What's the number one thing that ticks most people off in their workplace, and broader, into their lives? It's that thing that wrests control over our day-to-day. It's a lack of real autonomy to do what we must and what we can do in our jobs and in our lives. When we feel constrained against the natural flow of things it eats away at our soul-strength.
In fact, the world of work is often only made bearable by the fact of its autonomous nature. When we don't give this to people, or worse still if we take it away from them, we risk disenfranchising them completely and their performance suffers as a direct result, often affecting the overall objective--and certainly the mood of the organisation or part thereof.
I know in many ways the value of autonomy--to a great extent I've had it in my workplace environment for the better part of fifteen years or even longer. It's that quality of time and space to 'just do' the work we're engaged to do, and further to the discretionary, value-adding work we can do over and above our core responsibilities.
Autonomy in work (or of work) is a key to job satisfaction, but there are at least a couple of qualities that we, as workers or leaders, must have in order to warrant autonomy. We must be able to be trusted and also we must be able to be relied upon to produce the goods.
Trust
If we trust people why would we need to overly-supervise them? Micro-management is pesky nuisance in the workplace where people honestly go to work to do a good day's work.
Reliability
If the quality and quantity of the work is generally good and there's very little re-work, why would a person need to be constantly monitored? We'd know that a vast majority of the time they'll be fine on their own, and they'll probably seek help if and when it's required anyway.
Autonomy is Necessary in Today's World
Autonomous workers in the workplace are not only an advantage; they're a basic necessity in the context of today's 'skinny' organisational structures. There is a void of real supervision and today's organisational environments really depend heavily on trusting their employees and stakeholders to interact effectively in executing objectives and achieving planned outcomes. Relying on reliable workers is a need, not a nice-to-have.
Friday, 13 August 2010
Women's Self-Esteem For Stress Reduction, Balance, and Autonomy
In working with women for decades, I've found that self-esteem is the common denominator of many women's issues. With better self-esteem, women are more able to find balance, handle stress, and claim their autonomy.
Universally, women are considered inferior to men, and although our culture is changing, most women suffer from impaired self-esteem, even successful women. Self-esteem impacts our relationships with others and our relationship with ourselves. It affects self-care, parenting, boundaries, and communication. Self-esteem determines the way we allow others, including our children, to talk to us, and how we value and communicate our needs, thoughts, and feelings. It underpins personal integrity, our ability to pursue goals, and is crucial to effective parenting. A mother may praise her child and try to impart self-esteem, but if hers is low, inevitably, it will be revealed in her behavior, and children learn most by emulation.
Balance is an ongoing struggle for women. As individuals, as caregivers, and as earners and professionals, finding balance between our masculine and feminine sides, between the spiritual and material, between work and family, and between personal needs and those of our employers, children, parents, and partners requires self-esteem and autonomy, not to mention time, which there is always too little of. Rather than acknowledging how much they achieve, women typically are self-critical that they are not accomplishing enough at work, as mothers, homemakers, daughters, or in their personal endeavors. They feel guilty when they don't meet their own and other's expectations. The fact is there isn't enough time and energy to go around, but how we think about it and allocate our resources makes all the difference.
Women are used to stress - caring for children while cooking, cleaning, and talking on the phone. Working moms have added stress and it's a greater challenge for them to make time for themselves. According to the latest census, 55 percent of mothers (63 percent of college-educated moms) with infants work. Of mothers under the age of 45 without infants, 72 percent are in the workforce. When I returned home to my children after a stressful day practicing law, I'd park my car outside my house to meditate for ten minutes before going inside. This allowed me time to get centered and transition to parenting. Self-esteem enables women to practice self-care and to balance these competing demands, reducing stress and allowing them to be present to loved ones and any task at hand.
Setting boundaries is vital to reducing stress and finding balance. Women are plagued with the dilemma of feeling guilty when they say "no" or resentful when they don't. They fear loss of the relationship or the person's esteem. Relationship loss is the biggest stressor for women, as is failure for men. The ability to feel comfortable setting boundaries requires self-esteem. When women value themselves, they are more able to claim their autonomy. Autonomy is a feeling of both separateness and wholeness that permits us to feel separate when in a relationship and complete when on our own. Many women complain that they do great when they're alone, but as soon as they're in a relationship or in the presence of their partner, they lose themselves. Some give up their hobbies, friends, career, and creative pursuits. They have trouble transitioning from an intimate weekend to the office, or they can't articulate opinions about things in front of their partner or an authority figure.
Universally, women are considered inferior to men, and although our culture is changing, most women suffer from impaired self-esteem, even successful women. Self-esteem impacts our relationships with others and our relationship with ourselves. It affects self-care, parenting, boundaries, and communication. Self-esteem determines the way we allow others, including our children, to talk to us, and how we value and communicate our needs, thoughts, and feelings. It underpins personal integrity, our ability to pursue goals, and is crucial to effective parenting. A mother may praise her child and try to impart self-esteem, but if hers is low, inevitably, it will be revealed in her behavior, and children learn most by emulation.
Balance is an ongoing struggle for women. As individuals, as caregivers, and as earners and professionals, finding balance between our masculine and feminine sides, between the spiritual and material, between work and family, and between personal needs and those of our employers, children, parents, and partners requires self-esteem and autonomy, not to mention time, which there is always too little of. Rather than acknowledging how much they achieve, women typically are self-critical that they are not accomplishing enough at work, as mothers, homemakers, daughters, or in their personal endeavors. They feel guilty when they don't meet their own and other's expectations. The fact is there isn't enough time and energy to go around, but how we think about it and allocate our resources makes all the difference.
Women are used to stress - caring for children while cooking, cleaning, and talking on the phone. Working moms have added stress and it's a greater challenge for them to make time for themselves. According to the latest census, 55 percent of mothers (63 percent of college-educated moms) with infants work. Of mothers under the age of 45 without infants, 72 percent are in the workforce. When I returned home to my children after a stressful day practicing law, I'd park my car outside my house to meditate for ten minutes before going inside. This allowed me time to get centered and transition to parenting. Self-esteem enables women to practice self-care and to balance these competing demands, reducing stress and allowing them to be present to loved ones and any task at hand.
Setting boundaries is vital to reducing stress and finding balance. Women are plagued with the dilemma of feeling guilty when they say "no" or resentful when they don't. They fear loss of the relationship or the person's esteem. Relationship loss is the biggest stressor for women, as is failure for men. The ability to feel comfortable setting boundaries requires self-esteem. When women value themselves, they are more able to claim their autonomy. Autonomy is a feeling of both separateness and wholeness that permits us to feel separate when in a relationship and complete when on our own. Many women complain that they do great when they're alone, but as soon as they're in a relationship or in the presence of their partner, they lose themselves. Some give up their hobbies, friends, career, and creative pursuits. They have trouble transitioning from an intimate weekend to the office, or they can't articulate opinions about things in front of their partner or an authority figure.
Autonomy a Key Element in Sustainable Sales Training
Autonomy is one of those words that people hear, but probably truly do not understand and especially do not think of respective to sustainable sales training. Many think of autonomy as associated with governments and that is actually half-right. The Latin origins of this word mean self and law. For this word is truly about governing oneself first before governing others.
To have autonomy suggests that there exists certain laws or in the case of individuals, values, that regulate the self. Depending upon the individual's spirituality, these values can be easily found within certain religious documents or even etched into buildings that have withstood the test of time.
However, autonomy extends beyond these values or laws. The recent economic debacle along with stories of individuals thriving by deceiving others only reaffirms that few people understand the underlying three most basic elements intertwined within this concept of autonomy. Much like the strands of DNA, these elements provide the building blocks for sustainable autonomy that leads to sustainable sales training.
Element #1
"Know yourself" to quote Socrates is the first element. When you know the why of the decisions you make, you can make better sales decisions. Better decision making leads to improved autonomy where you truly accept responsibility for your success and failures. Of course, there exists numerous challenges about knowing yourself from first being truly honest with yourself and then finding the best "know yourself" tools. Sometimes, you may even require external help from a friend, mentor or even a sales coach.
Element #2
The power to choose who you want to be is the second element. Your awareness about whom you are allows you to determine if this is who you want to be. You have the choice to choose the person that you want to be. This choice is 100% yours. Now if you choose to blame others such as clients, the competition or even fellow employees then you have made the choice to be the victim of life. On the other hand, you can choose to embrace being the Victor and always moving forward, closer to your dreams and goals.
Element #3
The third element is action by creating the person you have chosen to become. Just choosing to be a Victor
is only one step. You must take decisive action to become an antonymous individual who knows what behaviors (think sales skills) are necessary to demonstrate being a self-governing individual.
To have autonomy suggests that there exists certain laws or in the case of individuals, values, that regulate the self. Depending upon the individual's spirituality, these values can be easily found within certain religious documents or even etched into buildings that have withstood the test of time.
However, autonomy extends beyond these values or laws. The recent economic debacle along with stories of individuals thriving by deceiving others only reaffirms that few people understand the underlying three most basic elements intertwined within this concept of autonomy. Much like the strands of DNA, these elements provide the building blocks for sustainable autonomy that leads to sustainable sales training.
Element #1
"Know yourself" to quote Socrates is the first element. When you know the why of the decisions you make, you can make better sales decisions. Better decision making leads to improved autonomy where you truly accept responsibility for your success and failures. Of course, there exists numerous challenges about knowing yourself from first being truly honest with yourself and then finding the best "know yourself" tools. Sometimes, you may even require external help from a friend, mentor or even a sales coach.
Element #2
The power to choose who you want to be is the second element. Your awareness about whom you are allows you to determine if this is who you want to be. You have the choice to choose the person that you want to be. This choice is 100% yours. Now if you choose to blame others such as clients, the competition or even fellow employees then you have made the choice to be the victim of life. On the other hand, you can choose to embrace being the Victor and always moving forward, closer to your dreams and goals.
Element #3
The third element is action by creating the person you have chosen to become. Just choosing to be a Victor
is only one step. You must take decisive action to become an antonymous individual who knows what behaviors (think sales skills) are necessary to demonstrate being a self-governing individual.
Extend Your Laptop Autonomy - The Basics
Year after year, the performances of our laptops continue to make extraordinary leaps forward. The capacities of calculation and of storage evolve in a phenomenal manner. Yet the laptops autonomy while improving does not progress the same manner. In five years, average autonomy of our notebooks was multiplied by two. Despite these advances, the nomadic user wants more. Is it possible to extend the autonomy of his laptop? Which components do have the biggest influence on performances? What can you do to extend to extend your laptop autonomy?
In contrast to what one could sometime think, the battery builders do their best to maximize autonomy. It's a consistent fight in between autonomy progress and more energy demanding laptops. Despite the manufacturers' efforts, it is presently difficult to obtain autonomy any higher than four hours on a standard notebook. This value remains comparatively weak facing the current needs. It is therefore important to maximize all avenues to ensure that your laptop autonomy is at its best. To guide you in this venture, we will approach the different solutions of economy of energy. To start, we will enumerate the basic principles that it is important to respect. In other articles we will review other important elements tied to your laptop battery, how you can adjust Windows, special software and additional peripherals.
