Links
Warning:
PNG web sites seem to come and go. The fact of life is that it costs
money to host a web site and there is not much return on the outlay
to most businesses in PNG. If you do click on a link and use the services
or even have some comments to make then please contact the people at
the relevant web site and let them know so they at least know that someone
has gained some value from their efforts. If you are so inclined them
mention that you heard about them from this web site. -- The PNG
Gossip Newsletter.
Mention
of a website or service does not necessarily mean that this newsletter
endorses the website or service
PNG Aviation
Shane Thomas has launched a new aviation web site recently. It can
be found at -- http://www.PNGAir.com/.
-- Other aviation sites can be found at
BMW Travel
http://www.mrbeem.com/ -- Read
about a BMW motorcycle rider and his travels around the world including
Papua New Guinea.
Port Moresby and Central Accommodation
Alotau Accommodation
Napatana Lodge is the first eco-tourism lodge in Alotau. It is a traditionally
built pole house that has been made from tropical timbers. The lodge
reflects Milne Bay architecture, demonstrating traditional building
skills by local craftsman -- http://www.napatanalodge.com
Masurina Lodge is the oldest hotel in Alotau. For many years it was
the only hotel. The website to visit for Masurina Lodge is --http://www.masurina.com
-- and not -- http://www.masurina.com.pg
-- The .com.pg site is a mess when viewed with my version of Internet
Explorer (v6) and virtually unreadable. The straight .com site is much
better and is now the official site. The site is linked to the Marlin
1 dive boat charters website located at -- http://www.marlin1charters.com.au/
-- The Marlin 1 site claims that you can see the best of coastal PNG
from the safety and comfort of a well equipped and surveyed live-a-board
charter boat.
Aussie High Comm
The Australian High Commission has revised its travel warning for Australians
visiting PNG. The full text can be found at -- http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/zw-cgi/view/Advice/Papua_New_Guinea
Car Dealers
Tok Pisin Links
Here are a few links to sites dealing with Tok Pisin - one of
the three official languages of PNG. The other official languages are
English and Motu.
The University of New England (Australia) -- http://www.une.edu.au/langnet/tokpisin.htm
Wiki Books links -- http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Tok_Pisin
Robert Eklund's Tok Pisin Page -- http://www.ida.liu.se/~g-robek/PNG-TokPisin.htm
Tok Pisin - English Dictionary -- http://www.calibercreations.com/pisin/searchall.asp
The Google Directory of Tok Pisin Sites -- http://directory.google.com/Top/Science/Social_Sciences/Linguistics/Languages/Natural/Pidgins_and_Creoles/English_Based/Tok_Pisin/
Hiri Motu, Tok Pisin -- http://www.langcen.cam.ac.uk/resources/lang-no/lang_no.php?c=4
Bill Purcell's Web Site pages about Tok Pisin -- http://www.billpurc.com/billsview/tokpisin.htm
News Items
Corporate Challenge
PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Challenge is on again on the 23rd
of October 2005. The challenge helps to raise money for the Sir Buri
Kudu Heart Foundation. The winner last year managed to run the course
in just under 17 minutes with the last walker being clocked in at 80
minutes. The course starts at the Ela Beach School and travels along
Ela Beach until climbing up and over Lawes road passing Sir Hubert Murray
Stadium coming back into town past Steamships and St Mary's Catholic
Church before returning to the school and the finish line.
Languages
The number of languages in PNG has now been reported as being
867. At last report nine of the 867 are considered to have become
extinct in the last fifty years as some groups are absorbed into others
and more influence is exerted by tok pisin speakers to make it a truly
national language for the country. With a large number of people from
many language groups drifting to Moresby looking for employment the
City Manager, Peter Loko, has claimed that Port Moresby should be known
as the language capital of the world.
For information on PNG languages a visit to -- http://www.sultry.arts.usyd.edu.au/ling/research/papuan2.html
-- will start you off in the right direction. Another interesting article
is located at -- http://www.krysstal.com/langfams.html.
-- It deals with language families and mentions the Rotokas language
- Rotokas is spoken in PNG on the Island of Bougainville by approximately
4,300 people and it has the fewest sounds of any language, 11 (compared
to the 44 or so of standard English). These 11 are made up of five vowels
and six consonants: A, E, I, O, U, B, G, K, P, R, T. - can you
imagine that - a language with only 11 sounds. Six of those are used
in the name of the language.
