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Neo Melanesian"Pidgin English" |
Monday Mande |
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POM Grammar
Port Moresby Grammar has moved from its premises located in the old Burns Philp admin offices in down town Port Moresby to a brand new, purpose built school located on the old Boroko RSL site next door to the Boroko Tennis Club. The library has a bank of 20 computers with access to the World Wide Web. The PNG Banking Corporation has donated computers to fill the two specialist Information Technology Labs.
The school should not have to send students home as they now have a large backup generator and water supply to keep the school going even during the worst outages. The school has done away with blackboards and boasts that it only has whiteboards.
The school is a credit to its founder, Don Daniels, who has dedicated most of his 36 years in PNG to education. He did have a short stint running the old Plantation (Malolo) Hotel located along the North Coast Road just out of Madang but "once a teacher" he says "always a teacher" so he decided to start POM Grammar in March 1993. The school has gone from strength to strength filling in the gaps in what some might say is a rapidly collapsing education system in PNG.
Grass Roots
For older PNG expats and ex-expats I am pleased to be able to say that after an absence of too many years to remember Bob Browne's Grass Roots character has made a re-appearance in the Post Courier daily newspaper. Of course, in typical Grass Roots fashion, it appears that he has only come back for the elections! Or as Rootsy says the "Greatest game of all ia Poli-tix!!"
Kumuls vs Kangaroos
For the Test on the 7th.October 2001 between Kangaroos & Kumuls Air Niugini has advertised the following special prices for tickets from the PRL ground..
Tickets for OUTER GROUND AND GRANDSTAND.
- OUTER;
- ADULTS K20.00
- CHILD K 5.00
- GRANDSTAND;
- ADULTS K70.00 (500 only)
- CHILD K30.00 (50 ONLY)
- SALES START WEDNESDAY 19TH.SEPT 2001
- AT THE PORT MORESBY (PRL) CLUB .
- ALL TICKETS ON SALE EACH DAY
- FROM 11.30 AM TO 1.30 PM
- AND 4.30 PM TO 6.00 PM
- MONDAY TO FRIDAY. SATURDAYS ONLY 9.00AM TO 11.00AM.
For more details contact Eva Arni
Bougainville Bibles
Last issue I mentioned a call by the women of Bougainville for pocket bibles. I now have an email address for anyone interested in donating and who would like more information. Please send your enquiries to bicwf@tiare.net.pg
Bougainville Interchurch Womens Forum
P.O. Box 209
BUKA PASSAGE
NORTH SOLOMONS PROVINCE
PNG
The co-ordinator is Sr. Lorraine Garasu CSN.
Refugees
The transport ship HMAS Manoora has picked up another 200 refugees whilst on its way to PNG. It would now seem that a total of 643 refugees, mainly Afghans, might not be arriving in PNG as their fate appears to be in limbo after an Australian Court decision effectively ordered them to land in Australia. It was anticipated that Air Nauru and possibly Air Cambodia would have ferried the refugees to Nauru and New Zealand. Supposedly they would have been transported from Port Moresby Harbour to Jackson's airport on military helicopters but with that many it would have been a very long exercise. I am not sure how many flights it would have taken to transport all of the refugees to New Zealand and Nauru.
Medical Symposium
The 37th PNG Medical Symposium held in Lae ended last Friday. It had been expressed very strongly during the Symposium that the continued closure of the Angau Hospital Cancer Unit and the lack of any cancer-control program in the country was a disgrace. The Morobe Government has pledged to help support the re-establishment of the cancer unit at the Angau Hospital.
Cancer Study
Australian Aid (AusAID) is to provide funding for a study into cancer services in PNG. It is hoped that this will form the basis for a new cancer control program expected to start next year (2002).
Sogeri Singsing
Many travelers to Sogeri for the annual singsing were disgusted to find the road in such poor condition. Some were even heard to express their feelings that it was no wonder that the landowners at Sirinumu had recently closed down the water supply to Port Moresby when they see all the new roads in Moresby and nothing being done to keep their road in good repair.
Wewak Airport
The Civil Aviation Authority has not paid the electricity bill for the Boram airport in Wewak so passengers departing on early flights or arriving on late afternoon flights are doing so in very poor lighting conditions. There is a very real safety concern for air travel in the country when the authority can not even provide basic lighting.
PNG Independence Day
The many provinces around country as well as overseas misions are gearing up for the various Independence Day celebrations.
Goroka Show
The Goroka show will be held over the Independence weekend at the National Sports Institute oval in, of course, Goroka.
Hiri Moale Festival
Along with Independence Day - Port Moresby will be celebrating the Hiri Moale Festival.
20 young women are preparing themselves for the Hiri Hanenamo quest. The quest is a highlight of the Hiri Moale festival.
Police Battle
A gun battle between police and heavily armed men in the Enga Province has seen four policemen injured. Police went to investigate an arrow wound received by another policeman at a tribal roadblock in the province.
In Port Moresby police have shot dead three criminals in four days. Another criminal was shot dead when his homemade gun went off at a crime scene.
Roadblocks
Several random roadblocks have been set up at various locations in the national capital after the shootings. I believe that up to nine cars are being stolen every day in the city. Police have also stepped up foot and vehicle patrols of many areas.
