Tongan Police have confirmed an 18-year-old male teenager was released from hospital Sunday after being stabbed following an altercation in Lapaha last Saturday.
Police have arrested another 18-year-old male teenager from Lapaha and charged him in relation to the stabbing.
Police did not release further details.
The accused remains in Police custody.
The Tongan government is facing a social media criticism after announcing it has temporarily banned retailing of imported frozen chicken in the kingdom.
The government has been criticized for its lack of committment with many said there should have been better options to make sure the low-income earners, the majority of the people, were not affected by its decision.
Critics also questioned how did the expired products bypassed customs and quarantine control services allowing their importers to bring them inland.
In a press statement from the Ministry of Agriculture (MAFF) on September 21 obtained by Kaniva News it says there has been proof expired imported frozen poultry products had been sold locally.
The statement, written in Tongan, also says the authority has decided to ban any further retailing of imported frozen chicken effective September 21 until further announcement.
It said the government has done this to protect the people of the nation from any harms the expired products may have caused.
It was understood operators of imported frozen poultry products are now only allowed to wholesale the product to the public with the chicken’s labels and boxes to make sure buyers could tell their expiry dates.
While some on social media acknowledged the government efforts to make sure the public were safe many blasted the decision as “unwise”.
Tongan business woman Yvette Guttenbeil Paea asked on Facebook: “Is this the only best way possible? I think not”.
She alleged the government made the decision after one of the chicken business operators in Tonga had imported expired frozen chicken boxes from US exporters. She claimed the business then removed the boxes and repacked the chicken into smaller plastic packs and sold them to the public.
She also claimed a Tongan staff who was working in the business later reported the incident to authority.
Affects
Some commentators on Facebook criticised the government action saying the majority of the public who cannot afford to buy boxes of chicken on wholesale prices were being penalised.
The normal wholesale prices for 15 KGs boxes of chicken were about TP$40.
Critics said the government did not do enough to investigate all business operators who sold imported frozen chickens and deal directly with those who breached the laws.
Many said other food warehouses imported their chicken from New Zealand and Australia and they were still fresh and good for consumption but now they are being affected by the ban as people could not buy them on retail prices.
A 58-year-old pedestrian from Pea has died after being hit by a car in Tufumāhina on Tuesday 15, the sixth such incident in the Tongatapu region in 2015.
Police have charged a 48-year-old man from Tofoa for committing an offence of causing death by careless driving when under the influence of alcohol.
According to local media Police alleged the accused ran into another car in front of him on Taufaʻahau Rd.
His car then veered off the road to the right side before it allegedly hit the victim who was walking down the roadside opposite the accused’s car.
The victim was rushed to hospital in which he was pronounced dead.
Tongan Police have charged a 33-year-old man from Kolofoʻou after illicit drugs were found to be hidden in food intended to be given to his brother in a cell at Nukuʻalofa Police Station.
Samuela Hafoka was at the Police Station while Police were conducting normal search on the food but disappeared once he noticed the drugs had been discovered.
He was later arrested and charged with possession of cannabis and an illicit drug.
The food was intended to be given to his brother Tevita Hafoka who was in jail awaiting further court hearings after he was charged with the murder of a 24-year-old soldier in July this year in the Central Business District.
A Tongan family in Auckland is coming to term with the loss of house and the death of their father in one day apart.
A fire has destroyed the Maile’s Mt Roskill home on Tuesday one day before their father Tavalea Maile had lost his battle with cancer on Wednesday.
Fire investigators say the cause of the fire is still undetermined but is not suspicious.
The family are being supported by the school of their children, community and church.
Tavalea had been admitted to hospital hours before their house was caught on fire.
Members of the Tonga College alumni have paid tributes on Facebook to Tavalea.
Most of the tributes have revealed Tavalea was a very talented rugby player when he was at the college.
He was also described as an easy going and generous man.
The family have shared a message with their supporters through ‘Koha Shed – West Auckland’ page on Facebook. this morning.
“Our family has been re-housed after the fire that destroyed everything. Yesterday was the start of dealing with the overwhelming emotions of losing important papers, photos, precious memories and most importantly the sudden loss of Dad/Husband”.
