BARBARA ANGORO
| Duresi's Odyssey | Edited

AUCKLAND - We all know that Papua New Guinea, with its diverse environment, is prone to disasters, both natural and manmade.

At times of disaster, we as a nation have joined forces to help as best as we can – many times through donations of whatever we can spare.

Medicines have been one of the items donated. Furthermore, well-meaning people (local and international) have donated medicines to communities, churches and health facilities they have visited.

The intention is good, but donation of medicines without following proper guidelines can cause problems.

Here are some ways to ensure the medicines we’re donating are actually going to help the people:

Rule #1 - People collecting donations must first speak with the health team on the ground.

They know what medicines are needed. Often in disaster situations, the emergency medical items required are not for the usual day to day diseases.

Rule #2 - Medicines are still in original packaging containers and unopened.

Many times we see the medicine packages open, some medicines have been used and the leftovers donated. Sometimes the quality of the medicine is affected after it has been opened for a while. And leftover medicine is most likely not enough to complete a full treatment – especially for things like antibiotics.

Rule #3 - It is not advisable to donate prescription only medicines.

Here again, consult the pharmacist or health team on the ground. They will be in a good position to provide sound advice.

Rule #4 – The above rules also applies to donated medical devices.

Medical devices must be in good working order and accompanied by proper documentation on its status (new? used? calibration status? any defects? etc).

The National Department of Health can be contacted prior to overseas donors sending medical devices so biomedical officers can provide technical assistance on our country’s requirements.

Local donors can get in touch with the health officers on the ground to gauge what is necessary for the level of health care they provide (e.g., can the health centre use power-driven equipment?). If there’s no electricity, the donated equipment will be of no use.

Rule #5 – For people living outside PNG who want to donate medicines.

You need to contact the National Department of Health prior to bringing in medicines. This is to ensure proper documentation as well as to determine whether or not the medicines are suited for PNG disease patterns, hence useful or not.

As an intern pharmacist many years ago, I was tasked at one of the big hospitals to go through boxes of donated medicines from overseas that somehow ended up at the hospital pharmacy.

Sad to say, nearly three-quarters of the boxes of medicines were not fit for use because they were mostly leftover medicines which had expired, were nearing expiration or were not the medicines listed in our country’s list of essential medicines.

The hospital then had the costly responsibility of safely discarding the medicines they did not ask for in the first place.

If the donors had initially involved hospital management, the pharmacist-in-charge would have provided sound advice to ensure maximum benefit of the medicines.

Barbara Angoro is a Papua New Guinean pharmacist and a PhD student at the University of Auckland. Some of her work can be found on her personal blog https://duresisodyssey.wordpress.com/

MICHAEL DOM
| The National Weekender | Edited

PORT MORESBY - Engan author Daniel Kumbon launched Victory Song of Pingeta’s Daughter, a 400-page book which attempts to trace the history of the Wabag district and Enga, without fanfare.

It is a culturally valuable and epic work and it is unlikely the author will ever make a toea from it. But that’s normal in Papua New Guinea.

Reviewing the book, Keith Jackson wrote in PNG Attitude that “PNG history has most often been told by the colonisers but now home-grown authors are offering another view.

“Prolific author Daniel Kumbon’s latest work, Victory Song, tells the true story of a highlands family from first western contact to today.”

That sounds like a book a few of our members of parliament might have an interest in championing. Or perhaps not.

Earlier, in July 2019, Enga governor Sir Peter Ipatas, Wabag MP Dr Lino Tom, education secretary Dr Uke Kombra, two national court judges and a number of school principals, bookshop managers and other prominent people received copies of four books published by Daniel.

Then finance minister and soon-to-be prime minister James Marape was also presented with four copies of the author’s self-published books.

Daniel expressed optimism that “the new government would at least see the significance of literature and the role it plays in nation building.

“Literature has the ability to provide knowledge and improve the quality of education in a country like ours where poor literacy rates remain the greatest challenge for people who continue to lack proper educational facilities,” he wrote.

He also commented that “there is no official encouragement for Papua New Guinean writers but for those involved in its pursuit, literature gives us the greatest satisfaction to record history in draft form for the benefit of future generations.”

By November 2019, however, Daniel reported that he and fellow writers Betty Wakia and Caroline Evari “were struggling to tell our prime minister that literature is very important”.

They had been so sure the prime minister would accept a petition calling for more official engagement with home-grown writing, but it was not to be. To many of us, the disappointment was no surprise.

Anyway, now it’s 2021 and this year we want to hear from our people instead.

At Ples Singsing ( the Papua Niuginian Writers Blog) we believe that supporting PNG authors for PNG readers is a practical way to ‘Take Back PNG’ because we will be giving back to PNG the stories (fiction and non-fiction) that already belong to us and that encompass who we are and what we value in our society.

Promoting PNG writers also means rewarding PNG readers and encouraging PNG thinkers.

It is important that PNG writers and authors understand the thoughts and opinions of their audience. This means we need to hear different opinions and gather more suggestions about the cause of our petition.

You can link to the petition and its 310 signatories here.

We want to read essays from our youth, students in secondary schools, technical, vocational and teachers colleges, and universities. We believe that hearing from you is the best way to determine the value of our cause and decide the way we want to achieve our goal.

This is why we have launched the Tingting Bilong Mi 2020 essay competition, a privately-funded writing contest to engage with young writers aged between 16 and 36 who are currently enrolled in an educational institution.

The essay competition, which ends on 31 January, is free to enter for all Papua New Guinean citizens living in-country. Three winners will be announced in February.

The topic is for you to tell us why you think the PNG government should (or should not) buy PNG-authored books.

We’ll compile the best essays into a book and even have a copy delivered to the prime minister’s office.

Awards, judging and benefits

All entries will be prejudged by a blind panel of six published PNG writers and final judging of the top 10 will be completed by Phil Fitzpatrick (Australian author) and Fiona Hukula (PNG academic and researcher).

The best entries will be published in the Post-Courier and The National newspapers.

Well written essays may be edited and published on the Ples Singsing and PNG Attitude blogs.

Cash prizes are: first place K500, second K300 and third K200.

The three winners will each receive two books by PNG authors valued at K50 each.

Selected essays will be collated into a book which will be published by JDT Independent Publishing, and the school or institute of the winning essayists will receive two copies for their library.

Exceptional and interested writers may be offered six months free coaching and mentoring by senior writers from PNG and abroad, from which they will be expected to produce one critical essay on a topic of their choice.

A small award ceremony may be held at a school in Port Moresby, Lae or Goroka dependent on logistical arrangements or otherwise books will be delivered by mail.

Download the entry form on the blog through this link.

And email plessingsing@gmail.com for more information if you need it.

You can also follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

We look forward to reading what you think.

BERLDON TIMAH
Graun Blong Mi - My Land | Edited

LAE – Many years ago, I was working as a cleaner at a power plant at Ok Tedi mine in Papua New Guinea’s Western Province when I saw an advertisement for PNG Defence Force recruitment.

I’d wanted to join the Army since childhood, so I submitted a form and was called for an entry test at Murray Barracks in Port Moresby. I would need travel there by sea.

I had a distant uncle who lived in Port Moresby back then, and I wrote him a letter saying I was coming to sit for an entry test at Murray Barracks and would love to stay in his house.

There was no reply to my letter and, as my departure date was approaching, I became worried. I would just have to go.

As I was talking to a colleague, who was also a cleaner in the power plant, an elderly Awin man in his forties who overheard me discussing my concern interjected in broken English and said he knew someone inside the Army recruiting office.

Who could this person know? Maybe it was just a cleaner like myself.

"Yangpla-o, the commandant of the recruitment in Army ya em bipo classmate na pren blo mi, nem blo em Captain David Nipo." [‘Young man, the commandant of Army recruitment is a former classmate and friend of mine, his name is Captain David Nipo.’]

In bad handwriting, he scribbled the recruitment officer's name on a piece of paper.

"Just mention my name - poro blo yu long bipo long skul - na givim disla pepa". [‘A friend of yours from school, and give him this note.’]

I reluctantly took the paper from him, not because I intended to make use of it but because I didn't want him to feel bad.

The next day I set out on the long journey by sea aboard MV Obo Chief.

It took me from Kiunga to the mouth of the Fly River and after a few days I arrived in Port Moresby.

I went straight to my uncle's house only to find they have relocated and no one knew their address. I was stranded and it was getting late.

Around 3pm, I made up my mind to give the cleaner's contact a shot.

I got to the gate of Murray Barracks and mentioned the name I’d been given. To my surprise, everyone in the hut recognised the name and someone was promptly tasked to take me to his office.

I gave the old cleaner’s note to the receptionist who took it inside. Almost immediately I heard the recruitment officer shouting from the office for the receptionist to take me in.

"Where do you know Peroru?” Captain Nipo said.

"He's my colleague cleaner in the power plant,” I answered. “We worked together, sir."

“Where is he, how is he, hope he's doing well?” The officer was asking me many questions in obvious excitement and curiosity.

The look on his face confirmed to me that Peroru was a beloved friend.

