Sites to visit
Warning. PNG websites seem to come and go. The fact of life is that it costs money to host a website 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 website and let them know so they at least know that someone has gained some value from their efforts. If you are so inclined them mention that you heard about them from this website.
If any reader is interested in seeing some photo's of Papua New Guinea then I suggest taking a visit to -- http://www.ioa.com/~tatanua/home.html -- where you'll see pictures from the Goroka show, pictures of Kanengara village men in traditional celebration costume and a Haus Tambaran in Guvenmas village under construction as well as another couple of pages related to PNG
If you are into diving then I suggest a visit to
PNG Forums and Discussion websites
PNG Directory Forum -- http://www.pngwebdirectory.com/forum
-- Free Speech Forum -- http://www.voy.com/5575
-- Wantok's Forum -- http://www.niugini.com/wwwboard
Another area with a lively discussion about PNG is the Professional Pilots Rumour Network located at http://www.pprune.com I believe that you can read but not participate unless you are a member.
Another site still under development can be visited at -- http://www.worldswitch.com/Countries/Papua New Guinea/index.htm.
Another company, Masalai Communications, is in the process of developing a website dealing with PNG. It is called the PNG Trading Post and is located at -- http://www.global.net.pg/pngtradepost. It is well worth a look and rather than compete aims to complement the one located at -- http://www.pngwebdirectory.com
If you have seen the PNG K50 note and are interested in who made them then take a wander around -- http://www.rba.gov.au/Currency/PolymerCurrency/securency.html. -- Another article associated with PNG can be found at -- http://www.rba.gov.au/MediaReleases/1999/mr_99_14.html. -- It is a little dated.
Another Recommended Site...
Royal Papua Yacht Club located at http://www.royalpapua-yc.com.pg is a site well worth visiting if you are interested in yachting.
Daltron has some information on Papua New Guinea located at http://www.daltron.com/links_png_story.html
Aviation Related Websites
For those interested in aviation, apart from visiting the above sites paying a visit to http://aviation-safety.net/database/country/P2.shtml might prove to be interesting.
Missionary Aviation Fellowship
MAF will be celebrating their 50th birthday soon. I am not aware of a local website for the aviators who manage to keep some of the smallest communities connected with the rest of the world but if someone knows of one I will gladly mention it here. Some of the flights are only a matter of minutes but save over a days walk.
Game Fishing Contest
The game fishing titles in Madang are ready to go ahead starting on the 7th of April and going through until the 15th of April. Visit the website at http://www.gfapng-titles.global.net.pg/intro.html
University of Technology
A total of 538 students graduated from the University of technology in Lae last Friday. This was the first year that there have been more women graduating than men.
Hotels
The Palm Lodge hotel in West New Britain is now called Kimbe Bay hotel and undergoing renovations. The new caretakers are Airways motel Port Moresby. Rates for single are K135 per night and K145 per night double.
The Islander Travelodge, as mentioned in a previous "Gossip" is now officially called the Holiday Inn. The Port Moresby Travelodge just recently renamed to the Parkroyal will be renamed to the Crowne Plaza later this month.
Home Brew
50 people, five of them women have been arrested for making jungle juice. 27 people were arrested earlier on I the year for similar offences involving the illegal brewing of alcohol.
Whales
A seminar hosted by the National Museum and the United States Embassy has been told that scientists studying sperm whales in the Bismarck Sea have discovered that that there are far more whales than what they expected to find. It would appear that whales in PNG are thriving whereas elsewhere in the world the numbers of whales are diminishing.
Port Moresby Rugby
The non-registration of players has resulted in games being postponed indefinitely within the Port Moresby Rugby League competition. The clubs have affiliated but they have been very slow in registering their players.
Inaugural Flight
The passengers onboard Air Niugini's inaugural non stop flight to Sydney were met with a traditional hosing down by a fire engine on arrival. Captain Jensen was quick to point out that it was a welcome rather than to put out any fires. Even after the announcement one passenger was still heard to comment that he wondered if it was something to do with foot and mouth disease prevention.
The inaugural flight departed late from Port Moresby and then was called back when a couple of passengers realised it wasn't the flight to Cairns. Luckily the plane had not even gone more than 100 metres before going back. I think the international organisation SITA -- http://www.sita.org -- might have to answer for not having the automated boarding pass readers working for all international flights leaving Port Moresby. Of course there are all the manual checks and balances which also need to be looked at as well.
