KEITH JACKSON

THE Crocodile Prize Organisation has been boosted in 2014-15 by the appointment of Oala Moi as its media director.

Oala, from Port Moresby, is press secretary to Boka Kondra, Papua New Guinea’s Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture.

He was educated at the University of Papua New Guinea from where he graduated with a degree in public administration in 2002.

After leaving university, Oala spent nine years working in PNG’s National Disaster Centre where he rose to a senior role specialising in disaster response.

He was a team member on the 2007 Cyclone Guba and flood disaster in Oro Province and the 2008 king tide disaster in PNG’s maritime provinces.

Since 2013 he has also worked in a voluntary capacity as executive officer and spokesperson for the Motu Koitabu (The Way Forward) Association.

Oala joined the office of Minister Kondra (left) in March and since then, in addition to his daily responsibilities, he has developed a media and public relations plan, prepared a policy submission on PNG’s commercial film industry and initiated the Tourism Arts & Culture Writing Award for the Crocodile Prize in 2015.

Continuing members of the Crocodile Prize Organisation are Jimmy Drekore (chairman), Phil Fitzpatrick (publishing director), Ben Jackson (website editor), Gary Juffa MP, Sil Bolkin, Francis Nii, Steven Ilave Sr, Michael Dom, Leonard Roka, Jane Awi, Bernard Yegiora, Bob Cleland and Keith Jackson.

The Simbu Writers Association, which will host next year’s Prize in Kundiawa on 19 September, is already planning for the first event to be held outside Port Moresby.

Sales of the Crocodile Prize Anthology 2014 have now exceeded 1,000. This 500-page book and anthologies drawn from 2011, 2012 and 2013 are all available from Amazon.

KELA KAPKORA SIL BOLKIN

OUR nation’s capital, Port Moresby is the central governmental, commercial and command nucleus of Papua New Guinea.

It has more than 400,000 people with an average density of 16 persons per hectare. The population continues to increase as a consequence of high fertility and immigration.

As a result, all avenues of social provision to enhance quality of life are stressed and the city is vulnerable and vicious trap.

PNG’s current population growth rate is at 3.1%. The availability of modern health facilities and medicines such as anti-retroviral therapy for people living with HIV have reduced the death rate and increased the life expectancy, also creating an ageing population.

Immigration into Port Moresby is huge. The bright city lights and what they promise are a great lure. But very few Grade 12 graduates find spaces in tertiary institutions and thousands of drop-outs from around the country are forced into the city’s settlements to find shelter and protection.

PNG has a long shoreline, thousands of islands and atolls and a long rugged land border with Indonesia. At the same time, it has ill-prepared defence and naval forces that are incapable of stopping illegal Chinese immigrants and drug syndicates from East Asia.

The legal and illegal East Asian migrant population is increasing rapidly in Port Moresby and tends to stroke the fat cats and allow them to rest easy.

Isolation and lack of development, tribal warfare and insecurity in the local level governments and wards throughout PNG impede people’s aspirations to improve their skills and income. People migrate to Port Moresby to escape.

The city’s existing settlements are expanding even as new ones are established. Right nowthere are 20 planned settlements and 79 unplanned settlements.

Forty-four unplanned settlements are on state land and 37 are on customary land. These settlements lack proper planning, are poorly resourced and lack urban services.

Overpopulation and poverty have long been connected with increased death and disease. People who move into unhygienic housing are particularly prone to health problems and even natural disasters.

TB is on the rise in Port Moresby. Skyrocketing food prices confine people to scones and cordial as staples.

Port Moresby, it is said, ranks eighth among the 30 most expensive cities in the world.

The city’s people mostly do not have the income for decent meals so they resort to crime, sex and corruption to obtain money for food.

The Port Moresby General Hospital is congested, services are poor and there is a shortage of skilled medical professionals. The lack of doctors puts the hospital under enormous pressure to adequately treat and manage patients.

Informal markets sprout everywhere and people fight over spaces to sell cheap fake products from South East Asia.

The markets are overcrowded and people spill onto te roads and footpaths, often sharing both with cars.

Drug addicts and street kids, stoned to near nirvana with Maryjane and coffee punch (grog), roam freely, squeezing schoolgirls’ buttocks and snatching mothers’ bags.

The impenetrable traffic jams have given meaning to a saying in PNG that “public servants deliver one year’s work in three years” since they always arrive late at work.

Aggressive highlanders are taking over available space in demarcated areas and the more polite and orderly Papuan, Islander and Momase people are left out of the informal sector at designated markets.

During the fifth Melanesian Cultural Festival this year, impoverished settlement vendors and vagrants were tortured with fan-belts by police.

A direction from the fat cats to sweep these human pests off the roads and city corners to give a false impression to our Melanesian neighbours that Port Moresby is civilised, well behaved and is clean.

They say the chaos in Lagos, the gun battles in Bogotá, the crime in Karachi and the bombings in Baghdad are no match to an unplanned and wild city such as Port Moresby.

The Economist Intelligence Unit surveyed and reported that Port Moresby is overwhelmed with poverty, crime, poor healthcare and a widespread gang culture from the fats cats right down to the cleaners.

As such, it has defeated 130 world capitals to take out the derogatory tag as the worst place to live in.

BARBARA SHORT

YESTERDAY 80-year old George Oakes joined the Sepik Region Development Discussion Forum on Facebook and I would say he had a great day.

George was able to write about his experiences building Nuku airstrip back in 1957.

He posted some excellent photos (two are shown here) showing the building of the strip.

He was also able to see current photos of Nuku and read of recent progress in the small township on the isolated mountain top in the West Sepik.

Many people thanked him for what he did in the past and for the ability to see the historic photos.

One writer commented that more ex-kiaps might have old photos taken in the Sepik in the early days which would be of great interest to the members of this forum.

Present leaders in Nuku plan to make copies of his photos and display them in the town for all to see.

I was wondering if PNG Attitude readers who worked in the Sepik, both East and West, might think about joining the Sepik Forum. If not already, they would have to become members of Facebook.

As the Forum is a private so they would also have to request membership from one of the Sepik moderators who run the site.

This can easily be arranged once they become members of Facebook.

I think it is wonderful to see former kiaps discussing things with the younger generation. I guess that is what PNG Attitude has been all about and the recent discussions on the “massacre” in Simbu were excellent.

This Facebook site is just about the Sepik region but it is very active. The other day I posted the idea of a Central Sepik province, based around Maprik, and have had 103 comments so far. 

RORY CALLINAN | Sydney Morning Herald | Extracts

WHEN David McNamara first complained to the Catholic Church in the 1990s that he had been sexually abused in a church-run home, he believed his abuser would face justice.

And as the years passed and he received a settlement for the abuse at the Kendall Grange home for intellectually disabled boys in NSW, he thought that at the very least his alleged attacker would have left the church and been kept away from children.

But, in August, the 60-year-old realised that the former brother, who had allegedly repeatedly molested him when he was 12, was still working as a Catholic priest, now in Papua New Guinea, and potentially has contact with children.

"I just couldn't believe it," Mr McNamara, a former theatre-lighting director, told the Herald. "It goes to show how poorly the church has behaved. The church hasn't acted on my disclosure. It looks like a cover-up. It disgusts me."

Mr McNamara is the second person to publicly allege abuse by former St John of God brother and now Catholic priest Father Roger 'Gabriel' Mount (pictured), and has called for the church to take action.

