Lukluk Raun

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

TELECOMMUNICATIONS : TOMO'S TOWER

 

'A GOODENOUGH TOWER'


BUT SIGNAL IS STILL NOT GOOD ENOUGH


By BIG PAT



Climbing a high mountain or scamping up a tree stump to get a signal is normal in Papua New Guinea's rural outback.

As this poignant picture shows, finding an invisible telecommunication signal is still a daring challenge in these day and age of cutting edge mobile phone technology.

Despite hundreds of towers on lonely peaks, grassy foothills and windswept atolls, PNG's geography of mountains, valleys, rivers and sparse islands still has the edge over tower based telecom technology.

You will discover many a home made tower in all rural communities fashioned out of trees or on high mountain peaks that requires a few hours to scale.

The higher the better, although climbers must be agile, and be balanced like Tarzan.

This one here is at Watuluma on Goodenough Island in Milne Bay province.

Sitting up at the top is local man Bede Tomokita, a former public servant best known for his work among rural communities in setting up cooperative societies.


Bede with his campaign team. Behind them is the 2500m Mt Madawa'a, the most prominent peak in the D'Entrecasteaux Group in Milne Bay province. 


He was a candidate for the Kiriwina Goodenough seat in this year's Papua New Guinea National General Election.

One of Tomokita's campaign platform was on telecommunications. 

He was that improved telecommunications in the islands would improve lifestyle, strengthen government service, positively impact business activities and save lives.

Tomokita is also keen to see an all weather ring road around Goodenough, something that has never been tried before.

Tomokita believes a ring road will positively ignite economic activities which have remained stagnant on the island.

Tomokita, endorsed by PANGU, finished a credible 4th in the race, won by Douglas Tomuriesa.

But he still believes in the adage -  communication is power and information is powerful in empowering rural communities.

In outback PNG, finding the signal, however weak it may be, is a faint 'ping' of hope between life and death, good enough or bad enough.

Because out here, there are no hospitals, no medicines, no doctors, no roads, just about no government services.

Help for the 15,000 'Goodies' is a stretcher away at Bolubolu, the islands' district headquarters on the other side of the island.

Or a bumpy boat ride at the mercy of the high seas to the provincial capital Alotau on the mainland.

When he dropped down from the tree stump, he was greeted with the news that Telstra had completed the buyout of Digicel in PNG and the Pacific.

When told that under the deal, Telstra Digicel PNG will roll out 115 towers across the country, Tomokita replied: "please Telstra, I appeal on behalf of my people of Kiriwina and Goodenough, we need 4 towers.

"The first one must replace this tree stump," he said with a cheeky grin.

The Digicel and Telstra big wigs in Port Moresby and Sydney need no further convincing. 

For the record, Telstra International CEO Oliver Camplin-Warner had said: "As part of Telstra’s commitment to building a strong and sustainable PNG, Digicel Pacific will invest in an additional 115 towers which will be built across PNG over the next two years."

Bede Tomokita is the first man in PNG on record to make a public appeal to Telstra Digicel PNG for 4 towers for his home islands.

Here is Tomo's Tower, which serves and saves 15 to 20 people per day.



BEDE TOMOKITA of Lakulakuya village sitting on top the famous tree stump tower at  Watulukma. 

When Captain John Moresby landed on the western part of the Island in 1874, he named it after his fellow British naval officer James Goodenough.

Older locals still refer to it by its original name Nidula Island, through local legend and folklore.

Given their laid back island existence stymied by lack of government services, locals view their English name with a humourous flourish.

If you ask them how they are on any given day, a likely response is: "not too good, not too bad, but just Goodenough."

If that's 'Good Enough for me and Bobby Magee,' Telstra Digicel should seriously consider Tomo and his people and gift them the 4 tomo towers.



4 comments:

  1. Not good enough but hope their hope is materialise

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  2. Slight errors in this report, Bede Tomokita contested the Kiriwina Goodenough Open seat which Douglas Tomuriesa won,not Jimmy Maladina who won Esa'ala Open,the next-door electorate.All in all a very good assessment of the suffering of rural PNG and Goodenough island is no different.

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  3. Apologies chief correction has been done. Blame it on your wanples Todax.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank God for the request for the 4 towers for Kiriwina Goodenough Electorate and hope Telstra Digicel PNG consider Tomo's request. Thankyou Big Pat for publishing Tomo Tower's story.

    ReplyDelete