SamoaLive

SamoaLive! 28 Sept) Samoa?Somali?Where Is That?

As the David Tua publicity team builds up the promotion of the World Title Fight in November, people across the world will be asking where Samoa is.The world wide interest in the Heavy Weight World Title fight will be biggest ever publicity which Samoa will get. No other Samoan athlete has lifted Samoa to the present spot light because of David Tua's pride as a Samoan. This is in contrast to some of the past Samoan sports personalities who at times had been less forthcoming to identify themselves as being Samoan first.
As the Ulafala supporters groups are created by Samoa communities all over the world, there will be increasing calls for a special day for David Tua.
After the November fight,Samoans can now introduce themselves as from Tualand!

SamoaLive! 27 September) T1 or E1 lines?

For those who think that E1 and T1 lines can only be in the USA will have a pleasant surprise if the latest move by the Governments of Samoa and American Samoa is actioned.
The current bandwidth in Samoa is only 256,000 binary bits per second.By installing a T1 line Samoa could increase its bandwith to 1,500,000 binary bits per second.With a T1 line the days of video conferencing will be practical.
The main goal of the project is to use the T1 line for educational and health purposes.This move enables Samoa to access a large badwidth thru the American Samoan facilities.The project could become a turning poit in the inter-Samoa cooperation.

SamoaLive! 26 September) Notebook Power on PAL

The latest PAL magazine features its new aircarft specs.
For those who take their computer notebooks on the plane but worry about the batteries running out before you finish your documents,there will be no more worries when the new aircraft of Polynesian Airlines operates in November this year.
The latest aircraft will have a power point to plug your computer notebook to in the business class section.This feature will make PAL one of the few airlines offering this power feature in the Pacific.
The new 737 aircraft will allow PAL to fly direct the Apia/Hawaii and Apia/Australia sectors.

SamoaLive! 25 Sept)Scotland Prepares For Manu Samoa
Scotland has announced its squad to select from in preparation for tests in November against Australia and the Manu Samoa.
Scotland is taking the Manu Samoa seriuosly following the successes of the Manu Samoa at the recent World Cup and the 2000 Epsom Cup.
The Samoan union has not made any announcement yet of the details of the tour to Scotland.

SamoaLive! 24 September 2AP Going Places
Despite the increase in the number of FM radio, TV stations ans cable tv services, 2AP still has alot of potential in the future as shown by the recent interSamoa talks.
2AP with its with its ranging coverage of Samoa and the neighbouring countries has been identified as a potential radio service beyond Samoa. American Samoa wants the 2AP to also cater for the Manua Islands.The coverage of Tokelau and Niue could also make the 2AP a regional station for these islands.

SamoaLive 23 Sept). Religious Revival in Samoa
If the growing crowds outside the Government Complex in the evenings is a good indicator of change, then Samoa is undergoing a major historical movement in the revival and adaptation of the Christainity movement.
The crowds are mainly young and active in bible classes if they are not attending the rallies.They are also testing the tolerance of the village councils as shown in the recent legal debate on religious freedom and the traditonal authority of the village councils.
Regardless of the outcome of the legal and social debate, the present movement is going to have wide ranging implications on the traditional churches. The question now is how far can the traditional churches adapt to cater of the new breed of christians in Samoa.

Samoalive 22 Sept)Dot WS Goes Worldsite

The .ws domain name for Samoa has now been promoted as a domain name for worldsite which is a creative way to fill the need for sites which need to be labelled as having a world coverage.
For those using the samoalive e-mail addresses they would have seen the active promotion of the .ws worldsite domain name in the last few months.CSL which has been given the right to manage the .ws domain name is working hard to make the .ws domain name as one of the most successful domain names in the Pacific following the publicity on the .tv for Tuvalu and the .nu for Niue.Samoalive will be helping out with the promotion of the .ws domain name by having its visitors click thru to the site set up for managing the .ws domain name.

Samoa College and Church College of Western Samoa became the favourites of those who voted in the recent Samoalive poll. The poll only reflects the preferences of the Samoalive visitors who voted.
The poll created some emotional feedback about creating divsions among schools.However the Samoalive team has received support to continue with the polls.By showing the results of the polls instantly, the purpose is to also give feedback to the visitors as how the others are also voting.The polls are not scientific but are there for a general indication of prefernces of those who want to participate in the voting.
Samoalive welcomes polling ideas from anyone.

