The alleged assassination trial was adjourned yesterday due to a key witness illness. It should resume today.
Government is looking for a chairperson for the Political Dialogue Forum who will not be "biased towards anyone." More than 200 applications have been received from NGOs, the Churches, Chiefs and the population seeking a seat in the Dialogue Forum.The agenda and the time of the Forum has yet to be decided.
Rotuma airport expected to be completed in 2012.
Fijian landowners have been promised better returns when the Mahogany Decree is in place.
It is rumoured that 20 former parliamentarians have lost their parliamentary pensions.
Former judge Isikeli Mataitoga presented his credentials as Fiji's first Ambassador to the Russian Federation at the Kremlin in Moscow last Thursday.
Roving ambassador and high commissioner to the Pacific Islands, Ratu Tui Cavuilati, will present his credentials to the President of the Federated States of Micronesia – tomorrow. Ratu Tui will be exploring trade opportunities for agriculture, labour export and tourism. The North Pacific trip is part of Fiji’s renewed foreign affairs policy, aimed at garnering support from traditional allies and expanding or establishing new bilateral relationships.
Some 232,680 Australians visited in 2009, Fiji's toughest year.
State warn fish thieves.
PM Bainimarama has urged coasal Kadavu villagers whose seawalls have broken to look for other sites inland.
PM Bainimarama has urged coasal Kadavu villagers whose seawalls have broken to look for other sites inland.
It is sloppy, misleading and unfair reporting that uses the term "Asian" so loosely, especially when reporting crime, and it occurs in NZ as well as Fiji. If the Fiji Times means Chinese, say so. Asians account for nearly one-half of humankind and include Turks, Uzbeks, Iraqi, Indians, Pakistani, Koreans and many others who are Asian but definitely not Chinese.
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Why Short Briefs?
One reason for starting Short Briefs is that I can write them without having to sit at the computer for too long. The doctor has diagnosed arthritis of the lower spine. It should get better but for now sitting, standing, walking and even lying down cause some pain. I'll try to publish daily Short Briefs and 3-4 articles a week on major events and issues, but if you think of something I should cover, and haven't, why not submit your own writings for consideration? The condition could be greatly eased with some yaqona but the Maori only managed to bring kawakawa to NZ which is okay for stomach upsets, boils and intoxicating small fish, but not for human consumption.
11 comments:
Fiji Times headline “Nine In Custody”
“Police in joint operation with officers from the Fiji Immigration department have arrested nine Asians”
You claim that:
“It is sloppy, misleading and unfair reporting that uses the term "Asian" so loosely, especially when reporting crime, and it occurs in NZ as well as Fiji. If the Fiji Times means Chinese, say so.”
Mr Walsh – The Fiji Times did so, in the very next line:
“The nine, comprising of seven Chinese females and two Chinese males…”
You have criticised The Fiji Times in the past, often with great justification. However your criticism of this particular report as being ‘sloppy, misleading and unfair’ because it referred to Asians in one sentence is itself, misleading and unfair.
I can only assume that you, who have usually displayed an admirable sense of (occasionally biased) balance in the past, were suffering from your arthritis and were slightly more ill disposed towards the FT than usual. My sympathy and I hope you experience better health very soon.
Hope you recover from your illness soon Croz. Keep up the good work in supporting Fiji and its goals. We will see it thru for sure.
Jon, It's the headings that do half the damage. I wasn't attacking the Fiji Times only. Why be unnecessarily vague in the heading, leaving the main article to spell out which Asians?
In NZ the media often use "Pacific Islanders" (or "Polynesians" to also include Maori), usually in relation to crimes, when journalists know it was Samoans or Tongans, or some others? This blames all Islands people and confirms negative stereotyes harmly to good race relations.
But thanks for letting me off the hook with your arthritis explanation. And vinaka to you and Joe for your best wishes.
Wish you good health Croz.
I always understood from my geography lessons that Indians and Pakistanis are caucasians. Yes they live in Asia but they are not "Asians" per se.
You are getting pedantic if you have a problem with that description. To say it is rascist is rather amusing.
When you are watching a hollywood thriller and the police say they are looking for a caucasian male or anglo male does it make you cringe.
With the greatest of respect, I love your blogsite, but don't make comments just for the sake of it.
I agree with your concern over the negative aspects of racial stereotyping.
In South Africa, a country with which I am very familiar, the attempt to avoid racial stereotyping is taken to ridiculous extremes.