Captain Nipo asked me what I was doing at Murray Barracks and I replied that I was here for the Army entry test.

“Wow! Okay, do you have anywhere to sleep?”

“No, sir.”

Captain Nipo immediately called someone to take me to his house in the officers’ compound. Upon getting to the house I was lavishly entertained.

Captain Nipo returned home later that night and woke me up for a chat and told me about the tutorials for the next day entry test.

After the test, he personally drove me to the officers’ compound and gave me instructions for the next day’s session.

I began to look at Peroru with different eyes. How on earth did this man know such a powerful person?

Needless to say, when the results came out, my name was number four on the accepted list of 50 entrants.

Friends, I put it to you today that relationship is a currency. Every man needs another man to move up and that man may be the neighbour you look down on.

He may be the taxi driver you so despise or even the house helper you think is a nobody.

Relationships are a stream of income; everything in life reproduces on the basis of a relationship.

Those we know in life matter. Most of us are talented but we need a cup bearer to tell King Pharaoh that there's a Joseph who can interpret dreams.

There are some heights you may never get to in life until someone tells someone about you. So shut the door of relationships gently, you may need to use it tomorrow.

As we enter a new year with a new beginning and new promises, let us endeavour to take our relationships seriously. Even if you meet online, don't look down on anyone.

You never can tell which relationship is your key to success.

Sometimes those who crown kings don't look like kings.

Footnote: Retired Army Private Berldon Timah served alongside now opposition leader Belden Namah during the Bougainville crisis to try to restore peace to the now autonomous region.

President Toroama speaking at the first Bougainville cabinet meeting held in a rural area

ANTHONY KAYBING
| Office of the ABG President

TONSU – In a first-time initiative yesterday, the Bougainville Executive Council convened for the first time outside the capital, Buka.

The full cabinet met in the Tonsu constituency on Petatz Island as part of president Ishmael Toroama’s policy of bringing governance structures to the people.

“This will allow the average Bougainvillean in rural communities to interact with leaders and see for themselves how government decisions are made,” he said.

“For the people to appreciate the government they need to hear, see and feel how the highest echelons of Bougainville’s political leaders work towards developing the region.

“This is also one way of independence readiness through direct engagement with the communities by the ABG leadership to encourage and motivate the people.”

President Toroama added that plans are underway to hold cabinet meetings throughout the region in North, Central and South Bougainville.

In Tonsu, the president was guest of honor at the Poka Youth Summit where he said his presidency is not limited to the functions of the government but includes the people exercising social responsibility.

“Bougainvilleans must move away from the dependency syndrome that has plagued the region since the end of the conflict 20 years ago,” president Toroama said.

“The failure of the previous government is the main reason why the people have been conditioned to think and act in a manner that forgoes innovation and creativity.”

But above all, president Toroama added, inculcating Christian principles and values will set Bougainville on the right path to achieve its ultimate political future.

Since taking office three months ago, the Toroama administration has been laying the foundations for a more pragmatic approach to socio-economic and political revitalisation of the province.

In his first 100 days, president Toroama launched several development projects that align with his six point strategy.

Lae back in Henry's youth - a safe and pleasant town, unlike today

HENRY MOKONO
Graun Blong Mi (My Land)

PORT MORESBY - I am originally a highlander from Simbu who, like many others from the New Guinea Islands, Sepik, Papua and a few from the upper highlands provinces, migrated to Lae back then and call Lae home. I grew up in Lae from the 1970s to 1990s.

My greatest memories in life come from growing up in Lae City. Later in life I called myself ‘Simbu blo Morobe’, because Lae will always be closer to my heart.

The spirit of Lae made me who I am in life. It gave me education. My eldest son was born at ANGAU Hospital, which had some of the best facilities and some of the best doctors and nurses back then.

I attended St Martin’s primary school at Papuan Compound, later Lae high school and eventually to national high school and the University of Papua New Guinea.

So I have fond memories of Lae, and one day, in my grand old age, I intend to return and settle in Lae one more time.

I love my ‘kru sako’ from Mumeng, sweet cooking bananas and ‘kalapuas’ from Markham Valley, Wain, Busumang and the surrounding villages that sell their local produce at Lae Market.

My favorite pastime in the late 1970s and early 1980s were local places to enjoy good Kung Fu and cowboy movies on the big screen.

This was at one of three big theatres located at Top Town, Eric Woo (Eriku) and the one past Lae Market, right opposite where Rabtrad wholesale is now located.

A ticket into these huge movie theatres was two kina. For small boys like me, this was a fortune, so during weekends and school holidays I collected empty bottles and saved a few coins until I had two kina to buy a ticket to watch the movies.

Our rainy and green Lae City was the most peaceful place to live and get educated.

Crime and criminals were never heard of. Women and young girls could walk around freely at nights even as far as from Top Toen to Eriku and into the Miles areas.

Morobeans were some of the best and most peace-loving people I have ever came across. I had friends from Butibum like Casey and many others, and good mates like Malum Nalu from Salamaua, former deputy governor Julius Nalau and many others.

Some of the big names in this country today like Lionel Manua, Jimmy Maladina and the Maladina clan and me were boys from the Miles areas.

We grew up in the settlements and slums of Lae City to become what we are in life and we owe our life’s achievements to the good and kind hearted people of Lae and Morobe Province.

Over time, the City of Lae has grown and is now a thriving hub of commerce and trade. I wholeheartedly agree with Sly Gawi on his sentiments that because of the evil of rapid growth, mass migration and exponential growth, this once beautiful and peaceful city has gone to the dogs.

I wish the clock could rewind back to those days, when life was full of fun and laughter, when neighbours looked out for each other, crime was unheard of, littering and loitering was odd, respect for each other was the norm, all the PMV buses were owned and operated by the Aris or Buangs of Mumeng.

Sometimes when you didn’t have money to pay, they let you go free and didn’t worry of you were a 50 toea short.

Henry Mokono

That was my Lae City and I will always have these good times in my memory rather than the current status where thugs and tribalism rule in the open and in all the settlements around the fringes of a once great city.

Mi tu Simbu blo Morobe na, antap lo dispela, me tu Kumul blo Morobe.

Henry Mokono grew up at Lae's One Mile block behind Irimo street. He is now chief executive officer of Eda Ranu, Port Moresby’s water and sewerage utility

Kerenga Kua - spoke about an embarrassing experience with a cup of tea during his high school days

DUNCAN GABI

LAE - Kerenga Kua, Papua New Guinea’s petroleum and energy minister, has occupied senior political positions since he was first elected as the member for Sinasina-Yongamugl in Simbu Province in 2012.

My story, though, is about his student days at Aiyura National High School as told by the man himself in 2014.

At this time he had been invited talk to participants at the Youth for Christ Seminar at Kama Adventist Church in Goroka.

I remember most of what he had to say and I’ll try to tell it here as he told it.

Kerenga was still in high school when PNG gained its independence in 1975. On Independence Day he was given the privileged of hoisting the new PNG flag in front of the whole school, which he said was an honour and something he would always cherish.

After junior school, Kerenga went on to Aiyura National High School to complete Years 11 and 12.

One day a couple from New Zealand, who were teaching there, invited Kerenga for dinner.

That afternoon he put on his best shirt and went to the couple’s house. He knocked on the door and the husband guided him into the dining room.

The husband said his wife was preparing the meal in the kitchen and left Kerenga in the dining room. A couple of minutes later he came back with a tray that he placed on the table in front of Kerenga.

On the tray were some small cups, a steaming hot tea pot and a small jar containing sugar.

One cup already contained a tea bag and water. Kerenga tasted the tea but was disappointed to find it wasn’t sweet. There was no sugar in it.

Realising this, the words of Simbu elders echoed in his head. “If you visit someone’s house and the tea they serve isn’t sweet, know that you’re not welcome. Get up leave. Do not say anything, just leave.”

Kerenga gently put the cup down and without a word sneaked out of the house and went back to the dormitory.

Very worried, he kept thinking, “Why would they invite me when they didn’t want me there.” He felt humiliated.

Meanwhile, back at the couple’s house, the hosts finished preparing the meal and brought it into the dining room. To their surprise, Kerenga was nowhere to be seen.

The cup of tea was still full, where could he be? They checked around the house but he wasn’t there. The husband then ran to the dormitory, for he knew that’s where Kerenga would be.

And there he was, sitting in his cubicle with a long face.

The husband sat next to him. “What’s the matter, Kerenga? Why did you leave?”

Kerenga didn’t want to answer but finally said, “I felt I was not welcome in your home.”

The husband was surprised, and asked Kerenga why he felt that way.

Kerenga explained that the tea wasn’t sweet and in his culture this meant you were not welcome in a home and that you should leave immediately without saying a word.

The husband burst out laughing, but Kerenga did not understand what was funny. This was a serious situation.

The husband chuckled and said, “I am to blame young man, I should have told you when I set the tray before you.

“There was no sugar because it was up to you to put in how much sugar you wanted. That’s why I placed the sugar container with a tea spoon before you.