Tonga’s head coach Manakaetau ‘Ōtai has officially announced the team to clash with Georgia tomorrow Saturday 19 September in Gloucester.
Tonga have made six changes to the starting XV from their last warm-up game with Romania during their World Cup preparations.
Telusa Veainu has been named on the wing and Vunga Lilo will play at full-back at Kingsholm.
Viliami Ma’afu will start at No 8, Sione Kalamafoni moves to blindside flanker and Steve Mafi switches into the second row following the 21-16 victory over Romania in Bucharest on September 5.
Winger Fetu’u Vainikolo, who has moved to Oyonnax after a spell with Exeter, needs one try to become Tonga’s leading Test try-scorer with 15.
Elvis Taione, Tevita Mailau, Sitiveni Mafi, Sonatane Takulua and Telusa Veaninu will make their World Cup debuts when the mtach with Georgia will be kicked off at noon UK time, which will be midnight Saturday Tongan time.
The ‘Ikale Tahi team:
Tonga lifted its tsunami warning this morning Friday 18 at 2.45am hours after the 8.3 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile had led to fears of massive swells.
Tonga Met Services said: “Due to the tsunami wave being less than 1 foot it is expected that this tsunami no longer poses a threat to Tonga. Therefore the Tsunami Marine Warning previously in force for Tonga is now cancelled.
“Ocean currents however around Marine Coastal Areas may still be strong and erratic and special caution should be exercised”.
The Pacific Warning Centre in Hawaii said the tsunami alert has now largely passed and its impact was “minor” as it fluctuated up to 0.3 metres and below normal tides.
Tongan residents are advised to stay out of the water and off the beaches and wharves from tonight until this morning’s tsunami warning for the Pacific is lifted.
A Tsunami Marine Alert is now in-force for Tonga.
Tonga Meteorological Service said this evening a Tsunami wave of between 1Ft (foot) and 1M (meter) is expected to arrive at Tonga’s coastline at around 01:00AM (early tomorrow morning) Friday 18.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii said that following the 8.3 earthquake that struck Chile this morning it forecasted tsunami waves can reach more than three metres above the tide level. It said it was possible they could reach coasts in the Pacific Islands including Tonga.
An island in Vava’u has been described by a British family who moved there eight years ago as a “haven” and a “beautiful new planet”.
British architect and television presenter Kevin McCloud told the story of Boris and Karyn von Engelbrechten who moved to the island of Fofoa in Vava’u in the first episode of Escape to the Wild, which started screening recently in New Zealand on TV3.
The family and their three sons fulfilled their dreams of quitting city life in the UK to build a new life on the other side of the world.
They moved to Tonga in 2007 and built a home on the beach before operating a guesthouse business.
Karyn started the preschool, Utu Ha Loto Poto in the village of Hunga in 2009. The family donates two percent of their income from the guest house to support the teachers and children.
McCloud travelled for five days from the UK before he arrived on Fofoa Island to investigate why the family chose to live in an area that was prone to cyclones, tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
After arriving in Neiafu, the main island of Vava’u, he was picked up by Boris and Karyn and their sons in their dinghy.
As the boat approached the beach of Fofoa, McCloud noticed the colour of the water change as it became shallower.
“Oh my Lord, the water changed colour,” a surprised McCloud said.
“That’s not real. It’s like looking at stained glass.”
He was greeted at the beach with a kahoa kakala (Tongan necklace of fragrance flowers) in which Karyn said “Welcome to Fofoa.”
McCloud described the family’s beach house as “phenomenal.”
He was clearly impressed by the magnificence of what he saw and asked whether or not the building materials were imported from Europe.
“This is impressive this is beautiful. This one and the floor you made – where did you get these from, Germany? Denmark?” McCloud asked.
In response, Boris laughed and said they were made from the core wood of coconut trees in their garden.
McCloud then commented on the materials he saw in the home which were made from the natural resources available to the family on the island.
“You made it from the stuff out there. You know what I mean – the wilderness,” McCloud said.
