PM Marape to speak to Hela Landowners on Royalty & Equity

By Prime Minister James Marape

All my tribes women and men from Gobe, Kutubu, Moran, Angore, Hides ( both pdl 1&7) and Juha, your royalty and equity from PNGLNG is still sitting in central bank.

I want to speak to those of you already in Pom this Wednesday so instead of your infightings that is derailing the process of distributing benefits to every children, mothers and all men, few of you have stood in the way can reach amicable solutions for the majority.

To all of yous back home, you don’t need to come to Pom, I will assist our petroleum minister Hon Kua and his department reconcile all that needs to be done in department and also assist expedite all matters few LOs have filed in court that has stopped payments for yous.

I will come back and visit those of yous back home in all pdls when time permits, so don’t come to Pom. I am checking on DPE to progress status of all PDLs in March and those PDLs who do not have court issues will be paid.

For those in courts, let’s mediate as our ancestors are great mediators. I want you all to talk and let’s resolve these issues and let’s roll the money to all our families and tribes.

Our friends in central province are getting theirs under my instructions because they have no disputes, our Kikori cousins should be getting theirs too so up to you all tribal leaders in the mountains to assist your clans and tribes.

See those of you in Pom on Thursday afternoon at 12 pm at Sir John Guise indoor stadium. Those not in Pom please don’t come, government will come to your project areas.

Cheers!

PMJM.

Breaking Barriers in PNG: Caroline Evari

By World Bank

For International Women’s Day 2020, we’re getting to know the pioneering women across the Pacific and Papua New Guinea who are breaking barriers and creating change for the decade ahead. Caroline Evari began writing at the age of six. She is now the author of 28 children’s books and has published her own book of poems, Nanu Sina: My Words, all while supporting the World Bank and it’s nine projects in Papua New Guinea and raising two sons.
What inspired you to start writing at such a young age?

After I had completed first grade in school my family moved from Port Moresby back to my father’s village in Oro Province. I was supposed to continue on to grade two, but there weren’t any schools nearby so I spent my childhood days writing. I would just walk around the village with a notebook and describe whatever I could see. It was my way of keeping myself in school.

Did you eventually go back to school?

Yes, I moved back to Port Moresby in 2001 and started school again. I realized I was doing so well in English compared to other subjects because I spent my time away from school writing. So, I was able to catch up quickly.

Later on, when I attended Marianville Secondary School, we were required to keep school journals every year, and that’s how I discovered my talent for writing poems. At the end of grade 12 I had written a total of 60 poems and they now make up the majority of my book, Nanu Sina: My Words.

What do you love about writing poetry?

For me, poetry is the best way to express myself. Most of my published poems were written when I was growing up, at a stage when I was living away from my parents. I missed them, but I wanted to achieve something with my life so I had to somehow let go of those emotions and thoughts. I find poetry a really good way for people to let go of any stress, anxiety, depression or anything that may be pulling them down.

How did you get into writing children’s books?

In 2017, I wrote two children’s stories titled Zuki the Crocodile and Old Mulga and the Pawpaw Tree for the organization Library for All. The stories were then developed into picture books in 2019 and distributed to schools around PNG.

Given that I work with the World Bank, I could see that we shouldn’t just advocate for Papua New Guineans to learn to read, we need to also write our own stories and have them published into books. The majority of the books in schools are not written by us, they are written by people from other parts of the world.

I had this idea: what if we started teaching our people to write their own stories? Or what if we started teaching each other to express ourselves through poetry? That would have a big impact. I started reaching out to schools and teachers and motivating them to encourage their students to write their own stories. I give free talks in schools on why writing is so important and I hold children’s story writing workshops.

You’ve been lucky enough to be mentored by popular PNG writer, Rashmii Amoah Bell – what was that like?

Yes, in 2016, along with 45 other PNG women, I contributed to the My Walk to Equality anthology that Rashmii edited – it was the first ever collection of writing from Papua New Guinean women.

Rashmii then mentored me for the first six months after I published my book of poetry. It was really important for me because Rashmii is someone that I look up to as a role model. We don't often have Papua New Guinean women as  professional mentors. We are always looking outside PNG for inspiration and motivation. But, in this case, I was very privileged to receive that mentorship from her, and it was really inspiring for me.

Do you think there will be more female PNG writers in the future?

Yes, and I do believe we already have a good number of Papua New Guinean female writers. There’s a lot of change and positive responses from communities with women being more vocal, and it's really a good thing to see. So I hope that this momentum of women writers gaining support will continue to increase.

What are your hopes and plans for the future?

I'm already working on another book of poems, but my hope for the future is to write more; not just poems, but more children's story books. I want to help capture our culture and languages that are dying away.

I also hope that my two sons will grow into responsible men that are able to respect and understand women. I want them to accept women as they are; seeing women as equals in society. I think that’s my biggest aim for my sons’ future.

Follow us on Facebook to make sure you don’t miss any of our Pacific Women Breaking Barriers series.

Go to this link for more: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2020/02/28/caroline-evari?fbclid=IwAR3WKp2UBlbHyccDCzIGvbV1cPEfhj5ef7mwkjtIvl4tNR__2sK35DLKpjk

Hela Provincial Education Division Launches Free Toll Numbers for Public to use to Report Teachers

By FM 100 News

The Hela Provincial Education Division has officially launched its toll free number 79500048 at the Digicel head office on Tuesday this week.

Provincial Education Advisor Ronny Angu says this is the number the public can use to report sightings of teachers roaming around freely during working hours when they are supposed to be in the classroom teaching.

