11:10 AM |
No way 'truckloads full of goods' can be sold at shops, says DMO
..every item, every good and every delivery is recorded by a network of Treasury, Customs, DMO and Audit officers
By Tupuola Terry Tavita
There is no way that 'truckloads full off goods' can be diverted and sold at shops as alleged by Porirua Assistant Mayor Litea Ah Hoi, said Disaster Management Office chief executive Taulealeausumai Mailo Laavasa Malua.
During a visit yesterday to DMO headquarters at Tuanaimato, Taulealeausumai showed the controls procedures in accounting for goods stored at the compound and how the office keeps track of goods distributed to affected families at all hours.
All goods that come into the compound are recorded by Treasury officials who have a desk at the entrance. All moneys that are handed over to the DMO office are also receipted by Treasury and go through their system of controls, checks and balances instruments as is the case in treasuries in New Zealand , Australia or the United States .
Any container cannot be opened, nor items removed or loaded onto delivery vans and trucks without the presence of Customs official, DMO officials and Police officers.
Every delivery, every item and every good that departs the compound is again recorded by Treasury officials. Every delivery is accompanied by an audit officer and a policeman. There are also onsite officials at the affected areas who double check these deliveries.
Every family that receives goods has to sign up to what they had received. A few days later, a team of audit and DMO officers follow up on the deliveries visiting recipient families if indeed they received the goods they signed up to.
"The system is working very well and every item, every delivery has been accounted for," said Taulealeausumai.
" There have not been any irregularities. Because it goes through a number of control measures there is very minimal chance an item, least a whole delivery, cannot be accounted for."
There are many stories making the rounds out there, said Taulealeausumai, "but if you scratch through the surface then you'll find a completely different one."
"I don't want to accuse our people of telling untruths as Lord knows they've suffered enough, but in any situation anywhere in the world, some people will take advantage of it to their benefit."
It's only natural, he said, that some will deny receiving any aid so they can get more aid.
"Some of those who have complained of not getting anything, upon double checking with our records, indicate that they've been getting aid regularly. Upon questioning, they'd come up with another excuse."
Taulealeausumai also asked if Mrs Ah Hoi could produce any evidence that "truckloads full of good" are being sold at shops.
"We really want to know because the law is very clear. Anybody found to be doing that will immediately be arrested and charged by Police. We'd go out of our way to nab somebody doing that."
Residents of affected areas that have moved elsewhere in the country, Taulealeausumai said, are urged to go to their village to get their aid provisions.
"We do not want a situation where victims are farmed out to families in Apia so their provisions could be distributed to their relatives not affected by the tsunami. That has already happened. There are dubious ways to get around the system and we want to plug those loopholes."
DMO officials are puzzled that despite 'wild stories' running around out there, no local media has ever bothered to come to see for themselves if such an incident was possible.
'We are more than happy to explain to them our procedures," said Taulealea.
"In fact they are nothing new as the mobilization of government agencies in the event of a national disaster are clearly spelled out in the National Disaster Management Plan."
While this publication was there, Tagata Pasefika of New Zealand was also there to interview Taulealeausumai whilst doing a piece on Samoa 's recovery efforts.
"If you see our local media around, tell them our door is always open to them."
Lalomanu issues decree banning sale of tsunami goods
By Tupuola Terry Tavita
The village of Lalomanu has issued a decree to its residents punishing anybody found selling tsunami relief goods.
"These goods were given to us out of people's kindness and generosity," said their Member of Parliament Taua Kitiona Seuala.
"They are precious to us and we owe it to these good Samaritans to make full use of it. It's the least we can do."
Therefore, Taua said, anybody from Lalomanu found to be selling tsunami goods, in the act of selling tsunami goods or receiving or in the act of receiving tsunami goods will be severely punished by the council.
"Anybody trying to sell goods at a shop will be banished, any shop that receives tsunami goods will immediately cease operation," said Taua.
"Any bus found to be carrying tsunami goods destined for somewhere else and the culprit, the bus driver and the bus company will be punished. The village council has unanimously agreed to those rules."
Other villages such as Saleaumua and Saleapaga is understood to have also put down similar rules.
Taua said that aid distribution in his village is going smoothly.
"We just opened this morning a container of goods from New Zealand . Every family was called to come down and take their portion. And every family did. Go up to any family up there to find out for yourselves. Other media should come here and find out the truth for themselves instead of printing rubbish stories circulating in town."