“Every timber post, every bit of floorboard, every screen, every bit of joinery, every bit of wall every detail and fish and fishing had to be made from stuff which is processed and refined from trees and rock,” he said.
“Very beautiful.”
Isolation
McCloud said Karyn and Boris lived such an isolated life that their emotional resolve had to be unshakable.
“There is a lot of pressure on a marriage I think out here.” Karyn said.
“We rely on each other. Boris has to be my best friend, my husband. You know if you have an argument you have to deal with it.”
The family’s way of life depends on being able to meet the basic necessities.
“One of the interesting things in living on an island like this is to discover how people manage off grid. How easy is it?” McCloud asked.
The family’s electricity comes from solar panels that power lighting appliances and the VHF radio they use for contact with other islanders.
Most vital of all is the clean drinking water, which on an island like Fofoa is a precious resource.
The family house is supplied by a gravity-fed system that draws water from rain tanks through home made pipes.
Safety/Protection
Life in paradise comes at a price, however.
The family has also built a bunker where they can shelter from hurricanes and tsunamis.
During the making of the documentary, McCloud was persuaded to help erect a wind turbine to back up the solar panels as an electricity generator.
The children are home schooled, something Karyn said she found difficult.
Although they are part of the local network of fishermen and islanders, loneliness is a factor they have to cope with.
Karyn admitted she missed her family and also friends in the UK.
“I miss those special occasions, birthdays, those events that are really important and Christmas day is not really a good day out here, but it is the choices you make,” she said.
Other members of the family have also found it difficult.
The von Engelbrechten’s oldest son Jack has found the isolation too much.
Karyn said Jack was not finding enough stimulation on the island and there were things he wanted to do that simply weren’t available in Tonga.
Regretfully, the family decided to enrol him in a boarding school in New Zealand.
You can watch this episode on the TV3 website on the site listed below.
The main points
For more information
Watch Kevin McCloud’s Escape to the Wild (TV3)
Fancy quitting the rat race to live on a remote island? (The Telegraph)
Every year when I go to Tonga the very first thing I remember is the miserable life I went through when I married my first husband. I am from Niua and I assume that everyone understands the poverty and the misfortune people of Niua experience.
I grew up in a poor family. The house we lived in was built from pieces of timbers my father gathered to make sure we were safe from rain and sunlight. There were only two of us children, my young brother Maka and me. Our only source of income was fishing, growing and weaving.
I left school when I was in form 3. I told my father I wanted to drop out and help him and my mother so we can still help put my younger brother through school.
I still remember vividly the times when my father would wake up early every morning and go to sea to fish. He would only return when the sun approached the western horizon. Whatever the catch was we cooked it as kiki (meat) for the haka (cooked crops or fruits) whether it was cassava, breadfruits or green banana. If there was no fish, then the kiki for the day was ‘umaki vaihaka – eat the haka and drink its water as kiki, or kai hamu – eating the haka without kiki.
My mother’s weaving was shipped for sale to Tongatapu to help pay for my brother’s school fees.
One year a team of surveyors from Tongatapu arrived in Niua to survey the island and after becoming friends with one of the staff we got married. As a result I had to follow my husband Paula (Tongan for Paul) and relocated to the main island Tongatapu.
It was a journey I was looking forward to, but never knew it would be my misfortune. When my mother-in-law, ‘Ana heard his son had married me, a poor and uneducated woman from Niua, she waited until we arrived so she could exploit me. When we arrived in Tongatapu we drove straight to my hubby’s home and when the vehicle was about to stop I heard my husband’s mother crying out her ill-feeling towards me and ordering the driver to take me out into the road. That was the first time I witnessed how Tongan women became fakalotoloto (show their displeasure at the person their sons marry by abuse and crazed outbursts of behaviour).
That was exactly what had happened to me. I will never forget how my mother-in-law angrily ran away to show her dislike for me when we arrived. I entered the house and sat down by the door, but no one even spoke to me so I just slid back outside with embarrassment and sat on the grass. My husband called me to come inside, but I just sat there and pulled the grass out of the ground as a way to divert my mind from the sorrow I had encountered and thought about the way back to Niua.
