Post Courier, Friday March 20, 2015

Hidden potential of eco-tourism > Inside the Weekender

Airport baby Airport baby drama

PNG woman caught trying to smuggle infant to PNG

PNG woman caught to infanttoPNG

BY GRACE AUKA SALMANG

A PAPUA New

woman has joined a small list of controversial parents around the world who put their children through an airport scanner to avoid immigration checks.

The 25-year-old nursing graduate tried to smuggle her baby past Manila airport security in a backpack on Monday night, as she did not have correct immigration papers for her son to leave the Philippines aboard the Air Niugini flight.

The two-month-old was discovered by shocked staff at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, as he was picked up by the X-ray machine.

According to ABS-CBN News of the Philippines, the child was soundly asleep

when he was found by security at NAIA Terminal 1. The mother was identified as Jennifer Pavolaurea, who was departing for Port Moresby on the Air Niugini flight.

CONTINUED PAGE 2

Guinean

THE infant seen through the airport scanner (left), the woman (above) who was trying to smuggle the infant through the airport Ninoy Aquino International Airport (top left). Pictures supplied

You all swore oaths to save lives

IT IS time for those charged with the responsibility to save Papua New Guinean lives to start doing exactly that and stop the politicking and the games.

The clashes that strangled services at the Goroka Provincial Hospital in recent weeks and led to critical staff walking off their jobs, triggering a crisis that endangered the lives of patients is uncalled for and goes against the ethics of those swore to save lives.

We applaud the Health and HIV/AIDS Minister Micheal Malabag on the timely intervention through the National Executive Council (NEC), saving lives is and should be the ultimate goal of everyone concerned including the striking hospital workers. If you think otherwise then it is obvious you are in the wrong job and should immediately resign.

PNG continues to be challenged by our health indicators in poor maternal mortality and infant mortality rates, increasing incidences of tuberculosis (TB) in the Southern region provinces and an HIV/ AIDS epidemic that has plateaued but continues to be a concern for health practitioners and administrators.

It is unethical for sick Papua New Guineans to be affected by what is clearly administrative issues that can be tackled by the Government without putting critical health services at risk. It is in that light that we support the decision by the NEC to suspend the current Eastern Highlands Provincial Health Authority board as well as certain management positions in the hospital. We look forward to the formation of a caretaker hospital management, to ensure essential services are restored so that quality health care can resume for the people of Eastern Highlands and neighbouring provinces.

There are indications that an increasing number of homegrown medical professionals in public hospitals are abandoning their oath to save lives. We continue to be privy to information of doctors and nurses ignoring patients in the hospitals or checked into the accidents and emergency section (A&E) and in need of emergency treatment but not treated.

It is a sad state of affairs, when you consider the fact that a lot of our local doctors in our public hospitals also work as “consultants” at private hospitals and clinics. Sometimes you have to wonder if it is possible to serve two masters and whether your split loyalties will impact on the service you strive to provide as a medical practitioner.

We appreciate the challenges that the Government has to grapple with in light of the shortages that the country currently faces in terms of skilled labour, which includes skilled professionals such as nurses and doctors. It is an issue that the Government continues to address with the recruitment of Filipino nurses to work at the Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH) an example of some of the success it has had.

But medical professionals such as nurses and doctors should not use their jobs to hold sick ordinary Papua New Guineans to ransom. Our people have suffered enough and deserve to be given the red carpet treatment in terms of the delivery of goods and services (including medical services). After all you all swore an oath to save lives – not destroy them.

Index

Asia news ........................74-77

Bougainville Today Business ..........................25-28

Classifieds ............39-42, 55-60

Comics..................................82

Highlands Post.....................22

Home news...............4-9, 12-20

Islands Post .........................24

Mamose Post .......................23

Pacfic news .....................68-72

Southern Post ......................21 Sport .....................64-66, 91-95

Stars ......................................82

Sudoku .................................82

The drum ...............................3

Turf Guide .............................90

World news......................78-81

Yu tok ...............................10-11

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Govt works on plan to stop pornography

BY GORETHY KENNETH

THE Government is developing a communication awareness plan for pornography together with cybercrime in general while the drafting of the cyber crime legislation is in the process. Communication and Information Technology Minister Jimmy Miringtoro revealed this yesterday, saying that this was being done through the Department of Communication, the National Information and Communications

Technology Authority (NICTA) and other stakeholders. “The Government has revealed that it is mindful that the use of ICT as a learning tool is vital and the decision cannot be reversed as they say pornography remains a challenge,” Mr Miringtoro said.

PNG has been rated in recent reports as one of the worst viewing countries accessing pornography.

“Pornography is one of the many challenges of cybercrime that Government with the support of all stake-

holders must collectively address,” he said.

“Concurrently, the Government is mindful that the use of ICTs inevitably introduces correlative security concerns for individuals, businesses and the public sector that need to be addressed.”

But Mr Miringtoro said the Government’s position was to encourage the use of ICT, especially internet as a tool to enhance learning and social and economic development and it could not reverse that decision.

“For example, APEC member economies commit to make APEC play a constructive role in the internet economy with the establishment of an adhoc steering group to guide the discussion on issues arising from the initiative and activities contained in the APEC initiative of cooperation to promote internet economy.”

He said there was a global trend where almost all developing economies were adopting e-government as a necessary step towards integration.

PNG woman tries to sneak infant home

FROM PAGE 1

THE assistant general manager for security and emergency services of the airport, Vicente L. Guerzon Jr, said Ms Pavolaurea had been detained for questioning about overstaying her visa when the baby was discovered inside the backpack and she admitted the lack of clearance papers for the child.

The single mother and her son were eventually

allowed to leave the airport and no charges were filed. But mother and child did not board the Port Moresby flight, according to Air Niugini’s commecial general manager Dominic Kaumu yesterday.

He told the Post-Courier that Ms Pavolaurea had checked in as normal but failed to turn up at the boarding gate so Air Niugini offloaded her. The whereabouts of mother and child could not be

confirmed last night.

PNG Customs Services Commissioner Ray Paul said yesterday he was not aware of a woman trying to smuggle her baby into the country, adding that it would be an immigration issue best dealt by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Immigration.

The PNG Immigration Authority has advised that the matter was brought to their attention yesterday but the woman had yet to

arrive in the country.

This is not the first time a baby has been hidden in a bag in an attempt to be smuggled on a plane.

In 2012 an Egyptian couple arrived at Sharjah International Airport in Egypt without the correct immigration papers, Mail Online reports.

They were told they would be held in the airport for a few days, so decided to risk their chances and put their child in a bag.

Kaluwin clarifies report

THE Public Prosecutor

Pondros Kaluwin yesterday clarified that matters which the Ombudsman Commission considered to be trivial in nature could be dealt with through other avenues.

He was responding to an article published by PostCourier on Wednesday relating to the recent referrals of politicians by the Ombudsman Commission to his office.

The second last paragraph in the article, which was published on page 8 of that edition, was not correct as he said he was not referring to matters that were recently referred to his office for its consideration.

“I was not referring to matters recently and currently referred to my office by the Ombudsman Commission,” he said.

It is understood the Public Prosecutor has written to the commission to highlight the erroneous reporting.

CITY ROADS NEAR COMPLETION

Car dealer restores vandalised sculpture

BY MAUREEN GERAWA

CAR SALES company, PNG Motors, has cleaned and repainted a vandalised Pacific Games-themed statue erected on a Port Moresby roundabout.

Hooligans spray-painted the giant statue of a swimmer last weekend, infuriating Sports and Pacific Games Minister Justin Tkatchenko, compelling him to put out a K10,000 reward for information which would lead to the arrest of the culprits.

Speaking to Post-Courier yesterday afternoon, the Minister said PNG Motors –whose automobile showroom

The bottom line

drum

CLOSING IN

THE net is closing in on the hooligan who defaced the Blue Man at the PNG Motors and Murray Barracks roundabout with graffiti. It is time local authorities come down hard on pests like that.

THANK YOU

TOP marks to PNG Motors for repainting the Blue Man free-of-charge. That is real community spirit. But the scourge of urban vandalism remains alive and should be tackled immediately.

SUPPORT

IT IS a positive development for PNG’s rugby league fans. Penrith Panthers PNG-born star James Segeyaro wants to play for Queensland. Will we see a swell in support for the famous jersey?

GO HUNTERS

THERE will definitely be support when the PNG Hunters take on East Tigers in Brisbane tomorrow in the third round of the QRL Intrust Super Cup. Enjoy the game boys!

THE CROCS

ZIMBABWE crocs, like their Bougainville cousins, have taken a liking to human flesh. The Daily Telegraph reports British tourists in a cruise along the Zambezi

flower garden around the sculpture.

He thanked PNG Motors for responding to his plea, while acknowledging the offer from another Port Moresbybased firm, PNG Namba Wan Trophy Limited, to repaint the eye-catching statue freeof charge.

PNG Namba Wan Trophy Limited group general manager Jim K A Gui made the offer soon after reading the story in the Wednesday edition of the newspaper.

toration,’’ said Mr Gui.

Mr Gui is not new in responding to needs in the community, as he has helped numerous times before.

Most recently, assistance from his company enabled some street children to go to school through Life Care PNG, a non-governmental organisation founded and run by Collin Pake and his wife.

River were horrified seeing them eat a man.

THE MP

ANY truth in reports from Goroka that an MP charged into the hospital and unilaterally announced the appointment of a new CEO? Maybe the Ombudsman Commission should check it out.

HISTORY

GROUND breaking ceremonies are banned but there had to be an exception yesterday. The rewriting of history when a building that housed the famous Bully Beef Club at ADCOL was demolished.

REBIRTH

A NEW facility dedicated to the training of the next generation of PNG bureaucrats was commissioned in its place. It will be called the Pacific Leadership and Governance Precinct.

ALL GOOD THE recent Drum on developments within the coffee industry caught the eye of the CIC. The corporation maintains there’s nothing sinister in agreements with a Korean company and coffeegrowing districts.

faces the artwork – got the statue cleaned and repainted as landscape contractors put the finishing touches to a

“I am more than happy to assist in the restoration of this sculpture into its original state. I am able to supply and apply paint for this res-

The offer of a K10,000 reward for information on the people who defaced the swimming sculpture remains open, with Mr Tkatchenko indicating that he was confident the vandals will be identified.

LEADERS from coffee-growing districts are partnering with the CIC to use their DSIP grants to fund and boost coffee production in their electorates. More details in Monday’s business pages.

PENGEE: thedrum@spp.com.pg

Sports and Pacific Games Minister Justin Tkatchenko put out a K10,000 for information that would lead to the arrest of the culprits.

COFFEE

THE 2015 Pacific Games is just around the corner and most roads in the city are sealed and almost complete.

PNG Motors got the statue cleaned as landscape contractors put the finishing touches to a flower garden around the sculpture ...

MP JUSTIN TKATCHENKO

Port Moresby

Contractors defy police order

UNPAID Education Department contractors have defied a police order for them to dismantle their tents in front of the Fincorp Haus which is the department’s head office at Waigani.

The aggrieved service providers, who claimed they were owed millions of kina for jobs done at National Capital District (NCD) schools infrastructure, libraries and archives since 2007, were still adamant that they meet with Education Minister Nick Kuman and Secretary Michael Tapo.

LNG impact villages in dire need of service

BY ISAAC NICHOLAS

POREBADA villagers have watched in awe as the “spirits” sailed by with the Papua New Guinea gas destined for overseas markets of Japan and China.

Porebada is one of the four impact villages comprising Boera, Papa and Lealea that surrounds the multi-billion dollar PNG LNG Project plant.

These four impact villages have watched the Spirit of Hela sailed in and out with the first LNG cargo for Japan. They have watched their very own Spirit of Papua sailed in and left.

At a glance

ISSUE: There has been no development and service to the people of the four impact villages comprising of Boera, Papa and Lealea that surrounds the multi-billion dollar LNG Project plant.

IMPACT: The road leading into the school are treacherous, schools are run down, aid post and health centres are rundown and without medicine and health workers.

ASSISTANCE: Curtain brothers at its own cost, maintained Boera road, and Global Construction did the same on Papa Lealea.

More than 50 shipments of LNG cargoes had left and there was nothing to celebrate for these four impacted villages.

The roads leading into the villages are treacherous,

schools run down, aid post and health centres are either run-down or without medicine or a health worker. The road leading into Porebada from Roku turnoff is five kilometres, or five to

ten minutes drive in good weather but now it takes about an hour. Just recently Curtain Brothers, at its own cost, maintained Boera road, and Global Construction did the same on Papa Lealea road maintenance.

Porebada had been forgotten, no PMVs are serving the village on a regular basis, workers are lucky to get a ride to work in the morning and return home in the afternoon.

The recent heavy rain had brought new health dangers to a population of about 5000 men, women and children. There is no proper sewerage system so all the waste

from each of the high post homes are literally floating around under the homes and as flooded waters subsides, these wastes dry up and now poses a great risk to children. The plight of the Porebada and other impacted LNG Plant villages was highlighted by Raho Kevau who is the Chairman of Laba Holdings Limited, an umbrella land owner company representing the four impacted villages. The plight of the villages was highlighted by Mr Raho Kevau who is the Chairman of Laba Holdings Limited, an umbrella land owner company representing the four impact villages.

After a large gathering on Wednesday there was no sign of people yesterday but the tents still stood. Only a few people were present, saying they would not move until their grievances were addressed.

A spokesman said it was hard to believe that after signing required documents and using their own money to work, the National Executive Council (NEC) had seen it fit to call their settlement claims illegal. It was also revealed that about seven contractors have passed away without receiving their payments.

The contractors of NCD schools, classrooms, libraries and archives said the department owed them K86 million for services rendered.

SPOKESMAN

PORT Moresby

Monian company donates relief supplies to WNB

RELIEF donations to West New Britain Province are still pouring in since the awareness by Governor Sasindran Muthuvel last weekend.

Yesterday Mr Muthuvel received 36 Aqua boxes which are lifesaving water

tank with water filters and water treatment tablets that could treat up to 2000 litres of polluted water, making it safe and pleasant to drink. The boxes were also filled with emergency aid to reduce the suffering during the aftermath of a disaster.

Monian Company on behalf of the Rotary Club presented the items to Mr Muthuvel who said he would make sure the donations were used well by the suffering people of WNB.

“We are saddened to see the suffering the WNB peo-

ple are going through so at our meeting yesterday, we discussed the devastation that has happened in WNB and Vanuatu, Rotarian Nurur and our club members have decided to send you 36 Aqua Boxes, said Monica Salters.

She said that the boxes are also filled with emergency aid to reduce the suffering during the aftermath of a disaster.

“Thank you for your kind gesture on behalf of your Rotary and your thoughtful donation of Aqua Boxes and

emergency aid, certainly it will be of great help to those more than 10,000 affected people living in between Kimbe and Bialla,” said Mr Muthuvel.

He added that the items will be delivered to the most affected communities .

LABA Holdings chairman Raho Kevau inspecting critical works on the Porebada road.

It is hard to believe that after signing required documents

Senior health officers out

THE National Executive Council has suspended the current Eastern Highlands provincial health authority board and certain management positions.

The suspended positions included the current chief executive officer Lillian Siwi and the previously appointed acting hospital manager Francis Wandi.

According to a statement from the health ministry, senior officers from the Health Department would be mobilsed to Goroka to form a caretaker management of the Eastern Highlands PHA. Their immediate priority would be to ensure the provision of quality care to the people of Eastern Highlands. Further investigation into irregularities in the management of authority and the operation of Goroka Provincial Hospital would also be conducted.

The NEC had considered the report of the committee of inquiry appointed to look into matters at the Eastern Highlands provincial health authority and provided its directions.

The committee of inquiry was appointed by the Health Minister in response to reports of dissension, lockouts, and strike action at the hospital.

The committee investigated whether there had been a breakdown of the admin-

Gerehu hospital needs funding

BY MAUREEN GERAWA NATIONAL Capital District health services advisor

Dr Gary Ou’u has appealed to the authorities to help build Gerehu Hospital so that it can serve its role as a referral hospital for NCD.

At a glance

SUSPENDED: Eastern Highlands health authority board and certain management positions have been suspended by the National Executive Council.

ACTION: Ensure the provision of quality care to the people of Eastern Highlands.

istration of the provincial health authority or the provincial health authority was failing to provide an efficient health service.

It provided a written report to Minister Michael Malabag’s office which was then referred to NEC.

Following the investigations, strike action at the hospital had escalated. The current Eastern Highlands PHA board and management failed to resolve the situation in a timely manner which had resulted in a rapid deterioration of services.

NEC had now intervened in the interests of ensuring the availability of health services for the people of Eastern Highlands Province.

The Government was concerned to ensure that the delivery of health services in the province urgently return to normal and would continue to act to protect the interests of the people.

NO ATTENTION, NO WORRIES

Health workers share skills

CHRISITIAN Health Services PNG represented the country in a weeklong skills sharing workshop on health promotions in Jogjarkata on the Indonesian island of Java last week.

The Asia-Pacific region workshop focused mainly on the holistic Community Health Education (CHE) approach or referred to in PNG as the “Healthy Islands Concept” and how the different countries could learn

from experiences shared. The purpose of the workshop was to talk about community health and development initiatives using the CHE wholistic approach to improve sustainable healthy lifestyles in communities.

Nickson Samblap and Emma Wakpi from the Christian Health Services health promotions department, who represented PNG, said the other countries were impressed with the roll out of the Healthy

Islands program in PNG through CHS, as it targeted all provinces and would reach every community through health facilities in the country.

Mr Samblap said: “There is a difference with PNG and other countries in the AsiaPacific region in the roll out of the Healthy Islands Concept. Through CHS, we are able to target villages and communities in all provinces through church health agencies.

Dr Ou’u made the appeal at a media conference in Port Moresby this week when welcoming Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), a new partner in the fight against tuberculosis in Port Moresby.

He said the hospital has been declared a public hospital but needed to have more space and beds where patients could be off-loaded after being stabilised at Port Moresby General Hospital.

He said NCD is not any ordinary province and MSF had come at a time when TB had become a critical issue.

“NCD is a unique environment to be working in; it is where the nation’s elite are, has the largest expatriate community and where every Papua New Guinean wants to come to because of the city lights,’’ he said.

he also added that there is constant movement of people in and out of NCD which made the fight against TB a big challenge because it was difficult to track down those with TB.

For this reason, he said, NCD health Services had to constantly review its efforts in the TB fight by going back and forth from the drawing board.

He said this year it is critical that this discussion continued because the city is hosting international events such as the SP Games. Furthermore, he said it took time for TB to reach this critical stage and it will take equal time to address it.

Forensic scientist can determine a persons sex, age and race just by examining a single strand of hair. The bottom line

Children having fun along the sea front of deserted Morobe Patrol Post government station in Huon Gulf district, Morobe Province. The area has been neglected in terms of government services for decades.

BY NELLIE SETEPANO

RESEARCH projects in Papua New Guinea’s universities is taking on a new turn as the new research secretariat under the Ministry of Higher Education plans to coordinate all research, science and technology functions.

Established last year, the PNG Science and Technology Council Secretariat is a separate entity with the ministry. Using universities, the secretariat has been tasked by government to improve not only the standard of research and development in the country but for universities to also tap into research to create wealth and grow the economy through sustainable development.

Head of the secretariat Prof Teatulohi Matainaho said capacity to contribute to the nation through science, research and technology is poor, but he is adamant the secretariat will improve in research and development.

This week a two-day consultative meeting held in Port Moresby was attended by representatives from universities to discuss a way forward on research and development. Last year, five major projects received a total funding of K770,000. These projects are currently under the secretariat’s care; Pacific Adventist University’s bio-fuel project and renewable energy development;

Biodiversity natural products & Oils development at School of natural and physical sciences (UPNG); Drug discovery and herbal medicines development at School of Medicine & Human Science (UPNG); Snake Bite & Anti-Venom Clinical Trial by School of Medicine & Human Science (UPNG); and

Mushroom Project by (University of Goroka).

Naru urges church to sort out disputes

BY HAIVETA KIVIA

MOROBE Governor Kelly

Naru wants the Evangelical Lutheran Church to sort out its differences and open the Lutheran University of PNG within two years.

He said he was willing to meet with the Church Council of ELCPNG and factions involved in the current impasse, to reconcile for the good of the children of the Lutheran churches, Morobe and PNG.

UTILISING YOUTHS

Rice project to sustain WHP school

BY PEARSON KOLO

A HIGH School in Western Highlands Province will save K300,000 this year because it has grown enough rice to feed the entire student population for the year.

Kombolopa High School planted five hectares of rice in November last year and will harvest almost 30 tonnes of rice in April.

Chinese rice experts who helped the school plant its rice re-visited the school on Tuesday and presented them with knives to help harvest the rice.

Deputy Principal Mr Doa

said all the students and staff of the school are happy with their rice project and it will benefit them greatly.

“We will harvest enough rice to feed the student population for a year and we are very happy with the Government of the Peoples

Republic of China for helping us grow our own rice,”

Mr Doa told the rice experts. “This will save the school a lot of money which we spend on buying rice alone, for an academic year.”

Mr Doa stressed that the school has a large piece of land and is preparing it to plant more than 50 hectares of rice for its own consumption.

The Chinese rice experts who are based at the Highlands Agriculture College in Mt Hagen have assisted the school with seeds and helped them to plant rice as part of their

research on rice growing in the country.

Highlands Agriculture College farm manager Gibson Simon said they are proud of their project as it was showing promising results that rice can be grown in PNG. He said rice experts who came to the country in 2009 after an agreement between the PNG government and the Government of the Peoples Republic of China has identified two rice seedlings that can grow best in the country. The College will help Kombolopa High School mill its rice.

It has come to the fore that there are two factions involved in a tug-of-war to be in charge of the university project, based on the Lutheran University Act 2006 and 2014.

A committee was set up under the 2006 law and was actually on the ground to get the university up and running. Yet another committee was set up under the 2014 law which claimed to be the legitimate body.

Canadian Dr Brent Kilbeck, who is the project administrator of the 2006 working committee, had been on the ground to build infrastructure and tie in resources for the new university.

Dr Kilbeck said he had been threatened by church leaders and people who claimed to be christians.

Martin Luther Seminary principal Dr Michael Wan, a member of the 2006 committee, had also reported that he had been threatened.

“I told them I only fear God and I will do what is right in the eyes of God for the children of this country,” he said.

The two men updated Governor Naru on the current situation when handing over a detailed report of the project administration.

Harvard earns enough money from interest on its endowment that it could offer free tuition to every student and still have a profit.

BOYS from 14-Mile doing beautification work on the traffic island along the road at Murray Baracks, Port Moresby.

Picture: KENNEDY BANI

This will save the school a lot of money

MR DOA Western Highlands Province

Vehicle incident in Manus

IN a space of two weeks a local hire car company in the province has lost two of its fleets in alcohol related car incidents.

According to OIC public safety Sergeant Philip Lulu statistics have revealed that there is need to address road safety rules after numerous accidents occurred late last year and early this year.

The effect of the liquor ban needs to be addressed because most of the accidents is alcohol related despite attempts by the provincial government imposing the ban to bring peace and harmony in the province.

Apart from the alcohol related incidents, one of the contributing factor is drivers obtaining licence under dubious circumstances and have been driving without due care.

PNG researcher hosts first tech conference

BY MIRIAM ZARRIGA

A YOUNG Papua New Guinean has hosted the country’s first technology, entertainment and design (TED) conference in Port Moresby, enabling globally-recognised experts to share their ideas with Papua New Guineans. Deane Woruba, a researcher based in Sydney, Australia, was the first Papua New Guinean to be licensed to run a TED event in the country.

“Ideas worth spreading” is the slogan of TED and is run by a non-profit organisation, Sapling Foundation. It strives to address a wide range of topics, often through storytelling,” he said.

HISTORY: A young Papua New Guinean has hosted the country’s first TED conference in Port Moresby, enabling globally recognised experts to share their ideas with Papua New Guineans.

RESEARCHER: Deane Woruba, a researcher based in Sydney, Australia, was the first Papua New Guinean to be licensed to run a TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) event in the country.

TED’S SLOGAN:“Ideas worth spreading” is the slogan of TED and is run by a non-profit organisation, Sapling Foundation.

Mr Woruba was granted a license to host a TED Port Moresby live event to live stream session two of the second day of the TED 2015 Vancouver TED Talk conference that was held on Wednesday.

The Vancouver conference

had five speakers including Geometric artist Jason Padgett, Neuroscientist David Eagleman, Cognitive Scientist Donald Hoffman, Perceptual Navigation Specialist Daniel Kish, and Cognitive Scientist Laura Schulz.

Expressing excitement on

being the first Papua New Guinean to get a licence, he said it was an opportunity to educate young minds to think outside the box.

“Every young Papua New Guinean has the right to know that there is a bigger world out there. Let’s think outside the box and create bigger things.

“Live streaming of the conferences is a boost to any young thinkers out there who wish to let the world know what they can do, the five speakers today have made great strides in their field of work and this will be a great opportunity for PNG to host its first TED event,” Mr Woruba said.

He said if all went well with the TED Port Moresby Live showing, there would be a bigger TED event planned, which could see PNG participants speak on their achievements with the event streamed to the rest of the world.

Papua New Guineans who attended the Port Moresby event on Wednesday included University of PNG students.

Famous speakers of TED events include former US president Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Gates, Bono, and Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The TED offices are located in New York and Vancouver.

UNDP prepares women to contest B’ville elections

THE UN Development Program (UNDP) has organised a three-day workshop for women seeking to contest the upcoming 2015 General Elections in Bougainville.

More than 25 women candidates and their respective campaign managers representing different districts of Bougainville participated in the training.

The workshop focused on providing information on legal and institutional framework of the elections, articulating specific constrains and opportunities.

Women running for elec-

tions are at a more disadvantaged position compared to men.

Women generally have lower educational qualifications, are often confined to ‘traditional roles’ of primarily looking after their families,

face problems with access to campaigning resources and outreach to the community, as well issues having to struggle for violence-free access to polling.

To address the issue, UN is supporting the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) in conducting the upcoming elections through “Support of the 2015 Bougainville General Elections” initiative.

During the workshop, women were provided information on relevant advocacy and lobbying tools useful in election campaigns.

The training also provided an opportunity of networking among the candidates to share their experiences. Moreover, policy analysis and gender equality were also among the topics discussed during the workshop.

Acting electoral commissioner of Bougainville, George Manu encouraged participants to contest not only the three regional seats for women, but also the constituency seats in the elections.

“I have a passion for empowering women and

youth so that they are able to look after themselves better in their communities,” Mr Manu said.

“The training was an eye opener and very timely. It helped me to refine my campaign strategies in preparation for the elections.”

Rita Pearson, who intends to contest the elections at Tinputz in Central Bougainville, said: “I intend to support the implementation of the Bougainville Peace Agreement and make sure that people in my constituency are well informed, on what is in the agreement.”

BY GORETHY KENNETH

PAPUA New Guinea will host the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) policy in partnership on women and the economy in May. Investment Promotion Authority boss Ivan Pomaleu revealed this during a recent PNG Women’s Forum in Port Moresby where all women met to discuss all avenues to enhance their skills and come tighter to connect with each other.

“Papua New Guinea will be hosting the APEC meeting in 2018 and co-hosting the policy partnership on women and the economy (PPWE) in May. This is one of the meetings in preparation for the big event in 2018, the APEC Summit,” he said.

Mr Pomaleu outlined the challenges of hosting APEC in 2018 but said PNG was going through a process to prepare for it.

“Hosting APEC has its challenges,” he said.

“The challenges of logistics, administration, capacity, policy development and organisational capabilities,” he added.

PNG to host APEC meeting PNG reps off to APEC secretariat

TWO Papua New Guineans will be the first in history to be assigned to the APEC secretariat in Singapore to prepare for 2018 APEC meeting in Port Moresby.

Chief Secretary to Government Sir Manasupe Zurenuoc yesterday farewell Mr Fredrick Tamarua and Ms Ingrid Kuman, who will be the first Papua New Guineans since PNG became a member of APEC in 1993 to be assigned to the APEC secretariat in Singapore.

Mr Tamarua, who is a lawyer with the Department of Justice and Attorney General, and Ms Kuman, who is with Tourism Promotion Authority, will spend six months as junior directors in various APEC programs at the secretariat.

“This is history in the making. I am also advised that both interns were nominated by the respective government agencies along with others, and upon a vigorous screening process, and I wrote to their respective agencies on their successful nominations,” Sir Manasupe said.

Both officers will depart tomorrow.

Sir Manasupe said PNG is currently liaising with the APEC secretariat in Singapore to continue this program into 2018.

The national fatality rate for pedestrians is 1.58 per 100,000. New Mexico was highest at 2.94 and Nebraska lowest at .52.

MANUS is experiencing high rate of motor vehicle incidents despite the liquor ban in the province.

I have a passion for empowering women and youths so that...

GEORGE MANU Bougainville

Duo appear in court for wilful murder

BY SAMUEL RAITANO

THE death penalty was mentioned in a district court room at Waigani yesterday when a magistrate talked to two men accused of wilful murder.

Magistrate Cosmas Bidar, when speaking to the two, who appeared in court from custody at Bomana prison, said that there had been a lot of media reports lately about the death penalty which the Government wanted to carry out this year on 13 inmates on death row.

“It would serve as a deterrent

Decision on Rabaul Queen case soon

THE decision on whether there is a criminal case against Rabaul Shipping managing director Peter Sharp, MV Rabaul Queen captain Anthony Tsiau, chief mate Michael Zirau, former Kimbe branch port manager Grace Amen and NMSA Rabaul manager Joseph Kabiu is expected to be decided soon.

This is in relation to the tragic sinking of the MV Rabaul Queen in February 2012 when more than 150 people, including students and children, perished off the Finschhafen Coast in Morobe Province.

Sharp and the four people will appear again in court today when submissions by both prosecution and defence counsel are expected to be presented.

The case was adjourned in November last year to March 5 this year after the defence counsel promised to make their submission. This did not eventuate and the matter was further adjourned to yesterday for the submissions to be made.

However, the defence counsel had not filed their submissions.

Police prosecutor Benson Pae told the court he was ready to give a verbal submission.

However, magistrate Oakaiva Oiveka adjourned the case to today.

