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Israel Folau has faced widespread criticism for his social media comments. Photo by Andrew Patron/Icon Sportswire/Corbis via Getty Images
Israel Folau has faced widespread criticism for his social media comments. Photo by Andrew Patron/Icon Sportswire/Corbis via Getty Images

SocietyApril 10, 2018

Dear Israel Folau – your unchristian comments hurt young, vulnerable Pasifika

Guest writer
Israel Folau has faced widespread criticism for his social media comments. Photo by Andrew Patron/Icon Sportswire/Corbis via Getty Images
Israel Folau has faced widespread criticism for his social media comments. Photo by Andrew Patron/Icon Sportswire/Corbis via Getty Images

The Australian rugby star has triggered controversy by saying on social media gay people are headed to ‘HELL … Unless they repent of their sins and turn to God’. Such misuse of Bible scripture is the biggest impediment to Pasifika Rainbow people being able to live our lives without fear, backlash and hatred, writes Tuiloma Lina-Jodi Vaine Samu, with the support of 57 other people from the NZ Pasifika community

Dear Israel Folau

At the end of this letter you will see some of the names of Pasifika people you have condemned to hell along with some of our allies.

We want to let you know that your stance towards our LGBTQI+ people is the antithesis of being Christian.

We are incredibly disappointed in your recent comments and soon after you made them, artist activist Tanu Gago encouraged Pasifika people to have the “ake/ate” to reply to you.

We want you to know that the stakes are high for us in Aotearoa, Australia and in the Pacific.

Our youth suicide rates are the highest in the “developed” world and Pasifika who identify as LGBTQI+ are a significant number of those souls who take their own lives because of the intolerance, rejection and hatred from our own loved ones. While we like to think our Pasifika peoples are some of the most loving of all, you have highlighted that this is often not the case when it comes to LGBTQI+ peoples.

Rugby Australia and its main sponsor Qantas condemned your bigoted statement as did many other high profile rugby players. It shows that when it comes to Pālangi commerce, there are swift and harsh consequences. So why have we as Pasifika, Moana-nui-o-Kiva communities not as a whole stood up immediately to say – “Ikai! Kare! Leai! No Israel Folau! This is abhorrent and it is wrong!”

The sad thing is we can’t deny that many of our people are entrenched in this unforgiving, (un)Christian conditioning and agree with you. The mistranslation and misuse of Bible scripture is the biggest impediment to Pasifika Rainbow people being able to live our lives without fear, backlash and hatred from those who often matter the most to us.

An unquestioning belief in and holding fast to the Bible is very much a feature of our lives as Pasifika peoples. Our cultures are entrenched in our Christian faiths and this has been central to our modern-day cultures since we were colonised. But our peoples also need to remember that fa’afafine, fa’afatama, fakafefine/ fakaleiti, fakafifine, ‘akavaine and sexually diverse cultures are more ancient and authentically ancestral than our Christian religion is.

I believe as do many of the Pacific LGBTQI+ Rainbow community that Jesus Christ is our God and Redeemer. The Jesus Christ that I know and believe in is one of unconditional love, compassion, non-judgement and service to everyone. My Christian faith is crucial to my wellbeing, so too are the legacy and beliefs left by our ancestors.

Statistics show there is a big chance that someone close to you in your own famili, aiga, ‘anau, matavuvale, magafaoa, kaina is going to be fa’afafine, fa’afatama, fakaleiti, fakafifine, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex or gender fluid. I truly hope Israel that if one of your own beloved family members comes out: that you don’t simply condemn them to hell. If so, then that is a whole lot of ta’e ‘ofa (Tongan for lovelessness, no love, no compassion, no empathy, no sympathy) going on. I want to acknowledge our LGBTQI+ champions of the Pacific present and past, in particular, the Tonga Leitis Association who are struggling to rebuild their facilities and services after being devastated by Tropical Cyclone Gita. They provide shelter and stability for those LGBTQI+ people:

I know from experience the impact of such hatred. My own aiga/family was faced with either accepting or rejecting a beloved one for being gay. In 1985 our parents led our Mangere East collections of signatures against the Homosexual Law Reform Bill. My parents both gave me a hiding when I refused to sign the petition. I resented them tremendously as they ended up forcing me to sign it and I vowed that no-one would ever take away my freedom of choice, my right of agency and free will ever again.

