Results for Tonga

Keith Moala is one person who will agree that small is beautiful, because with the small, 1.2m satellite disk that he is hoping will sell like hot cakes in Tonga, he said that viewers will be able to select from the 14 television channels. From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 17, no. 2, August 2002.

The last time a Tongan solo-mother of five, saw her 17 year old son, who is doing time for burglary, she was horrified. The inmate called her on May 8 to come to the Vaiola Hospital, in Nuku‘alofa, where Prison authorities had taken him for emergency treatment for severe burns. From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 17, no. 2, August 2002.

If you are wondering why Tonga’s Minister of Health, Dr Viliami Tangi, sitting in the dentist’s chair is smiling, it is because at last Tonga has a Preventive Dentistry Unit for reaching school children. The Ministry of Health has been without a mobile school dental van for more than 10 years. From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 17, no. 1, May 2002.

Queen Elizabeth Jubilee Baton Relay literally touched the hearts of dozens of Tongan school children during the two days that they carried it through the villages of the island of Tongatapu attracting thousands of excited spectators. The pulsating light that flows in rhythm with the heartbeat of each carrier was a fascination for every carrier of the baton. From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 17, no. 1, May 2002.

Tonga’s Chief Secretary and the Secretary for Cabinet, Mrs ‘Eseta Fusitu‘a, dismissed the USA Department of State report as having been doctored, not factual and incomplete. “A report of this nature, I am sure, is used as a reference by international organisations, but we have never been asked to comment.” From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 17, no. 1, May 2002.

Following the report of damning comments about Tonga by a New Zealand Cabinet Minister and his associate in the New Zealand press, Matangi Tonga tried to arrange a telephone interview with the New Zealand Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon. Phil Goff and the Associate Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Matt Robson. After trying repeatedly for several days, we were unable to get a clarification from Robson who was the most aggressive in his accusations against the Tongan government and Royal Family. Mr Goff, however, replied to emailed questions, as follows. From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 17, no. 1, May 2002.

Tonga’s Prime Minister announced on February 14 that there was a serious turn in Tonga’s relationship with New Zealand in the wake of unsubstantiated accusations made by New Zealand’s foreign ministry. The Prime Minister Prince ‘Ulukalala Lavaka Ata believed that a New Zealand Ministerial attack which ridiculed the Tongan government and Tonga’s Royal family was an attempt to influence Tonga’s March General Election, and “to take the moral high ground, to say they are holier than us, and to dictate to other countries what New Zealand wants”. Prince ‘Ulukalala Lavaka Ata was responding to the accusations at a press conference he called in Nuku‘alofa. From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 17, no. 1, May 2002.

Tonga’s Human Rights record for 2001 was generally poor, according to the USA Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour. From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 17, no. 1, May 2002.

The German adventurer, Captain Burghard Pieske, and another German master boat builder, Kieter Brummer visited Tonga at the end of April, at the start of what they hope will become a great adventure. From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 17, no. 1, May 2002.