Links
The PNG Association -- http://www.pngaa.net
Papua New Guinea Virtual Library -- http://coombs.anu.edu.au/SpecialProj/PNG/Index.htm
Papua New Guinea info on PNG research level books, articles on PNG
-- http://www.pngbuai.com/
Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority -- http://www.pngtourism.org.pg/
More links to information about Papua New Guinea -- http://www.uga.edu/cuda/PNG.html
Papua New Guinea Web Ring Homepage -- http://www.png-gossip.com/pngring/
Papua New Guinea Business Directory and Tourism Information -- http://www.pngtourism.org.pg
Diversion Dive Travel -- http://www.diversionoz.com/en/index.html
Here is a list of interesting websites in and around Papua New Guinea
hosted by Global Technology-- http://www.global.net.pg/websites/menu-04.html
Global Technology is one of the four Internet Service Providers in
PNG.
Internet Service Providers
Daltron -- http://www.daltron.com.pg
Data Nets -- http://www.datanets.com.pg
Datec -- http://www.datec.net.pg
Global Technologies -- http://www.global.net.pg
News Items
East New Britain
A heavy downfall of ash from Tavurvur in East New Britain has disrupted
flights into and out of Tokua airport recently. One flight made several
attempts to land but had to divert back to Hoskins. After the ash cleared
planes were once again able to land at Tokua the main airport for East
New Britain.
Police Amnesty
An amnesty has been offered to corrupt police by the Internal Security
Minister, Bire Kimisopa. A recent report that appeared in the Melbourne,
Australia newspaper, The Age, claimed that many of the top-level police
were involved with Chinese syndicates within PNG. The call for immunity
is one of the recommendations contained in a police report to the National
Executive Council.
PNG Business and Tourism Web Site
I have heard a rumour that Gail from PNGBD - PNG Business and Tourism
web site fame is about to take the plunge and will be leaving her full
time job to take up the full time promotion of PNG tourism to entice
visitors to PNG. I would imagine that if you are interested in visiting
PNG then the -- http://www.PNGBD.COM
-- website and the sister site -- http://www.kokoda.com
-- would both be very good places to keep an eye on.
Theatre Production
Hear another rumour that Hash House Harriers have been called upon
to audition for the Theatre Production 'Best Little Cathouse in Texas'.
Of course the HHH men have their run on Mondays and guess when the auditions
are? That's right Monday! The production is set to go public on Wednesday
the 25th of May 2005 running for two weeks and playing for a total of
eight nights all up.
Child Prostitution
Dame Carol Kidu has said that there is a law in place to (passed by
Parliament in March 2002) combat child prostitution. The law has since
been gazetted and is already being implemented well in East New Britain
province, This counters a claim by The National Newspaper which said
legislation was underway to penalise child sex offenders.
Lost Sailors
Four out of six people lost at sea for almost three-weeks have been
found alive after their canoe capsized. Unfortunately two children,
a boy aged nine and a girl aged seven, died of exposure during the 18-day
ordeal. The children were being taken to school when they were hit by
a big storm that overturned their boat. The four survivors are estimated
to have drifted between 650 to 800 kilometres in rough and windy conditions.
Plane Crash
A plane belonging to Missionary Aviation Fellowship crashed at approx
1:43pm on the 22nd of February in the Star Mountains of Western Province.
It is believed that two people died in the crash and a cabin attendant
and eight passengers survived the crash.. The bodies of the two pilots
from New Zealand have been flown back to Port Moresby for a post mortem.
The names of the two have been released and they are Captains Chris
Hansen and Richard West. Ok Tedi Mining Limited helped by sending a
team to search for survivors.
Court Network
The PNG Magisterial Services will embark on an expansion of their computer
network to Lae, Kokopo and Mount Hagen next month. This is part of the
project to strengthen the District Court registry, process and management.
PNG passports
It has been reported that Malaysia will print the next batch of PNG
passports with high security features. PNG is not only looking to Malaysia
to print the high security passports but also to gain help from the
country to link all the government information systems using internet
technology.
Manam Accounts
The Inter Government Relations Minister Sir Peter Barter told parliament
yesterday that people controlling and distributing funds for the Manam
Island victims have not accounted for the money that have been spent
to date. He said he has no details about how the K3 million was used
but the bills for payment were with him and he would try to establish
how the money was used.
Kokoda Coffee
The Return Serviceman's League of Australia has joined up with a Brisbane
coffee maker to produce a special coffee with the RSL emblem on it.
