A day at work in Q3, 2017 is a change here from the serious. Enjoy!

“What were you up to today, honey?”

Right . . .

It’s freezing outside – sunny but only a few degrees above zero. This is my first winter for yonks. I knew there was a reason I left New Zealand almost a decade ago.

The best thing about Samoa is that there isn’t any winter!

Heart medication is now working and it’s healing and getting stronger. Good! Three to twelve months they said. It’s three months and getting stronger. Yay!

Onto the computer and deal with the IRD who have taken eight months to complete their investigation into a small GST matter from last year. Wallies!

A blogger, conman and general Internet pain, Peter Vandever offers to remove his posts about me if I remove mine about him. Nice guy he says, doing the right thing he says, bury the hatchet he says. Sorry buddy the posts stay but you have right-of-reply. Best use that. Do what you will about your posts about me, whatever they are!

Not happy and attempts to make me carry the guilt by saying “No!”. No means no. He did the same thing a year or two ago – doesn’t grasp reality very well this Peter Vandever guy! That’s a good part of my blogging of him.

PV: p*t*r@azusareport.c*m 26 Jul to dennis
Dennis,
I have given it some thought since our quick dialog on YT. If you would be willing to do it, I am open to letting the water be under the bridge. I would be open to pulling down all the articles trashing you if you would do likewise. None of them benefit either of us in any way positively. It would be the grown up thing to do.
Up to you.
Peter.

DS: There are a few things that come into this equation that I will address
1. Your approach to me and willingness to bury the hatchet is one. Thank you;
2. Your articles on me – to be honest I don’t really mind what you’ve written and whether they are up or down. You should do what you want independently of me;
3. Any articles I have written must stand for ethical and technical reasons. Even if I did delete them they will remain in caches all around cyberspace and individual computers of the people you have pissed off and are out to get you. The issues you need to address are in the posts and we’ve already gone down this track before. You have right of reply and I give this to you pretty much unrestricted. Your best bet is to speak openly and honestly in the face of my serious accusations in my blogging about you. These relate to psychiatric issues; matters of fact about your birth, business & activities; and lastly the ethical issues from your words and conduct.
Hope this gives you a good guide to where I am at in reply.

PV: It is up to you. I made the offer and did it in kindness. I had no motive but to move past this nonsense that has gone on.
{No. He wanted the blogs about him removed – they are accurate and damning. It’s the second time he’s done this]
As far as the others out to get me, it is just a few nutjobs that are very committed to their mission to “destroy me” even to the point they make out some really outlandish nonsense. There has been some serious crimes against me by these people and it will be addressed.
[Maybe so. Maybe not. Start with me as the entire expose did start with me. There are some seriously p*ssed off people with Peter!]
As far as your statement, I still for the life of me do not understand why you think I have all these psychiatric issues and if I did, that would completely confidential and a matter of privacy.
[Not if it affects the world. Peter Vandever’s conduct is predatory, dishonest and a danger to the international community due to serious psychological issues. I’m sure that Peter considers his conduct normal, but it’s not!]
In your articles, you made some wild claims that can’t be back up and others are based on a lack of IP laws governing the United States and the Philippines. Once an image has been altered up to 15%, it is consider a new work of art for example by the courts.
[Irrelevant and logical fallacies galore. Serious blatant and unrepentant plagiarism occurred with proof online and much more evidence out following the posts. Defending one aspect of the matter in the way he did is utter, irrelevant nonsense.]
One reason that I have never opened up about some things is anything I say will be used against me and taken out of context as well. I know you do not care but this is why I am very closed off to people.
[Oh I care all right. For the victims and Peter on Peter may sound and look great from Peter’s viewpoint. It’s not mine!]
If you want open dialog, I am here if you choose to engage.
[Years after the event . . . no thank you!]
God Bless you.
[ A blessing from a perverted mind? No thank you . . . I prefer a blessing from the other God, thanks.

Next Up . . . a deep and meaningful email of thousands of words finished off and sent to Australia. A new business partner that will probably put the acid on Samoan things is brewing. A big email is a good start, or a quick ending to the relationship depending on how they take it all. My guess is that it’s a good start. A few personal emails and at midday we’re out the door to work on the truck – Black Beauty, a beast of a mobile recording/blogging studio that can take me anywhere in New Zealand self contained for three weeks at a time. That’s the plan anyway.

Today is finishing off steel and welding ready for a trip to the galvanising shop tomorrow.

The project today is a bracket for a shelf above the fridge, microwave and cooker. The basic construction is vertical bulkhead walls of MDF with plywood lining and galvanised shower tray/walls. Normally I screw 30mm angle iron into the walls for shelf supports. This side of the shelf has the shower wall so it needs something a bit stronger and customised to screw into the wall and a galvanised shower post.

Take a piece of steel, 19mm square.

Cut to 610mm length.

Prepare two tabs – one with a single countersunk hole, the other end with two.

Rough cut with a 100mm x 1mm thick cutting blade.

Grind to straighten and shape.

Linish the edges to round and  faces to remove the black foundry slag.

Weld tabs into place.

Linish the finished product.

Tomorrow it’s off to galvanising with all the bits and bobs gathered together from the last few month’s fabrication efforts.

Writing the Wrong is almost mobile!

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This post updates my personal situation with latest news from New Zealand – Mr Palemia banned me from Samoa in September 2016, I have been building a housetruck and mobile recording/blogging studio, my [physical] heart has failed and I’m helping others in various ways with my new business, Writing the Wrong.

If you haven’t caught up with the latest in relation to yours truly getting exported from Samoa, don’t feel bad about it – I haven’t shouted about it. Lord knows I wanted to, but I felt it more appropriate to let the Prime Minister of Samoa have his way without making a scene at the time.

That means that I’ve been sucking it all up for the last nine months . . . till now anyway. A lot will be coming out in the next few weeks!

BANNING THE BLOGGER

In Q2, 2015, Samoa’s Palemia, Tuila’epa took exception to a book I wrote called Corruption in Samoa. I wrote it for him and of course gave him a copy of it. For two years he is the only one who has ever read it. He flipped out over it, not because of the various government departments I pinged, but because I alluded to his ‘inappropriate’ relationship with Papalii Sonja Hunter, his CEO of tourism. While most in Samoa know that these two are “close” (which is how they discuss it respectfully in Samoan society), it is rarely spoken about how far the relationship goes/went.

Of course with Samoa’s leaders constantly claiming that she is Founded Upon God, that their leader is more interested in the “fuller figure” than keeping it in the marriage bed, isn’t exactly the sign of integrity that a political leader would want! Apparently it’s been going on a long time. To be quite frank I don’t give two hoots who the PM wants to muck around with except for a few things:

1. He claims that God wants him there (well after all he is there isn’t he?) and by inference because he’s there, then God condones what he does. Well the way that I look at the bible, He certainly doesn’t and not dealing with this in a godly manner makes a mockery of the name of Christ, something that I honour;
2. He wants to hide it (perhaps he is a typical politician?) thus my ‘contrary, rebellious, independent nature’ wants to expose it; and
3. He ripped me off over it (more detail in other places but basically it’s not a good idea to screw me, especially when you’re the PM with things you want to hide).

