Islands

From the

Press

The Cook Islands News, Rarotonga, quoting Papua New Guinea Director of Tourism Chris Talie on the subject of PNG tribal fighting Clan fighting usually not more than local ‘affairs of honour’ between tribes does occur, and often involves several thousand people. But guns are never used! And unless a tourist is foolhardy enough to dash unexpectedly between the two groups for an unusual photograph, the chance of being struck by a stone or a wayward arrow is less than finding an extra $ 100 credit on your credit card billing.

The Samoa Times, Apia, Western Samoa, referring to New Zealand Prime Minister Robert Muldoon . . . but his main offensive weapon is his mouth. What he does with it enrages half of New Zealand as much as it delights the other half.

Critical comment from the Marshall Islands Journal, Majuro, after visitors to the public gallery in parliament had been told to wear ‘suitable’ clothes And what’s so disrespectful about short trousers? They are easy to get into and out of if you are in a hurry and are generally more comfortable than long pants. They are also easier to wash and dry than long trousers. They are easy to wring out too. Your wife will be humming away and in a cheerful mood if she sees five short trousers instead of five long trousers.

Hahine’s column in The Times of Papua New Guinea,

Port Moresby

Recently I told you about husbands in Papua New Guinea preferring sons to daughters. Well, in reply to that, a male colleague tells me that in one part of this country where bride price payments are high, parents are neglecting their sons. It’s common among these parents to cradle their daughters in their arms and chant: ‘This one will bring me a jet plane, this one will bring me an outboard motor, this one will bring me a motor vehicle . . .’ and so on. I wish parents wouldn’t regard their daughters as business investments. They should send their daughters to schools and give them all their support in their education.

From a reader’s letter in the News Drum, Honiara, Solomon Islands, criticising the establishment of ministerial portfolios to represent the country’s provinces I am very glad that our government is an open one, and so would not mind any criticism. First, I think the establishment of these so called provincial ministers is a sheer waste of money. By that I mean public money. Money that should go into rural development will now be channelled into these ministers’ pockets.

Part of a letter to the PNG Post-Courier, Port Moresby, in which A. Saweri criticises a government suggestion to use troops as peace-keepers in the 1982 elections The thought of armed soldiers at polling booths must be frightening to the voters and nauseating to the Fathers of the Constitution against the background of parliamentary democracy in this nation . . . In this country we have enough trouble keeping alive freedom of speech, press freedom and freedom of movement, so let us not tamper with free elections.

University This Week, the official news and notices publication of the University of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby Could students please return immediately the cockroach traps they borrowed from the Biology Department more than a month ago.

Keep your cockroaches, but return our traps.

From a reader’s letter in The Observer, Apia, Western Samoa, defending the need to keep dogs When I had a dog, it protected my garden and my house. Now I am without a dog and 1 am also without most of my bananas, pumpkins and pineapples. They have been stolen.

The Times of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby I n one part of I ndia, a volunteer worker belonging to the US Peace Corps took the task of explaining to a group of men the use of the condom as a method of contraception. During his explanations he used a pencil. After some months he returned to the area to find that the men were very violent towards him because their wives were pregnant. In a hut nearby hung a row of condoms neatly pushed on to pencils.

The Cook Islands News, Rarotonga, describing the Papua New Guinea village of Hanuabada which is largely built on stilts over the sea in Port Moresby Harbour History tells us the Hanuabada people were formerly land dwellers but due to tribal wars they were driven off the land. Now most of them are in the lagoon.

An editorial from The Observer, Apia, Western Samoa Once again the government, confronted by the huge uncertainty usually brought about by the fear of power slipping cruelly through, is belatedly trying to drape itself with the garments of the true patriot, insisting on its unfailing concern for the country, reminding almost boastfully of its achievements and hardly ever of its shortcomings, desperately groping for soothing words which make playful misleading intentions, and doing it all in a reckless and hasty manner because the general elections appear threateningly not too distant.

An editorial in the Marshall Islands Journal, Majuro In the estimates supporting the 1982 government budget we noticed that several lawyers are earning more money than the highest-paid doctors. We would not argue that good lawyers should be paid less, but rather that good doctors should be paid more. The government should be willing to pay at least as much for good doctors as for good lawyers. It seems to us that pay scales in the health system need to be revised.

A reader’s letter from Our News, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea I have seen some of our school girls looking for lice in their friends’ hair during the assembly times, which 1 think is not a good habit.

I think it is a shame in front of the teachers and students getting lice. So my friends if you want to stop the habit, wash your hair daily and comb it nicely because lice doesn’t want clean places.

The Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, Port Moresby Thirst or greed? A liquor thief in Kundiawa, Chimbu Province, had more than the usual legal headache when he woke up in the lock up at the weekend. Police said the man drank himself unconscious in the shop. They found him sleeping amid a pile of empties.

Editorial comment in The Fiji Times, Suva, on pay rises of 140 percent which are being demanded by senior staff of the financially troubled Air Pacific At a time when Air Pacific needs all hands on deck to help it to ride troubled financial times, its senior staff members have chosen to ignore a plea for wages restraint and have, instead, retaliated by delivering a lethal blow. Their association has slapped on the management a log of claims that can only be described as outrageous. The airline’s chief executive, Mr Akuila Savu, was particularly justified in pleading with all his employees to take a 10 percent pay cut so that the airline would not go deeper into the red.

Mr Savu perhaps expected a negative response, but he certainly did not expect a bombshell being hurled back at him.