Links
Milne Bay
Maps of Milne Bay -- http://uk.multimap.com/index/PP68.htm
http://uk.multimap.com/wi/129546.htm
-> this is for drilling down to places such as Wedau.
The Tawali Resort is located on a volcanic bluff overlooking the clear
protected waters of Milne Bay and accessible only by boat. The Tawali
Resort web site can be located at -- http://www.tawali.com/tawali/
Considering walking along the mainland coast of Milne Bay then here
is an article that may interest you -- http://www.michie.net/pnginfo/wamira.html
-- It covers a walk from East Cape to Wamira Village just near Dogura
Anglican Cathedral.
Sports Sites
PNG Rugby League -- http://www.rleague.com/nations/png
PNG Aussie Rules -- http://www.afl-png.com
South Pacific Motor Sports Club -- http://www.spmsc.org.pg
The Motor Sports Club also has sub-pages dealing with -- go karting,
snooker, game fishing and speedway. Visit the -- http://www.spmsc.org.pg
-- web site and navigate from there.
Game Fishing -- http://www.gfa.com.pg
Royal Papua Yacht Club -- http://www.rpyc.com.pg
ICCC Web Site
The Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) has a web
site to hopefully help the ICCC carryout a greater awareness of consumer
rights and business responsibilities under the provisions of the ICCC
Act and other relevant legislation. The website can be found at -- http://www.iccc.gov.pg
-- Consumers will now be able to lodge complaints online.
PNG Chill
The PNG Chill Web Site can be found at -- http://www.chill.net.pg
National Statistical Office
The National Statistical Office has a web site located at -- http://www.nso.gov.pg
Ever wondered what is the population of various PNG towns? -- http://www.citypopulation.de/PapuaNewGuinea.html
-- makes a reasonable guess considering the last census held in PNG
was in the year 2000.
News Items
Durian
The National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) has released eight
selected clones of durian fruit trees to the farmers. NARI made the
release during the annual open day in Lae, Morobe Province. The selection
of eight was made from over 20 seedling evaluated between 1980 and 1992
and then further evaluated over the past 13 years. Durian - Durio zibethinus
Murr - is well suited to the tropical, humid conditions found in PNG.
It is also well known for its uniquely, unpleasant smell when ripe.
Amateur Radio
Amateur Radio operators in the Gordon's area are upset that a public
broadcaster has been allowed to flood the 40-metre band with an extremely
strong single that obliterates all amateur traffic. The high powered
broadcaster, Wantaok Light, has been allocated a frequency in what is
considered a shared amateur band by the licensing authority who appear
to have little regard for the existing use of this segment of the 40
Metre band. Amateurs are asking why, in the light of World radio determinations
that state that such broadcasters will have to move to other frequencies
by 2009, this broadcaster has been allowed to set up so close to the
cut of date in a suburb of Port Moresby. Several commercial companies
are also facing problems with the broadcaster who broadcasts continually
not like amateur traffic that is in short bursts.
PNG Postage Rates
Can anyone help Tom??
Hello,
I'm currently mailing books to PNG and I'm rather puzzled about how
cheap it is to go from the US to PNG compared to the reverse direction.
The cheapest rate for surface books works out to about US$2/kilo to
PNG. Post PNG on the other hand seems to have eliminated all cheap (surface)
international postage rates, such that DHL is sometimes cheaper than
Post PNG. Does anyone know what happened? Is there a cheaper way that
I don't know about (for much less than a cargo container's worth)? --
Tom Slone
Security Purchase
It has been rumoured that Protect Security in Gordon's have purchased
the Securimax Security Company and is only waiting for final approval
from the Independent Consumer and Competition Commission before finalising
the purchase. Protect Security have a web page at -- http://www.prosec.com.pg/protect/ProtectHome.html
Cancer Machine
Kevin Lock is attempting to contact someone, anyone who has an interest
in getting the Cancer Machine at the Angau Memorial Hospital in Lae
repaired. He is becoming frustrated because he cannot get through to
anyone. Can anyone help him? He says that he can probably repair the
existing machine and get it working again.
Tourism
The PNG Tourism Promotion Authority (TPA) hopes to be able to attract
100,000 tourists to the country by 2008 and rake in K500 million. It
would appear that finally someone has realised that money has got to
be spent on tourism if you want to attract people to visit the country.
Spend some money and there are extremely good possibilities that the
money will be returned with interest that will benefit the whole country.
