Thor's Travel Notes
Background Information on Papua New Guinea
News Sample 2
The world's media generally give a selectively terrible image of places which make 'news'. This is largely because good news is not news. Those of us who travel know that daily life in most places is far more mundane than dramatic news stories make it. On the other hand, real social ills often go unreported. Papua New Guinea's sprawling squatter cities are however one locale where the news for citizens is genuinely awful far too often. This is a great pity for ordinary PNG people, most of whom are as kind and decent as folk you will find anywhere. I have added a couple of scary news stories to this site because those unfamiliar with the country need to start out without illusions. After that, the many rewards of PNG will all come as a bonus.
PNG 'cowers' while MPs brandish guns
Sydney Morning Herald, December 2 2002
[ Readers are directed to the Sydney Morning Herald archives for the original story.
It is reprinted here soley to assist where source access is unavailable]Politicians in Papua New Guinea are facing calls to disarm after the country's Tourism Minister threatened an academic at gunpoint at a rugby match.
The minister, Alois King, has admitted pulling a gun on the University of Papua New Guinea's dean of social sciences, Professor Kennett Sumbuk, at Port Moresby's rugby club at the weekend. Police are investigating that incident and reports that the minister fired bullets in public.
Papua New Guinea's politicians are allowed to carry a firearm to defend themselves from criminals, rival tribesmen and disgruntled voters.
In recent years at least four other senior politicians have drawn or discharged guns. Incidents include a former minister, Philemon Embel, pulling a gun at the Holiday Inn, and a governor who drew his pistol at the five-star Crowne Plaza.
And a former Southern Highlands governor, Anderson Agiru, was ousted by a leadership tribunal after he drew a pistol at the Port Moresby Golf Club.
A columnist, Frank Senge Kolma, argued in The National newspaper that there was a strong case to disarm the politicians. "Our leaders claim their lives are under threat, and we do not disbelieve that," Mr Kolma writes. "We beg them in return to understand that the need of the people for safety is equally urgent.
"We cower in fear for our own safety against the marauding terrorists (criminals) on our streets. Yet we must never cower in fear of our leaders."
Letters to the editor expressed disgust with the Tourism Minister's actions. "The minister needs to be sacked right away," said a writer to the Post-Courier. "The minister's publicity is not good for the world to come to PNG."
Fear of crime wrecks tourism potential. Bank customers are screened with metal detectors and pass through bullet-proof airlocks. Airport security is woeful. Passengers often walk around security points, especially when travelling with a politician.
Related links on this site: 1. Photographic Memories of Papua New Guinea
2, Map of Papua New Guinea ( CIA map courtesy of the University of Texas resource site)
3. Expedition to Snake River, PNG,1987
4. Friends - Irimo Street PNG 1985 (a prose poem)
5. Super-Culture and The Ghost in the Machine (..reflections on human innovation and insight)
6. This Is Your Problem Friend, Not Mine -- towards a cure for formal language errors in Papua New Guinea and elsewhere..
7a. Contemporary newspaper account of social ills in Port Morseby, PNG's capital