Links
A reader, Nobby, has recommended the following links -- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PNGSA/
-- This is the website for PNG Solidarity Action which is a Sydney based activist
collective, organising a campaign in Australia in support of progressive activists
in PNG who are fighting against the World Bank, IMF, Australian economic imperialism
and other aspects of neo-colonial globalisation.
along with
http://www.geocities.com/belisi_2000/
-- A useful site if you are after information on the Bouganville Crisis, and
brand new -- http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/fadt_ctte/PNG/
-- Australia's relationship with Papua New Guinea and other Pacific island
countries
cheers, Nobby.
The United Pentecostal Assemblies of PNG -- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PNGnews/
Of course you could also visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PNG_News/
but what would be the point of visiting yet another copy of this newsletter??
Rather than list every Yahoo Group dealing with PNG - please visit this
link and scroll through the pages.
News Items
Elections
The media has been filled with results of elections. The Electoral Commission
website has been very helpful in letting people keep track of what is happening.
http://www.pngec.gov.pg
Rain - Tabubil / Pomio
Rain seems to have been falling all over PNG. Although it rained for most
of the day near Tabubil during the elections it failed to dampen the enthusiasm
of voters near Tabubil in the Western Province. Rain also delayed voting in
the Pomio district of East New Britain Province. The weather in Port Moresby
has also been wet and cold.
Malaria
If you have ever had malaria or think you may have then visit this web site
-- http://www.rph.wa.gov.au/labs/haem/malaria
Clinically diagnosed malaria is still the leading cause of outpatient presentations,
the second leading cause of admissions and the second leading cause of death
within PNG. In the year 2000 statistics reveal that there were over 1.5 million
suspected cases of malaria, which lead to 617 deaths. Almost 225,500 blood
films were examined and 36 percent showed malaria parasites.
Areas above 1600 metres tends to be too high for malaria but between 1200
and 1600 metres there are intermittent cases of malaria being reported with
death rates being high due to a lack of immunity in the population.
Another website is located at the American Mosquito Control Association --
http://www.mosquito.org
Port Moresby General Hospital
The Port Moresby General Hospital has had to put a hold on elective, non-emergency
surgery due to a shortage of drugs. Only life-saving operations are being
performed. The key drugs used to anaesthetise patients and then revive them
after operations are arriving in dribs and drabs causing many operations to
have to wait for the necessary drugs.
Mask Festival
The eighth National Mask Festival will be held between the 21st and 27th of
July (2002). This will be the second year that the event has been held in
East New Britain (ENB). The festival will see the revival of the cultural
showpiece of the Tolai people of ENB - the warwagira. The festival will be
held in the Queen Elizabeth Park in Rabaul. Along with the warwagira there
will be choirs, string band and drama competitions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the land area of the provinces in PNG?
- National Capital and Central,29940 sq kms
- Oro Province,19827 sq kms
- Milne Bay Province,14000 sq kms
- Morobe Province,34,500 sq kms
- Madang Province,28000 sq kms
- Eastern Highlands,11706 sq kms
- Simbu Province,8476 sq kms
- Western Highlands,8288 sq kms
- Southern Highlands,25988 sq kms
- East Sepik,43000 sq kms
- West Sepik (Sandaun),36000 sq kms
- East New Britain,15500 sq kms
- West New Britain,21000 sq kms
- New Ireland,9500 sq kms
- Manus Province,2100 sq kms
- North Solomons Province,9400 sq kms
- Enga Province,10790 sq kms
- Western and Gulf Province, 135,000 sq kms
Tropical Fish
"Jim Reid" <jrrfl@bellsouth.net>
is looking for Tropical Marine fish collectors. If you have any information
he would appreciate if you could send him an email.
Toys for PNG Village Kids
Donna Harvey-Hall has submitted the following article.
Quote
I read your article about all the toys that were donated to the patients
in Port Moresby Hospital from the people in Salt Lake City and I thought about
how lucky the kids in Moresby always are as they get donations from everywhere.
In our area the poor little girls have a real problem. In the past, the "things"
they always used as dolls were the glass shaped Coke bottles which they wrap
up into a piece of laplap and call it a "baby". These days, glass
Coke bottles are a thing of the past and the plastic ones are just not the
same. I was recently out in the Garaina and Waria areas and I saw little girls
carrying little bilums with dirt filled plastic Coke bottles as their babies.
