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King Tupou VI spotted by surprised shopper in Pukekohe

By
Kalino Latu
-

The King of Tonga, His Majesty King Tupou VI, was spotted by a surprised Tongan shopper in Pukekohe, New Zealand last week.

Photos uploaded to Facebook showed the king apparently checking out some goods in a shop.

One of the photos showed he was standing by the counter of a shop and was apparently talking to a shop keeper.

Kaniva News understands the 57 year-old monarch was in Auckland last week on his way to Singapore with his wife, Queen Nanasipau’u.

Reports on social media said a Tongan woman called Loumoli was shopping at one of the stores in the suburb when she was surprised to see the king.

“She nearly had a heart attack when she saw the King of Tonga in the shop, bought some books,” Tnews reported.

“I have never seen our King that close,” she said.

“[She] is sitting on sky nine at the moment and yes, I can feel it when she shared the news with me,” Tnews reported.

It reported  that about 1200 Tongans live in Pukekohe.

It is unusual for the king to do shopping or appear at public for personal purpose as the government pays his servants to do these things for him.

The Tongan government’s budget for 2016/17 has allocated about $TP5 million as budget for the king’s expenses.

This includes paying for his drivers and servants who work for him in the palace and accompany him while he is overseas.

His Majesty met with Singapore authorities on Tuesday in a bid to obtain training assistance for Tongan health staff.

He visited Singapore with the Queen, the Health Minister and Director.

They were expected to return to Tonga through Auckland.

The main points

  • The King of Tonga, His Majesty King Tupou VI, was spotted by a surprised Tongan shopper in Pukekohe, New Zealand last week.
  • Reports on social media said a Tongan woman called Loumoli was shopping at one of the stores in the suburb when she was surprised to see the king.
  • Photos uploaded to Facebook showed the king apparently was checking out goods in a shop.
  • Kaniva News understands the 57 year-old monarch was in Auckland last week on his way to Singapore with his wife Queen Nanasipau’u.

Tongan stores defunct as Chinese businesses increasingly take over, businessman claims

By
Kalino Latu
-

A Tongan businessman claims Chinese have taken over the kingdom’s business sector.

Fakaʻosi Maama posted photos on Facebook showing what he said were local retail stores being closed.

The photos were taken in Tongatapu, Tonga’s mainland, in the Western districts.

There were reports of local retail stores owned by Tongans were also being closed in the eastern and central Tongatapu.

Maama said he believed this was a true image of how the Chinese had taken over and controlled the kingdom’s business sector.

He said that in most of the villages he found all the retail stores were owned by Chinese.

He said the death of the Tongan shops in the villages and towns had badly affected the livelihood of all the locals.

The locals relied on the Tongan owners of these small scale businesses when it came to village fundraising, social and cultural activities even in churches.

The Chinese did not help these villages and towns this way, Maama said.

After Maama posted the photos and made his claims, a debate erupted on social media showed how Chinese retail stores and businesses had dominated and killed Tongan businesses.

Some people called on government to act now and do something to help the scarce Tongan businesses alive.

Others suggested that Tongans should boycott the Chinese businesses and only buy from the Tongan retail shops.

However some said the Tongan businesses could not outdo the Chinese because they were smarter and had more experiences in businesses.

Critics have accused the former Tongan governments of selling Tongan passports to Chinese.

This allowed them to become citizens of Tonga with the right to conduct businesses reserved for Tongans.

Not all businesses allowed for foreigners in Tonga

The Tongan government said it had prohibitions in place forbidding foreigners from operating some of the businesses reserved for its citizens.

The Minister for Labour and Commerce, Dr. Pohiva Tu’i’onetoa, made the revelation in the House recently saying only Tongans were allowed to operate these businesses.

Tu’i’onetoa said Tongans who were allowed to conduct these businesses included foreigners who had obtained their Tongan citizenship.

