Samoa Observer letter - July 17, 2016
Dear Editor,
With Le Tagaloa Pita’s case still fresh on our minds, the monotaga issue is still alive. The horse is not dead yet. From the complexity and intricacy of the whole enigma, the monotaga will continue to be scrutinized legally for a while.
I predict that it will continue to be revised until the courts and the present government are satisfied and have accomplished their goal - whatever that might be. By such time, the cultural practice and legal definition will have been at their greatest odds, with tradition and culture being the likely losers.
Besides the fact that paramount chiefs are exempt from rendering a traditional monotaga, as most Samoans understand it, here is a couple of other aspects that would likely complicate the issue further.
Multiple Matai Titles.
There are individuals with multiple matai titles. Ideally, at least in the socio-cultural sense, they should render a monotaga to every village of their different titles. In reality, however, I doubt that is the case. Are these monitored and enforced in any way?
It can be quite arbitrary, at least until election time when that one lucky village that bestowed the “election title” gets the required mandatory monotaga. Other villages will have to wait their turn, if ever. Divided loyalty can also be an issue with these particular matais. Now, if that is not enough to create an election conundrum, then consider this next one - an obvious extension of the above issue.
It has to do with a matai with multiple titles from villages within the same electoral district. I understand that the law looks only at the monotaga to the village of the title under which a candidate is running. This scenario may be improbable but not impossible.
Say that villages A, B and C are all in the same electoral district. Candidate X has titles from villages B and C and he runs under his/her title from village B. His monotaga, to village B only, is therefore legally mandatory, and would be scrutinized, checked and considered.
As a result, village C may or may not receive a monotaga from Candidate X at all.
It will not be recommended or mandated under the law. In that case, village C should have the right to file a complaint or sue the candidate and/or government on grounds of bias, favoritism and discrimination.
If a monotaga is required by law from a matai to the so-called “election title” village, then it should also be required for all other villages that bestowed his other titles. Otherwise a monotaga in one village is not the same in another, hence undermining the consistency and uniformity the present law tries to accomplish across the board, as any law would.
Moreover, the mandatory monotaga by Candidate X to village B should therefore be equally binding on village C, being from the same electoral district, and from the fact that Candidate X is the representative for both villages.
In this scenario, the principle of true and fair representation is at issue. The candidate is a representative (MP) for a district not a village. Hence, if the monotaga has any efficacy or legal merits, and be allowed to stand as a requirement for a candidate to run in the elections, it should be rendered to the district - not the village.
The monotaga is a malleable beast. If you subdue it by severing one of its parts, it regenerates another.
Ma le fa’aaloalo lava,
LV Letalu
7/18/16
6/28/16
Moana Revisited: Disney's Little Big Secret?
Presently, there are certain people who are frustrated and angry on the Internet. They're mostly Polynesians. They're angry at Donald Duck's maker, Disney. They're angry about Dwayne. The Rock. Well not with him personally but with his "character" (Maui) in the upcoming new Disney cartoon, Moana.
So what's their main beef? Well, it's about Maui being depicted as a beefy, fat, obese Poly guy. Ok, demigod. The Poly's are not pleased with using a stereotype as a model for Maui. Maui is supposed to be a Polynesian god/demigod, handsome and well built like a Greek god, or like the Rock himself.
So what do I think? Does it matter what I think? Well it depends. I think my angry Poly's may have a point, depending on whether Maui is perceived as fat and bulky or just big and all muscles plastered on a Poly frame.
But I have a theory of my own. Here.
Dwayne Johnson was/is a pro wrestler, an Afro-Polynesian one. He grew up in and around wrestling. His father was a professional wrestler and his grandfather was one too. Johnson however is slightly an atypical Poly wrestler in build. He is a mutant image of the famous duo Afa and Sika (aka The Wild Samoans). But Johnson is also a near foil, physically, of another more famous Samoan wrestler. Peter Fanene Maivia - his grandfather.
So my theory is that Disney used him, Maivia, as a model for Maui. For someone who has etched in his mind the picture of Peter Maivia's image during his heyday, I can say that Maui is easily a clone. While growing up in Lalomanu, The Rock's grandmother's village, we, the children, used to go to the family's house and would sneak a peek at a picture of Maivia pasted on one of the posts. And the picture was one like this one (above) - big, buff, muscular guy with long curls. Word got around that he used his long curls to entice his opponents then would go in for the fall.
