PNGBLOGS

By JASON WAUGLE It defies simple logic how an Israeli company so small and invisible in its own country could be creating everything from A to Z here in PNG, with its eye on running the national power grid and holding us hostage to pay whatever price they demand for electricity. Israeli’s LR Group is back in the news again.   Sometime in 2011 our shady Prime Minister found LR Group to be the perfect partner for PNG, even though its track record at setting up any project that sustains itself without their permanent and profitable involvement is questionable and they seem very secretive, even to their employees on what they’re really up to (see http://www.pngblogs.com/2014/06/png-israeli-business-connections.html ). Late last year, shady Peter had LR Group do a simple middleman business deal, sourcing 2 generators for PNG that initially were said to be coming from Israel’s Israel Electric Corp (IEC) as used equipment, but then strangely arrived from the USA from General Electric, which

By Frank Taso Have you ever noticed that our pollies constantly whimper that they’re being defamed on the social media, yet will hardly ever reply to any allegations made against them on the social media?     Actually, Powes Parkop once tried it on PNGBlogs by posting an article defending himself.  He immediately vanished when followup questions were thrown at him that put him on the spot.   Questions like why does it cost so damn much money to build a road on government land on flat ground in Port Moresby.   Or why is is so damn impossible to post all tenders for infrastructure construction contracted by NCDC directly on the NCDC web site for we taxpayers to see? Powes won’t answer such questions because he’s too busy worrying that he’ll look stupid before the eyes of the public over what appears about him on the internet.  Once again he has called for legal regulation of the social media, especially Facebook.  What Stupid Powes doesn’t ever seem to get into his

By DR JAMES NAIPAO Happy 39th Independence. Man has lived on this planet for 360 million years or so. 300 million years or so, man have become nocturnal mammals. After 65 million years ago, man came out of the closet of the darkness to explore the ends of the earth. From a nomadic lifestyle, agriculture paved the way for the birth of clans, tribes, ethnicity, great kingdoms and civilizations and attached to the biodiversity of environments where man set foot on. For control and normalcy, all forms of government were born. With time through centuries, million of lives were lost through wars, conflicts, territorial land grabbings, diseases, natural disasters and famines. Intellectual ability of man grew with the experiences of time. This brought peace and good order as well as the evolution of modernism. Today, global hunger and despair will absorb the minds of men and they will fight against each to claim presumably what is deservedly theirs, and poverty will drive that. PNG

WE ARE MANY YET ONE 39 YEARS OF BEING A FREE NATION

By SCOTT WAIDE In 1975, Jerry Nalau, became one of the first Papua New Guineans to become  a District Commissioner  when powers were transferred  from the Australian Colonial  administration to the new Papua New Guinea government. The  young patrol  officer  who was then already  a veteran  in the new administration became one of the few  Morobeans   sent to Kunidiawa  in the Simbu Province  as part of  the Somare’s administration to help unite the new country. “Somare said to me: ‘I want you to go to the highlands.’ And I said: ‘Somare, I’m not the only one! What about the others?’” By then,  Jerry Nalau had already served several years  in Bougainville and Rabaul  during  the  turbulent  but  positive  pre-independence period. Nalau recalls that in typical Somare humor, the Chief Minister responded: “You go to the highlands because you Finchafens took the  Word of God  to the highlands calling God’s name… Anutu… Anutu…Anutu… I think if you go, they will respect you.”It

By A Bush Economist This is the story of privatisation of public enterprises.  Privatisation first reared its head in PNG with the demise of the government owned Papua New Guinea Banking Corporation.  Its landmark Port Moresby headquarters still shows the PNG traditional art forms and icons that around the time of independence we proudly displayed as evidence of our unique culture, but nowdays allow elected fools such as Theo Zureonuc and Loujaya Kousa label as satanic.   PNGBC was the bank of the people with the goal of service, not profit.    We now have BSP in its place.  BSP is majority owned by private shareholders and its profit since 2012 has grown at rates of 10-25% each year, leading to the 2013 result of nearly K437 million.   That’s not income, it is profit and a hell of a lot of money by PNG standards.    Divided up amongst every single person living in PNG, from baby up to papa na mama, each one would have received K62 for 2013.  BSP has what it proudly states to be ov

By TECHE  JACOB It was amazing to see hundreds of people on PNG Blogs Facebook page give their thumbs up to the recent article about Bemobile CEO Ramamurthy.   More people than ever seem angry at how people from other cultures treat us.   Foreign investors are dictating ‘take it or leave it’ terms to our government and basically calling the shots.  Yet we happily reap benefits from the growing Asian invasion.   Let me ask you, what is most important:   Our sovereignty and self respect, or the greater material benefits we get by having foreigners and foreign investment dominate us?    The Clash Between Land-less Versus Land Rich Societies The article about BeMobile’s new CEO and allegations of racism didn’t get to the root issues, which is the reason for these kinds of clashes.   They occur between 2 very different societies: In the Type 1 society, the average person has access to much wealth (promoted by personal access to land and resources).  They have more personal freedom in m