But, despite the payouts, which total more than $100,000, the church continues to allow Mount to work as a priest in Papua New Guinea.

Diocesan officials have revealed Mount continues to work as a priest at a remote parish, despite being suspended from parish work in 2011.

The scenario has infuriated Mr McNamara, who wants the church to bring Mount back to Australia to face justice.

"They're perpetuating my suffering," he said.

Mr McNamara alleges Mount sexually abused him when he was sick in bed at the Kendall Grange home at Morisset.

He says Mount regularly abused him in the school's television room. Mount left the order and became a priest in PNG in the 1980s.

Mr McNamara said, even after Mount left, he was abused by two other St John of God brothers, both of whom have since died.

In the early 1990s, Mr McNamara went to the church to report the abuse. He asked it to do something about his abusers. Mr McNamara said he also rang Mount in PNG.

"He (Mount) just laughed and said that was a long time ago," Mr McNamara said.

Mr McNamara said in 1997 he received an apology and a settlement for about $91,000, some of which went on legal fees. "They promised they would look into it," he said.

"Now we know they never did. I'm alarmed that they haven't acted. They (the abusers) should have been prosecuted or given counselling. There's something extremely wrong with this."

On Friday vicar-general for the Port Moresby Archdiocese, Father Ben Fleming, confirmed Mount was still conducting services in Sogeri and living in church accommodation.

He said Mount was supposed to have been suspended in 2011. Father Fleming declined to comment on why Mount was allowed to work despite the suspension.

Efforts to contact Mount were unsuccessful. Mount has previously denied abusing McNamara or any other child.

JOSH ALSTON | Townsville Bulletin | Extracts

A Papua New Guinean woman who lives in Townsville faces a death sentence unless Federal Immigration Minister Scott Morrison intervenes to halt her deportation.

Bernardene Morlin, 22 (pictured), has end stage renal failure and requires dialysis treatment to stay alive.

Because of her medical needs, she was denied a student visa by the federal government, a decision upheld by the Migration Review Tribunal.

If Mr Morrison does not intervene, Ms Morlin will be deported to PNG where she faces certain death.

Migration agent Rosaleigh Palmer has been fighting to keep Ms Morlin in Townsville since 2012.

She appealed to Mr Morrison to overturn the decision and grant her a visa on compassionate grounds.

“We’ve got letters from medical experts,” she said. “They all say if she returns home the outcome is certainly that she will die.

“The bottom line is the Minister has the option to make any decision when it comes to a visa ... the ball is in his court. Legally the right decision has been made, but morally not quite so.”

Bernardene’s mother Helen, a former IT consultant, has quit her job to be by her daughter’s side. She was barely able to choke back the tears when talking about the pain her family was going through.

“If we return home, there is no renal unit, there is no renal provision in the whole country,” she said. “There are only two dialysis machines in the whole country. She is not going to get the attention or medical care that she needs.

“One of my friends recently passed due to the same ailment Bernie has. I really do fear for her life. She won’t last up there.”

A spokeswoman for Mr Morrison said the minister is considering intervention.

“The minister will consider any ministerial intervention case on its merits based on the information presented to him by his department,” she said.

SIMON PENTANU

AUSTRALIAN NGO Jubilee Australia published a report in September on views held by villagers near the mine on the re-opening of the Panguna mine in Bougainville.

Jubilee, which claims to be a “scientific research body”, prepared the report jointly with two highly partisan organisations, the International State Crime Initiative and the Bismarck Ramu Group.

Kristian Lasslett, an Ulster-based Australian academic who is a constant purveyor of attacks on the Bougainville leadership, generally with little or no evidence, was heavily involved in the preparation and writing of the report.

In response to criticism of the report in the social media, Lasslett has defended himself and Jubilee notably in posts on the PNG Mine Watch blog (run by the Bismarck Ramu Group) and on Facebook’s Bougainville Forum.

Australians, Vicki Johns and Dantares Midway Jones (aka Andrew Jones) and Australian-based Bougainvillean, Clive Porabou, have all joined Lasslett in defending the report on the Bougainville Forum.

Jubilee and these others domiciled abroad will have us believe that they know more about Bougainville than anyone living on Bougainville and that they are privy to the personal views of the majority of Bougainvilleans today, including mine site landowners. 

The spread of these dubious “research findings” in Australia can be likened to a new malady that is about to hit Canberra, the cure for which only the bearers of the ill tidings possess and can administer.

Jubilee is at the forefront and is in this for exposure and publicity, not for the benefit of Bougainville.

Every time these desktop researchers return to their own countries after a very brief foray into their own mystical Bougainville, they carry a hastily packaged fantasy that reveals the ‘undeniable truth’ about what the majority of Bougainvilleans think about Panguna.

Jubilee is in Australia. They believe that a brief visit by anti-mining Bougainville researchers to Panguna, armed with questions to which they already ‘know’ the answers, provides better credentials than they had as remote-controlled observers of Bougainville from afar.

After ticking off their questionnaires, the organisation can make a jubilant exit, highly satisfied that their “research” confirms what they always believed.

With a prejudice and orientation against anything and everybody engaged in, or supportive of, what they see as the sordid business of mining, organisations like this will always be predisposed to searching and commenting to satisfy and confirm their very own views, which they can then confidently sell to Canberra.

Kristian Lasslett works and schemes from Ulster in Northern Ireland (UK). On matters concerning Bougainville he is the self-made expert – chopping, pasting and moulding Bougainville like plasticine to be forced into his desired shape and form.

Like the operatives at Jubilee, he drives a metal car, flies in metal planes and eats, I assume, mainly with metal cutlery. He and the Jubilee operatives do not suffer from metal fatigue, despite their disdain for industries that extract useful minerals.

Kristian will swear by his comments and views, defend them and feed them to anyone who likes to lap up tales of deceit and conspiracy against Bougainville by mining giants and governments.

At best he is a socialist, born to save the world’s downtrodden. At worst he is a Trotskyite, peddling and romanticising his thoughts around Melanesia.

He is a smooth operator, armed with mind-boggling academic qualifications, but why should PNG and Bougainville take notice of him?

He does not add value to our attempts to resolve our issues on Bougainville island, or in PNG for that matter. His activities simply feed his own ambitions.

He tells us that he knows Bougainville from the 1960s, though his appearance indicates he was barely an adolescent at the time of the Bougainville crisis.

He arrived after the crisis, well after the peace process took hold, only to collect the crumbs when the smorgasbord was over. This is obvious in his comments about wanting to return to Bougainville's past. Bougainvilleans be warned: this fellow cannot be trusted.

There’s little I can say about Vikki John. I believe she’s relatively harmless because I understand she rarely expresses her own views, assuming she has some. Apparently, her function is to cut, paste and disseminate any anti-mining material she comes across, in order to alert poor, ignorant Bougainvilleans to the dangers of doing further business with notoriously nasty mining companies.

I don't know who DAntares Midway Jones (aka Andrew Jones) is, but I gather he has been searching for his ancestry/roots, as his interchanging name suggests.

He has suddenly splashed himself onto the Bougainville scene with grandiose ideas for the salvation of the island and its population. He believes he has a profound proposal to rid Bougainville of its muddled past.

He proposes a Peoples Tribunal with draft terms of reference comprising Bougainvilleans who will preside as judge, jury, prosecutor and terminator. He even has a Tribunal Facebook page.

