You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July, 2007.
By Promised to do a couple of things in the last month or so, finally did some, but some projects still to go:
1. Went to the Women Doctors Annual Fundraising Dinner on the weekend with my brother his wife, cousins and Aunt and my parents. A pity the sound system was not setup properly cos I couldn’t hear what Sir Peter Barter and the other speakers were saying way out the back. But nice to know that the fundraising drive is doing well. Saw this in the papers about it:
Cancer care gets K5 million
CANCER treatment will finally become available in the country – thanks to the PNG Women Doctors Association.
Three to four years ago, the association came together and decided to do something about the lack of cancer treatment in PNG after realising that those in authority, including the Government, were ignoring the issue.
They began raising money as well as conducting awareness on it. On Saturday night, Health Minister Sir Peter Barter confirmed that the Government will fund it at a cost of K5 million. The money has been allocated through the supplementary budget. In addition, he said K300,000 had been allocated for HPV vaccines tests to be undertaken and it would be up to the next government to obtain further funds to make HPV vaccine available to all young women to protect them from cervical cancer, one of the killer diseases among women in this country.
Sir Peter made these announcements during the association’s charity ball. He said since the Government was funding the refurbishment of the cancer treatment facilities and equipment at Angau Hospital in Lae, the association was now moving to address another neglected health need – the basic equipment in accident and emergency wrds and Intensive care units.
Sir Peter applauded the women doctors for their tireless efforts to address basic health needs, saying the funds being raised would be used to buy life-saving equipment for accident and emergency and intensive care units, initially for Port Moresby General Hospital and to be followed by other centres.
“Purchase of equipment for accident and emergency wards is important because this is the entry point for the seriously ill and injured,’’ he said. “Diagnosis must be quick and accurate.
“For diagnosis to be accurate, doctors and nurses must have equipment such as blood pressure machines, laryngoscopes, and electrocardiogram machines.’’
“Conditions most commonly handled in accident and emergency include heart attack, loss of consciousness from different causes such as head injuries, asthmatic attacks, fits and severe infections.’’
“Equipment and medicine for these conditions must be available and functioning. Unfortunately many hospitals and health centres do not have basic equipment and if there is any, it is not working. This contributes to poor management of patients in these wards and can end in death.’’
I still however need to talk to the executives about a website for them as suggested by Rodney (read his post on it). Was going to talk to them on the night but as soon as dinner ended they got all the tables involved in a limbo dance competition so I was scared if I walked up to the executives table at the front they might force me to show how flexible I am, could’ve been scary?!
They also had an Indian Folk dance thing performed by 2 very talented ladies. The first time I’d ever seen it done live. You know like the ones on TV with the vibrant dancing and phat Punjabi beats. I loved it so much that I’m thinking of tracking them down so they can perform at a rugby function for my Uni Piggies.
2. Secondly, I still need to do some reading of Rex’s documents so we can get Yu Tok Radio up again. Been very slack with that, also
3. I need to chase up with Solo for getting some PNG talent to the BluesFest as I had discussed in an earlier post.
4. Oh and I still need to start the website for PNG Swimming as I had promised.
Sometimes I have the problem of biting off more than I can chew, so I think I better complete my above projects before I go promising to do anything more. But if there’s any potential corporate sponsors out there reading this and want to help me out with covering my costs for some of my above projects send us an email at emmanuel@masalai.net
The last 3 days on this blog have been intense, on Tuesday we had 348 hits, then Wednesday it shot up to 402 hits and today it’s settled back to a respectable 279 hits. So to something less intense now, below is a video my brother Flavius took of our friends Massive Sound System doing their thing at the Digicel launch. Haus Boi and Dadi G also rocked the party! So was a great night for all.
Looks like Dadi G’s got a good marketing deal going on with Digicel so good on him! I must say I was really impressed with his rapping.
Also keep an eye and ear out for Alyson Joyce and Jenny Lee, two powerful voices that are sure to go places. See them in the video below.
Well I’m sure everyone’s going crazy wondering what Digicel will do now, well I just came back from an urgent Media Conference at Digicel’s office at lunch today and they are certainly not going anywhere.
