Cape Verde’s fairy tale continues
Cape Verde’s World Cup fairy tale continues as the debutants held Saudi Arabia to reach the round of 32. Cape Verde finished second in their group with three draws, while their opponents failed to earn the win they needed to advance. Former world champions, Uruguay, was also eliminated by Spain as they lost 1-0. After qualifying for the round of 32, Cape Verde became the first debutants to advance from the group stage since Slovakia in 2010 and Ghana in 2006. They are the first WC debutants to go unbeaten in their three group-stage matches since Senegal in 2002, who created an upset by defeating defending champs, France. Goalkeeper, Vozinha, was mobbed by fans after his impressive performance. Cape Verde had created history by becoming the smallest nation by population to qualify for the WC and there were raucous scenes as they made it to the round of 32, ready to meet defending champions Argentina. The irony is that Cape Verde enters the round of 32 without even winning any match. Call it luck or their fate! Rajnesh Ishwar Lingam Nadawa, Nasinu
Soccer lols
I look at Cape Verde’s success at the 2026 Soccer World Cup and I see hope. Hope that a bigger nation, Fiji, could one day finish a pool with nil losses and three draws, at a future Soccer World Cup. We can do it. Minus everyone running the Fijian soccer right now. Curacao made me a believer. Minus, of course, everyone running Fiji soccer as we read In 2014 or around, I wrote a scathing letter on the Fiji soccer administrators. A few days later, my boss told me that one PS had asked him to sack me. I wasn’t sacked. That PS passed away some time ago though. I live to write. Someone asked me if I were going to contest the next general election and whether I was ready. I said politics wasn’t ready for me. DONALD SINGH Nausori
Tomorrow is too late
With unbelievable spontaneity and utmost haste, the FNPF, one day after the 2026/2027 National Budget address, speedily printed one full page advert “pontificating” $866million to be paid to members — interest rate 9.5 per cent. How great? Almost 72 per cent of the about 423,000 members will have $20,000 or less in their contributions upon retirement soon. The fund needs to also advertise how much per month will these lower income employees receive per month in their pensions? How much do these about 280,000 members really earn compared with the richer 28 per cent? I believe the fund pays little or no attention to the unfortunate in society … lower income grouping. The rich, powerful and higher income employees enjoy privileges. The fund shirks their responsibility to the “offended and betrayed seniors from 2012”. The fund definitely needs higher and greater oversight by a professional authority that will truly scrutinise and provide critical oversight in the fund’s primary core duties — look after employees and not become Government’s cash cow; be multi-billionaire property owners; look after the fund’s 200 to 500 employees. The betrayed 2012 pensioners need a life line today. Tomorrow is too late. This is an S.O.S. Ronnie Chang Martintar, Nadi
Aid for Fiji Airways
I was surprised to hear that Fiji Airways needs aid to complement its operations. A 5 per cent tax will be levied on tourism operators which undoubtedly will be passed on to tourists so that Fiji Airways can get help. Tourists are affected as departure tax was increased in the last budget I recall. Fiji is already very expensive for tourists when compared with places such as Bali, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. I thought that Fiji Airways was a very profitable airline. Perhaps the President of the United States has put a spanner in the works recently by announcing that Fijians will need to pay thousands of dollars in deposits to get a visa to the US. As a result, business on the US routes may have been adversely affected. Instead of killing the goose that lays the golden egg, (that is tourism) perhaps the executives should look at their fat salaries and all the sponsorships provided by Fiji Airways. I hope Fiji Airways does not go the way of FSC which requires constant government support. Perhaps the Government should look at imposing some taxes on Fiji Water instead. Jan Nissar Sydney, Australia
Reality TV show
