State of the nation? August 31, 2007
Posted by Ricardo Morris in Odds & Ends, Politics.2 comments
Fiji Television had a gem of an item on Thursday’s news. It broadcast images of the national flag flying upside down atop the Home Affairs Building – from where interim Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama excises his military-backed power.
The station said the flag flew upside down for two-and-a-half hours. 1 National News said: “Call it a sign of the times or perhaps, just a bad mistake.” Either way, officials only realised the mistake when Fiji TV called them to let them know – and then filmed a soldier as he corrected it.
Interestingly, Bainimarama, being a naval man would understand immediately the significance of an upside down flag. In early days, an upside down ensign was generally one way to signal that a ship was in distress.
Discontent at the grassroots August 24, 2007
Posted by Ricardo Morris in Living in Fiji, Media.2 comments
Viliame Gavoka, the former chief executive of the Fiji Visitor’s Bureau, articulates in a letter to the Fiji Times today, the feelings of ordinary people about the political and economic direction our country is headed in.
His letter was about the interim regime’s failure to fully fund the Tourism Action Group (TAG), which is trying to staunch the negative impact of the military coup on that sector on which much of Fiji’s economic health depends.
To illustrate the frustrations at the grassroots at the state of our country he wrote:
“On Tuesday, after an absence of many years, I attended a meeting of the tikina council in my district of Cuvu expecting the usual vanua-type (agreeable) tone to the proceedings.
I was wrong and totally unprepared when one of the elders launched a diatribe against the state of affairs in Fiji, especially the economy and tourism.
The emotion and power behind his words together with the currency of his thoughts surprised and encouraged me.
Surprised that this elder, whose interest hitherto confined to matters of the tikina could articulate so well and with passion, issues of national interest.
And as I looked around the hall, it was obvious that what he said represented the view of everyone in the meeting.
It struck me that while the Fijian people may have acquiesced silently to the state of things in Fiji, no one should take their silence as acceptance.”
On the subject of letters to the editor, two other letters in today’s Fiji Times deserves a mention.
A Surendra Kumar of Nadi, in a letter titled “Bunch of Jokers”, referring to Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama’s “joke” in giving a fabricated election date last week, asks: “Isn’t it possible we put these jokers on the stage? They will definitely beat the Bounty Bubbly show and bring thousands of dollars to boost Fiji’s economy.”
And this one titled “One for the boy” from Allan Loosley of Tavua about army spokesman Major Neumi Leweni’s diplomatic posting to Beijing, should get the gang at the army camp all hot and bothered:
“We all know Neumi Leweni’s transfer to Beijing is a ‘job for the boy’, something this so-called government promised to stamp out.
Due to their cultural isolation from the rest of the world for centuries, most Chinese cannot speak a foreign language and probably one or two can speak Fijian.
Off goes our steadfast major into the valley of billions with his spoken English skills, expecting to make himself understood. I wonder how the Chinese will translate his continual ‘errs’?”
I wonder…
Apologies to Miss Unwired August 24, 2007
Posted by Ricardo Morris in Corrections & Clarifications.1 comment so far
Following a post on my Saturday night adventure at the Hibiscus Festival and a mention of one of the contestants, Miss Unwired Joann Whippy, trying to get into Traps, John Pollock, Unwired Fiji boss, clarified in a comment and to me personally that she was NOT trying to get into the nightclub as I alleged.
So in the interest of fairness, I retract the sentence at the bottom of this post referring to Miss Unwired and apologise for the mistake.
I had spotted somebody who was the spitting image of Miss Whippy but I was wrong. The full response from Pollock, explaining Miss Unwired’s location on the night in question is here. Below is an extract.
As her sponsor we were extremely concerned with your comments in the article and have since investigated your claim. At the time you were suggesting she was trying to get into Traps she was in fact with a member of the Hibiscus committee in her hotel room after attending the event at Albert Park; this can be confirmed.
These girls commit their time and raise money for charity at their own expense and for a worthy cause. Your cruel attack is unwarranted and should be followed by a retraction and apology.
The biggest joker of them all August 20, 2007
Posted by Ricardo Morris in Media, Politics.add a comment
He may have thought it to be a funny joke, but self-imposed prime minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama’s gaff in giving an election date to journalists, has backfired.
