As I continue my mundane, but necessary, rituals of getting up in the morning slogging the way to the train station to get to work and back it’s good to be reminded of the mortality that is life. Lu’isa Tae Kami passed away over the week-end and having lived her life to the max, in such a short time, she’s given those around her a great opportunity to reflect on their own mortality, and purpose in life.

16 August 11:40pm... Gone Home...

Tae passed on in her sleep at 11:40pm this evening. She mentioned this morning she might be gone by midnight and kept her word. Heaven must be buzzing as she flies through its gates new body, new heart and spirit intact.

She has asked that the theme for her service be taken from the Bible -  Romans chapter 8 - "the whole chapter". Tonight I can only think of the verse: All things work for good for those who love the Lord, who are called according to His purpose...

You can follow the celebration of life, funeral proceedings on the above page. You can also find out a heck of a lot about her journey from the site, and on her Bebo page.  Included in the links on her Bebo page should be heaps of videos from all over the place (including Tonga and NZ Television) documenting her life and her influence on the Tonga and Pasifika communities.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Taholo and Sina, siblings and the rest of the clan and very very extended family from Tae’s ‘family.’

Tae’s journey with cancer has been draining and fullfilling for her immediate family and a new extended extended family that have grown out of her needs but especially because of the composure and faith she has shown “forged in fire.”

Walk on Walk Strong Tae, and may we meet with you again.

Tonga-now, reborn TongaReview.com has an article on 'Eua's new water system.

m 'Eua Water System produces muddy water

25/03/2008 12:16:18 p.m.

It has only been a week since the launch of the ‘Eua water system by His Highness, Crown Prince Tupouto’a Lavaka, and already the public are complaining about the muddy and unclean water produced by the new water system.

I thought it looked like someone had a glass of Orange Juice in the sink.

Must have been a translation problem somewhere along the way.

TONGAN RUGBY UNION CHAIR ANNOUNCES RESIGNATION

The suspended CEO of the TRU Siosaia Fonua...says the Court is poised to bring in an administrator from the International Rugby Board for the next six months. (listen)

That was the suspended CEO of the TRU Saia Fonua.

But Sangstar Saulala says he's hoping his resignation will enable the Board to get on with business without any more involvement from the Court or the I R B.

He says Tonga's outstanding performance at the World Cup and in Sevens is a vindication of his policy to direct more funds to players. (listen)

Tell me again which of the players in which "he" invested were part of the Rugby World Cup Team? There sure was a lot of money disappearing (and under investigation) that supposedly went to local competitions, and we had so many of these players graduate to the World Cup Team? Or did Nili and 99% of our successful team all hail from overseas contracts?

Translation: The ride was fun while it lasted, but the rides derailed and its time to get off.

Maybe your election results will vindicate your position. The move to candidature in Tongatapu (as opposed to his last foray as a candidate for Vava'u) might be helpful (since this is where much of the Rugby money went) or not.

Minister of Finance asked to walk, and you have to wonder how long the Minister had been waiting for the 'cut-off' date to be rung?

Unfortunately for the former Minister of Finance, who seems to have been within the few generally respected both in and out of government, he was just too willing to let the opposition thinking be aired, and especially on the ever popular Tonga-Now (morphed) Tonga Review.

Good luck to Mssrs 'Utoikamanu and his family.

Just a ramble here that I thought would be good to get down in writing, even if it takes someone better to iron out the details.

The Government of Tonga is so concerned about the health of its citizenry that it has decided to prevent the importation of meat produce by individuals for their own consumption.

Meanwhile, heaps of 'copy' products come into the country touting to be from brands such as Coca Cola, Colgate to name a few consumables. Millions more of dollars are being spent by citizenry on eating foodstuff that no-one knows of their origins and there's heaps of Government regulation that can better control these 'copy' foodstuffs, but for some reason meat from New Zealand seems to be more interesting for Government.

