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.
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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
Morobe Show
Thanks to Clarissa Reilly the date for the Morobe Show has been amended in recent issues of the newsletter. Visit the Show web site at -- http://www.morobeshow.org -- for more information.
Radio Australia
Harmony Gold -- http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/s1944139.htm
Ombudsman Commission -- http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/s1943970.htm
Police Service -- http://abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200706/s1947471.htm
PNG Embassy
http://www.pngcanberra.org
http://www.pngembassy.org
http://www.pnghighcomm.org.uk
Masalai i Tokaut
The entire archives of the Masalai i Tokaut newsletter can be found at -- http://www.masalai-i-tokaut.com
News Items
Tourism Figures
According to the Tourism Promotion Authority International Visitor Arrivals to PNG increased by almost 50 percent in the first quarter of 2007. Between January & March, almost 25,000 visitors came to PNG, an increase of 8,261 extra arrivals compared to the corresponding period in 2006. Business travel grew by 62 percent while the holiday segment grew by 25 percent. The European market continues to experience the highest growth in tourist numbers followed by Australia, Oceania, Asia and New Zealand.
School Subsidies
The government has released details about how much each school in all provinces in the country will receive from the school subsidy it is providing this year. With K100 million to come from the supplementary budget, the total Government subsidy rises to K143 million this year for children attending over 300,000 schools in the country. The details have been released just in time for the elections. Schools have been instructed to refund any extra payments made by parents upon receiving the subsidy grants.
Angabanga Pollution
The Central provincial government is seeking legal advice on whether it should take the Tolukuma gold mine to court for allegedly polluting the Angabanga and Auga Rivers in Central province. Based on three separate reports the provincial government is more than satisfied that it should take legal action against Tolukuma gold mine.
Development Grants
The Ombudsman Commission is questioning the release of more than K90 million in development grants to the sitting Members of Parliament on the eve of elections. The Chief Ombudsman Ila Geno is concerned that if MPs receiving the grants did not return after the coming elections it would be a lot of hard work to retrieve the unaccounted funds.
Travel Warnings
Last issue it was mentioned that Australia had released a travel warning about travel to PNG. For those of you that have not looked at it you can find it here -- http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/zw-cgi/view/Advice/Papua_New_Guinea -- The governments of New Zealand, United States and Canada have also warned their citizens of the rising crime and election-related violence in PNG especially travel to the Highlands region and major PNG towns. full story -- http://www.thenational.com.pg/060607/nation18.htm
Election Security
Three hundred auxiliary police from the East Sepik province will help out with election duties in the Highlands region. Members from the auxiliary unit have received intensive physical fitness training voluntarily conducted by PNGDF personnel and community members. The deployment of auxiliary police for national duty is the first of its kind in the country.
Operation Open Heart
Preparations are under for the running of the 12th Operation Open Heart event. Since its inception, 360 patients have been operated on - 146 for open heart and 214 for closed heart surgery - and the team has had a very high success rate. The cost of a similar operation in Australia would be about K70,000. Because of Operation Open Heart PNG now has qualified specialists who are able to carry out closed heart surgery in the country. This is seen as a major boost to the health sector.
Operation Open Heart started in 1993 when the first operation was carried out in Goroka. In 1998, it was brought to Port Moresby as it was very expensive to transport medical equipment to other provinces in PNG.
Sugar
After a recent significant shortage of sugar around the country Ramu sugar now say the supply is looking sweet. Ramu has managed to harvest a total of 10,000 tonnes of sugar and expects to be able to harvest 20,000 tonnes later this year. The shortage was so acute that some stores in Port Moresby had to restrict customers to a one kilogram packet each time they went to purchase the product.
Hotels' Facelift
Steamships Trading Company has announced plans to renovate several of its Coral Sea Hotels around the country. The Gateway and the Ela Beach Hotels will undergo major renovations and extensions to their apartments. The Hotel Division finished the year with a K9.4 million pre-tax profit. -- http://www.coralseahotels.com.pg/
Angau Hospital
Angau acting chief executive officer Dr Polapoi Chalau has said that the hospital may have to shut within two weeks. Angau is the main hospital for Lae and the region. The hospital buildings are rotting away and despite funds being allocated in the recent supplementary budget by the Government for the emergency repairs no money has filtered down to the hospital. Conditions are so bad that babies are being born of floors and other patients are sleeping in the corridors of the accident and emergency department. Some of the babies delivered on the floor were being readmitted to the hospital because they had contracted infections while in the labour ward. There has also been a reported increase in the number of cubicle deaths at the hospital.
Election Posters
Many supporters of candidates are struggling to find the ultimate position to display their "bosses" election posters. At the top of this neweletter you will see examples of posters in Goroka. Much rivalry exists between the people doing the pasting around town. Some candidates have complained that their posters have been torn down in the early hours of the morning under the cover of darkness. Peter Ipatas's Peoples Party thought they had found the ultimate position. They were allowed to erect posters within the Civil Aviation Authority Domestic terminal at Jackson's Airport. The domestic terminal is primarily used by Air Niugini and Airlines of PNG. After complaints from other parties and the general public the advertising material has now been removed from the terminal. Many election posters are placed in such inaccessible positions that they can be seen for years to come.
