Results for Opinion

Tongans will always remember the day the Princess Ashika sunk in the Pacific waters. Just days after the tragedy, I flew over that same ocean on my first trip to Tonga to participate in a discussion of Tonga's corruption and transparency challenges based on recent fieldwork my organization, Global Integrity, had conducted with a team of Tongan researchers and journalists. - Norah Mallaney

Futa is gone, and it is hard for his family, for everyone in Tonga and for his friends living thousands of kilometers away to realize he's not here anymore. -Marie-Claire Bataille-Benguigui & Georges Benguigui

Tonga quietly buried one of her most influential scholars and visionaries when they laid Ilaiasi Futa –ki- Ha'angana Helu to rest at Telekava cemetary in Nuku'alofa this week. Quietly, that is, for someone who has had a prominent role in shaping Tongan society over the last half-century.

wish to add my voice to the siren songs being sung over Chinese orbital slot fees payable to Tongasat being used to buy the doomed 'bathtub'. I recall rosy reports from Parliament 17 months ago (11 September 2008) where immense gratitude was expressed in Parliament by PM Sevele to TongaSat because TongaSat was supposed to have become a successful national development 'project'. -Samuel 'Ofeina'helotu Tupou

According to a statement made by the Minister for Information and Communications, Hon. 'Eseta Fusitu'a, on February 11, 2010; the construction of a new Olovaha in Japan "was delayed for three years because of protests and objections from Mr Uliti Uata . . .," a member of parliament from Ha'apai. -Siosaia Fatani.

Kole atu mu'a kia Minisita 'Eseta Fusitu'a ke 'ofa mai 'o fai ha fakamatala fakapotopoto 'o fakatatau ki hono poto mo e taukei ngaue kuo ne ma'u. Ko 'ene 'ita he 'eke ange 'e he faiongoongo kiai felave'i mo e Kalauni 'o e Tu'i hono toe fakafoki ke fakangingila mei Pilitania, kapau ne ne fai mo ne 'oange 'a e tali totonu he 'ikai toe fiu 'eke 'e he faiongoongo mei muli ka ko e 'atunga ia 'enau heliaki mo e holi ke kofukofu'i e ngaahi fakamatala, kuopau ke vakili ia 'ehe taha faiongoongo he ko 'ene ngaue ia ke 'eke me'a 'oku 'ikai ke fakapapau'i mo 'eke me'a 'oku fakangalingali koe'uhi ka ne tuku atu he ongoongo 'a e mo'oni mo e totonu ki he kakai.-Faletonga

Futa Helu was an extraordinary person, a strong and compassionate teacher. I first met him when I brought a group of Dartmouth College students to study the music of Tonga for three months in 1973.

Both the MV Pulupaki and the MV Punalei are now tied up at the wharf here in Pangai, Ha'apai. The report from crew members of the MV Punalei is that "It almost sank" before the MV Pulupaki towed it into Ha'apai. It appears that there are serious problems with this vessel.