Bula vinaka everyone
As we count down the hours to the start of another weekend, we wish you well wherever you are.
Surely a lot of fans are anticipating an exciting weekend as soccer matches resume in the Fiji Football Association’s National League on Sunday.
CASH PRIZES
Remember you can be one of 20 lucky readers who get the chance to win cash prizes this month. Ten readers won cash prizes in the September draw.
All you have to do is cut out the masthead of The Fiji Times newspaper, write your name, address, and phone contact on it, and place this in a bin at a participating store near you. It’s that easy. Turn to Page 19 for details.
HEADLINES
Here are some headlines in The Fiji Times’ edition for Saturday, October 23.
PAGE 1
‘Financial doldrums’
NATIONAL Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad says two motions tabled by the Attorney-General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, in Parliament yesterday would push the country into “financial doldrums”. He said the motions which called for increased government guarantees totalling more than $186 million — $106.4m to Fiji Airways and $80m to the Fiji Development Bank — would place the country in a precarious situation and was not sustainable, based on empirical studies on Fiji’s debt sustainability.
More stories from Parliament on Pages 2, 3, 4 and 5.
PAGE 2
Increased Government guarantee
PARLIAMENT yesterday approved an increased government guarantee to Fiji Airways domestic and off-shore borrowings from $455 million to $561.4 million. Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said the tourism industry’s recovery was “hugely dependent on our ability to ensure Fiji Airways is actually operational”.
‘Contingency financing actions’
ATTORNEY-General and Economy Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said Fiji Airways wanted to use the $106.4 million increased Government loan guarantee to the airline as part of its “contingency financing actions”. Speaking in Parliament yesterday, he said Fiji Airways “targets to pursue partial refinancing of the Fiji Airways Aviation Academy by $F50 million”.
Fiji’s new President
TUI Macuata Ratu Wiliame Katonivere is Fiji’s new President and will serve as the country’s head of state for the next five years. He was nominated by Government and won by five votes against Rewa chief and Opposition Party nominee, Ro Teimumu Kepa.
Fiji Airways
FIJI Airways is almost in a similar situation to the Fiji Sugar Corporation (FSC) and could be viewed as “insolvent” in terms of liabilities vs assets. This was the view expressed by National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad during a debate in Parliament yesterday on a motion by Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum to increase government guarantee to Fiji Airways domestic and off-shore borrowings from $455 million to $561.4m.
PAGE 3
Rabuka lauds presidential appointment
FORMER prime minister and People’s Alliance Party leader Sitiveni Rabuka has lauded the appointment of the Tui Macuata as Fiji’s new President, saying the move was “a big turnaround from when Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama had told the Great Council of Chiefs to go drink homebrew under the mango tree”. He said the Government had now gone back to the descendants of the signatories to the 1874 Deed of Cession. Mr Rabuka said Government and the Opposition’s presidential nominees signified the respect people still had for Fiji’s chiefly system.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR – PAGES 8,9,20,21,22,23 and 24
We have seven pages of letters to the editor. It’s your Saturday bumper edition. Feel the emotions, know what is trending, get a feel of the pulse of the nation, and what readers are talking about. Find out what affects them and what they feel strongly about.
FEATURE/OPINION
This section is a hot favourite among readers. We have a list of top articles for your weekend reading pleasure.
P12 –By RICHARD NAIDU – Promises, promises … Now even one of these can jail you
I’m old enough to remember when politics was fun. In my short career as a Fiji Times reporter I was in the thick of the 1982 General Election. It was a more innocent time in some ways – after all, no one was looking over their shoulder and wondering if there would be a coup later on. And of course I took an interest in the elections that followed.
Back then, small and sometimes eccentric political parties would pop up out of nowhere. They had no hope of winning anything, but they always added colour.
Back then, you didn’t have to go through the exhausting and expensive process of collecting 5000 signatures across Fiji’s four divisions, then waiting for some bureaucrat to nitpick his way through the names to see if they were all on the electoral roll and not on some other party’s list.
P30 By SATISH NARAIN – Sport post-COVID
SPORT ground to a halt in April as our country was hit by the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. And now, nearly half a year later, I’m looking ahead to tomorrow – the return of competitive sport in the form of football’s Digicel Premier League. Really? Well, you’ll find out my concerns as you read on.