First things first, let's review some basic autonomy savers.
1) Make sure that your laptop doesn't overheat
When in use, the ventilation orifices must not be obstructed. An overheating would induce inevitably a growth of the electric consumption. If the laptop is old, it will be able to be wise to clean these gates. Remove papers and other items that maybe on the laptop keyboards (if you are using a separate keyboard). At last, note that to obtain an optimum autonomy, it will be necessary to avoid using or to store your laptop in a surrounding too cold (less than 45F/10°C) or too hot (more of 85F/35°C).
2) Use the right drivers, and to update them
As each knows it, to manage an interface (generally material) or a peripheral, an operating system needs a software called drivers. With a laptop, the usage of optimized drivers is particularly important. Without that, Windows could be incapable to manage the variable frequency of a processor (central processor or graphic processor) or all other method of economy of energy. To find recent drivers, go to the manufacturer website for your laptop.
3) Defragment your hard drive regularly
The fragmentation means that the data of a same file (a picture or a document text for example) find themselves disseminated to several places of a hard disc. At the time of the opening of a fragmented file, the head of reading of the disc will have therefore to do many movements to collect the "pieces" of shed files on the disc surface. This phenomenon induces an excess use of the hard drive that therefore decreases autonomy. To avoid this problem, think about to defragment your disc when your computer is plugged in to a power outlet.
4) Operating System updates
Operating systems bugs are consistently being fixed as well as improvements are being made. There are some well known cases were computers where affected by issues due to the OS. Therefore, as a general rule updating the operating system must not be neglected. Verify regularly that your operating system has the latest updates.
In contrast to what one could sometime think, the battery builders do their best to maximize autonomy. It's a consistent fight in between autonomy progress and more energy demanding laptops. Despite the manufacturers' efforts, it is presently difficult to obtain autonomy any higher than four hours on a standard notebook. This value remains comparatively weak facing the current needs. It is therefore important to maximize all avenues to ensure that your laptop autonomy is at its best. To guide you in this venture, we will approach the different solutions of economy of energy. To start, we will enumerate the basic principles that it is important to respect. In other articles we will review other important elements tied to your laptop battery, how you can adjust Windows, special software and additional peripherals.
First things first, let's review some basic autonomy savers.
1) Make sure that your laptop doesn't overheat
When in use, the ventilation orifices must not be obstructed. An overheating would induce inevitably a growth of the electric consumption. If the laptop is old, it will be able to be wise to clean these gates. Remove papers and other items that maybe on the laptop keyboards (if you are using a separate keyboard). At last, note that to obtain an optimum autonomy, it will be necessary to avoid using or to store your laptop in a surrounding too cold (less than 45F/10°C) or too hot (more of 85F/35°C).
2) Use the right drivers, and to update them
As each knows it, to manage an interface (generally material) or a peripheral, an operating system needs a software called drivers. With a laptop, the usage of optimized drivers is particularly important. Without that, Windows could be incapable to manage the variable frequency of a processor (central processor or graphic processor) or all other method of economy of energy. To find recent drivers, go to the manufacturer website for your laptop.
3) Defragment your hard drive regularly
The fragmentation means that the data of a same file (a picture or a document text for example) find themselves disseminated to several places of a hard disc. At the time of the opening of a fragmented file, the head of reading of the disc will have therefore to do many movements to collect the "pieces" of shed files on the disc surface. This phenomenon induces an excess use of the hard drive that therefore decreases autonomy. To avoid this problem, think about to defragment your disc when your computer is plugged in to a power outlet.
4) Operating System updates
Operating systems bugs are consistently being fixed as well as improvements are being made. There are some well known cases were computers where affected by issues due to the OS. Therefore, as a general rule updating the operating system must not be neglected. Verify regularly that your operating system has the latest updates.
The Psychological Need of Autonomy
Okay, so what is autonomy? And why do we need it? Well, first of all, autonomy is volition. It is having a conscious choice about your actions your decisions being in a sense entirely your own and no one else's. Interestingly, autonomy is often confused with independence. Well, this is not surprising considering that autonomy bears some resemblance to independence. Independence broadly refers to freedom from a subjecting kind of reliance to something or someone else. Autonomy is something else.
We all have a sense of autonomy. In philosophy, there are proponents who believe that all of us have choices whatever may be the case-we have a choice; we are never totally forced to make decisions one way or another. However, our sense of autonomy can be hampered. Yes, it can even be erased.
How does that happen? Well, it happens when we depend on someone else. It happens when we blame someone or something like fate for everything we do. And so why do we need autonomy? We need it to "organize" our experiences. It gives us a sense of ownership with regard to our choices, and we can prioritize our choices according to our highest (or in any case, lowest) values. We also need it to integrate what we do with who we are.
Okay, that means what? It means that having the sense of responsibility establishes certain identification with the kind of person we are. Our actions can portray our identity-our true self for that matter, and not who we think we are, but who we actually are. We need our sense of autonomy so that when we commit mistakes we do not blame others. And neither do we dwell on self-blame, but rather we commit to making up for our mistakes.
Autonomy support is therefore vital especially for children. You, even if you are an adult, still may need autonomy support. So seek out people and activities that support your autonomy. Avoid or get help if you have addictions, because these are one of the many things that can thwart your sense of autonomy.
Autonomy is indeed more necessary than mere independence. It is an acknowledgement of our free will. It gives us a clearer sense of who we are. So seek help if you believe your sense of autonomy has been damaged. This psychological need can still be helped even in the most desperate cases. Never give up. Have the courage to acknowledge a problem, and face it-not alone but with those whom you trust and who can help you.
We all have a sense of autonomy. In philosophy, there are proponents who believe that all of us have choices whatever may be the case-we have a choice; we are never totally forced to make decisions one way or another. However, our sense of autonomy can be hampered. Yes, it can even be erased.
How does that happen? Well, it happens when we depend on someone else. It happens when we blame someone or something like fate for everything we do. And so why do we need autonomy? We need it to "organize" our experiences. It gives us a sense of ownership with regard to our choices, and we can prioritize our choices according to our highest (or in any case, lowest) values. We also need it to integrate what we do with who we are.
Okay, that means what? It means that having the sense of responsibility establishes certain identification with the kind of person we are. Our actions can portray our identity-our true self for that matter, and not who we think we are, but who we actually are. We need our sense of autonomy so that when we commit mistakes we do not blame others. And neither do we dwell on self-blame, but rather we commit to making up for our mistakes.
Autonomy support is therefore vital especially for children. You, even if you are an adult, still may need autonomy support. So seek out people and activities that support your autonomy. Avoid or get help if you have addictions, because these are one of the many things that can thwart your sense of autonomy.
Autonomy is indeed more necessary than mere independence. It is an acknowledgement of our free will. It gives us a clearer sense of who we are. So seek help if you believe your sense of autonomy has been damaged. This psychological need can still be helped even in the most desperate cases. Never give up. Have the courage to acknowledge a problem, and face it-not alone but with those whom you trust and who can help you.
Thursday, 12 August 2010
A Colourful Nation Denied of its Reward
COUNTRYSIDE
One of the joys of growing up in PNG is to the big sing sings that happen yearly or even the colorful church activities. I vividly remember Independence Day and the host of color from all part of the country. From the majestic plums drifting on the head pieces of the mighty men and women of the highlands, electrifying rhythmic chants and drums from the New Guinea islands, carvings and dances that depict mystical stories of the Momase people and the spectacular nautical innovations of the tribes from the southern region.
So things are not the same, we have lost some of our old ways and we are sometimes accused of not honoring our culture. But we have been progressive and as a result, we have forged an identity that resonates a nation of many tongues. From Patti Doi and Betty Toea’s music booming in PMVs that are owned by Highlanders, colorful fabrics that depict tapa patterns from the Orokaiva worn by our sisters and mothers, bilums from the highlands carrying our precious love ones, delicacies rich in nutrients that was only available in the rivers, islands and highlands are now available to everyone.
Our culture indeed transcends our way of life but with the absence of political and policy direction, this resource has been underutilized and in some tragic instances, stolen, abused and lost. So the question has to be asked, is it worth investing our resources to protect, promote and preserve our culture and heritage? Apart from nostalgic and patriotic excitement, is it worth it? Absolutely.
It separates us from the rest of the world, it provides us the unique opportunity to help humanity from fighting diseases to resolving conflicts, and more importantly, to empower our people to move away from poverty. Indeed for many years, economic, industry and investment planners have not looked at the possibility of the culture, or to be more generic, the creative industry, as a tool for growth.
A few entities have been burning the torch for this sector. From the tireless efforts of the National Cultural Commission in preserving and promoting our culture here and abroad, super artists Jeffery and his brother Mairi Feeger blowing the international scene by storm, legendary musos Auirikeke, Ben Hakalitz, Telek and the darling of the garment industry, Florence Bilum Lady Jauke are all making major inroads internationally. But guys, this is only a speck of what’s in our country. Take some time and wonder in and out of the craft markets, church activities, clubs, galleries and even the bus stops, you’ll see the talent of our people.
But tragically like anything when it comes to money, those that want to make it ride on the talented and end up sucking them dry. From paying them merely nothing for the creativity they’ve done, pirating designs and music and outright theft. Many of our people in the creative industry are dying without knowing there rights. They live in a cage that their employees, agents and promoters do n’t tell them what that they are entitled to. From song writers, performers, sound engineers, artisans, dance troopes, cultural groups, weavers, carvers, traditional medicinal owners and many others are been denied of their wealth.
They need to usurp these rights so that they may be rewarded of their creativity and heritage. These rights will ensure users are able to pay them fees so that they may feed and clothe their children and more importantly, continue creating their products or preserving culture. Whether intellectual property and traditional knowledge protection, our people need to move into this area so that their rights are protected and they are able to utilize it for wealth creation in the market place.
So next time when you purchase a pirated CD, Made In China crap flogging it off as a PNG design, bullshit food that’s not from our land or designs on fabrics stolen, think of the people you have denied that revenue. For it is their love of life we bathe ourselves of our identity.
One of the joys of growing up in PNG is to the big sing sings that happen yearly or even the colorful church activities. I vividly remember Independence Day and the host of color from all part of the country. From the majestic plums drifting on the head pieces of the mighty men and women of the highlands, electrifying rhythmic chants and drums from the New Guinea islands, carvings and dances that depict mystical stories of the Momase people and the spectacular nautical innovations of the tribes from the southern region.