Again, we who grew up in Lalomanu, after many years, still remember Maivia to be this hulk of a man. And much later after he had his pe'a (tattoo), he became even more of an archetype and symbol. Yes, very much like Maui.
Could Disney have done The Rock a favor and use his grandfather as a model for his Maui character? That's very possible. And if my theory has merit, then Maui, like Maivia, is not obese or flabby, he is big, buff and muscular.
Sorry my angry Poly friends!
So what's their main beef? Well, it's about Maui being depicted as a beefy, fat, obese Poly guy. Ok, demigod. The Poly's are not pleased with using a stereotype as a model for Maui. Maui is supposed to be a Polynesian god/demigod, handsome and well built like a Greek god, or like the Rock himself.
So what do I think? Does it matter what I think? Well it depends. I think my angry Poly's may have a point, depending on whether Maui is perceived as fat and bulky or just big and all muscles plastered on a Poly frame.
But I have a theory of my own. Here.
 |
| Maivia, model for Maui? |
So my theory is that Disney used him, Maivia, as a model for Maui. For someone who has etched in his mind the picture of Peter Maivia's image during his heyday, I can say that Maui is easily a clone. While growing up in Lalomanu, The Rock's grandmother's village, we, the children, used to go to the family's house and would sneak a peek at a picture of Maivia pasted on one of the posts. And the picture was one like this one (above) - big, buff, muscular guy with long curls. Word got around that he used his long curls to entice his opponents then would go in for the fall.
Again, we who grew up in Lalomanu, after many years, still remember Maivia to be this hulk of a man. And much later after he had his pe'a (tattoo), he became even more of an archetype and symbol. Yes, very much like Maui.
Could Disney have done The Rock a favor and use his grandfather as a model for his Maui character? That's very possible. And if my theory has merit, then Maui, like Maivia, is not obese or flabby, he is big, buff and muscular.
Sorry my angry Poly friends!
 |
| Maui |
 |
| Maivia |
6/23/16
My Father's Day Weekend
...in pictures. It was a beautiful weekend. The weather was warm and sunny - great sports weather
So on Saturday I went to watch and support two of the grandsons in their baseball games (not football, that'll be in three months)...
this little guy, member of my cheering squad, loves his reunion t-shirt...loves to cheer his older brother too
first game, ready to bat
... and he did hit a home run...
watching and having fun
...second game for second grandson - same afternoon
...youngest granddaughter cheering her brother
after the games I had lunch with dearie ... sandwiches/panini (crab avocado) soups (lobster bisque) salads (mango berry)
...on sunday, went to church then spent rest of day with family
with eldest granddaughter
...father's day squad ...with our very charismatic fearless leader ....lol
6/20/16
What Cancer Costs - A Good Read!
Really? Wow, this is an eye-opener and shocker for me. As if the physical and emotional stress from the disease itself is not bad enough, the costs certainly can make things worse. A very informative article.
What cancer costs
By Jennifer Graham, Deseret News National Edition
Chemotherapy, the most common treatment for cancer, has famously unpleasant side effects, including nausea, fatigue and hair loss. Less known is how much all that misery costs.
Although costs vary by the type of drug and cancer, a month of chemotherapy by infusion typically costs more than $10,000. And for many people, that's just the beginning of a grueling course of treatment that may involve months of chemo, radiation, surgery to remove tumors and drugs.
"Cancer is extraordinarily expensive," said Lisa Goldman, a 43-year-old California mother of two who has advanced lung cancer and takes medicine that costs her insurance company more than $14,000 for a month's supply. "But it's ever-present in our lives and there's not a whole lot I can do about that."
Even if you're well-insured like Goldman, the cost of treatment can empty a family's bank account. Goldman has insurance through her husband's job, but she has to pay the first $6,000 of her medical bills each year, which makes balancing the budget in January and February especially difficult.
More Americans die of heart disease than cancer, but cancer is more expensive with out-of-pocket expenses that are greater than those paid by patients with other conditions, like Alzheimer's disease or heart disease, according to researchers at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina. They've been studying what they call "financial toxicity" — the toll that accumulating medical expenses exact on people with cancer.
