Opinion

The moon has fallen. The sun has turned crimson. The light that once covered the sea and the land and the skies and illuminated our days that seemed so multitudinous is there no more. And the world has suddenly become dark and cold as we shiver under the shadow of the stars who weep with us in the distance. Who will wipe these tears from our grieving eyes? Who will comfort us now in our hour of need? The clouds have abandoned the sky. 

The outpouring of support and admiration for the government’s push to amend the Constitution to declare Samoa officially as a Christian state has been overwhelming. Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi is without a doubt the man of the moment. He is being hailed by church leaders in all corners of this country as savior of Samoa for initiating what they say is something that should have been done a long time ago.

In my own education on political status, this quote from the late Guam Sen. Frank Lujan in his article, “Sleeping Beauty: Times Passes By,” played a pivotal role in helping me see new and firmer truths, just beyond the colonial common sense: “Those who defend Guam's colonial status argue that economic independence for Guam is impractical. We happen to agree. Guam by herself can never be economically independent. But nor can our great mother country the United States. There no longer is any such animal as an independent nation in the world today. ... All nations in the latter part of the 20th century are economically interdependent.” There is so much to unpack in this simple quote, so much to discuss in terms of the way people misunderstand decolonization and independence.

Land has become quite the issue in this week’s discussions as has been the idea of Maori customary title. Words like ownership, recompense, leases and the idea that for some our fiscal return has not been what it should be and for others, will my family kick me off the land after 60 years. Talk of foreigners determining our rights, our view and our customary possession of land. One needs only read the land court publications, or talk to some about land issues to see how deep and far reaching this idea has become. Families, including my own, sadly can testify to the division and manamanata, that has been caused by land disputes. Brother against sister, mother against children, families against families.