Last week, after persistent questioning by journalists, he said Fiji would go to the polls at 10am on March 13, 2009, a Black Friday. The date was duly reported by Fiji Times Online the same day. (See earlier Dateline post here.)
But nobody in Bainimarama’s regime was willing to discuss the date the next day, signalling something was amiss.
One unnamed senior government minister told Radio Australia’s Samisoni Pareti that Bainimarama was probably joking because he was constantly being pestered by journalists for a poll date.
Soon enough the man himself confirmed that he was only pulling journalists’ legs. It was a joke, Bainimarama told Radio Fiji Gold News on Thursday.
He said he was not serious when he replied to a Fiji Times reporter’s questions about the election date.
Radio Fiji reported on its website: “He said he was tired of the media asking the same question over and over again in relation to the elections dates. Commodore Bainimarama said he has already stated the election date will be officially announced when the Interim Government is good and ready to do so.”
But his joke has now raised questions about the credibility of the regime’s commitment to democratic elections.
Today, the Fiji Times reports that Shamima Ali, Fiji’s only remaining human rights commissioner (apart from Dr Shaista Shameem), says the comment shows the regime is led by jokers.
“This is the country’s future we’re talking about and if people turn it into a joke then it is sad,” she said.
“And for people who have done it by the gun and reduced it to ridicule, it is really, really sad,” she told the Fiji Times.
Dr Brij Lal, one of three architects of the 1997 Constitution, is also quoted by the Fiji Times as saying “a frivilous joke like this” was “most unfortunate and possibly counterproductive to the national interest in the long run.”
“Many people are already sceptical of the stated aims and ambitions of the interim administration. It simply confirms their scepticism.”
Fiji Times Online, which was the first to report the date, in a follow-up on Saturday said the comment from the country’s leader was taken seriously since the nation was anxious to know when elections would be held.
“He is the leader of the nation and what he says, especially something of such national importance, makes the news,” Fiji Times Online said.
Interim Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says Bainimarama “spoke out of context”, the Fiji Sun reports today.
“He spoke out of context because of the constant harassment by the media,” he told the Sun, in its front page story on the outcry from political parties over Bainimarama’s joke.
“The National Federation Party said if the prime minister could not be serious about something as big as general elections, ‘what could he be serious about?'” the Sun‘s Charlotte Peters wrote.
Unfortunately, as this episode has taught journalists – and the world at large – not everything Bainimarama says can be taken seriously.
Mud, BBQ, rides and drunks…It must be Hibiscus August 19, 2007
Posted by Ricardo Morris in Life in Suva.10 comments
Suva‘s annual Hibiscus Festival will not be Hibiscus if it doesn’t rain and there’s no mud.
So I’m happy to report that it most definitely is Hibiscus week with Albert Park now a slushpit through which happy children drag along their unimpressed parents.
I half-heartedly went with my friend and nephew on Saturday night, knowing full well the condition of the ground but tried to take in the sights and sounds as best I could.
While I was hungry, the nephew insisted on first having a go on one of those rides – this one was locally-made “motorbikes” going around endlessly on a fixed track.
Several rides were not operating, including Ferris Wheels and some children’s rides. It was probably because there were not enough people to ride them.
And it was apparent from the turnout. Although a good number of people flooded the festival, it was unlike anything seen in previous years, especially on the first Saturday of the festival.
But the rides that were operating were not doing too badly. One Ferris Wheel operator had a line of eager patrons stretching some 30 metres – and this was going on to midnight.
The line could probably be explained by the long and loud screams coming from those on the ride which seemed to be going dangerously fast. Young and old wanted a piece of the thrill.
Earlier in the evening, at about 7pm, the famous Octopus ride broke down with riders still sitting in it. After some 15 minutes of tinkering with the engine and after re-filling the fuel tank, the mechanics managed to make it slowly spin around so the stranded passengers could get off.
With the intermittent showers of rain threatening to put us off, the three of us decided to pay ($5 per adult) to sit in the pavillion along with about less than 100 people to watch the entertainment.
Incidentally, the Kingsford Smith Pavillion, has now apparently been renamed the “King Or Smith P Villion” on account of several long-fallen off letters.
At one point during the entertainment, the queens arrived, parading across the sandy patch in front of the stage to a marquee on the other side sponsored by Fijilive.
Some waved to the handful of people seated in the pavillion, while most were just worried about their high-heels getting stuck in the sand.