"The financial burden on a patient can be overwhelming," said Dr. Yousuf Zafar, an associate professor of medicine and public policy at Duke Cancer Institute.
It's estimated that about 60 percent of bankruptcies in the U.S. — more than half a million cases — are due in part to medical debt. Americans and their insurers spent $37.8 billion on cancer drugs in 2015, and the cost is predicted to rise between 7.5 percent and 10.5 percent each year through 2020.
The average cost for a year of treatment in 2014 was $58,097, according to the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. That's more than the average American family earns.
Although in one study only about 1 in 5 cancer patients discussed the cost of their treatment with their doctors, Zafar believes doctors should talk to their patients about how cancer will affect their family's finances and guide them to resources that might help.
There are nonprofit organizations that offer assistance, from paying mortgages and other expenses, to providing house cleaning, transportation and meals. Even so, many families still find their standard of living changes for the worse after a cancer diagnosis.
Another side effect
According to the American Cancer Society, nearly one-third of cancer survivors suffer financial hardship after their diagnosis, and they're more likely to skip or delay treatment if they think they can't afford it.
Those who borrow money or declare bankruptcy have the worst physical and mental health quality of life, according to Kari Dahlstrom, a spokeswoman for the Cancer Society.
This confirms research by Zafar and his colleagues, who found that 42 percent of cancer patients reported a “significant or catastrophic” financial situation caused by their illness.
People who were young or have large families were more likely to struggle financially after a diagnosis, the researchers said.
To cope, one-quarter didn’t fill prescriptions because of finances, and nearly 20 percent took less than the amount prescribed.
Despite this, a study published in The American Journal of Managed Care in 2015 found that only 19 percent of cancer patients had discussed their financial situation with their doctors, although more than half said they wanted to have this conversation with their doctors and wanted their doctors to consider the cost when offering treatment options.
Although figuring out how to pay for treatment is not part of an oncologist’s job description, the impact of financial toxicity should matter to doctors, since financial stress can worsen a patient’s health and inhibit recovery.
“As an oncologist, I’m very concerned about physical side effects, and this (financial toxicity) is another side effect of treatment,” Zafar, the lead author of both studies, said. “If we ignore the cost to patients, there’s a very good chance they may not be adherent to treatment.”
The limits of insurance
For Goldman, of Mountain View, California, the sticker shock of cancer treatment was secondary to the shock of learning she had Stage IV lung cancer at age 41 since she'd never smoked and had always been healthy until a nagging cough sent her to the doctor.
Soon, however, she found herself enduring eight-hour chemotherapy infusions that cost more than $15,000 each, and she had to have a session every three weeks for eight months.
The chemotherapy was so expensive that when she graduated to a twice-daily pill -- its cost before discounts and rebates, $14,336 a month – this seemed reasonable by comparison.
Although she is an attorney in good standing with the California Bar, Goldman had been caring for their two children (now 10 and 13) full time, and she was insured through her husband’s university job.
Even so, they have to pay the first $6,000 of her treatment before they've had a chance to accrue the money in a medical savings account, and insurance doesn't cover the auxiliary costs of cancer: child care, nutritional supplements, high-quality food and, in Goldman's case, acupuncture, which can cost more than $100 a session.
She receives a monthly disability check from Social Security that helps to cover the extras, and her parents and in-laws have helped the couple with money for vacations.
"I feel really fortunate in that I've had more support than a lot of cancer patients have," said Goldman, who has been writing about the ordeal on a blog called "Every Breath I Take." But her case illustrates what many other families know: Cancer can affect not just the patient's finances, but that of the extended family as well.
Molly MacDonald of Beverly Hills, Michigan, is the founder of The Pink Fund, a nonprofit group that helps pay the basic expenses for women experiencing extreme financial hardship because of breast cancer. She knows of one man with cancer who had to borrow $300,000 from his mother to pay for his treatment, and her mother paid her mortgage for six months when she was in treatment and broke.
MacDonald identifies with the 63 percent of Americans who say they wouldn’t know how to cover an unexpected $500 bill. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 at age 54, seven years after a divorce that left her with five children under the age of 13 and no savings.
She was also between jobs, so her priority was to pay the COBRA premium, which was $1,274 a month.