Death penalty will deter serious crime offenders ...

to serious crime offenders,” Mr Bidar said. He highlighted that offences like wilful murder could attract this category of punishment. He said wilful murder was se-

rious and persons accused of this type of offence needed to have lawyers to represent them in court.

He added that those accused with such offences and were in custody would have to apply for bail in the National Court.

It is understood that there had been cases where the National Court had refused bail, causing the accused persons to go as far as the Supreme Court.

Wilful murder is an offence defined by the law as the killing of someone with intent, or has been pre-planned. That

means the offender knows full well before or while taking the action that the victim would die as a result.

The courts interpret the laws and analyse if there are sufficient evidences to confirm that an offence was committed. A maximum penalty is prescribed alongside each offence but the courts use their descretion when deciding whether to apply the maximum penalty as prescribed or otherwise, after finding the accused person guilty of the offences as charged.

FRESH FROM

Manus leader to know fate today

THE leadership tribunal’s ruling on the submissions made on allegations against Manus MP Ronny Knight is expected to be handed down today. The matter relates to allegations against Mr Knight that District Support Improvement Program (DSIP) funds totalling K2.5 million for Manus were unlawfully obtained to purchase a ship, MV Trader Star There were five allegations against Mr Knight, according to the Public Prosecutor.

Meanwhile, in the MP’s submissions last month, he said he had not sought to challenge the right of the Ombudsman Com-

mission to refer the matter to the Public Prosecutor.

He had also stated that he had nothing to hide and the allegations against him were untrue, given that the ship was serving its purpose in delivering service to the scattered islands of

the province. On the other hand, the Public Prosecutor Kaluwin Pondros had alleged that the amount obtained was not the exact cost of the ship. It was alleged that the price was lower than K2.5 million and extra monies were taken out to cover for costs of other things which were not in the interest of the people.

The ruling would determine whether the allegations hold water.

Members of the tribunal through Judge Salatiel Lenalia had indicated that the ruling could possibly be handed down today.

Bogia MP’s case adjourned to May

BY SAMUEL RAITANO

BOGIA MP John Hickey ap-

peared

at the Waigani Committal Court on Wednesday, following his arrest and charges by the police fraud squad over the weekend.

Magistrate Mekeo Gauli read his charges and told him to return to court on May 18 when

the police would be expected to produce the files containing evidences and statements by State witnesses. Mr Gauli told him that the allegations against him were serious and would be a matter for the national court if the committal court was convinced that there were sufficient evidences. Mr Hickey’s police bail

of K5000 was converted to court bail.

Fraud squad’s police prosecutor, Michael Awagl, asked the court to issue a bail condition that restrains Mr Hickey from interfering with State witnesses.

Magistrate Gauli agreed to this and warned Mr Hickey that if he did so, his bail would

be cancelled and he would be taken into custody.

Mr Hickey was charged with one count each of misappropriation, official corruption and abuse of office.

The allegations relate to a K700,000 taken from the Bogia district coffers to buy a ship for his electorate in Madang Province.

THESE are fi shermen from the nearby Shortland islands of Solomon Islands who come very early to Buin in Bougainville to sell their catches. Pictured: ROMULUS MASIU

ACROSS THE BORDER

COSMAS BIDAR Port Moresby

The ruling could be could bossibly be handed down today ...

TRIBUNAL Port Moresby

Centres to observe water day

THE World Water Day will be observed worldwide on Sunday and Water PNG’s week-long school and community activities culminated with the main wvent tomorrow in Lae, Morobe Province.

This year Water PNG’s commemorations of World Water Day saw its head office and 19 business centres conduct community service and school awareness programs in various provinces and districts.

According to the World Water Day committee chairman Leo Kre, the Water PNG Lae Business Centre will host the main celebrations tomorrow starting with a float then a public forum at Lae Top Town opposite Westpac bank. An evening program at the Melanesia Hotel will close the weeklong celebrations.

In Mt Hagen there will be the awarding of competition prizes to various schools like Tega Primary School and Tarangau Primary

School who participated in the poster competition.

This will be followed by the erection of a new signboard at Hagen Genereal Hospital as part of Water PNG’s community service obligation.

In Kokopo the main event will be held at the Malaguna Technical School with presentation of prizes of participating schools.

The Alotau main event will be held at the National Canoe & Festival Arena and comprise school competitions and awarding of prizes and community service with plumbers to inspect water meter leakages and attend to maintenance in selected schools.

The Kimbe program include school quiz on the WWD theme and fixing of minor leakages at Kimbe General Hospital with the main event to be held at the Ruango Primary School.

The Madang program will be held at the Panim Primary School.

PNG needs national water policy

THE need to create a national water policy has been identified as the prerequisite to enforce the WaSH policy and successfully achieve a clean and healthy Papua New Guinea.

Strategic partners involved in the water sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) program had deliberated that a national water policy

should be created quickly to support the WaSH policy and other water programs to mitigate health and other social problems affecting ordinary people.

National Planning and Monitoring deputy secretary Joe Kapa said recently that targets to access improved water and sanitation had been set but there was no

clear strategy to actually achieve them.

“There is no clear strategy, mechanism, principles by which we can monitor water assets, community goods and services relating to this water, sanitation and hygiene strategy.

“Hence right now we do not actually know the volume of assets, the value, the condi-

tion and the management of these assets,” he said. He said it was important that these challenges are articulated through a policy so that the area of water, sanitation and hygiene is guided or monitored thus it enforces the WaSH policy to achieve its targets in the given timeframe.

A WOMAN fetching water for her home from a water pipe in Port Moresby

Quick thoughts

OUR PEOPLE FIRST

Leaders of this nation should learn some important lessons from the Bougainville Crisis. The people of Bougainville were a decent and quiet people. Before the Crisis, the Bougainville copper mine was the major revenue provider for the country. The PNG Kina was equivalent to the Australian Dollar. Economically our country was growing stronger. Then the Crisis erupted and the copper mine was shut down. The PNG economy plunged and PNG was predicted by our neighbours as a failed state. Today with so many mines in PNG, the economy is picking up very well. Soon PNG will be a very rich nation in the Pacific. There are some prominent leaders from the Government who are vocal about the West Papua issue. Yes, they are our Melanesian brothers but let the UN deal with that. You have nothing to defend your people and the economy with. We don’t want a repeat of the Bougainville situation. The people of PNG are important. Consider their safety and well being. Your people should be your first priority.

Kumul Citizen

WHY THE CHANGE?

Ok Tedi Mining Limited has a national CEO running the company already and he’s doing a good job so far. Now the Prime Minister had him replaced with an expatriate. Should we have our own people run big companies like OTML? What is the PM trying to do?

Upset Citizen

SHAMEFUL ACT BY MP

It is indeed shameful for a senior minister in the O’Neill Government to complain when referred by the watch dog. How can he justify his stay in a hotel for K3080/day and claim he’s a hardworking minister? If you’re hardworking then your good people in PNG will recognise your efforts and hold you high as a “true leader”. That was pretty selfish of him.

Less Fortunate

Looking for someone?

I AM looking for my brother, Isaac Leo. He is staying at Hanahan village, Autonomous Region of Bougainville. If you know him, would you please pass this phone number to him: 7314 2907.

Darius Leo

Port Moresby

PNG has potential to grow

PNG can rapidly grow into a fully developed economy in the next 10-15 years at the back of the PNG LNG Project and other existing mining and petroleum projects. It can reach the top to be on par with the most developed nations in the region. We lack nothing. We have it all here in our backyard and they are in abundance and of premium quality.

Our crude oil is sweet light crude; the best. Our gold is of world class quality. We have the best timber yielding trees in our forests, such as kwila and rosewood. In our pristine seas and oceans, we have abundant and profoundly rich marine resources.

Our tiger and banana prawns are

the best in the world. Our lobsters and yellow and blue fin tuna species are second to none.

I can’t think of a nation on planet earth that is over blessed than our beloved and beautiful PNG.

This nation’s biggest enemies are corruption and bad deals in our extractive industries. We are one of the most careless and easily influenced people in the world. We are being exploited at all fronts. This must end.

If we want to learn from our mistakes in the last 40 years and rapidly grow as a nation, then now is the opportune time. The current Government should be commended for setting up the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

If corruption is fought head on and at the same time put in mechanisms to prudently manage our economy, then I am 100 per cent convinced that PNG will pull off from her present economic and social predicaments and attain its rightful position in the world.

Apply prudent economic management tools and enforce strong discipline at the bureaucratic and political levels. We must build a culture of savings. We need to spend wisely and increase our savings so we lend to all Melanesian countries and others in the region.

PNG needs to learn from the Japanese financial model.

K Koya Ialibu

WRITE TO US Text us on 208

CIC clarification on ‘drum’

POST-COURIER’S Drum article titled “MONITOR” (March 18, 2015), is an ambiguous and incoherent piece of statement that would vaguely portray the image and nobility of the Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC) to its stakeholders.

The article read; “A lot of activity in the coffee industry lately. Deals have been signed between local and Asian companies worth a lot of money. Hope those who do the audits are monitoring the transactions.”

Of course there have been a lot of activities at CIC and these activities are all coffee related. They are geared towards revitalising the coffee industry in PNG under the government’s GoPNG National Strategic Development Plan. Our “a lot of” activities last year will continue unabated this year, as we strive to practically do something for the coffee industry rather than be seen as loafing or procrastinating over our primary obligations to the industry.

As with signing of deals with locals and Asian companies, let me clarify that there exists ambiguity in the use of the noun “deals”, which may be interpreted or perceived suspiciously. The appropriate term would be “agreements”.

The fact is that the CIC is entering into partnership arrangements with the coffee growing districts under its “kina to kina” policy. Visionary MPs who realise that coffee would continue to sustain their people’s livelihood, after this current boom in the extractable (mineral) resource sector are depleted one day, have come up with their district services improvement projects (DSIP) funds and partnered with CIC to boost coffee production.

There is one reputable PNG based Singaporean-owned company heavily venturing in an investor financing agreement (IFA) for the rehabilitation of a rundown coffee plantation and processing factory outside of Goroka. Under that tripartite agreement Outspan (PNG) Limited is the financier, rehabilitator, processor and exporter. Anego Company Ltd

The complaints statistics reflect public

Text us on 208

is the owner and beneficiary and the CIC is the intermediary managing authority of all funds earmarked for the plantation’s rehabilitation and subsequent revival. We invite more foreign investments in the coffee industry and would continue to push for more such arrangements and not “deals”.

Gepo, a Goroka based Korean company, is actively involved in marketing and promoting organic Marwaka coffee in Korea. That Korean company also planted over 50ha of the Typica (Blue Mountain) coffee in Marwaka and yielding is expected in a year’s time.

In terms of audit, the CIC books and its functions are always subject to audit every year. It is a compulsory requirement for CIC to have the auditor general’s independent findings published in CIC’s annual reports. Like every other government’s statutory organisation, CIC is accountable to the government as well as the coffee industry stakeholders.

John Supa PR Officer – CIC

What does economic development mean?

ENGLISH isn’t our first language so the misuse and misinterpretation of certain words and phrases are common. One of this is the adjective “economic”.

It relates to the noun – economy.

According to lexical definition, economy is a state of a country in terms of production and consumption of goods and services and the supply of money. It is also defined as careful management of resources and financial savings.

Our economy is in the development stage. While we produce little, much of our goods and services are imported. How about supply of money? When bulk of businesses that produce goods and services are

foreign owned, where is the supply of money going? While tax revenue is legally collected by IRC, some say millions of PNG Kina are leaving our shores.

Recently the Government made announcements on the economic development achievements, naming a few things such as education, road maintenance, Lae Tidal Basin project and urban development concentrated in Port Moresby. However, the Government fell short of highlighting their planned development projects, how many were completed, those in progress and those pending funding in the remainder of this term of parliament.

The World Bank, in support of

INVITE HELP

This is a simple suggestion to SP Games organisers. They should invite public or private sector organisations, churches, schools, etc, to adopt a country during the games. This can help lessen the workload of the organising committee and allow them to focus on other pressing matters. I am pretty sure many organisations will be willing to assist in providing basic necessities for the athletes, help with logistics and showcase traditional PNG hospitality. Wherever possible, we should all play a part to help make our visitors’ stay the most memorable of their lives.

BS

FIND ANOTHER WAY

I am referring to Thursday’s PostCourier front page: “Contractors’ Ire”. It is unbelievable to see a protestor chaining himself on the neck and on the waist to the gate of a library project in NCD. This type of behaviour maybe found only in PNG. Is there another way rather than chaining himself to a metallicbar gate with a big lock?

Jsinginus

these developments, sent a solemn warning to the Government to pay attention to the real needs of the people in health and education. Multi-billion kina budgets are slow in translating into tangible results. The price slump on world commodities has shattered our hopes in the non-renewable extractive sector. There are no fallback revenue earners, such as agriculture. Politicians are now talking about the long neglected agriculture sector. We need to be doing the right things rather than sit and watch foreigners deplete our blessings and move money offshore.

M M Ondasa Port Moresby

RESPECT THE PEOPLE

The Works Minister is doing a great job, rehabilitating the Highlands Highway. The highway is truly the lifeline of the highlands provinces. Road conditions have deteriorated and it needs rehabilitation. I salute the government for that initiative. I am a land owner and the land is my life. The Daulo to Magiro section of the highway runs through some rugged terrain which we call our land and our home. I urge the Government to respect the people, value their land and pay them accordingly. They may be a nuisance or have built their homes in the 20m perimeter, but they are good people. Police and PNGDF soldiers

must treat the people with respect. They are just ordinary grassroots. My heart cries for my people and their land. I can only pray to God and ask him to protect my people and their land from dictators who will take away their rightful inheritance. I am for development but the people have rights too.

Karax Wenaba

CONTRACT STINKS

Can authorities investigate who is supervising the company working on the four-lane Lae to Nadzab section of the Highlands Highway? According to DoW Lae, they are not the ones supervising the project. This particular project looks suspicious. Substandard work is being carried out along the highway without any proper safety gear, signs and wears, among others. Progress is very slow and safety on the ground is zero. Traffic is controlled by bare hands. The worst part is dust pollution. There is dust pollution daily along the road section from Two-Mile to Nine-Mile, which can cause major health problems for residents. The unidentified body supervising the project should ensure the contractor waters these sections hourly. It’s also very sad seeing trucks and road plants being driven and operated by Chinese when we have local drivers and operators roaming the streets looking for jobs. This dubious contract should be terminated ASAP.

Tait Pinis

WHAT DO YOU WANT?

I support the comment by “Think Out Loud” in Monday’s paper on Paul Paraka. When we were suffering in settlements in the city, we never see you helping us. Now you are trying to aid us with free legal services. What do you want in return?

Inap Nau Mero

The statistics reflect distrust in state agencies. This should be distrust in state This should be another prompt for departments to crack another for ... to crack down on corruption in public administration. down on in administration.

TIPNG chairman Lawrence Stephens on public administration topping TIPNG chairman Lawrence on administration complaints list list.

Dion: Follow processes to seek funding

THERE are processes and procedures in channelling requests or submissions to the National Government, says Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Inter Government Relations, Leo Dion.

He gave the advice to government officers in East New Britain during a disaster briefing in Kokopo last weekend.

His advice was in light of a submission from the East New Britain provincial government requesting funding assistance to restore damaged infrastructure caused by heavy rain and strong winds that also caused havoc in other provinces of PNG.

The submission was purportedly addressed to the National Executive Council.

However, Mr Dion said requests and submissions to the national government or NEC must be channelled through the relevant ministries, which are then put through a screening and vetting process before it is decided whether or not it needed NEC attention.

He said in the case of the disaster in ENB and other affected provinces, a disaster assessment report must be submitted.

Electoral chief confident

ACTING Bougainville Electoral Commissioner

George Manu is confident that he will deliver the 2015 ABG General Election in accordance with the election schedule.

Mr Manu gave this assurance after announcing the election schedule this week.

“I can assure all Bougainvilleans that I will deliver this election. I am confident that this will be done,” said Mr Manu.

He said all the preparations are being carried out according to the commission’s program.

“Our preparations are on target. Even though we have been facing some challenges, these will not stop me and my returning officers from delivering this election on time.

“We are ready to go ahead in conducting this election for Bougainville. This election is very crucial to the people of Bougainville so we will try our best to ensure that all eligible voters are enrolled so they can cast their votes during the polling period.

The acting Bougainville Electoral Commissioner said following the announcement of the election schedule, the commission will now be adhering to the schedule to deliver the election.

UPNG reaches to communities

THE University of Papua New Guinea’s school of medicine and health science has begun a new approach to work close ly with the communities to make sure that everyone knows their health status.

A total of 14 bachelor of nursing students with their lecture and deputy head of nursing, Thompson Telepo from the school have begun to carry out test and screening of people at

Tokarara and June Valley suburbs so that they know their health status.

According to Mr Telepo, many people do not have health records.

“This activity would help reveal any hidden sickness so that treatments can be given quickly to help patients to stay healthy.

“As well, health awareness of how to prevent disease and

treat sicknesses are also given to the people to make sure that they eat healthy, drink healthy and stay healthy,” he said.

Mr Telepo said this practical nursing is known as the critical care course which medical students must carry out in communities to save lives, rather than practising in institutions, department or places where people already know their health status.

Bishops keen on uni plans

AN all-inclusive, unique and quality Lutheran University of Papua New Guinea will be delivered to the nation as soon as feasible.

The head of Evangelical Lutheran Church of PNG Bishop Giegere Wenge and Bishop David Piso of Gutnius Lutheran Church delivered this message in a joint statement yesterday.

Bishops Wenge and Piso had also met with the officials from Department of Higher Education to assure them of delivering the project.

“We have on hand copies of all the relevant reports including an up to date. Financial report and anyone wishing a copy of the reports is very welcome to meet with the university project administration or us,” they said. “We also certainly welcome visits to the site of the

new university for a complete tour of new facilities, new installations, and renovations”.

Both men said that a disclosure regarding this project is fair, open, and transparent and anyone including political and church leaders can contact university’s project office or their offices for a copy.

“For the common good of the church and the project let us be united in our thoughts and prayers to deliver this much-needed service to our people,” they added.

“We as unified partners will prayerfully work together under God’s Grace and Mercy to publicly support and report on the progress of the project to the full extent of our abilities”.

The university project office stated there have been negative comments in the media about the project.

SOME of the East New Britain public servants who turned up for Mr Dion’s address

PNG needs right facilities for natural resources, says JICA

BY MEROLYN TEN

PNG is blessed with abundant natural resources but needs the right facilities to fully utilise these resources, says development partner Japanese International Cooperation Agency’s representative to PNG, Shigeru Sugiyama.

Mr Sugiyama said in Madang recently that PNG needed high quality facilities to meet the needs of retailers and local residents.

Somare-Brash to advance her career

BY GORETHY KENNETH

PAPUA New Guinea’s founding father Sir Michael Somare has certainly instilled courage to a younger sibling, now eyeing politics, this time one of his daughters.

Dulciana Somare-Brash breaks the silence and releases, she now has plans to advance her political aspirations if an opportunity presented itself, you will

see her entering Papua New Guinea’s most talked about politics.

Ms Somare-Brash is not new to politics. She was born into it and is surrounded by two politicians – her father, PNG’s first Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare who took the country to independence, her big brother Arthur Somare who has been an influence in the Oil and Gas sector and her politically

minded family for the last 40 years.

She holds Bachelor Degrees in political science and international relations and law from James Cook University, Australia.

Her experience in politics and development ranges from employment with ABC/Radio Australia in Port Moresby, and later as senior research officer at the Australian High Commission.

Aust gives rehab centre K3.5 million

BY SEBASTIAN HAKALITS

THE Nazarene Centre for Rehabilitation (NCR) at Chabai, in Bougainville has received a funding of K3.5 million from the Australian High Commission.

The centre has been doing work on eliminating family violence and providing services to women and children and advocacy on human rights defenders and male advocates and the funding will be used to support NCR in its work to help communities for the next three years.

Minister Counselor for Bougainville at Australian High Commission, Mr Rod Hilton announced this during the International Women’s Day Commemoration in Buka last week said the work of NCR will be done in partnership with the International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA).

Nazarene Centre for Rehabilitation was established in 2002 by the Congregated Sisters of Nazarene (CSN) with bush material built houses and has provided trainings, counselling and guidance to abused victims of all forms of violence.

It was the initiative of the Director of NCR Sr Loraine Garasu and one of Bougainville’s executive, Mr

At a glance

FUNDING: The Nazarene Centre for Rehabilitation (NCR) at Chabai, in Bougainville has received a funding of K3.5 million from the Australian High Commission.

REHAB CENTRE: The centre has been doing work on eliminating family violence and providing services to women and children. And advocacy on human rights defenders and male advocates and the funding, will be used to support NCR in its work, to help communities for the next three years.

Stan Basio, who brought up the idea of setting up a rehabilitation centre.

Sr Garasu who has also been a leader in promoting peace has been running the centre for years now with permanent buildings and also has extended the facility with Safe Houses in Arawa, Buin and Buka.

Speaking on behalf of NCR, Sr Virginia Lahis, said this was a surprise when Mr Hilton announced the funding and she thanked the Australian Government through the High Commission and said this funding will be used on its intended purpose.

Dulciana is now deputy executive director at the Pacific Institute of Public Policy based in Vanuatu. In a recent interview at the 2015 PNG Women’s Forum in Port Moresby, Ms SomareBrash speaks about how her ambitions to be a legislator intensified, and one would think contest elections for her is no new trade being surrounded by a politically aspired family and having

He said through establishing environments that are suitable for facilitating hygienic and efficient distribution of natural resources including agricultural and livestock products is a solution to most issues faced.

Mr Sugiyama said establishment of right facilities could contribute to the achievement of Vision 2050, that is, “helping to shift PNG’s dependency on minerals and energy sector and balancing it fairly with agriculture and fisheries.

“With the right facilities in place, it can largely boost the food safety, general hygiene, and more employment and business opportunities for local residents.

“It is equally important and can also help reduce crime

and violence, where everyone can be business minded and perform hard to add more to the economy growth of the country,” Mr Sugiyama said. He added that good management is also needed to maximise the benefits, which can result in an orderly and attractive layout of vendors space, reliable fee collection and accounting system, good cleaning and waste management, good security and mechanism that reflect users voices are the key to success.

“As a person who represents a government that has a heart for Papua New Guinea, I request organisations that are directly and indirectly responsible for natural resources projects in PNG to take a look at the management and start preparation early to achieve all projects fruition and their objectives,” said Mr Sugiyama.

SHIGERU Sugiyama

FROM left, Ms Somare-Brash with wife of Prime Minister Lynda O’Neill and childhood friend Narai Banam at the recent 2015 PNG Women’s Forum in Port Moresby

Supplier: Schools lack data

BY GRACE AUKA SALMANG

WITH the Government’s aim of giving emphasis on Human Resource Development and quality education through its Tuition Fee Free policy for all students in PNG, this has not gone down well with some schools saying the commodity component for school materials is not sufficient.

According to an article published in this paper on Tuesday, March 17, that stated many schools have raised concerns saying the policy has caused a swell in student numbers and the commodity component is insufficient.

However, contracted distributor Treid Pacific’s general manager Mr Wilson David told Post-Courier yesterday that a lot of schools are not getting the money because, they are not registered and do not have bank accounts, and that has nothing to do with them but the schools and the Education department.

Mr David said during their physical school visits in remote parts of the country, findings showed that there are many ghost schools identified, high expenditure on transportation, school boards in most primary schools do not have proper

budgets and plans and so on that hinders the distribution process.

“These are some of the reason’s why some schools do not receive these educational materials and it is the responsibility of the Education department to provide us with proper data of respective schools so those schools who miss out can receive these materials based on the data that we get,” Mr David said.

“These particular schools that have raised such concerns must understand that this is a trial distribution of student education kits to improve the quality of learning.

“We deliver and distribute according to data provided by the department of Education,” Mr David said.

Public scrutiny underway in B’ville

THE OFFICE of the Bougainville Electoral Commissioner (OBEC) is currently conducting a public scrutiny exercise in Bougainville.

According to the regional returning officer John Itanu, the exercise is being carried out without any major problems being encountered.

“The public scrutiny exercise is currently underway in Bougainville and according to reports from the assistant returning officers and returning officers, this

exercise is currently progressing well without any problems encountered,” said Mr Itanu.

“The preliminary rolls were displayed at the district offices, council of elders and village assemblies, where many people had the chance to go and check for their names. Those not on the roll were given enrolment forms to complete so their names can be entered on the final roll that will be used during polling.”

Mr Itanu added that there

Lutheran university installs electronic learning devices

BY HAIVETA KIVIA

STATE of the art electronic learning devices are being installed at the new Lutheran university of Papua New Guinea.

Morobe Governor Kelly Naru, Education chairman Andrew Gen and Lae media personnel were taken on a tour of the new facilities installed at the institution.

The university’s Project Administration team led by Dr Brent Kilbeck, computer engineer Dick Pakia and Dr Michael Wan took time out to show Governor Naru and his team what they are doing, in light of negative and unfounded criticism.

were new enrolments received by enrolment agents tasked to conduct public scrutiny exercise.

The returning officers were instructed by acting Bougainville Electoral Commissioner George Manu, to conduct public scrutiny in ten days.

After this the preliminary rolls together with new enrolments collected will be taken to Buka for compilation into the final electoral roll which will be used during the election.

This was after they had presented the governor with a detailed report of the university project in the state of the art and probably the best video conferencing facility in PNG.

The facility is the old Christian Radio Centre which was left idle and in a dilapidated state.

Dr Kilbeck said when he was appointed administrator of the project, this was the first faculty that he renovated and installed with video and telecommunication conference electronic systems in an already soundproof building.

ENROLMENT agent Moses Funmat with two inmates of Bekut Correctional Service facility in the Peit constituency of Buka on Monday. Out of the 76 inmates serving their term at Bekut, about 55 are eligible to cast their votes in the election.

Remote local government wins global UN award

LITTLE known Yus local level government in Kabwum district of Morobe Province has been put on global spotlight after receiving the Equator Prize Award of United Nations.

Yus LLG was chosen out of 121 countries with similar conservation program and was awarded with the global award by UN coordinator Roy Trivedy in Lae on Tuesday.

Mr Trivedy said since 2002, there were only 180 worldwide sustainable conservative programs but until last year another seven had come aboard, including two from Papua New Guinea.

They were the Yus Tree Kangaroo conservation program and the Tulele Peisa climate change refugee relocation program in Carteret Islands of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.

In the presence of Morobe Governor Kelly Naru, Kabwum MP Bob Dadae and other stakeholders, Mr Trivedy said the Yus Tree Kangaroo conservative was chosen out of 121 countries with similar programs last year. He said the program was recognised with the community participation, cash prize award and equator dialogue to promote knowledge and sharing.

No ground breaking? Says who?

BY MEROLYN TEN

IT appears that Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s vow to stamp out ground-breaking ceremonies has fallen on deaf ears among his cabinet ministers.

On Monday, his Minister for Fisheries Mao Zeming travelled to Madang to officiate in a ground-breaking ceremony for the Japanese-funded town market redevelopment project.

The K26 million project is a joint venture between the National Fisheries Authority (NFA) and the fisheries grant component of the Japanese Overseas Development Assistance Grant (JICA).

It would involve the entire market facilities such as the market building itself, an administration building, market toilet, stand by rubbish bays, exteriors, car park area, sea wall on the build out site, emergency generator installation, ice storage and sales facilities plus other vital equipment and facilities to compliment the big market.

As market plays one of the key role in the overall function of an economy, the big market would also provide an avenue for any business activity to take place thus consolidating income generation and wealth creation to be

Call for food safety compliance

AUTHORITIES issuin g license to food business operators have been asked by the Health Department to fully comply with food safety standards and food sanitation regulation when issuing trading licence.

In a circular recently by Gealth Secretary Pascoe Kase, city and town managers, provincial health advisors and senior environmental health officers have been asked to comply with regulations.

Mr Kase said food business operators such as factories, hotels, restaurant, take away food bars and shops in the country are operating without fully complying with the requirements of food safety standards.

The food safety code and food sanitation regulation are mandatory regulation for compliance by all food business operators. They must have food safety management system in place demonstrating that they are producing and selling food that is safe for human consumption. The food safety management system must be reviewed regularly, and subject to periodic audit by suitable qualifies food safety auditors.

At a glance

EVENT: Official ground breaking ceremony of the K26m joint venture between the National Fisheries Authority and Japanese Overseas Development Assistance Grant (JICA). The purpose is to enhance fish production.

achieved not only by the local people of Madang Province but also the other neighboring provinces which includes Morobe and the Highlands provinces.

However, the primary objective of rehabilitating the Madang town market is to enhance fisheries production at local level so that it would help the local communities to strengthen fish distribution capacity to a whole new level in a sound and hygienic market area.

Mr Zeming thanked the people and the Japanese Government for their ongoing support to PNG’s development aspirations through the provision of the Japanese Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) in particular the development of coastal fisheries sector in PNG.

He also added that this project will benefit the locals as well as the country.

The Equator prize presented to the Yus Tree Kangaroo Conservation program.

Doctor files report

BY FRANKIY KAPIN

THE post-mortem on alleged police shooting victim Gidisao Yana, 54, of Gurako village in the Bulolo district, Morobe Province has revealed that she died of gunshot wounds.

Dr Lucas Komnapi of Angau Memorial Hospital, who carried out the autopsy early this month, confirmed yesterday that Yana died of “internal explosive injuries”.

Dr Komnapi said the autopsy revealed that there was evidence of a gunshot wound from her right lateral chest through the left, exiting through the left breast.

He said there was evidence of fractures to the ribs, sternum and lungs as associated cause of death stemming from the gunshot.

Dr Komnapi said a copy of the report would be furnished and delivered to police in the

province later to determine if the gunshot wounds were caused by police firearm.

He added that determination of the type of weapon used or ammunition used would be established by the police.

Morobe police commander Kaiglo Ambane confirmed that the post-mortem into the alleged police killing had been completed.

Mr Ambane said when the doctor’s report is submitted to

his office he would decide on the next course of action. The Lae District Court said yesterday that as a requirement, a copy of the autopsy must be furnished to the district registry.

Yana was shot dead at the Gurako roadside market, alongside Bulolo highway, on February 27. His death was a result of a confrontation between the police and Bulolo villages.

