Letter: Restore real competition!

Dear Editor, Re: Article dated 7 August 2024, page 3, Te Maeva Nui Awards Night.

The phrase “everyone is a winner” is simply a lie. The Cook Islands dance team trains long and hard, often spending large sums of money on costumes, only to be told at awards night: “Well, you didn’t actually win because everyone is a winner.”

This concept promoted by the Te Maeva Nui Committee is out of step with reality. Many of us who watch Te Maeva Nui have never liked this recently introduced concept. It is a lie, unnatural and against human nature.

Looking back on those days, there was always one team that stood out. It is in our human nature to want to see the overall winner, so to find out which team was the best dance team in the Cook Islands that year. Competition is good; it makes people want to improve.

Just as we can have a winning team at a sporting event, or a winning party at an election, why can’t we have a winning team during Te Maeva Nui? Should we start scoring these events like we did during Te Maeva Nui, so that we don’t know who the real winners are in sport, or who will form the new government?

It is natural to want to praise the winner, or to brag about being the winner, so what right does the Ministry of Cultural Development (MOCD) have to suppress our natural human desire to win or to see others win?

Here’s why: Te Maeva Nui committee is concerned that the judges they have chosen will be criticized for their decisions. Get your act together! Not everyone will be happy with the end result, so what? That’s life.

What doesn’t help is tiptoeing around the public and the dance teams, and having people work hard every year for undeserved awards. MOCD, like any government agency, is always on the front line, so get used to the occasional setback. Competition is a means of preparing people for life in the real world.

Remember the days when at the end of the awards ceremony a bunch of people stood up and held up their big trophy in celebration while they danced and were cheered on? Back then the grand prize money was usually sponsored by Air New Zealand. Today the awards ceremony is boring, fake and the prizes are mediocre, which is why there are always empty seats on the night.

It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee of the Te Maeva Nui Organising Committee. Te Maeva Nui needs a little spice. Humans compete for everything in life: we compete for education, we compete for spouses, we compete for jobs. That’s life! Some will win, some will lose. That’s life!

Bring back some real competition and maybe your award ceremonies won’t be so boring and people won’t be reluctant to attend.

PS – Don’t say “competition” is not in the Cook Islands nature. Remember coconut tree climbing, pua throwing, teka throwing, vaka ama races and rore?

The Great Unmarked

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