== What's this all about? == 

 Having spent the last hour or so actually going through and rereading all those fun discussions from 8 months ago, as well as the article in its current state (instead of, uh, writing the next draft of my dissertation proposal), I have come to the opinion that there is no particular need to do anything to the article.  In its current form, the article explains pretty clearly both the past and present status of the area, and explains about the existence of West Irian Jaya (which did, in fact, already exist at the time of our previous discussions, and was brought up in the course of them).  I see no particular reason to go and create six or seven new articles on this subject, when this article is perfectly good as both a general discussion of both the western half of New Guinea and of the specific province, as well.