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From The Crowd
Vaccinating our children
Love for one’s children is altruistic in most individuals. Our genetics and survival as a species dictates that we have built-in protective instincts for our progeny. Biologically speaking, human beings, similar to some other mammals...
26th September
OPINION: A series of unfortunate accidents
I know there may be mixed reactions to the recent easing of restrictions on Viti Levu, but I can’t deny that spirits have been lighter down in Darkest Flagstaff. They were positively beaming at me over the video chats these days, and they’ve even started changing out of their pyjamas sometimes. It seems that just the idea that you can hit the road...
25th September
A historic 100th test
The All Blacks and Springboks, two of the sport’s most decorated nations, meet for the 100th time. A century on from their maiden meeting in 1921 in Dunedin, which was won by the All Blacks 13-5, rugby’s fiercest rivals reignite their feud tonight. The All Blacks lead the all-time head-to-head record with 59 wins from their 99 encounters to date, while the Springboks have...
OPINION: The identities of our fellow Fijians
SOME of you may have read a tongue-incheek letter I wrote to the editor of this newspaper that was published last Saturday (September 18th) with the heading “A modest proposal”. It was, of course, satirical after the manner of my compatriot Jonathan Swift’s synonymous essay of about 300 years ago; but like all satire was intended to raise, among the laughs, some serious...
OPINION: Fever is a sign
Fever is a sign that is wrongly interpreted by many individuals. This is something commonly not corrected. Usually temperature checks are routinely done in hospitals or medical centre when we go and see a doctors. Now having temperature taken is part of daily requirement in life. To understand what fever is, you will need to understand what is the normal body temperature,the difference...
OPINION: Aspects of Hinduism
Prashneel Goundar’s Pursuing Divinity in Paradise (2020) is an alluring piece of work, which entails the morals written in simple words from the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. As the reviewer of his highly compelling piece I strongly feel that this book deserves an enormous commendation as it touches on the core values of Hinduism for the current generation and beyond. All...
OPINION: COVID-19 and international travel
Bula readers! This week, I thought I would take you with me on my personal overseas travel experience from Suva to Brisbane during the pandemic with some staggering revelations. The trip has come about after I had been strongly advised by doctors to get a sports medical procedure taken care of on my neck where a nerve is being compressed by my spinal chord and reducing the...
OPINION: Managing COVID-19
The Ministry of Health and Medical Services has indicated that it expects COVID-19 to become endemic in Fiji, suggesting that it does not plan to pursue a zero COVID-19 strategy. With the prospects of attaining herd immunity through current generation COVID-19 vaccines now looking bleak, COVID- 19 becoming endemic (at least for the medium term) now seems almost an inevitability, however, this will come...
OPINION: Indigenous Fijians in business
Historians believe that indigenous Fijians (“taukei”) arrived in Fiji more than 3500 years ago. The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted Fiji in 1643, followed by Captain James Cook in 1774. About 100 years later, Ratu Seru Cakobau and other chiefs, ceded Fiji to a reluctant Great Britain. Sir Arthur Gordon, the first governor of the new colony, saw himself as the “protector” of the...
OPINION: The epic clash
The shift from Wellington to Hamilton has proven to be fantastic in terms of crowd and getting a party atmosphere, but for me the yellow seats at the Cake Tin bring back epic memories of sevens battles in the windy capital of New Zealand. Way back in 1999 when the International Rugby Board (IRB) decided to have a WRSS circuit, the rivalry between...
OPINION: Boxing in the doldrums
Boxing’s glory days remind me of a famous line “once were warriors” some of my friends use even today. I still remember my early primary school days when I used to read about Sakaraia Ve, known as Fiji’s golden boy of boxing. Ve was a class act. In those days in the late ‘70s and ‘80s a boxer could fight up...
OPINION: How to vote twice; It turns out there’s one place you can do it
A few columns ago, I commented on how Parliament’s new method of “votes by acclamation” had left my head spinning. As Parliament ended this week my head is no better. Suddenly, on a vote rammed through “by acclamation”, thousands of us now risk of being put through a tiresome and complicated process, just so that we can exercise our democratic right to vote next...
24th September
Wallabies to front Pumas in round 5
It’s hard to believe that the 2021 Rugby Championship is almost coming to an end. Fans have seen four weeks of exciting, enterprising and bruising rugby. This weekend on Saturday night in Queensland, fans will see the penultimate round of matches, and although the All Blacks are running away with the Rugby Championship trophy, there...
23rd September
Aussie and NZ aid
Last week the Centre for Global Development (CGD) released its 2021 Commitment to Development Index. The CDI has, for the last 20 years, been comparing rich countries in terms of their “policies that affect the development prospects of countries beyond one’s own borders”. It has had a rest for a few years and has come...
22nd September
Mind of the historian – COVID-19: Value of historiography
COVID-19 has changed the world entirely and historians have compared this with all the pandemics that occurred in history. Historical evidence indicates many pandemics have changed the discourse of history, be it a plague, smallpox, cholera, influenza, malaria, leprosy, tuberculosis. Scholars look at the historians to present the causes, impact and remedies of pandemics adopted...
21st September
Offer finally rejected – What’s next?
This week, PNG’s Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) rejected the acquisition of Westpac PNG by Kina Securities (the owner of Kina Bank) in its final determination. Since the ICCC had already rejected the acquisition in its draft determination, and for good reason, it is no surprise that it did so in its final determination....
20th September
Point of Origin – Islanders forced to relocate after war
Like many other villagers on Taveuni and surrounding islands who lost their land following the war with Ma’afu and his warriors, those of Kocoma on Qamea also faced the same axe. The paramount chief of Cakaudrove at that time, Tuikilakila, sold Naitauba Island, outside Taveuni after the Kocoma villagers supported the Tongans in the war...
