Tonga Consul a waste of money

Close down the San Francisco Consulate - Vili Piutau
Having read the letter by Concern Citizen about our country’s consul in San Francisco, I fully support the views put forward and call for the office to be closed and for the staff to be given their one-way ticket back to Tonga. As for the budget used for this office- direct these tax-payers monies to fix the appalling roads around Nukualofa, put up new fences along the airstrip in Ha’apai to prevent dogs, pigs and whatever from causing danger to lives, put in place a sheltered walkway to the arrival and departure lounges just after the tarmac- this would highly assist passengers espcially the elderly, protection from the rain and sun given that the tarmac is a long walking distance from the terminal, and for goodness sake clean up the image of our capital starting from Lavengamalie to Popua.

You look at the development of our neigbours especially our rival Samoa and our beloved country is ten or more years back in comparison.

On a brighter note, thank you to the Australian government for your assistance on the re-location of the Tuku Tonga rubbish dump from its present site. Only in Tonga you would find expatriates and families living next door to a rubbish dump and one that is plonked right on a capital’s beach front. One would imagine that after all these years since the start of the dump, the royal family, our leaders all educated in exclusive schools such as Newington College (Sydney), King’s College and Wesley College (Auckland) etc had not come up with any solutions to this.

Thank you.

Ko e ‘Otua mo Tonga ko hoku Tofi’a - Vili Piutau, Canberra, Australia

Honest beggars are better than professional scrounger - Senolita Swan
The issue raised here by Vili Piutau is a valid point to put forward for debate in the House of Parliament. Or could someone explain please how Tonga can afford the running of offices and embassy type premises in London, San Francisco and other parts of the World.

Piutau touched on the fact that the Australian funded the relocation of the rubbish dump in Tonga. Recently, we learned that Japan is currently funding water projects in the Island. These are very good examples of how rich countries which include Australia, Japan, New Zealand and others give assistance to the development of Tonga. At the same time, I suspect that these countries are hoping that one day soon Tonga would stand on her own two feet and do something for herself.

The fact of the matter is this; Tongans by birth are not blessed with business brains. We tend to be short sighted when dealing with money. We never put away anything for a rainy day. Or if we try, someone else needs it so there it goes again. People tend to spend above their means. Some would give hundreds of pa'aga as a fakapale but then starve the next day. So there is always a vicious cycle of debt after debt that one can never escape.

I do hope that funds received through the begging bowl are not used to run these expensive places around the world.

Please, if we must hold out the begging bowl to the World, let us be known as the honest beggars, but never the professional beggars.
‘Ofa atu - Senolita Swan, Cheshire, England

Tonga needs a consulate and more development - ‘Ofa ki Tonga
Vili Piutau, I was in Tonga in 2005 three times and so far this year I have been to our island kingdom twice. In fact I intend to visit Tonga at least another couple of times before the year is over. For your information, I also flew to Ha`apai this year, and the condition of the airport and the terminal was a lot better than it was the last time I was there.
The point at issue here is that …“Concerned Citizen of Tonga…” wanted the San Francisco Consulate Office closed down, giving no concrete reasons for this proposition. You came on in support of this whole idea citing the various needs at Ha`apai Airport and throughout Nuku`alofa. I would like to remind you that the total cost for operating the San Francisco Office does not even come close to the overall cost for the Ha`apai and Nuku`alofa improvements.
There was no emotion in my letter and all I had wanted was, if we propose something for the Tongan public then we should be prepared to back up such a motion with solid reasons. You see, Vili Piutau, I am very well aware of the benefits of the diplomatic office in San Francisco, that both of you apparently are not aware of. I am also very much aware of the needs at Nuku`alofa and Ha`apai but closing the San Francisco office will not quite help. - ‘Ofa ki Tonga, Long Beach, California

Tonga relies on aid - Senolita Swan
“Tongans need the Consulate in San Francisco” by ‘Ofa-ki-Tonga missed the point altogether. The issue here is whether Tonga can afford to run such a place. The answer to that is NO. Tonga has not got funds put together to even feed its people.

Here are few facts for your information: For years, Tonga has relied heavily and almost entirely on hand-outs from foreign countries for support, and for years these funds were mis-appropriated by the Tongan Government. What have we got to show for it in 2006? Nothing. 2006 comes - earthquake hit Tonga, the EU countries allocate funds to rebuild the outer islands of Tonga. What did the Tongan hierachy do with the fund? Well, surprise, surprise - they were used partly to help pay for the Civil Servants pay rise.

This is what my last letter meant - honest beggars but never professional scroungers. Tonga is actually a beggar in the World stage. Is she and honest beggar? As a Tongan, I would dearly love to think so. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Tonga has excel herself from begging to survive to begging because we have squandered the last donation - and that is what donor countries may term as ” a professional scrounger “. It is an undignify way to exist. Especially from a country that pride itself on “God and Tonga are my heritage”

Now then, where do you think these funds came from? They come from tax payers of donor countries like Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Europe. No - they did not pluck them out of trees. They worked hard for it first, paid their taxes, and part of the taxes is allocated to a pot which they called - foreign aid. The foreign aid is then distributed to developing countries in the hope that they in turn better themselves. Has Tonga bettered itself in anyway I wonder? Sadly, but no - whereas Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti and other neighbour Islands have move on with the times, Tonga is stuck in a mire of political corruption and Government mis-management.

Here is another fact - Tonga for this year alone receives over $50,000,000 - fifty million dollars of aid from foreign countries. Who will benefit I wonder? Not the poor people of Tonga I can assure you that. Poverty in Tonga is rife and yet the aid from abroad has never actually reached them. In the light of this information, do you think that tax payers from donor countries appreciate the fact that money sent to Tonga to help the poor is used to fund the running of Consulates around the World?

It is time for the Tongan people to ask this question - how is Tonga going to survive if all of a sudden the foreign aid from donor countries stop? - Senolita Swan, Cheshire, England