DIANNE WAKETSI AND POST COURIER'S OBSESSION WITH PORN
THE WORST THING TO DO AFTER YOU’VE MADE A MISTAKE IS TO LIE AND TRY TO COVER IT UP: ENTER POST COURIER “JOURNALIST” DIANNE WAKETSI!
“Journalist” Dianne Waketsi has had a few jobs since she graduated from Divine World University with a degree in journalism. On the surface it looks like she is an experienced reporter, but it is becoming quickly apparent that she’s not on a career upswing, but stuck in a rut at the Post Courier. The most likely reason is her poor journalism skills which have now backfired royally into her face as she has shamed Papua New Guinea generally, and Western Highlanders specifically, as being addicted to using the internet to seek out porn. The facts do not support this at all. In some instances it is clear that Dianne Waketsi outright lied in her story. In other cases, she couldn’t be bothered to understand the statistics she was reporting on, and got it all wrong.
But she admits none of this and is trying to spin the controversy over her article into it being anger at the truth. What Dianne Waketsi wrote is not the truth. What she wrote is not what Google Trends shows. She has now added “proven liar” to her resume already containing “poor journalism skills” as one of her characteristics.
Here is exactly where Dianne Waketsi has distorted the truth or outright lied:
OUTRIGHT LIE #1: That Papua New Guinea ranks #1 in the world typing in the word “porn”. In fact, the list of 25 countries does not even show PNG, even as #25. It is true that PNG is listed as the #1 country for typing in the word “pornography” but the fact that “porn” wasn’t being used at all questioned the conclusion that Papua New Guineans were #1 in seeking porn. Dianne wanted to make a grand point that would shake up PNG and make us a laughingstock to the world. That’s why she lumped ‘porn’ and ‘pornography’ together and pretended that PNG was tops on both lists. It is not.
OUTRIGHT LIE #2: That being ranked “100%” on the list for entering “pornography” means that all Papua New Guineans on the internet have looked for “pornography” using Google at least once. The “100%” value is assigned to the top ranker on all the Google Trends lists. It is an arbitrary but easy to understand standard against which all the other items on the list can be compared. It has nothing to do with HOW MANY people in the country were doing anything.
SLOPPY INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING #1: It can not be concluded that Western Highlanders are more likely to look for porn using Google. PNG has 23 provinces plus the NCDC but Google trends only shows 3: Western Highlands, Morobe, and NCD. As far as the Google Trends statistics show, PNG only has 3 provinces. The fact is that Google can only determine where a Google user comes from based upon what their IP number indicates. IP numbers can be registered for any sized geographic area, which means that you could be living in Kikori, Gulf Province, and using an IP that has been registered as being a “Western Highlands” IP. Dianne Waketsi could have checked the place of origin for Digicel users in Moresby and seen for herself that at least some of the IPs used for Port Moresby residents say that the location is “Kerema”. It is impossible to know whether the statistics lumped under “Western Highlands Province” is really from that location because of the incompleteness of the data and the known generalization or outright error in the way PNG’s IPs are registered.
SLOPPY INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING #2: People can use Google to search for pornography by using all kinds of different words, from ‘porn’ to ‘pornography’ to ‘sex video’ to ‘doggy style’ sex. Different cultures use different words, and developed country societies tend to be more specific with their word usage. Dianne Waketsi never investigated this possibility. It is easily possible that the people in other countries are far more into searching for pornography than the people of PNG but are using a greater variety of search words. When additional search terms for pornography were teste, PNG didn’t even make the list on “most used” for those other terms.
CONVENIENTLY IGNORING A CONTRADICTORY FACT: When Dianne Waketsi was using Google Trends, she could have easily seen the graph that showed trends of usage over time. The fact is that even for the word “pornography”, Papua New Guineans have been less and less attracted to using that word for the last ELEVEN YEARS. Usage of the word entered into Google by Papua New Guineans peaked in 2005 and has gone dramatically downhill since that peak. This completely destroys Waketsi’s main point that Papua New Guineans are addicted to searching for porn on the internet.
CONVENIENTLY IGNORING A CONTRADICTORY FACT: The great majority of PNG citizens have never even been on the internet. Thus, one cannot make any judgements on how the society as a whole seeks out pornography. Only a small minority use the internet or use Google.
