Nobles and dirt eaters

Swimming with sharks Chapter 4.1

‘We would betray the truth to be Tongan.’ - Bishop Petelisio Finau

Tonga says it has more PhDs per capita than any other nation. Most of them are not in Tonga.

One told me of taking his mother to her first big screen movie, Star Wars. After sitting through Luke Skywalker and the exploding Death Star, he asked her what she thought.

‘It’s just like Tonga, we must protect the princess.’

I spent a lot of time covering Tonga at a time most other journalists were writing warm platitudes about the fat king and the crown prince driving a London taxi, or were willing to treat it in a fashion suggesting that it was the source of funny, off-beat stories. Tongan authorities could live with that. 

Each odd Tongan story bothered me. I could join the short-term humorous game - or wonder at governance and who was paying the real price. 

Where I irritated Tonga’s government was that I took them seriously, and questioned what they were up to.