BY FRANKIY KAPIN

THE prime suspect in the January murder of expatriate businessman Tan Tiem Teng returned to the Lae district court on Wednesday.

But magistrate Jeremiah Singomat adjourned the case to April 29 pending the compiling of the hand-up brief files to the prosecution by the arresting officer.

The accused was allowed K10,000 bail and his other related bail conditions were extended.

Mr Singomat noted that the accused’s passport was withheld with the Lae National Court registry following granting of his bail application by the national court.

The 52-year-old Malaysian businessman was charged with the murder of Tan Tiem Teng, owner of the Morobe Stationery, on January 3 this year.

In another matter, Mr Singomat had summoned Lae police to arrest and charge 47-year-old Walter Timothy, a land mediator, of Markham for giving false information.

Timothy had appeared before the committal court on Wednesday and his case was adjourned to May 4.

He had testified to Mr Singomat in the Lae district land court that both parties to a land case were present during mediation.

But the magistrate learned later that only one party was present, meaning Timothy had given false information under oath. Timothy is out on a K500 bail.

Expatriate’s murder deferred ‘PNG Power’ men rob city tucker shop

BY MARILYN PAUL

FIVE elderly men dressed in PNG Power uniform walked into a Gerehu Stage 2 trade store on Tuesday morning between 10am and 11am and stole K500 in cash and goods.

Fei Fei Trading is located within the Yumi Yet residential compound, along the Gerehu back road. The shop is rented to an Asian businessman.

It was reported that five men posing as PNG Power employees drove by in a Camry and walked into the trade store. After explaining to the Asian man that they were there to check the main metre box in the store they were allowed in as they were in the PNG Power uniforms.

While inside the men held the owner at gunpoint and emptied the cash register. Fortunately most of the takings were put away safely and a balance of about K500 was taken as well as mobile phone cards and cigarettes.

A PNG Power official said the company was not aware of the incident and believed that the culprits were not PNG Power employees. The officer said the public and small shop owners must be careful as there were opportunists taking advantage of the current state-of-emergency on collecting outstanding power bills from business houses. PNG Power has a policy that employees must carry ID cards which people must ask for before allowing anyone into their premises.

Basil continues to deliver services

RURAL villagers in Bulolo district will now view local TV stations and communicate through telephone with the assistance of very small aperture terminals (VSAT).

Bulolo MP Sam Basil, during his visit to four different villagers in his electorate this week donated the VSAT and he said the initiative was a priority he had in place since his appointment into parliament. “I introduced the VSAT program in 2007 because I wanted to bridge the communication gap that many of the rural villages are experiencing,” Mr Basil said.

Mr Basil said the equipments were purchased from both government and personal funds he had set aside.

He did not disclose the total amount of money spent in purchasing the VSATs.

Iconic building to get new life

BY DENYSE KALAU

A FAMOUS political group, Bully Beef Club, will see its historic building demolished and reconstructed soon.

The group is made up of civic minded Papua New Guineans who always gather at the Papua New Guinea Institute of Public Administration to discuss ways to improve service delivery.

The historic building will soon be transformed following the groundbreaking ceremony for the demolition and reconstruction of its A Wing by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill yesterday.

The ceremony was witnessed by Public Service Minister Sir Puka Temu, Finance Minister James Marape, secretary of the Department of Personnel Management John Kali, Australian High Commissioner to PNG Deborah Stokes and other senior representatives from various agencies.

The transformation of the building into a modern facility will mark a new chapter of the institute as a Papua New Guinea school of government.

Since its establishment in 1960s, the institute has been providing training to public

Governor announces cabinet reshuffle

MILNE Bay Governor Titus Philemon has announced a reshuffle to his cabinet.

The changes, which the provincial assembly endorsed in its meeting yesterday, sees mostly new faces taking up chairmanships in the provincial executive council.

Mr Philemon said the changes were made not for political reasons or other ulterior motives, but to respond to the pace of development and changes now taking place in the province and the country.

“New developments taking place in all fronts requires new pools of thought and ideas, which must be brought to the cabinet and debated and matters of public importance presented more effectively on the floor of Assembly.

“But this does not mean that the outgoing members of the PEC did not do their work. In fact, I am very thankful to the outgoing members who I believe set the foundations for a more vibrant and effective govern-

ing team,” he said.

In the changes announced, Napoleon Liosi (an appointed member) takes over the chairmanship of Commerce, mining and energy, tourism and environment from Ricky Morris (Suau LLG president), who assumes chairmanship of works, transport and communication, Lelena Metoa (Huhu LLG president) takes over the chairmanship of community development from Betty Dunstan, (an appointed member), Gregory Binoka (Goodenough LLG president) takes over the chairmanship of education, health and HIV/AIDS from James Rubeni (Maramatana LLG president) and Mathew Magioudi (West Fergusson LLG president) takes over the chairmanship of LLG affairs, law and order and liquor licensing from Dobu LLG president Elami Iko.

The governor retains his chairmanship of finance and planning, policy and administration, public service and provincial executive council and assembly.

Challenges ahead of APEC summit

BY ISAAC NICHOLAS

PAPUA New Guinea has enormous challenges ahead to hosting the APEC meeting in 2018, interim chief executive officer of APEC Authority Chris Hawkins said yesterday.

Mr Hawkins has been appointed interim CEO while the government awaits the arrival of a New Zealand Government appointed CEO to oversee preparations for the 21 APEC meeting in 2018.

He said the challenges were big but PNG could handle them and would seize the meeting as an opportunity to showcase to the world its diversified culture.

“We will demonstrate that PNG is a growing economy with rich cultural

heritage and is open for business,” Mr Hawkins said.

“It is an opportunity for PNG to show the world what it has and can offer and strenghten its reputation to the international business community and people who are interested in doing business in the country.”

He said around 10,000 delegates and 2000 media personnel and chief executives of various international business organisations would be arriving in Port Moresby in November 2018 for the APEC Leaders meeting.

Mr Hawkins said starting this year, more than 200 ministerial meetings would be held leading up to the APEC meeting. He is currently assisting the government in building capacity in communications.

servants and political leaders to ensure they deliver the best government services to the people.

Ms Stokes said the Australian government had seen the need to assist the institute with a new facility to improve the learning environment for the students.

She added that the new facility would cost the institute, the government and its development partners millions of kina.

Ms Stokes also said the new facility would draw likeminded Papua New Guineans together who are committed to deliver services to the people, just like the Bully Beef Club.

“As the country’s economy grows and becomes more integrated in the global economy, it needs a public service that strengthens and reinforces PNG international competitiveness,” Ms Stokes said.

“This is the reason the government and its partners have to support this important institution as it plays a key role in ensuring that public servants and political leaders are taught well with skills that are needed to effectively and efficiently deliver the needed services to the people.”

JAMES Marape (left) and Sir Puka Temu shoveling the gravel to mark the demolition and reconstruction of the Bully Beef Club building, while Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and Deborah Stokes (in the background) look on.

Micah to remain as PPP leader

BY ISAAC NICHOLAS

THE Peoples Progress Party Caucus has resolved that party leader Ben Micah continue to lead despite misconduct allegations against him from the Ombudsman Commission.

Mr Micah, who is Kavieng MP and also Minister for Public Enterprise and State Investments, has been referred by the Ombudsman Commission to public prosecutor for alleged misconduct in office.

PPP president Brown Sinamoi announced this after a party caucus meeting in Parliament that was attended by Mr Micah, Mining Minister Byron Chan, KundiawaGembogl MP Tobias Kulang and Kainantu MP Johnson Tuke.

Party founder and New Ireland Governor Sir Julius Chan, deputy leader and Milne Bay Governor Titus Philemon and Parliament Speaker Theo Zurenuoc were in their electorates but sent their backing to Minister Micah.

“The Party has considered the referral of our leader and we have taken the position that the referral is administrative in nature. We believe he performed his duties and responsibilities as a Minister of State.

“The Ombudsman Commission is questioning his role as Minister and we do not consider that his actions have compromised his integrity as a leader” Mr Sinamoi said.

At a glance

ALLEGATIONS: Despite allegations made by Ombudsman Commission against Peoples Progress Party Leader and member for Kavieng, Ben Micah of misconduct, he still remains as the party leader.

CHARGES: He is currently facing three different charges, two to do with PNG Power and the other relates to him operating out of an office.

“Therefore the Parliamentary Wing and the Executive of the Peoples Progress Party resolved that Minister Micah will continue as the Party Leader while we allow process to take its course.

“We appeal to all party supporters and members to remain calm and also be assured that there is nothing criminal or fraudulent in this referral.” Mr Sinamoi said.

The Party also resolved to allow Mr Micah to take necessary legal avenue, if appropriate, to challenge the referral. Meanwhile, Mr Micah welcomed the party resolution and trust in his leadership to lead the party during this difficult time.

He explained that a total of three allegations have been made against him, two to do with PNG Power, the other relates to him operating out of an office at Grand Papua hotel for three months.

Political parties urged to register

ACTING Bougainville political party registrar Joseph Kaipu is appealing to all political parties intending to participate in this election to start bringing in their party registration documents.

Mr Kaipu said it was important that all parties should be registered with his office before the date set for the issue of writs. According to the election schedule, the writs would be issued on March 27, meaning parties had a week left to register.

“I am appealing to the public officers of all parties to start lodging in your party registration documents,” Mr Kaipu said.

“You should not wait for the last minute before lodging your applications with my office. Make sure that

your documents are given early so that I will have time to go through your applications to make sure that all is in order so that your party can be registered before the date scheduled for the issue of writs.”

Mr Kaipu said only two parties had lodged their applications with his office, adding that he was going through these applications to ensure that all documents complied with the Bougainville Political Parties (Registration) Act.

“As for the other parties, I am appealing to the public officers of these parties to complete your registration documents and deliver them to my office. Upon receiving the documents, I will ensure that all requirements are met.

Subsidy for 1000 students

released between this month and next month.

Yangoru-Saussia MP and Minister for Trade Commerce and Industry

Richard Maru have assured students from his district who have applied for tertiary school fee subsidy that funding for that will be

“The district will be making payments directly to educational Institutions once the DSIP funding for this year is released to districts. The Yangoru-Saussia Joint District Budget Priorities Committee has agreed for a K1000 school fee subsidy per student,’’ said Mr Maru. THe initiative was aligned under the district’s education policy.

A THOUSAND students from the Yangoru-Sausia district in tertiary institutions will benefit from K1 million subsidy for their education under the 2015 district service improvement program (DSIP).

Community embraces B’ville MP

BOUGAINVILLE Regional MP

Joe Lera’s visit to Malasang in the Tsitalato constituency was received well by the community.

In one of his 200 plus awareness campaigns, Mr Lera’s first visit this week to Malasang since his election into the National Parliament was to educate and inform the people on how he is appropriating public funds to prepare the people for full autonomy and hopefully Independence after 2019.

The awareness covered what politics is, the reasons why Bougainville was slow to develop in the last 30 years, which included the top down political process, Bougainville Crisis, lack of planning, only basics education and no skills training institutions and colleges and leaders without vision for the future.

He said for a long time the people were kept out of the development process as the leaders thought they were the ones to do so through the top down to the political process.

He said through his bottom up political process he will develop and give power to the people so that they can be involved in economic

activities that will contribute to Bougainville’s development.

Some of the key institutions and colleges he is funding include Bougainville’s first university at Manetai, three agricultural colleges, teachers college in South Bougainville and polytechnic college at Hutjena.

Other developments under his funding include improved health services in which he bought a TB scanner and mobile x-ray for Buka General Hospital, health centres, Hutjena water supply, atolls food supply, atolls climate change and tuna fishery for Bougainville.

The Regional MP also said all feeder roads had been scoped and will be funded for upgrading.

Mr Lera also explained his acquittal report of the national Government funding on projects in Bougainville which the people were very excited to know about and how much funding Bougainville has received through the other three national MPs.

The awareness campaign concluded with questions and comments from the people.

PNG attends energy summit

PNG POWER Limited and the energy division of Petroleum and Energy Department represented Papua New Guinea at a regional energy efficiency workshop in Apia, Samoa, recently.

The workshop was organised by Asian Development Bank and International Institute for Energy Conservation (IIEC) to share knowledge, experiences and lessons learnt in designing, developing and implementing cost-effective energy efficiency programs and activities.

ADB and GEF have co-funded a number of projects in PNG, Tonga, Samoa, Vanuatu and the Cook Islands since its inception in 2009, and representatives from

these countries were invited to report and share knowledge and experiences on these projects and the way forward.

PNG was represented by Idau Kopi from Petroleum and Energy and PPL by Bruce Hoga, Victor Limbia and Stanley Mark. They joined 60 officials from government and power utility agencies from the Pacific region and international agencies.

Mr Hoga said the workshop allowed them to learn from leading practitioners on energy efficiency policies, best practices and projects for residential, commercial and public sectors.

PNG Power, the executing agency for the current Pacific

energy efficient project in PNG, had implemented six projects in Port Moresby and Alotau, including energy efficiency street lighting in residential streets of Hohola, PNG Power Ltd head office at Hohola, residential streets of Alotau and the provincial hospital, lamp waste management technology at head office and energy efficiency lighting and ventilation at the University of PNG.

“The workshop was used to discuss some key challenges, solutions, and future goals for energy efficient and economically viable development for Papua New Guinea as well,” Mr Hoga said.

PNG Pilot cadets attain licenses

PNG CADET pilots enrolled at Royhle Flight Training Academy (RFTA) in Dumaguete, Philippines, have proven their determination in their chosen field of study as they strive hard to reach their goal of becoming professional pilots.

Ishmael Benjamin and Edmund Kaukia are two PNG students in RFTA who are now officially commercial pilots, in addition to Nigel Robin who received his licence in November last year.

These two young man have successfully attained their commercial pilot license (CPL) from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP). This is the national aviation authority in the country which implements aviation policies and accredits the licensing of airmen.

Naru helps Markham school

BY MELISHA YAFOI

A LUTHERAN Church-run training school in Markham district, Morobe Province, was the proud recipient of a cheque for K10,000 presented last Sundayby Morobe Governor Kelly Naru.

The Stang Girls Wokmeri Training School is located about 11km from the main Highlands Highway in Kaiapit.

The school was established by an American sister, Violet Stang, in 1992 after seeing the need of women who she believes have the right to education but cannot afford to meet the

requirements and finance.

Head teacher Kemoa Nawi said the school was operating with limited funding and was informal in the sense that it was looked after by mothers of 14 circuits of ELC-PNG in Morobe Province.

However, the school was forced to close its doors for two years because it had run out of money.

“But God had shed the light on us through a businessman Benjamin Woo, who is also the school’s board chairman, to secure the funds for the school,” she said.

“There are two major problems in school facilities and transportation, but despite this we get in women and girls from Madang, Highlands and Morobe to train them with skills development, leadership qualities , nutrition, health and hygiene, HIV-AIDS, literacy, expressive arts and they are also studying theology.

“The cheque presented today was a commitment by the Morobe Governor in 2013 under his Christian churches partnership program to help support the school in terms of improving its facilities and other school needs,” she said.

Lae youth beautification program lauded

LAE Lord Mayor Koim Trillu Leahy yesterday praised youths for their efforts to beautify the city.

He said the Morobe Provincial Government has declared 2015 as the year of implementation and has allocated K500,000 to help keep the city clean. “To minimise petty crimes in Lae, I

have engaged previously unemployed youths to be actively involved in the Lae beautification program,” he said.

“Previously we had heavy security, police and there were many clashes between street vendors and security or other groups which caused a lot of inconveniences to many of us.

“Now we are redirecting the energies of these youths to something more useful like cleaning the city so they can earn some cash to look after themselves and keep out of trouble. We aim to engage youths, minimise poverty, improve their livelihood, keep them away from drugs, and other illicit activities.”

(FROM LEFT) Edmund Kaukia, Nigel Robin and Ishmael Benjamin are three PNG students in Royhle Flight Training Academy in Dumaguete, Philippines, who are now commercial pilot licence holders.

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Company helps rebuild bridge

THE recent heavy rain and flooding in Central Province left its share of damages and one of them is the Kinakon Bridge that crosses Laloki River, just outside of Port Moresby. Most of the bridge had been washed away, leaving just the steel frames and making it inaccessible for vehicles.

This is affecting nearly 5000 peo-

Fire leaves family homeless

BY LAMECH JINIMBO

A FAMILY of six is homeless after their house at Murray Barracks in Port Moresby went up in flames on Tuesday evening.

A neighbour at the scene, Thomas Kilala, told the Post-Courier that Major Andrew Kandaman, his wife and two children as well as two relatives were in the house when the fire broke out and managed to escape uninjured.

“At first there was a foul smell coming from the house and then there were screams and banging in the house as the family fled for their lives out of the house,” Mr Kilala said. “They could not find their young son, aged 4, and thought he was trapped inside, but then he appeared a few metres away, having been outside a short time earlier as they watched their house engulf in flames, losing all their personal possessions,” he said.

The PNG Fire Service responded to the incident from a call that came through 17.05pm as trucks from the Waigani Fire Station arrived within 15 minutes, followed by fire trucks from Gerehu and Town fire stations.

At a glance

INCIDENT: A family is homeless after their home at Murray Barracks in Port Moresby caught fire on Tuesday evening.

RESCUE: The PNG Fire Service responded to the incident.

Upon the firefighters’ arrival, the home was all in flames and thick smoke covered the building which quickly collapsed.

Fire Service Officer in Charge, Superintendent John Gareresi, quickly organised the firefighters to protect nearby building even though the water pressure at the area was low, the fire crews worked hard to keep the fire from spreading to another home and managed to do what they could and what had to be done.

Supt Gareresi said that him and his firefighters were happy to see that Major Kandaman and his family were safe and he thanked his fire fighting team for their effort.

The family is now being temporarily reallocated to the Shady Rest Hotel.

ple who use it daily to transport their market produce and the workers who commute to work. But quick thinking of a company operating in the area has saved the day for this bridge users.

Pom Stones Limited, one of the companies which operate a construction aggregate production quarry near Goldie River, says it will rebuild the bridge as a good-

will gesture to the local people. Pom Stones operations manager Mr Armin Cazenas, said it was going to be a costly exercise to restore the bridge to an accessible state.

However, with the direction and the blessing of Central Governor Kila Haoda, the bridge was rebuilt on Tuesday with the company solely taking up all the costs.

THE bridge decks had been washed away, leaving the steel frames behind.

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Jiwaka landslip affects school

MORE than 20,000 people in the remote Upper Jimi area of Jiwaka are affected after a section of the road at Wara Bintz village was cut off by a massive landslide two weeks ago.

Important government and church run health and education services including the primary industry and district administration in the area are suffering badly as a result.

Among those key infrastructures, Jimi High School in Kol, Upper Jimi, the only existing and functioning institution in the area, faces imminent closure.

Hela calls on govt to rethink health funding

A SENIOR public servant has made a bold call for Government to rethink its allocation of funds under the 2015 budget for health services in Hela Province.

Hela provincial health services director Dr Hamiya Hewali on Monday called on the government to reconsider its 2015 budget allocation to the health sector in Hela Province.

Dr Hewali made the call when presenting seven new vehicles for the province’s remote district health services.

Dr Hewali said Hela as a new province ought to get the same amount or more than other provinces but in

CALL: Dr. Hamiya Hewali, CEO of Hela General Hospital called on the government to rethink 2015 allocation of funds for Health services in Hela Province.

HOSPITAL: Hela hospital is made a level 5 hospital in 2014 and serves a population of 385,000 people. But this is not enough as there are people still dying out in the remote parts due to transport problems. MAF is now engaged to transport patients from afar.

his experience it has been the opposite three years running. He said the Hela General Hospital which he is Chief Executive Officer was allocated K100,000 in 2013, K300,000 in 2014 and this year it was allocated K600,000 while most other

provincial hospitals around the country had received K10 million.

“This is not fair,” he said.

“Gerehu (St John’s Health Centre) and Tari Hospital were both declared Level 5 Hospitals in 2014. Yet

Gerehu received K9 million

while Tari received only K500,000.

“We (Tari Hospital) are a 110 bed provincial referral hospital serving a population of 385,000. There are no other hospitals to support our work while Gerehu has Port Moresby General Hospital and many privately run hospitals.

“I call on our political leaders to impress upon the government to reconsider its allocation to Hela. We cannot be ignored like this. We are part of this country and our province will now make a huge contribution to the national budget through the LNG project.”

Dr Hewali said he and the

National Health Department have made an application of K19 million for Hela General Hospital alone under the 2015 budget but was given a paltry K600,000.

The bulk of the population are rural based and beyond the reach of vehicular transport. Each year, since his engagement with Tari Hospital in 2011, he has to make about K40,000 to K50,000 available to the third level airline MAF to evacuate the seriously ill and fly in medicine and medical teams to far flung areas like Mt Bosavi.

On Monday he distributed seven 10-seater landcruisers to the districts.

Headmaster John Kamb said: “This is the only road link. It’s absolutely impassable but we’ve had no choice so managed to rely on it for many years.

“Since its been swept under the landslide, we’ve no choice but to transport school’s supplies by air.

“That’s the only way out to keep the school running. There’s no other way we can ferry in the supplies.

“I understand it’s an expensive exercise here but we must do it to keep the school running.”

He said before they shut the school down, they want the provincial government’s intervention immediately.

“I am calling on the Jiwaka Provincial Government to assist us with plane charters so that we can ferry in the school’s rations and also get other administrative duties done.

“I am also calling on the local MP Mai Dop to chip in some assistance now as we desperately need to transport the supplies to the school,” he said.

“Managing schools in such environment is pretty hard. It requires a lot of effort.”

Dr Hewali talking to drivers of the vehicles: One strike and you are out.

Roadwork on track

THE Wau to Garaina road project is almost half way through and it should be completed before the end of 2017, says Bulolo MP Sam Basil.

Mr Basil said the road is the third project into the Wau to Biaru area and he is pleased with the progress of the work.

“It is very important that leaders of each electorate provide fair distribution of services to the disadvantaged population in the remote areas,” Mr Basil said.

“With improved road links people will be able to have access to store goods, electricity and even proper banking and health facilities,” he added.

He said this was the reason behind his initiative to link the other remote areas to the

township of Wau and Bulolo through the current road project.

Mr Basil said the Morobe Provincial Government had in the previous years taken charge and funded the project.

“Despite various contractors being assigned to work on the current road section they often leave their work uncompleted and flee with the funding provided to them,” Mr Basil said. He expressed disappointment at these contractors but he also revealed that he has decided to take ownership of the project this year and work on it onwards.

Project manager Bradley Alison said work has so far covered 30km from the Wau end and the team is working on the Wara Bung area.

Rural maternal mortality a concern

BY ABRAHAM AVEDIBA

PREGNANT mothers in rural villages of Bulolo District in Morobe Province often go through an unpleasant experience during labour, a local villager says.

Ronnie David, an elderly lady from Sim Village in the Waria LLG told the PostCourier this hardship has lead to the death of many mothers and infants, during labour.

“We have witnessed many of the pregnant mothers go without antenatal checkups and proper medication prior to their due date.

The bottom line

Relief funds misuse threat

A HIDDEN practice is becoming a frequent occurrence in PNG during disaster relief assistance period and that is the opportunity to misuse funds.

IOM disaster risk reduction program project assistant Henry Paul said this and appealed to the Government to strengthen resilience at the community level instead of the handout mentality currently seen as in the past when disaster strikes.

“Instead of continuously running to the government for relief supplies, let’s get prepared from the bottom up starting with the vulnerable communities in the wards, to the Local Level Governments (LLG), districts and the province,” Mr Paul said.

He stressed that no one is safe during disasters; people use this as an opportunity to misused allocated funds and relief supplies knowing that during disaster periods the acquittal process is forgone for the lives affected as an excuse.

At a glance

CONCERN: Many pregnant mothers in rural villages go without antenatal checkups and proper medication prior to their due date.

FUNDING: Government lacking funding for proper birth facilities to be erected in remotest parts of the district.

“Women in many remote villages in the remotest parts of the district are delivering their babies in their own houses, near rivers, and even in garden huts that are away from the main

village,” Mrs David said. Mrs David explained that besides government’s lack of funding for proper birthing facilities to be erected, the cultural perception that women being unclean when pregnant has also contributed to women giving birth in odd places.

Kop Kaipu, another local mother in Biaru village of the Waria LLG, shared similar sentiments and she revealed that there are also no properly trained village birth attendants to attend to these mothers.

“These mothers need special care and attention before and after labour but

we currently have no local midwives to attend to them and so the mothers are not properly cleaned afterwards,” Mrs Kaipu said.

“We really need local village women to be trained so that they can be of assistance when such instances occur,” Mrs Kaipu added.

Bulolo MP Sam Basil during his visit to these remote villages in the outskirts of his electorate took note of the mothers’ grievances and he assured them that the matter will be looked into.

“I am aware of this issue and this is the reason why I am currently working

on the Wau-Garaina road project so that basic health infrastructure and services can reach these villages,”

Mr Basil reaffirmed.

He further stated that the introduction of very small aperture terminal (VSAT) equipment that he installed in each of the villages will enable villagers to report severe medical cases that need attention.

“With these equipment we will be able to send helicopters in to medivac mothers who face complications during labour to the nearest hospital so that they can be attended to immediately,”

Mr Basil said.

Maternal mortality is higher in women living in rural areas and among poorer communities.

He said simple Papua New Guineans have built upon the handout mentality that has diverted the mind set on the wrong approach of receiving and not being responsible.

He said many times we blame the governments when we are the ones to be blamed in the first place.

IOM disaster risk reduction coordinator Simon Karu said Morobe is heading in the direction to be the model disaster prepared province for PNG in partnership with the National Disaster Centre (NDC) and IOM.

“And if all provincial disaster offices work in partnership following in IOM’s approach then the level of preparedness in PNG can improve,” said Mr Paul.

A HIGHLANDS man was taking in the sights and sounds of the ocean at Voco Point in Lae, Morobe Province, when our photographer caught up with him.

OCEAN MAGIC

If you have a story to tell, call us on 982 9186, or email postrabaul.spp@global.net.pg / or call

Dion wants disaster action

DEPUTY Prime Minister Leo Dion has encouraged provincial authorities in East New Britain to seriously consider establishing a technical planning committee that would be responsible to draw up “strategies” to deal with disasters.

After witnessing for himself the extent of damage to important road networks in the province over the weekend, Mr Dion, who is the Regional MP for East New Britain, told government officers that the province has seen many natural disasters in the past but the worst was yet to come.

“We have done a lot of talking and been through many disasters,” he said.

“The challenge now is for the national government through my office, the provincial government and local level governments to come up with strategies on how to deal with disasters.

“We have been through many disasters and the worst is yet to come, so I would like to encourage us to establish a technical planning committee to prepare and plan for such disasters,” Mr Dion said.

Meanwhile, Mr Dion has thanked the national Government for re-establishing the Gazelle Restoration Authority (GRA).

He said GRA has been restored with a new chairman and an executive which were now being gazetted, and it would become the vehicle to, among other things, properly plan for disasters.

The authority was established to carryout restoration work in the Gazelle Peninsula after the 1994 twin volcanic eruptions.

It was disbanded after achieving its mandated tasks and became an implementation unit of the ENB Provincial Government.

Call to follow procedures

THERE are processes and procedures in channelling requests or submissions to the national Government, says Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Inter Government Relations Leo Dion.

He gave the advice to government officers in East New Britain during a disaster

Pomio by-election nominations end

SEVENTEEN candidates have nominated for the Pomio Open by-election and campaigning has already begun following the close of nominations at 4pm on Wednesday afternoon.

Kokopo police station for supporters and candidates to identify their election numbers.

the public sector.

briefing in Kokopo over the weekend.

His advice was in light of a submission from the East New Britain Provincial Government requesting funding assistance to restore damaged infrastructure caused by heavy rain and strong winds that also caused havoc in other provinces of PNG.

Closing the nominations was Douglas Augustine from Sinivit local level government, endorsed by the United Resource Party, who nominated at 2pm with several truckloads of supporters who crowded around the Electoral Office in Kokopo to witness the nomination.

The candidate draw was released at 4:30pm at the

A total of 17 candidates nominated at the different locations in Kokopo and Pomio district since the issue of writs last week Thursday.

Polling will commence on May 9 and end on May 22 and the return of writs is on June 11.

According to the final listing from the provincial electoral office, about nine of the duly nominated candidates are self-employed while the balance had held top positions within

Ten of the candidates are running as independent candidates while the other seven are each endorsed by People’s Democratic Movement party (PDM), National Alliance party, People’s National Congress party People’s Progress Party, Pangu Pati, Triumph Heritage Empowerment party and United Resource party.

Among the candidates contesting the Pomio seat are former regional MP fFrancis Koimanrea, who was endorsed by PDM.

Geologist Francis Waina was endorsed by

PNC, a network marketer endorsed by Pangu party, Pius Kosa by THE party, Pius Mano endorsed by PPP and Levi Silu Orong was endorsed by NA.

Those running as independent candidates are Tony Balpingeri, Dr Elias Kapavore, Otto Yusuf Salmang, Anthony Kaming, Philip Telakul, Patrick Kaupun, John Porti, Michael Paisparea, Alois Gongi and Robert Lutulele.

Candidates have been urged by the provincial electoral officer to conduct a smooth and trouble free campaign.

DOUGLAS Augustine with his supporters when nominating yesterday in Kokopo.

Govt to re-introduce stret pasin stoa plan

THE O’Neill/Dion Government is set to reintroduce the once very successful “Stret Pasin Stoa Scheme” to support citizens take back or take over trade stores, tucker boxes and all other small businesses that are currently operated by foreigners.

Minister for Trade, Commerce & Industry, Richard Maru, announced this yesterday saying the Stret Pasin Stoa Scheme will enable PNG citizens to buy back small businesses that are supposed to be reserved for Papua New Guineans to manage and own.

Minister Maru said Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill will officially launch the scheme when he opens the first shop next Thursday in Hohola, Port Moresby.

The Minister stressed that under

At a glance

‘STRET PASIN STOA’ SCHEME: The Government in an announcement made by Trade, Commerce and Industry Minister Richard Maru yesterday, is set to re-introduce the “Stret Pasin Stoa” scheme.

