please dont feed da birds...

ok, Ill start this one off with- I just had falai elegi and rice for lunch..mmmmmm. Some days I crave Elegi like its Gods gift to mankind(!) and other times I cant stand the smell..maybe its the different brands but yes, Im a cheap and easily pleased gal sometooiiimes! Soooo...what that made me think of was eating Elegi and the nice little not so nice stint on one of the TV stations last night alluding to poverty in Samoa. I'm not really sure whether the particular story was for it, or against it? If they were exposing the poor or exposing what a joke it was??

So what they 'caught on camera' was a tour bus full of tourists with lotsa kachings $ at a particular site in Upolu, surrounding by a little mob of kids, some with only dirty lavalavas on, some looking like they just finished school and decided to harass a tourist or two...asking the papalagis for "money please" "give me money" or "monday please...give me monday" as one of them said... with the tourists dishing out the dollar bills :( and the story was alluding to poverty in Samoa...hmmmm

What made me laugh is the camera guy ASKS one of the kids- WHO IS YOUR MOTHER and the kid answers "o __ma" and who is your father? "o la'u kama o ___te" totally gave away both the kids parents names!! when asked what the money was for they said "faakau ai mea'ai"...

ok, my thoughts on this?? are the same as a few of the help me stories you sometimes see in the paper, you know, the "i live in a faleoo, sleep on a mat, am so poor please help me" ones. which I think are bogus, the ones where people are disabled and sick are different, but those other ones....may as well be my whole village. Since when was sleeping in a faleo'o and on a mat definition of poor?Is this not the content way Samoans have lived for yonks?? anyways, straying off the subject.

The child beggars seriously is a problem in Samoa which is fast getting outa hand. You see it purulent in Apia, but now apparently its in the rural villages too. Is this not the situation of one kid finds out that if they just ask for money they get it from a sympathetic but naive tourist, and then this becomes a vicous cycle?? the parents see this as an easy money making thing and all morals and ethics and sound parenting flies out the front entrance of the fale in exchange for an easy 10bucks to buy some elegi- forget about fishing for a day??

What I have learned very quickly since living in Samoa in da bush is that, some people will let their morals swagger for a quick buck, wait a minute, a lot of people. Lets just ask (beg ) the neighbour to pay for the feast we want to put on, just ask that lady who owns the shop to pay for our power, please someone pity me and let me have a free ride this month and not pay my phonebill lets spend frivulously without thinking about what we can afford....lets just send this 5yr old kid to sit infront of big bear and BEG for free money...errhh...WHERES THE SHAME?? theres none...its like there is no harm in asking, and getting turned away and frowned upon means nothing.

Perhaps I go to far with this post and there are indeed some very hard up people out there struggling to put food on the table, but out at Fagaloa bay?? or whereever this film crew was?? come on, Im sure these people are not starving, this is just another way to make a quick buck off the palagis, and no parents faces need to appear...I hope the Pulenuus who may have seen this clip take this back to the village, and get to the bottom of things. Im sure the kid who divulged his parents names went home to a nice fat fukislam but really, its the parents fault, for allowing this behaviour to happen!!erhhh

I really hope someone somehow , some organisation can help to eradicate this problem or at least get to the bottom of things because last time I checked, I wasnt living in the slums of india. We almost need to construct a whole lot of signs like those "please dont feed the birds" signs you see in parks overseas, except they would be "please dont give money to the kids" signs.

I have on occasion been mistaken as a palagi (saiga/fliopino/cambodian lol) and been asked for money at a beach etc..and believe you me my masau answer of "ole a? o ai lou kama!?" has often been followed by kids laughing realising Im not a palagi..which says it all aye, its like the behaviour is a joke, and they're just giving it a go to see if they hit the jackpot...blaarrdy annoying if you ask me, and makaga etc etc...anways,fingers crossed something can be done about this before its gets past the point of no return!