Dede Sophie

PNG has taken the lead again as big brother in Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Prime Minister’s Cup football challenge and propose the introduction of women football in the next edition of MSG Cup next year. PNG Sports Foundation Executive Director Albert Veratau said PNG is pushing for women football amongst the Melanesian countries to promote gender balance and promote women folk to be part of the football tournament. Other sports proposed to be part on the MSG Sports Program include rugby which Fiji will be taking the lead to promote in the region and boxing. As the say goes, Mr Veratau said sports in general has no boundary and love to see other sports being part of the MSG program. Mr Veratau who took over the reign as new sport boss less than a year ago has been fighting tooth and nail after sports almost came to its knees due to lack of good administration and other related issues. He does not want to blame anyone but urged everyone including his officers and stakeholders to co...

 A proposal to establish an honorary consul in Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi has been discussed in a bilateral meeting between Papua New Guinea and Vietnam’s Foreign Ministers. Foreign Affairs Minister Justin Tkatchenko met with his Vietnamese counterpart Bui Thanh Son during the APEC Summit in Bangkok, Thailand. Vietnam is a fast growing economy with robust levels of exports to countries within the region and Europe, and this opens the potential for PNG to engage more actively in trade and economic relations with Vietnam. Minister Tkatchenko said PNG is keen on building a diplomatic mission through the honorary consul that would eventually lead to an embassy as relations between both countries continue to grow.  Vietnam Foreign Affairs Minister Bui Thanh Son agreed that it was a great idea to have a PNG diplomatic mission established in Vietnam. He also proposed that both countries increase the exchange of high level visits and dialogues, as well as increase multilateral cooperation...

PNG Minister for International Trade and Investment Richard Maru has invited Indonesia to host the first-ever and historical PNG – Indonesia Trade Meeting in Jayapura, Indonesia, later this year. Minister Maru made this invitation through Indonesia’s Ambassador to Papua New Guinea, His Excellency Adriana Supandy last Friday. PNG invites Indonesia for first-ever PNG-Indonesia Trade meeting  He said if Indonesia agrees to have the trade meeting, then they can put together an agenda for the meeting, as well as a technical working committee, to organize that meeting. Mr. Maru said PNG’s trade team will not only be made up of Government departments and agencies, but also representatives from the three provinces of East and West Sepik and Western Province. He said he will be meeting with the Indonesian Trade Minister in his follow-up trip to Jakarta after the trade meeting in March, to have their first bilateral meeting. Mr. Maru added that this meeting is to discuss Indones...

My heart goes out to friends and family of Harris Wittels. I’m devastated just as a person who only looked up to him for his jokes and podcast appearances–I can’t imagine what kind of grief they are feeling. I may have been the only person in the world to see this moment, so it feels important to share: I saw Harris once in real life. I was waiting in line to see Comedy Bang Bang at the RiotLA festival and he came out of the theater and stood nearby to smoke a cigarette. No one else in line even seemed to notice he was there so I tried to keep my freakout internal, but now I really regret missing my chance to tell him that his jokes were important to me. Anyway, as he was finishing up his cigarette, he pulled out his phone, wrote something really quick and then went back inside the theater. Minutes later, he came on stage for his Foam Corner segment of the show. He said that he had just written a joke he wanted to share, and then proceeded to do his famous bit: “I hate smoking sections...