Opinion

Monday 24: PIZZA ON WHEELS

Wednesday 26 August 2009 | Published in Smoke Signals

A reader is curious when a mobile oven that can cook about 30 yummy pizzas an hour, is going to hit the beach. An article in Wellington’s Dominion Post a couple of months ago featured the Petone firm Piazza that has developed the mobile ovens. “People can set it up in a sports ground or […]

Smoke Signals

Monday 24: ISLAND SALESMANSHIP

Wednesday 26 August 2009 | Published in Smoke Signals

A smokesignaller said he loves the unique approach taken by island marketers. “I recall a shoe sale a number of years back that said: ‘Buy one shoe, get the other one free’! Another chuckled after hearing this radio advert: ‘Buy your loved one your love forever. Get her a washing machine… (price etc). Get one […]

Smoke Signals

Monday 24: CLASSMATES

Wednesday 26 August 2009 | Published in Smoke Signals

A former Tereora College student was looking at a 1997 photo of her class online and counted that out of 22 students, three have died (just under 14 percent) since the photo was taken 12 years ago.

Smoke Signals

Monday 24: Our killer roads!

Wednesday 26 August 2009 | Published in Smoke Signals

The Cooks has come second in the world, but it’s not a record we can be proud of. World Health Organisation figures confirm what the Cook Islands Road Safety Council has been warning all along – our roads are some of the deadliest in the world. WHO says the African state of Eritrea is the […]

Smoke Signals

Saturday 15: TV coverage a team effort

Wednesday 19 August 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Thank you for your kind comments (William Framhein). Just to clarify, we are currently showing two games a day on CITV with the permission of IFNA. The 5.30pm game is shot with one camera (Pete or Matt) and has one commentator (Mona). The 9.30pm game has a team of eight people: three camera […]

Letters to the Editor

Monday 17: NIGHT RAIDERS

Wednesday 19 August 2009 | Published in Smoke Signals

A recent police report in this newspaper about watermelons being stolen from a patch in Nikao raises the question about who these thieves are and how they’re getting away with this shameless act. “And it’s not just watermelons, it also happens with pawpaw patches, and sometimes whole taro patches are raided at night,” a reader […]

Smoke Signals

Wednesday 19: Phonetic links

Wednesday 19 August 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Just a quick note with regard to the life long desire of all Maori to find the “Makea” title holder. The phonetics of the Maori language provide keys to family names and traditions. When we in our language know the oral tradition and importance of spacing in a personable way as well as […]

Letters to the Editor

Saturday 15: Angels' touch

Wednesday 19 August 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, With surprise I read about the outbreak of prisoners because of bad facilities and bad treatment. That is not the Polynesian Rarotongan way to deal with humans. There is a prison specialist on the island with 40 years of experience, Mr Gordon Sawtell, and I am sure he will be happy to help. […]

Letters to the Editor

Monday 17: WHAT'S IT ALLS WORTH?

Wednesday 19 August 2009 | Published in Smoke Signals

“The Cook Islands is at risk of going morally insane,” a reader says. “Our Audit Office seems to do a great job of uncovering corruption, exposing abuse of power and authority, revealing dishonesty, but what’s the point if there are no penalties or repercussions? It’s all very well to be vigilant and sharp in auditing […]

Smoke Signals

Wednesday 19: Let's get rid of them!

Wednesday 19 August 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, I would like to congratulate my Cook Islands people for standing up and giving it to Government et al for their arrogance in appointing some young highly qualified people to HOM jobs. You are true Cook Islanders. I agree entirely with you, these new HOMs are too young and too highly qualified and […]

Letters to the Editor

Saturday 15: PSC answers criticism

Wednesday 19 August 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, After reading some of the concerns voiced in the media over the appointment process for Heads of Departments and Island Secretaries, it is very important that this is clarified as a matter of public interest There were a total of 198 applications, 60 for the secretaries and 138 for HODs. These applications were […]

Letters to the Editor

Monday 17: SMOKO TIME

Wednesday 19 August 2009 | Published in Smoke Signals

You know the wind’s cold in Raro when otherwise tough tradesmen huddle in the sun on the sheltered side of a building under construction on the beachfront, none wanting to venture around the corner and get chilled and sandblasted on the windward side. So the job takes a bit longer than normal.

Smoke Signals

Wednesday 19: Call for a prison's board

Wednesday 19 August 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, In my letter of August 17 I indicated that I would write another article outlining a remedial measure to improve the prison service. The prison service is charged with the containment of offenders sentenced to terms of imprisonment as well as offenders awaiting trial. Basically these offenders who have committed offences against the […]

Letters to the Editor

Saturday 15: Leading by example – yeah right

Wednesday 19 August 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, The admission by the Finsec (CINews August 14) that he had applied direct to his uncle the Minister of Finance for a bonus of the full amount has proved beyond any doubt the self interest and conniving that is going on with the minister and his pet appointees. If the Finsec had any […]

Letters to the Editor

Monday 17: PAPA SLOW DOWN!

Wednesday 19 August 2009 | Published in Smoke Signals

One signaller urges the ol’ fella who was driving a blue single cab pick-up truck last Thursday morning from Upper Tupapa way towards town, to “please put some sense in your head and understand that every day it’s an early morning rush hour for most of us with a job, and your careless driving is […]

Smoke Signals

Wednesday 19: Highest paid should be last for a rise

Wednesday 19 August 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Probably like every other tax paying individual in this country, I am appalled and disgusted that the country’s financial secretary Sholan Ivaiti has the nerve to seek a 5% increase to his salary for ‘outstanding’ work which he believes he has achieved over the past year. At a time when the economy has […]

Letters to the Editor

Saturday 15: Endless stuff-ups speak

Wednesday 19 August 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, We read with disgust that Sholan Ivaiti is trying to get a bonus pay. What for? He is already highly paid for a start, and most of the things he has done since he started working have been a total failure. Like most of the current HoMs, his appointment was clearly political. We […]

Letters to the Editor

Monday 17: REEF INSPECTOR

Wednesday 19 August 2009 | Published in Smoke Signals

A visitor to Rarotonga who received numerous coral cuts when he made the mistake – possibly after a few drinks – of paddling into waves crashing on to the reef on the island’s western side last week, reportedly had one request to make when his rescuers brought him to safety on the beach, a cold […]

Smoke Signals

Tuesday 18: We were fleeced!

Wednesday 19 August 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, The Cooks’ prosperity is based on tourism – and rightly so. You have it all. Four of us from New Zealand spent a glorious last week of July in Rarotonga and Aitutaki. And here’s how to kill the goose and its golden eggs. Take tourists for a ride by charging them $55 departure […]

Letters to the Editor

Friday 14: Top job!

Wednesday 19 August 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, I write to you on behalf of the team at Matariki FM to ask if you would publish our gratitude of the great TV presentation that Jeanne Matenga, Moana Vaevae and others are doing of the WYNC as seen on Cook Islands Television. Jeanne is the sole CITV camera person and Moana the […]

Letters to the Editor

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