PNG Gossip Newsletter - 16 Apr 2006

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Neo Melanesian

"Pidgin English"

Tok Pisin English
adres address
adresim address a letter
ai eye
ais ice / snow
aisblok iceblock
aiskrim ice-cream
antap high / summit / up / upstairs
autim cross out / withdraw
bagarap break down / worn out
bagarapim spoil
bas / PMV bus
biktaun city
bil bill
lain / famili clan
bot boat
botol bottle
 
Interested in having your own Web Site? Worried about the cost? It may be cheaper than you think. Take a look at pricing at the PNG Web Hosting site. Sites with space for 15,000 MB of data, 300 GB transfer per month and 24/7 ticket/phone support for less than US$5.00 per month. -- DOT COM Domains from US$9.00 per year.
 

Remember that this mailing list is meant (mainly) for people who have an interest and already know a little bit about the people and geography of Papua New Guinea. The PNG Kina, which is mentioned from time to time in this newsletter, is currently worth around 30.5 - 31.0 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 -- The PNG Business and Tourism Directory also has daily rates based from a PNG perspective

Welcome to the
Papua New Guinea Gossip Newsletter

A very special welcome is extended to any new readers. If you have comments or suggestions to make then please click here and use the submission form.

Articles for this newsletter

To send a message for submission to the PNG Gossip Newsletter -- please click here and use the submission form.



Warning: PNG web sites seem to come and go. The fact of life is that it costs money to host a web site and there is not much return on the outlay to most businesses in PNG. If you do click on a link and use the services or even have some comments to make then please contact the people at the relevant web site and let them know so they at least know that someone has gained some value from their efforts. If you are so inclined then mention that you heard about them from this web site and if you want to donate to keep this newsletter coming at least twice a month then click on the "donate" button above. -- The PNG Gossip Newsletter.

PNG Web Hosting
Cheap, reliable web hosting
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Want to find out more about Papua New Guinea? Try searching at -- http://www.michie.net/pnginfo -- and -- http://www.michie.net/png_faqs. -- The PNG Business and Tourism Directory located at -- http://www.pngbd.com -- is also an excellent place to look for PNG information.

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

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


 

 


Links



Miscellaneous Sites



Official Air Niugini -- http://www.airniugini.com.pg -- http://www.air-niugini.co.jp

Unofficial Air Niugini -- http://www.airniugini.co.uk

Airways Hotel -- http://www.airways.com.pg

Avis Rent a Car -- http://www.avis.com.pg

Bank South Pacific -- http://www.bsp.com.pg

Budget Rent a Car -- http://www.budget.com.pg

ConXions -- http://www.conxions.com.pg

Coral Sea Hotels -- http://www.coralseahotels.com.pg

Daltron Electronics -- http://www.daltron.com.pg

Hastings Deering -- http://www.hastingsdeering.cat.com

Kina Securities Limited -- http://www.kina.com.pg

KK Kingston -- http://www.kingston.com.pg

Kokoda Trekking -- http://www.kokodatrail.com.au

Lihir Gold Mine -- http://www.lihir.com.pg/

NCS -- http://www.ncs.com.pg

Oil Search -- http://www.oilsearch.com

Ok Tedi Mining -- http://www.oktedi.com

PNG Department of Mining -- http://www.mineral.gov.pg/

PNG Institute of Banking and Business -- http://www.ibbm.com.pg

PNG Surfing -- http://www.surfingpapuanewguinea.org.pg

PNG Trekking Adventures -- http://www.pngtrekking.com.pg

PNG Web Hosting -- http://www.pngwebhost.com

Rimbunan Hijau Group of Companies -- http://www.rhpng.com.pg/

TE PNG -- http://www.tepng.com

UMW Niugini -- http://www.umw.com.pg

Walindi Resort -- http://www.walindi.com

Don't forget to look at Jane's Oceania Home Page Newsletter. The objective of this Newsletter is to promote worldwide the Pacific Islands and, in particular, the island people. In addition, the intention of the Newsletter is to aid in the preservation of our island culture, history, genealogy, mythology, ethnology, customs, rituals and lifestyles.

