Get your facts straight!
It was supposed to be a proud moment, when Tuilaepa stood in front of the Copenhagen Climate Talks six months ago to address the leaders of the world. Naturally my heart swelled as our tiny little nation took the limelight, but as Tuilaepa started attributing the tsunami to climate change, all of a sudden my pride at being the only Samoan journalist to witness the speech quickly turned into a sense of embarrasment mixed with a deep urge to run from the main meeting hall and drown my sorrows in a strong Dutch Whisky in the Bella Centre bar.
My reaction or contemplation of one at least, was part shock part amused, I mean, the speech must have been prepared by a well informed individual who hopefully had well informed individuals advising him or her. Point being, what the hell was the speech writer thinking? This wasn't some half hearted Samoan meeting at the Development Bank or a bunch of non-English speakers let alone, non-specialists. You can't put together more well informed, more Scientific, more influential, more English speaking people from different nations in one room, even if you tried, that was it, Copenhagen was the site, no more and no less.
So my word of advice to the speech writers, get your facts straight before you decide to embarrass a nation on the world stage. Really!