Bamboo bands mark an era in Madang music

Siar bamboo band.

If you attend an important event or a social occasion in Madang province today, you may still be entertained by a bamboo band.
Bamboo band music was a major feature of the province in the 70s up until the mid 80s when this style of music faded into silence. At one stage, the province was identified with bamboo band music rivaling places like Bougainville and the Solomon Islands where the style of music had its origins.
Bamboo music, however, is not foreign to Madang. The province is rich with abundant bamboo species that have numerous other uses apart from music. In the past, Madang had a variety of traditional bamboo music from some of its 164 language groups. Two distinct forms of traditional bamboo music are still found along the north coast and inland river areas and the hinterlands south of the province. The northern villagers used the large bamboo flutes in the sacred music associated with spirits while those in the south stamp hollowed bamboo trunks on the ground while dancing. Smaller v-notched bamboo flutes and the jaws harp are also popular bamboo music instruments used throughout the area.

Award winning Kalibobo bamboo band of Sogeri, 1978.

The modern bamboo bands were introduced to the province by Bougainville students at the Madang Teachers College in the early 70s. The bands consisted of guitars, ukuleles and sets of bamboos that accompanied the singing. The villages nearest to the college were first to use bamboos in their string bands.
The recordings of the Madang Teacher College bamboo band were made popular by Radio Madang and it was not long before the style of music began spreading to outlying villages.
The original bands were simple using limited bamboos in single sets and the player struck the bamboos with rubber thongs accompanying the guitars. In Madang, it was mainly the Bel language villages that produced most of the bamboo band music. Groups from villages like Siar, Riwo, Malmal and Bilia did recordings with Radio Madang and the emerging commercial music studios. Other music groups in the outlying districts began adding bamboos to their string bands and soon the style of music became popular throughout the province.
The 1970s was also the decade of independence and there were many occasions of celebrations which helped to promote bamboo bands. There were string band competitions and independence song contests, as well as celebrations of important political and social events. Two bamboo band groups from Madang stood out significantly during that period. The Melanesian Bamboo Band was the popular resident band of the Madang Resort and it had wide exposure performing at the resort or on the resort’s tour vessels.
The other group was actually formed out of the province in 1978 by Madang students attending Sogeri National High School. The Kalibobo bamboo band was formed as part of the cultural curriculum promoted at the school and entertained at various venues in Port Moresby. Kalibobo is the popular local name for the coast watchers’ memorial in Madang. The band did a recording with NBC studios in Port Moresby in 1979 which sold more than 10,000 copies earning the group a golden award.
Two songs made popular by the bamboo bands were September 16 which was a song about independence and Wanpela Liklik Meri which was a light hearted tale about a girl who enjoyed the bamboo band music so much on a PMV bus that she missed getting home. These groups did a lot to promote bamboo band music in Madang and thus the province began to be identified with this style of music.
As the years progressed, variations of the bamboo rhythms began to emerge as more bamboos were added to the bamboo sets and the numbers of sets were increased. The rhythms were based on the variations of the popular rock and blues bass runs and it seemed the bamboo bands were set to develop further. However, Madang did not progress down the same path like the bamboo bands in the Solomon Islands and on Bougainville.
In the early eighties another style of music began to hit the airwaves of PNG. These were the electric bands, commonly known in the country as pawa ben (power band), mostly playing cover versions of popular rock and country music. The pawa bens had existed well before the eighties in many parts of the country however, only few of the groups did any recordings. The early recordings were done on vinyl records and were not widely available throughout the country. But as technology developed, cassette tapes and portable tape recorders came on the market and that also helped recording studios to flourish in the country.
In Madang interest in pawa ben music began to grow following similar trends nationwide. Groups such as the YC and Tusbab High school bands, Kanagioi Brothers, Minofrets, Kool Figures and Idmon came on the scene. The Tumbuna Track studio was also established in the town and began concentrating on recording the pawa bens which were becoming popular. Tumbuna Track also promoted locally composed songs as opposed to cover versions of popular western songs. Early recordings of groups like Old Dog and The Offbeats, Kales and later Wali Hits which had major hit songs on radio shifted the interest to the pawa bands. Of course, the CHM Supersound program on EMTV that promoted popular PNG music also played a role in developing interests in pawa bens. Musicians also saw that there was money to be made in this form of music through the sales of their recordings.
In the meantime the bamboo bands fell silent as the aging musicians of the 70s and 80s stopped performing and settled down. There are still a few places such as the Madang Resort were the Melanesian Bamboo band remains a popular feature providing the long established tradition for the guests.
Today the bamboo band musicians of the past still live in the villages and occasionally get requests to perform. When they regroup, they simply identify themselves as the ‘golden oldies’ and entertain with the music of an era that marked the end of colonialism and the beginning of a new future.