HE says the Provincial Government has allocated a lot of money in the Education sector so teachers must be in the classrooms , faithfully discharging their duties.
Angu is encouraging the public to make use of this number to report teachers.

HE adds under his leadership, tougher actions will be taken for those Teachers missing out in classrooms and those found to be roaming around doing nothing.

He also stresses that there will be no time for all the ghost names and lazy teachers who are paid for doing nothing.
Mr Angu says they must work harder to get quality output or leave Hela to get another job elsewhere.

He says his department would like to work with every stakeholder to increase the quality of education and making a difference in the future generations of Hela.

Meanwhile, the newly appointed Provincial Education Advisor also pledged his commitment to improve the education standard of Hela Province.

Mr Angu continues under his leadership education will be reformed and improved.

He says it will start with investing in Teachers by placing them in appropriate levels that will enable them to be competitive to provide quality education.

Teachers will have to improve their expertise in delivering quality curriculum based on their training and qualifications, he says because he believes investing in Teachers reform is the way forward in building quality output of students graduating in each level of education.

The Hela Provincial Education has already started working on creating a data base to screen qualification of teachers from elementary to secondary schools and of course the TVET.

He adds that Teachers with a Degree in Education, with subject specialists will all be required to teach in secondary schools while all those who have a Diploma in Teaching , will be teaching in primary schools.

He says Teachers with fake certificates will be identified and dealt with accordingly and as a way forward no Vocational and TVET trained Teachers be allowed to teach in Primary Schools in the Province.

(PICTURED: Mr Ronny Angu going through a presentation with a BSP Officer after taking office as the new Provincial Education Advisor for Hela.)

Go to this link for more: http://kalangfm.com/news/provincial-education-division-launches-toll-free-number-for-public-to-use-to-report-teachers-310?fbclid=IwAR0FKkbZ4w9I_88KNXnGxRDK8FS5UmYdf5mwLGDOkVr6jw0pRSvWfhr18OI

Neo-colonialism & the South Fly

By MARTYN NAMORONG - PNG Attitude

PORT MORESBY - Recent media reports have highlighted the problems faced by Daru in terms of its ailing infrastructure and the chronic shortages of almost everything that could make urban life liveable.

Daru is a stone’s throw away from the first world existence of Australia yet a million miles away from access to reliable safe clean drinking water, decent sanitation and healthcare. Port Moresby doesn’t know Daru although it pretends to call it the capital of its Western Province. What Port Moresby knows about its neo-colonial territory of Western Province is the giant Ok Tedi copper mine which is Papua New Guinea’s main foreign exchange earner.

To understand what is wrong with South Fly is to first look at the big picture before delving down into the minutiae of the problems faced by this district.

THE BIG PICTURE

South Fly District is carved out of mainland PNG by the Fly River which runs from the northwest PNG-Indonesia border towards the south east into the Coral Sea. It has a land mass of over 31,000 square kilometers, enough to fit in the highlands provinces of Simbu, Eastern Highlands, Western Highlands and Jiwaka and still have a lot of breathing space.

The district’s enormous size presents a logistical nightmare when trying to deliver basic government services to people scattered over such a large area. This is further compounded by the fact that, like every other district in PNG, it only receives around K10 million each year from the national government. Imagine trying to deliver goods and services to the provinces of Simbu, Eastern Highlands, Western Highlands and Jiwaka with only K10 million.

Its problems are also structural. Some of these issues are unique to the district and are the outcomes of broader historical processes that have produced present realities. When PNG gained independence in 1975, the preamble to its constitution declared the nation’s self-affirmation on the global stage. However, in its subsequent sections, the constitution also gave effect to the instruments and institutions of colonisation.

In effect the PNG constitution is a bit of an oxymoron in that it declares a PNG identity and then goes on to suppress that by empowering the tools of colonial power. The consequence of this constitutional contradiction is that colonisation in PNG now has a Melanesian face with the neo-colonial powers being in Waigani and the colonies at the periphery.

Thus, for the people of South Fly, those along the borders of Indonesia and Australia had their fate sealed by Port Moresby, Canberra and Jakarta. Take for example the ‘treaty villages’ along the Torres Strait which have been deprived of any commercial gains from fisheries thanks to the Torres Straits Treaty. Although one would assume the border villages would be far more developed given their proximity to larger and more advanced economies, they are amongst the most poorest and disadvantaged in the district.

Recent work done by Professor Mark Moran and his team from the University of Queensland show that the level of poverty in these areas is comparable to that of sub-Saharan Africa.

As Professor Moran and his team noted:

“The close pre-colonial relationships between people in the South Fly and Torres Strait Islands, which typically fostered mutual benefits for both parties, were transformed when PNG gained independence in 1975. Since then, the benefits coming to Torres Strait Islanders along with their Australian citizenship have steadily increased, lifting their living standards.

“Meanwhile, the situation in the South Fly has deteriorated: the people have received limited support from the PNG Government and environmental damage due to irresponsible mining practices has damaged the marine environment on which they depend.

“[The] asymmetries on the PNG side of the border have deepened further as the management of the Torres Strait Treaty has gradually hardened.”

Other structural problems are not unique to the people of South Fly. Waigani’s negative relationship with the periphery is well documented with the Bougainville civil war being the most infamous.

The growing calls for autonomy from the periphery reflect the level of mistrust felt by the margins of their neo-colonial masters in Waigani.

Take for instance the idiosyncrasies of the Waigani imposed administration. Provinces, districts, local level governments (LLGs) and wards exist merely as decorative shells giving a perception of administrative power and control by the regions.

