Sean Dorney, Kwanja and the media candidate

 

'shit, it's only seven kinas,'

 

Two of the legends of Konedobu, the ABC's Sean Dorney (left) and Post-Courier's Michael 'Wardsey' Ward in the old PC newsroom having the usual Friday arvo drinks. Notice the old typewriters. Mine was the big bazooka behind Dorney's skinny legs!
It was the culprit behind the K7 per shit fun run story!

PART 01

By Big Pat

SPORTY

Sean Dorney is an Aussie name synonymous with journalism in Papua New Guinea.

And Lofty got to know him in more ways than one and here are some of the lighter moments in our friendship.

I remember Sean Dorney as a good friend, a mentor, a critic and especially someone with an incredible character and courage who had the time to share with you, whether you were young or old or black or white. 

He also had a great sense of humor.

He is the kind of person who has a heart for anybody. Ask his Manus in-laws and they’ll tell you, Sean has never once let them down, even done the famous ‘hey, hey’ Manus swing to the Manus Garamut.

Ask any Pacific Island reporter who has had the good fortune to have crossed his part and he or she will tell you too –Dorney is a champion media freedom in the Pacific, a forte of knowledge of anything of Papua New Guinean, even to the extent that he once captained the PNG Kumuls rugby league team at one stage of his footy life.

Lofty first bumped into Dorney when I began my newspaper career starting as a copy boy at the Post-Courier in 1985. He would come around to the newsroom on Friday afternoons for a yarn and a beer. And he touched me as a very funny guy. He had this obnoxiously happy smile and a way with words.

One day, when Lofty had graduated from copy boy to writing sports, he took me to the top of the Lloyd Robson Oval grandstand, hooked the ABC phone line up, and told me that at halftime, ‘call this number in Sydney and tell the lady at the other end the halftime score, who scored the tries, kicked the goals, crowd size and what the weather is like’. After that Sean wandered off – I don’t even know where to? And left me wandering and still wondering to this day!

Post-Courier old tea room with late tea boy Masu Morim (centre), on the left is late Yehiura Hriehwazi drowning in a brownie and Wally Hiambohn on the right hanging onto one for dear life. this tea room personified the Yangoru Drop.

It was a rugby league Test match between the Australian Kangaroos and the PNG Kumuls at the good old Lloyd Robson Oval now OSNFS. At halftime, after a few stubbies, I was already feeling very drowsy and forgot to make that very important call to the gracious lady north of the South Pole. I would have done with a vegemite sandwich though.

At fulltime, I had to file the match report for ABC, which I tried my very best to do, albeit very tipsy, over the line. From the top of the roof, I yelled into the phone as if I was yelling at my girl on Manus Island too.

Late Mark Sapias, late Tom Alau, the original Ori Kenia, the irresistible Terry FM Longbut, those seasoned radio guys had big smiles on their faces. Lofty was flabbergasted!

Lofty ended up back at Lawes Road where I tried my best to remember what the score was, even scratching my head on which park it was played on, 'wee yaka', Lofty was courting trouble by forgetting my notebook, but my black man mate, the late Blaise Nangoi rescued me that day.

Anyways, Monday comes around and Sean pops by and demands: 'hey Lofty, you have my phone? Lofty - 'What phone?' Sean - 'The expensive one I left with you on the rooftop!'

'Bikpela hevi', problem.

So I don’t have his hello ring but I want my koble coins for sending his ABC story.

‘Come next Friday’ he smiles ‘and bring my phone’.

Those were the old landlines, heavy, ugly, most times you got caught in a crossline, especially when you was anxiously calling your 'lalokau' across the Bismarck Sea.

So Friday rolls by, Frank Kolma, Wally Hiambohn and Lofty duck up the Airvos Avenue to the ABC before our boss and Sean’s tambu Luke Clement Sela can send us somewhere else.

Port Moresby A grade basketball was very popular during weeknights.
Even the players played barefoot at the Hohola Courts.

The esky is out; we are all having a good time and then Lofty decides to have a stroll around Sean’s office. The door rolls back and lo and behold - on the back of the door is a collection of old newspaper cuttings.

This was the ABC’s door of horror and contained all manner of errors, bearers, corrosion, and journalism poison. And there in a little corner, I spot my blessed name! 

Dorney had done me the honors by underlining the offending word ‘shit’ in red!

Shiddo diddo, Lofty almost fainted!!!!!! 'Karanas lewa' . . how did this happen? But it did for the record, embarrassingly occur one fine Friday morning!

It was 1988 and Coca-Cola was the major sponsor for the annual SP Games fun run event. The 'T' shirts for the run were going for K7. 

With my rickety old typewriter working overtime, I had the greatest most embarrassing honor to spell 'shirt' as SHIT. 

How it passed the sports editor Numa Alu's eagle eye or even the proofreading stage, is another mind-boggling mystery.

At seven bucks, it probably could have made me the richest shit seller in no hurry, like my old friend Mister Shit. 

Of course the editor Luke was not too pleased and the MD Don Kennedy was about to hang me out to fry!

But shit is bullshit and shit does happen!

