NAMORONG REPORT

AUSAID’s neo-colonization agenda extends to “SUSTAINABLE MINING”

2012-02-27T01:54:00.001+10:00

No folks this aint no prank. AUSAID actually think you’re fools but hopefully you’re not.

AusAID pays millions to consultants who come up with the term “SUSTAINABLE MINING”. Actually, maybe they didn’t have to pay millions because BHP Billiton, the Australian criminals who destroyed the Fly River after “sustainably mining” Ok Tedi created the PNG Sustainable Development Company. I bet they must have secretly wished to call is “PNG Sustainable Mining Company” since it is the largest shareholder of Ok Tedi Mine.

Here is a quote from the AusAID webpage regarding “sustainable mining”:

“Many of Australia's developing partner countries have substantial natural resources and are engaged in mining. Australia can provide these countries with the expertise they need to build a sustainable mining sector, making better use of revenues, improving socially and environmentally sustainable development, and growing the economy.”

Those of us in Papua New Guinea who aren’t colonized by AUSAID Mining Consultants keep looking at the Watut disaster, the Fly River disaster, the Panguna disaster and laugh at the AUSAID’s bullshit about “socially and environmentally sustainable development.” But this is no laughing matter coz AUSAID seems to be in control of the mostly AUSAID-trained Papua New Guinean so called elite who run this country.

Australia says it can provide expertise to build a “sustainable mining” sector. I bet we should ask the Bougainvilleans how the Australians were “real experts” at Panguna. The Australians certainly provided assistance to the PNG Government to crush the rebellion on Bougainville so that Panguna could be “sustainably mined” by Anglo-Australian miner, Rio Tinto.

The page also states that one of the Ten Objectives of the Australian Government is to:

"improve incomes, employment and enterprise opportunities for poor people in both rural and urban areas, including the development of sustainable mining industries to boost overall economic development."

Well we all know whose incomes will be improved and by that we mean the Australian Mining companies and AUSAID Consultants.

By now we all should realize the obvious: AUSAID represents a separate legal entity called the Commonwealth of Australia while its “Development Partner Countries” are separate legal entities. AUSAID Consultants including those involved in so called “sustainable mining” are paid to represent the interests of a separate legal entity called Australia and therefore cannot give Independent Advice to any Foreign Government.

It’s like a lawyer representing the Miners giving legal advice to a landowner company [a separate legal entity] about the mining contract that same lawyer drew up for the miners. That lawyer cannot possibly give Independent legal advice to landowners if the Miner is paying the bills.

There is inevitably a conflict of Interest situation that therefore arises when AUSAID consultants provide so called “sustainable mining” technical assistance. The Australian Government is known to act in Australian Mining companies interest as they did on Bougainville.

I hope the Papua New Guinean sheeple who work under AUSAID “Sustainable Mining” Consultants are proud of their patriotic selves. AUSAID “Sustainable Mining” consultants just “help” provide:

“technical assistance for the establishment of a sovereign wealth fund to receive and manage anticipated revenues from the LNG project...”

Wewak’s District Police Commander murdered at Kaindi

2012-02-26T17:27:00.001+10:00

A resident at Kreer Heights in Wewak town has confirmed to the Namorong Report that Wewak District Police Station Commander, Charles Parinjo was murdered last night. The resident, Mr. Peter Mark informed the Namorong Report that Commander Parinjo was heading to his village along the West Coast of Dagua when he was murdered by criminals.

Mr. Mark said that the story in Wewak is that as Commander Parinjo was heading on the stretch of road near the junction between Kaindi Teacher’s College and the Dagua West Coast Road he came across a group of men drinking along the Road. It is believed Commander Parinjo intervened to break up the drinking when he was attacked by the drunken men.

Mr. Mark reported that one of the men living in the area recognized Mr. Parinjo and went to his house where he collected his gun and came back to shoot Mr. Parinjo. Mr. Parinjo was wounded by a gunshot and retreated to his vehicle. As he tried to drive back into Town his vehicle was hit by an oncoming PMV.

Commander Parinjo was later taken to Wewak’s Boram General Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Following the death of Mr. Parinjo, all Police in Wewak mobilized and raided the houses in the vicinity of the crime scene. Mr. Mark, who travelled this morning to Wom Beach, drove past the carnage. Mr. Parinjo’s vehicle was all wrecked up and the homes between Kaindi Junction and the little creek with water lilies were destroyed. A nearby beer shop was also razed to the ground.

The Kerema compound opposite the crime scene was left untouched. Those affected were from various parts of East Sepik Province.

Mr. Mark said that suspects have been detained and that currently there are no indications that Parinjo’s death was politically motivated.

Australia was Naïve about PNG and continues to be

2012-02-26T12:15:00.001+10:00

BY PAUL OATS

Hi Martyn,

thank you for raising these issues and having the ‘guts, gumption and get up and go’ to actually confront head on, some of the problems affecting your nation. We all know corruption, nepotism, maleficence and political connivance are not exclusively PNG’s problem. You only have to look at Transparency International’s map of the world and their corruption index.

However before we can find an effective solution to a problem, you must first effectively define the problem.

With the benefits of hindsight, no one could claim that there weren’t mistakes made during PNG’s nation building. Depending on your point of view, with another 10 years of gradual preparation, education, better communications and experience prior to Independence, PNG might well have been a different place than it is now. On the other hand, it may not.

Those in PNG who pushed for independence as soon as possible were very much like yourself. Young, energetic and well intentioned and hoping to ‘set the world on fire’.

The young PNG politicians then were very eager to get on with the job at hand but with the benefit of hindsight, maybe they were just a tad too inexperienced to appreciate the enormous responsibility they were demanding to be quickly given them. To those that were there at the time and met many of these people, most started out like most budding politicians with the very best of intentions.

In many ways Martyn, you are quite correct in pointing out the somewhat naïve attempts at fast tracking political awareness by those in Canberra who had very little idea of what the implications of fast tracking independence would be. To infer however that this was an intentional error on Australia’s behalf is not true. Certainly, if a plebiscite had’ve been conducted, the vast majority of PNG people in the early 1970’s would have wanted Australia to stay for many years and only gradually withdraw.

There was real pressure from the recently independent African states through the UN who were pressing Australia to leave PNG as quickly as possible. New Guinea was a UN mandated territory as you know. Many of those same African states now have serious internal troubles and PNG could learn from these examples.

Australia’s Constitution was put together by some very learned people over a period of at least 10 years. Those who helped assemble this document were experienced leaders and politicians who knew what would work and what wouldn’t. It was not an easy task. At the time, areas like Western Australia and Northern Queensland were not sure they wanted to Federate and help create our Commonwealth. Even today, Tasmania has to rightly point out when it’s occasionally left off the nation’s map.

This long period of debate and serious contemplation by veteran leaders was never afforded PNG when her Constitution was drafted. To infer however that Australia intentionally has produced ‘monsters and psychopaths’ is drawing a long bow. Was it the training that produced your problems or the home grown, weakening of the systems that has now been allowed to develop? There is no shortage of charlatans in every society who will always seek to gain advantage and power.

So might you be demonising the system rather than the bad apples that have floated to the top like garbage in the harbour?

PNG’s system of checks and balances has been allowed to atrophy. The Ombudsman Commission, that body created to keep government in check, has not been properly funded or staffed. The RPNGC has not been properly funded and has the lowest pro rata numbers in our region. Education and Health have been allowed to whither on the vine. Agriculture has not been encouraged to produce the nation’s food requirements and enable self sufficiency as a nation. Resource extraction has been allowed to run out of control. The public service is reportedly notorious for not turning up for work or demanding bribes before anything is done. All these were not Australia's doing or intention.

The real problem as I have attempted to illustrate, is that the checks and balances put in place in the government systems at Independence to prevent current problems from happening, were not designed by those who understood PNG as it would develop after independence.

Naivety? Certainly with hindsight, I agree with you. Intentional, ‘supremacy through surrogacy’? Sorry, where is the proof?

There is a real danger that if we try to pin the present ills on the lack of foresight of those in the past, we tend to absolve ourselves of any responsibility and motivation to fix today’s situation and find better ways of doing things.

Paul Oates and Barbara Short and I talk’n ‘bout PNG

2012-02-25T22:26:00.001+10:00

IT’S RAINING AT THE MOMENT, so I’ve quit my mowing and I’m inside at the computer again. I thought I’d tap up Martyn Namorong’s blog site and read his latest post, The uncertain road to Melbourne [see also PNG Attitude, Friday].

Here are a few thoughts that might help Martyn with ideas for the Melbourne conference.

Martyn wrote: ‘We need to recognise that the current systems of government are inherited from our colonial masters.’

Yep! That’s right, but so what? The current systems of government were in turn inherited from earlier systems that were refined and tweaked for hundreds if not thousands of years. They were developed from systems that had been proven to work elsewhere.

When I was travelling through Greece a couple of years ago, I said to our Greek tour guide: “Thank you for looking after our history”. She got somewhat miffed and said: “No, it’s ourhistory, not yours.”

I explained that it depends on how you look at it.

My history, language and culture comes from Australia but before that it evolved from Britain and before that Europe and Ancient Rome and before that Ancient Greece and before that Egypt and Mesopotamia and before that… etc.

“Oh!” she said.

Papua New Guinea’s history, English usage and culture come in part from that long line of antecedents as well as from traditional Melanesian sources.

Martyn wrote: ‘These systems were created for the purposes of taming so called primitive natives and pacifying them.’

Well I guess it depends on what systems you are referring to. If Martyn was talking about the system of Westminster government, then I would have to in part disagree.

It is true that the Australian system of government was bequeathed to PNG by those who in Canberra seemed to think, mistakenly, that they knew better and refused to listen to those who did have some practical experience at the kunai roots level of rural PNG.

If Martyn was perhaps referring to the kiap system of rural administration, then perhaps he might consider a very detailed discussion I had with some PNG mates about how the kiap system worked and why it worked.

I suggested to them that the only reason kiaps were able to manage rural areas and thousands of people was that those people gave the power to the kiap rather than the kiap taking it from the people.

I did however ask why did the people allow this to happen? Was it what the kiap could offer in the way of change and material goods? Was it the education and business opportunities that came after the area was pacified and law and order introduced? ‘No way’, they said.

It was because the kiap system dovetailed neatly into a fundamental and essential part of the traditional PNG village culture, i.e. the ‘big man’.

The village people recognised the kiap as the ‘big man’ and he became culturally acceptable and was easily fitted into the rural scene. In fact, kiaps did very little to change the village culture apart from ending warfare and other anti social practices. That was part of their success.

Only after the kiap system was dismantled by Somare after Independence did things go awry. Nepotism and corruption became rife.

In western government systems, the legislature is responsible for making laws, not enacting the law. That is the province of the public service.

This is the system PNG was left with. It was however changed by the elites who grasped power at Independence and decided to introduce changes to ‘help themselves’.

The fact that some MP’s want ‘the power’ to both make laws and dole out taxpayer money to obtain personal power and prestige is not the system installed prior to Independence.

So there could be a very convincing argument presented that in fact, the systems now currently in place in PNG and that are clearly not working are a direct result of home grown actions and not those externally imposed.

The term ‘neo colonialism’ may well define the problem but the source might also be closer to home.

________________________________________________

REPLY BY BARBARRA SHORT

Fully agree with you Paul.

As somebody said recently somewhere on this blog, the parliament scrapped the talented public servants and awarded the Public Works jobs to contractors, probably the Minister's wantoks, who often were not trained for the jobs.

The tender system was scrapped and the jobs went to the Minister's wantoks, with a commission thrown in for him. The job didn't go to the best tender.

the Minister made the decision if the job was done properly or not. The job may not have been completed but he would sign it off and his wantok would be paid, and he would get his commission.

Getting back to the "big man concept". I know that there are some older well educated men and women in PNG, who would be great people to have in charge of development in the provinces.

They may have been Professors at the Universities, got their doctorates from overseas universities, run various Government Agencies etc etc but are now sitting home retired! But they are just in their 50s.

What a waste of good manpower!

They may have come from provinces where the local "big men" are trying to bribe the electorates to elect them to the parliament at the next election so they can grow wealthy in the way mentioned above, pure greed and corruption!

What on earth can PNG do to get the right type of person elected to the Parliament? There are men and women who have the training, the character, the motivation to do the best they can for the country, but they don't fit into a "corrupt scene" described in Simbu!

Let's hope Martyn will come up with some solutions to the current problem.

As Paul points out, this concept of thinking - "These systems were created for the purposes of taming so called primitive natives and pacifying them." - is actually something that has been contrived by recent PNG parliaments and it is not something that they inherited from Australia.

______________________________________

MY RESPONSE TO BOTH VIA PNG ATTITUDE

I believe Paul and Barbara assume I'M putting all the blame on the colonial masters. You will find this paragraph in my article, which explains what the article is on about:

"Colonisation now has a black face that perpetuates that colonial legacy. You don’t govern your people using a system that was intended to dominate them. You cannot secure a prosperous future unless you address the issue of neo-colonisation."

This paragraph basically agrees with Paul and Barbara with respect to how the so called elites have used the machinations of colonialism to subjugate the rest of their fellow Papua New Guineans.

Just in case Paul still believes there is no outside involvement whether direct or indirect; MOST OF OUR ELITE WERE TRAINED BY AUSTRALIANS BEFORE INDEPENDENCE UP UNTIL NOW. Australia has produced and continues to produce the monsters and psychopaths that run PNG.

The truth about PNG: why we’re not getting anywhere

2012-02-24T09:03:00.001+10:00

"In 1975, Australia left us a flawed system at Independence. PNG has in the past 36 years completely failed to fix its political system for a better government for all citizens. LET US FIX IT NOW!” REGINALD RENAGI

ONE DECEMBER AFTERNOON I had suggestions from friends on Facebook about this conference to be held in Melbourne. They said I should write something to present. They thought I had some insights to contribute.

I looked up the conference details and contacted the organisers at Deakin University, Melbourne. Last week I got a response from the university.

If we are to talk about securing a prosperous future for PNG we have to talk about an exit strategy and timetable for all so called development partners to pull out of PNG.

Just as my trip to Melbourne is full of uncertainties, I also do not wish to raise false hopes about me providing answers to what are essentially difficult questions.

What I am certain of this that the current model of development is fundamentally flawed because it is built on the legacy of domination.

Colonisation now has a black face that perpetuates that colonial legacy. You don’t govern your people using a system that was intended to dominate them. You cannot secure a prosperous future unless to address the issue of neo-colonisation.

We need to recognise that the current systems of government are inherited from our colonial masters.

These systems were created for the purposes of taming so called primitive natives and pacifying them.

In other words, they are systems of domination and subjugation and therefore in light of their failure to bring development to the so called primitive natives, continue to serve the original purpose they were created for.

In Melbourne, in the one paper, I am going to compress as many ideas from my blog as possible.

I hope this to be the most definitive summary of what I believe is right and wrong with PNG and the way forward.

MMJV SPIN DOC CALLED OUT ON FACEBOOK

2012-02-22T03:47:00.001+10:00

Via Mine Watch

Morobe Mines Joint Venture (MMJV) "spokesperson" David Wissink who's title is reported as - Ya Gotta Love This - General Manager, Sustainability and External Relations - had to earn his money recently covering up and lying about the company's cyanide spill when one of their trucks overturned causing yet another environmental disaster.

Wissink, former spin doctor for OK Tedi mines (obviously highly respected by the mining industry) proved his worth to MMJV and the mining industry while showing no respect whatsoever to the people and environment in the area. His bullshit was so blatantly pathetic - obviously from the Mining guidebook on how to spin almost anything - we simply had to share it. And in looking at blogs, facebook and twitter no one's buying the nonsense in the least with some people becoming more upset with the spin. Let's look at Dr. Dave's (a moniker given him by several bloggers - who bestowed him with a Dr. of Bullshit degree)- statements.

“The mine has agreed to provide environmental support to help identify the cause.” ( Yea right Dr. Dave - the mine wants to get to the bottom of what caused the problem after your cyanide truck crashed!)

“The quality of water discharge from mine operations is monitored daily and reported to the DEC weekly and monthly. (Dr. Dave uses the ole mining technique of saying nothing here and trying to make us believe because the mine reports weekly and monthly to a weak, corrupt, in the pockets of the miners agency that they are doing all they can do - right Dr. Dave - got it)

“There are no abnormalities in the HV water quality data as it is well within compliance parameters. (This is Dr. Dave saying that the mine is complying with the law - laws which favor the miners - and could care less about the damage done to the water, fish or people. Sorry Doc - no one buys it. This is the 21st century. You're not at OK Tedi any more.
“The greatest impact on the river system in the area at the moment is the Kumalu mudslide where cubic kilometres of sediment have entered the river system due to heavy rain. (Oh Dr. Dr. Dr. - the ole try to take their eye off the issue and blame it on Mother Nature herself - Sigh!!!!)

“It is not known what has caused the fish deaths. (But you can be sure our cyanide had nothing to do with it!!!)

“However, such occurrences are a well-documented phenomenon throughout the world and are usually caused by depletion in dissolved oxygen in the water.” (Again an attempt to dazzle us all with science and to have us believe it is a natural occurrence. Ah Dr. Wissink - its your cyanide that did it - admit it and deal with it -but wait that would cause the company problems - and possible lawsuits - and you would lose your status!)

Here's a beautiful statement by the Dr. of Bullshit "He said later in an email that the truck crash was “old news and of absolutely no relevance to the current situation”. (We're speechless!)

“The fish deaths came from natural sources up the Banir River. (That's right everyone STOP BLAMING THE DAMN CYANIDE will you - it was Mother Nature doing what you kanakas don't understand - Nice try Dave!)

“And if you run a link between a truck accident of three weeks ago and the natural deaths of fish nowhere near this truck accident then that’s pretty irresponsible. (We know its difficult to choose but this MAY be our favorite bullshit line here - we mean Dr. Dave representing MMJV whose vehicle just spilled cyanide damaging an eco system telling us about being IRRESPONSIBLE!)

Wait there's one more - you ready?
“(And) that does damage to our reputation when there’s nothing of substance to report,” Wissink said in the email. (Gosh imagine damaging the company's reputation - can you believe it? Dr. Dave is that like damaging the water system with cyanide?)

______________________

AUTHORITIES MUST RELEASE PATHOLOGY/TOXICOLOGY RESULTS OF TESTS CARRIED OUT ON TISSUES OF THE DEAD FISH AND EELS AS WELL AS THE RESULTS OF WATER QUALITY TESTS DONE IN THE IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH OF THE ECOLOGICAL DISASTER.

It would also be useful to do tests on shellfish down the river as they are likely to contain high levels of the toxic substance involved.

Without these results, one cannot be satisfied with Winssink or DEC’s verbal diarrhoea.

What would they be like if they owned Port Moresby?

2012-02-21T21:41:00.001+10:00

Take a look at that child above: in theory he could have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, if his father owned the land that is now Port Moresby.

Instead, he lives in a slum. Literally living on top of shit.

WHY?

Because the model of development that Papua New Guinea blindly follows is meant to disenfranchise indigenous people and serve the interests of those who came to colonize this land.

Today of course we don’t have the former colonizers but neo-colonisation exists in its various forms. The model of development we currrently follow is based on the template of suppressing indigenous people and subjecting them to colonial rule.

Imagine if a model of development recognized indigenous land rights without exceptions and the Hanuabadans simply collected rent on customary land they owned in Port Moresby. That kid above wouldn’t be living in a ghetto.

Instead, what the current model of development does is it creates the enabling mechanisms for the owners of Capital to exploit indigenous people. I guess the World Bank and Asian Development Bank call it Private Sector Development and Public Private Partnerships.

Lets take a look at another example, Limoa Holdings and Sepik Oil Palm Ltd. Limoa holdings is the landowner company that owns the lease to Portion 144C, Turubu SABL. But since they’ve converted their land to an SABL, they now own only 20% of a company [Sepik Oil Palm Ltd] that has rights to that land for 99 years. So they went from having 100% land rights to being only 20% all because they used the current model of development to try and bring development to their place. Basically they had no Capital so they went to bed with a Capitalist who had Capital to ensure he had a majority stake in the land.

As I‘ve mentioned earlier, this model of development is in favour of the exploiters, not the exploited.

I could go on citing various examples but I guess you get the point: this model of development creates the enabling mechanisms for Vampire Capitalism to thrive while the people of Papua New Guinea get screwed on Rabaul Queen, at Tumbi, on Airlines PNG, along th Fly River, along the Watut, in Bougainville, etc…

Papua New Guinea's Soldiers and Cops exploited

2012-02-21T17:50:00.001+10:00

Papua New Guinean film maker Scott Waide’s recent video featuring the squalid living conditions of police in the Madang Province, highlighted the humanity and fragileness of these men in blue in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

No doubt there are shit cops who in many ways have defined the way the public sees the police force. But when one is presented with shit living conditions yet chooses to continue to serve the public, surely such service is beyond “just doing one’s job”.

Many Policemen are leaving the force for greener pastures in the security industry largely related to the Liquefied Natural Gas Project in the Southern Highlands. These are men whom our taxes paid for to be trained as cops to ensure that the general tax-payers can live in safe communities. These are men whom we the tax paying public trained for securing our communities, yet they are now securing private assets of a private company that got a huge tax holiday.

We’ve lost their services because successive governments have neglected their needs just as those governments have failed to deliver to the rural majority.

There is are saying that goes, “if you pay bananas you get monkeys.” Basically what it means is that you will never be able to keep the best and brightest if you cannot pay them well and what you end up with are monkeys.

Former PNG Defence Force Commander, Jerry Singirok once highlighted this concern in the military as some of its brightest joined the ranks of private security firms associated with the lucrative LNG Project. The same concern can be expressed about the Police as well.

How do we keep the best and brightest in both disciplinary forces so that we do not have to be harassed by thugs in Police uniformed or face the risk of further military coups or mutinies? Scott’s video highlights one aspect the government could deal with – HOUSING.

But one thing that pisses me off is that the very people –the 1%- whom the Police and Military are used by, have failed to address welfare issues not just amongst the disciplinary forces but amongst the rest of us – we the 99%.

Politicians who did not give a rat’s ass about the conditions of soldiers at Taurama Barracks used those soldiers in a mutiny. Politicians who haven’t addressed the run down state of Moem Barracks now want to use those soldiers against their own people.

Loggers who practice transfer pricing and hoodwink the State’s coffers use the Police to brutalize ordinary citizens. Miners and Petroleum companies that get huge tax holidays, use the police to intimidate landowners and suppress dissent. These Vampire Capitalists suck out our resources and give little back to society. The Government therefore does not have the money to fix the Barracks and provide necessary support.

For example, Ramu Nickel Mine pays for fuel used by Madang’s Police. Their Public Relations people would say they’re helping the community fight crime. But Ramu Nickel has got a 10 year Tax Holiday, so basically it keeps the money it would otherwise pay as tax and uses that in so called community projects.

How come the Vampire Capitalists have money to sponsor this and that, while the Government says ‘no money’? Is it because the Government is not taxing the 1% such that it would meet its needs? It seems that when a Policeman or Soldier starts working, their first pay gets taxed but when a foreign corporation makes a lot of money from our resources, it gets a tax holiday.

Micah wants a harmonious society like China

2012-02-20T19:10:00.001+10:00

PRESS RELEASE BY BEN MICAH, PM O’Neil’s Chief Of Staff

Spreading of malicious and misleading information is a serious crime and those found to be doing such will be dealt with, says the Prime Minister’s Chief-of-Staff, Ben Micah.

Mr. Micah made these comments following recent circulation of anti-government information via text messages on mobile phones, email messages and comments being posted on social network site, Facebook.

“The military, police and the National Intelligence Organisation (NIO) and other pro-government civilian networks are monitoring all attempts to destabilise the Government’s firm control of the country.

“All patriots and law abiding citizens are required to be vigilant. I urge you all to separate rumours from facts and report any suspicious events to the Prime Minister’s office, the deputy PM’s office, police, PNGDF, the Office of the Chief Secretary or your local MP’s office.

“Such misinformation includes any information which you consider to be illegal and detrimental to the peace and good order of your community and subversive to the overall security of our nation,” he said.

A committee has been set up to look into this and to monitor and track down people who have ulterior motives to destabilise the government.

SPABLs: The fight to regain land has only began

2012-02-20T08:24:00.001+10:00

Special Purpose Agriculture Business Leases (SPABLs) are granted under sections 11 and 102 of the Land Act 1996. In other words these sections of the Land Act enable the conversion of customary land into SPABLs.

The process by which that happens is roughly as follows.

An application is made by the landowners to the Lands Department in Port Moresby, for their land to be taken up under an SABL.

A Land Investigation Number is then given by the Land Department in Port Moresby.

Port Moresby then refers the matter to the Provincial Land Office for a Land investigation process to begin. The Land investigation is then carried out by the District Lands Officer.

