Betel nut yumi tok

Dear Editor,

Thank you for this opportunity, to raise my concern regarding the article of a concern man Vanuatu over the issue of betel nut eaters in Port Vila.
Frankly I do appreciate and respect the concern of this concern man Vanuatu and I can’t dispute some of the things he stated about Honiara such as untidiness because of practice of betel nut chewing in the main street of Honiara.
However, I’m concern that I don’t really see any evidence or proof of betel nut stain in Vila town Main Street, which may reflect the practice of betel nut chewing in the main street of Port Vila, thou there are few plastics, bottles or paper laying on the street.

 Also how would it be possible to expressly state that those people practicing betel nut chewing on the Main Street of Port Vila are Solomon Islands students or Solomon Islanders?
Since I understand that betel nut chewing is not practiced by Solomon Islanders only, but it is practiced by many people from some countries in the Pacific as well, for example PNG people also chew betel nut and believe me or not, some of the Ni-vans also practice betel nut chewing and had planted the betel nut trees themselves.

Moreover, I totally disagree with what the concern man Vanuatu had stated in his letter to the editor in paragraph two, with reference to visitors visiting the country, specifically tourists; “With the major Tourism Development Infrastructure project, if the project completes and we have 1,000 people eating betels whole day long in town, believe me or not, they will change the tidiness of the streets in Port Vila and nomo visitors would like to come to Vanuatu like Honiara.”

For clarification of visitors, what I know about Solomon Islands is that; number of visitors/tourists flowing into the country had declined over the years not because of  Honiara Main Street have betel nut stains or being untidy because of practice of betel nut chewing along the main street of Honiara. But it was decline because of the Country’s experience of recent social unrest/ethnic tension which left the country with security problems which results in the insecure of visitors to visit the country.

Thank you very much.
Blo Wanem