The digital home of Dennis A. Smith
IT Entrepreneur
The game of exposure, especially from outside of the mainstream media, is one of the paradigm shifts in business, politics and marketing since the arrival of the Internet. Samoa (as well as any brand or business) needs to understand this change, and to develop systems that generate the required exposure. [Read more...]
I have spent the last couple of days at the Samoa Tourism Authority’s annual talkfest. I’ve been asked to keep it positive. Sorry, I can’t do that because the world wants to know the truth about Samoa. So I’ll keep it honest but it will be balanced. My take is that Samoa Tourism has some pretty big issues to deal with; they’re getting there, but not as fast as other destinations are! Here are the gory details . . . [Read more...]
It’s Sunday in Samoa. I know because I awake coughing from a mist of Umu smoke, and church bells from East and West letting me know it’s time to get along for my weekly monetary collection session compulsory spiritual guidance session. In this Sermon from Samoa I talk about how Samoa has got it right – not with the church thing but with it’s focus on relationships, even if I do think they take it a little too far. [Read more...]
Samoa turned it on again today, as only Samoa can do! I was arrested and charged. I’ve been told that I will be summonsed to court at a date of someone else’s choosing, who knows when. New Zealand’s top cop says – “Document it all well and have your day in court.” Great! Doesn’t it just want to make you want to invest into Samoa? Or maybe relocate here to live and do business in Paradise? Yeah right! [Read more...]
Sometimes the life of (Christian) faith requires us to walk outside one’s comfort zone, simultaneously stretching ourselves and being stretched. Nothing can be truer of my time in Samoa, an intense 13-month circuit that has oscillated between Heaven and Hell. [Read more...]
Shooting straight, i.e. telling it like it is, is an exciting way to live, with great opportunities for personal growth, peace, happiness, and return on investment but it can also be a nasty way to die. [Read more...]
I’m intrigued by the current spat between John Campbell and Prime Minister of Samoa, Tuila’epa. From what I’ve seen so far, my money’s firmly on the PM. I’ll eat humble pie and apologise to JC if I’m wrong! [Read more...]
In this Sermon from Samoa I answer the question, “What did I do so wrong that I got beaten by and am now unwelcome from many of those whom I lived with and loved, and yet others love and appreciate me and my work?” Speaking the truth is a polarising act. The explanation is humbling. I simply didn’t understand. [Read more...]
In this Sermon from Samoa, I work back “up to the cliff” and show how the slippery slide first begins, and show how bloomin’ hard it is to get off once you’re on it. I share how two young men came into blessing, were tempted, succumbed to temptation and then effectively destroyed their futures by retaining a desire for wrong. [Read more...]
In this Sermon from Samoa, I take a gentle “whack” at the modern concepts of education, and instead of going with the flow, try to point us back to the traditional concepts of learning through imbibing (a.k.a. discipling). [Read more...]
In relocating into a foreign culture there is an enormous pressure to conform and become like those around you. This challenge, how much and when to adopt the local ways or to retain other values (that will certainly cause a degree of social ostracism) is easily solved by using the Scriptures as a reference point. [Read more...]
In another Sunday Sermon from Samoa I share the words of other Palagi who see things wrong in Samoa and explain how speaking the truth in love creates a solution for a troublesome situation. Doing this helps others to grow and mature (and in a Christian context, in their faith). Simple. Effective. Powerful. [Read more...]
In this latest Sermon from Samoa I explain how I see Power and Money to also be key influencers in rural third world Samoa, surprisingly perhaps, even as they are obviously key influencers in the Western world. [Read more...]
Christian Apologetic and preacher Ravi Zacharias puts it so eloquently (not!) when he says, “[The] World is … broken“. It is Sunday again in Samoa and this is how the QUOTE broken UNQUOTE world looks from within Paradise. [Read more...]
It is well recognized that poverty breeds mistrust (as well as a host of other nasties like conflict). The opposite however is also true, especially considering that poverty is primarily a mindset. Mistrust is rampant in Samoa. In this “Sermon from Samoa” I share examples from around me in Samoa of how mistrust breeds poverty. [Read more...]
A friend has asked me about construction in Samoa. Here’s Victoria’s house, a Tsunami replacement job with comments. [Read more...]
The Prime Minister of Samoa Tuila’epa (He says “Just call me Tui”) opened our first business in Samoa on Friday and amongst other things thanked me for bringing vision to his country. This post is a sample of an extraordinary three day period – a snapshot of the last three days in the life of an IT Entrepreneur in Samoa. [Read more...]
