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Somare’s carbon scam full of holes

PNGEXPOSED While Prime Minister Michael Somare is on his extended international tour, pleading with the international community to hand over billions of dollars in return for carbon strategy stitched together by international consultancy firm, McKinsey’s for a cool $2.2 million dollars, the true nature of his carbon scam is only too apparent to keen observers. On one front there is the continuing scandal of rampant illegal logging. Illegal logging like that at Musa Pongani which is now encroaching into the Managlas Conservation Area. The Authorities have been aware of the logging for more than 9 months but despite repeated pleas from landowners, the Malaysian loggers, protected by local police, continue to plunder the forests and the illegally harvested logs pile up on the beach while the local forest officer drives around in a logging company vehicle. Meanwhile, nobody seems to know whether Somare’s Climate Change Minister has been sacked or not. Potape claims his sacking is not trueA

Somare’s carbon scam full of holes

PNGEXPOSED While Prime Minister Michael Somare is on his extended international tour, pleading with the international community to hand over billions of dollars in return for carbon strategy stitched together by international consultancy firm, McKinsey’s for a cool $2.2 million dollars, the true nature of his carbon scam is only too apparent to keen observers. On one front there is the continuing scandal of rampant illegal logging. Illegal logging like that at Musa Pongani which is now encroaching into the Managlas Conservation Area. The Authorities have been aware of the logging for more than 9 months but despite repeated pleas from landowners, the Malaysian loggers, protected by local police, continue to plunder the forests and the illegally harvested logs pile up on the beach while the local forest officer drives around in a logging company vehicle. Meanwhile, nobody seems to know whether Somare’s Climate Change Minister has been sacked or not. Potape claims his sacking

World's oldest high-altitude settlements 'found in PNG'

AFP The world's oldest known high-altitude human settlements, dating back up to 49,000 years, have been found sealed in volcanic ash in Papua New Guinea mountains, archaeologists said Friday. Researchers have unearthed the remains of about six camps, including fragments of stone tools and food, in an area near the town of Kokoda, said an archaeologist on the team, Andrew Fairbairn. "What we've got there are basically a series of campsites, that's what they look like anyway. The remains of fires, stone tools, that kind of thing, on ridgetops," the University of Queensland academic told AFP. "It's not like a village or anything like that, they are these campsite areas that have been repeatedly used." Fairbairn said the settlements are at about 2,000 metres (6,600 feet) and believed to be the oldest evidence of our human ancestors, homo sapiens, inhabiting a high-altitude environment. "For homo sapiens, this is the earliest for us, for modern human

World's oldest high-altitude settlements 'found in PNG'

AFP The world's oldest known high-altitude human settlements, dating back up to 49,000 years, have been found sealed in volcanic ash in Papua New Guinea mountains, archaeologists said Friday. Researchers have unearthed the remains of about six camps, including fragments of stone tools and food, in an area near the town of Kokoda, said an archaeologist on the team, Andrew Fairbairn. "What we've got there are basically a series of campsites, that's what they look like anyway. The remains of fires, stone tools, that kind of thing, on ridgetops," the University of Queensland academic told AFP. "It's not like a village or anything like that, they are these campsite areas that have been repeatedly used." Fairbairn said the settlements are at about 2,000 metres (6,600 feet) and believed to be the oldest evidence of our human ancestors, homo sapiens, inhabiting a high-altitude environment. "For homo sapiens, this is the earliest for us, for moder

KILL THE GUN CULTURE IN PNG

OP/ED Students at two schools in the Highlands will now go without their teachers because they were killed in a tribal fight at Minj in the Western Highlands. In that fight, Police tell us that guns were used. On the same day, three villagers from Kandep walked into our office in Mt Hagen and told us that some 300 firearms are in the hands of communities who are engaged in a conflict. They revealed that over 75 men have been killed in the conflict that has raged for a number of years. The breakdown of law and order, the proliferation of violence now increasingly blamed on guns, and the inability of the Police or the courts to exercise authority because of various reasons, are more obvious features in PNG today. According to Police, there is overwhelming evidence to show that major crimes over the last 15 years or more have been exacerbated by the use of illegal guns. Tribal fighting, robbery, break and enter and murder involve the use of guns. We can therefore assume that without guns,

KILL THE GUN CULTURE IN PNG

OP/ED Students at two schools in the Highlands will now go without their teachers because they were killed in a tribal fight at Minj in the Western Highlands. In that fight, Police tell us that guns were used. On the same day, three villagers from Kandep walked into our office in Mt Hagen and told us that some 300 firearms are in the hands of communities who are engaged in a conflict. They revealed that over 75 men have been killed in the conflict that has raged for a number of years. The breakdown of law and order, the proliferation of violence now increasingly blamed on guns, and the inability of the Police or the courts to exercise authority because of various reasons, are more obvious features in PNG today. According to Police, there is overwhelming evidence to show that major crimes over the last 15 years or more have been exacerbated by the use of illegal guns. Tribal fighting, robbery, break and enter and murder involve the use of guns. We can therefore assume that without g

LNG SHAKEY, EXXON DECLINES TO COMMENT.

AFP PORT MORESBY — Energy giant ExxonMobil Tuesday refused to confirm reports of an arson attack on its 15-billion-dollar gas project in Papua New Guinea, saying only that police were probing an unspecified incident. The National newspaper reported that trucks and heavy machinery were torched by local villagers at an Exxon quarry near Kaiam Ferry in the southern Gulf province of Kikori last Friday. "No one was injured or directly threatened," ExxonMobil spokesman Miles Shaw told AFP, confirming that police were investigating an incident involving the liquefied natural gas project but declining to provide details. "Police are carrying out their investigation so until that is complete it would not be appropriate to comment at this time." Police contacted by AFP could not immediately comment. The National said the attack was believed to have stemmed from ongoing landowner unrest about Exxon's gas project, which will include liquefaction and storage facilities in th

LNG SHAKEY, EXXON DECLINES TO COMMENT.

AFP PORT MORESBY — Energy giant ExxonMobil Tuesday refused to confirm reports of an arson attack on its 15-billion-dollar gas project in Papua New Guinea, saying only that police were probing an unspecified incident. The National newspaper reported that trucks and heavy machinery were torched by local villagers at an Exxon quarry near Kaiam Ferry in the southern Gulf province of Kikori last Friday. "No one was injured or directly threatened," ExxonMobil spokesman Miles Shaw told AFP, confirming that police were investigating an incident involving the liquefied natural gas project but declining to provide details. "Police are carrying out their investigation so until that is complete it would not be appropriate to comment at this time." Police contacted by AFP could not immediately comment. The National said the attack was believed to have stemmed from ongoing landowner unrest about Exxon's gas project, which will include liquefaction and storage facilitie

Fix the Landowner Issues

JAMES MONDOLAME The $16 billion Exxon Mobil-led LNG project is hyped to double PNG's gross domestic product with at least 30 years of gas sales to Asian buyers once it comes on line after 2014, but now we hear there is carnage and continued tension amongst landowners. Only yesterday the National reported that a raiding party consisting of frustrated landowners who were overlooked for employment and spin-off benefits raised fears about this project when they attacked and burnt equipment belonging to a company tied with the developer. This raises a lot of questions to everyone including myself, was there proper social mapping done to ensure everyone who lived on the project were accounted for? We need development, we do, but development that is carried out without properly assessing everyone affected affects us all. Since the Oil in Kutubu started flowing out of the Southern Highlands Province in1989, we have not seen anything as a footprint left by the oil and gas giant Chevron. Not