During the Land investigation process, Officers check the Name, locality and type of Land. They map out genealogies of customary landowners. A survey of the area is done and boundaries are declared between adjoining clans both within and without the proposed lease area.

Having sorted out the boundaries, informed consent is taken from ALL landowners. Land mediation takes place where there are members of the same clan who dissent.

Having done so analysis is done as to the projected population growth and whether sufficient land has been set aside for the needs of future generations.

The Land Investigation Report is then handed to the Provincial Administrator who makes an independent assessment and makes reservations where applicable. Following this the matter is referred to the Secretary for Provincial and Local Level Governments, who in her/his capacity as Custodian of Customary Land, signs a Certificate of Authenticity.

The matter is then referred to the Registrar of Land Titles who then Gazettes the Lease in the National Gazette.

All the above procedures were not adhered to in the recent acquisition of customary land under Special Purpose Agriculture Business Leases. This litany of failures has been chronicled during the recent Commission of Inquiry.

Many Customary Landowners assume that the Commission of Inquiry would give them back their legal rights to the land. However the Commission of Inquiry is only a fact finding mission and all matters relating to the disputes over land ownership are the Jurisdictions of the Local Land Courts and the Land Titles Commission.

Alternatively, given the coming elections, landowners could be lobbying for the State to Compulsorily Acquire the SPABL and under section 12 of the Lands Act 1996, and have that land returned to them. Or, they could lobby for Parliament to pass retrospective legislation, annulling the Leases.

Landowners must now brace themselves for a long battle ahead.

Disclaimer: This blog post is no substitute for professional legal advice

Dear Sam Basil: MMJV dumps shit on your people

2012-02-19T22:03:00.001+10:00

Sources within Morobe Mining Joint-Venture (MMJV) have confirmed that the reason for the deaths of eels and other aquatic life along the Markham is due to a cyanide spill. MMJV has not released an official statement on the matter and is tightlipped about the incident.

MMJV has never admitted that it is responsible for the pollution of the Watut river

-a tributary of the Markham. In the initial stages of construction, MMJV dumped tons of soil and debris into the Watut causing a significant build up of sediments.

MMJV continues to pollute the Markham and the Watut and refuses to acknowledge the fact that it is poisoning the people of the Watut and the Markham.

Pics

Watut 1 & 2 - skin disease suffered by people along the Watut. This is widespread.

Watut 3 below - the difference between the Watut and the Kumalo rivers on a clear day.

PNGs Secret Death Squad REVEALED

2012-02-19T12:06:00.001+10:00

FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF PAPUA NEW GUINEAN LIVES!

FOUND GUILTY!

Revelation of a web of lies as Sepik SABLs Inquiry Ends

2012-02-17T12:25:00.001+10:00

The Commission of Inquiry into Special Purpose Agriculture business leases ended yesterday. It heard further evidence related to Portion 144C, Sepik Oil Palm – Turubu SABL.

The Inquiry heard that following disputes over the Chairmanship of the Landowner Company Limoa Holdings, a Court order has been put in place restraining disputing parties from holding the post. The matter is yet to be resolved.

The first witness to give evidence was Provincial Customary Lands Officer, Mr Peter Francis Yakop. Mr Yakop informed the Commission that he had not physically visited the sites or conducted any land investigations prior to the granting of the SPABL to Limoa Holdings.

The Deputy Chairman of Limoa Holdings, Mr. Godfried Rausen was next to give evidence. Counsel assisting the Commission Mr Ketan asked Mr. Rausen if Limoa was the name of one clan. Mr Rausen admitted that it was indeed. He then informed the Commission that the initial idea was to have Limoa Land taken under a SPABL and for the purpose of Oil Palm Planting and for the neighbouring clans to be out-growers.

The crux of the matter in the case of Portion 144C is that of misrepresentation of the facts regarding an SABL. Other landowning groups had created their Incorporated Land Groups (ILGs) thinking that they would be out-growers of Oil Palm and not because they wanted to hand over their customary land. The 55 other ILGs were then included by executives of Limoa Holdings as part of the SABL. The consequences of this trickery was that 116 000 ha of customary land was alienated without proper consent.

Limoa Holdings then went into an unbalanced partnership with a foreign exploiter, Wewak Oil Palm Limited. Wewak Agriculture Development Ltd owns 80% shares in the Sepik Oil Palm Project while Limoa Holdings owns the balance. Limoa Holdings also issued shares to over a thousand people around the country.

When asked by Mr Ketan whether he had read the lease agreement before signing, Mr Rausen said he hadn’t. Mr Rausen also informed the Commission that the lease agreement was signed without legal advice.

The Commission has concluded its hearings and its findings will be presented later this year.

Turubu and Saussi landowners submit affidavits to COI

2012-02-16T10:10:00.001+10:00

Landowners from the Turubu and Saussi areas have submitted sworn affidavits to the Commission of Inquiry through their lawyer, Mr. Hubert Wali. These villagers are affected by the Sepik Oil Palm Project, Portion 144C COMMONLY REFFERED TO AS THE Turubu Oil Palm Project.

The landowners claim, amongst other things, that:

1. They had not given their prior consent to convert customary land to SABL

2. They had not participated in any land investigation

3. Consent that some of them gave was for development of their land other than an SABL

4. There was no proper forum held to discuss the environmental impacts

The landowners have also informed the Commission through their lawyer that they intend to take out an injunction to prevent further logging in the area.

Landowner Company was deregistered when it received Lease

2012-02-16T10:08:00.001+10:00

The Landowner Company, Mapsera Development Authority, that owns the lease to Portion 54C, Mapsera, was deregistered at the time the lease was granted. Counsel assisting the Commission, Mr. Ketan revealed to the Commission of Inquiry yesterday. The lease was granted on the 26^th of April 2010. He added that as the lease was granted to a non-existent entity, it was therefore flawed.

The Chairman of the deregistered company, Mr. Augustine Kaigen, then gave evidence in Tok Pisin. Mr. Kaigen informed the Commission that the area had been logged had about 1 300 logs have been exported via Hawain log pond on the west coast of East Sepik Province.

When asked whether a land investigation report has been done, Mr. Kaigen stated that over a 3 week period all 47 villages in the SABL area were visited and consent been taken for the use of their land under a Special Purpose Agriculture Lease. He also revealed that the expenses for the process were paid by the foreign exploiter known by its initials, SPZ.

After a Forest Clearance Authority was given to log the area, SPZ, logged the area and has since been gone without leaving behind any infrastructure for the benefit of the people.

Meanwhile a landowner from an area that is under disputed between Mapsera and Nungwaia-Bongos SABLs, has informed the Commission of Inquiry that he’s people would prefer to be part of the Nungwaia-Bongos SABL. Mr. Sam Akike, the chairman of landowner company Nuweidu Holdings, informed the Commission that he’s people were initially party to the Nungwaia –Bongos Forest Management Area and since its conversion to an SABL, they preferred to remain part of the Nungwaia-Bongos SABL.

Executives of Limoa Holdings referred to Police

2012-02-16T10:06:00.001+10:00

Commissioner Nicholas Mirou has referred the executives of Limoa Holdings to Police for possible criminal prosecutions following the incident at Sepik Oil Palm Plantation’s Turubu Nursery.

Last Wednesday, when the Commission visited the nursery, the Commissioners vehicle was set upon by angry landowners. This happened after they discovered that one of the opponents of the project had travelled in the Commissioner’s vehicle.

Commissioner Mirou informed the landowner company executives that he was not aware of the presence of persons of such nature as referred to by the aggrieved parties. Last Friday, he gave the executives an ultimatum, to either apologize to the Commission or face criminal charges for contempt of the Commission of Inquiry. The executives chose to apologize to the Commission and the matter was closed.

However, some of the executives decided to petition the Commission about an apprehension of bias regarding the same matter. Yesterday, Commissioner Mirou referred all the petitioners to the Police for prosecution. He said that by petitioning the Commission, they had reopened the matter and had rescinded on their apology. As such, they would face criminal prosecution for impeding the work of the Commission of Inquiry and face possible fines of up to K5 000 or imprisonment of up to 2 years.

One of the executives Francis Yabarasa will also face dangerous driving charges after he tried to ram his vehicle into the vehicle transporting Commissioner Mirou.

BREAKING NEWS: TASKFORCE SWEEP SWEPT OUT OF WEWAK

2012-02-15T19:58:00.001+10:00

An Air Niugini F100 Aircraft has just taken off from Wewak’s Boram Airport at 7:42 PM this evening. On board are members of Task Force Sweep; the special fraud squad set up by the O’Neil Namah regime. The members of task force sweep were blocked at the airport and forced to return to Port Moresby late this evening.

This incident is a clear challenge to the legitimacy of the O’Neil-Namah faction and their ability to govern the whole country.

There are no further details regarding the incident but residents sitting at Wewak’s Kreer Heights buai markets seemed completely shocked to see the aircraft take-off so late in the evening and in clear violation of Civil Aviation regulations.

What will happen to SABL land?

2012-02-14T20:05:00.001+10:00

Above: Haus Tambaran –Spirit House- at Maprik, East Sepik Province

Commissioner Nicholas Mirou continued o stress through the SABL hearings in Wewak, that the Land Act does not provide for the revocation of SABLs. The Land At 1996 provides at section 102 for the creation of Special Purpose Leases. Section 102 does not even specify where such leases should be owned by Papua New Guineans or Foreigners or both.

This ambiguity of the law means that it is uncertain whether customary landowners will ever get back the title to their land given the current situation. Over 5.2 million hectares of land has been Gazetted as SPABLs, the largest being 2 million hectares of land in the Western Province.

The Commission of Inquiry has thus concentrated on the acquisition process as part of its inquiries. The key determination is whether a proper land investigation process was done and whether customary landowners had given informed consent.

Lands officers in East Sepik have been exposed has incompetent during the inquiry. The Customary Lands Officer for East Sepik wasn’t aware of the process that led to the acquisition of nearly 300 000 hectares of customary land in the Province. A former Lands Officer, Francis Warren, admitted giving wrong advice to the landowners of Turubu SABL. When Commissioner Warren asked Mr. Warren if he knew about section 102 of the Land Act, Mr. Warren was unable to answer.

Provincial Forest officer for East Sepik, Mr. Richard Kali also highlighted to the Commission that there was lack of coordination between line agencies. For example, when the National Forest Authority issued Forest Clearance Authorities (FCAs), the Department of Agriculture and Livestock did not monitor whether the land that was cleared was being developed for agriculture. Consequently, as one travels through the SABL sites; there is a lot of logging going on and very little agricultural activity. In most cases, the seedlings have been planted recently, probably in response to the creation of the Commission of Inquiry.

Many landowner companies have signed agreements that are largely in favour of the exploiters. Landowners in Marrienberg have not had schools and clinics built or any other development activities. They say that this is because there was no provision for such benefits in the agreement with Brilliant Investments. Meanwhile, the log pond at Marrienberg is filled with piles of expensive Kwila for export.

Several years later and with millions of dollars worth of logs exported, landowner leaders like Moses Gawi from Marrienberg still back the exploiters and say these are early day for developmental benefits for his people. Meanwhile, back in the rainforests, communities live their traditional lives on land that they once used to own by virtue of their cultural heritage. They seem oblivious to the fact that they are now squatters who could be evicted by the lease holder.

At the hearings in Wewak, the partisan audience of anti-SABL landowners carry banners and make their points known in the room. Commissioner Mirou tries to keep order as they cheer to every word he says as he outlining the Land Investigation Process. One could almost believe he would be Governor of East Sepik if he stood in this year’s election.

From Turubu in the coast to further inland at Nungwaia-Bongos; they came to Wewak to tell Commissioner Mirou that they want their land returned. “Graun em Laif” – LAND IS LIFE- reads a banner held by protesting landowners. The landowners also presented a petition to the Commission of Inquiry which the Commission accepted as evidence.

One can understand their sentiments. The land that their forefathers gave their lives to protect and their future generations’ lives depend on has been squandered by short-sighted landowner leaders. Given the gravity of the situation, SABLs are now an election issue in the East Sepik Province as landowners accuse serving politicians of involvement. Indeed, the Nungwaia-Bongos project in Ambunti-Drekikir was backed by the local MP, Mr. Tony Aimo, who is also a landowner in the SABL area.

Landowners wanting to get back their land will have to vote in MPs who may make retrospective changes to the Land Act and have the leases revoked. Alternatively, a suggestion by counsel assisting the Inquiry, Mr. Ketan, is that landowners take a majority stake in the projects. Water-tight contracts that place a huge burden of liability on landowner companies make it difficult to simply kick-out the Vampire Capitalists.

Given the projected rise in the value of the Kina due to LNG exports, it seems highly unlikely that any of these agriculture projects would be viable, given the exchange rate fluctuation. This land grab under the pretext of agriculture, seems to be an excuse to bypass strict Forestry Regulations that have come into place post the Barnet Inquiry. These Vampire Capitalists are having a field day sucking out Papua New Guinea’s valuable natural resources.

MPs give evidence at SABL Hearing

2012-02-14T08:16:00.001+10:00

Above: Member for Maprik Gabriel Kapris and (below) Member for Ambunti-Drekikir Tony Aimo meeting the audience after giving evidence to the Commission of Inquiry

The Commission of Inquiry in Special Purpose Agriculture Business Leases (SPABL) concluded its hearings yesterday at around 7PM after Hon. Tony Aimo gave witness regarding the Nugwaia-Bongos Integrated Agriculture Project. The Project which is in Mr. Aimo’s electorate also incorporates his customary land.

Mr. Aimo gave evidence in the form of a sworn affidavit. Mr. Aimo said the project had followed due process and was sanction by two National Executive Council Decisions. Mr. Aimo then presented the Commission with various documents pertaining to the projects.

The Nungwaia Bongos Integrated Agriculture projects covers 110 000 hectares of land involving 230 Integrated land groups plus a few “Supplementary ILGs as referred to by Mr. Aimo. The area was initially a Forest Management Area before being converted to a SABL. The SABL was gazette on the 4^th of April 2011, and a 99 year Lease granted to the Landowner company of which Mr. Aimo is Director. The Landowner Company then granted a 99 year sub-lease to the exploiter SPZ Enterprise Limited, a Malaysian Oil Palm investor.

Te Commerce Department had made all arrangements for the investor to enter the project. The then Commerce Minister and Member for Maprik, Gabriel Kapris also gave evidence as to the role of the department. Counsel Assisting the Commission Mr. Ketan asked Mr. Kapris why Commerce had taken a special interest in the project. Mr. Kapris said that this was not unique and that Commerce and Industry was involved in other projects around the country.

Mr. Ketan also expressed concern about clause 10 of the sublease Agreement between the Landowner Company, Nungwaia- Bongos Rainforest Alliance and the exploiter SPZ Enterprise Limited. Clause 10 states that all Oil Palm shall be the property of the investor and that should the landowner company kick out the developer for any reason; it shall pay for the loss of projected profit over the 99 year lease. Clause 10 also makes the Landowner company Authorize the investor to take out an injunctive order to claim for any such losses. It also states that at the end of the 99 year sublease, the investor does not have to remove anything it brought into the area.

Mr. Ketan also expressed concern that the Lease Agreement prepared by the State Solicitors Office does not specifically mention agriculture. He also questioned the rationale for including villages on ridges when Oil Palm could be grown in the lowland grassy plains.

Commissioner Mirou also highlighted that the lease agreement did not create reservation for hunting, gardening and sacred sites, not did it expresses specific user/access rights for the customary landowners.

Inspection of the site, carried out on earlier on Sunday, showed very little progress. Commissioner Nicholas Mirou’s vehicle got bogged down in the mud. The investor claims to have spent USD 4 million on the road but it looks rather pathetic. The COI team had to split and the agriculturalist was sent to the nursery site while the rest returned to Wewak.

The hearing continues today with evidence to be heard from SPZ Enterprise Limited.

LAWYER MAY HAVE BEEN IN A CONFLICT OF INTEREST SITUATION

2012-02-13T07:12:00.001+10:00

Above: Mr Peter Kuman of Kuman Lawyers (seated) at the Commission of Inquiry in SBPALs, as counsel representing the exploiters of Marrienberg SPABL – Brilliant Investments, as the project manger of Brilliant Investments is being sworn into the witness stand

Above: Mr Peter Kuman (seated in white shirt) as counsel representing Marrienberg Landowner Company, while Landowner Chairman Moses Gawi gives evidence of the Inquiry.

Mr. Ketan, the counsel assisting the Commission of Inquiry has noted on record at the hearings that Mr Kuman was counsel for both the landowners and exploiters of Marrienberg SPABL.

WHOSE INTERESTS WILL BE BEST SERVED?

LANDOWNERS? OR EXPLOITERS?

Brilliant Investments not so brilliant at Marrienberg SPABL

2012-02-13T06:22:00.001+10:00

“Makeshift jobs!” That has been the impression of the Commissioner and the counsels assisting the Commission of Inquiry into Special Purpose Agriculture Business Leases. The Commission visted Marrienberg and the Nungawai-Bongos SPABL sites.

On Saturday, the COI Team travelled to Marrienberg in the Angoram District of East Sepik Province.They travelled the thinly sealed Angoram road that has largely worn out and has a large middle section that is largely a dirt track.

At Angoram High School, they turned left into the road leading up to the Marrienberg SPABL site. The main SPABL road is surfaced with limestone and the bridges built with logs. The sight of log bridges did not impress the COI Team.

The first clear-felled area at Marrienberg was about a 2 Km stretch with a with of 100 meters. There were newly planted cocoa seedlings. The Marrienberg SPABL project is supposed to be a cocoa and coconut project. Again, this did not impress the COI Team. The fact of the matter is that the Marrienberg Forest Clearance Authority was granted in 2008 after the SPABL was granted in 20012. Four years later, one does not see 4 year old cocoa plants in the plantation. Instead, there are huge tracts through the forest where the area has been logged largely for Kwila (KWI).

The Marrienberg area is largely a Kwila forest as evidenced by the piles of Kwila at the landing sites and the log pond. 4 years later, one does not see evidence of a site being marked and buildings being constructed for cocoa processing. All one sees are the enabling mechanisms for log export.

There are mostly logging equipment with stickers of RICH FOREST LIMITED, HAWAIN CAMP. According to the exploiters, they had moved into Marrienberg, from Hawain along the Sepik coast.

Workers at the Marrienberg base camp report that there have been several accidents resulting in deaths. One worker reported a recent death that has not been compensated by the company, Brilliant Investments. Those involved in accidents have not received any compensation.

Villagers at Mansep are also unhappy with the clear-felling operations of the company. Mandep is the site of the company’s second clear-felling of forests for agriculture.

The company keeps a team of Police at their base camp as its private protection. This is in direct contravention of the orders of Police Commissioner Tom Kulunga to withdraw all police from logging camps.

A basic overview of the project clearly indicates the intention to log and the cocoa planting seems to have been done in recent times, due to the creation of the Commission of Inquiry. Even the road seemed to have been graded just in time for the COI Team to inspect the site. None of the COI Team members were buying the façade created by Brilliant Investments.

MAJOR FLAWS IN MARRIENBERG SABL DEAL

2012-02-10T05:27:00.001+10:00

“If there is no Land Investigation Report, there is no SABL,” _Commissioner Nicholas Mirou

The Commission of Inquiry into Special Purpose Agriculture Business Leases in East Sepik Province began hearings on Day 2 by hearing evidence from witnesses and persons of interest related to Brilliant Investments Limited’s Marrianberg Project in the Angoram District.

Brilliant Investments is a Malaysian company owned by a Mr. Yu (64% shareholder) and a Mr. Ting (36% shareholder). Both men were not present at the hearing yesterday. The company’s project area covers 25 600 hectares of land involving 27 incorporated land groups.

The Commission called up its first witness Mr. Francis Yapo, the Provincial Customary Lands officer to give evidence regarding the Land Investigation Process that led to landowners giving consent for the SABL. Counsel Assisting the Commission, Ms Peipul, was particularly interested as to whether a Land Investigation Report was commissioned for the project. Mr. Yapo however denied any knowledge of any such report.

This prompted Commissioner Mirou to make a statement that triggered a huge round of applause from the public at Kaindi Teachers College. “If there is no Land Investigation Report, there is no SABL,” Commissioner Mirou said.

The Commission then called up the Provincial Forest Officer, Mr. Richard Kali, to give evidence. Mr. Kali told the Commission that a Forest Clearance Authority (FCA) was granted to Brilliant investments on the 7^th of May 2009. He said that in 2010, the National Forest Authority suspended all clear felling operations because the company wasn’t adhering to the conditions of the FCA. He added that the Managing Director of the National Forest Authority has indicated imminent suspension of logging due to continued failure to adhere to conditions of the FCA.

One of the conditions of a FCA in relation to Marrianberg is that the company plants its cocoa where it had clear-felled the forest. According to Mr. Kali, the company had failed to fulfill this requirement and only an estimated 60% of the clear-felled area had been cropped. This was the reason for the suspension of the FCA in 2010 and is the same reason why logging at Marrianberg would soon be suspended.

Mr. Tony Hobiagu was the next witness called by the Commission. He is the former Principal Advisor for Agriculture in the Department of East Sepik. The Commission wanted to question Mr. Hobiagu in relation to a letter he had written to the Director of the Department of Environment and Conservation deploring the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) of the Marrianberg project. In he’s letter, he described the EIS as a “desperation write” with descriptions of the land not being accurate to the locales of Marrianberg.

The Commission final two witnesses were the Chairman of the Landowner Company (LanCo) and the Project Manager representing Brilliant Investments.

Mr. Moses Gawi, the Chairman of the LanCo told the Commission that the LanCo had agreed to transfer the SABL Lease Title to Brilliant Investment. This prompted the Counsel assisting the Commission to question whether Mr. Gawi had copies of shareholder resolutions and minutes of the company Board authorizing the engagement of Brilliant Investments, as well as the transfer of Land Title. Mr. Gawi said the documents were at Marrianberg and he assured the Commission that he would tender those documents as soon as possible.

Mr. Gawi had met the General Manager of Brilliant Investments sometime in early 2006. On the 1^st of November 2006, an Agreement was signed between the LanCo and the Investor. On the 9^th of March 2007, a Special Purpose Agriculture and Business Lease was granted to Brilliant Investments.

Brilliant Investments has since been exporting logs from Marrianberg. The Commission has requested that the project manager of Brilliant Investments provide it with data regarding the total value of logs exported and a copy of the Logging Marketing Agreement that outlines the benefits to the Former Landowners.

The Commission resumes today to deliberate further into the Marrianberg SABL before shifting its attention to the Sepik Oil Palm (Turubu) SABL.

RAUSIM SABL: LANDOWNERS TELL C.O.I

2012-02-09T00:45:00.001+10:00

They came early in the morning and gathered at the Council Chambers at Dagua. Landowners from various SABLs in East Sepik mobilized to present their grievances. The Commission of Inquiry into Special Purpose Agriculture Business Leases commenced today in Wewak, the Capital of East Sepik Province. The Commission, which is equivalent to a Royal Commission in Australia, was set up to investigate the largest land grab perpetrated against the indigenous peoples of Papua New Guinea by their government.

Over 5.2 million hectares of land has been transferred to foreign hands under dubious Agriculture leases. Most observers believe these leases were a cover to bypass stringent forestry regulations and log tropical hardwood.

In East Sepik Province, the Commission head by Commissioner Nicholas Miro will investigate leases belonging to Sepik Oil Palm (Turubu), Brilliant Investments (Marrianberg) Mapsera and Nungawa Rainforest (Ambunti/Drekirir).

As the Commission of Inquiry Convened in the morning, opposing groups hurled insults at each other and had to be controlled by police in full combat gear. A vocal group of landowners from Turubu marched down to the COI armed with placards denouncing the land grab and are expected to present their petition to the COI today.

Commissioner Miro told the crowd attending the inquiry that the inquiry would determine whether proper land investigation processes were followed. As he highlighted key points in the process, there was applause from around the room. He said a normal land investigation process should involve:

· a head count of the number of people in the area

· a boundary survey done by physically walking the land boundary

· consultations with people with-in and without the boundary

· and most importantly, there must be informed majority consent

The Commission then adjourned for today and visited the Sepik Oil Palm SABL, Portion 144c yesterday afternoon.

SABL COMMISSIONER HARRASSED AT SEPIK OIL PALM NURSERY

2012-02-09T00:41:00.001+10:00

The vehicle (above – blue Toyota 10 seater) transporting Commissioner Nicholas Miro was surrounded by an angry mob [made up of proponents of the SABL] at the Nursery site of Sepik Oil Palm at inland Turubu. Sepik Oil Palm is the lease holder of Portion 144C, Turubu, which is currently under dispute between different factions of landowners, for and against the project.