The Lae City Council has tried to remove election posters of candidates who allegedly failed to pay a K500 fee imposed by the council for placing posters on trees and other structures in Lae. Council workers, backed by the council's police, removed some of the posters of the defaulting candidates, but stopped when the candidates intervened.
Bomana Breakout
There has been a mass breakout of inmates from Bomana Jail, the biggest prison in the country. It is believed that more than ten prisoners could have escaped at about 4pm on the 13th of June. Police are alarmed by an alleged silence by prison officials and did not receive the information about the breakout in a timely fashion especially since the Bomana Police Training College and the police dog unit are next door to the prison. To make matters worse in an effort to recapture the escapees some of the police vehicles in Moresby are grounded due to a lack of fuel.
Correctional authorities have confirmed the death of an escapee and the recapture of three prisoners after the breakout at the Prison.
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
Missionary Aviation
Missionary Aviation Fellowship better known as MAF has picked up some of the routes vacated when Airlink was recently grounded. Airlines of PNG have had to advertise that they are no longer able to fly to many airstrips due to the deteriorating condition of the airstrips. This has led to delays and cancelled flights that are an unacceptable cost to the airline.
Electoral Rolls
The Electoral Commissioner, Andrew Trawen, has announced that the electoral rolls will be ready for public viewing two weeks before the June 30 election. The Commission is using modern technology to distribute the rolls. Copies of the electoral rolls are in CD format and in hard copy which can be bought from the Electoral Commission. The CD costs K150 and the hard copy K50. There will be over 9,000 polling places throughout the country, 5,115 polling teams and approximately 40,000 election personnel to be deployed during polling time.
Do not forget to visit the PNG Electoral Commission web site located at -- http://www.pngec.gov.pg/ -- for more information about the coming elections.
Want a copy of Limited Preferential Voting materials such as the LPV Election Guide, pamphlets and brochures? Then navigate to -- http://www.pngec.gov.pg/contents/library/pngecmaterials1.htm -- from there you will be able to download booklets, manuals, sample ballot papers, and various other election related posters.
Arnott's Biscuits
After 74 years of operation in the country Arnott's Biscuits PNG has been bought by the Public Officers Superannuation Fund and Comrade Trustee Services Limited. This now makes Arnott's Biscuits a PNG owned company.
Traditional Currency
The daily currency in use in PNG is named after two types of traditional currency used within the country - The Kina and the toea. There are other currencies that were used and some of the common ones are the Milne Bay Bagi and the Tolai Tabu. Other currency existed, for example the Motuans went on long sailing voyages and returned with goods. It is this time of year when the great Hiri trade is remembered with the Hiri Festival and the Miss Hanenamo Quest. Both events are usually held on a yearly basis over the Independence weekend in Port Moresby.
The annual Hiri Moale festival celebrates one of the epic trading voyages between Central Province villagers and the people in the Gulf of Papua. It is a three-day festival of traditional dance, singsing, and drama. During the festivities, Port Moresby's Ela Beach is lined with stilt houses, canoes and swaying dancers decorated with leis of frangipani and hibiscus. Hanenamo is a Motuan word meaning coming together and celebrating.
Some of the other currencies are the doba, banana leaf money from the Trobriand islands and the Mwali also from Milne Bay.
Visit -- http://michie.net/pnginfo/moni.html -- and from there you will find some information about Bagi, Mwali, Tabu and Doba.
Do any readers know of any other traditional currencies?
Coming Events
Tufi Cultural Show, Oro Province -- 9th to the 11th June
Sepik Iron Man Contest -- 11th of June 2007
National Mask Festival, Kokopo - East New Britain Province -- 12th to the 15th of July
Mt Hagen Show - August 2007 -- http://eventsuk.britishairways.com/sisp/index.htm?fx=event&event_id=31325 -- First held in 1964, the Mt Hagen Show moved from its original site in Mt Hagen itself to the Showgrounds after independence in 1975.
International Orchid Spectacular -- 5th and 6th of August
XIII South Pacific Games -- August 2007. To be held in Samoa
Lukim PNG NAU Tourism Expo -- 9th to the 11th September
National Tourism Conference -- 12th of September
Hiri Moale Festival, Port Moresby - National Capital District -- 15th to 18th of September
The Tourism Promotion Authority has the following to say about the popular annual Hiri Moale Festival.
It will be held at Ela Beach in Port Moresby and organisers say the event which depicts the historical significance of the Hiri trade between the Motuan people and their Gulf neighbours to the west will be bigger and better this year. As in the past, the symbol of the Hiri Moale Festivals today remains the giant double-hull Lakatois (canoes) which plied these waters risking many lives over many months to trade fish for food from the west. Today, the Lakatois (sometimes spelt lagatois) are sailed into Ela Beach by certain chosen villages accompanied by singing and dancing. A highlight of the Hiri Moale Festival is the Hiri Hanenamo or Hiri Queen quest.
PNG 30th Independence Day Celebrations -- 16th September
Morobe Show, Lae -- 27th to 28th of October
The Milne Bay Canoe and Kundu (drum) festival is to be in November
Do you have an event that you want advertised? Send email to -- PNGNews[@]pnggossip.com
PNG Media
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