For further information about Papua New Guinea, please visit -- http://www.janeresture.com/png_home/index.htm

Also remember to visit the Photos and Scenery section of the PNGBD web site -- http://www.pngbd.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=2b50796e7559b377645cb20821c512c3&forumid=57



Beraso



BERASO -- The Company has been established to explore and implement the opportunity for environmentally sustainable tourism in the gulf province between Kikori and Baimuru. The aim of the company is to establish and develop tourism, tourism related businesses and infrastructure in the area. -- http://beraso.com/gpage.html


News Items



Michael Somare



Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare has turned 70 and shows no signs of slowing down. Sir Michael born on the ?? of April 1936 celebrated his birthday with family and friends



NARI



The National Agriculture and Research Institute has recently been given K500,000 by Morobe Governor, Luther Wenge for the construction of the Professor Allan Quartermain Hall at its research station outside Lae. The building will be used as an information dissemination centre, to conduct training and extension studies and other use for the general public. The building should be finished by July this year. -- http://www.nari.org.pg



Coffee Pacifica



Coffee Pacifica, Inc. (OTCBB:CFPC) announced today that it will showcase its premium quality Papua New Guinea green coffee beans at booth 377 at the Specialty Coffee Association of America ("SCAA") 18th annual Conference and Exhibition currently held in Charlotte, North Carolina, April 7-10, 2006. This is the second successive year where the indigenous coffee farmers from Papua New Guinea will be presenting their green beans on a "Growers Direct" basis to the US market. -- http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20060405005438&newsLang=en



Bishop David Hand



The following very sad news was received from Anglican Bishop Peter Fox

6th. April, 2006, at 11.15 am (PNG Time), Anglican Bishop David Hand died at Pacific General Hospital in Port Moresby. He had been very ill for some time, but in the end died peacefully, with many of his adopted family close by. I had the privilege of giving him the Last Rites a few hours earlier (the evening of the 5th. April).

I think Bishop David would have wanted us to give thanks with him for a holy death after a life lived in faith and in hope of Life Eternal.

God bless,
Yours in Christ,
Bishop Peter.

There will be a State Funeral at St Mary's Church Gerehu, a suburb of Port Moresby for Rt Revd David Hand. St Mary's is a church that he founded. The funeral will be held on Tuesday the 18th of April 2006, and will be followed with a Requiem and the interment at the Cathedral of the Resurrection, Popondetta, Oro Province, on Thursday the 20th of April 2006.



Emperor Mines



Emperor Mines Ltd has completed the US$237 million (K757 million) acquisition of DRDGOLD's assets in PNG -- http://www.thenational.com.pg/041006/business1.htm



University of PNG



Professor Les Eascott along with the Registrar Vincent Malaibe and Bursar Edward Croake have resigned from the University of PNG. UPNG is now looking for a new vice chancellor -- http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/bulletins/rnzi/200604101557/139d5c3



Savings and Loans



The Central Bank has launched the new Alekano Savings and Loan Society in Goroka, Eastern Highlands province. -- http://www.thenational.com.pg/041106/business2.htm



Aussie Reward



Australia will give Papua New Guinea a $30 million reward this year for its effort in tackling challenging development issues, including good governance and HIV-AIDS. The $30 million performance grant will come out of the existing Australia-PNG aid budget. Australian aid money currently makes up around 20 per cent of PNG's overall budget. -- http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200604/s1614120.htm



Air Niugini



Air Niugini has had to contend with a failing satellite infrastructure on circuits from PNG to Australia as well as a failed cutover to a new telephone exchange by the local telephone company and just as most of that is being sorted out its Boeing 767 suffers a bird strike in Manila throwing the international schedule into chaos. This highlights the issue with the company having only one large plane to cover the long international routes. It has managed to cover the passenger traffic to Brisbane by using its Fokker F100 fleet but Singapore, Manila and Narita always suffer when problems develop with the Boeing aircraft.