Many ‘provincial’ sectors of administration are actually controlled from Port Moresby with neither the local political leaders nor administrators in charge. And so the ‘Provincial’ Police Commander is accountable to Konedobu, and the ‘District’ Finance Manager reports to the Finance Department in Waigani.

In Waigani’s language these are ‘national functions’ operating at the provincial or district level. The use of the terms ‘provincial’ or ‘district’ refer to geographic descriptions of the roles as opposed to any form of local political or administrative autonomy.

And so a major development challenge faced not just by South Fly but other regions of PNG is that the political and administrative heads of provinces, districts and LLGs are rather impotent when dealing with officers who are accountable to Waigani and not the local authorities.

How do these local generals command their soldiers when the soldiers receive marching orders from Waigani?

The battle against entropy in the provinces and districts is lost even before the war has begun because of the command structure. Thus entropy has won, is winning and will continue to win unless generals and soldiers are under one command structure.

What I am saying is nothing new. It was recognised at the dawn of PNG’s independence and has continued to be articulated by various parties in various forms.

Unfortunately, the viceroys of the new empire which was inherited from our colonial masters in 1975 remain stubborn in their grasp of power and privilege.

Thus when a Member for South Fly receives the K10 million district service improvement grant with all the strings Waigani has attached, it is dispensed according to Waigani’s guidelines to implementing officers who are ultimately accountable to Waigani.

The local member of parliament acts like a postmaster for Waigani. If one is to understand some of the unconventional behaviour of some MPs one must understand the power play and potential political suicide that faces them.

THE SMALL PICTURE

And with this we segue into the small picture for the people of South Fly.

Ask anyone on Daru Island what is wrong with service delivery and the two things they mention are lack of political leadership and a corrupt public service.

But, as I have noted earlier, whilst these two concerns are genuine, the problems are larger than that.

Both the political leadership and civil service face the unenviable task of delivering goods and services to a scattered population over a large geographical area with very limited resources.

The local MP, the police commander and education and health advisors simply do not have the capacity to deliver to the entire electorate. Yet they are expected to perform miracles. And when they fail they are accused of being corrupt.

Funds from Waigani also are notoriously late or never sent - and guess who gets blamed for the lack of service?

But on the occasion that funds do arrive, the administrative idiosyncrasies discussed earlier kick into place thus there is lack of accountability at the local level.

South Fly District is only as accountable as Waigani holds it to account. Even Daru has not much control over Daru as, in many cases, Daru reports to Waigani.

On Daru Island it’s always the next person who is the problem.

Everyone seems blindsided by their own self-righteousness. And so, as individuals fail to reflect on their own personal weakness and correct them, the process of growth and improvement fails to happen.

On my first trip down to Daru, I met a couple of District Development Authority board members who kept blaming the public servants for many of the issues in the district.

But as I looked through some of the decisions I wondered if the DDA board was not playing its role. Many of the board members I spoke to didn’t fully understand their roles and responsibilities.

I asked them, “Do you know that you are in charge of looking after the yam house that belongs to the people of South Fly?”

“Do you know that the rats cannot eat the yams unless you give approvals at the DDA board meetings?”

“How can you blame the rats for eating from the yams from the yam house when you gave approval to the rats to get hold of the yams at the first place?”

You can imagine how the board members performed at subsequent board meetings.

GOING FORWARD

There needs to be a lot of individual reflection and soul searching on Daru Island with more empathy for the next person on the island.

Everyone needs to examine their own strengths and weaknesses and to see the goodness in others that can be leveraged to move the district forward.

The people of South Fly need to recognise the systems and structures that have been imposed on them since 1975 and organise themselves better to be able to make the systems work for them.

Go to this link for more: https://www.pngattitude.com/2020/02/neo-colonialism-the-south-fly.html

Whistleblower act passed

By JAMES MARAPE

| Facebook | Extract

Yesterday PNG's parliament passed a law to protect whistleblowers but a bill to establish an Independent Commission Against Corruption will have to go to a parliamentary committee before being voted on. Mr Marape wrote this before parliament sat - KJ

PORT MORESBY - I gained office with no money, no political party, no lobbyist, and not too many friends except a few loyalists including MPs and the general people of Papua New Guinea who wanted change plus the Hand of my Creator God.

Please circulate that I don’t have agents and if anyone, whether the fake accounts holders in Facebook or others in private who might request help as if coming from me, report them.

Talk about fighting corruption, we hopefully should pass Independent Commission Against Corruption tomorrow (Tuesday).

It is in our government’s program and all MPs including the opposition have been told that this is a Marape-Steven government’s priority legislation, including whistle blowers act.

This ICAC bill will set the institution that should assist us fighting corruption and we will build it where it is free from politics and become an agent that assist transforming our country into the future.

Other lead corruption fighting agencies like Transparency International, the Ombudsman, the police plus the judiciary will be called upon to assist set up the structure of ICAC.

The Whistleblowers Act we will pass also protects those who report corruption so I request those who have evidence of corruption in our country, prepare to take cover under our Whistleblowers Act and report them.

Many governments have promised ICAC but myself and Hon Davis Steven as Attorney-General and our present parliament including ministers have pledged to deliver this [yesterday].

PNG, I placed minister Kramer to fight corruption and he is giving his best shot. I am slowly but surely placing public service appointments I feel will assist us get there, like the appointment of a reknowned corruption fighter Sam Koim to the Internal Revenue Commission, as a few small examples.

Rome was not built in one day or one year, we have a long way to go in PNG but we making the first correct painful baby steps.

When you see wrong and corruption, assist being an agent of law by providing your evidence and helping us take back PNG, instead of just being a Facebook or cyber complainant.

