From The Crowd
Life is not a car part
AROUND the world, road traffic accidents are a major cause of death among all age groups and the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged five to 29 years. In fact, every 24 seconds someone dies on the road, amounting to 1.35 million deaths annually. The risk of dying in a road...
Fiji-ing Day
Everybody experiences a different Fiji Day and no doubt has different experiences in different years. This year a new arrival to our beloved country asked me what went on during Fiji Day. She seemed a little worried. She comes from a Pacific country that has had its ups, downs and conflicts as well as the...
The ugly side of rugby
The ugly I grew up around the rugby ovals in England as a toddler watching my dad play rugby so it can be said that I’ve spent most of my life around this sport. The truth of the matter is that I have been involved in rugby as a parent, supporter and team manager for...
Fly my winged child
THIS is a two part series where Flying Fijian Ben Volavola’s mum Ema Volavola talks about what it is like being the mother of a star rugby player. Ema reveals the good, the bad and the ugly side of professional rugby. She penned this before Fiji’s game against Wales at the Rugby World Cup in...
‘The smell of the ink, the roar of the press’
Dressed in my best black and gold bling, I too rocked up to The Fiji Times 150th anniversary bash. After all, I’ve hung around the hallowed halls of the newspaper in some capacity or other since the 100th anniversary back in 1969. While not always in print, I kept up the connection and have had...
Governance in the Pacific – The forgotten issue
There was a time when Australia lectured the Pacific. John Howard said in 2004 that Australia had a “special responsibility” to help the Pacific but that we sought “reforms and better governance as conditions of that assistance”. Those days must seem a long time ago to the current Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has...
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...