To help kick-start the flights to Sydney - Air Niugini has offered free internal airfares from the provinces to Port Moresby if the passenger is travelling down to Sydney with no more than an overnight stop in Port Moresby in either direction.
Adverse comments have been received from various tourist operators in the provinces over the fact that the overseas flights leave very early in the morning which means that customers will have to spend a night in Port Moresby.
Air Niugini Privatisation
The privatisation announcement has been put off for a couple of weeks whilst more figures are calculated on the actual financial status of the airline.
It has been highlighted that Air Niugini has several unused routes that are helping to inflate the sale price of the airline. The airline has rights to fly to places such as Los Angeles, Tokyo, Osaka, Auckland, Honolulu, Nadi, and Port Vila. Airlines rumoured to be in the running have been mentioned to be Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines, and Royal Dutch Airlines - KLM.
Telikom Privatisation
A project manager has been appointed for the privatisation of Telikom. Preliminary talks are already under way.
Telikom
The supplier of the only telephone service in PNG has upset a few customers who have subscribed to the fixed price service which allows customers to make calls in their local area only but receive calls from anywhere for a cheaper price. Telikom, without any publicity have decided to drop this service leaving customers with disconnected phones and then having to apply for a new service with a different phone number and of course a higher price to pay. This is hardly a good will exercise to customers who have had the existing service for many years.
Lae Shooting
A bread delivery van driver has been shot dead in Lae. The driver had gone to collect payment for bread delivered in the morning when three men armed with a homemade gun held him up and demanded the money. They then shot him at close range and escaped in the van.
Boana
The chairman of the PNG Small holders Coffee Growers Association has called on coffee growers from the Boana area of Morobe Province to grow more coffee.
Mendi Hospital
The administrator of the Southern Highlands has donated an ambulance valued at K60,000 as well as cheques totalling K24,000. The administrator said that there were only three doctors serving the whole province from the hospital.
Bill Skate
The ex Prime Minister, Bill Skate, is recovering in a Brisbane hospital after suffering three heart attacks over a period of two days recently.
Wartime Bombs
Once again people have been injured whilst attempting to dismantle bombs left over from World War Two in East New Britain Province. The provincial disaster committee has issued a stern warning to people to not tamper with the old bombs.
Port Moresby Soccer
The soccer season is ready to start. The ground has been readied and the Soccer Association is about to announce a sponsor for this year's competition. 100's of school kids are ready for the kick off of their competition as well.
Along with the soccer draws one of the local schools has put an announcement that the parents of children who are left after school and have to be driven home will be charged K25 whilst the parents of kids who are left overnight will be charged K50.
Ombudsman Commission
The Ombudsman Commission has said that no one is above the law when referring to the soldiers that were recently granted an amnesty over the theft of guns and ammunition from various Defence Force armouries in Port Moresby.
Tourism
The Tourism Promotion Authority is in the process of setting up a marketing package to help attract tourists to PNG. The new promotion will use the pidgin words "PNG - Em ples bilong me". It is hoped that the statement will help to build a unified national pride.
Tourism CEO
Lawyers have said that the minister for Tourism and Culture had no legal basis to suspend the Tourism Promotion Authority chief executive officer recently.
Rice growing
People who used to grow rice in East New Britain between 1995 and 1999 may be about to receive help as government officers in Kokopo are gathering information to help establish a rice farming project in the district. It has been reported that there were 500 village growers in the district between the two years but they were no longer growing rice.
Alotau
In a bid to make land available for investors the provincial government of Milne Bay will evict squatters from parcels of land in Alotau.
Wet Season
The rain continues to fall in Port Moresby and other places around the country. Matt has told me that the new roadwork at Ela Beach has been under water the last couple of mornings. He, and I!, hope that they have designed the road a little bit better than that - or is it time to buy a diesel with a snorkel so you can drive under the water?
Heavy rain has caused flooding and a need for urgent food supplies in the Maprik area of East Sepik. The floods have destroyed food gardens as well as vanilla plantations.
Prices
The Mac Center has advertised 400Mhz "Indigo" Power PC G3's for K3490 + vat. These come with 512K of L2 cache, 64 MB of SD Ram, 10 GB Ultra ATA drive, 10/100 LAN card and CD ROM. For K5990 + vat they are offering a 800Mhz Power PC G3 with 256K of L2 cache, 128MB SD Ram, 40 GB Ultra ATA drive, 10/100 LAN card and CD-RW drive. They don't have a web site but have an -mail address which is listed as maccenter@remington.com.pg
Education
PNG newspaper sites
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