The Media Conference was headed by CEO, Vanessa Slowey, Director Seamus Lynch and their lawyer. They started by introducing some facts about their setup, such as Digicel being committed to invest K1.2 billion in rolling out their network. They have already spent in excess of K480 million already. Digicel currently has 350 full time employees and 450 part time staff with 98% of total staff being PNG citizens. So in light of their investment and their firm belief that competition is the way forward for any economy in today’s world, Digicel are definitely here to stay.
Digicel has 2 licences, a mobile telecommunications licence from ICCC and a spectrum licence from PANGTEL. Digicel claim that proper procedures under the 2005 Telecommunications Act were not followed by PANGTEL in their attempt to revoke their spectrum licence. So last night after being served the letter from PANGTEL at 3pm their lawyers were already out at the courts seeking an injunction against the decision at 5pm. So in short Digicel is continuing as usual with business and they will not be stopping their service while this is fought out in the courts. Digicel’s lawyers are now looking over the PANGTEL decision.
Seamus Lynch, Digicel Director added that ‘…I met with the Prime Minister Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare in early March 2007, and he personally gave us the reassurance that our investment and licence to operate in this country was protected. The actions of PANGTEL yesterday appear to be very politically motivated. We have the full support of the ICCC. It is business as usual for Digicel’.
A good point raised by Mr. Wade of EMTV during questions was what Digicel felt towards the interconnectivity issue and the prospect of running a parallel mobile network in the country. Digicel stated that interconnection discussions have been attempted to be made with Telikom but Telikom have so far dragged out the issue so long now that no resolution on it has been made. Under ICCC however interconnectivity is a requirement for Telikom and Digicel has the right to request interconnectivity from Telikom. Digicel said that their biggest hurdle since setting up in PNG has been the interconnectivity issue. Because of this position by Telikom, Digicel said their strategy will now be to reach 2 million users within 18 months. They now already have 20,000 customers on board.
Digicel also said that their technical infrastructure is now 4 times larger than the B-Mobile network and is state of the art, so if Telikom will not co-operate now, they will aggressively seek growth to make Telikom want to interconnect with them because within 18 months Digicel will have more mobile clients than B-mobile.
Digicel concluded that they are not here to fight regulators, they are simply here to offer competition, to enable economic growth and they will be seeking to talk to the government to clear up the situation. Seamus Lynch said that the people have obviously voted with their feet judging by the strong growth in sales and they will be here to ensure that their customers come first.
Hmmm, looks like Digicel came out today with their girls (yes girls I didn’t see any guys) in red Digicel T-shirts, I saw a Red PMV covered in red with Digicel on the side, a building next to the B’Mobile office all painted red with Digicel on it and Digicel being written with stones in the mountains.
Looks like they’re coming out with all guns blazing, but for some reason I’m feeling a bit funny as if they might be rushing the launch for some reason?? Not sure why I feel this way, it’s just a gut feeling.
Anyway my feelings aside I asked one of them at Boroko Foodworld about whether their mobiles could interconnect to Telikom lines and the answer was NO. This is going to be interesting, how will they grow their market with that hinderance? Didn’t stop my brother going out and buying 2 mobiles, one for himself and his wife at K89.00 each which included the SIM card.
But back to my feelings, it’s weird seeing flag ship stores which you are familiar with in other countries. The layout, the shelves lined with mobiles, the young people being all friendly and funky. It’s pretty surreal, almost like the whole country has changed overnight into something else.
Yet again how far can marketing and cheap phones take you without the convenience of interconnectivity, because I fear that it could backfire on Digicel, if sorting out an interconnection with Telikom and ICCC takes too long.
Well things are certainly moving in the music scene. The Australasian Performing Rights Association or APRA are hosting a PNG Music Copyright Seminar in Brisbane next week at the Judith Wright Centre from the 25-26th July. Download the PDF details here.
APRA is a not-for-profit organisation that collects royalties on behalf of its 47,000+ member songwriters and composers who are the exclusive owners of their original music and lyrics. So good to see a push in the right direction for our artists and even better to see international recognition of these issues coming through. Would have been nice though if this was held here in PNG, but anyway it’s a start which is important.