So, the Big Man ‘reviewed’ my immigration status; got me flicked and is laughing all the way to the bank bedroom.

The way he did it was kinda cute . . . illegally, immorally and typical of a coward but the end result is that since 5 September 2016, I have been back in New Zealand and have lost all – wife, three step-children, everything I owned and I only have my word and integrity left.

Whatever! Life goes on . . .

THE HOUSETRUCK

When I got banned, I didn’t know what was happening at the time. They way Tuila’epa did it was to issue the Prohibition Order secretly, get his Immigration staff to hide it, then slip a letter to all the carriers referring to the Order (but not actually sending it out to them) to prevent me from returning, then force me to leave the country (under false pretenses) and then sit back knowing that I would never return because I couldn’t!

For the next ten days following getting bumped at the airport, I worked out what had happened and determined that it was better to start afresh in New Zealand. I would have appreciated actually knowing, but at that stage I didn’t know when or or how or if things would shake down in regards to Samoa or my wife and family, so I bought an old horse truck that had been started to be converted into a housetruck and kitted it out for a mobile blogging studio. I wanted it ready in case we decided to travel New Zealand. As it turned out they chose to stay and I’m currently most of the way through converting it into a combined business marketing unit. Plan B, or C, or D, depending on how you look at it!

I’ve called it “Black Beauty” and the main thing that people say about it when they see it it “Wow! It’s HUGE!” mainly because of the large sides I’ve made. To get maximum signage, I’ve lifted the sides by half a metre, and dropped them down by over half a metre. I’ve also extended it out by a metre to the maximum legal limit, which gives me a nice stairwell and plenty of room inside. The rear also has an access door that doubles as signage with eight sheets of coloursteel for easy swapping and changing messages as I wish.

I have a tall 6.5m Internet pole, a rear ladder to the roof, solar panel, a huge 240 Ahr Deep cycle battery, a 4k inverter and generator. Cooking is gas and a fullsize recycled kitchen that I picked up on TradeMe for a buck! At the front over the cab is sleeping for three adults. Next backwards is the recording studio – carpeted on ceiling and walls for sound, seating and recording for up to six and a folding table. Then comes an office and kitchen on the right, and refrigeration, shower/toilet and washing machine on the left. Water is gravity fed from two 200litre tanks in the ceiling! Having the capacity in the extended space up, the strength and carrying capacity and experience with boats and the hassle of water pumps, I wanted nothing to do with them on a day-to-day basis.

The truck is an old Hino FD174, well recognised as a great workhorse and certified up to 13 tons!

BUSINESS INTERESTS

In Samoa I developed the Writing the Wrong brand ready for another person (a journalist and investigator) to run with. She chose to do other things upon my departure so I developed it into a New Zealand based brand and business. I’ve established the company and the infrastructure, and it has been Trade Mark approved in New Zealand and all going well, in a few months it will be confirmed (it takes six months for the notification period).

The companies by-line is “Get your story out!” and the business can morph into whatever shape the people want – blogging, marketing, investigation, journalism, advocacy and so on. I’m also happy to even play with signwriting or exhibitions if that is appropriate.

Once the truck is pretty much complete, I’ll be developing the business plans with government support using the help of some “get-off-the-dole-and-into-self-employment” assistance scheme they offer. Then the signs will go on Black Beauty and we’ll be “In business and with a plan!” probably around about a year after having gotten booted out of Samoa. Not particularly fast progress for me, but OK in my circumstances.

In the meantime, Writing the Wrong has been helping some people with their court cases, we’ve done the BBX Investigation which was a good couple of months of non-commercial part-time investigation and blogging with criminal charges already laid with civil cases to come once the criminal ones are dealt with. I’m really learning how things work back here in New Zealand after seven years in the bush in Samoa!

I’ll be taking on Bartercard through the same methods I used against BBX later in 2017 – I did the primary investigation into Bartercard when I was in Samoa, and I’ll be taking them to court (both civil and yes, criminal too) over their Ponzi scheme, plus releasing the book Bartercard Secrets and doing some online work supporting this all.

I’m also in the early stages of working with others with oyo.nz a concept that connects farmers with investors. More on that once we have the ideas firmed up. So . . . to the medical thing.

HEART FAILURE

The big bad news is that I have suffered heart failure. I’m on the standard medications in this sort of situation – a cocktail of pills that slow and steady my heart rate. Medical stuff is not my cuppa tea – I generally handle it when I have to and keep on trucking along healthily year after year, but heart failure is a little more serious. I am and have been only operating at half speed since my return to New Zealand. My aging father says that this means that I’m still probably producing at the same rate as most others, but it is a big difference for me nonetheless!

As far as we (the medics and I) can deduce, the root cause was a ‘low-level virus’ (whatever that means) that I picked up in Samoa around the time I was assaulted by the Satapuala Matai, Eniko Taufete’e. This appears to have triggered Atrial Fibrillation, which is an irregular heartbeat. I noticed this a few times when I was working in the plantation up there but it was probably intermittent and didn’t have any significant affect on me.

What did happen though was that when the Palemia banned me, I coped really well at the time, but later after I had got stuck into building the housetruck, the stress appears to have triggered a full-blown reaction – delayed shock. My heart failed rather firmly with serious weakening of the pumping, then that caused breathing problems and irregular beating. This is not heart disease (like cholesterol or artery problems) this is purely electro-mechanical. All tests and measurements are AOK except for just the electrical misfiring and weakened muscle.

I’ve been into hospital several times and once for an electric [initially successful but then ultimately unsuccessful] shock treatment operation. It’s only recently that the boffins have got on top of it all.

[Miss the next bits if you aren’t into the medical things!]

Atrial Fibrillation is quite common apparently where the cells in the heart fire off irregularly, so instead of a steady healthy heart going KAR-CHOONK, KAR-CHOONK, you can get a KAR – kar – CHOONK – kar – kar CHunk – chunk – chunk. Make sense? That’s me! The heart’s pumping efficiency drops; less blood getting circulated means less oxygen to the body, water can rest on the lungs and cause you to get puffed and short of breath and the poor little heart muscle gets exhausted and tired. And that’s me again!

I had three echo scans – that’s like the baby scans which measured the heart’s pumping efficiency at 35-40% then 30-35% then 25-30%, so every time I went into hospital it was worse. Heart pumping efficiency should be 60-70% so over the last 6+ months I went from 2/3 to 1/2 to 1/3 efficiency – not good!

Heart rate in the last visit was from 80-140 – it should be from 50-80, but all other tests came back fine. Blood pressure has always been fine. Their angiogram test reported clear healthy arteries; my thyroid and all other mineral tests came back normal so I’ve just been stabilised and sent home to take it easy for 3-4 months (yes months!) to let my dicky ticker get a little less dicky!

Thankfully the government understands my situation and helps out with the bills a little every week – nice people that they are! One day soon I’ll be all back in business and raring to pay tax . . .

So there you have it. A catch up for those who have wondered the latest.

