Warning: PNG web sites seem to come and go. The fact of life is that it costs money to host a web site (try -- http://pngwebhost.com -- for an excellent, reliable but cheap deal) 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 then mention that you heard about them from this web site. -- The PNG Gossip Newsletter.
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Do you have a web site or link to a PNG related area on the WWW? If so do you want it mentioned here? Then send an email to -- pngnewsqueue @ pnggossip.com
We have set sail from UK to Spain and next Feb/March begin the great sail to PNG. We are the first dedicated sailing vessel to leave Britain's shores since the days of John Williams in 1830's. Other sailing vessels in the early missionary days sailed from Australia.
The Post Courier column "The Drum" has been in the electronic age for sometime now. For all of those people who are familiar with "The Drum" you can now email titbits of gossip to -- thedrum @ spp.com.pg -- or you can still send a facsimile message to +675 320-1781. For those not familiar with "The Drum" then I suggest taking a look at the Post Courier website located at -- http://www.postcourier.com.pg -- and follow your nose to "The Drum" or take a look at the samples below.
Missionary Moment with Marilyn Laszlo -- http://marilynlaszlo.blogspot.com/2007/09/tell-me-more-about-hauna-village-folks.html
News Items
PNG News Feed
News Feed - for some of the latest headlines from around the world visit the PNG Gossip newsletter RSS News Feed located at -- http://pnggossip.com/news/pngrss.php -- At the moment this uses Yahoo and Google but it seems they pick up on the same news stories so there is not much difference between the two feeds and some of the links remain on the feed for days at a time.
Media Regulation
The Prime Minister has announced that he plans to introduce legislation to regulate the media. He has recently criticised a daily newspaper for carrying only the "bad news" on the newspaper's front page. He also said that he was fed up that after 40 years the country still allowed foreigners to own newspapers.
Overseas Employment
A scheme offering employment for PNG citizens in overseas countries has raised concerns that it may be a scam. Each person registering for the scheme must pay a fee of K20.00. The scheme also may be advertising the wrong use of a Work Permit Visa Application form for working in Australia. The scheme promotes the recruitment of unskilled workers but the relevant Visa quoted is for skilled workers.
Photograph Exhibition
Marie Stopes Papua New Guinea (MSPNG) will be holding an exhibition of photographs at the National Parliament State Function Room. The exhibition will reveal the humorous, real, and positive and yet at moments shocking and distressing visual images that exist in the PNG communities today. The photographs are the work of PNG young people between the ages of 15 - 24 years.
PX Reunion
For anyone that has worked at the National Airline of PNG then there is a reunion planned for all workers to be held on the 1st of November at the Rydges Oasis Resort situated on the Sunshine Coast of Australia at Caloundra -- http://www.angreunion.co.nr/
PX Problems
It seems that week after week the travelling public is having their travel plans disrupted by Air Niugini. Many businesses are now sending workers on business trips the day before the event rather than tr5usting the National Airline to have a flight available on the correct day. The Public Enterprise Minister, Arthur Somare, has told Parliament that although Air Niugini has signed lease-agreements with other airlines for the use of equipment the other airlines had delayed the release of the aircraft causing the airline to lease on a temporary basis a Boeing 767 from Air Macau. This aircraft broke down leaving the airline with no aircraft to operate on the main overseas sectors.
He also said Air Niugini had moved to stop further disruption to its flights by buying another B767 from Brunei and leasing a Boeing 757-200.
Recently my wife left Melbourne on a 6am flight arriving in Brisbane a couple of hours later expecting to catch a flight 2 hours later to Port Moresby. The plane eventually left early in the morning the following day causing missed meetings etc for many passengers on board the aircraft.
http://www.thenational.com.pg/100107/column3.htm
http://www.thenational.com.pg/100107/nation1.htm
http://www.thenational.com.pg/100507/nation2.htm
see also Freight services hard hit by air disruptions -- http://www.thenational.com.pg/100207/nation2.htm
Moti Affair
The Opposition Leader, Sir Mekere Morauta, has described as "disgraceful" the Government's decision to gag comment on the Motigate Affair. The Opposition leader warned that the Somare Government's conduct since it returned to office was worrying, as the way it handled issues appeared dictatorial.
see also -- http://www.thenational.com.pg/100107/nation10.htm
Douglas Gabb Award
FM100 senior reporter Ivan Bayagau, has been announced as the first winner of the prestigious Douglas Gabb award. This award will see Mr Bayagau taking up an internship at Radio Australia in Melbourne. It's offered by the international broadcaster in memory of pioneer RA PNG Service broadcaster Douglas (Baiom) Gabb, originally from Madang.
see also -- http://www.abc.net.au/ra/aboutus/stories/s1932331_window.htm
Digicel
Digicel is again in trouble this time for using the mobile telephone frequencies allocated to the third mobile phone competitor GreenCom. The Minister for Information and Communication, Patrick Tammur, has told Digicel to abide by the rules and regulations if they want to operate in PNG. The use of the Greencom frequencies has been deemed illegal and can amount to revocation of Digicel's spectrum license.
Digicel's chairman Denis O'Brien has told the Government it risks ruining its international reputation if his company's mobile licence is taken away.
Both Digicel and Greencom have refuted the claims. A joint statement from Digicel and GreenCom released yesterday played down the latest heated issue saying that "there were no spectrum issues between (us) and neither operator had experienced interference with their frequencies" .
Mr O'Brien, who has remained silent during months of bickering between his company and the Government, said: "Any steps by the PNG Government to retroactively change its policy and revoke Digicel's licence after inviting it to invest in PNG would do untold damage to the reputation of PNG in the international investment community and have disastrous effects on such industries as gas, petroleum and mining. Any government would need to take these massive implications seriously."