We've been eating noodles with unknown content, candy that changes the colour of your mouth and tongue. We're even increasing consumption of baby products from 'copy' merchants.

Hard to see why the New Zealand meat market is so critical for citizenry health when we don't have knowledge of any food poisoning from previous importation practices. Of course the Ministry of Health can recall/ban products that overseas Governments have banned, but why is this part of protecting citizens reactive, but the NZ meat proactive?

Makes one wonder whether there's any truth in the paranoia assertions that someone up the Government customs foodchain is benefiting financially.

After a long week of preparations for the now passed Sapate Ako Fakaafe, we're all ready to cool down and relax. Apparently, 'Ofa got a huge box of ice-cream (note the word "box" not "tub" or "bucket", but "box") and everyone dug into it during the day, but most especially my son.

This time we went to a beach at Ha'ateiho (?) and the beach was just gorgeous, hidden away and a bit of a trudge to get to, but the sand was clean, white, and the water absolutely cold in the heat.

Sisitoutai broke loose from the mob as soon as we set foot on the sand, and he didn't get out until he was carried out of the water screaming and kicking.

Kid Talk: Daddy, daddy, .... 'Misi ... water

Definitely a beach we recommend you visit, next time your in town. Unfortunately, only for those who can walk unaided, and as climbing back up will require some negotiating rocks.

We went along with two heavy mum's carrying their babies, so the trek isn't impossible but if you've got gout or a bung knee then I suggest trying out another beach here in Tonga (or going on the diet to lighten up life for the knee.) 'Ofa brought along Sesilia who just loved not being able to walk properly on the sand (not that she can walk properly anyway) and Saane brought along Ma'ake who also slept part of the time but loved looking around in the new space.

The Uike Lotu is over, but now we're into the cycle in the Free Wesleyan Calendar called the "Pole" talitali malanga. In the "Pole" system, a family would ballot for opportunities (sic) to host the preacher (with or without) the church for a meal and discussions.

In the evolution of the Tongan Culture, the talitali malanga has become a serious affair. At our house, Mama Bear and Papa Bear host the Sapate Ako afternoon service. This Sunday, in the Free Wesleyan Calendar, is dedicated to promotion of education and the Free Wesleyan School System. Part of the day's program is for speakers to be allocated from the School System office to present speeches on various topics relating to education.

For the Ma'ufanga, kai fa'o, congregation this usually means a packed house on Sunday afternoon where children are dressed in their school uniforms and attend to listen to all these inspiring speeches (not.) After which, they can come on over to 'Umusii to Ma'ake lahi and Sesi lahi's residence for a huge feast.

Of course preparations begin well in advance, and fortunately for Ma'ake he's tended his fields and animals throughout the year so much of the expense such as the cow for the meat and food on the table comes from the fruit's of his own hands.

But food preparations aren't things that you can keep stored in the fridge for ever, so a lot of work has to be completed in a very short amount of time. This leads to strange things like boys camped around the front of a truck light digging up a huge grave hole for the ngoto 'umu.

We move from public display of incompetence by the Police Officers not chasing down the speedster on mainstreet, to downright corruption in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

O4's auntie left this week, and one of the kids had overstayed her visa by a month (the kid came earlier for the vacation.) At the Immigration check-point she was told to pay the Tonga fee of TOP$30.00. She had given all her local currency away, and only had US Dollars. I Immigration officer told her, give me what you got and I'll get change for you from outside later.

USD$100.00 equates TOP$200.00 for a TOP$30.00 fee.

Suffice it to say, O4's auntie said bye-bye to her change and some Immigration Officer is laughing herself silly.

It makes us wonder how many unsuspecting tourists have been treated likewise by the improved Public Sector Employees?

Driving down Nuku'alofa's main strip (ie longest straight stretch of road) when this white car goes revving past us at a well above the speed limit rush, dodging in and out of the light evening traffic. It looked like there were two cars burning up gasoline going from Pangai Lahi/si'i to the round-a-bout at Fanga, consuming the cheap benzine we sell in town.