Businesses barred to foreigners in Tonga include:

  1. Taxi businesses
  2. Private passenger hire services
  3. Car dealerships
  4. Retails businesses including food and domestic materials
  5. Wholesale
  6. White bread bakeries
  7. Tongan crafting, tales, poetry and myths, indigenous songs and songs accompanied by instruments, art of movements of hands while singing to demonstrate the lyrics of the songs, Tongan faiva, indigenous drawings, painting, carvings, sculpture,
  8. Carving embellishment
  9. Jeweller, clothings, indigenous uniforms and weaving.
  10. Poultry
  11. Exporting coconuts
  12. Wiring of electric wires in buildings worth less than $500,000
  13. Planting crops such as yams, kumara and tapiocas
  14. Planting hiapo, pumpkins, kava and lou’akau.
  15. Fishing using hooks and lines in reefs and coastlines or within 19 kilometres (12 miles) zones from the beach.
  16. Fishing using hooks and lines in seas less than 1000 metres deep.

The main points

  • A Tongan businessman claims Chinese have taken over the kingdom’s business sector.
  • Faka’osi Maama posted photos on Facebook showing what he said were local retail stores being closed.
  • The photos were taken in Tongatapu, Tonga’s mainland, in almost every villages in Eastern district, Central and Western districts.
  • Maama said he believed this was a true image of how the Chinese had taken over controlled the kingdom’s business sector.

For more information

NZ wary of Tongan passports following ongoing scandal   

Local Chinese business growth in Tonga raising concern (Maori TV)

Tongan spirit in New Zealand celebrated in week of special events to promote language

By
Philip Cass
-

Auckland is celebrating Tongan language week with dancing, music, story telling and the launch of a new book, Tongan Heroes.

Tonga Language Week / Uike Kātoanga’i ‘o e lea faka-Tonga concludes on September 10.

Pacific Peoples Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga said Tongan Language Week was focussed on how the loto (spirit) of the Tongan people had contributed to New Zealand.

“It looks at how Tongan culture has played a major role in shaping modern New Zealand’s Pacific identity,” Mr Lotu-Iiga said.

“It is an opportunity to acknowledge, celebrate and promote Tongan language in New Zealand.”

Tongan people are the third largest Pacific group in New Zealand. At the time of the 2013 census, more than  60,000 New Zealanders identified as Tongan.

More Tongan people were born in New Zealand than in Tonga. This gives lea faka-Tonga (the Tonga language) and anga faka-Tonga (Tonga culture) a special place in New Zealand.

“The number of people who speak Tongan has been growing, from just over 23,000 people in 2001 to nearly 32,000 in 2013,” the Minister said.

He told Radio New Zealand it was important to promote the teaching and learning of lea faka-Tonga at home, at work and in everyday situations.

The Tongan language continues to play a vital role in the diasporic Tongan community in Auckland.

Member for Manukau Jenny Salesa told the Manukau Courier  being able to speak Tongan was valuable in her electorate office.

“Speaking Tongan helps me empathize more, understand and to listen well to this large Pacific constituency,” Salesa said.

“As Nelson Mandela famously said, ‘if you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart’.”

Tailulu Lu’isa Fonua-Faeamani, clinical director of Auckland health and social services The Fono West, said being able to speak Tongan helped her deal with many of her patients.

Speaking at the launch of Tongan Language Week in Wellington, she said it was easier to improve the health of communities when people spoke their language.

“They can understand, they can tell you what their needs are, rather than through a translator which is really, really important,” Dr Fonua-Faeamani said.

“We need more people in the health force who can communicate in different languages in order to provide for the Pacific people,” she said.

Events in libraries

Auckland’s libraries are playing a major role in hosting events for the week.

On Monday Botany Library held a Tongan language morning where people could learn basic Tongan words. Yesterday Mangere Town Centre Library hosted a Ma’ulu’ulu tutorial dance session and Manukau Library held a session where people coupled learn to play a Tongan song on a ukelele.

Today people had the chance to learn how to make Tongan dancing accessories like vesa and kahoa.