After paying that, and buying food for her children, there wasn’t much left. She had to beg creditors not to repossess her car, and even with her mother’s help, her house went into foreclosure. She began to think that her children would be better off if she died and they could collect on her life insurance.
In waiting rooms, she talked to other women in similar predicaments and got the idea of a financial bridge to help women over the dark waters of treatment. Since incorporating in 2007, The Pink Fund has distributed more than $1.5 million to help nearly 1,500 women.
They include a single mother receiving treatment while her mother was dying of pancreatic cancer, and a woman who had only catastrophic insurance and couldn’t afford to pay the deductible and take time off work. (To combat potential fraud, The Pink Fund issues payments directly to creditors. Also, applicants must provide two years of tax returns and two months of bank statements.)
Cancer-free for 11 years now, MacDonald, 65, is a crusader for helping women in the circumstances she once endured. Like Zafar, the Duke oncologist, she encourages people to discuss their finances with their doctors, even though there is currently no medical coding that allows doctors to be paid for this time.
“Talking about personal financial issues is embarrassing and challenging, but it’s an important conversation,” she said. She encourages people to carefully read the explanation-of-benefits forms, and learn about medical coding, to be sure that your bills are processed correctly. If an EOB code is one digit or letter off, it could affect your co-pay.
Also, take your most assertive relative or friend to the doctor with you, and have that person ask the questions and demand the answers you need, she added.
If you still can't afford treatment, look into nonprofit groups that offer assistance (such as the HealthWell Foundation and the Cancer Financial Assistance Coalition), apply for co-payment help from groups funded by pharmaceutical companies (a website called Rxassist shows options), or ask your hospital for a payment plan, MacDonald said, but get it in writing, and don't miss a payment, or you'll be in trouble again.
Although The Pink Fund only helps people with breast cancer, MacDonald hopes others start similar funds for other types of cancer; someone recently inquired about starting a Blue Fund for prostate cancer, she said.
"My goal is to help people get what they need and to encourage other people who want to make a difference. If I could start this while standing in line at the food bank, they can, too."
EMAIL: Jgraham@deseretnews.com
What cancer costs
By Jennifer Graham, Deseret News National Edition
Chemotherapy, the most common treatment for cancer, has famously unpleasant side effects, including nausea, fatigue and hair loss. Less known is how much all that misery costs.
Although costs vary by the type of drug and cancer, a month of chemotherapy by infusion typically costs more than $10,000. And for many people, that's just the beginning of a grueling course of treatment that may involve months of chemo, radiation, surgery to remove tumors and drugs.
"Cancer is extraordinarily expensive," said Lisa Goldman, a 43-year-old California mother of two who has advanced lung cancer and takes medicine that costs her insurance company more than $14,000 for a month's supply. "But it's ever-present in our lives and there's not a whole lot I can do about that."
Even if you're well-insured like Goldman, the cost of treatment can empty a family's bank account. Goldman has insurance through her husband's job, but she has to pay the first $6,000 of her medical bills each year, which makes balancing the budget in January and February especially difficult.
More Americans die of heart disease than cancer, but cancer is more expensive with out-of-pocket expenses that are greater than those paid by patients with other conditions, like Alzheimer's disease or heart disease, according to researchers at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina. They've been studying what they call "financial toxicity" — the toll that accumulating medical expenses exact on people with cancer.
"The financial burden on a patient can be overwhelming," said Dr. Yousuf Zafar, an associate professor of medicine and public policy at Duke Cancer Institute.
It's estimated that about 60 percent of bankruptcies in the U.S. — more than half a million cases — are due in part to medical debt. Americans and their insurers spent $37.8 billion on cancer drugs in 2015, and the cost is predicted to rise between 7.5 percent and 10.5 percent each year through 2020.
The average cost for a year of treatment in 2014 was $58,097, according to the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. That's more than the average American family earns.
Although in one study only about 1 in 5 cancer patients discussed the cost of their treatment with their doctors, Zafar believes doctors should talk to their patients about how cancer will affect their family's finances and guide them to resources that might help.
There are nonprofit organizations that offer assistance, from paying mortgages and other expenses, to providing house cleaning, transportation and meals. Even so, many families still find their standard of living changes for the worse after a cancer diagnosis.
Another side effect
According to the American Cancer Society, nearly one-third of cancer survivors suffer financial hardship after their diagnosis, and they're more likely to skip or delay treatment if they think they can't afford it.