PAYING BRIDEPRICE IN BEREINA

 

The girls and boys from Buluma, West New Britain, who now call Oreke in Bereina, their home. Showing the sesele pasin west style in Mekeo

PASIN WEST in MEKEO

 

WHEN in Mekeo, do what the Mexicans do best – chew your buai, fish in the Bereina river, smoke it over the fire, and relax while you watch the golden sun drop into the Western Ocean.

For a couple of girls from the other side of town, things don’t come easy by the banks of the muddy river. The crocs watch, the mud crabs crouch and the tilapia hide as best as they can.

Firstly, these ‘uahos’ are only one half of Kairuku. Their blood might be at Oreke village near Bereina in Kairuku Hiri district of Central Province, but the truth is their hearts are fluttering far away.

These girls, Madlyne, Linda and Jacqueline, might look like sweet Bereina girls but the truth is their oil comes from the palm trees of Buluma, Pasin West country.

Their journey from the island of New Britain across the seas to Papua is a long one.

It started when uncle Naime Banua from Oreke village, a mechanic by trade, ended up with Works Department in Kimbe, West New Britain province.

Sisi (Cecelia) and her mummy Abia celebrating the occasion.

He was an adventurous young Kairuku chap. He loved fixing cars. The bigger the better. 

Works Department is a key government institution responsible for roads and bridges. Mechanics and engineers were vital personnel in Works.

There uncle Naime met the love of his love and wife Rita from Buluma. 

Their love blossomed into marriage which has produced the three girls and only boy Miria, and 13 grandchildren.

The Banua family, with their ‘pasin’ west style, were the standout at a recent bride price ceremony at Oreke village last Christmas.

The bride was Abia whose husband Simon was paying her bride price in cash and goods.

Some of the visitors and supporters.

The Banuas, dressed in their Heineken t-shirts, came to support the bride price. 

With typical ‘pasin’ west flourish, they produced the most flowery ‘sesele lareva’ styles with their pots and pans and gifts.

As is the case in many rural communities in PNG, bride price is a very important occasion.

It is the fulfillment of the customary obligation to your wife and in-laws. It upholds family pride and honor. 

It builds a family and clan and tribe and a man.

The mekeo ‘buai’ was flowing and the ‘pasin’ west style was glowing.

Abia and her hubby Simon have two children, Cecelia and Simon Junior.
 

The famous 'black man' is being watched over by his two Mekeo girls.

HELPING LITTLE CHILDREN WHO SUFFER FROM HYDROCEPHALUS

 

Mount Wilhelm, locally known as Enduwa Kombuglu.

Picture courtesy of EDWIN WAWU

CONQUERING MOUNT WILHELM FOR THE SICK CHILDREN of PNG

 

Dr Arnold Waine and his daughter Kelesi Waine after reaching the summit of Mt Wilhelm on Christmas Eve, 2023.

SEATED on the rocky crag that is the roof of PNG, Arnold Waine looked into the far distance. His gaze was limited by the chilly fog that hung in the air.

But that did not dampen his enthusiasm for the reason why he was sitting on the top of the 4509-meter-high Mount Wilhelm, Papua New Guinea’s highest peak. (14, 793 feet)

He was there for a simple reason. He was there for the little suffering children he saw every day in the Children’s Ward of the Port Moresby General Hospital thousands of miles away.

It is the loftiest loneliest spot in PNG where it snows.

A medical surgeon, Dr Waine was right at the top with his brave daughter Kelesi Waine, the pinnacle of a special climb-a-thon of Mount Wilhelm to raise funds to help sick children with special needs in PNG.

Dr Arnold Waine is the Head of Department for Surgery School of Medicine and Health Science at UPNG, and an honorary specialist surgeon at PMGH.

He decided to spend last Christmas break with his family in the freezing peaks of PNG’s highest mountain in the Kundiawa Gembogl district in Chimbu province.

Dr Waine at Lake Piunde below the mountain.

Dr Waine and his family were humbled by the idea. They wanted this to be their family’s support for his work and to show his children’s love for the sick children that he helps.

Most of the children he sees and assists are those children who are affected by hydrocephalus.

Dr Waine said this disease is a condition where fluid in the head and spine called Cerebral Spinal Fluid or CSF gets blocked and the head of a newborn baby grows bigger than its body.

"It needs a small tube to place into the head during surgery to drain into the abdomen and out as urine," he says.

Our government pharmacy does not buy this (tube)  as a regular item, because it's not in the catalog.

"A lot of children die from complications or develop to become permanent disabilities."

Our medical doctors in Papua New Guinea public health face enormous challenges to provide medical services to a growing population, with scarce resource, limited funding and inadequate facilities.

Daughter Shiana embraces the cold of the grasslands.

Dr Waine said he had spent eight hours walking from the base camp to the summit of Mt Wilhelm on Christmas eve with his daughter Kelesi Waine, a 15-year-old doing Year 10 at Port Moresby International School.

His other two children Shiana, 16-years-old and Kua Waine 9-years-old made it up to the base at Lake Piunde.

"I promised a sick little one here at Pom Gen to walk to raise some money to buy his VP shunt pressure tube," he said.

