Fern Ridge (Safla Rama) Digest

Lasitewa Dormitory I was 21 years old when I lived in Lasitewa dormitory during my second year of studies at the University of Papua New Guinea. It was a time I had to decide what I wanted to do in my life. I was struggling with myself to understand whether I should pursue the vocation of Marist Brotherhood as it became clearer that soon my superiors would be asking for me to take my vows of celebacy. It was the most difficult of decisions for a 21-years old, with no family members in Port Moresby that I can talk to about the decision. That was 1985, a year after Pope John Paul’s first visit to Papua New Guinea. That visit was fresh as we had celebrated mass at the Sir Hubert Murray Stadium. I was also struggling to make the decision between studying political science and public administration or to pursue the study of philosophy. I opted for the study of philosophy instead. I found myself developing an interest in the field of literature. As ...

Spoken Tokpisin is second nature to most Papua New Guineans. We use it without worrying about how it forms, sounds, or about its variants. We also use it with zest and pride without needing to be grammatically correct. Tokpisin has come to be our main language of communication. Yet when it comes to written Tokpisin we encounter difficulties and fumble our way through. We make so many mistakes and remain unconcerned about the development of written Tokpisin.  Written Tokpisin is harder for even those who were born speaking Tokpisin. The elements of written Tokpisin are difficult to master.   Translating English to Tokpisin in written expression is even harder or vice versa.  Many may believe it is easy to translate an expression in English to Tokpisin. The contrary is true. The difficulty arises out of the grammatical principles that govern the operation of each language. English observes the grammatical rule that the subj...

This national election is important for women of Papua New Guinea. Before the election the parliament rejected the proposal to appoint women into Parliament. The proposal failed to get the vote it needed to become a statutoreeey law enabling women a place in the decision making chambers of parliament.  That leaves women in Papua New Guinea to challenge their male counterparts in this election. In this year’s election a number of women have taken the call to prove their worth just as the male folks.   A good number of women are contesting this election against men. Some of these women are contesting as Independent candidates. Others are supported by the political parties. Two woman lead political parties as party leaders. Some of these women have contested in previous elections. Others have just raised their hands to be noticed. I hope that the results for women in this year’s National Elections will change the politi...