For those who didn’t already know or guess it, the Samoa tourism sector is in big trouble. No amount of fast talking and positive thinking can cover the facts released by Samoa Tourism Authority today. In a nutshell, tourism is down by over 7% on the same period last year and the previous year was down by over 13% on the 2009 figures.

Any business registering a 20% fall inside two years is generally in serious trouble. In this Sermon from Samoa, I totally avoid the blame game (such as blaming Air NZ for pulling their USA direct flights, the ash clouds, the Tsunami, school holidays – whatever) and I share some important factors for the way forward for the leaders – from the Bible.

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Learning experiences all round - Septic Tank Construction in Samoa

Working in the Voluntourism Industry isn’t easy. It sounds “sexy” but it is hard work, and dealing many people who may want to help but have agendas and issues of their own.

There’s a limit to what you can do for people when helping them adjust to a new environment. You can teach and preach, yet ultimately “everyone is their own man” and you can only hope and pray that when they eventually fall, while they may crash, they do not burn!

Among the many projects and relationships we are establishing here, one of my core missions is to help people coming to Samoa to “help” – helping the helpers, but it is not easy.

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Poet James Thomson

I was sitting in the VIP Lounge at the airport today and talked with a man very high up in government. I asked him what he did. “Oh, I’m a nobody!” he said.

This was false humility, as he was a powerful, connected and important person (and no, it wasn’t the PM, if that’s what you’re thinking – Tuila’epa doesn’t have that problem).

In this Sermon from Samoa I talk about Me! Me! Me! figuratively, and literally. [Read more...]

Girls just want to have fun!

New word for the day: Predeterminationing – the act and propensity to predetermine how events and things in the future will be, or something like that a.k.a. telling a book by its cover. Sounds much more pompous than a multi-word phrase -)

HINT: It’s not a good thing to do.

That’s the essence of this Sermon from Samoa. [Read more...]

Action shot of Samoan-style fund-raising. Grandma in the front tossing in a few coins, girls dancing (just heading off screen), and bean-counters in the background, egging it all on. An engaging performance, part act, ritual, fun and accepted social interaction!

As a long-time conspiracy theorist, I am always intrigued when the “spin” is finally unspun – it always is, eventually: Hitler, Bill ‘I never had sex with that woman’ Clinton, Pearl Harbour, Helen Clark’s multiple ‘Gates, the 9-11 War on Terror, and more. In this Sermon from Samoa, I share how spin undermines God’s best intentions for us all, including Samoa.

Two reports I’ve read this morning elaborate how the media is used to achieve a particular goal – the Urewera Debacle, and the Hubbard Debacle. As a truth seeker and one who strives to also be a truth speaker, I highlight the manipulations in these two situations thus:

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