JOHN GREENSHIELDS

ADELAIDE – Land administration and corruption are major and related issues in Papua New Guinea.

They are also long-term and well-recognised issues, and a source of immense hardship especially in terms of their impact on the lack of affordable housing in urban PNG.

Squatting on vacant land is not just a practice of the underclass, it is something even middle class Papua New Guineans are compelled to do because of a public policy debacle neither PNG authorities nor their Australian advisers seem able or willing to address.

Successive governments over the past 40 years have failed to deliver affordable home ownership, with the inevitable outcome that homeless people squat illegally, often for many years, before inevitably and forcibly being moved on.

Names like Bushwara, Garden Hills and Sixth Estate are amongst many others well known to Papua New Guineans as representative of a land administration system that is totally broken.

Recently the PNG media reported that residents had been given seven days to vacate land they had occupied at a tract of land at Morata 1 in Port Moresby.

In 2011, after some argy bargy, the PNG Land Board had granted Sixth Estate Limited an urban development lease for a term of five years over an area of some 51 hectares for subdivision into 654 allotments.

Sixth Estate Limited entered into what’s known as a Section 81 Agreement with the National Capital District Commission and its Physical Planning Board which required the construction of basic service infrastructure.

Well, the five years passed and not much happened apart from more squatters moving on to the land.

Then Sixth Estate, having done nothing, surrendered its lease and lo and behold the Department of Lands and Physical Planning unlawfully issued 654 state leases each for 99 years without the required service infrastructure.

The lots were duly put on the market by Sixth Estate at K80,000 a piece.

To observe that this was a wholesale abuse of proper process would be a gross understatement.

To reveal that it had been facilitated by a bureaucracy that was compliant or inept and probably both would be to reach a reasonable understanding of what had transpired.

Now, 10 years later, it seems that Sixth Estate is ready to make a move and the squatters are being given the heave-ho.

Meanwhile, with just another sad story from the naked city, Port Moresby's homeless problem intensifies.

Illegal logging comprises 70% of PNG's timber industry

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – It is easily the biggest illegal land grab of customary land in Papua New Guinea.

Or maybe anywhere in the world outside what used to be called Communism before they discovered how much loot could be made out of Capitalism.

It is a mass theft encompassing more than five million hectares of land, 12% of the country.

The fraud bears a complex and almost incomprehensible name, Special Agriculture and Business Leases, or SABLs, and it seems that in its original definition the concept was established mainly for the benefit of foreign owned logging companies.

And very little remediation has happened despite a government-instigated Commission of Inquiry nine years ago exposing the land grab and unambiguously stating SABLs were unlawful and should be cancelled.

Not that this is the fault of the admirable community action group, Act Now, which has sought strenuously but unsuccessfully for many years to persuade successive governments to revere the law, respect the commission of inquiry and honour its promises.

For the Marape government has no reverence, no respect and no honour. Shame really.

Anyway, last week the most recent lands minister John Rosso told the PNG parliament that of 70 SABL leases recommended to be cancelled in 2013, only 20 have been rescinded.

“Just 20 leases cancelled over a nine year period is frankly pathetic”, said a despairing Act Now campaign manager, Eddie Tanago.

“Even more worrying is that the pace of the cancellations has slowed to an almost complete halt.

“Since 2019, just one SABL lease has been cancelled.”

Readers may recall that it was in 2019 that James Marape grabbed the prime ministership from that alleged rogue Peter O’Neill, still avoiding every court case that has been brought against him.

“Since the commission of inquiry reported in 2013 the public have been repeatedly misled over the government’s intentions,” Tanago said.

“Politicians have promised time and again that all the SABL leases will be cancelled.

“There have been three different committees appointed to oversee the process.

“Yet only 20 out of the 70 leases have been cancelled.”

According to minister Rosso, there are a further 30 leases recommended to be cancelled but awaiting action and 20 that are currently subject to court proceedings.

Between 2003 and 2011, the commission of inquiry investigated 75 leases covering a land area of 50,000 square kilometres.

In 2013, the commissioners found that almost all the SABL leases were illegally issued and that the whole land acquisition process was riddled with corruption, mismanagement and abuse.

“The failure by successive governments to cancel the majority of the leases clearly suggests the problems of mismanagement and corruption identified by the commission are still prevalent today,” said Tanago.

“Just as serious is the fact that thousands of customary landowners are still suffering the unjust loss of their land and all the associated human rights abuses.”

Imagine if all those landowners knew something about the law.

In 2018, the United Nations accused the PNG government of racial discrimination against its own people over its failure to stop foreign companies using SABL leases to illegally occupy customary land.

Eddie Tanago - "Mismanagement and corruption are still prevalent today"

This was after Act Now and the UK based War on Want published a report highlighting the serious human rights abuses suffered by victims of the land grab.

But a government that ignores its own laws, its own commissions of inquiry and its own people can hardly be expected to concern itself with what a few troublemakers like the UN think.

After all, there’s still plenty of kina left for plundering in those SABLs - just ask James.

The Taurama Cemetery as Terry Edwinsmith found it in 2011 before it was revamped

TERRY EDWINSMITH

Boomerang Boy by David Wilson,‏ Take A Leaf Publications, October 2021. Available: Kindle (Amazon Australia) $11.99; Paperback (Waterstones, UK)£20

BRISBANE - The book, 'Boomerang Boy', tells the compelling story of Taurama Barracks Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) Frederick Alexander (Fred) Wilson.

This remarkable soldier died suddenly while serving with 1PIR on 27 March 1968 aged 43.

But the story began when Fred, and his older brother, Philip, aged eight and ten, saw their family torn apart in the United Kingdom of the 1930s.

Handed over to a Barnardo's Home, the boys were later separated from each other permanently when Fred was sent to the Fairbridge Farm School at Pinjarra near Perth in Western Australia.

When World War II broke out, Fred enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force and was posted to the UK where he became a tail gunner on Lancaster bombers flown by the Royal Air Force.

Unbeknownst to both young men, Phil was close by, training for infantry service before deployment to the European campaigns to fight German forces in France, Belgium and Germany.

Fred returned to Australia after the war, and the two brothers never met.

Troops of 3 RAR in Korea (AWM)

In 1948, Fred enlisted in the Australian Regular Army and in 1951was sent to fight in Korea, probably in the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, attaining the rank of Sergeant.

Not long after, Fred was chosen for a prominent assignment: to represent Australia at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in London in 1953.

But he had no opportunity to contact his UK family while there.

A posting to the Army Command Staff College in Fort Queenscliff in Victoria came, along with three more promotions.

And it was here that 33-year old Fred met bank employee, Vera, who was 19 and they dated for four years.

In 1961 Fred was despatched as RSM to Taurama Barracks in Port Moresby to restructure and bring order and stability to the battalion after soldiers had staged a protest over wages. (The CO sent 50 of the protesters on patrol in a shrewd move to get the out of the way.)

Meantime, after seven years at the bank, Vera resigned and followed Fred to PNG, where they were married in December 1961 in the Taurama Barracks chapel.

Over the next four years, 1962-66, the battalion regularly patrolled the border with Indonesia and Fred and Vera were blessed with two children, Anthony and Susanne.

In April 1966, Brigadier Ian Murray Hunter was promoted to head PNG Command and later that year the first of the Education Sergeants (colloquially known as ‘chalkies’) were appointed to each battalion. I was one of them, serving at 1PIR from 1966-68.

I had been personally welcomed to the battalion with a greeting and a handshake from RSM Fred Wilson, and as young conscripts, we chalkies admired his quiet, efficient work.

As senior NCOs we regularly attended dinners, movie nights and mess get-togethers with Fred, Vera and their family.

Fred died suddenly at the barracks due to undiagnosed health problems on 29 March 1968.

The entire battalion marched behind the coffin and family cortège. Fred was buried in the Taurama Cemetery.

It was 43 years later in 2011 that several former chalkie sergeants and I revisited 1PIR and saw that the cemetery had been vandalised and 'raskols' had removed the metal plaques attached to the graves.

I wrote an article that was published online and stirred action as a result of which many of the original headstones were restored. A redevelopment of the site followed with a rededication of the gravesite.

Since that time Vera has been buried with Fred in the Taurama Cemetery.

In October 2011, I wrote an article about conscript soldiers in PNG which was published in PNG Attitude and on our Nashos PNG website which was in its infant stage at that time.

This helped David Wilson, Fred's nephew living in the UK, to find his Australian cousins and to learn that Fred had died.

This had far reaching outcomes. David Wilson and later Susie Ellis (Wilson) made contact with me after reading the articles, creating a link between cousins on the other side of the world.

Our chalkies network began to locate members throughout Australia which were added to our growing list of ex-servicemen.

And then we witnessed the birth of the book, 'Boomerang Boy', by David Wilson and have been honoured to be a small part of the narrative.

The cover of 'Boomerang Boy'

By locating orphanage records, war diaries and personal correspondence, David pieced together the sad story of his father, Philip, and his uncle, Fred.

Maybe, as a family history, it's not for everyone. But to me, Fred's life at 1PIR was an inspiration. He was a true Aussie gentleman.

Historian and writer Leo McKinstry wrote of the book:

“With remarkable perseverance, diligent research and a generous heart, David Wilson has marshalled a wealth of information to produce this deeply poignant family story.

“Centred on the lives of two brothers who endured youthful hardship and wartime danger, the book uses vivid descriptions and moving insights to build a powerful narrative.”

Rest in Peace RSM WO1 Frederick Alexander Wilson, ARA 5487
24 June 1924 to 27 March 1968

A Kodak Instamatic 104 such as Busa's father might have used as a 1970s street photographer

BUSA JEREMIAH WENOGO

PORT MORESBY – It was only recently that I discovered my father was once a street photographer.

Back in the 1970s, he and some village friends took up the activity as a form of employment, to earn money, to put food on the table.

This was well before modern digital cameras and smart phones made photography simple and ever-present.

Fifty years ago street photography was a specialty. It required great skill to produce great photos.

My father and his cohorts acquired a Kodak-manufactured instant camera which was easy to load with a 12-picture cartridge. But, unlike today’s cameras that allow you to take multiple photos – editable, fixable, deletable without tears - when you pressed the button on the Kodak, that was it.

If you were taking photos on the street for sale, the images had to be good. If you made a mistake there was no easy way to improve the photo. Bad photos were very bad for a street photographer’s business.

A roll of film cost about $2 and a single photo cost about $1.50 to print. Each street photographer had an album of attractive photographs to show potential customers how talented he was.

My father said tourists were good customers and Sunday was the most profitable day as churchgoers dressed in their finest clothes would throng around the street photographers to have their photos taken.

The camera guys were usually left alone by the police to ply their trade. The police considered them part of the ‘working class’. Reasonable men earning a reasonable living.

This was important to the photographers at a time when the Vagrancy Act was vigorously enforced against unemployed individuals who could make a nuisance of themselves (pasindia as they’re called in Tok Pisin).

The police were also customers. My father recalled being escorted by eager recruits and driven to Bomana Police College to take their photographs.

He continued with street photography for about four years until 1977, when he joined Monier, the major building material company which he served for 38 years before retiring in 2015.

As the years have gone by, the mass production of smart phones and advanced digital cameras have forced most street photographers out of business. They’re a rare breed these days.

Armed with advanced cameras and sophisticated equipment, today’s professional photographers tend to ply their trade in the comfort of their studio or their subjects’ homes, offering their well-practiced art to high-end clients for a handsome return.

That said, however, a friend of mine who has been active in the photography business for few years reckons even that’s not as simple as it may sound.

Firstly, skillful photographers need true expertise in what makes a great photo. A professional holding a camera sees things differently from you or me. The saying ‘in the eye of the beholder’ very much applies.

Unlike the rest of us, skilled photographers can almost intuitively capture the essence, the inner truth, that often goes unnoticed by amateur photographers. It’s this insight that separates pros from amateurs.

My friend also emphasised that photography can be like any other business, requiring hard work, commitment and passion.

Getting that good quality picture is only part of the struggle. Other challenges revolve around business management and marketing and, of course, sales.

When I asked if he saw any good prospects of taking his skills to the streets of 2022, he quickly pointed out that, unlike in my father’s time, most streets in Port Moresby are quite unsafe for that kind of enterprise.

Of course, professional photography can serve other purposes in society. It can plays an important role in documenting and vividly portraying the realities that confront everyday Papua New Guineans.

In the cities, it can tell of the struggles of vendors and settlement dwellers. In rural areas, it can show the realities of hungry children, a closed aid post or a washed out road that has brought local commerce to a dead halt.

That great photo, the one that’s worth a thousand words, can instantly arouse anger, frustration and even a desire to bring about positive change.

You don’t need to write a long story to convince someone in authority to act. A couple of paragraphs and a remarkable photo can do a lot of talking. Photography shows as if first hand, the stories of the forgotten and the disempowered.

In such circumstances, a photo is not an abstraction it is a depiction. And it should be honest, not a happy snap that so often is seen on the front pages of daily newspapers or the staged shot that plays on TV.

If a photo can be worth a thousand words it can also hide a hundred lies. Perhaps a return to street photography and photographers seeking to tell a real story would enrich our understanding of the challenges that Papua New Guineans confront every day.

For a generation that lives in a new age of photography with smart phones and related technologies in the possession of huge numbers of people, we are better equipped than the street photographers of my father’s generation to use the imagery produced by the camera as a tool for economic empowerment and social justice.

Michael Dom - "Tok Pisin is underestimated and undervalued as an appropriate form of contemporary literary pursuit"

MICHAEL DOM
| Ples Singsing

LAE – I am grateful for PNG Attitude’s support of Ples Singsing, a space for Papua Niuginian creativity, most recently by publishing my current series of Tok Pisin essays.

