PNG Haus Bung

Here in Papua New Guinea, it is quite rare to see Magicians, or the act of magic being practiced. However, a young Central lad has taken his interest and quick fingers with the art of Magic here in the country to a whole new level. Jesse Raimo, 20 years of age from Keapara and Gaire in Central who was born and raised in Lae said that his interest in magic started approximately about 3 years ago when he found a book titled ‘Sleight of Hands’ at a second-hand shop. “I was curious when I saw this book and I really wanted to try it out, so I bought it." He added that he bought a pack of playing cards and practiced for a while whilst trying to figure it out. “I thought that if I could try fool my family, then I could take this art out to the streets." Young Jesse resides here in the Nation’s Capital. He currently is not in school and is part of a family of five. Jesse said that it is a great feeling when you successfully ace your magic tricks, and it leaves you with that satisfaction when you leave the spectators in shock. "All sorts of crazy reactions is one factor that really pushes me to keep going." Although there has been a lot of good responds from friends and families, Jesse has received his fair share of negative feedbacks from people who did not like and support what he is doing. “I had to feed on any bad energy in order to prove them wrong and used it as a steppingstone to build myself up each day." Mr Raimo does not like to be called a Magician or that what he does be called magic, instead he prefers it called ‘Sleight of Hands’ which means "quick fingers" or "trickster fingers". “My favorite card trick which I can do with eyes closed is called the ‘card to mouth’. I like to see the look on people’s faces when I leave them all in shock." Jesse currently is doing a magic series for Pepsi called the ‘Magic Monday’ and every Monday, Pepsi uploads a video of him doing magic tricks. “It all started when I uploaded a video where I floated a Pepsi can in front of kids and being kids, their reactions were priceless." "So, I tagged Pepsi PNG in the video and that is how I got engaged with Pepsi PNG for Magic Monday." In the next five years, Jesse hopes to expand his art by sharing his knowledge of sleight of hand throughout the country.

Published on April 19, 2021

https://pnghausbung.com/alotau-soccer-association-given-the-go-ahead/

Published on April 19, 2021

ALOTAU SOCCER ASSOCIATION GIVEN THE GO AHEAD

The Alotau Soccer Association will go ahead with Season Proper matches starting on Saturday, April 24, 2021. “We have gotten the go ahead for our soccer matches from the Provincial Controller, so we are looking forward to starting this weekend.” “We have about 10 teams each for each of the 3 divisions, Premier Reserves, Mens Division and Womens Division.” That's from the Alotau Soccer Association President, Mr Livinai Lepani. The deadline for registrations has been extended to tomorrow. Tuesday, April 20, 2021 for interested clubs to register. Meanwhile, friendly matches are being held between on the weekends at Alice Wedega Park leading up to the start of the proper season. Pictures by: Elliot Tovaboda

