THERE has never been a case of avian flu infecting human beings in Papua New Guinea.
The number of foreign tourists, and particularly Australians, who have been the subject of rape or assault in PNG represents a tiny fraction of the total of those offences committed.
Large scale volcanic eruptions likely to pose risks to tourists are few and far between.
Few cases of tourists acquiring Japanese encephalitis in PNG have been so far recorded.
And the rate of HIV/AIDS infection in PNG, reportedly below 2% of the population, is markedly lower than that recorded in any African country.
Tourists should “boil all drinking water” – despite the many reliable reports from test laboratories that have given treated PNG tap water an “A” grade reading.
These are a handful of the many and varied concerns listed in the Australian Foreign Affairs PNG travel advisory issued four days ago.
The latest edition of this notorious document continues to paint PNG as a highly dangerous destination peopled by untrustworthy barbarians.
There are five categories of risks indicated for countries likely to be visited by Australians.
The fifth security category issued by Australia’s DFAT simply advises “do not travel.”
Next comes “reconsider your need to travel”.
And then we come next – travellers to our country must exercise a “high degree of caution”.
We acknowledge the need for other countries to issue these travel advisories.
If they’re compiled by those who have information based on in-depth analyses of the situations likely to be encountered, they can provide a valuable service to the travelling citizens of those countries.
What to make of this latest Australian offering?
We wonder whether the new minister for foreign affairs, the replacement for the quixotic Alexander Downer, has seen his department’s journalistic efforts of Feb 15.
If he has, and he approves the content of this advisory, then even the faltering process so far employed in patching up the relationship between PNG and its southern neighbour may be snuffed out.
We suggest that PNG should issue its own travel advisory for those few who succeed in bucking the Australian entry system and travelling there.
The strong likelihood of meeting death or disfigurement in the middle of Sydney’s entertainment hub of George Street when trying to catch the latest movie should feature large.
The dangers posed in the back streets of Morata pale by comparison.
Then there should be a paragraph or two covering the very real danger of being incinerated in a bushfire sweeping through the premier NSW tourist area of the Blue Mountains.
Nasty sharks with a taste for gobbling up surfers on the famed Australian beaches would rate a paragraph, as would crocodiles less amenable to film cameras than those known to Mr Dundee.
Warnings of the Gold Coast’s periodic abandonment to “schoolies” celebrating the end of the college year in a welter of alcohol, drugs, sex and broken bottles are essential. Unwary tourists have frequently suffered grievous bodily damage during these adolescent frolics.
Those who fancy an after-dinner stroll should avoid the streets of Sydney’s Redfern; despite a recent apology, they would be wise to wander elsewhere.
And Papua New Guineans who seek to sample the much-flaunted “mateship” of any Oz suburban pub should be warned of the life-threatening brawl that is an inevitable part of the process.
HIV/AIDS down under is now sharply on the rise, and the sexual diseases that can be contracted in the average King’s Cross bordello are among the most exotic in the world.
If PNG travellers experience malaria while in Australia, most chemists will not supply anti-malarials, but will tell them to go to the local general practitioner who may well thrust them into the nearest hospital.
And asthmatics need to take a supply of puffers with them – unless they’re prepared to play 20 questions with the local pharmacist, who will only release Ventolin to them when convinced that the customer gasping for breath at their counter is “genuine”.
We can only hope that the latest advisory does not reflect the attitudes of the newly-installed Rudd government and that the very real targeting of PNG by previous Australian administrations is quickly rectified.