LAUNCHING OF THE SCHEME: At Hohola in the nation’s capital and will be opened by the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill where he will also announce the details of the scheme.

AIM: To support citizens take back or take over trade stores, tucker boxes and all other small businesses that are currently operated by foreigners.

the Government’s plans, all shops and small businesses owned by foreigners must be bought, managed and operated by PNG citizens over the next three years, 2016-2019.

“The scheme, which will be our largest business incubation scheme, will be implemented over the next three years by the Na-

tional Development Bank (NDB) Investments Limited in partnership with the SME Corporation,” said Minister Maru.

Details of the Stret Pasin Stoa Scheme will be unveiled by the Prime Minister when he officially opens the first shop next week.

“We have a target to support the

Market Snapshot

start-up of over 450,000 new PNG companies or SMEs and it is important we start now.

“The Scheme is one of our key strategies to create wealth for our citizens and to fairly and more equitably distribute our national wealth,” said Minister Maru.

IPBC equips leaders for growth

WITH THE potential of Papua New Guinea growing and leading companies coming up, Independent Public Business Corporation (IPBC) has seen and is stressing on the importance of well trained leaders to take up managerial roles in leading organisations.

IPBC managing director Wasantha Kumarasiri said the IPBC has taken up the role and is committed to developing management personnel within the IPBC portfolio with the objective of maintaining and ensuring the highest level of good corporate governance.

He said IPBC has taken this path because the institution needed quality and competency and the participants who recently took part in the Senior Leadership Development Workshop should provide the necessary strategic leadership.

HE further stated that IPBC will develop SOEs and bring them to a level where they can sustain, go forward and provide services to the public and later let Papua New Guineans own them so that it can be broadly owned.

Furthermore, once this is done, he said IPBC will create new ventures, new industries in underdeveloped areas like agriculture and tourism; and for this fundamental foundation, interlink in strategic management is required now.

Chairman of IPBC, Paul Nerau thanked the management for the opportunity to equip all their executives for the growth of the SOEs and allowing their staff to move up to the next level.

Nerau, who has been vocal for the growth of SOE’s, said the SOE’s are the biggest employers in the country and when combined together in areas of growth, can provide more opportunities for the people and make millions as profit for the shareholder. He said working together has been a big challenge and his vision was to see a change

in this attitude at all levels through attending leadership courses and doing business together.

Speaking during the awards ceremony of participants for the Senior Leadership Development

Workshop, Des Blake, director for Risk and Consulting Services, said anyone who understood the underlying essence of good leadership and used these principles would surely succeed. He told members

of IPBC and various SOEs that managing issues in the public sector was a lot worse than dealing within the private sector and from such trainings, participants will gain the principles for leading.

FED:$A surges on downbeat US Fed statement

SYDNEY: The Australian dollar has had its biggest one day surge in almost two years after the US Federal Reserve surprised markets with a downbeat statement. The local currency soared as high as 78.46 US cents on Thursday morning, from 76.06 cents at Wednesday’s close, after the Fed unexpectedly downgraded its growth forecasts for the US economy and lowered its inflation outlook.

And although the central bank did drop the word “patient” from its statement regarding possible interest rate hikes, Fed chair Janet Yellen said that didn’t mean policymakers would be “impatient”.

The downbeat language took the market by surprise, sparking a sell-off in the US dollar and giving the Australian dollar a boost, LTG GoldRock director Andrew Barnett said.

“The vast majority of the market were positioned for the US dollar to rise, because they were assuming the Fed would remove the word `patient’,” Mr Barnett said.

“They did actually do that, but they made some fairly dovish remarks about holding interest rates close to zero for longer, so you saw a massive spike in the Aussie.”

Mr Barnett said the Aussie dollar would likely drift lower over the next week, amid growing expectations of a Reserve Bank rate cut in April.

At 1700 AEDT, the Australian dollar was at 93.16 Japanese yen, up from 92.32 yen on Wednesday, and at 71.76 euro cents, down from 71.88 euro cents.

The Fed surprise also sent Australian bond prices soaring, Nomura rates strategist Andrew Ticehurst said.

At 1630 AEDT, the June 2015 10-year bond futures contract was trading at 97.655 (implying a yield of 2.345 per cent), up from 97.550 (2.450 per cent) on Wednesday.

The June 2015 three-year bond futures contract was at 98.250 (1.750 per cent), up from 98.190 (1.810 per cent).

Headline: FED:$A surges on downbeat US Fed statem

IPBC chairman Paul Nerau speaking on the importance of SOEs collaborating for growth during the awards ceremony of the Senior Development Workshop participants.

RICHARD Maru

Deutsche Bank reiterates ‘Buy’ rating for OSH

OIL SEARCH Limited’s (Oil Search) stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at Deutsche Bank in a research report issued on Monday.

According to WKRB news & analyst, they currently have a $11.00 target price on the stock.

Oil Search opened at 7.65 on Monday. Oil Search has a 1-year low of $A6.87 and a 1-year high of $A9.88. The stock’s 50-day moving average is A$8 and its 200-day moving average is $A8. The company has a market cap of A$11.65 billion and a P/E ratio of 32.14.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on the stock.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs upgraded shares of Oil Search to a “buy” rating and set a $7.90 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday.

Analysts at RBC Capital reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $9.00 price target on shares of Oil Search in a

At a glance

OSH STOCK: Had its “Buy” rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at Deustche Bank in a research report. They currently have a $11.00 target price on the stock.

research note on Thursday, February 19.

Finally, analysts at UBS AG reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $9.00 price target on shares of Oil Search in a research note on Tuesday, January 20.

Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. The stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of A$9.02 ($6.88).

The Company’s PNG LNG Project is 6.9 million tons per annum integrated LNG project operated by ExxonMobil PNG Limited, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil Corporation.

IPBC award workshop participants

BY GLORIA BAUAI

Twelve participants of the Senior Leadership Development Workshop conducted last month by Deloitte, in conjunction with Independent Public Business Corporation (IPBC), have been awarded certificates for their participation.

The participants, mostly senior managers within IPBC and State Owned Enterprises upon receiving their awards yesterday, were encouraged by Minister for State Enterprises Ben Micah to lead through transparency and accountability using the skills learnt.

“You are the ones now I want to see will be moving the state owned companies from Government public service culture to corporate commercial culture. No one else will do,” Micah said.

“This whole organisation of IPBC and SOEs really need to work together now like a well oiled machine. People should know what they are doing, what they are leading and who are very clear in their minds what their organisations objectives are.”

Micah said lack of mentoring and training Papua New Guinean supervisors and managers has resulted in a thin cream at the top of the SOE hierarchy.

“Since we started to corporatise this companies in 2002, there was not really any serious approach or strate-

gies by successive Governments,” he said.

He added it was better late than never and congratulated IPBC for taking the lead, especially in a time where the country is experiencing economic development and growth.

Speaking on behalf of the participants, chief executive officer of PNG Power John Tangit, thanked the board of IPBC for the opportunity not only to come and learn leadership skills but also to establish and consolidate networks, share experiences and ideas.

The workshop covered topics such as Principles of leadership, Organisations as systems, High Performance Teams, Effective Decision-making and Mobilising the organisation and “make it happen”.

The workshop saw participants; John Tangit CEO PNG power limited, Sundar Ramamurthy CEO BmobileVodafone, Capt Daniel Wanma CEO LinkPNG, Joseph Kintau executive manager Government & External Relations, Une O’Ome General Manager Commercials DataCo PNG, Dr Fifaia Matainaho CEO Eda Ranu, Desmond Yaninem CEO National Development Bank Investments, Amos Tepi chief operations officer Post PNG, Jeffrey Bean acting chief operating officer Telikom PNG, Billy Imar CEO Water PNG and Evangeline Taunao acting general manager SOE operations.

PARTICIPANTS posing with Minister for State Enterprises Ben Micah after the awards ceremony in Port Moresby yesterday.

KK Kingston holds company trade day

BY LEONNIE WAYANG

KK Kingston Limited yesterday held a trade day in Port Moresby to allow its customers within the country to interact with and gain more knowledge from international dealers who supply products to the company.

KK Kingston had eight of its international suppliers such as Howler, Hitachi (Power Tools), Pro Safety and others showcase their products on the day and also had exhibitions from three divisions, Kingston Hire, Kingston Commercial operations and the popular brand Tuffa on display.

KK Kingston National Marketing manager Christopher Elphick said the trade fair was held to allow their international suppliers interaction with customers in the country.

“The purpose of this trade fair was to engage our customers within Papua New Guinea with some of our key suppliers, particularly from our industrial division, so we have suppliers covering tooling, our safety equipment, our boots, our welding, some of our key areas and product categories of

our industrial business.

“The idea is to bring our suppliers in who hold a wealth of knowledge in the product areas and the product they supply and be able to impart that knowledge to our customers as well as our staff so that our sales staff are best equipped when they go out into the market to provide our customers with product knowledge and the right solu-

tions for their businesses,” Mr Elphick said.

The company has five distinct divisions and they are Kingston industrial, commercial, retail, hire and Rotomoulded division which produces the famous Tuffa tanks.

“The divisions that we have are designed so that we can specifically cater to the needs of the customers with those

business units so things are going well for KK Kingston at the moment,” Mr Elphick said “We consider this a successful event so we’ll be looking to do the same next year and probably have a slightly larger platform to work from and with this being sort of a proven thing this year, we hope to attract more of our suppliers to invest their money to come down.”

A REPRESENTATIVE from Hitachi Power Tools, one of the international suppliers to KK Kingston talking to interested participants during the company’s trade day at Holiday Inn, Port Moresby.

MARCH 20-MARCH 21

ROSEHILL GARDENS

SATURDAY

Weather: Fine.

Track: Good (4).

Rail: Is out 2m for the entire circuit.

FORM GUIDE: Page 2 of turf lift-out

GEAR CHANGES

RACE 1: (1) Mossfun winkers on first time; (6) Brook Road winkers off first time; (8) Tawteen winkers on again; (10) Tahni Dancer concussion plates off first time RACE 2: (5) Oriental Lady blinkers on first time; (10) Inishowen near-side bubble cheeker off first time RACE 3: (1) Mossfun winkers on first time; (2) Tawteen winkers on again; (7) Washington Heights blinkers on first time;

(12) Tahni Dancer concussion plates off first time; (13) Peeping lugging bit off first time, standard bit on first time RACE 4: (4) Fast Dragon race plates on first time RACE 5: (3) Mongolian Khan race plates on first time, tongue control bit on first time;

(6) Volkstok’n’barrell lugging bit on first time, race plates on first time RACE 6: (3) Miracles Of Life lugging bit on first time, race plates on first time; (4) Sweet Idea blinkers on again; (5) Deep Field blinkers on first time; (7) Knoydart winkers on again RACE 7:

(3) Furnaces, (14) Lake Geneva winkers on first time; (7) Odyssey Moon blinkers off first time, winkers on first time; (8) English lugging bit on first time RACE 8: (7) I’m Imposing ear muffs off first time; (13) Shooting To Win blinkers off first time RACE 9: (3) Maygrove lugging bit on first time, race plates on first time

Hai Lil, Belesron Race 3: Snappy Esprit, Good Offa, Bel Show Race 4: Miss Gidget, Keen Array, Belhamage Race 5: Rawnaq, Savvy Henry, Sammy Race 6: Written, Nicamorae, Winta Chiller Race 7: Akavoroun, Zabisco, Gris Caro Race 8: Java, Profit Share, Rom Baro Race 9: The Bowler, Kenjorwood, Written Up

Rosehill Gardens strike rates

With the heart to serve

DUE TO common setbacks in terms of development and the remoteness of many provinces in the country, many professionals leave their home province to look for greener pastures elsewhere while only few who have the heart for their people remain to serve their provinces and districts.

Many of them are teachers, nurses, police and general public servants engaged in government departments.

Among them, only a few highly qualified people in the discipline of accounting, law, business, political science join the public service to perform core functions in the administration of their province and districts to serve their people.

One such person is Lawrence Olkoben, an accountant who has graced the challenge of serving the Southern Highlands. He has proved over the years to be one of the best and well respected fi gures in the province. Mr Olkoben, 45, who hails

from the Kware village, Nipa district in the Southern Highlands Province is the eldest son of a former village chief in the Nipa district. Lawrence Olkoben did grade 12 at the Aiyura National High School when Lawrence made up his mind to pursue a career in accountancy similar to his late brother.

He fulfi lled his aim and went on to become a certified practicing accountant by profession after graduating from the Papua New Guinea University of Technology with a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce majoring in management.

He worked as a lead accountant for Chevron Niugini (PNG) Limited to top his 10 years of accounting experiences with private sector and decided to return to his home province in 2001 to serve his province. Even before joining Chevron Niugini, he was the company secretary and group accountant for Menduli Ltd based

in Mendi Southern Highlands Province, with a branch he set up in Tari, Hela Province. During his term, he worked closely with Late Amos Telabe who was the General Manager. Menduli however collapsed when he left for Chevron Niugini.

That was when the people of Southern Highlands and Hela knew the importance of the outstanding role Mr Olkoben played in the management and operation of the company. He was then engaged as the fi nancial controller with the Southern Highlands Provincial Administration in 2001.

The transition, as he recalls, was motivated by his desire to correct all the fi nancial maladministration evident in the public sector organisations which in turn derail the goods and services delivery to the communities.

CONTINUED PAGE 37

To book your job advertisement in Painim Wok PNG , contact Classi fied Sales on the above emails.

To submit editorial or a feature relating to careers, jobs, staff development and graduate programs or profiles of career people, call 309 1107 or email: kialaw@spp.com.pg

MR OLKOBEN conveys his condolences on behalf of the Southern Highlands Provincial government during the funeral service for the late Deputy Auditor General of PNG Mek Kewa.

CONTRACTOR AT WORK

A WORKMAN painting the edge of a pavement.

Online job board

WHAT is a job board? A job board is an online advertising board where companies or organizations advertise jobs so that people looking for jobs (job seekers) can see and apply for those jobs via the internet or via their mobile phone. Since the job board (PNGJOBSEEK) is linked up with the digicel mobile network, job seekers can be able to use their mobile phones to search and apply for jobs using key sms commands once their CV is registered and uploaded onto the job board.

PNGJOBSEEK is a new on-line job board (www.pngjobseek.com) specifically designed to meet the needs of employers (companies and organizations) and job seekers in Papua New Guinea. Companies and organizations register to advertise their job vacancies and job seekers or those looking for jobs register to easily search and apply for those jobs advertised on the job board by various organizations.

Currently over 20 000 job seekers have registered and the number is growing day in day out. Well over 200 Organizations within all industry groups across PNG are have also registered and frequently using the PNGJOBSEEK on-line job board (www. pngjobseek.com) to advertise their jobs. Organizations wanting to register and advertise their job vacancies can email the Marketing Manager on email: richard@ pngjobseek.com .

Those people (job seekers) looking for jobs can send their Curriculum Vitae (CV) via the postal address or email below;

PNGJOBSEEK PO Box 601

Waterfront Post Office Konedobu National Capital District

Email: help@pngjobseek.com

For more information on PNGJobSeek, you can call us on phone: 70907200 or meet us during our next job seeker engagement session to drop off your CV at the Vision City on Saturday March 28, 8am to 3pm.

JOB seekers registering and lodging their CVs during a recent job seeker information session conducted by the PNGJOBSEEK Marketing Team in Port Moresby.

Resourceful, effective manager

FROM PAGE 35

Thus, his exceptional performance, stringent control of the scarce fi nancial resources and effective financial management elevated him to the Southern Highlands Provincial treasurer position, just after two years of being in the public sector.

He was also accredited as the ‘Third Best Provincial Treasurer’ by the National Department of Finance through a Performance Based Assessment exercise carried out for the years 2008-2009.

Such record in itself spoke volumes and professionalism in adhering to stringent and standardised fi nancial management practices. In 2011, he was appointed to the Acting provincial Administrator for Southern Highlands Provincial Administration- Hela province was part of Southern Highlands province at the time. He served for four months and was sidelined due to heavy political undertakings. On February 2014, he was recommended by the Hela Provincial Executive Council (PEC) as its choice for the permanent Provincial Admin-

istrator, a four year tenure contract which is before the National Executive Council for its deliberation.

Mr Olkoben is likely to face a daunting task of establishing the administrative instrumentalities of the new province.

Hela as a new province has virtually no administrative apparatuses in place but Mr Olkoben said he was prepared to take up the challenge.

He said he has had similar experi-

ences when he was tasked to implement the national Government’s District Treasury Roll-Out Program in his capacity as the Provincial Treasurer of Southern Highlands which he successfully implemented in all of Southern Highlands and Hela.

Mr Olkoben aims to effectively and efficiently contribute more towards the administration of the new Hela Province if he is given the chance.

SAFETY FIRST

MR Olkoben (left) was among the delegations including Hela Governor Anderson Agiru (fourth left) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

A ROAD traffic inspector checks a vehicle along Lawes Road recently.

Kick back, enjoy

CHERYL CLARKE visits Walindi Resort in West New Britain and this is what she had to say...

ARRIVING at Walindi Plantation

Resort in the early evening, the sun is just starting to set, smiling staff are waiting to greet me and it feels like I am a family member arriving home after a long trip away.

Walindi Resort is situated on the shores of Kimbe Bay, West New Britain, and was established in 1983 by Max and Cecilie Benjamin on the grounds of their oil palm plantation. The resort has gained a reputation over the years as an idyllic, tropical retreat from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, both for scuba divers and non-divers alike.

During my stay, visitors included international tourists, families with small children, and holiday makers and business people from all over Papua New Guinea.

While the resort is world famous for its quality of scuba diving on the spectacular reefs of Kimbe Bay and my stay is primarily for this reason, Walindi isn’t just about diving. The resort also offers many activities for the non-diver, including snorkelling, birdwatching and a variety of land tours. Sipping a cooling beverage on the waterfront sundeck, kayaking or participating in a game of beach volleyball are also relaxing options.

Talking to Max and Cecilie, they recalled the days when they started construction of the resort 31 years ago with just two bungalows, primarily to host visiting scuba divers. Today, 12 bungalows and eight plantation house rooms cater for up to 40 guests and the Benjamins’ son (Cheyne is now managing the resort).

Accommodation is constructed with local timbers and materials and spread along the beach front, surrounded by beautiful rainforest gardens and towering trees. The bungalows are roomy and comfortable and include ensuite bathrooms, ceiling fans, large windows to catch

the tropical breezes, tea and coffeemaking facilities and private verandahs overlooking the beach and gardens. Plantation house rooms also have ensuite facilities and are in blocks of four rooms with a shared verandah.

The accommodation spreads out from the central resort area, the social hub of Walindi which includes the dining room, lounge and bar area, swimming pool, sundeck, boutique and a comprehensive library. Wireless internet is available in the main resort area.

The dining room offers breakfast, lunch and dinner. Dinners are buffet style and include a soup, followed by a wonderful selection of main dishes featuring local beef and fresh seafood with a variety of local vegetables and salads. Just when you think you couldn’t possibly eat another thing, the dessert bell rings and it is always too good to resist.

For scuba divers, the day starts with breakfast and a leisurely stroll down to the dive centre situated on the jetty. The dive staff have our gear ready and waiting and one of three purpose built day dive boats transports us to a diverse range of dive sites, most within 45 minutes of the resort. Diving operates every day on a two or three dive per day basis and dive equipment is available for hire. For the three dive option, lunch is picnic style on a small deserted island. Upon our return to Walindi, our dive gear is stripped down and cleaned by the dive staff, ready for the next day.

Max tells me that over 900 species of fish and 420 species of coral at the last count have been found in Kimbe Bay – that is over half the total world species of hard corals in one bay, a truly remarkable statistic. Photographically spectacular, underwater images taken in the bay have consistently won the most

LEFT: Sunrise over a beachfront bungalow at Walindi Resort.

Gor-

prestigious underwater photography competitions in the world. The reefs swarm with fish of all shapes and colours, living among beautiful corals which grow to amazing sizes in the protected waters of the bay. A coupe of fellow non-diving guests were keen to see what scuba diving was all about and the dive centre offers resort dives, a “try it and see” option. The dive centre also offers various dive courses from basic open water to dive master.

Most non-divers and families with children filled their days with a wide selection of activities... and some were visiting simply to relax and unwind.

Snorkelling is available and is every bit as good as the diving. A land tour to the Hot River is a wonderful opportunity to bathe in water heated by the volcano with swirling pools and mini waterfalls. Other tours are an easy guided walk through the village adjacent to Walindi Resort or a slightly more strenuous nature or birdwatching hike. For the serious hikers, a guided three hour trek up to the active Gabuna volcano is an option. My favourite tour, which delighted adults and kids alike, was a quick after dinner jaunt to visit the firefly trees where the minute beetles flash in synchronous or pulsing waves of light.

In 2012, Max and Cecilie helped establish an elementary school on the resort grounds to service the growing population in the communities of nearby Tamare and Kilu villages, Mahonia Na Dari Research and Conservation Centre and the resort staff.

No matter why you visit Walindi, the resort is a special place that will stay in your memory … until the next time you visit!

For details, call Walindi’s friendly staff on 7373 4199/983 5441 or email resort@walindifebrina.com or visit www.walindifebrina.com

TOP: Walindi Resort on the shores of Kimbe Bay, West New Britain

Picture: PATRICK PON

BOTTOM: Friendly staff welcome you at Walindi Resort

Picture: PETER LANGE

Picture: DAVID SCHULER

RIGHT: A diver with

gonian coral in the clear, calm waters of Kimbe Bay.

Photograph: DAREK SEPIOLO

Childre n’s Bedtime Stories Children’s Stories T hu mb el i n a Thumbelina

THERE was once a woman who wished very much to have a little child, but she could not obtain her wish.

At last she went to a witch, and said, “I should so very much like to have a little child; can you tell me where I can find one?”

“Oh, that can be easily managed,” said the witch. “Here is a barleycorn of a different kind to those which grow in the farmer’s fields, and which the chickens eat; put it into a flower-pot, and see what will happen.”

Investing

MATHEW YAKAI tells of how children in an area no longer have to sit on the floor and learn their ABCs, thanks to the efforts of a company.

HOW could one have predicted that a dull black American student would have become a world renowned neurosurgeon? Yes I am talking about Dr Ben Carson. In PNG, I think of great achievers like the Narara brothers captaining the United Arab Emirate airlines, with their siblings following suit. You can add other great achievers.

Knowledge is power and can come from classrooms, lecture rooms or anywhere. It can come from mere experience and observation. PNG government realises the importance of education and injects millions of kina into free education. A nation with an educated population not only increases its literacy standards but also boasts of law abiding citizens, healthy and intelligent people who contribute towards nation building.

Look at China. She invented gun powder, wheelbarrow and brick laying. She put education first since the end of the cultural revolution (1966-76), and geared towards economic modernisation. The postMao Zedong Chinese Communist Party leadership viewed education as the foundation of the “four modernisation”. In the early 1980s, science and technology education became an important focus of its education policy. By 1986, training skilled personnel and expanding scientific and technical knowledge had been assigned the highest priority.

What China has today is astounding. There are over 100 national key

universities, including Peking University and Tsinghua University.

Chinese spending has grown by 20 per cent per year since 1999, now reaching over $100 billion. And as many as 1.5 million science and engineering students graduated from Chinese universities in 2006. As of 2013, China is the most popular country in Asia for international students, and ranks third overall among countries.

What about PNG? We can start small. So a donation of desks can be a valuable investment if our future is top priority. It all started at Enikuwai Primary School at Bundi LLG, the home of the only nickel/ cobalt mine in the country.

It was on February 12, 2015, when president of Ramu NiCo Project, Wang Jicheng, accompanied by KBK Mine management, visited Enikuwai Primary School. They donated 60 desks and 60 chairs for the landowners’ children.

“I am very happy to be present here today with you all, not only as the president of Ramu NiCo but also as a parent who believes in the importance of education for our children,” Mr Wang stated.

“As the new academic year starts, I am sure parents are working hard to see their children attend schools so they can have a better future. This is encouraging because the future of our country lies with our children. What every one of us can do today is to provide our children the opportunity to explore and realise their potentials,” the president said.

If China can send men to space, successfully host the Olympic Games, take the lead in assuring international peace and harmony, then inevitably Mr Wang does understand the importance of education.

For the 150 students doing grades Three to Seven at Enikuwai Primary School, the desks are a Godsent gift to them. They can now sit comfortably and write on their new tables. This will have a positive impact on more than 2500 people from the nearby 11 villages in the KBK area.

“We realised that our children took a long day’s walk to Danagari to attend school. Most of them gave up along the way because of the very long distance,” Mr Wang said.

Late David Tigavu, former landowner association chairman of KBK, had a dream and ensured the Enikuwai Primary School was part of the relocation program under the old memorandum of agreement (MoA). He left a positive legacy behind.

“I would like to encourage all parents to send your children to school. This is important because if the jobs at Ramu NiCo Project are limited then we can produce lawyers, pilots, engineers and medical doctors who can find jobs in PNG and also overseas,” Mr Wang said.

Note: The views expressed here are entirely of MY Media & News Agency. For comments, text 7074 7450.

“Thank you,” said the woman, and she gave the witch twelve shillings, which was the price of the barleycorn. Then she went home and planted it, and immediately there grew up a large handsome flower, something like a tulip in appearance, but with its leaves tightly closed as if it were still a bud.

“It is a beautiful flower,” said the woman, and she kissed the red and golden coloured leaves, and while she did so the flower opened, and she could see that it was a real tulip. Within the flower, upon the green velvet stamens, sat a very delicate and graceful little maiden. She was scarcely half as long as a thumb, and they gave her the name of “Thumbelina,” or Tiny, because she was so small. A walnut shell, elegantly polished, served her for a cradle; her bed was formed of blue violet-leaves, with a roseleaf for a counterpane.

Here she slept at night, but during the day she amused herself on a table, where the woman had placed a plateful of water. Round this plate were wreaths of flowers with their stems in the water, and upon it floated a large tulip-leaf, which served Tiny for a boat.

Here the little maiden sat and rowed herself from side to side, with two oars made of white horsehair. It really was a very pretty sight. Tiny could, also, sing so softly and sweetly that nothing like her singing had ever before been heard.

One night, while she lay in her pretty bed, a large, ugly, wet toad crept through a broken pane of glass in the window, and leaped right upon the table where Tiny lay sleeping under her roseleaf quilt.

“What a pretty little wife this would make for my son, said the toad, and she took up the walnut-shell in which little Tiny lay asleep, and jumped

through the window with it into the garden.

In the swampy margin of a broad stream in the garden lived the toad, with her son. He was uglier even than his mother, and when he saw the pretty little maiden in her elegant bed, he could only cry, “Croak, croak, croak.”

“Don’t speak so loud, or she will wake,” said the toad, “and then she might run away, for she is as light as swan’s down. We will place her on one of the water-lily leaves out in the stream; it will be like an island to her, she is so light and small, and then she cannot escape; and, while she is away, we will make haste and prepare the state-room under the marsh, in which you are to live when you are married.”

Far out in the stream grew a number of water lilies, with broad green leaves, which seemed to float on the top of the water. The largest of these leaves appeared farther off than the rest, and the old toad swam out to it with the walnut-shell, in which little Tiny lay still asleep. The tiny little creature woke very early in the morning, and began to cry bitterly when she found where she was, for she could see nothing but water on every side of the large green leaf, and no way of reaching the land.

Meanwhile the old toad was very busy under the marsh, decking her room with rushes and wild yellow flowers, to make it look pretty for her new daughter-in-law. Then she swam out with her ugly son to the leaf on which she had placed poor little Tiny. She wanted to fetch the pretty bed, that she might put it in the bridal chamber to be ready for her. The old toad bowed low to her in the water, and said, “Here is my son, he will be your husband, and you will live happily in the marsh by the stream.”

“Croak, croak, croak,” was all her son could say for himself; so the toad took up the elegant little bed, and swam away with it, leaving Tiny all alone on the green leaf, where she sat and wept.

She could not bear to think of living with the old toad, and having her ugly son for a husband.

A colourful traditional welcome by Enikuwai locals

Feast your eyes

ECOTOURISM is a thriving economic sector in PNG. It has the potential of boosting PNG’s economy to a whole new level given its natural environment with its unique animal species.

About 75 per cent of the PNG landmass is covered with tropical rainforest, giving an edge to all kinds of animal species and spectacular landscapes for tourism attraction.

With that in mind, the PNG Highlands Exotic Tours intends to promote and market highlands-based tourism products by helping individuals, SMEs and organisations write featured articles for their tourism products. It will then publish the features on its website, blog, on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, TripAdvisor, Lonely Planet, 7 Summits Club, Google plus and on the wider internet.

Bird watching and orchid gardening is another exciting prospect in the ecotourism sector with an average of eight bird watching companies visiting various bird watching sites in the Highlands region recently.

The PNG Highlands Exotic Tours came across an amazing individual

who wished to launch his career in bird watching and orchid gardening. Max Mal, a middle aged man from Angi village, Wapenamanda district in Enga Province, was a bird watcher guide with the Kumul Lodge Tour Guide team in the highlands for the past seven years.

He is well versed with the different species of birds and knows how to identify the sounds and tunes of different bird species. “I can tell from their sound if they want to sleep or when they are happy, mourning/crying or when they are angry,” said Mr Mal proudly.

“I have long wished to start my own bird watching and orchid gardening business because I have the

land and forest. I have collected different species of orchids which I planted in my own backyard,” he added.

“Thank God for PNG Highlands Exotic Tours who wishes to help me promote and market my new bird watching and orchid gardening.”

Upon visiting his sites at Anji village in Wapenamanda, the PNG Highlands Exotic Tours was impressed with the perfect view of his orchid garden and the different species of bird that frequented his place.

Marketing officer Peter Kinjap said the avenue provides a perfect opportunity to launch his own business. “Bird watching and orchid

gardening for Max Mal is a prospective venture as a SME,” Mr Kinjap added.

According to Mr Mal, some of the birds-of-paradise found in his yard at Angi village are the superb ribbon-tailed astrapia (Shaw Mayer’s), brown sicklebill (Epimachus meyeri) and the crested satinbird.

The majority of the birds-of-paradise are found in New Guinea. Of the 45 species found on planet earth, only six are found elsewhere.