Luff’s watercolours capture PNG in the 80s

In 1981, a New Zealand artist, the late Bill Luff, came to PNG to work on a two year contract for the PNG government. The two years eventually extended into a highly successful 10 years in Port Moresby where Luff, an accomplished watercolour painter, captured an interesting array of subjects with the brush and mounted six exhibitions. Luff returned home to New Zealand and in 2005 published a book about his experiences in New Zealand, PNG and South East Asia. A selection of his best paintings also adorn the pages of the book titled: Bill Luff New Zealand Watercolourist and Art Director.


When viewing Luff’s collection of paintings in the book, one cannot help but notice a feature that stands out in all his works - his tenacious attention to details. While one may argue that artists are supposed to pay attention to details, he seems to have gone after subjects that are extremely rich in details. And that did not only include busy streets scenes and market places, but also individuals and groups of people.
Luff came to PNG in 1981 to take up a job as Chief Designer with the then Office of Information at Konedobu in PNG. While he does not say why he chose to come to PNG, it was certainly an inspiring decision for him to be able to work amongst different cultures that provided rich new subjects for his paint brush.
Luff says he initially came on a two-year contract but did not leave the country until 1990. Soon after he arrived there was a successful vote of no confidence against the Somare government and Sir Julius became the prime minister.
Luff writes: “Chan, after a couple of years, closed the ‘Office’ thus terminating all but a few expatriate contracts. Luckily, because I was enjoying much of the Port Moresby lifestyle I was retained to work largely with the PNG Government Printing office.”
Luff was able to mount six successful exhibitions of watercolour paintings in Papua New Guinea and he attributed the success largely to the ‘remarkable variety of subjects.’
“The clothing, habitat and physical characteristics of the nineteen provinces provided me with endless challenges. Port Moresby as capital city had people from all over Papua New Guinea”.
Ironically, Luff recalls that when he first arrived in PNG, he was advised to paint Papua New Guineans in all their traditional regalia.
“As exciting as the masks and decorations looked I did not take this advice”.
Port Moresby provided Luff with most of the subjects and scenery he needed for his paintings. Hanuabada or the Big Village was one subject that really challenged him and he seemed to have relished for it drew the best out of him. The village built on stilts that extended out into the shallows of the Fairfax harbour with a magnificent skyline of the modern Port Moresby high rises in the background, offered a maze of details and slight shades of colours. The scene is a paradise for photographers at anytime but for a painter, even of Luff’s class, it was a daunting task. Yet in his work Morning Reflections, Luff rose to the occasion to capture the village in all its glory at sunrise.
“The subject proved to be one of my most successful in Port Moresby,” Luff writes. “Although Moresby can have breezes and a few strong winds this was on a typically still early morning”.
Luff’s fascination with the Big Village continued with several close-up works and another magnificent painting is Old Canoe, Rusty Roofs and Washing - which is exactly that! The work captures a part of the Big Village which is so realistic, especially the rusting roofs, that one can almost feel the rust in the painting!
The famous Koki Market in Port Moresby also provided the detailed crowd scenes which he loved. Luff picked out bananas, the major food crop in the Central Province and the numerous varieties of them that were displayed and sold at Koki. His eye for detail is sharp yet he says what he assumed to be a bilum full of coconuts actually turned out to be a baby! Koki is also on the water front and the fish market there provided an added variety of sea food subjects.
From crowds to individuals, Luff demonstrates his growing knowledge of identifying the different ethnic groups in PNG and the characteristic traits that make them differ. After some years in PNG, one can generally identify which provinces people are from by their physical appearance and/or by the language or way they speak. His painting titled Polka dots because of the dotted dress worn by one of the subjects, demonstrates his ability to capture the different ethnic groups in Papua New Guinea. In the painting, two women are scouring for shellfish along Ela Beach and just by looking at the picture, one can already workout where each one comes from. The darker woman is from Western and the woman of lighter complexion is from Gulf which are neighbouring provinces yet they look so different!
His book also features a selection of his portrayal of individual Papua New Guineans from mothers, babies, children, to colourful laplaps, meri blouses, bilums, tongs and umbrellas. Again the details that he captures are amazing.
Luff’s ability to handle details is probably best demonstrated, I believe, in his paintings of the famous coconut palms. Coconuts have been one of the most painted subjects in PNG and the palms give the ‘tropical’ look which is usually associated with PNG and the Pacific islands. The physical feature of the palm with its slim trunk, arching fronds, hanging leaves and piles of nuts have been a favourite subject of all budding artists from elementary schools to art colleges. Luff’s ability to capture this majestic palm is exceptional and worthy of study by aspiring artists. An example of his skills is demonstrated in the painting Oro Bay in which the different shades of palms provide the frame for this picturesque bay.
Of course, when painters publish their works in a book, they take the risk that their paintings will not be represented exactly as the original work. Equally, for a printer it is a nightmare trying to capture all shades of colours that are present in a painting. This is often not possible so some of Luff’s paintings appearing in his book may not be a true representation of the original colours as he had captured.
The painting that I believe best presents Luff’s mastery with details is the one that won and international award in London. It is titled Pagoda Street, Singapore which presents an intricate maze of colour and details of life along that street. Singapore, like many Asian cities and communities, provide painters with ideal subjects for their work.
Bill Luff New Zealand Watercolourist and Art Director is available from New Zealand’s Art Centre Bookshop and can be ordered through New Zealand Book Online on website: http://www.booksnz.com/