“It was my mistake and I’m sorry. It’s how we do things and I’m sorry you had to feel that way.

“You’re welcome in our home. My wife and I are more than happy to have you in our home.”

Kerenga could hardly believe what he just heard.

“How could I be so foolish?” he thought as he let out a chuckle.

The husband turned to Kerenga and said dinner was served and asked if he wanted to go.

Kerenga nodded his head.

The meal was lovely but he was further embarrassed because he didn’t know how to use a knife and a fork when eating. The couple guided him through.

After the meal, the husband and wife talked. Kerenga was brought up in that culture, so we have to help him and other students adjust to and learn Western ways.

So one day some time later, the students walked into the dining hall to a surprising sight.

There were knives and forks on the tables and the teachers were ready to show the students how to eat using them.

In his talk to us, Kerenga recalled visiting New Zealand many years later when he was now a lawyer.

He went to visit the couple. The husband had passed away but the wife and children were there.

Kerenga asked if they had ever gone bungee jumping and they said no.

“If you have never gone bungee jumping, are you sure you’re New Zealanders?” he commented playfully.

As Kerenga told his story, I was seated in the front row staring at him in awe.

One of the youths asked him if he might write a book about his life.

“There are many other Papua New Guineans who have contributed a lot to the development of this country who deserve to have their story told, mi ino iet,” Kerenga responded.

Amanda Gorman - "I want my words to be a point of unity...."

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – Papua New Guinea is not only a nation of mountains and minerals, it's a place of music and poetry.

Those of PNG’s many poets, young and old, who got to see young American poet Amanda Gorman, 22, perform yesterday would have been astonished.

Amanda made world headlines at the Biden-Harris presidential inauguration in the United States when she became the youngest poet to perform at an inauguration.

Quote from a media interview with Amanda Gorman

Her poem was superb; as was her presentation of it.

Amanda told the BBC she felt "excitement, joy, honour and humility" when she was asked to take part in the ceremony, "....and also at the same time terror.

"I really wanted to use my words to be a point of unity and collaboration and togetherness," she said.

"I think it's about a new chapter in the United States, about the future, and doing that through the elegance and beauty of words."

Former US president Barack Obama, who was at the inauguration, tweeted, "On a day for the history books, @TheAmandaGorman delivered a poem that more than met the moment. Young people like her are proof that 'there is always light, if only we're brave enough to see it; if only we're brave enough to be it'."

Here is the full text of Amanda's poem.

The Hill We Climb

AMANDA GORMAN

When day comes we ask ourselves,
where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry,
a sea we must wade
We've braved the belly of the beast
We've learned that quiet isn't always peace
And the norms and notions
of what just is
Isn’t always just-ice
And yet the dawn is ours
before we knew it
Somehow we do it
Somehow we've weathered and witnessed
a nation that isn’t broken
but simply unfinished
We the successors of a country and a time
Where a skinny Black girl
descended from slaves and raised by a single mother
can dream of becoming president
only to find herself reciting for one
And yes we are far from polished
far from pristine
but that doesn’t mean we are
striving to form a union that is perfect
We are striving to forge a union with purpose
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and
conditions of man
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us
but what stands before us
We close the divide because we know, to put our future first,
we must first put our differences aside
We lay down our arms
so we can reach out our arms
to one another
We seek harm to none and harmony for all
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:
That even as we grieved, we grew
That even as we hurt, we hoped
That even as we tired, we tried
That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious
Not because we will never again know defeat
but because we will never again sow division
Scripture tells us to envision
that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
And no one shall make them afraid
If we’re to live up to our own time
Then victory won’t lie in the blade
But in all the bridges we’ve made
That is the promise to glade
The hill we climb
If only we dare
It's because being American is more than a pride we inherit,
it’s the past we step into
and how we repair it
We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation
rather than share it
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy
And this effort very nearly succeeded
But while democracy can be periodically delayed
it can never be permanently defeated
In this truth
in this faith we trust
For while we have our eyes on the future
history has its eyes on us
This is the era of just redemption
We feared at its inception
We did not feel prepared to be the heirs
of such a terrifying hour
but within it we found the power
to author a new chapter
To offer hope and laughter to ourselves
So while once we asked,
how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?
Now we assert
How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was
but move to what shall be
A country that is bruised but whole,
benevolent but bold,
fierce and free
We will not be turned around
or interrupted by intimidation
because we know our inaction and inertia
will be the inheritance of the next generation
Our blunders become their burdens
But one thing is certain:
If we merge mercy with might,
and might with right,
then love becomes our legacy
and change our children’s birthright
So let us leave behind a country
better than the one we were left with
Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest,
we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one
We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west,
we will rise from the windswept northeast
where our forefathers first realized revolution
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states,
we will rise from the sunbaked south
We will rebuild, reconcile and recover
and every known nook of our nation and
every corner called our country,
our people diverse and beautiful will emerge,
battered and beautiful
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid
The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be it

In this interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper after her performance at the inauguration, Amanda spent some time talking about how she approaches writing her poetry....

Manki masta Kure Whan at Balimo, 1972

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - When writing about their experiences in Papua New Guinea, many old kiaps mention the special relationship they enjoyed with members of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary.

Very often they highlight the sense of teamwork enjoyed with the policemen under their command – those wise old sergeant majors and sergeants get special praise.

These were the men who kept an eye on them – from being raw cadets and beyond - and made sure they learned the ropes and even the right decisions.

However, that teamwork extended beyond the police, especially when kiaps were on patrol into remote and, frequently, uncontrolled areas.

In these situations, the tanim tok (interpreter), dokta boi (medical orderly) and manki masta (a personal assistant employed by the kiap) were also indispensable members of the team.

A manki masta should not be confused with a haus boi. The latter were domestic servants employed for household duties by married officers. A manki masta was someone who generally looked after unmarried officers.

Those two terms, haus boi and manki masta, not to mention dokta boi, are nowadays considered cringe worthy but back then they were unremarkable terms without derogatory implication.

The first manki masta I employed was in Mount Hagen in the 1960s.

I was a cadet patrol officer sharing a house with a couple of cadet lands officers. The manki masta’s name was Paul and he was about our age.

He was a kind of apprentice manki masta learning on the job. We weren’t particularly demanding, all he had to do was fry a few eggs in the morning and some chops and sausages in the evening. Go to the market to buy whatever vegetables were on offer. Apart from that he also made the beds and washed a few clothes. Very much the role of a haus boi.

I don’t know what his Melpa name was but he didn’t last long. His undoing came when I went looking for a missing article of clothing in the laundry where he slept. Not only did I find my missing tee shirt but other stuff he had pilfered from our rooms.

Manki masta Pus at Tambul, 1968

His replacement was an old Chimbu man, Pus, who had been a manki masta for a long time. He shook his head when I told him about Paul and set to work straightening everything out. He stayed working for me until I left the highlands.

My next and last manki masta was an Awin man, Kure Whan, who I first employed when I was stationed at Kiunga in Western Province. He was a couple of years older than me.

In those days Motu was the common lingua franca in Papua so Kure was my kuki (cook) rather than my manki masta, which in retrospect sounds a lot more dignified.

Relationships with domestic staff tended to be a lot more informal in Papua than in New Guinea and I got to know his family, including his wife, Huna, who was a good seamstress.

I became particularly fond of Kure when he organised a strike of the cooks and domestic servants at Kiunga demanding higher pay.

Their ambit claim was unrealistic but I think we negotiated a few extra dollars and everyone went away happy.

Industrial action aside, there were some rugged patrols out of Kiunga and then Olsobip, Nomad River and Balimo, and Kure was in the thick of them.

He and my dog were great mates. I had given her a shonky doggy name but Kure and the interpreter at Kiunga, Simik Tetra (later the local member of parliament) decided she was to be referred to as Buka Meri and the name stuck.

When I was transferred to Port Moresby, Kure came with me and left his family behind. He lived in the settlement at Kaugere and I lived in a donga at Newtown. He walked back and forth between the two.

When it came time for me to leave Papua New Guinea, I bought him a pile of goods to take home to Kiunga with him, including a sewing machine for his wife.

Kure's Whan's wife, Huna Twen, 2020

He had been upset when Buka Meri was despatched to the quarantine station in Queensland to serve her time before joining me in Australia, but it was at Jacksons airport when we finally parted that the tears ran down his face. I was a bit teary myself.

When he returned to Kiunga, he got a job as an orderly at the mission hospital.

We exchanged letters for a while and then slowly and inevitably lost contact.

When I went back to Papua New Guinea in 1997 I enquired about him but it wasn’t until I came across some Awin blokes on a line cutting crew around 2001 that I learned that he had died.

And then this week I received an email from his grandson Patrick, who had read my book, ‘Bamahuta: Leaving Papua’, and enquired about me on PNG Attitude. We’ve swapped a few emails already.

Under the watchful eye of Huawei, PNG DataCo lays the Kumul submarine cable off Vanimo

BERNARD YEGIORA
| The Yegiora Files | Edited

MADANG - Technology is increasingly becoming an important part of human life and most of what we do today is influenced by our use of technology.

