKSON

Photo: Keith's diary. A journey by
sea in the Maldive Islands, 1978

MALÉ, WEDNESDAY

Sinbad, which will take us to the northern atolls, is about 40 feet long and spacious—a civilised vessel. It's also equipped with a refrigerator, which gives me cause to bring a carton of Tiger Beer aboard, enough to last the week for Rod Thompson and me. Being Muslims my Maldivian colleagues Badurul Naseer and Hussain Mohamed and the Sinbad crew of four do not drink alcohol.

EDITED BY KEITH JACKSON

Innovation - AI is not science fiction any more.
It’s already working in PNG. (Photo: Peter S Kinjap)

Trump making centre-left winners
| The Washington Post | Extract

The (electoral) precedent set in Canada could soon be repeated in another Commonwealth country. Australia’s federal election is this weekend, and the incumbent centre-left government of prime minister Anthony Albanese appears to have been boosted by Trump’s belligerence.

MICHAEL DOM

I want to do that, I want to go where
My childhood was crushed. I want to go there
With the grandchild my father never saw

I want to stand in the room where he died,
Sit on the steps where I crouched, watching him
Press his cold back against the central heating

EDDIE TANAGO

PORT MORESBY - Act Now, in collaboration with Starbox Production, has launched a new music video as part of a wider campaign to protect and promote customary land in Papua New Guinea.

“We are glad to partner with Act Now to promote this very important message,” said Starbox Band Manager, Willie Sarenga.