Thanks to the quick intervention by the two Counsels assisting the Commission (above -pictured left) the situation was diffused.

Above: that’s Commissioner Nicholas Miro checking out the log pond at Turubu, after the incident at the oil palm nursery.

I dunno bout da Commissioner but I left the site shaken but not stirred – now I need a drink lol.

SPECULATION THAT ENUMA IS CHIEF OF PNGDF

2012-02-07T15:40:00.001+10:00

From various sources

There is huge speculation from credible sources that a new Papua New Guinea Defence Force hierarchy has been installed, consisting of very radical soldiers.

“Sparks will fly now.” posted former military top-gun, Reginald Renagi on Facebook. My former junior officer Walter Enuma just now being appointed commander of the PNGDF, a state of emergency to be declared at 4 PM,” he added.

Walter Enuma served time in prison along with Belden Namah for their role in their role in the Sandline Affair. He’s appointment by the Namah-O’Neil regime brings in another third-party into an already complicated political mess.

Mainland Holdings driving Sepik’s Pukpuk to extinction

2012-02-07T08:09:00.001+10:00

The President of Tunavanstain Local Level Government Council in in the Ambunt-Drekikir electorate has expressed concerns above the survival of salt water crocodiles in the Sepik. President Clinton Allan Gallagher warned that the practice of crocodile egg collection was depleting crocodile numbers.

According to Mr. Gallagher, Mainland holdings was paying locals K11 per egg. He said that initially, Mainland Holdings used to collect the eggs with the supervision of Wildlife Rangers but that has stopped and the company now uses locals.

“My father used to be a supplier of live crocodiles to Mainland Holdings. But in 1992, Mainland Holdings stopped buying live crocodiles and started buying crocodile eggs.” Mr Gallagher says in Tok Pisin.

Mr. Gallgher’s concern is that locals collecting crocodile eggs do not leave behind any in the nest. “...Ol kolektim olgeta jas bikos long mani,” [they collect all the eggs because they want money] he said referring to locals who collect the eggs. Mr. Gallagher said that previously during the dry season; one would see crocodiles along the Sepik River but they are a rare sight nowadays.

An average crocodile nest contains between 60 to 90 eggs. Mainland Holdings has expanded into the upper Sepik and into parts of Sandaun’s Tipas region. It is currently in the Sepik buying crocodile eggs at Igwaigu, Apan, Yasan, Kopkain, Swagap, Aum, Tauri, Imomdi and Mowi in the Ambunti District.

Meanwhile the Commission of inquiry into the Special Agriculture Business Leases in the East Sepik Province, is set to begin hearings tomorrow morning. The venue is the Council Chambers at Dagua.

My first impressions of Wewak

2012-02-06T08:07:00.001+10:00

The captain announces over the inter-com, “Cabin crew please prepare the cabin for landing.” For a moment I notice that the Fokker 100 aircraft has paused in mid-air above the mighty Sepik river below. A brown slithering body of water makes its tortuous journey into the Bismarck Sea. The flood plains below look like puddles of mud.

As we approach Wewak, I notice villages lying on tiny strips of land , sandwiched between the roaring sea and brackish lagoons. Herein, I see in nature a metaphor of the state of the people of my country: a people trapped on a flimsy strip of land and compressed by globalization and imperialism.

As the aircraft circled Wewak Town, the strain of the engines seemed to create Goosebumps in the sea below. An eager crowd gathers at the terminal straining their eyes to notice familiar faces. I’m not sure whether my ears are locked but there is an atmosphere of silence that hangs above the town. A sort of post-coital calmness seems to exist.

I noticed this silence in the loneliness of a young boy sitting in the grass at the edge of the airport, watching the plane as it taxied along the runway. It brings back memories of growing up in a logging camp and watching planes land and take-off just for the pleasure of it. And perhaps this explains why as I’m being driven into town my driver tells me that he’s never seen any games being played at the Chinese built stadium. Perhaps the stadium just exists for the pleasure of existing.

And yes, the stadium is silent as we drive by. I am told by my driver that they a planning to build a volley ball court at the silent stadium. Up on the hillside I notice a white-washed mansion with red roofing. “Somare’s mansion,” my driver says. It stares silently at the stadium.

Indeed, there is a yawning gap between these two modern buildings and the dilapidated state of the rest of the town.

I have found the people here to be reserved but very friendly. Perhaps it because I chew betelnut and mauswara a bit. Or perhaps its just that Wewak’s residents are simply very friendly people.

In the evening I have a chat with two other guests staying at the place I’m staying. We talk about the latest news and politics. They are both fascinated about my blog. Both men are on the Joint District Budgetary Planning Committee of one of the Ambunti-Drekikir electorate. They are stunned when I tell them I set up my blog for free. Their electorate had just allocated K30 000 to create a website. Perhaps no one will visit that electorate’s website but I hope more people visit Wewak.

I’m beginning to like the place. There’s a sense of remoteness about this place not in terms of its backwardness but in a more romantic and rustic sense.

The Battle of New Guinea

2012-02-05T09:26:00.001+10:00

I hate being right. Unfortunately, I have being almost right most of the time on my blog.

When I wrote about Genocide in Papua New Guinea, we didn’t have the Airlines PNG disaster, the Pacific International Hospital Incident, the Landslide in the Southern Highlands and the recent ferry disaster. Too many deaths that are a result of the exploitation of indigenous people by Vampire Capitalists.

I was the first to identify the current political tussle as a proxy war between the East and the West. Initially a lot of people ridiculed me for making my thesis known. Today it is generally accepted that that is indeed the case.

To me it was therefore hardly surprising that suggestions of Indonesian (Indonesia is part of the East) interference in the recent mutiny. The French-made riffles used by the mutineers are not standard PNGDF weapons and are known to be used by the Indonesian Special Forces. Col Sasa is also known to have had a recent stint in Indonesia. The Falcon jet transporting Belden Namah also just happened to say hello to an Indonesian fighter jet recently.

Strange co-incidences aren’t they?

By the way, I hate writing my blog articles but it seems I’ve been cursed with the ability to see patterns arising out of events in distant and recent history.

If Australia is the US’s sheriff in the Pacific then it seems like Indonesia is China’s sheriff.

You see folks, NOT ONCE have Australia and the US or the European Union condemned the actions of the O’Neil Namah regime. Now these are countries that usually pester other nations about democracy and the rule of law.

And so we are now faced with a situation whereby every arm of the government is politicized and probably bought off. With the politicizing of the military and subsequent mutiny we now have disaffection with both disciplinary forces. The fault lines are deep but are covered by a superficial truce of convenience.

What the mutiny brought was something I didn’t figure into the equation and most pundits overlook. Now the fact is that we are a diverse nation. However, there exists a form of Neo-tribalism called the Wantok System or Save Pes or Boi Blong Grup or Skwad, etc... These forms of Neo-tribalistic alliances unite people from the same geographical region. The geographical region may be a remote district, a suburb, settlement or block.

It is well known that Papua New Guineans give undue respect and allegiance to their Big Men or Lida Man. One only has to have Figureheads from these Neo-tribal alliances taking sides over the current impasse in order for trouble to flare. Now when trouble happens in PNG it usually ends up being the outlet were all other grievances are released.

For instance, the mutineers exploited the current political crisis to vent their frustrations over pay and other conditions. Somare aint exactly a saint, yet there are people you are willing defend him and soldiers willing to revolt – now that’s the Big Man Culture. And those with tribal or neo-tribal connections with Sasa would vigorously defend what he did regardless of any legal opinion expressed against them.

It is with-in that context that I warned that things could get uglier as more third parties get dragged into this political affair. Now that the Chief Justice has been suspended, another third party has entered the equation. We now have messages like the one below popping up:

“Parliamentary Democracy in Emerging Nations such as ours is fragile. A country that abandons its Rule of Law will go down the toilet. The popular belief that a new Government formed after the National Elections can right the wrongs created since December 12 is misconceived. THE COUNTRY IS IN THE VERGE OF DISINTEGRATING INTO ANARCHY. Current indications are that the National Elections may be suspended. No one is safe in a society where there is no Rule of law. The Legal year starts on Monday the 6th of February. The Public is urged to show support for the Chief Justice and the Rule of Law by celebrating Mass at Waigani Christian Centre with the Judges and members of the Legal fraternity, and in Marching with the Judges, CIS, Army and Police to the Supreme Court premises. If you believe in the Law please copy this message and text to 10 others and make sure you participate in the opening of the legal year on Monday. Members of the public are further advised that armed Police squads 2,4,5, & 6 are believed to be stationed at the Supreme Court and are currently being paid and maintained outside normal Police pay packet.”
“Stand by for the Schedule of Programme”.
By: “PRO-PNG CONSTITUTIONALIST”

We are now presented with the mechanism by which people from across the nation are being recruited into the power play between the two Pretenders to the throne and their Puppet Masters.

You see folks Parliament has been in breach of the Constitution for a long time. In March 2011, I was at the National Research Institute when Sir Arnold Amet launched the NRI Spotlight paper Vole 4 No.5 This Parliament and the Next. Amet argued there that the Supreme Court was wrong when it concluded that Parliament shall sit no less than 9 weeks per year.

The Constitution of Papua New Guinea has been undermined for years. It is almost as good as dead and both sides are responsible for the pathetic state of the Mama Lo. The people who concern me most are not the illiterate rural dwellers rather the so called educated elite who seem to easily fall prey to dog-whistle politics.

WILL THE CJ MARCH ON MONDAY?

2012-02-04T21:56:00.001+10:00

Jo Chandler from the Fairfax Newspapers must be biting her fingernails reading this post. Sorry Jo we’re the land of the unexpected and as expected we’ve got an unexpected surprise coming up on Monday.

Here is a post doing the rounds on Facebook:

“Parliamentary Democracy in Emerging Nations such as ours is fragile. A country that abandons its Rule of Law will go down the toilet. The popular belief that a new Government formed after the National Elections can right the wrongs created since December 12 is misconceived. THE COUNTRY IS IN THE VERGE OF DISINTEGRATING INTO ANARCHY. Current indications are that the National Elections may be suspended. No one is safe in a society where there is no Rule of law. The Legal year starts on Monday the 6th of February. The Public is urged to show support for the Chief Justice and the Rule of Law by celebrating Mass at Waigani Christian Centre with the Judges and members of the Legal fraternity, and in Marching with the Judges, CIS, Army and Police to the Supreme Court premises. If you believe in the Law please copy this message and text to 10 others and make sure you participate in the opening of the legal year on Monday. Members of the public are further advised that armed Police squads 2,4,5, & 6 are believed to be stationed at the Supreme Court and are currently being paid and maintained outside normal Police pay packet.”
“Stand by for the Schedule of Programme”.
By: “PRO-PNG CONSTITUTIONALIST”

Earlier I warned that as the political impasse is prolonged, third parties get dragged into the fray and complicate the situation.

No doubt the Chief Justice’s Engan wantoks will be backing him should he lead the march on Monday. The Engans, as a language group, are the largest language group in the country. Someone in the O’Neil-Namah camp has done some serious miscalculations.

RISING FROM THE RUBBLE: A NEW BEGINNING

2012-02-04T21:12:00.001+10:00

A video by Scott Waide about the restoration that never happened in Oro post cyclone Guba

Five years after the Cyclone Guba disaster devastated the Oro Province, Many of the province's vital transport infrastructure remain in ruin. Many people continue to live in care centers and face water shortages and other difficulties Much of the initial funding allocated for restoration work has either been stolen or spent on other things. This film contains the views of the people affected by the disaster as well as views members of a new board of directors of the Northern Province Restoration Authority (NPRA) and the provincial administration.

MV Rabaul Queen Disaster: Survivor story

2012-02-04T11:48:00.001+10:00

BY GWEN YAMB

This is a story from my younger brother,who was on board MV Rabaul Queen when disaster struck.

Just brief.

There were actually 780 passengers on board. 420 from Rabaul/Kavieng /Buka and 360 from Kimbe. OVERLOAD stret.

Mostly young children ,mothers and students. There weren't any emergency procedures or demonstrations when they got on the ship and the shipping agency didn’t limit passenger intakes.

Due to the bad weather and high seas the ship tipped over towards the right hand side and ONLY the fit and the ones outside the landing jumped off for their lives ,the ones in the cabins couldn’t due to time limitations and panic. It took 2 minutes for the ship to sink.The first 109 survivors was rescued by a North Korean/Mongolian ocean liner on its way to Australia. The rest was from a local boat.None of it was Australian Army or PNG navy nor the disaster authority boats. The newspapers raft boat pictures not all true.

Don’t believe what the media is saying. BullSh!t PNG media and Australian Media personal.
My sincere condolence to the families of those not found .My prayers with you all.

I'm still missing a high school friend and room mate -Kolish Wutgah……..who left behind 3 sons to go to school -Lae Tech. Hope they find her.

The System sucks but it is the Sheeple who suck the most

2012-02-04T10:18:00.001+10:00

In PNG, if you’re criticizing Somare you’re seen as an O’Neil fan even though you may not give a rats ass about O’Neil. All of a sudden some sheeple get all worked in support of either side even though both sides have a lot of dirty laundry.

In PNG, if you’re against illegal logging practices and land theft you’re seen as a tree hugging Non-Governmental Organization opposed to development. This is despite the fact that workers at logging camps get abused and landowners get intimidated by thugs in police uniform.

We still have an airline with one of the worst safety records still flying in our airspace. How long before the next Airlines PNG crash and probably they’ll change their name the way Sandline and Blackwater Security changed theirs.

A child died due to medical negligence at a Private Hospital. After much noise the issue seemed to have died out and no one seems to be addressing a problem that is systemic.

The calls for an inquiry into the Southern Highlands landslide seem to be coming of a few of us bloggers, landowners, and unionists. The rest of the sheeple who stem to benefit from the riches of the LNG Project don’t seem to care.

And now we have a boat disaster. I bet only a few folks will be pestering authorities about this. We now have unconfirmed reports that up to 700 people were on board the ship. 400 from Buka and 300 from Rabaul/Hoskins.

The systems and the systems managers are a total failure. I take therefore that by your silence, the rest of you sheeple consent to all the shit that’s poured upon you by greedy politicians and the Vampire Capitalists.

Congratulations sheeple, they’ve served you a nice menu of shit lately – bon appetite!

Somare announces new Central Bank Governor

2012-02-01T13:35:00.001+10:00

Satire by GARY DANIELS on TALKING EDGE

Grand Chief, The right honourable Sir Michael Thomas Somare, GCL, GCMG, CH, CF, KStJ, MP, VC, KKK, UKU, ABC you and me, today announced that he has appointed William Kapris as Central Bank governor effective immediately.

At a press conference in a phone box in Boroko his spokesperson, Betha Somare stated: "Mr. Kapris has an intimate knowledge of the banking industry which will greatly assist our family in maximising the benefits of the new natural gas fields".

What Happened at Tumbi? Expert Analysis of Tumbi Quarry Landslide

2012-02-01T10:08:00.001+10:00

By Prof Dave Petley

Dave Petley is the Wilson Professor of Hazard and Risk in the Department of Geography at Durham University in the United Kingdom. His blog provides a commentary on landslide events occurring worldwide, including the landslides themselves, latest research, and conferences and meetings.

___________________________________

The landslide a week ago in Papua New Guinea continues to generate a great deal of noise in that part of the world. The confirmed death toll is now 25 people, but that number is expected to rise. However, given the size of the landslide, I wonder whether it is really possible to recover all of the victims. Only four bodies have been recovered to date.

There are now some better images of the landslide available online. This one, from the Australian, appears to show the head-scarp area:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/fears-for-life-as-landslide-hits-png/story-e6frg6so-1226253126412

The article suggests that the landslide occurred at the site of a limestone quarry (of which more below). Certainly the rock would appear to be limestone with quite a thick soil layer. The very planar rear scarp would suggest a large, unfavourable joint as the release plane. The block at the top on the left is still sitting on this joint and may be unstable. The joint either has a very weathered surface and/or is draped by soil from above.

There is also a good overview photograph from the Namorong Report website:

It is interesting to see the way in which the lower part of the landslide has bifurcated down two drainage paths – unusual but not at all unprecedented. Of more interest is the apparently large lateral margin scarp on the far side of the landslide, below the trees, which suggests that the landslide has removed a considerable volume of material on that side. It is hard to tell, but this does not seem to be replicated on the nearside. To me this suggests quite a complex landslide process (although this does not mean that the triggering process itself was complex). This does suggest that if a meaningful investigation of this landslide is to be undertaken then it will need someone who really knows how to interpret landslide processes. It is not likely to be straightforward in any way.

At the time of the landslide there were suggestions that it was linked to the LNG pipeline being built through the area by ExxonMobil. It now appears that the hillslope was a limestone quarry associated with the project, which fits with my observations of the area at the crown of the landslide. There is a pdf online here,with an Esso Highlands logo, entited “TUMBI QUARRY (QA1) Resettlement Action Plan”, which states that “Tumbi Quarry, known as QA1, is required for aggregate to be used by the Project in the Komo area. The Project will be leasing the quarry from Hides Gas Development Corporation (HGDC) for an estimated two year period, depending on aggregate requirements of the Project, after which the quarry will be returned to HGDC.”

The LNG watch blog has a post by Dr Kristian Laslett of Ulster University, which notes that the site had been blasted in the days leading up to the landslide. This seems to be supported by various news reports, although of course there is no proof either way. It seems entirely plausible, though not certain, that the landslide could have been triggered by blasting. There are many previous examples of landslides being triggered by quarries.

It seems to me that an investigation of this event is urgently required. However, the investigation does need to be undertaken by an open-minded, independent and very experienced team as the landslide is complex. IF the quarry was the cause or trigger for the landslide, and if it was providing rock for the Exxon-Mobil project, then this is surely somewhat significant.

Given the focus on the Deepwater Horizon accident a couple of years ago, I am amazed that the mainstream media are not pursuing this story with some alacrity. One would also hope that Exxon-Mobil will fund a proper investigation of this, and that they will look again at any other quarries that are providing rock for the pipeline project.

LEST WE FORGET. more coverage needed

2012-02-01T09:58:00.001+10:00

BY LNG WATCH

All is quiet in Tumbi.

While LNG Watch is doing its best - with no financial resources - to contact local residents, report on their concerns, and relay vital information from key experts, the press is entranced with mutinies in Port Moresby.

Surely more than one plate can be spun at a time; after all we are talking about one of the worst disasters in PNG's history. For those who can remember Australia's Thredbo landslide, they will recall the media was camped out at the disaster site 24/7, relaying news of survivors, conveying the suffering of victims, and keeping a spotlight on the issue to ensure politicians acted.

This is not occurring in Tumbi. As a result of this silence, the public are unaware of the desperate humanitarian situation. They are also unaware that two leading international landslide experts - Prof Dave Petley andProf Tim Sullivan - have gone on record and demanded a vigorous, wide-ranging investigation.

The O'Neil government has promised an independent investigation, which is good. However, we should be under no illusion about the complexity and difficulty of the task ahead. First, there is the scientific challenges investigators will face. However, these challenges may pale into insignificance in comparison to the political hurdles.

It would appear ExxonMobil, despite their loud claims to the contrary, are extremely worried that they will not meet the 2014 production date. Were this to occur, the consequences for the LNG operater would be severe. ExxonMobil have forward sales contracts - if they fail to meet their obligations in this respect, they will suffer financial penalties and possibly the loss of significant business. Consequently, they will not want investigators stirring up untoward findings that could inflame already tense relations with landowners. A major shut-down of the operation, would leave the project reeling (and a lot of people, not only foreigners, have a lot of money riding on the operation; look at the luxury hotels popping up in Port Moresby).

Compounding matters, the O'Neil government are faced with almost daily challenges from the ousted - and corrupt - Somare regime. In order to consolidate their own position in power, the O'Neil government has enacted a large program of public spending designed to woo voters. In this political climate, the O'Neil government cannot afford to take steps which might upset the very future income stream their grand gestures are based upon.

Therefore, while we hope to be proven wrong, it would appear better for both ExxonMobil and the O'Neil government if this sorry saga is allowed to gently drift off into the night. It is a Pandoras box, which no one in power really wants to open. Nevertheless, they do not lack the capacity. The O'Neil government includes a number of capable Ministers (e.g. Sam Basil) who have the credentials, respect, and ability to ensure a robust investigation occurs.
The more feet drag on this issue, the more suspicions will grow that there is something to hide. If this indeed was simply a tragic act of nature, then it would be in everyone's interest if the government and LNG venture cooperated to get a robust investigation under way. Moreover, this should be accompanied by a program of humanitarian assistance. People are in desperate need, and many families need to be relocated to safe areas, without being thrown into dependency.

Now is the time for journalists to stand up and be counted; it is during these periods of crisis and turmoil that the media can prove its critical worth to the public. There is only so much NGOs and bloggers can do. Therefore, we hope renewed efforts will be placed into shining a spotlight on the disaster.

VOICES FROM SEPTEMBER 2011

2012-02-01T09:27:00.001+10:00

SOPAC colluding with miners to exploit S/Pacific people

2012-02-01T08:20:00.001+10:00

By Effrey Dademo, ACT NOW!

SOPAC, a division of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (SPC), is pushing ahead with a European Union funded project to promote experimental deep-sea mining in the Pacific region without first consulting with communities about whether this form of mining is environmentally, socially or economically appropriate.

There is currently no scientific consensus on the consequences of mining seabed hydrothermal vents and a lot of international concern about its implications. There is also no evidence to suggest mining by large foreign corporations really delivers a better quality of life for local people in the Pacific. Yet SOPAC, in alliance with the mining industry and EU, is pushing ahead with developing laws and a regulatory framework for this risky and unproven new industry.

The evidence from Papua New Guinea is that large-scale mining does not deliver a better quality of life for local people and causes a multitude of social and environmental problems. PNG has many mining operations but the Gross National Product per capita is much lower than Pacific countries that are not being exploited by mining companies.

According to the World Bank, GNP per capita in PNG is $1,300 while in Micronesia, Vanuatu and Samoa GNP is more than twice as high, at $2,700, $2,760 and $2,930 respectively. In Fiji and Tonga GNP is almost three times greater than PNG and in Palau GNP is five-times higher than in PNG. Mining might increase government revenues but most of the money is taken away by the foreign mining companies and their highly paid expatriate staff. In contrast incomes from local food production and farming are wholly retrained in the communities where the businesses are located and these types of enterprise provide a truly sustainable future.

SOPAC says there is misunderstanding and misinformation about its Deep Sea Minerals Project but the truth is it is being driven by the mining industry and the EU, who want to use Pacific resources to increase their own wealth. The mining industry has been working with SOPAC for many years to map the minerals in the Pacific and those relationships mean we can have no faith in the impartiality of SOPAC in providing technical advice to island countries.

Further, before we drive ahead with laws and regulations we need to decide if the Pacific wants to again be the guinea pig for untried and untested technology just as it was for nuclear testing. Why don't we let Canada, the US or the EU do their testing in their own waters rather than ours? Perhaps they are afraid of more environmental disasters like the 2010 seabed oil drilling debacle in the Gulf of Mexico.

SOPAC is clearly wrong to say that laws and regulatory frameworks will ensure sustainable resource management and tangible benefits to the Pacific. Again we need to look no further than PNG which has outstanding protections in its Constitution and Environmental laws but has suffered some of the worlds worst mining disasters and a prolonged civil war caused by some the world's largest mining companies.

Despite the denials from SOPAC we stand by our statement that the Deep Sea Minerals Project of the SPC (SOPAC) disenfranchises indigenous people and promotes the interest of big mining companies at the expense of local communities.

SOPAC is spending more time talking with Nautilus Minerals in private meetings and exclusive international workshops than it is having a conversation with the Pacific communities that will suffer the potential impacts of the mining. Nautilus is the Canadian company spearheading much of the seabed exploration in the Pacific and plans to start production at the world's first undersea mine in PNG in 2013.

The SOPAC has stated the overall objective of the project is to develop an experimental seabed mining industry in the Pacific but fails to explain how an extractive industry can be "sustainable" nor how it will be different from other mining operations that have failed to improve the livelihood of local communities.

While SOPAC may be correct to say that experimental seabed mining could "expand the economic resource base of Pacific countries" this should not be confused with genuine development and improved livelihoods for Pacific people.

We should also not be fooled by fancy statements about "strengthening the system of governance and the capacity of Pacific States” to manage experimental seabed mining. Nothing SOPAC or the SPC can do is going to change the power imbalance between global mining corporations and Pacific Island governments and bureaucrats that make fine sounding laws and policy frameworks meaningless when it comes down to the actual management of individual mine sites.

Laws and policies did not protect the people of Ok Tedi or Bougainville and they will not protect the people impacted by experimental seabed mining.

Rather than continually dancing to the tune of global corporations, captured governments and their failed economic system of unregulated capitalism, SPC and SOPAC should be looking to support and nurture our own Pacific ways of doing business and caring for our families and the environment.

