Yesterday Village Voice spoke with 50 year old Tu’umaiai Va’ataulo as he was waiting for a bus to go town to do shopping for Sunday. 

He lives with his family in Faleula-Uta. 

“Parents are to blame,” he said. 

“Everything to do with today’s children reflects on the parents doing their job well. 

“If you raise your child right, then why worry about the other influences but if you know you didn’t do your job well, then you should be sorry. 

“Around all the corners of Samoa there is always this problem and I know we can’t do anything about it anymore. 

“Even here at our village, the trouble is mostly caused by the young people, because they’re sometimes naughty and often drunk. 

Tu’umaiai went on to say the government must step in to do something about the problems caused by alcohol.

“I know that others don’t really realize the problems until they hear of someone dying because of the issue. 

“They don’t seem to care about it, but to be honest, the number of deaths in Samoa is increasing as a result of alcohol. 

“This is why I want the government to look into the issue. 

“Perhaps make the alcohol prices expensive, or try to increase the fines to say for example $500 per person found drinking. 

“We don’t want this problem to continue happening, because as far as I know the youth and our children are the future of societies and communities. 

“If these alcohol related problems keep on happening to our young generation then we should know what the future of Samoa will look like.

 “Village Councils should also be alert to this issue. 

“For instance here in our village, we are really aware of these problems.

“The village council has made so many rules and laws to protect the village we are also allocating fines for those who cause trouble. 

“Everyone else should play their parts to save our youth nowadays. 

The father of four is a farmer and content with his life.

“Aside from these problems, we are getting on just fine because we have access to water and electricity at home and we make do with what we have.”