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| Credit: Messer Smith (http://www.messersmith.name/wordpress/) |
So things are not the same, we have lost some of our old ways and we are sometimes accused of not honoring our culture. But we have been progressive and as a result, we have forged an identity that resonates a nation of many tongues. From Patti Doi and Betty Toea’s music booming in PMVs that are owned by Highlanders, colorful fabrics that depict tapa patterns from the Orokaiva worn by our sisters and mothers, bilums from the highlands carrying our precious love ones, delicacies rich in nutrients that was only available in the rivers, islands and highlands are now available to everyone.
Our culture indeed transcends our way of life but with the absence of political and policy direction, this resource has been underutilized and in some tragic instances, stolen, abused and lost. So the question has to be asked, is it worth investing our resources to protect, promote and preserve our culture and heritage? Apart from nostalgic and patriotic excitement, is it worth it? Absolutely.
It separates us from the rest of the world, it provides us the unique opportunity to help humanity from fighting diseases to resolving conflicts, and more importantly, to empower our people to move away from poverty. Indeed for many years, economic, industry and investment planners have not looked at the possibility of the culture, or to be more generic, the creative industry, as a tool for growth.
A few entities have been burning the torch for this sector. From the tireless efforts of the National Cultural Commission in preserving and promoting our culture here and abroad, super artists Jeffery and his brother Mairi Feeger blowing the international scene by storm, legendary musos Auirikeke, Ben Hakalitz, Telek and the darling of the garment industry, Florence Bilum Lady Jauke are all making major inroads internationally. But guys, this is only a speck of what’s in our country. Take some time and wonder in and out of the craft markets, church activities, clubs, galleries and even the bus stops, you’ll see the talent of our people.
But tragically like anything when it comes to money, those that want to make it ride on the talented and end up sucking them dry. From paying them merely nothing for the creativity they’ve done, pirating designs and music and outright theft. Many of our people in the creative industry are dying without knowing there rights. They live in a cage that their employees, agents and promoters do n’t tell them what that they are entitled to. From song writers, performers, sound engineers, artisans, dance troopes, cultural groups, weavers, carvers, traditional medicinal owners and many others are been denied of their wealth.
They need to usurp these rights so that they may be rewarded of their creativity and heritage. These rights will ensure users are able to pay them fees so that they may feed and clothe their children and more importantly, continue creating their products or preserving culture. Whether intellectual property and traditional knowledge protection, our people need to move into this area so that their rights are protected and they are able to utilize it for wealth creation in the market place.
So next time when you purchase a pirated CD, Made In China crap flogging it off as a PNG design, bullshit food that’s not from our land or designs on fabrics stolen, think of the people you have denied that revenue. For it is their love of life we bathe ourselves of our identity.
Coalition accused of trying to palm off its diplomatic damage
Source: DAN OAKES SMH
PAPUA NEW GUINEA'S high commissioner has staged an astonishing attack on the Coalition and strongly endorsed the Gillard Labor government, throwing foreign affairs into the spotlight for the first time during the election campaign.
Charles Lepani told the Herald that relations between his country and the Coalition had been severely damaged by the former Howard government, and that the opposition had made little effort to repair them since its defeat in 2007.
Mr Lepani was speaking after a debate at the National Press Club between the deputy Liberal leader, Julie Bishop, and the Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith, in which Ms Bishop said that a Coalition government would repair relations with PNG.
The diplomat said he was mystified by Ms Bishop's claim that the relationship between Australia and its former colony had deteriorated under Labor. ''There was no relationship left to repair when Labor was elected,'' Mr Lepani said. ''As Stephen Smith said, Labor has progressed, enhanced and put our relations back on track.
''[The former foreign minister, Alexander] Downer, particularly - and Howard admitted to us that it was Downer pushing them - pushed these issues in the Pacific and that derailed our bilateral relations in a very serious way.''
Mr Lepani said the Labor government had reached out to PNG and the Pacific islands in a way that did not make them feel they were being preached to or regarded simply as aid recipients.
''We want to get away from aid to a relationship of sovereign nations equally dealing with each other on trade and investment,'' Mr Lepani said.
''In that regard, Labor, through Stephen Smith, has done an excellent job. What he described in the debate today is exactly how we see the future of Papua New Guinea's relationship, and generally the Pacific islands' relationship, with Australia.
''The treatment we got [previously] in the region was so much more proselytising the values of Western society without attempting to understand the values of Pacific islands' culture.''
Mr Lepani pointed to the advocacy of the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, for an ''Anglo-sphere'' as an example of why countries in the region regarded the Coalition with suspicion.
The Australian Council for International Development says the federal government will give $457.2 million in aid to PNG this year, up 5 per cent on last year.
Both Mr Smith and Ms Bishop said their parties would achieve a goal of 0.5 per cent of the gross national income in aid.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA'S high commissioner has staged an astonishing attack on the Coalition and strongly endorsed the Gillard Labor government, throwing foreign affairs into the spotlight for the first time during the election campaign.
Charles Lepani told the Herald that relations between his country and the Coalition had been severely damaged by the former Howard government, and that the opposition had made little effort to repair them since its defeat in 2007.
Mr Lepani was speaking after a debate at the National Press Club between the deputy Liberal leader, Julie Bishop, and the Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith, in which Ms Bishop said that a Coalition government would repair relations with PNG.
The diplomat said he was mystified by Ms Bishop's claim that the relationship between Australia and its former colony had deteriorated under Labor. ''There was no relationship left to repair when Labor was elected,'' Mr Lepani said. ''As Stephen Smith said, Labor has progressed, enhanced and put our relations back on track.
''[The former foreign minister, Alexander] Downer, particularly - and Howard admitted to us that it was Downer pushing them - pushed these issues in the Pacific and that derailed our bilateral relations in a very serious way.''
Mr Lepani said the Labor government had reached out to PNG and the Pacific islands in a way that did not make them feel they were being preached to or regarded simply as aid recipients.
''We want to get away from aid to a relationship of sovereign nations equally dealing with each other on trade and investment,'' Mr Lepani said.
''In that regard, Labor, through Stephen Smith, has done an excellent job. What he described in the debate today is exactly how we see the future of Papua New Guinea's relationship, and generally the Pacific islands' relationship, with Australia.
''The treatment we got [previously] in the region was so much more proselytising the values of Western society without attempting to understand the values of Pacific islands' culture.''
Mr Lepani pointed to the advocacy of the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, for an ''Anglo-sphere'' as an example of why countries in the region regarded the Coalition with suspicion.
The Australian Council for International Development says the federal government will give $457.2 million in aid to PNG this year, up 5 per cent on last year.
Both Mr Smith and Ms Bishop said their parties would achieve a goal of 0.5 per cent of the gross national income in aid.
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
No acquittals, no subsidies
OP/ED
WE have it on good authority that the third quarter school subsidies worth K3,134,125 for Central are now ready to be distributed to the five districts this week.
We have it on good authority, too, that no school will get its share of subsidies if it has not submitted acquittals for its subsidy allocations for last year and for the first quarter of this year.
A team from the provincial education division has issued stern instructions that no subsidy cheque ought to be paid unless and until acquittals are in.
“No acquittals, no subsidy,” provincial education adviser Titus Hatagen is quoted as saying in The National today.
Hatagen appealed yesterday to school head teachers and boards of management to ensure subsidy acquittals are in.
He has asked church agencies to help in this.
The instructions will, of course, not go down well with many school headmasters and their governing boards.
They are going to argue that the money is allocated by the government for their schools and, that, it ought to go to them. The schools would be right.
They will argue, too, that there is a myriad number of pressing financial needs at the school and the government money ought to go to them as a matter of urgency. And, of course, they would be right.
There is just one little catch. There is the law and it is called the Public Finances Management Act.
This law protects all monies disbursed from the government coffers.
The law and its enabling regulations specifically provide for acquittals for all and every toea of public money that is spent in the country.
School subsidies being public money, every school has a legal obligation to acquit for the monies it has received and spent.
It ought not to be a difficult thing to do.
Indeed, the guidelines for spending of school subsidies are very relaxed.
Each school will receive a graduated amount of money in subsidy for every student attending, depending on the grades they are in.
As to how the subsidy is spent is entirely up to the school board and management.
Each school, therefore, can spend the public money as it chooses to depending on its own needs.
It is hoped that the money is spent for the good and development of the school.
All the government requires is an acquittal of how the quarter’s subsidy allocation has been spent.
An acquittal form is the only way education authorities will be able to tell whether public money has been spent on worthy causes at the school.
If such a simple condition cannot be met, well, no school ought to deserve any more subsidy money from the government.
Schools are not the only culprits in failing to meet the acquittal condition.
Failure to produce acquittals for public money is a national phenomenon.
Failure to acquit funds by ministers of state and members or parliament down is a widespread malaise.
Every year, parliament authorises and passes national budgets in the billions of kina. Out of the budget, moneys are distributed to every government department, statutory corporation, provincial governments and agencies to spend money to provide goods and services for the people of PNG.
The Public Finances Management Act lays down all the rules and procedures for managing, spending and accounting for the expenditure of the money by those who are charged with distributing the money.
To ensure the money is spent for the purposes for which it is allocated, there is the requirement for accounting of the money. Each year, the auditor-general is charged with inspecting and auditing the books of every entity that spends public money so that all is done properly and according to the rules.
Money for school subsidies is parked in the Department of Education and distributed to schools in the country.
The chief accounting officer for spending of this money is not the minister for education, but the secretary for education.
He must ensure money is spent properly and correctly, or he will be held accountable. Schools have a duty to ensure the secretary makes a good report in order that they continue to receive subsidy funds.
Every other government body is required by law to do the same.
It is this simple lack of providing acquittals that leads to charges of lack of transparency and accountability in government.
Monday, 9 August 2010
INAP LONG KAGO BOI, BRUKIM BUSH TASOL.
By COUNTRYSIDE
For the past 100 years, most of our iconic enterprises have been built on a pyramid scheme of boss man and his kago boi. From the perched plantations of the Niugini Islands to the cattle valleys of the Whagi Plain, it was all about the kago boi doing loads of work while boss yells every conceivable biological description of the female anatomy, to bring a sense of order. No knowledge building, no high end skill transfers, it was all about using our boys and girls as Lorries and trucks. I’d say not much has changed. Ok so we wear trendy clothes, have slick phones and work in air conditioned offices but guys, we’re still doing so much work for little remuneration. We’re still kago boi’ing around. But like anything in PNG, there are those who are making change in the most PNG way possible, Brukim Bush Tasol.
Several years ago I befriended an influential lawyer who has been a dear mentor to me. He stands a mere 4,9 but you knew he was from the bar. With a shot gun of a voice and a veneer of nobility, he commanded great respect amongst his peers when he delivered his arguments in court. A senior partner in one of PNGs respected law firms, he had great insight on the daily fights PNGns endured over the years in the big bad commercial world where the white boys and girls have it all. Quite unsurprisingly he’d tell me the web of clienteles that would only exclusively deal with white firms. He’d then tell me how they’d farm work out to the folks across the Coral Sea because the black boys couldn’t do shit.
