Whispers

Aussies be warned: Islands Business magazine's resident Port Moresby undercover agent has revealed that Ms Tracey Wunder, a new arrival inside the Great Wall of Australia compound at Konedobu, has imparted the following June 8 updated advice to fellow citizens in PNG: "Australians in Papua New Guinea are advised to exercise a high degree of caution and monitor developments that might affect their safety.

"Crime rates are high in the capital Port Moresby. Armed car thefts, assaults, bag snatching and other robberies in shops and restaurants are common. Visitors should never walk on the streets of Port Moresby after dark. Even short trips, for example, from hotels to nearby restaurants, should be made by car. Lae, Mt Hagen and some other urban centres in the Highlands provinces, have experienced increases in criminal activity. Visitors should take appropriate security precautions, avoid isolated areas and not walk alone, especially at night.

"The settlement areas of towns and cities, and particularly those in Port Moresby, should be avoided. The incidence of armed car hijackings and armed robberies has increased significantly in Port Moresby and major urban centres in recent months. While the road and travelling conditions have improved along the highway between Lae and the Nadzab Airport, travellers should remain vigilant when travelling this road, particularly from the two to nine mile settlement areas. There have been outbreaks of ethnic violence in Lae and Port Moresby, particularly near settlements, marketplaces and some low cost housing. Travellers should avoid these areas, but also be aware that crime is opportunistic and can occur anywhere and at anytime. Violence and use of Œbush knives' (machetes) and firearms often accompany assault and theft attempts. Prior to travel, Australians should ensure they have a variety of financial options available to them including credit cards, travellers cheques and US dollars cash. In particular, Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) locations should be confirmed with your card provider before travel. Travellers should exercise particular caution when visiting banks or using ATMs, as there have been incidents of armed attacks on bank and ATM customers. Australians should only carry sufficient cash for their daily needs, secure their valuables against theft and avoid displays of wealth at all times. Under no circumstances should valuables be left unattended. Photocopies of valuables such as passport, tickets, driving licence and travellers cheques should be kept separately.

"Bougainville has had an effective ceasefire in place since April 1998 following a nine-year civil war, and is no longer closed to outsiders. However, several years ago landowners requested that outsiders stay away from the mountainous area in central Bougainville, around the old Panguna mine. Australians should not travel into this ŒNo Go Zone' and are advised to exercise caution when travelling in other parts of Bougainville. Those planning to visit Bougainville should consider their travel plans carefully and discuss these with the High Commission before travelling.

"Australians are advised not to use taxis or Public Motor Vehicles (PMVs) in Papua New Guinea as they are unreliable and can be hazardous due to poor maintenance and frequent robberies. Roads are generally in poor condition."

For good measure, the diligent Ms Wunder threw in: "There are a number of active volcanoes in Papua New Guinea. Travellers should be aware of potential eruptions and not climb any active volcano. Persons with respiratory problems may find that airborne ash exacerbates their condition. She also advised Australians, who are likely to be reluctant to believe this, that "when overseas, they are subject to local laws. A violation of local laws may result in a jail sentence, served in a local prison."

Forum jobs phobia: Keep this very dark indeed, but old timers employed by Oceania's oh-so-many regional agencies live gripped by fear about their future now that the Pacific Islands Forum's overlords have directed that a rule that contracts for professional hands hired by the Forum Secretariat should be limited to two three-year terms should be rigidly observed. Nervous regional careerists suspect that the rule will be applied not just to the secretariat in Suva but will spread as a horrid disease to other Forum offshoots. Lordy, lordy, it could spread even unto Pacific Community folks. The word is that a number of worthies hope to escape the six-year chopper by getting their job titles and prescriptions adjusted.

RAMSI babies: Nick Warner, the Australian head of the Solomon Islands rescue and repair force, RAMSI, will be leaving a little Nick behind when he's recalled back to the hell of Australia. But if there's a Mrs Nick Warner, then young Nick is no worry for her. For Young Nick was born on August 13, 2003: the day a notorious thug Harold Keke and his henchmen surrendered to Big Nick at a Guadalcanal village on the Weathercoast. A reign of terror had left a lot of villagers dead or driven from villages that were then set on fire. "I decided to name my baby Nick because he was born on the day he (Big Nick) came to get the militants," explained little Nick's mother, Eunice. "We have been hiding in the bush for the past five months and so August 13 was a significant day for us." Another RAMSI-era born Solomons' babe will transit life answering to the call of "Raaaaam-si".

Fiji's wonder sheep: Dark thoughts have been harboured in Samoa about what was thought to be a dirty plot by Fiji to foil Samoa's efforts to embark on a sheep farming business by importing a flock of Fiji's wonder sheep. The critters are a new breed created by 10 years of breeding at Makogai, a former leprosy isolation hospital island. Several sheep species were used, with the key one being a herd of rare Barbados Black Bellied sheep, imported from California. The product, now building up in numbers, is a wunderkind that does well in the tropics. The Samoans ordered 40 of the critters three years ago and have been waiting, and waiting, and waiting for delivery. The wait got to the point at which a certain prime minister is reported to have wondered recently if a certain neighbour was reneging on the deal out of concern that "Samoa might provide competition". But the possibility of a grave new crisis in regional relations is ebbing. The critters will be discovering all about Fa'a Samoa any time now. It's just that quarantine rules about shifting sheep from one environment to another require an awful lot of red tape.

Goff's got humour: Who says Foreign Ministers don't have a sense of humour? New Zealand's Phil Goff was in Samoa recently and visited a high school where, at the end of the ceremonies, the students lined up to call out their farewells: "tofa" or the abbreviated "fa"...And it soon became..."fa Goff, fa Goff..." to the inevitable laughter. To which Goff responded..."I thought my speech was okay."

Sign of American times: An advertisement in the Samoa Observer invited applications for the job of "student mentor". It was placed by the ŒBetter Ways Coral Reef Academy at Saoluafata, a "residential treatment school for American children" that has been running in Samoa for quite some years. It's a sign of America's times; the desire of some parents to deport their kids away from trouble, as far, far away as possible. An American producer intends to use Fiji as a location for a film about just a school. The story line is about what happens when some of the inmates escape to rough it out in the tropical island wilds. If the filmmaker needs authentic extras, there are a couple of such schools hidden away quietly in Fiji as well.

Coup word: Geoff Robinson, of Radio New Zealand's flagship news programme, Morning Report, was interviewing Fiji Police Commissioner Andrew Hughes on the success of the big drug bust the day after. It ended on this note: Robinson: "...so it's obviously a great coup for the Fiji police, well done indeed."

Hughes: "Well that's not a word we like to use in Fiji, but thanks very much."

More signs of the times: This time they're appearing in Nauru where the magistrate's court is dealing with an unprecedented flow of armed robberies, including the use of firearms obtained from heaven knows where. The delinquents are busting into houses and business premises. They are all young and desperate for a job. Perhaps they could be shipped off to a residential treatment school in, say Australia or America.

Zero entertainment: It's been hell in Wallis, but not quite so in Futuna, relates the Ocean Flash news service. In May, staff of the RFO radio and television station went on strike for more pay, leaving Wallisians with zero entertainment, having been presumably reared to spurn the contamination available on such Anglo-Saxon tainted wavelengths as those of Radio Australia. They wanted their regional boss in Noumea sacked and wouldn't talk to the RFO regional office in Noumea, or a bod who flew out especially all the way from Paris, hoping to placate them. Futuna hasn't been that bad since the staff of its small relay station continues to maintain a feed of television and radio fare direct from Paris.