O4 and I are discussing the mental deficiencies of the parties at play, when what do we see passing us on the opposite side of the road?

Yes, a police cruiser casually drives past us at the speed limit.

"'Oua pe te nau toe ta'ofi mai 'enautolu ha taha lele oma." says the maiden who was once stopped and booked for speeding.

There you have it, Lawlessness in the Kingdom doesn't exist because there's a lack of policing or personnel to notice and detract criminals from their behaviour. Lawless exists because the Police have something more important to do.

The police officers were probably just cruising anyway, even if they were in a Police cruiser.

Digicel/Tonfon are having serious problems with their Internet customers, not only dropping connections but also not responding to customer service enquiries.

Last week's cyclone watch was one of the step-backwards melodramas for Tonga. The weather reports from the Meteorological Department were few and very very far between.

Since the Internet gave them more independence from referencing the once a day, or even less, reports from Fiji, the local populace were getting used to have regular updates of where the cyclone winds were moving.

This time around, Tonfon's Internet decided to fail all on its own, so it seems we were back to depending on Fiji weather reports on the fax machine. Something a whole lot less priority for Fiji than for Tonga.

Well, I'm not very happy with my Internet connection at the moment, primarily because every once in a while you really need the stupid thing to be working somewhat consistently ON instead of consistently NOT ON.

It seems from the failings that Tonfon's Internet caching thing-a-magic-cee is currently Internet caching thing-a-not-cee.

Argggghhh. And to think I was hoping a shift to TCC (the other ISP) just to be told by one of their customers of similar horror stories.

I love the new Tonfon website http://www.tonfon.to and it's real flashy and all, but you can quickly run out of interesting websites on the Tonfon network. I wonder if Tonfon actually pays someone to maintain their system ? Because that caching thing is sure giving me heart pain.

Of course, since I'm having problems with normal web traffic (http) as well as other Internet traffic such as FTP, and ssh (given up on doing POP3, SMTP to the outside world years ago) we can only surmise that there is a serious problem somewhere in the caves of the Tonfon NOC.

I sure hope Tonfon's new management intends to bring in management support personnel that can help in all fields or poor Internet users will be 2nd class citizens again.

'Ana Loiloi Ha'angana passed away last week, and we had the pleasure of being part of the final services to farewell a God given person to this world. Thank you Loiloi for having been and we have all been better with your passing through our lives.

ISAIAH 55: 8-9
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

She was a cool person to be with, and mum and dad's positive attitudes to life were reflected and enhanced through her life.

Leisia and Linikoni finally formalised their vows and were married sometime last year 2007 (last week.)

The poor couple originally had their hopes set for 2006 when a few groups went wild and destroyed downtown Nuku'alofa ruining a number of lives.

Mum and dad were all smiles, and so were the couple on hand.

As in most places, Tonga's major festivities surrounding couples (such as huge weddings) are around the Christmas (end-of-year) holiday period. Something to do with being the time when almost everyone at least can get the time-off to be there.

In the 2nd week of December we had what I heard was our largest number of weddings in a single day for Tongatapu, with 26 couples tying the not on a single day.

This all means that the price of pork meat in the country has sky-rocketed, costs way too much, and tangi ee ngaahi fa'ee.

Anyhow, as in most wedding or feasts here in Tonga there seemed to be a whole lot more cars parked at the reception hall than were parked at the church service (ooops, must have been a whole lot of people helping with the preparations, that's it 8-)

So, Tonfon (Shoreline Communications) has finally been bought (according to all the rumors going around town) but was it worth the ticket price?

I believe Digicel can make a mint the first day by getting the billing system working correctly (just imagine how much money can be made when you actually collect on all those international calls terminating in Tonga?)