I still blog, investigate, ask questions and sticky-beak into where the crims, crooks and crazies try to hide. I still put those opinions out there for Google and the good people to catch up on. The world keeps on spinning at around about the same rate as it did last year and the greedy and the deceivers still steal and lie . . . looks like Writing the Wrong is in the Right business eh?

Sometimes I find it depressing watching how people treat others – especially those in positions of power over others, but I know that even though people like Tuila’epa can just give others the flick because they are getting a little close for comfort; or how the BBX people scramble to keep up appearances and keeping their frauds afloat for just a few months more . . . at the end of the day, there is a God; He does know it all and there is ultimately accountability based on truth. That keeps me going, doing what I do no matter the results for the moment.

Thanks for swinging by, and check back soon if you’re interested in the gossip about Samoa and the coward that leads the show up there . . . much more to come in the coming weeks!

In this Latest News update, I report that I’ve picked up a local lady with a ready-made family; I find myself living in New Zealand and I’m buried in the middle of kitting out a housetruck ready for some fun and games in 2017. Just the usual bunch of insanity from Samoa  [oops!, now it is] New Zealand.

It’s been a while since I’ve chatted about personal things here, so let’s even that score here!

A READY-MADE FAMILY

For the last couple of years I have been actively seeking a wife. Debbie left Samoa several years ago on a one-way ticket and when the two years were up (New Zealand has a two year live-apart criteria for divorce) we divorced. I guess the courts consider that two years living in separate countries means that the marriage isn’t really of much value! I concur actually for I consider man and wife should be pretty much together! Living in separate countries sux!

After getting the run-around from a couple of dozen of the local lassies I’d pretty much given up hope of finding a Samoan who didn’t just want my money, or to get out of the country. Veve rolled on up and slipped a ring on my finger. Good on her, I say, if that’s what she wanted.

Harry (10) Ben (7) and Tulily (3) all came with the package, so we had quite a happy family there for a while. Harry has learned the fire-knife dancing thing and speaks quite good English. Ben is Mr Machete and will chop, hit, smash or bash anything and everything in his way. He just started to launch into using English words when I left and Lily is the boss, and spoiled rotten too. Big brothers have to run when she calls . . . or else! Veve, well she’s mostly a quiet, happy Samoan girl who is lucky to have hooked a nice Palagi guy . . . so I say!

BANNED!

Enter Samoa Immigration though and I got booted out of the country. Overstaying if you really want to know. One of my friends here in New Zealand laughed his head off when he heard the story – “YOu got banned for overstaying? Hell how many Samoan’s overstay in New Zealand AND ALL THE TIME?” He was incredulous!

There’s a long story behind it all of course but the bottom line is that I’m not welcome in Samoa any more – this Palagi is banned now. Whatever!

I feel for Veve and the kids. It’s a pretty inhumane thing to do, ripping a newly married family apart like they have but as I’ve blogged about many times, Samoans don’t like foreigners on their patch and certainly not ones that squeal like I do! So, too bad Palagi . . . on yer bike! It’s also kinda cute because I’ve got nothing from them to explain and therefore no right to appeal and no way to know anything up there of what’s happening. A total loss – everything. Just bugger off Palagi and don’t come back! I left with a knapsack with enough clothes for 5 days and my notebook computer. Cute eh? Lucky I live pretty simply.

There’s two sides to every story, and there’s a truckload of blogging that can come out about this in due course but I’m not complaining one bit. If you can’t do the time, you shouldn’t do the crime. I’ll do my time!

ON WHEELS – ROLL ON 2017

Fortunately I am a survivor and have learned to make lemonade when life dishes you up lemons one after the other . . . The current plans are that I’ll being Veve and the kids down to New Zealand soon and they can enjoy life in a different country and culture, just like I have for the last seven years. Yes, it is almost seven years to the day when I first experienced the Samoan ways – October 2009, just a week or so after the 29 September Tsunami!

I’m currently kitting out a housetruck that SWAP picked up from Greymouth a couple of weeks ago. It’s becoming a housetruck, converted from a horsetruck, I’ll be tidying it up and the theory is that it should eventually be able to carry and accommodate eight people, enough for mum, dad, the kids and some! We’ve got a few nice ideas planned reactivating some of the ideas we had back in 2011, but that will all come later.

It’s quite a change from the back-blocks of rural Samoa but getting thrown out of the country was always something on the cards, certainly from early 2015 when I started taking on the Prime Minister. Unbeknownst to all but my closest confidants, in Q1, 2015 I wrote a book called “Corruption in Samoa” and slipped a copy of it to the PM for his comments. His words, “If you publish this piece of bullshit you’ll be facing court action!” and “You’ve got a lot to learn about Samoa!” caused me to respond in kind along the lines that, “A Prime Minister shouldn’t speak to guests in their country like that” and “You’ve got a lot to learn about me, Mr Prime Minister!”

In fact he wrote “bull [dot dot dot dot] ” not “bullsh*t” or “bullshit” but we know what he meant! There was some pretty anemic stuff in there actually – all that he could handle in a day’s work except for one subject that got him really wound up – one of his personal indiscretions that the whole of Samoa knows about but never talks about because they’re all too scared of him and his capacity for retribution.

The Prime Minister of Samoa, Tuila’epa himself knew all about my banning from Samoa, as he is the Minister of Immigration. Funny that eh? My very strong belief is that Tui, as he asked me to call him actually gave the order, as the others all wanted to and tried to help. I think this banning thing is strategic insanity but hey, he has yet to learn the basics of strategy as taught by Don Corleone in the Godfather II – keep your friends close but your enemies closer. Now that I’m quite distant from the cess-pit of corruption that he presides over, I’m a lot more free to speak it like it is.

I have court cases all over the show in Samoa at the moment. Methinks it will be fun trying to do them all remote but them’s the breaks eh?

Next year, 2017 looks like it will be as interesting in New Zealand as Samoa was every year I was there!

Thanks for swinging by . . . now you know!

This blog now contains more than one million published words. Here I analyse nigh on a decade or so of blogging and writing; giving an analysis of the contents; a summary of the keys points; highlighting and low-lighting; and passing commentary on my commentaries! By any stretch of the imagination, a million published words is quite an achievement. Enjoy my digital celebration of this in a Q&A format – yes, yes, yes I know . . . interviewing yourself is soooo crass! Too bad . . . this blog is celebrating a million today!

Why blog?

Writers write because we are writers. That’s who we are and what we do. I’m also a trained educator; I think and I care so I like sharing what I have found by asking questions and helping others who either do ask the same questions or wished that they had. Blogging is the natural form for writers wanting to make a difference. It is immediate, permanent and if Savea Sano Malifa’s court case against me for $2m defamation has any substance to it – it’s extremely powerful too!

What’s in there?

The early days of my blogging has heaps on Samoan culture written from a Christian world-view. As my investigative blogging increased, exposes of crims, crooks & crazies increased by volume, with a splattering of comments on alternative currencies, conspiracies, religion and politics.

What’s not in there?

Personal family stuff like my divorce from Debbie, or any details of new personal relationships. I don’t blog about peoples’ sex lives [conman Daniel Evans and the Prime Minister of Samoa should be grateful for that!] and I don’t bore people with the mundane, such as . . . oh dear I came home to another break-in and this time it’s the TV they took . . . or I’ve fired yet another Samoan for stealing. I don’t get into partisan politics.