They were followed a while later by the teen queens, the lady queens and then the Hibiscus kings, most of whom just grinned their way across the pitch, apart from one who waved and blew kisses enthusiastically to the audience.
The entertainment was okay. It could have been better but we must make do I suppose. Aiyub Ali Khan, who was touted by the MC as the “best” karaoke singer in Fiji brought laughter and hoots with his off-tune rendition of UB 40’s Reasons. His saving grace was perhaps a cross-dressing dancer called “Sanjata”, or something like that, who put Bollywood to shame, twisting and arching across the stage.
The Shangri-La Fijian Resort’s dancers were awesome. Their antics with fire sticks and acrobatic moves brought claps and cheers.
Most of those who braved the fitful weather to visit Albert Park congregated along Southern Cross Road. This is where most of the food stalls are located selling everything from Chinese to lovo to BBQ and hotdogs, hamburgers, BBQ and kebabs, curry – and yet more BBQ.
If the food stalls are anything to go by, BBQ is the all-time favourite food of Fiji Islanders.
During the entertainment, the nephew kept nagging for a ride on the Ferris Wheel, but the rain and mud was our excuse to remain in the pavillion. We finally decided to move well after 11pm.
We bought tickets for what seemed like a harmless enough Ferris Wheel. However, I changed my mind when the ride began to slowly speed up. I couldn’t help wondering if the lock on the bar holding us into our basket would not give way, especially when it felt like I was being flung into the night sky every time the basket neared the top.
Mercifully, just when I thought I would throw up, the ride began slowing down and we were let off.
Nearing midnight we walked to the Coca Cola booth on the far side of the park where an attempt was being made to keep the mainly young crowd dancing. But a couple of drunk guys shaking atop the enclosure improvised from old bottle crates threatened to collapse the structure and they were kindly ask to climb down. One did but another acted the goat while coming down until he was pushed by someone on the ground and ended up injuring his leg after falling badly.
This was when we decided to call it a night.
Walking back to the centre of town to catch a taxi home, we ran the gauntlet of drunks – young, old, school kids, and yes, Hibiscus queens (well Miss Unwired at least) trying to get into Traps. [UPDATE: Miss Unwired was NOT trying to get into Traps as I alleged. See retraction here.]
There were at least a thousand people on the streets all trying to get home, to the next party or just hanging around in dark spots.
A lot of Queen Victoria School students were also out celebrating – at Albert Park and probably in the clubs as well – their 7-5 win over arch-rivals Ratu Kadavulevu School for the Deans Rugby trophy.
On a final note, a story on Fiji Times Online on Saturday seemed a bit strange, given that it rained intermittently – and heavily at times throughout the day – at least in my corner of Suva.
It was probably fine in town during the float parade around midday, but at that time it was raining where I was just five minutes from the centre of town, so I’m not sure where the writer (or editor) got this analysis from:
“With today’s fine, sunny weather people will flock to the ground in droves to enjoy the food, drinks and rides.”
Fine, sunny weather?
Well that’s Fiji for you. Sometimes things don’t make sense but you just go with the flow.
Living in Fiji website hacked August 18, 2007
Posted by Ricardo Morris in Media.1 comment so far
Logging on to the Living in Fiji magazine website today to check if some articles I had written for the first issue last year were online, I was redirected to another page.
The site http://www.livinginfiji.com has been taken down by what appears to be Turkish hackers under the pseudonym “Serious Error”. After doing a rough online translation of the Turkish text on the page, it appears the hackers have left patriotic pro-military messages on the website. (See the screen grab below)
There’s also a nearly five-minute long YouTube video embedded in the page that shows Turkish military exercises set to Turkish rap.
Living in Fiji, a quarterly publication, bills itself as the only upmarket lifestyle magazine in Fiji.
I’m not sure if the publishers, Art & Soul Ltd, know about the hacking but I will contact them and see what they say.
UPDATE (August 20): Living in Fiji publisher Rishi Ram responds to an email: “We are in the process of moving servers because of the hack. Hopefully Connect (Fiji’s main ISP) can provide us with a more secure server.”
Cannibals survive for over 100 years? August 18, 2007
Posted by Ricardo Morris in Media.2 comments
At least that’s what the Fiji Times implied in the lead and second paragraphs of an article about the ancestors of a Papua New Guinea tribe that ate four Fijian missionaries.