On Friday, Keith Jackson commented on Twitter that the series was also emerging as a history of the development of modern Papua New Guinean literature. This really hit home for me.

My intention was to highlight the utility of Tok Pisin as a national vernacular language which remains underestimated and undervalued as an appropriate form of contemporary literary pursuit.

In designing the series, it appeared to me that in a sense we Papua New Guineans had been brainwashed into a singular sense of inadequacy about Tok Pisin as a means of serious literary creativity.

Tok Pisin is one of our national languages, it is the main language of communication in daily life, it has wide currency in song, it is vital in the mass media - such as Wantok Niuspepa and on radio and TV - and of course it is much used in written communication between individuals and groups.

Nevertheless, these modes of use are not the same as the paramount arena of literature, the cultural structure where we tell our stories in our own way in a form that is meant to last.

To be sure, translation is a hurdle and Tok Pisin lacks the universality of English, but these are not good reasons and nor should they distract us from using Tok Pisin to form a significant part of our own literature.

The feeling of Tok Pisin – its words, its emotion, its nuances, its deeper meanings - is genuine and authentic to us as Papua New Guineans.

And so it is for others who know Tok Pisin and who have experienced PNG and know my people and one or other of our languages.

This is a powerful reason why I am so grateful to Ed Brumby for being willing and eager to torture and extend himself by translating my brutal paragraphing.

There are definitely ways in which Tok Pisin as a literary form has fallen short of where it needs to be, and that is also part of my starting a conversation on just this topic.

In storytelling, writers may work in a fictional world. This does not mean, however, that the words and the ideas or even the fictionalised facts are devoid of truth.

In some ways fiction can be more profoundly true than reality because it licences the author to travel beyond tangible reality into other zones intangible but no less real.

The essays I’m writing are a genre that enables us to discuss the writing that we appreciate is true to us as Papua New Guineans.

It remains an abiding pleasure for me to talk and write about what my fellow authors, essayists and poets produce in contemporary literature. For me, as a poet, the pleasure especially resides in the poems.

I approached the essays, three so far and two to come, by thinking of their structure and composition in Tok Pisin. I expected this to be of great challenge. To my surprise, it was not.

It is my hope that we modern writers of PNG can grow stronger by taking on the challenge of using our national vernacular, Tok Pisin, in creative writing.

Ples Singsing is moving on with this agenda to support and promote Papua New Guinean writers.

We look forward to meeting them all in our own powerful and expressive language

THE SERIES SO FAR:
'Vernacular Traces in the Crocodile Prize.' An essay in five parts

Part 1 - PNG writing: Stop reminiscing. Start again, 6 January 2022

Part 2 - A pity so few of our poems come in translation, 12 January 2022

Part 3 - Let the writers of PNG rise again, 26 January 2022

Tumai Mumu - a warrior and clan leader of great acumen and, in time and when it suited, assistance to the colonial Administration 

ROBERT FORSTER

NORTHUMBRIA - Tumai Mumu, who featured in PNG Attitude a month ago (‘Pax Australiana: Techniques of Pacification’), was a contradictory character and perhaps an extraordinary opportunist.

He was headman of an important group of the Goilala people and lived in a village immediately behind Tapini government station.

This is where I was when, in 1974 he volunteered to me that in his youth, during an ambush, he had killed 24 men and possibly a greater number of women, he could not sure.

This was Tumai’s recollection, somewhat reinforced for me by Tapini Sub-District Office interpreters, who said was known for his astonishing stealth.

The interpreters told me how he had stalked a number of victims while on patrol in the Kunimeipa area with the feared kiap Roy Edwards, who I also wrote about in Pax Australiana.

The kiaps who patrolled the Goilala from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s knew Tumai well.

He created problems for them by initiating a number of challenging land disputes but at the same time he used his great influence to facilitate successful outcomes for many undertakings of the colonial Administration.

In 1974, when I was stationed at Tapini, I became involved in the investigation of a particularly nasty murder and Tumai was especially obliging as we worked to apprehend the perpetrator.

Oulaine Papaite had been axed four times as she knelt over a noisy mountain stream to wash the soil off sweet potatoes she had just dug from her garden.

A male, Opu Anuma, had surrendered but confessed only to the first blow that had severed Oulaine’s spinal cord. He was resolute in his admission that he had delivered the first precise blow and no other.

So who had struck the others and why?

Someone had disfigured her with a precisely aimed axe stroke below her left eye. Another strike had severed her collar bone and yet another had obliterated her larynx.

It was a difficult investigation but eventually I learned that four men, including Opu, had been summoned to a hut where they were given a tobacco-like leaf called kukumara, which they cut with axes.

The axes had been made bloody because they had been using them to cut fresh pig meat. But the aesthetics were of no concern to them as they proceeded to seal a contract to murder Oulaine by smoking the kukumara.

The authenticity of this ritual was confirmed by Tumai, who emphasised that murders could be commissioned by the gifting of kukumara and that participation in the ritualistic practice would bind to silence each of the accomplices except Opu, the initiator, who was expected to shoulder the blame.

During the Supreme Court trial of Opu and the three co-conspirators, Tumai, who was arraigned as an expert witness, confirmed the accuracy of the description of this ritual.

Tapini’s policemen were puzzled about Tumai’s willingness to cooperate, as was I.

One view had it that he was a late convert to law and order. Others thought it was because he enjoyed seeing the prisoners in the dock squirm.

In more recent times, some Goilala contacts of mine who occupy executive collar and tie jobs in Port Moresby, suggested that Tumai, a habitual opportunist, had more pragmatic reasons.

The most important one, they speculated, was that his role in court helped raise his influence while diminishing that of rival clan leaders.

The clan of the initiator, Opu, resided in a hilltop village above the Aibala River almost directly opposite Tumai’s village.

So my Port Moresby correspondents’ explanation of this clever method of point scoring seemed to carry some veracity.

Tumai’s earlier assistance in another arrest was also interpreted as a successful bid to curb the rising status of a neighbouring clan chief.

By helping a kiap to quickly find the killer, the wily Tumai may well have prevented a payback killing and a repercussive chain of violence.

The gratitude of the kiaps who understood the value of this would have been great and further raised Tumai’s already ascendant status.

In its verdict, the court determined that Oulaine had quarreled incessantly with Opu’s sister, Katai and had sealed her fate when she took a stick to Katai which opened a cut below her left eye and broke her collar bone.

The manner of Oulaine’s murder, the court reasoned, was observable in its meticulousness – from the first disabling severing of the spinal cord, the exact blows to the left eye and the collar bone, and that final precise axe stroke to her larynx.

The blow that emphasised that the quarrelsome Oulaine had finally been silenced.

Pictures exercising in the Pacific, the US Navy V-22B Osprey has vertical and short takeoff and landing capabilities (Photo: Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Mathew Diendorf)

ALAN TIDWELL
| War on the Rocks | Edited extracts

Link here to Professor Tidwell’s complete and comprehensive essay on the challenges and opportunities facing the US in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands. It is also a timely note to Australia, whose own Pacific strategy has become less than clear - KJ 

WASHINGTON DC - The United States’ Indo-Pacific coordinator, Kurt Campbell, recently grabbed attention by saying that the US may soon face a “strategic surprise” in the Pacific.

He appears to have had in mind agreements and basing arrangements between Pacific Island countries and China.

Campbell went on to say that the United States has not done enough to engage with the island countries, while Australia and New Zealand have done plenty.

He called on the United States to “substantially up our game” and said he looked “to Australia to lead.”

The seven-decade-long alliance between Australia and the United States has seen profound changes with the addition of AUKUS.

The Pacific presents another set of challenges for the alliance, which are important both for the alliance itself and in the broader context of strategic competition.

Failure to effectively manage these new challenges will have profound repercussions for both the United States and Australia.

Two related questions emerge — how can the United States raise its game among the Pacific Island countries, while at the same time building on the foundations laid by its long-time ally, Australia?

The Biden administration has an opportunity to build on the steps taken by the previous administration and deepen US engagement in the Pacific.

Improving US engagement with these fragile island states, while enhancing collaboration with Australia as a key regional ally, will serve as proof positive that the United States is able to successfully shift its strategic focus to the Indo-Pacific.

Failure to effectively improve US regional involvement in Oceania will be a failure of American will, with broader implications.

An essential element to US engagement is a durable strategy uniquely aligned to the needs of the small Pacific Island states.

Over the past decade, two issues — climate change and strategic competition — have animated American interest in the Pacific, the latter the more significantly.

US Pacific Island strategy should be informed by the Pacific Islands Forum Boe Declaration, which endorses a commitment to the rules-based international order and upholds the right of member countries to conduct their “national affairs free of external interference and coercion.”

Importantly, the declaration also promotes both a traditional and non-traditional view of security, emphasising human, environmental and cybersecurity, as well as concern over transnational crime.

These are the areas in which the United States can most productively collaborate with Australia to enhance security among the Pacific Island countries.

China’s apparent desire to expand its military capability among the Pacific Islands has raised concerns in both Australia and the United States.

China has announced plans to improve an airfield on the coral atoll of Katon in Kiribati, which is roughly 3,000 kilometers from Oahu and lies near the sea lanes connecting Hawaii with Australia and New Zealand.

Elsewhere, China has completed work on improving Momote Airport on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, which is the closest airfield to Lombrum Naval Base.

Australia, the United States, and Papua New Guinea are collaborating on upgrading Lombrum, originally built by the US Navy in World War II and rivalling Pearl Harbor in size and capacity.

China has also reportedly sought basing opportunities in Vanuatu and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands. While these efforts ultimately proved unsuccessful, US officials clearly remain worried.

Beyond basing rights, China could well seek to emulate American Pacific arrangements and negotiate its own compact of free association with, for example, Kiribati.

In September 2019, the Trump administration cancelled US involvement in the Paris Agreement on climate change.

The Paris agreement had broadly been seen as a victory for Pacific Island diplomacy, and the US withdrawal was met with disappointment.

Tuvalu’s prime minister, Enele Sopoaga, said, “We are very, very distressed,” and Fiji’s prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, said that the “loss of America’s leadership was unfortunate.”

Climate change threatens American islands just as much as it threatens Tuvalu and Fiji, and recognising this is an essential step to creating a lasting Pacific Island strategy.

Yet, strategic competition creates even greater urgency as the United States embraces a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Once again, America has an interest in maintaining the international rules-based order as much as the Pacific Island countries do.

In embracing America’s Pacific Island identity, US policymakers should listen to American Pacific Island voices, giving greater durability to American involvement with the Pacific Islands.

There are five steps that the United States should take to improve security cooperation.

First, it should continue to adapt Pacific Deterrence Initiative projects to better align with the realities of the Pacific Island countries.

Second, Washington should move forward on funding the compacts of free association with Palau, Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands.

Third, Congress should legislate for deeper and more reliable cooperation and collaboration with allies and partners regarding the Pacific Island states.

Fourth, Congress should embrace the language for interagency working groups found in the Maritime SAFE Act and incorporate that into other non-traditional security cooperation legislation.

Finally, the United States should improve the management of these policies and legislation through the appointment of a Pacific coordinator.

Taken together, these five steps would make significant advances in US engagement and involvement in the Pacific Islands.

By creating a strategy predicated on durable engagement, the United States would position itself in the region with a rationale inclusive of strategic competition but also stretching to areas of non-traditional security concerns.

Alan Tidwell is professor of the practice and director of the Center for Australian, New Zealand and Pacific Studies at the Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University in Washington DC

Happy days. Delilah Gore (Sohe),  Loujaya Kouza (Lae) and Julie Soso (Eastern Highlands) after their election in 2012. All failed to win re-election in 2017

MICHAEL KABUNI & DANNY AGON
| Academia Nomad

PORT MORESBY – For five days in mid-January, Papua New Guinea’s Registry of Political Parties and Candidates, with the support of donors, ran a mentoring program for aspiring female candidates to contest this year’s national election.

Getting women into parliament is tough in Papua New Guinea.

In the 46 years since independence, there have been only seven women elected to parliament, and only two were re-elected after serving just one term.

In the current parliament of 111 members, there is not one woman.

Conversations around the lack of women’s representation in parliament revolves around financial constraints, election violence, corruption and bribery, and a ‘cultural preference’ for male leadership.

There are lessons to be learnt from the experiences of those women who have been elected, and perhaps the two who were re-elected.

So here we document our conversations with those two former MPs and with a female MP from the Bougainville parliament who won an open seat competing against male candidates.

Before she passed away in 2020, we were able to speak with Nahau Rooney, one of three women elected at the 1977 election, the first after independence.

Nahau Rooney co-founded the People Democratic Movement, which produced former prime ministers Paias Wingti and Mekere Morauta, and as MP for Manus, she held ministerial portfolios for correctional services and justice.

We also heard Dame Carol Kidu speak to students at the University of Papua New Guinea in an event organised by the Political Science Students Association in 2021.

Dame Carol represented the Port Moresby South electorate for three terms from 1997 until she retired in 2012, holding senior ministerial portfolios as well as leading the opposition at one point.

Also in 2021, we interviewed Theolina Roka Matbob, who was the only woman to win an open seat at the 2020 Bougainville election, and now serves as minister for education.

There are three other women MPs in the Bougainville parliament who contested the three seats reserved for women.

From our conversations, it was clear that these successful women lived in their communities and had huge support from men.

Ms Matbob spent the seven years before her election in in the Ioro constituency running adult literacy and counselling programs for people affected by the 10-year civil war in the 1990s.

