The Faceless Machine of Corporate Greed

The Spaida by Caleb Hamm

A poignant rendition of the story of today’s Papua New Guinea by Caleb Hamm. This extraordinary art by Caleb says a lot if you look into the details of this piece.

I’ll let Caleb himself say bits of it in words as posted on his FB page.

Haus Bilong Spaida

By Caleb Hamm

“We see the alienation of people that is the result of the present machine orientated economy.
We see true social security and the people’s happiness being diminished in the name of economic progress.
We caution therefore that large scale industries should only be pursued after careful and thorough consideration of the likely consequences upon the spiritual and social fabric of our people.
There is overwhelming evidence to suggest that a significant number of people who live by the fruits of multi million dollar multi-national corporations live in misery, loneliness and spiritual poverty.
We believe that since we are a rural people, our strength should be essentially in the land and in the use of our innate artistic talents.“
- Actual deliberations quoted from Papua New Guinea’s Constitutional Planning Committee in 1975. The year of Independence.

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Gargantuan proportions of Palm oil plantations fill PNG’s countryside where once stood one of the world’s last frontiers. Unsustainable monocultures now cover the logged hills and valleys. 24 % of PNG’s rainforest has been logged in the last 30 years and the hungry rate continues to threaten an irreplaceable and unique ecosystem.http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0222-png.html#The black river represents the massive Ok Tedi disaster where barrels of poisonous waste were spilled down the Fly River from the infamous Ok Tedi mine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ok_Tedi_environmental_disaster

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Illegal land grabs are not unknown to the rural people of PNG, but the recent Paga Hill incident topped them all. On Saturday, May 12, a historic district in PNG’s capital witnessed bulldozers pushing over 20 houses while police kept the home owners at bay. What was supposed to be a planned out eviction swiftly became a heartless and cruel demolition in this shady, allegedly illegal, urban land grab. I copied Paga Hill Estate’s proposed hotel building design which overshadows a bulldozer ploughing down a heap of cultural icons mixed with housing materials. Clearing a path for the limousine of modern colonialism.http://namorong.blogspot.ca/2012/05/smelly-beast-thats-paga-hill.html

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Ramu Nico, LNG PNG all represented by this web of oil pipelines and giant tank supplying the greedy spaida. Several rivers are currently dumping mine waste into the Bismark Sea and Huon Gulf. Yellow waters, dead fish and new bans on selling fish and produce in the market all affect those living in the area. How long do they have before there is no reef, no fish, or drinking water. Cyanide traces are now frequently being found in many rivers in PNG.

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Its all in the Timing: Bench warrants out for DPM & A-G

It seems only the Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah and the Attorney General, Dr. Alan Marat are the only ones who have been issued a warrant and not the Prime Minister as earlier stated.

AG Dr. Allan Marat

But then this begs the question as to why that is so when the Prime Minister was fully aware of the move to sack the Chief Justice and had endorsed the NEC decision, as Ben Micah the government Chief of Staff was reported to have said.

This is just one of the many questions and blind spots in this ongoing saga that holds me back from making speculations as yet. But there are a few oddities that baffles me still, the most notable one being timing.

The timing of this move has not been given enough critical thought. PNG is just reeling from a major upheaval in the country’s major port city of Lae. Things may have simmered down but that in no way means the problem has gone away.

There is also the ongoing Commission of Inquiry into the Special Purpose Agricultural Business Lease which has revealed some very controversial and damning findings – the forgery of signatures amongst some of the rots in this issue. (Meanwhile it was sighted in The National that rival newspaper, Post Courier was served Defamation charges but fuck Rumbinan Hijau and its PR Machine! That is fodder for other tales some other time).

Crucial also is the referral of the O’Neil-Namah government by the East Sepik Provincial Government to the Supreme Court on the legality of this government. The court decision was supposed to have been handed down on December 9th but as of yesterday, word is out that decision on the referral will be brought forward.

Let us not forget the nation goes to the polls in only a few months from now.

These are just some of the key issues facing the country that needs immediate and decisive action. And by “decisive”, I mean an immediate and carefully calculated approach in handling and diffusing such crisis situations. A response that is overdue by a couple of days or even 3 is certainly NOT ‘decisive’!

The Opposition in the meantime, has maintained the stance of the spoilt brat from the moment they had been blind sided, not providing an effective opposition. But then again, what more WERE they going to offer anyway? Fuckin dickwobs.

What I am saying is that those MEN(!) we put in there to think, talk and stand up for us are busy playing football and marbles in there that half my tax Kina is spent on tribunals, court cases and commission of fucking inquiries that do shit all anyway. If not any of these then it – my tax money – ends up as another of our many band-aid solutions, some lousy cheque presentations and money waving banquets (tut-tut) or some extravagant ‘fact-finding’ trips to Abu Dhabi even .

Now look what they have made me do? I should be at a book-swap talking books right now and even collecting school books for children in remote Oro and here I am bitch-blogging.

:/

…ero

More revelations of fraudulent land acquisition

Given below is an exact transcript of a report received late yesterday about more fraudulent acquisition of customary land from indigenous land owners through the lease lease-back scheme known as the Special Agriculture Business Lease (SABL).

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Outside the hausman at the meeting between the Bosmun & Taringe tribes Photo: Source Suplied

The people of the Bosmun and Taringe tribes in Bogia District of Madang Province want to know how the portion of Land from Taringe to Annaberg was taken by the government, and is now in the National Gazette.

All their Elders gathered at the ‘hausman’ in Bosmun and found that that total land area was leased for the so called ‘Special Agriculture Business Leases’ (SABLs)!

 

They say no one government official has visited them to discuss and get their consent as they are the Land OWNERS, and say THEY WOULD NEVER HAVE GIVEN AWAY THAT MUCH LAND AREA THAT COVERS 2 WHOLE VILLAGES!

 

They want immediate answers from the government and have petitioned their MP John Hickey and the Lands Department.

 

Hickey has signed their petition as of 5pm yesterday afternoon (18/04/2011), and has vowed to do all he can in his power on this starting today (19/04/2011).

This is getting out of hand simply because of somebody’s insatiable greed.

~ero~