My heart went out to them. Being a little Mother is an instinctive thing
and I wonder if one of your readers is a Coca-Cola employee and if they possibly
have a company-produced magazine, which maybe could have worldwide, or even
Australia-wide appeal for "Dolls for the Little Mothers in PNG".
I would be happy to distribute these in our area. Any readers have a suggestion?
Donna Harvey-Hall
End Quote
Services Training
Six officers from the Fire Service, Police, Defence and the St John Ambulance
Service are attending the first Pacific urban search and rescue course in
Fiji to obtain more knowledge for their work.
Usino-Bundi district
Measles have been reported in the Madang Province. A total of 55 people, mostly
children, have been treated for measles at the Walium Health Centre in Usino-Bundi.
This is the first time Usino-Bundi district has experienced a measles outbreak.
Nightclub Ban?
There has been a call to impose a liquor ban and to close nightclubs by HIV/AIDS
counsellors attending a conference in Madang because they are potential ways
to curb HIV infections. The counsellors have sent a petition to Prime Minister
Sir Mekere Morauta.
The petition called on the Government to impose a liquor ban and close nightclubs
in both rural and urban areas, which the counsellors claimed were potential
places for the transmission of HIV infection. It asked the Government to:
- make funds available for counselling and home care projects;
- The PNG HIV/AIDS management Act to be given top priority in the first
sitting of the new Parliament;
- empower and give equal opportunities for women to take leading role at
the national level in policy making;
- give priority on education and job opportunities for the youth.
Medical and Health Science
The University of PNG School of Medical and Health Science has received a
donation of K231,500 worth of computers and printers from AusAID. The donation
consisted of 44 desktop and four laptop computers. Twenty of the computers
will be installed in the medical library for the students to use to access
the latest information on any health issues contained on CD-ROMs.
Air Niugini Boeing 767
As hinted in the last issue Air Niugini is about to make major changes to
it schedule of flying on international sectors. The chairman of the Air Niugini
Board, Sir Michael Bromley, has confirmed that Air Niugini was close to finalising
contractual arrangements to lease a Boeing 767-300 aircraft.
The existing Airbus A310 will be stored in USA for a while and then used
as a cargo plane. Press release
Air Niugini Domestic
Air Niugini Management is now required to present recommendations on long
term fleet plans to service the PNG domestic market by September 30 this year.
Rotary Gift
The Rabaul Rotarians have donated 1000 books to the Rabaul District Library.
The library is open to the public. Rotary have also opened the Rotary public
library to supplement the District library.
PNG Defence Force
Ross Eastgate has the following to report -- The three newest officers of
the PNGDF graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon on Saturday,
22 June 2002. They are 2nd Lieutenants D Aisuk, V Kagena, and DNBT
Vavar. The PNG graduates were among 61 graduates from the Australian Army,
Royal Australian Air Force and the Singapore Armed Forces who paraded at Duntroon
before being presented with their commissions by the outgoing Chief of the
Australian Defence Force, Admiral Chris Barrie AC.
Major Ross Eastgate OAM
ADF Liaison Officer
East Timor Independence Celebrations
Transport Publication
The University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) has launched a textbook to help
guide politicians and the government to address the transport needs of the
country. The books have also been written with the students in mind and will
be used widely at UPNG.
Aussie Rules Football
As mentioned in a previous issue of this newsletter the Australian Rules Football
Club - the Sydney Swans walked the Kokoda trail last year. The trek over the
famous Kokoda Trial is having a positive impact for PNG.
The Sydney Swans football match scheduled against the Richmond team from
Melbourne for the 31st of August will be dedicated to the 60th anniversary
of the trail on which so many young Australians lost their lives in defence
of Australia.
Immunology Society
The Immunology Association of Papua New Guinea has been formally launched
at a function held recently in Port Moresby.
The purpose and goals of the association will be to attend to concerns and
issues of immunology as it relates to the people and to expand, explore and
research new frontiers in the immunology field.
Milne Bay
A dive workshop to review issues related to Milne Bay's dive sites has had
to be deferred until the 26th of August in Alotau. A trial dive fee policy
will be introduced to Milne bay. This means that PNG registered dive vessels
and operators will pay K3 per diver site per day while non-PNG registered
vessels will pay K10 a day for the privilege.
Medicine Importation
The Health Secretary, Dr Nicholas Mann, will get tough on medical centres
that do not follow his department's regulations on the importation of medical
supplies. One of the first targets is a private hospital that has recently
run afoul of the Health Department by importing cheaper medicine to control
HIV/AIDS. It has been reported that "Prescription Only Medicine"
is readily available over the counter at all chemists in the country.