Encounter at mamboo market

I stepped through the rows of women selling betelnut, coconut and watermelon.
This was Mambu (bamboo) market about 10 kilometres from Madang town in Papua New Guinea along the Madang/Lae highway. The market, I realised, received its name from a clump of bamboo growing nearby and is one of the many to spring up after the closure of the main Madang Town market following trouble between the Sepik settlers and the local Amele people.
The betel nuts were mostly sold in bunches with prices ranging from K1.50 to the biggest bunches costing around K10. I smiled to myself thinking how much more these bunches would fetch in PNG’s capital city, Port Moresby.
My thoughts were interrupted when my eyes came to rest on one of the woman whose face I instantly recognised. The recognition was simultaneously as her face lit up immediately as she saw me.
When was it that I last saw her? My mind raced back some 24 years ago to the primary school nearby.
Yes, it was there that I last saw her. We were classmates for six years at Gum Primary School.
As I muttered a short greeting, she smiled back and greeted me as if she had seen me only yesterday.
Then without a second thought her hands swept together almost half of the small piles of betelnut she was selling and offered them to me.
I was touched. I did not know what to say as I accepted her generosity.
While generosity such as this was common in Madang, I had been away too long in the tough environment of Port Moresby city where almost everything had a monetary price tag on them.
I fumbled around in my pocket and found a K5 note ($2) and handed it to her. It was more than she could have earned for the betelnut which she sold for 10 toea (4 cents) a heap. But I wanted to thank her for showing kindness to a classmate she last saw in 1973.
“Are you Lea?” I asked finally recalling her name. “Yes,” she replied, the tone of her voice registering a faint surprise as if to suggest ‘and who did you think I was?’
And for my trouble, she reached into her bilum and handed me a huge juicy water melon. I made a half hearted attempt to refuse her kindness, but she insisted. Accepting her gifts with countless muttering of thanks, I left. I was rather annoyed with myself for my awkwardness in responding to her generosity and kindness.
As the truck pulled away from Mambu Market, my thoughts returned to Lea. I remembered that she had a sister named Laufin and we were all in the same class from Standard One to Standard Six.
Wrapped in nostalgia, I regretted that we were never particularly kind to the girls. Most often they were the butts of our jokes, while some of the meaner boys would bully or hit them.
I particularly remembered Lea because she was an exceptionally bright student in our class, especially in maths. While thoughts of careers and University education was totally removed from our world in those years, we did have a healthy competition for the top place in our class throughout our education.
I recalled a particular incident in the early years during class quiz between the girls and boys. We, as usual, were trying to put the girls in their place finally drawing the ire of our teacher who happened to be a woman. She challenged us to a maths question: What’s 9x9?
Silence. None of us knew the answer. She then asked the girls and Lea’s hand was up in a flash. She gave the correct answer. I never forgot the answer to 9x9 since.
I had expected her to continue to high school but was rather surprised when she and a number of other top students did not make it.
To this day, I often wondered about that. I remember asking my late father who was a primary school teacher about that. His answer was that the selection for high school that year was not done by the education department but on the recommendation of the school’s board of governors. He said there was unfair selection and so these students missed out.
For Lea, missing out on high school has not affected her generosity and kindness.
She is blessed with a kind heart that has helped make life for others such as an old school mate, a more beautiful experience.