He claims he has aboriginal ancestry. He dons a Fidel Castro type cap, is clad in khaki clothes with an Australian Aboriginal flag badge sewn on the breast and he sports a Fidel Castro beard. He is calm, cool and does not flinch at his critics.

I don’t know where he popped up from. He says he made a single visit to Bougainville, a lone trip that has convinced him that he knows Bougainville well enough to insert a Tribunal there to disable the culprits responsible for the island’s demise.

He has some strange ideas about what might be best for Bougainville. He impresses me as someone who has probably been wandering around admiring rock drawings in arid caves and sacred aboriginal sites and suddenly thinks he is sufficiently indigenous to transplant himself into another traditional society like Bougainville.

Clive Porabou is the next best thing to cheese, biscuits and shiraz. Just as these tasty and intoxicating items make party conversation flow freely, Clive's presence and discussion with the likes of the people I have mentioned above make their adrenalin flow from both excitement and anger.

Clive lives abroad and, for those who have no personal experience on Bougainville, he is the Bougainville expatriate expert who satisfies the appetite of a certain mould of Australian academic, environmentalist, social psycho and welfare benefactor.

Always with an acoustic guitar in hand, he longs for the day when Bougainville might be governed by Me'ekamui, financed by Noah Musingku’s new Bougainville currency.

Hearing from Clive is enough to convince most non-Bougainvilleans that they have a duty to rescue Bougainville from bondage, and the government outfit to accomplish this is the version of Me'ekamui that Clive peddles abroad.

In truth, the Me'ekamui in central Bougainville have been consulting and beginning to work and cooperate with the Autonomous Bougainville Gobvernment (ABG), which was always bound to happen.

I can't be too critical of Clive, because in his heart of hearts he will always remain a true Bougainvillean, but suspicious of his expat friends. It suits him fine if they are gullible enough to believe him, because as long as this unfortunate business lasts, he can continue to enjoy peace and a relatively convivial lifestyle offshore.

Take heart, the reason why most Bougainvilleans won't whinge about, or flinch at, research that is carried out overnight from abroad is because it's not worth the paper it's written on.

If you were to enter the same Bougainville communities in the same locations and conduct your own research to extract a ‘yes to mining’ response, you would get it. It really depends on how the comments and questions are framed. The Jubilee research is simply a means to an end.

Jubilee, Kristian, Andrew Jones and all of these parties will always support such research and support each other. They are birds of a feather, flocking, scheming and screeching together. As some Bougainvilleans have commented in the Bougainville Facebook forum, this is all “bullshit”.

The ABG must make the Australian government aware that Jubilee is going to the Australian Parliament entirely of its own accord, without the knowledge, authority or respect of the ABG and most Bougainvilleans.

If we are not careful and if the ABG turns a blind eye, the confusion, disunity and anger these people can generate could pit Bougainvillean against Bougainvillean, community against community, clans and families against each other, and even the people against their leaders and government.

These are people coming into a society they really don't know much about or understand. They are attempting to ride roughshod over the programs and projects the ABG and landowners have been involved in towards resolving every issue in Panguna.

There has been steady progress towards addressing many outstanding Panguna grievances that affect everyone, not just the sampling of villages Jubilee has selectively interviewed.

There are senior ministers in the Abbott government, like foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop, who always have an ear and heart for Bougainville. There is no reason why the president and senior bureaucrats who have the carriage of different aspects and areas of discussion over Panguna, e.g. Steve Burain, Raymond Masono and advisers like Dr Naihuwo Ahai, cannot approach Canberra and confront the Jubilee research.

This is how absurd it is: Jubilee operatives come to Bougainville, do their fact finding visit up the road, fold up all the work and turn up in Canberra unbeknownst to ABG and most of Bougainville.

They do not even have the courtesy to call on the authorities on Bougainville to explain or share what they have done. If this is not conspiracy against ABG, for reasons only known to themselves, then I don't know what it is.

There is a real risk that foreign elements that have no responsibility or obligations on Bougainville and that are not accountable to anyone can derail fifteen years of peace process and reconciliation achieved without meddling from uninvited offbeat academics, latter day NGOs, busybodies and socialites that have nothing better to do in their own countries.

If they have nothing to contribute to their own governments and people, it is hard to accept the claim that their reconnaissance on Bougainville will enhance our future.

JOHN KAUPA KAMASUA

An entry in the Rivers Prize for
Writing on Peace & Harmony

WITHIN every society in Papua New Guinea today, the majority of people want to live in peace and harmony.

And the more enlightened ones want to position themselves on how best they can participate and benefit from the country’s progress.

But there continue to be real and new threats to peace and harmony in our communities.

Widespread drug and alcohol abuse, community rivalries over land and benefits from resource projects, and the arms build-up in many communities in are ever present threats to our way of life.

A recent development also that command and control for what happens in most communities no longer rest with the elderly or community leaders but with youths and “drug bodies”(1). Some of these unwelcome developments are like a powder keg waiting to explode.

Suddenly peace appears to be a rare commodity in a predominantly Christian country. Yet peace and harmony are fundamental ingredients for a free and prosperous PNG.

To me peace is not merely the absence of war, conflict or physical confrontation. It includes a complete absence of animosity, jealousy, and freedom from fear or suspicion of another party. It must also encompass freedom from cultivating hatred or revenge.

But, as is often the case in many communities, when peace is shattered there are mechanisms in place to address the consequences. Apart from the formal courts these include indigenous modes of addressing conflict.

One such model is Brukim Sugar (2) that was practiced in many parts of Simbu Province. (Similar peace ceremonies are still practiced in parts of the PNG highlands.)

Brukim Sugar is a special peace ceremony that involves two warring or conflicting parties performing acts that will signify the lasting end to the conflict.

Normally the ceremony involves peace mediators to act as go-betweens.

After the conflict subsides, and after a certain period of time, the process for the ceremony starts. The ceremony must be requested by both parties and, after negotiations, a date will be set.

Over the years, the peace brokers have been different people.

A neutral tribe or party acted as the peace negotiators in the old days. Luluais, tultuls, and kiaps were most commonly involved during the colonial period. Today it is the Provincial Peace and Good Order Committee, Police and members of the clergy.

Before the ceremony, a member of the clergy or a church representative might be allowed to read a text from the Bible and say a prayer.

The speeches to be made will thank each party for finally seeking peace and explain why peace and normalcy are important for the community.

They will touch on the laws that prohibit tribal warfare and the penalties for those who want to persist in promoting conflicts.

Then members from each warring party will be allowed to speak. Mostly the speeches will centre on the regrets and costs of the conflict, how sorry they are and affirm that, once peace is restored, to never resort to fighting again. 

When all the speeches are made, to symbolically signify that peace is restored, a piece of sugar cane will be cut in half and both parties will receive half. Usually the parties will also be given a tree seedling to plant and mark the date and the place of the peace ceremony.

Only then can people from both sides freely mingle, embrace, shake hands and shed tears. Friends will re-unite and enemies will lay down their arms permanently and honour the pact to never to take up arms against each other again.

There will be new friendships and a feeling of goodwill all around.

The end of the ceremony is the beginning of many things, but it is a very important start.

Families, friends and relatives on either side of the divide will visit each other with food items, clothes, bedding, building materials and so on. Peace and normalcy are on their way to being firmly established.