If you want to go along, email Mathew Fackrell on mfackrell@apra.com.au
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The Program
DAY 1: Wednesday 25 July
9.45 Welcome to country
10.00 Opening Address: Brett Cottle, CEO APRA|AMCOS and Carole Croella, WIPO
10.15 What is Music Copyright and what does it mean for songwriters and those that represent them?
Scot Morris, Director - International, APRA|AMCOS
11.00 International Conventions and Collective Management of Copyright, including Protection of Expressions of Traditional Culture Carole Croella, Copyright Collective Management and Copyright and Related Rights Sector, WIPO
11.45 Morning Tea
12.00 PNG Copyright Law and Music Tom Vere, IPO, PNG
12.45 Lunch
1.30 Melanesian Popular Music Dr Denis Crowdy, Macquarie Uni
2.30 The growth of the independent recording sector – an alternative approach in the modern world.
Stuart Watters, Association of Independent Record labels
3.00 Protecting the Music - Anti Piracy Initiatives in the Region Sabiene Heindl, General Manager MIPI and Mark McCall, Director of Anti Piracy, RIANZ
3.15 Afternoon Tea
3.30 Pacific Perspective Panel - Alain LeCante (New Caledonia), Nigel Quai (Vanuatu), Evariste Wayaridri
(New Caledonia), Kolone Maisa (Western Samoa), Placid Walekwate Jr (Solomon Islands), Distaquaine Tu’ihalamaka (Tonga), Eremasi Tamanisau Jr (Fiji)
4.30 CHM and Artist Royalties Richard Francisco, Music Manager, CHM Supersound
5.00 Day 1 Concludes
7.30 Queensland Music Festival - Sing Sing Performance* – Brisbane Powerhouse
DAY 2: Thursday 26 July
10.00 The role of CISAC and Performing Right Societies Scot Morris, Director - International, APRA|AMCOS
11.00 Government guidelines for the operation of Collecting Societies and the role of the Copyright Tribunal. Justine Clarke, Acting Principal Legal Officer, Copyright Law Branch, Attorney- General’s Department
11.30 Morning Tea
12.00 Case Study: Licensing Music Users - Experiences from Australia, New Zealand and Fiji
Matthew Fackrell, Deputy Director - International APRA|AMCOS, Acting General Manager, Fiji Performing Right Association
12.30 Launch: Pacific CMS Demonstration of online copyright management, regional documentation and
distribution system Matthew Fackrell
1.00 Lunch
2.00 Roundtable Discussion: Next steps for establishing a PNG composer society Moderator – Scot Morris
Panel – Gai Araga, Tom Vere, Ralph Diweni, Oala Moi, Pius Wasi, Dr Lawrence Kalinoe
3.00 Afternoon Tea
3.15 Experiences of PNG Music David Bridie, songwriter, composer, musician
4.00 Summit Summary and Q & A
4.30 Summit Concludes
It’s an interesting phenomenon when an ex-politician finds himself reaching rock star status. Al Gore, the President who could have been, in his new life after politics has not only raised global awareness on global warming but I just found out that he also launched his own user-generated news website back in 2005 called current.tv
Is that cool or what? Someone older that actually understands the media today and what young people care about. Wish more politicians here in PNG were like that. Maybe Sir Paulias Matane is the closest thing we have to Al Gore and I guess I secretly wish that after politics my own uncle could be like Al Gore too. I once went through my uncles old papers and books and found a play that he had written when he was in University. He had also written several short stories and I would love to see that he could get into that creative side of himself again. Been thinking of discussing it with him sometime soon.
Now back to current.tv, after the 2000 U.S. presidential election, Gore and his business partner Joel Hyatt wanted to start a conventional cable news network. They were disenchanted with the existing networks, especially CNN. The plans eventually evolved into making a viewer-generated channel aimed at young people.
The new network would not have political leanings, Gore said, but would serve as an “independent voice” for a target audience of people between 18 and 34 “who want to learn about the world in a voice they recognize and a view they recognize as their own.” Other reports said that Gore hoped that the channel would help change the tide of “consolidation and conglomeratization” of the media by leading the change to “democratization.” The news network was said to be a combination between CNN, MTV, and blipverts.
