Last week the Chairman of NCC, Reverend Kasiano Le'aupepe, a deacon in the Catholic church, said he feared the perils of gambling will shake Samoa's Christian foundation.

Tuilaepa said that Le'aupepe must have been "joking."

The Prime Minister, who is also the chairman of the Samoa Rugby Union, has also been in the news for suggesting that the IRB is racist and its referees are idiots.

In the course of an interview after the match in which Samoa narrowly lost to Scotland the Prime Minister said, among other things that "If the siren sounds and the referee continues the match unnecessarily, then a rock hitting his head would be justified!"

The editor of Savali, the Samoan Government's official newspaper, Tupuola Terry Tavita, says that Tuilaepa's remarks have been misunderstood. "At the heart of the matter is, there are subtle nuances in the Samoan language and particular to Samoan dialogue and its intended Samoan audience that gets lost when translated to English," said Tupuola.

"What is good-humoured ribbing when said in Samoan could mean something else when quoted in a formal newspaper article in English and read by people who are not accustomed to Samoan humour and the Samoan colloquy," he said.

Source

• Samoa Observer
• Radio New Zealand International
• Savali
• Savali
• Image: Flickr

"The love of money and the casinos will only drive people further into poverty... People will start to save money to play in the casinos instead of feeding their families," says the Chairman of Samoa's National Council of Churches, Reverend Kasiano Le'aupepe.

"The addiction will become too much; it will result in crime as people start stealing to fuel their addiction. Gambling opens the door to the influx of outsiders who have no fear for God," he said.

The Samoa Observer reports that the Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi, did not have time to address the concerns expressed by Le'aupepe during an interview in his office last Tuesday.

In an earlier interview Tuilaepa said that the Government was going ahead with plans to build two casinos. One is reportedly planned for Savaii with the second one in Upolu. He said the idea behind the introduction of casinos is firstly to help towards economic growth, and secondly, as an incentive for tourists who enjoy this type of entertainment to come to Samoa.

Source:

• Sunday Samoan
• Image: The Guardian

His coffin was draped with the national flag and shoulder-carried by Police pall bearers.

"Reverend Oka was a man who was not easily swayed by others' opinions," Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi noted in his state eulogy during the reverend elder's funeral service at the Safotulafai EFKS church Tuesday morning.

Source

• Savali News
• Image: Savali News

It was only under questioning from the audience in Westminster Cathedral Hall that Cardinal Pell made clear that he was speaking as an individual and not presenting an official Catholic stance.

When told of a 2007 gathering of all the parishes in the Archdiocese of Manila to discuss climate change mitigation as well as adaptation, he responded that he felt the thousands of people present were "mistaken".

In the same week at a meeting of 48 small island and developing nations in Perth, which took place before the recent meeting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), South Pacific, African and Caribbean states said big greenhouse gas emitters China and the United States were dragging their feet on tackling climate change and urged a Commonwealth leaders summit this week to call for urgent action at global climate talks in November.

"The scientific evidence available to us says we ought to act now," said Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Malielegaoi after a meeting of 48 small island and developing nations in Perth last week.

Reports say that Climate Change and food security were two of the issues topping the agenda at the CHOGM meeting.

With many of the Commonwealth nations being low-lying islands, CHOGM agreed on a slew of measures to promote action on climate change, including a push to find better ways to fund mitigation and adaptation projects. The Five Commonwealth members, who are also members of the G-20, will argue the case of the small island states at next month's G-20 summit in Cannes.

Source

• Independent Catholic News
• Reuters
• The hindu
• Radio Australia
• Image: One Samoana Itemisation