When I went inside again with my hubby my father-in-law greeted me and told me to go and have a rest. He also told me not worry about his wife and said she was sick. We both laughed and I went to the room and changed my clothes. It became dark when my mother-in-law came into the house and asked about me: “Where is the animal from Niua? Tell her to go outside into the road.”
My mother-in-law talked angrily and said to her son: ”We are staying here in Nuku’alofa (capital of Tonga) with plenty of beautiful women and you went to Niua and brought back the rubbish heap.” I sat on the bedside with tears running down my face and wished I had wings so I could fly back to Niua. However my husband encouraged me and told me that if I loved him I should ignore what his mother did and never leave. Life moved on but everyday my food was tear drops, eating was bitter, sleep was repeatedly disturbed and life was tasteless because of the way I was treated. I was treated like an animal. I did my utmost to make sure everything I was told to do at home would always please my mother-in-law, but she never appreciated anything I did.
We had a son, Fili, but when I left the hospital and went home, my mother- in-law told me to find somewhere else to live and claimed our son had been fathered by another man. I just patiently took it in and opted to stay. Life was more difficult for me after my first child was born. I thought the birth of my son, who was my mother-in-law’s grandson, would have changed her attitudes towards me, but it did not.
After two years I got a call from my mother that my father had died from pneumonia and I immediately assumed he had become ill as a result of his regular morning fishing trips. I tried to attend his funeral, but since there was no ship to the island that month I did not go. I wept at the death of my father, but the fact was my burdens were then heavier. Even as I lost my father I was overwhelmed by problems with my husband’s family.
It was not long afterwards that my mum asked me to come to Niua as soon as I could because she was very sick. I decided to go and I took my son with me. The day we departed my mother-in-law told me to go and never come back. I just took it in and never uttered a word. I went to Niua and looked after my mother. She was lucky to live. I told her I would not return to my husband, but my mother told me to return to my fuakava (the one I made an oath with to keep as husband) and absorb every bitterness and misery my mother-in-law threw at me. She advised me to never ever answer back my mother-in-law when she spoke to me angrily or do anything to harm her.
“Just be patient to the end,” my mother advised.
We left Niua and when we arrived at the wharf in Tongatapu I called my husband to let him know we were back and asked him to come and pick us up. However, my mother-in-law answered the phone and said Paula was not at home and had gone with his wife. I was grateful I did not have a heart attack when I heard what she told me. I asked her which wife Paula went with as I was the wife and I had returned from Niua, but she hung up on me.
We took a taxi to our home in Fasi , but when we arrived it was dark and the door was locked. There were no lights on. Suddenly my husband arrived in a car. I went to greet him but then a woman get out of the car and went into the house. My husband came to me and asked when we had arrived. I told him I had called to let him know we were coming, but the phone had been answered by his mother. My husband apologised and asked me to take my son and get into the vehicle so he could take us to stay with his cousin in Tofoa for the night before we moved in with my young brother Maka the next day and stay there while he filed for divorce.
As he finished talking to me I suddenly blacked out. I woke up in hospital and I was alone except for my son, who was playing by my side. I called my brother and he came and took us home. We lived with my brother, but at the same time I was still in great pain and wept from time to time because of what had happened. I repeatedly called my husband, but he insisted that we would divorce. We stayed with my brother and waited for the next ship so we could return home to Niua. While we were waiting to leave my husband arrived and gave me a letter to sign then left.
A week later I received a call from my husband’s partner asking me to come home and look after my husband as he had suffered a stroke. I told the partner our divorce with my husband had been filed and that I was waiting for the result. The partner said she would not marry my husband. I took my son and returned home to look after my husband. Once we stood at the door my mother-in-law cried deeply and apologised for the fact that she disliked me and my son. She had been fakalotoloto and she thought the woman she liked would love her son. However, she had shown that she would only love him when he was in good health and when he was sick she left him. I told my mother-in-law that since I married her son her attitudes towards me had been a bitter pill to swallow, but I had patiently accepted it. I reminded my mother-in-law that I loved his son whether he was healthy or sick, but it appeared she did not appreciate it at all. I told her I would look after my husband as he was husband and my son’s father.
