Heart-warming end to the year

THE reaction of New Zealanders to the plight of Western Samoa in the wake of devastating Cyclone Val did one’s heart

good.

It certainly did much to restore even the most hardened cynic’s faith in human nature.

New Zealanders in the main had a dreadful year last year. By common assent, 1991 was a year everyone wants to forget.

Unemployment reached record heights, reform of the country’s health and social welfare system began to bite, disposable incomes fell and even families who still had breadwinning workers were tightening their belts at Christmas.

But, remarkably, tough times can bring out the best in people and when news and pictures of the appalling havoc Val had wrought reached this country, New Zea landers were touched. They might not have been able to forget their own troubles, but

they saw that others were worse off and they responded with

generosity.

Remarkable generosity in the circumstances. They pledged about SI million in a hurriedly arranged Television New Zealand telethon a few days before Christmas. New Zealanders always enjoy a telethon and always dig deep into their pockets to aid worthy causes, but they are never usually held around Christmas time when people have other things on their minds and other demands on their money.

Close friends and family usually dominate their thoughts at that time and it’s safe to assume that the reason the Cyclone Val appeal was so successful was that New Zealanders saw Western Samoans as friends and family.

Many are, of course. There is a sizeable Samoan population in this country. But what was significant was that many of those who volunteered donations were not. Pakeha, Maori and Chinese New Zealanders alike many who have never been to Samoa and who probably do not actually know any Samoans phoned in their pledges to help the stricken country.

The response was not limited to the Telethon. Further donations totalling just under $700,000 were also made to a separate appeal launched by the ANZ Bank.

What it underlined at a personal level was the overall aim of the government’s South Pacific policy to be a good

neighbour.

It was good neighbourliness at its best, and the government stretched and embarrassed by its falling of official development assistance (as the bureaucrats now call aid) did its bit to back it up.

External Relations Minister Don McKinnon was on the first Royal New Zealand Air Force Hercules to go to the battered country, arriving there on the day the cyclone finished.

Making the flight might have been seen initially as a gesture.

It turned out to"be much more than that. Shocked by what he saw, he came home to give his cabinet colleagues a wrenching first-hand account which left them with no alternative but to respond with the same generosity that their fellow countrymen displayed.

The aid budget traditionally has a S 3 million allocation for disaster relief built in. About half a million dollars of this had already been spent, but McKinnon had no difficulty convincing the Cabinet that what remained would be nowhere near enough to help Western Samoa recover.

Cabinet immediately approved S 5 million for reconstruction and when the Telethon appeal was arranged, guaranteed to

New Zealand

match public contributions dollar for dollar effectively another SI million government

pledge.

Not all this money will be made available in the current financial year ending June 30, distribution depending on the pace of recon struction.

McKinnon further used his eye-witness assessment to call in members of the diplo matic corps in Wellington and urge them to appeal to their own countries for further aid.

He said that Western Samoa was already sitting on a loan from the Asian Development Bank for repairs after Cyclone Ofa and now required a major international effort to help it back on its feet.

Other groups and organisations in New Zealand quickly came to the party, despite the fact that, like the rest of the country, they were winding down for the traditional summer holiday.

The Ministry of External Relations and Trade’s Cyclone Val Emergency Task Force was ordering supplies on Boxing Day and found firms ready to open up to help. Suppliers of building materials were donating goods or offering them at cost prices, ensuring that the money donated would go that much further.

“People were not taking commercial advantage of the situation,” said one official. “There was a very genuine and generous outpouring of concern over the whole community.”

Unemployed New Zealanders and there arc about 200,000 of them found their opportunity to help, aided by a novel scheme organised by the Employment Service and backed by MERT.

The aptly-named Operation Saw Horse attracted an overwhelming number of applicants from unemployed trades people of all ages and occupations, keen to offer their skills to help Western Samoa’s reconstruction.

Jobless volunteers aged from 20 to 70 offered their services under a scheme in which the government promised them the minimum adult wage, and their food and keep to go to Samoa.

Ironically perhaps, they found the wage was not a high priority among many who, after weeks or months of unemployment at home, were only too happy to go to a place where their skills would be welcomed.

Teams went on eight-week assignments which seem certain to continue for some months. One of the first priorities, given the imminent start of the new school year, was rebuilding Western Samoa’s educational establishments, and the satisfac tion the Saw Horse workers received from such an important job certainly more than matched the little money they received.

Meanwhile, the Council of Trades Unions mounted “Operation Fesoasoani” to send 10 container loads of food and building materials, supported by P & O which donated the containers, Pacific/Shipping which carried them free from Lyttleton and Wellington to Auckland, and Pacific Forum Line which transported them to Apia at reduced rates.

Samoans resident in New Zealand flocked in their hundreds to donate cartons of food for relatives and friends which were collected by the Social Welfare Department and shipped free by Forum Line.

It was a co-operative effort that brought out the best in everyone. A pity perhaps that it takes a tragedy of Cyclone Val proportions to produce such an outpouring of caring, friendship and concern for our neighbours. Why can’t we show the same concern all the time?

David

Barber