Mr+Pip+by+Lloyd+Jones

Read by Auralee, Abdul, Carlisle, Delamere and Tom for Novel #1.

Reading for Novel #2: Jasmine, Seaniqah, Jordan D, Josh, Caleb, Taranjot, Sunaina, Aashna, Fazeema, Suka, Fili.

__Mr Pip__ by Lloyd Jones

The Learning Activities for Mr Pip.

Click here for a summary, reviews and discussion questions

OTHER STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW **

__The Queen of Sheba - Grace Watts__

"The Queen of Sheba - an exotic and mysterious **woman of power** - is immortalised in the world's great religious works, among them the Hebrew Bible and the Muslim Koran. She also appears in Turkish and Persian painting, in Kabbalistic treatises, and in medieval Christian mystical works, where she is viewed as **the embodiment of Divine Wisdom** and a foreteller of the cult of the Holy Cross." []

The Queen of Sheba is mentioned as the [|Queen of the South] in [|Matthew] 12:42 and [|Luke] 11:31 in the New Testament, where [|Jesus] indicates that she and the [|Ninevites] will **judge the generation of Jesus' contemporaries who rejected him**. Christian interpretations of the scriptures mentioning the Queen of Sheba in the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, typically have emphasized both the historical and metaphorical values in the story. The account of the Queen of Sheba is thereby interpreted by Christians as being both a metaphor and an analogy: the Queen's visit to Solomon has been compared to the metaphorical marriage of the Church to Christ where Solomon is the anointed one or the messiah and Sheba represents a [|Gentile] population submitting to the messiah; the Queen of Sheba's chastity has also been depicted as a foreshadowing of the [|Virgin Mary]; and the three gifts that she brought (gold, spices, and stones) have been seen as analogous to the gifts of the [|Magi] (gold, frankincense, and myrrh). The latter is emphasized as being consistent with a passage from [|Isaiah] 60:6; //**And they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring forth gold and incense; and they shall show forth the praises of the Lord**.//[|[16]] This last connection is interpreted[//[|who?]//] as relating to the Magi, the learned astronomers of Sheba who saw a new star and set off on a journey to find a new ruler connected to the new star, that led them to [|Bethlehem]. []

__HISTORY OF PNG - INDEPENDENCE__

Elections in 1972 resulted in the formation of a ministry headed by Chief Minister [|Michael Somare], who pledged to lead the country to **self-government and then to independence**. Papua New Guinea became self-governing on December 1, 1973 and achieved independence on September 16, 1975. The 1977 national elections confirmed Michael Somare as Prime Minister at the head of a coalition led by the [|Pangu Party]. However, his government lost a [|vote of confidence] in 1980 and was replaced by a new cabinet headed by [|Sir Julius Chan] as prime minister. The 1982 elections increased Pangu's plurality, and parliament again chose Somare as prime minister. In November 1985, the Somare government lost another vote of no confidence, and the parliamentary majority elected [|Paias Wingti], at the head of a five-party coalition, as prime minister. A coalition, headed by Wingti, was victorious in very close elections in July 1987. In July 1988, a no-confidence vote toppled Wingti and brought to power [|Rabbie Namaliu], who a few weeks earlier had replaced Somare as leader of the Pangu Party. Such reversals of fortune and a revolving-door succession of prime ministers continue to characterize Papua New Guinea's national politics. A plethora of political parties, coalition governments, shifting party loyalties and motions of no confidence in the leadership all lend an air of instability to political proceedings. Under legislation intended to enhance stability, new governments remain immune from no-confidence votes for the first 18 months of their incumbency. __A nine-year__ [|secessionist] __revolt on the island of__ [|Bougainville] __claimed some 20,000 lives__. The rebellion began in early 1989, active hostilities ended with a truce in October 1997 and a permanent ceasefire was signed in April 1998. A peace agreement between the Government and ex-combatants was signed in August 2001. A regional peace-monitoring force and a [|UN] observer mission monitors the government and provincial leaders who have established an interim administration and are working toward complete surrender of weapons, the election of a provincial government and an eventual referendum on independence. Although close relations have been maintained since peaceful independence and Australia remains the largest bilateral aid donor to Papua New Guinea, relations with Australia have recently shown signs of strain. While on a state visit in March 2005, Prime Minister Somare was asked to submit to a security check and remove his shoes upon arriving at the airport in [|Brisbane]. Despite demands from the PNG government that Australia apologize, the latter refused. Additionally, problems have arisen with regard to Australia's latest aid package for the country. Valued at [|A$]760 million, the program was to tackle crime and corruption in PNG by sending 200 Australian police to Port Moresby and installing 40 Australian officials within the national bureaucracy. However, after the first detachment of police arrived, Papua New Guinea's high court ruled that the arrangement was unconstitutional, and the police returned home. A new arrangement, by which only 30 officers will serve as a training force for the local force has been described by the Australian foreign minister as "second-best".[|[1]] []

