NEWS DESK
| Radio New Zealand

PORT MORESBY - A senior Papua New Guinea health official says the confirmation of measles in the capital, Port Moresby, is deeply concerning, but he's hopeful any outbreak can be contained.

A five-year-old from Boroko was confirmed to have the disease earlier this week, the third in the country since last month.

KOMBA SAKUMB
| Take Back PNG | Edited

PORT MORESBY - Have you ever wondered why urban settlements are growing, mass rural urban migration happening, urban accommodation rates skyrocketing, evictions from settlements are occurring everywhere…..

Have you ever wondered why urban customary land is being bought by outsiders, urban law and order problems are rising, urban poverty is growing, rural district centres are run down, the incidence of street begging, prostitution and cities full of rubbish is increasing?

Patricia Oome,  14,  a week after being admitted to hospital for severe malnutrition and tuberculosis (Alex Ellinghausen)

ALEX ELLINGHAUSEN
| Sydney Morning Herald

SYDNEY - It's barely a whisper when 14-year-old Patricia Oome speaks, and her movements are laboured as she struggles to find a comfortable position on her bed.

A room full of children shouldn't be this quiet, but like many admitted to the paediatric ward of the Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH), Patricia is weak from severe malnutrition - a result of often eating just one meal a day as her family feels the financial strain of having seven children.

KEITH JACKSON
| Source: PNG News

PORT MORESBY - Just before Christmas the health department confirmed two positive cases of measles in Papua New Guinea.

Testing at the central public health laboratory detected the disease in the Gulf and New Ireland provinces when surveillance was heightened due to the deadly measles outbreak in Samoa which killed 80 people, mainly young children.

"In effect the churches blame the wife for the beatings and violence her husband has inflicted on her"

PHIL FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - In the first of a series of recent articles on gender and Christianity on The Conversation website it is suggested that a literal translation of the bible may be contributing to domestic violence.

In a self-declared Christian nation like Papua New Guinea, with very high levels of violence against women and children, this discussion has particular relevance.

ROSA KOIAN

PORT MORESBY - A photo posted on Facebook showing dried freshwater fish at Wewak market has sparked a discussion on the future of the Sepik River.

In the river’s headwaters, the Frieda copper and gold mine is pushing ahead with its development plans.

The Sepik is 1,100km long and empties into the Bismarck Sea. The river system’s 430,000 people use the river for food, education, transport, health and culture.

NEWS DESK
| Transparency International | Extract

BERLIN - Solving the climate crisis is possible, but vested economic interests and a lack of political will stand in the way.

Today is International Anti-Corruption Day. The climate crisis cannot be tackled without tackling corruption.

International funding for climate adaptation and mitigation measures will reach over K340 billion in 2020. Even more - around K2,000 billion - will be spent from national budgets.

Prof Glen Mola, the first 'baby bundle' mother (and baby) and the baby bundle at Goglme in Simbu. The bundle encourages mums and dads to seek a supervised birth

PROF GLEN MOLA
| UK PNG Church Partnership

PORT MORESBY - I have spent much of the 50 years of my professional life trying to improve health outcomes for women and their new-borns in Papua New Guinea.

Research over the last 30 years has been very clear, that supervised birth in a health facility and family planning are the two things that can make the difference between life and death for women and their babies.

Nursing staff and children in Oro Province, c 1970s

LINDSAY BOND

BRISBANE – Mine is a truly sorrowful and even frightening story and I am motivated to write it after reading a PNG Post-Courier article by Nathan Kuman.

I follow Rostrum’s motto “not to be silent when I ought to speak”.

Four weeks ago I spent three nights at Kokoda, staying at a guest facility run by the family of Henry Amuli MP, which is located nearby the Kokoda Hospital.

Public accounts committee deputy chairman Governor Gary Juffa and  chairman Sir John Pundari enter a packed conference room to investigate the health department. How many deaths has this corrupt and incompetent department been responsible for?

SCOTT WAIDE
| My Land, My Country | Edited

PORT MORESBY - Inside a packed conference room on the first level of B-Wing at Papua New Guinea’s parliament house, the Public Accounts Committee awaits senior members of the health department.

Already present are representatives from the logistics  and pharmaceutical companies who have been summoned to give evidence in this investigation into a health system in crisis.

