Academia Nomad

Don’t piss off the Trump this time

Trump has been elected as the 47th President of the United States. What does this mean for PNG?

In 2017, the United States moved their embassy from Tel Eviv to Jerusalem under Trump’s leadership. Jerusalem is a contested city between the Jews and Muslims, therefore most countries keep their embassies in Tel eviv, to project neutrality.

That same year, the world voted to condemn US actions. Countries like United Kingdom and Australia “abstained” – neither voted for or again.

A tiny island country no one knows about – PNG – voted to CONDEMN the United States decision with other countries that condemned the United States.

Now here’s an advice for Marape and any Prime Minister who may or may not replace him in a vote of no confidence: act your size and sit out big issues that have no impact on your sanity. ABSTAIN!

The Trump of 2024 is not the Trump of 2016. He won the electoral college with 312 votes to 226. He won the popular vote. Republicans won the Senate majority. Republicans won the House.

This means he can use executive orders to punish those countries that do not align with United States interests. He can get the Senate and House representatives to approve funds or terminated existing relations.

The $1.2 billion electricity funding US, NZ, Australia and Japan promised PNG in 2018; the $400 funds promised under PNG-US Defence Cooperation Agreement; the funds for building strong institutions under US Fragile States Act; and climate change commitments at the Pacific Islands Forum that PNG is part of… all these funds can be terminated at a strike of a pen.

If Trump can get the European countries to pay their fair share of costs for keeping NATO, if he can tax Mexico and China. If he can deport illegal migrants. Who exactly is the prime minister of PNG. Where exactly is PNG located?

Don’t repeat the stupidity of the past and act your size. Even Hezbollah condemned PNG. And PNG is a country that borders Indonesia, the biggest Muslim nation on earth. A country whose market Marape has been courting to export PNG produce to.

Justin Tkchenko condemned Kim Jong Un, and missed the COP meeting despite the country having 600 island and atolls, many of which are inhabited. Not only does PNG act above its own size. It continuously makes itself irrelevant.

You wanna hear a funny joke?

After voting to condemn US in 2017 for moving their embassy to Jerusalem, PNG opened its embassy in Jerusalem in 2025 – just five years later.

PNG’s foreign policy is a ‘joke on steroids.’

National Statistics Office shows bleak economic data

By Allan Bird, Governor of East Sepik Province

The graph below was released by NSO in their report last week.

It shows very clearly that Real GDP (orange line) has remained fairly stagnant over the past 5 years. The gap between Nominal GDP, which is the number government gets excited about and Real GDP is considerable. Around K40 billion.

This shows the huge loss in Real terms that our people are facing. It demonstrates that there is negligible increase in jobs, FDI, exports or productivity. It also demonstrates the effect of inflation brought on by government borrowing and money printing.

So while the Minister says GDP grew by billions of Kina, he is referring to Nominal GDP (the blue line).

Nominal GDP can also increase as a result of Government spending. So the record budgets and the record borrowing are reflected in the blue line. The orange line tells a very different story.

The people feel the impact of lack of growth in Real GDP. The actual loss in buying power of the Kina.

PNG has lost around 36% of its buying power. That is the challenge facing not just Marape but any future PM.

The question is, will this government make it better or worse for our people? And can we recover in time.

PNG kaikai manh: the best Attorneys in town

Earlier I asked followers of Academia Nomad on Facebook what they call “kaikai mahn” in their language. I received a long list of local names attributed to kaikai mahn. Just shows how popular the kaikai mahn community is.

For those who don’t know kaikai mahn, it’s a jargon used used to describe cronies of PNG members of parliament (MPs). The kaikai mahns’ responsibilities and relationships to the MPs vary, but they have two strong personalities: first, they benefit or “eat” – translated as ‘kaikai’ in Tok Pisin – from the MPs hand, and second, they defend the MPs viciously online when the MPs are criticised.

Beyond defence of the MPs actions, they are mostly behind fake accounts attacking political opponents of the MPs.

The kaikai mahn range from church pastors to so called youth leaders, and their platforms range from TikTok to church pulpits where a politician is given space to address the congregation after main church event is over. And in some instances, the politicians’ sermon is usually more popular than the pastor’s sermon.

When you criticise a PNG politican, chances are that you’ll be challenged by several kaikai mahn before the politican even has the chance to respond.

Most times the politician doesn’t even have to respond. He relies on a team of kaikai mahn who act as attroneys, defending him religiously.

Kaikai mahn’s benefit also varies. It can take the forms of a university kid who gets employed by building his CV just defending the MP. He can be a journalist whose newspaper company becomes the outlet where the MPs pay a fortunate to run featured stories or advertisements for government projects and notices. He can be the pastor whose church was donated a church vehicle. She can be the woman leader who gets support for the women’s association – which is then misapplied and due to poor acquittals she is not held accountable.

State resources in the form of DSIP and PSIP is now controlled by the MPs. They reward the kaikai mahn to be their defence attorneys.

The more these MPs are defended by kaikai mahn, the less they feel accountable to the populace. They almost become immune to criticisms, because there is a diverse pool of attorneys to defend them.

There is also a revolving door of kaikai mahn: as one loses popularity with the MP, often because he is not rewarded well for sticking out for the MP, the MP drops him and takes on another one. And the circle repeats itself.

Handshake with the Chief

Remember how in the village, there’s always that particular uncle or bubu whose grip is like a clamp, and visiting town people who know him will often go to great lengths to avoid shaking his hands and having their fingers crushed..

So, in this story, our patrol team was going to spend a night in a little village inside a majestic fjord with towering rocky headlands and deep emerald green waters.