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HOW THE POST COURIER’S ‘GOOGLE FOR PORN’ STORY WAS CREATED
The key words that people type into the world’s most dominant search engine, Google, can be analysed by using the application known as Google Trends. You can access it at: https://www.google.com.pg/trends/
At the top you will see a search bar, where there is in light coloured type "Explore Topics". Click on that search bar and inside it type the word “porn” into it, then hit return. You will see a new page appear. At the top will be a graph showing the trend in popularity of “porn” as a search word from a global perspective. There hasn’t been that much change in recent years in the popularity of people looking for “porn” using Google. In fact, it has leveled off as a whole.
Below that graph, you will see a world map. If you don't see a list of countries to the right, then look for a tiny row of lines in the upper right hand side of the map. Click on that little icon and a list of countries should appear. Go down all 25 countries. You will not see Papua New Guinea listed at all.
Thus, we catch the Post Courier and the supposed “journalist” Dianne Waketsi giving a big fat lie to its readers. Papua New Guineans are not typing the word “porn” into Google in very large numbers at all. Papua New Guinea is not even listed in the top 25 for people typing the word “porn” into Google.
It is true that if you change the search word from “porn” to “pornography” you will finally see where PNG is ranked #1. But the Post Courier makes it seem like it doesn’t matter whether you type porn or pornography, you still show that Papua New Guineans are the most porn addicted. This is simply not true.
That the Post Courier would so easily lie to the public on its front page stories makes it hard to believe they can keep a straight face every time they moan and groan about how inaccurate the social media is in reporting on stories. Hello? The Post Courier has most money to do proper investigative reporting than any social media site, that is almost certain. Why won’t they do things right? Is it accidental or purposeful?
Let us continue with our use of Google Trends. If you now click on the country name “Papua New Guinea” where it appears on the list, you will be taken to a new page that shows changes over time for searches within that country in people searching for that particular word. Do this for the example “pornography”, where PNG appears as the #1 site for using that search word. You will see that interest amongst Papua New Guineans in Googling for porn actually peaked around 11 years ago (2005), then collapsed to low levels in 2007 where it has remained more or less ever since. In other words, this is not a “big news story”, Post Courier. All this sudden interest in Papua New Guineans being addicted to finding pornography (or porn) off the internet is very very old news.
Another falsehood is the Post Courier's statement that "Google Trends indicate almost all Papua New Guineans look up the word 'porn'. That is a false remark, probably part of Dianne Waketsi's demonstration of her incompetence as a reporter.
Ms Waketsi is either oblivious or illiterate that she didn't learn what the "interest ranking" actually refers to. It is a normalised statistics that allows for comparisons between items on a list, such as countries. These are not absolute values. Here is one explanation we got off the internet: For regional analyses this means that you are looking at a normalized indication of search interest within each country. So say you're getting an interest index of 100 in Singapore and an index of 25 in India, that just means that the concentration of Singaporeans searching your keyword are higher than the concentration of Indians searching your keyword. It could mean that Indians are less interested in your product, or they may just search for way more other stuff. This doesn't take into account the difference between countries in size of internet populations and volume of queries per user.
As for the idea proudly displayed by the Post Courier on its front page that Western Highlanders type in the word “pornography” much more than people anywhere else in PNG, with Morobeans behind, and NCD at a fairly low level, this is more nonsense by a ‘reporter’ who apparently doesn’t possess the brain cells to analyse properly. There are only 3 regions even listed by Google Trends as being “regions” of PNG, the ones that are listed. No other data is available.
These statistics are almost certainly meaningless because Google Trends is identifying regions based upon Internet Provider numbers of people using Google. We know for a fact that Digicel often will not display an accurate location for your IP in PNG. For example, in Port Moresby, it will often register that you are surfing the web from Kerema. The “Western Highlands” location could actually including all of the highlands, or part of the highlands and Papua region. We don’t know and neither does the Post Courier. We are probably safe in ignoring this last piece of Waketsi-Rubbish Reporting.
MORE EVIDENCE THAT PAPUA NEW GUINEANS ARE NOT WORLD CLASS GOOGLE SEARCHING PORN SEEKERS
Those who use English as a first language use different descriptive words when doing internet searching for information, compared to those for whom English is a second language. They tend to use more generalized terms because of their more limited vocabulary.
In searching for pornography, people are obviously looking for material that sexually arouses them. In PNG, it makes sense that people who use the internet to find pornography are looking for pornography and that’s all there is to it.
In more educated societies, people become more sophisticated in their perception of sex and what excites them the most, and learn more words that they can use to describe particular sexual techniques and positions. Thus, they are likely to type more precise words into Google to find the specific kind of porn that they’re looking for. There are many sexual positions and deviancies that people can engage in with sex.