Published on April 19, 2021

https://pnghausbung.com/hetherington-faces-six-game-ban-for-high-shot-on-holmes/

Published on April 19, 2021

HETHERINGTON FACES SIX-GAME BAN FOR HIGH SHOT ON HOLMES

A Jack Hetherington send-off sparked a sluggish Sunday afternoon clash between the Cowboys and Bulldogs into top gear with the hosts having to withstand a late 12-man comeback to hold on. Hetherington was sent for a 55th-minute swinging arm on Valentine Holmes with the Cowboys fullback setting up a try soon after that looked to have ended the contest at 24-6. The match review committee on Monday charged Hetherington with a grade-three careless high tackle which equates to a five-game ban if he submits an early guilty plea, or six if he unsuccessfully contests the charge at the judiciary. He has three offences in the past two years which have inflated the 300 base penalty points. A fired-up Canterbury rallied after the send-off in Sunday's game and scored the next two tries to close the gap to six points and had what could have been the level-up try disallowed for an offside player three minutes before full-time in dramatic scenes at Queensland Country Bank Stadium. Bulldogs coach Trent Barrett said he did not think Hetherington's hit was intentional while Cowboys counterpart Todd Payten was adamant the send-off was the correct decision in the circumstances. "He certainly caught him high," Barrett conceded. "It wasn't an intentional shot from Jack, he just hung his arm out and Val's ok ... I haven’t had a look at it yet, to be honest with you." Canterbury's response after the incident was one of the positives to emerge from the game, he added. "That's one of the positives you could take out of it, they were gallant, but we shouldn't have been in that position," he said. "We turned over too much cheap ball, failed to build any pressure at all when we were in the game at 6-all at half time. "We played some of our best footy through that middle third of the field when we did have 12 men. There's certainly some lessons around where those errors are coming from." Canterbury's first-half attacking game plan seemed to consist of little more than frantic offloads and shovelled passes. But they fired up after Hetherington's send-off with a couple of pieces of Sione Katoa brilliance giving the home side an almighty scare from what had seemed a comfortable position, up by 18 with a one-man advantage midway through the second half. A few poor errors early in the contest from the Bulldogs invited the Cowboys to attack, with Kyle Feldt leaping high and latching onto a Ben Hampton cross-field kick for first points in the eighth minute. A Hetherington offload in front of the Cowboys posts caught everyone off guard except Renouf Atoni, with the prop steamrolling Holmes on his way to the line to level up after 14 minutes. The Cowboys botched a couple of golden chances in the Dogs' red zone but the last-placed Bulldogs were even less effective in their rare attacking chances as each team failed to add further points before the break. Early in the second half, with Kyle Flanagan temporarily down in back play and just 12 men in the line, the Dogs conceded a soft try through the middle to Reece Robson who sold Ofahiki Ogden a big dummy to cut past Dylan Napa. With Jake Granville injected into the fray at the 50-minute mark pulling the Dogs middles apart, the veteran rake produced a flat ball to help rookie edge forward Ben Condon to his second try in as many games. Holmes remained perfect off the tee to make it 18-6 with 26 to play. With frustration creeping into Canterbury's game, Hetherington produced a clothesline tackle on Holmes after being wrong-footed by the fullback, with the spectacular contact upending Holmes and sparking a melee. Referee Ashley Klein – a late call-up for the game following Henry Perenara's late withdrawal due to health concerns – had little hesitation in making Hetherington the first player to be sent off this year, and first since Chad Townsend in round 17 last year. The incident upped the intensity of the game several levels but did little for Canterbury's prospects in the short term, with Holmes – showing no ill-effects – making a clean break soon after to send Granville over under the posts. However a Katoa grubber from dummy half earned Flanagan a try against the run of play then Holmes made a mess of a Katoa long kick to hand the Dogs another attacking set with the 12-man line-up able to apply sustained pressure and remarkably create an overlap for Tuipulotu Katoa to cross out wide. Suddenly it was the Cowboys that looked rattled when cool heads were required to ease them to a win with Canterbury making all the running and they looked like having a chance to level up when Will Hopoate claimed a try with four minutes to play. The Cowboys failed to clean up a cross-field bomb with Hopoate on hand to clean up the scraps but involvement from an offside Nick Cotric forced a no-try ruling. North Queensland took full advantage of back-to-back penalties to charge downfield with Mitch Dunn breaking through a ragged left edge defensive line to earn a 12-point win for the home side. Link: https://www.nrl.com/news/2021/04/18/hetherington-sent-off-for-high-tackle-on-holmes/

Published on April 19, 2021

https://pnghausbung.com/classes-to-resume-today-despite-pngtas-petition/

Published on April 19, 2021

CLASSES TO RESUME TODAY DESPITE PNGTA’s PETITION

Despite the call made by PNG Teachers Association and their 24 hours ultimatum for the government to pay COVID-19 risk allowance to teachers and reconsider their decision to suspend 32,000 teachers from the payroll starting this pay period, Education Secretary Dr Uke Kombra has instructed all teachers to resume teaching when school starts today. Dr Kombra said he is aware of the petition made by PNGTA, however that petition must go through proper process for it to be addressed. “There is a proper process in place to negotiate and deal with petitions.” “But I want to make that clear that schools must resume by the 19th of April and all the teachers are expected to be in school by then." Dr Kombra urged teachers not to be misinformed by what has transpired lately but comply with Education Department directives and be in school by today. The Education Department had suspended three weeks of school for this year following the isolation strategy issued by the National Pandemic Controller with the surge COVID-19 cases. Dr Kombra said students missed three weeks of learning already and teachers were informed to reprogram their lessons so that students can learn what lessons they had missed out on. Meanwhile PNGTA Branch President for Enga Mr Mark Sakol said the teachers in Enga are ready to resume normal classes for term 2 starting today. Mr Sakol said, the school administrators and boards in Enga have already been provided with and put in place basic preventive measures for students to adhere to. “We are continuing the same approach this year.” “Nearly 80% of schools are outside of town and have less contact with 20% of the schools in the town with all schools following the new normal." Mr Sakol has assured the Education Department that all 40,000 plus PNGTA Financial members and non-Financial members of Enga are prepared to return to class in term 2 for the benefit of the students that missed a lot of lesson time. It is understood teachers in Enga province will resume classes today with no disruptions. Furthermore, PNGTA officers will be visiting schools in NCD and Central to make sure teachers have been issued proper PPEs and other necessary equipment to protect them from COVID-19. PNGTA president Mr Aita Sanangepe said the Education Department has responded to one of their requests which is provide PPEs for teachers and PNGTA will make sure that eventuates. “Teachers lives are at risk when they are dealing with more than 50-70 students per class everyday.” Mr Sanangepe added that teachers have families too and the government must consider their safety and wellbeing during this pandemic.

