The Kele'a has some interesting write-ups this week.

* Why are QSC Ex-Students adamant / belligerent about buying a TOP$3million property that is obviously not worth the money, and they wish to put it to use that is already provided by many other services in Tonga.

* What is the disagreement between the Ministry of Finance and the Prime Ministers' Office that lead to the delay in this year's budget ? Did they really try to spruce up the damned economy ?

* Why is the President of the Free Wesleyan Church preaching holier than tow when everything points to the other with his own actions ? (Read: recent appointments)

You know it hurts when you give credit to the Kele'a for breaking news that should have been covered by the other mainstream papers, but they conveniently led slide ...

There's a strange thing about the Kava import restrictions (bans?) in Australia.

Apart from the fact that it seems the federal government is jumping on solving the symptom of the problem, to assuage public opinion against their inactions over the 'aborigine problem.' After all, the rampant alcohol abuse by aboriginal communities have not lead to bans of imports on alcohol, which has a world ready list of documentation on the damage it does to body and soul.

Let's just say that the Australian Government doesn't really want to bite the bullet and take the action required to resolve the actual problems of the people in aborigine communities. Kind of like the problem with Sydney's transport system.

But then again, Tongans crave for their own freedom to run their own country as they see fit. We have our own Sunday laws we do not want changed by outsiders and their own traditions. Let Australia set their own standards, just push them if you think it is wrong.

There is also the problem that some of the complainants, Kava Resellers/Importers, could probably be blamed for the current excess shown by some aborigines. After all, the Kava plants and their crushed cousins didn't take the nearest bus to Arnhem land, someone had to take it there and then demonstrate their wonderful qualities to the poor sods out there.

Let me here it again ? Who are the people suffering from not having Kava instead of Coffee ? Who are the people suffering from abuse of alcohol, soft drugs?

Photo courtesy of ThinkQuest Library entry on Samoans by Enchanted Lake Elementary School

Tonga-Now to continue - Minister of Finance

5/07/2007 10:42:11 a.m.

Responding to the overwhelming reaction to the announcement of the closure of Tonga-Now, the Hon. Minister of Finance, Siosiua T.T. 'Utoikamanu, has reviewed his decision to allow Tonga-Now to continue to operate. The Minister has received extensive support messages and responses from Tongans and concerned individuals from both here and abroad for the need to keep the Tonga-Now website because it is a major source of information about the Kingdom.  The Minister has also instructed that it shall report in a non-biased and professional manner and to keep informing readers about the latest events in Tonga, particularly on economic and revenue reforms and related issues

It was a nice little bit of local drama, that further gave credence to Kele'a's current edition which accused there having been conflicts between the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance. Seeing as how there is so much incredible articles in the Kele'a and their online partner TongaStar, it is hard to give them credit, but Tonga-Now.to being scheduled for closure sure put a lot of interest into the Kele'a's print.

Welcome back Tonga-Now.to, even if you hadn't left the building (anyone seen Elvis?)

I really think Tonga-Now is doing great service for the Government and People of Tonga. Keep up the high standard of reporting and give us enough information so we can make up our own minds about what is going on.

We seem to be getting more information about the new rubbish collection service bestowed upon us by our illustrious, no hankey-pankey government.

It is only now that we seem to be getting informed that the TOP$10.00 a month fee is not voluntary, and that ALL households will be required to pay whether they use the service or not.

Tonga-Now: Trial rubbish collection service conducted

The service will cost each household TOP$10 and is a new compulsory charge under the Waste Management Act 2005. Each household will be charged for the service whether or not he/she makes use of it.

Seems to have been overlooked as an issue while they were promoting the new dump / rubbish pick-up.

When we first heard the news about the $10 monthly fee I thought that it was exceedingly generous and that the only way that they were going to make this profitable (i.e. make enough money to buy new trucks 'cause the roads are going to kill the trucks they are using now) is to somehow either get a majority of Tongatapu residents signed up, or force everyone to pay.

We were previously using a private firm, Waste Management Ltd, to pick up our rubbish at a cost of $8 pa'anga per pick-up, and now Government is going to pick-up my rubbish FOUR times a month for only $10 pa'anga a saving to me of ($8.00 x 4 - $10 = $22.00). Geezz living in Tonga is just getting cheaper!!

Visit bTonga

Sincerely appreciate the efforts Pesi, Mary Fonua and their team are doing at Vava'u Press to get themselves back online. It would seem that the purveyors of truth (the Demolition Movement) may have targetted Pesi and Mary's service as it has recently been quite critical of the movement's methods (along with being critical of government as well.)

