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

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PNG Gossip Newsletter Meri Milne Bay

Welcome to the Papua New Guinea Gossip - 12 Jan 2002. A very special welcome is extended to any new readers. If you have comments or suggestions to make then please e-mail them to giaman@png-gossip.com

Articles for this newsletter

To send a message for submission to the PNG Gossip Newsletter -- please e-mail your contribution to pngnews.queue@png-gossip.com

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

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

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

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

Neo Melanesian

"Pidgin English"
kar - car
truk - truck
motobaik - motor bike
balus - aeroplane
wiliwil - bicycle
sip - ship
bot - boat



Links

The following are some interesting pages about PNG by Jane Resture. http://www.janeresture.com/png_home/index.htm She has an interesting link about Trobriand Women located at http://www.janeresture.com/trobriand_women/

For information about Wuvulu please visit http://www.wuvulu.com

The Port Moresby Diocese of the Anglican Church in Papua New Guinea is located at http://portmoresby.anglican.org

Another interesting link is the "Revising the Mihalic project" -- The following link welcomes all with an interest in Tok Pisin! http://coombs.anu.edu.au/SpecialProj/PNG/MIHALIC/Index.htm. This is a collaborative project -- you can help if you know Tok Pisin well. You are especially wanted if you are a Papua New Guinean with regional and dialectical usages of Tok Pisin, or you know trade, occupational, botanical, faunal, and nautical or any other specialist subsets of the language. John Burton is coordinating the project.

Not far from Port Moresby is Loloata Resort. For more info visit http://www.loloata.com

Take a look at the PNG section of DIVErsion Dive Travel & Training in Cairns, Australia located at http://www.diversionOZ.com/epngdive.htm

Does any one have any links they want mentioned? The only rule is that links must be related to PNG.




Mendi

To add to the existing troubles in Mendi the road between Mount Hagen and Mendi has been blocked by a landslide at Nebilyer.

The Public Services Minister wants to declare a state of emergency for Mendi due to the ongoing tribal fighting in the town and surrounding areas.

Rumours have put the number of deaths as a result of tribal fighting in Mendi as high as 50 people and possibly hundreds injured.




Air Niugini

The National Flag Carrier once again hopes to be able to fly to Japan inn April if the Board of Air Niugini gives the final approval. It is expected that the flights to Japan will bring in an extra 6000 tourists to the country. It is anticipated that the flights will be to and from Tokyo. Local tourist operators are already gearing up for the anticipated influx of tourists. http://www.airniuginmi.com.pg




Rabaul Shipping

The Kimbe office of Rabaul Shipping was robbed of K3000 on New Years Eve.




Chinese Lion

Once again the Chinese community in Port Moresby welcomed the New Year with a lion dance accompanied by firecrackers to chase away evil spirits. The lion symbolises strength and it has been used in China for many centuries to welcome the New Year.




Chinese Dragon

The residents of Lae were once again treated to a Chinese dragon dancing at various locations throughout the city accompanied by traditional drums and cymbals. It is believed that the dragon will bring good luck, mostly in business.




Ela Beach

A protest march has been held about the redevelopment of Ela Beach. More than a hundred people marched down Lawes Road to Ela Beach recently to voice their concerns about the current road works along Ela Beach. Margaret Loko said the developers had not taken into account the fact that the beach is the only safe public beach for families in the city. She said the beach was a recreational reserve for family outings, sports and religious activities.




Languages of PNG

The National or official languages of PNG are Hiri Motu, Tok Pisin and English.

The number of languages listed for Papua New Guinea is 832. Of those, 823 are living languages and 9 are considered to be extinct.

For information on the languages a visit to http://www.sultry.arts.usyd.edu.au/ling/research/papuan2.html will start you off in the right direction. Another interesting article is located at http://www.krysstal.com/langfams.html. It deals with language families and mentions the Rotokas language - Rotokas is spoken in Papua New Guinea o the Island of Bougainville by approximately 4,300 people and it has the fewest sounds of any language, 11 (compared to the 44 or so of standard English). These 11 are made up of five vowels and six consonants: A, E, I, O, U, B, G, K, P, R, T. - can you imagine that - a language with only 11 sounds. Six of those are used in the name of the language.

It has been reported that PNG has one language for every 900 square kilometres of the country or roughly one language for every 350 square miles for those readers who don't use the metric system.