With her husband, Nathan Matbob, she also took on the fight to hold the Rio Tinto corporation accountable for the environmental destruction caused by its Panguna copper and gold mine.

Ms Matbob told us it was the men who asked her to contest the election, and they led her campaign.

Ms Rooney’s story was similar. Before the 1977 election, she had been organising the Manus bureaucracy by providing the modern systems it required following the creation of provincial governments in 1976.

Leading up to the 1977 election, 13 ward councillors asked her to contest PNG’s first election as an independent nation. The menfolk also led her campaigns.

Dame Carol’s first election was a bit different and she attributes her success in 1997 from ‘sympathy votes’ following the death of her husband, Sir Buri Kidu, the first national Chief Justice who had died in 1994.

Dame Carol said she used the first term to consolidate her political support.

So this other aspect common to these women was the role of men to extend beyond males’ traditional role as leaders and decision-makers in most PNG societies.

During the elections, young men travelled long distances to campaign for their candidates. The violence, rough living and other difficulties can make it especially difficult for women candidates.

It would seem that male support is crucial for female candidates who wish to succeed at the polls.

And there was another interesting fact pointed out to us by a women leader in Port Moresby: each of the three women who won in 1977 had expatriate husbands or partners.

This may not be important now, but back in the 1970s the expatriate community was perceived to have higher status and influence, and was better resourced. And later, in 1997, Dame Carol’s husband (a Papua New Guinean) was held in high regard in his role as chief justice.

During her first term as MP for Port Moresby South, Dame Carol’s colleagues wanted to lobby for her to be given a ministerial portfolio but she refused, not wanting ministerial responsibilities to keep her away from her constituency.

However, she did chair a parliamentary committee that put her in the media spotlight. But she used that first term to consolidate political support in her electorate.

Ministerial portfolios are demanding. For much of the time, they require a minister’s presence in Port Moresby where government departments and other central agencies are located.

For ministers representing constituencies outside Port Moresby, their constant presence in the national capital can be frustrating to their constituencies.

In PNG, voters support MPs based on an expectation that local issues and benefits will command their attention. So even if ministers do a good job at the national level, they can lose support in their constituencies.

In 2012, as in that 1977 election, three female MPs were elected to parliament in 2012, but all lost in 2017.

Two of them were given ministerial portfolios in their first term. But it is not clear to what extent it was those duties that impacted on their failure to be re-elected.

The proposal for reserved seats for women, much discussed over many years in PNG, will probably not be ready for the June 2022 election.

But, even they were to be passed, these proposals would be temporary.

Lessons from successful female politicians will be useful to female candidates long into the future.

James Marape with a collection of Daniel Kumbon's many books. Seen here with  fisheries minister Dr Lino Tom while Peter Mis looks on

DANIEL KUMBON

PORT MORESBY – Yesterday afternoon I sat with prime minister James Marape and we talked about Papua New Guinea literature and culture.

At last I was able to tell the prime minister what a number of us writers have been trying to do for some time.

And that is to convey to the Marape government the important role of literature in developing and preserving the diverse cultural heritage of the country of 1,000 tribes.

Mr Marape had invited me to visit him after he had read one of my books, ‘Victory Song of Pingeta’s Daughter’, which was published in 2020.

The 'Pineapple Building' in Port Moresbyu, scene of an historic meeting to discuss PNG literature between prime minister James Marape and author Daniel Kumbon

I was delighted to get the invitation and took the first plane out of Wabag to fly south to the national capital and meet him on the ninth floor of Sir Manasupe Haus.

The Pineapple Building, as it called colloquially, is home to the prime minister’s department and other important government agencies.

And here I was, sitting with the prime minister and hearing him say that he identified himself fully with the story told in ‘Victory Song of Pingeta’s Daughter’.

He had given me the opportunity to express my feelings and I was not going to let him down.

“This building we are sitting in will be replaced by another,” I said, “but the words we record in books will never be erased.

“They will remain with people forever like the words in the Bible.”

I told the prime minister that I had published seven books over the years.

The cover of ' Victory Song of Pingeta's Daughter'

And I had made sure that every one was placed in the National Library to remain safe for the benefit of future generations.

I added that my published works are also available online for anybody in the world interested in Papua New Guinea, and even Enga Province, to access with ease.

Mr Marape agreed about the importance of literature. He said it was something that interested him and that one day he would write his own life story or maybe about politics.

He told me that he was very impressed with my book, and felt similar books should be written about each province before our elderly people died taking with them all the knowledge and information they had accumulated over their lifetimes.

He then asked me to list all the writers in PNG (there are many) and get them to write more books about the history and cultures of each province and to write biographies of influential people from every part of PNG before they died.

He said that, when he returns from an official trip to China this week, where he will attend the Beijing Winter Olympics with other world leaders, he will make an announcement to reveal how established Papua New Guinean writers can be assisted and encouraged to write about the diversity of PNG.

So far as I know James Marape and Michael Somare are the only prime ministers who have proudly worn traditional dress for the world to see.

James Marape in traditional Tari attire as pictured in my book 'Victory Song of Pingeta's Daughter'

I had featured this son of Tari in his splendid attire in the pages of 'Victory Song of Pingeta's Daughter'.

The thought crossed my mind that, in reading the book, the prime minister may have come across this photograph. Maybe this drew him to a consideration of the importance of literature and published works by Papua New Guinean writers.

Perhaps this was why I was now sitting in the Pineapple Building and exchanging views on a national literature with a very interested prime minister.

The book had been presented to him when he recently visited Wabag by Enga businessman Cr Paul Kurai.

Pingeta was Cr Paul Kurai’s maternal grandfather who was blown to pieces in a loud explosion emanating from a long stick held by one of two strange white man who had ventured into Pingeta’s territory in 1934.

Pingeta was the first to be killed in the massacre at Tole village, the people’s first encounter with white men and the fire arms of the Leahy brothers.

Who might be on that list of contemporary Papua New Guinean writers who would enjoy the opportunity to record the history of their country?

Writers Betty Wakia, Daniel Kumbon and Caroline Evari worked for two years to secure a meeting with the prime minister. It happened, it happened in a hurry, and it happened yesterday

They might be drawn from people like Michael Dom, Betty Wakia, Caroline Evari, Jordan Dean, Emmanuel Peni, Wardley Barry, Samantha Kusari, Dominica Are, Jimmy Drekore, Jimmy Awagl, Ruth Moiam, Mathias Kin, Martyn Namorong, Kela Kapkora Sil Bolkin, Leonard Fong Roka, Baka Bina, Reginald Renagi, Marlene Dee Gray Potoura, Philip Kai Morre, James Thomas, Winterford Toreas, Diddie Kinamun Jackson, Lapieh Landu, Raymond Sigimet, Arnold Mundua, Jeffrey Febi, Busa Jeremiah Wenogo, Michael Kabuni, Patrick Levo, John Kaupa Kamasua and Bomai Witne.

The list will grow longer when prime minister James Marape after he returns from China and makes an announcement to reveal how established PNG writers can be assisted and encouraged to write about the diversity of PNG.

This is such an important message for Papua New Guinea writers. The people who can be trusted to this major task are current writers who have already published their works and recognised as heroes of modern-day literature in this country.

So yesterday the prime minister sat quietly, listening to a story about the literature of his own country which, even with minimal or no nourishment, had managed to survive, but could do so much more given the chance.

Authors Jimmy Drekore, Daniel Kumbon and Baka Bina at Gembogl in the foothills of Mt Wilhelm, 2016. Establishing a home-grown literature in Papua New Guinea has proven a hard peak to scale

There are many suitable books already available by Papua New Guinean writers but there has been no clear way to get them into the libraries, into the schools and into the hands of Papua New Guineans who fall in love with writing from their own country the moment they set eyes on it.

Our country is blessed with a thousand cultures, all different, none more valuable than the other, each unique.

Our bilas, our songs, our legends, our customs, our cuisines, our histories are all different – the such things are the heartbeat of PNG. The very things that make us who we are and identifies us as Papua New Guineans.

PHILIP FITZPATRICK, MICHAEL DOM
& KEITH JACKSON

PHIL FITZPATRICK | Tuesday 11.18 am

The thing about Motu, as with other Papuan languages, is that it’s musical. Someone can shout at you in anger in Motu and it still sounds pleasant to the ear.

The sound of a language, its tone and cadence, can tell you a lot about its speakers.

It may be stereotypical but Motu conjures up images of snoozing in the warm sun by the beach under a palm tree.

It even has a smell associated with it, a combination of smoky fires and warm coconut oil.

Some of the Aboriginal languages from northern Australia have a similar musical quality.

Listening to the late David Gulpilil speaking in his native Yolngu could make you tap your fingers without even understanding what he was saying.

Contrast that with a language like German and some of the eastern European languages, which are guttural and heavy. Among other things they conjure up discipline, hardness and abrasion.

French, on the other hand, is pleasing to the ear and reverberates with warmth and casualness, albeit with a touch of superiority.

You can listen to someone singing in French and enjoy it without understanding it. Think of Edith Piaf or Charles Aznavour.

Unlike Motu, which is a pure language, English is a bastardised concoction and relies on accent for its sensual impact.

Contrast the soft and lilting tones of a southern Irish speaker to a brash and nasally speaker from the Bronx in New York, a lazy drawl from a Texan or a screeching whine from a north Queenslander.

And then there’s the high faluting version as practised by the nobility and their acolytes whose plum-in-the-mouth or something uncomfortable stuck up their bum accents are designed to project a superiority and refinement that differentiates them from the hoi polloi.

Try listening to Prince Charles or some of the prominent monarchists in Australia telling you how better they are than you without actually expressing it in words.

Tok Pisin, with its basis in corrupted English and other sundry languages, is also a language that relies on accent.

Phil Fitzpatrick - "Motu conjures up images of snoozing in the warm sun by the beach under a palm tree"

Getting the accent right in Tok Pisin is crucial. How many times have you listened to an expatriate speaker who has got the vocabulary and grammar just right but still sounds clumsy in their speech?

Or perhaps listening to rapid fire Sepik Tok Pisin and contrasting it with the lazy New Ireland version or even a highland version that can sometimes come with the actual reek of pig fat.

You used to be able to tell where someone came from in Papua New Guinea through listening to their accent. That aspect has now diminished considerably.

Then there is cosmopolitan Tok Pisin as spoken by the so-called elite in Port Moresby.

This version is like a creole within a creole with its littering of English expressions and terminologies rendered incomprehensible by the fractured use of meaningless suffixes and misplaced emphasises.

These people have a lot to answer for because they have taken a quaint and magical version of English and bastardised it beyond probity.

Listening to these people speak, especially if it is coming out of the mouth of a smartarse politician, immediately tells you to be on your guard.

You wouldn’t think it’s possible but they can make Tok Pisin sound positively predatory.

Where Tok Pisin really comes into its own is in oratory. Unfortunately and contrary to what the politicians think, you don’t hear much good oratory these days.

What I’m thinking about are the old grey beards in the highlands who could rattle on for an hour or more about anything.

There is a newer version of this old Gris Pisin around and that’s spoken Tok Pisin poetry. Around Port Moresby and other big towns it’s quite popular in poetry ‘slam’ sessions.

Poetry slams are popular all over the world. We have some good slammers in Australia. Slamming is the great grandchild of the Greenwich Village beat poetry as practised by Allen Ginsberg and other assorted weirdo beatniks.

The Papua New Guinea version is unique because it combines old style oratory and poetry into a kind of hybrid that is both literary and polemic.

A lot of Papua New Guinean poets, I’ve noticed, write their poetry with how it might be spoken in mind. William Shakespeare would understand what they are doing.

That’s what tends to throw it out of kilter with what the purists consider good poetry.

The idea of standing up and belting out a bit of Wordsworth or Coleridge is anathema to them. Banjo Paterson or Rudyard Kipling, however, are a different proposition.

Language is not just warm air coming out of someone’s mouth. It has a tactile quality and an odour all of its own. You just have to listen a bit more closely to pick it up.

Michael Dom - "The poem that finds you will probably not be the one you were searching for"

MICHAEL DOM | Tuesday 3.46 pm

One contention I would make; I don't know what the purist problem is, and I think Shakespeare bridges the imaginary divide well enough, between written and spoken word poetry since his most memorable poetic moments emerged from dramatic dialogue.

Slam poetry is mostly for entertainment, and while that may be dramatic in delivery, it's mostly not a drama you'd write home about.

Slam requires a relatively high degree of extroversion (or empowerment) to execute and the audience is mostly there to be thrilled.

Also, there's no repeat button when performed live and thus no time to savour the sound of sense, ponder the profound or hang on the highwire act.

So, maybe it's not for everyone and shouldn't be. (And vice versa for written poetry.)

Without the right speaker (usually the author) with the right approach (trained) and the right conditions (arranged) at the right time and place (prepared), the slam poem can flop and die in mid-flight, or not even leave the ground or, worse still, fly off to somewhere no one can follow it.

Also, from what I've heard, most of slam is political, speaks too often of ugliness, and tends to voice dissent without a hint at solution.

In other words, for exuberant teenagers with a bent for shocking and thwarting the system and speaking passionately about a life of which pains they have not yet even plumbed the littoral zone let alone the abyss.

(Swimming in the shallows?)

It's fun while it lasts I guess.

Then we go home and recall nothing very significant unless it was a rant on our own pet peeves or special needs group (read victim status) that was addressed.

That's sad. Mostly.

Or maybe I need to hear more slam poetry, although somehow I know I'll survive without it.

But the quiet word that sits and waits for you to arrive, well, there's almost no one who survives that ambush.