Greencom
Green Communication is set to enter the market with K76 million to start operations before the end of the year. Another amount of K450 million will be transferred into the country to cement its operations at a later date. GreenCom is also negotiating for inter-connection with Telikom PNG, something many Papua New Guineans are keen to see happen immediately.
Starting Small Library in Moresby
Here's a little write up --
This message is for anyone who has struggled to find new books while living in the Port Moresby area. A small members-only library is starting up in town, and all are invited to join. To become a member, you must donate at least 4 books to our common collection. Once you have done so, you are entitled to borrow half the number of books you have donated. So if you donated 4 books, you can borrow 2 from the collection at any one time; if you donated 11, you can borrow 5. To become a member, receive a list of the current collection; ask a question, etc - email "pomlibrary@gmail.com."
Hanging?
Two men have been sentenced to death in PNG after pleading guilty to wilfully murdering a woman accused of witchcraft by beheading her with a bush knife. A de facto moratorium on the death penalty is in place in PNG with former justice minister Bire Kimisopa saying last year that a proposal to abolish it was before cabinet.
see -- http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22529939-16953,00.html
and -- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/05/wpapua105.xml
PNG FAQ's
Here are some of the more common frequently asked questions that keep cropping up.
What is the land area of the provinces in PNG?
- National Capital and Central, 29,940 sq kms
- Oro Province, 19,827 sq kms
- Milne Bay Province, 14,000 sq kms
- Morobe Province, 34,500 sq kms
- Madang Province, 28,000 sq kms
- Eastern Highlands, 11,706 sq kms
- Simbu Province, 8,476 sq kms
- Western Highlands, 8,288 sq kms
- Southern Highlands, 25,988 sq kms
- East Sepik, 43,000 sq kms
- West Sepik (Sandaun), 36,000 sq kms
- East New Britain, 15,500 sq kms
- West New Britain, 21,000 sq kms
- New Ireland, 9,500 sq kms
- Manus Province, 2,100 sq kms
- North Solomons Province, 9,400 sq kms
- Enga Province, 10,790 sq kms
- Western and Gulf Province, 135,000 sq kms
More PNG Frequently Asked Question can be found at -- http://www.michie.net/png_faqs - If you can help expand the FAQ's then visit the site and leave a message. If you find a question with an incorrect or outdated answer please also let the site owner know. png.faqs@michie.net
Momase Roads
Finland and the Works Department have signed an agreement for a K60 million soft loan for the maintenance of rural roads in the two Sepik provinces and Madang. The money will be used to fund soft asphalt concrete technology for rural roads in East Sepik, Sandaun and Madang, as pilot provinces. Works, Transport and Civil Aviation Minister Don Polye said rural roads were in very bad state and the funding was good news for the country.
Teacher's Fares
More than 400 teachers in West New Britain province are owed leave fare some dating back to 2000. The teachers took out a court order from the National Court last July which directed the administration to pay them by the 26th of Sept but this has not happened. Teachers have warned that term four, the most important of the school year, may be disrupted if the court order is not carried out.
Finance Probe
Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare has directed the commission of inquiry into the Finance Department to resume its hearing but with some changes to the composition of the staff. He said the inquiry, which held its last hearing in May, must take place and the process must be allowed to run its full course. Meanwhile, the counsel assisting the inquiry, Sarea Soi, has said that preliminary investigations had uncovered more than 400 cases of irregularities that could amount to a loss of more than K1 billion.
Karai Bilong Kumul
Don't forget to visit this web site -- http://www.karaibilongkumul.blogspot.com/ -- and participate in either sending a letter to the Prime Minister and / or voting in a poll.
RPNGC Reshuffle
The Commissioner of the Royal PNG Constabulary has revamped the force by moving senior officers around. The transfers and changes also revealed the downgrading of the South Fly command in Western province to a police station level as the province intends to move police headquarters from Daru to Kiunga in the North Fly district.
Somare Threat
Rumour time - disgruntled soldiers are supposedly at the root of the plan to arrest Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare over the Motigate Affair. Police are supposedly on full alert and are treating as "serious" rumours of the soldiers' secret plan.
Unsubstantiated reports of PNGDF soldiers arresting and charging the Prime Minister with treason - over his alleged role in helping Solomon Islands Attorney-General Julian Moti escape extradition - have recently been circulating in the nation's capital.
The Opposition and civil society organisations have appealed to the Prime Minister to step aside, after he made an unsuccessful attempt in the National Court recently with three other applicants to quash the entire proceedings of a PNGDF board of inquiry into the October 10, 2006 flight.
see also -- http://tinyurl.com/2qvomo
Coming Events
2nd to 11th of October -- National Rugby League Stars from Australia trekking the historical war time Kokoda Track.
19th and 20th of October 2007 -- The Oceania Regional Consultation of the IMoSEB (International Mechanism Of Scientific Expertise on Biodiversity) process will take place in Alotau. For more information, contact the IMoSEB Executive Secretariat; e-mail: executive-secretariat@imoseb.net
Oct 22 to 31 -- Pride of PNG 2007 coffee cupping competition in Goroka
National Cultural Commission Arts and Crafts Exhibition, Port Moresby -- from the 26th to the 28th of October
Morobe Show, Lae -- 27th and 28th of October
Air Niugini reunion -- 1st November at Caloundra, Sunshine Coast, Australia.
The Milne Bay Canoe and Kundu (drum) festival is to be held in November from the 2nd to the 4th.
Do you have an event that you want advertised? Send email to -- PNGNews[@]pnggossip.com
PNG Media
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