Soccer

PNG Soccer is looking for a sponsor so that it can go on the Internet. It is hoped that the website will be pngfa.org or pngfa.org.pg.




Hockey

PNG Hockey, in a bid to raise standards, has asked Hockey Australia for a coach to help prepare for the 2003 South Pacific Games to be held in Fiji.




Crocodile

The oldest crocodile at the Moitaka Wildlife Sanctuary has had to be put down because it had been attacked and mauled by a younger crocodile. It is believed that vandals placed the younger croc with the older one.




Kainantu

The Kainantu Chamber of Commerce office was broken into last week. Thieves broke in through the door and entered the office where they destroyed important files.




Queens Honours

51 people have been listed to receive the Queen's New Year Honours. Moi Avei, for his work in politics and restoring peace in Bougainville, will become a Knight Commander of the most excellent order of the British Empire.




Magi Highway

The World Bank will help to fund the repairs to the Magi Highway in Central Province, which probably serves half the population of the Central Province. The project will cover approximately 68 kilometres of the road with an initial outlay of K1 million.




Rabaul Rugby

Rabaul Rugby League is losing Jeff Wade who helped to get Rabaul their first SP Cup last year. Jeff has accepted a posting outside the East New Britain Province. Rabaul is also losing their team manager, Bert Szwaluk who is leaving the country.




Book Donation

The Pro Vice Chancellor of the University of PNG has donated over 600 books to two libraries. 400 books went to the Sir Michael Somare Library and 200 to the Gerehu Provincial High School.




School Rush

The annual start of the year school rush is expected to start very soon. All teachers and students have been asked to make their way to the various schools as early as possible.




Oro (Northern) Province

A former deputy Prime Minister has attacked the education authorities in Oro Province stating that the standard of education has reached a dismal level well below acceptable levels.




Tufi Dive Resort

http://www.tufitelita.com/index.html -- This website looks after the interests of the Tufi Dive Resort and Telita Cruises.

Tufi is located on the other side of the main island to Port Moresby in the Northern or Oro Province. Quoting from the website Tufi is located on the northern side of the mainland of Papua New Guinea and approximately 250 kilometres due east of the capital, Port Moresby. It lies between Lae and Alotau on the tip of Cape Nelson in Oro Province and it is accessible only by sea and air.




Trans Niugini Tours

http://www.pngtours.com - is the website of TRANS NIUGINI TOURS, some people say it is the leading inbound tour operator in Papua New Guinea. In addition to being an inbound tour operator they also own and operate a series of world famous Wilderness Lodges in PNG. They own and operate their own mini coaches in Port Moresby, the Highlands, and Madang. They operate their own boats on the Sepik and in Madang. They also have their own aircraft, which link the various Lodges. Take a look at their website and learn a bit more about the tourist side of PNG.




PNGBC

The PNGBC National Staff Association has been blasted for not showing up at two scheduled meetings with the chairman of the arbitration tribunal.




Jimmy Maladina

The former chairman of the National Provident Fund Board has become a celebratory with the Post Courier printing a special colour picture of him for people to collect or as one person was heard to say -- throw darts at.

Mr. Maladina was accused of corruption and mismanagement of the NPF during his short time as chairman at the superfund between 1998 and 1999. He is now living in Brisbane, Australia with his family and has reportedly expressed fears for his life if he returned home.

Interesting to see that the National Provident Fund Offices at Four Mile have two of the posters on the front door of the office.




National Provident Fund

The director of the police Criminal Investigations Division (CID) has said that CID have enough evidence to lay criminal charges against disgraced lawyer and former National Provident Fund board chairman, Jimmy Maladina.




Bill Purcell

This site -- http://enterprise.powerup.com.au/~billpurc/index.htm -- is owned by Bill Purcell a pilot who has flown many, many hours in Papua New Guinea. For all of you who have lived in PNG and dealt with Pidgin he has a short article on that very subject at http://enterprise.powerup.com.au/~billpurc/tokpisin.htm




Elections

The elections will be based on the same rules as previous elections. i.e. First past the post. The fees for nominating will stay at the same rate. The talked about 500 percent increase in nominating fees and the preferential voting system will not come into effect until after the current elections are over.

The National Government did hope to be able to enact the 500 percent increase in time for the coming elections.