Surviving on the barest minimum

2001

Samson Wans used to go to school at Baitabag Primary School about 15 kilometres north of Madang. He quit school this year because education has become a luxury for him. His father’s K30 per fortnight wage as a labourer at Milinat plantation could not support him and his brother at school. The school fee was K50 for each of them.
“My father could not pay our school fees or even buy our books and pens. He needed the money for things like kerosene, rice, soap and clothes,” said Samson. He was collecting coconuts with his brother to sell for some much-needed cash. There are thousands of Papua New Guineans like Samson who are affected by the minimum wage rate being paid in the country.
Last year the Minimum Wages Board awarded an increase on PNG’s minimum wage from K45 a fortnight to K120 a fortnight. The award, which was gazetted, met stiff opposition from the powerful PNG Employers Federation and the Rural Industries Council who claimed that they could not afford the increase. They said 15,000 to 20,000 jobs would be lost as a result. The employers’ influential lobby has forced the Government to defer the award while trying to negotiate a lesser rate of K30 a week. So far no agreement has been reached.
The minimum wages was adjusted following the devaluation of the kina and the increased cost of living. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase in PNG is estimated at about 100 per cent since 1992 when the minimum wage was last adjusted. This means that since 1992 the prices of most of the goods bought by consumers have doubled.
For Samson’s father and other minimum wage earners in rural areas, the figures mean nothing. The increase in cost of living has hit them hard and K45 can buy very little. A bag of 20-kilogram rice costs nearly K40 and little is left for tinned food, kerosene, soap and PMV fares for two weeks. This is not even considering other costs such as clothing, health and education.
The managers of the companies that pay the minimum wage rate are aware of its inadequacies, yet are wary of the new increase.
Acting Manager of Madang Rural Products (MRP), a poultry company, Sam Gigimat, said his company was struggling at the moment and could not afford to pay the new rate of K120 a fortnight.
“We’ll go under,” he said shaking his head.
MRP pays at a varying rate, depending on sales, starting at a minimum of K45 up to K70 a fortnight when sales are good. This method of payment is allowed under the 1992 wage determination. However, Mr Gigimat is also aware of the needs of his 40 workers at their company site near Yagaum about 10 kilometres from Madang town.
“Each year we give out school fee loans to our workers to help them out.”
The highest amount paid out is K500 and workers repay the loan through deductions from their pay. No interest is charged. Mr.Gigimat said about K3000 is paid out in school fee loans each year.
Madang Rural Products is a self-help venture set up by the major churches and Madang Government to help the local people and therefore, has a policy to return some of its profit to the people.
Peter Muriki is General Manager of Madang Development Corporation, the business arm of the Madang Provincial Government that owns Siar Plantation. Mr Muriki said they paid their labourers K60 a fortnight, which was about K15 higher than the minimum rate. K60 per fortnight is also the government’s new suggested minimum rate currently being negotiated. Yet, Mr Muriki said, this was inadequate to meet the needs of his workers.
“One worker had two kids in school and wanted a loan of K600 for school fees.
“How can you give them such a loan?”
He said the worker even offered his full pay packet for next 10 fortnights to pay back the loan.
“But I could not do that to him.”
Mr Muriki said he helped them to create other ways to earn money like allowing them to sell coconuts.
“The minimum wage rate is not feasible for a family. It’s a bit inhuman,” he said.
The Employers Federation and Rural Industries Council are made up of wealthy companies and plantation owners who are organised and influential. The minimum wage earners, on the other hand, are totally disadvantaged with no union representation and little government support to look after their interest. The PNG Trade Union Congress, which has been fighting hard for the minimum wage earners, has membership mostly from the higher paid urban workers.
General Secretary of the Trade Union Congress John Paska said: “The K45 minimum rate was at best redundant and at worse legitimising slavery.”
Mr Paska said the PNG Employers Federation and other employer groups have admitted that they pay well above the minimum wage rate of K45. He asked why should the minimum wage of K45 be retained?
Mr Paska was also critical of the Rural Industries Council, which is made up of plantation and farm owners. He accused them of living a lavish lifestyle while their workers were suffering.
“As for the Rural Industries Council, what we know is that management of plantations enjoy a lifestyle that would make urbanites embarrassed.”
Meanwhile, Mike Manning from the Institute of National Affairs is in support of the 1992 Minimum Wage Determination law that all workers should be paid according to the ability of each company to pay. In other words, if a company’s profits increased, the workers should be given a share of that increase.
“This has been the law since 1992 and if any workers are not receiving those increases they should blame their unions and themselves for not demanding their legal rights,” Mr Manning said.
However, this law puts the minimum wage earners at the mercy of employers and policing the law from abuse can be difficult.
“In order to make sure that this law is followed and that all workers are being paid a fair wage the Government should give every assistance to the workers and unions to find out what is a fair wage for each firm,” Mr Manning said.
Companies such as Madang Rural Products and Ululan Plantation in Madang have been following this practice.
The Catholic Mission owned Ululan Plantation paid the minimum K45 per fortnight to its 60 workers and when cocoa prices were good, increased payments to K60 or K70 a fortnight.
Former manager, Mr Paias Bokorum said if wages were raised to K120 a fortnight, he would have definitely closed down the plantation.
“Copra prices were very low. We were not earning anything from copra,” he said.
However, he was also aware of the plight of his 60 workers.
“Their fortnight wages only allowed them a 20kg bag of rice. That’s it. They were basically living on their gardens.”
Mr Bokorum said he helped his workers set up their own canteens to supplement their income. Mr Bokorum highlighted another problem. He said there is a general misconception that because plantations are in rural areas, all labourers can make gardens to supplement their meager income. However, that is not true.
Mr Bokorum said his plantation workers did not own land around the plantation but were allowed to make gardens temporarily by the landowners. However, now the landowners want their land back.
“I can see real problems coming soon,” Mr Bokorum said.
Madang Development Corporation’s General Manager Mr Peter Muriki said if employers want to keep the minimum wages down then they must provide their workers alternatives to earn additional income.
“They (employers) have to encourage self-help projects such as poultry, piggery, fishing or even mix farming,” Mr Muriki said.
He said employers must provide the resources for workers to set up and operate these projects.
While the minimum wage debate was on, the politicians in Port Moresby approved themselves a hefty 100 per cent salary increase much to the disbelief of the rest of the nation. An embarrassed Prime Minister Sir Mekere, who only days earlier had rejected the new minimum wage increase of K120 per fortnight, was going to get more than K6, 000 a fortnight. He has temporarily halted the MPs pay rise and sought a review.
The Employers Federation and the Rural Industries Council argue that by keeping wages low, more people can be employed and the money can help them with costs like school fees. However, that has not been the case for Samson Wans and his brother. Their father’s minimum wage and the high cost of education has put them out of school early to join the thousands of other PNG’s unemployed youths.

