CHRIS OVERLAND

ADELAIDE – There are confirmed reports in the media that the Russians have begun to fire hypersonic missiles at selected targets in Ukraine.

Last night one of these weapons struck an underground ammunition depot in the western sector of the country.

These missiles can travel at speeds exceeding 10,000 kilometres per hour and there currently is no known defence against them.

They are too fast for existing anti-missile systems although it is likely a new generation of directed energy ordnance will eventually be able to intercept them.

At about US$100 million (K350 million) each, these immensely expensive weapons are usually reserved for very high value targets such as aircraft carriers or important military establishments.

At the moment, Russia is one of a handful of major powers with an inventory of hypersonic weapons, so their use represents a significant escalation of the Ukraine conflict.

This development is a logical, if desperate, response to Russia's inability to significantly diminish the fighting capacity of the Ukraine military.

And it is symptomatic of increasing anxiety in the Russian leadership that events are slipping further out of their control.

In an already grossly unequal 'David versus Goliath' struggle, the use of such a weapon has to be viewed more as a terror tactic than a major strategic development. It emulates the Nazi's use of V1 and V2 rockets towards the end of World War II.

I have no doubt that this new weapon will terrorise many Ukrainians but equally it is likely to harden the resolve of the military to strike back hard and often.

This was the response to the Nazi 'super weapons' after the V1 rockets (colloquially known as ‘doodlebugs’) began dropping on targets in and around London in mid-1944.

And so this hideous war goes on, with Putin willing to use the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in his arsenal in an effort to snuff out Ukrainian resistance.

While harm will no doubt be done, I am sceptical about whether the performance of the Ukraine military will be significantly degraded.

Using the proverbial sledgehammer to crack a nut is rarely a useful strategy, in warfare as in life generally.

Jaivet Ealom - taken from his Manus identification card on which a sharp-eyed Australian immigration official misspelled his name

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

Escape from Manus: The untold true story by Jaivet Ealom, Viking Australia, 2021, 352 pages, softcover AU$22.00, ebook AU$14.99. ISBN 9781761040214. Available here from Amazon Australia

TUMBY BAY - In 2014 I carried out a social mapping study on Manus Island and got a first-hand look at Australia’s regional processing centre for refugees.

What I saw was deeply disturbing and not something easy to forget.

In 2018 I read Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani’s account, No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison, about his incarceration in the notorious facility.

What he wrote saddened but didn’t surprise me.

This new book by Rohingya refugee Jaivet Ealom, who fled from Myanmar, reinforces much of what Boochani said but adds further to the shameful saga.

Manus was a repository for single men. Families with children were sent to an equally sordid Australian processing centre on Nauru.

When Jaivet arrived on Manus as an asylum seeker there were already about 1,300 men in the centre.

A decidedly random ‘Refugee Status Determination Process’, which could be subject to the personal biases of the assessing officer, sorted out genuine refugees.

Australia’s then immigration minister, Scott Morrison, had instructed his department and detention centre staff to publicly refer to asylum seekers as ‘illegal arrivals’, irrespective of what their final status might be.

This was propaganda - a deliberate distortion of international law which states that to seek asylum is not illegal.

But Morrison’s aim was to persuade the Australian public that the men on Manus had sought to reach Australia illegally.

In the final wrap-up, 82% of the asylum seekers on Manus were found to be genuine refugees.

Jaivet, as with other Rohingya people, had been deprived of Myanmar citizenship by the ruling military junta of that country.

To make matters worse, he had lost his identification papers. As a consequence he was deemed to be ‘stateless’.

After many twists and turns, Jaivet was informed by the authorities that he was not considered to be a refugee.

This left him with two options, to be returned to Myanmar or to remain in detention in Papua New Guinea.

In desperation, he attempted suicide by jumping off the two-story shipping container in which he lived.

He aimed at a substantial concrete slab but instead of landing on his head as he planned he landed feet first and bounced into a metal light pole.

While recovering from his suicide attempt, he read a secretly printed copy of a book by World War II concentration camp survivor, Viktor Frankl.

The book, ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’, was a remarkably story of survival and filled Jaivet with hope.

It was then he decided to escape from Manus.

Jaivet comes across as a modest and intelligent man. His command of English is impressive and he is a gifted writer. Among the asylum seekers on Manus he was not alone in this regard.

He makes the point that the intellectual capital these men represented was a human resource that Australia wasted because of its incredibly politicised and expensive policy of deciding that asylum seekers who travelled by boat would not be allowed into Australia.

As he explains, people with the bravery and initiative and skills to flee their repressive home countries were not ordinary.

The sickening 'I Stopped These' memento in Morrison's parliament house office (The Guardian)

Jaivet also makes it clear that he regards what evolved into the savagely aggressive policy towards asylum seekers arriving by boat was a wholly-owned invention of Australia’s Liberal-National coalition government.

He believes Morrison’s ‘Operation Sovereign Borders’ and the creation of the Home Affairs Department and Border Force took a particularly retrograde mind to conceive and execute.

That it enjoyed public support in Australia he attributes to quirks of Australian cultural and political ennui. He writes:

“Although some parts of the population had begun to agitate for the nightmare on Manus to be brought to an end, a majority of Australian voters, the ones whose lives revolved around barbecues and footy matches, gave their complicit assent to the Liberal-National coalition’s offshore affairs.

“(It was not a one-time mistake, as the same coalition was returned to office in 2016 and again in 2019).”

He contrasts this with what was going on in PNG and explains how Belden Namah, as a “principled” opposition leader, in 2013 had launched a challenge to the legality of offshore processing in the Supreme Court.

Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton in parliament - among the most unethical politicians Australia has ever produced (ABC)

This case went largely unnoticed in Australia, despite the fact that the immigration department, administered by Morrison and then Peter Dutton, paid millions of dollars in legal fees to assist the PNG government defend the case.

The Supreme Court found that the detention centre on Manus was constitutionally illegal.

This aptly demonstrated the differences between Australia and PNG when it came to matters of humanity.

This is nowhere better depicted in the help Jaivet received from ordinary Papua New Guineans during his escape from detention.

These people, at great risk to themselves, help him get on a plane out of Manus disguised as an interpreter.

Then they looked after him in Port Moresby and organised the next leg of his journey to a safe haven in Bougainville from where he fled to Canada where he now lives.

Three women and their relatives helped him achieve freedom.

One was Tessa, who worked in Australia as a migration agent and was also a member of the Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and Advocacy Network.

The two other women were Papua New Guineans, Nina and Winiaka, who worked for Playfair, a company contracted to help detainees through the legal and bureaucratic requirements of PNG immigration.

All three women were sympathetic to Jaivety’s situation and related to him as a human being. Together they provided valuable advice and put him in touch with contacts who could help him during his escape.

It is not appreciated by the general public in Australia that most of the Manus people did not hate the men in the detention centre.

This was propaganda disseminated by the Australian government promulgated deliberately to characterise the men as dangerous terrorists.

There are better ways to discourage people attempting to reach Australia by boat than to bang them up in the cruel quasi-prisons of Manus and Nauru.

Effective vetting agencies were never established in key transit points in Indonesia and elsewhere.

Asylum seekers were overwhelmingly desperate people fleeing from danger who did not have the means to apply for formal emigration.

The dysfunctional official centres that Australia covertly supports in Indonesia and elsewhere take many years to process refugees, during which they are forbidden from earning a living or pursuing educational opportunities.

Behrouz Boochani’s book was composed on a cheap mobile telephone in the Farsi language while he was detained on Manus.

It was later translated into English, but has a literary style that is not easy to read. You can link to my 2020 review in PNG Attitude here, ‘An enduring book about Australian bastardry’.

Javiet’s book was written in English after he had escaped Manus and is easier to read and just as enthralling as Behrouz’s popular and award-winning work.

At some point, probably not in my lifetime, Australia will be forced to apologise for the deliberately brutal thuggery it perpetrated against those people who came to its shores by boat to seek asylum.

In this context, it is worth noting that Australia was the only Western country that continued to train the military in Myanmar throughout the years of the Rohingyan genocide. Its Defence Department spent $400,000 (K1 billion) on this in 2018-19 alone.

Australia also spent $500 million (K1.25 billion) a year keeping those asylum seekers on Manus.

His shocking ordeal behind him, Jaivet Ealom free in Canada (smh.com.au)

Scott Morrison’s Australia is not a nice place.

Javiet’s and Behrouz’s books are valuable records of this shameful period in Australia’s history. Hopefully more will be written as time goes on.

Further reading: Amnesty International, ‘This is Breaking People: Human Rights Violations at Australia’s Asylum Seeker Processing Centre on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, December 2013

Justin Olam - rugby league champion (nrl.com)

JUSTIN KUNDALIN

KANDEP, ENGA – Papua New Guinea is a developing country doing everything it can to catch up with the Western world.

In my view, easily the greatest Western influence in shaping PNG has been education; although other transformational forces, such as building a minerals-based economy, have been crucial.

Something that really concerns me, however, is whether our people can cope effectively in what is a complex, competitive and challenging world.

I make this remark because it seems to me that many young professionals are graduating from universities and colleges only to begin moving backwards to a form of illiteracy – the place from which you began.

This could be a tragedy for our nation, so how does it happen and what does it mean?

Many people who have studied at the better educational institutions in PNG fail to grow and improve their knowledge and performance after graduating.

True education is not just attending lectures, reading textbooks, completing assignments and passing examinations in the academic environment.

True education is about continuing to learn by whatever means to refine the intellect and build knowledge so as to become an effective person whatever your field or wherever life takes you.

To not keep learning is to risk backtracking to a state which degrades the value of the education you have received and the credentials you have earned.

Too many people leave the academic world and lose touch with the learning that can assist them to serve better.

It’s as if their knowledge dies in them. They become graveyards of wisdom.

Squandered is the knowledge that should drive them to excel in their field and have brilliant careers.

Let me offer two practical examples.

People graduating to become accountants should read books necessary to their profession to keep in touch with current practice, new skills and changing laws and rules.

A nursing graduate - "Papua New Guineans are not just good at wishing and dreaming. We do know how to keep educating ourselves"

Graduate in a medical field must read books, journals and articles, keep building their skills through further study and professional interaction, and keep in touch with new developments.

They must not rely just on attending to the needs of patients – critical though this will always be. If they do not keep learning, they will not be well placed to best attend to those needs.

This thinking applies to every profession and I believe represents a power we all possess to help ourselves not to become virtual ‘illiterates’ in our field.

So here’s a summary of things you can do to keep pace with the world:

read consistently in your field of study; read something every day

write consistently in your field; think about your profession and share your knowledge

don’t serve long terms in your field without refreshing your knowledge through further study, engaging with your professional peers, joining relevant associations and, as you build your skills, training others

spend less time on social media absorbing unnecessary garbage; social media offers too many really good learning opportunities that should not be wasted

learn how to manage time better so you can do more with the hours you have

Dr Yalinu Poya at the University of Glasgow

I believe that a tendency to read and write less after graduation only helps us to slip backwards into a form of professional illiteracy.

In 2010, Yalina Polu graduated from the University of Papua New Guinea with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and her first job, which lasted for two years, was as an executive assistant.

She then managed to enter her professional field and worked for 18 months as a process technician for Barrick Gold before winning a scholarship for further study in China, graduating with a master’s degree in inorganic chemistry.