During the ceremony no compensation demands of any sort are made by either side. Both parties decide they will accept the costs of war and whatever death or destruction was suffered.

To me, such ceremonies are deeply symbolic. It also has the important physical element that both parties can now freely move around.

It has a psychological effect too. You are never free until you are truly free. You need to release yourself from mental bondage, harbour no grudge and choose to release yourself from the slavery of animosity.

The other important changes that follow are the lessening of fear, hatred and animosity and a release from the guilt of not looking in the eyes of their former enemies or foes.

In 1982, as a young child, I witnessed one such ceremony in my community. The peace pact between two warring tribes made has been honoured to this day.

Peace requires the concerted and calculated will of people to maintain.

We find that in every society, those who chose to be violent and involved in conflict become liabilities to their communities.

Many people who harbour anger have very little or nothing to contribute to their own progress and the betterment of their communities. Anger and animosity tend to suppress the positive potential that people possess.

My grandfather, Maumine Kumul, demonstrated on a number of occasions the meaning of true forgiveness and peace.

Looking back, I can see that whatever that was passed to him from his forefathers he held very well.

Our forefathers were warriors and surely must have involved themselves in many battles.  But they knew something about making lasting peace with their enemies.

Once peace was decided and terms were agreed with enemies, you couldn’t go back and pick up a spear or bow and arrow again. Thist was very powerfully demonstrated by Maumine Kumul.

He once made a whole garden of sugarcane and gave it to almost all the leaders and everyone else who could come, including those who fought with our family.

He killed pigs and gave the meat to both his enemies and friends. He repeated this many times.

Never a time did I hear him speak evil openly of his enemies or others who did him wrong.

I do not know how he commanded the mental energy to do it. He was in a special way “breaking sugar” in his own heart and mind.

When I was about seven years old, I witnessed an incident in which other families in the village ganged up and fought my uncles and father.

My father and uncles retaliated ferociously. It was a terrible time and there was no peace between the families. But later my grandfather forgave the enemy, allowing his actions to do the talking again.

He seemed to understand that peace, or the absence of it, had implications beyond himself.

I realise now that he was a warrior of peace, although he was also a warrior in the real sense of the word in his time.

I find few in my community emulating him or living such lives. This is one of the reasons why he was a leader during his heyday – a chief recognised by the kiaps as one of the only two tultuls (3) from our clan.

The Brukim Sugar ceremony can be effective because people on both sides want to honour the peace deal. It has many lessons for peace in other communities in PNG. 

Whether it is a reliable model to achieve peace and harmony, or a superficial gesture, can only be decided and tested by those involved in such a ceremony.

What matters most is what is carried through and honoured in people’s hearts and minds.

At the end of the day, peace is often a delicate thing. Its presence is usually the result of a pact made, explicitly or implicitly, and maintained between groups and individuals to uphold the rule of law, respect the rights of others and become responsible for their own actions.

1 - A common term used to describe those who both use and abuse marijuana.

2 - Brukim Sugar is Tok Pisin and simply means “to break the sugar.”

3 - For want of a better explanation, tultuls represented their communities and acted as assistants to the Luluais in the colonial administration in the highlands. 

LIAM COCHRANE | ABC

ANTIPODEAN, a luxury yacht belonging to Australian media magnate Kerry Stokes has been robbed by ‘armed pirates’ in Papua New Guinea who stole phones and laptops before escaping.

The billionaire boss of Channel Seven flew into Madang on the east coast of PNG with his family on Friday.

Mr Stokes's luxury yacht arrived from Cairns on Wednesday and was anchored off Kranget Island after refuelling at a nearby marina, said former Madang governor and owner of the Madang Resort Hotel, Sir Peter Barter.

"In the early hours they were boarded by armed pirates and robbed," Sir Peter said in an email obtained by the ABC.

He said the thieves stole watches, mobile phones, laptops, diving equipment and cash.

It is not clear whether Mr Stokes (left) and his family were on board the yacht at the time of the robbery. There were no reports of injuries.

"Naturally they wanted to tour Madang but after this incident they locked themselves aboard their motor yacht," Sir Peter said.

A government official in Madang confirmed the incident had taken place.

Police are reportedly investigating but could not be reached for comment.

LIFE SITE NEWS

A spokesman for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands said that an increase in population, far from being a "nightmare" could mean social and economic growth for the country.

"[PNG] does not need to promote family planning or practices such as contraception and abortion," said Fr Giorgio Licini, secretary of the conference's Commission for Social Communications.

Fr Licini pointed out that PNG has large natural resources and a land area comparable to France and Germany combined, but with a population of only 8 million.

He said that the annual population growth rate of about three percent, similar to many developing countries but far ahead of the aging Western nations, is not a problem for the country.

"With a population which is still limited and with considerable internal resources, [PNG] can easily plan to become a country of 30-40 million people by the end of the century, with a much stronger and diversified economy," Fr Licini said.

He noted however that the country needs "to fight corruption, instil a better sense of discipline among citizens, and work hard for education, infrastructure development and a society free of crime," while stressing a commitment to improving literacy in the population.

The bishops themselves are focusing their pastoral plan for the next five years on the family and on the education of young people.

At its recent synod, the General Assembly of the Catholic Church in PNG and Solomon Islands said they will address the "educational emergency" for young people who do not attend schools, the practice of cohabitation out of wedlock, the decline of traditional religious marriage, and polygamy, as central to their care of the family.

JIMMY AWAGL

An entry in the Rivers Prize for
Writing on Peace & Harmony

Social activities promote peace
As I greet others daily I offer peace to enjoy
Through barter system peace is symbolically acculturated
Bride price a cultural norm, uniting peace among individuals
Even compensation the climax signifying peace and harmony

Spiritual activities indicate the channel of peace
The Word of God enlightens people to enjoy peace
Worship life gives wider comfort of walking in the world of peace
Prayer results in abundant endurance of peace
Religious activities graciously promotes peace and harmony

Economic prosperity indicates peace
Having income from sources gives peace
Financial assistance and Aid indicates peace
Economical value stabilizes peace
Money is life to enjoy peace and harmony

Physical developments are indicator of peace
Completion of physical infrastructure gives peace
Effective road, bridge, schools bridge unity and peace
Airstrip and power link peace
Efficient government services create peace and harmony

KEITH JACKSON

FRANCISCAN Brother Garry Hill OFM, who turned 75 this year, has just moved into the big Friary at Waverley in Sydney.

He spent many years in Aitape reinforcing and leveraging the mission presence in that remote part of Papua New Guinea.

Br Garry is back on home turf. In the 1950s, as a young man, he was a member of the Bronte Surf Life Saving Club where his father was Captain and brother Brian the beach inspector.

About that time he saw that his own calling was to missionary work and he took orders.

Before embarking on his PNG assignment to Aitape, Br Garry undertook a chef’s course and then a mechanic’s course so he could fix all the mission motorbikes.

He also became a medical assistant, one of the magnificent paramedics who did so much to assist the development of PNG.

He went to Madang to undertake a four-year health extension officer course so he could be registered to work at the Raihu Catholic Mission Hospital in Aitape.

Before he returned to the town, he spent eight months assisting in the operating theatre at Wewak Hospital increasing his skills.

He would run Raihu Hospital on those frequent occasions when no volunteer overseas doctors were available.

In the early days of personal computing, Br Garry came back from leave with the first Apple portable computer and rapidly became a self-taught expert in the field.