Whilst on corruption, the last few days an issue on a gas license transaction that took place during minister Duma’s time as petroleum minister has been a public concern.

I am concerned too and, just like other allegations, I have requested detailed scrutiny of this allegation raised by foreign media.

Minister Duma has been asked to provide his side of the story and into the future greater light will unravel this matter too.

Again if anyone of you have any interest or information on this then Facebook is not the forum but responsible offices including the police and Ombudsman.

This country is here to stay and some of these will be work in progress so have faith we will get there.

Let’s all work wherever we are placed.

Go to this link for more: https://www.pngattitude.com/2020/02/whistleblower-act-to-be-passed.html

Booting Exxon boosts Marape – for now

By BAL KAMA

| The Interpreter | Lowy Institute

CANBERRA - The recent announcement of the Papua New Guinea government to cease all negotiations with one of the United States’ largest oil and gas companies, Exxon Mobil, over the P’nyang LNG project, a new gas field in PNG, has broader implications for the US and PNG.

At first glance, the decision against Exxon for allegedly acting in bad faith is part of a wider crackdown by the government of prime minister James Marape to ensure greater fairness in the resource sector.

Since ousting then–prime minister Peter O’Neill in a vote of no-confidence in 2019, Marape has charted a different approach from that of his predecessor, under the banner of ‘Take Back PNG’ – a larger policy objective to reassess PNG’s developmental direction and regain lost opportunities.

Marape laid out his vision in his inaugural visit to Australia in 2019 and is gradually applying it in many sectors.

The decision illustrates the growing frustrations of dealing with investors in resource-rich PNG, and it further demonstrates an emerging crop of PNG leaders confident in reassessing the status quo.

For the US, Exxon’s alleged conduct, criticised by the PNG government as being “exploitative”, undermines US efforts in the Pacific region as a force for good.

Exxon Mobil has a US$19 billion liquefied natural gas project in PNG (PNG LNG), which made its first shipment in 2014.

The PNG LNG project, which remains the largest economic investment by the US in the Pacific, coincided with former US president Barack Obama’s announcement in 2012 of a “pivot to the Pacific” policy.

The geopolitical scenario of the day, the excitement of having the US interested in PNG, and the high expectations surrounding a global and reputable company, among other factors, influenced the PNG government’s initial agreement for Exxon to operate the PNG LNG project.

It was thought the deal would have a transformational impact on PNG’s economy – an assurance that continues to be projected by some quarters.

However, the overall economy of PNG did not experience the projected windfall. Instead, there were a series of negative outcomes over the years at both a national and a local level – national debts grew, and unfavourable benefit-sharing arrangements and royalties led to conflict among traditional resource landowners.

Many have questioned whether the resource boom marked by the PNG LNG project was in fact a “resource curse”.

The ousting of prime minister Peter O’Neill in 2019 was partly a result of growing grievances over the failure to deliver on the promises of the Exxon-led project and other resource deals. An important issue was the high level of concessions made in those deals.

Historically, PNG governments, desperate to become investor-friendly, have made hasty concessions that often disadvantaged the country from having a fair share of the revenue from the development of their resources.

In a 2016 report, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) observed that “the tax arrangements for PNG’s mining and petroleum sectors are very generous compared to other resource-rich countries and do not reflect the maturity of the PNG resource sector”.

The World Bank, in a 2017 report, also found particularly for the Exxon-led LNG project that Exxon Mobil and its PNG LNG partners created “a complex web of exemptions and allowances that effectively mean that little revenue is received by government and landowners”.

The PNG government must share some burden of fault for creating this scenario – including, for instance, the failures by previous PNG governments to negotiate a favourable outcome for the country, the misuse of funds by political leaders, a politicised bureaucracy unable to carry out their due diligence, and judicial interventions that at times hinder payments to disgruntled landowners.

This does not, however, excuse Exxon and its partners from the grave unfairness suggested in these reports. This, together with his experience as a minister in previous governments, underpinned Marape’s firm stance on taking a different approach in the current deal on the P’nyang LNG project.

In his appeal for Exxon Mobil to act fairly, Marape noted that “the initial terms [in the PNG LNG project] provided by PNG were so generous” and that new “reasonable terms” should be considered for the P’nyang project.

The terms proposed by the PNG government are not publicly available, but they appear to include giving no fiscal concessions in P'nyang, treating it as separate project from the current LNG projects and increasing domestic market obligations, local content participation, and landowner’s royalties from the current rate of two percent.

The prime minister described Exxon’s refusal to accept the terms as a move to “extract even more profit for themselves”, while Kerenga Kua, the minister for petroleum and energy denounced Exxon as acting in “absolute bad faith” and coming into PNG “with a determination to exploit our vulnerabilities, exploit us for our weak economic position and take advantage of us”.

The firm position taken by the Marape government is historic – no previous government has ever taken such an approach. PNG has had resource deals in the past that have resulted unfavourably for the country, but past governments have been shown to align more closely with investors than with their citizens.

The leaders and the people of PNG appear to be supportive of Marape’s approach. Further, the government is considering amending and tightening the legislative framework to ensure an equitable resource sector.

Marape is unlikely to concede to Exxon Mobil, as he insists: “You win for your shareholders, and I win for my people”.

James Donald, a member of parliament representing the area where P’nyang LNG site is located, cautioned Exxon against crossing “a line between commercial parity and commercial greed”. Other MPs representing the resource areas have also demonstrated support for Marape’s stance against Exxon.