There are many heterosexual sexual positions, each of which have their own names (dozens are listed from this site: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php…) and many homosexual sexual positions as well.
One web article titled “A Glossary of Rather Grotesque Sex Acts That People in Developed Countries Would Be Googling for” lists many sexual deviancies each of which have their own specialized names: “Alabama Hot Pocket” (Definition: Defecating in the vagina of your partner), “Angry Dragon”, “Angry Pirate”, “Blumpkin”, “Cherry-Vanilla Swirl”, “Carolina Chili Dog”, “Cincinnati Bowtie”, “Cleveland Steamer”, “Cunnilumpkin”, “Dirty Sanchez”, “Donkey Punch”, “Felching”, “Filthy Marx”, “Ghost Load”, “Hot Carl (or Hot Karl)”, “Hot Lips Hulahan”, “Munging”, “Philadelphia Flapjack”, “Pink Sock”, “Rusty Trombone”, “Teabagging” (for actual definitions of all these sexual perversions, go to: http://ibloviate.org/index.php?p=perversion-list, we are NOT going to explain them in this article!!!!!).
To test whether the Post Courier’s conclusion that we are the world’s biggest searchers for pornography on the internet, we can analyse the use of generalized versus specific terms in different countries to find out if this is true or not.
Let us consider a specific sexual position called “doggy style”. Are Papua New Guineans sticking just to the word “pornography” or do we have a genuine addition to online pornography as evidenced by our using all kinds of sex position search words to get the most personally tantalizing kind of porn available on the internet?
We typed in the term “doggy style sex” into Google trends. Papua New Guinea does not show up at all, as expected. Australia is #11 on the list however, followed by the United States, Canada and United Kingdom. However, Kenyans, where President Obama’s father came from, show a 100% ranking in looking for information on doggy style sexual position. In all these countries, people are searching for this specific style of sex.
We tried another term: “missionary position” to see if PNG would appear in the top 25 list, as would be expected if Papua New Guineans were looking for that specific kind of sexual position for finding pornography. We also included the word “video” in our search.
We found that United States was the only country on the list for people seeking out “missionary position videos” in any numbers. Perhaps this sexual position is too boring for the rest of the world.
Our third experiment was to type in “young girls sex video”. Three countries were listed, starting with Pakistan, then India and the United States. No Papua New Guinea on that list.
We then typed in “black girls sex” to see what countries came up as their people using these search terms the most. The returning list contained 19 countries. The top 8 were countries whose populations are primarily black. Papua New Guinea was not on that list either.
What these experiments indicate is that people in other countries are searching for their pornography using multiple terms or more specialized terms. They are not just sticking to the most generalized words. In PNG we do not seem to have reached that level of sophistication. In fact, when we add a single word to the original search, typing in “pornography sex” instead of “pornography” alone, we get a list of 8 countries, none of which include Papua New Guinea.
It is obvious that many other countries could be higher world champions in seeking finding pornography on the internet than Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guineans are sticking to the basics, and we only make one list out of all those generated by our experimental search attempts. The Post Courier purposely spoilt the reputation of our people and our country with Tuesday’s articles, but to what purpose? Once again, Papua New Guinea is a laughingstock because our PNG media published an idiot story.
CASE STUDY: HONOURABLE MP FRANCIS POTAPE
Our MPs are pretty much all on the internet, usually patrolling for women, many of them not using their real name. Most of our PNG MPs seem to be serial adulterers, always looking for a new side girl (or in the well documented Sydney Star Casino case of Beldon Namah, maybe a side boy!). A few MPs, such as Jim Simatab, make their own porn videos and probably are looking for ideas on new videos they are thinking about producing for their collection. MPs as a group are an excellent test case to find out if there are Papua New Guineans who are responsible for a disproportionate percentage of the Google porn seekers, or are the first Papua New Guineans to specialize in to searching for porn that portrays specific sexual deviancies or positions to arouse themselves with.
We picked Francis Potape as our study case. This was because of certain information we found on the social media, which was published a couple years back when Potape, along with 2 other MPs were taken to court by a man who said he was the husband of a woman who said she was having sex with all 3 MPs (see http://www.pngblogs.com/2014/08/mps-group-love.html and http://www.pngblogs.com/2014/08/passing-love-around.html).
