PNGBLOGS

COUNTRYSIDE Albert Veratau and Garry Juffa represent two clashing ideologies. Veratauism consist of building the code by forging strong relations with a major partner who will provide financial and technical support. It reached the echelons of our relations with Australia when former PM Rudd pulled strings to get the ball rolling on the NRL contemplating a 2015 entrant for one of our teams. Even at the operational level we saw a mass injection of technical assistance. Whole bunch of blokes flooded our shores brining goodies. The Pacific Cup saw a full team of dim dims in everything. From setting up the PA system, touch judges, promotion and marketing consultants and even water boys. Why even the great Adrian Lam looked far and wide in the great southland for Kumuls. Recruiting them from the North all the way to the south and boy they put on a show. Trashing every pacific country that came our way. It was something and Veratauism had prevail in bringing the code much needed atte

CHRIS BARRETT THE release of $4 million of Australian taxpayer funding to Papua New Guinea rugby league is on hold indefinitely while a bitter power struggle for leadership of the game in the country persists. As the Kumuls line up for the second game of their Four Nations campaign, against New Zealand in Rotorua tomorrow, the administration in Port Moresby remains crippled by a dispute between rival factions that has ventured from the boardroom to the courts and back. The uncertainty over the future stewardship of the PNG Rugby Football League has prompted AusAid, which is a partner in the lucrative package to PNG league with the Australian Sports Commission and the ARL, to continue to delay delivery of the funding 14 months after it was allocated and announced by then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. There are hopes that the year-long dispute between former chairman Albert Veratau and Gary Juffa, the PNG customs commissioner, will be resolved at the PNGRFL's annual general me

PNGBLOGS Bulolo MP Sam Basil went on NBC yesterday to tell the people of Watut River Communities to refrain from signing any statutory declaration of such from Morobe Mining JV and the Morobe Provincial Government until our lawyer’s advices about its future implications as the Mp believes that it may jaepodise future lawsuits from the locals and the District Administration. Bulolo District JDP&BPC recently passed a K150,000.00 funding to fund a Toxicologist from Australia who have already identified locations for sampling. Mr Basil also urges affected people of Huon Gulf to convince their local MP & Minister for Health Hon. Sasa Zibe or the Governor Hon. Luther Wenge to fund the Huon Gulf section side of the affected river system as it is a very expensive exercise which needs a joint effort from all concerned parties. His office has not been informed by the MMJV officials about the past method of compensation exercises including the recent compensation payouts and the future i

PNGBLOGS Bulolo MP Sam Basil went on NBC yesterday to tell the people of Watut River Communities to refrain from signing any statutory declaration of such from Morobe Mining JV and the Morobe Provincial Government until our lawyer’s advices about its future implications as the Mp believes that it may jaepodise future lawsuits from the locals and the District Administration. Bulolo District JDP&BPC recently passed a K150,000.00 funding to fund a Toxicologist from Australia who have already identified locations for sampling. Mr Basil also urges affected people of Huon Gulf to convince their local MP & Minister for Health Hon. Sasa Zibe or the Governor Hon. Luther Wenge to fund the Huon Gulf section side of the affected river system as it is a very expensive exercise which needs a joint effort from all concerned parties. His office has not been informed by the MMJV officials about the past method of compensation exercises including the recent compensation payouts and the futu

VICTOR MENALDO Papua New Guinea is a small island nation in the South Pacific (Oceania), a region of the world that contains 29 countries and dependent states covering approximately 9,000,000 sq km (3, 475,000 square miles), with a population of about 35.8 million.  It made news today when the NY Times reported today that Papua New Guinea could be the next victim of the so-called resource curse . In 2014, ExxonMobil is scheduled to start shipping natural gas through a 450-mile pipeline, then on to Japan, China and other markets in East Asia. But the flood of revenue, which is expected to bring Papua New Guinea $30 billion over three decades and to more than double its gross domestic product, will force a country already beset by state corruption and bedeviled by a complex land tenure system to grapple with the kind of windfall that has paradoxically entrenched other poor, resource-rich nations in deeper poverty. Let’s examine the claims made by the NY Times. First, the Times

VICTOR MENALDO Papua New Guinea is a small island nation in the South Pacific (Oceania), a region of the world that contains 29 countries and dependent states covering approximately 9,000,000 sq km (3, 475,000 square miles), with a population of about 35.8 million.  It made news today when the NY Times reported today that Papua New Guinea could be the next victim of the so-called resource curse . In 2014, ExxonMobil is scheduled to start shipping natural gas through a 450-mile pipeline, then on to Japan, China and other markets in East Asia. But the flood of revenue, which is expected to bring Papua New Guinea $30 billion over three decades and to more than double its gross domestic product, will force a country already beset by state corruption and bedeviled by a complex land tenure system to grapple with the kind of windfall that has paradoxically entrenched other poor, resource-rich nations in deeper poverty. Let’s examine the claims made by the NY Times. First, the T

JUSTIN ROHRLICH Reports have emerged that ExxonMobil ( XOM ) will begin drilling for natural gas in Papua New Guinea. The company’s operations are expected to bring $30 billion -- more than double its current GDP -- over 30 years, but many are wondering if Papua New Guinea, named one of the world’s most corrupt countries by Transparency International, will be able to avoid the so-called “Resource Curse.” The Resource Curse is the paradox that occurs when a country finds itself sitting atop vast riches in the form of minerals, precious metals, and so forth, but finds itself pushed deeper into poverty and societal disrepair. According to the Christian Science Monitor , Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso, one time Venezuelan oil minister, likened oil to “the devil’s excrement”. Sheikh Ahmed Yamani, his Saudi Arabian counterpart, reportedly once said, “I wish we had found water.” Case in point: According to The New York Times , the chief of Kili, a local Papua New Guinea town, received $