Two in Indonesia, four in Australia and the rest is in PNG. Mr Mal’s bird watching yard was confirmed to have 11 species of the most popular birds-of-paradise. Unfortunately, the raggiana bird-of-paradise is not among them.

PNG’s national symbol is the raggiana bird-of-paradise, found both on the national flag and the national crest. It is endemic to PNG, ranging from coastal rainforests to about 1600 metres in many highlands valleys. Birds-of-paradise are some of the most remarkable creatures in the animal world. Not only are they magnificent looking but their behaviour sets them apart from virtually all other animals. Other areas in the highlands

where PNG Highlands Exotic Tours is eyeing to develop, promote and market bird watching as an ecotourism product are the forests near Mt Giluwe from Tambul, the famous Baiyer Zoo Bird Sanctuary, currently renovated, and the forests of Kutubu area around Mt Bosavi. At Mt Giluwe there is a story of a “singsing wild dog” and there is a giant rat at Mt Bosavi.

“Mr Mal has registered his interest with PNG Highlands Exotic Tours for his tourist products to be marketed globally. And we will help him register a business name and provide guidance he needs to start up as a SME,” Mr Kinjap said. So far two business groups and four individuals have registered their interest with PNG Highlands Exotic Tours for tourism products marketing.

For more information, visit http://howarigenterprise.blogspot. com or contact mobile number: 7308 1368 or email howarig4@ gmail.com

The writer is a freelance journalist based in highlands. Contact him at pacinter12@gmail.com

I have long wished to start my own bird watching and orchid gardening business because I have the land and forest. I have collected different species of orchids which I planted in my own backyard.

MAX MAL

Ecotourism has the potential of boosting PNG’s economy to a whole new level! An exciting prospect like birdwatching is bound to attract tourists in droves, writes ANDERSON KOPONO

The ribbon-tailed astrapia, also known as Shaw Mayer’s astrapia (Astrapia mayeri), is a species of bird-of-paradise. This bird is endemic to subalpine forests in western part of central highlands

National bird: Raggiana bird-of-paradise

Mr Mal, right, with PNG Highlands Exotic Tours marketing officer Peter Kinjap in Mount Hagen

St Patrick’s

SAINT Patrick’s Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick, is a cultural and religious celebration held on March 17, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (c AD 385-461), the foremost patron saint of Ireland.

St Patrick’s Day was made

an official Christian feast day in the early 17th century. The day commemorates St Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, and celebrates the heritage and culture of the Irish in general.

On St Patrick’s Day it is

customary to wear shamrocks and/or green clothing or accessories (the “wearing of the green”). St Patrick is said to have used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pagan Irish.

For this year, the event

A n i m a l Animal o f t h e we e k of the week

fell on Tuesday. But most of Papua New Guinea’s Irish community will be celebrating this weekend.

These pictures show some of our cute and cuddly furry friends around the world dressing up for the event.

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

JAGGER JAGGER

MEET cute Jagger, who is 22 weeks old.

He is an affectionate cat and enjoys cuddles. Jagger also enjoys climbing and playing with his friend Joey.

If you think Jagger would be an ideal feline companion for you and/or your family, contact the RSPCA on 325 2363, 7198 2200, 7196 0436 or email your interest or enquiries to rspca@rspca.org.pg

325 2363, 7196 0436, 7198 2200, fax: 325 6833 or email your enquiries to rspca@ rspca.org.pg

Picture: thefw.com

St Patty’s ferret

Picture: LAUREN ALLEE

Sharpen your axe

ONCE upon a time, a very strong woodcutter asked for a job in a timber merchant and he got it.

The pay was really good and so was the work condition. For those reasons, the woodcutter was determined to do his best.

His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he was supposed to work.

Kenites

Before King Saul attacked the Amalekites, he asked the Kenites to move somewhere safe. Who are they? FRANK MECKLENBURG explains.

AS I wrote in last week’s article, Prophet Samuel knew that God wanted the Amalekites defeated in a certain way.

“Samuel said to Saul, ‘I am the one the LORD sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the LORD. This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’’” (1 Samuel 15:1–3 NIV) God took very seriously what the Amalekites did to Israel while they were travelling in the wilderness to the Promised Land.

Sometimes it seems that God’s punishment is quite severe, but he has a very high standard. If God does not punish then it is like a person never taking the garbage out of his house or filling a home with sewage. For sure none of us can stand in judgement of God because he is much too great for us to completely understand.

We are told in Exodus that God was even ready to kill all the Israelites because after they had seen His glory on Mt Sinai, they turned away from Him and worshipped a golden calf. It was only through Moses’s intercession that spared the lives of the Israelites.

King Saul set out to obey God regarding the Amalekites and gathered his troops together at a place called Telaim, where today the Arab community of Khirbat Abu Tulul is located south of Beersheba and Arad where I am living. The reason for this is that the Amalekites lived south of that area.

At that time he had a sizeable army of 250,000 foot soldiers plus another 10,000 men from Judah.

The first stage of battle was to send the troops to the city of Amalek for an ambush in the ravine.

Before King Saul attacked the Amalekites he did something surprising by asking the Kenites go away from the town of Amalek and separate from the Amalekites. The Kenites were a people living near the Amalekites or even in the city of Amalek. Who are these people that King Saul showed favour toward? “Then he said to the Kenites, “Go away, leave the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt.”So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.”

(1

Samuel 15:6 NIV)

The Kenites are first mentioned in Genesis 15:16 when God lists the nations living on the land that he promised to Abraham’s descendants. At the time of Israel’s exodus from Egypt, the Kenites lived in the area of the Sinai and Horeb. Before the Exodus, Moses fled Egypt because he killed an Egyptian. He found refuge among the Kenites for 40 years during which time he married a Kenite, the daughter of Jethro.

During the Exodus, Moses’s father-in-law, Jethro, brought Moses’s wife and his two sons. At this time

he was very kind to Moses and Moses asked him to stay with the Israelites. “Jethro was delighted to hear about all the good things the LORD had done for Israel in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians. He said, ‘Praise be to the LORD, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the LORD is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly.’” (Exodus 18:9–11 NIV)

Perhaps through Moses Jethro had become a believer in the God of Israel. There is some indication that Jethro did not travel with Israel, but there is another scripture which seems to indicate that the Kenites did. “The descendants of Moses’ father-in-law, the Kenite, went up from the City of Palms with the men of Judah to live among the people of the Desert of Judah in the Negev near Arad.” (Judges 1:16 NIV)

This is why they were in the area where King Saul was going to attack the Amalekites. King David’s sharing of some of what he gained from fighting the Amalekites with the Kenites shows the relationship that Israel had with them. (1 Samuel 30:26-27)

Today the Druze people and their religion say that they descend from Jethro, Moses’s father-inlaw, (Arabic: Shuaib) is a central figure in the Druze religious rites and pilgrimages. Nabi Shu’ayb in the lower Galilee is the recognised tomb of Jethro and is the holiest site and most important place for their pilgrimages.

Today in contrast to other Arabs in Israel, the Druze value their citizenship in Israel and serve in Israeli military.

Send your feedback to frankmecklenburgzp@gmail.com

The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees.

“Congratulations,” the boss said. “Go on that way!”

Very motivated by the boss’s words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he could only bring 15 trees. The third day he tried even harder, but he could only bring 10 trees. Day after day he was bringing less and less trees.

“I must be losing my strength,” the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologised, saying that he could not understand what was going on.

“When was the last time you sharpened your axe?” the boss asked.

“Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees…”

Reflection: Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don’t take time to sharpen the “axe”. In today’s world, it seems

that everyone is busier than ever, but less happy that ever. Why is that? Could it be that we have forgotten how to stay “sharp”? There’s nothing wrong with activity and hard work. But we should not get so busy that we neglect the truly important things in life, like our personal life, taking time to get close to our Creator, giving more time for our family, taking time to read etc.

We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn and grow. If we don’t take the time to sharpen the “axe”, we will become dull and lose our effectiveness.

The shrine of the Prophet Shueib (Jethro)

Picture: FRANK MECKLENBURG

Frank Mecklenburg

Freelance journalist and CEO of Zion Pathways

~ Stephen Covey, from “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”

out for lunch Big thanks to out for lunch. thanks to Saki for everything

Six-year-old Shaqueena enjoying her her birthday cake last weekend in Lae cake last weekend in Lae

Digi crew knows how to crew knows how to have fun. Yeah!!

Arvo spin at Arvo at Ravuvu camp Ravuvu camp

Baby Harrison with Harrison with mummy Cynthia mummy

The backyard gang The gang

Smiling beauty

Bebe Hazel

Between the seas of Sala-

Between the seas of maua and Morobe Patrol maua Post

Day

Saki for everything

Brothers in arms arms

Talisman SCM Crew at Kiunga at

Friends forever

Rayn

Shadow-man

Cocoa PNG Board crew taking a Cocoa PNG Board crew a break at Mosquito Island, Morobe break at Morobe Province Rainbow squad Rainbow

Don’t mess mess with G-Force Hazel and Joy Hazel and

Hanua chef preparing Hanua chef mashed banana n sago mashed banana n sago (pariva)

Happy anniversary, Mr and Mrs Mr and Mrs Nigel Nagual

Junky and Shaiix and Shaiix

Miss Bela will

Ol wara mangi Ol wara

Q: WHY did the one-handed man cross the road?

A: To get to the second hand shop.

THERE’S a senior citizen driving on the highway. His wife calls him on his cell phone and in a worried voice says, “Herman, be careful! I just heard on the radio that there was a madman driving the wrong way on Route 280!’’

Herman says, “I know, but there isn’t just one, there are hundreds!’’

Q: WHAT is the only way to keep your money from the casinos in Las Vegas?

A: When you get off the plane, walk into the propellers.

YOU seen white people goin, “Oh, how ya doin, Bob? Ah, no ID with me today. No, I forgot my ID.” “Just go ahead – $5000.” Brothers be at the bank – he’s got his birth certificate, social security card, his lotto tickets, his pictures his kid drew, and they’re still over in the back going, “I don’t think that’s him. I’ll tell you what, give him $28.”

~ AJ Jamal

A BLONDE goes to work in tears. Her boss asks, “What’s wrong?”

She says, “My mom died.”

He told her to go home, but she said, “No, I’ll be fine.”

Later that day, her boss finds her crying again. He says, “What’s wrong?”

She replies, “I just talked to my sister, and her mom died, too!”

A PASTOR, a doctor and an engineer wait for a particularly slow group of golfers. The engineer fumes, “What’s with these guys? We’ve been waiting for 15 minutes!”

The pastor says, “Hey, here comes the groundskeeper. Let’s have a word with him.”

“Say, George, what’s with that group ahead of us? They’re rather slow, aren’t they?” the doctor asks.

The groundskeeper tells them that the other golfers are a group of blind firefighters who lost their sight saving the clubhouse from a fire and that they come and play for free whenever they want.

The group is silent for a moment.

The pastor says, “That’s so sad. I will say a special prayer for them tonight.”

The doctor says, “Good idea.

I’m going to contact my ophthalmologist buddy and see if there’s anything he can do for them.”

The engineer says, “Why can’t these guys play at night?”

Grow up time

Did you know?

IN ORDER to burn off one M&M, you’d have to walk the length of an entire football field.

IT TAKES

12 bees their entire lives to produce one teaspoon of honey.

BABIES in the womb all grow a mustache before the hair eventually goes on to cover the rest of the body.

WE ARE still unsure of what is in 90 per cent of the ocean.

A LOT of the pictures you see from the 1800s are of dead people

EVERY year about 100 people die choking on ballpoint pens

YOU stay conscious for about 15-20 seconds after you’re decapitated.

NOT all otters are cute. Giant otters hunt in packs and take down some major prey.

MEMORIES are incredibly easily manipulated, and can convince you of basically anything.

JAPANESE hornets have a venom that can dissolve human flesh.

AUSTRALIA’S longest-running television series, Neighbours – which helped launch the careers of superstars including Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce and Margot Robbie –celebrates its 30th anniversary this week. Every weeknight, viewers around the world from Brisbane to Birmingham tune in for half an hour to the misadventures, intrigues and love affairs that abound in the fictional Melbourne suburb of Erinsborough. But its influence is greatest at home: Neighbours has been an important staple of the Australian television industry for decades.

TV has always been in the business of creating fantasy and escape, and Neighbours is no different. But 30 years after its debut, it’s become increasingly difficult to dismiss the particular kind of fantasy Neighbours is selling. In Ramsay St, the sun is always shining, the economy is always booming and, most peculiarly, the people are always white. Well, that last part isn’t strictly true. But with the exception of a handful of token characters (many of whom have never lasted very long), Ramsay St seems to exist as a sort of antithesis to an ethnically diverse modern Australia whose history has been defined by the tensions between Aboriginal land rights, multicultural migration and white supremacy.

The city of Melbourne itself has grown out of four main waves of migration, the first two dispossessing and displacing the Aboriginal people from the Kulin nation.

In the 20th Century, war became the driving factor behind migration, and large waves of refugees arrived from Europe, Vietnam and Cambodia. By 1976, nine years before the first episode of Neighbours screened, 20 per cent of the city’s population spoke a first language other than English.

Beyond the invisible walls of Erinsborough, Melbourne teems with a population with strong representation from countries like India, Pakistan, Sudan, Vietnam, Iraq, Greece and many more to boot. And yet, cultural diversity on Neighbours still remains laughably absent.

In an interview with Digital Spy, actor Sachin Joab revealed that his time on Neighbours as part of the Kapoor family was characterised by a lot of negative feedback from local audiences.

The Kapoors had been introduced to Ramsay St by previous producer Susan Bower after critics complained that an unofficial “White Australia” policy was in place behind the scenes at Fremantle Media (Neighbours’ production company).

But after Bower’s exit from the job, the decision was made to write the Kapoors out. They had been members of the cast for just a year.

According to Joab, the new producers argued that the death of Priya Kapoor in an explosion meant there was now a lack of storylines for the husband and daughter she’d left behind. The Kapoors were sent to India to “visit a sick relative” and promptly replaced with yet

another Anglo family.

The Kapoors aren’t the first culturally diverse family to “fail to thrive” in the homogenous Neighbours environment. After similar accusations of whitewashing plagued producers in the early ‘90s, the Lim family was introduced.

Thwarted by a combination of terrible storylines (including one where the family was accused of eating one of the resident’s missing dog) and even worse acting, the Lims were packed up after a mere six weeks.

In 2009, there came Korean exchange student Sunny Lee (played by Hany Lee, again after criticism that the show was too white). And Sunny Lee might have worked had she not also been written as one of the most annoying characters to grace the streets of Erinsborough.

Australia is a richly diverse country that’s unfortunately also rife with racism. Much of this racism simmers beneath the surface, hidden by excuses and subterfuge. But the transmission of racism in Australia is such that a great deal of arguments would be made to keep the Anglo families protected inside those seemingly impenetrable walls.

The longevity of any show in the Australian television industry is cause for celebration – but a persistent sameness that has lasted for 30 years is also cause for great concern.

You’re 30 years old now, Neighbours. Time to grow up.

The romance of Scott and Charlene obsessed viewers in the late 1980s and their wedding was the Australian TV event of the decade Credit: FremantleMedia/Rex

The Australian soap opera Neighbours is now 30 years old – but where is the diversity? Ramsay Street doesn’t reflect modern Australia, writes CLEMENTINE FORD.

Fans plead with Death

SIR Terry Pratchett fans have started a petition... asking “Death” to bring the author back.

The fantasy writer, famous for his Discworld books, died last Thursday aged 66. He had Alzheimer’s disease.

Death is a recurring character in Sir Terry’s stories – always speaking in CAPITAL LETTERS – and appeared on Sir Terry’s Twitter account at 3.06pm.

“AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER.”

One minute later this tweet appeared: “Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night.”

The final tweet simply said: “The End.”

Fans swiftly set up a petition calling on “Death” to return the beloved writer.

The petition on Change.Org –called “Reinstate Terry Pratchett” – has already received thousands of signatures.

The description reads: “Because Terry Pratchett said this: ‘There are times in life when people must know when not to let go. Balloons are designed to teach small children this.’”

Far from being a scary figure, Sir Terry presented “Death” as a witty guy with an unpopular job to do.

The author’s 41st and final Discworld novel, The Shepherd’s Crown, was completed last summer and it is due to be published later this year.

Pratchett, who sold over 85 million books around the world, died with his cat sleeping on his bed, surrounded by his family.

Gayes want song banned

IT’S taken the best part of two years for a US court to rule the writers of Blurred Lines copied a Marvin Gaye track.

A US jury decided the 2013 single by Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke breached the copyright of Gaye’s 1977 hit Got To Give It Up

As a result, the family of the late soul singer have been awarded $7.3m (K19m) in damages.

Now they want the song, one of the best-selling of all time, banned.

Thicke, Williams and TI, who also features on the track, always denied copying the song and their lawyer said the ruling set a “horrible precedent” for creativity in music.

The outcome over the track, which made $16m (K42m) profit, is a rare one in the music industry.

Copyright lawsuits are common in music but few ever make it to trial with disputes usually being settled before getting to court.

This tends to happen because judges decide similarity in songs like melody and tone aren’t enough to take to trial and are sometimes unprotectable.

During the trial Williams admitted that Blurred Lines channels “that 70s feeling” and that he looked up to Gaye.

Breaking l imits limits

AS Savage Beauty, the new V&A exhibition about Alexander McQueen, opens 20 years after the London show that got him noticed, two close friends and his biographer share their memories of the talented, revolutionary fashion designer.

Until his death at 40, McQueen (pictured far right) remained a controversial talent projecting a highly marketable streetwise image. Former boyfriend Andrew Groves, who worked on the 1995 show, saw him hit the big time and observed the pressures.

For two years from 1994 Groves was in a relationship with McQueen. “Or as the fashion world would have it, for four seasons,” he says.

Like most of the designer’s friends, Groves, who now lectures on fashion in London, refers to McQueen by his first name, Lee.

“I was in a bar in Soho with a friend and he said: ‘Look, Lee McQueen’s there.’ So I said: ‘Let’s go and meet him.’ Probably I was a bit drunk, but if you’re a fashion animal you want to know what everyone’s up to.

“This was before Lee became really famous, but he’d already created a stir with his runway shows. He’d been written up as being outrageous, but in my eyes he was no more out there than lots of people you’d meet in a gay bar in the mid’90s.

“The first thing that drew me to him was his sense of humour: he had the most dirty laugh! I think

he was wearing jeans and a T-shirt and maybe an MA1 jacket. All the time I knew Lee, I don’t think he wore anything worth more than £30 (K83), ever.”

At the end of the evening, Groves headed back to where McQueen lived in east London.

“He told me he had to get back to Chadwell Heath and I thought I’ve never been there, sounds fun. So we got to Liverpool Street station where we jumped the barriers and then the train ride went on for ever in the dark. At the other end there was a huge long walk to somewhere near Dagenham.

“I was starting to regret the whole thing, but Lee was just about to start on his next collection and he realised that I could sew and pattern cut. So he decided it might be good to have me around.

“It was an interesting time in British fashion. London Fashion Week had almost no one decent showing in it. Someone like Lee could put on a show for virtually no money and people would come.”

Some fashion journalists disliked the Highland Rape collection in March 1995, thinking it trashy and sensationalist. McQueen later claimed the title referred to England’s rape of Scotland, but by then the show had won him the publicity he had been seeking.

McQueen had grown up in Stratford in east London, long before its Olympics makeover. He left school at 16 with a single O-level in art. Two things changed him. First

came an apprenticeship in Savile Row, the London home of traditional men’s tailoring. He found it dull, but realised he might have talent as a cutter. Then he spent time in Milan with designer Romeo Gigli.

From McQueen’s mid-20s, his rise was extraordinary.

Film-maker John Maybury is known for biopics of Dylan Thomas and Francis Bacon. He can’t remember exactly where he first met McQueen.

“Once Lee became designer in chief in Paris for Givenchy [in 1996] he might be doing four collections a year. That’s asking an awful lot of any person, whatever the salary. And you can go out of fashion overnight.”

Some thought McQueen’s streetwise image sat oddly with a chic and established firm like Givenchy. But by the 1990s the economics of fashion were changing.

McQueen succeeded British designer John Galliano in Paris. Both men were usefully high-profile in an industry whose income depended now less on haute couture than on using well-known brands to market perfumes and accessories.

Maybury says when he worked on the videos for McQueen’s Irere collection in 2003, it was clear the pressure on him was non-stop.

“He was a fanatical worker. There were drugs around, but from what I saw I think that’s been overstated as part of Lee’s life.

“He was always interested in the film-making process and in the vis-

ual generally: I think Lee McQueen’s eye went beyond fashion in a narrow sense.

“Anyone who knew him will tell you he had an innate sense for shape and colour. If he’d lived, I think maybe he would have moved into different artistic areas.”

McQueen’s recent biographer, Andrew Wilson, became fascinated with him when he went to the show Voss in 2001.

“It was half-way to performance art: People call it the Asylum show. You had models like Kate Moss wrapped in bandages as if they were in some awful institution.

“At the end there’s a box and the sides come down and there’s an overweight naked woman with a gas mask and moths flying around her. It was an incredibly powerful and dark experience. McQueen didn’t censor his imagination.

“But at the same time he was a master cutter: He tailored superbly and the silhouettes he created will be classic a hundred years from now.”

McQueen killed himself at his London home in February 2010, a few days after the death of his beloved mother Joyce.

“He loved the fashion world but he also hated it. I think by the time he was 40 he wanted to leave fashion behind,” said Wilson. – BBC

Alexander McQueen’s designs were as intense and unique as the man himself

The accounting body of PNG

THE Papua New Guinea Association of Accountants (PNGAA) initially was incorporated in 1974 under the Associations Incorporation Act by a few practitioners aimed at fostering common understanding, relationship and standing in the fields of accounting and business advisory services in PNG. PNGAA on inception had no office of its own and all its matters were dealt with by the elected office bearers from their working offices at no costs to the association.

At that time the association could not afford to rent offices and employ paid employees given the membership numbers and income sources of the association.

Involvement in Academia

CPA PNG’s association with tertiary institutions in the country began in 2003 in response to the perceived need for the development of the accountancy profession. There have been frequent visits to the five universities in the country offering accounting education holding meetings with students and the introduction of the CPA PNG Academic Excellence Award for the fi nal year students every academic year.

Other tertiary institutions offering accounting education also received their share of attention all year round with similar awards

offered to boost academic excellence and professional competence.

One of the milestone achievements in this regard was the strategic alliance with the University of Papua New Guinea for the award of the joint MBA-CPA award. CPA PNG assesses on its professional units while UPNG actively involved in and has strong links with CPA Australia

for professional development Accountants.

Establishment of Professional Standards

The importance of conducting examinations as a means of determining eligibility for membership was adopted from other overseas models and was established by the early office bearers of CPA PNG. This practice has continued to

be a critical part of professional development for members. The rebranding of the qualification to CPA PNG has received greater acceptance as it is a status that is compatible with other similar professional bodies around the world.

As part of the ongoing process of encouraging members to maintain high ethical and professional standards, CPA PNG released the code of strengthened the link with the highly successful and recognized CPA qualification.

The change in name and structure aims to unequivocally establish the CPA as the prime accounting designation in PNG.

Achievements since 1974

Since its incorporation in 1974 there have been a number of developments within CPA PNG.

These include the membership to the Confederation of Asia Pacific Accountants (CAPA) in 1983, a close involvement in the development of the accountancy profession through continuing professional programs/conferences, the signing of the memorandum of understanding with CPA Australia paving the way for reciprocal accreditation and cross-crediting for professional program, the increase in membership and increased number of associate membership, the acquisition of office

space (ownership rights) with full time staff strength as compared to nothing at the time of inception, the increased attention accorded by the PNG Government through legislature and grants, the strategic alliance with the University of Papua New Guinea for the joint award of the Masters in Business Administration and CPA qualification, and the increased networking with stakeholders within the country and abroad.

In the areas of education and development of professional expertise in the country, CPA PNG has adopted a graduate entry policy for graduate membership, and development the Professional CPA program.

This policy entails graduate members upgrading to associate (fully pledged) membership by passing the professional programs. There are avenues available for non-graduates to gain membership under Accounting Technical status and then stream to the Professional Program. In recent times CPA PNG has conducted more review classes then ever at minimal costs offering members every chance not noly to pass professional programs but also imparting education to keep members abreast of the developments taking place in the accounting profession globally.

BUSY CHEF

A CHEF expertly carves meat for guests at a recent hotel function

GRADUATES AT FAIR

An Australian Government funded program managed by URS Australia Pty. Ltd. Rewarding Employment Opportunities to Support the ongoing Development of PNG

Strongim Pipol Strongim Nesen (SPSN) is an Australian Government funded program in partnership with the Government of Papua New Guinea. Its goal is “to enable civil society together with the state and others, to better meet the needs and priorities of men, women and children in communities across PNG”.

Applications are invited for the following positions based in Port Moresby;

COMPONENT COORDINATOR

Reporting to the Senior Management Team, the position is primarily responsible for the management of the functions and operations of components within Strongim Pipol Strongim Nesen (SPSN).

The Component Coordinator will be someone who can demonstrate

• Strong Leadership skills

• Strong Coordination and planning skills

• Strong, implementation and monitoring skills

• Strong Financial Management skills

• Experience in Capacity Building Programs

• Experience in Human Resource Management

• Experience in report preparation

The successful candidate must possess Tertiary qualification (preferred post graduate) in Education, Human Resource Development or relevant fields

GENDER EQUALITY, SOCIAL INCLUSION AND SAFE

GUARD COORDINATOR

Reporting to the Program Director, the position is primarily responsible for ensuring SPSN delivers relevant Gender Equality, Social Inclusion and Safeguard Action Plans and that all work place policy, practices and component activities support an integrated gender equality, social inclusion and child protection approach.

The Gender Equality, Social Inclusion and Safe Guard Coordinator will be someone who can demonstrate;

• Experience in Cross Cutting Issues and Safe Guard Awareness

• Experience in Gender mainstreaming and Child Protection

• Understanding of Democratic Governance

• Understanding of Community Development

• Strong skills in Training, Coaching and Mentoring of individuals and groups

The successful candidate must possesses Tertiary qualification in education or relevant field

COMMUNICATION OFFICER

Reporting to the Program Director, the position is primarily responsible for ensuring effective use of all media to disseminate SPSN information, messages and updates to all stakeholders across PNG, regionally and internationally. The Communication officer will be someone who can demonstrate;

• Strong Media and Publicity specialisation skills.

• Experience in websites

• Experience in Cross cutting issues and awareness.

• Understanding of Development assistance.

• Understanding of Democratic Governance.

• Experience in Gender mainstreaming

• Strong Administration skills.

The successful candidate must possesses Tertiary Qualification in Media, Communication or Journalism

PROJECT ACCOUNTANT

Reporting to the Finance Manager will strategically manage the Stronim Pipol Strongim Nesen (SPSN) Program accounts to meet financial, legislative, Australian Government DFAT and URS requirements for effective financial management. To advise the Finance Manager on all operational aspect of SPSN Finance.

The Project Accountant will be someone who can demonstrate

• Experience in Project Financial Management systems.

• Experience working within a large government or similarly complex organisation

• Budget Setting and Management.

• Experience in Fraud Prevention and Detection.

• Strategic networking skills

• Experience working in a culturally sensitive environment

• Strong report writing skills

• Good communication skills

The successful candidate must possess Tertiary Qualifications in Accounting/Commerce and must be a Certified Practising Accountant (CPA).

PROGRAM OFFICER

Reporting to the Deputy Program Director, the position is primarily responsible for overall support to project related activities.

The Program officer will be someone who can demonstrate;

• Strong Administration skills.

• Budget Setting and Management.

• Project Financial Management.

• Strong Monitoring and Evaluation skills

• Good communication skills.

The successful candidate must possess Tertiary Qualification.

CONTACT DETAILS

For further information and terms of reference of these positions, please contact, SPSN Human Resource Officer on telephone 323 5643

To apply:

Email: recruitment@spsnpng.com

Or Fax: 323 0520

Or Post Office: P O Box 378, Waigani, NCD Application should consist of a CV and a covering letter identifying applicant’s strengths and experience for the position

“We are a proud Equal Opportunity Employer and we Encourage Women to apply”

Applications close 4:30 pm 17 April 2015

GRADUATES, left, at a corporate booth get workplace information at a career fair.

From villager to degree holder

I WANT to share my educational background to encourage school-leavers, those who are struggling to make their dreams come true, and those who are studying, the helpless people and the ones who are already in the fi eld. I believe my experience will guide, strengthen, empower, touch and bless many souls. Below comes my story. Coming through the hard way to achieve your dream is a real challenge in life.

Life is exciting when you work hard to utilize your talents and gifts and that will stimulate you to do more in seeking new discoveries in life.

I want to share my educational background to give hope to the ones who are helpless and to encourage the ones who may be struggling in life. Some of you may be having difficulties in studies, may you be encouraged by my experiences. Those of you who have gone through the formal way of education was an easy journey. I completed my grade seven up to grade 12 through non-formal education, which was hard.

I was sent to Kombolopa high school to do grade seven but due to home sickness, I left school. I then decided to continue my studies with the College of Distance Education (CODE) when I was with the Holy Spirit Sisters in Rebiamul as a domestic girl.

You wouldn’t believe me if I say I did my grade seven to twelve through distance learning. That means I studied on my own without a teacher.

I want to thank Sister Victoria from the Holy Spirit Sisters for her assistance in my studies from grade seven and eight. Not forgetting, Sister Herman Burg, (who has gone for rest) from Young Christian (Y.C) code center in E.H.P. who was an angel to many young Papua New Guineans and I was one of those who did grade nine and ten under her care in 2000 and 2001. Through struggle and pain it will draw you close to God and you will truly know him. It’s a stepping stone to boost your spiritual life, so take and don’t ignore because it’s a blessing.

As I struggled through my studies my prayer life was consistent. One example I had was, a volunteer from overseas who took us in English taught us how to write letters. He told us to write any letters but, to apply the same format he taught. Other students wrote what they wanted but I didn’t know whom to write to. As a Catholic, I wrote a letter and addressed it to Mother Mary. On the subject part I requested money for my school fees. Then I asked her to deposit the money to my account and I enclosed the letter. All our letters were collected by the volunteer after class.