Irrespective of this, they ploughed on and eventually the government, developers and major law firms around the world started working with them. I asked him one evening over a glass of scotch, what was his inspiration and he told me the story about he’s first encounter with his first client. He was a typical businessman in the early days of our independence, quite new with business affairs but had shit loads of knowledge on his profession, flying. Curious by my mentor, he kept asking him where does he work. He indicated the law firm which was a white firm. The trailblazing pilot said so you work for these guys. If you start your firm tomorrow you’ll get all my work. To put into context, this man was making millions just by sitting in his cockpit for an hour. His firm was born and over the years, has given my mentor inspiration to go where no PNG lawyers have gone, the world of natural resources and big commercial field.
He’s weary eyes looked at me and said, our greatest asset is our unpredictability. They think just because we have bad body odor, don’t have a dress sense and are woefully untidy, we’re dumb but pikinini, how wrong are they. That was what summed up PNG’s persona in the professional world. Many of our men and women are insanely intelligent in this great nation of ours. From designing industrial technologies in the fields of communications, transport and weapons systems to frontline development in drug discovery for AIDS, TB and malaria, these are our men and women. Some manage major mining and petroleum projects around the world while others are formulating dialogue with rouge States who are on the brink of war with their enemies.
Indeed knowledge and the desire to acquire it has become a major investment tool for our people. Clans, tribes and families are spending everything so that they’re children may reach the high echelons of their professions. Many die before the first pay and yet they continue. Courageous and a sacrifice beyond compression, our people do this every day. From stashing away daily sales of kaukau or fish in the markets to fathers selling bottles, they are the backbone of this nation.
PNGns know they’re roots and this is why we hate been a kago boi. Our families didn’t invest all that money so that carry the trash out when they themselves don’t know how to build a secure firewall using CISCO applications to deter hackers in our major government and financial institutions, to clean the toilets irrespective of the fact that we are able to infuse compounds derived from our genetic materials so as to eliminate the TB bug, to paint the runways, when we have flown the largest airplane in the world or to sweep the floors when in fact we design major highways.
Education is the tool for our security, prosperity and happiness and it is the only way we become mastas of our future and move away from been the kago boi.
Several years ago I befriended an influential lawyer who has been a dear mentor to me. He stands a mere 4,9 but you knew he was from the bar. With a shot gun of a voice and a veneer of nobility, he commanded great respect amongst his peers when he delivered his arguments in court. A senior partner in one of PNGs respected law firms, he had great insight on the daily fights PNGns endured over the years in the big bad commercial world where the white boys and girls have it all. Quite unsurprisingly he’d tell me the web of clienteles that would only exclusively deal with white firms. He’d then tell me how they’d farm work out to the folks across the Coral Sea because the black boys couldn’t do shit.
Irrespective of this, they ploughed on and eventually the government, developers and major law firms around the world started working with them. I asked him one evening over a glass of scotch, what was his inspiration and he told me the story about he’s first encounter with his first client. He was a typical businessman in the early days of our independence, quite new with business affairs but had shit loads of knowledge on his profession, flying. Curious by my mentor, he kept asking him where does he work. He indicated the law firm which was a white firm. The trailblazing pilot said so you work for these guys. If you start your firm tomorrow you’ll get all my work. To put into context, this man was making millions just by sitting in his cockpit for an hour. His firm was born and over the years, has given my mentor inspiration to go where no PNG lawyers have gone, the world of natural resources and big commercial field.
He’s weary eyes looked at me and said, our greatest asset is our unpredictability. They think just because we have bad body odor, don’t have a dress sense and are woefully untidy, we’re dumb but pikinini, how wrong are they. That was what summed up PNG’s persona in the professional world. Many of our men and women are insanely intelligent in this great nation of ours. From designing industrial technologies in the fields of communications, transport and weapons systems to frontline development in drug discovery for AIDS, TB and malaria, these are our men and women. Some manage major mining and petroleum projects around the world while others are formulating dialogue with rouge States who are on the brink of war with their enemies.
Indeed knowledge and the desire to acquire it has become a major investment tool for our people. Clans, tribes and families are spending everything so that they’re children may reach the high echelons of their professions. Many die before the first pay and yet they continue. Courageous and a sacrifice beyond compression, our people do this every day. From stashing away daily sales of kaukau or fish in the markets to fathers selling bottles, they are the backbone of this nation.
PNGns know they’re roots and this is why we hate been a kago boi. Our families didn’t invest all that money so that carry the trash out when they themselves don’t know how to build a secure firewall using CISCO applications to deter hackers in our major government and financial institutions, to clean the toilets irrespective of the fact that we are able to infuse compounds derived from our genetic materials so as to eliminate the TB bug, to paint the runways, when we have flown the largest airplane in the world or to sweep the floors when in fact we design major highways.
Education is the tool for our security, prosperity and happiness and it is the only way we become mastas of our future and move away from been the kago boi.
PNG MINISTER HEADLINES WIKINEWS ON ATTEMPT MURDER CHARGES
WIKINEWS
Police in Papua New Guinea have arrested the Culture and Tourism Minister, Guma Wau, and charged him with attempted murder. The host of Radio Australia's Pacific Beat programme, Firmin Nanol, reported that the minister was charged and detained for an hour before being released on bail in connection with the shooting of a 50 year old man on June 13
Minister Wau has said that he was driving through Kerowagi district when the road was blocked by local tribesmen who refused to let him pass, and as a result of this, he fired his pistol to break the crowd up. One of the bullets strayed and hit a local man, 50 year old John Agaundo, wounding him.
Police in Chimbu have confiscated his pistol for examination. Minister Wau is due to appear before Kundiawa District Court today.
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| Click image to see original Screen Cap |
Police in Papua New Guinea have arrested the Culture and Tourism Minister, Guma Wau, and charged him with attempted murder. The host of Radio Australia's Pacific Beat programme, Firmin Nanol, reported that the minister was charged and detained for an hour before being released on bail in connection with the shooting of a 50 year old man on June 13
Minister Wau has said that he was driving through Kerowagi district when the road was blocked by local tribesmen who refused to let him pass, and as a result of this, he fired his pistol to break the crowd up. One of the bullets strayed and hit a local man, 50 year old John Agaundo, wounding him.
Police in Chimbu have confiscated his pistol for examination. Minister Wau is due to appear before Kundiawa District Court today.
Sunday, 8 August 2010
TOO SICK TO DESCRIBE, SHAME PNG!
Grave robbers in Papua New Guinea have reportedly dug up the body of one of the country's most loved and successful businessmen, Queensland-born Sir Brian Bell.
Sir Brian, 82, a prominent home goods retailer, died on July 25 in a Brisbane hospital and was farewelled in a high profile funeral in Port Moresby last Thursday.
PNG's Post-Courier newspaper reported on Monday that Sir Brian's coffin was dug up on Saturday and the body was moved so the robbers could look for valuables.
However, family members told the newspaper Sir Brian "did not go for fancy things or jewellery and was buried in a suit and no trappings".
The news has caused outrage in PNG, where Sir Brian was considered one of the country's most generous philanthropists.
His funeral, which was broadcast live on PNG national television, attracted thousands of people and numerous dignitaries, including Prime Minister Michael Somare.
One of the tributes at the funeral was given by his goddaughter, Australian singer and theatre star Marina Prior, the Post-Courier reported on Friday.
Originally born in Chinchilla, Queensland, Mr B, as he was affectionately known, arrived in PNG in 1954 to work as a pharmaceutical chemist.
He later opened a retail store and, over the years, his businesses expanded into department stores and home centres, chemicals, cleaning products and industrial equipment, the Post-Courier said.
Today, Brian Bell and Company employs 1300 staff across the country.
News of Sir Brian's death immediately spread across PNG, resulting in a mass outpouring of grief and tributes.
Port Moresby authorities and police are investigating if the grave robbery was an "inside job" linked to the funeral organisers.
SOURCE: AFP
SOURCE: AFP
Saturday, 7 August 2010
MORE THAN NEIGHBOURS
By MICHAEL FIELD - Sunday Star Times
Fiji and Papua New Guinea leaders have attacked New Zealanders as people not of the Pacific. Journalist and author Michael Field reflects on being a Kiwi in Pasifika.
WHEN I first met Michael Somare, it was one of those rare moments when he wasn't prime minister of the country he largely created, Papua New Guinea.
I was among crowds stuck at an airport in Madang in 2004, on PNG's northern Bismarck Sea coast. In the always interesting world of PNG, we were going nowhere because a wheel had fallen off the plane.
Among the crowd were a group of old, sweating white men, some with the slouch hat of the Australian Infantry Corps that several decades before had fought the Japanese nearby.
As PNG's founding prime minister at independence in 1975, Somare had a long struggle against Canberra. That hot Madang afternoon he went out of his way, pulling strings and using influence, caring for the old diggers.
Thirty-five years on, Grand Chief Sir Michael, now back as prime minister, is an irritable, bitter 74-year-old, given to thinking he has a divine right to rule the country of seven million people, nearly twice the size of New Zealand.
Somare has taken to seeing Fiji's military bully Voreqe Bainimarama as the new hope for Melanesia.
Last month Bainimarama hosted a poorly attended "Friends of Fiji" summit at Natadola. While the formal Melanesian Spearhead Group pulled out, Somare showed up, supporting Bainimarama's petulant attack on Canberra.
"I don't consider Australia and New Zealand as Pacific island people," Somare said, as if that justified anything.
By his definition Samoa did not make the cut either – it's seen as under New Zealand influence.
Only two days before disclaiming on race, Somare had stood in front of a fellow member of the PNG parliament, Sam Basil, and said, "If you were outside, I would kill you."
Last week Bainimarama, in a striking interview with the ABC during which he wore a red triangular party hat, supported the Somare theme, saying New Zealanders and Australians should be excluded from the Forum as they were "not Pacific islanders".
"They [Australians and New Zealanders] crept in slowly like the proverbial camel, you know, with their head in, and then the front legs, and then the back legs, and all of a sudden the owners of the tent were out and they were inside the tent," he said.
As a journalism student in Wellington, I nearly ended up at the inaugural meeting of the premier regional institution, the South Pacific Forum, held in the Maori Affairs Room at parliament on August 5-7, 1971.
Australia and New Zealand attended, along with newly independent Fiji, the Cook Islands, Nauru, Tonga and (as it was then) Western Samoa.
Their modest four-page communique (last year's Forum communique was 25 pages long) referred to a "private and informal discussion of a wide range of issues of common concern".
On top of their agenda were French nuclear tests in French Polynesia. It remained the top matter until 1996; then the Pacific found it had little in common.
