RD Managers Threaten Workers In Their Own Villages

Filippino Expats AGAIN Bully PNGeans

You would think with a court appearance this Friday (30 July) in which six of their Filippino workers will be facing charges of murdering a Papua New Guinean government inspector on one of their ships, that RD Tuna would be a bit more cautious in their interactions with the local staff.

But that’s NOT how Pete Celso’s Troops are acting and again it appears RD is getting themselves in trouble. For years RD has violated the laws of PNG from environmental abuses, to sanitation problems, to strikes by Filipino staff on their boats (which RD branded as pirates). The company which has a rather poor reputation both within PNG and overseas continues to push locals around as if they owned PNG.

Chief hypocrite Rodrigo Rivera, Chairman and President, who pretends to be a wonderful Christian has once again shown his true colors and that of the pitiful RD group of companies.

Battered and frustrated at the strike by their workers RD managers went to new lows Tuesday night (27 July) as they descended upon Maiwara village and threatened the women to come to work or face turning in their Id Cards, which in essence meant they would be sacked.

Human Resource Manager Romeo Lee, Prouduction Manager, Mr. Nongs, Plant Manager Gerry Juvele and last nights coward Security Manager Paul Vingu displayed typical RD management style, by boarding one of the vehicles which trucks the RD workers in and headed to Maiwara village. The night shift women were NOT going to work in solidarity with their fellow workers who had their ID cards taken from them by RD Security and NOT allowed to come back to work. Nongs and Juvele threatened the women demanding they come to work or lose their jobs. While many of the frightened women did board the truck - a second truck saw the back almost empty. Still there was NO PRODUCTION at the plant last night, as only a handful of women showed up for work. Makes one wonder what the purpose was of harassing the Maiwara women, who instead of working stood around doing nothing. Nice work RD Management Team you have proven you are exactly what everyone says you are.

Union members and angry workers are still upset over RD not paying them the minimum wage. Labor representations have said RD has been in violation of the law. But violating the law is nothing new for Celso and company. RD has begun recruiting new workers and the word is 78 had taken their medicals today. RD workers say they will NOT allow the new workers to proceed to work and that RD best reinstate the now 505 workers suspended. The suspended workers say they have had enough
of RD’s treatment and will do what’s necessary to be treated fairly in their own country.

Why should the Chinese be Exempted from Liquor Ban in Madang ??

It is reported that the Madang Provincial Government will put a liquor ban in Madang. However, insider’s information from the Provincial Liquor Licensing office in Madang revealed that the Chinese are going to be exempted from the liquor ban. There is no reasonable reason behind this exemption and it is becoming ridiculously unfair to the other liquor businesses in town.

It has become pretty obvious that the Chinese influence and manipulation has penetrated every structure of authority in Madang. The famous flying fox habitat has turned into a typical Chinese outpost.

This sounds more like the failed prohibition experiment in the USA which led to the rise of the (Italian) mafia. With unfettered Ramu Nico access to booze in Madang, could not the same thing happen here, particularly with the worries expressed in the press about an already existing "Chinese mafia" in PNG? And PNGeans can't be trusted with booze but the Asian foreigners can? This is discrimination against PNGeans.

Now they monopolize the liquor sales in town and guess what, this is where the big money is. Chinese like to stick their nose into the areas where there is a lot of money. Now, is it a coincidence that, the Provincial Government decided to issue a liquor ban, and the Chinese are going to be exempted, or is it a plan that is being implemented to monopolize the business?

What more do we expect-the Chinese mafia is slowly taking over this country and its going to get nasty especially with the NA (New Asian Party) in power.

MPF Taking the Lead

The Madang People's Forum (MPF) has taken the lead in raising the awareness against the unpopular Environmental Act amendments in Madang. They are expanding the awareness through out all the districts in Madang as a build up to the public stakeholder forum on the 19th of June and the National Protest Day on the 23rd of June 2010.

MPF which is the people's forum in Madang that facilitates and coordinates discussions and action plans on issues affecting landowners, feels that, the changes to the Environmental Act was a direct response to the court challenges and the Bongu petition against the DSTP. Therefore it is taking the lead in raising the awareness in all the districts in Madang.

The 23rd of June will go down in the history books of PNG as the peaceful Madang people will protest against the bill. All ready, the Oro, Morobe, Port Moresby and New Ireland are also preparing for the National Protests which may not fall on the same day as Madang but on days organized by their organizers. 

States lawyer instructed in court by Ramu Nico.

The Madang Court Room was packed to capacity today as the Raicoast landowners' lawyer-Tiffany Nonggorr made submissions against the States Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) with reference to the approval of the environmental permit for DSTP being grossly flawed.

At the opening of the session, it was confusing to identify who the state lawyer was. However, it appeared at the end that, the same QC-Brisbane based barrister, Ian Malloy who had been appearing on behalf of the Ramu Nico Ltd appeared today as the states counsel.

In M alloy's defense, he never stated anything to do with the  prejudice against the state or the DEC, nevertheless, he was raising issues relating to the prejudice against Ramu Nico when in fact, they (Ramu Nico) was not a party to the case today. Furthermore, there was a Chinese gentlemen, who was sitting right at the back of the QC and was seen to be giving instructions to the states counsel.

