Opinion

Shootings wakeup call for all

Friday 28 October 2016 | Published in Opinion

Last week’s Vaimaanga shootings are a wakeup call for all of us.

Opinion

SIMPLE SOLUTION

Thursday 27 October 2016 | Published in Smoke Signals

A SMOKE SIGNALLER says a trigger lock is the best possible solution to curb the issue with guns.

Smoke Signals

It's the wrong time for political posturing

Thursday 27 October 2016 | Published in Letters to the Editor

IT’S A BIT rich for the prime minister to start heaping praise on the police after the events following the fatal shootings, as quoted in his article in Monday’s CI News.

Letters to the Editor

More on controversial Makea title

Thursday 27 October 2016 | Published in Letters to the Editor

I JUST want to add a few more points to the letter by Ngatokorua Ata Piakura in CI News on October 10. He is absolutely correct about confusion over the Makea title and perhaps it is about time this whole issue was brought out in public.

Letters to the Editor

Airline subsidy critics off the mark

Thursday 27 October 2016 | Published in Letters to the Editor

THERE SEEMS to be a bit of misinformation being bandied about by the critics of the $12 million airline subsidy scheme as compared to what is being spent on education and on health combined.

Letters to the Editor


Time has arrived for fresh look at police funding

Tuesday 25 October 2016 | Published in Smoke Signals

AFTER LAST WEEK’S tragic event with the police being called into the most dangerous of incidents. I think it is time for the government to address the issue of police funding,

Smoke Signals

Police have questions to answer

Tuesday 25 October 2016 | Published in Letters to the Editor

IT IS only right that Police Commissioner Maara Tetava should commend his staff involved in the recent horror situation which has taken place.

Letters to the Editor

PM's whereabouts clarified

Tuesday 25 October 2016 | Published in Letters to the Editor

THERE seems to be some confusion as to the prime minister’s whereabouts when two lives were taken by a crazed gunman last Tuesday, before he turned the gun on himself and took his own life the following day (Wednesday).

Letters to the Editor

Rarotonga feels like bouncy floating hotel

Monday 24 October 2016 | Published in Letters to the Editor

I AM glad to read that there will be public consultations on the airline underwrite programme.

Letters to the Editor

Tourism response over subsidies is 'nonsense'

Monday 24 October 2016 | Published in Letters to the Editor

IN HIS response to my comments, (CI News October 21), Cook Islands Tourism chief executive Halatoa Fua didn’t offer a single answer to my analysis of the Market Economics Report, except to claim that the subsidies are “clearly positive".

Letters to the Editor

Let a customer explain cost of new justice fees

Monday 24 October 2016 | Published in Letters to the Editor

I HAVE read the recent letters to the editor regarding the new Land Court fees and the responses by the Justice Head of Ministry.

Letters to the Editor

An outer island view on the airline subsidy

Monday 24 October 2016 | Published in Letters to the Editor

YOUR WRITER Mata Atua McNair certainly made a strong Rarotonga-based case for ending the airline subsidy, however, she missed out the case for the rest of the Cook Islands.

Letters to the Editor

Justice fee question unanswered

Monday 24 October 2016 | Published in Letters to the Editor

I WRITE in support of “Do the Maths” (CI News, October 18).

Letters to the Editor

When tragedy strikes, the virtues can help

Monday 24 October 2016 | Published in Opinion

I WAS visiting Rarotonga this week when the news spread that two people had been murdered. While on a work release programme from prison, Chris Rimamotu shot his former partner and her boyfriend. That night, he had a gun and a truck and was still at large. Most people went into lockdown mode, but a woman who lived in the village where the shootings occurred was weeping and wandering in a parking area, afraid to go home. The next morning, cornered in a house by police, the killer committed suicide. No-one, including the police, remember any act of violence like this happening before here in paradise. What happens to a community, especially a small community, when tragedy strikes? Make no mistake. Everyone is affected by a devastating event such as this; everyone. How do we as a community deal with the aftermath, the post-traumatic stress of fear, anxiety, grief, and feelings of vulnerability? Communities in North America have applied the healing tools of The Virtues Project, days or sometimes months after tragedy hits. In Pocatello, Idaho in 2006, beautiful 16-year-old Cassie Jo Stoddart, known as one of the kindest and best loved girls in her class, was murdered by two classmates, who planned to kill many of their classmates. The two boys, who were friends of Cassie’s, confessed they did it to be “famous”. They are now serving a life sentence without parole. This profoundly shocked and shattered this small, very religious community. Yet, nothing except some immediate individual counseling had been done. We set up circles for the teens, families, and teachers to finally allow the healing tears and suppressed anger blocked until then, and helped to re-bond the painful rift between students loyal to the boys and others who were enraged by what occurred. There were sincere virtues acknowledgments and hugs bridging the gap. In Walkerton, Ontario, a toxic e coli outbreak in the community water system from farm run-off, killed seven people, and sickened thousands. The horrific discovery was made that it was the result of a cover-up by two untrained men who monitored the water system. The town, heavily dependent on tourism, withered. Family businesses were lost. Children had to be bussed to schools in other communities. It was like a ghost town. Finally, the interfaith church council decided to bring in the The Virtues Project. One mother who ignored the early warnings, bathed her children and brushed their teeth with the tainted water. She said guilt had kept her sleepless for months. Her first good sleep occurred after the healing circle. She

Opinion

Calamity hits with cyclone force

Monday 24 October 2016 | Published in Opinion

Counsellor and CI News columnist Thomas Wynne examines the tragic events of this week and looks at ways in which the lives of the weak, the vulnerable, the mentally unwell and challenged can be improved.

Opinion


Grey Power ignored

Friday 21 October 2016 | Published in Letters to the Editor

GREY POWER recently sent letters to Finance minister Mark Brown and Financial Secretary Garth Henderson expressing concern at the ever-increasing cost of living, and particularly the increase in taxation.

Letters to the Editor

CIP proud of by-election effort

Friday 21 October 2016 | Published in Letters to the Editor

THIS IS a letter of gratitude and thanks to the leadership of Papa Tupuariki Puna, and the rest of the CIP committee working for Terapii Maki to be elected as the Member of Parliament in Aitutaki.

Letters to the Editor


Police deserve praise

Thursday 20 October 2016 | Published in Smoke Signals

Some of the comments about the police made on social media after Tuesday’s tragic shootings were ill-informed, obscene and in some cases, downright stupid, a smoke signaller says.

Smoke Signals

The case for ending airline subsidy

Thursday 20 October 2016 | Published in Letters to the Editor

It’s no wonder MFEM is not keen to publicise the latest airline subsidy evaluation report prepared in August 2016 by Market Economics Ltd of Auckland.

Letters to the Editor


Hair raising price for cuts

Wednesday 19 October 2016 | Published in Smoke Signals

WHILE OVERSEAS ON holiday I went in for a haircut and, surprisingly, it cost me $8 for a clean cut. Back home on Rarotonga, it’s a different story.

Smoke Signals

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