The PNG government is likely to reconsider its current position if Exxon responds positively to its terms. Unless that happens, however, there appears to be a general distrust for Exxon among the people of PNG – a situation far from the hope Exxon represented when it first entered the country.

The distrust for Exxon has broader implications when one considers Exxon not only represents US economic prestige in the Pacific, but a society whose business ideals are expected to reflect the democratic values of fairness and just outcomes.

The longer this tussle between Exxon and the PNG Government continues, the greater the distrust is likely to be, not only for Exxon, but for what it represents – the United States – in the Pacific.

As the vote of no-confidence scheme against a sitting government in PNG resumes later this year, those affected by Marape’s firm policies may hope for a change in government. In the fluid political landscape of PNG, a populist and comparatively principled Marape faces a challenge beyond just his immediate political rivals, and inside company boardrooms.

However, if anything, his approach to governance so far has been reassuring for the people of Papua New Guinea.

Go to this link for more: https://www.pngattitude.com/2020/02/booting-exxon-boosts-marape-for-now.html 

Whistleblower Act passed

By HELEN TARAWA - The National

PARLIAMENT unanimously passed (90-0) the Whistleblower Act 2020, a giant step forward in PNG’s fight against corruption.
Deputy Prime Minister David Steven, the Minister for Justice and Attorney-General, said the legislation was part of the initiative to address corruption and will complement anti-corruption initiatives.
He said the new law was “a conduit for employees that note suspicious improprieties to make protected disclosure in accordance with relevant disclosure channels”.
“The concept of whistleblowing of impropriety has been introduced in other jurisdictions including our region. Often such disclosures have been difficult as employees who observed such improprieties risked being met with reprisals. “The bill is a modest approach in establishing protection mechanisms for employees,” he said.
He however warned that the bill was not the only solution to dealing with corruption.
“(It is) a piece of the anti-corruption system that will encourage a culture of accountability and transparency,” he said.
The new legislation is designed to:

• provide procedures for employees to report suspected improprieties in the workplace;
• Protect employees who make protected disclosures from occupational detriment; and,
• Provide remedies to employees who suffer occupational detriment having made protected disclosures.

It enables employees to disclose any suspicious impropriety within their workplace including a criminal offence, a failure to comply with a legal obligation, a miscarriage of justice, endangering the health and safety of an individual, environment damage, unfair discrimination and deliberately concealing any conduct mentioned above.
There are four types of protected disclosures;

• A legal practitioner in the course of obtaining legal advice. It is protected disclosure only if the disclosure is done in good faith and in the course of obtaining legal advice.
• protected discloser to an employer. If the disclosure is made in good faith and either made in accordance with an approved international reporting procedure or whether there is no approved international procedure directly to the employer or employee’s immediate supervisor.
• protected disclosure to a minister. It also applies to statutory office holders and employees to statutory bodies who are not officers of the public service. It is protected disclosure if made in good faith and to the minister responsible for relevant Act or statutory body; and,
• the protected disclosure to an approved authority.

Go to this link for more: https://www.thenational.com.pg/whistleblower-act-passed/

Yalinu set on cleaner future

Posted by The National

A PAPUA New Guinean who is doing her PhD studies at the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom has an ambition to create a cleaner and safer way to produce ammonia to feed the world’s population more sustainably.
Yalinu Poya, who is a final-year PhD student in chemistry, said her research was focused on using affordable materials to make a catalyst that was able to produce ammonia in a clean way using less harsh reaction conditions and less energy.
“The Haber–Bosch process uses its conventional iron catalysts in large scale plants, meanwhile I make and use cobalt rhenium supported on magnesium oxide catalysts which are potentially more suitable for small scale localised plants (such as on a farm) that can be powered by wind energy,” she said.
It is estimated that the world’s population will reach 9.1 billion by the year 2050, and consequently food production will need to rise by 70 per cent to keep up with global demands.
Farmers will require more fertilisers to maintain fertile soil in order to produce healthy crops, which will result in an increased demand in the production of fertilisers.
Since ammonia is the main component in fertilisers, it too will need to increase in production.
To maintain food security, ammonia needs to be produced in enormous amounts through the Haber–Bosch process.
Through this ingenious invention, over 450 million tonnes of fertiliser is produced annually and it is estimated that 40 per cent of the world is being fed through it.
Unfortunately, this industrial technology annually consumes two per cent of the world’s energy and contributes to global warming by releasing 1.6 per cent of man-made carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
“My country, Papua New Guinea, is a developing country that is affected by many things, one of them being climate change,” Poya said.
“Located in the Pacific Ocean, we along, with other Pacific island nations, are feeling the drastic effects of global warming.
With the sea level rising, most of our islands are sinking, and my people of the Pacific are highly affected.”
“I am pleased that my research can potentially contribute new perspectives to worldwide sustainability to help tackle some of the problems of climate change that affect my country, neighbouring Pacific island nations, other vulnerable developing nations, and moreover the planet.”
Poya said she chose to study at the University of Glasgow because of its world-changing research and notable alumni.
“The University of Glasgow’s school of chemistry alone has alumni like Joseph Black, who discovered magnesium and Fred Soddy, who discovered isotopes,” she said.
“All of these Nobel Prize winners come from here, so why not me!”
Poya said studying chemistry at the University of Glasgow was an enormous honour.
“I am working alongside world-leading research groups and using first-class facilities,” she said.
“My goal is to graduate successfully with a PhD and I will use the knowledge and skills I gain in my studies to present chemistry and catalysis as a solution to the real global problems that our world faces.”
Glasgow University said Poya was one of its future world changers: students with ambitions to improve lives across the world.