Lots of people I meet ask me questions about Samoa – people I know and strangers I meet here – both Palagi and Samoan. One of the deeper questions relates to why the Tsunami happened. Here’s another Sunday sermon from Paradise. Hint: Bypass it if you’re not curious, religious or don’t feel like imbibing some theology something deep and meaningful! [Read more...]
Samoa is well recognised as a highly political country. It doesn’t matter where you go, what you do, there is this deep political undertone that influences Samoan thinking and behaviour. Read more, if you dare! [Read more...]
In this post I share the dealing with a series of crimes committed by a young Samoan man and his accomplice; a trusted man and his girlfriend who abused that trust, who showed no real remorse, refused to repent and will likely be sentenced to a long time behind bars. I forced the matter and feel really good about it, well sort of . . . [Read more...]
A friend recently sent me an email with questions asking us (Christians) what our product was and whether we were marketing it right. I answered that the product is “Relationship” and we don’t need and shouldn’t want any marketing at all. [Read more...]
Facing fairly severe “reverse” racism at times in Samoa, I’ve had to adjust to a different way of doing things from my ingrained patterns of behaviour. Justifiable indignation and defensive aggression must be replaced with another approach – one that more closely resembles grace. I call it here “Showering ‘em with love”. It’s a tricky subject that’ll have you thinking! [Read more...]
A colleague in Paradise recently suggested that I should learn that in Samoa, “You have to do a little bit of evil to do good!” I bit my tongue for all of 24 hours hours and then we had a ‘little discussion’. That discussion has now been going on for three weeks! It’s Sunday again today and that’s my trigger to speak religious about this pickly little subject. [Read more...]
“May the Force be with you . . . “ and so my daughters had a bodyguard while they were in Samoa recently! [Read more...]
Samoa wants more business, more tourists, more international investments, but making a poorly run business bigger simply makes a bigger poorly run business. [Read more...]
The Fourth Sector is a phrase used to label the rising sector of social endeavour that variously involves a combination of philanthropy, faith, goodwill, good works, mission, government, NGOs, and . . . wait for it . . . business. [Read more...]
Sunday again in Paradise. The day for Christian things. Palagi or Samoan, Christian or not you can’t escape the church thing here. My motivation for relocating to Samoa is in essence also religious. [Read more...]
You can’t bring a Kiwi culture and a Kiwi way of life to Samoa and expect it to work the same. It doesn’t! It’s far better to go with the flow and do it their way. Here are some of the adjustments I’ve had to make. . . [Read more...]
I wrote once before that I saw no corruption in Samoa – just good people doing their jobs. I was wrong. What is called nepotism, bribery and corruption in the Western world are the way of life here. [Read more...]
I stopped to take a few pictures of a parade tonight, only to get caught up in a fundraising effort “to pay for our bus fares tomorrow”. Only in Samoa! [Read more...]
A friend, ex-pat Kiwi said to me about Samoans a while back, “They’re just born to steal!”. I buried the thought as an overly negative take on Samoans, until now. We’ve been burgled for the sixth time and theft is clearly a big problem here. [Read more...]
As an entrepreneur in a foreign country it’s even more important than ever to pick a winner. There is no backstop. Mother is a long way away and the bank manager doesn’t yet know me. Again it comes down to picking the right people. Who you know and not what you know. [Read more...]
Just some of the best photos out of many photos taken in Samoa. A portfolio of 5,000 photos would you believe it, and gowing at the rate of hundreds every week! [Read more...]
It’s Sunday again in Paradise and the question arises for me again . . . “To go to church, or not?” [Read more...]
In Samoa there are people who will just love you for who you are and those who cry “Money first!” and then allow you to enjoy their land. This guy is one of the latter group. It’s an interesting story. [Read more...]
A short earthquake this morning put the locals’ fear of a Tsunami into full frame for me. During the quake we were all wondering . . . “Is this another big one? Will there be another Tsunami?” and calls came from home to check our wellbeing. [Read more...]
A thousand photos wouldn’t be sufficient to show Samoa and the impact of the Tsunami. I know. I have more than three thousand photos taken going right back to a week or so after the big wave until last week. Here are a couple of the more interesting ones. [Read more...]
Last Sunday I had a bit of a poke at Churchianity. This Sunday is a bit of fun with numbers . . . like how my lawyer earns more in one minute than my neighbour in Samoa does in a week. Two hundred and seventy two times more, to be precise! Surely one can only call this social injustice obscene? [Read more...]
Normally charges of racism in New Zealand are levelled against the Pakeha (with some justification I might add), but the most racist person I ever had any dealings with was a Maori. I know it’s not politically correct for a Palagi/Pakeha to say this but it’s true. My time in Samoa has raised issues of racism and I’m sorry to say it’s not pretty-perfect in Paradise. [Read more...]
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