Samoalive 21 September) Samoan Soccer gets world attention
Skysports television special programme on the development of soccer in Samoa which must have given a worldwide publicity.The special covered the proposed plans to develop the Tuanaimato stadium with the hel;p of FIFA.The programme gave interviews of the Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi; the Director of Works, Leiataua Isikuki giving assurances of the Government to assist in anyway possible to ensure the FIFA project in Samoa is built asap.The programme also covered the enthuasiastic following of soccer at the school level.
Soccer is now seen as opening up opportunities for the young to have a shot at professional soccer careers if they become successful like the Manu Samoa players in rugby union.Samoa could have a mutli million soccer player in the next decade if all the plans work out for soccer.

Samoalive 21 September)New Fishing Wharf

The commercial fishing industry which has become the top money earner for the country is getting support from Government with help from the People's Republic of China.
This project was recently announced by the Government follwing the visit of the Prime Minister to China.
The new fishermen's wharf is badly needed with the congestion at the Fish market in Apia following the boom in fishing boats since the mid 1990s.

Samoalive 21 September) Ofisa Ofisa tries

Despite hard efforts in a bid for Samoa's first medal at any Olympics games Ofisa Ofisa was unsuccesful. Born and bred in Samoa, Ofisa Ofisa has won 27 gold medals in different competitions.He finished 9th overall in his category this year at the Olympic games in Sydney.

Samoa's only lightweight boxer Pauga Lalau nicknamed 'Hurricane' competeing in the Olympics this year in Sydney lost his match to his Russian oppponent in the fourth round.The Russian seemed to dominate the first and second round but Pauga Lalau impressed the crowd wtih his comeback in the thrid round narrowing the the difference in scores to 15- 10 to the Russian boxer. Keep an eye out for updatesand results on other Samoans competing in the Olympics.

The long hours of TV viewing of the Olympics could be bad for the country.By televising the Olympics during 10am to 12 midnight may be affecting productivity of all the businesses. Tired kids may not be able to concentrate probably at school. Tired parents may not have time to aftertheir kids. The lesson from all fo these possible pitfalls is for everyone to watch the Olympics in moderation.

The popular radio programme has moved on to become a T.V. programme to be televised weekly through G.B.N. later this year. Reverend Falefatu Enari, who is the voice and face of the programme had also started looking at putting the Leo o Viiga (LoV) onto the internet could become a key step for making Leo o Viiga a slef-funding community programme. The musical drama and religious background of Rev. Falefatu Enari has made the LoV programme an interesting and meaningful experience for the youth and adults.

Described as the sport that best illustrates the funloving attitude of Samoans to sports and their readiness to adapt and Samoanise foreign ideas. Samoan kirikiti is undergoing a national revival . However, the media , has not given a lot of coverage of the sport to date. The recent Teuila 2000 tournament did not get any live coverage .A review is reported to be under way which could lead to some modifications to the kirikiti game to make it fit the T.V. audience.

As the fastest growing sport in Samoa, soccer has become a first choice for most kids, even ahead of the once automatic choice for rugby. The Samoa soccer Federation has been the most active sports organisation in their school programs. Later this month two squads, under 12's and under 10's the will be travelling to Australia for an international soccer tournament . For kids like Talatau Mataafa of Satupaitea, travelling to Australi as a striker is just a big opportunity he nvew thought it would happen to him in his lifetime.(Photos)

Flag raising has become one of the most popular tourist activties in Apia. The daily marching and raising of the flag by the Samoan police usually attracts a large crowd of tourists taking photos of the clourful event.However, the timing of the ceremony at 7:45am creates a daily trafffic jam at the peak traffic hour when the police march take up one whole lane of the street.Nevertheless, the police who are marching are not only helping in bringing the country to respect the flag but also contributing in a signiificant direct way to the tourist industry.Click here for photos of flag ceremony

Tattooing continues to become widely practiced in Samoa . Although the art of Samoan tattooing was once considered pagan by the early Missionaries , it is now actively promoted and supported by the Government . During the Teuila 2000 Festival a national tattoo contest was held for men and women. As a Samoan identity mark, the tattoo band around upper arms has become popular particularly with overseas born Samoans.

The rapid increase in the world prices for oil in the last 6 months is now coming through the local petrol prices. The price of petrol now in Apia is $1.48 a litre.However, the price of electrcity and a other general transportation have not moved . The Electric Power Corporation , Shipping and airline businesses are absorbing the increases in fuel prices. The question now is how long these businesses can hold their prices down.

After 25 years since the start of the relations between Samoa and China the Beijing/ Apia links continue to be the warmest between China and the Pacific Island Countries. Despite persistant financial offers by Taiwan, Samoa continues to have a one- China policy. The recent visit by the Prime Minister Hon. Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi and his delegation to China was given national prominence in China with meetings with President Jiang Zemin and other top Chinese officials.