Go to this link for more: https://www.thenational.com.pg/yalinu-set-on-cleaner-future/?fbclid=IwAR08QhQxnP49ksvuPOY0ef_zXr_5nsx1junrN9r7jPnJtx2kBPK93MBwI0o

MARAPE REWARDS & EMBRACES CORRUPTION IF HE DOES NOT SACK DUMA

By Isabella Tauri - PNG Blog

Marape has again rewarded Mr Corruption and one of PNG people's greatest thief William DUMA through a Government Decision NOT to investigate further, effect arrest nor sack William DUMA as a State Minister!

Never forget this is the same William Corruption Duma who stole millions from the Manumanu Land Deal, together with Fabian Pok.  The people of PNG protested on Facebook for their removal but Peter O'Neill kept them until the Government changed in May 2019.
The people's expectations were on Marape to live by his words - to be the people's PM!  But Marape's true hidden colors are now showing.

First, he rewarded DUMA with a State Minister portfolio end of last year.  All for political survival!
Now that both local and international media has exposed DUMA's corruption in abusing public office as a State Minister for personal gain, Marape has made another decision to NOT DO ANYTHING about DUMA's corruption.

Instead, he is taking K28 Million of public funds to fund further investigation on the UBS Loan saga, which he himself as Finance Minister was 100% responsible for. 
We the people of PNG already got robbed of K3 Billion by Marape and his cohorts in the former O'Neill regime.  Why is he so defiant to ROB us AGAIN to pay hell knows who and what for money that we shall never recover?

The litmus test in now on Marape:   WILL HE BE A TRUE LEADER TO SACK DUMA AND INVESTIGATE HIM TOO?

If nothing is done then it may mean Marape himself may have personally benefited from these deals.  He will protect Duma at all costs!
The Fact that Marape embraces and rewards CORRUPTION means he is indeed an accessory to all these corruption and is corrupt as well.  He does not care about the welfare of Papua New Guineans as he plays lip service in his preachings.
So Papua New Guineans, stop your little Christian preachings, understand the magnitude of this corruption and decisions.
TIME TO START A NEW REVOLUTION AND REMOVE CORRUPT LEADERS!


Go to this link for more: http://www.pngblogs.com/2020/02/marape-rewards-embraces-corruption-if.html

The Enigma of James Marape

By PHIL FITZPATRICK - PNG Attitude

TUMBY BAY - I’ve got an elderly aunt in Indiana, USA, who thinks Donald Trump is wonderful. She was a volunteer in his 2016 election campaign and is thinking about doing it again this year.

My aunt thinks Barack Obama was the worst president that America ever had and that the Democrats are socialists who will destroy America. She is one of millions of Americans who don’t realise what the rest of the world thinks about their buffoon president.

Sometimes you have to stand back to see a situation clearly. That’s why a view from a distance often imparts a clarity not available to those up close and involved. I think a lot of people outside Papua New Guinea are still making up their minds about prime minister James Marape. There is a lot to ponder.

On the face of it he seems to be a genuine reformer. How much of this is spin and how much is real is hard to tell. He was, after all, a senior minister in the disastrous O’Neill government. That association raises quite a few questions. If he knew what O’Neill was doing why didn’t he speak up?

He now says he disagreed with O’Neill on several matters. Then why didn’t he resign from the People’s National Congress government and join the Opposition? If he had the same personal convictions he espouses now, why didn’t he act on them when it truly mattered? Why did he let O’Neill get away with what he did?

People inside Papua New Guinean say their politics are complex. From the outside they don’t seem complex at all. With their emphasis on alliances, numbers and personal gain they simply appear chaotic, illogical and, most of all, terribly corrupt.

In that sort of environment maybe Marape, in government under a strong ruthless leader, realised he could do very little. Maybe he decided to wait until he was in a position of greater power.

Or maybe he was enjoying the spoils and only decided to act when he decided O’Neill had burnt up his political capital and was doomed.

Despite what my American aunt thinks, Barack Obama was a good president. Or at least he tried to be a good president. It was a sad reality that just about every good thing he tried to do was nobbled by the Republicans and vested interests.

Is the slow progress that has started to dog James Marape similar to what happened to Barack Obama? Are the vested interests within parliament and in the corporate world outside conspiring to limit his effectiveness?

It’s hard to know but there are a few tell-tale signs worth noting.

One example is of interest to PNG Attitude readers. That is Marape’s apparent indifference to the plight of writers in Papua New Guinea. Does he simply not care? Is it just because he is too busy with what he sees as more important matters? Is it because he is acting on poor advice from his advisors and spin doctors? Fixing the dreadful mess left by Peter O’Neill is a monumental job after all.

But then again, Marape has been seen supporting apparently frivolous things like fashion parades. How can he justify supporting fashion designers but not writers? PNG watchers will remember the enthusiasm that greeted Peter O’Neill when he ousted Michael Somare.

There was a strong hope that O’Neill was going to end the years of corruption under Somare and make Papua New Guinea great. Are all the positive noises that James Marape made when he ousted O’Neill just more of the same empty rhetoric?

Marape booted out many of O’Neill’s most corrupt ministers but he also retained quite a few of them. And corrupt public servants as well. What sort of power have they got over him?

Along with the usual gaggle of rats abandoning the sinking O’Neill ship, Marape has also managed to pull in members of the Opposition to work for him, including quite a few who are very capable and have demonstrated high political ideals.

Do they actually believe in him or are they hoping to change things for the better from inside rather than outside? Or has he offered them something they can’t refuse? I don’t know whether my poor deluded aunt in Indiana would like James Marape or not. Then again, I’m not sure I want to ask her.

