Fern Ridge (Safla Rama) Digest

The Government of Papua New Guinea under the leadership of the Department for Community Development hosted the second Forum Disability Ministers Meeting in Port Moresby at the Grand Papua Hotel. The meeting took place between 3 rd and 4 th October 2012.   With the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat based in Fiji and full financial and resource support from the Government of Australia the meeting was made possible. Papua New Guinea represented by the Minister for Community Development, Honourable Loujaya Toni, MP, the Secretary of the Department of Community Development, Mr. Joseph Klapat, and Mrs Ipul Powaseu, Chairperson PNGADP (DPO-PWD). Other senior government officials were also in attendance. Behind the scene was the professional support of the Department of Community Development staff. Minister Toni was elected the Chair of the meeting, which she lead with distinction and superb leadership skill and qualities. One of the important present...

Just like the windmill! These are my views on information technology and electronic resources at UPNG. Many who work and study at UPNG have frustrating moments when it comes to information technology. The IT services UPNG provides is a lethargic experience without administrative intervention in fixing the situation. The registration process of all students for the 2012 academic year took more than two weeks.   It was a woeful experience for the officials who had to deal with the poor Information Technology legacy UPNG has managed to create for itself over the years. UPNG’s IT system is poorly managed without excellerated development that the image promoted on the internet is so outdated and irrelevant. The home page of UPNG is not updated. Visitors to UPNG’s home page are disappointed with the electronic image. No daily updates and official live activities that announce public events, public lectures, seminars, and new developments at UPNG. Many...

Grand Papua Hotel in Port Moresby In recent times a British newspaper had scandalized Papua New Guinea as a land of cannibals with insatiable appetites for European tourists. In PNG, it seems, the kind of tourism promoted is about quality tourism, which promotes its diverse cultures and heritage. At the same time such an approach safe guards the identities of its unique cultural heritage. Tourism in Papua New Guinea has developed around the quality tourists rather than the mass tourists because of the need to give people a greater opportunity to develop effective communication and dialogue between tourists and the local community (Cashman 1987: 28-29). It has been observed that so often “when tourists travel together as a group they can be insulated that they never develop an understanding of the hopes and aspirations, the fears and problems of the local people in whose midst they are.” An example of this observation is captured in the film Cannibal Tours...