An appeal to the new government of Papua New Guinea
The Catholic Bishops of Papua New Guinea
appreciate the peaceful development of the political debate on the floor of
Parliament and hope it immediately turns to the benefit of the vulnerable
people, of our society, and our environment:
The rural poor and the urban poor expect
improved public services, better education for children, medicines in the
health centers, farm to market roads, jobs, entertainment and sport facilities
to reduce the impact of alcohol and negative behavior among the youth.
Resources and assets must now benefit the marginalized and the peripheries
rather than the wealthier and the centers.
The illegal detention of asylum seekers and refugees in Manus and
Port Moresby since 2013, at the request of the
government of Australia, is a cause of shame and embarrassment that the new PNG
government must denounce in its first day in office. The Regional Resettlement
Arrangement has proven to be unsustainable with people getting sick, depressed,
suffering mental illness, and dying. Their transfer to properly equipped
Australian on-shore processing facilities has to be effected immediately.
The protection of the environment and the country’s natural
resources needs a legislative review, particularly
of the Special Agriculture Business Lease (SABL) and agreements with foreign
companies in the mining, logging and extractive sectors. People and communities
come first; capital and business follow!
The legislation to establish an Independent Commission against
Corruption should not be further delayed. The
perception of systemic and systematic corruption in PNG is very damaging to the
image of the nation and to the morale of its citizens. We renew our appeal for
the restoration of the separation of powers so that our MPs can focus on making
good laws and the public servants on the provision of services.
The Catholic Bishops of Papua New Guinea
also ask from the new government an effective partnership in the planning and
managing of the Education and Health sectors in the country. Other Churches
share the same expectation.
It is with the contribution of everybody
and the acceptance of public scrutiny that true wellbeing and prosperity is
promoted and corruption defeated!
May God bless the new executives of
Papua New Guinea and give them wisdom and steadfastness!
The Central Committee of the Catholic
Bishops Conference of PNG-SI:
FR.
GIORGIO LICINI, PIME. General Secretary
First public human rights report into
PNG gas industry
BRISBANE – University
of Queensland researcher Associate Professor Nick Bainton has co-written the first publicly available
human rights impact assessment for a proposed gas project in Papua New Guinea.
Dr Bainton and
Nora Götzmann from the Danish Institute for Human Rights were commissioned by
Total Exploration and Production PNG to identify potential impacts on gender,
security and conflict for the joint venture Papua liquefied natural gas
project.
The assessment
involved extensive desktop research, and interviews and focus group discussions
with key stakeholders in Port Moresby and local communities in the project’s
area of influence in PNG’s remote Gulf Province. The researchers met with some
400 Gulf Province community members over the course of their study, including
about 160 women.
Political meddling & poor training spur corruption in PNG
SARAJEVO – A newly-published discussion paper on corruption in Papua New Guinea’s public sector has found that low-level officials are often poorly informed about laws and regulations. They are also under intense pressure to grant favours to businesses, politicians and clan affiliates, contributing to existing patterns of corrupt behaviour in the developing country.
The paper, ‘Governance and Corruption in PNG’s
Public Service: Insights From Four Subnational Administrations’, was
published this month by the Development Policy Centre, an aid and development
policy think tank based out of the Australian National University in Canberra. Its
author, Dr Grant Walton, drew on interviews with 136 public servants across
four provinces in PNG in an effort to fill the empirical data gap on why public
officials may support or resist corruption and poor governance.
PNG is one of the
poorest countries in the Pacific, with nearly 40% of its population living
below the national poverty line. While the country recently has started reaping
the benefits of oil and gas extraction, its public health system is rapidly
deteriorating—two-fifths of health centres and rural health posts have no
electricity or essential medical equipment, according to the United Nations
Development Program.
Political interference
is also a great concern among officials, Walton found. In recent years, PNG has
been pursuing a policy of decentralization, and in 2014 the parliament passed
the District Development Authority Act, giving greater autonomy to local
governments over how they allocate resources. However, as members of parliament
are now “often personally involved in deciding how this money is allocated and
implemented,” lower level officials have grown frustrated. “We may plan for
something else but when political interference comes we need to divert our
efforts to suit what [MPs] want,” one senior female public servant said.
While PNG improved its
rating on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index last year,
at 28 out of 100 (with 100 signifying “least corrupt”), it still scored well
below the Asia Pacific regional average of 44.
TOKARARA Secondary
School suspended classes yesterday because parents feared their children could
be kidnapped for their organs as speculation continued on Facebook.
The school said Grade 12 student numbers had been down since last week because
the fear was real.
Tokarara Secondary principal Gabriel Manga told The National that the school
board had decided to send students away at 10.40am because parents were calling
the school to pick up their children.
Manga said the school would assess the situation and see if the students should
continue classes..
“Many have stayed (home) because of the fear they had from kidnapping –
increased in the city,” he said.
Another Grade 12 student Abel Makele said absent students caused teachers to
delay giving out tests and assignments which was dragging the whole process of
term two assessment schedules.
“Our education is a priority and authorities need to assure us we are
safe,”Makele said.
Moresi said the school
had 2,046 students from grades three to eight but only 970 attended classes.
MP Hits 10% Drop
In Living Standard
Post Courier May
3, 2019
The National
Statistical Office (NSO) has revealed that on average, living standards in PNG
have fallen by an extraordinary K516 per person between 2012 and 2018. This was
revealed by Shadow Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey who described it as “a shocking
result”.
“This represents
a 10 per cent drop in living standards in just five years under the incompetent
economic policies of O’Neill’s PNC government,” Mr Ling-Stuckey said.
“The Prime
Minister continues to talk up the economy and keeps promising that things will
get better – but his record simply indicates he cannot be trusted.”
PORT MORESBY – This is my seventh month of complaining about the failure
of the Digicel PNG Ltd telecommunications company to pay the rent money it owes
to the landowners of its digital tower locations. Some Digicel employees feel sorry for us and have said the
people in charge of payments will ignore us and never try to help. The clauses
of the agreement we made with Digicel are clear. No such thing should happen to
any of us landowners. But because landowners are simple people and can easily
be tricked, they continue to ignore us and cheat us. Only a few landowners who
have help from their families and clansmen are now seeking legal advice while
the one hope of the rest of us is to continue to complain at the Digicel office.
But we cannot break through by complaining and therefore are losing hope….
The problem began
when Digicel and its officers did not devise a proper plan for illiterate
landowners to collect the rental payments. At first, Digicel should have found
out who they were the legitimate owners of the land where the Digicel tower
would stand.
This was not
done. Digicel and its officers never put their feet on the ground to locate the
boundaries and never even asked the people to confirm who the legitimate
landowners were. Some landowners are paid through their bank accounts but not
in full. It is clearly indicated in the agreement signed with landowners that
payments will be made every six months. Digicel and its officer should know
what the outstanding funds are and when they must be paid. To get their unpaid
rental payment, landowners use their own funds to come to Port Moresby or, if
they live in remote places, travel miles and days to reach their Digicel
branch. This is despite the agreement with Digicel clearly indicating that the
lessor will not need to spend funds due to the existence of the tower on their
land.
Another problem
is that Digicel is supposed to employ four security guards for the towers and
to pay them every fortnight – two security guards should protect the towers for
the night shift and two for the day shift.
But many of the
guards are ghosts who are never seen, security is left to the landowners who
live near the towers. So what happens to this money that would be paid in wages
to protect more than 1,000 towers across Papua New Guinea?
A ST John Ambulance bus
was yesterday robbed by a group of men at Morata Two in the Moresby North-West
electorate. It took place at about 5.40am, eight officers were on board. According
to a statement from St John, the group of men blocked off the main road and
threatened the driver with a gun to the head. They then smashed the window and
helped themselves. They grabbed items including mobile phones, bank cards and
money among other things. Two St John female officers were punched and kicked
several times and indecently assaulted while being dragged out of the bus. They
were ordered to lie face-down outside the bus and left there. “According to our
team, the group of men appeared heavily intoxicated,” the statement said.
“As a result of this, St John will be suspending all services to the suburb of
Morata for an indefinite period until safety of all our St John team can be
guaranteed.”
St John Ambulance commissioner and chief executive Matthew Cannon condemned the
actions of the gang, saying St John did not discriminate when attending to
patients, whether hoodlums or not, and such actions by a few show a complete
lack of human decency and respect for emergency service workers.
St John in the first
quarter of the year responded to 670 emergency calls from the Moresby
North-West electorate. Three-quarters of the calls were from Morata.
THE Catholic bishops
annual meeting last week heard that legal action is probably needed to prompt
the Government into action to meet its obligations in education through the
church.
“If the demands are not met the following year, there will be an appropriate
legal action taken to protect the rights of the people for quality education
that has been destroyed by the current Government,” Bishop Rochus Tatamai told
a press conference on Friday.
The president of Catholic Bishops Conference from PNG and the Solomons Islands
and Kavieng diocese said sensitive issues discussed at the meeting affected
people and the work the church used to do in PNG and the Solomons.
“One of the issues that really needs to be highlighted is regarding our
partnership with the Government in providing basic services like education to
the people,” he said. “We accordingly call for a fundamental re-orientation of
our attitudes and the institutions of government, commerce, education and
religion towards PNG forms of participation and consensus.
“We also call for a continuous renewal of the responsiveness of these
institutions to the needs and attitudes of the people.
“These are the values that we believe should be the basis of our
partnership with the State in providing education services to our people.
“However, in the past six years, our experience in the field of education is
that there has been no consultation, very little consensus and lack of
participation in decision-making.”
Among many of the issues faced by Catholic church education agencies, Tatamai
said, included:
Teaching council had not met since last year;
no consultation about the new school structure and cost analysis;
grand in aid to help church agencies with administrative costs not
met since 2011; and,
Mistreatment by the Government and the Education Department of
church schools regarding Tuition Fee Free funding.
In regards to those
issues, Tatamai said that as a church, it is now asking the government to deliver
what it needs to be.
Nurses in rural areas still working despite threats
NURSES in rural areas
continue to provide patient care responsibilities under extreme pressure and
threat from patients due to inadequate drugs supplies, deteriorated facilities
and without enough staff, an official says.
Nurses in remotest Huon Gulf and other districts are faced with difficulties in
drug supplies, rundown facilities and not enough workers.
“Nurses continue to use kerosene lamps and torches at night to treat patients
using local herbs and prayers to stabilise patients,” Paru said.
In Huon Gulf, out of 47 aid posts – 12 were closed, five were in Salamaua and
four each in Wampar and Morobe patrol post. “These nurses walk for days or
travel by dinghies or dugout canoes to buy drugs in Lae. “When clinics are
closed over no drugs, nurses face the consequences being attacked by patients,”
Paru said.
He said complications of pregnant women, critical axe or knife injuries, snake
bites, bows and arrow injuries over land issues or adultery cases were a common
problem.
Kenmore Catholics’ trash buys a new boat for Milne Bay priest
BRISBANE – Kenmore parish has furthered its commitment to Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for our Common Home by turning recyclables into foreign aid donations.The parish has collected more than 4,000 recyclable containers like bottles, cans and cardboard, which earn 10 cents per unit under the Queensland government initiative Containers for Cash. The funds collected by the parish were used to buy a boat for a Papua New Guinean bishop. “We had a parishioner come to us last year about helping buy a small boat for Fr Sam Phasz, a priest of the Province of Milne Bay in the Diocese of Alotau-Sideia,” said parish priest Fr Mark Franklin.
“The parish is mainly
water, so it would enable the priest to get around the islands and see his
diocese. “The boat is also used for delivery of food and medical items and
taking people to hospital.” Fr Franklin said he started the project about two
months ago as part of a communal partnership with Kenmore Rotary Club. “One of
our parishioners who is a member of Rotary came to us a while ago about being
in partnership with the Kenmore Rotary regarding (the parish) being a
distribution point for Containers for Cash,” he said.
“There are distribution
points all over the place in the city, but because we’re a bit isolated out
here the Rotary (club) decided to take it on as a collection point in Kenmore.
“The parish keeps 50% of
the funds, which we then hand on to the Diocese of Alotau-Sideia.” Fr Franklin
said the Containers for Cash initiative was a practical way to raise money
while also raising environmental awareness in the parish.
Call for apt facilities for disabled, homosexuals, foreigners
THERE are no facilities and rehabilitation programmes in Buimo jail to cater for people living with disabilities (PLWD), homosexuals or foreigners, an official says. Outgoing Buimo commander Chief Supt Felix Namane said that the government and relevant agencies – Department of Correctional Services, Law and Justice Sector, Community Development and various stakeholders should draft policies to enable apt facilities and rehabilitation services and programmes. He said this in response to the National Court decision in Lae by Justice Frazer Pitpit who sentenced one Steven Bumang, 45, a PLWD to four years in prison. Bumang was charged with raping an 8-year-old girl on Feb 27. “In Buimo, we have no facilities to cater for PLWD, lesbians, gays and foreigners and it is a great concern for lack of such facilities and services in jails,” Namane said. Namane said Buimo had no separate cell block with toilet, shower and kitchens to accommodate various types of PLWD including rehabilitation activities. Namane said a gay who was sentenced to six months in Buimo was accommodated with female prisoners. “However, people may think that accommodating gays and lesbians in a female inmate wing is possible but some of their characteristics varies and never suits normal female inmates”.
A new government must restore confidence in the law
Francis Nii – “Laws must be strong, respected,
upheld and they must work fairly in the interests of every citizen”
FRANCIS NII. KUNDIAWA – Public confidence in the police force and judiciary as independent and impartial state agencies of the state has drastically declined under the leadership of Peter O’Neill.Meddling in appointments and in the operations of the police and hard-to-understand decisions of the courts has raised serious doubts and mistrust in the minds of the people.
Increasingly the
independence and integrity of the two institutions are being questioned.
As the political numbers
game in the lead-up to a possible vote of no confidence intensifies and as a
mass exodus occurs of government MPs to the opposition, prime minister Peter
O’Neill had no choice but to relinquish his position.
Whether he actually does
this in favour of Sir Julius Chan or thinks of some other escape tactic, it
will be a last minute do-or-die manoeuvre for his own survival.
That O’Neill has not
resigned but stepped down “for a few days” means he could resume his position
anytime.
As of yesterday, the
opposition had 63 members and the government 47. There were more defections
expected from those who still remained in the government but the opposition
said it had shut its doors to them.
As D-Day gets nearer,
perhaps today, the formation of a new government looks certain.
Should this occur, one
of its first tasks needs to be the restoration of the integrity and
independence of the nation’s law enforcement institutions.
Under the O’Neill
government, these vital state institutions have been severely impaired
There has been the dismantling
of the corruption-busting Investigative Task Force Sweep and the termination of
its members, Peter O’Neill’s parachuting of Gary Baki into the job of police
commissioner and the Supreme Court’s quashing of the UBS loan case against
O’Neill.
There has been the
continuous suppression and eventual closure of the Parakagate affair by O’Neill
and Baki without a proper trial, the storming of parliament by the
‘disciplined’ forces, never properly investigated and a much-promised
anti-corruption commission never delivered.
These are just a few
examples of malpractice that have contributed to the decline in public
confidence of two vital state institutions.
If and when a new
government takes office, one of the first items of businesses must be to
restore the independence, credibility and integrity of the judiciary, the
police and the public service.
This means that all
heads who took political sides and practiced nepotism during O’Neill’s tenure
should be replaced with neutral personnel through proper and transparent
appointment processes.
All allegations of
corruption that have not gone to trial must be resurrected and justice meted
out.
Those found guilty must
be punished by law both to restore confidence in the judiciary but also as a
wholesome bid to rid Papua New Guinea of corruption.
To give credence to this
effort is the passing of an ICAC – Independent Commission Against Corruption –
bill into law. The bill must be looked at again to ensure it is totally free of
political interference and manipulation both in the appointment of its
personnel and in its operations.
The unpopular and
unnecessary dual citizenship law must also be repealed to prevent law breakers
escaping from PNG.
If the economy is to
grow and civil society is to enjoy prosperity, peace and harmony, the country
needs a vibrant, independent and impartial justice system and related law
enforcement agencies.
The laws of a nation not
only protect its citizens but they are the compass that directs the course of
the nation. The laws must be strong, respected, upheld and they must work
fairly in the interests of every citizen.
Money politics, the use of criminal elements and the engagement of
security forces are a feature of elections in the Papua New Guinea Highlands,
and have slowly spread into all other regions, most recently into the PNG
Islands and Milne Bay.
The ANU
report states:
“Candidates across the country (in all four
regions) were observed to have spent significant amounts of money securing
support and offering material incentives to voters.
“Though widespread, money politics was of a different order than
in earlier elections, being focused on key officials and those with the ability
to influence. It was mediated by ‘strongmen’ in some communities, and
well-respected leaders in others.
“There was also a significant flow of resources from voters to
candidates, providing an ideal situation for ‘strongmen’ and other community
leaders to consolidate their political influence at the local and parliamentary
level.
Problems with the electoral roll were a feature of voter
discontent. In 2017, all 35 observer teams noted serious defects with it, and
the report finds that “many citizens were not provided genuine opportunity to
register on a non-discriminatory basis, nor were they provided reasonable
opportunity to inspect the electoral roll prior to or during the election.
Overall, very few of the 7,510 citizens surveyed pre- and
post-polling had confidence in the electoral roll, with confidence dropping to
just 10% in 2017.
Two-thirds (65%) of all citizens surveyed post polling
considered the 2017 elections worse than the 2007 and 2012 elections, and fewer
than half (46%) reported being able to freely exercise their vote. (See the full article in the url above).
Reflecting
on 25 years of research into health service delivery and the health status of
women and children in Papua New Guinea, it is distressing to observe the
current catastrophic failures and continued decline in services for women and
children. The anticipated improvements to health services from mining and
liquid gas royalties have not eventuated, and the problems of corruption and
inefficiency in service provision are compounded by the government’s apparent
lack of concern for the health of the population. This has led to a crisis in
public health. Although the budget allocation for the Department of Health has
increased, most interventions in public health remain dependent on foreign aid
agencies. Research assessments of population health are almost all managed or
funded by outsiders.
Decades
of financial and technical assistance from the Australian government, other
international donors, and a range of NGOs notwithstanding, the health of PNG’s
population is declining. Diseases that in the past had been brought under
control through immunisation now seem to be reappearing with the reduction in
fully immunised children and the increased difficulty of maintaining a reliable
delivery of vaccines. Tuberculosis (TB) is now categorised as a pandemic, with
PNG one of the worst-affected countries in the world. Health service delivery
to rural areas is increasingly difficult, with a lack of trained staff, low
wages, deteriorating buildings and frequent lack of critical drugs and
dressings.
Of
all the Millennium Development Goals that were not achieved by PNG, those
specifying improvements in women’s and children’s health are perhaps the most
egregious failures. PNG’s maternal death rate of 215 per 100,000 is the highest
in the Pacific region and among the worst in the world. While infant mortality
has shown a steady decline since 2000, currently it is 37 per thousand live
births compared to 14 in the Solomon Islands. Women’s and children’s health is
disproportionately at risk, particularly in rural areas, and TB is now the
major cause of death of women between the ages of 15 and 44 years.
POLICE have found
pornographic materials in handphones belonging to students in schools.
This is one of the many reasons why there is an alarming rise in the number of
child sexual abuses in Morobe, police commander Supt Alex N’Drasal told The
National yesterday.
N’Drasal blamed the rise in child sexual abuses in rural areas on the excessive
use of mobile phones and internet to access pornographic materials.
“In schools, pornographic materials are found in the handphones of students.
They view the materials freely, and practice what they see,” he added.
He said the abuses were happening both within and outside family environments,
affecting girls aged between 12 and 18.
In 2015, the Government
had announced it was to put in place a K2 million internet filter to block
access to porn websites. It followed a report by Google Trend that PNG was the
“most pornography-obsessed country in the world”. It said although PNG had a
population of around eight million and a low rate of internet use, it had the
highest percentage of searches for the words “porn” and “pornography” in
comparison to the nation’s total “searches” online.
THE women’s wing at Bomana
prison in Port Moresby is overcrowded with 54 inmates, including three
children, crammed into a dormitory meant to hold only 35. Senior Inspector
Agnes Kunjil told The National yesterday that some inmates had to sleep on the
floor because there were not enough beds. “There are 31 convicted inmates, 18
on remand to await their court cases and five children below five years old all
crammed into the dormitory,” she said. Because of the lack of space, inmates
are allowed to keep only a few personal items. Kunjil said more women were
being sent to the prison by the courts although there had been no additional
space had been provided to cater for the extra detainees.
Papua New Guinea state fails to wrest control of
US$1.4b stake
The government of Papua
New Guinea (PNG) has lost its protracted battle in the Singapore High Court to
wrest control of an entity with assets worth about US$1.4 billion (S$1.8
billion) that were spawned from a deal inked with the “largest mining
company in the world”. Justice Vinodh Coomaraswamy has ruled in favour
of PNG Sustainable Development Program
(PNGSDP) company, saying the state of PNG had failed to prove it had
a deal with PNGSDP’s co-founder BHP Minerals Holdings, for joint control to
develop PNGSDP assets.
It also failed to prove
that there was a charitable trust that allowed the state to intervene.
“I have found that
neither the agreement nor the trust exists. The pleaded breaches of the
agreement and the trust must correspondingly fail,” Justice Vinodh said in
decision grounds on Tuesday.
The outcome means PNGSDP
is free to carry out its objectives under the control of its independent board
according to the 2001 contractual framework, without interference from the
state.
GENDER-based violence is a
cross-cutting and sensitive national issue which many people cannot easily
handle at home.
I met Rose Marai at Port Moresby’s Kaugere clinic during one of my news runs. I
walked into her office nervously when she gave her best smile and I could see
from her eyes that she really wanted to me tell untold stories she had been
dealing with, knowing I was a media personnel.
Being female and knowing that she will be the only one to make changes in her
surrounding communities, she stood with confidence amongst more than 5,000
people in Sabama, Kaugere, Kokeva, Joyce Bay, Horse Camp, Kirakira village,
Kila Barracks, Gabutu, Badili, Korobosea, 2-Mile Hill and Koki market. She is
passionate about change and creating awareness on gender-based violence is
something she does from the heart.
Every day she sees more than 10 women walking into her little room with bruises
and cuts all over their bodies, being physically hurt and emotionally tortured.
She takes them in for counselling and many of them have progressed and have
seen changes in their homes and communities.
Hospital Closes Doors
GOROKA’S water crisis remains unsolved.
As the Goroka General Hospital closed its doors on Sunday and
sent patients away.
Only emergency cases were being treated while general patients
had been referred to the district hospitals while the sick have been discharged
from their wards, some with medical supplies.
Eastern Highlands Provincial Hospital Authority chief executive
officer Dr Joseph Apa said yesterday that patients were sent home after water
in the reserve tanks ran out.
“Water is required for all the operations of the hospital and we
cannot keep patients here for the safety of other patients and to avoid the
risk of other infections,” said Dr Apa.
“We currently do not have the statistics of patients affected by
the closure of the hospital but mothers at the labour ward and new-born babies
will be greatly affected by the situation.”
Dr Apa said the hospital has bought water bottles from shops for
nursing staff and patients to use for washing hands and drinking medicine on
Saturday, Sunday and yesterday as well.
“Patients were also not fed yesterday (Sunday) and we had to
supply patients with biscuits,” Dr Apa said yesterday….
Bus-Stops No Longer Safe For Women and Girls: Commuter
Post Courier, April 9, 2019
WOMEN and girls are harassed, face barriers as a result of these
harassments, says commuter Jean as she speaks of her experience. She said she
witnessed an incident last month and shared her experience in light of the Anti
Street Harassment week that was launched by UN Women NCDC yesterday. She (Jean)
travels the route from Manu Autoport to Koki before changing bus to get to
Konedobu.
“According to Jean, a Badihagwa student had his school bag
snatched by a thug in front of everybody. The boy thought he would find safety
inside the busy market place as the public watched without doing anything,’’
she said.
Jean felt furious and could not believe what she had witnessed. When
she got out of the bus to transfer, she shouted at the top of her voice to men
loitering with a quick lecture.
“When women are running away, you can understand that. But when
it is a man, a boy, a school student on his way to school, you men watch and do
nothing.
“And look at you! You’re discussing what happened when you
watched everything that happened before your very eyes, and especially when it
is all over. Did you do anything? No! You all ought to hang your heads in
shame,” she said.
The thugs who rule Koki bus-stop are free to ply their trade and
law-abiding citizens have to protect themselves in a community that does not
care.
“There are good things like the Meri Seif bus (women only safe
bus for women) the good governor organised which is highly successful.
“But for all other city buses, the women go prepared, they carry
some kind of weapon, a pocket knife for instance or a lime bottle for the
betelnut which they hold ready to throw in the face of their attacker to blind
him.
“When they are approaching bus- stops they wind up the windows,”
she said.
She is now asking why the police are not doing their job
affectively by patrolling the bus-stops.
Pride of the force – How we grew Lae’s rapid police response unit
Anthony Wagambie Jr
The Lae Police Sector
Response Unit (SRU) was launched to deter criminals who took advantage of weak
policing in Papua New Guinea’s second largest city. Since it was set up, Lae
police command has been monitoring the results. Average response time is now
between five and ten minutes.
LAE – I took a gamble in forming the new unit. We
selected a bunch of very young probationary constables with just over a year in
the field.
We put them in with
experienced non-commissioned officers, the majority of whom were former Mobile
Squad and Lae Rapid Response members.
I told them, “You guys
will make it or break it. If you fail and I fail, I will be dealt with!”
We nurtured them, me
being in the field and taking command myself to make sure the SRU operated the
way I wanted. Now my boys are very experienced and everything is in place.
I am proud of all of
them. Yes we have one or two who step out of line. But the guys have done me
proud.
It’s like a father
watching his child take his first steps until he can walk unaided.
We took Inspector David
Kumayon, who was Commander Mobile Squad 13, and moved him to command SRU Lae.
We then increased the strength to the current 74 men.
Never before have we had
24/7 police armed response coverage of the city.
Sections of SRU have
also been deployed out of the Lae to Morobe rural, Kurumbukari (Madang), Madang
town unrest, Bogia (Madang) and Kainantu in the Eastern Highlands.
Now I don’t personally
take command of the unit as much as I used to. I do that only for major
incidents or operations.
It gives me personal
pride when I see and hear people praising SRU for all that they do. Yes, they
do extremely well.
SRU has become the
strength of Lae Metropolitan Command and they are here to stay even after I
leave my beautiful Lae City.
Anthony Wagambie is the
Police Metropolitan Superintendent of Lae
Laloki Public Psychiatric
Hospital outside Port Moresby has released 100 patients and closed all its
services to the public as staff members protest over an unresolved chronic
water supply problem.
The hospital staff started a sit-in protest today following the expiry of a
14-day notice by the Department of Health to fix the water supply contamination
problem.
The hospital did not have the resources to get Eda Ranu to connect water to the
hospital to replace the water wells.
The staff decision, backed by the hospital management, to stop work comes after
Hepatitis A, a waterborne faecal disease, broke out at the hospital six weeks
ago.
The disease affected both staff and patients with laboratory tests confirming
bacterial contamination of the two wells that had been used the past 19 years.
Since the outbreak of Hepatitis A on Feb 27, acute ward manager Sr Dianne Rambe
said six patients and two staff members contracted the disease.
“The management had no choice but to release most of the 80 patients to contain
the disease, not forgetting the high risk these psychiatric patients pose to
the community.
In
PNG, doctors warn botched penis enlargements have become a ‘nationwide problem’
Doctors in Papua New
Guinea have warned of a “nationwide problem” of men injecting foreign
substances, including coconut oil and silicone, into their penises in an
attempt to make them bigger. A doctor at the Port Moresby General Hospital said
that over the last two years his clinic has treated at least 500 men with
penile disfigurement and dysfunction as a result of injections.
“I have seen five new
cases every week for the past two years and these are the ones that have come
forward for treatment. We don’t know how many of them are out there,” said
Akule Danlop, a surgeon at the hospital. “I saw seven today.” The substances
injected include coconut oil, baby oil, silicone and cooking oil and the side
effects are serious, sometimes irreversible.
17 April 2019
Australian
media (but not NZ) is missing in action on Bougainville
Bougainville, the autonomous region of Papua New
Guinea which suffered a brutal 10-year civil conflict in the 1990s, was due to
have a referendum in June to decide if it would separate from PNG. But because funding and
arrangements for the plebiscite were well behind schedule, the voting date has
now been postponed to October.
Does this matter beyond
PNG? One would think so.
This referendum is a
celebrated element of the 2001 peace agreement that finally brought the bloodshed
to a close and could result in Bougainville becoming another independent but
under-developed, economically struggling small island state in the Pacific,
with a population of 350,000 people.
If it achieves
independence, this small archipelago just over 1,000 kilometres from Cairns
will have as its legacy a still festering internal debate about the future of
its fabulous mining wealth that was at the heart of the conflict that claimed
around 20,000 lives.
And whether independent
or not, Bougainville remains an area of intense geo-political interest for
Australia particularly as other nations, including China, seek to access that
fabulous wealth. Yet judging by Australia’s recent media coverage of this
volatile rich island, it is just about invisible aside from some reporting in
the business media about Australian mining interests in Bougainville. All this
is doubly strange, given it’s not as though nothing has been happening. In a
year not yet four months old, there has been a flurry of discombobulating
developments already in 2019 in what was already set to be an important year
for Bougainville. These threaten to impact on Bougainville’s ability to weather
the political and massive economic challenges ahead.