Go to this link for more: https://www.pngattitude.com/2020/01/the-enigma-of-james-marape.html

The arrest of Peter O’Neill

BRYAN KRAMER MP
| Kramer Report | Edited

PORT MORESBY - When will Peter O'Neill be arrested? The appropriate authority to answer the question of when the former prime minister will be arrested to face the many corruption allegations against him is the police force.

But if someone were to ask for my opinion, I would say the short answer is sometime this year.

It’s public knowledge that O’Neill is accused of being at the centre of numerous corruption scandals, including the K71 million Paraka saga, the K50 million LR Generators issue and  the K3 billion UBS loan, to name just a few.

There are many more allegations being investigated.

So why hasn’t O'Neill been arrested and charged?

Well, because he has been evading arrest by refusing to avail himself to the police, hiding out in hotel rooms, fleeing the country and filing fake court documents to obtain stay orders.

So he has been able to continually avoid arrest due to a dysfunctional and ineffective police force which is a result of years of neglect and political interference.

In my view, the best means to fight corruption, including having O'Neill answer to the allegations against him, is to first fix the police force.

This includes taking immediate action to restore discipline, ensure sufficient funding as well as address the many welfare issues, including basic entitlements, adequate pay, housing and paying outstanding allowances.

Under the Marape-Steven government there has been significant improvements in the police force and it has been the number one issue on the floor of parliament and in the media.

2020 will be a blockbuster year for our police force as it addresses many internal issues as well as coming out to bat against corruption and addressing escalating law and order issues around the country.

There have been claims that I’m scared of Peter O’Neill?

Well, the last time I checked, I wasn’t the one hiding out in hotel rooms, crouching in the back of vehicles or fleeing overseas to avoid arrest.

People who are innocent will always be happy to make themselves available to the law to prove their innocence.

Those who are guilty will always run and hide.

Go to this link for more: https://www.pngattitude.com/2020/01/the-arrest-of-peter-oneill.htm

Making a start on a PNG book catalogue

By BAKA BINA - PNG Attitude 

PORT MORESBY - Writings about Papua New Guinea and books by Papua New Guinean authors are multiplying but scattered all across the country.

There has never been a central reservoir of information about them. And there should be.

Most of these books are self-published by the authors, sometimes assisted by experienced people like Francis Nii and Jordan Dean, and produced using the Amazon hard copy and Kindle Direct Publishing ebook platforms.

Libraries For All has helped several authors including Caroline Evari while others like Ms Solien does her own publishing.  I am also doing my own.  A few others are engaged with commercial publishing companies.

But we do need a central information data place to list all these books. I’ve made a rough start at a catalogue which you can download here.

Download Catalogue of books by PNG authors as at January 2020

Not mentioned? So how about you get your title and name on the list? Just email me here with a short description and cover shot of the book.

And include this information:

Book title
Author
Category of book (see my note at the end of the catalogue)
Year published
Number of pages
Publisher

Go to this link for more: https://www.pngattitude.com/2020/01/making-a-start-on-a-png-book-catalogue.html

Cash crunch as debt repayment soars

JONATHAN BARRETT & CHARLOTTE GREENFIELD
| Reuters

SYDNEY & WELLINGTON - Papua New Guinea’s annual debt repayments to China are forecast to increase 25% by 2023, new budget figures show, at the same time as the Pacific nation falls to its largest ever deficit.

The resource-rich country, which is at the centre of a diplomatic tussle between China and the United States, has blamed extravagant spending by the previous administration for its souring finances, which will require the government to borrow even more to pay the bills.

Balancing its books has been made more difficult by recalculations to the country’s outstanding debt. It has soared 10% since the last annual budget to 42% of gross domestic product, above the legal limit of 35%.

“You have some of those loans clicking in; the repayments are going to be a problem,” said Paul Barker, executive director of Port Moresby-based think tank the Institute of National Affairs.

Formerly administered by Australia, PNG has in recent years turned increasingly to China for financing as Beijing becomes a bigger player in the region.

The US has repeatedly warned that China was using “predatory economics” to destabilise the Indo-Pacific; a charge strongly denied by Beijing.

Although the total debt owed to Beijing was not disclosed in PNG’s budget documents released on Thursday, repayment schedules show China is by far the biggest bilateral creditor, with annual repayments to the Asian giant projected to increase 25% to about K160 million by 2023.

Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey said that past excesses, including extravagant spending linked to hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum last year, were emblematic of the financial problems that had been building up.

“At that time, we were in the midst of the APEC extravaganza with our new APEC Haus, red carpet, fancy new roads all focused in Port Moresby, and Maseratis,” he said in a speech delivered to parliament on Thursday.

“Now, we have a new prime minister that travels economy class.”

The purchase of a luxury fleet of cars during the forum, including 40 slick Maserati Quattroporte sedans, sparked public protests at the time, given the country is beset by poverty.

Prime Minister James Marape took over as leader in late May after Peter O’Neill lost the support of the parliament following almost eight years in power.

Adding to the fiscal strain, income from the country’s natural gas sector has also repeatedly come in below forecasts.

PNG’s total expenditure in the 2020 budget is forecast to reach a record K18.7 billion against an anticipated K14.1 billion in revenue, creating the largest deficit it has ever faced, according to budget documents.

Go to this link for more: https://www.pngattitude.com/2020/01/cash-crunch-as-debt-repayment-soars.html

Under Marape, rights getting worse - report

NEWS DESK
| Radio New Zealand

AUCKLAND - A human rights organisation has released a damning report into the state of Papua New Guinea, where a change of prime minister has done little to tackle rampant violence and corruption.

