Talofa lau Susuga Papali’i Sia Figiel,

Thank you Ms Figiel for admitting you have been brash, i.e - self confident in a rude, noisy or overbearing way, as the Pocket English Dictionary, South Asia Edition, has it.

I certainly did not expect to be asked: Mr Faalogo, please forgive me for having been brash with my accusations of you as a third rate misogynist journalist with a propensity for hegemonic masculinity. But I did expect an answer to my question on what gave her the right to abuse me for what she thought I said and the reason why she thought so. Now that she has decided to mock me further and compare me to her high school students from  Vaimauga and Maluafou I must reluctantly try and rebut some of her charges..

As I said last week, Ms Figiel is welcome to her opinion but I only asked that she be fair. I thank her for not leaving a stone unturned in her further illumination of her formidable person and her illustrious ancestors.

I don’t know of any famous forebears in our family but I did have five sisters, four daughters, two of whom are older than Ms Figiel, eleven grand-daughters and one great grand-daughter.

It is not true therefore, for her to assert, that as a man, my life is void of the struggles that afflict and mar the lives of us girls and women on a daily basis.

It is true, that I do not get the moon sickness (to use yor term) but, as a parent, I do get involved in the problems of my sisters and their daughters; those of our own daughters and their daughters; and, of course the problems of our other children.

As a writer Ms Figiel obviously has a very lively imagination, as proven by the various characters and events described, in her– Where we once belonged – the only book of hers that I have had to hurriedly read.

It’s a pity that her deductive reasoning is not as lively as her creative imagination.

For example, she jumps from learning English to speak to her American father who was mispronouncing Samoan words of hymns in his effort to learn the language and fit in, to a conclusion that her father’ efforts were hurting God’s ears. How did she know She was listening.

From that she says to me: Now you understand why such infantile and mediocre antics from men such as yourself who hide behind ‘our conservative Samoan women’ when it is convenient, need to be called out.

I won’t argue projectionism, as I can’t prove it on the reading of one book but it does sound like hatred of men is being projected as men hating women.

I think Ms Figiel you should do some googling yourself, and find out the facts of matters that you discuss otherwise you’ll continue to spread fake news and outright lies.    

For instance, if you had bothered to ask the Samoa Observer, the Publisher, Muliagatele Jean Ash- Malifa, would have told you that the newspaper does not employ me at all. I was asked to write a Column for the Samoa Observer because her husband, Gatoaitele Savea Porotesano Malifa, the editor-in-chief, for health reasons, was unable to write articles for the time being. I agreed. I turned down her offer to pay me.

By the way, I have never hidden behind anything; not a skirt nor a lavalava. Again if you wanted the truth you would have found out that I’m the only reporter banned from parliament by a former Speaker. Why? For telling the truth about what a parliamentary committee of the House was really doing at the people’s expense.

Also, I’m the only reporter, that was charged, not once but twice, before the Privileges Committee of the House, and found not guilty – twice.

As to your charge about stone throwing, I can only advise that the Bible’s writing in the mud, is still the wisest.

It must also be remembered that an inference is deductively valid if it its conclusion follows logically from its premises, i.e. it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion to be false.

Na au le ina’ilau a tama’ita’i, moni, ‘ae le ona pau lea o lo tatou malosi: o latou foi o malu o aiga, o pae ma auli, o ‘i’oimata o tuagane ma ali’i o aiga, o ‘ave’au o le filemu, o Tausala – e malu ai ma puipuia ai, aiga ma nu’u.

Manuia le Sapati.