By Effrey Dademo

The red, black and gold, with a touch of the bird of paradise flew for the first time on Independence Hill, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea on 16^th September 1975. I was 6 months old, and, I had no idea what had just happened! 

Papua New Guinea will celebrate 35 years of Nationhood today - 16^th September 2010.

We have problems. We have difficulties.  But we are a country that can still  make choices.

In this video, Students from the Divine Word University in Madang, Papua New Guinea, talk about what it means to be an independent country and to be Papua New Guinean.  

It is a  land worth fighting for! 

The Australian based Lowey Institute says Papua New Guinea's massive new Liquified Natural Gas project¹ and large mining investments will not reduce poverty unless there is a radical re-thinking of the government's approach.

The US$18 billion LNG project has been heavily hyped by the PNG government as providing a rich future for the country but the evidence presented by the Lowey Institute suggests otherwise.

By Reg Renagi

Since Independence, Papuans New Guineans have taken their own country for granted. 

As citizens, the people are somewhat tolerant about the way PNG is presently being cleverly manipulated, if not controlled for many years. 

But I hope this will soon change for the better.

It is very important that citizens have every right to be concerned at the overall direction PNG has been heading for over three decades. 

This is  despite the much anticipated announcement coming from the highlands where he was visiting recently.

By Kevin Pamba

THE country’s political and administrative elite has failed to deal with widespread corruption that is becoming a major killer in Papua New Guinea, a business leader said.

By Paul Barker, Institute of National Affairs

THE Prime Minister wants departmental heads to explain why services are not reaching the people.

It is odd that he does not know the answer.

For many years, operating funds for recurrent goods and services and infrastructure maintenance, particularly at sub-national level, have been hacked back.

Brazil is taking huge strides to wash away endemic corruption in politics with a groundbreaking new law referred to as Ficha Limpa – which means ‘clean slate’ in English.

The law will permanently bar anybody from running for any political office (in municipal, state or federal elections) who has any corruption charges or even allegations pending against them.

The law also bars candidates who have been expelled from any professional organisation.

By Paul Oates¹

ADDRESSING THE annual conference of the Institute of Internal Auditors inPort Moresby last Friday, PNG Ombudsman John Nero raised the prospect of recovering misappropriated funds.

Mr Nero said leadership tribunals should be empowered to order their restitution.

"As it is, a leader can steal millions of kina and is not be obligated to pay back even though found guilty by the tribunal," he told the conference.

By Dr Kristian Lasslett¹