7 percent of the profits made in Australia from the ale of the coffee,
estimated to be over K200,00 per year, will go the RSL to ensure that
the memory of the battle at Kokoda survived. A percentage of the profits
will also go towards the traditional landowners of the Kokoda Track.
Coffee
Coffee is once again rotting away in various provinces of the country
due to poor road conditions. A plan to use Defence Force planes and
ships is going no where fast because the Defence Force has no money
to service the aircraft and ships before it can help in the exercise.
Air Niugini - Moro
Air Niugini has officially announced its successful bid to provide
air services to Oil Search at Moro for a period of one year. Air Niugini
will provide a daily passenger charter service starting from the 1st
of March for one year. A cargo service will be provided on an ad hoc
basis. Air Niugini has also said that they are considering purchasing
another Dash 8 aircraft to add to the existing fleet of three to cater
for the contract.
Poker Machines
Women have been identified as the top poker machine players. A Bill
has been introduced in Parliament to ban poker machines in the country.
It has been 12 years since the poker machines were introduced to PNG
and since then the social fabric of the nation has been eroded away
inflicting immeasurable damage to families.
Pokies Govt Payout
Over a period of nine years the pokies have collected K900 million
from players. Of this the government has been a winner and collected
K522 million, provincial government have had a small share (K48 million),
gambling operators (K106 million) and site owners (K223 million). Port
Moresby is the unofficial gambling capital of PNG with the most money
being lost by the players. Players are losing an estimated K6 million
a month in Moresby.
Here are the figures outlaid since the machines were officially introduced
in 1995
1995 - K6.7 Million
1996 - K57 Million
1997 - K77.5 Million
1998 - K86 Million
1999 - K106 Million
2000 - K100 Million
2001 - K106 Million
2002 - K110 Million
2003 - K116 Million
2004 - K128 Million
Beltek Robbery
Beltek in Gordon's in the National Capital District (NCD) recently
had to call for help from the police when they were robbed but the police
station they called only had Australian Police in attendance. Under
an agreement the Australian police are not allowed to attend to any
incident without the company of PNG police personnel. To top it off
it is not just an ordinary PNG policeman that must attend with the Aussie
police but also a specially trained policeman. The NCD / Central Province
Commander is now expecting a report as to why there were no specially
trained PNG police at work at the time of the call. Beltek lost two
vehicles when criminals stole them from workers coming to work at 7:30
in the morning. Beltek have recovered one of the stolen vehicles and
the other is still unaccounted for.
Auditor General
The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has queried the appointment
of George Sullimann as the PNG Auditor General. The PAC was submitted
a list of candidates for screening and the name of the new Auditor General
was not on the list. It is understood that the PAC chairman and Bogia
MP, John Hickey, has sent a letter to the Prime Minister expressing
his disappointment about the process where the PAC recommended a candidate
from a short list and then another person not on the short list is appointed.
HIV/AIDS Policy
The PNG Defence Force is taking a lead role in coming up with a work
place policy to combat HIV/AIDS. This is because the majority of the
soldiers are sexually active young people. The military is considered
a high-risk area because of the mobility of the job. The policy is being
broken into several parts - the medical aspect, administration aspect
and legal aspect. Thew policy will provide guidelines to separate cultural
and corporate values to ensure that the Defence Force is aware of the
various issues associated with HIV/AIDS.
Up until this month it has been reported that thirty-eight soldiers
have died of AIDS since the first HIV/AIDS case was detected in the
PNG Defence force in 1992. A total of 112 soldiers and relatives have
been infected so far.
Port Moresby City Hall
The National Capital District Commission has appointed Iva Kola on
an acting basis to the position of City Administrator. She replaces
Bernard Kipit whose term expired last year. Ms. Kola will act in the
position for three months when it is expected that a permanent appointment
will be made. She has acted in the position as city manageress and has
wide experience at City Hall as well as working as the principal legal
officer, the director in charge of enforcement of legislation and regulations,
the deputy city manageress in charge of finance and administration and
corporate service during her long service with the commission.
Illegal Detention
A policeman has landed himself in jail for illegally detaining a man
for two and a half months. It is alleged that six men detained a man
in a house in Gordon's initially for a short period then transferred
him to the Pacific Corporation Security service office along Dogura
road at 6 mile. The policeman's case has been deferred to the 22nd of
March for hearing.
Milk??
Thanks to Geoff Morgan from Fujitsu Australia for this one. Geoff,
on a regular trip to PNG to service a Fujitsu mainframe computer noticed
that the milk provide in his hotel room was not exactly milk. It was
mainly milk. The ingredients as listed on the package -- fresh milk,
skimmed milk powder, sugar, cream flavour and stabilizer. Of course
the package didn't say the percentage of each of the ingredients so
how much sugar was in the package? How much cream flavour etc?