Well that brings alot of questions:
1. Who is paying for the states counsel?
2. Who is instructing the states counsel?
3. Who is the state, is it Ramu Nico?

The landowners counsel concluded in her response to the defense that it was an issue of good governance, and the government should be by the people and for the people. Nevertheless state has failed its primary responsibility to serve the people.

Raicoast communities signed petition against Deep Sea Tailings Disposal

 The Raicoast communities (both inland and coastal) met on the 14th of April 2010 and signed a petition to the Governor of the Madang province of Papua New Guinea opposing the governments approval of the deep sea tailings disposal (placement) by the Chinese Ramu Nickel and Cobalt  mine. The community forum which was held at the Bongu village convened on same golden day  when their lawyer Tiffany Nonggorr was in court receiving the judgment for the injunction that was ruled in the landowners favour.  Here is the link to a video posted on youtube.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq8-apBMy28

The deep sea tailings disposal plan if allowed to go ahead will have both the Chinese Ramu Nickel and Cobalt mine and the Marengo's Yandra mine disposing massive amounts of mine waste into the sea of the coast of Raicoast. There is a high probability of negative impacts these waste will have on the marine ecosystem and the livelihoods of the coastal communities.

To support the Raicoast communities, you can also sign a petition online:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/basamukbay/

Seabed Mining Opposed

Bismarck seabed mining to meet fierce opposition

Source: 

By YEHIURA HRIEHWAZI

PROPOSED seabed mining at PNG’s Solwara 1 project and elsewhere in the Pacific is headed on a collision course with some leading scientists and oceanographers studying the ocean floor.
Nautilus Minerals is pioneering the technology to extract precious minerals from ocean floors in what has been described as the “world’s first” approach and the PNG Government gave the green-light to its environmental impact study (EIS) last September.

“The recent approval of the Solwara 1 project environmental permit is an exciting and significant milestone for the company and represents the culmination of over three years of effort on the part of our Environmental team,” the company announced on its website. The environmental team is led by the environment manager for Nautilus, Dr Samantha Smith.

However, a conservation biologist Prof Rick Steiner, formerly of the University of Alaska, who was called in to examine the company’s original environmental impact assessment study has expressed concern about the impact of the project.

Interviewed by BBC news yesterday, Prof Steiner is concerned about the dumping of thousands of tonnes of rock on the seabed and the danger of spillages of toxic residue and destruction to vent chimneys and unknown species of marine life.

Volcanic vents spew out hot water and precious metals like copper, gold, silver and zinc.
“(At) The site that they mine, they’re going to destroy all these vent chimneys where the sulphide fluids come out.”

He added that it could cause the extinction of species that were not even known to science yet.
“I think that, from an ethical stand point, is unacceptable,” he said.
Nautilus CEO Steven Rogers said he accepted that the mined area would be damaged, but said he was convinced it could recover.

He believes deep-sea mining will be less damaging to the environment than mining on land.
He said: “I think there’s a much greater moral question…. here we have an opportunity to provide those metals with a much, much lower impact on the environment.”
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Ramu Mine Under Valued

Ramu mine worth billions

The value of Ramu Ni-Co project quoted in The National newspaper is misleading. It also holds the largest Sino-Australian nickel and cobalt project worth $US1.7 billion (K4.6 billion)” from the article entitled “PNG on a verge of a Boom”.

For brevity, Ramu laterite deposit contains 1.44 million tons of nickel and 0.143 million tons of cobalt within a reserve of 143mt at 1.01 per cent Ni and 0.1 per cent Co. At today’s buoyant prices of $US9/lb for nickel and $US20/lb for cobalt, the in-situ value of contained nickel and cobalt in the Ramu project stands at about $US28 billion and $US6 billion.
So the actual value of Ramu nickel cobalt project is $US34 billion or K92 billion at today’s prices. This excludes exploration dollars already spent on the project. This mine will produce in excess of 31,000 tonnes of Ni and 3300 tons Co annually for a period of 20 years (with the potential for up to 30 years). The worth of metals produced annually may exceed $US750 million subject to fluctuating metal prices and production capacity. This is somewhat equivalent to well over K2 billion per annum at today’s exchange rate and metal price.

Sadly, 85 per cent of the ownership of the Ramu mineral resource was sold to MCC, the Chinese state owned enterprise for a mere 5 per cent ($US1.7 billion) of the total value of this mega resource. So the $US1.7 billion is the construction and initial operating costs.So how much is left for PNG or Papua New Guineans? Barely 10 per cent (because HPL is a public listed company) in the bones as usual through the following entities: -
* 8.56 per cent Highlands Pacific Limited
* 3.94 per cent MRDC
* 2.5per cent landowners

To set the record straight, the present value of Ramu mine is worth about $US34 billion (K92 billion) and not $US1.7 billion (K4.6 billion) at today’s price but unfortunately very little if not none will be reflected in long-term tangible development of Papua New Guinea. Indeed it is another example of broad daylight rape and exploitation of Papua New Guinea. PNG government and its entities must act radically and swiftly in changing the current trends in order to maximise realisation of the natural resources for Papua New Guinea. Sadly, PNG government is continuously selling multi-billion-dollar resources cheaply, for next to peanuts because it seems to lack comprehension and in-depth analytical skills compounded by greed and ignorance.

Kaul Gena, Ph.D
Senior lecturer
Western Australian School of Mines