Links
Warning: PNG web sites seem to come and go. The fact of life is that it costs money to host a web site (try -- http://pngwebhost.com -- for an excellent, reliable but cheap deal) 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. -- The PNG Gossip Newsletter.
If links in the newsletter do not work properly, copy and paste the URL into your browser and press Enter. Be sure to copy the entire link, as it may wrap to the next line. If this still does not work please send an email to the newsletter advising of the broken link.
Do you have a web site or link to a PNG related area on the WWW? If so do you want it mentioned here? Then send an email to -- pngnewsqueue @ pnggossip.com
PNG Namba Wan Trophy
PNG Namba Wan Trophy Limited (NWTL) was established in October 1989. They have a web site located at -- http://www.pngnwtl.com/
Morobe Province
The recent Morobe Show has come and gone but the show society has a website located at -- http://www.morobeshow.org.pg -- which is worth looking at.
For all your cable TV needs in the Morobe Province visit the Tolec Electronics website at -- http://www.tolec.com.pg
Insect Farming and Trading Agency web site is located at -- http://www.ifta.com.pg -- The Insect Farming and Trading Agency (IFTA) has been in operation in Papua New Guinea since 1978, when the innovative PNG Wildlife Department began fauna ranching initiatives to help villagers.
Morobe Tourism site -- http://www.tourismmorobe.org.pg
PNG History
If you are looking for the history of PNG then a good place to start is the Wikipedia free encyclopaedia as well as the other links below.
-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Papua_New_Guinea
-- http://sg.travel.yahoo.com/guide/australasia_and_pacific/papua_new_guinea/history.html
-- http://www.world66.com/asia/southeastasia/papuanewguinea/history
-- http://www.michie.net/balus/px-history.html (Air Niugini - not complete)
-- http://www.michie.net/balus/cg-history.html (Airlines of PNG - very incomplete!)
If anyone can add to the Air Niugini or the Airlines of PNG (Milne Bay Air) history please send an email to this newsletter and I will pass it on. Does anyone have a picture of the MBA Gruman Goose?
UNICEF
United Nation's International Children's Fund web site -- http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/papuang.html
Misc Sites
Magic Moments Photo Blog -- http://magicphotoblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/papua-new-guinea.html
The Port Moresby Chamber of Commerce web site is located at -- http://www.pomcci.org.pg
The PNG Institute of Directors has a website located at -- http://www.pngid.org.pg
Car Dealers
Boroko Motors -- http://www.boroko-motors.com
Ela Motors -- http://www.elamotors.com.pg
Hertz Hire Cars -- http://www.leasemaster.com.pg
Freeway Motors -- http://www.freewaymotors.com.pg
Kokoda Trail Map
Charlie Lynn of Adventure Kokoda Pty Ltd in Australia is offering for sale at AUD$149.50 including GST and postage within Australia poster size (800 x 300 mm) maps of the Kokoda Trail. You can order the map from the web site located at -- http://www.adventurekokoda.com.au
News Items
Airline Woes
The problems continue for Air Niugini. Its Boeing B767 was delayed for several days due to maintenance issues which threw the domestic schedule into chaos as the airline attempted to maintain a daily service to Brisbane using its Fokker F100 fleet borrowed from the domestic sectors. Many people are still being unceremoniously offloaded on their way through Jackson's airport and although Air Niugini does the right thing and provides accommodation and denied boarding compensation that hardly compensates for the delays to business caused by the aircraft problems. Some of the lost time can not be made up! A National Court Judge has complained about delays to Court sittings and staff from the Institute of Medical Research delayed field trips as they sat in hotel rooms in Moresby instead of doing their job. Air Niugini does not compensate businesses for these delays as staff get a free holiday with pay and a hotel room as well.
http://www.thenational.com.pg/112106/nation4.htm and
http://final-shopper.com/555/flight-disruptions-irks-passengers/
http://www.thenational.com.pg/112306/nation23.htm
The problems have not been restricted to Air Niugini; an MP upset about the delay of getting his baggage from an Airlines of PNG flight has damaged the conveyor belt system in the domestic arrival area at Jackson's airport. This means that the travelling public will now face further delays as the bags will now have to be manually brought into the arrival hall. The politician also faces scrutiny by Civil Aviation Authority because he left the arrival area and walked across the tarmac to berate the baggage handlers for delaying him.
http://www.thenational.com.pg/112106/nation1.htm
Airline Fuel
I have received the following from an anonymous reader who asked Air Niugini whether they would be lowering airfares due to a drop in the price of fuel. Here is the answer she received from the CEO of Air Niugini (PX).