Later he took over the Nuku Health Centre and was there for many years much loved by the community.

“Which ever hospital or clinic he was working in, you could always find him by following the trail of joy and laughter,” said his close friend, former Sepik businessman Rob Parer.

“He was irrepressive, ebullient and unstoppable.

“Looking back he was a one man whirlwind - putting up buildings, developing photos in his studio, baking bread, out fishing to provide protein for the patients at the hospital, delivering babies, doing surgery and generally saving and caring for thousands of people over the years.

“Being in contact with him meant being dragged into whatever his immediate doings were.

“I’ve no idea where he fitted in the many, many months he would be away on patrols covering the length and breath of the West Sepik and half the East Sepik by foot, canoe,dinghy and plane looking after TB and leprosy patients.”

When he got to an age where retirement was necessary, Br Garyy joined four other friars at Francis Haven House of Prayer, 10 kilometres outside Bendigo in Victoria.

“He had a ute which he would use to call around to the various friaries to fix gutters, install rain water tanks and deliver firewood which he had cut for winter,” said Rob Parer.

But the friars were too few and Francis Haven too big and not so long ago Br Garry returned to where he began, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

“He said it’s great there but he can get a full night’s sleep without someone knocking on the door with six spears stuck in his back,” said Parer.

It seems that the Waverley Friary is a large place with many residents, amongst whom a very large bumber formerly worked in PNG.

“The Aussies get a bit fed up of hearing all about PNG all the time,” said Parer.

“Br Garry would feel right at home. What a unique and loveable character.”

DIDDIE KINAMUN JACKSON

An entry in the Rivers Prize for
Writing on Peace & Harmony

A country
Of diverse culture and traditions
A country of over 800 tongues
A country of many wonders
A country where the unexpected
Is always expected
So come prepared
And experience with us
The true Melanesian way
A brother is a brother
No matter what the colour of your skin

Tribal groups still remain
Tribal fights still linger
And petty theft and robbery
Rape and drugs
And all that has been portrayed
Of social and political problem
Yet we hide nothing from you
As we speak openly
Whether good or bad, this is our land
And we will defend it to the last
We are not ashamed to tell you
Who we are
Never judge a book by its cover
If you only knew us
Deception would be the last thing on your mind

A land of bounty
A blessed land
Where we are consecrated with riches
That we don’t know how to manage
Blessed with gold and copper, gas and oil
Yet nothing is ever enough
To the greedy eyes and hands
In which we put our trust
Opportunists and thieves
Are always lurking and making plans
Into the dark of night
Yet we talk democracy in broad daylight
No one tells us where our money has gone
Where is democracy? 
When backdoor deals temper justice and normality

Who are we?
When we pay tax after tax
Of what seem to be public funds stolen
Right In front of our eyes
Yet we can never ask, for if we do
There will always be a door
Through which you will walk a victim

Wantok is always the priority
When it comes to job opportunity
We see brain drain in our society
As others look for greener pastures
Yet we talk much of creating new jobs
When social issues reach their peak
And crime rates increase

Problems make us who we are
Yet some mistakes are never considered
To change for the better
We linger too much on handouts
As we degrade our moral standards
We are who we are if we will never change
For better or for worse
This is my home, this is my land  

BOMAI WITNE

AT around two o’clock on the afternoon of 22 August, I left Watuluma on the dinghy with Sydney and Wesley for Salamo.

We came across more huge Milne Bay waves but now I felt used to them. That was until the sea became furious, turned black and seemed to restrain the dinghy which was struggling to pick up speed.

In the struggle, one of the clay pots I carried in my arms cracked and disintegrated before my eyes.

I was trapped somewhere between worrying about the clay pots and worrying about my life.

Wesley, the skipper, saw the demise of the clay pot and told me I wasn’t holding the clay pot properly for a rough sea. He demonstrated how I should hold it on one he was carrying for me.

I knew it was partly my fault that I didn’t know there were specific skills involved in ferrying clay pots on a dinghy. My lack of local knowledge had cost me a pot.

I thought of the countless clay pots in the shops and markets of Alotau and the special knowledge and skills involved in packing and taking care of them as they travelled from the islands to the point of sale.

On arrival at Salamo, I joked that I felt like crying over the demise of my clay pot but held it back because I didn’t want Wesley and Sydney to misinterpret me as crying in fear of the giant black waves that were charging at us. We had a big laugh over my confession.

At some points in the sea journey, Sydney deliberately slowed down so we could chew betel nut and enjoy the beautiful coastline of Fergusson Island. While chewing, Sydney told me of his career as a boat operator.

He had skippered a dinghy owned by other people until his family bought their own and asked him to operate it. He told me that he had run this family dinghy for more than six years.

At that point I began to think of the mechanical problems that may arise in the sea but didn’t put serious thought into it. I enquired whether Sydney needed a license to operate a dinghy and he told me his license is handy only whenever he goes to Alotau, where there are intermittent checks by police and other authorities at the jetty.

Sydney said he was accountable to family members for damage he may cause the dinghy. I have heard stories where many Papua New Guineans of this generation are careless and do not have a sense of guilt in mismanaging family assets. But Sydney, of Gomwa village in Salamo, is different.

I admired his knowledge of the sea and waves. He knew when to speed and when to slow the dinghy. He made the dinghy soar on the big waves and speed in the troughs and slide along the walls of the swell.

By now we were approaching the West Fergusson Local Level Government station at Mapamoiwa and Sydney pulled into a beautiful sandy beach to refuel the motor. In the distance, I could see two fishermen enjoying their day. The sea was so clean that everything at the bottom came into view as if under a microscope.

Admiring the sea, I asked Sydney and Wesley if it was appropriate to swim and Sydney smiled and said, “Go ahead but be careful of the shells”.

I jumped into the crystal clear sea and swam as if I owned it until Sydney signalled that it was time to go. Wesley could not help smiling at the way I was swimming and offered me one of the kulaus that he picked from one of the coconut trees on that beach.

The fresh kulau juice quenched my thirst and I could not hold back from tearing the young nut to eat its flesh. It was if I had missed eating for a few days.

Wesley rolled two tobacco sticks, one for himself and the other for Sydney. I asked to have a few puffs of Sydney’s tobacco and he smiled and asked me to have the whole stick. I had a few puffs and returned it to him and we were on our way to Salamo.

As we approached Salamo bay, we saw some seagulls in the distance. Sydney pointed to them and told me the birds signalled fish below. At that Wesley stated unwinding two fishing lines, one for himself and one for Sydney, and threw them into the sea.

Sydney steered the dinghy in circles for a few minutes but could not catch any fish. I enjoyed the afternoon view, especially of Dobu Island which looked like ancient terraces, its top resembling the mouth of a volcanic crater.

The sun set over Goodenough Island casting a long shadow over Normanby, Doby and Fergusson islands.

After we arrived at Salamo wharf, Wesley helped me get to Maedana Guest House, which appeared to be a business arm of the Papua Island Region United Church.

The two ladies working there introduced themselves to me as Grace and Elwish. They helped me to check into a room with the label ‘Misima’ above the door.

I noticed that all the rooms bore the names of local islands - Dobu, Normanby, Kiriwina and so on.

I asked Elwish what the names meant and she told me the rooms were for church members who visit Salamo from the different islands on church related work. They would stay in their own room.

