The cost of living should be determined by the money people are earning.

You cannot ask people to buy things they don’t have the money for.

So says Sosefina Alofa of Matatufu Falealili.

The 73-year-old mother says there is huge difference between the cost of living and people’s income generating ability.

“Samoa is a beautiful place and I don’t doubt that,” she told the Village Voice.

“But an issue for most of our people including myself is how our cost of living has gone up to a point where we can’t afford most of our basic needs.” 

“I don’t blame people and I can’t change what they think because we are facing that problem everytime we buy things and when we pay our bills.”

She added “A lot of our people also don’t like the fact that we have so many different businesses set up on our lands by people that are not even citizens of Samoa especially the Chinese, but we can’t ignore the perks of having Chinese businesses here because in truth their shops is where we buy from all the time.” 

“So even if people don’t like the idea of running to these foreigners for help, they have to because desperate times comes desperate measures and our cost of living is the main cause of it.”

Sosefina went on to say that her reasoning on foreigners having businesses here and taking over our lands doesn’t mean she supports them.

“No that’s far from my mind but what I’m saying is, that I can understand why our own people support the Chinese because in a way; they are making all our heavy loads lighter when it comes to the cost of living.”

“And I’m aware of some of the things that they have changed for the betterment of our country like our roads and all the other things.”

“We are now in a time where nothing comes easy anymore and I believe that there are moments of our lives where we are going to struggle and suffer, but the solution doesn’t come from you just sitting around and complain. That will only make things worse for you.”

“If you want something to be heard, if you want to change the situation; you got to voice your opinion and you got to take a stand to make a point.”