TWO police officers were
found guilty of forcing a woman to chew and swallow condoms in 2015. Justice
Panuel Mogish, who found the duo guilty of one count of unlawful deprivation of
personal liberty, two counts of forcing a person to do indecent acts and one
count of abuse of office and set April 25 for sentencing.
“The woman alleged that she was attending a party at Sky 9 Club at Boroko the
previous night and was on her way to catch a taxi home in the early hours of
the morning when she met two men. “They were dressed as civilians and asked if
she had any money. She said she did not have any money. They then told her that
they were police officers and brought her into the station. “They told her to
sit while they emptied her purse and found some condoms. “Yawijah then asked
her if she was a sex worker and how many men she had slept with. He then forced
her to eat a condom and swallow it. She said it was not for eating and she
would not do as they say. “Yawijah then grabbed an iron bar and hit it on the
table and threatened her, so she ate the first one. Tanda did not do anything
to stop it but instead laughed and filmed a video clip. “The woman was then
told to chew and swallow another condom and she did while Tanda laughed and
took videos of her.
Children warned to stay away from Porgera’s open
pit
CHILDREN from the special
mining lease villages surrounding the Porgera mine have been warned to stay
away from the operation areas, especially the open pit.
According to a statement from the Porgera Joint Venture, trespassing by
children continues to be a problem for the mine operation. Of the number of
illegal miners entering the mine in a month, it is estimated that 5 per cent
are children.
The mine’s community development section carried out a school outreach
programme recently to educate children on the dangers of illegally entering the
mine pit.
It targeted seven schools. Children enter into the mine area to look for food
or scrap materials.
The four messages communicated were:
The mine is a dangerous place. You can get killed, badly injured
or risk living with a disability for the rest of your life;
not everyone who gets injured on the mine site dies;
the Government has laws to punish parents who do not protect their
children from danger; and
That communities need children who will stay in school and become
good leaders in future.
At the Aumbi Elementary
School on April 10, community development manager Jacqueline Nen told the
children that there were many other options for a playing field and the open
pit was not one of them.
PORT Moresby General
Hospital’s maternity ward is close to collapsing due to lack of maintenance and
support, a doctor says. “The hospital was built in 1955 by the colonial
government when the city’s population was about 50,000 but 65 years later it is
serving more than 500,000,” head of obstetrics and gynecology Dr Glen Mola
said.
Mola said the 24 delivery suites and 100 beds at the postnatal care were not
enough because 40 women delivered each day and mother and baby could not leave
the hospital the next day. He said about 15,000 women gave birth at the
hospital every year of which 5000 cases were complicated and 10,000 were
normal. This meant that daily, about 13 women out of 40 who gave birth faced
complications. A common complication involves a Caesarean birth and Mola said
one in every 10 women needed a C-section to save the baby or mother. He said
they had to do three C-sections in the same evening so “by the time we came to
the third, we were late which resulted in losing the mother or the baby”.
“We have three operating theatres but there is staffing only to keep one
operating theatre working in the night,” Mola said.
ARMED
pirates attacked a dinghy but left a mother and her baby, a 13-year-old girl
and eight others unharmed. However, two others are still missing after they
were forced to jump into the sea. The terrifying drama unfolded at 3pm on
Saturday when the dinghy, ran into six pirates armed with homemade guns, two
bush knives and two catapults. The pirates ordered everyone, except the mother
and her baby, to jump into the sea near the Kalibobo Lighthouse towards the
Gogol River.
After carting away all the groceries that were bought from town, and
handphones, cash and belongings, the pirates left in their boat. The victims
then swam and climbed back onto their dinghy and a head count found that two
other passengers were missing. Moka said the dinghy was running low on fuel and
thus could not conduct a search for the two missing passengers.
Bishop reveals shortage
of medicine causing health emergency
Many health facilities in the country are running out of
medicine, says the president of Catholic Bishops Conference Bishop Rochus
Tatamai. “We have been requesting the Government to purchase medicine because
medicine has not reached clinics, aid posts and health centres,” Tatamai said
on Friday.
“Throughout the country, there are symptoms of a profound public health
emergency: young and old are getting sick and dying unnecessarily, while health
facilities lack basic medicine and equipment. “Many aid posts, clinics and
hospital shelves have no stocks of medicines, there were no antibiotics,
bandages and anything.”
Tatamai said MPs were elected to represent people and the delivery of basic
health services should be a priority when dealing with public funds. He said
when it came to health service delivery, political leaders should always
mandate line agencies to bridge services to the people. “What have we done with
the revenue of our natural resources and the Government funding we get every
year?” Tatamai said.
At least 40 women and children a month flee
their homes in Port Moresby because of sorcery-related violence and incest by
stepfathers and uncles. Haus Ruth Crisis Centre for Abused Women and Children
revealed that cases of sorcery and incest have increased markedly in the past
decade. The number of women seeking refuge in the centre has increased.
China Railway Construction Engineering (CRCE) PNG Ltd showed its support to
these women on International Women’s Day on Friday with a surprise visit. House
Ruth Crisis Centre manager Monica Richards said women between the ages of 20
and 45 years were the largest group seeking help because of forced sex,
jealousy, rape and other forms of domestic violence.
“What we do is accommodate them, give them skills training like sewing and
small business training, so that after two weeks when their term is over, they
have better knowledge to go out and sustain themselves,” she said. Victims get
medical treatment and police and court clearance during their stay. Richards
said many teenagers from high schools escaped from their homes because of
violence.
CRCE human resources manager Athena Chow said women’s problems were everyone’s
problems. “It is very important to recognise women on their special day, as it
is the only time we come out to talk about issues that are affecting women in
society,” she said.
“They are very important people in the society.
“They need to be protected, loved and cared for by their partners without
fear.”
PNG Facing TB Crisis. Ranked 10th in the World
Post
Courier. March
12, 2019
PAPUA New Guinea is facing a tuberculosis (TB)
crisis. This is because PNG is ranked 10th globally for rates of TB, with
35,000 new cases a year, of which 6000 of them are in the National Capital
District alone. This is according to Businesses for Health: Tuberculosis and
HIV project manager Dr Ann Clarke, who says women, while also falling ill with
TB, are largely impacted by social and economic factors that need to change if
PNG is to end the TB epidemic. “Thousands die unnecessarily of TB – drug
susceptible TB, drug resistant TB or TB/HIV co-infection.“ Last year there were
more than 2000 cases of drug resistant TB and drug resistant treatment success
is less than 50 per cent, while only drug susceptible TB is 100 per cent
curable,” she said.
Observing International Women’s Day last Friday,
March 8, Dr Clarke said it was an opportunity for Businesses for Health to
celebrate the contributions of women to the health and well-being of all who
live in PNG. “However, it is also a time to reinforce the actions needed to
speed up gender equality in this remarkable and diverse country.
PNG bishops attack government
over corruption, incompetence
In a public
statement, the Catholic bishops have asked why an Independent Commission
Against Corruption had not yet been established, despite many promises over
many years, and why nothing has been done to end the Special Agricultural and
Business Leases (SABLs) which are said to have led to many illegal land grabs. They
condemned SABLs for continuing to destroy the environment and the livelihoods
of thousands of Papua New Guineans.
The statement
also attacked the practice of politicians directly distributing government
funds to the people themselves. The bishops called this “notoriously corrupt”
and said it was an impractical and failed system.
The church is
one of the key providers of education in PNG but the bishops said their
services were increasingly interfered with by politicians and the government.
They
criticised the government’s so-called Fee Free Tuition as not effectively
implemented and not providing funds and materials to schools.
The O’Neill
government is also not adequately supporting Catholic health centres where
staff are not receiving wages and medicines and equipment are not reaching the
clinics. Saying they were talking on behalf of the people of PNG, the bishops
called for answers from the government and said they are expecting change.
Work on resettlement project for Manam Islanders begins
WORK on the land in Bogia allocated for the Manam
resettlement project has begun with machines being moved in, an official says.
Acting chairman of the Manam restoration authority John Bivi said the government
had allocated K6 million for the project. Bivi said the resettlement of the
Manam people fleeing the volcanic eruptions on their island had been an
outstanding issue. The land clearance will begin at Andarum in Tangu of the
Almami local level government.
Manam people have been living in the care centres for nearly 13 years with no
land to grow crops, no sea to fish and no forests to hunt in. Some had died
waiting to be relocated while some had returned to their island.
“The Government allocation of K6 million as mobilisation funds will be
prioritised to help our people,” Bivi said. Manam people were moved to the care
centres at Potsdam, Suaru, Bom, Asuramba and Mangem when the major volcanic
eruption took place in 2006.
Baliau villagers who lived at Suaru and the Dugulava people who lived at Bom
had to return to Manam after clashes with the Bogia landowners. They receive
relief assistances every time the volcano erupts and destroys food gardens. Those
staying back at the care centres survive on what they have.
‘Australia over a barrel’:
PNG official sought K20 million ‘donation’
MELBOURNE – An Australian government contractor on Manus Island was asked by a senior Papua New Guinea official in 2017 for a multi-million-dollar donation to the ruling party of prime minister Peter O’Neill. When the company, which was working for the Home Affairs department on the offshore detention regime, refused the request, the company’s senior managers began to encounter problems with visas for staff to enter or remain in PNG.
The contractor, which asked that its name not be used to protect
the welfare of its Manus Island-based staff, rejected the donation request and
reported it to senior department officials in late 2017. It’s understood more
than one contractor has experienced similar problems.
If the company had made the donation of K20 million to the
People’s National Congress party, it would have likely committed a criminal
offence under Australia’s foreign bribery laws.
While Australian government agencies and departments refer to
PNG as a “difficult environment” to operate in, an internal 2018 AFP report
seen by The
Age and Sydney Morning Herald is more direct and
describes PNG as having “significant corruption issues”.
More
than K100 million collected by the government from logging companies to fund
community development projects has been stolen or misused. Senior departmental
heads appointed as trustees have failed in their duties and the biggest
beneficiary has been the government itself, which has unlawfully taken more
than K80 million of community funds.
These
are findings contained in a scathing Auditor General’s report recently released
to the public.
It
is now well-documented that large-scale logging by foreign-owned companies does
not bring lasting development to the communities who suffer the often
devastating environmental and social impacts. This fact was acknowledged by
government more than a decade ago when the Log Export Development Levy
(LEDL) was introduced.
The
levy is an additional tax paid by logging companies on every cubic metre of
timber they export. All monies collected
is then supposed to be used by government to fund the agriculture and
infrastructure development projects in communities impacted by logging that the
companies so frequently promise, but so rarely deliver.
Unfortunately,
government has proven to be no more reliable than the foreign logging companies
in upholding its side of the bargain. Between 2012 and 2015, more than K100
million in levies was collected by government and placed into a trust account.
However, in a devastating set of findings, the Auditor General has revealed how
those funds, intended to alleviate suffering in logging communities, have been
stolen and misused.
Electoral Commission Needs Help
For LLG Elections
Post Courier March 28, 2019
THE PNG Electoral Commission
says that it needs extensive collaboration with provinces to deliver the local
level government (LLG) elections. The PNGEC says it needs collaboration with
all the 20 provincial administrations to ensure the 2019 LLG elections is
conducted successfully. Early this year, the national government made the
decision and asked the Electoral Commission to administer the 2019 LLG
elections in partnership with provincial administrations to pool resources,
save money and promote provincial ownership of the process.
Electoral Commissioner Patilias
Gamato said though it is an exciting potential partnership, the dilemma is that
the commission has yet to conclude agreements with the 20 different provincial
administrations. “PNGEC has engaged in conversations with provincial
administrations since 2018 and has concluded a memorandum of understanding with
only nine provinces in all at this time,” he said.
“This model ensures increased
complexity of implementation as many of the personnel and materials needed to
run the LLG elections do not fall under PNGEC’s control.” Mr Gamato said
PNGEC’s budget for the 2017 national election was K279 million, whereas for the
LLG elections, the total budget line of K100 million is being split between the
commission and provincial administrations.
“I am calling on the national government to
provide adequate resources to PNGEC in a timely fashion for us to be able to
play our role in these important LLG elections.”
The
rigging of the 2017 election: (1) You were very wrong Australia
Journalist Mark Davis has abstracted the main issues from the
Australian National University’s report on the 2017 Papua New Guinea national
election. Beginning today, we present Mark’s summary in four parts. The ANU
report documents a scandalous election replete with threats, malfeasance and
corruption. You can link to it in full here
The report calls into question the legitimacy of the current
regime of prime minister Peter O’Neill and the future of the nation’s
parliamentary democracy. The long-awaited ‘2017 Papua New Guinea Elections – Election Observation Report’ reveals
the systematic corruption of the election by Mr O’Neill’s ruling People’s
National Congress Party, other parties and candidates, the PNG Electoral
Commission, the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary, the PNG Defence Force and
other elements of society.
It is an extraordinarily detailed report who’s unique and
invaluable data is based on direct observation by a team of 258 including 32
PNG academics and researchers as team leaders, 31 ANU-based academics and
students, 192 PNG observers and three support staff. It is unprecedented in
detail, scope, and intensity, covering all four PNG regions, and 69 of the 111
electorates, including detailed studies of 44 electorates. Detailed
observations were conducted of 945 of the 10,825 polling stations, and 7,510
citizens were surveyed individually.
Observations were carried out over three months from the start
of the campaign period to post-polling, amounting to more than 6,500
person-days, and were recorded in template journals kept by each observer. The
report is a showpiece of election data and analysis – it is delivered in lay
language and clearly based on a foundation of well-coordinated and
comprehensive field coverage by a qualified and knowledgeable team. It has the
ring of absolute authenticity and it pulls no punches.
The report gives the lie to claims by Mr O’Neill, then
Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop and
Australian officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)
that the election was free, fair and successful. It was not.
Cult activities taking on satanic character, says academic
CULT activities, which are seen as increasing
more satanic, are so entrenched in our education systems that it will need
everyone to find practical solutions, says University of Goroka Dean of
Education Dr James Aiwa. He was contributing to discussions at a seminar on
cult and generation activities in schools. Dr Kainaro Kravia, a lecturer at the
School of Education, and Priscilla Sakopa, the head of the mathematics and
computing department, also took part.
Kravia said there was an element of “strange happenings” within the dormitories
which amounted to the belief that cult practices and their undercurrents were
rampant at the university and tertiary institutions near it. Kravia said the
initial cult groups were formed as a result of forming “bonds” with each other,
to make the alienated feel part of a social grouping and to have each other’s
interests at heart as a means to survive in national high schools. But he said
all that had changed.
“What we have now are hierarchical groups where generational names are given
and with it comes the attitudes, character and personality changes which affect
the coerced innocent student,” he said. With it comes the expected roles. If
you don’t comply you are punished, most often severely nowadays, but previously
it was a way to bond students and help each other succeed”, he said. Sakopa
said she had been privy to the inside of a cult working some years ago and most
of what happened were satanic and took on the cultist ideology where others
looked up to a “godfather”.
A MAGISTRATE has ordered a mother who sold
her two-week-old son for K800 to pay the same amount to the court as a fine. Mt
Hagen Magistrate Jacinta Doa also ordered the arrest of the husband, and the
woman who bought the child.
She warned mum Yawama Kuna, 29, that she would serve two months in jail if she
failed to pay the K800 fine. The court was told that Kuna was having
difficulties looking after her two children because her husband Amos Hari was
not supporting them.
Kuna, from Sembriki in the Kagua-Erave district of Southern Highlands, was
arrested last Wednesday and charged with selling her son to a woman. She told
the court she had to sell her son because her husband did not provide her and
the two children food and money.
She told the court that her husband was aware of what she did but did not
object.
They continued to live together until last week when he came home drunk and
asked her for money.
She gave him the only K20 she had. The husband lodged a complaint with police
that she had sold their son. Police prosecutor Sam Nili submitted that the
husband was not concerned about the son his wife had sold and had not make any
attempt to get him back until last week. Nili told the court that just because
Kuna’s family demanded that he paid bride price before taking his son and wife
back, he went to the police.
Despite an economic boom led by extractive industries such as mining, an
estimated 40% of people in Papua New Guinea live in poverty. The government has not taken sufficient steps to address gender
inequality, violence, corruption, or excessive use of force by police. Rates of
family and sexual violence are among the highest in the world, and perpetrators
are rarely prosecuted. The government has been the focus of sustained protests,
including student boycotts and acts of civil disobedience, over allegations of
corruption. Reports of mob violence, especially against individuals accused of
sorcery, continue to be reported. Former United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, visited PNG in February 2018 and called on
the government to tackle a long list of abuses, including corruption, land
rights abuses, gender-based violence, and attacks on activists and journalists.
In June, authorities confirmed that the country was facing its first polio
outbreak in 18 years, prompting an emergency vaccination campaign. Chronic
problems continued to plague the criminal justice system in PNG, including
abuses by police. Overcrowding and dire prison conditions led to prison
breakouts. PNG continues to see high levels of violence and political unrest
since the 2017 election, which was marred by widespread electoral
irregularities and violence. In June, in the Southern Highlands, a mob set
alight a passenger plane in an election-related protest.
Many Papua New Guineans
don’t know about the cost of cancer treatment until one member gets sick. The
diagnosis alone is problematic. In rural districts and outstations, many community health workers are not
equipped with the awareness which would trigger a referral to a major hospital.
But that is just one problem.
Take for example, a
place like Baindoang in the Nawaeb District of Morobe province. It is only
accessible by plane. A young mum with the early stages of cervical or breast
cancer will not be able to get the proper diagnosis until the disease is in its
late stages.
If the community decides
to send her to Lae, they will have to raise at least K2000 for airfares and
treatment in Lae City. It is big money for a village community. There is no
certainty of the time it will take for them to remain in the city. I’ve come
across wives separated from their husbands and children for weeks and months. Many
give up and die lonely deaths surrounded by strangers who become family. Many
are left with no means of talking with their families either because of the
lack of mobile network coverage or no means of buying a plane ticket back home.
There are unclaimed bodies at the Angau hospital morgue. Some came from remote
outstations.
Today, I learned that a
pack of four vials of morphine costs K100. For a cancer patient the family
needs to spend K100 a day to ensure some level of comfort for their loved one.
That’s K700 a week, K1400 a fortnight and K2800 a month.
Leprosy
Highly Endemic in Southern Region
Post Courier January 28, 2019
LEPROSY is highly
endemic in the Southern region, according to The Leprosy Mission.
The Leprosy
Mission country leader Natalie Smith said, at the end of 2017, 587 new cases
were detected in the country where 74 per cent of all new cases were reported
in the Southern region. “The six high endemic provinces reported more than 87
per cent of new leprosy cases in the National Capital District, Gulf, Central,
Western, Sandaun and East New Britain provinces.
“587 cases of leprosy is too many cases in
PNG. “We want the number to come down to zero, so our aim is to fight against
this disease,” she said.
Rapacious loggers & bewildered people – the taking
apart of PNG
In late October 2017 I
was in Kavieng when I was handed a copy of Government Gazette G161 notifying the
gazettal of a SABL over almost 80% of my wife’s island of Lavongai for 99 years
free of any land tax. It was one of three SABL that had been foisted onto
semi-illiterate rural people as a clever trick to get around the tighter legal
requirements of a normal logging permit. SABLs weakened Forestry Department’s
regulation of the granting of leases because their intent was alleged to be
agriculturally motivated. This gave the developers the wonderful opportunity
not to log according to normal forestry rules but clear fell for a monoculture
of cocoa, rubber or most likely oil palm with all the inherent environmental
dangers a single crop can experience. Over the years coffee and cocoa borers
spread worldwide, rhinoceros beetles in Indonesian palm oil migrated into South
Pacific plantations and later banana Black Sigatoka. None of these serious
agricultural impacts ever slowed down the rapacious loggers. …
Corruption of PNG’s political system infects economic
statistics
CANBERRA – PNG’s economic statistics have been
corrupted. Even the most basic economic statistic of “how big is the PNG
economy” has been manipulated to tell stories convenient to the O’Neill/Abel
government. An extraordinary gap of 18% has opened between measurement of
the size of the economy (‘gross domestic product’ or GDP) by the PNG government
compared with measurements by independent outside observers, led by the
International Monetary Fund.
The gap in this most
basic economic measure will be 34% by 2023. Specifically, the PNG government
claims the PNG economy will reach K125 billion while the IMF estimates it will
more realistically reach 93 billion in that year. The NSO 2015 GDP figure was
released on 9 March 2018 – a date that marks the clearest point from which the
government started manipulating statistics, although there have been
questionable practices in the past….
Like any PNG town,
Kundiawa is full of unemployed youths, psychopaths, street kids, street
sellers, drug dealers, street preachers, pickpockets, beggars, prostitutes and
parasites.
the whole town of
Kundiawa has become a market place with rubbish everywhere and town authorities
and police seem powerless to do anything about it.
On street corners and in
public places you can see youths drinking, smoking and gambling. Some sell
plastic bottles filled with ethanol or home brew alcohol for K5 or K10 a
container. You can see youths selling drugs rolled in pieces of newspaper.
Sometimes it’s difficult to identify because marijuana is mixed with tobacco
leaves.
When youths are drunk,
they demand or steal from anybody: money; mobile phones and other valuables.
You will see youths running to catch a thief but they don’t catch him as they
are feigning. They all cooperate to execute illegal activity. Long hours are
spent in town doing nothing and at night hanging around in front of stores,
beer clubs and night clubs looking for opportunities to steal. A lot of strange
things happen in town; you can hardly believe them.
There is no quick
solution to solve these problems but one way to assist juvenile delinquents is
to avoid labelling them as bad people in society. They are troubled human
beings and imposing tough penalties is not going to solve their problems. We
have to be empathetic and show interest in them as human beings who have the
potential to become people. We need to look at how we can provide options to
change their lives….
A new report by the global watchdog
Transparency International has again classified Papua New Guinea as one of the
most highly corrupt countries in the world.
The 2018 Corruption Perception
Index (CPI), a worldwide examination of perceptions of levels of corruption
suffered by individual nations published by TI yesterday, has revealed that PNG
is highly corrupt with a ranking of 138 out of the 180 countries that were
perceived.
Under the theme ‘Corruption and the
crisis of democracy’, the 2018 CPI revealed some crucial areas of the public
sector corruption that are contributing to the weakness of democratic
institutions and the stagnation to their performance must be addressed by
responsible agencies like the government departments and non-government
organisations as well.
According to a press statement
released by TIPNG, some of the areas that contributed to the rank of corruption
in PNG are the deteriorating respect for democratic principles.
“Simply said: There is a massive
disrespect for the rule of law,” TIPNG said.
The statement went on to condemn
public servants and citizens’ lack of integrity to adhere to proper processes
and respectful ways of conduct. And taking the 2017 National Election as an
example, the statement expressed great distaste about the way the election was
conducted. This was evident in the 2017 National Elections with discrepancies
and electoral roll inaccuracy, bribery, and intimidation by voters and
candidates, double voting and blocks voting. There was also a lack of
enforcement of laws by official agencies responsible during the election
providing an opening for citizens to disregard measures to ensure a free and
fair election, TIPNG said.
However, when corruption seeps into
the democratic system, particularly at the higher levels of power, democratic
institutions that keep the government in check suffer.
The O’Neill regime is dumbing down a whole generation
PORT MORESBY – High profile journalist Scott
Waide’s recent articleabout the high cost of his daughter’s university
fees highlights a conundrum Papua New Guinea faces in terms of the quality of
its education system. Scott was shocked about the high cost. But let us reflect on
what is a major crisis in the sector. When the O’Neill government introduced
the Tuition Fee Free (TFF) education system for primary and secondary schools,
it failed to account for capacity constraints. Schools were flooded and schools
lacked and continue to lack learning resources, infrastructure and staff
numbers to cope with the influx. Primary and secondary schools in PNG have
essentially become child-minding centers as opposed to centers of learning. In
terms of TFF, the government contribution is K20-K50 a child and it warns
schools not to charge fees. Schools are
then expected to turn this miserly level of fees – five loaves of bread and a
couple of fishes – into something to feed knowledge to thousands of students. Universities
also continue to be grossly under-funded leading to massive fee hikes. However
when one considers the true cost of providing university level education, the
fees are a drop in the ocean.
The member for Menyamya
recently highlighted in parliament the rural-urban technology divide and how
rural students are disadvantaged in terms of securing places at university.
While the predatory
elite in government is dumbing down the general population, their children are
being trained overseas to rule over a dumb population in the future.
The O’Neill government,
whether by design or accident, is increasing inequality and making social
stratification much more pronounced. The constitution of the independent state
of Papua New Guinea calls for integral human development as its first national
goal and directive principle. The way things currently are under the O’Neill
regime, this national goal is ignored.
PNG’s constitution also
calls for equality and participation as another national goal. Whilst the TFF
policy can be seen as being reflective of this, the poor quality of education
means many students leave school unable to equally participate in the economy.
They become a liability.
The rural-urban divide
also means rural students don’t have the same level of opportunity to attend
university, thus furthering social inequality. A poorly educated population
that lacks capacity to engage in the modern economy becomes reliant on
political patronage.
This is a politician’s
dream because, as long as people keep waiting for handouts from politicians,
politicians can control voting behaviour.
COMMUNITY
Development, Youth and Religion Secretary Anna Solomon has called on churches
in the country to help vulnerable children. She expressed appreciation for the
efforts of two Catholic churches in the Highlands region for partnering her
department to provide “out-of-home care” for disadvantaged children last year.
“The department wants to partner with more churches in the country in taking
care of these children who come from broken families and homes, orphanages or
whose parents have died from HIV/AIDS, sorcery-related killings, and those
living with disabilities,” Solomon said.
“The two care centres that have been given licence in April recognising them as
state partners to care for vulnerable children are under the Diocese of Mendi
in Southern Highlands and Archdiocese of Mt Hagen in Western Highlands.”
Solomon said the Lukautim Pikinini Act has allowed the inclusion and provision
of the out-of-home care centres by churches in partnership with the government.
“The out-of-home care centres are mandated through the licence for removal of
endangered children from within the community and having them given due care in
the temporary shelter until they are returned to a permanent home.
“These two care centres have each assimilated about 15 children and may take in
more as vulnerable children increase in numbers coming from broken homes, or
orphanages whose parents have died and those living with disabilities.
“We have all the data for the churches in PNG, especially seven mainline
churches.”
The picture of a grieving mum that told a million stories
LAE – A few days ago, I asked Sally Lloyd about the
picture she posted on Facebook of a distraught mother weeping over the body of
her baby who had died. This is the story behind the picture. They are from Fomabi
Village near Nomad. …middle Fly in Western Province. The child got sick with
pneumonia, I believe, and Nomad Health Centre could not help them. The facility
there has been very run down and ill equipped for a very long time.
They then had to make
the long walk to Mougulu health centre for many hours to get further help. Unfortunately,
the child died the following afternoon, and without any helpers with them the
parents had to walk back to their village with the dead child….
“This evening they have the long walk back (6
to 8 hours at least) to Fomabi Village with a very heavy burden – almost too
much to bear. “The father offloaded some heavy food items and we gave high
protein food and fish, a torch and umbrella- it’s going to storm tonight. “God
knows how much we need that emergency vehicle – to bring patients more quickly,
but also for parents who should not have to walk a day (or all night) to get
home and bury their child. “RIP Ezekiel.”
Kieta Flights Suspended
Post Courier February 11, 2019
Air Niugini has suspended its services to Aropa airport, Kieta in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (AROB) this week due to removal and theft of the solar panels which power the Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI) lights at the airport. PAPI lights are a visual aid that are generally located beside the airport runway that provides guidance information to help pilots maintain the correct approach to an airport. They are a requirement for jet operations. PAPI lights at Aropa airport were only installed recently, allowing the resumption of jet operations into Kieta in January this year.
Report Saying
Loggers Declaring Losses But Increasing Exports
Post Courier February 13, 2019
A high-end investigative report has
revealed that despite decades of operating in PNG, logging companies barely
declare profits. Furthermore, the report reveals an odd financial contradiction
where loggers have reported doubling their losses while continuing to increase
their exports of tropical timber. In a comprehensive report furnished by
renowned international researching group The Oakland Institute, new evidence of
financial misreporting and grand scale tax evasion in the PNG logging industry
have been unearthed.
Titled “The Great Timber
Heist-Continued: Tax Evasion and Illegal Logging in PNG”, the institute makes
public a host of new case studies that have been ascertained through the study
of sixteen subsidiary logging exporters.
Following a 2016 report of the same
nature which alleged that financial misreporting by foreign firms resulted in
nonpayment of hundreds of millions of kina in taxes, the new report reveals an
apparent worsening of this pattern in recent years.
According to financial records, the
16 studied subsidiaries of a logger that court injunctions hinder us from
naming, have doubled their financial losses in just six years while increasing
their exports of tropical timber by over 40 per cent….
After the decline throughout much
of 2017, the volume of logs exported returned to their upward trend in October.
To date, the abolished special agriculture and business leases which added 5.5
million hectares to the 10 million hectares remains a mystery.
Family Protection
Law Not Understood: Kamit
Post Courier February 14, 2019
FOUNDATION chairperson of the
Coalition for Change (CFC) Incorporated, Lady Winifred Kamit, has expressed
grave concerns regarding the general consensus surrounding provisions of the
Family Protection Act 2013. Lady Kamit made this comments yesterday after
reading media reports which paraphrased a Mount Hagen District Court magistrate
in saying that the new law was “biased towards women” and that it “destroyed
the family”.
