Anger over mail

An 80-year-old German man who has lived in Samoa for more than 40 years is fed up.

So much so, Josef Baukes, wonders if the government should continue to invest taxpayers money in the Samoa Post Office’s mail delivery system.

Mr. Baukes told the Samoa Observer he has lost count of the mail he sent to his family in Berlin, Germany, which never arrived, and likewise for mail coming in for him.

Even with the costly seal he has signed and paid to get his mail on the “priority” list, he said it is never delivered, nor received.

“I find it unbelievable that these mails never arrive in Germany and the same with mail being sent from my family,” said Mr. Baukes.

“We are in a modern world where everything goes forward, and yet for the hundredth time my mail still hasn’t arrived. Samoa is going backwards.”

Contacted for a comment yesterday, Samoa Post Chief Executive Officer, Tupe Ualolo Nun Yan, said she was not aware of Mr. Baukes’ case.

However, she invited him to provide his mail details so she can look into it.

For Mr. Baukes, he said the hassles is the last thing he needed.

“The envelope clearly states ‘priority’,” he said. “I have paid almost a hundred tala to make sure this one gets there on time. Again the tracking number doesn’t work and I have no idea where it has landed.”

Mr. Baukes said this has been going on for years. “What worries me is that some of these documents are very important documents,” he said. “When we give them these documents to send, we are entrusting them in their care and yet they don’t seem to look after it.

“Even mail from my wife’s family in San Francisco, it never arrived.”

Mr. Baukes suspects that something is not right in the system.

The father pointed out he had gone down the office four times, asking questions and being told they could not track the mail.

When he was given this explanation, he recalled that some 15 years ago, an employee of his in Australia told a story of his father’s career as a mail man.

“This employee told me his father was a mail man and in most cases they would open up mail from certain countries [which was] never delivered,” remembered Mr. Baukes. “It never really occurred to me then but I had told him that what his father was doing was very dishonest.” On that note, Mr. Baukes questioned whether it could be the same case with the mail going in and out of Samoa. “I want to know if there is any security in place for the system,” he asked. “There are certain people who say not to trust the air mail, but it shouldn’t be the case.

“It’s unnecessary to question whether my mail will arrive or not. This is a body that keeps the world connected and there should be security in place.”

He added that if there is a sabotage group that interrupts mail service, “then it’s absolutely disgusting”. “I think that the (mail) system in Samoa is not good enough. If they find faults in a particular carrier then why can’t they change it to ensure there is little or no interruption?”