P.N.G. Gossip Newsletter - 6 Dec 2003

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PNG Gossip Newsletter Meri Milne Bay

Welcome to the

Papua New Guinea Gossip Newsletter


A very special welcome is extended to any new readers. If you have comments or suggestions to make then please e-mail them to giaman@pnggossip.com

Articles for this newsletter

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Neo Melanesian

"Pidgin English"
Tok Pisin English
kek cake
ken can
kes / sutkes / bokis case / suitcase
kerosen kerosine
kepten captain
ketel kettle
kiap government officer /
patrol officer
kiau bulb / light globe
kiau egg
kik kick
kilim injure
kilim i dai pinis kill


~~~~~~~

 

 

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 28.5 - 29 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

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 and Tourism Directory located 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.expedia.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

PNG Diving

The following is sample of some of the web sites dealing with diving in PNG. It is not a complete list and if you would like your organisation mentioned in this newsletter please let me know.



PNG Religious Sites





The Free Dictionary



The Free Dictionary has a link about PNG located at -- http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Papua New Guinea


 

News Items



Wabag - Enga Province



Thanks to the Rotary clubs in Australia the Wabag General Hospital in Enga Province have received paraplegic beds, wheelchairs, physiotherapy equipment, mattresses, labour ward mattresses, bed sheets, operating gowns, drugs, blankets, bedcovers and pillow cases for the hospital. The Wabag Secondary School and the Kopen Secondary School will divide 55 boxes of library books between themselves also thanks to the Rotarians.



Government Grace Period



The motion to extend the grace period of votes of no confidence in governments from 18 months to 36 months has been defeated for the second time in Parliament. The Opposition Leader, Sir Mekere Morauta, has filed court papers to bar another attempt to re-introduce the failed amendment. Sir Mekere has named acting Speaker Jeffery Nape and the State as defendants in the case. He is asking the courts to declare that the Government's failure to muster the numbers for the third and final reading of the amendment means the vote has lapsed and should not be entertained again

The sacked Deputy Prime Minister Andrew Baing has recently referred five People's Progress Party Members of Parliament, including Justice Minister Mark Maipakai to the Ombudsman Commission for voting against his party resolution to not support the vote to increase the ruling governments grace period from 18 months to 36 months. The five, including Trade and Industry Minister Paul Tiensten, Rabaul MP Dr Allan Marat, Imbonggu MP Timothy Tala and Koroba-Lake Kopiago MP Petrus Thomas voted with the Government for the amendment. This was against the party's resolution to oppose the Bill.



Overseas Employment



Lady Carol Kidu, the Minister for Social Welfare and Development has said that the export of PNG labour overseas to pick fruit should not be seen as slave labour. She said that agriculture is a base for most PNG people. The work should be seen as helping to supplement a shortage of fruit-picking labour in Australia. It is hoped that this proposal would also help to cut down on the number of unemployed people in PNG.



Rouna Shutdown



The national capital district was recently facing frequent power blackouts due to power shedding at the Moitaka and Kanudi stations because Koiari landowners demanding land compensation shut down the Rouna station. The Rouna station supplies about 40 per cent of the total power supply for the city of Port Moresby. The Rouna landowners went to the power station, overpowered the security guards and ordered the workers to shut down the power station.



Panakawa Veneer Factory



Claims that the Panakawa Veneer factory has become a place where managers forced workers into having sex with them has been denied by the Malaysian owner. The owner admitted that one of its senior officers - from Tufi, Oro Province - had appeared in court for having sex at the campsite. The denial has come after the MP for Ijivitari, Cecilking Doruba, claimed in Parliament recently that managers of the logging company were "having forced sex" with female employees of the company at the Panakawa factory in Western Province and asked the Minister for Forest Patrick Pruaitch to investigate.



Goroka University



The head of the University of Goroka is dismayed by the slice of the budget that was handed to it by the government for the year 2004. The dormitories at the university are run down and need maintenance and the sewerage facilities are virtually non-existent at the uni. The university head is afraid that they will not have enough money to pay staff next year let alone fix some of the major problems.



Real Estate Agents





Vanilla Industry