As the head of the organisation
instrumental in the drafting of the law through to when it was passed, Lady
Kamit said she was disappointed that a member of the PNG Judiciary would
express an understanding of the law which was so fundamentally flawed.
“The statement, if true, is not
only wrong, because that’s not what the law is, but it also shows that the
provisions of the Family Protection Act are not understood,” said Lady Kamit.
“The Family Protection Act is a law
which gives protection to both female and male survivors of domestic violence,
who can go before a magistrate for a protective order and other orders which
are sanctioned by the act.” Lady Kamit added that the public needed to have a
better understanding of the law and its role in the protection of oppressed
survivors of domestic violence which was prevalent around the country.
Loloho Digital
Tower Equipment Torched
Post Courier February 15, 2019
Communications equipment at the
Loloho Digicel Tower situated on the mountains overlooking Loloho was burnt on
Wednesday morning allegedly by disgruntled landowners.
This has now resulted in a total Digicel network outage in Arawa and the
surrounding communities. Although details are still sketchy, the burning of the
tower equipment is alleged to have stemmed from a dispute over the distribution
of rental payments amongst family members of people who own the land where the
tower is situated on. This act of sabotage is the latest of a number of acts of
vandalism targeting Digicel communication towers on Bougainville. This also
comes amidst recent revelations from the mobile telco that it was struggling to
maintain its services on Bougainville due to the frequent acts of vandalism and
burning down of its communication equipment.
“The banks, the easy pay power
system, mobile banking and even EFTPOS machines all depend on the Digicel
network here and people cannot hold others to ransom by destroying vital
communication equipment,” a town resident who did not to be named said.
“Is this the type of behaviour we want to portray to the outside world
especially in the lead up to referendum?”There were long queues at the Arawa
BSP Bank yesterday as people; especially public servants struggled to access
their monies through the ATMs as EFTPOS services in shops have been affected by
the network outage and police are investigating.
Troubling Insights
On Referendum From NRI Report
PO February 15, 2019
THE final report on the forthcoming
Bougainville Referendum was released yesterday and brought out some broad
successes with a few peculiarities that cannot be ignored.
Authored by Dr Kylie McKenna and
titled the “Status and implementation of the Bougainville Peace Agreement and
implications for referendum”, the research document contained just that. As the
sixth and final paper of a research endeavor conducted by the PNG National
Research Institute into how far the Bougainville Peace Agreement has come and
what remains to be done for a smooth transition, many insights were given.
While the document mentioned that
significant achievements have been made and named a few in the likes of the
implementation of the Weapons Disposal Plan and the successful holding of the
first Autonomous Bougainville Government and subsequent structuring, it also
detailed many troubling realities. Therein, the report identified that progress
on a number of provisions in the Bougainville Peace Agreement have not been
met. It stated that ‘weak collaboration with the National Government’ by the
ABG and the delayed payments of grants had now resulted in the process’ delay.
It also mentioned that there were still an unknown number of weapons still in
circulation and a number of groups and individuals that still posed a threat to
the ongoing peace process. Furthermore, key risks identified that could harm
the peace process included the finding that human and financial capacity was
still not where it needs to be for a referendum. The findings also suggested
that there was inadequate information on autonomy and its outcomes to inform
voter decision-making, continued proliferation of misunderstandings about the
referendum and localised conflict.
Panel discussion organised for refugees to
raise concerns
A
panel discussion organised by the Catholic Bishops Conference was held in Port
Moresby on Wednesday for refugees to raise their concerns. The panel discussion
was attended by church representatives, media personnel from across the
country, students, and refugees.
The theme of the panel discussion was ‘Listening across borders’. Participant
Sam Kaipu, who summarised the highlights of the speakers, said it was evident
that refugees lived in fear for their lives, and have lost their rights and
freedom. “They have left their countries at great risk to themselves and their
loved ones,” Kaipu said. “They are in search of a better and safer life.
“All the five speakers are young men who have been in PNG for five or six
years.
“Despite being from different countries – a Pakistani, a West Papuan, a West
African, a Sudanese and a Central African – their stories had a very important
decision. “Either risk long imprisonment or even death, or abandon their
beloved country, family and friends in order to find safety and freedom in
another country. “It was not simply a better life they were looking for, but
their very existence as human beings deserving of respect and enjoyment of
their rights and freedoms. “As young men they had made traumatic decisions to
abandon their families and friends and countries and lands. The suspense of
waiting for their cases to be determined for settlement in another country has
aggravated their trauma.”
Our daily bread: How scarcity drives the Mosbi mob
mentality:
18 February 2019 KELA KAPKORA SIL BOLKIN
PORT MORESBY – It was ona Saturday that the
mob stormed into view, alleging that a dog bit a woman on the leg. There were no witnesses
and the incident was not reported to the owner of the dog. The table mamas who erect
stalls and sell betel nut along this stretch of the street did not witness a
dog bite. These table
mamas report everything that happens in the neighbourhood to
those returning from work because they tend their stalls 24/7 to make ends meet
in this unforgiving city. A heavily bandaged woman was carted in a wheelbarrow
escorted by men, women and children to the unregulated hostel in the street
where Kol stayed. A grubby man representing the mob came straight up to Kol,
pointing at his face. He knew Kol was not the owner of the dog but acted as if
he was.
“Your dog bite off a piece
on her calf muscle. We took her to the hospital and the doctor said that her
leg will be amputated if not properly treated,” was the line. Kol listened
politely because he was a loner and the mob were ready to devour anybody who
opposed their story cooked up to make some money. There were no medical papers
presented as proof of a visit to the hospital. It was also unusual that the
injured woman was not given an opportunity to tell of her experience. The
leader of the mob resolved that Kol would reimburse the cost of the medical
treatment and compensate them to ‘fan their stomach’, as is part of their
custom.
Kol said he did not own
a dog, or a house or land but he was shouted down by the men and women. The mob
insisted that Kol owned the dog and all they wanted was compensation and he
should not divert from that. A neighbour, a leader in the area, endeavoured to
confirm that Kol was not the owner of the dog but the mob told him to back off.
Kol, in his second attempt to defend himself, said dogs being dogs come here to
scavenge in the rubbish but he and others here do not who owns the dog that bit
the woman. In fact, the dog was owned by Gemo who he lived in an adjacent
block.
The mob knew Gemo owned
the dog but decided to hook Kol into the problem so he could partly own the
dog. The primary reason was that Kol came from the same area as Gemo (though
they were not related) and besides, unlike Gemo, he had a permanent job.
Kol and the Gemo were
outnumbered in that stretch of the street so Kol had to raise the white flag of
surrender. Without going to Gemo, Kol contributed K200 and other people living
in the neighbourhood had the courtesy to donate smaller bills adding up to
K550.
He handed the K550 to
the leader and the guy took the money and stated that if the woman’s leg
developed an ulcer he would come back to Kol for greater compensation.
The next day, a Sunday,
the thugs went to Gemo, coerced him and got K300 from him.
On Monday morning, the
woman sloughed her bandages, chopped her walking stick and without flinching
marched to town to sell her betel nuts. This mob had felt the sharp pain of
scarcity that makes them insane and unsafe to mingle with and live alongside.
Although a few of them
are law abiding and have a mountain of civic virtue.
Hundreds of families without water supply for five years
Hundreds of families
living in Madang town have had no water supply for more than five years, a
survey report said. Madang’s ward seven councillor Bonny Solomon said most
families had their water supply disconnected years ago and were using other
sources of water for their needs. Solomon said he submitted a report and list
of residents in the New Town area to see if the government would assist them
pay their outstanding water bills last year but nothing happened. Sharon Halo,
living at Kuperu Road, said Water PNG disconnected her water supply yesterday. Halo
said high water bills were incurred by previous residents and she was paying
K1000 every month to reduce it. She appealed to Water PNG to assess the
situation and weigh out reasons before disconnecting water supplies.
Settlers
Stand their Ground
Post Courier, February 27, 2019
ABOUT
500 homes have been destroyed in an eviction at Gerehu in the Nation’s Capital
on Monday. Women and children were at home when six police vehicles and two
excavators moved into the Red Hills and Goroka Block areas between Gerehu and
Nine-Mile between 9am and 10am.As police
spoke to the families, the two excavators started their destruction of the
homes. In the confusion that followed, houses were destroyed with families
unable to remove their personal belongings before the excavators moved on their
homes.
The
families managed to get representatives from National Capital District
Commission to intervene but 10 minutes after they left, the bulldozing and
destruction of the houses continued. As of yesterday, families had camped
outside their wrecked homes, without electricity and water as many used a
single hose for their cooking, washing and drinking water. School children were
not able to attend schools amongst the issues that arose.
Robina
Yambu and Janet Kuso, both from East Sepik province, said that the actions
taken by the person who was claiming to be the landowner was uncalled for as
there was no prior notice of an eviction given to the families. “The landowner
came just before Christmas of 2018 and showed a court order but did not issue
any eviction notice.
Sorcery-related
violence has continued unabated, with women and girls the primary targets. In
May, in the Southern Highlands, one woman was killed and another two seriously
injured after a mob attacked the women following accusations they had used
sorcery to kill a man. The government’s 2013 Sorcery National Action Plan is
inadequately funded and has yet to be implemented.
In December 2017,
the PNG government announced A$4 million (US$2.9 million) of funding for
sorcery awareness and education programs. In July, the National Court sentenced
eight men to death for their involvement in a sorcery-related killing of seven
people. PNG continued to impose the death penalty, although authorities have
not carried out any executions since 1954.
In 2013, the
Family Protection Act was passed, which criminalizes domestic violence and
allows victims to obtain protection orders. In 2017, the government passed
regulations to implement the law, but enforcement remains weak and
inconsistent.
Police and
prosecutors rarely pursued investigations or criminal charges against people
who commit family violence—even in cases of attempted murder, serious injury,
or repeated rape—and instead prefer to resolve such cases through mediation
and/or payment of compensation.
There is also a
severe lack of services for people requiring assistance after having suffered
family violence, such as safe houses, qualified counselors, case management,
financial support, or legal aid.
PNG continues to
have one of the highest rates of maternal death in the Asia-Pacific, and the
number of women and girls who give birth in a health facility or with the help
of a skilled birth attendant has reduced in the last five years.
Police abuse
The PNG
government failed to address abuses by security forces. Few police are ever
held to account for beating or torturing criminal suspects, a common
occurrence. In September, the government indicated it would introduce new
measures to give immunity to police and defense force soldiers on special
operations supposedly to “curb lawlessness.”
Despite the
ombudsman and police announcing investigations into the 2016 police shooting of
eight student protesters in Port Moresby, at time of writing no police had been
charged or disciplined and neither body had issued a report.
In July, prison
officers shot and killed four men who escaped from Buimo prison in Lae. This
followed a similar escape in 2017, in which 17 prisoners were killed.
Corrective Services ordered an inquiry in 2017, but at time of writing no
investigation had begun, allegedly due to lack of funding.
Children’s rights
Police often beat
children in lock-ups and house them with adults, despite a child justice law
that states children should be kept separate from adults during all stages of
the criminal justice process.
In August, a
video showing two PNG police officers brutally assaulting a teenage boy in West
New Britain was widely circulated on social media. Minister for Police Jelta
Wong ordered an immediate investigation and promised to hold those responsible
to account. The two officers have reportedly been suspended and charged under
the Criminal Code Act, but neither had been prosecuted at time of writing.
Children’s access
to education improved from 2012 to 2016 following the introduction of the
Tuition Fee Free Policy in 2012 but was still low, with only 76 percent of
children enrolled in primary school and 33 percent in secondary.
Land rights
More than 5
million hectares of land has been awarded to PNG-based subsidiaries of foreign
companies on Special Agricultural Business Leases, resulting in loss of
ancestral land and forest for rural Papua New Guineans. The leases represent
over 10% of the country’s total landmass and potentially impact more than
700,000 people.
Government
corruption
Corruption in PNG
is widespread. In December 2017, the Supreme Court quashed a long-standing
arrest warrant for corruption against Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, finding
that the warrant failed to meet a number of requirements and was issued without
jurisdiction.
That same month,
anti-corruption police arrested and charged the country’s deputy chief
electoral commissioner with corruption for allegedly manipulating votes, for
perjury and making a false declaration.
In April, media
reported that anti-corruption police are investigating the Governor of Port
Moresby Powes Parkop, after a former official revealed the city council was
paying K2.8 million a year to a yoga and health company run by his alleged
partner.
Asylum seekers
and refugees
About 570 male
asylum seekers and refugees live in PNG, most on Manus Island. Nearly all were
forcibly transferred to PNG by Australia in 2013. Following a 2016 PNG Supreme
Court decision that detaining asylum seekers is unconstitutional, in November
2017, the Australian and PNG government closed the main centre on Manus and
relocated refugees and asylum seekers to other accommodation facilities on the
island.
Many asylum
seekers and refugees suffer complex health problems including mental health
conditions that have been exacerbated by long periods in detention and
uncertainty about their futures. In May, a Rohingya refugee died by apparent
suicide having jumped from a moving bus, the seventh asylum seeker or refugee
to die on Manus Island since 2013.
The Australian
Department of Home Affairs has acknowledged that medical services have been
reduced since the men were forcibly removed from the main center in 2017. There
have been urgent calls, including by Australian doctors, to improve healthcare
standards on Manus Island.
Australia pays
for refugees’ living expenses but refuses to resettle them in Australia,
insisting they must settle in PNG or third countries, such as the United
States. US resettlement from Manus remains slow, with 163 resettled as of
October.
Refugees and
asylum seekers do not feel safe on Manus due to a spate of violent attacks by
locals in the town of Lorengau and ongoing disputes with the local community.
In January, neighbouring residents blocked access to living compounds in a
protest about leaking sewage. In May, a fire in Hillside Haus forced the
relocation of 120 residents.
Since June, a
12-hour curfew has been imposed on the refugees and asylum seekers in violation
of their freedom of movement, following a car accident in which a woman died;
an allegedly drunk refugee was driving the car. In October, a local man
violently assaulted an Iranian refugee who was hospitalized with serious
injuries to his head and eyes.
In June,
following a class action settlement, the Australian government paid K164
million in compensation to asylum seekers and refugees for their illegal
detention on Manus Island.
In July, the
Queensland Coroner ruled that the death of Manus detainee and Iranian asylum
seeker Hamid Khazaei in September 2014 was preventable and the result of
“compounding errors” in health care provided under Australia’s
offshore immigration detention system.
Disability rights
Despite the
existence of a national disability policy, people with disabilities are often
unable to participate in community life, go to school, or work because of lack
of accessibility, stigma, and other barriers. Access to mental health care is
limited, and many people with psychosocial disabilities and their families
often consider traditional healers to be the only option.
Sexual
orientation and gender identity
The PNG criminal
code outlaws sex “against the order of nature,” which has been interpreted to
apply to consensual same-sex acts, and is punishable by up to 14 years’
imprisonment.
Key international
actors
In March,
then-Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop visited Port Moresby and met with
PNG foreign minister Rimbink Pato to discuss health and immigration. In
November, Australian prime minister Scott Morrison and PNG prime minister Peter
O’Neill signed a joint defence agreement to deepen relations and security
cooperation, partly to curb China’s growing influence in the Pacific.
China is set to
overtake Australia as the largest donor to PNG, though most assistance is in
the form of infrastructure loans rather than aid. China is committing
approximately K13 billion to developing a national road network. Australian
government aid to PNG for the year 2018-19 is K1.3 billion.
In November, PNG
hosted the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum which was
overshadowed by growing tensions between China and Australia for regional
dominance in the Pacific. China provided significant infrastructure
support—including the K82 million convention centre—and President Xi Jinping
invited Pacific Island leaders to a special summit ahead of APEC.
Australia spent
K305 million on security costs for APEC, and provided 1,500 Australian Defence
Force personnel.
The PNG
government drew criticism for its purchase of 40 new Maserati cars for visiting
APEC dignitaries, when the impoverished country struggles to pay teachers and
faces a health crisis. The summit ended in disarray when Chinese officials
physically forced their way into the office of the PNG foreign minister and
refused to sign the final joint statement.
Bishops
appeal for refugee action in open letter to O’Neill
Fr Giorgio Licini – ‘I appeal to
your sense of humanity and the responsibility of your high office’
FR GIORGIO LICINI |
General Secretary, Catholic Bishops Conference
WAIGANI – Dear Hon Prime Minister: It is with heavy
heart and an intense sense of sadness that I report to you on my recent visits
to Lorengau town in Manus Island and to the Pacific International Hospital in
Port Moresby. At the two locations, I had the heartbreaking experience of
making contact with an appalling level of desperation in which refugees and
asylum seekers live. I am not referring to the logistic conditions in which the
men are kept, which appear to be decent with security, cleanliness, and respect
by national and expatriate personnel. My concern is rather about their fast
deteriorating health status, which is making now acts of self-harm and
attempted suicide a daily occurrence: three cases only for the two days I was
in Manus on 20-22 January.
While travel to Manus
and to the detention centers may prove hard to your busy schedule, I warmly
invite you to make a quick visit to the [Intensive Care Unit] ward of Pacific
International Hospital at 3 Mile.
You will come across
well-kept health facilities and extremely kind and professional personnel, but
you will also meet about twenty refugees and asylum seekers in a deplorable
state of mental health compounded with other ailments affecting their cardiac
and respiratory system, kidney failure, fractured bones, etc.
Pacific International
Hospital and the PNG health system in general cannot cope with these types of
diseases and the men are prevented by their status from seeking independent and
autonomous medical attention elsewhere.
Needless to say, Hon
Prime Minister, that the foreigners hosted in Manus, at Pacific International
Hospital and other locations in Port Moresby have never committed any offense
against the people or the State of Papua New Guinea.
Their detention, mainly
at the hand of the government of Australia was organised between July 2013 and
February 2014 because of their irregular arrival by boat on the shores of that
country and as an attempt to deter additional asylum seekers from taking to the
sea.
The people of Manus
expected the offshore processing of those more than one thousand men taken to
their island at Lombrum naval base to last two or three years at the most. Now
half of the initial number of those men are still there after six years.
The uncertainty about
their future, the rejection of claims and applications for resettlement, the
length of the review process has brought to a significant breakdown in their
mental health conditions.
From the information I
gathered the situation has begun to become alarming by September 2018.
Self-harm and attempted suicide, due to depression and hopelessness has now
practically become a daily occurrence.
You may see by yourself
the men admitted at Pacific International Hospital, and there will be no need for
me to supply additional details and information.
I am therefore
appealing, Hon Prime Minister, to your sense of humanity and the responsibility
of your high office.
As you accepted in 2013
to offer help to the Kevin Rudd government of Australia and the refugees
themselves to have their status processed in Papua New Guinea and begin a new
life elsewhere, I am now humbly asking you to give a very close deadline to the
authorities in Canberra for the removal of all refugees and asylum seekers from
our country on the basis of strongly compelling medical and humanitarian
reasons.
Having achieved the
objective of “stopping the boats” their detention now amounts to cruelty and
plain mental and physical torture.
Without this decision,
the mentally impaired people will grow by the dozens in the next few weeks and
months. Who is going to care for them?
They risk outright
rejection by any third country. They will be unproductive and a burden to
Australia if that government is eventually forced to take them in. It is
unthinkable that they are treated in Papua New Guinea and spend the rest of
their lives here in total abjection and poverty.
Dear Prime Minister, the
photos I attach to this letter are indeed distressing and painting a picture of
the country that may easily appear of complicity, injustice and
irresponsibility. The people of Papua New Guinea, your people, are of a
completely different stock and do not deserve this bad international publicity.
I am sure that everybody
will appreciate you demanding from the Prime Minister of Australia that any
offshore processing in Papua New Guinea is ended within sixty days at the most,
and these men immediately receive proper medical treatment in Australia while
waiting for the final decision on their future in any safe country.
Thank you very much and
may God bless all your efforts!
Most cordially,
REV FR GIORGIO LICINI,
PIME
General Secretary,
Catholic Bishops Conference of Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands
The primary task of the Catholic Church in PNG is to bring
the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of PNG. As such the church adopts no particular
position on political or economic issues except to bring gospel values to this
part of life.
However, since the Catholic Church is known and expected to
speak for those without a voice, and has a reputation for its concern for the
rural poor of PNG, many have asked us for our position on APEC. We have
addressed this issue many times in the past and more recently appealed for a
return to the division of powers that could ensure that political power and eh
equitable distribution of wealth are kept separate.
We share the concern of many about the huge amount of our
limited resources being expended on this event which seems designed to
entertain and impress the rich and powerful.
Given its inevitability, we can only hope for its “success”,
which can only mean that the welfare of the poorest people of PNG will somehow
indirectly be improved. Although we all would like to make a good impression on
our visitors, this cannot be at the expense of the truth.
So we must now look to “life after APEC”. This has to be a
life where we will see a return to the principles and values of our national
constitution and the national goals and directive principles on which our
nation was built. In our 43 years we have seen a serious decline in
implementing of the principle of equity and participation. There is simply not
an equitable distribution of the national wealth to all. Despite all the
rhetoric, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. APEC
seems to be a manifestation of this gap as the whole of PNG watches billions
being spent on appearances in Port Moresby while we experience teachers and
health workers without pay and health centers without medicine, while all
departments are to expect less than 60% of their official budgeted allocations.
It is a fact that many people in the remote areas of Papua New Guinea,
including those in the cites who are still economically “remote”, are suffering
and dying on order to make APEC a “success”.
As we present ourselves to the world as a nation capable of
pulling of major international event, we must still ask ourselves to what
extent we are truly sovereign and self-reliant. We are very much aware, and our
informal off the record conversation with some of our national leaders
confirms, that PNG is now longer in control of its own economic enterprise and
production. Those of us in the forefront of Provinces with extensive logging
and oil palm know exactly how much we have sold out to foreign interests.
The big show of APEC is not the experience of the majority
of Papua New Guineans. Though they may rightly hope to make a good impression
on visitors, they also rightly hope for a return to true normality when it is
all over and we are able to count the cost, start repaying our debts, and
re-establish our priorities, that is to prioritize the rural poor and not the
urban rich. CBC 7 November 2018
It wasn’t meant
to be like this: PNG’s hosting of APEC
When Papua New Guinea (PNG) put up its hand to host APEC in
2013, its economy was booming. Prospects were bright. And reform was underway,
in particular to clamp down on the corruption that has been the country’s
curse.
Fast forward five years and the environment could not be more
different. PNG’s highly effective corruption investigator Taskforce Sweep no longer exists. It was abolished by the very same Prime
Minister who set it up, Peter O’Neill, after it started pursuing O’Neill
himself on corruption charges. The anti-corruption effort more broadly has been
undermined via reducing the funding and/or autonomy of the remaining anti-corruption actors, such
as the police fraud squad and the Ombudsman.Econo mic growth has stalled.
Formal sector employment (the only sort of employment that is measured in PNG)
has declined for each of the last four years. Excessive borrowing in the boom years has now come back to
haunt the government following a collapse in
revenue. The government has done well to avoid a debt
crisis, but its economic mismanagement has intensified the downturn. PNG’s
biggest economic problem is its overvalued exchange rate. The value of the Kina is set by the Central Bank, which has
prevented significant depreciation for more than two years now. So far this
year, the official Kina/US dollar exchange rate has fallen only by four per
cent, a fraction of the 20 per cent or more depreciation called for by analysts and researchers alike.
What has really caught the public’s attention is the return of polio, eliminated in PNG about 20 years ago. PNG is one of only five countries
in the world to be experiencing a polio comeback. That the
other members of this club are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger, Nigeria
and Somalia — all four wrought by violence — shows the extent of the health
crisis that PNG is facing. The most recent symptoms include the resurgence of
malaria and leprosy and reports of worsening drug shortages.
It is hardly surprising then that the hosting of APEC has become
controversial in PNG, with accusations of both waste and corruption. After all, PNG is an extremely poor country. It is the second
most rural in the world. Poverty is high and not falling, and child stunting rates are the fourth highest in the world (every second child under the age of five is stunted due to malnutrition).
The opportunity cost of hosting APEC is high. Much of the financial cost is
being covered by other countries, most notably Australia and China, but the
meeting cycle is a heavy one for any country, and a significant tax on PNG
policymakers, both elected and official….
PNG is one of only four countriesworldwide whose parliament contains no women, a symptombut also a cause of extreme gender inequality. Several years ago, it started tointroduce reforms to ensure female representation, but these have not actually been implemented, nor is there anycommitment to implementing them. [See the url above for the full article.]
2017 election was hijacked; ‘unprecedented violence & fraud’
Analysis of the vote, led by the Australian National University, found failures in the electoral roll, the theft and destruction of ballot boxes, and “money politics” – payments by candidates for votes – on a scale that was“qualitatively different to previous elections”.
“The 2017 elections were marred by widespread fraud and malpractice, and extensive vote rigging,” Nicole Haley, associate professor at ANU and the lead author of the study, told a recent gathering of Pacific scholars in Canberra. The findings, to be published early next year, are based on records collected by258 election observers at 945 polling stations around the country. Many voters were denied genuine choice through block voting, coerced collective voting, violence, intimidation and pre-marked ballot papers in many locations.
One
third of citizens surveyed reported intimidation, one quarter reported that
they did not vote – significantly higher rates than in 2012. Less than half
reported they voted freely.
Women
fared the worst. Only two in five women reported voting freely, with about the
same number reporting intimidation. Not a single woman was elected in 2017 to
the 111-member parliament.
Call for fast
processing of asylum seekers on Manus
THE Catholic Bishops Conference (CBC) of
Papua New Guinea is pushing for a date for Australia and PNG to settle the
remaining 133 asylum seekers in Manus. The CBC said social and health issues
and psychological, moral and physical issues in delaying the processing of
refugees were of concern to the Catholic Church. The CBC and panel comprising
of representatives from the Department of Immigration, United Nations human
rights, human rights lawyer of the Catholic Professionals Society, NCD Governor
Powes Parkop and Fr Clement Taulam, of the Manus Diocese, called on both
countries to properly settle the asylum seekers.
Fr Clement said the process was taking too long for the refugees to be
permanently settled.
“Now is the sixth year we are holding them in Manus. Some are getting
frustrated, impatient and had taken their lives and the process is still going
on.
“So what are we going to do?” Parkop said PNG did not have a culture to detain
and confine people. “We helped Australia but she took us for granted and left
the problem with us,” he said.
JIWAKA has confirmed three cases of polio,
bringing the total number of cases detected and treated in the country to 22. The
provincial polio awareness and surveillance team revealed this yesterday at a
review of round two routine immunisation and campaign. Provincial surveillance
officer and field epidemiologist Augustine Kumba said the three persons that
tested positive were two boys and a girl under the age of five. Kumba said the
two boys were aged two while the girl was four. They tested positive in the
Banz 1 catchment area at Dumbola Health Centre in North Waghi.
Kumba said one of the boy had been treated and was now living a normal life.
The other boy was using one side of his limbs while the other had gone totally
numb.
The girl was walking on one leg while the other is supported by a walking
stick.
The Conference along with the Catholic Professionals
Society of PNG, hosted a panel discussion in Port Moresby last week about the
refugees’ plight.
The panel, which featured about 100 people, including the
governor of Port Moresby and students, teachers and professionals, declared
Australia has a moral obligation to look after all refugees and asylum-seekers.
The secretary of the conference, Fr Ambrose Pereira SBD, said Papua New Guinea
is not able to care for the refugees. “We are hoping for an end to this refugee
situation where all will be sent into Australia or to any other country. But it
needs to be Australia’s responsibility to ensure that this happens.”
“While Australia
would hide behind the fact, saying it is now the problem of Papua New Guinea,
and they also issued a statement before the panel which said, ‘We are ready to
help PNG and this is an issue for PNG to handle,’ but I think what was stated
very clearly was Australia needs to put an end to this because it is an issue they
have, in fact, started.”
Fr Pereira said having the refugees resettled by
Christmas would be a gift for all.
PNGmen find comfort in seeking help from online counselling
Papua New Guinea’s first national telephone counselling hotline has had to broaden its service to cater for demand after receiving more than 15,000 calls over the past year.
The
hotline was established by the non-government organisation ChildFund PNG as a
service for survivors of gender-based violence, predominately women and
children.
ChildFund’s
Wesh Siku said more than two-thirds of women in PNG experience domestic
violence.”When the project was actually designed, [it was] designed to
assist survivors of gender-based violence and it just complemented those
services that have already been established,” Mr Siku said. “The primary focus
was to support survivors of gender-based violence, mainly women and even
children.” But he said the service had allowed men to get assistance that
they otherwise would not seek. Now more than half the callers are males who
call as witnesses or perpetrators of violence. “A lot of men do not feel
comfortable talking to a woman in a face to face scenario,” Mr Siku said. “So
when this project was put up, it became comfortable for them to pick up a phone
and call a counsellor for the issues they are going through. He said the
hotline has eight staff on the phones but this may have to increase as the
workload has doubled since last year.
Most advocates of this argument have pointed to anecdotal evidence – high debt
levels in Tonga, the case of the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka – rather than to
hard data. In this piece, we look at international debt data to explore: (i)
whether Pacific island countries are in debt distress, and (ii) whether this is
the result of lending from China.
