Smoke Signals
Meeting delays opening
Saturday 11 February 2017 | Published in Smoke Signals
Upskilling is important in public service and workshops are a good way to do this..
'Special place, special people' not quite so apt
Friday 10 February 2017 | Published in Smoke Signals
“Since when did we turn into Samoa...charging people five dollars to go to the waterfall is disgraceful,” a smoke signaller says.
Nice car Madam Secretary
Thursday 9 February 2017 | Published in Smoke Signals
Maybe the Secretary of Health driving around in a fancy car paid for by taxpayers is not the best way to show that the ministry’s budget is not enough.
Sober choice? Maybe not
Wednesday 8 February 2017 | Published in Smoke Signals
A drunken man, barely able to stand, was swaying around Raro Fried Chicken mid-afternoon on Sunday.
No handouts for shipping service
Tuesday 7 February 2017 | Published in Smoke Signals
“IT WAS SAD to see the one professional and dedicated server of shipping to the Pa Enua had their brand new boat stranded on the reef, by accident,
Cruel people turn blind eye to dogs
Monday 6 February 2017 | Published in Smoke Signals
“How many starving thin skin and bone pictures of animals do we have to report and see before anything gets done about it?” a smoke signaller asks. “The land the animals that featured in CI News recently were found on belongs to someone, so report them. Charge them, put their names in the paper and shame them. A woman found the dogs because they were barking. Didn’t the neighbours hear the dogs? Someone must have known they were there, so why didn’t they help or report? It is pathetic how these people can get away with such cruelty on such a small island and no one sees or knows anything. It is time to give police the power to arrest for cruelty to animals. and as harsh as it sounds, culling may be kinder in the long run. The poor bitch dogs left to have puppies constantly should be removed from the owners and desexed immediately. And for repeat animal cruelty human owners should be offered castration or imprisonment.” LOCAL WORDS “Just to help Jaewynn McKay out in her letter on the Chamber of Commerce, the word we use in the Cook Islands is “papaanga”, not “whakapapa,” a smoke signaller says. “That would make the letter more, ahhh, “local.” TURN IT DOWN, PLEASE! Can the CIRU lovers and haters please keep it down, the leagues on. BENEFITS FOR SOME… “In the March 2000 Economic Gazette, under the heading ‘Current Court Actions’, it is recorded that MFEM was taking action against a certain retailer for the sum of $103,784.64,” a smoke signaller says. Eleven years later, on June 9, 2011, a CI News article recorded that the amount owed to MFEM from that same company was now $237,216.05. You can only wonder what the amount is today. And now the government wants to write off the penalty tax. So effectively the company will receive an interest free loan for over 17 years from the taxpayers. Is that what the Minister of Finance means by saying ‘all Cook Islanders will benefit from this’?” REDS UNDER THE BED What reds under the bed are scaring Papa Williams, a smoke signaller ponders? His attack on an Australian heading the inquiry into the multiple shootings near Titikaveka in October is bewildering, a smoke signaller says. “Williams whinges that it should have been a New Zealander heading the inquiry and that by not picking one it is a slap in the face for the Cook Islands relationship with the former colonial ruler. What is he on? Australian police have had a long relationship with Cook Islands Police and Australia’s Federal Police fund many training programmes here and through the Pacific. And his thought that the government’s choice is done purely to cover up issues is an outrageous slur upon the integrity of Dennis McDermott, a man who is a former AFP Assistant Commissioner. If Williams wants to slam the government he should make sure it is the politicians he targets, not experts who come here to help Cook Islanders.”
Charges versus those wages...
Saturday 4 February 2017 | Published in Smoke Signals
STANDING IN THE long queue at one of the banks this morning I was pondering over the bank charges for their various services and wondering...
PM's tourism comments stick to the bright side
Thursday 2 February 2017 | Published in Smoke Signals
THE PM’S COLUMN on the growth and development of tourism may be rosy and all good for his government’s revenue, but he avoids the negative impacts of tourism, a smoke signaller says.
Green weed a bad look for our precious lagoon
Wednesday 1 February 2017 | Published in Smoke Signals
THE FACT THAT the lagoon is deteriorating rapidly has been brought home to an Arorangi resident who says when he went for a swim at high tide last week, he was disgusted at the amount of green weed floating around on the surface.
De-sex and care for your dogs
Monday 30 January 2017 | Published in Smoke Signals
THE CRUELTY SHOWN to those poor dogs featured in CI News this week was appalling,” a smoke signaller says.
Festive timing of tax 'amnesty' a bit suspect
Friday 27 January 2017 | Published in Smoke Signals
THE HENRY PUNA and Mark Brown Christmas tax amnesty announced before December 25 is suspicious to say the least.
Politicians can travel overseas, but we can't afford doctors
Thursday 26 January 2017 | Published in Smoke Signals
SAYS A SMOKE SIGNALLER: “Regarding the front page article in Monday’s CI News about the islands that no longer have a doctor, it is just sickening reading this, especially we can afford air ambulance to evacuate a cabinet minister’s daughter to New Zealand and we can also pay for frequent overseas trips by certain politicians. So sad.
We're being ripped off!
Tuesday 24 January 2017 | Published in Smoke Signals
“WHY DO WE have to pay such outrageous prices for such an inferior broadband service?” a smoke signaller asks.
Different rules for different folks
Monday 23 January 2017 | Published in Smoke Signals
SEEMS LIKE THE idea of one rule for some taxpayers and another rule for those close to politicians also applies to the road rules. Spotted driving through town midday on Wednesday of last week, one 18 or 19-year-old daughter of a cabinet minister, on a bike without a helmet. No worries, it’s who you know, not what you know, that is important in the Crook Islands.
Brown's tax cut fails to impress
Saturday 21 January 2017 | Published in Smoke Signals
FINANCE MINISTER MARK Brown’s promised one per cent tax cut hasn’t impressed one smoke signaller, who has labelled it pathetic.
Attitude to plastic not so fantastic...
Tuesday 17 January 2017 | Published in Smoke Signals
“I WATCHED WHILE the driver of the rubbish truck indicated to his work mate that the large bag of plastic bottles carefully separated for collection by an environmentally aware business should be tossed into the back of the truck instead of the recycling,”
How about a speed gun?
Tuesday 17 January 2017 | Published in Smoke Signals
A SMOKE SIGNALLER complains that as he was tootling along towards Blackrock at the legal 40km/h he was almost knocked off his scooter by the whoosh of air created as a helmetless middle-aged local rider zoomed by him at an incredible rate of knots.
Is the Elvis convention in Australia a coincidence?
Monday 16 January 2017 | Published in Smoke Signals
WHAT A COINCIDENCE, Henry Puna has gone to Australia and guess what? There is an Elvis Presley Convention on in New South Wales from January 11-15. No sign of the PM on the list of guest artists, though.
Tax amnesty sends the wrong message
Friday 13 January 2017 | Published in Smoke Signals
CAN THE GOVERNMENT afford to let big companies and failed businesses off the hook by introducing a tax amnesty, and at the same time say it has no money to provide doctors to any of the outer islands? Mangaia lost its doctor recently, replaced by a nurse practitioner.
MMR propaganda machine gets into overdrive
Thursday 12 January 2017 | Published in Smoke Signals
THE MARINE RESOURCES media propaganda machine is on a roll again.