PNGBLOGS

ALMOST all rural villages in PNG do not have basic services, causing the people to suffer in silence. Now, imagine if you want to become an MP. You show up during election campaigning and promise the people you will restore everything if you are voted in. They give you their mandate and after winning the election, you return to Port Moresby where you live in an expensive house, drive around in flashy cars trying to attract the attention of young girls, eat in exclusive restaurants, frequenting pokies joints and nightclubs, and travelling to Australia for shopping and medical treatment. One day, you decide to make a trip to the village to launch a semi-permanent classroom. At the airport, you are greeted by your tribesmen and you hire a fleet of vehicles. As the convoy makes its way to the village, the pothole-filled road makes your drive uncomfortable. On that instant, you started working out your speech, what to tell the people. As soon as you get out of the vehicle upon rea

ALMOST all rural villages in PNG do not have basic services, causing the people to suffer in silence. Now, imagine if you want to become an MP. You show up during election campaigning and promise the people you will restore everything if you are voted in. They give you their mandate and after winning the election, you return to Port Moresby where you live in an expensive house, drive around in flashy cars trying to attract the attention of young girls, eat in exclusive restaurants, frequenting pokies joints and nightclubs, and travelling to Australia for shopping and medical treatment. One day, you decide to make a trip to the village to launch a semi-permanent classroom. At the airport, you are greeted by your tribesmen and you hire a fleet of vehicles. As the convoy makes its way to the village, the pothole-filled road makes your drive uncomfortable. On that instant, you started working out your speech, what to tell the people. As soon as you get out of the vehicle upon rea

Rene Klumbi TWO people were killed in a nasty road accident in Port Moresby last weekend and several others were injured.The accident would have been avoidable but for the careless driving of one of the drivers, who crashed into another vehicle forcing it to overturn onto the next lane.While recognising the fact that motor traffic accidents will happen in the best of conditions, and anywhere, we must ask the question: Is the big budget Road Safety is Not a Game campaign, funded by the Motor Vehicle Insurance Trust and promoted by Australian NRL big names, getting anywhere near educating errant drivers? If the evidence presented on the streets of Port Moresby are anything to go by, we can answer our own question with one word: “zilch!”Few, if anybody on the road, today is driving with the kind of care and respect for others that is promoted by the road safety campaign. If road safety is, indeed, not a game, then how do we make sure that it is serious, life threatening stuff? The campaig

Rene Klumbi TWO people were killed in a nasty road accident in Port Moresby last weekend and several others were injured.The accident would have been avoidable but for the careless driving of one of the drivers, who crashed into another vehicle forcing it to overturn onto the next lane.While recognising the fact that motor traffic accidents will happen in the best of conditions, and anywhere, we must ask the question: Is the big budget Road Safety is Not a Game campaign, funded by the Motor Vehicle Insurance Trust and promoted by Australian NRL big names, getting anywhere near educating errant drivers? If the evidence presented on the streets of Port Moresby are anything to go by, we can answer our own question with one word: “zilch!”Few, if anybody on the road, today is driving with the kind of care and respect for others that is promoted by the road safety campaign. If road safety is, indeed, not a game, then how do we make sure that it is serious, life threatening stuff? The cam

Most people agree that InterOil has found something of value at its Antelope drilling site in Papua New Guinea.  Whether the gas reservoir InterOil has found matches the company's euphoric description of it, however, is still a subject of fierce debate. For example, InterOil has described the "flow" (pressure) of natural gas at the site as a "world record." The video below is ostensibly of a flare test at InterOil's Antelope 2 site -- which purports to show this world-record flow. The video appears to have been uploaded to YouTube by InterOil's CFO, Collin Visaggio , although the uploader could presumably just be someone pretending to be him (we're checking). The video is labeled as follows: InterOil Antelope 2 World Record Gas Flow 705 mscf/day A company skeptic says this video doesn't show a flow anywhere near as big as the company describes.  We therefore invite all natural gas experts to weigh in on it. It's possible that

Most people agree that InterOil has found something of value at its Antelope drilling site in Papua New Guinea.  Whether the gas reservoir InterOil has found matches the company's euphoric description of it, however, is still a subject of fierce debate. For example, InterOil has described the "flow" (pressure) of natural gas at the site as a "world record." The video below is ostensibly of a flare test at InterOil's Antelope 2 site -- which purports to show this world-record flow. The video appears to have been uploaded to YouTube by InterOil's CFO, Collin Visaggio , although the uploader could presumably just be someone pretending to be him (we're checking). The video is labeled as follows: InterOil Antelope 2 World Record Gas Flow 705 mscf/day A company skeptic says this video doesn't show a flow anywhere near as big as the company describes.  We therefore invite all natural gas experts to weigh in on it. It's

THE much talked-about “windfall revenues” from the mineral sector will be wasted because there are no effective and proper mechanisms to manage them. Australian National University academic Prof Ron Duncan said PNG had experienced two mining booms since Independence. “The first in the early 1990s was poorly managed with Government expenditure greatly exceeding revenues, resulting in a large increase in public debt and the devaluation and eventual floating of the kina. “The recent commodity boom has been managed more effectively, with the paying down of public debt and the setting aside of trust funds from the revenues for future expenditure on long-overdue refurbishment of important public infrastructure and development of essential services,” Prof Duncan said. “Unfortunately, there was also a sharp increase in recurrent expenditure and there is now some doubt about how well the windfall revenues, set aside in trust funds, will be managed now and in the future.” He