One issue we
consider is whether Pacific island countries are at greater risk of debt
distress than in the past. Using IMF and Asian Development Bank (ADB) risk
ratings, we do see a rise in debt distress over the last five years (see Figure
1). We also see that over 40% of Pacific island countries are now classified as
being at high risk of debt distress (see Figure 2, with countries singled out).
So debt certainly appears to be a problem in the region.
Now for the
second question: is this debt distress the result of lending by China?
The short
answer is “no”. [See url above for the
full article]
Informal
economy’s suppression driving people into poverty
PORT MORESBY – With recentfigures showing that poverty reduction is decelerating globally, a recent World Bank report urges governments aroundthe world not to slack off in their efforts to combat it. However, critics argue that poverty measurement should not only be confined to the standard $US1.90 a day imposed by World Bank but should also include health indicators, education levels and standard of living.
The
government’s policy to crackdown on
the informal economy is a classic example of this as it directly affects the
only source of livelihood for the majority of the jobless poor.
The
implementation of anti-informal economy policies have seen widespread
harassment and beatings of vendors coupled with a substantial loss of business.
The loss of business means families are deprived of income to meet household
needs and improve their wellbeing. Consequently, it takes a toll on people and
induces them into poverty.
At a
time when prices of basic goods and services are
rising and formal sector job opportunities are declining, suppression of the
informal economy can drive many families into destitution. The ramifications
are huge for Papua New Guinea which is estimated to have 85% of its total
population engaged in the informal economy.
That
said, the government has introduced some reforms into its informal economy. The
national informal economy policy of 2011-15 and its accompanying law (Informal Sector
Development & Control Act of 2004) are landmark achievements
that aim to nurture the positive aspects of the informal economy whilst
tackling its problems.
Sadly
though, the government has not been able to achieve this fine balance, opting
instead to focus on curtailing the informal economy’s growth.The implication is that, if the government
continues to take a hardline stance towards the informal economy, many Papua
New Guineans will not escape poverty in their lifetime. …
Papua New Guinea Is Rich in Resources
but Poor in Health
PORT
MORESBY, Papua New Guinea — Polio was vanquished by the Pacific nation of Papua
New Guinea 18 years ago. Now, as world leaders gather there for the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting this week, polio has returned
— on top of raging drug-resistant epidemics of tuberculosis, malaria and
H.I.V., and deadly flash points of preventable diseases like whooping cough and
measles.
All
over the country, there are symptoms of a profound public health emergency;
young and old are getting sick and dying unnecessarily, while facilities lack
basic medicines and equipment. Doctors and experts say the unfolding crisis is
the realization of their worst fears after years of deterioration and neglect. “We
were expecting something like this,” Dr. Anup Gurung, a public health
specialist with the World Health Organization, said of the polio outbreak at a
news conference in the capital, Port Moresby, in September. He pointed to the
erosion of vaccination rates, which are down to 30 percent in some parts of the
country. “It’s like someone lit a paper castle where everything is on fire,” he
said.
The
return of polio is a clear indicator of the failures, with Papua New Guinea
accounting for 21 of 109 cases found globally this
year. …
Local
and international experts point to three interlinked causes of the country’s
health crisis: the collapse of the medical supply chain; changing relations
with the country’s biggest aid donor, Australia; and rampant corruption….
Despite
its immense resource wealth, Papua New Guinea has the lowest life expectancy in
the Pacific at 62.9 years, according to the World Health Organization. And it
may be getting worse. The number of people infected with malaria parasites, for
example, grew almost ninefold to 432,000 in 2017 from 50,309 in 2014, according
to the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research. The survey blames the
lack of treatment drugs in many parts of the country, together with a decline
in international support.
Similarly,
a decade ago, Papua New Guinea was being congratulated for its efforts against
the spread of H.I.V.; now, infection rates are rising. A survey has also
exposed “alarming rates of H.I.V. drug resistance,” said Dr. Angela Kelly-Hanku
of the Institute of Medical Research. This is largely because H.I.V. patients
are unable to secure reliable supplies of antiretroviral medications, she said.
Professor
Mola said a colleague with extensive experience in Africa had observed that
while corruption was common there, in Africa “they skim off the cream and still
leave some milk for the people. In Papua New Guinea, they take the lot.”
PORT MORESBY – Ask people inPapua New Guinea about #MeToo and you are likely to get blank stares, but in a country with a reputation as the worst place in the world for women to live, attitudes to domestic and sexual violence are slowly changing.
The
beatings started before Lucy Sausiniaka was married and didn’t stop even when
she was pregnant with her daughter. Today the gentle 23-year-old and her quiet
doughnut-munching toddler live in a women’s shelter by the shore of Port
Moresby’s Ela Beach.
The
paint is flaking and old bedsheets are slung as curtains, but the Haus Ruth
refuge is peaceful and, more importantly, it is safe.
“He
would beat me up, even in public” says Sausiniaka, her eyes darting around
as if searching reluctantly for memories. “Usually under the influence of
alcohol.”
It
is estimated that two-thirds of women in Papua New Guinea experience domestic
violence. But behind the shocking statistics and harrowing testimony, attitudes
and behaviour appear to be slowly changing.
The
shelter’s ebullient manager Monica Richards says 2013 legal reforms — imposing
tougher prison sentences, fines and protection orders — have made a real
difference.
“Five
or six years ago” the police would not always take domestic and sexual
violence seriously, she said. “That has changed a lot. The police are now
helping us.”
Elsewhere
in Port Moresby, trailblazing women are taking the initiative in other ways,
including driving women-only buses. They offer a safer alternative for women
who fear robbery, abuse, harassment or assault. “The city is not safe for
women to get around,” said Gorame Momo, one of four female bus drivers in
the capital. “We provide safe transport for them.”
As
yet there are scant few Harvey Weinsteins in Papua New Guinea — powerful men
felled for their bad behaviour. But there are plenty of Alyssa Milanos or
Tanushree Duttas, women brave enough to speak out and try to nudge their
society forward.
…The manifest
inadequacies of state-provided security, pervasive feelings and perceptions of insecurity, and the economic opportunities
presented to domestic and transnational companies in this field, have driven
the massive growth of private security in PNG over recent decades. Figures from
PNG’s own Security Industries Authority indicate that the number of licensed
security companies increased from 176 in 2006 to 462 in 2014, with a workforce
of around 30,000 guards. While omitting the large number of unlicensed
operators, this number exceeds the combined workforce for the Royal PNG
Constabulary, PNG Defence Force and the Corrections Service. Some estimates
make private security the third largest employer in PNG. The industry has
flourished around elite urban enclaves, the extractive industries and, albeit
temporarily, APEC.
PORT MORESBY – After a long morning of organised chaos inside a crowded government compound in Papua NewGuinea’s capital Port Moresby, hundreds of health workers and volunteers are finally wrangled into teams, issued with instructions, and piled into a fleet of hard-worn four-wheel drives. As the first of four mass vaccination waves scheduled over October and November begins to push out across the Pacific nation, emergency teams are rolled out in the capital. The vehicles are loaded up with loud hailers and ice boxes full of oral polio vaccine. Before they head into the surrounding settlements, posters are hastily taped to the windows and doors: ‘Stop Polio in PNG’.
Just
half of PNG’s more than eight million people have access to clean water and
less than one-fifth to a toilet that disposes of waste in a way that it does
not pose a disease risk.
Genetic
analysis of stool samples taken from the victims reveals the virus has been
circulating undetected for more than two years, Gurung said. “If you have one
case, there would be 200, maybe 500,000 people circulating the virus.”
Waide dumping electrifies & outrages global admirers
NOOSA – Readers of PNGAttitude have joined hundreds of Papua New Guineans and people internationally in voicing strong support for journalist and blogger Scott Waide who was suspended from his senior job with EMTV after the television station management received instructions from the Papua New Guinea government to do so.
Waide
was linked to a story broadcast on Saturday 17 November which originated in New
Zealand and mentioned that prime minister Jacinta Ardern would not be
travelling one of the 40 Maseratis imported by the PNG government for use at
APEC.
The
purchase had generated great controversy and much criticism in PNG and in the
overseas media. In a message to staff, the state-owned broadcaster said it had
been forced to suspend Waide and told staff not to discuss the matter.
In
the days before APEC, Waide, with the help of his audience, had investigated
drug and medical equipment shortages in PNG hospitals. During the summit he had
reported on Chinese restrictions on the media.
Radio
New Zealand reports that in recent days he wrote about the police minister
assuring disciplinary forces that no action would be taken against personnel
who stormed parliament over APEC related payments, although this decisions has
since been said to have been overturned.
Waide reinstated! People power
gives PNG govt a wake-up call
LAE – Over the last 48 hours, I have been very humbled by the incredible support my family and I have received from people both here and abroad.Support also came from friends in the media, academia, law enforcement, the military and many other circles too many to name. I have since been reinstated to my job as deputy regional head of news at EMTV. …
I was suspended on Sunday 18 November, on the last day of
the APEC meetings. The reasons for the suspensions are now public
knowledge and I do not wish to dwell too much on them. However, I do wish to
make the following points:
Papua New Guinea is a democracy and the media is free to
hold those in authority to account. This means highlighting flaws in policy and
making sure mistakes are pointed out and corrected. It is an essential part of
our democracy.
There should NEVER be any interference at the operational
level by board members. The media is an institution of democracy and must
remain free and independent. It is our constitutional right to report AND
be critical.
Journalists of ‘state owned’ media are NOT government
public relations officers nor are media organisations PR machines.
EMTV is ‘state owned’ which means the PEOPLE own this
company through their elected government.
Journalism is an art… and art and creativity cannot
operate in an environment of suppression and fear.
Papua New Guinea is a critical moment of its history with
the growth and influence of China, US-China trade tensions and challenges
within our own country.
We are a largely rural nation. Many of our people still
have no access to basic services.
We will continue to promote critical, proactive and
transparent journalism. The people’s voice has to be heard and the media
must remain as the conduit and platform for opinions and debate and those who
cannot accept it MUST step aside and let progress happen.
Note: I will be on leaveDecember and January so the next edition of Social Concerns Notes will probablybe at the end of February 2019. Peace,
This morning, I was informed that a number of teachers in Lae had not received their full salaries. On average, each teacher mentioned had about K200 deducted from each of their salaries over two consecutive fortnights. I didn’t know how bad the situation was. So by 7am, I posted an alert on Facebook asking teachers in Lae to provide some leads. Almost immediately, the Facebook messages and text messages came flooding in. And I am not exaggerating here. Teachers from primary and secondary were sending messages from all over the country telling me that they had pay cuts which affected their families in a big way.
Most teachers don’t get much in terms of a salary. So a K200 deduction can sometimes amount to a third or even half their pay.
A great (but ignored) way to include everyone in development
In cities such as Port Moresby, Lae and Mt Hagen, the growth of informal settlements has been so rapid and pervasive that it has reached a point where urgent action needs to be taken to arrest what has become out-of-control development. It is estimated that by 2030, one-third of PNG’s population will be living in urban centres with an annual growth rate of 1.6%. In Port Moresby alone it is estimated that over 45% of the 700,000 plus population of the National Capital District live in the unplanned areas and settlements. Most of these people will not be able to secure formal jobs and will take up livelihood activities within the urban informal economy to get by. The National Informal Economy Policy for 2011-2015 estimates that 80-85% of the total population is involved in the informal sector. In Port Moresby alone it estimates that about K2 million changes hands every day in the urban informal economy. That is about K750 million a year. In most developing economies, the informal economy has outgrown the formal sector to the extent that governments are being urged to embrace the informal economy to combat rising unemployment. This points to an urgent need for the PNG government to integrate informal economy into its urban development plans and priorities, as it has often been advised to do.
Lifestyle diseases on the rise in PNG
Post Courier, October 3, 2018
PAPUA New Guineans are urged to live a healthy lifestyle because lifestyle change and the prevalence of non-communicable diseases are rising. This was the message that Health Minister Sir Puka Temu conveyed to the United Nations last week. Sir Puka told the UN General Assembly that PNG was experiencing an increase in blood pressure, diabetes, stroke and cancer which is the leading non-communicable disease.
While significant effort has been placed on managing communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and polio, Sir Puka said that effort is also directed at managing con-communicable diseases, including, for example:
• implementing the Tobacco Control Act and developing regulations to support a stronger public response against smoking;
• drafting a Radiation Control Bill to regulate radiation sources in PNG and allow the import of cobalt for our radiation treatments for cancer patients;
• Launching a multi-sectoral plan to help address lifestyle factors in non-communicable diseases;
• undertaking an Organic Law Review, Provincial Health Authorities Review and implementing District Development Authorities, all of which could provide the foundation for a better functioning health system; and
• implementing the Cancer Control Policy and a National Multi-sectoral Strategic Plan 2015 to 2020 for Non-Communicable Diseases.
TB is being keenly felt in PNG and it remains a public health threat and kills more people in the country than any other infectious disease.
Govt’s failure to address poverty is driving TB’s spread in PNG
Post Courier, 03 October 2018
CANBERRA – Tuberculosis is such an old disease, such a normal part of the landscape in many countries, that many governments fail to recognise the extent to which it is a major driver of poverty, with a devastating impact on individuals, families, communities, and the country. In countries with weak health systems, the dangerous symbiotic relationship is even more obvious.
Papua New Guinea is one of those countries where neglect of the disease through the years has caused the number of cases to spiral exponentially and allowed new drug-resistant strains to develop, resulting in many communities being trapped in a vicious cycle at the interplay of poverty and tuberculosis – one driving the other. According to the 2017 World Health Organisation Global TB Report, TB kills more people in PNG than any other infectious disease. There were 30,000 new cases of TB in PNG in 2016. As the numbers continued to increase. The irony is that PNG is resource-rich. Yet it ranks 153 out of 185 countries on the Human Development Index
The longer we wait, more people die
Post Courier, October 4, 2018
“I have been here (national cancer centre) for almost 10 weeks, other patients have been here longer, six months, 12 months and one to two years, waiting for radiotherapy treatment.” These are the heart-felt words of a man-stricken by cancer and no immediate relief in sight. The patient, who refused to be identified, continued: “I have witnessed a total of 11 patients die in the past eight weeks (up to mid-September). “While sitting on my sick bed, I saw four patients who were admitted before I was admitted die and four new patients admitted, replacing the four who had just died. “And I am still sitting here on my sick bed and the four who were admitted died with three other women cancer patients.
“The longer it takes for Parliament to pass the Radiation Safety Bill, patients are dying and will continue dying.” This patient is now living at the national cancer centre at Angau Memorial Hospital in Lae, speaking on behalf of the other patients.“We appeal to the government to pass the Bill as soon as possible. “The struggle we face with no radiation treatment available here at the National Cancer Centre is killing patients.
A STUDY has shown that two in every three local women suffer from physical, sexual and psychological violence at the hands of their partners. The Family and Sexual Violence Action Committee of the Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council has therefore urged all agencies dealing with family and sexual violence to observe this month’s campaign against domestic violence. The committee’s national coordinator Marcia Kalinoe said domestic violence was no longer a private matter. “(It) is a crime punishable by law. It affects the rights of individuals and restricts their access to wealth, opportunities and privileges in society. It is a social injustice,” she said. It includes punching, slapping, kicking, and use of objects to hurt another person, yelling, swearing, coercion and threats.
Also included is stealing money, stalking, continual texting or phone calls, sexual abuse and degrading someone and making them feel useless and isolated.
The committee advocates for a nationwide awareness this month to end domestic violence in the country. The campaign suggests:
• Standing up for a mother, daughter or sister experiencing violence;
• Telling someone about the 1-Tok Kaunseling Helpim Lain 7150 800, or calling the number to report any form of family and sexual violence in the community;
• Wearing a purple or black ribbon to support survivors and remember those who died as a result of domestic violence;
• Making a donation in cash or kind at a Safe Haus or a Family Support Centre;
• Speaking up for the safety and protection of women, girls and boys.
Thirteen of the confirmed polio cases are affected with limb paralysis and can no longer use their legs, says national coordinator polio response Sibauk Bieb. “The only different paralysis is the one on the nine-year-old boy from Enga who had paralysis in his breathing muscles but lost his life last month,” he said in an update. “We have the 13 remaining.
“For the 13 with paralysis of the leg, the polio virus has affected their lower limbs and sometimes their upper limb and they cannot walk or move their legs easily.”
Serious questions as PNG malaria infections increase ninefold
CANBERRA – A recent report from the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research shows almost a ninefold increase in the number of cases of malaria in PNG between 2014 and 2017. The key result of the report is that there has been “an increase in the size of the total population infected with malaria parasites from 50,309 in 2014 to 432,000 in 2017”.
According to the April report, the national prevalence of malaria is now 7.1%. This is up from 5.1% in 2010-11 and a remarkably low 1% in 2014-15. In many ways, the 7% prevalence underestimates the severity of the problem. The national figure is 10% for children under five. Malaria prevalence among all ages is as high as 16% in Madang, 10.8% in Milne Bay, 8.8% in East Sepik and 8.7% in New Ireland. For children under five, some of the reported provincial prevalence rates are terrifying: the highest is 20.5% in Sandaun.
What has gone wrong? We know from international research that success in malaria control can be fragile. In the case of PNG, the report points to three factors: a decline in Global Fund support after 2013; a simultaneous decline in PNG public expenditure in the health sector and the lack of availability of drugs.
It’s pretty simple, although the report also suggests that changes in mosquito biting behaviour (from night to early evening) may have reduced the effectiveness of bed nets.
The earlier drastic reduction in malaria was held up as a PNG success story, as indeed it was.
The reversal raises some very serious questions. These have to be directed first and foremost to the PNG government. Our own 2017 economic survey showed that health funding increased in the years to 2014, but was sharply cut between 2014 and 2016 – by 37% after inflation.
New independent corruption commission has no independence
PORT MORESBY – The Papua New Guinea government’s announcement of a so-called Interim Independent Commission Against Corruption is an insult to the nation and an abuse of the ICAC name. An ICAC must be independent from government and free from any political interference, but what the prime minister has announced fundamentally fails both tests. What PNG urgently needs is a truly independent, full resourced and properly empowered ICAC. It is vital that ICAC is an independent constitutional body with powers to investigate complaints, arrest suspects and prosecute cases of corruption in both the public and private sector while working alongside existing law enforcement agencies. It is over 10 years since PNG ratified the United Nations Convention Against Corruption yet we are still waiting for an ICAC.
Police Record increase in car jackings
Post Courier, October 10, 2018
AN EVIDENT increase in carjacking incidents around the country has citizens and authorities alike on edge. According to Police reports, a staggering 140 stolen vehicle incidents have been logged since 1 January 2018 around the country. In NCD alone, as many as 76 cars have been reported stolen since January. NCD Metropolitan Superintendent Perou N’Dranou said that the increase in hold-ups and related carjackings was not a new thing and that while the numbers were discouraging, recent policing developments in the second quarter of the year have drastically improved crime stats in general. In Madang, Provincial Commander Ben Neneo told this paper yesterday that Jomba Police station had received over 20 stolen vehicle reports this year, with Lae, Rabaul and Mt Hagen all reporting stats just shy of ten each.
by APEC INSIDERS Insiders at APEC Authority have estimated the following costs to the nation to date over the last 2 years:
1. APEC Haus construction – K300m.
2. Hilton Hotel construction contribution – K200m.
3. Sealing of Jacksons airport (old terminal area) for 767 aircraft to park – K70m.
4. Cruise Ship hires – K90m.
5. Joint Security task force costs including cars and bikes and boats and related cost under Police Comm etc. – K60m.
6. Hire cars – K65m.
7. Hotels and venue hire for all the lead up meetings so far – K90m.
8. Motor vehicles including executive Praods – K50m.
9. New Maserati sports sedans – K40m.
10. Salaries for staff and consultants for staff and foreign consultants for years for both APEC Authority and APEC secretariat – K90m.
11. Travel and allowances for attending meetings etc over 2 years – K60m.
12. Staff accommodation – K30m.
13. Uniforms and attire we see littering Pom – K50m.
14. Banners and flyers and signages by a certain Lady’s company- K30m.
15. Computers and meeting registration software – K20m.
16. Medical Services to PIH for meetings so far- K10m.
17. Work on wharf to accommodate cruise ships – K30m.
18. Water supply piping with Eda Ranu to Motukea for cruise ships – K10m.
19. National Weather Service Upgrade – K10m.
20. PNG Air Safety Ltd equipment upgrade – K20m.
21. Staff meals and allowances during meetings for all State Agencies including Police and govt departmenta- K10m.
22. Fuel and maintenance costs for over 120 vehicles for 2 year – K30m.
23. Cost of hosting several lead up meetings in certain provinces- K20m
23. Other administration costs like mobile phones and internet and stationery etc etc – K40m.
These exclude all aid funded projects like the Poreporena Freeway upgrade for K30m and Convention centre upgrade for K25m.
The Hilton Hotel in Port Moresby was opened last week – string quartets, acrobats, three tenors and other carnivals were there. The Governor of Western Province –made a very good speech apparently. But he ended it with……”as I look at this magnificent building I think about my people in Western sitting around fire, scraping for food, suffering TB and dying of other diseases and with no electricity or medicine”. And walked off the stage.
Citizens react in anger as govt tries to explain Maserati purchase
SYDNEY – Papua New Guineans have reacted with anger at its government importing a fleet of Maseratis to drive international delegates around the APEC conference next month, amid a health and poverty crisis, struggling economy, and ongoing efforts after a devastating earthquake. The PNG government has defended its decision, expressing confidence that all 40 luxury cars will be bought by the “private sector” after the two-day event, leaving the government with no financial burden. The cars, which cost between $200,000 and $350,000 each in Australia, were flown in from Milan on two Boeing 747-8F charter planes this week, with the costs covered by “the private sector”, according to the minister for APEC, Justin Tkatchenko. “Maserati Quattroporte sedans have been secured and delivered, and are being committed to be paid for by the private sector,” he said.
Australia this year announced an extra $16m in aid to address the polio outbreak and assist PNG’s vaccination program. Recently there have also been pay cuts across multiple sectors, including to teachers, and unexplained resealing of Port Moresby roads while rural areas are often inaccessible.
Transparency demands full disclosure on APEC vehicle purchases
PORT MORESBY – The Papua New Guinea chapter of Transparency International (TIPNG) has said the only way to stop allegations of corruption is for the government to be honest and transparent in its procurement processes. Late yesterday TIPNG called for the government and the APEC Authority to publicly disclose the total cost involved in the purchase and import of 40 Maserati and three Bentley sedans and other luxury vehicles which generated controversy in PNG and internationally this week after it was estimated the purchases amounted to at least 40 million kina.
The statement said that the Government had recently passed the National Procurement Act along with other recent public finance reform legislation which was intended to strengthen public trust in procurement. “However it is difficult to see how the general public can have confidence in a system which, in the absence of transparency, is so readily made to support what are seen to be impulsive and extravagant purchases by state entities,” the statement said. It added that this was especially so “in the face of declining service delivery, a depressed economy and severe hardships being faced by ordinary Papua New Guineans”.
Is the clock finally ticking for PNG’s illegal loggers?
A time traveler from 1988 visiting Papua New Guinea’s forestry sector today would find it distressingly familiar territory. Three decades ago, Commissioner Tos Barnett was conducting his Inquiry into aspects of the forest industry, published as a two-volume survey of the corruption and illegalities allowing PNG’s forests to be felled wholesale and exported, to the country’s economic and environmental loss. Barnett’s famous pronouncement that logging companies were operating in Papua New Guinea with the “self-assurance of robber barons” is as relevant now as it was then. (Indeed, hardly a think piece on the industry can be published without repeating the quote.) What has changed in the interim is that those mostly foreign-backed companies have cut and sold off many millions more cubic meters of PNG timber, in a process that has signally failed to bring meaningful development to the country’s rural and forest-dependent communities. PNG’s ongoing crisis in forest governance has been meticulously documented since Barnett’s day, including in a flurry of research published in the last several years. All of it tells the same story. Chatham House estimated in 2014 that 70% of the country’s timber may be produced illegally…. [See url above for the whole article.]
Report highlights govt’s multiple breaches in SABL land grab
PORT MORESBY – The appalling human rights abuses being suffered by the victims of the huge SABL land-grab in Papua New Guinea are the focus of a report published yesterday.
‘The SABL Land Grab: Papua New Guinea’s Ongoing Human Rights Scandal’ highlights the devastating impacts on people living in rural communities and gives a voice to those who have suffered the illegal loss of their land to logging and oil-palm plantations. One of them is Peter Tai, who says people were threatened, beaten and turned away by armed police and the army when they tried to stop the logging and oil palm planting on their traditional land
“When the company uses the police and army, they twist the law and beat us up very badly, to the point where we are afraid to attempt stopping the company again,” Mr Tai said.
It is not only violence that people have suffered. The report highlights how the SABL land grab, as well as breaching PNG’s own land laws and Constitution, has breached a whole raft of international laws and conventions. These include the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and many of the fundamental human rights protected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Can family and sexual violence (FSV) be more than the humanitarian concern that we know it to be? The answer is yes. In Papua New Guinea (PNG) FSV has been quantified as a significant cost to business. For example, for one company recently surveyed in Port Moresby the cost was three million kina in one year alone.
The operation of Bel Isi services by Femili PNG, a PNG NGO, will assist survivors and support the existing network of services. So, how does Bel Isi PNG work? Companies pay a subscription fee, and can steer their staff who need help towards targeted individual support such as medical care and counselling, police and legal resources, and shelter if necessary. This allows those experiencing family and sexual violence to better cope with their circumstances and return to work sooner and more focused. Bel Isi services will also assist public clients, with the case management centre open to all. Bel Isi PNG also offers the potential for longer-term, deeper influence, as it gives companies help in drafting and implementing their own policies defining their response to family and sexual violence.
Bel Isi PNG is a potential game changer. It’s a public-private partnership that could bring about real change in PNG and could set a positive example and precedent for the rest of the world.
Letter From Dr. Glen Mola…
Today we heard at our PMGH staff meeting that we have run out of antiretroviral (ART or HIV drugs) medicines. We have many thousands of HIV positive people on treatment in NCD (and several more thousand around the rest of the country) and they may not have any medicine to take unless new supplies arrive in the very near future. People on ART must take their medicine every single day: they they stop and start again they are very likely to breed resistant HIV. This is not only bad (in fact life-threatening) for the patient, but life-threatening for everybody else in the community who might catch the HIV from them.
We also don’t have any Syphilis test kits in the country. Syphilis used to be the commonest cause of stillbirth (babies dying inside their mothers) in our audit stats.- and after we started routine testing of all mothers coming to AN clinics (and treating the positives) we virtually eliminated this scourge from our pregnant mums. But now with no test kits available, the syphilis problem will come back again and many babies will die.
And this week we ran out of Oxytocin, the drug that prevents women from losing too much blood when they deliver their babies. The commonest cause of death when oxytocin is not available is post partum hemorrhage (or excessive bleeding after the birth); so we are probably now going to see a lot more mothers dies even when they come to hospital to have a supervised birth. And we are very short of surgical sutures – the special thread and needle that surgeons use to sew up their patients during and after operations….
What should be the values of the people running PNG?
Martyn Namorong. – At independence, Papua New Guinea adopted Christian values from missionaries who said Jesus was our saviour who would provide for us heaven. Post-independence, the miners and loggers came along with other neoliberal capitalist missionaries from the World Bank, the IMF and other multilateral institutions and told us capitalism was the way to heaven. Our forefathers believed in the message of Christ and gave their land and resources to the churches. Today their children believe in capitalist economic development and are giving PNG’s land and resources to the capitalists.
Whereas Christian missionaries called for repentance and behavioural change to attain salvation, nowadays we talk of foreign direct investment and economic growth to attain deliverance. Who is to say, that if are rid of the O’Neill regime that it will be replaced with something better? We once rejoiced when Peter O’Neill replaced Michael Somare. If the mindsets of those who run PNG now, and who will do so in the future are enslaved by pathological ideologies, we will continue to face the same issues. The challenge now is to change the narrative and articulate an alternative model of development that is relevant to PNG….
Big health donors defraud patients by ignoring corruption
PORT MORESBY – Papua New Guinea’s health system is in crisis. Tuberculosis is at epidemic levels, polio has re-emerged, maternal and child mortality rates are among the worst in the world, malaria infections have increased nine-fold in just three years, no radiology treatment is available for cancer patients, rural health clinics lie empty and abandoned….
The list goes on and on. Yet this is a health system that for decades has been financially and technically supported by some of the world’s largest multilateral agencies, the World Bank, the United Nations, the World Health Organisation, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and many others. Why is their assistance so manifestly failing?
This year Australia will provide $572 million in overseas direct aid to PNG, 18% or $103m is being targeted at the health sector. In addition, Australia has just announced an extra K24 million in funding to combat vaccine preventable diseases, starting with Polio.
Australian Minister-Counsellor based in Port Moresby, Benedict David says, “under the leadership of Minister Temu and the National Department of Health, this additional support will help protect PNG’s children from polio and other childhood illnesses”.
Just last week, PNGi revealed a GAVI [the global vaccine alliance] investigation that found NDoH staff engaged in sophisticated and widespread financial fraud.
Now, another report has emerged from the same organisation. It is a program audit of the government’s expanded program of immunisations. The expanded program of immunisations is managed by a unit within NDoH. It was established in 1977. It is considered by the national government to be “an important, cost-effective intervention for reducing the morbidity and mortality of children from communicable diseases”.