QUOTE
Thank you for your inquiry. PX does not expect to benefit out of the fuel surcharge. I am sure that you are familiar that even today jet fuel price in POM is averaging to US$90.00++. We have been saying this to ICCC even during the recent review of the industry. PX expects to reduce the surcharge when the price in POM drops. You may have also noted that although Qantas in Australia had a one more surcharge increase done before their recent drop, PX did not increase the surcharge at that time. So, PX current surcharge falls in line with the rest of the operators.
Thanks & regards,
Wasantha Kumarasiri
END QUOTE
Melanesian Discoverer
Health Minister and Madang MP, Sir Peter Barter has sold the Melanesian Discoverer. On the same week as it departed, the government, through the 2007 budget, provided GST exemption from all overseas tourists which was what its owners requested several years ago. Many passengers who have been lucky enough to stay on board the tourist ship have complimented the owners for the excellent service often describing their stay as being equivalent to a floating international hotel.
Mobile Phones
Three years ago PNG did not have a digital mobile telephone network now 580,000 successful mobile phone calls are made on the busiest days of the week in PNG. It is rumoured that there could be over a million calls on the busiest days of the week but sadly half of these fail. Recently, the number of successful mobile calls peaked at 35,000 calls being connected every hour. Mobile phone demand is heaviest in Lae and Port Moresby, but extra stations are also scheduled to be set up in Mt Hagen, Madang and Alotau. There are now 125,000 mobile phones in the country, with 111,000 actively making and receiving calls.
Swimming Rankings
Champion PNG swimmer, Ryan Pini is rated eighth in the world for the 100 metre butterfly long course event during 2005/2006 just in front of Michael Klim from Australia. Ian Crocker from USA is rated as number one. -- http://www.fina.org/swimming/world_rankings/index.php -- Overall he is rated at 34 in the 100 metre butterfly -- http://www.fina.org/swimming/world_rankings/pdf/rank_SW_LC.pdf
Moti's Escape
The saga of Julian Moti's escape from PNG continues
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,20762169-401,00.html?from=public_rss
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20765728-2703,00.html
http://ntnews.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,20762115%255E1702,00.html
New Foreign Minister
The PNG government has appointed a new foreign minister with the aim to mend relations with Australia which soured over fugitive Moti.
http://english.people.com.cn/200611/16/eng20061116_322158.html
Quick Money Scheme
The operator of a fast money scheme that has robbed thousands of PNG people of their hard earned savings has been shot in Bougainville. It has been reported that Noah Musingku was shot by members of the South Bougainville Freedom Fighters. Reports also indicate that several others were wounded in the battle. The camp used by Musingku was also destroyed.
Coffee Association
Coffee growers in the remote Biaru area of Morobe province have launched the Arua Coffee Farmers Association (ACFA). 50 coffee growers have a confirmed total of approx 213,000 mature trees. Combining this number with trees from Waria and Garaina areas and the total goes up to over 600,000 trees.
Antenna Theft
Radio East New Britain has lost an aerial that was used by the station to broadcast on the 104.3 FM band. The radio station director, Terry Longbut, has condemned the theft at the Malmaluan repeater station in the Gazelle district of the province.
Mal Michael
It has been rumoured that Mal Michael, recently retired, Brisbane Lions' Aussie Rules footballer has been recruited by the mighty Essendon Bombers Aussie Rules Club. Michael announced his retirement from Brisbane on the 5th of October following months of speculation. Amongst the reasons he cited for his "retirement" was a desire to spend more time pursuing other interests in his native PNG. Essendon is a long way from PNG so the Brisbane Club is understandably upset over the rumour.!
PNG Web Hosting
Interested in creating 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 offered 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, DOT COM Domain Names are as little as US$9.00 per year.
