PNGBLOGS

By the close of Business today –May 27 th 2015   Guandong Rising Asset Management [ GRAM] of China will have taken over 86 % controlling interest over the small Australian Mining Company Pan Aust Ltd which as I have pointed out over the last two years does not have the Financial resources to   fully develop the Frieda R4iver Deposit in the West Sepik Province. Pan Aust Ltd entered the Frieda Project by   stealth a year ago   and have now again disappeared in the same way as they first appeared in Frieda in 2013. The cost of their involvement in Frieda put a cool   USD$950 million on the value of Pan Aust Ltd. In his address to Pan Aust Shareholders on Friday the 22 nd of may 2015 the Chairman of PNG reported to the Australian Stock Exchange that Pan Aust Share Holders after holding out for a year have now accepted an offer of US$950 million to sell out to Guangdong Rising Asset management a company owned by the Municipal Authority of Shenzhenand listed on the Shenzhen Stock

by Zara Zulu-noknok Never in PNG's history has a son so successfully sunk the name of a respected father into ridicule as our Parliamentary Speaker Theo has destroyed the once respected Zurenuoc name reputation created by his former MP father the wise Zibang Zurenuoc. Today the word 'Zurenuoc' has become another term for 'hysterical laughing at lunatic actions'. Zurenuoc's behaviour has become even more mysterious than that of PNG's other self styled mystic, Andy Agiru. Together they carry on like a new generation of the infamous Black Jesus Steven Tari: All 3 of them seem to be wise at first. But listen for a while and come to realise that their brains are full of cross wires and short circuits. And thus did the Idiot Zurenuoc, supposed symbol of self righteousness and Supreme Good Sense, use the cover of darkness on Monday night to leave the PPP party (under the leadership of self proclaimed Black Fitness Guru, Ben Micah!) to join the People

by JOHN M TOHERA Growing unhappiness in Madang against the proposed Pacific Marine Industrial Zone (PMIZ) is beginning to make the scam promoters nervous. The PMIZ is nothing more than a sophisticated land grab to transfer the rights of a valuable piece of real estate into Chinese hands. If the PMIZ project goes through, a beautiful pristine piece of Madang Province near Alexishafen will be converted into a stinky collection of tuna canneries just like what you see today in the Philippines and Thailand. These are the kinds of projects that end up mostly exploiting local people instead of bringing 'development' to them. THE KINGPIN CONMAN IN THE LAND GRAB The main character in the PMIZ scam is Gabriel Kapris, former Somare government minister who long ago established his reputation as a whirlwind of corrupt activity. With respect to the PMIZ, Kapris was instrumental in pushing through a K202 million Chinese Exxim Bank Loan to the PNG government while

by CASPER DAMIEN   “Papua New Guinea, a land of the unexpected with diverse ethnic cultures with more than 800 different languages and tribal groups and yet one country.”      Nation refers to groups of people, usually but not exclusively, defined geographically. They are people which may trace back to common ancestry and are identified by common language, culture, history and religion. Such groups of peoples have and do claim the rights of political autonomy. There is a sense or strong feeling of “nationalism”, a political and legal doctrine about the recognition of their political rights. The most important of these rights is the right of ‘self-determination’. This is usually taken as requiring ‘self-government’.    Nationalism has an ambiguous quality, in that it can be either positive or negative. In the positive it is an expression of cultural diversity, of a desire of a group of people to continue and to develop in a way of their own choosing. In the

by LUCAS KIAP  When it comes to development and providing basic government services in the country - is where billions and billions of Kina of public funds are pumped into every year. Year-in-year-out, every government, when comes into office makes headlines across the country - announcing big budgets for development, raising the hope of the people because they want it badly. Despite billions of kina have been spent every year on development and delivery of basic government services to the people, people still complain about the lack of development and vital basic government services and how they struggle to survive without it. Where are those billions of Kina budgeted by the government disappear to? In Papua New Guinea politics and business cannot be separated from each other. To be a politician is to be a businessman or vice versa. This misconception of politics as a means to wealth accumulation explains why businessmen, ordinary persons, civil servants, priests and pastors when

by KEVIN MEMEH Reports from many government departments are painting the same picture: a government that has badly overspent, is way over budget and can't even pay for the basics in health and education. The money crunch is already bad, promised government monies aren't coming into the ministries and it all promises to get worse. It would be one thing if this overexpenditure was all staying within PNG to benefit PNG. Sadly that's not the case. PNG has long been one of the great foreign aid providers of the world. What do you think we mean by that statement? Maybe we're referring to Peter O'Neill's commitments of sizeable donations to Fiji and Solomon Islands? No, we're not. We're talking about the PNG government handout to the world in the form of literal fortunes being given to foreign construction companies to build PNG infrastructure. Why is it that we've been independent for 2 generations and still seem incapable