In May this year, Al Gore also released a book on his views about the media called, The Assault on Reason. He argues that there is a trend in U.S. politics towards ignoring facts and analysis when making policy decisions. He heavily criticizes the Bush administration for its actions in furthering the “assault on reason“, and also the Congress and Judiciary for being so complacent in the process.
Gore also suggests the average citizen must be proactive in “restoring democracy“. He expresses hopes that the medium of the Internet will supersede television and what he argues is its inherent bias, creating a “marketplace of ideas” that has not been present since the replacement of the printed word with mass media.
Will definitely keep an eye out for his book next time I’m overseas. I guess the one truth in all of this is that if people are better informed then the better their decisions can be.
After all that discussion about cancer I finally have a chance to contribute to the re-establishing of a radiotherapy unit at Pom General Hospital. Got a letter today from a Dr. Evelyn Lavu, the interim President of the Women Doctors Association.
I’ll read a bit of the letter here…
“For the past three years, our association has been actively involved in a campaign towards the re-establishment of the radiotherapy unit in the country. This has come in the form of government lobbying and various fundraising efforts…Through your generous support…we have been able to raise over K250,000.00. This is now held in trust funds until such time it is required for the purpose of establishing the radiotherapy unit.
The government has to date committed K3 million towards this project and have given us assurance that radiotherapy along with the support facilities and manpower resources will be funded, As an association we are committed to ensure that this service becomes a reality by keeping pressure on the government, whilst at the same time continuing with fundraising activities…”
So they have their annual charity dinner on Saturday 28th July at the Holiday Inn. K2,500.00 per table for 10 people. Dinner is a buffet and the fancy dress theme for the night is ‘Tropical Calypso’. A live band will also be performing.
For more information you can contact the following:
Dr. Evelyn Lavu, 325 5750
Dr. Helen Emang, 325 4027/686 2769
Dr. Delma Natera, 325 6022/687 0098
Dr. Lynda Sirigoi, 325 0709/697 8444
Gawd…plis had a blinder last night and got into the office at 2pm. Not good at all. So anyway I was at the launching of Ela Motors new offering to the PNG market. The Daihatsu Terios
The launch was attended by all these big shots that you never ever see around because you know you’re not a 50 year old managing a million kina company. But interesting to see who’s who in the business world in Pom. And as usual you always find guys your age and you hang out with them to nibble on the nibblies and to talk about the power black outs and rugby.
I’m not a car critique or anything and although the car itself is not bad at all, I have to say that for the SUV market in PNG you still can’t go past the Honda CRV that’s being sold by Wheels. Just looking at the picture of the CRV below, you can see how similar they are.
The main reason I’m leaning more towards the CRV is because the special introductory offer for the Terios starts at around K79,000.00 when you can pickup a CRV at Wheels for K30,000.00. Both cars have very similar specs and my Mum owns a CRV and it’s still running beautifully. The CRV’s are second hands from Japan, but it hardly makes a difference to anyone these days anyway.
Some lady from Hornibrook bought one on the night, which made me wonder whether it was the free drinks at the launch that affected her decision or if she really needed a new car??
Rex, Badira and I have been discussing how to get the Yu Tok radio program back on air and it got me thinking about Podcasts on the net. Everyone knows how phenomenal and market changing the iPod has been in the world. There are many products like it out there but the iPod has stood out as the pin-up machine for portable audio listening for our times.
But the major issue for PNG is the extremely low internet and PC penetration, so something like an iPod would be fairly useless to the majority of PNG’eans especially in the rural areas.
But what if we could receive our Yu Tok program or any program or music for that matter on an iPod like device. Okay I guess you could just buy yourself a small radio. But what if this device could act not just as a radio but also as a recording device so you could record your programs and music just like on an iPod through your iTunes program. So you could listen to your programmes when you wanted to later. It could also store these audio files digitally in mp3 format so if you did have a PC you can still listen to your music collection.
Well here it is below:
Everything shown in the above picture is included with a purchase of LX.
