Thursday 24 November 2005

use the force



Doing some research on the rpngc (royal png constab.) today and came across a list of recent campaigns they had run. Why do police always pick such corny names for their operations? It’s lame to laugh them – but irresistible, imagining a group of your local boys in uniform sitting around, chewing buai, thinking it over. “How about…the pukpuk [crocodile] exercise?” – you can just picture a guy from Sepik with a gleam in his eyes.

The “paradise exercise” – that’s just boring. But then – now this one’s definately from a highlander – there was the wantok warrior exercise! Yeah! Forceful and culturally proud, and … ambiguous: are they the goodies or the baddies?

And this one must have come from someone who joined the force after having watched cop shows on tv: the operation of the night falcon. a real classic.


(there was also a recent article headed “HIV/AIDS blamed for high turnover”, commenting on the decline in police numbers 5100 to 4700. Given the title, you start to reflect soberly on AIDS in PNG, shake your head … and then you read that three or maybe four police officers have died from AIDS, oh, over the last couple of years. The rest of the officers - ah, that would be the other 396 - have actually been sacked and/or made redundant.)

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