The new spirit between New Zealand and the Pacific was soon revealed as a sham when in 1973 the Labour government of Norman Kirk began dawn raids on Pacific Island migrants. It went unnoticed until National's prime minister, Robert Muldoon, cranked them up and even rounded up Maori and made them prove they had the right to be here.
I had just come back from Africa where I had worked as a volunteer in the Kalahari to discover this parody talking about letting white Rhodesians into New Zealand – but not Polynesians or blacks – because they were "kith and kin".
I launched into the story, as did many reporters around the country, and the Evening Post published on its front page my accounts of outrageous behaviour by police and immigration officials. There were many meetings; decades later I can go past the Newtown Primary School hall in Wellington and recall the hundreds of Pacific Islanders who gathered there, feeling fearful and deeply hurt.
I JOINED VOLUNTEER Service Abroad (VSA) at the age of 23 because it offered a cure for persistent wanderlust by paying my airfare and giving me a job, house and adventure.
Rather than getting me to do useful things like digging wells, teaching the illiterate or curing leprosy, VSA put me on the staff of Samoa's prime minister, Tupuola Efi.
The department tea-lady offered me board with her policeman husband and her large family, which included at least three teenage maidens.
I went with Margaret Mead, the great American anthropologist – or at least her book, Coming of Age in Samoa.
Written in 1928, it got Americans believing that Samoan teenagers were relaxed and happy in their free love; and if they could do it, so could everybody else. I explained all this to the girls, but slowly it dawned on me that Mead was wrong. She then died. A telex machine clattered with demands for grief-stricken tributes from happy natives. Tupuola said no.
Delegations pounded their way up a narrow wooden staircase to the landing outside my office; they were horrified that the prime minister was not showing suitable respect to Earth Mother. It was not that Tupuola thought she was better off dead. He just did not want to glorify a woman who had libelled Samoans for decades.
While I was in the PM's Department, the consequences of the dawn raids coloured relations with New Zealand. Muldoon would show up, sometimes at just half a day's notice using a Civil Aviation calibration flight, and hector Tupuola in an, at times, colonial fashion.
Tupuola (who is now Head of State Tupua Tamasese Tupuola) told me he did not mind; he saw Muldoon as a lonely and friendless man who would benefit from fa'a Samoa.
Like most of my generation, the colonial history of Samoa was largely a blank sheet.
Tupuola went to the United Nations in 1976, as the world reeled at the scenes coming out of apartheid South Africa's Soweto. When he said Samoa understood the pain of the black community because Samoa had gone through it too, many New Zealanders in Apia objected that Tupuola was being extravagant.
We used the government newspaper Savali to give some historical context to Tupuola's remarks and, to my embarrassment, I found a story I knew nothing of – and had certainly not been taught in school. It was of a pacifist movement, the Mau, and the young Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III, the prime minister's uncle.
In 1929 a New Zealand policeman had shot and killed him as he stood unarmed in the street, calling for peace. Seven others were killed too. Under New Zealand's careless rule, 25% of Samoa's people died in a month in 1918 from influenza.
All this had been forgotten. I produced a book in 1984 that drew a deeply emotional response from Samoans. The Mau story had largely gone unrecorded, other than in song. New Zealand was a bit slower to deal with it, and it wasn't until 2002 that Prime Minister Helen Clark apologised for the appalling tragedy.
Perhaps up to that point, Somare could have got away with his line that we are not a Pacific people, although I would have never accepted it. As a school boy, I had Fijian rugby billets staying with us. I knew their world was mine too.
A COUPLE OF years ago I was in Tokelau, New Zealand's last territory, sitting on the malae of the tiny Fakaofo Atoll.
I count that warm, calm evening as a moksha moment – release from the Anglo-centric New Zealand world to that of the Pacific. Small white terns, flitting in and out of breadfruit trees, enhanced their intense greens. Into the space, as the sun sets, the kids get together to play. It looked informal, and quickly games of touch rugby, volleyball and netball were under way. What made it different was that all the games were taking place at the same time, on the same small space. Games passed through each other as if the other didn't exist; it was a tribute to the concept of sharing.
Too many New Zealanders believe that Pacific Islanders are dependent on our taxes and that, without us, they would simply fail to survive. They should be grateful, in other words.
It is not the case. Tokelau – and Samoa, the Cooks and the other Pacific islands – have much that they can contribute to creating a region that will never quite be paradise, but will certainly offer a vision of a better world.
The definitive moment that proves Somare is wrong was in last year's tsunami in Samoa. I reported on the tragedy, conscious of my family connections to many of the places hurt by the waves. I am not alone in this – thousands of people in New Zealand and Australia now have family in Samoa.
It was a little more than that, though, for New Zealand had found in that tragedy a sense of a wider Pacific community that it was part of.
This was no disaster to some Third World country. Call me hopelessly romantic, but I believe the Robert Muldoon New Zealand petered out and disappeared. People, for a whole lot of reasons, got on with creating a new Pacific vision. This is not some advertising jingle or warm fuzzies; it was tested in the tsunami and it worked.
Two days after the tsunami I was standing on a devastated Upolu beach.
Prime Minister John Key was trying to find someone on his phone – some way to get help.
It wasn't a politically affected gesture; it was too small amidst the death then to worry about, but like thousands of other New Zealanders the idea was to give aid and help as soon as possible.
In 1929, New Zealand politicians had their police shoot and kill unarmed Samoans on the streets of Apia. Exactly 80 years later, New Zealand ran to Samoa's side to give aid. We all change and learn, of course, but what I like about this is that despite the mess New Zealand made, Samoans came, changed us and became part of us.
And Grand Chief Somare; sorry, but we are Pacific Islanders, and we're all in this together.
Michael Field is the author of Swimming With Sharks: Tales from the South Pacific frontline, published by Penguin
WHEN I first met Michael Somare, it was one of those rare moments when he wasn't prime minister of the country he largely created, Papua New Guinea.
I was among crowds stuck at an airport in Madang in 2004, on PNG's northern Bismarck Sea coast. In the always interesting world of PNG, we were going nowhere because a wheel had fallen off the plane.
Among the crowd were a group of old, sweating white men, some with the slouch hat of the Australian Infantry Corps that several decades before had fought the Japanese nearby.
As PNG's founding prime minister at independence in 1975, Somare had a long struggle against Canberra. That hot Madang afternoon he went out of his way, pulling strings and using influence, caring for the old diggers.
Thirty-five years on, Grand Chief Sir Michael, now back as prime minister, is an irritable, bitter 74-year-old, given to thinking he has a divine right to rule the country of seven million people, nearly twice the size of New Zealand.
Somare has taken to seeing Fiji's military bully Voreqe Bainimarama as the new hope for Melanesia.
Last month Bainimarama hosted a poorly attended "Friends of Fiji" summit at Natadola. While the formal Melanesian Spearhead Group pulled out, Somare showed up, supporting Bainimarama's petulant attack on Canberra.
"I don't consider Australia and New Zealand as Pacific island people," Somare said, as if that justified anything.
By his definition Samoa did not make the cut either – it's seen as under New Zealand influence.
Only two days before disclaiming on race, Somare had stood in front of a fellow member of the PNG parliament, Sam Basil, and said, "If you were outside, I would kill you."
Last week Bainimarama, in a striking interview with the ABC during which he wore a red triangular party hat, supported the Somare theme, saying New Zealanders and Australians should be excluded from the Forum as they were "not Pacific islanders".
"They [Australians and New Zealanders] crept in slowly like the proverbial camel, you know, with their head in, and then the front legs, and then the back legs, and all of a sudden the owners of the tent were out and they were inside the tent," he said.
As a journalism student in Wellington, I nearly ended up at the inaugural meeting of the premier regional institution, the South Pacific Forum, held in the Maori Affairs Room at parliament on August 5-7, 1971.
Australia and New Zealand attended, along with newly independent Fiji, the Cook Islands, Nauru, Tonga and (as it was then) Western Samoa.
Their modest four-page communique (last year's Forum communique was 25 pages long) referred to a "private and informal discussion of a wide range of issues of common concern".
On top of their agenda were French nuclear tests in French Polynesia. It remained the top matter until 1996; then the Pacific found it had little in common.
The new spirit between New Zealand and the Pacific was soon revealed as a sham when in 1973 the Labour government of Norman Kirk began dawn raids on Pacific Island migrants. It went unnoticed until National's prime minister, Robert Muldoon, cranked them up and even rounded up Maori and made them prove they had the right to be here.
I had just come back from Africa where I had worked as a volunteer in the Kalahari to discover this parody talking about letting white Rhodesians into New Zealand – but not Polynesians or blacks – because they were "kith and kin".
I launched into the story, as did many reporters around the country, and the Evening Post published on its front page my accounts of outrageous behaviour by police and immigration officials. There were many meetings; decades later I can go past the Newtown Primary School hall in Wellington and recall the hundreds of Pacific Islanders who gathered there, feeling fearful and deeply hurt.
I JOINED VOLUNTEER Service Abroad (VSA) at the age of 23 because it offered a cure for persistent wanderlust by paying my airfare and giving me a job, house and adventure.
Rather than getting me to do useful things like digging wells, teaching the illiterate or curing leprosy, VSA put me on the staff of Samoa's prime minister, Tupuola Efi.
The department tea-lady offered me board with her policeman husband and her large family, which included at least three teenage maidens.
I went with Margaret Mead, the great American anthropologist – or at least her book, Coming of Age in Samoa.
Written in 1928, it got Americans believing that Samoan teenagers were relaxed and happy in their free love; and if they could do it, so could everybody else. I explained all this to the girls, but slowly it dawned on me that Mead was wrong. She then died. A telex machine clattered with demands for grief-stricken tributes from happy natives. Tupuola said no.
Delegations pounded their way up a narrow wooden staircase to the landing outside my office; they were horrified that the prime minister was not showing suitable respect to Earth Mother. It was not that Tupuola thought she was better off dead. He just did not want to glorify a woman who had libelled Samoans for decades.
While I was in the PM's Department, the consequences of the dawn raids coloured relations with New Zealand. Muldoon would show up, sometimes at just half a day's notice using a Civil Aviation calibration flight, and hector Tupuola in an, at times, colonial fashion.
Tupuola (who is now Head of State Tupua Tamasese Tupuola) told me he did not mind; he saw Muldoon as a lonely and friendless man who would benefit from fa'a Samoa.
Like most of my generation, the colonial history of Samoa was largely a blank sheet.
Tupuola went to the United Nations in 1976, as the world reeled at the scenes coming out of apartheid South Africa's Soweto. When he said Samoa understood the pain of the black community because Samoa had gone through it too, many New Zealanders in Apia objected that Tupuola was being extravagant.
We used the government newspaper Savali to give some historical context to Tupuola's remarks and, to my embarrassment, I found a story I knew nothing of – and had certainly not been taught in school. It was of a pacifist movement, the Mau, and the young Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III, the prime minister's uncle.