FEATURES INCLUDE:
- Portable AM/FM Radio Recorder
- 10 Timer Recording Presets
- Plays MP3, RVF or WMA Files
- 128MB Internal Memory
- SD/MMC Expansion Slot (SD up to 1G)
- Up To 42.5 hrs of Recording Time (with included SD card)
- Direct Stereo MP3 Encoding 32/64/96/128/192/256/Kbps
- ID3 Tag Support
- USB Mass Storage Device (Plug & Play)
- Rechargeable LI-Polymer Battery
- 15 hrs Battery Life
- 4 hrs Charging Time
- Dot Matrix (160*96) LCD Screen with Backlight
- Built-in Line/Mic-in
- Built-in Internal Speaker
- Frequency Cover Range: FM 87.50MHz-108MHz,
AM 530kHz-1710kHz - Built-in Internal Microphone
- Firmware Upgradeable
- S/N Ratio >85dB
- 2.36” (W) X 3.93” (H) X 0.78” (D)
- Approximate Weight: 3 ounces
ACCESSORIES:
- Stereo Earphones
- USB Cable
- FM Cable
- Line-in Cable
- User Manual
- AC Adaptor
- Remote Control (option)
- Cradle docking station (option)
- Leather case -coming soon (option)
The unit costs about US$122.00. You can download the PDF of the Operation Manual here.
Trying to call a cousin at ‘Paradise Foods’ but she seems to be in meetings or is out everytime I call, anyway got a meeting at 3pm so I’ll just write something here while I’m killing time. Well nothing much really I started outrigger canoe paddling 3 weeks ago and I’m really enjoying it.
To be honest when I first saw the people going there, cos it’s based at the Yacht Club, mi sem liklik and was like I feel too embarrassed going down there cos half the people will probably be fitter than I am, and what if I can’t pull my weight out there on the canoe?. Or what if you have some really hot chicks there and you embarrass yourself by not wearing the right gear or something like that. Or worse still what if cos I’m not a member they’ll treat me like I just walked out of Baruni Dump?
Anyway with much persistence from Micky Bai, that there were no superheros down there but lots of mere mortals like us, I went down with him. His strategy to convince me started with a trip down just to see the people pushing off so I could see that it was a cool bunch. This was like 2 months ago and then 2 weeks ago after much though (I don’t really know why I was procrastinating) I called him up one afternoon and said ‘Yo, Bro I’m Comin down!’
So 2 weeks I’ve been paddling now and surprise surprise, Nathan Chang, Ian Liveras and Able Tore (rugby boys, super stars and ex Pukpuks) are also paddling with me down there. I think Changie and Doi are hoping that paddling will become the sport of choice for ex-rugby players in POM.
So still on my quest to lose weight and I figure that my week should work out like this. Mon, Wed and Fri rugby training at Uni and Tues and Thurs paddling with the KKK. And best of all you don’t even have to be a member of the Yacht Club to join!
Update 11/07/07:
Micahel Henao the Klab secretary emailed me the schedule this morning. Download it here. Cos the numbers have increased slightly, males and females have to split up to different days now.
For more details email konedobu.kanuklab@gmail.com
I guess everyone faces death sooner or later whether immediately in their family or not. For a very long time now it was my extended cousins and friends who lost their parents and siblings. It’s amazing how many of my friends and cousins around my age I can name in one breath who have lost one or both parents.
My aunt passed away on Friday morning at 4am on the 22nd of June. She died of breast cancer and although we got the news 4 weeks ago, it only took her 3 weeks to grow weak and then to leave us. Because she was living in New Zealand when she was diagnosed I naively thought that ‘oh, she’s in a western country, the doctors must be able to do something!’ But it was too late, the cancer was too advanced for anything to be done about it.
I was told later that before leaving for New Zealand she had a check up and although she had noticed some secretions from her breasts the doctors here gave her some medicine and although the secretions stopped no mention was ever made of breast cancer. So who was at fault? Was it the doctors for not seeing what was happening? Was it my Aunt for not insisting on a proper check? You sit there and wonder how a woman with so much life can let you know in 3 weeks that she’s ill and then suddenly leave you.
My dear Aunt Regina was one of those women who I remember would be the first one to ask me for a dance at the government functions that I attended occasionally with my Uncle and cousins. She would be the loudest one cheering at our soccer games when we were at St. Josephs primary school. Everyone at this age can relate to a departed relative or friend that made you feel great just to be around.
