Tough times, not markets, closing stores
What’s the Air New Zealand deal?
Leadership posturing is just opportunism
When will the rot stop at CISNOC?
Tough times, not markets, closing stores
Wed
22 Feb
“Night markets are not responsible for the closures of ma and pa stores,” a smoke signaller writes in response to yesterday’s smokie ‘Markets closing shops?’ “They are indicative of the current tough economic climate experienced by a lot of businesses on the island. The night markets are occurring as a response to customer market demand of when, how and what the customer wants, and at an affordable price. Note also that Business Trade Investment Board is not active in all night markets. Also, Value Added Tax is paid by some night market vendors, thank you very much!”
Shark bite fears
An overseas smoke signaller writes after reading the newspaper’s online edition: “With regards to the Aitutaki Sharks being omitted from the league comp, it’s more likely that the teams from Raro are getting a bit scared that they might get beaten – or bitten – and can’t stand being teased. And if it’s an issue with costs, then why can’t they at least pay for half of the airfare and get a sponsor to help out?”SS:
Our smoke signaller must have missed the follow-up article that mentioned
the Sharks are back in the competition, thanks to $40,000 secured from New
Zealand Rugby League as compensation for the failed Kiwis-Kukis test match
that was supposed to have been held in Rarotonga last year.
Helping the economy?
On the same topic, but from another viewpoint: “It has amazed me that finally someone has brought up the subject of the BTIB spending what appears to be most of its time promoting the efforts of stall holders that in my opinion contribute very little – or nothing at all – to the national coffers. We know that the effort put into being a market vendor is well worth it because they are there every week. Maybe the BTIB might consider a Night Market only for those who are VAT registered. It
would be interesting to see how many vendors turned up.”
The 'honesty' factor
Matariki FM’s breakfast host William Framhein is not one to mince words, and yesterday morning he took a constructive swipe at the judges of The H Factor song competition. ‘The Don’ said the round 2 elimination night on Saturday was a great event, but the judges needed to be more honest with their assessments. “They should ask the contestants ‘Do you want me to tell you the truth – and help you to improve – or do you want me to lie?’. Rather than say ‘Manea, that song is right for you’, tell the truth that the contestant needs to work the stage more, or ‘Sorry darling, kua ‘ereni koe [you’re out of tune].”
Night lights
A smoke signaller phoned in to add her voice to those who see lights
in the night time sky. This signaller said she sees them often, although
those
lights seem to be very high up and stationary in orbit. She said blinking
lights can easily be seen in most night skies and thinks they may be
attached
to satellites or other orbiting bodies.
Separate queue
“I hope Westpac are making a lot of money from departure tax,” a smoke
signaller writes. “Because the departure tax customers certainly take
up a lot of teller time; by the time the teller has to explain how to pay
and then has to process the payment and THEN has to hand cut, with scissors,
the departure tax sticker, THEN explain where to stick the sticker. Luckily
we are patient people – or maybe just enjoying the air-con these days!
Come on Westpac, you have staff falling over themselves; let’s
have a separate queue if it is so important that you have to sell departure
tax!”
What’s the Air New Zealand deal?
Tue
21 Feb
Saturday’s somewhat depressing news headline ‘Airline subsidy rises to $12.5m’ prompted one smoke signaller to ask government to reveal what exactly is in the contract deal with Air New Zealand. “And is there a ceiling or limit to the actual monetary level of exposure?” Another signaller writes: “After reading your airline subsidy story on Saturday, I actually don’t get it. Air New Zealand is 52% owned by the New Zealand Government, the same government that is giving us about $16 million in aid money this financial year. We are now to subsidise the same airline it seems by $12.5 million [to guarantee direct flights from Sydney and Los Angeles]. This is the same airline that has been servicing our waters for over 38 years. What do we hear now; asking for taxpayers to cough up and help pay their fuel costs? It is all numbers and should Government allow this we might as well do the same gesture for Pacific Blue and Air Tahiti Nui. But to me, this is a joke and no wonder Air New Zealand bosses will be sipping chardonnay for the next 12 months courtesy of Cook Islands taxpayers. I am just wondering also who really is advising the Minister of Finance?” SS: The New Zealand government’s shareholding in the airline is higher than 52%: Air New Zealand’s website shows the government owns a little over 804 million shares out of a total of almost 1.1 billion shares, or 73.36%; other investors (including the NZ Super Fund) own the balance.