On the next day before we went out for lunch, the volunteer asked me to see him.

I got scared and worried, thinking that I made a mistake in my letter. But then he drew close to me and asked. “Do you need school fees?” I looked up to see him if I miss understood him. Then he asked me again, do you need school fee? I replied yes I do. Then he said, my wife and I read your letter and we decided to adopt you as our daughter. He added, we will meet all your school fees in any education level you pursue in life. Thus, he asked me to write what I needed, how much, and where to pursue my education. When I heard that I couldn’t belief my ears. I didn’t know what to say as I rose up to say thank you with my eyes fi lled with tears of joy. I found it hard to express but I knew it was from my father in heaven who answered my request through the prayer of mother Mary.

The next day I brought him the document containing what he asked for and the couple paid off my outstanding course fees for grade nine and ten.

After grade ten I got accepted in Kumin nursing training (C.H.W) in 2002. Then my

adopted parents paid all my fees to complete my training. I completed my training in 2004.

I got employed with Catholic Health Services of Mt. Hagen in 2004 after I graduated from the school of nursing. But I still had the desire to further my studies. Then in 2006 I got enrolled with Uni Tech Lae (DODL in Hagen Secondary) to do grade eleven and twelve. For my course fees, my lovely parents from overseas again sent money to complete my courses. I completed grade twelve in 2009.

Unbelievable, a CODE student can make it to the University if they mean business.

In 2012 I got accepted as a professional student under degree program at the University of Papua New Guinea. Many people at home did not belief when my name appeared on the acceptance list for UPNG intake for 2012`because they didn’t know that I was studying at home. -

During my fi rst year at the University, I was under self sponsor. I was the only student who came through the none formal way of education. But, I performed well and won government’s scholarship to continue while many lose government’s scholarship and got plunked.

In my second year, I scored very high GPA and also on government’s scholarship for 2014. But, it was my fi nal year since I was a professional student. I did it all and graduated with a degree in Social Work in 2014. During my graduation, I was the only one with the full traditional costume. The gown and the hood on top represented the degree that I achieved. That was the symbolic in reflecting the back ground of my education. From the none formal way of education to the Primer University of the Pacific.

Some people questioned why I wore Jiwaka’s Costume as I come from WHP? I had my reason to it. I belief as Iam a Papua New Guinean. Thus, I can wear any Papua New Guinean’s traditional costume. The Lord’s name was to be praised for all the achievements.

On the second day of the graduation I had to thank God in my little ways. Prior to that I had invitations from my friends’ brothers and sisters to celebrate my achievement with them in different ways but, I had to decline because I invited God in advance to attend my party to thank him. When God was present, another experience I had, which was the story of Jesus feeds five thousand with five bread and two fi sh fulfi lled that time. Nobody realized what had happened, only my sister and I because she served the food and I knew how many whole chicken I put apart from the food on the table. She was thinking, I brought in more chicken after the fi rst lot. But, not that, there was surplus after the distribution. Then we knew that it was a miracle.

With God, nothing is impossible; you can do unbelievable things because he is the source of everything.

When I recalled the miracle journey through my education life to my achievements the credit goes back to my mummy though she had gone for rest but she deserves it. Because she implanted the base line education in me.

The best mother I had in terms of disciplining and molding me with strong Christian principles.

My advice to you all the school drop outs, don’t look to negative side if you have no space in school. CODE or Matriculation is therefore you. You can do better than others when you commit yourself and aim for it.

To the working class people, remember, education is an ongoing process so you can always grab an additional paper on top of what you already have. Don’t sit and dream about it but, you start doing something.

CONTINUED PAGE 59

Achieving a dream

FROM PAGE 58

My advice to women fork in the country. Many times we feel hopeless and we don’t see the potentials that are within us. We become yoyos and childish at times when men take advantage and bully on us when we don’t have the guard to stand fi rm. We are easily moved by the luxury lives. But, we got to think, we are human beings just like men. But, the only difference is the reproductive organ. So why not we can make life attractive like men do so that we can be equally respected in our society.

Too many polygamies now a days is just because we don’t realize our potentials and values in lives. That’s why we got easily attracted to men who already had worked hard for it and we still their blessings.

To those of you are who are studying, please get your priorities right. Your education is your priority, and then other things will fall in line.

With God, through him, and in him, nothing is impossible. If I did it, you can do it too, so start doing it now.

Part of Community development and human development

In 2008 I got fi sh training course while I worked in Maria Kuin Banz in Jiwaka Province. I could not wait to start off with fish ponds. Thus, I encouraged the people in my community to dig fi sh ponds. I led by example, by involving the boys to dig up ten fi sh ponds fi lled with Talipia.

All my spare time after work and over the weekends I got busy with my fi sh ponds. The people did not belief me as a professional person got busy with the mud and fi ngerlings in the ponds when this was a part of male’s job. But, I knew what I was doing because it was my money garden. I started supplying the fi ngerlings to buyers when I got accepted in to the University of Papua New Guinea in 2012. Prior to that I made an arrangement with the trainers of the fi sh course program to conduct training in my community for a week. Unfortunately, the participants failed to attend the course and the trainers went back.

Not only that, I also made an arrangement with a trainer for the pig breeding course for the people too but, when they failed to take up the fi rst opportunity I did not want to grab other opportunities for them.

Apart from that I made an arrangement with Global TB outreach team in Hagen to reach out to my community for TB awareness. That was successful because it was the fi rst time of its kind in the community.

Also I involved the people in the community with the gutpela sindaun program initiated by myself because people are illiterates that we got to change their mind set for positive change. Every person is unique, equipped with talents and gifts from God. Thus, we have to make use of it.

My motive is to empower people to make changes in their lives. Not only telling the people but I live by example. Don’t sleep with your talents and gifts but start doing something worthy for your further, community and country as a whole.

JENNY in traditional dress with her degree on graduation day.

LAKE GENEVA’S CHANCE

Michael Hawkes has described luckless filly Lake Geneva as the equal of last year’s winner Mossfun before inviting critics to write off deposed favourite Headwater at their peril in an “open” Golden Slipper on Saturday. Despite Vancouver maintaining a stranglehold on Golden Slipper favouritism on Wednesday in spite of his bad draw, Hawkes Racing remains quietly confident about its chances of rewriting history in the world’s richest two-year-old 12 months after Mossfun’s success. Lake Geneva is seeking to become only the third maiden to salute in the Golden Slipper – and the first since Fairy Walk in 1971 – while Headwater has to turn the tables on Vancouver after a torrid run in the Todman Stakes. But it has done little to dampen the spirits of the father-and-sons training partnership, with Hawkes adamant Vancouver’s second-fromoutside barrier has thrown the $3.5 million scamper wide open.

World Ace the threat

Japanese raider capable of blitzing the $1 million group 1

NICK Hall can rely on the best two-year-old Mick Price has ever had as his Golden Slipper contender, but he has an even stronger word of warning for his George Ryder Stakes rivals after describing Japanese raider World Ace as capable of “blitzing” the $1 million group 1.

If any man will be hoping the foreign legion clean up Sydney’s autumn carnival spoils, it will be the Melbourne-based Hall, who flew north on Tuesday to further test drive his two Japanese mounts aiming towards The Championships.

And the first of those will be seen in the George Ryder Stakes when World Ace, which finished fourth behind the world’s best middle distance galloper Able Friend in the Hong Kong Mile last start, steps out at Rosehill on Saturday.

“After speaking to Mr Ikee who is our trainer and watching his replays we think he’ll probably

want to go a bit further than the 1500 [metres], but the quality of horse the (Japanese) are he might just blitz them anyway,” said Hall, who will also ride the highly-rated To The World in The BMW next weekend.

“I’m a lot more excited now (having ridden the horses than when being confirmed for the bookings).

“He (World Ace) had a little bit of trouble leaving the barriers and at this stage that’s my biggest concern.

“We’re coming back up here on Thursday morning and we’re going to sit him in the barriers and do a bit of practice, as well as having a bit of a feel so we know how to handle him.”

World Ace will line up alongside fellow Japanese raider Real Impact in the George Ryder, which contains no less than nine individual group 1 winners among its list of entries.

Cox Plate winner Adelaide is one

of those, but his participation in the race is considered unlikely despite pleasing English jockey Ryan Moore in a trackwork gallop on Tuesday. There was no such indecision across town at Canterbury with the Japanese contingent, which also includes Tommy Berry’s mount Tosen Stardom in the Ranvet Stakes, all pleasing before their weekend missions.

Hong Kong-based Dominant will also have his first Australian start in the Ranvet Stakes.

But while the internationals might merely be cast in a cameo role alongside the $3.5 million Golden Slipper, Hall was only too happy to take up his chances of an upset with Victorian Ready For Victory.

The colt has been restricted to just one start to date – the least inexperienced runner in the field – but remains rock solid as a $13 fourth pick with Ladbrokes for

Waterhouse: Barrier not a worry

GAI Waterhouse was busy telling everyone “it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish” in the Golden Slipper, but the relief of Godolphin racing manager Jason Walsh told a different story after Tuesday’s barrier draw.

Waterhouse has favourite Vancouver in Saturday’s $3.5 million Slipper at Rosehill, but by the time it was his turn to get a barrier only double-figure stalls were left. He got gate 18, not ideal for most with the exception of his trainer.

“It won’t stop the horse winning, he doesn’t know he has barrier 18,” Waterhouse said. “It will keep him out of the skirmish early on.

“From out there he can do what he likes — he can go forward or back. He can do anything.”

Waterhouse knows a bit about winning Golden Slippers as she has five in her trophy cabinet. But where they drew tells a tale. Her first winner, Ha Ha, jumped from 11 but from then on she was blessed with good draws — Dance Hero (2), Sebring (5), and her last two

winners, Pierro and Overreach, drew one. In fact, half the Golden Slipper winners have jumped from gate six or inside.

That explained the smile on Walsh’s face.

Given the job of choosing barriers for the John O’Shea-trained Haptic, Ottoman, Furnaces and Exosphere, Godolphin’s top chance, Walsh exceeded expectations. They came out in that order drawing three, eight, one and 10.

“In a Golden Slipper to have them all draw inside 10 is very pleasing,” he said.

It was a freakish draw as gates one to 10 were gone in the first dozen selections. By the time Exosphere’s marble was drawn only gates seven and 10 were left on the inside half of the field.

Walsh stepped forward and picked up 10, which will become eight if the emergencies don’t get a run.

“I was bit nervous when I was going to draw for what we think is our best chance, because you think we have to get a bad one,” Walsh said.

“That is the perfect draw for him. He is a big horse [and] that will give him his chance to get a bit of cover and come down the centre of the track late.”

Bookmakers still have Vancouver a $2.80 top pick, but Exosphere, which is the only other runner under $11 at $4.60, could challenge him for favouritism by the time they jump.

“It looked like Vancouver and Exosphere would dominate before the draw and with Vancouver drawn out and Exosphere drawn in the middle, it will mean they will be a lot closer together in betting,” TAB’s Glenn Munsie said. “They are the two, most punters are focused on.”

Waterhouse’s back-up team of unbeaten filly English and Magic Night Stakes winner Speak Fondly drew well in six and 12 respectively.

“I have the dominant colt and two beautiful fillies that have drawn very well for their racing styles. I couldn’t be happier with my team,” Waterhouse said.

the Golden Slipper after coming up with barrier nine. “In terms of my horse I’ve done a lot with him because we were aiming to enter him in the Blue Diamond, but he had a little setback and he had to be tipped out before coming back,” Hall said.

“I know him really, really well and he’s as good as a two-yearold I’ve ridden this season. I’ve been on a fair few of them ... that includes ones which didn’t make it to the racetrack. But I had a good handle on them because I was doing plenty of trackwork trying to find one.”

Price’s decision to head straight to the Golden Slipper with the son of More Than Ready raised eyebrows in some quarters, but Hall never questioned it.

“It’s all on the day with twoyear-olds,” he said. “Mick thinks it’s the best two-year-old he’s had, but generally speaking he doesn’t have a lot of them.”

JUST OVER THE MOON

Rod Northam revealed a change in approach to riding Odyssey Moon was a major catalyst for securing Ryan Moore to steer the trainer’s first Golden Slipper runner as the booking capped a dramatic day of scrambling for places in the $3.5 million feature on Saturday. Odyssey Moon’s owner Dr Edmund Bateman was one of three connections to fork out the $150,000 late entry fee on Monday, allaying weekend fears this year’s Golden Slipper wouldn’t reach a capacity field of 16. Gerald Ryan’s Fireworks and Nick Olive’s Black Opal runner-up Single Gaze will also squeeze their way into the field after not being among original entries. But it’s the coup of Northam and Dr Bateman to secure Moore, chasing his third-straight leg of the Australian grand slam after wins in the Cox Plate (Adelaide) and Melbourne Cup (Protectionist) this season, which was a major talking point in the Slipper lead-up. “I haven’t had a lot to do with him at all,” the Scone-based Northam joked.

Hallowed Crown has strong lead

HALLOWED Crown is a two-time group 1 winner with an imposing record of six wins from seven starts but rivals are lining up thinking they can get his measure in Saturday’s Rosehill Guineas.

The Street Sense colt’s nature is one of his biggest assets heading to the Doncaster Mile, where he is among the favourites and he can only be labelled “unassuming”.

It has led to him being underestimated and it even fooled champion jockey Hugh Bowman, who admitted he got under his guard at the beginning of his autumn campaign.

“When I trialled him at the start of autumn he was aimed up at the Apollo Stakes against the older horses and I thought he was just not ready for that sort of race,” Bowman said.

“Maybe I got him wrong, maybe he was ready for that because he just keeps doing it.

“That’s him, he does enough. He is an unassuming horse, if that is the right word. I don’t think anyone is underestimating what he can do now but maybe they are.”

Even with a Golden Rose and Randwick Guineas under his belt, Hallowed Crown was made equal favourite for the Rosehill Guineas when betting open with Sweynesse, a horse he beat in the Hobartville Stakes and Randwick Guineas during this preparation.

OMINOUS Warning - Jockey Nick Hall (above) says Japanese World Ace is a big threat to take the Golden Slipper.

Racing at Bendigo

The Big Dance eyeing pay day

MELBOURNE: The owners of The Big Dance could be in for a major pay day if she can make a winning debut at Bendigo on Saturday.

The $750 yearling purchase will be racing for a winner's prize of $150,000 plus another $30,000 in bonuses when she lines up in the VOBIS Gold Rush over 1000m.

Trained on the track by Danny Curran, The Big Dance has met with solid support in betting and has trimmed from $61 to $9.

Curran is under no illusion about the task the filly faces on Saturday but says she has shown promise in her jumpouts at Bendigo.

“We’re hopeful but when she’s done it, then I'll celebrate it,” Curran said.

Curran had hoped to buy a brother to The Big Dance at the Adelaide yearling sales earlier this month but the youngster sold for more than he expected.

“I went there thinking I might be able to get him for $10,000 but he went for $40,000,” Curran said.

“He was a nice type but so was she.”

Nine two-year-olds in Saturday’s field of 15 are first starters, including The Big Dance, and the six

Chile Express in the Golden Mile

MELBOURNE: It’s a long road trip from Cranbourne to Bendigo but it's one trainer Robbie Griffiths is happy to make.

Griffiths has a team of six horses heading on the threehour trek to the Victorian country track for Bendigo's metropolitan-standard meeting on Saturday.

“It’s a great track,” Griffiths said.

“It normally gives most horses a chance whether they are leaders or backmarkers.

At a glance

PAY DAY: The Big Dance looks set for a winning debut in Bendigo

TRAINER: The trainer is Danny Curran.

SUPPORT: There is big support for the horse with a prize money of $150,000 up for grabs.

horses with race experience bring some handy formlines to Bendigo.

Miss Gidget finished midfield in the Blue Diamond Stakes last start while Godolphin galloper Belhamage is a Moonee Valley winner who has been stakes placed behind Golden Slipper hopeful Haybah.

The Curran-trained Written Dash, a last-start $101 winner of the Group Three Typhoon Tracy Stakes at Moonee Valley, is down to run in the Bendigo Guineas (1400m) but Curran is unsure if she will take her place. The daughter of Written Tycoon has drawn the second widest barrier and Curran says the race is more like a Group Two contest than a Listed event.

Miss Gidget set to strike gold at Bendigo

MELBOURNE: The fatherand-daughter training team of Colin and Cindy Alderson hold hopes of a long-held plan being realised at Bendigo on Saturday.

They have targeted the VOBIS Gold Rush (1000m) with talented two-year-old Miss Gidget right from the time she made her debut.

Despite being a maiden, Miss Gidget heads to Saturday's event having contested Victoria's richest twoyear-old race.

The daughter on Gonski ran second to Fontiton in a Blue Diamond Prelude before finishing ninth to Pride Of Dubai in the Blue Diamond Stakes at Caulfield on February 28.

Cindy Alderson said the Blue Diamond had never

been seriously considered for Miss Gidget until her lead-up run in the Prelude.

With a winner's prize of $150,000 and bonuses of $30,000 on offer, Alderson said the Gold Rush was always Miss Gidget's target.

“When she ran so well in the Prelude we had to go to the Diamond but this was always the race that we thought would be suitable for her,” Alderson said.

Ben Melham takes the ride with Miss Gidget drawn barrier 11 in the 15-horse field in which nine of the runners will be facing the starter for the first time.

“There are never any easy races but this does look a bit easier than her last two,” Alderson said.

“Everyone likes going there and it’s reflected in the form on Saturday with lots of chances in every race.”

Griffiths will be represented by Chile Express in the Listed Golden Mile (1600m) and Nadeem Lass in the Bendigo Gold Bracelet (1400m) with Edgewood, Grane, Bella Capri and Lock And Loaded in minor races. A Sandown winner three starts back, Chile Express was a last-start second to Jimando in the Echuca Cup

on March 8. “It’s a tougher field than what he’s been running against,” Griffiths said.

“But he’s got barrier one and with the minimum weight and a cheap run he could put himself in the picture.” Griffiths said Nadeem Lass was a consistent mare that was finding it hard to break through for a win.

The mare has filled a place at her past two starts, the latest at Flemington in Group Three company, but she has just two wins from

31 runs. “I don’t know why she doesn’t have a better record as she tries so hard,” Griffiths said. Edgewood has an affinity for the Bendigo circuit where he has posted two of his three career wins while Bella Capri is also proven at the track. Grane will contest the TROA Handicap (1100m) having placed over 955m at his past two outings. Griffiths said the horse would appreciate the extra ground and rated him as the stable's leading hope.

MELBOURNE: Akavoroun has the chance to redeem himself as well as earn a trip to Sydney for The Championships with a better showing at Bendigo on Saturday.

Sent out favourite at Flemington over 1400m on March 7, Akavoroun left Ciaron Maher a mystified trainer with his fifth placing to Amorino.

But Akavoroun has since worked well and will line-up in the $150,000 Golden Mile (1600m).

Michelle Payne, who partners the gelding on Saturday, said Akavoroun wasn’t stretching out at his last start and Maher subsequently had the fiveyear-old checked out.

“We had a chiropractor go over him

but there wasn’t a whole lot there,” Maher said. “He galloped on the course proper on Tuesday and he seemed fine so it is still a bit of a mystery.”

Maher said Akavoroun could backup in the Doncaster Prelude (1500m) at Rosehill on Saturday week and then the Doncaster Mile (1600m) at Randwick on April 4 if he runs well at Bendigo. “I was looking at a 1500m race the week before the Doncaster with him but we'll just see how he goes on Saturday first,” Maher said.

Maher says Saturday’s 1600m journey will be a plus for Akavoroun with the gelding's last win coming over the trip at Flemington last July and in the spring he finished fourth

to Trust In A Gust in the Group One Toorak Handicap at Caulfield. Stablemate Marksmanship also tackles the Golden Mile and will be ridden by Daniel Moor. The imported galloper hasn‘t raced since finishing second to Caravan Rolls On in the Geelong Cup last October and is being aimed at the Warrnambool Cup in May before a possible trip to Queensland. Marksmanship has had two Cranbourne trials in preparation for his return and Maher said the 1600m trip first-up will suit.

“He’s come up well,” Maher said.

“It’s quite a strong race for a Listed race but he’s fit and well and he should be running on.”

Racing in Doomben

Hi Son aims for big step up in top showing

BRISBANE: Summer staying find Hi Son can earn himself a start in the Group Two Hollindale Stakes if he can race well at Doomben on Saturday.

Hi Son will be having his second run back from a spell in the Qld Accounting Group Handicap and faces a field of six opponents. The son of Husson has a good second-up record having won twice and been placed three times from five attempts.

Pop ‘N’ Scotch in time race

BRISBANE: Liam Birchley is in a race against time to get Pop `N’ Scotch fit to compete at The Championships in Sydney after a delayed start to the horse’s preparation.

Pop `N’ Scotch will step out in the Marsh Advantage Insurance Handicap (2020m) at Doomben on Saturday after he was well beaten over 1350m at his first start for the trainer last month.

The sprint race wasn’t in Birchley’s original plans but wet weather in Brisbane forced his hand.

“You can ignore his first-up run for us because we had him set for a 1600-metre race and it got washed out,” Birchley said.

“It put us behind and we had to start somewhere - the 1350 metres was really our only option. It was far too short for him.”

Originally raced by Patinack Farm, Pop `N’ Scotch was bought for $220,000 by clients of Birchley at a dispersal sale last year.

The horse has shown tremendous staying promise and ran second in the Queensland Cup last July in what was the best performance by a three-year-old in the 3200m race since Sunset Gem won it in 1970.

Britaila Kate has promise

BRISBANE: A return to her home state combined with some gear changes have hardy mare Britaila Kate poised to score back-to-back wins for the first time in her career.

Britaila Kate has been a great money-spinner for owner Marlene Cook with five wins and 15 placings from her 36 starts.

Hi Son won twice and was placed four times over middle distances during the summer and resumed with a good second at the Sunshine Coast over 1400m two weeks ago.

Trainer Tony Gollan was keen to restrict Hi Son to races around the 1600m to 1800m mark in the winter and hopes the gelding is up to the best company.

“Although he raced very well up to 2200 metres last campaign I have always thought he was a

Buffering injured

BRISBANE: Star sprinter

Buffering has suffered an injury at trackwork which could rule him out of the Brisbane winter carnival.

Trainer Rob Heathcote said he would not risk the horse and would only press on with winter plans if Buffering proved his fitness.

“I still have some hope that he will be ready for the BTC Cup on May 9 and then Doomben 10,000 two weeks later,” Heathcote said.

“I may be hopeful but we can't take chances with him. Any doubt at all and he won't be running this winter.”

The injury occurred when Buffering was working on the B grass at Doomben earlier this week and appeared to put his foot in a hole, spraining his off fore fetlock.

“It is a sprain and he will have intensive work done on him with

anti-inflammatory treatment, ice, water walking, and visits to the beach,” Heathcote said.

“After two weeks we should have the swelling down and hopefully be able to assess if there is any further damage to his leg.”

Heathcote said he was disappointed Buffering had not been allowed to work on the outside of the Doomben course proper.

“He is a multiple Group One winner and one of the major winter carnival drawcards,” he said.

“But these things happen all the time to horses and what is done is done and we can’t take anything back.” Buffering has won four Group One races and is Queensland's greatest prize money earner.

If he misses the winter races the horse is likely to return for another crack at the Melbourne spring carnival.

horse with a turn of foot who is suited in slightly shorter races,” Gollan said.”

Gollan believes the 1800m of the Hollindale Stakes on April 25 is ideal for Hi Son.

“I have a lot of time for this horse but we will have to see if he is up to the Group Two company,” Gollan said.

He said Saturday’s race and the Listed Tails Stakes over 1600m on April 11 would be the races

which would tell if Hi Son is up to Group company. “At this stage the Hollindale Stakes and then possibly even the Doomben Cup are our aims,” Gollan said. “But if he isn’t up to that there are a stack of races around 1600m for him such as the Wayne Wilson Memorial, the Spear Chief Stakes and Lord Mayors Cup.”

Apprentice Travis Wolfgram has retained the ride on Hi Son and will reduce his weight to 57kg.

Britaila Kate takes on a smart field in the SRT Handicap (1200m) at Doomben on Saturday and trainer Kelly Doughty is confident she will be competitive.

Doughty won four races with Britaila Kate before the Jet Spur mare was transferred to the Sydney stable of Chris Waller in 2014. She had 17 starts for Waller without winning but managed eight minor placings.

BEWHATYOUWANNABE on the outside in a recent race, is likely to feature in tomorrow’s classic race.

Medical staff begin mission

A TEAM of 20 Australian medical staff will start treating people injured by Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu’s capital of Port Vila today.

The group, from the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre, includes doctors, nurses, paramedics and logisticians.

Team leader Julian Meagher said the group was keen to start their work in Port Vila, where the main hospital was partly damaged

by the cyclone. “That’s going to be mainly, in the first instance, wounds caused by the cyclone, but with any humanitarian aid, they’re quite complex and they do move and shift, so another key focus for us will be monitoring for outbreaks of infectious disease in displaced people,” he said. At least 11 people have been killed in the disaster but aid agencies have warned that the death toll is likely to rise.

Acting head of the centre Nicholas Coatsworth says the medics are well equipped with ward capacity for up to 80 patients. “There’s a resuscitation room, there’s an emergency room, there’s primary care facilities,” he said.

“There’s all the things the Vanuatu government have asked of us and that we can provide to help rebuild that health system.”

The UN has joined the Government in declaring

that supply of food to people in remote areas of Vanuatu is now a real concern. Most residents in remote islands relied on subsistence gardens to survive, but those have been destroyed. It has become increasingly clear that the worst of the damage is on Tanna and Erromango islands.

Care Australia said in one village north of Tanna, not one building remained standing.

Vanuatu’s government

said planes had taken food, water and medical supplies to Tanna island, but getting aid to the more remote islands was still posing great difficulties.

Government spokesman Kiery Manesseh said many of his country’s displaced people facing severe food and water shortages would receive help.

“So far, we have managed to have people on the ground and have done assessments,” Mr Manesseh said.

“As of today, we will be distributing relief to all, or most of the areas that have been affected.”

The UN have also warned against Port Vila becoming a bottle neck and said it was important supplies reached beyond the capital as soon as possible.

Electricity and the water supply is up and running in Port Vila and communications are returning intermittently.

-ABC news

Aust officials

search for missing volunteers

AUSTRALIAN officials are hoping to make contact today with international volunteers who are missing in cyclone-hit Vanuatu.

The two groups from Lattitude Global Volunteering have not been heard from since Tropical Cyclone Pam struck the Pacific Island nation almost a week ago.

Consular officials and paramedics, equipped with satellite phones, have flown to the remote islands of Pentacost and Ambae.

Officials said there are 13 volunteers on Pentacost and six on Ambae.

Reports from assessment teams have so far reported no deaths or serious injuries from the two islands.

Officials are expected to report their findings later today.

Text messages received by the parents of one of the volunteers suggested they knew the cyclone was coming

and were preparing for the impact.

Communications have been cut to most parts of Vanuatu after the category 5 cyclone swept through the country on Friday night.

Officials have generally been relieved at the low death toll, which officially stands at 11.

Missing person posters for Zoe Marshall has been placed at the Red Cross office and National Disaster Management Office in Vanuatu’s capital, Port Vila.

The 18-year-old was one of the volunteers on Pentacost Island.

Some of the volunteers were staying at Aligu village, near Renbura on the north-east of Pentacost Island.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said they are checking on the well-being of around 100 Australian and Canadian citizens across Vanuatu. -ABC news

ZOE Marshall is one of the missing volunteer that had been volunteering on Pentecost Island. Picture: ABC

Cyclone damages school

AS Cyclone Pam ripped at the roof of Manua School, a group of men, women and children pulled desperately on electrical cable keeping them from harm.

In pitch darkness, the group rigged the ropes to the roof’s rafters so they could try to hold it down.

It was a move that probably saved them.

“When the gale-force wind came in we tried very hard to keep the roof hanging on the house,” teacher Cooper Henry said.

It was the last thing we could do to save our families.

“Every time when the cyclone was heaving the roof up we had to [pull on the ropes], I was the captain and would call out “pull!” and everyone would hang on to the rope, even the little kids who were still awake. We stopped them from sleeping because it’s not safe.”

Usually home during

Efate Island after cyclone Pam

JUST a few kilometres from the Vanuatu capital of Port Vila, power pylons lie strewn across the road like matchsticks.

The lines are no longer live - power is a scarcity still - but weaving between a kilometre stretch of the toppled infrastructure is a poignant example of how bad things are.

For the first time, it has been possible for media to drive around the main island of Efate, to see the damage caused by Cyclone Pam.

The going is difficult. Obstacles are everywhere, and while a crew has been

through and cut a single-lane path, it takes creative 4WD skills to make it through many areas.

Efate is big, almost 900 square kilometresn but the destruction caused by the cyclone is unrelenting.

Everywhere trees are destroyed. Spectacularly destroyed, bent in impossible angles and torn from their roots and flung across the road.

Huge waves have turned swathes of tarmac into beaches, with chunks washed away into the ocean.

A sealed main road runs

around the coast of Efate, linking villages such as Pang Pang, Epao and Tanoliu, But there’s not much left of those villages. There’s not much left of large parts of the roads, either.

It is clear the east and especially the north of the island bore the brunt of Pam’s fury. Most of the villages are largely deserted, people either staying with relatives in Port Vila whose houses survived, or sheltering in refugee centres. Those that remain simply sit amongst the ruin of their properties.

-Stuff news

the day to 314 children, the well-known school is now a scene of absolute destruction.

The school roofis gone.

School books, papers and toys are scattered in all directions, while the teachers and their families have nowhere to go. Their homes lie in piles of rubble, with some parts stuck up in trees.

School principal Melizabeth Uhi said she had no idea when, or if, the school would reopen, because most of the pupils’ families were homeless.

“It’s more than I can explain, it’s too much for us,” she said.

School principal Melizabeth Uhi said she had no idea when, or if, the school would reopen, because most of the pupils’ families were homeless.

“It’s more than I can explain, it’s too much for us,” she said.