But what I remember the most was her love for fishing. Every time we went to Wewak, she would make sure that she had her few days out at Boram hospital, standing out among the coral and just fishing sometimes for 5 hours straight. So my cousins and I would be out there trying to catch waves and swimming and as evening came we would rock up to see our aunt to eat whatever she caught that day. I was thinking that when I go back to Wewak in a week I’ll go and gather some coral from Boram hospital to put around my backyard to remind me of her.
So with all those memories of her in my mind, I was quite lost to see her when she returned on Thursday the 21st June. She had grown weak and delirious and she kept holding on in the flight from New Zealand back to PNG. My cousin who was with her on the plane said that as soon as the plane touched down in POM, my aunt let go and she slipped into a coma. She was raced to ICU at the PMGH. I went in to see her and she was not the person I had known, I could not recognise her, she looked like someone else. I was so filled with sadness to see a mother of mine like that in so much pain. I walked out of the ICU not able to bear the sight and that was the last time I saw her alive.
May She Rest in Peace….
You ask yourself allot of questions when these things happen in life and I’ve been asking myself what I can do etc, especially because since November last year I have lost 3 very close relatives. All 3 who were a part of my day to day life, all who were no older than 60, all who have left holes in my life. As a relative of mine put it to me, ‘ol lip blong ol diwai i pundaun nau’ so I guess the time has come to accept that sometimes that’s just the way life is.
Or is it?? Could we fundraise to help hospitals? or would that make the government lazy in funding what they rightfully have an obligation to put money into? Do we need to be more aware of our bodies or is it the doctors fault for not advising us properly? What would happen if I have children and I have to take them to hospitals for life threatening situations? Will I have to save thousands and have it on stand by to send them overseas? What if someone dear to me dies all because I didn’t have enough money? Do I just accept that this is life in PNG?
Government stops mobile competition
THE National Executive Council has made a decision to effectively stop any mobile competition in the country and competition will be delayed by another 12 months.
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Digicel still committed to offer services
Digicel is committed to Papua New Guinea and continues to work closely with the Government of Papua New Guinea and the regulators – the Independent Consu-mer and Competition Commission and PANGTEL, to introduce within weeks competition to the telecommunications sector.
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So when the hell do we get improved services!!! You want to delay my opportunity to have a better service by 12 months?! And you are now directly effecting my business income. What the Fuck is that!! Why didn’t you think of that before you issued the licenses, how many consultants and how much advice were you getting before you issued the licenses? How much money was spent on that before you reached this new brain wave?
Do you know how long it will take and cost to setup 2 separate companies of that size? We’ll obviously be waiting for another 10 years while NetCo and ServCo work out their internal systems, staffing issues etc. and consequently that will delay the quality of the services that are to come to us. So why do we have to suffer for your stupid mistakes.
I totally understand that Telikom or NetCo or ServCO (who came up with these stupid ,boring, uninspiring names anyway??) is PNG owned and we need to support our PNG owned businesses. I do realise that we need to keep money in the country but the Telikom business case against the Digicel case is a no-brainer.
Digicel does not have landlines and internet, so that’s one revenue stream Telikom has that Digicel doesn’t. Inter-connecting fees between Digicel mobiles to Telikom landlines will make additional revenue for Telikom. Telikom could also sell wholesale internet through Digicel mobiles if they were to introduce 3G.
In terms of mobile competition, all Telikom has to do is to improve reception for it’s network in the cities where the most concentration of users and especially business users are.
So why the panic Telikom?
And for Gods Sake Telikom if you want a better company than pay your staff better or hire better people. Digicel went out and got Peter Watinga for marketing and this PNG gentleman had been doing wonders at all the other company’s he worked for so any right thinking organisation would obviously chase him down to get him to work for them. There are countless stories like this with Digicel paying well and employing PNG’eans. Shit they even bothered to contract us to do their website while other PNG companies like BSP, etc send that type of work overseas.
In short the Government and Telikom need only to open their fuckin eyes to see that the solutions to their problems are right under their noses and if they bothered to look they would realise that they have in their hands a sleeping giant. Farrrk, how much will it cost to restructure these 2 new stupidly named companies???
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