HOW RANDOM VIOLENCE SHATTERED A VILLAGE'S DREAMS

Early yesterday morning in Port Moresby the terrible price of the mindless violence that plagues PNG’s capital was laid bare.

Near Laloki on the city’s outskirts, a gang of thugs in a mini-van forced a public bus off the road and bashed and stabbed its passengers with bush knives and machetes, killing one and leaving another in a critical condition.

The murdered young man, Rex John from Naduri village about halfway along the Kokoda Track, was travelling to Moresby from his teaching college at Veifa’a about four hours away to pick up the academic gown he hoped to wear to his graduation as a Community Health Worker this coming Saturday.

Both Rex and Jackson were studying on scholarships from the Australian-based not-for-profit organization, the Kokoda Track Foundation (KTF). After graduation, Rex was to be posted back to his home village where he would serve as Naduri’s resident Community Health Worker, giving his community access to basic health care for the first time.

“The Kokoda Track Foundation is deeply saddened and distressed by Rex’s death,” KTF Chairman, Patrick Lindsay said today. “Rex and Jackson were outstanding students – unsung local heroes  - who had spent years studying to acquire desperately-needed medical skills which they hoped to bring back to their remote villages,” Lindsay said.

“It’s a tragedy that some cowardly thugs can snatch Rex’s life away and deprive his family and community of a wonderful young man and the health care he hoped to give them.”

Rex was travelling on the bus with his friend and fellow Community Health Worker student, Jackson Fred from Efogi village on the Track, who was also to graduate this weekend. Jackson was also stabbed in the attack but is recovering in hospital.

Local police were called to the scene after the attack and helped to transport Rex and Jackson to Port Moresby General Hospital. Sadly, Rex’s injuries were too severe and he did not survive the night. Jackson is currently receiving medical treatment for his injuries.

“We strongly condemn the attacks and we call for a detailed investigation into the murder,” Lindsay said. “We send our sincere condolences to Rex’s family and to the Naduri community and we pass on our deep sympathies to their fellow students at St Gerard’s School of Nursing who are all saddened and shocked by the tragedy. We also pass on our best wishes to Jackson for a speedy recovery.”

Over the past two and a half years, the KTF has supporting Rex and Jackson to complete their Diplomas in Community Health Work at St Gerard’s School of Nursing, Veifa’a. Along with two other KTF scholarship trainees, Rex and Jackson were to start work with the Foundation in July, where they were to be posted into aid posts along the Kokoda Track.

“It would have been the first time that all villages along the Kokoda Track had access to qualified community health workers. We will continue to work toward that aim,” Lindsay said.

“The Foundation hopes to honour Rex John by creating a Community Health Worker’s Scholarship in his name and by seeking permission to name the Naduri Aid Post after him.”

topicTALKS is coming

Three old stagers have joined forces to create an exciting new series of programs of live talks that will inspire, inform and challenge you on subjects that matter in your lives.

TV legend Ray Martin, presenter and author Patrick Lindsay and promoter Colin McLennan have called the programs topicTALKS and reckon they’ll appeal to people who, like them, are “passionately curious”.

Patrick Lindsay sees the programs as an opportunity to shine a light into areas of our lives, which are generally ignored by mainstream media in their endless pursuit of the youthful dollar.

“Remember when spinners played cricket, not spent their time crafting one-liners and news grabs for politicians? Remember when social media meant journos who liked a drink? We see topicTALKS as an antidote to the pre-packaged, passionless presentation of ideas we have thrust at us,” he says.

“We reckon people are longing to see storytellers who speak from the heart, who conceive their own ideas, believe in them and present them with spontaneity, authenticity and passion. We want to explore topics that are vital to us and our families and to the future of our planet. We want to hear our storytellers speak in person and we want to have the chance to challenge their views.”

Ray will host the series and will introduce four other top storytellers, who will each speak for 20 minutes, followed by an all-in Q & A:

Tom Keneally                                     “Five great novels you haven’t read yet”

Australian Living Treasure, one of our greatest storytellers and most decorated living authors, having won a Booker Prize, two Miles Franklin Awards and received honorary doctorates from six universities.

Ray Martin                                    “One cranky, profane saint”

One of Australia’s most respected and experienced journalists. Along with a diverse television career, he’s long been involved in charity work and has written two national best-selling books.

Gretel Killen                                    “Why happiness is like nits”

TV provocateur , stand-up comic, advertising voice-artist and author of more than twenty books. Hosting Big Brother made her a household name in Australia.

Patrick Lindsay                  “Fromelles … voices from the graveyard”

After a long career in television, now one of Australia’s leading non-fiction authors, having written 17 best-selling books since 2002. The chairman of the Kokoda Track Foundation since 2005

Seb Robertson                  “Giving a voice to the elephant in the room”

Young Australian social entrepreneur, who formed his own foundation, Batyr, to educate and empower young people to confront and accept difficult social issues. Sydney’s Social Entrepreneur of the Year .

topicTALKS will debut at three venues over three Sunday mornings:

Sunday April 22, 10am-12.30pm, @ Cremorne Orpheum

Sunday April 29, 10am-12.30pm, @Parramatta Riverside Theatre

Sunday May 6, 10am-12.30pm, @ Randwick Ritz

More Devastation in PNG's Oro Province ... Help Needed

Just four years after enduring deadly Cyclone Guba, which killed 300 people and devastated the region, Papua New Guinea’s Oro Province has again been hit by severe flooding and leaving at least 11,000 desperately needing urgent help with food and medicine.

