Christmas

Drunken fights, drunk drivers, drunk risk takers. These all result in injuries to the drunk person and sadly other people too. 

The Christmas period sees a rise in trauma-related emergencies for the ambulance service and hospitals, says the St John Ambulance.

Stating that injuries and accidents during the festive season are often a result of excess consumption of alcohol. 

ST John Ambulance is appealing to people that are choosing to drink; to please drink responsibly. That means not having more than one or two beer cans per hour. 

For hard-working man Olale Watigi, this was the moment he could only think of for the past three decades.

Watigi hails from the remote village of Suabi, in the Nomad LLG of Western Province.

What makes his story inspiring is that Watigi is a youth with special needs. He was born deaf with a speech impairment. However, this did not stop the then young man from pursuing a better life. As a teenager in the late 90’s, Watigi left his village and travelled to Kiunga Town on foot, in search of basic services.

Provincial Police Commander, Chief Inspector David Yapu, said his members on festive operations were out in full force to ensure people celebrated peacefully.

He said the additional manpower from the Southern Mobile Group from Port Moresby had beefed up his capacity to contain the situation in the province.

PPC Yapu thanked the general public for their behaviour, and hoped that they will continue in a similar manner during New Year celebrations.

A source said it was felt the annual event could put too many people's Christmas plans at risk.

It follows England chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty's advice to prioritise events "that really matter" to avoid the risk of infection.

The event had been due to take place early next week at Windsor Castle.

The Queen's decision comes as families across the UK consider their Christmas plans in the light of the country's biggest Covid surge yet.

It means everyone can be a winner this Christmas with Digicel.

The telecommunications company is leveraging all of its apps, products and services to reward customers simply for being part of the Digicel family.

The MyDigicel app will serve as the go-to place for all things prize related.

Taking engagement to the next level, Digicel says the more customers use Digicel’s suite of digital apps (BiP, D’Music, GoLoud, Loop, PlayGo and Billo), the more chances they get to win prizes this Christmas. 

The village, consisting of three areas, gathered residents to participate in the program.

The curfew aims to restrict drunk and disorderly behaviour.

Many young men and a few women are volunteering to run the curfews, which include roadblocks for vehicle checking.

The 8pm shift is run by children under 16 years of age while the midnight shift is for older people.

Deputy Chairman of the Vabukori Village Court, Michael Ikavape, said this is a first of its kind in the community and has so far brought peace during the festive period.

“Poverty remains widespread in the countryside with a lack of health services, roads and market opportunities for agricultural products.

“Tens of thousands of youth can only avail of primary education and never dream of going through the secondary and tertiary level.

“In urban centres, settlements keep on mushrooming. Jobs are scarcely available. Alcoholism remains rampant.”

Wani, a cashier who works at Eriku in Lae, is the lucky winner of K1,000 on November 27th with Digicel’s Christmas daily cash and prize giveaways.

The excited mother of one said: “Displa mani em blo pikinini blo mi (this money will be for my son). Mi bai kisim go lo kisim wanem kain presen em laikim lo em.” (I will get him whatever present he wants.)

The couple arrived at a carol service at St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham along with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

The Queen returned after missing last year's service due to a heavy cold.

Princes Philip and Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall also attended, along with other members of the family.

After the service, Ms Markle joined members of the family in greeting the crowds - some of whom had been waiting outside since 05:00 GMT.

“And hopefully everyone has a very safe new year and I want to stress do it in a very orderly manner.

“We want to see you next year; we hear a lot of accidents happen during Christmas and New Year.

He gave an overview of the country thus far stating some of the challenges his government has faced against these backdrops.

“ In 2014, 15 we had a long eight months of drought, we’ve created a lot of stress in our business community and of course our own people.