Human Rights Watch's annual report reveals rates of violence, domestic abuse, corruption and foreign debt haven't improved over the past year, where weak enforcement and a lack of accountability fostered a culture of impunity and lawlessness.

Its deputy director for Asia, Phil Robertson, said despite a change in prime minister, progress was still slow and the key findings were dire.

"We are talking about a very desperately poor country. One where there is a lot of violence that's committed with impunity ... where women are particularly affected, as well as children.

"Forty percent of the population still lives in poverty, and this is a very resource-rich country. Twenty five percent of the children are not in school, and our estimate is that one in 13 have died of preventable disease."

The report found more than two-thirds of women and girls were subjected to domestic violence, while 75 percent of children surveyed across 30 communities experienced violence at home.

"PNG has an underfunded health system and children are particularly vulnerable to disease. An estimated one in thirteen children die each year from preventable diseases, and large numbers of children experienced malnutrition resulting in stunted growth," it said.

There was little chance of redressing it with the culture of corruption and impunity that had been fostered, the report said, with corruption convictions rare and prosecutions for brutality at the hands of the state and military few and far between.

To date, no police officers had been prosecuted for killing 17 prison escapees in 2017 and four prison escapees from Buimo prison in Lae in 2018, the report noted. Police officers who killed eight student protesters in Port Moresby in 2016 had also not been held accountable.

A new prime minister, James Marape, had done little so far to rein in corruption, it said, and the unequal distribution of the revenue from the country's natural resources was creating friction and eroding land rights in rural areas. In multiple cases, landowners had been mistreated by foreign mining companies, it said.

Robertson said PNG had not really worked to dig itself out the hole it was in, and it was only getting worse.

Go to this link for more: https://www.pngattitude.com/2020/01/under-marape-rights-getting-worse-report.html

Centuries-long Hela war gets deadlier

AHMAD HALLAK
| The Age (Melbourne)

HELA - It is often said that tribal fighting in the Papua New Guinea Highlands is part and parcel of the socio-cultural fabric of the region.

With a history stretching back hundreds of years (if not more), it can be seen simply as an indivisible feature of the Highland way of life.

While to some extent true, tribal fighting in the last 30 years has become more akin to conventional warfare on the battlefields of the Middle East or sub-Saharan Africa than the pitched battles using the bows and arrows that characterised pre-colonial confrontations in the Highlands.

In the last 30 years, modern weapons, along with other accoutrements of modern technology, have made their way into Papua New Guinea. They have disrupted the traditional rules of tribal fighting that had historically limited the effects and consequences of the fighting and restrained fighters from going too far.

While in the past a decision to go to war with an opposing clan or tribe would have been taken collectively, now young and disillusioned men with access to modern weapons can unleash devastation on their enemies and their own communities almost single-handedly.

The presence of these modern weapons and their destructive firepower has also meant that the number of casualties is much higher, making it harder for opposing sides to reconcile (and the traditional exchange of compensation prohibitive) and leading to completely unprecedented tribal fighting dynamics.

Instead of pre-arranged battles between warriors in designated areas as in the past, villages are now attacked under cover of darkness as part of a scorched earth policy to kill and destroy with abandon. And while previously fighting was restricted to the geography of the tribes involved, targeted killings can now occur against random members of either side almost anywhere.

Schools and clinics are frequently attacked and destroyed, and most recently in Hela pregnant women and children were killed and some burnt alive.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been present in PNG since 2007 and opened its offices in Mount Hagen and Bougainville in 2012. Since then, we have progressively grown our presence.

Today, most ICRC staff and resources are focused on protecting and assisting people affected by the tribal fighting in the provinces of Enga, Hela and the Southern Highlands.

Our teams are consistently in the field working with and supporting affected communities and local authorities to rebuild or rehabilitate schools (sometimes working hand in hand with previously warring tribes) and clinics, to install rainwater harvesting systems, storage tanks, and sanitation facilities.

The ICRC has helped women and orphan-headed households whose previous main breadwinners were killed in tribal fights, with one such beneficiary telling a colleague of mine how she was now no longer “invisible in her community” and part of the communal fabric once again.

Such cash grants are complemented with training on keeping livestock and agricultural techniques as well as on financial literacy. ICRC experts also carry out training for health professionals on emergency room trauma care and emergency management of victims of sexual violence. Soon, they are also looking to provide mental health and psycho-social support to victims of violence.

As we have a unique relationship with weapon bearers, we also conduct training on international policing standards for the Royal PNG Constabulary and officers of PNG Defence Forces involved in law enforcement operations. Moreover, we conduct training on international humanitarian law for legal advisors and senior officers from the PNG Defence Forces.

Having worked with the ICRC in Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, and South Sudan before Papua New Guinea, I cannot claim that the violence in the country, both past and present, shocks or surprises me, and that is unfortunate in its own way.

What complicates our work in PNG is that where it concerns tribal fighting groups, unlike an armed force of the state or non-state armed group, there is no established hierarchy to have a dialogue with who can issue orders to its soldiers.

Bouts of tribal fighting to the outside observer are as unpredictable as the weather, some with roots going back many generations.

Our teams spend countless hours listening, conversing with and persuading widows and community leaders, policemen and tribal fighters, provincial bureaucrats and church leaders to become partners in an age-old struggle to lessen the inevitable human suffering arising from conflict.

Ahmad Hallak was the head of mission of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Papua New Guinea

Go to this link for more: https://www.pngattitude.com/2020/01/a-violent-centuries-long-war-gets-deadlier.html