The GAVI audit strongly disputes this assessment, labelling the programs overall performance ‘unsatisfactory’ [the lowest possible rating] and concluding its objectives are unlikely to ever be met. The unsatisfactory rating applies across the whole spectrum of the program’s operations. The majority of issues identified in the audit as contributing to the unsatisfactory ratings were deemed to be “critical risk” [the highest possible grading], meaning a failure to take remedial action could result in ‘major consequences’ affecting ‘overall activities and output’. The GAVI audit found that over a two-year period (2014-15) more than 25% (US$720,000) of GAVI funded expenditure by the expanded program of immunisations was misused or wasted and over 250,000 doses of vaccine (worth a further $50,000) were rendered useless through shelf expiry or inadequate temperature controls.
But what is even more shocking is that the audit only examined expenditure funded by GAVI….
Three more confirmed Polio Cases in Madang, Enga EHP
Post Courier, October 19, 2018
THREE additional polio cases have now been reported giving a total case count to 18 in Papua New Guinea. The Health Department of Health announced this yesterday that these three additional polio cases have been confirmed in Madang, Enga and Eastern Highlands provinces. To date, there have been 18 polio cases in the country affecting seven provinces: six in Eastern Highlands, three in Morobe, three in Enga, three in Madang, one in the National Capital District, one in Jiwaka and one in East Sepik.
Delay in Supply of Drugs a Concern for WHP TB Patients.
Post Courier October 24, 2018
Tuberculosis (TB) patients are fearful of their lives. In the Western Highlands Province TB sufferers are now living on the edge due to the delay in the arrival of drugs that were expected two weeks ago. This was the scenario that TB patients were faced with when they fronted up on Monday morning to get their usual dosage. They crowded the TB outpatient ward only to hear from Mount Hagen health authorities that there is a drug shortage and were advised to wait. For many, having to wait and extra day of two for the drugs to arrive from the Department of Health can be dertimental towards their livelihood. This is because if they miss a daily doze for a week it can lead to the development of Multi Drug Resistance TB, which is difficult to treat, and the drug is expensive to buy.
Women as peacemakers much needed at this time, says Momis
Momis – ‘Through women’s joint efforts peace in Bougainville was attained and maintained’
BUKA – The traditional roles of Bougainvillean women have been as custodians of the land and providers of the safety net within the community. In more recent times these roles have been redefined to include peacemaker, to mark their contributions to the post-civil war Bougainville peace process. Bougainville president John Momis congratulated the women of Bougainville during five days of celebrating their social contribution to the autonomous province last week. “Women are an important stakeholder in peace building on Bougainville,” Dr Momis said. “It was through your joint efforts with our leaders, ex-combatants and government that peace was initially attained. “I once again call upon your resilience and unwavering support to continue to play a vital role in preparing our people before the referendum [on Bougainville’s political future] is held next year. “I am of the firm belief that our people will not fail but before that happens we must work hard for it to happen,” he said. He reminded the women that the referendum is a privilege that only Bougainville has in Papua New Guinea. “This means we are a highly favoured people presented with a rare opportunity to decide our own destiny,” he said.
A letter to the prime minister about the women’s cancer ward
PORT MORESBY – Dear prime minister, greetings to you and your cabinet. This morning (Monday 23 October), I visited the cancer ward at Port Moresby General Hospital at 1.13 am. The purpose of my visit was to see and feel the life in this ward. Hon prime minister, the first feeling that engulfed me as soon as I opened the door was similar to walking into a morgue.
There was no life in this building except for the light from fluorescent tubes. I will bring to you the realities of this place. Hon prime minister, if you stand where I stood, you will see a stretch of corridor. If you look to your left and right, you will see curtains hanging lifelessly on the doors. I believe you would vividly know what is behind those curtains.
If you peep through those curtains you will see our mothers, wives and sisters awaiting their deaths. Looking at their lifeless faces, you see Death is inevitable. They expect it to come to them at any moment. There are about 36 innocent patients awaiting their death. Their cancer has reached Stage 3 which requires radio therapy to cure. There is hope in the dimness of their faces – if only they are able to secure K60,000 for radio therapy treatment overseas. This mother of two children has cancer. The only therapy available to her is Panadol. However, from my brief interview, none of them can afford that money. This they just pray with hope that there could be a miracle.
Hon prime minister, these women have no choices in life. Hon prime minister, cancer is curable at our doorstep if only we had these treatments available. The obvious questions are who and why. Who is to provide this treatment for these innocent mothers? If there is someone to provide it, why is it not provided?
Hon prime minister, Papua New Guinea is hosting APEC in a couple of weeks’ time. We talk and walk luxuries from the floor of parliament to APEC Haus and into the settlements. We are forking out millions of kina from the bags and bilums of these suffering mothers, who are on death row, to fly in, all the way from the other side of the world, luxury cars costing millions of kina – Maseratis and Bentleys to be used for only three days.
Hon prime minister, it’s because of our mere ignorance that these innocents are suffering. This is just one hospital I am referring to but let us project it to the entire country. I believe there are hundreds or thousands of people suffering nationwide. Do we have a remedy for them or do we just let them perish where they are? We are very capable of combatting cancer but our ignorance and negligence destroys innocent lives. I fear the Good Lord will hold us accountable for our deeds. Therefore Hon prime minister, please can we just sell two of the 40 Maseratis after APEC and buy radio therapy equipment for our mothers, wives and sisters? I believe this approach would be taken by the men and their sons to save their mothers, sisters and wives. Tomorrow it could be our mothers, wives and daughters who might face the same fiasco. Hon prime minister, please do something to save the mothers of this great nation.
Couple mark 50 yrs of marriage
Post Courier August 31, 2018
Lina Koro and Gabriel Yombonakali met, strange as it might seem in the days of no mobile phones and ‘selfies’, via a photograph without ever setting eyes upon each other in 1968.
Hearing of her existence via relatives, Gabriel sent Lina a photograph of himself at Lae.
Lina saw her future husband in the uniform of a warder with the sea in the background and decided he was the man for her.
Bride price was paid by Gabriel’s relatives again without one setting eyes upon the other and Lina arrived in Lae where both made their nuptial vows to remain faithful and true until death parted them at Lae’s Top Town Catholic Church on August 22, 1968.
Last Saturday, three days past the 50th anniversary of that day, Lina and Gabriel again rededicated themselves to each other for the balance of their natural lives at Gerehu’s St Charles Lwanga Church.
A Golden Jubilee mass was celebrated by friends from every church in the Capital followed by a feast. At an age of broken marriage pacts and loose morals, how, you might ask, had this marriage stuck for half a century? “In the custom you have strict rules that a man and woman must follow in marriage. We followed them. As Christians there are strict rules you have to follow. We followed them. There is no magic.”“A nd another wife, polygamy, it is customary, is it not?” he was asked on the day. “Marrying many wives is for the big man,” Yombonakali said. The big man has wealth. He can pay the bride price for many wives and look after extra sets of in-laws. I cannot and I do not want to be bothered by squabbling wives and their relatives.” Lina Koro hails from Monokam and Gabriel Yombonakali from Lakamanda in Ambum Valley, Enga.
They have five surviving children who have blessed them with 17 grandchildren.
Travel Ban for PNG
Post Courier, August 31, 2018
PAPUA New Guinea has reached the highest international security alert of Level 4 as one of the world’s “no-go-zone” countries. PNG is now among North Korea, Yemen, Iran, Iraq and Syria that the United Kingdom and United States have placed a Level 4 alert on. Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Emil Tammur is now calling for urgent intervention by relevant government authorities, stakeholders and local communities to curb law and order issues which are seriously affecting the country’s tourism sector. Mr Tammur expressed grave concerns that criminal activities such as armed hold-ups on tourists and tribal fighting in tourism hot spots were already having a negative impact with increased holiday cancellations and on PNG generally as a desired tourism destination. He condemned the armed robbery of 20 tourists at Tawali Dive Resort in Alotau recently, where criminals took wallets, mobile phones, cameras and other personal items from tourists who had come from as far away as Europe, Asia and North America. This is the third time one of the top dive resorts in PNG has been attacked, Mr Tammur said….
Massive land scandal has been delayed, shredded & buried
30 August 2018 http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/08/massive-land-scandal-has-been-delayed-shredded-buried.html#more. Act Now
PORT MORESBY – The Papua New Guinea government has tried to bury and forget the SABL land grab scandal in which more than five million hectares of land has been stolen from rural communities. The government is using a well-tested formula that is employed almost every time a new corruption scandal is exposed. First, there is a long-drawn out official inquiry that is then delayed by funding and other logistical problems. There is subsequently a further deferral before the inquiry findings are tabled in parliament. Next, a public promise of action is made and it is announced that a committee will be established to implement the inquiry findings. And then nothing. No resignations, no prosecutions, no corrective action, no compensation. Stone cold silence. In the case of the SABL land grab, the official commission of inquiry took more than two-years to complete its investigations (March 2011 – June 2013) and, due to political interference and funding problems, reported on only 42 of the75 leases investigated. The prime minister then instituted a further three months delay before presenting the 42 commission reports to parliament in September 2013. Since then, a number of different committees have been announced to supposedly implement the findings, which included recommendations for criminal prosecution of public servants involved in the most egregious and fraudulent leases.Most la ndowners affected by the SABL land grab still wait for their land to be returned while the forest authority is still issuing logging licences in affected areas.
Dramatic revelations on tax evasion & illegal logging in PNG
02 September 2018 http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/09/dramatic-revelations-on-tax-evasion-illegal-logging-in-png.html#more. Oakland Institute
The full report on ‘The Great Timber Heist Continued’ is available at https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/great-timber-heist-continued-papua-new-guinea
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – In a just released investigative report, ‘The Great Timber Heist-Continued: Tax Evasion and Illegal Logging in Papua New Guinea’, the Oakland Institute has made public new evidence of financial misreporting and tax evasion in the logging industry in Papua New Guinea.
Following its 2016 report, which alleged that financial misreporting by foreign firms resulted in non-payment of hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes, the new report reveals drastic worsening of this pattern in recent years. According to the financial records, the 16 studied subsidiaries of PNG’s largest log exporter, the Malaysian Rimbunan Hijau (RH) Group, have doubled their financial losses in just six years while increasing their exports of tropical timber by over 40%. Despite decades of operations in PNG, logging companies barely declare any profits. The official tax filings of most firms report losses year after year. How is it then possible for these companies to still remain in business if they don’t make profits? Any other business under such circumstances would have shut down by now. Even more puzzling is that the more Rimbunan Hijau subsidiaries harvest and export timber, the more money they declare in losses. Not only do they almost never pay any income tax, but their continued losses allow them to accumulate an astounding volume of tax credits – making it likely that they won’t pay any income tax for years to come.”…
The full report on ‘The Great Timber Heist Continued’ is available at https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/great-timber-heist-continued-papua-new-guinea
Literacy Rate Remains Low
Post Courier, September 4, 2018
THE country celebrates literacy week beginning this month yet struggles to address literacy and numeracy in the country. Education Secretary Dr Uke Kombra said nine of the 22 provinces have not reached an acceptable literacy rate. From 2015 literacy report, PNG’s literacy rate is low at 63.4 per cent. The adult literacy rate increased from 57.3 per cent in 2000 to 63.4 per cent in 2015, growing at an average annual rate of 5.28 per cent. The national literacy rate for women is at 61.77 per cent and male at 65.06 per cent as recorded in 2015. According to the secretary, the government’s effort to elevate the national literacy rates has introduced the Tuition Fee Free (TFF) to educate school children from elementary to secondary starting in 2012.
More doctors needed
September 4, 2018The National
CONCERN has been raised over the need for more doctors in the country, with some heavily populated areas in Gulf and Western having none at all, a medical symposium has been told. PNG Society of Rural and Remote Health president Dr David Mills told the week-long national medical symposium, which began in Madang yesterday, that the country had a ratio of one doctor to 20,000 people. Mills told the symposium, which is focusing on rural health, that half the total number of the doctors in the country were based in the National Capital District. Others were spread around the country. “PNG’s health story is a rural health story. We need more doctors and we need to train more doctors,” he said. Mills said certain local level governments, which had more than 20,000 people in provinces such as Gulf and Western, did not have any doctor. Meanwhile, Health and HIV-AIDS Minister Sir Puka Temu also launched a book titled The last doctor, by Dr Rebecca Williams, 28, of Kompiam Hospital in Enga. Sir Puka said he was inspired by the inspiriting stories of doctors which Williams complied. He said the book would “inspire our young and upcoming doctors to serve our people in rural aid posts”. Williams said many doctors underwent training at the Kompiam Hospital and she put together the book “to encourage and inspire young doctors to love their profession more and serve wholeheartedly”. Bougainville Peace Agreement
Post Courier, September 5, 2018
What is the Bougainville Peace Agreement and what are the key elements of the Document?
By Dr Thomas Webster
The Bougainville Peace Agreement (BPA) was signed in August of 2001 after nearly three years of negotiations between leaders from Bougainville and the PNG National Government. The BPA followed a successful cease fire agreement, i.e. “Lincoln Agreement” that was brokered by the New Zealand Government and signed in Lincoln in January of 1998, which brought to an end the ten-year civil war that began in 1988.
The Agreement has three pillars. They are as follows;
Autonomy
The Agreement provides for arrangements for an autonomous Bougainville Government operating under a home-grown Bougainville Constitution with a right to assume increasing control over a wide range of powers, functions, personnel and resources on the basis of guarantees contained in the National Constitution.
Referendum
The agreement provides for the right, guaranteed in the National Constitution, for a referendum among Bougainvilleans on Bougainville’s future political status.
The outcome of the referendum will be subject to ratification (final decision making authority) of the National Parliament.
Weapons Disposal Plan
The agreed weapon disposal plan will proceed in stages, area by area around Bougainville, beginning as soon as is practicable. After the constitutional amendments implementing this agreement have been passed by the National Parliament and by the time they take legal effect, remaining Defence Force and Police Mobile Unit personnel will have been withdrawn from Bougainville and weapons will be held in secure containers. The containers will have two separate locks with the key to one held by the United Nations Observer Mission on Bougainville (UNOMB) and the other by the relevant ex-combatant Commander….
669 prison escapees since 2016
September 6, 2018The National
CORRECTIONAL Services Minister Roy Biyama told Parliament yesterday that 669 prisoners had escaped since 2016 and only 123 were recaptured, leaving 546 still at large. Biyama was responding to questions by Ijivitari MP Richard Masere on the number of prison breaks in the country contributing to increased law and order issues. He said communities had not cooperated for the recapture of those inmates. The minister said this year 78 had escaped and three were recaptured while the rest remained at large. Biyama said the population of remands in Correctional institutions totalled 3424 and the convicted 2021, bringing the total to 5445 in June. “There are 20 Correctional institutions in the country.”
A putrescent Moresby loses control of its appalling waste problem
06 September 2018 http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/09/a-putrescent-moresby-loses-control-of-its-appalling-waste-problem.html#more
PORT MORESBY – Managing solid waste is one of the biggest problems in Port Moresby and it is strange that it receives so little attention compared to other urban management issues.
The yellow and green coloured 44-gallon drums placed along streets and in suburbs and markets have been bent and broken over time. Truth be told, there are no suitable rubbish bins and public toilets in the city. There is also no routine collection and disposal of rubbish.
Port Moresby’s long dry season intensifies the stench of human faeces and urine and the sour odour of heaps of rubbish. For more than 20 years, I foraged Waigani swamp for supertala (fish) and wild ducks and have gradually witnessed dismantled car parts, tyres, containers, plastics and much more engulf my hunting ground. Solid waste dumped into drains in the northern part of the city accumulates for months until finally the rains come and sweep it into the Waigani swamp. In the south the rains drive the waste into the sea. [for the rest of this interesting article, see the above url.]
30 patients await radiotherapy
Post Courier September 10, 2018
An 11-year-old girl is among 30 cancer patients currently at the Angau national cancer centre (NCC) awaiting radiotherapy which is unavailable in PNG. One of the 30 is a male with breast cancer. The oldest of the 30 is a 60 plus year-old female, according to the PNG Cancer Relief Society awareness co-ordinator, Grace Ruddaka. National Cancer Centre registrar oncologist Dr David Kundi also confirmed the above statistics on Friday. Of the 30 patients with various cancers including ovary, breast and mouth cancers, alongside the man are seven women with breast cancer, Ms Ruddaka said. She said two women have cancer of the ovary and seven have cervical cancers, while the rest are other types of cancers, including mouth cancer.
She said the last batch of chemotherapy drugs for the NCC arrived last Tuesday, but are still not enough.
Kuman admits shortage of teachers
Post Courier, September 10, 2018
EDUCATION Minister Nick Kuman has admitted there is a shortage of teachers throughout the country. Mr Kuman said in Parliament on Friday that there are 56,000 teachers’ currently available but only 46,000 are in class while most are on the streets, being displaced because of politics after the 2017 national election. “My position is very simple, I do not want to see teachers on the streets, they must be on the payroll and in the classroom,” Mr Kuman said. He appealed to leaders in the provinces and districts not to play politics over the education of the children. “Let’s be fair and honest and make sure that our teachers are in school to take some responsibility in the provinces.”
He said teachers have resigned to contest the elections and some have been accused of supporting certain political leaders and are made to pay for their actions.“Th e teachers’ that we have now is not enough to cater for 2.2 million children in our school system right throughout PNG.
“What is the required total number of teachers we need in their country, both for primary and high schools, TVET vocational schools…it’s around 70,000, do we have positions for the 70,000, the answer is yes, we have got 85,000 positions in the country. “From today to the end of this term of parliament, we must train at least 24,000. Do we have the capacity in our teacher training colleges? The answer is ‘no’. That’s why Prime Minister Peter O’Neill had made an announcement that we are going to put a lot of emphasis to ensure we build capacity in our teacher training colleges.”
PNG needs more nurses
Post Courier September 7, 2018
PAPUA New Guinea still does not have enough nurses to cater for the ever growing population, said PNG Nurses Association president Frederick Kebai. “We still have a shortage of nurses because the population keeps on growing at a faster rate and new facilities are being built and we are unable to meet the manpower demand. “Currently there are 4000-plus financial members of the PNGNA, other 4000 in the public sector while in the church-run health service facilities and the private sector, there are 12 000 nurses,” he said. Mr Kebai said nurses comprise of 80 per cent of the health workforce in terms of health service delivery. He said despite social, economic and political challenges faced by nurses daily, the love and compassion demonstrated by the nurses is always constant.
K2 million for unattached public servants
September 13, 2018
Papua New Guinea has a staggering 6167 unattached officers with a corresponding total cost in terms of salaries and allowances around K2 million per fortnight. This was revealed by Minister for Public Service Elias Kapavore who said that these officers are currently unattached while waiting to be redeployed or substantively appointed to vacant positions through the normal selection and recruitment process. Unattached staff, within the public services, are still part of the total staff on strength until such time they are dealt with through appropriate provisions under their terms and conditions of employment. “From the 6167 unattached employees on the ascender integrated HR payroll system 1305 have been dropped through redeployment and termination, the remaining 4961 will be dealt with through the ongoing internal selection redeployment and retirement process,” Mr Kapavore said. “Unattached refers to officers who have been detached from their positions while an agency is implementing a new or refined structure, or those who have not been appointed a position.
To Mine or not to Mine, Bougainvilles Big Question
Post Courier, September 12, 2018
A report furnished by an Australian humanitarian group has just been released detailing the many other ways that Bougainville could prosper post independence.Com piled by a handful of dedicated researchers and community workers attached to Jubilee Australia, the report titled, “Growing Bougainville’s Future: Choices for an Island and its People” examines the choices facing the people of Bougainville and asks the question ‘to mine or not to mine’? The report brings out the unspoken notion among the Bougainville populace that large-scale mining is the only developmental path for small soon to be independent island nation. It covers the positives of mining, but focuses on findings of alternative economic strategies other than extractive endeavors. Furthermore, it reflects on the possibilities and realities of an extractives-led development path for Bougainville and examines the availability of an alternative path concluding that alternatives to large-scale mining do exist and that many Bougainvilleans are already participating in and developing these alternatives.
The report identifies findings like that of land being of central importance to Bougainvilleans that must be considered in all decision making. Also highlighted in the document are findings that agriculture is the single most important source of livelihood and food that if encouraged and developed could prove to have economically transformative potential. Furthermore, the report is being published along with a short film titled, ‘Bougainville: Long Han Blong Yumi’. The film specifically made for Bougainvillean audiences exploring many of the same issues explored in the report.
DFAT health sector report pulls punches on a critical situation http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/09/pulled-punches-in-png-health-sector-evaluation-arent-helpful.html. 18 September 2018
The report by Ian Anderson and Renee Martin was presented to DFAT last December, well before the recent outbreak of polio confirmed a shocking reality that many of us suspected – that health services in PNG are going downhill fast and have now reached a danger point.
The report, which you can read in full here, assesses the efforts of six multilateral development partners – the Asian Development Bank; the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria; the World Bank and three United Nations agencies, UNFPA, UNICEF and WHO – over a six year period.
Anderson and Martin have done what many consultants do when reporting upon big and powerful organisations – intimating problems while pulling punches about some of the most inimical reasons and about where real responsibility lies. And they’re more than challenges; they are realities that are killing people. As commentator Matt Morris tweeted wryly, “….challenges like endemic corruption in drug procurement, funding cuts to pay for APEC, a collapsing health system and now polio.”
… Unwittingly pre-empting the polio disaster, the report says that “immunisation rates have essentially stagnated for decades and in some cases declined” and “policy dialogue with [the PNG government] has had only modest success.” In other words, it is rather cavalier in taking notice of what we advise. The report continues with a register of despair: PNG has the fourth highest rate of stunting in the world; maternal mortality remains one of the highest in the world; there are “stubborn weaknesses” in health financing and the provision of essential drugs to front line services; essential drugs run out of stock; and there is the “double burden of controlling communicable (including drug-resistant) diseases alongside the rapid rise of expensive to treat non-communicable diseases”. Meanwhile, health is decreasing in real terms with a strong suspicion intimated that the PNG government is using donor funding not to add to its own funding but as a substitute for it – thereby depriving the health sector further.
Police provides escort to highway travellers
September 19, 2018The National
HELA police have advised commuters on the Highlands Highway to travel in groups with a police escort to avoid being robbed. Hela provincial commander Chief Superintendent Martin Lakari said police were noting the increase in the number of armed robbery cases. Police will now provide escort from Tari town, in Hela, to Magarima then to Mt Hagen. He said vehicles would have to travel together and escorted by police. He advised commuters travelling from Mt Hagen to Tari to wait at Magarima for the police escort. “When they (criminals) see no police escort travelling with other vehicles, they quickly contact each other and set up roadblocks to rob people,” he said.He s aid the criminals contacted each other on mobile phones on the movement of vehicles along the highway. “It is very hard for the police to catch them because they communicate among themselves to avoid the police,” he said. “Now, no vehicle is travelling along in isolation and crimes have slowly been reduced.”
Eighteen years after Papua New Guinea was declared polio-free, the virus has come to plague the children of this island nation in Oceania. In May, lower limbs of a six-year-old boy from in the city of Lae became paralysed.
After samples were sent to the US for testing, the fear of polio outbreak was confirmed. Since then 12 children across five provinces in Papua New Guinea have been diagnosed with this debilitating disease. The children affected by polio are aged between 12 months and 10 years. All of them have experienced paralysis, with some unable to walk and others comparatively less affected.
The outbreak has prompting an emergency vaccination campaign. The first case in Lae is a vaccine-derived form of polio wherein the weakened form of the virus used in vaccines mutates and spreads. Samples of other children in the same region have confirmed they had the strain of mutated virus in their systems. The loc al authorities suspect that the outbreak happened when water supply was contaminated by faeces that contained the mutated virus. According to several reports, ever since Papua New Guinea was declared polio-free, the authorities adopted a lackadaisical approach to vaccines. This is true for other preventable diseases like measles. The nationwide polio vaccine coverage has reportedly fallen from about 80% to 30% in the last two decades. Some children in Papua New Guinea did not receive the full dose of vaccine. As opposed to the three courses of droplets needed to be fully immunised, some children received only one course. Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only countries where polio has not been eradicated yet. In 2017, only 22 cases of polio were reported worldwide. …
Can the ADB solve the corruption crippling PNG’s health system?
19 September 2018 http://pngicentral.org/reports/can-adb-solve-the-corruption-crippling-pngs-health-system
PORT MORESBY – The Asian Development Bank says it will assist Papua New Guinea address the systemic failings in its health system through a new $195 million program, but can this externally driven project successfully address the chronic problems of corruption and mismanagement in the sector? Over the last 10 months PNGi has repeatedly exposed the systemic problems in the procurement and supply of medicines in PNG that is ultimately causing unnecessary deaths and incalculable suffering across the country. ‘Profiting from Sickness’ Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 focused attention on the abusive commercial transactions that are leading to the circulation of overpriced and substandard medical goods in our hospitals, health centres and aid posts, while Part 4 looked in detail at the problems on the logistics side of the supply chain. In one instance, a senior Health Department official is alleged to have been paid more than K250,000 to facilitate payments to a logistics company involved in distributing medical kits. Despite the clear documented evidence of the payments, no action has been taken by the Health Secretary to refer the matter to the police.
In another, a service provider with a history of ‘poor performance’, whose ‘deliveries have been delayed by months’, who overcharges and refuses, in some instances, to provide proof that deliveries have actually been made, is continually ‘rewarded’ with new contracts while the National Department of Health refuses to take any steps to monitor the company’s performance. ….
TB Crisis Looms
Posts Courier, September 21, 2018
WE NOW have a major health crisis waiting to explode, with deadly tuberculosis on the prowl that is akin to the HIV/AIDS scare of 10 years ago. Since TB is an airborne infection it can be easily transmitted and that’s what makes this threat deadly serious. Last year, there were more than 35,000 TB cases nationwide. In the National Capital District alone there are now 6000 cases.
The startling revelations were made on last Wednesday night by Dr Ann Clarke, project manager, Businesses for Health Papua New Guinea (B4H) while receiving a cash donation of K10,000 from law firm, Ashurst in Port Moresby.
The rise in drug-resistant TB was first highlighted nearly two years ago by Newton Orowari of the Anglican Health Service based at Dogura in Milne Bay Province. Mr Orowari said then the change of policy from cure to prevention was responsible for the closure of aid posts in Alotau district.
PNG ranks in the top 20 for rates of drug resistant TB and HIV co-infection. If you are HIV positive you are most likely to die for TB.
Fight continues unabated in Daru – a world TB hot spot
24 September 2018 http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/09/the-fight-continues-unabated-in-daru-a-world-tb-hot-spot.html
DARU – “Hurry up and come! The health workers are here!” With the help of an enthusiastic community member and a megaphone, the tuberculosis screening team announce their arrival in Bamu, a small community on Daru island in Papua New Guinea’s Western Province. Within minutes, community members emerge from homes, gardens and fields to make their way towards the makeshift clinic. By the time the first people take their seats at the registration desk, the team is already hard at work preparing for another day in the fight against TB. They are there with a clear mission: to screen as many people as possible, educate the community about the disease and link suspected cases directly to treatment services.
The challenge is immense. In 2016, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended that the entire population of Daru be screened because of alarmingly high rates of tuberculosis, especially the even harder to beat multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. Health services on this island in the remote south-west corner of PNG have struggled to cope with TB for many years, compounded by the challenging terrain that makes it difficult for people to travel to the central hospital for diagnosis and treatment. To combat this challenge, the TB van – a custom-built, all-terrain, mobile x-ray screening vehicle, complete with a giant photograph of PNG’s most famous rugby player, Ase Boas, and the slogan ‘let’s kick TB out of PNG’ – hit the road with the mission to test the entire population of Daru for TB. “In Daru the hospital is quite far and most of the people are not going to the hospital until they are really sick,” said Natalie Fimbuvu, the x-ray technician on board the van. “We help them by providing services at their doorstep.”
Natalie is a vital part of the 10-person health team that has so far screened around 6,500 people across Daru in a little under a year. Natalie calmly and expertly guides each and every person through the two-minute x-ray process inside the van. “We know it’s a big fight but if we can all stand together and do as much as possible, to the best of our potential, I’m sure we can do it. We can kick TB out of PNG,” says Sandra.
Court Strikes out Rape Case for want of Police Prosecution
Post Courier, September 25, 2018
POLICE engagement in APEC security operations has resulted in an alleged rapist walking free yesterday after his case was struck out at the Waigani Committal Court.Tw enty-year-old Benny Martin, who was charged with the abduction and rape of a young girl at the Kesi 2 settlement in Port Moresby, has now had his case struck out after the arresting officer failed to serve any instructions on the case in the past four months since the matter was first brought before the court. Further inquiries by senior magistrate Cosmas Bidar revealed that the failure by the arresting officer in question to serve instructions was largely due to the fact that she had been preoccupied with the APEC Leaders’ Summit security operations.
