Coco Talanoa — Pacific Blog / Page 24

I remember it well, spending three hours at Gatwick Airport in the UK, while the Customs agents tried to locate one of their people who knows what a Samoan passport looks like, to verify the existence of my country. They found an agent finally, who came over, took my passport and declared: "Sorry, this is not Somalian."

The feelings I had at that point ranged from a deep anger to a sense of amusing dismay at the fact that my beloved island Paradise of Samoa in the middle of the South Pacific, was mistaken for a war torn country in Africa.…more

This months featured writer is Tusiata Avia - Impossibly Smart, utterly funny and a true artist with the written word. Sink into her modern retelling of the beloved ‘Sina and the Tuna’ legend- and let us know your thoughts!

Surfing for Sina by Tusiata Avia

For an eel, Tuna wasn’t a bad looking guy, not good looking, but he wasn’t a dog.

No, Tuna was an eel. But Tuna, like most eels, had a hard time with the ladies – what with the smell and the slipperiness and the slime: not qualities most women find appealing. It would take someone special to see beyond that. And, let’s face it – we all care about looks, now, don’t we? Well, we do, don’t we?

Tuna lived his life in the sea of  I.T. If I say he was a genius I wouldn’t be far off the mark. And socially, it suited him. A laptop doesn’t care if you’re a little clammy, a P.C. accepts you just the way you are.…more