From The Crowd

20th January

OPINION: Another Pacific plan, really

Pacific Plan was suggested by an Eminent Persons Group in 2003 to provide “an overarching strategy for the region”. It was agreed via the Auckland Declaration at a 2004 special Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) meeting and adopted a year later by PIF...

18th January

OPINION: Another major hurdle

As countries around the world grapple with the challenges of rolling out urgently needed COVID-19 vaccines, health authorities are now facing another major hurdle: a more contagious form of coronavirus. The newly-identified variant, first recognised in England in late September, has spread to 45 countries and prompted lockdowns and new restrictions across Australia. Initially, it was unclear whether the high number of cases of the...

17th January

From the Crowd: Woofers in the house

There are two woofers currently in my household. One is a traditional woofer of the canine variety, a stout little staffordshire bull terrier named Mako. The other is an electronic sound device known as a sub-woofer. Well no, I had no idea what a sub-woofer was when it arrived but I quickly found out. It produces that noise you sometimes hear when...

16th January

OPINION: Raw vegan radiance

The eyes are the light of the soul. “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light” — Matthew 6:22. A lot can be revealed just by looking at a person’s face and looking into their eyes. An instant connection and level of trust can be...

OPINION: Social media; The good, the bad and the ugly

Social media are interactive digitally- mediated technologies that facilitate the creation or sharing/exchange of information, ideas, career interests, and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks, according to the Wikipedia. Since it’s a relatively new technology, there’s little research to establish the long-term consequences, good or bad, of social media use. However, multiple studies have found a strong link between heavy social media and...

OPINION: Soaring to new heights

In global finance — money talks. Over the past decade, the true believers of the cryptocurrency revolution have turned what was once considered an oddball nerdy concept in the financial world into the next trillion-dollar asset class. These true believers were considered fringe technologists — although coming from varied sometimes non-tech backgrounds, they clung to the hope of their Bitcoin investments paying off. Today,...

OPINION: Heyday of Fiji sugar

In April 1973, Fiji a fl edgling nation granted independence barely two years ago, decided to take over the running of its economically vital sugar industry from the Australian-owned Colonial Sugar Refining Company (CSR). It was a bold move considering that the well-being of Fiji’s economy depended almost entirely on sugar as the major revenue earner, and the fact that CSR with its Colonial attitude and...

OPINION: Ovarian cancer

Ovarian CA is the eighth most common occurring CA in women and the 18th most common type of CA overall (World Cancer Research Fund). According to the American Cancer Society, one in 75 women will develop some form of ovarian cancer in their lifetime. In women aged 35-74, ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer related deaths (American Cancer Society)....

OPINION: Need for fresh thinking

Perhaps when we look back at how Fiji performed during the COVID-19 crisis, the biggest failure we will remember is how the Government failed to warn us of the truth about the economy. Not once in all the Government’s TV broadcasts, Budget announcements and innumerable ribbon-cutting speeches in the past year, were we told the truth: “2020 is bad, but 2021 will be worse...

15th January

OPINION: Feminist movement

Over Story Sex Crimes (5/1/2021, FT) raised concerns of rising sexual offences and rape among minors where perpetrators are family members. Women had faced “continuation or intensifi cation of violence, threats and intimidation … [and go through] domestic violence, sexual assault or rape” (24/12/2020, FT). Demand for parity has been raised as many are unaware of the discourse of feminism movements. Feminism defined as “the belief that men...