Although citizen journalism has helped us thus far with getting some news of what is happening in Tonga, it is nonetheless quite different when professionals put finger to keyboard (although it would have been nice to get larger images?)

Matangi Tonga has been an incredible resource for Tongans overseas and local with cutting and insightful interviews. I've disagreed with some of their editorial work, but their value to Tonga and Freedom are much more than can be measured.

Best wishes to the team and hopefully you can be up and running smoothly before too long.

Sam T

Kisione Taufa has a blog up on Planet-Tonga and he's been allowed, together with other news/photographers to walk the destruction that is now in the restricted access zone.

There's more @ http://planet-tonga.com/ktaufa/2006/11/19/faingamalie-faita-he-feituu-tapu-controlled-area-o-nukualofa/#more-8 but a beginning snippet is below.

FAINGAMALIE FAITA HE FEITU'U TAPU (PROHIBITED AREA) 'O NUKU'ALOFÁ.

Ne faingam lie ' o ma' u ha ngaahi ata mei loto Nuku' alofá, hili hono fanongonongo mai e he LetiM Tongá a e faingam lie ki he kau faiongoongó e faka' at a e fait he feitu' u tapu o Nuku' alofá. Na' e tataki mo tokanga' i p e he Ofisa Ma' olunga mo e ni' ihi mei he Taumalu' i Fonua a Tongá a e kulupú koe' uhi ko e ngaahi " Crime Scene" ke oua na' a uesia.

Ko hono fakama' ala' ala ena e Lafitani Sikalu a e kau faiongoongó a ia na' e fakahoko i he toumu' a o e api nofo' anga o e Palesiteni Siasi j esiliana Tau' at ina o Tongá. Ne iai foki moe kau faiongoongo mei he Televisone Uluaki, Tolu, mo e Tangata Pasifika o Aotealoá. Ko e toenga ko e kau faiongoongo fakalotofonua ma' ae ngaahi kautaha ongoongo kehekehe p o kau ai au mei he Planet-Tonga..

I hono fakalukufuá, ko e anga eni eku vahevahe lalahi ki he ngaahi maumau mo e mofia i loto Nuku' alofaá.

NGAAHI FALE OKU KEI HAO IKAI HA MAUMAU

Ko e Maketi Talamahu.

Ko e Falekoloa Naunau Langa o e South Pac Builders Ltd.

Ko e ngaahi pisinisi kehekehe a e Fund Management House.

Tonga's riot makes the 3rd page of the Daily Telegraph with a bright picture of Narrotam engulfed in flames.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/ 2006.11.18 22:00

1. Troops begin patrols in Tonga

   News Interactive - 1 hour, 45 minutes ago

   AUSTRALIAN troops have begun patrolling Tonga's international airport in an effort to restore calm, as dozens of Australians prepare to flee the strife-torn South Pacific nation.

2. Aussies fleeing Tongan strife

   News Interactive - 2 hours, 47 minutes ago

   AUSTRALIAN troops and police have arrived in Tonga as dozens of Australians prepared to flee the strife-torn nation on a Government sponsored flight to Sydney.

3. Australians touch-down in Tonga

   News Interactive - 2 hours, 55 minutes ago

   A DEPLOYMENT of Australian troops and police has arrived in strife-torn Tonga.

4. Aussies fleeing Tongan strife

   News Interactive - 3 hours, 10 minutes ago

   DOZENS of Australians are fleeing strife-torn Tonga on a Government sponsored flight to Sydney.

5. Diggers to patrol Tongan airport

   News Interactive - 5 hours, 10 minutes ago

   A CONTINGENT of Australian troops deployed to Tonga will begin patrolling the troubled nation's international airport later today in an effort to restore calm to the South Pacific nation.

Other than that ? We had a great birthday party at Anna and Ilavalu's celebrating their daughter's (Kalesita) birthday.

They say that any form of advertising is good advertising.

But the front page of the New York Times ?

Thanks to Jason Kearns, former Peace Corp Volunteer, and a friend to Tonga/Tongans for the heads up.

Definitely too many heads thinking its cool to trash other people's property.

Oh yes, there was nothing remotely anti-government about all the wanton destruction and definitely a lot of pure adrenaline driven greed. 

Apparently, the Police knew at the onset of the rioting and violence that they were definitely outnumbered, underpowered, to deal with the ruckus, so they did the next best thing.