I also believe that the crappy service I've been getting on the Internet access is pretty shoddy, and is really pushing me to the brink of moving this Internet access to the competition's TCC's Data Anywhere service.

For the past three weeks, I have been getting problems where some sites are just not accessible through Tonfon's Internet Service. Over the past couple of days this has degraded to giving me the fastest access to Tonfon's own website (http://www.tonfon.to) with zero speed access to anywhere else (including sites here in Tonga.)

If I use a sites IP address, I can access some of the sites, but that is a stupid solution, and will not work for some important sites. One problem is that some sites just don't work if you only have their IP address, they link to areas within their site by their site name, not IP address. It is obviously a problem if you can't follow links: The web is built on hypertext, the ability to link or connect to other sources of information.

Too bad I don't have any major downloads at the moment.

I'm still having problems with DNS and Tonfon.

This time, instead of just failing for a few websites (like commbank.com.au) it is now failing to let me browse any website by using their name (e.g. google.com.) I can only see a website, if I use their IP Address (e.g. www.nomoa.com's is currently: 72.215.205.147)

Simple Windows solutions? (phase 1) reboot (if that fails) reinstall (if that fails) install new hardware (if that fails - blame it on the customer)

Being as this problem continues for me, I of course am not overly enthusiastic about our Internet service at Tonfon.

Oh, I can of course go to Tonfon's website. Like, now that everyone else's website fails, I really have a keen interest in reading my ISPs pages that says they are beautiful and not the cause of world hunger. 8<

Why is this an issue?

E-mail.

Well, not only is my web browsing effected, but now I can't get my email and I am not sure whether email destined for me is coming to Tonga or is in limbo, or worse, just eaten up by the cyber-sphere.

Transactions.

If you use the Internet for anything other than just browsing (i.e. you might be a big BEBO player) then you really need to have these foundations things working at the ISP.

Prayer is a conversation? When's the last time you listened while you were praying?

Finding the freedom within; A prison prayer program strives to give inmates a new outlook on what it means to be free.

"We've been taught that prayer involves talking to God," White said. "It's also important to pay attention to the other side of the conversation, which is listening to God. There are a number of passages in the Bible in which Jesus pulled away from the busyness of the day to go commune in silence."

Maybe Sister Mary White's message needs a little preaching, ooops, listening to here in Tonga?

Having real pains with the Internet this afternoon, and tonight.

Tonfon's DNS Servers seem to be failing me, and not getting me the names of sites I need to get to.

"Firefox can't find the server at XYZ.COM"

Arghhh, this is not what I need right now.

Not that she's that popular with the general populace, but she seems to be taking her independence and control of things to its logical extremes.

The Dispensary at the Vaiola Hospital has decided that for the good of Government, and the people of Tonga?, no longer carries basic medication such as penicillin as well as some seriously important medication such as heart related tablets.

Her logic seems to be:

1. Penicillin, antibiotics is in high demand by Doctors for patients. Since it is expensive, we'll let the private clinics bring the medication in and people can go over there to buy them.

2. People can afford to come into town, so they definitely can afford to buy their own medications.

Wow, I guess there must be some new rarefied air with the air-conditioning at the Dispensary. The cool air must be letting daydream that the long queue outside are definitely dirty, unclean, scum who are just too lazy to walk to the clinics and pay real money for treatment.

There's a hell of a lot of people out there in Tonga Land who can't afford basic foods, and now they can't even get medication. So, instead of getting cured of that cough/tonsillitis or whatever basic illness that is readily treated with antibiotics, you just have to go home and keep warm and wait for your depleted immune system to fight the disease.

We always get our medication at the clinics, basically because I hate the unknown quantity of the lines at the hospital and the dispensary. Obviously, when the clinics are not open, then no-one has a choice but to do the Hospital Dance. Whenever we're at the clinics, the Tongan Doctors always tell us to buy from their stock whereas we've seen the same Doctors write prescriptions for other patients to pick-up the medication from the Hospital.