On Friday morning there is an opportunity to hear a Tongan legend spoken in Tongan, followed by performances by pre-schoolers at Mangere Town Centre Library.

On Friday night Tupu Youth Library will the site for the launch of a new book, Tongan Heroes. The book tells the stories of achievers who have Tongan ancestry, including legends, historical figures such as Queen Salote Tupou III and contemporary heroes like Jonah Lomu.

The main points

  • Auckland is celebrating Tongan language week with dancing, music, story telling and the launch of a new book, Tongan Heroes.
  • Pacific Peoples Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga said Tongan Language Week was focussed on how the loto (spirit) of the Tongan people had contributed to New Zealand.
  • Tongan people are the third largest Pacific group in New Zealand, with just over 60,000 people identifying as Tongan.
  • This gives lea faka-Tonga (the Tonga language) and anga faka-Tonga (Tonga culture) a special place in New Zealand.

For more information

Tongan language week; It’s about respect (Manukaur Courier)

Tongan Language Week (Ministry for Pacific Peoples)

Tongan Language Week kicks off in NZ (Radio New Zealand)

Tongan Heroes

Attackers of US Peace Corps Director named, denied bail

By
Kaniva Staff
-

The identities of two men accused of involving in the attack of the 56-year-old female Director of the US Peace Corps in Sopu can now be released to the public.

Hemaloto Makafilia, 23,  and Sailosi Lau’i, 21, had been denied bail after they appeared before the Nuku’alofa Magistrate court on Monday.

Makafilia of Sopu is charged with grievous bodily harm while Lau’i of  Hala’ovave is charged with abetment to grievous bodily harm.

The director, who has not been named, was jogging along a footpath behind one of the residences at the waterfront when a man attacked her on Saturday, July 16.

Wrestling will feature local, Japanese, contestants

By
Philip Cass
-

A charity pro wrestling event will be held in Auckland on November 12.

On the Mat will feature Ashley Tonga vs Princess of Flowers, WWE Legend King Haku and God of Destiny (Haku Dynasty)

The event is being organised by Simitaitoko Fale (Bad Luck Fale) in conjunction with Grace Foundation (NZ) and New Japan Pro Wrestling.

Sakura Events vice president Melvin Leavasa said the event would feature wrestlers from New Zealand and Japan and Auckland media personalities.

Contestants will include Boxing’s bad boy “Brown Butter Bean™”,  Mai FM radio host “Nasty Nate™” Nauer, social media heavyweight “Princess of Flowers™”, X Factor NZ contestant “Ashley Tonga™”,  Niu FM radio host “MC Mantis™” and “MC Petrina™”, presenters DJ Niko™ (Niu FM), Ravinder Singh (Sisters Singh™) and Sheena Singh (Sisters Singh™).

A New Zealand Pro Wrestler is to be confirmed to take on American wrestler RJ Brewer™ (USA).

Wrestlers from the New Japan Professional Wrestling stable include seven time IWGP Champion “Hiroshi Tanahashi™”, three time IWGP Champion “The Rainmaker Kazuchika Okada™”, WWF Hall of Famer “King Haku™”, IWGP Tag Team Champion “Yugiro Takahashi™”,  IWGP Tag Team Champion “Tama Tonga™”,  IWGP Tag Team Champion “Tanga Roa™” and New Zealander IWGP Intercontinental Champion “The Underboss™”.

For more information

  • Japanese and New Zealand wrestlers and celebrity guests will feature in a charity wrestling match on November.
  • ‘On the Mat’ is being organised by Sakura Events and will feature members of the New Japan Professional Wrestling stable.

For more information

New Japan Pro Wrestling

‘Inside man’ paid $60,000 to help smuggle 250kg drugs into New Zealand

By
Kaniva Staff
-

Credit: Jared Savage, NZHerald 

The so-called “inside man” who helped smuggle 250kg of drugs into New Zealand said he was paid $60,000, a court has heard.