Kick Boxing
PNG and World Kick Boxing Champion, Stanley Nandex, is considering turning professional
Postcard Exhibition
The European Year of Languages Postcard Exhibition opened on the 11th September at the National Library, Waigani. The main attraction is the original artwork of well-known British cartoonist Mabel Lucie Attwell. -- There will also be different (beautiful) postcards from several European countries. The exhibition will run until the 15th of September.
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.
Community Health
Community Health Workers around the country are starting to be paid backdated allowances. The Community Health Workers Association have said that K2.7 million has been paid to date for allowances awarded over two years ago.
Defence Force
Officials of the Defence Force Retirement Fund (DFRF) have been queried as to why they had to travel overseas to obtain a quote for the publication of a magazine. K14,000 was spent on a three-man trip to Cairns in Australia when local companies were able to quote under K8,000 to do the job. It was not revealed how much the Australian firm quoted for the job.
It has also been revealed that the DFRF Board also met excessively and that many more overseas trips costing as much as K300,000 were made in 1999.
Stolen Rice
A container truck, carrying rice worth in excess of K14,000, was stolen recently near Chuave on its way to Kundiawa in Chimbu Province.
National Museum
Computers, printers, overhead projectors, uniterupitble power supplies and a photocopier have been stolen from the National Museum and Art Gallery in a recent break-in. This is the fourth break-in this year and this time the goods will cost K40,000 to replace.
Cairns Conservatory
The court proceedings in relation to the Cairns Conservatory is still pending despite being instigated by the PNG Government in July last year. The Conservatory was purchased for AUD$19 million when it was only valued at AUD$3 million.
Yaws Epidemic
It has been reported that an epidemic of yaws (Frambesia) is affecting more than 3000 people in the Bitapaka local-level government area of the Kokopo District in the East New Britain province. According to the World Health Organisation yaws is supposed to have been eradicated fully.
Yaws can be treated with penicillin and is caused by bacteria that often enter the body through a break in the skin.
Fast Money
The Governor of the Bank of PNG has issued a warning to people not to invest in pyramid fast money schemes.
Illiteracy
Lady Carol Kidu says that illiteracy is unacceptably high in her Moresby South electorate. Along with church groups, various missions, community leaders and Non Government Organisations she is attempting to challenge the illiteracy rate and make a vast improvement in the number of people who can read and write in her area of the National Capital.
Mt Kegum Repeater Station
Police has recovered solar panels and a rifle stolen from the Mt Kegum Repeater Station. 11 panels were recovered after police two raids and 15 were handed back after an appeal to the community.
Politics
The husband and wife team of Mary and Albert Karo will contest the elections in 2002. Albert will be contesting the Moresby South seat currently held by Lady Carol Kidu whilst Mary will contest the Rigo Open seat currently held by Dibara Yagabo.
DIVEersions
Take a look at DIVErsion Dive Travel & Training in Cairns, Australia at http://www.diversionOZ.com/epngdive.htm
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
Tree Kangaroos
The US Embassy has donated US$10,000 in a bid to save an endangered tree kangaroo in the Aitape / Lumi area of PNG. The Melbourne Zoo in Australia, the National Museum, the Nature Conservation Association, and the University of Technology have already chipped in to help save Scott's tree kangaroo.
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
Lae Library
It is hoped that with financial help from the Morobe Governor the Lae Library will be able to reopen after being closed for the past three years. The Governor has also donated K326,000 to the PNG Electoral Commission in Lae to ensure that the voter registration exercise is completed.
Roger Clarke
http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/WM/Kai.html leads you to the kai kai the buai - A pidgin English parody of Waltzing Matilda. It is an interesting site and well worth a few minutes of your time.
HIV/AIDS
Figures reveal that there are over 3500 cases of HIV/AIDS in the National Capital District. On a provincial basis Western Highlands has the most cases with 175 reported cases. Central Province comes in second with 140 cases reported.
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.
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. 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.
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
MV Golden Dawn
http://www.mvgoldendawn.com -- Diving PNG on the elegant live aboard MV Golden Dawn offers the finest dive sites and diving in Papua New Guinea. PNG dive itineraries include the Eastern fields in the Coral Sea, Milne Bay and Northern PNG, Wewak. Wreck diving and technical diving opportunities abound with nitrox and re-breathers aboard.
Milne Bay
The Catholic Church has recently consecrated a new Bishop for Alotau, the capital of Milne Bay Province. Bishop Panfilo is from Italy and his brothers, two are also priests, came all the way from Italy to watch the ceremony.
Air Niugini
Air Niugini has announced that they have appointed their first woman to be a out-port manager. Lenah Paii is now the manager on Buka Island.
USA
Although I am thousands of miles away from USA I am sure that all readers of this newsletter would express the same amount of disbelief, shock, horror, anguish and then extreme compassion and sympathy towards all the people recently killed, injured or associated with the injured or dead in the terrorist disaster on the eastern states of the USA as what I did. With the shrinking of the world due to the Interent and satellite TV most people in the world knew about the event as it was being played out or if not then very shortly after.
PNG media related sites
- Post Courier Newspaper -- http://www.postcourier.com.pg
- The National Online Newspaper-- http://www.thenational.com.pg
- Chin H Meen (Music) -- http://www.chmsupersound.com
- EM TV (Television) -- http://www.emtv.com.pg
- Hitron (Cable TV) -- http://www.hitron.com.pg
- Pacific View Multimedia http://www.pvm.com.pg
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