As a developing country, Papua New Guinea is seeing technological changes unfold with the help of China.

The changes happening in PNG fit into the Digital Silk Road timeline introduced by China’s president Xi Jinping.

We have witnessed Huawei’s establishment of the Kumul submarine cable network for PNG Dataco. All coastal provinces are now connected.

The Digital Silk Road project has been developed in three parts:

A 5,457 km submarine cable laid from Indonesia to Bougainville with branches into Vanimo, Wewak, Lorengau, Madang, Kimbe, Kavieng and Kokopo. Completed in May 2020.

Connection of Port Moresby to Madang with branches to Alotau, Popondetta and Lae. Completed in February 2020.

Connection of Kerema to Daru. Completed in June 2020.

Huawei constructed the submarine cable and China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation supplied the equipment. The Exim Bank of China provided more than 85% credit to the PNG government to start the project.

In 2013, Huawei had been contracted by PNG Telikom to establish the national broadband network. At the signing ceremony in Port Moresby, Huawei Global chief financial officer Cathy Meng applauded both Telikom and the PNG government for implementing what she called “this visionary project.”

PNG Dataco had completed the Highlands cable project in January 2016. The fibre optic cable known as the northern link runs alongside PNG Power transmission lines connecting Madang and Lae to all Highlands provinces.

In February 2016, it was decided to connect the northern link in Mendi to the southern link, which runs from Port Moresby to Hides. This missing link connection enables high speed internet to many facilities including the new Western Pacific University.

Huawei has built the high-speed broadband backbone network it promised, and PNG is now well connected and has a second international internet gateway through Indonesia to the rest of Asia.

In 2013, Huawei’s Cathy Meng said PNG would reap the benefits of high speed broadband and this is now happening. Competition is also driving prices down.

Credit to Huawei, PNG is now venturing into e-commerce and emerging entrepreneurs and established businesses are grateful for the faster and cheaper internet.

Instead of using just websites, entrepreneurs and businesses now use social media. Facebook and LinkedIn, two social media sites much used in PNG, are popular sites for new and established businesses to reach customers.

The PNG government is not concerned about the security issues expressed by Australia.

Commerce and industry minister William Duma said PNG does not have enemies and is not worried about Huawei having access to the national network.

PNG sees Huawei as a genuine investor in the telecommunication sector and as a development partner.

The government had made a bold decision to reject a counter offer by Australia, Japan and the United States to build the domestic cable.

All three countries had the opportunity over the years to help PNG build its domestic network and so improve the livelihood of citizens.

PNG’s Institute of National Affairs has stated that the Coral Sea cable from Sydney to Port Moresby remains unconnected. I wonder if this because of concern there may be a security issue. Or was the delay caused by in-house politics between different state agencies?

In any case, it seems that Huawei will dominate the software and hardware markets for internet technology in PNG.

The company signed a memorandum of understanding with Telikom which allows the state-owned utility to be the authorised distributor of Huawei ideahub. Telikom also sells the Huawei B315 hardware modem to all of its broadband fixed line service customers.

Apart from the 25 students from the University of Technology in Lae who went to China for training after the signing of the national network contract, Huawei should train more PNG students to continue PNG's digital rise.

You may buy something that looks like real medicine on the street. It might look genuine but there is no way you can really know

BEE DURESI
| Duresi's Odyssey

AUCKLAND - There’s no other ways to put it but bluntly – buying medicines off the street can kill you.

Here are important reasons why people should not buy medicines off the street, or from unlicensed shops.

The source of the medicine is unknown. It’s anyone’s guess where the medicines were obtained and it’s anyone’s guess how they were manufactured.

What’s in the medicine is unknown. In some cases, unscrupulous people put dubious things into so-called ‘medicines’. These can be toxic to the body and harm the person taking the medicine. 

In a worst case scenario, the person can die from poisoning.

For example, someone could be selling what looks like amoxicillin capsules on the street. They might look genuine but there is no way the buyer can know they contains amoxicillin in the right amount, or at all.

Many times, fake medicines look like the real thing on the outside but, when tested in medicine labs, they either contain very little, too high or no active medicinal ingredients. Sometimes they contain toxic substances.

A less than normal dose results in ineffective treatment. This means the person will still be sick. For medicines like antibiotics and anti-malarials there is a bigger problem - the bugs may become resistant to the medicine. The next time the person falls ill and is prescribed this medicine, it will not work to kill the bugs.

This is dangerous and expensive. Health workers will have to find alternative medicines that will work to kill the bugs. The treatment can take longer and may involve more than one medicine. It may also cause many side effects.

A higher dose than normal can be dangerous. People who overdose most likely will require immediate medical attention and end up in hospital. In a worst case scenario, they might lose their lives.

There may be no active ingredient in the ‘medicine’. Obviously if the chemicals needed to treat the disease are not present in the medicine, people will continue to be unwell. The longer a person is unwell, their worse their condition can get and other organs of the body can be badly affected.

Incorrect handling and storage. People who sell medicines on the street or in unregistered outlets do not know how to handle them. Medicines are special commodities and there are special ways they must be handled and stored. Incorrect handling can cause them to break down quickly and lose their ability to treat diseases effectively.

Incorrect dosing. Self-medicating is always dangerous because a person may be underdosing or overdosing. The outcomes are often negative and may result in more health issues.

If these matters don’t cause you to be concerned about buying medicines off the street and from unregistered stores, this may change your mind.

The quickest way for bugs to develop resistance to medication, especially antibiotics, is through using them haphazardly; that is, not exactly according to instructions.

Once antibiotic resistance develops, the bugs are not killed by the medicine. Things like a simple cough or a boil then will need a stay in hospital so they can be better managed.

Even scarier is that medical procedures like surgery will be greatly impacted because there will not be proper antibiotic cover for infections. It is my hope that PNG does not get to that stage.

We’ve all heard to multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in PNG – let us ensure that all medicines (antibiotics especially) on our country’s essential medicine list are used properly.

We need to protect them so they can continue to protect us – let us advocate to our family and friends not to buy medicines off the street and unregistered stores.

Bee Duresi

Footnote

Ill-meaning people capitalise on the lack of medicines and health services to illegally sell medicines. Sometimes people in rural areas have no option but to turn to these places for their medicines.

It is a huge problem that needs to be addressed by the Department of Health and provincial health authorities to ensure health facilities are open and have the necessary medical supplies to operate.

Bee Duresi is studying for a PhD in Auckland, New Zealand

The Global Times depicts Australia as a United States puppet in its conflict with China

PERCY ALLAN
| Pearls and Irritations

SYDNEY - Post Covid, it will be hard for Australia to grow quickly without China’s market, capital, people exchange and know-how.  Finding a détente is essential.

However, Australia targeted China before it targeted us. After signing a free trade and investment agreement with China in 2015, we:

Blocked more than 100 Chinese imports by using anti-dumping provisions that the Productivity Commission found were inappropriate under World Trade Organisation rules

Led the charge globally to ban Huawei from the 5G network

Officially condemned human rights violations in China without shaming neighbouring countries (e.g., India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Pakistan, Myanmar etc) for their transgressions, or taking moral responsibility for our own Pacific Solution for refugees

Condemned China for breaching international law by seizing a disputed coral atoll in the South China Sea while ignoring Trump tearing up international agreements such as the Paris Climate Change Accord, NAFTA, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, the Iran Nuclear Treaty and the Medium Range Missile Treaty

Banned China, but not other nations, from promoting its interests and influence in Australia

Publicly requested the World Health Organisation to investigate the origins of Covid after talking to the Trump administration, but did not give prior notice to, let alone have any dialogue with, China

Have now banned virtually any investment from China or any bilateral cooperation between state governments and universities and their counterparts in China

China is as a result accusing Australia of singling it out for special discrimination and has designated us a ‘hostile supplier’. I think it has a point.

We could find ourselves isolated as other countries continue to not only co-exist with but forge closer ties with China. America made China buy more agricultural exports from it.

The European Union and China have now concluded a ‘comprehensive’ agreement on investment.

And last November, 15 Asia-Pacific nations (including Australia and China) signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement to eliminate about 90% of tariffs on inter-regional trade and establish common rules for e-commerce, trade and intellectual property.

Following the agreement, Japan and China agreed to work together to uphold and strengthen rules-based multilateral trade and to hold talks with South Korea on a three-way trade deal.

As former trade minister Andrew Robb has highlighted, China accounted for two-thirds of the world’s GDP growth in the past 15 years.

Diversifying exports to other markets that cannot match that performance won’t be a substitute.

Unlike most OECD countries, Australia’s resource-rich economy complements, rather than competes with, China’s manufacturing intensive one.

But with media hysteria and megaphone diplomacy, it will be hard to repair the damage to our bilateral relations.

It will also be hard for Australia to grow quickly after Covid-19 without China’s market, capital, people exchange and know-how. Finding a détente is essential.