Highlights?

There are too many to single out one or two but I’m proud to have tracked down Daniel Evans and closed his Ormita fraud. That was a major investigation that I took straight to him and flushed him out. It involved serious teamwork from across the globe, stitching together pieces from more than a decade of following him and watching him. That the rest of the world couldn’t even find him, let alone touch him made it especially rewarding seeing the fraud get wound up.

I consider my analysis of the true nature of money and development of a perfect traders’ currency one of the most valuable contributions to the world – potentially. I think it’s ahead of its time but as the global financial squeeze comes on it’s possible that people will recognise the thought that has gone into it.

I’ve worked hard to mix the Christian perspective into my blogging in a way that people who want to engage in biblical matters can see more than the religious rules and drivel they are dished up. If I based my assessment of the truth on what the mainstream Christian churches seem to dish up, then it’s little wonder that many accept relative “absolutes” and classify Christianity as yet just another religion. I don’t blog that Jesus is alive and is the Son of God and came to save the world every post, but my Christian beliefs do permeate my blogging – deliberately.

The Bartercard expose, along with the corruption at IRTA; the Tradeqoin fraud and eventually The Qoin Con all took a major effort. To see Qoin, a bastion of self-righteousness fall from grace as I relentlessly exposed the people that the large bulk of the international industry believed in, was in my view spectacular success. These are two conmen who ripped off all and sundry all the while presenting themselves as saints. Fraudsters; smiles in suits; laughing all the way to the bank – exposed, and in due course likely to be staring at concrete walls if legal systems process their activities ethically.

I’d consider my analysis of conspiracy theories quite valuable and I say this because it’s quite revealing who uses them and how they respond to them. Detractors will pick a few that they scoff about (like that Michelle Obama is actually a Michael) and ridicule for petty point scoring, all the while knowing that I have the b*lls to call others that they’re too scared to! Putting it all out there like I have is quite a polarising thing, and this suits me for if someone attacks me for believing that a President is a Homosexual then on the same page I say that 9-11 is a conjob my detractor, by default, surely believes that the laws of gravity can be changed with a few computer generated graphics. Putting it all up there has been a risky but strong move on the side of credibility.

A million published words and hardly a correction required. Most people aren’t aware of the incredible amount of thought and research that goes into a post. Sure, some just come easy and I can rattle them off in an hour or two, but many will sit there as I ponder; gather the facts and then massage the words to a finished post. It is very rare that have to correct things after publishing and that’s a highlight for me, a truth-speaker.

Lowlights?

There’s only really one regret I have out of the million words published. In the early days of blogging from Samoa I said that I didn’t see any evidence of corruption in Samoa. I clearly got that one wrong in a big way! Which has been corrected over the years since, particularly with my book Corruption in Samoa.

The most sickening thing was conman Daniel Evans’ claims in a fit of fury when he first became aware of The Ormita Report. He spent a couple of days attempting to smear me to try and try and save his credibility and one of his hitpieces talked of a homosexual relationship between us. I had calls from around the globe telling me what he had distributed AND news that some people believed it! I chose to wait, responded with a simple blog post letting all and sundry know that the closest Daniel would ever get to be was my boot up his posterior and that the Fafafines of Samoa worked out in short order that we were on different pages! The really funny thing was that some of my informants were Daniel’s ex-bum-boys who spoke VERY frankly about his nighttime/hotel activities. I indeed did have knowledge of the conman’s sexual activities, but not from the manner he claimed. A year or so after the events the stories all dropped off the Internet ‘somehow’. Just “sick” stuff really. Nuff said!

The hardest part of exposing crooks, crims & crazies has been wading through story after story of the victims of injustice. I hate it and would consider this the low parts of being an investigative blogger. I can’t and don’t take on the world; I can though push through with certain people who I know are doing something wrong, exposing them and hopefully affecting some form of change or justice.

Lessons?

I’ve learned a lot about many things in the process of writing and publishing a million words . . . especially the subjects I have chosen to blog about. I’ve come to understand them heaps more than before I started – Samoa, it’s people and culture and what drives it; conmen and how they deceive; TPTB and how they too deceive.

But it goes deeper than this for when sharing about others and things external, we’re also drawn into reflection about the internal. I became aware of the true significance of this when I’d been writing for a little over a year about how I saw the greed and selfishness of the Samoan people manifested. Make no mistake about it, it is surely ugly! But when I transposed this greed and self-interest back into my own culture, I came to see how my own people were in many ways just as greedy with just as much self-interest as the people I was surrounded by – it’s just that it manifested in different ways.

Take for example capitalism. It’s “good business” to buy something from China for a dollar and sell it for $99.00. We put it on special at half price and still make a killing. Even to our friends we will still sell it at a huge profit. We seek the latest gizmo, borrow at interest [because we can] and ignore our neighbour [literally] who is hungry or struggling financially. Such actions are simply incomprehensible to many Samoans who will buy something for a dollar to be able to give it away, or to share food with others whether they need it or not. Yes, I know that there are peer pressures and social obligations that go along with this giving BUT my blogging and sharing has enabled my thinking to develop a good understanding of the world around me. So I think anyway!

It goes deeper too. While I have spent decades fighting low self esteem and insecurity, blogging like I have has essentially nailed the door to the past stresses in this area firmly shut. I now have the confidence to speak it like it is at any time, on any subject without fear or favour knowing that in doing so, I will eventually hear the words I live to die for, “Well done good and faithful servant!”

I know there is a small core of readers, some going back years; most wandering in from time to time, and new readers who have done or are doing initial due diligence. Thanks for being with me as I’ve shared my thoughts here.

In this post I reveal a personal detail that I’ve never shared before online and quite rarely in off-line situations – I have a mild form of Aphasia. In this post I share the significance of this. I trust that it may help others identify similarities in their own situation.

First, I would note that my Aphasia is self-diagnosed. No scientist or specialist has had a go at me on this one!

Secondly, I am not a shrink nor a doctor so this is a layman’s post, albeit one from a guy who has spent a lot of years ‘working it all out’.

Thirdly, I assess my issues as “mild” and do not wish to use any Aphasia as an excuse for any communication difficulties!

While there are many symptoms and a range of challenges in regards to Aphasia, mine is best understood as having ‘slow ears’.

Easy!

In fact I can hear a pin drop at 50 paces and pick out the entire instrument range in a classical orchestra, easily humming along to the oboe, trombones, second fiddle or timpani in any classical work you care to name, but if I hear an unfamiliar sound (like a word in a foreign language) I simply cannot, for the life of me ‘get it’ first up. It needs to be repeated and repeated and repeated sometimes for weeks or months before I ‘get it’!

Some examples from the practical world.