Even if small babies survive, they can suffer severe health problems throughout life and have a shorter life expectancy

NEWS DESK
| Burnet Institute

MELBOURNE - Shockingly, one in seven babies in Papua New Guinea is born with a low birth weight.

Babies born too small are often too weak to fight infection and as a result are very likely to die.

Even if they survive, they can suffer severe health problems throughout their life, and have a shorter life expectancy.

Jamie Maxton-Graham in Mexico in 2008 - he persuaded Daniel Kumbon to adopt a healthy lifestyle

DANIEL KUMBON

WABAG – When we met for the first time far from home, the late Jamie Maxton Graham encouraged me to give up Coca-Cola.

It was in Mexico City in August 2008, and it’s not often you come across a national minister who talks on a personal level about health and other important life issues.

All in a day's work (Aurélie Rawinski)

AURÉLIE RAWINSKI
| Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders

KEREMA - We spend two days a week at Malalaua in the Gulf region.

Local buses are sporadic and each boat trip costs more than our patients can afford.

Transport support is, therefore, part of the package of services that we offer to ensure quality care for patients throughout their tuberculosis (TB) treatment, which lasts at least six months.

Boxers entertain crowds of mainly young people at an after hours marketplace in Mt Hagen (Natalie Whiting)

NATALIE WHITING
| PNG correspondent | Australian Broadcasting Corporation

MOUNT HAGEN - The Mount Hagen Market is usually one of the busiest places in town, with hundreds of people visiting each day to buy fruit and vegetables.

But on Sundays it belongs to the City Rats and their crowd of spectators, who form a circle and watch as two men strap on shin guards and gloves. Then the fight begins.

Landowner Alex Maun in the dying forest near Ok Tedi River. He sued BHP in the 1990s (Alex de la Rue)

NICK TOSCANO
| Sydney Morning Herald/The Age

MELBOURNE - A fresh legal dispute has erupted over control of a fund set up to benefit the tens of thousands of villagers affected by mining giant BHP's environmental disaster at the Ok Tedi mine in Papua New Guinea more than 20 years ago.

The Ok Tedi mine – which BHP co-owned with the PNG government until selling its stake in 2002 – discharged tens of millions of tonnes of mine waste into the local river system during the 1980s and 1990s, contaminating fish and trees and devastating the area's economy.

Dramatic photograph captures the horrific scene of a woman being tortured in front of a village crowd

ROBERTA STALEY
| Ms Magazine | Extract

WASHINGTON DC - Paul Petrus speaks softly about the part he played in the rescue of an accused witch.

Anna (not her real name), a young woman in her mid-twenties, was being tortured by villagers outside Mount Hagen in the Western Highlands Province.

After a 2015 outbreak of tribal violence in neighbouring Enga, Anna had fled approximately 130 km to escape the conflict.

My colleagues involved in the 2012 national election - ambitious candidates made it an easy way to earn money

PORAP GAI

LAIAGAM – It was seven years ago, during the 2012 national election, that I first witnessed that a larger number of young people living in my community in Enga Province were HIV victims.

My home village is Niunk in the Lagaip-Porgera district. Nearby villages include Kanak, Wanepap, Komaip, Waiyap and Lakris.

My friends in those villages left high schools at that time in 2012 to get involved in the election. I was going to do the same but withdrew since in those days I was a drunkard and chasing women.

Pope Francis and Cardinal Ribat, who asks: "“Where will we be after all these islands are gone?”

MBIKOYEZU JOHN
| Vatican News

THE VATICAN - As the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region ended recently, Cardinal John Ribat of Papua New Guinea said he could identify with most of the topics that were discussed.

Cardinal Ribat, the Archbishop of Port Moresby, said that there are many similarities between Papua New Guinea and the Amazon region and many topics resonated with what is happening in PNG.

Louisa - "Shortly into the treatment, I felt better, and I stopped taking the medication regularly”. It was a mistake

NEWS DESK
| Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

PORT MORESBY - Louisa’s hands shake from anxiety, as they do every morning. She is clearly nervous as she fills a bottle of water and picks up a handful of different tablets.

Louisa, who is in her late 20s, lives with her family close to the seashore in one of the many small settlements that make up Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea.

"If not transferred to Australia, they will be on the streets of our capital city, their days numbered at the hands of thugs or as a result of starvation and sickness"  - Fr Giorgio Licini

FR GIORGIO LICINI

PORT MORESBY - The debate rages on about the possible repeal of the so-called Medevac Bill in the Australian Senate.