Percy Allan AM is a public policy economist, a former head of NSW Treasury and a visiting professor at the University of Technology, Sydney

At the time heavily forested. Mt Lamington was not believed to be a volcano until shortly before it exploded

SCOTT WAIDE
| My Land, My Country

POPONDETTA - It’s early morning at Hohorita village, a few kilometers outside Popondetta town.

Organisers of the 70th anniversary commemoration of the Mt Lamington eruption on 21 January 1951 are putting the final touches to preparations as they wait for the guests to arrive.

While at one level, it is a solemn occasion. It is the remembrance of 4,000 men, women and children who died.

It is also a celebration of life and, for these devout Anglican communities, a resurrection and a revival.

“I’ll tell you about my clan,” says Winterford Suharupa, a former NBC broadcaster from Hohorita.

“My whole clan was wiped out. Only two people survived, my father and his brother. Both of them were out of the province.

“We lost everything. I wish the people who were there could tell you the stories.

“I wish the man who ran from the foothills to the administration centre was here to tell you his story. But he is gone.”

Hohorita is a village that grew from a post-eruption settlement. The people originally lived in the foothills of the volcano.

After their villages were destroyed, the survivors were resettled here. The traditional owners of the land were kind and generous, the survivors said.

A lot of the history about the Mt Lamington eruption has still to be rediscovered.

After 70 years, records on the Papua New Guinea side remain part of oral history drawn from the mental archives of the elders.

Survivor Avari Lucien Koiembo - "The mountain exploded like a bomb"

All the survivors of the Lamington eruption are now in their 70s and 80s. At Kiorota village, two of four survivors told of their experiences.

Avari Lucien Koiembo was eight-years-old when he was scolded by his brother-in-law and told to flee from the eruption.

“I saw very thick dust and it was rolling down the mountain. The mountain exploded like a bomb.”

Rediscovering that history has been like putting together pieces of a puzzle.

When you speak to the elders, you get to understand the unimaginable pain they went through.  Some were very young when it happened.

Koiembo is now 78. He fled with his younger niece and nephew when the sky became pitch black in mid-afternoon.

“It was dark for three hours. It wasn’t night. The ash had covered up the sky. We couldn’t see anything.

“The clothes people wore became so heavy with the wet ash, they fell off.”

Des Martin after being awarded the Order of Logohu by PNG consul-general Magdalene Moi-He

The disaster not only destroyed villages and the environment. It killed whole clans and families. At eight-years-old, Avari Lucien Koiembo lost his entire clan.

“If you speak to the local people within the vicinity of the volcano, their stories suggest that the number of those who perished is higher than what has been estimated,” says Northern Province Governor Gary Juffa. Our oral history needs to be better documented.

For the colonial Administration, the Mt Lamington eruption triggered a huge post-war relief operation.

The first team into the disaster stricken area was led by former soldier and kiap, John Desmond ‘Des’ Martin, patrol officer Bob Blaikie and volcanologist Tony Taylor.

Before he passed away in 2018, Des Martin was honoured by the Papua New Guinea government with an Order of Logohu award. He wrote an article describing horrific scenes where hundreds of people lay dead after the eruption.

Tony Taylor’s work studying the Mt Lamington volcano identified safe zones where the Administration could conduct the rescue operation.

His work is still classed as one of the best studies of an active volcano. He died on Manam Island in 1972.

For people in Northern Province, Anglican missionaries led by Bishop David Hand are still held in high regard for their work in rebuilding the communities devastated by the disaster.

DAVID JAMES
| Business Advantage PNG | Extracts

PORT MORESBY - A World Bank report on the economic and employment impact of Covid-19 on Pacific island countries has shown that harm to Papua New Guinea’s economy, labour market and education has been extensive.

The report, Pacific Island Countries in the era of Covid-19: Macroeconomic impacts and job prospects, notes that PNG has been hit hard by the pandemic, with GDP growth dropping to minus 3.3% in 2020.

It points to weaker aggregate demand and less favourable terms of trade, “coupled with disputes with international investors over ongoing and new resource projects.”

However the impact of low liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices on export revenue was relatively muted “due to the prevalence of long-term supply contracts.”

But the report notes PNG’s non-resource economy has been hit by lower domestic demand due to lockdown measures affecting the supply of services.

“A resilient recovery will require foreign investment in new resource projects – as well as strengthening macroeconomic management, protecting the vulnerable,” it said.

According to the report, PNG has escaped some of the impacts experienced by other Pacific countries due to the comparative diversity of its economy, but will still require a major effort to achieve a recovery this year.

“A resilient recovery will require foreign investment in new resource projects – as well as strengthening macroeconomic management, protecting the vulnerable, and supporting firms and jobs in the informal sector,” it said.

The report notes that job advertisements contracted by 76% during the first half of 2020. “A quarter of workers who had been working before the crisis, reported not working in June 2020,” it says.

“Results from the Employment Survey Covid-19 commissioned by the Employers’ Federation of PNG also highlight the impact.

“Seven percent of the total workforce were released due to the pandemic; 16% of firms responded that they either terminated employment contracts or temporarily stood them down; between 9 and 11% of the total workforce surveyed were on reduced working hour arrangements to adjust to Covid-19 impacts on production.”

Especially hard hit was the tourism sector, which saw 91% bookings for 2020 cancelled, resulting in at least 1,200 job losses.

The report says the pandemic is likely to have lasting adverse effects on job growth. “The loss of job skills and work experience due to the economic impacts of the outbreak could have lasting repercussions for the labour market.

“The impact of Covid-19 on youth employment also threatens to widen gender gaps.”

The report notes that many women work in the sectors most affected by the economic downturn, such as retail and hospitality. “In PNG, female heads of households are more likely to have stopped working since the outbreak due to business closures.’

There may also be a widening of wealth gaps. “Job losses have been highest among the bottom 40% of the wealth distribution. Job losses have also been high among households in the middle quintile, with the risk being that this shock could push such households into poverty – creating a ‘new poor’.”

Also badly affected by the pandemic was education, which will have repercussions for the economy and labour market.

“In PNG, where all levels of schooling have associated fees, a recent high frequency phone survey found that 52 of households have reduced the number of children that attend school as a way to cope with Covid-19 related shocks,” the report said.

A small group of government officers approach Mt Lamington after the 1951 eruption (Fred Kleckham - PNGAA)

FRED KLECKHAM & MARJORIE KLECKHAM
| Library of the PNG Association of Australia

Fred Kleckham - The last surviving expat remembers

BRISBANE - 21 January 2021 commemorates the 70th anniversary of the eruption of Mount Lamington, near Popondetta in Papua New Guinea’s Northern Province.

Mt Lamington was probably the most destructive volcano to human life in modern history, taking the lives of an estimated 4,000 people.

Volcanologist Tony Taylor arrives in Popondetta with Mt Lamington erupting in the distance (PNGAA - Fred Kleckham)

I am probably the only expatriate alive who remembers witnessing the eruption. I was astride the shoulders of Dad’s long term friend and bosboi, Ingaripa, and we were out checking Dad’s rubber seedlings at the agriculture station nursery when the mountain went up.

We were rained on with drops of moist pumice. I recall Dad and Frank Henderson coming back to our house numerous times with Henderson’s truck, the back laden with the bodies of dead and badly burnt people.

Mum tended those alive and the dead were buried in mass graves with their names in a bottle for later exhumation.

Dad was awarded the civil OBE for his work with the rescue mission.

We were then transferred to Lorengau on Manus island for five years before going to Daru for four years.

What follows is my mother’s account of the eruption. Marjorie was the wife of district agricultural officer Fred Kleckham, who passed away in 2002 aged 86. Marjorie passed away in 2007 aged 88.

At the time of the eruption, Marjorie and Fred lived at the Popondetta Agricultural Station. They had three children, Fred Jr (nicknamed Zeb) aged five, Elizabeth (Betty) almost four and baby Marjorie. A fourth child, Percy, followed later.

Marjorie Surtees Kleckham - ‘It looks as if Higs gone’.

A man with his daughter and carrying his son,  all with burns,  escaping the eruption (Fred Kleckham - PNGAA)

At the time, we (Marjorie and Fred Kleckham) were living at the Popondetta Agricultural Station. We had three children Fred Jnr (nicknamed Zeb) aged five, Betty who was almost four and baby Marjorie.

Christmas day 1950 had come and gone. I had brought back presents for the children on the station, and we'd had the usual festivities. The party of the year was to be held at Letty and Maynard Lockes’ place.

Maynard was the educational officer for the district, both he and Letty had been born in the Territory. This was to be a fancy dress party and I went to Higaturu early in the day and helped Letty with the cooking.

They had a wonderful lot of food prepared, taro sliced into thin chips and fried, boiled native cane tops, and practically every variety of native food to be had in the area.

This was New Year’s Eve, Maynard dressed as a chef and he had on a tall cap with two good dishes on it, on one side was a picture of a roast turkey and on the other side a glamour girl picture from a magazine. Letty went as an Indian maid.

Works and Housing turned up as a harem of dancing girls, they had wigs made out of teased out rope, their skirts were someone’s old window curtains and under all this were long socks and big boots.