Mutiny changing PNG’s political dynamics

2012-01-31T09:02:00.001+10:00

Col Yara Sasa doesn’t have the political baggage that the Somare’s have. He has now entered a debate that was pretty much confined to the political elite. Sasa is now a political figure and not just a military man. He has a following amongst people who believe what he did was necessary to restore Constitutional order.

With the involvement of the military we now have polarization of both disciplinary forces into the different sides of politics.

Before the advent of Facebook and Twitter, Papua New Guineans had a form of social networking known as the Wantok System. The Wantok System is still alive and well and as other actors like Sasa get embroiled in the political saga, the Wantok network that gets dragged into the impasse enlarges.

The question of whether each side presents it’s case with sound legal arguments, now takes the back seat to social alliances. As the main protagonists drag on with their tortuous tango, more Sasa’s are likely to enter the fray as ordinary people become increasingly frustrated with the impasse.

The lack of leadership and statesmanship displayed by both sides opens the arena for third parties who do not have the political baggage of the main protagonists. Such third parties would have a greater claim of legitimacy than the main protagonists. And with the entry of third parties a growing number of people become politicized as they subscribe to the views of those third parties. This has been the case with the involvement of the mutineers.

The debate now seems to be heading beyond legal definitions of right and wrong and into the social inclinations of right and wrong based the social circle one subscribes to. This development brought about by the mutiny is dangerous as the issue becomes personalized, and individuals start defending the views of their social circle against the views of the opposing social circle. What began as a political issue is fast becoming a social issue and threatens social order throughout the country.

Perhaps it is fair to say that the nation is now more unstable than it ever was. More people are becoming politicized, polarized, and pissed off. It is imperative that fresh elections be held soon to diffuse the situation.

Calls for a comprehensive investigation of the Tumbi Disaster

2012-01-30T06:39:00.001+10:00

By Dr Kristian Lasslett*

(Originally posted on the International State Crime Initiative Website and the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences Blog, University of Ulster)

At around 4am last Tuesday morning, a landslide 1.5km along swept through Tumbi, in Papua New Guinea’s Southern Highlands, while residents lay asleep. Reporting from the ground, Andrew Alphonse conveys a scene of devastation:

The sound of wailing fills the air around the legendary Gigira mountain in Tari as mothers openly shed tears as they go about trying to locate their loved ones in one of the worst landslides ever recorded in Papua New Guinea. Clad in mud and weeping and wailing, the mothers are joined by other villagers, lucky to be spared by the tonnes of mud, huge limestone slabs and debris that came down suddenly on the sleeping village at the foot of the mountain. (Post-Courier, 25/1/2012).

While the death toll remains unknown at this stage, it is expected that up to 60 villagers may have perished.

People’s first thoughts have, of course, been for the victims and their families. Nevertheless, questions are beginning to be asked about the cause of the landslide. In particular, concerns have been raised over the potentially destabilising effects of a local quarry, which was developed for a $US15.7 billion liquefied natural gas venture, headed by ExxonMobil.

Bill Yomba, from Papua New Guinea’s National Disaster Office told CNN: "We are still trying to find out the cause but at this stage we believe the gas project run by Esso Higlands Limited [ExxonMobil subsidiary] was a contributor because they had been digging for limestone in the area" (CNN, 25/1/12).

Yomba’s concerns are shared by Sir Alfred Kaiabe, a former member of parliament for the region, who informed ABC Radio that this sort of landslide is unprecedented in the area (ABC Radio, 25/1/12).

Local residents have also raised questions. The ABC’s Liam Fox reports:

There are people - locals are already drawing some links. How correct that is, we're not able to say yet. But they believe that the quarry next to the landslide site caused the landslide. That blasting in the past has, quote, 'softened the ground' as they have said. And that quarry was used by the LNG site for its operations. (ABC Radio, 25/1/12)

Given these serious concerns, calls are being made for an independent investigation into the disaster. The Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Peter O’Neil, having inspected the affected area, has promised to appoint an independent investigative team (PacNews, 26/1/12). This is a welcomed step.

Too often in Papua New Guinea local knowledge is ignored. Indeed, one of the factors contributing to the country’s greatest crisis to date – the Bougainville conflict – was the dismissal of local concerns over the Panguna mine’s environmental effects, as ill-informed conspiracy theories.

Landowners, NGOs, and local politicians have come out in support of the Prime Minister’s proposal. Speaking on the Pacific Beat program, member for Komo-Magarima claims:

At the moment, people have their own views on what has caused the landslide, but we will wait for the investigation to happen and that investigation is most welcome by myself and all the members of parliament from Southern Highlands as well as the landowner leaders and landowners and the people themselves. (ABC Radio 27/1/12)

Local NGO LNG Watch has also rallied behind an independent investigation, claiming that it could prevent further tragedy:

Mount Gigira, it’s a kind of range; people are sleeping along that place all the way to Hides 1, 2, 3 and 4 (numbers refer to Petroleum Development License areas) and then down to Komo. So that thing (the landslide) might happen again. So to stop that incident happening in the future, I want these people to come in and do the investigation. (Radio New Zealand, 27/1/12)

However, if local concerns are indeed to be adequately addressed it is essential that the investigation is conducted in an open and transparent manner, using a range of experts, who consult closely with those in the devastated region; landowner knowledge of the local environment must be given its proper due.

The investigative team should also have the resources to independently study the region, without over-reliance on datasets produced by ExxonMobil or its subsidiaries/contractors (unfortunately, there may be a dearth of independent data to draw on, which will make matters difficult).

Furthermore, it is not enough to send in a team of natural scientists. While earth science specialists will of course be critical, the literature on disasters is clear, complex social factors mediate these types of events. Co-Director of the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI), Prof Penny Green observes, “it is not the climatic or geophysical hazard which kills – rather it is the political, economic and social structures which determine population vulnerability that bear responsibility” (Green 2011). Consequently, if the right research questions are to be formulated, social scientists with relevant expertise must be utilised.

In the interests of transparency and independence, civil society should be centrally involved in overseeing the inquiry. Indeed involving NGOs, scholars, and community groups, would be a healthy step in ensuring the investigation is robust, vigilant, and unafraid to ask difficult questions.

The parameters of the study must be wide also. In particular, critical questions must be levelled at the national government, in addition to ExxonMobil. While the O’Neil government is proving more resilient in the face of demands by major resource operators, we know from revelations involving the recently ousted Somare regime that the Papua New Guinea state has over the past two decades viewed itself primarily as a business partner of resource operators (Dateline, 26/6/11). This attitude has had a debilitating effect on the nation’s regulatory apparatus. Consequently, we saw most recently a waste disposal method banned in China, the US and Canada, approved for the Ramu Nickel mine, without adequate data on the serious social and environmental consequences of this decision.

At present efforts and resources should rightly be focused upon stabilising the landslide area, and housing the displaced. Nevertheless, for landowners who have already raised serious questions about the equity of the LNG operation, it would be provocative in the extreme, if this tragedy became the subject of a whitewash.

__________________________________

THIS BLOGGER WISHES TO THANK Dr Kristian Lasslett for permission to publish the article

*Dr Kristian Lasslett is the Papua New Guinea Coordinator for the International State Crime Initiative and is a Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Ulster. He can be contacted at kak.lasslett@ulster.ac.uk

BISHOP BLAMES EXXON MOBIL FOR DEATHS

2012-01-27T13:33:00.001+10:00

By Elias Lari via PNGEXPOSED BLOG

A CHURCH leader has accused developer Exxon Mobil and the government for failing to resettle landowners resulting in the loss of lives at the project site, reports The National.

Rev Wai Tega is the chairman of the Hela council of churches and Bishop of the United Church in Hela. He said the landslide which buried scores of people on Tuesday morning was man-made disaster – not a natural disaster as many had claimed.

He said Hela had a relationship with nature and ExxonMobil, the developer of the multi-billion kina PNG LNG gas project, had totally destroyed the environment which was not right in the eyes of the landowners.

The developer and the state should be held responsible for the deaths because many issues regarding the project had not been solved. If the landowners had been relocated, lives and properties would not have been lost.

Tega said the Lai Tepo-Hides gas was a spiritual fire foretold by their prophets but the government and ExxonMobil did not show any respect for the customary faith the people had. He forecast it was a first warning of what would come later.

The churches are calling on the government and Exxon Mobil to treat people with respect.

MUTINY, TREASON, SEDITION - a plesmahn's legal opinion

2012-01-27T10:01:00.001+10:00

BY EDEBAMONA BLOG

15 minutes of fame followed closely by a decent into the deepest recesses of deep shit... this is the Yaura Sasa story. I feel sorry for him. How can a man of his calibre be bullshitted into leading what was clearly a suicide mission? A suicide mission is a mission with no retreat plan. "Beyond the Rubicon" there is no turning back. When Sasa and his band of in-subordinating soldiers overpowered Guards at Taurama Barracks and placed the Commander-in-Chief of the PNG Defence Force Francis Agwi under arrest, that was the end of the mission... No really; the mission ended before it actually began.

You see Sasa is a civilian. He has been for 2 years. His objective to depose Agwi and ascend to the top of the Military ranks was flawed from the very beginning. Now in the absence of immediate ambition I imagine there was some kind of monetary incentive at work. Believe you me, no amount of money is worth the 'White Soup' of Bomana.
Here's how it will pan out in the next few days. If the O'Neill Gavman chooses to charge Sasa for anything besides sheer stupidity, it will probably be a Division 2 Offence of the Criminal Code which concerns SEDITION. Section 44 of the Criminal Code Act 1974 for sedition states:

44. DEFINITION OF SEDITIOUS INTENTIONS.

Subject to Section 45, an intention–

(a) to bring the Queen and Head of State into hatred or contempt; or
(b) to excite disaffection against–

(i) the Queen and Head of State, the National Government or the Constitution as by law established; or
(ii) the Parliament; or
(iii) the administration of justice; or

(c) to excite the inhabitants of Papua New Guinea to attempt to procure the alteration of any matter in Papua New Guinea as by law established otherwise than by lawful means; or
(d) to raise discontent or disaffection amongst the inhabitants of Papua New Guinea; or
(e) to promote feelings of ill-will and enmity between different classes of the inhabitants of Papua New Guinea

Contrary to popular belief he will not be charged for Mutiny pursuant to Section 55 of the Defence Act which states:

55. MUTINY.

(1) A person subject to the Code of Military Discipline who takes part in a mutiny is guilty of an offence.

Penalty: Imprisonment for life or for a lesser term.

(2) A person subject to the Code of Military Discipline who, knowing that a mutiny is taking place or is intended–

(a) fails to use his utmost endeavours to suppress or prevent it; or
(b) fails to report to an appropriate authority that the meeting is taking place or is intended,

is guilty of an offence.

Penalty: Imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years.

Why won't he be charged with Mutiny? Simple. Sasa is not a member of the Papua New Guinean Armed Forces. He's a retiree. Lol!

Sasa's friends who led the raid and arrest of Agwi are all members of the Armed Froces and are liable for Section 55 of the Defence Act.

Somare and his Cabinet are all liable for inciting mutiny pursuant t s41 of the Criminal Code Act 1974 which states:

41. INCITING TO MUTINY.

(1) A person who advisedly attempts–

(a) to seduce any person serving in the Defence Force by sea, land or air from his duty and allegiance; or
(b) to incite any such person to commit an act of mutiny or any traitorous or mutinous act; or
(c) to incite any such persons to make or endeavour to make a mutinous assembly,

is guilty of a crime.

Penalty: Subject to Section 19, imprisonment for life.

(2) A person who has been tried, and convicted or acquitted, on a charge of an offence against Subsection (1) shall not be afterwards prosecuted for any other offence against this Division in respect of the same facts.

This blogger does not have energy to go into other criminal offences like kidnapping and assault and treason which is punishable by death.

When the matter does end up in Court, Somare and Company will play their legitimacy card. They will take out the Supreme Court Reference of December 12 2011 and claim they acted in their capacity as the legitimate Government of Papua New Guinea.

Sasa can weave the same bullshit but it will be with difficulty. His appointment was never gazetted and none of the formalities necessary were followed to legitimize his appointment. Contrary to the clown Andrew Kumbakor's statements on EMTV, gazetting and all other formalities are not unnecessary; they are part and parcel of the appointment process.

As for Sasa's men who are current enlisted Defence Force personnel, they have betrayed their chain of command in the most outrageous way imaginable; they kidnapped their Commander-in-Chief.

26/01/12 .... a date which will live in stupidity.

And Happy Australia Day/YAURA SASA DAY

CURSE OF LAITEBO: EXXON MOBIL caused Landslide

2012-01-27T09:43:00.001+10:00

BY LNG WATCH

We have now all learnt that tragedy has struck residents living near ExxonMobil's Southern Highlands operation. A large landslide 1km long has destroyed dozens of homes. Sadly, the death toll could reach 60.

Our first thoughts must go out to the family of the victims. However, given the scale of this tragedy it would be remiss if we did not consider whether there was a causal link between the landslide and ExxonMobil's operations. When asked by ABC Radio, Exxonmobil denied the link. Nevertheless, disturbing evidence is beginning to emerge.

For example, in the Namorong Report it was reported that United Nations PNG Coordinator has pointed the finger at Exxonmobil's operation. However, perhaps most damningly Bill Yomba from the National Disaster Office made the following remark to CNN:

"This is a very huge landslide that covered a 1 kilometer area. We are still trying to find out the cause but at this stage we believe the gas project run by Esso Higlands Limited was a contributor because they had been digging for limestone in the area".

According to the ABC's Liam Fox similar accusations are being levelled by villagers near the landslide:

"There are people - locals are already drawing some links. How correct that is, we're not able to say yet. But they believe that the quarry next to the landslide site caused the landslide. That blasting in the past has, quote, 'softened the ground' as they have said. And that quarry was used by the LNG site for its operations. But Exxon Mobil says that's not the case anymore and hasn't been for about six months."

The Post-Courier is relaying similar views from the ground:

"Locals blamed international contractor Clough Curtain Joint Venture (CCJV) for not developing the Tumbi quarry including proper safety procedures that resulted in the loose rocks and soil from the top of Gigira mountain range to cascade causing severe destructions on its way down."

In a move that may seem insensitive in light of the tragedy, ExxonMobil has resumed work in the affected area - whether this risks further destabilising the site we are not sure. ExxonMobil's spokesman Rebecca Arnold has informed investors and customers this event will not prevent it from meeting its corporate targets.

The Coup through the eyes of a buai seller

2012-01-26T21:20:00.001+10:00

A police vehicle drives past Murray Barracks late in the afternoon. The situation is eerily calm like the atmosphere at a graveyard.

As I walked along the Murray Barracks fence I came across a street vendor. Jenny from Wabag selling buai outside Murray Barracks near the main gate and bus stop. Business was good today…. yep mutineers were good customers. She was looking forward to staying up tonight if the mutiny continued.

On the other side of the road soldiers eyed the mutineers, according to Jenny, who watched the eyeing contest as it progressed all day.

As I was chatting with Jenny, one of the mutineers came over to buy buai. He warned us not to venture from our homes tomorrow. Even if the coup is over, recent history has shown how soldiers from Taurama can go on a rampage. The owners of a service station at Manu will have memories of that experience.

As I walked back home I saw a convey of the mutineers driving back in civilian vehicles, all Toyota Hilux 5th elements with guns mounted on top.

Col Yaura Sasa, Somare Puppet

2012-01-26T17:31:00.001+10:00

BY CRITIC PNG

SOMARE’S COUP IN CONTEXT

2012-01-26T15:55:00.001+10:00

The beast that is the Independent State of Papua New Guinea now suffers from Multiple State Organ Failure Syndrome. The condition developed about ten years ago when in his bid to maintain political stability Sir Mekere Morauta inserted a virus into Parliament: Organic Law on the Integrity of Political Parties.

The virus infected the Somare regime as the National Alliance Party came into power in 2002. Papua New Guinea then achieved unprecedented levels of Political stability and Somare became the first Prime Minister to serve a full term in office. This achievement though came at the expense of Parliamentary democracy. Debates were gagged and Parliament became a rubber stamp to decisions of the Executive arm of Government.

As growing resentment of the Somare regime grew over the years and as the 2012 elections approached, greater social networking and mobile phone penetration increased political awareness. However the straw that broke the camel’s back was the Supreme Court’s declaration of certain portions of the Organic Law on Political Parties unconstitutional. PNG’s notorious flip-flopping Members of Parliament rebelled against Somare and overthrew him as Prime Minister in a Parliamentary Coup, while he lay in is hospital bed.

Somare came back to PNG only to be humiliated in Parliament by the Speaker who did his bidding for the past decade. His own political party colleagues had colluded with the opposition led by PNG Party leader Belden Namah, to overthrow him. Speaker Nape then had him removed as a member of Parliament after Parliament revoked it’s decision to give Somare Leave. Somare’s demons were back to haunt him.

The East Sepik Provincial Government then filed a Supreme Court Reference on the question of the legality of Peter O’Neil’s election as PM. The Court handed down its decision in favour of Somare, finding O’Neil’s appointment illegal.

However, on the day the Court was handing down its decision, Parliament was sitting. Parliament amended the Prime Minister and National Executive Council Act, effectively disqualifying Somare based on an age limit it placed on the PM. Parliament also re-elected Peter O’Neil as PM the day the Court annulled his earlier election.

The tussle for power continued with both sides appointing there Cabinet Ministers and Departmental Heads. This created a bit of confusion and the Governor General, Michael Ogio, was brought into the fray. Initially Michael Ogio recognized the Somare regime. After Parliament suspended him and appointed Speaker Nape as acting Governor General, Michael Ogio flip-flopped and recognized O’Neil.

Somare was placing his hopes on Fred Yakasa getting him into power but the Police force seemed to have rallied behind Commissioner Kulunga and the ONeil-Namah Government. With the Yakasa case frustrated in the legal process Somare has hoped that an obscure military officer would change his fortunes.

Until today Papua New Guinea never knew Colonel Yara Sasa ever existed. At 3:00am this morning, Colonel Sasa staged PNG’s first ever military coup, ousting the Head of the Defence force and seizing Command.

Deputy Prime Minister, Belden Namah, a military hero of the Sandline Crisis however showed who is in charge of the country by ordering Air Niugini to suspend flights to Kiunga, Madang, Lae and Wewak in order to prevent rogue army officers from coming to Port Moresby. Police have set up road blocks around the Murray Barracks and some mutineers have been arrested. Mr Namah has heavy security detail and has issued an ultimatum for the mutineers and their leader Colonel Sasa to surrender pronto.

All indications are that Namah and O’Neil will still be in power and the Somare regime may face High Treason charges for trying to overthrow the state. But hey this is the fucking land of the unexpected and I'm just a drunk blogger writing this nonsense for you with loud music in the background. OMG, just ran out of alcohol. Maybe PNG also has ran out of sanity.

Somare’s Coup underway in PNG

2012-01-26T13:05:00.001+10:00

Former Prime Minister Somare has appointed the elder brother of a member of his former cabinet to carry out a military coup in Papua New Guinea today. In the early hours of this morning Col. Yara Sasa the commanding officer of Charlie Company of the 1st Royal Pacific Island Regiment, stormed the military headquarters at Murray Barracks and held the Defence Force Commander General Francis Agwi under house arrest.

Col Sasa claims to be enforcing the Supreme Courts ruling that the election of Prime Minister Peter O’Neil by Parliament on the 3rd of August 2011 was illegal. He claims therefore that his actions do not constitute a coup.

However, Attorney General Allan Marat has filed a Supreme Court reference seeking to clarify the legality of the O’Neil Governments existence following Parliament’s decision to re-elect ONeil. As such the legal issue about who has legitimate claim to the throne has not been fully settled. The actions of Col Sasa at the behest of Somare therefore constitutes a military coup.

PNG COUP: FINGERS POINTED AT SOMARE REGIME

2012-01-26T10:35:00.001+10:00

BY Jay Paiva

It seems the Somare regime has made a move while O'Niel is distracted by the Hides Disaster in the Southern Highlands Province.
Word out is that Colonel Sasa is now the Commander appointed by the Somare regime in place of Colonel Agwi.
Factions from Taurama & Murray Barracks have caused this. There is also word that Kulunga is next then they make their way to the parliament...

SUMMARY OF PNG MILITARY COUP EVENTS

2012-01-26T09:29:00.001+10:00

BY KEITH JACKSON, PNG ATTITUDE

0915 - Peter Kranz reports from Twitter sources (unverified) that soldiers are being organised to enforce the orders of the Supreme Court to reinstate Sir Michael.

Weapons have been released and orders given for the O'Neill/Namah cabinet and police commissioner Kulunga to be arrested.

An unnamed sources is quoted as saying: “We are now under military edict. Anyone resisting arrest will be shot. Orders have been issued to that effect.”

Martyn Namorong says that the former defence attaché to Indonesia, a Colonel Safa, has now declared himself PNGDF commander.

0845 - Peter Kranz reports from Twitter sources (unverified) that soldiers are being organised to enforce the orders of the Supreme Court to reinstate Sir Michael.

Weapons have been released and orders given for the O'Neill/Namah cabinet and police commissioner Kulunga to be arrested.

An unnamed sources is quoted as saying: “We are now under military edict. Anyone resisting arrest will be shot. Orders have been issued to that effect.”

Martyn Namorong says that the former defence attaché to Indonesia, a Colonel Safa, has now declared himself PNGDF commander.

A possible attempted military coup is underway in Papua New Guinea with top military officers reported to be under house arrest.

The mutinous troops are operating under the name Operasin Strongim Konstituson[Operation Support the Constitution].

Among other officers, Francis Agwi the Defence Force commander, and Kyrie Eleison, the Commanding Officer of Taurama Barracks, are said to have been placed under house arrest by around 40 soldiers this morning.

Trade union leader Michael Malabag has commented: “Just what is going on now is the evil hand of politicians infiltrating the Defence Force of PNG. I am very concerned about this latest development.”

Radio Australia says supporters of former prime minister Sir Michael Somare are believed to have staged the raid on Murray Barracks early in the day.

A report just in from the ABC's PNG correspondent Liam Fox says: “At about 3:00am today a group of between 12 and 20 soldiers are believed to have raided the defence force headquarters at Murray Military Barracks and placed the head of the army, Brigadier General Francis Agwi, under house arrest.

“The ABC understands that a new commander has been sworn in. The raid on the barracks is believed to have been peaceful.”

PNG MILITARY MUTINY UNDERWAY

2012-01-26T08:33:00.001+10:00

“CO of Taurama Barracks was surrounded by 40 armed soldiers very early this morning n is now under house arrest. PNGDF Commander [Francis Agwi] I am told is also under house arrest at Murray Barracks HQ.It appears Murray Barracks,Goldie n Taurama are closed to the public.Just what is going on n is the evil hand of politicians now infiltrating the Defence Force of PNG.I am very concerned about this latest development.” Michael Malabag, Trade Unionist

OPERATION STRONGIM CONSTITUTION is currently underway. It is not clear what the aims of the soldiers are however the name of the operation suggests that they may be seekig to have Somare installed as Prime Minister following the Supreme Courts decision in his favour.

UN COMMENDS BLOGGER FOR RAMU MINE STORY

2012-01-25T13:47:00.001+10:00

United Nations Resident Coordinator, David MacLauchlan-Karr presented a certificate of commendation to this blogger earlier today. The award was presented in recognition of this blogger’s efforts to expose the injustices suffered by indigenous people affected by the Ramu Mine.

In presenting the the Award, Mr. MacLauchlan-Karr expressed grave concern for the people of Madang whose lives will be affected by the dumping of toxic mine wastes into the Bismarck Sea. He also encouraged this blogger to continue writing about the plight of the people of Papua New Guinea.

Meanwhile Mr. MacLauchlan-Karr also stated that the UN will be sending a team to asses the landslide in Southern Highlands. According to him, the landslide was triggered by construction activity related to the LNG Project.

UPDATE: 40 FEARED DEAD IN SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS LANDSLIDE

2012-01-24T17:30:00.001+10:00

BY SCOTT WAIDE

Everyone living near the road and on the hills got swept away. Two PMV buses packed with passengers that were travelling back from Komo was also swept away this morning when this tragic natural disaster occurred. The safety and Rescue team are still retrieving corpses from the site, so far 40 unidentified bodies have been pulled out and more are still being retrieved. Transportation and logistics for the LNG project has put on hold due to this incident. All work on site here has been stopped, everyone from nearby villagers' and also here in Komo have left for the site in search of relatives' and friends. The landslide is the biggest ever, judging from the pics it seems that the whole mountain came down. Witnesses claim from the site today that the landslip on the road is about 150 meters high.

