While Biden administration hit pause on new LNG export terminals in the United States, a $13 billion #FossilGas LNG export project in Papua New Guinea🇵🇬 led by #TotalEnergies and #ExxonMobil is on a shortlist of projects set to receive financing from the U.S. Export-Import Bank, or Ex-Im, which supports American businesses around the world.
Amongst all the destruction and looting in Port Moresby on Wednesday, a positive, touching story shone through from the unlikeliest of sources – a group of Hela betelnut vendors who took up arms to protect Stop N Shop Boroko branch from looters for hours.
A political crisis is brewing in Papua New Guinea as calls are made for Prime Minster James Marape to step down in the wake of deadly riots in parts of the country.
Mr Albanese said Australia was monitoring the situation via its high commission and had not received any requests for help from Papua New Guinea, which it regularly supports in policing and security.
OUM was started in 2002, and I was there at the start. The whole world attacked the medical school in Samoa, and many professional colleagues including local, pacific, USA, NZ, and Australian colleagues called us “stupid”, “dump”, “are you out of your mind”, etc, because we were at the cutting edge of teaching medicine on line coupled with face-to-face clinical teaching, utilizing the various internet software and hardware to do innovative teaching of medicine, because we had to. I was personally attacked by colleagues overseas for getting involved in OUM. OUM was innovative as it cops all the nasty comments from 2002 until about 2010. The main criticism was, “How can you teach anatomy without a “cadaver”? Everyone around the world especially in the USA, New Zealand, and Australia gave us the name “computer doctors”. We managed to find great software to teach gross clinical anatomy that was much better than the textbooks or the cadaver. Now – look at where the whole world of medical education is at. OUM from small Samoa was pioneering all these methodologies.
It has been unbelievable that OUM in Samoa started a new trend of medical education in the world, delivering medical education at a distance to educate doctors all around the globe to a top quality, while utilizing their local doctors to teach their clinical students in their facilities, so to build their medical capacity. We managed to bring the best expertise from around the world to teach all the local (Samoa) and overseas students in basic science, then utilize their clinical health structures and doctors to train their future doctors utilizing OUM’s curriculum and method of study.
This is how innovative it was, and now everyone around the world is following it. After 21 years of delivering this method of medical education, the whole world has followed what started in small Samoa. We were the leader in this modern innovative idea.
The Government of Samoa had risked its reputation by setting up OUM in 2002 and had been very visionary with this, leading the way for modern and virtual medical education. The challenge now is to continue to push the envelope politically to spread this innovative model of medical education to educate more New Zealand Pacific Island doctors, Maori doctors, and Indigenous and First Nation doctors in New Zealand and Australia.
OUM model is an answer to the shortage of doctors all around the world, and every country is short of medical doctors. New Zealand is talking about setting up a 3rd medical school besides Otago and Auckland, and OUM could be this 3rd medical school, as OUM has been running these medical training modules for 21 years. OUM has many graduates working in the USA, Australia and Samoa. We have had 2 graduates from American Samoa. The proof of the quality of the OUM teaching is in the quality of the doctors who graduated through the program. Many are working in our hospitals in Samoa in all disciplines.
Up to 200 police, corrections and army personnel have gathered at the Unagi Oval in Port Moresby to in protest over deductions to their salaries this fortnight.
The deductions over the last fortnight range between US$26 and US$80 (K100 and K300).
"Frustrations boiled over so they got into their vehicles and stormed parliament...they opened the gates and went into parliament," RNZ Pacific's Papua New Guinea correspondent Scott Waide said.
"There was no real resistance to stop them...it was a rowdy crowd, the defence minister had attempted to speak to them outside of parliament before they walked in," he said.
He said he has been told by government that the deductions are the result of tax glitches.
"They are currently at parliament right now. I think somebody is addressing them, I'm not sure to sure whom as I've just seen the videos.
"There's a large group of police, army and correctional services personnel at parliament house right now, protesting over the deductions.
"The public is relatively quiet, nobody from the public has joined the protest in large numbers. Everything has remained calm."
PNG's Porgera gold mine could potentially transform the fortunes of an impoverished province now that it has reopened. But some locals say they've experienced considerable environmental damage from the mine's waste and tailings.
Chiefs and community leaders in Bougainville want an investigation into police officers over their alleged involvement in arming and orchestrating an organised crime gang that targeted people who had travelled to the autonomous region to buy guns and gold.
These policemen do all the planning and then engage the 'wanted boys' to carry out the main criminal holdups … even the firearms belong to them," the leaders claim in a petition sent to the government.
Mike Piau is one of the "wanted boys".
He said he was bashed up and arrested by police in 2020 when he refused to take part in a robbery.
"They almost shot me with a pistol. When I didn't do what they asked, they turned on me and arrested me and beat me up," he told the ABC.
Mr Piau told the ABC he had been approached by police because he was an influential resistance fighter during the Bougainville crisis from 1988 until 1998.
At the time, local dissatisfaction with a major mining project sparked an armed uprising against the PNG government in which 20,000 people died.
Other "wanted boys" the ABC has spoken with say they are now hiding out in villages to escape arrest.
Mr Piau said the alleged police misconduct could hurt Bougainville's independence bid.