PHILIP FITZPATRICK | Tuesday 4.47 pm

Michael, you’re obviously a purist. That cute lady who spoke at Biden’s coronation was a kind of slam poet. Leonard Cohen plus guitar was good at it too.

KEITH JACKSON | Tuesday 5.01 pm

I guess slam verse sounds better if there’s a nearby bar.

MICHAEL DOM | Tuesday 5.33 pm

I come from the reading end of the spectrum rather than the listening end.

If that makes me a purist then I suppose the other end is the adulterated.

And that's a bad equation for poetry preferences because as I've said before I like to meet poems one by one.

There's something to be said for the privacy to explore a poem, as much as there is to have the privilege to experience a poem performed.

My habit is the former. My preference; that it is good.

I have watched a few YouTube clips of slam events but not had the chance to attend one in person, so I am definitely biased that way.

However, if replaying a live slam event video clip still leaves me mostly unsatisfied then I suppose slam is just not my cup of tea.

The chick at Biden's big day was, to me, unappealing in spoken word and appearance regardless of how impressive she was pampered up to be.

But that's just me, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

As a poet, I judge her words as fair, her performance as expected and her appearance as appealing to the fashion crowd that follow her.

I've heard some gruff bloke in dirty jeans and a torn T-shirt pull off a poem that shook the air without a presidential blessing to do so.

So.

Meet your poems where you can and if that is at a slam event then good for you.

But the poem that finds you will probably not be the one you were searching/waiting/wishing for.

The poems that found me out surprised me in the pages of some random book or website, an overheard or an incorrectly recalled song lyric that I went back to explore, a note or a meme that most may ignore….

But a shout and a scream leave less inspiration to me than a mute nightmare or a silent dream.

What's your proclivity?

KEITH JACKSON | Tuesday 9.45 pm

Ah, mine is to read. And not to waste what time I have left on cant or propaganda or ugliness dressed as itself or, worse, dressed as ego. Same goes for people.

And to read what has value - takes me somewhere, teaches something, draws an emotion; making me wish I’d written it is the highest praise I have to offer.

Keith Jackson - "I'm intolerant of lazy writers who will not check a fact and poseurs who seem to think readers are meek devotees, not the harsh judges they really are

Most days my illness gives me few workable hours - as little as two of writing or editing time before the brain begins to foreclose. Never more than five on a good day. Everything there is to do evaluated at the cost of what it means I can’t do.

This is a strange, limited but not limiting time of life. And I’ve found that excitement is not important. I’ve had lots of it. No need for more. But it can be fun.

Dangerous satire is fun. Taking a risk is fun. I guess a poetry slam is fun. Like you, I’ve never experienced it and now I won’t because it probably wouldn’t get through the triaging I apply to everything so I can do what I really want, or must.

I love clever argument and am thrilled by insight but intolerant of lazy writers who will not check a fact (or a spelling) and poseurs who seem to think readers are meek devotees, not the harsh judges they really are.

I do not see PNG Attitude as slam. Although it can slam. We all can slam.

Nor is it me, except in the sense it may do some good and is an equal opportunity publisher. Otherwise it is a creature of fifty writers (maybe five hundred) who give it character and effervescence and meaning.

I’m a poor poet, a middling writer and a fair enough editor. And, given I can’t do a helluva lot anyway and have plenty of other diminishing bits of life to dabble with when I can, the ragged repertoire I’m left with suits me just fine.

That’s my proclivity.

The days are gone when I could drive across the harbour bridge and look at the skyline with the names of huge corporations lighting the tops of buildings and think, ‘Half of them are my clients’.

I once was a dog and that was my day.

Yokomo - the delight he invoked in children in the 1960s was a boon to reading and literature

MICHAEL DOM | Tuesday 10.16 pm

They’re the refined habits of a well-lived life.

I hope myself to be half as lucky and the same measure of witty.

God keep you Keith Jackson AM.

(Or else He'll not hear the end of it from me ‘anywhere I roam’.)

Bill Aaron's Oro - a province of mountains fjords, fast-flowing rivers and home to the Kokoda Track

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - Bill Aaron (aka Aaron William Panige), one of the original Papua New Guinean kiaps recruited in the 1960s, has died in Oro Province.

Aaron, 82, died on 17 January in his home village of Dombada. He had been the second patrol officer recruited from Oro following Basil Koe of Buna.

Before his death, Aaron surprised his family by revealing all his patrol reports from the 1960s which he had kept in a patrol box.

His first posting after graduation from the Finschhafen Training Centre in 1963 was to Tapini in Central Province.

In 1963 he was posted to Koroba in the Southern Highlands and then successively to Bereina, Kerema and Baimuru.

By 1973 he had reached the rank of Assistant District Commissioner and was an acting District Commissioner on several occasions.

Also in 1973, he took up the role of Government Liaison Officer and played an important part in political education programs leading to PNG’s self-government and independence.

The Kumusi River bridge under construction

After independence in 1975 he returned to Oro and joined the construction company of Stan (The Bridge Builder) Rybarz.

Aaron assisted in building many of the bridges along the Oro Bay Road and the Kokoda Highway, including the Kumusi Bridge, later washed away during the cyclone disaster of 2007.

He also served as a ward councillor with the Oro Bay Local Level Government from 2008 to 2013.

Prime Minister James Marape addresses the Pacific Adventist University’s 35th graduation ceremony (PMNEC)

JOHN K KAMASUA
| PNG Career Development Inc

PORT MORESBY -In the first issue of The Organizational Doctor, published last August, I wrote on the important outcomes of a short survey I conducted on the issue of connecting graduates to jobs.

In Papua New Guinea we are producing many fine graduates who cannot find appropriate employment: this is a quite appalling situation for them and their families and a terrible waste to the nation.

Although my research was limited to recent graduates of the University of PNG, it revealed many useful insights that apply more broadly to graduates in Papua New Guinea who are having difficult finding employment.

These included poor visibility of entry level jobs, which are mostly not advertised, and a lack of skills on where and how to search for jobs, CV preparation, cover letter writing and interview techniques.

Amongst the practical initiatives that would improve this situation immensely would be the development of a website dedicated to providing information about entry level jobs and the establishment of a National Graduate Employment Scheme.

While teaching at UPNG, I’ve been actively assisting students by running workshops to assist students get a job.

The workshops cover writing CVs and cover letters as well as interview and job search tips.

I’ve distributed advertisements on internships, graduate development programs and entry level jobs, written reference letters for my students and supplemented with some research into jobs and employment opportunities for recent graduates.

I have complemented these efforts by creating two WhatsApp groups which have close to 500 active job seekers. I post jobs daily in these groups and encourage members to do the same and help each other.

In addition, I created the Facebook group, PNG Career Development Inc, in which along with committed volunteers I publicise and share current job vacancies each day. The group has a current membership of more than 23,000.

These efforts are my contribution to easing the way for young graduates but they are not sufficient to make a dent on a huge problem. Other people in PNG have initiated similar platforms. But the government should have a role in by providing this support.

Job creation is one of the key measures of a government’s performance in office. It’s a major driver of economic growth and a prosperous society.

Voters take very seriously whether or not they and their children and relatives are able to find a job. And when voters take things seriously, so do most governments because voters make decisions on how well a government is doing its job.

Media and academic commentators criticise or praise governments for their capability in many areas – and jobs are always in the top group.

Private sector companies and employers are significantly affected by the jobs market and have a great interest in whether governments are creating jobs.

So from many perspectives, government action through policy, legislation and investment is known to be critical.

In the US, Australia and many other countries, the small-medium enterprise sector provides the bulk of jobs.

The lesson in this for PNG, is that our government should ensure its policy and other tools are always employment friendly and puts the proper emphasis on the small-medium and informal sectors. And this is one of the key challenges for the Marape-Basil government.

These jobs must be created not just in the extractive sector but in quantity across other sectors.

Graduation ceremony at the University of Papua New Guinea in the presence of the Duke of Edinburgh,  February 1974 (Pacific Manuscripts Bureau)

In PNG it is generally acknowledged that jobs are not being created quickly enough to accommodate the growing number of graduates coming out of the colleges and universities. It has not helped that the economy has been negatively affected by the global Covid-19 pandemic.

The truth is that government agencies are not recruiting while the jobs being visibly advertised are predominantly in the private sector and the development/non-government sector.

From these understandings, I feel it is safe to say that graduate unemployment is quite high, although actual figures are hard if not impossible to get.

One piece of good advice I heard is for graduates to create their own jobs. But this is easier to say than to do. Even if they have marketable skills and knowledge, it is difficult for graduates to assemble the start-up capital and identify people who will pay for those skills.

Some government departments and private companies have begun to create short term internships and fully developed graduate development programs to meet their own needs.

These are genuine and admirable initiatives but do not make a dent on the growing number of unemployed graduates.

Based on my own research and analysis, many graduates start in jobs not related to their qualifications, while many more remain unemployed until ending up in the informal sector.

In PNG, the government is one of the biggest employers but its manpower needs must be better coordinated and managed. This requires individual government departments to develop appropriate policies and take their responsibilities for job creation and career advancement seriously.

Government action must be must not be sustained, strategic and coordinated in key growth areas, not piecemeal and ad hoc.

To this end, PNG requires a National Employment Policy in which the need to accommodate graduates – and not waste their 15 or more years of education - must feature prominently.

The policy could be subsumed within, say, the Department of Labor and Employment, in association with agencies such as National Planning and Monitoring, Community Development & Religion, Labour & Employment, and Higher Education, Research, Science & Technology (DHERST).

The National Employment Policy will mandate the development of:

-- a communications function including a dedicated website amongst other information channels

-- tailored training to prepare graduates for the challenges and demands working life

-- provincial job centres in in partnership with donor agencies and the private sector to connect job seekers with available jobs

-- strategies to mobilise resources and personnel to create a more effective jobs market

Relevant legislation will be required to realise the policy and it is a responsibility of government to seize the initiative for such a reform, and imperative that other actors support and contribute to such a forward-thinking and necessary plan.

JOHN KAMASUA is a qualified career counsellor with a certificate in life coaching from the University of Cambridge (UK). He has a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work (UPNG) and a Masters in Social Development and Sustainable Livelihoods (University of Reading, UK).

John has extensive experience in community and social development in the Asia-Pacific region.  In 2017, he established PNG Career Development Inc. He can be contacted by email (pngcareerdev@gmail.com) or phone (675) 73682178

BERNARD CORDEN

“Don’t accept that what’s happening
Is just a case of others’ suffering
Or you’ll find that you’re joining in
The turning away”
 -  Pink Floyd, On the Turning Away, 2015

BRISBANE - Ten years have passed since the traumatic MV Rabaul Queen disaster on 2 February 2012.

The dilapidated rust bucket capsized at daybreak in treacherous waters as it crossed the Vitiaz Strait off the northern coast of Papua New Guinea with the likely loss of about 500 people.

The precise number will never be known because the shipping company was unable to provide a genuine manifest.

Anecdotal evidence suggests Rabaul Queen exceeded its specified carrying capacity and that overcrowding contributed to the disaster with some survivors estimating 700 people were aboard.

Victims included many students and schoolchildren returning to Lae for new semesters at colleges and schools.

Rabaul Queen survivors await rescue - 246 were saved; an estimated 500 died

The plight of bereaved families, dependents and survivors over the past decade is unimaginable and inconceivable.

Many were left chasing smoke and have encountered the traditional delay, deny and die hendiatris underpinned by a patronising disposition of unaccountable power.

This malevolent modus operandi is quite evident following most natural and industrial disasters, pandemics and many other tragedies.

Several notorious examples over the past five decades include Aberfan, Bloody Sunday, Piper Alpha, Hillsborough, Upper Big Branch, Deepwater Horizon, Fukushima, Grenfell Tower and Covid-19, as vividly depicted here in Covid-1984.

Furthermore, the resurgence of entirely preventable industrial diseases such as asbestosis, mesothelioma, black lung and silicosis has screwed more miners than Maggie Thatcher, Jimmy Savile OBE KCSG, and an episcopacy of bishops.

Subsequent coronial inquiries make superficial gestures, although these anachronistic and dishonest forums often disappoint and typically degenerate into a ritual provocatively painful for those who survive and the loved ones of those who didn’t.

Indeed, the theatre of law has little to do with the discovery of truth or realisation of justice.

Many seasoned barristers believe cross-examining at coronial inquests is akin to working with both hands tied behind their backs:

“….there is a need in the coronial context to service the needs of all participants to investigations by coroners in a humane and empathic way, which provides information, and endeavours to arrive at understanding about what has been responsible (factually and medically) for the occurrence of deaths” - Ian Freckelton QC, QUT Law Review, vol 16 no 3

A juror protests that the subject of a coroner's inquest is alive (1826)

This hopeful but often hopeless counsel of perfection is merely an adversarial wolf in inquisitorial sheep’s clothing.

The sheep wolf that delivers retrospective judgements of convenience, which often include enigmatic, incongruous and unfair findings or verdicts.

Despite superficial doctrines covering the separation of powers, royal commissions or public and parliamentary inquiries are usually constrained by carefully manicured terms of reference.

This enables incumbent federal or state governments to determine the magnitude of the risk and discover where all the bodies are buried.

A sanitised report sacrifices truth and accountability to protect the reputations of the powerful and preserves state and corporate interests.

Assets are secured via a tyranny of sinister bureaucratic recommendations that often neglect the needs of the powerless and subsequent losses are socialised at the expense of beleaguered taxpayers.

