Dear Editor,

Re: The reality today

Le Mafa, money is important yes. 

No denying that. 

However, you have already accepted that the majority of people in Samoa have no jobs. So how are they getting their money to survive?

You are deliberately misleading by insinuating that Samoa cannot survive without remittances; as if the majority of overseas people send money every week for Samoa to survive on.

That is completely wrong. The majority of people overseas send money for faalavelaves, not for the weekly maintenance of their unemployed family members. Faalavelaves don't happen every day nor every week. 

They happen occasionally throughout the year. Those people who have gone overseas for work to service their family (many of whom are on temporary seasonal contracts) have gone deliberately to serve their families back home. They are in the minority. The majority are those people who do send money back on an occasional basis to maintain their parents wishes or faamatai obligations.

The majority of unemployed people in the village do live on subsistence lifestyle because they don't actually need money to survive. 

They of course get money from visiting family members every now and then, but most of the time, the food from the plantation and from family members working in Apia is how they get by. 

It is not the end of the world if they are unemployed. The plantation is full of free food. Actually, the ulu trees right next to the house are full of free food. The sea is full of free fish. 

There is no rent or mortgages to pay. Remember also that many villages have their own independent water supply so they are not connected to the paid S.W.A water system. So it isn't the end of the world if they have no money.

It is a different story in overseas countries where it IS the end of the world if you have no money because you literally cannot survive without money.

PS Jeffrey