Yesterday

Woke up to another one of those mornings where its just impossible to rise and face the day…the ocean outside is taking it easy today and a calm breeze is telling me to relax and stay in bed. So I do.

I reckon I deserve a bit of a sleep in, to be honest. Yesterday was quite stressful: I was enlisted to help in addressing 1.3 billion kina worth of outstanding claims from the Crisis, and was informed that one of my projects could put lives at risk.

Goes without saying, then, that I was pretty fucking on edge when I sat down to have a rare beer after work yesterday. The location was Kuri Lodge and we (the VSA crew) were meeting to have dinner with Lloyd Jones, author of Mr Pip. Luckily my friends were spared my anger as one of the new AusAID advisers, Luther Smith, saw me first! Cheers Luther, I did sleep on it and will sort it out this morning.

Most of you will have heard of Mr Pip, or at least the kiwis will have. Lloyd Jones is a former journalist and was here covering the conflict in 1998. The people he met and the events must have inspired him, because he wrote what has become a very popular work of fiction, so popular that a film is going to be produced (they are casting already).

Lloyd was a really nice guy and shared some pretty cool stories. While chatting away he made the point that we are living in history; Bougainville is a nation in the making, and we should be recording the events and moments we experience here.

I have to say, he has a point. Change is all around us…there is a new President, and he is doing a good job of pushing for progress in achieving peace across Bougainville. The Panguna area, central to the conflict, has recently opened up to government services. The Morgan Junction road block, symbolic of the unwillingness of some to accept peace, may be dismantled this year. Both positive signs that Bougainville is moving forward.

I think it will be good for me to note some of this stuff down, and perhaps you might enjoy reading it as well. So I am going to make more of an effort to record what I am experiencing here. I'll even attempt to write every day, as Lloyd recommended. Gotta be good for me, right?

Drugs

We have a problem over here.

According to government figures, in Papua New Guinea health facilities can expect to be short of essential medical supplies for five months every year. That's right, five months.

I've recently completed a survey of health centres and aid posts in Bougainville for a health conference we are planning in May. Aid posts and health centres offer the majority of health services in Bougainville as there is only one hospital with five doctors, located on Buka Island (which equates to one doctor per 35,000 Bougainvilleans, but that's another problem). Not surprisingly, 77% of the staff interviewed reported that they often lack the supplies they need to do their job.

We also asked them what supplies they most commonly ran out of. I have compared responses to the most common illnesses reported by patients, and have found that the supplies they most commonly run out of correlate with the most common illnesses patients seek treatment for. What's disturbing is that the most common illnesses are malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea – also the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in Bougainville.

But wait, there's more.

The supply of medicines is managed centrally by the Department of Health in Port Moresby. The Division of Health in Bougainville is tasked with sending orders and distributing supplies. However, since the problem of supply shortages is so serious, the Bougainville Government has set aside additional funding to address the shortfall in medical supplies. In 2007 the appropriation equalled 500,000 kina, roughly ASD250,000. Not much, certainly not enough, but that was 2007. I've just established that over 2007 to 2009 that appropriation has decreased from K500,000 to K40,000. That's a decrease of 92%.

Let me emphasise that point: despite knowing that Bougainville, and Papua New Guinea more broadly, faces serious shortages of medical supplies, the Bougainville government has decreased its budget for the purchase of medical supplies by 92%.

I got so angry when I learnt this that I felt sick.

Ok, time to change the tone. I am happy to say that there are solutions on the horizon. Firstly, sorting these issues out would be a bit of a slog without some good evidence to hand. My survey gives us that evidence. Secondly, we have had funding approved for a health conference in May, which will provide a forum to discuss the issue of drug shortages – the Minister of Health and the President will be in attendance, and I will make sure they hear about this. Thirdly, we have a Budget and Planning Advisor now, and I'm getting him involved on this so I can do a tag team hit for more impact. I'm pretty confident that we can turn this around, and that over the next few years we will see some changes. I'll keep you posted.

Welcome Back

The following describes my first day back at work, Monday 23 February.

6:30am – woke up to the sound of the ocean, cool breeze and sunlight. Lay there for half an hour. Get up at 7am, make banana smoothies for me and the flatmates. Relax on deck for a bit. Go to work.

Monday morning – back to work and I’m walking in quick sand – apparently I’ve been delegated some work but no-one took minutes so we don’t know what that was, had to tell the head of the Bougainville AIDS Committee that there will be no funding from the Bougainville Government for the committee this year (still sorting that one out), shortly after that the power was cut as once again PNG Power has failed to import the right amount of diesel for the generators.

Try to call Health Division but they haven’t paid phone bill. This is actually good, as that means I have to get out of the office and take a boat trip (the Division is on an island overlooking much of Bougainville). Beautiful day, calm, clear water, chat to some friendly locals in the boat. Get to the Division and find out they have done everything I’d asked before I left. Very good news. Also find out that meeting to approve funding for Health Summits takes place end of week. More good news.

Afternoon – bump into friends all over town, everyone pleased to see me back because everyone noticed I was gone. This place is great. Good to catch up with everyone, great to see them again.

Malaria hysteria – find out that four ex-pats have come down with malaria, including Mel and Kim, my flatmates. It’s the wet season so not surprising. They are doing well though so that’s good.