In 1929 a New Zealand policeman had shot and killed him as he stood unarmed in the street, calling for peace. Seven others were killed too. Under New Zealand's careless rule, 25% of Samoa's people died in a month in 1918 from influenza.
All this had been forgotten. I produced a book in 1984 that drew a deeply emotional response from Samoans. The Mau story had largely gone unrecorded, other than in song. New Zealand was a bit slower to deal with it, and it wasn't until 2002 that Prime Minister Helen Clark apologised for the appalling tragedy.
Perhaps up to that point, Somare could have got away with his line that we are not a Pacific people, although I would have never accepted it. As a school boy, I had Fijian rugby billets staying with us. I knew their world was mine too.
A COUPLE OF years ago I was in Tokelau, New Zealand's last territory, sitting on the malae of the tiny Fakaofo Atoll.
I count that warm, calm evening as a moksha moment – release from the Anglo-centric New Zealand world to that of the Pacific. Small white terns, flitting in and out of breadfruit trees, enhanced their intense greens. Into the space, as the sun sets, the kids get together to play. It looked informal, and quickly games of touch rugby, volleyball and netball were under way. What made it different was that all the games were taking place at the same time, on the same small space. Games passed through each other as if the other didn't exist; it was a tribute to the concept of sharing.
Too many New Zealanders believe that Pacific Islanders are dependent on our taxes and that, without us, they would simply fail to survive. They should be grateful, in other words.
It is not the case. Tokelau – and Samoa, the Cooks and the other Pacific islands – have much that they can contribute to creating a region that will never quite be paradise, but will certainly offer a vision of a better world.
The definitive moment that proves Somare is wrong was in last year's tsunami in Samoa. I reported on the tragedy, conscious of my family connections to many of the places hurt by the waves. I am not alone in this – thousands of people in New Zealand and Australia now have family in Samoa.
It was a little more than that, though, for New Zealand had found in that tragedy a sense of a wider Pacific community that it was part of.
This was no disaster to some Third World country. Call me hopelessly romantic, but I believe the Robert Muldoon New Zealand petered out and disappeared. People, for a whole lot of reasons, got on with creating a new Pacific vision. This is not some advertising jingle or warm fuzzies; it was tested in the tsunami and it worked.
Two days after the tsunami I was standing on a devastated Upolu beach.
Prime Minister John Key was trying to find someone on his phone – some way to get help.
It wasn't a politically affected gesture; it was too small amidst the death then to worry about, but like thousands of other New Zealanders the idea was to give aid and help as soon as possible.
In 1929, New Zealand politicians had their police shoot and kill unarmed Samoans on the streets of Apia. Exactly 80 years later, New Zealand ran to Samoa's side to give aid. We all change and learn, of course, but what I like about this is that despite the mess New Zealand made, Samoans came, changed us and became part of us.
And Grand Chief Somare; sorry, but we are Pacific Islanders, and we're all in this together.
Michael Field is the author of Swimming With Sharks: Tales from the South Pacific frontline, published by Penguin
Friday, 6 August 2010
CANCER IN THE NATIONAL FISHERIES AUTHORITY; A FISHY AFFAIR
By Countryside
My dear grandmother died of thyroid cancer and it was ghastly. Her tender body rapidly deteriorated and because the cancer had closed her mouth, the only way to feed her was to drill a hole through her stomach and for to breathe, another through her throat. She had it bad and her odor was very strong, almost similar to putrification. It was advanced and after 6 months, she went home to be with the lord.
You see cancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth (division beyond the normal limits), invasion (intrusion on and destruction of adjacent tissues), and sometimes metastasis (spread to other locations in the body via lymph or blood). These three malignant properties of cancers differentiate them from benign tumors, which are self-limited, and do not invade or metastasize.
Most cancers form a tumor but some, like leukemia, do not. Cancers are caused by abnormalities in the genetic material of the transformed cells. These abnormalities may be due to the effects of carcinogens, such as tobacco smoke, radiation, chemicals, or infectious agents. Other cancer-promoting genetic abnormalities may randomly occur through errors in DNA replication, or are inherited, and thus present in all cells from birth. The heritability of cancers is usually affected by complex interactions between carcinogens and the host's genome.
The National Fisheries Authority display cancer type symptoms, Corruption. Designed to manage and facilitate our fisheries resources, it has become a club for the big boys in the fisheries industry. It has uncontrollable growth of mismanagement, it invades like metastasi where the entire fisheries sector is affected by its chaotic feat and at the end, tragically like my grandmother, it is killing the people of Papua New Guinea.
Having negotiated various treaties for the government of PNG with competent, passionate PNGns, (who have all but left because of this filth), I am quite perplexed at the current state of affairs in our fisheries negotiations. Driven by private sector radicals that care absolutely nothing about our people, they have used the kumul flag to profiteer their cause. Locking in deals with Asia, the EU and many others. Tragically, these arrangements grossly undervalues our resource and people. Our access agreements are at best, access fees and the NFA has not been able to use these opportunities to demand socio – economic programmes to develop our people. The miracles of the Fisheries College, coastal programmes are all aid money and nothing from the access agreements.
You see for this cancer to sustain itself, it needs to invade and like the corruption in the regulatory services in the US Financial System, the NFA Managing Director is an industry man and wantoks, he’s been rewarded well. I’ve watched this man singlehandedly scream down his enforcement officers that were trying to lay charges on a major industry player for demanding them to improve their facilities as they are hazardous for both employees and food safety. In another incident, spending millions of kina to pursue an unrealistic agenda internationally, that was fueled by wanabee saviors of the fisheries sector. Indeed the smell of putrification is overwhelming and they are indeed, rot to the core.
So when I look at the men and women in Madang factories who have lost everything, I cannot help feeling so betrayed by the government I worked for. We fought the cause for our people in every major global fisheries fora. From cynical pomp ass green Caucasians, to bitchy Asians who wanted to get what the other guy got, we pushed the agenda for PNG so that NFA will go further in giving our wantoks the opportunity to partake in these relationships. But instead they have squandered the money for themselves and continue to fight for the Filipinos.
But if there is any comfort I have is that fish, unlike cancer are mostly highly migratory species. They travel extensively in packs and traverse the oceans for suitable spawning grounds or condusive environments to habitat. There is a new breed of PNGns swimming against the current of corruption and as they see the filth and decomposition of what the NFA has become, they are eager to change it. From the managers, officers to the analysists, keep up the fight guys. For those of you that still wear the blue shirt or blouse with the fish tick and fighting the fight, God is on your side. May he give you the courage and wisdom that when you turn your computers on today at 11 Floor Deloittes, you see the 4 million men and women that lean on you for survival. For it was because of them, the NFA was created.
You see cancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth (division beyond the normal limits), invasion (intrusion on and destruction of adjacent tissues), and sometimes metastasis (spread to other locations in the body via lymph or blood). These three malignant properties of cancers differentiate them from benign tumors, which are self-limited, and do not invade or metastasize.
Most cancers form a tumor but some, like leukemia, do not. Cancers are caused by abnormalities in the genetic material of the transformed cells. These abnormalities may be due to the effects of carcinogens, such as tobacco smoke, radiation, chemicals, or infectious agents. Other cancer-promoting genetic abnormalities may randomly occur through errors in DNA replication, or are inherited, and thus present in all cells from birth. The heritability of cancers is usually affected by complex interactions between carcinogens and the host's genome.
The National Fisheries Authority display cancer type symptoms, Corruption. Designed to manage and facilitate our fisheries resources, it has become a club for the big boys in the fisheries industry. It has uncontrollable growth of mismanagement, it invades like metastasi where the entire fisheries sector is affected by its chaotic feat and at the end, tragically like my grandmother, it is killing the people of Papua New Guinea.
Having negotiated various treaties for the government of PNG with competent, passionate PNGns, (who have all but left because of this filth), I am quite perplexed at the current state of affairs in our fisheries negotiations. Driven by private sector radicals that care absolutely nothing about our people, they have used the kumul flag to profiteer their cause. Locking in deals with Asia, the EU and many others. Tragically, these arrangements grossly undervalues our resource and people. Our access agreements are at best, access fees and the NFA has not been able to use these opportunities to demand socio – economic programmes to develop our people. The miracles of the Fisheries College, coastal programmes are all aid money and nothing from the access agreements.
You see for this cancer to sustain itself, it needs to invade and like the corruption in the regulatory services in the US Financial System, the NFA Managing Director is an industry man and wantoks, he’s been rewarded well. I’ve watched this man singlehandedly scream down his enforcement officers that were trying to lay charges on a major industry player for demanding them to improve their facilities as they are hazardous for both employees and food safety. In another incident, spending millions of kina to pursue an unrealistic agenda internationally, that was fueled by wanabee saviors of the fisheries sector. Indeed the smell of putrification is overwhelming and they are indeed, rot to the core.
So when I look at the men and women in Madang factories who have lost everything, I cannot help feeling so betrayed by the government I worked for. We fought the cause for our people in every major global fisheries fora. From cynical pomp ass green Caucasians, to bitchy Asians who wanted to get what the other guy got, we pushed the agenda for PNG so that NFA will go further in giving our wantoks the opportunity to partake in these relationships. But instead they have squandered the money for themselves and continue to fight for the Filipinos.
But if there is any comfort I have is that fish, unlike cancer are mostly highly migratory species. They travel extensively in packs and traverse the oceans for suitable spawning grounds or condusive environments to habitat. There is a new breed of PNGns swimming against the current of corruption and as they see the filth and decomposition of what the NFA has become, they are eager to change it. From the managers, officers to the analysists, keep up the fight guys. For those of you that still wear the blue shirt or blouse with the fish tick and fighting the fight, God is on your side. May he give you the courage and wisdom that when you turn your computers on today at 11 Floor Deloittes, you see the 4 million men and women that lean on you for survival. For it was because of them, the NFA was created.
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
ARTHUR GROOMED TO TAKE OVER AS PM, POLYE NOW A WINDOW DRESSER....
PRIME Minister Sir Michael Somare has abrogated the National Alliance constitution to hand power over to his son.
While the heat is on for Sir Michael to step aside and allow his deputy Don Polye to take over the top job, a ploy has also been engineered to dismantle the support of the National Alliance Highlands bloc for the latter.
With the Minj national convention now deferred, concerns have been raised that Mr Polye is being marginalised while Sir Michael makes it conducive for his son to take over the top job.
NA party president Simon Kaiwi has said the postponement was a result of recent political events and its implications on the party while Mr Polye reaffirmed his commitment to Sir Michael and the party yesterday.
“As far as I know, the position of the NA leadership is filled and there is no vacancy.
“The leader is currently Sir Michael and I totally support his leadership,” Mr Polye said.
Cracks have emerged within the ruling party as late as the appointment of eight new ministries following the failed attempt by the Opposition to move a vote of no confidence.
