Lockington's Everyday Fiji ... Life Goes On

Allen Lockington is a self-employed customs agent and business consultant who has regular articles published in Fiji. I thank Allen for permission to reprint some of them in this political blog. They remind us that life goes on, whatever the political situation. And it's good to know that.

       Man from Outer Space

I was listening to an audio book which went like this. All over the world radars recorded the flight of a foreign object hurtling its way to Earth. The US was the first to locate it but scientists were skeptical that it could be a cloud formation or a malfunction in the radar. But then China and Russia also spotted the object and via radio they asked each other to verify the sighting. Then other countries of the world started calling in and it was confirmed that an unidentified flying object was on its way to earth. The world was in chaos.



The object, a silvery shaped flying machine landed in a desert in the United States of America. The army, navy and air force were on standby to combat whatever threat it would bring. The top of the dome opened and man walked down the stairway. The man took off the helmet and asked to speak with the head of this planet.

He was told there was no head of planet earth because each country was independent and self governing. The man then asked to call all the leaders together so that he could address them but was told this as impossible because many countries did not live in peace with each other.

The man smiled and said that was the reason he had come to Earth, to  get the people of the planet to live in peace and harmony with each other. He said he would return to his planet and return later. But in the meantime  the people of Earth should try and come together and find peace A world alliance was formed to try and bring about peace — but that is another story.

I wonder what would have happened if the alien had to come down to Fiji and asked for all leaders to come together so that he may talk to us about living in peace together, and what our answer might have been?

Would all ethnicities, religions and other groups be able to agree to all sit at Albert Park or the National Stadium or Subrail Park and listen to one man tell us how to live in peace with each other?

Just the other day a man was arrested for allegedly writing graffiti that asked for no elections to take place. Why would he want to do something like that? We seriously need democracy,  a healthy economy and all foreign relations restored.  Fiji roads are suffering so badly that it's costing thousands of dollars to maintain our  vehicles. Our hospitals often run out of medicine and people complain that there are not enough doctors and nurses. Why, where have they gone? I have been told that our hospital staff are doing the best they can with the limited resources. Do the people realise this?

Our country has so many churches. They should be working together to reduce their differences and direct their energies to healing the wounds in our society.  Instead, we have yet another church. I heard that if a pastor in a church didn't like the way things were run he went and started his own church. I find that really amazing,  in a religious way.

I hope that in the near future we will have general elections and that people who will choose to be our representatives will be honest, just like how they want their children to be.

If you look back in Fiji's history you will see all the failed business set up by various government departments. I will not dare name them. Our TV stations have religious programmes.  What are they supposed to do? Just be fillers or to bring to us the Good News? How are we absorbing the message? It is my desire that we bring about peace but to do that we have to find peace within ourselves first before we can go and tell others about peace. So in the next general elections lets make the theme 'Peace in Fiji forever'. We don't want our children to be like those in the Middle East.

It may be a hard ask, but we can bring about a good Fiji and let's back our government and if you are game enough, do something good so that we will live in peace together forever.

And please remember nobody wins in wars, only the weapons manufacturers. I sometimes wonder if they are the ones causing the wars, and whether we have our own version of weapons manufacturers in Fiji. .

(Edited and abbreviated)