Air Niugini Mercury Spill




A man charged with carrying mercury aboard an Air Niugini aircraft from Port Moresby to Mt Hagen has been sent to jail for four years with hard labour for the offence.

On the 10th of July 2005 the accused carried a 1 litre container of mercury onto the aircraft and subsequently the container leaked inside the aircraft causing the aircraft to be grounded. Mercury is very corrosive and requires special handling before and during transportation on the aircraft. Air Niugini incurred considerable expense while the plane was taken out of service and a thorough examination of every nook and cranny was made.



Cocoa Pod Borer



PNG authorities and the autonomous province of Bougainville have joined forces to fight the newly discovered cocoa disease called pod borer. The East New Britain Province has already been placed under an agricultural quarantine. The Province is one of the leading cocoa producers in the country with an estimated 34,000 hectares of cocoa containing up to 17 million trees.

Road blocks have been set up in Kerevat, East New Britain province, to make sure that vehicles leaving the area are properly checked and sprayed with chemicals so the Asian cocoa pest, cocoa pod borer, is not spread.



Attorney General



The newly appointed Justice Minister, Bire Kimisopa, has come up with a suggestion that the correct man with the best qualifications be appointed to the positions of Attorney General and Solicitor General no matter which country they may come from. He said that previous occupants have behaved poorly.



Miss Bougainville Quest



The first contestant has come forward for the first Miss Autonomous Bougainville Quest. Twenty-four year old Rayleen Matainaho from the atolls of Bougainville (Mortlock) is a senior teacher at the Buka International Christian Academy. She is finalising her sponsorship for the event. The winner of the event will be eligible to contest the 2007 Miss PNG Red Cross event. Miss Matainaho has challenged other young women to come forward and help raise funds for the Red Cross in the Autonomous Region.



PNG Web Hosting



Interested in having your own PNG Web Site or any web site for that matter? Worried about the cost? It may be cheaper than you think. Take a look at pricing at the PNG Web Hosting site -- http://www.pngwebhost.com -- Sites with space for 15,000 MB of data, 300 GB transfer per month and 24 hours a day / 7 day a week ticket / phone support for less than US$5.00 per month. The larger web-hosting plan at US$9.75 per month offers 25,000MB of disk space, 400GB transfers and the ability to host up to 10 domains and 32 sub domains on this one package. All sites come with a web site builder to make web site making easy! As an added bonus several PHP and MySQL options are available. The best way is to visit the web site and see for yourself. Oh, and by the way Domain Names are as little as US$9.00 per year.



Industrial Logging



The Eco-Forestry Forum is challenging the PNG Government to justify its plans to give new timber permits to current logging companies operating in PNG. "The Government and the pro-loggers continuously tell us we need to give away our forests to foreign logging companies in order to be 'developed'. But where is the development from 25 years of intensive logging in our forests?" asks the Forum. According to the Government the 'development' that logging brings includes roads, bridges, education and health facilities, jobs and local incomes. But the Forum is concerned, the lack of basic services and utilities in remote but very rich forest resource areas is increasingly used to cheat landowners of their resources and ability to control and build their own futures.



Angau Hospital



A ministerial team from New Zealand and Australia has visited Lee's Angau Memorial Hospital. During the visit the group met with senior hospital workers including the CEO. The CEO mentioned that the hospital was unable to provide the required services but was doing its best with the resources available. The group was quite shocked by what they saw including a shortage of oxygen and other basic equipment including disposable gloves. They also saw that mothers giving birth are only kept for 24 hours die to a lack of space and some mothers are kept in the corridor on the floor.



Telikom Deal



The chairman of the Telikom board has announced that a deal worth K16.9 million (US$5.5 million) has been signed between Telstra Australia and Telecom New Zealand to buy 50% of a retired Pacific Rim West cable that runs between Sydney and Guam. The submarine cable will come into effect by the end of the year and it replaces a 25-year-old submarine cable that ran between Port Moresby and Cairns that was vandalised late last year causing a communication blackout between PNG and the world. The submarine cable is cheaper and has a higher capacity than a satellite. It has been quoted that the new cable had a capacity 34 times greater than the existing cable.