The TPA is currently running a campaign to make people within PNG aware
of the benefits that tourism will provide.
National Provident Fund
The first person, hopefully not the only one, has been found guilty
of conspiracy and misappropriation of over K235,000 belonging to the
former National Provident Fund (now NASFUND). Valuer Iori Veraga was
found guilty on two counts of conspiracy and four counts of misappropriation.
Veraga was sentenced to immediate imprisonment at the Bomana Jail outside
Port Moresby but because no Correctional Services were present he was
able to go home and present himself the next day for his trip to jail.
School Fights
Once it was only the Police and the Defence Force that residents of
Port Moresby had to worry about fighting in the streets but now there
are more and more school children fighting for their schools after school.
The fighting has gone to an extreme and students are now being taken
to police stations for counselling. Parents do not seem to care about
their children and have not bothered to front up at the schools to discuss
the problem. Fighting of school children is an ongoing problem and students
from Boreboa and Waigani come and fight at the market.
PNG Apples
Any trip to a festival in Goroka will always find someone displaying
locally grown apples. The apples seem to grow very well and are often
of far better quality than ones imported from overseas. Some of the
apples have come from trees grown in the Henganofi District. Being a
local product the apples are very popular in the rural districts and
attract the attention farmers wanting to see if they can also grow them.
Rafting In PNG
Many tourist come to PNG to go white water rafting unfortunately three
Israeli's have been killed and another two injured while white water
rafting along the Watut River in Morobe Province. The deaths are a blow
to rafting in PNG as the Israeli's were preparing a documentary on rafting
in PNG. A travel company in Israel had sent a 12 member team to PNG
to help map selected areas of the country that are considered suitable
for white water rafting. Condolences from all around PNG have gone out
to the families and friends of the rafters.
Medical Drug Shortage
A shortage of drugs at the biggest hospitals in PNG remains an ongoing
threat to surgery. The situation is so critical that the annual open-heart
surgery program this year may have to be cancelled. It is hoped that
more corporate organisations will dig deeper into their corporate pockets
to support the volunteer program that involves Australian doctors and
nurses operating on heart patients from all over PNG at the Port Moresby
General Hospital. The heart operations are planned for August.
Madang Business Trip
A trip to the People's Republic of China by the Madang Governor, James
Yali, and a delegation of ten is said to have cost K77,500. K40,000
of this was in airfares and the rest in accommodation and various allowances.
The Madang provincial government is struggling to even provide the most
basic of basic services to the victims of the Manam Island volcano disaster.
In fact it has been reported that people are dying from preventable
diseases at the various care centres set up for the disaster victims
because of a lack of funding to buy simple medical supplies.
SP Sports Awards
The main awards in the annual SP Sports Awards were once again taken
out by Dika Toua and Ryan Pini for the third year running. The awards
were presented at a gala presentation dinner held at the Crowne Plaza
Hotel. Both Toua and Pini put in credible performances for 2004 qualifying
on merit to compete at the Athens Olympic Games.
Port Moresby Speed Limit
The blanket Port Moresby speed limit is 60 Kilometres per hour (about
37 miles per hour) but motorists regularly flaunt that limit along the
Poreporena Highway that links Port Moresby Jackson's airport to downtown
Port Moresby cutting through part of Burns Peak. The National Road Safety
Council (NRSC) has said it would not impose that rule along the highway
as it has been built to a much higher standard than the other roads
in the city. The NRSC did not, however, say what speed limit would be
suitable for the highway. There was also no comment from police. The
highway, opened several years ago, has very quickly become one of the
busiest roads in the National Capital cutting many minutes of the trip
from the airport to town.
Smoking Teachers
School Teachers have been urged to avoid smoking and develop healthy
habits in order to be good role models for their students. Health authorities
have revealed that over 40 percent of children in PNG schools are already
smoking.
Back Issues
Did you know that back issues of this newsletter are available online
at -- http://pnggossip.com/news
-- and mirrored at -- http://png-gossip.com/news
?
Travel Ban
The Agriculture and Livestock Minister, Mathew Siune, has been banned
from further travel because he and his officers have failed to acquit
previous travel including money paid for travelling allowances and cash
advances as required by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.
Bougainville Elections
The elections on Bougainville appear to have been allowed to be run
along democratic lines although a candidate who is currently losing
the battle for President has hinted that he may appeal any election
result due to perceived intimidation by supporters of the leading candidate.