Those who borrow money or declare bankruptcy have the worst physical and mental health quality of life, according to Kari Dahlstrom, a spokeswoman for the Cancer Society.
This confirms research by Zafar and his colleagues, who found that 42 percent of cancer patients reported a “significant or catastrophic” financial situation caused by their illness.
People who were young or have large families were more likely to struggle financially after a diagnosis, the researchers said.
To cope, one-quarter didn’t fill prescriptions because of finances, and nearly 20 percent took less than the amount prescribed.
Despite this, a study published in The American Journal of Managed Care in 2015 found that only 19 percent of cancer patients had discussed their financial situation with their doctors, although more than half said they wanted to have this conversation with their doctors and wanted their doctors to consider the cost when offering treatment options.
Although figuring out how to pay for treatment is not part of an oncologist’s job description, the impact of financial toxicity should matter to doctors, since financial stress can worsen a patient’s health and inhibit recovery.
“As an oncologist, I’m very concerned about physical side effects, and this (financial toxicity) is another side effect of treatment,” Zafar, the lead author of both studies, said. “If we ignore the cost to patients, there’s a very good chance they may not be adherent to treatment.”
The limits of insurance
For Goldman, of Mountain View, California, the sticker shock of cancer treatment was secondary to the shock of learning she had Stage IV lung cancer at age 41 since she'd never smoked and had always been healthy until a nagging cough sent her to the doctor.
Soon, however, she found herself enduring eight-hour chemotherapy infusions that cost more than $15,000 each, and she had to have a session every three weeks for eight months.
The chemotherapy was so expensive that when she graduated to a twice-daily pill -- its cost before discounts and rebates, $14,336 a month – this seemed reasonable by comparison.
Although she is an attorney in good standing with the California Bar, Goldman had been caring for their two children (now 10 and 13) full time, and she was insured through her husband’s university job.
Even so, they have to pay the first $6,000 of her treatment before they've had a chance to accrue the money in a medical savings account, and insurance doesn't cover the auxiliary costs of cancer: child care, nutritional supplements, high-quality food and, in Goldman's case, acupuncture, which can cost more than $100 a session.
She receives a monthly disability check from Social Security that helps to cover the extras, and her parents and in-laws have helped the couple with money for vacations.
"I feel really fortunate in that I've had more support than a lot of cancer patients have," said Goldman, who has been writing about the ordeal on a blog called "Every Breath I Take." But her case illustrates what many other families know: Cancer can affect not just the patient's finances, but that of the extended family as well.
Molly MacDonald of Beverly Hills, Michigan, is the founder of The Pink Fund, a nonprofit group that helps pay the basic expenses for women experiencing extreme financial hardship because of breast cancer. She knows of one man with cancer who had to borrow $300,000 from his mother to pay for his treatment, and her mother paid her mortgage for six months when she was in treatment and broke.
MacDonald identifies with the 63 percent of Americans who say they wouldn’t know how to cover an unexpected $500 bill. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 at age 54, seven years after a divorce that left her with five children under the age of 13 and no savings.
She was also between jobs, so her priority was to pay the COBRA premium, which was $1,274 a month.
After paying that, and buying food for her children, there wasn’t much left. She had to beg creditors not to repossess her car, and even with her mother’s help, her house went into foreclosure. She began to think that her children would be better off if she died and they could collect on her life insurance.
In waiting rooms, she talked to other women in similar predicaments and got the idea of a financial bridge to help women over the dark waters of treatment. Since incorporating in 2007, The Pink Fund has distributed more than $1.5 million to help nearly 1,500 women.
They include a single mother receiving treatment while her mother was dying of pancreatic cancer, and a woman who had only catastrophic insurance and couldn’t afford to pay the deductible and take time off work. (To combat potential fraud, The Pink Fund issues payments directly to creditors. Also, applicants must provide two years of tax returns and two months of bank statements.)
Cancer-free for 11 years now, MacDonald, 65, is a crusader for helping women in the circumstances she once endured. Like Zafar, the Duke oncologist, she encourages people to discuss their finances with their doctors, even though there is currently no medical coding that allows doctors to be paid for this time.
