News and Comments Thursday 26 January 2012

26.1.12 

Photo: Fiji Live.

FRIENDS IN NEED, FRIENDS INDEED. The deep tropical depression that has brought rain and flooding to large parts of the Western and Northern divisions has immediate and long term effects. (Video)

With 600mm of rain (the height of a table) falling in three days, most shops are closed, many roads are closed, over a thousand people are in evacuation centres, many areas are without power, and water and sewerage disposal systems are threatened. It is the worst flood in three years and much work on road improvement, bridging and the dredging of the Ba River has been undone. With more rain forecast, intending tourists are reported to be changing their plans. Most food crops have been destroyed and there have also been losses of livestock. The areas most affected lie at the heart of the sugarcane industry and cane on low lying land will also have been affected. And more rain is expected in the next 24 hours.

The rehabilitation cost to Government and those directly affected can only be imagined, and responses to the disaster will say much about Fiji's friends. There have been several blog comments along the lines that Fiji will again be begging for assistance; asking where the aid is from its new friends to the North, asking where the soldiers are, and criticising the efforts of Government and other agencies in their handling of the situation.  I find such comments distasteful and lacking in compassion.  The lives and livelihood of ordinary Fiji citizens are being threatened by the flooding. No true friend of Fiji would seek to capitalise on this "Act of God."

CREDIT TO AND FROM VODAFONE.Vodafone Fiji has topped up all its prepaid customers’ mobile numbers from Nadi to Rakiraki with $5 worth of free talk time today as immediate emergency assistance. The total credit is $1.25million. Managing Director Aslam Khan said in times like these, families are often cut off from communications with their loved ones whereby communication is essential to gather information on the needs of people and organize associated logistics to provide relief assistance as soon as possible.

REDS UNDER THE BED. The Republic of Fiji is preparing for the first-ever high-level visit by an official from the Russian Federation. H.E. Mr. Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, will be visiting Fiji on February 1-2. The trip underscores the important role Fiji serves as a hub of trade and diplomacy in the Pacific region.

YOUNG VOTERS. Minister of Education Filipe Bole said senior officials at the ministry have begun work for students who are still in secondary schools and who will be eligible for voting by 2014. “This includes cross checking school registers, birth certificates and the distribution of figures of 16-year-olds in the nine education districts as part of government’s preparations for the 2014 general elections,” he said.

KONFUSED KELERA. Kelera Tallis is a regular contributor to Facebook's Fiji Economic Forum that is worth visiting or joining for comments like those from Rishab Nair, previously mentioned. Kelera expresses her  anti-government views well but sometimes, as in this comment, I struggle with her conclusions.

On the electronic registration of voters, she writes: "Using bio-metric techniques, it will ensure that the regime has a grip on everyone over the age of 17 in Fiji. Anyone who does not vote in accordance with the Regime’s wishes will be found out. Put in the context of a dictatorship, it is just one more step to complete control over the population. The uses to which the system can be put would include targeted murder, intimidation, harassment, discrimination of all kinds ... The system is to ensure the registration of the population, no matter where they might be hiding in Fiji. It says nothing at all about the conduct of an election. That is a separate issue. But it would certainly help to identify persons who might possibly vote against Voreqe and assist in the effort to deny those people the vote or target them for intimidation and harassment."

How on earth can she draw such a conclusion? You register a person's name and bio data and you can tell how he will vote? Beware, citizens!  Your FEA (electricity) and cellphone  accounts, your name in the telephone directory and your household census records  could be incriminating documents.

ACCUSED CONSPIRATORS ASK FOR BAIL.  Former politicians, Mere Samisoni, Mataiasi Ragigia, Semesi Lasike and Apete Vereti, charged with "urging  political violence, have appealed for bail.  Chief Magistrate Usaia Ratuvili has given the defence council 14 days (until February 8) to make a proper application for bail variation. Under the current bail conditions, all the four accused are not allowed to change their addresses, surrender all their travel documents, report to their nearest police stations between 8am to 6pm daily, remain inside their houses between 7pm-6am and not to interfere with state witnesses.They may not interact with each other and their names will be put on the watch list.