PNG has three national or official languages -- they are Hiri Motu,
Tok Pisin and English.
Boat Cruises
The Tourism Promotion Authority has announced that there will be a
cruise boat visiting PNG this month. The boat, operated by North Star
Cruises, will visit Alotau in Milne Bay Province carrying 40 - 50 tourists.
The boat will also stop at a number of interesting sites in West New
Britain and will leave for Rabaul and Duke of York in East New Britain
after that, with Kavieng in the New Ireland province being the final
destination.
Goroka Crime
A new community based system is on trial for minor offenders in Goroka,
Eastern Highlands Province. The scheme allows minor offenders, who have
been sentenced by the court, to undergo supervised community work for
a specified number of hours. Prisoners who complete the number of hours
without incident are discharged.
Freeway Carnage
One of the worst motor vehicle accidents in Port Moresby has happened
in the front of the Andersons Supermarket in KondeobuKonedobu. A semi-trailer
laden with sawn timber ploughed into the cement gates of the supermarket
claiming six lives. The truck driver lost control of his vehicle while
driving down the Poreporena Highway from Hohola towards Konedobu and
crossed from the left lane into oncoming traffic outbound from Town.
The truck then smashed into the Habourside Andersons supermarket gates
crushing a vehicle driving out of the supermarket car park stopped to
give way to traffic. Four people were also injured, one with a broken
leg. St John Ambulance Search and Rescue National Superintendent Fred
Bukoya said it was the fifth accident at the same spot since the highway
was opened nine years ago.
Sealark
Bismark Maritime Limited have advertised that they will be offering
a Lae - Port Moresby - Lae service with one way single fares starting
from K200 with huge discounts offered for children, students and groups.
No date has been set for the service at this stage but it understood
that it could be as early as the end of this month.
The Sealark is a 75 metre, 700-passenger ship that has been based in
the Philippines. The ship is being brought to PNG due to the high cost
of airfares around the country especially between Port Moresby and Lae.
Princess Anne
Thanks to Chris Luxton, the Secretary of the Papua New Guinea Church
Partnership in London for the following article -
28th/29th Sept. The Princess Royal received a rousing welcome from
3000 grassroots - mainly children from the settlements near Jackson's
Airport (causing a minor security scare!) on her second historic visit
to PNG. The Princess spent a day visiting the Cheshire Homes, Koki Development
Centre and Anglicare StopAIDS PNG, a testing, counselling and support
service opened by ACPNG in March 2004
Thanks Chris -- Check out the Portal (Home) run by Chris -- http://hometown.aol.co.uk/pngcpluxton/
Uniformless Army
If it wasn't for the help of a local firm members of the 1st Royal
Pacific Islands Regiment would have not been able to participate in
the 30th Anniversary celebrations due to not having suitable uniforms
for the celebrations. Robmos Defence Uniforms has donated a total of
235 sets of uniforms for the regiment. The regiment now has ceremonial
uniforms but it is immobile without field uniforms, vehicles or rations
to operate. 100 of the regiment are supposed to be based in Kiunga to
patrol the southern border but even their base in Kiunga has been condemned
by the health authorities.
Police Mobile Squad
The Police Deputy Commissioner of Operations, Gari Baki has threatened
to disband all the police mobile squads because some squad members have
protested over the police management's failure to pay them allowances
in connection with the security duties they performed during Independence
Day celebrations and Princess Anne's visit in Port Moresby. The National
Events Council has already given K85,000 to the police for providing
security for both events.
Roads & Bridges
After damage by storms the Works Department estimates that it will
need K24 million for emergency repairs and replacements to roads and
bridges around he country. Although the geography of PNG makes it disaster
prone the Works Department is not prepared for such emergencies and
has no money to fix the problems. The Works Secretary, Alphonse Niggins,
has written to the Planning Department for the urgent release of funds.
Menyama Arson Suspect
A man has been arrested over the burning down of the Menyama police
station during the Independence weekend. The accused and other people
are said to have burned down the police station in retaliation over
an incident that saw police shoot a man in the leg while trying to stop
a drunken brawl. The shot man later died.
PNG Power Strike
PNG Power workers may still go on strike if the government continues
to fail to respond to the energy workers demands.