P32-33 By ANA MADAGIBULI – FT 152 anniversary
Vuata Reef – Collector of shipwrecks
THE infamous Vuata Reef on Vatoa, Lau is known as a collector of ship wrecks. It has been a site for several shipwrecks after ill-fated voyages dating back to the early 1800s. Discovering wrecks on the reef in 1971 was a feat for two Australian divers who worked vigorously in finding sailing wrecks in the south of Lau.
PART3 – Duke visit to Fiji continues
KAVA and cake might not be a good blend for most kava lovers out there but this was something that the Duke of Edinburgh preferred during his royal visit to Viseisei Village in 1971.
The popular traditional beverage was something that the Duke had opted for as a substitute to a nice warm cup of tea. The Duke had politely declined a cup of tea offered by the villagers and asked for yaqona instead. A bilo was promptly produced and ceremoniously offered to him by a cup bearer and the Duke delighted the villagers by accepting two bilo and drinking them with the cakes the villagers had made.
P34 – By RAJNESH LINGAM – Was he our best 7s coach on the circuit?
Gareth Baber leaves a mark and an impression
OLYMPIC 7s gold-winning hero and our head coach Gareth Baber is to join Edinburgh as skills and assistant attack coach. The 49-year-old Welshman will move to Scotland in December, having been in his role as Fiji 7s head coach since January 2017. The former Cardiff Blues coach had a spectacular spell with Fiji, guiding our national 7s side to 11 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series tournament victories and then winning the 2018-19 overall WRSS title. He arguable becomes Fiji’s best 7s coach.
P36-37 – By GRAHAM LEUNG – Diagnosing the state of Fiji’s health system
HOSPITALS are the primary ultimate healthcare facility. The anecdotal evidence suggests that Fiji’s health system and facilities are in pretty poor shape. Drug shortages are commonplace, health infrastructure is in a deplorable condition in some places, and new hospitals that were commissioned years ago are either incomplete or still remain inaccessible to customers. To add to the problem, constructive criticism by well-meaning health professionals are often dismissed by those in authority.
P38 By Dr JOHN ALFRED – Carotid stenosis
Sound like a carrot smoothie…it is actually the abnormal narrowing of a blood vessel in the neck. This blood vessel supplies the brain with oxygen and nutrient to function. To understand this medical condition we have to go back to the basics of the human anatomy (study of the normal human body and its functions) and a little bit about common blood vessel disease in this case artery disease and associated medical conditions like a cerebrovascular accident (CVA) otherwise known as stroke.
P40 – By JULIE SUTHERLAND – Malnutrition and rickets
THE report by UNICEF on the state of health of our nation’s young children is very disturbing. The report titled Fed to Fail? highlights the deficiencies in nutrition in our young children’s diets across the Pacific. What are we doing wrong and why when UNICEF, the UN’s World Food Program and NGOs of the like of Save the Children and Oxfam, all have a presence in the Pacific? Is this because parents don’t have a grasp of what nutrition encompasses? To begin with, you can’t give your baby or toddler the same food day in day out and expect them to grow into a healthy teenager unless, of course, it is complete and balanced but it rarely is.
P41 By AJAY BHAI AMRIT – State of the nation’s health
BULA readers, as restrictions ease and there is finally more interaction with each other, please give a thought to the tens of thousands of our younger citizens who continue to struggle with a lack of self-esteem, depression and other mental health issues. I do realise this is not an article of sex appeal, scandal or controversy, but regardless, it is a subject we must all take ownership of and at the very least acknowledge that mental health issues are alive and increasing in our communities.
ENTERTAINMENT
We have pages of entertainment news for your reading pleasure this weekend. Find out what’s the latest in the entertainment industry.
MOTORING
This section is much more than just about vehicles.
PROPERTY GUIDE
This section makes a return after a few months. Find out about real estate. There’s a lot to read inside.
SPORTS
The big one on the back page is about 7s rugby.
Read about: Fiji Rugby Super Sevens Series
THE fourth and final leg of the 2021 Fiji Rugby Union Super Sevens Series will set a platform for the national 7s team ahead of the 2021-2022 World Rugby Series opening leg in Dubai and South Africa in December. FRU chief executive officer John O’Connor said players who were part of the Fiji men’s extended squad would feature for their own clubs during the final leg of the 2021 FRU Super Sevens Series.
“This leg will set the platform and assist our men’s and women’s teams and coaches preparing for the 2021-2022 series opening leg,” he said.
Interim men’s coach Saiasi Fuli, who is also the Fijiana 7s coach, said it was important to have this final leg of the Super Sevens Series to ensure they were on the right track ahead of the Dubai 7s.
