Some money could still be coming in from vendors but it appears that only half the tickets were sold. It also appears ticket money has been used for airfares, accommodation, visa application and game tickets for the 2010 Hong Kong 7s for a senior FRU Lottery Director. Government has asked the FRU Board and Executive to resign.
STOP PRESS. Bill Gavoka has resigned as FRU chairman but remains on the Board. Rafaele Kasibulu, who will lead talks with Government to discuss its demands, is effectively the interim Chairman.
"This is interesting and a helpful discussion on a subject which has been fraught with far too much emotion in the past.
My advice has always been: strive for cultural understanding, but guard against cultural stereotyping. I believe the word "Indian" describes only one's nationality. In the Fiji context it has overtones which lead directly to ethnic stereotyping and profiling. Otherwise educated analysts tell us that the "Indians" want one or other political solution, or that they want to preserve their cultural identity. Who are these "Indians" who think in such a homogeneous way? The same mistake has been made about the i'taukei. That they should be united and think as one.
"Really? The best situation for Fiji is that we accept that all individuals regardless of culture and ethnicity should be able to pursue their individual dreams. Not to be driven by the narrow walls of what they ought to believe. In fact in the current political situation in Fiji, there are persons of all ethnicities which oppose the government just as there are persons of all ethnicities which support it.
"There is no Indo-Fijian way of thinking, just as there is no "European-Fijian" way of thinking. When the British tried to codify custom in the Fijian Administration, the most significant mistake they made (apart from creating new "customary" institutions such as the Fijian courts) was to assume that there was one homogeneous Fijian way of life. Nayacakalau wrote of this in the most gentle way. There is no one Fijian people, just a number of individuals who share some cultural characteristics. And they all think differently from each other.There is no one Indian people in Fiji or elsewhere.
It is time to grow up and to stop defining people's thoughts, politics and aspirations in terms of their ethnic origin.I liked your article very much. Thanks, Nitesh."
N0012. SCHOOLS CHANGING RACE-BASED NAMES. All schools with race-based names are now being changed.
N0013. MAI TV has launched a free 24 hours web channel aimed primarily at overseas Fijians. Besides the news broadcast at 7pm you will be able to watch a range of popular programmes and more will be launched over the coming weeks. All you have to do is register with an email address and password on the Mai TV’s home page www.maitv.com.fj Note, however, that the company reserves the right to charge for services sometime in the future.
N0014. LAND BANK & BAUXITE MINING at Nawailevu in Bua is expected to start by March according to the Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources on an area of Native land previously leased to Fiji Pine. Aurum Exploration Fiji paid Fiji Pine $1m so that the land could revert to landowners from the Mataqali Nalutu, Mataqali Noro and Mataqali Naicobo.
In turn, the mataqali offered the land to the Government Land Bank, and last week the PM designated the first parcel of land for bauxite mining. Aurum will have a 99-year lease on the land and a surface mining licence is expected to be issued in March. The Land Bank is a government initiative aimed at giving leasees more secure tenure, landowners an assured income, and bringing more land into productive use.-- Based on 2011, No:0025 /MOI.
The PM said “The significance of the activation of the Land Bank is that many of our idle lands could now be leased through the Land Use Decree 2010 and be made productive for the betterment of landowners, investors and the country as a whole. Landowners who willingly choose to have their lands leased through the Land Use Decree will now be in a position to reap fair and just returns. They will also receive the full quantum of the premium and land rent. I know that this is one of the key issues that landowners have been calling for in the past decades." Government will also ensure the investors security of tenure. -- Based on 2011, No:0023 /MOI.
N0015. MINING PREDICTED AS TOP EXPORTER EARNER. In an ABC broadcast chairman of Fiji's Mining and Quarrying Council, Harvey Probert, predicts mining will be Fiji's main export earner within five years.
N0016. SCHOLARSHIPS & MANPOWER TRAINING. Some $14million has been allocated for Government Scholarships and Training, under the Public Service Commission and Multi-Ethnic Affairs Scholarship Programme for 2011. The money will assist about one thousand continuing students in Fiji and overseas, and about the same number of new students. The fund will be administered by the PSC which also coordinates training programmes funded by bilateral partners.
