Read and learn those words again

Dear Tai Peta,

Thank you for enlightening me about Samoa’s repayment of its debts. I now know. My bad.

I took a term of economics at a local institution which shall remain nameless and this is what I learnt - there is no such thing as free lunch in this world. 

In applying this truism to Samoa, sooner or later Samoa will pay because we can’t continue forever to ask for these loans to be written off.

Perhaps I was too literal when I said that Samoa would be repossessed. 

I seem to recall the number of countries which kept defaulting on their loans and these countries went bankrupt and the international financial institutions stepped in and restructure these economies in order for the loans to be repaid. Greece is the most recent case in point. Do you want your beloved Samoa to go through that sort of pain and suffering with the Samoan tala devalued to basically nothing. 

Repossession takes many different forms: for example, Samoa being strongly persuaded (coerced) to vote with the Chinese in international fora where we have a voice. Climate change negotiations is a case in point. China and Samoa’s views on climate change are miles apart but when it comes to voting Samoa would vote with China. Why? Work it out for yourself and then you know the meaning of the word repossessed.

Think of fishing rights in our territorial waters. It is not hard to imagine a situation where China might gently persuade (NOT) Samoa to offer fishing licences to fleets of fishing boats belonging to the friends of China. Can we say no to that? Work that out for yourself and then you start to know the meaning of repossession. 

A letter from a palagi talked about land set aside for the Chinese. If that is not repossession then I don’t know the meaning of that word.

The other thing I learnt from my term of economics is that everything has an opportunity cost. 

Those loans coming to Samoa could have been spent by the Chinese on its own people or somewhere else where it can earn a return. 

So, unless the Chinese have this feeling of great satisfaction in losing its taxpayer’s money to Samoa, then I humbly suggest that you reconsider the meaning of the word repossessed and re-read those ABC Australia articles.

Have a great day mate.

Vai Autu

Samoa Observer

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