Our correspondent reacquaints himself with the PNG capital, a place getting a lot more attention these days. Gordon Peake 14 September words. Nowadays, the largest city in the Pacific Islands is the setting for a much larger plotline, a new cold war tussle between China and the United States for presence, influence and the favour of a local political elite enjoying its moment in the sun.
Australia is paying ever more attention to its former possession, too, as are French energy company executives. International relations can seem ordered and manicured on the surface, but the reality is much more provisional and blurry. A tasty modern Australian-style place, the Edge offers excellent coffee and even more exemplary people-watching.
Most people taking breakfast here are the worker bees in the new great game. Most identifiable are the uniformed, barrel-chested Australian police officers gathered together in conversation. Australia has been throwing money at their counterparts in the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary for decades, providing so much training that the force must constitute the best-instructed in the world.
Well-equipped too: Canberra has financed everything from jet skis to a swimming pool. Is all that time and money working? Port Moresby remains a city too dangerous for most to navigate on foot, which explains why the joggers are behind the Yacht Club fence.
Things became even worse in January when local police downed tools after a computer glitch cut their pay, precipitating a day-long riot in which at least twenty people died and businesses lost hundreds of millions in orgiastic looting. Every time a PNG government minister utters an oracular hint that Chinese policing support is being considered, Australia promises more kit and kaboodle. The Aussie cops are in no hurry to finish their coffees.
