P.N.G. Gossip Newsletter - 12 Aug 2002

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PNG Gossip Newsletter Meri Milne Bay
Welcome to the Papua New Guinea Gossip - 12 Aug 2002

A very special welcome is extended to any new readers. If you have comments or suggestions to make then please click here

CONTENTS
Links Central Show
Mount Hagen Show Goroka Show
Kickboxing Hiri Moale Festival
PNG Independence Volleyball Titles
Voting Facts New Government
Aussie Prime Minister Caretaker Govt
CT Scan YumiYet bridge program
Parliament Revitalisation Politics
Telikom Strike Privatisation
Hoskins Doctors
Medicine Handbook Bougainville
Oil Prices Schoolboy Soccer
Chinese Arts and Crafts National Forest Service
Air Niugini Development Projects
Open Heart Surgery People's Democratic Movement
United Party Book Week
Library Facilities New Library
Drugs in PNG Mining and Petroleum
Air Traffic Control Rabaul
Dauli Teachers College Wau Troubles
Media Sites Em Tasol

 

Articles for this newsletter

To send a message for submission to the PNG Gossip Newsletter -- then please click here

Remember that this mailing list is mainly meant for people who have an interest and already know a little bit about the people and geography of Papua New Guinea. The PNG Kina, which is mentioned from time to time in this newsletter, is currently worth around 24 - 25 United States cents but varies on a daily basis.

If you are really keen on finding out what the Kina is worth a currency converter for most world currencies can be located at http://www.michie.net/pnginfo/moni.html

 

 

Neo Melanesian

"Pidgin English"
Tok Pisin English
long
along
long at
long because of
long tall
long than
long to
long bek backwards
long halivim instead of
long hap? there
long namel long? through
long olgeta ples everywhere
long sampela hap somewhere
long / longpela long
long? for
longlong / het i pas stupid
longlong; waia i lus crazy

Want to find out more about Papua New Guinea? Try searching at -- http://www.michie.net/pnginfo -- and -- http://www.michie.net/png_faqs. -- The PNG Business Directory at -- http://www.pngbd.com -- is also an excellent place to look for PNG information.

For those who are not so familiar with the geography of Papua New Guinea I suggest taking a look -- http://maps.google.com -- and then click on the find a map option. Go to this link for a quick start to a link to a map of Port Moresby. http://www.michie.net/pnginfo/pom-map.html

Also remember that the accuracy of the information in this newsletter should not be relied upon - it is, after all, a gossip newsletter.



Links

Bill Purcell's New Website

http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/billsview/

Bill, a pilot, has sections dealing with Tok Pisin, PNG Aviation in General with special areas on Missionary Aviation Fellowship, PNG Airstrips, Humour and even some airline related humour. It site has more than mentioned above so my tip is to visit and take a good look around.

His section on PNG airstrips carries the following disclaimer. PNG Airstrip Data is published only as a guide to pilots in matters helpful to operations, such as GPS settings, wind characteristics, and surface conditions. The PNG AIP-AGA is the legal document governing aviation operations.

 


 

News Items



Central Province Show



The Central Province Show, will be held at the Sir Hubert Murray Stadium in Port Moresby on the 24th and the 25th of August 2002.



Mount Hagen Show



The Mount Hagen Show, Western Highlands Province, will be held between the 16th to the 18th of August 2002.




Goroka Show



The Goroka Show, Eastern Highlands, will be held between the 13th to the 16th of September 2002.




Kickboxing



A fundraising event was recently held by the PNG Kickboxing Association at the Airways Hotel, poolside to raise funds towards sending the PNG Kickboxing team to the World Amateur Kickboxing Championships in Italy from the 21st to the 25th of August. Stanley Nandex and the team gave an exhibition match.




Hiri Moale Festival



The Hiri Moale Festival is held around the Independence Day in Port Moresby. Elimination events are scheduled for the Hiri Hanenamo Contest on the 13th of August.




PNG Independence



PNG Independence Day is the 16th September and events are held around the whole country to celebrate the event..




Volleyball Titles



The National Volleyball Titles will be held in September commencing on the 19th at the Queen Elizabeth II Park in Rabaul. The park was recently upgraded for the 8th National Mask Festival and Warwargira.




Voting Facts



The following figures have been compiled by Mike Manning and originally appeared in the Focus section of the Post Courier on the 2nd of August 2002.

Region of PNG Eligible Voters Number of Actual Votes
Highlands
818,586
1,582,309
Mamose
762,460
618,332
New Guinea Islands
374,695
255,268
Papuan
543,013
437,734

As can be seen from the above table there were 763,723 more people who voted in the Highlands region than were eligible to vote.

Mike also reported that in some companies as many as 45 percent of the workforce was not able to vote because their names were not on the electoral common roll.




New Government



Sir Michael Somare with Bill Skate as the Speaker of Parliament heads the new government. A caretaker government is currently working out the plans for a full cabinet and a supplementary budget in a bid to drag PNG out of the gloom and doom announced before the election of the new government. The full cabinet should be announced today. (12 August 2002).