At midnight everyone joined hands and sang Old Lang Syne. After this we formed into a crocodile and sang Cigarettes and Whisky and Wild Wild Women. The party went all night, ending up with a lot of the people going for a swim down near the coffee sheds.

Early in the morning we got our children into the jeep and went home.

Behind Higaturu were the mountains and they always looked beautiful with their veils of mist floating around them. We named them The Sisters.

The one named Mount Lamington had a lake on top of it where the wild ducks used to nest. Sometimes some of the more adventurous men would go up there on a duck shooting.

[It was] a hard job to get a native to guide you, they'd have none of this mountain. Said it was puripuri, spirits lived there. We used to laugh at their superstitions, and the men would go on their own.

Mt Lamington ash and smoke bear down on the Anglican Martyrs Memorial School,  Popondetta (Fred Kleckham - PNGAA)

Mount Lamington was an extinct volcano so it was said. Then two weeks after our New Year’s Eve party the mountain started smoking, apparently it was still bubbling underneath.

No one was very concerned about it; the people I saw seemed to think that if it did overflow with lava, well the lava would run down the river beds and not anywhere near Higaturu. They thought that they were safe.

The District Commissioner sent for a volcanologist; none came. I was at the airstrip to say farewell to Mrs Champion on the Saturday morning. The District Commissioner was there waiting for the volcanologist. Mrs Champion asked me if she could stay the night at my place if the plane did not come.

The doctor and his wife were there. They said they wanted to take the Champions back with them, but Mrs Champion said she couldn’t bear the shaking of the jeep any more.

Mrs Gleeson’s baby was due at any time and I was to do the confinement. I asked Dr Martin if he had any idea of just when I should come up to Higaturu. He said that I could spend the weekend at home with my family, but that I would need to come up on Monday morning.

The arrangements were for me to stay at Mrs Gleeson’s, my children to stay with Mrs Lock, and Fred would have come and stayed the weekend.

The baby was late in arriving and so we stayed at Popondetta.

The plane did get in and Judge Phillips and Mrs Phillips were on it. The pilot flew the judge around the mountain, and he thought that everything was alright.

The plane flew off, the Champions went on it, going on their holidays.

That was on Saturday. By that time the flames were licking up into the air and when it became dark you could see these flames from our dining room window. They went up into the sky as far as the eye could see.

Sunday morning came [and] the volcano seemed to be a little bit quieter. There were some agricultural people wanting to come and stay with us on business. We had wired them not to come as we had no beds.

At eleven o'clock we were out in the rubber patch with our bosboi Ingaripa fixing the small trees and also showing the children the volcano and explaining it to them.

Suddenly there was a terrible explosion, it came up like a huge mushroom of smoke. Gradually this spread over the whole area, while we stood and watched it. The children will certainly never forget just what a volcano looks like.

As we were standing there taking photographs of the eruption, a boy came running with a note from Jack Scurrah. It was just, ‘It looks as if Higs gone’.

Then we saw Jack coming down the road towards us. He and Fred had a talk and decided to start walking to Higaturu to help as soon as the dust cleared.

Mt Lamington in 2014. The local people were always suspicious of the mountain in the mist (Fred Kleckham - PNGAA)

I had to prepare food for everyone and got all the bandages and medical supplies I could collect together. Got the machinery cleared out of the sheds, spread tarpaulins across the floors of the sheds and made an emergency war hospital for the people.

I supervised all of this work and also collected all the 44 gallon drums I could find and sent boys with every available bucket to carry water to fill these drums and tubs. It was very fortunate that I did this; the streams ran hot and filled with mud and dead fish and other animals.

When I had this much under control, I went into the house and started cooking pastry and scones.

A truck arrived from Sangara rubber estates, the windscreen was inches thick in volcanic mud the people on the back had the pandanus floor mats over their heads, they and the mats were also covered in mud.

I took them all into my house and got them drinks of anything they wanted. They were relieved I think to be down with me. Fred and Jack had met this truck, they however had kept on walking into Higaturu.

The men who had arrived on the truck, turned it around and went back the back the way they had come. It seemed like no time when the track arrived back, I went to meet it and the man handed me Dennis Taylor, the Anglican missionary. He was badly burnt.

Mrs Morris came to me and we decided to put him in her house as it was quieter over there and my house was already full of people, some of them still having their families missing and in a badly shocked state.

Very shortly the truck came again and the men had got any other vehicles they could find. So started the shuttle service - truckload after truckload of burnt, dead and dying native people, parents holding babies, all of them horribly burnt and covered in volcanic mud as well.

Now we started, all the women worked tirelessly all day all night and into the text morning. All we had for the treatment of burns were tins of dripping. Every native was given a place to lie down in the shelter of a roof. The women (European women) put dripping on all their burns.

Jack Scurrah did a marvellous job of keeping us supplied with food from the trade store. He also had his staff making buckets full of hot Bovril and lacing it with rum to ease the natives’ pain.

We had no morphia, nothing except rum and whisky to give them to ease their pain. We got this from the trade store.

I sent a boy with a truck to Gona mission to get Sister Elliot, I wrote a note telling her what had happened and asked her to bring all the morphia and syringes and whatever else she had in medical supplies.

I never did find out what happened to that native. No word came and I sent a runner down, then I sent also a boy named Corima to Oro Bay mission with a note to Sister Henderson and Dr Biggs.

Poor Sister Elliot, she arrived at 3am. She had walked all the way from Gona Mission. Father Dennis Taylor passed away at about two minutes to three. She had morphia supplies and we gave them to the most needful of the people.

It was dark now, Fred and Rod Hart had gone in the mission jeep through the eruption area to Owala plantation where there was a wireless to try and get through to Port Moresby. They got there alright, saw Searle and he sent the message.

They started on their way back, just before they got to Sangara, their jeep broke down. They left the jeep and ran to Sangara and were lucky enough to get on a truck that was just leaving, this was well after dark and the men had gone to get anything from Sangara that would be of use. Mattresses, refrigerator and medical supplies.

They were as far as the airstrip at Popondetta when the volcano erupted again. Fred told me that the blast lifted the truck from the ground.

During this time I was at Popondetta [and] mud and stones had been falling down there. It was almost nine o'clock at night, I had been working all day and we were taking it in turns to go to Jack Scurrah’s to have a meal. It was my turn.

I just got to the house and the mountain blasted again. It was a magnificent sight at night I watched it, the big cloud was interspersed with myriads of little lights, red, blue, green and yellow like great masses of coloured fire­flies.

I had to go back to the children. When I got there lights were burning in my house but there was no one there, the women had taken all the children down the road to ensure their safety.

Fred had told me not to let the people get out from the shelters on account of the stones. And also he’d told me to keep all the native people at our house, if they made for the coast and a tidal wave came as a result of the eruption they'd all be drowned.

I couldn't leave the people who were sick to go after them so I just stayed and waited, If the men on the trucks were burnt I would be needed to fix them up.

The truck came in and I asked Fred if anyone was hurt, he said no and then told me how narrowly they had escaped the second eruption. I told him what had happened and he went in the truck after them. They soon arrived back.

We had taken a record of every shake after the blast. Fred said this had to be done for the volcanologist. We put dishes out to collect the dirt and stones for him to look at.

My baby was still being breast fed and had to be attended to. There was no water to have a wash, we needed it all for drinking purposes.

At midday on Sunday a Qantas Dragon had flown over. We had signalled for it to land and pointed to the airstrip. I'd grabbed a bundle of the babies’ napkins and written ‘PLEASE LAND’ on the ground, maybe they didn't see this.

They flew over us. I felt so elated that I might be able to get some of the badly burned people out, however they dropped us a note, ‘There will be a ship in to Killerton at noon tomorrow’ and with that they flew away.

I've never felt so deflated as I did at this. There were all these people needing special treatment and there a big plane flew away empty of passengers.

All night the men kept watch on the mountain. Some of the women had their children missing. Fred had been to Owala and seen Mrs Henderson’s daughter but didn't bring her back through the danger area.

Some of the other children had been killed. Later we women and our children and many burnt people were loaded on a plane and taken to Port Moresby via Lae. Dr Morley had come to meet us, he had been our first doctor at Higaturu and knew all the people.

Several more planes landed and took the hospital cases to Lae.

As we left Popondetta we circled Higaturu for the last time. There was nothing left, all the houses were blown to pieces and all our friends were dead. The whole place was covered in pumice and ash feet deep. This was the last time I saw Higaturu.

We women were flown out but our men had stayed behind to assist in rescue work. They had tried to get into Higaturu but the river below the station was boiling hot and could not be crossed. Now it had gone down a bit and the men could get in to see what had happened.

The historic first meeting between U-Vistract's Noah Musingku and Bougainville's President Toroama (Anthony Kaybing)

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – The Bougainville government continues to make headway in unifying his people as it prepares for consultations with the Papua New Government on independence for the autonomous province.

And on Friday it was with unity in mind that Bougainville president Ishmael Toroama met with U-Vistract leader Noah Musingku.