The Police apparently spent a lot of their time with that new consumer toy, digital cameras, taking photos of people in the process of committing crimes (as well as being dufus.)

This has lead to the quick apprehension and subsequent jailing of dufus's.

Hurrah for modern technology, just think of it. If this kind of thing had broken in Tonga while another Minister of Police was still in charge, there would not have been enough of these cameras to count on your hands. Today, we all know of the news through these expensive and cheaper models.

Being that we've all been caught by surprise at the violence in Tonga, and the quick destruction of the Matangi Tonga, the lack of flight services to Tonga preventing the International news from getting on the ground. We are in a unique situation of relying on other Tongans to spread the news (otherwise known in good times as random, unsubstantiated gossip?)

What we've heard from our clan (you can check other things out on real web news sites.)

Please remember that these are unconfirmed statements, and some aren't even eye witness reports.

* Kapeta, where we're normally found, is inside the 'exclusion-zone.' Movement in and out is locked down by 'armed'(?) Tonga Defense Services personnel.

* People are staying at home, but Tongans just love to cruise so there's going to be some problems relating to this.

* Downtown area is an 'exclusion-zone,' you better have a good excuse to presume you can get in there.

* The controlled area is quite large, but will have been extended much further if the violence had continued to the following day.

* Nuku'alofa downtown is ashes

* My "@" advertising block at the front of Tungi Arcade prominently displays in many photos of the building going up in flames.

* Tonga High School is absent

* Queen Salote College is/was also under guard and held 1/2 day classes

* The Prime Minister was in deep protection, security cordone at the peak of the devastation

* The Prime Minister's family were under guard, tit-for-tat is as much a fear.

* We Tongans love to watch things unfolding, so there is no clear number on who was involved or who were just witnesses to the criminal behaviour.

* Substance abuse is surprisingly high amongst the youth, and we know we as a society don't deal well with non-violent solutions to substance abusers. Studies of substance abuse of illicit drugs and mind bending stuff was reported back before 2003 . Kingdom of Tonga Qualitative Study of Youth Substance Abuse

* People in Tonga are crying at the horrors that unfolded, at the horror that is reminded by the scorched buildings.

* Tongan/Chinese nationals have fled to the Chinese embassy. A vessel from New Zealand is expected to pick them up soon.

* Violence against Tongan/Chinese have been alluded to by staunch supporters of the Democratic Movement for a long time.

* Violence against the Tongan/Chinese have been ignored by many church leaders, as far as I can recall.

* Church leaders calling for calm did not seem to include a member of the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga (we must be missing somewhere?)

* The President of the Free Wesleyan Church's residence was also targeted but Military personnel arrived before rioters/looters.

* The President of the Free Wesleyan Church spent the evening at the church school Sia'atoutai College, well away from town.

* Tupou College didn't know anything about the ruckus until concerned parents contacted the school to warn their children.

* The rioters/Democratic Movement prayed before their spray of violence. Prayed after they 'won' the democratic vote and then started their torching.

* The Democratic Movement were antagonists in promoting violence as the solution for Tonga's Political woes inviting people to come on the day with hammers, machetes, etc.

* Rioters, also evidenced by photos at Planet Tonga, pillaged facilities before torching them and this seems to have been a common theme in different locations. Straight out criminal activity.

* Robina Nakao's / Fund Management's Star Cinema is also crisp.

* Matangi Tonga is off the air, and one of our respected reporters on Tonga.

* 'Uliti Uata's building down town escaped the arson.

* Jails are overflowing as Police have already rounded up "suspects"

* Part of the Military Base has been converted into a Jail

* The Internet is great!!! Planet Tonga is great!!!

* Government services are currently curtailed although (at least the passport facilities were saved.)

* Crown Law is crisp, along with many of the countries records.

* The saner members of society have volunteered to secure business premises of Tongan/Chinese, with some communities setting up day and night guards around Tongan/Chinese premises.

What we surmise.

(otherwise known as naval gaising)

* Boom time for international telecommunications with everyone and their dog trying to get through to Tonga to see if their relatives are ok. We're getting calls here at the house from people wondering if we were able to get through and what news is up for offer. Mum used to be the news anchor.

* There is going to be a food/consumer goods crisis real soon. 'Ofa Simiki's and Tu'i Uata's vaunted business acumen isn't going to supply enough meat for Tonga's population, unless of course we finally go on that diet we've been planning on doing for the past 10 years.