MASSIVE LANDSLIDE STRIKES LNG PROJECT

2012-01-24T17:14:00.001+10:00

via PNG NEW PAGE

Above: First Photo of the Landslide between Hides 4 and Nogoli base of the LNG Project

Scott Waide reports that a massive land slide has hit the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Project area in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

Esso Highlands, the LNG project operator has pulled out some staff from the affected area. There are no reports of deaths and causalities as yet.

The area is geologically unstable and lies in the shadow of the ancient volcano of Bosavi. Mud flows are known to be a major geohazard in the area. It is not known what triggered the landslide but the area is known activities associated with the extraction of oil and gas.

Supreme Court decision on O’Neil’s election

2012-01-23T09:04:00.001+10:00

BY SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

There were 5 judges on the bench – Chief Justice Injia, Deputy Chief Justice Salika, Judge Sakora, Judge Kirriwom and Judge Gavara Nanu.

The decision was essentially 3/2 – meaning Chief Justice Injia, Judge Kirrwom and Judge Gavara Nanu decided one way, and Judge Sakora and Judge Salika the other – this was on the question of MTS’ removal as member and as PM – and on the election of O’Neill.

Judge Sakora’s judgement is not here as it has not been provided for publishing.

I actually prefer the reasons for decision from Judge Salika. I think it is just a great judgment. None of you have to/need to agree with me – if fact – I’d prefer if you all read it and make up your own minds !!!

To see when the judgement is effective from – we look at the words of the decision. The Chief Justice says that it is effective from 12 December 2012. I have copy/pasted his words from p66 of the case below – and underlined the important bits.

“I would issue the orders set out below and those orders take effect forthwith from this day . The orders are:

(1)The decisions of the Parliament made on 2 August 2011 to declare a vacancy in the office of the Prime Minister held by the Honourable Sir Michael Somare purportedly under s 142 (2) and Schedule 1.10 (3) of the Constitution and to appoint the Honourable Peter O’Neill as the new Prime Minister purportedly under s 142 (3) or (4); and which decisions were given effect to by the Head of State and gazette in the National Gazette, are declared unconstitutional and therefore invalid, effective from the date of this Judgment..

(2)The decision of the Speaker of Parliament the Hon Jeffrey Nape to inform Parliament that the Hon Sir Michael Somare ceased to hold office as the member for East Sepik Provincial seat is declared unconstitutional and therefore invalid, effective from the date of this Judgment..

(3)That the Hon Sir Michael Somare is restored to office as the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea forthwith. “

As you will see further in the written decision, Judge Kirriwom and Judge Gavara Nanu agreed with CJ’s decision and judgment and also gave further reasons.

So my friends – any claim that decisions by the O’Neill/Namah government from 2 August 2011 to 12 December 2011 are somehow invalid IS WRONG. Read it for yourselves. The orders of the decision ONLY take effect from the date of the decision.

You can see why can’t you – otherwise there would be a complete mess in government and the public service.

It concerns me that statements are being made by the Somare camp that the acts etc are invalid – do they want to destabilise the country when the Supreme Court has actually clearly legitimised the decisions from 2 August 2011 to 12 December 2011 ????

I send this out as it is important for those who are interested enough to think about these things to be able to make informed decisions on this. This is a published decision of the Supreme Court so it is not confidential or private – it is a judicial precedent. I don’t care whose side you are on – Somare’s or O’Neill’s or your own – everyone should make sure that they are properly informed !

_______________________

BLOGGER’S NOTE:

IF YOU WOULD LIKE A COPY OF THE SUPREME COURTS DECISION SEND ME AN EMAIL. MY EMAIL ADDRESS IS ON MY FACEBOOK BADGE LOCATED ON THE RIGHT PANEL OF THE BLOG

Juffa condemns Tuna deal with US

2012-01-23T08:38:00.001+10:00

FORMER Papua New Guinea Customs Commissioner Gary Juffa has condemned the recent announcement that Papua New Guinea would return to talks related to the South Pacific Tuna Treaty (SPTT). Mr Juffa described its as one of the many worse deals Papua New Guinea’s ruling elite continue to enter into on behalf of the country.

“The year has started with the selling of our natural resources for far less then what its worth....then we gloat over this event and congratulate ourselves about how intelligent and successful we were...last week it was our fish...the media (foreign owned) gushed with how smart our leaders where in negotiating a deal with the USA for our tuna...we imagined ourselves great experts in international trade and we marveled at how such the great economy was brought to the negotiating table and heard us out and agreed to our terms and conditions...but let us take a closer look at the facts that surround this situation....firstly, who are the developers or investors that benefit? Who owns the fishing companies and the canneries?” Mr Juffa stated yesterday on Facebook.

The SPTT came into force in 1988 and allows the United States UNLIMITED ACCESS to Tuna stocks in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of Pacific Island Nations in return for the tiny sum of US$ 18 million in the form of Aid to 14 Pacific Island Nations. You gotta admit Pacific Island Nations are run by crack addicts or something if they can accept such a BAD deal.

Papua New Guinea withdrew from the Treaty last April after 24 years of being the United State’s bitch. However a phone call between US Secretary for State, Hilary Clinton and PNG’s Prime Minister Peter O’Neil has led to PNG rejoining talks.

Mr Juffa added that the scenario in the Tuna industry is being replicated in all other resource sectors.

“This picture is replicated in every natural resource industry...forestry, minerals, oil, gas....tax and duty exemptions galore, lack of enforcement and monitoring, capital flight and marginalization of locally owned companies in preference to foreign investment.....we have happily carried our pigs to the market....we have sung with much joy and dizzy excitement at the fact that our buyers have exchanged with us for our pigs, rats...we have feasted on these rodents happily, still singing and fed them to our children, squabbling and bickering whilst regaling each other with tall tales of our prudent bargaining prowess and we have convinced ourselves that this was a great deal....shame and shame and more shame, the very people we have placed as guardians at our gates, have let the enemies in...they have done so for a piece of the spoils of war...and we worship them yet, carry them on our shoulders and go weak at the knees when they walk in our presence...meanwhile our children stand by ready to take up begging pans and stare into a tattered and grim future....ready to be subservient and slaves for the children of the new colonial masters that are here upon us...and we let them...” he said.

Meanwhile, the Namorong Report revealed last year that Papua New Guinea receives only about K100 million in taxes, fees and spin off benefits from its K 2 billion tuna industry.

O’Neil-Namah Govt Repeals Chinese amendments to Environment Act

2012-01-20T08:21:00.001+10:00

Chinese Miners (MCC) and their lawyer face the Press outside the National Court in Madang

When Justice Catherine Davani handed down the only dissenting Judgment regarding the Ramu Nickel case, she suggested that the Environment be protected. At paragraph 111 of SCA 84 of 2011, Louis Medang v. MCC she stated:

“I find that Environmental damage is imminent; that this damage will be substantial and irreparable and finally, that violation of the appellant’s rights is inevitable. The Quia Timmet injunction must be awarded to the appellants.”

Yesterday Minister for Environment in the O’Neil-Namah Government, Hon Thompson Haroquave carried through on his promise to the People of Papua New Guinea and ensured that Parliament repealed amendments to the Environment Act made in favour of Chinese miner MCC.

The former Somare regime bulldozed amendments to the Act in July 2009 to deny landowners the right to question damaging activities on their land. According to Mine Watch blog, the amendments were drafted by Allens Arthur Robinson at the behest of Chinese miner MCC as it faced a legal battle over its plan to dump toxic mine waste into the Bismarck Sea.

Lawyer Tiffany Twivvey who had represented Madang Landowners in the case against the Chinese miner MCC was ecstatic about Parliaments decision. Posting on Facebook she wrote,

“Thankyou Thompson Haroquave, the Minister for Environment and also the NEC who approved Thompson’s submission and all MPs who voted in Parliament today. Thank you for caring about the people’s land and their survival into the future.”

As the news filtered through social networking site Facebook, many pundits expressed satisfaction with Parliaments decision and praised the O’Neil-Namah Government for putting the interests of the people first. Of course some were cynical of this move and commented that it was the same MPs who voted in the amendments at the first place. However those views were quickly rebutted by others who said that the MPs were bound by sections of the Organic Law on Political Parties, to vote with former Prime Minister Somare. Now that those sections of Law have been seemed unconstitutional, MPs can vote freely and yesterday they expressed that freedom by repealing the Somare/Chinese amendments.

Meanwhile, text messages were been sent to the people along the Madang coastline from Basamuk to Bogia, informing them of this latest development in their FIGHT against the Chinese miner. Many expressed satisfaction with the ONeil-Namah Government for its bold decision.

Portrait of a mother in Port Moresby’s Erima settlement

2012-01-19T13:54:00.000+10:00

Above: Pauline and her sons Marcus (L) and Mark (R) standing at the porch of their home

Pauline Nelson lives in a rather large property fenced by metal sheeting and timber. Located at the foot of a hill the property measures around 20 meters by 5 meters. Inside it Pauline has small shack, a chicken coop and two wrecked sedans. Around her are shacks belonging to various other settlers of the Metere section of Erima Settlement in Port Moresby.

His proud Southern Highlands mom has a broad smile on her face as she shakes the hands of her visitors. I get a hug from Pauline. I have accompanied a Russian photojournalist and a community worker with the local charity Women and Children at Risk (WECARE) to meet Pauline

Pauline is a volunteer carer and teacher. Since 2009 she has opened her home to children who come from troubled homes in her community. “I started off by sharing some of the surplus food I cook with my neighbors’ kids,” she tells me in Tok-Pisin as we sit on some wooden planks near her shack. “Back in 2009, I need get any assistance from outside but my faith in God kept me going,” she continues.

Pauline tells me that she makes a living by selling cold water, ice blocks and chicken. When she isn’t selling chickens, cold water and ice blocks, she runs an informal school for the settlement children. Pauline has been caring for around 40 children from her neighborhood. Many of these children come from broken homes or have are the result of teenage pregnancies where the man has sown his seed and vanished.

Last year her efforts were recognized by WECARE and the charity has been supporting her since.

Pauline showed me inside her modest home. Inside a single, dimly lit, rectangular area measuring 4 by 2 meters served as the living and sleeping room. The walls were covered in posters and clippings of models from women’s magazines. At one end she had two chest freezers. Parts of the wooden floor are covered with colorful floor mats.

Inside one of the chest freezers she had her ice blocks, and water bottles for sale. She sells the ice blocks for 20 toea and the bottled water for 50 toea. Pauline is one of the fortunate few who have electricity and a freezer. She has used her good fortune to help others in her community.

With the support of WECARE Pauline now assists women and young girls in her community who suffer from violence. Her informal school is about to receive support from Mobile operator Digicel to set up a proper Child Learning Center. She acknowledges a lot more needs to be done including training for herself to be a better teacher.

But I reckon she is indeed a very good teacher and that by her actions she’s teaching us about how we can solve our problems if Papua New Guineans choose to do so.

Out of the frying pan and into the Faia Rais

2012-01-18T06:44:00.001+10:00

I f the word on the blogs is true Mr Namah is essentially killing any chance of PNG Party making it in the upcoming elections. PNG Blogs was the first blog to post allegations that Indonesian swindler and International fugitive, Djorko Tjandra was on board the Falcon jet with Mr Namah when the plane was intercepted by Indonesian fighter jets. Just Google Djorko Tjandra to find out more about this fugitive.

It now seems to be the case according to the PNG Rice blog, the “local” firm set to become the rice monopoly of PNG is actually owned by Tjandra. Now lets hope Tjandra wasn’t in PNG to get ‘citizenship’.

Mr Namah’s alleged association with this fugitive now taints his image and that of the Party he leads. Perhaps his major blunder was to bitch about the interception of the Falcon. Now eye brows are being raised and questions asked about the behavior of the Deputy Prime Minister.

It seems PNG got out of Somare’s frying pen and jumped into Namah’s fire. Of course the Pro Somare National Newspaper aka the Daily Log has been having a field day with Namah providing it with fodder.

Now that someone gave an International Fugitive Rice monopoly, Trukai Industries has been TAKING OUT FULL PAGE Newspaper advertisements, reminding us of how much it cares about us. Come on Trukai, you’ve been here for millennia and continue to import rice na nau someone wants to grow rice na yu six-four. But even if Trukai doesn’t give a damn about this country, having a rice monopoly isn’t good , even if the rice is local. Kinda like PNG getting out of Somare’s frying pan and into Namah’s fire.

Why is a rice monopoly bad? Its like Bmobile before Digicel came – VERY EXPENSIVE.

Now that rice is involved in controversy, we could call the Independent State of Papua New Guinea a faia rais* State. The Australians “used” the State at Panguna and Ok Tedi. The Americans are “using” the State with the LNG Project. The Malaysians have “used” the State to unsustainably log the country. The Chinese “used” the State to dump toxic mine waste in Beautiful Madang. The Filipinos “used” the State to get the Pacific Maritime Industrial Zone in Madang. And now an Indonesian Fugitive has “used” the State to get himself a rice monopoly.

Tru tumas, PNG em faia rais stret!

___________________

*faia rais – tok pisin derogatory slang roughly meaning ‘she’s been fucked - many times’

Which way Big Women?

2012-01-18T06:42:00.001+10:00

The legislatively changes needed to enable the creation of women’s seats has hit a snag. Prime Minister Peter O’Neil snubbed a meeting hosted recently in Port Moresby by activist women. Dame Carol Kidu, the only female MP in the current Parliament was the only MP present at the meeting.

Once I met a representative of the National Council of women and we had a chat about the creation of reserved seats. I asked her if any study had ever been done to establish why women don’t vote for women or men don’t vote for women for that matter. No one has objectively defined the impediments to women in being elected into Parliament.

With this lack of clarity about the election of female representatives, pundits come up with various ideas. The most common being the Big Men mentality, lack of financial resources, vote rigging, and the status of women in society. The problem with speculating is that there is no dominant culture or society in PNG such that what one observes in one part of the country may be totally irrelevant elsewhere.

What I find interesting though is that the current push for reserved seats is actually coming from women who may be referred to as petty bourgeoisie. For example, Janet Sape is a pretty empowered woman who is successful in running her own businesses. Various other women who support this push for reserved seats are also successful career women. What this does say is that women can be successful in PNG under current circumstances so why aren’t they doing so well in Politics.

There are many men out there who are therefore very cynical of the moves to create reserved seats. They see this as just another power grab by elite women. It is hardly surprising from a historical point of view that the bourgeoisie would be seeking political power and that is the perception amongst some observers.

How does one then bring into the debate the argument of Affirmative Action? The fact that the democratic process has failed to produce fair representation by the female population demands such action as the creation of Reserved seats. Note here that it is about representation of electors by women and not the representation of women, as in a democracy, women may choose to have a man represent them. It isn’t so much about women having a voice in Parliament as it is about having female voices in Parliament.

The argument for Fair Representation by Women has been lost in the debate largely because the proponents of this electoral reform have failed to articulate the issue better.

I’ll leave you with images of women at Hanuabada village in Port Moresby. While the petty bourgeoisie women were discussing politics on Sunday, the women at Hanuabada went about their daily routines.

Hanuabada: UP CLOSE & PERSONAL

2012-01-16T07:52:00.001+10:00

I am sitting at the table going through the photos I have taken earlier at Hanuabada. I’ve made myself a cup of sweet black coffee and filled a glass of cold water to cool myself down after drinking my coffee. My phone buzzes and I check the message. My friend in Lae sends a message quoting Aristotle. I’ve never read Aristotle so I send back a rather confused message and browse through the photographs.

There are the four Dubu – totem poles set up to signify the beginning of Hanuabada village including Elevala although proud Elevalans obstinately prefer being identified separately from Hanuabadans. The four Dubu form two gates facing each other. The gates remind me of the Sun gates to eternity found in Oriental and Mayan cultures. A power pole stands rather abusively close to the four poles.

I’m at Hanuabada with my buddy Nou, a brilliant blogger and law student, and Vladislav, a Russian freelance photographer. Vladislav wanted to photograph the Wanigela houses at Koki but I told him I could arrange for something at Hanuabada since I don’t know any Wanigelas at Koki. In any case I thought we’d get a few shots of the signature houses on stilts and leave. Well, Nou gave us a grand tour of the Big Village and Vlad found many interesting subjects to photograph as I tagged along beside these two larger than life characters.

The Big Village gave us the Nation’s Capital and is perhaps the cradle of nationhood given the fact that Erskine declared British Dominion here and the Colonial Government set up shop nearby. Hanuabada encapsulates in many ways, the contrasts and contradictions of Papua New Guinea. Even with its rusted tin roofs and close proximity to the CBD, it has wobbly bridges linking homes stilted above water and is a very traditional conservative Motuan village. Brand new vehicles drive past rusty old homes built by allied forces after World War II. And after over 200 years of Colonization/urbanization I heard Motu being spoken at Hanuabada.

The villagers are very friendly. On a warm sunny Sunday afternoon they sleep peacefully in their naturally air conditioned homes and on the bridges . The cool sea breeze provides respite from the scorching Sun albeit with a touch of olfactory nuisance from the garbage piled under the homes.

The buildup of garbage is related to the changing onshore currents as the shoreline of Port Moresby Harbour is modified by reclamation of land from the sea. These land reclamation projects have caused deviations in the onshore currents thus causing deposition of wastes at Elevala instead of sweeping them out to sea. Obviously, Nasfund isn’t going to dig up Harbour City but its project may be causing the tort of nuisance to the people of Hanuabada if it can be proven that the extension of reclaimed land has modified onshore currents leading to the creation of a Public Health Hazard.

Sheeple here can learn a thing or two about negotiating from these Fijian villagers

2012-01-13T09:27:00.001+10:00

Via Mine Watch

In another unprecedented meeting that took place yesterday in Waivaka Village, Namosi, Government officials led by the head of Mineral Resources Department (Malakai Finau), got gob-smacked by very clear, strong and bold Namosi landowners. Having prepared for the meeting by putting their daily chores on hold, the entire Waivaka village of some 200+ waited patiently for the arrival of the MRD delegation to start the meeting at 10am (time set by the visitors – who arrived after 11.45am). Present at the meeting were - MRD (Malakai Finau), Lands, Fiji Police Force, Provincial Council, PWD Engineers and the Villagers of Waivaka. The visitors were met by the community protest banners flying proud and high in their village – ‘NO MINING’, ‘SAVE OUR PARADISE’.

The agenda was set by MRD on the behest of global mining giant Newcrest under Namosi Joint Venture – the issue: the blocking of access to NJV by the landowners pending grievances that have not been resolved over the past 12 months. The community hall was packed to capacity with men, women and youth (and children) ready to hear from MRD With regards to the lifting of the ban, and why it is important for landowners to play ball – by letting NJV continue access for their work. What happened was nothing short of awesome and inspiring on the part of the non-formally educated landowners who took the delegation to task from the word go – literally.

In a tag-team effort, the landowners intercepted the agenda, hijacked it and left the delegation looking askance and uncomfortable - again.

First off, the spokesman, demanded to know why the delegation was late. That as villagers, there is a lot to do in a day rather then sitting around waiting for a delegation who set the meeting time and they were told that if they say 10am then be there at that time and have some respect for the villagers.

From the response of the engineer who was there (the bridge that they crossed needed surveying) the agenda was thrown out the window and the landowners had a field day dictating the direction of the meeting. Not happy with the response from the engineer, the spokesman then turned to the Provincial rep berating him for jumping to NJV’s whining while it is them who have the real greviances. The Provincial rep was asked ‘who do you work for?’ to which he of course, hung his head in shame. At this point, the Hall began emptying with villagers not wanting to waste anymore time listening to flimsy excuses and further lies from those who are now seen to be doing NJVs’ bidding.

In an attempt to salvage their meeting agenda and one supposes, their collective pride, the delegation then handed over the meeting to the police rep (who hid his badge number) for him to bring out the main gun – lift the ban or be taken to jail. It was noted that the police rep spoke strongly about the illegality of the ban put in place by the landowners. But he was speaking strongly to a steadily emptying community Hall.

The final comment of the day came from the Turaga-ni-Mataqali or the clan headman, an old catechist with a lot of passion and growing confidence who straightened himself up to sitting position, looked coldly at the police officer and said to him ‘I am the landowner, are you threatening me? If you want to remove the ban, then you remove it. But hear me today – we are not going to remove the ban and allow access, not today not ever. You want to take us to jail, go ahead and take all of us. You say that what we are doing is illegal – what about what NJV is doing to us – their lies, their illegal activities that has breached our agreement; is that legal? Why are you not arresting them, why do you come here to us?’.

After this statement to which he needed no response, the old man stood up and left the meeting Hall to go and have lunch.

And here is the kicker – in a Fijian village, the visitor is hailed and feted and if they are from Government, the more effort is put in. Yesterday, Malakai Finau, Head of MRD in Fiji was made to look a fool with his Government friends. At the end of the meeting, all that was left in the previously filled Hall were the Government delegation and two school-boys who were kind enough to stay and taki their kava. The rest of the villagers – having waited and heard nothing but threats and more NJV strong-arming, went back to their homes and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon.

Overheard by one villager was the NJV rep asking the police rep, on their way out, about the success of the delegation in getting the Company access again. The villager overheard the police rep saying ‘no, not now’.

The war rages on.

In defense of Buai sellers

2012-01-12T11:45:00.001+10:00

Wanpla sis salim buai long Madang. Mi kisim piksa blong em na em givim mi fri buai

Apparently, according to some people I’m the spokesperson for street vendors. I am a street vendor but I’m not sure if I’m a spokesperson. In any case there is a need to articulate the cause of street vendors – more commonly referred to as buai sellers.

Buai, betelnut or areca catechu is a nut of a palm tree found throughout the lowlands of the Asia Pacific region. It is a mild stimulant with the active ingredient arecholine known to have effects such as increased perspiration and salivation as well as a heightened sense of well being.

It is perhaps the most commonly consumed drug in Papua New Guinea. Sales of betelnut run into the hundreds of millions of kina nationwide. It is big business and is largely in the control of average Papua New Guineans.

Unfortunately, the country is being run by colonized minds who do not appreciate this economic empowerment of Papua New Guineans through the sale of betelnut. Furthermore, the sheeple who have gone through a disempowering education system have been brainwashed by their teachers not to become buai sellers. And out of touch middle-class kids whose parents slave for foreign companies, love to poke fun at buai sellers.

The consequence of this perverted mindset is that the Government of Papua New Guinea is more than willing to bend over to foreign exploiters and facilitate their entry but it clamps down on street vendors – its own citizens.

The Government of Papua New Guinea was more than willing to clean up the mess after the miners fucked up at Tolukuma and Ok Tedi yet it doesn’t want to spend a small amount of money cleaning up buai stains and husks. The Government of Papua New Guinea can allow Chinese miners to dump millions of tonnes of toxic mine waste into the Bismarck Sea but it gets pissed off with a little bit of buai rubbish.

Whereas money from mining disappears into thin air above Waigani, money from selling betelnut gets into the hands of many rural Papua New Guineans. The profits made by foreign companies go overseas to their shareholders but the profits from selling betelnut stay in Papua New Guinea. It seems to me that the only true Papua New Guineans are the buai sellers while the rest of the sheeple who despise them are suckers to foreigners.

What is the cost of cleaning up the mess foreigners create compared to the cost of cleaning up the pipia from buai sales? I’m sure you will find that you sheeple’s government loves cleaning up foreigners shit like they did on Bougainville.

Namah Drama a real-life thriller

2012-01-10T11:23:00.001+10:00

Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah came out in Public yesterday to call on Prime Minister Peter O’Neil to resign his post. Namah's spat with the PM comes amidst controversy over the incident in Indonesian airspace between the Falcon jet carrying Namah and an Indonesian Fighter jet.

Mr. Namah was incensed with what he perceived as the lack of support he was receiving from the PM regarding the incident. Mr. Namah was expecting full blown diplomatic sanctions against Indonesia while Prime Minister O’Neil was content with sending a diplomatic protest not to the Indonesian Ambassador.

By late yesterday evening speculation had increased with some quarters claiming that Prime Minister O’Neil had sacked Mr. Namah from his post. Blogger Nou Vada tweeted yesterday evening about the sacking. Mr. Vada claimed his source to be a lawyer who just happened to work for a law firm associated with Somare.

As the chatter on social networking site Facebook increased to epic proportions, Lawyer Tiffany Twivvey smothered the flame. Posting regarding the rumor about Namah’s sacking Ms Twivvey stated;

“Not true. Rubbish. O’Neil/Namah govt stronger than ever – despite plot by RH owned/pro Somare National beating up a story to try and destabilize them.”

The National Newspaper aka The Daily Log is widely known to be Somare’s cheerleader. The fact that Mr. Namah was on the Falcon with Oil Palm executives also highlights why RH has a conflict of interest over the matter. RH’s Gilford Oil Palm operation in Pomio has recently come under scrutiny. Mr. Namah’s Oil Palm SABL in Sandaun hasn’t had such negative publicity.