Mosese Laumanu Uele was the final Crown witness to give evidence against Yixin “Lonna” Gan, who is on trial for three counts of importing a Class-B drug and one of possession for supply, following a covert police investigation dubbed Operation Ghost.

The case is about pseudoephedrine, once the active ingredient in New Zealanders’ favourite cold and flu medicines, but now banned as it’s the main ingredient needed to cook methamphetamine.

Pseudoephedrine can be extracted from a cold and flu medicine widely available in China called ContacNT.

A packet costs just a “few dollars” but a “set” of 223g of pink granules sells for around $9000 on the black market in New Zealand.

In opening the Crown case, prosecutor Scott McColgan alleged Gan, a 35-year-old mother of three, had discovered an “almost perfect way” of importing drugs into New Zealand.

She ran a legitimate business shipping food from China to the Pacific Islands, with a short stop in New Zealand.

Mosese Laumanu Uele
Mosese Laumanu Uele

But because the shipments were shown as goods in transit – and therefore not technically coming through the border – the consignments were not inspected by Customs.

Instead, the shipments were sent to the secure Customs-controlled area at Auckland Airport until they were freighted to the final destination.

Uele – who pleaded guilty and was convicted of importing a Class-B drug for his role – allegedly acted as the “inside man” for Gan through his freight-forwarding company Ezi World Cargo on one occasion.

Uele told the jury he first met Gan in his homeland of Tonga more than 10 years ago.
She was a customer of Ezi World Cargo and Uele explained how he legitimately shipped food produce to the Pacific island kingdom on her behalf.

Asked about three different companies associated with Gan, Uele confirmed he only ever dealt with her directly.

Gan later came to work for him at Ezi World as Uele tried to build business ties with the Chinese community in Tonga.

Chinese
Yixin Gan at an earlier court appearance. She is on trial for importing pseudoephedrine into New Zealand. Photo / Jason Oxenham.

For one shipment in October 2013, Uele explained how he swapped 20 boxes labelled “starch” inside his Customs-controlled warehouse.

These were put in a van, which he said was supplied by Gan, which he drove to a nearby carpark and left there.

Uele said Gan gave him a SIM card for his phone to make all the arrangements with. He later threw the SIM card away.

Uele denied knowing what was inside the boxes of “starch”. He said he was paid $60,000 in a large brown envelope.

“Did you ask why she paid $60,000 to swap 20 boxes of starch?” asked McColgan.

“It wasn’t my business. My role was to swap boxes and get money. That was my only concern,” Uele replied.

“It was too great…[I was] too greedy.”

Under cross-examination by Gan’s defence lawyer Graeme Newell, Uele denied lying.

“I did get instructions from Lonna to swap boxes.”

Newell asked Uele whether a man called Da Wen Shao – not his client Gan – gave Uele the SIM card and told him to swap the boxes of starch.

Uele said he had never met Shao.

“Are you scared of Da Wen Shao?” asked Newell.

Uele replied: “I don’t know Shao”.

The Operation Ghost detectives followed the van packed by Uele to two Auckland addresses, where they later found 250kg of ContacNT granules.

The trial before Justice Mathew Downs and a jury of six women and six men is expected to end this week.

Tonga wants more rural work visas in Australia and hopes they will ease youth unemployment

By
Philip Cass
-

The Tongan government hopes to increase the number of workers from the kingdom being allowed into Australia each year.

Tongan Minister for Internal Affairs, Sosefo Fe’ao Vakata, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation today that more than 1000 applicants hoped to find work placement in Australia under the country’s Pacific Harvest Scheme.

“There is some work [back in Tonga], but not as good an income as what they get in Australia,” the Minister said.

And the Minister said he hoped the scheme would help solve the kingdom’s unemployment problem by creating opportunities for school leavers.

A total of 2179 Tongan workers are in Australia under the Pacific Harvest Scheme’s seasonal worker programme which sends workers to rural areas.

