KEITH JACKSON
AND so we report another interesting month’s activity in PNG Attitude. Lots of entries to the Crocodile Prize (the total crept up to nearly 400)
March proved quite a buzz for Crocodile Prize Organisation chairman Jimmy Drekore, who was voted Digicel PNG Man of Honour at a major event in Port Moresby.
Later in the month Jimmy was in the news again when he was selected to attend the Brisbane Writers Festival later this year as the first step in building a relationship between writers’ organisations in Australia and Papua New Guinea.
A nice touch during March was the instigation of a special award within the Crocodile Prize for young writers aged up to 20. The prize is funded by Roxanne Martens, the partner of Ian Kemish, former and highly respected Australian High Commissioner to PNG.
And so on to those articles which attracted the most comments during March and those that scored the most likes.
Most commented upon
21 comments - Mother tongue at the crossroads (Bomai D Witne). Bomai’s Kuman poem (with an English translation) was an elegy of regret for the gradujal death of many of Papua New Guinea’s 850 distinct languages. “Yesterday, today, tomorrow and into the future / My father and mother’s villages remain / Mother tongue slowly fading / Where is it going? / Looking for it, not speaking it, its fading, fading at a faster rate”.
19 comments - Jimmy Drekore named PNG Man of Honour in national awards (Keith Jackson). Jimmy, chairman of the Crocodile Prize Organisation and founder and chairman of the Simbu Children Foundation, was named PNG’s Digicel Man of Honour for 2014 saying he was “humbled and pleased” with the honour. Jimmy is also president of the Simbu Writers Association which will host this year’s Crocodile Prize Awards in Kundiawa.
18 comments - Jimmy Drekore in race to be Digicel Man of Honour (Francis Nii). A six-person Digicel Foundation delegation, led by chief operations officer Jennifer McConnell, travelled to Kundiawa to interview with Jimmy Drekore, one of the three people shortlisted for the Digicel PNG Community Leader Award. Jimmy went on to win this and also the major Man of Honour Award.
17 comments - The karim lek courtship tradition of the Upper Simbu (Arnold Mundua). Karim lek was a courtship custom in the Upper Simbu where young people met at night to express love, joy and affection through exchanges of serenades and courtship songs known as giglange-kaugo. Arnold wrote of this famous, but fading, custom for the Cleland Family Award for Heritage Writing within the Crocodile Prize.
12 comments - Is it just us - or is the whole world stupid? (Francis Nii). Francis couldn’t believe it. People bringing beautiful fresh vegetables to market, selling them and spending the money on junk food. He mentioned the case of a woman “selling taro nicely creamed in coconut oil with spring onion and garlic puree - you could smell it from afar” and giving her daughter money to buy soft drink and a dry scone.
10 comments - A bamboo trap killed his son in the sugarcane garden (Jimmy Awagl). An elderly man, sick of losing his sugar cane to thieves, sets a deadly trap – and inadvertently kills his beloved son.
9 comments - Subversion in the face of oppression (Martyn Namorong). Martyn returns to the PNG Attitude coalface with a provocative article on why active citizenship rather than activism may be the answer to lasting social change.
9 comments - Spooks in the South Pacific – how to offend your neighbours (Peter Kranz). Reaction to news that New Zealand was spying on nations in the South Pacific ranged from indignation to ‘who cares?’ Peter Kranz looks at the widespread hacking of South Pacific nations’ communications traffic.
8 comments - The contradictions implicit in judging personality (Francis Nii). An examination of the real personality of convicted criminals in PNG who, upon their release, move on to important roles. “This guy wilfully murdered a man, was imprisoned, served his time, got his freedom back, married a beautiful wife, joined the police force as a reservist and is currently one of the top officers. Every time I meet him, I am confounded as to what kind of personality tag to confer on him.”
8 comments - Working and wasting our days (Phil Fitzpatrick). Phil turns to Bertrand Russell’s essay, In Praise of Idleness, to look at how work may really profit a man, and his world.“I think that there is far too much work done in the world,” writes Russell, “that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous”
8 comments - PNG to be represented at Brisbane writers’ festival (Keith Jackson). Crocodile Prize Organisation president Jimmy Drekore will attend the annual Brisbane Writers Festival in September this year.Festival organisers say they are keen to have Papua New Guinea officially represented in the festival in future years.
Most liked
27 likes - PNG to be represented at Brisbane writers’ festival (Keith Jackson)
24 likes - Subversion in the face of oppression (Martyn Namorong)
23 likes - Ben Jackson appointed MD of Jackson PR Associates (Jackson PR)
20 likes - The time Malcolm Fraser stopped military intervention in PNG (Peter Kranz)
18 likes - Matt Power, Kokoda veteran & PNG teacher, dies at 95 (Ross Wilkinson & Keith Jackson)
17 likes - The wild crocodile in the hotel room (Arnold Mundua)
14 likes - The old pastor whose student dream was not realised (Bomai D Witne)
13 likes - The use of swear phrase ‘Kaikai K--’ needs to be outlawed (Busa Jeremiah Wenogo)
12 likes - Mother tongue at the crossroads (Bomai D Witne)
11 likes - Is it just us - or is the whole world stupid? (Francis Nii)
11 likes - RIP Deni Bahabol. Freedom's also on my mind (Gary Juffa)