Mother celebrates son's graduation far away

When Robert Yen, 23, graduated with a degree in Marine Biology at University of Papua New Guinea last Friday, his mother celebrated alone hundreds of kilometres away in Madang.
Not able to pay her way to Port Moresby to witness her son’s special moment, she spent an emotional day at work feeling proud of him yet missing him terribly.
“I wish I was there for his graduation. I miss him. I should be there for him,” said Therese Yen, a librarian at Divine Word University.
“I thank the Lord for everything.”
Her son’s graduation is a just reward for years of struggle for this single mum to raise four sons and educate them after her husband abandoned them for another woman in 1986.
Forty-year-old Therese comes from Dimer village on the north coast of Madang. She trained as a librarian at the former Administrative College in Port Moresby and had worked in public libraries in Port Moresby, Goroka, Lae and Madang before coming to Divine Word.
She said Robert’s father walked out on them in 1986 soon after enrolling Robert to begin his education at Lutheran Day Primary School in Madang. For Therese who lives at Biliau settlement near Madang Airport, it was a physical and emotional struggle for her to raise her four young boys.
“I struggled hard to pay for their school fees,” she said. “I never thought of getting them out of school when things got tough.”
A woman of faith, she drew strength from her prayers.
There were times though when she really needed help, especially with school fees, and she is very grateful to the people who had helped her in those times.
She said the past presidents of Divine Word University helped her by loaning her money from the University for her children’s education.
“I want to thank the presidents and Sr Jeanette Martella who had helped me.
“As a mother, I did not want my children to dropout from the education system.”
She said Ok Tedi sponsored Robert’s studies from Grade 12 at Malala Secondary up until his third year at the University, as part of his father’s condition of employment.
However, last year Therese had to come up with K1, 050 to pay for his final year of studies. She was thankful that in Port Moresby, a relative of Robert had become his guardian.
Their struggles however, only motivated Robert, a gifted student, to excel in his studies. She said one of her proudest moment was after the 1997 Grade 12 exam when Robert became the top student in biology in Papua New Guinea.
She recalled some of the early hardships she had to go through with her son.
She said when Robert was a child he was asthmatic and she had to spend countless hours of sleepless nights caring and worrying over him when he had his asthma attacks.
“I was concerned and took him to the private doctor to treat his asthma.”
She said it cost a lot of money, but she was prepared to pay for his son’s health.
She also recalled the day Robert broke his leg in a soccer game. He was in Grade Six and his friends took him home and left him there until his mother came home after work.
“I struggled to get him to hospital. I had to get relatives to help me.”
During that time, she had to leave work often to attend to him.
Therese described Robert as a quiet, easy going and friendly person.
“He is a great reader yet a humble person.”
“I am very happy for him.
“What he aimed for, he has achieved.”
“Oh, I only wish I was there with him,” she repeated.
Robert is second in the family. Her first son is studying at Lae Technical College, the third is a heavy diesel apprentice who recently graduated from Mount Hagen Technical College and the last is doing Grade 8 at Lutheran Day.