This publication visited several families relocated deep in the bush at Lalomanu and all of them had adequate supplies in storage. They were more than happy to show us around.
Aid is getting here, say Lalomanu residents
By Tupuola Terry Tavita
Lalomanu residents Onolima Tino and Suiama Samuelu don't know where stories about assistance not getting to Lalomanu come from.
With their homes destroyed by the tsunami, their families of about twenty people now live in an encampment right up the top of the mountain, the furthest inland relocated families at Lalomanu have moved to.
The duo were more than happy to show us their aid provisions, they say are being supplied regularly by government, Red Cross and other development partners.
"We have our tools, bush knives, spades, crow bars, axes and whatnot," says Onolima.
"We have plenty of food. Bags of rice, boxes of chicken and tin fish, cooking oil, a sack of potatoes, milk, onions and noodles. Plenty of clothes, in fact, many of these things we could not afford before the tsunami.
"We also have mattresses, pillows and pillow cases, mosquito nets, towels and bed sheets."
The water trucks, they said, had been coming up regularly.
"We also have a 10-gollon plastic water tank at the front and since the rains are here, we can manage at the moment."
The families have also built lavatories and are keeping an eye on good sanitation.
Asked about stories that Lalomanu residents are not receiving any aid, the duo appear surprised.
"As far as we know all the families here are getting the same supplies as we do."
The upland road at Lalomanu is being developed by Ott Construction making it much easier for residents up to commute to the coast.
"If anything, what we need now is a power supply so we can get our fridge (donated by families in New Zealand ) and our tv working."
Saleaumua agrees to move inland
By Tupuola Terry Tavita
The village council of Saleaumua has unanimously agreed to move inland away from the coast.
Of the 46 families there, only four remain on the coast. The rest are now spread out in encampments in the hills.
"We have seen the destruction caused by the (tsunami) wave and we do not want to experience that again," said village mayor Tiumalu Amakesi.
"We've therefore decided that it is best to move up to the hills."
The village thanked government for the assistance it has given. Reports that aid is not reaching them, the village said, is completely unfounded.
"There is plenty of food, but we can always do with a bit more. Clothes are aplenty and we are indeed very thankful. The water trucks have been regular and there is plenty of clothes. We'd like to thank government and its many donor parents not to mention the charity of Samoans living abroad."
The consensus at Saleaumua is that they want to move on.
"We have a problem with running water in the hills and that is an issue we'd like to take up with the water authority," said paramount matai Tafua Maluelue Tafua.
"Water can be easily sourced from a nearby stream but requires reticulation work."
The uphill settlement area also has to be clearly defined so that development work can go ahead, he said.
"Right now getting people settled in and getting running water is the first priority," said Tafua.
"Later, road works and power connection can take place. Perhaps what we also need now is asphalt to surface the access road up there to make it easier for transport and travel to the hills."
Since the population has agreed to move inland, the village council Tiumalu said, has agreed that at some stage the school and churches too will move upland.
"It's only sensible that schools and places of worship should be close to where people live."
However, the village has agreed that families' fale talimalo (guest houses) will still be kept at the old village site on the coast.
"It will be for sentimental purposes and somewhere people can stay if they come down from the hills once in a while."
Saleaumua was completely destroyed by the recent tsunami.
The village council has set up a committee to work with government and donor agencies in distributing tsunami assistance.
The tsunami had swept everything away and what the residents there need now, they said, are items such as coking stoves, chainsaws to clear the land, wheelbarrows and other amenities.
"We have received tents and tarpaulins but we could always do with more. We've already received stuff like axes, spades, machetes and farming tools so we can go ahead and cultivate the land."
Before the tsunami the village had a large communal pig pen. It was completely destroyed by the tsunami.
The village has requested government for assistance in fencing material to corral the pigs as they're now scattered in the bush.
'It's a way of helping us help ourselves. I hope a hundred yards of fencing wire is not too much of an ask."
Govt consults villages on housing aid
By Tupuola Terry Tavita
Works minister Tuisugaletaua Sofara Aveau Sofara and a contingent of top public officials this week visited the tsunami-affected areas at Aleipata and Falealili consulting the residents of government's housing assistance.
Government has finalized a single standard design for all tsunami house reconstruction financed and undertaken either by government or any of its reconstruction partners.
The design comprises of an open-styled Samoan fale with roofing iron and shower and restroom facilities at the back. Total cost is $18,000 tala.