I bought a Prado Landcruiser, imported from Japan. Every time I turned the ignition on the Japanese girl hiding under the bonnet would remind me to “Har door jakati sek!” I tried for about four years to repeat that sound to Japanese people for a translation but to no avail. Nobody could understand what I was hearing from this little Japanese girl then trying to repeat. Eventually someone DID partially recognise and guess what it was, saying the phrase in some resemblance to what I was hearing. It was a reminder to put a credit card into the Japanese auto sensing toll system, so I simply cut the cables to the card system, the sensors and the little speaker under the dashboard and my Japanese language challenge disappeared (along with the little obnoxious Japanese girl under the bonnet who would speak those horrible sounds at me!)

I sometimes play a little game with guests here at Camp Samoa to explain what I hear . . . I ask them to say something simple in their own language. I then repeat what I actually hear and they always crack up laughing for I have always gotten it very wrong. If they say for example, “wie ist das Wetter heute” which means, “what is the weather like today?” in German, pronounced something like, VEE IST DAS WETTER HOITER, I could repeat something like “We is tyse weffer height a” much to their amusement.

When I first arrived in Samoa I tried to learn the Samoan word for Thank You. It took me 5 weeks – yes literally! Faafetai, if you really want to know. Easy now, but at 5 weeks I still hadn’t ‘got it’ and tried to say thanks to a guy on the street, “Faa–, Fee-, Fo’o . . . oh F*ck it . . . [In the end I gave up and said . . .] Thank you!”, forcing me out of embarrassment to go home and write it all down and memorise it. For almost two years though I confused Faafetai (thanks) with Faa (Bye) often saying the wrong thing until my brain had learned the new auditory patterns well enough to get it right!

At school I failed French lessons with thirty something percent in my final exams, and only six percent in Latin. How I even got that beats me, but I must have spelled something right! I passed Maori studies at teacher’s Training College in Epsom (a compulsory pass subject) with 50%. I approached the lecturer with a little surprise at my pass. He admitted that he had “rounded me up” because it was a compulsory pass subject. When I asked what he rounded me up from, his reply spoke volumes. “We won’t go there Dennis!” I pressed the issue and asked why he did that and he was rather direct. “Well you can’t speak Maori for sh*t but you have a heart for the culture and that’s what’s important to us!”

This is a revealing statement for it is the reason that I can engage with Samoa and the Samoan culture as I do. Like Helen Keller had reduced vision and hearing but an enlarged capacity to understand human dynamics, so too it appears that I have slow ears; basically I can’t speak Samoan for sh*t either, but have a heart for the culture. It also helps that my children are as half Maori as it is possible to be in this day and age thus I have enough experience with the Polynesian culture not to be frightened at some of the idiosyncrasies that surround me! To the people in Samoa (who all have a nominal Christian belief) I often explain it that, “God has closed my ears to speaking the language, but has opened my heart to understand the culture”. That sums it up pretty simply.

I find it interesting that unbeknownst to me at the age of 19 I taught a young man sign-language in South Auckland. He had been diagnosed with Aphasia, quite a serious case actually with total inability to recognise words via sound. I had learned sign language at Homai school for the blind as a volunteer (yes they had deaf and blind kids there in various degrees of handicap and we learned the early Kelston School for the Deaf variant of the language when it first came out) and worked with this boy to teach him structured sentences via sign language. He did quite well with 100% visual communication but simply had nothing connect up top when it came to interpreting sound. He could hear a pin drop too! After he responded really well we found out that his mother had been signing to him for years since he was a baby and it was at 12 years old that the school system finally worked out that shouting words at the boy and treating him like an idiot wasn’t working! Typical eh?

There are other issues that Aphasia introduces, some of them a little challenging. When speaking, I pause frequently to select the words I am seeking. If I am free to speak and am familiar with a topic I can do so fluently and have a good vocabulary. When under pressure though, such as in a conflict situation or talking about an unfamiliar subject, or when tackling something challenging, or when I am tired, it might take me a second, or sometimes two seconds to ‘find’ the right word I am looking for from my memory bank and then spit it out! It makes for a challenge for listeners but hey, that’s why I enjoy writing!

On that subject, the written word has always been my best personal outlet – for what is inside. As a teenager I first connected to the inner voice when I took pen to paper and just wrote (page after page actually) random thoughts as they just came to mind. As I came to know the presence of the Holy Spirit, it was through the typewriter that my prayers had greatest meaning, and even to this day it is when typing (and playing the piano) that I can pray the most effectively.

The other thing is that my mild form of Aphasia has had little impact on my intellect. Nobody that I can ever recall has called me thick!

I view Aphasia as an anomaly, not the norm, but it’s not a major handicap and does have benefits with increased capacity to understand non-verbal things. Yes, in some social situations I would like to be able to ‘cut the mustard’ in the spoken word at the speed and quality of others but the written word is sufficient for 99% of my needs.

When speaking to me some things help with good communication:

Background noises make hearing more challenging, and the first part of any sudden noise will generally miss my receptors until I can ‘zero-in’ on the sound, so simply saying “Dennis [or Tenisi] prior to speaking to me means that I have a split second to focus attention on the source of the new sound and I can pick up the entire message.

Mumblers or those talking away from me generally have to repeat their communications more directly!

I use lip-reading and body-language to help me ‘hear’ things in a way that makes sense. I can hear the sounds perfectly well at a straight hearing level but seeing things like a face, lips or eyebrow movements and so on helps quite a bit.

I am a visual learner – when I write new words/sounds down I convert the sound into a visual imprint and this helps me enormously to retain the sound. Names for example here in Samoa are very different, so when I hear the name of a new person I always ask them to spell it. When I hear the letters, I mentally convert the sound to a visual symbol in my mind and most of the time I retain the name well.

There . . . now you know. I hope you found this interesting and perhaps helpful! Search Aphasia on Google for more learned run downs on it. This is just my story.

Today is Samoa’s Big Day; I’d call it the Biggest Day since their independence over fifty years ago. The world champion All Blacks are playing Manu Samoa [rugby] at 3.00pm local time, their first visit to Samoan soil. This is a huge event here for a passionate people who have produced many of the All Black greats, but who have been snubbed by the IRB for years.

Rugby

Rugby, for those not familiar with the sport is a religion in my country of birth, New Zealand and Samoa (where I reside now).

Take American Football and cut the stoppages by 75% so that you have more of a flowing game; then take off the pads and protection gear [only sissies and Americans need those) and you have a bone-crunching eighty minute thriller that would be the envy of many a Caesar. Legalised violence balancing skill and fitness for 80 minutes of action.

I enjoy watching rugby, the TV coverage nowadays is excellent – especially for a guy who likes to see patterns and likes to see the strategy of team against team. I won’t be watching this game though, for my Aerial is still on the roof at Satapuala and while the TV works, I haven’t watched it in four years!

Great Infrastructure

The government of Samoa has pushed through with good infrastructure improvements in the last decade, and when the All Blacks were billed to appear in person, their upgrade to Apia Park has put the cherry on the top of the developments, with bigger better stands, lights and a massive screen. While the countries debt has blossomed well past its capacity to ever repay [like many countries, especially those of the third world] I do appreciate the developments.

The villages of Samoa are really turning it on – flags line the road from Faleolo Airport to Apia, most villages are doing something even in Savaii. Samoa really does this well – it’s one of the things I really love about the country.

