Evil UNMASKED!! Sin Costs Us More & Takes us Further

In this post I describe the massive costs that we pay for entertaining evil. The saying within Christendom is that “Sin costs more, lasts longer and takes us much further than we ever expected” when we first engaged with it. I use two examples of evil to show how this saying is validated.

The essence of sin is that prides deceives us and we fall into error. Deception is a description of the error. It is what happens. Pride is the cause. It is the why of evil. Leaving aside the philosophical aspects of where deception came from and parking the matter of the who what and why of evil, I wish to show now not only the consequences of evil, but how to deal with it in a godly, constructive manner.

If we accept that deception is evident in all cases of evil (and I do) then we need to identify where that deception occurs. In a recent post I revealed events surrounding a Samoan businessman struggling with corruption within the Samoan political and business space. This man had attempted to establish a business in Samoa. He had engaged with a [corrupt] politician (the Minister of ICT, Rico Tupai) and had gotten hoodwinked into greasing the palm, so-to-speak in order to facilitate the signing or granting of a lease. Eventually he pulled out of Samoa losing a substantial amount of moolah in the process. This would just be another in a list of failed Palagi in Samoa stories except for several things:

1. Graham Liao was and is an IT professional and his livelihood came and comes from his good reputation;
2. He was a professional and kept the evidence of corruption – which is what you do when you are a professional;
3. The [corrupt] Minister in Samoa didn’t just take the bribes and let the sucker go, he forced Graham’s hand by continuing to defame him long after he had gone;
4. Graham signed an affidavit supporting his side of the story, which is in effect a declaration of war against the crooked Minister;
5. Graham issued his affidavit to the media and I published it online, which was essentially the first couple of shots in this war;
6. The crooked Minister doubled down, and as I understand it went on the local TV to not only lie about it all but to defame Graham again even more with ad hominem attacks and claiming that this was a politically motivated event, which was essentially to shoot several shots back in the war – IMHO not really a wise action when you’re in the wrong;

Samoans really don’t understand how they get themselves in the sh*t like this, but whatever . . . corrupt politicians – lying to save face – Samoa – it’s a repeating story.

So I discussed the whole thing again with Graham and blogged a little more about this idiot Rico and showed the world the reality. As I constantly say, I’m not an activist. Others can do what they want with the truth. I am much more of an analyst and therefore I provide commentary. Social Media as well as the local media will do or will not do what they want about it all. The important thing though is that the truth is there for genuine truthseekers to find.

So I replied again to Graham and CC’d the media as Graham originally included, emboldening added here, not in the original:

My understanding is that Rico appeared on TV1 and addressed your matter denying events as you have shared them and dissing you personally in some way … I wish you well as you put your life back together after this recent sequence of adversity in Samoa.

I have today continued my series of unmasking evil with a post (https://www.dennis.nz/2021/03/corrupt-samoan-minister-of-ict-rico-exposed/) that draws greater attention to the detail supplied in your Affidavit and your general communication of introduction.

In this post I take the position that your affidavit represents truth, contrary to the politician’s claims; that your case does represent corruption whereby a Samoan Minister of the Crown engineered your financial support for personal benefit and that the events you talk about expose the insidious manipulation of Palagi by those in power in Samoa for the reasons of culture. I explain this as greed; essentially racism based on pride.

I totally understand your disillusionment of the Samoan ways as demonstrated by this crooked representative but encourage you to view this claimed cultural norm as simply a manifestation of the evil that besets all of mankind. Yes, we all know that it is corruption and that it has a high cost.

Thank you for entrusting me with dissemination of your story.

Now I can tell you that there is no way that Rico ever, (when he first chose to present the Samoan culture as requiring Graham Liao to ‘assist him with his personal financial matters’) in his wildest dreams (actually nightmares) would ever have thought that within a year or two he would have to tackle a fearless blogger on the other side of the world on his national TV. Never! And that he would be facing charges of corruption having shamed the entire Samoan culture over presenting his personal greed as a cultural norm!

Incredible . . .

The point is not here that a politician is shamed, or that he may lose his job over it all. Who cares whether Samoa has a corrupt ICT Minister or not, the point is that Rico was deceived by his pride a couple of years ago into lying to an innocent Palagi businessman thinking that he would get away with it. He never saw, nor could he perceive that there would be huge costs to his career and reputation.

All that had to happen was for one person to stand up and say, “No!” First Graham did, then I did. Please now look back at the words I used in my email to Graham and understand the significance of them:

I wish you well as you put your life back together after this recent sequence of adversity in Samoa.

