Articles by Utopia Support

Mayor rejects Habitat offer

Wednesday 17 March 2010 | Published in Local

Aitutaki is opposed to Habitat For Humanity New Zeal- and’s offer to build 72 new homes, says island mayor Tai Herman. Yesterday he made this view clear to the recovery coordinator minister Wilkie Rasmussen. Herman told CI News that the island council rejects the proposal that government buy 72 basic 42 square metre, two bedroom […]

Suggestions to address death toll

Wednesday 17 March 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, I have a great concern for the tragic death toll caused by drink driving of our young people in the Cook Islands. What is the government doing about this? Are there or has the Ministry of Transport or the Justice Department put anything in place to educate or to raise awareness of the […]

Get over it

Wednesday 17 March 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear editor, It is sad to see that the Demo Party still cannot get over the events that took place before Christmas, which was history in the making for this country. I read in today’s paper that they’ve finally got the ‘balls’ to sack the PM from the Demo Party. Despite the PM’s sacking, this […]

PM should cop the blame

Wednesday 17 March 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Last night (Monday) on TVNZ One News the NZ Prime Minister John Key explained that his government had made a decision for NZ not to bid for the 2018 Commonwealth Games. The reason: the projected financial costs relating to hosting of the Commonwealth Games would far outstrip the anticipated benefits. In simple terms, […]

Beware 'The Big One'

Wednesday 17 March 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, In reply to Tsunami Stressed, may I remind you that the Word of God is the only truth – it’s absolutely the Right Way. I praised the EMCI for the repeated warnings on the air for the general public especially in the late hours of the morning and the response was awesome. But […]

Police took no risks in tsunami response

Wednesday 17 March 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, I refer to the articles in the paper recently about the response of the Police and Emergency Management group to the Chile Tsunami warning. When we previously did not react very quickly to the Samoa tsunami, we were criticised by a number of people and an audit investigation was conducted into our actions. […]

Dump party loyalty

Wednesday 17 March 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Two things are most certain from the coming elections: Firstly, Makiuti Tongia will never be a member of parliament; and secondly, all MPs sacked by Makiuti Tongia and his club members will win their seats. These include Jim, Wilkie, Wigmore, Piho and Heather. Makiuti’s excuse for sacking them is to pay back for […]

Aitutaki council frustrated

Wednesday 17 March 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, The people of Aitutaki are grateful that New Zealand Government has now confirmed their aid package of $5.5million towards the recovery of Aitutaki. As much as we want to thank New Zealand for their kind generosity there is a time and a place for that. Under the circumstances, there is a short fall […]

Kata - March 17, 2010

Wednesday 17 March 2010 | Published in Kata

Kid's soccer on today

Wednesday 17 March 2010 | Published in Football

Rarotonga primary school students who are in forms 1 and 2 students showcased their football skills last Friday to mark the opening of their tournament at the CIFA complex. The tournament is for five weeks. A lot of natural talent and skills shown on the day and CIFA believes this will only grow as the […]

PM wants Toagate audit report made public

Tuesday 16 March 2010 | Published in Local

Prime minister Jim Marurai is taking advice on how to make the audit report on the Toagate fuel farm scandal a public document once it is completed. Marurai hopes to find a way to release the document to the public without having to follow the usual practice of tabling it in parliament because he has […]

Audit looks into claimed Chinese car 'kickbacks'

Tuesday 16 March 2010 | Published in Local

The audit office wants to know why the car on the right, kept at the residence of suspended CIIC chief executive John Tini, is in his personal use but owned by the Chinese construction company which built the new sports stadium. “/> The audit office wants to know why the car on the right, kept […]

No money left after games 'show'

Tuesday 16 March 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Good on Serena Hunter for expressing her anger and frustration in the way this country has been poorly governed in recent years. All my family and friends share Serena’s view that the current bunch of politicians have been disastrous in managing the affairs of the country and that new political leadership is desperately […]

Kata - March 16, 2010

Tuesday 16 March 2010 | Published in Kata

Choice minus, aye bro?

Tuesday 16 March 2010 | Published in Smoke Signals

A couple of friends were chuckling over photos that were emailed from the Pasifika Festival, which showed plastic containers labelled as ‘Minus (Cook Island potato salad)’. “Cookies in NZ always give us Cookies back home grief about being fobs and freshies – but by the minus sign we reckon the fobs are over there!!” If […]

Old age pension could clash with super fund

Monday 15 March 2010 | Published in Local

Collecting an old age pension in future may depend on what a retiree receives from the national superannuation fund. As part of government’s review of the social welfare system, the ministry of internal affairs is currently asking for public submissions on such questions as whether the super fund could eventually replace the old age pension. […]

Pasifika crowds flock to Cook Islands village

Monday 15 March 2010 | Published in Local

The sights and sounds of the Cook Islands once more returned to Auckland’s Western Springs on Saturday (NZT) at the annual Pasifika Festival. Thousands of Cook Islanders from around New Zealand made what has become an annual pilgrimage to the celebration of all things Pacific. Friends, family and fellow countrymen caught up at the small […]

Ethnicity important at Highcom

Monday 15 March 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Regarding the Cook Islands High Commissioner to New Zealand, I just want to ask, don’t we have any qualified, academic Cook Islands Maori person capable of being appointed to this position instead of the one just appointed? I have nothing against the man, but wouldn’t it be appropriate to have one of our […]

Staggered by bad roads all round

Monday 15 March 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Walking along the back road from Ngatangiia to Avarua the other day, I was staggered to see just how bad the state of our roads is in some areas. When asked, a planter on the outskirts of the backroad in Matavera told me that the last time the ministry of works had come […]

Pat, a convenient diversion

Monday 15 March 2010 | Published in Smoke Signals

No doubt others have noticed that Aitutaki is now the excuse for the powers-that-be to do nothing else. Aid for economic development? Sorry. Political reform conference? Sorry. Even funds for health and education get the chop. Face it, we blew our emergency funds on the Mini Games, ministerial travel and Toa-like foolishness. If we still […]