From there, Yalina was unstoppable. Offered the opportunity to study for a PhD at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, she graduated in 2020 and now lectures in six subjects at the Glasgow International College.

She is also editorial advisor for the Journal of the PNG Institute of Chemists in and PNG country representative on the International Younger Chemists Network.

Justin Olam in full flight against the Brisbane Broncos (Wikipedia)

The rise of my namesake, Chimbu-born rugby league champion Justin Olam, has been equally spectacular but in a very different field.

While he was at school, his parents wanted him to prioritise education and he didn’t play rugby league until university. He graduated from the PNG University of Technology with a Bachelor's degree in applied physics.

He played his first international game for PNG in 2016 and since 2019 has been a top performer for the Melbourne Storm Club in Australia, appearing in three premiership finals and in 2021 being voted as centre of the year.

There are many Yalinas and Justins in PNG and the world. Our country has produced marvellous champions in every field from aviation to zoology.

Papua New Guineans are not just good at wishing and dreaming.

We do know how to keep educating ourselves after leaving the classrooms and lecture halls.

Manila and Justin Kundalin with Justin Jr

But once we have wished and dreamed, we need to do.

My plea to you is to read and write and do, to keep abreast of the modern progressive world and take advantage of what is open to us – which is everything.

Let’s not graduate backwards to illiteracy. Let’s never allow the knowledge to die.

Ulli Beier and President Léopold Senghor at the exhibition Neue Kunst in Afrika, 1980. Senghor, a poet and cultural theorist was Senegal's leader from 1960–80 (Archive Iwalewahaus)

MAEBH LONG

This article offers edited extracts from ‘Being Obotunde Ijimere and M. Lovori: Mapping Ulli Beier’s intercultural hoaxes from Nigeria to Papua New Guinea’. The complete essay by Dr Long was published in The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 11 October 2020

HAMILTON, NZ - Ulli Beier was a hugely influential figure in Nigerian and Papua New Guinean literature from the 1950s to the 1970s.

He founded and edited numerous literary magazines, including Black Orpheus and Kovave, fostered unappreciated talent, and provided publication opportunities when few were available.

The story of his dedication to nascent literary scenes in Africa and the Pacific is, however, marred by appropriation.

Beier was to introduce ‘fraud’ into the literature of both countries.

Writing under various Nigerian and Niuginian names, Beier conducted a series of literary hoaxes whose racial and cultural deceptions smuggled a white author into Indigenous literary histories, and exemplified the permissibility that even anti-colonial white men granted themselves.

In the article from which these extracts are drawn, I explore Beier’s main racial alter egos – Obotunde Ijimere and M. Lovori – with an emphasis on his position as a lecturer and magazine editor at the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG).

*******

Ulli Beier - a huge and controversial contribution to the development of literature in Nigeria and PNG (Sydney Morning Herald)

In 1967 Beier and his wife Georgina moved to Papua New Guinea, where Beier taught literature and creative writing at UPNG and became, in author and academic Steven Winduo’s words, “the patron of creative literature in Papua New Guinea”.

There he galvanised the literary, dramatic and, alongside Georgina, artistic scenes with the same enthusiasm he showed in Nigeria.

He founded the ‘Papua Pocket Poets’ series, which published 25 volumes between 1968 and 1970, as well as Kovave, Papua New Guinea’s first literary magazine, and he later established and edited Gigibori: A Magazine of Papua New Guinea Cultures.

He worked with Albert Maori Kiki on ‘Kiki: Ten Thousand Years in a Lifetime’ and with Vincent Eri on ‘The Crocodile’, Papua New Guinea’s first novel by an Indigenous author.

He helped organise and judge writers’ awards and became the first director of the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies.

As Rabbie Namaliu, one of Beier’s students, describes him, Beier was an empowering “pioneer” who “shattered the old shibboleth that Niuginians can only be evoked as objects, but that they can’t write”.

Kirsty Powell observed in Pacific Islands Monthly that Beier saw “potential, he encouraged our talents, and over a period of four years, Niugini had its own literature written by its own artists”.

For many who worked with him in PNG and Nigeria, Beier was a “wanderer who came, saw, and was conquered.”

So wrote Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Soyinka continued that Beier’s “approach to life rescued the word ‘expatriate’ from its usual negative connotations — privileged, alienated, presumptuous and condescending”.

In his reflections on his time at UPNG, Beier presented himself as strongly invested in anti-colonial ideologies, with a deep commitment to a literary education not bound by an anxious adherence to the Western canon.

Earlier, in Nigeria, he had felt constrained by the University of Ibadan’s emphasis on British literary traditions and standards.

When he saw that UPNG was looking for someone to teach a course on ‘New English Literature from Developing Countries’ he eagerly applied.

Elton Brash argued that, prior to Beier’s arrival, the major features of the literary scene in PNG were bleak, as they emphasised the “disruption and decay of Traditional forms of Oral Literature”.

Brash also mourned the “understandable reluctance of New Guineans to express themselves through English or English Literary forms” and he lamented the “exploitation of the New Guinea scene by foreign writers in search of romantic and exotic material for popular literature”.

For Brash, in a paper ‘The Role of the Student in Niugini Politics’, the “most significant direct encouragement of creative writing in New Guinea” came from Beier as he quickly discovered potential writers and artists, opened channels for the publications of their works, and established creative writing courses.”

*******

Yet, there is a problematic side to Beier’s engagement with the literary scenes of both Nigeria and PNG.

In 1966, ‘The Imprisonment of Obatala and Other Plays’ by a Yoruba playwright, Obotunde Ijimere, was published by Heinemann.

The biographical notes to the Heinemann edition said that Ijimere began writing plays while attending Beier’s writers’ workshop in Osogbo.

However, far from Beier simply influencing or encouraging Ijimere, Beier was Ijimere.

Between 1965 and 1967 Beier as Ijimere wrote ‘The Fall of Man’, ‘The Bed: A Farce’, ‘The Suitcase’ and ‘Born with a Fire in his Head’.

Under this name, he also wrote the three plays in the Heinemann edition: ‘The Imprisonment of Obatala’, ‘Woyengi’, and ‘Everyman’.

Nor were these plays the first time Beier had impersonated a Nigerian writer: the critical articles and reviews in the early issues of Black Orpheus were dominated by his writings under names such as Sangodare Akanji.

When Beier moved to PNG, he continued this trend of hiding his work under local names.

He wrote two plays, ‘Alive’ and ‘They Never Return’, under the name M. Lovori.

He had these plays performed in Australia and PNG and published ‘Alive’ in the work ‘Five New Guinea Plays’.

Writing under various Nigerian and Niuginian names, Beier conducted a series of literary hoaxes whose racial and cultural deceptions smuggle a white author into Indigenous literary histories, and exemplify the permissibility that even anti-colonial white men granted themselves.

*******

As a teacher, editor, reviewer and publisher, Beier is a hugely important figure in the literary histories of Papua New Guinea and Nigeria.

He recognised talent where it had been ignored and provided publication opportunities when few were available.

He insisted on the aesthetic value of Indigenous forms, and he advocated loudly and repeatedly for authenticity in the voices of emerging literary traditions.

And yet he is also responsible for writing fraud into the early literature of both countries.

How can we respond to Beier’s introduction of counterfeit texts into the literatures he was nurturing?

It is difficult, particularly in light of growing research on cultural appropriation and racial hoaxes, not to see Beier’s pseudonymous excursions as predicated on the arrogant adoption of identities Beier felt entitled to possess.

It is especially hard to deny egotistical involvement on Beier’s part, as Beier centres himself in his displacements.

Both Lovori and Ijimere are presented as students he was instrumental in encouraging.

Creative writing is always embroiled in ventriloquising, and the theatre is always about impersonation.

The history of pseudonymous writing is as long as the history of literature.

A hoax, however, is not designed simply to bring a new character to life, nor purely to conceal the identity of the writer, but to deceive, and to deceive about the deception.

As imprecise as the lines between pseudonym and hoax might be, there is an important difference between an alias that conceals the author’s name and that which deliberately impersonates a wholly different identity.

Beier is a troubling representation of the white lecturer involved in decolonising academic spaces — one whose apparently genuine ideological commitments to Indigenous independence are counterbalanced by his belief in his position of intellectual leadership and his right to speak knowledgeably on behalf of Indigenous communities.

Beier’s writings and his classes show he wanted no part in daffodils or Shakespeare.

He worked hard to encourage African and Pacific voices of protest and sovereignty.

But he also saw this position as permitting him to appropriate, impersonate and direct.

I take no issue with a man who the late Wole Ogundele, executive director of the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding in Osogbo, Nigeria, repeatedly described as a “German-born Yoruba”, writing creatively or academically about a community of which he is part.

Nevertheless, identity matters, and names matter.

Beier was Jewish. In the 1930s his father’s money was confiscated by the Nazis, and in the 1940s Beier was interned by the British as an enemy alien.

His privilege is mitigated by his experiences of persecution.

When home is rendered precarious, it is easy to understand why one would seek belonging elsewhere.

However, one can belong without impersonating.

Maebh Long

*******

Dr Maebh Long is a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Waikato at Hamilton in New Zealand. She was previously Senior Lecturer and Deputy Head of School at the University of the South Pacific, Fiji, and Visiting Associate Professor at New York University, USA.

Maebh is co-editor of The Parish Review: International Journal of Flann O'Brien Studies, editor of 'Flann O'Brien, The Collected Letters of Flann O’Brien (Victoria, TX: Dalkey Archive Press, 2018) and editor with Matthew Hayward of New Oceania: Modernisms and Modernities in the Pacific(London: Routledge, 2019)

Graphic by Greg Rosenke

SIMON DAVIDSON

The inspiration for this poem came as Dr Unia Api,
a lecturer at Pacific Adventist University, spoke in
the chapel to Sonoma Adventist College theology
students on Wednesday 16 March, 2022 - SD

At Simon’s saddest banquet feast,
a costly perfume of purest nard
was poured on the body of Christ.
The sparkling oil flowing down,
and aroma sweet filling the room;
‘Christ smelled like a king’

In Gethsemane’s garden of woe,
every drooping tree and flower,
every blade of grass and pebble,
And even the traitor called Judas,
including the lurking demonic legions,
smelled of the residue of sweet perfume;
‘Christ smelled like a king’

In Pontius Pilates’ judgement hall,
as the gawking multitude roared
and spewed their deadly venom,
calling for his innocent blood,
Pilate sensed the purest scent;
‘Christ smelled like a king.’

Upon Golgotha’s rugged stony hill,
as thieves hung in torment suspended,
dying for lowly crimes of commission,
As Palestine’s sun burned into their flesh,
In agonising moments of an eking life,
They beheld the crucified son of God;
‘Christ smelled like a king’

The entranceway of Joseph’s tomb,
The carved wall crafted by many hands,
The grave clothes used to cover him,
The trembling soldiers guarding all,
‘Satan holds the keys of death,’ they said;
‘Christ smelled like a king’

Affirmed by all who saw Him there,
Dying thieves hanging alongside,
A betrayer who’d kissed him lightly,
Pilate who the death verdict gave,
The crowds who thronged Calvary.
Oh, trembling soldiers, demons, devil;
‘Christ smelled like a king.’

