Islands
p. 45 · Read in the full issue
From the
Press
Editorial comment in The Times of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby, on the circumstances of native-born West Papuans in the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya Much has been said, written and photographed of the plight of the West Papuan people. Much of it has been over-emotional inaccurate and wrong-headed. The fact remains, however, that they are being dispossessed of their land. The Indonesian government wants to develop the area, it is true. But who will benefit from this development? Not, we suggest, the West Papuans. The world is not blind to the way in which Indonesia treats it minority groups. There is something constructive that Papua New Guinea can do. We can mobilise Third World opinion through our various international links and through United Nations. If we turn our backs on the West Papuans now it will be on our collective conscience for generations to come. Colonialism was always a crime. It remains so today.
Extracts from a letter in the News Drum, Honiara, Solomon Islands, in which S. Kelly bemoans the inroads which western ideas are making on traditional culture And what about our women? Most educated ones find it difficult to use high-heel shoes in the village. Their minds are more geared to urban life. I don’t think they will ever return to being called Solomon Islanders in the literal sense. We seem to be having more black-white females in this country. They are anxiously and aimlessly looking around for a big dance at the Guadalcanal Club, a weekend barbecue in Tambea, and a free ride in a big car with radio cassettes and rock and roll music. Some of these people no longer recognise their own people. They have lost their own culture. \nd what about our secondary school girls who live near Honiara?
Most of them are excited about their future. The taxi drivers do a *ood job round town providing the free rides, so most of the girls narry taxi drivers. Some of the girls who like pop music get named to unemployed pop singers. But later they realise the sound )f good music, and later the free taxi rides are gone. Thank God hat this country still has strong traditional family ties to help when ;uch circumstances occur. 1 hope this country and its people can naintain these ties,
fhe Fiji Times, Suva
\ Nausori town councillor yesterday told the committee nvestigating the Nausori Town Council affairs that councillors did lot break the law. They only bent it, Mr Ram Chandra Sharma, he first councillor to give evidence, said. Asked if he thought the :ouncil was corrupt, Mr Sharma said he had no knowledge of its
>eing corrupt.
fhe Nauru Post teeing up on the 7th hole one of our golfers couldn’t find his et of plastic tees which are normally tied together with a weight t a piece of brightly-coloured cloth. Before giving them up for lost ie happened to look up and there was his set of tees hanging from he branch of a tree. Not seeing anything close at hand he used his ,ol f club. He took careful aim, the club went twishing on its way, •ut he missed. Not only were the tees still in the tree, but so was he golf club. Fortunately some kids came along and one of them limbed the tree and retrieved the tees and the club.
Margot Marshall, writing in the Cook Islands News, Rarotonga, about a visit to Vanuatu The French restaurants in Vila are superb but expensive. One night at the Cafe de Paris I ordered snails in garlic sauce. T don’t know if I can bear to watch you eat them’, an Australian diplomat said.
They’re the curse of the country. Some Frenchman imported a few to farm years ago and now they’ve grown wild. Do you realise they have to shovel them off the runways in spring before an aircraft can land? A group of us ran a snail drive last year. Prizes for the most snails collected you know the form. Fifty-five tons we got in one day.’
Arawa Bulletin, Arawa, Papua New Guinea It’s reported that the incidence of dog bites has decreased in New York, but that of human bites has increased by 24%. One well known man about town received a bite of a different kind recently.
He caught a fish that obviously didn’t want to be caught as it bit him on the ankle. Hear he had to get 10 stitches for the wound.
Samoa Times, Apia
The five-week strike by the Public Service Association is to be commemorated in the names of twins born last week. According to informed sources a Vaiala woman named her twins PSA and PSC.
The Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, Port Moresby A reader has sent this appeal: T live in a remote area where packed cigarettes are often hard to get. So I like to smoke twist tobacco and local brus (locally-cultivated tobacco) to keep up with my smoking habit. To wrap my tobacco and brus I use no other paper than the one you put out daily. Since it has no taste for the smokers in the villages, could you think about spraying your paper with good tasting spices like ginger, cardamom or other herbs. In that way your paper will be read in urban areas, but smoked in the rural areas.’
Cook Islands News, Rarotonga The permissive and the religious sectors of the Cook Islands appear to be headed for another clash over the issue of respect for Sundays.
Some Cook Islands Christians in Ngatangiia are offended by reports of activities which are said to have taken place on the Ngatangiia lagoon last Easter Sunday. These included sailing, fishing and even a European couple sun-bathing nude on the beach.
The Coconut Telegraph, Savusavu, Fiji WHAT MAKES A TOURIST HAPPY? Some people have the idea that to please a tourist you must stuff him with duty-free goods, fancy foods and gin, rum and vodka. Not so. An Australian couple visiting Savusavu during the water shortage enjoyed what they called the most marvellous experience of their lives when the hotel manager took them to the nearby village, where they lined up in the village stream to have a bath and wash their clothes.
Wouldn’t have missed it for anything, they said.
The Times of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby Recently a boy with an anglicised name wrote away for a scholarship in Australia. He did not get it because the people in Australia did not believe that he was a true Papua New Guinean.
His name was Nelson. Warning: Do not give your children foreign names.
From a report in the Cook Islands News, Rarotonga, describing a cricket match between Turangi and Matavera A Matavera supporter asked his friend k Hey! Tupu shouldn’t be out Ibw it was his stomach that was hit by the ball.’
Part of a letter to the editor in the Papua New Guinea
Post-Courier, Port Moresby
1 would like to express my view on a social problem which tends to lower the standard of effective planning and teaching in some of the Highlands community schools. I have noticed that Highlands teachers who have more than one wife cannot keep their work up to date. The reason is that they have a lot of family problems, such as fighting between the wives over the pay. Such incidents also give a bad show to some of the school kids. PNG is a Christian country so why not follow what the Bible says by having one wife and teaching well?