Aussie Prime Minister



Mr John Howard, the PM of Australia is expected to pay his first visit to PNG tomorrow (13 August 2002). Australia provides PNG with financial assistance of A$300 million every year. It is hoped that with the recent change of government within PNG that the aid money from Australia will continue to flow. Australian Defence Force helicopters have been seen and heard flying around Moresby on the weekend presumably preparing for the security needed by the Aussie PM.




Caretaker Government



The new government should be known by tonight (12 Aug 2002).




CT Scan



The government has approved the purchase of a CT scanner for the Health Department but unfortunately there is no money available for the purchase. Money is required to purchase the equipment as well as train the doctors and technicians in the use of the equipment.




YumiYet Bridge Program



The Somare government will review the former Morauta Government's controversial K150 million YumiYet bridge program. The 100 bailey bridges are being supplied all the way from England at a cost of over K150 million. The fast tracking of the approval process for the bridges raised a great deal of unanswered questions and suspicion at the time it was highlighted by the Independent Newspaper.




Parliament Revitalisation



Bill Skate, the new Speaker of Parliament, has said that he will revitalise the parliamentary committee system. The move has been backed by the Prime Minister and it is anticipated that the committee system will help to eliminate the numerous vice minister positions. A code of conduct will also be introduced for ministers of parliament.




Politics



The Peoples Action Party has a new leader from the ranks of the Independent candidates. Ex Air Niugini Managing Director and Independent candidate for Esa'ala is now the leader of PAP. It is expected that more independents will join PAP as a result.




Telikom Strike



The Telikom workers, who went on strike over the privatisation of Telikom, are now back at work whilst the executives negotiate with the new government.




Privatisation



Sir Michael Somare has put a stop to the privatisation of government assets until his government can gain a better understanding of what has gone on. Several government assets were readied for sale with only days to go of the previous government.




Hoskins



The Mt Pago volcano near Hoskins has been erupting but fortunately it has mostly thrown out thick ash with limited flow of lava. The ash has been thrown as high as 3000 metres into the air. The last time it erupted was between 1910 and 1920. The Hoskins airport that serves Kimbe and West New Britain has been covered in ash and is closed to aircraft possibly for several weeks. Schools have also been closed and people living close by have been evacuated mainly because the ash is highly acidic.




Doctors



The Medical Faculty of the University of PNG (UPNG) is turning out about 40 doctors every year but not all of these new doctors can be absorbed by the public hospital system. Some doctors are unable to find work whilst others move on to private practice.




Medicine Handbook



The Medical Faculty of the UPNG has received 350 copies of the Australian medicines handbook from the Australian Aid Agency (AusAID). The book is widely used by doctors, chemists and nurses in Australia and should be of benefit to doctors in PNG. Copies of the book have also been donated to other groups in the country.




Bougainville



A drive for teachers from all over the country is on in Bougainville. It is thought that education will help to cement the peace process and return the island to normalcy. Most of the teachers are expected to take up positions in troubled areas such as Kieta, Kunua, and Boku etc. The formal education system in Bougainville collapsed in 1989 and this is the first attempt to get back to a formal education system.




Oil Prices



An official from the Department of Petroleum and Energy has said that it is hoped that oil prices do not go down below US$25 a barrel as it would shorten the life of oil and petroleum companies in the country due to economic reasons. PNG's crude oil production in July 2002 was approximately 1.23 million barrels, which is about 33.5 per cent lower than the July 2001 figure of 1.85 million barrels. The gross value of PNG crude oil exports for July was around US$34 million.




Schoolboy Soccer



The 2002 Orogen Schools Soccer Challenge will be held at the National Sports Institute, Goroka, Eastern Highlands province from the 22nd to the 27th of September with the 27th reserved for semi-finals in the morning and the finals in the afternoon. The Orogen Challenge provides an opportunity for participants to meet players from all over PNG.




Chinese Arts and Crafts



The National Museum and Art Gallery will be hosting a Chinese Arts and Crafts exhibition to be opened by the Governor General on Thursday the 15th of August and go until the 13th of September. The exhibition will feature major Chinese archaeological discoveries in the 20th century.




National Forest Service



The former Prime Minister, Sir Mekere Morauta, revoked the appointment of David Nelson as the managing director of the National Forest Service (NFS) only days before his government lost office. Goodwill Amos had been appointed as the acting managing director of (NFS) with effect from August 2nd 2002.

The new government has stopped the sale of the August 2nd Gazette that announced the forestry change so the staff are Forestry are confused as to what is going on especially since the former managing director has now been reinstated by the acting Forestry Minister in the interim cabinet. The acting minister comes from the same province as the reinstated MD and the PM is also from the same province so the PM is worried that things have to be above board with the reinstatement. His view is that the reinstatement can only be on an acting basis.




