As we continue to live with the rising costs of living and the shortages of essential commodities, our people need to be encouraged more and more to do what we can to lessen the impact of these challenges on our daily lives.
Our chiefs and orators in the villages together with religious leaders can do a lot more with government providing the necessary leadership to effectively develop huge acreages of uncultivated customary lands where opportunities are endless.
Plantation access roads, electricity and water supplies have been greatly improved over the past 40 years, and our people’s incomes have also risen to warrant the UN decision to remove Samoa from the list of least developed countries in 2014.
Samoa is re-classified now as a Middle-Income level Country.
Our GDP rose to $2.2 billion dollars and now it has fallen sharply by a record 10%.
We had never experienced this kind of drastic drop before.
The worst is still yet to come.
We cannot therefore, continue to blame the high cost of living to the war in Ukraine and the consequential increases in the costs of fuel and do nothing.
The Minister of Agriculture and Village Mayors should get busy promoting our own traditional free-range chicken farms, piggery, taro growing inspections, etc, etc, etc at the village communities.
The Two Samoa Talks this week is a good move in the right direction.
These meetings between the leaders and officials of the two Samoa raise hopes for all of us that something positive is about to happen.
Preliminary Agreement to ease travel from Samoa to American Samoa subject to some unspecified conditions has been announced.
With 8 more months to go of 60 years of celebrations, some real actions should begin to appear by July 2023.
Meanwhile, our people are still waiting for the $1 million per district every year for 5 years to solve every problem in life.
$200,000 tālā of the first mid-year has been released and the balance of $800,000 tālā for the first year is yet to be clarified.
Our people are also human.
When $1million tālā is promised to be given to each district every year, many think there is no more need to work.
And when they are asked to celebrate for a whole year, our people also respond positively until the reality of modern life wakes them up.
This is called an experience of a lifetime, and experience is learning by mistakes.
Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi
Leader of HRPP