Remember there is no need to spend hours and hours learning HTML code or graphics editing. No need to worry about details with PNG Web Hosting. Let the tools such as the Joomla! or Mambo Content Management System, help you on your way. If that seems too much effort then there is also a "fill in the gaps" html web site builder available free of charge. So if you are looking for a permanent home for even just your email address then take a look at -- http://pngwebhost.com
PNG Natural Gas
Merrill Lynch's Commodities Unit plans to invest in liquefied natural gas (LNG) production plants in PNG. As more and more people in the United States and Europe are becoming consumers of LNG more supply is needed. Domestic production particularly in USA has failed to keep pace with demand. LNG is natural gas that has been chilled to liquid form, reducing it to one-six-hundredth of its original volume, for transportation by ship to destinations not connected by pipeline. On arrival, it's turned back into gas for distribution to power plants, factories and households.
Medical Board
Professor Mathias Sapuri is the new chairman of the PNG Medical Board. Two of the challenges immediately facing Prof Sapuri are to get through a back log of disciplinary cases and to review the Medical Board Act. Prof Sapuri is also the president of the PNG Medical Society.
Kokoda Challenge
Seven people from Thursday Island competed in the recent Kokoda Challenge. Read about their trip here -- http://www.torresnews.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=302
New Tribes Mission
New Tribes Mission -- http://www.ntm.org/
Why Are There More Earthquakes
First, we had Hawaii at 8.3 mag, then PNG, followed by the Kuril Islands, Argentina, back to Papua New Guinea, the Banda Sea, seven major quakes again in the Kuril Islands, the Western Indian-Antarctic Ridge and finally the ... -- http://www.movermike.com/posts/1163872191.shtml
Papuan Protest
PNG Police had to fire warning shots to disperse hundreds of Papuans who protested outside the Australian High Commission in Port Moresby recently. They were demanding recognition as Australian citizens. The peaceful rally turned nasty after the PNG police ordered the crowd to move on and began manhandling protesters to get them to leave the Australian high commission's car park. The rally was in response to a call from the High Commission for all Australian citizens to register at the commission's offices so they could be readily found in emergencies. It is claimed that because there was never a referendum conducted in Papua at the time of PNG Independence to legally sever ties with Australia Papuan-born people are still Australian Citizens.
Canoe Festival
A quote from the Alotau Canoe Festival -- "Then you have to remove the fairies, the good ones and the bad ones," says the chairman of this month's 3rd annual Alotau Canoe Festival. "You will do this by singing to them, asking them to go from your tree to another."
http://www.bigempire.com/sake/alotau_canoe.html
Bogus Charity Collector
This has come from Ian Brooks in Townsville, Australia --
quote
Police have charged a 37-year-old man with a number of offences after he allegedly posed as a charity collector for Breast Cancer Australia.
Concerned western suburbs residents reported the man's activities after doubting he was an authorised collector for the organisation.
Following his arrest it was determined the man is a Papua New Guinea national and is in Australia on an expired visa.
The man was arrested and charged with seven counts of fraud and one count of possess tainted property.
Bail was refused and the man appeared in Richlands Magistrates Court today.
end quote
Dental Graduates
Eight students have graduated with a Bachelor of Dental Surgery from the University of PNG (UPNG). The last group of students graduated 20 years ago as the program was put on hold by UPNG.
Forged Certificates
Coming up to the end of the school year when many ex-students will be out and about looking
for work school authorities have said to check school certificates closely to ensure that they are not forged documents. They also said that a photocopy of a certificate should never be accepted as genuine. Details of Grade 10 and 12 results should always be crosschecked with the Education Department's Measurement Services Unit (MSU) database. Certain features are incorporated into recent certificates. Since 1995, all genuine certificates have had a raised embossed Department of Education seal on the bottom right hand corner while in 2002 the seal also had the year on it. Further the genuine certificates have the word "Original" in faint large letters printed on the back.
Coming Events
The 2006 Miss PNG Red Cross Charity Quest Crowning Ball is being held on the 2nd of December at the Crowne Plaza downtown Port Moresby from 7pm.
32nd Gaming Fishing Association of PNG titles will be held from the 7th to the 16th of April, 2007
2007 National Elections
PNG 32nd Independence Anniversary - 16th September 2007
Do you have an event that you want advertised? Send email to -- PNGNews[@]pnggossip.com
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