PNGBLOGS

ONECOUNTRY The problems of LNG Landowners are long time in the making, not just of this LNG Project. The attitude of government in not conducting social mapping and sitting down with its own citizens and determining land boundaries, trupela landowners, exact nature of and bundle of rights applying to various groups in respect of project areas and pipeline corridor, is not new. In the past it has been just shoving matters down the throats of people. The Kutubu and the Gobe Projects are clear examples. In respect of the Gobe project, the government instead of resorting to social mapping prior to granting Development license, it bulldozed it and forced the people to camp in Port Moresby fighting over who owns what. They never had a chance to negotiate their equity or royalty rights. It then locked up their meager royalties and forced the people to enter into serious debt living in the corridors of court houses trying to determine who owns what- something the government should have done as

ONECOUNTRY The problems of LNG Landowners are long time in the making, not just of this LNG Project. The attitude of government in not conducting social mapping and sitting down with its own citizens and determining land boundaries, trupela landowners, exact nature of and bundle of rights applying to various groups in respect of project areas and pipeline corridor, is not new. In the past it has been just shoving matters down the throats of people. The Kutubu and the Gobe Projects are clear examples. In respect of the Gobe project, the government instead of resorting to social mapping prior to granting Development license, it bulldozed it and forced the people to camp in Port Moresby fighting over who owns what. They never had a chance to negotiate their equity or royalty rights. It then locked up their meager royalties and forced the people to enter into serious debt living in the corridors of court houses trying to determine who owns what- something the government shoul

DAVID MURI WHILE Papua New Guineans nationwide saluted our flag with happy celebrations, in Nipa district of Southern Highlands, two sisters publicly asked a question few politicians will take seriously. Sisters Ruth and Janet Sol wore black on September 16, PNG’s 35th Independence Anniversary to protest what they see as a lack of real development, prosperity and improvement in law and order and advancement for the common people. Their question was simple - why celebrate when all around, there is little or nothing to show for celebration? It’s a question that nags at the fabric of PNG’s economic growth and prosperity, a question politicians sweep aside with political rhetoric that would rather paint a rosy picture for a country anchored by its natural mineral resources but well known to be mismanaged and poor. Its poor are faceless that Ruth and Janet Sol so courageously stood up for on a breezy mountainside in Nipa, not far from where the nation’s oil and gas wealth will be extracted

DAVID MURI WHILE Papua New Guineans nationwide saluted our flag with happy celebrations, in Nipa district of Southern Highlands, two sisters publicly asked a question few politicians will take seriously. Sisters Ruth and Janet Sol wore black on September 16, PNG’s 35th Independence Anniversary to protest what they see as a lack of real development, prosperity and improvement in law and order and advancement for the common people. Their question was simple - why celebrate when all around, there is little or nothing to show for celebration? It’s a question that nags at the fabric of PNG’s economic growth and prosperity, a question politicians sweep aside with political rhetoric that would rather paint a rosy picture for a country anchored by its natural mineral resources but well known to be mismanaged and poor. Its poor are faceless that Ruth and Janet Sol so courageously stood up for on a breezy mountainside in Nipa, not far from where the nation’s oil and gas wealth will be extrac