The politically divisive legislation came into force in March this year allowing about 140 seriously ill asylum seekers and refugees to seek medical treatment in Australia from the offshore processing centers of Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

Fr Giorgio Licini - "It is outrageous what is being done to refugees in Manus, Port Moresby and Nauru"

FR GIORGIO LICINI

PORT MORESBY – Yesterday was World Migrant and Refugee Day and a message from Pope Francis to mark the day was particularly meaningful for our part of the world.

The words of the Pope help uncover a sense of truth about what has been going on for the past six years in Nauru and Manus.

Dr David Ayres - "There is an obvious need to improve access to family planning methods in PNG"

DAVID AYRES
Country Director, Marie Stopes PNG

PORT MORESBY - Today is World Contraception Day. Launched in 2007, it seeks to improve awareness of contraception and to enable young people of child-bearing age to make informed choices about fertility choices and sexual and reproductive health.

The use of contraception in Papua New Guinea remains very low.  The most recent ‘Papua New Guinea Demographic and Health Survey 2016-18 Key Indicators Report’ painted an alarming picture of family planning.

Despite 85% of PNG’s population living in rural areas, only 35% of contraceptive users live in rural areas, and lesser educated and poorer women are much less likely to use contraception.

Powes Parkop has initiated a Million Trees campaign as part of his program to promote resistance to climate change in Port Moresby and PNG

KEITH JACKSON

NEW YORK – Governor Powes Parkop will today address a United Nations climate action summit which is seeking to mobilise collaboration and investment to accelerate and support climate action to combat global climate change.

The boss of Papua New Guinea's capital will share his experience from Port Moresby and emphasise the serious problems issues that PNG and small island developing nations in the Pacific and elsewhere face with climate change.

NEWS DESK
| Transparency International

BERLIN - The climate crisis, like corruption, is a matter of life or death.

The evidence is hard and clear. The last five years are the hottest ever recorded in the 139 years that the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has tracked global heat.

Children on an oil palm estate - life in camps with no schools and their birthright disappearing

NEWS DESK | Sarawak Report | Edited extract

SARAWAK, MALAYSIA - Dayak landowners of Sarawak will take no pleasure, but experience little surprise, in hearing how the people of Papua New Guinea have been ill-treated by logging and oil palm plantation conglomerates based in East Malaysia.

These are companies who first robbed Sarawakians of their land rights before extending operations into virtually all the remaining timber reserves on the planet.

ARTHUR WILLIAMS

CARDIFF, WALES - I’m a simple person who lived in Papua New Guinea for over 30 years and who feels there is something very wrong with the political system when a very large island nation with a small population and blessed with a super abundance of resources has experts talking about its fragile state.

Indeed why has the former Australian territory of PNG with such an abundance of wealth has depended for over 44 years since independence on Australia for many billions of dollars in grants and other forms of aid.

I would love someone to research how many massive billions have been earned by the various extractive companies over those 44 years plus the billions earned in cash crops such as coffee, cocoa, copra, oil palm in addition to the many billions transferred from tropical logs and the wealth derived from PNG’s huge marine zone fisheries.

Leaders in Oro Province are taking steps to protect the endangered Queen Alexandra Birdwing butterfly

NEWS DESK | NBC News / PNG Today

PORT MORESBY - Concern has been raised in Papua New Guinea and overseas about the disappearance of the Queen Alexandra Birdwing butterfly species in Oro Province.

The Birdwing is the world's largest butterfly and it is found only in PNG and can be found only on the Managalas plateau in Oro.

A proposal presented to the Ijivitari District Development Authority by local MP Richard Masere said there are plans to establish a foundation to protect the endangered butterfly.

"I want to be the patron of this foundation,” Masere said.

“To kick start the foundation's work I'm putting K10,000 to campaign to save the Queen Alexandra butterfly.

Basamuk Bay, the once pristine water red from waste

SCOTT WAIDE | My Land, My Country

LAE - Ten years ago, a small group of Papua New Guineans made a decision to fight the construction of a multibillion kina Chinese-owned nickel mine in the Madang province.

The reasons were simple: land was going to be taken away from its traditional custodians in Kurumbukari in the Usino-Bundi electorate; and the sea, a vital resource for the people's survival, was going to be polluted by the dumping of tailings into Basamuk Bay.

