The question that jumps out on social media is why Samoans in Australia are so over bearing and vulgar in their expressed views of Samoa especially when it is about our politics.
Is it because of some superiority complex from living with the ‘palagis’ of Australia and believing they live in a society more advanced than Samoa?
Is that why they have lost all their traditional upbringing in the Samoan culture of respect for the elders and traditional leadership in their ‘seem to know it all’ social media postings?
Is it also the assertive nature of the ‘palagi’ that has made them dump like COVID laundry the humility and hospitality Samoans take serious pride in?
The quick answer is a big disappointed yes.
Why blame the Samoan diaspora concentrated in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane? The huge majority of big-headed social media comments on Facebook are coming from there.
The point is reached where it is so easy to sense how they are trying to control the direction of political leadership in Samoa with their swamping influence on social media.
Next time you’re on social media check out where the most arrogant and foul-mouthed comments are coming from.
Learn also where their political party preference lies. Ponder for a while why they are so determined to go all out to kill one party in favour of another.
Has it got anything to do with the prevailing political interests their adopted country favour that they believe Samoa should also tow?
If their intention is to lead us living in Samoa like colonized natives too ignorant to know what is good for us in our own homeland then we are being humiliated. Our intelligence is insulted.
Why want to live the life and culture of the ‘palagi’ when we have our own? Why want to be someone you were not born to be?
“….there will always be ‘fia-palagi’ Samoans, dear
Wow, what a low blow write-up, tinged and saturated with blatant xenophobic and ethnocentric charges. Xenophobic in the sense that, according to your ill-advised “logic” and implication, that all “palagis” are bad, uncouth and uncivilized — at least in comparison with your more respectful, civil and decorous characterization of the Samoans.
And ethnocentric, similarly, in the sense that your implication of a far more superior Samoan culture, its values and norms than the inferior “palagi” culture, is indubitable. The last time I checked, most if not all of us have been and are direct beneficiaries of the ‘palagi’ culture — ubiquitously, mind you. Cultures can and should coexist for the betterment of the human race.
Moreover, painting all Samoans in Australia, especially, with a wide inclusive brush of disrespect is irresponsible at best and uninformed at worst. Though I’ve seen some of the comments to which you’re referring but, at the same time, there are many more comments that are civil and decent.
Your opinion also represents what I, personally, have experienced with some Samoans in Samoa and their brazen repulsion for those of us, fellow Samoans, living abroad. It’s sad and pathetic.
And by the way, and I’m sure you will agree that one of the main reasons most members of the Samoan diaspora choose to support FAST, is because Tuilaepa has continually blamed and stigmatized them (diaspora) as those “o la e tata’a” (vagabonds and loafers). It’s a fact, well documented in many of his interviews. It is also found in the national psyche, believe me. Now, I must say that such a charge is quite an arrogant thing to say, especially by someone who prides himself as a CPA and university graduate, considering the role that remittances play in the local economy year after year. One of the most flagrant claims the caretaker PM has made is that the remittances are sent to the families and not to the government. How ignorant is that? Any money coming into the country will always and inevitably end up “in the economy”. It’s the same principle that governs government stimulus monies. People receive them and spend them and in turn stimulate the economy. Samoans spend their money for their everyday needs, as opposed to investing.
Finally, please be informed that there are thousands of us living outside Samoa who still remember the faa-Samoa (faaaloalo, alofa, va fealoa’i/tapuia, gagana, etc.,) yearning for Samoa and opening the proverbial window everyday. E tafafao tama (pun intended) ae iai o latou tupuaga, aiga ma faasinomaga. Please don’t let your political partisanship or biased journalistic agenda cloud your sense of fairness, ingenuity, common sense and acuity.
Ma le faaaloalo tele,
LV