Why does an outsider like me have to explain that “… corruption .. has a high cost“? Does Rico not know and understand this?

Think then how it has to take a mere blogger in New Zealand to support one professional Aussie businessman over the truth:

In this post I take the position that your affidavit represents truth, contrary to the politician’s claims; that your case does represent corruption whereby a Samoan Minister of the Crown engineered your financial support for personal benefit and that the events you talk about expose the insidious manipulation of Palagi by those in power in Samoa for the reasons of culture.

Does a supposedly intelligent politician in Samoa not understand this? Does he really need me to explain it to him? Apparently so:

I explain this as greed; essentially racism based on pride.

Now not only does the evil perpetuated by this fool Rico affect his own life it has the potential to destroy others’. This is the really sad thing about evil, it is often the innocent who end up paying the price of others’ evil. Do you ever think that Graham will employ 49 people again in Samoa? Or that he would ever recommend Samoa as an investment opportunity to other wealthy investors? Nah!

Please read this again from the previous post because it is important:

See this? This is an ex Attorney General of Samoa, a lawyer representing an Australian investor, explaining that unless this fool gets his act together Samoa would lose “for example assembling of motor bikes in Samoa and exporting them, flights from Samoa to China, data centre, etc.”

Holy Schmoley! Did Rico ever count the cost of p*ssing off this Palagi by lying and being greedy? Nope!

I’ve spoken to Graham about this loss to Samoa and he has told me of others too that he knows of who pulled out (or whom this fool had an argument with over misappropriation of money and eventually left too). So see how I phrased this frustration with corruption:

I totally understand your disillusionment of the Samoan ways as demonstrated by this crooked representative but encourage you to view this claimed cultural norm as simply a manifestation of the evil that besets all of mankind. Yes, we all know that it is corruption and that it has a high cost.

Do you see that? This evil is NOT presented here as uniquely Samoan. It is NOT a political statement. It is NOT generated from a position of hurt, nor loss, nor pain . . . It is a general evil with the Samoan cultural flavour. I understand intimately how evil manifests in the Samoan culture, hence this manner of blogging.

So I conclude with a personal appreciation to Graham for entrusting me, personally to share his story:

Thank you for entrusting me with dissemination of your story.

This is vitally important because when a man speaks the truth, especially in the face of liars like Rico and systemic evil (such as demonstrated by the crooked Samoan political system) it is truly an honour to share it.

The above example shows the huge consequences of evil in a Samoan context. The global handling of evil on a global scale though is a big step up. The world population is nigh on 8 billion people – Samoa is less than 200k on-island. That’s a massive step! Even if this crook’s conduct has affected the entire population you’d have to take Samoa’s entire population and multiply it 40,000 times . . . yes forty thousand times (200k x 40k = 8b) to see how important Samoa is in the global scheme of things!

Principles though do not change. We must first divine the truth. I have. We must then confront evil. Graham has. I have. Then we wait for the perpetrator to do the honourable thing (they hardly ever do) and all the while be ready for reconciliation based on this truth and repentance. If Rico ever comes to me for forgiveness, I will suggest that he speaks to his boss first. Seeing as I am fearless to deal with the truth, Tui can never face me again with a straight face, so this will never happen! Them’s the breaks though aren’t they!

Evil goes right back ‘through the PM’s pants’ into the past, right back to the Fall in the Garden of Eden. Got it?

So the consequences of evil in a global sense belie human comprehension. When children are stolen, traded, sexually abused, murdered, chopped up, drunken and eaten (and they are, in the millions annually) this is just the consequences of sin – the sickening reality of ignoring the Lord.

Rico . . . your life might seem like the most important thing in the world to try to protect at present but it (just like your crooked boss, and colleagues trying to fight for your combined political survival) isn’t even a drop in the ocean. Take my advice along with your fancy outfit, your ula fala, Chiefs rugby team and scurry away into the banana plantation in shame. You disgrace the good name of the Samoans that do things with honour.

Graham . . . I know the consequences of Rico Tupai’s BS for you are huge but you can ignore him now. Rico is nothing more than a loser and a crook and all his lies are just a big, fat nothing-burger! If he dares to pop his head up again, I’ll whack it like I do the other moles.

Now truth by itself can be brutal. It needs a balance with love in order to be godly. In future posts I will share how genuine reconciliation is necessary to achieve that balance. Surprisingly I will discuss how this obvious overt corruption in Samoa belies an important lesson that the Samoans use to deal with the consequences of evil – how the formal reconciliation process known locally as the ifoga is indeed at its core a godly one.