Well, Wednesday night, he figured it out and took the deal before the flight on Thursday was possibly forced to not happen. http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=35567
The Hawaiian flights (Thursday and Sunday) are a big deal because it is the only link between American Samoa and the "mainland" (Hawaii). There are no other flights to the US. The mail comes on these flights. It would be a disaster if the flights ended.
Apparently a few years ago, Hawaiian threatened for months that they were not going to make flights after a certain date if the runway was not improved. There were potholes and rocks all over it, making it unsafe.
Presumably the rocks came from the potholes.
Despite plenty of notice, the AS government did nothing. As a result, Hawaiian stopped their flights and there was no contact with the mainland for a couple weeks I guess. No mail; no airfreight; no flight to the US- all because of inaction. This may sound incredible. It is not shocking or surprising to me because that is just the way things work. Ridiculous? Pathetic? Yes, but not unexpected. How did this situation resolve? The governor ordered all AS Govt. employees to report to the airport for several days until the rocks were physically removed by hand (there's a street sweeper on island) and the potholes were filled by the office workers.
As another example of spectacular forethought, there used to be more than one government owned television station broadcasting news, programming from the mainland, rebroadcasts of church, rebroadcasts of flag day celebrations from past years, and rebroadcasts of governor speeches, but now there is just one. Why? Well the tv towers fell apart because, despite warnings to the government that maintenance was required to keep the tower from falling down, nothing was done and the tower fell down. The remaining tower has never received proper maintenance. Shortly after my arrival here, the government was warned that this tower was going to be destroyed without maintenance soon. Nothing was done. Last week, another check was done of the remaining tower and the inspector told ASG that the tower will fall apart probably within 2 months. Nothing is being done to stop it.
But, I guess midair collisions may be averted for a while:
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Sadly, the situation there with the TV towers does not sound that different from the situation here with the Viaduct!
That is spectacular-spectacular. They make our guys look like super geniuses.
By the way, your pothole picture says potholes are from melting snow and ice. That must happen a lot on AS. Are people dumping out their ice on the runway or something?
Yes, there are airport elves here that take ice out on the runway at night. They try to catch them, but they get back in their caves that connect to Savai'i. Very sneaky.
You never know, maybe that TV tower has magic shelves. They kept the house standing for all those years!
Speaking of stupid leaders, here's a quote from the past:
"I made my arguments and went down in flames. History will prove me right." -- Texas Rangers owner George W. Bush after voting against realignment and a new wild-card system during a Major League Baseball owners meeting in September 1993. Bush was the lone dissenter in a 27-1 vote.
If you're keeping score on History vs. Dubbya, I think History is leading 1,347 to 0.
Should I ever complain about the board of supes here in San Francisco, I'll read this post to remind me it could always get worse.
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