Bill Skate

Bill Skate has claimed that a journalist at The National (http://www.thenational.com.pg) asked for a sum of money to help destroy the ruling People's Democratic Movement (PDM) party by writing negative stories about it in the newspaper. The Editor in Chief of The National, Yehiura Hriehwazi, said he viewed as "very serious" the allegations against his staff and the newspaper.




Jail Escape

Police and jail officials claim that new laws (Correctional Services Act) prevent them from searching in nearby villages for fourteen recently escaped prisoners from Baisu jail outside Mount Hagen.




Walindi

Another site worth visiting, especially if you are into diving is http://www.walindi.com




MS Simulator

Here is a website which amongst other Microsoft Flight Simulator files are the necessary files for the Air Niugini Fokker F28 4000 and Air Niugini A310 300 series jet aircraft -- http://www.map.net.nz/AFS2K/Jets/Jets.htm




Kick Boxing

Port Moresby-based professional boxer Andy Emex has challenged amateur kickboxing world champion Stanley Nandex to a match. Nandex as the amateur kickboxing champion is normally expected to defend his title at least twice a year.




Bougainville

The PNGDF is expected to quit Bougainville by March this year. At the moment there are less than 100 soldiers based around the island.




Three Year Plan

Leaders of Bougainville are ready to present a three-year strategic plan to convince the National Government of a need for an autonomous government.




Missionaries of Charity

Sister Nirmala Joshi who replaced Mother Teresa as the head of the Missionaries of Charity, has been on a 10-day tour of PNG.




Eye Specialists

Eye Specialists at the Port Moresby General Hospital have appealed for people to donate items such as sutures, steroid drops and intraocular lenses. It has been reported that there may be as many as 12,000 cataract operations in PNG each year, which need the requested items.




Grid Iron

American Football has recently been introduced into PNG. 38 players have been recruited with the majority coming from the National Capital. Another 42 are required to make a viable two-team competition in PNG. It is hoped that a team will be able to compete in the World Cup Tournaments to be held in Suva in February.




Street Sweeper

A concerned expat has written to the Post Courier asking where the expensive street sweeper has disappeared. It was purchased at a cost of K350,000 to sweep the streets of the national capital but has not been seen on the road for ages.




Border Crossers

400 border crosses from Irian Jaya have vowed not to return to their homes until Irian Jaya is given independence from Indonesia. They are currently being taken care of by the Catholic Church in Vanimo. Most of the crossers are from Wamena Province of Irian Jaya.




School Funds

K100 million has just been released to help pay for primary and secondary school fees in the country. The final K50 million will be released soon.




Elections

The PNG Defence Force is anticipating violence during the coming elections and is planning accordingly. One of the most serious threats identified so far has been the raising of illegal armies,




Kimbe

Police in Kimbe, West New Britain province, has reported an increase in the cultivation and sale of drugs. Police have collected over 40 kilograms of marijuana in the last two months. Most of the drugs have been intercepted aboard ships traveling to Kimbe and beyond from Lae.




Pacom Communications

Pacom Communications have a web site located at http://www.prosec.com.pg/pacom. They are the sole Motorola distributor in PNG. They deal with VHF, UHF handheld and vehicle radios, HF SSB long-range communications equipment and Cellular and Satellite phone equipment.




SP Sports Awards

The 2002 Sports Awards were launched recently with the awards expected to be given out in May. This year the winners will be given cash as prizes. The sportsman and sportswoman of the year will each receive K2,500.

Previous winners in 2001 were Adrian Lam, the then captain of the PNG Rugby League team, was named as the SP Sportsman of the Year.

Naluge Guy, the PNG squash player rated in the top 75 in the world, was voted Sportswoman of the year 2001.

The PNG Kumuls (Rugby League Team) won the sportsteam of the year for 2001.




Lonely Planet

For an online tourist guide to Papua New Guinea visit the Lonely Planet Website at http://www.lonelyplanet.com.au/dest/aust/png.htm




TV Programming

Some of the questions that I get asked are what sort of television do you watch? I'll list some of the stations that we are able to receive. Along with our local TV station EmTV (http://www.emtv.com.pg) we have

Some people have access to other channels and still can't find anything decent to watch.




Australian High Commission

The Australian High Commission has a website located at http://www.dg.com.pg/ahc


PNG media related sites


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Created 12 Jan 2002
Updated 16 May 2004
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©2002 - 2008 Gia Mann
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