I cannot mention the names of those who were strongly opposed to this because I do not have their permission. But they remained dedicated and were determined to stop the destruction from happening years before I got involved in the campaign.

It is one part of my life I never regretted.

Francis Irai and his family stand forlornly before their makeshift home at 9 Mile in Port Moresby located between a rock ledge and a busy road

CLEMENT KAUPA

PORT MORESBY - The fate of about 100 families residing in 64 units of National Housing Commission flats at Gordon in Port Moresby hangs in precarious balance as they face eviction from their homes of 20-30 years by a private property developer.

The matter is the subject of a bitter and protracted legal battle that has taken up the better part of the last 12 years and is still awaiting a final court decision.

But the political leadership of the National Capital District (NCD) must be lauded, and loudly, for standing up for the families who are agitated and distressed about the future.

Governor Powes Parkop and the MPs of Moresby South and North-East have made considerable efforts to address the adverse effects of physical developments on affected communities in and around the city.

Fr Giorgio Licini - “You cannot keep people in those conditions indefinitely; you destroy them. And who allows you to destroy people?”

PETER BUGDEN | The Catholic Leader

BRISBANE - A senior priest in Papua New Guinea has turned to Australia seeking compassion for refugees and asylum seekers languishing in our nation’s off-shore detention system.

Fr Giorgio Licini, general secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of PNG and Solomon Islands, has been in Australia in recent weeks pressing the case for an end to what he calls “a humanitarian crisis”.

Fr Licini has called for the Australian government to resolve the situation on humanitarian grounds.

Speaking as a missionary from PNG – a member of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions – and as a church man, Fr Licini said “we don’t necessarily question the policies of government in terms of border protection … but in this specific case I would say, see now the humanitarian crisis”.

Young Angau Hospital patients Rebecca and Benona later succumbed to cancer - Papua New Guinea has a desperate shortage of equipment and drugs to fight the disease

CLEMENT KAUPA

PORT MORESBY - We are all susceptible to cancer regardless of age, sex, race, health and socioeconomic situation.

Cancer strikes indiscriminately. It takes alike the old and young, weak and robust, eliminating a former common misconception- one of many myths of cancer - that it is mainly an ailment consigned to the older age bracket.

In recent years males are catching up to cancer’s prevalence amongst females - shattering another misconception that females are more prone to cancer.

Unlike death and its inevitability, cancer can be fatal, but is also avoidable and treatable, given the right drugs and equipment.

And it can be curable as well if diagnosed and treated at the earliest stage.

I was privileged to speak to the late Dr John Niblett about this in July 2013. At the time this great and selfless man was director of the Angau Memorial Hospital’s cancer treatment centre.

Mungo MacCallum - "Australia is not an innocent bystander at the mercy of the polluting giants: we are a major player"

MUNGO MacCALLUM | John Menadue: Pearls and Irritations

BYRON BAY - The Great White Father has arrived in the far flung atolls of the Pacific. And, like the missionaries before him Scott Morrison is delivering the bringing of the light — a gospel of hope and salvation.

Well, up to a point. Boiled down, his message is that if they are worried about the rising waters, they should sandbag the foreshores and move to higher ground if there is any, because he is not going to do anything substantial to help.

He will, of course, offer money, which his host at the Pacific Islands Forum, Tuvalu prime minister Enele Sopoaga, said was not really the point:

“No matter how much money you put on the table it does not give you the excuse not to do the right thing, which is to cut down on your emissions, including not opening your coalmines. This is the thing we want to see.”

"I said to Pascoe Kase (pictured) 'You have to go to the clinics and talk to staff because the information you are giving me here is wrong'.   It turned into a tense exchange"

SCOTT WAIDE | My Land, My Country

LAE - For the last five years, I have been repeating the same story: ‘We have a crisis in the health system.’

The rest of the country can see it. The people who are victims of the medicine shortages all over the country keep speaking out about it. Health workers have cried while being interviewed because they simply can’t save lives.

And we’re not talking about the expensive cancer treatment and operations families have to pay for. 

It’s the basics that are lacking. Antibiotics, malaria drugs, family planning drugs and consumables. The clinics don’t have them. Or even if they have them, the supplies are not enough for their catchment areas.

