MELT-DOWN

Can’t remember where I had got up to in my ramblings but so much has been happening and in no discernable order. So here we go

…

A former Town Manager walks into Titus’s office and informs him that he is being replaced and to leave the office in two days. The Province chief executive confirms the appointment ‘formal notice is on its way’. The council Members who have spent all my time here trying to sack Titus are up in arms, seems Lau Sorum who was sacked by them 3 years ago is even more hated by them than Titus is !  Emergency Council meetings to no effect so office and ground staff are called in for a meeting and invited to support the Members by not working till the appointment is reversed. This plea is backed up by the councillors taking all the car keys and locking the office from all except themselves. Radio Madang reports the councillors as being not wanting to be interviewed and being intoxicated. I fear for our new computers and the new GPS toy but after 3 days the office is opened again in some form of stale mate.

An urgent trip to Port Moresby on some planning problems, people stealing public open areas and developers ignoring the need for any approvals before building. Titus keeps a tight rein on me (“for safety”) so I am not able to get to Trade Union HQ to talk about the ground staff not being paid for 5 or 6 weeks, nor do I get to Companies house to find constitution and annual accounts of the dubious ‘arms length’ investment company that continues to drains all the Council’s assets (money and land) and which pays Titus a regular income. I do come back though with a certificate from the Ministry designating me as the only Planner in the Province to act on towm planning matters (a poisoned chalice me thinks) but nice to put on the wall.

Visit by by a former catering student and some boy she had picked up by accident lead to the boy taking off in the night with my laptop and getting security man at gate to help him get a lift to his village.. reported to the police and we go to the market where Lorraine, the student identifies the boy’s sister who denies knowing him or anything except “you don’t spell his name that way”. Posters naming the rascol and radio announcements have no effect but the Mayor calls up some dubious friends who go out to the village, find the house, boy gets away but house is turned over and laptop retrieved (though still not back in my hands)

The new Planning chief from Moresby comes to town and is being ferried round by a speculator who has a live application for a massive development in town. I really shouldn’t be so suspicious. Said developer comes to house and describes his vision for filling in the large lake on the site in the interests of conservation and – seems with my new status I have to write a report for the National Planning Board. He promises to bring me a little something later that night but following the malaria and a dose of food poisoning ( I feed myself so that’s self inflicted I guess) I am really not fit for entertaining young ladies – probably just as well and my damning report on the development has now been sent off under my authoritative signature.

Busy trying to leave a plausible set of stuff for any successor to my post though that looks unlikely – general view is that investment by developers is a good thing and they should be encouraged and allowed to get on with it.

This weekend I was able to hire the fire brigade to hopefully flush out a town centre drain, 55 metres of 750mm pipe – without success as all had forecast although a stream of water has been running through ever since then so perhaps we were not far off – never mind it was good fun.  VSO now booking flights home, tenants in Bridgwater given notice but my doctor here collars new governor who will see if there is any problem with my staying in PNG

Night night…

 

 Town centre development site

 

 Drain cleaning