FELIX BARAKA

PAPUA New Guinea is a land of many tribes, clans, beliefs and values and, of course, many gods.

These were the foundations on which our society was built and survived for tens of thousands of years.

These were the attributes of survival that created our people way of life. They shaped the thoughts and activated the adjustment to certain conditions that led to our survival despite changing social, economic and environmental trends.

Despite high mountains, remote valleys and an absence of advanced knowledge, our people were great thinkers, visionaries and philosophers. They developed a capacity for communal living and created complex societies.

They also built networks of trade linking the rough terrains of the highlands to the coastal shores and scattered islands using a barter system. Through this, they developed relationships and friendships.

Yet our people remained separated by geography and different ways of thinking.

As we moved through change, we were confronted with the western way of living. These outsiders introduced advanced knowledge of technology, politics and economics. These did not mean that our people’s way of life changed overnight. Their knowledge and skills had to transition to the new context.

The new ways and ideas operated to advance what our people already had.

Later, even though we had been colonised, we gained our independence as a single united state without bloodshed, a glorious comparison to many other nations.

Our people are now in business, science, engineering, aviation and diplomacy. They travel and work throughout the world.

Above all, we have been called under one religion, a belief in Christianity. We believe in Jesus Christ the one who save us from the world that is evil.

Interestingly, as the early missionaries came and discovered our way of life, they found that our people were already living according to the standards and expectations of Christ. For Christ said, “You must love one and other.”

Our people survived. They stood beside each other in strife, pain and sorrow. Isn’t this what Christ commanded?

For it is written, “Even though I walk in through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff-they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4).

KEITH JACKSON

Extracts from Kundiawa News No 20 – 9 October 1964

FIRE AT CLUB – BLAZE CAUGHT IN NICK OF TIME

A fire which broke out in the Chimbu Club last Sunday afternoon was put out just minutes before it could become too serious.

The alarm given by schoolteacher Kevin Marsh brought over a dozen people who were swimming and playing tennis to the scene of the fire.

A bucket chain was rapidly formed after Public Works OIC had broken into the bar. The seat of the blaze was quickly attacked and within minutes the flames were extinguished.

The fire was caused by a kerosene freezer being placed too close to the plywood wall of the Club and setting it alight. Thanks to the hasty action of those involved the only damage caused was top the interior wall and slightly to the outside weatherboarding.

An onlooker’s opinion of the fire said that the task of extinguishing it would have been impossible if noticed later than it was. The value of the damage caused has not yet been assessed.

IMPRESSIVE CEREMONY ENDS ERA

An era in the history of the Royal Papua and New Guinea Constabulary passed last week with a ceremony to initiate the new police uniform. In his speech, the acting District Officer, Mr G Burfoot, traced the history of the police force from the time the first Solomon Island police came to Papua at the end of the last century. He stressed that the proud traditions of the old uniform should not be left behind but transferred to the advent of the new style of dress.

For the ceremony, the Kundiawa garrison was split into two groups – one wearing the old and one wearing the new uniform. The ceremony was very impressive and did much to emphasise this changeover, which would occur very infrequently inn any country in the world. At the conclusion of the ceremony, three cheers were given to retiring police commissioner Normoyle, who has now left the Territory.

From the way local police have been “striding it out” over the past week, it appears that the new uniform has been a definite morale raiser. However a report from kerowagi suggested that police in that part of Chimbu are suffering from extremely sore feet and many were wearing sandals. A new era has begun.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR FROM T J SHELLEY, KUNDIAWA

The subject on which I write to you is, I know, of a delicate nature, however to my mind there are a number of points which do not fall into alignment with similar cases within the Territory of Papua and New Guinea.

The case to which I refer is the conviction of a ‘local’ individual to three months gaol for an affair with a ‘semi-local’ wench who was at the time under welfare care en route to Australia. It must be remembered that this was not the first time that the two parties had become estranged and there was apparently quite an amount of sincere feeling involved on both sides.

The question arises in my mind that, had this female been a full-blooded indigenous person or local (whichever is the current politic), would this matter have reached the Courts or even been noticed? Admittedly the girl had not reached the lawful age of ‘participation’, however it is, I believe, the local although not the legal custom for her counterparts in this society and Territory to indulge, without interference from either the law or the public. It is only natural for persons brought up in this environment to practise the customs and way of life of that environment. I do not think there is any need to comment on the particular environment connected with this case.

It appears that the basic argument revolves around the point that an individual has been mad e a scapegoat due mainly to an unfavourable set of circumstances, namely that of an indigenous (local) male courting a semi-indigenous female, which no doubt to the majority of us is much harder to swallow than the reverse situation.

If the law is enforced upon the above set of circumstances then no doubt, in accordance with current Territory politics, it must be enforced upon all other possible couplings.

TOWN ADVISORY COUNCIL (TAC) MEETING SUMMARY

Power: Because of the unlikelihood of Kundiawa being connected to the Ramu hydro-electric scheme for a number of years, advice is being sought about re-implementing the Tamba scheme which would yield a 300 KVA capacity.

Town Plan: The TAC is very concerned about the delay with the town plan. Many enterprises are now interested in obtaining business sites in the Kundiawa town area. The motion for more rapid action is to go before the Lands department.

New Road: The development of the Gembogl road through the Chimbu Gorge has been suggested to be put on the Needs List. A staff reporter who has walked into this area states that already the local people have begun preliminary work on a road in the Yongamugl area.

Highlands Highway: Council members were extremely worried about radio news broadcasts from the ABC which stated that the new Highlands Highway will terminate at Kundiawa. This was in direct conflict with other reliable sources which have stated that the road will terminate at Kerowagi. Official clarification has been sought by the TAC.

KEROWAGI COUNCIL KNOCKS GAMBLING

At their meeting last Tuesday week, the Kerowagi Council requested more serious penalties for ‘Lucky’ players and for other forms of gambling. As another means of prevention, the four Chimbu MHAs are to be requested to bring up the question of banning the importation of playing cards at the next sitting of the House.

NEW AID POST OPENED

The newest aid post in the Chimbu, at Ubanidaua, has been opened by Acting District officer Burfoot. The aid post is eight hours walk south-west of Chuave and 7,500 feet above sea level. The building, or iron and timber construction, was built entirely from Chuave Council funds. Over 2,000 people attended the opening including the District Medical Officerf Dr TG Murrell, ADO Chuave Mr JB Battersby and the ADO (Local Government) Kundiawa Mr N Macnamara.

TEACHERS ‘ADOPT’ORPHAN

Two young Kundiawa schoolteachers are caring for a seven-year old orphan boy who approached death from scabies and malnutrition in the Kundiawa Hospital some weeks ago. They are Messrs Jackson and Bladwell. The boy, Waim, is from Kombugl. Eighteen months ago his father was shot is mistake for a pig by a padre near Banz in the Western Highlands. He later died in Goroka Hospital.

His mother also dead, the boy along with his brothers and sisters was left to fend for himself. A younger sister died. It is not know how long Waim will stay with his adopted ‘parents’ but indications are it will be at least four months.

PRECIOUS PLUM PILFERED – POPLE PERTURBED

A rare Blue Bird of Paradise plume was stolen from the Chimbu Club on the night of the Chimbu Ball. It belonged to the personal servant of Gumine MHA, Mr Graham Pople. It is bleived that the plume, eight inches high, was stolen between the hours of 5.30 pm and 8.30 pm. Mr Pople said the plume had been displayed at the Goroka Show as well as at the Ball. He had an obligation to his servant to return the plume and he was extremely upset that it had been taken. Investigations into the theft are continuing.

