Today in the High Court of Samoa, Punaotala (Tara) Sakai and Masetoni Isaako pleaded guilty to $5,230.00 (WST) THEFT AS A SERVANT from my company Gold Tick Services Ltd in October/November 2010.

Sentencing will be in early December before the same Judge (Spicer).

The original charge was for over $WST39,000.00 T.A.A.S., however the Attorney General withdrew all items not actually confessed by the couple to the court, and there will be no further action as a result.

UPDATE, Jan 2012: According to the Investigating Officer, Masetoni Isaako received 9 months jail. Tara Sakai failed to appear and a warrant for her arrest has been issued.

These are people whom we helped in no inconsequential ways in late 2010 and in early 2011, and gave many chances to. Basically, we were victims of a series of cons and their individual greed. Our biggest mistake was to trust. As a result of these events we are hopefully wiser, and are starting to view the people around us here in Samoa more and more as the Samoan people themselves do, negatively – rather than optimistically. It’s sad, as I would really like to be able to trust people.

I am cynical of the conduct of the criminals, one a self-confessed career criminal with multiple fraud charges pending (NZ & Samoa) and the other who appears to be “merely a thief”. They failed to appear and had to be arrested, one of them twice, and they confessed to only that which they believed that we had evidence for, and one of them continued to attempt the con literally only weeks before the hearing! None of the equipment has been voluntarily returned and I know that they are fully aware of where the stolen equipment is, in fact I know that they continue to use some of the construction equipment until quite recently, possibly even still currently. To put it politely, their confessions are simply pragmatism and certainly lack any repentance!

Throughout the complaint procedure, the investigation by the police, the Attorney General’s office and the court hearing the distinct impression that I got was that efforts to exercise justice existed to the absolute minimum extent possible. It took over a year for the case to be processed. No effort or interest was shown by anyone involved to recover the gear and there was actual resistance to attempting recovery action. Many who were party to the theft and willing recipients of the stolen gear have also gotten away Scott-free.

What the judge says or does with these people from here matters little to me – from my perspective due process was completed and the Justice System has done its bit.

These criminals are not the first to learn that I never give up when it comes to doing the right thing in regards to justice. I’ve said before that all criminals targeting S.W.A.P. will all be handed over to the Police for appropriate action. These two were not the first, and there will be more as well who have committed crimes against us and have yet to show remorse who will end up facing a judge.

This is not a vendetta thing – it is just doing the right thing. I actually lose control of the matter very early on in the events – as the AG lawyer so eloquently put it to me today (not), my job was fully done when I laid the police complaint. She makes all the decisions once the police give her the file.

It is a challenging business working with the legal system here. I’ve found that seeking to be involved causes offense as you are seem to be pushy and asking to be informed is also problematic. Yet if you don’t do the work yourself and push it along and complain it never gets done. The typical Samoan reaction to this sort of thing here from those in authority is just resignation. They know that causing a scene just backfires on them so they suck it up. I’ve learned that lesson here well, too!

There are two judgement courts for criminals – one on earth and our final judgement. I thank God that there is a second one – a court in which we all face our maker and in which no stone will remain unturned, and the full truth and nothing but the truth will be revealed.

In the meantime, the public should recognise the face of the people who live by standards lesser than most in the Western world consider the norm.

Bahai Temple, Samoa. All religions accepted.

In this Sermon from Samoa, I share how a difficult situation can bring out the best in us all – a true biblical challenge if ever there was one, and congratulate Samoa for readily accepting people as they are.

I’ve met a lot of people who want to change the world.

Sad to say, Christians are often the worst in this regard, the ones that are in your face rile me up quite somewhat, and the ones who arrive in your country with guns and enforce their way onto others are not really God’s Angels in my book either – the “War on Terror” is more a “War OF Terror” if you ask me. I’m glad you asked!

I actually do not trust people who charge around the world targeting people who are on their hit-list. I’m absolutely certain that they will eventually turn their attention to the genuine Christian believers, if they haven’t already.

But Samoa can teach the world a lot about letting people be, and just accepting people for who they are. We experienced this recently here in Samoa in a couple of ways.

First, I’ve just returned from a few days with a Palagi guest and her travelling companion. They wanted to experience village life, and we gave them a guided tour of a few Village Stays. They loved it, of course, but it was a challenge when we all found out that her mate was to put it politely, a little unusual, socially.

To most people he would be just written off as a dude, one Weetbix short of a breakfast, (if you know what I mean) but a day or so with him and I’d worked out that he had pretty much all the signs of Asperger’s. I’m no shrink, but he’s a nice guy, awkward socially, sticking on the same subject which he repeated over and over again and pretty much unable to measure emotional situations around him. He had a whole bunch of the classic symptoms, as well.

He really needed to have every thing just right, and non-threatening, or his stress levels would rise and he’d flip out. Plus, he really needed his daily warm shower – um . . . in rural Samoa in the middle of a drought?

I thought that we were in for a “hell” of a time on the road and wondered why on earth someone who has a condition like him; who as he says himself “likes his creature comforts”; eats the same food every day; and can’t handle new relationships easily came on a Village Stay experience in Samoa! But he did.

Home stays are all about engaging with the people, experiencing challenging and different lifestyles – all in other peoples’ homes. Taking a guy with Asperger’s into rural Samoa with a whole bunch of Hosts who were only just starting out doing the Village Stay thing was not really a situation that I relished.

It was a big challenge, but I have the patience of Job and have had previous experiences that prepared me for it all. So we survived – just!

But in the midst of the challenge, something quite magical happened – once people understood the situation, they all poured out a lot of love and understanding, especially towards the guy with the issues. We all survived the experience, and even had a memorable time for all.

Whew!

Good one Samoa!

Secondly, we stopped in to the Bahai Temple and also coincidentally met a couple of Bahai people out at an island resort. Bahai people are known for their peacemaking and inclusive approach to religions. In some ways it really is quite refreshing not to have people out to change you when it comes to religion!

The Bahai worship services are inclusive – of all the major religions. This includes Christianity in its religious form of course. Quite how it is possible to include the entire bible into an ecumenical soup, when Jesus laid it on pretty thick that He was the only way to the Father, I can never fathom, but include Him they do! I hope for their sake that I’m wrong and that including Jesus alongside the others and accepting Him as just another prophet as they do will cut the mustard at judgement day. My bible says otherwise, but the Bahais certainly accept others as they are, I must say.

He’s a stumbling block to many, that Jesus character, He is! Jesus mixed with some real losers. He seemed to have a knack for finding the down-and-outs of the society He lived in and also for turning things upside down. He still does, by the way!

He’d find a local prostitute for example, have a word or two with her and she’d reform on the spot. He hooked up with a tax collector once – these guys were well recognised as the financial crooks of the day – and the next thing he was putting the figures right before he’d parted company with the Master. He’d wander into the midst of social outcasts and cast out their illnesses with a command to the invisible forces behind their troubles, then merrily wander off with a trail of happy healed people surrounded by consternation from the religious leaders and doubters of the day.

The remarkable thing about Jesus though was not so much the miracles of healing and deliverance, but the way that Jesus didn’t seem to have a problem accepting people where they were at either.

I know that our recent guest gets stick from those in his own community, being teased and rejected for his differences. Few would understand him and many would cause him enormous difficulty because of his issues, but over the last week, I’ve watched as our tour guide in training accepted and loved a difficult client just as he was, then helped and encouraged a whole bunch of other Samoans and Village Stay hosts to do exactly the same. Day after day, visit after visit, I witnessed a mixture of good, genuine Samoan hospitality with compassion for a guy that was “just a little bit different”.

Quite godly really!

Well done Samoa.

Now, would you now just kindly extend that grace to me and accept me too?

Thank you!

Some of us have a simple home!

I‘ve observed many well-meaning people try to help Samoa and almost just as many fall by the wayside, often getting hurt in the process. In some ways you could call Samoa a philanthropists graveyard.

In this Sermon from Samoa I draw attention to the challenges of giving meaningfully, and encourage us to question the real purpose behind our giving. I also caution against lop-sided patronising giving and explain how most giving is actually non-scriptural.

Engaging with Samoa is a deep challenge for a Palagi and it can be a brutal experience. When you start engaging, and I mean really engaging, it gets tough, and that requires that we (Palagi) toughen up too.

Here are some of the ways that philanthropists are challenged in Paradise.

CRIME

Personal accountability is largely a foreign concept here. Family, Extended Family and “Village Thinking” rules. Unless it is a major offence, crime in the rural villages is not dealt with in the normal Palagi manner with Police involvement and the courts. Fa’a Samoa requires forgiveness and the fear of shame (rather than justice to the Palagi mindset) rules the day. A families honour is often more important than values that are important to the Western business/capitalistic mindset. Averting shame and saving face by a family is a cultural requirement and truth, justice and personal responsibility come secondary to the primary focus when dealing with crime. It is the cultural norm that in some situations it is accepted that people will lie to protect a families honour – even if we all know that something is a lie – it is left as such, to avoid shame!

A Palagi who suffers at the hand of a criminal action must understand how things work here, or they will continue to get stung, get hurt and lose. It is hard to understand when people you are trying to help will steal from you, and then you are or become the bad one if you hold them to account. It becomes even harder when you are required to “forgive and move on” without proper restorative justice, or any restitution, even little real repentance otherwise YOU will become the one who shows yourself to be un-godly, and therefore become the enemy.

What would you do when you find out that the people who you were previously giving to suddenly appear to change their attitude towards you and lie to you for personal gain?

It can be a real challenge to deal with cross-cultural issues related to justice and crime.

RELATIVE POVERTY

The first time we wealthy Western ”first-world” Palagi are challenged with up-front poverty, our cameras are usually out pronto and the shock is visible.  We’ll say things like “They are still cooking on a fire!” or “Wow! Look, they don’t even have beds – they sleep on the floor!” or “They don’t even have power, let alone a fridge or freezer!”

If, simultaneously with this experience of poverty there is a big Samoan smile and a bit of loving service thrown in, such as a meal or food, it can be overwhelming. That people with so little should give so much, can be a touching and life-changing experience.

I’ll never forget the first time that I experienced rural village life and their hospitality. It really makes you want to give, and give, and give, whatever youcan, just to help – if you have a heart, that is.

But giving from a position of compassion is almost always patronising and opens us all up to something dangerous – a form social co-dependency. Financial giving in particular can be a real trap. I will share more about intelligent, second-phase and biblical giving shortly.

It can be a real challenge to deal with people who by comparison have little.

THE TROPICS

The tropical heat and humidity increases the stress levels. Some can handle it – others can’t. Most adjust to it in time, but the climate in the tropics is an aggravating factor that niggles away and puts additional pressure on everyone. Even the locals on hot or humid days can complain about the heat. Interpersonal flare-ups are perfectly understandable in this climate.

The best answer to the challenge of the tropics is not a complex one – such as installing “fancy” mechanical devices like air-conditioning. That is an expensive Western mindset solution that actually causes more problems, such as expensive power bills and causing everyone to catch a cold as they go from hot-to-cold moving in and out of the aircon.

No, while it is a lot harder for the Palagi, the best answers are to build houses that have no walls, to let the lovely cooling gentle breeze waft through the house, then to get up very early before the sun is up so that you can do what you need to in the cool of the day and then sleep in the afternoon when it’s too hot or humid to do much. Then we deliberately stand and walk in the shade, not the middle of the street, managing the heat, being careful about our exposure and consciously managing it. So simple, but oh no . . . the Palagi almost always wants to sleep in and work in the afternoon when the locals are having their siestas, and does business things in town in the heat of the day!

It can be a real challenge to deal with the tropics.

POWER & MONEY

Most people in power here have the thinking that “This is my time. God put me here. I have the power.” They mean it! I constantly meet people – in government, through to the Matais who say and genuinely believe that God has put them in charge and that it is their divine right to rule. Their thinking is usually all about themselves and their power and how they will use it.

Sure their power is always presented as right, good, for the benefit of the people, in their best interest, a tradition and so on, but it can be a real challenge to work in a country where people in power “Lord it over” others. Seeing the rich get richer; seeing enormous extremes of wealth sitting alongside of abject poverty is a big issue to deal with when you just want to see things “right” by your way of thinking.

If a Pastor demands a meeting of his parishioners (who are mostly subsistence farmers with no real income) and puts it to the vote that he gets to spend $140,000.00 for a new car PLUS expenses etc etc etc knowing full well that nobody would DARE be seen to put their hands up against the vote . . . is this abuse of power, or is it a man exercising his God-given right? (example is based on an actual event, BTW).

It can be a real challenge for a philanthropist to come up against people and systems that run totally counter to every inch of fairness and justice that any sensitive caring person will have.

THE SPIRITUAL

The mesmerising lure of the South Pacific islands and their culture, especially that lovely big smile that the Samoans are well known for, is a deep trap for the spiritual. It runs like this:

“God called me to come here!”

or

“God told me to help!”

Don’t I know it all too well, personally. I’ve watched as many others have fallen into the same trap, and few survive the experience without getting wounds. Many fail all together.

The real danger here is that we confuse our feelings, with fact. It is so easy to say “God said!” and just because it seems like a good idea to give, do, come or whatever, does not necessarily mean that this is the case.

Over the years Samoa has seen a steady stream of people wanting to help. A good proportion of those preface their words with “God said!” or something similar.

It is not my business to interfere with other peoples’ spiritual experiences. If they have been called and want to help the country – GREAT! I would love them to do what they can and should.

It is a challenge for people in this situation though to stop and VERY sure that they have heard correctly and that they do not spiritualise a feeling by letting their hearts overtake their brains!

HOW TO GIVE

One of my missions here in Samoa is to help people to be wise in their giving, and to measure the cost of their giving with some degree of accuracy before they do. While giving can make the giver feel good, it is sometimes unwise to give. Sure, if someone has cooked you a lovely meal and been your host, slip them $50.00 as a “Koha” or a little thank you gift, but giving beyond a simple business exchange is unbiblical and sets us up for tension or a fall.

It’s a real challenge to know HOW to give here. I’ve said this before, but over the years, Samoan’s have made an art-form over saying “Thank you!” They do it really, really well. Yes it is usually genuine, but it is also a very successful business – at both a macro (national), and micro (personal) level!

When we analyse Jesus’ giving, we see that He took the opportunity to preach as He gave. He gave health and hope, not coins and notes. He gave time and love and ultimately of course His life. He always gave to a specific need in a way that enabled people to rise up from their current position of pain or despair into a position of strength in their community. Gifts of food, health, spirituality, integrity, all led to a closer walk with the Father. They were never to relieve human suffering alone. Philanthropists, especially the ones claiming any “God-stuff” in their philanthropy, need to remember this as we give.

Sometimes He gave from His heart:

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

Jesus wept.

Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

and then later ….

Jesus called in a loud voice, ”Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

John 11

But His giving was combined with preaching and for a clear purpose.

And of course the final time He gave all, for a clear well thought out purpose:

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
Matthew 27:50

The two remarkable things about all of Jesus’ giving are that 1. He never gave for His own benefit; and 2. the amazing pinpoint accuracy and extreme wisdom in His giving case-by-case. Every single person He gave to knew exactly whom they had engaged with, and that He was doing the Father’s business.

The answer for wisdom and balance in giving, as always, is to revert to biblical principles and follow the Master’s example. This means intelligent, second-phase giving where structures are in place for people who DO want to work, and to learn and to grow and to take responsibility for themselves, so that they can better their lives.

Lop-sided giving, where assets move from one person to another without a proper balance is unbiblical, and opens up a hornets’ nest of trouble. When a rich Palagi gives money to a poor Samoan person, this creates a dependency and an expectation that Palagi=money and an imbalance occurs. Quite often it is also associated with a patronising attitude on the part of the giver – usually sub-conscious – but very real none-the-less. They also – often times not being aware of this – become a real target as a result. I’ve watched many people come in here, like I did and they all have NO IDEA how much a target they are. No idea!

Another imbalance can occur here when untitled men run around getting money to give to their Matai, or High Chief’s smokes and beer, who may do little or nothing himself in return. Again, this is a common imbalance in Samoa that was highlighted by one of our staff who worked all day for the father-in-law for him to simply buy cigarettes, with his own child having to go without proper medical attention.

It’s not just Samoa that has imbalances BTW. When employers got greedy the unions were established to counter that greed – a Western world ungodly imbalance.

Samoa too is not unique in the danger of this imbalance, because all third world countries are led into debt through an imbalance of giving. Large powerful interests are involved.

It takes time and a real effort to gain wisdom in this regard. My advice to those who want to help, is don’t DO anything – certainly not for quite a while. Scout out the lie of the land and check your own motives first. Many times we can be motivated by feelings, but then switch off our brain.

Samoa is a leveler. It humbles you.

For a whole host of reasons, Samoa is replete with failed organisations, projects, businesses and people who came here, who gave, and now aren’t either able to give or who aren’t here anymore.

I met with a guy recently who is totally motivated to stand up for a social injustice that he saw. A stinger of a letter to the newspaper stuff, and he’s fuming! He will sort those ****s out “Come hell or high water!” I tried to warn him, and tried to encourage him to work from the inside-out, rather than to tackle evil head-on, but sadly he couldn’t catch the wisdom in my words.

He’ll learn the hard way – I did! I very much fear that he will get the former (hell) and the latter (high water) will follow shortly after, as the system will find ways to ostracise him and white-ant him and defend the status quo. Rest assured that in Samoa, Samoans win – all the time. This is their land and no do-gooder Palagi will ever change this! Just chat with Albert Wendt if you don’t believe me!

A friend who has been working up here for over ten years in a philanthropic and business role recently shared his pain at a loyal employee who was doing things he shouldn’t be doing. “I’m SOOOO disappointed in him!” he said.

I thought to myself – you of all people? Surely you know that this is just the way things go here. One day of bad can easily happen here, even after 99 days of good.

Philanthropists desperately need to know how to accept this advice:

Just get over it, mate!

Then they need to get smarter.

Samoa is a leveler. It humbles you. It takes only the strongest and smartest to cope here. You must be determined, creative, diplomatic, committed, resilient and flexible to engage with it.

From what I have seen in the two years that I have been engaging with Samoa, most cannot do it, but a “graveyard” for most creates an opportunity for others. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Samoa trying to help others adjust to the unique situation that exists here. Some of this has been putting a fence at the top of the cliff. Some of it has been ambulance at the bottom stuff as well. In person, as well as online, I care enough about others to warn them, to offer to help them, and to moderate and guide their giving to achieve something meaningful and lasting – all to help reduce the pain.

I’m not the only one doing this. Even the Prime Minister does it within his capacity. He’s helped by teaching me and advising me on how to engage with his people and his country effectively. He also does it with others.

I’m fortunate that for whatever reasons, I have been able to pull through and ride with the experience.

Unfortunately though many others haven’t.

Feel free to share with me about this all, any time.

Peter Vandever - Missionary, from his Facebook page

I write this post with a mixture of sadness, yet a resolve born of bitter experience, knowing that while the truth sometimes hurts, in the long run it is ALWAYS the best policy.

I wish to share the “other side” to a clearly unique, passionate and talented individual who I befriended online earlier this year; Peter Vandever, but whom I believe to be not presenting himself fully honestly to the world.

I write primarily for the Christian community, especially those who have engaged with Peter and his missionary and evangelistic work in some way. Before I start “whacking” Peter over the things that I have concerns about, I must say that Peter is certainly one unique dude!

He is personable, friendly and clearly passionate about what he does – saving souls, is what he calls it. He is also clearly a man who is an achiever. I enjoyed meeting with him once in Apia- quite a long meeting in which we discussed quite a bit in depth. Not really the casual “how-ya-doing” type of conversation, but one in which we dug deeper into some pretty pithy subjects relating to each others’ faith, past, reasons for being in Samoa, the environment here and so on.

I offered a hand out to help him and support him while he was here, so I have no hard feelings about anything with him personally. BUT . . . and this is a big but, some things do not quite stack up!

The issues

1. Misrepresentation at fund-raising time.

I have watched Peter misrepresent and mislead online when he was located here in Samoa.

Peter has sought financial assistance from the online community for many years (you can see his historical requests for missionary support going back for years) and again on multiple occasions while he was in Samoa. The general pattern is that he explains how hard hard-up, strapped for cash, or unable to continue that he is etc. One of his commonly used phrases is “We are believing for . . .” and then a range of various solutions or budgets, depending on the need that he perceives.

A major factor in his fundraising (as he calls it) was the  prohibitive Internet costs here.

In some communications he even expressed outrage that the Church did not support him financially when they were doing other things less worthy with their funds. While I accept that this was and may be all true, what Peter has not spoken about was that at the time that he was making the loudest noises, I was also offering to help him, yet he never even bothered to spend $2.00 to catch a bus to see the home and facilities that I was offering him.

So just to make it perfectly clear here, while on the one hand he was out presenting a dire need to the world and seeking funding he knew very well that he could have had a free home and lodging, plus good and cheaper Internet than he was paying for but that (for whatever reason) he chose not to even view the offering.

Leaving out material facts is sometimes called a white lie. I believe that creating the impression of dire need, then deliberately asking for money when you haven’t availed yourself of what has been offered to you is deceiptful and totally wrong.

There are other facts relating to all of this which I’m not interested in going into, certainly not online, suffice to say that I am not here talking about one isolated incident or misunderstanding!

2. Confused Purpose & Hazy Calling

When seeking support from others, the core purpose, usually summed up in a vision or a vision statement is normally central to the sales pitch.

Generally a calling is specific and life changing, which represents a testimony that eventually brings glory to God. Abraham, Moses, Paul, David and Christ are all high-profile examples of godly men that received a clear calling and had purpose in their work.

Peter has failed to share this with me meaningfully, so (apart from saving souls) I have no idea what the vision is that the Lord has given Peter. Never once, in all my conversations in person and in all the communications he has presented online have I seen or heard the words that indicate to me that the Lord has actually called Peter to a particular place or ministry.

I have seen him move his focus and thoughts from his country of birth (the Philippines) to the States, to American Samoa, to Samoa, to Fiji which all presents me with a confusing picture. When the price of the Internet (a major issue for Peter) prevents a man fulfilling his god-ordained calling, I question whether or not one is actually “called”!

There is one central theme however – Peter Vandever wants to save souls – and tells the world openly what he thinks or feels.

While this may sound noble, Peter strikes me as a self-professed career missionary with the entire world as a mission-field but entirely lacking strategy, direction or support. In my experience, yes, a Christian Ministry grows up around a man who stands up and is counted, but their vision and calling is very simple to see and easy to choose to support or not.

Peter’s scattergun approach deeply concerns me – for him as much as for his supporters. I see all the evidence of a man who is struggling to deal with some deep issue and that this is being played out in public forum on a global playing field. I would encourage supporters to ask Peter about the calling.

3. Questions

I have questions lots of unanswered questions. Some things just don’t seem to stack up very well, when you start asking questions!

Could some of this be just a little over-zealousness in blogging about himself, or is there more? I think that there is more, but am not out to “get” Peter.

I of all people understand being on the outside, or the edge of mainstream Christianity. In my book, nobody has to justify themselves through any formal training, nor by being part of organised religion to do what God has called them to do. For me, anyone has just the same right to stand up and be a self-confessed missionary as I do to be a self-confessed IT strategist, author, blogger, IT Entrepreneur or whatever I want to call myself from time to time!

But there is a big difference if I then claim to be part of mainstream Christianity, presenting myself as an achiever, a successful missionary, an effective evangelist and therefore by inference somebody special, if I have major trouble with mainstream.

Peter has done this and continues to do this yet he is clearly outside of the mainstream. He does not currently have the support of his home church in Kansas (they have specifically called him to spend 2011 at home – advice that he subsequently, publicly ridiculed and ignored). He has also gone against the advice and wishes of his own Board, the Peter Vandever Evangelistic Association - something that I would consider to be a major serious “red flag” when assessing any situation.

To his credit, Peter has actually not hidden both of these events, but I consider that the way that he has dealt with both the conflict and public rejection of both the church leadership, his own board’s advice (and the AOG movement as a whole) are major factors that funders and supporters should be aware of and explore.

I don’t want to “go there”, because it is not my interest in digging into Peter’s life. I just have questions – that’s all.

My take on it

I think that Peter is probably on the run in some respects, doing a “Jonah thing” . What he could be running from is none of my business, but the signs I see everywhere all point to that conclusion. I just pray that he can deal with whatever he is dealing with sooner rather than later.

I’d also be very cautious about actively helping a man on the run. I doubt that any of the sailors sailing West would have welcomed Jonah on board until after he had done God’s business in the East – if they knew the full story!

My advice

This is the caution I issue to the Christian community:

Be careful and exercise wisdom!

There is another side to Missionary Peter Vandever.

I believe that people engaging with Peter, particularly those supporting him financially, and especially those supporting him primarily on the basis of his online materials such as Facebook messages, email newsletter and various blog posts should do research and attempt to know the full story prior to giving.

I am NOT saying not to give or not to support Peter. Not at all! In fact I have offered to support Peter and help him in real practical ways ourselves. I have also said that if at any time in the future he needs help that I will be there for him, and I really mean it!

I am however advising that we should all be aware of the FULL story before parting with our money and getting behind a cause.

My advice also is to be very careful when listening to gossip. I received some of this before I met him and made up our own minds, rather than just taking the easy way out and believing the street talk. Suffice to say that he clearly has “a reputation out there”.

Verification

I may have something wrong, and having only just met him once, I clearly do not know everything about Peter, so do not take my words as gospel without your own research or verification.

Peter has a strong online profile, with multiple Facebook accounts and websites.

He has thousands of followers on Facebook and a few active supporters who regularly engage with him. This gives you a great online resource from which to draw deeper understanding. Feel free to talk with him directly and befriend him yourself and ask him what you would want to know anything directly. He can be contacted via Facebook – just search for “Peter Vandever”.

His blogging over the last year or so is highly visible and I would assess it to be passionate and honest – but only to a point. It does appear to me though to be coloured and strongly biased, missing key facts, and presenting a one-sided “rosy” look at his mission and his work.

His current and past online newsletters are available via RSS here.

An archived snapshot of this archive from today is available (RAW RSS) and (Simplified text).

For the record, I have spoken some very direct words along these lines to Peter himself, and invited him to discuss any matter further. He left Samoa without making contact with us.

Again, as always, comments are open here and I offer the full right of reply.

A sea of red and blue covered the country and partied long into the night.

Samoa was outplayed and outthought in the tournament – yes some of the loss was at the hands of the IRB with their “unfair” treatment of the smaller countries but that was only one aspect of the loss. All heart, is the name of the game from the boys that we are all proud of. Now, our tune will have to change from “Go the Manu!” to “Go Black!”

A typical car in Apia yesterday decked out in multiple flags and all painted up for the big game.

Holding the flag for the country!


Taxis, too! Snapped from the SWAP Mobile mid afternoon. Note the cars on the LHS painted up too!


Digicel – the local cellphone giant, major supporter. Sad that they didn’t get a quarter-final but they will still have good brand association none-the-less.


GO MANU . . . even at the top of the Faleata Catholic church reconstruction!


Our local bus Falelauniu had some of the loudest marketing, front and back.


Face stickers all the rage the whole town over. Farmer Joe employee is in on the act too!

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.

First, to the STA* report:

Purpose of Travel
Holiday travelers were 14% less compared to the same period of last year contributing 33% of the total traffic. VFR continues to take the lead contributing 42% of the total traffic and an increase of 14.3% for the period under review, as a result of various church conferences that took place during this period. Business travelers increased by 4.4% while Sports and Other Purpose of Travel both declined by 50% and 24% respectively.

A couple of points here – tourism is only 33% of traffic. VFR is not tourism. VFR is Visiting Friends and Relatives. Differentiation between the two separate markets is important. Surprise! Samoans visit family. Yes, of course they spend in hotels and at restaurants and construction supplies and food shops, but it is not “tourism”.

I see little marketing done for the VFR market, other than occasional discounting initiated by the airlines. It’s 100x easier to help “push a ball that is already rolling than to” try and reverse the direction of a failing market!

Overall decline in May and June was attributable to the drop in Holiday travelers as the school terms in New Zealand have been adjusted to cater for the world cup later on in the year, as well as the closure of Aggie Grey’s Resort which affected plans by the family market in New Zealand to spend the school holidays in Samoa.

Balancing the closure of Aggie Grey’s with the benefit to the country of having Survivor Series here is simple. Survivor wins, hands down.

Ash clouds in the month of June caused a number of flights to be cancelled which is also a factor that contributed to the drop. Furthermore, as predicted the North American and the European markets continue to suffer the impacts of the reduced airline seat capacity from these markets.

Ash clouds have messed up many travelers plans the world wide in the last year. Direct flights from the USA to Samoa do not now exist and this has a definite negative effect on the numbers.

Asking Questions

So now, almost two years after the Tsunami, we should be asking questions of the people in charge of policy, and those charged with implementing policy.

I have a few questions of my own:

1. How accurate was that advice that the then Minister of Tourism Misa Telefoni received from “experts” along the lines that (based on supposed overseas precedent) that the tourism industry would naturally “bounce back” from the Tsunami, given time?
2. What new marketing initiatives have been undertaken since the Tsunami, and how effective were/are they?
3. What strategies have been put in place to develop and capitalise on the growing VFR market?
4. What initiatives have been developed to tap into new markets, such as voluntourism, adventure tourism and eco tourism?
5. What ideas and advice have you received in regards to using the Internet (and particularly Social Media) to build online marketing systems, loyalty schemes and to generate new business?

Of course I know the answers to these questions and you can probably guess the answers too.
A lot of businesses in Samoa are run differently to the Western world. No resort operator would consider an occupancy rate like 30-40% to be acceptable, but in Samoa, the average for lower value properties is in the mid-thirties and some of the Beach Fales are running at 10% or less!
I can confirm these official figures, because I speak to these people and see it with my own eyes.

Answering Some Questions

I have asked myself questions over the past two years:

1. What is the tourism market going to be like – post-Tsunami? Is it totally stuffed?
2. How would/could a small country in the South Pacific possibly be able to turn the situation around?
3. What can I do to help? and more recently getting personal . . .
4. Does Samoa really want my/our/your help?

I’ll answer the last question first. It’s a conditional answer in the affirmative, along the lines of “Yes, but not if it costs anything much, or if we can’t do it ourselves”.

Samoa is a fiercely independent nation that in the main, basically does not want outsiders here, unless of course there’s money in it. Their land rules are clear – no foreigners allowed. Their insistence on doing all things Fa’a Samoa, causes difficulties the moment that a foreigner steps outside of their realm of responsibility. The best jobs, businesses and positions of power are all retained by Samoans and probably always will be. None of this is wrong, per se, it is just the environment that exists here.

So, unlike in New Zealand when an idea or business is judged on its merits, here when a foreigner, like myself has ideas, energy and does things, its only really when it suits them, or when there is something in it for them, or they cannot do it themselves that we even get a look-in. Now there are exceptions, but that’s the general rule! It’s tricky, but just the way things are.

The most likely result of the Tsunami is that tourism will take a major dive and stay down. I predicted years. I predicted that even in 10 years time, people will still be averse to coming to Samoa for a holiday because of the lingering doubt as a result of the 2009 publicity. This was huge event that will have severe and lasting consequences for Samoa tourism. The government and STA do not want to talk about it. Just like rubbish in the streets or crime, the Tsunami is a taboo subject around here.

Dealing with the elephant in the room is NOT the Samoan style, which is built on diplomacy and everything and everyone “looking good”. Unfortunately the traveling public are a lot wiser now and want to know the facts. They can handle rubbish in the streets as long as they know that Samoa is trying to fix the problem. They can handle the Tsunami as long as they know the facts and things are explained honestly and accurately beforehand.

We set up the SWAP Foundation as a direct response to the opportunity I saw over here to engage with the enormous goodwill that existed toward post-Tsunami Samoa. We should be tapping into the goodwill that exists towards Samoa. We should be using smart Internet strategies to make a difference – introducing new initiatives and working with the industry to generate uncontested business. There’s no point in trying to compete head-on with Fiji or Bali.

Samoa has it’s own USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and should be developing its own market with its own marketing initiatives.

So where is God in all of this?

I think the biblical principles surrounding a problem in Samoa tourism are legion. Here are just a few characteristics that Jesus modeled that are important, especially in a time of crisis:

• Jesus ALWAYS bit the bullet. No obfuscation; called a spade a spade and dealt with facts, firmly and fairly.
• He took responsibility, right down to coins for tax, and food for the hungry. As a strong leader He communicated with His team and with others effectively and professionally.
• He was creative and proactive. He didn’t sit around waiting for things to happen. He moved forward and had a strong purpose, doing things, teaching, preaching and healing – most of the time breaking totally new ground.
• He was extraordinarily humble in His extraordinary power. As a leader He served others and genuinely cared about their welfare. He avoided the publicity shoots and fanfare associated with having power.
• He understood the people and worked with them for 30 years, and then in His public work, was always ready to give people a chance to change, learn or grow.

In this time of crisis, the CEO of STA should be stepping up to the mark and actively seeking to gain suggestions, ideas and bring innovation. The buck stops with the CEO and the Minister should be asking serious questions of her, including the above questions I dared to ask. The STA has been accused of being missing in action. It needs to not only be proactive, but to be seen to be proactive.

We’re working to do what we can through the Initiana Konese buses and our own initiatives to make a difference.
Samoa tourism has a real challenge on its hands, but this we knew all along. Time has passed, and the latest figures have proved it.

* Samoa Tourism Authority is the National Tourism Organization responsible for ensuring that Samoa is the destination that travelers want to visit. This is achieved by being the entity responsible for marketing Samoa as a holiday destination in overseas markets.

STA consists of 5 main divisions, namely Policy Advice, Marketing and Promotion, Planning and Development, Research and Statistics as well as the Corporate Service and Finance. Each division contributes uniquely to the overall effort of the Authority to meet its target.

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.

Samoa has an attraction to the Palagi Westerners. People come here, fall in love with the place, and with the people and they want to help. Some want to stay.

It started centuries ago and Robert L. Stevenson was one of the more famous original lovers of Samoa who did just that, but it can also be a temptation like that Odysseus faced with the Sirens.

The locals here are used to it:

1. Palagi visits,
2. Palagi falls in love with the place,
3. Palagi wants to help,
4. Palagi “says”, “does”, “thinks” something,
5. Palagi gets burned, and
6. Palagi goes!

It’s happened for decades and I was no different, learning the hard way. But I’ve learned from the experience and stayed. I’m no quitter, especially when my faith gets caught up in the whole picture.

It can be brutal … engaging with Samoa

It can be a brutal experience for a those from a Western country engaging with Samoa, as it is with many third-world countries. I’ve watched many people come here and experience a touch of Paradise, then make the same mistakes that I did, as did hundreds before me.

I’ve now been involved in various ways with dozens of people who have wanted to help, and the pattern is always the same. I’ve watched the pain of Peace Corp volunteers adjust to reality in Samoa. I’ve watched our own SWAP Volunteers variously struggle with issues here. I’ve spoken to many visitors and Habitat for Humanity volunteers immediately after the Tsunami, and they all have the same struggles.

There are a myriad of issues that pop up, but here are some of the key ones, and my advice to people wanting to help Samoa.

1. LISTEN TO OTHERS
Learn the culture from and listen to someone who has already been there before you. Tourists drown here because they don’t listen to the locals about rips in the lagoons. Tourists who stand in the middle of the road without hats in the hot Apia sunshine complaining about the heat just don’t get it – wear a hat, walk in the shade and don’t go out in the midday sun. As Noel Coward puts it, only “Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun” [lyrics]. Please . . . JUST TAKE THE ADVICE!

2. DEAL WITH YOUR OWN BAGGAGE FIRST
Recognise your own humanity and deal with your own issues before you try to help others. The keys here are flexibility and humility. Cross-cultural engagement can bring out the best as well as the worst in your own life. When you see things that are new; experience things that are highly challenging; have new depths of feelings about things that you’ve never felt before, or to a level that is new for you, please deal with your own stuff first – before trying to help others. I’ve seen many people fall because of WHO THEY were, not because of anything to do with Samoa. Mature, competent, confident men can become like puppies and therefore become targets if they are not very careful here.

3. LOOK LONG AND HARD FIRST
Don’t DO anything for a long time. Look before you leap, would be the advice that I would give. Yes, engage by all means, but ask questions first, and ask, ask, ask until you can truly say, “Yup! I actually understand. I’ve got it!” I’ve listened to many people talk about how things should be done here . . . roading, tourism, housing, fishing, politics, social, religious, health, family upbringing and so on. Once you have been here for 6 months or so, you will probably readjust your thinking as you see why things are done how they are. We laughed at John Campbell in his infamous TV3 story about missing Tsunami money when he showed pictures of the houses, and scoffed at them “They don’t even have walls!” was the theme. Well once you have been here a few months you don’t WANT walls on your house because they stop the nice cooling breeze coming through!

I too made a big mistake having only spent a couple of months here. I developed plans for a really cool hexagonal structure that we were going to call HoneyComb Resorts. They were easy to build, had high-tech roof structure, that used all the basic materials that were available here, that were totally cyclone-proof, that had a cool name, that gave the local community opportunity and I got it all wrong. The one thing I didn’t understand was the importance of airflow. A hexagonal structure is not the best use of cooling because half the rooms are always in the lee. I thought that it was a good idea but in the end, it was a bad idea when you need the cooling breeze on ALL units! I only really learned the importance of that AFTER I had been here and lived in a house with walls.

This quote from comments I read recently on a Voluntourism blog, draws out what many of us already know:

“Successful development needs to be led locally, sourced from within a community with spokespeople and leaders that are in touch with the society, customs and ways.”

Sure, offshore expertise, funding, ideas and initiatives are welcome, but at the end of the day people on the ground know best.

Helping the helpers, from within Samoa is a hard task, but we are here – wanting to be both the fence at the top of the cliff, and the ambulance at the bottom when things go wrong.

The coolest dude for me in the entire bible (apart from the Master of course) is my “mate” Pete. Simon Peter, Cephas (the rock) just has me in hysterics every time I think of him – telling the Lord what to do, say, think and feel left, right and centre. He was in there boots and all. If there was something that he could stuff up, then he would. He HAD to have a big mouth just so that his foot would fit into it so often.

Talk about being humbled – being told to “shut-up”, and that he was the devil, and being told that he would betray Jesus (by Jesus himself no less) and then getting into an argument with Him about it, and then actually denying Him just as the Lord predicted!

Jesus understood how to help His helpers

He was a real “goer”, but he was the only one who walked on water. Sure, he was the one who denied Jesus three times, but I tell you what . . . he was also the first preacher, and the one who received one of the most important revelations in the new age of Christianity (that the good news was for us all, not just the Jews), and a dude who oozed miracles as he walked the rest of his days. The Catholic faith also calls him a smidgen more than “my mate Pete!” too.

Jesus understood how to help His helpers. He taught. He preached, healed, loved and gave all for His team, but the remarkable thing about the Master, is that He knew Pete’s heart. He knew that he was a bumbling loud-mouthed [whatever] who always got in the way, but He came back especially to Peter after He had done the resurrection thing and He had a little conversation, one-on-one.

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.
John 21:15-17

So there it is. Jesus knew. Denied Him three times, but got confession from Peter three times to “undo” the damage done.

Cool!

Sure, Pete crashed, but Jesus made sure that he wouldn’t burn. I like that.

I have friends and acquaintances in Samoa, and I’m sure that there will be many others over the years ahead who have big hearts and want to help, but are likely to hurt as they step out and do things here. I preach, teach and do all I can to help them, but at the end of the day if or when they crash, we’ll be here to help.

Cool!

Helping the helpers – now there’s a calling!

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.

Divining and speaking the truth (especially about ourselves) requires wisdom, and is a balancing act between two extremes:

a) acting bigger than you are . . . and

b) putting yourself down.

Speaking … the truth … about ourselves … requires wisdom

Both extremes are essentially influenced by pride. Puffing yourself up is a show of pride (me, me, me) but putting yourself down unduly is false humility. In my book Lipstick on a Pig, I quote a poem, years ago one of the first Christian things I ever took notice from outside of the bible, and it has stuck with me as an important reminder of the importance of honesty when dealing with the most important matter of life to each of us – and that is ourselves.

“Once in a stately passion I cried with desperate grief
‘Oh Lord, my heart is black with guile, of sinners I am chief’
Then stooped my guardian angel and whispered from behind
‘Vanity my little man, you’re nothing of the kind’”
Poet, James Thomson
[image source]

False humility. It’s pride!

In New Zealand we suffer from the Tall Poppy Syndrome, which is an evil insidious peer-pressure that attempts to pull someone down if they stand taller than the rest. It suffocates creativity, productivity, and many other good things. Again it is pride. We think that we’re better than them and why should we let them get success, fame and glory and I don’t. It’s naked jealousy, which is essentially pride, and I hate, hate, hate it.

Samoa is quite a bit worse in some ways, with a well-recognised and entrenched national past-time to pull others down. It just doesn’t happen some of the time – it is a cultural norm. Many people we speak to here talk about it as if it is horrible, and wrong and puzzlement at why they do it to themselves . . . but they still do it!

There are two different coping mechanisms for this. They either:

1. Put themselves down (like my friend did today), or
2. They puff themselves up and revel in the “chiefly” power that they have.

In private, many words are spoken here, woman to woman, and away from the men that would initiate violence if ever spoken in public. Behind closed doors, families will talk about other families, people talk about other people with things that would NEVER be said in public.

Palagi to Palagi, today, in the check-in queue a man shared with me the frustrations of doing business up here . . “They say ‘Yes’ but it means ‘No’ and it drives you nuts!” – but he’d never say that out loud to someone who didn’t really understand his pain or that he couldn’t trust.

Speaking the truth comes easy to us all out of public hearing

Speaking the truth comes easy to us all out of public hearing, or when we know or trust who we’re speaking to.

While we can all learn to play by the special rules that exist in Samoa, the Christian challenge though, is this . . . how far do we go in “playing games” and being all diplomatic when the bible exhorts us to speak the truth, at all times, letting our yes mean yes and our no mean no.

Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

Matthew5:37

A young Samoan man asked me this very question recently. He had been reading Lipstick on a Pig and was touched – yes, a spiritual awakening of sorts I understand. I guess you could say that the penny had dropped for him and he started seeing things in a different light. He was born into a powerful and wealthy family who attended church and did the church thing. He instinctively knew that my direct open and honest speaking style would come into direct confrontation with his immediate family and social scene, and he asked me this same very question, “How far do you go when speaking the truth? You could become a hated man very easily. Where do you draw the line?”

This is one perceptive young man who has the potential to go a long way in life. I hope that when he answers the question for himself, he errs along the lines of the Bible, rather than the culture, but that is for him to work out, between now and the time he’s put in a grave.

I was challenged today too, receiving a testimonial from a friend/colleague on LinkedIn, a social media platform for professionals. The recommendation came in and used some flowery language that pushed even me, to question whether it was too over-the-top to publish.

I like people who say nice things about me. To be perfectly frank, I want it to happen more, and more, and more so that the few vocal people who do hate me and who don’t trust me can get shamed into liking me and trusting me, like I think they should. There – that’s brutally honest isn’t it?

Can you be as honest as I just have and get away with it? Sure, you can. Just like you can get away with publishing nice things others say about you. It’s all about integrity, shooting straight and building a reputation. The Master did it. He told His disciples to do what He did, because He was the Son of God. Yup, some of those in power at the time put Him to the sword cross for saying that, but He shot straight, and told us to do it too!

So here is the offending testimonial, a few others, and my comments:

“Dennis is a fabulous man with vision, integrity and creative talent. I enjoyed working with him @ WDANZ and found him to be a genuine, caring, competent professional. I would recommend him to anyone.” Top qualities: Personable, Expert, High Integrity
S.Ev. September 16, 2011

“Dennis is an ideas person – that can then turn those ideas into positive action. He works with people from different backgrounds well and can call on his many contacts to find the right answer when needed. He has the ability to see the big picture and also to instantly see what is required to achieve great things… If you need an ideas person that gets things done for your project – he’s the man…” R.H. July 10, 2011

I like this testimonial particularly because I think it is quite perceptive and accurate, not just a “fluffy, saying nice things” sort of testimonial. It really gets down to the nitty gritty.

R.H. pulls out some of the things that I think I do really well, and that is to not only be an “ideas person” and to be able to see the “big picture”, but a couple of things I do also, that go further than that. First, I know many people who can see the big picture, but not many can see the HOW to get there. I can and it’s a mixture of vision, revelation, experience and creative thinking that gets me there. The second is to be able to envision “great things”, not just the same as what other people think of as possibilities. It takes guts, and in my case faith to go for things bigger than have been done before, but I do have that.

Big dreams … challenges … opportunities … hard work … pain … frustration … faith.

When I first came to Samoa, I shared a concept with SITS (the Samoa IT Society) – it was to use a limousine to bring in top-notch IT and marketing people to help Samoa, post-Tsunami. As I stared around the room and fielded questions from people who clearly wondered what other planet universe I had just beamed down from, I could easily have given up. Almost two years later, we have the organisation set up (SWAP); we have the limousine; we have the land; and we are building the infrastructure and programs to do exactly that!

Big dreams; big challenges; big opportunities; lots of hard work, pain and frustration but also lots of faith.

Another one:

“Dennis is a highly motivated guy who isn’t afraid to shake things up a bit to get things done. I have worked with Dennis on some WDANZ initiatives and in other areas and can commend his work ethic and innovative ideas and can recommend Dennis to anyone considering working with him.” S.E. July 25, 2011

Again this guy knows me well. As he said we worked together and he highlights the concept of leadership - taking a thought leadership role requires a bit of “stirring up” to get things done. Any ship that is moving always leaves a wake. I know two speeds: stop and go. Go means go.

“I toured New Zealand with Dennis teaching Search Engine Optimisation to the public and web developers as part of WDANZ. Dennis is an incredible sales person and ideas man. Being part of some of his initiatives has been a ride of a lifetime.” M.B. August 16, 2011

Sometimes there are double meanings in what people say. M.B. and I worked really closely for a while and did some big things together, then fell out. He did something that I felt was wrong and I held him to account for it and the relationship soured, so the ride of a lifetime means more than just fun and success!

I do like the use of the word “incredible”, but again it is a loaded phrase, and objective. If you don’t mix in the world of sales, “incredible” could be the case, but . . . [insert insidious false humility here]! I was thinking of a inserting a slice of false humility in here, but not after thinking back to my sales career’s constant top performance!

“Dennis is ultra creative, he’s thinks outside the square and is a visionary. He is supportive and generous, and understands people. Dennis knows what clients want and is excellent at helping them through the sales process.” R.L. February 8, 2010

R.L. goes a little deeper here and draws out another aspect of my life, and that is the teaching side. I have always helped others to understand things. I always share what I have learned. I did this before I trained as a teacher, and after I left the teaching profession. It’s not a crime in my book either to admit to being supportive or generous, as long as this is true.

I know a few who would question the comment that I “understand people” but hey questions are good!

“I was impressed with Dennis’s knowledge of the Internet and his ability to help small business owners take advantage of its many opportunities.” P.B. July 9, 2011

What I like about this testimonial is the personalisation. Rather than tell the world who I am as fact, P.B. speaks about his own experiences. Very professional.

Thanks to the people above who cared enough to write their thoughts down for the world to see. All in all, the list above shoots pretty straight. I’d love us all to stand up and be honest about these sorts of things too, and in public!

According to my bible this is godly.

I’ve got a lot of time for a blogger Cameron Slater, who goes by the pen name of Whale Oil (Short for Whale Oil Beef Hooked). Say it fast and with an “accent” and you’ll get it. Cam pushed the boundaries a bit when he first started blogging and ended up in high profile spat with the authorities in New Zealand by naming and shaming people who had committed crimes but who had name suppression. Short story – he lost. But coming back from there, he has developed a very strong online following and is a recognised name, a leader even, in the NZ political blogosphere.

He’s a smart guy, sometimes obnoxious or arguably a little overly aggressive, but the maturing of his Whale brand and blogging is great to see. Does he suffer from false humility, or fear of the dreaded Tall Poppy Syndrome? Nope! His has the sort of approach to life that makes leaders leaders, and makes a success of a man in many ways. Like him or not, agree with him or not, you have to respect someone who stands up and is counted.

I’ll leave the last preaching to him:

… I pointed out:

• Neu­tral­ity is not respected
• Peo­ple fol­low media out­lets that rein­force their views
• Peo­ple fol­low blog­gers not mastheads
• Blog­gers have a very dif­fer­ent rela­tion­ship than with mast­heads or journalists
• Com­ments and inter­ac­tiv­ity help build the rela­tion­ship, which is rein­forced by com­mu­ni­cat­ing directly with the blogger

Bear­ing that in mind, I am not neu­tral (and never will be), I have a large army of fol­low­ers who are loyal, my fol­low­ers go where I go,

and ending with all guns blazing:

Peo­ple read my blog because they like what I say, they like what I do and they like that no one is ever going to die won­der­ing what I really think.

There are those on the left that would like me to go away, some have even sent me emails and made blog posts wish­ing I were dead. They are the rea­son I keep doing what I am doing. I know it annoys them. The more I annoy them, the bet­ter I feel.

I enjoy blog­ging, I’m damn good at it, despite what the detrac­tors say, and I have plenty more fight in me. So long as I am enjoy­ing blog­ging I will keep doing it. But one thing I will never do is pre­tend to be impar­tial and non-partisan. Peo­ple like to know where I stand and I will con­tinue to tell them.

But there is a word of warn­ing, I am not so par­ti­san that my own teams get off lightly. If they screw up or are found want­ing then they too will feel the wrath of the Whale.

If you don’t like what I do then don’t read my site, switch off if you will. Carp­ing and moan­ing about my par­ti­san blog­ging just makes me smile, so keep it up.

His full post “I’m partisan and proud of it“.

One card from a series of playing cards by Illuminati gamer S Jackson, dated 1995, six years before the 9-11 event.*

“I think I will de-friend any 911 truthers…idiots!” . . . said one blogger. Another was more direct, invited his Facebook friends to “confess” and then threatened to defriend anyone if they dared to suggest that the 9-11 fiasco was a false-flag event.

Goodness me what a temptation . . . so I stepped right up to the mark and “confessed” my crimes. I did it, he did (CYA!) and thus marked another example of opinionated bigotry.

“Bugger off I’ll defriend you if you don’t agree with me”, is the guts of it, sounding a lot like the days of Hitler when what you thought or valued had to align with others.

Sunday’s Sermon from Samoa is (for those who like to gossip) nothing to do with Samoa, but more to do with being blinded by blinkers and keeping friendships. It’s easy to put our head in the sand, and hard to keep friends.

It’s not the first time I haven’t seen eye-to-eye with someone by any stretch of the imagination, and won’t be the last – for sure! He’s a Christian apologist, philosopher and supposedly well-respected in the academic world, but obviously has his head in the sand clouds for too long to smell the roses. If I ever read anything of his material again it will be a bit hard for me to accept that his viewpoint shows anything other than intellectual logic. I’m going to have to filter all his material now in light of his belief that what is served up to him by others (such as the mainstream media) are greatly influencing his world-view.

Christians, and particularly thinking ones, should be the last to fall for the mainstream media mantra that gets served up as fact, for they generally preach the biggest conspiracy of them all – that mankind has been tricked into rejecting God’s best advice in the Garden of Eden.

Unfortunately, for some, having God “on our side”, means that our brains are left in neutral. Sad! The Lord gave us eyes to see and brains to think. We should use them more.

Just for the record, I’m pretty simple on some things: when something looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it probably is a duck. The 9-11 thing, like many major events before it, looks exactly like a false-flag event, smells like one and has all the makings of one. Every single person I have shared this subject with has either an agenda or hasn’t truly asked the questions (for whatever reason).

I wasn’t there, wasn’t privy to the discussions going on around the Illuminati tables, nor involved in anything to do with cover-ups and misinformation, but all the events that have happened since reek of disinformation, manipulation and not surprisingly real power entrenching into the hands of a few.

Understanding the occult, and the Illuminati, and the way power and money is used to manipulate the masses . . . yup, it smells like a duck to me.

Understanding the occult … and the Illuminati … it smells like a duck to me

Don’t ask me to argue every point or explain away every little detail. I just get the big picture. There are too many unanswered questions for me in the 9-11 thing and taking a big-picture view of the leadup, surrounding circumstances and following events, it is more than clear to me that skulduggery happened. I have my own opinion and understanding of who what why and where over it, and it sure as heck isn’t the official version of events. I’ve read every word of the official report. It’s a big report available online and clearly a cover-up, not addressing ANY of the key questions that I want to know the answers to before I believe the Media.

Forget the other 9-11 truthers/nutters. I just don’t have satisfactory answers I want – unless of course I put the whole thing into a “conspiracy framework” and then it all makes sense. I don’t just take the mainstream media stories at face value. I know what goes on to generate a story, and the bible is quite clear about who is in charge of the world’s affairs, and it ain’t who the media tell us it is!

Taking this stance means that, my friends either have to agree to disagree, and get on with life, or they aren’t friends.

I can still love people that do not agree with me; I can still work with them and agree to disagree and get on with life, but it is a rare and mature breed who can do the same with me!

Real friends do that, you know.

I was talking recently about Jesus’ friends. He spoke to large crowds, sometimes. At those rallies He preached, but it was a hard word, that challenged people and didn’t meet their expectations. He knew that only a few had a heart to hear. He explained that they were just all about themselves:

Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.

John 6:26

and thus weren’t really friends of God.

He had a lot to say about the religious and the intellectuals of the day too, but mostly not good. He built a few friends around Himself, even befriending one He knew would dob him in a couple of years later, but they only numbered a dozen.

Yet even within that friendship group he called disciples, there were three that were especially close, and one, the author of the above scripture, John, who had a real heart for Him and His ministry.

Oh yes, that man John was a great friend. He knew the Master well and was close. He too still denied Jesus at the end, but he was a true friend of Christ.

there [will] be lots of “ducks” in the world towards the end

Little wonder then that when it came time for God to reveal the events of the future, that He called John out, to an island away from all distractions where he could focus, see the events and then scribble them all down for us in the power of the Holy Spirit. OK sure, jail may not have been John’s first choice of locality to receive the visions of Revelation, but hey, he had his needs looked after and was hardly distracted eh?

So then what did this close friend of Jesus see that has put the world on fire ever since? What did he say about end-times and things like false-flag events? Digging deep, I find that the evil one will be building a New World Order, deception will be common and that everything “fits” with a conspiracy view of the world.

It looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, walks like a duck and the Lord revealed to the closest of friends of Jesus, that there would be lots of “ducks” in the world towards the end.

Yup, I’ll put money on it – it’s a duck – friends or no friends.

* H/T: David Bay, Cutting Edge.

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.

I hope it happens to me too, but Debbie and I met a fellow blogger today for the first time, and found him to be nothing like his blogging or reputation led us to believe, and he was a delight to chat to for an hour, or two, or three!

Maybe one day when you meet THIS blogger you might be pleasantly surprised too?

We’d been told that this dude was trouble, and we were warned in advance . . . you know, the sort of “Watch out for him. He’s trouble! Nudge-nudge, wink-wink” advice that can always be trusted (not!)? So we were all prepared and gave him a grilling, you know, like you want to do to someone you don’t trust? And gradually, little by little we came to see a genuine person, a guy that really was alive, well, and doing what he believed was the best thing to do in the circumstances.

Hmmmm, now we had to qualify the advice that we’d received previously and work out from whom it came and why it was given. A picture began to emerge that showed us of our folly. OK sure, things may flip back the other way in due course but we found today a kindred spirit. Someone who was onto it, who cared, and put their money where their mouth was.

predetermined mind-set could have caused us to miss out on a real blessing

The point here is not whether one dude was right, or the other was wrong, the point is that going into a new situation with predetermined mind-set could have caused us to miss out on a real blessing – a great new friendship and who-knows-what exciting things around the corner.

Fortunately we were not overly obnoxious or rude in our approach to begin with, so no harm was done, but it could have been embarrassing if we had gone in all guns blazing, and then had to backtrack!

Picking a low angle of attack to things like personal relationships (rather than a one-size-fits-all approach) is akin to sending in the troops compared to sending in a cruise missile. In some situations if needed, troops can stop and back off to determine whether a target is a friend or foe, walking through difficult situations with sensitivity for the best result. A missile however, once locked into the target just takes everything out, no matter what.

Those who want to knock the church here in Samoa have a pretty fat target. They’re easy pickings with almost all churches displaying their ostentatious wealth, and pride of place in society. But not all Pastors here are the same. Some do live humbly and truly care about and put their people before themselves.

The same with assuming Samoan racism (reverse racism to the Palagi of course). Tarring all Samoans with the same brush can be unfair to those who love to work with us and take us at face value, genuinely happy to receive our help.

The Master took a low-level one-on-one approach when He dealt with people. Sure, sometimes He pinged a bunch of crims from time to time – like when He pinged the temple-based moneychangers who were basically thieves. Sure, the Pharisees copped a lot of “cruise missiles (they all deserved it mind you!) but most of the time with people that He could see were genuine, and real, He spoke into their lives with a probing question or two . . . . “Are you sure you want to get well”, and “What is your issue?” and “Who do you say that I am?”

We do not hear of Jesus having to say, “Oops, I’m so sorry

We do not hear of Jesus having to say, “Oops, I’m so sorry I didn’t realise …” or “Sorry, I actually thought that …”

Nope! The Master was a great one at determining the truth from within a given situation, even when others were too scared to dig. The Master was a master at getting the facts, with little assumption or predetermination. He really know how to draw the subject into the really important life-and-death matters relating to faith, working from the present to the past, and the present to the future, but always working with facts and the truth.

They “nailed” Him for it but I like His style!

I pray that you do too!

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:

In the case of Tama Iti and his crowd, I note from Chris Trotter the effective use of propaganda by both the activists/defence and the Police. Truth? From the Police or the supposed crims? No, protecting our position in an adversarial legal system is more important. (H/T: DPF)

In regards to Allan Hubbard’s fall, there are serious questions relating to the actions of the authorities, some major conflicts of interest and hidden agendas. A few words from Tur Borren’s report into the handling of Hubbard and his business empire:

“I regard this explanation as extremely misleading.”

Oops! That won’t go down with some people. He will surely be a target now!

“All of these conclusions are disclosed in the … report in such a confusing manner that it is difficult to understand that this setback for Aorangi investors is of the statutory managers’ making.

The spin is being unspun.

“The decision to place Allan Hubbard’s personal affairs into statutiory management was an extraordinary action.

An agenda methinks?

“I am affronted by circumstances which I privately perceive as an assault on Allan Hubbard’s rights.

Definitely diplomatic speak for an agenda.

Kerry Grass also reveals an agenda, the use of propaganda in his [UPDATE: her] report too. For me, the phrase that reveals it all is:

“If we can’t make the front page, we almost need to ask ourselves, is there any public interest in this?” SFO CEO, Adam Freeley

Oops! I think in retrospect Adam might have wished that this was put a little less directly, or kept verbal and not recorded for private investigators and truth-seekers to reveal later on.

I’m sad. Having read the entire two reports and knowing how things work, it is very likely that many people will be suffering needlessly and professionals in legal and accounting will make a killing. I wish somebody could step in and make bad things right for everyone.

It’s at times like this that I cry out “Is there a God?” or “Why can’t You just DO something?”.

there is a God … injustice, and pain and lack of perfection are just the way that things are

I know the answer of course, that there is a God and that injustice, and pain and lack of perfection are just the way that things are, but I still hurt when others in powerful positions play games with their power that profoundly affect the lives of others.

The Christian life is no different to any other in terms of life experiences. We still make mistakes and suffer the same in natural disasters, at the hands of crooks and the greedy, but the difference is that we have an understanding, an explanation if you will, for the trouble that we all experience. The fact that God created and we messed up.

Unspinning the spin, requires us to seek and speak the truth, and if we are brutally honest, we must take full responsibilty for our part in the trouble. Acknowledging that we too are sinners is the first step of honesty. It enables us to say then, “There but for the grace of God, go I”. (attributed to John Bradford but for truth seekers actually unknown: source).

We’ve been suffering recently as a result of some “stuff” that hasn’t been particularly nice on several fronts. A sad past for us is that it has been fellow Christians and people supposedly helping us who have caused various sorts of pain. People can do things that are perfectly legal, but not ethical. Sure they can justify it with spin, but underneath you know the truth.

A phone company in New Zealand “gave away” two of our best phone numbers to people previously associated with us, days after our account lapsed, without telling us about it, and then wouldn’t talk about it with us citing commercial sensitivity. All perfectly legal, but hey, come on guys. We paid the phone bill three days late and lose an asset that we’d had for YEARS! It’s only a small company that I previously blogged about positively and the guy is supposedly a Christian too. We’ve let it go because he had every legal right to do it. If he doesn’t have a conscience over his acts, I’ll eat my hat, so that’s his problem. I’d never recommend his company or services again, or if I did I’d tell people, as I did before that if you take your number away from Telecom to third parties that THEY now own your precious phone number to do as they like with NOT YOU!

A while back a mate up here (We call him “Uso”, brother) took quite a bit of our money in a business venture. I’ll rephrase that – we invested into his business when he asked us for money. “Partners we are mate!” he says, yet he wouldn’t sign a business agreement, didn’t want to open a company with joint shareholding, then left us in the lurch for months and now seems to be charging off on his own setting the business up without us. Hmmm, I wonder when the spin will start from this guy!

In some ways you just say to yourself, “What the h*ll!” and then just get over it. In other ways though you HAVE to speak out and tell the truth.

A lot of the things that happen around this adversity is just “spin” – people saying things or doing things to make themselves look good, or to cover their butts, or to furnish their own wants rather than to do the honourable thing.

Speaking the truth to people who are doing something selfish is a surefire way to attract aggression.

Speaking the truth to people who are doing something selfish is a surefire way to attract aggression. A young man we were involved with recently went behind our backs in business. He had every legal right to do what he did, but underneath we observed issues that, well, basically just sucked, to be honest! Warning him that doing things outside of a good and godly “order” could easily become his “Ishmael” was pretty unwelcome advice. Lead balloon, again!

Speaking the truth to people who are in authority also doesn’t sit very well a lot of the time – no matter the good motivation behind the words. We’ve had extensive experience with this in Samoa. One team advisor just says things along the lines of “Don’t deal with them. They’re all the same. Just do your own thing.” Another senior businessman who has been very high in government in the past puts it more diplomatically “I’ve been in both government and private enterprise and know how they both work!” He’s now out of government and enjoying the business world.

I’ve mentioned before about one lady who said to one of our volunteers on her way up here to Paradise, “The Samoan culture is all about ‘show’ – you’ll see!” Diplomacy is what they call it here – saving face, and keeping family honour. I call it spin. Churches for example pit family against family for fundraising initiatives and greatest honour is given to the one who gives the most. I experienced this personally many times but first in Saleimoa. It was a delightful experience by the way, and clearly billed as a fundraising event, but the peer pressure (spin) and the manipulation was rather “unsubtle”. It’s simple – the family that gave the most was “the best”!

There is a lot more, good and bad to it all, but if you talk about it outside of closed doors, you become the enemy. Behind closed doors, everyone knows it is all just spin. Just speak to Albert Wendt if you want more understanding of this issue!

I’m in pretty good company when talking about unspinning the spin . . . The bible recounts it pretty much like it is. Solomon knew all about it and scribbled these similar words:

Anyone who rebukes a mocker will get an insult in return.
Anyone who corrects the wicked will get hurt.
So don’t bother correcting mockers;
they will only hate you.
But correct the wise,
and they will love you.
Instruct the wise,
and they will be even wiser.
Teach the righteous,
and they will learn even more.

PROVERBS 9:7-9 

With that I encourage myself that there are some people who do truly seek wisdom. There are a few who want to learn, and who fear the Lord.

As the next verse explains, it is from fear of the Lord that wisdom comes.

Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom.
Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.
PROVERBS 9:10 

The spin is that Samoa is Paradise and because it is “founded upon God” it is special, and more godly than the rest. It is not. It is a country that has a people with an amazing friendly welcoming smile, a rich culture that honours its guests, and some nice coral sandy beaches and lagoons (at some resorts), but it is also deeply entrenched in an outwardly religious lifestyle, that when you get down to the nitty gritty, actually worships how IT wants to be perceived.

The “Samoan culture” is the guise.

The proof of this is the violent reaction of contempt that occurs when anyone would dare to attack or undermine the culture – regardless of, (dare I say specifically because of) the motivation of love behind the words.

As a wise and good friend has recently said to me:

Two strongholds in Samoa are Religion and ‘Good Works’.

… there needs to an expectation of and credible evidence of genuine repentance.

True personal repentence in the biblical sense, that is based on reality and is not “spin”, or largely for “show”, is largely a foreign concept here. When Samoa fears the Lord more than what the neighbour, Pastor or High Chief thinks, THEN it will be blessed, but not a minute before.

These are not just light words. I’ve paid a high price for emigrating to Samoa, and for speaking the truth, but the evidence of repentance, when someone like me speaks the truth, in love, speaks volumes.

Once the spin is unspun … blessings will come

Once the spin is unspun; once repentance occurs; once we are obedient to the call of Christ individually, the blessings will come. We are starting . . . just starting to see this happen around us.

My calling is not that of an evangelist (telling people that they must do this or that to be saved). I leave that to the Lord and there are millions doing that all around the world and in Samoa too. My calling is harder than that – the role more akin to a prophet – speaking out how it really is; to explain things so that people can really understand; to do things everybody thinks is a good idea but everybody is too scared to do; to lead by example and to show people that true believers get hurt, get up and keep going. It’s a hard message, but nothing of real lasting value came without hardship of some sort.

Lord willing, I will be able to continue to unspin the spin, and more will be blessed!

The unasked question is: “What is the purpose [of the event]?” because as Terry observes – it is all about Samoa, not on generating tourism. Asking questions is dangerous, but as a strategist, I need to know what the objective is before I can develop ideas and a programme to achieve those objectives.

Now before anyone gets the wrong idea here, I am NOT knocking Samoa or the STA in this post. These are the very same questions that I have put and will continue to put to anyone from the Prime Minister (and Minister of Tourism) to the STA and to anyone else in the tourism industry here.

You see in assessing the merit and success of a venture, we need to establish what the goals are before we can make any judgement. In terms of goodwill, feeling good about ourselves (as a country) and looking good, I would rate this year’s event very highly. A lot of work went into it and well done to the team. I look forward to the Miss Samoa event tomorrow night with great anticipation. I did not get to last year’s event and wish that I did.

But in terms of generating tourism, well I’ll let Terry say it for me, “… the small crowd in front of the government building – including a sprinkling of tourists – had to sit there for two hours watching about ten fire knife dancers come up and repeat the same routine.” The phrases “small crowd” and “a sprinkling of tourists” say it all.

Terry’s short observations here are just the tip of the iceberg, of course. Believe me there’s many a thing that could be said about the entire event!

“The phrases “small crowd” and “a sprinkling of tourists” say it all”

I knew long before the event that there would be little new tourism generated by Teuila 2011 – because I asked questions months beforehand. I asked questions of the industry, and of STA (the staff, Marketing, Statistics and the CEO) and the clear picture I got was one of an event geared up to achieve a great event – not to generate new business and increase Tourism, but to make the event good.*

Again, there’s nothing wrong with making the event good, or even just better but if there is no connection between what we are doing and what we are trying to achieve, then we’re going to go around in circles with words, and feel-goods, but there will be no fundamental change.

It’s like this . . . Jesus had many people to heal, teach and bless . . . in fact so many that he told Judas to leave the poor to themselves! This was the Son of God, telling a man who seemed to want to help the whole world (we know that he was a thief and traitor of course after the event), and yet Jesus stopped the guy and encouraged him to focus on the purpose.

Jesus purpose was to hit the road, train his team up to understand things, and then get on up to Jerusalem and pay the price for mankind’s rebellion. Thank the Lord that He knew His purpose and was strong enough to push through to make it happen. The result of Jesus’ obedience was that a fundamental change occurred – mankind now had the opportunity to relate directly with their Maker, the first time since the ratbags our forefathers Adam and Eve got booted out. This is the Christian message of course.

So in the debriefing – either in the media or behind the closed doors in government circles, there needs to be a clear understanding of what the purpose of the Festival was and is. A strategist asks questions like these of the Board and helps them to stitch things together so that events DO achieve their purpose.

Here’s another question (more like a thought) . . . If say $100,000.00 was spent on Teuila (I know that it is much more but let’s just use a round figure to make it simple); if $100k was the budget and if the goal was simply to have an extra 500 people (that’s say roughly two planeloads of people) visit Samoa for a week, then why would you run a festival at all? You’d be better to just print off a thousand $100.00 discount vouchers for Polynesian Blue (AKL-APW) and give them away. You would have an extra one thousand people in Samoa for a week in a jiffy!

I’m not saying we SHOULD do this but that the purpose must be clearly defined and measurable and that the events, marketing and activities are focused on achieving that purpose.

“participation … is essential”

I think that Terry is on the nail with participation. It is not just a good idea – it is essential. With a billion dollars of negative press in September 2009, Samoa has a massive resource of people the world over just itching to chip in, join in, pop across and check us out, help out if they can and generally engage constructively with Samoa. This doesn’t apply to just the Teuila event by the way – it should be the country’s determined purpose to engage with our guests, demonstrating true Samoan hospitality, and sharing the love that should exist from Samoa to the visitor.

One of the main reasons that Debbie and I set up the SWAP Foundation was because we knew the extent of the international goodwill towards post-Tsunami Samoa, and we could see how we could make a difference – a real, deep, positive difference – and that if we did the hard yards, that many thousands of people (both Samoan and Palagi) would have a far richer life through having engaged with the other culture.

Moving off tourism for a moment, this principle applies to missionaries too. I have been talking in various ways to two missionaries recently about their calling, their purpose, if you will, both who have difficulty with envisaging the next step. Sure, they both want to save the lost and do good, but while their struggles are different the result is the same – delays, ineffectiveness and frustration.

I’ve noticed that as I have grown older, and experienced more, that I have leaned closer to my calling, and that my purpose is more defined. The vision is bigger, but the purpose is also clearer.

In your business ventures, and life activities, can you clearly identify your purpose?

*A couple of months prior to the Teuila Festival, SWAP entered into discussions with STA to attempt to establish a working relationship at the request of the Prime Minister. We proposed developing value-adds to the Teuila Festival and developing products that we could market through Social Media activities – generating a buzz and selling specific promotional products. We estimated that even with a late start we could still perhaps bring in another two planeloads of people just for this event. You know “We’ve chartered a plane to Samoa for Teuila. Let your mates know about it and join us on the party tour!” sort of thing. STA first registered interest but in the end pulled out.

A typical Samoan bus - wooden body on a Toyota truck chassis and motor. Oozing with character and itching for a bit of fun!

Last week, Debbie and I decided to push forward with an idea that I first conceptualised in 2009, and setup in March of 2010 – a themed bus for the marketing of Samoa.

Imagine what Walt Disney would do with a local wooden-body bus in Samoa and cross that with Bill Gates in IT, Marketing Stevo from Apple, and what Croc Dundee did for Australian Tourism marketing.

That’s it basically.

