O League

Ok Honiara is still buzzzzzing about the recent O League match that SI KOSSA has won 3-1 against the Waitekere FC. There is the celebration at first and then the unexpected game that came from KOSSA. Terry Maddaford a leading soccer writer from New Zealand wrote :

“A team[Waitekere] unbeaten in their past nine outings, but this time in unfamiliar heat, found themselves playing second fiddle to a team with a mission.”

True True. No one saw what was coming. And in a mission indeed. They must now psyche themselves up for 11th May at Trust Stadium, NZ. Go KOSSA GO!

Story Story

We are heading towards completing this year. Or if you look at it a different way less than 8 months left to savour this year. Time flies when you are not paying attention. True. But what is thetre to look forward to in this town. trying to gather some information on wats happening that is big in terms for Honiara.

National Trade and Agirculture Show 2008- to be happening July 2008 in Honiara only unlike last year when it was launched in Auki town, Malaita Province.

National Independence Day July 7th July 2008- Another event to look foward to which although there will be no spectacular fireworks, is a siginificant day for Solomon Islanders in its constitutional indepence from the colonial British Empire. Not to mention public holidays, meaning sleep late.

Solomon Cup- All sprot maniac in and around the country are gearing up for this event that is going to happen at Auki town on coming months.

Second leg of final round of O league KOSSA VS Waitekere somewhere in NZ. I hope they made this live on TV .. I know its going to be on the radio …but I want to see..I want to see..

I think thats all for now i will get back with more events update soon…

 

Get that Feeling?

How’d you feel today ? Good Good Good. But what do feel when looking at this stunning photo? Fear. Of heights. No. fear of letting go thats what you are feeling right  now. Check out this stunning Photo at Pixdaus plus many for more inspirations.

What a Game!

2pm hot saturday afternoon. Maybe hot is an understatement. Scorching-humind-heat-that-burns-your-skin-and-gives-you-headache-thirst-unquenched-afternoon. Lawson Tama is packed and crowded. 20 000 spectators the radio cried! There were Waitekere fans on the other side of the field droned in white and red, in the midst who can see the yellow colours of KOSSA , while the rest of the crowd, males either have theirs shirts off and tying the heads and umbrellas of all sorts and other improvised materials to make shade that can only be invented in Honiara stood out.

I arrived late, the games had already started and I was trying to buy a ticket when the first goal from KOSSA’s Joe Luwi scored. Everybody roared! All of us trying to get a ticket went crazy shouting outside and the ticket ladies all disappeared to go celebrate and we were shouting for them to come back and hurry up!!!! The excitement was contagious and it was a long time that Honiara ever felt like that. I was talking to strangers and smiling like a fool. KOSSA scored!.

Ok with ticket in hand , I with the rest of the late arrivals ran to the enterance and struggled and pushed to go inside. KOSSA has socred against the giants now, anything can happen. There was no where to seat. I struggled to find some place where the goals are visible and craning my head over heads and hats to see tha action when another goal from Joe Luwi, hailed from Temotu, shook the net again. GO KOSSA GO! The crowd went wild. 2 goals to nil!

The game dwindled towards the second half with the Waitekere boys who came in from the cold winter Southern land just a day ago and into the hot boiling pot of Honiara were obviously smothered by the sun, heat and rowdy crowd. Meanwhile the KOSSA boys, especially James Naka were giving the home crowd the type of quality soccer that is definetly worth the money and the burning heat!

The second half is even more seat gripping. Although there are no seats for half of the crowd, I for one stood through out the whole game! The Waitekere presumably went to cool off and so took their time to score an impressive goal minutes into the second half. 2 goals to 1. The crowd is starting to get nervous. The two International soccer stars Benjamin Totori and Commins Menapi of Solomon Islands were well looked after by the KOSSA captain . The pair are clearly dangerous as they have briefly shown when they were open for goals. I have never seen any Solomon Islander played as fast and dangerous as Totori, definetly someone for the KOSSA to be jumpy around. And boy was everyone jumpy. I think after the 2 unexpected goal from Luwi no ones wants a draw or loss. KOSSA must win!