Defence Force Retirement Benefits fund
The inquiry into the Defence Force Retirement Benefits fund has heard that
the former defence minister Peter Waieng used almost K19,295 from the PNG
Gaming Board to invest in a Cairns based car rental company in Australia.
Red Cross
Students from the Don Bosco Technological Institute have conducted an awareness
week to help develop the value and spirit of voluntarism among Papua New Guineans
especially towards the Red Cross.
New InterOil Director
InterOil, owners of the Napa Napa oil refinery in Port Moresby, have appointed
Edward Speal, the managing director of BNP Paribas in Canada as a new member
to its board of directors.
UPNG Medical Student
For readers who are not familiar with voting in PNG -- When a person votes
in PNG their fingernail is painted with ink to show they have voted. A student
at the UPNG medical Campus was seen using swabs to erase the indelible ink
mark on his finger to presumably vote again in Port Moresby. Many people have
said that even bleach will remove the mark so a person could easily vote again.
Kina Decline
The value of the Kina has suffered a significant decline due to election problems
combined with minimal support from the central bank.
The Kina has recently decline against the US dollar and all other major currencies.
It is hoped that if the correct person becomes Prime Minister then confidence
will return and the Kina will climb.
Food Security
The Consumer Affairs Council (CAC) has said that it has no power to stop traders
from importing certain products so long as it is not dangerous to people's
health so the only other option was to educate the people to make right choices
on what they should eat. Awareness programs on healthy eating habits need
to be carried out by government agencies, health education and the CAC
Bougainville
Many Bougainvilleans have found that they are not able to vote (at the election)
because their names are not on the Common Electoral Roll. The biggest problem
is that the current Bougainville Common Roll has double entries, thousands
of names of those who have died are still registered and some eligible voters
have found they are not registered and cannot vote
UPNG
The University of Papua New Guinea has awarded its best academic performers
with certificates and K200 bookshop vouchers. 13 students were awarded the
Vice Chancellor's honours awards for scoring a Grade Point Average (GPA) of
3.5 and above. Thomas Wangi, a second year student in the Bachelor of Economic
degree program, scored the highest GPA of 3.75 and received a bookshop voucher
of K400 for his performance.
Field Hockey
The Papua New Guinea Hockey Federation has agreed to stage the 2002 national
championships in Lae this year from the 14th to the 15th of September. The
championships will be open to affiliated and non-affiliated members.
Track and Field
Mae Koime has picked up three gold medals and a AUD $200 bonus when recently
competing in the Coral Coast track and field carnival in Cairns, Australia.
The 18-year-old Goroka Grammar school student competed in the open division
and won the 100 metre on Saturday in a personal best time of 12.1 seconds
and followed this with victory in the 300 metre gift race on Sunday which
carried a first prize of AUD $200. Koime managed to just hold off a strong
challenge from Kimara Timms to breast the tape in 25.9 seconds in the 200
metre event.
Mercy Flight
The Townsville Bulleting in Australia has reported that a nine-year-old PNG
boy in the remote Western Province needed to have a lead pellet cut out his
lung. The boy was shooting pellets out of his shanghai and managed to swallow
a pellet he had stored in his mouth. The boy needed to be flown direct to
Cairns by charter flight and then on to Townsville by a commercial carrier
for then operation.
Kokoda Post Courier
In what has been reported to be the longest newspaper delivery walk in Papua
New Guinea has been completed with the 10 young men from the June Valley Youth
Fellowship arriving back in Port Moresby last week. The group set out on the
walk on June 7 at Edebu, 62km northeast of Port Moresby to amongst other things,
deliver copies of the Post-Courier Election Special Edition to villages along
the track to Kokoda station and then to Popondetta in the Northern Province.
7-hour blackout
Port Moresby has suffered yet another blackout longer than the normal one
to two hours. PNG Power, the new name for Elcom, has apologised to the people
of the national capital for the major blackout that hit homes and election
activities recently. Most of the city was without power for seven hours, from
2pm until 9pm. A tripped circuit was given as the excuse for the blackout.
Isurava Monument
Rick has contributed the following item -- A rather large monument is likely
to be erected at the site of the Isurava battlefield on the Kokoda Trail.
PNG Media
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Articles for this Newsletter
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Some of the above are courtesy of Liz and her friends at the University of
Technology in Lae. http://www.unitech.ac.pg
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