…. Facts speak for themselves; United Nation’s rating of PNG in the past 37 years in terms of delivery of basic goods and services in areas of infrastructure, health and education services among other world nations: • 1975 PNG ranked 77th; • 2004 PNG dropped to 139th place; • 2008 PNG plummeted to 149th placing; and in • 2012 PNG further plummeted to 156th placing in the world. This is stunning. In 37 years we were passed by 79 countries. From 2012 – 2018, past six years, our performance made little difference on the development index. We failed in all facets in meeting the Millennium Development Goals. We failed in meeting the envisaged targets in the Vision 2050 while our Medium Term Development Strategy stands only as a resemblance of our discursive nature of ‘many policies, little results’ nation. We have become a nation where ‘people ain’t breaking the law, it’s the law breaking them’. Away from the conventional practice of measuring development and economic growth based on GNP and GDP indexes, we should consider the Basic Need Approach where we measure presence or absence of minimum basic human requirements for life as well as services; food, safe drinking water, suitable shelter, clothing, basic household equipment and essential services such as sanitation, public transport, health and education facilities. During the 43 years journey, we have written many laws, repealed and amended many, designed many more new ones but hell little was achieved at the end. We spent millions in hosting many workshops, meetings and forums in high places and attended thousands of international conferences, talk shows and road shows but failed to convert these experiences into tangible PQL results in our people. The pendulum is swinging between Absolute Poverty and Relative Poverty 43 years on. We are liberal in our political design pronouncing our allegiance to individual liberty, free trade and moderate reform but liberalism has created more self-style millionaires out of our commonwealth over 20 years. Annually, around AUD $250 million in ‘stolen’ money find its way out to foreign destinations. It is inevitable that the gap between the ‘have’ and the ‘have not’ is widening and yet nothing is said or seen to be done to address it. Dangerous! All of us who inhabit the land share in the common fact that our very existence depends on the shared availability of our commonwealth. But this ought not to be as the economy has been engineered only to create an illusion that it is creating wealth and sharing the wealth. In fact, it is not but concentrating on the declining pool of wealth into fewer and fewer hands who control power, money and the elite class. Liberalism has created a polycentric oligarchic system in the guise of democracy. The existing majoritarian regime engenders the top 5% who control power, money and decision making to further harness their course with little regard to fellow citizens. Over the past 20 years, we have created a selfish and greedy country where every man is for himself. As if a person would say ‘if I had an opportunity to steal a million, I will for me, my wife and kids, forget about the rest’. PNG has become a fat milking cow, an ATM machine where anyone – national or foreigner – with a debit card can swipe to withdraw cash at will. We depend on the elite ‘think tank’ to intervene but only to find them encumbered in their ‘comfort zones’ leaving no one to blow the whistle and action to save PNG. Individual liberty has created self-style mannerists who can at will; smoke at public places and in PMVs, chew and spittle betelnut anywhere everywhere, drink alcohol and play music to late night, carry one metre bush knives and using it on others, throw rubbish anywhere everywhere, using and abusing law to encroach on other persons property and land, with little regard to health and individual liberty of others around them. What blend of generation are we having in stock to lead in the next 40? Free trade has cost us big time in 43 years yet we failed to notice. Even if we noticed it and trying to un-tag, global capitalism has already taken its prowess and grip on us and on every emerging economy like devil’s own ramification on earth. Capitalism, in the form of all transnational corporations, has monopolized the production of manufactured goods using high tech machinery and equipment, commerce and marketing, banking, information and mass media. It is maintained that they use not only their enormous economic but also corruption and unfair or immoral practices to eliminate competition and preserve their dominance. Third world countries like Papua New Guinea are therefore forcefully made dependent on developed countries for capital, technology and markets. These rich countries using WTO as shield set interest rates, terms of trade, the tariffs and import barriers generally, through their economic power and drain off surpluses in the poor countries. In the making, the world is polarized into the rich and powerful ‘haves’ and the poor and dependent ‘have-nots’. They have defined the New World Order as a vehicle for multinational consolidation of commercial and banking interest by ceasing interests of the political governments. It represents a skilful coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four (4) centres of power; political, monetary, intellect, and ecclesiastical. Opponents of the WTO say that negotiations conducted without public scrutiny end up benefiting wealthy nations. They say the organization infringes on the sovereignty of member states and trade deals don’t consider the impact on the environment. Developing countries, which often have uncompetitive industries that rely on government support, can be hurt by opening up to global trade as their companies struggle against more efficient foreign rivals. Many economists view this dislocation as a temporary setback that reverses developing countries like PNG into global control using tough competition. Our export commodities are organic and among the best. Despite this, we do not price it, they price it. Prices are subject to world market trend which is controlled by international banking elites who control WTO. APEC is no different. Except that it houses trade and development interests of member countries in the Asia Pacific region of which PNG is a member. In the coming APEC Leaders’ Summit in November, it is an opportune time for PNG to voice its concerns. Trade meetings like the APEC and WTO are avenues where emerging trade-dependent economies must take advantage. On priority, agenda must be unfair pricing, high tariffs, among others. When our gold, copper, oil, gas, timber, fishery, and other such resources are traded and not getting real value for the money, it results in lack of capital to service its debts and fund operations of the budget. Due to increasing population pressure every year, demand for goods and services increase also every year so the Government is forced to borrow to meet the deficit gap. Each time money is borrowed, a second borrowing follows to service the first, the third to service the second, the fourth to service the third, and so on so forth until PNG enters a “debt trap”. Remember, loans are acquired on the basis of collaterals or security meaning the Government commits our mines, gas fields, and other investments as collaterals when picking loans. Basing on the Singaporean Government’s Temasek model, State silo companies were consolidated into Kumul Petroleum Ltd, Kumul Mineral Ltd, and the Kumul Consolidated Holdings Ltd which comprises some 10 other State enterprises including Air Niugini, Water PNG, PNG Ports, Post PNG, Telikom PNG, and others and together amass around a K50 billion balance sheet, such assets are used against loans. With too much confusion caused by a continuous deluge of ‘foreign advice and influences’, our national performance output has been mediocre. What is needed now is to admit, accept and sacrifice for changes in the entire statecraft or our children will curse us for our inaction today.
Church: DSIP, PSIP Funds Encourage Corruption and must be abolished.
Post Courier July 19, 2018
ONE of the oldest and biggest churches in the country, the Catholic Church through its powerful mouthpiece, the Catholic Bishops Conference, has called on Parliamentarians to do away with MPs’ DSIP and PSIP funds because these have only attracted greed and corruption and overshadowed the real role of an elected MP. The church, through the president of the Bishops Conference, Bishop Rochus Tatamai, made the appeal, saying while the funds may have assisted some MPs to develop their electorates, they have also attracted corruption and made many people in their electorates perceive their MPs as money men.
Bishop Tatamai said: “Since the introduction of the funds in the 1970s, the CBC PNGSI has warned that this confusion in the separation of powers central to any democracy was not in the best long-term interests of the nation. We have consistently appealed for a reversal of this trend.”
He gave an example of the violence in the recent national election, especially in the Southern Highlands Province, and said “we repeat this appeal even more urgently”. “It does not require any great gift of prophecy for us to say that the nation is headed for disaster as long as the nation’s wealth is seen to be directly administered by Members of Parliament, especially those who are in government and not just in parliament. “Why are people so desperate to have their own man or woman elected? Is it because they will be the best legislators, the best servants of the people, and the best custodians of the wealth of the nation? Or is it because if their man or woman gets into power, by whatever means, they will have access to unimaginable wealth? But if he or she fails, they will be in the financial wilderness for at least the next four years. Given the capacity of a sitting member to cement his or her position, this could be even longer.
“If this trend continues, the next election – its lead up, its conduct, and its aftermath—will see even greater violence, death and destruction than we have seen to date.
“We therefore appeal to all our parliamentarians to halt and reverse this trend. …
Recently we heard that a good reason for defecting from Opposition to Government is so that they will have access to funds for the development of their electorate.” Bishop Tatamai said in order to help these MPs and to back up their stand, they want to inform the MPs that Catholic Church leaders do not expect to receive any payments, budgeted or unbudgeted, directly from MPs.
“In fact we prefer not to take part in any event where this is likely to happen. We appeal to other churches, NGOs, and community organisation to similarly inform their Members of Parliament.
“We must communicate to our leaders that we do not expect and do not want them to be financial administrators. If this return to a proper separation of powers is achieved by the next election, we may have a better chance of defusing the dangerous elements of greed-fueled violence and of electing genuine legislators,” Bishop Tatamai said.
Wounded Policeman rescued by fellow officers in remote village
Post Courier, July 4, 2018
THREE Wabag based policemen are being hailed as heroes after rescuing an injured colleague who was held captive by armed tribesmen in the Kompiam district, Enga Province on Friday. Constable Pendao Usukini, Senior Constable Joe Aikel and First Constable Colin Thomson put their lives on the line to rescue their colleague Sgt Peter Heovo. Enga Provincial Police Commander Superintendent George Kakas hailed all four as heroes. The trio drove through three roadblocks, risked being shot and killed in an effort to reach their wounded comrade who had also been taken hostage.
Last Friday morning, Sgt Heovo from Menyama in Morobe Province had responded to a distress call in the Kompiam district from a Chinese company operating an alluvial gold mine at a village called Yaumanda. The Yaumanda villagers had demanded K400,000 from the Chinese company for using their area to establish a communication network. When the Chinese offered K4000, the Wakumale tribesmen were infuriated and allegedly threatened company workers. Sgt Heovo, a 23-year police veteran, led a small force to the site to negotiate with the landowners. Mr Kakas said Sgt Heovo was injured when a villager allegedly shot him. The shotgun pellets struck Heovo in the thigh and buttocks. He was losing a lot of blood,” Mr kakas said.
“The three rescuers arrived and had to cut their way through various roadblocks made of fallen threes, stones and logs which they had to cut through and remove quickly, they went through three roadblocks, they arrived at the foot of the village and using their knives, they cut through thick bush with the assistance of local villagers they picked up along the way and arrived at the village at midnight. “The three mediated and when Sgt Heovo was released they applied First Aid and carried him to the vehicle, he was losing blood and going in and out of consciousness. “They left the district and arrived back in Wabag at 5am on Saturday, Sgt Heovo was already unconscious. “He was operated on and the pellets were removed, he is now recovering at Wabag General Hospital.”
Pomio logging & oil palm damage estimated to be ‘billions’
04 July 2018 http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/07/pomio-logging-oil-palm-damage-estimated-to-be-billions.html
PORT MORESBY – Communities affected by three Special Agriculture Business Leases (SABLs) in the West Pomio District of East New Britain Province have assessed the economic damage caused by logging and oil palm planting at more than K2.4 billion. The damage assessment was compiled by 17 communities that have lost 42,400 hectares of customary land under the Pomata, Ralopal and Nakiura leases.The assessment of K2.4 billion comprises both the damage already suffered since the leases were issued and the future loss that will accrue through to 2110 if the leases are not cancelled and the land returned. Community spokesperson Ana Sipona says the communities never agreed to the loss of their customary land or the logging and oil palm planting. “There was never any proper awareness conducted by government departments and people did not give their free, prior and informed consent,” Sipona said. “The SABL commission of inquiry revealed the same thing happened across the country, with more than five million hectares of land being illegally acquired.”
Spokesperson Norbert Pames says the size of the damage assessment is a powerful reminder of the value of customary land to local communities and the damage they can suffer when the State facilitates or encourages customary land alienation. “Too often our leaders are fooled by false promises of the development and government services that will follow if they sign over our land and they do not stop to think about what will be lost in the process,” he said.
“The big differences between our own sawmilling business and the Rimbunan Hijau operation is that ours was owned by the communities themselves and used the forests in a sustainable way while RH is a foreign multinational and has cleared large-areas of forest for oil-palm planting,” said Kene.
“It is a tragedy that the government has favoured foreign-owned destruction over sustainable locally-owned uses and left our communities to suffer the damage”.
Childhood vaccines destroyed in aircraft fire
July 4, 2018The National
THE aircraft burnt at the Mendi airport last month was carrying 13,200 doses of vaccines and 12,000 syringes for the childhood vaccination programme, says Emergency Controller Dr Bill Hamblin. The United Nations Children Fund (Unicef) is currently trying to have the replacements brought from overseas as they are not available here. The vaccines and syringes were procured by Unicef through Government funding and were being transported through Mendi to Hela for the immunisation programme. “I want the people involved in destroying these vital relief supplies and warehouses arrested, charged and face the full force of the law. They cannot go unpunished,” he said. Hamblin said the 13,200 doses of vaccines and 12,000 syringes were still inside the plane when it was set on fire. “People involved in those acts do not belong in society,” he said. “They need to be locked behind bars.
Churches Join Forces to Combat Sorcery Accusation Related Violence
Post Courier, July 5, 2018
Churches are joining forces to address sorcery accusation-related violence as part of a national effort to stamp out such attacks. Almost 50 leaders from 14 denominations in the Momase region have contributed to the development of a national church strategy to tackle sorcery accusation-related violence following a workshop in Lae by the Constitutional and Law Reform Commission (CLRC).
CLRC Secretary Dr Eric Kwa has condemned sorcery accusation-related violence, saying it is usually directed against isolated and vulnerable people in the community, particularly women.
Dr Kwa said the three-day workshop was the first of a series of regional consultations to be held around the country to aid the development of a National Churches Strategic Plan on Sorcery Beliefs and Sorcery Accusation-Related Violence. The National Churches Strategic Plan is a key component of the Sorcery National Action Plan, which aims to break the link between accusations of sorcery and violence.
“Churches speak with a strong voice, and the messages they convey will be heard, that is why they are an important partner in helping reduce and eliminate such violence,” he added.
The National Churches Strategic Plan is being developed to help ensure churches act and speak against sorcery accusation-related violence in a consistent and coordinated way.
US government slams PNG for failure to combat people trafficking. Children as young as 10 being forced into prostitution
06 July 2018
Read the US State Department’s full 2018 trafficking in persons report here
WASHINGTON DC – The government of Papua New Guinea does not fully meet minimum standards for the elimination of people trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, according to the United States government.
This year’s annual report on trafficking by the US Department of State says that, as a result, PNG has been downgraded to the lowest of four tiers as a country which does not fully meet minimum standards and is not making significant efforts to do so. The report says the government took some steps to address trafficking, including initiating the first investigation of a government official under the country’s anti-trafficking law. But it said progress was hindered by an acute lack of resources dedicated to eliminating trafficking as well as very low awareness of the problem among government officials and the public. The PNG government did not provide or fund protective services for victims, did not systematically implement victim identification procedures and did not identify any trafficking victims in 2017. It also did not initiate any prosecutions and did not achieve a single trafficking conviction for the fifth consecutive year. In fact, the government decreased law enforcement efforts in 2017 despite partnering with an international organisation to conduct training for officials.
In other cases officials did not apprehend any vessels for illegal fishing and trafficking in 2017, and logging and mining sites operated in remote regions with “negligible government oversight and authorities did not make efforts to identify sex or labour trafficking victims”. For the sixth consecutive year, the report identified PNG as a source, transit and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labour. It cited international NGO research which found that 30% of sex trafficking victims were children under the age of 18, some as young as 10. The report also revealed that Malaysian and Chinese logging companies arrange for foreign women to enter PNG voluntarily with fraudulently issued visas. After their arrival, many of these women—from countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, China, and the Philippines—are turned over to traffickers who transport them to logging and mining camps, fisheries and entertainment sites, and exploit them in forced prostitution and domestic servitude
Care centre releases 45 orphans back to community
July 10, 2018The National
THE El Rafa Care Centre in Minj, Jiwaka, released 45 orphans back into the community last week. The centre caters for orphans whose parents have died of HIV/AIDS. It is run and operated by the Evangelical Brotherhood Church and supported through the Swiss Evangelical Brotherhood Mission. Since opening in 2004, the centre has cared for about 200 orphans altogether. In a small but moving ceremony on Wednesday, most orphans, who are now young men and women, spoke highly of the centre and how it had helped them over the years. Johnny Boma, now a father, said he met his wife at the centre. “I lost both parents at an early age,” he said. “Without El Rafe, I don’t think I will be who I am today. “The centre gave me a chance in education and life. “My school fees since fifth grade were always met by these generous people.” Counsellor Rachael Kiman said the centre was releasing those who were 15 years old or older. “We have trained them well to take care of themselves in this challenging world,” she said. “They leave today armed with a Bible as their guide, and tools and seedlings that will help them start something for themselves.” She said the orphans leaving the centre were trained to be self-reliant and to work hard.
Five PNG women die everyday giving birth: UN
July 12, 2018The National
IT is estimated that five women die every day when giving birth in the country, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). UNFPA Asia Pacific Regional health economist Anderson Stanciole urged the Government to increase its investment in voluntary family services. “It is a critical area to think about in the economic development of the country. There is a lot at stake. (There are) about 1000 deaths per year, or five maternal deaths in PNG every day,” he said. PNG’s high maternal mortality ratio at 733 per 100,000 live births is among the highest in the world, according to the UNFPA. About 88 per cent of the deaths are due to the lack of skilled birth attendants and life-saving medicine. “One maternal death is one too many,” Stanciole said. “No women should die giving birth.
Plight of Psychiatric Inmates always Forgotten
Post Courier. July 17, 2018
Psychiatric inmates at Bomana prison are the most forgotten people in jail. This was the statement made by Justice Panuel Mogish today at the Bomana National Court during his order to the Papua New Guinea Correctional Services to review the psychiatric inmates who had been discharged but are still behind bars. Justice Mogish said that the psychiatric persons are not just prisoners but are citizens of PNG and thus deserved humane treatment. “The se people have human rights, that should be respected,” said Justice Mogish. “We must make it our responsibility to protect these people.”
Total of 194 years for murder
July 18, 2018The National
NINE men from Pomio district in East New Britain who killed a man last year accusing him of practising sorcery have been jailed for 194 years in total. The nine were convicted for murdering Francis Tangaliurea. Justice Susame told Willie Lote, Wilfred Lote, Lobau, Tolepuna, Ailas and Kangeri that as young offenders they could not come to court and justify their criminal act by hiding behind the cloak of youthfulness when they had brutally murdered an innocent person. “A strong punitive or retributive sentence is justified to stress the need for personal and public deterrence against sorcery-related violation of human rights,” Justice Susame said. The court heard that on Aug 17 last year the men went to the home of the victim and pelted it with stones. Tangaliurea came out with a bush knife to investigate. He cut the hand of one of the men and was chased by the men and assaulted a short distance from his home. He was carried on a stretcher to the Pomio Health Centre – about a kilometre away but died later.
Breaking the Grip of RH over PNG
July 16, 2018 http://www.pngblogs.com/2018/07/breaking-grip-of-rh-over-png.html
OAKLAND, Apr 20 2016 (IPS) – James Sze Yuan Lau and Ivan Su Chiu Lu must be extremely busy men. Together, they are listed as directors of some 30 companies involved in various activities and services related to logging or agribusiness in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The former is the managing director of Rimbunan Hijau (RH) PNG and son-in-law of RH’s founder Tiong Hiew King; the latter is executive director of RH PNG Ltd.. All but two of these 30 companies have the same registered address at 479 Kennedy Road, in the national capital, Port Moresby–the headquarter of the RH group in the country. Their ability to magically fit into a relatively small office space on Kennedy Road is not the only puzzling fact about the subsidiaries of the Malaysian group, Rimbunan Hijau. Out of the 30 above mentioned companies, 16 subsidiaries that are directly involved in logging or agribusiness have one other thing in common. According to their financial records , they don’t make a profit. Most of them have been working at a loss for over a decade. During the 12 years for which financial records were available to the Oakland Institute’s researchers, all together, the subsidiaries declared an average loss of about US$ 9 million every year. ….
[For the rest of this article see the url above]
PNG promises come to nought, & Bougainville is getting anxious
24 July 2018 http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/07/png-promises-come-to-nought-bougainville-is-getting-anxious.html#more
AUCKLAND – Bougainville’s president John Momis has raised concerns that the Papua New Guinea government is not pulling its weight as the autonomous region prepares for next June’s referendum on its political future. Momis recently met with PNG prime minister Peter O’Neill at a meeting of a joint supervisory board to discuss preparing for the vote. However, outstanding financial commitments of hundreds of millions of kina which PNG owes to Bougainville remain an obstacle to preparations. PNG finally made a minor payment of $US1.49 million to Bougainville last week, but the cheque bounced, although this embarrassment has been denied by PNG treasurer Charles Abel.
Momis said in an interview with Radio New Zealand that PNG was continually failing to deliver on commitments and he was considering approaching the United Nations, New Zealand or Australia for advice…. “It’s frustrating. I am saying what is Australia going to do, what is New Zealand going to do? They were the witnesses [to the peace agreement]. What is the United Nations going to do?”
New study reveals dangers inherent in land registration
25 July 2018 http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/free-michael-dom-book.html
BOROKO – Customary land registration processes can easily be captured by local ‘big men’ and companies with disastrous consequences for local people. This is the conclusion of a study on recent oil palm expansion in Papua New Guinea by academic Caroline Hambloch from the University of London. Hambloch’s findings are based on three months field research in East and West New Britain and are presented in a paper titled ‘Land Formalisation Turned Land Rush’ presented at a World Bank conference in Washington earlier this year. The paper demonstrates how land registration processes, rather than protecting customary land, can easily be used to disenfranchise local communities and alienate them from their land. This is because of an environment of weak governance and huge power and information imbalances. Hambloch details how PNG’s weak or non-existent capacity for regulation and enforcement of laws has been exploited by logging and oil palm companies who have surpassed various government agencies.
The results have been disastrous for local communities, which are experiencing worsening poverty, increasing wealth inequality, increased conflict and a lack of basic service provision such as roads, schools and health centres. The study is important for PNG as it exposes and debunks the myth that land registration or ‘formalisation’ is necessary to generate income, improve productivity and drive development. This is a theory that has long been backed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the World Bank and foreign governments and has therefore dominated the development discourse in PNG.It is frequently repeated by government ministers, industry bodies and ‘think tanks’. But it is not supported by the evidence. Hambloch’s study reveals that, rather than increasing agricultural activity and national income, customary land formalisation has had the opposite effects, deepening poverty and retarding economic growth.
Big timber buyer China is ignoring destruction of PNG forests
27 July 2018 http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/07/big-timber-buyer-china-is-ignoring-destruction-of-png-forests.html#more
LONDON – Anti-corruption NGO Global Witness has today released research revealing how many logging operations in Papua New Guinea appear to be breaking the law and selling illegal timber overseas. This destruction of irreplaceable ancient rainforest is driving climate change and damaging the livelihoods of indigenous communities. A significant majority of timber from PNG is shipped to China – representing 29% of China’s tropical log imports in 2016. Yet China has no regulation to keep illegal timber from entering its borders. The risk of illegal timber flooding China’s markets can damage its reputation and major trade relationships as many countries which ban illegal timber imports take action to stop the trade. On paper, the legal system in PNG guarantees that Papua New Guineans have control over their forests. In reality, however, the PNG government is responsible for a catastrophic failure to uphold these laws and the forest sector has been plagued for decades by allegations of corruption and law breaking.
In its new report, ‘A Major Liability’, Global Witness uses satellite imagery to show hundreds of apparent violations of PNG’s Forestry Act in major logging operations which hold government permits and which continue to export timber. Seventy percent of PNG is covered by forest ecosystems that are home to some of the world’s rarest plants and animals. Almost all of PNG’s eight million people rely directly on the land for their sustenance, livelihoods and culture.
But this forest and the lives it supports are under threat. The deforestation rate in PNG has been unusually high in recent years – in the past five years, 640,000 hectares of forest have been lost.
PNG, entwined in Chinese expansionism, exports it illegal timber
31 July 2018 http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/07/png-entwined-in-chinese-expansionism-exports-it-illegal-timber.html The Guardian
SYDNEY – Millions of tonnes of illegally logged timber, felled from forests across Papua New Guinea, are being exported to China and from there to the world as finished wood products, a new report from Global Witness has revealed. Global Witness’s investigation has found that the majority of logging operations in PNG are underpinned by government-issued permits, which are often illegally “extended” and which fail to enforce laws surrounding logging in prohibited and ecologically sensitive areas. PNG is one of the latest signatories to China’s one trillion dollar belt and road initiative, and its economy is increasingly entwined in Chinese expansionism throughout the Asia-Pacific. One-quarter of all of PNG’s debt is owned by China and Beijing has announced agricultural and transport projects worth several billion dollars across the developing nation.
Same-sex marriage shouldn’t be allowed: Eoe
July 27, 2018The National
Community Development, Youth and Religion Minister Soroi Eoe says Papua New Guinea is a Christian country and believes that same-sex marriage should not be allowed here. “Personally, I find it hard to understand (same-sex marriage) and I think for me as a person, my decision is mine and is personal and that is that God created men and women to procreate and that is the institution that as Christians, we should uphold. “I think PNG is a Christian country and most of our behaviour and conduct are defined by our Christian belief system and being a Christian country. It is defined in so far as man and woman and that has always been cherished and known of marriage and family. “And then we are mindful of what is happening in other countries. And recently a law was passed in, I think in New Zealand and Australia, for same-sex marriage which raised the question of the very norms of what the churches preaches and in particular Christian countries. “However, it is a difficult question to answer. But then one of the issues that I will bring to the attention of the Parliament is the issue of declaring this country a Christian country. And that issue will come before the National Executive Council and eventually to Parliament. So I think in terms of our decisions and our behaviour, it is already being defined in our move to address the issue of marriage, particularly when it concerns same-sex marriage. ” Daulo MP Pogio Ghate said that he was against same-sex marriage that was being legalised in neighbouring countries and he wanted to know if PNG would allow it. “This is very serious to this country. This is a Christian country. And this same-sex practice that is coming from outside of this country and minister, are you aware that it will come to PNG and it does not look good.”
Deferral of elections is assault on democracy, says Transparency
29 July 2018 http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/07/deferral-of-local-elections-assault-on-democracy-says-transparency.html#more
PORT MORESBY – Transparency International PNG (TIPNG) says the on-off-on and now, finally it seems, off again 2018 local level government elections in Papua New Guinea is both unconstitutional and will disrupt basic services in local communities. “The decision by prime minister Peter O’Neill to defer the elections to 2019 is unconstitutional and an assault on democracy,” said TIPNG chairman Lawrence Stephens. O’Neill has justified the deferral by claiming that funds set aside for the election need to be used to provide outstanding allowances to councillors. “This is deplorable,” said Stephens. “It indicates that it is the government’s view that constitutional rights can be violated on the basis of poor fiscal management by state agencies. “Financial matters, such as outstanding allowances, is an administrative issue and shouldn’t be used as an excuse by the government for the delay.”
Persistent Sexual Abuse common
Post Courier July 31, 2018
Sexual abuse of children by family members is common in PNG, says an officer with the Public Prosecutors Office. Prosecutor in charge of the Family and Sexual Offences Unit with the Office of the Public Prosecutor, Mercy Tamate, said the office receives an approximate 70 to 80 per cent of these cases. “We receive a lot of cases for sexual assault, sexual penetration, sexual touching of children, indecent assault and these are some of the common cases and also one that is common is persistent sexual abuse offences, a continuous abuse over a period of time,” said Ms Tamate. She said because these are the family member who are the perpetrators, children are not likely to report these cases either because they are traumatised or are fearful for various reasons. “It’s prevalent, it’s happening on a daily basis and it’s really up to us the law enforcing agency to be able to reach that level so that we deliver quality justice for vulnerable boys and girls,” she said. The challenge for prosecuters, she said, comes with the skills to understand how to interview child survivors and not “generalise cases” depending on their background. Meanwhile, Milne Bay and East New Britain have reported the highest in sexual offences against children, but Ms Tamate said it could be due to their effective reporting system, otherwise other provinces would have recorded even higher statistics.
Eight get death penalty over PNG sorcery killings in 2014https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/362643/eight-get-death-penalty-over-png-sorcery-killings-in-2014. Eight of the 97 Papua New Guinean villagers convicted of killing seven people in a sorcery-related attack four years ago in Madang have been given the death penalty. The National Court judge Justice David Cannings imposed life sentences on the remaining 88 after one of the accused died last month in hospital. The 97, from villages on Madang’s Rai Coast, were found guilty of the murders of three elderly men, two children and two young men at Sakiko village near Ramu Sugar town. They were each charged with seven counts of wilful murder. The eight on death row were found to be directly involved in the murders. Justice Cannings said the 97 villagers had marched into Sakiko village on April 14, 2014, motivated by concerns about the number of deaths in the area attributed to sorcery. He said a genuine belief in sorcery cannot be regarded as an extenuating circumstance to lessen the gravity of the crimes.
Food shortage a worry in jail
May 30, 2018 The National
WARDERS at Wewak’s Boram Prison in East Sepik had to release 35 prisoners on Sunday to go and look for food to feed themselves because of the shortage at the facility. Prison administration manager Inspector Joe Imini told The National that they had been facing food shortage for almost two months at the facility which holds 290 inmates, mostly detainees awaiting court cases. He blamed the problem on the delay in the release of funds each month from the Correctional Services headquarters in Port Moresby to pay for food rations. Of the 35 convicted prisoners sent out on Sunday, only one, a juvenile, is yet to return. Imini said the officers and their families were also helping provide food for the prisoners but it was too much for them. “On average, we get K56,000 to K60,000 per month. But for April, we got K24,000. “Given the size of our population, that is not enough. We are consuming monthly. Payment is not forthcoming. We are living on credit.” On why they had to release the convicted prisoners on Sunday, Imini said it was a desperate situation.