"I didn’t realize it was going to cover for many others with the same condition throughout PNG.

"As promised to my patient child,  my family and I did this for you and other special children in PNG during Christmas eve.

" And special thanks to those who sponsor this walk and reach the needy."

Mt Wilhelm was named after the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's son Wilhelmsberg in 1888 by a German newspaper reporter.

A proud Kelesi who made it to the top.

MY LIFE STORY - JUSTIN KAPI

 

 

 
Farmers working in their rice paddies.

FROM A UNIVERSITY GRADUATE TO A RICE FARMER

 

If there is a journey of independence story that needs to be told, this is one such inspiring special journey.

All too often, we have university and college graduates complaining about being unemployed after graduation.

The reason is simple. There are not enough opportunities in the job market.

But where there is a will, there is a way. The subject of this story is a young man named Justin who grew up the hard way. Through grit and grind on the land, he made it to Unitech and graduated.

Justin graduated with a degree in accounting. It was a paper that also taught him the practicalities of life.

As the name suggests, in life you have to account for everything, your land, your family, your food, your love life, your association with the creator, even every little red penny you earn.

Justin Kapi knew that if he did not get a regular day job, he still had to account for his time on earth.

He was innovative and creative. When he heard about PNG’s biggest rice grower Trukai’s Smart Farmers program, he immediately enrolled.

This is Justin’s story. For all those Unitech, UPNG, UNRE and UoG graduates still looking for a job, we hope this truly inspiring story will motivate you out of you dream like state.

Justin checking on a banana bunch.

My name is Justin Kapia, aged thirty-three (33).

I am the first of three siblings born to Joan Kapia of Urgai village of the Bari tribe in the Kerowagi District of Chimbu Province.

My mother mostly raised me. Being the eldest, toiling the soil was part of my childhood life, growing up. That was where my passion for agriculture grew.

Despite being very little, I was the family man, I cleared bushes, dug drains, and plowed the soil for my mother to plant.

Through all the hardships life threw at us, it was by God’s grace that I was able to complete my secondary schooling at Kondiu Rosary Secondary, scoring all distinctions.

I continued to the Papua New University of Technology to study Accounting and graduated in 2018, with a Bachelor's Degree in Commerce and Accountancy.

After I graduated, I ventured into small business in the informal sector. However, my passion took the best of me, I had to go back to my village and do something with my land.

So, I ventured into farming. That was where I met my beautiful and supportive wife, Nancilla Simbai – a professional secondary school teacher who has given me three beautiful daughters.

She is an indoor person who had never planted kaukau (sweet potato)) before I met her ha ha! Now she can plant kaukau! It was at the beginning of 2023, around January when I first saw the Trukai Smart Farmers Training program on Facebook.

Without a second thought, I applied without further delay. I was accepted and enrolled at Unitech, Taraka Campus, not for a degree again but as a smart farmer.

After two weeks of intensive training, I returned home to my small family with the skills and knowledge acquired, with only two (2) kgs of Trukai rice seeds (T12).

From there I gathered my people of Nigl Gol – Kup Local Level government and under the guidance of my farm manager Philip William and myself, we planted three hectares of rice. We are hopefully looking forward to harvesting 21 tons at the end of January next year (2024).

A clearing ready for planting.

Furthermore, we have integrated ducks, rice and fish, which brings numerous economic benefits. This approach, known as the “Three Sisters of Sustainable Farming” has been practiced for centuries in many regions worldwide.

Our ducks provide the best pest control services by consuming insects, weeds, and snails in the rice paddies. This reduces the need for chemical pesticides, resulting in cost savings. Moreover, duck droppings act as a natural fertilizer, enhancing soil fertility without additional expenses.

Moreover, rice cultivation benefits from the presence of these ducks as they move through the rice fields, they help in weed suppression and promote aeration of the soil, which improves rice growth and reduces the need for manual labor for weed removal.

Finally, we have also introduced the integration of fish into this system which complements the rice and duck’s relationship. The fish feed on the insects and larvae in the water, reducing disease risks and improving water quality. In return, the rice plants provide cover and shade for the fish while their root systems stabilize the soil, preventing erosion.

My extended family of Nigl Gol is also very supportive of what I am doing, as this is the first of its kind in our area in Kup LLG. So, most of the manual labor comes from the youth.

We have finally received the attention of the entire community and they are really motivated to take this approach.

Justin leading the way.

The Trukai Smart Farmers Program headed by Ms Aina Davis (the Country’s Rice Development Manager) had again supplied us with six 25 kg of Trukai rice seeds (T12). The economic advantages are notable.

This method of farming reduces the reliance on chemical inputs and manual labor, farmers can learn from this and save money on pesticides and weeding costs. Additionally, the output of yields of rice and fish will increase, leading to higher agricultural productivity and potential income generation.

Overall, the integration of ducks, rice, and fish offers a sustainable and economically beneficial approach to farming.

·    In the current economic times we live in, Justin is just one of many universities educated young man who has turned to the land to build his life. He has not allowed setbacks in his life to destroy his passion for agriculture and from his story, we are sure he is building a promising future for his family and his community.