I called the thing the Initiana Konese Bus. When you see it, you will understand much more about how and why we’ve done it this way. The hard part has been attempting to gain traction with the Samoan Tourism Authority in any area of support – politics, bureaucratic formalities, personalities and a whole bunch of other ugly stuff. We gave up waiting and took the advice that we’ve been given by many when attempting to deal with them – just get on with it and do it yourself! They may get behind the bus when it suits them. We’ll see about that in due course but after 18 months of waiting and many months this year pushing the proverbial we’ve had to start without them.

To be perfectly honest, we’ve been burning our capital for far too long and waiting for them to work with us. The partnership that we sought  might take a while to eventuate, methinks.

So last week after we were put off yet another time by STA (“We’re too busy to talk” sort of stuff), we just got the idea files out and looked at what we COULD do that would set the whole thing off with a bang.

We have now approached six businesses here in Samoa and initial feedback is that the Initiana Konese Bus is definitely a winning concept. Yay!

1. The first company that we spoke to about it last week (that has an ultra-high profile in both New Zealand and Samoa) told us that – “You have an outstanding idea!” and then told us who to speak to in New Zealand and how to pitch their involvement. Hmmm, that was encouraging start!

2. The second company we spoke to received a full sponsorship promotional presentation from us, complete with photos and a copy of the Initiana Konese website. They loved the Samoan community aspect of the project and showed a very strong interest in one of the prime sponsorship spots.

3. Our third presentation was to a potential partner, not necessarily a sponsor, and they showed a strong interest in working together. When (or if) this partnership goes ahead, we will definitely have a fantastic tour of New Zealand with many more people in the entourage.

4. The fourth presentation was to a large Samoa-based company that has no interest in working in New Zealand and focused results on-island. We had a very good meeting but no immediate possibility of doing business, certainly not in the New Zealand market – they are 100% Samoa, and interested in domestic, not tourism either.

5. The fifth presentation was to a media company that loved the idea and encouraged us to press on with the concept, and offered us any support that we needed. They are our friends and we’ll be sure to be feeding them story after story as things develop.

6. Our sixth presentation was to a company whose Sales & Marketing manager was totally stoked that we would come up with such an amazing idea and who clearly wanted to be involved. As we had been praying for supporters to join in and support us, he had been praying for somebody who could give vision and hope in a flat, unimaginative business environment. And we walked in out of the blue and said “Hi! Can you sponsor us, and get us a bus, and keep it running for us nationwide while we do our stuff? We’ll do whatever you want us to do for marketing your brand throughout New Zealand . . . ” Again, we received very strong interest and have forged a strong friendship as a result.

As a result of one phone call and a part day of meetings, we have confirmation from multiple key people that our idea “has legs”, is likely to attract the required sponsorship, and that we ‘may’ possibly even have a bus chassis being lined up for us as we speak.

Two of the possible five major sponsorship slots seemingly sorted in our first day on the road is an exciting start to an exciting project.

Our prayers tonight will be more along the lines of “Thank you!” rather than “Please!” What a pleasant change.

We look forward to getting the word out and letting others get involved and behind the project.

UPDATE:

Details can be seen at www.initiana.com

Apia Bus Terminal. The bus will get here when it gets here . . . OK?

The cross-cultural thing here in Samoa is huge. Engaging with a third world country has been and is still a real challenge for us, and for Kiwis and Australians, just slipping up to Paradise is fraught with cultural danger. Here are a few cross-cultural exchanges with the thinking process behind each culture. It happens here every day!

Palagi man and women check in to a hotel/resort or ask for help from somebody.

“What time is [whatever - dinner, breakfast, the Ferry departure, a bus tour, church service]? ”

Oh, Umm, 8 oclock [Many times it's a guess, a misunderstanding or as some would call it, a lie!]

8 o’clock comes and goes. Nothing has changed except that Palagi blood pressure raises a level or two.

“We traveled all this way to [whatever] and now we’ve missed the last chance we had for [whatever] and all because you can’t even get simple facts right! You are hopeless. I demand to see the manager!”

Now this sort of thing can apply to hundreds of exchanges throughout Samoa daily as Palagi tourists and guests engage with various levels of “Samoan service”. The larger more established businesses do their best to train their staff and hospitality training does exist, but many of the smaller operators will hire their own family members, with varying levels of English and understanding of the Palagi expectations.

For the record, the Palagi should never need to demand to see the manager and should have never trusted a junior staff member when something is important. If you are an important person or you want something to go your way, you ALWAYS meet the manager first and introduce yourself and congratulate the owner/manager and thank them and do a nice culturally sensitive greeting BEFORE any trouble arises. That way you will get better service and real service as well as honouring the owner. Samoa is all about people, politics and relationships remember.

So, a one minute wait for a Palagi is immensely frustrating when a Palagi tourist is in a panic to see as much as they can in their short time on-island. A one hour wait for a bus to a Samoan is par for the course. “When is the bus coming?” for example is just a Dumb Palagi question. When it gets here of course . . . don’t you know that? We wait on the side of the road and it will come. Why do you need to know the time? Or asking where things are or expecting signs to show you where things are.

Why do you need a sign to the Cross Island Road?

We all know where the Tiavi starts . . . it’s just before the shop that sells $1.00 Keke Pua, you know the one that goes up by EPC? And what’s this about the Tiavi? What’s that? I read that it is the Cross Island Road on the map?

Yes but there are three cross island roads and the one that leaves from Apia and crosses to Siumu is called the Tiavi road. You should surely know that?

“Oh sorry Mr Palagi, you don’t know where EPC is, well you go down there and then over a bit and that’s the road – it goes up that way.”

“Look can you give me proper directions please? I go to the right at the clock tower, then how many metres and then turn right or left?”

“Ummm [what did this Palagi say to me?] . . . Yes”

“A kilometre?”

[What's a kilometre?] . . . “Yes” [actually I don't know and it's actually only 100m but how am I to know what a metre or kilometre is?]

“Then right or left?”

“Um . . . that way!”

“Grrr. Dumb Samoans!”

“Dumb Palagi!”

Three other exchanges like this and the Dumb Palagi may have found his way. It’s easy if you read the map, or know the road. A nightmare if you want efficiency and service like ‘back home’.

Street numbers? Are you crazy? We don’t even have street names on many of our roads.

And why would we need signs if we know where the road is? Why have signs for street names? We all know where they go – this one to Moamoa, the next one to Sigamoga, Alafua, Lotopa and so on.

‘Just past the MacKenzies shop’ means so much more than ’400m on the left up the road to Alafua’ when you know Samoa, as only Samoans do!

I doubt any country has a more chequered rap sheet on Trip Advisor as Samoa does. Interwoven into feedback sheets are page after page of glowing testimonials with NEVER AGAIN comments from poor service providers – on the same resort or establishment! How can this be?

It’s all about expectations. Those expecting good service and demanding that which they are used to in the Western world are disgusted with the fact that someone cannot speak English properly, or doesn’t know how to do something “right”. Others are more flexible, and know how to “play the game” and take everything in their stride, thus enjoying their stay in Paradise.

a cross-cultural clash is a certainty

There are real issues over here though . . . Falealupo is a lovely beach on the far Western coast of Savaii. It has a bad rap on one online forum with a girl warning other travellers to beware the peeping Tom – a staff member who enjoyed the sights of the feminine variety in their showers. It happened more than once to more than one guest.

The discussion ended with one guy saying that the events were a cultural misunderstanding. Well, a peeping Tom in Samoa is just the same as a peeping Tom in the Western world I’m afraid, but he’s right on one count. Western women walk around in Samoa as if they own the place – showing off their boobs and legs as if they want to be raped on the spot. Most of them are not even aware that they are causing offence and creating a problem for themselves. In the Samoan culture a woman hardly ever shows a bare shoulder, or a leg above the knee, let alone any breast. Exceptions are of some of the younger girls in Apia without strong Samoan culture in their upbringing, heavily influenced by offshore trends. But most women here dress very modestly.

A while back, one of our Ambassadors came back one morning fuming at the boys at the local Taxi stand who had wolf-whistled at her while she was out jogging. With mini-shorts and a matching short top, a girl jogging down the road in Samoa would be like a girl walking up Queen Street in a Bikini, or even going top-less. It just does not happen here – both the short attire and the jogging alone, so the girl was very lucky only to have a few whistles. There’s more to it than that with some issues about Samoan men and sexual matters, but this is a family show.

The point is that a cross-cultural clash is a certainty on a beautiful white sandy beach in the middle of Paradise, when a century or more ago the women went topless, and the Missionaries required that they cover-up. Funny now that the Samoans require of the Palagi that they now cover-up, but that’s culture for you – at all times a changing, challenging force, no matter which side of the divide you sit on!

A couple of Samoa church bells - hit with a steel

I stumbled upon a great comparison of the Western culture vs the Samoan culture while “working” today . . .

H/T CRA: http://bit.ly/nvtQFk

Well written and surprisingly looks  like an original list and not copied from another website as far as I can see. Congrats to C.R.A.

My comments:

The list is almost 100% accurate – theoretically – but I think there is a major disconnect though between the theory and reality. What I mean by this is that the traditional and “godly” attributes in the RHS above are under constant threat, usually from within.

For example, respect (2) is earned seems great until you meet a High Chief who lords it over their people who respect him because he is High Chief, out of fear and not of love. A not-too-subtle difference. Jesus was hated by many but earned respect in the long term by giving sacrificially in the short term. It is rare to find someone in power in Samoa who does not use it, especially when that power is threatened.

In village conflict, village bans are often all about retribution for shame, rather than exercising true biblical correction, godliness or personal responsibility, and while consensus-based decision-making (15) sounds “cool”, if there is mob rule or vindictiveness (Samoans can get very personal) then the ultimate responsibility for any injustice is difficult to attribute. I note here that it’s not that Samoan values are better and Palagi independence is worse, it is a difference. My own thoughts are that it is wrong/ungodly when consensus protects the status quo at the expense of truth or biblical leadership. Again, the consensus about Christ was that He was a common criminal, but the early church leaders moved in unity. Likewise, Peter’s strong independence caused Jesus to call him the devil, but Saul’s independence of thought and leadership brought some of the most valuable words written outside of the Master’s! There is a time and place for each.

I disagree with her assessment of leadership (6). The Samoan community is ALL about position. Nobody will do anything until the “big man” says. The politics of Samoan society would keep a blogger buried for decades! Leadership in all forms in Samoa – church, state and village is very much created by, and maintained by authority.

There are flip sides to most of these lists as well. While the West really needs to learn service to and respect for the elderly (14) when taken to the Samoan extreme it hurts and in my eyes is unbiblical. Total obedience to an elder who does not have one’s best interest at heart is servitude, not service. The bible exhorts children to obey their parents and adults to honour them. Samoan theology extends this just a little to demand obedience, claiming that this is godliness, to the grave and beyond, hence I have had to counsel grown men here that they were actually free to make their own choices in the power of the Holy Spirit, even if that ran counter to their deceased parent’s wishes or examples. It’s a hard word when Jesus said that His followers would find themselves pitted against their own family, and a very unpopular one in Samoa. Again a balance, wisdom and sensitivity is required.

Kids in Samoa are delightful - the world over they make you smile when they sing out to you "Palagi!".

Phone rang last night . . . I go to answer it . . . nobody there. Less than a minute later the same caller (775-1195) texts me “Please Call Me: +6857751195″.

So I do . . .

“Yes? What do you want?”

“Who is this?” he asks  me.

Oh man! Another intelligent caller from who knows where in Samoa.

“Who are you?” I ask.

“Who are you and why are you calling me?” I hear.

“Oh go and have another beer!” I say, real grumpy.

A minute later I get another text:

“Please Call Me: +6857751195″

And you know what? It happens all the time here. As they say, only in Samoa!

Samoan pankeke cooking - there is an abundance of cheap food in the third-world Paradise, if you know where to look.

A Facebook friend is raising funds to come to Samoa. He’s got it all worked out but is a few bites short of a full biscuit at this stage. He says now that fund-raising for missions sucks, and that he’s hurting. Arrrrr, I understand that predicament REALLY well!

We did a few things differently to him when we came to Samoa. We self funded and our “missions” was not to save people, it was to help people and the saving part just comes as a matter of course. Let me talk for a moment about missions as they relate to Samoa . . .

I’ve got a personal issue with missions and missionaries. I never wanted to be one but in some ways I have ended up being one. The key verse for me when it comes to missions is in Matthew 28, where Jesus tells His disciples that he wants them to “go” – i.e. to go into the world. The problem as I have previously explained, is that in the Greek, the word “go” is actually continuous present tense, which does not actually mean “Get up off your bum and go out to the mission fields”,  it is more accurately translated as “As you are continuing to be going . . . [about your business/life or whatever]“.

This changes our perception of Christ’s calling enormously. It means that as my Facebook friend is raising funds for surviving in another country, he should be loving and blessing the people around him day by day, minute by minute so that his mission-field for today is actually in his country, city, street and home, and not yet in Samoa.

I do not begrudge people who do want to “go out” – after all I have done this myself – but the purpose and motivation is very different. I can assure my Facebook friend, that Samoa does NOT consider that it needs another missionary, and does NOT consider itself to be a mission-field. Samoa also does NOT consider that it needs saving, as it is said constantly here that the country was founded upon God, and is a Christian nation. It is seen as the height of arrogance and generally highly offensive to say anything otherwise about it here.

Now this sentiment may not be shared by all (ask Albert Wendt and many others from outside of Samoa) but the starting point of planning to come to Samoa as a missionary is much more of a challenge that my friend may realise. There are many needs in Samoa – financial is top of the list of course and yes of course spiritual is in there simply because people are people the world over – but Samoa wants to be accepted and loved first. This takes a lot of faith, humility, time and commitment to achieve, and its HARD. Very hard.

I have noticed that the journey to engage with Samoa and Samoans can be brutal for the foreigner – for many reasons. The culture is so different to the Western world. The tropical weather. The third-world mentality and living conditions. But also because of the religious/spiritual climate here.

We must first remember that in Samoa, Samoans rule. They think differently; have different values and passions and they live their own way here. In regards to decision-making, power and money in Samoa, Samoans always have their way and as individuals and a people as a whole, they are ultra-resistant to change.  We (Palagi) are foreigners and have no “right” to convert, sort them out or tell them what to do – other than what THEY want, allow or permit. Preaching is welcome here. Preachers are welcome. Church people and projects and funding and crusades and anything to do with Christianity (including missionaries) are all very welcome.

But change is not.

My friend will find the same as many of our SWAP Ambassadors, and almost every Peace Corps volunteer has done that engaging with Samoa is hard, and brutal, and it can hurt – sometimes badly.

But . . . that’s not all the story.

But . . . God!

But . . . faith.

If coming to Samoa is in this man’s heart – regardless of how hard it is to do; regardless of how many challenges or knock-backs or closed doors he meets – then by faith it will happen. As I said faith is hard, and it hurts.

The hard lessons in life are always about pride. They are always about having to humble ourselves and come down from where we think that we are entitled to be in life, or business or at home, and then just doing what God wants – His agenda, not ours.

This is not just hard, it is REALLY hard, and it hurts – REALLY hurts, but it is necessary to remove ourselves from the equation and let the Lord do what He wants us to do. Putting OUR vision and OUR calling and OUR needs and wants at the foot of the cross is pretty simple to say, but a deep challenge. Not all achieve this.

I understand his predicament – boy do I understand it, but I cannot change things for him. We’ve been there. We’ve done that. We’ve lost [insert:almost] all for the cause but hold on in faith, because we know that He called us here. That faith too (the knowledge that the Lord has called him to Samoa) will be all the help that my Facebook friend needs, because if the Lord loves him and is teaching Him the way He has the rest of us, one day it will be all that he has – literally.

I’d also like to make an observation about how faith is outworked and the way that God can bless whatever is rejected by man when used in faith. My Facebook friend has detailed his income and expenditure and has worked out that his accommodation costs are say $2 per month. His living costs are estimated to be say $1 per month making a total of $3 per month. He has income totaling say $2 per month and is therefore short $1 per month and so under pressure.

But if he has faith, why not seek to live with others who can provide him with free accommodation and share the extra $1.00 he now has with others in need? Suddenly, by reframing the situation he is blessed and able to share from an abundance. Sure, this may require a slight change of plans on his part, but it exercises faith, and is quite a biblical concept. After all, I remember the Lord himself doing pretty much the same once with a few thousand people. His disciples had a few logistic and supply problems until the boy offered his lunch to the Master and suddenly there was an abundance of food.

I’ve learned in my life that the bigger the problem – the bigger the opportunity. The difference between the two is faith, and creativity, attitude hard work.

Make sure that you enjoy YOUR day of faith today!

Clock Tower - centre of Apia. Normally photographed in sunshine, but rain clouds on the hills are common in the afternoons.

It’s Sunday again and in this Sermon from Samoa, I explain how easy it is to, and share the folly of . . . you guessed it . . . shooting the messenger. No Samoa bashing, I promise! It’s all for the positive in cross-cultural understanding today!

Samoa can get personal – sometimes REAL personal  - but this passion is a two-edged sword.

I love the passion behind the Samoan smile. They’ll do anything to help you and make you happy here. As a Palagi, you are an honoured guest in their home. Great social kudos is gained by having a Palagi guest, and no expense is spared to give you what you want. Their thinking goes along the lines of “Please come in and all will be well!” and the smiles are from ear to ear.

These are all genuine words. They are absolutely true – both what I write here and what Samoans say to Palagi. It is rare to be treated with disdain in Samoa when you are a Palagi guest in a rural Samoan village. And the passion and drive to “perform” usually goes much more than just a desire to see you happy. It is more like a deep desperation to do anything and everything possible to oblige.

And there-in is the rub – the desperation to please.

Now we’re getting into dangerous ground, but deep psychological pondering explains this to me as a fear of being shamed if the Palagi is not pleased. Not for everyone, all the time, but for many it is – increasingly-so.

We’re not supposed to talk about things like that here, and if you do, well then that passion to please can turn on you 180 degrees. If it does, then it virtually always gets deeply personal, with the same passion fired up against you as it did, a moment before towards you, and this is the point of this post: “What happens to a messenger who dares to speak the unspeakable?”

What happens to a messenger who dares to speak the unspeakable?

I’ve experienced the resistance to hearing the truth many times in Samoa and was warned about the way that people and society can turn on you here. I know of many Palagi who have paid a high price for not understanding it.

If you’re lucky you’ll be invited to leave. Mostly you will actually want to leave, fast. If you are unlucky, foolish or blind, you will get whacked and possibly worse.

This learning is all called understanding Fa’a Samoa (the Samoan culture/the Samoan way). Putting it more diplomatically,as an elder statesman in the tourism industry here once explained to me, “Fa’a Samoa is all about diplomacy“. I’ve got other more direct words, but diplomacy sounds good for the moment!

I learned it the hard way. I got whacked four times with a big Samoan fist to the head, jaw, neck and shoulder (in that order) when I dared to stand up to a Matai on his own land. I was right, he was wrong and it has since well and truly proved so, but that’s NOT the point. The point is that causing offence, or embarrassment is wrong over here and if you are the messenger, you will get shot. End of story!

It’s not the first time that I’ve learned that life is not fair, but a few weeks after the hiding, and after having worked out why I (the messenger) got decked (a Samoan version of shooting) I had a MUCH better understanding of the passion behind the people here.

When looking at the people Samoa has blessed the world with, we naturally first look at the Rugby greats, and other top achievers. When we look at the cultural experiences we clearly love the smile, and the beauty of the sandy tropical beaches. But I love the passion lurking below the surface; the driving force that says “Proud to be Samoan” – and it seems that 45,718 others on Facebook do too!

Passion . . . is morally neutral

Passion, like feelings of love, technology (contrary to what some think)  and money, is morally neutral.  The same passion that carried Paul to persecute the church, is the same passion that God used to take the Good News of Christ into the furtherest reaches of the known world at the time. The same passion that drove a man to punch me up, is the same passion that can now support me, love me and stand by me as a brother (Uso), working together to help each other achieve that which we were both designed for, made for and destined for.

The key to breaking through however, is to go beyond the surface into the root cause, the drivers of the passion and to deal with this.

I understood the matai who decked me. I knew the difficulty that he had with the ‘demon within’ that caused him to lash out in violence. I knew that at some point, he would have to face reality. I knew that deep down he was listening to me and I prayed that in time he would understand, so when I knew that he was truly embarrassed and repentant (and it was not just an attempt to save face, as it so often is up here), I gave him the chance to learn more about me, to help him understand me and my motives to help him.

I did the right thing by extending grace, and showing Christian love and forgiveness when it really, really hurt and in time a miracle happened, and he too did the right thing.

I got whacked because I was the messenger, and when I caused pain, the other guy lashed out at what was causing the pain – me. Perfectly natural, but proud and immature.

I love the story that Jay Abraham tells in his book Getting everything you can out of everything you’ve got” of Charles Lamb who says, “Don’t introduce me to that man! I want to go on hating him, and I can’t hate a man whom I know.” This attitude is very much alive in Samoa – very much alive, and especially when you cross someone! This hatred, whether it is racism, or offence or immaturity, is always highly moderated because your detractors will ALWAYS smile at you and tell you that they love you and that nothing is going on, when it is, but that is just Samoa.

I can’t hate a man whom I know

Understanding generally brings maturity, but sadly many here seek neither understanding nor value maturity. Passion – yes. Maturity and wisdom – well they struggle to float in the sea of Fa’a Samoa where appearance matters most.

The experience I’ve mentioned here is only one example out of many I could quote. For example, we currently have a major difficulty in working with the head of the Samoan Tourism Authority (STA). That’s probably the understatement of the year, but I won’t go into details here yet because we are still working the issues through. However in general terms, the feedback that we have had from the tourism industry here is universally condemning of their conduct and performance. In fact from our casual enquiries over the last 18 months, less than ten percent are actually neutral towards them (or actively work with them) when you really get down to it, and it is off-the-record, a huge 90% are negative in some way.

Whenever a tourism operator attempts to raise concerns, they have to do so under the cloak of confidentiality “for fear of reprisals“. Now, in Samoa, complaining is clearly a national past-time. Even more so than the Western world, politicians and government employees here are simply unable to speak honestly because the local tabloid will ping them and promote the nay-sayers negativity as “news”. The gossip-mills and pull-down machine would kick into overdrive. So we have stories of progress and speeches that mean little and conferences and meetings that all give the appearance of things being well, when under the surface there are real issues.

Samoan tourism industry is in crisis

The truth is that the Samoan tourism industry is in crisis. The new board has a major challenge on many fronts. It has an industry that is hurting and largely unsupportive; a culture that does not naturally want to work together, nor have vision, nor understands marketing or the Internet; a competitive marketplace that is years ahead of Samoa in thought, practice, technology and market awareness (think: Fiji & Bali); a global marketplace that is being increasingly destablised daily* and discretionary spending of the public that do travel is reducing; the after-effects of a billion dollars of global 2009 Tsunami negative press; and a product that really does not yet “cut the mustard” in the market-place.

This should all be a bitter reality-check for all involved in Samoan tourism – the new Minister, the new Board and the CEO – and direct, affirmative, creative, visionary leadership and action should result. It hasn’t and will be a miracle if it does happen because at the moment we’ve been knocking on doors for 18 months and have basically had the big run-around and are seen as the trouble-makers.

The point here is not whether we’re successful or end up working with the government, the point is that as messengers, telling the truth, I cop the flak – both personally and anything we are associated with. In Samoa, that flak carries all the passion that Fa’a Samoa can drum up, and believe me . . . it gets personal and can hurt!

For the record, I do not think that STA has done nothing or is totally incompetent. I definitely think that they need help, and decent direction with their vision and strategy. A different management style would go a long way to alleviating a lot of the negativity. Some of the things we’ve seen certainly causes is to raise our eyebrows, but if we can do something positive with them soon, things may be a little different. If we were not convinced that we were called to be in Samoa and that this is a “God-thing”, we would have been out of here ages ago.

So, enough about Samoa tourism for the moment and onto the issue of shooting the messenger.

I’m a messenger. I haven’t always been, but I have naturally grown into the role over the last few decades and seem to have an increasingly prophetic role. I speak the truth, hopefully in love, into a certain situation – either an individual, a business, or other situation. As such, I am usually always the first person to cop the flak.

Sometimes a messenger can get it wrong. Sometimes a hidden area of arrogance, pride or personal hang-up can get in the way of a clean message. Fortunately I’m failing less and less as I get smarter and am humbled more but the thing is that when we have paid the price; when we  have done the hard yards; when it is clear that we care; when we have proven our commitment and it has been shown that our motives ARE pure and that we genuinely WANT to help a person, business or whatever – THEN our message can be heard, and the messenger can be resurrected from the dead and listened to as he should.

This has occurred for me more than once in Paradise, and is likely to be a repeating pattern. First I speak a message and start something – an idea, a business, some advice. Second adversity strike – either opposition, gossip, mistrust, misunderstanding or whatever. Third a showdown or big pow-wow clears the air. And lastly, if I’m lucky, we’ll breakthrough and have a friend for life.

And that’s worthy of a celebration – after all it is a Sunday in Samoa.

* I believe deliberately.

Click for full-size image

People in business in Samoa talk about the high cost of the Internet. Tourists expect to pay a bit more but still hurt when they find the price resorts and Internet cafes charge. But rarely do I see this pain quantified.

Here it is in graphical form.  

There has been comment in the past that Samoa needs Internet speed. It doesn’t. Comparing the Internet to a pipe and content to water, it does not need more pipe, nor does it need a bigger pipe. It needs a MASSIVE reduction in cost, so that people can afford to use it – they want to be able to afford to drink!

We pay CSL $99.00 per month for 500Mb and they charge .25c per Mb thereafter for “overs”. Yes, you read that correctly, it is per Mb NOT per Gb! Rest assured that somebody is making a LOT of money, and we do not watch YouTube on our team – ever!

Some notes:

Japan does not charge for bandwidth usage. They effectively provide a pipe of a certain size and you can suck all the water out that you want out of it.

New Zealand and Australian prices are on a par, with NZ typically offering 15Gb plans as standard and Australia 50Gb plans as standard.

Prices are RRP and converted to WST from AUD and NZD.

Aid delivery truck following the 2009 Samoa Tsunami. Disasters bring out the best and worst in people. Encouraging people to help themselves the rest of the time is not easy in Samoa!

The last few weeks have witnessed a whole bunch of challenges around me – some for us, but many for others here in Paradise Samoa. In this Sermon from Samoa I explain how dealing with a challenge effectively requires us to first see our issue in the proper context, measuring reality as best as we can, and then taking constructive steps to help ourselves. Simple to say, but hard to do.

The Samoan culture is really not good at facing reality. It’s good at many things, especially excelling at protecting Fa’a Samoa (the Samoan way of doing things). It’s great at supporting a family leader, or putting down another Samoan who is not part of the family. It’s also great at doing hoopla over weddings, funerals, supporting the Manu Samoa team, and getting in behind something that is good for Samoa (or the individuals, Pastor or Matai who will benefit), but forgive me for speaking so bluntly here, it is NOT good at fessing up to reality, and then moving forward from the current position.

The current PM here, Tuila’epa, can take a lot of credit for lifting the country out of the poor state that it was in economically and socially a decade ago, but it is an uphill struggle for him to generate traction when resistance to change is entrenched, culturally. Bureaucracy is strong here, with a large government, and legal systems and management processes suitable for countries a hundred times the size of Samoa. Reality is a million miles away from some of the waste, and missed opportunity that exists here.

When discussing the proposed e-government strategic plan, we had a quiet word with the international visitors who came to assist. Their eyes rolled and they (off the record) said “For God’s sake, don’t let the government accept this document. It’s totally unrealistic for a country this size!” and their passion and concern was obvious. “Just start with something you can likely achieve” was their advice. The problem is this . . . the people who prepared the document employed a consultant who didn’t live here, and who transposed an Australian sized challenge into a small Pacific nation. Good money was surely paid to have them give sagely advice, but it’s unrealistic. We asked to look at the proposed strategy but the committee that has been working on it won’t release it until it has been approved. Umm, how daft is that?

Some within government who have a good handle on reality just laugh and say to me . . . How can we get e-commerce from Government? How can they even look at it when they still get viruses that the rest of the world killed off 10 years ago!  It would be a nightmare!”

A short while ago we were chatting about the future of Samoa with people from another government department about what they saw as the future of Samoa in their sector – a major and high profile sector of the Samoan economy. The replies from two individuals was so far away from reality that both Debbie and I choked, and were totally stunned. We were literally speechless in fact.

The point here is that unless we have a grip of reality, it is so hard to move forward. Dreams and visions and hopes are fine, but strategically we need to identify the current situation correctly BEFORE we move in with a solution. Just like the more accurate a doctor’s prognosis is, the better the medicine will work, so to with marketing, personal and spiritual growth.

We’ve been working with a guy recently who seems to have missed the mark at a personal level. Sort of a major disconnect between his perception of reality and ours. He may be right and we’ve missed something, but we think he’s the one who’s dropped the ball. Nothing positive can come from it for him until he fesses up to the issue honestly and gets a grip of reality.

Same thing with the grandiose e-government strategic plan – until somebody can come in and speak the truth about it, there will always be pain and politics muddying the waters.

Like with the government department motivated to shoot for the planet Pluto, rather than trying to just shoot for the moon, nothing good will come from dreaming and the associated BS that must surely follow as a result of failure. Far better to knuckle-down to something practical, and take a first step in faith, but first based on reality.

It’s not easy to help ourselves, who ever we are, where ever we are, but our first step must be to get a grip on reality and then work on ways to grow and move forward.

Jesus did this all the time really well. He was a master at it. His primary goal was to restore relationship between people and His Father. People without hope, and in bondage to the BS that the religious systems taught and enforced at the time. With the woman at the well, He changed the subject from theoretical religious talk, to the subject that brought a reality check – her multiple marital relationships. He spoke to people focused on monetary matters instead about the importance of a relationship with the Father. He didn’t heal because He didn’t want sick people around Him, He healed so that people could no longer have an excuse to complain but had the opportunity to speak about, worship and love God like they were designed to do.

When Jesus invited some to be healed, He asked them whether they actually wanted it. He brought them to a point of reality. Did they REALLY want healing” Or were they playing a game with life? And then very often He asked them to take a step of faith – which proved that they wanted change.

Over the last 18 months, we have offered our services to Samoa, in both the IT and Tourism sectors. Except for the recent allocation of land (which has been a real god-send for us, enabling us to start building a real future here), we have basically drawn a blank with the key departments, except for words. We are told that Samoa wants to lift their tourism but we have yet to develop a meaningful relationship with STA, the Samoan Tourism Authority. We’re patient and are working through the issues but the bottom line is that so far it has all been just talk. Likewise, we are told that many government departments need assistance with their web presence but can’t afford it. Again, MCIT has listened to some of our ideas and offers and “will consider them” even though we can develop better solutions and at around about a quarter of the price of the quotes they have received.

Sometimes we, like many before us shake our heads in amazement and say “You’re really not helping yourself Samoa!”. We’re not quitting, but many have, and a lot of them in disgust too.

In a recent communication to the Prime Minister and the head of Tourism, we stated the wise words relating to achieving change:

“If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you’ve always had.”

I know that Governments and politicians are notorious the world over for conservatism and avoiding risk, but growth requires change and this in turn requires faith. That means risk.

Samoa, like all of us, will only achieve to the extent that it is prepared to change, and take risk. Samoa moves much more slowly than the Western world. That is a major hurdle for it to overcome.

It claims to be founded upon God, but it is structured to reward those who attend church, or who are “in-the-know” rather than those who have real faith and who step outside of the mould. It is a highly political country, where WHO you know means infinitely more than WHAT you know. Another hurdle.

Despite the rhetoric about foreign investment being welcome and a stable political environment, for a Palagi it is an exceedingly difficult country in which to get established. The rules of life however (which includes that of business), and the way things work in the Kingdom of God are universal. Our prayer is that, just like Jesus offered hope to the multitudes and some turned to Him in faith, that our work here too can help some turn to us for inspiration and blessing.

Helping yourself is hard, but facing reality then stepping out in faith reaps rewards  and blessings.

Make sure that you get a good grip on reality today, and move forward in a single step of faith, and you too will reap the rewards and blessing.

Domain Name Business for sale as listed on TradeMe

I’ve finally put my entire portfolio of domain names on the market, with all my really good New Zealand phone numbers too.

It is a little sad to see the advertisement go up, and to think that many years of a pretty major investment is finally coming to a close.  I’m doing it for two reasons – it is a little harder to manage the names from offshore, and we can use the money at the moment up here, getting building of the SWAP HQ under way, to be precise.

I’ve priced the portfolio to sell with a 56 day listing. I’ll be interested to see what develops over this timeframe. When we listed the Go Kiwi Internet clientbase, we still had serious enquiries coming in more than a month after the advertisement was first placed. The funny thing about that sale was that we actually sold it to one of the first enquirers, even though many did due diligence and one even put a non-refundable deposit on it, only to lose it through defaulting!

Anyway the advert is here: (http://bit.ly/r3nZVd) and my fact sheet/FAQ is here (http://bit.ly/r9pg5I)

It seems like everyone wants to rebrand themselves, sometimes for good reason!

The local computer company CSL should have done it years ago, just like when Telecom took over the communications side of the New Zealand Post Office. Telecom really needed to and did it well. CSL owns several divisions including web development, an ISP, an Internet Cafe, wireless Hotspot service, a hardware companyand the local Dick Smith Agency (which I never knew about until just recently). Talk about missed opportunity for developing one powerful brand.

When Samoa’s incumbent SamoaTel was sold off recently, the company was co-branded. Vehicles now carry the twin livery “BlueSky” AND “SamoaTel”. Who do you work for? Ummmm SamoaTel, oops, BlueSky, ummm actually BlueSky/SamoaTel (I think!)

New owner Dave Main said to me that he kept the SamoaTel brand alongside of the new BlueSky because of public perception that SamoaTel was a “Government thing” the same as many still think that CSL is a “governemnt thing” even though it has been privately owned for years. Maybe so, but from a marketing perspective, major confusion results. It’s a lost opportunity for developing a clear band, something Americans are very good at doing and many others are not!

Campus Crusade for Christ has made a gutsy call, apparently after a couple of years of work, CCC is now CRU. (H/T: Tom Gilson http://www.gilsonministry.org/2011/07/campus-crusade-for-christ-becomes-cru/) I tried to work out what CRU meant (It is not meant to mean anything apparently).

The cynical side of me says that this is yet another way of being a Christian Ministry in a modern age without using the name of Christ.

CCC says: ”We want to remove any obstacle to people hearing about the most important person who ever lived – Jesus Christ.”

Hmmm, so now we have something without Christ in it? Because I’m not smart enough to be able to play God or pick sides, I’m happy for CCC, oops CRU. It is part of a trend to de-Christianise the Christian message however to help people embrace the Christian message in the latter days. I actually thought that Jesus made it as hard as possible for people to follow Him by speaking the truth, in love and demanding that we lay down our lives for Him in total obedience but if more people can hear His message as a result, well, good!

I think that the CRU design is good. I’ll go even further than that it is VERY good. It is an excellent balance between a crisp clean font, whitespace, a nicely stylised cross, and great use of autumn colours. It’s a modern logo that cries “balance” and exudes multiple meaning with the four corner/cross/star.

I would have been proud to have developed this one. I didn’t, but if I did, it would have been in the top 10% of all my work. Very professional.

Fa’a means goodbye in Samoan, BTW.

As always, Cameron Slater has had it in for the Labour party quite heavily in this election campaign and he’s sure that Goff will “go”.

They tell me that he’s a nice guy, but I do not feel sorry for Phil. Politics can be brutal and he’s enjoyed the spoils of a life at the top for a long time. On top of that liars and people who twist the truth grate with me somewhat; actually a lot. And even more, on top of that the guy stood me up when he was in Samoa last. We had a scheduled appointment to meet (Aggie Grey’s at 5.00pm) and he didn’t show. He made the appointment with me face-to-face in the morning at a time and place that he chose so he definitely knew all about it but just never showed up. No problem with change of plans or whatever but even Samoan politicians have their staff send notice of a cancellation or rescheduled appointment.

Goff seemed to be above that, so while I’m pretty tolerant and generous most of the time . . . “Fa’a Goff!” suits me quite nicely today!

As one who thinks he understands a little of the basics of the New World Order, and a managed economy by the International banking cartel, I’m saddened that somebody here will be making a LOT of money by buying gold from people who have little idea of its real worth in the days ahead.

It’s business, but oh how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer!

But do the churches really steal power too? Apparently so.

http://bit.ly/lBvEJA

Unbelievable, well actually more sad, but as they say here . . . “only in Samoa!”

Debbie watering her vege seeds

It’s been a real challenge setting up a house and home in Samoa, but we’re making some progress now.

We’ve spent a large part of the last month pushing through with setting up on the land in Falelauniu, actually more up by the Aleisa Road.

It’s a good patch of land with a nice breeze wafting up the hill and a good temperature to live in – certainly in the shade of the trees – compared to much of the lower and hotter areas in Samoa.

Debbie has her garden under way. A lot of time and energy has gone into clearing the land – trees chopped down with machete and stumps dug out or pulled out – mostly by hand and the garden will do well in time in the tropical growing conditions. We have bananas and coconuts producing already from previous owners’ planting going back generations but the rest will take time to develop.

Our first WWOOFer volunteers have been and gone now (www.wwoofsamoa.com) one guy from Germany, two from Italy and another two from Argentina. Thanks to their help, the gardens are big enough to plant out and quite a few little things have been sorted – like water, generator power and now the Internet!

A pleasant surprise came last week with Samoa Tourism Authority finally wanting to talk with us meaningfully. It’s taken 18 months and has been a long drawn out saga that began for me a week or so after the Tsunami in October 2009 when I first offered my services to the Prime Minister. At the time he asked me to speak to Sonja Hunter, CEO of STA and suggested to her that she see if they could use me. In the interests of burying the hatchet and goodwill we won’t go into details about the delays, but various things have now “happened” 18 months later and it looks like SWAP and STA may be able to work together in a much closer way. This was always my long-term goal, so I’m pretty pleased to be starting to have meaningful dialogue with them.

Creating a home is way more than just building a house. Emotional, financial, social and matters of faith all roll into the equation and it’s a major life-changing event. Every new path, pipe and plant though represents another step in a pretty challenging journey, setting up in a new country.

Overall, Debbie and I are pretty pleased with the new land and what we’ve achieved in only a few short weeks. More to do but good progress every day.

Our campsite is taking shape. It’s true camping at the moment, literally.

Samoa is pretty much outdoor living anyway, with permanent camping the general feel of the place as we’ve got open walled Fales and a pretty constant 30 degrees year-round make for a camping-type experience once you are out of the resorts and city. Outside living though is a little different for us – we are literally CAMPING in the bush at the moment.

Fortuantely the trees drop the temperature a good 2-3 degrees and keep off 90% of the sun 80% of the day, so it is really quite comfortable micro-climate. A gentle breeze coming up the hill and the trees killing any dew, it makes for a lovely spot, actually. Note the cover for the limo – stops the falling coconuts from damaging it – until the lean-to is built. True!

The driveway has been completed – 8 truckloads of fill – teams of Samoan boys all keen for a few bucks for smokes and booze – a lot of sweat and diesel burning diggers and we now have vehicular access to our Campsite.

Water is now piped in from the roadside (we tapped into an obliging neighbour’s waterpipe, thanks!) – untreated but drinkable for the brave. That’s me! A one inch sub-main is promised but “We don’t have any 1″ pipes left so it will happen in the next financial year” we are told by Samoa Water Authority (SWA). I think it “might” just happen in a few months.

This is one big momma coconut tree that was spared from the axe. Debbie loves her coconut trees and especially this one with a bend, so it stayed, and we can just sneak the road past it, just. Palagi in Samoan clothes – shirt only on for the photo. Jandals optional but necessary on the road. Lavala is cheap and easy to buy, wear, wash. Great once you are used to them. Aussie squashable hat is a must for Palagi nose and ears when in the sun.

Now to organise transfer of all our gears from Satapuala . . . and setup an office in town somewhere.

We’re getting there after the major hiccup with the Satapuala landlords. Costly and sad to have to move on from The Airport Lounge, but we had no choice really. In the end we’ve ended up with better digs by far but we’ve basically been set back by a year and lost a few quid.

We have no power nor Internet at the campsite and are working outside on setting up shop, so I’ll chat to you again a little while later, sometime!

A driveway 150m long has now been cleared by machete down the fence line of the 5 acres of our new home and SWAP HQ. Tomorrow the digger moves in to tidy up, remove a few larger stones, scratch out a couple of septic tanks and straighten up the lie of the land ready for the base-course to get spread.

Our container should arrive on Monday, so things are all go go go here. Pictures no doubt coming in a few days.

Tokelau “sold” its Domain Space to an offshore country in return for free bandwidth to the islands.

Whew – flag the bandwidth, mate . . . I’d have gone for the gold! Millions, literally millions in income from .tk domain names in return for what . . . peanuts?

Hindsight eh?

The .tk is a dog’s breakfast to be quite honest, with FREE domains (http://www.dot.tk/en/index.html?lang=en) and international involvement from a Dutch company and US offices. Not clean and a bit of a blight on the Domain Name space, if you ask me. What else do you expect apart from spammers and phishing crooks when you give things away?

More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.tk

My recommendations to all in Pacific Islands government is DO NOT SELL your assets, especially the IP and digital ones. Selling is a terminal action that gives a once-off, short-term benefit. Samoa does it very well with land – customary land can never be sold – only leased.

Likewise for other business opportunities. A JV is the best way long-term – by a long shot.

It’s not quite as bad in Samoa here for .ws Domain Names, but it is still sad also that the Domain Space has been previously sold off. A private company profits from Domain Names – a very smart move to get the nod.

Prices here for a .ws are still so much ($35.00 USD per annum!!) that we just buy .com Domain Names and recommend all businesses to do the same . . . $8.00 USD per annum from GoDaddy is the going international rate. Anything much above that is just greed. New Zealand has an excellent system with a Society/Company running the show. It is recognised internationally as leading edge and they have been REDUCING their prices over the years.

There’s only one word for the annual price of a single digit domain (e.g. www.w.ws) – ludircous! $50,000.00 USD per annum). I was one of the first Domainers (Domain Name Investors) in New Zealand, and have bought and sold many hundreds of domain names since 1997. Rest assured that www.w.ws is not worth $50,000.00 to buy and own, let alone an annual price!

It’s a shame for Samoa really because it would be better to see our money stay in the local economy but it’s too late to do much now, as we’ve registered nigh on 100 Samoan related domain names. In early 2010 we did approach CSL to use the best .ws domain name (http://www.samoa.ws) to develop the Samoan information portal but they keep it for their own business, which is fine, but I think a bit of a missed opportunity. Again, proof to me that selling an asset is not the best way to conduct business.

It’s my goal to make sure that decision-makers are thinking smart and being well advised in other matters as they arise.

International Date Line

Word is that Samoa may ** WILL change it’s date to align with it’s two biggest trading partners, New Zealand and Australia. If true (I don’t have any inside knowledge but my take from the news that this is most likely [NOW CONFIRMED]) then this would be a another gutsy call by the PM, and major international news.

According to Samoa Observer journalist Aigaletaule’ale’ā F. Tauafiafi, the Prime Minister says that there appears to be overwhelming reasons for a time zone change. He will elaborate further on the issue in the near future.

My take is that there are many more and bigger plusses than a few negatives for the possible change.

Samoa would put it’s date FORWARD one day, and simply lose a day . . . gone, forever. In doing so it would align with New Zealand, and Australia and a lot of the rest of the South Pacific, including some of Asia. Unless American Samoa was convinced to join with Samoa (possible but I think a little more improbable) the dateline would slip back to between Samoa and American Samoa.

The biggest plus for Samoa would be that business people, family, friends and travellers from New Zealand and Australia would share the same day of the week. At the moment a Sunday in Samoa is a Monday in New Zealand. A Friday in Samoa is a Saturday in New Zealand. Flying from AUCKLAND to APIA on a Monday afternoon, you arrive Sunday evening. Flying from APIA on Monday morning gets you to AUCKLAND Tuesday afternoon.

Except for seasoned travelers, this is all just a big bad unnecessary mental challenge to cope with for all visitors. Even Samoans must mentally calculate the date difference every time an interaction is planned – phone calls, plane flights and emails, business and personal communications all incur extra mental gymnastics.

I would hate to think how many mistakes occurred and what extra costs have been incurred through the dateline crossover. I’ve been doing it for over 18 months and have got used to it but it still is a challenge to me. Many of our friends and clients struggle with it.

The biggest downside would be the upset to the relationship with American brother next door – it would be great for them both if they did the same. I’m sure the brains have talked this one through, as Tui is quoted in the above article as saying,

“there has been quite a lot of work and consultation involved on this matter”

Sitting on the dateline, Samoa is in a unique position to make this call. Very few other countries in the world are located strategically to be able to choose their date, even if they wanted to – Alaska and some Pacific Islands like Tonga and the Cooks could do the same if they really wanted, but noone else could.

I estimate that the costs to do it would be surprisingly little* – an executive decision and it is done . . . declare it to the world and “too bad” if nobody else agrees! “Today is now Sunday the xxx of xxx in Paradise, please respect our new date!” and the world would then adjust it’s calendars, maps, websites, software and so on.

If I judge the PM right, it’s the sort of thing that he would relish - stepping up to the plate and hopefully batting a home run. It’s a big call, and a gutsy one if he does it, but as demonstrated by introducing daylight saving and changing the side of the road, it would be typical of a guy who puts what other people think behind what he thinks is good for his country. Top marks would be due too to the new Cabinet, if they’re right behind it.

An enormous opportunity to get Samoa on the world scene with something positive would be created. Following a billion dollars of negative press, this would also be a golden opportunity to put Samoa on the International stage with some positive news.

If this news is correct, then credit should also be due to the above reporter for a scoop as internationally this could likely be bigger news than the road switch of 2009.

Go Samoa, Go!

* Costs to Samoa would be relatively small. International costs however will be in the stratosphere by comparison . . . every map ever printed would be out of date; all websites and legacy software would be rendered invalid; airlines, travel agents, every person on earth would need to know and adjust their knowledge.

** http://www.samoanewsonline.com/viewstory.php?storyid=26226

UPDATE:

Website created to share the latest on the Samoa Date Change

It is rare for me to be out of the office without the SWAP uniform. Wearing it at all times goes with the territory here because we draw high attention to ourselves.

It is also rare for me to be photographed, as I am almost always behind the camera snapping others.

This is a rare shot taken of yours truly by one of SWAP Ambassadors Rob Spijkerman while waiting to see the PM this week.

Of note in the photo is a series of cultural challenges – for both cultures. They are (in no particular order):

• A gold signet ring that is a challenge because a few years ago it cost me probably the equivalent of an entire year’s wages for maybe 50% of the Samoan population. The trouble for me is that if I sold it and gave the money to the poor, the poor would say thanks and be poor tomorrow too, and I wouldn’t have a ring that I actually really like!
• Now where are those sunglasses please . . .  those Palagi legs – they are white – like the sand mate – white! They are definitely not the usual dark ones here and they pretty much stand out like dog’s b*lls here – except that saying really doesn’t wash much here because those things mentioned are all over the place!
• The man-skirt (Red mate – red – like a fire engine and an elavalava to you) attracts a LOT of attention from the local women here. A constant stream of Samoan women (very forward they are) stop me to say – “You look nice [in that lavalava]!” and because they mean it and it means so much to them, I wear it when out and about – always.
• Jandals. Thongs to some. Where else in the world do you find all business meetings with bare feet and/or sandals or jandals – and from the PM down? The reason – it’s practical. In days gone by barefoot was all you needed and all you had. So why change? It’s too hot for anything else anyway.
• The ula. Beads or necklace to some. Just as the women always comment on the elavalava, the men always comment on the ula. “Nice ula!” they will often say. Again, they mean it, so I keep wearing it. Many times Samoan men will approach me and speak in Samoan thinking that I am a High Chief. We all laugh when I inform them that no, I’m just a Palagi pretending to be a Samoan.
• The epaulettes. Hard to see in this photo but visible in the others. Our uniform is seen as quite classy in this culture and it gives our people a special visual status. Wearers of our uniform carry a presence that builds on the legacy that we have built up over here. SWAP stands for something and while it is sometimes hard for a “nobody” Palagi to come over here and show off their label, the Samoan people understand a programme and respect it.

The Prime Minister

Sometimes with this uniform on and walking around in Paradise I wonder if I’m a pretentious confused cross between a cross-dressing policeman and a Samoan High Chief.

Other times, when people connect well and appreciate what we are doing (as I do sitting above waiting for the PM) I feel right at home – a Palagi with a vision in a foreign culture, learning the ropes but making progress to help make a difference.

I adore this photo with the PM because it is one of the very few photos in which he is captured smiling.

Tuila’epa is one of the most astute people I have ever met, but he is also a man with a lovely sense of humour, which also has a little mischievous side to it. I first saw this when watching the extraordinary contretemps he had with John Campbell. Knowing a little of the inside story, and communicating closely with the PM as the saga unfolded and during the public nonsense that played out, I came to see a side of the PM that is actually quite delightful. He’s got a big heart.

There is no question that Debbie and I (and the SWAP Foundation) are still in Samoa as a direct result of the PM’s active support. You can’t help but like people like him eh?

Joe Annadale – Sinalei.

Joe’s one of those old-school gentlemen.

He says that he has not been an angel all his life but that he’s just learned a few lessons along the way. Nicely put. I know the feeling.

Joe is the ultimate diplomat, a gracious host and founder and owner of Sinalei. He is recognised as the “father of modern tourism” in Samoa and is also a big-wig – a High Chief, actually a Paramount Chief they say. But just Joe, to me.

We’ll be able to help him heaps over the years ahead, particularly with filling his shoulder season and developing new business opportunities.

Here he is smiling and posing with his latest guests, the SWAP team. It was nice to have a photographer and actually *BE* in the picture this time.

Joe has read my book Lipstick on a Pig and loves it. Hmmmm. Possible correction? Actually Joe says that he definitely agreed with a lot of it. Maybe that’s his Samoan diplomatic way of saying something different?

Tsunami district – lunch

Work is hard in Samoa for the SWAP team (not!). Here is a very special moment for me, a meal prepared by a man and his family who lost their home and all their possessions in the Tsunami, and some of his family.

Vaelupe is another gracious Samoan gentleman. When I first met him he was the mayor of Malaela, a village that relocated inland entirely.

I asked him to prepare a “size 2 pua” (that’s roast pork to you and me) for the SWAP team and he delivered. It was an honour for him to do it and anything I wanted – he would be honoured to supply it for us. Money? “It’s up to you!” he says – and genuinely means it.

Good people . . . God’s people

This is the SWAP team at Malaela, a new fale with the devastation from the Tsunami all cleared away in the background and greenery regrowing. Valeupe is probably an angel in disguise!

When I think of the countless times that Samoans have robbed me, beaten me, lied to me, ripped me off and showed their ugly racism towards us, then when I pause and think about all the love and generosity that people like the above friends have shown me (and now us with Debbie here), tears come to my eyes.

Good people are not the ones who tell me that they want to get the Missionaries to come and preach to me because they are the only religion that will go to heaven, then get angry with me and punch me over stupid little cultural niceties.

Good people are not the ones who beg, borrow, lie or steal to pay the Pastor just enough so that they won’t be shamed by others giving more than them at church that Sunday.

Nah . . . good people are those that open their homes and businesses to you, who engage with you meaningfully, trusting, loving you and help you, and who just do good things to others with little thought of “what’s in it for me?”

Whew . . . you could almost drop one of the “O’s” and call them “God’s people” instead, eh?

I might just do that!

Media Release

Obama got Osama? Yeah right! He’s been dead since around 2001 (http://bit.ly/ifsYcn).

UPDATE: http://youtu.be/WWXitiZyDto – there will be thousands more of these videos and posts as people who ask questions do just that.

UPDATE 2: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=45972 – oops, we got it wrong. For goodness sake guys, can’t you even lie professionally and without screwing up? Let me understand this correctly, from the same people that tell us that Bin Laden was killed comes the story that his wife was killed, well actually she wasn’t killed?!

This concept that, “The facts were wrong but the story is true” reminds me of the story of evolution:

Evolution is a fact because of [insert 'BS story of the day' here]. OK so maybe the BS story of the day wasn’t right but Evolution is still a fact because of [insert new story here].

I’ll say it again just so that there is no misunderstanding about where I stand on these matters. The “War on Terror”, Al Queda’s global bogeyman status, Bin Laden’s death, the Waco nonsense, the 9-11 fiasco, Pearl Harbour, Peak Oil and most major events are deceptions and false-flag events designed and marketed by the global elite, the banking cartel a.k.a. the Illuminati to establish the New World Order, global government.

The bible makes it perfectly clear that devil will have his way only as and when the Lord and allows it. The future as we see it unfolding daily is very clearly enumerated in Scripture. For Christians we can sit back and either chuckle (or cry) at how the world is deceived and manipulated by fear, and then get on with real life and living.

The easiest way to do this? Just turn off the goggle-box and connect with the Lord. I’ve found that once I’ve humbled myself to do this, it’s a much easier path.

“. . . a problem is simply a solution waiting to be found . . .”

webthoughtleaders turn business problems upside down to find web solutions

This is the raw text of the Powerpoint. View the entire PPT here (8Mb).

There are two worlds out there, the physical world ,and the digital world.

It is very rare to see companies with mixed offline and online success.

• Coca Cola
• Microsoft
• IBM
• GE
• Nokia
• Toyota
• Intel
• McDonalds
• Disney
• Mercedes Benz

• Google/Yahoo
• YouTube
• Paypal
• Amazon
• Stuff
• TradeMe/eBay
• Facebook
• MSN
• Twitter
• Flickr
• Xero
• Strategic Profits
• Silverstripe
• Wikipedia

While the physical world is gradually digitising, the digital world has been impacting the other, sometimes dramatically. This merging point is (and will continue to be) the primary challenge for all businesses but only webthoughtleaders can ever win in the digital world.

Now, in the physical world, there’s always a leader amongst many . . . traditionally the King, Caesar, Tsars, Tycoons, or CEOs who establish . . . an ownership structure that requires capital & investment in  R & D, a large manufacturing distribution, and retailing infrastructure  . . . that in turn, creates wealth & opportunity for . . . the privileged few within the structure who are able to . . . sell to and profit from the masses.

This has been the standard (and perfectly legitimate) business model for “ages”.

But, in 1998, two thought leaders recognised that the Internet enabled them to . . . turn the business world upside down with “Open Source” thinking (the power of FREE) . . . and rather than establish a business that had OWNERSHIP and CONTROL. . . they developed a well branded SYSTEM that gained them unprecedented INFLUENCE.

Web-based businesses with bottom-up structures are now dealing body-blows to traditional business models . . . however business owners that understand the new ways become web web thought leaders who . . . facilitate connections with centres of influence (eyeballs) in their chosen market niche.

web thought leaders profit from creating systems for viral growth, using the power of FREE, and strong productisationAnyone (Yes, A-N-Y-O-N-E) with vision, creativity, passion and commitment can become a thought leader in their own industry.

webthoughtleadership checklist:

• Vision
• Passion
• Creativity
• Commitment
• Replication
• Collaboration
• Systemisation
• Productisation
• Power of FREE

There has been a paradigm shift in business practice over the last 10 years. The core principles of business remain the same (buying and selling to make a profit) but the outworking has flipped from what I call a top-down business model to a networked model.

I’ve been preaching this change now for a few years under a concept called WEB THOUGHT LEADERSHIP – how to be a strategic leader on the Internet. I introduced it for the first time publicly at the inaugural 2009 eTourism conference in Wellington.

Old-School

In a nutshell the traditional business structure is where all decisions and ownership are created from the top-down. Profits travel to the top. Responsibility is to from the top and everyone within the structure benefits. This is what I call “Old-School”.

There’s nothing wrong with this structure even though I call it “Old-School”. It’s the way that the world has worked for millions thousands of years. Julius Caesar did it with his armies. Bill Gates has done it with Microsoft in business.  Helen Clark did it with politics. China and the USA do it in government. Pepsi and Coke, Nike and Adidas, Samoa Tourism and Gold Coast Tourism all do it as does a school teacher, most employers and all parents.

New School

But with the arrival of Google and the Internet, things changed. The real smarts behind Google’s success is not so much the technology, as their concepts of developing a well branded system. They do not OWN the world’s information, but they do CONTROL it, through well branded search engine technology. They were and are Web Thought Leaders. This is the New School of doing business, and it’s ultra powerful as well as very very smart.

To give you an example, the fastest growing company ever in the entire history of the world is a company that made it’s 1billion valuation in just 17 months! Google took years, but Groupon only took months. Their secret? They developed a well branded web-based system that gave the customers what they wanted – group purchasing power and discount/promotional coupons.

The two concepts existed before – group purchasing and coupons. Groupon simply put the two together in a well marketed online brand and . . . voila!

The Challenge for Old-Schoolers

It’s not easy to undo years of learning. Almost all existing leaders and achievers have been brought up with traditional marketing and business models – you spend to advertise (a product or a promotion) and then the people buy.

The problem is this . . . embracing New-School thinking is not just a case of doing what worked before on the Internet, or allocating a “web department” or attempting to sell something through Facebook or other Social Media. Oh, no, no, no!

It requires an entirely new mindset, and this can be very hard to understand.

People simply connect via Social Media. All they want to do is to connect. They do not want to buy on Facebook. They want to engage with others – do something, say something, be seen, be seen to be important, or to participate in something, preferably something meaningful.

You cannot simply put advertising money into the Internet and expect to control everything and have things to go your way as it did with traditional media advertising. You have to engage, open up and do things differently.

I have spoken to many business leaders in Samoa over the last 18 months and with only one exception (the Prime Minister Tuila’epa) nobody has got it yet. The traditional business mindset exists “This is MY brand, MY patch, MY reputation, MY business and I will CONTROL it!” This is fine in the Old-School world but is an EPIC FAIL in the New-School world.

I’ll give you an example of how this outworks in practice. When I first came to Samoa and offered my services as an Internet Strategist, I shared the SWAP Foundation’s existence with the Samoa Hotel Association. The CEO’s response at the time was highly defensive, clearly seeking to protect her income streams. This thinking, that if we developed a strong Internet presence, people would book their hotels through OUR activity and her business would suffer is 100% pure Old-School thinking. Nothing wrong in this thinking itself (protecting a businesses income stream) but narrowly focussed on the single business structure, missing the big-picture.

But what say perhaps that SWAP actually created NEW business and brought it in to her members? Or horrors upon horrors, what say we worked together constructively and we developed online systems that worked for the benefit of all of Samoa?

Radical, but perfect New-School thinking!

Without exception all leaders I have come across so far have yet to really understand the importance of engaging with people where they are at, using systems that tap into the markets they seek in ways that they market demands.

Let’s get specific now about Samoa.

The Significance to Marketing Samoa

In developing Samoa as a tourist or foreign investment destination, Samoa has several major difficulties to overcome, but it has some enormous assets that are as yet largely untapped. As a strategist, I work with all resources, like playing a game of chess – people, businesses and business owners, markets, culture, land, opportunities, finances,  projects, ideas, passion, timeframes and deadlines, objectives and more.

Here are just SOME of the components to the Samoan equation . . .

1. TSUNAMI BRAND DAMAGE
   Whether Samoa likes it or not, the brand Samoa is synonymous with Tsunami damage in the minds of 99% of the world. A billion dollars negative press in September and October 2009 cannot be undone in a million years in traditional ways. Tourism is down, badly and unless something positive is done it always will be – no matter how much hot air or obfuscation is expended. There is however immense international goodwill toward post-Tsunami Samoa. More on this in a minute.
2. SAMOAN MARKETING
   Samoa does not understand marketing. Things are often done in short order – often a leader, chief or matai will say “Let’s do [something]!” the word goes out and it happens. That’s not a marketing mentality. There are hardly any signs in Samoa because all the locals here know where things are – Word of Mouth is the norm. “Oh you live just behind aunties house” is enough here. Forget street signage or house numbers. If you are going out with a new boyfriend, rest assured that your grandmother’s brother’s second cousin will know about it in minutes the day it happens.
3. THE INTERNET
   Samoa and Samoans in Samoa are not Internet friendly. The Internet is expensive and not widespread. Even putting 10,000 computers into every classroom, village and house in Samoa is not going to change this fact in a hurry. People who often speak little English; who never seem to have enough money to even buy their cash power; who all have a cellphone but who most of the time cannot phone out because they do not have credit; who walk up to their plantation each day with a machete to dig, chop and sometimes fish for food for the day are not the sorts of people likely to charge into Internet Marketing in a hurry!
4. THE EX-PAT COMMUNITY
   There is a large ex-pat Samoan community many who have never seen Samoa and many of whom are online, and comparatively wealthy. They are usually proud to be Samoan and if given a cause will assist at the drop of a hat. Again, more on this in a minute.
5. MANY MORE
   There are many more factors in the Samoa equation – these are just a few that relate to Old-School – New-School thinking online.

There is a principle used in Eastern martial arts that the smaller guy can use the bigger guy’s force against him. A strategist always knows that the bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity.

Thus, the biggest and most powerful resource available to us is the enormous international goodwill toward Samoa post-Tsunami.

I’ve said it before but will say it again – I do not believe that anybody in Samoa truly knows the extent of this goodwill. It is HUGE, MASSIVE, VIRTUALLY UNMEASURABLE, and I am certain that it can be tapped into for decades ahead of us if we do things right now.

Debbie and I set up the SWAP Foundation in the belief that Samoa’s future lies in part with Voluntourism, tapping into this goodwill.

How will we do this?

An Example of New-School Thinking

The SWAP Foundation has virtually no resources of its own. As at today it has no land, no staff, no income streams, nor anything else of real commercial value.

We do however have expertise, understanding and vision. I am a strategic thinker and have been in the IT industry for a couple of decades (often thinking and working years ahead of the pack) and I have been here and engaging with Samoa since the Tsunami – well actually a few days after it to be precise!

From this has developed the support of the Prime Minister who has just recently given the SWAP Foundation the thumbs up (pending Cabinet’s approval) on our Go! Go! Go! SAMOA and SAMOA DAY promotion.

The first thing we are doing is bringing up to Samoa some experts in the Social Media field: Rose and Rob Spijkerman from Infosystems and Marie Young from sy-engage.

In a traditional Old-School business way of doing things we would own the projects, employ the experts, instruct them (consultatively of course because we are nice people) and make a killing – hopefully.

But using the New-School way of thinking and doing business we have done this . . .  we have invited them to come to Samoa as SWAP Web Ambassadors for a week or so. We will pay their food and accommodation while they are here and treat them to traditional Samoan hospitality, taking them to see the sights and do the touristy things, all the while sharing our vision with them.

No strings attached. None. No catches, no expectations, no contracts, nothing other than sharing the vision and offering them the opportunity to be involved. We have said to them – feel free to come up here and you can do business HOWEVER YOU LIKE and make as much money as you want up here – the only condition is that the Go! Go! Go! SAMOA programme and the inaugural SAMOA DAY gets off the ground.

Now of course we have lots of ideas too that we will throw into the melting pot as our various experts get involved and excited but the important thing here is that we are being open about our “business” and we are letting others be involved. Now if these guys turn around and say “I want it and I’m going to do it all” and “It’s going to go this way” and “I’m going to be the boss!” (which of course will be very unlikely) then we will know that they do not understand the modern New-School ways of doing things.

In a practical sense, we will be inviting the WHOLE WORLD to participate in designing the Go! Go! Go! SAMOA promotion. Yes, the public will decide what happens and where . . . not us! We will open the promotion up for ideas and let the world make it happen. They will do the thinking, the project planning and the marketing. We will simply provide them with the vehicle to do it – the www.gogogosamoa.com website. Social Media and Word of Mouth and all the passionate people outside of Samoa will think, talk, discuss and submit their ideas. And we’ll help make it all happen, encouraging contributions, and ideas and publishing them all online.

So that there can be no misunderstanding about this, the SWAP Foundation, with nothing, has top Social Media people coming to help out in any way that they want to, helping us achieve what Samoa needs and therefore helping put more “runs on the board” for us so that we can do more.

This is like an upside-down business, where we literally give our business away to others, but rise up higher ourselves as we help others have fun, do business and help Samoa.

THAT, possums is the payback for us, and of course as Google, Groupon, Facebook, TradeMe and other success stories well know, any well-branded online system HAS to be profitable sometime soon.

Click PRINCIPLES on the RHS (Tags) for 14 principles we use in our business here in Samoa or leave a comment below if this post means something to you!

. . . in preparation for a splash and a half on Friday the 29th. It took a day of programming, writing and fiddling around with a painful WordPress Form plugin but its all go now. Registrations go into a database, as do enquiries and requests to be a Samoa Limousines Referral Agency – simple, handy and pretty cool.

People here tell us that the limo will be run off its feet. I’ve seen enough new businesses in my time to know that nothing is as it seems though and there will always be problems, or things we never thought of.

We are all looking forward to being as BUSY as once we have employed our GM, driver, mechanics, groomers, telesales, bean-counters and who knows what in the marketing department!

Technically the limousine is owned by Gold Tick Services Ltd and does SWAP promotional and marketing work on contract. So now you know!

Uso, BTW, means Brother in Samoan. So now you know that too!

Backyard missionary might have a grizzle about everyone asking for cash but many businesses in Samoa cannot bank a cheque as they simply do not have a bank account. If a cheque is not made out to cash, they cannot receive the money!

Once the PM unveils the limo we’ll be taking VIPs on joyrides for the first hour up to MacDonalds and back, then taking free joyrides for the public for the next two hours. All people will have their photos taken and published on the Internet – our ultimate purpose of course is to lift Samoa on the Internet.

Commercial services will commence shortly thereafter.

Debbie just received another SPAM message from Brendan Battles – a guy who just does not give up!

Tired of advertising with expensive online & print directories that just don’t work?

etc

Knowing that a high proportion of this data has been scraped from the Yellow Pages and other online websites, for which an injunction has been issued in the High Court of New Zealand it’s sad to see how this guy keeps on “making money” effectively off selling partly stolen goods. Just DELETE if you get one of these emails. The data is cheap, but old, in accurate and partly stolen:

IF YOU ANSWERED YES, then stop waiting for people to stumble across your products or services in directories with your competition right next to you. Get your phones ringing by using direct mail, e-mail, fax broadcasting, SMS messaging and telemarketing campaigns. Start building an unlimited customer base, building strategic alliances and boost your sales!

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Our competition does not want you to know about our products, as they offer less information and charge $0.40-0.80 cents per record. We charge much less because we want you to succeed… Maybe our competitors’ and the data market are just too “Yellow” to offer the affordable prices we do?

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Sorry no photos yet – we gotta announce it in the Samoan news media first!

Tui reckons that Tui has made it perfectly ready for Tui. [Interpretation: Tui (Tuigamala) saw the vehicle for the first time yesterday and said that Tui (Salamau) has done a great job with new wheels and a good servicing it ready for the Prime Minister (Just call me Tui) Tuila’epa.

Thanks team!

This all bodes well for Samoa over the next few years . . .

1. Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi

Prime Minister:

In Charge of:

Ministry of the Prime Minister, (inclusive of Cabinet Affairs and Immigration),

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Office of the Attorney General

Samoa Tourism Authority

Samoa Land Corporation

Public Service Commission

Other Responsibilities

Executive Council, Honours and Awards, Totalisator Agency Board (TAB) , Non Government Organisations, Scholarship Committee, Remuneration Tribunal

Deputy Prime Minister

In Charge of

Ministry of Commerce Industry and Labour

Legislative Assembly

Audit Office

Samoa Shipping Services & Pacific Forum Line

Polynesian Airlines

Other Responsibilities

Trade Negotiations – WTO,ACP/EC, PACER. PICTA, Small Business Enterprise Centre, Consumer Protection

In charge of:

Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development

Ombudsman Office

Other Responsibilities

Village Mayors & Sui o le Malo

In charge of:

Ministry of Police & Prisons

Fire & Emergency Services

Other Responsibilities

Juvenile Rehabilitation, Robert Louis Stevenson Foundation

In Charge

Ministry of Works, Transport and Infrastructure

Samoa Water Authority

Electric Power Corporation

Samoa Port Authority

Samoa Airport Authority

Samoa Shipping Corporation

Samoa La nd Transport Authority

Other Responsibilities

Government Housing, Civil Aviation

In Charge of:

Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment

Samoa Trust Estates Corporation

Samoa Sports & Facilities Authority

Other Responsibilities

National Parks, Recreation and, Water Conservation, National Disaster, Meteorology and Forestry, PUMA, Scientific Research of Samoa (SROS)

In Charge of:

Ministry of Revenue (Customs & Tax)

Public Trust Office

Other Responsibilities

Liquor Board

In Charge of:

Ministry of Health

National Health Services

National Kidney Foundation

Other Responsibilities

Oceania University of Medicine, District Hospitals & Health Centre, Women Health Committee

In Charge of:

Ministry of Communication & Information Technology

Other Responsibilities

Samoa Broadcasting Corp, Samoa Tel, Samoa Post

In Charge of:

Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture (inclusive of NUS, Polytechnic and Pre-Schools

Samoa Qualification Authority

Other Responsibilities

Museum and Archives

In Charge of:

Ministry of Justice and Courts Administration

Other Responsibilities

Film Censorship, Electoral Commission

In Charge of:

Ministry of Agriculture

Agriculture Store Corporation

Other Responsibilities

Fisheries and Agriculture

In Charge of:

Ministry of Finance

National Provident Fund

Housing Corporation

Accident Compensation Corp.

Other Responsibilities

Financial Institutions, Tenders Board, Revenue Board, Offshore Jurisdiction, Registry of Births/Deaths/Marriages, Cabinet Development Committee

Western society possesses an ineradicable substratum of irrationality and ritualistic behavior

Thanks Paul for reading Jenkins and drawing it out so well. Comment made when comparing Western and the “Two”-Third(s) world.

Living in the third world after having spent my life in the Western world this is a very clever and true turn of phrase.

1. 4,400 US soldiers lost
2. Bankrupting the nation
3. Hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis
4. Power still out
5. Millions fled their homes
6. Forced into prostitution
7. Poisoning Iraqi society
8. Trading one strongman for another
9. Recruitment ad for al-Qaeda;
10. Rewarding war criminals

Personally I believe the numbers are way too light – for example a soldier shipped off the Iraqi battlefield and later dies is not counted … it is likely that 1m Iraqis are dead not 100s of thousands … and Depleted Uranium will render Iraq inhabitable (within a few short years) just as scriptures told us it would happen.

All incredibly sad but when we realise the truth about our leaders and media spinning yarns, we become wiser and less like pawns in their games.

the skill of the propagandist is to gradually unfold a predetermined plan in the daily news so events appear to be either random or the result of accidental forces which have seized the moment. – David Bay

- subscription newsletter.

Succinct!

Whenever you see military cooperating it is a major clue. His take on things – this is a MAJOR event.

We nearly died laughing & would’ve been our own first customers!