Madang fast tracks universal education

By Patrick Matbob

February 2010

A Papua New Guinea governor has thrown out vernacular education and is fast-tracking universal education for children in his province.
Madang Governor, Sir Arnold Amet, has decided this year to teach only English in elementary schools and discard the country’s education reform policy to teach vernacular.
He has also directed provincial education authorities to ensure that all Grade 8 students in primary schools continue on into Grade 9 in secondary schools and there will be no dropouts.
Both decisions have been welcomed by parents and schools. Madang government has made the decision to do away with teaching in vernacular after experiencing difficulties in implementing the policy.
The province has 164 languages, the highest in PNG, and it has been a major challenge to cater for all language groups. Chronic shortage of money and resources has made it difficult to implement the policy effectively.
Parents and teachers have also complained about their children’s poor English language skills and have urged the provincial government and education authorities to do away with vernacular education.
Governor Amet who has made education his government’s priority, has spoken out on various occasions against vernacular education.
He believes that it has contributed to the poor English language skills amongst PNG students today.
Vernacular education was introduced in the 90s as part of the education reform policy.
Education experts believed that children who started school in their vernacular and later switched to English were better able to grasp and use the language.
This was based on studies done by the National Department of Education. Another reason was to preserve the country’s 800 languages as some languages were dying out in parts of the country.
However, Madang has many languages spoken by few hundred people and it has been a challenge to set up and run so many vernacular schools.
Parents moving around for work within the province have also faced problems because their children were unable to attend schools that were in the local languages.
This has meant that children had to attend schools that used Tok Pisin, the country’s lingua franca.
The policy also did not work well for urban areas because of the mixture of language groups and cultures.
Governor Amet has also received numerous complaints from teachers, school authorities and parents about vernacular education. Teachers were mainly concerned with the bridging part of the programme in Grade 3 when students moved from vernacular to English.
Teachers said that children were having difficulties in bridging and as a result, were unable to read well in English. They said this affected their progress into higher grades.
Madang is also taking the lead this year in pushing for universal education which means that all Grade 8 students in primary schools will automatically progress to Grade 9 in secondary schools.
The provincial education authorities have been directed to ensure the policy is implemented this year. This means there will be no dropouts after primary school and secondary schools have to drastically increase their intakes.
Madang has already opened new secondary schools last year and more will be opened this year.
Governor Amet who is responsible for fast-tracking the policy has been seriously concerned that many young people in the province have not been able to complete their education to Grade 12.
While officiating at a Grade 8 graduation in a remote school last year, the Governor openly wept when he learnt that only two of the 25 graduates would continue on to secondary school. He has described the situation as a national tragedy.
In fact, the main focus of the PNG Education Reform policy was to achieve universal education for all children up to Grade 12 and there should be no dropouts. However, achieving this policy has been difficult with limited money and resources in the education sector.
Amet told a recent education seminar in Madang that many thousands of children of school age are denied their universal human right to start school because there are no schools.
“Many more thousands are forced out at very tender ages after grade 8 and just two years later many in their early teens are also forced out after grade 10.”
He said the country’s 10-year National Education Plan (2005-2014), the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) and the Medium Term Development Strategy (MTDS) all call for universal education.
He said that while in the current economic climate it is difficult to see how universal education can be achieved by 2014; every effort must be made for children to achieve a primary education.
“I believe the biggest developmental challenge facing our nation after 32 years of political independence is the education gap.
“Basic literacy and education are the building blocks for a nation’s human development. It is the basis on which we will develop our nation.
“It is the basis on which every Papua New Guinean will be able to meaningfully participate in social and economical development of our society.”
He said his view is that every PNG child of school age has the universal and constitutional right to start school and continue his or her education to the highest level possible.
He said it is the moral and legal duty and responsibility of every government to provide the education capacity for every child to continue to the highest level possible.

Court frees Chinese illegals

Court frees ‘illegal’ Chinese workers at Ramu Nickel

A magisterial court in PNG has freed 178 non citizen workers at Ramu Nickel project who had been arrested last year for working illegally in the country.
The Chinese workers were arrested in a special joint operation carried out by the Department of Labour and Employment, PNG Immigration and the PNG Trans-National Crime unit in November. The workers were based at the Refinery site at Basamuk, the mine site at Kurumbukari and at the headquarters in Madang province.
The operation was carried out following complaints alleging that the Chinese workers were being brought into the country without following proper immigration processes and were also working without proper visas and work permits.
Chief Magistrate John Numapo handed down the decision to free the workers at the Madang District court on December 17 after finding that the workers were brought into the country to work under a government to government agreement between PNG and China.
A court official said there was an understanding that the Chinese workers were allowed into the country to work on tourist and business visas while their proper work permits and visas were processed over a period of six or seven months.
The government departments have however, been too slow in processing and issuing the proper documents.
The joint operation by the government officers to arrest the Chinese workers caught the PNG politicians and Ramu Nickel officials by surprise.
The PNG Post-Courier newspaper reported last year that Labour and Industrial Relations Minister Mark Maipakai had written to his Department Secretary David Tibu advising him that his actions were not in line with the Somare-Temu Government’s intention especially on the Ramu Nickel Mine.
The paper reported that other prominent politicians had also contacted the department asking them to be lenient on the Chinese because the multi-million Ramu Nickel mine was one of the biggest projects in the country.
President of MCC Madam Luo Shu also warned that the operation had ‘disrupted construction work and sullied the reputation of the developer and the PNG Mining Industry’.
She said the development of the mine has been hampered by the slowness of government agencies to process work permit applications and work visas of which 266 were still outstanding at various agencies.
She pointed out that under the contractual agreement between the PNG State and the project; the government agencies were obliged to “expeditiously …. grant permits and multiple entry visas, as required, for the entry and reentry of expatriate workers (and their dependents) whose job descriptions have been approved”.
She also said a number of those personnel holding business visas were conducting brief site investigations for equipment debugging/commission which she said were permitted under business visas.
A Senior Labor Department official told the Post-Courier newspaper that the Chinese apprehended there were working illegally as they did not have work permits and visas while some were employed on business visas or with expired business visas.
He alleged that most of those apprehended came into the country as engineers and technicians but were working on site as drivers, cooks, cleaners and carpenters. The officer said under the Foreign Employment Act one can not be employed while on a business visa.