“Talking about personal financial issues is embarrassing and challenging, but it’s an important conversation,” she said. She encourages people to carefully read the explanation-of-benefits forms, and learn about medical coding, to be sure that your bills are processed correctly. If an EOB code is one digit or letter off, it could affect your co-pay.
Also, take your most assertive relative or friend to the doctor with you, and have that person ask the questions and demand the answers you need, she added.
If you still can't afford treatment, look into nonprofit groups that offer assistance (such as the HealthWell Foundation and the Cancer Financial Assistance Coalition), apply for co-payment help from groups funded by pharmaceutical companies (a website called Rxassist shows options), or ask your hospital for a payment plan, MacDonald said, but get it in writing, and don't miss a payment, or you'll be in trouble again.
Although The Pink Fund only helps people with breast cancer, MacDonald hopes others start similar funds for other types of cancer; someone recently inquired about starting a Blue Fund for prostate cancer, she said.
"My goal is to help people get what they need and to encourage other people who want to make a difference. If I could start this while standing in line at the food bank, they can, too."
EMAIL: Jgraham@deseretnews.com
6/2/16
A Purcellebration - The 2016 Reunion
I won’t even try to describe this one through exposition, like last time. No. Leai. Will not even try it, or think about trying it. Instead I’ll let the pictures - even if only a few of some thousands and thousands - taken during the four-day event, tell the story. Or just part of the story. It may be the only way (again through pictures) that anyone will be able to do some justice to what transpired over the Memorial Day weekend in St. George, Utah. Yep, the Purcell Family Reunion. A repeat of last year’s premiere - only bigger and better this time around. Pictures, videos, video clips and segments not to mention live feeds and streaming by which some of those who didn’t attend were able to have a virtual experience of most events, all contributed in making the reunion memorable, historic and remarkable.
The low estimate for the attendance was at 1100 and peaked at around 1300-1400's. By any family reunion standards, that is heeeeooooge! Now, speaking of pictures: You minus about a third, which made up of the little children and some older folks, leaving the rest (about 900-1000), with almost as many cell phones clicking every few seconds. And the outcome is pictures in the thousands. Most of them of course are/will all be found on Facebook or Instagram. In case you can’t view them there for one reason or another, well I'm posting some here, with captions here and there. And I will add more pictures as they become available; in other words this post will grow from the addition of more pics, just maybe enough to give you an idea of what the reunion was like. It was crazy. It was chaotic. It was fun. It was amazing. It was euphoric. It was memorable. It was beautiful. In other words, it was excellent, as in PURCELLENT!! Enjoy!
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| official reunion logo |
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| the huge gymnasium with stage and pair of tv screens, big enough to qualify as jumbotrons...LOL! |
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| perspective... perspective... perspective... |
...picture backdrop consisting of logo and purcell family crest
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| donning committee uniform ...lol |
venue where eating (most important event ...lol) took place.
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| homemade bread and cocoa rice after family fireside |
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| our group getting ready to perform |
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| dearie and daughters - all members of reunion committee |
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| getting ready for the performance |
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| dearie with her mom and some of the womenfolk of their Edwin/Etuina branch.... |
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| this iconic sign was built in our home by our family |
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| demo night... 2 days before the reunion |
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| children - the ones for whom any family reunion is intended |
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| ... they had their own group and their own assigned dances and songs for the entertainment in Monday's cultural program. |
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| prep time |
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| those who were born, raised, lived or hailed from new zealand for this reunion given a chance to perform the haka and other favorite maori dances |
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| the older generation song practice |
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| the youth |
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| young adults |
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| a mini reunion for some who were born, raised and lived in malaela (after church) |
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| reminiscing and recalling stories and memories of malaela |
5/12/16
Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child
The following excerpt is from a Samoa Observer article (08 May 2016) titled "P.M. blames "palagi" law"
Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi, has attributed the growing problem of interschool violence to Samoa's decision to adopt a number of international conventions* giving children more freedom. He said these contradict the teachings of the Holy Bible, which should be strictly adhered to.
Tuilaepa made the comments following the closure of Avele College last week as Police investigate threats made on social media in relation to a fight with Maluafou College.
Referring to the Bible, Tuilaepa said Biblical principles bring peace.
"We can't hide this from parents and the teachers that they can no longer control their children," said Tuilaepa.
"It's all because they reached out to these legislations from overseas instead of using the teachings of the Bible.