We asked him about the numbers, return on investment and suchlike. He said “We’re going to make a killing!”

More laughs!

Then he spits out his punchline: “Trust me! I’ll be the last one to let you down!”

Get it? This guy’s a character! Who would have ever thought I’d be in the dead-body business, in Samoa of all places? I guess an entrepreneur is an entrepreneur in any culture eh?

I started web development in 1997 and GKI in 1999. Sad to say goodbye to all my clients, but Samoa beckons and we have some cool tricks hiding up our sleeve.

• Debbie is now living in Paradise (YAY!)
• We sold the Go Kiwi clients
• We’re now the proud owners of a stretched limo, shortly coming up to Samoa for marketing purposes.

A lot has happened in a few days!

Guests Alastair Galpin & Carl Emerson are arriving tomorrow which we all look forward to.

THE SCORE:

Tuila’epa:3
John Campbell:0

Game, set and match.

For background on this extraordinary public spat and John Campbell’s public humiliation have a look at my commentary:

Tourism picks up in paradise

(My one actually, not another one!)

Cool eh? She’s sold up her car and packed all her bags to join me in paradise . . . hmmm . . . well that’s what they call Samoa in the marketing brochures anyway!

See you all at the Kiwi Hotel, Queens Street tonight! RSVP to Debbie 021-174-0174 if you’re coming!

There’s definitely a need for some innovation

Bev Barlow, Aggie Grey’s, Samoa.

“As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”

He’s onto it but so am I here:

PLEASE – BE WARNED!!!! Do not have anything in your mouth when you look at it, you’ll swallow, cough or choke or die laughing. The animated GIF might be a clue as to what follows.

I refuse to make professional comment in a public forum, other than to congratulate them – at least they have one now!

He is recorded as saying:

“As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”

He’s onto it!

Funny how the bible agrees with Mr Emerson eh? A shame that he couldn’t return the favour (Ralph was an early New-Ager and involved with Masonic stuff. As far as I can see he was into “nature-worship” fairly heavily). The Bible has a lot to say about Ralph and others who worship creation and reject or ignore the Creator. It’s not really a good long-term approach to living. It causes life to end rather dramatically actually.

[Pic: Crumbling church bell-tower on the South Coast of Upolu. Don't judge too much, a Tsunami just went through here a few months prior! Nice photo though, snapped from my driver's seat as we drove through.]

One of the first things that I recall long-time bible teacher Derek Prince teaching me early in my Christian walk, was to seek principles when reading scripture. If we take little bits of the Bible and avoid principles we can easily drop the ball. If we get the big picture and UNDERSTAND the principles by which things work, we are wiser.

The principles I’ve worked through recently have mostly come from studying the bible, and I’ve thrashed them in my world of life experiences. I’ve lived them; applied and tested them; sometimes fought with them and I can assert to their inherent wisdom. Some of them have come to me through revelation and many have been sitting there in the back of my mind, being used and valued but never stitched into a coherent list until now.

I think we all have ideas and values that match with Bible values at times. It takes guts however to apply them consistently and even more guts to apply them when we know that they are right but don’t FEEL like applying them, or when there is a high price to pay for standing up for them.

But while life is basically simple, it is not always that easy and there is wisdom required in how and when to apply these principles. I define wisdom as the application of principles into any given situation, simply put, understanding things from God’s perspective.

Some of the ideas have been around for yonks, but engaging with Samoa, and then knowing how and when to move forward and when to sit tight and remain quiet, and knowing when to stand and fight – well that’s where the rubber hits the road. And you know the biggest thing about this all? Sure principles are important, but really it is about trust . . . trusting God that He is there to look after us when we step out and do things His way.

Trust is the key to many things in relationship. In relationship to God, it is called FAITH.

While it is perfectly possible for God to miraculously touch us (I was “zapped” as a young man with the recognition that the Bible was not only true but that it was the TRUTH), many people who have no or little faith, must first work these matters through their minds and their intellect. Only once “softened up” and humbled a little can they then connect to the heart and then connect to their spirit.

Proving your point – arguing a principle or case of logic – especially with truth seekers is very effective. People ALWAYS come to a relationship with Christ through an experience but for many the logic of Christianity can be very compelling, causing us to question our pre-conceptions, to ask questions of a spiritual nature, and to become open to accepting the love of Christ.

So in asking the question “Is there a God?” I come up with a few responses.

Yes, no, maybe, I don’t know, I don’t care.

Assuming that we WANT to address the issue and work it out, for the moment let’s just make is a binary question requiring an answer: YES or NO.

Answering NO obviously requires some form of justification. On what basis does one say, NO?

Does one know that for a fact or are you/they just hoping or guessing? Did that understanding come by revelation or logic or hope or guesswork? In most of my experience the typical justification I have seen for answering NO, is usually an attack on Christianity, or one of the key components of a mono-theistic belief system. That process is intellectually bankrupt as proving that something doesn’t exist by attacking others’ opinions, values or understanding doesn’t and can never validate one’s own position. Standing in a puddle telling a mate who is also in the puddle that “Haha! You are wet!” doesn’t make you dry!

If, for whatever reason, one has the opinion that there is NO God, this effectively means that you have made yourself to be the source of your own knowledge, truth and wisdom. If you do not look to an outside source for divining reality and truth, it is inevitable that your pride will require you then to defend against anyone who claims otherwise – usually Bible-bangers.

I first experienced this free-independent-thinking, anti-biblical value-system in my early twenties when a counsellor at Centrepoint Commune in Auckland, encouraged me to set myself free from previous value systems and “give myself permission” to experience sin. Temptation at its worst! I chose not to and left within hours of that event before I started to determine my own values contrary to what I knew to be the truth – the Biblical absolutes. Adultery was simply not going to be on my agenda, even if Centrepoint was basically a sex-commune and free-and-easy was their lifestyle!

The temptation however was very clearly motivated to rip me away from the principles and values that I knew were biblical absolutes. It cost me my marraige, but I passed the test by escaping the clutches of a group of highly intelligent people committed to creating a powerful environment that allowed them the “space” to determine their own rules for living.

It’s an easy stepping stone to claim that there is no God, when we assume the right to ultimately determine truth, the possibility of universal, absolute, external truth automatically becomes relative truth. A God who determines values contrary to our own desires (like the Christian God) is hardly a welcome thought to any of us who desire to conduct life as we please, one that’s often free of the key biblical principles too.

The problem then for people who say that there is no God, is that if there is one, and if He is a just and loving God who set guidelines, rules, principles and consequences for his creation, then those that have stuck their finger up at Him are in deep sh*t doo-doo! If there is no God as just described, then the worst that has happened to the deluded is that they’ve made a fool of themselves running around loving others and doing what we think that the Master asked of us.

Ummmmmmm – BIG DEAL!

The challenge for those not yet hardened enough that they ARE prepared to accept that there may be a God, is then to explore, learn, understand and come to know Him. I’ve certainly found the answer to understanding most things about life in the Bible. I’ve also found that in outworking the principles contained within it has been an excellent foundation to establishing a relationship with Christ, specifically Christ on the Cross, a remarkable place that I’ve found to be the ultimate convergence of truth and love.

But that, my friends, might be another story for another day!

Nice chatting with you again, and thanks for reading about our fourteen principles:

Update

Here is a single printable PDF including all 14 PRINCLIPLES. principles.pdf (611k)

In the bible, yes the bible again(!) God spoke to many of his warriors and saints about the importance of walking the land. Leaders would be sent out and would go outwards themselves from their current situation into some new territory. As far as they went, was as far as they conquered and progressed for their people.

No one gained territory beyond that which they walked. You don’t find people saying “Oh I own that land over there!” pointing into the distance and the future and dreaming about it. We do find people however who engaged with the enemy, or who conquered land through a variety of means. Sometimes it came easily. Other times it required a fight.

[Pic: Tauiliili (Tau for short) walking the land. A man who just loves the trees and nature! Samoans mostly love their land and will die fighting for it. Tau loves the trees and wants to develop eco-tours. We have offered to help him.]

Likewise here in Samoa as we push into new areas with new ideas, marketing concepts, business initiatives and so on. We have to DO it. We have to ENGAGE and sometimes this gets messy and requires getting our hands dirty, but hey, nothing great was ever achieved by sitting around and talking!

Samoa has refined that art, I can tell you!

Being on the physical land gives us a much greater understanding and feel for what we are doing and where we are going. There is a big difference between looking at a mountain and saying “Wow! How cool would that be to build eco-units, and to push a road through to the top”, and actually climbing the mountain and shivering in the cool of the height, sitting in the clouds, looking at the country-wide views, hearing the rain in the distance approaching like a rumbling approaching truck as it comes toward you dropping its pellets of water progressively on the tree-tops.

These are unforgettable experiences that can only come from walking the land. I understand the mountain now. I have seen our host and guide show us where he would love to build his home and his resort. I see the passion in his eyes and the commitment for the old man to walk there and back.

I came down from the mountain totally exhausted. My knees gave out well before I reached the top, and the boys had to virtually carry me down the last three quarters of the way but I walked the land. As a result I understand, and I believe that one day, when the time is right, and the legal stuff is all completed, we will be working with this landowner to develop eco-units in the bush, up on the mountain and help him do a miracle in a magic place.

I’ve been into many villages and seen many attractions, resorts and people. There is something quite special about saying to someone “Let’s go and see it right away!” and watching the excitement that comes from people eager to show a Palagi their land, their family and their culture. And for me it all helps me understand their life, when I actually walk up to or into or through their pride and joy.

It gives me a much better handle on how things work, and what the people think and feel and experience, certainly much more than the authorities that sit there in an office in Government House all day and talk about it, which they surely do!

In the last few days we’ve been working with the government to secure land for our SWAP HQ. On two of the properties we looked at I walked the land. This is the rainy season and the ground is a bog in places. Walking around in a lavava (man-skirt) with jandals, mud, mosquitos, humidity, ula (those necklace things that Samoans love and love to see you wear) and all in a white shirt uniform is a real challenge! But I walked the land, and as a result I can report to our team and say that this area could be used for this, and that area is more suitable for that, and I have an understanding of the lay of the land. It helps in good decision-making. Sure, I could send a scout around to do it, but I did it, so I know. I’ve experienced it.

It also works with non-physical advances, in areas of marketing and so on. Buying a Domain Name is a step of faith, walking out into an area that has yet to be touched. Taking an idea and saying, “There! We now own that Domain Name, and THAT will be a future brand/idea or marketing tool!” One day hopefully soon, those things will come to pass, but there’s a big difference between talking about it and putting money on the table and doing it!

I’ve seen some marketing ideas presented all pretty-like on paper with the idea generators not even securing the domain name. I’ve actually checked on some of these domain names. This is my line of business. I could easily buy the domain names for $8.00 USD each and snap up their ideas to stop them in their tracks. I won’t but apart from the unprofessionalism of not checking domain names before putting a proposal forward, these guys simply have not “walked the land”, figuratively speaking. It’s all just talk and hot air.

On the other hand we have over eighty (yes, that’s 80!) domain names relating to Samoa. We are serious and will eventually be a major force in marketing in Samoa as a result.

That’s walking the land.

Of course it will take time and effort and money and a good team to achieve, but I’ve walked the land and the rest will surely happen as a result.

There is another factor that comes into this for me personally, and it is my faith. When I walk the four corners (literally), I slip a little prayer to the Father and give it all to him. I might pray something as simple as, “Well Lord inside these four corners, I pray that You will be able to do the great and wonderful things that You want to happen. I’ll do the best I can but I trust that You will be able to do what You want with the people and events on this land!”

Samoa says that it is a very “spiritual” place. We always hear that “Samoa is founded upon God” from officials and leaders here. Personally I have some major misgivings about the attitudes, activities and teaching of the churches here, but in my own little way, I can easily extend my faith to believe that when I walk the land, God blesses it.

My bible tells me that he likes it when we exercise faith. Walking the land can do way more than just exercise the legs. It can even exercise our faith!

It’s been nice chatting again!

The thing I love about documents like this is the simple pure logic and honesty that shows the hidden agendas of politicians (of all flavours).

The truth will always out – not in the mainstream media but for those who want to know it.

What a horrendous URL it has too!

One of the challenges in a third world country like Samoa is communicating concepts and ideas that are so foreign to the local population that it’s more than just a cultural difference, or a generational gap, or a lack of opportunity, it is just like being on another planet!

[Pic: Hard working young man at a roadside stall. We stopped for a drink. Nothing too much trouble for the man. Faafetai, thank you!]

I cannot talk about the second law of thermodynamics nor discuss eschatological concepts such as pre-and post-millennial or dispensational stuff. The deepest I can generally get to is that “Yes, I agree, truly the Sabbath IS on a Saturday, not a Sunday”, and then the conversation will stop, for want of any meaningful connection at a greater depth.

From what I can see even the trained Pastors here tend to stop at “work hard, and pay your tithes, and God will bless you” sort of thing.

So when combining a raft of Scriptures and concepts of blessing that come from hearing a vision, and getting behind it, I have to keep it real simple. REAL simple. Preaching doesn’t work here. Samoa is all preached out!

I’ll say that again . . . Samoa is all preached out!

But the thing that I’ve noticed is that the system here actually works really well. Really, really well in fact!

The leaders SPEAK. The followers DO. The hidden aspiration within the culture is “In time, if you are lucky, you too will become a leader and then your children will do your work for you.” The thinking within those who have the power are “This is my time [to lead]“.

Now just because the system is well defined, and refined over generations, and works in this culture doesn’t make it biblical or right in a Christian sense, but it IS very right here in Samoa, because these are the cultural norms here.

My desire is to lift people, to help, to get Samoa up and recognised on the Internet for what it is – an extraordinarily rich culture with real potential, and I also believe has something special for the world from the Lord.

So breaking down the three components of this principle in two directions – first to the Palagi thinking, and then to the Samoan thinking.

We Palagi look at the idea of “doing the right thing” and will analyse what is right and wrong, make our own value judgements, determine what is right and generally set for ourselves what we think is right. It’s usually selfish of course and self-entered, but hey, that’s our culture to a TEE isn’t it?

But don’t expect the Samoan to do anything like this. Their thinking generally revolves around the values from where their current leadership is. So if they are in a family social setting then their value system comes from the Matai or family elder and what is good for their family is right at the time, hence lying to protect the family honour is a lesser of two evils and comes naturally. If it is within the context of in a gang, then “right” is again determined by the leader’s values, so that an external value such as the law, becomes less valuable than doing the bidding of the gang leader. Again in a church setting right is determined by the leader in the church setting – the Pastor – so that dressing in white and showing respect, attending church religiously and paying the fees tithes becomes paramount.

Don’t think that I’m unduly knocking Samoans here. If you look back up, you will see that the default setting from BOTH Palagi and Samoan is off kilter from the biblical standard, because the Lord sets the values (the “right” thing) and those who use an external, biblical value system, not one that we conveniently choose, nor one that our leader(s) give to us will exercise genuine wisdom.

That then, is the exercising of faith component – doing the right thing BY GOD, and leaning on His values and guidance and instructions.

The result of all this is that Samoa puts a lot of responsibilities onto their leaders. With one glaring exception (Tuila’epa) they seem to me to fail somewhat, which is sad, because if just gives the mockers more ammunition to play with. I would love to see Samoan leaders called to account and asked to obey the same laws as the people, and to see them enforced.

I would also love to see the Palagi take personal responsibility for their decisions too. I’m not God but I can tell you I can see some pretty sad situations one day as He takes individuals aside and says “Oy, you! Whatcha doing? I said something different! Didn’t you hear me?”

I shudder at this for some people, I really do.

So doing the right thing is by God – not our leaders or at our whim. Working hard is just right in itself, although we are constantly shown the blessing that comes from hard work; and the faith aspect kicks in when we do this because the Bible says, or because we want to believe in all of this “God stuff”.

Iisn’t this such a “sexy”, cool, modern, New-Agey concept? It’s yet another way of doing things that comes straight from the Good Book!

But while it is said ad infinitum over here that Samoa is founded upon God, it is just NOT the Samoan way! Believe me, these guys pull each other down badly. The Kiwi Tall Poppy Syndrome is nothing on the gossip machine over here. Sorry to be so direct Samoa but it is very rare that I see you building each other up.

[Pic: Poster and paraphernalia on the wall of a friend Philipo - a man from Savaii with boundless energy and strong work ethic. Passing it on to his family and children they just love to give and lift others up. Great stuff!]

Empowering others and lifting up others is actually a really hard thing to do in a society that is all about ME, and OUR family, and MY village. It is so common here where those in the know grab at opportunities and want to kill it for others, for their own benefit.

This empowerment thing, is the idea that if we do something ourselves, we deny the opportunity for others to participate; to learn; to grow.

I’ll say that again because it is a really important thing that flows contrary to normal Western thought and the usual business logic.

When we do something ourselves, we deny others the opportunity to participate; to learn; to grow.

I’ll give you an example. I am a web developer. We are developing a series of websites for Samoa. I could do them all in my sleep, but is there any web developer who would like to come to Samoa and work for us for a month or two, experience Samoa, have some fun in the sun?

There is . . . so if I do the work, then I deny someone else the opportunity of a lifetime. It’s not selfish of me to do what I’m good at and what I enjoy, but if I mentor another guy to do it and if he gets the kudos and the glory, then we both rise.

The same thing with potential investors. I was speaking to a guy here recently (apparently he’s quite high in the LDS church over here) who heard about our programme. His eyes lit up and he said “I want to invest! Give me the first opportunity, please?”

But I let him down gently. “I just need you to understand that our investors will be communities of investors. At the moment you are wanting to invest for you and your family to make a profit. That’s all good but we would be putting you right down the list”.

“How so?” he asked

“Well because you are wanting to lift yourself, not others!” I said. “But if you have fifteen families who all saved $2,000.00 each and they all got blessed as a result of the investment THEN we’d put you top of the list”. He smiled and the penny dropped.

We’re in the process of establishing a Headquarters for the SWAP Foundation. I could easily sit there and do the construction work. I’d enjoy it. But are there any boys in Faleasiu who can knock up a shed, clear bit of scrub, drive a digger, dig a hole, put in a road, lay a slab of concrete and would like to learn how the Palagi does it?

You betcha! So we’ll be getting a team and working with them to help them feed their families, learn a few new skills and understand how a Palagi business brain thinks when moulded by this principle.

Empowerment is also an exponential equation, because if we do it, and teach it and apply it, it keeps growing like a virus, as I will be teaching the boys who work with me to share it and lift others, as I did to them, rather than keep it all to myself.

There’s a well known guy who practiced this art (called buzz, word-of-mouth, or viral marketing by the way) quite a while back. He set up a system whereby He showed the way and then enabled others to do the work. Basically He taught His troops what to do and how to do it, then He called on a higher power, then He stepped aside and that enabled things to happen. Boy, did it work, or what!?

Specifically of course I am talkign about Jesus. He taught it, applied it, then spoke about the Higher Power and then left His disciples to it.

To say that they did it as taught and achieved as a result is an understatement. The world was turned upside down and life has never been the same since. Christianity is the ultimate in viral marketing systems.

Once signed we will tell the world! GKI sale is now at lawyers for final tweaks to the agreement – settlement mid next week – it’s all go go go!

“Do the right thing, work hard and have faith!”.

It embodied the essence of the Christian walk in a way that the villagers could hear, understand and apply. These three are biblical principles and our thirteenth in a series.

WARNING: Strong Christian content.

This post is again written from a Christian perspective, one that assumes amongst other things, the existence of a Creator, the fall of man in the face of temptation, and a whole bunch of other great stuff as the Good Book says.

Transhumanism (also called post-humanism) is another in a long line of human attempts to replace proper faith in the Lord with human-developed ideas, in this case technology, particularly technology that works with the human body, and increasingly the human soul.*

The first challenge to Eve was a whispered temptation, “You can become like God!” When she brought Wally Adam into the fray, the scene was set for what we have now – a broken world.

That disaster set up their offspring to try everything under the sun to replace God’s word with human endeavour. Pride was and is the centre of this evil, and in the first half of their book, the Horns do a good job at setting the historical spiritual scene, discussing the nature and role of Nephilim, the giants of old.

I found this fascinating and helpful, particularly understanding how the genetic material of the entire world had become corrupted, yet Noah’s had not. Understanding that Noah’s uniqueness was most likely genetic (and thus physical), not just spiritual was a breakthrough that answered many of my questions regarding the necessity for such a major event as a global flood.

Genetic corruption of course can never be “undone”.

I’ve always struggled with understanding how fallen spiritual beings had impregnated women on earth in pre-Noahic history but Christ is in the same category (although of course from a “cleaner” seed!) Now I can see how when mankind continued to procreate with corrupted genetics and bring about an entire race of super-beings, that this would be such an abomination in God’s eyes. If the Horns are right, and my money is on their take at the moment, then we are not just talking about bad people . . . we are talking about bad half-humans!

The dispersion at the tower of Babel and Noah’s flood are actions by God that set boundaries. There is clearly forbidden territory, lines that God has marked in the sand in which mankind crosses at his peril, hence the title Forbidden Gates. A Gate of course being a spiritual entry point (many of them discussed at length in the book).

Genetic manipulation is one of those, especially where man messes with “kinds”, mixing genetic material between pork, puha and people, for example. I’m glad that I don’t have to be the one to determine where the line is on a case by case scenario, but there clearly is a line. Having now cracked the DNA code, with direct brain-computer interfaces actually working, and biotic nanotechnology actually operational, we are already in the middle of this conundrum. This is not the future. It is NOW!

The authors do a very good job of detailing the challenges we now face. They call them GRIN Technologies: Genetics, Robotics, Information Technology and Nanotechnology, and they cover the gamut of all scientific endeavour. We are not talking about just Cloning Dolly, or playing with Stem Cells, this is a multi trillion dollar, multi-disciplined, globally distributed effort to advance mankind’s knowledge and well-being through technology. Worshipping technology has all the hallmarks to me of satanic inspiration.

It has been my experience that while Christians are fond of claiming that famous scientist Mr X was a Christian, this is often a naive and shallow take on facts, especially in the last century with the exponential technology gains. It is my understanding that much of the technological discoveries of the last 100 years or so have been more as a result of occult practice rather than good Christian endeavours. I stand to be corrected on that but my Bible indicates to me that the Holy Spirit has been restraining technological advances since the Tower of Babel and that the Lord has been “letting mankind go” to do his own will in the last days.

This is heightened more if we look at the current situation through the eyes of “Forbidden Gates” as I have been doing this last week!

I’m not a Luddite. I use technology and appreciate it’s benefits, but I am becoming more certain than ever that within a decade, genuine Christians will be facing stark choices that will in many cases mean physical life or death as a result of their faith and rejection of enforced technological “progress”. If God rejected an entire world of the genetically corrupted in the past, and has warned us that in the future there will be polarising decisions required from us, or we face the same fate, then this is very serious stuff.

As always, the answer is not to panic, but to be close to the Creator, for while the Book of Revelation reveals that multitudes are “against us”, and the waters ahead will be rocky, they also reveal that there are more for us than against us. As the Horns highlight in their book, only 1/3 of the angels fell!

There is an area of frustration I have with the book, as I often have with world views overly influenced by the mainstream media. It is this: While there are third party quotes in the book that mention the word Illuminati, the authors make no reference to them or their behind-the-scenes influence directly. They seem to miss the concept of a central banking cartel, totally committed to the eradication of Christianity and thus any acknowledgement of the Creator, that deliberately set up and fund Trusts, Foundations, Government and NGO Programmes, Feel-Good Awards like the Nobels, Religious Systems and Commercial Enterprises to further their cause.

It’s a shame to me that people so widely read and knowledgeable in the ways of evil, fail to connect the dots and go the whole distance for the full picture. This may be a deliberate act of silence on the authors’ part, but I doubt it. Any world view without the understanding that media, science, food, health, global finances, energy, big business, politics AND religion are all deliberately manipulated by an ultra-evil powerful elite, always cuts short of a full understanding.

So, with the bulk of the scientific community out to better the world and CONTROL our future; with a major part of the future ALTERing our reality through genetics, robotics, AI and much, much more; there is every possibility that many will take the bait and enter the new world created by man.

Unfortunately with the way things have been set up from the beginning, God has no choice but to hit DELETE.

A big thanks to the Horns AND Microsoft for the three-fingered salute: CTL+ALT(er)+DEL.

This book is definitely a recommended read for all thinking Christians. I’ll loan it to you if you come to Samoa, otherwise: www.amazon.com!

* Commentary from Carl Teichrib

Micro-trenching methods developed by French-Australian joint venture Marais Lucas are being tested for the first time in New Zealand this month.

French-Australian JV in New Zealand micro-trenching trial | InternetNZ

I really get frustrated with the brain-switch-off routine that commonly occurs when people are touched by the Lord. In the circles I’ve mostly come from it’s all love-dovey, happy clappy, experiential faith.

A well-reasoned faith is a breath of fresh air to me and I love digging deeper, using my brain.

[Pic: Amazing Fale Samoa, located in the Catholic village of Amaile, in the Aleipata District. It matters not what the culture, but putting brainpower into something is great. In this case skilled builders have recently rebuilt a large Fale Samoa, and it is a credit to Samoan construction techniques.]

But I see a lot of people around me (especially in Samoa) that just go-with-the-flow without the brain-power. “So the Pastor said, so God said”, and surprise surprise, the Pastor subsequently has the wealth and social status, (read: power). A very common scenario here.

My bible tells me that God has given us a brain to use. I want to use it and this principle seems pretty much common-sense, but boy, is it hard or what?

When I talk to people about the adversity we’ve experienced here, a common phrase used is “Oh, they’re just uneducated people. They don’t understand!” The commentator’s thinking is that they are just village farmers who haven’t been overseas or had much education and they just don’t get it. My phrase to match this when I am angry is “peanut-brains!”

The drive deep within me is to lift people up to think, think, think. To get smart. To get real. To think!

For one who does think, and who is creative, it is enormously frustrating to deal with people who just do things, without thinking. It’s sometimes like I’m going back into the dark ages around here. I try not to be too negative and I try to keep on helping and lifting others up with ideas and sharing better ways of doing things within the culture. I really do, but it’s a challenge!

God has also given us creativity, and amazing examples and case-studies throughout the world today AND in the history of the world or how using our brain is just being smart. I believe that we should learn from these examples and apply them in faith.

We are helping to lift Samoa (and indirectly ourselves) through smart use of technology, social media, and networking. Sure it is all guided by the Lord, but we engage brain at the same time as saying our prayers and invoking the powers from above!

There’s a parable in the Good Book. Jesus spoke of three different dudes who obtained three different financial returns for their Master. Matthew speaks of it thus:

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a man travelling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.
Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. And likewise he who had received two gained two more also.

Double your money – smart dudes!

But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’
His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’
His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

Standby . . . trouble is brewing!

Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’
But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed.

I find it interesting that the boss didn’t argue with this guy in the parable, instead notes that he was actually correct.

So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.
For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 25:14-30

Now the consequences of this parable scare me a little bit, but the principle I’m drawing out here, and also mentioned many times in Proverbs and more, is that we should be using our brain and work smart.

I love the Good Book!

We use the principles contained therein, in our work in Samoa.

We aim to work smarter, not harder.

I shared previously in my book Lipstick on a Pig how I had feared for years being sent to a foreign mission field with people around me speaking a language I could not understand (For some reason*, I simply cannot learn a second language) and who didn’t want to hear what I had to say.

Finding myself in the middle of post-Tsunami Samoa, I had an encounter that turned my life upside down and sent me into that which I feared. It wasn’t an ego trip where I deliberately chose to face my fears (like choosing to Bungy Jump). It was more that this was the right thing for me to do. I was called and I wanted to go.

Unbelievable!

[Pic: Tuigamala (Inga's brother) and me at Fagaloa Bay saddle, a compulsory stop-off on the Tsunami Tour. Tui's faith walk is essentially the same but manifests differently to mine. I speak it. Tui feels it. A strong team-member, like a brother, Tui may say after a strategic meeting "I wonder if XXX" and we'll connect, agree and then act on it. Walking by Faith outworked, unspectacularly, but over time a pattern can be seen. Standing back waiting for God to reveal all and waiting for the time when everything is perfect is not exercising faith.]

So that dealt with my first bogeyman, good and proper!

Now, to the second one.

The phrase “Walking by Faith” to be quite frank, has really “p*ssed me off” for decades. It has always wound me up because when ever other people used it, I felt small and a second-class Christian, and it seemed that no matter how much I read in the Scriptures that God loved me, these people seemed to subtly teach me that my walk of faith should be seen as a lesser value walk than theirs.

The typical context in which I would experience this pain would be in a church setting where a missionary would be hailed as a “great man (or couple) of God” and they would share how angels visited them and saved them from danger, and how God spoke to them or gave them words of knowledge, and how doors miraculously opened for them when they prayed. All good rah-rah motivating stuff, but basically leaving me for dead.

Our Pastor would go to where ever and “get touched by the Lord” or “experience mighty things” or go somewhere to “get blessed by Mr X” and so on. It all really left me for dead to be honest.

I understand their excitement. I understand the “wow-factor” in the miraculous. I understand the zeal and the way that the passion behind an experience. I respected but never really engaged with them at their own “level”.

As a working man, I produced food and shelter and security through work, not prayers and “spiritual stuff”. I knew that food came when I worked. That houses got built when I hammered and nailed. The idea that food falls out of the sky, and taxes came from the mouths of fishes was not my world.

So with that background, I will now share how I have come to experience this mysterious world of “Walking by Faith”, hopefully in a way that my enthusiasm doesn’t spoil the fun for you and your walk of faith!

There’s no question that the Lord has been doing something pretty cool in me and the people around me in the last year and a half in Samoa. I think that this really has to be the starting and finishing point. I didn’t generate a desire of myself to emigrate to Samoa, nor to do great and wonderful things here.

I did respond to the call. I did go with the flow. I did decide to push on even when things were pretty jolly tough, but in a strange sense, it wasn’t that hard to decide to do these things. I definitely had a choice in the matter, but given my personality, skillset, giftings and situation, it was really a “given” all the way that I would continue to push on.

I think the best way to describe things up here is that by being obedient to the Lord’s calling, and exercising faith that the visions given to me are from Him, that there is a blessing upon us, particularly me, as people around catch the vision and all chip in and help. Doors are opening, and we are now used to this, even expect it. And this enormous vision shared with passion, tied in with supreme confidence seems to be acting as a lightening rod to others.

There are definitely times that I believe the Lord “talks” to me. Not the verbal audible word, but more what they call a “quickening of the spirit” as in maybe a conversation of half an hour, just a key phrase or sentence settles, and feels right, and makes sense. It is quite often a random thought that “settles” into something more than just a mere thought.

Intuition, gut feel doesn’t really cut the mustard to describe this. I just have to say that over the next hour or so as I talk about it with others, it grows on me and then I know that I know, and it becomes a fact upon which the future decision-making is based.

There’s nothing ookey-spookey about this with stuff in your mind appearing out of the spirit-world. It is the same thing that we do in business all the time, taking a conversation and processing it into business, but there is an aspect of faith that says “When he said XXX, I think that is/was the key thing”. And then having the faith to act on it.

In the first period of intense revelation (October/November 2009) that basically set up our entire work in Samoa, I definitely got caught up in a series of strange events. I had a good five days of intense backwards and forwards with hundreds and hundreds of thoughts, prayers, ultra-creativity, revelations, coincidences and experiences that at the time I wondered whether I was going mad and had “lost it”.

At the time I had self-assessed my life that there was a 50% chance that I had flipped out, it was that extraordinary.

But on the other hand there was also a 50% chance that the Lord was engaging with me, downloading options and ideas, and biblical principles. Even a 50% chance that He was the one teaching me how to think, taking my life’s experiences of engaging with people, of my faith journey, and of course in business all for a vision for a country that I thought needed me, was enough to tip the balance.

The thing that I have found about “Walking in Faith” is that when I focus on what the Lord has called me to do – specifically to share the vision, share the vision, share the vision – is that the other matters are in His care. That’s the door opening that occurs. People arrive, do, say, help, enable and so on.

I’ll put this another way . . . having faith requires us to believe in something, and when that something is personalised then faith comes naturally. It is not something that has to be forced.

When I teach the principles that the Lord has shown me, I MUST abide by them myself, and that requires faith. If I teach that we should use what we have in our hand (and not borrow to get something we cannot afford) then go out and secretly borrow myself, the Lord cannot bless it. But if He has told us to use what is in our hands in faith, and we do that, then it is up to Him to bless us and bring us increase and success.

This aspect of faith borders on obedience. It is listening to what He has to say, doing it and then watching as the miracles occur.

There’s another aspect to this all that I’ve seen as a key. Faith as I have experienced it requires a sacrifice. Something usually has to “give” in order for us to experience the blessing of an open heaven. The biggest and most common challenge I see for both myself and those around me is pride.

If I have been called to share the vision, I cannot do that without explaining what I just have: that the work we are doing is in response to the vision that the Lord has given me. It is not about Dennis. If the Lord has called this work into being; if He has resourced it through partners, politicians and people who believe in the vision, then He will enable it.

My sacrifice, the price I have to pay, is embarrassment if it all falls over or shame if unbelievers mock or if I get something wrong. I only have one role in it all and mine is to share the vision. I have seen that as I exercise faith, pay the price personally, that there has come an increased blessing upon all I do and experience up here in Samoa.

I’ve also seen that the more people who engage, get involved, and believe in the vision, the greater the blessing.

This all has an edifying effect. While things are moving forward and onwards and upwards, we all get caught up and lifted. I pray that this living by faith continues forever. I believe that it will until the people involved forget to humble themselves, and forget to acknowledge the source of the vision – God.

When that happens, and living by faith stops, God help us.

So last of all the how to. How to Walk by Faith like I have been experiencing in Samoa?

How does one enter into a life of Walking by Faith which is apparently so contrary to our natural inclinations?

Well don’t shoot me please when I say this; I’m just the messenger. It comes from relationship. It comes when you can hear the Lord. When you know that you can be obedient.

My personal theory is that everyone knows – if they want to. It’s just that most don’t (want to, that is).

Someone living in sin; someone doing something they know they shouldn’t be doing; someone to whom the Lord has previously spoken but has rejected or ignored it is not exercising faith and probably never will, unless they grow up and choose to do the right thing.

I have friends who reject the possibility that there is a God – certainly the Christian God. I believe that most people in that situation have chosen this in response to an encounter with Him at some stage. If that is the case, then they must turn back to that point of rejection (called repentance) and set things straight. It’s a humbling thing to do, but it is the price to pay for being in the sweet spot.

Another thing that I’ve experienced is that Walking by Faith actually has no correlation to attending Church, or organised religion. In fact I would even go as far as to say that there is an inverse relationship to faith and religion.

The more the religion, the less the faith, and visa versa. The more I see of the church nowadays the less I feel comfortable in their outworking of the biblical principles of faith. This is especially so in Samoa but also the mainstream denominations where tithing, group-think and outcome-based religion tends to stiffle true faith. I don’t want to especially knock here, but the further I see people away from institutionalised religion the greater the depth of faith I see.

The last thing is that Walking by Faith requires a Rhema (specific, direct, personal) word. The general guidance that the Scriptures give, such as “Do not Steal”, “Love your brother” and even the very concept itself, “Walk by Faith”, simply set the foundation for us to apply faith.

Faith in a biblical principle is just that a foundation but hearing and obeying in a specific situation and event is the real application of faith. It is more than hoping. It is acting in faith on what we believe is His prompting to us.

Seeing a pretty girl and hoping that she will like us and respond to our advances is not faith. It is hope. Even praying “Lord give me favour!” or “Your will be done!” when approaching her is not exercising faith. Waiting until something special happens like perhaps a thought coming out of the blue “Contact XXX person”, and then phoning them trusting that the random thought was from the Lord IS however faith.

Listening to twenty men talk and want to work for you, and responding to the still small voice that says “Maybe he’s the one?” is faith. Selecting the best candidate and praying to the Lord about it as you make the decision in your own capacity is again, mere hope.

What I’ve noticed is that as we exercise that faith, we come to expect the unusual, or good fortune or the miraculous. We expect God’s favour because the Scriptures talk ad infinitum about his generosity and capacity to enable blessing. It’s not about money. It is NOT the prosperity Gospel rebadged, naming it and claiming it.

When challenged by people to justify big plans and goals, especially in terms of financial resources, I think inwardly, “Just leave the money things aside for one minute and focus on the vision”. And then I think to myself, my Boss can afford it! One day once people see the things happen this will be our catchcry whenever new projects are devised . . . “Go and see Dennis. His Boss can afford it!”

And the reason is nothing to do with me. It is just that he has called me to do something. I’m doing it, and so He will resource it.

* I think I suffer from a mild form of Aphasia (sound-to-brain disconnect) and perhaps a very strong visual learning bias and a weakness in auditory learning. I can hear a pin drop at 100 paces, and can pick out a French Horn harmony or a Cor Anglais in an orchestra of 50 instruments, but if someone says “Have a nice day” in Samoan as they ALWAYS do, after more than a year I still have to guess what they said using context, because I sure-as-eggs can’t work out what they said!

I can learn little bits of a language, very slowly but painfully. I did get 6% in Latin at school so I’m not a total clux! It took me five weeks of trying for example to hear and remember the words in Samoan, Faafetai (Thank you). Even a year later I was still confusing Thank You and Good-Bye (Faa). I’m sure that’s one of the reasons living in a foreign country put the wollies up me!

1. How did these street protest get so organized so quickly and why, who has been printing all the signs and why in English instead of Arabic?
2. Why did Obama so quickly turn on an old friend to the US in favor of the possibility of the Muslim Brotherhood getting into power in Egypt?

A red letter day!

But an interesting diagnostic that puts the slaughter of the Egyptians’ firstborn into context and perspective. Claims that Pharoah was a bigger badder baby-killer meanie than the Lord was by a factor of 40:1. I so love it when brainy people like this guy do the thinking and maths and exgesis for me. That’s my buzz for the day!

christianthinktank.com

Samoa claims to be a Christian country, founded upon God. I have serious doubts about the genuine depth of faith of most here, but certainly their cultural practices constantly involve the biblical values as they see them – such as prayers, church attendance, building large churches, and church financial support and so on.

[Pic: Sun photographed from space, 7/8 of the way to the sun. Shows streamers of solar wind billowing radially outward for millions of kilometers. (The central circle covers the extreme brightness and white circle the actual size of the sun). Comet top left. Venus bottom right. Amazing! Of course the Good Book says that this was all created by a Creator, not just a big accident.]

The principles we work under are also based on the core Judeo-Christian values. This outworks in the following ways:

Liars, cheats, and thieves are not welcome on our team. Unrepentant liars, cheats and thieves are exposed and if a crime has been committed, charges will be laid and criminals will be “sent to jail” – the only real Samoan solution to criminal restitution, as fines would never be paid. (This can be a HUGE event in a country that treasures family honour and makes an art form of pretension. The shame on a family of whom one has done wrong when word gets out is a major cause of pain and anger.)

In a social sense, we want the nice “warm fuzzies” from exercising love, truth, generosity, caring for the elderly, the sick, the infirm, the poor and the weak and so on. Christians (and might I say particularly the Catholic Church) are, well certainly should be, the good-guys in this regard. Social justice issues abound in Samoa and can be very challenging.

[Pic: Moon shadow from space. Lunar eclipse for the people in the shadow. A different perspective to an event commonly thought of from below - eh?]

In a financial sense, we know that living and working in a third world country where relative poverty is the norm, inevitably our people will be dealing with and weeding out greed, selfishness, consumerism and providing deep challenges to our view of reality. Inevitably, many people with relative riches will be challenged at a deep personal level. Jesus (and many others as well) constantly advised that we can’t take “it” with us.

At a personal level, humility is a prerequisite for undertaking a successful business or lifestyle experience with our team. We are all challenged to, as the Samoan people phrase it “Come down” from the high position to the low position; to get off our hobby-horse, or ego trip and properly humble ourselves. This is the deeper message of Christianity that drives a spear into our hearts when we get involved in any cross-cultural experiences.

[Pic: Stars from space. Amazing isn't it? Man is finding more and better ways to view the expanse of the universe, heading out to the stars, and inward to the molecule. Like with many things, we can face these findings and interpret them within or without the concept of a Creator God. For me, the latter flows much more naturally than the former. Upon increasing my awe and knowledge of our amazing world, the former requires me to increasing defy logic and undertake an increasing measure of stubborn blind faith in a single dogmatic position (that there is no Creator). The latter allows me to embrace the increased knowledge without the desperate need to defend my position. Being honest, I find that creation tends to talk for itself.]

The same as it is trur for all of us, the challenge for the Samoan is to humble onesself so that “greed” is minimised when a “rich person” comes to stay. To the Palagi who has so much to offer it is to realise that by humbling oneself we can truly have an influence for good, but that our Western culture has indoctrinated us to be the good guys, have all the answers, and know how to do it best. The ultimate example of this humility was of course, Christ, who modelled the way to the very end.

Our team is made up of the same mix as Samoa (a nominally Christian country with Catholic, Mormon, Protestant all working and living side-by-side) and over time we will probably develop our own unique flavour just as any successful organisation in growth-mode does, but the Judeo-Christian values are at our core.

So how does this work with people who don’t share the same faith, denomination and values as us?

Last night at our board meeting we had Catholic, Protestant and a, well, what am I? I think non-denominational Christian is the phrase I would use most to describe myself. Our meeting went deep – some major planning and discussions touching at the heart of some people’s lives, good questions challenging us all and some pretty heavy stuff. After a good couple of hours, we concluded the meeting entrusting our decisions and plans to the Lord. Pretty simple really, and a natural event up here. We acknowledged our differences but were united in a common purpose.

In general, people with major issues with biblical values tend to stay away from us and Samoa, or if they are here with us sometimes they can be deeply challenged. After all it’s very hard to hate people when they are nice to you, or are relaxed and at peace. Occasionally they will argue, but the arguments are generally all about things or theories such as about how far we should go in engaging with the culture, or whether we should be letting the locals cut down trees, or other stuff that misses the real point of life, and doesn’t really touch upon the time-honoured traditions that the Bible espouses.

Some are genuinely surprised at the enormous freedom that holding to biblical values gives them, contrary to their initial expectations. Not having access to dope, and keeping your pants on until you are married may upset some, but it makes life pretty simple for most of us really – just please go elsewhere for such pleasures!

As I said at the outset, it’s not that we require our staff or partners to exercise a Christian faith, it’s more that our values and what we try to live by are principles, most of them right out of the Good Book.

Image Sources:
(Sun)
(Moon)
(Stars)

This principle works at every level – in a family, a business, a country and in faith.

[Pic: Inside a Samoan bus. A driver, always in jandals. A cashbox on the fluffy dashboard. A stereo system - always. A flag, or two. A favourite picture pinned up onto the wooden roof. Wooden plywood seats on angle-iron fittings, "sexy" pictures outside on the back and sides of the bus and everything just screams "Look at me! I'm soooo cool! I'm a winner!" And they all love it.]

What child doesn’t get the goosebumps when their Dad wins something, or does something way cool? We look to our parents for leadership and mostly respect them for setting the way in life. That’s just the way things are!

In any business we look to achievers, usually those who have and who make money best. We read their books, their life stories and listen to them on how they made it. It’s natural to look up to winners, or certainly those that we think are the winners.

In sports, up and coming athletes attempt to emulate and even surpass the achievements of other winners. What greater achievement is there than conquering the records of our own sporting heroes? We honour the greats of sport. That’s just the way it is!

The Roman leaders really knew how to get the masses going – chariots, sports extravaganzas, lions and throw in a few Christians for good measure. Every Caesar knew the political power in creating heroes for the people they ruled.

In the Western world it is common for our culture to goad us into being leaders in our own right. The idea that “you can do it!” is pummeled into us from our dearly beloved cultural guardians the Mass Media day after day. We are taught to look after ourselves, to divine truth and righteousness and right and wrong for ourselves; to protect ourself; to defend ourself. In essence all about me, me, me.

But this is not the Samoan way. Samoans value family and relationship. Their values are to respect, to look up and to respect and also unfortunately to obey without question. Put simply, Samoans are taught by their cultural system to NEED a leader. As a rule they do not seek to BE a leader.

Again as with all my writing this is not meant to be a put-down. It is more of an observation.

Leadership is still sought after here – to gain a Matai title is an honour and gives power in Samoan society, but it is done in the context of a relationship – back to a family, or an extended family, or to a village.

Palagi on the other hand generally WANT to be a leader, less commonly of their immediate family but of more anonymous, distant or disparate group such a company of employees, or a group cause such as sports, social, religious or philanthropic purposes.

The desire to help and to do something meaningful, is very strong in the modern Western world. There is a lot that can be done
in Samoa. It is not for Palagi to come here and tell Samoans what to do – more that Palagi come here to engage, and to understand. Understand both the Samoan people and their culture, but also the needs that are here and the ways to help wisely and
constructively.

We see our role here to act as a leader, a conduit if you like, for both parties. People that others from both cultures can look up to and gain understanding and advice. Protection and understanding for the Palagi. Guidance and mentoring for the rural Samoan.

One of the things that we understand so well here is that being an achiever, a “winner”, requires us to treat others as if they too are achievers and winners. Sometimes that is hard, but while hard, helping build people from zero to hero brings enormous dividends long term.

Of course we all want to change the world for the better but we want to see measured and godly benefit to Samoa, and that requires strong, thoughtful, meaningful, intelligent leadership.

The trick is leadership with vision and purpose, wisdom and tenacity.

A winning combination, as we know – everyone loves a winner! Again, it is a biblical principle – especially if it comes from clear vision.

The mainstreet of Apia here, heading down to the clock tower. There’s a stream that overflows and low patch right through town. Water coming from the surrounding hills comes down the culverts and into the town then out to the waterfront.
Things are apparently better than in times gone past. My concern is the overflow of septic tanks of all the low-lying properties into floodwater. Cuts on my feet were septic a days after walking through this water but it could be coincidence. That happens all the time in the tropics.   Still, methinks – Not good. Note the stepladder on the road. What on earth is it doing out there?
With boys playing on polystyrene and half the population standing around soaked to the bone, it makes me wonder why they didn’t just push it out of the deep and into the shallow. The wave by the way is from our Prado. Further into the flood, just around the corner, our Prado was up to the bonnet, about a metre I’d say. Fugalei markets were totally swamped out for a day or two.
Please understand this and let’s be very clear about it – this water ain’t coming in our shop. We three will hold the sheet of steel. You can watch and the Palagi can take photos of us, but understand this one thing. The water ain’t coming in here! Hmmmmm. Physics? Aqua dynamics anyone?
Kids will be kids anywhere they live – one of the mainstreets in Apia – a piece of polystyrene, a flood, slow moving car and there’s a tow!  Delightful!
And just the day or two before the big boys were out in the water racing their canoes in the other water just outta town!  Again – delightful!
Complete with raincoat.  You gotta love it eh? This dude is well identified; licence plate Number 1262 – and DON’T YOU FORGET IT!!!

Now just so you don’t think I’ve totally lost the plot and gone feral, the Good Lord did say that Noah’s flood wouldn’t happen again. Just maybe a few Tsunamis and earthquakes and suchlike towards the end!

If you are thinking that maybe there could be something wrong with the financial imbalance with these extremes of income & wealth, that maybe there might be a little injustice somewhere in here, then you like me are starting to deal with the deeper issues of engaging with a third world.

[Pic: Dusk at our boardroom, Swashbucklers, overlooking Apia harbour with a couple of Kayakers, a gentle cooling breeze in the evening, on an open deck in Paradise. What's it worth? Sure the tables are only knocked up with a local chippie and there's a couple of mosquitos around to bug your ankles, but it's actually the same value as wandering into the airconditioned boardroom on the umpteenth floor of a multimillion dollar skyrise for a business-after-5 event. You get Caviar. I get pan-fried swordfish caught that morning from just out there somewhere. Financial Equivalence.]

The concept of Financial Equivalence (our eighth in a series of principles we work by) is not based on economics or financial planning or money markets. Financial Equivalence is a phrase that I have created to explain how we have been planning to apply the biblical principle that we are all created equal before God into our ventures up here. Sometimes otherwise explained that “God has no favourites” or the “He is no respecter of persons”. Acts 10:34. Galatians 2:6. Deuteronomy 10:17. 1 Peter 1:17.

The social disparity of earning power between rural Samoa and the Western world can be seen easily when you convert labour to money. An hourly rate 272 times greater in one country to another is just obscene! But it works in reverse too. When you change your currency to measuring life experiences (rather than just cash) you can then see the depravity of the high-earning lifestyles afforded to some in the West.

For example, what price would YOU (yes, YOU, not someone else!) put on the constant experience of being offered land to use – no rent, no taxes, no catches, where ever you go here in Paradise. Can you measure the value? What price would you put on a volcano? What would YOU do or what price would you put on it, if you were given 300 acres with a 180 degree hilltop view of the Pacific Ocean in Savaii? What price would YOU put on it, if you were given your own private island – YES, Island?

What about the experience of having food brought to you by people who have nothing, as often as you want, and fish caught by the boys last night on a spear and a torchlight – just for you?

How many times would you have to enjoy sitting down and eating a fresh pineapple or have one of your own “Size 2″ pigs cooked in an Umu for you every Sunday, before you say “Enough of this nonsense in Paradise – I just really desperately want to get back to the city traffic, my 9.00-5.00 job and my mortgage!” – notice I didn’t say HAVE to get back?

To be able to go to your own backyard and pick a pineapple or a tomato or taro or a coconut and wander down to the markets to buy a WHOLE TUNA for the equivalent of maybe $10.00 NZD would be a dream to many Palagi. In fact many HAVE given up the comparative high dollars to experience these things.

So the idea of Financial Equivalence is that we are all worth the same in God’s economy and that (all things being equal and in an ideal world) a man’s wages equals a man’s wages – Samoa, USA, New Zealand or Australia.

This works in a practical sense like so:

Calculate what you create or produce or earn in a day. It may be that your company produces ten car tyres a day. That’s a man’s wages for you. I develop websites – I can produce one in a day. The commercial value of that might be the value of my wages. It could be that you are the equivalent of my lawyer and that you earn a gazillion bucks a day. If your wages for a day have a few extra noughts on them, great – take a note of how many. Work out how much you spend on food and housing and transport for the day, and that’s all a good starting point for calculating Financial Equivalence.

Now transport yourself to Samoa. Put yourself into this situation where you are here and you want to live/holiday/work/help or whatever. Maybe you want to invest a little; maybe you just like what we are doing and want to help out; maybe you want a place to come over to chill and hide out for a while with your mates. What are you going to pay for the privilege of being here if we give you your food, transport, housing, entertainment and whatever you need to live?

You have two main options. The usual one is to check the web – find the cheapest everything, beat them all down in price and hope like hell crazy that it turns out all right. Maybe it will. Many of the operators and vendors will appreciate your business, even if you do beat their miserly earnings down a bit.

The second option is to engage with us, live with us, experience Samoa and we’ll give it all to you. Just give us back what you’ve got to offer to the value of what we give you – IN YOUR OWN VALUATION SYSTEM and YOUR OWN CURRENCY. So if your currency is AUD, and you manufacture tyres, send us across 70x of your tyres and we’ll look after you and yours for a week. Knock us up a website and we’ll put you up for a night, and feed you and transport you and treat you like the King that you want to be.

And if you are a lawyer or other well-paid individual – great – we take cheques, money-orders, Credit Cards or cash – all with the few noughts on the end of it please!

The point here is not what we receive or how the transaction occurs. The point is also not about making RULES. The point here is to encourage people to see and understand the principle of Financial Equivalence, trying to level the playing field and viewing financial things from the principle that before God, we’re all equal. We want to raise this issue with our Palagi people, to think about it – and rather than try to beat down the locals, step up to the mark and do something fair, right, and just downright cool! Paying a truly fair price.

Now let me hasten to add before the capitalists amongst us get their t*ts in a tangle hair in a knot, that this is not necessarily a vote for Socialism. It is simply a way of applying God’s principles into a practical situation.

So to a question put to us then: If you receive income/goods/benefit many times more than the average around you, what will you do with it?

The first thing is that we NEVER give it straight to the local people with high wages. Paying or giving one section of society a grossly inflated opportunity or reward over another section of society is simply evil. Just as it is grossly unfair for one person to receive 272 times what another receives, so too is it wrong to pay one rural Samoan worker more than another. Wars have been started over this sort of favouritism.

What we have to do is use the excess, basically profit, for the benefit of the whole, to grow, exponentially is theoretically possible, but practically as much as we can so that our systems and vision are replicated thus creating more opportunity for others to benefit. Samoans don’t need or want to have $2,000.00 per week each. They are actually very happy with $200.00 a week just as long as they can put food on the table, pay their taxes and get on with life. The more excess that we have, the more that we can do.

“Ah-ha!” You say. “I knew all along that this was a profit-making scheme!”

Yes it is! It is a Charitable Trust that is gaining benefit for the beneficiaries (just like the Samoan churches over here run BINGO nights for the benefit of [enter your likely recipient here]), and if we wanted to, it could be a lovely chance for Dennis A. Smith and Co. to make a killing in the process.

Of course we WILL make a profit. We WILL develop good sustainable businesses and Lord willing, achieve our goals, but in the process we will be feeding ourselves and reinvesting into the work we are doing NOT scraping great bundles of dosh for our selves. Rest assured we would not still be here if that was our primary intention! If we’re all millionaires at the expense of people who believe in the principles we work to, well, so be it, we must have succumbed to temptation to be greedy. I’m sure that there will be many around ready to remind us all of our own values if it ever starts to happen!

I believe that when people around us become aware of ways to APPLY Financial Equivalence in practical ways that many more people will be able to sleep at night, use their talents and opportunities productively, and basically, make the world a better place. Others can sell this message internationally as they so desire. We just want to raise it as part the principles we work by.

It’s not a goal. It’s not a rule. It’s just a principle.

It sounds easy – taking the best of both cultures and stitching them together for something greater.

The hard part is actually not doing it. The hard part is preparing both cultures for it as the clashes, and emotional traumas and conflicts and tensions are worked out. Cultural niceties are not easy things to budge. They are ingrained. They are ubiquitous. They FEEL like a deep challenge and we get defensive when they are threatening our identity. They are also largely invisible to the holder, unless of course we have been challenged cross-culturally before.

Teaching and sharing a cultural sensitivity to both parties in a cross-cultural exchange is hard. VERY hard. But there’s a secret, and it comes right from the bible.

[Pic: Smiling Samoan teenager with baby. One of my favourite shots. Samoans carry their babies ALL the time, passing them around and often cradle them even when they are sleeping. Palagi stick 'em in a bed! Many times I will walk down the street and see a mother (or father) with a baby or child asleep on their shoulders. I think, one of the nice things about the Samoan culture!]

I remember an experience that I think I read on a blog somewhere where a visitor to South Africa found that the supposedly poor people living in their natural African shacks, serviced their visiting tour-bus passengers with knick-nacks, shows and tours, then actually waited until all their rich tourists had been and gone, hopped on up and into their cars (hidden up the hill somewhere) and then drove home to their nice homes elsewhere.

This cross-cultural tourism “business” was a fraud, but it did service a market. To be perfectly honest, I, like most of us here in Paradise scratching around for a buck or two, would quite like to make a mint too from rich visiting Americans on a cruise ship too – if I could. But the real cross-cultural engagement I am talking about is not like that. It is much deeper and gets “messy” as imperfect people rub themselves against each other and tension develops.

An example of this cross-cultural tension can be as simple as trying to eat my Keke-pua, a bun with meat inside. They call it a PORK CAKE (keke = a cake; pua=pig). So it’s actually not pork and it’s not a cake. It’s a lamb bun but so what? That’s Samoa – where near enough is close enough! We’d just bought our keke-pua and I was walking along the street and about to much into a beautifully nice hot tasty bun when my mate shouted at me “No! You can’t!”

“But why not for goodness sake? Are they bad or something?”

“No, no! It’s rude to eat at the same time as you are walking!” came the explanation. “We have to sit down to eat”.

“OMG,” I thought, “You guys are pretty much standing still when you are walking anyway. What’s the big deal about ambling along the waterfront munching on a bun for goodness sake?”

But this was a serious matter to my Samoan mate. Rules rules rules. It’s the culture.

Same thing about standing while talking. You can’t stand while you talk to someone, ESPECIALLY if they are sitting down. It’s rude if you do, and they’ll tell you are being rude too. Walk into an office and they’ll force you to take a seat, not invite you to take a seat.

Right, so which Palagi wants to learn and obey 4,359 Samoan rules and make sure they comply with them all, so as not to cause offence? You can’t. I’ve watched a few young ones try to learn it all and bend over backwards to “Do as Romans do”, but the reality is that to engage with a culture, to understand a culture, does not require that we submit to it.

It works the same in reverse. If a Palagi expects a Samoan to sit in a table and chair in a Palagi house when there is an open fale out the back, they’re being unreasonable. Let the Samoan go and sit on the floor and sleep on a mat on the concrete.

The balancing act; the partnership; the cross-cultural partnership requires us first to accept who we are and then to embrace some aspects of the other culture. It does not require us to BECOME the other culture.

This is a really hard thing to do because many in the West do not know that we have a culture, and are unable to define it. This leads to the temptation to become like our South Pacific partners in order to establish our own identity, rather than understanding and embracing our own culture THEN engaging with another. It took me a good few months or so to understand who I was culturally when I came to Samoa before I could protect my identity from the pressure to conform to a foreign culture that, to be honest again, some parts of it I just do not like!

I’ve enjoyed reading a recent Peace Corp arrival’s blog in which author Nancy Magsig shows the benefit of age. She knows who she is, and can engage more equally with the challenging environment around her. This contrasts with the younger Peace Corp volunteers who struggle to deal with cultural challenges, often because they have no idea of the impact on them of their own culture.

I like to think that we take the best of both worlds and mix them together to achieve a healthy mix. Taro tastes great to the Palagi palate, but only as long as it is chopped up into thin slices and smothered in coconut cream. Actually ANYthing tastes nice when smothered in coconut cream! Sometimes it is not a problem in the wide world to sleep in the open with the gentle breeze wafting into our “bedrooms” BUT we need a mosquito net without holes and one that works to keep the little fellas OUT, not to CATCH them!

So now to the secret. I’ve found that the simple rule to dealing with cultural conflict, and getting agreement is to exercise humilty. The Samoan’s call it “coming down”, getting off your high horse, sort of thing. If it is not the end of the world, then just let it go and get on with life.

Some of the rules that we established for our Village Stay hosts are that they must have a flushing toilet and private shower with piped water overhead. While a Samoan may be happy to bathe in the open in a lavalava, with a bowl scooping water from a bucket of water, sorry, a Palagi is generally not! But unless there’s a physical reason why not, there’s no real issue for a Palagi to sit on a mat and eat with their fingers for say one or two meals.

We require that there be no man-made rubbish lying around in sight. Many Samoan families will spend hours keeping the grass cut short and pick off the grass clippings and leaves, yet throw out cans or plastic bags from their back doorstep. A Palagi eye can spot a bottle-top at a hundred paces if they expect to be coming to a pristine Paradise. Throwing rubbish out of a car or bus window is culturally insensitive to a Palagi. Respecting this is a little way that a Samoan host can engage meaningfully with another culture.

It’s not easy when you get into values and the deeper things in life, but the principle remains – enter into a partnership, neither contributor to the partnership “ruling” the other, but humbling ourselves we work together for the combined good of all.

The vicar said

“It was easier for the farm to write out one cheque & for the church to distribute money to the workers … some of whom were on visitor’s visas … can’t recall the firm’s name”.

It’s probably called Mr Apple, Vicar.

You do it every year & this year you got caught.

Do you remember what bible says about lies and greed, Vicar?

Makes me sick!

I’ve got things happening all around me & offers of land & leases & businesses.

I just want a new home with a landlord (that has a brain) & that is secure (well at least as secure as I can get here where you are not allowed to ever OWN land!).

A ten acre block at Tafaigata is looking the best at the moment. The others are all “in progress” – Samoa!

In commercial usage, this is called the principle of Giver’s Gain and has been well promoted by BNI.

[Pic: A slaughtered pig. Giving is highly structured culturally. In Samoa giving is a highly refined, elaborate system that has big consequences, when getting things right and getting things wrong! Everything has it's value and use and must fit in place - fine mats, cans of fish AND pigs!]

I quote from the universal source of truth [cough, cough] Wikipedia:

Givers Gain is the belief that when (business) people set goals to help others and honestly work to achieve these goals, they usually gained the most out of the experience – through a reciprocal benefit. It is also the strap line of BNI. Although this philosophy has been adopted by many different types of organizations throughout the world, the main focus of this philosophy resides in two main areas:

• religion/personal spirituality and
• entrepreneurship/small business networking.

Since the 1990s, small businesses owners have found they face an increasing number of issues, especially in the area of building trust with customers. Both new and existing businesses face this particular issue. The most effective way to earn trust is through customer referrals.

The Givers Gain philosophy, when applied to small business networking, helps business function at their best, as the groups works together to give each other bring in new customers. When people focus on others instead of themselves in business networks, it will create an image of one who helps other people. Others will in return want to help them. Thus the Givers are also Gaining from the experience. Since has been a proven, positive way to improve your business, many of the small business networking organizations have adopted the idea of “Givers Gain” as their motto.

Nice to see that the business world can adopt biblical principles and use them well. They should do this a lot more too – including acknowledging the real source of wealth – but enough of my preaching here’s where the concept is first mentioned. In Acts 20:35, Paul writes:

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Interestingly Jesus actual words are never quoted verbatim. We only have Mr Energizer Bunny himself telling us that Jesus spoke them. I’ve got to believe that He did actually speak them as part of His teaching face-to-face but I see more of Him actually giving than talking about it – giving of His time, wisdom, healing, love and so on but it’s all the same nonetheless – we go by the same rules around here.

Now a simple maths equation does not cut the mustard with this principle. If you have four apples and give two of them away then you have only one left. Maths is just maths. But when you put the giving into context, and think bigger picture than just me me me, then your equation looks like this: Four apples, minus two equals One apple in the hand and two friends who will one day give you a Size two pig, a bed for the night, and introduce to more people who will lighten your apple load and give you a gazillion other things that they have plenty of but that you need and want.

In case you are wondering why my maths is all wrong, you are not thinking laterally. Nobody will normally buy four apples and give them all away – that is crazy charity. Actually some do live by this rule and swear by it. They call it “living by faith” and lots of other things. We’re not quite at that point! So in regards to the apples you will always eat one, that’s why you bought them in the first place, eh?

It goes something like this – we share what we have (the first principles), and put together something that creates real value by giving to each other. Sounds like a warm-fuzzy New Age commune? Nope. It’s more like a Palagi business built on a barter website by smart business people who care.

Now in case you think that I’m in for it for me, I’ve given up all I have to give to Samoa. It takes a long time to wrestle with any new culture and for me engaging with Samoa has been a real mixed bag, but at the heart of it all is a deep love, and giving heart that just wants the best for this place and the people here. Of course I will get what I need for my wife and family as I go about my business here, but if I try to keep my expertise and profit for myself, I deny the multitudes here who can benefit from what I have.

The idea of giving? It hurts – even when the Sally Army knocks at the door, and Plunket follows shortly after, there is a pain factor that will never go away. But invest into Lotto or the deal of a lifetime from that Garage Sale, or online auction site, and well . . . what’s the problem? We’ll even borrow from our mates to give to the cause.

We’ll give for a while if something like a Tsunami touches our heartstrings but if we can get real benefit from giving, then many of us will be giving sometimes even beyond our means.

Our aim is to help people to give. If someone invests say $20,000.00 into a backpackers unit, or maybe an eco-unit, or maybe a Village Stay Unit, and they get 200x bed nights in return, we WANT them to give those nights to their friends. We WANT them to share their love of Samoa and what they are doing with their friends and family. We WANT them to do this because it is a great lesson in practical ongoing giving. It’s easy to do and gives everyone a buzz in the process.

Almost like a blessing that keeps on blessing really.

Yup – that Good book really had a few good ideas hidden within, didn’t it.

So four minus two equals one – one hell of a time BIG blessing!

This principle is again straight out of the Bible but is a biggie for the Western corporate mindset that is out for profit. We can’t take “it” with us when we go – clearly meaning that chasing wealth at the cost of longer-term benefits is not an intelligent perspective. I’m not even talking about eternal life here, although of course that is what Jesus talked about when teaching this, I’m just talking about common sense.

[Pic: Kiwis Help Samoa. Family and friends pitch in to help. A give is great. A goodwill investment however keeps on giving and is a true business exchange where both parties gain ongoign benefit from the investment - our goals.]

Essentially bad on our well-being is the short-term thinking that says “Go, go, go! Get, get, get! Profit, profit, profit!” This is vastly different, a polar oppisite in fact, from the Samoan culture. A Palagi will usually look at opportunity for a profit, for personal gain.

Take land for example. A Samoan will look at land primarily as a source of living for their family and their future families. Customary land cannot be sold in Samoa – this is embedded in the constitution and Samoa is more than 80% customary land. The balance is just over 10% in government control and less than 10% is freehold land.

In Samoa (and many Pacific Islands) most land is simply an asset to be used by all. In most other countries however land is an asset that is bought and sold – for a profit. This cultural difference can be a major stumbing block to the Palagi investor.

A mindset change is required for foreign investors involved in our projects. We invest and invite investors because it is the right thing to do; because we CAN invest; because we have assests that we can use to help others. We invest to have something that we and others can benefit from, and use. We DO NOT invest for personal profit or gain. This is not giving, which breeds dependency. It is not profit-based investing. I call it goodwill investing.

The micro-finance Kiva system is a global example of goodwill investing. Interest-free loans to a charitable trust or purpose is another example of goodwill investing.

So the idea that we can invest offshore, that we can use the value created by our wealth, that others can use the value we create, that there is no personal profit from our investment is on the surface an anathema to our Western mindset, but it is a biblical value and a principle that once experienced, can change people for life. I know! It happened to me.

I will never forget the experience of being hosted by the first Samoan family that my daughter and I visited – they effectively had nothing, but they gave us all they had. The true Samoan hospitality that we’ve all heard about. They just wanted us happy, to enjoy their foods, and to be there with them and have the honour of a Palagi visiting and staying with them.

That humbles you.

And for the genuine and honest amongst us, it makes us too want to give back and do what we can to give to them.

The challenge though is how to give back in a meaningful and sustainable way. People who live with machetes and coconuts do not know what a website is or even what it is for. A nice car will become a wreck in days if not hours. A computer will be used as a stool or a table much more than turned on and used for a spreadsheet.

So a lot of our work is developing systems that are sustainable – like the Samoa Village Stay programme and the SWAP programme. In time, we will have investors ready and lined up waiting to invest here in Samoa with no personal gain. They will literally “Take Nothing Home” as they come, use threir assets and investments and return to their homes elsewhere with photos, experiences, friends, relationships and understandings from a culture right on their Pacific doorstep that is as far distance from their own as is possible.

Not being out for self, sounds like a hard message to sell. I’ve found the opposite. We actually already have investors waiting for the right time to give, invest and join us in Paradise. People love to be able to make a difference and we can help them do this in an intelligent and sustainable manner. Of course we all do get benefit and fair return for our contribution but it is not about US and what WE want to gain – it is about doing what we CAN with what we have for the benefit of all – true community, just like the Samoan way of doing things but in a Palagi context.

A real hot button for Palagi seems to be foreign investment and corporations that invest into resorts that pay the locals nothing and strip profits out of the country. Taking out the value from one country to another, especially when there is a comparative wealth gap grates on us. We think “those greedy millionaires and corporations”. We think also “Those poor indigenous souls, getting ripped off liek that!” While there is another side to this equation (that you cannot and should not pay a privileged few substantially more than their compatriots, and that loyalty can never be bought, and that if you pay many people a higher rate, they will only work less), there is still benefit to our investors who work within a system that mixes the best of two cultures and in the end lifts two cultures.

I wonder where they got the story from? —

whaleoil.gotcha.co.nz

‎3News ran a story tonight about dairies sell­ing P-pipes. They even vis­ited the Albany Super­ette and inter­viewed Mr Park. Not a sin­gle men­tion of the source of the story. I think that is just rude. I might send them a bill

I’ve just been given a volcano, yes, given. Comes complete with 400 acres of beautiful bush & views to die for & a caretaker/landowner that wants me to develop it into an eco-tourism thingy.

“Anything you like!” he says.

So we will. Pinch self again. Rent-free, tax-free living in a South Pacific Island Paradise.

Pinch, pinch, pinch.

More details as they develop & the deal firms up.

Founder Says WikiLeaks to Release More Documents

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has pledged to step up the release of secret documents. He made the declaration outside a London court Tuesday, where his lawyers were fighting to prevent his extradition.

There is a poverty mentality in Samoa that says “We are poor. We can’t afford it. We will buy the cheapest we can find”. This thinking, stamped upon the Samoan culture for around a hundred years (since the arrival of the White Man), has however transcended just money, modern technology and assets. It has bred a deep inferiority complex within the Samoan people when they are interfacing with the Palagi.

[Pic: Corrugated iron canoe. You gotta hand it to the guys who built this thing eh? A few sheets of old iron, a hammer, some nails and voila - out to get some fish for the family for dinner. The best this family could do, but they DID it!]

People here aspire to have a car; to have a job with all the trappings; to get the latest stereo, TV and gizmos. Most of them want to get out of the country and live like kings like they often think that their extended family does in another country such as Niu Sila (New Zealand), Australia or the United States.

There’s nothing wrong with aspiring to better ourselves, but “class” or “quality” or “professionalism” are not words that you would naturally associate with Samoa.

Quality, using the best and aspiring to greatness is not primarily associated with wealth.

I have seen entire villages here who take great pride in their surroundings, planting trees and shrubs and painting, and upkeeping their roads and gardens as best as they can. Quality comes from the heart and is activated by the mind. When we care; when we want to enjoy the goodness that results from cleanliness and order; our minds determine that we will work. Engaging muscles and doing, rather than lazying around and telling others what to do.

I’ve found that most successful business people, politicians and leaders here have a work ethic. Even at village level truly respected and successful Matais are workers, aiming for an order and results that are worthy of praise.

We are aiming for success, and there is no reason that the people attracted to our ideas and work cannot be some of the best in the world. A world-class green research scientist in Denmark or Russia could equally be attracted to Samoa as a location for their R&D work as could “dreamer” or “talker” from the back-blocks of New Zealand who is already in Samoa but just talking about green things. We choose to work with the best, if they are available to us.

If we have only stones to work with, we will build a stone wall, BUT it will be built square and true. If we can afford a wire security fence it will be straight and well maintained. If we have only access to 10 acres, we will start with 10 and build as we are able, but we are always seeking to be the best, and to use the best.

Some of the reason for our thinking like this is the biblical value of excellence*; some of it is our desire to be winners and a leaders; but a good part of this is that we set an example in this community of what can be possible, if our heart is in the right place and we have a clear vision.

We exist in a community that looks down all the time, and constantly thinks negatively especially about their own. We aspire to greatness and while the standard thinking here is that a Samoan must move offshore to really achieve, we want to show that it IS possible to achieve great things, given time, faith, hard-work and a positive attitude.

