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I have heard that some candidates stand with no intention of staying through to the end- aiming instead to be paid to stand down by other candidates. Other candidates stand to strategically split the vote of particular candidiates, to deliberately benefit their preferred candidate (sometimes their sponsor). So much political intrigue to untangle!

Strong and lucid piece, Maholopa. This helps frame PNG politics in very useful and instructive ways, especially around the intriguing questions of party formation and power. Thanks for this! Please keep publishing this kind of quality material. At some point I would be very interested to hear your reflections on possible implications of all this for 1. Policy processes, and 2. Pact or government formation processes (eg Alotau accord) 3. Patronage, which seems to be a crucial aspect in PNG politics.

This article unfortunately makes some astounding assumptions which confuse several different debates 1. The assumption that Timor's malnutrition crisis is predominantly a problem with the agriculture sector, ignores the complex intersectoral nature of the food crisis and the health, educational and cultural aspects of deciding what to eat. 2. The assumption that if Timor had large scale 'commercial' farms productivity would be better and the country able to feed itself has not been proved anywhere. The FAO now recognizes that small scale family farming is the most productive sector all around the world. The Timorese government has never had a strategy for moving subsistence farmers into the small and medium enterprise sector using education, instead the secondary agricultural schools are largely attended by people hoping to go to university (where they often do a degree in agricultural science - thus repeating a large part of their studies, but they rarely go back and farm their land). Talk about 'investing' in agriculture is always about money, the real scarce resource is people who want to be farmers and who have the scientific and practical knowledge to rehabilitate the soil, build dams, conserve water etc. 3. The article also neglects gender issues and gender roles in food production and food processing. Farming is actually a skilled occupation, requiring multiple skills in planning, design, management, keeping accounts, building, energy and water supply etc. it was largely de-skilled under the Indonesian occupation, and is now regarded as suitable for those who have have dropped out of school and who never learnt how to use computers, keep accounts or decide what to plant. Most of these are women. 4. The article neglects historical events such as the 1980 famine which transformed Timorese eating habits and attitudes towards different foods resulting in the introduction of white rice as a staple wheres previously it had been root crops, and corn and some red rice. The large intake of white rice together with deficiencies in protein and micronutrients have led to an increase in diabetes and other non-communicable diseases. 5. The article neglects education as a key driver in improving nutrition - two home economics teachers colleges were closed down in 2002 and since then there has been nothing taught about food in the schools until 2014 when a few Permaculture school gardens were introduced in primary schools. There is now (post COVID) an attempt to introduce a nutritional component into the school feeding program but until school kids are taught how to cook a tasty, nutritious meal (a la Stephanie Alexander), as was the plan under Permaculture, it will remain theoretical only. Timor-Leste now has food-based dietary guidelines (which like the Australian ones urge Timorese to eat five servings of fruit and vegetable each day, but no attempt seems to be made to use them to change habits, junk food such as packet noodles are still advertised in schools. Kiosks, the most accessible sector of retailing for most people, sell only Indonesian products and for some reason will not sell local crops (or even local salt, honey, coffee or eggs). Timor is such a contrast to Fiji which has a highly successful national nutrition committee which has cooking programs on TV and publishes recipe books, runs cooking classes etc. Most Timorese women are too afraid to cook with gas even though it is cheaper than the firewood which is sold to them illegally! Rural-urban migration is currently threatening to bring an end to Timor-Leste's food production capacity, if Timor joins ASEAN it will enable large numbers of farmers who can't get land in the Philippines and Indonesia to possibly come in and take their place but it will be a real blow to Timorese identity and possibly not improve nutrition. It is a tragedy that Timor-Leste has never had a really broadly based multidisciplinary policy debate on the whole issue of food security and food sovereignty, it largely goes on behind closed doors and not even in the universities.

Fantastic story.

My thanks to Mr Gregory Bablis for this insightful and thoughtful piece. It is an important reminder of the people who were involved in the Kokoda campaign. It is extraordinary to think how much World War Two impacted upon so many people's lives. I am imagining this man, who was from a place that had only recently had its first contact with the wider world, beyond their immediate trading partners. In such a short space of time, he ended up in Kokoda and later Port Moresby. What must he have thought of the guns, the vehicles, the large buildings of the port town and so on? It's amazing really. Mr Bablis, did Late Mr Kumanyal reflect upon these experiences during his interview? What were some of his first impressions or memories of those times? As I understand it, and as you state in this piece, the carriers who became known as 'fuzzy wuzzy angels' have never been given anything apart from medals post-war. By comparison, these days, are retired PNG army soldiers entitled to a pension or other benefits? And if so, do they receive them? Thanks again for this thought-provoking piece and the photographs.

Hello Peter. Thank you for your interest! There are actually interesting development, especially about the recent Yi relocation. You can find more details in this article: https://www.thinkchina.sg/lifting-poorest-poor-out-poverty-sichuan-does-poverty-alleviation-mean-uprooting-people-their-homes There are quite a few assistance program including student sponsoring program. If you are still interested, I am happy to help connect!

hi, Charlotte, most respectfully, i have seen your blog, and have gotten full attention to the deficiency of RSE in seasonal work visa in NZ. can u take my assignment in this regard for RSE workers in your county to attribution. kindly send me your response from your side forthwith ongoing remarks. waiting for your next response in this query . Best of luck Charlotte your sincerity.

You hit the nail on the head, agreed much.

Hi HuiYuan, My name is Peter Liu - living in Melbourne- interested to know how to assist and understand the situation in there.

An excellent and timely article. When 85% of people live rurally and beyond the reach of government services, it is logically sound to focus greater effort and resources at local levels. Congratulations to the team.

I appreciated your efforts on how to address the Climate change back in the community especially in the remote parts of the country. climate change talks was only effective in urban areas by government but forget rural people. Please could you go into the remote places and speaks to our people silently suffering?

Thanks, Steve, for this article. I've been thinking a lot about this over the last two decades. While there are inherent constraints in capacity in the Pacific (related to narrow economic base, remoteness, smallness and out-migration), there is a LOT of room for development partners to do things better. The first of these is to think long-term- and I mean in decades- long enough to see generational shifts. This flows into long-term holistic planning with the country, decades-long programs, and into investing in real, long-term relationships between bank staff, advisors and people in-country. Pacific Islanders have been forced to examine their worldviews and see things differently in dealing with colonisers and development agencies. It is incumbent upon development agencies to examine their worldviews and whether imposed solutions are at all appropriate. This then becomes about a deeper level of dialogue and creativity that is not often apparent in development projects.