My husband and I were reconciled and he lived for another 11 months before he died. After the funeral I told my mother-in-law I had to go home to Niua with my son, Fili and look after my mother who was bedridden. A month later, before I could go home, my mother-in-law suffered a stroke. I looked after her for about a month before she died.
Later on I was befriended by a palangi from Switzerland and eventually married him and moved to that country. Even though both my parents have died I help families on Niua and my brother in Tonga.
My son has married and my advice to him was not marry a woman because she was rich, beautiful or educated.
“Marry a woman who will love me, and you,” I said.
“Bring home a woman who believes in God; a woman who, even though she is ignorant, is honest, of good character, prudent and satisfied with what she has.”
To mothers who read this, I say to you: Love your daughter-in-law no matter what her situation is and where she comes from.
We never know of what will happen tomorrow. You could dislike a person and she might turn out to be the only one to look after you when you are bed ridden.
Editor’s note:
This story was written in Tongan by a woman who identified herself as Emma Dikken from Niua Toputapu, but now living in Switzerland. The story was published and went viral on Facebook. The 3370 likes and 2280 shares it has as of Sunday, September 13, was huge considering the number of Tongan Facebook users. Many commentators said this was one of the most touching stories they had ever come across. Attempts to contact Dikken on Facebook were unsuccessful.
Kaniva News could not confirm the authenticity of the story and whether it was based on a true incident or was just fiction written to depict the negative effects of the Tongan cultural practise of fakalotoloto and to encourage people to do away with it.
Fakalotoloto is the practice in which parents interfere with how their children chose their wives or husbands. It means to harbour or show a grudge towards somebody because you dislike them for marrying one of your children. The practice is normally exercised by mothers. It normally starts with them advising the children to let them know if the mother was fakalotoloto. If the son, for instance, insists that he will marry a woman then the next step is for the mother to go public and make comments to neighbours or people close to the woman and tell them she does not want her to marry her son. Usually this is followed by exchanges of words in which the woman’s family responds to the mother’s messages. If the couple eventually marries the mother will escalate the way she shows her fakalotoloto by shouting out her anger during the wedding ceremony or even tearing off her clothes and running half or barely naked across the scene. However this way of showing fakalotoloto is hardly seen nowadays.
The fakalotoloto practice could be based on a number of factors and the story by Emma Dikken has depicted some of them. The geographical location was one of these factors. Niuatoputapu and Niuafo’ou are the farthest islands in the north of the Kingdom of Tonga. Because of their locations they are behind in almost everything that people living in Nuku’alofa have in terms of lifestyle, technology, communication and education. From a cultural perspective, people living in Tongatapu look down on them.
Sometime the practise of fakalotoloto is followed with the practice of fakamotumotu in which the mother or parents cut off contacts with their son or daughter. The fakamotumotu can be for a short period of time before any reconciliation is made. However on some occasions the practise of fakamotumotu ki he mate (fakamotumotu till they die) occurs. This would normally follow failed attempts by church leaders or paternal aunties to reconcile the situation. Other factors on which this practice is based include whether children have a good education and jobs as well as their family background and economic status.
The writer also raised one important way of living that drives Tongans to fight themselves out of poverty whenever they get the opportunity to do so. It was the type of haka (cooked food) and kiki (meat or fish) families have. They denote the economic status of the family. A family in poverty cannot afford meat, but they can afford fruits and other crops. The children were advised to eat the haka and drink the water at the same time so they would be satisfied with food.
This type of situation is mentioned in most Tongan ceremonies or celebrations overseas in which a family member from a poor family in Tonga is celebrated for an achievement, for example in education. In the speeches made during the celebration the haka hamu (haka without kiki) or haka hamu ‘umaki vaihaka (haka without kiki but the water of the haka) is usual to mention as what drives that person to become a success. Just because they wanted to work hard to put good food on their tables for their famiy as they did not want to repeat the poor situation they experienced in Tonga.
