Help yourself first

By Aruna Lolani 12 June 2017, 12:00AM

The sole meaning of life is learning to help yourself first, before you help others.

That is the belief of 35-year-old Niu Anamanu.

He is a farmer from the village of Falefa.

Speaking to the Village Voice, he said one is not capable of helping people if they don’t know how to help themselves.

“How can you help yourself? You work,” he said.

“How can you help others? You work. It’s that simple.

“Growing up, my parents have always pushed me to do little chores like picking up the rubbish, getting a few coconuts or woods from the plantation, cooking and other stuff like.

“So sometimes I get really lazy and complained and then they hit you with lectures and those lectures always come with that phrase of ‘how are you going to live your life if you don’t know what to do?

“How will you know what to do when you have a family of your own?”

“Sometimes it came with a hiding and I think that made me learned my lesson fast.

“You know it was words like that, which I lived by everyday and I have been working hard since then without complaining.

“So even if I don’t have a family of my own yet but I’ve learned my lesson.

“So whatever I get from selling my crops, I share that with my parents as well as my brother and his family.

“If my parents hadn’t taught me the way they did, I know I wouldn’t know how to support myself or anyone else for that matter.

“I would probably be one of those people that their families don’t need to rely on because they are useless.

“Always just putting on nice clothes and walking around without a reason.

Niu does not have any regrets about the life he has now and all thanks to his parents for setting his mind right. 

“We should not belittle the words and the things that are parents are teaching us because they have been through life before us.”

By Aruna Lolani 12 June 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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