Easter was close to Anzac Day this year and both have the same message. Jesus died on the cross for the sake of humanity to save them from their sins, writes Ruta Mave.

Similarly, the self-sacrifice of our men in war was for those who were yet to come, but will hopefully remember and be grateful for, the life they have now, due to the sacrifice of those gone before them.

But do we? Some people seem to go out of their way to sin, so that Jesus’ death was not in vain. Others, live their lives like a ps4 game easily giving up a life for a gold star, because they can repeat the sequence until they survive and can move up to the next level. 

Anzac Day marked 110 years since the Gallipoli battle in Turkey far from the tropical paradise of Rarotonga. The lives of the 500 who enlisted from our tiny islands sacrificed for us to enjoy the fruits of fortune and lifestyle they could never have imagined, witnessed nor enjoyed themselves. Island boys with a hero fantasy in their heads to protect and serve a distant country whose royalty they didn’t know or understand, but to whom they chose to risk and some gave their lives to defend that flag.

They endured the harsh cold of New Zealand before being deployed and face the harsh battles of war. If they came home, they had to endure surviving the Spanish flu and also the lack of support, work and acknowledgement for what they had done for the benefit of future lives. Us.

Real life unfortunately, only comes in one package per person. Currently we are sacrificing our potential of living long and healthy lives for the short-term dopamine hits of sedentary sugar highs from food, alcohol and drugs. Do we feel worthy?

I watched a video of two orphan girls being interviewed in Gaza. They talked of their papa who used to get wood and food for them so they could be warm and not hungry. Now he is gone they wish he had taken them with him instead of leaving them here freezing with no food.  They ask the reporter is your son warm? Does he have food? Of course he does, they say because what child is not supported by their papa? All children with papa’s have a warm place to sleep and food in their belly. 

It is said with such innocent belief and it should be true. But it is not always so. We live in a literal paradise, where food falls off the trees and rots on the ground uneaten. Where the temperature is warm all year around no one will freeze to death. And to show for it we have some of the highest obesity and domestic violence rates per head of capita in the world. 

We have children with papa’s who go to sleep scared, hungry and wishing for a better life. We claim loudly to be a Christian nation and still we have beaten and abused children and women in our society.  Is this what our 500 island boys fought for? Is this the life they wanted and were willing to sacrifice their lives for, so we could abuse it? Shame it is that we have these global recognised titles. Shame on us for what our self-determination of 60 years has achieved due to the greed of men in power.  Shame we are worse off in physical, emotional and mental wealth than we were before we were given the reins to look after ourselves.  Shame that our political leaders talk community, culture blah blah but are fat with travel, hotels, dollars per diems and spending more time away from their family and the islands than they are sitting in parliament working to improve our disappointing way of life.

Island life looks good from the outside but it is rotten on the inside.  Mark Brown is putting his face up in hero worship around the place hailing the 60 year celebration of self-determination he calls it. No one really knows why we are having such a big hoo-haa for this event but there seems to be a lot of funding going into it. Sure, new plants albeit not local heritage plants are lining the town pathways look pretty, but such attention to detail is well overdue within our police and teaching ministries.

Is it true that millions are being spent on bringing the pa enua into Rarotonga for this party? Sounds way too much to be true? Except historically bringing in voters has been a strategy employed by Prime Ministers ever since the first.

Don’t be fooled this is to benefit the people, votes, or cultural independence. This looks like a way to empty the islands so they can be occupied by trading partners.