Affected families are given several options, the minister explained. If they decide to build their own house, then government can provide $18,000 tala-worth of building supplies. If they want to build their own house, then go ahead and do it. If they cannot acquire carpenters then government in partnership with Habitat International can build the house for them for free.
On the list compiled by government authorities, some 600 homes have to be rebuilt.
Apart from government housing assistance, two other organizations have entered into partnership with government to finance and assist house construction. Caritas, a Catholic charity group will build 50 houses and the Church of Latter Day Saints has agreed to build 40.
"Two other organisations have agreed to build another 12 houses," said Tuisugaletaua.
"But they will all be of the same design as we've shown you."
The idea, he said, is to avoid any conflict among residents that one organization is building better houses than the other.
The assistance from government and its tsunami reconstruction partners was warmly received by almost all the villages.
However it appears that many will be taking up the option of receiving $18,000-worth of building supplies as many have already started rebuilding with assistance from their families overseas.
Some asked if the building design will stand up in the hills where they will be moving to given this was the windward side of the island prone to cyclone winds.
"Don't worry, this is a design the architects and engineers have agreed is the most solid and ideal for our weather."
Construction of the houses, Tuisugaletaua said, will start immediately. Those who want building assistance from Habitat International will have to wait a fortnight when that group's building teams arrive from New Zealand ."
Asked of the response from the community, Tuisugaletaua said,
"The underlying message coming across to us is that people want to build or rebuild their houses right away, to move on with their lives."
Other issues raised during the consultation were if whether things like cars and fishing boats destroyed by the tsunami could be replaced by government. Tuisugaletaua said that government does not have the funds to cover such claims.
We need money, says Sia of Poutasi
By Tupuola Terry Tavita
The hills of Poutasi is teeming with activity.
The air filled with the sound of clanging hammers, the buzz of chainsaws and the pud of cement-making.
The uphill dirt track busy with pick-ups carrying heavy loads of iron-roofing, timber and plywood, young people scurrying along with buckets of water balanced with a pole across the shoulders.
Four weeks after the tsunami completely devastated the picturesque coastal village, people are moving on with their lives up in the hills.
Cattle farms are now being turned into residential and plantation land.
"What we need is money," says Sia Teuga.
Sia has already built a lean-to shack where his immediate family has now settled. When we met up with him, he and several men of his family were plotting out "a proper house" next to it.
"This house is being funded by our Catholic parish under its assistance programme," he said.
""It's a lot of help but we are sorely in need of money. Money to transport material from town, money for the upkeep of the workers and whatnot. I'm not ashamed to say that we need some money."
Tall and wiry, this gentleman in better days appears to have held his own but has humbled himself, and his pride, because he really needs financial assistance.
"If you see the Prime Minister, tell him please that we need money. I don't mind taking out a loan but I don't have the means to do that," he said.
Sia was looking forward to housing assistance from government and would attend a consultation on the issue with Works Minister Tuisugaletaua Sofara Aveau at Sapunaoa that afternoon.
"I want to see what government has to offer. It's not easy seeing all you've worked for all your life disappear in the sea. Everything gone in an instant. Now we're restarting our lives again up here and we need some assistance. Everything is money these days and we need money.'
Sia said that his family had received ample food supplies from government, the Red Cross and other relief agencies.
"We have four bags of rice and boxes of tuna, sugar and flour. Probably enough supplies to last us another couple of months. There's plenty of food. But what we really need is money."
EDITORIAL
Silly stories and sillier reporters
Tupuola Terry Tvita
Tegendary circus man BT Barnum once said a sucker is born every minute.
He might as well have said a stupid reporter and his equally stupid editor get suckered every minute.
Because that's the vibe coming across when reading these half-cooked stories the local daily's been churning out.
We'd like to think that journalism is a respectful profession, its proponents bent on seeking the actual truth. Now it's been reduced to sitting in a newsroom waiting for anybody with a sob-story to print. Sticking a microphone in front of any crap-stirrer with an axe to grind and running off to file.
This week it quoted Porirua publicity-seeking Litea Ah Hoi who appeared to had been on a fly-by-night tour of Samoa making up stories about government's relief efforts to boost her ratings with the electorate back home. Among the many unsubstantiated allegations she makes, she accuses;
""There are some horror stories in Samoa about truckloads full of goods that are supposed to be taken directly to the villages and the deliverers are actually selling them off into shops, which I just find completely appalling and unacceptable," she told the Dominion Post.
