Results for Letters

Please allow me to respond to the accusation by the Langafonua Tu'uloa Party that the Government is being disrespectful of the Commission by amending the Constitution so as to enable Nobles' and People's Representatives appointed to Cabinet to retain their seats in the current Legislative Assembly.

There are a couple of viable renewable options available for Tonga, one being the burning of Saafa grass to drive steam turbines which could produce cheap electricity as does the burning of 1 million tons of straw each year in Denmark. Burning grass is CO2 neutral because the grass takes the same amount of CO2 out of the air while growing, as is returned to the atmosphere when it is burned. Indeed this option entitles the user to Carbon credits. Saafa could produce electricity for less than the diesel component alone in the current electricity price. -Peter Goldstern

It is with some interest that I read Prime Minister Key's announcement of aid contributions for Tonga. The first aspect I find amusing is the absence of any recognition, in the announcement, that this is money being collected from citizens of New Zealand in taxes and therefore is coming from the people of New Zealand for the people of Tonga. Instead he gives the impression that this money is the result of his/government's generosity. - Peter Goldstern

It is with some interest that I read Prime Minister Key's announcement of aid contributions for Tonga. The most interesting aspect is that, in fact, the amount of NZ annual aid to Tonga comes very close to the total tax revenue that the NZ government would have collected in income tax from income derived in NZ on the NZ$70 million of exports to Tonga in 2007. - Peter Goldstern

You do have to hand it to the Australian and New Zealanders, they comprehensively outmanouvered and outplayed their Pacific counterparts. Critical to this was the removal of Roman Grynberg from the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat. Dr Grynberg has long been a thorn in the side of Australia's trade ambitions with his expertise and strategy in negotiations, particularly in providing assistance to the under resourced Island Countries. - Adam Wolfenden

During a live television interview here in New Zealand on 21 June I made a thoughtless remark which has caused great offence to Tongans both within the Kingdom and elsewhere. When I became aware that I had caused offence to my fellow law practitioners in Tonga, I immediately wrote a letter of apology to the Tonga Law Society, sections of which appear in a Press Release by the Tonga Law Society published in Matangi Tonga. - David Garrett

It is disheartening to hear the more we are struggling for change, the more things remain the same in Parliament. It is also fair to say that I am grossly disgusted with the hard working members of our Parliament who lackadaisical join the House at their convenience, but rush to claim overtime pay when they are needed to do what they were elected to do in the first place. It stinks to high heaven, and it shows their greed and their love of power more than upholding the duties they campaigned for. -TamaFoa

Many of your readers will, I know, share the sorrow and regret at the news of the passing of Emeritus Professor Ronald Gordon Crocombe on Friday, 19 June 2009 in Auckland en-route to Rarotonga from Nuku'alofa. He will be remembered most of all by the thousands of people whose lives he touched through his teaching and writing on the Pacific and through the person he was. -Morgan and Eileen Tuimaleali'ifano

A huge and a standing ovation is here now extended to Sione Posesi Bloomfield for his achievement as a Harvard Graduate. Posesi's (name best known in high school) achievement means a lot of things. - Lucia