* Take out the business' that supplied 70% (?) of consumer needs and there is going to be a big hole in the house. We're going to have serious shortages in basic items, such as toilet paper, milk, noodles (oops is that a basic item?)

* Get the news services back online is a priority. Locals need Radio Tonga as a calming influence that Tonga is normal, even running its long list of repeat music is good for everyone.

* Tongans need more TV, Tongans need less TV. Or, something has to be done about those deportees and letting them lose in the community is not doing anyone any good.

* The Tongan rebels/rioters aren't poor. I don't have an iPod, and that fat guy in the photo sure looked like he had one of the latest, and presumably a computer to go along with it for transferring his music of choice.

* SPC PAHA report: Kingdom of Tonga Qualitative Study of Youth Substance Abuse

* Mums and Dads are under serious strain to 'meet' their children in a wholly different world, society, world-view from their own.

* The finger pointing begins at 9:00

* Air Services are going to take a while to get back in order. Facilities for Air New Zealand in Tonga are ashes.

* The Friendly Islands Bookshops was burnt to the ground. They are the suppliers for 70~ 80% of school needs of Tonga, depending on how quickly they can back up and running, schools will have a hard time next year providing critical resources for students (no chalk, no whiteboard markers, no school books)

* The Tonga/Chinese businesses significantly lowered the cost of living for Tongans through their predatory pricing and volume activities. In other words, like them or not, they kept the price of goods affordable in Tonga. We're looking at a future of noodles going from $0.60 to a clean dollar or more.

* Security services are going to be in higher demand in the short term, raising costs for those business that can afford, raising prices for consumers and driving other business out of the market altogether.

* Some of the small Tongan/Tongan business caught up in the riots are just no more. Those proprietors will just have to walk into the banks and try and figure out some solution.

* The bigger business' aren't going to be too much better off financially.

* Tonga really needs expertise in the investigations and logistics that is going to be a part of this clean up job for at least another 3 months. This is where Tonga can really use the assistance sought and offered from Australia and New Zealand. The Australian and New Zealand Police have already shown great skills in other regional investigations so it is very much appreciated that they will be in attendance.

* Digital Cameras have made a big difference in our ability to get the latest news, hopefully it will help in the investigations to put criminals behind bars for a long time.

Well, it never ceases to amaze the ability of the Internet to dispel news.

The PT team and friends in Tonga have a photo gallery up showing some of the violence, violent.

http://planet-tonga.com/gallery/Riots-In-Tonga

And the PAD of choice for Revolutionaries?

If you are having difficulty getting through to Tonga, remember not to blame everything on the anarchy/anarchists.

Tonga is a small / limited market and there is a limited number of international lines used by TCC. Although, as I understand it, Tonfon / Shoreline have more available capacity for international communications, they are also one of the targets of this violence and may not have full attention on keeping the phone lines open.

So, I guess you can blame the rioters for problems with the phone lines, but you can also blame the fact that Tonga is a small economy and there arent' that many lines available in emergency cases like this when everyone wants to get a hold of their relatives.

You can also blame the rioters for putting http://www.matangitonga.to offline, and they have historically been a key source of news for overseas Tongans.

Greatest beneficiaries from this disaster ? The businesses of the Pro-Democracy Movement, in any other situation we'd call this akin to extortion and other forms of corporate level crime.

Unfortunately, those businesses will not be able to supply the daily needs of Tongans. Watch over the next couple of days as prices sky-rocket as demand for basic necessities such as milk and meat outgrows the available supply.

What I would like to see ? Some of the New Zealand suppliers take a little more active role in how they're allowing these Tonga based companies to corrupt the people of Tonga (not blaming them entirely, but they can help out.) Stop providing double invoices for these people, and stop providing hidden tiered pricing (i.e. taking kick-backs under the table to prevent other companies from buying at the same price.) Some suppliers have been involved in perpetuating the elitism and corruption in Tonga. It's a good time to help out.

Wow, and despair along with the whole thing.

The nights over, and we're woken early by Sisitoutai just being who he is as a 2 year-old.

Unfortunately the nightmare that was the news from Tonga may not be 'firing' but the embers glow at the disaster that is the "Democracy Movement" in Tonga. Seems more like it should be called the Nazi Movement or the Socialist/Communist Movement. After-all, in which democratic movement did we see violence against innocent people as the means to gaining representation?

http://beta.planet-tonga.com has a new news digg site which is very helpful for following the news. Congratulations to the team at PT for having this service available at this time. newswire2

Breaking News - Riots in Nuku’alofa

Tonga-Now. http://www.tonga-now.to has on the scene coverage.