__Bougainville__ In the 1970s, [|Bougainville Copper Limited] (BCL, a subsidiary of [|Rio Tinto]) began exploiting the island's huge copper reserves. Resentment over the negative effects of the company's activities on the area and the politicized view that there was a lack of any tangible benefit to the islanders erupted into conflict in late 1980s. Attempts at proclaiming the independence of Bougainville ([|Republic of North Solomons]) have occurred twice, once in 1975 and the other in 1990. In the second case the government of [|Papua New Guinea] moved to put down what became a secessionist movement led by [|Francis Ona], a former surveyor for BCL. The PNG army received [|military aid] from [|Australia] and enlisted the support of [|Sandline International], a [|private military company]. An embargo was enforced to weaken the people's resistance. However, they proved much more resilient than expected, designing their own weapons and fueling engines with [|vegetable oil]. Peace talks brokered by [|New Zealand] began in 1997, leading to autonomy for the island.

In May 1990, Papua New Guinea imposed a blockade on Bougainville. [|Francis Ona] responded by unilaterally declaring independence. He set up the Bougainville Interim Government (BIG), but it had little power, and the island began to descend into disarray. The command structure set up by the BRA seldom had any real control over the various groups throughout the island that claimed to be part of the BRA. A number of 'raskol' (criminal) gangs that were affiliated with the BRA, equipped largely with weapons salvaged from the fighting in World War II, terrorized villages, engaging in murder, rape and pillage. Bougainville split into several factions, and a civil war began. Much of the division in this fighting were largely along clan-lines; the BIG/BRA was dominated by the Nasioi clan, causing other islanders to view it with suspicion. On the island of [|Buka], north of Bougainville a local militia was formed which succeeded in driving out the BRA with the help of Papuan troops, during a bloody offensive in September. Multiple agreements were signed and not honored by any side. The BRA leadership of Ona and Kauona fell out with some of the political leaders, such as Kabui. Several other village militias, which together became known as the resistance, armed by the PNG defence forces, forced the BRA out of their areas. Papua New Guinea's policy towards Bougainville hardened after the defeat of the incumbent government at the 1992 elections. New Prime Minister [|Paias Wingti] took a considerably more hardline stance, and angered the [|Solomon Islands], after a bloody raid on one island that was alleged to be supporting the Bougainvilleans. The Papuan army, in alliance with the resistance, succeeded in retaking [|Arawa], the provincial capital, in January 1993. Papuan Foreign Minister [|Sir Julius Chan] attempted to gather a peacekeeping force from the nations of the Pacific, but Wingti quashed the idea. He subsequently ordered the army to retake the Panguna mine, and was initially successful. However, his government was short-lived, and in August 1994 was replaced as Prime Minister by Chan. Chan announced his intention to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, meeting with Kauona in the [|Solomon Islands] and arranging for a peace conference to be held in Arawa that October, with security provided by an [|Australia]-led [|South Pacific Peacekeeping Force]. However, the BIG leaders boycotted the conference, claiming that their safety could not be guaranteed. In their absence, Chan's government entered into negotiations with a group of chiefs from the Nasioi clan, headed by Theodore Miriung, a former lawyer for the Panguna Landowners Association. This resulted in the establishment of a Bougainville Transitional Government in April 1995, with its capital in Buka. Miriung was named Prime Minister of the new government, but frequently clashed with Chan by criticizing abuses committed by Papuan soldiers. By 1996, Chan was beginning to get frustrated at the lack of progress. In January, following a round of negotiations in [|Cairns], [|Australia], between the BRA, BTG and the PNG government, a PNG defense force patrol boat fired upon Kabui and the other delegates when they returned to Bougainville. The next month, the home of the BIG's representative in the Solomon Islands, Martin Mirori, was firebombed. Chan decided to abandon attempts at peace, and on 21 March 1996, he gave the go-ahead for an invasion of Bougainville, under new commander of the PNG defence forces, [|Jerry Singirok]. Now, all that remains of the war is a small memory monument and a declaration of independence engraved in stone. []