Rainbow “Market” Vendors Continue to Pose Risk

Market vendors in Port Moresby’s Gerehu suburb continue to endanger themselves, motorists and pedestrians by marketing their wares at the old Rainbow “market” venue.

Vendors outside the fenced off area

The Rainbow market had for years proven to be popular with residents of Gerehu and buyers from throughout the city, as well as attracting sellers from other suburbs, and fishmongers and vegetable growers from neighboring Central Province.

The market had provided a good variety of garden produce, fish and game, including a bustling betel nut market on its periphery, however, a private party claiming ownership of the land upon which the market was previously situated fenced off the area late last year, forcing vendors to seek an alternate venue.

Vendors near service station

Market vendors and buyers had been advised by the National Capital District Commission (NCDC) to utilize the designated Gerehu Market, however, vendors continue to trade on a narrow strip of land adjacent to the Goro Kaeaga Road leading into Gerehu.

Meanwhile, Deputy City Manager, Mr Honk Kiap has advised residents of Gerehu and Port Moresby that renovation works at the Gerehu Market which commenced last year had been completed.

The major renovation works had included a complete leveling and reconstruction of the main market area, improvements to its perimeter fence and onsite utilities such as the ablution block and market stands.

Fishmongers and vegetable produce sellers
at the Rainbow suburb

Mr Kiap said that vendors had had been advised to move in to the renovated Gerehu Market, however many continue to illegally occupying the strip on land at Rainbow, placing themselves and others at unnecessary risk. 

Namah Responds to PM on Manus Island Center

Opposition Leader Belden Namah has refused to accept statements from the National Government claiming that PNG laws were not circumvented when the Manus Island Asylum Seekers Processing Center was established.

Mr Namah was also incensed at the Government’s labeling of moves by the Opposition to seek a Supreme Court Interpretation on the Center as a “joke”, labeling the decision to house asylum seekers in PNG on behalf of Australia as having the “hallmarks of a personal decision for personal gain, which has turned into a national problem with little more than a rubber-stamp from the NEC.”

In a press statement released today, Mr Namah responded by saying that the Prime Minister’s decision to “take on Australia’s responsibility to receive and process foreign asylum seekers coming to its shores flies in the face of our national constitution and the integrity of our laws.”

Mr Namah said that although the Prime Minister had assured the country of the Center’s legality under the national Constitution, he had failed to specify the relevant provisions and laws that formed the basis for the decision.

The Opposition is concerned that the detention of persons in the Manus Island facility is a contravention of Section 42 on the National Constitution which guarantees the “Liberty of the Person.”

Mr Namah also refused to accept the National Government’s argument that the country was “bound by international conventions and charters with respect to the Asylum Seekers Detention Scheme.”

“Any international charters or conventions must first be ratified under PNG law through the drafting or amendment of existing legislation – especially those that, as in this case, bear constitutional and legal ramifications,” Mr Namah said.

The Opposition leader further stated that “if the Prime Minister wants PNG to be a regional leader, a goal common to us all, then it is his duty to conduct government business in a manner befitting the chief executive officer of his country. If he fails in this duty, we as the leaders of the alternative government will ensure that he faces the full legal consequences.”

Mr Namah reiterated the importance of preserving “the integrity of our laws and processes and the dignity of our nation. Protecting and enforcing our sovereign rights in a court of law is not a mockery; it is due process and part of our fundamental responsibility as political leaders.”

Mr Namah called on the Prime Minister to act in the best interests of the country.

Vendors Decry Proposed Ban on Betelnut Sales

Petero Sirvese is one of thousands of Port Moresby city residents who thrive on Papua New Guinea’s infamous “drug” of choice and occasional aphrodisiac, the humble betel nut.  

And he is likely to become one of the thousands who will be “out of work” should the city’s municipal authority succeed in its endeavor to ban sale of the nut within city limits.

Sirvese’s day revolves around the unassuming nut, waking up at when the day is still in its infant stages and going for a brisk 10 minute walk down to Gerehu’s version of the World Trade Center.

At this bustling 24 hour trading post, Sirvese packs into a scrum of heaving and pushing players working their way towards bags of betel nut, jealously guarded by their owners. 

Hands are thrust forward, calls of figures ranging from a low of K50 to as much as K300 can be heard echoing in the cold morning air.

“As soon as I secure a 10kg bag of buai, I head straight back home to have the nuts thoroughly washed and cleaned, “Sirvese relates.

The cleaned nuts are then neatly aligned on an old (and previously much loved) study desk which had been converted into a buai vending table. This is strategically placed near Sirvese’s residential gate, and the day’s retail trade is about to begin in earnest.

Breakfast and lunch meals for Sirvese are taken no more than 20 meters from his trading post. Dinner will be indoors if the day’s sales prove to be brisk enough to see him end his selling at 3pm or thereabouts.

Sirvese’s routine, whilst seemingly tedious to some, is repeated by thousands of other buai peddlers throughout the city daily.

The betel nut trade in is perhaps the most prevalent commercial activity in Port Moresby, occurring in just about every pocket of the city imaginable. At all hours of the day. So much so that buai traders would not feel out of place in New York, a city that never sleeps.

Retail sales of buai is not the strict domain of the “otherwise unoccupied”, employment wise. Many single income families use this trade to supplement their incomes for everyday necessities to major expenses such as school fees and hauskrai contributions.

A comprehensive ban on the sale of the nut within city limits is sure to place many families who depend on the sale of the nut in difficult circumstances. 

This proposal has also sparked serious debate in various circles, including the country’s vibrant online community where one commentator stated that the banning is “unrealistic in a society where buai chewers outnumber non buai chewers.

“A ban will see the birth of sophisticated smuggling rackets, similar to drug smuggling. Buai is ‘green gold’ and people will go to extremes in its trade. Stringent regulation is better.”

Other social commentators called for City Hall to seek a solution which caters for both parties, those being of Sirvese and his ilk who rely on betel nut to thrive, and those of Governor Parkop’s similar mindset wanting to see a clean and hygienic capital city.

"I don't know what else i can do to survive in the city if the ban on buai is enforced," lamented Sirvese as news of the impending ban gradually registered with him.