When they discovered that my brother Harold was 1. Gay and 2. A popular drag Queen (drag name: Bertha the Beast), it caused upheaval for our family throughout that year. Everything they believed to be true and right based on their deep-rooted religion was upended. They had to dig deep and reconcile their lives to maintaining their strong belief in their faith, whilst showing unconditional love for their son. They thankfully chose loving their son and vowed to support him and stand by him rather than rejecting and disowning him as many families did – and still do.

Between the mid-1980s and 1990s many of my brother’s close friends died from HIV/Aids. And our parents were with him, sitting alongside him, attending every farewell. The lesson learnt for our aiga, community and our parents was: Be careful, when you’re so immersed in religiously misguided homophobia, transphobia and biphobia, you might be raising the biggest drag queen/gay man/fa’afafine in your own home.

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    Our people have to find the courage, faith and the love as my own parents did, otherwise we will be forever locked in a lose-lose situation.

    Yours truly, Tuiloma Lina-Jodi Vaine Samu

    With the support of: Tanu Gago, Resitara Apa, Phylesha Brown-Acton, Joey Joleen Mataele, Fia’ailetoa Ken Moala, Phineas Hartson, Pesetā Betty Sio, Lealailepule Edward “Buckwheat” Cowley, JD Victor, Leuli Eshraghi, Iakopo Tologata, Sonya Apa Temata, Robbie Kainuku, Tim Swann, Tim Baice, Lindah Lepou, Walter Kawika’iulani Aipa and Herbee Bartley, Jaycee Tanuvasa, Va’inetuta’i Richard, Alan J Wendt, Nick Netzler, Darren Taniue, Torranice Campbel, Dee Fa’aea-Aiono, Robert Oliver, Angelyse-Heitiare Armstrong, Tuafale Tanoa’i, Teokota’i Paitai, Siaosi Mulipola, Yuki Kihara, Michael Gullery, Ana Te Whaiti, Paul Fagamalo, Cathryn Laban, Dr Clive Aspin, Associate Professor Leonie Pihama, Monise Fata-Meafou, Jaye Moors, Harold Samu, Olivia Taouma, Lisa Taouma, Erina Rewita Leauanae, Faumui Lope Ginnen, Faiva Holmes, Aruna Po-Ching, Amanda Moors Mailei, Lani Wendt Young, Rhia Taonui, Malia Manuleleua Tua’i, Reverend Mua Strickson-Pua, Nina Milne, Pesetā Eunice Sio, Rena Mahauariki, Richard Shortland Cooper, Agnes Rasmussen, Melissa Lama, Danielle O’Halloran, Christine Robertson-Ammunson

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    Mojo Coffee feature

    SocietyApril 9, 2018

    Hey Mojo, if you can’t pay your staff properly maybe you shouldn’t be in business

    Contributing writer
    Mojo Coffee feature

    Wellington-based coffee chain Mojo has announced it is upping its prices in response to the increase in the minimum wage. Fine, says Emily Writes, but I won’t be buying your coffee again.

    My love of coffee is known, and while it doesn’t reach the levels of “has Google alert for Wellington and Coffee” it does mean a headline like “coffee prices rise with minimum wage increase” is going to catch my eye.

    I immediately wanted to know what the story was. It wasn’t that surprising to read that no, coffee prices aren’t rising. Coffee prices almost everywhere are staying the same – except at Wellington institution Mojo. A fairer headline would be “Mojo raising coffee prices” because that’s what they’re doing. They’re choosing to increase the price of their product, which of course they’re welcome to do.

    But it’s interesting that they thought Wellingtonians would just leap in behind this, when much smaller coffee shops, which don’t have anything near the traffic or platform that Mojo has, are paying their baristas a living wage and have been for some time. All without charging more for their product.