Then just five minutes before the final whistle the spectacular and clearly hero of the game James Naka made a classic tip of the ball over the tall Waitekere defender and score a goal sealing the game and made the highlighted of the game. The crowd roared in excitement as well as relief. Naka! Naka! Naka! The crowd where I was standing shouted and chanted among, sweat, body odour, kwaso stench and broken umbrellas. All Happy and joyous, its infectious! 

Sigh! it was one of the best games I have ever watched for a long time in Honaira. KOSSA has surprisingly improved a notch, and the combination of Luwi, Takayama ( with injured hand), Davani and Naka is the essence of their game.

Not to spoil the party but Waitekere coach said the the celebration for KOSSA is only shortlived, the New Zealand club champion will only have to score 2 goals to Nil to KOSSA for them to make thier way to FIFA Club World Cup in Japan. I quote “We’ll go back home and win 2-0 and end of story” said coach Chris Milicich, referring to the final round in the second leg to be played in NZ soon. Boo hoo !

Meanwhile the party has begun. KOSSA fans stayed up and kept the night clubs busy until the break of dawn! Celebration! Never mind the final round the fact is KOSSA gave an unexpected excellent game against the Waitekere and that is more then enough to make the town happy and partying together for now.

As you can see from the excerpt photo from todays Solomon Star. A hero has finally arrived in town!GO KOSSA GO!

Soccer!

 

There is a soccer buzz going around town. And there is nothing quite like a soccer buzz to make people in this town talking. The New Zealand Waitekere FC is coming to Honiara for a match with the KOSSA FC ( champion club) in the O League first leg for the World Club Championship. Well the thing that is making everyone talk, besides the announced $100 and $50 enterance ticket for the match, the NZ Waitekere FC has many supporter in Honiara because it is the club of two of the best soccer international players from SI- Benjamin Totori and Commence Menapi. Everyone is going crazy..Tufala man from Solo fesim oketa man lo Solo…I am collecting my fees for the enterance fee and will be shouting at the front row..all hell come hot sun I see all of you at 2pm Lawson Tama on Saturday! Go KOSSA GO! Go Menapi Go! Eh?!

 

10 things that still costs $SBD1 in Honiara

Im still raving about the food price here you might think. Well we really can’t allow the country to starve you know. This recent list is of some light though, there still some things in Honiara that you can still get for a dollar. One of the best things in life, apart from a good sleep, is getting a bargain and buying things for a dollar. So here is the list of things that you can still get for a dollar in Honiara …well for now.

10  things that still cost a $1 in Honiara

10. A box of match- yep you can still light a fire for $1 ..put away those rubbing sticks!

9. Lollipops- sweet tooth be happy

8. A cigarette roll- ok this is unhealthy but for smokers it is a break

7. Betel Nut and Leaf- Betel nut chewing is still alright if its a dollar…or whatever.

6. Chines fruits- preserve fruits from China, a favorite and nice treat.

5. Ice Block (small)- who in Honiara does not crave an ice block once in a while.

4. A small packet of cool aid- make colourful and sweet drinks that children love.

3. Cucumber- real small ones, healthy and ready to eat, wash first of course.

2. Ngali nuts- Yes… those nice small parcels of fresh nagali nuts are still affordable!

1. Heap Peanuts-  get a heap of peanut instantly at the central market fresh and fulfilling!

Something to think about

Time out: I was going to post this yesterday but the internet was just too slow to load that I gave up half way..hope its still sounds fresh as yesterday.

The weekend was okay. I did everthing weekend as possible, sleep though most of daylight and woke up the whole night, you can probably guess the effect of that on my Monday. I like getting as many information as possible on Monday about whats going on in Honiara ( that means reading the four page local news of Solomon Star and the recently added whole page of Western Comics- nothing comical happening in Honiara I presume) and the world as soon as I hit the office on Monday. This is probabaly the effect of lazing around the whole weekend and starving for ideas and inspiration after two days of spells.