The 2011 wet season, which began in November, brought sustained torrential rain, flooding rivers and inundating food gardens in hundreds of coastal and low-lying villages. The Kokoda Track Foundation, which has been working in the region since 2003, has responded with an emergency distribution of 5000 kilograms of rise to 55 villages in the region. But more is urgently needed to help the descendants of the WWII Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels - our nearest neighbours.

By supporting our ‘Oro Emergency Appeal’ you will assist the KTF in both our initial emergency food distribution process as well as giving ongoing support for the flood-affected communities as we help them to re-build their gardens. The KTF will continue to support the region via its existing Northern Province Food Restoration Project after the initial rice distribution, giving villages access to improved strains of crops, including taro, cassava and sweet potato, that are able to grow in water-logged soil and will help villages to quickly restart their food gardens.

The KTF’s representative in Oro Province, Mr Elijah Sarigari said yesterday: “I have been to parts of Oro Bay LLG specially along the Bareji and Pongani rivers and found that many food gardens are still under water due to continuous raining for almost two months now… as a result all the food crops are rotting”.

In 2007, the Province was hit by Cyclone Guba, which killed hundreds and left more than 100,000 without access to food and clean water. Then in 2009, severe flooding hit the province again, just as villagers were getting their lives back together.

All donations over $2 to the Kokoda Track Foundation are tax deductible in Australia. Please go to our website to donate. www.kokodatrackfoundation.org

New Fromelles Museum to Honour Diggers

Wonderful news that the Australian Government is to fund a new museum at Fromelles, the site of our nation’s darkest day back on 19 July 1916, when we suffered 5500 casualties in a single night, including almost 2000 killed.

The Battle of Fromelles was the first time Australian troops had fought on the Western Front and many of those whose lives were snuffed out on that disastrous night had already survived the eight-month Gallipoli campaign.

The villagers of Fromelles, led by Martial Delebarre of the Association pour le Souvenir de la Bataille de Fromelles, have been collecting artefacts from the surrounding killing fields for decades and they have created one of the finest small WWI collections in France and Belgium, which they display in a series of attic rooms above the Town Hall. (Check out their website: http://www.asbf14-18.org/)

The new museum, designed by the Paris-New York firm, Serero Architects, will form a key element in the Western Front Remembrance Trail, to be ready for the centenary of WWI in 2014. The trail will be enhanced by an interpretive facility at Pozieres and improvements to the road near the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux and the restoration of the German trenches at Mon St Quentin.

The museum will be housed in an octagonal concrete building, sited next to the new Pheasant Wood Cemetery, which contains the remains of the missing soldiers of the battle, recently found in a mass grave dug by the Germans in the days after the battle. (check the design plans here: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/227498/20111008/museum-of-the-fromelles-fight-serero-architectes.htm )

The building has been designed around two axes: one connecting it with the Pheasant Wood Cemetery and the other to a lobby featuring a stunning view of the Fromelles church spire across the road. The provisional budget is 1.3 million Euros ($A1.75m).

Perhaps now the Australian authorities will reconsider their previous inaction by adding the battle honour “Fromelles” to our major national shrines to give it recognition worthy of our Diggers’ sacrifice there.

Our Fallen are never Forgotten

Just back from a trip to Gallipoli and the WWI Western Front battlefields.

It was a wonderfully enriching experience, made all the more memorable by the superb work of the staff of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission throughout France and Belgium.

Without exception, every cemetery or memorial we visited was immaculate. At most venues maintenance work was underway while we visited, a never-ending tribute to the fallen whose sacrifices live on in the legacy of freedom enjoyed by those who visit and those who live there.

Similarly in Turkey. I hold a profound respect and gratitude for the Turkish nation’s dedication of the Gallipoli memorial park and for the gracious way they allow visitors to pay their respects there. How many nations have set aside tracts of their land as memorials to the soldiers who tried to invade and conquer them?

The Gallipoli campaign represented a magnificent victory for the Turks and it opened the way for the nation to emerge from the Ottoman Empire to become a modern republic. But the Turks also recognize the importance of the campaign to the fledgling nations of Australia and New Zealand in particular and their continuing generosity welcomes those from Down Under as they come to pay their respects.

I was particularly proud to see the beautiful new Pheasant Wood Cemetery for the first time. It honours the Missing Soldiers from the Battle of Fromelles on a prime piece of the town’s land, dedicated by the people of Fromelles. It stands as a tribute to the sacrifices of the fallen and to the persistence of those who fought to ensure the missing were not forgotten but were recovered and buried with dignity.