All the same

Dear Editor 

Re: Chief Executive defends sand mining 

Unfortunately the government in Samoa is no different than governments elsewhere. The governments in Canada, the U.S, China, Australia etc are all the same. If they think they can make money off an environmental resource they have access to, its business as usual. 

They are all guilty. 

Tuilaepa is not alone in this madness. Canada government is approving pipelines and oil exploration that will singlehandedly produce enough carbon to sink Samoa for good, while talking as if they are environmental protectors. B.S! 

They would export that too if they thought they could make a profit on it. Lol. 

With my people I assume that white people always speak with a forked tongue if there is money or land involved but maybe it’s a government thing.

Also another thing that is quite noticeable and consistent with most countries that have been colonized and have had a foreign parliamentary system imposed on them and after the colonizers have moved on, or have sort of moved on, are the business elites have names which reflect the names of the colonizers while the government elites have the indigenous names. 

This is true for Samoa as well. 

I think this speaks volumes. 

Often wishing the indigenous group the names in government can even reflect factions within their society like in Sri Lanka for example. 

You don’t see many Tamil names in government. I don’t think this is the case in Samoa or everyone would have the name Malietoa. 

Anyway this is why I think the government in Samoa has a responsibility to the poor because everybody had an opportunity at one point or another in history. The descendants of the colonizers had the opportunity to be the merchants, certain people with access to the colonizers and education probably through the churches had access to education which put them in government and now the poor deserve opportunities provided to them by the ‘haves’ who were given opportunities the poor did not get.

 

Wendy Wonder

Samoa Observer

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