Sealark



The Sealark, after serving PNG for only a short time between Lae and Port Moresby has sunk in 30 metres of water off the coast of Lae. One of the passenger vessel's engines caught fire recently while it was preparing to leave Lae on its regular runs to Popondetta and Port Moresby.

The administrator of Morobe Province, Manasupe Zurenuoc, has called for a full-scale commission of inquiry into the fire and subsequent sinking of popular passenger boat, MV Sealark



Sealark Oil Spill




The Lae fire brigade, transport department and the provincial disaster office (are still standing by and spraying silicon on pools of oil discharged from the sunken MV Sealark off the coast of Lae city.

Villagers from Labu Village, Lae are concerned about the effects of oil leaking from the Sealark will have on their environment. The beaches around Labu village are a world renowned roosting place for the endangered leather-back turtle.



U-Vistract



The Autonomous Bougainville Government has called for the people of Bougainville to ignore the money scam operator Noah Musingku. Mr Musingku's U-Vistract money pyramid scheme, is known to have duped investors of millions of dollars in PNG and Solomon Islands, has promised to begin paying out people on Bougainville next week.



Public Service Commission



The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has expressed concerns that the head of the Public Service Commission (PSC) is a fit person to head such an important position. The head, Mr Jerry Tetaga, has supposedly received overpayments of at least K350,000 over a period of time. It has also been brought to the attention of the PAC that a relative of Mr Tetaga was appointed to a senior position in the PSC even though the person did not have adequate qualifications. It has also been alleged that the person concerned used a forged school certificate to gain the position. This person was also the signatory to some of the accounts that Mr Tetaga has been overpaid from.



Medical Exodus



Greener pastures overseas is luring many medical people to leave the country. According to the president of the PNG medical society, Dr Mathias Sapuri, this is because medical professionals were not given the right kind of working terms and conditions which satisfy their needs and their professional development.



Fuel Prices



The price of fuel in PNG has dropped. Petrol in the National Capital of Port Moresby will now cost K2.86 per litre with diesel costing K2.34 and kerosene K2.31 per litre. Prices for Lae are - petrol K2.94, diesel K2.43 and kerosene K2.40 per litre. Prices in other areas will vary depending on freight charges.



Typhoid Outbreak



The World Health Organisation is to assess a reported typhoid outbreak in the PNG highlands. The agency and the Ministry of Health will send a team to the Southern Highlands province to investigate a possible typhoid outbreak. -- http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=23385



Mobile Telephone Coverage



Telikom PNG have announced that Rabaul now has and Wabag will soon have mobile telephone coverage.



PNG Gold



BDI Mining Corp, headquartered in London has recently reported high-grade gold intersections on its 100%-owned Woodlark property in the Milne Bay Province of PNG. Woodlark lies 300 km off the east coast of the main land of PNG, to the west of the Solomon Islands and is close to Misima.



Coming Events



PNG Coffee Festival -- 4,5 & 6th of May. Venue - Raun Raun Theatre, Goroka.

Morobe Biang Ngayan Cultural Festival -- 24th to the 27th of May, 2006 Biang and Ngayan are words in two Morobe languages for "good". Morobe has the second largest number of languages in the country with around 90 - second only to Madang with over 100 languages.

Samarai Island Reunion -- in Cairns on the 28th to 31st July.

PNG 31st Independence Anniversary - 16th September 2006

University of Technology Reunion -- 15th - 18th of September - Call +675 473 4237 and ask Molly Perry-Geno for more information.






PNG Media


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-- THE END --

In Tok Pisin - em tasol

For other ways of saying the end please pay a visit to -- ../emtasol

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

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

 






Created 16 Apr 2006
Updated 26 Apr 2006

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