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In my village in Jiwaka it is unusual for people to eat three meals a day. Also fruit peanuts, ripe banana, pineapple etc are not considered 'real food'. So if someone has eaten fruits etc, they might say, "mi no kaikai wanpela strongpela kaikai" i.e. I haven't eaten real food. Are those kinds of differences considered as well in this study?

I don't know. I haven't seen the questions people were asked about domestic violence. But in any survey, let alone cross cultural surveys like these, the terms used must be tested to see if they have the same meaning in English as they do in Tok Pisin and even if when do, can the answers be used to define a condition. In the case of the word "hungry" (I have only seen the questions listed in the Blog) it seems that the survey placed importance on things like three meals per day, never missing a meal, not having enough to eat and so on. The responses to these questions defined whether a person suffered from "hunger". Ever since I lived in a village for 18 months and accompanied people to their gardens or other places, I have stopped worrying if I skipped a meal, or even if I feel hungry - it goes away after a while. It's a common thing in rural PNG not to eat regularly nor to satisfy hunger immediately. To answer your question I need to know how was "domestic violence" defined in the survey. It is usually thought as physical violence but in Australia "coercive control" is now recognised and it may have no physical violence associated with it at all. In addition, violent acts or acts of coercive control are probably easier to remember than how much or what you had to eat. So questions about them may be more legitimate. I should also say that I have almost no experience in PNG urban settings.

Although my experience is limited (UPNG 1975-79, Rotary Foundation Project to Alleviate Malnutrition in WP 2017-), I concur with the authors that hunger is not uncommon. I commenced my project in the Strickland Bosavi region (Upper/Middle Fly) of Western Province in November 2018 and food was short throughout the region then. I personally witnessed hunger. One young man doing my train the trainer course had to take a day or two off so he could go looking for bush tucker. My course ran for 2 weeks and, during planning with my in-country collaborator, Sally Lloyd of Mougulu, I wanted to make provision for catering in my meagre budget but Sally told me that she would ask participants to bring food with them. Of course, they had no food to bring and our meagre rations left many participants hungry. Despite these hardships, the volunteer trainees completed the course in good spirits. Of course this mini taim hangre might have been the exception, but I do not think so. Although hunger exists (which it should never be in 2021), perhaps the even more important issue is the malnutrition that occurs, even with a full belly. The limited local diet is invariably low in energy, certainly low in protein and in fats and oils. My emphasis is on the nutrition of pregnant women, breast feeding mothers and children from conception to 5 years old. The productive capacity of the next generation is seriously limited by a poor diet and an unacceptably high incidence of malnutrition at critical stages in the child's development that may impact on their productive capacity later in life. The importance of this can not be overestimated! Regardless, all people in PNG (men, women and children) deserve the luxury of a plentiful diet of nutritious food that enhances their wellbeing and quality of life!

Just a thought experiment: would you say the same thing—that nationally-representative surveys are not the way, and that we need PNG-specific definitions—about the domestic violence statistics gathered from the same survey?

As a novice, failed to understand what does "Went without eating a whole day" means. Does it means "At least Once Per Year" or does it means "At least Once for the duration of the study" (2016 to 2018)? Shouldn't it also be compared with the statistics of developed and developing countries. What's the main reason behind the same, is it the choice of crops, size of farm, soil composition, weather or food spoilage due to lack of storage/ transportation/ distribution infrastructure Furthermore, why are we discussing just about hunger and not nutrition.

Nice work Manoj keep it up

What is "a whole day"? How was that translated into Tok Pisin? Were all those people in Western not eating during the day while they made sago for a meal that night? Many other questions are difficult to understand e.g "kinds of food"; "skip" (many PNGeans do not assume a 3 meals a day diet is normal - only us overweight in developed countries folk do that); "ran out" - possible, so get up early and go to the garden, or ask a neighbour for a sweet potato and give her one back the next time she needs one. Sample surveys like this are not the way to investigate "hunger" and many of the questions suggest a non-PNG way of defining what "hunger" is.

After reposting a service of Al Jazeera on gangs in PNG with the police being just another gang https://bit.ly/pnggangs, and another one the life of a taxi driver in Port Moresby https://bit.ly/pngtaxi, I got a lot of reactions echoing your comment "Police brutality is only perpetrated by a minority of ill-disciplined rogue police officers and does not reflect the mindset of the Royal PNG Constabulary (RPNGC) in its entirety". I take issue with the view that it is about a few rogue police officers. First because the frequency and extent of power police abuse suggest otherwise. Secondly, because the police is part of the political system and is being used to neutralize government opponents, the issue is structural. Finally, in my own experience foreign professors were constantly being asked for bribes or other favours with the menace of violence or deportation. In fact, between 2012 and 2018 I was refused entry to the country 4 times, and in 2018 the foreign Vice Chancellor decided to flee before it would come to that point. This is the tip of the iceberg. I could give numerous examples, but I fear these would be seen as unproven accusations of major corruption of members of the police force, judiciary and the Peter O'Neill government. Unless structural reform of the police force is undertaken, PNG will continue with law and order issues and many cases of disrespect of human rights and the rule of law.

I had emailed my research project on Climate Change Institute to ANU to support the University of Goroka in Papua New Guinea to set up the National Institute of Climate Change in Papua New Guinea.

I am doing a research project in Papua New Guinea to implement the national public sector anti corruption institute of the state. There are three major areas of corruption. Theses are 1. Political corruption of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea. 2. State Public Service Corruption of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea. 3. Corrupt Mindset of Citizens of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea. These are impediments to success in the implementation of Papua New Guinea Vision 2050.

And what about those who came and worked for several months on prunning and are awaiting to go back for in NZ, are they also eligible to go back and work in NZ?

What about those who have worked for several months in 2019 and are still waiting to go back and work in NZ?