Links
Misc Sites
The Milne Bay Tourism website can be found at -- http://www.milnebaytourism.gov.pg
Trobriand Islands Sex in Folklore - Myths and Legends -- http://www.janesoceania.com/trobriands_sex_folklore/
World War II wrecks around Kiriwina Part of the Trobriand Islands - Latitude
8° 40' 0S Longitude 150° 55' 0E -- http://www.pacificwrecks.com/provinces/png_kiriwina.html
http://www.ianmurray.net/trophoto1.html
-- thumbnail pictures from Kiriwina.
PNG Post Code lookup -- http://www.pngbd.com/postcodes.php
Looking for Airport Codes in PNG then try -- http://www.aircraft-charter-world.com/airports/oceania/papuanewguinea.htm
- Note: this web site doesn't show all the airports in PNG. Of course you
could try -- http://www.michie.net/balus/iatapgcodes.html
News Items
Bank South Pacific
The Chief Executive Officer of the Bank South Pacific, Noel Smith, is saying
farewell to the country after 12 years with the Bank. Garth McIlwain will
be taking over the position of CEO. Mr Smith has attended many farewell functions
recently and it has finally hit home to him that he is leaving.
Alotau by Boat
A Milne Bay businessman, Henry Benoma, has come up with the idea of providing
a door-to-door service that stretches from Alotau to Port Moresby using a
10-metre boat called the MV Benoma that he built himself. The boat recently
dropped off 40 passengers and cargo from Alotau. Mr Benoma said the four-cylinder
boat can take 11 tons of cargo and can travel at up to 10 knots but for safety
reasons this has been limited to one third this capacity. A one-way fare will
cost a passenger K150.
Maritime Budget
The Kiriwina-Goodenough MP, Brian Pulayasi, has said that past government
budgets have not addressed the inclusion of water transport for Maritime Provinces.
Mr Pulayasi was querying Planning and Monitoring Minister Sinai Brown as to
whether future plans were in place to address this issue, adding that many
Maritime Provinces needed water transport to market their cash crops. Many
of the members of Parliament who were present in Parliament booed Mr Brown
when he answered this question with an abrupt answer saying that his ministry
did not have any plans for maritime areas to have sea transport.
Australian Aid
Australia has pledged to pour an additional K2 billion ($A800 million) into
PNG. It is anticipated that the money will help to prevent the country descending
into anarchy and corruption. Hundreds of police, lawyers, economists and other
public servants will be sent to PNG from Australia to try and stem the systemic
corruption and financial mismanagement that has plagued Australia's nearest
neighbour in recent years. Up to 230 Australian police officers, some of which
have already arrived in Port Moresby, to be drawn from the Australian federal
service and the States will work with PNG's forces in Port Moresby and in
Bougainville. Nearly 20 Australians will be posted to PNG's law and justice
agencies, including the position of Solicitor-General and five prosecutors
in the Prosecutor's Office. The money will be spent over five years and is
in addition to the aid contribution of $A330 million given by the Australians
to PNG every year.
Dept Community Development
The National Executive Council has endorsed a name change for the Department
of Social Welfare and Development to reflect the new policy direction of the
department. The new name is the Department for Community Development. It has
also been known as Department of Religion, Youth, Women, Recreation that was
later shortened to Home Affairs.
School Curriculum
The PNG School curriculum has come under heavy fire from one of the country's
most respected educationists - The University of Technology Vice Chancellor
Misty Baloiloi. He said the curriculum is designed with the exclusive emphasis
on producing intellectual competency at the expense of emotional competency
development. He said this is why students today are more unruly, depressed
and vulnerable to drug use and impulsive behaviour than before. He has called
on the education planners to immediately redesign the curriculum as well as
the mode of instruction and address the problems.
