By Mataeliga Pio Sioa
Hard not to sense the growing pressure on Government for the return of our stranded travellers in New Zealand.
What we the public are not aware of are the behind the scene arm wrestling by the officials doing all the talking and making final decisions under pressure.
From our end, the talk this week from the PM is all about the urgency in returning our RSE workers.
At the last count, more than 800 have served out their contracts and should be in Samoa already.
Only a small fraction are home while the bulk are stuck in New Zealand.
The first three repatriation flights since the evacuation started brought in under 300 citizens and working residents.
Only a small fraction of RSE workers were included.
We are hearing that right now they are living off their earnings or becoming a strain to their relatives.
This is reportedly a bad time for Samoan families in New Zealand with most without jobs or less income from reduced working hours.
But lets cut to the straight talk and see it first from the New Zealand perspective.
The unemployed RSE workers are unproductive and an unwanted burden for the NZ economy.
Samoan families putting them up while they wait to catch the flight home can do without the extra mouth to feed. Better for everyone if they were put on the first flight out to Samoa.
Simple common sense will tell you all that without twisting the PM’s iron finger for the truth.
Tuilaepa has been talking all week about wanting to bring all of the RSE workers home and the plans to charter larger aircrafts to do just that.
Why not? Indeed. Why not?
Lets start with the Why! We are trying to stay safe from the coronavirus pandemic. Our borders for international travel are closed and it is why we have managed to remain free of the deadly health threat this long.
Lets go to the Why Not! New Zealand is already an infected country. So too are some of our regional neighbours including Australia.
The slow process in the return of our stranded travellers by restricting the numbers to just the one who have met our health requirements is a must for our sake.
Last time we were negligent in keeping watch on our travel borders, an infected person from New Zealand brought the measles virus to Samoa.
The tragedy of its consequences is frightening but not as deadly or as heartbreaking as the tale unfolding of the COVID-19 virus we have been spared so far.
Thousands are dead and hundreds of thousands are infected all over the world.
But to be honest and fair we should not be pointing fingers at each other in our particular case.
We have a point and so too does New Zealand but the only difference is that ours is a hole six feet deep.
There is yet to be a cure for the deadly virus so we could end up digging holes all over Samoa once the pandemic spread reaches us.
The scenario is scary and our fight is to prevent it from becoming real.
New Zealand issues are all to do with just over a thousand stranded Samoans putting a strain on their economy. Unfortunately for us in Samoa it is their sovereign right to look after their own first.
If the arm wrestling is leading to Samoa flying in all the stranded travellers at once the mind boggles.
Will Government afford to put all of them in hotels with all expenses paid except for dinner? Do we have the health manpower to effectively monitor all of them at once……?
Maybe that explains why there has been a strong push lately for home quarantine and even early release for our RSE workers on their return.
The PM has been hinting about it. Reading between the lines that should also help explain why the sudden push for everyone to wear masks.
The call to ‘mask up’ appears to be getting a sudden spark of attention as if the risks are coming alive again.
How come? Is it in anticipation of the swarming return of the stranded RSE workers and other returning travellers landing en mass on chartered flights being organised from New Zealand?
Other than speculating about the risks of a thousand people all landing at the same time or within the space of a few days, what exactly is the risk rate?
We started with only a few hundred in the first three flights. How many hundreds are we looking at when these chartered flights started landing?
What about costs? Is it going to add to our ‘budget deficit’ that the House debate was fixated on all week long?
Here is a thought that has been jumping for attention with all these talk about charters.
Can we or have we done any cost effective benefit analysis on a one–off charter of a cruise ship to load up all our stranded travellers in New Zealand and sail them home?
If it works out to be the same as the chartered flights why not go for it? Think of it as an all in one package.
Our stranded are out of New Zealand’s hair in one sweep.
The boat trip from New Zealand to Samoa takes a week or a little more. The time of travel serves as part of the quarantine period.
Since they are already in a floating hotel we could minimise on our local hotel costs as well.
Our medical teams will travel on board with them to help out with any extra health monitoring during the voyage.
Instead of a long procession of vans scaring all the villages on the way from the airport to Apia, the cruise ship will anchor right at the doorsteps of Apia.
If they need to dock at the Matautu-tai wharf on arrival then lockdown the whole area for the remaining days.
If everything is successful in the end then our problem and health safety are solved with one voyage. One stone many birds.
Remember we have already run through a similar exercise with our Lady Samoa crew on arrival from Fiji. Big success.
So! Why not?
Lord any input from You is a blessing on Your Holy Day.