Under, over, under
“First the government decided, without notice and no public support, by taxing the people for its withholding tax,” a smoke signaller writes. “Then government said they had made a big budget surplus. Now it says it has a budget deficit. The financial secretary and Finance Minister Brown simply don’t
know what they are doing. This is what happens when you have inexperienced
people leading our country. We can be so better of as a country, but poor
leadership and bad decisions are the order of the day with this lot. What
a difference a year makes.”
Govt not caring
“The Cook Islands Government really doesn’t care about its people or the country, just themselves and what they can build just so they can say ‘I built that’ to their grandkids when they have retired,” a smoke signaller writes. “What about our local fishermen? For two years they have been crying to stop seine fishing and then the deal was signed off by Minister Teina Bishop. Why weren’t the fisherman heard? Now they are starting to suffer with no support from the Marine Resources or our Prime Minister. Secondly, I just got back to Aitutaki and went to the hospital to get some children’s cough medicine. To my surprise the nurse told me to go home and make honey with warm water. Why? Because she said that they have never received cough medicine for the past two years.” SS: The Cook Islands has granted licences for foreign long-line fishing boats but not purse seining vessels – yet.
Space junk heading here?
A Blackrock couple is looking for some people to back them up after seeing some unexplained goings-on in the night sky on Sunday. The couple saw a number of lights in the sky south of Rarotonga about 8pm on Sunday. The lights were either red in colour or white with red borders. The couple said the lights were easily seen in the clear skies and appeared initially in a group of three, heading northbound towards Rarotonga. They think the lights may have been some space debris coming back into the Earth’s atmosphere and were seeking the opinions of anybody else who saw the lights. The couple said the lights did not appear to be flares and doubt that anything could be flying high enough to catch reflections off the sun. Unfortunately, they did not pull any cameras out to take pictures of the lights. Meanwhile a visiting Canadian couple had an extremely close encounter with space debris on Saturday night – that story is coming up.
Markets closing shops?
A smoke signaller writes to TXT188: “Have the
people at the Business Trade Investment Board noticed how many ma and pa
shops that have paid Value
Added Tax, have closed since the advent of night markets?”
Prostitution review
Rev. Tutai Pere asked in his letter to the editor on Friday what would be
next after pole dancing: “Strip dancing? Gay club? Prostitution?” If he looks back to the lead article in last Monday’s CINews ‘Overhaul for outdated Crimes Act’ that focuses on provisions in our laws that are outdated or old-fashioned, he will read: “Under the current Crimes Act, prostitution (and keeping a brothel, procuring sexual intercourse and living on the earnings of prostitution) is an offence.”However
many countries have repealed similar provisions in hopes of protecting
women from exploitation. The review will consider the merits of that view.
Leadership posturing is just opportunism
Mon
20 Feb
Norman George’s posturing for leadership of the Democratic Party is pretty low. For many his announcement on Saturday will be socially and culturally offensive. It’s just opportunism of him to be making political capital out of Robert Wigmore’s illness. It says more about Norman’s character than anything else, and hopefully Wilkie and the others will respectfully tell him to stay outside. Just dispense with him.
Power bid angers
Responding to Saturday’s front page article ‘Norman
George for Opposition leader?’ an agitated smoke signaller writes: “Seems
like the Atiu chicken has crawled out of obscurity to try and reinvent himself,
this time as a vulture – definitely not an eagle or even a hawk – just
a vulture with no concern for feeling or any sign of respect or compassion.