Personally, I have emailed the health secretary, Pascoe Kase, about the cancer unit in Lae, the ill-treatment of the late Dr John Niblet and the medicine shortages. I have called and sent text messages.

EMMANUEL NARAKOBI | My Land, My Country

PORT MORESBY - So let me backtrack. Economic segregation has been practiced for a long time in Papua New Guinea.

The so called ‘expat’, as defined legally for the private sector, was someone supposed to train local talent where relevant experience did not exist in an organisation.

But there is no foreign worker license which then perpetuates the ‘expat’ policy and attitudes. In other words we have institutionalised economic segregation.

When the Bougainville copper mine was established, the company did not just set up a mining project.

It set up an entire town with schools, hospitals and leisure facilities. Everyone, both Papua New Guineans and ‘expats’ lived and worked together in Bougainville with their families using the same facilities.

Dr Jale Samuwai (left) - "Pacific Island countries are at the frontline of the impact of climate change" (Wansolwara)

JUNIOR OIOFA | Wansolwara / Pacific Media Watch

SUVA - Climate change is real and many Pacific Island countries are experiencing this “destructive reality”, says climate researcher Dr Jale Samuwai.

Dr Samuwai became the first graduate to be awarded a PhD in climate change at the University of the South Pacific this year and his analysis of an “equitable Green Climate Fund allocation policy” has been published in the latest Pacific Journalism Review.

Speaking at the recent USP graduation ceremony, he said Pacific Island countries were at the frontline of the impact of climate change.

“Many low-lying atolls in the Pacific region like Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu among others are experiencing the same threat of global warming and sea level rise, which is very destructive to their lives,” he said.

NEWS DESK | Pacific Media Centre / Radio New Zealand

AUCKLAND - A report has detailed shocking levels of physical violence and neglect towards millions of Pacific Islands children, sparking calls for better-targeted aid programs from countries like New Zealand and Australia

The report team, from combined aid agencies, investigated child-rearing practices in seven Pacific countries, as well as Timor-Leste.

The report found as many as four million children experience violence at home across the Pacific – a staggering 2.8 million in Papua New Guinea alone.

More than half of all sexual violence referred to medical clinics involves children in PNG, where almost one in three parents report beating children “as hard as they can”.

GIANLUCA CERULLO | Mongabay | Extracts

Link here to the complete and detailed Mongabay article on the pillaging of Woodlark

MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA - A unique island ecosystem and culture lying 270 kilometers off Papua New Guinea is once more in the crosshairs.

Over the past decade, Woodlark Islanders have defended their forests — home to dozens of endemic species found nowhere else on Earth — from a slew of threats from loggers, miners and plantation developers.

Their latest challenge comes from a foreign-owned company, Kulawood Limited, which has applied for a permit to log and clear 30,000 hectares of land. If carried out, this will lead to the destruction of some 40% of the island’s forest.

NATALIE WHITING | Australian Broadcasting Corporation | Extracts

Link here to  the full version of Natalie Whiting’s disturbing story

PORT MORESBY - More than four million children in the Pacific region experience violent discipline at home, according to a report from organisations working on the ground.

"Millions of children experience exceptionally high levels of physical, emotional and sexual violence, as well as neglect," the report said.

But the organisations said despite "clear evidence of the scale and gravity of violence," the Australian government and other key donors have "failed to enact the measures needed to end the scourge".

The report, called ‘Unseen, Unsafe’, claims only $1.1 million, or 0.1% of Australian overseas development assistance in 2017, was directly spent on programs solely targeting violence against children.

"The levels of violence against children across the region are shocking, having a deeply detrimental impact on society. Successive donors and governments have so far failed to address it," the report says.

But the Australian government has defended its spending in the area, saying it has programs which directly and indirectly respond to the problem.

KEITH JACKSON with Rob Parer, Robert Brown and other sources

Now in Remission: A Surgical Life, by Ken Clezy, Wakefield Press, 472 pages, December 2012. ISBN-13: 978-1459643420. Paperback $36.99; Kindle Edition $8.43. Available from Amazon USA

LONDON - Ken Clezy AM OBE is a surgeon whose vocation has taken him many places, not all of them safe.

When three colleagues were shot dead at a Yemen mission hospital he escaped only because he had gone home for breakfast.

In Port Moresby, where he was the first professor of surgery at the University of Papua New Guinea, doctors and nurses still say, “Mr Clezy did it this way”.