The latest poll as midnight Sunday, has shown that the Samoa Observer is the most popular with the Samoalive visitors followed by the Newsline and the Samoa News. Samoalive also carried out a survey of the rural people and found that their favourite papers are Samoa Post and Tautua Samoa. These results show a clear difference in the readership of the mainly English and mainly Samoan papers. They also show that the mainly English papers need to expand their Samoan sections if they are to become a force with the Samoan readers. The results back the move by Samoa Observer to expand their Samoan section. The poll will be shifted to the News/Media page for long term poll reading.

The Samoan contingent left today for the Sydney Olympics. The latest change to the contingent was the inclusion of Ofisa Ofisa after the Samoan Supreme court decision on Friday restraining the Samoan weightlifting federation 12 months ban on Ofisa Ofisa for an alleged incident in Nauru. The public legal battle on Ofisa has over shadowed the preparations of the other members of the Samoan team who have had relatively little media coverage in their build up to the games. TV Samoa has announced that it will have 12 hour daily coverage of the games. Samoalive has also set up a special page for continual updates on the key sports in which the Samoan team is competing in.Click here for details.The page also has the background profiles of the Samoan Olympians as compiled by the Samoa National Olympic Committee. Samoalive wishes Leao and his contingent all the best. Ia manuia tou faiva

The Ms Samoa pageant was held tonight to a packed crowd at the Tooa Salamasina Hall. All the tickets were sold out before the pageant and a large crowd queuing for the door tickets were turned away. Petra Suhren, from the Audit Office has won the Ms Samoa 2000/2001 title. The venue will have to change in the future if the pageant is growing in popularity. The Salamasina hall has poor ventilation and acoustics. Despite the difficulties with the facilities the pageant was enjoyable.

Everyone was out this morning to get a glimpse of the 11 contestants competing in the Miss Samoa pageant to conclude the Teuila Festival, which which will be held at the Tooa Salamasina Hall tomorrow evening. Each contestant waved out to the crowd from their beautifully decorated floats which emphasized this year's theme ' Beauty with flowers'. Photos

The Manulele Tautala and the Tavaesina from Manono and Apolima reestablished their dominance in the fautasi races this year just as they used to do in the early 1960s. The radio commentator Eddie Taualapini of FM 98 reminded everyone of the past lively commentators like Lavea Levi and Pat Mamaia as they gave an animated description of the fautasis rowing their way to the finishing line. The final places were

Ofisa Ofisa is now officially out of the Samoan team to the Sydney Olympics 2000.The Samoa National Olympic Committee (SNOC) in making the announcement said it had option as the International Weightlifting Federation has supported the 12 month ban imposed by the Samoan and Oceania weightlifting associations.SNOC has also announced that it had also struck off the Samoa Weightlifting Association as part of SNOC. SNOC said it would not be sending a replacement for Ofisa. When the news hit the streets, there was overwhelming sympathy for Ofisa Ofisa particularly when FM98 opened their phones to the public to call in.

The use of nonu juice was extensive with pre- European times. However , the arrival of aspro and other Western medicine led to the nonu not being extensively used , until the Tahitians revived it as a miracle juice in the U.S. export market. The nonu tree which was considered a weed in the past is now a valuable source of income for the villagers in the rural areas. Although the nonu juice was originally all exported , there is now an increasing local market as locals revert back to using nonu juice . The normal practice now is for a small daily dosage of nonu juice for each number of the family.

The EFKS Alamagoto Youth Choir has released their cassette tape 'Toe Tepa I Lou Faavae'. Live Sound Records a division of SAMM'S Studio arranged the recording of hymns and some selected original Samoan favorites of Fanana Grey. The choir is made up of Uga Tusitala , Tui Palauui , Keneti Tonu'u , Toetu Sooaemalelagi , Aviti Elisala Afoa, Lua Liu , Vala Maseelino , Makerita Tupai and Rasela Laulu. Samuelu Sopoaga is on keyboards with Unasa Lio Schmidt as guitarist.

SamoaLive 3 September) International and Teuila Week

The NUS is running an international week during the Teuila festival week. There will be Japanese, Australian, French and Samoan days. NUS has also offered free meals like the Aussie barbie which should prove popular activities during the week.

Tourist are arriving by plane loads and shiploads. Hotels and Beach Fales have mostly been full for the last 3 months. Today the passenger cruiser (Click here for photos) arrived in Apia bringing yet another group of tourists. The arrival later this year of the new Polynesian Airlines aircraft with direct flights to U.S.A and Australia will ensure the boom is more than a flash in the pan for Samoa