Many believe that Mr. Namah and his business associates pose a threat to RH’s business interests as it now moves into the Oil Palm Industry following its unsustainable depletion of forests resources in Papua New Guinea. It should now become obvious to the sheeple of Papua New Guinea that RH has moved into areas like retailing aka Vision City because it has unsustainably logged much of the forested area.

Meanwhile, one analyst has linked the recent protests outside the Indonesian Embassy, to NCD Governor Powes Parkop. Mr. Parkop is a human rights Lawyer and known West Papuan Sympathizer.

According to the analyst, the Protest Leader, Mr. Michael Tataki, is an associate of Governor Parkop. In an email sent to the Namorong Report, the analyst stated:

“Ok so what this means is Parkop is supporting Namah. And the problem with Parkop is that he is still surrounding himself with the ole Melsol boys – Michael Tataki – oh dear. Parkop told his boys to go picket. No doubt told Namah he could get some people to picket. Well he succeeded.”

The protestors are demanding K430 million compensation from the Indonesian Government for the incident involving Namah and the Falcon.

The Namah Drama is turning out to be a power play that even Shakespeare would be envious about. With a powerful cast and crew, whatever will transpire remains to be seen. Our Hamlet has a lot on his plate.

“To be or not be, that is the question: whether ‘tis Nobler in mind to suffer The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune, Or take Arms against the Sea of troubles.” [Hamlet, by Shakespeare]

Survival guide for 2012

2012-01-09T15:38:00.001+10:00

Youth from Rempi village, Madang Province, attend a training program on mobilization in response to Globalization.

When I was in grade 10 I bought a book about Charles Darwin and read a bit of it. Then, I learnt about Natural Selection and competition between species. I also figured that the most powerful weapon a person had was his or her brain.

One thing I understand about myself is that my body is just a shell that contains genetic material that wants to be transferred. Decisions about self preservation and feeding and ultimately reproduction are all geared towards ensuring the transmission of genes. Nature demands that those GENES be transferred before the shell (body) becomes useless, i.e. dead.

Competition amongst humans like elsewhere in biology is to ensure that the weak get eliminated and only genes from good stock get transmitted thus ensuring better chances of survival of the species.

It would be nice to think that by some act of God or magic, people would become more caring and have respect for their fellow citizens. The reality is that such thinking is wishful thinking. It aint gon happen in this country. It aint gon happen in this world. People are governed not just by human constructs of social norms but by their innate biology.

The blunt truth about life in Papua New Guinea is that it is based on very basic, primordial survival instincts. If the person seating next to you leaves their phone for 10 seconds you pick it up and go and sell it and make a few bucks. If you are handling public funds you help yourself with those funds. You help your friends and families while the rest stay in the queue waiting to be served. There are numerous other examples.

Now don’ expect me to say senisim pasin coz I aint interested in changing anyone. I am just highlighting the need for those who are vulnerable, to adapt. There has to be a nationwide adaptation given the circumstances we are being presented with. No, humans aren’t living like animals we are just being what we are biologically –ANIMALS.

Around us changes are happening to our environment and therefore affecting our daily lives both positively and negatively depending on the type of change. Those who are weak in society are being exploited and/or killed. Thus the more competitive in society are on the top of the game.

Now, by competitive I don’t necessarily mean competitively evil. For example, someone who is health-conscious is perhaps more competitive because he or she might live longer or have access to resources and opportunities.

The competitively evil are those who steal from the public purse and get away with it such that they may afford private hospital fees for their children while a 10 year old boy dies. Greedy loggers, being the competitive animals that they are, are ripping off people for the resources on their land. Greedy miners, being the animals they are, are ripping of indigenous communities. Greedy politicians are ripping off voters. Greedy public servants are ripping off everyone. Greedy buai sellers are ripping off their customers. It’s all working according to nature at all levels of society.

Throughout the fossil record one finds animals that are now extinct. Many of them failed to adapt to the changes happening around them. Individuals and communities around PNG need to adapt to the changes facing our country. By adaptation I am NOT implying blanket acceptance of what is imposed but also increased resistance just as in molecular biology genetic mutations provide various species defence mechanisms resist disease and/or cope with ecological changes.

What I’m going to discuss further may disgust you a lot more...

Let me start with the adaptative responses of our people from the Hela region. They seem to be doing well by threatening foreign workers and the State in order to extort money. I wonder if our Koiari friends will shut down water and electricity to Port Moresby to get a few hundred thousand bucks from NCD. The Sinivit landowners shut the mine to negotiate for compensation. So far these techniques have been far more effective way for resource owners to gain benefits. Perhaps resource owners need to increase their threats and extortions.

Our law and justice sector has a very weak record in holding crooks accountable. There is an idea floating around influential circles, of having Death Squads to deal with corrupt crooks. I think such death squads would be more effective adaptation compared to an impotent legal system.

You’re probably really pissed but seriously do the sheeple have to continue turning the other cheek while their mothers and sisters get raped. The Morobeans had enough of the crap in Lae and they solved a crime problem that the Police and Churches were utterly incapable of sorting out. Perhaps we need more Lae riots to sort out the issues with settlers if relevant institutions fail to address settlement problems.

Good MPs like Parkop and Sam Basil have done a lot for their people. In this year’s elections, Vote good leaders and maybe things will change. If that doesn’t work do what the Helas did to Somare and his delegation. Roger Haofa will tell you the story of how the Hela Province came into fruition after Somare was welcomed with stones.

Given the difficulties faced by individuals and societies as vulture capitalism unleashes itself throughout PNG, adaptation is imperative. Basically, to survive in our ever changing world we need to understand that every one of us is a competitor for resources. Natural ecosystems maintain a balance because all competing interests cancel out each other in a natural order.

Melanesians societies once maintained a natural order but this has been disrupted. Today Melanesians and their communities are coming under increasing pressure from various dominant exploiters from with-in and with-out. Melanesian societies must adapt or become extinct.

The most powerful weapon we have is our brain. Innovative ideas and technology need to be harnessed to augment the threats to survival of indigenous peoples throughout PNG.

Facing Western Province’s TB crisis

2012-01-09T15:37:00.001+10:00

People travelling on a sailing canoe in the South Fly of Western Province

TB is an airborne opportunistic infection. It is associated with HIV/AIDS as one of the opportunistic pathogen that infects an immune-compromised individual. But HIV alone cannot explain why TB cases are HIGHER in Western Province. Addressing issues such as nutrition and improving access to healthcare may also reduce the prevalence of TB in the communities.

The rise of multi-drug-resistant (MDR) TB poses greater risks to the population. MDR-TB arises when treatment regimes are not adhered to. However the latest indications are that MDR-TB is now transmitted with-in the community. MDR-TB is very difficult to cure.

This has made Tuberculosis a major Public Health nightmare in the Western Province. One could almost classify it as an epidemic. The spillover effect is being felt by Health Authorities in Queensland Australia.

However, there is very little, if any epidemiological data about the natural history of the disease. The problem with the lack of epidemiological data is that one therefore cannot devise targeted strategies aimed at eradicating the disease.

The Center for Disease Control defines epidemiology as such:

Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states or events in specified populations, and the application of this study to the control of health problems.

There are two ways such data can be collected; (1) is a hospital-based data collection based on clinical records and the other is (2) a population based data collection done by screening specified populations.

With the advent of mobile coverage over more than 90% of the population, there exists a potential for crowd-sourcing public health information including that of TB. While there may be discrepancies in the information provided by the public, the information can be used to compare with clinical statistics to get a picture of the extent of the problem.

Mathew Morris from the Development Policy Center of the Australian National University has u mapped out road problems in PNG based on sms reports. Such crowd-mapping can be used to pinpoint cases of TB throughout Western Province. This visual representation of the geographical distribution of TB can then be used by Public Health authorities to rationalize the allocation of TB drugs, staff and resources to various Health facilities in the province.

Toxicology studies also need to be done to determine whether mine wastes discharged into the Fly and Strickland Rivers, are poisoning the people of Western Province and compromising immunity to disease thus allowing TB to thrive.

It is a disgrace that a resource rich province should be so poorly led and incompetently managed. The Governor of the Province is a medical doctor yet under his nose, the province has suffered the most in the domain of Public Health. Public Health authorities in the Province are also equally culpable.

The Darkness of Neon Lights

2012-01-08T18:42:00.001+10:00

Above: Remnants of a lamb flabs and buai stall at 5 mile

The recent demolishing of the street stalls at 5 mile is blow to those of us who believe its better to make our own money than to beg for handouts. To me the 5 mile markets were fast becoming a cultural icon as they where redefining the city nightscape. They were a means of people from various parts of the city connecting with each other.

The street vendors in various parts of the city are respected by the youth in those suburbs because they help them out when these young people don’t have enough koins long baim buai na smuk. Indeed, one of the reasons I feel safe walking the streets of Port Moresby is the luksave I get from the street vendors. As a buai kastoma I feel protected by the influence of the street vendors over the youth in the suburbs. Ol i save lukautim kastoma blong ol.

The fact that he 5 mile buai market operated 24/7 also indicated that the area had a low crime risk. Indeed, that’s exactly the case at 3 mile area around Port Moresby General Hospital. Spots like the 5 mile buai market and the 3 mile bus stop canteens are a night oasis where city residents feel safe to venture out at night.

If indeed Governor Parkop was genuine about residents of Port Moresby reclaiming the nights, it will come from community initiatives like the 5 mile buai markets as opposed to the tokenism of NCD’s Jack Pidik Park garage sales. It is a fallacy to think that such night markets fuel crime. Let’s face it; if crime was prevalent, customers would be deterred and no vending could occur.

There is also an important consideration of the economic empowerment of so called unskilled Papua New Guineans who for various reasons are unable to participate in the formal economy. The informal economy allows them to participate in the prosperity of Papua New Guinea. The unchecked population growth and burgeoning urban youth demography pose serious threats to stability and security of our nation. To prevent this vulnerable demography from participating in the informal economy is to fuel the growing sense of disenfranchisement amongst the youth.

Indeed, the recent Lae riots highlight the disenfranchisement felt by Morobean youth. The Morobeans felt that their opportunities to participate in the informal economy were being undermined by the deals made between Chinese shop owners and nonMorobean street vendors. This growing sense of disenfranchisement coupled with a growing crime rate and the lack of political will to address these issues, fuelled the rioting in Lae.

With current inflationary pressures being created by the LNG Project, many urban families need to participate in the informal economy; in order to make ends meets. No doubt, the families at 5 mile did so via their street stalls. It was therefore an economic injustice to have their stalls destroyed and thousands of Kina worth of goods lost.

I’m sure the policemen who did the damage would relate to the plight of these 5 mile families. I recently bought fried lamb flabs and banana from the folks at Gordons Police Barracks opposite Wardstrip Primary School.

I must say also that I do have a rather sentimental attachment to the 5 mile buai markets. I’ve been a street vendor myself these past couple of years after dropping out of school. I saw the 5 mile markets as the epitome of street vending; a class of its own whose splendor and elegance at night shone in proud contrast to that of Governor Parkop’s water fountain. Indeed, in my opinion it was an enhancement of the 5 mile nightscape albeit with betelnut husks strewn along the sewage-filled footpath.

I nicknamed it the 5 mile buai Market “Bangkok” because at night it reflected one of those night markets one would see in South East Asia. I’ve never been to South East Asia, I’m just drawing about hours of Television viewing. It was my little piece of overseas just as in the darkness of the settlement nights; the settlers of Kaugere refer to brightness of the Touaguba lights as overseas.

5 mile Bangkok was to me an antithesis to the commercialized image of the Governors water fountain. We the ordinary people’s (The 99%s) practical response to the capitalist’s (The 1 %s) expensive water fountain of little practical value to the ordinary citizen other than a purely ascetic function. Perhaps the money used to maintain an expensive water fountain could have been diverted to assisting street vendors at 5 mile keep the vending area clean.

The benefits of a water fountain are not easily quantifiable but the benefits of assisting street vendors keep the city clean are numerous. Betelnut markets are a meeting places for many city residents and a lot of friendships a formed there. People discuss politics or local gossip and indeed a sense of community develops around the buai market. It is more of a social networking experience than a commercial one. Street vendors humanize what is a dehumanizing, commercialized city experience that ekes out an existence in a concrete and steel jungle.

Unfortunately, street vendors have a major image problem – Litter. Littering is definitely an issue that is difficult to resolve. There are some snobs who dedicate their Facebook status updates to bashing the buai sellers and chewers for olgeta buai spet that tarnishes the glorious concrete and corrugated iron structures of modernity.

I walked past the 5 mile road on Tuesday 3^rd of January. The place just doesn’t feel the same. It’s as if life has been sucked out. I may go as far as to say that 5 mile without its street markets is like Romeo without his Juliet –dead. I hope Governor Parkop brings back the 5 Mile’s Bangkok. If not permanently, just open it one last time for old time’s sake. Mr. Parkop as a Social Democrat should be concerned about putting people before profits.

We need Social Medicine in PNG

2012-01-07T16:57:00.001+10:00

With the recent public outcry over the death of a 10 year old male after a private hospital refused to treat due its No Cash No Treatment policy, I began contemplating the relationship between social and economic conditions and health. It was the 19^th century German physican Rudolf Virchow who first described the disparities in health of the rich and the poor.

They say every man has a price. In this discourse I will try to outline how price manipulation can be used to modify unhealthy behaviors that produce lifestyle diseases. I will also briefly highlight socio-economic disparities that produce health problems.

The demand for a good and therefore its consumption is determined by the level of supply and how much people are willing to spend on it – its exchange value. To limit is consumption one can control its supply and inflate the price of that good by setting a price floor. The price increase reduces the buying power of consumers forcing them to change their buying pattern.

During the recent holiday period, the price of cigarettes skyrocketed in Port Moresby by as much as 100%. Rolled unfiltered tobacco (Spear) went from K1 to K2 on the streets and filtered cigarettes went from 70 toea to K1.20. And of course betel prices surged from K1.00 to K2.00 per nut in various parts of the city.

Consequently, the sales of cigarettes and betelnut dropped. For Public Health Authorities a drop in cigarettes would be good news as cigarettes are an independent risk factor for almost all cancers.

Herein lies a lesson in Public Health you don’t get taught at medical school – supply and demand are inevitable forces. The manipulation of the supply and demand forces can be used to modify unhealthy habits.

Governor Parkop has been effectively disrupting the supply chain of betelnuts by targeting street vendors. This sends a negative feedback to potential suppliers of betelnut to reduce the volume of betelnut transported to Port Moresby. It also decreases competition amongst buai sellers thus driving up the price. The increase in the price of betelnut has seen a change in the chewing patterns of many buai chewers.

The Government’s recent decision to increase taxes on Coffee Punch also modified the consumption of that alcoholic brew. That is not to say alcohol consumption has decreased but people have shifted to buying cheaper substitutes. If the Government is serious about and health and social impacts of alcohol they should apply a blanket tax hike on all alcoholic drinks.

Indeed, if Jamie Maxton-Graham is serious about he’s healthy eating message he could modify people’s eating habits using principles of economics. He could remove tariffs on imported fresh produce -excluding meat, and offset that by raising import duty on all processed food. Currently, junk food is cheaper that fresh produce. People therefore eat more junk food than fresh produce.

I have specifically referred to imports because the domestic supply chain for fresh food is not as efficient as the overseas one. Once the domestic supply chain is established perhaps with the creation of a Commodities Exchange at Lae; the imported produce can be taxed in order to make the local produce more competitive. The Government could also add a Health excise tax on Coca Cola and Lamb Flabs and use that money to freight fresh food from the Highlands to the rest of the country.

Good nutrition is good public health and the subsequent prevention of disease reduces the cost burden on the Health system. Eventually the consumption of junk would find a new equilibrium, preferably lower than present.

Health seeking behavior also needs to be changed as well. Currently, many people present themselves at healthcare facilities when their condition has significantly deteriorated. By providing universal primary healthcare one hopes that health problems are addressed earlier and more cost-effectively than when cases present late. In addition, lifestyle activities that provide overall health and wellbeing be supported by tax incentives or subsidies.

Of course, these suggestions are not a panacea for solving our Public Health issues but their success is more profound than simple Awareness Activities. What they highlight though is that solutions to healthcare are much broader than clinical medicine and that health is also influenced by social and economic factors.

Two Latin American Physicians, Che Guevara and Salvador Allende understood that social and economic conditions impact health and the practice of medicine.

Ernesto Che Guevara was an Argentinean physician involved in the Cuban Revolution. Writing about the Revolution, Che stated that the greatest achievement of the revolution was the establishment of a model of Social Medicine that has made Cuba a Global leader in providing Healthcare – ahead of the United States.

Salvador Allende was assassinated in 1973 while serving as President of Chile. In the 1930s Allende argued that the solution to health problems was not just medical care but better sanitation, housing, nutrition and working conditions. Allende believed that it was not possible to provide health and knowledge to a population that was dressed in rags, malnourished and had poor living and working conditions.

Both men were killed for their beliefs. Allende’s assessment on the health impact of working conditions resonates today with what many Papua New Guineans workers face. In Che’s Cuba, a 10 year old child would not die unnecessarily because he had to face a capitalist doctor demanding payments before being treated. With the recent Private Hospital scandal, Papua New Guineans need to be more weary of the insertion of the Capitalist’s agenda into healthcare under so called Public Private Partnerships.

The World Health Organization defines Health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” The struggle for better health is therefore not just a clinical issue but a fight for the rights of citizens and protection of vulnerable members of society, such as women, sex workers and sexual minorities.

Social medicine does not just treat the patient it addresses the undercurrents in society that produce gross inequalities in healthcare.

MANIFESTATIONS OF VIOLENCE IN PNG

2012-01-07T16:55:00.001+10:00

If someone asked you what violence is, you’d automatically have images of people fighting, husbands beating wives, dogs chasing cats, etc... What if I told you that if you find this article frustrating, boring, insulting, distasteful, shallow, biased, etc...? Then I’ve been violent towards you.

Violence is about being hurt physically, mentally and spiritually. The spiritual dimension of violence extends to any act that destroys relationships between people, the environment and the Divine.

Violence that exists in ideas and the way those ideas get transferred by subtle means through children at school, is very devious and perhaps the worst kind. The O’Neil Government recently announced it is getting rid of the Outcome Based Education System.

Many High School students failed last year and indeed the Year 10s found the exams quite difficult. That is AUSAIDs act of violence committed against young Papua New Guineans. Thousands have had their future dreams and ambitions crushed by a failure system introduced by Australians.

In my poem We were not savages, published on my blog and on PNG Attitude, I describe the violence that arises due to the misrepresentations of history so that Papua New Guineans feel bad about the past and think it was all bad. The last three stanzas read;

I protest against the traders

Who exploit the descendents?

Of Bilbil, Hiri, Kula and Lapita traders

We were not savages

I protest against historians

Who do not recognize

Forty thousand years

Of genuine independence

We were not savages

They were not savages

We are now savages

We’ve done more damage

Then our ancestors ever did

Many Papua New Guineans live with the inferiority complex of being former savages and primitives. We were not savages nor were we primitive.

For Papua New Guineans to rethink the nature of violence is very critical. At a time when many indigenous communities face pressures from resource exploiters, the idea of what constitutes a violent act becomes distorted.

For instance, if a miner is polluting the river and you start having babies with deformities or various skin disease, that is violence against indigenous people. Now if the people then take up the matter with various government authorities and it falls on deaf ears, the government is being violent towards it people. How is it violence? Because, both parties are destroying the health and wellbeing of indigenous communities.

So when a landowner group decides to shut down a mine or town water supply, the media automatically plays into the hands of the exploiters and the government, portraying these groups as being violent. “Landowners threaten to shut down...” is a good example of a headline that portrays landowners as violent. What if the headline read, “Landowners plan to shut down...” notice the change in tone and perception?

And it is perhaps the perceptions that are created about people and places that is in my opinion the greatest form of violence. For example, many red-skin Papua New Guineans would think of Bougainville as the place to avoid if one can afford to. I went there and found out for myself that Bougainvilleans are some of the most hospitable people. I felt safer walking around Buka Town and Kokopau then I ever do walking at Gordons Market in Port Moresby.

Sadly, many Papua New Guineans buy into the negativity that is generated about their country and its people. Some are so obsessed with condemning buai chewers but not once have I heard them condemn the violence of illegal logging, police brutality, experimental deep sea mining or the land grab under dubious Special Purpose Agriculture Business Leases.

And yes still on buai, some of the most violently oppressed people are buai sellers in Port Moresby. But this violence has sadly become normalized in the psyche of city residents. I myself as a sinfully proud buai seller, wonder why unhygienic Asian Kai-Bars in Port Moresby don’t get the same attention from City Authorities. Governor Parkop needs to also put up signs at the traffic lights to remind Asian shop owners to improve hygiene standards.

Indeed Governor Parkop could install free water supply for settlements but he won’t. He prefers paying for water to flow out of fountains protected by 24 hour security. Strangely though, it would actually be unpopular to provide free water to settlers. That is because some Papua New Guineans enjoy seeing the violence of their fellow country men and women deprived of one of the basics of life.

These same Papua New Guineans wouldn’t mind seeing a rich foreign company getting a 10 year tax holiday from the Government. So on one hand it’s ok for the Government to give money to the rich foreigners but not to fellow Papua New Guineans.

I was once walking through Jack Pidik Park in Port Moresby with my brother and I decided to talk about the interschool fights. He said kids just did it for the fun of it. That made sense to me. In urban settings the violence of economic deprivation is much starker. Hyperactive teenagers get bored easily due to the lack of attractions and activities to keep them occupied. I grew in a rural community so I see the contrast between urban and rural childhood. It is highly unlikely to see a settlement kid from Kaugere playing at the Water Park at near Pacific Adventist University.

It’s important to understand violence in all its forms if one is to address violence in communities. It is about putting violence into context so that one is not mislead into thinking that a reaction against injustice is more unacceptable than the injustice committed. This helps everyone understand violence better and hopefully generates a social conscience that leads to addressing violence in all its manifestations.

The greatest threat to addressing violence is when some forms of violence become “normalized” in the psyche of the masses. Then, the perpetrators are never held accountable and society remains a violent one.

Was Pacific International Hospital negligent?

2012-01-05T07:18:00.001+10:00

The Little Green Palai Blog recently highlighted instances of unethical behavior by the Pacific International Hospital in Port Moresby.

The blog reports that the hospital’s “No Cash No Treatment” policy has resulted in the death of a 10 year old boy on the 3^rd of January 2012. Kua Dom was rushed to the hospital by his mum following severe abdominal pains but was refused medical attention by staff at the hospital because his mum did not have adequate cash on hand. Despite assurances of payment from his dad Steven Dom, a senior military officer who was on active duty in Wewak, the hospital staff still refused treatment.

Even though Kua’s condition was rapidly deteriorating and he was coughing up blood, the staff at PIH did not attend to him. Eventually he was taken to Port Moresby General Hospital where he passed away.

One of the fundamental principles of medical ethics is Non-Maleficience. It is surmised by the maxim “primum non nocere” –First, do no harm! The Hippocratic Corpus from which doctors have received the Hippocratic Oath, elaborates further:

“The physician must...have two special objects in view with regard to disease, namely, to do good or to do no harm.”

In a landmark case on medical negligence, handed down in 2005 by Justice David Cannings the Angau Memorial hospital was found to be negligent in the death of Paul Tirima [see Trima v Angau Memorial Hospital [2005] PGNC 165]. In establishing whether the hospital was negligent the Justice Cannings sets about the following two step process:

Two-step process

In determining this issue, a two-step process will be applied. First, what was the standard of care expected? Secondly, having regard to the findings of facts outlined above and the opinion of the two expert witnesses, was that standard met? Or was it breached? If it was breached, the conclusion will be that the hospital or its staff was negligent and the second element of the tort of negligence will be established.

The test to apply
The causation issue can be resolved by asking the simple question:

• Would Paul Tirima have died but for the negligent conduct of the hospital staff?
(See generally J G Fleming, The Law of Torts, 5th edition, Law Book Company, pp 179-182.)
If the answer to that question is ‘no’, the element of causation is established.
If the answer is ‘yes’, causation is not established.

Now let us apply His Honour’s guide to the case of Kua Dom.

Kua Dom was presented to Pacific International Hospital with abdominal pains and hemoptysis (coughing blood). The hospital refused to provide treatment because his mum was unable to pay in full.

Firstly His Honour asks: was the standard of care expected?

Was the expected standard of care provided by PIH?

Secondly His Honour asks: was that standard met? Or was it breached?

Was that standard met or was it breached by PIH? If it was breached, the conclusion will be that the hospital or its staff was negligent and the second element of the tort of negligence will be established.

His Honour then applies the following test: Would Paul Tirima have died but for the negligent conduct of the hospital staff?

