Saturday, August 4, 2012
The Aviat Club is now smoldering – another building in Lae down. It seemed odd* that at 4:50 am this morning there were so many people on the street. As we ran past an hour later it finally became apparent why all these people are out… Continue reading
Noises. There are lots of them here and you hear all of them. My house is all louvered-windows so the noises float freely in and out on the breeze. I love it (minus the dogs).
Celine Dion coming on someone’s stereo. Footsteps. Neighbors cheering over a rugby match. Vehicles rumbling by. A woman’s laughter. A co-workers singing hymnals together. Traditional drums. The band playing at the Christian Centre. Toads croaking. Fires crackling. Crickets. Doors shutting. Kids laughing, babies crying, parents’ soothing lullabies. Phones. Tree cutting. Phones playing music. Traditional music. Haus Krais. Running. Geckos clucking. Shouts from the sports fields. Soundtracks to other people’s movies. Basketballs. Sweeping. Raking. Early morning conversations in English, Pidgin, Tok Ples, Indian, Bangladeshian… Birds calling. Whistling. A guitar player strumming down the road. Horns. Frogs answering. A Sing-sing group practicing. Gravel crunching. Gud morning, Avinoon, Gud nait. The rain roaring in over the sports fields, tip-tapping on the leaves of banana trees and finally pounding on my roof – drowning all other noises.
The noises become comforting, routine, pleasant. In a house by myself they remind me – I’m not alone.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water.
W.C. Fields
The alcohol ban has returned with a vengeance…
The shelves in the bottle shops were quickly restocked after the dry spell of the last few months and just as quickly emptied as this upcoming drought promises to be an even longer one – nearly a year! The horror.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Thirteen hundred meters below the surface is where the ferry is estimated to be (more than half a mile). According to survivor accounts many of those on the ferry were trapped in the lower levels, and when it went under, it went under fast. Articles in today’s paper announce that the government is putting K8 million towards search, rescue and relief funds as they are promising to recover those who went down with the boat. They plan on enlisting Japanese companies who have the technology to go that deep.
No manifest has yet to appear as there apparently wasn’t a proper one to begin with.
In a separate conversation with a Unitech employee I learn that 2 of our own Unitech employees haven survived the incident. It is also assumed some Unitech students were on there but she said we will not know until registration is complete and they haven’t shown up…
Another article mentioned that the captain was in police company.
Friday, November 25, 2011
Today is the deadline for the governor to respond to the petition put out by some of the local groups…it seems the governor has left for POM though.
While I’ve been gone things have stayed fairly quiet, still plenty of rumours going around about planned protests and riots but the presence of the extra police seems to have kept those down. It is odd to drive by local markets and see the heavily armed police officers standing around…I’m not sure if I feel safer or in more danger?
There were plans to have meetings or a march in town today but police are not allowing large groups to come into town and are stopping and/or searching PMVs and cars heading into Lae. So it appears that despite rumours for potential riots today Lae may remain quiet and ‘peaceful.’
The liquor ban is on, but it’s not as full-scale as it was first presented so the yachty (and other hotels, bars) can serve on premises but the bottle shops will remain closed until January 31. I’m sure the shops at least enjoyed high sales before their official closure as EVERYONE went and stocked up for the long dry season.
Monday, November 14, 2011
If you know me well you probably know how little I follow politics. But some headlines are impossible to ignore…
Our acting Prime Minister, Belden Namah, has a warrant out for his arrest on charges of being in contempt of court by the Supreme Court. In recent months the position of Prime Minister and acting Prime Minister have been tossed around like the village bike by politicians. This court order comes in apparent reaction to an order to suspend the Chief Justice. We are told not to worry, the country won’t have a ‘collapse of the rule of law’ (um, good to know…).