The first printed plan of Port Moresby was compiled from surveys made in July and August 1886 by Walter R Guthbertson

THERESA PATTERSON
| From a story originally published in
  the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier

Eda Moresby: Our Moresby by John Brooksbank, K250 each (K200 each for five or more). To Australia: $100 + $15 post. Link Facebook and find Eda Moresby here or email here

PORT MORESBY – ‘Only in PNG!’ People might think this catch-all phrase for our country’s extraordinary quirks is a relatively recent addition to our lexicon.

But if the outrageous stories in John Brooksbank’s new book, ‘Eda Moresby’ (Motu for ‘Our Moresby’), are anything to go by, the expression would have applied way back to before Papua New Guinea existed.

Author John Brooksbank has compiled extraordinary stories, many of which never made it into the standard history books 

Only in PNG would Papua have been declared a British protectorate no less than four times before the British Crown finally ratified it wanted to protect it in 1888.

Only in PNG would zealous LMS missionary James Chalmers be eaten upon landing at a village in the Kikori River delta in the Gulf.

And, when young governor Christopher Robinson, who authorised a raid in retaliation for Chalmer’s death, was criticised, he shot himself in 1904 in front of Government House. (The same Government House that still sits above Konedobu.)

“Strangely, his memorial is at Samarai,” adds Brooksbank. Perhaps another ‘only in PNG’ moment?

There are many more facts littered throughout ‘Eda Moresby’, with the same mix of curiosity, amusement and surprise.

Early-day government official, George Hunter, after whom the street in downtown Moresby was named, was suffocated in 1890 by his female lover and her conspirators.

Moresby Hotel,  early 1970's

The enterprising founder of Steamships Trading Company once sold goods through the bathroom window of his bungalow on Douglas Street (where the present-day Nasfund office stands), making - in just one day - a record £1,300 (K300,000 today).

And notorious Tabari Place, sometimes described as the Vision City of more than 50 years ago, was a place to avoid.

All these anecdotes are colourfully ‘PNG’ in nature and Brooksbank, for the sake of posterity and our collective insight, has collated them into a coherent narrative in his part-tribute, part-textbook publication.

The cover of 'Eda Moresby'

You can think of this hardback as a compilation of the stories that never made it into standard history books – either in PNG or Australia.

Readers of Air Niugini’s inflight magazine Paradise will be familiar with Brooksbank’s humorous style as well as his specialist knowledge.

He blends these elements nicely in ‘Eda Moresby’ to deliver a work that is at the same time informative and quirky.

It includes a section devoted to the failed pikinini kiap (cadet patrol officer) who became the larger-than-life Hollywood actor, Errol Flynn.

Flynn, who thought he might make a fortune on the Morobe goldfields, made a pest of himself in New Guinea before heading to the United States and swashbuckling fame in the early 1930s.

The Kontikis playing the Four Mile Club, early 70's (from left) Carolus Ketsimur,  Joe Lavett,  John Dawanicura,  Sam Clunn and  Steve Ramos

Brooksbank also makes an appreciable start on explaining the complex web of intermarried mixed-race families.

And in a five-page spread, he recounts the achievements of nation-building entrepreneurs like Sir Brian Bell (Brian Bell Group), Chin Hoi Meen (CHM), Sergey Mosin (Mosin Plaza) and Mahesh Patel (City Pharmacy Group).

Brooksbank has an unsurpassed eye for unusual detail as he traces the mostly-ad hoc expansion of the city from pre-colonial beginnings to when the outsiders arrived permanently in the late 1800s.

Anti-aircraft gun at Wards Strip,  February 1943

From there he takes the reader through the two world wars and on to Independence in 1975, when a nation was born and began to form a distinctive national identity.

Other chapters cover ancient trade routes, early churches, the gold fever of the 19th century, street names, suburbs and settlements, beer and breweries, current landmarks and muse on Moresby’s future prospects as people continue to migrate from other provinces – for work, play or trouble.

Brooksbank does not shy away from the facts, however taboo or controversial.

He knows these stories, many of almost incredible cast, make PNG’s capital city what it is today.

Hanuabada women making pots, 1921 (Hurley)

Because people don’t just say, ‘Only in PNG’, they also acknowledge PNG in all its vibrant complexity as ‘The Land of the Unexpected’.

Both history and lived experience tells us to expect more of the same, as Our Moresby – Eda Moresby – hurtles along its own bumpy road.

Soldiers of the Australian 39th Battalion,  Kokoda campaign,  1942 (Australian War Memorial)

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – After graduating with a BA in history and English literature, Adrian Clack spent six years as a history teacher and school counsellor.

He then served 12 years as a police officer before, in 2017, making his passion for military history a major pursuit.

Since then Adrian has completed 15 crossings of the Kokoda Track as a guide and historian for On Track Expeditions.

Adrian Clack

Now he’s on the trail of the inspirational Dr Geoffrey Hampden (Doc) Vernon MC (1882-1946), a figure who deserves to be better remembered in Australia and Papua New Guinea.

He loved and admired the people of the then Australian colony and, as a medical doctor, he made a significant contribution to it in peace and war.

I expect Doc Vernon is a name most readers will not have come across.

But if you do have some knowledge of him, then Adrian Clack is eager to hear from you.

It may be an anecdote, a newspaper clipping, a document or a story handed down from the war.

So you can email Adrian here if you have even the smallest morsel of information to offer. I know he will be delighted.

In a moment, I want to provide a cut down version of as much of the Doc Vernon story that we know.

But first a bit more about Adrian Clack, whose interest in Australian military history flows strongly from his own family heritage.

Adrian presenting a lecture in military history

His grandfather, Percy James Clack (NX194756), served with the 2/9th Battalion of the Australian Army which in World War II, as part of the 7th Division, fought campaigns in North Africa, Syria–Lebanon, New Guinea and Borneo.

Adrian’s great-uncle, Donald McKenzie (NX46603), was a member of 2/30th Battalion, part of the 8th Division which in February 1942 fought against the Japanese in Malaya and Singapore, where the Allies surrendered.

The Imperial Japanese Army was not expected to attack Singapore through the back door of the Malayan peninsula; they were expected to storm the city from the sea.

McKenzie was captured, became a prisoner-of-war and survived disease, starvation and brutality on the notorious Thai-Burma railway. Many of the 2/30th's personnel died in captivity before the war ended in August 1945.

While Adrian Clack was still a member of the NSW Police between 1999 and 2011, he helped lead the first group of young Indigenous people to trek the Kokoda Trail.

As a result of this initiative, he was a joint winner of the National Crime Prevention Award in 2009; two years earlier he had been recognised locally in Eurobodalla Shire on the NSW south coast, also with an award for preventing crime in youth.

It’s clearly a community that Adrian has been very close to for many years. In his spare time he plays the bagpipes as a member of the Batemans Bay Pipe Band.

Reminiscing on that first visit to PNG, Adrian says he had “never seen such generous hospitality”.

“There were speeches, gospel songs and prayers,” he said, revealing that the favourite song of the trekking group was Buju Banton’s ‘It’s not an easy road’.

“I never thought I would've made it
Then afterwards, they mistake it,
I'll be here for sure, don't worry
And mi say my, my, my m-my
It's not an easy road”

Adrian contacted me after reading an article about Doc Vernon in PNG Attitude.

Philip Selth OAM

It was contributed in 2012 by lawyer, senior public servant, senior academic and now director of the NSW Bar Association, Philip Selth OAM.

Philip died of pancreatic cancer in 2020 and the famed Australian barrister, Bret Walker AO SC, wrote of him that he had an “infectious love of history”.

This most visibly took the form of writing essay-style biographies of under-recognised contributors to Australian public life.

It was in this context that Philip Selth, researching the life and times of Doc Vernon, contacted me.

We had many conversations and the piece he wrote for PNG Attitude was an attempt to help him pin down the Doc's complete story.

Unfortunately Philip died before completing this project, or so it seems, and now Adrian, having taken on a similar pursuit, has turned our way to see if we can assist or identify people who may be able to do so.

“I’m wondering if you have any idea what happened to the research he was conducting,” Adrian asked me.

“Do you know if it's still held by his family, or was it passed on to someone else?”

“I realise it is a long shot, but any assistance would be appreciated.”

Drs Bevington & Vernon, Thursday Island Hospital,  1931 (Jardine-Vidgen Family)

Not a solitary answer did I have, but I pointed Adrian in the direction of the National Library of Australia, wherein a knew had been deposited at least some of the papers of Doc and historian the late Hank Nelson.

Bret Walker said Philip Selth had been assiduous in ensuring his books and papers would not be lost or destroyed when he died.

And of all the PNG-related academics I knew, Hank would be the most likely to have produced something, somewhere on Doc Vernon.

And so on to this man, Geoffrey Vernon MC, a doctor-warrior and enough a leader to participate in the practice of his profession as an officer on the front line of two world wars.

Doc was clearly a most unusual man with a story worth telling that had at no time been fully revealed.

Of his exploits during the famed Kokoda campaign of July to November 1942, Doc kept a diary. It has never been published in full.

The late political journalist Alan Ramsey saw it and read it: “Its 74 pages, on brown paper, are bound by red twine between tattered, stained cardboard covers. It has no title, but the first page has the heading, ‘A War Diary. The Owen Stanley campaign, July-November, 1942’.”

Ramsay noted that the diary had never been published in full.

“A great pity,” he wrote. “Captain Geoffrey Hampden Vernon, despite being deaf - from a Great War artillery shell that exploded near him - had a wonderful feel for language.”

Doc was a Captain with the Australian 4th Light Horse Field Ambulance in World War I, where he was awarded the Military Cross “for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty” at Gallipoli.

The citation said that, under heavy fire, he continued to tend wounded soldiers, displaying great courage and determination.

On one occasion, he remained all night with a wounded man in ‘no man’s land’.

This undated photo of Doc Vernon appears to date from World War I

Between the wars, Doc somehow made his way to Papua and became a doctor-planter near Daru. Just before World War II, he had effectively retired to his rubber plantation.

When the Japanese entered the war and headed for New Guinea, Doc refused to be repatriated to Australia.

Instead, and against some strenuous opposition, reported by the Queensland Times, he “got back into uniform with a native infantry battalion". His serial number, P390. I presume the P was for Papua.

You can understand the reservations of the military authorities. Not only was Doc quite deaf, but at 60 he was regarded as being far too old. We also know now that he probably had tuberculosis.

None of this was of concern to Doc. The Army did not assign him to one of its regular units, but he still had a war to fight – or, in Doc’s case, its warriors to tend to.

Australian troops having their wounds patched in the foothills above Kokoda would see trudging along the track towards them a “tall, thin figure with a dark pullover tied by the sleeves round his neck, and carrying in each hand a white triangular bandage filled with instruments, antiseptics and dressings.”

The article in the Queensland Times continued:

“I heard there was some action here and no doctor, so I thought I might be able to help until others come,” Doc said. “Now, where do we start?”

“Men who were in the New Guinea fighting will talk of him for years,” a journalist wrote.

“That tall, deaf doctor who operated under fire, who gave them a smoke, who put new dressings on, who gave them a cup of tea and biscuits, and helped them along with a cheery word.

“They marvelled at his energy and kindness.

“Later, at Deniki village, while he attended the casualties, he asked one of his assistants: ‘Were those bullets that were knocking down the grass from the roof in Kokoda?’

“Came the reply, ‘I'll say, they were! Millions of them’.

“‘Well,’ said Doc, ‘at first I thought it was rats. But when big lumps came down I guessed what it was.

"Of course, there was no danger as they were all high, but it is an advantage to be deaf sometimes.