BOMAI WITNE

SATURDAY is village market day at Salamo. People from surrounding villages converge at the wharf to sell and buy garden produce and marine catch.

This day is hot and one kulau is not enough so I go for the next one. A few local people, perhaps tired of drinking kulau, have opted for Coca-Cola or Sprite from the store.

Everyone is busy going about their trade. Near the end of the wharf is a boat painted green and white. A friend tells me it belongs to Misty Baloiloi, and I think hard for a while before figuring out this is the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Technology.

Towards midday, most of the people at the market go home. A few head for Wesley Secondary School to continue selling.

The school comes alive and students and community take part in different sporting events. The soccer match attracts the biggest crowd.

I’m pleased to see my University of Goroka students are actively involved. Some soccer players play barefoot and kick harder and longer distances than some players with boots.

I realise that soccer must be the big game in Salamo. One of the trainee students comments later that sport is an integral part of Wesley Secondary School.

It was on Salamo that I entered the United Church building for Sunday service.

Over the years of my Christian journey, this building has been special in the history of the United Church. It was one of the first establishments and serves as headquarters of the church in the Papua Island Region.

I was humbled and privileged to be part of the celebrations. The choirs were beautiful, singing in Dobu, Misima and English. I could have listened to them all day.

Families and individuals presented items, mostly songs and the Minister capped the mass with his key message encouraging Christians to seek God’s approval in all they that they endeavored in life.

Among the announcements at the end of the service was that K31,000 had been raised for the church. It reminded me of the heart of a community that freely gives to sustain the life of the church.

I admired the way people left the service. The minister was first and, as I left, I found he was waiting to shake hands with me and everyone who came out. A handshake from a minister is special; one can feel peace, joy and humility penetrating the heart to rest in the soul.

That afternoon, at around five, I called a meeting of the trainee students at the school (pictured) and we sorted the supervision schedule which was to run from Monday to Thursday.

Tuesday was National Repentance Day and one of the teachers at the school told his colleagues, “remember, it’s not a holiday, it’s a repentance day” and a colleague responded, “Yes, good for me, I have already repented.” The staffroom broke into laughter.

I heard from discussions in the staffroom that the Esa’ala District Grade 8 teachers workshop was taking place at the primary school next to the guest house.

At the invitation of one of the facilitators, I went to the workshop. The teachers had come from different primary schools throughout the district such as Igwageta and Fagululu on West Fergusson, Dobu and Suau.

The teachers were soon on the job. Alpha Matafule, the head teacher of Salamo Primary School, welcomed them and introduced the guests including me.

In his opening remarks, he told them that it was fitting to hold such a meeting on national repentance day because the discussion and information emanating from the meeting would be a strong basis for repentance.

I could see that the teachers were eager to hear from me when the chair asked me to introduce myself.

I thanked the chair for the privilege, introduced myself and told them I was on teaching practice supervision in the Esa’ala District and would make time available during the week to try to answer any questions that they may have to direct to me in person or about the institution I represented.

I found out in the ensuing discussion that ‘The Grade 8 Teachers Workshop in Esa’ala District’ was an annual event initiated by the District Education Services in consultation with the Provincial Education Division and all primary schools.

The District was represented by the District Education Advisor and the District Standard Officer. The province was represented by the Provincial Exam Supervisor. The rationale of the workshop was to discuss trends of the Grade 8 exam results in Esa’ala schools in comparison to the province and map ways forward.

This initiative turned into a competition among schools in the Esa’ala District. Since 2012, the best performing Grade 8 schools had been identified and prizes given to the winning school and the best performing students in each subject.

The winning school is given a 40 horse-power dinghy, the best performing student K1,000 and the class teacher walks away with a K500 shopping voucher. The more than 30 Grade 8 teachers who were in attendance look forward to the workshop every year.

The District Education Advisor (DEA), Henry Larry, with more than 20 years of primary school teaching experience under his belt, appeared a to be a natural orator.

He announced at that meeting that he was recently appointed to the position of District Administrator (DA) Esa’ala. However, the district had yet to find a new DEA so he had to attend that meeting in this role.

He also pointed out that for the Public Service Commission (PSC) to appoint a school administrator to the DA’s position was a vote of confidence on the part of the PSC and government on hard working teachers.

He kept the teachers smiling and raised from their seats when he told them that in his new capacity as DA, he was going to take the local Member of Parliament to task.

In his words, “Our MP does not know much about our district. He only learned of the district from the people he met in the hotels in Milne Bay or Port Moresby. He read about it in the books or newspapers.

“With me as the DA, things are going to be different. You and I live in the district and we are too familiar with the daily struggles. You will assist me to tell our MP about the reality of Esa’ala”.

I sensed from Larry’s speech that he was passionate about realties in rural areas and wanted to use his position to advise the MP on the realities of Esa’ala. The teachers took the message well.

Larry concluded that there are two people who were instrumental in educating the children of Esa’ala. These were the parents and the teachers.

He challenged teachers that if a student had discipline problem at school, the teacher and the parents were at fault. If a student performed poorly, it was the teacher who must encourage them to do their work well.

Mr Matafule asked John Mario (District Standard Officer) and Mr. Joseph Tau (Provincial Exam Supervisor), who were the main facilitators for the week long workshop, to address the participants.

John did not waste time and told participants that they had to educate themselves in order to educate others including the children under their care. The workshop was the district’s initiative to educate and challenge Grade 8 teachers in Esa’ala so they could be empowered to extend and develop appropriate teaching and learning strategies to educate the children.

Grade 8 teacher had to know that the effort they put into teaching would determine students’ performance at the next higher level. If they had done their jobs well, they had nothing to worry about because they made the work of the subject teacher of the next level easier.

If they were not doing their job well, they were creating nightmares and stress on the teacher at the next level.

The school and its teachers were directly accountable for the learning of students.  The teachers were implementers of the district, provincial and national government’s education plans. They should be proud of playing an important role.

A Grade 8 teacher told me during the morning tea break, “We Grade 8 teachers are not involved in setting the exams. We teach in the bush and the people in town set exam questions.”

She recalled that one of the general knowledge exam questions a few years back asked, ‘Where can you find the pineapple building in Papua New Guinea?’ She expressed frustration that this question may be good for city schools but was irrelevant for rural schools. After she realised she was talking to me, she apologised for almost shouting at me.

“Where is Milne Bay Province in the national scheme, Esa’ala in the provincial scheme and your schools in the district schemes on national examinations?” was the question directed at the participants by the Provincial Exam Supervisor.

The participants were dead silent and he said these were critical questions in education that require accurate data to answer. The data would reveal the truth about failure and success of school performance in the national examination.

The sessions were so interesting that I felt like leaving teaching practice behind and attended the Grade 8 teachers’ workshop. But my work came first and I spent the rest of the week on teaching practice supervision.

As they say, ‘every good thing must come to an end,’ and I parted Fergusson Island on the morning of 29 August. Kevin awaited me at East Cape and we headed for the Goilanai hills in Alotau.

That night, Kevin’s friend Rita hosted a big dinner for us at her family residence opposite where Kevin and I were staying.