Gossip – find out that there is a strike in the markets. Apparently a women from the Solos area (one hour north) got into a fight with a women from Ieta (two minutes up the road). A strike is on between market sellers from the two different areas, so not as much produce in the market (this turned into a big protest march in town at the end of the week, people showed up armed, roads were closed, much diplomatic alarm due to missing ex-pats, who were in fact away fishing for the day).

Rait Man – forgot how people love whitey’s over here. Lots of red toothed smiles and waves from strangers and calls of “Rait Man” (legend). I smile, wave back and shake hands, say cheers and ask how they are.

It’s good to be back.

Israel may face war crimes trials over Gaza

Yeah, I know, not related to Bougainville at all, but this article really got my attention. Would love to read the Red Cross reports when they come out.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/02/israel-war-crimes-gaza

Victoria is burning

Hard to take in.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/bushfires/

Black Magic

Time to introduce you to the role of myth and superstition in communities here. I've not been exposed to much myself, but I've heard people talk about the existence of mermaids in Bougainville, a tribe of nomadic dwarfs that roam along the base of the Buka cliffs, a GIANT octopus that lives in an underwater cave, and one fellow asked me if I could visit his village and let him know if the diamond on the head of a local snake was worth anything (apparently it hides in a cave and he will take me to see it).

While the myths by and large are harmless, the superstitions held by people here need to be taken very seriously. During a recent survey of health professionals I was told that sometimes people refuse to seek treatment because they believe they are cursed. Such is the strength of these beliefs that those accused of cursing people, or sorcery, are attacked and often killed. See below.

Sorcery killings on rise
http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20090108/news01.htm

By ROBERT PALME

MORE than 50 people have been wilfully murdered, some in gruesome fashion, for allegedly practising sorcery in two Highlands provinces last year.

Eastern Highlands provincial police commander Teddy Tei said more than 30 people were reportedly killed in the province while Chimbu police commander Joseph Tondop confirmed more than 20 cases.

However, the two men said they believed there to be more cases that had not been reported to police.

Mr Tei, in condemning these brutal killings, said in some cases people suspected of sorcery were tied and burnt alive while others were simply killed in front of others.
The commanders made these revelations when commenting on the death of a Chimbu man at the Goroka Base Hospital on Christmas Day from injuries sustained after he was attacked by relatives of a person who accused him of sorcery and attacked him on December 18 at Namaro coffee plantation in the Bena area of the province.

Mr Tei said the police were doing a lot of awareness on killing of innocent people and or repercussions on sorcery and murder but it seemed to have no effect on the people as the crime continued without a glimmer of change in the attitude of people.
“I want the people of Eastern Highlands to know that sorcery in itself is a crime but it is hard to prove in court, but taking the law into their own hands does not make the killers free,” Mr Tei said.

He said many of the sorcery suspects killed were innocent people.
Mr Tei said: “I condemn the actions and attitudes of people taking the law into their own hands when addressing alleged sorcery cases.”

Mr Tondop said sorcery was hard to address as it was alleged to follow bloodlines and practised against relatives and the retaliatory killings involved their immediate relatives. HE cited the death of former Chimbu administrator Joseph Bal as allegedly related to sorcery and an old man was killed and houses destroyed by relatives which saw to the arrest of suspects in that killing.

Mr Tondop also said his men were carrying out awareness but to no effect and called on the community leaders to help police and discourage sorcery related killings.

In the Western Highlands a young girl was set alight on Wednesday morning by suspects at the Kerebug rubbish dump and police are still investigating the incident.
Meanwhile, in other police news, Eastern Highlands police are investigating the attempted murder of a son of a policeman on Monday afternoon.

Mr Tei also raised concern that the cultivation of marijuana was on the rise in the province and called on the villagers to resort to making an honest living.
Mr Tei said the land used for cultivation of the illicit drug should be used to produce fruits and vegetables and sold instead of something that will land them into trouble.

For more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7825511.stm

A moment

The washing machine has stopped. What the? I checked the taps, seemed fine. Water should be flowing then. Lights blink at me. I blink at them. Why isn’t this thing working? Hmm, a start/pause button. Let’s try it.

I press the button.

The machine starts working.

I suppress the urge to kick it and accept a simple solution. As I head down the path it occurs to me that the machine may want to stop again; it seems to have a mind of its own. I can’t be bothered waiting for it to stop, but I don’t want to return later and find it sitting there, confused and not sure what to do. I decide to stall for time by collecting a cold can from the local store. Hopefully when I come back the machine will still be working.

I roll out the door and stroll down the footpath. Arawa has many features that push it out ahead of its cousins. My favourite feature is the footpaths. I like footpaths. Tidies things up a bit. I especially like walking on warm concrete in bare feet. Always have.

I reach the local store and peer through the bars into the gloom. I think I can see a shape back there, black on black.

“Api noon?”

“Api noon.” A dark, smiling face emerges from the shadows.

“Hot ah? Mi laik buyim wanpela Sprite.”

“Ahh, Sprite.” My new friend retrieves a cold can of Sprite from his battered freezer and places it before me, still smiling.

“Em hamas?” I asked.

“Two kina, forty toia.” I place the money on the counter and he slides the can towards me.

“Have a good day, lukim yu.”

“Lukim yu,” he replied.

Back at the house. Washing machine is still going. Gudpela. I like it when things work the way they should.