Opinion

Congrats to mayor

Thursday 18 March 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear editor, I wish to congratulate Tai Herman, Aitutaki’s mayor, for taking a bold stand in rejecting the proposal from Habitat for Humanity to build 70 houses — funded by both the NZ and Cook Islands governments — for those families whose homes were completely destroyed during Cyclone Pat. I reckon that the very last […]

Letters to the Editor

Bribery is unacceptable

Thursday 18 March 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, I am not surprised that the former head of CICC, John Tini, was allegedly handed a brand new vehicle from the Chinese construction company CCECC a year or so ago. I wonder who else in government may have received such a ‘present’ from CCECC? Whether they be state, public or privately owned, some […]

Letters to the Editor

Kata - March 17, 2010

Wednesday 17 March 2010 | Published in Kata

Kata

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 […]

Letters to the Editor

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 […]

Letters to the Editor

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, […]

Letters to the Editor

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 […]

Letters to the Editor

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 […]

Letters to the Editor

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. […]

Letters to the Editor

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 […]

Letters to the Editor

Kata - March 16, 2010

Tuesday 16 March 2010 | Published in Kata

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 […]

Smoke Signals

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 […]

Letters to the Editor

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 […]

Smoke Signals

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 […]

Letters to the Editor

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 […]

Letters to the Editor

Tour buses go too fast

Saturday 13 March 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Everyone goes on about speeding, drunk driving and talking of bringing the compulsory helmet law in. While this is all well, don’t you think it’s about time someone looked at the actions of the Raro Tour drivers? These drivers have no regard for the speed laws and fellow road users. I ask, are […]

Letters to the Editor

It's fiscally irresponsible

Saturday 13 March 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, So health and education are likely to suffer big budget cuts. When have health and education been a priority anyway. It’s more important to have a big impressive sports stadium and synthetic running track. And the Toa debacle is another thing which should never have happened. I can’t believe how fiscally irresponsible our […]

Letters to the Editor

Honest as...

Saturday 13 March 2010 | Published in Smoke Signals

A smoke signaller says after reading about all the burglaries etc on the island, it’s so good to know there are also “super honest people out there”. She took her car to Koa Kupu to clean and when she went back later to pick it up, he handed her a sum of money that he’d […]

Smoke Signals

Stats misused to justify helmets

Saturday 13 March 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, First of all I’d like to express my disappointment with the way some pro helmet supporters misuse motor vehicle accident (MVA) statistics to support such arguments as “one death should be a good enough reason to have introduced compulsory helmets”. What about the deaths through head injuries of those victims that were involved […]

Letters to the Editor

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