Following the collapse of capitalism’s festering Ponzi scheme in 2008, nominated by Americans as The Great Recession and Australians as the Global Financial Crisis, frantic rescue efforts included corporate welfare with gratuitous bailouts, which were as helpful to social equity as feeding strawberries to a donkey.

Milton Friedman - "You never can cure poverty. Poverty is in the eye of the beholder"

This neoliberal malaise with its deification of the Friedman doctrine (which proposed a company’s only responsibility was to its shareholders and damn society) and its insatiable quest for profit has continued unabated.

Neoliberalism’s fragility has been brutally exposed by the coronavirus pandemic and its disdain of democracy by the Republican Party’s continuing white-anting of the US voting system.

However, capitalism is remarkably resilient for a bad idea and its nodding acquaintance with fascism always run the risk of transforming into new models, like let’s storm Congress.

Indeed, a pernicious version of gangster capitalism has emerged and its venality closely resembles the narcotics trade with its illicit and clandestine drug dealing and rancorous turf wars.

Authoritarian populism has emerged throughout most Western democracies and many of its undesirable traits are evident to us each day.

Escalating inequality has left the US teetering on the brink of civil war as we saw on 6 January 2021 when supporters of soon to be electorally ousted US president Donald Trump attacked the Capitol Building in Washington DC.

Across the Atlantic in the United Kingdom, prime minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is embroiled in the ‘Nightmare on Downing Street Partygate’ scandal.

A mutiny involving several prominent cabinet ministers flounders its way forward leaving the despotic and sociopathic Huboris clinging to power with superficial support from his erstwhile squeeze and for the time being fixture, Carrie (Let Them Eat Cake) Antoinette, various entitled hangers on and some newspaper owners who just think he’s having a bad day, every day.

Meanwhile in the land down under, the Australia Day awards are each year more reminiscent of a Billy Graham crusade, a Hillsong convention or a meeting of the Young Liberals.

During this year’s closing ceremony of the event, the most notable omission was a guest zoom appearance from the ‘God wants you to be seriously rich’ televangelist Kenneth Copeland performing a live version of ‘If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands’ while unsuccessfully staring down a virus.

So here we are, stuck in era of universal deceit where turning away is accepted policy and speaking the truth a revolutionary and treacherous act.

A time where too many people have found it too easy, and a small number very advantageous, to join in the turning away.

“It's a sin that somehow
Light is changing to shadow
And casting its shroud
Light is changing to shadow
Over all we have known”
 -  Pink Floyd, On the Turning Away, 2015

Covid in the Pacific - January headlines

PSC NEWS DESK
| Australia Pacific Security College (PSC)

CANBERRA -The rapid spread of the Omicron variant within the Pacific has seen community transmission in the previously Covid-19-free countries of Palau, Kiribati, Tonga, and Solomon Islands.

The Omicron variant has led to a significant increase in the number of cases throughout the Pacific region to start 2022, with the majority of countries now seeing community transmission of Covid or having cases in quarantine.

As of Wednesday 2 February, Fiji had 1,397 active Covid cases with a 30.4% test positivity rate.

According to World Health Organisation reporting, the country had recorded 62,855 Covid cases and 801 deaths since he pandemic began.

Guam saw a surge in Omicron cases, with the territory’s total cases at 25,617 and the death toll at 294.

New Caledonia had recorded 22,137 cumulative cases and 284 deaths, the Northern Mariana Islands 5,062 cases and 23 deaths, and Papua New Guinea 37,270 cases and 597 deaths.

Here is a summary of policy responses in the Pacific region, correct as of Wednesday.

Solomon Islands entered its first lockdown, with the country recording 1,852 cases.

The virus came to the country via the illegal entry of a vessel from PNG to the remote island of Ontong Java.

Although the outer island was locked down, Covid quickly spread to Guadalcanal, prompting the government to lockdown Honiara for an initial period of 60 hours from 19 January, before it was extended to 30 January.

After this period, a partial lockdown took effect with some restrictions remaining, including a 3pm curfew enforced in Honiara.

The Solomons’ government moved quickly from a containment strategy to one of mitigation, with health officials expecting the number of cases to spiral into the thousands.

In light of the concerning health situation, the Australian government sent two flights to Honiara, carrying emergency medical supplies.

The Solomon Islands vaccination rollout remains sluggish, with only 11% of its total population fully vaccinated.

Kiribati’s status as one of the last Covid-free countries ended when the nation went into lockdown on 22 January.

36 passengers aboard a repatriation flight tested positive for the Omicron variant in quarantine.

The virus likely entered the community through a Covid-positive security guard, resulting in community transmission in the capital South Tarawa.

A lockdown was subsequently enforced, alongside mandatory mask-wearing.

Currently, there have been 767 cases recorded during the outbreak, however the nation’s health ministry warned that these cases are just the ‘tip of the iceberg’, and UNICEF has expressed concern.

Palau, despite its world-leading vaccination rate, also saw a rapid escalation of Covid infections through January, with approximately 1,200 active cases in the country at time of writing.

The outbreak was initially caused by travellers arriving in the country not having to quarantine, with the virus quickly spreading into the community.

Although no lockdown was enforced, a mask mandate was implemented and in-person teaching was been suspended until mid-February. Cases of the virus are expected to start to drop in the next two weeks.

Samoa implemented a nationwide lockdown on 22 January, after a repatriation flight from Australia saw 31 positive Covid cases reported.

These cases remain in quarantine, as Samoa’s director-general of health stated that the country is well-prepared to manage the virus.

The lockdown was lifted last week, however, restrictions remain with gatherings limited to 30 people, and future repatriation flights suspended.

Tonga reported five cases of Covid, as the country entered a snap lockdown at 6pm on Wednesday.

Two cases were initially detected through routine testing of frontline workers at Nuku’alofa wharf, however, a woman and her two children have subsequently tested positive, sparking fears of community transmission in the Kingdom.

Tonga’s vaccination rate is healthy, with more than 83% of its population fully vaccinated and 96% having had a first dose. The lockdown was to be reassessed by authorities today (Friday).

Papua New Guinea reported its first case of the Omicron variant in mid-January.

A man travelling from South Africa was confirmed positive, despite having tested negative on arrival.

This has sparked fears of a fourth wave within the country, with Port Moresby General Hospital recording a 60% test positivity rate in the last week.

In vaccination news, Fiji began its booster shot rollout, with more than 68,000 shots having been administered.

Hospitalisations remain low despite the surge in cases, with the country’s health ministry shifting its priorities to begin addressing non-communicable diseases.

Schools reopened for years 8-13 on 24 January for the first time since April 2021.

Meanwhile, in French Polynesia, the country has fully implemented its mandatory vaccination law for those working with the public.

The law faced several legal challenges in France throughout 2021, however from 22 January it will be enforced with financial penalties.

Additionally, a vaccine pass will replace the existing health pass from 8 February, barring unvaccinated people from restaurants, sports arenas, and other venues.

The rapid spread of the Omicron variant in New Caledonia has increased speculation that the territory’s congress will introduce compulsory vaccination for all citizens.

The country recorded 1,515 new infections in the 24 hours to Wednesday, and has more than 6,000 active cases.

A mandatory vaccination law passed in December has had its application repeatedly deferred, but is now expected to be enforced by the end of February.

If fully enforced, New Caledonia would be the fifth country in the world after Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Austria, and the Vatican to impose compulsory vaccination.

Briefly, American Samoa recorded positive cases on two different flights from Honolulu, and one quarantine hotel worker, but has managed to keep the virus from spreading in the community. Vanuatu began the rollout of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on 28 January.

During the period under review, the Northern Mariana Islands recorded its 23rd Covid-related death.

Michael Dom - "It will be so much better if we can see more poetry in Motu, Tok Pisin and our other 850 or so Indigenous languages"

MICHAEL DOM
| Ples Singsing - A Space for
   Papua Niuginian Creativity

Vernacular Traces in the Crocodile Prize:
Part 4 of an essay in five parts

ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY ED BRUMBY | TOK PISIN ORIGINAL FOLLOWS

LAE - In the 2016 Crocodile Prize national literary competition there were three poems submitted in Tok Pisin and one in Motu.

The three Tok Pisin entries were Paul Waugla Wii’s ‘Tingim ol lain lo ples’ (‘Thinking about my people’), Raymond Sigimet’s ‘Dispela nait ino gutpela tumas’ (‘This isn’t such a good night’) and ‘Wara kalap’ (‘Water rising’).

There was also Caroline Evari’s ‘Red cigar seller’– which she wrote in English and I translated into Tok Pisin.

Vagi Samuel Jr became the first competitor to submit a poem in Motu, ‘Sinagu E!’ (‘Oh Mother’), together with an English translation.

Dina danu vada ekwadogimu
Maurimu ai baina hamaoromu
Sinagu E! Oina feva korikori
Badina be egu lalokauna hegena ori

The end of this life is coming very soon
And while you are alive, I am honoured to deliver this message
Oh Mother, you are my hero without a platoon
My love for you is like the clouds on a mere silent passage

Vagi also wrote two other poems which were included in the 2016 Anthology, as well as a short story, ‘Servants of the Sea’, which almost won first prize.

Philip Fitzpatrick commented that the story combined with the poem to bear such good fruit, which I took to mean that combining poetry and stories in our own languages can generate good literary outcomes.

In the 1970s, John Kasaipwalovia from the Trobriand Islands combined traditional stories and poems, and went further by orchestrating them into a play, ‘Sailing in the midnight sun’, which was performed by the National Arts Group in Goroka in the 1980s.

In 2016, in addition to his Crocodile Prize contributions, Vagi Samuel Jr gathered traditional poems and short stories from people of Central Province and published the collection in the book, ‘Voice of the Senemai’.

In the same year, Julie Mota published her poems in a book, ‘Cultural Refugees’, which included works in English and Tok Pisin.

Julie went further by included a work in the traditional style of the Tuif people of Oro Province. It was a kaita, a style of play with poetry which mourns people who have died.

I think this was also typical of PNG’s women writers in the 1980s at the time of Ondobondo, PNG Writer and Bikmaus magazines and other literary publications like Pocket Poets.

It was then that Central Province woman Nora Vagi Brash established a fine reputation for her plays and especially for a Motu poem, ‘Song of the Winds’, which was published in PNG Writer in 1985. But there were no more.

Boge bada e e heau lao, boroma gwada,
Magani gwada Ee – e Garago ta – Na – mo e – e
Gwada, gwada, e e e gwada namo o o o

Boge bada, you will run as fast as the fastest
hunting dog and catch me the wildest of the boars

What if we have to wait another 40 years before we have more Motu examples? I’ll be an old man with broken teeth and ready to die by then – which makes me very sad.

And it is this sadness and concern that motivates me to try to produce English, Tok Pisin and Motu poems.

Although I can’t speak or write Motu and my Tok Pisin is not perfect, my strong motivation and desire helps me to ignore these factors and so I keep trying. 

All my friends understand that my poems are inspired by these considerations and are happy with my focus on using these languages.

Reverend Willie Moses and Christine Sina Moses helped me translate my first poem, ‘Where we lived’ into Tok Pisin, ‘Ples we mitupela bin stap wantaim’, and Motu, ‘Emai noho gabuna’.

One line in particular excites me and sounds so sweet:

              Tanobada bona Davara edia lalokau dagedagena

              Bikpela laikim wantain pait I stap namel long graun na solwara

              Tempestuous love affair of earth and sea

While I wish I could write Motu poems like this one, I don’t have the capability. But that’s all right because I can still enjoy the sweetness of it.

In this example we can see that, in Motu, the land and the sea are called Tanobada and Davara. I think there are other tales about these ideas. I don’t have any right now, but will certainly write them later.

I love reading some of my poems which Konemamata Gemona translated into Motu, such as ‘Ating yu pilim swit’ (‘I think you are feeling sweet’).

I wrote this poem in the Italian ‘terza rima’ style where the third line repeats the same rhyme sound (in the Tok Pisin version). Note: There are some offensive expressions in this poem:

Tok Pisin

Lain painim ples b’long silip long nait
Ol pikinini b’long yu iken kamap
Ol doti strit-mangi, ron painim pait

Na tu-kine meria, raun painim koap
Skul ol ibin kisim free, wankain nau
Insait het kru traipela free spes stap

Motu

Taunimanima Hanuaboi ai mahuta gabudia e tahumu
Oi natumu na dika idia bamodia bae la, heatu be taumu

Bona dala hahine dia, hegagai e tahumu
Free sikuli ea oremu neganai, vada anai bamona
Kwara dia lalodiai danu na space babada mia

English

People looking for a place to sleep at night
Your children may become like
Dirty street kids looking for a fight

And street whores looking for a fuck
After their free schooling just the same
Inside their heads is a big free space

I recognise I have produced a Tok Pisin translation which offends me. No, not really. I’m not offended in the least.

With this poem I realised I had achieved a level of Tok Pisin usage that surprised even me as I read it.

Among the lines of the poem there is a bird dancing. So pleasing to the eye, mouth-watering.

It will be so much better if we can see more poetry in Motu, Tok Pisin and in our other 850 or so Indigenous languages.

This is the unavoidable and shared responsibility of all Papua New Guinean writers – to record the ideas, conversation, behaviour, life and customs of we Papua New Guineans.

Although many of us enjoy chewing betel nut, there are others among us who don’t.

This is the idea behind the poem, ‘I am the red stain’, in Tok Pisin, ‘Mi tasol blut I kapsait’ and in Motu, ‘Launa ramoramo kakakakana’.

