Opinion

We need a 'real' recovery plan

Wednesday 3 March 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Saturday’s tsunami scare highlighted that we have a problem – we have a dire need for a formal disaster recovery plan to prepare our people and our visitors for tsunami. Proposed solution: 1. Disaster Recovery Plan at village level. 2. A requirement for all accommodators to have a plan in place for their […]

Where is common sense?

Tuesday 2 March 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Common sense can sometimes be the hardest sense to find. I am replying to the story ‘New call for compulsory helmets’ (March 1). It amazes me that a school teacher who is helping develop the minds of young people is against compulsory wearing of helmets which may assist in saving some of those […]

'Die differently'

Tuesday 2 March 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, It is over three years since the Transport Amendment Bill was passed making the wearing of helmets by all motor cyclists compulsory. As a result of a petition led by Nga Puna, that helmet law was scrapped by parliament in June 2008. Puna argued that helmets should not be compulsory because although they […]

Tsunami 'warning'

Tuesday 2 March 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Since written records began 190 years ago, there is no record of tsunami damage on Rarotonga. Why is that? Old timers do remember the sea suddenly draining from Avaavaroa passage and Avarua harbour (before it silted in), but had no idea why. That was before we were ‘blessed’ with a tsunami warning system […]

Tsunami alert – visitors should be well informed

Tuesday 2 March 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, While driving to higher ground on Saturday morning we were flagged down in Muri by a couple of tourists on a motorbike. They were driving towards Titikaveka, their destination – the hospital, though they were not sure where it was. They asked us a little anxiously, where we were going and if they […]

Tsunami signs

Monday 1 March 2010 | Published in Smoke Signals

Early on Saturday morning shortly after the first widespread tsunami warning arrived from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, some people texted others to say that Avarua harbour was looking very empty, believing this to be the drawback from the tsunami that was still six hours away from Rarotonga. Instead, the very low water was the […]

Appeal committee pledges accountability

Monday 1 March 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, The Aitutaki Cyclone Appeal Committee is saddened by the insinuation by Anonymous Donor that monies raised by the national appeal will not reach its destination – the Aitutaki people. The ACA cannot speak for monies given to Red Cross or the Government – we can only speak for funds that have been donated […]

Church defended

Monday 1 March 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, I have read what someone else is saying about the CICC. Tepuka land was given to the CICC, so that means that CICC owns the land which was given to them by God. Why do people jump so quickly down the throat of the CICC without doing their homework first. Friends, if you […]

Rule of fist should never apply

Saturday 27 February 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, I noted Norman George’s comments as reported in your court news of February 26 regarding assault on a female – a ‘minor assault,’ ‘way down on the scale of seriousness’, ’a domestic argument not in some lawless area of town but in their own home’, rendering it ‘just an argument’. Sorry Norman but […]

Hotel idea 'a load of hogwash'

Saturday 27 February 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, I write in response to a recent article published in Cook Islands Herald by Charles Pitt promoting the notion that government should seriously consider getting into the business of reviving the failed Vaima’anga hotel project. What a load of hogwash. For starters, why on earth would any person of a sane mind want […]

Kata - February 27, 2010

Saturday 27 February 2010 | Published in Kata

Who's counting all the funds?

Friday 26 February 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, This cyclone appeal is certainly a good idea to help our brothers and sisters in Aitutaki. Many people have made cash donations and pledged donations, sales of plates of food, sales of t-shirts and many more. Others have provided materials, containers and equipment. Our concern is whether all the money raised will actually […]

Sounds like a TCI promo

Friday 26 February 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, It’s no wonder that the PM is flip flopping on allowing Telecom’s monopoly to continue. He was wined and dined twice by the Telecom board members last week and wrapped up nicely with a cocktail evening at the Salsa. Everyone knows that the quickest way to get the PM to agree with you […]

We can't afford parliament not to sit

Friday 26 February 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, There are very solid grounds for the argument that five members of parliament, from a total of 24, do not have full executive powers to govern in a country that supposedly holds firm to the fundamental democratic principle of majority rule. Difficult to imagine how a very small minority of MPs, less than […]

Kata - February 26, 2010

Friday 26 February 2010 | Published in Kata

Wellington meetings not their job?

Thursday 25 February 2010 | Published in Smoke Signals

One of our readers going by the handle Retired Diplomat writes on the subject of the Crocombe/Mokoroa trip to New Zealand: “How these two fooled Cabinet into agreeing that they hold important talks with some ministerial officials in Wellington, is beyond us. We have a Minister of Foreign Affairs and we have a Secretary of […]

'Stay safe' applies to helmets, footpaths, kids on utes

Thursday 25 February 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, I was wanting to comment on the road works carried out around the Muri area last week. I must say that I totally agree with the other letter writers who gave their endorsement to the wonderful job T & M Heather and their crew have been doing. Fast and efficient are just two […]

Kata - February 25, 2010

Thursday 25 February 2010 | Published in Kata

Time ripe to demand new faces, fresh ideas

Thursday 25 February 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, On the one hand government is very much prepared to commit vast amounts of money, time and effort globe-trotting to international meetings and conferences in an effort to highlight the country’s plight on global warming and how sea level rise could make our northern-group, low lying atolls all but disappear. On the other […]

Real appeal accounting

Tuesday 23 February 2010 | Published in Smoke Signals

“The letter writer (CINews Mon Feb 22) warning of the need to have a real accounting of ALL Aitutaki fund-raising was spot on,” writes a smoke signaller. “Sorry to you folks on the side of the road selling plates of food or watermelons ‘in aid of Aitutaki’ but history suggests a donor would be better […]