"I might have been alarmed if I had heard them!’”

Doc survived the war and ‘the rats’ and in March 1946 was discharged from his duties with ANGAU, the Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit.

However, he did not live much longer.

Doc did have tuberculosis and, while recuperating in Samarai, suffered a stroke on 16 May 1946 and died aged 63.

“He was an unsung hero of the Battle of Papua,” eulogised the Queensland Times after the news reached Australia.

A young Doc Vernon posing in a bush garden, no date (NSW State Archives)

“The Kokoda Trail is their supreme legacy,” Alan Ramsey wrote of Doc and his mate Bert Kienzle.

“They made victory possible by keeping going the carrier line that, week after week, for four months, on their backs or by slings and stretchers, took supplies and ammunition to the diggers fighting in the Owen Stanleys and brought the wounded out,” Ramsay wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Pulling together the complete story of Doc Vernon is a noble, necessary and overdue task.

Philip Selth volunteered for the job, and it was one he was truly enjoying when he became too ill to write.

It would be a wonderful gift to Papua New Guinea and Australia if Adrian Clack is able to take it further.

Do drop him an email here if you’re able to assist even in a small way.

Dr Allan Marat -

MICHAEL KABUNI
| Academia Nomad

PORT MORESBY - Who would you like to see become Papua New Guinea’s prime minister? In this article, the top three candidates are ranked and profiled about why they're good prime ministerial material.

1 - Dr Allan Marat (Melanesian Liberal Party)

Since the passing of Sir Mekere Morauta, there’s probably only one true statesman in the PNG parliament.

Allan Marat has occupied several senior ministerial positions including Justice, has served as deputy PM and also as Deputy Opposition Leader.

He’s among the very few whose name has never been associated with corruption.

And he is not known for switching sides when convenient.

In debates, he carefully avoids name calling and focuses on the issues.

Marat commands respect from both the opposition and government sides.

That’s why for us, he occupies first position.

Governor Alan Bird -

2 - Governor Alan Bird (National Alliance)

As a provincial governor, Alan Bird cannot be prime minister and, to gain the position, would have to relinquish his governorship of East Sepik.

Bird’s speeches in debate are informed and, like Marat, he focuses on issues and not individuals.

His only problem is that he has been content to see Marape entertain garbage.

How on earth did he along with Gary Juffa, Kerenga Kua and Bryan Kramer let Sam Basil return to the deputy prime minister’s position in 2020 after he (Basil) failed in an attempt to change the government?

These so-called corruption fighters have lived and dined in the same camp as those MPs alleged to be corrupt.

We have not seen the expected reports on APEC, the Maseratis, the Yoga funds nor the UBS report from the Ombudsman Commission.

It was not enough, we need a new Commission of Inquiry.

Bird, to his credit, has openly challenged the government that he is part of on some issues.

And if we were judging patriotism, he would take the number one spot.

The sooner National Alliance realises that Patrick Pruaitch is not prime ministerial material, the better it will be. In fact, Bird needs to get take over leadership of the party.

Kerenga Kua -

3 - Kerenga Kua (PNG National Party)

Prior to 2019, Kua was up there with Marat as a strong prime ministerial contender.

But since joining the government, he’s only been heard of in the role of natural resource negotiator. It seems he’s become silent for practical reasons.

That’s expected because he’s in government, but he was content to accommodate alleged corruption among the government MPs.

For Kua, Bird, Kramer and Juffa, keeping the government intact was more important than separating out corrupt MPs and pushing for investigations.

That said, however, Kua and Marat remain real statesmen.

And the rest….

Governor Gary Juffa and Bryan Kramer

Kramer and Juffa are more activist politicians than prime ministerial material. They are most useful in opposition keeping the government accountable.

They have served the country well as opposition MPs.

You can make the argument that Niccolò Machiavelli’s ‘The Prince’ was written for Peter O’Neill and James Marape: the power hungry.

Whilst Basil and Pruaitch take pride in being yo-yo politicians.

Marape gave the foreign affairs ministry to Pruaitch in exchange for Pruaitch dropping the Constitutional challenge on the validity of Marape’s election.

James Marape and Sam Basil

Marape also accepted Basil back as deputy prime minister after Basil unsuccessful tried to replace him as PM in 2020.

Marape will do everything under the sun to stay in power as prime minister.

O’Neill is, well he’s O’Neill. Cunning, irresponsible and power hungry.

Don’t rule out the possibility of O’Neill and Marape joining forces. They have one thing in common: they love the PM’s post.

There are others I haven’t listed as potential prime ministers.

Patrick Pruaitch and Peter O'Neill

What about Belden Namah? He lacks the temperament.

William Duma is an unconsciously sliding MP.

Davis Steven, Charles Abel, Ian Ling-Stuckey and Puka Temu would better serve as ministers or vice-ministers.

So what do you think of this list? Comment and let us know.

Dulciana Somare with her father, the late Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare. Dulciana is contesting the seat of Angoram in this year's national election (Dulciana Somare)

THERESA MEKI
| DevPolicy Blog

CANBERRA - While political dynasties are not prevalent in Papua New Guinea, there are several notable political families.

Sir Julius Chan, one of the country’s founding fathers, has been in parliament since 1968 – 54 years. His son Byron was the member for Namatanai, a New Ireland electorate, from 2002 to 2017.

Another founding father, the late Sir Michael Somare, has two politically active children: Dulciana and Arthur. Arthur represented the Angoram electorate in East Sepik province from 1997 to 2012.

Dame Carol Kidu, the widow of Buri Kidu, PNG’s first national Chief Justice, may not come from a political dynasty but she has said that her late husband’s legacy helped her enter the political arena, gaining her ‘sympathy votes’ in her first election in 1997.

Dame Carol writes in her autobiography, ‘A Remarkable Journey’, that prior to her husband’s untimely passing in 1994, he was contemplating entering politics himself.

The 2017 national election saw several husband-and-wife political teams in action: National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop and Oro provincial candidate and Jean Eparo Parkop; and former Ijivitari member David Arore who also contested the Oro provincial seat and his wife, Joy Travertz Arore, who contested the Ijivitari open.

The 2017 election also had a few woman legacy candidates, that is, daughters of previous members of parliament.

Anna Skate, daughter of former prime minister the late Sir Bill Skate (1997–1999), was the lone female candidate for the Port Moresby South electorate. Endorsed by the People’s Progress Party, she finished third with 11.3% of the first preference vote.

PANGU Pati endorsed Dulciana Somare for the East Sepik provincial seat and she finished in fourth place with 20,029 votes, 5.7% of the votes cast.

Ten years ago, Jennifer Baing-Waiko, daughter of former member for Markham, Andrew Baing, and daughter-in-law of Dr John Waiko, former member for Sohe open, stood for the Markham open seat and finished fifth.

Since this 2012 race, Jennifer has enlarged her social media presence, strengthened her engagement on the ground and amplifyied her voice on policy issues. This year, she intends to contest the Morobe provincial seat.

How does being a legacy candidate assist PNG women candidates?

Initially it helps that they are already well known, as their father’s reputation has preceded them.

The legacy could also help in harnessing long-established political networks.

However there may not be many more benefits. There are many complex variables in the quest for political office – including campaigning, meeting voter demands and raising awareness (hanmak), election administration, polling, security and dealing with political competition.

Elizabeth Simogun Bade is the daughter of a famous Sepik leader, Sir Pita Simogun, a former police officer who was a member of the Legislative Council from 1951-61 and of the House of Assembly from 1964-68.

In 1987, Elizabeth contested the East Sepik provincial seat and then in 2002 the Kairuku-Hiri seat in Central Province. She was unsuccessful both times.

In 2007, she ran a second time for the East Sepik provincial seat, but in a contest with political giants including the late Grand Chief Michael Somare, it was an impossible undertaking.

Being a legacy candidate is certainly not enough to guarantee success.

The Autonomous Region of Bougainville has created its own political legacies. In the 2020 Bougainville elections, two families were successful.

A father–daughter team, Raymond and Amanda Masono, were elected. Raymond retained his seat as the member for Atolls and Amanda won the North Bougainville women’s seat.

And Theresa Kaetavara won the South Bougainville seat while her son, Emmanuel Carlos Kaetavara, won the Baba constituency.

Last year, across the ocean, Fiame Naomi Mata’afa made Pacific history by becoming Samoa’s first female prime minister.

Fiame was part of a dynasty, both of her parents being political leaders. Her father, Mata’afa Faumuina Mulinu’u II, was Samoa’s first prime minister, from 1959-70 and again from 1973-75.

When Mata’afa died in office in 1975, Fiame’s mother, La’ulu Fetauimalemau Mata’afa, took over his constituency of Lotofagu as only the second woman to be elected to Samoa’s parliament.

While PNG’s and Samoa’s political organisation and societal structures are vastly different from each other, and Fiame’s political legacy is just one component of her political identity, her journey does make for sweet political history.

Come April 2022, Papua New Guinea, and particularly the people of Angoram District, will have the opportunity to facilitate what might be the beginning of a similar sweet story.

In contrast to Jennifer Baing-Waiko, who skipped the 2017 election to concentrate on preparing to contest a larger provincial electorate, Dulciana Somare decided to focus on the smaller electorate of Angoram open.

Having come fourth in the 2017 East Sepik provincial race, there is the possibility she could win in Angoram this year.

Will her father’s legacy work in a similar way as respect for Buri Kidu assisted Dame Carol’s entry to parliament in 1997?

The people of Angoram gave Somare’s son, Arthur, three terms in parliament – will they give Dulciana a chance to continue her father’s legacy of nation building?

Theresa Meki (pictured) is a Pacific Research Fellow in the Department of Pacific Affairs, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University. Her research focuses on women’s presence and vote share in Papua New Guinea’s election history. Her research was supported by the Pacific Research Program, with funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The views are those of the author only

A Russian armoured personnel carrier burns amid damaged and abandoned utility vehicles after fighting in Kharkiv (Marienko Andrew, AP)

CHRIS OVERLAND & KEITH JACKSON

ADELAIDE & NOOSA – As the Ukraine War moves to its one-month anniversary, the more important Western nations are tonight holding an unprecedented series of three summits in Brussels - NATO, G7 and European Union, all in a row.

They do so as the outcomes of the war remain uncertain, but as Vladimir Putin’s destruction and terrorism continue.

An important reason why Ukraine has succeeded in stalling and, on some fronts, is pushing back the Russian offensive is that its army is bristling with sophisticated anti-tank and short range anti-aircraft missiles.

In addition, the USA is shipping a number (thought to be around 100) 'suicide' drones, which are effective at killing tanks and artillery at ranges of around eight kilometres.

It is also rumoured that some of those eastern European states that were part of the former Soviet Union, are covertly shipping Soviet-era high altitude anti-aircraft missile systems.

These systems are familiar to Ukrainian soldiers whereas some of the West's modern systems would require extensive training before they could be used, including Israel's Iron Dome system.

It has been made clear to Russia that Western weapons will continue to flow to Ukraine regardless of the Russians’ protests or threats.

There have been a number of not very veiled threats that if Russia tries to interdict NATO supply convoys, this will trigger retaliation from NATO, perhaps in the form of imposing some sort of no-fly zone over the southern borders of Ukraine.

Thus far at least the Russians have not attacked NATO convoys or aircraft presumably because they could not cope with any escalation in the war, at least using conventional non-nuclear weaponry.