PNG FAQ's
From time to time people ask questions about PNG -- such as "I
know that peanuts are grown in PNG but is there any processing of this
product in the country?"
And an attempt is made to answer them - for example the question above
could be answered with the following -- No, not that I am aware of,
but during the 1970's and '80's there was processing of peanuts in the
Morobe Province. Some peanuts were exported overseas from Lae to many
of the countries in the South Pacific. Peanuts were also made into peanut
butter at the Atzera Rural Co-operative for the domestic and international
market. Sadly these ventures have folded.
The PNG Frequently Asked Question's
need your help to grow so that students and other interested parties
from around the world can find out answers to their questions about
PNG. I am sure that some of the readers are a wealth of answers to commonly
asked questions about the country. I know some of you have a passion
about PNG - this is a way to help people know more about the place you
love. Write to this newsletter and I will point you in the right direction.
Don't expect to be worked off your feet as there are only a finite number
of people looking for PNG information at anyone time.
Fast Money Schemes
It seems that no matter how many warnings the central bank puts out
or how hard the various churches intertwine the message about fast money
schemes into their preaching people are still placing money with the
schemes hoping that they will get rich quick. All the schemes appear
to be based on the age-old pyramid scheme where the first in reap the
hard earned savings of the hopefuls further down the pyramid. The hopefuls
further down the scheme are eventually strung out for as long as possible
so that more gullible people can be recruited until the scheme collapses
and the organisers disappear with the ill-gotten gains. All the schemes
manage to deliver is the loss of hard earned money of innocent, trusting
people; who have often used their meagre life savings to participate
in the scheme.
PNG Cricket Team
The PNG cricket team has recently completed a successful visit to Townsville
with a convincing win over Tropical North Queensland, Australia, The
PNG squad has returned to Port Moresby and will assemble later next
month before heading to Ireland for the International Cricket Council
Trophy tournament.
Gender Bias
There have been calls, once again, to tackle gender bias issues as
it is thought that overcoming gender issues will also help to reduce
the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate. Studies have shown gang rapes, wife beating,
gender bias and polygamy were rife in PNG, posing challenges to HIV
prevention. Many gender issues are considered socially acceptable in
some of PNG's many different societies. Gender inequalities are entrenched
in and persist through, customs and traditions. The customary practices
of bride price (wealth) and exchange of girls as compensation payments
give men the ownership over women. This notion of ownership, that accompanies
the practice of bride price, puts women at risk of forced, non-consensual
sex in their daily lives.
ECP Solution
It seems that both Australia and PNG want the jeopardised K2 billion
Enhanced Co-operation Program to be sorted out by August. Foreign Affairs
Minister, Sir Rabbie Namaliu, has just returned from Canberra with a
four-member delegation for the first salvage talks on the ECP. The ECP
was recently thrown into jeopardy following a Supreme Court ruling that
outlawed significant parts of the ECP Act relating to immunity of Australian
staff and prosecution powers.
Coming Events
Queens Birthday Holiday - 13th June 2005
Golf - The 36 hole 17th West New Britain Open will be held on the 18th
and 19th of June at the Mosa Golf Course.
East New Britain Warwagira and Mask Festival. The Warwagira will be
held on the 6th to the 12th of July followed by the Mask Festival on
the 13th to the 16th of July. Both events will be held at the Queen
Elizabeth Park.
Squash - The K50,000 Steel Industries PNG Squash International has
been set to be held between the 16th and 21st of August in Port Moresby.
The event is part of the official Men's World Tour and is being run
under the supervision of the Professional Squash Association - the world
governing body for Men's Squash. The main event will be held at the
Holiday Inn Sports Plus Club at Waigani.
PNG 30th Independence Day Celebrations -- 16th September 2005.
Hiri Moale Festival -- the week leading up to Independence Day
Goroka Show -- Independence Weekend
The Milne Bay Canoe festival is to be held near the end of October.
PNG Media
If a friend has given or sent you a copy of this newsletter and you would like to keep receiving free copies then please visit -- ../news/index.html -- for instructions on how to join the list.
Articles for this Newsletter
If you think you have a PNG page worth mentioning then please click here and use the submission form .
To send a message for submission to the PNG Gossip Newsletter queue please click here and use the submission form.
.gif)
.jpg)
View PNG Gossip Newsletter Archive