From The Crowd
Entire economy at risk
Through taxes and expenditure, Government has a huge impact on our daily lives. Government does not have money of its own to spend. It taxes us for its income. Total government revenue has increased from 26 per cent of GDP five years ago to over 30 per cent. Government has grabbed an additional $400 million...
Fight against cancer
THE fight against cancer has gone a notch up these past few years as relevant stakeholders want the Fijian public to be fully aware of its dangers and the fact that it has impacted young people’s lives. The ministries of Health, Education and other non-government organisations have taken the lead fight against cancer and yet...
EU blacklists Fiji
FOR the first time in history, Fiji has been blacklisted by the European Union (EU). In the eyes of the world, Fiji is slipping badly in the critical area of good governance. Our international reputation is plummeting. The blacklisting comes in the wake of two adverse events. The first is the sharp drop in Fiji’s...
Fiji Bitter Marist 7s kicks off today!
IT’S Fiji Bitter Marist Sevens once again and the annual rugby fiesta is getting bigger and better every year. The tournament has both been the cradle and the crucible of Fijian sevens rugby for the past 43 years. It’s where one day you are a simple villager rubbing shoulders with internationally reputed players and another...
Let’s heed the IMF’s advice
The assessment of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of the Fiji economy is the worst that I have ever read. I have been part of these reports when I had worked in the IMF and led many Article IV discussions. I know that the IMF speaks with tact and euphemism. But as I read the...
My fish is your fish
MY fish is your fish, as they say in Marshall Islands. What they are telling us is that nuclear bomb testing done in their islands 60 years ago polluted the sea and the fish they ate then — and warn that we face the same horror. The US did 67 nuclear missile tests in the...
Remembering the late, great Lomu
IT has been over three years since rugby superstar Jonah Lomu passed away peacefully at the young age of just 40 years old in the city of Auckland close to the place of his birth. Lomu, despite living with his life threatening illness (nephrotic syndrome a serious kidney disorder) which was diagnosed when he was...
Clog-dancing cockroaches
EVERY so often, especially as a child, I would come across a reference in a book about black beetles. I wondered what they were, what they looked like if they were deadly. The (usually English or American) children in my books would scream and run away from them so they were obviously something bad and...
A little housekeeper is a dangerous thing
OUR household has been upturned and put into more turmoil than usual, even given the younger generation is finally back at school. (Hooray, whoo hoo, hoop de do and other such expressions of unconfined joy.) It has all been caused by a wee, delicate, softly spoken and extremely dangerous Japanese woman. She has popped up...
Lest we forget
WHAT may appear to be a tussle between church and State on the statements made by Archbishop Peter Loy Chong on Catholic education and the open merit system implemented by the Ministry of Education, is cause for great interest and indeed serious reflection. The archbishop’s statements have even been labelled as racist, subjective and contrary...
Happy 2019
TOMORROW midnight is what is referred to as Happy New Year, when December 31 turns into January 1. Some years I just call it December 32 and write it off, that’s how enthusiastic I feel about this particular holiday. The dogs hate it, for a start, because people use it as yet another moment to...
A merry Christmas to you
TODAY is a very special day for Christians around the world. Today is when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. They will remember, and rejoice with the story of the little baby who was born in a manger in Bethlehem. It is a story that has been retold many times. It is as familiar...
A role model: Those who grab opportunities will succeed
LIFE is full of challenges and opportunities, only those who grab those opportunities and overcome struggles will succeed in life. This advice was given to Dr Amar Singh by his father, while growing up at their sugarcane farming settlement in Kabisi, Sigatoka, many years ago. And it happened that he took on this advice seriously...
Wet weather insect pests
Perspiration isn’t the only thing that comes popping out in the humid tropical weather. Just the other night I lay steaming under the ceiling fan in my room, trying to counter the humidity until the incipient storm broke and let loose a cooling downpour. The distant rumble of thunder was suddenly drowned out by a...
Walk down memory lane
WE journos love trading war stories, showing our scars (sometimes literally) from our close brushes with armed conflict, military coups and city-wide riots. But the other reporter’s pub story favourite is telling the tales of our encounters with princes, princesses and other tiara-ed folks. The 1970s were a big decade for British royal visits to...
