I have been following, with increasing fascination, the political machinations playing out in Samoa. If this was a country of Euro white people, it would be all over the international news. 

Samoa has been ruled by one party for decades. The current leader has declared he is 'ordained by god' to remain in power, and he has been clinging on with a tenacity that would put Donald Trump to shame. Normally this would be a given, as his party has won a healthy majority at every election. Except the last one. 

To everyone's utter astonishment, an upstart protest party headed by a woman, no less (never been one in charge there), managed to beat the incumbents with a parliamentary majority of precisely 1! According to Samoan law, this means they get to form the next government. The current ordained by god leader doesn't like that at all, and has been pulling out all the stops to try to find a way around it. His ploys strongly remind me of the Republicans in America. He tried to shift the majority in his favour by using an obscure law meant to benefit female politicians but this was struck down by the supreme court.

Then the official Head of State, a mainly ceremonial figure but with some powers, mysteriously decided to change a previous ruling he had made by issuing a statement that he would not summon the newly-elected Parliament, which is necessary to form the new government. He made this statement late on Saturday, which raises the suspicion that it was calculated to prevent any legal counter-measures in this conservatively religious country, where practically everything stops on Sunday.

But the other party was expecting something like this and was prepared for it, making an emergency appeal to the supreme court, which convened with the chief justice and two other justices today, in spite of it being a Sunday. They just announced their decision, which is that the call convening parliament was legal, and the one changing that was not. As of this moment, parliament will sit tomorrow and the new government (and first-ever female leader) will be installed. Of course the question is what those being displaced will do. In view of their actions up to now, they may not be willing to bow out gracefully.

I think this is an important story that deserves more coverage, though it has had some here. I like the David and Goliath aspect to it. I also find it uncomfortably similar to the struggles going on in the USA. I am rooting for the little guys (and gal!) and I hope they prevail. I should point out that I am not Samoan and have no links to that country and my summary of events may or may not be entirely correct. I just like the idea of what seems to be occurring there and I hope this turns out to be a rare case of democracy winning out against the odds.