"Spare the rod and spoil the child is one of the teachings that should be used to deal with children."
The Prime Minister said the lessons he learnt from being beaten by the teachers have shaped him to be the person he is today.
"I would've been another thief out there assaulting people if it wasn't for that beating from the teachers…that is what I'm saying, why should we follow palagi laws when we have the teachings from the Bible?"
The Prime Minister did not mention any specific legislations in terms of international conventions he was referring to.... (emphases mine)
An editorial by the same newspaper on the article followed, to which I wrote the following response:
I’m glad that the PM often resorts to the Bible as a source of inspiration. That is commendable, although caution should be taken not to interpret it out of context or to use it to rationalize and justify certain behaviors or actions. I think he, and others, need to know that some (if not most) parts of the so-called “palagi laws” (re: Common Law) have their origins in the Bible too. So that’s a contradiction and irony in what the PM has claimed. The implication in the denunciation of “palagi laws” is that there are also “Samoa/n laws” which are far better and superior. Is it the Faa-Samoa? The last time I checked, the Constitution (consisting of mostly “palagi laws”) is still the supreme law of the land.
It also leads me to wonder what kinds of “laws” we had as Samoans prior to Christianity. It was the time that we often refer to as “aso o le pogisa” (our own “dark ages”?), “ma tu faapaupau” (barbarism?) I’m sure we lived under natural and universal laws and the law of the jungle. The Faa-Samoa has certainly evolved and changed through the years and today, I’m sure, some of its elements and roots can also be traced to Christianity - hence to the palagis (“sky busters”).
Moreover, “spare the rod and spoil the child”, verbatim, is not found in the Bible. The concept may be in the several verses in Proverbs, but I believe it’s mostly taken out of context. As a result the verses are interpreted literally to mean that parents can and should hit/beat/spank their children as a form of discipline. One of the verses is: "He that spares his rod hates his son: but he that loves him chastens him betimes" (Proverbs 13:24). The more complete text certainly adds some context and opens up the expression to a less cruel interpretation and meaning. I like this quote by one church leader:
“.... I have never accepted the principle of "spare the rod and spoil the child." I will be forever grateful for a father who never laid a hand in anger upon his children. Somehow he had the wonderful talent to let them know what was expected of them and to give them encouragement in achieving it. I am persuaded that violent fathers produce violent sons. I am satisfied that such punishment in most instances does more damage than good. Children don't need beating. They need love and encouragement. They need fathers to whom they can look with respect rather than fear. Above all, they need example. I recently read a biography of George H. Brimhall, who at one time served as president of Brigham Young University. Concerning him, someone said that he reared "his boys with a rod, but it [was] a fishing rod". (Gordon B. Hinckley)
I think the crux of the PM’s spiel and the “palagi laws” reference has to do with “rights” (individual rights) as you assert Mataafa. An article in the Savali (October 1, 2012) titled: “Police Commissioner: Western Rights Undermining Faa-Samoa,” has the essence of what the PM is trying to say. Here are some excerpts:
“The western [palagi] concept of individual rights is creating disorder in the villages. It is encouraging youths to rebel against the matai and the village councils.”
“... we are trying to introduce and promote [individual rights] that [are] completely foreign, completely the opposite to FaaSamoa. And it is destroying the peace, the harmony and the orderliness of our villages.”
Although these opinions were voiced by the former and late Police Commissioner, they actually reflect what most in government and the country believe and agree. The PM seems to espouse them too, much to the chagrin of his own party’s namesake, platform and agenda for human rights.
Though Christianity may be collective in its responsibilities, it is actually individual in its accountability and finality. Free will (agency/choice) is something that is divine. It is Biblical. Individual rights - despite their “palaginess” - are therefore more biblical than the disciplining of children with the rod. Finally, individual rights are not supposed to be unfettered, unbridled or unchecked, they still need to be defined and regulated within the virtues and moral limits of a society. And therein lies the difference between natural liberty and moral liberty - the latter of course being nobler, more virtuous and honorable.
Ma le faaaloalo lava,
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* The PM was obviously referring to the United Nations "Convention on the Rights of the Child" ratified by Samoa on November 29, 1994.
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* The PM was obviously referring to the United Nations "Convention on the Rights of the Child" ratified by Samoa on November 29, 1994.
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