-Stuff news

KIWI Patrick McGreal visits his property on the north east coast that was destroyed by the storm. Picture: Stuff.co.nz

TEACHER, surveying the damage at the Manua School. Pictures: Stuff.co.nz

VANUATU begins the slow recovery process after the devastation of cyclone Pam.

Aust Salvation Army fails

THE Australian Salvation Army failed to protect young boys in its care from sexual abuse, a report has found.

The report, by Australia’s Royal Commission, examined four homes run by the charity in New South Wales and Queensland.

It detailed brutal sexual and psychological abuse of young boys put in the care of the state at the four homes between 1965 and 1977.

Boys who attempted to

report abuse were punished or accused of lying, it said.

“The commissioners found that the Salvation Army did not protect the boys from sexual abuse in each of the four homes,” the report said.

“The commissioners also found that the Salvation Army received more than 100 claims of child sexual abuse concerning boys’ homes and in most cases, the boys who reported the abuse were punished, disbelieved, accused

of lying or no action was taken.”

The report described a “bear pit mentality” in the four homes, in which boys were subjected to “regular and excessive physical punishment” as well as psychological abuse.

Examples included a boy dangled head first into a well, another tied to a tree with a chain attached to a metal collar, and another forced to eat his own vomit.

Boys at the homes were also subjected to violent sexual abuse by staff and other boys. Documentary evidence examined by the inquiry suggested the abuse dated back to the 1940s.

Kate Eastman, counsel for the Salvation Army, apologised during the hearings for the “horrific experiences” suffered by victims.

“We acknowledge that it was a failure of the greatest magnitude,” she said, add-

ing that the Salvation Army had put in place safeguards to ensure children in its care “will never be placed in situations like this again”.

The inquiry was launched by former Prime Minister Julia Gillard in 2013. It has investigated reports of abuse in religious organisations and schools, as well as orphanages.

The report’s publication on Tuesday comes as Philip Wilson, the Roman Catholic

Archbishop of Adelaide, was charged with concealing child sexual abuse by a priest in the 1970s.

Bishop Wilson, who gave evidence to the Royal Commission inquiry, denies failing to report abuse carried out by Jim Fletcher, who died in prison in 2006 while serving time for raping an altar boy.

If found guilty, the archbishop could serve up to two years in jail. -BBC news

WA pregnant women to get whooping cough vaccines

WHOOPING cough vaccinations will soon be available to pregnant women in Western Australia in a bid to protect newborn babies from the disease after the death of a four-weekold child this week.

Health Minister Kim Hames has told State Parliament a new program that would give women in their third trimester of pregnancy free vaccines would be rolled out in as little as two weeks.

The move comes in the wake of the death of Riley Hughes, who this week became the first child in WA to die from whooping cough since 2011.

Babies cannot be given vaccinations to prevent the disease in the first few weeks of their life, but significant medical evidence suggests by vaccinating women late in their pregnancy infants could be protected.

Dr Hames said the state was still awaiting final Commonwealth approval, which had been brought forward to expedite the rollout of

the vaccines.

“They had been due to report at the end of June, but we have had conversations with them in the last few days and they have agreed to bring that forward to two weeks’ time,” he told Parliament.

“We are allocating funds ... and have approved that vaccination going ahead.

“We will wait just for this two weeks until we get the official tick by that Commonwealth group to say it’s perfectly safe for us to do so and then we’ll roll out that program straight away.”

Dr Hames said he was confident the vaccinations were effective.

“This has already been in use overseas, particularly in Europe,” he said.

“It gives very good resistance in the first six weeks after a baby is born.”

Dr Hames said it was still critical that all people had whooping cough vaccinations, especially those who were around infants. -ABC news

BABY receiving a vaccine. Picture:ABC

Double murder trial underway

A FORENSIC pathologist has told a double murder trial in Launceston that it was obvious both victims suffered multiple stab wounds, but he could not determine which wound had caused the death of one of the deceased.

Marco Daniel Rusterholz pleaded not guilty to the murders of Angela Hallam and Joshua Newman in Ravenswood in 2012. Forensic pathologist Dr Donald Ritchie told the jury he examined the victim’s bodies at the scene and conducted autopsies on both. He said he observed obvious injuries made by a sharp implement as well as injuries caused by fire and smoke. -ABC news

Catholic brother charged

SYDNEY: An 82-yearold Catholic brother has been charged with indecently assaulting a boy at a school in NSW’s northeast in the late 1960s.

Police allege the brother, who was a teacher at the Lismore school at the time, indecently assaulted a boy who was in Year Six.

The matter was report-

ed to police in February 2014, sparking an investigation.

Police on Wednesday morning arrested an 82-year-old man in Sydney and charged him with one count of indecent assault. He was granted conditional bail to appear at Lismore Local Court on April 22.

Police release photo of suspect

ACT Policing say they are closing in on a suspect in several shootings in Canberra’s south last month.

Police have released a facefit image of a man they are pursuing over the two shooting incidents in Chisholm and Gordon on February 8.

Police believe the man fired several shots at a parked car in Nina Jones Crescent, Chisholm, around 1:45am.

At 3:30am, police attended a unit com-

plex on Kellick Place, Gordon, after reports of gunfire, where police found bullet holes in a second parked vehicle.

Witnesses to the two incidents have described the man as being between 25 to 30 years of age, of a slim and fit build, with a shaved head and olive skin and being heavily tattooed.

Police are urging anyone will information on contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. -ABC news

JOSHUA Eric Newman and Angela Marie Hallam suffered multiple stab wounds. Picture: ABC

TUGGERANONG shootings suspect. -ABC

Australian among 17 killed in Tunisia museum attack

AN Australian man, who was among 19 people killed when gunmen stormed a famed museum in Tunisia’s capital, has been identified as Javier Camelo.

The dual AustralianColombian national and his mother were among 17 tourists killed at the Bardo National Museum near the Tunisian parliament.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop released a statement this morning, saying consular officials confirmed a dual Australian-Colombian citizen, who was a resident of New South Wales, was among the deceased.

Later, in Question Time, Mr Abbott said the Government’s “deepest sympathies and condolences go to his family and friends”.

“His family are being rendered every possible consular assistance,” Mr Abbott told Parliament.

“Plainly, it is an attack by Islamist extremists on a fledgling democracy, a

democracy which had thus far proven quite effective in resisting the kind of extremism characterised by Al Qaeda and its variants and the ISIL or death cult in the Middle East.”

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten described the attack as an act of murder.

Speaker Bronwyn Bishop visited the museum where the attack took place as a guest of the Tunisian Government last year.

“I was in that museum. I met with many of the new people forming that new democracy, the new constitution,” she said.

included five Japanese, four Italians, two Colombians, two Spaniards, two French, and one person from Poland.

He added that two gunmen had been killed, while a Tunisian national and a policeman were also reported dead.

The Colombian foreign ministry confirmed two nationals killed in the attack were a mother and her child who were enjoying a family holiday.

The ministry confirmed the father of the family survived.

Mr Essid said Kalashnikovwielding gunmen, dressed in military uniforms, opened fire on the tourists as they were disembarking from a bus and chased them inside the museum.

Tunisia’s prime minister, Habid Essid, said the other tourists who had been killed

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring revolutionary movement has struggled to tackle a rise in attacks from Islamist extremists. -ABC news

“The efforts and hopes and aspirations they have for all their people, men and women alike, and I just feel that the strength we can convey to them to say that we feel with them that they will persist in their ideals and will not be dissuaded by terrorism is something we all feel.”

TOURISTS are evacuated from the site of the Bardo Museum attack. Picture: ABC

Executions unlikely for weeks

Two Australian drug smugglers on death row in Indonesia may not be executed for some months, Indonesia’s vice-president Jusuf Kalla says.

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were listed for execution last month, but that has been delayed to allow the legal challenges of up to 11 death row inmates to finish.

The men’s lawyers are starting a court appeal against their execution today and others due to be executed

with them have separate challenges underway.

The Australians’ team will challenge the president’s blanket refusal to grant clemency for drug offenders.

The appeal was adjourned last week after lawyers for the president were denied authorisation to represent him because they turned up without complete paperwork.

Three judges will hear both sides put their up their best arguments but a result may not be delivered until a later

date. Mr Kalla conceded in an interview with the Reuters new agency that it could be “weeks or maybe months” until Indonesia’s courts decide on the last-minute appeals of the condemned inmates, who are mostly foreigners.

He said Indonesia was more cautious in handling the legal appeals following diplomatic efforts to save the prisoners.

“We will always hear and consider opinions not only from Australia but also France and Brazil,” Mr Ka-

lla said. “That is why we are very careful in ... following the process of the law.” He said: “We’re waiting for the decision of the courts,” adding it could take “weeks or maybe months”.

Last week, Indonesia’s attorney-general Muhammad Prasetyo told Indonesian journalists the next round of executions would be carried out once all of the condemned inmates had finished their appeals.

Chan and Sukumaran are

among a group of 11 drug offenders due to face the firing squad.

They were transferred from their Bali prison early this month to the Nusakambangan island prison off Java, in preparation for their execution.

Five foreigners were among six people executed last month, the first executions since president Joko Widodo took office in October.

Australia has made repeated calls for mercy on behalf

of Sukumaran, 33, and Chan, 31, but Mr Widodo has refused to budge.

He has turned down an offer of a one-off prisoner exchange and to have the Australian Government bear the cost of the convicts’ serving life sentences.

Four death row inmates have appealed against their sentences after Mr Widodo rejected their clemency pleas late last year. Mr Widodo has pledged no mercy for drug offenders. -ABC news

Charity stops man’s execution

A PAKISTANI man convicted of manslaughter as a minor and due to be hanged on Thursday has been granted a stay of execution, a charity fighting his case says.

Shafqat Hussain’s lawyers say he was 14 when found guilty of killing a child in 2004 and a confession was extracted by torture.

The authorities said they had no proof he was underage when convicted.

There is no official word from the government on the stay of execution.

Maya Foa, the director of the death penalty team with the charity Reprieve, said the news was “hugely welcome”.

She added: “It is, however, a shame that it took an outcry and the weight of civil society to push the [Interior] Minister into doing the right thing - just hours before Shafqat was due to be led to the gallows.”

Earlier, Shafqat Hussain’s mother made a plea for “a new life for her son” at a press conference. Makhani Begum, said her son was innocent.

“For God’s sake don’t deprive me of Shafqat, he is my last child,” she told the news conference in Muzaffarabad, in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, where the family comes from.

Shafqat Hussain was granted a stay of execution in January while the government investigated his case, but his lawyers and relatives say they were not contacted.

Reprieve says the latest stay of execution, which it says was confirmed by a government minister, was in order for officials to investigate whether Shafqat Hussain was underage when he was convicted.

His legal team said they have submitted documents proving that he was a minor, the BBC’s Shaimaa Khalil in Islamabad reports.

Pakistan lifted its moratorium on the death penalty in all capital cases earlier this month, after restarting executions for terrorism offences in the wake of the Taliban school massacre in Peshawar last December.

More than 150 people were killed in the attack, most of them children.

Human rights groups say Pakistan has the world’s largest number of death row inmates, with more than 8,000 people awaiting execution.

-BBC news

SHAFQAT Hussain’s lawyers say he was a minor at the time of his conviction. Picture: BBC

Thai ex-leader to stand trial

THAILAND’S former prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, has been ordered to stand trial on charges of negligence over a bungled rice subsidy scheme.

Yingluck will appear before a Bangkok supreme court on May 19 and if found guilty could be jailed for up to 10 years.

She was removed from power by the judiciary just prior to last May’s military coup and was banned from politics for five years as part of her retroactive impeachment in January.

The latest legal move against Yingluck — Thailand’s first female prime minister and sister of fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra — could spell the end of her family’s political dominance.

The Shinawatras, or parties allied to them, have won every Thai election since 2001.

“The panel [of judges] has decided that this case falls within our authority ... we accept this case,” said judge Veeraphol Tangsuwan at Bangkok’s supreme court.

The attorney-general filed criminal charges against Yingluck in February, accusing her of dereliction of duty in relation to the economically disastrous rice scheme, which paid farmers in the rural Shinawatra heartland twice the market rate for their crops.

The program cost billions of dollars and inspired the protests that eventu-

ally felled Yingluck’s elected government and led to the military coup.

Yingluck did not attend the court on Thursday but would be legally obliged to attend the first hearing in May.

The army takeover last year was the latest twist in Thailand’s turbulent political landscape, at the heart of which sits Thaksin, who was toppled by a coup in 2006 and now lived in self-imposed exile to avoid jail on a corruption charge.

Yet his influence persists in Thai politics, with Shinawatra-allied parties drawing the loyalty of the rural north as well as urban working-class voters for their populist policies.

But Thaksin was loathed by much of the country’s royalist elite, which is backed by parts of the military and judiciary, and experts said the impeachment and charges against Yingluck were the latest attempt to extinguish the family’s political prowess.

-ABC news

Yingluck Shinawatra

Solar plane heads to Myanmar

SOLAR Impulse is on its way from Varanasi in India to Mandalay in Myanmar (Burma).

The solar-powered plane is currently flying the fourth leg in its historic bid to fly around the world powered only by the Sun’s rays.

Project chairman Bertrand Piccard has assumed the piloting duties, taking over from CEO Andre Borschberg, who flew leg three into Varanasi from Ahmedabad on Wednesday.

Thursday’s trip is about 1,400km.

Piccard took off in darkness

from Varanasi international airport at 05:22 local time (23:52 GMT). The route takes the plane out over the Bay of Bengal. The journey is expected to last about 20 hours.

The two pilots are taking it in turns to guide Solar Impulse on its circumnavigation of the globe.

So far, the pair have covered about 3,000km since beginning their adventure in Abu Dhabi on 9 March.

It will likely be another five months before they return to the United Arab Emirates, having crossed both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in

the process. Thursday’s leg has some tricky conditions to negotiate.

There are some difficult winds at high altitude. There is also a large mountain range that must be crossed about two hours before landing in Mandalay. The intention is for Solar Impulse to clear these peaks before sunset so that it can then get a clean descent towards the Myanmar city in the dark. The Solar Impulse project has already set plenty of world records, including the greatest distance covered in a single solar-powered flight. -BBC news

AirAsia calls off search

INDONESIAN search and rescue teams are ending the hunt for victims of last year’s AirAsia plane crash, an official says, with 56 people still unaccounted for.

Flight QZ8501 went down in stormy weather during what was supposed to be a short trip from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore on December 28, killing all 162 people on board.

The crash of the Airbus A320-200 into the Java Sea sparked a huge international hunt, with ships and aircraft from several nations scouring the sea for the plane wreckage and the victims.

The search was scaled back dramatically in recent weeks, with foreign vessels withdrawing as well as the Indonesian military, which had provided the bulk of personnel and equipment.

Indonesia’s civilian search and rescue agency had continued the hunt, but on a smaller scale and their teams were only occasionally finding more bodies and wreckage.

S.B. Supriyadi, the search agency official coordinating the effort, said the search would “end completely” on Tuesday and the vessels still involved would pull out.

“All four ships will return to Jakarta tomorrow (Wednesday) morning,” he said.

The total number of victims found stood at 106, he said.

Search teams last found more bodies on Saturday, when three were discovered under some wreckage, he added.

The last major part of the fuselage that could be recovered was pulled from the sea last month.

The decision to end the hunt came after AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes signalled last week that operations were drawing to a close.

The chief of the Malaysian low-cost airline said the operation had been “successful” but added it could not “go on indefinitely”.

“There is a time period and we’ve agreed with the families that this is obviously not something that can go on indefinitely,” he said.

“But it’s important for us that the families agreed on this and that’s why I give them credit that they didn’t keep insisting that we go on forever.”

The Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee has so far shed little light on what caused the flight to crash, or what occurred in the moments before the tragedy. -ABC news

Take off: Bertrand Piccard took the controls for the fourth leg from Varanasi to Mandalay.

Picture: BBC

INDONESIAN search and rescue teams have ended their search for more victims of AirAsia flight QZ8501. Picture: ABC/AFP

Schoolgirl tied to motorcycle

POLICE in India have charged a man who took his eight-year-old daughter to school roped to his motorcycle.

The 40-year-old was arrested after local newspapers in Uttar Pradesh state published photos taken by passers-by. He has now been freed on bail.

Onlookers accuse the man of cruelty – he says his daughter had an exam and was reluctant to go to school.

The incident comes at a time when the prime minister has launched a huge campaign to educate girls in India.

It took place in a village in the district of Mathura on Friday.

The man, a father of two sons and three daughters, works as a security guard at a private school

Police say he tried to persuade the girl, his youngest child, to go to school, particularly since she had a test to write.

The child was promised sweets and gifts, but when she refused to relent, her angry father tied her to the back of his bike with ropes and took her to school.

He has been charged with breach of peace, Mathura superintendent of police Shailesh Pandey told the BBC.

The man spent a day in the cells but still believes he did the right thing.

“My daughter will not die if I take her to school. But she will surely die if she does not study,” he told the Times of India.

India has a female literacy rate of 64

percent, compared with 81 percent for men. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently launched a campaign asking parents to educate their girls.

Campaigners say going to school is still a distant dream for many girls, especially in rural India, and that many parents think it is not necessary to educate their daughters. -BBC news

THE man was arrested after being photographed by passers-by. Picture: BBC

Billionaires launch anti-tobacco fund

BILLIONAIRE philanthropists Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates have launched a joint fund to help developing countries pass tobacco-control laws in their legal battle with industry giants.

The Anti-Tobacco Trade Litigation Fund, backed by Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, aims “to combat the tobacco industry’s use of international trade agreements to threaten and prevent countries from passing strong tobacco-control laws,” its creators said.

“We are at a critical moment in the global effort to reduce tobacco use, because the significant gains we have seen are at risk of being undermined by the tobacco industry’s use of trade agreements and litigation,” said Mr Bloomberg, a former New York mayor.

“We will stand with nations as they work to protect their populations against the deadly health effects of tobacco use.”

As part of the 16th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Abu Dhabi, Mr

Bloomberg granted governments and NGOs in Brazil, Nepal, Philippines, Russia, Ukraine and Uruguay his Philanthropies Awards for Global Tobacco Control for “significant strides” they had made in implementing tobacco control policies.

Uruguay was the first country in Latin America to ban smoking in public spaces, a measure it enacted in 2006.

Cigarette packs carry graphic pictures of cancer patients to warn smokers of the dangers, tobacco firms are forbidden from using market-

ing terms such as “light” or “mild,” and cigarette ads are banned from television, radio and newspapers.

The crackdown prompted industry giant Philip Morris to hit back by suing Uruguay for $25 million at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in 2010, alleging that the country had violated treaties by devaluing its trademarks and investments.

Several other countries have been threatened by similar lawsuits from big tobacco companies.

“Country leaders who are trying to protect their citizens from the harms of tobacco should not be deterred by threats of costly legal challenges from huge tobacco companies,” Mr Gates said.

“Australia won its first case, which sends a strong message. But smaller, developing countries don’t have the same resources. That’s why we are supporting the Anti-Tobacco Trade Litigation Fund with Bloomberg Philanthropies,” said the Microsoft co-founder, in a televised statement during the awards ceremony.

Among its several means of support, the fund will offer “technical assistance in legislative drafting and documentation to avoid legal challenges and potential trade disputes from the passage of tobacco-control laws,” its founders said.

The fund will support global tobacco-control efforts, coordinate efforts in fighting the industry and offer low- and medium-income countries financial support and access to high quality legal assistance.

-ABC news

Alba backs Venezuela over US spat

MEMBERS of the Alba regional group expressed their support for Venezuela on Tuesday in the face of increasing tensions between the US and Venezuela.

At an emergency summit, Latin American leftwing leaders urged the US to repeal an executive order which declared Venezuela a threat to the national security of the US.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro stressed his country was no threat.

The two countries have been trading barbs for months.

Tension shot up after the US published an executive order on 9 March announcing sanctions on seven Venezuelan officials suspected by the US of committing human rights abuses.

In the order, US President Barack Obama stated that the situation in Venezuela, including “the government’s erosion of human rights guarantees (...) constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States”.

The wording of the order caused outrage not only with Venezuelan government officials, but also among its regional allies.

“Venezuela has no plans, did not have, nor will it ever have plans to attack the United States or hurt anyone,” Mr Maduro said at the Alba summit in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas.

He received strong backing from the Cuban leader, Raul Castro.

Mr Castro, who announced a rapprochement between his government and that of the US in December after decades of animosity, said that “the US needs to understand once and for all that it cannot seduce or buy Cuba, just as it cannot intimidate Venezuela”.

“Our unity is indestructible,” he added. -BBC

Blood, DNA used in trial

BOSTON: Prosecutors have presented DNA and blood to try showing that Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother both played prominent roles in the 2013 attacks and the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer days later.

A DNA expert has testified that the blood of Officer Sean Collier appeared on white gloves found in Tsarnaev’s car.

Jennifer Montgomery, a DNA analyst with the state police crime lab, said Collier’s blood was on a pair of gloves found near the accelerator and driver’s seat of Tsarnaev’s Honda Civic. Prosecutors have said the brothers fled the scene of Collier’s shooting in the vehicle.

But during cross-examination, Tsarnaev’s lawyers established that none of the blood found on the sweatshirt Dzhokhar wore that night was Collier’s. The analyst said it was all Dzhokhar’s blood.

An MIT graduate student testified earlier that he saw Tsarnaev leaning into Collier’s cruiser the night he was killed. Collier was shot six times, including three times in the head at close range. Tsarnaev’s lawyers apparently were trying to suggest that he would have had Collier’s blood on his sweatshirt if he had fired the gun.

-AAP news

Tunisia in war against terror

TUNISIA’S president has vowed to fight terrorism “without mercy”, following a gun attack on the Bardo Museum in the capital Tunis that killed 19 people.

Seventeen tourists were killed in the attack, including visitors from Japan, Italy, Colombia, Australia, France, Poland and Spain, officials said.

Two Tunisians, one a police officer, were also killed in Wednesday’s attack.

Security forces have killed two gunmen but are continuing the search for accomplices.

Officials say that more than 40 people, including tourists and Tunisians, were injured.

President Beji Caid Essebsi said the country was “in a war with terror”.

“These monstrous minorities do not frighten us,” he said in remarks broadcast on national TV. “We will resist them until the deepest end without mercy.

“Democracy will win and it will survive.”

Prime Minister Habib Essid said: “It is a critical moment in our history, and a defining moment for our future.”

At the time of the attack, deputies in the neighbouring parliamentary building were discussing anti-terrorism legislation.

Parliament was evacuated, but later reconvened for an extraordinary session in the evening.

Many Tunisians took to the streets of central Tunis to protest against the attack, waving flags and lighting candles outside the museum.

World leaders condemned the attack and expressed their support for Tunisia’s counter-terrorism efforts.

The UN Security Council issued a statement saying no terrorist action could reverse Tunisia’s path towards democracy. The statement offered condolences to those affected by the attack, and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

Meanwhile, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the US would “continue to stand with our Tunisian partners against terrorist violence”.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini offered her condolences (in French) to the victims’ families, and said the EU would “fully support Tunisia in the fight against terrorism”.

The attack is a huge blow for Tunisia’s tourism industry and its government, which only emerged at the end of a long political transition several months ago, the BBC’s Arab affairs editor Sebastian Usher says.

Islamist militants have tried to derail the democratic transition, which, although fragile, remains the most positive result of the Arab Spring in the Middle East, our correspondent adds. Tourism is a key sector of Tunisia’s economy, with large numbers of Europeans visiting the country’s resorts. -BBC news

US concern over Israel poll rhetoric

THE White House has condemned what it called “divisive rhetoric” in the Israeli election, won by Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.

The US, EU and UN have also urged him to continue with the two-state solution to the Palestinian issue.

During campaigning, Mr Netanyahu said he would not allow the creation of a Palestinian state if re-elected.

He aims to build a new coalition government within two to three weeks, his party says.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said: “It has been the policy of the United States for more than 20 years that a two-state solution is the goal of resolving the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians.”

The US would “re-evaluate our approach” in the wake of Mr Netanyahu’s comments ruling out a Palestinian state, he said.

On a warning from Mr Netanyahu that his opponents were bussing ArabIsraeli voters to polling stations, he said: “Rhetoric that seeks to marginalise one segment of their population is deeply concerning and it is divisive,

and I can tell you that these are views the administration intends to communicate directly to the Israelis.”

Mr Earnest added that President Barack Obama was yet to congratulate Mr Netanyahu on his win but would do so in the coming days once he had been directed to form a government, as in previous elections.

UN spokeswoman Farhan Haq called on the new Israeli government to negotiate a peace that would create “a viable Palestinian state”.

The EU foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, congratulated Mr Netanyahu on his win and called for the re-launch of the Israel-Palestinian peace process.

Talks have been on hold since the last round collapsed a year ago.

The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, said he would work with any Israeli government that accepts the two-state solution, without which, he said, peace negotiations stood “no chance”. Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said it was irrelevant who won the Israeli elections. -BBC

Two killed in shooting

TWO men have been killed and up to 15 injured in a shooting in a restaurant in the south-western Swedish city of Gothenburg, police say.

They say automatic weapons - believed to be Kalashnikov assault rifles - were used in the attack late on Wednesday.

The men who died were between 20 and 25, police said.

Police spokeswoman Ulla Brehm was quoted as saying the shooting could have been gang-related.

One witness told Sweden’s SVT broadcaster that two men entered the restaurant and opened fire.

“I didn’t have a chance to think about what happened. Then I saw that my friend was bleeding. I tried to stop the bleeding as well as I could with my hand,’’ said the witness, who did not give his name.

The attack happened as customers were watching a football game.

The gunmen are believed to have fled.

The police sealed off the area and launched a murder investigation.

On 30 January, a man was wounded in a shooting in the square outside the restaurant but it is not clear whether the shootings are linked.

Gun violence is not uncommon in Sweden’s major cities, though shootings in public places with multiple victims are rare.

Putin admits Crimea sanctions damge

ON the anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged the harm caused by Western sanctions.

He said the measures, imposed on individuals and key economic sectors, were “not fatal, but naturally damage our ongoing work,” Interfax reported.

Thousands of Russians gathered for celebrations outside the Kremlin.

The future of the sanctions is set to be discussed by EU leaders this week.

European Council President Donald Tusk will push for the measures to be linked explicitly to full implementation of the Ukraine ceasefire deal agreed in Minsk, Belarus, last month, a senior EU official has told the BBC.

Mr Tusk wants the sanctions maintained until the end of the year, when Ukraine is supposed to regain control of its eastern border from proRussian rebels under the truce conditions.

Crimea was taken over shortly after months of protests had led to the downfall of Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych.

Within weeks, pro-Russian rebels had taken over cities in eastern Ukraine sparking a conflict with Ukrainian armed forces that has led to more than 6,000 deaths and the displacement of some 1.1 million people, according to the UN. -BBC news

Riot targets new ECB office

DOZENS of people have been hurt and some 350 people arrested as anti-austerity demonstrators clashed with police in the German city of Frankfurt.

Police cars were set alight and stones were thrown in a protest against the opening of a new base for the European Central Bank (ECB).

Violence broke out close to the city’s Alte Oper concert hall hours before the ECB building’s official opening.

“Blockupy” activists are expected to attend a rally later on Wednesday.

In earlier disturbances, police in riot gear used water cannon

to clear hundreds of anti-capitalist protesters from the streets around the new ECB headquarters. Organisers were bringing a left-wing alliance of protesters from across Germany and the rest of Europe to voice their anger at the ECB’s role in austerity measures in EU member states, most recently Greece.

The bank, in charge of managing the euro, is also responsible for framing eurozone policy and, along with the IMF and European Commission is part of a troika which has set conditions for bailouts in Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Cyprus.

A spokesman for the Blockupy

movement said the troika was responsible for austerity measures which have pushed many into poverty.

Police set up a cordon of barbed wire outside the bank’s new 185m (600ft) double-tower skyscraper, next to the River Main. But hopes of a peaceful rally were dashed as clashes began early on Wednesday.

Tyres and rubbish bins were set alight and police responded with water cannon as firefighters complained they were unable to get to the fires to put them out. One fire engine appeared to have had its windscreen broken.

-BBC news

RUBBISH bins were set alight some distance from the new ECB building (background). Picture: BBC

Complete the grid so that every row, column and 2x3 box contains every digit from 1 to 6 inclusive

Solution to puzzle SL0876

stars

March 20 - April 19

Some friendships and relationships are for life. Others may be more intense but burn out as swiftly as they appear. This is what you’re experiencing now. If you feel you must battle to keep these going, do. But bear in mind, your efforts would probably be better focused on other pursuits.

April 20 - May 19

There are many varieties of refusals. For somebody who values graciousness, you’re an expert at disentangling yourself from undesirable situations without others even realising it’s happened. Now, however, you must be nothing short of blunt. That means saying a firm ‘no’. Any less, and there’ll be serious complications.

May 21 - June 20

Sudden changes can be unsettling. But those being triggered by the current eclipsed New Moon are much needed breakthroughs, although in disguise. By that is meant, you sense their promise but are short of the solid facts certain individuals require. Politely but firmly ignore their demands. Instead, trust your instincts.

June 21 - July 21

Living with uncertainties isn’t easy for you, as a Cancerian. Obviously, you’d prefer to put certain practical or financial concerns to rest now. But you have the impression a potentially profitable ideas or offer is about to come your way, and within days. The stars agree. It’s coming and it’s worth waiting for.

July 22 - August 22

Progress doesn’t always mean giving up familiar elements of your life. At the moment, however, you’ll discover that certain activities and even alliances that once meant a great deal no longer do. Once you let go, in fact, you’ll wonder why you battled, for so long, to keep them in your life.

August 23 - September 22

You don’t think of yourself as being a creature of habit. But in certain activities, you are exactly that. This streamlines things, allowing you to get more done swiftly. Or that was once the case. Your circumstances have changed and so, too, must many of these longstanding habits.

September 23 - October 22

Sooner or later you’ll have to address an increasingly worrying issue. This involves several close relationships, which is the problem. You fear that in valuing one over the other, you’ll cause upset or hurt. Bizarre as this seems, discuss exactly that. Others will be more receptive than you’d conceived possible.

October 23 - November 22

Saying farewell to elements of the past seems a defeat. True, you’re conscious that these have outlived their time. Still, you hope they can live on in some form. They can, in your memory and, perhaps, in your heart. Continue to focus on these and you risk ignoring other more timely alliances.