The programme allows workers from Pacific Island nations to work in Australia for up to six months a year.

Hon. Vakata acknowledged that some workers employed under the scheme had been ripped off, with one group of Pacific Islanders workers in Victoria earning a pittance for their labour.

The ABC reported earlier this year that the workers were paid as little as a $9 a week after deductions to pick fruit and vegetables on Australian farms by a company that sponsored their visas under the seasonal workers’ programme.

“I’m worried, but Fair Work Australia is there, the ombudsman, and the department of employment,” the Minister said.

“If the employer is not doing the right thing, they will penalise the employer.”

Hon. Vakata told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation he hoped every Tongan worker wanting to go to Australia would be able to go.

“A lot of our students don’t have jobs in Tonga, so we’ll be looking to Australia.

“There are a lot of opportunities in Australia for students who have already left school, also the workers that have registered in our list.”

Countries taking part in the seasonal workers’ scheme include Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

According to the Australian National University’s DevPolicy blog, New Zealand has a far more successful seasonal workers’ scheme because it is focussed on an export market that has far tougher legal requirements for workers’ rights.

The main points

  • The Tongan government hopes to increase the number of workers from the kingdom being allowed into Australia each year.
  • Tongan Minister for Internal Affairs, Sosefo Fe’ao Vakata, said more than 1000 applicants hoped to find a work placement in Australia.
  • A total of 2179 Tongan workers are in Australia under Australia’s seasonal worker programme for Pacific countries.
  • However, Hon. Vakata acknowledged that some workers had been ripped off, with one group of Pacific Islanders workers in Victoria earning less than $10 a week.

For more information

Tongan government hopes to increase number of workers on Australian seasonal worker programme (ABC)

Seasonal farm workers receiving as little as $9 a week after deductions, investigation reveals

Seasonal Worker Programme (Australia)

NZ’s seasonal worker success: lessons for Australia (Australian National University)

Tongan king visits Singapore, looks to boost kingdom’s health services

By
Kalino Latu
-

The king of Tonga has officially visited Singapore and was expected to talk and seek helps on training opportunity for the kingdom’s health services.

Kaniva News understands the Health Minister Dr Saia Piukala and Health Director Dr Siale ‘Akau’ola accompanied the king.

An opportunity to train Tonga’s health staff on Non Communicable Disease and Public Health will be discussed while His Majesty is at Singapore.

Singapore has an efficient and widespread system of healthcare and was ranked 6th in the World Health Organisation’s ranking of the world’s health systems in the year 2000.

Bloomberg ranked Singapore’s healthcare system the 1st most efficient in the world in 2014

Pope Francis declares Mother Teresa a saint

By
Kaniva Staff
-

Applause erupted in St. Peter’s Square even before he finished pronouncing the rite of canonization at the start of the Mass.

Hundreds of Missionaries of Charity sisters in their trademark blue-trimmed saris had front-row seats at the Mass, alongside 1,500 homeless people and 13 heads of state or government, including Queen Sofia of Spain.

Pope Francis’s predecessor Pope John Paul II bent Vatican rules to fast-track Mother Teresa to sainthood – a process which usually does not start until five years after the candidate’s death – two years after she died in 1997.

Since her death, two alleged miracles have been attributed to Mother Teresa, paving the way for her classification as a saint.

In 2002, the Vatican ruled that an Indian woman’s stomach tumour had been miraculously cured after she prayed to Mother Teresa, leading to her beatification – the first stage towards sainthood – in 2003.

Pope Francis attributed a second miracle to her after a man with a bacterial infection in his brain purportedly recovered after praying to Mother Teresa.

Despite being widely revered as one of the holiest women of the 20th century, Mother Teresa’s legacy has been called into question by several critics.

In a 2003 essay for Slate, the late journalist Christopher Hitchens wrote: “MT was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God.

“She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction.”

In his pamphlet The Missionary Position, he also criticised her for accepting money from dictators, such as the Duvalier family in Haiti, and running a “cult of suffering”.