For those who can afford, the clinics have always been a better option than the hospital (where they are appropriate) unfortunately, Universal Health Care means that the poor and disadvantaged who cannot afford private health care need access to basic health services. Some of us think that basic medication is included in basic health services.

I hope someone at MOH can clean up the act of the Dispensary, it isn't a joke anymore.

Walked into one of the local mobile phone vendors to get an update (my youngest daughter killed my phone.)

I picked up a cheap TOP$150 Nokia unit although they had a batch of cheap refurbished units. Geez those refurbished units looked real bad.

Who knows how many phones i've bought in the past couple of years, but I think I know the value I get out of the phones and at the moment I don't need a smart phone just so long as it has good reception (it's raining badly at the moment so I don't know whether the bad reception is the phone or the network.)

A little edged black box was in the glass cage so I asked the 'Initia, "do you sell any?" and was I not ready for the answer.

"Ohhh, you wouldn't BELIEVE how well it sells. I bought 65 and there's only a few left. At one time it was the only thing people wanted to see. Now, I sell about two or three a week."

Me: "Wow, that's good for you."

'Initia: "Arghhh, the margin's pretty bad"

Me: "But what good is it without the Internet access?"

'Initia: "I can do that for you. And on all these phones here " (waving his hand over a Nokia N95, iPhone, and other TOP$1500+ phones) "I can get you on the Internet."

Me: flabbergasted and feeling I must have slept when Tonga's mobile phone providers started offering 3G or Data.

Me: confused "but how ...?"

'Initia: "Simple, you just need to have broadband at your house, and you get this little thing ..."

Me: (mind lights up) "Oh wifi, no thanks" [WIFI is setting up a wireless network.]

No thanks, if I'm stuck at home or in the office to use the Internet I might as well jump onto a computer with a large screen.

Anyhow, you can buy your iPhone at Lord's Mobile or Narrottam's and be with the latest hippest people in Tonga. Or, you can be a has-been dork like myself and just get a friggin phone with good reception.

Met up with someone who got a phone that can activate 2 SIM Cards at the same time. Now, that would be a practical telephone for Tonga.

Cheyenne Morrison has again brought us up-to-date on seeing Tonga around the world.

He has published 2 pages in the "Asia Pacific Tropical Homes Magazine, issue 4.4, October 2007" Kingdom of Tonga Island Dream for Sale (PDF). He also found Tonga being spotlighted in the following recent releases of:

• National Geographic Magazine
• ABC TV Australia

National Geographic Magazine

While the King Sleeps
By Matthew Teague, Photographs by Amy Toensing
National Geographic Magazine, November 2007
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2007-11/tonga/teague-text.html

It is somewhat interesting reading about Tonga, presumably taken from the point of view of the someone who is just scanning across the pages and wants a little 2 second peak into the story. Unfortunately the article doesn't seem to have much substance although I'm sure the author has some finer work. If you want some interesting reading on the Prince/King and general issues then you may be better served with less glossy photographs at Jennifer Kahn's The Very Modern Prince over at Wired.

The article is weird in that the author acknowledges that this is his first trip to Tonga but then begins to espouses 'truths' about things in Tonga as if he is a veteran of the isles, let alone the Kingdom of Tonga. There are some serious factual errors with the article, independent of the pseudo-political analysis.

Thought provoking nonetheless.

ABC TV Australia - Foreign Correspondenct

Tonga Whales
Foreign Correspondent
ABC TV Australia, 23/10/2007
http://abc.net.au/foreign/content/2007/s2062418.htm

Obviously never saw this one,

The pristine waters off the northern island of Vava’u draw travellers from all over the world for a unique experience. Trevor Bormann joined researchers and ‘whale swimmers’ for a close encounter with the humpback on its migration north from polar waters. Local tourism operators are worried that ‘their whales’ will be the individuals killed by the Japanese.