2012, What a year

If I may stress it again, this year has received so much already. I personally have got a boulder thrown over my shoulders to add to the mix :( ....

I got alerted today that I will have to find some way in sourcing some funds to ensure that a child gets his education this year. I am proactive in my approach and thus all things coming my way I get myself prepared for beforehand; but this situation caught me by surprise, well not fully anyway, I was surely not prepared to shoulder the full cost. Fees nowadays are ever so high as compared to my days. To make things worse, the last day of registration is tomorrow, Saturday. What could I do or where could I go on a weekend to source some funds? Nowhere. And so there is nothing much that can be done until next week, and by then if and when funds do come available, an added penalty for late registration will have to be met also. That is why, I stress whenever I get the chance to, is to conduct oneself proactively. Planning is the key in all aspects of life. Get it into your system, all of you and things will become much easier and life will be more enjoyable, fun and worthwhile. As for me, I have faith that all will go well in the end. Funds will come available somewhere, somehow and a couple of months down the line, I will look back at this and just smile. In God, you can definitely trust. Through him, in him, all things are possible. All glory and honor to you, Lord.

Very Strong Winds playing a hand in the sinking of MV Rabaul Queen

I have noticed over the last weeks that the weather seems very odd. Even though, my dwelling is in the interior of the city with surrounding hills, I find it rather odd to be experiencing these strong winds. It would be normal to be experiencing these winds near the sea, but not here. I wonder what it is like out in the ocean, if I can say that the winds are strong enough here, than out there, it must be much worse and the seas really really rough as a result; No wonder, the MV Rabaul Queen, a passenger and cargo ship capsized in the waters of Lae, Morobe Province near the Finschaffen area last week. Whilst the official numbers of dead are yet to be made known, estimates are about 100 plus mostly women and children. My condolences go out to the family and friends who have lost loved ones in this unfortunate tragedy.

A weekend without electricity

Last weekend was one of the boring weekends for me in 2012. As I went home from work on Friday, on my way to the house I passed some PNG Power Linesmen checking out a power pole along my street. Having arrived at the house, I met up with my Unit mates informing me of the blackout which was currently on and the Linesmen I came across were trying to restore the power. After about 30mins, the power came on and I went down to my Unit. At about 8 O’clock that night, the power went out again. I decided to have an early night coz of this; at about 10:30pm the power returned as I noticed the fan coming on and dozed back off to sleep. I woke up next morning only to find out that the power was off again, it most probably went out at around midnight as there was heavy rain and strong winds that night. I found out a little later that the strong winds blew down a tree on my street damaging the power lines. The PNG Power linesmen returned to fix this problem and took them all of the afternoon, and power was restored around 8:30pm that night. It only lasted this time for about 20mins before going out again simultaneously as we heard a loud bang down the street. This we found out to be a blown transformer on one of the power poles on my street. I realized this would be another big problem to fix. I went off to bed and woke up the next day Sunday 5th of February, 2012 to no power. During the day, I was not able to charge my cell phone hence was out of communication with the outside world, The radio or TV couldn’t be switched on also so I resorted to reading my novel I bought recently on a trip down under. Once in a while having a buai (bettlenut) break and cursing the Power Authority. Finally around 7pm, the PNG Power linesmen returned to fix the blown transformer. I realized today whilst on the way to work that a new transformer was installed to replace the old blown out one. Power was eventually restored at 10:30pm that night. From then to now it is still on and I’m hoping it remains that way forever, and no repeats of this kind ever again.

Mutiny Neutralized

Col. Tom Ur and his men have overthrown the so-called Mutiny commander, Yaura Sasa and his men 12 hours after their successful attempt into holding the Brigadier General of the PNG Defence Force under house arrest and taking command. The Brigadier General Francis Agwi has resumed command of the Defence Force and all is back to normal again. The O’Neill/Namah government condemned this act and has placed these renegade soldiers under arrest to face charges for their act in the so-called Mutiny.

Mutiny in PNG

26^th January 2012, Papua New Guinea is today experiencing I believe for its first time a possible Military coup. The Brigadier General of the Defence Force has been put under house arrest and a new commander proclaimed. Currently they’ve put a road block at Murray Barracks main gates at Hohola and the Police have also put a road block at the roundabout at Hohola Police station. These two I know for sure, but there may be more around Port Moresby. There is an unconfirmed report of airport closure so no entry of people into Port Moresby also. According to an ABC report, it is said that this all started with a few soldiers supporting the ousted Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare raiding the Defence Force headquarters at the Murray Military Barracks and placed the head of the army under house arrest. The soldiers from the other military barracks, Taurama, made their presence felt by showing force at the Murray Barracks by way of discharging their firearms, as reported by another source. Some company’s and businesses have been forced to close early with their staff sent home due to all this. I do not know what’s to come out from all this, but I hope and pray that all will return to normal very shortly.

Free Healthcare for the people

The O’Neil/Namah government has done it again, this time allocating a substantial amount of money towards healthcare. Last week, the Government declared that from then onwards, healthcare will be free in the country’s general hospitals. Port Moresby General Hospital received K50 Million whilst Lae, Goroko, Nonga and Boram each to receive K30 million and all remaining Provincial Hospitals to receive K10 Million each, all totaling to the amount of K350 Million. Of course we already have critics’ expressing their views against this saying the amount is not enough to cover all the hospitals’ bills, etc. But nonetheless, the people are happy as they are or will be directly benefiting from this as is from the free education assistance as well.

Port Moresby Fuel Price as of 18th January, 2012

Yesterday afternoon, I had a stroll through one of the Fuel service station here in Port Moresby and had a stopover at one of the gas pumps to check out the fuel prices. Petrol (Unleaded) was K3.30/L and Diesel was at K2.91/L, a difference of 40^t. Many cars here in Port Moresby are powered by Petrol and this high Petrol price compared to Diesel is really putting a big hole in the pockets of vehicle owners. This should be a hint for potential car owners to purchase a Diesel powered vehicle instead of Petrol to ease their spending on fuel for their vehicle.