In 1994, Mr Hitchens and the British Pakistani journalist Tariq Ali produced an extremely critical documentary on Mother Theresa titled “Hell’s Angel“.

The Indian doctor Aroup Chatterjee said people who worked with her order, the Missionaries of Charity, described the medical care given to the sick and dying as meagre and said treatment conditions were unhygienic.

He also said the order’s claims of the assistance it gave to the city’s poor were exaggerated.

Mother Theresa’s writings were also problematic for her entry into sainthood, with entries apparently suggesting a wavering faith in God.

Born Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu to Albanian parents, Mother Teresa grew up in the then Macedonian capital Skopje, which used to be part of the Ottoman Empire.

When she was 19, she joined the Irish order of Loreto and later was sent to India, where she first taught and then tended to orphans and the sick.

She founded the Missionaries of Charity religious order in 1950. The mission started with 12 nuns and has expanded across the globe.

Mother Theresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She died in 1997.

Pope Francis praised Mother Teresa as the merciful saint who defended the lives of the unborn, sick and abandoned — and who shamed world leaders for the “crimes of poverty they themselves created.”

Speaking from the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis said Saint Teresa spent her life “bowing down before those who were spent, left to die on the side of the road, seeing in them their God-given dignity.”

He added: “She made her voice heard before the powers of the world, so that they might recognize their guilt for the crimes of poverty they themselves created.”

As if to emphasize the point, Pope Francis repeated the line “the crimes of poverty they themselves created.”

–Independent

Falemaka receives Catholic Health Australia 2016 Nurse of the Year award

By
Kalino Latu
-

Catholic Health Australia (CHA) has honored Calvary Mater Newcastle Clinical Nurse Specialist, Fane Falemaka, with the highly coveted national Nurse of the Year Award.

The award honours an outstanding nurse, midwife or nursing team working in Catholic health and aged care to serve patient and clients with respect and dignity while acknowledging their individual uniqueness. Nominees are evaluated through a research project, innovative program or a significant contribution to a new or existing body of knowledge that contributes to the promotion and celebration of a Catholic understanding of care within a changing environment.

For over 29 years, Fane has been a leader and role model at Calvary Mater Newcastle. She shares her extensive knowledge and experience graciously with colleagues and is an outstanding mentor to new and junior colleagues. When the ward was undergoing some internal change, she calmly guided her colleagues through this process supporting colleagues and management at every step.

Fane trained to be a nurse at Royal Brisbane Hospital in 1968. Learning and furthering herself in her nursing career has played an important part in Fane’s life and she has a large amount of qualifications that have taken her to different parts of the world.

But yet despite her immense talent and dedication, Fane remains humble. Following on from her nursing training in Brisbane, Fane completed further training in midwifery and then maternal and child welfare nursing. She then went on to complete her post graduate certificate in ward management at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

During Fane’s time at Calvary Mater Newcastle hospital she has spread much joy and wisdom, and has continued to stay true to her value of lifelong learning including being one of the hospital’s first nurses to be awarded as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in medical nursing.

Throughout Fane’s nursing career, both in Tonga and Australia, she has put the patient first and foremost. She is an outstanding role model to her colleagues and she exemplifies all the traits that make an outstanding nurse. Fane has also contributed to the profession through her many roles as a trainer, including designing a Tongan Curriculum.

For a lady that flies quietly under the radar, this national recognition was overwhelming. Fane says, “Throughout all my years of nursing I’ve always tried to do my very best. I work with passion, love and respect. I try my best to look after people and am so grateful for being recognised with this award.”

Greg Flint, CEO, Calvary Mater Newcastle, says, “It is fantastic to see the dedication and talent of Fane recognised in this manner. Fane is a truly inspirational nurse, who deserves this accolade wholeheartedly.”

“Throughout all my years of nursing I’ve always tried to do my very best. I work with passion, love and respect. I try my best to look after people.”

– calvarycare

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