Friday, November 11, 2011
Panic and pandemonium have set in all over Lae, women and children are being evacuated as we speak, expats huddle together in the Yacht Club shaking and whispering about the terrible atrocity that was announced today as we try to console each other. The words which are meant to offer comfort sound empty in the face of the utter fear and hopelessness we are facing. Something, much like a shock and awe terror campaign, is being rained down on Lae from above in response to the recent protests, riots and ethnic fighting; none of us quite know how we will cope. War shelters, which haven’t been accessed since WWII, will most likely have to be opened once again for security and storage of necessities. The announcement hits hard and has brought about a true State of Emergency in Lae: there will be a liquor ban starting Monday, November 14, lasting all the way thru January 31 of 2012. This just cannot be!
We are quite used to expecting the unexpected here, we are even used to liquor bans, but this is a liquor ban like no other. This is a liquor ban for all classes of liquor licenses. So, while it is no shock to see the bottle shops closed from time to time, especially around major events, we can always count on our trusted establishments, like the Yacht Club, Jack’s bar, the Melanesian, the Golf Club, the Huon Club and for the brave, Phil’s Motel to support us in our times of need.
This liquor ban goes so far as to prohibit any sale of any alcohol in any form, this even includes our own locally brewed SP.*
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Rumour has it there is supposed to be more big fighting tomorrow in town, oh, but this is apparently the same rumour that has been going around all week. Do I take this seriously, or do I try to live normally? (Well as normally as one does here…). This is one of the problems, there are soooo many rumours, and if you listen to them all you’d always be afraid to go out.
Cain, my former gardner who now works for a local building company, and who is very hamamas* with his job, stopped by today to get some painkillers and a pineapple from my garden let me know about the potential fighting.
As the fighting turned from protests against the government’s lack of response on the rise in crime to ethnic fighting between the Highlanders and Morobeans over the weekend the problems escalated and additional police were brought in to help control the problems. Several** people have been killed and more have been injured from the fighting but mostly by police fire.
Cain reported that his friends in another settlement told him that there will be fighting all over town tomorrow and in the settlements, again between the Highlanders and Morobeans. Of course it’s only a rumour and I wonder with the additional police force in town if it won’t be squashed fairly quickly if it does indeed pop up anywhere?
Monday, November 6, 2011
This morning I wake up bright and early, take my vitamins, wash them down with several small huge glasses of water. I prepare a few files for the tutorial I am giving this morning on Photoshop and head down to my car. I hear the security vehicle going around making an announcement, which, as usual comes out sounding like:
grah-blaeha-wara-wara-wara-blah-grah-blah-wara
For clarification they repeat this same message
grah-blaeha-wara-wara-wara-blah-grah-blah-wara
Yep, definitely clear the second time… Why haven’t I learned tok pisin yet? The only word I can pick out of the whole garbled message is ‘wara’
‘Wara’ is tok pisin for water so I’m probably not really even hearing that correctly…maybe it’s a message that Uni is closed for the day due to the violence? But why do they keep talking about water if Uni is closed???
Everyone, like me, has come out in their yard to hear this very important message (which I still can’t understand after 5 more repetitions*), I look around for some clarification and see the 10-year old daughter of one of my coworkers, she translates the message for me…
Don’t drink the water it’s been poisoned. Continue reading
Sunday, November 6, 2011
This is from @Allan Maclay of the Lae Chamber of Commerce:
LAE DECLARED A FIGHT ZONE. SOE YET TO BE DECLARED:Morobe Provincial Administration have just declared Lae as a Fight Zone and they say that the Governor has agreed to have the PEC endorse this and gazette it as required by tomorrow. What this means is that it enables the Police to arrest and detain people within the fight zone, without requiring a warrant. This does not mean that Lae is declared as a State of Emergency.
The Back Road area has been causing problems this afternoon and the Police have actually shot some determined combatants. The Police advise that the POM Mobile Unit is now on their way to deal with this problem at the moment. There are more Mobile Units on their way from the Highlands to beef up the numbers.
Please do not travel to Malahang, Bumayong, Kamkumung and Taraka areas, or if really necessary then exercise extreme caution and care.
(Unitech, where I live, is across the road from Taraka…)
Lae may not be that different from Atlanta at the moment from the way it sounds…though Atlanta police may have better riot gear and might be less likely to shoot on the spot…
@ the edge 