PNG Coffee
The Pride of PNG 2005 International Coffee Cupping Competition has
just finished in Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province and it has been
declared that PNG has some of the best coffee in the world. The competition
has been aimed at identifying the best coffee from some 300,000 small
coffee growers in PNG. The competition was organised by the PNG Coffee
Growers Association. PNG currently exports 1.1 million coffee bags.
MP Exemption
The Members of Parliament who has moved the controversial bill to exempt
Members of Parliament from dismissal from office if convicted is highly
unlikely to get the support of his political party for the bill. Members
of the party have indicated that the bill is a private bill put forward
by MP Kappa Yarka. It is hoped that the bill is not passed as it would
mean that there was a separate law for MPs.
6th Coroners' Conference 2006
PNG will become the second country outside of Australia to host the
Annual Australasian Coroners' Conference next year. The only other country
has been New Zealand in 2002. The prestigious conference is held once
a year. The theme of the conference will be "Managing Diversity
- The Multi-Skilled Coroner: and will bring together 100 participants
from the Australasian countries including Australia, New Zealand and
the Pacific Island nations with representatives from Hong Kong, Singapore,
Malaysia and the Philippines also attending.
The 5th Australasian Coroners' Society Conference will be held in Western
Australia from the 15th to the 18th of November 2005.
Telikom Cable Plans
Telikom PNG has plans to re-commission the old Pacrim West Cable connecting
Sydney and Guam and move its end point to Port Moresby. Under the plan,
a massive section of the cable would be spliced and recovered by a cable
ship where it is currently laid north of Solomon Islands this would
then be re-laid from Port Moresby and spliced into the Australian end
of the cable somewhere off the Queensland coast. Telikom is investigating
this due to the high cost of laying new cables as well as environmental
concerns about laying new cable over the Great Barrier Reef. Telikom
currently only has 20 Mbps of satellite capacity and 16 Mbps of capacity
on the old Port Moresby - Cairns analogue cable that was commissioned
in 1976.
Telikom has also recently signed an agreement with the satellite division
of Multimedia Ltd (NewSat) to supply satellite communications to PNG.
The agreement will see the two companies providing co-branded services
such as high speed internet, web browsing, data transfer, video streaming
and multicasting around the country.
Telikom Woes
Members of the PNG Chamber of Mines, Port Moresby Chamber of Commerce,
PNG Institute of Banking, Australia-PNG Business Council, Manufacturers
Council, Media Council, Fishing Industry Association, Forest Industries
Association, and the PNG Institute of National Affairs have signed a
letter saying that the country faces a very real possibility of catastrophic
telecommunications failure. This is because the 30 year old undersea
cable only has a an expected lifespan of 25 years. The mobile telephone
network had a complete failure due to aging equipment in the Boroko
Telephone Exchange. The business community has also called on the government
to deregulate the internet industry to allow internet service providers
to develop bandwidth to reduce costs and ensure a reliable service.
Hela Province
The push for the Southern Highlands to be divided up in to two provinces
has been debated for a while. Benson is passionate enough to have provided
his opinion on the issue. His views can be found at http://pnggossip.com/stories/hela01tml.
Please note that the views expressed in the article are not necessarily
the views of the PNG Gossip Newsletter.
Milne Bay Show
It has been announced that the Milne Bay Provincial government will
allocate K200,000 towards the running of the 2006 provincial show to
be held in Alotau. The show will be held over a one-week period
Milne Bay International Airport
Tim Neville the Governor of Milne Bay has announced that the Treasury
Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and himself will be having discussions
with the CEO's of Virgin Airways and Jetstar (a subsidiary of Qantas)
with a view of introducing international flights from anywhere in the
South Pacific.
Armoury Break-in
The five men accused of breaking into the Lombrum Naval base armoury
in August will appear before the Lorengau committal court in Manus on
the 14th of October. The accused, all from Manus province, have also
been charged with possessing live ammunition.
Coming Events
Daffodil Corporate Golf Challenge - 7th of October at the Port Moresby
Golf Club.
Morobe Show, Lae -- 15th and 16th of October 2005
PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Challenge is on again on the 23rd
of October
The Milne Bay Canoe and Kundu (drum) festival will be held between
the 4th and 6th of November this year.
Miss PNG Crowning night 26th of November 2005
Air Niugini Ball - 1st December 2005
Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in March 2006.
2006 - April 8th to the 16th -- National Game Fishing Titles
PNG 31st Independence - 16 September 2006
6th Coroners' Conference 23rd October to the 26th of October 2006.
PNG Media
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