A while ago I bought the old house once owned by my grandmother off my family, and spent 20 years beavering away year after year attempting to LIFT the quality of existence that we had – demolish, extend, rebuild, clean, tidy and paint till the point that we had a large house worth a gazillion dollars and a really nice lifestyle. The real reason that I achieved the goal though was not all the hard work and not the skill, (I could have paid a builder to do it); not the money (even though it cost a mint); but all throughout that 20 years I maintained a positive attitude and determination to lift ourselves – to make things better – to have a vision.

A caution here though – using the best does not mean that we have to waste money, and buy for example the best imported Italian tiles, but if they become available to us, we’ll take them and use them. I use this example because they have and we will! But it does mean that we aspire to quality – first of all a quality of heart and mind, doing the best that we can all the time, then to seeking the best people, then to building the best business and the best buildings that we can achieve.

One way that this cuts across the Samoan way of doing things is in employment. One of the reasons that the country will continue to struggle is that employment is always based on the person that you know, NOT the best person for the job. Nepotism is rife – the way of life here actually. Relationships, particularly family relationships are everything here, but this is a two edged sword. Putting your own family members onto the board or a key management role, or looking after your own (when there are often better people for the job) does wonders for Fa’a Samoa, but it can keep the country from achieving the best. Our aspirations are to achieve the best, so we seek the best, while of course trying to steer a delicate course through the cultural niceties of the culture in which we live.

For me, it means posting regularly and thinking carefully and deeply, AND using a spell checker before hitting the PUBLISH button! Dontcha jst hayt it wen dares speeling mistayks all thru da page?

* Excellence in the bible started with Creation. God said “It is good” after He’d done each day’s work. A worthy aspiration. Goodness in Samoa consists primarily of relationship – being with people, usually family. There’s nothing wrong with this per se, but other forms of goodness are not as widespread, and “how shall I put it?” there are saome areas of opportunity for enlightenment.

I remember the look of astonishment on the boys’ faces when they stood back and looked at the Palagi-style construction that they had just completed at The Airport Lounge, and the profuse thanks that the other construction boys gave me after I had showed then, literally hands on knees shown them, how to work concrete with a trowel to get a smooth finish – Palagi flat; Palagi smooth!

The idea that we just use what we have may sound pretty much common sense, but it’s very hard to apply in practice, especially in the Western consumer-driven, me-me-me, now-now-now generation where we can get virtually anything we want on credit, and there is now no real need to wait. I laughed when KFC opened a new branch in Hamilton recently and as one blogger quipped “they queued up for half an hour for ‘fast food‘!” Cute.

[Pic: Butchered cow being cut up and distributed. Neighbours had a funeral and a burial next door. A dead cow arrived. This has a certain value which is all calulated and distributed as the Matai (Chief) determines. People bring what they have.]

But the temptation is always to look beyond our current situation and outside of ourselves to a thing or a solution that is somewhere else. Mother Teresa taught the idea that you just use what you have in faith when she just did what she could for those around her. She changed the world as a result. Jesus too just gave what He had and the world was never the same either.

Stopping for the one – just attending to the needs of the one in front of us is a core principle of Rolland and Heidi Baker’s Iris Ministries in Mozambique and the magic woven through their work is truly amazing. I have friends who have also sold all to work in the dust and dirt of the African heat with these guys, and while they come back for a sanity break at times, they went with nothing but themselves and every fibre in their body shows the love and determination to touch people who really need hope and help, just using what they have.

It wasn’t and isn’t some big-shot, smart-talking experts from overseas that achieved the work, it was people contributing with the resources they had available to them at the time that achieved and in both cases I mention, continues to achieve.

When I first came to Samoa, I was known back home as a relatively generous person. I didn’t overly focus on gaining wealth, especially not for myself. I did quite a bit of charity work using what I did have (a web design company) for the benefit of many churches, charities and worthy causes, and I put my own money where my mouth was and backed quite a few projects that I believed in and some that I set up myself. So in some ways you would expect that I, of all people, would naturally fit in with a people that are a naturally sharing people.

But the experiences I gained in the first few weeks in Samoa touched me at a deeper level than I expected. I’ve watched too as other Palagi have come here and been touched. Some of the tears from departing Habitat for Humanity volunteers as they left showed the deep challenge that Samoa and the genuine Samoan hospitality and friendliness has for the rest of us who have been brought up, lived and indoctrinated by the consumer-society.

People who had come to give, thinking that they could do something to help (again using what they did have – building skills) went away by the dozens saying that they had received many times more than they had given, simply because their Samoan hosts who basically nothing, had given everything that they did have. The footnote* details how it affected me personally.

One of the magical experiences for a Palagi visitor to Samoa is to be the recipient of a communally cooked evening meal, or on a Sunday, the To’onai lunch. To see a spread of bowls containing anything from six to twenty different bowls of food, fish, taro, yams, coconut foods, canned meat, chicken (wild Samoan Chicken and imported meat) and even pig, when a few hours before there was little more than a packet of salt in the cupboard and a few boys with machetes, sticks and canoes is really a sight to behold.

Of course in a communally based primarily subsistence culture, sharing of foods and duties and responsibilities is not only wise – it is essential. A bag of rice, which in the Western world would be stretched over a month or two in one family would be gone in one hour in Samoa as the entire extended family, and sometimes village would swoop and partake.

The next day however, and the next day, and the next day, food will be arriving like clockwork as others shared what they had with others around them. There are no refrigerators in most houses. There is no need for them when you share like this.

The key point for this principle however is not the sharing – yes we’ll deal with that another time – the key point is that people are giving from WHAT THEY HAVE. In Samoa there is no choice in the matter. Many cannot go to the shop to buy from a plethora of brands and options. They may not have money, and when they do have money the shops only really carry one brand and only the products that everyone here knows and wants. Forget mushrooms, broccoli, or courgettes. We have only carrots, tomatoes and onions.

So the teamwork (T.ogether E.veryone A.chieves M.ore) of the Samoan culture combined with the practicalities and cultural norms forces us to use what we have, in our hands, today and pushes out the pretentious, consumerism, one-upmanship of having or using or showing off the latest “toy, gismo or fad”.

On first arrival here it is enormously frustrating for Palagi to HAVE to put up with less and just work with what we have in our hands. I know this very well, as I’ve struggled and struggled with losing all my assets such as construction tools and household gismos and so on. I’ve also had to just accept that construction must continue with handtools only for a day, or two or three because the power is off EVERY day for the best part of a week, and the skillsaw and dropsaw and electric concrete mixer don’t work without power. I’ve spent many hours driving backward and forward to multiple construction supply companies trying to find out how they do things over here because they don’t have the BOWMAC fittings or the electrical fittings or whatever that were always in my hands back home!

The principle again: We use what we have in our hands.

Another way of thinking about this is “When in Rome do as the Romans do”. I spent hours and lots of money designing and preparing for a lovely well designed cyclone-proof unit for installation into villages here only to find on arrival that there were cheaper, better materials and designs that suited the local conditions. Rather than bringing in overseas technology and ideas, it was far better to work with what we had here (local knowledge), and bring in what WE had better, which was a greater understanding of what could be done with those materials and local designs.

So we apply this principle to a general business model – and the objective to build Samoan toursim post-Tsunami through Internet Marketing, Social Media and working with other businesses. We know that there are thousands of people who would LOVE to help Samoa, IF ONLY THEY KNEW HOW TO, and IF ONLY THEY COULD USE THEIR OWN SKILLS and expertise and interests and resources.

We want people to bring what they have, and use what they have to help. This is the Samoan way – “just bring what you can and give it to the party! It’ll be OK!” And it always is!

In my own case I was floored and felt totally out of kilter when I found myself unable (for quite some time) to DO anything. I am a DOer. I am multi-talented and able to turn my hand to many things – construction, design, team motivation, visionary, planning, project management, music, technical and more. Without getting too spiritual or deep on this, I know now that it is my one and only role to lead the team by sharing the vision. And that’s it! That’s my role in life – think, pray, type and talk! Wow!

The day I lift my hand to drive a digger, is that day that we’ve lost the plot.

It’s not that I can’t do a great job behind the controls of a digger – I can. It’s not that I can’t do a bit of digging AND vision-setting. It is that I deny someone else the opportunity to give, when I butt in and do what someone else would love to give to the team. You see, there is bound to be one digger driver possibly a Samoan who would love nothing more than to have an excuse to return to his homeland to help out for a while and make a difference to his motherland. When we let HIM give of what HE has to offer, he has increased meaning and purpose in his life, and feels part of the team.

This idea of using what we have is deeply contrary to standard Western thinking. I remember the pain in the Habitat for Humanity’s CEO’s eyes as he shared about having to pull out of Samoa early, and not being welcomed into Rarotonga after the Tsunami. Samoa wanted to get the job done – fast – and they could do that with local labour (using what they had) and even though the local construction standards were not a patch on Habitat’s high quality Palagi construction methods, Samoa just wanted to use what they had to do it their way. Same thing with Tonga. They just wanted to use the local boys to do the job – they had the builders and labourers there itching to do the work, so the guys fronm offshore, basically weren’t wanted. Thanks but no thanks!

What is needed in these situations is the understanding that when we all use what we’ve got, in our hands, today, in faith – Ahhhhh, then things truly hum!

Our volunteer programmes and investment opportunities and businesses will be targeted toward helping people come, give and share what THEY want to – not what WE want them to do for us.

This is the heart of the modern Internet driven business renaissance – where the consumer, the customer, is the decision-maker. Creating systems where they can bring and give and participate in their own preferred manner. It’s a Samoan value and it’s a biblical value too that we share.

Footnote
Experiencing a generous, giving culture that had comparatively nothing but gave everything, opened me up like a can of sardines. At a personal level what I believe was the last strand of the chord of “mammon” was broken at that point and from there, I was privileged to experience a series of encounters, visions, revelations, and insights that set me on my current course. It was life changing.

I wrote a comment on a fellow Kiwi’s blog post recently where he was supporting the development of a new business called Moolala so that in his words they will be able to “give away huge amounts to mission”. It’s being put together by a team of very talented people and I genuinely wish them well. Moolala is basically a cross between Groupon and Multilevel marketing – sharing profits on the growing Social Media driven “deal-a-day” concept websites. I talked about it previously.

[Pic: Palagi diners at Swashbuckler's restaurant behind the Yacht club. This is open air-dining on the waterfront in Apia - a nice cool breeze coming through most evenings and a delightful place when visitors come to Samoa. To the typical Samoan these people represent only one thing: cash. And it's true that in the pockets of people like these are thousands and thousands of dollars in potential investments into Samoa. Many Palagi return time after time and love the place and would love to help, but it's not about their money first - nor even what good their money can do - it's about them, people and building relationships with them.]

The human mind naturally views income and financial resourcing as a pre-requisite (and the lack of it sometimes as a roadblock) for “success”. I have found that the Lord has been teaching me something different and with the Bible-predicted end-times persecution of Christians and their closing out from the world financial scene I reiterate the point that we MUST move our focus off money and fundraising.

Now first off, I’m not saying that money is evil (it’s not – it is morally neutral), nor that we do not need it nor that we shouldn’t be wise with it nor that we shouldn’t touch nor think about it (I love Phil Vischer‘s one liner: Financial resources are like teeth–ignore them and they’ll go away.) – certainly not just for the moment anyway.

What I am saying however is that fundraising and financial giving does not NECESSARILY bring about good things per se, and that the logical, Hedonistic, Western, capitalistic mindset that money makes the world go round is contrary to biblical teaching. The more I see the way the Lord works and the way humans are designed and built, the more I see that it is relationships that matter most. It is a relationship based on faith (hearing and obedience) that God seeks from us FIRST, and success is measured from the quality and depth and intimacy found in that relationship.

You can see it in an evangelistic sense that when a street preacher shouts at us to “Repent for the world is nigh!” we want to run a mile, but when we come into the presence of a kind, loving, caring old man who may be on his deathbed but is clearly at peace and is close to God, and who speaks gently to our heart about a kind, loving caring God that loves us too, that the message melts our heart as well and a miracle of conversion can occur often even in a stubborn man’s heart, despite perhaps decades of pride and independence and rebellion.

Wrestling with and applying this principle (that it is relationships not money nor the programs that money funds that generate “success” for the Lord) is deeply personally challenging because it hits to the core motives behind our every daily activity.

I will move on to the practical outworking of the principle shortly, but speaking now to Christians who are seeking funding for various missions and projects, I would challenge you to answer these questions about your work, attitude and understanding of money:

1. What relative focus did Christ put on fundraising compared to building relationships?
2. Did Jesus more share a vision or ask for financial support?
3. What was the end result for the only disciple focussed on funding programs?
4. To what extent did the most “successful” of Christ’s disciples seek funding for their programs and activities?
5. How and from where did Jesus draw His resources from?
6. To what extent does the issue of funding, money and financial matters affect you and your current view of life, and how things “tick”?
7. How will you handle the probable situation that very shortly, you as a Christian (and particularly Christian “organisations”), will not have money, nor access to money and are actively persecuted because of your/their faith? Have you even thought about this and how PRACTICALLY you will survive? Hint: “Oh I will just trust God” is not a practical answer.

How about you flick through the questions again before reading on to my answers?

My own (personal) answers to these questions are:

1. What relative focus did Christ put on fundraising compared to building relationships?
   Jesus said “Follow me!” to twelve individual people who actually GAVE UP their entire income streams and committed their entire lives to just being with and learning from a man who simply shared a vision and taught.
2. Did Jesus more share a vision or ask for financial support?
   Jesus DID NOT fundraise for a ministry. Yes, He and His disciples used money and paid taxes but this was secondary to building relationships, mentoring, teaching and doing what He was called to do.
3. What was the end result for the only disciple focussed on funding programs?
   I don’t see Judas as evil to start with. He was actually very well-meaning and I believe that in a strange sort of way he loved the Lord. The Lord of course knew the direction that he was going in and what the natural end result would be but He did bring Judas and call him as one of the twelve. It is disingenuous to say that Jesus called him BECAUSE he was evil or to show us what an evil man can do. What Judas did that was out of kilter with the heart of God was simply to focus on the money and the things that the money could do, and achieve. He dropped the ball because, like his peers, he thought differently to God’s ways. Judas was simply thinking “normally” for his generation.
4. To what extent did the most “successful” of Christ’s disciples seek funding for their programs and activities?
   “Silver and gold have I none, BUT in the name of the Lord . . . ” are some of the most powerful words in scripture! They GAVE!
5. How and from where did Jesus draw His resources from?
   Jesus was resourced primarily through Heavenly-inspired relationships – first with His father and secondly with those around Him. I can only recall once when He is recorded to have sought funding (because His disciples had asked Him for it) and this was probably an engineered event to show the power of God – I mean a FISH providing CASH? That’s not your regular church fundraising activity is it? At other times Jesus taught His people to GO and build relationships and have faith. Money was NEVER a pre-requisite for a program nor did it determine “success”.
6. To what extent does the issue of funding, money and financial matters affect you and your current view of life, and how things “tick”?
   The rent? The mortgage? Food? Tithes? Alms, giving, children’s needs, insurance, savings and more. Of course I do not have specific answers for the entire world’s specific situations but I will show how the PRINCIPLE has applied to our situation in Samoa shortly.
7. How will you handle the probable situation that very shortly, you as a Christian (and particularly Christian “organisations”), will not have money, nor access to money and are actively persecuted because of your/their faith? Have you even thought about this and how PRACTICALLY you will survive?
   I predict a major shakeup in Christian ministry circles – a major shakeup, possibly ten or twenty times worse than the pressures experienced as a result of recent economic down-turn – as all truly Christ centered, God-ordained ministries current and traditional funding streams (and communications channels such as the Internet and email) are removed permanently and possibly over a very short timeframe. Simultaneously I predict the rise of very well funded church and parachurch businesses (yes that reads correctly, businesses) that appear to be doing God’s work successfully and that these will be very popular. But I also believe that there will be many, many people forced totally under the radar, with nothing, no resources, little recognition but doing untold miracles with their seemingly “nothing”. It is called end-times. I believe that most genuine Christians will be so shocked at seeing everything they worked for gone, and the world including partners, colleagues and previously friends literally “out to get them” that they will be in real survival mode and be in desperate need of crisis management counselling.

Our world view has a critical role in determining our actions, particularly as it relates to building relationships. These principles and the above values are the core understandings that I bring to the SWAP Foundation’s work in Samoa.

But just the same as you do not have to be a Christian or a believer to live by and value the Ten Commandments, most of the people we deal with are not Christians, nor do we need them to be. It doesn’t matter, but I am, and while the vision we are putting together has a faith component to it, it has a very practical, physical outworking regardless of my faith.

Turning now practically to our situation, spearheading things in new and challenging areas, if last year I was offered a choice between $100,000.00 or one aging social outcast who I knew nothing about but who had just knocked me up in the street, then a couple of years ago I would have taken the money. But this last year I would have missed the added advantage of a divine introduction and the added blessings that this entails.

I too have been guilty of wanting funding to buy or lease some land, maybe 10 acres – I dreamed REALLY big and asked the PM here for 50 acres of government leased land. I now thank the Lord for bringing this guy to us because he’s just in the process of giving us the ‘keys’ to 400 acres of land that includes an amazing volcano and has opened up a world of opportunity and blessing for me and my family and Samoa and in fact probably many from around the world. Tau, is well respected and is totally passionate about sharing what he considers to be a gift from God to him and his family with the world. The energy that he has to love the nature, trees and flowers will likely reverberate throughout the world as people come to build and stay in their eco-units on his land.

I now know that the Lord can do a hundred times more with who and what he has given me, than if I took the money and bought the time of six top staff with the money. I have a man who is likely to become a brother and others who will join the team and who share the vision too will give of themselves with what they have as I mentioned in the first post on the principle of sharing.

Now the issue that concerns me is NOT actually about money. It is about the default thinking (a strongly American, and Western-world mindset) that money and fundraising and giving to a good or godly cause is required to do His work and have measurable “success”. Vision setting and building a team does not start with resourcing. It starts with developing and/or receiving a vision, then sharing that vision; then building a team who will then help make the vision happen. Resourcing will come when the time is right and when everyone works together and does their part.

I was speaking to the GM of a newly formed New Zealand ISP a few years back. They had the same idea as my Kiwi blogger ‘mate’ – who by the way I really respect – which is that they would make a really successful business and give to “missions”. Something inside me twitched and I got that little bit of a concern that comes when something seems right but actually isn’t.

There’s another couple of aspects to the idea of resourcing, fundraising and taking money from one hand and giving it to another. Generally speaking (except for emergency work) I’ve found it more solid a business practice that resourcing comes from those who get the benefit. A hand up not a hand-out thinking. Taking from the rich and giving it to the poor is Robin Hood behaviour. It’s also the mark of a con-man – give me your money and I’ll [insert whatever con it is in here] in return for [the bait]. We also treasure our own money and our own returns a lot more than other peoples’ donations!

The other thing that comes from focussing on money secondarily to the vision is that we can limit our activities and achievements. This ties in with the subject of goal setting, but when I was first thinking, praying and planning work in Samoa I tried not to limit myself to what I could see around me. Basically I had to because there wasn’t anything much, except devastation and loss of hope. So if I envisioned one new eco resort with say fifty beds in the village that I was in, then I missed the opportunity to help and encourage the neighbouring village. If I just worked with ONE family in the village, then what about the other families and the rivalries that would occur as a result?

My tension then was to balance the impossible (doing something for everyone) with the doable (my current resources). I chose to share the dream and go for the impossible. A year later the impossible is starting to happen. We have seven Village Stays ready to rumble, Prime Ministerial support and now, hopefully a base ready to get under way on real land as an example and showhome/prototype for the rest of the country to clone.

I originally started to think of a $100,000.00 project with maybe 3-4 acres. I thought maybe a 3 or four room hexagonal building in maybe ten villages. When I spoke to the PM I took a massive gamble and asked for 50 acres of government land thinking really big and maybe a crazy, scary, insane $4m budget over three years. We are now looking at a 400 acre property, just as a start, and the PM who has a stated goal to go green, and to develop the lands inside the country. If we do things right, resourcing will be the least of our worries as people both within and outside of Samoa get on the bandwagon and join the vision. I am starting to see the makings of something far far bigger than my biggest dreams, all because I am thinking in the future, understanding biblical principles and applying them in faith to real life situations. Real scary stuff!

So now to quantifying how much to give, or in the case of a project leader, how much to ask for. . .

I am constantly bombarded with Christian ministries and projects and others asking for resources – always cash. Post Tsunami appeals asked for CASH. But if we understand the biblical principle that money comes secondary to relationships and if we asked people to come and connect and just help a little as they are able, we would not need ANY cash again. Why? Because when you have connection, relationship and godliness (in the trade we call it voluntourism and other fancy names) then people have their own ways to resource and their own contacts to lean on and involve to give what is needed.

So let’s take an example. I’m thinking of a specific person here, not just a theoretical idea. If we asked a photographer who visited Samoa last year and loves the place for a donation, she may be generous to give us $100.00 or maybe $200.00. But I know that she wants to return and give more meaningfully. If she was given an opportunity to spend a month or two of her time to help the cause – doing what she loved doing (mixing with people and photographing them) – then she would generate thousands of dollars in exposure, goodwill and commercial value for us, as well as having deep meaning and purpose (making a real difference in the world) on top of having the time of her life in Paradise! On top of that she will introduce her friends and contacts (actually she already has) that have their own skills and interests and ways to contribute. And they already are doing exactly that!

Thinking about money and resourcing in the traditional manner without understanding that it is really through people and relationships that great things are done, just limits us to the lowest common denominator – spare cash. Offering an opportunity to engage however is more work, slower in the short term but the stronger, more godly approach to dealing with money.

It’s not about money. It’s about people; sharing a vision and building relationships (in a Christian context in faith). Money should come secondary to this.

Anyone reading my life story in Samoa would probably consider that when I use the phrase “What’s yours is mine” I am about to call it “the national Samoan motto”, or the “mind of a thief”. But, no, not this time!

Fortunately Prime Minister Tuila’epa in his Christmas message teaches that:

. . . we must obtain food through the sweat of our brows. The parables of the New Testament similarly proclaim that those who seek, shall find. And those also who sow honestly with earnestness, will also reap joyfully.

He also acknowledges that a sector of his own society has missed the mark somewhat. Oh, how tactful a politician he is! So I’ll leave THAT Sermon from Samoa penned by the PM and not me, for a change.

[Pic: An overladen ute. A common sight in Samoa. If someone is going somewhere, say into town, then everyone from the family, extended family or village, is up for the lift. What's yours is mine, what's mine is yours is a common Samoan thinking that is basically close to communal living, but with strong family focus.]

One of the principles on which I have founded the SWAP Foundation work in Samoa is that of barter – using what WE have to get what YOU have so that we both benefit and get what we BOTH want. It works both ways in it’s best usage.

I’ve been a barter trader since it seesm like time immemorial, before Bartercard was even born, in fact, and I can see creative ways that Samoa can offer opportunities to barter, exchange, swap and trade what it does have for what it needs.

Another Brit (that’s twice I’ve been quoting Brits recently!) Rachel Botsman who has made it ‘downunder’ talks about the explosion of collaborative trading that has occurred with the development of Internet technologies and Social Media. She calls it Collaborative Consumption and she wrote most of the book by the name “What’s mine is yours!”. Her videoed talk made the front page of TED which is where I first “met” her. Fame and fortune will no doubt come her way now, and good on her for making good.

But the idea that we should be trading and exchanging goods and services is nothing new. Global and creative uses of the Internet however has changed the power of barter and working together.

The Good Book exhorts us to use what we have in our hands. God is very pragmatic. Just as as He didn’t design monkeys to become humans nor want men to become women or marry men, He seems perfectly capable of engineering His own creative magic with regular people in regular positions in life to do great things.

Much as it is tempting to do, we also shouldn’t be trying to be someone we are not. A rural Samoan is generally not and is unlikely to ever become a typical Palagi capitalist. These are people who value family and their culture over possessions and things but they do have a range of priceless experiences available on offer – cultural, social, ecological and so on.

But equally we can’t just expect a Palagi to have to sit on a dirty floor somewhere slurping food from a bowl with our fingers, in between swatting flies and mosquitos and fending off dogs, chickens and pigs all after our scraps. We can’t just expect Palagi to roll up to a rural village, dish out hundreds of dollars of gifts and just give away everything they own.

But when we combine the two cultures into a way and systems that we can exchange what we have for what we want, we will take the best of both worlds. We’re doing exactly that.

Here are just some of the ways that the principles of barter, using what we have to ‘get’ what you have (What’s yours is mine), or put a little less crudely, how we can help you to offer us what you have for what we have (What’s yours is mine).

First off let’s identify the assets that Samoa has to offer – this is what we have to trade with. Then we will identify what we need – what we are looking for.

Our assets

1. Land – Samoa has lots of land much of it unused since the 1990 and 1991 cyclones stripped off the coconut trees and cocoa plantations and families exported their best and brightest offshore. Unfortunately for the Palagi they cannot OWN land here but there are ways that land can be used.
2. People – Samoa has a very large unskilled labour pool, and a large ex-pat community that is passionately “Proud to be a Samoan”. Some of them will relocate back home simply because they want to be “at home”. This is an asset just waiting to be realised and many would do this given a little encouragement and a reason to do so.
3. Goodwill – post-Tsunami goodwill toward the country (following a billion dollars of global negative press in September 2009) is in the stratosphere. People the world over are genuinely interested in Samoa and many would love to help if they could and knew how to.
4. A Giving Gene – There is power in precedent. What I mean by this is that Samoa has been a giving country from the start. It will be healthy and blessed when it returns to it’s genetic makeup, that of giving rather than it’s current greed and passive receiving. Centuries ago it gave of it’s people. It gave of its produce during the German and New Zealand years; and again it’s people from the 1960s onwards.
5. An amazingly rich and unique Island culture. Samoa is different – raw, real and very different. People like and new different experiences. Samoa offers that! Forget trying to compete with Fiji and Bali. Samoa has way more to offer than resorts and bums on beaches!
6. The last thing that Samoa has to offer as an asset is something that I have come to understand through revelation and that is “God’s love”. It’s certainly hard to find it here, but behind the smiles and in little pockets, it does exist and I believe is waiting to burst forth. The footnote explains this concept further.

To be brutally honest, Samoa is hopeless at marketing and their overpaid advisors are all old-school and flat. They really just don’t get it. I doubt that they ever will to be quite honest. When I talk to most Samoans about the assets that they have and how to market them, I get blank stares and the “Yes” nod. The nod that says – yes, yes, yes but really means “What the **** are you talking about?” Others in the game give me words, but they are hollow.

But we do have the above assets that we can begin to trade with.

Our needs

1. A
2. B
3. C
4. D
5. E
6. F
7. G
8. H
9. I
10. J
11. K
12. L
13. M
14. N
15. O
16. P
17. Q
18. R
19. S
20. T
21. U
22. V
23. W
24. X
25. Y
26. Z

Just fill in the gaps.

D=Dentists, Diggers or Designers. M=Marketing, Magicians and Muesli. It costs me $17.00 WST for a packet of Muesli here can you believe it? Ouch!

But the real secret to the growth and development of Samoa is the only need I see – and it was the first thing and most important message that I shared when I came here: PEOPLE. Samoa just needs people to come and share the culture, share the country and get the message out to the world.

That is the goal of the SWAP Foundation to get Samoa out onto the Internet. In time we will be developing our base from which people from all walks of life can come and do their thing – engaging with Samoa in the way that they want to and spreading the word.

Some are into green projects – others health, sport, food, culture. Samoa is very open to helping and encouraging people to “do their own thing” and the key is that we have systems to help this all happen. In time it will!

So – to the trading and exchanging and examples of how the What’s yours is mine thing can outwork . . .

If we get the land we are currently looking at, we will need a digger, to cut a road to the top of the mountain and to prepare for all manner of buildings and projects related to what we will probably call “Club Samoa” an eco-resort/camp/compound of some sort. We can go to the bank, borrow money, pay interest and then try to find the money to pay back the bank. We could seek a grant from an appropriate funder – they certainly exist – and we may be lucky. OR we can simply trust that somebody, somewhere knows someone who has a spare 20 ton digger we can use for the next 6-12 months. New Zealand or Samoa – it matters not.

So if we use Social Media and create an opportunity for some lucky dude to fly up here, enjoy a week or two of fun in the sun checking out the land and the project, AND who can then end up with say 100 bednights in our sparkling new clean, green eco-units (once they are built) – then all he/she has to do is pop a spare digger our way.

But it doesn’t stop there. If they just happen to leave the digger here for us to use permanently (anyone who has got a spare digger can probably afford to do that anyway) and they then get 500 bednights for the friends and staff and whoever else they want to let have them, then this is starting to look like a very smart business model in deed. Why didn’t I think of that before?

But it doesn’t even stop there because this is all just looking at things from Samoa’s perspective. We need this and we need that, so we trade and barter and deal with people who have what we want because need something.

But while this is all good and quite necessary, it is essentially quite self-centric. Moving out from our own needs and understanding the goodwill that exists towards Samoa and the massive interest in Samoa, when we offer opportunity to others to do their thing here, and to invite THEM to give what THEY have, we now have real meaning. What say we were to say: “come and give us anything you want – time, photography, journalism, marketing, exposure, computer skills, mechanical repair services, your intellectual prowess, your clothing design skills, your 10,000 book library that you don’t know what to do with, your musical skills – WHATEVER ***YOU*** want and we’ll give you an experience you’ll never forget, or shares in an eco-resort or or or . . . whatever they want.”

Now we’ve not only got What’s yours is mine, but we’ve also got What’s mine is yours. That’s powerful.

But let’s not stop there . . . let’s put a system in place where you can benefit from sharing this with your friends and help you to bring your mates. That’s now moving into viral marketing and friend-meets-friend and Social Media. A series of principles though for another day!

Systems make money. Systems produce. Systems enable growth. Putting trade into viral marketing systems are where some of the smartest companies on the planet live. Companies such as Groupon, the fastest company ever to a billion dollar valuation (in only 17 months and heaps faster than Google and other high flyers) does exactly this – it employs systems that engage people where they are and then encourage viral. But again that is another principle for another day.

Barter – exchange – collaborative commerce – whatever you want to call it, the principle we are working with is that of exchanging and sharing the assets of two parties, for the benefit of both. The traditional Samoan way does it with food and land and barter. The Palagi way does it with cash and business.

Combining both ways and picking the best of both cultures is our aim. Wish us luck!

Footnote
In October 2009 in rural Fusi, Safata, centre of the south coast Tsunami zone, I experienced an extended period of revelation over just under a week in which a lot of concepts and ideas flooded into and through me, I believe from the Lord. I relocated to Samoa as a direct result of this life-changing experience and we established the goals and purposes of the SWAP Foundation too as a result of these visions and ideas. One of the concepts that I saw was that the Tsunami had effectively stripped away traditional tourism as primary hope for the development of the country. In asking the Lord “Why? Why allow the destruction of the only real industry left?” I came to see that it is only when we are at the bottom that we truly look up. Except for a minority of humble old-school Samoans who understand the ways of God, and who actually live them out, most of Samoa only pays lip service to God. I believe that the Lord is starting to work with a few people who truly “get it” and that over the coming years, under the radar, as key people look to Him and listen to Him, and actually DO what He is telling them, that Samoa will again become an exporter – an exporter of God’s love. Not religion. Maybe not with spectacular multi-million dollar money-making schemes but myriads of people who come to Samoa, engage with it, are touched by it and God, and take back to their countries something of the true Samoan magic – God’s love. This understanding is born of a Christian vision, but it has both a biblical and practical outworking.

As a Christian, we are encouraged to look up for guidance – at both a theoretical level (such as determining right and wrong, good and bad) and specifically for the moment, (What would Jesus Do) sort of thing. Biblical speak for all this goes along the lines of Jeremiah 29:11 for the first form of general guidance (that God has good plans and purposes for the righteous), and the Rhema (spoken word or God) that guides us day by day, minute by minute in specific circumstances.

[Pic: Our Magic Mountain. The mountain itself is conical, similar in size to Mt Ngaruahoe in NZ, with quite a larger circular crater and a ridge of mountains rising up on the far side making for good vehicular access to the top I'm told. This photo from Satapuala looking south at the mountain with my personal open-walled, rusty roof sleeping Fale in the foreground]

I know well the pain of struggling to “hear” God as a young Christian, thinking that I was not spiritual enough to “hear” the Man in the sky like some of the other Christians around me seemed to do. That was until I worked out that the still small voice that always triggered my conscience, and the gentle loving impressions that I was having as a result of “converstations with God” in my brain were increasingly connected to apparently random events at the time, but in retrospect I could identify with Christian co-incidence that I would confidently later ascribe to “the Lord”.

Gradually I began to understand that just as a good relationship doesn’t always begin with love at first sight, so too does a Christian walk not always begin with a booming voice from the sky, and if it did we weren’t to live a life of love being instructed on what to do every 10 minutes or so from a voice from the clouds. In Jesus’ walk on the earth, He experienced a couple of these moments, once at his baptism and another couple of encounters that you’ve gotta say were out of this world, but from as best as I can tell, He just spent time with His Father, quitely listening, talking and sometimes in agony – simply engaging naturally with a world outside of the visual and material.

If it is the voice of God we seek, we are best to look within and exercise faith. If we genuinely want to hear from Him, and to do what He advises, I have found that He pretty much always lets us work things out, takes the pain and frustration that we dump on Him on the chin, and encourages us to go just that little bit more. He has a way of correcting and guiding us when things are going wrong. Doors really just close!

So I met a guy in the street the other day. Minding my own business, I had stopped the Swap-mobile to get a new battery and he walked up to me. “Excuse me!” he said in good English. “I heard about your troubles with the landlord and what happened to you and I am so, so sorry about that! That was horrible what happened!”

Wow! That’s a kind of nice thing to happen to me . . . a stranger wanders up and wants to be a friend. Samoans do that well by the way. They constantly compliment me on the SWAP uniform and several times a day I would be thanking them for their compliments. I know it means a lot to them when I wear an Ula and a lavalava, so I go out of my way to always wear my uniform when out on the town.

But this guy went further. “I have land I would like to show you if you would like to have a look at it sometime and you are welcome to it if you want”.

OK now in context . . . This may seem like generousity at first glance, but the only thing many Samoans have is land. It’s family, or customary land so no Palagi worth their salt would touch it, but Samoans with nothing would LOVE NOTHING MORE than to lease it to a Palagi for lots of moola! So I get this all the time from dreamers and others less well meaning. So I said “Thank you that would be nice” and I got his business card.

After our landlord troubles we needed to relocate. So I thought it would be reasonable just to have a look at it. Debbie and I met the guy, chatted a bit and he just wouldn’t stop talking about his land. He loved it and it really showed. It was infectious. He told us how he loved the trees and all the natural things on it and how he wanted to run eco-tours on it and share it with the world. He told us how he came back from overseas and has worked the land and fenced it and looked after it for 20 years, and patiently sold his assets to build a road to it at great expense and effort. He enthused on and on about it and bottom line . . . we could do anything we wanted on it. He just wanted other people to come and use it and enjoy it and be part of his family.

It sounded too good to be true but we went and had a look at it. It’s 400 acres just up from Fasitootai and smack in the middle of his land is a volcano! This guy owns a bloomin’ mountain and has just offered it to us to do anything we want with it!

Pinch self.

Recount the past – 14 months of fighting with Samoan Tourism Authority who want us out of here and undermine everything we try to do. Liars and theives and crooks target us. People treat us like moneybags and just try to use us and bleed us. (Hopefully that is all over by now).

And then this guy just bowls up to us in the street and says “Sorry to hear about your troubles mate . . . want some land?” and it turns out to be 400 acres with a mountain in the middle of it!

So I did what all self-respecting Palagi thinking that he’s about to get fleeced does and said “We’ll think about it and get back to you. We can’t do anything now without the Prime Minister’s approval you know. He is the one who will find us land and give it to us. If he approves then we can talk some more about it!”

Well I’ve done a bit of research about this new-found friend. I interviewed him today and asked him what he really wanted from me – money? lease? help? partnership?

Would he be able to take correction and learn from me if we worked together? Was he serious about developing it? Did he understand the business mind and the way a Palagi thinks? and on and on.

[Pic: The man with the other man!]

He passed with flying colours. His name is Tau. He has a few minibuses and runs an Airport Shuttle. He is well respected and on the board of Polynesian Airlines! OK! He is definitely the High Chief and he bestowed the family title on his younger brother and yes, he does own the land. He can work with us. He wants to work with us. He IS genuine and does understand the mind of a businessman. He has ideas already about where we can start on the land and what we can do. He understands that we need access, power, Internet access, water, and a breeze. He is happy to start small and build up. He likes our ideas and understands that we need the support of government to offer opportunities to off-shore investors.

WOW! It’s been a big day!

So let’s back up for just a minute and recap some of the people who were once friends but who have done the dirty on us and then go through some what-ifs. I now make the assumption that there is a God, who is just and honours our faith and rewards crime with punishment. There are three people that have done the dirty on us pretty badly, I won’t name names but it is no secret who they are.

The first man is from Fasitoo-tai. This is the very village that owns this mountain. He once spoke to me and showed me the land that he and his brothers worked up on the side of the mountain. “We could do a village stay there,” he said once, expectantly. “Really?” I said. “Wow that would be so amazing to do a (one) Faleo’o up there with such an amazing view.” He stole from us multiple times, lied multiples times and went to jail. He won’t be working for us again. It could be that one day when he works his plantation on the lower slopes of the mountain, he could look up to us developing and employing and doing great things for other people in his village who have a godly approach to life.

Yes, quite possibly there is a God – just maybe one who understands that there is such a thing as justice for the good.

Another one of our ex-employee’s family owns land in Safotu. It is on a hillside. We had planned to develop an underground recording studio on it one day. (“Undergound” on the side of the cliff so that rain noise and heat are dampened by a soil roof and cyclone proof with a line of windows with a view). But I said that we’d wait and that Debbie and I would see by the end of the year whether or not he had pressed in close to God, and was prepared to do things the honest and right way. He lied, and lied, and lied. We had to ask him to go and then he stole and did worse. It is very likely that someone else will have the ideas that we were working on with this guy until the evil took over. To this guy and others like him . . . you can’t play games with God. He will not be mocked and we won’t deal with liars and thieves (unless they repent and mean it by growing up and changing of course).

And to the last of our staff who stole (quite a lot, actually) – a trusted team member who abused us more than all of the others before. All she wanted was security for her baby and her family – to interface with Palagi who could challenge her and engage with her so she could enjoy a miserable life on the run with nothing, no job, no money, no real friends. This land and planned development would have been her dream come true – gone forever for the sake of money, that’s probably all gone now on smokes and booze!

She will have lots of time to think about her favourite saying where she will be going . . . “But Dennis, we have God and truth on our side!” Yup – surely we do – and that’s why you wil be inside someday soon!

So while it hurts to see trusted staff and friends get their punishment for their crimes, maybe if things work out – all of them too can say “Well, yes, maybe there is a God” too.

And you know what Tau says to us over and over? “I’ve been praying every night for 20 years for someone like you to come into my life and help me. Surely the Lord has sent you to me!”

Pinch self again.

Excuse me? I’m the one who has been looking for land and security and an opportunity to settle and develop a base and have had some pretty interesting discussions with the Lord about WTF was going on around all of this! You were the one who tapped me on the shoulder in the street and made it happen!

I get the picture now . . . this appears to be another But God moment. There HAS to be a God – surely!

OK, enough God stuff for the day – down to business.

Tau and I will have another look at his land on Monday with our cultural advisor and general good-guy Tuigamala (that’s the rugby player Inga’s brother) and talk through some specifics about what he wants and what we want and how we could all do things. We want land for a base for the SWAP Foundation and to setup a few ventures – one guy wants to do a weight loss retreat. Another wants to do a music recording studio in the bush. Others just want a retreat and to chill. Others want to do children’s retreats and we have ideas of a green R&D facility and green, organically safe and sound thingamy stuffs all through.

Everyone’s got lots of ideas.

So it looks like there may be a bit of progress on the land front and we’ll be able to offer the PM a possible solution to our own land problem if things go according to plan. There’s a bit of work to do – such as a decent road, a surveyor, a 20ton digger is needed and a whole bunch of other stuff, but we’re moving again now it seems after a month or two of stagnation and waiting.

Who knows what will come from this but if it does happen, you heard it here first . . . it was a God thing.

As always I assume that the Christian faith has merit. Athiest readers would do well to dig deeper into the claims of Christianity and play the ball not the player. Pinging Christians as dumb-asses is a zero-sum game as a relatively new blogger Dan Rodger (calling himself “The failed Athiest – don’t you just love that concept?”) tries to explain.

[Pic: Aggie Grey's Rice Risotto. The perception: Totally gross. I was stunned that a high class restaurant could serve such a revolting looking offering just slopped onto the centre of a plate with not the slightest effort at presentation. The reality: In fact it was deliciously tasty and a lot of it. Aggie Grey's has a bad reputation for food at one resort and a marginal one at best at the other. The truth: There you have it! No Smoke, smudge or mirrors. If you want a big feed of tasty food - go for it. If you want class, bypass it!]

In my experience Christian Apologists are amongst the the deepest thinkers in the world, and Atheistic Apologists like Richard Dawkins and other anti-god, anti-intelligent design/evolutionist proponents seriously lack depth and are often the best smoke, smudge & smear experts I’ve met, even dumping on their own when they get a life betray the cause.

A very clever Brit Rory Sutherland laughs off Christians as suckers saying:

I am always grateful when Christians display a fish on the back of their car as, in a queue, you know you can safely push in in front without things turning nasty.

Makes you laugh – because it’s so true!

Makes me want to stand up and fight though, here in Samoa when they do that and worse to me though!

But even though he can play the man and not the ball, Rory’s not a fool and as a long term ad-man he has the rub on Dawkins marketing campaign and comment on Dawkins lack of intellectual prowess (also common in thinking Christian and apologetic communities):

Dawkins seems a rather bad marketer. The laughable notion that Atheists can be rebranded as “brights” seems almost comical. And the strange nonsense he writes as an atheistic substitute for the 10 Commandments – along the lines of “enjoy varied and adventurous sex lives but do try not to hurt anyone” stuff is an attempt to replace Tyndale with Marjorie Proops.

But regardless of whether this is popular or not, the Christian faith states that there are absolutes; Good and bad; Right and wrong; and that we are accountable to our Creator. CRI have some deep thinkers who address the issues of morality. Way too heavy for me to handle unless in small doses. Ken Ham set up CMI (what is it with these ‘C’ things?) which has developed thousands of articles with depth dealing with creation issues, basically taking a literal interpretation of the Genesis creation account and Noah’s flood. They both do a great job and there are thousands more apologists out there that speak openly and honestly about the beauty, simplicity and truth inherent in the Christian faith.

The mistake that many Christians make though, is that they (we) often usually play God and tell the world like we know it all, when in fact we often usually don’t and half the time it’s none of our business – It’s God’s. But while turning off our brains when we come to (Christian) faith is common it is, thankfully, not universal with a bunch of thinking Christians able and willing to state their views elicidly. These guys are the total opposite to the smoke, smudge & smear experts, able and willing to really engage deeply with real issues.

They all have my deepest respect. I wish my brain could handle just even some of what they deal with day after day!

I spent a lot of time working with, actually leading a bunch of talented and knowledgeable people to research the contentious issues of Suicide, Abortion and Euthanasia a few years ago. We developed a thousand page website with half a million words and it was a world-class resource at the time (www.life.org.nz). I found that in general most people did NOT want to know the truth. Truths such as that the condom manufacturers funded the “Safe Sex” campaigns (well duh!); that very large international organisations with very large budgets and political influence have been using both of these things (money and power) to coerce governments internationally to require abortion on demand, even when the majority did not want this; that decisions are made by governments and governmental departments in secret, in private and that many of the liberal agendas such as homosexual rights, indigenous land rights, and women’s rights were all being orchestrated by a select powerful few, internationally; that there is and are dire emotional consequences for most women who have had an abortion, or even well-meaning people who have “bumped” granny off a little earlier than they would have liked and now regret their hastiness.

I saw so many smoke, smudge & smear experts in that game that to be frank, it was a relief to get out! These guys play the man and not the ball (smear) ALL the time, and twist the words (smudge) and deceive (smoke) like you wouldn’t believe! Just mention you’re a Christian or that women often make rash decisions over an unplanned pregnancy and regret having an abortion later and you are DEAD MEAT in minutes. They are vicious and play for keeps!

Take a look at these words – they represent the enemy of the truth:

The political has nothing in common with the moral. The ruler who is governed by the moral is not a skilled politician, and is therefore, unstable on his throne. He who wishes to rule must have recourse both to cunning and to make-believe. Great national qualities, like frankness and honesty, are vices in politics, for they bring down rulers from their thrones more effectively and more certainly than the most powerful enemy … we must in no wise be guided by them. Source

But I want to know the truth. The truth sets us free. We sleep well at night when we have a clear conscience and know that our conscience is based on a Christian reality.

I dig, and dig, and dig until the truth comes out. Samoa is not like that. In some ways it lives a lie. My constant plea is to present the country in an honest way. The reason that so many people come to Samoa and will never come back is that they have been led to believe something that does not exist. They are shown pristine white sandy beaches, blue lagoons and coconut palms. That exists in a dozen or so resorts, but most of Samoa is green with people, and a rich culture, and there is rubbish in the streets, and Apia feels more like Mexico than Hawaii.

We must be marketing to our strengths not pushing the same barrow that others like Fiji, Hawaii and the Bahamas push. Our strength here is NOT 5-star service – it is the people, the culture, the natural environment and the experience. The truth is that the future here is voluntourism, eco-tourism and adventure-tourism. Not bums on beaches waiting for another big wave!

In the first chapter in my book Lipstick on a Pig, I said:

It doesn’t matter how much lipstick you put on a pig, it will always be a pig. So the saying goes.

While it is natural for a salesperson to want to present their product in the best light, deciding how much to dress up a product or a service to make it attractive can create a moral dilemma. I’ve joked for years that as a salesman I never lie – I just present the facts in a light that are favourable to me.

It’s a serious matter this authenticity thing. At what point does the spin-doctoring become socially repugnant, illegal, morally wrong or just downright evil?

Auckland businessman Dick Brunton established Colmar Brunton in 1981, and spent more than 20 years building the business into the leading New Zealand market research company.

Dick believes that businesses should bring authenticity to their marketing, warning that people can smell “BS” from 100 paces.

I believe that businesses should aim to create depth to the customer and staff sensory experience, but that authenticity in marketing that service is vital.

I make it my business to understand business in Samoa and am not frightened to ask pretty direct questions. I was speaking to a resort operator in Samoa today who rattled off series of selling points for what seemed like a relatively nice average establishment.

The bottom line? They’re hurting. Business was down this year – a lot. The Tsunami has killed their business even though they had physically cleaned up and were back in business in only five hours after they got hit. They were lucky that just the tail end of the waves washed through the place leaving a bit of dirt and damage.

I had noticed this resort as one of the only Samoan resorts that advertised online last year, and tucked away the idea to chat to them one day about how their Google Adwords campaign went. My guess is that it cost them a bomb and nothing much resulted.

I started to understand more of their issues when the manager explained to me how they were the only resort on the whole coastline that had “true beachfront access”. “We’re the only ones here who can truly claim this” she said.

She thought that their business was strong last Christmas as it was a result of goodwill toward family and friends post-Tsunami, but that this year the appeal of a post-Tsunami nation wasn’t there any more.

I tried not to break her heart but suggested that (as I usually do to everyone who is stuck in the past here) that things will never be the same again. I tried to explain gently that having the only true beachfont resort in the wake of a Tsunami that had just had a billion dollars of global negative press was no longer an asset. It was now a liability. Who knows how successful I will be. When the marketing manager speaks to me, and the owners get serious about doing something, maybe the penny will drop. Maybe.

I can’t tell people all the bad news at once. I’d spend my life complaining and knocking. I have to pick the big ones; talk about the obvious things and then lead into the more obscure but deeper issues only as people can handle it.*

This is doubly hard when you think years ahead of the current situation. I feel like I’m constantly dragging others into the future. I’m usually about 5 years ahead of the bulk of those around me, so that I’m constantly scene-setting, teaching, mentoring and scaffolding* for people as they adjust to new ways of thinking and doing things.

Recently I was talking to a lady here who had a fashion shop. Her existing website was an average sort of thing done by the local guys and they told me that she needed/wanted a Shopping Cart added to her website. She was intending to sell pearls and beads online. Essentially you gotta sell more beads than a Buddhist Monk to make a profit doing business like that. So instead of telling her that her business model sucked, I spent an hour or so talking her through her existing business and gave her renewed hope that her ailing business (which was her life) could possibly be rejuvenated somehow, sometime, but maybe with her higher priced items and maybe . . . a whole bunch of new ideas!

But as we spent more time talking it through, major change was clearly required. I shared a few ideas with her on how to restructure, rebrand and involve those of her family who were interested.

She listened and wanted to know more. In time she might do something affirmative and change will be positive. She may do nothing and the business could close down or downsize. We’ll see, but she’s had a dose of reality and has a chance to adjust to the change.** I’ll hold her hand through that change if she wants and keep up the scaffolding as she learn to let go and embrace change.

Good things come from truth, integrity, shooting straight and telling it how it is. Only bad things come from smoke, smudge & smear experts.

* Instructional Scaffolding is the concept of assisting someone while they are undergoing a learning experience. Change is a particular kind of learning experience that is made a lot easier with Scaffolding. I’m having to do a lot of scaffolding for others here in Samoa and like many good things in life, I need some of it for myself too as I come to terms with my new home!

** Eugene Moreau scribbled down some profound “dis-” thoughts on this struggle to let go recently and suggests that we are experience a process of disengagement, dismantling, disidentification, disenchantment and disorientation.

The political landscape in Samoa is unique. Initially a village system of government, Samoa adjusted to German rule, then New Zealand rule and embraced Westminster style government in 1962. It is an interesting combination and as usual, money talks.

SURPRISE! No Samoa bashing today!

[Pic: Samoan horse in a beautiful glade under the shelter of a perfect conical mountain. The peace in this oasis was identifiable, measureable, sense-able and extraordinary. The land owner offered it to us free to build for whoever we wanted to come and stay as often as they wanted. Pure simple generosity based on his love of the land. Spell-binding; and not a mention of money - not a cent! THAT is the true Samoan hospitality.]

I’ve got a friend who is running for parliament in the 2011 Samoa elections.

I hope that he gets in but I doubt that he will. The reason I think this – no surprise to regular readers here – is money, or in this case a lack of money.

The general sentiment with Westernised ex-pat Samoans is that the government is corrupt. Many from both within and outside of Samoa claim that current Prime Minister Tuila’epa is a dictator or a bully and corrupt to the core. Others accuse election candidates of buying votes.

To some extent the claims are definitely correct. I have personally experienced quite considerable activity within government circles that would not pass scrutiny in the Western world – racism, incompetence, corruption, nepotism and more. Tuila’epa constantly rejects outright claims of acting as a dictator or a bully but I think the phrase benevolent dictator within a democracy might be less easy to defend, as he certainly has a strong majority and effective total control. Buying votes in Samoa is an expected and one could say “normal” process here, but so too is buying loyalty in everything here. Jobs and money are so scarce that bribes and backhanders and nepotism is the norm.

I was chatting to the PM about his electioneering and processes a while back and how and what the people expected of him (money-wise, or bribe-wise). The Samoan electioneering system is (as with all things Samoan) steeped in history, culture and . . . yes you guessed it . . . money!

As I understand it the end of a 5-year term MPs are awarded a bonus, a final payout if you will that is ‘conveniently’ giving the incumbent a distinct cash advantage just at the most appropriate time to bribe be used for electioneering purposes. At the appointed time they all conduct a final fling for their supporters, in which “business” is done Samoan style. Lot’s of “Thank you for your supports” and of course if they are standing again, quite a bit of WIIFM*!

Maybe just a hint of sarcasm or conspiracy theory around these comments?

So the PM explained that in his own situation he inherited an electorate whose previous candidate had a history of lower expectations from the people. He had simply carried on the practice of the previous MP, and refusing requests from his constituents to pay for their power bills and school fees and so on.

He’s lucky! In any other electorate aspiring MPs must offer more than the incumbent and this can be quite a pretty penny.

So to put it from a Western mindset, the PM only “bribes” a little and only on good things!

The rules are quite clear however, and after a certain cutoff date there shall be no bribes gifts. I’ve been told that MPs found to have broken the rules are dismissed forthwith and that standards are very tight after the cut-off date. So here you have it . . . do your thing up to the cutoff date but NOT after it.

Should outsiders claim, as mentioned above, that Samoa is corrupt and that votes are bought, they should also understand that the giving of gifts (back and forth) is an entrenched Samoan custom that is highly structured in funerals and other social occasions and has been for centuries. I’m sure that Taito Philip Fields was a victim of cultural mis-interpretation to some degree, although that is still no excuse for skullduggery or twisting facts after the event.

I met my friend who is standing this term in town one day at a car yard. He was trying to sell his car to raise funds for the “campaign”. His heart was in the right place but his pocket is light. He says “My village is behind me” but I’ve seen it before here – a village can change its loyalty in the blink of an eye when there is a bit of moola thrown around. He told me last week that he was up to $31,000.00. And the use – buying loyalty from the people who expect him as the Major and MP wannabe to cough up so that they will vote for him.

I don’t want to sound too down on the money thing – there is loyalty here, especially among families, and the issues do count for something as well but in a country where money and more particulary the lack of money are sky-high in the peoples’ consciousness, money talks.

While it would be neat to have a mate in parliament, my money this time is on the incumbent MPs – two pretty powerful businessmen who have been there quite a while. If I’m wrong well then the support I gave him by printing and laminating all his flyers will have been worth it and he can buy me a Vailima and I’ll say “Sorry, you did it and I was wrong and I expect you to look after me when you’re in Parliament!”

So the thing that really upset me today was a blog post from a Kiwi that I really respect. Actually a Tall Skinny Kiwi to be precise. He’s a guy who seems to have been into the alternative church scene decades before me and has more world famous mates on his blogroll than I have mates at all. But he ticked me off today and it’s the subtle little throw-away line wher the mighty dollar is seen as an answer (especially in christian circles) that winds me up every time . . .

Moolala is a brand new internet company just launched by my friends in Texas. I have mentioned Tony and Felicity Dale [house2house] before on this blog. They are medial doctors who are involved in global mission movements and hope this new company, started by them and their two sons, will give away huge amounts to mission as well as saving people like you and me some cash in our online purchases.

Source

It’s nice to grizzle about something not Samoan for a change so here goes:

• I clicked on the link they gave me – it forces me to enter my email before I can get inside. Sorry guys – not good! I didn’t give it to them of course and will be another bounced statistic on their reports.
• Then they tell me that I am in Samoa and I doubt that they’ve got deals down here. I can give them some deals if they want it but who would want to invest into a business on the other side of the world when Samoa’s target market is primarily New Zealand and Australia. (Actually their IP sniffing is much better than their opposition – Groupon says I’m in Honolulu!)
• Then I sneaked around and got in to their website sideways without giving them my email and found out that it was another “group-on” clone. No problem with that but I began to recall the days when New Zealand was going nuts over the TradeMe sale. Everyone wanted us web developers to do the same thing and make them copy-cat auction websites and make us all gazillions! Nobody ever did because as I explained in my book Lipstick on a Pig, its all about timing! Copying doesn’t work. Look I hope these guys make it big but I’m not holding my breath.
• Now I get onto the part that really saddens me – a guy I respect enormously appears to have dropped the ball. He’s into the money thing saying “hope this new company … will give away huge amounts to mission” – ouch!

Please let me detail my combined learning about money contrasting what I see is a Christian perspective with a standard “wordly” perspective.

In a crude business sense an increase of money is the goal. We resource projects with cash (investment). We trade with money coming and going (cashflow) and we hope to have plenty at the end of the day to splash about (profit). We all do it and there is no problem with any of this per se.

But enter the Christian faith aspect to the whole equation and things are remarkably different, or at least they should be. Money is not the goal of a Christian’s walk, even a Christian businessman’s walk. It is all about relationship. God resources His people when they are in need and according to His plans and purposes, and setting big blobs of money infront of us (either giving or receiving) is not my understanding of how He wants to work with us.

It’s a deep and important subject but the idea that A company would do B business to profit from C Charlies to support D Missionaries is NOT how I see God wanting to work.

I could spend a week talking about it and there are always horses for courses but the lessons I have learned from working in Samoa is that it is when we use what is in our hands in faith that the Lord provides, and that doesn’t mean a big handout from some rich philanthropic businessman. Moses instructed Aaron to throw down (use) what he had in his hand (a staff) in Numbers 7 and God did the miracle. Jesus too instructed others to go fishing for the king’s tax and he lived and worked in amongst the people.

Yes I know that Paul had a couple of wealthy benefactors around the New Testament church but the essence of my concern is this . . . When a Christian talks and thinks about money as an answer to all things, thinking that money will do God’s work, we miss His greater blessing.

I’ll give you another example of how this narrow-minded money thing works from another angle. Recently a Christian blogger put out a call for help with a need for money. He wants to beef up his blog with gruntier computing power. So he asked for financial assistance. Nothing wrong with that but I have oodles of bandwidth and computing power sittling idle – untold excess capacity from my web hosting business that he’s welcome to. He did me a favour. I can now do him a favour and money had nothing to do with it. Yet he had it all worked out how much MONEY he needed to save or get donated to him to do what he wanted to do. He had missed the boat by looking first at money.

I once went to the Pastor of my church with what I thought was a sure-fire business idea but was probably a hairbrained scheme in retrospect to set up a trust and to give gazillions to the church. He smiled and suggested that the best thing to do would be to just give a little as I could afford it today rather than a gazillions tomorrow. Smart man! I learned a great lesson in there, even if it was a little humbling in the process.

So to another example. The SWAP Foundation needs some help to get going here in Samoa. Sure we’ve been ticking over quite nicely with a dozen or so people having come up here to help out in various ways, but we need millions of dollars in assets and wages and funding and and and I could go on about it. This is how it is starting to happen . . .

Air New Zealand wants to help us bring up top international Green R&D experts to establish an R&D base here. Cool – that’s Air New Zealand giving us what they have (spare seats) and us giving them the opportunity to get into green projects in post-Tsunami Samoa. Sounds pretty good to me. And how did this come about? A chance meeting from someone who just happened to meet someone who just happened to know us and a dream is evolving from there.

I need Polynesian Blue to understand our vision and get behind us too. One of the Board members no less stopped me and introduced himself to me in the street – yes, I kid you not, it happens ALL the time to me. He came to me and offered me his land FREE because he had heard about how the landlord at Satapuala had decked me and tried to double the rent and so on. He was shocked and wanted to help.

We don’t need bucket-loads of money – neither to give, nor to receive – when we are in the centre of God’s will. He has ways of doing things that transcends the business practices and business thinking that money is needed to do Christian things. It’s not and sometimes it just doesn’t help us. I know because I’ve experienced it first hand now. It’s not easy but we must get our priorities right, and thinking that money is a key, or the key to getting things done is just downright wrong. Sorry Tall Skinny.

To those of you Christians who are getting challenged and threatened by my words here, just wait. It won’t be long and you’ll understand. Just read the Good Book again, especially the bits about money and the last days, and you’ll see that we MUST find ways to listen to the Lord, be obedient in faith and forget about the money thing. If we don’t we will simply not survive. Assets will become liabilities as end times kicks in. Cash in the bank means nothing if they won’t let you or me use it.

So – all the best to the guys who want to make truckloads of cash and give it all away, but I think you’re missing the point somewhat!

* What’s In It For Me?

a .22 bullet found on the road.

I push the boundaries of racial tolerance again (but am off the hook because I quote a Samoan dissing Samoans as liars) and then explain the discussion I had with the big Phat man on Christmas Eve

Throughout all my troubles and challenges here, I’ve never actually been scared in Samoa. Not actually scared, until our Christmas Eve at Satapuala. One of the tourist operators laughed at hearing that I had set up in Satapuala. “Oh, the Bronx of Samoa!” she said and laughed her way all out the door.

The PM too suggested that I should “relocate” and advised me that he knew there would be trouble for me sooner or later out here. He was a little more diplomatic about putting down my choice of digs but it was clear that things could be better for me than out here.

Pic: Samoan Christmas “Fireworks” – an unused .22 bullet left over from Christmas celebrations, found on the road. Photographed on top of two reading books: Inga Tuigamala’s “My Story” and the recently released Tsunami storybook by Lani Wendt Young. A bit of a tombe but recounts many peoples’ personal Tsunami stories quite well.

Some of the more Westernised inhabitants of Satapuala agree that things are not as good as they could be. It is very well known amongst the Police that a lot of trouble originates from within Faliatiu and Satapuala, neighbouring villages. Most of Samoa agrees that a Palagi needs to exercise extreme caution here. As always in Samoa, it is the people closest to you that do the real damage so in fact I had had a pretty good run from the village.

Actually come to think of it ALL my troubles really related to the one family: Getting decked by the landlord and the rent attempting to be doubled and being told to “pack up my gears and go” a gazillion times and one of the landlord’s boys stealing and getting beaten up, and then breaking in to steal a second time and a whole bunch of gossip from the landlord’s wife. The rest of Satapuala seemed pretty tame to me.

Well that all changed in Christmas Eve when they brought out the gun(s). It was after midnight. You could hear a few shots in the valley, then all of a sudden . . . BANG . . . BANG . . . BANG-BANG . . . BANG!

“Holy Sh*t!” I thought, “That’s a ‘.22′ going off just outside [50m away] on the main road”.

Now I’ve seen a few things over here. Some driving under the influence of drugs that is striaght out of the movies; the results of head-ons and upturned cars usually related to alcohol, and this would have to be called an ‘interesting’ place to drive on Friday and Saturday nights. I’m being charitable here as you can tell.

So in a split second I put two and two together and got around about four hundred! Satapuala . . . alcohol . . . Palagi not liked . . . Landlord not liked . . . Past midnight . . . and now a loose .22!

As big Chief Sitting Bull would say: “How? Big man no fear; comes worried man pretty quick!”

So I watched as the whole landlord’s family came out and sat on their step in the dark; and watched as the oldest son wandered down to the road to “discuss” a few things with a dark shape or two on the road. There wasn’t any more shooting so the deed must have been done properly. Funny how oldest boy becomes hero eh? That’s what the big Chiefs here do too – send out their boys to do the work.

A couple of things came out of this event. Something snapped inside of me that night. I’ve been thinking about it ever since off and on. I think that given the chance, I would now defend myself, and family to the death. I’ve always felt that I’m above killing people. You know, the commandment “thou shalt not kill”. I think that the Christian faith in the Western world tends to make one a little Namby-Pamby. Samoa’s a pretty brutal place and life is pretty cheap in some quarters here. It’s toned down in the last few generations according to what I read about pre-European fighting but there is definitely an undercurrent of violence ready to pop out at the mere hint of an offence.

I think that if I had been armed and if that dude had approached our house threatening (Debbie was asleep inside) that I would have shot to kill and have been able to justify the self-defence to myself. That’s a big challenge for me to say. And so I wonder if Samoa is perhaps getting to me, or if it is teaching me to toughen up and get real. Time will tell, but it is certainly a challenge adjusting to another culture.

The second thing that came out of it is reinforcing my opinions of my dearly beloved Landlord and his family. I’ll stop there so that I don’t cause any offence AGAIN! I’ll just tell you the facts and be done with it.

The next evening I wandered up to the Landlord and his family while they were cooking dinner. It was Christmas Day. They hadn’t said boo to a goose all day so I did the good neighbourly thing and said “Malo, Merry Christmas” which went down like a lead balloon of course. (People who are not trustworthy seem not to be able to trust others so the act of being approached and saying “Merry Christmas” is of course viewed suspiciously! Go figure.)

Anyway I told the guy that there was an intruder out the back last night by the name of “Ed” who was about 25-30 years old with xxx tatoos on his left arm and he had been drinking and ended up sleeping in my Fale out the back. I had kicked him out, nicely of course and based on the chorus of dogs barking from the neighbours he had obviously jumped the fence back and disappeared into the night. I felt it necessary to tell the landlord so that at least he knew.

Then I said “Oh, what was that noise last night?”

“What noise?” the reply.

I thought “OMG, here we go again with another ‘innocent landlord’ BS session!” and felt like saying “Well I saw your whole family outside the house watching it and I’m not stupid you f***wit!” but I patiently said “The shooting. Was it guns or fireworks?”

“Fireworks!” he said quickly, latching onto the prompt I had kindly given him.

“Yeah right!” I thought. “You really think I’m just a dumb Palagi don’t you? I’ve owned a semi-automatic .22 myself and that was a semi-auto .22 or else two .22s, clear as a bell!” But of course I would never show him up to be a liar or greedy or anything bad to his face again. I’d just get decked again!

So I said, “Oh I didn’t know that you can get fireworks in Samoa?” Of course you can’t. They’re banned. You used to be able to get sparklers and a few little bangers, but then somebody in power must have worked out that fireworks are not good for Samoans for some reason and you can’t get them anymore.

Quick as a wink the oldest boy steps in to save face for his Dad. “They’re Samoan fireworks. We make them using matches!”

Yeah right! I’ve made bolt bombs myself kiddo and you need steel nuts and bolts, mate and you can’t get five clean shots all exactly the same out of them in three or four seconds!

Why do people have to get themselves all twisted and tied up in knots like this? It’s 100x times easier just to tell the truth and get on with life, but no, if the Palagi finds out there are guns in Satapuala it could be shame on the village, and that could be shame on us so we’ll just lie about it and . . . and . . . Grrr! It drives me nuts! It’s like that the whole time – living a great big lie!

Talking about lies, I shared a comment with family and threatened to blog it and asked for their feedback. They were mortified that I would be so direct and patronising until I informed them that it wasn’t actually written by me! It was written by a respected Samoan with title Te’o Tuvale, and then over 90 years ago!

Seems like I might have a new job. No need to blog my own words . . . just quote from people from times past! I can say “Amen!” to a lot of these musings:

the Samoan is a type that can be guided but not driven

only a Samoan could say that and stay alive!

The psychology of the Samoans is even more difficult to understand than their personal habits: their standards are not ours. Even the more intelligent and those holding high positions have no scruples about telling lies and they will indulge in the apparently most childish tricks to gain something from either their own people or the Government. Forging of signatures to documents, petty larceny, perjury and bearing false witness are of every day occurrence. To swear in a Samoan in the sense that we understand taking an oath is a mere waste of time. They simply do not understand what an oath is and in matters concerning themselves and their families a lie is permissible and is accepted as a part of their social system: in many instances it becomes a duty to tell a falsehood.

and . . .

It is of little use despising the Samoan for telling lies, punishing him when found guilty of perjury, regard him as a swindler or forger when he signs another’s name to a document or becoming filled with indignation when he does not measure up to our standard of morals. We should understand that the Samoan has a different way of viewing conditions and must be treated in a different manner. It is preposterous to attempt to apply our criminal and civil laws to the Samoans and it is only those whose experience of and contact with the Samoans has been very limited who will advocate doing so.

It should also be noted that slack Palagi got a good berating too in Tuvale’s spiel. It wasn’t a one-way Samoan bashing exercise.Source: AN ACCOUNT OF SAMOAN HISTORY UP TO 1918, Chapter: SAMOA TODAY, 1919, edited 1932.

But it certainly made for interesting discussions when the young LDS missionaries came knocking at the door as the landlord is active and was a bishop in the LDS church. It’s a bit hard to convince someone that your church is the only genuine church when your own leaders are a little less than straight-up! But I’ll leave the Mormon thingy for another day . . .

My bible tells me not to lie. It actually tells me that lies are from the Devil. Samoa, please don’t argue with me. I’m just the messenger. You say you’re founded upon God and yet your culture tells you, nay compels you, to lie. Connect the dots guys!

Christmas Eve however was a time of joy too . . . one of the local churches took to the road. I’m not sure where they came from or where they went but my guess is that they would have walked about a kilometre or two up and then down from Satapuala to the Airport and back again around midnight.

It was kinda nice, sitting outside looking and listening to them sing along in Samoan from a distance. There would have been about thirty or so, mostly women I think all dressed in their whites – many of them with white hats or hoods on too. It really looked like the Klu Klux Clan to me but I’m sure they were all well-meaning.

Never a dull moment in Paradise!

Anyway I had a word with the Phat Man on Christmas Eve and I told him that he didn’t exist, but he just said “Too bad!”

So I told him that nothing he could say or do would change anything because he wasn’t real. He just said “Too bad!”

So I told him all my woes and he just said “Too bad!” again.

By now I was starting to get annoyed with this Samoan Santa ’cause all he kept saying was “Too bad!”

So I told him that we didn’t have chimneys in Samoa and he changed his tune for a minute – he said “I know!” and so I told him “Too bad!”

We laughed at that.

I’m pretty sure that he was pleased to be heading home to be honest. Samoa is his last port of call for the year and he said he had to get out of the place before he started dumping on me. I agreed that he better go before I got him into trouble blogging about it all! He snuck out the back door. The door came off it’s rail and crashed to the floor [it always does that] waking the neighbours dogs. We both said “Too bad!” at the same time, then laughed at each other and with each other. I think we might be mates now, even though he doesn’t exist.

He headed off out into the darkness with all the neighbours dogs barking their heads off. He yelled back something like “10:1 I’ll see you again next year”. I grunted something like probably . . . and went back to sleep.

Merry Christmas everyone, from Samoa.

I‘ve been away from Television now for over a year. When I returned to New Zealand for a break I got horrified at the depth of depravity that was ‘normal’. Sex, violence, more sex, foul language and so on had escalated noticeably in one year. It doesn’t matter if Canwest, C4, TV3 or whoever gets one thing past the censor or if they messed up with one scene on the wrong advert out of the proper allocated time limit – the point is that, BIG PICTURE, the boat is sinking!

[Pic: Ex-staff with Pepe's (Bubby's) first birthday cake. A special thing on the day. Shame half my gear has gone missing when they left, but hey, you get used to it, eh? That's NOT the big picture over here.]

Now I know that the deeper we dig the more dirt is on us and around us and above us, but if we’re honest, and if we care, we HAVE to dig. I’ve learned this sooooo badly in Samoa. There is ALWAYS something going on here. Always! Nothing is as it seems here.

This last week I spoke with a friend and shared that one of our staff was no longer with us – a few of the usual problems – she’ll be in jail shortly too as a result, probably. We commiserated that it is hard to find good people over here (meaning reliable, trustworthy and so on). He said that I shouldn’t make generalisations. “Not everyone is like that,” he said. “Yes, I know, but you’ve just got to look really hard to find the good ones.” I replied. His shoulders stooped a little, he tilted his head a little, squinted his eyes, a smile crept into one corner of his mouth and he quietly agreed, “Yes you’ve got to look R-E-A-L-L-Y hard, don’t you!” and he nodded. I could tell that he was saying to me what no-one dares say over here – he too was recalling his own nightmare of trying to find decent Samoan employees.