Violencde against Asians

22 May 2009

Widespread violence against Asians has flared up across Papua New Guinea resulting in destruction and looting of Asian shops and the death of three local people.
The rapid spread of the violence beginning with a rampage at the Ramu Nickel Refinery site at Basamuk, and followed by rioting and looting in six provincial capitals of the country has surprised the authorities, including the police.
The country’s National Parliament has agreed to set up a special bi-partitioned committee to investigate the unrest while leaders have tried to make sense of the events.
Acting Prime Minister Dr Puka Temu has condemned the violence and apologised to Asian business that have been victimized. Dr Temu said: “While our Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare is overseas trying to lure investors to our country, here we have a handful of hooligans and opportunists doing the exact opposite”.
However, resentment against the influx of Asians and the way the PNG government has handled the issue has been growing amongst ordinary Papua New Guineans for some years now.
Four days before the riots in the capital cities and towns, workers at the giant Chinese owned Ramu Nickel project in Madang went on a rampage following an accident that has left a Papua New Guinean worker with permanent injuries.
The incident happened on Friday May 8 when workers were trying to deliver some heavy reinforcement rods uphill on a tractor driven by a Chinese worker. According to a relative of the victim, the heavy load caused the engine to stall and jerked the trailer throwing the victim off. He fell down and the tractor ran over him, seriously injuring his lower abdomen and his genitals. The incident sparked a fight between the PNG and Chinese workers which was eventually stopped. PNG workers then demanded that the injured worker be airlifted to Madang for treatment however, this did not happen further angering the local workers. Four hours after the accident, he was ferried to Madang by boat which took another two and half hours. Angry PNG workers and local villagers then went on rampage for more than two hours smashing buildings, vehicles and construction machinery and looting office equipment such as computers and radios. Five Chinese nationals were seriously injured, 33 received minor injuries, and the cost of the damage has been estimated at K11m. The seriously injured Chinese workers were airlifted by helicopter to Port Moresby for treatment at a private hospital.
PNG Mineral Resource Authority (MRA), which inspected the site after the incident, has criticized MCC for its continuous poor safety work practices. Managing Director of MRA Kepas Wali said during the stakeholders meeting in Madang that the company’s safety record was not good enough. MRA’s report to the Madang Governor’s office stated: “This incident would not have happened if there were proper safety measures on site. There is lack of safety culture and unsafe work practice.”
MCC and its contractors have a history of poor health, safety and work standards at the Refinery site and two years ago the PNG Department of Labour and Industrial Relations has threatened to shut down the operation because of breach of PNG labor and industrial regulations.
Meanwhile, four days after the Basamuk incident, a protest march was held against Asian owned businesses in Port Moresby which erupted into violence and widespread looting of shops. A day later mobs of local people in Lae, PNG’s second capital, attacked and looted Asian shops throughout the city in which a teenager was reported to have been trampled to death when police confronted the rioters. The town of Madang was next to be hit by looters however, only one shops was looted and police intervened and controlled the situation. The violence then spread into the Highlands region where Asians investments in the towns of Goroka, Mt Hagen and Wabag came under attack. Thousands of people broke into and looted shops owned by Asians and police had a hard time controlling the crowd. NBC radio in Enga reported that two men were shot dead by police in Wabag and a number of men had been injured.
While the clashes at the Ramu Nickel mine and the riots in the provincial capitals are not related, they have been caused by the same reasons. Sentiments have been building up for a long time as Papua New Guineans watched a large influx of Asians into the country to set up and run retail businesses in the major provincial capitals – especially businesses that by law should have been reserved for local people. Locals have also been concerned about how the foreigners have treated local employees over pay, working conditions and harassment of female workers. There is also suspicion of bribery of government workers, agencies and local leaders to favor and protect the Asian businesses.
The government’s special treatment of Chinese brought in to work at Ramu Nickel has also upset many Papua New Guineans. Most of the Chinese workers in the country cannot speak English yet have been issued work permits despite breaching labour and immigration laws that state that non-citizens must be proficient in the English language. The breach of these and other laws have been questioned by the Labour Department however, the PNG government has ordered the department to overlook the laws. A crack down by Labour Department last year to arrest hundreds of Chinese workers of Ramu Nickel who had been in the country without proper work permits came to nothing when a PNG magistrate’s court released all the workers. Chief Magistrate John Numapo handed down the decision to free the workers at the Madang District court after finding that the workers were brought into the country to work under a government-to-government agreement between PNG and China.
Local landowners affected by the Ramu Nickel project also have their own issues with the PNG government over the project. Landownership issues have remained outstanding for years and the national government has failed to convene a Land Titles Commission hearing to resolve the matter. Lack of funding to convene the hearings has been a major issue.
The lengthy delay in the review of the Memorandum Of Agreement (MOA) for the project caused by various reasons, has also been also been a key issue. Without an effective MOA, landowners and stakeholders have been missing out on spin-offs and compensation benefits from the project development.
Other recent developments such as the decision by the company to deviate the pipeline from the original agreement has also angered landowners who had signed the original agreements and expected compensation for their land on which the pipeline would follow.