Musingku formed U-Vistract in 1997 at Tonu in Bougainville’s Siwai District.

As the Bougainville civil war raged, Musingku said he wanted “to create her [Bougainville’s] own independent and sovereign system in order to be free from the control of the other international financial and governing structure.”

He said his method would be “uprooting, pulling down, destroying and overthrowing the existing foreign control system”.

'King' Noah Musingko (Anthony Kaybing)

By 1999, the U-Vistract had extended to Australia where it operated a Christian mission.

But that ended in tears when Musingku was arrested and publicly belittled by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission for offering an unlicensed securities and investment program.

That didn’t stop Musingku, who went on to construct what has been described as an elaborate Ponzi scheme drawing in ‘investors’ from around the world.

He proclaimed himself ‘King’ and distanced himself and his followers from the legitimate government of Bougainville.

For its part, after its inauguration in 2000, the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) has never recognised the U-Vistract faction as a separate government, but it remained as a thorn in its side.

That’s why, in the words of a statement from the Office of the President, there was “much apprehension over President Toroama’s visit to Tonu to visit the U-Vistract stronghold” on Friday.

But Toroama sees Musingku as an important stakeholder in the Bougainville peace process and he is eager to see the relationship soundly based.

President Toroama and entourage arrive at U-Vistract headquarters at Tonu (Anthony Kaybing)

Ostensibly Toroama was in Tonu to witness a reconciliation ceremony between Bougainville police minister Thomas Tari and the faction.

The reconciliation was necessitated by a 2006 assault on Tonu that led to several deaths and injuries and caused a serious rift between the ABG and U-Vistract.

It was seen by Toroama as a major step in unifying Bougainville and bringing the faction into alignment with the ABG.

The statement said president Toroama is firm in his resolve that the ABG is the only legitimate government on Bougainville.

“President Toroama said Bougainville is undergoing a spiritual and socioeconomic and political transformation and that those under the banner of the faction are encouraged to embrace it as it prepares for independence.

President Toroama at the reconciliation ceremony (Anthony Kaybing)

“He challenged Mr Misingku and his faction to unite with the rest of the region as it continues to consult with the national government.”

Toroama said the national government “will embrace the Bougainville process if the people unite and work together when they put aside their differences to create a prosperous Bougainville.

He also expressed his gratitude to the faction and the communities in the area for cooperating with the ABG.

SYLVESTER GAWI
| Graun Bilong Mi (My Land)

LAE - Being a law enforcement officer is no easy task. Being a fully-fledged police officer is even tougher.

You can become an enemy of evil while you try to uphold the rule of law and keep society in good order.

For many people justice is seen at the point of the rifle; but for a few the uniform and Queen’s crown symbolise the rule of law.

I want to share with you the challenges faced by one of Lae City's proactive police detachments - The Footbeat Unit.

Based out of Eriku, the unit is headed by former Lae Police Taskforce hardman, David August.

August enjoys his buai and pinpin (smoke), and his favourite whiskey with friends away from work, but he's a tough bloke when it comes to policing.

Since 2016, August has been in charge of enforcing the 19 laws of the Lae urban local level government. From public safety to street vending, littering and loitering, this has been a difficult assignment.

It’s been made worse by the urban drift to Lae's from rural areas within Morobe and neighbouring provinces.

And there's been little or no support from Lae City Council. An office in a 20-foot container at Eriku with no furniture and no office stationery is where the Footbeat unit operates from.

"For the last four years, we've only had a skeleton office with a chair and table," said August.

Despite that, they've been able to maintain police records and a hang on to a small office space at Lae Central police station.

"Enforcing local level government laws is a massive task. We need all the backing and support from authorities so we can enforce the laws."

Street vending is a major problem in Lae. People who have lived on the city fringes have now moved closer to Eriku, Top Town and Main Market.

People with disabilities are often used to sell buai and cigarettes for a small commission.

"There are officers within the local level government who are approving licenses and permits for these people to operate at public areas," August said.

"When we police want to remove them, they show us signed documents.

“How can we enforce the city laws when its very own officers are approving such practices?” 

All communities in Lae have a gazetted market. If you don’t have a gazetted market, then your community could be an illegal settlement.

Every afternoon the Footbeat unit ensures that Eriku and Top Town bus stops are safe for commuters to move home.

They often have problems with side-bus crews and their gangs of loiterers, who can make it difficult for police to identify petty criminals.

"We go tough on them and that's the only way we keep them away from the bus stops and shopfronts," August said.

In a bid to promote a healthy and safer community in partnership, August wants the Lae City Authority to make Eriku a no buai chewing area.

"Attitude is the problem. If we change our attitude to be better people, there won’t be buai spittle and rubbish everywhere."

August wants to allow people to carry buai but not be allowed to chew in the designated area.

If they do, they will be fined or charged. PMV drivers and crew can also be charged if a passenger is caught chewing buai in a PMV.

"The Lae City Authority needs to work closely with us by giving orders to remove illegal markets, street vending and charge and fine those that don’t comply with our city laws," August added.

Sylvester Gawi

And now the city authority has got a new police vehicle for them and will also be renovating the base at Eriku.

Kudos to a great team of policemen who worked tirelessly to keep our city safe and free from problems. As I always say, "Evil prevails when good men do nothing."

Well done, Lae Footbeat Unit.

Crime constrains investment and growth and the costs ripple throughout society (World Bank)

LAURA KEENAN
| World Bank Blogs | Edited

SYDNEY -Last month I was interviewing participants in the World Bank’s urban youth employment project in Port Moresby, talking about the challenges that Papua New Guinea’s young people face in finding work.

One issue that came up repeatedly was mobility – or the lack of it: the ability to travel safely to and from the workplace.

It’s no secret that parts of Port Moresby are dangerous and crime is high. There are regular stories of carjacking but public transport is also a huge risk – an issue which disproportionately affects workers from poorer parts of the city.

The human resources manager told me casually how she was stabbed at a bus-stop and her bilum stolen and how one of the reception staff was stabbed twice on a bus getting home from work.

The young woman we were profiling was held up on a bus at gunpoint in the area of Two Mile.

I was told that attacks on public transport seem to be increasing, and the general manager of the hotel said this was a major issue for his staff.

As with most workplaces, there is a staff-bus that ferries staff to and from work, but even this bus has ‘no-go areas’ – parts of the city where the risks are seen to be too high for it to enter.

Staff who live in these settlements have to make their own way and they face considerable risk, especially after hours.

New World Bank reports attempt to quantify some of the costs PNG faces from violent crime.

According to official figures, crime rates have stabilised over the last decade, but there are significant regional disparities: crime is seemingly on the rise in ‘hotspots’ like Lae, the Western Highlands and the National Capital District, and it is increasingly violent. Use of firearms is escalating.

The reports look at direct costs faced by local firms – finding for example that the average business loses K90,000 in stolen property every year; and close to the same amount as a result of closing early due to threats of violence.

But they also detail many indirect costs that are more difficult (though perhaps not impossible) to quantify.

Issues include staff absenteeism and lost productivity, businesses unwilling to expand into new areas or sectors resulting in significant foregone investment, and small firms unable to get going because of high security costs.

There is a burden on the healthcare system as a result of rising violence in urban areas, and escalating exclusion and inequality because of employers not wanting to employ people from certain areas.

And there is the issue of gender-based violence, which is a known though too often silent reality across PNG.

Globally, World Bank research suggests that gender-based violence can cost a country between 1.2% and 3.7% of GDP.

PNG is a wonderful country I’ve been privileged to work in and always been made to feel welcome there.

But it is true that crime is a reality of everyday life for many people, especially in the cities – and for locals more than foreigners.

There are no simple answers. The causes of violent crime are largely structural – linked to poverty and inequality in a context where economic growth hasn’t yet benefitted the majority of the people.

As a consequence security costs are a spiralling expense. Private security accounts for an average of 5% of annual operating costs for a business in PNG, with nearly a third of firms reporting that for them it’s more than 10%.

But the evidence suggests that crime is not prevented by such huge costs - it is just displaced - and these costs will keep increasing. For many emerging businesses, especially smaller enterprises, they are prohibitive.

“I started out as a truck driver 25 years ago and built up my business from there,” one business owner told me. “Now if I was looking to expand and diversify, I couldn’t do it. It’s the smaller firms that are the most fragile, those getting started. They can’t afford to carry these sorts of risks.”

To my mind, the only real answer, the true conversation, is about addressing the root causes of crime and violence – poverty, inequality, unemployment and marginalization of some groups, especially youth.

Laura Keenan works in communications for Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands and is based in the Sydney office of the World Bank

David Manning at work. So what's better - a person you know can do the job effectively or an unknown quantity with a university degree?

BRYAN KRAMER MP
| The Kramer Report

PORT MORESBY – On Friday afternoon, the Papua New Guinea national court handed down its decision on judicial review proceedings filed by Sylvester Kalaut and Fred Yakasa challenging police commissioner David Manning’s appointment by the National Executive Council in December 2019.