In the comments section of these articles, we find a very interesting share story for the readers. Here is the text of 3 comments together:
“Kawas Blade • 2 years ago
After reading all these comments and stories about this three so called love triangles, i can now safely state what i heard and saw. I was on a trip to Thailand late last year and was seated next to this very extremely beautiful girl (Highlands mixrace or a light skin highlander) who appears to me of someone who was educated to a tertiary level and knowledgable. she was having a conversation with another young woman seated next to her and what opened my ears the most was their subject of discussions. mostly was on the legislative changes by the govt (so i assumed they were either lawyers or economists) and their forcast on the png lng after its production. whilst reading my paper i was keeping an open ear as to be honest was interesting. however what really opened my ears and cought my attention was at the end of their inteligent debate, the pretty girl in the midst of her giggling mentioned that she literraly *peed and shited* into one of the mentioned MPs mouth. i tell you i threw up when i arrived at the airport. i wont call the mps name but im sure you all clever people will work it out. lol
cheers !!
TO KAWAS BLADE Kawas Blade • 2 years ago
Instead of being so smart ass that you're sure us clever people can work out the name of the MP, why don't you find some balls to put between your legs and name the MP yourself. What a coward! I don't know who looks more pathetic, the lunatic MP you're describing or your inability to NAME AND SHAME!
Kawas Blade TO KAWAS BLADE • 2 years ago
ok ill let the cat out. its francis potape. yes i beleive in name and shame.”
Interesting! We were curious if there was a term to describe this kind of sexual deviancy that Mr Potape is alleged to preer. We were shocked to find out there is a term for that fetish. It is Coprophilia (also known as coprolagnia) and specifically is a paraphilia where people get sexual pleasure from faeces and urine being sprayed onto them during sex (see: https://drmarkgriffiths.wordpress.com/…/faecal-attraction-…/).
We wondered if people interested in coprophilia are searching for information or maybe videos using Google, so we went back to Google Trends and typed the word in. Google Trends returned with only 2 countries on its list: United Kingdom was #1 and United States was #2. Apparently Mr Potape either doesn’t know the term yet for his favourite sex, or his 7 months in Bomana prison (not for sex crimes!) and more recent power struggle to become governor of Hela Province have been successful at reducing his Google search time to a minimum.
THE POST COURIER MAKING A MOUNTAIN OUT OF AN ANT HILL: FOR WHAT PURPOSE?
In the previous section I wrote playfully about this PNG media fixation on what Papua New Guineans google for with regard to sex and pornography only because it is so ridiculous. Scientific research up to now includes several studies that conclude the liberalization of pornography in society (making it legal) may be associated with decreased rape and other sexual violence rates, with other studies showing no effect or are inconclusive. There are no scientific studies whose results indicate making pornography illegal leads to lower sexual violence. In other words, anyone who pushes the theory that making pornography illegal will make us want to have less violent, aggressive sex, is pushing their bias, not an idea that is backed up by evidence.
Why then did the Post Courier come out with all this nonsense about Papua New Guineans invading the internet looking for pornography, and at this particular time?
The same speculation that followed the recent incident whereby MP Justin Tkatchenko filed a criminal complaint against PNG Blogs for publishing a quickly corrected post that falsely associated him with a Filipino woman arrested for possessing sex toys and drugs comes to mind. There are numerous gossips coming from within the government that the highest officials are determined to stop the embarrassing publications of corruption and sex scandals involving MPs and high level government staff. They can either do this by identifying and prosecuting (but only if the publishers live in PNG) those who have been writing and publishing the articles, or by censoring the internet so that people from within PNG cannot access these articles.
MP Tkatchenko may have focused on a rather trivial PNG Blogs error as an open door to mount a criminal investigation and try for the first goal – to shut down the offending social media sites and publication of further stories that are infuriating the most powerful people in the country, including the Prime Minister.
Creating a false story that Papua New Guineans are overwhelmingly searching for pornography on the internet provides the government with an easy excuse to censor the internet in the name of stopping access to pornography. This allows them to simultaneously move to censor publications that are offensive to the government in power. When the public complains, the government can reply that the censorship was necessary due to the overwhelming addiction of Papua New Guineans trying to find pornography on the internet. This is a classic kind of government propaganda technique, making up a false reason to carry out an intended action. Thus did Hitler find justification for murdering millions of Jewish people by telling the people of Germany that Jews were responsible for the nation’s ills.
Whatever the reason for the Post Courier’s fake news story, it merits further investigation. It would be refreshing if Post Courier “journalist” Dianne Waketsi learnt how to do proper investigative reporting, that Post Courier editor Alexander Rheeney put more attention on truthful reporting rather than sensationalist stories that sold more newspapers, and that they all avoid playing into the government’s hands in creating false stories as the basis for government decisions to censor internet access by Papua New Guineans. We are not a communist country.