Education Web Sites
http://www.ibs.com.pg -- International
Business Institute
http://www.iea.ac.pg -- International Education
Agency
http://www.iti.com.pg -- PNG International
Training Institute
http://www.pngmc.ac.pg -- PNG Maritime
College
http://www.pta.com.pg -- Pacific Training
Academy
http://www.unitech.ac.pg -- PNG University
of Technology (Lae)
http://www.uog.ac.pg -- University of Goroka
http://www.upng.ac.pg -- University of
PNG
http://www.workersmutual.com.pg
-- Workers Mutual Computer Training
Surf's Up
For those who are interested the surf is up in the southern part New Ireland
Province. There are many big waves waiting to be ridden in the area. The area
is ideal for the adventurer who wants to experience the powerful force of
the ocean as it slams thousands of tonnes of blue water on the beaches of
the southern-east coast of New Ireland.
Port Moresby Power
Once again Port Moresby has had trouble with power. This time criminals have
ruined the power supply for people on the outskirts of Port Moresby and villages
in Central Province. The chief executive officer of PNG Power, Lawrence Solomon,
said that a pole transformer exploded near the Six Mile dump after criminals
climbed the pole and opened the maintenance valve and drained all the insulating
oil out, resulting in the transformer overheating and eventually exploding.
It is thought that the criminals will use the oil from the transformer as
a lubricant for motorcars. This, it is said, will cause damage to the motorcar
as oil has chemicals in it that are highly corrosive and will damage car engines.
Electricity Increase
Electricity consumers have been advised that they are to face another nine
percent increase in electricity charges from the 1st of January 2004. The
increase takes into account inflation, foreign exchange movements and fuel
costs over a twelve-month period. The increase has been granted provided PNG
Power meets certain service standards on the supply of electricity.
Dental Training
The government, after two decades of neglect, is attempting to revive the
dental profession in PNG. The dental bachelor program was abolished in the
1980s and transferred to the medical faculty of the University of PNG in 1994.
The school of medicine at Taurama recently launched two-degree programs of
dental surgery and oral health. AusAID and the PNG Govt. are funding the refurbishment
of the old dental centre. Currently there are only 14 trained dentists in
the government sector that obviously cannot cater for PNG's population of
5 million. It is hoped that the program will help to alleviate this problem.
The Rotary clubs of Port Moresby and Adelaide have donated eight dental chairs
to the school for training purposes.
Quality Leaders
The Chief Justice of PNG, Sir Mari Kapi, has said at the grade-12 graduation
ceremony for Gordons Secondary School in Port Moresby that the quality of
leadership in this country has decreased in the past 30 years. Sir Mari told
the graduands that in the past people were concerned about their moral and
ethical conduct in public and there were less law and order problems compared
with today.
Environmental Pilot Project
A pilot environmental project recently launched at Barakau village in the
Central Province aims to address environmental concerns at the community level.
The program will focus on action at the community level to address priority
environmental concerns relating to community based waste management, protection
of freshwater resources, sustainable coastal fisheries and marine protected
areas. 60 communities along the entire Central Province coastline have shown
a keen interest in being part of the pilot project.
Minimum Wage
A new interim minimum wage has been set at K37.20 per week. The new wage
is an increase of K12.52 on the previous level of K24.68 per week. A memorandum
of agreement (MOA) signed between the employers and unions recently paves
the way for minimum wage earners to be paid K0.8455 per hour for a 44-hour
week.
PNG Republic
Peter Ipatas, the Governor of Enga, has called for PNG to become a republic
and the Governor-General's office to be replaced by a president. In a move
likely to raise eyebrows after the recent election of the Governor-General
along regional lines, the Governor said the time was right for the country
to cut its ties with the British monarchy and become a republic headed by
a president.
Female Education
A global report has found that investment in girls' education has multiple
returns and yet in PNG they very often miss out on school. The report, the
2004 State of the World Children's Report published by the United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF) was launched in Port Moresby recently. The recently
published Development Atlas on Children in PNG showed that for every 100 boys
in school, there were 80 girls in primary and about 65 in secondary schools.
Madang Coconut
The operating company of the Madang Coconut Mill has been sold to Elan Trading
Corporation for K6.4 million. The interim liquidator has said that Elan Trading
will operate the mill under a joint venture agreement with local growers through
Madang Commodities Limited. Elan will hold 60 percent equity and growers will
hold the other 40 percent.