Nuku'alofa up in Smoke, etc.

Matangi Tonga seems to have been a victim of the violence and is not updating, meanwhile I have a lot of family and friends directly affected.

This is one of our moments of shame, will it bring enlightenment?

From: Taholo Kami

2006.11.16 10:05pm

Hi all,

Today we finally hit the bottom of the bucket. It started with the stoning of the Prime Ministers office at 3:30pm and then quickly led to stoning of the Finance Ministry, a smash and grab raid of Molisi Supermarket (PMs private business), smashing of front of Pacific Royale and burning down of the Shoreline offices. This led to the stripping of Leiola Duty Free shop and then burning of Molisi supermarket, ANZ Bank, Tonghua, Taumoepeau family business, Taumoepeau Building (houses Matangi Tonga offices - will affect updates on matangitonga.to ) Royco building, Prema, Narottams, TCF (old Lipois), Fakalato and neigbouring buildings, Pacific Royale Hotel, Old Joes Place, Tungi Arcade, Maseia, TCF Taufaahau Road, Nukualofa Hotel, Fung SHing and Chinatown hotel (old Joes hotel) and raids on EM Jones downtown as well as EM Jones Poutaha. Several Chinese businesses have been burned and looted as well.

The military and police have closed of the middle of town after 8pm but most of the damage has been done. We have no TV and scant radio updates so what little news we get is from either making rounds in the car or phone calls with others. As you can see the above list, possibly up to 70% of the businesses in town have been destroyed.

Pray for Tonga that we can come out from this situation and that true leadership will rise...literally from the ashes.

'ofa atu

Taholo

We did have our annual High School marching associated with the opening session of Parliament. The "Battle of the Bands" is always an interesting thing, but the thing that really caught the eye this year ? The two pictures below seem to say it all.

It seemed that the whole of Tonga College and Tailulu College had decided to wear white thongs this morning/day. It must have been a boon for the shops, and considering that they aren't that expensive (about TOP$3.00) and serve a longer term utility than just the day's march, it seems a great idea all around.

In the opposite the direction are the boys from the "vao-taataa" Tupou College, where one of the "platoons" decided they were going back to what the "old-boys" keep talking about. They did the thing with their feet in the nark, bare-foot.

Both seemed to have enjoyed the day which is great to see.

See the rest of the photos in our 2006 Parliament March Gallery Collection

Visit bTonga

Over in Tonga ...

His Majesty’s Cabinet this week approved the establishment of a new department, in the Prime Minister’s Office, to look after the interests and concerns of Tongans overseas.

Now, isn't this just an amazing bit of news that they should have been promoting ?

Now, I suppose Peni might end up heading this thing ?

In his remarks to Cabinet in advocating the move, the Acting Prime Minister, the Hon. Dr. Fred Sevele said that our own people overseas are an asset to us in  more ways than one. Dr. Sevele in pointing to the more than $200 million per annum in remittances that the country receives from her people abroad, stated that “the overall significance of maintaining and strengthening the links between Tonga and her people overseas cannot be overemphasised”.

His Majesty’s Government started a formal bridge building process between Tonga and Tongans abroad in 2004, through better communication and public relations. This process has now moved on to another level with the establishment of the new department.

The setting up of the new department is in recognition of the need to foster closer and stronger relationships between Tonga and her people overseas. It is also a response in gratitude to the many ways in which our people overseas have contributed to the development of the country.

The establishment of this new department followed consultations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to explore ways of working together to serve our people in a more effective and efficient manner. In fact, the new department will provide the other leg on which complete service delivery to our people overseas, should rightly stand.

In his submission to Cabinet, the Acting Prime Minister, the Hon. Dr. Fred Sevele said that the proposal has been endorsed by the Economics Sectors Committee, as a way to attract investment from Tongans overseas, especially young, educated and financially well off Tongans in other countries.

The new department, to be known as the “Department for Tongans Abroad”, is to be staffed and funded within the existing personnel and vote of the Prime Minister's office.

Visit bTonga

Over at Tonga Online's Yahoo News Taholo has posted a short note on the march on the Palace.

It wasn't so bad after all.

The television news cast last night showed the march and different sections of the march and things seemed to be very peaceful all around. People generally marched peacefully and even though there were police to assist the march the march seemed not to bother the traffic that still flowed nor the bystanders.

Full Attribution: The news coverage @ Tonga Online actually comes from Matangi Tonga