In this instance, would Kua Dom had died but for the negligent conduct of the PIH staff?

END NOTE:

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS AT A HOSPITAL… READERS MAY EMAIL, PRINT AND CIRCULATE THIS ARTICLE

Mipla inap

2012-01-01T15:25:00.001+10:00

BY PAUL OATS

If PNGians can and do very well away from their own country, why shouldn’t this also happen in PNG? That’s the ‘salat’ (nettle) that must be grasped.

Around 40 years ago, on patrol through the villages and after the Census had been completed, it would be time for a down to earth discussion. While the topics were fairly free ranging and usually centred on the price of coffee etc. inevitably we would get around to what would happen when we Australian Kiaps left PNG? “Yupela inap’ was the central theme of this discussion. Yet cultural change can be a very slow process.

So what’s the problem? PNG people want results but are they prepared to change their culture to get those results? That’s the conundrum. Perhaps many other reasons then stem from this issue.

We obtain our cultural roots when we are very young. Most people find by the time they reach their teens, they have been imprinted with the culture they grew up with. There are of course exceptions however as a general rule, this is an accepted norm.

The perception in the PNG villages of the ‘Big Man’ syndrome is a powerful image involving status and leadership. To become a Big Man, certain prerequisites have to be fulfilled. Wealth must be generated and publicly given away in order to obtain status. No obvious wealth – No status and it therefore becomes difficult to get an audience and a hearing or to get people to do your bidding.

A Self fulfilling prophesy might then take over. If you know it’s not going to work, why bother trying? Also, if people take on a job, most people will want to know what’s in it for them? Selfless devotion might be a ‘driver’ for some but they are usually the exception.

Many years ago at a training course, the question was asked: ‘Could you sack Fred?’ Everyone knew of a ‘Fred’. He was the bloke who always turned up late, had an unironed shirt and gravy stains on his tie. Fred had a large family and a mortgage but he was always happy to tell a joke and make people laugh. Unfortunately, Fred’s work just didn’t come up to speed. He always had excuses why things just didn’t work out but he consistently couldn’t meet timetables and targets. So if you were Fred’s manager, after many pep talks and personal action plans that didn’t work, could you sack him? What about if Fred was a ‘wantok’?

Years ago when I was living in PNG, a mate from PNG called in unannounced to see my parents and say hello. One of the things he commented on was how hard Australian people work down here (in Australia). You can draw your own conclusions from that observation.

Finally, to a city dweller down south living in a sterile metropolis of concrete and steel, the concept of paradise on earth is a warm climate with sandy beaches and waving palm trees.

Ozzies deportation is wrong

2012-01-01T14:57:00.001+10:00

I’m not a lawyer so I won’t get into the legal gymnastics about the deportation of New Zealander, Graham Osborne. However he’s deportation does set a very bad precedent.

Many Papua New Guineans have friends who are foreigners. Most of these foreigners are good people. Indeed, I suppose those foreigners who have Papua New Guinean friends also have a genuine concern for this country. Their friendship does not just extend to the people of PNG but also to the country as a whole. No one including the Government should dictate the conditions of these friendships, as long as the relationships are lawful.

The facts as they are show that Mr. Osborne did nothing unlawful. Indeed his only crime was for being a friend of the Somares. This indeed makes me rather uncomfortable. What if some politician doesn’t like my blogging and decides to deport any foreigner that shows sympathy to my cause?

This deportation serves as a warning to us all that the O’Neil-Namah regime may be on an undemocratic path. Even the Somare regime, with its dubious tag of being the Mugabe regime of the South Pacific, did not impose such authoritarian rules.

Indeed, the deportation of Mr. Osborn took me by surprise. I always thought he was a Papua New Guinean citizen. I suppose this indicates how immersed into PNG Life, Mr. Osborn was. His involvement not just in Business but in arts and culture, and the development of sports in PNG showed how genuinely concerned he was about PNG.

Yes, some foreigners do come and destroy our country but I reckon Mr. Osborn did not undermine PNG values.

This is a worrying development in this current climate of Political instability. Many Papua New Guinean villagers do get foreign assistance via Churches and NGOs to address their issues. If the Government believes that empowering these villagers would undermine its survival, the Government could easily cut funding or deport foreign aid workers and Technical Advisors. Papua New Guineans should be free to associate with whoever they wish to without the fear of Government clamping down on their freedoms.

This deportation was unnecessary. It stains the image of the O’Neil-Namah Government and undermines its credibility as a democratic Government.

Conquest of Paradise: Fijians oppose greedy miners

2011-12-30T15:28:00.001+10:00

Words and Pictures By Ricardo Morris

Something you won't see in Fiji's mainstream media ... On December 14, 2011, the people of Namosi staged a quiet protest against the proposed mining project on their land at Waisoi. Representatives from Namosi Joint Venture (NJV) turned up for a meeting with the villagers in the area where the landowners are worried about the potential environmental effects and the loss of mataqali (landowning unit) lands. The project is in the environmental impact assessment stage.

While the men sat in the hall with representatives of NJV, the women and children sat outside holding banners calling for their land to be left alone. Witnesses say some women where crying as they sat outside. The villagers appear to want the developers to slow down and not make hasty decisions regarding the project, but the regime is keen for companies to start mining. Reports and photographs on the December 14 meeting have been censored.

_____________

Like the Ricardo Morris Facebook Page and follow events in Fiji

Mipela ino inap… – WTF!??

2011-12-30T11:22:00.001+10:00

Above: women demanding Reserved Seats in Parliament – and they brought change

Why do organizations run by expats do generally better than those run by Papua New Guineans? Why did Papua New Guinean civil servants and disciplinary forces perform better under the colonial administration than they do now? There are various possible explanations and some may be more valid than what I’m about to discuss.

I suppose this discourse is a meditation on a story a heard recently about a recent university graduate who was too scared to present to a white man so he’d tell his female colleague to “test the waters” ahead of him. Perhaps it was his inferiority complex that made him strive for perfection to please that white boss.

I also recall earlier this year at the Institute of National Affairs, researcher Amanda Watson for Australia, was resenting her PhD thesis on mobile phone usage in Madang Province. After her presentation, a senior officer from the Bank of Papua New Guinea thanks her and suggested that she should do a second study to compare with the earlier work. I was horrified! One would think that the senior Central Banker would be in a position to organize such research activity if the information was relevant to the Bank, particularly regarding mobile based financial services.

It is an all too familiar sight at conferences, workshops and seminars that one sees a crowd of high ranking Papua New Guineans stating their own disempowerment and expecting some messiah to solve the problems and that of the country. They focus on what they “LACK” as opposed to the power and influence they have by virtue of the positions they hold in both the public and private sector.

And so I recall at medical school how a colleague asked me why I was reading up on project management and proposal writing. I told her that doctors were highly respected and influential members of the community. As such, there exist a potential for doctors to use their standing in the community to advocate change and bring about community development. Furthermore, the doctor should be knowledgeable about dealing with development partners in achieving Public Health outcomes in community projects like water and sanitation. I envisaged a much broader role of a medical practitioner than just the narrow focus that limits most doctors to clinical medicine.

There is a perverted psyche prevalent through wider society that the sheeple apply upon themselves religiously. It is expressed in phrases such as:

“mipela ino inap...”

“ol lida mas wokim...”

“lack of funds...” “lack of capacity...” “nogat moni...”

“mipela mas kisim tok orait pastaim...”

...Etc, etc...

Yet all of a sudden, if a foreign missionary, technical advisor, general manager or aid worker gets involved, there is a lot of activity as communities, organizations and individuals rally around the foreigner.

I reckon what happens is that a people who for whatever the reason think of themselves as inferior, now have to prove their worth to an external adjudicator. Communities want the approval of the foreign missionary, local workers want to prove their worth to the foreign boss, etc... Once the foreigner is gone and replaced with a Papua New Guinean, the juice runs out and everything falls apart. Sadly, the Papua New Guinean replacement gets labeled a poor manager. Or conversely, the Papua New Guinean manager lacks self confidence and ends up serving his/her own interests in isolation, leading to the collapse of the project.

The most imprisoning thought is that of “mipela ino inap mekim dispel samting” or its English equivalent, “lack of funds and resources”. I didn’t study economics in school but that is no excuse for me not understanding the basis of the study of economics and that is - how to best apply scarce resources to satisfy unlimited human wants. Somehow, the people running this country haven’t figured out that they will always lack funds and resources. This issue therefore is not the lack thereof of funds and resources but how one administers limited resources to achieve development goals.

The other imprisoning state of mind is the perspective of time as circular as opposed to linear time. I’ve written about this matter already. The Europeans had inherited from Judeo-Christianity the notion of linear time – thus the need to have calendar years. The liturgical calendar of the Church also aided in this long-term thinking. This was not the case in the context of animist Melanesia and its circular time.

The saying “mipela ino inap” stems from the assessment that the scarce resources that are available now cannot cater for achieving a desired outcome within this circular time, therefore it is impossible to do anything to solve an issue. Thus Members of Parliament still complain that their slush funds are inadequate even though they were getting K10 million. If it cost K5 million to build a road, they’d say there are lack of funds therefore “mipela ino inap long wokim ol rot na bris”. They don’t usually think alternatively that they could build the road over their 5 year term, spending K1million per year.

A lot of money was allocated for improving infrastructure in schools – the RESI FUNDS, there is very little to show. Remember the controversial private hospital project at Bautama. It was to be built using Chinese funding that was meant for other hospital infrastructure. Since the project flopped we hope the funding was put to good use.

The reality is that at any given point in time, there will never be enough funding to meet all demands for development in Papua New Guinea. The challenge is for people to start thinking about how they apply what they already have to meet their development goals instead of bitching about not having enough.

Moments on the Jetty

2011-12-29T17:08:00.001+10:00

Every morning the Resident Crab

Inspects the integrity of my wooden structures

In preparation for the midday landings of the water birds

And the evening reflections of a lone writer

He sits silently looking across the calm waters of the lagoon

Gazing into the distance at the misty Hildelberg Ranges

Sometimes he takes shots with a white mobile phone

Sometimes he is nibbling food from a silver gray plate

And I’ve always noticed in his dreamy eyes

A silent sadness

One moon lit night the Sea came to visit

It rode on a watery chariot from the Basamuk canyon

It was sent by Mother Earth to warn her children

That the writer’s kind were planning a genocide

I heard the Sea speak with the Resident Crab

They whispered in low mournful tones

I could see the resident crab weeping

As the Sea left with the North wind to Bogia

An in the watery eyes of the Crab I noticed

A silent sadness

Comrade Nou’s reflections on Ramu Nickel Court Case

2011-12-29T08:41:00.001+10:00

Above: Lawyer Tiffany Twivvey addresses Rai Coast Landowners and journalists in Madang

I met up with one of the lawyers who was involved in the case. He was family and it was Christmas Eve. I smiled. "Congratulations on the win, bro!". He smiled back. He probably knew it took a lot out of me to say that, and that there was a hint of insincerity in my voice. The decision had left me gutted. I've been in Papua New Guinea's development circles since I was 14 and though I'm not as naive as I used to be about issues affecting development in PNG, I still wear my heart on my sleeve when it comes to grave social and environmental issues affecting my nation.

The Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea had decided 2-1 that it was quite alright for Chinese state owned Ramu NiCo Mine to dump mine waste in the sea of Madang, boasted the world over as Papua New Guinea's most beautiful Province. I went to Madang this year, and I spent a month with Papua New Guineans (and non-Papua New Guineans) in the frontline of a war against humanity; a war waged by greed and convinience and the dehumanization of a People who are as old as the ancient sea that binds them. This is the sea where the Chinese will dump Millions of tonnes of Mining waste a year.

CONTINUE READING AT THE EDEBAMONA BLOG

Southern Highlands Puppets: Who are their puppet Masters?

2011-12-29T01:13:00.001+10:00

The international media has gone back after PNG’s silly season before the festive season. Most Papua New Guineans now recognize O’Neil as Prime Minister but the Supreme Court decision to reinstate Somare has created a Constitutional Crisis with Parliament pitted against the Courts.

This legal gymnastics being performed by lawyers, judges and politicians has questioned the very basis of the legitimacy of the existence of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea. Is it a state ruled by Law or is it ruled by the General Will as defined by Rousseau in The Social Contract?

Parliament believes that the General Will as expressed through the elected representatives of the people is Supreme. The Somare camp on the other hand believes that the rule of Law prevails and that is expressed through the Supreme Court’s decision.

With the Somare camp recently appointing Southern Highlands Governor, Anderson Agiru as Deputy Prime Minister, the stakes have been raised. We now have a precarious situation where the US$ 15 billion Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project in the Southern Highlands has become a political pawn.

Western nations and corporations that have aligned themselves with the O’Neil-Namah camp must now contend with Governor Agiru, who has enormous influence in the LNG Project area in the Southern Highlands Province (SHP) . The West has placed its eggs in Agiru’s basket. Indeed, the future prosperity of Papua New Guinea is set to be underpinned by the LNG Project much like the future of a newly independent PNG was underpinned by Panguna.

The west did to play its cards right on Bougainville and its failure to understand the culture of Bougainvilleans led to must death and destruction. Having said that, the circumstances in SHP are different from Bougainville not just in terms of the type of resource being extracted but the issue of land.

The West needs to understand that Agiru is a Highlands Bigman and the pride of his supporters and tribesmen back home. His elevation by the Somare Click, to the post of DPM future inflates that pride his people have for him. This inflated pride is indeed something to be weary of. We know that the Helas and the Engans are cultural linked by a common cultural hero. We’ve seen recently that buildings in Wabag were torched when a false rumor spread that Abal and Ipatas (both in the Somare Camp) were arrested.

We now have a situation where there are two puppets from the Southern Highlands at the center of Papua New Guinea Politics due to the LNG Project. Much the same as Bougainville National MPs who have been used as puppets because of Panguna. So my fellow countrymen from the Southern Highlands become more willing to give up their Laitebo for peanuts because their men are in power, much the same as the Bougainvilleans did because their men were Ministers in various Governments.

It seems that we now have two Southern Highlands puppets being used by those who want to hold on to power. Perhaps President Momis and other Bougainvillean Leaders need to shed light on how they were being USED while Panguna bankrolled Rio Tinto and the State at the expense of the environment and the lives of the people of Bougainville. Indeed the appointment of a Bougainvillean as Governor General is very dubious, coming at a time when with-in a few years there will be a Referendum on Bougainville Independence.

History seems to be repeating itself!

Happy New Year sheeple, if the impasse continues we will have one HELL OF A NEW YEAR.

Not an Elite – AND PROUD!

2011-12-27T12:20:00.003+10:00

Above: Boat operators at Buka Passage

Before dropping out of medical school, I always thought that getting a first degree was everything. Having then dropped out and finding out that the education system is just a FAILURE TRAP, I’ve realized that Sir Mekere was right when he described corruption of the system as being “systemic and systematic”. Many commentators have gone further to call the corruption of this system of government as being like cancer.

The use of the term corruption or corrupt can be applied in terms of the bribery, theft and deceit being commonly implied or more broadly it can refer to a system of governance that is morally bankrupt and broken almost beyond redemption.

This corrupt government system is like a corrupted computer system that consistently spews out garbage to the people. So what do we do when the computer spews out garbage? First we take it to the techies or PC geeks to sort it out and if they’re unable to sort it out we buy a new one.

Why do we attempt to fix the computer? Some say to improve productivity, others say because we just don’t like the headache. And essentially, it is because we as humans don’t like the inconvenience and trouble caused by a broken system.

A computer is made up of software and hardware. The Government is made up of ideas (software) by which the politicians and civil servants (hardware) run the country. The ideas that drive our country are foreign. The people that run our country are local.

In medicine a foreign intruder into humans is called a pathogen. Most often, these foreign bodies enter into humans and cause diseases – they corrupt the body.

What we see in our country is that while the people suffer, foreign interests prosper. Why? Is it because the ideas upon which the justice system is based are foreign. Is it because policies and laws are foreign and being foreign, they facilitate the prosperity of foreigners at the expense of indigenous people.

How many of you readers have read the Constitution of Papua New Guinea and understand it? That document purports to have its legitimacy by consent of a people who have probably never read it or understand it. The reality of Government in Papua New Guinea may that be the Judiciary, Executive or Legislative, is defined by the Constitution and enabling legislation and conventions. Have the people given their informed consent to that document.

Now, it isn’t necessarily the fault of foreigners that this is the reality. They come into the country and play by the rules so to speak. Unfortunately, the education system has been pretty much producing garbage who can’t make the system work in our interest. Like a corrupt computer operating system, you send ignorant kids to school and the CORRUPTED education system spews out ignorant elites who screw up the country.

We were given a system that our colonial masters understood but we didn’t have a full grasp of. Now, instead of tweaking that system to benefit our interests, the elite have sold our souls to predominantly foreign exploiters. The elite have sold us out and continue to do so.

So you get educated, become an engineer and engineer the destruction of your people. Even better, become a pilot and fly in the exploiters into your country. Be a lawyer and assist the exploiters rip off your people. So, you’re a law abiding citizen – you must have peace of mind being an engineer or geologist at Ok Tedi who is destroying the Fly River. Much worse, you may be an accountant at an accounting firm that helps greedy corporations work out TAX MINIMIZATION STRATEGIES (basically - tax evasion in its legitimate form) that ensure they do not pay much tax to the government.

If you think 109 Members of Parliament are evil, think of the thousands of nameless faceless elite who are basically facilitating the Great Robbery of the CENTURY – the exploitation of Papua New Guinea’s indigenous people and the destruction of their natural heritage.

You know how the colonizers used to use the natives as trackers so that they could track the natives and “pacify” them – it’s happening in Papua New Guinea today and many don’ realize it.

The Education system sells everyone the FALSE IDEA of kisim save na painim wok. The reality is that only about 100 000 people are formally employed and 400 000 others dependent on those workers. The rest, about 6.5 million Papua New Guineans work the land of their ancestors using traditional knowledge. Their western education has very little relevance to their daily survival in remote rural communities.

Unfortunately, after 8, 10 or 12 years of being brainwashed with the false idea of being involved in the ‘modern lifestyle’ many colonized minds return to their communities as ‘failures’ and for the rest of their disempowered lives, dream of that romantic notion of modernity while living in the reality of the robustness of their cultural and natural heritage. They easily sellout to exploiters hoping to gain that modern dream and soon discover they’ve been hoodwinked.

Those who do ‘pass’ become ‘elites’ and soon find out that their ‘pay’ is not enough to sustain a ‘modern’ lifestyle which their teachers brainwashed them about. While they end up paying heavy taxes on their first pay packet, rich miners get 10 year tax holidays. When they go on strike as the doctors did earlier this year because the pay is crap, the Government takes out a Court order and forces them to go back and work for a crap pay. But when the miners threaten the Government, Peter O’Neil and Byron Chan do a back flip and pike that would have won PNG Olympic Gold in Synchronized Swimming.

It is important that Papua New Guineans realize that their so called elites a failing them. Yes foreign interests are at play but they are only successful because the so called elites suck up to them and the sheeple suck up to the elite.

The modern State and the Constitution as well as the westernization of Melanesia are realities that we need to deal with. The elites are doing a crap job at dealing with it. Sadly the sheeple put too much faith in their so called ‘intellectuals and elites” just as they wrongly believe politicians who have failed them for 36 years will save them after next year’s elections.

That is why I’m PROUD I’m not one of those so called intellectual elite. I believe being a buai seller I have more dignity than one of those so called highly educated law-abiding compradors who are selling off our country for less than peanuts. I remember how my teachers used to warn us against becoming buai sellers but instead join the elite who are ripping off their people –SKUL GUT! KISIM SAVE NA KAMAP CARGO BOI blong rip-off system!

Rendezvous at the Buka Passage

2011-12-27T12:20:00.001+10:00

The first time I walked down in the afternoon to take a dip in the Buka Passage, the sun was setting in the Solomon Sea between the passage between Buka and Sohano islands. I was wearing a black sportswear and black adidas t-shirt, looking like an All Blacks rugby player although quite frankly I don’t have the physique of rugby star.

My friend Norman wasn’t impressed. Norman is a cocky teenager who just finished year 10. He lives with he’s aunt at Kokopou. I was sort of under Norman and his Aunt Monica’s care when I visited Bougainville.

Now, according to Norman my dress code was faux pas in Bougainville. Okay so I didn’t know that most guys there wore black t-shirts and tight jeans with a red bandana. My sporty shirt and shorts made me look like a pretty-boy. Such a shame really coz I never considered myself to be pretty looking. I mean just look at that ugly face I have. But to be on the safe side, I decided to take Norman’s advice on Bougainville couture.

Anyway, Norman and I took a dip in the Buka Passage and I was so excited and splashed like a kid from the Highlands. This of course is not unusual because the first time I ever entered the sea was when I was baptized. But that’s another story.

So Norman’s telling me to avoid sea urchins while his eyes cannot avoid he neigbour’s daughter swimming nearby. While swimming I gaze at the glorious sun setting in the Solomon Sea. I’m thinking this must be the richest experience on earth. I know a lot of people dream of money, but I dream of the sunsets at the Buka Passage.

Norman and I pretty much introduce ourselves while swimming. He talks about he’s girlfriend while I talk about my buai selling, blogging and travelling. Norman’s real kool and I supposed we became best buddies with Norm picking on every bit of my unBougainvilleaness – which I found quite amusing coz I’m not Bougainvillean anyway.

It is in the Buka Passage that I develop a huge hangover for Bougainville. I’m glad the hang over wasn’t from Kenny’s Hall, which I was not able to visit. I just love everything about that place – and yes the sunsets are awesome. I can only imagine the many possibilities that exist on the many coral cays that stretch out westward into the Solomon Sea. Sitting on the sand on one of those timeless tropical evenings and watching the sun set in the horizon.

Okay, I did hear stories of locals travelling on dinghies to those coral cays for drunken parties but hey that’s life. Having said that it’s pretty difficult for me to say my interest in Bougainville isn’t tempered by those pleasurable opportunities. But honestly I do sincerely love the people and environs of Bougainville.

Damn, I forgot that I was wearing tight fitting sportswear and ended up walking to the guest house all wet with my shirt and shorts sticking to my skin. If only I had the physique! Norman decides to rub it in with he’s cheeky comments about my pretty-boy couture.

I walk past the copra shed with its putrid copra stench dominating the surroundings. Copra is a real stinker. I take a shower at the guest house then change before having dinner. I have a good night’s rest and am woken up early by the activity outside. A copra boat is being loaded. Its 6 am and the Sun has risen high as if its 8 am. No wonder they call this place Sankamap.

After breakfast I had a shower then changed and walked down towards the dusty limestone main street at Kokopou. At the guest house gate, some boys were winding down on their all night drink-up. Land cruisers from Arawa and further south, begin to pour into Kokopou and stir up the dust. I bought some big Buka buai at the market and pop over to see Norman.

Norman has gone to work albeit for only one day as I would discover in the evening when I walk out of the Buka Passage, dripping wet and wearing my tight fitting pretty-boy gear. Sadly, Norman got fired for insubordination. Being the rebel that I am, I congratulated him although I now rub it into him just to get back for the jokes he made regarding my swimming gear.

Remember I said Norman was cocky. Well he thinks he has rights for this and that and that the lawyers will back him up. That is why he felt he should speak to he’s boss about his employment conditions. I reckon the kid would make a good lawyer, he’s got guts.

A few days later I went on a rendezvous to Tinputz. It was an incredible journey south along the dusty limestone road. I hopped on a land-cruiser with other passengers on the 45 minute trip from Kokopou to Tinputz. The road winds inland up and down mountains and snakes its way around white sandy beaches. We crossed several mountain fed streams and rivers flowing from the Crown Prince Range.

I spent a few days at Tinputz, lying in the warm sandy beach below the hillside of the Sacred Heart Catholic Mission. This Parish on the hill reminded me of the Catholic Mission at Hahela, perched upon the cliff on Buka Island. The Catholic missionaries systematically claimed the physical high ground not just the moral high ground.

A week later I left my heart in the Buka Passage and flew out of Buka. One day I’ll fly back to retrieve it or perhaps to get lost forever in Paradise. The next time I travel to Buka I’ll make sure I pack a red bandana, pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. Think I’ll also pack a file containing Labour Laws for Norman and carry enough dough for both of us to spend at Kenny’s Hall.

To Bismarck's Children of 2050

2011-12-22T21:39:00.001+10:00

Hi kids

I wonder how the Bismarck sea looks like in 2050.

The Somare Government said that by 2050 you kids are supposed to be living in a healthier, happier and wiser Papua New Guinea. That same Somare Government also changed the Environment Act and allowed Chinese Miners to dump their toxic mine waste into the Bismarck Sea. No kidding, that was a gift to you kids from the father of PNG.

