By Dr Kristian Lasslett*

O’arise all you children of this land…otherwise *bai yu kisim pen!

Sound familiar? In our uniquely Papua New Guinean way, law is something that we learn (more like taught to us) at a very early stage in our lives. We are taught the boundaries of acceptable behavior almost from the moment we are aware and can decide our actions.

 By Gary Juffa* - via PNG News Facebook Page

An ominous moon has risen over the island of Papua New Guinea tonight, it casts its thick dark shadows across all of the nation, over its villages, its districts and settlements, its suburbs and streets, its ghettoes and by-ways, its highways, valleys and plains.

By Dr. Kris Lasslett 

Last month the President of the European Shareholders of Bougainville Copper (ESBC) Axel Sturm publicly raised concerns over the volatility of BCL’s share prices. In an interview with PNG Industry News, he blamed political uncertainty in Papua New Guinea for BCL’s current woes.

By Andrew Lattas

Fifty years ago in Papua New Guinea, knowledge or save as we call it in Tok Pisin would have meant how well you can foresee the weather, how well you can fish, hunt or gather. How well you could dance and chant and sing those customary rites. 

Our knowledge was practical, there were rules and regulations that kept some semblance of order in the complicated myriad of relationships in our traditional society.

ACT NOW! recently launched a email action addressed to Pacific Island Leaders, requesting an end to experimental seabed mining in the region. The basis for the concern was in relation to the environmental and social sustainability issue surrounding this "first of it's kind" mining and it's long term impact on coastal communities. 

Andrew Lattas gives an account below of logging, lawlessness and a crisis of legitimacy in one (out of a hundred other) areas of Papua New Guinea, where local land grab, has left a group of aggrieved locals intimidated and brutalized by members of the Royal PNG Constabulary.

State Agencies that are supposed to be Regulators of foreign investment activities, are actively facilitating human rights abuse in defense of foreign interests.

via Our Pacific Ways

A few questions niggled in the back of my mind a few days ago after a long discussion with friends. We talked about the expectations that the Papua New Guinea education system embeds in our minds.