Rita was Kevin’s classmate at Cameron high school 31 years ago.  Rita and her husband, Tarumuri, had been part of the Milne Bay Kanu (canoe) Festival organising committee and they had a collection of cultural artifacts from the different districts and islands in Milne Bay Province. They could not wait to tell us about the usage and importance of the cultural collections. They also told us of the Mwali shells and its importance in the Kula Ring. 

The dinner that night turned into exchange of thoughts on culture and cultural objects.  Tarumuri told us that the Milne Bay people would often hold back from freely expressing their hearts and I added that Simbus would freely express their hearts and if they could not express them enough they would move to tears.

It was a beautiful dinner with an exchange of ideas and gifts. Kevin presented a beautiful bilum that he brought with him to the family and explained the importance of the bilum to them. Rita’s family presented Kevin a beautifully designed clay pot and a skillfully curved wooden fish to me. This curved fish is now on my table in the house beside a coral shell I picked along the coast of Normanby Island.

I told Kevin when we were packing to leave for Gurney airport that he lacked the experience and knowledge to carry a clay pot safely and assisted him bear it safely to Goroka. 

RORY CALLINAN | The Age

THE Papua New Guinea-based Catholic priest ordered by the church to return to Australia after Fairfax Media revealed his alleged involvement in Australian child abuse cases appears to have stalled his departure by going into hospital.

The Catholic Church paid more than $100,000 to victims who alleged abuse by Father Roger Mount when he was a brother with the Catholic St John of God Order running children's homes in NSW and Victoria in the 1960s and 1970s.

He moved to PNG in the 1980s and became a Catholic priest - most recently in the Sogeri Parish about 45km north-east of Port Moresby - despite the allegations of child abuse being reported to the Catholic Church in Australia.

This week the Sydney Morning Herald revealed that despite the abuse allegations, Mount was still operating as the priest in the remote parish and had been ignoring instructions to leave for more than two years and was living in the country illegally.

The Port Moresby Diocese, which oversees Sogeri Parish, issued a statement saying Mount was to be sent back to Australia.

Port Moresby Diocese vicar-general Father Ben Fleming said Mount was to be collected on Thursday and taken to transit accommodation in Port Moresby where his return to Australia would be undertaken.

However Fr Fleming said an ambulance had been called to Sogeri Parish on Wednesday afternoon to collect Mount and take him to a hospital in Port Moresby.

The emergency registrar at the Port Moresby General Hospital, Dr Frederick Koha, said Mount was "quite sick" with abdominal discomfort, vomiting and was "a bit depressed". He was unlikely to be able to travel in the next five days.

However he said as soon as Mount was medically fit to travel, he would be leaving the country.

Fr Fleming also said he had spoken with PNG immigration authorities who were happy to allow Mount to leave despite him not having a visa.

Two victims have told how they were allegedly abused by Mount. NSW victim David McNamara said the then Brother Roger Mount, also known as Gabriel Mount, had sexually abused him when he was 12 years old at Kendall Grange, a home for intellectually disabled boys at Morisset,  about 65km north-east of Sydney, in the 1960s.

A second victim, Steve Danas, alleged then Brother Mount had abused him when he was living in a home run by the St John of God Order in Victoria. Both men received settlements from the St John of God order - a decision which was known by the order.

Despite the settlements, the Port Moresby dioceses which employed Mount for decades said it was never told by the St John of God Order about the allegations relating to Mount.

Mount rose to hold senior roles in the PNG Catholic Church, at one point reportedly working as the Port Moresby Archdiocese's chancellor.

OOI TEE CHING | New Straits Times

Sime Darby has had a long presence in PNG and this impending marriage with NBPOL is set to be mutually beneficial. 

Sime Darby's offer is a 30% premium over Kulim (M) Bhd's previous offer of K22.20 a share to NBPOL. Sime Darby's offer to NBPOL amounts to K28.90 a share. 

Apart from its core business of oil palm planting and palm oil refining in PNG and Liverpool, England, NBPOL is also the biggest producer of beef and sugar in PNG. 

Sime Darby President and CEO Tan Sri Bakke Salleh expressed hope to have NBPOL delisted from London stock exchange.

________

“This is a significant milestone for Sime Darby,” said  Tan Sri Bakke Salleh in a statement last night.

"We are acquiring a low risk, well-managed, ongoing business concern that will add value to the group.

“It is not often that an opportunity such as this presents itself. The strategic fit between NBPOL and Sime Darby Plantation is the key factor that will ensure the success of this deal.”

Further details of the acqusition are expected to be announced at a media conference in Port Moresby this morning.

JIMMY AWAGL

An entry in the Rivers Prize for
Writing on Peace & Harmony

From the mountain top eyes raise to this imposing scene
Like an eagle descending through the clouds to view the beauty
Glimpses through treetops gives fond memories of present and past
Looking along the valleys to a geography clear as crystal
The remarkable sight bringing peace and harmony

Walking into the unknown tells the glory of our survival
Trees, flowers, plants, animals commanding our attention and awe
Of curiosity and eagerness longing to know their names and purpose
A a sign of recognition that we gave them names and a place in our peace
Exposing their generosity so all would dwell in peace and harmony

Seeing birds and animals sing and dance draws my attention
They communicate a message of welcome, of peace and harmony
Animals with their own chores but part of our interaction
Living organisms subject to peace in the surrounding ecology
Indicating peace and harmony for all mankind to enjoy

Mountains symbolise the height peace may reach but valleys spread it
The gorge show the depth of peace while hills offer elevation
Slopes give the penetration and plateaus maintain the stability
Geography indicating availability of peace; vegetation its regeneration
All nature depicting peace and harmony to be enjoyed by all us beings

ROWAN CALLICK | The Australian

AUSTRALIA’S $37 million a year deployment of 73 federal police to Papua New Guinea — hailed as a breakthrough last year when it began — is being reviewed by the PNG government, potentially to wind it down.

This is in part because of unrealistic “visible policing” expectations — with the AFP officers lacking legal powers to make ­arrests, conduct investigations or direct PNG counterparts.

A report published yesterday by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute argues the need to ­almost double Canberra’s input of cash and police.

The deployment was agreed between then prime minister Kevin Rudd and his PNG counterpart Peter O’Neill, in the context of a plan to send asylum-seekers to Manus Island.

But just nine months into the new deployment, PNG’s Police Minister, Robert Atiyafa, wants to review the AFP presence, potentially even to end it. He favours hiring Australian police to be sworn in to the PNG force, so they are subject to the country’s laws.

The report says “there are strong reasons to increase Australian investment” in a program that could advance both nations’ interests by stabilising the PNG force and building from there at a “fundable” rate.

The long-term need, it says, is “for large numbers of capable PNG police — not Aussie police”. The PNG force “faces deep, complex and systemic challenges”.

The report says the PNG force “now has a reputation for violence, corruption and occasionally extortion”, while police resources “are basic and poorly maintained”.

It urges that the bilateral review scheduled for next year be brought forward, in part “because Prime Minister Tony Abbott is known to be open to deploying more Australian police”.

Despite dedicated PNG police officers, the ASPI report authors, David Connery and Karl Claxton, question whether “they, operating alone, will be able to turn the PNG police into the force that its government expects and its people desire”.

The report’s proposals to increase annual support to $62m and to add up to 55 Australian ­officers, “would allow more resources for training support, including travelling teams to coach police at the provincial level”.