Recently, Sky TV began a Sony TV series titled “Tum Ho Na — ghar ki super star” hosted by TV Star Rajeev Khandewal. The show consists of four women, some accompanied by their husbands or usually by their daughters or grandchildren. The women would compete in few simple competitions, but the main event is relating to their lives’ experiences, difficulties, moments when their lives changed because of certain circumstances etc. Many a time during the show, we enjoy the laughter and fun, but listening to the women at times brings sadness, sympathy and tears. They also relate how they coped with their adversities. The show is a hit. I believe at the end of the season, FBC or Fiji TV can request for copyright to air the show. Our women will immensely benefit from it. Rakesh Chand Sharma Nadi
People, not just the elite
While it looks like for some it is proper for parliamentarians to hold higher academic qualifications or be corporate experts to be effective in their respective portfolios, we should not forget that Parliament is meant to be a mirror of our diverse Fijian society. When we demand for strictly specialised professionals, we on the other hand risk shutting out the voices of our farmers, market vendors, maritime villages, and grassroots workers. In my opinion, a MP’s primary role is to listen to the struggles of ordinary citizens and bring it to the floor of the Parliament. The elements of technical details can always be handled by the ministerial advisers, civil servants, and parliamentary standing committees. In our Fijian scenario, what we truly need in our leaders is empathy, strong ethics, critical thinking, and genuine connection to the community. Let us value and embrace servant leader’s heart just as a university degree for the betterment of our progressive Fiji. Vinaka vakalevu. Shiu Kumar Narayan Laucala Beach Estate, Suva
Confusing much
So a temporary taxi fare increase will be effective from July 1 while significant reductions in domestic fuel prices are expected. Doesn’t make sense. Or nonsensical as we say in Lau. Sobo! Wise Muavono Balawa, Lautoka
EFL target
EFL program targets 90 per cent electricity from renewable sources by 2035 (FT 25/6/26 ). Isn’t this what it declared for 2025? Why has the Government been so sluggish in addressing it? And whenever there is a substantial global increase of diesel price, it again triggers the issue as a national discussion, in my view. Just as it is now. And there seems to be no actual ground progress, all reactive discussion measures, in my opinion. Is it about the Electricity Act? Then I believe, the Government has to put its foot down for the sake of the Fiji people. There are solar energy investors, with their iTaukei landowner partners, I am certain, already in place for the proposed program. Even the EFL or the Government won’t spend a cent, for the joint venture’s infrastructure. No expenditure, so, no additional national debt. Doesn’t this answer the FCCC’s caution? In fact, it would be very rewarding for the Government, in my opinion, when delivering infrastructure and prosperity, simultaneously. Be the “change” that needs to be seen. Samu Silatolu Nakasi, Nausori
Climate change
UN Climate Change chief Simon Stiell stated that the severe heatwaves scorching Europe are “the latest price to pay for fossil fuel pollution baking our planet”. He warned that extreme heat and related extreme weather such as mega-droughts, wildfires, and floods will steadily worsen until humanity abandons burning coal, oil and gas. Wonder what Trump and his far right climate change denier cronies make of the warning? Oh, I forget they have their heads buried in the sand and notice none of the fingerprints of climate change we are witnessing. Rajend Naidu Sydney, Australia
Japan’s chances
Is 2026 the year of the Land of the Rising Sun? Japan has been displaying confidence and a superior ability to strike back at the 2026 Soccer World Cup. I would not be surprised if Japan progresses further to the final stages of the World Cup glory, displacing many favourites along the way. Floyd Robinson Mirconesia
Sugar industry can rise again
Colin Deoki asks whether Fiji’s sugar giant can rise again (FT 28/06/26). I say yes, surely. It can — but only if we confront the single most damaging policy shift in the industry’s modern history: the deliberate dismantling of rail based transport and the strategic transfer of transport costs from the Fiji Sugar Corporation (FSC) onto farmers. For over a century, rail was not just a symbol of the industry — it was its economic backbone. Under the Master Award, 70 per cent of cane transport was by rail and 30 per cent by lorry. Rail transport was free for farmers. It was efficient, predictable, and cost neutral. Even growers living a few metres from the tramline were guaranteed rail service. But FSC slowly dismantled this system through