The Yegiora Files

All educational institutions in and around Madang were invited to join Ramu NiCo Management Ltd which is a subsidiary of the state owned China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC) to celebrate the World Environment Day 2012 in style. Divine Word University, Tusbab Secondary School, Madang Teachers College and other schools made their way across town to the company’s headquarters next to the Mobil fuel station. We attended a short presentation about what the company was doing. All of us asked questions about the mine and its impact on the environment. The presentation outlined how the Chinese miners will dig one part of the mineral rich land and after extracting the minerals fill it back up. After that process they will reforest the portion and move on to another allocated portion. Unlike Copper or Gold the Nickel and Cobalt is just above the soil. Thus, there is no need to dig an underground or open pit mine. They talked about the pipeline and concluded with the Deep Sea Tailing

The ones with the Coca Cola signs are from a Kai Bar in front of the Madang market. The other 2 pictures are from Andersons Supermarket. The guy in the red shirt with his ID card is a shop assistant who was trying to help the Ramu NiCo miner to buy something, I forgot.

Chinese workers from the Ramu Nico Mine with yours truly. These young Papua New Guineans when interviewed said they learnt a lot from the Chinese workers. What they like about them is that they unlike Westerners were not interested in what kind of qualification you have. The Chinese are more interested in whether or not you can learn from them and do the job you are asked to do competently. A building for storing dried cocoa beans along Binnen Road in Madang built by these Chinese workers from the Ramu NiCo Mine. The Chinese workers operated the crane and assembled the steel frames.

By Bernard Yegiora “Nǐ huì shuō yīngyǔ ma?” I asked the Taxi driver and he replied “Bù huì!”. I guess you are trying to figure out what I was saying to the Taxi driver. Well, I asked him if he could speak English and he gave me a negative answer. He then asked me if I could speak Chinese, I answered “a little” in Chinese. Then he asked me where I was from “Nǐ shì nǎlǐ rén?” and I answered “Bābùyǎ xīn jǐnèiyǎ”. Most of the taxi drivers that I chat with think that PNG is in Africa, I presume it is because of the jǐnèiyǎ part of the name, sounds like the word Guinea which is associated with the names of several African countries. When they immediately smile and say “Fēizhōu”, I try my best to correct their mistakes, I reply each and every time “Bùshì fēizhōu” and make it my business to tell them that PNG is just north of Australia and is situated in the Pacific Ocean. This repeated experience caused me to question myself whether or not in 20 years time will a person in the same professi

By Bernard Yegiora In recent weeks a collage of events in international politics has moved the spotlight directly on PNG. The tag of being classed as a minnow in international politics is slowly fading as the global competition between two of the world’s most influential nations gain momentum. Three different events that occurred in succession but share in essence the message of competition are; Hilary Clinton’s case about PNG involving China, Julia Gillard’s historical address to the US Congress which included the topic of China, and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi’s media session during the annual Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing. Competition for influence is one main motive in international politics, if one can gain influence that means they can have easy access to scarce resources like energy and markets for manufactured goods. The US feels that China is pushing them out of the LNG Project because of Chinese influence in the country in th

By Bernard Yegiora In life there seems to be a reoccurring pattern to every phenomenon. At birth, a baby is fragile and small, but through the evolutionary process that little human being grows up. This pattern is similar to starting a business, from infant stage the business grows into a large business, recruiting more people and making more money. Defined simply as something intended as a guide for making or understanding something else, the concept of pattern can also be used to understand the growth of a nation like China. Not only a child, or a business grows but a nation also grows. Look at China before Deng Xiaoping’s economic reform, Mao laid the foundation of the modern nation at birth, and Deng guided it through puberty. As China continues to grow in the 21 st century when will she reach adulthood? According to IMF’s latest official forecast, China’s economy will surpass that of America in real terms in 2016, maybe by then it will be a matured nation? Another pattern in hu