Opinion

Kata: Medical minerals

Letter: Confirming our cannabis status

Dear Editor, With reference to recent opinions penned and stories published in Cook Islands News. I want to confirm that it is against the law to bring any form of cannabis product into the Cook Islands including CBD – cannabidiol – which is an ingredient in cannabis and has some therapeutic uses, without providing the ‘high’ that some cannabis users seek.

Ruta Mave: Friends and family sharing what we should remember

Happy Day of the Dead tomorrow, it is Halloween, the time when the veil between those living and those departed souls is the thinnest, so communication can be made with loved ones, or as the movies tell it, with those in the past who have a grudge against you.

Kata: Public Expense

Thomas Wynne: Beyond disagreement: A plea for peace and justice

How do we disagree, without becoming disagreeable, or when our disagreement is as James Baldwin said, rooted in another’s oppression or the denial of another’s humanity or right to exist, even find a place to agree? Thomas Tarurongo Wynne writes.

Letter: A matter of life and death …

The writer’s home is located close enough by the Sheraton that most errands or travel requires driving past the hotel on the way, and again on the way back.

Letter: Old Sheraton – family or title land?

Dear Editor, I have been following the news regarding the Main Road diversion being insisted upon by Pa Ariki and her lawyers, as well as her latest developer. It has been heartwarming to see the public of Rarotonga rise up and oppose a road diversion that is not in the public interest.

Kata: Gaza

Letter: Government not seeking a loan

Your article of Monday 23rd October entitled – Cook Islands seeks US loan to develop seabed mineral sector – reports that the Cook Islands is seeking a loan from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the implication being that government is seeking a loan to develop the seabed mineral sector.

Letter: Cook Islands is ‘not independent’

Dear Editor, Prime Minister Mark Brown’s overseas travel busy visiting various countries and signing agreements is bridging international relations as head of the Pacific Islands Forum countries and the Cook Islands. At the same time the PM is trying to tap into foreign aid funds for development.

Kata: Water meter

Letter: Sheraton redevelopment

All what has been written about the Sheraton by lots of the public should be an issue for the government.

Letter: Let’s hear it for the ‘Environmental Impact Fee’

The rightly spoken article in last week's paper regarding the chronic water shortage reminds me again what dullards must makeup Aitutaki's Island Council.

Kata: EIA Sheraton

CBD products ‘are totally legal under our Drugs Act’

I’m writing in regards to your October 19, 2023 article about New Zealand allowing over the counter sales of CBD products.

Ruta Mave: An opportunity to make the right decision on Vaimaanga road diversion

Every man and his dog are commenting on the old Sheraton site and its development and rightly so because prior to the announcement the current ring road will cut in behind the complex, everyone was happy to see the site being cleaned up, writes Ruta Mave.

Letter: Vaimaanga redevelopment

I applaud the developers of this project (Vaimaanga redevelopment) … well, the current developers anyway!

Letter: ‘Public interest’ versus tourism

Dear Editor, I read a letter in the paper the other day and would like to respond to the issues raised regarding the proposed road diversion behind the “Sheraton”. Basically, that report is over 30 years old and is completely obsolete today given the developments of Cook Islands Tourism since then.

Pacific Games funding: More questions than answers

Dear Editor, The article on sports funding for this year’s Pacific Games (CINews 19 October 2023) probably raises more questions than answers.

Kata: Tapaitau