inducements and administrative pressure. Farmers were encouraged — and in many cases pushed — into lorry gangs. Within a decade, rail collapsed not because it failed, but because FSC withdrew service, starved the system of maintenance, and shifted growers into trucks. Today, 95 per cent of cane is transported by lorry, and the consequences are catastrophic. A Toyota truck carries barely seven tonnes of cane. At $37-50 per tonne transport alone, a single load costs roughly $259-350. A 100 tonne harvest costs nearly $3700-5000 in transport alone. This cost used to be zero under rail. Overnight, FSC transferred thousands of dollars of transport burden onto farmers — while absolving itself of its Master Award obligations. This was a strategic decision gradually brought onto the grower as the FSC did not give enough quota or starved the gangs harvesting under MOGA agreement with empty cane carts, forcing growers to accept lorry conversion. This was a very dirty trick played on the growers as the FSC controlled the entire industry. This is the real issue. Cane farming did not become uneconomical because of global sugar prices. It became uneconomical because FSC engineered a system where farmers now pay $130-plus per tonne in total production and delivery costs — without counting the $10,000–$15,000 in unpaid family labour that every household contributes per year. Government’s proposed $85 per tonne support cannot cover a cost structure this distorted, which arrived in four separate payments over an 18-month period. The collapse of the rail was not an accident. It was engineered by the FSC, in a cane grower governance vacuum. In 2018, the Bainimarama government removed elected grower representatives, dissolved the Sugar Board, and installed a ministry aligned CEO at the Sugar Cane Growers Council (SCGC). With no independent oversight, FSC could do as it pleased — including shifting costs, ignoring rail obligations, and paying CEOs $860,000 per year with $10,000 monthly accommodation allowances at Denarau while farmers struggled to survive. Yet the solution is not theoretical. Fiji already trialled the modern system: portable gang units, tractor trailer gangs, and side loading bins identical to those used in Queensland. Mechanical harvesters cut cane directly into side loading bins, which are offloaded onto the tramline. No double handling. No road congestion. No diesel wastage. No $3700-5000 costs of transport bill, per every 100 tonnes. The final truth is this: Fiji does not need to “reinvent” sugar. It needs to restore the one system that made cane farming viable for 100 years — rail transport under the Master Award. Rail never collapsed. FSC collapsed its obligations. The tramlines still exist. The sleepers still exist. The corridors still exist. What is missing is leadership and accountability. A rail based system is not nostalgia; it is arithmetic. Rail moves 400–600 tonnes of cane by one locomotive, at a time. A lorry moves seven tonnes only, needing nearly 100 trips to carry the same amount. Rail costs farmers nothing. A lorry costs $37-50 per tonne. Rail eliminates diesel wastage, road congestion, and the annual $3700-5000 per every 100 tonne, transport bill that destroys farmer profitability. Rail also qualifies for Green Climate Fund finance support, because shifting cane from trucks to rail reduces emissions, reduces fossil fuel dependency, and supports climate resilient agriculture. Fiji can legitimately seek Green Climate Fund support for rail restoration, portable gang systems, and side loading bins — because these are climate smart interventions, not subsidies. If Fiji wants the sugar giant to rise again, it must stop pretending cane farming can survive on trucks. The industry’s future begins where its past succeeded: on rail. If Fiji restores rail and deploys portable gang systems nationwide, cane farming becomes viable again. The giant can rise — not through slogans, but through mathematics, engineering, and a return to the transport model that sustained the industry for 150 years. The future of sugar begins with one decision: put cane back on rail, and put fairness back into the Master Award. Relegate the FSC to where it deserves to be placed —only a 30 per cent shareholder, nothing more. The grower needs to take charge of the industry and reinstate the legislations and institutions that were removed by the Bainimarama regime. The incoming government needs to do a comprehensive commission of inquiry in the FSC to take control of their senior management costs and governance issues. Dr Sushil K Sharma Lautoka
