Tonga's rivers of wine and broken glass [1]
Tuesday, December 7, 2010 - 05:37. Updated on Monday, September 9, 2013 - 18:40.
Editor,
I read with consternation your recent article about the crushing by Customs of 13,000 bottles of red wine. Could Customs not have re-sold the wine and made a tidy sum of money which could then have been spent on the fight against illegal imports or on a Ministry of Health campaign highlighting the dangers of alcohol abuse?
Had each bottle been sold by Customs for even 10 pa'anga, a princely sum of 130,000 pa'anga could have been made which could have been spent on worthwhile projects.
I did not realise that the Tongan government was so cash-rich that it could effectively waste a potential money making scheme in rivers of wine and broken glass.
Regards,
Tom
Director
Phoenix
Sports Management UK Ltd.
tom [at] phoenixsm [dot] com ( tom [at] phoenixsm [dot] com)