The first words another businessman (now friend) spoke to me when I came here is that it is impossible to find decent staff here – certainly good enough to run his business for him. The sentiment is echoed wherever I go. The big picture? You get it!

There is a common thought-process that Palagi resort guests have that goes like this:

The poor local people here are paid a pittance (My lawyer gets paid 272x more than a Samoan worker who gets $2.50 WST per hour) by the greedy multinational resort operators who pocket huge profits at the expense of the staff that they use and abuse. If they only paid them a decent wage, they’d provide a better service.

I used to think that too, but having lived here and dug deeper, I find that was wrong. Doubling the pay rate just means that many workers would only need to work half days, or several days only in a week. The point is that money doesn’t motivate over here the same as it does in the Western world.

We all missed the point.

I have a friend who is pouring over the Wikileaks documents by the thousands. It’s captivating him apparently as he can now see the corruption and lies and deceit that exists in the world of politics.

The mainstream media is currently burbling on about how good (or bad) the revelations are for this country or that country, and what Julian Assange’s philosophical beliefs are and millions of people the world over (except for China who are being blocked from reading the gory details about their own countries skulduggery) are glued to their TV and Internet watching for the latest gossip and gory details to be “leaked”.

For crying out loud! The world political leaders have always been corrupt since time immemorial. Do you think that Julius Caesar got to where he did by being a nice guy? Or any of his predecessors or followers? Good folk who fought in the two World Wars were pawns. Sure, they think that they did their duty and saved the world from evil. I have a lot of good friends who genuinely truly believe that the world is a better place for the wanton slaughter of gazillions of people in WW1 and WW2.

It’s not – the same people are in power behind the scenes and they use people like toys and pawns in their games of war. They were sold a pup. The real movers and shakers are the same people now as they were then – the ultra-rich, ultra-powerful, ultra-evil few who through generational interbreeding, political manoeuvrings and occult power have managed to hoodwink the majority of us.

We have to see the big picture, or we miss the point!

The point about Wikileaks papers that prove corruption on the part of (primarily) the United States, and World Wars that were supposedly about good vs evil (when in fact both ‘sides’ were funded by the same people) is not the details. Who cares if x politician or y diplomat or z businessman said or did this or that?

It is the big picture that really matters.

And the big picture on the Wikileaks saga is that it is clearly a False Flag operation. There is too much too-do about it to not be a setup. The powers that be will have either probably deliberately engineered it or will be using it as a way to close freedoms down and manipulate us into a worse position than we currently are. No need to believe me in this straight off the bat, if you think I’m being too negative about it, just wait and see. As the Wikileaks rhetoric heats up and the saga plays out the reaction to the War on Terror will creep insidiously into all of our lives as a result.

A lot of us will remember President Bill Clinton waving his [crooked] finger at the TV cameras splurting out “I never had sex with that woman!” and then wondering how and why he was never held to account for the lies despite all the best efforts of some powerful people to bring him down. Everyone in the media missed the point – they focussed on the denial, the cover-up, the morality of what he did and more.

They all missed the point.

The real point was that the powers that be used Clinton to show the discerning that they owned Bill and the media and the legal system and they were showing off. They do that – telegraphing your punches and just as an evil spell can only properly work if the intended recipient hears it, letting the world know that there is nothing that they can do when even the President of the USA lies and cannot be touched was the whole point of the charade that played out in our daily news.

There is ALWAYS something going on behind the fluff and distractions we’re dished up and clamour for.

[Pic: An overlay of the non-functioning gap countries targeted by the elite - original source: Cutting Edge. The bulk of the world's wealth and power is located outside of the non-functioning gap highlighted. Click for a higher resolution.]

For the record, I have come to see that those who are REALLY in control live outside of the geo-political space that we all think of and hear about day in day out. You would too if you had literally unlimited wealth and owned the politicians, the international banking system, and the mainstream media in virtually every major country on the planet! This is how the elite look at the world – this map only has two sections on it – functioning and non-functioning. “Ours” (in our control) and “yet to become ours”. It’s a sobering thought and requires deep thinking and real guts to digest.

Their intent is very different to that presented in the mainstream media and their mindset is the polar opposite of the majority of ours. Their agenda is in fact the direct opposite of those presented publicly and their desire is to bring about a global world government in their control. It is their clear intent to bring America down so that she will fit into the New World Order. When ‘they’ talk of aid to the third world; read debt and enslavement. When ‘they’ talk of saving lives and health initiatives; read illness, disease, poison and death. When you hear Global Warming Climate Change, read manipulation. When you hear war; read deliberate killing, culling and destruction. And with all of these; read more power and more money.

They will achieve all their goals. Brave New World and 1984 will happen. I know this because the Bible teaches this clearly and I can see the BIG PICTURE as it is happening. I’m not worried, frightened or scared because the timing of their evil achievements is not theirs to determine. They would like it all now, but I believe that while the Lord has spoken of what will happen in end times, he always holds them and all matters to His timetable.

In order to get the point sometimes we have to stand back and look at it all from a distance. That questioning – of our actions, motives and goals can sometimes go deep. It can get scary too!

I was just thinking this week that it would so nice here if they would stop lying to me and stealing from me and sure, sometimes it’s enough to cause you to cry out in frustration over here, but I’m not alone in that. As Peace Corp volunteer Joey Brown prepares to depart from Samoa after her two year stint, she posts:

…What is going on here is a combination of emotions. Frustrations coming to a head as the reality sets in that some things will just remain unaccomplished combined with the sadness of leaving friends and my Samoan family. It is truly a perplexing state of mind. In this state it takes a deliberate effort for me to focus on what has been accomplished. Although they tell you to come in with little to no expectations, it is impossible to last the two years without developing them. And even when you do, and you try to temper them to the local time frame and context it always seems like you end up aiming too high. I suppose that is not a bad thing though. I would rather aim high taking calculated risks and fall just short, than aim low leaving potential untested…

…While I did not accomplish everything I set out to do, it was not from lack of effort or will or ability. As I wrap up my service those are the two most important things to me, the impact I did have and knowing that I took the risks, gave everything I had to Samoa and its people, and to quote an age old football saying, “I left it all on the field”.

Joey, you didn’t leave it all on the field. It was nothing about your service or what you failed to achieve. At the end of the day BIG PICTURE, it’s more about YOU than it is about the people around you who you tried to help. It’s the way that you stuck at it, gave it your best, and who cares what you really achieved for others? It’s special to the rest of us when you share about YOU; when you talk about YOU; when YOU are the one who has grown and changed and been touched by a couple of years in Paradise.

I’ve learned more about myself in a year in Samoa than I have about Samoa. You can’t help but in this place. It’s a real challenge!

The big picture is that when you strip away your relationships and your comforts and your security and your dignity, there’s only one thing left that you can really do. You can only look straight in the eye of your Maker and say “Well, Lord?”

And that’s the point at which we’re no longer missing the point.

That’s the point when the questions start getting answered.

It’s the point that the gossip and the lies and the BS stop mattering, and the things that are stolen, lost or ruined don’t really seem to matter much more either.

The point is this, if we’re not in the centre of the Lord’s will for our lives, we’ve missed the point. And if we are in the centre of His will and all hell is set loose around us then that’s NOT the point.

I trust that you get my point!

This stripping away thing is a biblical principle. Jesus didn’t go out in grand style a popular guy. Matthew 27:27-31 records the painful experience:

Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

Ouch!!

But despite the outward appearances, He was a top achiever because shortly afterwards John 19:28-30 records it thus:

Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Christ didn’t miss the point. It only took Him three years and He did it. He knew His calling; dug deep and did the work.

We should do likewise.

That’s why I’m in Samoa.

Facebook Draws a Map of the Connected World: Tech News «

gigaom.com

When you have almost 600 million users and a “social graph” of the connections between them, you can do a lot with that data — so a Facebook intern plotted the connections between millions of users and came up with a map of the socially connected world.

“The result should be sufficiently attractive to use that it the information contained would grow past a critical threshold, so that the usefulness the scheme would in turn encourage its increased use.”

The original proposal of the WWW, HTMLized

www.nic.funet.fi

A hand conversion to HTML of the original MacWord (or Word for Mac?) document written in March 1989 and later redistributed unchanged apart from the date added in May 1990. Provided for historical interest only.

A sleepy little South Pacific island nation, with more ex-pats than locals, Samoa is essentially a third world country engaging with the real world, doing its best to grow up. Some leaders would like to see Toursim increase and the country progress but at heart Samoa simply doesn’t want to change. For a people who have strongly entrenched systems to protect the status quo, there is a very hard journey ahead, if they want to engage with the world in the modern age.

[Pic: Typical rural scene - Samoan men returning from the plantation with coconuts, dogs in company and machetes in hand. The sealed road shows comparative wealth - a larger village with an effective MP.]

In rural Samoa, the men walk around with machetes and build houses out of sticks. They are supposed to solve conflict situations by sitting down and talking but they also do it with a fist or a stone. Women cook and make babies. Families unite and only mix socially with those from their own extended family, or perhaps village. The bus gets them to town to sell their goods or buy what they can’t produce on their plantation. Nobody has a job, and if one person does, they get paid $2.50 per hour and this could look after a dozen or more people. Electricity is expensive. Schools are bare concrete structures with exercise books and pencils issued to children from a central supply room. Teachers are often supplied their lunch from the parents and 2011 will be the first year in which compulsory free schooling is introduced. Computers are available – sometimes there might be a 5 year old computer or two or three in the principal’s office. A senior school teacher told me with pride that their school was a proud recipient of one of the new computers. They have over a thousand students. It’s a high profile High School. The Internet? What’s that? Broadband, Social Media, Viral Marketing? Come again?

OK so some of this is a little “tongue-in-cheek” but you get the picture – it’s not like New York, London or Paris here!

Few in power in Samoa understand the Internet and how the game of business and marketing has changed so desperately. I cringe when I think back to the way that the $WST500,000.00 the cabinet allocated to post-Tsunami marketing in 2009 was spent. It makes me cry to think of that lost opportunity with virtually nothing invested into web-based marketing.*

There are people in government that do not want me to say all of this. Even people close to me question what they see as a constant stream of put-downs of a country that desperately needs building up. But the way the world works now is NOT by trying to hide reality and presenting it to the people in mainstream media and we’re also actively engaged in developing positive systems to lift the country at major personal cost.

The world will find out the truth, sooner or later, so it is a million times smarter to engage with real people where they are and invest into quality relationships that are based on reality, than to peddle a false message and try to cover things up. If you tell people that Apia is a hot, dirty, dusty city with rubbish in the streets and drains and beggars and hawkers, and that half the customer support staff in the country have an ultra laid-back ‘Island style’ that just screams “What’s your problem. Who cares? Take it easy, mate!” – then when they come here (which they still will) their satisfaction levels will be at 99% instead of the current 50%.

Samoa is a challenge. It’s a very real country. Unique, but very real. Authentic is the key word bandied around in marketing circles but their marketing is certainly NOT that. There is a major disconnect between perceptions and reality. It’s a lovely country to visit and engage with but there is a deeper, darker side that needs to be exposed in the best interests of the country. Just like with an illness, you can’t get a proper cure until you’ve got a proper diagnosis, as with Samoa tourism, it will not get better until it faces reality.

Inevitably, exposure will come and shortening that distance between perceptions and reality will be a mark of maturity in the counties marketing efforts.

I recently mentioned some of the exposure that PM Tuila’epa got from John Campbell’s attacks. I included negative comments about a resort “owner” in a piece about the two edged sword of exposure. I’ve shared about the crooks and liars and thieves and the challenges of living in a third world South Pacific tropical Paradise. It’s a mixture of good and bad. Sure I love some parts of it all but my life is very real, and I share it all online.

In the new year, we could have the details of another major scandal announced on this website, one involving a potentially damaging situation to anyone wanting to encourage foreign investment into Samoa. It involves a certain Palagi, who can’t be named yet, who invested into a business in a rural village, and then the Samoan landlord doubled the rent, then assaulted the Palagi, then lied to the Prime Minister about it and caused him serious financial loss. You’ve probably guessed what it’s all about but we will first give the landlord a chance to tell the truth, apologise and rectify the matter before putting all the gory details up for the world to see.

You just can’t do anything about this. People are empowered to speak now. They can, they do, and they will continue to do so. People in positions of power have a duty to communicate and share information with the people they have power over. Christ did this. He showed the heart and mind and nature of the Father, keeping back nothing that He knew. In fact if I’m right I think the only thing that evaded Him was the time – the hour of His return.

He also spoke directly about secrets and suggested in very firm language that they came from the devil himself. While there is obviously a right time and place to share information, I’ve yet to really hear a secret that in the end ever achieved a godly purpose.

The current hoopla regarding the Wikileaks exposure (which by the way is a clearly a total setup and False flag operation by the powers that be, if ever there was one) has triggered some thinking time for blogger Mitch Joel who runs a blog Six Pixels of Separation. Don’t you just love it when others much smarter than you do the thinking for you?

Here are the lessons from the Wikileaks saga that he extrapolates. I am and will be trying to teach all of this and more to the PM and to his Samoan officials if they will ever listen:

1. Transparency first
2. You are media
3. Publishing has changed
4. Information travels fast
5. Decentralization is real
6. Credible Anonymity
7. We are not ready

Let’s go through this briefly in regards to exposing Samoa:

1. Transparency first – If you talk about rubbish in the streets at your conferences every year and if it is still a problem; and if you then just show pretty pictures of the white sandy beaches and coconut trees; and if you expect people to understand that this is just they way that Samoa is – we’ve always chucked our rubbish out of the bus window – then you better be ready and expect them to “diss” you on TripAdvisor, their blogs and Facebook pages. Admitting the problem privately, doing nothing about it and then trying to hide it doesn’t work when you are sure to be eventually exposed. You need a new way of dealing with this Samoa. Admit the problem. Enforce the laws and engage with the people transparently both inside and outside of Samoa, and you will win friends and influence people. I quote Mitch’s excellent words:
   

   If your default position is to hide information and keep it secret, the new world is going to cause you many sleepless nights.

2. You are media – People will blog, write, comment and do much more online about Samoa than you can even imagine. SWAP‘s goal to develop and introduce systems of online communications shows that we understand that we are media, and an increasingly powerful media. I quote Mitch again:
   

   …every individual is (or can be) a media channel.

3. Publishing has changed – You betcha! The PM is starting to understand the importance of web based communications and User Generated Content. Unless there is a major shift away from traditional publishing (and that includes advertising and marketing activities) towards understanding the principles of Web Thought Leadership, Samoa will always be a very poor also-ran. Taking a Thought Leadership role on the Internet involves developing well branded systems for viral replication, rather than running a Top-Down managed structure. The first option is best understood by Google who provided a branded Search Engine, basically a system that “manages” the entire world’s online information without owning it The second option is best understood by Microsoft who owns proprietary software, develops it, brands it and markets it. Samoa has the opportunity to leap-frog over the Tsunami issues and launch itself as a key player in the Social Media and online marketing if it chooses to do so.
4. Information travels fast – We as a country need to be ready to disseminate important information fast. If we don’t do it, others will. Twitter feeds are essential in a time of emergency or crisis. Blogs and stories need to go out as they happen. Understanding the importance of immediacy of communication is both for the recipients AND for Samoa’s sake.
5. Decentralization is real – STA (Samoan Tourism Authority) cannot do a Social Media presence. This has to come from a wide net of participants. Tourists on island, ex-pat Samoans, willing helpers the world over can all contribute to Samoa’s online presence. Control of information must be passed out to others, as this is where the power of the Internet lies – distributed information, systems and participants.
6. Credible Anonymity – I’m not sure that I agree with Mitch on this issue or that it applies to Samoa. I’ll need to think more about this concept before commenting! Think . . . think . . . think!
7. We are not ready – Alvin Toffler raised the concerns about the impact of the speed of change in his book Future Shock. Forty years on and information overload and overwhelming accelerated technological and social change are concepts foreign to Samoa. To say that Samoa is not ready is an understatement, but in a strongly patriarchal society, with a strong informed progressive leadership in the PM, the potential for healthy growth and development exists.

Samoa needs to be ready to deliver a hybrid solution to handle increased exposure. It must be done with a sensitivity to a people who do not want to change; who want to protect the good things about their lifestyle; and yet a leadership who want to continue to develop the country for its own good.

A major part of this process will engage with what Wikinomics co-founder Don Tapscott calls “mass collaboration”.

Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google says that “Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams’ insights about the power of collaborative innovation and open systems, and their call to ‘reboot’ our institutions-business, education, media, government-haven’t come a minute too soon. Macrowikinomics inspires by chronicling these path breaking developments and pointing the way forward for all of us.”Source

The secret here is not to open up a thousand FaceBook pages, nor to engage in traditional marketing efforts but online, it is to develop systems of mass collaboration that are moderated, focussed and effective.

Copying the practices of the wild west of online pirates and cowboys is not appropriate for a country popping it’s head out of a hole about to engage with the world, but we can surely learn from these guys. Time Magazine had an interesting article about those Pirate Kings. It had some wise advice:

What you need to hit it really big in legitimate commerce is an authoritarian sensibility that limits users to doing what you want them to.

That’s our goal – to harness the goodwill, manpower and resources of those interested in helping Samoa, but to do it sensibly so that we get what we want for Samoa – increased exposure.

* I’ve blogged previously that I had presented a proposal to the Tourism Minister at the time for less than 5% of that budget but that was all ignored. We setup the SWAP Foundation as a Samoan Charitable Trust to do the work that needed to be done. Bringing bloggers and marketers and passionate people across to Samoa who can and will put Samoa online is a much smarter use of money and resources than splashing cash at a TV. It’s not so much a money thing, it’s just the way the world works now – people connecting to people. We’re creating systems that understand Social Media and the incredible goodwill and intrigue that exists internationally toward Samoa, post-Tsunami.

Before I get into the details I’ll deal with the bad bits. I wasn’t invited and there’s nothing on the Internet about the exchange. I counted 90 people in attendance at its busiest and I guessed that 50 of them were associated with the event in some way – speakers, organisers etc.

[Pic: Life's hard at times. Work, work, work. Palagi feet at Aggie Grey's Hotel, Apia]

This is all a very BIG bad bit. I only heard about it by accident the day before. The STA website doesn’t mention it and a Google or Yahoo search for “samoa tourism exchange 2010″ both return a very sad: “No results found for “samoa tourism exchange 2010″. Shame. Perhaps this is why I am meant to be in Samoa?

Maybe this was an oversight or two or three; possibly. Samoans generally get very offended if they are not invited to things. I’m not because I’m used to this, but I could easily have been offended by it. STA should have good systems to catch and use email addresses of all those even remotely interested in Samoa Tourism. I would have possibly had four to five people come to the event if I had known about it and in advance. I even had/have one investor IN THE COUNTRY at the time but they had previous things to do/organise and couldn’t come. This is just bad. We missed out on probably, well who knows how much lost opportunity, maybe $20,000.00 in direct foreign exchange earnings/expenditure as a result? Who knows how many projects/investments could have come to Samoa next year if they had come?

But unfortunately it gets worse . . . Air New Zealand wasn’t invited either! I’m told that the new CEO of Air New Zealand in Samoa heard about the event through a chance meeting with the Chamber of Commerce and was invited along by them. She sat in the audience alongside me as attendees from other all other airlines and even the CEO of the Travel Ministry were acknowledged and speakers flew in from Fiji (Air Pacific) and Christchurch (PolyBlue). Ouch!

Now there is NO WAY this was an oversight. This was clearly a deliberate decision on somebody’s part to snub the airline. AirNZ was in the news, and people wanted to hear from them, know their position and speak to them.

The context in which this all happened was that Air New Zealand recently pulled their weekly LAX-APW (Los Ageles – Apia) flight. Apparently Tonga ran out of money, Samoa didn’t want to subsidise it any longer and both Tonga and Samoa told Air New Zealand – too bad, the subsidy is off. Air New Zealand says that they then rescheduled the spare plane and the change of mind and new offer from Tonga and Samoa two days later, came too late. Hmmm, maybe. Others can squabble about the details. There is clearly some posturing going on and some in the industry have made a noise about it.

To make matters worse AirNZ also got one of it’s planes whacked by a rogue stepladder driver who apparently pulled the UP lever instead of the DOWN lever and set off probably a half a million dollar damage/loss to AirNZ to boot. I’ve experienced that sort of thing here too a bit too often for my liking. Oops! Sorry, mate! Too bad. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall after that guy went back to the office. My money is 80/20 on an “accident”. I think it probably was an accident, but there’s a big suspicious side of me now. I’d like them to fly Taito Phillip Fields or Winston Peters up to undertake the inquiry. I won’t trust anyone else, especially if the local boy comes out sqeeky clean!

But forget the plane or the money or the fighting. Business is all about people and when relationships break down you’re in a no-win situation for both STA and AirNZ. Bad karma not to kiss and make-up Samoa! I think that somebody ought to right the wrong and rebuild that relationship fast so things don’t spiral downwards from here.

So there. That’s all the negative stuff out of the way.

Oh, sorry, there’s one more – the rubbish. Bev from Aggie Grey’s raised the issue of the rubbish in the streets of Apia [Yes AGAIN!]. She and I sould start a Samoan anti-rubbish blog one day!

So on with the real stuff . . .

There’s no question that the Tsunami kicked Samoa Tourism in the guts. We took a hammering, but in some ways there is hope. The wholesalers all say that we should focus on New Zealand and Australian markets from where 80% of the business comes. The Samoa brand is relatively strong in New Zealand. It’s a little light in Australia, and certainly not competitive. $10.00AUD per night in Bali and record numbers of Aussies heading up there puts the Samoan experience on the far back-burner. Fiji is also a big drawcard with a very strong brand that has been done well over 20 years or so and major discounting draws good numbers as well. Their professionalism in dishing up tourism experiences unquestionably leaves Samoa for dead. I know this too having been a not in-frequent recipient of the Fiji Smile myself.

As with the AirNZ thing, I think the absence of certain topics and speakers was noticeable at this event. I wondered why the keynote speakers who seemed to be working so well with the leaders last year were absent. Their presence again this year would have been the first sign of a good long-term working relationship with outside professionals who are committed to the brand and the best interests of the country. The accountability from seeing resolutions from last year addressed would have been refreshing.

As an Internet Marketing strategist, I was disappointed that the use of the Internet in Marketing was barely mentioned. Well it wasn’t actually. One of the wholesalers stated that 95% of travellers research via the web before they approach a booking agent. Really? That low? Surely not, I thought it treached 95% in 2007 and had been more like 97% for the last three years! [sacarsim!] Any modern commercial operation that does not engage with their market on the Internet is doomed. A 20% spend on Internet related marketing activities is barely survivable, and 50% of a marketing spend is now common. Many companies have abandoned traditional media and gone online 100%. STA has some ways to go methinks! It’s not so much about the amount of the money spent on marketing, it’s more understanding HOW to use it.

My work with the PM and I’m sure in time with STA and others, will help rectify this but a lot of this is about UNDERSTANDING things and maturing as a country in how we market ourselves. These guys barely use the computer over here and certainly actual Internet usage is very limited, let alone advanced Internet Marketing techinques involving Social Media and Viral Marketing! Teaching about paradigm shifts doesn’t come easy when your audience is firmly entrenched in old-school thought and practice. Samoa has a long way to go. They may kick me out of the country for saying it but it doesn’t change the facts. I’ve also got a lot of patience, I shoot straight and I don’t give up easily!

The other thing notable by its absence was the Tsunami. The general sentiment seems to be, as PM Tuila’epa told John Campbell by phone is that “It’s old hat”, done and dusted, let’s get on with business as usual. I’ve got my own opinion on this, and it differs from the official take. I think that leaving the Tsunami out of the equation is a strategic mistake. Just as big smiles, German/NZ rule, rugby, church life, taro and Fa’a Samoa are an important part of the Samoa brand, I think that the Tsunami is now also engraved into it’s brand, whether it likes it or not. Even in ten years, if you would say Samoa in Uzbekistahn, they would return with the word Tsunami. Remember that there was around about a billion dollars worth of negative publicity last year.

This doesn’t mean that Samoa should actually market itself as the “Tsunami Country” forever, but it must recognise where the Palagi is coming from, and it clearly doesn’t understand the deep fears (and curiosity/goodwill) that exist in regards to Samoa as a destination. I’ll give you an example. If my daughter came up to Samoa and there was anything adverse – another earthquake, another Tsunami, another cyclone; or even if there was just the threat or scare of another “something” like this, and she got hurt in any way (even just a gash on her leg while running somewhere) I would get an earful or possibly much more from her mother within seconds. I’d be listening to things such as “Why the ***** did you have to take her to that place in the first place? Don’t you know that’s where they had the Tsunami?”

But, if we went to say the Gold Coast or Bali and she was actually killed in a Tsunami, or cyclone, her mother would have a totally different take on it. She’d be more along the lines of “Well that was just an act of God! You can’t really be held responsible.”

Now of course the reality is that the chances are the same either destination but the perception is different. People have feelings. Marketing of Samoa without recognising the unspoken fears and thoughts of the public shows a degree of blindness that will cost Samoa in the long-run with innefficiency and wasted marketing efforts. I’m not saying spend nothing and focus on the past, but it has to be addressed and acknowledged somehow.

Bruce Moffat from PolyBlue showed a truckload of energy and fast talk. His take on entering the LAX-APW route was very telling – don’t even think about it. He won’t touch it with a barge-pole. Wong planes (and most likely not profitable either!). They’ve got an interesting offer in the wings – an AIR PASS for $179NZD that will allow flexible flights around the Pacific – mainly suited for Northern Hemisphere travellers.

Air Pacific has taken a massive knock in the last financial year and is interested in touching the Samoan market. Ummm. That one doesn’t make sense to me. Fiji and Samoa are VERY different markets – it will never happen. The guy’s dreaming if he thinks people will fly into Nadi for a day or two – across to Samoa and then back again for another day or two and off to somewhere else.

A few interesting facts I noted:

• There are 13,000 landlines in Samoa, down from 22,000.
• Cell phones hit 105,000 with some customers having two for the two different networks.
• There is a 58% penetration of the potential market and 95% coverage
• Our Internet penetration? Have a guess . . . it’s ten percent, which I thought was a little high because I don’t see one in ten people with Internet access around me. I’d like to see that claim validated somehow.

The last point here is why Samoa just doesn’t “get” the use and power of the Internet, and why even with the new fibre cables running straight through the country, there is little point in fast-tracking anything technical in Samoa for immediate gains. Everything meaningful for the moment (and I mean years) will HAVE to be done from outside with outside expertise and labour. Our SWAP programme is right on the nail – setting up an infrastructure and systems to get people in to blog and photograph and network, and use outside expertise and labour to help put Samoa on the Map Internet.

It’s the ONLY way anyone will get it to work.

EPC the local Power Company spoke – Lord only knows why they got the nod ahead of Internet Marketing, but hey, I’ve been told to be positive. For the record Samoa’s power is an issue. I’ve got a simple solution – stick a nuke in the top of one of Savaii’s dormant volcanoes and they can export power to Fiji, Tonga and more for a massive profit, and solve all their power issues but my mates at MNRE would kill me saying that, so I won’t. You could also cover the island in windmills and solar panels. It would look ghastly but the greenies will be really pleased, so that’s the way things will probably go, my best guess.

A few points:

• Samoa’s power is 38% hydro, the rest diesel with one small solar setup on Apolima
• Diesel is 5% biodiesel but this is the same cost as imported diesel and diesel overall is 60% of their operating costs – quite exposed to money manipulators poking the price of diesel up again.
• They cover 96% of the islands and run loss-making services to some of the rural areas

They’ve been playing with the idea of mains assisted Solar air-con. Good one! This really makes sense as Air-con is a major electricity use, especially in resorts and larger hotels where it is a major cost, well over 50% of their power usage is air-con.

Australian rep Michael had a motivation that was refreshing as well as an interest in trying to explain the Samoa brand’s personality without giving away the detail. I think he’s right. There is something alluring, at times intriguing about the magic of Samoa. It’s not a destination that should be marketed with the typical tourism glossies because that sets people up for unrealistic expectations.

That is THE biggest reason why so many people come here never to return. Expectations of another Bahamas or first class everything are time-bombs when in fact many people in the industry simply don’t care, or do things on the cheap. It’s an extraordinary experience is Samoa. It certainly will not change overnight – some of the old hands pull their hair out as year after year the same old stories and challenges are raised, so the marketing really needs to match the reality to have integrity and satisfied customers.

I enjoyed Richard’s first presentation for the literary delights within his talking. Listen to some of these words:

• Showing off every version of blue – on the reef water
• Fine distinguished people
• Outrageous colour combinations – on the two-tone house colours
• Generosity and Grandeur of nature
• Sure of its values – as opposed to the vert fibre of society being changed by tourism, such as Bali
• They will despoil, pollute & lay concrete
• The mad rush to make everywhere look like everywhere else
• Destinations that have survived the 20th century – Samoa could be one of them
• Trembling ground rules – on the speed of change
• The future arrives at the speed of light
• Competitive edge – professional empowerment
• Mind skills – collaboration, innovation, creativity – Hmm that may could out Samoa for a while!
• Paradigm shifts – My topic and mantra
• Group think – Again my interest
• Signals for the future (change) – Richard is stealing my thunder again!
• Voluntary simplicity – I’ve expereinced involuntary simplicity myself over the last year or so!
• Fine-tunes its vision – on Samoa’s vision for the future

Delightful words, thank you Richard!

Overall, I missed a clear brand statement and therefore a focus for clear destination marketing. A lot of discussion at the previous Toursim Exchange revolved around what was our “message”. In 2009, just following the Tsunami, the topic was of course “where to from here?” but the theme actually turned out to be more of our AUTHENTICITY. Samoa is seen as a very real place and visitors like the authenticity of the experience. In 2011 the theme of the exchange was QUALITY. I don’t see quality resorts, or quality service, or high class in the sense of the Hilton here in Samoa (sure there are a few nice resorts here) but I did see the UNIQUE aspects of Samoa as a destination a focus of this year’s talk-fest.

There was no actual decision on the way they will be developing and marketing the Samoa brand but, I will be using the words something like; SAMOA, REAL . . . UNIQUE.

As with most modern Conferences we lacked meaningful interchange. It tended to be a lots of people out to work through their various powerPoint presentations come hell or high water with little regard for the time taken, but there were interesting points to pick up from the experience. I’d give it 5/10. Would have been 6/10 except for the AirNZ snub! I would have given last year’s event a good 9/10 by comparison.

The overall feeling I had coming away from this year was actually pretty neutral. I liked some of the new blood I saw, heard and met. I thought it was an OK event, maybe not a stellar moment in the history of Samoan Tourism, but certainly a step forward. As always it is the behind the scenes actions and decisions that really matter though. We’ll see in time where things go from here.

By STE 2011, it would be my goal to have something pretty meaningful have developed around the Social Media, Viral Marketing and the Voluntourism aspects of marketing Samoa. Anyone can stick up a FaceBook page, or a sexy website, or a blog, or Twitter Feeds, but if we do it smart using creative thinking and is it is resourced and supported from above, Samoa *could* make a pretty decent impact on the Internet. Let’s hope so!

Gaining exposure is easy. Just become a streaker. Some girls did that at a North Shore High School recently and got their end of year stunt on the front page news of the local rag – no photos unfortunately. One of the boys from the school is reported to have said to a teacher “Sir, I think I’ve been scarred for life!” and he too got his words recorded for posterity in the paper.

Another way to get infamy is to run a tardy operation in Samoa and get pinged on TripAdvisor. Aggie Grey’s Lagoon, Beach Resort & Spa (who on earth dreamed up that big long name anyway?) has a typical Samoan response-list ranging from FIVE stars in satisfaction to ONE star in satisfaction. The explantion for the extraordinary disparity is mostly in the expectations of guests, but every now and then one of their feedback reports is more than just an ungrateful American with too high an expectation. My eyes popped out of my head when I read this one recently on TripAdvisor which names (and in this case shames) a high profile young man who has been running the Resort (actually not OWNing it as the commenting guest said):

“I think our experience of aggie greys was summed up when we had the unfortunate experience of socially meeting the male owner. He was rude and thought he owned the world and obviously coerces his staff to perform through fear. It was the last straw in a most unpleasant experience and caused us to check out of Aggie greys and move over to le lagoto where our fairly average trip turned into a great 2 days. Its just a shame we had to spend 5 days at aggie greys in order to find out where the best place to stay in samoa is.”

Shrink!

I’d be finding the nearest rock to climb under if someone wrote something like that about me out of the blue.

Now I too have had issues with the dude in question, and sure, he didn’t really ooze humility when we talked business but to have guests write this sort of stuff online about you and then CHECK OUT of your own hotel as a direct result of an encounter with you is really something for concern. Major concern I would say!

The point here is not whether the guests were right or that the guy does think he owns the world. Nor is it even if the dude who wrote it had an attitude himself, it is the fact that exposure is a two-edged sword. Aggie Grey’s WANTS exposure and positive feedback but if they don’t deliver the goods then the public have a right, no, actually a DUTY to report it.

We are living in an age where reputations and wealth can be made online but equally they can be destroyed online. Exposure is a two-edged sword.

A New Zealand blogger Cameron Slater [Pic: Cameron Slater & his logo lifted from his website: http://whaleoil.gotcha.co.nz/] has been developing his brand Whale Oil into a mixture of political commentary, negative campaigning and self-promotion that has to be seen to believed. Pushing the boundaries on attitude, language and sheer guts, Cameron is not to be messed with, ready to take-on anyone that p*isses him off. Quoting him directly: “Never F**k with a Blogger (NFWAB) especially if that blogger is me.”

Whew!

He carries online clout with a comparatively large following and is not afraid to name names, even to the point of suffering the ignominity of several criminal charges for breaching supression orders.

Cam has a knack for stating his points directly online, usually negative ones, but he does this firmly and without care of consequences, thus gaining the scorn of some; the respect of many and intrigue from others. He’s certainly different.

We advertised a cushy little number up here recently for a high profile contract in Samoa. He registered interest. I don’t normally get responses to a simple request for a CV like his. He just fired back the simple words: “I don’t do CVs. I haven’t used one for 10 years, and don’t intend to start now”, which of course killed it for him as he is clearly a 100% sole operator, even if a particularly talented one!

He will be hard to ever pull down at his own game because he’s done the very thing his opponents try not to do – speak the truth and bare it all. His Archiles Heel (probably also the secret of his genius too) is that he has suffered with mental issues (depression I think) and by baring all up-front, effectively self-exposure, he has disarmed his opponents before the battle begins. It’s like a person fronting up saying “OK, I’m a male chauvanist at heart, but can we get on with life now and try and be friends?” or “I’m an Arab and I hate you Jews, but we gotta get along for a while so how about we do business?”

Exposure, getting it all out into the open like this is only a worry when you are trying to hide something. Lest I become one of Cameron’s targets in the future, I should really bare all before the war begins. Hmmm, Nah . . . I think I have already done that anyway . . .

One of Cameron’s latest targets is a young Auckland businessman Richard Henry, who may have done a few dodgy things in the past and has certainly recently p*ssed off “the Whale”. I didn’t want to race off and follow the crowd on this subject until I got the other side of the story, so I asked Rich what his take on it was – silence – so I guess Whaleoil strikes again with a scoop, enough to keep him active for a while!

The big who-flung-dung appears to have been made worse by one of his colleagues pretend to write support for him from a “neutral” standpoint and was then found out to be one of his business partners.

Oops! More exposure!

An online campaign by the Whale that specifically targets a website’s contributors and advertisers is not exposure to die FOR, it is exposure to die BY! I would not want to be on the receiving end of one of Cameron’s ANTI-campaigns.

I’m reminded about a saying to be careful when you sleep with an elephant just in case it rolls over (advice to be careful as a small businessman about doing business with a big business). I guess that saying might now have to apply about Whales?

Bringing it all out to the open (exposure) on the Internet is a new game to those trained in the “old school” where information is Intellectual Property to be protected and guarded at all costs. If Google was chatting to Colonel Sanders about marketing nowadays, they would be giving the secret recipe away but charging for the paper it was written in and wrapped up in and for even saying the magic letters “KFC” and making 100x more than the old boy ever did!

I never really took much note of Michael Laws until recently. Sure I knew that he pushed his own barrow a bit and he chatted on a radio station I listened to every now and then, but when one of his ex-girlfriends started to defend herself over a public spat, I really watched what went down with interest. It was extraordinary how one woman managed to trash the reputation of one man (certainly in my mind) by just speaking what appears to be the truth, online. I’d say Michael will have some serious PR problems now as a result of the negative exposure.

Exposure was really not what Michael wanted considering what came out from Jackie, but hey, if you’ve done the crime, you’re fair game for a woman scorned! Personally I’ve been impressed with the way she has responded – obviously a pretty smart cookie that Jackie, even if she has been through a bit in the past!

I’m working with Tuila’epa (PM of Samoa) at the moment on developing his online profile – just the basic stuff like a decent website, a Facebook page, Twitter feed and so on. It has the potential to revolutionise the way information is distributed from sleepy little Samoa, certainly if we push through with some viral marketing and other creative ideas we are talking about.

The secret is systems. Systems whereby his driver carries a digital camera and snaps shots of the Big Man at restaurant, meeting other dignitaries and whoever visits him. Capturing his thoughts and events of the day and getting them out on a Twitter feed AS THEY HAPPEN! Photos here. Photos there. Words and reports and ideas and all the things the world is looking for . . . EXPOSED!

But of course exposure is that two-edged sword.

When I left New Zealand the last post I made was to talk about the importance of relationships. The last thing you say to someone before you depart is always the most important. It’s the last thing you say that remains in their mind. “I love you!” on your deathbed sort of thing. I spoke when I left on the importance of maintaining relationships, even though I have an uncanny knack of burning them myself!

I think Samoa has got it right when it comes to the importance of relationships.

[Pic: Umu preparation - fire restrained with Banana tree trunks, heated stones are then used around food, with banana and other leaves over the top, similar to an above-ground Hangi]

Over here everything is about family, extended family, village, and things Samoan. And this focus on relationships aligns closely with what the Good Book teaches from cover to cover.

I was talking to the PM this week about the way the system works here in an election. He mentioned a few minor things that he will change next term and then he explained quite clearly that the WAY things are done is the only thing that really matters here. There are cultural niceties that are very important to be done right. If you deviate from them you are toast. So an honest candidate with great ideas and lots of enthusiasm who shoots straight will lose every time over a known crook who does things right, shows respect to the system and (in a nutshell) “keeps relationship” within the social expectations.

Now of course the so called corruption is well known – the buying of votes and so on is a longstanding, widespread, systematised practice. But the thing is that it is a system that works. Others can and do pass judgement on the practices here but there is something good about fitting within a system and maintaining a strong relationship.

In my book Lipstick on a Pig, I’ve shared about how relationships are much stronger than agreements, contracts or pieces of paper. The same thing applies in marriages, families and businesses. If relationships are maintained one can conquer the world. When they fail or break, nothing good can be achieved. Of course we need to establish boundaries within that relationship, as the Samoan political process does, and sometimes enforcing those boundaries requires us to make hard decisions. Exercising tough love in interpersonal relationships and arresting those candidates that extend their bribery outside of the law are good and necessary things at times.

I’ve been speaking with a company that was in a major dispute with the Government over a lease. Siva Afi had invested quite a bit it seems into a tourist attraction that was located on prime land but that was then earmarked for a major government building project. The government has the right to obtain land for public works, even when a valid lease exists, but the issue of compensation supposedly caused a furore and conflict. I understand that in fact the issue may have started with the compensation issue but that it was never really about money. It was about a relationship breakdown. I am led to believe that the government Minister unilaterally stopped negotiations, changed the law to evict the people within 3 days and then the matter is off to court again. If this is correct it was a pretty major step of bad faith that broke the relationship. THAT I understand was the thing that hurt these people so much! A Samoan not talking to another Samoan is not good!

You see the Samoan way is to sit down and talk about things. We talk, discuss the matter and AGREE, all the while retaining relationship. For a Minister of the government to unilaterally undertake court action and force the matter would be a seen as a very serious breakdown in relationship. When lawyers get involved, a matter immediately becomes confrontational, and the relationship is broken, badly. The natural consequences of that is simple – disaster for all (except the lawyers of course).

While working with the PM over the last few weeks to develop improved Internet-based information and marketing systems for the country, I shared my concerns that a broken relationship with what was one of the countries top entertainment acts and a strong tourism drawcard was not a good look amongst a few other things. When I suggested that all that the Siva Afi people wanted was to talk, reasonably, and asked if he would kindly intervene to assist, the PM was immediately responsive. “Send them up!” he said without a second of hesitation. Simple. Profound. A man who understands the importance of keeping relationship, and who is prepared to sort the matter out, NOW!

Some would want to crucify the Minister responsible. I suspect that the PM will privately chide someone but that at the end of the day everyone will kiss and makeup and that relationships will be restored. Justice? Maybe not to the Western mindset that would prefer winners and losers and that the bad guy gets locked up, but it’s all about retaining relationship here.

The same thing happened when the PM intervened in the fight we had with our landlord. They lied to the PM; he asked us to kiss and makeup; all is well and we get on with life. Justice? Not to me when I want my assailant thrown in jail but the Big Man asked for peace and reconciliation, so there you go! We are “instructed” to get on with life and we do – relationship is supreme over here again!

I’m in discussions with many potential offshore investors and people who want to help Samoa in various ways. Their thinking is always a Western mindset. They want to give THINGS and do THINGS and achieve THINGS, sometimes worthy and noble. Habitat for Humanity wants to build HOUSES. Businessmen want to be philanthropists and give THINGS, and Social workers want to solve the countries poverty issues. These THINGS may all be very noble but they fail to understand the way Samoa really works. Samoa is not about THINGS and achievements. As I said in my FIRST ever post from Samoa How to help Tsunami victims, Samoa is all about people and relationships. I quote myself (oh dear, is this a bad sign?):

I’ve been asked how to best help the Tsunami victims. The question is a complex one but there is really just one simple answer . . .

Palagi! Just send Palagi. (That’s Pakeha, Whiteman, or Tourist to you and me)

The more I learn about Samoa the more perceptive that I see this initial understanding to be. Samoans love to meet and host Palagi. Given a choice between a flash house and the honour of hosting a Palagi guest, just about every Samoan I’ve met would choose the latter every time.

Relationships. Within family or with others. That’s the heart of Samoa.

I say to the people who discuss with me their business ideas and proposals and ways to help Samoa, come up here please. Please just visit. Come and meet the PM and the Matais and the leaders here. Say “Hi!” Have a meal with them/us. Slow down and meet and greet the people and enjoy the experience. Leave all your Palagi thinking and ideas and energy at the door and just engage with Samoa. Then . . . then we can talk business, and of course if you’ve got a great idea and want to do something we’ll all help you out and nothing will be a problem because you now know the PM, or the key person in government, who is a mate of a mate.

It’s all about who you know here, not what you know. Yes, I know that it has the stigma of corruption but that’s just another way of saying “It’s all about relationships here”.

I’ve talked previously a bit about the recent spat between Tuila’epa and John Campbell. There is no question in my mind that Tui is toying with John. The PM is now clearly relishing the spat (for what purpose I can only guess with elections just around the corner) but I’m always impressed that at the end of the day the PM is constantly saying to John that he is happy to forgive, move on and remain friends.

Crumbs, if I’m accused of skullduggery I’m up on my feet and defending myself in a split-second. But the PM knows something about the supreme importance of keeping relationships and it is the Samoan way to kiss and make-up. Always. Relationships always come first.

Once the dust settles I can clearly picture a great restaurant meal in the new year in which John and the PM are laughing and joking and enjoying each others’ company and the “missing” money has been found and accounted for, or somebody might just fess up that there may have been “a little misunderstanding”.

So while the Western world fights about issues and ideas and money and THINGS, the Samoan culture is all about relationships. In my opinion that’s where Samoa wins over the Western world, hands-down, big-time.

Now I mentioned that I think Samoa takes things too far with relationships. It is this: family honour is the ultimate concern here. People will kill, literally to save their family honour. Being shamed is a very serious matter and much energy is expended defending and placating overly sensitive souls who will lie, and more to save face.

Just one example – families in poverty will borrow heavily to afford expensive funerals just in order to save face. They clearly believe and are conditioned to think that good relationships are based on external cultural/societal factors rather than on truth, openness, honesty, integrity and reality. Putting it into Christan-speak, people will reject biblical values in order to bow to the “Fear of Man”. Thus maintaining relationships can be counter productive when we worship the culture rather than the worshipping the Creator.

I believe that in many ways Samoa takes things like the importance of maintaining relationships too far, and that they miss enjoying the freedom that comes from ‘natural’ relationships that flow from choice rather than ‘enforced’ relationships that are legislated through culture or tribal systems, but that is another subject for another day.

A Christian will naturally relate relationship challenges to the teaching and examples set in Scripture. The first mention of relationship in the Bible is at the beginning, believe it or not.

God said “let us . . . create”.

There. That’s plural in the original Hebrew . . . let “US” create. It’s a relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit pre-dating the creation event.

And it flows on from there . . . the first and most immediate consequence of the fall, was that distance came between the Creator and His creation – Adam and Eve hid from their loving Father.

And throughout pre-history the cry of the Creator to His people “Would you please just listen to me and do things My way? Please?” a concept from whence the words to the marveleous hymn “Trust and obey” came from. A cry from a loving Heavenly Father who just wanted to be close to His people!

And Jesus’ key message was that He was the Way to the Father. His task was to restore relationship. Nothing more!

And our Christian walk is one of relationship – not theology. It’s nothing about intellectual things or philosphy or religion or other “STUFF” people get caught up in. It is about one thing and one thing only – having a relationship with the Creator.

And the rest of time will be IN RELATIONSHIP with God, doing the “Praise the Lord; Halellujah!” thing or whatever actually happens in heaven.

Samoa, for all your seemingly “stupid”, small-thinking, greedy, selfish, backward ways of doing things, you really do have something right. Hidden within your culture – you understand the importance of relationships, and for that, I congratulate you and honour you!

The world would do well to look and learn from you.

I knew it was coming. You don’t have two of a nasty piece of work’s children arrested for theft and wilful damage without a reaction of some sort. Hours after I lodged the complaint, Force‘s mother (Rebecca, I’ll get her photo up here one day) attacked back with a trumped up charge of her own. Tit for tat means that with a claim of her own she can “save face” amongst her family. They all know she’s a bi*ch but you have to save face over here all the time otherwise you’re a dead duck.

[Pic: Child street hawker outside Frakie's wholesale, Vaitele tonight. His parents sent him out to get money selling their coco-Samoa. Illegal, but it happens all the time. Same kids. Same parents. Same Police action - none! Very bad for tourism.]

The interesting thing though is the process by which it all happened, not so much the details of the charge. In Palagi thought, the process undertaken screams corruption, in that I was assumed and treated as guilty and given no right to present another side (which incidently and of course just happened to be the truth).

Here is a summary of events for the interested, times approx. Hat tip on the direct writing style attitude and approach to the Whale (who lectures his audience subliminally in how to call a spade a spade and how to cut out Political Correctness remarkably effectively) as I’ve had enough of being pretty and poncy with my words when I’m surrounded by crooks inside and outside the Samoan Police Force:

• 1.00pm – A Police car arrived in the driveway. Out pops two gorillas. “Are you Dennis Smith?” “Yes I am” “We are here to arrest you and you need to come to the Apia Police station with us”. “What’s this all about?” “You are being arrested on charges of wilful damage to a property owned by the complainant Rebecca Smith [Actually I'm sure that it is Rebecca vorsWinden / Schmidt, but whatever].” “Those charges are malicious and based on lies. Who instructed you to come here today?” [sustained obfuscation] “WHO WAS THE PERSON WHO INSTRUCTED YOU TO COME HERE TODAY AND ARREST ME?!!!” [finally] “Sargeant Nathan”. “I want to speak to him please.” [a repeat performance on the phone from me to another "goon"]. “I want you in my office NOW!” shouted the Sargeant. “I don’t even know who you are, so why are you treating me like a crim, you rude dickhead!” I thought, but I said that I would come at 2.30pm by my own transport after I had visited the PM and the NZ High Commission. He said he didn’t care who I spoke to but that yes he would agree for me to come to the Police station to meet him at 2.30pm. Sheesh some people are right a*******s aren’t they?
• 2.15pm – The Prime Minister’s office “Sorry to do this to you Tui, but I’m just down to the Apia Police Station at 2.30 as I’m being arrested on trumped up charges”. Tuila’epa: “Leave it to me. I’ll speak to the Commissioner” and I assume that he did.
• 2.35pm – Conflict central Police Station central:
  “These charges are malicious and based on lies”.
  “I have enough to charge you and I will read you your rights!”
  “You haven’t even asked me for the truth or the other side”.
  “I have four witnesses and that is enough”
  “They are all liars from the same family. You know that this petty charge was brought immediately AFTER I laid charges on them all?”.
  I
  “I said I have enough to charge you. Do you know what ENOUGH means?”
  “Don’t talk to me like I’m an idiot, I am a author, blogger and public speaker. Of course I know what ENOUGH means, but are you interested in the truth of pressing some trumped up charges?” [seething indignation arises somewhat. Well OK seething rage actually!]
• 2.45pm – [Phone call - it's the Commissioner who wants to talk to Sgt Nathan. Fruitless trip upstairs to speak to the Commissioner. Return to the processing desk]
• 3.00pm – The Commissioner has asked me to read you your rights and arrest you [Yeah right! I reckon that it's porky time again! Why would the Commissioner insist on arresting a guy the PM had probably just phoned him about? Was the Commissioner in the habit of pissing off the PM on purpose? Bah humbug! Must think I'm an idiot. How the h*** did he ever become a Sargeant? Rights read AGAIN and fight continues.] My statement:

  1. I am innocent
  2. These charges are malicious based on lies
  3. I will be making a complaint that you had predetermined my guilt, and failed to conduct a proper investigation. [i.e. corrupt cops, crooked cops (the guy is sure to be related to the crims somehow) or lazy peanut-brained cops who add two and two together to get 100! It has to be one of the above but knowing Samoa, it's 10:1 that nothing will happen and all will be hushed up and covered over.]

Boy would I love to go to court. I’d represent myself with relish. The fine if proven guilty (which of course I absolutely AM NOT, but I know from the school of hard knocks that justice and the legal system do not always go hand in hand!) might be a few hundred Tala but the fun of putting four liars on the stand, cross-examining them so that they would all end up perjuring themselves and then having all their photos and a write-up on the Internet for the world to see would be worth every minute of my time! What sweet revenge to a bunch of liars and ‘top achievers’ out to ruin something good!

I once heard a joke about a teacher who had four teenage boys arrive late in class. They claimed that their car had a flat tyre, hence their late arrival. Knowing that there was a porky involved, she said “No problem! Each of you take a piece of paper and write down which tyre it was.

SNAP! Teacher 1, Smartarses, 0.

Can four liars all lie the same in court? I doubt it!

There is a funny naughty sequel to this story BTW. One of the boys caught out thought that he’d show off and make fun of the teacher later on. He complained that he couldn’t do the lesson because of “extreme sexual exhaustion” which of course put the class into fits of laughter. Her reply however put him back into place pretty quickly . . . “No worries sonny, just use the other hand!” she intoned.

Double SNAP! Teacher 2, Smartarse, 0.

And there you have it. When liars lie and w***ers w**k you just gotta sit back and expose them all – cops or crims. Too bad guys and girls, cops and crims, when you rip me off, or lie to me, or lay malicious charges agaisnt me, you’ve gotta be prepared to be exposed for who you really are.

So, I asked Sgt Nathan if he could give me his full name, exactly as he first introduced himself to me, a big long pompous name with Samoan titles and so on. He refused. What I wanted to say would have been something like “Oh so you’re ashamed of your own name are you?”. I didn’t but it did make me wonder why before when he had “control” of me his name was very important but that when he felt that there may be trouble brewing, he didn’t want me to know it. “You will get it on the Summons” he said. Sure, Sgt Nathan, I can wait! I asked if I could take his photo. That was decent of me eh? “Nope, not until later.” “When later?” “After the court case.” OK Sgt Nathan, I’ll do exactly that – I’ll wait until after the court case before I take your photo and share it with the world.

Boy some people make me mad! There really is just NO NEED for this sort of BS.

Now just in case you think I’m Samoa bashing and what I say is bad for tourism, I have today arranged for a young cop from Faleolo and his wife to receive a SWAP award for excellence in the line of duty. A young copper by the name of Tony says to me “I’m just doing my job” whenever I thank him for being diligent, honest and actually doing the work, which is NOT the norm here. One day he and his wife will meet the PM, maybe even have dinner or lunch with us and he’ll have a memory and a photo to treasure. Another lady by the name of Sara (pronounced SALA) will be lifted up in the same manner too – her crime good deed? She slips in a couple of extra pancakes into my bag and greets me by name. Many of the others hike the price or try to short change me. Genuine caring service here sticks out a mile and my heart is to reward people who do good for the country and tourism.

So now that I’ve dumped on poor Sgt Nathan, I’ll balance it up with another idiot bad cop . . . a guy called Onassai out at the Faleolo Police Station who rented a car off us and still owes us money. Weeks later. I only go into the station every few days now to ask for it. It’s a waste of time. He’s never there. All the big cheeses say “Oh dear, tut tut, we’ll charge him with bringing the Police force into disrepute if he doesn’t pay you”, but of course nothing happens. 10:1 nothing will happen either. Actually, things might now, because Tuila’epa asked me the name of the cop that screwed us still owes us money. Maybe that might be brought up at his meeting with the Commissioner? Ouch! Might pay to sort out your bill pretty quick methinks Onassai!

Look I could go on and on but you get the idea. Things don’t run in Samoa like they do in the rest of the developed world. I’ve worked out how to get action here. You don’t leave it with the cops here. There are 20 policemen and women who share one car out at Faleolo. You’ll wait 2 weeks before they start the investigation. In stead you offer to drive then to the crim’s house and take the crim to the Police station for them, NOW, yes, in YOUR car! You feed them with pies and coke and smokes and they love you for it because half the time they’re out of smokes and hungry without any cash. You listen to their dirty jokes and laugh with them and you smile and wave as you pass through their checkpoints in the road like you are a great friend for life. Bribery and corruption? Not really – it’s just the way things work here; greasing the wheel is more like it.

And that brings me to the last story for the night . . . I watched as a visitor to a public office today dropped a note onto a secretaries desk on his way out the door. “Buy yourself some lunch!” I am told he said in Samoan (this was 4.45pm on a Friday afternoon). Hmmm. I though it was a $2.00 note. In fact, calm as cucumbers, the staff exchanged the note for five ten tala bills off one of the richer dudes in the office and split it amongst themselves $10.00×5=$50.00!!! It was a bloomin’ $50.00 “tip”. Whew! I wish I worked in this office I thought!

Samoa – that’s how things work here – don’t you just love the place?

FEEDBACK RECEIVED 24/12/2010:

Just read your article re Bad Cops, good cop where you detailed your encounter with the police.

I have had maybe a dozen encounters with the Police in Samoa and these are just a few of the stories.

The police are held in high regard in the Samoa culture and all have been through a selection, induction and vetting process.

Ummm? I beg to differ, so much so that I wonder if we are talking about the same country! They are definitely not held in high regard – not when you get through the cultural niceties and listen to the people talk from their heart about corruption and selective enforcement. In the villages my experiences has been one of overwhelming contempt for the police who are seen to be intruders and are certainly not welcome. In fact it is so bad where I live (Satapuala) that my landlord has had a ban on Police entering this property and advice I have been given is that the Police avoid involving themselves in the entire villages of Faleatiu and Satapuala. Village law is constantly offended by Police presence, stones are thrown at Police vehicles and in one recent case in Savaii reported by Samoa Observer an entire village descended on the Police station to remove a “suspect” who had been arrested. The default setting for the Police is to DO NOTHING so as to respect Village justice systems. They actually EXPECT charges to be withdrawn as a Fa’a Samoa solution overrides Western-style policing processes. One thing I think you are simplifying here is that there is a big cultural difference between the way that Palagi and Samoan justice systems work.

If you look down and continue to publish such things then you get what is coming to you.

Is this a threat? You are absolutely right though – I will get what I deserve, but think about this . . . if I speak the truth then the world will know and thieves and the corrupt will go to jail. Hiding the truth behind a veil of secrecy and cultural pretence will achieve nothing good in the long run. In fact I think that my “looking down” as you call it is moderated and as one person told me, that I “write generously”.

For your information, the Samoa police do know how to utilise the internet, they do know how to enter in your URL and read all the information you publish. They are not as dum as you may think!

Blogging from within Samoa is definitely a challenge. I have to balance my own “safety” with the desire to lift Samoa through increased foreign investment and tourism initiatives but basing this all on truth – not pretence and spin. I appreciate your comments as many would not bother to share with me. A lot of care and thought goes into every post, balancing the personal with philosophical and revelations that could potentially harm as well as lift up.

For your information the last few months the PM has been working with the Police Commissioner (particularly in regards to the Apia police station) to reign in corruption – the very thing I have experienced and share publicly. There’s a lot more to my blogging than just one Palagi spouting off.

Running to the PM every time the police come calling and then publishing it does not help either. I cant imagine the Samoan tax payer paying for the PM to sit there and try to help every single person like you that goes running to his office. Anyway, if the PM did become involve, then I call that intefering and corrupting the system.

Koko Samoa boy.

You misunderstand. May I please put this into context? I have been working with and for the PM for some months now. He has actually ASKED me to keep him informed of all matters of concern. He knows I am a target and WANTS to protect me. For the record from what I’ve seen he actually wants to and does make himself available to anyone “that goes running to his office”. Except for John Campbell who seems to have got the short straw with Tui, he is an extraordinarily approachable man and I’m sure that his involvement in the matter was very professional whatever it was.

You also published a photograph of a young boy selling koko samoa. This boy obviously trying to earn some extra dollars for whatever. At least he was selling them in the evening and not in the middle of the day when he should have been at school.

Taking photos of someone’s son (without parental consent) and then posting it on the internet for the world to see and associating it with your views and comments is unethical and possibly not something the Samoan media will do. And what will happen if this boy’s parents found out?

Hopefully they will be treated the same as any other parent who sends their children out to sell on the streets. Underage street vendors are illegal. Breaking the law appears to be quite OK to you if it is not during school hours and if the family needs money. You appear to be putting potentially family shame for being caught out ahead of the law. There are thousands of other parents in Samoa who would love to do the same thing but they choose to obey the law. I’m definitely not the Samoan media. I am a blogger writing about my personal experiences in post-Tsunami Samoa, primarily for Palagi. The photo is a lovely one, snapped just as he was lifting his hand up to do the fingers thing for the camera. It’s not the boy’s fault – as I said in the post he was sent out to sell by his parents. The boy had a neat smile and it hurts to say no to his offer, but if you buy from underage street hawkers you just reinforce the behaviour. For the record I have other photos of underage hawkers going back over a year. I have even seen horrendous pictures of other serious crimes in Samoa, such as commercial turtle poaching in the Aggie Grey’s Lagoon area by Manono boats. Rest assured that if I really wanted to ping people I could have done that many times over. I simply chose this photo because I took it the same day that I wrote the post; I like the photo and it fitted in with the theme of the post. If the parents are shamed because they break the law and got/get caught out, too bad! Just don’t do the crime.

Manuia le kirisimasi

Manuia le kirisimasi

I‘ve spent the last two weeks in daily company of Tuila’epa Lupesoli’ai Sa’ilele Malielegaoi, the Prime Minister of The Independent State of Samoa. This was an extraordinary time, in which a friendship developed as the two of us sussed each other out, talking daily of our own issues and then engaging in dialogue over the future of Samoa.

[Pic: Dennis & Tuila'epa at the opening of The Airport Lounge, a business now closed on the recommendation of the PM. "I want you out of the villages and in town", he said. When the PM wants something in Samoa, it happens.]

He would talk to me and teach me about his past achievements, and the Samoan way. I would talk of my ideas and teach an aging man the intricacies of the Internet and principles of viral marketing, all the while spilling the beans on ideas that could shape the future of Samoa, and lift his people, his country and his political career.

The end result of all this engagement was Tui’s approval today of a short term advisory contract for me to help his country understand the importance of using the Internet wisely. Thus, with a single sentence completed a journey that started 13 months previously and a journey that had stagnated, with no apparent hope of progressing, except for those two little words when put together precede most powerful things: “But God!”

Now I get suspicious and sometimes very annoyed with people who tell me “God said this!” and “God says that!” I think who the **** do they think they are anyway, so I’m acutely aware that the words here may cause offence to some. Sorry in advance. The problem I have is this – if God DID actually say this and do this, then if I fail to speak the truth, then I would fail the Lord, so from a “semi-reluctant Christian” here goes. Bear with me!

In late October 2009, I awoke at 3.00am in the open Fale in which I was being billeted, in a small South Coast village called Fusi, within the district of Safata. There is little other way to describe the events of that fateful morning, just a few weeks after the Tsunami that stripped away a large portion of the South Coast of Samoa and decimated Samoan tourism, than to say that I had a very real encounter with the Lord.

When I awoke I was crying inconsolably. I engaged in a prayer (or should I say discussion with the Lord) that lasted some few minutes and then continued through the early hours of the morning and thereafter into the entire week that followed. For five and a half days following, I seriously wondered whether or not I was going insane with so many thoughts and ideas coming into my head. I would oscillate between thinking that I had “lost it” and certain that I was hearing the voice of God, then only to come back to a sane mind thinking through the lessons from life and business that I knew so well, and then into a creative spurt of “what ifs” and possibilities that “could” happen “if only”.

There was hardly an hour that would go by without something that would trigger tears in me – a miracle, a chance meeting, a word of knowledge when I would know things or see things or hear things that could only have been from the Lord, or from the mind of a lunatic. And this continued unabated for almost a week while I lived in the ‘zone’, whatever that was!

In this week of revelation, I developed profound solutions to Samoa’s tourism marketing challenges. I conceptualized business plans, principles and ideas that would shape my life for the next year or so, and cause me to sell all and relocate to a country that, to put it politely, hated me. They hated me for who and what I represented – an intelligent Palagi middle class white male with attitude. A guy who just wanted to help. A guy with money; extreme wealth by comparison, who knew more than they did and fitted in like a square peg in a round hole in a culture that was as far from mine as I could imagine.

I was a man thinking and dreaming of the future of a country, what it could be, and what I could help make it, amongst a people who thought only of today, or if it was a Saturday then maybe they could extend their thinking to the following day Sunday and preparing the food.

A man of white skin with intensity and passion to boot, amongst people of dark skin and not a care in the world. A man with a deep personal faith amongst a people nation churched to the hilt for a century or more.

It would never work.

It could never work.

It did never work.

The Prime Minister spent hours explaining the intricacies of the Samoan ways of doing things “Fa’a Samoa” and I would stare intently at anything remotely near his face desperately trying to understand and remember what he was saying, but probably failing miserably.

Gradually I would get the picture. Dennis, you need the PM’s support and protection on this one – this is not your cup of tea!

In turn I would spend hours trying to explain the difference between the Internet and content, how the Internet was like a pipe, but that the words and pictures on the Internet were like water contained within the pipe. People wanted to drink the water. They didn’t care about the pipe.

Gradually Tui started to get the picture. His own website needed attention. His Wikipedia page needed correction. The world was on Facebook and he did not know what that was, but he started to see how it was necessary to show to his people that he needed to engage with them more – in person and online.

Then I would talk about how to use the Internet for a purpose and he too struggled to comprehend the significance of the others’ words. It was his turn to focus and try as hard as he could to hear and understand from someone in a different generation and a different world about how things could be better and SHOULD be better for his country.

I stopped after an hour or so and said to him, “Tui? Do you remember the first time I came to see you? Almost exactly a year ago? Do you remember that the first words I said to you, nervously, were ‘I believe the Lord . . . ‘? And here I am now a whole year later and many of the ideas that I believe that the Lord gave me are now coming into fruition?” It was a special occasion for me. I trust for him too.

I had invested everything I owned into Samoa and lost much. I still had some of the shirts off my back, but many of my clothes had been lost, stolen or used for rags. My tools were down to a half of their original number – expensive power tools stolen by staff I had loved, taught and mentored as a family. Computers, kitchenware and possessions I treasured gone, smashed, broken, lost or stolen by series of people who had different value systems and lifestyles from mine. An $8,000.00 photocopier means nothing to an angry Samoan who will throw it out the door like a coconut if it suits him.

And it seemed as if the world was against me as time after time people who should by rights have been helping me undermined my business efforts, and our investments into property were devastated by angry, greedy people.

And there came a time that those of my own race, colour and country too seemed to dump on me, standing up for their own rights, for which I would eventually pay the price.

In the darkest hour, when the walls were closing in, I could only think back to the time of the first crisis, when the people of Fusi changed the rules on me and I found myself alone, broke, abandoned and praying the simple but deep words, “Well Lord?”

God doesn’t take blame that easily. His reply contained the very same profound words to me, “Well, Dennis?”

Snap!

And there is the key . . . it was as if God was saying back to me “where is your faith now? Is it real or was it fleeting? Do you trust Me or are you a quitter?”

Don’t you just love it when that happens? Like when you have to take responsibility for your own decision making? So the question I had to answer then was this, “Were the experiences I had in Fusi, Safata truly those of the Lord, or were they perhaps those of a self-deluded man?” If they were of me, then I may as well head back to home forthwith. If they were of the Lord, then I would be looking at another occasion where all was lost “But God . . .”

A year later and another crisis and another “But God . . .” moment had arrived. This time however I knew that the Prime Minsiter was the key, and I was engaging with him meaningfully.

The PM had already established that he knew enough to know that I was good for the country; “An asset” he said and today he advised me that he wanted me on staff and liked all of our ideas and projects, yes, ALL of them.

What happens going forward will be good. It will be good for Tui. It will be good for Samoa Tourism. It will be good for his people and his country. We will establish a Task Force, build a team and progress forwards with good basic Internet marketing stuff. It’s all bread and butter to others skilled in implementation because the big picture is already agreed.

Over the years ahead, people will variously come and go as they choose. Some will grab the vision and run with it. I’m sure that there will be challenges and conflicts along the way, but the foundation of whatever develops will always have been because of what I call “The power of one”. One man listening to the Lord and having the faith to step out and push through enormous challenges until the man at the top said “Yes! I understand that this is what the country needs, and yes, I want you and your ideas”

The details of who does what and when and how matter not. The vision is set and there is hope for the future.

And the reason, for it would have been lost for all without it?

But God . . .

It was His vision. It was His careful hand-holding and encouragement to a very scared man speaking to the head of the country the immortal words “I believe the Lord . . .” but a year later the leader agreed and a new journey begins.

God knows!

They crucified Him, basically because He shot straight. You can’t tell the ones in control of nasty things the truth without consequences of some sort.

As one who has pretty much sought the truth since childhood, I get turned on by finding things out. Facts, understanding, genuine relationships and new learning all excite me. Power, politics and BS turn me right off.

I don’t mind if someone steals from me as long as when they get caught they return the gear, apologise and get on with life, but when they lie about it to boot, I see red.

[Pic: Yours truly in the SWAP-mobile with a beautiful Hibiscus flower - a deep maroon centre out to a pretty pink petal. Isn't it neat how flowers don't lie to you, betray you or steal from you?]

We’ve had a few situations where people have been taking things that are not theirs around here in Samoa. They have a different take on possessions in Samoa. “What’s yours is mine” seems to be the general thinking here.

We recently had occassion to ask all our staff to take a break while I tidied some things up. They took more than a break; they took over $10k’s worth of gear when they left – darn. I hate it when that happens – AGAIN!!

I’m sort of getting used to it, actually. Over the last episode, I really just walked around and said – “Oh well there’s another item I don’t have to try to protect any more!” and “Oh well, I knew she was a liar and a thief, so I guess this is just what happens here in Samoa!” and get on with life.

It’s got to the stage that I actually expect it now, you know, like there doesn’t really seem a point to owning a hair cutter? Why would I spend a couple of hundred Tala on a machine that I can cut my hair with when the locals all just go to Ati down at the hairdresser and pay him $10.00 for a chop? What right do I have to have a fancy machine anyway when noone else around me has one?

So out it goes, probably to get smashed or broken in the mud in a week or so, along with the staff who now try to make me out to be the bad guy because they don’t have free accommodation and free smokes and free food and a job anymore.

Our last SWAP Ambassadors over here left in a big hoo-ha. The guy was all upset over something that was important to him and he demanded that we remove his details from our website and that he would never have anything to do with me or the Mickey Mouse organisation that we ran etc etc etc.

Gimme a break mate! How about we speak some truth into this whole thing rather than go off on some wild tangent in the figment of your imagination. Nope! He wouldn’t have a bar of it so the accusations fly and the sum total of it is that I’m the bad guy and . . . [whatever]!

Everyone gets angry every now and then, and there are two types of anger that I’ve seen. One is righteous anger, the sort that spells more indignation than hate. The other is selfish anger; the sort that spells more manipulation than truth.

Over the years I’ve learned that if you listen to angry people very carefully when they are splurting it all out, you can hear all THEIR OWN issues very clearly. I think the shrinks call it transferrence, when they transfer their own issues on to you. Something like that anyway.

I’ve also found that if you speak the truth to the first kind of anger it settles people down as they see the other side of the story and then eventually become the best of mates. But speaking the truth to the other kind of anger causes, well, actually anything on a scale from a fist on the nose to permanent distance as people run from you, don’t want to be with you, want to harm you, bad-mouth you and suchlike.

The good thing about it for a Christian is that we know that God knows all about it and how to deal with it. We just hang onto what He says to do and think about it and it’s all His worry. He showed us, first in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve told a few porkies and then on the cross as Jesus did what He had to do for us all.

I’ve mentioned before that our landlord has a few issues. I copped his fist in my head a few times because I touched a raw nerve. He doesn’t trust me (never has actually) for the reason that . . . wait for it . . . I’ve always told him the truth! You see when people who do not tell the truth (as a way of living) meet people who do tell the truth, they cannot believe that they are telling the truth, so they keep digging to find the lies. They lie so they expect you to lie. When they find out that you’re not lying they often get embarrased and then mad.

Shooting straight again and again and again p*sses them off big-time as they get madder and madder, basically at themselves, but they transfer their anger to the other dude.

I’ve paid a high price for shooting straight over the years, especially in relationships. Sometimes it is clearly worth it as years later people come back to me and in the most meaningful way that they can say something like, “Thank you for saying what you said!” and then quite often they will add something like “Everyone else told me what I wanted to hear, and you were the only one brave enough to say it”.

One day I trust that I’ll reap the rewards for shooting straight. If not, well as they say over here, “That’s just too bad!”

The thinking that the public want to hear the truth is falacy. Hitler, Freud and all their cronies had it dead right when they said, taught and showed that most people want to be duped. Most people actually don’t want to know the truth because they are on the run from it. They mostly already know the truth, and that they are on the run, so there’s no sense in trying to tell them the truth they don’t want to hear.

That’s why any crazy theory that cuts God and accountability out of the equation has such a great and enthusiastic following – like Evolution for example. ‘Please don’t bring any debate into the equation!’ As Casey Luskin points out in this opinion piece inquiry-based science, argument and debate is being closed out in science education – through the media AND in schools world-wide. Shooting straight on Intelligent Design is a sure-fire way to get fired from many institutions world-wide.

