Close incompetent schools where rivalry festers
Tuesday, July 23, 2013 - 10:36
Tonga College and Tupou College are no longer fit for the purpose. For decades their owners' incompetence have held to ransom the education of their own students and those of other secondary schools as well. ...To end this once and for all, these two social menaces should be deregistered and bring their owners ...to their senses. - Sefita Hao'uli
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Malo Sefita e 'omai ho
Malo Sefita e 'omai ho'o fakakaukau, ka kou kole atu ke ke 'alu mo ho'o fakakaukau 'o toki langa 'aki hao 'apiako ke fakalele 'aki ho fo'i fakakaukau lelei koeni. Ko e me'a eni koee 'oku ui ko e fokotu'u 'ehe poto, kae feinga e vale ke tapuni mo tamate'i.
Tali mai angee ngaahi fehu'i koeni:
1. Kapau 'e tapuni e ongo ako koeni, 'e hu e fanau koia ki fe?
2. Can you guarantee 'e 'ikai ke nau kei hoko atu pe fuhu he new school te nau hiki kiai?
3. Na'a ke ako nai ha taha 'o e ongo 'apiako koeni, ke ke 'ilo ai e me'a 'oku ako'i ai?
'Oku 'ikai ako'i e fuhu ia mo e loto taufehi'a he ongo 'apiako koeni, I guarantee you that. Ko e fuhu ia ko e me'a fakafo'ituitui pe ia, and pity 'oku 'ikai lava 'ehe to'uako koeni 'o mapukepuke honau loto ke 'oua te nau fai e fa'ahinga to'onga koia.
Ko au na'aku ako Toloa au. Pea na'e lahi e ngaahi taimi ne mapuna hake ai e fuhu homau taimi, a'u ki he taimi ne tolo ai kimautolu mo e ngaahi me'alele kehe he toumu'a 'o 'Atele he efiafi Tokonaki 'e taha lolotonga 'emau fononga atu ke mau o ki Toloa, ka ne lava pe 'ehe kau faiako, kau matapule, mo e tamaiki lalahi 'o ta'ofi e kolisi mei he'enau kau ki he ngaahi fuhu koeni.
'Oku ou 'ilo 'e au he 'ikai 'ohofi 'ehe fanau Toloa ia ha kau 'Atele out of the blue. Kuo fiu pe fanau he ngaahi kovi'i kinautolu 'ehe kau 'Atele. Ko e me'a ia 'a e kau 'Atele 'oku fai, ko e lama e taimi 'oku to tahataha mai ai e kau leka Toloa ki tua'a, 'o ta ai nautolu mo fai honau fakamamahi'i. Kapau te ke manatu ki he tutu 'o 'Atele, ko e after ia a series of events 'a hono ta 'ehe kau 'Atele e fanauako Toloa 'oku nau hu mai ki tua'a.
Mole ke mama'o ha'aku fakatonuhia'i e me'a Kovi kuo fai 'ehe fanau Toloa, ka 'okapau te tau takitaha nofo pe hono tuliki, 'o takitaha fai pe 'ene ngau emo 'ene ako, kou tui he 'ikai hoko ha fuhu ia.
Kaekehe, ko e anga ia 'eku sio 'a 'aku ...
Tongans are sick and tired of
I believe every Tonga-loving Tongans are sick and tired of this unnecessary violence that has been going on for many years between Tupou College and Tonga College. It seems by bashing someone senseless is a badge of honour and a sign of loyalty to one's group, helped along by the knowing silence or collusion of those who are supposed to take care and set examples for their students. The cost of this senseless violence to families, hospital, schools and to the country's reputation is immense and the mentality that goes with it is even imported overseas where we see the privileging of one group over the other in almost every community activities, including pious church goers!
There is no quick fix for this problem, it's a matter of looking deep into our social structure that we have been proud of and see its limitations, especially the message it gives out of privileging one group over the other and the inherent inequality it perpetrates. Perhaps it will provide a fertile source for inspired sermons from the pulpits! Meantime, perhaps as a start, both school administrations can start off with honestly wanting to solve the problem by suspending the perpetrators every time this problem arises and to be followed up with honest counselling and rehabilitation. Still more can be done, this can be stopped.
I can't answer the riddle
I can't answer the riddle about concerted social violence like war ("when is it right to do wrong and when is it wrong to do right?") but thinking about individual acts of violence, here is what came to my mind.
I believe that most human violence is committed with a purpose in mind, for example:
To get what is wanted,
To make a statement,
To make a change,
To cause suffering,
To end suffering,
Or some combination of the above.
At the time, in the moment, violence makes emotional sense to the perpetrator because it feels "right." It also feels "free" because social restraints are suspended. And it feels satisfying to let angry impulse rule, anger the most common justification for violence. Why is that?
Anger is an emotion, and like all emotions it functions as part of an early awareness system that alerts and directs a person's attention to something significant going on in his or her felt world of experience. Emotion also mobilizes the person's energy to respond to whatever is going on.
Each emotion arises in response to a different kind of human experience. For example, fear warns of actual or imagined danger. Grief signifies that there has been some significant loss. Frustration shows that some want is being denied or some purpose is being blocked. And anger identifies some violation of one's wellbeing.
The awareness of anger is usually identified by such thoughts as, "this is wrong," "this isn't what I like or want," "this isn't fair," "this shouldn't be going on," "This must be stopped." So the function of anger is to patrol a person's wellbeing, identify possible violations, and energize some expressive, protective, corrective, or aggressive action in response.
Although emotions can be very good informants, they tend to be very bad advisors when people let feelings do their thinking for them. Feelings can prompt poor decisions that only make a hard situation worse. For example, fear can advise running away, which can intensify anxiety. Grief can advise preoccupying with loss, which can bring on depression. Frustration can advise forcing the issue, which can cause an overreaction. And anger can advise revenge, attacking back which can generate more violation and retaliation in the process. Or in a moment of rage the person can commit savage violence. Mental sets stir emotional responses that can have physical consequences.
Individuals who commit violence are often anger prone. That is, they have certain mental characteristics that encourage resort to anger.
They have a high need for control and get angry when control is lost or when using anger to get control.
They are highly judgmental, feeling easily offended when others don't meet their standards or don't do things their way.
They take personally what is not personally meant, assuming accidental slights or offenses were deliberate when that was not the case.
They are unforgetting and unforgiving of past injuries, storing grievances as resentments that can intensify current anger.
Mental sets are chosen, not genetic, and with help and practice they can be modified. In counselling and therapy people can learn to step back from the precipice of angry violence by revising their mental sets. For example, they can practice being less controlling, being less judgmental, being less ready to take affronts and irritations personally, and being more willing to let old injuries and grievances go.
The silent partner in much social violence is isolation that condemns a troubled person to the solitary confinement of their own thinking, without recourse to the opinions and understanding of others that might keep distorted perspectives and desperate intentions in check.
To outsiders, acts of social violence seem inexplicable because we cannot get inside the perpetrator's head to understand the "sense" these horrific actions make to him or her at the angry time. We can only relate to the victims because it is with them we readily identify, and with the families grieving sudden loss.
May we hold them all in our hearts in their time of need.
Tau vakai kihe peseti 'oe
Tau vakai kihe peseti 'o e lelei mo e kovi 'oku ma'u 'e Tonga mei he kau ako 'o e Kolisi ko Tupou/Tonga 'i hono fakafehoanaki ki he palopalema ko'eni. 'Oku ma'u 'e Tonga 'a e lelei peseti 99 meihe kau 'ako Kolisi ko Tupou/Tonga ki he peseti pe 'e taha 'o e kovi fekau'aki mo e ki'i palopalema ko'eni. Ko e fakavahavaha'a 'a e ngaahi 'apiako tautautefito ki he taimi sipoti ko e palopalema fakamamani lahi. 'Oku 'ikai koha palopalema pe ia 'a e Kolisi Tonga pea moe Kolisi ko Tupou. Ko e palopalema lahi ia 'i 'Amelika ni 'i he to'u 'akapulu faka High School ko e feinga 'a e kau Polisi mo e kau taki 'o e ngaahi High School ke ta'ofi 'a e palopalema 'o e ke 'a e fanauako, kau ai mo e matu'a 'i he taimi 'oku tau ai ha ongo timi fepolepolei (rival). 