■ Cogito, ergo sum. I think, therefore I am. (René Descartes, mathematician and philosopher,1599-1650)
Weekend Reading
Scroll down to ♦ The Allen Lockington column ♦ Islands Business October Cover Story: Sugar ♦ Mosmi Bhim on Grassroots Citizenry, the Media and Democracy ♦ Engaging with Fiji by Sanjay Ramesh. And Friday's long posting and all the comments you had no time to read during the week.
6 comments:
This coup has been a total disaster for the sugar industry. Before we look at all the other problems emerging over the last 4 years - let us just look at one: the loss of millions of $$ subsidy from the EU because of the overthrow of an elected democratic government. The sugar industry will simply not survive another 4 years of military rule - Fiji must move forward - the coup must end.
@Coup disaster ... You seem more concerned about ending the coup than fixing the sugar industry's problems. If you think these problems only started four years ago, you need to delve much deeper. And if you wish to include political factors, why not start with NLTB officials telling landowners not to renew their leases.
You think EU money would help, but you do not suggest they remove sanctions. We don't need to guess why.
@ Croz and Coup Disaster......
How right the good Professor is! And how selective 'Coup Disaster' is in thought. Indeed, almost no thought or research. The Fiji Sugar Industry was already on track to ruin in 1990. At that time PM Thatcher had made herself very clear: Sugar subsidy to the ACP countrie were to end or be severely curtailed. The UK believed, she said, that far too much taxpayers' money was being wasted when UK and many EU countries produced heaps of sugar at no subsidy at all "in house".
So, we come to Fiji in 1990. No one "At Home" on this! Not a clue it appeared or an idea of what was going on in the UK Cabinet or indeed in the Brussels debating chamber. Fiji continued to "CARRY ON" as though none of this mattered. How silly this was. How ill-informed and how absolutely impractical. Where were: The Fiji Times, the Fiji SUN, Fiji TV (when it arrived around 1994/5) and just about every other media outlet? All sleeping on the job.
Who was holding the fort? Who sat on the boards at Fiji Sugar? Who was the CEO? All mouthing platitudes and some of us knew this. Nothing more to add. But let us at least face the facts and be honest: we have deserved our Sugar Fate. Now, we must start all over again. It will be a very tough and demanding journey. Are we all up to it? And, business sense must dominate the thinking, the strategic planning and......most essential..the implementation in the canefields and at FSC House. No time for unions....ever again. No time for political influence....ever again. This will be a New World.
Dear Croz
Sorry to hear you don't want the coup to end? I would have thought most sensible people would have thought the sooner any coup ended the better? I don't know of any current or past coups anywhere actually helping the people? Do you? Perhaps you haven't been to Burma?
As for the current coup in Fiji and the sugar industry - they are not mutually exclusive - the former has had a terrible impact on the latter.
Think of the sanctions including the EU. As clearly and repeatedly stated, sanctions will be removed when democracy is restored? Sugar farmers understand this, the legitimate government understands this? Are the military struggling with the concept? It is fairly straightforward - isn't it?
@ coup disaster.....
You need to fully explicate your use of the term 'democracy'. You do not. What form of democracy? What process of democracy? The same old corrupted, failed formula? Or democracy as witnessed by the French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville "Democracy in America"? (1835) That has never existed in Fiji. Could it be possible that US Secretary of State Clinton fully comprehends this? And you.....do not?
@ the Bottom Line on Sugar.....
Does any of this apply also to Air Pacific? There may well be some interesting similarities? Time for a comprehensive study? Air Pacific is now being steered at the top and the business strategy is unopposed. Qantas is having a bad time with its Airbus 380 engines and will be otherwise occupied for a while. But, Air Pacific was weighted down with overweight political baggage and it was not only Fijian in origin. Can any airline tolerate that in 2010 and hope to survive?
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