A Big Day

I struggle to think of any Bigger Days in Samoa’s recent history – The Tsunami of September 2009 and Independence in 1962 are two others, but for Samoa, to have the world champion All Blacks play a test match against Manu Samoa for the first time on home soil is quite extraordinary. Remember that these are the world champions and Samoa is a tiny island nation of only 180,000!

The decision for the ABs to visit has been discussed ad infinitum elsewhere and there are people who really deserve a lot of credit for making it happen – Manu Samoa supporters, the Prime Minister Tuila’epa and the All Black management who have bitten the bullet and shown that there is a little heart in what is essentially a money-making machine. They could make a lot of moolaa elsewhere but Samoa is all about people and relationships and this visit will not be forgotten in a hurry.

Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand at the time apologised to Samoa a few years back for New Zealand’s past indiscretions, and there was a bit of commentary in New Zealand about it along the lines that what she was a good thing. At the time, I just thought, “Ho hum!” but having lived here and come to understand and appreciate the Samoan ways, relationships are VERY important to the Samoans and what she did was the right thing to do.

Likewise with the ABs visiting. No matter the score today, this is a win-win event, for sure! For Samoa to host the mighty Blacks is a win for Samoa. Gracing us with their presence is a win for New Zealand and the All Black team.

The Game

I don’t gamble but I’d be taking money from many-a-Samoan who believes that Manu has a chance. I doubt it. I was speaking to guy a day or so ago in town who was puzzled that I didn’t rate the local team. “But Dennis, the local boys, at home, with the crowd behind them, a historical event; our boys can do it!” he was saying. I told him that I always say to people when talking about Samoans that while their physique is amazing and “Give a Samoan a rugby ball and tell him to ‘Go!’ and there’s nothing on the planet can stop him”, that they won’t be bowling the world champions! Maybe the humidity will take the edge off the AB’s fitness edge but the ABs are number one for very good reason – they are a clinical professional team in every regard.

Manu Samoa is basically a collection of passionate boys with top ball skills and physique scratched together to try to make a team. They lack in the strategy department, and always will – it’s a cultural thing, [don’t ask!]. I think that the AB’s might be a bit bruised and battered after the game and discipline may also be an issue for the Blues because they’ll be all hyped up. TIP: Stay well clear of a hyped up Samoan! They do really well with their best players playing in all four corners of the world, in fact incredibly well, but my money today is on Black, not Blue.

My prediction is NZ by 30, probably even 40 points. If it’s less then I’d take my hat off to Manu Samoa, they will have done well. On a good day they might just foot it with some of the best, but it would have to be a sequence of miracles, not just one to bowl the AB’s over today.

UPDATE: Samoa 16: New Zealand 25.
Thanks to the Sydney Morning Herald for a very classy realtime updating web page game commentary with images and video snippets too. Despite getting rattled at the start the All Blacks in the end were too good but hey, what passion from Blue!

I’ve been in Samoa for five years now.

In due course I will no doubt apply for citizenship and they’ll probably bury me here!

Here’s a wrap-up from 2014 with the latest gossip.

Can’t wait to read it? Sorry, nothing really sexy!

In short, the year was full of investigative blogging – Ormita, Bartercard, IRTA, Universal Currency and more recently the Tradeqoin scam.

The Camp Samoa plantation is ticking over, pigs, dogs and chickens all well fed.

I’m still broke but debt-free; now divorced; lost some friends but gained more from around the globe than I had before and have plans for another positive year in 2015.

There! Now, “what say you savage?”

Investigative Blogging

Investigative Blogging has been the focus of this last year, 2014. It has been full of it!

In the first quarter of 2014 I finished a monster of a report (The Ormita Report) following a monster of an investigation into conman Daniel Evans and his Ormita fraud. I published it at the end of March. It was widely distributed throughout the barter industry thanks to the friendly team at IRTA who loved it to bits and talked it up. Shortly thereafter Ormita was no more and the conman was in hiding. He still is BTW although I can see evidence of him still snooping around.

Job done!

I then launched into a string of posts and then questions that turned into investigations and more posts than I can count! Many of them exposed serious naughtiness in the barter industry. Bartercard launched an IPO  with a dodgy prospectus and a secret deal with IRTA. I exposed that one and put the cat amongst the pigeons at both ends. Bartercard redid their prospectus and IRTA threw out a panicky media release trying to explain the unexplainable.

I dived into the nepotism and corruption at Universal Currency where IRTA was not playing by the rules, such as extending credit to the insiders, billing members who had long gone, raiding their members ‘funny-money’ till and hiding a whole bunch of stuff from their members. Extraordinary conduct from the self-professed industry watchdogs who don’t even have their own currency audited!

I then showed Tradeqoin’s crowdfunding campaign up for what it really was – a scam. They backtracked and down-graded their projections by some 90% as a result of my expose and then dropped their crowdfunding ask to a third of what they were seeking.

All in all it was one ‘hell of a year’ on the investigative blogging front.

Personal

On the personal side, Debbie finally signed our divorce papers and she is now free of her ‘problem man’. In a nutshell for those curious, our separation after a decade or more together is best summarised by the phrase, “It’s my way of the byway” to which, two and a half years ago, her answer was the latter with a one way ticket outta Paradise. Not my ideal solution to our long-term difference of opinion but that’s the way things are!

On the financial side, I’ve basically continued to live on capital – that makes pretty much five years of it, but the plantation produces well and the little cash that comes in from various people and sources keeps the wolves away – just!

My understanding of Samoa and Samoans has increased substantially in the last year and a lot of the festering problems from the first few years in Samoa are on the verge of being dealt with, which is great. I’ve culled a few ‘friendships’ in the process of making life easier and cleaner.

The Camp Samoa plantation is ticking over nicely producing coconuts, bananas and a variety of fruit way more than I can handle – lucky birds and pigs eh? I now have a little faleo’o on the hillside overlooking Camp Samoa. I like it. A faleo’o is a thatched roof house made of sticks on poles – very traditional Samoan it is!

All in All

A few events of note from the year. I’ve said a lot by way of my blogging and posting online. Much of it has been hard-hitting and somewhat controversial but incredibly as far as I know 99.999% has been dead right. I can’t think of one error of fact in hundreds of thousands of words. I put this down to a deliberate, conscious effort to deal with the truth and nothing but the truth. Getting things right is important to me.

There a couple of things that I would have said differently, there was a comment that I made in a LinkedIn post where I used a simile with Nazis or Hitler which in retrospect I probably went a little far in the heat of the moment. The IRTAcard post went down like a lead balloon in some circles but in others some were in total hysterics. In retrospect I would have made it a lot clearer in the post that it was humour. I never thought that anyone would actually believe it – but they did! My hints at satire were a little too subtle and I didn’t understand that American’s humour is a little less ‘refined’ (shall we say) than British!