English

I am the betel nut
The daga stick
And the lime pot:
I am the red, red stain

Tok Pisin

Mi tasol mi buai
Na stik daga
Na sel kambang wantaim
Mi tasol olsem blut I kapsait

Motu

Launa buatau
Vaga auna
Bona ahu hoduna
Launa ramoramo kakakakana

This kind of poem reveals a significant feature of our identity. We must not forget our good traditions and customs which should be recorded in our own languages.

Motu i hait iet

Long 2016 Crocodile Prize nesenol litereri kompetisen tripela tok-singsing i kamap long Tok Pisin na wanpela long Tok Motu.

Entologi buk long dispela yia em istap olsem e-buk tasol, na pepa-buk bai ol man meri iet putim oda long Amazon. Olgeta narapela Entologi ibin kam long pepa kopi na tu long e-buk.

Ol fopela tok-singsing em: ‘Tingim ol Lain lo Ples’, Paul Waugla Wii emi ratim; ‘Dispela nait ino gutpela tumas’ na ‘Wara kalap’, Raymond Sigimet i raitim; na ‘Red cigar seller’ Caroline Evari i raitim long tokinglis na mi tanim tokpisin long en.

Vagi Samuel Jnr emi nambawan man i raitim tok-singing ‘Sinagu E!’, na tanim tokinglis, ‘Oh Mother’, long dispela taim, na inogat wanpela moa tok-singsing long Tok Motu ikamap bihain long en.

Tok Motu

Dina danu vada ekwadogimu
Maurimu ai baina hamaoromu
Sinagu E! Oina feiva kori kori
Badina be egu lalokauna hegena ori

Tok Inglis

The end of this life is coming very soon
And while you are alive, I am honoured to deliver this message
Oh Mother, you are my hero without a platoon
My love for you is like the clouds on a mere silent passage

Vagi i raitim narapela tupela tok-singsing istap insait long 2016 Entologi na wanpela sotpela-stori ‘Servants of the Sea’ emi klostu winim nambawan mak long en. Phil Fitzpatrick i tok olsem dispela kain stori i marit wantaim tok-singsing na karim gutpela kaikai bilong em iet.

Long tingting bilong mi dispela nek Fitzpatrick i mekim i givim luksave long yumi olsem ol tokples bilong mipela bai kamapim sampela gutpela hanwok long litiritia sapos yumi bungim hanmak bilong tok-singsing wantaim ol kain stori mipela igatim.

Ating em bai kamap wankain olsem ol singsing-stori (sung-tales) bilong ol sampela lain long hailans, olsem ol Simbu na Wabag. Na tu, ol kastom singsing bilong miplela igat hait stori insait long ol. Tasol ating mipela ol raita ino bin traim ol dispela kain hanmak inap nau.

Vagi Samuel Jnr igo pas long makim ol man-meri bilong Central Provens long dispela yia 2016 na i pablisim wanpela buk ‘Voice of the Senemai’. Vagi emi tromoi tumbuna stori long tok-singsing na sotpela stori wantaim.

Long taim bilong 1970’s wanpela man Trobriand aislan, John Kasaipwalova, ibin mekim dispela kain wok long bungim stori bilong tumbuna wantaim hanmak bilong tok-singsing, na igo moa iet emi mekim kamap drama we ol Nesenol Arts lain i bin putim pilai long Goroka long 1980’s.

Nem bilong dispela bikpela hanwok bilong Kasaipwalova em ‘Sailing the midnight sun’.

Long 2016 wanpela savemeri long music, raiti, piksa na samting olsem, Julie Mota, ibin pablisim ol tok-singsing bilong em long wanpela buk, ‘Cultural Refugees’.

Insait long dispela buk emi raitim ol tok-singsing bilong em long Tok Inglis na Tok Pisin, na igo moa, emi kisim wanpela tumbuna pasin bilong ol lain Tuif long Oro Provens, igat nem kaita, igo insait long wanpela tok-singsing bilong em.

Kaita emi wanpela kain drama igat tok-singsing tu bilong sori long ol lain idai pinis.

Ating dispela emi wankain hanmak bilong ol PNG meri raita olsem long taim bilong 1980’s Ondobondo, PNG Writer na Bikmaus megezin na ol narapela literatia olsem Pocket Poets buk, we wanpela meri bilong Central Provens, nem Nora Vagi Brash, ibin stap olsem biknem bilong litiretia long sait bilong drama na wanpela tasol tok-singsing bilong em, ‘Song of the winds’, long Tok Motu i stap long PNG Writer (1985). Inogat moa:

Tok Motu

Boge bada e e heau lao, boroma gwada,
Magani gwada Ee – e Garago ta – Na – mo e – e
Gwada, gwada, e e e gwada namo o o o

Tok Inglis

Boge bada, you will run as fast as the fastest
hunting dog and catch me the wildest of the boars.

Mi no save sapos yumi bai i stap inap narapela fopela-ten krismas bipo long wanwan hanmak bilong Tok Motu ikamap gen.

Ating bai mi lapun tit bruk pinis na redi long indai. Em bai sori tumas long mi iet.

Ating dispela kain sore na wari bilong mi mekim na mi traim long kamapim sampela tok-singsing we bai igatim gutpela nek long Tok Inglis, Tok Pisin na Tok Motu wantaim.

Mi iet i nogat save long Motu na Tok Pisin bilong mi tu i save paul liklik, tasol mi gatim gutpela bel tingting na laikim bilong mi em i abrusim save bilong mi olsem na mi traim iet.

Ol poro-man-meri imas wanbel long tok-singsing bilong mi ikam wantaim dispela gutpela bel tingting na ol i hamamas long tanim tokples.

Nambawan tok-singsing mi raitim em Reverend Willie Moses na Christine Sina Moses i halavim mi long tanim tok-singsing ‘Where we lived’ long Tok Pisin ‘Ples we mitupela ibin stap wantaim’ ikamap long Tok Motu ‘Emai noho gabuna’ (em istap long pinis long dispela pepa ia).

Wanpela vers-lain bilong en i sutim tru bel bilong mi na long Tok Motu em i swit moa long iau bilong mi:

Tok Motu

Tanobada bona Davara edia lalokau dagedagena.

Tok Pisin

Bikpela laikim wantaim pait i stap namel long graun na solwara.

Tok Inglis

Tempestuous love affair of earth and sea.

Mi iet mangalim Tok Motu long dispela ol tok-singsing tasol save bilong mi sot. Emi orait mi ken pilim swit nating.

Long dispela liklik hanmak yumi ken luksave olsem giraun na solwara igatim nem bilong ol long tokples bilong ol Motu iet olsem Tanobada na Davara.

Ating igat stori tu istap wantaim ol dispela kain nem yumi givim tasol mi iet inogat save na ating sampela lain bai raitim stori long bihain taim.

Mi hamamas tru long ridim ol narapela tok-singsing bilong mi tu we Konemamata Gemona i tanim Tok Motu olsem ‘Ating yu pilim swit’.

Dispela tok-singsing mi raitim long hanmak bilong ol Italy igat nem ‘terza rima’ em olsem ‘sem nek istap long namba tri lain’.

Igatim sampela strongpela toktok long dispela tok-singsing igo olsem:

Tok Pisin

lain painim ples b’long silip long nait.
Ol pikinini b’long yu iken kamap
ol doti strit-mangi, ron painim pait,
na tu-kina meri, raun painim koap.
Skul ol ibin kisim free, wankain nau
insait het kru traipela free spes stap.

Tok Motu

Taunimanima Hanuaboi ai mahuta gabudia e tahumu
Oi natumu na dika idia bamodia bae la, heatu be taumu
Bona dala hahine dia, hegagai e taumu.
Free sikuli ea oremu neganai, vada anai bamona.
Kwara dia lalodiai danu na space babada mia.

Tok Inglis

People looking for a place to sleep at night.
Your children may become like
Dirty street kids, looking for a fight
And street whores, looking for a fuck.
After their free schooling, just the same,
Inside their heads is a big free space.

Long dispela tok-singsing mi luksave olsem mi kamap long wanpela kain wokmak wantaim Tok Pisin we i mekim mi iet ikirap nogut long lukim.

Tok-singsing i kalap namel long wanwan lain olsem wanpela pisin i danis, na i mekim ai hamamas na nek i karai swit long iau na mekim maus i wara nating.

Em bai gutpela moa long yumi lukim sampela kain tok-singsing i kamap gen long Tok Motu, Tok Pisin na tu long ol narapela 850 samting Tok Ples bilong yumi iet.

Dispela emi wok bilong mipela ol raita bilong Papua Niugini na ating mipela inoken sakim.

Yumi wanwan iet iken skelim ol dispela hanwok taim ol i kamap, sapos ol i makim stret tingting, toktok, pasin, laip, na kastom bilong mipela Papua Niugini.

Em olsem yumi planti lain i save laik long kaikai buai na ol narapela ino save laikim, tasol emi stap wantaim yumi iet. Emi a nek istap long dispela tok-singsing ‘I am the red red stain’, ‘Mi tasol olsem blut I kapsait’, ‘Launa ramoramo kakakakana’.

Dispela kain tok-singsing emi autim wanpela mak bilong yumi iet, em long tokinglis igat nem ‘identity’, em olsem yumi husait lain tru.

Mipela noken lusim tingting long ol gutpela pasin na kastom bilong yumi iet we istap insait long tokples bilong mipela long tokaut long en.

"“I’ve got just the one for you,” Filshie said. “It’s a red XK120 Jaguar convertible. Goes like the clappers” (Rob Barclay)

ROB BARCLAY
| Memoir | Edited extract

ADELAIDE - After six years’ service in the Territory, I had six months long leave, which I decided to spend in Melbourne and Sydney.

In neither place were there receptive females on holiday, so securing companions would be an ongoing problem.

I had discussed this difficulty with two fellow patrol officers due to attend the long course at ASOPA [Australian School of Pacific Administration] after their own leave.

And when we met up in Moresby just before I  for Sydney, I gave them quite explicit instructions.

“First I’ll be in Melbourne with family and friends for a couple of months," I said.

"I don’t want you guys spending all your free time guzzling beers and sinking rums at the Buena Vista before I arrive.

"There are things to be done.”

The Buena Vista in Mosman was the kiaps favourite watering hole since they had had been barred from the pub at Clifton Gardens. There had been one brawl too many.

“So while I'm away, line up some nursing sisters from the Royal Prince Alfred.”

Meeting party girls didn't happen every day out in the New Guinea bush. And we had to work at it hard on leave.

“Righto,” said my mates, “we’ll get onto it as soon as we’re in Mosman.”

So I flew down to Melbourne, my parents meeting me at Essendon airport and driving me out to their splendid property in the Dandenongs.

I intended to live the high life on leave and the next day called Ross Filshie, an old friend from my athletic days who at the time was the Australian pole vault record holder.

In an effusive 'what's going on' type conversation, I mentioned that I needed to buy a second hand car to get around.

“I’ve got just the one for you,” Filshie said. “It’s a red XK120 Jaguar convertible. Goes like the clappers.”

“I’ll buy it,” I said immediately, and arranged to pick it up the same afternoon.

Driving back to my folks’ place later, I wondered how fast the Jag could and wound it up to 105mph (170km) along Dandenong Road. I got plenty of stares.

Anyway, all good things have to be exchanged for other good things, and I'd told my kiap mates I’d get back to Sydney and that they should organise some nursing sisters.

When I arrived back in Sydney from the Dandenongs, I decided to make my base Kings Cross.

I booked into a musty and seedy boarding house which I dubbed ‘The Flea Bag’. No point wasting money better spent elsewhere.

Having no friends in Sydney, I made a beeline to the Darlinghurst police station and introduced myself.

The young constables on night duty were very impressed by my commissioned officer’s warrant card from the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary and saluted me: I outranked them by a country mile.

I didn’t draw attention to the fact that I was merely an officer of the field constabulary, not the regular police: there was no need to confuse them.

I took to joining the off-duty police in drinks at their local pub. I would regale them with New Guinea jungle action stories and they would tell me yarns about the Kings Cross criminal underworld.

They were a bit wary of me at first, concerned because I was an outsider, but became more expansive with my regular visits.

My favourite watering hole, just around the corner from my room, was the All Nations Club, which remained open until 4am every day. And the three weekend dance nights were always packed. 

Club manager Allan Bates and I became good friends. He told me the club was renovating the top story bedrooms which would be available for long and short term leases when completed.

I put my feet up in the club lounge and gave the whole matter careful thought. What does every single officer need on leave?

Answer: An ample supply of booze and a bevy of beddable female friends. The All Nations Club could supply both in spades.

It was conceivable, I mused, that an officer could arrive by taxi from the airport on Day One of his three months leave, book in and then return to the airport on Day Ninety.

All necessary business could be conducted via the club’s office.

For the fitness buffs, there could be morning constitutional walks around the block to work up an appetite for lunch.

And for fresh air fiends, the club could arrange a picnic hamper to be taken to Centennial Park to impress any partners he may have found.

I put my name down for one of the suites, and stayed a member for the next 25 years.

Kings Cross was fun but I had to spend the last 10 days of leave with my kiap mates over in Mosman.

On my arrival I marched straight into the Saloon Bar of the Buena Vista and, sure enough, there they were, schooners clutched firmly, ranting with other ASOPA kiaps on the school's long course.

After greeting them, I asked the question they must have been waiting for.

“So what’s the state of play with the nursing sisters?”

“We’ve just been too busy at the school, and settling in and so forth."

“Bullshit. You’ve been here two months, and you haven’t lifted a finger.”

“Well,” one said apologetically, “it all just lapsed soon after you left.”

I was told a kiap and a police officer had become romantically involved with two of the Royal Prince Alfred sisters.

We agreed not to attempt to try anything on - too many dramas. I heard much later that both liaisons resulted in marriage.

