The Samoa Files

Ethical Dilemmas By: Dennis A Smith, 10 April 2010-16:49:25

A Palagi in Samoa is up against it. A constant stream of ethical dilemmas as two cultures engage with each other.

One of our Web Ambassadors was accosted by a drunken beggar one night last week. He was a target because he was a Palagi. What to do? Grabbing his two bags of shopping, this guy wrestled with our friend until I said it was OK to let him have the bags and then pay him a coin or two for helping him carry his shopping (at most 15 metres!) I knew the man from the week before when he had launched himself at me too begging for a couple of Tala.

A family across and up the road from us has nothing. The man had asked for work to get his baby to hospital. We were a target because we are Palagi. We don't have any work for a Samoan labourer. He asked for money anyway - and came back with gifts of food, the only currency he had. What to do? If we give him something then his whole family will come a-visiting daily. We did send him away with the $20.00 he had asked - but on the second or third time he begged and with a promise not to spend it on BINGO or booze. He returned the next day, and the next day and a few days later with news that the hospital has given him a prescription that costs $48.00. He clearly has nothing but where was his own family? and what would he have done if we weren't around? and we actually spent more on our Internet access for two days than it will take for his babies medicine, and why does the poorest of Samoa have to pay this much for a health essential?

We visited a village that wants to sell more of their products. They want more Palagi to visit but fought amongst themselves over the few Palagi who have arrived on the scene and could have easily frightened them away. What to do? The arrival of more Palagi will impact upon their village in ways they could never imagine. We know this and are challenged ourselves by the ethiccs of disturbing their lifestyle for the sake of "bettering their lives" and of our own pecuniary gain.

The simple act of declaring a desire to help turns a situation of love and goodness into one of hate and greed, as the rural Samoan villagers take turns to fleece as much as they can from the arrival of "rich Palagi visitors". Can you do this? Can you do that? Please give me this? Please give me that? Please help me with this? You have to pay more to the Matai now . . . and it goes on and on and on to breaking point and everybody looses. What to do?

"Please sir, from the bottom of my heart can I have a couple of Tala for my wife and sick daughter to get home?" a BS story from one smelling of booze if ever there was one. What to do? "Please sir, I am just out of jail. Can you help me with a couple of Tala?" from a man with plenty of family and friends around him. Begging too goes on and on . . .

The government changed the law last year unilaterally from driving on the right of the road (American style) to driving on the left (Australian/NZ style). Nobody really knew why at the time. Many possibly valid reasons emerged over time but none really rang true, especially considering the sudden and unusual way that it happened. It now transpires that Government ministers all get to keep their expensive government vehicles, and are conveniently issued with new Right-Hand Drive vehicles. As a Palagi blogger with a history of speaking truth but also an interest in keeping peace with the powers that be in my adopted country - What to do?

There is a lot of interest in Samoa at the moment, especially post-Tsunami. If I write openly and this sometimes means negatively about Samoa, it could impact upon Samoa's reputation as a tourist destination. A few months of high profile blogging and subsequent exposure could destroy the potential of a whole countries tourism for years. What to do? The opposite is also true in that a couple of months of high profile blogging could also INCREASE the interest and tourism numbers, but that in itself raises ethical issues around how much positive hype our blogs should contain and how much of the negatives of a country we should share.

Ethical issues are not solved with a simple mathematical formula, nor in a minute. There are disputes going back for decades over Samoa, ethics of commentators and professional opinions. An example of this is a Coming of age in American anthropology: Margaret Mead and paradise By Malopa'upo Isaia. In it he shares his serious issues with renowned American author and anthropolgist Margaret Mead. What he chose to do was counter negative press with his own dialogue. A lot of his claims makes sense as he undoes some core tenants of Mead's claims.

On the plane over to Samoa I befriended a lady who was fighting a supposedly false claim of land for her family. Greed and lies were her target - a man who had lied in court, but had "status" before the judges so they took his supposedly wrong side. Samoans themselves seem to fight continuously over land and land issues so there appears little chance a newbie Palagi could work much of it out.

Our work in paradise is a balancing act of people, cultures, business, values and ethics. Even within our own team we have differences on which we may never be united. Such dilemmas are challenging. Samoa is definintely different and is definitely a challenge.

This post is a frustrating one to write, and possibly to read also, in that it raises questions - unfortunately many that have no simple answer.

Tagwords: ethics

The Samoa Files:

Latest Gossip:

Recent Blog Posts: