A huge fakamalo for Tonga [1]
Thursday, August 20, 2009 - 16:00. Updated on Monday, April 28, 2014 - 09:32.
Editor,
Here is a huge fakamalo to the Kingdom of Tonga for your first distribution to help out the victims family from the Ashika tragedy. You are now on the right path. But please do not stop there.
A simple funeral here in American Samoa can very well cost no less than US$8,000.
A regular casket is $2,000 and up. The plot of land may be for free but if paid for, it is going to be at least $2,000. The food for the wake (one night) and other cultural responsibilities, escort services, and others has been factored in.
From reliable sources in Tonga and from personal experiences. A simple Tongan Funeral, that is, out of the hospital in the morning, a day time wake and buried in the evening, can still cost up to $TP5,000.
I fail to see why the other part of the donations to the Ashika victims has not been distributed and I can't see why it is being piece meal.
In my former life I worked with explosives. If my calculations shows that I will need 20 lbs of C4 Explosives to blow up an enemy machine gun next, I expect the 10 lbs plus a 10% fudge factor. I need them all at the same time. It is not helping me a bit to get 5 lbs here and 7 lbs there and the rest later.
Imagine how sad and embarrassing to ask the mourners to wait until we get more money to purchase more food?
Do it now. The need is there. I believe there is enough in the pot now meet the demand.
I also want to point out another fact; the better the government responds to the needs of the victims' relatives now, the less controversies we will have to deal with in the future. The government will be facing a much more forgiving an forgetting public.
Sione Lousiale Kava
slkava [at] hotmail [dot] com