    It almost seems like it comes down to whether you value your staff or not. One of the main reasons I haven’t started a business myself is that I know I’ll likely not earn enough to be able to pay the people I need to do the job I need them to do. That’s because while I think the service I’ll provide is a good one, it’s likely not good enough to earn enough to pay any employees I have enough.

    So I’m thoroughly confused by employers who insist that no business model can ever support paying living wages – especially since many, many, many businesses do pay their employees living wages.

    Could it be – and now, I don’t want to be inflammatory – but could it be that you’re just shit at business if you can’t even pay your staff properly and you think that’s acceptable?

    Now, now, calm your tits. I know that the first response I’m going to get is “I pay people before I pay myself!” and guess what Russ? That’s what being in business is. Eat it. When the rewards are high, you reap them – because you’ve put in the hard yards. And when it’s rough, you ride that, because you hold that risk. Risk and reward. If you can’t handle it, don’t do it.

    I was at a Women in Business conference on the weekend (I was the entertainment not an expert or mentor, so chill out) and I was astonished to hear one of the women talk about how she chose to put her business on hold because she couldn’t afford to pay her freelancers.

    As a freelancer for three years, my first thought was “you paid your freelancers” because fuck me it’s hard getting paid (I could insert an anecdote about a huge media organisation not paying me for so long I almost had to take them to Baycorp and in the end only paid me when I said I’d go public – months after the due date). But my second thought was – wow, this is integrity in business.

    Now, she could have had a hissy I suppose and charged extra for her product and had a moan about how people earning just $16.50 is just too taxing for an organisation with 31 stores and an almost complete monopoly on their market (desperate public servants in need of caffeine). That was one option. But she chose to stop instead. She chose to work out whether her product could earn more, so she could pay her people properly.

    Integrity.

    Ultimately, Mojo can charge whatever they like for their coffee. But I won’t be buying it (and I was a consumer of at least three Mojo coffees a week). It’s not because I can’t afford the price hike – it’s because I can’t support a business that gasps at people earning just $16.50 an hour.

    So I will be putting my money where my mouth is. Businesses that are upset that they can’t build their careers at the expense of the people who grind in their cafes and restaurants and bars are not businesses that I want to support. If you can’t create a business and also ensure your workers earn just enough to put a roof over their head and have a meagre dinner on the table (literally, $16.50 an hour is what we are talking about) then what kind of business are you?

    The minimum wage increase is about survival. Coffee is a luxury that people on minimum wage can’t afford. And they’re so often the ones making it. So it’s astonishing that they’re being left out of this debate. And if Mojo says that this is about increasing wages further up the chain – well fine, but to blame a minimum wage increase because it’s forcing you to recognise the talents of the crew that makes people buy your product in the first place? That’s just foolish.

    And you need to be smarter than that surely if you’re running a business? If it’s about the cost of one cup of coffee, say that: Put the details out there. Tell us what the cup costs and the beans and the rent on your premises. But don’t expect us to swallow that it’s the fault of your employees or the fault of a government that recognises that people who work 40 hours a week should be able to afford to pay for a basic life.

    Call me a pinko socialist tree hugger greenie scumbag – but I’m buying your product. Or should I say – not buying it. And your latest stunt has backfired, at least in the circles I’m in, as we all seek out coffee from companies that demonstrate that they actually care about their people.

    What the worth of a coffee is – well, that’s hard to quantify. But I know what people are worth, and it’s a shitload more than $16.50.

    This section is made possible by Simplicity, New Zealand’s fastest growing KiwiSaver scheme. As a nonprofit, Simplicity only charges members what it costs to invest their money. It already has more than 12,500 plus members who, together, are saving more than $3.8 million annually in fees. This year, New Zealanders will pay more than $525 million in KiwiSaver fees. Why pay more than you need to? It takes two minutes to switch. Grab your IRD # and driver’s licence. It really is that simple.

    Society