work ramblings

Only read thee following if you want to hear the Samoan version of ER. Tee hee!

About once or twice a year, our little hospital with its very few staff and even fewer supporting services gets a big MVA thrown at us (motor vehicle accident). Always, it is tragic, and always there is a dramatic story behind it. None of the typical drunken driver cases.
Last year a young priest and his wife flew to the hospital at lightening speed because he wife had gone into labour very quickly. Unfortunately before they made it to the hospital they crashed, likely due to a small misjudgement of handling a very fast car which was driven by panic of course. The husband died instantly. The wife was in critical condition, was stabilised at our hospital and spent the next few weeks in intensive care in Apia. Her baby (still unborn) was found to have died inside her, and when she awoke from a coma, had to be told that she had lost both her husband and her unborn child. That is a sentence I would never wish upon even my worst enemy. I can not imagine how she manages to still breath and hold her head up today, if it were me i;m sure I would shoot myself, because that’s how weak I am…

Yesterday not far from our hospital, a pedestrian was struck by a vehicle belonging to the local po-pos (you know AKA upholders of law and justice?). Now this is something that really eggs me , because I drive past their headquarters to work everyday and ALWAYS I encounter the po-pos either flying at way too far above the speed limit or bloody driving at 2mph and being who they are, 20 cars behind them therefore feel obliged NOT to overtake…talk about funeral procession. The pedestrian was struck with such a force that he was thrown off his feet, some distance from where the accident occurred. LUCKILY, that distance was only a skip and a hop away from the hospital, so he landed on our front door FAST. UNFORTUNATELY he suffered multiple serious injuries, multiple broken bones, lacerations a punctured lung and internal bleeding. He was rushed to the main hospital and we are praying he makes it. Now, continuing on the po-pos that egg me, shame on them big time. Upholders of the law except there is absolutely NO leading by example. They can’t even stick to the laws themselves, then they go a commit the crimes. These are the po-pos I have grown up with and always known. Never have I ever felt safe, protected or even sure in the sense that if I did something RIGHT they would verify that. Some specific examples that colour my opinions of them are

- My brother drove down the main beach road in Apia one day when a cop who stood right across from the fire station flagged him down. Yes, he stood right where those no parking yellow lines are painted all over a 10 square metre portion of the road in front of the building is. So my brother diligently drove past the lines and then pulled over. So the po-po had to walk a whole 2 meters and 30 cm to get to him, which by the time he did, made him possessed with such rage which manifested as the following – popo “WHY THE HELL DIDN’T YOU STOP WHEN I SAID STOP” my bro “oh, I was just trying to get past the no parking area” popo “HOW DARE YOU ANSWER ME BACK YOU LITTLE SMART ASS, IF I SAY STOP WHERE EVER IT IS YOU BLOODY WELL STOP RIGHT AWAY AND DON’T THINK YOU CAN JUST DRIVE OFF YOU LITTLE *&%$!” all in samoan of course, no attempts by my brother to defend himself were met with any form of understanding. And he didnt even stop him for any reason in particular, just a random BS registration and licence check. So the lessen he learnt was, cops are always right, you’re always wrong, if they tell you to do something, even if its against the law (of the road) just do it…cos otherwise you’re a smartass little shit.

- Another time, myself the hubby and 2 week old baby were struck in our car from behind by a large concrete truck. The initial popos were thorough, reasonable and sympathetic. They quickly deduced by the skid marks on the road, the bystanders who saw the accident and the way the car received dents, that it was the trucks fault, and they told him so in front of us much to our relief, because it was infact his fault. When we got to the station to put our reports down in paper, another older more senior cop shows up…he laughs at the truck driver and mumbles something along the lines of “not you again” and smiles at him, then looks at our car, the truck, talks to the driver, and then comes and tells us infact, we can not press charges cos its our fault too blab la bla..i cant even remember what the BS reason was cause I was in so much shock, and the initial investigating cops could only sit there and say sorry , that they have to take what he says cause he was more senior then them, and that was that. The truck sustained no damage, we were left we a hefty bill and a shaken belief that the popos are their to help, they are not. one could say we should take them to court (the truck the po-pos) but we live on another island, we both have Jobs, a a young family, hardly spend any time in APia, it is just not feasable..


Now getting back to our pedestrian now struggling for his life in intensive care. The popos had the nerve to come snooping round the hospital after the patient had left to see if he was actually drunk as they had perceived. HE WAS NOT. He was a well dressed young man, walking somewhere to do something meaningful to him, on a Wednesday afternoon when he became the victim of a terrible tragedy. SHAME ON THE PO_POS for trying to fret around looking for excuses to cover up their shady existence.

I just thought, you should all know this. I know there are some goodies out there, some good friends of mines are po-pos themselves, but the crap ones just ruin the whole force its a damned shame.