If it's any indication of this sort of character, a simple google search will reveal Mrs Ah Hoi's history of grandstanding issues.
As responsible journalists, we'd like to ask Mrs Litea Ah Hoi and the local daily who picked up and republished the Dominion story- when were these alleged deliveries supposed to had taken place? Which were they? Which shops were they sold to? Did she see it? Does she know anybody who saw it? Who? For Christ's sake, who were those supposedly involved?
Isn't that what investigative journalists, the local daily put up themselves up as, suppose to ask?
We called up the Porirua City Council yesterday to ask Mrs Ah Hoi these exact questions. Unfortunately, or rather fortunately in her case, she wasn't there. We left a message on her answering machine but no response had been received by press time.
These are very serious allegations she's made. And if she cannot substantiate them, then what does that make the media who published her claims?
The last few days this publication had been traversing the affected regions not only at Falealili but the greater Aleipata area.
We went to the remotest relocated settlements - some three to four miles inland - through rugged near-inaccessible terrain given the wet conditions.
The objective was to ask those who were the most in need of assistance if aid was coming through.
Food and water and other essential needs are getting through we found, but responses were mixed.
Most were thankful not only to government but to donor agencies and Samoans overseas while others were deliberately telling untruths.
One family told that they hadn't received any food delivery in three weeks, the last, only a bag of rice they told us.
However this column noted three bags of rice unscrupulously hidden underneath a pile of clothes. Upon enquiry, there was also a bag of flour, a half-bag of sugar, some four boxes of tuna and other food items under the pile.
"Oh those were from our relatives in New Zealand ," they said.
We knew they weren't telling the truth as we recognized the food brands as those being distributed by either government or the Red Cross. We left and did not press for more answers.
No doubt these are the sort of people Mrs Ah Hoi spoke to if indeed there is any truth to what she told the Dominion.
The reality is, like everywhere else in the world, we are not a country of angels. Some people, with the emphasis on some, will take advantage of any situation for their own selfish benefit. That they would tell untruths to aid deliverers to get more aid. Double-checking on delivery lists, and the National Disaster Office already has a comprehensive list of all those affected by the tsunami, will reveal that many of those crowing about not getting any assistance are actually receiving regular deliveries.
Furthermore, village councils at Saleaumua, Lalomanu and Saleapaga have issued decrees where any shop found to have received, least sell tsunami aid will immediately cease operations. Those who try to sell goods at these shops will also be punished. In fact, any bus found to have tsunami goods destined for somewhere else on board and the bus driver and bus company will be penalized.
That while the tsunami had taken pretty much everything from many people out there, it has not taken away their sense of morality in putting to good use others' charity given to them.
WATER
The issue of water is not all cut and dry as the media is making it out to be.
People have moved from the coast up to their farmlands. The settlements not only are dispersed but in very rugged terrain. Getting to people never mind trying to locate them is a challenge in itself.
Though the water trucks are coming through, it's not on the daily basis those remote resettlers up there want. It's a mammoth ordeal given the logistics involved, the terrain, the condition of the track roads not to mention it's a huge area to cover.
People also want to wish up piped water which they forget involves extensive negotiations of land ownership issues (the whole area is under customary land ownership), the drawing up of logistical plans, the clearing of land, the laying of kilometers of pipelines that cannot be done overnight, not to mention the huge costs involved.
Who's going to pay for it?
As for the so-called "truckloads full of goods" that are being sold to shops by deliverers, as Mrs Ah Hoi alleges, we visited the Disaster Management headquarters at Tuanaimaito if such an incident was possible.
It was certainly no shindig operation they're running up there. The controls we found out were pretty tight.
All goods coming in are recorded by Treasury officials who have a desk at the entrance. So is every item, every delivery that goes out. Each delivery truck is accompanied by a policeman and an audit officer. In the village every item has to be signed by the recipient. Two days afterwards, a follow up team crosschecks with the recipients if indeed the signed item/items had been received.
It's hard enough for one item to go out unrecorded or go missing on the delivery line but "truckloads full of goods" being sold to shops? We seriously doubt.
But all this information can` easily be obtained by the local media if they took the time to go out and do some real investigative work. The DMO officers, despite their hectic work, are more than happy to show them around and explaining to them what and how they're doing things. All the procedures involved are clearly spelled out in the National Disaster Management Plan .
The unnerving feeling that's coming across, and one many people on the tsunami recovery rank and file know all too well, is that they are deliberately being painted as corrupt, incompetent and dishonest so that some figures in the media industry can hold themselves up as champions of honesty and integrity.
