THE best of Monday mornings to all our readers ... we hope the weather calms down this week. Many parts of our country, from highlands to islands, have been suffering from gale-force winds often accompanied by brief but vicious wind-driven bursts of rain.
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IT’S particularly tough on those farmers growing market vegetables.; they’ve suffered badly, with cabbages, spinach, aibika and lettuce torn to shreds. Herbs such as dill and parsley have suffered a similar fate and other vegetable crops such as tomatoes, beans and peas are showing skin damage. A similar fate has also hit highlands-grown strawberries and corn just as they ripen.
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WE join those authorities urging our coastal citizens to think twice before venturing to sea. Conditions on the water are unpredictable; sudden gales whip up huge seas and it is the cyclone season, with Australia’s weather boffins issuing a cyclone warning yesterday to Norfolk Islanders.
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OUR Milne Bay, Oro and Morobe provinces face the possibility of cyclones each year. If we take care, we can eliminate the chances of lives lost and the major searches that are conducted for boats and passengers missing at sea. Putting to sea in bad weather is asking for tragedy.
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LAST week we tempted our readers to come up with what they judge to be the most used word in PNG. We’re pleased to say we’ve had many responses and there’s been a great deal of variety. Some readers have chosen words in Tok Pisin while others have stuck to English. Here’s a sample or two.
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OUR good friend and Quizzer Malcolm Kulu writes: “Without taking into account obscenities, which seem to be used ever more commonly with the emergence of each new generation, I believe that kuan — PNG’s version of “so-long”– would be PNG’s most used word, especially throughout the older generation from the good old days”.
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THANKS, Malcolm. Then came an e-mail from Namarola Lote of PNGIMR, who offered “okay” as the most common word. On a world wide basis, a study showed that “okay” was the most recognised word globally and it’s certainly widespread in PNG. Incidentally, “Coca-Cola” came second in that survey. More responses tomorrow. Cheers!
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- Dee Nesenolis