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COLUMN I
GOOD morning all, as we stumble
towards another Christmas. This is the weekend where sheer panic sets in;
the butcher has run out of hams, while the local farm has increased its
price for live pigs by 300%, doubtless citing the rise in fuel costs. Pigs
are not normally raised on diesel.
***
URBAN dwellers are faced with a supermarket devoid of frozen turkeys;
meanwhile, down at the market, buai has suddenly become endangered, selling
at astronomical prices. As for those wizened objects shamefully posing as
daka … and some of the available kambang looks suspiciously like detergent
powder.
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ADJOINING headlines pinched from a lead page on the internet yesterday –
Treasure hunter Ben Gates sets out on an action-packed quest to unearth
hidden history and Scary Christmas – Jacko’s bandaged face. No comment.
***
RADIO Christmas greetings become less sincere as each year passes. One such
takes three quarters of its 30 seconds air time naming the head of the
organisation, adding his titles and emphasising his alleged standing in the
community. The “happy Christmas” is tucked in at the end, a forgotten
afterthought.
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THEN there’s the car sales Christmas greeting that ends up with the warning:
“If you drink, don’t drive.” An excellent suggestion – but it seems a
somewhat negative way of boosting car sales in PNG.
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WE fully support the judicial staff at the Dagua District Court. They have
flatly refused to continue serving the local public unless the thugs who
broke into the court house a week ago are arrested and charged. How can
magistrates hope to grow respect for the law when criminals treat courtrooms
and legal offices with contempt?
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INTERESTING question: Which is more important to the nation – the right of
Lae port workers to be employed on the wharves, or the right of those
importing and exporting goods not to be subjected to the potential risk of
dealing with former criminals now working on the wharves?
***
THOUGHT for the weekend: “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach
a man to fish – and he will sit in a boat all day drinking beer.” Cheers!
***
– Dee Nesenolis
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