Air Niugini



An unfounded rumour went around town last week that Air Niugini was to close its doors forever. This was at the same time that the airline announced that the deal to replace the Airbus A310 with the Boeing B767 was definitely going ahead and that all flights to and from Australia would be on a code share basis with Qantas. The code share means that more passengers will be flying on Air Niugini, which should mean more of a profit for the ailing national carrier.




Development Projects



The government of Michael Somare has been urged to initiate major projects that would result in development in all provinces by the former Speaker of Parliament, Bernard Narokobi. Mr Narokobi said that Sir Michael must focus on specific issues like agriculture, mining, human resource development, tourism and downstream processing.




Open Heart Surgery



The Australian open-heart surgery team is in the middle of performing surgery on 40 young PNG children, which was almost cancelled due to a lack of funding. Air Niugini has provided a mix of discounted and free airfreight for equipment brought up and to be sent back from Sydney. TNT has helped to clear the freight. Other organisations such as Brian Bell, PNG Power, Pro-Clean Dry Cleaners, Port Moresby Rotary etc have provided support in kind. One anonymous donor donated K50,000. The Department of Health, the National Gaming Board, Airlines of PNG, Malaysian Business Association, the RSL and various individuals have donated cash toward the surgery for forty individuals.

The cardiac team are all volunteers and pay their own airfares but as you would expect the equipment needed and the hospital facilities all come at a cost that needs to be paid for.




People's Democratic Movement



One of the founders of the People's Democratic Movement (PDM), Pias Wingti, has been asked to leave the party. With days to go before the vote for PM the leader of PDM, Sir Mekere Morauta, resigned and party officials are concerned that Pias did not do enough for the party to retain the Prime Ministership.




United Party



The MP for Goroka Open, Bire Kimisopa, has been appointed as the new leader of the United Party. This follows the defeat of former South Fly MP, Gabia Gagarimambu, who was the previous leader of the party.




Book Week



The launching of Book Week in Port Moresby was delayed due to the election of the Speaker and the Prime Minister. The guest speaker, at the launch, was the MP for Moresby South Lady Carol Kidu who reminded the people and the country of the importance of books as a tool of all trades. Lady Carol reminded all present that almost half of the PNG population is illiterate and that despite plans and policies in place to improve this rate is not improving fast enough.

Lady Carol was the only woman elected to Parliament at the recent elections and it is hoped that she is given a ministry during this term of Parliament.




Library Facilities



Many students celebrating National Book week in the National Capital District (NCD) lack well-equipped libraries. In fact the majority of primary students in NCD are using the National Library because of the lack of library facilities at their schools.




New Library



One of the schools in Port Moresby, Kila Kila primary school, has started their own library. The school did not have a library prior to book week so they decided to start their own. Hope Worldwide (PNG) has already donated books and the school has appealed to anyone who has books or magazines they don't want to donate them to the school as they will be put to good use.




Drugs in PNG



It has been revealed that since 1998 PNG and Australian police have been investigating the infiltration of amphetamines into PNG. It is also believed that police has made the first arrest for amphetamines use in PNG. A man is on K200 court bail after appearing in the Summary Offences Boroko District Court recently. Prior to this the only drugs in PNG were thought to be locally grown marijuana.




Mining and Petroleum



Income from the mining and petroleum sectors of the economy has reduced from 1996 to 2001 compared to increases each year from 1990 to 1995. One of the reasons for the reduction is due to depletion of reserve levels in the existing oil and gold copper fields. The exchange rate has also declined in recent years in line with deteriorating prospects for the economy and the relatively high inflation rate. The US Dollar is now worth somewhere around 24 cents US.




Air Traffic Control



Grade nine students from Tokarara High School in Port Moresby have been lucky enough to be able to visit the airport control tower at Jackson's airport to complement the theoretical science lesson on communication that the students have been doing. It is hoped that the students gained valuable practical experiences of what the teachers teach are able to them in the classroom.




Rabaul



The Gazelle Restoration Authority will reconstruct two wharves in Rabaul. Work is expected to start at the end of November. The World Bank at an estimated cost of K3 million is funding the project. Cold Storage facilities will also be constructed along with ice making equipment which will help local fisherman keep their produce in tip top condition at Rabaul market.




Dauli Teachers College



Gun-wielding locals have closed the Dauli Teachers College in the Southern Highlands province following attacks on the teachers and students. The locals, who staged the attacks, were armed with guns, bush-knives and axes. Their motives are not known, but it has been reported the locals were capitalising on the political situation in the area.




Wau Troubles



After criminals held up a man and his wife and robbed them near Wau in Morobe province people fed up with the law and order problem, mobilised and attacked the suspects. One of the suspects was admitted to the local hospital with deep wounds to his body whilst the other needed treatment at the main provincial hospital in Lae with shotgun pellet wounds to his body.


 





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-- THE END --

Some of the above are courtesy of Liz and her friends at the University of Technology in Lae. http://www.unitech.ac.pg

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Created 12 Aug 2002
Updated 22 Aug 2002

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©2002 - 2008 Gia Mann