Rudd’s visit a success
THERE may be many positive results from the visit of Australian prime minister to Papua New Guinea.
The occasion once again demonstrated the people’s affection for Australians and their country.
At the same time, in the manner of good friends, issues that needed addressing were discussed.
We were impressed with Mr Rudd’s charisma, his easy way with bystanders and ordinary Papua New Guineans, and his clear lack of visible apprehension when surrounded by large crowds of our people.
The Australian PM smiled with sincerity, laughed openly when amused and was suitably sombre when laying wreaths at Bomana war cemetery in memory of Australians and Papua New Guineans who died in World War II.
In brief, a welcome breath of fresh air characterised the interaction of the two leaders and must have been the cause of great relief among attendant foreign affairs officials from both countries.
Regular readers of our editorials will be aware of our pre-occupation with HIV and AIDS.
We recently expressed grave concern that the disease is now being viewed with apathy among our people and awareness campaigns may no longer be generating the response that characterised their initial impact.
We have urged a new approach to this epidemic, for we fear the wholesale decimation of our people if that apathy grows and infection rates continue to climb.
We were therefore greatly encouraged by Mr Rudd’s no-nonsense approach to HIV and AIDS in PNG and his announcements of even more assistance to fight the disease.
As we recently commented, Australia’s financial commitment under the Howard government to fighting the spread of HIV and AIDS was open-handed and remarkably generous.
Had that support not been forthcoming, it is our belief that infection figures would have long ago soared to pandemic status.
Now the new PM has expressed his concerns at the on-going situation and has suggested it may be time to radically change campaign and awareness methods.
We agree with Mr Rudd’s thinking; while we do not subscribe to the idea that the huge amount of money used in awareness campaigns has had little effect, we do believe the time has come to change gear and negotiate more difficult territory.
Our rural and remote populations are particularly vulnerable, if only because the availability of both testing and care is minimal, circumstances that can only lead to an accelerating infection rate.
Mr Rudd’s figures, courtesy of AusAID, were chilling and we believe, realistic.
They suggested that there are currently between 40,000 and 60,000 HIV and AIDS victims in PNG.
If the PNG response to the disease remains at the present level, we can expect half a million of our people to be infected with this disease by 2025.
That’s just 17 years away, well within the lifetime of the bulk of today’s citizens.
That figure should cause those who see HIV and AIDS as a diminishing and minor threat to PNG to rethink their illusions.
Another of our concerns has been the imbalance between awareness campaigns and dedicated medical and community facilities for those who have the disease.
There are virtually no committed AIDS wards; and few doctors and nurses are as yet appropriately trained, although there is now a growing effort in that direction.
Worse, our people have little or no idea of how to manage an AIDS case within their own families.
The result is often the horror stories with which we are all familiar – AIDS victims have been shoved into pig houses to die in their own excrement, unwashed and uncared for, while others have been killed to rid the community of their presence.
And increasingly the spectre of sorcery is seen as the cause of the disease, leading to the torture and death of suspected sorcerers.
Against that scenario, we have reason to be encouraged by Mr Rudd’s undertaking to commit A$13 million to non-governmental organisations such as Save the Children, Anglicare and World Vision for assistance in helping the growing number of victims of HIV and AIDS.
As Sir Michael Somare said, the Australian PM’s first visit to PNG has indeed been a success; we commend Mr Rudd and his advisers for launching a new Australian approach to our nation.
 
Positive Aussie coverage of Rudd PNG visit
By BRIAN GOMEZ in Sydney
PRIME minister Kevin Rudd’s visit to PNG has generated significant news coverage following years of mainly negative reporting on Australia’s former colony.
A news picture of Rudd being greeted on the street in Goroka was carried in the nationally circulated Weekend Australian. Titled “Rudd on a high in the highlands”, it said his welcome had been “more befitting a modern messiah than a visiting foreign politician.”
It said thousands, many in traditional dress, mobbed him. “Some danced with spears, others played drums to welcome him into their exotic but poverty-stricken mountainous land.”
The paper said it seemed the entire 20,000 population of Goroka had turned out for Rudd’s visit.
“Hundreds of school children sang “welcome to paradise, we assure you the best place is Goroka”, following which children threw flower petals on him.
A front-page picture of Rudd and Sir Michael Somare in The Australian’s Friday edition was headlined: “Rudd patches things up with PNG”.
Sir Michael was quoted as saying bilateral relations had “degenerated” in the last few years with Rudd responding that it was “time to turn a new page and write a new chapter in the Australia-PNG relationship and that process begins today”.
The mass circulation Sydney Morning Herald pictured Rudd in a contemplative moment at the Bomana war cemetery and another picture showing him reaching out to children over a fence.
The SMH story said Rudd had backed away from fierce resistance to allow any mining plans that might affect the Kokoda Track.
He said Australian and PNG ministers would reach a deal next month on the possible inclusion of the Kokoda Track on the World Heritage listing, but added: “The sovereign state of Papua New Guinea will be making its own decisions.”
Sydney’s mass circulation Daily Telegraph on Saturday showed a half page picture of Rudd being greeted by the Asaro mudmen at the Goroka airport under a headline, “Weird encounters: When Rudd met the Mud Men”.
The story said it was the day Rudd came face to face with the warlike mudmen “and lived to tell the tale”.
It said the visiting Prime Minister was treated like a rock star by thousands of well-wishers and that he won even more fans after buying a bilum from a street vendor. “Look at him, he’s like us, he walks the street and greets the people like a brother,” the Telegraph quoted Pastor Rassel Kemo Kemo as saying.
The Australian Financial Review, which appears not to have sent a reporter to cover the visit, used a story and photograph in its Friday edition from Australian Associated Press, headlined: “Australia, PNG sign forest pact”.
Rudd was quoted as saying his “Port Moresby Declaration” aimed to strengthen bilateral ties and describing PNG as a “significant power within the South Pacific region”.
Sir Michael said this was the first official state visit by any Australian prime minister since Australia gave PNG its independence in 1975.
In an empathic commentary in the Weekend Australian, the paper’s national affairs editor, Mike Steketee, introduced the topic by contrasting the 17-year gap in life expectancy between Australian Aborigines and the wider community with what he said was the startling 26-year age gap between Australians and people in PNG.
In an article titled “Holding out hope for dire PNG,” Steketee went on to quote figures showing that Australia’s infant mortality is eight per 1,000 and 13 per 1,000 among Aborigines in Northern Territory versus 64 for Papua New Guineans.
He quoted an agricultural scientist at the Australian National University, Mike Bourke, as suggesting infant mortality rates could be as high as 300 to 400 among the poorest fifth of PNG’s population.
He referred to the “devastating” impacts some droughts can have in PNG, adding in parts of the country, 7% of the population could die in a particular year following an event such as the 1997 drought.
He concluded: “The increasing numbers walking the Kokoda Track raise the prospects that the Kokoda connection will not be completely lost with succeeding generations.
“It may also make more Australians realise that there are higher priorities than preserving every last metre of the track.”
Editorial