The new Deputy Prime Minister and Agriculture Minister Moses Maladina has told Parliament that the lucrative vanilla industry needed to be regulated. Vanilla is an important crop for PNG but it was subject to the effect of world commodity prices. He has advised villagers farming vanilla to diversify and not just rely on vanilla as the only crop. Mr Maladina said the vanilla industry was not regulated in PNG because it was a new crop but the government was thinking of putting some control in place.



UPNG Security



Security at the University if PNG has been beefed up with the training of 25 guards in the art of handling a guard dog over a two-week course.. Among the 25 trained three of the trainees were women. The dogs used by the University are Rottweilers, Dobermans and timber shepherds. The dogs will be used to protect students and make the campus a harmonious and peaceful study environment.



Governor General Elections



Three people were nominated for the position of Governor General. They were Sir Paulias Matane, Sir Albert Kipalan and Sir Pato Kakaraya. - The battle of the Knights! The original election, of Sir Albert Kipalan, was declared null and void by the courts as Parliament dit not follow the correct procedures. This fresh election was not without controversy when the speaker ruled that the election should be held on regional grounds and eliminated one of the contenders because he was not from the "correct" region. The winner was Sir Pato Kakaraya from Enga Province.



Japanese Tourists



It has been estimated that Air Niugini brings in approximately 5000 Japanese tourists each year. This is only 5000 out of an estimated 19 million outbound passengers from Japan every year. It has been estimated that about K20 million of this is spent with the various tourist operators in the country. That is - each tourist spends about K4000 each whilst they are in the country. Overall the Japanese tourists are estimated to contribute over K32 million to the economy of PNG - all this from only one flight a week. About 4000 genuine tourists from Australia visit PNG each year and it is estimated that they contribute K15 million to the PNG economy.



Japanese Language



There are not many schools around PNG teaching the Japanese language. The only school in the West Sepik Province to do this is the Saint Ignatius Secondary School in Aitape. The Japanese government has donated K3000 worth of materials to the school. The language course is optional for students attending Grade 11 and 12 at the school.



Tok Pisin Language



Here is an article on - "Tok Pisin" - The National Language of Papua New Guinea --
http://www.siu.edu/departments/cola/ling/reports/Etepa/ -- Prepared and written by Edward Etepa
Here is a paragraph from the article.

The historical beginning of Tok Pisin can be traced in the early 18th century, however, it does not appear fully formed until mid 1885. Its genesis was the result of a gradually stabilizing and expanding contact language which went through the following stages of development: jargon stage, to stable pidgin, expanded pidgin, followed by creolization on the notion of the pidgin/creole life cycle. The history of Tok Pisin is complex, recent research by numerous pidgin/creole linguists have shown that it would be an oversimplification of the situation to suggest that Tok Pisin represents a direct linear descendant of Pacific Jargon English which developed in several varieties in various parts of the South Pacific before the middle of the 19th century as a result of contacts between Europeans and South Sea islanders.

Jimmy Harlindong, who looks after various websites about Papua New Guinea, has announced that he has readied his Pidgin / English / Motu dictionary website located at http://www.pngbd.com/dictionary.php to a stage where it can be used. It allows the user to lookup the meaning of words in all directions. Of course, like any web site, it will never be finished so if you have some words to add or alterations that need to be done then let me know and I will pass them on to Jimmy.



PNG Business Directory



The lady behind the PNG Business and Tourism Directory, Gail Thomas, has had a good write up in the Post Courier recently. Her website, designed by Jimmy Harlindong, has been reported as having over 2 million hits for the month of November. Hits do not mean much but the article also mentioned that there were approximately 64,000 visitors for the month or over 2000 visitors a day. This web site is highly recommended and those figures back up my sentiments about the site as I think it would be the PNG web site with the largest number of visitors. -- http://www.pngbd.com



Australian Rugby League



It has been reported that two Australian Rugby League teams will play in PNG the year 2005. The teams may play against each other or against a PNG-select side to be known as the PNG Prime Ministers XIII. This is part of a proposed foundation called the Marcus Bai Foundation to foster Rugby League in PNG and hopefully produce plays of the same calibre as Marcus. It is proposed that the two Australian teams will alternate each year if the PM's XIII eventuates.