Shame on him and the people of Atiu who (at least he claims) support his
perpetual craving for power and notoriety at everyone’s expense. Demos,
learn from the past, accept this at your peril or kiss the next general election
goodbye! Who did start that rotten rumour anyway – somebody with a
very sick mind! SS: In last Thursday’s CINews the Democratic Party
indicated they would be meeting to discuss the party’s future and expects
to announce any decisions about its leadership structure before Parliament
sits today. With regards to that rumour, it was an exceptionally unfortunate
one that probably started when someone mistakenly put snippets of information
together, came to the wrong assumption, and irresponsibly passed it on. Sad.
Internot banking
As more people rely on the Internet to perform daily tasks, there’s greater pressure on the providers to have it always on service. One smoke signaller wrote just after noon on Friday: “Once again it’s Friday and Westpac has fallen over, unfunny how this happens so often. I’ve tried unsuccessfully to ring (over 30 rings and no one answers), and tried to go online for over two hours to pay bills, it’s just not happening easy! Where is Westpac’s motto ‘We’re a bank you can bank on’? More like ‘can’t bank on’. Where has the personal service gone; instead it’s pick an extension, if you’re lucky someone might answer your call. Come on Westpac, Christmas holidays are over now. Get with the programme and 2012.” SS: Less than 30 minutes later an e-mail from a Westpac staff member advised that their internet banking was back online.
When will the rot stop at CISNOC?
Thu
16 Feb
“The rot at the Cook Islands Sports and National Olympic Committee
continues,” a smoke signaller writes in response to yesterday’s
p7 article ‘Special CISNOC meeting postponed’. “Payments
of over $9000 of per diems to Sir Geoff and Rosie in Noumea and over $4000
for Koru Club fees in my opinion is downright daylight robbery. The Air New
Zealand member fees are personal, so why should sports money pay for this?
With CISNOC low on sports funds for the athletes, the officials go on a spending
spree. This nonsense has to stop, clear all current executives out and get
in new faces that will put athletes first.”
Rent shame
A smoke signaller notes: “A news item on CITV recently stated that
Are Pa Metua pays rent for the use of their building near the airport, and
that it is a real struggle for them to make these payments. Let’s give
this Government the benefit of the doubt and assume they are unaware of this
rent requirement, which presumably was imposed by the last government. What
a disgrace that the aged need to worry about having to find money every month
in order to enjoy the social get-togethers at their centre. Surely they deserve
the respect and support in their old age that is due to them, after having
paid their dues to society here many times over during the
course of their lives. Eternal shame on the Government if it does not do something
immediately to alleviate this disgraceful situation.”
Govt ignoring problems
“There are very serious economic issues facing the country, but our political leaders are running away from them,” a smoke signaller writes. “Our people are still leaving our shores each month, so what’s Government doing about employment and migration? Nothing – they have their priorities elsewhere. The cost of goods increases with every shipment coming in; again Government has lost its way and has no solutions to help our people. Spending more
money on travel and hosting big meetings and conferences will not put food on the table for low to middle income families. All we see is more mortgagee sales from banks as our people struggle to make ends meet. The economic summit was supposed to fix a lot of things but like most things these days, it’s all talk and no action. Where are the election promises to make change and improve our standard of living?”
PR
priority
“Regarding Ireland’s islander Paddy Lynch’s question of why did it take so long to apply for permanent residency is simple,” a smoke signaller writes. “Because he did not qualify for PR, despite being married for ages to an Arorangi woman. Good old Paddy was a resident of New Zealand and Australia for most of the 55 years he has been married to a Cook Islander. He only recently came to the Cooks which then made him eligible to apply. There are many papa’a who have been living in the Cooks for a much longer time than Paddy and it is them who really deserve the honour.” SS: The focus of the last PR awards was on those who are married to Cook Islanders and who live here, and he definitely qualifies. It was great to see Paddy kiss his PR certificate during the awards ceremony.
Mark Lyon arrested
Mark Lyon, whose time spent in the Cook Islands was controversial, was arrested
in Auckland yesterday during an armed police raid. “Good job,” comments a smoke signaller. “I wonder if the guy’s masterful Cook Islands lawyer will be called up to spin another great defence story!” Stuff.co.nz said Lyon “is a former multi-millionaire property developer who lost his fortune when he became addicted to the drug P”.
| 