He performed brain and spinal tumour surgery in PNG for many years and was a pioneer of non-operative management of the ruptured spleen in adults.

But his particular expertise was in the reconstructive surgery of deformities caused by leprosy.

PETER S KINJAP

PORT MORESBY - According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, REDD+ stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation.

The plus sign covers everything left out of that - conservation of forest carbon stocks, sustainable management of forests, and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks.

When talking climate change, REDD+ is a relevant national and international mitigation measure in which Papua New Guinea has a significant interest.

There are a lot of activities under this scheme, purportedly involving the government, landowners, international development partners and the private sector.

REDD+ seeks to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions resulting from declines in global forest cover and quality. The concept is to provide financial incentives in the form of results-based payments to developing countries that successfully slow or reverse forest loss.

The G20 leaders in Osaka - no doubt they are committed to tackling corruption, on paper

EMILIA BERAZATEGUI | Transparency International

BERLIN - After 11th-hour negotiations at the recent G20 summit in Osaka, the assembled leaders reached consensus on a communiqué through which they sought to identify shared solutions to some of the most pressing challenges faced by the global community.

Anti-corruption featured far more prominently in this program than in previous years, and the G20 adopted new commitments and resources for tackling this major threat to sustainable development that works for all.

So, where do we go from here?

After engaging with the G20 throughout the process and attending the Summit, here are our four main anti-corruption takeaways from the 2019 G20.

SIMON PENTANU

BUKA - A fallen calophyllum tree hacked to death and felled into the sea by the most predatory species on the planet.

This is old growth beach tree is more than a century old.

I know this tree, this is where we used to roam, run and swim along the beach and foreshore when growing up as children in the early 1950s into the 1960s before some of us left the village to get educated in classrooms.

Some of the calophyllum of similar age and size, along with other old growth beach tree species, are still standing along the beach. It is always a great relief to see and touch them and get a sense of perspective of how small a man is compared to their height and huge shade-providing foliage.

This fallen calophyllum met with its fate because, compared to the others along the beach, it had a straighter trunk attractive to provide a couple of sawn planks which were used to contribute to building material for teachers’ housing at the local island school.

Michael Bociurkiw - "The aspiring 'richest' and 'Christian' nation needs to take immediate action to guarantee the protection of its female citizens"

MICHAEL BOCIURKIW | CNN

PORT MORESBY - You don't have to spend a long time on the fringes of Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, to realise that many of the roads lead to a place where luck seems to have run out.

In an urban slum called Eight Mile, women are relegated to decrepit shacks, caring for their children, who are fighting off a range of illnesses from malaria and dengue fever to skin rashes.

Last month, former finance minister James Marape was sworn in as the new prime minister on the promise of transforming the country into "the richest, black, Christian nation on the planet."

But chances are that it will take some time before the women and children of Eight Mile and across much of this South Pacific nation of eight million see any tangible improvements in their livelihoods.

Fiame Mata’afa -  'Australia and New Zealand keep telling us that we’re not old enough, not capable enough'

JACK BANISTER | The Citizen

MELBOURNE - Samoa’s Deputy Prime Minister, Ms Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, has urged Australia and her own country to “become adults” in their relations, which she said have been marred by “petulance” in the past.

“I think we need to have a more mature relationship. Because quite frankly, it’s been one of patronage, in a way,” said Ms Mata’afa, delivering a keynote address last week to a development conference hosted by La Trobe University in Melbourne.

She illustrated her concerns in the context of increasing diplomatic competition between China and Australia within the Pacific region.

Ms Mata’afa, who is the daughter of Samoa’s first prime minister and has served as the country’s deputy prime minister since 2016, said “people keep on telling us, including Australia and New Zealand, that we’re not old enough, we’re not capable enough, to run our own relationships with China.

“When it comes to us, they say, ‘you really need to be, you should remember that we are your older brothers, or sisters, here in the Pacific, and you have to be careful of those Chinese people’ ”.

No protection for PNG whistleblower Brian Alois - still suspended as provincial engineer  more than a year after exposing corrupt contracts

NEWS DESK | Transparency International

BERLIN - The brave individuals who report wrongdoing at work are vital for exposing corrupt schemes and actions.

Countless lives and billions of dollars of public funds have been saved thanks to whistleblowers.