'Oku hoko ia 'i 'Amelika ni, 'i he ta'u kotoa pe, 'iha ongo 'apiako tatau pe. ''Oku 'ikai ko ha palopalema ia ke tamate'i ai ha 'apiako high school' (Fakakaukau ma'ulalo ia). Ko e me'a mahu'inga heni, ko e feinga 'a e kau Polisi mo e kau taki 'o e ngaahi 'apiako High School ke fa'u ha polokalama ke ta'ofi 'aki 'a e palopalema ko'eni. Ko e ngaahi polokalama ko'eni 'oku fa'u ia ke 'oua tene hanga 'o Abuse pe uesia 'a e totonu faka (civl/human rights) 'a e fanauako, 'o hange ko e polokalama ko'ena 'a e kau polisi Tonga. Ke nau tafoki hake pe 'o puke (arrest) noa'ia 'a e fanau Kolisi ko Tupou 'o fakahu ta'e te nau 'ilo koeha 'a e hia na'anau fai. Kimu'a ke puke fakalao 'eha polisi ha taha 'o fakahu he pilisone, kuo pau ke 'ilo 'ehe polisi 'a e hia na'e fai 'ehe tokotaha koia, fakatokanga'i fakalao (caution) 'a e tokotaha faihia, tala kiai 'a e hia na'a ne fai pea toki puke ia 'o fakahu. 'Oku lava pe ke mau tala atu mei muli ni, nae puke noa'ia 'a e toko 147 ko'eni 'o fakahu kae toki fai 'a e fakatotolo 'a e polisi. 'Oku kau heni 'a hono Abuse, discrimination, pea mo hono maumau'i 'a e totonu faka sivile/hyman rights 'a e fanau 'o Tonga 'ehe kau Polisi. 'Oku totonu ki he matu'a, kau tiuta Kolisi ko Tupou, pea mo e SUTT ke mou vakai'i fakalelei 'a e ngaue fakavalevale ko'eni 'a e kau Polisi, pea mou hanga 'o malu'i 'a e totonu ho'omou fanau. 'Oku 'ikai 'uhinga 'eni ki he fa'ahinga ko'eni meihe Kolisi ko Tupou na'a nau fai 'a e hia ko'eni, 'oku totonu ia ke fakahu, pea faka'ilo. Ka 'oku 'uhinga 'eni ke fai 'eha toko 7 pe 8 ha hia, pea puke kotoa ai 'a e Kolisi ko Tupou 'o fakahu?. 'Oku totonu ke launga'i 'a e ngaue fakavalevale ko'eni 'a e kau Polisi, pea tuli 'a e 'ofisa polisi na'ane fai 'a e tu'utu'uni fakavalevale ko'eni. Kapau he 'ikai launga'i 'eni, 'e hoko 'eni 'o toe lahi ange hono 'abuse' 'ehe kau polisi 'a e kakai 'o Tonga 'amui ange.Temau tokoni'i fakapa'anga ha ngaahi launga 'a e fanauako Kolisi ko Tupou fekau'aki mo e me'ani. SAIA (Palesiteni Tupou College Alumni Association of America).
We have seen enough of this
We have seen enough of this anarchy. It's the fourth time Toloa students (and allegedly teachers) continue to destroy properties with vengeance and had no fear of God, Culture and Law. An independent proposition to sort this mess from someone who was neither a student of Toloa nor ‘Atele College. May I offer three solutions, which I am absolutely sure will sort this problem once and for all:
1. Culture Solution: for the Landlord Lord Kalaniuvalu to take back his land and FWC to close down Toloa. Why? It has been customary for nobles and chiefs to intervene to stop the occupiers of his land from illegal acts of destruction to others. Relocate the Toloa students to Tupou High School in Nuku‘alofa or opposite Siatoutai FWC Theological College. This is the fourth time Toloa students (with teachers as it now appears) rampaged properties related to ‘Atele. It frightens everyone, should we now arm ourselves in fear of such mindless rampage? It’s time to stop it and only when Toloa shuts down because incompetence is on the administrators of this college. They never stop their students four times now! What guarantees that it won't happen again…?
2. Spiritual Solution: to bring in Dr Mohenoa Puloka as the Director of FWC Schools System or a new headmaster for the relocated Toloa. Why? It took the FWC Chief Secretary four days to come forward and apologise to the country. Where is the FWC President, the Toloa Principal and Deputy Principal? You know 70% of Atele are FWC and nearly 75% of its teachers are FWC? Dr Mohenoa Puloka was Acting President last month ...He also steps in with a probable solution to the Toloa/Atele school fighting on his first day in office. We need strong quality leadership…. It’s also time for FWC Ministers to stop barking at other denominations like LDS. We should all learn from the LDS Liahona School’s principal for her strong leadership in curtailing school fighting from LDS side. … We also have to congratulate the Catholic Schools administrators for managing their students.
3. Government Solution: replace the Principal of ‘Atele ... We need a strong leadership...There must be a renewed focus on the core reason for ‘Atele’s existence….
I'm sick and tired of hearing one-sided solutions to close down both colleges when yet it was only one college (Toloa) who continued to rampage properties and frighten all of Tonga.