On the dinghy travelling towards the village, I overheard talk of an old man, a chief in this area, who was a notorious hand-crushing handshaker. I didn’t think much of it in the moment.

We arrived, unloaded our cargo and were sitting around on the hauswain, when, suddenly, as if taken back in time to a bygone era, a man stepped out from the mangrove undergrowth and strode purposefully towards us.

He was a lean, powerfully built man of around 70 years, with a short crop of greying hair and beard that gave him a rugged, yet commanding and dignified demeanor. His eyes looked kind and wise, but sharp and enquiring. He carried an axe on one shoulder, having just returned from his day hollowing out a tree trunk for his new canoe.

He wore only a small strip of purple loincloth, fastened in the traditional manner with a small overhang in front. If we slightly substituted the purple store-bought cloth for actual Tapa, and the steel axe for a black palm spear or club, I would have been looking at the closest thing to an ancestor of mine returning home in the evening. I was totally mesmerized.

Interrupting my reverie, I heard the ladies whispering urgently, “That’s him…that’s the old man!”, and quickly pretended to busy themselves with doing various things.

The old man approached, greeting a few of the men, and seeing that all the ladies were busy, he turned and then spotted me. He approached and put out his legendary calloused hands. I gulped silently, looked him in the eyes and smiled, and offered my hand, ready to have my finger bones squashed.

To my surprise, it wasn’t that bad. His grip was very firm but not overbearing. It was like the old man knew, and restrained himself. I silently appreciated his thoughtfulness, and took great interest and liking to this grandfather and chieftain among the Korafe tribespeople.

At this point, the ladies of our team, had already silently slipped away to go to the river.

At night, the old man joined us on the hauswin for dinner. He had brought his small solar-powered torch to provide more light for us. He was still wearing the purple loincloth.

As we ate, he suddenly began narrating a story. Someone in the group politely reminded him that not everyone in the group could speak Korafe, and so he quickly apologized and transitioned seamlessly into Tok Pisin. His voice was clear and deep, his Tok Pisin noticeably of the beautiful old school, pre-Independence era.

He was telling us about how when he was younger and working for a mining company in the Western Province, they had flown in a small plane to an airstrip near the border with West Papua. Stepping out of the plane, he said, he cried out in fright when he realized that all over the airstrip were West Papuan warriors wearing nothing but penis gourds of different shapes and sizes eager to greet the visitors.

Everyone burst out laughing. I couldn’t help but think of the funny irony of a badass looking dude wearing a loincloth, telling fully-clothed people, of his experience of being intimidated by men wearing penis gourds. It seemed the old man was a master story teller and had a fantastic sense of humor.

The next day, as we prepared to leave to visit the next village, he came to see us off as we loaded up our dinghy.
Everyone was busy, and the girls had already jumped onto the dinghy and called out their goodbyes.

I decided to do the unthinkable. I approached him, looked him in his eyes and smiled and offered him my hand for a last handshake. He smiled and gave me a firm shake, and I could tell he appreciated my ‘bravery’ in this manner.

I do hope the old man is well, and I hope I can get to see him again and listen to some more of his stories.

K800 million for a hospital?

How much should a level 5 Hospital cost?

By Allan Bird

First of all, let me acknowledge that NCD, Gulf and Central Provinces need level 5 hospitals and they should get them. This will take pressure off PomGen which is full of patients mostly from Central and Gulf provinces.

I am extremely alarmed to learn that a consultant has a K64m design and documentation contract for the proposed NCD hospital at Gerehu.

I am even more shocked that this new hospital will cost K800m to build.

If Vamed, an internationally recognized medical service provider can build a world class level 5 facility in Wewak for K210m, why does the one in Gerehu have to cost K800m?

I would think for K800m, NCD, Central and Gulf can all have a brand new Level 5 hospital each. Someone needs to come clean on these deals.

As a former hospital Chair who presided over the design and build of Sir Michael Somare Specialist Hospital Boram, I can say that K800m is exhorbitantly high. Someone is definitely making a killing on the side.

Vamed built Boram Level 5 for K210m with everything shipped from Europe. This includes all equipment from the CT Scan to the screws in the building. This also includes two standby generators and a stand by 50,000 liter water tank because we can’t rely on the utility companies.

Vamed will also provide 4 years of training for the technicians to maintain the new equipment.

Since then, I have been involved in oversight of the building of Ambunti level 4 District Hospital for K28m and Wirui level 3 Polyclinic for K4.6m.

To operate all these facilities, we need about 40 doctors and many other technicians and support staff. So from the village aid post up to the level 5 hospital we need 1,641 medical workers (730 positions are currently filled).

I am sharing this information because I believe the new Gerehu Hospital will need around 400 staff including 40 doctors. Have we got enough Drs? Or do we build the facilities first and worry about the staff later? Boram hospital is still struggling to recruit staff because Treasury can only fund a certain number of positions each year.

Staffing, water and reliable power supplies are critical for hospitals to operate. Has anyone thought of fixing our power issues yet?

Finally, why can’t we spend K5m each and upgrade all the clinics in Port Moresby and Central Province to help deal with the workload? We should also ensure we have enough staff at those facilities to care for our people so they don’t all end up being referred to PomGen in the first place.

Our people need quality health services available close to them. We need to rethink how we are providing this service and ensure that we are following the National Health Plan.

Building a hospital at an enormously inflated price only means an unnecessary burden on the taxpayers. Someone should investigate this situation and tell the country why the same type of Hospital can cost K210m in a remote part of the country and K800m in the capital.

And while they are at it, can the PNG Institute of Engineers tell us if K64m is a reasonable design, documentation and supervision cost?

We can’t keep doing this to our tax payers. Someone needs to properly justify how we are using tax payer money.