When I look back on the year and ponder the successes and failures it was a big one for building my online credibility in some circles (although not openly in some of course!) especially the ones that matter to me. When it comes to laughs, there were a few but the big one has to be Ron Whitney’s response to a Dutch question. I can’t help but crack-up when I think of the email that Ron Whitney (Executive Director of IRTA) sent to TradeXchange in the Netherlands when Jacob asked him what he thought about my blogs exposing Tradeqoin as a scam. The context was that after extensive blogging revealing nepotism and corruption within the IRTA operations, the IRTA team could only claim that “Dennis lacked credibility”. I mean what else can you say when your reputation is being nailed to the wall daily?

When Ron answered Jacob with the same sort of response, I laughed my head off, because of course we could all see that Tradeqoin’s prospectus was a nonsense. That they totally rejigged their entire valuation (down by a million Euros), business projections to a tenth and crowdfunding ask slashed by two thirds as a result of the blogging that “In the opinion of IRTA and UC” lacked credibility was and still is hilarious! Of course it showed IRTA for what it really is – an old boys network all looking after each others’ interests (and backs) without a hint of integrity – but, whatever! That’s just who they are and the way things go. I’m sure that IRTA thinks I set them up and used Jacob to entrap them. In fact I knew nothing of Jacob’s question until after Ron had responded and he sent it to me. We really had a good laugh together. He’s a bit of a character!

The new year

In a business sense I will keep on with commentary on the barter industry and alternative currencies. That’s NOT good news for IRTA and Tradeqoin if they both continue with their current modus operandii as there will be more information coming to light which they will not want out there. For example there will be concerns from IRTA if (dare I say it, when) the GETS Summary Report gets into the public domain. There is VERY good reason why IRTA’s lawyers hammered GETS with a serious threat if they released it! There’s also VERY good reason why the IRTA Executive also suppressed it even from their own Board and only gave them a shortened ‘censored’ summary!** Likewise with Tradeqoin. Rob van Hilten will NOT want more factual information about Tradeqoin’s memberships to get into the public domain, especially in his target market, the Netherlands! I predict that both of these things will happen in the New Year to their probable gross consternation.

More and more people are wanting me to get serious with Bartercard, some talking of trying to “take them down”. If there are enough people around who are motivated, this is a possibility although it’s not a simple, “Yeah! Let’s go get em!”. Bartercard builds their business on illusions – essentially talking about how great and wonderful they are, when in fact they have a grossly inflated currency, and conduct themselves an inch short of the law (sometimes arguably over it), and certainly way outside the norms of ethics as most of the world would want to apply the term. Investigative blogging with a concerted effort to expose their immoral predatory practices could be quite embarrassing and perhaps lead to events that could “bring them down”. There’s SOOOO much ill-will out there towards them and SOOOO much evidence of their skulduggery that they will have serious problems if someone took them on with a professional website and Social Media presence that simply shared all this information. I’m not into destruction. I want to build things and people up to make the world a better place, but as you can see from my clear intent to take Ormita fraud down*, when given the support and enough motivation to do so, I’m not averse to taking on the crooks head-on.

At home here, I’d like to marry and have a family, probably locally. Hopefully this can happen in the new year. I’ve been in Samoa for five years and have thus far deliberately held off personal integration (taking on a Matai title and/or marriage is the normal way for a Palagi to integrate with a village personally) although I have had extensive engagement at village level around both islands.

Camp Samoa (and other lands I have access to) are ready for foreign investment and it is possible that next year could be the year that others join me in what we are doing here. A lot of people are worried about the way things are shaping up in the Western society – increased conflict, economic troubles, health and environment issues, the police-state and of course the trend to globalisation and the NWO. Samoa has a unique offering. It’s a challenge culturally, not an easy thing to adjust to but I can and do bridge that gap for others. It’s an area I’m interested in. We’ll see how it all shapes up.

And of course blogging is always a part of life for Tenisi.

See you on the other side of the New Year!

* My original intent was to write The Ormita Report and simply expose the facts. A few months into the investigation as I found the extent to which the fraud affected others adversely, in January 2014 I determined to do everything I could to close it down. Thankfully I achieved that goal when the software provider, Time Management terminated their services.

** This is contrary to what IRTA President claimed, which is that all IRTA Board members got a copy – both digital AND in print prior to their Cancun conference. I believe that this was an outright lie from a President who has proven herself to me to be rather ‘economical with the truth’ in the past!

Samoa’s Regulator, Donnie De Freitas is on fire to introduce an IXP into Samoa. The OOTR recently hosted a one and a half day event introducing the idea and sought a mandate from attendees to push through with the idea. He has South Pacific precedent with Vanuatu successfully implementing an IXP and says that he has the support of an ‘alphabet soup’ of acronymed organisations.

Here’s a brief wrap-up of the first day and my take on it all.

An IXP is . . .

An IXP is basically a local installation of routers and servers that retains a cache (memory) of commonly viewed websites.

Imagine people connecting to each other within Samoa, rather than via an offshore service; and copies of Google and YouTube locally in Samoa rather than in the USA.

Participants in the IXP programme will benefit from faster and cheaper Internet costs as the traffic to and from (for example) YouTube will be reduced to local traffic only, instead of heading offshore.

Advantages of an IXP

Vast speed improvements and substantial reduction in international bandwidth costs are the two USPs.

The first will be benefiting the Internet users, the second is one that will benefit the two primary ISPs and potentially (if they pass their savings down) their clients [us users].

Installation of a Google Cache could improve an ISX as in the example of Vanuatu.

The OOTR

The Office Of The Regulator has a responsibility to manage Internet-related matters and an IXP is certainly a good idea on the surface.

Donnie’s intent to garner support from a people largely disconnected from the business world and ICT matters to drive and manage the initiative will likely fall flat in Samoa, where people tend to only ever do what they are told to do, thus pretty much only do what they have to. He will need to lead from the front and tell people what they will get and should do (and then they will if there is something in it for them).

He’ll need also to get real buy-in from the ISPs first, and then help the larger companies and universities to utilise the services. His commitment to getting an IXP up and running is admirable. If he can do something with the wholesale cost of bandwidth with the new submarine cable to Samoa about to be announced, then good on him!

Workshops

The workshops in the afternoon started to develop some ideas of where-to-from-here under the leadership of an Andy Linton a retired lecturer from Victoria University in Wellignton and a guy passionate to help improve Internet services around the region.

Donnie explored ways that local content could be developed following cheaper/faster Internet based on local services – media, universities and User-Generated Content as better services apparently contributes to more content – logically. In Samoa that will just mean more YouTube and Facebook data!

Other IXPs

Jethro Webston was involved in establishing the Vanuatu IXP which seems to have knocked between 60-70% off international Internet traffic to/from Vanuatu. His presentation detailed his experiences, essentially, keep the installation site neutral, lean on those who will help you and don’t expect anyone/everyone to get excited and participate at the outset. Interesting that they had six connects/ISPs from a polulation of only 250k (Samoa’s is 180k and we have two.)

PNG tried to do something with an IXP but this failed or didn’t gain traction. Fiji is looking at an IXP too.

The God Thing (again)

As an aside I chuckled with the engagement of a Pastor and the obligatory opening prayers prior to the event, considering that the Regulator and another key industry player sitting beside me do not share the Christian belief and let it be known! As I don’t attend church myself, that made it three people that I knew who didn’t buy-in to the Churchianity thing. Cultural norms really are funny when they are challenged. It’s like a big elephant in the room!

