SUPA MARIO
It has been more than three months, relocating away from home. Working in an abattoir, getting to meet new people, learning new cultures and ways of life. Trying also to get used to how things should be. For instance, being rewarded based on performance regardless of ethnicity, gender, religious or political views, etc.
While there are challenges to living in a foreign country, but one of the things I would certainly not miss, is the normalized discrimination at home. One could argue that discrimination is part of Tongan culture, it may very well be the only true culture. Arguably, the rest are either merely manifestations, or consequential ends of various discrimination.
There we have the most blatant discrimination against women regarding land and leadership issues. There are also other variations of our discrimination that in other countries, they are more subtle and discreet but not in Tonga. These may include favoritism and nepotism in almost everywhere you turn in the Kingdom. And then theres racism, one of our favorites as we collectively, boldly and inaccurately believe that Tongans are better than any other nation of any country.
We genuinely believe that as a so-called Christian nation, we keep the Sabbath more holier than any other Christian country. But our arrogance have blinded us from our hypocrisy regarding the fact that bakeries do not sell bread on Sundays while bars and clubs are selling alcohol on Sundays. But if doing so still retain the Sabbath’s holiness in some people’s mind, then perhaps they are reading their bibles upside down and backwards.
We must be smoking some very powerful weed that we believe Tonga alone in the entire planet is specially protected by God himself. This is due to the “Tuku Fonua” event when the King, once upon a time asked God to protect Tonga. Whether it is you believe in the existence of God, this Tongan belief doesn’t even make sense. The country has been plagued with hurricanes almost every year causing the destruction of homes to many people. In fact, this year alone we had a volcanic eruption followed by a tsunami. Homes destroyed and lives were lost.
Even if the divine protection was real, it doesnt protect so many from illicit drugs and domestic violence. Neither does it prevent so many from obesity, diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. Our bold claims of being a religious nation seems off when we see corruption from all levels of government, even in churches.
However, our hubris and childish arrogance is often rivaled by someone else. And very recently, it was the case with our Samoans neighbors.
Slowly spewing over social media is a feud between some Samoans and some Tongans. While not every single Tongan and Samoan are engaged in this nonsense, but things could escalate so fast. What started as fans having fun while supporting their respective rugby league teams, quickly turned ugly.
This Samoa-Tonga feud, regardless of the reason and cause, essentially it is one identity rivaling another. Sounds familiar? It should be. Consider the following:
If we are to look back centuries and even a few millennia ago, we would always find the same exact feud: one identity against another. It could be Christians versus Muslims, or India versus Pakistan, or today with Russians versus Ukrainians.
Even locally at home, we would find members from one church feuding against another church, or students from one school against another school, or one village against the other. These would pale in comparison to feuds between members of political parties, either within themselves or with others from a rival party.
Social media have captured these various feuds in real time. The continued occurrence of feuds between different identities is evident of something that we should realize by now. That is, Tongans and Samoans are just like any other people from any other country. Where it matters, they are all equally flawed as human beings.
As a race, we identify as human beings yet we fail in being humane to each other. It could be ego, pride or for whatever reason, one identity ends up in disagreement with a different one. The human race is so predictable that time and again, we keep behaving the same way, thus making the same mistakes. It does begs the question:
To be identified by something, does it mean to discriminate against something else that you don’t identify with?
Unfortunately, this is one of the many attributes to discrimination. But if having an identity becomes problematic, is it best not to have one?
Many may preach of unity and love, but when push comes to shove, many would immediately defend and/or fight for only those they identify with. Then it becomes a discrimination that would inevitably ends up with one identity against another.
Having had the opportunity to live and work in a foreign country, a phrase comes to mind, “ke ‘a Tonga mai e.” It literally means hoping that Tonga would be like this. Which means a lot of changes needs to happen back at home if there’s any progress to be seen.
But unfortunately, any form of progress could be considered a threat to the elites who are comfortable with the status quo. It is in the interest of these elites that things do not change. Their power and influence were, are and will continue to be rock-hard cemented upon discrimination. It should sadden anyone with common sense to witness every generation in Tonga being molded to be so blindly proud of an identity so tainted with discrimination.