Dede Sophie

Papua New Guinea’s Minister for International Trade and Investment Richard Maru is hopeful a major rice project in Kairuku in Central Province will get off the ground this year. He says the project though will have to get the blessing from the Central Provincial Government, Kairuku District Development Authority, Hiri-Koiari DDA, impact communities, and the National Government, who own the Manumanu land at Gabadi. Rice investors from the Philippines, who visited the project site at Gabadi recently, say millions of Kina will be needed to finance the growing of rice on a commercial scale. Former Philippines Department of Agriculture Secretary, Dr. Emmanuel Pinol, who leads the investor team, says they will need 1, 200 hectares to start this investment.  The availability of state land and close proximity to the Hiritano Highway and electricity grid are some of the deciding factors.   This decision was reached by a group of Filipino Rice Investors, after the conclusion of a two-day fi...

Readers, please join me welcoming Susan Shapiro Barash , author of Toxic Friends: The Antidote for Women Stuck in Complicated Friendships who’ll be guest blogging here today! In Toxic Friends (St. Martin’s Press, 288 p, ISBN: 0312386397) , Barash explores the ten types of female friends and shows you why and how women get stuck with the worst kinds, the ways to get “unstuck, and how to recognize a true friend.” How Female Friendships Run Amok by Susan Shapiro Barash One of the more curious aspects of female friendship is how strained it can become once two close friends no longer share the same circumstances. I call this, ‘the mirroring friend’ syndrome. It happens frequently and in all sorts of situations. For instance, one friend is on her third child and her best childhood friend is still single. Or a friend gets a promotion and her best friend loses her job. In these instances the women who once had parallel lives no longer reflect one another. And this...