In light of the Prime Minister's comments on the level of reporting that has taken place, the local daily has now gone ga-ga crybaby all over accusing the Prime Minister of belittling their work, their intelligence (whatever that level is) Has it not occurred to them that the half-cooked unsubstantiated reports they been making also belittles the very efforts of the hundreds of those who've been working on the emergency and recovery frontline for over four weeks now, day and night?
Is it too big an ask for them to publish balanced stories without being spun that government is trying to gag them?
The real victims in this event are those affected by the tsunamis. The real heroes are those on the emergency and recovery frontline, day and night away from their families, committed for the benefit of others.
The media, one in particular, are just idiots the have to be tolerated
Time to return to the hills
By Tupuola Terry Tavita
There are many theories why Samoans lived in the hills in pre-contact times.
Early explorers noted that nearly all villages were located inland- up the hills -at least six miles from shore.
In the footnotes to his book Samoa : A Hundred Years Ago and Long Before © 1844, the first Methodist missionary to land here the Reverend George Turner once asked a group of villagers why this is so.
They told him that they were afraid of a phenomenon they called galu afi (wave of fire). The commonly used term today is galu lolo, a biblical reference. And after 200 years, this phenomenon of galu afi was resigned to the realm of myth next to giants, dwarves, human eels and whale riders.
Until that fateful Tuesday morning of 29 September.
Now we know what a galu afi is.
Our ancestors must have experienced scores of tsunamis in the distant past to compel them to live up in the hills. Most probably of tsunamis much more devastating than that of last month's.
And it's really no surprise as we live right next door to nature's Chernobyl , a convulsing full-steam island-building belt prone to deadly tsunami fallout.
To put things in perspective, the 8.0 earthquake that triggered reportedly eight-meter waves last month does not even make the top 30 biggest earthquakes since the Richter Scale was introduced in the 1930s.
Meaning, it could've been much much worse.
The biggest since earthquakes were recorded was the Chilean earthquake in 1966 at 9.5, roughly 15 times bigger than the Samoan earthquake. The Indian Ocean Boxing Day earthquake three years ago measured 9.0, or mathematically ten times more violent than our's.
The Tsunami it triggered killed over 260,000people in eleven South-East Asian countries.
But it's not just earthquakes that churns up tsunamis. Violent volcanic eruptions also do.
The Sumatran eruption of 1833 blew apart the island of Krakatoa and wiped out nearby islands. It generated waves of up to 40 meters (135 feet) high. That is twice the height of Government Building at Eleelefou, the highest structure in the country I'm writing this editorial from.
We can only imagine how a similar tsunami can impact our fragile country.
GOD AND TSUNAMIS
Before the waves hit the shore, survivors of last month's tsunami told of a thunderous crack as perhaps when the tsunami struck the reef. The reef of course is our first line of defense as beyond it is the drop-off to the deep ocean.
As the giant waves raced to shore the only barrier it respected was the steep cliffs. Everything else was just rubble.
That is the natural order of things.
That to restore a natural imbalance, nature once in a while releases megatrons of energy that trigger deadly tsunamis. It is our responsibility to make sure we are safe when these forces enact. It has nothing to do with God.
One way of ensuring our people are out of harm's distance is to have them living inland away from the coast.
The main road especially along the Southern Coast should be relocated inland. People tend to gravitate towards the main road as we've seen in places like Neiafu, Tufutafoe and Falealupo where the old village along the coast is near completely abandoned.
Along the main road should be public utilities such as electricity lines, piped water and telephone lines. If that won't attract people inland then traffic the main road will generate will open up business opportunities for them, will. Churches and schools should also be encouraged to be built along the main road ensuring the population will stay there permanently.
As for the beaches, it should only be accessed by 4WD track roads or a sand track along it. The possibility of leasing the beachfront to developers and investors is the commonsensical and surely, most lucrative, option to look into.
Land owners can collect their leases while developing their fertile lands uphill, which if anything, is cooler and more conducive to good health than the humid coast.
It also ties in with government's agricultural plans as the main road will be cutting through the farms making transport of crops to the town markets and ports more efficient.
Moving to the hills is the logical thing to do, and given what people have seen of what a tsunami can do, there need not be any further encouragement. Or motivation for that matter.
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pacific islands media association
pima.nius@gmail.com
aotearoa, new zealand
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