Audio: Selwyn Manning At the Tongan King's Funeral

Tuesday, 19 September 2006, 2:11 pm
Article: Kevin List

Scoop Audio: Selwyn Manning At the Tongan King's Funeral

Scoop Co-editor Selwyn Manning was up at an ungodly hour this morning in order that he could fly to Tonga with the Prime Minister and various media and farewell the recently departed King of Tonga, King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV. Mr Manning checked in briefly with Scoop Wellington in order that he could paint a verbal picture of the proceedings.

Among the pomp and circumstance of the King's funeral Mr Manning was impressed that various New Zealand media were attempting to fit in with Tongan protocol among those who had made a special effort was TVNZ's Mark Sainsbury.

Following the funeral Mr Manning will be attempting to gauge the feeling of some of the 90% of Tongan people who have very limited democratic rights in the South Pacific Kingdom. Pictures and a video of the funeral will follow the return of the NZ media contingent and PM later tonight.

Listen To a description of the Tongan King's funeral by Scoop Co-editor Selwyn Manning

Scoop Streaming Audio: Selwyn Manning Reports From The Tongan King's Funeral

Click here to download file (mp3)

ENDS

Top Scoops Headlines

COMMENT > >

Hadyn Green: TPP: This Is A Fight Worth Joining

Trade negotiations are tense affairs. There are always interested parties trying to get your ear, long nights spent arguing small but technical points, and the invisible but ever present political pressure. So it was in Brunei late August where the latest ... More>>

Ramzy Baroud: Giap, Wallace, And The Never-Ending Battle For Freedom

'Nothing is more precious than freedom,” is quoted as being attributed to Vo Nguyen Giap, a Vietnamese General that led his country through two liberation wars. The first was against French colonialists, the second against the Americans. More>>

John Chuckman: The Poor People Of Egypt

How is it that the people of Egypt, after a successful revolution against the repressive 30-year government of President Mubarak, a revolution involving the hopes and fears of millions and a substantial loss of life, have ended up almost precisely where ... More>>

Harvey Wasserman: 14,000 Hiroshimas Still Swing In The Fukushima Air...

Japan’s pro-nuclear Prime Minister has finally asked for global help at Fukushima. It probably hasn’t hurt that more than 100,000 people have signed petitionscalling for a global takeover; more than 8,000 have viewed a new YouTube on it. More>>

Suzan Mazur: A Fake? -- "America's Souvenir To The Iranian People"

The big thaw in US - Iran relations has been compromised. The world's leading authority on antiquities fakes -- long-time Metropolitan Museum of Art Ancient Near East expert Oscar White Muscarella, who excavated throughout the 1960s in Iran -- has told me ... More>>

William Blum: Anti-Empire Report #121: The War On Terrorism … Or Whatever

Pity the poor American who wants to be a good citizen, wants to understand the world and his country’s role in it, wants to believe in the War on Terrorism, wants to believe that his government seeks to do good … What is he to make of all this? More>>

Franklin Lamb: Four Decades After The Tishrin: War Self-Delusion

Is Damascus this weekend and many other areas of Syria, citizens will celebrate the accomplishments of the October 6, 1973 19 day war launched jointly by Syrian and Egyptian armies to regain Arab land illegally occupied in 1967. More>>