More from Kalafi Moala

If you can convince the poor and needy they are helpless, they will act helpless. And they will see that the only way out of their helplessness is for them to do nothing, and for others (usually from outside and from afar) to come to their aid, writes Kalafi Moala.

"When you are the victim of a Category Five cyclone you are firstly grateful to be alive even though everything you’ve got is destroyed or blown away." Kalafi Moala describes Tonga’s painful recovery from the worst cyclone in its recorded history.

An industry featuring the talents of Polynesian people is rapidly rising, making a significant impact on the economic status of small Polynesian island states as well as the Polynesian diaspora in USA, Australia, and New Zealand.

Poverty in the Pacific may need to be re-defined. Most definitions do not take into consideration the attitude of people about themselves, their needs, and the solutions to meeting those needs. We must work on a development approach that calls for responsibility and ownership of the problems and the solutions.

The so-called pathways to the future are no longer straight lines, but are more like cycles of repeated history. But let us do some reflection on our most recent past, and see how our present situation compares. This reflection will have to focus on leadership, for it is in leadership ‘that things rise or fall.’

For many Pacific nations, education is regarded as the key foundation stone of building a peaceful, productive, and prosperous society. But educators are looking for solutions as to why there is very little improvement in student performance, even after so much reform has been carried out.