I couldn’t work out a coherent message from the short speech/prayer. Danny Epati from Saanapu was the man on the spot who referenced Matthew 28:19 [Go make disciples], spoke about Jesus’ need for us to work together (I thought He talked more about a relationship with the Father and obedience to Him, but there you go!) and prayed for us to grow in strength and wisdom through the use of “hopefully a little cheaper” Internet communications.

Inviting Myself

For the record, I invited myself to the event based on a public media release that called for as wide a representation of stakeholders as possible: Source.

The event was held at the Orator Hotel and the [distinctly Palagi] food that was served up was a pleasant change for a . . . well . . . Palagi!

Thank you OOTR.

Good luck putting the two biggest stakeholders Bluesky and Digicel together to get agreement . . . again!

Note: I was only able to attend the first day.

All photos taken today.

Enjoy!

7.00am as per usual is out in the garden clearing land – rocks, stumps and whatever. There’s a sign on the wall that says: “WORK: Pick up sticks . . . OR . . . Pick up stones!” One or the other are sure to be on the work list.

In this panorama I’m currently clearing the land to the left of my Faleo’o ready for grass and more, yes more Hibiscus (Rosa Sinensis) that I’ll be growing from seed I imported from Tahiti and the USA. It’s taken more than a week to clear this section of land working 2-3 hours at a time working to avoid the hot or humid times the day.

I leave large rocks in the ground and dig/winch out anything I can move with a couple of 1 ton chain blocks and strops. It’s hard physical work but the result is worth it!

The Umu Kuka (outside fire-oven kitchen area) is constantly undergoing its second reconstruction programme.

The first one lasted a couple of years then when the posts rotted, I replaced them with good Poumuli hardwood posts that I’m told will last many years. Recently I’ve been rollign and winching the rocks into place to build a rim of concrete/stone half-height walls and bench/tables around the perimiter.

Cooking is on fire (centre) and the piles of sones from the last couple of days are right of the axe.

Today I spent an hour twisting No6 fencing wire into a hook to lift up the grate/grill for easier fire starting and making a wire hook/hanger that can be used as a handle to pick up hot posts without requiring oven mits or Samoan-style hands!

Fuel is a mixture of dried Kamaligi/Tamaligi wood and coconut husks. Nothing is wasted.

A trip into the plantation returned the above produce, more than enough for one day.

The green photo is of the Plantation Trail that leads down to five off-shoot paths to the left, numbered of course . . . Tasi, Lua, Tolu, Fa and Lima.

Today I worked my way down getting as far as Tolu then back to Lua. This returned three bunches of bananas for me (two lovely Fai Samoa bunches and one of my favourite Pulukamu), some coconuts, two small bunches of bananas for the pigs and a small Taamu – enough for a couple of days eating by one person and left overs for the dogs.

Pulukamu is a transliteration of Bubble Gum and the banana has a slight chewy-ness to it with a gentle difference to the taste. I can now tell the tastes, look and texture of the various bananas and grow all seven of the varieties that commonly grow here in Samoa.

The inset shows the size of these bananas, they are huge at 80mm diameter and 200mm in length. All guests go “Wow! Look at the size of them!” when they first see a Fai Samoa – everyone.

I will ripen them and then freeze them when they go yellow/brown, then eat them like an iceblock or ice-cream. Divine!

The pigs got their coconut for breakfast, as per usual.

Meet Suka, Suka and Suka. Yup the guy I got them off answered my question, “What’s her name?” on the first delivery with Suka. Same thing on the second delivery . . . to which he explained that they’re all called Suka so that when he calls them they all come.

At this stage they still run away to the back corner of the pen when I call them but that will change in due course as they learn to be petted a bit more. Sad when they’ll all end up for dinner one day eh?

They’re happy with the recent rain – mud!

My office where the blogs originate, where my Tipline terminates and the home of investigations, research, marketing, thinking, international communications and suchlike!

It normally sports a hanging mosquito net but that’s down while I’m tidying up and finishing the construction in preparation for a fixed mesh netting around the office in the next week or so.

Today’s blogging ‘work’ included this post done late afternoon [a good hour or more], and in the morning (after a couple of hours on the land) a write-up from the Tradeqoin update where they announced recently that they had reassessed their business plan and devalued the Tradeqoin company, lowered their crowdfunding ask and so on. This took me about 3 hours including research work, analysis and writing.

This is one of the more unusual Hibiscus colours in Samoa, one I call Samoan Orange Estate. I only have one plant which has produced its second bloom but it’s healthy and will produce some good wood for propagation in due course.

I’ll finish the day with a couple of hours setting up the Hibiscus seeds for growing in cardboard egg boxes and plastic seed trays.

I’ll be cooking a chicken and Taamu soup (normally chicken & Taro) on the umu kuka fireplace and probably a game of cards and a little bit of time ‘tickling the ivories’ on the piano to finish out the day and week.

Saturday morning is into town for shopping. Frozen chicken, matches, curry, bread and onions are the items on the list so far.

That’s a wrap from me with a nice little check out from a day in Paradise!

I’ve recently changed my Facebook friend policy and have culled a whole bunch of Facebook friends. Sorry guys. I’m currently a little too hot to handle and it’s for your own good with conman Daniel Evans out on the prowl and trying to make trouble.

Chatting with a business partner in the last few days, the word out on the street is that I’m currently a little Too Hot to Handle. My words, not his, but he agreed that maybe it was a good summary.

Great! Now that means a lot to me . . . New Zealand, Samoa and now the world is afraid of messing with a blogger from hell Samoa.

I used to worry about the negative stuff like this but the more I live, watch and observe, the more I appreciate the relationships I have with the people who dig deeper, ask questions, are happy to entertain creative ideas in business and who want to work with the truth. In New Zealand that represented 3% of the industry I was in after 3 years of sticking my head up and trying to make a difference; in Samoa it is currently .01% of the population after 4 years and now in one industry globally after hammering the Ormita conman Daniel Evans, it’s probably sitting around 1% after 6 months of serious engagement in the world of commercial barter!

It’s nothing personal guys (and gals). I’ve just lost the desire to look cool with hundreds of contacts and with the heat going on Evans now with criminal and civil litigation processes underway it’s probably better that you distance yourself from me, certainly online anyway. That will stop you getting spoofed emails claiming that I was in a homosexual relationship with the conman (OMG), or that I’m trying to buy/steal/setup in competition to the Ormita business (OMG2) or that I’m causing him to commit suicide (OMG3) or whatever other crazy thing he comes up with next!

My assessment on Facebook friendship boils down to this . . . if you’re the sort of person who:

• knows that I play for keeps;
• knows that I speak my mind fearlessly;
• if you got a crazy email from a man out to destroy me and my reputation online you’d either know that it was crazy or you’d bother to check it out with me personally and
• knows me in the physical world . . .

then you’ll still be my friend on Facebook. Everyone else it’s best that you stand clear.

Skype me on VICTUSINAMBITUS or email me if you wish to keep in contact. I’m still here, just not as popular on Facebook or LinkedIn.