My name is Martyn Namorong. I’m a writer. Today (Thursday, December 22, 2011) I went to the Supreme Court at Waigani to witness the handing down of its decision on the fate of the Bismarck Sea.

It took about 10 minutes for the Court to Hand down its decision. In a 2 to 1 decision, Justices Sawong and Hartshorne also quashed the decision by the National Court in Madang which found that the conduct of dumping toxic mine waste into the Basamuk Bay would amount to both Public and Private Nuisance. The decision by the Court basically allowed the miners to dump their toxic waste into the Sea.

The only dissenting Judge was Justice Catherine Davani.

Earlier in September this year, I travelled down from Madang to Basamuk. White palm fringed beaches met the waves been blown in from the north. The Bismarck sea was clear and schools of tuna could be seen right near the shoreline. Above, flocks of sea birds hovered over the schools of fish.

All along the Coastline I could see villagers fishing. Some men in dugout canoes ventured into the swells in pursuit of the schools of tuna. On several occasions the skipper of the dinghy stopped to fish where the tuna could be seen splashing in the water. . Unfortunately the fishing line was cut and we arrived an hour later at Mindere village ad without any tuna for dinner.

The water in Basamuk Bay was clear, and from the dinghy I could see fish and coral. There was no evidence of turbidity caused by sediments from the rivers that flow into the Astrolabe Bay. The environment was in a pristine state.

The miners have argued that the toxic wastes would settle in the undersea canyon off the refinery at Basamuk. They have however failed to comment on any soluble toxic substances that will be mixed in with the sea water. Today in 2011, we do not have widespread reports of deformities in marine fauna nor do we have any epidemiologic reports of high incidence of carcinomas amongst communities of the Rai Coast and the Bismarck Sea.

I hope that in the year 2050 when you’re reading this, the sea birds still fly above the Astrolabe Bay, the sea is still clear and tuna still feed near the shoreline. Today the Astrolabe Bay is the closest one could get to Heaven, indeed it is Heaven on earth.

I saw the sun set across the Bay from Mindere and it was the most beautiful sight. I hope that when the sun rises on you the children of 2050, you do not live in the Darkness of Neon Lights.

I visited your beautiful ancestral land and sea and wrote about the trouble that was brewing. I told the world the stories of your ancestors whom I had met. They were a people in crisis.

Mindere villagers who were once independent subsistence farmers were increasingly dependent on the Miner for jobs and sustenance as their land was taken up by mine related activities. They were becoming slaves of the miner. Their lives were dependent on the miner’s goodwill and that wasn’t forthcoming.

At Ganglau village, youth were being persecuted by thugs in police uniform. At these thugs in police uniform didn’t want the villagers using scrap material to build their homes. Yep, scrap to build homes. So much for being mine refinery landowners when all you can show for the refinery’s existence are the scrap weatherboards and roofing sheets that patch up a house. There were bits and pieces of blue attachments to homes, making them look like bower bird nests.

All in all, the villagers of Mindere and Ganglau were healthy although the aid post at Ganglau was in a decrepit state. There was not a single case of cancer in the three communities of Ganglau, Zangang and Mindere.

Today a sovereign people who by a heritage of 50 000 years lived in harmony with the environment, are presented with a disaster - their gift from the Independent State of Papua New Guinea. We were let down by the system. I believe western democracy and the Westminster system have failed the people of Rai Coast. If this is what development looks like, it is as good the toxic mine waste that are about to be discharged into Basamuk canyon.

Louise Medang and Terry Kuning were amongst many of us who opposed the dumping of these toxic mine wastes into the sea. Tiffany Twivvey did an excellent job. I was in Court when she presented the appeal along with Ginia Topa. On the morning of the decision, Ginia was there representing Louise et al.

I hope this letter meets you well, kids. I wrote this a record of how things were.

Kind regards

Martyn Namorong

“Regime Change” sounds familiar doesn’t it?

2011-12-18T12:49:00.001+10:00

There is no way that the Western States will allow a pro-China Government in Port Moresby. The Parliamentary coup that overthrew Somare, surprised everyone in PNG. What was even more surprising is that the West was quick to embrace Prime Minister O’Neil instead of condemning the coup as is the usual mantra of the West.

Regardless of what your personal views have been regarding the Judiciary, what we’ve seen from the Courts is the discharge of its Constitutional duties. Our Supreme Court can best be described as being very Nationalistic.

The decision by the Supreme Court to end neo-colonization by Australia under the guise of the Enhanced Cooperation Program (ECP) was perhaps a second Declaration of Independence by Papua New Guinea. In one sense Papua New Guinea stamped its independence and set the rules of engagement with Australia as opposed to the usual situation of things being shoved down PNG’s throat by Australia.

In one sense the Courts have been truly Independent by virtue of the fact that the People are the Fountain of Justice from which the Courts gain authority. Parliament and the Executive still have to gain final approval from the Representative of the Queen of England, even if that approval is symbolic. The Courts however are Supreme in the Land and they reflect the true meaning of independence.

Thus having recently ruled that the election of Prime Minister O’Neil was illegal, the Supreme Court once again stamped PNGs independence from its former colonial power. Unfortunately for the Court, it restored to power a regime that is hated by a majority of Papua New Guineans.

For the West, the problem with the Somare regime is called China. For Papua New Guineans, the problem with the Somare regime is called Berthur (Bertha + Arthur = Somare Family). With popular support and the consent of Parliament along with strong support from western governments, the O’Neil-Namah Government is set to rule.

I’m sure the folks at Murray Barracks understand this geopolitical standoff here in PNG. The Army therefore refused to obey a Three-Month Call Out order from Governor General, Sir Michael Ogio.

What we’re experiencing are the side-effects of REGIME CHANGE. “Regime Change”, sounds familiar?

Afghanistan

Iraq

Egypt

Libya

Papua New Guinea

Political Crisis is beyond PNG’s hands

2011-12-17T09:02:00.001+10:00

What we now have on our plate is a classic resource curse where foreigners are supporting either or both sides of politics. When I wrote my post yesterday highlighting the geopolitical power-play currently underway, I never expected such a vitriolic response from pro-western miners.

You can read the pro-western miner’s spokesperson’s comments on Mine Watch. The miner’s spokesperson who uses the pseudonym Wesley, wrote:

“But what people in PNG have to realize if they keep going the way that they have been and the State becomes a security risk to the region, and in particular to Australia, things will change whether the people of PNG stick their heads in the sand, or not”.

O yeah baby, haven’t we heard that before when Bush invaded Iraq supposedly to find weapons of mass destruction and protect America’s security interests. Bush went in for the oil just as any direct or indirect military intervention would be to protect Western interests particularly in Mining and the US$ 15 billion Liquefied Natural Gas Project.

For me, reading Wesley’s comments on Mine Watch crystallized my view of the geopolitical struggle between the East and the West as it unfolds here on PNG soil. That is the nature of squabbles between world powers: they fight their fights using proxies and on foreign territory.

What this means for Papua New Guineans is that if you support Peter O’Neil and his crew, you’re a foot soldier for the West i.e. Australia and the United States. If you’re supporting Somare, then you’re supporting the East i.e. the Asians - Chinese and Malaysians.

Indeed the recent media war between Rupert Murdoch’s Post Courier and Rimbunan Hijau’s The National newspapers has been a war over influence of public opinion. Lately, The National Newspaper has indeed been publishing positive spin about the Chinese-owned Ramu Nickel Mine apart from its regular spin on the Malaysian loggers. The Post Courier on the other hand has pretty much consistently published the ugly details of the Malaysian loggers, including the recent Pomio SABL case.

So where does this leave Papua New Guineans. Well we actually have two choices: either to fight for the Chinese or the West, or to stand back and let them fight themselves. Usually, the world powers do not like sending their sons to war; instead they’d prefer that others do the fighting on their behalf. It would be extremely foolish for Papua New Guineans to fight and kill each other just so that either the Chinese or the Western nations benefit from the spoils of destruction.

If there is going to be a Military Coup, it is most likely going to be a pro-western coup. Any sane military strongman wouldn’t dare undermine the strategic interests of an increasing Fascist and trigger-happy West. Australia’s strategic interests would be undermined if there is a pro-China military man in Port Moresby and so will the United States. With Australian Military just a few minutes South and a large US Navy base up North at Guam, no sane military leader would to dare antagonize the West.

Today, Papua New Guineans must realize that we do not have political leaders. Those at the top are puppets for foreign interests. Let them fight amongst themselves at the top and let the East and West battle it out however they wish to. Let us not build hatred and animosity amongst ourselves and let’s not spill Indigenous Melanesian blood for foreigners who hide in the shadows and pull the strings of those Puppets in Waigani.

The stakes are too high for either side to give up easily. Western resource exploiters are increasing weary of the Chinese intrusion into the resource sector. Hilary Clinton expressed this view to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee where she stated that China was trying to undermine United States interests in the PNG LNG Project.

Mostly Asian loggers, who have stolen 5.2 million hectares of land under the Somare Regime, now feel threatened by the Commission of Inquiry into the Special Purpose Agriculture Business Leases. The Chinese miners, who were allowed to dump toxic Mine waste into the sea, now feel threatened by the O’Neil Government that wants to reverse the changes to the Environment Act that the Somare dictatorship forced through Parliament. You can see why The National is allied with the Chinese Government-owned Ramu Nickel mine.

Now we’re talking about Billions of US dollars that are at stake here. An increasingly Fascist West isn’t going to let China win this tug of war in PNG. Each side wants to protect its interests.

This is not our battle to fight. This is a Cold War between the East and the West to try and protect their investments. Remember that the Ramu Nickel Mine is owned by the Government of China. Also the Governments of the United States and Australia have put money into the LNG Project through loans from their Export-Import (Exim) Banks.

Of course, the agents of the East and West would want you to believe that this is a Papua New Guinean’s problem, and they have nothing to do with it. They would want you to believe that Papua New Guinea is insignificant in the region. Well if Papua New Guinea is insignificant why have we received high-level Government Officials from the United States and China in recent years?

Our politicians have compromised themselves and are therefore now acting in the interests of their Puppet Masters. That is now obvious 5 days later; as no end seems to be in sight. Only Beijing, Canberra and Washington know how this will end or at least how they would like it to end.

_____________

NOTE TO READERS

I have been called a lot of things by my critics but one thing is certain, I’m an indigenous Melanesian. I believe that the indigenous people of Papua New Guinea and their customary land need to be protected from exploitation. Many exploiters promise ‘development’ but all that our people see around them is ‘bagarapment’. So don’t get sucked into the lies as it’s played out at the moment by those Puppet Leaders in Waigani, their table-cats and Puppet Masters.

The political economy of the Somare-O’Neil standoff

2011-12-16T00:40:00.001+10:00

Above: Protestors call on Sir Michael to step down

“L’etat c’est et moi!” exclaimed Louis XIV, the Sun King of France. The dude was saying in French, “I am the State”. The question of defining the State has bothered societies for centuries. This issue of state and sovereignty as well as the application of power becomes crucial as we try to address the current political crisis.

Five hundred years ago when Melanesian societies had already arranged themselves politically and economically, the English Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes was discussing the concepts of Statehood. For Hobbes, the State was Civitas - the Commonwealth – the People’s Representatives or the Sovereign.

Of course Hobbes and Louis XIV where kinda thinking along the same page. The Sun King believed the State was embodied in the Sovereign – the Head of State. However, the French weren’t buying this and the French Philosopher Jean Jacque Rousseau kinda summed up their contempt for Le Roi – the King. But being French, Rousseau decided to pick on the English, instead of the French King. Rousseau wrote:

“Sovereignty cannot be represented, for the same reason that it cannot be alienated... the people’s deputies are not, and could not be, its representatives; they are merely its agents; and they cannot decide anything finally...

The English people believe itself to be free; it is gravely mistaken; it is free only during the election of Members of Parliament; as soon as the Members are elected, the people is enslaved; it is nothing.”

Now, since we’ve inherited the British Westminster system of Government, according to Rousseau we’re slaves of a system that Hobbes described to be an expression of sovereignty through the people’s representatives. That is why you the PNG-reader cannot have much direct influence on the current political impasse as it is your representative who is to hopefully sort it out in your best interest. Ok, so maybe you can protest but you’ll get killed anyway and the politicians will still have the last laugh.

Karl Marx was the first to identify that both representative and individual sovereignty weren’t as influential in society as the economic relationships of people. Ok so if you’re confused, basically Marx was saying money can buy you influence and a place at the top. We all know how money buys power these days and Marx was critical of those money-men who ran the system by class coercion.

Note how Byron Chan had to cop out of giving mining rights to landowners because the mining companies were opposed. Also note how The National newspaper published biased pro Somare propaganda. And it was Marx good friend Friedrich Engels who summed up the power struggle of the classes. He wrote;

“Because the state arose from the need to hold class antagonisms in check... it is by rule the state of the powerful, economically dominant class, which, through the medium of the State, becomes also the politically dominant class.”

The two economically dominant classes in PNG are the Agents of the West represented by mining and hydrocarbon exploiters on one hand, and the Agents of the East represented mainly by logging and oil palm exploiters.

The struggle between the West (US) and the East (China) is played out in the current political crisis.

When O’Neil was elected Prime Minster, he was congratulated by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, on behalf of the Western Nations. O’Neil was able to meet Gillard in Canberra and even Mrs. O’Neil had her picture taken with US First Lady Michelle Obama during the recent APEC Summit in Hawaii.

Somare on the other hand has been the darling of the East. He was given red carpet treatment in Beijing and was responsible for bringing the Chinese Miners to Madang. Indeed the Ramu mine is majority owned by the Chinese Government through the Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC). The National Newspaper owned by Malaysian Loggers, has also been openly supporting Somare.

Papua New Guineans may also recall that Sam Basil was a Guest of the United States Government when he was sent to witness the inauguration of Barack Obama. The United States Ambassador was present at the Grand Hall of Parliament when Powes Parkop launched he’s political Party. Both men are in the O’Neil Camp.

It is therefore hardly surprising that both Somare and O’Neil are willing to play brinkmanship. Both men would not be so adamant about being in power unless they were both confident that the international community would recognize their leadership should they ascend to power.

The current antagonism between the politically dominant classes is fuelled by the antagonism between the economically dominant classes i.e. the US aka Exxon Mobil LNG Project and China aka Ramu Nickel Mine. Guess who the politicians are referring to when they talk about assuring investors – the Governments of the East and West.

Our politicians, being the manipulative psychopaths they are, cannot realize that they are just making the rest of us cannon fodder for the Big Boys in the region. Papua New Guineans must not take sides in the struggle between two world powers. Don’t end up being used by these two Super Powers and their two political puppets.

The Cold War between the former Soviet Union and the United States was fought in foreign territories such as Vietnam and Afghanistan. Today’s Cold War between an increasingly Capitalist China’s and an increasingly Fascist America will be fought in an increasing Fragile Region. Obama’s recent announcement of basing troops in Darwin was met with stiff opposition from China. The power struggle between the US and China is being played out in the Pacific and PNG appears to be feeling the effects.

This isn’t our war to fight. It doesn’t make any difference to a villager in Josephstaal, Madang Province, whether O’Neil or Somare is in Power. That villager will wake up tomorrow and will still have NO school, NO road and NO aid post. That is the reality for 80% of the country and that reality will not change regardless of who is in power for the next 5-6 months until the next elections.

PNG’s Political Crisis deepens

2011-12-15T07:36:00.001+10:00

Above: Activist Noel Anjo: expected to lead a protest today

And as if having two Prime Ministers, Two Cabinets, Tow Police Commissioners wasn’t enough we now have two Governor Generals.

Bothe Somare and O’Neil claim to be legitimate Prime Ministers.

Tom Kulunga is the Police Commissioner appointed by Peter O’Neil while Fred Yakasa is the Police Commissioner appointed by Somare’s kitchen cabinet.

Yesterday afternoon Parliament suspended the Governor General making Speaker Jeffrey Nape the acting Governor General. Today, acting Governor General Nape is expected to force his way into Government House.

Amidst the turmoil, activist Noel Anjo has planned a protest today in Port Moresby to call on the Governor General to dissolve Parliament and call the General Elections.

Meanwhile the 2012 Budget has not been through the final vote. Somare and hes kitchen cabinet have been challenged to prove their numbers in Parliament. Sir Puka Temu called on them to play the game in the soccer field instead of the netball court referring to the Parliament as a playing field.

Speaker Nape, now acting Governor General also swore in the O’Neil-Namah government late yesterday afternoon in Parliament. This followed the swearing in of the Somare kitchen cabinet by Governor General Ogio.

In Port Moresby and around the country passions are running high. In Somare’s heartland of East Sepik there have been celebrations following his reinstatement by the Courts. Elsewhere though there is much disdain at Somare’s greed for power.

As the political tectonic activity wasn’t enough the geological plates also moved. At around 3 PM yesterday a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck the eastern coastline of New Guinea adding anxiety to an already tense situation.

Papua New Guineans aren’t very polarized at the moment but as the crises drags on an unpopular Somare regime is becoming the focus of much public anger. Yesterday in Parliament, Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah made a mostly impassioned and perhaps inflammatory speech calling on Papua New Guineans to rise up against the Somare regime. He described Somare as “a street boy from Murik Lakes” referring to Parliaments removal of Somare as the Member for East Sepik.

Speaker Nape also stated that Sir Michael would be removed from the Chamber should he enter Parliament since he is no longer a Member of Parliament. Now that Nape has been relegated to the puppet post of Governor General it would be interesting to see how acting Speaker Francis Marus makes he’s rulings today.

One thing is certain, the longer this game of political brinkmanship continues the greater the chances of violence erupting.

Round-up on twists and turns in PNG Politics

2011-12-14T13:53:00.001+10:00

Governor General Sir Michael Ogio swore in Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare as Prime Minister, earlier this morning. Sir Michael was sworn in after a Supreme Court ruling on Monday 12^th of December that declared him as the legitimate Prime Minister.

However on the same day, Parliament amended sections of the Prime Minister and NEC Act, retrospectively disqualifying Sir Michael from Office as well as legalizing the election of Peter O’Neil as Prime Minister. Parliament also voted 71-0 to reaffirm O’Neil’s primacy following the Supreme Court’s decision.

Yesterday, O’Neil and his Ministers blocked the entrance to the Governor General’s residence in an attempt to prevent Somare from being sworn into Office. Today however as Parliament was in session, news filthered through Parliament that the Governor General had sworn in Somare.

Parliament has now summoned the Governor General to appear before it and explain he’s actions. The Governor General has also been ordered by Parliament to swear in Peter O’Neil as the Prime Minister.

Speaking in Parliament a few hours ago, Speaker Jeffrey Nape invited the Public to attend the swearing in ceremony at Parliament. Today Parliament expresses the independence of Papua New Guinea whereby the representative of the Queen of England has to enter the Melanesian Hausman and swear in the Chief of the People. Usually, the Prime Minister is elected in Parliament but has to make a long trip across the city to be sworn in at Government House. Today’s swearing in at Parliament should set precedence and mark a Papua New Guinean tradition that expresses the Power of the People through its Parliament.

This morning’s Parliament session saw attacks on the Judiciary and a passionate call by Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah, for Papua New Guineans to rise up against tyranny. Mr. Namah also described Sir Michael as the Mugabe of the South Pacific.

The nation watches for the showdown at 2 PM today. Many MPs in Parliament have openly called for the sacking of the Governor General. Sir Julius Chan has called on Sir Michael to give up his claim to power. Speaker Jeffrey Nape has stated that Sir Michael is no longer a member of Parliament per Parliaments decision last Friday, and that he would be thrown out of the chamber of Parliament should he trespass into Parliament.

Disempowered sheeple leading the sheeple

2011-12-14T08:31:00.001+10:00

Here we are two days on after the Supreme Court decision and still there is a stand-off over the post of Prime Minister. Yesterday, seeing the rather pathetic attempt by O’Neil and his amigos to prevent the Governor General from swearing in Sir Michael, was for me an indictment of how disempowered the ruling elite are.

Of course I already knew from the start that this bunch of wannabe leaders were all disempowered. They didn’t have the balls to stand up against the miners when they announced changes to mineral ownership laws. They capitulated then just as they’ve capitulated now.

In the struggle for independent exertion of power, Parliament is losing to the unelected Judiciary because elected sheeple are so disempowered. Perhaps it is a failure to recognize that Parliament constitutes the elected representatives of the people. The fact that Members of Parliament generally have no regard for their people now comes to haunt them when people do not wish to be part of this power struggle between the elite.

It seems O’Neil with the Parliamentary majority he has ends up like a commoner that he is, being locked outside the vestiges of a colonial past. There standing and sitting outside the symbol of colonial power were colonized minds seeking legitimacy from London when indeed all power rests with the People of Papua New Guinea exercised through their elected representatives.

So O’Neil doesn’t realize that he has the mandate of the sheeple by virtue of a Parliamentary majority. Perhaps the only real Leader during this impasse has been Speaker Jeffrey Nape, who has consistently defended the independence of Parliament.

Meanwhile the disempowerment of the sheeple through their elected representatives has had profound psychological effects on the sheeple over these years. Yesterday the Daily Log reported the story of a community leader in Ambunti calling on he’s people not to make extra demands on Xtrata. Reading this I was so pissed off. That community leader obvious has zero leadership qualities. Mr John Mukas, get it into your thick skull that Xtrata aint leaving Frieda River tomorrow after the hundreds of millions they’ve spent on the project. I wish Papua New Guinean sheeple and their sheeple-Leaders could stop buying the the miners bluff.

It’s time O’Neil flexed his muscle as a leader of a democratic nation. The longer he looks elsewhere for legitimacy, the more he acknowledges the legitimacy of Sir Michael’s claim to throne. The question here is that who has currency? A piece of legal paper with written instructions or the 70-strong elected representatives of the sheeple!

IS THE SYSTEM WORKING FOR THE PEOPLE?

2011-12-13T08:40:00.001+10:00

Above: Crowds wait outside Court House in anticipation of the Supreme Court’s verdict

Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision has saved PNG from developing a coup culture. The Parliamentary coup that brought Peter O’Neil into power was illegal. The 5-judge Supreme Court Bench voted 3-2 in favour of Sir Michael Somare.

Last night a group of armed Policemen tried to prevent Mr O’Neil from reaching Government House and being sworn in as Prime Minister hours after the Supreme Court dismissed him from Office. One Police officer yelled, “we are defending the Constitution,” as O’Neil’s convoy made its way past the blockade.

The Governor General did not sign instruments making O’Neil PM.

Indeed the standoff between Police and Mr O’Neil caused quite a stir. There was speculation about a possible coup and the Policemen who were preventing O’Neil from entering Government House, were viewed by some as mutineers. Of course in light of the, Supreme Court’s decision, the policemen were simply upholding the Constitution of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea.

No doubt Papua New Guinea is now going through a phase of illegitimate Governments. The O’Neil-Namah Government came into power illegally and through its populist policies gained consent from the masses. The unpopular Somare regime now has legal authorization to rule but lacks the support of the masses.

Clearly, the days of the Westminster system are numbered. The people of Papua New Guinea cannot possibly continue to accept a system of Government that has consistently failed them for 36 years.

The Westminster system has largely produced illegitimate political leaders. The introduction of the Limited Preferential Voting system was recognition of that. LPV was introduced to legitimize the election of political leader by increasing their voter base. It was aimed at ensuring leaders have some sort of majority consent.

But of course the LPV system is just a manipulation of numbers to create the façade of legitimacy.

Illegitimate political leaders have colluded with public servants and corrupted the public service. Positions of power in Government bodies have become politicized. This has meant that Parliament and the Executive have lost a lot of credibility in the eyes of many Papua New Guinea.

The Judiciary has thus become the center of Power in PNG. Yesterday the fate of the nation was in the hands of 5 men who are not elected representatives - 5 men who do not represent any group of electors. By their own making, the elected representatives of the people shifted power from the people to an institution created by Law.

People have to realize that the Westminster system is not representing their wishes. Yesterday the system preserved itself thus today we can say the system is working. The issue now is whether the system is working for the people or working for itself.

A new model of development is now needed more than ever.

Supreme Court says there was no vacancy

2011-12-12T15:39:00.000+10:00

The Supreme Court has said that there was no vacancy of the Prime Ministerial post when O'Neil was elected.

It means Sir Micheal was still occupying that post while interned in Singapore after cardiac surgery.

Supreme Court Dismisses Application against CJ

2011-12-12T15:28:00.000+10:00

The application by Prime Minister O'Neil to disqualify the Chief Justice from the bench determining his (O'Neil's) election, has just been dismissed by the Supreme Court.

The dismal of this application for apprehension of bias by the Chief Justice, paves the way for the Court to hand down its decision on the substantive matter relating to the election of the O'Neil-Namah government.

Just now, there was a bit of confusion leading to the crowding surging to the gate of the Court House. Some thought they were to be addressed regarding the Court's decision