Vladimir Putin is in a very serious situation now: he cannot win this war and cannot afford to lose it either.

Hence the resort to what the Germans called 'Wunderwaffe' (super weapons) like hypersonic missiles.

In military terms, this is gesture tactics which will not save him any more than deploying the V1 and V2 rockets did Hitler in 1944-45.

There seems to be no present strategic advantage in them.

Hypersonic weapons can travel multiple times faster than the speed of sound and can manoeuvre mid-flight.

They are much harder to track and shoot down than conventional ballistic missiles.

Nut the main thing super about them is their cost, an estimated $US50-100 million (K175-K350 million ) each.

In the US, hypersonic missiles are amongst the most debated weapons initiatives in many years.

The debate has occurred in the knowledge of Chinese and Russian advances in cutting-edge weapons. Putin in particular boasts of his progress on hypersonic technology.

But the Americans are more circumspect.

“Can you do the job with conventional missiles at less cost, just as effectively?” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said recently.

“Hypersonics are a way to penetrate defences, but they’re not the only way.”

And so the Ukraine War goes on, with its many frontiers.

As I write, the Western nations are undertaking an unprecedented sequence of NATO, G7 and EU summits in Brussels.

They have warned Putin that Russia will pay “ruinous” costs for invading Ukraine.

Ukraine’s president Zelenskiy says he hopes the summits will come up with some “meaningful steps”, adding that they will reveal “who is a friend, who is a partner, and who betrayed us for money”.

Zelenskiy knows, as English playwright and poet John Heywood wrote in 1546, that “it’s an ill wind that blows no one any good” – misfortune usually benefits someone, and war always benefits the arms’ dealers and those who try to play off one side against another.

BREAKING: Coal lover Scott Morrison will personally select the lumps of coal he will gift to the people of Ukraine

There are a number of nations, including India and Israel, who have some soul searching to do on this latter issue.

Meanwhile, Australia is sending 70,000 tonnes of coal to Ukraine, which has abundant reserves of its own coal.

Nobody seems quite sure why we decided to do this – or how it will get there.

Professor Henry Reynolds - "It is by no means clear that the world’s authoritarian states see themselves as members of an 'anti-democratic coalition'. Some of the most autocratic are American allies"

HENRY REYNOLDS
| Pearls & Irritations

TOWNSVILLE - “I think we are in a contest,” President Biden declared in June last year, “not with China per se but with autocrats and autocratic governments around the world - whether or not democracies can compete with them in this rapidly changing 21st century.”

Was he referring to particular regimes that assumed a hostile stance towards the United States or were geo-political rivals? Or was it really autocracies anywhere and everywhere that had been put on notice.

That raises many difficult questions. How are autocratic governments defined and who establishes the official list?

The best available guide is the Economist’s Annual Democracy Index. But that greatly complicates the picture. The 2020 index divided the world’s nation states into four categories—Full Democracies, Flawed Democracies, Hybrid Regimes, Authoritarian States.

One hundred and sixty four states were assessed. There were 23 full democracies, 52 flawed democracies, 32 hybrid regimes and 57 authoritarian states.

Just under 50% of the world’s population lived in full or flawed democracies; a little over half lived in hybrid or authoritarian regimes.

Only 14% of nation states were judged to be full democracies and just over 8% of global population resided in them .

Many of them were quite small and concentrated in northern Europe.

Outside Europe they were widely scattered and included South Korea and Japan, Chile, Uruguay and Costa Rica in Latin America and Mauritius in Africa.

The Anglo settler states, Australia, New Zealand and Canada made the grade.

So was Biden serious when he proclaimed that the democracies were in competition with autocratic governments around the world, all 57 of them?

It is far from certain that the diverse democracies want to march in this latest American crusade.

And do the widely assorted autocracies have a common view about anything much at all given their extraordinary diversity of location, history, culture and religion?

Scott Morrison seems to have no doubts about the Biden crusade, as might be expected.

In a recent address to the Lowy Institute he declared that, “a new arc of autocracy is instinctively aligning itself to challenge and reset the world order in their own image.”

Indeed the autocrats were “seeking to challenge the status quo through threats and violence.”

It was therefore necessary to understand “that autocrats don’t play by the same rules as the rest of us. Their mindset is very different.”

Who exactly were there among “the rest of us” was not spelt out.

Morrison’s intellectual perspicacity must have left his audience quite breathless.

He claimed to have an understanding of what instinctively drives the autocrats. He knows that their mindset is very different from ours .

Was he referring to all 57 authoritarian states? Did he even know more than a handful of them?

His own ‘arc of autocracy’ included only Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

But the lack of precision, the vagueness even of what are the essential characteristics of an authoritarian state, is a distinct advantage for a government seeking to ride a wave of whipped up anxiety.

The confected threat of autocratic governments around the world provides the intellectual underpinning for a new cold war. It is a campaign that Australia seems only too keen to join.

Indeed Morrison’s warnings were almost apocalyptic.

The challenges facing Australia, he declared, “continue to mount.” They require us to “increase our resilience, expand our capabilities and harden our defences.”

We are threatened by the “most difficult and dangerous security environment in 80 years.”

Really? Since 1942? One has to wonder whether this was a product of the prime minister’s own fevered imagination or was advice given to him by the defence-security establishment in Canberra.

That this is indeed the case was suggested by the response of Professor Rory Medcalf, the head of the ANU’s National Security College, in an interview with Leigh Sales on the ABC’s 7.30 Report.

Commenting on Morrison’s Lowy Address he enthused calling it, “quite a dramatic new way to describe the challenge that democracies face in the world.”

The prime minister was “looking at the challenges to Australia’s national interest and to global stability.”

Medcalf guessed it created “a new framework for this country and other democracies to build their own solidarity, their own coalitions, to resist and to build resilience against these threats.”

Close contact with the authoritarians could only be considered “but not at the risk of compromising Australia’s interests, values and identity.”

It is by no means clear that the world’s authoritarian states see themselves as members of an “anti-democratic coalition.”

Some of the most autocratic are American allies. Many others maintain normal diplomatic and economic relations with any number of democracies.

There is certainly a lack of patience with constant lectures from leading democracies for them to mend their ways.

And this at a time when dissatisfaction with democracy is rife in its historic homelands.

Many commentators consider that the greatest threat to democracy comes from within.

Beating the drums of war is a time honoured tactic to attempt to unite deeply fractured societies.

No leader would be more keenly aware of this fact that president Biden himself as he begins to prepare for impending bitterly fought mid-term elections.

America itself is currently considered by The Economist as a flawed democracy.

Perhaps Australia could advise the Americans how they could lift their game and recover their place among the ranks of the full democracies.

Solomons prime minister Manasseh Sogavare and China's premier Li Keqiang in the Great Hall of the People, 9 October 2019 (Thomas Peter, Reuters)

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA - The Australian government and its tame media are displaying shock and indignation this morning as details come to light about Solomon Islands agreeing to cooperate with China in policing and security, roles historically performed by Australia.

In early February, PNG Attitude reported on extensive negotiations between the two countries that covered a long shopping list including almost every sector and industry in the Solomons.

John Fugui, who last year was installed as the Solomons’ first ambassador to China, revealed that both countries pledged to implement the agreement.

“We want to improve our economy, but education and training are foundational,” Fugui said, adding that he also wanted to increase research exchanges.

Now the Reuters news agency reveals the Solomons has signed a policing deal with Beijing and China is preparing for a broader security agreement covering the military.

Earlier this year the US government had expressed concern that China wanted to create military relationships in the Pacific Islands.

The security agreement “would cover Chinese police, armed police and the military”, Reuters reported, and offer assistance to the Solomons Islands on matters relating to social order, disaster response and protecting the safety of Chinese personnel on major projects in the country.

It also will enable Chinese naval ships to carry replenish in the Solomons.

This has caused great anxiety in Canberra and much mention of “our Pacific family” and intimation of what a disaster this is.

But Australians already know from their own experience that Morrison talks a good book but has consistently failed to deliver effective or timely policy in critical matters, including Covid, natural disasters, climate change, misappropriation of public funds and economic policies that increasingly marginalise the worst off socio-economic groups.

The Pacific Islands nations have become more observable in taking stands that Australia disapproves, especially in relation to China.

Meanwhile, a 10-person emergency medical team has arrived in the Solomons (not Australia) Islands to assist health authorities at the provincial level deal with an ongoing major covid outbreak.

“People are dying on the floor, the hospital is overcrowded. Sick people and dead bodies are all over. The morgue is full,” a Honiara doctor said.

The UK team includes critical care doctors and nurses, epidemiologists and risk communication experts, and it took just two weeks for the UK health authorities to deploy it.

It is not known whether Australia was requested to assist or whether Australian police sent to the Solomons following an unsuccessful coup last November brought the disease into the country.

The Solomons were covid-free through 2020 and 2021 but since mid-January it has registered more than 10,000 cases and 128 deaths, although health minister Dr Culwick Togamana says that cases are likely to be higher because many people choose not to be tested.

This serious covid outbreak occurs against a background of inadequate government services and tensions that remain high following the disastrous riots of November-December.

Australia is also facing a third Covid wave for which it is ill prepared.

"Time to up the ante," says Professor Brendan Crabb, CEO of Melbourne's Burnet Institute, "let not this be like BA1 with its health and  shadow lockdown impacts. 

"The earlier and more we act to reduce transmission, the better health and functioning of our country. 

"The BA1 wave had a huge impact, including by far the biggest death toll of the pandemic and major disruptions to health services,

"The Long Covid impact is unknown but very worrying given the millions of cases.

"It's in our hands to reduce the impact of BA2."

The 'sandwalk' where the great scientist. Charles Darwin, did much of his thinking

SIMON DAVIDSON

SONOMA - A fertile brain bubbling with game changing ideas is the by-product of habits consistently practiced.

A fertile brain does not emerge by accident, nor is it given on a golden plate.

It needs to be shaped and transformed through consistent good thinking and good practice over time.

This means that everyone must take responsibility for their own brain and the discipline and practices to make it fertile.

Neuroscientists say our brain is malleable and learns through habits consistently practiced.

These can ‘reshape’ the neural wiring of the brain which, over time, changes.

“Neuroplasticity is the brain’s capacity to continue growing and evolving in response to life experiences,” write the editors of Psychology Today.

This being so, we are the architect of our own brain: We become what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not good luck, it’s a habit.

I had the privilege to study the lives of some of the most creative minds on the planet.

I discovered that one of the recurring themes was that they are creatures of habit.

The cumulative effect of habitual behaviour produced a compounding effect that enabled them to become giants in their respective specialisations.

A representation of the grounds around Darwin's home, Down House. You can see the much worn track, the 'sandpath', which Darwin called his 'Thinking Path'

Charles Darwin’s daily walks are a case in point.

“The grandfather of modern evolutionary theory walked in rain and sunshine, in youth and age, in company and solitude,” Dr Damon Young wrote in Psychology Today.

“This constitutional was not just for cardiovascular fitness, or to post his thousands of letters.

"It was a vital part of his intellectual routine.

The ‘sandwalk’ was a gravel track near Down House, his home in Kent – he called it his ‘thinking path’.

“Every day, once in the morning and again in the afternoon, Darwin strolled and reflected amongst the privet and hazel, often alongside his fox terrier.”

So it is possible to reshape our brains. We are its architect.