Medical Drug Wastage
PNG incurs losses of about K12 million in medicinal drug wastage annually
because it does not have a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) mechanism in
place. The aim of the SOP would be to reduce high wastage of drugs, currently
at 20 per cent (K12 million) of K60 million annual spending; and to train
health professionals to order the right drugs at the right time and in the
right amount.
PPP Fight
The National Court has recently dismissed a court bid by ousted Leader Alan
Marat to remove the recently elected leader of People's Progress Party (PPP),
Andrew Baing. Mr Baing described the decision as a victory for the party and
the country.
Gas Pipeline
Oil Search say they are a step closer to getting the long delayed PNG-Australia
pipeline up and running following WMC Resources Limited signing a conditional
agreement to buy gas for its Olympic Dam project.
Public Accounts Committee
The Public Accounts Committee's (PAC) deputy chairman, Wewak MP Kimson Kare,
has urged the Government to give the PAC more authority. He said the Government had to give support and more authority to the Committee
given the important work it did. He said there would be 15 government organisations
including the Bank of Papua New Guinea, the Agriculture Bank, the Department
of Finance and the Civil Aviation Authority will appear before the PAC in
the first quarter of 3004
PAC Financial Boost
The Public Accounts Committee has received a million Kina boost for next
year following the success of its work this year. The PAC's budget came under
the Parliamentary budget which had a lot of other departments to look after
as well. This year the PAC only received K58,000 given and this was not enough
for the committee to carry out its mandated functions.
Real Estate Agents Association
The Real Estate Agents Association has advertised their web site. It is located
at -- http://www.reia.org.pg.
Real Estate Agents
Arthur Strachan (Lae) -- http://www.arthurstrachan.com.pg
Century 21 -- http://www.century21.com.pg/
and http://www.siule.com.pg/
Kohoy Real Estate -- http://kohoyrealestates.tripod.com/
L.J Hooker -- http://www.ljhooker.com
Ray White Real Estate -- monian@online.net.pg
Strickland RE -- http://www.sre.com.pg/
The Professionals -- http://www.theprofessionals.com.pg
School Subsidies
A government Minister has said that K40 million of the 2004 national education
budget has been allocated for schools subsidy payment. The Transport Minister
and Member for Kandep, Don Polye, said this at the Mt Hagen Park High School's
26th Grade 10 graduation. Mr Polye said another K17.7 million had been provided
in provincial government budgets functions grants that were to help with the
operating costs of provinces' education institutions. The subsidy allocation
would meet some of the cost, while the rest needed to be paid for by parents
and schools through fees and other initiatives such as self-reliance projects.
Valentine Kambori
The National Planning and Rural Development Secretary, Valentine Kambori,
will be jailed for six months and fined K2500 for contempt of court if he
does not arrange payment of K3.7 million to a landowner group from Vanimo
before the 19th of December. If he manages to do that then he will receive
a 12-month good behaviour bond and the K2500 fine instead of the custodial
sentence.
National Research Institute
The National Research Institute (NRI) Council has dismissed its director,
Dr Beno Boeha, following directives from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC)
recently during hearings into the Institute's financial operations. It has
been alleged that Dr Boeha invested K800,000 in fast money schemes to raise
funds for the institute.
Bougainville Police
Over 400 Bougainvilleans, both men and women, have applied to join the police
force when the Autonomous Bougainville Government is established. The first
100 applicants have been selected (from the 400) to train at Bomana hopefully
early next year.
Police Mobile Squad
A police mobile squad, from Goroka, has been sent to Madang to help curb
crime and bring final eviction awareness for settlers to move out before the
exercise begins on the 15th of December. They will carry out the final eviction
warning exercise to settlers who were still living in the settlements despite
several notices sent to them over the past several years. Police had been
monitoring the situation in Madang town and had found that there was a lot
of vandalism done to State and private properties, petty crimes and armed
hold-ups recently.
Logging
The courts have ordered Malaysian logger Kerewara to pay K6 million to landowners
at Kubuna in Central Province. The landowner group welcomed the court decision.
PNG Media
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