By Luana Paniu

A landowner was surprised to learn about certain procedures and processes in the Special Purpose Agriculture and Business Leases (SPABL) after attending the Commission of Inquiry which began three weeks ago.


David Kura, a landowner from Rikau village and a rep-resentative of the Rigula Oil Palm Estate which covers his village and two others, Gule and Levege. His village shares a common border with these villages.


Papua New Guinea is experiencing unprecedented economic growth and the foreign elite who are benefiting are telling us we should rejoice and that we have never had it so good. But rising prices, deteriorating services and increasing violence are all that most of us are enjoying right now. Economic growth and huge resource projects should not be our priority, people and agriculture should. And the people who tell us otherwise are just protecting their own interests as they steer the global economy, and our planet, towards the precipice.

Successive governments in Papua New Guinea have abandoned the principles set out in our National Goals and instead allowed our country to be dictated to by foreign capitalists. The good news is, it is never to late to change course and reassert our own model of development.

By Martyn Namorong

One of the promises of a good education is to get a good job and be successful. For those who have got their certificates, diplomas and degrees, the search begins for that dream job. As for folks like me who drop out, well... they look down on us. The education system likes calling folks like me - failures.

By Martyn Namorong

Papua New Guinea is certainly not a failed state in the manner by which academics and the Howard government of Australia seemed to portray it. 

Their bluff led to attempts to colonize the country under the so called Enhanced Cooperation Package. Many Papua New Guineans, perhaps a majority, still hold the view that neo-colonization by Australia will solve our problems.

From Pacific Media Watch

The introduction of mobile phones in rural villages in Papua New Guinea is seen as a double-edged sword, with communities welcoming the opportunity to communicate but fearing it will lead to family breakdowns.

A study by Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researcher Amanda Watson has explored the way new mobile technology, in areas which did not have landline, internet or electricity access, has been changing people’s lives, social structures and relationships.

By Eva Kuson