As drops of water falling on a rock eventually create a hole, so consistent habits chisel new neural pathways inside the universe of the brain.

Then we have a brain that overflows with sparkling ideas.

A fertile brain capable of a superior level of creativity, analytic skill and insight is not accidental but the by-product of habits of the mind that make the brain our greatest asset.

And to maximise its fertility and creativity, we need to discipline our brain through habits consistently practiced, by enabling it to absorb knowledge by reading, discussion and argument, by pushing it to think through difficult problems, by training it through consistent practice, and by understanding the cumulative effect of habitual behaviour.

There all things we can do sitting in a chair, or by taking long, thoughtful walks like Charles Darwin used to do.

Charles Darwin’s daily routine

Charles Darwin's study and his favourite armchair

Compiled by his son Francis

In his middle and late life, there was little variation in Darwin's daily routine

7.00 am              Rose and took a short walk

7.45 am              Breakfast alone

8.00 am              Worked in his study (he considered this his best working time)

9.30 am              Went to drawing-room and read his letters, followed by reading family letters aloud

10.30 am            Returned to study, for a period he considered the end of his working day

12 noon              A walk starting with visit to greenhouse, then usually alone or with a dog, round the ‘sandwalk’, the number of times depending on his health

12.45 pm            Lunch with the family was his main meal of the day. After lunch read The Times and answered letters

3.00 pm              Rested on the sofa in his bedroom, smoked a cigarette, listened to a novel or other light literature read by his wife Emma

4.00 pm              A walk usually round the ‘sandwalk’, sometimes further afield and sometimes in company with others

4.30 pm              Worked in his study completing matters of the day

6.00 pm              Rested again in bedroom with Emma reading aloud

7.30 pm              Light high tea while the family dined. In later years he never stayed in the dining room with the men, but retired to the drawing-room with the ladies. If no guests were present, he played two games of backgammon with Emma, usually followed by reading to himself, then Emma played the piano, followed by reading aloud. Even when guests were present, half an hour of conversation at a time was all that he could stand, because it exhausted him

10.00 pm            Left the drawing-room and was usually in bed by 10.30 pm, but he mostly slept badly

THIERRY LEPANI
| Twitter @LepaniThierry | Edited for publication

PORT MORESBY – The Papua New Guinea parliament has approved the creation of seven new electorates by splitting seven existing ones in time for the elections.

This came after a majority endorsement of the Electoral Boundaries Commission Report.

The seven new electorates are:

- Delta-Fly (Western)

- Hiri-Koiari (Central)

- Popondetta (Oro)

- Nakanai (West New Britain)

-Wau-Waria (Morobe)

- Komo-Hulia (Hela)

- Porgera Paiela (Enga)

They will be included in the national elections next month.

Graphic by The National

Prime Minister James Marape said six more electorates, including a new Motu-Koita seat, will be introduced for the 2027 elections.

Due to constitutional limitations on the creation of new electorates, only 13 were allowed to be considered.

The considerations were done based on their population and size.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton (9 News)

STEPHEN CHARTERIS

"We share with our Pacific family culture, the principles of democracy and freedom, and these are things that are very important to the Pacific Island peoples” – Peter Dutton, Australian Defence Minister, Today

“Time doesn't mean anything when you're about to have water lapping at your door” – Peter Dutton's bad joke about (a) sea level rise in the Pacific and (b) what he sees as his Pacific family’s lack of attention to punctuality, 11 September 2015

CAIRNS – It is my personal observation following 35 years in Melanesia that Australia has hopelessly missed the mark when it comes to development assistance, and it continues to do so.

The total fixation on trying to build the capacity of central and sub-national agencies to the exclusion of an equal focus on communities has sunk almost every initiative you can name.

The heart and soul of every place in Melanesia is the community and its land - not a government agency or a politician.

By ignoring this, we have cultivated a façade, not a functional system, which has failed to connect with communities at any level, despite protestations to the contrary. 

By attempting to make a public service in our own image we have simply demonstrated beyond all doubt that we do not understand Melanesia.

The Solomons has turned away from its traditional partner, Australia, because we do not understand how to include the most important social grouping - the key decision makers - in anything we have done. 

Accordingly, we are unable to facilitate meaningful results at the community level where it matters most.

I could produce mountains of pictures of failed infrastructure projects: health posts, school buildings police bases, water supply systems and many more.

They failed because we insisted on supporting governments and a public service mechanism that cannot staff these facilities and is not representative of communities or their wishes.

Peter Dutton - does Australia want a man who sees himself as prime minister calling the Pacific 'our family' while his government shows no understanding of it and he makes demeaning jokes about it

But Canberra cannot be told anything: there lies a bureaucracy and political elite not known for their humility. They operate a closed shop without ears to listen or eyes to see.

They also operate under the misapprehension that they know it all.

They need to go back to the drawing board, start listening, observing - and learning damn fast – if they are to have any hope of turning around the future of Melanesia and the many other Pacific Islands countries.

Illustration by Dola Sun (National Public Radio, USA)

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - Politicians and other reprobates are known to rely on a suite of well-worn axioms as they go about their nefarious dealings and machinations in office.

One of these is the accepted wisdom that if a lie is repeated often and loudly enough people will eventually come to believe it is true.

Another is that if a problem is ignored for long enough it will eventually go away. No, this is not a truism; it is not an infallible axiom. Issues never go away until they are fixed.

Climate change and global warming have been resolutely ignored by the Australian government both before and since it got into office.

But the issue doggedly defies erasure from the public mind.

The Coalition has fiddled around the edges with the hope a few tweaks, some minor adjustments and loudly announced concessions might speed up the demise of climate change as a public issue.

It probably had good cause to think this true, not least because obfuscation and the appearance of action have worked in the past.

Morrison, Barnaby and Co probably expect this one is just taking a bit more time to expire.

This idea that time, and an unreliable public memory, so often works in favour of politicians and their ilk occurred to me when I was reading and then reviewing ‘Escape from Manus’.

It is a good book, but I couldn’t help thinking that time has passed it by.

What it describes in vivid and horrendous detail is unfortunately yesterday’s outrage.

As a stirring public scandal, the industrial scale mistreatment of refugees in Australia seems to have reached its use-by date.

It had been surpassed by new outrages, like the treatment of women in public life and now the war in Ukraine.

As a society we seem to be forever trundling blindly along a road strewn with wreckage and carnage, naively hoping to see green hills in the distance only to be fooled when we turn the next bend and run smack bang into another outrage - and some smirking politician promising to make it all go away.

Illustration by Ilya Milstein (New York Times)

The Greek poet Menander, who lived around 300 BC, wrote that “time is the healer of all necessary evils”.

But I don’t think that’s true.

It is simply the memory that is taken care of.

The evil remains and often resurfaces again when least expected.

That’s why some events, like what is going on in Ukraine, come with a sense of déjà vu; the feeling all this has happened before.

But do we really consign everything to history?

Vladimir Putin is currently waging a war that dates back to the time of the Tsars.

Christians and Muslims the world over are still fighting the Crusades.

Revenge is something that lingers through time, ready to resurface at a moment’s notice.

It seems to be a primal human instinct which we try to normalise with terms like ‘closure’ and ‘justice’ and ‘resolution’ that play out interminably on tabloid television and in popular conversation.

Perhaps the appalling treatment of the refugees on Manus and Nauru will resurface on a day of reckoning one day in the future.

But I rather think that this is a forlorn hope.

SIMON DAVIDSON

I once walked the city’s dusty streets,
Homeless, aimless, penniless
Dropped-out, poor, no future,
Surviving on crumbs and goodwill
But with undying hope in my soul

I scraped a few coins to study,
And paid my way right through,
Sat in the university’s honoured halls
Now nothing to lose, all to win
And sensed God’s call in my life

I applied to the Adventists to continue
Accepted the offer to my dream school,
Literature never far from my heart
It was Pacific Adventist University
That handed me a ticket to success

But the journey was very far from over,
Gaining wisdom was self-help not beg,
Sweated in the Papuan sun to pay fees
to fulfil my desperation for literature
God and Enga had raised me for this

Sonoma shaped and formed literary me
Using my life’s experience as its palette,
And I bloomed in Sonoma’s fertile soil,
Given the best of an Adventist education
Preparation for life and for literature

Odes were once composed to celebrate victories, and later favoured by English romantic poets to express emotions in rich, descriptive language. Today, the ode describes any outpouring of praise. See: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/poetry-101 - SD

Sonoma Adventist College and Pacific Adventist University are located 20 kilometers from Kokopo on the Gazelle Peninsula of East New Britain Province

Michael Dom - "Beier, Fitzpatrick and Jackson were opening up avenues for PNG writing". Dom and his associates are more likely to develop a design that will  enable it to flourish

MICHAEL DOM
Ples Singsing

A Tok Pisin translation of this article follows this English version

NARI STATION, MOROBE - It was my impression that one of the questions bothering Philip Fitzpatrick around 2010, as he ruminated about his once adopted Melanesian home, was that, if Papua New Guineans are writing, then where is the published evidence?

The question I raise is about the field of literary endeavour rather than the academic and workplace necessity of writing.

I refer not to that boring stuff which earns money but the thrilling stuff that returns to us nothing but self-satisfaction and relief.

Of course, Phil is a literary aficionado and writer of no mean talent, leaving a footprint across the literary landscape of PNG and Australia, with books such as Bamahuta: Leaving Papua, Dogger and Two Sides to Every Story: A Short Guide to Cross Cultural Awareness in Papua New Guinea.

It was Phil’s, and Keith Jackson’s, overriding sense of confidence in the creative abilities of PNG people that encouraged them to go ahead with the creation of the Crocodile Prize after testing the waters through publishing PNG-authored blog articles.

Are Papua New Guineans writing? That same question was probably posed before, by no less a character than Ulli Beier, the godfather of PNG literature.

Beier took on an active, some say far too interactive, role as a guardian of the cause of Indigenous writing and as a facilitator for local publication.

Call him what you like, there weren’t and still aren’t many like him around – none in fact.

By hook or by crook he took PNG writing out of absolute obscurity and thrust it, warts and all, into the public arena when it was about time to do just that, and in a way that was his own way.

Today we can look back at the many different achievements of Beier and assess his methods and means with the knowledge and wisdom gained from our high seats, raised above the dirt and sweat of those tasks executed during that historic period.

Such reviews may be useful if they have meaningful purpose, in much the same manner as Beier’s efforts were.

And we may even do a much better job than he did, when gifted with the supreme intelligence of hindsight.

The question for Phil and Keith in 2010 was, ‘Are Papua New Guinean’s still writing?’

I don’t think those were their only questions but it would appear in hindsight that all three men, Beier, Fitzpatrick and Jackson - were seeking, waiting, then opening up the avenues for PNG writing to be (re)discovered, with the fervent hope that the answer was affirmative.

And, of course, the evidence in those days was pretty thin on the ground, so like the good ol’ kiaps and teachers of yesteryear, Phil and Keith put their backs and their bucks to the task of unearthing the buried treasure.

(Ah, the proud arrogance of white men knows no bounds, huh!)

So some years have passed since we laid the Crocodile to rest in deep waters.

That’s exactly what happened historically during the early 1970s and 1980s when a few writers reignited the flames for writing our own stories, poems, drama and novels, before later the flames died out.

In 2020, before we began championing contemporary PNG literature at Ples Singsing, my three colleagues and I were asking similar questions of ourselves.

