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ABOUT GRUBSHEET
Welcome to a corner of cyberspace that challenges conventional assumptions and proffers the kind of opinions that infuriate the chattering classes. The difference between us and them is that our tongues are planted firmly in our cheeks. And unlike them, we thrive on our views being challenged so long as originality and wit triumph over mindless abuse. Please don't label your return volley "anonymous". Give yourself a name or pseudonym so readers can track your progress in the intellectual melee. Graham Davis and Peter Hiscock
RECENT COMMENTS ON GRUBSHEET
- Graham Davis on # 82 AUSTRALIA ENGINEERS JAPAN SNUB
- Mike Tropp on # 82 AUSTRALIA ENGINEERS JAPAN SNUB
- Denis Beckmann on # 82 AUSTRALIA ENGINEERS JAPAN SNUB
- Bula Mada on # 82 AUSTRALIA ENGINEERS JAPAN SNUB
- terry tavita on # 82 AUSTRALIA ENGINEERS JAPAN SNUB
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# 82 AUSTRALIA ENGINEERS JAPAN SNUB
Posted on May 18, 2012 | 20 CommentsJapan has damaged its close relations with Fiji by bowing to an Australian request not to proceed with plans to invite the Fijian leader, Frank Bainimarama, to an important regional conference this month. The Australian newspaper says the Japanese Government had been keen to ask Commodore Bainimarama to come to Tokyo for the triennial PALM Forum of Pacific leaders. But... -
#81 THE STRENGTH OF BRAND FIJI
Posted on May 16, 2012 | 12 CommentsAir Pacific has reached into its past to define its future with the decision to re-brand itself as Fiji Airways more than 40-years after it jettisoned the name. The airline’s new flagship aircraft –three Airbus A330-200s – will be emblazoned with the back-to-the-future moniker when they begin operating across the network in just over a year. The state-of-the art A330... -
# MISS WORLD FIJI DEBACLE
Posted on May 13, 2012 | 3 CommentsFiji has a new Miss World contestant after a debacle that has shamed the local organisers and severely dented sponsor confidence in the country’s ability to stage credible events. The original winner of the competition – 16-year old Torika Watters – has been deemed ineligible, on the grounds of age, to participate in the forthcoming Miss World in Mongolia and... -
#79 CONSTITUTIONAL CAPERS
Posted on May 12, 2012 | 17 CommentsA central pillar of the Fiji Government’s promised return to democracy in 2014 is the formulation of a new constitution to provide for one man one vote, a feature that was noticeably absent in the 1997 constitution abrogated three years ago. The job has been given to a panel led by Professor Yash Ghai, a constitutional expert who’s a global... -
#78 PACIFIC MEDIA PUG (UPDATED 10/5)
Posted on May 9, 2012 | 15 CommentsTupuola Terry Tavita is media advisor to the Samoan prime minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, and editor of Savali, the Samoan government newspaper. He’s also a barroom bruiser who’s been openly castigated by his Pacific journalist colleagues for his racist comments on industry websites. Readers of Grubsheet will be familiar with his interventions in these columns and the crude nature of... -
#77 ON THE EDGE. AGAIN
Posted on May 8, 2012 | 23 CommentsJournalist educators have much in common with Caesar’s wife. They not only have to be above reproach but be seen to be above reproach. Anything less and these pillars of journalistic propriety can crumble in an instant, exposed in the eyes of their students and the wider community as emperors with no clothes. They need to live up to the... -
#76 MEDIA TITANS CLASH (UPDATED 10/5)
Posted on May 7, 2012 | 11 CommentsA major row between the heads of two of the South Pacific’s foremost journalism schools threatens to spill over into a wider arena and damage regional relationships. The director of the influential Pacific Media Centre at the Auckland University of Technology, Professor David Robie, has accused the head of the School of Journalism at the Fiji-based University of the South... -
#75 NOW THAT’S HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE
Posted on May 7, 2012 | 12 CommentsGrubsheet has again been wrestling in these columns with correspondents who claim – invariably without concrete evidence – that Frank Bainimarama and his regime are guilty of “torture” and widespread “human rights abuses”. There seems little doubt that some regime critics have been subjected to summary beatings in military custody and these are not excused. But the notion that human... -
# 74 WORLD CHAMPION THUG
Posted on May 6, 2012 | 27 CommentsTake a good look at this face. It’s what happened to Australian sportsman Simon Cowley when he fell foul of champion swimmer, Nick D’Arcy, in a bar altercation shortly before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. D’Arcy king-hit Cowley, inflicting so much damage that his features had to be surgically rebuilt. Take another good look at this face. Because this is... -
# 73 DOCTOR EDGE RESPONDS
Posted on May 1, 2012 | 15 CommentsThe following was submitted to the Fiji Sun for publication as a reply to Graham’s column of Sunday. As the column was reprinted from this blog, however, I feel it is appropriate to post the reply as a blog comment as well, which will also open it up to response by Graham and others. But first I must thank Graham...