Samoa shifts into authoritarian

It is all to clear now more than a ever that Samoa is heading toward a direction that we do not want to go, authoritarian, perhaps not in its official and declared status but certainly in practice. Just looke at the events of the last few months.

BAN OF THE DA VINCI CODE
A few old farts sat down watched a movie and decided that the rest of Samoa has weak faith and this would do more harm than good, so one young man, signed a piece of paper and the movie was banned from Samoa.

BURN OPPOSITIONS HOUSE
One village decided to burn down the house of one opposition leader who took their winning MP to court.

THREE MONTH BAN ON NIGHTCLUBS
The Liquor Board (old farts also) decided that Samoans were drinking too much and imposed a ban on all major nightclubs to close for three months or relocate. That is after a three week closure already. The owners of the clubs had no say in the matter.

MEDIA BAN
The media were chased away from the opening of a new prison cell at Tafaigata by the Police Commissioner, who provided no explanation except :'you are not allowed!' Meanwhile every tom, dick and harry was walking into the place.

An Awesome Day

By Cherelle Jackson

I think we spend too much time complaining instead of embracing, well at least I do, so in this entry, mock-editorial, I am going to do something out of character and praise the day. Today was awesome because even though I was tired [I worked until 2:30 in the morning,] I still woke up at 7.00am and brushed up on my work before heading off.

what to wear
The only glitch of course was what I was going to wear. I wanted to wear something bright because the day was dark, however the only appropriate clothes for my first appointment were dark, so black and white it was. I have about five black skirts to my name, I never run out of dark, boring clothes, it is to make up for my height (the lack of it) and my weight (the lack of it as well :)

smart people are fat
Let me just step out of topic for a second to explain the black skirt phenomena. When I started out in my first job as News Reporter for Samoa Observer, the biggest challenge was not in the writing, news gathering, or interviewing but rather my appearance. I am convinced that if I was tall and big, the job would have been easier. Why? Well easy, people show you more respect if you are older, bigger, taller, fatter, maybe ugly too, and generally people who have these admirable attributes are viewed as smarter. Say for instance I and a fellow Journo bigger than me approached someone at the time for an interview, they would respond to the other person, as I am the 'little shit that has no right to question her elders.'

back to the day
I got to my planned interview at about 9.00am and sat at Poloma Komitis waiting room for half an hour waiting for an appointment that was never recorded, for a person that was not there and most likely not keen to speak to me. I was hunting down some more info concerning Sunan Siriwan the Thai tiler whom Phillip Field suspiciously brought into the country for "immigration reasons." Anyway my editor was up my arse about chasing down this story, which I was not interested in as it was going way overboard. So anyway in that half an hour as I waited, I chatted with two old men and an elderly lady from Savaii. We laughed about our own peopls stupidity, naivity and of course the down right assholes. One man was complaining about a couple he took under his wing to help as they were both banned from their villages. "I took them in, fed em', clothed em' and housed them, but they did not lift a finger for a whole month, so I threw them out." He went on, he got vulgar and soon more couples were staying at his house and they wer all equally worthless, and our story teller was the hero of his own story :)

jake brown
My next appointment was with Mr Jake Brown, a young good-looking with a nice butt... sorry.. accent Brit, who is an Australian Youth Ambassador, currently teaching Broadcast Journalism at Samoa Polytech. As the Secretary of the Journalists Association of [Western] Samoa, one of my responsibilities is to arrange trainings for current Journalists to improve our outputs, in other words SOMEBODY SAVE US PLEASE, from all the shitty news thats coming out! About three weeks ago I asked Jake, who has a post grad in broadcast journalism and two years of experience with BBC if he could train our local radio journalists on basic radio news writing. He was keen, so as part of the prep to the training he wanted to see the studios in each radio station and ask the news readers some questions to get a feel of

radio journalists
I tried, unsuccessfully for two days to contact the radio stations to schedule a tour for Jake, so I decided to do what we hamos to do best, walk in. I met up with Jake at 11:21am and we arrived at the SBC studio at 11:23. We walked into the Studio and asked for Lave, one of the reporters, a kid directed us to a door where a lot of laughter was coming from. We knocked, once then twice, and finally the door was opened by Fuapepe who was, how should I say this, she was on her niece in prayer position, we opened the door, to see solitaire on one computer, solitaire on the second and third. In the small room the whole SBC news team were having a break. The News Editor, the Senior Reporter, News Presenter and News Reporter, all chatting and laughing. We got so lucky as Merita, the brains and real sweat behind SBC gave Jake a personal tour of the tv and radio studio. It was awesome.

man i gotta finish this some other time as I am tired and need my beauty sleep...

A tribute to Yvonne, my niece

This is for you on your 8th Birthday!

Yvonne in my opinion is the strongest person in our family, she gets it from her grandmother and her mother. Yvonne in her lifetime has already witnessed the death of her great grandmother and the birth of both her sister and brother. Yvonne is that light that shines on anything and anyone at anytime. She has an energy that could inspire great things. Yvonne is sharp, honest and beautiful. She is appreciative, hopeful, inquisitive and charming. Her only weaknesses are her brother and sister. She guards them with her life, sacrificing anything to ensure they smile, laugh and get what they want.

The cake!
Lately Lani and I have gotten into decorating home made cakes for the kids birthdays. She baked a flat square chocolate cake for Vettes birthday and I decorated it with wafers and marshmallows, creating a little house and garden on the cake. They loved it, so today we decided we were going to do it with the kids as part of the birthday present, which is officially tommorow. We bought a cake and decorations and sat down at their dining table, Yvonne, Yvette, myself and Barry at the head of the table. We started with the brown cream, covering the body of the cake, then we filled in the nozzeled tube with pink cream to write on the cake. Armed with the tube and ready to write, I asked Yvonne what she wanted on her cake. Initially she said: "Happy Birthday Vonne." then after some encouragement that she could say anything as it is her cake she said: "How about, I HATE MELE." Lani and I laughed out loud, Mele of course was Yvonne Mele Sapatu, her name sake, her aunty and of course her arch enemy. Mele would be at the birthday party, poor Yvonne would be strangled if the inscription was such! So in the end we settled for Happy birthday yvonne, meanwhile Barry decided to stand on the chair instead of sitting, and he was sneezing at maximum speed therefore sending, not tiny but huge specs of saliva onto the cake, it was hilarious. After some adjustments and quarter of the cake cut for tasting, and lots of eaten cream later, we came up with a nice birthday cake for vonne.

Mega and Jody, Yvonne asked last week if you were both coming for her birthday. I said unfortunately it is too expensive for you both to travel so you wont be making it. She then asked if you were sending a card for her, according to Lani, Yvonnes latest obsession has been receiving something in the mail. So we decided I was going to write letters, get it stamped and ready for postage however I will place it in my mailbox. Tommorow I can take Yvonne to my mail box, open it and low and behold letters from Aunty Jody and Aunty Mega in a mailbox, addressed to her! She never has to know :)

Her latest dumbfounding question.

Aunty Relle, when I am 18 will you be dead?

Her light bulb question.
While sun bathing at Palolo deep, looking up at the sky, she asked.

"Aunty, what is beyond the clouds?"

The wisest things she has said.
After asking why her Great Grandmother died, she said:

"Is it because her time has come."

Her latest wish

"Aunty, when I am 18 can you take me to Thailand to ride elephants?"

The question I thought she would never ask
This is after being explained the concept of ex-boyfriend and marriage.

"Why do people stop loving?"