We created the Ples Singsing blog six years after the Crocodile Prize ended. But were our colleagues still writing?

Our recent experience seems aligned with Professor Steven Winduo’s historical descriptions of the phases of PNG literary movements and it will be interesting to learn how our period will be defined.

Our literary advances pass in waves - short amplitude, high frequency waves, but waves nonetheless. As in the rest of the world there are surges and then troughs in continuity.

There is a signal. Papua New Guineans do write. It really goes without saying.

It was obvious, at least to me, that after all of Phil and Keith’s hard-won battles encouraging Papua New Guineans to take up the cause of our own national literature, we ourselves have far less inclination to do so.

Sure we’re writing, but we can’t be bothered doing much more with it.

That’s a similar outcome to what happened at the end of Ulli Beier’s era, except our failing again happened with less controversy, Phil and Keith being such fine and proper gentlemen.

The one common element appears to be us Papua New Guineans, so it’s more than likely that we have no one else to blame for the parlous state of our national literature.

Two branches which have continued to burn strongly are drama and poetry, because they have more cultural relevance as oral literature.

These two creative forms tend to be open to interpretation by the authors and actors and require, or receive, almost no editing.

However, I don’t think that is an appropriate approach to advancing their development, especially for a national audience to celebrate.

I have been doing my fair share to promote more PNG poems to be written with translations into our vernacular languages.

I hope that a colleague at the University of Goroka will soon share her thoughts on the state of local theatre and drama production.

Nevertheless, at this time, Papua New Guineans have published many more books which have contributed to increasing quantity and quality of national literature.

Their lack of exposure and availability to readers is a separate and major issue.

Many PNG-authored books arose as a direct result of the Crocodile Prize when writers were directly or indirectly inspired and challenged to publish manuscripts, some of which were gathering dust on forgotten shelves.

No one has done the numbers, but it seems to me that the output inspired by the 2011-16 Crocodile Prize era rivals that from the early 1970s.

In those days, despite the institutional support and assistance for writing organisations, Ulli’s disciples and latter day followers were unable to maintain the fervour and flame of writing and publishing.

These days there is no institutional support whatsoever. And yet local efforts and enterprises have evolved for publishing PNG writing. Core elements of publishing which need better trained capacity and experience are proof reading, editing and review. These are still severely lacking in PNG.

Our literary godfather Ulli Beier was a great editor of PNG work and that seems to have gotten him into a lot of trouble with his peers, past and present (strewth!).

I can relate to the trials, tribulations and temptations of proof reading, editing and review, since I do this on a daily basis at work, and then in my obsessive pastime as a writer. Editing is not easy for either the author or the editor. Nuff sed.

So, another commonality with the era of PNG’s literary growth spurts is the challenges associated with preparing manuscripts for publication and subsequent distribution.

That was the least of Ulli’s troubles since he used his considerable profile and personality to PNG writer’s benefit. (That sounds like a certain former PR specialist whom I know.)

Today it would be entirely appropriate to respond to prime minister James Marape’s statement that he will “help PNG writers to write” by saying that what PNG writers’ really need is the facilitation of better editing, proofreading and publication processes and the fostering of a small print on-demand industry to supply the local market, which is yet to be explored.

The terms public private partnership and small-to-medium enterprise come to mind.

The embers are still burning in the fireplace of PNG literature.

Ples Singsing is one such place where such a fire is nurtured. There are other places too, such as Hibiscus Three, Poetry PNG and the stalwart writer’s societies in Simbu as well as in Enga, the cultural elder brother of Hela, Hon. Marape’s homeland.

At this juncture of our nation’s history asking if Papua New Guineans write or still write is the wrong question. Rather we should ask ourselves how are we going to embrace, value and improve what we are writing, and how are we going to make our stories available to future Papua New Guineans.

The right answer will be the legacy of a creative entity, the diverse peoples of a truly independent state.

Askim sapos ol Papua Niuginian’s isave rait emi rong askim

Michael Dom is recognised internationally as Papua New Guinea's leading poet. He also has a PhD in agricultural science

MICHAEL DOM
Ples Singsing

NARI STATION, MOROBE - Long luksave-tingting bilong mi wanpela askim ibin sikirapim het bilong Philip Fitzpatrick long 2010, taim em i tingim bipo asples bilong em ibin olsem, sapos ol Papua Niuginian’s isave rait, orait we stap mak tru bilong ol insait long pablikesen?

Dispela askim emi ikam long giraun bilong ol litireri wokmak na ino long ol kain skulwok na wokples we igatim nid long raitim, ino dispela raitim we nogat hamamas bilong en tasol igat pei moni, tasol dispela hamamas raitim blo sampela lain we inogat pei moni tasol ol iet i kisim wanbel na belisi olsem bekim.

Em nau, Phil em isave laikim tumas ol kainkain litiritia na em iet i wanpela raita igat namba, we ol lekmak bilong em istap long graun bilong PNG na Australia, wantaim ol buk olsem Bamahuta: Leaving Papua, Dogger na Two Sides to every Story: A Short Guide to Cross Cultural Awareness in Papua New Guinea.

Em ibin Phil, na Keith Jackson tu, husait igatim gutpela luksave tru long pasin na save bilong yumi ol PNG na ol igo het long kamapim Crocodile Prize, bihain long ol ibin testim wara tasol long pablisim ol wanwan PNG raita long blog.

Ol Papua Niugini isave raitim tu o?

Dispela wankain askim ibin kamap bipo tu, na ino kam long liklik nem emi Ulli Beier tasol, godpapa bilong PNG litiritia.

Beier em ibin kirapim wokabaut, we sampela itok em i putim em iet igo insait, olsem wasman blong ol wok yumi ol asples i raitim, na halapim long kamapim lokol pablikesen. Yumi iken mekim nek long em ibin wanem kain man, tasol inogat narapela olsem em istap nau – nogat tru.

Emi tromoi huk na mekim hait wok long kamautim PNG raitim long ples tutak, sua istap wantaim, igo long pablik ples, long dispela taim bilong en long kamap na long wei em iet isave laikim long en.

Mipela istap nau tete iken lukluk long ol wanwan hanmak Beier ibin putim na skelim ol pasin em ibin mekim wantaim sampela kain save yumi igatim antap long sia king, em yumi sindaun long ples we inogatim doti na tuhat bilong dispela wok long taim bipo.

Ating dispela lukluk igo bek ken igatim gutpela as na kaikai bilong en, wankain olsem wokmak bilong Beier iet. Na ating yumi iken mekim wok ikamap moa beta long em, bilong wanem yumi igat bikpela save long ol samting ikamap pinis.

Askim bilong Phil na Keith long 2010 emi olsem, “Ol Papua Niuginian’s raitim iet o nogat?”

Mi noken save sapos dispela askim tasol em istap long tingting bilong ol o nogat tasol long lukluk igo bek gen emi olsem ol tripela man ia ibin painim na weitim, na bihain opim ol kain rot bilong PNG raiting iken igatim luksave gen, na ol igatim bikpela laikim olsem dispela bekim bai olsem yesa.

Na, em i kilia olsem long dispela taim inogat liklik mak long giraun, em nau Phil na Keith mekim wankain olsem ol kiap na tisa bilong taim bipo, ol i putim bun baksait na moni igolong dispela wok bilong kamautim gol long giraun.

(Oh, biket kusai bilong ol wait man inogat pinis. E!)

Orait, sampela yia igo pinis long mipela ibin lusim Pukpuk igo silip idai long bikpela wara. Emi wankain olsem bipo long 1970’s na 1980’s taim ol wanwan raita man-meri ikirapim paia gen long raitim ol stori, tok-singsing, pilai-stori na buk-novel bilong yumi iet, na bihain gen paia igo daun isisi na idai.

Long 2020, bipo long kirapim wok sambai long PNG litiritia bilong yumi naunau long Ples Singsing, mi wantaim ol tripela wanwok bilong mi mas igatim wankain askim long mipela iet. Mitripela i kamapim Ples Singsing Blog long sikspela yia bihain long Crocodile Prize emi pinis tasol, ol wanwok i raitim iet o?

Wokabaut bilong mipela ikamap wankain olsem long bipo-taim we Professa Steven Winduo i makim ol kirap na pundaun bilong PNG litireri wokabout, na ating bai yumi laik lainim wanem kain mak dispela taim bilong yum iet igatim.

Em nau, litireri wok bilong yumi iluk olsem solap bilong solwara, emi sotpela, ikam klostuklostu, tasol em igatim maunten bilong em tu, wankain olsem long olgeta ples giraun. Namel taim wok igo daun.

Igatim signol. Yumi Papua Niugini save raitim. Na inogat as bilong toksave long hia.

Emi bin kilia tumas, ating long mi iet, olsem bihain long olgeta hatwok pait bilong Phil na Keith, long halavim ol Papua Niugini long sanap long nem bilong nesenol litiritia bilong yumi iet, mipela gen inogatim gutpela bel tingting long mekim – itru yumi raitim tasol sikin iles long surukim wok moa iet.

Emi wankain olsem ibin kamap long taim bilong Ulli, em nau dispela pundaun bilong yumi iet emi kamap gen, tasol nogat ol kainkain paul stori bilong en, bilong wanem Phil na Keith ol i gutpela man igatim naispela pasin tasol.

Em yumi iet ol Papua Niugini istap namel long ol dispela asua bilong pundaun, olsem na ating inogat narapela lain bilong yumi sutim pinga long ol i bagarapim kamap bilong nesenol literatia bilong yumi.

Tupela han diwai tasol i lait istap strong true em pilai-stori (drama) na tok-singsing (poetry), bilong wanem ol dispela istap insait long kalsa bilong yumi pinis olsem orol litiritia. Long dispela tupela hanmak bilong art ol lain husait i wok long en igat fridom long tromoi save na laik bilong ol iet igo insait long mekim ikamap no inogatim wok long stretim. Tasol, mi iet ting olsem dispela em ino halavim yumi tumas long putim wok igo het we bai soim mak tru, na tu long yumi hamamas olsem emi nesenol samting.

Mi iet mekim liklik wokmak bilong mi long putim tok-singsing igo pas we istap long ol tokpisin na tokples bilong yumi iet. Ating bai yumi kisim belgut taim wanpela wanwok long Yunivesiti bilong Goroka emi raitim ol tingting bilong em long wanem mak bilong lokol tieta na drama prodaksen.

Tasol naunau, long dispela taim, yumi Papua Niugini igat planti moa buk we i kamapim nesenol litiritia bilong yumi igomoa moa iet. Asua istap iet olsem emi hat long ol buk long kam long han bilong ol rida.

Planti bilong ol dispela buk ibin kamaut olsem wokmak bilong Crocodile Prize na ol arapela long ol lain husait i lukluk tingting na bihainim wok blong pablisim, ol kain pepa we sindaun longpela taim na das i karamapim antap long bukself ol i lus tingting long en.

Inogat wanpela man i kauntim namba tasol mi ting olsem wokmak bilong Crocodile Prize emi klostu wankain olsem wokmak bilong 1970’s. Long bipo taim ol institute ibin putim halavim igo long ol raita ogenisesen, tasol ol disaipel bilong Ulli na ol husait i bihainim ino bin holim pasim dispela bel sikirap na paia lait bilong raitim na pablisim.