Datec



Datec PNG have finally, officially, opened their 2 year old building. Or maybe it was just an excuse to have an extra big Christmas party for 500 of their major customers? Datec also launched their new "Thing big" advertising campaign.



ANZ Bank Port Moresby



The ANZ Bank in downtown Port Moresby has introduced a sophisticated numbering system to help serve customers faster. Some customers were not happy recently when the numbering machine ran out of paper and it appeared that the tellers did not remember how to serve waiting customers until the machine once again had paper in it. Many customers left the bank very disgruntled over the incident.



Westpac Bank



Customers of the Westpac Bank in PNG will soon be able to use their bankcards in all Automatic Teller machines (ATM) owned by other banks. This follows on from the announcement that the Westpac Bank was considering a full extension of electronic interchange with its soon to be released ATM network.



Value Added Tax



The PNG Parliament has voted to abolish the Value Added Tax (VAT) and replace it with a Goods and Services Tax (GST). The Supreme Court declared VAT unconstitutional last year after a challenge by the Governor of Morobe Province Luther Wenge. VAT was introduced in 1999 to replace provincial sales tax.



School Subsidies



The schools in the national capital have received the school subsidies for the final quarter of the year. A cheque for K239,000 was presented to the National Capital District assistant education secretary by the chairman of the NCDC board for the 95 schools in the National Capital District.



Church Agreement



The Anglican, Catholic and Lutheran Churches in PNG have signed an historic agreement to recognise the validity of each others baptism. The signing of the agreement also means that the three churches recognised the apostolic roots of their common Christian faith. The signing does not, however, mean that there will be any merger of the churches. The agreement was signed by the Anglican Archbishop James Ayong, Bishop Kiage Motoro of the Lutheran Church and Bishop John Ribot from the Catholic Church.



Igam Barracks



The PNG Defence Force barracks at Igam (Lae) have been without water for over two weeks. The barracks normally draws its water supply from wells separate to the water sourced for the rest of Lae city but the generator to power the water pumps has failed. The residents of the barracks have had to ration water and a water cart is providing some relief. The Igam Primary School also uses the water so there have been problems with the school as well. It is hoped that the pump has now been fixed.



Gobe Landowners



The Gobe Field Engineering company handed over a windfall of K200,000 in management fees to local landowners just in time for Christmas. Eight clans jointly own the company. The management fees paid to the landowners was from the profits of Engineering company.



Defence Force



The PNG Defence Force has managed to save K5 million from its budget this year. The savings have come from various reforms made this year. The force has been allocated almost K80 million in the 2004 budget.



Davara Hotel



The Ela Beach Hotel, formerly the Davara, is up for sale by Tender. The hotel is currently owned by the same chain that owns the Crowne Plaza (POM Travelodge / Parkroyal) and the Holiday Inn (Islander). The chain has decided it would cost too much for them to bring the hotel up to a standard acceptable to the chain. The Ela Beach has 47 rooms which includes serviced apartments.



AIDS Campaign



The National AIDS Council has recently launched the third National HIV/AIDS prevention campaign. The campaign has been designed to highlight the risks of people having more than one sex partner. It is hoped that the new campaign will promote discussion on HIV/AIDS. It also hopes to remove some of the stigma that is currently perceived as being attached to someone with HIV or AIDS.



Chinese Grant



China has given PNG a grant of K9 million. Some of the money will be used to renovate Government House. It will also be used for economic and technical co-operation projects such as the reconstruction of the mathematics and computer science building at the University of Technology in Lae and infrastructure for the Vudal University in Rabaul.



2004 International School Fees



Port Moresby High School has advertised the school fees for Grades 7 - 12 for the PNG syllabus for next year. PNG Grades 9 and 10 K5250 and PNG Grade 11 and 12 K5800. The fee for international curriculum is not known at this stage. The International Education Agency Schools in Lae have advertised a price of K2,240 for each term next year.






PNG Media


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-- THE END --

Some of the ways of saying "that's all" are courtesy of Liz and her friends at the University of Technology in Lae. http://www.unitech.ac.pg

If you can add to this list then please send email to PNG-News@pnggossip.com

 






Created 6 Dec 2003
Updated 16 Dec 2003

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