Kalaut and Yakasa challenged Manning's appointment on seven grounds. Justice Cannings dismissed six of the seven but upheld one - that Manning’s appointment by NEC breached procedures as he did not meet the minimum requirements to be selected to lead the police department.

Cannings found that the Public Service Commission had erred by including Manning in the short-list of candidates for the position.

Manning’s lawyers and the solicitor-general argued that the police commissioner, being a constitutional office, is not equivalent to a department secretary, and the police Force, being a state service, is not equivalent to a government department, therefore the regulation ought not apply.

However, the court expressed the view that the regulation did apply, and that Manning's appointment was illegal.

The court ordered that he remain in office for seven days to Friday 29 January 2021, when the position will become vacant.

So what happens now?

With the matter no longer before the court, and as minister for justice and attorney general, I intend to simply seek NEC endorsement to amend the regulation to exempt the commissioner of police from its oversight.

In practice, the police commissioner has never been subject to the minimum tertiary qualification requirement given the operational nature of the police force.

Following the court ruling, I consulted both the prime minister and incoming police minister William Onglo.

I am pleased to confirm that the Marape-Basil government remains confident in Manning's ability to reform the Royal PNG Constabulary.

Once the regulation has been amended, the Public Service Commission will recommence the process and resubmit a short-list of candidates to NEC after the position becomes vacant next week.

YAMIN KOGOYA

CANBERRA – The word Kunume derives from the language of the Lani people in the highlands of Indonesian Papua.

It refers to the Lani people’s sacred men’s house, a place where political, religious, economic, social, cultural, legal and educational matters are discussed.

Children are trained and equipped with ancient knowledge and wisdom in this institution. Women are prohibited from entering Kunume for various cultural reasons.

This once most highly respected institution is starting to lose its authority as the older generations die and the younger generations move to modern cities, no longer upholding traditional values and wisdom.

Despite the significance of Kunume to the Lani people, outsiders see a grass hut and nothing more.

Perhaps they think this is a temporary house for primitive people somewhere at the periphery of a civilisation devoid of moral virtue, a view often propagated in colonial literature.

They do not know how Kunume played a key role in maintaining order for our ancestors for millennia, prior to modern destruction. Our ancestors saw the world as a sacred, mystical place.

From relentless inquiry into the nature of things, the modern human has uncovered the secret laws that govern the natural world. With these discoveries has come an inflated sense of power and ego, and a motivation to exploit the Earth, perhaps towards imminent, cataclysmic destruction.

Science and technology have given us the conveniences of modern life and enabled us to explore the universe beyond our backyards. But it has also taken away many precious things in the process.

We have built global institutions based on the Kunume, but are no longer much concerned about Wone [divine wisdom].

We have built what should be global Kunume for humanity, such as the United Nations, but even this powerful institution is used to exploit the original humans of this planet by industrial countries like the US, the UK, China and Russia. The Wone has been lost.

As the world faces unprecedented crises, we need to question everything that is accepted as absolute truth.

We now know that no one on this planet has the ultimate authority to give a moral verdict to humankind. The so-called ‘absolute’ is understood differently by all humans in their respective cultural worldviews.

This doesn’t mean that an absolute truth does not exist; it just means that such truth cannot be known within our current limitations. The only thing that seems absolute at the moment is the differences in our own truths.

It is tragic how some groups have declared themselves as sole arbiters of absolute truth (often in the name of science) and are forcing the rest of mankind to accept this. Non-scientific and irrational information in the knowledge system have been rejected.

I have now created a website to share ancient knowledge and wisdom, Kunume Wone that is often rejected for being irrelevant in the modern era.

https://www.kurumbiwone.com/

The word Wone derives from the Lani language. It isn’t simply a single word, idea, or belief. It is understood to be the principle of understanding life – not just human life, but all life, both visible and invisible, fallible and infallible.

Wone is the primordial intelligent source of energy that guides creation. It is the principle of order and chaos, good and bad, light and darkness. It is the science of understanding and a mechanism by which the entire cosmic phenomenon is perceived and understood.

That is why Lani elders say, “To know Wone is to know life; to understand Wone is to understand the structure of creation with all its complexities and fullness.”

Kunume is the place where Wone is kept, discussed, shared and taught. The elders say that all institutions built by humans were to safeguard Wone so the children of humankind can be taught about the principle of life and creation.

Unfortunately, the Lani elders say we are now entering into a dark age of chaos because the institution of Kunume has been destroyed, and Wone no longer resides in Kunume or in people’s hearts.

The Lani people view Jesus of Nazareth as the full incarnation of Wone; he embodied Wone’s principle and transformed his worldview through Wone’s sprit and power; he became the living Wone.

That is why he made radical statements like, “I am the way, the truth and the life; I am the vine, and you are the branches; I am the bread of life; I am the living water.”

He was the eternal primordial energy out of which creation emerges. He was the embodiment of Wone, the source of what modern cosmologists refer to as the genesis of creation, the ‘Big Bang’.

Kunume Wone is not about specific rules, ideas, information or knowledge concocted by the men in the hut; it is the transcendent principle of knowing and understanding Wone that our ancestors protected in Kunume from time immemorial.

It is the blueprint of creation written in the DNA and the soul of all creation as understood by our ancestors.

Kunume is the house built for that blueprint – the Wone. This is not to say that this way of seeing the world is absolute – what I am saying here is that this is how the Lani people of the highlands of Papua view the world.

I strongly encourage all original first nation family, clans and tribes to revitalise their own ancient cosmologies, knowledge and wisdom.

We thought that science and technology would take us to the next stage of civilisation, but instead they came in the name of civilisation, took our lands, devastated our ancestral homes and eliminated our cultures.

It is time to return to our original Kunume and rediscover ourselves with Wone because that’s who we are, where we come from and what our ancestors protected for millennia because it was sacred.

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA - Sometime this year - nobody seems to know exactly when - Australians will be asked to roll up their sleeves and receive a vaccine to fight the dreaded Covid-19.

We don't know which shot we'll get, not yet anyway. It may be the high performing Pfizer (effective in 95% of shots) or the not so flash AstraZeneca (62%, but there's a lack of clarity about that).

It was only yesterday morning, after I’d written the first draft of this piece, that the Pfizer vaccine was provisionally approved by Australia Therapeutic Goods Administration (I suspect the TGA was shouted at by a senior politician).

The Morrison government has ordered 54 million AstraZeneca doses to be manufactured in Australia, enough to cover every citizen with the required two shots.

But it has ordered only enough Pfizer - which will arrive first - to cover five million people. There is a priority list for receiving this vaccine: front line healthcare and emergency workers and folks in aged care being at the top.

(I assume politicians, being loyal Australians, will receive the locally produced AstraZeneca and, being committed to the people, will place themselves well down the priority list. Of course, I joke.)

I intend to get the jab as soon as I can and I would prefer it to be the highly efficacious Pfizer rather than the poorer performing AstraZeneca, the first guaranteeing me almost 100% protection; the second more of a longshot.

But will I qualify to receive the more efficacious and early arriving Pfizer or have to wait for the lesser breed? I did some figuring (the numbers are rounded for clarity).

There are almost 26 million Australians and four million of us are aged over 65. The 1A priority group designated by the government covers quarantine personnel and frontline health workers (one million at the most) and people in aged care (about 300,000). Let's say that's 1.3 million of the five million available Pfizer two-shot jabs accounted for (each person needs two doses to maximise protection).

The next group of 1B priorities include emergency service workers (150,000), people aged over 70 (2.7 million, one of whom is me) and Indigenous Australians over 55 and some medically-compromised younger folks (100,000 tops). Let's say another three million people.

So now I've accounted for 4.3 million doses of the superior Pfizer vaccine. So who gets the remaining 700,000?

We move to priority group 2A. Top here are people aged 60-69. They number three million. And that poses a problem.

They can’t all get the more efficacious Pfizer, so 2.3 million will have to settle for the less efficacious AstraZeneca. A divisive proposition, one would think.

Well, having led you through that maze, my guess is that, apart from the high need group in 1A, the Pfizer vaccine will not be distributed according to the priority list.

In fact, I detect that the Australian government's rhetoric is already conflating the two vaccines suggesting they are both of similar efficacy. This has got many scientists and researchers worried.

This is because, assuming the AstraZeneca shot is effective in just 62% of cases, it will not build up the 'herd immunity' required to render Covid no more threatening than a bad case of influenza.

It is considered that herd immunity for Covid will kick in when at least 70% - and more likely 80% - of a population is immune.

In short, it seems Pfizer can achieve herd immunity and AstraZeneca cannot. So those five million Pfizer doses on order are not enough to do the trick and AstraZeneca (unless it improves it efficacy) can't either.

Of course both vaccines are safe for the vast majority of people and any protection against Covid is better than none. But we need to view the rosy predictions floated by the Australian government with suspicion.

And perhaps we can hope that one day prime minister Morrison, health minister Hunt and their senior health officer disciples will level with us. Right now we're living in a cloud of often conflicting and always less than complete information.

(Footnote: Nothing in this piece is health advice. My only association with the medical profession is that I am firmly in its grip.)