‘Unrecognised crisis’: right next door, women in serious danger
31 May 2018 http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/05/unrecognised-crisis-160km-from-australia-women-in-serious-danger.html
Australia’s near-neighbour Papua New Guinea is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a mother and there are signs the country’s health crisis is getting worse, a report has found. Women in PNG are 35 times more likely to die during pregnancy than women in Australia, according to an evaluation of maternal health by the aid agency ChildFund Australia. Despite laws and programs to encourage supervised births, only 40% of women in PNG gave birth at a health facility with a specialised birth attendant in 2016 down from 44% in 2012. In some regions the share was just 21%. And when women do manage to reach a rural clinic for the birth of a child they often find these facilities unstaffed or without electricity, running water, or essential medication and equipment.
“PNG is a dangerous place for pregnant women and their newborns, not only because of widespread poverty but because of the extremely high incidence of domestic violence,” it said.
“No woman should die giving birth. Yet in a country just 160 kilometres north of Australia, women are losing their lives every day during childbirth due to unsafe conditions and causes that are completely preventable.”
ChildFund’s report, called ‘National Health Crisis: Maternal Deaths in Papua New Guinea’, says the lifetime risk of dying during childbirth is 1 in 120 in PNG compared to 1 in 8,700 in Australia. Also, a newborn in PNG is 10 times more likely to die in the first month of life than an Australian newborn.
PNG ripe for human traficking activities
June 1, 2018 The National
Papua New Guinea is a strategic spot to facilitate international human trafficking of women and children for prostitution and child labour, says Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia. Sir Salamo, when opening a two-day workshop on how to combat human trafficking in PNG, said that the courts had dealt with some cases. He said PNG was ripe for international human trafficking due to its rugged terrain, vast sea, isolated islands, large population and multi-cultural groupings. “Human trafficking of vulnerable persons for the purpose of exploitation, especially women, girls and children is a horrible crime,” Sir Salamo said. “It is a crime against humanity that knows no territorial borders, whether international or national crime.”
Where were leaders at time of crisis?. (Letters Post Courier 4 June 18)
There is trouble brewing in the western end of the Highlands region. People are being killed like animals in public places. These brutal murders are happening in front of law enforcing agencies and the general public. The use of high powered weapons is dangerously rampant. Police officers have been killed. Soldiers are being shot at. The last line of defence – the PNG army – is brought in to perform the duties of a sloppy and scared police force. Police and criminals are eyeing each other as rival enemies and not law enforcer and offender.
Wabag and Laiagap districts have been declared fighting zones by the PEC. This is the prelude. Total anarchy is creeping into the whole western end. The national Government needs to take this ‘time bomb’ very seriously. Waigani should stop talking about LNG revenue and come home to earth and absorb the realities on the ground and act swiftly or there won’t be any LNG to discuss revenue day in day out. The post-election mayhem in Mendi was fixed by PPC Joseph Tondop and acting PA Thomas Eluh. No politician, including William Powi showed his face in Mendi to solve the chaos he created. Eluh has been replaced through political cronyism. They never learn. People are watching patiently. Mendi will explode. We started exporting LNG in 2014. The revenues are sinking into a hole the government created. PNG has borrowed more to stabilise a falling economy created by the LNG construction phase.
Tuman Kanam Kange
Disgruntled service providers keep flight grounded by parking truck on tarmac
Post Courier, June 5, 2018
DISGRUNTLED service providers in Bougainville yesterday forced the closure of the Buka airport when they barred their President John Momis from boarding an aircraft for Port Moresby.
Air Niugini’s PX253 on which an official ABG delegation and him were supposed to travel for a three-day referendum seminar in Port Moresby was diverted instead to Tokua Airport in East New Britain.
The service providers fronted up at the airport where they demanded an answer from Mr Momis on their outstanding payments. Airport officials fearing for the safety of passengers and the Air Niugini aircraft diverted it and did not allow any other flights into Buka during the day due to the tense situation. Former combatant leader Ishmael Toroama, who turned up at the airport, expressed his disappointment at the service providers saying such issues must be dealt with in the proper manner and there should be respect shown to the ABG.At the B uka airport the terminal was packed with service providers who arrived in a truck and parked on the tarmac. Police later removed the truck when they moved in to take control of the situation.
Weapons Disposal Issues Confronting Bougainville
Post Courier, June 6, 2018
THE non-disposal of all weapons on Bougainville may be the only major obstacle in the 2019 Bougainville referendum. This means if all weapons are not completely destroyed or accounted for, which allegedly poses a threat, the referendum will not go ahead. This was highlighted during the Bougainville referendum three-day conference in Port Moresby yesterday.
Concerns were raised by ordinary Bougainvilleans, stakeholders and others about the slowness of disposing weapons on the island. It was also queried that there is no specific database of weapons still on Bougainville. The conference was told by a Bougainvillean training youths on security Albert Magoi that there were seven factions to be dealt with in order for the vote to take place in 12 months time. He talked about the issue of Me’ekamui, who’s now split in four and Tonu’s Noah Musingku group. There are also those ordinary people that still kept their weapons at large.
Independent Bougainville woman leader Helen Yonny also questioned both governments what would happen if guns took precedence and used at the voting time and what the ABG was doing about the Me’ekamui and the self styled King of Papala.
But ABG’s weapons boss Dennis Kuiai assured the conference that all was under control, that they were finalising the database of all weapons still floating on Bougainville.
Medical Supplies Stranded due to no logistical funds.
Post Courier, June 7, 2018
The provincial health authority is worried about delays in medical supplies reaching some rural aid posts and health centres in Morobe Province. The delays are mainly due to the logistics contractor not receiving funding from the Department of Health on time. Health officers said the contractor, Global Customs and Forwarding Limited, was allegedly not doing a good job in distributing medical supplies and in some instance, had delivered to wrong health facilities. As a result of the delays, four districts were now facing a critical shortage of drugs and other medical consumables.
He said that during a recent malaria outbreak in the Garaina area of Wau-Bulolo district, there were no medicines to treat the sick.He said in this case the outbreak which could have been treated and controlled at an early stage affected more than 169 people.
Financial Crisis In PNG Leaves Ammunition Stockpile Sitting Unclaimed In Geelong Region http://news.pngfacts.com/2018/04/financial-crisis-in-png-leaves.html?m=1
was sent to Australia to protect world leaders including US President Donald Trump, is sitting unclaimed in a Geelong region warehouse because the Papua New Guinea Government can’t pay for it. The huge ammunition order, which required US State Department approval to send to Australia for forwarding to PNG was, according to exporters, made specifically to arm officially designated police and security forces preparing for the APEC leaders’ forum in Port Moresby later this year. But for more than eight months it has sat abandoned in an undisclosed secure warehouse believed to be in the Geelong region, with a cash-strapped PNG Government unable to pay for it. The stockpile includes 250,000 .9mm pistol bullets, 200,000 rounds of 5.56mm assault rifle ammunition and 20,000 40mm rounds. The order from America’s Winchester Ammunition Inc. was worth about $800,000 (US$621,000), with the purchase order signed in February 17 last year by PNG’s Police Commissioner Gari Baki. Winchester confirmed a consignment of 200,000 Australian-made shotgun shells had been shipped to PNG police in October last year, but the bulk of the order was being stored outside Melbourne.
Poor policy choices & budgets based on hope curse PNG
Post Courier, 07 June 2018
CANBERRA – The Papua New Guinea liquefied natural gas project is having a very negative impact on the PNG economy during the current production phase that began in 2014 and is expected to end around 2035. The most likely explanation for this outcome is the “resource curse.” The resource curse phenomenon occurs where countries like PNG with plentiful natural resources frequently have less economic growth, less democracy and worse development outcomes than countries not so blessed. The negative impacts of PNG LNG are expected to continue to grow and by 2020 will swamp the initial boost to GDP provided by the early gas exports after 2014. The project had a positive impact on the non-resource economy in the construction phase (2010-14) – slightly greater than the level of 5% predicted by project partners. The boost to the LNG sector was almost exactly as expected. In 2016, its direct impact on GDP was a gain of some 14.4% – more than offsetting falls in the mining sector overall. … The easy path for hitting a big overall GDP figure by 2024 is to focus on more big resource projects – the potential resource “super-cycle”. But a more sustainable and inclusive way forward is to focus policy attention on the non-resource parts of the economy like agriculture and tourism. This is harder and more indirect but a much better option than the current boom-bust experiences of PNG’s resource curse. New resource projects should be promoted if they sustainably increase PNG’s non-resource potential. If the benefits mainly go overseas, then other options should be actively explored.
ADB grants K635 million loan to support PNG health programs
09 June 2018 http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/06/adb-grants-k635-million-loan-to-support-png-health-programs.html
MANILA – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a loan of K635 million to support the delivery of accessible, affordable and high quality health services in Papua New Guinea.The financing package comprises two regular loans and a concessional loan to help PNG’s efforts in achieving universal health coverage. Despite a period of high economic growth in recent years, averaging 6% from 2006-15 but declining in recent years, the ADB said PNG failed to achieve its millennium development targets for maternal and child health. Life expectancy is low at 65 years and diseases including stroke, heart disease, pneumonia and neonatal conditions are chronic. Yesterday PNG Attitude reported UNICEF as saying that malnutrition is the leading cause of deaths among children under the age of five and that 45% of PNG children have stunted growth while 24% are underweight and 14% suffer from moderate to severe forms of wasting, which can be potentially life threatening.
The ADB said limited investment in the country’s health infrastructure and poor health sector governance are undermining service delivery.
See also: Malnutrition – the silent killer stalking PNG’s provinces http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/06/malnutrition-the-silent-killer-stalking-the-provinces-of-papua-new-guinea.html. 8 June 2018
Independence from PNG: A core belief for many Bougainvilleans
11 June 2018 http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/06/independence-from-png-a-core-belief-for-many-bougainvilleans.html.
Extract from a talk by Anthony Regan to last week’s Bougainville referendum conference in Port Moresby. You can read here the full Bougainville News coverage of the conference
PORT MORESBY – The impacts of the Bougainville conflict were severe. Varying estimates of the numbers of conflict-related deaths have been made from 3,000 up to 20,000. When it is realised that Bougainville’s population immediately before the conflict was about 150,000, and that 10,000 to 15,000 left Bougainville as a result of the conflict during 1989 and the first half of 1990, then even 3,000 deaths was an appalling outcome. The deaths include perhaps 1,000 or more from conflict, inclusive of both Bougainvilleans and several hundred PNGDF and RPNGC personnel.
In addition, there were many extra-judicial killings by all groups involved in the conflict, as well as unknown numbers caused or contributed to by the Papua New Guinea blockade of Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA)-controlled areas. These deaths, and the many more injuries that occurred, caused grave trauma for Bougainville and also for the rest of PNG. Another source of grave trauma for Bougainville was the displacement of 60,000 people from their hamlets and villages to displaced persons camps, called care centres. Trauma in Bougainville was also caused by the deep divisions amongst Bougainvillean communities caused by the conflict.
Other impacts included destruction of virtually all public infrastructure and private sector productive assets, and destruction of the capacity of Bougainville’s provincial government (which was suspended in June 1995) and of the national government agencies previously operating in Bougainville. For PNG, the deaths and injuries suffered by many PNGDF and PNGRC personnel was a source of grave trauma, and contributed to significant loss of morale in both organisations.
The extent of the divisions amongst Bougainvilleans was manifested in the establishment of opposing government structures, inclusive of a Bougainville Interim Government (BIG) associated with the BRA, and from early 1995 the Bougainville Transitional Government (BTG), which was quite closely associated with the Bougainville Resistance Force (BRF), which had a nominated member to represent it in the government. Amongst the BRA personnel and the extensive support base it enjoyed in many Bougainvillean communities, PNG was seen as at fault in the events involved in the origins of the conflict, and in particular in relation to the indiscriminate violence wrought initially by the police mobile squads, and later by the PNGDF. Many felt deep bitterness towards the PNG state.
As a result, the cause of independence from PNG became a deeply held core belief for many Bougainvilleans, and for many those views remain little changed by the almost 17 years that have elapsed since the Bougainville Peace Agreement was signed. ….
Understanding corruption, and knowing how to deal with it
15 June 2018 http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/06/understanding-corruption-and-knowing-how-to-deal-with-it.html. By Sam Koim.
PORT MORESBY – Corruption, being a very destructive societal disease, is like a cancer that eats at every fabric of society. It comes in various types and stages ranging from low-level petty corruption to high-level grand corruption. There is no single treatment for this pernicious disease, and literature shows that the best way to combat it is the application of a combination of approaches towards the same goal. To treat this societal illness, a careful diagnosis must first be undertaken. The process will determine the type of the disease and the stage to which it has spread within society. Corruption is like a multifaceted octopus that rears its ugly image in all the facets of society.
It is organised crime. Corrupt transactions can transcend territorial jurisdictions and span many different countries. They are orchestrated by very skilful people with the institutional knowledge to bypass detection.
High-level corrupt transactions are usually secretive and organised by people who have the requisite knowledge of the victim industry or agency. They therefore require skilful corruption investigators to detect. Detection may also require whistle blowers to come forward and provide relevant inside information. This may require the protection of these informants. In some cases, it might require a party to the illicit transaction to come forward in return for some form of leniency. Corruption investigators have to be vigilant and adept at investigating it.
A single corrupt transaction may pollute an entire government agency. Top-level corruption may involve a patronage arrangement. For instance, if a minister intends to defraud his department, he directs the departmental head, who in turn directs his deputy and the pressure is exerted downwards through the subordinates until the cheque is paid out.
Those lower ranking officials who execute the payment may not directly benefit from the improper payment but succumb to top-down pressure in fear of reprisals.
Proceeds of corruption may be laundered through a number of countries in a single day. In today’s technological world, conducting illicit financial transactions spanning a number of countries is possible. This is posing a formidable technical and organisational challenge when it comes to detecting and monitoring these transactions. It requires the cooperation of the victim country as well as those countries tainted by the illicit transfers.
Some forms of corruption may flourish because the society as a whole tolerates it. For instance, the line between bribery and customary appreciations in Melanesian culture is often difficult to ascertain in terms of what is a bribe and what is customary reciprocal expectation. Widespread corruption is a symptom that the state is functioning poorly. It may reflect the health of the nation’s politics. …Experts warn us that corruption becomes a major challenge if most of the key institutions of government are weak. Anti-corruption efforts will not be effective in circumstances where essentially every important institution is compromised. …
Tribal fighters turn traditional rules of warfare into modern law http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/06/tribal-fighters-turn-traditional-rules-of-warfare-into-modern-law.html . 15 June 2018
MT HAGEN – Some 34 councillors of the Nebilyer Local Level Government in the Western Highlands Province have agreed to respect and implement traditional rules of fighting to minimise consequences of warfare on people and property. “The rules are neither new nor borrowed but are the ones used in the past by our forefathers when engaging in any tribal fight,” said Gabriel Kiap, chairman of Western Highlands provincial law and order. Kiap, once a tribal leader involved in fighting during his younger days, said people engaged in conflict did not respect the rules and would not hesitate to destroy whatever came in their way. “Innocent lives are being lost” he said.
“But now the rules are clear. Civilians, especially the elderly, women, children and people with disability can’t be targeted. Women and children must not be sexually abused and healthcare providers need to be respected at all times,” he said. In addition, Kiap said the rules prohibit destruction of public property such as schools, health facilities, roads, bridges, electricity poles and religious places and discourage targeting of neutral tribes and clans…..
The Red Cross head of office in Mt Hagen, Kakhaber Khasaia, said over the past few decades, tribal fighting has become significantly more destructive due to the use of semi-automatic weapons and breakdown in traditional methods of fighting. Nebilyer is the first local government in the Highlands to make traditional rules of fighting a local law. Similar activity will follow in other districts in the Western Highlands Province. The Red Cross is also working on different stages of the same project in the Southern Highlands, Hela and Enga provinces.
Religious education to be taught in schools
June 14, 2018 The National
EDUCATION Secretary Dr Uke Kombra announced the inclusion of religious education in mainstream curriculum as one of the compulsory subjects from elementary to secondary schools. He said this during a Church-State Partnership Development Forum in Port Moresby yesterday. He said religious education would fall under the education mainstream curriculum as ‘Citizenship and Christian Values Education’. The subject is intended to be taught in all schools about human ethics and Christian principles to students in schools. Kombra said the department had been working in many education reforms under the standard based education since 2013. One of them was the reform of the curriculum itself, others were school structure, looking at the levels of schools, education system, and the professional development of teachers, staffing systems, and school governance system.
High rate of mouth cancer in PNG
June 18, 2018 The National
Papua New Guinea has the world’s highest rate of mouth cancer cases which contributes to 25 per cent of all cancer disease compared with two per cent in Australia, according to research by the Australian National University (ANU). ANU’s Dr Barry Reed said the three main causes of the disease were betel nut-chewing, smoking and heavy alcohol consumption. It has now become a common disease among young people in PNG, with women having the highest rate of cancer in the world. If untreated, it lead to death with much pain, suffering, social isolation, loss of functions and facial deformation, Reed said. Reed said medical doctor Chris Acott stated during last year’s health symposium that if treatment was not prioritised sooner, the disease alone could consume all of the national health budget in a few years.
PLHIV in PNG is Now Estimated to be about 70,000 : Igat hope
Post Courier, June 21, 2018
People Living with HIV in Papua New Guinea are now estimated to be about 70,000, according to Igat Hope. Board president of Igat Hope and person living with HIV (PLHIV) Janet Sangopa said that not all of these people know their HIV status and not all of them understand their illness and how to manage it. “This is something we need to urgently address. “We would like to be involved in community-level HIV counselling and testing to improve knowledge of HIV status; using some of the strategies used in the recent HIV integrated bio behavioural surveillance study to reach people who have not yet been reached. “Igat Hope wants to continue and strengthen its role in helping to improve the quality of clinical care as too many of our friends are still dying,” she said.
Ambulance attacked
June 25, 2018 The National
AN ambulance team from St Johns standing by for the Trukai Fun Run in Port Moresby yesterday was attacked by rascals. Chief officer Matt Cannon said the rascals were trying to steal ambulance equipment, including a defibrillator. “These types of attacks are simply unacceptable,” Cannon said. “We call on the police to investigate and pursue this matter to the full extent. We will continue to respond to emergencies throughout the country but call on the community to take all necessary measures to protect our ambulance officers. “A resuscitation kit and personal belongings are believed to have been stolen. Our ambulance team escaped without injury. “This is the second attack on ambulance workers in PNG in the last week. A New Britain Palm Oil Ltd ambulance driver in Alotau was shot through the chest when responding to an emergency earlier (last) week.
New Ireland pays out nearly K2mil in pension
June 25, 2018 The National
About 4692 people above the age of 65 and people living with disabilities have received their pensions totalling K1,995,200 in Kavieng, New Ireland. It was all smiles and tears of joy for senior New Ireland citizens when they received their 2018 pension delivered to their doorstep by their government. New Ireland Governor Sir Julius Chan said: “though K360 may not be a lot of money it is the government’s deed of respect and value for these marginalised group of people in the society. Everything we do is for a reason, we don’t just do things for the sake of doing it. “The Namatanai District pensions will not be paid. We have to respect the people’s democratic right,” Sir Julius said. “The majority in Namatanai District chose a different policy, which would issue a higher amount to them, so I respect their right to receive a higher amount of K1000 promised by their member.”
PNG’s first polio outbreak in 18 years as health services decline,
Post Courier, 27 June 2018
SYDNEY – The first cases of polio in Papua New Guinea in 18 years have been detected, with a six-year-old boy from the Morobe province the first confirmed case of the virus. The boy presented to health authorities on 28 April with weakness in his lower limbs and the virus – a vaccine-derived poliovirus type 1 – was confirmed on 21 May. Last week, the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention found the virus was also present in the stool samples of two children in the boy’s community; prompting health authorities to declare an official outbreak.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Papua New Guinea polio-free in 2000, along with the rest of the western Pacific region. Only three other countries in the world continue to battle the virus; Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan. So far the three cases are isolated to the Morobe Province, where polio vaccine coverage is low, and only 61% of children have received the recommended three doses. WHO has assessed the risk of polio spreading to other countries as low, because travel in and out of the region is relatively limited.
The virus spreads through faecal-oral contamination, multiplies in the intestines, from where it spreads to the nervous system, causing paralysis. Worldwide, cases of polio have decreased by over 99% in 30 years, largely the result of a co-ordinated global health campaign to eradicate it.
There is no cure for polio once contracted; it can be prevented only by a series of vaccinations during childhood.
UN Launches Response to contain Polio outbreak
Post Courier June 27, 2018
THE United Nations has launched a response to contain the polio outbreak in Morobe.
The UN, along with government authorities, has surveyed the area, collected samples and carried out laboratory tests, it said in a statement yesterday. “Today, as the government declares polio outbreak as a national public health emergency. WHO will provide all the necessary technical material and logistical support to ensure that measures are in place to urgently stop this outbreak and prevent more children from lifelong polio paralysis,” said Dr Luo Dapeng, WHO representative in Papua New Guinea. UNICEF is procuring 611,000 doses of oral polio virus vaccine to immunise about 300,000 children under five years in these three provinces. UNICEF is facilitating the distribution of vaccine, cold chain equipment (vaccine fridges) and other logistics. UN resident coordinator, Mr Gianluca Rampolla said: “While the outbreak is very concerning, it is controllable if right measures are taken on time. We are fully working with the Government of Papua New Guinea to respond to the outbreak. We will take every measure possible to prevent future cases.”
Children are main targets of Sexual Offenders
Post Courier, June 28, 2018
CHILDREN continue to be the main targets of sexual offenders in the nation’s capital and the country as a whole says, the head of the police sexual offence squad. According to an updated survey carried out recently by the constabulary’s sexual offence arm, 75 per cent of sexual harassment cases in the National Capital District alone, involve children. The survey showed that children between the ages seven and 15 were the main victims of the stated heinous act and that the frequency of occurrences has increased substantially since 2015. Speaking on the matter, officer in charge Senior Sergeant Fiona Kakarere said the victimising of minors, usually under the age of 15 was a serious crime that is currently being neglected. She said that since January, more than 100 cases have been reported, the most controversial of which involved a Grade 12 student who sexually penetrated a minor in February that brought about public outcry. The senior officer explained that sexual crimes were uncomfortable solemn, offences that more often than not, are struck out of courts for lack of evidence. She added that PNG’s secretive societal tendencies and cultural systems only acted against the work of her unit and that much awareness is needed to help victims – under aged especially, in convicting and charging sexual offenders. It was also noted in the survey that courts are reporting larger numbers of rape cases where a child is victimised by a close relative, most notably of this week’s 47-year-old dad who was charged with raping his two adolescent daughters.
Decreased Literacy growth rate points to need for rural education improvement.
Post Courier, June 27, 2018
A significant deceleration in the country’s literacy rates over the past two years has brought out a high possibility of negligence to rural education in PNG says an international researcher.
Statistician Dr Irwin Macintosh of Australia’s Sunshine Coast University told Post-Courier this week that a recent study conducted by a small team of researchers for the World Bank funded ‘World Development Report 2018’ showed a decrease in literacy growth rates from 2015-2017.
Literacy growth rate being the percentage of people that can read, write and do simple arithmetic in a particular place, in this instance being PNG.
Dr Macintosh said that data analysed from other countries similar to PNG in developmental status such as Ghana and Samoa, showed a relative drop in the emphasis on rural education after major cities and towns have been adequately outfitted with educational facilities. She urged that the research indicated a need for PNG’s government to push for education in rural and remote parts of the country. “We’ve found that when a country like PNG develops at the rate that it has, more emphasis is placed on urban areas which eventually leads to neglect of rural communities and the resulting decrease in growth rates in health care, security and education. “In the study, we have a graph that shows a steady literacy growth rate from 2000 when the literacy rate was 57.3 per cent to 2014 when it rose to 63.7 per cent. “However, the elegance of the graph crumbles after this when the graph begins to bend toward flat lining at 64.5 per cent,” said the researcher. She explained that correlating PNG’s graph with literacy rate graphs from other developing nation’s points to a similar defocusing of efforts toward rural education development in favor of concentrating funds on already established education facilities in urban areas. “Our research when complete, will help your country’s government to see that there is greater need now more than ever, to push for the establishment of more educational facilities in remote and rural areas,” added Dr Macintosh.
PNG’s intractable drugs problem: the worst is yet to come
Post Courier, 28 June 2018
KUNDIAWA – Each year on 26 June we try to tell people of the danger of drugs in Papua New Guinea; without much success so far. The problem is getting bigger, much more complicated and workable solutions are not presenting themselves. Many of us working in the area of drug rehabilitation and education are fed up and frustrated. We feel helpless and unable to do much – voices in the wilderness.
Drug related problems are a serious dilemma affecting the development of PNG. Socio-economic problems are getting worse, they are exacerbated by drugs and people no longer live in peace and harmony. Our cultural values and norms which once were our guide and discipline have been thrown to the winds. There is confusion our youth consuming more drugs – marijuana, homebrew and even harder stuff – that triggers more social problems. Cannabis or marijuana has just become like another cigarette. It is sold in the open markets in both rural and urban areas. The overall impact is an upsurge in law and order problems and increasing addiction and mental disorders, setting up a need for more specialist doctors, addiction counsellors and social workers that we simply do not have. Nor do we have the facilities that government would usually provide – like drug clinics and detoxification units. Addicts become criminals; there is no fair treatment and rehabilitation filter. Law enforcement bodies cannot do much to arrest the cultivators because most of the drugs are grown in remote places in the highlands provinces and are extremely difficult to identify and control. People need to know – but don’t – that drug issues are the main cause of social and other problems, including family problems, domestic violence, murder, rape, HIV AIDS and a range of other health issues. We have virtually lost our traditional culture, and a person without a culture has a spiritual emptiness and this vacuum is often compensated for by taking drugs.
We need to adopt a cooperative model to reach a solution, understanding that the drug problem is not an isolated issue but a communal problem that needs a collective solution. All institutions – government, non-government, church and secular – must cooperate to achieve the desired result.
We have to assist our youth to do away with drugs, to live in peace and harmony and become better citizens. If nothing is done, the worst is yet to come.
ABG Under Extreme Budget Crisis Says Momis. http://bougainville.typepad.com/newdawn/2018/06/290618abg-under-extreme-budget-crisies-says-momis-new-dawn-fm-news-the-abg-president-chief-dr-john-momis-in-his-opening-re.html
The ABG President, Chief Dr John Momis in his opening remarks at today’s JSB in Arawa said that the ABG is in extreme budget crisis due to the National Governments failure to make payments to the ABG. He said that the ABG should be receiving seventy million kina annually under the Restoration Development Grants of which it has accumulated to nearly one billion kina. President Momis said this year the National Government budgeted for fifteen million kina to ABG but until today the ABG has not seen one toea of those RDG funds. He said he realised that the National Government has its own budget crisis. But the lack of funds being received by the ABG is leading to a desperate situation for us. President Momis said we simply do not have the money to do anything. He stressed that Bougainville is not receiving the amount of recurrent grant needed to meet salary costs, and not enough for our Public Service to do much at all. President Momis said that he hoped that we will reach agreement here on what RDG payments should be going forward and that in 2019 we will see payment at the correct level, of more than seventy million kina. Meanwhile, Prime Minister in his response said that a Trust account for the BRC has been created and funds promised will be deposited soon. He said that the National Government is committed to jointly implementing the Peace Agreement with the Autonomous Bougainville Government. He also said that he had brought five million kina with him today for the RDG from the budget of fifteen million kina for this year, with an outstanding of ten million kina still to be paid.
Mendi Diocese Needs Assistance
Post Courier, June 18, 2018
The earthquake in the Southern Highlands and Hela Provinces has left a lot of infrastructures in ruins in its wake. Bishop Donald Lippert of the Mendi Arch-Diocese says the Diocese had suffered millions of kina worth of damages to its vast network of pastoral, educational and medical facilities across the two provinces. “The Diocese of Mendi probably suffered more than any entity because it has more infrastructure than any other entity except perhaps the government,” explained Bishop Lippert. He said the repairing and rebuilding of these damaged infrastructures will take millions of kina to accomplish. “We still look to the government for assistance in the repair and rebuilding of schools, health centers and related staff housing. So far, we have not received anything,” said Bishop Lippert. Meanwhile, in the wake of the disaster the Church had received some donations mainly from church entities both here and abroad.
PNG is running out of vital HIV drugs and people could die http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/04/png-is-running-out-of-vital-hiv-drugs-and-people-could-die.html
PORT MORESBY – Advocacy groups have warned HIV-positive Papua New Guineans could die if the country’s dwindling anti-retroviral drugs supply is not replenished soon. Papua New Guinea is eating into its buffer supply of the HIV medicine after the government slashed the budget for the treatment. “We’re talking about quite a serious situation … where we are now currently eating into our three- to six-month buffer stock of anti-retroviral treatment,” said David Bridger, the head of UNAIDS in PNG.
PNG, which accounts for 95% of all HIV cases in the Pacific, has seen its budget for the HIV drug plummet in the past year. The government has allocated K3.6 million to HIV/AIDS treatment drugs, down from K8 million in 2017. And for the two years that follow, the drugs budget forecast is listed as zero. Antiretroviral treatment is an essential treatment for people with HIV. It stops the HIV developing into AIDS and reduces the risk of HIV transmission. ‘Miracle potions’ loaded with herbs and urine have been sold as methods to combat HIV in the midst of the shortage.
26,000 HIV Patient’s Lives in Hands of Missing Woman.
Post Courier May 23, 2018
THE fate of 26,000 HIV positive patients are in the hands of one woman who is supposed to make assessments to clear 500,000 antiretroviral tablets that are now stuck at Customs. Health and HIV/AIDS Minister Sir Puka Temu assured HIV-positive patients and the public that the Port Moresby
“We did an urgent emergency order and I want to assure them that 500,000 tablets are now sitting at the Customs. We are waiting for the lady to do the assessment but she has gone missing,” he said.