"These sort of men will create bigger problems which will impact our road to independence," he told the ABC.
Despite the 2019 referendum, which was non-binding, Bougainville's fate lies in the hands of the PNG parliament, which is yet to make a decision on the issue.
The Bougainville Police Service still operates under the auspices of the Royal Papua New Guinea constabulary and is largely dependent on funding sort of coming through the PNG government system," he said.
Dr Dinnen said there was some community mistrust in the police following the Bougainville crisis.
When tensions began to break out in the late 80s, the PNG police deployed mobile squads to the region.
They were later accused of serious human rights abuses.
"There's a kind of memory of that other kind of policing, that Bougainvilleans did not want to duplicate or replicate," Dr Dinnen said.
Dr Peake said Australia had a role to play in training the PNG police, which it has done for decades.
"The way in which the government got around the need to have compensation agreements in place before the issue of a special mining lease was to pass a piece of legislation, which basically said, 'look, the existing compensation agreements before the closure of the mine will allow us to continue in the interim, while New compensation agreements are relocated'."
A Papua New Guinea academic, who grew up in Porgera in the early years of the mine, Andrew Anton Mako, has called for structures to be put in place to ensure returns from the re-opened mine are not wasted.
The Australian National University staffer has written about what he calls the blessings and the curse the mine brought back in the 1990s.
He said with a bigger stake he hopes the community doesn't squander the money. "In the past it was only 2.5 percent of the mine equity stake," Mako said.
"Now the landowners have been given ten percent, free carry, by the government. So, it will be a lot of money. It is estimated around 25 billion kina. That's a lot of money for the next 20 years.
"So even though the proceeds will increase, the main issue is in the governance, the use of that money, whether it will be used productively to improve the lives of the people or whether it will be used mostly on consumption."
Mako also wants some focus on what happens when the mine stops producing in 20 years or so.
The Bougainville Minister for Independence Implementation, Ezekiel Massatt, has launched an attack this week on Australia, calling it a "coward when it comes to the Bougainville independence issue".
More suspensions as Papua New Guinea govt reacts to riots (www.rnz.co.nz)
The latest victim of last week's rioting and looting in Papua New Guinea's capital is the city's top police commander.
'Uphold the right to life' says human rights watchdog in the aftermath of deadly PNG unrest (www.rnz.co.nz)
Amnesty International is calling on Papua New Guinea authorities to protect human rights in response to the riots.
Tari loyalty a shining light - Post Courier (www.postcourier.com.pg)
Amongst all the destruction and looting in Port Moresby on Wednesday, a positive, touching story shone through from the unlikeliest of sources – a group of Hela betelnut vendors who took up arms to protect Stop N Shop Boroko branch from looters for hours.
PNG PM Marape under pressure to resign as govt MPs step down after riots (www.rnz.co.nz)
A political crisis is brewing in Papua New Guinea as calls are made for Prime Minster James Marape to step down in the wake of deadly riots in parts of the country.
Albanese calls for calm in PNG after riots, looting (www.afr.com)
Mr Albanese said Australia was monitoring the situation via its high commission and had not received any requests for help from Papua New Guinea, which it regularly supports in policing and security.
Chaotic scenes of looting and destruction in PNG's Port Moresby (www.abc.net.au)
Angry mobs storm and pillage shops, setting fire to buildings in the Papua New Guinean capital.
At least 10 dead after looting, fires on Port Moresby's 'darkest day' (www.rnz.co.nz)
Chaos broke out as looters took advantage of a protest by the country's police. As well as those who are dead, dozens are injured.
Medical training in Samoa - Part 1 (www.samoaobserver.ws)
By Professor Asiata Dr. Satupaitea Viali...
Papua New Guinea's security personnel storm parliament (www.rnz.co.nz)
Up to 200 police, corrections and army personnel have gathered at the Unagi Oval in Port Moresby to in protest over deductions to their salaries this fortnight.
Starlink gets permission to operate in the Pacific's biggest country - ABC Pacific (www.abc.net.au)
Papua New Guinea has become the latest country in the Pacific to grant a business licence to Elon Musk's satellite internet service Starlink.
$7bn of gold is buried in these PNG hills. The battle to claim it has been called 'Game of Thrones on crack' (www.abc.net.au)
PNG's Porgera gold mine could potentially transform the fortunes of an impoverished province now that it has reopened. But some locals say they've experienced considerable environmental damage from the mine's waste and tailings.
In Bougainville, the 'wanted boys' are known for robbing cashed-up visitors. Police are allegedly orchestrating it (www.abc.net.au)
Chiefs and community leaders in Bougainville want an investigation into police officers over their alleged involvement in arming and orchestrating an organised crime gang that targeted people who had travelled to the autonomous region to buy guns and gold.
PNG's Porgera set to re-open Friday (www.rnz.co.nz)
The long-awaited re-opening of the Porgera gold mine in Papua New Guinea's Enga Province is set to happen on Friday.
Still a long way to go in Bougainville's push for independence (www.rnz.co.nz)
The Bougainville Minister for Independence Implementation, Ezekiel Massatt, has launched an attack this week on Australia, calling it a "coward when it comes to the Bougainville independence issue".