Published on April 19, 2021

https://pnghausbung.com/deadline-for-government-agency-structure/

Published on April 19, 2021

DEADLINE FOR GOVERNMENT AGENCY STRUCTURE

The Department of Personnel Management is calling on all government agencies, provincial governments and Provincial Health Authorities to submit their respective structures to the Department before the 21st of April. This follows notifications sent out to respective agencies to adhere to the revised Public Service General Orders 13 and schedule 13.1. As part of the ongoing efforts by the government for all government agencies to conform to the approved standardized designation, classifications, salary grades and the basic minimum entry requirements in the public service contained in schedule 13.1 of General Order 13. Department of Personnel Management Secretary Ms Taies Sansan said, the process towards standardizing the structures of all government agencies has emanated from NEC decision number 53 of 2011 directing DPM to carry out a review into the Public Sector Job Grade movement and Pay Grade. “The 2020 approved standard designations, classifications is derived from the governments approved system of job evaluation under the Hay Method of Job Evaluation” Among some of the justification for the review by the government is the continuous increase in personal emolument costs of the Public Service, non-compliance by agencies and what appears to be inconsistencies in salary grades for similar type jobs across the Public Service. It is part of the implementation process of the revised designations and classifications as per schedule 13.1. Under the implementation process all government agencies are required to complete a designation classification review matrix against the current approved establishment comparison table and submit by the 21st of April. DPM will conduct a reconciliation of the completed matrix by the end of April and issue notifications to agencies on findings and corrective measures to be undertaken. To date the only government agencies who have submitted their structures to DPM are; Government Agency Completed National Departments DIRD, DHERST, DoW, DL&PP, PNG Forest Authority, RPNGC, DICT, Provincial Administrations Milne Bay, Western, SHP, Provincial Health Authorities ENB, ESP, WSP, Catholic Church Health Services, Depart of Health Medicine Quality Control Lab, Christian Health Services At the completion of this process configuration of the standardized designations and classifications will be uploaded onto the Government Ascender Payroll by June. Secretary Sansan is urging all national Departments, Provincial Governments and Provincial Health Authorities to take this matter seriously and adhere to this implementation process. “DPM has issued two circular instructions in line with NEC decisions since 2020 to implement this very important government directive and I appeal to heads of government agencies to comply with these directives following the deadlines issued. Many agencies have continuously and blatantly ignored important government directives and I now call on them to ensure compliance to ensure this very important exercise is adhered to”. [pdf-embedder url="https://pnghausbung.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Media-Release-Agency-Structures-Deadline.pdf" title="Media Release - Agency Structures Deadline"]

Published on April 19, 2021

https://pnghausbung.com/schools-prepare-for-resumption-today/

Published on April 19, 2021

https://pnghausbung.com/breaking-news-5-new-covid-19-deaths-reported-brings-total-deaths-to-89/

Published on April 18, 2021

BREAKING NEWS! 5 NEW COVID-19 DEATHS REPORTED BRINGS TOTAL DEATHS TO 89

This news just in! PNG has recorded 5 new COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours as of midday on Saturday April 17. This increase the number of total COVID-19 deaths to 89. The deaths were reported in East Sepik and NCD. Also in the last 24 hours, 223 new cases have been reported in 12 provinces increasing PNG total cases to 9738. Keep practising your COVID-19 safety protocol

Published on April 18, 2021