Media releases there now invariably describe the perpetrator of any (often violent) crime as being (for instance) a 1.8m tall man of medium build with short hair wearing a blue shirt and sunglasses. The reports neglect to mention the person’s race (almost invariably African or Coloured) since this is seen as stigmatising a large proportion of the population. I’m sure most people would agree that this is political correctness gone mad.
One small point, you mentioned the headings do half the damage. As a headline skimmer myself, I agree. However you will see that the Fiji Times headline is “Nine In Custody” with no mention of nationality or ethnicity in the headline. Fiji Live on the other hand describes the 9 as ‘Asians’ and Fiji Sun didn’t appear to think the event was even newsworthy.
If anyone doubts the way in which a once great paper has slid so badly under Netani Rika, take a look at the Fiji Times coverage of the death of Dan Costello. "Danny Costello passes on" reads the headline of a story that has all the style of a primary school essay. And then there's the editorial on Costello, a pathetic offering that also seems to have been written by one of Rika's children. When is News Limited going to wake up to the fact that Rika's stand against censorship doesn't excuse the lamentable way in which he's allowed the paper to lurch from one editorial travesty to the next. The FT, for all its posturing about the public right to know, is an absolute disgrace. It's bad enough that the barely literate and wafer-thin content is a waste of perfectly good trees. What really rankles is the paper's cynical betrayal of the people of Fiji, who deserve better from what was once their newspaper of record. Rika is a posturing idiot more concerned with being lionised for his undergraduate rebelliousness. He needs to be replaced by a real editor who respects both the readership and the English language. Really, the ghosts of 140 years who used to bring us our daily news must be rolling in their graves.
PS. Sorry to hear about your ailment, Croz. Here's to a speedy recovery.
All this political correctness about having to avoid mentioning ethnicity in such cases is nonsense. I'm not talking about the lamentable way in which race is always a factor in Fiji, as in "Fijian" or "Indian". There's certainly a case to be made that we ought to stop labeling people in ethnic terms when it comes to ordinary national discourse. But let's keep labeling outsiders for what they are, especially when they're before the courts. Many people are understandably worried about the Chinese influx into Fiji. Why? Not because they are of Asian appearance, that's for sure. It's because some of these people are clearly here illegally, engage in criminal activities and are a threat to national security and public order. The Hong Kong authorities have warned Fiji that Chinese criminals regard the country as a "soft touch" and intend to use it as a base for drug distribution and other crimes. We need to be very vigilant about safeguarding our way of life and where necessary, as in this case, call a spade a bloody shovel. They're Chinese so why call them anything else? It would be like calling someone from Fiji before the courts in Australia and NZ a "Pacific islander". Why smear a whole region for one person's wrongdoing?
Wow! Mine was a plea for precision to avoid racial stereotying. Nothing more. I was not saying that race should not be reported but, that if relevant, it should be accurately reported. I agree S Africa may be overdoing it (but for their own good reasons.)
I don't think race or ethnicity should be swept under the table. To label all Indo-Fijians as Indian, for example, conceals important difference between Gujerati, Punjabi, Bengali, Tamil, Telegu, Malayali and so on, and this allows people to say the "average" Indian is rich and in business. Statistics show this is incorrect. Think what that's done for Fiji.
ICIC, The issue is not race or geography but unnecessary imprecision that leads to racial stereotyping.
Croz, do I deduce from that last comment of yours that you favour calling people Gujerati-Fijians, Telegu-Fijians, Punjabi-Fijians etc instead of Indo-Fijians? If so, I think he should ask you doctor for an urgent change in medication, much as I feel for your current discomfort. The logical conclusion of this suggestion is that we'll soon be calling Fijians Nadroga-Fijians, Kadavu-Fijians, Naitasiri-Fijians etc.
Whatever you're on, it must be good.
No. Indo-Fijians is fine for everyday use, but not when the single variable "race" is used for statistical purposes, and re-used by politicians and others to "prove", for example, that the hypothetical "average" Indo-Fijian is richer than the "average" Fijian.
A study I conducted in Navua in 1975, for example, showed major economic differences between four Indian sub-groups.
Comparisons should be between "alikes" not between crude, and unqualified, attributes like race, e.g., low-income x race is okay. Race alone is usually misleading (and in Fiji, politically dangerous) because it ignores important economic, social, demographic and geographic variables. Misleading "averages" help to mislead the mislead.
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