It was Friday evening, and the usual weekend parties in Mosman had already started.

But not for us.

“Right," I said. "At closing time we’ll load up the cars with a few cartons of beer and a box of overproof rum and find a party.”

Most of the other kiaps wanted to join in, so a four-car convoy led by me in the XK cruised the prosperous streets of Mosman.

It wasn’t long before we spotted a party.

I knocked on the door, and two blokes opened it, warily.

“We’ve been told by Albert to bring beers and stuff for you. They’re free”.

“We don’t know any Albert,” one said.

“Oh, must be some mistake,” I replied, making as if to leave.

“No, no, come in, we’ll sort it out. We’re just about out of beer anyway.”

Our lads were primed to get the males drunk and stay clear of the girls for the time being.

We didn’t want them frightened by any altercations or unseemly brawling.

The beers were de-cartoned to refill the laundry tub and the box of rum left in a corner.

As the evening wore on, we inveigled the males to try the hard liquor, and it wasn’t long before they were staggering around and speaking nonsense, much to the disgust of their girlfriends.

Now our boys began to move in quietly and started chatting up the girls, getting phone numbers and making arrangements for a weekend picnic.

Between us, we took home a few of the girls, their abandoned drunken partners passed out on settees, floor and anywhere they dropped.

By the end of the weekend, some of the girls had replaced us for their regular boyfriends.

'Albert Sent Us' was a good ploy for blokes on leave who needed girlfriends.

“It’s been a great leave,” I said happily, as the boys drove me to Mascot airport to get me on the plane.

I'd sold the XK to a used car lot for pretty much what I'd paid for it in Melbourne all those months before.

Travelling on my flight to Moresby was District Officer Dave Moorland, an impossibly handsome debonair kiap with dark curly hair, a tanned aquiline face and a flair for the theatrical.

He had three willowy stunners hanging off him to say goodbye. Despite my achievements on leave, I was just a bit jealous. Moorland never had to invent elaborate ploys like 'Albert Sent Us'. He just stood there.

When the first boarding call came, I walked across to the Electra, but such mediocraty was not to Dave’s melodramatic taste.

He waited until all the other passengers had moved off and, when his name was called for the third and final time, raised a champagne glass flamboyantly high, saluted his female entourage, farewelled the crowd, quaffed the bubbly and thrust the empty glass at a surprised bystander before bursting onto the tarmac.

At times turning to wave and flashing smile after brilliant smile with perfect iridescently white teeth, he eventually bounded up the aircraft steps.

At the top of the rise there was another bout of frenzied waving, arms flung high in final salute like a Papal benediction.

Then Dave whirled around to disappear inside the aircraft.

Two exasperated hosties grabbed him impatiently and hauled him unceremoniously to his seat.

We were on our way back home at last. Leave was over.

Back to another few years in the Territory.

The New Guinea Singing Dog (Smithsonian)

PETER DWYER & MONICA MINNEGAL
| Queensland Museum | Edited extract

What follows is a summary introduction to a new paper on the New Guinea Singing Dog that seeks to pin down whether it is a separate species of wild animal or a close relative of the domestic dog. Peter and Monica are hot on the trail of the answer. Link here to their complete and detailed paper, ‘The provenance of diagnostic specimens of the New Guinea Singing Dog’ - KJ

BRISBANE - In 1957, the Australian Museum mammologist Ellis Troughton described two live dogs from ‘Papua’ as of a new species that he named Canis hallstromi“in honour of Sir Edward Hallstrom, President of the Taronga Park Trust”.

The dogs were held by Taronga Zoological Park (hereafter Taronga). According to Troughton they were a “pair of the mountain ‘dingo’” that had been obtained in 1956 by Assistant District Officer JP (Jim) Sinclair and Medical Assistant Albert Speer “in the remote Lavani Valley [of the] Southern Highlands District of Papua”.

Troughton considered that they were the same as ‘dingo-like’ dogs reported decades earlier from “7,000 ft. on Mount Scratchley” in the Owen Stanley Range.

Skins and skulls of Mount Scratchley dogs, held by the Queensland Museum had been described by de Vis (in 1911), Longman (1928) and WoodJones (1929).

Troughton agreed with WoodJones’ opinion that the ‘Papuan dog’ was ”a very definite race … differing widely in its characters from the dogs of certain other Pacific islands”.

In a later paper Troughton reinforced his opinion that the dog he had described was a primitive, wild-living species and insisted that use of the term ‘feral’ for this New Guinea dog was incorrect.

Troughton’s accounts of New Guinea dogs have provided historical props for assertions that a distinctive form of wild dog - variously named New Guinea Singing Dog, New Guinea Highland Wild Dog, New Guinea Dingo and, in earlier years, New Guinea Yodelling Dog - is present at scattered high altitude locations of mainland New Guinea, isolated from places where people live and, hence, largely isolated from the village dogs associated with those people.

On two counts, this opinion remains controversial.

Firstly, disagreement concerning the taxonomic status of the New Guinea Singing Dog with some authors accepting the name Canis hallstromi and others treating it, together with the Australian dingo, as Canis familiaris.

Secondly, disagreement concerning the provenance of the founding members of the captive population as wild-living or village-living, and their status as wild, feral or domestic. Koler-Matznick wrote that the “current captive singing dog population is descended from eight specimens not directly caught in the wild” and then commented that “this does not mean, however, that these specimens were village C familiaris”.

Recent genetic studies, however, using samples from the captive population, treat those dogs as descendants of wild-living forebears and, in direct contradiction to Koler-Matznick, Cairns in 2021 asserted that most of the captive New Guinea Singing Dog population was “founded by 8 individuals captured from the wild in 1950”.

Misunderstandings and misinterpretations of the historical record continue to the present time due, in part, to earlier errors and flawed assumptions being later accepted as fact.

In this paper we direct attention to errors of both fact and interpretation in accounts of the New Guinea Singing Dog with particular emphasis upon details of the provenance of specimens that were taken to be diagnostic of C.hallstromi by Troughton in 1957.

We show that the presumed status as wild animals, or as descendants from wild animals, of the founding members of the captive population of New Guinea Singing Dog is incorrect in some cases and in doubt for others.

We reinforce an earlier argument that, at the time of European colonisation of New Guinea, high-altitude wild-living dogs and most village-living dogs, as proposed by the writers in 2016, “comprised a single though heterogeneous gene pool”.

We suggest that studies of village-living dogs throughout remote areas of New Guinea offer an opportunity to learn about what was once a pan-New Guinean population of an unusual, and archaic, form of domestic dog.

The production of as Tok Pisin comic book reinforced The Phantom as a PNG superstar (Mark Eby)

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA - From time to time Slim Kaikai drops me a note from somewhere in Papua New Guinea and we have a brief email swap until the next couple of years pass.

In January Slim sent me his usual “just a quick wan”, asking would I know “where to get a hold of any phantom comics in pidgin”.

Well I don’t, although ill health may be slowing down my acumen, but there’s probably a reader somewhere who can assist. You can comment below.

Anyway, in looking around the internet I came across a couple of pieces which provide something of a foundation for a few visuals.

Not comic books, Slim, but best I could do. As you’d say, “tanx and cheers”.

The Phantom is a huge phenomenon in PNG
(Lauren Beldi, ABC Pacific Mornings, April 2019)

The Phantom remains a popular figure in PNG (Nick Hose,  ABC Darwin)

When you think of places a comic book hero might turn up, the tribal war shields of the Papua New Guinea highlands are probably not what springs to mind.

But PNG's love for The Phantom, also known as ‘the ghost that walks’ or ‘the man who cannot die’, runs deep.

During a renewed period of tribal fighting in the 1980s, warriors even carried The Phantom into battle.

It's thought The Phantom first came to PNG with US soldiers in World War Two, and he's never left.

In the 1970s, the comic strips were republished in the country's newspapers in both English and Tok Pisin, the Creole language of PNG.

Radio Australia's Tok Pisin reporter Hilda Wayne remembers looking forward to reading them every day after school when she was growing up in Mount Hagen:

"It was just four strips, every day, from the Post Courier, so Dad would get the paper looking for his news, and I'd be looking forward to the comic strips.

"Growing up I think we all looked forward to having heroes in society and I used to hear about my grandfather being a warrior back then, so when I saw this phantom it brought me to a different place."

The Phantom's story begins hundreds of years ago, when the first of the line of heroes is shipwrecked off the coast of the fictional country of Bangalla.

Nursed back to health by the local people, he takes the ‘oath of the skull’, and is succeeded by a line of sons, each of whom dons the mask and skin-tight purple costume when his father dies.

The Phantom's bravery and immortality made him popular on warrior's shields (Mark Eby)

The Phantom and his family live in a skull cave in the jungle, which may have had particular appeal to those living in the tropical climes of PNG.

And there was something else that may have set The Phantom apart — the fact that he made friends with the indigenous people of Bangalla.

"He was interacting with black people back then," Wayne said.

Two whole Phantom comics, including one with the masked man on the front declaring, "I speak Tok Pisin" were reprinted in the language.

They can now sell for hundreds of dollars online.

Perhaps the most enduring image of The Phantom's popularity in PNG is his presence on the traditional war shields of highlands tribes.

Not all of these are decades old either; the late highlands painter Kaipel Ka was putting The Phantom on shields as recently as 2008.

That was when filmmaker Mark Eby, who himself grew up in PNG, made a short film about Mr Ka's painting.

In it, he discussed his Phantom paintings:

"[The shields with] The Phantom design were for those who led the battle, because those [who] led the battle were the toughest fighters.

"[The Phantom] cannot die so men are afraid of him."

Mr Eby said that when he spoke to men in the highlands, they explained that traditional decorations on the shields represented the spirits of deceased warrior family members that would protect the current fighters.

During the tribal violence of the 1980s and 1990s, some opted for more modern designs:

"Instead of drawing the old patterns which were like butterflies and things like that, quite an abstract design, they went for the comic book characters.

"But the same idea was there, which was basically a protective strong man [like The Phantom] on the shield."

Kaipel Ka passed away three months after the film was made, but some of the shields he designed live in museum collections around the world.

Why does this comic book hero appear on so many New Guinea war shields?
(Vincze Miklós, Gizmodo, August 2014)

A Phantom shield produced early in Bougainville's 10-year war of secession, inscribed 'Black 1989 Civil War'

Lee Falk's hero the Phantom made his comic book debut in February 1936, but he also appears on dozens of traditional war shields made by people from the Central Highlands of Papua New Guinea between the 1960s and 1980s. Why?

The Wahgi people have long made enormous shields from tree trunks, and have continued to make these shields as a form of ritual artwork.

In the late 20th century, many of these PNG Highlanders began incorporating ‘new ideas’ into their traditional works, so that shields bore emblems of football teams, beer brands, and, yes, the Phantom.

Western comic books became widely available in the region after World War II, and the Phantom became a particularly popular character.

Art educator and dealer Michael Reid notes that two things in particular made the Phantom an ideal subject for a war shield: he is a hero who protects his home and he is known as ‘The Man Who Cannot Die’.

Just as many comic book readers adopt the emblems of their favourite heroes, so too have these artists taken the symbolic power of the Phantom and adapted it to their own traditions.

A new book on phantom shields of the New Guinea Highlands
(Bruno Claessens, Duende Art Projects, March 2021)

While virtually visiting the 35th annual San Francisco Tribal and Textile Art online show last week, I was delighted to learn about the publication of a new book on the super cool ‘phantom’ shield of the New Guinea Highlands.

‘Man Who Cannot Die’– a new book on phantom shields of the New Guinea Highlands – is published by art dealers Chris Boylan of Sydney and Jessica Lindsay Phillips of Toronto.

This publication contains several essays on the subject, and a catalogue section illustrating 105 examples from public and private collections.

I discussed these amazing shields on this blog in 2014, see that post here. You can order the new book online here, below the blurb:

“In the second half of the twentieth century, an artistic tradition arose in the Wahgi Valley of the highlands of Papua New Guinea of painting traditional war shields with the image of the comic book superhero The Phantom.

This derived from some seemingly inexplicable intersection of the age-old bellicose traditions of one of the most culturally remote areas of the world and twentieth-century comic book illustration, if not pop art — a phenomenon that art historian NF Karlins has referred to as ‘pop tribal’.

The frequent text in English or in Tok Pisin on other examples — man ino save dai (man who cannot die) or man bilong pait (man of war) — only adds to the multicultural depth.

Though these appear to be curiously syncretic objects to the Western eye, to the people of the Wahgi Valley they held deep meaning to the martial power of moral rectitude and the guidance of ancestral spirits”

The Phantom: ‘Mi Save Tok Pisin Nau’
(Auction of comic book, October 2015)

'Mi Save Tok Pisin Nau' - the cover of the rare comic book published in Tok Pisin between 1976 and 1978 by Wantok and printed by Wirui Press at Wewak

In October 2015, the comic book was auctioned for the equivalent of $720 on eBay in the USA. There were 22 bids starting at $50.

This was the description provided by the seller pre-auction:

“You are bidding on a single issue of a PHANTOM comic book by Lee Falk and Sy Barry published in Papua New Guinea.

There is no date listed but believed to be published between 1976 and 1978 (King Features Syndicate).

It is published by Wantok, which was the name of the local newspaper who ran comics of the Phantom for many years. Printed at the Wirui Press in Wewak, ESP, Papua New Guinea.

It is believed that King Features Syndicate actually ordered Wantok/Wirui press to stop publishing future separate Phantom comic books due to legal issues, though I believe the newspaper was eventually allowed to continue publishing smaller strips in their daily or weekly papers.