“So I have asked the Treasurer to find the lady at Customs to do the assessment quickly. We are requesting through a formal letter so that they can do the assessment later. They need to release the drugs immediately, today or tomorrow. “That will allow our 26 000 people to be back on the drugs. “Our prevalence on HIV is about 0.9 per cent, that means with 8 million people we have about 70,000 HIV-positive sufferers, so only 47 per cent of those who are positive are currently on the antiretroviral, and at the moment on register is 26,000 of them.”
Tragedy awaits as PNG runs out of HIV & other medicines. Glen Mola
20 May 2018 http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/05/tragedy-awaits-as-png-runs-out-of-hiv-other-medicines.html#more
PORT MORESBY – It’s not always good news. Today we heard at our staff meeting at Port Moresby General Hospital that we have run out of antiretroviral (ART or HIV) medicines. We have many thousands of HIV positive people on treatment in the National Capital District (and several more thousands around the rest of the country) and they may not have any medicine to take unless new supplies arrive in the very near future. People on ART must take their medicine every single day: if they stop and start again they are very likely to breed resistant HIV.Th is is not only bad (in fact life-threatening) for the patient, but life-threatening for everybody else in the community who might catch HIV from them. We also don’t have any syphilis test kits in the country. Syphilis used to be the commonest cause of stillbirth (babies dying inside their mothers) in our audit statistics – and after we started routine testing of all mothers coming to ante-natal clinics and treating the positives we virtually eliminated this scourge from our pregnant mums. But now, with no test kits available, the syphilis problem will come back and many babies will die. And this week we ran out of oxytocin, the drug that prevents women from losing too much blood when they deliver babies. The commonest cause of death when oxytocin is not available is post-partum haemorrhage (excessive bleeding after the birth); so, we are probably going to see a lot more mothers die even when they come to hospital to have a supervised birth.
Resource Curse. Double or Nothing Report. Jubilee Australia.
Flanagan states in part of the report that in 2008, Australian economics consultants ACIL-Tasman provided inflated projections of growth in employment, essential services, household income and the broader economy if the PNG LNG project went ahead. This new analysis proves just how misleading these promises were and how PNG has slipped back into the poor policies associated with previous experiences of PNG’s resource curse.
“Currently, on almost all economic indicators, the people of PNG would have been better off had the project not happened at all,” said Flanagan.
A study conducted aimed to compare the projected benefits for the early years of the PNG LNG project with the actual outcomes building an ‘underlying growth path’ based on how the economy would likely have performed without the PNG LNG project, this study made the following findings:
-Despite predictions of a doubling in the size of the economy, the outcome was a gain of only 10 percent and all of this focused on the largely foreign-owned resource sector itself;
-Despite predictions of an 84 percent increase in household incomes, the outcome was a fall of 6 percent; -Despite predictions of a 42 percent increase in employment, the outcome was a fall of 27 percent;
-Despite predictions of an 85 percent increase in government expenditure to support better education, health, law and order, and infrastructure, the outcome was a fall of 32 percent; and
-Despite predictions of a 58 percent increase in imports, the outcome was a fall of 73 percent.
These findings are even more extraordinary given that PNG’s exports (due to PNG LNG) have actually exceeded projections (106 percent relative to the higher figure of 114 percent).
Help Comes for Teacher.
Post Courier, May 1, 2018
AT least some form of support has come to the remote teacher who walked from Menyamya in Morobe to Port Moresby to seek answers regarding her salaries. Carolyn Kai had a surprise visit from a representative from Leon Enterprises last week, a business that deals with hardware. She was given some form of help for her upkeep in the city while she awaits Teaching Services Commission for answers to her pay. She was teaching for six years without pay and came to the city 10 months ago to sort her salaries issue with the Education Department. Leon Enterprises representative Jason Choong said the company will pay airline tickets for her and her husband home via Nazab in Morobe when both are ready to leave. Mr Choong was amazed at how Mrs Kai had travelled for weeks to get to Port Moresby to fix her pay issues. “A lot of us in the city take things for granted,” Mr Choong said. “I don’t think you should walk that distance to get what already belongs to you,” he said.
PNG Teacher Association official Moses Taian said PNGTA was doing its best to assist Mrs Kai. He said this is a lesson for Teaching Services Commission to get their act right.
Property buyers in POM, be warned
I write this article to warn fellow Papua New Guineans out there who are thinking of buying property (house or land) in Port Moresby at this tough economic time. Be warned that the house and land price bubble has burst. There are houses that have been on the market for over 12 months and have not been sold. Most of these properties are still overly priced. Back in 2015, the average land price was up at K300 to K500 per square metre at good economic times around Tokarara, Hohola, Gerehu and 8-Mile areas. That meant that for a 450 square metre block of land you would pay between K135,000 and K225,000 in 2015. But in 2018, it has dropped to about K120 to K150 per square metre. Therefore, you would pay around K54,000 and K67,500 per block of size 450 square metres. An average house in Garden Hill that was going for K800,000 in 2015 on a 450 square-meter block is now going for under K500,000. At Gerehu and Hohola most houses true average value is K100,000 to K250,000. The bank interest rates are going from 4.5 per cent to 9.5 per cent. If you borrow K500,000 to buy property at 4.5 per cent interest rate over a 20-year period, your loan repayment will be K37,968 per year (K3,164 per month) and also pay additional K2000 in insurance and fees per year. In Port Moresby, the average salary of a Professional worker is K40,000 to K50,000 per year. The property loan repayment takes up to 80 per cent plus of an average professional worker’s net income per year. That is insane. Therefore, the house prices above K300,000 and K500,000 in place like Gerehu, Hohola, Tokarara, Morata, and 8-Mile are totally overpriced. Please do not buy. If you are thinking of buying a house as an investment property, then you will be in even bigger trouble because the bank interest rates are around 8.5 per cent for investment property. If you borrow K500,000 to buy house and land at 8.5 per cent interest rate over 20-year period, your loan repayment will be K52,068 per year (K4,339 per month) and also pay additional K2000 in insurances and fees per year. The average professional worker will not rent your property between K3000 to K4000 per month. Furthermore, average rental occupancy rate in Port Moresby is now at 40 per cent. Do not think about rental income from new property purchases at this stage in Port Moresby because you simply will not rent at the current bank interest rates. Therefore, please think twice before you buy. You will definitely run into trouble with banks if you are unable to service your debts. In summary, do not buy at this time because the real estate prices are still overly priced, the bank interest rates are high, insurance premium still high and rental occupancy rates at 40 per cent. Sharing information is caring.
Regards, Real Mangi
Madang schools face closure
May 2, 2018 The National
OVER 90 schools in Madang’s Raicoast are among many others on the verge of closing down because of the delay in their tuition fee-free funds. Head teachers have approached the provincial education office since last week enquiring on when the promised funds would be deposited in to their school bank accounts. Joe Timindi, representing head teachers from Raicoast, said 98 schools in the district have used up their TFFs and were desperately waiting for this quarter’s payment. Catholic education secretary Bruno Tulemanil said Brahman High School was the worst affected agency school since its TFF ran out a few weeks ago. “Brahman has exhausted its funds and it’s depending on assistance from patents and little funds set aside by the school” he said. “The school has 900 students and it’s really struggling.” Tulemanil said Malala Secondary was fortunate to have the Holy Spirit sisters at the campus who are helping them out. He said Holy Spirit High School in Bogia was also struggling. Madang education director Moses Sariki said he was aware of the situation and that officers responsible for TFF would brief him so that he could respond accordingly.
Cell at Tari police station full
May 2, 2018 The National
POLICE in Hela cannot make any further arrests because the cell at the Tari police station is full, says provincial commander Chief Superintendent Martin Lakari.He s aid there was no district court magistrate to hear the cases. Lakari said it was a big setback for the joint security forces in Tari conducting operations to maintain order and peace. He said 40 people were locked up in the small cell blocks. They were arrested in March in an operation conducted by soldiers and police officers. Lakari said it was overcrowded and was a health hazard to the inmates. He said they needed a magistrate immediately to hear the cases. The inmates were arrested for offences such as murder, attempted murder, rape, armed robbery and possession of illegal guns. He said police could not release them on bail because the crimes were serious. Those found guilty could be transported to Bei-ubi jail in Mendi to free up space in the cell. “If one sector of the Law and Justice sector is not functioning, the other line agencies trying to do some good work to maintain order in the province are also affected,” he said. He had sent a request to the magisterial services last month for a magistrate but had received no response.
2000 women die every year – just giving birth
May 2, 2018 The National
CLOSE to 2000 women die during delivery in Papua New Guinea every year and 6000 infants perish before they are four weeks old. United Nations Children Fund health official Dr Ghanashyam Sethy said the deaths were preventable yet it remained a global problem. “This is mainly because we do not have a specific programme or intervention to tackle reduction of neonatal deaths,” he said. Sethy said neonatal mortality had virtually remained stagnant for more than 20 years. According to Unicef reports, two thirds of neonatal deaths are associated with high-risk pregnancies, labour and delivery and many happen due to poor access to child health services. Although there are many factors, 80 per cent of neonatal deaths are due to birth asphyxia; infections and pre-maturity, the report say. In addition, hypothermia is a cause of death. Neonates continue to die due to lack of simple, cost-effective care such as warmth, breastfeeding support, basic care for infections and breast-feeding difficulties. About 40 per cent of rural primary healthcare facilities were closed or partially functional. Those that operate were often run by churches, non-governmental organisations or the private sector. Many rural aid posts have closed due to low motivation for staff to work in remote, financially unstable and dangerous environments. Even with the recourse to outreach service delivery for communities from existing health facilities, the high cost of transportation and lack of funding impede effective service delivery to the remote population, the reports say.
Schools Hit Hard at they continue to wait for Government TFF
Post Courier, May 3, 2018
GOVERNMENT authorities have confirmed K40 million in tuition fee funds will be remitted to schools by tomorrow to save hundreds of schools throughout the nation from closing.
Reports from East Sepik state that around 600 schools have threatened to close while in Northern Province 561 schools are affected, nine high schools and secondary schools have been worst hit.
Northern Provincial Education adviser Maino Vegoli said yesterday it was a sad situation for six boarding high schools and secondary schools in the province. He said despite the local MP Richard Masere’s assistance of K10,000 worth of food separately for two schools in the district, they are in a dire situation. The desperation has led provincial authorities to seek assistance from business houses in the province to provide food rations. In Milne Bay Province, 669 schools are affected with two main secondary schools in Alotau badly affected.
Third Country Resettlement for Refugees a myth.
Post Courier May 8, 2018
AUSTRALIA’S Homes Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says refugees on Manus Island who are not resettled in the United States will remain in Papua New Guinea. He said it was a “myth” that other countries would be willing to take them, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported yesterday. The Australian government had struck a deal with the Trump administration to settle up to 1200 refugees from offshore detention, but it was not clear whether all owed protection would be accepted. Those who are not will remain permanently in Papua New Guinea under a deal struck by the former Rudd Labor government in 2013, unless another nation is willing to accept them.
Federal Labor has been calling on the coalition to negotiate another resettlement deal, but Mr Dutton said that was no longer a realistic option.“ Let’s be realistic, when Labor talks about some mythical third country, it doesn’t exist,” he said.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has been talking with many nations for years but there has been no breakthrough. Australia had struck a deal with Cambodia to take refugees, but so far only three people have been successfully resettled there. Mr Dutton said his staff would continue negotiating but described the prospects of success as bleak.
Surprise Hotline helping quake survivors. https://www.irinnews.org/news/2018/05/07/dial-help-surprise-hotline-helping-quake-survivors-papua-new-guinea
More than two months after Papua New Guinea’s strongest earthquake in almost a century, stranded survivors are turning to an unexpected lifeline: a small domestic violence hotline run by a non-governmental organisation. Although the risks of violence against women rise after disasters, most callers aren’t women. They’re men reaching out for support, enquiring about how to obtain food, shelter, and other services, or fearful of violence that has broken out in some areas after tribal clashes. The toll-free line has been ringing almost non-stop with calls from people whose lives are still upended by the 7.5-magnitude earthquake that struck the country’s remote highlands region on 26 February. The quake triggered landslides that toppled villages, wiped out food supplies, and blocked key access roads. Authorities say the disaster killed dozens and left an estimated 270,000 in need of help. But tens of thousands of displaced people in isolated areas are still waiting for food, water, shelter, and other emergency aid.
The nine local trauma counsellors at the 1-Tok Kaunselin Helpim Lain have fielded roughly 2,000 calls since the earthquake, according to ChildFund. In addition to hearing about shortages of food and other basic needs, the Port Moresby-based counsellors talk with people who are afraid of aftershocks or simply anxious about what’s happening in their communities.
Detainees depending on ‘gift’ food
May 9, 2018 The National
THE KIMBE police station in West New Britain has not been able to afford to buy food for detainees for five months. It has been depending on communities and visitors who brought in food for their family members to feed the others hungry in the police cells, station commander Senior Inspector Daniel Yangen said. “The station’s cell block can hold up to 40 detainees daily,” he said. “Since December, we have been relying on the friendship relationship with the detainees’ visitors to bring food to feed them and their friends in the cell as we understand that the government’s budget has not been doing well.” Yangen said food was among a number of issues that the station was facing. “We do not have stationery like the charge books and other necessities that are used to record crimes that are reported on a daily basis.” Yangen said they could not use excuses to perform their mandated responsibilities as police officers. “We are working because we have sworn to serve our people in the province and country as a whole by making sure that their safety and security are guaranteed.”
As govt cash dwindles, debt-ridden Simbu schools face closure
09 May 2018
KUNDIAWA – High and secondary schools in Simbu Province are on the verge of closure due to the delay in the release of the tuition fees by the national government. At least two secondary schools in Simbu suspended classes last week. Rosary College Kondiu and Gumine secondary schools put classes on indefinite hold on Friday and students were sent home to await further notice.
“Kondiu, yes, we parents are having emergency meeting today (Monday) to discuss how parents can assist ease the delay under the tuition fee free policy of school subsidies” he said. Later in the day, Mr Kalasim reported that the main resolution of the meeting was that parents would provide food to keep the school functioning until the outstanding fees were released. He said that notable dignitaries attended at the meeting including the secretary for Kundiawa Catholic Diocese, Bishop Anton Bal, as well as the board of directors, parents and teachers.
Mr Kalasim said the school principal reported that the first term subsidy instalment of K140,000 was used to partially settle debts of K167, 000. The balance of K27, 000 remained outstanding and creditors had closed their doors making it difficult for the school to continue functioning.
The experience of Kondiu is not an isolated case. Many schools in Simbu are operating on credit facilities to keep them functioning. When the subsidy comes, it goes to paying off debt. Then schools again resort to credit facilities to operate in a never-ending vicious circle.
Child abuse in the City is alarming
Post Courier, May 10, 2018
Child abuse is alarming in Lae city. It is a war on the children ranging from ages five to 10 years says Angau Hospital family support centre nurse manager sister Anastasia Wakon. She was speaking at the commissioning of the a new state-of-the-art family support centre (FSC) predicted to provide timely and confidential medical treatment for survivors of family and sexual violence. She said they have been attending to more than 50 victims on a daily basis using a container built donga but the new building is a bonus to improve their services. “Innocent children are suffering from the ill behaviors; ‘‘We need to address the issue of drugs and pornography. We all have a lot on our plate to tackle,” Sr Wakon said.
Overcrowding at Mental Hospital
Post Courier, May 15, 2018
PATIENTS with mental illnesses due to abuse of marijuana and alcohol are causing overcrowding at Laloki Psychiatric Hospital outside Port Moresby. The hospital’s psychiatrist Dr Losavati Daugunu said that the majority of the patients at the 56-bed hospital had issues with mental illnesses due to substance abuse. “Some of them are Bomana jail prisoners who have committed crimes under the influence of this substance and have acquired mental illness,” she said. “Today, drug addiction is considered one of the most widespread psychiatric disorders.
Dr Daugunu said that in the past five years, one of the common causes of admission was mental illness due to the abuse of the substance. “Unfortunately, the hospital does not have updated statistics’ of mentally ill patients. However, today, a lot of our young people who have abused drugs are now in the episode of psychosis or encountering mental illnesses caused by the toxins in the marijuana. Toxins are mostly found in the flower tops and leaves of the marijuana plant,” she added.
According to Laloki statistics in 2013, about 211 patients were admitted with different mental disorders.
Marijuana is a factory chemical of its own, containing 421 natural chemicals. A strong-smelling Asian plant (Cannabis sativa), also called hemp. The main active ingredient in the marijuana plant is called “tetrahydrocannabinol” (THC) – delta-9 which has the strongest psychoactive effect.
Babies a part of Prison Life
Post Courier May 15, 2018
LOOKING after a child is challenging and difficult in jails. The children who are in prison with their mothers do not have many clothes but the mothers are grateful to receive supplies of diapers from the prison management for their babies. Such is the case at Buimo jail. Currently, there are three baby girls aged between three months to one year. All three were born while their mothers were serving time. The jail is their home. The three are Serah Taro, three months, Anitha Apung, nine months and Raynola Simon, one year. The mothers said raising them in a jail is challenging and difficult. “When we look after children, they disturb others who shout at us to stop the babies from crying but we can’t help it,” said one mother. “When we want to wash the children’s napkins or other things which they have used, we will be scolded at by other inmates to go wash these things at another place,” said another mother.
15 May 2018 Companies pass judgement: things are worsening in PNG http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/05/business-passes-judgement-says-things-are-worsening-in-png.html#more
Being Heard: The 2017 Survey of Businesses in Papua New Guinea by Paul Holden with Paul Barker and Steven Goie, Institute of National Affairs Discussion Paper 105, Port Moresby, April 2018. Download the report here
NOOSA – The overarching message in a fine piece of research of 287 companies by PNG’s Institute of National Affairs is that the business environment in PNG is deteriorating,
The report says the biggest change since the previous survey in 2012 is the problem flowing from the overvalued kina and lack of foreign currency availability, which are cited as damaging investment and growth and as a major impediment to business operations. Corruption is becoming an increasing problem with two-thirds of firms reporting they make “irregular payments” to government officials and more than 60% saying they are affected in some way by corruption in dealing with public officials, Less than 20% say they report solicitation of bribes to police or other relevant agencies.
“The extent of corruption reported by businesses appears to be widespread,” says the report. “While the greatest number of respondents indicated that the problems lay in either Lands or Customs/Finance/Tax institutions…. most respondents indicated that there were multiple institutions where irregular payments were necessary.”
Of as much concern is the finding that business confidence in the judiciary has declined substantially over the past 15 years. In 2002, 78% of businesses had some level of confidence in the judiciary; by last year this had decreased to 60%, with only 20% being “highly confident” in the judiciary.
The law and order situation in PNG is such that security of personnel and property is a large burden on business, amounting to 10% of operating costs. Two-thirds of respondents also say it has a negative impact on investment decisions.“If t here is one constant from the four business surveys over the past 15 years,” the report says, “it is the adverse impact of security and crime on the business environment.”
Health centre’s nurses struggling, appealing for help
May 16, 2018The National
THE two nurses serving around 30,000 people at a health centre in Southern Highlands are calling for more assistance to cope with the load. Community health worker Wendy Pugu and another nurse are based at the Sumbura Health Centre in Kagua district. She said the health centre needed more health workers. “There’s just the two of us here, myself and the other nursing officer,” she said. “Most of the health workers who were posted here have all left due to housing problems. “There is just the two of us who have remained to serve our people.” Pugu said they got their medicine supply from Mt Hagen every three months. But they would last for only six weeks. She said the health centre’s water tanks were damaged during the 7.5 magnitude earthquake in February and should be replaced.“ Currently we have no water and we hope that the disaster committee will fast track their duties and provide the health centres with water tanks. We have more than 30,000 people in Sumbura who depend on us.”
Govt must explain why free education is failing – & fix it
21 May 2018 http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/05/govt-must-explain-why-free-education-is-failing-fix-it.html
CHUAVE – The government component of TFFE (tuition fee free education) to schools in Papua New Guinea has been slashed to only 50%. TFFE subsidies are released to schools each term and are supposed to cover the actual cost of running a school for ten weeks. The actual school fee per student is divided into two segments: lower secondary (Grades 9 and 10) and upper secondary (Grades 11 and 12). Lower secondary students were allocated K1,300 for 2018 and upper secondary K1,600.
The Education Department under the ministry of Nick Kuman adopted the concept last year. But it was not effectively executed. There was a large amount cut from the money supposed to be paid to schools. Most people, particularly parents living in remote areas and below the poverty line in urban areas, concluded there is a loophole whereby funds have been diverted to other stakeholders. Whatever the actual policy is now, it has not been made known to schools around the country.
There has been no effective survey to analyse the real cost of running schools, but the new ‘slash funds’ policy was drafted and accepted for implementation within the Education Department.
How will remote schools in PNG like Karimui, Kairiru Island, Jimi and Telefomin manage to keep their schools open if the cost is triple that of running schools in a city or town?
Mai High School, located on the outskirts of Kundiawa, has 450 student in Grades 9 and 10. For Term 1 this year it received of K61,960. According to the calculation of K1,300 per student, it was supposed to receive more than twice that – K127,125.
….The consequences of the failure of TFFE have severely affected school operations.
The policy sounded good but its collapse has been a disaster for schools and it is hindering the quality of learning throughout Papua New Guinea.
APEC: Difficult to be enthusiastic about immense govt expenditure
22 May 2018 http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/05/apec-difficult-to-be-enthusiastic-about-immense-govt-expenditure.html
PORT MORESBY – It is not clear when the big-man politics in Papua New Guinea’s foreign policy began.
It was likely during the prime ministership of Sir Michael Somare in the early 2000s, when he pushed for PNG to be an aid donor to the region.
The Melanesian Arts Festival was a last-minute scramble, hosted in makeshift premises. The South Pacific Games, although heralded a success, went ahead with several venues incomplete.
However, this didn’t stop then sports minister Justin Tkatchenko and then Governor-General Sir Michael Ogio from announcing a possible bid for the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
Three years later, some of the South Pacific Games venues are still to be completed, others are not open to the general public and many have been closed temporarily due to unpaid service bills accumulated from the Games. This is an example of what may happen to the infrastructure being built now to host the APEC summit in November this year, which expects to see leaders from 21 economies, and potentially thousands of officials and delegates, visit Port Moresby.
In the absence of accurate government facts and figures on the economic benefits these commitments will bring to PNG in real terms, it is difficult to be enthusiastic about immense government expenditure on only a few days’ meetings. This is especially so given the bust PNG is experiencing after the heights of the LNG pre-production stage when economic growth rates were more than 10%. Some of the startling boom-to-bust figures were highlighted recently by a Jubilee Australia report which O’Neill was quick to label “fake news”.
…stated that APEC was good for PNG because it would put the country on the map, ensuring “everyone will remember where Papua New Guinea is” and not confuse it with an African country.
This may well be the most accurate statement as to why PNG is hosting APEC in 2018.
The challenging cycle of family poverty, violence & breakdown
Michelle Nayahamui Rooney, Miranda Forsyth, Mary Aisi & Dora Kuir-Ayius | Devpolicy Blog | Extracts. 25 May 2018 http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/05/women-the-cycle-of-poverty-marital-breakdown-chronic-violence.html
You can read the complete article on this important research project here
CANBERRA – We conducted research in Lae for three weeks in April to explore the connections between women’s experiences of seeking support to address family and sexual violence in their lives and their children’s wellbeing and opportunities for education.
Emerging findings from this research have highlighted the multiple financial and social considerations that limit women’s ability to seek certain types of assistance.
The research also highlighted the gap between formal systems of support and the reality for most low-income families whose children tend to fall out of the education system because of the immediate and longer-term impact of family and sexual violence. Many of the women we interviewed have extremely low incomes and low educational levels. Their experiences of violence reflect deeply-entangled cycles of poverty, marital breakdowns and chronic episodic violence – all of which reinforce each other. …..
Many women are supporting others while also dealing with their own experiences of violence, and the research revealed the critical role that neighbours, family members, other survivors, schools, and churches play in assisting those experiencing family and sexual violence. Lifetime experiences and episodes of violence can also involve multiple factors and relationships.
The economic (financial and opportunity) costs of seeking support, particularly from the state, are a major constraint on women’s ability to address the violence in their lives. Many of these costs are related to their ability to provide for their children’s housing, food, education, and other basic needs.
These costs are exacerbated by the lack of knowledge and confusion over the support services available.
Another important reason why women do not pursue the formal route for addressing family and sexual violence is the fear of losing the family income if their partner is sentenced to jail.
For those living in Lae’s informal settlement communities, even if they wish to resolve the matter locally in the community, they must pay ‘table fees’ for local leaders and komiti [committee] members to hear their cases of domestic violence.
These local mediation fees can range from K10 to K50 per party to the dispute. If there are multiple parties in the complaint such as when there is a polygamous relationship, these costs can escalate to include other costs such as compensation.
Costs include being asked to pay the police for fuel or other enticements before they will attend to a domestic violence incident. The delays in responses often mean that the perpetrator has run away.
Some women expressed concern that they are required by police to directly request a perpetrator to come to the police station to face a complaint. Others noted that police, magistrates, lawyers or local mediators were often known to both parties, making it difficult for complaints to be dealt with independently.
Many women also expressed wariness about the formal process especially because they fear the violence worsening if the process is unsuccessful or when the perpetrator is released from jail. For this reason, many women prefer to resolve matters within the family, the church or community. Many women said that they turned to religious spirituality for comfort and hope and found social support within their church networks.
Women and girls finding main bus stops unsafe
May 25, 2018 The National
WOMEN and girls find the main bus stops unsafe because of the harassment they face from petty thieves, according to a United Nations official. UN Women representative Brenda Andrias said the women and girls were often harassed while they are waiting for buses. She said criminal activities at bus stops were increasing with the attacks usually orchestrated by people loitering there. “When there is an attack, people often do not help the victim,” Andrias said. “The attack is not being reported to authorities because of a lack of trust in people.” She said women were not safe in public transport because of the lack of trust between drivers and the passengers. She said the bus stops at Gordon, 4-Mile and Boroko where most attacks took place. The UN Women had tried to help women and girls by providing their own buses.
Urgent need to expand services for PNG’s hidden HIV epidemic
27 May. http://asopa.typepad.com
SYDNEY – Researchers from the Papua New Guinea Institute for Medical Research and the Kirby Institute at the University of NSW say expanded health services are needed to tackle high rates of HIV, hepatitis and sexually transmitted infection among key populations in PNG.
The study, Kauntim mi tu (“Count me too”), represents the most comprehensive understanding of PNG’s HIV epidemic among the key populations considered to be most in need of HIV-related health services. It provides crucial clinical and behavioural information to assist plan a national response to support the country’s efforts in prevention and care. The survey, the first of its kind conducted in PNG, collected data from populations considered most at risk for HIV and sexually transmissible infections (STIs): female sex workers; men who have sex with men; and transgender women.
Dr Angela Kelly-Hanku, principal investigator on the study, says the research provides clear information to guide where the country’s limited resources need to be targeted to turn the epidemic around. “HIV prevalence among female sex workers in Port Moresby was 14.9%, Lae 11.9% and Mt Hagen 19.6%. Even more concerning is that less than half those with HIV were aware they had the virus. Far more work needs to be undertaken to ensure increased access to testing,” said Dr Kelly-Hanku. The report showed that among men who have sex with men and transgender people, HIV prevalence was 8.5% in Port Moresby and 7.1% in Lae.
STI rates were similarly concerning, with more than half of female sex workers and over one-third of men who have sex with men and transgender women diagnosed with one or more STIs, excluding HIV.
Chaos in Enga continues
May 25, 2018 The National
TEN people were killed, a soldier was shot and two police vehicles burnt as tribal fighting continues to cause mayhem in Enga. Enga police commander Acting Supt George Kakas yesterday said Wabag had been declared a fighting zone. He is requesting for an additional 60 soldiers to help police deal with the “worst tribal fight”. Members of a police mobile squad based in Hela were already in Wabag. The ongoing fight between the Kii and Kala tribes in Wabag had resulted in the loss of lives and destruction to properties. Calls by police for an end to fighting to allow peace talks have not been heeded. Kakas said the soldier shot was in a critical condition at the Mt Hagen Provincial Hospital. Police could not move into the fight zone because they were outnumbered and the tribesmen were using high-powered guns.
Female principals join march to end tribal war in Wabag
26 May 2018 http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/05/female-principals-join-march-to-end-tribal-war-in-wabag.html#more
WABAG – It was a rare sight to see two women – the principal of a nursing school and her deputy – marching to petition the Papua New Guinea government to stop the warfare on Wabag’s doorstep with a more effective intervention. Principal Noelyn Koutalo from New Ireland and deputy Janet Nakore from West New Britain said they joined in the protest march because Enga is now their home and they were sad to see the suffering, death and destruction resulting from the prolonged tribal war between the Kii and the Kala tribes on the edge of town. Both were very near the fighting zone and experienced the effects of the tribal fight.
So they decided to join hundreds of people including the principal of Kopen Secondary School, Dominic Lawton, and church and community leaders from Kopen, Kamas, Kaiap, Sopas, Lakaiyok and many other areas to ask the authorities to stop the fighting and restore services.