A while back I established a large website (www.life.org.nz) that covered the subjects Suicide, Abortion and Euthanasia from a purely factual, independent position. It contained half a million words, almost 1,000 pages and was a world class resource. Our thinking was that speaking the truth about matters of life and death would be appreciated and well received – WRONG! It definitely had a place but people don’t want to know that abortion kills babies and that the condom manufacturers fund the ‘Safe Sex” campaigns and that bumping Granny off may deny her some more special times with her family, or with God.

New York writer Joe Keohane wrote up a fascinating story about facts in the media. He says that researchers have discovered a surprising threat to democracy – our brains.

I quote:

It’s one of the great assumptions underlying modern democracy that an informed citizenry is preferable to an uninformed one. “Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government,” Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1789. This notion, carried down through the years, underlies everything from humble political pamphlets to presidential debates to the very notion of a free press. Mankind may be crooked timber, as Kant put it, uniquely susceptible to ignorance and misinformation, but it’s an article of faith that knowledge is the best remedy. If people are furnished with the facts, they will be clearer thinkers and better citizens. If they are ignorant, facts will enlighten them. If they are mistaken, facts will set them straight.

Maybe not. Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It’s this: Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.

It’s worth the read as he shows how facts can backfire.

I’m currently working with the PM Tuilaepa here to establish a decent web presence for him. He wants to lift his game and the rest of the country, so in time he’ll be on Facebook with a decent website and being Mr Connected as the rest of the world is.

My advice to him . . . “Sir, you have shown me extraordinary grace, support, openness and a willngness to engage over the time we have talked I, forgive me if I offend you but your public profile is the exact opposite. They respect you but this appears to be more out of fear. They do not love you as a leader. We need to engage with the people using the Internet and . . . I proceeded to tell the Big Man what I thought he needed.”

Well if ever there was a time to run, this was it. Shooting straight like this to the PM of a Sovereign State, especially one who is made out to be a dictator and a bully, and publically trashed by a New Zealand reporter is NOT the advice that most would give me.

If I’m exported back to New Zealand, you will know why. If I’m working on the top floor of government house shortly shooting straight will have made a good return on my investment.

Go and shoot straight to someone you know and love right now. You’ve got to do it lovingly and not as a put-down. If they divorce you or whack into you with a fist or a golf club, then you’ll know the real score and you might be able to save yourself a lot of pain in the future. If they love you and get closer to you as a result, well, you too might have a return on your investment.

Best of luck with it!

Obscene Wealth

Compared to my income and financial dealings in the third world, the Western World has comparatively obscene wealth. My wife earns in two days what would keep families around me alive for months in the third world. It’s a shock to the system – a big adjustment is required.

The View

I miss looking at the coconut trees and bananas growing outside my room. I wonder how many more banana leaves and banana bunches have appeared on the plants I know so well in Samoa while I am away. My view from my desk in Glenfield is the roof of the neighbour and a power pylon. Yuck.

The TV

For the first six days I never turned it on. I didn’t miss it and didn’t need it. Give me a PC with Internet accesss and I’m content. I turned the TV on to watch the Saturday movie and promptly I wished I hadn’t. Blood, guts, violence, foul language and sex. The movie. The adverts. The trailers. To the Western world I warn you: it’s gotten noticeably worse in the 12 months since I have been away. Take note people, if you haven’t observed it, you are being subverted by and and will eventually be swallowed by it.

Depth of relationship

I have gone from living in close proximity to the team, working, travelling, eating sleeping and relaxing together into a distance relationship – phone, text, email is no susbtitute for being around each other. It has worked the other way when engaging with my wife, family and colleagues in NZ of course but there is grief when relationships are distanced.

Cold

A warm sun with a cold breeze means two different things in Samoa and New Zealand. In one you seek the breeze. In the other you seek the sun. In one I’m searching out for sox and long trousers to keep warm. In the other I’m wearing the thinest lavalava I can find. I think I prefer the warmer climate now that I’ve adjusted to it. The heat causes me to drink water. The cold causes me to drink flavoured drinks and eat more.

Reductions in miracles

When living on and sometimes over the edge; when trail-blazing in a foreign culture; when leading and bringing cross-cultural engagement; when pushing the boundaries in every conceivable way, a return to a peaceful, structured and organised life reduces the need for the miraculous. A week out of it and I miss that lifestyle. No, I’m not a masochist but I do live, work and play hard.

I am uncomfortable with the unexplainable. I want to understand HOW things happen as well as WHAT happens. When someone is healed from prayer, I cannot explain it and am out of my depth, BUT when an answer to a challenging life situation appears simultaneously to a need, we also call it a miracle. After a year of it I’m very comfortable with that form of miracle, and now expect it whereever I go in Samoa.

Those situations occurred for me many times in the last year. They had to, or I would have been dead or gone. My faith in a loving God that has been with me, preparing the way, straightening the path (and perhaps picking up the pieces!) and generally bringing blessing upon my walk of faith. They are harder to see and experience here at my “old” home.

I think this idea of experiencing and enjoying comfort rather than living on the edge and needing to be close to the Lord, more than anything, is the part that I miss the most about a “normal” life in the West. There is just no need to go deep here. A shallow existence DOing things (which is the norm in the West) compares with the depth of BEing something (which is the norm in a Third World leadership role).

Not everyone is called to charge off into another culture and rock the boat, but if there is one thing I would counsel friends in the West as a result of my last week, it is this . . . Life in the Western world is VERY protected, VERY structured and to my way of thinking VERY shallow.

If you are seeking a closer walk with “He” or even stepping into greater meaning in life, deliberately stretch yourself if you haven’t done this already. It’s worth it.

I‘ve found Tuila’epa to be a man of extraordinary leadership and political acumen well beyond all others, certainly in Samoa. I have heard of others discussing his aptitude with the words “genius”. Perhaps so, but I would classify them as outstanding rather than genius. Supremely confident, he is a man who has run the country as any Samoan High Chief of stature would, with effectively total power.

I’ve also watched John Campbell develop his broadcasting career moving from the political scene into TV and developing a name for himself with a few scoops, and a unique style of operation. I don’t like John on the screen but respect him for his achievements. Sticking to it as long as he has is no mean achievement. The guy must live on “V”! I have in the past found some of his takes on people and situations offensive and quite one-eyed, but I’ll hand it to him – he too is a confident and passionate reporter.

The current ding-dong relates to a question John has asked, and that is “Where has all the money gone?” in regards to Tsunami relief. It’s a good question and John has been stonewalled somewhat in getting the answer from a government and an administration that has made a reputation for itself. Some would say that they have made retention of meaningful information an art-form.

In making his case in his first TV story, John has leaned on the testimony of NZ based Samoans, and people from affected villages who from what I see tend to be opportunist with the arrival of a reporter and a camera. Supporting comments from the public on the TV3 website are overwhelingly positive towards John’s “investigation”. Even though I understand the Samoan environment that to put it politely, leans towards nepotism and other related sins, my take on the story at the time was “that’s a pretty wild accusation, backed up with some pretty dodgy examples.”

A few days after the story ran, the PM said to me in passing that he “had a little problem with that reporter Campbell” at the moment. I chuckled that the PM didn’t seem at all phased by John’s report and had a fair amount of disdain for John’s work. I concluded that either the PM was a very cool cucumber or that he genuinely didn’t have anything to worry about with John’s accusations.

I detailed more of my assessment of John’s first story in a recent post Persona Non Grata. I may be proved wrong but it certainly didn’t stack up to high journalism standards from where I was sitting.

In an extraordinary display of statesmanship the PM personally conducted a Samoan-style dispute resolution between our landlord (who was attempting to unilaterally double our rent) and ourselves as we insisted upon honouring our agreement. I have nothing but respect for the PM of a country recovering from a Tsunami, spending considerable time to resolve matters for one Palagi who had arrived on his shores and sought help. It was extraordinary, even more so when the PM invited both parties to a celebratory dinner to move forward in the spirit of reconciliation.

I missed the evening meal as I was flying out to New Zealand but my team were astounded at the interaction between John Campbell and the PM at the end of the evening when John sprung the PM as he was getting into his car. My word has it that it is lucky for John that he is out of Samoa after his performance. I believe from people in Samoa that at the moment he too may be a persona non grata too if he continues along these lines.

John’s follow-up story continues the same theme – claiming or at least implying that there is missing money and the PM knows where it went to and John Campbell is not going to give up, and JC will get to the bottom of it. A large proportion of comments following the article support John’s campaign to ferret out the truth and get the evil PM and his corrupt cronies in Government.

My take is that John has failed to grasp the cultural intricacies of Samoa; that he has a good subject addressed in a bad way; and that at the end of the day, nothing much will be “found” and nothing much will “happen” as a result.

John refers to the official government report on the Tsunami as the primary source of information and scoffs at the PM’s claims on radio that “All money received has been paid but not all pledged money has been received”. The report appears to me to be a very loose summary document that commences with the words:

This is not intended to be a comprehensive account of the tsunami disaster.

Tuila’epa’s own words of introduction contain:

. . . It is not uncommon to face questions on the final destiny of the assistance and on the effectiveness of supply systems to the communities as well as the overall coverage of the assistance during emergency situations.

The report aims to put such concerns to rest by presenting to the public what was received, and administered by the government, as well as the utilization of such assistance for the affected communities. All contributions received by or made known to Government, regardless of scope, size, volume or dimension, are hereby acknowledged with the heartfelt thanks of the government. The generosity demonstrated in so many ways and so long after the disaster has helped the Government lessen the burden of returning the affected communities to some degree of normalcy as effectively and efficiently as possible.

As much as the government has tried to capture all the assistance particularly those extended to communities outside the government systems and procedures mainly for accountability purposes, it has not been possible to obtain the information from some of the organizations and individuals concerned. Nevertheless, government includes all such assistance in this acknowledgement with sincere gratitude.

In some places donations are documented down to cardboard boxes and containers, yet in others there is opportunities for misunderstanding over large amounts such as the phrases “Pledged – to be received”, “Lightly tagged to [subject]” or “To be received”.

I wonder why John cannot or won’t supply the PM with written questions. I don’t think Tuila’epa is a man that can be pushed around quite like some of John’s other “victims”. I’d’ just supply him with the questions and get on with it. Suggesting that the TV3 studios are open for him to visit is of no interest to the leader of a sovereign state. Who is John Campbell to the man who has run his country longer than . . . well, I’ll stop there before I too cause offence!

I question the effectiveness of the confrontational style of investigative journalism that John is employing in Samoa. I have learned that causing offence achieves little in a land where saving face reigns supreme.

While I’ve several times seen Tuila’epa “play games” with people when he is not accorded proper respect, I have also seen him open up and be quite obliging and helpful when it has suited him. As the consumate politician, I would imagine that Tuila’epa will be strategising how to play John for his own best benefit. If the people who are eligible to vote (effectively only those in Samoa, and not those who have settled offshore) can see one of their own stand up to a “stupid, upstart reporter” then his own re-election chances are increased.

Understand also that while the Samoan people seem to constantly fight and bicker amongst themselves and pull their own down, when confronted by an outside threat, they band together very effectively to repel.

In regards to the issue of misappropriation I think it far more likely that funds have been moved around rather than having been actually “stolen”. Yes I know that politicians look after themselves, and their families and friends. This is common practice the world over, and yes, I know that the Samoan way is to do this a little more blatantly than in the Western World, but I really can’t see corruption to the extent that John is claiming or implying. I would suggest looking sideways rather than backwards for anything not quite right.

For the record, I have spoken to John directly and his Executive Producer offering the services of the same cultural advisor that we use in Samoa. I help all people wanting to do business in Samoa – with introductions and guidance – but for the above reasons, I think that John is “up against it” with this one.

As I said at the start, “My money’s on the PM” this time!

UPDATE

In a communication to John Campbell the Prime Minister of Samoa has offered him another chance to be interviewed. The direct speaking PM has effectively advised John Campbell that he has shown disrespect to the leader of the Samoan people and that he will not stoop to the level of gutter journalism.

Speaking about doing in Rome what the Romans do, it is clear that Tuila’epa will not be pushed around by anybody in the way that John Campbell is trying to do. Samoans win in Samoa, every time. John needs urgent and high level guidance in Fa’a Samoa to resolve his problem with Tuila’epa.

I am a Palagi businessman who currently has more open and frequent communications with the PM than one of New Zealand’s top journalists, simply because I show respect. In a nutshell Tui is just teaching John a lesson in manners – Samoan style. The good thing is that when John does the right thing the right way, I am certain that the PM will be very forthcoming.

For the record, my take on the “missing” Tsunami money is that the PM appears to be on very firm ground and has also informed me of four material errors that John has made – and this aside from the matters of demonstrating respect to a foreign Prime Minister.

Those also accusing the PM of malpractice have failed to produce serious compelling evidence of fraud or corruption. Even the Samoan opposition’s complaints are quite anaemic.

UPDATE 2.

In a recent news story run by the Samoa Observer John Campbell is quoted as saying that he doesn’t understand the Prime Minister of Samoa:

I don’t even understand the Prime Minister’s letters now

For those with even an inkling of an understanding of cross cultural issues, nobody need say any more about this subject . . .

Dear John, you just said it! It’s what I said to you on the phone – you do not understand. You have a fully Western world cultural approach and bias that you cannot see because you are too proud. Huimble yourself my friend and you will start to understand.

Dear John, I’ll give you a clue; the PM is playing you like a fish caught on a line. You’ve taken the bait ‘hook, line and sinker’. Samoans will never again be ruled by foreigners and certainly not foreign journalists. The current PM has been in power for 12 years and to say that he is no fool is an understatement. Like I have had to do over the last year, I encourage you to wisen up in your understanding of Fa’a Samoa if you want to do business in Samoa. Samoa has a fiercely independent spirit but it is a rich culture that runs VERY deep. You are currently being fooled by things on the surface. They have a saying here that the higher the coconut crab climbs the coconut tree the more he can see. My friend I suggest that you start climbing the coconut tree.

Dear John, as an aside I find the events surrounding your spat with Tuila’epa highly entertaining in that while you struggle to gain 10 minutes with him, last week I spent 8 hours talking face-to-face with the PM on a whole bunch of subjects, including you, and it came very naturally. Yet I tried probably twenty times to contact you and Pip while I was in New Zealand leaving messages with MediaWorks reception and on Pip’s answerphone AND cellphone! You said you wanted to talk to me and I want to help you. I tried but your team has ignored me, or couldn’t be bothered to return a call. In my mind this is even worse than what you claim the PM is doing to you, which is essentially just dictating when and where and what will be discussed on your programme!

Dear John, my cultural advisors have been awaiting your call for weeks so that we can help you understand the other side of the story. When you DO want to genuinely understand the PM and Fa’a Samoa, you will find everyone in Samoa very willing to help you. Until then one can only assume that you are more interested in your own agenda than establishing truth and understanding.

UPDATE 3

Aussie politician gets pretty direct:

…we think that those particular reports from that NZ journalist are frankly rubbish…

Ouch!

Might pay to get on the phone to me and our cultural advisors, John?

UPDATE 4

Rarely will you see such a public thrashing of a major journalist as this: http://bit.ly/ejrnUz.

THE SCORE: Tuila’epa:3 John Campbell:0 Game, set and match.

Hillarious how a politician can have such a sense of humour, mischieviousness and dignity at the same time! You’ve really got to hand it to Tui on this one!

UPDATE 5

While only posted in February 2011, these articles were undoubtedly written previously:

Pursuing the news is not always truth-seeking (which while she is a little repetitive does spell things out well) and Campbell Live’s hidden agenda. This latter article focuses on one aspect only of the whole saga – TV3′s unbridled quest for ratings. I think the author is disingenuous to John and has not practised what he preaches about good journalism. I know for a fact that John truly believed in his story, certainly to begin with. I know for a fact that he genuinely did not understand Tuila’epa, and he clearly doesn’t understand the finer details of Fa’a Samoa. It is also clear to me that he was set up by a rival news organisation to Savali News. Tui himself aludes to this and the other newspaper seemed to take pride in their “assistance” to John when he was here. I wouldn’t say that John was deliberately set up, but I would say that he fell foul of cultural misunderstandings, and got used by people who had an agenda. I also think that he and his team struggle to comprehend what the h*ll went wrong!

I arrived in Samoa in early October 2009 just a few days after the Tsunami. It is just over 52 weeks later that I now complete this writing.

[Pic: Smiling Samoan girl. Children are the same the world over, happy to laugh, smile and see the world from innocent eyes. Oh that we could return to those simple days! The Good Book records Jesus exhorting us to this simple task - to become like a child. So easy to say, yet too humbling for most. Samoa can be a humbling place.]

In the preceding pages, I have shared the many (often painful) experiences of the last year. I’ve lived, loved and been loved and hated more than any normal experience of ten times this period. I’m not alone in this phenomenon. Many outsiders experience the same difficulty adjusting to Samoa. Now that I am unwelcome in two villages and only just avoided a ban from a third village, one has to ask what I did to generate so much ire.

I’ve joked that as the captain of my ship that I never see anything but smooth water from the bridge – the wake is behind of my vision. In Samoa, by the trailblazing nature of what I was doing I caused a lot of pain for people, mainly through misunderstanding. Return visits to villages were often stressful until the waters were calmed. There have been many reasons for this tension but as Tuila’epa, Prime Minister of Samoa so accurately pinpointed within seconds of his dispute resolution, I had failed to understand Fa’a Samoa.

Oh yes, I knew what Fa’a Samoa was even though I wasn’t Samoan, but matters of the heart are not matters of knowing – they are matters of feeling. Respect for a culture cannot be entirely intellectual but must come from deeper within.

Engaging with post-Tsunami Samoa as I did has cost me pretty much everything I own but I’m now very much wiser for the experience and this ‘Palagi coconut crab’ has climbed the coconut tree just a little higher, meaning of course that I have a greater vision or understanding than before.

I did a little favour to the family of a man who had been with me, like a brother, for a few months. He had fallen, again, and was lying and then stealing, and then making false accusations against my team and me. Upon making a complaint to the Police and seeking prosecution, I felt that it would be helpful to the family to hear from me; to hear that I understood; that I had tried to help the young man, but had failed. So I wrote a letter and had my PA deliver it to an Aunty who was a secretary to a Minister in Government.

I was wrong. The letter caused more offence and I am now banned from their village. This is the reply I received:

Dear Mr Smith

It is also with great sadness for me to have received your open letter (not in a sealed envelope) to our family regarding [name of the boy]. Talk of being professional.

For your information, [name]‘s choice to join and help you was entirely his without our knowledge or approval. Terms, conditions and pay for his employment, I would have thought you discussed with him and he would have understood, agreed, sealed and signed approved by both of you prior to his employment.

I was taken by surprise at your allegations etc. against him mentioned in your letter. I find it unbelievable and unbecoming behaviour from a member of my family. We have been brought up by God-fearing parents and that is what we are.

I am sorry for what has happened if it is true. However, I am sure [name] too has his own frustrations, grievances and evidence to rebut your serious allegations agaisnt him. I will also make and appointment for [name] with your patron [The Prime Minister, Tuila'epa].

First concern – a hand delivered letter not in an envelope. No thanks that I bothered or cared enough to contact them. Nope, I caused offence because somebody could have seen the contents and shamed her family. Fa’a Samoa: 1.

Second concern – They are innocent as a family. The boy did something without family support. We therefore must have known and realised this. Fa’a Samoa: 2.

Third concern – About conditions for her boy’s employment. Ummmm excuse me, we said that he was a liar and a thief. We never mentioned a job. There never was any job. Please don’t let the facts get in the way of things, OK? We’d caused the problem. Fa’a Samoa: 3.

Fourth concern – indignation and denial. Oh how dare you? It could never be! You must be the one lying! Yeah sure. I sold up and relocated at great expense to make false accusations against some innocent kid that I’ve used and abused for the benefit of Samoa? Too bad. Fa’a Samoa: 4.

Fifth concern – He’s got a beef with me? Oh I see after the free food, cigarettes and fun stops, he has a grievance? Ah but the fact that he is not “working” for us any more has to be explained in case somebody thinks that their little angel might not have been an angel? Yup. Fa’a Samoa: 5.

So I’m now banned and hated by an entire family, and village. Why? Because I didn’t do it the right way. You can’t make allegations like that in Samoa. You go to the family and they will fix the problem, quietly, so nobody knows and everybody saves face. I didn’t. In this culture I was wrong. I pay the price.

In mid 2010 we entered into a contract with a rural village landlord for the lease of our land and buildings in Satapuala for The Airport Lounge. We assessed the realistic value to us of around $500.00 per month. So when we asked what he wanted for the rent, the guy offered us a rent for only $300.00 – $400.00. I said that I would pay $500.00 per month but at a flat rate for 6 years. He was delighted. I asked for a legal contract with a lawyer and he agreed, but something unusual happened. Later that day I felt led to by-pass this step of a legal contract and instead do business with a handshake “between two Christian brothers, with God as our witness” (exact words). He was enthusiastic about this and was clearly pleased.

For a Palagi businessman it’s well advisable not to do ANYTHING without a contract in Samoa so I wondered why I felt led to do something so “unwise”. I understood why later on when the wheels fell off because I learned first-hand that Fa’a Samoa can be more important to some people in some situations in Samoa than our word before the Lord is. Extraordinary, but understandable when you realiswe the power that Fa’a Samoa can have on people.

All went well until the sign went up on the road. The SAME DAY, the demands for more rent started coming in, mainly from the landlord’s wife. “Please pay another $250.00 per month for the sign.” “Please pay another $250.00 for [this and that]“, and finally settling on a written demand for $1,000.00 per month, a 100% increase in rent the DAY that the sign went up!

I’ve spent my life dealing with liars and crooks and I thought quite simply, “Like hell!” then moderated my thoughts to “Over my dead body!” and then to “We’re going to see about this . . . “

World War 3 had begun.

A written reply from us was the first real shot in the war. “We reject your increase outright and we demand that you honour the contract or we will go to the media, post the details on the Internet, their LDS church leaders, the Village Chiefs, and the Prime Minister himself” was the essence of our “communication from hell!”

Basically my thinking was pretty simple, I didn’t like investing $30,000.00 into construction and fit out just to have this “goon” up the rent on me before I have even made a buck. Furthermore they were CERTAIN to do it again and again if they had gotten away with it once.

So the second salvo was his. Four shots actually. I ended up with a Samoan fist in my head, four times. I don’t understand the Samoan language, even less when the speaker is simultaneously launching themselves and their fists at me and my head. I stood my ground however and let the witnesses explain this angry landlord’s rhetoric to me later.

My crime was that I had become a threat. Standing up to a Samoan man on his own land, and especially involving the Prime Minister was the most provocative thing I could have done – bar nothing. This was his land and he didn’t care for a minute about any contract or any words such as “God as our witness” or even the Prime Minister, he was just so livid that anyone could possibly assume any rights over HIS land.

He’s got different thinking; a peasant or village mentality with no comprehension of business reality for us. The people of the village had told his wife that she should be getting extra money for the sign (and other things) so she dumped on him relayed the essence of the message to him, they fought like crazy discussed the matter and then things got out of hand fast.

Very fast.

A Samoan fist always wins over a Palagi head – certainly mine, anyway – and I really don’t like people who punch me.

I vacated fast, lodged a complaint with the Police and trotted on off to the “big man” as they call the PM affectionately in Samoa. Confident that common sense and justice would prevail, I was quite taken aback when the PM spoke firmly at me in the reconciliation meeting that followed a few days later. He explained to me that I did not understand Fa’a Samoa and that this was the cause of the problem between us.

WHAT?????? The dispute was about money. EVERYTHING is about money in Samoa!

That the other party had breached contract, lied repeatedly, changed their minds a hundred times over five months, been abusive, evasive, unfriendly, threatening, accusatory and generally everything you would find from a jail and not a church was beside the point.

I was also waiting for an apology for what he did (like breach contract, lie to the PM so that MY reputation was potentially damaged, and for punching my lights out), not what he said he did (like “I only held his chin and threatened him!”). But things don’t work that way in Samoa. I appeared to have been in the wrong!

I was very clearly missing something here, but I rolled with the punches, thinking that maybe the PM was all about show, to save face for the “enemy”.

I understand from my PA after the event (the PM spoke in Samoan to them) that the other party too got a grilling and he had told them what HE wanted.

Tui wanted me to stay in the country. He said that they were to look after me and my gears for three months. He wanted us out of the villages and into the city. He wasn’t worried about money things, and he clearly wasn’t worried about stupid contracts or deals or who said or did what or when.

Agreement sorted – we do what the PM said – all is well, certainly Fa’a Samoa style. In my first week in Samoa I had learned to go with the flow – to do it their way. The rule is simple. Palagi clothes; Palagi foods; Palagi anything doesn’t do as well as Samoan, when in Samoa. They say, “When in Rome, do as the Roman’s do”. Ditto Samoa.

It took a few days and a second meeting with the PM for the penny to sink in, but it did. So now, when the man at the top speaks, that is it. It is final and we’re all getting on with life.

And me? And my Palagi sense of justice? Get used to it Dennis. This is Samoa. Forget your losses, the fact that these guys lied through their teeth in front of the PM and that they are prepared to lie even more to get more money. I’ve built our business upon integrity, where our word is our bond. Implementation is sometimes a challenge but my heart is always straight up. All that is useful for here in Samoa is to open you to pain and to show the man above you who you really are. What DOES matter is what HE says about something.

Relationship is everything. It is too in Samoa but the relationships here are built around the Samoan cultural practices and values they call Fa’a Samoa (the Samoan way). A large part of this Fa’a Samoa is saving face – it’s all for show as one Samoan explained it to one of our Ambassadors. Causing offence is ultra easy to do for a Palagi. Even just talking to people when you are standing, causes offence and war can result from this if not dealt with properly.

Attempting to hold a Matai on his own land to his word, even when it was sworn before God as his witness meant nothing if offence had been caused. They simply do not care about anything if offence has been caused.

The Prime Minister knew and understood. The problem was solved Samoan style. And as for the injustices and financial losses? We won’t be staying on the land. We know that more trouble will be around the corner – an offence, a change of mind, another fight. Something bad for us is bound to happen. Already they have reneged on two of the promises made when the PM was doing the deal. Too bad!

I have now brought in a well-respected Matai from Faleasiu, Tui Tuigamala (Inga’s brother actually) who is standing for Parliament in 2011. His advice? Simple! Do what the Prime Minister wants. He wants us to get out of the village and come into town where normal business rules apply. So subject to funding issues and the PM’s support, it is very likely that in due course this will happen.

Just this week, Tuila’epa mentioned to me in chatting that he had “a little problem” with John Campbell from New Zealand’s TV3. John had run a story a week or two before that basically pinged the PM for embezzling Tsunami relief funds. The thrust of John’s story was that “using the Government’s own figures” large amounts of money had gone missing.

John had footage of a house without water and Samoan’s grizzling that they had to borrow water from their neighbour. Well excuse me, there is ample evidence of much new water infrastructure and reconstruction work around the worst affected areas; it rains every day in Samoa which makes roof collection very possible and I can show you hundreds of people who do not have piped water and they are nowhere near the Tsunami damaged areas. Furthermore, why would one house have water and another one next door doesn’t?

Not good!

Another key witness in the story was an overseas-based Samoan who stood proudly in front of her great big new home stating that all the money had to come from family overseas to rebuild her mansion (by comparison with those around her) because the government didn’t give her a thing. So she has a right to have a mansion rebuilt at the government’s expense? ALL families who lost a home received the same $18,000.00 WST in construction materials. Government policy. John knew that. Again, not good!

Negative comments were made about houses without walls but if you live in rural Samoa for three days you too will deliberately choose a house without walls over one with walls! You need it to get the cool breeze – day and night.

The story was so obviously missing key components of understanding that my wife felt compelled to post a comment on the TV3 website to that effect. I think the angle John took was wrong, and the story was a little shallow or emotive, but that said, he was actually asking good questions.

Samoa has been the recipient of large amounts of funding and I understand that there have been discrepancies, sometimes very large ones. I do know of one village that we are working in where international money has definitely gone astray and no questions are being asked. But also Samoans have a way of pulling their own down, and it’s a chronic issue so for the most part complaints between Samoans need a little salt!

Samoa is a land of “just a little bit of EVIL”. A good man stands out. Politicians are the same the world over . . . politicians are in power because they know how to play the game. Even Tuila’epa’s political opponents universally credit the man with strong leadership and a straight shooting style. In the short time that I have known him I have observed an extraordinary mix of leadership skills and a man with supreme self-confidence. I can imagine with his power and political acumen that things might not have gone they way Palagi would expect to have or like they would have back home, but if Palagi come to Samoa to “sort out ‘em out” my money will be on the Samoans in Samoa, every time!

So John had created the PM a little problem, with the emphasis on little. I understand that he had arranged for a meeting with the PM and was asked to provide a list of questions prior to the meeting. Something happened and the meeting was cancelled. John and his cameras rolled up to the tail end of an evening dinner with the PM and the SWAP team. He was rather annoyed at the PM’s snub and let rip. My staff were not impressed. A political and media storm has resulted.

“A wasted trip to Samoa!” his Executive Producer explains to me, “We’re getting the run-around and won’t be back again!”

In the preceding week or so, I calculated that the PM had spent somewhere in the order of 11 hours with us or dealing with our matters, it may have been more behind the scenes. Much of that time was dealing with a recalcitrant landlord in the proper Samoan way, giving him the space to lie apologize in the Samoan way. John Campbell has a high-ranking TV programme in New Zealand and couldn’t get 10 minutes with the PM even though he had flown a team in especially to a supposedly prearranged appointment.

The difference?

The approach.

“When you first met me [a year ago],” the Prime Minister said to me recently, “You will remember that I was cold to you. The reason is that I found your approach to me offensive [culturally that is]!”

But a year later and with a different approach, with a Matai in the team who understands the way things should be done and a bit of coaching by the big man, and the doors are opening for us.

A year later too and one high profile media personality is getting the run-around by the man in charge. History is repeating itself. I know too that there are many other hurt, wounded and disillusioned Palagi who have “got done” in Samoa. In the last 12 months I have been given the run-around like you wouldn’t believe, but when we Palagi get off our high horses, and try to understand the people and culture we are engaging with miracles can happen.

I was reacquainted recently with the head of the Samoan Tourism Authority who made mention of my blogging. She suggested that I shouldn’t mention about the rubbish in the streets or shouldn’t knock the churches so much. “We’re trying to build tourism here and it doesn’t look good if you keep talking about it” was the thinking.

My immediate thoughts are not publishable but they revolved around doing something about it so that I could then write about nice things! But fresh from the school of Fa’a Samoa, I simply said to her directly, “I’ll change any word anywhere you want that you think is out of place.”

“Do you really mean that?” she asked.

“Absolutely!” I said. And I do.

And I will probably have a friend for life as a result.

It’s the approach – from the low road, not the high road.

In October of 2009 I found myself caught up in a little rural village in the back of Safata, called Fusi. Never one to pass a new experience, I believe that the Lord opened a door. I entered.

It has been a wild ride, but with another door opening to the man on the sixth floor who wants us to work with him to help rebuild tourism in post-Tsunami Samoa, it may be that the Lord has another challenge ahead for the team, engaging with post-post-Tsunami Samoa.

It could be that we are moving through the persona non grata phase that seems to be so necessary in Samoa before we can get into bigger and better things.

The team is ready and waiting.

What went wrong for my two supposedly loyal staff, who both went the “dark-side”?

I have experienced Samoa “up close and personal” for over a year. I’m well over the culture shock and am able to talk from a position of relative emotional freedom. I have come through a challenging time that created a fair degree of pain but I’m now genuinely pretty much able to laugh it all off. Handling life challenges now in Samoa is a similar stress level to that in my own culture. So “peace now reigns!” and in some ways I’m quite proud of that.

[Pic: Samoa Police Officers Bob, Soma &amp Tony from the Faleolo precinct who provided protection (And yes it WAS needed, and very much appreciated) while retrieving our ice-cream freezer and computer desks from Force's "safe"-keeping in Sigamoga. The boys turfed these and other gears out in the rain when they realised that their cruisy little number was over. These Officers were pretty disgusted with some of the things that they saw happening last week and are highly motivated to "do their investigations" early Monday morning. They will be looking for a Stihl Weed Eater and a Vertical Freezer amongst other things that have probably found their way onto the black market. Sad!]

The more I see of Samoa, the more that I see the same issues that all of mankind struggles with, but just set within a different (Samoan) culture. Except for the passing tourist who will wander in here and enjoy a week or so in Paradise, the glaringly obvious issues that Samoa shows to those who dare to dig deeper are those of greed . . .

. . . and greed is based on pride.

I’ve now had two trusted men come and go, both by falling. The pattern is the same. When we understand the pattern and the issues, we can be wise to learn and protect ourselves.

In a nutshell with my two fallen “lieutenants” it went like this:

• Contact was made somehow and hopes were high from both parties. They both asked me for a job. I looked to employ and achieve gain – both a relationship and a profit. Preferably both.
• In both cases I explained that there WAS no job, but if they joined me and helped me, then when I got to know them then perhaps there could be work somewhere.
• Both boys offered to help – one in return for smokes and food, and the other for a bit of food for his family.
• One of them became like a brother.
• I trained, taught, mentored and showed both boys the good way – no lies, no stealing, have faith and work hard. Both took the concepts on board themselves and both then taught these principles to others.
• For several months both boys’ lives changed – and blessing came. We had good experiences and life had turned around for both of them.
• But temptation came too easily. In one case, money started disappearing. In another, continual little white lies kept on tripping us up.
• Eventually both boys lost the plot and started stealing larger and larger items, in increasing intensity.
• Then, wham! They were caught. When it was all out in the open the real question was not what they did, it was this . . . what would their response to being found out be?

Nobody is perfect. But our true character comes out when we are caught. If we are truly sorry, we will confess and apologise. If we’re determined to do wrong, we will try to hide, try to lie our way out of it and then blame others or try to get even.

The thing with evil is this . . . under temptation, it looks good. But the looks are a deception. If I want to get on a ferry because I have an appointment and there is a long queue, a ten dollar note can achieve this. But that’s illegal. I might do this many times and it will work easily and well.

But knowing that this is how the world works, you grease my palm and I’ll get you what you want builds to another level the next week, when we try this again in another situation . . . and another . . . and another. Before you know it, and without anyone being the wiser, within two generations the country that was “Founded upon God” is now recognised as corrupt. Sure we’re not allowed to say this sort of thing in public, but it is, and everybody knows it. *

So my boys have both had to deal with the Police and a criminal record as a result. Their blessing has left them and we are out of pocket and have lost an employee and a brother.

So again . . . what went wrong?

The justification of theft can be many-folded:

• I need it
• No one will find out
• They can afford to lose it
• It’s only fair because [whatever]
• It’s not really that big a deal
• I have to/have no choice

These are all lies – always.

And from here, the second theft is justified and then the third and fourth and fifth, until a pattern develops.

Some of the biggest criminal catches I have seen involving church leaders always started with a supposedly good man doing good things and losing the plot. Jim Bakker for example strayed off course and slipped up many times before he was caught. It all started at one point, and one time that he can identify. His book “I WAS WRONG” was an incredible read in which he detailed the path that sin takes us down.

I’ve heard many stories and justifications for bad behaviour. A common one over here is that alcohol is to blame. It’s not. In vino veritas. Trouble always starts at one specific point and always results from a conscious decision.

In Tamati‘s case, I believe that it was a conscious decision to steal many years prior and while he knows that it is wrong, the habit has become unstoppable. He held it back for several months with me, choosing to do the right thing, but habit took over and his troubles continued.

In Force‘s case, I believe that he lives by the concept that I have mentioned before, that “in Samoa you have to do just a little bit of evil to get by”. Force consciously chose to steal and lie but there was no need to do so. Choosing to work, to take responsibility for yourself and your family leads to blessing. Taking from others, even if it is just a little bit here and there (by bludging, little white lies or outright theft) is wrong, as the judge will no doubt tell him too.

There are none of us that are perfect. The Good Book makes that clear even if we don’t want to believe it.

It is the response to being found out that is much more important however than the initial crime. I’ve mentioned before that Tamati and his girlfriend Iva showed their true colours when they continued to lie, even though I stopped their court case to give them a last chance to confess and apologise.

The really sad thing is that the man who witnessed all of that, and who was genuinely touched by what he saw with his own eyes, couldn’t in the end learn from that, and failed too to confess and apologise. The price he will be paying is likely to be higher than the first criminal, because those to whom greater responsibility and opportunity have been given, will be judged by a higher standard than others.

I want to share something personally as I close off this Chapter . . . I understand the temptation these men have had to face. We should all be able to understand it because we are all tempted to do things that are not right. But I understand it well because I used to steal and lie too.

The difference between us is that I choose not to. They haven’t.

Here endeth the lesson. May the Lord bless you!

* samoa is easily offended. Calling Samoa corrupt is only done in the tabloids, pubs and privately. It is done frequently. The more PC variant is “It’s all about who you know, not what you know in Samoa”. This merely hints at the elephant in the room.

THAT got my attention. I knew he was ageing, but really, the last post?

It made me stop to read what he was going to tell me. Our last words are always the most important.

I first met this guy in Valley Road Baptist Church in 1970-somthing 1979 or 1980 I think. He was an elder at the time and I was a newbie at the Christian thing. I saw that he went to the altar in tears for repentance over something obviously personal. At the time I didn’t know that people like him did that sort of thing. Now I wished that they all did it a lot more.

Wyn Fountain wrote some kind words for a foreword in my book Lipstick on a Pig. I’ll now step out of the way and let him talk. It must be important.

Perhaps I’ve said them many times before but I want to underscore what I believe is crucial for the future of the church, our nation and the world.

* The first is that:

THE GOSPEL IS NOT MERELY A MATTER OF INDIVIDUAL SALVATION BUT ALSO PROVIDES THE ANSWERS TO SOCIETY’S ILLS.

Let me unpack some implications of these statements. There are several attitudes widespread in the church that must change if we are to see transformation of society.

One is the unwillingness to apply the gospel to the marketplace. Simply praying for revival is not enough, though we would all love to see revival. Too often we are waiting for God to move, when He is waiting for us to move.

We may all believe that Jesus is the answer, but at the same time be unwilling to engage in issues that affect us as teachers, doctors, business people, etc., where we live our lives at least five days out of seven. Pastors are not usually trained to teach more than bible doctrine, personal holiness and matters relating to the church. They will say, “I teach spiritual principles. The members of my church need to work out for themselves how to apply them in their particular environment.”

Their focus is often only on the transformation of individuals, essential as that is, but not the transformation of nations, as with John Calvin, John Wesley and Abraham Kuyper.

Another problem is a wide belief, both amongst Christians and non-Christians, that our spiritual beliefs are a private matter. How much training in our churches focuses on how the gospel can affect society? But if our spirituality is for 24/7, this situation must change or the future generations cannot expect to see any national improvement.

Society will not be transformed merely by praying for revival. Revival is a means to an end. The end is a transformed society. The great commission is to disciple nations not individuals. If revival does no more than revive the local church, history demonstrates that it will be temporary. The existing attitude of local church leadership must change. Elders must accept a responsibility for what is being taught and make sure that the local church is not a mere introverted club waiting for God.

Perhaps like me you have seen those television programmes following train journeys through Switzerland. That beautiful country seems like a huge park – everything is so orderly! I marvel how people who speak four languages seem to work together in harmonious community. But it wasn’t so before Calvin in the 16th century. Geneva was a very smelly place. Recently as I watched one such programme I was reminded of the transformation of Switzerland that took place 400 years ago. Today the Swiss perhaps need to be reminded that their roots are biblical or they will lose what they have.

Why don’t revivals last long? Revivals are a means to an end, but too often we think of them as ends in themselves. The purpose of revival is to bring heaven down to earth. Christ prayed “Thy kingdom come ON EARTH”. While evangelism aims to ‘save souls’, God’s goal is the transformation or ‘discipling’ of nations, not just individuals. The goal of transformation is Shalom, where everything is rightly related, and communities work together in harmonious relationships. True, you can’t transform nations unless you transform individuals. But we must not be satisfied with one without the other.

Which is why, in my view, Switzerland has lessons for people interested in evangelism.

A TIME magazine article a few years described Switzerland as maybe the most orderly country in the world, thanks to the foundations laid by John Calvin. He understood that the principles laid down by Christ were not just for the church or for personal spirituality, but that they embraced the whole of life of society.

So what was Calvin’s genius? How did he effect so much transformation in Switzerland?

Firstly, he believed that the Bible was not only a guide book for personal spiritual; life, but also for every aspect of society; that true Christianity did not concern itself only with church affairs, but with the transformation of every sphere of human life.

Too often we assume the kingdom of God is confined to the churches, yet Calvin used the Bible as a text book for the whole of society. Too many church leaders have told me that it was not their task to engage with the affairs of society; society tells the church to look after the souls of the people and not to meddle in things that they know nothing about

I heard a Muslim say on television that Islam provided a way of life. It was not just a religion for personal spirituality, like Christianity, he said. But is this biblical Christianity?

The leaders of several denominations in southern Russia were asked by the governor what contribution they could make towards the reconstruction of Russia after communism. The leaders of one denomination replied that they could make no contribution because their task was to prepare people for the next life. Yet Calvin saw beyond that narrow attitude, which is still all too common among leaders of evangelical and Pentecostal churches today.

John Wesley, of England, and Abraham Kuyper, of Holland, were two more outstanding Christian leaders who worked towards the transformation of their nations.

Wesley was an Anglican minister who preached to get people born again, but who also set up 10,000 discipleship groups to penetrate society and radically change the culture of the British Empire. ‘Why had God raised the Methodists?’ he asked once, and then answered: ‘to reform the nation, particularly the church, and to spread scriptural holiness over the whole land’. Wilberforce and the Clapham group were inspired by Wesley to work in Parliament for the abolition of slavery.

Kuyper was a Dutch Reformed minister who became prime minister (1901-1905) and whose passion was ‘to see God’s ordinances extended over church, family, school and state’. He famously stated that there was not one square inch of human life were Christ, who was sovereign over all, did not say: “Mine!”. He tried to do for Holland what Calvin had done for Switzerland. We need more Wesleys and Kuypers today!

The most inspiring book I have ever read in this connection, is “TRANSFORMATION” by Ed Silvoso. I wish that every leader in the church today should read it. Buy a copy.

THE SECOND IMPORTANT POINT I WISH TO MAKE IS THAT MANY OF OUR VALUES IN THE WEST ARE NOT SIMPLY SELF-EVIDENT, BUT HAVE SPECIFICALLY BIBLICAL ROOTS.

America’s founding fathers believed it was self-evident that all men had been created equal. Yet like most Westerners today, they did not realise how much we of European heritage had inherited through the constant teaching of generation after generation from the Bible. Go to India, Africa, China or Islamic countries with no biblical heritage and you will very soon find that such values are not valued there. Common virtues, such as equality and dignity of human life, have been generally accepted in the West without the realisation that their origins are found in the Bible. Humanism has assumed these values without recognising their source. As the President of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy, said recently, Humanism is Christianity beheaded.

A well educated Indian told me that he heard the gospel in India, but failed to realise that the gospel was for the whole of life. He had to go to England to see what their heritage meant. For instance in little things such as courtesy on the roads, in India, when one flashed one’s headlights it means, “I’m coming through, make way for me”. In England it means, “You go first”. At the bus stop in England, one gets in line and waits one’s turn, but in India, it is survival of the fittest.

Today we’re not taught that these virtues have their roots in biblical principles. Therefore as Christians we must be bold in asserting that our heritage is based on the Bible because the facts of history prove it. The current corrupting tendencies in society are due to the lack of understanding as to the origins of our morality and culture.

I would urge emerging leaders to research our historical roots, to demonstrate the fruit that comes from such roots. Europe and the West are hugely indebted to the Bible. As the motto of Oxford University declares, the Bible is still a lamp to our feet and a light to our path in Europe and the West

Wyn Fountain

Thanks Wyn

You can’t teach or preach anything over here that begins with, ends with or contains God. Everyone is all “Godded out” and when you do try to speak about God things it just causes their “lights to switch off” i.e. there comes a glassy-eyed blankness that is very similar to the logic block I once observed in a Muslim when I suggested that the Jews had a right to live. The glassy-eyed blankness came over his face and his brain switched off until his seething hatred and fury settled down into more of a manageable determination to “do what he could when he was lucky enough to be able to take some of them out”.

[Pic: A Bill Subritsky crusade at Apia recently. A three night event well attended and appreciated. I know Bill and respect his ministry and faithfulness over many years, but I question the impact of Church preaching on Samoans "churched to the hilt". I think that miracles of healing can be a stepping stone to a greater walk of faith, but real discipling is a lot quieter, is harder, takes longer and best occurs one-on-one.]

So the idea that one can preach here is to put it simply – nuts. The words going on behind the smile inside the vast majority of people I meet is a simple ABCD, just “Another Bloody Christian Do-gooder”. The more the passion and genuineness of the preacher, the more vehement the resistance. Preaching here is best reserved for the rich and famous, and those who stand up the front and know nothing of what is really happening in the trenches. No, that is not a dig at the above ministry!

I’ve said it before that Samoans quote you frequently that “This country is founded upon God” particularly those in power. This belief of course reinforces the status quo. Prime Minister Tuila’epa even goes further than that and is quoted claiming that his government is actually chosen by God*. He is a top politician however who knows how to get things done – both for the country – but also for himself and his party. Anyone trying to take him on is destined to failure unless they have a very long-term view and are prepared to battle one of the best.

In my book Lipstick on a Pig, I shared how my greatest fear when I become a Christian was that I would be sent into a foreign land, to preach the Gospel to a bunch of losers people who didn’t want to hear the message. I was worried about what other people thought of me and I didn’t want to be put in a position of “shame” nor to have to learn another language (I genuinely can’t learn languages for some “brain-technical” reason) nor starve have access to a decent feed whenever I wanted it.

So now I’m in a foreign country doing exactly that! But I understand the culture very well, even though I can’t speak more than a grunt or two of Samoan. (My goal is to be able to count to 10 before I have spent a year here and I’m not doing very well so far, I’m only up to Number 5. Even then I only remember it because I use Maori to remind me). I’m here in a land full of religion, lies and corruption and I hate religion, lies and dishonesty. I’m eating a larger amount of Taro than I cared for a year ago, and I gave up drinking juices over here. All the body wants in 30+ degrees is water. I’d love to make a buck and run a mile but I have a compulsion to do what I’m good at, to share what I have learned in my lifetime, and to make a difference in a few people’s lives.

I can do that here.

I AM doing that here.

So this is an example of how true learning happens and how real teaching occurs, from the last week or two of living fully in a foreign country:

Batter-up . . . The landlord
The landlord and his wife are being real pr**ks immature. They are threatening us (for the umpteenth time) to get off their land, to increase the rent unilaterally, return things that we need that they don’t, and generally act like spoilt little rotten Hitlers, all because of a hundred stupid reasons all based around their own pride and greed.

So according to those in the know, we should get out now, because we’ve chosen the worst family in the village to deal with.

Cool. So what? We’ve got a deal between two men and “witnessed before God” was the phrase used when we did the deal, and anyone who tries to change the deal on us has to face the Witness, because I’ve got a deal and I’m going to stay here and I’m going to hold him to the agreement BREFORE the Witness. You want us out of here mate? Too bad! We’re staying!

Now the context in which this occurred is important. In Samoa a man is Chief of his own land. If he says “get off” you HAVE to get off. Even if the government tries to evict you, the courts will always side with the owner of the land (i.e. the Chief who has occupancy) and whatever he says goes. So it is a very big shame for the landlord for the whole village to know that “The Palagi” stood up to the angry chief and humbled him.

In my books a deal is a deal. God was our witness – as the man said. So the bible says “Your word should be your bond”. Someone theologically minded can find the scripture and pontificate and teach and preach about it but even a Pygmy knows that this is the right thing to do.

I’ll repeat this for the intellectual of us – integrity and honouring your word is “good”. Lies and angry is “bad”. God likes good things and doesn’t like the bad things. And the entire village is starting to get the idea – with the emphasis on starting.

so, it’s now . . .

Bible: One. Fa’a Samoa: Nil.
Life Lessons: One. Teaching/Preaching: Nil.
Strike One.

Next, the landlord got nabbed by a local who recorded a little of his discipline and correction, Samoan-style, on his video-phone. Oops! SNAP!

One of his “boys” had helped himself to one of our cell-phones, hocked it off for a few quid to a mate and then got nabbed. No big deal. The Local mobile company tracked it down, and we got it back minus $15 bucks worth of credit. It happens all the time over here. Nobody’s got anything and if a rich Palagi comes into town with a few phones, just grab one and you’ve scored a few bucks for some smokes.

But the problem was and is this . . . the Landlord (and his wife) have an anger problem. Everybody in the town is scared of them and says that they are mean and nasty and tries to keep away from them. They think it’s all cool because they are King Kong on the land and everybody is doing their command. Nobody can bring them to account for their private “sins” of chaining up a teenage boy and belting the tail teeth off him on his own land – that is UNTIL “The Palagi” has a guest that “happens” to have a cell phone that can record video in the dark and then uses it to catch something that up till now has been nobody else’s business. (And NO! I knew nothing of this until after the event).

So who is going to “teach” this man who is out of control and has an anger problem? His wife? Nope – she beat up one of our boys so badly with a stick that he doesn’t want to come back here anymore. His children? Nope! They’re scared of them and Fa’a Samoa tells then that they have to “OBEY their parents” until they die because the Bible says that (which it doesn’t actually, but hey, that’s God’s business, not mine!). The Pastor? Nope. The Mormons have a 5 year tenure as a Bishop. The landlord’s tenure as Bishop is up and now it’s his brother’s turn according to the grapevine. The same grapevine says that the brothers fight amongst themselves too! I’d believe that too having seen their fury. One of the other brothers is inside at the moment for manslaughter too as far as I know. So now what?

Enter “The Palagi” again who forgives the kid when he is caught the very next day again trying to steal something else, then unlocks the dog clip and chain around the boy’s neck (literally) and says you’re free to go. Then who turns to the landlord and says “Hmmmm, maybe hidings don’t really work?” and the landlord goes very, very quiet and reluctantly agrees that maybe he should think about another way to deal with people that embarrass him.

No teaching. No preaching – just love and forgiveness and some genuinely good things. A bit of understanding, humility, peace and the really GOOD things that make the world a nicer place to live. Yeah sure, they can be hard to do all the time but they do work.

Bible: Two. Fa’a Samoa: Nil.
Life Lessons: Two. Teaching/Preaching: Nil.
Strike Two. It’s getting tense now with only more pitch!

We constantly seek venues for Village Stays. We’ve been working on this new business for almost a year now and it’s finally gone “live” this last week. Our landlord has land that could easily be used for a lovely little Village complex right by the Airport. We talked about it and he wants to do it, even started getting the materials for it . . .

But if you do naughty things to “The Palagi” and threaten to punch his lights out; and if your wife is a gossip and beats up on your staff; and if you lie and try to run away and hide when he comes to talk to you; and if you never say sorry then it could be a little difficult for “The Palagi” to bring more Palagi to stay at your place – maybe?

We were dropping off the cousin of a friend up in the Plantation one day last week, and she casually said – “That’s where the landlord grew up, pointing out a house as we passed by. “Oh that’s interesting”, I said but kept driving . . . “And the High Chief lives up there . . . “

Stop the car!

Excuse me? The High Chief? What? I thought that our landlord was the High Chief? That’s what he told us. “Oh no!” said our friend. “The High Chief is yet to be appointed but that’s the REAL High Chief just over there.”

Well knock me over with a feather. We only do Village Stays with the High Chief OR with the High Chief’s approval, so one thing led to another and now the landlord is very worried. Very very worried, now that he is aware that he’s been found out; that the first Village Stay will be at the High Chief’s place, not his; and that we are friends with the guy that can at one word, banish him from his own village, and even off his own land if he does something not very nice to “The Palagi”.

Oops!

So now we will be having our next discussion with a very much humbled landlord on a much more even playing field. I’ll be itching to say “Screw me now Mr Landlord, and you’ll be facing the wrath of not only the Witness, but your own High Chief”. But I won’t because that’s not needed. He will already have been learning that when you work hard, have faith, and do the right thing, that God will bless you, and that by doing the opposite, trouble multiples.

Bible: Three. Fa’a Samoa: Nil.
Life Lessons: Three. Teaching/Preaching: Nil.
Strike Three. You’re out!

There have been many other examples from just the last week alone where doing the right thing, working hard (and smart) combined with faith have reaped massive learning rewards – our new team members Tara & Tony are coming face-to-face with a straight shooter. No lies, no politics nor any Samoan BS gets past us.

Their learning from a lifetime of church experiences is already eclipsed from a week at the coalface where they can see God’s blessing occurring daily around them as they work hard, do the right things and have faith. They don’t use these exact words, but that is really what they are saying when they go “Wow!” at seeing their new lives unfold before them like a flower.

Sure, I preach and teach while working and doing our thing, but they learn a hundred times more from experiencing this all than from words alone. I’m a trained teacher and I am of the opinion that education in the last century has been deliberately manipulated, with the school system of classrooms, group-think and intense specialisation contrary to the way that Jesus showed us, and the way that mankind was built to learn. (Just think children and parents.) A little wisdom struck me nine months into my teaching career when I twigged that the children in my care were learning IN SPITE of me rather than BECAUSE of me. Sometimes humility can allow a little wisdom to sneak in through the back door!

There’s another word for this imbibing thing, it’s called discipling. I don’t like the word myself because it carries for me the thoughts of having to live in a Monastery, eat bread and water, and walk around a desert preaching a word that nobody wants to hear. But the Good Lord used it and told us to do it, so I’ll live with the phrase for the moment.

I’m back to my Taro and water, still unable to speak the lingo, doing the discipling thing in this tropical foreign land that is sometimes as hot as a desert and full of such unbelievable BS that you can think of out to “get” you . . . but I love every minute most of it because I know that it’s where I’m supposed to be!

Strange how a “greatest fear” can turn out to be your destiny eh?

* As I understand scriptural princples, God is of course aware and permits the installation of a Government. “Chosen” in this context is terminology that implies validation of his position, and therefore by inference, his decisions. Supreme confidence such as this can be because he knows it is true OR it can also be attributed to arrogance.

I‘m a strongly independent thinker, rarely pushed around by social expectation or peer pressure, but there are things I have done deliberately to fit in to the Samoan culture. I wear jandals (this is an improvement on wearing bare feet in New Zealand by the way), a lavlava (imagine an oversized pocket handkerchief wrapped around your waist a couple of times and a breeze between your legs) and an Ula – read “necklace made of wooden beads, seeds or whatever that takes your fancy for the day”. I’ll also choose to sit on the floor when meeting with new High Chiefs (although my body says that is a dumb idea for pretty much the whole time I do) and I eat the root crop the Samoans love – Taro, especially if it is dipped in lots of coconut cream.

(There’s a tip for travellers to rural Samoa. Always ask for coconut cream. You can eat the stones here if they are covered in it. It’s like what I did with my kids for years – slap whatever into a cheese sauce and they’d love it. They would even eat Leeks!)

[Pic: Luis the thief currently "inside". Luis here used to work for us but kept breaking into our compound and containers but finally got caught and put away. Chased one night after getting nabbed, he was "accosted" by another Samoan who dealt with him in the Samoan way. Hint: It involved blood and facial pain. Social pressure to conform requires that visitors accept this as the Samoan way. Passing judgement on Samoan things is offensive especially if it comes from an outsider, thus setting up a challenge for those with different value systems.]

I’m not a Samoan and I never will be. I don’t want to be and can never be anything other than a Palagi, so I do these little things because they clearly like it here when I do. It is a little something that makes things go really nicely when a Palagi looks “nice” in his uniform and engages in a few social graces.

But I can’t speak Samoan for love nor money. I’ve only nailed about 30 words in a year of trying, so speaking the language more than a monosyllabic grunt of greeting or good-bye is a big turn-off for me. I keep trying to tell people that I got 30 something in French at school; somehow managed to get 6% in Latin to my father’s disgust; and actually failed Maori spectacularly at Teachers Training College but was “rounded up” to 50% because I understood the culture well, even if I couldn’t speak more than a greeting or two!

Even after a year, I still find myself saying Thank You instead of Good-Bye, and Good-bye when I want to say Thank You. Even well repeated phrases like “Have a good day!” I have to guess from context rather than learn the words. They all try to teach me when they first meet me and then very quickly give up in agreement when I forget the first word they try to teach me within a minute. I’ve got slow ears and cannot differentiate unfamiliar sounds at all well and I’m a visual learner – not a good start to learn Samoan, I’m afraid.

An acquaintance recently advised someone to “teach me the Samoan way” [nudge nudge]. “He doesn’t really understand the way things happen over here!” was the sentiment behind the words. Oh but I do! Much more than you realize, my friend. I know the Samoan way very very well, but in some things I choose NOT to do the Samoan thing, deliberately.

So here’s a guy living in Paradise who thinks he’s a Samoan some of the time and thinks and acts like a Samoan when he wants, being pulled in six different directions at once with social pressure and cultural “issues”. What to do?

When we discussed this guy’s guidance to “help me understand’ (read: change to) the Samoan way, I said to my colleague, “This is what I will do . . . I will listen. I will listen hard. I will do everything I can to understand what you/your friend is saying, and I will compare it to what I know and do. If it is biblical and better, then I’ll change. But if the biblical way is different, or my way is better for any reason, then I’m sorry, I probably won’t change”.

And then the fun begins. The following is not Samoa bashing; it is just me working out which is the better way. Some examples now . . .

Dealing with bad people 1.

Foreigners cannot own land in Samoa. No exceptions. You can get around the rules by having a company in the name of a mate who is a Samoan (or a Samoan who can help you do whatever) but foreign land ownership is a big no-no and it is a really hot topic here.

The only way to get your foot in the door is to marry a Samoan and THEN you can do things with land, and immigration and so on.

The story I heard was that some Indians I think from Fiji found a great wicket here marrying the local girls, getting land, bringing across their extended family, then booting out the Samoan girl(s) – not sure if the story was a one-off or a pattern of behaviour at this stage sorry.

This skulduggery does and did NOT go down well with the locals, of course. They really do not like to be made fools of. Over a while I learned the details of what happened to the guy . . . he got “run over” while walking down the road. They never found the car that did it.

“The guy’s head got run over by a car tyre and that’s too bad eh?”

“Well, not!” is the clear inference from the story teller here. “That’s what happens here when [people get angry/don't like you/or do bad things!]

Now it’s anyone’s guess why nobody was ever found. Samoa is a small place. Everybody knows everything and everyone. That a hit and run (or executioner’s) car could not be found doesn’t tally with my understanding of how Samoa works. They know very well how to sort out where and who the crims are! There is nowhere to hide here – nowhere!

It is very likely that the people responsible for seeking the offender supported the outcome and then “couldn’t find” the guy. Perhaps something “happened” for those people who were supposed to investigate and they ended up with a little extra [cash] than they had at the beginning of the day! “No, really? you say?” Yes, very really!

The point is that this was a Samoan Way of doing things. I’m really not that much in doubt as to the biblical basis for rough justice like that. There’s none. Eye-for-an-eye is old school. God sent His Son to show us another way. I do understand the feelings inherent when someone rips you off and takes the Mickey out of your value system, but I think there is more to Christ’s message than an eye-for-an-eye.

Dealing with bad people 2.

One of our boys nicknamed a thief who used to work for us: Luis the Lowlife. Picture above. Luis got caught and was locked up for his crimes. Another of our boys Tamati Soma employed him and he too turned out to be a recidivist liar and thief as well. Seems like this Palagi gets only the best employees eh? We think these guys met while inside.

The explanation that Tamati used when talking about Luis’ arrest was revealing. “That guy’s lucky that he stole from a Palagi, because he would be seriously hurt by now if he stole from a Samoan!”

Interpretation: If one Samoan catches another stealing something – they get a hiding. Cops are not interested and anyway you don’t use people from another village (cops) to sort out “village things”.

Dealing with bad people 3.

Our landlord too said that he’d “sort out” anyone who stole from him (fist clenched as he talked). Because I knew that he was a bishop in the LDS (Mormon) church, I just laughed it off, thinking that it was just bravado.

NOT!

One of the lads around here stole a cell-phone from us recently, pawned it for $15.00 and got caught when Digicel, the local Mobile Phone company tracked the phone and phoned up the new owner. The thief and his sister (a girl at the local high school) kept the same SIM card and all!

Any thief is dumb, but this guy wasn’t up with the play – not even 2 degrees. He kept the SIM; used it to transfer money to his own number and then proceeded to call all his mates and rellies. Ummm as if telcos can’t work out what’s happening on their own network? Doahhhh!

All hell broke loose in the Samoan way after this because the theft caused the landlord big time embarrassment.

The Samoan way again is physical. You can’t fine them anything. They don’t have anything to pay with. So the guy got chained up and given a hiding. Um-hmmm. Literally. This is a teenager getting dealt to Samoan style. And no, I’m not making it up or telling tales out of school. It was my cellphone; my SIM: and I arranged with Digicel to trace it. I found out who the thief was and secured the return of it and reported the crime to the Police and the Landlord. I’ve seen a video taken of the hiding taken on a cellphone by a visitor at the time and the boy showed me his puffed up lips and mouth the next day. The landlord was very interested too in who took the video and where it was, but I didn’t get into those details. It’s none of my business what they do really.

I dare not make too many comments about this but when the boy was caught inside The Airport Lounge trying to steal again the next day, I suggested to the landlord that “perhaps the hiding didn’t work” and that “maybe you might have to try another way?” He still got chained up though and knocked around a bit but I managed to undo the dog clip and let the guy go free.

I empathised perfectly with the feelings of wanting to “sort someone out” but even though Samoa engenders such raw brutal emotion, I really don’t think that a human being with dog chain around his neck is a nice thing. I’m more compelled to recall my knowledge of the scriptures, and resist the increasingly strong pull of the Samoan way. Sorry guys, I’m not like that!

Dealing with Shoestring Businesses

Business here in Samoa is generally run on a shoestring. Most people have nothing. The exceptions are several family conglomerates Indian/Chinese who have established themselves over a few generations.

BBQ shops pop up in a jiffy and the moment that anyone decides to do it 100 people will. Their budget is small, their offering marginal and their working capital zip!

I needed two signage companies to complete the signs for The Airport Lounge recently. The first one ran out of reflectorised vinyl and the second one ran out of black vinyl. So clearly stock holdings are very low here.

When trying to buy a mousetrap, I went to no less than five stores who had all run out, before I found one that had them. It’s a common occurrence here – shoestring businesses.

For the record I do not believe in the Prosperity Gospel as embraced so readily by predominantly middle-class white Americans. BUT there is something to me ungodly when people are constantly battling with poverty, doing things that only compound that poverty and seem unable to see the wood for the trees. If I spend $2.00 every day on something that I can spend $20.00 on once and use it for 20 days, I have effectively doubled my income. If one signage company had spent an extra $50.00 and had a common item in stock, they would have been well over $500.00 richer.

My brain tells me (and the bible confirms to me) that “Shoestring Business” is dumb business! I hope not to get drawn into that thinking now that I am living here.

Dealing with the poverty mentality

I have shared many times that a “loser” mentality, (a poverty mentality) pervades Samoa. Independent thinking lacks. Group-think (i.e our culture, the way we have to do it) rules.

The Fa’a Samoa is held up in high regard by many Samoans. “This is our culture! We are proud of it! It is who we are!” are the catch cries. Many people at the bottom of the social order however say differently and would LOVE to be free from the social expectations that have such a strong grip on them all.

I could write a book about the examples I’ve seen that show how Fa’a Samoa pulls down the majority and helps the few at the top, but this is common of many communal or socialist societies, so I’ll just pick on one – the biggie.

Fear of man is one of the more insidious aspects of the Samoan way. Being an outsider in this environment, there is an enormous “pull” – social and peer pressure to comply, even on a foreigner, and an independent thinker carries a high price. It’s exhausting and pulls you down, but again the Samoan way contrasts to the biblical way – and I’m Sorry Samoa, sometimes I’ll choose another.

There’s a lot wrong in Samoa. On the surface it’s probably more of a challenge to deal with than many other countries and poverty is a major issue here. In an editorial, a local Palagi journo writes about the Millenium Development Goals:

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
• Achieve universal primary education;
• Promote gender equality and empower women;
• Reduce child mortality;
• Improve maternal health;
• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases;
• Ensure environmental sustainability;
• Develop a Global Partnership for Development.

[Pic: Samoan kitchen (Umu Kuka) used for cooking over a fire - an Umu on Sundays and boiled or fried foods during the week. This Umu Kuka is behind a nice modern three bedroom Palagi house with stove and Palagi kitchen (my sister's house - she is in New Zealand) and it remains empty. Power is too expensive to cook on when coconut husks are free. Furthermore it's what the people here are used to. Is subsistence living "poverty"?]

Of these he says:

But perhaps Samoa’s biggest MDG challenge is goal 1 – eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and we’re certainly not alone in that.

As PM Tuilaepa [Prime Minister] himself points out the proportion of the country’s population living below the poverty line is cause for concern. And this is where we have the most work to do.

Samoans are ready to do that work if given the chance. Your newspaper’s Helping Hand page is the living proof if any were needed. Each week – sometimes each day – we’re approached by people willing to help their fellow Samoans who may be in need.
These people never seek recognition. They shun any and all publicity. They simply want to make a difference.

So the will to eradicate poverty is there. The means, though, will be harder to find.

Generosity alone will. not eradicate poverty, though it can and does make a difference in the daily lives of people in need. However, economic growth and development is the only known cure for poverty and it cannot happen overnight and probably not in the coming five years either.

But Samoa stands more chance than some and as good a chance as many of achieving MDG1. It has fertile land, a stable economy with the promise of future growth, a stable political system and a giving people.

Whatever we do, the poor, as the saying goes, will always be with us. But there are degrees of poverty and it is the worst of these that MDG1 seeks to address.

That there are people today – yes, even in Samoa – who live below the basic needs poverty line should be an affront to us all. These are people for whom life is an ordeal. There’s nothing noble about poverty – just the opposite in fact, for it takes away all human dignity and crushes all human hope.

Five years isn’t a long time in which to remedy a problem of such magnitude. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make the effort.

Russell Hunter, editor of the Samoa Observer (the local rag)

His paper runs a “help page” for people in need. His commentary contains good words. The “saying” Russell refers to is actually the words of Christ in John 12:8: “You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

A common understanding of these words is that it justifies the existence of poverty. It doesn’t. See here and here. These words are more an explanation of reality, but I still don’t see Jesus walking around spending much of His time giving lots of poor people money or food. I’ll get onto His approach to poverty shortly.

Another Palagi, calling themselves Disillusioned Palagi writes about their experiences in a rural Samoan village (Savaia) quite negatively.

The generosity of the Samoan has got out of hand and has become a punishment. Many have spoken about wanting to leave the village for a new life elsewhere – “Too much Fa’alavelale!” not enough compassion.

R Jones

Here Jones touches upon one of the social causes of poverty for many here in Samoa (and immense comparative wealth by a few others). I remember the word Fa’alavelave by saying to myself Fa’a (The way) and then Lovey (as in dovey) meaning “The lovey dovey way” where everyone has to “give, give, give” under threat of village/matai shame/punishment when they really have no “got, got, got”!

It’s an endless cycle of poverty enforcement through social/cultural expectations – a major problem that has been talked about within Samoan culture for years – without any resolution. Most abandon ship to offshore waters thinking that they will be better off in a foreign land with more money. The deception of chasing money however is that the same trouble happens offshore where the same cultural expectations exist. It’s just that there is comparatively more money being dealt with, thus you have areas of poverty within a wealthy nation where the “poverty mentality” and social peer pressure continues unabated.

The answer to the trouble of poverty is not more money. If it was, then certain areas South and West Auckland would not contain people still trapped in the social and cultural expectation (some say requirement) to give so much to the church and social things to the point of bleeding, just like back at home here in Samoa. I have friends who encourage and hail the “generous Samoan Christians” but I only wish that they could get behind the scenes just a little to see the real forces at play. In Samoa I doubt that there is any rural Samoan who wouldn’t agree that Samoan way is “too hard” and that what Jones is talking about here (and in the original letter to the editor) is absolutely true. Dozens of them have shared this same sentiment with me face to face from all over Samoa.

But the writer here implies a suggested solution “compassion”. Compassion is only a feeling or a state of mind. It doesn’t solve the troubles. It may motivate us to act but compassion is not the solution. So what is?

First let’s be absolutely clear about this . . . money is not. There has been more money tipped into Samoa than you can count. The country has progressed but at the village level things are just the same as they were despite the money and donations. Others in power make political mileage out of donations to the country but it is well known that money gets slipped sideways into the hands of those who “play the money game well” – i.e. the wealthy.

Education is not “it” either. The saying goes that a fool with education is just an educated fool. [That's just the saying, I'm not calling all Samoans fools here!]

I take a lot of my understanding of the way things really are from the Scriptures and Jesus was quite direct when talking about taking money and giving it to the poor. His words were astonishingly simple although puzzling for those of us taught that Christ and Christians loved and should love the poor. He basically said “Don’t give the money to the poor for there will always be the poor!” I’ll get onto what He does say to focus on in a minute.

I take from this gem of wisdom the understanding that giving money to the poor is a bad investment. It matches with my own experience. If I give to a poor Samoan who says “Can I have this [or that]?” a million times a day then you know what? They ask for something two million times a day. Their mentality is that I need something so I will ask for it and therefore you should give it to me – because you have it and I don’t.

Eventually all that does is makes two people poor.

I’ve watched the complaints levelled at the current administration about looking after their mates, preventing the distribution of aid money to the needy and a gazillion other grizzles about their conduct. I don’t have any inside knowledge about government finances but generally where there’s smoke there is fire, so it is likely that things do go down at a high level that protect the interests of the few BUT (and please don’t misunderstand me here, I’m not saying this is RIGHT), BUT I DO UNDERSTAND the wisdom in preventing the distribution of heap loads of cash to poor people – just because they had an earthquake, Tsunami or whatever. There is wisdom in using cash wisely for projects that have wide social benefit rather than just buying a poor person some smokes or beer for a day or so.

The SWAP Foundation too has the same ethical issues in working with rural villages – many of whom want to conduct Village Stays as part of our new business. We will only work with those who want to work, who understand our vision and who have faith enough to do their part of the deal. This is the idea that a hand up is better than a hand out.

The way that Christ did things was to encourage relationship with Him FIRST and then let the blessings flow.

This is the vital part of the poverty equation that many people miss. The deception is that business ideas, jobs, or money or grants are the answer. They are not and never will be. When we do what God calls us to do (doing the right thing, working hard and having faith) THEN the Lord is free to bless us and use us. This instantly breaks through the poverty mentality problem.

It is simply amazing to see (as I have so many times with people around me) that when people understand, have hope, and work hard, that their mindset change breaks the yoke of poverty overnight. It happens without the faith component too, but with the Christian faith it has a depth of meaning that is at times quite touching.