PSC PermSec Parmesh Chand said there will be a completely new set of criteria in place next year as required by virtue of principles enshrined in the People’s Charter for Change, Peace & Progress and the Roadmap for Sustainable Economic Development & Democracy. Government's focus is on capacity building, and the PSC will ensure a prudent use of resources to enhance the knowledge, skills and expertise of the civil service, as well as the private sector. -- Based on 2011, No:0010 /PSC.
Mr Chand emphasised that a professional, committed and ethical workforce can only be achieved through on-going capacity building, and for this reason, a supportive training culture is encouraged, so that the training needs of the nation can be effectively addressed.
N0017. ROAD WORKS. Potholes may be a thing of the past on major roads if government manages to complete current and intended road works by 2014. The Ministry of Works is concentrating on tourist areas, along with the main roads and farm roads. The Nadi Back Road is half complete and work will soon commence in Ba, Sigatoka and Rakiraki.
N0018. WOOPS! FIJI SUN IN ORBIT. The heading read "Apostolic congress hailed by Catholics." But it wasn't. The article was about the Catholic Apostolic Church that originated in England in the 1830s. The (Roman) Catholic Church is just a little older. You can't always believe what you read in the press.
6 comments:
Here we go again...more references to a "Roadmap" this time a "Roadmao for Sustainable Economic Development & Democracy" yet still no sign of the road or the map. Must be locked up in a cubboard somewhere. Strange how everyone needs to be on board with it yet no is allowed to see it.
I always though a good first step in building support for a plan would be to actually share it first....
And while I'm on the whinge again, were we not promised the PER would be lifted as soon as the media gecree came in play ? Oh well i guess we have been promised all sorts of things including elections in 2008, then 2009 and the sugar industry and economy where going to be fixed by now.
By the way Croz you still have a link on the left of your page "Road Map" July 2009 but the link does not go anywhere. Are you optomistic something might be published in 2011...
It's amazing that Bill Gavoka has lasted this long. Not because of performance issues (although plenty of evidence of that emerging) but because he is not a Frank supporter and has spoken out. We all know that governments first priority has always been to put out of work and off the radar anyone who does not agree or support them. This has largely been done.
The offer of $3m IF ADMINSTRATION changes is extrordinary. It should be investigated by FICAC as it looks like the biggest bribe we have seen in Fiji in the last four years. Government briding FRU ? I guess FICAC won't be allowed to touch it because one) - Rugby is religion and two) - The military is above the law and the government, well the government is the military !
Next time the police stop my car or call into my house and ask for a bit of cash for A Christmas lunch, a farewell or for their rugby fundraiser do I call the commerce commission and ask them to investigate?
Croz, your correspondent, Nitesh, is only half right when he protests about the typecasting of Indo-Fijians as one people. Regrettably, when it comes to a vital component in nation-building, Indo-Fijians behave as one. And that is in their almost universal refusal to intermarry with Fiji's other races. It doesn't seem to matter what socio-economic background they come from. Indo-Fijians of all levels of attainment and education invariably choose each other rather than venture outside their cultural and racial boundaries. There are a handful of exceptions, of course, like Imrana Jalal and Saki Tuisolia. But these are so exceptional they amount to little more than a curiosity. Whether this is cultural or racial is neither here nor there. People of Indian background in Fiji have to shoulder responsibility for not doing enough to be integrated fully enough in a multiracial, multicultural society. Indigenous Fijians don't seem to have the same hang-ups, as evidenced by the dozens of Kailoma families in prominent positions in national life. I don't like pointing a finger at Indo-Fijians but it's anxiomatic that if they want to remain separate at a personal and family level, they'll also be separate at a national level. And I don't think there's any doubt that this is a fundamental underlying cause of the lack of unity that is retarding Fiji's development.
@ FRU saga still unfolding.....
"See you in Court". Too right you will! It is more than apparent that purported criminal conduct is being unravelled. Have we stopped to consider how similar this appears to the conduct of some Fiji lawyers who allegedly rifled their trust accounts? It seems not to have entered the mind of the former Chair of FRU that public money was being handled and this is our money handed over 'in trust'. So, a certain demeanour is customarily required of those who handle 'our money' and given that the game of rugby football embraces its development, its coaches, management, players and their welfare, why was it never thought-through that we might expect a higher standard? That standard will now be put to the test in a court of law for all to see. Justice will no doubt be done and be seen to be done. Let a Fiji judge rule on the standard that shall be applied in the administration of Fiji Rugby so that never again shall the integrity of rugby administration be called into disrepute in a World Cup Year or any other year.
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