The local news- not much happening, that is if you called nomination for a Lord Mayor of Honiara City Council headline news ( these HCC guys never do much so I dont know, who really cares?). So I was flipping through the newspaper and loading the internet as well. Then an article caught my eye! It says “How the Rich Starved the World”, well that ticks my curiosity and I clicked opened a world of crisis. Ok I promised that this blog will be free of anything that is going to sound I-hate-the-world but just bear with me here for one post. According to the article, the  world(the poor especially) is going to starve if the rich country keep making policies to increase more bio-diesel fuel it says. Simply means that more food goes into processing biofuel and less for food consumption. We are talking about clearing a whole forest to plant crops for bio disel.Hhmmm that sounds environmently friendly. As a result food prices will double in 2008. It will be much better if I’m reading this article in 1990 so that I can stockpile or something but we are talking the very present here. Well to make it worse, I have been talking with a couple of friends about the food price dramatic increase in Honiara recently because thats the only thing people in town are talking about right now. Everything has become double expensive. The price of rice especially because its a main staple diet here. There are already some food riot in countries such as Haiti ( see the article ) becuase food price are rising as much. Now we have history of riots in Hoinara and I hope nothing like this comes up , since we are just recovering from a recent one.

In Honiara the rising dependency on Western influence food such as wheat, diary and rice means most of the money people are making will be spent on food in shops. Hey don’t worry I hear some say we can just improve the local domestic market and keep away from rice easy. Ok but let us consider the prices for domestic food transportation  and why the prices of local food  are also increasing …it is because of rising oil prices more thatn $100 a barrel!

I am appalled at the greed most rich countries are showing. it comes to light that as was in history, and is now current, we developing countries are still oppressed by global factors that is beyond our control. I have idea though…Do you want to start a food rio..ok stop that is a bad idea! Nothing is going to come out of that except exhausting the already under nourished resourced police force. In fact I cannot think of a solution other than hope that whoever is responsible for informing our leaders have access to such information and that they can voice this with other developing countries in those ever important overseas trip they keep taking ya!

One For the Weekend

…days are passing by so fast this week. It seems only yesterday that I wrote something about the weekend…I am going to end this week with one quote and a song lyric ….

“We are the people of the islands and the islands are of us, indivisible, a single whole. The islands are embodied in our songs and our dances and in our total way of life. If we look after the islands they will look after us.

For the island does not say. Do not walk on me.

The yam does not say. Do not roast me.

The fish does not say. Do not catch me.

The water does no say. Do not drink me.

The coconut tree does not say. Do not use me. But they all say. Do not spoil me.”

 

Francis Bugotu (1937-1992)

Former Ambassador of the Solomon Islands to the United Nations

This is very true and incredible quote from one of Solomon Islands prominent leader. I dont actually know when he said this but I accidenlty discovered this quote and it stuck with me for a long time until I have to print it and paste it on my wall…and its still there…for hope…the islands are of us…means so much…can I hear an Amen…Amen!

Okay this guy might come out a good two years ago and shook the music scene, especially reggae music, but his lyric still rang true in my ear…believe it or not I also discovered this guy accidently too. I was babysitting in a house in Honiara lucky enough to own sky satellite TV that accsses MTV and this guy burst out about Youths in a very catchy reggae skank with riff guitar .. the first thing is that he had on this beard and cap that indicated his from the Jewish religion…which is nothing wrong..but then, man! listening to him rhyme ragga like he is Jamaican born is another thing…yep..its Matisyahu..so any ways here is one of his song lyric  that caught me from the beginning and I still have it playing through my head whenever I see some of the issues facing youths today…

Some of them come now

Some of them running

Some of them looking for fun

Some of them looking for a way out of confusion

Some of them don’t know where to be

Some of them don’t know where to go

Some of them trust their instincts

That somethings missing from the show

Some don’t fit society

Their insides are crying low

Some of them teachers squashed the flame

‘fore it had a chance to grow

Some of them embers still glow

Them charcoal hushed and low

Some of them come with hunger supressed

Not fed them feel the death blow, yo

Youth By Matisyahu from The King without A Crown Album…and excellent album by the way.

