Opinion

Noise complaints at weekend

Tuesday 13 April 2010 | Published in Smoke Signals

The weekend was nearly incident-free for police, whose biggest problem was a high number of excessive noise complaints. On Saturday morning at 4.50am, a car crashed into a taro patch on the back road at Takuvaine. The man sustained only minor injuries but blew a breathalyser reading of 490 mg/s and will appear in the […]

Kata - April 13, 2010

Tuesday 13 April 2010 | Published in Kata

OIA request on Telecom documents

Tuesday 13 April 2010 | Published in Smoke Signals

An official information request has been made to the office of the Prime Minister Jim Marurai for documents relating to Telecom Cook Islands by local company Mervin Communications. Director William Framhein confirmed he made the Official Information Act (OIA) request last month and is expecting a final response shortly. Framhein did not wish to divulge […]

No worries

Tuesday 13 April 2010 | Published in Smoke Signals

“We all know that the Police are trying hard to clamp down on road speeders,” writes a smoke signaller, “but on a Saturday morning drive to town, doing 50k, I was overtaken by three boy bike racers doing 60 plus k without helmets. They don’t have a care in the world and apparently no fear […]

Both have degenerated

Tuesday 13 April 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, What a wonderful state of affairs we find ourselves in. On one hand the CIP jolly themselves along with an unelected leader and an unrespected spokesperson/MP gleefully picking up their $2 fee to allow amused villagers to vote with their conscience. On the other we have Mr Nazi condemning anyone that disagrees with […]

Blame shifting

Tuesday 13 April 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, According to Wilkie Rasmussen, Toagate would have never happened if only Prime Minister Jim Marurai had done his job. So why does Rasmussen continue to blame only Terepai Maoate for the Toagate affair? Let’s take a look at the facts. Last month Rasmussen put the blame squarely on Maoate when he said Terepai […]

Local politics in a nutshell

Monday 12 April 2010 | Published in Smoke Signals

“Let’s summarise and quantify the political mess,” a smoke signaller writes. “The Democratic party is now in three parts: the Toa-gate bunch (6) and a Demo-splinter group (4) that sort of supports the third lot that happens to be in control (6). Then, there’s the Cook Islands Party including an independent (8) that certainly has […]

'Grand Plan' sidelines little guys

Monday 12 April 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, So the Tourism Board has a Grand Plan and they want the whole country to buy into it. They want government to double its expenditure on tourism, they want the industry to increase their expenditure on marketing, and they want us all ‘on board the vaka’ paddling in the same direction. Never mind […]

Kata - April 10, 2010

Saturday 10 April 2010 | Published in Kata

Political qualifications

Saturday 10 April 2010 | Published in Smoke Signals

“It would appear that Mr Maggie has all the prerequisites to become a very successful politician,” a reader writes. “Little education, convicted criminal, arsonist, done a bit of Porridge. He is one step ahead of the other contestants in that he achieved his qualifications before entering politics. Should he make it into the hallowed house […]

It's a disgrace

Saturday 10 April 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Just reading all the articles in the local paper is a disgrace to both parties (CIP & Demo). We have a major problem here amongst both parties. Why are you guys showing your incompetency in leading the country by running each other down? New Zealand, Australia, United States are not even doing this, […]

So much bickering and battling

Saturday 10 April 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

We don’t want any more stupid leaders! Dear Editor, It is so disappointing to return home and find that we are still our own worst enemies. How can we possibly expect the elected leaders, of this country or any organisation, to do their job well in a climate of so much bickering and internal battling […]

Kata - April 9, 2010

Friday 9 April 2010 | Published in Kata

Why are visitors picking up our rubbish?

Friday 9 April 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, I felt compelled to write and express how ashamed I was to see the touring Foothills Lions under 16 rugby team from Canada pick up months worth of rubbish at the waterfall. Far out! How lazy have we become! These young guys picked up beer cans, soft drink bottles and worst of all […]

Mataiapo challenges MPs to public debate

Friday 9 April 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Kia orana once again. I am writing this letter with my very deep concern about our financial situation. In fact, I have raised the problems many times previously without a bloody response from the politicians. We are bankrupt right now and the government is relying on a day to day basis to secure […]

Please explain what 'values'

Friday 9 April 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, During the time when Sir Terepai had been sacked as a minister of the crown and the Demo Party was imploding, the former Demo Party Vice-President Karla Eggelton went on record to say that the political turmoil at that time had “brought out the values of the nation”. Well now that Karla’s mother, […]

Kata - April 8, 2010

Thursday 8 April 2010 | Published in Kata

More tourists are not the answer, yet

Thursday 8 April 2010 | Published in Smoke Signals

“It’s not surprising to note that the composition of the Tourism Board is made up of hard core tourism operators,” writes a smoke signaller. “Their motives are clearly profit-driven as entrepreneurs and increasing tourism numbers is good for them. What about the rest of us? Don’t we know that tourism on one hand supports our […]

Keep politics out of it

Thursday 8 April 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Many voters believe all senior government bureaucratic positions should be hired on the basis of their competency, experience and professionalism, selected by a competent board and not at the whim of political favour. How many examples do we need to prove hiring for political or family reasons is disastrous to our countries economy. […]

Praying for parliament

Thursday 8 April 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, I’m not siding with anyone on the latest government shenanigans, as it seems in my 11 years of being back in the Cooks there hasn’t been a time when power play didn’t rear its ugly head in one form or another. Party politics leaves me believing that if you really want to make […]