24 total pages (complete) with color cover, the rest in black and white. Reverse has an ad for a New Guinea Yamaha/Toyota dealer.

I don't know much about grading comics but this issue seems to be in very good condition overall.

There is a faint horizontal crease across the front, a very slight curl to left edge, some very light edge wear, and a hint of browning (age toning) along the top edge.

Phantom comics, and the general idea of the Phantom were so popular in New Guinea that local tribesmen began including paintings of Phantom on their war shields, many of which you can see online.

This issue is special in that it is in the local New Guinea language - Phantom's caption says "Mi Save Tok Pisin Nau" which translates to ‘Now I talk Tok Pisin’, the Creole language of Papua New Guinea, sometimes referred to as Pidgin. It is currently not known if this was the only issue or if it led to a series.”

The Phantom comic involved interactions with the hero and Indigenous people which appealed to PNG readers

Dr Bal Kama - "“If faith had not been part of the equation, I think things would have gone in a different direction"

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – In March 2020, Bal Kama – from a village near Gumine in Chimbu Province - was awarded a doctorate by the Australian National University for his thesis, ‘Reconceptualising the role of the judiciary in Papua New Guinea’s ‘home grown’ constitution’.

Covid being the great party wrecker of our time, it was only on Tuesday this week that there was a graduation ceremony at which Bal was presented with his testamur - the legal document verifying that a high qualification has been legally conferred.

Bal Kama holds the testamur - "“The closure of this journey has helped me reflect on the challenges - and the support I received"

“It felt like a proper closure to my academic journey,” Bal said. “I’m thankful to the ANU’s College of Law for the opportunity to be part of its esteemed institution.”

Bal, 34, was recently appointed as a senior solicitor in the Environmental Defenders Office in Canberra. He is also a fellow of the Department of Pacific Affairs at ANU.

His journey to this week’s formal ceremony began in humble circumstances but in a family, like so many families in Chimbu, who wanted the education they had not received to be given to their children.

In the years I spent as teacher in Chimbu in the mid-1960s, I experienced this hunger for education, a phenomenon I have rarely seen elsewhere.

“Life as a village kid was filled with adventure but also limited in opportunities,” he said.

“My father was an interpreter (tanim tok) in the colonial era.

“But despite being subsistence villagers, my parents encouraged my siblings and I to pursue further education.

“The closure of this journey has helped me reflect on the support and challenges that helped me reach this milestone.”

After growing up in the village and doing his initial schooling in Papua New Guinea, his older brother, John, who had moved to Australia for employment, brought Bal to Australia to complete senior high school.

He found part-time jobs as a cleaner and groundskeeper to pay his school fees. After receiving the Higher School Certificate, he was admitted to the University of Canberra where he completed a double degree in law (where he secured honours) and in politics and international relations.

It was not all plain sailing. He spent nine weeks in hospital, including sitting for university examinations beside his hospital bed:

"My academic journey was a matter of Divine providence and blessings"

“University was difficult financially. I worked two, sometimes three casual jobs whilst studying to pay for my university fees and expenses.

“I was blessed to receive financial assistance from some very kind individuals who heard about my challenges.

"And I received a scholarship from the University of Canberra Law School at crucial a time when I was about to give up on studies.

“Growing up as a Christian helped me overcome these and other events on my academic journey. For me, it was a matter of Divine providence and blessings.

“If faith had not been part of the equation, I think things would have gone in a different direction.”

From university, Bal completed a graduate diploma of legal practice at the Sydney College of Law.

He then put his study into practice, working variously as a legal consultant for United Nations Women in PNG, a tutor at the University of Canberra Law School and a volunteer for the Aboriginal Legal Service in Canberra.

Bal had become interested in constitutional law when he researched the 2011-12 constitutional crisis in PNG for his honours thesis as a law student:

“The crisis entailed PNG having two prime ministers for seven months and open conflict between judges and politicians.

“The honours thesis gained a positive reception, including being invited to present it at the Australian Law Council.”

And it motivated Bal to more deeply explore constitutional law.

“I wanted to understand more about the nature of judicial power in PNG after the 2011-2012 constitutional crisis and how it may differ from the Australian constitution given the close legal and colonial history of the two countries.

“As one of the world’s leading research institutions, the Australian National University was the perfect choice.

“I was also attracted to the ANU’s strong focus on the Pacific region.”

Bal was admitted to study for a PhD in the university’s College of Law, the thesis in its final form demonstrating that legal doctrines applied in the Anglo-Australian settings should not be unquestionably applied to PNG, or by extension to other Pacific countries:

“Starting a PhD after completing undergraduate studies was daunting at first,” he said.

“It was a significant step-up in terms of the pressure for critical thinking, juggling different ideas and the wide span of reading expected.”

“Higher degree research provides a lot more independence and freedom – with no rigid timetables or assessments.

“Supervisors provide regular feedback but as there is no grading it demands a higher level of self-discipline and motivation,” he said.

“It also requires the ability to reach out to staff and colleagues when faced with any obstacles.

“I was fortunate to receive an ANU research scholarship whereas it was more challenging at undergraduate studies as I had to work multiple odd jobs to sustain my studies."

A few years into his doctoral studies he survived a plane crash in NSW.

“In 2016, three friends and I were on a light aircraft sightseeing along the Sydney coastline.

“On our way back to the airport, one engine cut out and we had to crash-land in a paddock.

“While none of us were injured, the traumatic experience always reminds me of how fragile life is.”

His PhD research set out to reconceptualise the nature of judicial power under PNG’s constitution and its interaction with the executive and the legislative arms of government.

Sonja Karma with Victoria, Canberra, 2020

The thesis drew on the constitutions of Australia, India, South Africa and Kenya to inform its findings.

It pointed out that PNG’s home-grown constitution was “a constitutional ingenuity in which the judiciary does not have a strictly legal function – it also has an overtly political function”.

He also proposed that the doctrine of separation of powers be redefined in PNG to reflect a highly liberal judiciary as a ‘fourth arm’ of government.

And he said constitution needs to be recognised and engaged with as a transformative document; that would change the lives of the people in whose name it was conceived and promulgated.

The thesis was awarded the 2020 Hank Nelson Prize for the best international doctoral thesis on PNG.

“I am very grateful for the dear support of my family and that of certain other people who were part of the blessing and who have been pivotal," Bal said.

People like Lorraine Hendra, the CEO of Sydney Blinds, who, when a desperate Bal arrived at her office uninvited, generously agreed to sponsor his first year of university. Lorraine had just met him for the first time that day.

He also said that Professor Murray Raff, former Dean of the University of Canberra Law School, had generously provided him with a scholarship that allowed him to continue his studies.

And he singled out for mention his PhD supervisors Professor James Stellios, Anthony Regan, Professor Ron May and Assistant Professor Susan Priest.

“As Chair, Professor Stellios was very instrumental in driving my project to the end and I am greatly indebted to him.

“There have been many generous individuals who gifted finance and other support during my academic journey,” he said.

“Their generosity became my motivation to stay focused and it inspired me to start the Kama Foundation scholarship program in Papua New Guinea, named in honour of my father.”

Bal in tribal bilas

The foundation was established in 2013 to support village children with their education.

“The resourcing of the foundation is small but its intent is to inspire capable village kids to strive to realise their dreams,” Bal said.

“It’s important to stay focused on your ultimate goal, and to keep an open mind that could be different ways of getting there.

“And it’s important to always be aware of where you’ve come from and use it as a guiding lamp.”

Bal is married to Sonja Kama and they have a two-year old daughter, Victoria.

Sonja, a communications officer with Palliative Care Australia and a writer, has New Zealand Maori heritage and a Vanuatu upbringing.

Like Bal, she is a Seventh Day Adventist, although they were married in a traditional wedding ceremony in PNG.

Bal’s sister, Dr Shera Kama, was formally accredited as PNG’s first national endodontist two months ago.

Dr Shera Kama - PNG's first endodontist

This skilled dental speciality came after seven years of clinical training and post-graduate studies in PNG and overseas.

“Growing up in the village, Shera and I would encourage each other to work hard despite our challenges,” said Bal.

“Shera has been a role model to village children who looked up to her as a mentor.”

Although Bal has already covered much ground, the bulk of his life’s work still lies ahead of him and it would seem to be heading towards the higher echelons of the judiciary.

He wrote in 2017, well before James Marape became PNG prime minister, Bal wrote of the challenges facing Seventh Day Adventists who took on political careers.

“Failing to deliver or succumbing to corruption and mismanagement will not only jeopardise their political reputation but also harm the positive Adventist image admired by voters,” he wrote.

“As ambassadors of the Adventist faith, their actions or inaction can generate distrust among the people and ultimately become a hindrance to evangelism. This has been the case with Adventist politicians in previous governments.

Having Adventist politicians in parliament is a win for the Church [but] not all assistance or support from political actors should be counted as blessings—churches need to be cautious when seeking political assistance that it does not discredit the Adventist faith or undermine state institutions.”

Dr Bal Kama has made that most magnificent journey from a PNG village to attaining the best credential a good education can offer.

Omkolai village in the Gumine District

PNG is distinguished by having many men and women who have made this journey: people of real quality, who are wise and who have strong moral conviction.

It should not be too forlorn a hope that the Bal and Sonja and Shera Kamas, and so many other people of substance I could name here, will one day force their way through the morass of political preference and tribal decree.

They will apply their skill and ethics to put their country on a better course, one designed to elevate those village kids of whom Bal was once one and build them the country they deserve.

BUSA JEREMIAH WENOGO

PORT MORESBY - Over the last month or so, a number of settlements in Port Moresby had their residents evicted in quick succession.

The saga started late last year with the eviction of ATS Portion 695 and Garden Hill Settlement followed this year with the eviction of Erima Settlement.

Makeshift shelters now provide refuge to thousands of displaced settlers as they scramble to get their lives back to normal.

Bush Wara Settlement now faces a similar fate as settlers battle it out with Nambawan Superannuation Fund over their future.

Other settlements, like the ones adjacent to Port Moresby’s Jackson’s International Terminal, may also face a similar scenario if nothing is done to address their plight.

All these stories point to a shocking future for settlements in the city.

Over the years the discourse around settlements has been fiery yet has not yielded any concrete action on the part of the government.

The National Capital Development Commission (NCDC) has promised settlers that their identified settlements will be converted into suburbs through a ’settlement upgrading project’.

However the pace at which the project is moving is a concern.

A household survey was carried out in 2018 and since then things have slowed and settlers are still waiting for the promise to be fulfilled.

As we head into a general election mid-year, this and other ambitious (and sometimes unrealistic) policies will be peddled intensively by candidates in an effort to win votes.

At the national level, prime minister James Marape, responding to a query from the Member for Moresby North East, revealed that the “government is now looking at a permanent solution to address settlement in the city.

“A taskforce headed by the Minister for Housing and Urbanisation and Member for Moresby South have been set-up to look into converting settlement properties into titled properties for those who can fully justify their living in cities and towns.

Marape has also instructed the Ministry of Lands to halt all evictions until the displaced settlers are properly relocated.

He said the permanent solution will take its cue from the National Capital District settlement upgrading strategy where the aim will be to covert settlements into formal residential properties with proper titles.

However, it is unclear when this will take place as no timeframe was given.

Nowhere to call home - bivouacs providing temporary shelter for evicted settlers

Furthermore, it remains to be seen whether the government will maintain its stance after the election. A possible change of government and priorities may reverse these decisions.

The prime minister’s announcement is welcome to settlement dwellers, but there was a condition.

Marape warned them not to bring “nails, saw and hammer onto state land as the government will not hesitate to send them back to their province”.

This epitomises the challenge successive governments face in addressing the settlement issue: how to strike a balance between formally approving existing settlements and discouraging the emergence of new settlements.

It is hoped that that the ‘permanent solution’ the prime minister alluded to will put in place a national policy framework to tackle the settlement issue.

There are a number of reasons why a national policy framework is important.

First, the settlement issue is not confined only to Port Moresby but affects all major urban centres.

That said, lessons learnt from Port Moresby can provide the basis for other urban authorities to tackle their own settlement problems.

Also, according to projections in the National Urbanisation Policy, urbanisation will accelerate in PNG as more people migrate to towns and cities in search of opportunities and a better lifestyle.

This means that managing settlement issues will require a sustained effort from the government and other stakeholders.

Successive governments have failed to take concrete measures to rein in uncontrolled rental and housing prices. There is also a failure to provide low-cost housing for citizens.

This has left large numbers of people with no choice but to settle on undeveloped land, risky as this is.

They are in breach of the law but the government is just as blameworthy for this mess its own negligence has created.

Finally, the national strategy or policy I mentioned is required to guide governments in tackling the issue.

This essentially means a move away from dealing with settlement issues ad hoc as at present.

A responsible government should not be driving its citizens into destitution.

A national strategy must also take into account the interests of local landowners given their increasingly important role in the development of towns and cities.

It is no secret that the government is running out of land and will become heavily reliant on traditional landowners if towns and cities are to expand.

As PNG contemplates these matters, we should seek the guidance of our forefathers as expressed in the national constitution.

A settler's house is destroyed

In this context, the fifth goal of the National Goals and Directives Principles urges us to “achieve development primarily through the use of Papua New Guinean forms of social, political and economic organisation”.

Perhaps it is counselling us not to rely too much on outsiders to find solutions to our settlement problem.

Instead, we should look at our own social rules and norms to find the permanent answers that the prime minister and the nation are searching for.

Busa Jeremiah Wenogo is a development economist who writes on issues related to the informal economy, settlements, small-medium enterprise and financial inclusion in Papua New Guinea