Mr Polye who was poised to wrestle the leadership from Sir Michael at the convention reportedly only announced a reshuffle as acting prime minister two weeks ago which the Prime Minister had already signed before heading to Fiji with Foreign Minister Sam Abal.
A meeting held reportedly in Cairns last Sunday between State Enterprises Minister Arthur Somare, Treasurer Peter O’Neill, Southern Highlands Governor Anderson Agiru, Enga Governor Peter Ipatas and Foreign Affairs, Trade and Immigrations Minister Sam Abal was to dismantle Mr Polye’s support.
Two top government officials (named) said support for Mr Polye to take the leadership of NA was imminent as members were already fed up with the Chief.
“That meeting and other meetings of similar nature was a ploy to divide the support of Mr Polye in the Highlands bloc,” one of them said.
They said it was unfortunate that the Minj convention had been put off to avert Sir Michael’s possible ouster but the National Alliance caucus can now ask Sir Michael Somare to step down.
It is understood the pressure is on Sir Michael to step down voluntarily and allow Mr Polye to assume the leadership of the party and lead it into the next election.
While the heat is on for Sir Michael to step aside and allow his deputy Don Polye to take over the top job, a ploy has also been engineered to dismantle the support of the National Alliance Highlands bloc for the latter.
With the Minj national convention now deferred, concerns have been raised that Mr Polye is being marginalised while Sir Michael makes it conducive for his son to take over the top job.
NA party president Simon Kaiwi has said the postponement was a result of recent political events and its implications on the party while Mr Polye reaffirmed his commitment to Sir Michael and the party yesterday.
“As far as I know, the position of the NA leadership is filled and there is no vacancy.
“The leader is currently Sir Michael and I totally support his leadership,” Mr Polye said.
Cracks have emerged within the ruling party as late as the appointment of eight new ministries following the failed attempt by the Opposition to move a vote of no confidence.
Mr Polye who was poised to wrestle the leadership from Sir Michael at the convention reportedly only announced a reshuffle as acting prime minister two weeks ago which the Prime Minister had already signed before heading to Fiji with Foreign Minister Sam Abal.
A meeting held reportedly in Cairns last Sunday between State Enterprises Minister Arthur Somare, Treasurer Peter O’Neill, Southern Highlands Governor Anderson Agiru, Enga Governor Peter Ipatas and Foreign Affairs, Trade and Immigrations Minister Sam Abal was to dismantle Mr Polye’s support.
Two top government officials (named) said support for Mr Polye to take the leadership of NA was imminent as members were already fed up with the Chief.
“That meeting and other meetings of similar nature was a ploy to divide the support of Mr Polye in the Highlands bloc,” one of them said.
They said it was unfortunate that the Minj convention had been put off to avert Sir Michael’s possible ouster but the National Alliance caucus can now ask Sir Michael Somare to step down.
It is understood the pressure is on Sir Michael to step down voluntarily and allow Mr Polye to assume the leadership of the party and lead it into the next election.
SOURCE: SOUTH PACIFIC POST
MORE ANSWERS THAN JUST GUNS
OP/ED
THE Port Moresby-based police inspector whose gun was used by a security guard to create panic on a business city thoroughfare has more than the gun to answer for.
He has to answer to his commissioner, the Department of Personnel Management and to the Ombudsman Commission on what he was doing running a security company while he remained a senior member of the disciplined forces and a senior government employee.
Stern rules bind the public servant to his employer, the state.
The Public Service (Management) Act, section 76, prohibits any engagement in outside employment or
business or in acquisition of land by any member of the national public service.
The public service General Orders supports this provision at GO no.20, which specifies the areas where civil servants cannot engage in outside businesses or employment and other miscellaneous conducts which are improper. Failure to observe these orders would most normally attract the full rigours of the public service disciplinary process.
Special conditions do apply, but permission has to be granted by the secretary of personnel management and, normally, this permission can be withdrawn at any time.
While the leadership code does not cover all public servants, those who occupy constitutional offices or are above a certain rank in the public service hierarchy, are covered by the code.
For those public servants who are covered by the leadership code, section 7 prohibits directorship in any company, section 8 prohibits shareholding in any company and section 9 prohibits employment by any other employer.
Special conditions also apply but they have to be discussed with and would have to be approved by the Ombudsman Commission or other competent authorities specified under the law.
This is a proviso that was once very strictly observed but is, today, widely abused and there would appear to be very little enforcement of the relevant laws and regulations cited above.
The police inspector, who was last week detained by his colleagues, is not alone in his adventurism.
There are civil servants, including departmental heads, who own and operate businesses in many parts of the country.
Isaac Lupari, as chief secretary, once denounced profiteering public servants who were bleeding their compatriot dry with numerous money loan schemes right under the noses of the public service.
These officers, many of whom continue to operate today, work in departments in some senior capacity or other and then arrange through pay deductions through the pay office for collection of their dues each fortnight.
We do not think the secretary for personnel management or the Ombudsman Commission (if the officers are covered by the leadership code) would ever give permission for these kinds of businesses to be conducted.
Others operate passenger motor vehicle services or trade stores or even in the building and construction and earthmoving services.
Why these public servants have never been prosecuted we shall never know.
Such is the extent to which the Public Service (Management) Act, the public service General Orders and the leadership code have been abused that bringing it back to any sort of equilibrium will take nothing short of an operation under emergency powers.
But, everything begins at the top. Ever since that fateful day on March 3, 1978, when Sir Michael Somare and Fr (now Mr) John Momis announced to a shocked parliament that the leadership code would be effected and all leaders with business dealings were asked to reveal their assets and accounts to the Ombudsman Commission, there has been a silent rebellion against the law.
That first announcement led to the walkout of parliament by businessmen-cum-politicians Sir Iambake Okuk (deceased) and Sir Julius Chan in the first motion of no-confidence.
Ever since, it has been a downhill trend where observance of the leadership code is concerned, to the extent that now the code is under threat and with the full concurrence of Sir Michael himself, who appears to have run afoul of the code somehow.
He has to answer to his commissioner, the Department of Personnel Management and to the Ombudsman Commission on what he was doing running a security company while he remained a senior member of the disciplined forces and a senior government employee.
Stern rules bind the public servant to his employer, the state.
The Public Service (Management) Act, section 76, prohibits any engagement in outside employment or
business or in acquisition of land by any member of the national public service.
The public service General Orders supports this provision at GO no.20, which specifies the areas where civil servants cannot engage in outside businesses or employment and other miscellaneous conducts which are improper. Failure to observe these orders would most normally attract the full rigours of the public service disciplinary process.
Special conditions do apply, but permission has to be granted by the secretary of personnel management and, normally, this permission can be withdrawn at any time.
While the leadership code does not cover all public servants, those who occupy constitutional offices or are above a certain rank in the public service hierarchy, are covered by the code.
For those public servants who are covered by the leadership code, section 7 prohibits directorship in any company, section 8 prohibits shareholding in any company and section 9 prohibits employment by any other employer.
Special conditions also apply but they have to be discussed with and would have to be approved by the Ombudsman Commission or other competent authorities specified under the law.
This is a proviso that was once very strictly observed but is, today, widely abused and there would appear to be very little enforcement of the relevant laws and regulations cited above.
The police inspector, who was last week detained by his colleagues, is not alone in his adventurism.
There are civil servants, including departmental heads, who own and operate businesses in many parts of the country.
Isaac Lupari, as chief secretary, once denounced profiteering public servants who were bleeding their compatriot dry with numerous money loan schemes right under the noses of the public service.
These officers, many of whom continue to operate today, work in departments in some senior capacity or other and then arrange through pay deductions through the pay office for collection of their dues each fortnight.
We do not think the secretary for personnel management or the Ombudsman Commission (if the officers are covered by the leadership code) would ever give permission for these kinds of businesses to be conducted.
Others operate passenger motor vehicle services or trade stores or even in the building and construction and earthmoving services.
Why these public servants have never been prosecuted we shall never know.
Such is the extent to which the Public Service (Management) Act, the public service General Orders and the leadership code have been abused that bringing it back to any sort of equilibrium will take nothing short of an operation under emergency powers.
But, everything begins at the top. Ever since that fateful day on March 3, 1978, when Sir Michael Somare and Fr (now Mr) John Momis announced to a shocked parliament that the leadership code would be effected and all leaders with business dealings were asked to reveal their assets and accounts to the Ombudsman Commission, there has been a silent rebellion against the law.
That first announcement led to the walkout of parliament by businessmen-cum-politicians Sir Iambake Okuk (deceased) and Sir Julius Chan in the first motion of no-confidence.
Ever since, it has been a downhill trend where observance of the leadership code is concerned, to the extent that now the code is under threat and with the full concurrence of Sir Michael himself, who appears to have run afoul of the code somehow.
Tuesday, 3 August 2010
Cannery sacks 400 PNG employees over pay dispute
Australia Network News
A Philippines fish cannery in Papua New Guinea has sacked over 400 of its employees for protesting against its failure to pay a wage rate of a dollar an hour. In 2009 PNG's Minimum Wages Board set its new wage rate at a dollar an hour. All employers were to pay the rate starting this year.
PNG's Employers Federation says the RD Tuna cannery did not receive an exemption from the Department of Labour.The federation says therefore the company should pay the minim wage rate of a dollar an hour.
RD Tuna applied for exemptions under the agriculture sector despite being an employer in the fisheries sector. The company's management says it will not implement the new wage rate until the Department of Labour makes a ruling.
In March, PNG's Department of Labour advised companies which did not receive exemptions to implement the new wage rate.
The Employers Federation has accused the Department of Labour of failing to inform companies individually. The RD Tuna cannery has reportedly reinstated half of the 400 plus employees, mostly women, it sacked last week.
A Philippines fish cannery in Papua New Guinea has sacked over 400 of its employees for protesting against its failure to pay a wage rate of a dollar an hour. In 2009 PNG's Minimum Wages Board set its new wage rate at a dollar an hour. All employers were to pay the rate starting this year.
PNG's Employers Federation says the RD Tuna cannery did not receive an exemption from the Department of Labour.The federation says therefore the company should pay the minim wage rate of a dollar an hour.
RD Tuna applied for exemptions under the agriculture sector despite being an employer in the fisheries sector. The company's management says it will not implement the new wage rate until the Department of Labour makes a ruling.
In March, PNG's Department of Labour advised companies which did not receive exemptions to implement the new wage rate.
The Employers Federation has accused the Department of Labour of failing to inform companies individually. The RD Tuna cannery has reportedly reinstated half of the 400 plus employees, mostly women, it sacked last week.
Monday, 2 August 2010
Papua New Guinea Apologizes for CEDAW Record
Regina Varolli
UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK, Papua New Guinea came to New York in July to face a U.N. inspection of its recent record on women's rights. A critical panel highlighted murders of women accused of sorcery and witchcraft and the chair of the delegation apologized for the country's poor record.
