Word: port
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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After the tight security that surrounded John Paul's visit to South Korea, the Pope seemed to revel in the enthusiastic reception that greeted him in Port Mores by, the capital of Papua New Guinea. The Pontiff won many hearts when, at a Mass, he said the Lord's Prayer in pidgin English, the most common local patois. "Papa bilong mipela, yu stap long heven . . ." At the local sports field he watched benignly as bare-breasted women in grass skirts chanted hymns and drummers sporting feathered headdresses pounded out an accompaniment on hollow logs covered with animal skins...
...three large "coastels," self-contained floating barracks, each housing up to 930 men. The facilities have mess halls, gymnasiums and a squash court; they purify their own water and generate their own electricity. Says Major General Keith Spacie, commander of the 4,000-to 5,000-man British force: "Port Stanley is not a garrison town. We have got off the Falklanders' backs so they can lead as normal a life as possible...
...Kelpers" (after the seaweed that they once harvested). Locals, in turn, call the British soldiers "Whennies" because of their tendency to go on at boring length about the time "when I was in Belfast" or "when I was on Cyprus." Although occasional fistfights break out on Saturday nights in Port Stanley's pubs, an officer notes that "relations with the local population are a lot worse in some British towns I can think...
...British presence has hardly altered the islands' 19th century lifestyle. Sheep farmers, the economic backbone of the islands, tend their flocks on the treeless hills, oblivious to the hubbub in Port Stanley. Says Jim Clements' secretary of the sheep-owners association: "If we didn't hear radios and see aircraft overhead, we wouldn't know the military is here." The civilian population has grown by only 4% since the war, to about...
...excuse. Local officials have yet to set up an agency to allocate the nearly $44 million from Parliament for the development of the islands. Half of the 54 three-bedroom prefabricated houses that were built at a cost of $187,000 each to relieve the shortage of homes in Port Stanley stand empty because it will take as long as six months to hook them up to drains and water. Says the project's British manager: "You're up against a wall with the bureaucracy here. If you succeed, you're an embarrassment. If you fail...