By Savea Sano Malifa
APIA, Samoa (Samoa Observer, Dec. 5, 2010) – As general elections are drawing nearer we have to refresh our thinking about what they really are. Like it or not they are as essential to us today as the free air we breathe.

To be sure the integral role general elections play ensures our democracy is working properly. Which means finally when we vote in those we want to represent us in Parliament, we have to be sure a binding mutual trust exists between us so that they do not, for any reason, breach that trust.

At this point in our life we need to be cautious about loud people howling from afar who know nothing about the real issues threatening to derail any progress we may have made, if such issues are left unattended and unsolved for too long.

Such an issue is ubiquitous poverty. We see it everywhere. Even on the streets of Apia we see it six days a week on children in dirty clothes hawking cheap wares to feed their families instead of attending school.

We see it in the Fugalei neighborhood right in the middle of town where the roadside drains discharge sewage-infected muck everywhere when the rains start. Over there at the Fugalei Market we see it being swept inside and all over the place where agricultural produce - taro, ta’amu, breadfruit, bunches of banana - are being sold on the sidewalk.

We see it in suburban Apia where families moving from Savaii in search of a better life are squatting in makeshift homes at Tafaigata, Falelauniu and Nu’u, where many of them have neither access to water nor proper toilet facilities, and are sleeping on the dirt floor.

We see it in the sad eyes of beggars around town holding up their hands for a few coins. Out there in the villages we see it in families becoming so accustomed to living in perennial hardship they’ve long stop complaining.

The point is that absolute poverty is a national shame. Worse still, it deadens the will to persevere so that it breeds anger, hate and violence; and with such a deadly combination crime is sure to follow.

Today we dread the thought that if the government continues to procrastinate from solving the problem called absolute poverty there will soon be chaos to contend with as it’s ravaging our peaceful paradise.

The wound will have deteriorated and an outburst of crime would evolve. It may even spread so that the matai rule in the villages may find it difficult to stop the spread. We have listened to people grumbling in those places; and as we listen we feel there is anger there frothing just underneath the surface.

Today, what’s needed is a sense of urgency. To be sure those holding power and the purse strings should act with a national sense of compassion and honesty.

And that brings us to an interesting point. Everyday this paper receives many letters to the editor. However not all of them are published. The reasons vary but they are mainly of a legal nature. The ones that are published though are edited for accuracy, brevity and clarity.

And although we do not agree with some of the views expressed in some letters, we respect the writers’ right to express them; it’s their fundamental right anyway.

But then there are some letters we momentarily shrink from because of the naked anger that seems to jump from the page; it’s as if it’s about to launch itself at you.

That was how it was with an epistle from a Tofaeono Misatauveve Joseph Hollywood, a Samoan, we believe, who’s living in self-imposed exile in Australia. Titled "Too negative and personal again," "Joe’s" letter.

The point is that people like Joe Hollywood who write from afar with respect to the title Tofaeono he’s dragging through the mud every time he decides to erase all doubt should be read carefully. Just take our word for it if you will, the man does not seem to know his own mind.

Several years ago when the late Tofilau Eti Alesana was Prime Minister and the leader of the Human Rights Protection Party, Joe Hollywood described him as "the devil in the branches of the guava tree."

In a letter at that time Joe Hollywood wrote:

"Then it was sent for me one who was becoming in his attire and spoke to me. Then I asked the gentleman, ‘Who is he, whereabouts is the old man, who is hardly seen now on Televise Samoa or his crying heard on Radio 2AP, especially his photo in the newspaper, the Savali?"

"I then sat upright and continued to talk to myself: "Why did he want to be Prime Minister, instead of making Prime Minister his supporter who is now spokesman for the government?"

Note that Joe Hollywood at that time preferred the Prime Minister’s "supporter" and "spokesman" Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi as Prime minister.

His letter continued:

"Then I saw the devil swinging on the branches of the guava tree in the Garden of Eden, tauntingly poking out his tongue as if saying: He is the one who is not only dead in the soul, dead in the body but, likewise, he will die from the earth where his body will lie, it will be severely accursed and will no longer cultivate a Samoan tobacco. The living thing said: If this is the one who looks after transport and civilian airlines, there is a special job right now for him in my Kingdom. He will be in charge of the handing out of pairs of wings for the angels of Hell, and not of Heaven."

And now that Tuilaepa is Human Rights Protection Party leader and Prime Minister Joe Hollywood is a man transformed. He’s frequently attacking those who criticize the Prime Minister and his government’s policies, as if to divert attention from the deplorable poverty causing hardship to many because of those policies.

There’s more. Already we see a rising wave of crime associated with poverty and illegal drugs. There is also theft and alleged misconduct in the public service. Lawyers and public officials have been punished and even jailed as a result. Meantime some members of parliament are being closely monitored.

Is Joe Hollywood aware of all this? Or is he only worried that the elections are near and the Prime Minister and the Human Rights Protection Party are being criticized?

Joe Hollywood, by the way, lives in wealthy Australia where he enjoys the best life the free world can offer.

And so perhaps he’s living so far away he cannot see what’s really happening in Samoa, or perhaps he’s too rigidly reactionary he cannot possibly change the way he thinks.

So we say this to him: Hello Joe, since you love Prime Minister Tuilaepa so much you should come home and help him. Stay for three years and then you can enter Parliament and help change the laws to make life here beautiful just like it is out there in Australia.

Our Prime Minister needs people with sharp tongues and minds like you. So you should stop being a hypocrite attacking from afar and come home. Because you really don’t know what you’re talking about since you’re living so far away. You’ve got to live the poor life and sleep on the dirt floor to know what it’s like, and maybe then you can appreciate how pain really feels.

And please bring as many fishing rods as you can. Old Frankie doesn’t stock them here. At 100 tala [US$41] a piece nobody buys them. Frankie stocks only what the poor can afford - the essentials you know, like cans of herrings, sugar, salt, chicken pieces; even mutton flaps are a luxury.

So when you bring those fishing rods over don’t forget lots of bait. Make sure they’re the artificial kind though. Not the real stuff anyway because over here we eat them. By the way, with those fishing rods and baits you can then teach our people your "fishing rod" philosophy which, as you promised would everyone rich.

Oh boy Joe, you’re the one we’ve all been waiting for. We can tell you right now your friend Tuilaepa will just love having you here. You’re smart, you have great ideas, you are a visionary, which are just the qualities our Prime Minister admires, and yes, you’ll just love it here. So come on over Joe, your country needs you.

Now what do you think? Do you think Joe Hollywood will come to Samoa and show the poor how to fish and become financially secure, and also teach our government how to run the country and get rid of all this poverty? Tell us what you think.

Have a peaceful Sunday Samoa, God bless.