Fern Ridge (Safla Rama) Digest

What used to be a quiet, out of the way township of Wewak, suddenly comes alive, bustling with myriad of activities. It’s cluttered with people and wrapped in some kind of cheap Asian fabric to give it an Asiatic aura. With the opening of the new town market built by the Japanese government Wewak seems to attract two kinds of entrepreneurs. There are those who sell organic garden produce such as vegetables, edible greens, fresh and smoked fish, and fruits. It is the largest modern market in the country.   The second group is made up of those who sell betel nuts and cheap Asian products outside the market fence. This group has its umbrellas up to provide shade for the traders. This group considers itself as the informal sector entrepreneurs of Wewak. The informal sector entrepreneurs now have their stalls with umbrella shades ring the small town of Wewak from the post office to the market and again on the eastern beach front to the post office, up the road...

In the last 25 years I have been teaching at UPNG I never would have thought UPNG Open College centre would open in the Kubalia district. If I was not part of the official party I would have jumped up and danced the great Lomonjo, a traditional dance singsing only performed in the Yangoru Sausia Electorate in the East Sepik Province. The Lomonjo staged in Kubalia High School was for the official opening of the Kanauki University Centre, which serves the people of the Kubalia district, also known as the Numbo-Sausia Local Level Government Council.   The member of Yangoru Sausia Electorate and Minister of Commerce, Trade, and Industry, Honorable Richard Maru wasted no time in getting services to his electorate. The honorable Minister had invited the University of Papua New Guinea to set up a UPNG Open College centre in Kubalia district to encourage the development of human resources in the area. Community leaders spoke about the importance of human reso...

Great publications remain useful and relevant even many years after its first print run. One of my recent acquisitions is a book on medicinal plants of Papua New Guinea. The book is based on many years of scientific research, involving staff and students of the University of Papua New Guinea. The World Health Organization (WHO) published Medicinal Plants of Papua New Guinea (2009) four years ago. This publication is a result of a series of collaborations among several academics at the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG). The scientists of the University of Papua New Guinea were able to compile their data on medicinal plants in Papua New Guinea in this glossy colored book. Professor Prem P. Rai of UPNG School of Medicine and Health Sciences, together with Professor Teatulohi Matainaho, Professor Simon Saulei, and Dr. Umadevi Ambihaipahar were responsible for the data collection and compilation. Dr. Geoffrey A. Cordell, Professor Emeritus of University of Illinoi...

Book Cover: Growing Up Gende  January was full of surprises for me. A day before the end of the month I had a yellow card from the Post Office at UPNG advising me to collect a package from Marengo Mining Limited. I collected two copies of a book entitled: Growing Up Gende (2012). Marengo Mining Limited had published the book. The author of the book is Dr. Laura Zimmer-Tamakoshi, an anthropologist with long-term engagement with the Gende people of Papua New Guinea for thirty years of her life. Dr. Zimmer-Tamakoshi writes that “the work I have done writing and putting this book together has been made without any payments, my only request being that Marengo print plentiful copies to be freely handed out to local schools, individual Gende and other community organizations.” In her Facebook message to me she stressed the same point to me. This is a marvelous little book dressed with rare historical photographs captured in black and white films, more recent...