Too often, however, they face retaliation after bringing corruption, fraud and financial malpractice to light.

These attacks are sometimes professional, sometimes legal, and can even be directed against the whistleblower’s family, property or physical and mental well-being.

Many times, those who enact revenge on whistleblowers are able to get away with it because there aren’t sufficient measures in place to protect whistleblowers from retaliation.

But, is change around the corner?

Today we celebrate World Whistleblower Day, Sunday 23 June, with some serious wins for whistleblower protection already behind us in 2019, and some encouraging developments on the horizon.

Signs that the Kimadi’s subsistence lifestyle is under threat appeared last July when Malaysian company Woodbank Pacific began logging 10 kilometres upstream

ROBERTA STALEY | Corporate Knights

Link to the full article here

MADANG - Eight members of the Kimadi tribe stand, crouch or sit on the hard ground, knotty with exposed tree roots, enjoying the relative cool offered by a verdant canopy of leaves overhead.

Just a few metres away, the quiet clear waters of a Bismarck Sea lagoon, filled with small schools of striped tropical fish, lap against the grassy bank.

The setting is tranquil and bucolic – but not for the Kimadi, who have travelled from their traditional territory in Madang  Province to consult with an NGO, the Bismarck Ramu Group (BRG).

Founded in 1996 and headquartered just outside the town of Madang, BRG provides consulting services and advice to Indigenous groups like the Kimadi who are fighting ever-growing threats from logging and palm oil development on their lands.

Lady Roslyn Morauta - "8.5 million people face very serious development and public health challenges"

ROSLYN MORAUTA | The Mandarin

PORT MORESBY - Investing in health is one of the best ways to build a better future. Healthy societies are more stable and equal and have stronger and more productive economies.

In today’s increasingly interconnected world, improving public health is a global common good.

Because microbes do not stop at borders, an infectious disease threat in any corner of the world can be a threat everywhere. No one is safe until everyone is safe.

Take the example of Papua New Guinea, where I have lived and worked for many years.

Since the turn of the century, there has been significant progress in the fight against HIV and malaria in PNG.

Wesley Morgan - "To avoid catastrophic impacts, the world cannot expand coal production"

WESLEY MORGAN | Twitter

SUVA - News has broken that the controversial Adani coal mine in Australia has been given the green light for work to start.

So how will this news be greeted by other countries in Australia's Pacific neighbourhood?

Coal is the single greatest driver of climate change. In 2018 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) explained that coal-fired power must be phased out to avoid dangerous climate change.

To avoid catastrophic impacts, the world cannot expand coal production. Last year, 12 Pacific island countries issued a joint statement at United Nations climate talks explaining "there must be no expansion of existing coal mines or the creation of new mines."

At last year's annual Pacific Islands Forum meeting, 16 countries (including Australia) issued a regional security declaration explaining climate change is the "single greatest threat" facing the region.

Billy Bau, Ruben Robin & Peter Kinjap work on project to sustain forests using blockchain

PETER S KINJAP

Images by Stella Wainetti

PORT MORESBY – A key pathway to combat climate involves building capacity and training locals to be climate change ready and resilient.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has taken the lead to provide the required training for people in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu so they can better address climate change issues.

According to US Ambassador to PNG, Catherine Ebert-Gray, well over $80 million has been invested in Pacific environmental and climate change projects over the last few years.

The USAID climate ready project has been in PNG for nine years, with $11 million in small grants being disbursed.

The project was established so PNG and island nations could access the growing amount of international funds available specifically for Pacific countries to address the effects of climate change.

Dr Fiona Hukula - "Gender-based violence is a key issue which requires continued government attention"

FIONA HUKULA | National Research Institute | Edited

PORT MORESBY - In his maiden speech as prime minister, James Marape, stated that Papua New Guinea’s economy will be the key priority for his government.

Mr Marape also reiterated the need to maximise local benefits from the extraction of the country’s natural resources.

It is important to note that a strong and resilient economy will have a positive impact on men, women and children.

However, a prosperous, secure and equitable society requires continued and concerted effort in addressing fundamental problems that affects women and children. Gender-based violence is a key issue which requires continued government attention.

All forms of violence against women and children such as rape, sexual assault and violence related to sorcery accusation affects individuals, families and communities.

Violence against women affects their mental and physical health; and their mobility and productivity.