Papua New Guinea--one of the few countries in the world where women's life expectancy is lower than men's--ratified a major U.N. women's rights treaty in 1995, but then proceeded to miss four deadlines for reporting on its compliance with key provisions.
When the delegation from the half-island nation in the southwest Pacific appeared in New York in late July it turned out to be the first encounter with the review committee on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, CEDAW. The committee was reviewing status reports from six other countries during its 46th session from July 12-30.
The meeting was housed in the temporary home of the U.N. headquarters, located on New York City's East River, during a remodel of the main U.N. building.
Seated on a raised platform in the large conference room, Carol Kidu, the chairwoman of the Papua New Guinea delegation, and Naéla Gabr, the CEDAW committee chairwoman, faced the 23 members of the CEDAW committee. First the committee read questions aloud, after which the delegation chair responded. Then the floor was turned over to 15 delegates representing various branches of the Papua New Guinea civil service, who delivered their responses.
A key concern of committee members was what the government was doing to stop the murders of women accused of sorcery and witchcraft.
"Research is being done on the emergence of killings of so-called witches and on the sudden increase of identifying women at the village level as witches and killing them," Kidu, also Papua New Guinea's minister for community development, told the committee. "We have no data on sorcery and we have no data on the number of people who have been arrested for killings or practicing sorcery, or those who have gone to prison."
Silence Fills the Room
When Gabr, chair of the review committee, asked the rest of the country's delegation if they had anything to add to Kidu's comments about the government's response to the killings, silence filled the room.
Press accounts have found 50 women killed in 2009 for sorcery and witchcraft and Papua New Guinea's status report to the committee states that these killings have doubled in recent times.
Recent reports from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have both expressed grave concerns over the practice of witch hunting and the brutalization of women by the country's many tribes in one of the world's most culturally remote countries, where the mainly rural population practices subsistence-based agriculture. The reports indicate that heavily-armed tribal villagers sometimes drive off police who have come to investigate reports of sorcery-motivated murders.
These murders may be linked to a worsening HIV-AIDS epidemic. In Papua New Guinea--with a population of 6.5 million and a literacy rate of 62 percent--AIDS is widely viewed as the result of black magic by witches and sorcerers rather than a modern disease that must be treated with modern medicine, members of the CEDAW committee said.
UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK, Papua New Guinea came to New York in July to face a U.N. inspection of its recent record on women's rights. A critical panel highlighted murders of women accused of sorcery and witchcraft and the chair of the delegation apologized for the country's poor record.
Papua New Guinea--one of the few countries in the world where women's life expectancy is lower than men's--ratified a major U.N. women's rights treaty in 1995, but then proceeded to miss four deadlines for reporting on its compliance with key provisions.
When the delegation from the half-island nation in the southwest Pacific appeared in New York in late July it turned out to be the first encounter with the review committee on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, CEDAW. The committee was reviewing status reports from six other countries during its 46th session from July 12-30.
The meeting was housed in the temporary home of the U.N. headquarters, located on New York City's East River, during a remodel of the main U.N. building.
Seated on a raised platform in the large conference room, Carol Kidu, the chairwoman of the Papua New Guinea delegation, and Naéla Gabr, the CEDAW committee chairwoman, faced the 23 members of the CEDAW committee. First the committee read questions aloud, after which the delegation chair responded. Then the floor was turned over to 15 delegates representing various branches of the Papua New Guinea civil service, who delivered their responses.
A key concern of committee members was what the government was doing to stop the murders of women accused of sorcery and witchcraft.
"Research is being done on the emergence of killings of so-called witches and on the sudden increase of identifying women at the village level as witches and killing them," Kidu, also Papua New Guinea's minister for community development, told the committee. "We have no data on sorcery and we have no data on the number of people who have been arrested for killings or practicing sorcery, or those who have gone to prison."
Silence Fills the Room
When Gabr, chair of the review committee, asked the rest of the country's delegation if they had anything to add to Kidu's comments about the government's response to the killings, silence filled the room.
Press accounts have found 50 women killed in 2009 for sorcery and witchcraft and Papua New Guinea's status report to the committee states that these killings have doubled in recent times.
Recent reports from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have both expressed grave concerns over the practice of witch hunting and the brutalization of women by the country's many tribes in one of the world's most culturally remote countries, where the mainly rural population practices subsistence-based agriculture. The reports indicate that heavily-armed tribal villagers sometimes drive off police who have come to investigate reports of sorcery-motivated murders.
These murders may be linked to a worsening HIV-AIDS epidemic. In Papua New Guinea--with a population of 6.5 million and a literacy rate of 62 percent--AIDS is widely viewed as the result of black magic by witches and sorcerers rather than a modern disease that must be treated with modern medicine, members of the CEDAW committee said.
Sunday, 1 August 2010
Nape’s undemocratic parliament equals Somare’s absolute power
BY SAM BASIL MP
The National Parliament Speaker Hon. Jeffery Nape has eroded the spirit of democracy for three consecutive years as the speaker of this eight parliament and continues to do.
Since becoming a member of this eight parliament I was given a copy of the constitution the edited version July, 2007 and started browsing through the speakers role and responsibilities when I first started to realise the unprofessional and undemocratic conducts that he posses.
The constitution stated clearly in Section 108 (1) that, The Speaker is responsible, subject to and in accordance with the Constitutional Laws, the Acts of Parliament and the Standing Orders of the Parliament, for upholding the dignity of the Parliament, maintaining order in it, regulating its proceedings and administering its affairs, and for controlling the precincts of the Parliament as defined by or under an Act of the Parliament.
The Speaker Hon. Jeffery Nape’s decisions and actions so far on the floor of Parliament have clearly shown that he is irresponsible and his conducts were not subjected to as in accordance with the Constitutional Laws, the Act of Parliament and the Standing Orders of the Parliament. Simply there is no more democratic process in the proceedings of parliament.
In the last sitting of Parliament the speaker; A) Failed to entertain the motion of no confidence notice which was officially handed to the speaker’s office at 0930hrs on the 21.07.10.
B) Failed to entertain the Noes call by the opposition followed by division call which was seconded against the leader of government business who proposed that the parliament at its rising be adjourned till November 16 2010.
C) Failed yet again to entertain the Noes call by the opposition followed by division call which was seconded against the leader of government business who proposed again that the parliament is now adjourned until November 16 2010.
Surprisingly the parliament clerk Mr Don Pandan has excluded the division calls from the copies of Hansard distributed a week after the session. The National Parliament clerk has also failed his constitutional duties to properly advice the speaker to act in accordance with the constitutional laws, the Acts of Parliament and the Standing Orders of the Parliament and he must also be referred to the Ombudsman Commission.
We have heard that during the intense lobbying two very influential government Mps spent three hours with the speaker. The speaker’s undemocratic rulings on the floor that week also raises many questions regarding the integrity of the chair.
Is the speaker above the law? Why haven’t the relevant authorities stepped in to address all the corruption claims against the speaker including his undemocratic conduct on the chair beginning from the 7th and into this 8th Parliament?
If the speaker is clearly above the law then he can be termed as the most powerful mp on the floor which means that if he decides to market his rulings to the highest bidder then he can break all the laws under the sun to do so.
Last week denial of the opposition’s rights to call for the division has seen the speaker’s office denying the rights of almost 3 million people that those 45 members of parliament represent in the opposition. If the speaker of the National Parliament is marketing his rulings on the floor then he must come clear to the 6.5m people of this nation.
Maybe it is time now for the ordinary people to directly vote a speaker of Parliament into office who can be independent from political influences the candidates must go through a series of stringent screening process and criteria with educational qualifications and most importantly ex convict and criminals should be excluded from day one.
I will also take to the ordinary grassroots people to explain the speaker’s conducts on the floor while he will be called to open forums to explain his undemocratic conducts there is no hope anymore for us the elected Mps to exercise our rights and freedom on the floor on behalf of our people.
The National Parliament Speaker Hon. Jeffery Nape has eroded the spirit of democracy for three consecutive years as the speaker of this eight parliament and continues to do.
Since becoming a member of this eight parliament I was given a copy of the constitution the edited version July, 2007 and started browsing through the speakers role and responsibilities when I first started to realise the unprofessional and undemocratic conducts that he posses.
The constitution stated clearly in Section 108 (1) that, The Speaker is responsible, subject to and in accordance with the Constitutional Laws, the Acts of Parliament and the Standing Orders of the Parliament, for upholding the dignity of the Parliament, maintaining order in it, regulating its proceedings and administering its affairs, and for controlling the precincts of the Parliament as defined by or under an Act of the Parliament.
The Speaker Hon. Jeffery Nape’s decisions and actions so far on the floor of Parliament have clearly shown that he is irresponsible and his conducts were not subjected to as in accordance with the Constitutional Laws, the Act of Parliament and the Standing Orders of the Parliament. Simply there is no more democratic process in the proceedings of parliament.
In the last sitting of Parliament the speaker; A) Failed to entertain the motion of no confidence notice which was officially handed to the speaker’s office at 0930hrs on the 21.07.10.
B) Failed to entertain the Noes call by the opposition followed by division call which was seconded against the leader of government business who proposed that the parliament at its rising be adjourned till November 16 2010.
C) Failed yet again to entertain the Noes call by the opposition followed by division call which was seconded against the leader of government business who proposed again that the parliament is now adjourned until November 16 2010.
Surprisingly the parliament clerk Mr Don Pandan has excluded the division calls from the copies of Hansard distributed a week after the session. The National Parliament clerk has also failed his constitutional duties to properly advice the speaker to act in accordance with the constitutional laws, the Acts of Parliament and the Standing Orders of the Parliament and he must also be referred to the Ombudsman Commission.
We have heard that during the intense lobbying two very influential government Mps spent three hours with the speaker. The speaker’s undemocratic rulings on the floor that week also raises many questions regarding the integrity of the chair.
Is the speaker above the law? Why haven’t the relevant authorities stepped in to address all the corruption claims against the speaker including his undemocratic conduct on the chair beginning from the 7th and into this 8th Parliament?
If the speaker is clearly above the law then he can be termed as the most powerful mp on the floor which means that if he decides to market his rulings to the highest bidder then he can break all the laws under the sun to do so.
Last week denial of the opposition’s rights to call for the division has seen the speaker’s office denying the rights of almost 3 million people that those 45 members of parliament represent in the opposition. If the speaker of the National Parliament is marketing his rulings on the floor then he must come clear to the 6.5m people of this nation.
Maybe it is time now for the ordinary people to directly vote a speaker of Parliament into office who can be independent from political influences the candidates must go through a series of stringent screening process and criteria with educational qualifications and most importantly ex convict and criminals should be excluded from day one.
I will also take to the ordinary grassroots people to explain the speaker’s conducts on the floor while he will be called to open forums to explain his undemocratic conducts there is no hope anymore for us the elected Mps to exercise our rights and freedom on the floor on behalf of our people.
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