Opinion
Monday 27: How will the wealth be distributed?
Wednesday 29 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, It is very interesting when it comes to resources and funds earned from our nation’s natural resources. There is no mention of how it will and can be distributed. Regarding the nodules that the government is planning to harvest, I have found that the majority of nodules are located in the Northern group. […]
Saturday 25: Show a little more respect
Wednesday 29 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, ANZAC Day runs deeper than nationalism or military pride. It is recognition of brave service, loyalty and sacrifice that Cook Islanders serving alongside New Zealanders and Australians continue to make to this day. Today Cook Islanders, as part of ANZAC forces are defending our nations against global terrorism, and participating in peace-keeping missions […]
Wednesday 22: SMOKE SIGNALS - Two out of three ain't bad
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
After reading the secretary of ministry of infrastructure & planning’s comments last week, that MOIP workers need at least three consecutive fine days to complete work on the Maire Nui Drive, one smart alec reckons that if it rains one day out of three – as it has for the past few weeks — then […]
Wednesday 22: Spraying reslin has us all fooled again
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, You report that public health sees reslin spraying as a “last resort”. It is no such thing. It is instead an admission of failure to combat the dengue mosquito through the only effective method – elimination of breeding sites. Spraying alongside the road with an insecticide that must hit a mosquito to work […]
Wednesday 22: Talking church or what
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, Some people are so heavenly minded, they are of no earthly good! Their contributions in ‘Church talk’ implies that everything is in order – but the front page says – nothing is working. Is there really any ‘good news’ in the midst of these ‘lullabies’ besides filling in space allocated for church talk? […]
Wednesday 22: Taking the good with the bad on holiday
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, We have just returned from our trip to beautiful Rarotonga. We have visited there 12 times. This trip we stayed on Rarotonga for six weeks from February until late March. This time I noticed that I had left very important medicine at home, and one that because of its limited usage, I feared […]
Saturday 18: TV reception blamed on old infrastructure network
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, Through your paper may I ask Cook Islands Television what efforts, if any, it has made to address the dreadful reception that viewers watching CITV have been experiencing for a few months now on Rarotonga. Having been in existence for well over a decade, one would have thought that the owners/management of CITV […]
Saturday 18: HOM disappointed at road works too
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, Can the secretary for ministry of infrastructure & planning, Taukea Raui, please explain to the public why tar was not used when the road works crew recently filled up the growing number of pot holes on the main roads with a finer grade of gravel? One does not need to be a road […]
Thursday 16: SMOKE SIGNAL - Worth a beating
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
A signaller believes this quote, from Bill Bryson’s book ‘Shakespeare’ published in 2007, is especially interesting in view of the new Cook Islands tobacco laws: ”Tobacco, introduced to London the year after Shakespeare’s birth, was a luxury at first but soon gained such widespread popularity that by the end of the century there were no […]
Wednesday 15: How much longer for road works?
Wednesday 15 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, Speaking to a few tourists at the Punanga Nui last Saturday, a few of them raised concern about the congestion along the shopping centre in the middle of town. At one stage a couple were shouted at while entering the newly sealed road without a no entry sign. When is the Maire Nui […]
Wednesday 15: Stop daydreams, stop globetrotting
Wednesday 15 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, It took me a while to make up my mind whether or not to comment about encouraging our people overseas to return home. The issue was discussed by Minister McCully and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands. If I can remember rightly, the same issue was raised by the DPM. That was […]
Wednesday 15: It's too easy to get day licence
Wednesday 15 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, Drink driving sentences are a joke. One of the recent court reports published in the Cook Islands News contained a long list of cases where the defendants were found guilty of driving under the influence of alcohol. All age groups were represented. What concerns me is that approximately 90% were granted day licences […]
Wednesday 15: Lagoon at risk, don't make it worse
Wednesday 15 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Teina Rongo offers perspective on the proposed coral removal in Muri lagoon Dear Editor, After reading the article on the proposed coral relocation in Muri lagoon, as a marine biologist and concerned Cook Islander, I’d like to offer some perspective on this issue. Generally, Environment Impact Assessments (EIAs) tend to have less weight in the […]
Saturday 11: New fishing licences bad for conservation
Wednesday 15 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, In 1883, Thomas Huxley, an English biologist and a strong advocate of Darwin, believed that marine resources were inexhaustible and that man could never do anything that would impact fish populations. Fast forward to modern day and we discover that he was wrong. Today, 90 percent of our large fish populations have been […]
Saturday 11: Imagine $1.2m in road works
Wednesday 15 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, I do not know how other tax-paying citizens of this country feel, but it is outrageous that this government can fork out $1.2 million for the construction of a one-off synthetic track for the national stadium in preparation for the Pacific Mini Games, a two-week regional sporting event. That’s right, a whopping $1.2 […]
Saturday 11: Critical shortage of medics in Aitutaki
Wednesday 15 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, There is a critical shortage of medical staff on Aitutaki. Although I have retired from public service, I am still observant of anomalies within our island’s essential (medical/health) services and this is serious for the people of any outer-island, especially as we have experienced a recent type A influenza epidemic, which could have […]
Friday 3: There's room for 2
Wednesday 8 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, I write in reference to Helen Greig’s story in Thursday’s paper ‘Forum Line reviews shipping situation’. The long list of problems associated with shipping will continue, unless there is an urgent review of the current shipping act. The country needs a shipping service that is independent and transparent. Independent in that NO importer […]
Friday 3: Businesses need stimulus more than tourism
Wednesday 8 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, I am surprised no complaints about the ‘stimulus package’ are coming from the struggling businesses. The only complaints seem to be coming from the obviously well off. So I will stand up and say, I find the possibility of the $3 million business assistance possibly going to tourism disconcerting. The small businesses make […]
Friday 3: Kuki 101: work before play
Wednesday 8 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, I feel sick and I wonder if taku iti tangata feel this maki-ness also. It’s that sick feeling you get when you have been betrayed before your own eyes. In 1998, the Cook Islands were referred to as sparsely populated islands with a resource of minerals conservatively estimated at $150 billion dollars in […]
Thursday 2: The quest for meaning of life
Wednesday 8 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, I admit to a personal fascination for science – sort of a ‘quest for the meaning of life’ as Keith Koekoe would put it. For example, 20 years ago I dug 40,000 fossil bird bones out of the soil of Henderson Island in the Pitcairn Group, South Pacific. I used these fossils in […]