Opinion

“But in the words of a well-known quotation, “a bend is not the end of the road unless you fail to make the turn.”

Hmmm….now that is quite an interesting one coming from the acting CJ Vui. 

So if you fail to make the turn, then in real terms you struck the fence and into some cows unfortunate enough to be chewing the cud under the shades of the paddock trees.

Now what international airline carrier would call up a young family, booked on a flight out of the country, to ask if they can let the children fly out first?

For some reason they cannot travel together, so the parents will have to follow in the next flight the following day.

What if there are three children, aged 5, 3 and an 8 month old baby? What if the family is moving into a new country to settle and have no family members at the other end except business acquaintances?

Unless you don’t want an education for your children, get them vaccinated as it is so decreed.

If you’re going to raise stink about rights and freedom of choice, you are perfectly within your basic human rights to do so.

Stand by your rights and proclaim to the heavens your freedom of choice.

When you have done that, catch a flight or a boat out of Samoa with your family and find another place to practice whatever makes you happy.

So the teachers are worried about the students going through the motions in the SSLC exam!  Makes a lot of sense, especially when you’re a teacher.

When you face a student for a whole year, you’d probably feel the same as the teachers. Nobody knows the students better in a learning environment than them.

But the people who are behind the exam are teachers too. So they too would know. 

The anti vaccinators had their reasons the same as that ‘cancan’ water fella, to do and say what they believe.

The only difference was the time and place for them to make their stand was off.

While the country was in the throes of the measles epidemic killing spree, fighting to save lives and stop the spread of the virus was paramount.

Ever thought about how this measles epidemic has put so much strain in the eyes because of the heart?

It normally starts off with a lump in the chest.  It comes in varying weights, light, medium, heavy and super heavy.

The heart holds the remote control. When people and organisations donate service or assistance, the lump is heavy but light medium.

For the past few weeks now we have fought and we have mourned.  Still the measles virus would not relent. So do we.

What choice do we have? Our fight is for our survival. 

We have not been alone in our struggles and we are indeed indebted to the help and assistance, pouring in from our nearby neighbours and further out into our wider global community.

An interesting dilemma when families refuse vaccination for some personal or religious beliefs.

If it’s their choice then so be it. If it works out for them and they’re not infected by the measles good one.

 But what if they end up with the measles?  Where do we go from there? 

If you can’t force them to be vaccinated and despite having the measles they still refuse vaccination what then?

ONLY IN SAMOA :  Poster promoting the holiday cheer while a young vendor tries to smile from behind a measles protection face mask, is probably the best way to sum up where we are right now.

Question is how much holiday cheer do we have left in the tank with the tragedy of the epidemic’s continuing death toll and new measles cases added every 24 four hour cycle?

Miss Samoa has brought us much needed cheer with the Miss Pacific win at the start of the week.

It’s getting harder and harder these past few weeks to feel any cheer in the heart with the measles virus taking away all those babies.

The heart is in fact feeling the heavy emotional burden as the fatality count continues to tick over and over and over virtually every day.

The heart simply shattered into pieces, with the story of a young mother who could only look on, as her baby child struggles with the pain until it finally ended.