Sorry for killing, eating your priests
Friday, August 17, 2007
A GROUP of people who killed and ate Fijian missionaries more than a century ago have traditionally apologised to the people of Fiji.
After 132 years, the people of New East Britain in Papua New Guinea have asked Fiji, in particular the families of the four missionaries, for forgiveness.
Black Friday poll date for Fiji August 16, 2007
Posted by Ricardo Morris in Politics.34 comments
Commodore Frank Bainimarama, Fiji’s army chief and self-imposed prime minister, has out of the blue named a date for when Fiji is to hold general elections – and it’s a Black Friday.
Bainimarama told journalists on Wednesday, the country is to go to the polls on March 13, 2009 at 10am.
But perhaps not taking him seriously, the mainstream media did not play it up much. The Fiji Times reported it on page five today, while a rugby story occupied the front page.
Bainimarama’s sudden preciseness was lost on most of the media – only the Fiji Times reported his comments, until it was picked up by the radio stations this morning.
Bainimarama has previously been vague on an exact date for an election. After the joint Pacific Islands Forum-Fiji Working Group on the return to democracy released its report in June suggesting Fiji could go to elections as early as the last quarter of 2008 or the first quarter of 2009, Bainimarama only went so far as to say the interim regime had accepted the report “in principle.”
Apart from the little omen of elections being scheduled for a Black Friday (and as far as my young mind can recall, Fiji’s elections have begun on a Saturday), a constitutional expert has labelled the date as unrealistic.
Dr Brij Lal, one of the framers of the 1997 Constitution, expressed “deep doubts” to Radio Australia because the mechanisms for an election had not even got under way, including the filling of the top posts.
He said the Supervisor of Elections was yet to be appointed, a census has not been conducted, the electoral roll not yet updated, and the Constitutional Boundaries Commission not appointed.
The national census will be held in mid-September, while no word has come yet of the other electoral appointments.
Lal said while Bainimarama has continually spoken of the “pre-conditions” before an election could be held, including the completion of his “clean-up campaign” of the government bureaucracy, and the Fiji Labour Party saying last week an election was not a priority, he was baffled by the sudden announcement.
“I think there is something else that is driving the interim administration,” Lal told Radio Australia.
Perhaps that something else is pressure on the cash-strapped regime to commit to a date.
In March, Fiji’s military-led regime promised the European Union it would make a firm commitment to a return to democracy in return for promised aid amounting to some 200m euros (about $430m at today’s rates) for the sugar industry and other areas.
Semesa Karavaki, the sacked supervisor of elections, told the Fiji Times Online there was more to an election than the announcement of a date.
If Fiji does indeed to the polls on March 13, 2009 it will be two years and three months since Bainimarama seized power on December 5, 2006.
The Hibiscus Festival jinx August 16, 2007
Posted by Ricardo Morris in Life in Suva.2 comments
It seems the capital city’s flagship carnival, the Hibiscus Festival, is jinxed by bad weather.
The carnival was opened earlier than scheduled on Wednesday to cater for the school children who had their two-week holiday brought forward because of the Fijian Teachers’ Association strike.
But the weather was not fooled. A hallmark of the annual week-long festival has been bleak weather that descends on Suva at the start of the festival and always seems to lift once it’s over.
So true to form, the clouds gathered over Suva on Wednesday and today poured out of the heavens.
I chatted briefly today with Leibling Marlow (nee Hoeflich), the first Miss Hibiscus, and she rolled her eyes when I asked her what she thought of the weather.
When she was crowned as the first Hibiscus queen in December 1956, it rained during the two-day affair. They changed the dates several times, she said, moving it to January and eventually settling on August. The atrocious weather followed the festival.
She suggested the organising committee take a tabua to the Tui Suva and ask him to at least open the festival or play some part in it.
The jinx, she feels, will be lifted if they traditionally approach the senior chief on whose traditional lands the city of Suva stands.
She says as far as she remembers, the Tui Suva, has never been approached to participate in the nation’s best known carnival.
In an interview I had with Marlow last year, she lamented the lost glory of the festival. In the early years of the festival, most businesses in Suva would decorate their show windows intricately and glamourously, floats would be big and imaginative and there was a genuine all-round feeling of festivity.
Not so anymore. Fifty-one years after the first carnival was organised by the Junior Chamber of Commerce, it’s become an institution but also a lacklustre one.
Dateline Dispatch 