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From The Crowd
‘Good governance coup’ : Political will and corruption in Fiji
In 2006 Fiji’s current prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, seized power from a government that had been elected only seven months earlier. Named the “good governance coup”, the takeover was justified by concerns about corruption as...
The joy of the festive season
The jingling of bells and the impeccably adorable decoration in homes and shops indicate Christmas Day. Santa Claus, the name that has been given to the harbinger of happiness and joy, adds a special element of innocence to the festive season. The hearts of people are filled with excitement and joy, as they decorate Christmas...
Remember the less fortunate
A small child with big brown eyes sat looking at me. She looked like she was probably around seven or eights years old. But what struck me as odd was, she didn’t have a twinkle in her eyes as children her age often do. And there was no smile either. In fact there seemed to...
Citizenship and belonging
The last article in this series highlighted how the Indo-Fijian community missed two sterling opportunities to involve meaningfully across the ethno-political divide and share national concerns together in order to forge cross-cultural understandings and bonds. A third one presented itself to Fijians of Indian descent on Rewa Day in 2016. Let us go through this...
The case for a GNU
In a divided society with conflict dynamics like Fiji, a hung parliament is not a bad thing unless the party holding the balance of power is extremely volatile. A hung parliament can make power-sharing, dialogue, negotiation and consensus building mainstream which can have a unifying effect on the people and bring a paradigm shift in...
21st December
Lives hang by a thread : Hiroshima survivor pleads for halt of radioactive waste dump
Japan is standing its ground over the planned discharge of treated radioactive waste from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean in 2023 despite strong opposition from Pacific leaders. The country said in April that the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) would discharge more than 1 million tonnes of contaminated water in stages after treatment and dilution,...
20th December
A sceptical eye on the tech titans
For years, Silicon Valley’s stars have been able to drum up positive media headlines with their visions of a future tech utopia. In 2022, several of them ran into the hard wall of reality. “Make some noise for the richest man in the world,” said the stand-up comedian Dave Chapelle, as he welcomed Elon Musk...
19th December
Mangroves matter – Fiji surveys first step to sustain natural surroundings
Mangroves provide critical ecosystem goods and services to Fijian communities by providing shoreline stability, habitat, and breeding grounds for important subsistence and small-scale commercial fisheries and protection from storms. Mangroves are also a vital natural climate solution greatly contributing to the storage and sequestration of carbon. Through the Blue Carbon FiProject, Conservation International Fiji, with...