The festival of feathers

You would have walked past Soge Dilambe on the streets of Madang and not taken a second glance at him. Barefooted and slender built, he blends in with the crowd as he moves around with his small backpack doing business for his Dugu Ruts Resources Cooperative Society.
It is only when you ask him about his business that you realize how passionate and determined this Umboldi villager is about what he is doing. His eyes light up as he tells you about his projects which include the Rai Coast Kangal festival, the cultural museum and the new orchid farm he is building in his area.
Like many Papua New Guineans today, Soge and his people are reviving and practicing aspects of their traditional cultures in the hope of preserving them.
Having a visible ‘traditional’ culture is important in PNG, especially when ethnic groups want to maintain their history and identity in a nation of diversity. There are obvious economic benefits to be gained by this. However, many people also have noble intentions. They realize the importance of the values and wisdom that had been part of their cultures for thousands of years which had ensured the survival of their people. These cultural practices of old were important and helped to maintain social order, ensured sufficient food production, protected the environment and resources that supported their livelihood, and protected the people from external threats.
Umboldi is one of the areas along the coast of Rai Coast in Madang that has lost much of its traditional cultural practices. However, efforts are being made today by Soge and his people to revive some of the practices associated with the initiation ceremonies.
As the director of the three-year-old Rai Coast Kangal Festival, he is rallying his people and motivating them to revive the rich cultural practices that have almost died out. Kangal is the word for feather in many of Madang’s 164 languages and can also refer to a headdress made of feathers.
“My culture is dying away and I had to do something,” he said in an interview recently. He blames the Pentecostal churches who he says are responsible for banning the cultural practices and destroying the artifacts. He says the Lutherans and the Catholics who came earlier were more tolerant and did not indiscriminately ban all their cultural practices. The early churches had recognized the value in keeping the cultural practices in order to maintain social order in the society that was being destabilized by western influences.
He says that the Kangal ceremonies were related to the initiation of the youth in his area.
“While the coastal villages practiced circumcision in their initiation, we who lived in the inland areas initiated the youths and gave them the emblem of their clans”.
He says the kangal which have several emblems are part of the initiation and before the initiates exited from their ceremonial huts, their hair is groomed so that they can wear the kangals and dance.
He says unfortunately the practice has died out and the festival is trying to revive it.
The Kangal Festival is also part of a bigger project which involves the conservation of the forest areas under the Environment and Conservation Act. With the continuing destruction of forests in parts of Madang, the Umboldi people want to protect their natural environment and control the clearing of forests for subsistence and commercial farming.
He explains that there are generally three types of Kangal dances, one for the day and two for the night time. The singsing during the day is also associated with the practice of piercing of the nose and its kangals are shorter. The feathers are fixed to a comb which is thrust into the dancer’s hair. The style of song and dance is also different.
At midnight, the people dance the kongkap and the dancers paint their legs black. This is the moment when the magnificent kangal which is intricately woven into a circular shape with radiating colours of red, black and white is displayed. The large kangal is usually fixed to a pole that is carried on the back of the dancer. Only special people wear the kangal and have to prepare themselves by observing certain taboos.
The dances are also performed to celebrate new harvest from gardens and modern festive occasions such as Christmas. Those organizing the ceremonies must kill a pig for the dancers and visitors as is the custom.
He said the initiation ceremony in his area is for both boys and girls who are taught by their elders the cultural norms and values and practices of marriage and community life. He said one of the main values that have been taught traditionally is humility which he said was sadly missing today in young people.
The Kangal festival was officially launched in 2008 by the director of the National Cultural Council Dr Jacob Simet.
Last year, Madang Governor Sir Arnold Amet and his party visited the festival. Sir Arnold commended the people for their initiative and supported the festival with a contribution of K10, 000.
The festival was also attended by a tourist family all the way from Iceland who arrived in their yacht in Port Moresby and flew over to Madang. Soge said the family members were overwhelmed with the experience observing both the day and night dances.
Other local tourists from Madang town also attended after a two hour boat ride to the village.
The latest development in the Dugu Ruts project is an orchid farm. The native orchids of the area are being cultivated on a farm and will be part of the attraction for visitors in a few years time.
Again Soge’s eyes light up as he says that they are growing a specimen of orchid which the local people believe ‘sings’ in the forest. He hopes visitors can come from all over the world to view these jewels of the forest.
A cultural museum has also been built which today houses cultural artifacts such as the bird of paradise head dresses, the unique giant kundu drums made in the area that use wallaby skins and other rare artifacts.
The next Kangal Festival is scheduled to be held in May this year and those wishing to attend can contact the Madang Visitors and Cultural Bureau for more information.