Airlink
Airlink PNG is advertising a Momase Express service using their ATR
aircraft. The service goes form Port Moresby to Lae, Madang, Wewak and
Vanimo and return. Up until the 17th of April Airlink is offering a
30 percent discount on the fares for this service. For example
Port Moresby - Lae K197
Port Moresby - Madang K265
Port Moresby - Wewak K370
Port Moresby - Vanimo K481
These fares are following worldwide industry practice of not quoting
the applicable taxes and surcharges.
Rural Development Bank
The Rural Development Bank (RDB) will close the Wabag, Mendi and Kainantu
offices in the Highlands region. The bank has deemed these offices to
be non-viable branches. The government has stopped subsidising the RDB
so the RDB can no longer subsidised these branches. The board of the
RDB will possible authorise the establishment of agencies to look after
these areas in the future.
Malaria Fight
Rotary Against Malaria has donated K120,000 to the Institute of Medical
Research to help PNG's next generation of first line malaria treatment.
It has been widely publicised that worldwide everyday over 3,000 people
die of malaria.
Law Awareness Book
Stanley Kuli Liria has produced a book to raise awareness of the law
for non-legal professionals. It has been written to be as simple as
possible. The book explains the rights, freedoms, court processes and
other basic areas of law which the grass roots people need to understand
to appreciate relations and interaction with others in the society.
The author comes from the Southern Highlands Province of PNG and is
a practising lawyer. -- http://michie.net/pnginfo/law.html
Learning Tok Pisin
A reader would like to learn Pidgin. Here is his email to me.
My name is Jonathan Whitcomb. I am the one who has the web pages about:
"Are Pterosaurs Still Living" (which is featured on your web
page. Thank you.)
I am convinced this creature (called ropen on Umboi Island) is a living
pterosaur. I have interviewed many people on Umboi Island and I believe
the things they told me. (Except one person who is an exception.)
I hope to return to Papua New Guinea either later this year or next
year. I need to learn Tok Pisin in a practical sense. I read some but
need experience communicating with someone who knows this language well.
I would be glad to share my skills with English in exchange for learning
Tok Pisin better. Do you have any suggestions as to whom I can contact
by email?
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely, Jonathan Whitcomb
Long Beach, California
If any one is interested then I will pass on your email addresses to
him.
Malaysian Logging
The member for Huon Gulf has blasted a large Malaysian logging company
in Parliament for allegedly ill-treating PNG workers and employing overseas
personnel to carry out jobs reserved for citizens of PNG. The member
went on to say that a report by the Department of Labour and Employment
highlighted areas where PNG workers were training unskilled overseas
workers who had been brought into the country on logging boats and then
stealing the jobs of PNG citizens. The report said that the managers
of the company were ignorant and disrespectful of the laws of PNG.
Coming Events
Mining Conference -- PNG's premier mining conference will be held between
the 23rd and 25th of May at the Lae International Hotel. This will be
the seventh Geology, Exploration, and Mining Conference. For further
information please contact the PNG Chamber of mines -- conf[@]pngchamberminpet.com.pg
- Telephone +675 321 2988 and Facsimile +675 321 7107.
Lae Squash
I have been reliably informed that the Lae open will be held in Lae
at the Chinese Club from the 25th to the 27th of March (Easter Weekend).
Book Donation
The Australian Government has donated a set of encyclopaedias and other
books valued at K15,000 to the Namatani Secondary School in New Ireland
province.
Manus Home Brew
24 people have been charged with the illegal brewing and consumption
of alcohol in the Manus province. Seventeen of those arrested have been
found guilty and have been ordered to pay fines ranging from K300 to
K500. Manus police have destroyed the equipment used to illegally brew
the alcohol. The operation was part of plan to crack down on the brewing
and consumption of alcohol along with illegal drug use in the province.
East New Britain Radio Network
A radio network consisting of 51 radios, recently launched in East
New Britain, will be used to improve health services and co-ordination
of medical supplies. The program is being implemented around the country.
In all a total of 600 High Frequency radios will be distributed throughout
PNG at an estimated total cost of K15 million being funded by AusAID.
PNG Law and Justice
The PNG Law and Justice Web Site at -- http://www.lawandjustice.gov.pg
-- has won an Australian award from the Australian Interactive Media
Industry Association. The web site was put together by Morpheum, an
Australian Company based in Sydney and Melbourne, using software developed
by the company. The software, starting at close to K100,000, is an advanced
content management system.
PNG Media
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