November 23 - December 22

Don’t be surprised if you discover that certain individuals have been undertaking suspicious activities. This doesn’t mean they’re up to no good. They’re probably not. What it does suggest, however, that the current somewhat paranoid mood, spurred by challenging aspects involving Pluto, could mean suddenly anybody seems suspect, including you.

December 21 - January 19

Usually arguments are a waste of time. However, having verbal fisticuffs with somebody you respect or who’s better informed than you are can be amazingly educational. If you haven’t already recognised this, you’re about to. State your case. But even more important, ensure you do a lot of listening.

January 20 - February 17

It’s no fun watching arrangements to which you’ve given considerable time and consideration, and which hold great promise, vanish - suddenly. Things were different when you first began thinking about these, and since then both circumstance and your own thinking and priorities have changed. So, too, must these plans.

February 18 - March 19

A lively exchange of ideas is one thing. But the rather heated exchanges that are arise during periods of intense, if not stressful, change are another matter. Sometimes others get wound up because they’re anxious and can get become aggressive. If so, forget about reasoning with them. Simply change the subject.

Barca stuns Man City

Advances into finals of Champions League

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

AN incredible performance from Joe Hart wasn’t enough to prevent Barcelona cruising into the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the eighth consecutive season with a 1-0 win over Manchester City on Wednesday to seal a 3-1 aggregate victory.

Ivan Rakitic scored the only goal of the night after half an hour as he lofted home from a majestic Lionel Messi pass.

The English champions had their chances in the second half, but any hopes of an historic comeback were ended when MarcAndre ter Stegen produced a stunning penalty save from Sergio Aguero 12 minutes from time.

However, it was his opposite number who was the star of the show as Hart time and again prevented Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez from piling on more agony for City.

Barca will now join La Liga rivals Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid in Friday’s draw for the last eight.

The Catalans face Real in a potentially decisive clash in the Spanish title race on Sunday, but Luis Enrique’s men showed their minds were on the job in hand from the off and should have been ahead after just six minutes.

Dani Alves robbed a sleeping Vincent Kompany on

Rebels flyhalf replaced

the edge of his own box and fed Neymar, who had started to wheel away in celebration before his shot come back off the inside of the post and rebounded to safety.

Hart then produced the first in a string of fine saves to turn behind a fierce drive from Messi, but there was some encouragement for City in the opening quarter, too, as Alves did just enough to deny James Milner a clear run on goal from Yaya Toure’s dangerous low cross.

Barca did finally make the breakthrough on the half hour as Messi mesmerised a series of City defenders before lifting a cross into the path of Rakitic, who controlled the ball on his chest before lofting past Hart to register his first Champions League goal.

Messi nearly had another brilliant assist moments later when he fed Neymar, but the Brazilian was too unselfish and his cross was nearly deflected into his own net by Bacary Sagna.

Suarez was then inches away from putting the tie beyond all doubt as he latched on to Neymar’s through ball and saw his flick past Hart trickle on to the base of the post a minute before the break.

Barca continued to press early in the second period as Hart was forced into saves from Jordi Alba and Messi.

Pakistan’s Shah is Australia’s arch nemesis

CRICKET WORLD CUP

YOUNUS Khan appears unlikely to reclaim his position for Pakistan’s World Cup quarter-final against Australia. But a teammate who also thrived in the Test series against Australia late last year, leg-spinner Yasir Shah (pictured right), is in strong contention to play.

The four-man pace attack of Wahab Riaz, Sohail Khan, Rahat Ali and Ehsan Adil that served Pakistan so well on Sunday against Ireland would have been split had lead paceman Mohammad Irfan been fit to return at Adelaide Oval on Friday.

While the tournament-ending pelvic stress fracture to Irfan ended that possibility, coach Waqar

Younis confirmed one of the four

could go if selectors plump for Shah, who claimed 13 wickets in the two-Test series in the United Arab Emirates in which they smashed Australia. “It’s not an easy one. We haven’t decided anything yet,” Waqar said on Wednesday, after the team trained at Adelaide Oval.

“We’re very pleased with the fast bowlers, with the way they’ve bowled in this tournament. It’s very heartening to see the whole bunch is putting together a good show and bowling quite nicely.

“It’s not decided yet, but Yasir Shah’s issue is being discussed. We’re going to really watch it closely and see what happens in the next

Sharma’s ton puts India in Cup semis

MELBOURNE: A sterling century from Rohit Sharma powered India into next week’s Cricket World Cup semi-final at the SCG, where they will meet Australia or Pakistan.

Sharma's knock of 137 lifted the defending champions to a total of 6-302 in yesterday’s quarterfinal against Bangladesh at the MCG.

No side has successfully chased down more than 295 in a one-day international at the venue.

Mahmudullah, having scored 344 runs in the pool stage — more than any Indian batsman, was the underdogs' best hope of setting a new mark in front of a crowd of 51,552. But the right-hander was out pulling in the 17th over, with Shikhar Dhawan successfully juggling a catch on the rope to reduce Bangladesh to 3-73. The Tigers were

never in the contest from that point on, eventually falling to a 109-run loss when they were rolled for 193 after 45 overs.

It didn’t look quite so easy for MS Dhoni’s men when they crumbled to 3-115, with Dhawan, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane back in the sheds. However, Sharma formed a 122-run stand with Suresh Raina to steady India's cause.

“It was important for me to stay ... we just wanted to take our time and play our game,” Sharma said.

The opener kept the scoreboard ticking over with ones and twos then lashed out late in a masterful maiden World Cup ton, while Raina found the rope with ease in a quickfire 65. Both men enjoyed fortunate reprieves.

day or so, and look at the pitch also, if it’s conducive for the spinners.”

Pakistan’s main pace threat on Friday is expected to be Riaz. Waqar said the left-armer’s success in the tournament - he has 14 wickets at an average of 22.43 - was because he sat comfortably among Mitch Starc, Mitch Johnson and Adam Milne for express pace.

When Pakistan dropped Younus for Sunday’s match, captain Misbahul-Haq, also a selector for this tour, said it was partly because replacement Haris Sohail was able to bowl. Waqar reiterated the benefit of the 26-year-old being able to bowl leftarm finger spin.

JACK Debreczeni has failed in his bid to recover from knee injury and has been replaced in Melbourne’s team to face Johannesburg Lions by Jonah Placid. Placid, 19, will make his Super Rugby debut tomorrow night after switching from Queensland Reds at the end of last season.

An Australian schoolboys and under-20s representative, Placid will start at fullback. In-form Mike Harris will switch to flyhalf.

Debreczeni’s loss is the only change to the Melbourne team which toppled Western Force 21-17 in Perth last week.

Utility forward Lopeti Timani passed fitness at yesterday’s captains run.

Melbourne is bidding to end a six-match losing streak at AAMI Park and to win successive games for the first time since 2013.

The Rebels have not won at home since downing the Force there in round 10 in April. Lions’ coach Johan Ackermann has named Springbok Elton Jantjies starting at inside centre.

In other changes, Schalk van der Merwe, Armand van der Merwe and Ruan Dreyer will make up the front row.

Robert Kruger will start at lock, while Derick Minnie has also been promoted to the starting line-up at flank.

Crows told to earn spot

ADELAIDE coach Phil Walsh has raised the stakes for Saturday’s mini-Showdown against Port Adelaide, putting all but two of his players on notice and demanding improved skills from his team. Walsh has declared only dual All-Australian Patrick Dangerfield and star goalsneak Eddie Betts have cemented their spots in his round one side and that “the rest of them need to play well this week’’. He also wants better disposal efficiency against the Power after Crows butchered the ball in their NAB Challenge defeat to Geelong last week.

JOE Hart makes a stunning save against Lionel Messi.

SUPER RUGBY

Bulldogs like Lichaa

New hooker has big shoes to fill

RUGBY LEAGUE

MICHAEL Lichaa knows the expectations of the Bulldogs faithful when he strolls the streets of Belmore.

The burden of being their prize recruit who replaced favourite son Michael Ennis hasn’t been lost on Lichaa. He has been reminded of that constantly since announcing last March that he would leave the Sharks at the end of the 2014.

“The fans here are pretty crazy and they all say to you ‘you’ve got big shoes to fill’,” Lichaa said. “I block that out now. Since the day I signed I’ve heard it off anyone who likes the Bulldogs. (I) go down the road in the pre-season and people would say ‘you’ve got to have a big year’ but it’s good knowing Des (Hasler) has put a lot of trust me in. He thinks that I can do it. I haven’t gone too bad in the first two rounds.”

The comparisons between Ennis and Lichaa have followed the 21-year-old since he arrived at Belmore. When he signed, Lichaa anticipated that he would play alongside the former Canterbury skipper.

“Every hooker wants to be an 80-minute hooker,” Lichaa said.

“I didn’t know it was going to happen this early in my career obviously. I’m happy with it. It’s only going to get easier the more times I do it. The back half of the season, I’ll be a lot more comfortable with it and it’ll feel like I’m playing 40 minutes again, but it’ll be a full

game. I’m happy that I’m firstchoice hooker. I thought I would be coming off the bench, but that’s why I came here. Des didn’t promise me anything. That’s what I liked. I respect him for telling me the truth. It’s worked out pretty well.”

Lichaa shed five kilograms in the off-season as he battled through the vigour of a Hasler pre-season. “I (knew) I had to have a big pre-season,” Lichaa said. “Last year we didn’t train too much with everything that was happening at Cronulla. I knew I had to get my body right. We weren’t too fit. I knew I was in for a big shock.

[About] five, six seven times more running than I did last year. It’s a lot harder. The first few weeks were a big shock. I was ready for it but I have never felt [pain] like I did in some of those sessions. Even skill drill is 100 per cent intensity.”

Lichaa has nudged the 80-minute mark in his opening two games, falling seven and nine minutes short of a full match. Cramps have halted his desire to go the distance. Lichaa has topped the tackle count for the side, making more than 40 in each game.

“I’m not sure if I’m not used to the minutes or the work rate,” Lichaa said of the cramps. “My first week was a bit rusty. My D was good but I was probably a bit nervous. It was a hot day and I was rattled. Last week it was a lot better. I ran a lot more and made a few more tackles.”

Thurston: It’s open slather

NORTH Queensland star

Johnathan Thurston (pictured) says it’s “open slather” on the NRL’s playmakers after the league failed to punish Newcastle enforcers Jeremy Smith and Beau Scott.

Thurston was left with a swollen left eye and several other bumps and bruises after being targeted by Smith and Scott during the Cowboys’ loss to the Knights in Townsville last weekend.

Scott is free to play Gold Coast this Sunday after taking an early guilty plea on a grade one dangerous contact to the head/neck charge for a lifting tackle on the Cowboys five-eighth.

Kiwi international Smith wasn’t

Broncos need more venom

THE awkward truth about Beau Scott’s targeting of Johnathan Thurston is that every rival NRL coach is now wondering who can be our Beau Scott?

The Broncos need an enforcer to put their hand up against the Cowboys tomorrow night and push the boundaries of legality.

If Brisbane’s pack fails to, as Newcastle enforcer Jeremy Smith describes “rattle their cage”, the Broncos should pursue Scott who has a get-out clause in his Newcastle contract.

He is exactly what Brisbane needs. Broncos fans may hate Scott now but if he was headed to Red Hill tomorrow, they would be ecstatic. Under the current, but outdated, NRL rules thumping a playmaker late is worth copping a penalty every time. As Thurston and Australian captain Cameron Smith have said this week the NRL’s reaction to the Knights’ tactics prove it is “open slather”.

The damage done to a star with a late hit can change the game.

If you can’t beat them, join them ... by beating them late and often.

In the lead up to the NRL All Stars game, Wayne Bennett was asked who he enjoyed working with the most among the collection of NRL stars he assembled.

The answer was the man he picked as captain, Beau Scott.

The other name he mentioned was Paul Gallen. It proves that fast-twitch fibres and silky hands are great but every coach wants a ruthless forward who will step over the line.

Dragons have scored only eight points

even placed on report for dropping a knee into Thurston earlier in the match, the moment when his eye was blackened. Thurston said the lack of a response by the NRL will only encourage similar defensive targeting of key players in future games. “I suppose it’s game on now,” Thurston told reporters after the game.

You can do that and get away with it. A lot of teams will bring that into their gameplans now and I think it’s open slather.”

THIS is the embarrassing statistic that will drive a knife further into the hearts of suffering St George Illawarra supporters — an incredible 17 players in the NRL have scored more points in the opening fortnight than the entire Dragons squad.

After two rounds, the men wearing the Red V have been left Redfaced after their attack has delivered a lousy eight points.

Not since Canterbury stumbled out of the blocks with just two points after two rounds in 2000 has a team started worse. Pat Richards leads the competition for points scored on 29, with the Wests

Tigers winger posting 12 points by half-time in Monday night’s 22-4 thumping of Saints.

South Sydney halfback Adam Reynolds has already notched 26 points, while injured Eels winger Semi Radradra has 16 points.

Dragons coach Paul McGregor will be sweating on an immediate turn-around in attack on Saturday when his side heads to Canberra, which has been anything but a happy hunting ground for the joint-venture. Given the Dragons’ international halves in Benji Marshall and Gareth Widdop, it makes it even harder to explain why the team has been

so ineffective with the ball. In Marshall’s defence, he did play a lot of Monday night’s game with a rib cartilage injury, which won’t keep him out Saturday. TV and radio commentators described the Dragons attack as predictable on Monday, with Tigers prop Aaron Woods admitting after the game: “They tried to kick to winger (Eto) Nabuli too much, and ‘Kevey’ (Naiqama) did a good job marking him.’’ Dragons centre Dane Nielsen, who scored the club’s only try against the Tigers, said the players were clearly disappointed with the lack of points, but knew where they could improve.

Knights tie up Mata’utias

THE Knights have kept three of their prized possessions from the clutches of the Bulldogs by re-signing brothers Sione, Chanel and Pat Mata’utia for three more years.

Off contract at the end of this year, the brothers have signed new deals that will keep them at Newcastle until the end of the 2018 season.

“By re-signing the three brothers, we show we have and will continue to work hard on retaining our best young juniors,” Knights chief executive Matt Gidley said in announcing their retention on Thursday morning.

The three boys signed letters of intent with the Bulldogs last September for four-year contracts beginning next

year, but under NRL rules, the Knights had until round 13 this season to convince them to change their minds.

Eighteen-year-old Sione became Australia’s youngestever Test representative after playing the last seven NRL games last season, Chanel played in the same seven games and looked comfortable at that level, and Pat has been tipped to make his senior debut later this season.

Sione said staying together in Newcastle and developing their careers was always their priority.

“The club means a lot to me because of what everyone here has done for my mum and our family over many years.

CANTERBURY Bulldogs new hooker Michael Lichaa in action.

SIONE Mata’autia scores for the Knights.

Amoa team aims high

By MIRIAM ZARRIGA NETBALL

RECENT criticism raised by a former Papua New Guinea Pepe player has received a response from Pepe’s coach Unaisi Rokoura.

Rokoura has hit back saying that three former players were invited to attend selections and based on their performance during the trials they were handpicked to be a part of the final 28 team.

“You can never buy experience in the game of netball. To put it simply, this maybe one of the reasons PNG Netball is slow in progressing. We keep changing our players every year,” Rokoura said.

“How are we able to form a combination when players are constantly changing,” She added.

The Nations Cup in Singapore gave us an opportunity to identify the weak links and from there we selected experienced players to return to balance the deficiency in both our shooting and defense area Rokoura said.

“The experienced and older players are matching the intensity of the younger players and their level of commitment is unquestionable.”

With the Pacific Games fast approaching Rokoura is adamant the older players will be ready in terms of their fitness.

“They already have the skill and knowledge of the game. They lift the standards of the game within the Pepes squad. The role of the older palyers is vital in any team,” Rokoura said.

By KILA NAO VOLLEYBALL

THE Amoa PNG men’s indoor volleyball team arrived home yesterday with ACE results which has put them to another level which earned the team two weeks tour to Thailand in preparations for the Pacific Games. They won seven and lost two matches out of nine games which has seen them test their skill level against some of the professional

players from Asia. Men’s head coach, Mathew Walo and assistant coach, Vela Ralewa said it was a very good experience for the players and us as well. Walo said “Captain Ravu Mahuru and Ula Gima and other senior players including Gia Kapa, Veupu Kila, Kala Kila, George David, Eric Itama led by example and also set a good pace for their much younger players like Harold Gima jnr, Momo Taera, Joel Kou, Walter Henao, Alu Pei and two specialist

libero players, Geoffrey Gima and Manly Kapa.”“It’s all about team work and we are focused in preparing the team to reach an higher level” said Walo.

“The boys have done a lot of intensive and high performance training session during the two weeks with our PNGVF National coaching director, Marty Collins.”

“The boys have learnt a lot especially facing strong teams and are matured enough to know what to expect in the Pacific Games.”

“I also want to express our gratitude to Marty Collins for arranging such high performance training through his contacts from Thailand,” said Walo.

The Amoa PNG men’s team will have a day off training tomorrow but will go back to training on Tuesday.

They will be joined by the women’s team for their next preparation trial matches at the Asia Pacific Cup on April 1 to 13 Auckland, New Zealand.

Sandaun Province gears up for relay

By MIRIAM ZARRIGA

THE first leg of the Oil Search Pacific Games relay will begin in Sandaun Province and will be welcomed by Singsing groups at the airport at 1pm on Sunday March 29.

Sandaun Province relay co-ordinator Willie Aloitch said that the support from the province has been overwhelming and being the first to host the relay has really lifted the bar to set a benchmark

Experience cannot be bought Raunim PNG begins preparations

OIL Search Pacific Games relay is raring to go. The kundu will begin its journey on Thursday March 26 as part of the Pacific Games 100 days to go celebrations.

Carrying a message of welcome and invitation to everyone in PNG, the relay will begin in Saundaun Province on Sunday March 29.

Oil Search Pacific Games

Relay Team Manager Tamzin Wardley said that each Province have small teams to co-ordinate activities. “These teams are led by our volunteer co-ordinators and include provincial and local level government representatives, community and sport divisions, Games sponsors and people who are keen to assist.

“It has been a challenge for each provincial team as they not only plan activities but also source funding to help us get to some of the remote places.

for all other host provinces to follow.

“We are the first host province and we are ready and we hope what we do in terms of ensuring the relay progresses well throughout the province we hope will show the other provinces what we can do.

“We have the support of the four districts as well as the members. We also have the support of all the sponsors of the Pacific Games. So far we have raised K100,000

The Oil Search Pacific Games relay budget of just over K1 million only gets the team with the Baton to each province and does not cover internal costs,” Wardley added.

With the weather unpredictable, Wardley has hinted at changing routes of the relay to ensure the relay reaches its destinations with no problems.

“We have had to change our route as we hear of landslides closing the highway, airports closed for repair and bridges collapsing due to flooding caused by cyclone Pam, Our team is working tirelessly to get us around these obstacles and ensure we still get to as many towns and villages as possible,” Wardley said.

Oil Search will provide communications equipment to ensure the reporting of the relay and events is shared with the country.

that will assist in getting the relay throughout the province on land, sea and air,” Aloitch said.

Day two of the relay will see the baton travel to Green River Government station by plane spend an hour before continuing on to Green River, Tumobil Government Station, Oksapmin, Frieda Gold Mine and ending at Nuku Government station at 10am.

By 2pm the baton will return to Vanimo via plane. The baton

will then be transported via vehicle and on foot to other areas in Sandaun Province.

Upon reaching Dali Beach, a journey will be taken by boat up to Sissano Lagoon, on to the Tsunami site, to Tumeleo Island and on to Aitape.

On Wednesday April 1, the baton will take a trip around Aitape and will make its way to Matapau Village to be handed over to the East Sepik Provincial Team.

AMOA PNG men’s indoor team and officials after their arrival at Port Moresby Jackson international terminal. Picture: KENNEDY BANI.

PNG Pepes coach Unaisi Rokoura

Pukpuks fine-tuned

for Hong Kong

THE Puma Energy Papua New Guinea Pukpuks Sevens team are getting fine-tuned for the forthcoming Hong Kong Sevens and Pacific Games in July.

The team is currently in a training camp in Newcastle, New South Wales under well known ITM Taranaki team specialist sevens coach Willie Ricketts.

PNG will be taking part in the Hong Kong Sevens slated for March 29-30 as part of their build-up to the July Pacific Games.

Team manager Mathew Natusch yesterday said they transited in Brisbane on Wednesday, where they had a good training run with ice-baths the Wynnum Manly Leagues Club.

Natusch said they arrived in at Newcastle yesterday and had a full day of theory and practical sessions with Ricketts.

“The guys have really thrived and are doing well with the new ideas,” he added.

He further added the team is basically going through the same sort of format they are used to, but covering different areas.

Tomorrow, the training regime

will involve going through game scenarios and a recovery session at the Newcastle Ocean Baths in the morning.

While in the afternoon it will be spent resting then in the evening we will be playing two matches against Hawthorne Academy 7s team.

“My understanding is that they're the representative side from this region. After this we will review the video from the games,” he added.

On Sunday, we leave early again for Brisbane where we'll give players a rest and a light session later that day.

The team heads to Hong Kong on Monday.

Palais to vie for 12 spots

By MIRIAM ZARRIGA RUGBY SEVENS

THE CPL Heritage Niugini Palais will be holding their final trial to select the national team to take part in the Hong Kong Sevens. The trial will be staged tomorrow at POMIS school oval.

Palais are using the Hong Kong Sevens tourney to strengthen their resolve for the Pacific Games in July.

Of the current squad of 19 players in camp, national selectors will pick 12 players to travel on Tuesday.

Coach Sailosi Druma said from their last outing at the Borneo 7s,

they identified their problem areas and hope to rectify that by selecting the players to fill the void.

“Our game plan has changed. Our attack let us down because we did not have enough speed. Alice Alois was our star player and the only speedster in our backline.

“With the return of Joanne (Lagona), if she is selected we will have the depth that was lacking,” Druma added.

Two familiar faces have returned to the Palais train-on squad, they are Lynette Kwarula and Geua Larry, who also are hoping for a big showing on Saturday.

PNG are pooled with their nemesis

Japan, Tunisia and the Netherlands. “It will be our first time to play Tunisia.

We faced Japan and lost badly but we hope to do well this time round,” Druma said.

Palais go into camp today at PNGIPA in Waigani.

The players in camp are: Alice Alois, Amelia Cook, Agusta Livuana, Dulcie Bomai, Geua Larry, Frieda Waula, Menda Ipat, Cassandra Sampson, Kymlie Rappilla, Margaret Naua, Trisila Rema, Michelle John, Joanne Lagona, Carole Humeu, Naomi Alapi, Lynette Kwarula, Patricia Herricknen, Angela Parao and Yairowina Morofa.

GOC warns retailers on illegal sale of Games items

THE 2015 Pacific Games Organising committee (GOC) is warning retail outlets and goods manufacturers in the country not to produce commercial items using the Games Logo without proper written consent from the GOC.

This comes after several outlets in Port Moresby were raided in the last two months and had their items with the Games Logo confiscated by the Games Enforcement Unit under the command of Chief Superintendent, Police (CSP) David Manning of the Games Security and Safety Committee.

CSP Manning warns retailers “We will be on the lookout for illegal Games items. Any items found will be confiscated and destroyed and you could face further Legal action by the GOC.”

He said his enforcement unit is working with other law enforcement agencies such as PNG Customs on curbing

the importation and sale of illegal Games items in the country.

Games Organising Committee CEO Peter Stewart explained “The Games and Tura logos are the Intellectual property of 2015 Pacific Games Limited. It is a registered trade mark of Games and cannot be used for any commercial purpose without proper consent.

“Our enforcement Unit is a dedicated team engaged with the Games to protect Games Merchandise and enforcement of the Games commercial rights, and they will do everything in their power to make sure the Games Brand is not misused for commercial purposes,” said Mr Stewart.

He said “Official Games merchandise items will go on sale shortly by our official Games Merchandiser WRS and the public will be informed of the how and where to purchase official.”

PNG Pukpuk 7s player Henry Kalua (left) gets his pass away to Gerehu product Dean Manale.

LYNETTE Kwarula tackling the hit-pad during training at POMIS oval yesterday. Picture MARK TALIA

With Bob

LAPULE TAMEAN – Athletics Profile

EIGHTIES SPEEDSTER

IN the fi rst half of the 1980’s one sprinter dominated the tracks of Papua New Guinea.

He was Lapule Tamean, who hailed from the island of New Hanover in the New Ireland Province.

In domestic competition he dominated the 200m event and had significant wins in both the 100m and 400m.

He won the National Championships in the 100m twice (1983 and 1984), the 200m five times (1981, 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1985), and the 400m three times (1982, 1984 and 1985).

His 10 national titles made him the supreme sprinter of his day.

He held the national record for the 100m in 1982 (10.96 seconds) and broke the 200m National Record on five occasions between 1981 and 1983, reducing it to 21.78 seconds.

Lapule held the 400m national record on two occasions, fi rstly in 1982 (48.52) and then the benchmark 47.60 (at the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984).

Lapule fi rst represented PNG at the inaugural Mini

South Pacific Games in Honiara, the Solomon Islands (1981). He won gold in both the 200m and 400m events.

The following year he travelled to Brisbane with the PNG team for the Commonwealth Games, where he made the second round of the 200m and 400m.

His gold medal winning ways continued in the 1983 South Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa. There he won the 200m and was part of the winning 4 x 400m team.

Participating in the inaugural North Queensland Games in 1984, Lapule once again won gold in the 200m. Later that year he was part of the PNG Olympic team to Los Angeles, where he participated in the 200m and 400m – setting a great PNG National Record of 47.60 seconds in the 400m.

The next year he was a member of the successful team to the 1985 Mini South Pacific Games on the Island of Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands. This would be the last time he represented his country.

In 1986 he was selected

to compete for PNG in the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, but at the last minute PNG boycotted the Games.

Lapule, however left a solid legacy and his outstanding performance in the 200m (21.78 seconds) still ranks 9th on the PNG All Time Best Lists, and his 400m personal best in the 400m (47.60 seconds) is currently ranked as the 8th best performance ever by a PNG athlete. 30 years on this record still looks impressive.

Lapule is still contributing to his sport and for the 2015 Pacific Games he has taken on the job of Athletics Competition Manager.

Now you may fi nd Lapule at the PNG Sports Foundation, not as athletic, but still has his wit about him and enjoying family life on Motuan coastal village of Boera, just outside of Port Moresby.

Stop him anytime and the New Irelander will always readily share a betel-nut if he has any, just to have a yarn about the good old days…Nilpis tumas, i no wrong yet !!

Lapule Tamean at last year’s PNG Games in Lae.

BY PETER SEVARA JR. National Soccer League

CAN Madang FC beat Lae City

Dwellers at home?

Coming off a well deserved break last week, Karkar homeboy Alwyn Komolong will be leading his outfit into the same hallowed ground where they won the 6th PNG Games last year against Manus.

That day Madang took more than the Soccer Kings crown from Manus – they also took super sub

Eluida Pohei whose poise off the bench has been an inspiration. But that was over five months ago against an unknown Manus side that made a name for themselves after beating Kimbe during the New Guinea Islands Leg Besta Cup in Kokopo last year.

Tomorrow at the Sir Ignatius Kilage Stadium, home to Lae’s most revered enforcers in brother’s Raymond and Troy Gunemba, Nigel Dabinyaba and Obert Bika, Madang must make a stand or walk the plank.

Last week the Dwellers bled their hearts out against a determined FC POM that wanted the win as much as they did which saw tempers increase to boiling point and a FC POM player being sent off for abusive language while the five others from both teams were yellow carded. Madang skipper Sammy Hiob, Nigel Malagian, Max Sengum and Samuel Kini have been dangerous for Madang of late and know the home ground advantage will obviously buoy the home side even if

they are down.

Madang are riding high at the moment and are building up their confidence with their 3-0 defeat of Oro FC and their 2-1 loss to Hekari after leading 1-0 in the first half. If Madang can drown out the crowd and concentrate on their game they can easily upset the homeboys.

On the other side of the coin, Gunemba has to get his charges to be consistent to remove the late hour rush that saw them getting frantic while down 2-1 with

few minutes left on the clock last week.

Imposing their presence at their first touch would get the home crowd rolling and the game would be theirs – or Madang will be breathing fire down their necks prepared at all costs to make an upset to brag about.

While in Port Moresby, champs Hekari United should have a field day over Admiralty and Oro to return with vengeance over Lae visitors Besta United in the main game at Bomana.

Madang to prove worth

HUNTING 3RD RD SCALP

SP Hunters lead competition SP Hunters lead

By PETER SEVARA JR.

SP Papua New Guinea Hunters will be out for vengeance against East Tigers.

Tigers have made a bold statement of winning in both their previous meets but this time vengeance will be served willingly by a ravenous backline platoon featuring the experience of Thompson The Terminator Tete and flying centre Adex Wera, assisted by Stargroth Amean, Edward Goma and Koiari duo, Kato Ottio and Bland Abavu.

Named in the lineup also are rookies Warren Glare and Jayjay Garrison who may see game time with two to be omitted from the 19-man lineup for this Saturday at the Tap Out

Energy Stadium.

Battling specialist prop issues and injury replacements presents nothing new for coach Michael Marum who has pulled up through last season with concerted attacks everywhere across the park – sending many a coach back to the drawing board. With a horde of rookies clambering to secure spots anything gives for a side that is known for its flair and free style in modern football.

The Hunters lead the points table going into round three with Wynnum Manly Seagulls and North Devils trailing on percentage. The tune of a third successive win will come down to TT, captain Israel Eliab, Roger Laka, Esau Siune and Willie Minoga to impose their presence and inspire

their juniors over the Tigers who boast the services of Shaun Nona and Cameron Munster who are proven game breakers.

Minoga has been named in bench where he brings in the explosives for the demolition job while Gurias import Ase Boas has no problem sniffing out the try line. Amean, Wera and Tete’s recent scoring efforts will bring the Hunters to the fore.

The Hunters 2014 season proved that it is needless for forwards only to bring in the hit-up’s and metres and with the added fighters in rangy Ottio and Abavu combining with their tribesman, Adam Korave will be out pulping a mash on the field.