ok with this I officially sign of this week and hope for better things tomorrow and many many more days to come…

Best Laughter in Town

Currently scientists are taking very seriously the study of laughter and humour. No this is not a joke. They are starting to make research and evidence linking factors of the brain to body chemical gas ( there are many types of gas in the body not only…never mind) with this phenomenon called laughter. Ok why are we talking about this? Because I owed much to the laughter and humour in Honiara as an individual. I am not saying we are the most happiest people on earth, but our humour and laughter are important antidotes to most of our hard realities ( and I really want to reflect this very much in this blog as well). Don’t get me wrong there are moments of heated disagreements that totally displaces humour in our society. But this can always be replayed in some instances with humor injected into the disagreeing moments as a substitute for resolving hurtful situation for  people who find it awkward to openly display any hard felt deep emotions, opinion or affection to random groups of people. It is okay with close families and friends but not erradic in public as this is improper and deviance. Someone who can take up laughter and humour in hard times not during, is very much admired in this society. Times are changing though and not everybody is holding on to this essential skill. A form of art practiced less, probably. This is more visible in Honiara, the only place where most of the diverse cultural groups in the country exist together in a single geographical location.

It goes to lesson that while there are many remedies(new age, technology, fashion, etc)  offered for modern life difficulties and perceived obstacles, simple solutions that gave one calm,  peace and contentment requires no expenive or complex solution. Often the simple things in life make far greater impact. Like laughter and Humour. Cliche. Maybe. But true. Just checking to see if you are checking your selves. or myself too.

5 things that makes me Hot in Honiara

Angry hot that is. Every city or town in the world has some kind of reputations for frustration, maybe slow train service, overcrowded streets,etc. In Honiara there are daily obstacles that you can’t do anything about other than pull your hair and swear alot. Here are the 5 things that just makes me hot in Honiara:

5. Frequent Electricity and Water cut.

Not because of overdue bills but because something is always wrong with the machines! Well that is their excuse. Imagine tapping away on an imporant and due document when the power suddenly cuts off without any warning. Or even worse when you jump into the shower and theres no water.

4. Dramatic Weather Change.

Ok this is something we cannot control but it just makes me mad sometimes. It will be sunny cool for a moment and raining heavily the next minute. Then you have this very long months of extremely hot afternoons and then suddenly dark clouds and rain. We sure dont have four seasons in Honiara but it sure gives you four reasons to brag and complain about the weather when you don’t have anything clever to say.

3. Daily rise of food and service cost.

You walk into a general shop to get food for that day and the price just changed from yesterday. You can guess what that will do to your budget. There seems to be no price control whatsoever and it just makes me hot… and probably depressed as well.

2. Poor mobile phone network

I think it will be fair to say that Honiara, especially Honiara Solomon Islands has the worst mobile phonr network in the world. Sorry Communication company-whom-I-won’t-name-but-every-one-knows-which-one-I-am-talking-about. But there is never a time that the network is ever consistently clear  to talk and hear properly. Worse still is the premature disruption of very important phone calls which is one of the most annoying thing in modern digital communication. I’m not even going to start with the turtle speed of internet here.  Its just bad and overrated.

1. Pot Hole Roads

Ahem. Need to clear throat first. Now where do I even start with this. Roads with pot hole is a main feature of Honiara , some of the roads have been bulleted with pot holes as long as I can remember that its become normal and overlooked and forgotten as part of the town. I am talking about main roads in town and to urban residences here that have been ignored. Yes everybody have raved to the responsible authorities and there seem to be improvement not with tar but just gravels on those roads only during those election campaign years. But then the heavy rain will come again and it will still be the same story. Picture riding in a vehicle bouncing, bouncing..accidentally biting tounge..cars bumper coming off…bouncing , head swinging side to side…ok you get the picture. It just make me hot.