In the last two days I have had several examples of dealing with trouble in the same way that Christ dealt with things – shooting straight, speaking the truth in love and instructing people to “Go therefore and do the right thing”.

I was introduced to the brother of a team member a while back. He stumbled out his Pigeon English to me in a drunken blur; made little sense and was basically a joke, although sad. A mature man he was introduced as the guy who was a “loser” done for drugs possession in the past and helping himself to things that weren’t his (Now where have I heard that before?!).

I got a phone call:

“Dennis, can you please help?”

“Here we go again! Bl**** Samoans bludging again! How can I help you guys this time?” I thought to myself “I wonder how much it will cost me this time? . . . How much have I got in the bank today? . . . What do I need this week to survive?”

“My mother needs help to bail out my brother – he’s been arrested for drugs use/possession and she doesn’t want him to go to jail.” Yup this was THAT brother in trouble again. He’d got busted. Dobbed in by his wife. Hmmm. Great wife? Well maybe not.

This sort of thing happens all the time apparently but I found out that yes, true, the mother was bailing him out but she was exercising tough love for the guy and he was being given one last chance to sort his life out. I had the honour of telling the guy that I had taken everything I had out of my New Zealand bank account to save his bacon and that he had better get his act together because of what his mother and me and others were doing for him.

He listened graciously – they all do that over here when you talk – it is their mark of respect for the “Talking Chief”. But the real tenderness came when I stopped him from making promises to me. “Sorry pal. This is not about me. It is about doing the right thing, the right thing by God. Not by me or your mother or the others who are trying to help you!” was the essence of the message. Do the right thing BY HIM. Work hard FOR HIM. Have faith IN HIM. Not us and there were a few tears as the people who were there recognised the truth in the words, spoken in love.

Such is the Christian walk. Dealing with trouble directly, speaking the truth in love. It takes guts for a foreigner in Samoa to do it, but that’s my role, and it appears that people are being touched as a result.

The same thing happened with the theft of one of our mobile phones. Another theft I hear you say? Yes!

The local mobile company Digicel tracked down the recipient and user of the stolen phone. Thieves are soooo dumb aren’t they? Using the phone to call all their mates and transfer money to their own phones leaves a perfect trail for a simple track and trace!

The Secondary School Principal who was helping find the facts translated for me to a 16 year old girl who had done the right thing the night before. After an embarrassing encounter where she had to explain all to the Principal in front of a Palagi businessman, I spoke to her again directly. Essentially I said “I forgive you for the one phone call you made on my phone. Thank you for trying to get your brother to return it to me. That was the right thing to do and I appreciate that you tried to stand up for the right thing”.

But then the tender moment came when I said more (again through the interpreter). “When you do the right thing, and work hard, and have faith, the Lord will bless you!” and it was explained to me: “She understands. She knows what you are saying is the truth, and you have touched her. That’s why she’s crying. Thank you!

While we were waiting for the School President to track down the brother who bought it off the thief, we had some time to talk. Well actually a LOT of time; almost two hours! And so we talked about lots of things – her school, why I was in Samoa and of course I preached. You can’t talk to me for a couple of hours without the God thing raising it’s ugly head now can you?

She looked at me and said at one stage – truly you ARE a Christian! Over here everyone is a Christian, it’s just that they are mainly church-going Christians, not the real ones, if you know what I mean! That’s the context in which she was speaking. And she was amazed that as I spoke she had just that morning spoken the same message herself. Touched, she was.

That Samoan “loser” never knew that a Palagi would come in from out of the blue and give his mother every last cent that he had to help bail him out of jail and then preach to him to do the right thing when he was facing time inside.

That frightened girl never knew when she left for school that a Palagi businessman would be thanking her for arguing with her brother the night before to do the right thing and return the phone to the rightful owner.

That School Principal had no idea that a Palagi would walk into her office and preach to her the same words that she was preaching herself that very morning.

I didn’t know the details of these events before they happened onto my doorstep either, but there are dozens and dozens of situations where I find myself in the midst of Trouble in Paradise, and I am recognising them all as “God moments” when they happen. I now expect them where ever I go here. Sometimes its strangers. Other times it is within our own team.

The answer to the trouble I meet here is always the same – it’s getting serious with the Creator and doing the right thing – by Him. Oh so hard to do when we are so proud, but oh so simple when we humble ourselves enough to just do it!

Here endeth the lesson.

At first thought you’d probably think that in this third world country, money or power struggles would be put to the bottom of the heap. Those of us in the Western world who have experienced a little of the Samoan culture see how family and church matters are a high focus for the Samoan offshore. We wouldn’t naturally think that chasing wealth and assets was the primary goal of a country wracked by a Tsunami. (Unless of course you’d read my previous post on this subject!)

[Pic: Prime Minister Tuila'epa and me at the opening of The Airport Lounge, August 2010, Satapuala. Goodness knows why we're smirking so much. I've never seen Tui that happy ever! Samoan Chiefs just don't smile. He did say however that he enjoyed the low-key relaxed and open nature of the opening]

Unless we had deeper experiences of another third world country, I think that many of us would naturally expect people in Samoa to be working together in harmony to help each other and get over it, but as I have come to see many times since getting over the culture shock; people are people the same the world over. While the culture may be different, the same fundamental issues facing mankind exist, just manifested in a different way, in a different culture.

Here are a few comments on the four primary sectors of power and the struggles that I have seen occurring within them.

Central Politics

The SWAP Foundation is in the process of organising a Political Observer for the up-coming elections. The date is yet to be set, but is likely to be around the 8th of February 2011. We aim to have a blogger, a Samoan from offshore onsite here in Samoa sharing with the world the background of politics and power here; how the elections are run; the key candidates; the “politics” of electioneering here (Samoa from the top to the bottom is a highly political country); the way it is reported in the local media and of course the eventual outcome.

Inga Tuigamala’s brother (Tui Tuigamala) is standing for Parliament this term (I understand that this is his first attempt at being the local MP) and we’ve twisted his arm to accommodate our ‘yet to be appointed’ SWAP Ambassador on some of his travels and electioneering. We are sure to have our Ambassador busy 24/7 writing, blogging, researching and meeting & greeting people from the top down.

In essence our SWAP Ambassador will probably report that the incumbent party has engineered politics over the time in office to protect and enhance their position of power. All governments do this. I expect that he or she will expose the politics of electioneering at a village level and that this will be seen by many to be on the verge on corruption; essentially the “buying” of votes. Samoan expectations are that things like roading only get done at election time. I aim for them to give the social context in which such behaviour is undertaken too so that ‘do-gooders’ outside the country and culture are reduced to whimpers rather than given material on which to launch invectives against the country in which I reside. We’ll see.

I respect the Prime Minister as a strong leader. Tuila’epa has also helped the SWAP Foundation with his Patronage and support in other ways. His critics are sometimes vocal and the current newspaper seems willing to stir things along for him, but it’s hard to make full sense of things when you are still quite new in a country. From a Christian perspective, I would be hoping that his actions in what he believes is a certain fourth term in government for him and his party would align with biblical values.

With the absence of a strong opposition, and recent changes and political maneuverings he’s almost certain to retain power. He has said this publicly too. I understand that it is now not possible to change political parties during the 5 year term. He has also ensured that independents are aligned to his own HRPP party should they gain entry to parliament as an Independent. Very clever! I see these to be the signs of a very confident and politically astute man in power securing or cementing his position quite effectively.

Again we’ll see as time reveals more. It takes a strong man of faith to remain humble in power.

I’m not privy to information about Government finances that is other than newspaper stories and gossip. What I do know is that money talks the world over. I’m sure that Samoa is no different.

The Church

Oh boy – don’t get me started. For those unfamiliar with my position on church matters, I am a denominationally-free ‘semi-reluctant’ Christian. I was zapped with a Christian conversion experience a few decades ago and have spent my life coming to terms with the experience. I’ve spent two and a half decades attending and committing to a range of church denominations before getting “Called Out” as I put it – clearly in preparation for living in a country in which church ceremonies are long, generally from what I can see pretty insincere, are more a business than a collection of loving Christ followers. And the services are almost always in a foreign language!

So my opinions of the traditional mainstream churches in Samoa are less charitable than many others. Suffice to say that I don’t think I would want to embrace the Good Book if I had to take the lead from the churches here.

There are several issues I have with the Samoan religious system but in regards to power, the systems here are a prime example of how to manipulate, control and exercise influence over a populace that are cultural obliged to honour, respect, obey and even in some instances bordering on worship their leaders. Please see my disclaimer* below, but when attempting to divine truth, a well-proven process is to “follow the money”.

I’ll stop here to avoid too many specifics but I have a photograph taken by one of our SWAP Ambassadors of the giving sheet of parishioners from the current week posted to a pillar of the Catholic Church in Moamoa. Shame, guilt and peer pressure are used extremely effectively to solicit funds for the church and the church people.

Pastors are “honoured” with the best houses and cars and food and anything they ask for. The people think that this is all “good” and the more that they honour their spiritual leaders, the better it is. I have my doubts as to the validity of a Christian teaching/practice whereby the leaders live like Kings and the people live in fear and oppression, believing it to be good. When I compare this with Feudal Europe and the Kings, Caesars and Tsars of old, it matches closely. When I compare it with the principles and practices of Christ, I struggle to see much similarity.

Power and an extraordinarily large percentage of money is invested in the church and the church leaders apparently willingly by the people of Samoa. This is in effect a secondary tax and from the outside, money seems to be the primary motivator. I’ve said before, like other commentators have that the church is a business here. I think that fear and ignorance prevents clarity of thought and action.

Please note that I have no interest in “pinging” the church unduly. I neither work with nor against the church or church leaders here (both deliberately and circumstantially) so I have no axe to grind here other than simply reporting what I see as honestly as I can.

The Local Government (Matai System)

The Matai system of government is a village based system of leadership that is too complex to explain in depth. Basically heads of families (Matai) appoint other Matai to have a title (or titles) that give them authority and power to make decisions. It is a form of village rule that requires co-operation, discussion (endless discussions in fact) all within rules and systems. It’s highly hierarchical and many times difficult to operate for individuals but it is the closest that I can see to the Christian ideals and values.

I see that the power system however has been corrupted from it’s ideal to allowing some people to exercise undue influence over others. I see this evidenced from the pervading sense of fear in a village, similar to that exercised by the Church, not so much out of a philosophical or intellectual approach to the issue of local government.

Because to be frank it’s too hard for a Palagi to understand the intricacies of Samoan culture inside of a lifetime and a half, in my research of the Matai system I’ve taken the approach that “Well in theory it all sounds good but the result is clearly a fearful relationship and the rich seem to get get richer, so something must be wrong!”

In Fusi, Safata, I was constantly told that nobody (Matais especially) did anything without money, especially for a Palagi. The Matais there proved this that when they saw no money coming their way, they cut me off. I’ve found this to be very common in Samoa with short term thinking the default setting. Sure there are some great people over here who are generous and love the Palagi but there are more into the easy money thing.

Again I believe that it comes down to the same things as the other control systems – greed of a few and abuse of power of those in power.

The Family

Power in the family is clearly bestowed upon the oldest functioning male. Samoa is a strongly patriarchal society, and has been for centuries as far as I can tell. The father demands and is given ultimate power and authority. It is culturally expected that the head of the family will instruct others what and how to do things. I find it rare to see younger Samoan men with or being encouraged to have leadership skills. There seems to be an unwritten rule that younger men do what they are told until they achieve their own Matai title or have their own family, and then they are free to “be the chief” for a season.

I constantly watch elders (be it parents or grand parents) sit around, literally, instructing others to “do this and do that”. A lot of the time this grates badly with my “sensitive New-Agey side” that wants to befriend everybody all the time, but I’ve had to get used to it learn to deal with my pain and keep things to myself for the moment.

Brothers or uncles or sons are sent back from Australia and New Zealand, and USA to “look after” the family land and buildings and they “rule” while they are here. Nobody says it, but I’m sure that there is an inner resentment from many of them. Culturally it is an honour to serve the family and do the family duty, but when you dig deeper many of then pine for richer and far easier life of the Western world.

When a junior family member is working, the money comes back to the head of the household to use as he (and sometimes she) sees fit – smokes, drinks, whatever. I often see blind obedience that never questions.

Living in and around Samoan families for almost a year now I have to say that bestowing power upon one man is a two edged sword. I have blogged before that I do not believe that Democracy is scriptural. I believe that patriarchal leadership is the Christian/Biblical ideal, and Samoan system is far more healthy than the Western world’s offerings, but things appear to have gone off-kilter over the last century or so. It’s possible that giving one man full power has always been a problem in Samoa as well as it was in Nazi Germany and the times of Nero. I’d like to think that there was a time previously, probably around the time of the mass conversion to Christianity a century ago that things were different. Perhaps there was for a while.

As an aside, I think that the cycle of ‘repentence-rebellion-crisis’ is moving through the rebellion phase here and just starting to move into the repentence phase. I may be wrong and time will tell, but that is my hunch. Check this thought out in a decade or so!

And so . . .

The real question for me in this “Paradise” (where Christianity is supposedly the theme of the country, and the local government system is structurally the best that I’ve seen or heard of, and where what I perceive as ‘godly’ patriarchal family values are strong) is “WTF went wrong?”

Political commentators can discuss the politics of Samoa in another forum. Sociologists can do likewise. From a Christian perspective however the answer is very simple – the problem started the same as with any other culture – pride.

People individually and as a nation have stepped over the mark in regards to stewardship. Greed, and the desire to control others, wealth, and assets (all a form of pride) has taken a higher place than faith, love, truth and servant leadership. Regardless of our religious views, good governance is generally recognized as integrating well with core Judeo-Christian values such as truth, love, service, a giving heart and for the Christian, faith.

So even when facing a Tsunami recovery in a third world, power games and money issues continue to abound.

Disclaimer:
One of the difficulties of commentating upon a nation is that you have to generalize and label in order to make a point. This inevitably leads to some outside the norm taking offence. It’s extra ordinarily easy to cause offence in Samoa, whether you are a local or not! Every politician, village and family here has its own ways of doing things. The Samoan saying along these lines is that “Everyone is a chief in Samoa” – meaning they are in control of their own lands, or their own family or whatever. Some chiefs are what I would call “on the money” dealing with their people and assets in a godly manner. I cannot be that generously spoken when talking of the general pattern, certainly from my experiences to date and from where I sit.

A man fell into a well.
Krishna walked by and said, “Your karma determined that you fall and I will not interfere with karma.”
Buddha walked by and said, “This world is an illusion both ‘you’ and that well. Cease from desire and you will cease from suffering.”
Confucius walked by and said, “Confucius says, ‘One ought not fall into such wells.”
Muhammad walked by and said, “Alas, it is Allah’s will that you fall into the well.”
The Darwinist said, “Only the unfit would fall into a well; you are not meant to survive.”
Jesus walked by and yelled, “Take may hand, I will save you!”

There’s gold truth in them thar hills words.

I‘ve always enjoyed listening to Ravi. He has a unique way of putting things – brutally direct but with a loving heart; highly logical but from a healthy basis of faith. His ministry could have been a role model for our work in Samoa, except that I ended up living and preaching in Samoa through other means. But he’s certainly another deep thinker and a certainly a man of faith.

In the comments mentioned in the above link, Ravi shares his awareness from decades travelling the world that there are major global issues such as “pain, fear, suffering, and poverty”. No need to “stop press” with this revelation. So let’s forget any impending world financial breakdown, or earthquakes, Tsunamis, the New World Order or philosophical arguments about evolution or the existence of proof of an Intelligent Designer found within a cell and look at the suffering and poverty aspects of Samoa.

That Samoa is a third world country is undeniable. The vast bulk of the people who live here are subsistence farmers and live in housing considered by the Western world “sub-standard”. Habitat for Humanity was right in their element here when they came after the Tsunami as their international goal is to eliminate poverty housing.

In rural Samoa, many do not have work, living in family or extended family units and basically just living from day to day. Any material wealth such as concrete block housing, cars or possessions are almost always brought in from off-shore. Many actually live on what they call here “remittances” – donations from family and friends offshore. Most do not have bank accounts and none appear to save or invest more than what can be garnered for a day or two, maybe a week or two. Even a small business here can be switched on or off at the whim of a landowner, chief, or someone in authority.

A guy who applied for work with us recently explained that he looked after the family house because all the rest of his family were overseas and they sent him money – to live off. He complained that his remittances were down recently because of the global downturn. I’m also told that he also attended funerals and events to get the obligatory food gifts but that’s another story. He’s also known to ‘down a few’ of the local brew, but again that’s another story. The point is that he’s poor. By anyone’s standards he’s poor.

We took a family trip to a lovely little village called Uafato a week or so ago and dined courtesy of a guy who has a resort on the beach. Originally encouraged to develop by a predecessor of mine in the in-bound tourism business, one Steve Brown, a Kiwi now in a cushy Government job at MNRE, this guy has had no business since the Tsunami. I’ll repeat that . . this guy has had no business since the Tsunami. In fact since Steve’s business (Green Turtle) went bust he’s had bugger all little business as well according to those who should know.

The point is this (and I could go on with story after story after story) poverty is the norm over here. Wealth is the exception.

As I said before, this is Sunday in Samoa, so where is God in all of this?

We’ve got a world that’s broke. Only a few would argue this point. You’ve got a country marketed as “Paradise” that constantly claims that it is “founded upon God!” [Pic: In a prominent place "Founded Upon God!"] and those who counter this mantra are also few and far between. And yet you’ve got a country that has ceased exporting anything, certainly of value and whose population has for the most part no vision, little interest in working for anything other than an immediate return (think one day at a time!) and who neither understand nor care about concepts such as investment, return on investment, building a business and a whole bunch of very scary Christian concepts such as accountability, responsibility, integrity and suchlike.

A bunch of famous and clever people talk about one process whereby they see evil gaining ground. They are primarily Helenistic, or certainly Greek inspired, in their portrayal of “gods” as opposed to the loving benevolent nature of the Christian God, but they reveal an aspect of how they see evil enters mankind.

• “When falls on man the anger of the gods, first from his mind they banish understanding.” Lycurgus
• “When divine power plans evil for a man, it first injures his mind.” Sophocles
• “Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first deprives of their senses.” Euripides
• “Whom God wishes to destroy he first makes mad.” Seneca
• “For those whom God to ruin has design’d, He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind.” John Dryden
• “Whom the Gods would destroy they first make mad.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Thanks to Richard McCulloch for his collation of quotes here.

Christian theology differs from the above understanding a few degrees from the exact precepts quoted above however in that the Lord (a benevolent but just God) created the environment whereby His creation could choose good and evil, as opposed to “wanting” evil for any of His creation. The difference is subtle but important. The Lord allows evil to occur by simply removing His protection from those who choose to ignore, abandon or counter Him.

One of the strongest feelings I have in Samoa, and I’ve blogged about it since my first visits here, is what I call the poverty mentality. One of the first things we lose when we turn from ways of the Lord is our mind. We lose wisdom, discernment and convince ourselves to go off on futile missions, and to perceive wrongly that their is no hope, and that the world is broken and can’t be fixed.

The vast majority of Samoans that I meet may smile sweetly, and laugh freely and seem happy, but inside are negative, petty, argumentative and most sadly for me, without any real hope. They lack vision and a sense of purpose. They are poor not because they have nothing. They are poor in mind – I think – because of years of conditioning to do only what the Chief says, and have come to believe that there is no point in standing tall and achieving something great, or that there is any better way than their years of cultural indoctrination.

It’s not for me to tell people what to do or how to run their lives. They have the freedom to chose how to think – endowed on them by their Creator, but we do have a vision here and a purpose and we do work hard and smart and exercise faith in our endeavours. I’ve watched people around us receive God’s blessing through joining with us and having faith, but I’ve also seen many more slip away into the shadows and miss the blessing.

Ravi is right – the world is broken (and maybe broke too!). Samoa is no exception, but it’s not poor because it has nothing – it is poor because it has turned its back on the Creator. It has played games with the truth. It has a facade of Godliness (sure there are pockets of lovely godly people doing lovely godly things) but overall there is a big lesson in this all.

Robert Zend put it this way; “There are too many people, and too few human beings.” Touché

The world is broken, but there are pockets of hope. There are people like the High Chief of Malela, in Aleipata, Samoa, a guy called Vaelupe. I remember Vaelupe most because of the tears in his eyes and the long, firm, double clasped handshake that he gave me when we offered him a Samoa Village Stay in his newly recreated village. The history is that he and virtually his entire village lost everything in the September 2009 Tsunami. Less than a year later this subsistence farmer had received help from the Government, the Red Cross, who knows how many other aid agencies and they had rebuilt and were starting to getting over the shock, but had no connection with the outside world. Previously Palagi tourists would drive right through his village. In his new environment further inland there was no contact with the outside world – until someone visited and gave him just a little bit of hope.

In completing the documentation Vaelupe our team explained (in Samoan) the following clause:

13. A Commercial Business
In traditional Samoan culture it is an honour to host visitors, however hospitality can sometimes be costly for a host family, and they can be tempted to “go overboard”. Sometimes they may be fearful of social expectations, other times it may be just generosity and being grateful or honoured to have a guest. Samoa Village Stays is a commercial business that is expected to return a profit to the host family. Guests pay a fixed fee to Gold Tick Services Ltd. Gold Tick pays a fixed fee to the host family and the host family is expected to make a fair profit from every guest stay. Hosts agree not to overspend to honour their guests. Guests understand that Samoa Village Stays is a commercial operation with FIXED FEES and carefully measured services that are designed to return a fair profit to hosts.

For the record we charge $100.00 WST per person per night. My company owns the brand, does the marketing, bookings, provides the support services and our hosts receive $50.00 per person per night. Their cash costs would vary between $10.00 – $15.00 per person per night leaving them a profit of around $35.00 – $40.00 per person per night. This will be a very welcome income to people who are used to dealing in the order of $2.00 or maybe $10.00 at a time.

Vaelupe wanted to do Village Stays because it would be good for his family and his village and he wanted to love the Palagi guests. Even after several visits he stil didn’t realise that he should be making a profit. In Samoan culture (the real Samoan culture) life is not about making money; it is about giving, and blessing. Having a Palagi guest is an honour, and sacrifical giving (yes and to a certain degree based on fear of what other people might think if they don’t pull out all stops to honour the guest) is the norm.

Explaining that making a profit was not only “OK” but that is was expected was a revelation for a man knocking sixty years of age. “Thank you so much he said, again with the long, firm, double clasped handshake looking straight into my eyes. “You have taught me something today!”

It’s now time for tears in my eyes.

Fear of man . . . fear of culture, or what others think is simply not of God.

Fear does not rule the godly. We, (yes to my critics, I do claim to have an element of godliness in who I am and what I do), we should avail ourselves of the promise of Scripture to have a sound mind. A mind in tune with the Creator and with the good plans and purposes that He has in store for us all. This world might be broken and there may be a lot of greedy Samoans around me out to rob and steal and lie, but there are people here who can show genuine Christian love. Many of them are in the centre of a Tsunami stricken South Pacific Paradise. Some of them are this week participants in Samoa’s newest business: Samoa Village Stays.

It may be broken, but Samoa has a lot to give the world. I believe that the Lord has fingered this particular business to be a conduit to get what Samoa has out into the world. Genuine sacrificial love. The sort that can really touch Palagi focussed on material wealth and possessions and living in a culture of greed, self and worship of mammon. If I’m right, it will be worthwhile watching this space.

Here endeth another Sermon from Samoa.

Mankind enjoys wealth. It helps us to be happy and healthy and remain motivated. A large part of our sense of purpose (especially for men) comes from acquiring wealth of various sorts. Abundant food, clothing, assets, income streams and so on give us pleasure. It may sound strange coming from a guy living in a third world environment, but those around me are no different. Everyone here aspires to get a job, own a shop, a taxi or a bus, or to get a better house or to sell their produce for a good price.

[Pic: Catholic church in Upolo - once visited by the Pope]

An essential part of wealth generation is working with others, and trust is essential for the relationship to work. A Palagi will only hire a taxi from a driver he trusts not to rip him off. A builder will construct a house only if he believes that the client will pay for the work. His workers will only show for work if they trust that they will be paid the agreed rate.

Business is all about people and trust is essential to keep people on the same page.

When we travel around Samoa under the banner of the SWAP Foundation, we are constantly meeting new people and talking to them about ideas to improve their business. Everyone is excited and interested in what we have to say, and then, “WHAM!” we always hit a brick wall – trust. “Who are you? How can we trust you?” is the usual response. Sometimes it is verbal. Other times it is subconscious but basically nobody trusts anybody over here – even members of their own family if you really dig deep enough. There is a pervading “Spirit of Fear” within Paradise here.

I’ve blogged about all of this previously but there is a history of Palagi – Germans, Americans, Kiwis who have all helped themselves at the expense of Samoans. Their mistrust is perfectly natural, so I’m not knocking them unduly here. It’s just a fact. Trust is not the default setting in this culture – particularly trust of a Palagi.

So here’s how mistrust breeds poverty. Our people will speak about value-adding, rebranding, Internet marketing, working collaboratively and lots of other good things to more than one person. Many are scared to partner with us, so we just move on and leave them. I teach our team that Jesus taught the same thing. Stay and preach the Good News to those villages who want to listen, but dust off your sandals and move on if the villages do not want to here.

It’s the people who trust that receive the blessing. Those that mistrust miss it and many times remain in the poverty trap. It’s not that we are the only people that can help, and anybody has their own reasons for partnering with us or not but there is definitely a strongly ingrained “poverty mentality” here that dreams of riches but will never change until they get out of the mindset of mistrust.

I was talking to a guy here a week or so ago with a self-confessed anger problem. He was answering my question about why he didn’t have the family bus any longer. He is looking after family property where his brother had a successful bus run and a good shop in a prime location on the main drag. His brother had offered him the bus as well as a good bus run but the brother had sold it when he went to Australia. I thought this strange because a bus run is a good business over here, so I asked what happened. His reply in Pigeon English “Because I don’t want to go to jail!”

And then the truth came out. He hated getting tickets for overloading. Buses are limited to 33 seats and 33 passengers. They all routinely overload them – multiple people per seat – Samoans have no issue sitting on someone else’s lap and standing room full too. I have been told by many sources that the entrenched Police policy here is one of selective enforcement. If the driver is a relative of the Police Officer, or from the same village, nothing is done. If you’re a marked driver; or you got or get offside with the Police, or your village is not friends with the Police then you will get stopped, ticketed and have to cough up with a “big” fine of a few hundred Tala.

Apparently my contact was in the less fortunate camp and got pinged too often for his liking. He confessed that he got “ansey” with the Police some time back. With a short fuse and a nasty anger problem that I’ve personally witnessed I’m sure that would have lead to some pretty unsavoury things. Long story short, he said that his father came down to the Police station and sorted things out. The driver’s assistant went to jail “for” him and his Matai title and his clean reputation in the church was “saved”.

“OMG what a warped sense of justice this place has!” I thought when an innocent man takes the rap for a man out of control who is saved by a father protecting his families and church “honour”.

So let us understand this story in the context of mistrust vs poverty. A hard-working man, with the world at his feet passes up a generally highly coveted business opportunity with a bus run because of the fact that he cannot trust himself not to “deck a cop” (perhaps again). In some ways this might be wise, but it is another example of how mistrust (in this case mistrust of himself) breeds poverty (more correctly in this case prevents him from progressing).

But is gets worse . . .

We had plans to develop his land into a Village Stay. He got all the materials ready to build some nice Samoan Faleo’os ready for Palagi to stay. Now we wonder how we can trust him with the care of Palagi guests and are unlikely to recommend the place for foreigners to stay.

The mistrust thing is not just a once-off sadness; it is an ongoing permanent way of living that unless the underlying mindset is changed, the results will always be the same – poverty. Samoa is replete with investments from offshore by people who have great vision and passion but invest foolishly with people who have no vision, who do not trust and who are just out for the fast buck. They’ll be offered a Matai title, supposedly given great honour and then pushed around and fleeced due to “cultural requirements” thereby cementing mistrust as a two-way thing.

It’s a lot harder to build a relationship, develop trust and then work together in a partnership with people, encouraging them to have faith, work hard and as a team. The results though are hopefully a little more lasting.

The Good Book (It’s Sunday here in Paradise so we’ve got to get biblical now!) talks about the way that people united in purpose trusted each other, worked together and got behind a common vision. The construction of the Tower of Babel (a good collection of comments about it here) actually triggered a fairly major response from God who gave them a back-handed compliment for their unity and sense of purpose in the process of disrupting their plans of grandiosity. They were misguided by His standards of course but nonetheless the principles of trust, unity, sense of purpose and achievements remain.

Genesis 11:1-9 (American Standard Version)
And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Come, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name; lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And Jehovah came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And Jehovah said, Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is what they begin to do: and now nothing will be withholden from them, which they purpose to do. Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So Jehovah scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off building the city. Therefore was the name of it called Babel; because Jehovah did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did Jehovah scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

The standard inference from this story is one of confusion, but mistrust is the default setting within new cross-cultural engagement. Increased mistrust correlates to a reduction in understanding. Once the people couldn’t communicate properly, mistrust caused financial loss and they were forced to spread out over the earth, thus ensuring their worst fears were realised.

It takes a “big” man to break through this and trust. A major part of the SWAP Foundation’s work up here is to build trust. We’re achieving it in pockets, and those places and people who do trust us are starting to see the blessings as a result. It’s a hard message to hear and to apply but in time it will surely happen!

Here endeth the lesson Sermon from Samoa.

VVictoria is a humble, quietly spoken lady introduced to me in March of 2010 by George Meredith, MP for Alaipata. He’s a close relative of Victoria.

She relocated away from the coast after the 2009 Tsunami and is rebuilding her life after losing everything she owned, as well as three of her grandchildren and other close relatives.

This is Victoria walking infront of her temporary house built for her by her family and the Church after the Tsunami.

Cost: A few weekends of labour, a few old sheets of iron, leftover timber from everywhere and anywhere (everything is recycled here), and she had a home, built just metres away from where the Tsunami stopped but high enough to escape any future waves. I’ve popped in many times to say Hi and have watched the progress of her new home (to the left of this picture).

This is her new house with a nice new concrete floor.

Samoan construction works on the basis that building materials and unskilled labour are provided by the owner; skilled labour is purchased on a contract or hourly rate. After the Tsunami, the government announced a payout of $18,000.00 per family that had lost a house. This money was available for building materials from several authorised suppliers. Building materials were delivered on site and construction took anything from one to six months or more depending on how and when the owners wished to do things.

It was common to see building materials delivered on site and not used for many months in some locations. This money was plenty enough to purchase the basic components of a new house – roofing iron at $5.50 per foot, concrete blocks at $3.00 each, timber, water tanks, toilets, plumbing, electrics and so on.

Standard features are the size 12m x 7m (this one shown), corrugated roofing, the no wall design and the external toilet/shower block. Construction standards differ. Habitat for Humanity and the LDS (Mormon) church were known for higher quality construction. Local construction firms however often skimped on quality – thinner concrete and/or lesser standard of finish.

The fence around keeps the animals out while in construction. The green water tank was delivered by the Red Cross and the toilet block has a flushing toilet, cold shower and inground septic tank.

Construction style is to build the foundations up from the surface (not down like in Western countries – Samoa is rocky so it is hard to go down and a slab construction on the surface is very solid). Poles are set in from a concrete perimeter base. The roof is built in situ, then the final layer of concrete is poured inside the floor.

It is a different process from the Western building methods that dig down to a solid base then use the slab as a core component of the building. Samoan cement is made from sruched coral so the concrete is quite weak.

Victoria will soon be having Village Stays in her new home. It will be a happy day for her when it all happens.

UPDATE

Here’s a snap of a Palagi Fale. Concrete construction, louvre windows and steel roof. Normally the roof would be corrugated iron.

This one has an overhanging porch, a canti-levered overhang. Normally 60mm galvanised steel poles would support the edge. Note, there is no gutter (with good volcanic drainage these are not needed, and are an unnecessary expense). Sometimes an area that is walked through quite a bit, like in front of a door will have a short length of gutter just to push water away from the path, maybe 2-3 metres in length.

The central pole here is a retro-fit to prop up the roof at the point that the timber joins. Construction third-world style! The outside door has a steel screen – to ward off mosquitos, flies and thieves. Windows have a mosquito net guaze with a wire mesh on the outside.

Construction goes like this . . . No footings. You can’t dig down easily because it is all rocks, usually broken rocks with a thin volcanic loam. Build a concrete base (100 to 1m, yes 1 metre thick) in this case the building has two concrete block courses, 400mm. This base is built around the edges only first.

Build the walls. Concrete blocks $3.00 each. Cement bags $20.00. Sand free from the beach. Place and build the trusses. Fill in the floor with hard fill and then a thin coat of cement over the hardfill anywhere from 10mm, yes 10mm to 100mm.

Ceiling is a 5mm hardboard. Painting is a bonus.

Aircon can be installed for around $3,000.00.

Cost – $12,000.00 to $15,000.00 WST. That’s a VERY nice house here!

It’s Thursday, the day before the opening.

I must deliver the list of invitees to the girl entrusted with the final ring-around – Samoans get grossly offended if you don’t invite them to an event, even though they rarely RSVP and many times don’t show up, or show up late. With a smidgeon under 100 invitees we still have no idea how many people are coming and my guess is anything from 20 to 60 people. That makes it hard for renting chairs and catering.

Shalom has no credit and needs a phone. Except for mine, which I won’t let out of my sight, we have no phone either (Force has gone swimming with it in his pocket and ruined his). I arrange for a $10 pre-pay card and a SIM card so she can phone people and find out how many are coming (or not). I listen to her concerns regarding Force being the MC. “Force is an untitled man and it will be an insult to the Prime Minister if he is the MC and speaks” she says. In frustration at my supposed inability to understand what she is saying, she clarifies, “He doesn’t even know how to speak Samoan properly. It’s almost like he wasn’t born or raised in Samoa”. Is this the typical Samoan pull-down of others to puff themselves up or are her complaints for real? What to do with a man who acts more like my brother, who I have primed to speak to the PM for me when I need it and is ready for the most important day of his life thus far?

But Lepupa’s ultimatum, “If Force speaks, we won’t be there!” supported by his wife’s nodding in agreement is clearly an attempt at blackmail and strong-arming based on their fear of their family/village reputation if we do not do the Fa’a Samoa things. In this regard read: High Priest saying the Prayers (who of course must be paid) and thousands of dollars in expensive gifts, long speeches and important people doing important things – cultural ‘niceties’ that we decided eons ago to never get involved with. This is a Palagi business. We are sensitive to Samoan culture and want to work with it and share it with the world but we are not Samoans and can never do the Samoan thing, I’m sorry.

Upon receiving that ultimatum I finally work out the real people I’m dealing with and graciously exit their home. “OK No problem” and I depart, unlikely to return any time soon. Departing from a negative, confrontational situation I ponder how these people were singing from a different song-sheet and didn’t understand, or respect or have faith in our vision. The Good Book teaches that “fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.” Logically then, fear of Fa’a Samoa or fear of what other people may think about us, must be foolishness.

But it is a problem. It is a BIG problem the day before the opening. This is a double downer because not only was Shalom scheduled to speak at the opening, we had scheduled her to start work at The Airport Lounge on the following Monday. She loses her job and now I’ve got to run the new business myself until we can find and train another person. Bugger!

As a courtesy, I consult with Eniko and ask him how much he wants to speak at the opening, just in case Lepupa’s concerns were valid and I had missed an important cultural point. Eniko says “You just do your own thing!” and says that he will become very busy up at the plantation for the next couple of days. Sh**! Now we’ve also lost the landlord too (an LDS Bishop no less) who was going to do the prayers. Seems like we now know two LDS (Mormon) people who have different value systems from us. Darn, and I though that they were the better people over here – no smoking, no drinking and suchlike. Seems like greed and pride and all other sins (except smoking and drinking of course) penetrate even the only “real” church, as Lepupa so eloquently put it to me once!

OK. So Debbie will do the opening prayers and Force and I are it. I think back to the in-fighting and cultural ***** that my Maori ex-in laws participated in around important events and I connect the two cultures mentally. My thoughts about the two races weren’t very positive or gracious at the time and should remain private!

Our team muscles on with buying food and drinks starting with two dozen loaves of bread, ice for the drinks and a million other things. Ina from next-door reports to me that her husband has told her to “help the Palagi” as much as she can without asking for money. He thinks that Palagi coming to Samoa is good for Samoa and he wants her to help us. What a different spirit from the ones that ask for heaps of money and then give us an ultimatum. True friends I think!

A new crisis erupts with physical violence on one of the boys, Tasi. Again he’s an LDS chappie who I thought was actually pretty straight-up. He comes in favouring a painful hand. His right hand looks like it may be broken. “OK!” I think “He’s decked someone!” This is what they do over here to sort things out of course. A sore right hand is usually the result of winning a confrontation. Missing teeth are the sign of losing a confrontation.

Apparently he said something in private to Force about the trouble around this village or the property we rent and someone from the village had heard it (or thought that she had heard it) and reported it to the landlord’s wife. The boys came to me saying “Oops, there might be a bit of trouble here”. The story goes that the girl misunderstood the context of what was said but methinks there may have been a bit more than a simple misunderstanding and there was substance to the gossip.

Tasi had apparently gone across to say sorry to Sa and she gave him a hiding – with a stick – and told him in no uncertain terms to get off her land and never come back. He’s nursing a bruised back and wrist (from deflecting the blows) and begging me to take him off the land and back into town. He swears black and blue that he only defended himself and didn’t deck her (which stacks up with other stories), so he’s off the hook and can still work with us.

I find out that my wife is mortified and praying fervently in The Airport Lounge. OMG I think, what sort of landlords do we have? How could I possibly get her into this sort of situation? “F***ing Samoa!” I think it but wouldn’t dare say it aloud.

When Eniko comes back from the plantation Force goes to him and eats humble pie – “I’m sorry we are just young boys and you are our ‘parents’ please forgive us” is the guts of a conversation that we can all hear from a mile away. Eniko obviously lets it rip and Force kindly preaches my own words back to me “Sometimes you have to lose the battle to win the war” he says. Very cute, but wise. My “bro” is learning a lot!

Friday dawns and all goes according to plan.

The PM arrives 15 minutes early and Force meets and greets him. He knows Force from two visits to his Prime Ministerial office where I took him with me and he chats to Force and everyone else. Clearly relaxed and appreciating our invite to open The Airport Lounge, the PM chats to all and sundry about the importance of starting on time, giving anecdotes about his Ministers “missing the boat” literally after he instructed that Samoan events will run on time under his watch. He explains that he had a pretty busy day but just sneaked in our meeting. He hastens to add that he would have had another Minister open for him though if he couldn’t have made it.

Our programme commences with Force and Debbie taking turns at a short welcome and a prayer. There – a giant is slain! An untitled man spoke to the PM in a formal event and the sky didn’t fall in! And a woman, of another country, who has no fancy title within the church, has officiated at an official opening event in Samoa. I can hear another giant crashing down even as she finishes her simple heart-felt prayer of thanks and blessing!

My speech follows and the team all share the various ideas and brands and ventures that we are working on here. The PM learns for the first time what the SWAP Foundation he agreed to be Patron of is all about.

And it just gets better. . .

When asked to cut the ribbon (15 minutes before schedule) he stops to speak. “You know, they’ve given me a speech but I’m not going to read it”, he says. He then goes on to address those gathered there about how much he has enjoyed the informality of the opening. He speaks from his heart and shares about how when I was talking about getting mesmerized by Samoa he thought about Robert Louis Stevenson too ‘getting the Samoa disease’ and staying.

He thanks me for bringing vision to the country and offers his support in any matter that we desire.

Suitably impressed with our little Lounge, a Ninth Heaven gift shared with the PM [pic], photographs taken, we retire with him to nibbles and more chats and discussions. He talks to Debbie across the table – at length. “How neat that the PM wants to talk to me!” Debbie says to me later.

I hesitate to speak openly and honestly in case of causing offence but we talk briefly. “Where’s Misa?” I ask thinking that there must be something important on. “I don’t know!” Tui replies. Oops. Yes we did invite him and Nora confirmed his attendance yesterday and yes we did invite Sonya and Nynette too. This is getting serious, the PM now knows that all the important representatives of the tourism industry, his Minister of Tourism, The Samoa Tourism Authority and Samoa Hotel Association have all been invited and haven’t showed. Methinks – not good. I hope they don’t all take it out on me later if the PM pings them for not showing or sending someone! I don’t tell him that they didn’t attend the opening of SWAP either nor did they send apologies – even more “not good!”

“Are you the guy on the TV?” Tui asks of Force, “Yes I am sir!” Force replies. “Yes I thought you were!” the PM says. “I told my driver that I was sure you were the guy. I always watch that advert and want to see the rest of your [rap dance or something like that!]” Apparently Force’s dance was cut short in the advert. “I wonder if one day we can find the original tape and let him see the rest?” I think to myself.

“Just call me Tui” rings in my ears as the PM of a country I knew nothing about only 12 months ago has accepted a Patronage of the SWAP Foundation; has opened our first business in Paradise; congratulated and thanked us; and then offered his support for anything we need in his country.

I pinch myself and realize that in just 10 months the wheel has turned a full circle from the day that the Lord spoke to me and said “Share the vision” and the same day that I just walked into the Prime Minister’s office and started to share the vision with him. Here was the PM now thanking me for having vision for his country less than a year later. Sweet!

I think back over the pain of emigrating and getting pushed around by authorities and trying to work with people who just don’t care and who treat you like an animal until they have to do the right thing because they are told to, and compare all that with the PM who has just ‘done it’. Professional, efficient and at the end of the day, just helpful. I muse “I guess that’s why he’s the PM!”

And it just gets better. . .

I round up the team for a debriefing. Force looks at me and says, “You know, this is the best day of my life!” and I know that it is.

“You have shown me and taught me soooo much!” he says. “You know all of that Fa’a Samoa stuff, and how we were all so scared and you just said ‘Have faith, work hard and do the right thing’? You told us to stand tall and not be frightened and to trust you. Well we did that and you were right – it was all fear of nothing! And the ones that didn’t have faith and didn’t trust you and didn’t show up missed the blessing didn’t they?” Yes they did Force. They truly missed out!

Debbie says to Force, “Remember that the opportunity of a lifetime only exists for the lifetime of that opportunity!” He’ll need a few weeks to think through what that English means but he knows the principle now, from first-hand experience.

And Debbie speaks of the Word she picked out from the Bible for the young guy:

Jeremiah 1:6-8 (New American Standard Bible)
Then I said, “Alas, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, because I am a youth.” But the LORD said to me, do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ because everywhere I send you, you shall go, and all that I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you,” declares the LORD.

Appropriate? No, more than appropriate!

And it just gets better. . .

Upon hearing of the way that the PM came and enjoyed himself and threw his support behind our work and interacted with us, someone close to us offered suggestions he had previously held back on how to obtain land – good land – prime land – land that many would die for. And land that doesn’t have landlords that let you down or beat up on your staff over some mere words, that were probably true anyway.

Saturday, the day after.

My team takes my mother, wife and daughter on what we call the Tsunami tour – a full day experience of beaches, resorts and rural Village Stay families (who are just itching to host Palagi guests) along the South Coast, devastated by the Tsunami.

We picnic at Vavau and Tasi shinnies up a coconut tree and husks some coconuts for the girls. I growl for the what seems like the thirtieth time that he MUST demonstrate the husking and climbing in front of the guests and explain what he is doing when he does. Don’t just present the drink to the guests – INVOLVE them in the experience I insist. So he has to do it all again for them on the beach. Our guests love it!

Force fends off the local boys seeking money for our car visiting the beach. We visit Se’a I the High Chief of that village and promise to return with the paperwork in a couple of weeks for the Village Stay programme that kicks off in a few weeks.

We call in to Richard from Lepa, the Prime Minister’s own village that got hit by the Tsunami. Richard and his family want to host Village Stays in his newly built house up in the plantation. I’m sure that one day he will be an honoured man when wealth, prestige and honour will come to him, his family and his village when the PM talks about the Village Stay programme that started in his own village of Lepa.

We call in to Victoria from Malaela, who lost grandchildren and other family members in the Tsunami and who has had to totally rebuild her life. She is washing clothes at the pool so we don’t stay long. It’s hard to visualize the trauma that she has experienced and the impact that just $50.00 WST per person per night will have on her meager subsistence lifestyle. It will seem like Christmas time to her when her first guests arrive. I deliberately suppress my own emotion at being able to help her so that I can move my guests on to their next destination.

We visit Vailupe also from Malaela who also lost everything and has rebuilt inland. This is the aging man who held my hand tight and looked at me with tears in his eyes saying “Thank You Thank You Thank You!” just at the mere thought that there was a Palagi who cared, that perhaps, one day, there may be hope for him and his whole village that has relocated inland away from the main road and the loss of all tourism income. There is a new road in the village, tangible evidence of the post-Tsunami rebuilding programme. It is like a highway compared to what it was before, but there is not a Palagi in sight, a vast difference from the constant throng of tourists driving through his village before the Tsunami. If there is any one memory of Samoa that sums up the importance of our work it is the tears of gratitude in Vailupe’s eyes on that day, not so long ago when he tried to tell me how much a Village Stay would mean to him and his family. It’s likely that the entire pain of his whole Village from the Tsunami loss will well over when the first guest arrives to stay. There won’t be a dry eye in the place when his village stay is opened.

We call in to Amaile and swim in the most amazing village pool in the whole of Samoa. A spring of cool fresh water gushing at least 1 cumec from inside a cave runs through the pool and out to the sea lagoon. One can float, be carried along a gentle current right out to the lagoon. From cold fresh water to warm salt water. I want to market the Village Stay there as “Paradise Point”, and my wife who has struggled with having to move to the heat of Samoa feels the gentle cooling sea breeze; looks at the view, the location and then my eyes and says, I could live here with you! It’s hard to hold back the tears. We check out the Fale Samoa [pic]

We stop at Tasi’s house and plantation, and wander in to check it out. “See those mountains?” he says to us pointing into the middle distance. “My lands go all the way back to there!” Excuse me? Say that again . . . “Yes, it is V-E-R-Y big lands.” Acres in fact, many, many acres. “I miss my lands!” he says in Pidgeon English, having spent the last few years in the big city. “I’m a farmer!” he says matter of factly. He’s a farmer. He’s a farmer. He’s a farmer. That is who he is and he knows it! My brain works at 100 million miles an hour. I know that there are tens thousands of people who would love to come to this place and help a young man build his dreams. I know that there are women a plenty who would love to spend their lives with this young guy who is a good caring guy, happy, always laughing and works hard. I gently suggest that a Village Stay and WWOOFers would see his farm developed and his dreams come true. Another business has developed in front of my eyes and another man’s life will be changed for the good if I can find time to help him, which I resolve to find.

We add on a visit to our friends in Uafato this time, turning a normally 6 hour day into a 15 hour day of driving and business. “Malo!” “Malo Soifua!” “Malo!” toot, toot, toot-toot, as we pass friends coming into the village. It is “Security Time” with another two minutes to go before anyone is allowed out onto the streets from their prayers. We are stopped by Onasai and we talk for a minute. The Conch Shell is blown a little earlier than usual so that we are not held up unduly. That’s Samoa. Laws are there to be stretched. We arrive at our guest’s place and slip him three bottles of Vailima. There’s an alcohol prohibition in this Village but again, the laws there appear to be “worked around”. Just so long as nobody makes a noise and you’ll be OK! That’s Samoa.

We are treated to a smorgasbord of local delicacies, fish speared the night before by torchlight, Taro baked and boiled, Polusami, fried chicken, roast pig, coconut drinks and all on the top of a lovely beachside setting in the starlight.

Debbie’s flight back to New Zealand leaves at 1.30am and we part company after midnight. It’s 1.00am and a chilly 25 degrees outside when I crash onto a rubber mattress on a concrete floor in the outside Fale. Moonlight shines through the banana fronds. Coconut trees are silhouetted on the starlit sky. Dogs are barking in the distance. The neighbours cat is spotted by the landlord’s dogs and all hell breaks loose until the said cat is back in neighbour’s property. Roosters crow – getting ready for the morning.

The jets from the Poly Blue plane roar on its takeoff and then dissolve into the distance. In my half conscious state I slip a millisecond prayer of protection for my wife in transit. Tomorrow is Sunday I muse. No doubt I’ll be blogging and preaching online. That’s what I do on Sundays. There will be no reason to knock Samoa or the Church tomorrow. Samoa has really turned it on over the last week for me. Next week will be more fun in the sun no doubt.

Three days of hard work and then a Sunday with lots of sleep!

It’s Sunday in Samoa. The shops are closed. In fact everything is closed. A lovely little Catholic village in Aleipata called Amaile even closes the road on Sunday! The smoke from the Sunday To’onai rises from sparrow’s-fart dawn and there is a hive of activity as all the locals here get ready for church. After their weekly dose of Sunday morning [whatever] they will all eat up big-time and then sleep for the afternoon. I blog. Sunday Sermons from Paradise!

[Pic: Samoan "boys" on Vavau beach weaving a basket. "Ten Tala please!" "No thanks" "You have to!" "No we don't!" "Yes you do!" No! What for anyway?" "Coming to our beach" "Go to your High Chief and speak to him" "You know him?" "Yes I do!" "Oh OK!" then the pictures for the Palagi tourist are OK!]

I seem to be becoming an authority on things Samoan; maybe it’s that people are interested; maybe it’s because I write; maybe it’s because I’m simply here and many aren’t. Tourists will chat with me and it’s only natural that they will ask a Palagi “What’s it really like here?”

On the ferry to Savaii last week, a Palagi woman asked me a deep and meaningful question. “Why did the Tsunami happen?”

OMG! What do I say if she’s looking to me as “an authority” of sorts?

It’s a question that many ask, both indigenous people and visitors. Until I inquired of her at what level she was approaching the subject I didn’t know if she was expecting a physical or spiritual answer. After all there are many believe that earthquakes can be deliberately caused by mankind. Knowing some of the advanced technologies that are being used by those in power without general public knowledge I certainly don’t discount the theory at all. In fact she was angling at a human or at least a physical explanation and I found a fellow “believer” “conspiracy theorist”*.

But generally most people attribute things such as earthquakes and Tsunamis to “an act of God”. God seems to cop a lot of blame for natural disasters and the Western world is replete with accusations that he “does” bad things to good people. More generously put, He “allows” bad things to happen to good people.

I would say the bulk of the people here in Samoa too have attributed the Tsunami directly to God. Samoans are extraordinarily complex in matters of culture, local governance and such like but are decidedly simplistic in matters of faith (again, a generalisation but basically a true analysis). I’ve mentioned before that many ascribe the Tsunami to be God’s retribution. What for, varies on the village and whether or not they were hit, and what the “beef” is that they think God has on the people who got hit. Sometimes a bigger thinker may discuss the impact on the whole country.

In regards to blaming God for bad things happening to good people, Henry Makow last week caught my attention with a simple observation. I liked it and think it is a lovely point for Christian Apologetics (like me) to make when those antagonistic to the Christian faith point the finger.

In fairness to God, more bad things happen to bad people.

True and very nicely put.

So to answer the question for myself, while I do have suspicions about the 2004 Tsunami and earthquake I doubt that the September 2010 Tsunami was planned and triggered by evil scientists messing with nature. It’s just not realistic. An earthquake off Los Angeles or San Francisco, or a hurricane generated in Florida or the Gulf of Mexico and then manipulated into or away from certain areas – then I see that as a very likely scenario. But the Samoa Tsunami – nah. That’s more than likely just a freak of nature to me.

So now onto the Sunday sermon and of course on the basis of a Christian world view.

Biblical Scripture explains that the world was once created perfect, but that following an event in the Garden of Eden called “the fall” God followed up on His word and death and decay entered the world. He enacted His judgement on a mankind because we rebelled against His rules. The Creator warned His creation clearly, paraphrased: “Just do the right thing and you will live a happy life foreever but do the wrong thing and you will die”. Mankind chose to do the wrong thing and thus trouble began.

Without getting too in depth with theological matters, basically Christians believe that God is good and that mankind stuffed things up. Essentially we’re to blame.

It’s not a popular message and requires a little humility on our part to take up God’s offer. A Catch 22 if ever there was one – we’re a proud people and cannot accept reality, preferring to go around blaming things and people and God for our own screw-ups because we’ve messed things up. Our pride keeps us from seeing things properly and from exercising wisdom and doing what the Good Lord asks us to do.

But here endeth the preaching!

So how am I responsible for the Tsunami that hit Samoa? Of course I’m not, not directly anyway. My ancestors screwed up and things that are all out of kilter are just the way I inherited this world when I arrived. Tsunamis and earthquakes are par for the course.

But that said, God does have a purpose for all things, and uses adversity to achieve His purposes. From a Christian perspective (world view) God is calling all people into relationship with Him. That’s His purpose. I blogged about that recently. He lost that relationship with us when our ancestors screwed up and the whole message of real Christianity is a restored relationship with the Creator. Eternal life and good things are only a byproduct of faith – not the endgame.

With this Christian world view the real question “Why does it happen?” in regards to the Tsunami must have a biblical answer. In my short time in Fusi, Safata last year I experienced a period of revelation. It was an unusual experience and a period in which I thought I was either going mad or the Lord was doing something special by way of revelation and motivation. In this period I began to see how I see the Lord was using Samoa post-Tsunami.

Here is my answer to the tricky question – the deep and meaningful answer to the essentially, philosophical question.

Samoa has always been a giving country. It has given of its people – early emmigration to other Pacific Islands, it’s hospitality to foreigners, it’s population exodus over the last 40 or so years is effectively giving of it’s people and culture. yes I know that there could be a downside to a population of Samoans in pockets of foreign lands, but in the big picture there are more Samoans outside of Samoa than inside, and many of the best have departed and are giving outside of the little islands Paradise. Think sports, business and academia and you’ll find Samoans up at the top.

So with the best of Samoan population gone and now breeding and living happily offshore; with the Samoan tourism industry knocked for six by the Tsunami; and then exports of anything and everything down to miniscule levels what on earth could the Lord engineer Samoa to give?

This next part is going to be a hard part to believe for many, but bear with me please, and keep the laughter down until you’ve heard me out . . .

I believe that the Lord will be using the Samoan Tsunami to export love. God’s love. Nothing else.

I’m a visionary. I find myself constantly around 5 years ahead of the “market”. I am certain that within 5 years of the Tsunami, Samoa will be actively exporting love, and I would not be at all surprised if it is recognised as a nation that is spoken of internationally as a backslidden corrupt and supposedly Christian nation experiencing genuine revival (spoken outside of the mainstream media of course). Think China and the growth of house churches.

How can a man say that, in the natural?

Samoa is as corrupt as it’s possible to be with a veneer of Churchianity. I’ve blogged about my painful journey of discovery extensively. Just last week my own staff argued with me that we MUST bribe the supervisor of the ferry to get on the last sailing of the day (we’d waited on standby for 12 hours!). “You have to understand Dennis, this is how Samoa works!” We didn’t bribe the guy and we did get on the last ferry but it was a major internal fight between corruption and integrity!

I was told last week that the first experience that one Palagi tourist had on arrival to Samoa was a taxi fare of $150.00 per person (totalling $300.00) for a journey that should have been $50.00 for two (or at the most $65.00)! And that experience is common here as most Samoans look at a Palagi as rich dudes to be fleeced.

This is the thing I’ve noticed about God – He loves doing miracles! It seems like He’s right into showing off His talents at doing the impossible in the centre of trouble. If He can take the most arrogant people group in the world and use them to teach the world humility some 2,000 years ago, I KNOW that He can take one of the most churched societies in the world and bring in a purity and simplicity in the name of love.

In a practical sense, here is how I think it might happen.

First, the local context. In Samoan culture it is an honour to have a guest. Foreign owned resorts, and tourism related businesses (such as taxis and tourist vendors) have altered and undermined this culture with one of greed, but in rural Samoa untouched by the temptations of big-money from tourism, villagers will scurry around and move heaven and earth to prepare for the arrival of a Palagi guest. It matters not if they have lost all in the Tsunami, they will give the shirt off their backs to a guest.

Next the foreign context. As I have blogged about starting in October 2009, the international goodwill towards Samoa is in the stratosphere. The Tsunami was the biggest event to occur in the South Pacific since Pearl Harbour. Samoa was front page news from New Zealand to Zimbabwe. Like every other news organisation in the world, Uzbekistan and Georgia probably carried stories about the Tsunami for three days straight as news filtered out. I estimate that a billion dollars worth of negative press occurred over a three week period as a result.

While the Samoa Tsunami killed only 143 people, the 2004 Tsunami killed over 200,000 people. The difference for Samoa was however that goodwill was distributed over three continents and 20 countries. Samoa copped the lot (even though Tonga and others too got the waves). Speak the word Samoa in ten years time, and people the world over will immediately say “Tsunami!”

The point here is that international goodwill towards Samoa is high. Very high. Very VERY high.

People are curious. They want to know about Samoa. They are genuinely interested in many aspects of this country and its culture.

But they won’t want to come and sit on a beach waiting for another big wave.

This then is the situation that I see . . .

We have an island nation where greed, theft, lies, and other unbiblical things occur on a daily basis (it’s almost institutionalised) and where “God’s name is proclaimed every Sunday” but it isn’t in deed. The true culture is to honour a Palagi guest. People outside of the mainstream business circuit are clamouring for some form of income. A Tsunami occurs and the world is interested. God will find a way to engage these two people groups using the Tsunami as a focal point. In time key Palagi will meet with key Samoans. A cross-cultural exchange will occur and bingo – Samoa is in the business of exporting love.

It’s not a pipe dream. It is a vision that is being outworked daily. I can see it evolving around me. Sure people don’t change over night but I see some people starting to “get the picture” and it is exciting.

There’s a couple of points I would like to add here. I do not see the revival occuring as a mass exodus of pubs and brothels into church. Samoans all go to church and leaders who practice the integrity they preach are few and far between in this culture. No, the revival I am talking about will be one in the hearts and minds of people who genuinely want to do the right thing by God. That’s most likely going to be outside of the church business system over here.

I also believe that any enterprise established to facilitate cross-cultural exchange where the Lord wants to export genuine Samoan/Christian love and generosity will be blessed and do very well. A lot of the SWAP Foundation’s resources are currently going into developing our Village Stay programme. This will launch in September 2010.

To be honest it is very hard work and can be totally demoralising surrounded by people out to fleece you and tempt you, even people in your own team, but even though our first ancestors screwed up somewhat, there was once a Good Man who showed us the right way. It’s always best to follow His example, which to put it simply, is to listen to the Father and do what He says.

Why does it happen? Lies . . . thievery . . . greed . . . Tsunamis? I’m not God so I can’t tell you it all, but the basics from a Christian perspective is that mankind screwed up. But like everything else, God has a plan and a purpose, and today is always much more important than yesterday.

Let’s do the right thing by Him now, today eh?

* Tom Rearden has written about the technology involved in high energy (electromagnetics) and has documented events attributed to the use of technology that remains out of the general public’s knowledge. The jury is still out for me on his concepts of free energy, but his knowledge of and description of the politics of science and the difference between Eastern and Western science rings very true for me. I consider it a fact that powerful people who are angling for World Government, buy and hide technologies for reasons of power and money. I also know that to put it politely, their attitude and approach to the use of their power leans more towards what is generally regarded as evil, rather than godliness.

Trying not to “bag” Samoa too much when it is now my home, I was thinking of saying that all countries, all cultures, all people play politics to some extent, and Samoa is just the same, but different.

But I simply can’t. Samoa is in a league of its own when it comes to its own version of Political Correctness, Politics.

I talk here of more than party politics. It reaches into local body government (the villages and the Matai system), into family feuds as well as of course business and national politics. The whole Samoan culture is built on politics with certain people having power and others, not; with a heirachical power structure.

[Pic: Samoan spider. As the song goes: "All things bright and beautiful, the Lord God made 'em all." He surely messed up with this creature didn't he? I steered a very wide berth from this guy! (Nothing to do with politics but a great photo eh?)]

Here are some examples of the politics I’ve experienced in just the last few weeks. Offence intended not intended.

Central Government

Starting at the top, Prime Minister, Tuila’epa Sailele Malielegaoi or Tuila’epa as the locals call him. I guess I’ve heard what I would say is a general dissatisfaction from Samoa with their PM. Comments range from “He’s been in power too long [and it's time for him to go, or it's gone to his head]” through “He’s doing good things for the country [but . . . !] to “He’s a bad man [and worse]“. I don’t hear a lot of positive things about him but the Samoan way is to pull people down, rather than build them up, so this is par for the course.

In a business meeting this last week we were talking about vision setting, and leadership and the characteristics that a strong leader has. I shared that there was only one person that I had met in the country that had shown me that they had these qualities, and that was Tuila’epa. (There are others, mainly of Chinese or German extraction but Tuila’epa’s leadership qualities stands ahead of the pack here). I think the time that I really recognised this was when I had made seven phone calls and two emails over three months to get an appointmnet with another Minister without any meaningful contact and we had to give up and go directly to the PM when we couldn’t wait any longer. He undertook to be the Partron of the SWAP Foundation and to open The Airport Lounge for us “on the spot”.

Of course his willingness to step up to the plate and support our work in his country was a political move – it will be good for him to support a business that is most likely going to be successful, but I think the willingness was genuine. He understands the challenges facing Palagi locating to his country and that the more that come here, the better for everyone.

But please please please Lord, let his willingness to help filter down to others below him!!!

So here is a leader able and willing to make decisions, even unpopular (such as the recent road switch), albeit in a manner that ruffles feathers, with negative press surrounding him, but leading (many say controlling) Cabinet and with a vision.

The politics in all of this? It works two ways: 1. If you need something, go to the bossman, and he’ll make it happen, and 2. Don’t mess with the boss because you will be run out of town struggle to do what you want to do. I won’t share publicly about how this happens but believe me – it does.

The politics of the Villages

Politics in Samoa really kicks into high gear however when it touches the local village government and the Matai system. This local government system is unique to Samoa and sits parallel and underneath the Western-style central governmental rule.

The heirachical system of power here in Samoa is akin to the middle ages, or the Roman rule. Everyone has their place, and the Women’s committees to the village councils, the Mayor, the High Chief(s) the talking chief(s) the “titled men” and the untitled men. Titles are very important historically and people will travel the world to get or protect a title for the sake of their village or family honour. Some villages’ titles are more powerful or more important than others and there is an amazing depth of culture that goes back centuries.

So in Samoan culture a Matai will share with another Matai when they meet what their village is, and what their title is, that indicates what ranking they have to each other and respect is forwarded up the chain of command to the Paramount chiefs. There’s a lot more to this than a straight lineal command as each village has autonomous rule and each (extended) family has their own land and their own rule. The saying here is that “Everyone is a Chief in Samoa!” has validity as everyone has their own “patch” that they can rule over, even if it is just a small plot of land and their own children.

The politics around the Matai system gets hairy when it is tested – especially with the arrival of a Palagi, a new business, a central government initiative or any cross-cultural exchange. Violence and defensiveness, mixed with pride for their culture, and a religious adherence to the social expectations is a common occurrence for the SWAP team as they engage with the Samoan culture at a village level.

We have achieved the progress we have in this highly politically charged environment in the following manner:

1. Dealing only with the High Chief. We will not talk to anyone without the High Chief knowing and understanding EVERYTHING about the project. In fact many times it is the High Chief that has the best land, or the only real tourism business in the village anyway.
2. Insisting on our own standard-setting and setting our own rules. We expect cultural compromise as a condition of doing business with us or our investors. We are Palagi and we recognise your sensitivities but (for example) we require safety of the guests, no man-made rubbish lying around etc etc. Samoans respect and appreciate firm boundaries and rules.
3. Clear communication and outright refusal to get involved in disputes or politics, instead leaving that to the High Chief to share and communicate with his people. We build a strong relationship with the top man and leave it at that.

It has been extraordinary from a Palagi perspective to see the fighting, bickering, lies, gossip and BS that can go down in Samoan vilalge politics, but it seems that, like riding a wave, our boat still remains afloat and moving ahead. The matai of villages like Fusi Safata that allow greed to rule and fight amongst themselves over who gets the fish before it is even caught, miss out as we work with those who can put politics aside and do something for their own benefit.

It’s times like this that I want to take a BIG BREATH, count to ten, and then breathe out and then carry on living!

The politics of business

So to the politics of business. In a recent meeting with some friends we were talking about working with Aggie Grey’s, a major player in the Toursim market here, with a Hotel in Apia and a Resort out at the Airport. It is “run” by grandson of Aggie, Fred Grey, although many tell me that it is still the old man (Alan Grey) who still calls the shots.

SWAP is in a unique position in that we are privy to the workings of many tourism operators business goings on. We know their strengths, weaknesses, personalities and challenges. Apart from me just being nosey interested, the more that we know about a business the better we can help them – with value adding, rebranding, marketing efforts and so on or even by making further investment into their operations. We cannot recommend a business for investment unless we actually know and understand the business.

So we process information about the leadership of various businesses and have a good understanding of the Aggie Grey’s businesses aside from our own direct dealings, which I have to say leave a lot to be desired!

So here’s the rub. Aggies are the big boys. They have a lot of clout. People want to deal with them because they can make you or break you”. And there enters the politics of doing bsuiness with the “big boys”. One has to be careful when sleeping with an elephant in case he rolls over. I understand that when Survivor came to town and Fred let out the entire Resort to the crew, that there were a few ruffled feathers around some of the wholesalers who let their clients down.

Then there’s the politics of big business interfacing with the goverment. “Oh we’ve got [enter many many millions here] set aside for green projects” says one government employee. OK so who is goign to get THAT money and where did it come from and who is paying for what? OMG, let’s not go there if I want to stay in the country for more than a few weeks!

The real biggie in bsuiness politics here for me in the last week has been the invites to The Airport Lounge opening on the 27th August.

People are grossly offended if they don’t get invited. Then some of them don’t bother to show up even if you do invite them. And the ones that do show want to invite a whole bunch of mates for a free beer and food . . .

I’ve kept this to just one sentence. Deliberately. Because if I didn’t stop here I’d never finish before Christmas. I have always love watching politics. Have done so since I was a teenager with the arrival of Muldoon. The bottom line though is this – while it is fun to watch the intrigues of it all, when if affects you, politics (the art of gaining and using power) sux in Samoa or anywhere.

Congrats to self as well are due: this is a full post without bashing the Church for its politics here.

Refreshing!

Sometimes in life you get the feeling that you’re all alone – like in a cave. And other times it’s as if you are soaring like an eagle. When trusted people rip you off and lie to you, especially if you are only doing well to them, it hurts. It’s not fair. That’s the cave part. I’ve been there maaaaaaany times!

Then there are the really cool parts of life when you meet new people who love what you have to offer, or even better just love you for who you are. Or you do something hard but you know it’s right and you are proud of doing what was right. And for me that’s like floating in air, or scuba diving where you can just watch life pass you by as you float suspended from the realities of gravity for a while. [Pic: Tamati Soma in happier days before his sentencing in what I've since learned is probably a stolen Sprinbok shirt. Oh dear!]

I’ve previously shared the approach of “showering ‘em with love” a biblical principle that works with or without a faith component. But what happens when the party is over and we have to face the music? They just don’t want to play ball with your ideas of right and wrong, and justice. Do you whack ‘em with something like a stick or a fist or the law, and if so how hard?

Well for one man and his girlfriend it will probably be jail, and for a while too.

Standing up to evil from those around us we love is called tough love. It is the final response to extending grace when it is not accepted or appreciated. It’s the father I heard about who says “I’ve bailed him out five times with cars that he has written off. I guess I’m not doing him any favours eh?” and then says “No! No more! You face jail”.

It’s like the mother that stands up to a rude and selfish teenager and says “Out! You’re not talking to me like that anymore!” and kicks her ‘baby’ out onto the streets to live like a man, or die like a man (well hopefully not!).

[Pic: Repeat offender Iva in happier days (for me, before I knew what was REALLY going on) and baby Tasman - you feel sorry for little kid - eh?]

I extended grace to a young man Tamati and his girlfriend Iva even to the point of bailing them out of certain prison time to give them a chance to fess-up. They effectively screwed up their “Get out of Jail” card when they were given an opportunity to confess, and apologise but both instead chose to lie, and lie, and lie, and only fess up to the things that they knew we knew about.

Partial apology is no apology. Partial repentance is no repentance. They made it worse for themselves as a result.

This is the VIC I gave to the judge presiding over their sentencing. It is self explanatory.

VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENT

Dennis A. Smith

4 August 2010

Thank you your honour, for the opportunity to speak on the sentencing of Tamati and Iva. I seek the maximum sentence please as I have offered them a chance to apologise and repent but they have both shown no remorse and continue to lie to me about their crimes. I believe that their guilty plea was only because they knew that if there was further investigation and witnesses, they know there will be more people implicated and more crimes could be unveiled. I also believe that they also need to be ‘put away’ for the protection of the community.

I first met Tamati and Iva when they sought my help for in getting their baby to the hospital. My staff confirmed that the baby did need medical attention and so I assisted them. They then sought employment from me and over time a good friendship and strong bond was established as I taught, encouraged and mentored them; or so I thought. Tamati was my right-hand man for months, traveling with me and translating for me across both Islands as I established the SWAP Foundation and myself in a foreign country. Iva and their baby Tasman were also with us as we traveled and worked together. In the words of a neighbour ” You really loved those people, didn’t you?” to which the answer is clearly “Yes!”

My investigations have established their involvement in no less than ten crimes of theft and burglary against me totaling $32,230.00 over several months. We have managed to recover much of this but we have still lost thousands of dollars in cash, wine and possessions.

The very people that I trusted and helped have robbed me blind and continue to protect others around them from full justice. These peoples’ conduct has effectively set me back from establishing myself in Samoa by around four months.

It’s not so much the loss of things that matter the most; it’s that the impact of the crimes upon me has been devastating in terms of trust. I now find it extremely difficult to trust any Samoan and try as hard as I might, the advice I received from countless others along the lines of “Be very very careful. Don’t trust anyone over there! [and worse]” continues to ring very loudly in my ears.

I have no plantation here. I own no land. As yet I have no business income here and I am only just now establishing relationships with others who hopefully can be trusted.

Unfortunately for Tamati and Iva, as well as for Samoa, I am an author and a professional blogger. I naturally share my life experiences wherever I go and whatever I do. To date I have written in excess of 50,000 words from and about Samoa – all shared on the Internet. It will eventually become a book about my experiences in Samoa. The content of my blogging since immigrating here contains not only the raw facts of my life journey but also the emotions such as my frustrations, disappointment and pain as well as my commentary on living and immigrating to Samoa. People the world over are listening and watching about life in Samoa through me – from New Zealand, Australia, USA, and Europe that I know of and this reach will increase in time as the SWAP Foundation continues to grow. You could say that I have a degree of influence that many people would aspire to.

The Victim Impact Statement that I am reading here will be visible on the Internet today alongside my commentary and their pictures. The world already knows about Tamati and Iva but not by name. Upon sentencing, through my writing, many will become aware of how Samoa treats those who target Palagi for evil. I believe therefore that this will be an important sentence for the reputation of Samoa and all of us individuals are merely “players on a stage”.

