Dear Editor;   

I sit here and ponder about our ancestors who were not well educated but were inspired by God. How else would they have signed the Deed of Succession to this great country of America. Even the great TuiManu'a signed Manu'as over too. 

We have many great leaders in our government and in our Fono too. They are well educated and well versed in the ways of the world and politics too, compared to our past ancestors who never went to school or just a limited education. 

But our great country of American Samoa is going downhill because of the rampant corruption that continues to plague our government and Fono. 

When I say that the checks and balances between the three branches does not work in American Samoa, I say it for a reason. 

Everyone seems to know each other and almost everybody is related one way or another to someone. 

Favoritism and politics is now a big part of it and our merit system doesn't really work anymore. It's mainly used for the nobodies only to keep them in check and for yearly increments if it's not frozen. 

But if you're family or was part of a campaign winning team, you got it made. 

You have to be a professional in a certain field to get a high salary. But if you're not, sorry. 

That is why all the promises made during campaigning are broken. And we see every year the newly elected executives are worse than the previous administration. 

Our government is not getting any better, only worse and we always run out of money. 

Let me give you another example about how the Fono annd the Executive Branch are cooperating with each other. 

When the executive branch wants to create a new program etc etc. they come to the Fono and they present it with wild projections on how it's going to be funded. Sadly the collections always fall short and cannot meet the projections because they were never realistic in the first place. 

The Fono in turn goes to the executive and sweet talks the governor with promises and gets what they want. The saying "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" works very well here in American Samoa. 

Even our choices of directors is limited. The same people are rotated around the different sections of government and one way or another, they end up in the Fono as a member. 

We talk about fresh blood and giving the younger generation a place in government, but sadly they do not want to take up the mantle and would rather seek it else where. 

Believe me those directors have become used to the system and how it works. That's why there is so much corruption because they know how to steal and get away with it.

Look at our government Retirement Fund. It was created for the government employee and its retirees. But we don't see any kind of yearly increment like the VA and social security gives out every year, which is a generous amount. But the fund is being abused so much every year it could even end up in the ground because of our government. Where are the millions of dollars generated through investments in stocks etc going? 

Look at the Fono members who get a generous amount of $10,000 each, tax free each year with free travel and hotel just to listen to some stupid report. They are off on a free vacation!!! 

Our country is basically run by foreigners!!! Our sons and daughters go off to seek a better life and we bring in foreigners. They run all sorts of businesses here because they know the money is here. 

They run our stores, sewing shops, and almost every kind of job there is etc etc. We even let one man monopolize almost everything and he seems to be like the king. What does that do for other small businesses in the future? Will there be anymore? And what happens when he is no longer around? We probably just fall flat. 

Our people need to wake up!!! 

Even the celebration of our Flag Day is so boring that the government gives out free vouchers for free food to entice the people to attend. 

Flag Day was supposed to a day of celebration and not a day of just singing and dancing year after year. And there is too much fa'aaloalo going on. Even in the government. Respect in the sense of the word is not about heaping gifts in thousands of dollars on invited dignitaries. We're probably the only country in the world that gives such lavish gifts in the name of respect. We need to cut down on so much respect and do more work!!! 

Also why does the government have to give thousands of dollars to celebrate flag day in Hawaii etc etc when the Samoans there were doing okay with funding their own celebration? We need to have more fun in celebrating and fireworks too. That's why people don't want to come out to celebrate because It's not fun.

Probably only the fautasi race is what people look forward to make their day. 

Why can't we go back to how it was, 2 days of celebration? Now I would rather go and grow some taro than attend.

Like I said a great man A. U. Fuimaono meant well when he said that Samoans can govern themselves. But what he didn't anticipate was that they would not have the kind of depth and wisdom, ‘le UTA ma le TOFA’, that he had and the wisdom our ancestors had. 

With everything that the Dept. of Interior had created in the past, we have basically lost everything that made our infrastructure and economy strong.

Tourism worked well but we destroyed it and now they always want a study done and sending people off to go study how it works. 

It's basic mathematics. Look at the canneries, the Rainmaker hotel, the tramway, the airline etc, etc, etc. 

We destroyed everything. 

I could go on and on like the missing 4 million for example but the bottom line is if we don't start speaking the truth and telling the truth we are in deep sh_t!!! Excuse the language please. 

If our ancestors were guided by le UTA ma le TOFA, our present leaders and future leaders need to find it in order to care and take care of our people or we are in deep trouble and our future in jeopardy. 

We want to be known as Pearl of the Pacific. 

Not the Shame or Joke of the Pacific.

If you're wondering who is writing this my name is Tasali Wayne Pila Patea 

And I am from the village of Pago Pago