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Here are recent articles relevant to this story for your reading enjoyment:
PNG TOPS WORLD IN ‘PORN’ SEARCH by Dianne Waketsi
Post Couier January 17, 2017
According to Google Trends, which monitors Internet search requests, Papua New Guinea is ranked number one in the world as the country with the most searches of the word “porn” in the Google search engine.
Behind PNG are African nations Zimbabwe, Kanya, Botswana, Zambia, Ethiopia, Malawi, Uganda. Fiji sits in ninth spot.
Social media has also played a major role in the distribution of pornography for school-aged children, and adults who share and collect this illicit material.
Chief Censor Steven Mala in a statement during the announcement of the internet filter last year said children with access to a smart phone were able to access these sites which were available freely on the internet.
“These sites are spoiling the mindsets of our young generations,” said Mala.
He confirmed that the Censorship Office was still trying to control what’s coming through the internet.
Mother of three, Jenneifer Lau from Central Province, expressed anger at the Government’s slackness in implementing cyber laws.
“We must put a stop to this now. PNG is a Christian country and such things as pornography is damaging for the young ones,” said Mrs Lau.
“We have the laws already in place, we have to toughen up and start implementing the laws now before everything gets out of control,” she added.
“Pornography is freely available on the internet and some people are making money from it in this country.”
Josh (not his real name) is your average Papua New Guiean youth He enjoys sports, is employed and is very social – but Josh also makes money by selling pirated pornography CDs.
“I started viewing porn in primary school when a classmate brought a stash of pictures belonging to his brother to school. It really opened my eyes then,” said Josh.
“For me, it’s a way of earning an income. Dirty money for my beer, smoke and buai.
“I use my phone to download the movies, transfer them on to a laptop and then burn them onto a CD. This is then distributed to peddlers who sell them at K10 a pop,” said Josh.
He added that most of his CDs are sold by street vendors and because of constant raids by police, the CDs are sold at a cheap rate.
Josh is well aware of the laws involved if caught with pornography but said he is “always careful not to be caught. I erase all material from my phone and laptop once I have burnt the CDs.”
He added that working class men of all age groups buy his products as they are cheap and accessible.
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Editorial
Pornography- PNG’s most uncontrolled internet link
Post Courier January 17, 2017
PNG’s access to the superhighway of information is a blessing in more ways than anyone could have ever thought possible less than 40 years ago.
Little though did anyone think that part of this global technology through the internet would one day elevate PNG to be among the top countries accessing pornography sites around the world.
The thought of this is frightening in itself because of the moral consideration which PNG has found itself tangled with.
The Christian country it is with its high moral values similar to the impeccable tradition of modesty which all tribes practiced and were used to in traditional days are no longer there.
Somehow this standard of morality across many societies in PNG has slipped into the doldrums in the face of this new threat.
Internationally this rating does not do PNG any good than attract global attention because of the many facets that governments elsewhere target to destroy because of the many dangers to society and lives pornography poses.
The Witherspoon Institute in the US says internet as a technological change enables high-powered computing, expanded cable television, and the development of the internet, pornographic images and videos are readily accessible in almost every home and now indeed on almost every cell phone and portable device. The numbers are alarming, with estimates that as much as 35% of all content on the internet is pornographic; that two-thirds of college-age men view pornography with some regularity; that a majority of high school students visit pornographic websites, some trading obscene images of themselves electronically.
For PNG it is a much more serious problem than taken at face value.
International organisations warn of child pornography, threats to international security through porn, the social costs of porn, the cost and legislation.
Yes the Office of the Chief Censor has indicated filtering of internet but perhaps more is required in relation to that.
Findings of research into dealing with the problem calls for increased awareness on the harm of pornography, attention on the part of education professionals on its effects, interests on the part of journalists for rigorous investigations on the local pornography industry and trafficking of images, and campaigns against access to pornography in the workplace and by service providers.
University of Chicago professor Jean Bethke Elshtain argues in The Social Costs of Pornography that we should not dismiss the “moral” in our avoidance of the “moralistic.” Elshtain maintains that in order to be responsible citizens, we must ask ourselves, “What sort of community is this?
Is it reasonably decent and kind? Is it a fit place for human habitation, especially for the young? What happens to the most vulnerable among us? How do we ill-dignify the human body, and how do we forestall such affronts?” Such questions demand long-winded, nuanced answers, yet it is worth seeking these answers.
They are pertinent to those who are involved in the porn industry, and they are pertinent to our own lives. We should all be asking ourselves whether pornography is compatible with a respectful and good society.
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