But your honour while the impact was pretty nasty on me, I have greater concerns for others. Other Palagi for example. These people deliberately and habitually target us. In Mati’s own words uttered many times “I only ever want to work for Palagi employers”. I now know why. For the sake of Samoa, these people must be stopped.

Their offending was no accident – no slip-up in a moment of temptation. Tamati’s own mother’s advice to him was, “Do not steal from your boss!” There’s a reason she said that to him as she knows why Tamati has “lost” previous Palagi employment. Despite me seeking an adjournment for them to give a full and frank confession in return for their freedom, they both independently chose to continue the lies and deception. Their behaviour is clearly recidivist as their “confessions” and repentance extended only to those crimes and activities that they knew that we knew about.

There is no justification for their actions due to my conduct as an employer. Tamati’s words to me about me were very clear, “When I first met you, I knew that this is truly the best Palagi I have ever met!” My new translator and off-sider, Force, also observed my conduct throughout their entrapment; our investigations; dealing with the Police and my taking the trouble to seek an adjournment to give them both a last chance. His words were simple, paraphrased, “Truly, I have never seen [such forgiveness] from a businessman”. I have been more than good to Tamati and Iva, unfortunately not repaid in kind.

I will recover of course. Once you have sentenced them, I will take the time to personally visit the High Chiefs and Pastors again of all the villages that the SWAP Foundation has been to and is helping. For the record, I apologise to the villages in Upolo; Solosolo, Uafato Fagaloa, Amaile, Malaela, Lepa, Siumu, Fusi Safata, Matafaa, Satapuala, Fasitootai, Tufulele, Saleimoa, Tuanai, Lotopa and in Savaii; Palauli, Taga, Lata, Letui, Safotu and Saleaula. I apologise to them all for bringing a criminal into their midst. I will explain how embarrassed I am at my error of judgment and that I was conned!

I seek your support by sentencing these people to the maximum time permissible.

Thank you.

So is it sad? Yes.

Does it have the feeling of being trapped in a cave or of flying like an eagle?

It’s both for me. (I’m a Libran you know! All balanced . . . )

In some ways I’m down because something that could have been never did, and we all lost our investments – they will be in jail and I’m starting again. In others though I feel like – good job. Good riddance. I don’t need people like you anyway.

The truth is that sometimes we have to be firm to be kind. Who knows in the next few years they may grow up and the leopards may change their spots. Hopefully that will be another Palagi though to deal with. I’m done with them.

Don’t play with evil people! It’s not worth it. And if it’s against me, and it’s a matter of justice, right and wrong, I never give up. Never. For to do so would be to forego everything I have worked for in my entire life – to seek out truth and love in equal measure. Sometimes the truth can put someone behind bars.

Sometimes that love just happens to be TOUGH LOVE! But as I’ve said before “Winny would be proud of me!”

As a child we visited Mt Ruapehu, the family staying at the Skotel a couple of times.

As a teenager I visited the Magic Mountain and appreciated the experience, perhaps getting in touch with the inner self (what on earth does that really mean anyway?), one of those almost spiritual mountain-top experiences, one could say!

When my children were young I bought time-share at Turangi and introduced them to snow-sports. Over the years we enjoyed National Park Ski Lodge, then rented and bought various properties in Raurimu, and Manunui, Taumarunui.

I was desperately keen to avoid watching my legs go in different directions so I avoided that ‘crazy’ sport skiing. However when snowboarding first came in, knowing that my feet were bolted together on one board, I got up the courage and bought the gear. So, I was one of New Zealand’s early adopters and loved it from day one! Remember that young ones as you show off your snowboarding prowess! I spent way more than a decade encouraging others to enjoy the experience of Mt Ruapehu taking people to the mountain whenever I could.

It’s a truly amazing mountain that serves up changeable weather, has height to get us above the clouds; or height to get us into the clouds; height enough to catch some wicked winds and storms; height enough to capture the snow; and height enough to give unbelievable runs from top to bottom. As I sweat swelter in Samoa’s winter I am reminded of many very happy memories of times in the snow, and a raft of people experiences that will live long in my memories, now that I have “retired” from snowboarding.

Definitely my most favouritist place on earth!

Some photos for your enjoyment:

http://www.dennis.co.nz/images/ruapehu-late-morning.jpg
http://www.dennis.co.nz/images/ruapehu-early-morning.jpg
http://www.dennis.co.nz/images/ruapehu-mid-morning.jpg
http://www.dennis.co.nz/images/ngauruhoe-dusk.jpg
http://www.dennis.co.nz/images/ngauruhoe-late-afternoon.jpg
http://www.dennis.co.nz/images/ngauruhoe-midday.jpg
http://www.dennis.co.nz/images/ngauruhoe-summer.jpg
http://www.dennis.co.nz/images/ngauruhoe-sunset.jpg

Some paintings for your further enjoyment:

Cecilia Choi, a Korean friend of mine first experienced Mt Ruapehu with her young family as a guest of ours.

An artist/teacher in her homeland, she undertook to develop a career as an artist in New Zealand too. The first work here is a rendering of Mt Egmont (Taranaki) and the second one is a commissioned work from the top of the Whakapapa skifield looking down over the Pinnacles to Mt Ngaruahoe. Nice.

Stirs your soul eh?

It’s Sunday in Samoa today – and a full moon at that! This being a Christian country (founded upon God we are all told ad infinitum) Sunday is a required day of rest. Church is compulsory (or you can stay at home and read the bible and pray but not walk the streets if you want) according to most village rules. I choose to blog, and write because I can’t speak or understand Samoan and three hours of foreign language doesn’t make for very nice church for me. And anyway I got called out of the mainstream church years ago! I call myself denominationally free Christian. Some call that backslidden “Too bad for them!” my Samoan colleagues would say.

[Pic: Nice church alongside less-than-nice house. This is normal here in Samoa for three reasons: 1. The church is everything here, (God rulz OK?); 2. Nobody has much money to do renovations or repairs with; and 3. There is a cultural lackadaisicality along the lines of "Fai Fai Lemu" Take it easy mate!]

I’m not Samoa bashing today. I’ve had enough of that for this week! I’m not even Christian bashing today because I’m in a good mood. I’m taking a positive tack on this God thing and I’ll bring it all around to relate to Samoa at the end – trust me.

The Christian faith is presented a million differnt ways for a million different preachers, evangelists or exponents:

• God loves you
• You gotta go to church to save your soul
• Repent, for the end of the world is nigh!
• I’m the one that knows the real truth – join with me
• and on and on . . .

There’s always a grain of truth in any presentation of the Gospel but going to church, saving our soul and doing good things, even good Christian things is not the “product” of Christianity. The heart of our message is relationship. Restored relationship. God to man and man to God.

It’s the relationship that really mattered to God. The Lord was the one who spoke first after Adam and Eve had screwed up sinned in the Garden of Eden. He sought out relationship, for that is what He lost when they messed up. Forget about the criminals for a moment and what they lost. God missed out on the very reason He created in the first part – to ‘commune’ with His creation – to have relationship with – to walk in the evening with them and talk and share and just enjoy each others’ company.

So while there’s a whole bunch of lovely stuff like feelings and salvation and the intellectual joys of theology and so on, the real product we have to offer is relationship. By accepting Christ, we have a restored relationship with the Father – sweet!

So how do you “sell” this product? “How do you best market it?” my friend asked.

Obviously as a Christian we should model our conduct on Christ. Before I share my understanding of His marketing techniques, I want to share with you a story about a guy who works with us. I won’t name him but seeing as the other guy is in jail right now you can probably work out who this one is!

He said to me many times when I was dealing with losers. “Dennis I want to tell you about Samoa . . .” they all say that. They all love telling me about Samoa! “With us Samoan’s you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink”. He meant that there is simply no way that a Samoan will change his ways. If he’s a crook then he’ll always be a crook. “You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear” would be the best English equivalent to what he was trying to say.

Over some weeks, we discussed this topic at length. He was proved right when our two criminals [middle of the page] were proved to be recidivist offenders. They couldn’t help themselves but steal and lie – even to save themselves from years in jail. In a Christian sense they were simply not interested in the product. Relationship meant nothing – pride pushed them to seek the “NOW” regardless of the costs in the longterm. A very common Samoan trait. Oops there we go Samoan bashing again. Rephrase . . it is common for Samoans (who are msotly all subsistence farmers) to worry and to think more about the now – today – rather than to plan for things in the future.

So when this guy who was teaching me was in turn himself challenged about change (in his case about smoking) he found himself facing a real challenge. No smoking in the car is the rule. We’ve got a long trip ahead of us. You can stay and smoke all you like or come with us and wait for your smoke. He really really wanted to come so it was an agonising decision. “You can’t make a horse drink, but you sure as hell eggs can make him thirsty!” I suggested to him as he pondered his dilemma.

And there in is the answer to the question of how to “sell” the Gospel. I did’t put billboards up telling my mate that he should not smoke – he knows it’s unhealthy and will kill him. I didn’t tell him the logic of why he shouldn’t smoke – he knows it all already. But what I did do was create a situation where he really wanted something more than a smoke. He wanted to be with me as we travelled and met people and did business and gave people hope. And he wanted this much more than a Pall Mall. As an aside he once spent a whole day without smoking and was amazed at himself. “You know” he said once “I haven’t had one smoke since we’ve been out and about and I’ve never even felt the need for it because we’ve been so busy!”

That’s the way Christ worked too. He did not hire a hall or build a temple/church building and market Himself. He didn’t even hire the best muso’s to perform for Him either. He simply walked the walk; talked the talk, and kept on doing it from town to town to city to city, day after day after week after week after month after month for three years until His enemies (the religious ones) finally cracked and they showed who they really were. He chose the hardest places and the weirdest bunch of people and He did miracles. The people wanted what He had to offer, and many sold what they had to follow Him.

Not all, for sure, but many did and the world has never been the same since.

So let’s recap. The product we as Christians are marketing is “a restored relationship” (with the Lord).

The marketing technique (if you didn’t get the gist of this before) is “to generate thirst”. To create a desire to have “a drink”.

In Samoa, I find myself doing a lot more of what the above teaching recommends than I did in a relatively wealthy country. The idea that a Church is not really the answer doesn’t wash well when you go to church and are committed to going to a church. The idea of selling your possessions and following Christ isn’t really that appealing when you are established and have possessions. The idea that there should not be any marketing doesn’t go down at all when it is necessary to pay the Pastor’s wages or fill the seats in the pews. Listening to the Lord and following a “whim” is a lot harder to do when you have “responsibilities” such as a church Board to be accountable to or if one has a congregation to Pastor, Teach or Love. Responsibilities restrict. You can’t get away from it.

But take this all away and one has an amazing freedom to do “go with the flow”, as I have been finding out in Samoa.

In the early history of the Christian church, one political leader took the Christian faith from a position of heresy to one of the State endorsed religion. While it helped spead Catholicism (the primary form of Christianity at the time) internationally, Constantinople’s endorsement of Christianity is seen in many quarters as the beginning of the end of the true Christian Church. (In fact I believe that the church lost it’s way centuries before when structure replaced relationship but that is a subject for another Sunday in Samoa!)

My business in Samoa takes me to as many villages’ high chiefs as I can find. I seek relationships with everyone and anyone without prejudice, fear, and many times without even forethought. I will hop in a car and drive on a journey, stopping and meeting people and seeing things I never knew even existed. I have made an art form of showing locals things and places in their country that they too never knew even existed. I have introduced relatives to each other from the far side of the island and surprised many about who I know and have met. From Filipo, in Savaii who has nine children and two of them twins – a man who works his butt off and has only a thatched roof hut for a home to the Prime Minister. I go where many do not.

My life is a life filled with “the excitement of exploration” and I virtually live in a car between a business, a home and dozens of various villages throughout both islands of Samoa, and yet there is a very strong sense of purpose in it all. First, befriending and helping villages in all corners of Samoa has the benefit of helping establish a support base for our longterm security here. A gazillion friends could be great support if I ever needed it for me and my family. But secondly, my example, hopefully a godly example, is being spread by word of mouth. I have people who share in the Samoan language about me and what we are doing. They spread the word that we are business people but able to help – in marketing, branding and in management.

If it is genuine Christian love, and it is unfettered by Samoa’s ultra strong cultural defensiveness, then I have the amazing privilege of sharing deeply with so many more than if I was in a Palagi country, at a Palagi church listening to a Palagi preacher raising funds for some unknown missionary in Zimbabwe, or with the Zulus.

Lord willing, I believe that in time, more will be able to see an example of genuine Christianity at work in what we do. Not the sham of religion. The real thing. We’ll all be giving it a good go anyway, day bay day!

To my friend who asked me the question on how to market Christianity, I ask this question . . .

How do the flowers market their pollen and honey?

The bees! The bees tell the bees!

And how did the Master market Christianity? Word of mouth, mostly one on one, and that I believe is the best and only way that Christianity should be marketed. The way that the Master showed us and taught us.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday whereever you are!

Faa Sofua! [Goodbye muchly!]

1. It’s hot over here – averages 30 degrees summer and winter. You gotta walk in the shade, stand in the shade, carry an umbrella for shade in the daytime, seek out places with aircon (like your car!), and the breeze.
2. Don’t listen to the ‘goons’ on the other Internet websites who sound pompous about the dry season and the wet season! There’s no such thing as a "dry" season in Samoa. This is the tropics and it rains at least once just about every day here summer and winter. In summer it is a little hotter and very humid. It rains around the mountains most afternoons, sometimes tropical dumps that have you diving for cover for an hour or so. In winter it is cooler, but not by much. It is certainly less humid in winter but it rains many days and often each night.
3. It takes a while to get used to Taro. If you’re going to live here JUST DO IT and get used to it or you’ll starve or cause offence or embarrass yourself. Ask for lots of coconut cream and you can eat it – promise! Actually you can eat stones with coconut cream it’s so nice!
4. The staple diet here is Taro, Chicken, Pawpaw and Coconut. That’s because they all grow like weeds and don’t cost anything. Nobody has any money here of course!
5. If you’ve got some money then eggs, bread, noodles, rice, sugar, flour and corned beef are the main items on the shopping list.
6. There are no dairy products here. They grow the cows to eat them, not milk them! UHT milk, yoghurt and cheeses are imported – yuppies can get them but then they are the only ones who can afford them – so there!
7. Don’t bring anything to rural Samoa, especially if you value it. Cameras get wet and muddy. Paper doesn’t work – it gets wet and is soft in the humidity. A computer requires power and the Internet – leave it at home. Anything else will get stolen, scratched, dropped or borrowed or will come back broken or get "lost". More than likely you will probably give it away anyway.
8. Practice walking in, tying up, changing into, washing and drying yourself under, and generally living under a lavalava. You’ll want to if you live here!
9. Don’t expect construction styles like home. Imagine a hundred and eighty thousand homes built like holiday batches all home handyman style and you’ve got it. Sprinkle in a gazillion churches and a few mansions as well!
10. Houses with walls get hot. Houses without walls get a breeze. Get used to your neighbour watching in on you if you’ve got the latter. Expect big electricity bills with your airconditioning and/or fans in the former.
11. There’s no signage. You have to know where everything is here or you won’t find it. Ask a local and then ask another local, and then a third one for instructions. Pick what you think the best one is and give yourself plenty of time to find "it"
12. If you catch a criminal – get a good punch or two in before the cops arrive and only one or two when they do arrive. You’re allowed to do that here (well sort of).
13. Concrete is often made from coral chips. It is a cross between balsa and sand. It crumbles the day you start walking on it and is replaced a year or two later. They lay it as thin as they can and trowel it off by hand with wooden trowels.
14. Dogs roam all over the road. If they don’t like you don’t run. Step toward them bending down as if you are picking up a stone. If you say "Hallu!" loudly to them those two things sends even the most frightening of beasts into a tailspin and scarpering for their dear lives! True!
15. Your heart will be ripped up by children trying to sell you things on the footpaths in the city. Toothpicks, hair clips, matches and food on the streets – sometimes to finance Mum’s BINGO habit, other times so Dad can have his smokes.
16. Learn to do what the locals do – they do it for a reason. It’s usually a lot easier. Clothes, food, transport, housing, you name it, they’ve been here a while!
17. Don’t diss the locals, in any way shape or form. They’ll kill you. They take offence easily and in Lotopa and Satapuala they’ll get you.
18. The usual local answer to offence is to stone your house or car. Guns are rare so stones are it – turtles, signs, cars (especially cop cars) houses (they’re the favourite) and if it’s serious they’ll burn them down – yes it happens all the time in village disputes. (Understand though that a good house is just poles on a concrete base and a steel roof with trusses.)
19. If you want to steal pick up a pig, hold it’s mouth shut while you tickle it under the belly. It will then stop squeeling long enough for you to get away do the business.
20. Turtles are intelligent and have their own personality. They also nip and can even draw blood if you’re not careful. Keep your fingers away when feeding them, or be faster than them.
21. Tall cocount trees are old – even up to 100 years old. Locals cut them down so they don’t fall on their houses. Don’t sleep under them. If a coconut falls and gets you you’ll be sorry. Terminal velocity with a litre or more of juice, and all the other bits that make them up whacks a punch! Dead? Maybe not. Sore head? Knocked out? Easy!
22. The Samoan smile is magic. The Samoan hostpitality is out of this world. Enjoy it.
23. Don’t assume anything. The standard answer to any question or comment is "Yes!" It’s the truth, a lie, a
    guess, a coverup, an excuse and a standard response to anything and everything.
24. There’s really only one thing they want from a Palagi – your money. Most rural Samoans are honoured to have you as a guest but if there’s any money involved, or if they think you’ve got money, there will be somewhere, somehow!
25. Don’t give to the children or other families you meet. You’ll think that you’re doing something kind but WW3 will happen after you’ve left. The chief has to have it – from the family that you stay/stayed at. Those are the rules, mate!
26. Always ask for a discount. You’ll usually get 5-20% off, except when you are being charged Palagi Price when you can ask for and get a 50% discount(!!). Ask a local how much it should be first then you’ll get a fair price. Some people call this place the South Pacific version of Mexico you know!
27. Lock your toilet paper up if you’re an employer. It’ll go walk about otherwise – true!
28. Nobody trusts anybody around here. Church on Sunday, Lies on Monday. Situation normal. All government departments and larger busiensses have a cashier – not a till. Two people to do the business but only one touches the money. Even a chemist shop has a cashier in Apia’s main drag!
29. Hmmm – drags . . . Don’t get me started. Some people like these FaFaFine girls guys.
    They give me the creeps but aparently their show can be good value, if you like something from the odd side of life!
30. Even the cops throw their rubbish out of the car window. I know. I’ve seen it! It’s no problem though, it joins the rest that is lying on the side of the road and either gets caught up in the wind or cut up into bits when the weedeater goes over the grass next month!
31. There’s a grand total of 125 politicians, 4,035 corner dairies, 50,000 Governemnt employees, 86,177 weed eaters (Whipper Snippers to you Aussies!), 180,000 people (325 ex-pat Kiwis and 127 Aussies), 260,000 dogs, 323,000 pigs, 420,000 chickens, 1,254,331 flies and  7,322,678 mosquitoes in Samoa. I know – I’ve counted them all. Ouch!! Got ‘im! Make that one less mosquito.
32. The flies are pesky little things that remind me of Australia (the Aussie flies I meant not the Aussies!). The sort of hang around, you know like with no fear? Swat them off you and they do a 1.3 second circuit up and around and back to right where they were before on your leg. Clever!
33. Wake up early with the sunrise and sleep in the afternoon is the best way to hadle the heat of summer – get into the routine and it works well.
34. It’s colder up in the hills than down on the flat. One cold winters night at midnight I even recorded a freezing 21 degrees outside the car. I couldn’t believe the temperature gauge on the dash so I opened the window to check it. Sure enough – it was freezing so I closed the window in a hurry and now I really do believe the car’s thermometer!
35. My aircon in the office is set to 27 degrees. 24 will give anyone a chill coming and going between inside and outside and 28 or 29 doesn’t quite take the edge off the temperature inside enough.
36. There are two flights a day in and out of Samoa. Air New Zealand and Poly Blue. The planes land, unload, load and take off inside an hour. I reckon the SAA Samoan Airport Authority must charge them by the minute while they’re here, or their crew can’t wait to get off and goign or something. It’s almost like they’re keen to get away from here!
37. The speed limit is 40k. If you travel at the speed limit you will be forever braking and/or overtaking. Many drive at 25k. No kidding!
38. Whenever you see a truck or pickup with the number plates starting with EPC, dive for cover, do a runner or jam on your breaks. They’re all lunatics who drive for EPC – the local power company. They own the road – the lot of them. One day I’ll see an EPC truck driving at the speed limit – he’ll be following a cop probably. Hmmmmmm, actually that’s not likely to happen, the cops only have six vehicles to share for the whole island.
39. It’s legal to sit in the back of a ute or on a truck, but you’re not allowed your feet to hang off the edge. There’s nothing funnier than seeing a ute packed full of Samoans sitting on Taro, tyres or what-have-you and a cop pulling the driver over to make sure that he has his seatbelt on! A speed limit of 40k, passengers allowed on the back but you MUST have your seatbelt on eh?
40. Palagi make you crackup over here too. They walk in the middle of the footpath in the heat of the day and complain that they get hot. They drive like lunatics trying to overtake everything and everyone. They walk around with sexy (by comparison) Palagi clothing and wonder why they get the looks. They sleep in while it is cold, then go out and do things while it is hot. They take photos of everything and everyone and go so fast they can’t find a shop, even though they’ve passed 14 of them on the way! I know. I’ve done it too! (Not the low-cut clothing thing though)
41. Samoan law is based on NZ law. It’s pretty much the same except for rules relating to the land. That’s a whole book in itself and is all Samoan. Land rights is a real biggie over here (ultra hot subject).
42. Palagi can’t buy land here. The only way to get it is to marry a Samoan and breed. Then your kids can have it but you can’t! Too bad. That said some people have managed to buy land. They obviously knew the right people at the right time. It works like that here.
43. Most people who got taken out by the Tsunami have moved away from the coast – smart people. There are a few who chose to stay and rebuild but most couldn’t afford to rebuild and moved inland.
44. Samoa is a great place to visit but I reckon that anyone would be nuts coming to live on a beach here and wait for another big wave. I’ve blogged about this extensively before and diversification is the future fior Samoan Tourism now. There are heaps of great accommodation and experiences inland and you can always go to a beach for the day. Business is not booming but it is ticking over.

It’s a brutal country is Samoa when you choose to stay here, and a one that takes a long time to get to know – a loooooong time. They say here that the higher the crab climbs the coconut tree the more he sees. I’ll keep you posted. My crab-vision is about level with the Samoan’s daughter’s knees at the moment. I’ll let you know when I get to the top!

I’ve got to speak simply with the locals here. English is a second language, and to be frank, intellectual concepts just don’t wash around these joints. I mix with people who sleep on the concrete floor amongst mosquitoes, dogs, pigs chickens and suchlike. Some will shoo the chickens off the food preparation areas and this is just the norm in rural Samoa Pic: The Airport Lounge (inside shot showing some of the 9th Heaven Wood Crafts on display) opening August 27 2010.

Talking about biblical concepts of grace and love is like trying to explain to someone in New Zealand that there’s actually nothing wrong with throwing rubbish out a car window on the central streets of Auckland or that it’s normal to shoot the neighbours dog because it came on your property or that it’s fine to deck someone in a pub because they annoyed you. It doesn’t wash. It’s a big cultural “Ummm, what are you ON about?”

So discussing concepts of the law vs grace is just a mite tricky here. I’ve found other ways to communicate.

A young guy who worked for me for a few months started off pretty well, but eventually lies and theft got a little too much. He was actually a ‘crim’ we found out later. We nailed him, brought in the cops and he ended up facing the judiciary over what he did. It’s a long story but he was guilty guilty guilty and he knew it. I raced down to the courthouse where the judge was almost certain to send him and his girlfriend away for quite a long time and four minutes before he was called before the judge I slipped a note before the prosecuting officers and asked for an adjournment. Granted.

Outside, my translator and new security guard (Force) and I had a little chat something along the lines of “Well we’ve spared you from prison this time. All we need is a little honesty and a confession and apology and things can be very different for you”. We organized a couple of confession sessions for the both of them for later that same day and they went like this:

“This is your chance to clear the air once and for all. Fess up and play straight and we’ll all stay out of jail but even just one lie and we’ll leave you to the cops and you’ll be in jail within a week.”

The girl came in all apologetic and sorry. First question an apparent straight answer. Second question again an apparent honest innocent answer. “Oh yes she was there but it was the others who did it”. After half a dozen questions I looked at the boys and said “We’ve got a lot of evidence to the contrary, she’s lying through her teeth! Everything is just BS and we warned them. Let the cops and the court deal with her”. We all were shocked that someone could be so dumb as to choose to lie in a situation like that and then end up years in jail as a result, but sure enough, it happened!

So the guy arrived and watched the tail-end of the interview where his girl was sent off back to be dealt with in the courts and go to jail.

The same thing happened with the guy. Exactly the same thing! He started off all meek and humble and apologetic and then spat out lie after lie after lie! We were speechless. After we sent him off to be dealt with by the authorities we just sat back and said to ourselves, these guys are just dumb – they don’t get it – both of them! And sad to say it’s common over here.

Your first thought here might be, “Well what do you expect dealing with the rif-raff of society. There are losers in every culture!” I used to try to balance that one out too, but how do you explain nine requests for meetings by phone and email over three months with other officials and they are too busy to talk or meet or even ask what it’s all about. Then they ignore your invites, and requests and then are sometimes just downright rude to you? The list could go on and on with people who have played games with me, make it hard for me, all many times just because you are a Palagi!

Force had a few problems working it all out. He would see things that he hadn’t seen before – crookedness, bad attitudes and so on towards me, a Palagi who was actually one of those good guys and didn’t deserve what he was getting dished up (so he told me he was thinking). But I knew. I’d spent half a year working it all out . . . It’s racism. Reverse racism from the Palagi perspective.

I’ve mentioned it before in more detail in other posts, but there is a deep seated contempt, perhaps even going as far as to say a hatred of the Palagi here. Oh sure, they smile and love you to bits when you’ve got some money on the table, but turn your back and it’ll be gone in a jiffy without a thought. They’ll intermarry and play the game and emigrate and banter with the Palagi in New Zealand, Australia and the States but something inside doesn’t trust us (I’m mean trusting the Palagi!).

There are of course lovely people here who would die for you – you know the traditional Samoan hospitality that we all love, “It’s an honour to serve you sir!” type of thing but when you dig deeper it can get a little bit more hairy!

So we had a situation just recently where Force had an epiphany. We came out of a meeting. Four of us. Force, Tasi, myself and another relatively high ranking official. We did our business in only a few minutes; the guy was gracious enough to see us and dealt with the issue professionally and politely and then we chatted for quite a while. We talked about what we were up to, how we were helping here and there and had ideas, doing a bit of training and so on. On the surface everything was cool.

On the way out, according to my mate, this educated young man who apparently had traveled through rugby events chatted to Force in Samoan along the lines of [nudge nudge wink wink] “Once you’ve got the inside knowledge of this guy’s (my) business then you can kick him out eh?”

The epiphany Force had at that moment? Samoans really don’t like his boss. (Well his mate and his boss I guess you could more accurately say.) Here was a young guy Force, who has yet to really live, who has never been out of his country, tagging along behind a Palagi who has taken him for a meeting with the top man in Samoa (the Prime Minister himself no less!) who within half an hour is challenged by another educated well traveled Samoan in a high position of power who has an attitude along the lines of “Rip off the Palagi and get as much as you can before you dump him eh?”

Whew!

Force of course (being the good guy that he is) informed the sleaseball high official that he “wasn’t the same has him” and no doubt there is a young man thinking some thoughts that night about what he had actually said behind my back.

I must hasten to add here that while I’ve had problems around the PM, he himself was very helpful this time – gracious to see us and to hear us and support us. People tell me that he comes across pretty cold with perhaps an overly efficient approach to business He was certainly happy to open our business next month – as well as to support the SWAP Foundation as our Patron. In some ways you couldn’t ask more from the man. So no brickbats to his quarter this time!

The question then is how does a Palagi deal with this racism/contempt/hatred thing, especially when a large part of your motivation is to help?

The first and most logical thing is to just get out. “Why bother?” one would probably think. “If they want to be stupid and bite the hand that feeds them, let them be and just go away!” And I can tell you the thought has more than crossed my mind . . . it’s knocked the blinkin’ doors down trying to take over my mind, every time I get frustrated, get stolen from or treated like an animal.

And there is good business logic to that line of thought as well. The dollar difference means that a buck in the hand elsewhere is worth two or three here, and it’s a lot harder to earn a buck over here – lacking skilled staff, a culture that makes it difficult for the Palagi to get established is always going to be a hard one to make a buck in. Internet costs are coming down but in one day I can still kill the equivalent of a weeks wages on bandwidth, and that’s even avoiding YouTube videos and big graphics.

But there’s a real big stumbling block to jumping ship and it’s that I’m actually meant to be here. I know it and others around me know it too. Apart from the faith aspect to coming here I can clearly make 100 times more of a difference to the world here in Samoa than I can outside of it. Time will tell how much and who knows exactly what is around the corner but it’s starting to make sense being here, almost like all your experiences in life lead up to a major life change and I’m having a lot of fun all of a sudden!

The concept I have been teaching here is essentially the biblical one of grace. Extending grace to those who on the surface don’t really deserve it. It’s a biblical message, one that Christ came and gave of Himself for us even though we deserved it not, but it doesn’t have to be a faith issue it can be simple logic. I give two examples here . . .

First looking at the young man who has probably made a very big mistake yesterday. All I have to do is name him, shame him and his career could be seriously damaged. Deliberately undermining and attempting to corrupt a relationship between a Palagi boss and his staff, in a government building, with a witness present is not the sort of thing that a Samoan politician or government employee would want bandied around the Internet. Mud sticks and Palagi talk about who is who, who can be trusted, how to do business here and so on. Knowing who he was and his true attitude toward Palagi could easily undo his reputation, certainly amongst the Palagi businessmen here. I’d love to return evil with evil. I could have a lovely war with someone like that and make a point sticking it to him.

But this idea of showering someone with love goes much further than just sticking it to him with evil. I can get revenge . What say if I know that we can help a close family relative of his in the marketing of their new resort and that I do so graciously knowing that their family has tried to “do” me but that I’ve tried to help his family no matter, then I can get into his conscience much more. Say if he walks in on a meeting and his family introduces me to him as a lovely guy who is helping them get their business on the Internet, then his face could go white with guilt.br />

Given some very possible scenarios, it’s perfectly possible to achieve evil with good! Showering a situation with love does have the potential to sort things out, much quicker and better than fighting hate with hate. And there need be nothing religious about that tactic – it’s just logic.

The second approach however is the religious one – God told us to forgive, so OK then I will. And He told me to love my enemies so I will love them. I hate religion with a passion because amongst other things it can make things sound so dull and boring. But the fact is that by loving our enemies we open them up to both the blessing and the curse of God, according to how I read the Good Book anyway. So this is how the “God thing” worked with the young guy and his girl caught stealing from us . . .

The police had mucked up the investigation. (Believe me, this happens a bit over here!) We found this out through our own investigation. We found out later that the prosecutors themselves had questioned the case in that there was quite a lot listed as stolen but only a few little charges were laid. Somebody hadn’t done their job properly. (Surprise!) So inadvertently by walking in and interrupting the court case like we did where they may have got a year or two behind bars, we opened them up to the possibility of a revised court case in which they would possibly get the maximum seven year sentence.

I wasn’t to know the details of this at the time, but a big part of the sessions of forgiveness with them was the fact that they had lied to the Lord. Everyone is a Christian of sorts over here so these sorts of conversations are fine in this culture. They had stolen from us, but in effect they had stolen from the Lord. By giving them an opportunity to say sorry to Him (verified by full confession and true repentance) then the Lord would bless them and things would go well. I was just the messenger setting down my rules – fess up and go free or lie and go to jail sot of thing.

This is the biblical message then – respect or fear the Lord and receive blessing. Fight against Him and do it wrong and you’ll end up being cursed. The Bible paraphrased!

So if they just happened to get a bigger sentence after having been spared, given another chance and then both screwing it up, this was probably the hand of the Lord on the situation – not my idea.

This then are the two secrets from which it is possible to justify “showering ‘em with love”. A simple pragmatic secular justification of the principle and a more biblically based “do it for God” approach.

I like the fact that doing good can be justified by logic as well as through faith. It kind of makes sense really. Showering ‘em with love also sounds quite New Agey too. This idea might become quite popular one day.

It’s the Samoan way to do churchy things on Sunday, and we are constantly told that Samoa was “founded upon God”. So here’s how it goes. . .

“In Samoa things are crooked, and corrupt and you don’t get anywhere without cheating, bribing or manipulating things. It’s not fair that only the honest ones should pay for [for example] their power because all the cheaters and briberers get cheap power or stolen power”.

Another version is that “Nothing ever gets done here [1], people don’t care [2] and are lazy [3], and worse so the only way to get things done is to slip a note under the table to the person you know [4] and it’ll get done!”

1. That’s not true actually, without a bribe it generally just takes forever. The only exception to this that I’ve found was the Companies Office – exemplary service the same standard as the New Zealand Companies Office without the online service – and my mate Freedom at Ace Hardware who understands business – he trusts you, helps you and looks after you like you’re a rich Palagi real person.
2. I’ve met a few who do, but most of them don’t do anything about it.
3. Oh boy . . . I’ll invoke the 5th Ammendment here because this is a real biggie of a subject and a talking-point over here!
4. Most of the time it is OVER the table!

When I worked at a large Office Equipment company a couple of decades ago, I entered the world of dog-eat-dog commission sales. The company that I can’t name for reasons of slander (. . . U-Bet I can’t mention them) made a practice of ripping the customer off, ripping the salesmen off. The salespeople of course returned the favour – to the customer, the company and to each other. I ended up at the top of the pile and, sad to say failed to introduce strong ethics into the environment. I learned practices and techniques that I don’t use anymore. They are all mentioned in the Good Book, usually prefixed with those annoying little phrases such as “Don’t” and “Beware”.

Of course it didn’t take long for the fireworks to happen – I quit! No, you’re fired! (or was it the other way around, I can’t remember now).

In retrospect I’ve always considered that it was a good lesson on how “group think” and the environment that we find ourselves in can influence our thinking and behaviour sometimes against our better judgement. It takes a strong man to stand against the tide of “public” opinion. I’m now a much stronger person and find myself in Samoa challenged by a culture and people who claim Christianity, practice the religion of Churchianity but underneath are actually no different to any other people group in the world.

Apologies here to the Samoan orators who speak kindly of the Samoan Culture and how we are founded upon God.

So the idea that in Samoa just a little bit of evil is required to achieve good is pervasive. “Good” Christian, churchgoing people believe this little lie. I know, because they practice it all the time around me. It is so insidious it gets into your veins and attempts to pollute your soul, day in day out. Someone steals from you (again). The Samoan way is to deck the guy. Should I? I want to but when do I stop after I’ve decked him? I actually want to kill him but where do I start and stop the violence. If a crim gets caught before he’s got a blood nose, broken jaw or lost a front tooth, he is very grateful. One guy I knew and helped catch even got decked my another of my “mates” in front of the police. They intervened and arrested the first guy from worse than a saw jaw to save him, but only after he’d had “enough” of a hiding!

So then it comes to bribery. A common practice here. Do you sit back and wait and wait and wait while they deliberately hang you out to dry or do you succumb to the ways of the people – a little bit of evil, and “Nobody minds. It’s just the way things are done here!”

I used to stew over such ethical dilemmas before, but I haven’t for many years. I’m still constantly tempted but I choose to do it the ahrd way, and the right way. It means that life can be tough at times, but I sleep at night. Some people, especially in positions of power are embarrassed and secretly despise me, but, as one of my staff had a habit of saying “Too bad!” When supposedly doing God’s business here (I think I would have scarpered a long time ago if I didn’t believe that I was called over here) the bottom line is that if I do business with a liar or a cheat, they are lying to God and cheating Him. Some call it Karma but I think that this is exercising real faith and it is true Christianity at work. I’d like to hope so anyway.

I popped in to the markets last night (Saturday) and did a deal with a lady for 20 keke pua (That’s pork buns for you Palagi, except they’re not Pork. They’re lamb but that’s another BS story and I haven’t got time to go into it as well!)

The conversation went like this:

Me: Can I have a discount please? [Always ask for a discount over here. You'll get 5-20% depending on the product and the vendor and the margins]
She: No, sorry no discount
Me: What about for quantity I
She: How many?
Me: Twenty Tala ($20.00 WST) for 20 buns [money on the counter - the sight of money always does little miracles here]
She: OK [hands me two bags that look very suspiciously like a lot less than 20 buns]
Me: Ummm, excuse me for asking but how many are in here?
She: Twenty

Whereupon I took the bags and walked 12 feet, sat down in full view of her and started to eat one. I checked briefly that my intuition was right. Sure enough one bag only had about seven buns. So that means that there would have been maybe 14 or 15 buns. Not good. So now I knew that I had a thief, and a liar. Well of course all thieves are liars unless they ‘fess up at first confrontation of course.

So then followed one of those magical moments in life when a confrontation occurred and a reconciliation and a lifetime friendship developed. OK so maybe that’s an exaggeration or an unlikely extrapolation, but it could easily be the case.

So I explained how I knew that she had cheated me and how I knew that she had lied, and how bad this was especially as I bring lots of Palagi to the markets, and how I had confronted all the other people who had lied to me (and I pointed them out, literally) had all been caught and how they had all apologised and would never do it again (at least to me!) and that every time I come here I expect her to be kind and friendly and generous to me and my guests and so on and so on.

It’s anybody’s guess how sincere the apology was and she could easily do the same to many others but to me and my guests, she will greet all my guests with a big smile and greet me by name. That’s just a little bit of love shared out by saying “No!” A little bit of evil is STILL a little bit of evil. Anywhere. Any culture.

Some say that I should have just gone away and let bygones be bygones. I could have just said to myself – “Bloody Samoans, they’re always ripping the Palagi off!” and left it at that. But if I let it go, then another Palagi could get done again in the future, and the crook wouldn’t have got caught and found out for who she really was – a thief and a liar.

As I said, it may work out as a great story in the future because I’ll be taking all my guests now to her stall. “[Real name] is my friend and she’ll look after you!” will be my introduction. And I’ll monitor the deals VERY closely to make sure she never does it again to any of our guests. Who knows. Actually God knows. I can say this because it’s a Sunday and this is Samoa – a country founded upon God, they say.

Here’s another iteration of the ethical challenge. I’m involved in business in a country that makes an art-form over fleecing the Palagi. A country that’s middle name is greed and trust doesn’t exist, except in rare pockets of purity, seemingly locked away from the mainstream here.

I’ve received constant advice that all my business ideas – some of them quite revolutionary for this country – are locked down legally “because the locals will copy you and rip you off!” And it happens all the time here. When caught – either stealing or cheating or lying – they say Oh I’m so soooooorrrrrrry. Will you forgive me? And are all supposedly repentant. But they carry on doing it all the same when your back is turned.

Debbie and I have chosen to do the opposite. We set up the SWAP Foundation here to help build business post-Tsunami. We’re opening up new business ideas and giving them away. We’re running a Seminar shortly at Savaii to train local businesses on value-adding. How to do better business rather than trying to get more business and making a bigger bad business, sort of thing. I know that we can double, triple or sometimes quadruple bottom lines with only a small amount of work and minimal investment. Of course there are business opportunities resulting from this for us, but if we try to keep all our secrets, they’ll copy them, do them badly and hurt us all as a country. Instead we want to train, teach and engage with local business. The idea is that people are better off working with us in the long-term than stealing our ideas and trying to be selfish about it – the default setting in Samoa unfortunately. We demonstrate this principle by doing what we preach – giving and trusting, being open and generous. Then we’re honest, smart, work hard and have faith. We expect to see gradual change and then when the word gets out, we expect to be seeing major influence. We don’t skite about it or talk it up, but it will surely happen some day.

How do you eat an Elephant? One bite at a time. We’ve got a massive mission ahead of us. We can’t change the world by tomorrow, nor Samoa and its ingrained culture and ways of doing things, but how do we end up changing a culture for the good (even one that has strong social and customary systems in place to protect the inherent “little” evil)? Blessing just one person at a time. One business at a time. Day after day after week after week. And there came a time when the Lord Himself laid back and said “. . . it is done!’

We can’t force change. We can’t negotiate change. It has to come from the heart, but a very VERY big motivator in this country is money. They don’t have any. That’s why they beg and steal and covet so much. When the businesses we work with increase their profitability and others around see what blessing results from doing things right, we know what will happen. Word spreads like wildfire here especially if a Palagi is involved, and especially if there is money at stake.

They say you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. Granted, but you can sure as hell eggs make the little sucker it ‘as thirsty as!’ That’s our Modus Operandii here. Offer it. Teach them. Show them. Do it, and hopefully the word will get out and we’ll be working nationwide pretty soon.

But our conditions are clear. Get your house in order first. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that if you’re not living a righteous life, God can’t bless you. It’s not up to us to be judge and jury in these matters but common sense must prevail. A very high profile tourist attraction here has two families fighting over their popular tourist business. They think they are winning and have their patches all marked out. The reality for thousands and thousands of Palagi visitors however is that these two families are secretly laughed about and mocked and viewed as fools! When they attend our seminar we will make it quite clear – settle your differences before we will help you with marketing because we don’t want to be a party to petty squabbling that has gone back to your grandparent’s days. “Get your house in order and we’ll work with you and help you”, will be our message. That’s how change for the better can occur without big budgets; without government support and by just one man who shares a vision to his wife, who supports him, who then shares to friends, staff, businesses, eventually to a country and to the world.

It sort of sounds quite biblical in a way – one Man gets the message and goes out to the world one at a time eh?

Look I’m not the Messiah, but He does encourage us to follow His teaching and example. I’m not too thrilled about the Cross bit, but hopefully that will be a few years down the track!

So I choose to do it right day by day regardless of my feelings. The day that I succumb to “just a little bit of evil”, is the day that I lose the clear conscience I have (no matter how deluded some of my detractors think I am!).

It will also be the day that my testimony as to the power of the Lord to work miracles in peoples’ lives, if we only but listen to Him and do the right thing, will vanish and lose its integrity. It will also be the day that I step on the slippery slide, just as Adam and Eve did all those years ago and listened to a little lie and lost it all.

Whoever said that God and business don’t mix is a loser has got it wrong! Of course they do!

I’m aware that there are now people reading my blogs who do not share the Christian faith. I trust that you’re finding some gems hidden in amongst the God-talk. As I share in my book Lipstick on a Pig, biblical principles are healthy and still apply without the Christian faith. It’s just that the relationship with the Father is missing without the faith.

Thanks for tuning in here. More excitement from Paradise will surely follow!

I’ve put it off for years. I had it but didn’t work it, much if at all. I had other things more important but now on the other side of the world (well actually only fours hours by plance if you want to be honest) I am finding friends and acquaintances that I never spoke to back in New Zealand able and willing to chat again. I like this. It’s kinda like I was too busy to be firnds in person but can still be “friends” remotely.

So . . . Facebook rocks. And of course I’ll be putting updates on FB rather than in here. I’ll flick links to various aspects of life back here as appropriate. I have a mix of business, religious and family tuned in to FB. It’s nice to have a new challenge writing for a mixed audience.

Add yourself – I’ll never say “No!” after all who wouldn’t want to be friends? Actually one business contact didn’t. I only use FB for family, not business friends she said. Ummm, I found you through one of your business friends? Guess some people are not friendly.

Anyway I’ll be your friend if you want! You’ll find me here

Some of what follows is written clearly in the Good Book, and of course from a Christian perspective. Transpose sin for conscience or whatever your own value systems dicatate if you’ve got a problem with religious stuff. The principle however remains. If you don’t accept that there is such a thing as right or wrong, then this post will challenge your values.

The idea that there is a God; that He is in charge; and that He sets rules for His creation is unpopular but a core tenet of the Christian faith. According to those rules, breaking them is a sinful act. He says listen and obey. If we do things our own way however, we sin and there are consequences. If he tells us not to steal and we do, there is a consequence – we will not be able to sleep easy at night; we’ll more than likely have poor quality friends; we’ll more than likely often get caught and will be forever broke as most thieves are. That’s on top of the distance that we naturally create between us and our loving Creator when we do something wrong.

I explore the importance of firsts in three chapters of Lipstick on a Pig. Essentially firsts are important. The first time we breathe, talk, walk, drive a car, have sex, and when we encounter moral and religious issues.

Temptation to do wrong is universal. The challenge of Christ (Who is He and what am I to do about Him?) is also universal. How we each first respond sets a precedent that – short of repentance, stopping, turning around, and reversing our path – sets the journey we spend our life taking. I liken this thinking to the game of tennis on a string. The pole set in the ground has a steel spiral at the top with a tennis ball on a string. Hitting the ball one way sends the string up the spiral to win for one player. Hitting the ball the other way sends the ball down the spiral for the other player to win.

Our first choice on moral issues sets the direction. Short of a change somewhere along the lines, and interception of the course set, the destination is clear from the first point of impact. I’ve seen this many times while observing life. Unforgiveness towards a partner or parent always starts at one point in time. “I will never forgive him/her for what they have said or done!” is a typical scenario.

The die is cast. Unless one changes and forgives, this behaviour pattern will continue for life. The next time somebody does something similar, it is easy to hold the grudge. Same with stealing, violence, drug abuse and other anti-social behaviours. Do it once and it becomes a lot easier to do it again and then becomes an ingrained pattern of behaviour.

It’s the same thing with God. When the challenge of Christ first comes to us, we make a decision. We either explore and seek His ways and His company, or we reject His calling. There isn’t any fence sitting as far as I can see.

We had a young guy stealing from us recently and I watched in his eyes one night a man out of control. Even though he knew he was doing something wrong and even though he knew that logically it was not in his best interest to steal from the boss of a dream job, he did. He was out of control, possessed and I could see it in his eyes.

What caused this man to destroy his reputation; cause him to lose everything he valued such as his family and his job; for a few dollars for a beer or two or three? It wasn’t the beer that caused him to steal. It wasn’t the desire for money that drove him to sin. It was the pattern of behaviour going back to one point in time, who knows when, that he said “No!” to doing the right thing and chose to do wrong.

He’ll pay the price of course, with broken relationships all around and time in jail.

The idea that he was out of control raises questions as to who was in control. Many would say that the young man was. They all say HE was the liar, cheat and thief. True, but I observed in this man demonic control. His choice was made years before that he would steal, and the entry of demons or spirits or whatever you want to call it occurred. I’m sure that he did not want to steal the night that he did. His mind would have been in a turmoil as he knew the risks. But I saw a man being controlled, compelled by something inside of him that drove him against his better judgement.

That’s the price we pay when we first sin. As they say sin always takes you further, deeper, for longer and costs much more than we at first are led to believe. Adam and Eve found that out years ago. The guy who stole from us found it out or will be finding it out as he faces the judge next week.

So somewhere, sometime earlier in his life he chose the dark side. Today his life is a wreck. That’s what pride eventually does to us.

But it happens to other more respectable characters too. Prime Ministers, Kings and Queens are not immune to the traps of sin either. I know of one man of excellent standing who never forgave his father for the pain he caused him as a child separating from his mother. Many decades later if you dig deep, he still suffers from a lifetime of unforgiveness. He turned down the offer that Christ gave him as a young man most likely because it would mean that he would have to forgive his father in order to receive Christ’s forgiveness. Too proud to turn, the die was set. Sure it’s never too late to repent, change course and admit wrong, but it would be a miracle if it happened now.

I’ve talked many times with another friend who admitted quite candidly about the time that her marriage ended – years before the separation and divorce. “Oh yes I know exactly when and where it happened” she admitted. Unforgiveness started at that point and the marriage was over from then.

The thing about dusting sin under the carpet is that the first time nobody knows (unless they were watching) but one day there will be too much dust under the carpet and somebody will trip and fall as a result of the pattern of behaviour.

The good thing about this all is that it is always possible to turn and set the ball in motion the good way. It doesn’t matter if we are an inch away from losing the tennis ball game. At the point that we stop the ball and send it the other way, we’ll win. In Christianese, it’s never too late to humble ourself, repent, and turn to Christ.

Equally until our patch on earth is done, it’s also possible for the saints to choose the dark side, even at the last minute. Dumb, I know, but we all have a free choice.

So being specific now . . . dealing with sin; dealing with Christ . . . if you’ve set your life on the wrong track sometime years ago, don’t fool yourself. Now would be a very good time to set the ball in motion the other way.

I had a conversation with someone once – a common one in circles of Christian Apologetics. It went something like this.”

“I hate Christians because they are so cock-sure of themselves. What right do they have to tell me what to do or think?”

“What say they are right and there is a God who has rules, absolutes, right and wrong?”

“Religion is [BS, nonsense or other expletives]. There is no God.”

“You are absolutely sure about that?”

“Absolutely!”

“But you just said that you don’t believe in absolutes.”

[Stunned silence] “OK. Except for that one!”

If you’re of the opinion that there is no such thing as absolutes (good or bad or a God to whom we are eventually accountable) then if you are intellectually honest, you must of course accept that this very belief of yours must be open to alternatives too. That means that there ‘may’ be a God and that there ‘may’ be right and wrong.

My advice – don’t take the chance.

This is the Force I’m talking about. Don’t mess with him. Here he is on the top of his mountain:

At age 15, my daughter was acosted by a 16 year-old in Fusi Safata last year in October. He then spent a few days following her around constantly learing at her and trying to speak English to woo her. “Welcome to the world of Samoan men” I thought as I watched her squirm uncomfortably.

Capping off her trip last year and cementing her desire to never return to Paradise again inside a lifetime, was an afternoon at Aggie Grey’s Hotel in Apia where she again experienced the wandering eyes of the male staff there. “Dad, Samoan men are creepy. I never want to come back!” she informed me later.

Explaining to a 15 year old that men are men the world over (it’s just that subtlety and tact don’t sit well with Samoan guys who consider a fist in the face and a blood nose the solution to many interpersonal issues) didn’t really cut the mustard but we left it at that.

Fast forward to 2010 with her father having relocated to Samoa, and she’s in a real quandry thinking “I want to spend time with Dad but it’s not the nicest of places for a young lady”. She solved the problem by bringing her sister for company. We however solved the problem by supplying a fulltime bodyguard, Force. Both solutions worked a trick but the Force thing was the winner on the day week.

With a German/Samoan pedigree and hailing from Safotu in Savaii, this is an educated man (St Joseph’s College) going by the name of Edwin Joseph von Kurt Schmidt. The sixth generation from an 1872 union of the German Mr Schmidt to a daughter of an American immigrant by the name of Smith, this man has a unique pedigree – the only son of the only son who is left in Safotu, who’s father was the oldest son of the oldest son of the oldest son of the oldest son going back to the 1870s.

I bumped into this guy when looking for his brother (Barney) who had a recording studio. Force sort of stuck to me and has been along for the ride for a few weeks. He’s got a job with me. There’s no pay, but he doesn’t do anything (apart from eat, sleep and talk that is – all during the day too I might add). So that’s all fair. He’s helped me out to set up a criminal who was stealing from us and caught him. He also helped bring the same guy in when he skipped bail and (allegedly) committed another burglary on us. He also helps me translating with the Samoan High Chiefs who he seems to get along with quite well.

So when the girls arrived, he gladly undertook the bodyguard role. Go E.J. Force.

It’s an exaggeration to say that this guy is as wide as he is high, but not by much. His dark deep-set eyes make him look like a monster out of a Hitchcock thriller, and with a machete in his hand, believe me you would be praying never to meet him in a dark alley at night.

But looks can sometimes be deceiving. He’s an accomplished muso with an album, TV adverts and other credits to his name. Apparently he’s angel in disguise with a heart of gold and RAP beats coming out of his head like a Samoan spring of water. The picture at the top is of him with the girls being silly on the top of his mountain in Safotu. Fantastic view. Could be the location of a future business if discussions and ideas turn to reality some day.

That’s the Force. If he turns out to be one of the better Samoans, I’m sure you’ll all be seeing much more of him on these pages.

Apart from the negative press following the 2009 Tsunami, Samoa has two problems in the Tourism industry – not every business, but many of the smaller businesses here. People here on the ground have very little understanding of the Palagi’s needs, and fail miserably in marketing. Samoa is a land of missed opportunity, particularly when it comes to value-adding.

With the exception of the larger resorts and the more entrepreneurial here who already “get-it”, I believe that Samoan businesses could increase their income and customer experience enormously with a few simple value adds.

Here is advice that the SWAP Foundation has been giving and will continue to give to tourism operators in Samoa. There’s more but these are the key pointers.

1. Get rid of the rubbish. If I was Prime Minister I would immediately dictate that any rubbish on the roads, any tourism destination and any public place be an instant fine to the landowner and the person littering. As a rule Samoans don’t seem to care about rubbish on the streets or dirt. Living in open huts with pigs, dogs, chickens and the like wandering around and through your house does not breed a desire for cleanliness such as the Palagi seeks in a pristine clean home in a Western-style home. Dirt and dirty are normal for many. The thinking that rubbish should go in a rubbish bin is foreign to many. One of the boys cleaned out my car in the weekend. The rubbish remained on the grass in a circle around where the car was parked for days. Out of the car door and dropped where they stood. I even handed one of the boys some plastic and paper rubbish from the car through the window. I found it later where his feet would have been when I gave it to him. This is not the first time I’ve experienced this in rural Samoa. A while back I walked around a corner and watched in horror as a young lady casually threw a cardboard box into the tide in Matafaa – a beautiful lagoon with coral reef in the distance. For her it was a lovely solution – the gentle breeze and current took her rubbish away from sight and her care. No care in the world about rubbish!

   Excepting the Palagi resorts and offerings and of course the natural locations, Samoa is actually quite a dirty country, Samoa. Dust, grime and filth abound simply by the nature of the country, culture and lifestyle. Except for lawnmowing and leaf collecting/burning, cleaning is simply not a priority. I held a conversation with another young man while I was cleaning the dust off my kitchen bench (dust accumulates daily when the kitchen has open walls). He scoffed at my attempts to have a clean surface and told me a story of a lady who hated dirt. She spent all her life cleaning and when she died, she found herself surrounded by dirt. Well, he has a point, but with a mentality like that, they’ll never connect with the Palagi. I kept quiet and have a clean kitchen bench – for the rest of the day anyway!

   So, one of the biggest things to make a difference is to simply get rid of the rubbish.

2. Break the poverty mentality. While there is a lack of working capital and cash disappears quickly with low budgeting skills, the country is quite rich – rich in culture and tourism resources. The people with their rich culture and welcoming ways, the Beach Fales, bush, waterfalls, sea activities and natural attractions abound and yet there is a deep-set poverty mentality that thinks discount, cheap, budget, negative, small and poor. I’ve blogged extensively about this but breaking this mindset will do way more for the local operators than injection of millions of Tala in bringing more guests to the Samoan shores.

   I’m not talking here about people with nothing doing their best with what they’ve got, I’m talking about people being lazy up top or letting selfishness and small thinking get in the way of big picture leadership and good business management skills. I can be totally without money (and have been for most of my life), yet I constantly maintain a positive “can-do” attitude to use what I have got with enthusiasm. Many people here have a small business yet little vision, and certainly not the experience to push through in business to greater heights. The SWAP Foundation set out to help generate hope through education and training in these things.

3. “Please sell me!” This is the cry of the white man with cash in his pocket over here, and yet it seems as if nobody cares! In fact they do – many of them are struggling and would love a little help in marketing – but they don’t know what or how to do things better. Simple things like putting a sign up that can be read. Like telling me what is available and expecting me to want to spend on something that you have.

   Signage is poor in Samoa. Signs are small and many times don’t exist. Samoa is essentially a verbal culture. Palagi are primarily a visual people. So Samoa misses so much because tourists don’t see or understand what Samoans already know. In a Samoan’s mind there is no need for them to tell a Palagi that Vailima is the local beer, and that the Vailima factory is in Vaitele, which is on the main road in to Apia. Why would they do that when everyone here just knows that anyway?

   The relaxed, laid-back attitude to life creates business attitudes that deny Samoans much business. Palagi will buy, IF you tell them what you have and give them a reason spend a buck or two!

4. Value Adding – the biggie! Oh if only Samoa could understand the value this will bring them. Doubling or tripling income from tourist attractions could be so simple if the principle of value adding was understood. Basic value adding can be as simple as putting a Coke or Pepsi on sale beside a bush walk. Charging $5.00 for the walk is fine, but one could easily double one’s income if a coke and sandwich is available at the same time.

   In the markets at Apia they cook and sell Panikeke (pancakes), a banana, flour mixture fried in oil. A favourite of mine. That’s the picture up the top. I buy two Tala worth at a time from these people because they always pop in a couple of extras for me. But they miss an opportunity – there’s no sign, no price, no value adds. How is the Palagi to know that they taste yummy, only cost 10cene each? Then what about a spoonful of sugar in the bag, with cinnamon or ground ginger, or something else extra like a can of fizzy and panikeke meal deal? Missed opportunity galore!

   We’ve got some great ideas underway for Uafato and the Ninth Heaven™ wood crafts and we’ll be working a lot more with tourism operators who want to partner with us, but value adding, marketing a strong brand can do good business for many operators.

We’ve found quite strong support for our value adding ideas as we’ve travelled Savaii in the last month. It doesn’t take much effort to help people see something bigger than what they already have. Hopefully we’ll see some good ideas take place over the months ahead.

According to the smiles on their faces and feedback from a variety of lonely men here who are already broken hearted missing them, they enjoyed their stay. A local guy Edwin Joseph [don't forget the von Kurt now] Schmidt, a.k.a. “Force” was their body guard and put them at ease amongst the wilds of other Samoan suitors. Measuring 6ft from top to bottom and 6ft 3″ from shoulder to shoulder, with dark, deep-set eyes, this dude looks like a monster but he has a heart of gold. A great body guard who can scare even the Samoan men and easily benchpress those in his care will do me!

The whisper is that Force is the senior half of G-Force, a local rap band that was a hit in Samoa when they launched a year or two ago. Force is furiously knocking up an album in their recording studio. Photo of the recording studio above. Note the PS3 alongside of a home-made Bass speaker (drum attached to a smaller speaker!), and a broken notebook held together with a bush-knife/machete. Aparently their only microphone is attached to the earphones (Yup!). Hard life over here for music stars!

Mati, my off-sider for the last three months has gone. He got caught with his hand in the till and helping himself to a few things that weren’t his (burglaries, breaking and entering actually). We might see him again in 7 years when he gets out. His girl Iva might also be spending a few lonely nights with other crims too. Sad really. Biting the hand that feeds you happens a bit over here. Dumb is a word that springs to mind quite often when I think about them. It’s set me back a bit but has caused more nuisance value delaying things here rather than any real long-lasting damage. Mati will be a little embarrased now that he’s visited every second village with me in both Upolu and Savaii. They’re already asking me where he is. He might have an interesting life when he gets out with his deeds and nature known far and wide throughout the country.

We’re currently waiting on the Minister of Tourism to give us a date to open The Airport Lounge – possibly early August, late July. TAL is looking good with Internet now installed, the Ninth Heaven bowls on display and our office taking shape.

We’ve done a couple of trips to Savaii and are setting up a training seminar for a few of the local attractions on value-adding. We will be offering our services (The SWAP Foundation) to help lift their Internet profile. Some of them will want to participate in our programme and we may look to invest into some of the more promising ones.

Samoa is a brutal country – the weather is a challenge, the culture is very different and a challenge to come to terms with, but there can be a great things here – as many Palagi have told me, you’ve just got to be very very careful. The last month has taught me this big-time!

Winter has kicked in here. It’s a cold 25 degrees some nights and often doesn’t climb past 30 in the day. Humidity is right down so it’s quite comfortable living here. We struck an all-time low when travelling the cross-Island road late one night – 21 degrees outside at the top of the hill. I put the window down to actually feel it – the lowest since I got here and it was (comparatively) freezing – had to put the window back up quickly!

My, my this is different from my snowboarding days with a minus 5 degrees and 30 knot breeze making a wind-chill factor of minus 30 or similar!

Cheers!

He got the Global part, sort of, with a bit of prompting but the Economy thing was just another world and too hard to explain in a 1/2 hour car trip. He’s typical of many here. They have as much of an idea about the other worlds as many have of their world of subsistence living in “Paradise”.

There are two Samoa’s and it’s not American and Western Samoa I’m talking about. It’s the people in Samoa and the ones outside.

Now don’t get all huffetty with me when I talk about the Samoan brain drain OK? It’s just a fact. Let’s be honest about it – the good ones have gotten out. And the impact is way bigger on the country than New Zealand’s brain drain in days gone past. There are not even 180,000 people in Samoa here and estimated to be more than 300,000 Samoans outside. That’s a very big exodus over the years – and of course those that have now bred offshore.

Yes, yes, yes, I know there are exceptions but the constant challenge from the Samoan people’s perspective is to get out of here. It always has been and unless things change very drastically it always will be. Families overseas are “So lucky!” they say here. “We have been selected for the ballot,* We are so lucky – can you sponsor me in to New Zealand?”

There are many empty houses in Samoa – especially some of the villages. “Oh that’s Aunties’ house. She’s in Australia”. or “I’m looking after Mum’s house while she is in New Zealand”. Even our own landlord is an absentee landlord. He is a retired pastor who lives in Wellington and has been coming “home” for decades – five of them to be precise!

While Samoa is “home” for many, the reality is that those with influence; those with power or money; those with talent or ability in some field or those who want to better themselves are all offshore. Think rugby, boxing, education, government, yes and of course labouring workers, South Auckland and the other things that are unPC to talk about.

So these two worlds . . . they look like this:

On one hand we have here a 36 year old man who wakes at sunrise, “borrows” 40 sene (cents) from his mother to go to work for a Palagi. He will usually not eat breakfast – there usually isn’t any. He is the only one in his extended family who has a job – the rest are subsistence farmers. He won’t have any lunch or money on him to buy lunch nine times out of ten – there usually isn’t any. He wants to get paid daily because he needs it for smokes, food for his family, or the busfare, or nappies for his baby, or to pay back his brother or sister or mother who might have loaned him a buck or two. He is the only one who has a job so he has to buy everything for everybody else in the family – that’s what Fa’a Samoa is – communal living at it’s best (or worst, whichever way you approach it) and a lifestyle that Samoans the world over skite about, are proud about and will die for (even when they partake in the other life).

Then you have the Palagi life – the other life – comparatively wealthy, informed and with-it, with Ipods, cars, Facebook, healthy employment, food galore and an arrogance and independence that slips a few quid to family back home every now and then and sometimes doesn’t even visit family (“because they always just expect things from me”).

Ouch!

Those two worlds are miles and miles apart. They’re not always divided in two countries either. There are many here who live the Palagi way with material possessions owned by an individual and private lockable houses with food in the cupboards. “I moved out of the village home and we rent in Apia now. We want some space of our own”, one married couple shared with me. “Village life you know you can never own anything of your own and you can never have your own life” they explained.

Little more was said because I understood. “I know very well!” I thought. “Fa’a Samoa and the two worlds!”

I was brought up a classical musician. I learned music by reading the dots. Music came to me via Beethoven and Mozart and the Concert Programme (station) on the radio. Regee, Hip Hop and pop music was a different world. I never got that different world – the music and the people in the different world. Worlds apart!

I couldn’t afford to buy lunches at school or travel the world until quite late in life. Even my friends came from the same side of the street – middle class New Zealand. On other side of the street there were families who travelled internationally, went to the snow for holidays, could afford a housekeeper, dining out, had a bach, two cars and a boat. They lived in another world.

On the political front there are those who know how the system works and benefit from it, generally well behind the scenes; and those who get caught up in playing the game of politics believing it all – some do it all very seriously too. Democracy is nothing to do with voting. It is about manipulation, power and money by a few behind the scenes. (Think Shadow Government and the global banking cartel). John Key would have changed the law and made a simple correction to the anti-smacking law if it was. Muldoon wouldn’t have got pressurised by the scary International Monetary dudes in white black suits, matching suitcases and a private unmarked jet at the end of his career either if it was. He was told what to do. Helen wouldn’t have had such a dream ride and done her business despite popular opinion if it was. Democracy is an excellent tool for those in the know, who play the game, and who are thus rewarded. The rest of us just see the news as they want to present it to us. The make-believe and the real world. Two worlds.

I’ve got mates who are into soccer. What a crazy game when people can talk about a nil-all scoreline favourably. Imagine rugby with a nil-all scoreline and saying it was a good game! The fun is all in the action for me – tries, conversions, great runs with the ball. We’re in tWo camps on these sports, my mates and me. Two worlds a mile apart.

I chuckled to myself recently when Ian Wishart posted a link to “a longstanding environmentalist” who is just starting to see the real motivations and politics surrounding the global warming nonsense and how political many of the seemingly innoculous and trustworthy organisations now are.

What’s really disconcerting for me is that I am a longstanding environmentalist. As part of environmental groups I’ve helped to prevent nuclear waste from being dumped in the ocean, I’ve helped change emergency planning for nuclear reactors, and I’ve also helped develop biodiversity strategy. I’m as green as you can get. But what I am faced with now is environmental groups and major NGOs – Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF, even the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds – which have allied themselves with the state. They talk about so-called denialists allying themselves with ‘Big Oil’, but they have fallen into the arms of big government. They’ve allied with disreputable prime ministers; they’ve allied with chief policy advisers who have never got anything right in their lives; they’ve allied themselves with scientific institutions that have never led on any of these environmental issues.
Peter Taylor

I knew over 20 years ago that global warming was a just a scare-tactic when I found a newspaper under the carpet of my grandmother’s family home I was renovating. I still have the original newspaper – I even brought it to Samoa with me. It’s a little yellow and the paper is a little crumbly with age but on Page 13 of the New Zealand Herald, Tuesday, April 9, 1957 (that date is correct – 1957, before I was born!) is an article entitled: MAN IS MAKING EARTH TOO WARM [BOLD ITALIC CAPS in the original]

Click image to zoom in or here for extreme closeup!

Sandwiched between articles entitled “PEKING-MOSCOW ALLIANCE REMAINS FIRM”, “Eisenhower Sends Eden Personal Letter” and “No Progress in Canal Negotiations” the subtitle reads “Threat of Melting Polar Caps” and starts with “The levels of the oceans could rise 40 feet and flood vast areas of the earth in the next half century unless atmospheric temperatures were controlled, said a prominent physicist yesterday.” It carries on with a short, two column article of the usual BS blah blah stuff.

Fifty three years later and the powers that be have ramped up the global warming rhetoric a thousand fold and many are still trying to work it all out. Global warming (or at least perceived weather trouble) has one of five planned “threats” for nigh on a hundred years to scare the population into Global Government submission. ** See my footnote for others.

Ho hum!

I live in a different world. I see things differently with eyes of a conspiracist reality. Too many others seem get sucked into playing games with “talking heads” and empty words, and believing the make-believe powermongers want me to believe. Two totally different worlds. One day, too late, many will no doubt find out that they’ve been duped.

Cathy O’Brien explained in way way too much detail in The Trance-Formation of America how the power-mongers live. I strongly recommend that you do not read either of her two books if you are squeemish or if you are not ready to take a major body blow to your understanding of the way things really are up the top. A mind-controlled sex slave from birth to Presidents and their spouses from Reagon to the Clintons and downwards, she was conditioned for Illuminati use and programmed under the massive top secret MK-Ultra programme. With outside help she broke free and survived, being one of the first to spill the beans on the other world. It’s a world that will shock and destroy too many preconceptions for most people to be able to handle. To think that Presidents, CIA and others are part of a pure evil global reaching plan to bring about the New World Order and that they live like animals without conscience behind the scenes is a different world to that of 99.999% of the rest of us, but a real world none-the-less. The other world is one of literally unspeakable and unlimited wealth that brings with it pure unbridled power, but also pure evil.

This then raises the issue of the spiritual world – a different world from the bricks and mortar and the people and things that we live in and around and sometimes love. Dealing with the contest between good and evil must always bring us back to the spiritual whatever terms we use to explain it. The thought that there is another world of a spiritual nature is not unique to Christianity – many religions accept some form of spirituality to explain the two worlds of good and evil. Some balance them out – like the yin/yang does. Others fall more on opposite ends of the spectrum of Good and Evil competing – some, like Christian declaring that Christ conquers Satan, and others claiming that “Lucifer rulz”. According to the Scriptures the physical and the conflict will pass, but the spiritual will remain. Faith and relationship with our Creator are the keys to participating in this world. Whatever the case these are very different worlds. News from the other world can be shocking.

Robert Kiyosaki talks with increasing concern about the global economy in his newsletters. I respect him. He’s carved out a lovely niche with his latest venture – revealing the Conspiracy as he calls it but not quite naming names and going the whole hog. Very clever!

My point is that the tenor of his voice is changing from a cautious “be prepared” to one of “MAYDAY! MAYDAY! RED ALERT!” I think Robert is right, that there is serious trouble ahead, but I also think that the entire global economy is way more tightly managed by the banking cartel than he lets on. I encourage others to explore the role of all apparent leaders in political and big-business decision-making. Ask questions and follow the money.

I’m not naturally suspicious but his success on the back of the global banking cartel’s activities is also a little too clever in fact for my liking. Some have poked a few questions his way in regards to his marketing and style, but I’d be asking questions too about his money-making capacity if he starts to shine too much. It is their style to “telegraph their punches”.

Like my friend in Samoa, who knows not what a Global Economy is, there are many around the world who know little of the other worlds around them. I encourage readers to explore the other worlds. Sure, come to visit Samoa and meet the people who have nothing (and on the one hand take what you have and on the other give you all that they have) but also ask questions about the other worlds too and actively explore new territory.

You can’t ask too many questions, unless you have a closed mind already. Join the other side of the street for a new experience. Who knows what good will come from it when you do? If it’s Samoa, I’ll see you there anywhere here!

* The ballot allows a limited number of families entry into New Zealand each year by agreement of both governments.

** David Bay is what I would call an ultra right wing conservative. He has some excellent insights into the misinformation process used by Illuminati and NWO supporters. His experience in high level US miltary has given him an excellent capacity to spot BS from a mile away. He says that he came to recognise early on that the US government routinely lies and misrepresents important facts to it’s own people. His news and Christian commentary website Cutting Edge has been sounding a constant message of warning for many years. I’ve enjoyed a lot of his insights and learned a lot from him. In one of his early articles (http://www.cuttingedge.org/news/n2193.cfm) he addressed the global warming issue as one of five planned “threats” to mankind. Readers of this website should understand that David writes from the perspective that:

1. The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion are genuine and are not a forgery as some claim. (I absolutely agree with him on this. Although the exact authorship cannot be guaranteed, the essence of the document is very real)
2. The Christian faith is a foundation for truth and understanding, and that reality can be and must be measured against Scripture. (I’m right with him on this too, but he’s much more into the Churchy words than I could ever be!