By David Ephraim Cloudiuz

Lessons from Nigeria, a nation that best illustrates the contradictions of being a producer of crude oil but an importer of petrol and diesel; when commercial extractions of crude oil began in Nigeria in 1958, the nation was producing 4,000 barrels per day. This climbed to over 2.2 million daily, Apart from fueling climate change; crude oil exploitation in Nigeria has fuelled corruption, poverty, disease and violence.

Today is International Women's Day, but, as Jo Chandler writes for The Age, mothers in Papua New Guinea have nothing to celebrate

By Reginald Renagi

AFTER more than three decades of gaining independence, PNG now needs more young politicians in parliament.

By PMIZ Watcher

From a Frustrated Citizen writing on Papua New Guinea blogs

Papua New Guinea as we know is now totally corrupt, the Judiciary the last beacon of hope for PNG is not as impartial as it used to be. In recent months we very experiences Judges sitting in the National and Supreme Court have been made to quit without having their tenures extended only to be replaced by senior lawyers who have been part of this government’s grab of power and statutory corruption at the beginning.

Acting Deputy Police Commissioner and Chief of Operations Fred Yakasa says the fight against graft will intensify because the trend of theft and embezzlement within the public and private sectors is spiraling out of control.

Mr Yakasa gave this undertaking after fraud investigators arrested three suspects allegedly linked to what police described as a well strategized syndicate operating in Port Moresby city yesterday.

By John Fowke

There are two basic reasons why the present system of elected representation doesn't produce policy-driven, positive improvements in the conditions of life in PNG.

ACT NOW! and the Fiji based, Pacific Network on Globilization, have joined forces to denounce plans for the Pacific to be used as the testing ground for deep-sea mining.

ACT NOW! and PANG say the Pacific region has already suffered the negative social and environmental impacts of industrial mining on land and should not take further risks with the marine environment.

By PAUL OATES

Has Papua New Guinea descended into dictatorship?

PNG's Prime Minister Somare has previously denied he has become a dictator but what is a dictator? Here are a couple of definitions:

Wikipedia: A dictator is a ruler (e.g. absolutist or autocratic) who assumes sole and absolute power ….

By William Laurence et al

Papua New Guinea (PNG) sustains some of the world’s most biologically and culturally rich forests.

Like many tropical nations, PNG is changing rapidly as it attempts to develop economically, but corporate misdealing and weak governance are undermining its capacity to do so sustainably.

Over exploitation of forests is rampant, with most accessible forests likely to be logged or disappear in 1–2 decades.