Nau tete inogat wanpela institute i sapotim, nogat tru. Tasol igat lokol wok ikamap na liklik bisinis ikirap long pablisim wok mipela PNG i raitim. Sampela bun-baksait bilong wok pablisim em long kisim skul na save long wok bilong ridim gut ol wok (pruf-ridim), mak-makim (o editim) na luksave long ol kainkain wokmak (em revuim). Ol dispela yumi inogatim long PNG.

Em litereri godpapa bilong yumi, Ulli Beier, igat bikpela save long editim ol PNG wok na dispela pasin emi putim em insait long trabol wantaim ol wanlain bilong em, long bipo taim na long nau tete (olomania!).

Mi iet isave long hatwok, bikpela hevi na ol kain traim iken kamap long taim bilong pruf-ridim wok, editim na revuim wokmak bilong ol narapela raita long olgeta dei bilong wanem emi wokmoni blong mi iet na tu emi wok we mi iet isave sikirap long mekim long en olsem wanpela raita. Editim wok bilong narapela em ino isipela samting long edita na raita wantaim.

Em nau, narapela samting istap wankain long taim bipo na long nau insait long wokabaut bilong PNG litiritia em ol kain hevi bilong stretim na stretim ol buk-pepa long pablisim na salim igo aut. Dispela emi liklik hevi tasol long Ulli husait isave putim biknem na pasin bilong em iet long kamapim ol PNG raita. (Ating dispela i wankain pasin bilong wanpela forma PR saveman mi save long em.)

Tete em bai strepela pasin long bekim toktok Prime Minister James Marape ibin mekim olsem em bai “helpim ol PNG raita long raitim”, wantaim toksave olsem mipela ol PNG raita nidim tru halavim long dispela editim na pruf-ridim wok na pablisim, na igo moa, long kirapim liklik bisinis bilong printim-long-oda bilong saplaim lokol maket, we inogatim luksave long en ikamap. Ol kain nek olsem pablik praivet patnasip na small-to-medium entaprais ikam long tingting bilong mi.

Ol sid bilong paia istap iet long paiaples bilong PNG litiritia. Ples Singsing emi wanpela hap bilong lukautim dispela paia. Igat ol narapela hap ples tu istap, olsem Hibiscus Three, Poetry PNG na ol strongpela lain bilong raita sosaiti long Simbu na tu long Enga, em ol bikpela brata insait long stori tumbuna bilong Hela, as ples bilong Hon. James Marape.

Long dispela mak long nesenol histori dispela askim sapos Papua Niuginian’s isave rait emi rong askim. Moa beta yumi iet askim olsem, inap bai yumi holim pasim, litimapim na strongim ol dispela wokmak yumi raitim, na putim dispela ol stori bilong yumi istap bilong ol Papua Niuginians bai ikam bihain bihain.

Gutpela bekim blong dispela askim em bai kamap bikpela mak bilong soim yumi husait, yumi ol kainkain man-meri blong trupela independen state.

MICHAEL KABUNI
| Academia Nomad

PORT MORESBY – Recently, there have been two gun incidents in Port Moresby involving politicians.

The most serious of these occurred when a gun allegedly belonging to a PNG politician was accidentally discharged killing a bystander.

This tragedy followed a video that went viral towards the end of last year of Finschhafen MP and national planning minister Rainbo Paita firing a semi-automatic weapon.

After investigations, Paita was not charged. Any ordinary Papua New Guinean would probably have faced serious charges.

Paita justified his handling of the weapon saying he had a firearm license. It wasn’t clear whether the licence allowed him to handle semi-automatic weapons.

In addition to politicians there are two groups in Papua New Guinea who are notorious for owning and using guns: criminal gangs anywhere and tribal warlords in the Highlands.

Of these three groups, politicians own guns legally.

If politicians own firearms and are licensed to handle semi-automatics, it begs the question of whether we all should be entitled to own and use guns?

If politicians own guns because they feel unsafe, there must be thousands of Papua New Guineans in the same boat.

Maybe every young girl should own a gun.

Anyone who commutes to work by bus and has to pass through the Four Mile bus stop should own a gun.

If you go to Koki Market any time of the day you should be entitled to a semi-automatic weapon.

Where do we draw the line? It’s either we all can be licensed to have guns or nobody should.

I don’t see any justification for only allowing MPs to protect themselves.

After stepping down a minister after a video of him firing a military-type high powered weapon went viral on social media, Paita stepped aside while an investigation occurred and apologised on Facebook.

The post instantly drew much sympathy, mostly from his followers but a few others as well, who probably didn’t know the convention of representatives stepping down in such circumstances.

The question I have is whether Rainbow Paita should have been praised for stepping down.

I suppose it really depends on which side you’re on, and how much you understand about democratic convention and practice.

In January 2018, a British MP and government minister, Lord Bates, arrived late for a parliamentary sitting.

His first act was to notify parliament that he was resigning immediately for the “discourtesy of not being in place to answer the question” asked while he was absent.

The resignation was subsequently rejected by his peers but the point is that a government minister felt his responsibilities so keenly that he offered his resignation for just being a few minutes late.

Meanwhile in PNG a minister was praised for resigning after a video went viral on Facebook.

People have to stop giving MPs too much praise.

At around the same time, photos circulated on social media of people somewhere in Port Moresby carrying Governor Powes Parkop on a chair. The worship of politicians in PNG is unparalleled.

There are questions police have to ask Rainbo Paita. In his Facebook post he claims he has a firearm licence.

Police have to ask whether the kind of license he holds allows him to handle military type weapons?

If yes, what are the implications: can any citizen get a licence and be eligible to handle high powered weapons?

After all, every Papua New Guinean has equal rights under the law.

If his licence allows him to handle high powered weapons, so does anyone in Morata or Busu or Tari.

Paita said he fired the weapon while on a private property. What does PNG law say about target practice? Is any private property acceptable for target practice?

It may be that there is no such law, and that discharging a semi-automatic weapon on private property is not illegal.

You may recall that we are a country that cannot prosecute drug cartels because our laws don’t cover illicit drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine (meth). See my article of late February, ‘Who to blame when foreign crooks walk free’.

Rainbo Paita only resigned because the video went viral. Not because he thinks what he did was unacceptable. If the video hadn’t gone viral, he wouldn’t have resigned.

His logic seems to be something like this: if what I’m doing doesn’t go viral on social media it’s not wrong. It’s only wrong when firing a military type weapon goes viral on social media.

Papua New Guineans have to set a higher bar for their MPs. The standard is so low that MPs get praised just for doing what is expected of them.

I do not want to criticise Rainbo Paita but point out the insanity of the low bar we set for ourselves and the lack of critical thinking we possess.

On a positive note, it was good to see Paita step aside. But in a democracy, that’s supposed to be the norm, not the exception.

Something of a metaphor. Ulli Beier with monkey idling in the shadows on his shoulder

ED BRUMBY

MELBOURNE - It is 52 years since I attended Ulli Beier’s classes in African literature at the University of Papua New Guinea.

Now as then, and like many others, my view of him remains conflicted.

Maebh Long has laid bare, eloquently, his hypocrisy and deceit which, back then, was a matter of considerable gossip, on and off campus.

She has also rightly acknowledged his almost single-handed role as midwife in the nascence of modern Papua New Guinean literature (albeit only in English).

The Ulli Beier I knew was a quietly spoken, reserved man, his reticence tinged with a certain haughtiness.

As a teacher he instilled in me a deep appreciation of the writings of Soyinka, Achebe, Senghor and other important African writers.

But he was only a mediocre pedagogue, relying constantly on references to how and when he taught Wole Soyinka (and others) how to write. There was minimal attention to literary theory per se.

Ulli certainly lacked the charisma and motivational charm of his confreres – the likes of Elton Brash, Nigel Krauth and Nick Wilkinson, who all had a far greater impact on my literary understanding and whom I remember far more fondly.

Even the somewhat dour Prithvindra Chakravarti (with whom I collaborated in translating the poems of Bengali poet, Jibanananda Das) managed to ignite greater passion in me, in his case for modern Indian literature.

Being the only non-Papua New Guinean in classes of no more than a dozen at a time (including people like Meg Taylor, Renagi Renagi Lohia and John Waiko), I was always mindful of being in the minority.

Given the context of the times, where a dependent colony was on the verge of sovereign independence, such mindfulness - both on and off campus - was a salutary.

Ulli made it clear to me early on, albeit with some subtlety, that he would have preferred classes of Papua New Guineans only, in keeping with his mission of fostering an Indigenous literary culture.

Given his attitude, I did not attempt to enroll in his creative writing classes – not that I had the necessary talent. (But he did pump my ego by awarding grades of A or B+ for my written assignments.)

I was grateful, nevertheless, for his subtlety regarding my presence in his classes, contrasting as it did with the visit and seminar by his ‘friend’, the Australian Aboriginal poet, Oodgeroo Noonuccal (aka Kath Walker).

I admired her works greatly, but she did complain publicly that she had not come all the way to Port Moresby to talk to white Australians.

Ulli was far from subtle, however, in propagating his anti-colonial agenda.

Understandable as it was given the times, it nevertheless rankled me.

Ulli Beier leads a literature class, probably at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria

Like my school teacher colleagues, I did not see myself as a ‘coloniser’, even though I was certainly part of a colonial system.

It rankled me further that a Caucasian from Germany, which Ulli was, a country with its own sorry history of colonisation, chose by inference to denigrate what my colleagues and I were trying to do in classrooms throughout Papua New Guinea.

Perhaps the truth hurt…..

As it turned out, it certainly did not hurt me to try to see the world through the eyes of the colonised, and I am, in retrospect, grateful to Ulli for opening me to that alternative view.

It has been rightly acknowledged that Ulli was far more successful as a mentor and entrepreneur than he was as a teacher.

He instigated, as Michael Dom would put it, that initial wavelet of published Papua New Guinean writers and poets, establishing such vehicles as Kovave and the Papua Pocket Poets series.

And he mentored and encouraged students and others to tell their stories, traditional and contemporary.

I admired him then for his enterprise and his enormous gift to Papua New Guinea, and, in most respects, still do.

It is most regrettable, shameful even, that his hoaxes and associated unethical behaviour sullied this achievement and his reputation and his legacy.

It was fairly common knowledge on the Waigani campus and elsewhere that the playwright, M. Lovori was, in fact, Ulli Beier – if only because no-one ever managed to meet this Lovori person.

And while Maebh Long describes Ulli’s involvement with Albert Maori Kiki and Vincent Eri as ‘working with’, I doubt I am alone in suspecting his involvement was far more than this.

I didn’t know Albert Maori Kiki, however Vincent was one of my ‘bosses’ in the Education Department and I knew him reasonably well professionally and socially.

There is a certain irony in all this. For all of Ulli’s anti-colonial convictions, was he not guilty of ‘colonising’ his students and mentees?

Guilty, perhaps, of occupying their minds, cultivating their talents and ideas, and appropriating and disseminating their works, albeit for some semblance of mutual benefit.

Ed Brumby - educator, writer, editor, mentor, internationalist

It was Oscar Wilde who noted, “I quite agree with Dr Nordau’s assertion that all men of genius are insane, but Dr Nordau forgets that all sane people are idiots.”

For me, the ultimate question concerns how to reconcile Ulli’s unethical behaviour with his undoubted achievements?

I have chosen to acknowledge and applaud the latter, and condemn the former – and to relish the ‘warts and all’ experience of having known him.