The saga of contemporary Fiji– the clash between the country’s opposing political forces – can be very bruising if you become a participant. For its attempts to explain why Frank Bainimarama isn’t the devil incarnate, Grubsheet has been threatened with bashing, shooting and hanging. And all in the space of the past week. Why? Because we’re deemed to be “treasonous” – alleged beneficiaries of Bainimarama’s “illegal” rule. Quite how isn’t immediately clear unless you regard threats to your personal safety as a benefit. It all gets pretty tiresome, especially when people are actively trying to find out where you live and there are website postings urging any Fijian who encounters you to beat you to a pulp.
The corruption trial of Laisenia Qarase – the deposed prime minister – has taken the already fevered atmosphere on some anti-government websites to a new level. They’ve always been venues for feral behaviour but an obvious element of desperation has set in among the more extreme of the regime’s opponents. With preparations underway in earnest for the return to democracy in Fiji – and thousands registering to vote – it seems to have dawned on these people that the game is getting away. The previous government is not going to be restored. And everything that convinced its supporters otherwise – their dreams of Fiji’s bigger neighbours bringing Bainimarama to heel – have turned to dust. It’s triggered an unprecedented level of fury and the emergence of a distinct “scorched earth” mentality along the lines of “if we can’t win, let’s destroy”. Is it merely a lunatic fringe? It’s impossible to know but there do seem to be a lot of lunatics loitering in cyberspace right now.
Grubsheet is a particular target of this venom. The combination of being opinionated and Kai Valagi (European) seems to drive some of these indigenous supremacists apoplectic. I’m often asked by my Australian friends “why bother?” Why on earth subject yourself to insult – and perhaps worse – when it’s a firefight over the direction of a minor Pacific country of less than a million people? Good question and I’ll try to answer it as best I can. It’s because of an accident of history, of being born to missionary parents who went to Fiji in their twenties and strived for most of their lives for some of the ideals I’m still pursuing. And especially a multiracial Fiji. Amid the cyber baying for my blood, some people are asking “who the hell is this Davis guy anyway?” So perhaps a little personal history might help.
They called me Graham Hunt Davis, Graham because they liked the name and Hunt after John Hunt, one of the most famous of the pioneering Methodist missionaries in whose steps my father and mother followed. Young Australians, Peter and Betty Davis came to Fiji by flying boat in 1952 and were posted to Lakeba, the chiefly island in the Lau group, where they were the only resident Kai Valagi in scores of miles of ocean. My mother was 22, my father 25 and they immersed themselves in the Fijian language, their church work and the rhythms of island life. In 1953, my mother went by copra boat to Suva to give birth to me at the famous Nurse Morrison’s, the maternity annex at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital. My father went too, because the birth was planned around a much bigger event – the Methodist Church annual conference, which he always attended. In fact, in a masterly exercise in family planning, The Davis kids were carefully crafted around that October event– so much so that my two brothers and I were all born in the tenth month – them a day apart – at three-yearly intervals. It had to be that way because medical services in isolated parts of Fiji were rudimentary and my parents were naturally keen to give my mother and me the best possible assistance if something went wrong.
In those days, fathers weren’t present at the birth. So while the celebrated Dr Donald Oldmeadow was delivering my mother of me, my father was playing Canasta – a popular card game – with friends on the crest of the hill in Gordon Street. There was apparently talk of calling me Canasta in the excitement of the moment when the call came through. But maybe because my parents never, ever touched a drop of alcohol, sobriety came naturally and that idea mercifully went no further. I was born at five minutes to midnight two months before Queen Elizabeth visited Fiji for the first time. I’ve seen my parents’ boss – the Reverend Stanley Cowled – in the official film of the visit but by then, they’d whisked me away from perhaps the biggest thing to have ever happened in Fiji onto the copra boat home to Lakeba.
We lived in a sprawling missionary house on the hill above the village of Tubou, the seat of the Tui Nayau,, the paramount chief of the Lau group. Methodist missionaries always lived modestly because they were paid a pittance. But while their timber houses were also modest, they were always in the best position and were often the envy of the colonial administrators. All of our houses in Fiji were on hills with spectacular views because the missionaries had long ago worked out that this was the best place to get the cooling sea breezes and escape the occasional tsunami.
The Tui Nayau at the time was Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba III, the father of the most famous Tui Nayau of all – his successor and the founder of independent Fiji, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. Ratu Tevita was a hugely commanding presence. Every time he appeared on the rara, the village green, everyone would sink to the ground and stay there until he’d moved on. And he was also something of an eccentric, the owner of Lakeba’s only car – a 1940s Morris. In those days there were no roads on the island and everyone walked or traveled on horseback. So the Tui Nayau would drive his pampered Morris round and round the rara, with his subjects dropping to the ground every time he wound past.
With my father and mother immersed in the life of the church and the community, I was reared by our house girl, Sapela, who wore her hair in the braided locks of many Lauan girls at the time. We were hugely attached and I grew up speaking the Fijian language and playing with i’Taukei children, with the nearest Kai Valagi far across the seas. A copra boat came every five weeks with the mail and provisions and occasionally a British “Dee-Oh” or District Officer would come to stay. But my parents’ letters from the time reek of the isolation, of no telephone and only short wave radio as a means of contact with the outside world.
Like everyone in Fiji in the 1950s, we grew up with the sound of the static of the uncertain radio signal, beaming off the ionosphere from London or Melbourne into our Philips receiver. It’s strange what you remember as a child. “BBC World Service.The News, read by Peter King”. Twenty four years later, I handed the same Peter King his news bulletin when I joined the BBC World Service as a sub-editor. From Lakeba to London. The longest of journeys.
As they say, nostalgia ain’t what it used to be and I apologise for this personal diversion and for covering only my earliest years. But few things irritate me more than the claims of my critics that I have no place commenting on events in Fiji. Really? I’ve grown up in the country in villages, towns and cities (after Lakeba came Savusavu, Lautoka and Suva). I’ve spent countless hours listening to the sermons of talatalas and village church choirs and observing all the rituals and observances of the Vanua. And – in a darker right of passage – I was also sexually abused like so many other children in Fiji. So I think I know enough about the country to write about it. It’s a place where hypocrisy and cant flourish alongside beauty and inspiration. Where even some of its most respected citizens don’t always practice what they preach. Yet for all its faults, it also inspires intense affection from citizens of every hue and leaves an indelible mark on anyone fortunate enough to live there. It’s encapsulated in that old phrase – “you can take the boy out of Fiji but you can’t take Fiji out of the boy”.
We’ve all been reared acknowledging the special place of the i’Taukei in national life. They’re owners and custodians of most of the land, custodians of the rich traditions of the Vanua, backbones of the country’s security and provide much of its employment base. Above all, they’re first among equals as the First Fijians. But every Fijian of whatever race feels pride when Fiji excels, whether in a rugby test or a foreign battlefield. When I first saw the voter registration commercial – the “I’m Fijian” one – I was as startled as most people. What do you mean “I’m Fijian”? You mean me? A kumala vula? All our lives, we’ve been conditioned to believe that the term belongs to the i’Taukei. It’s not ours, it’s theirs. Yet here are all these multiracial faces, including that wonderful, grinning, toothless Indo-Fijian lady at the end, proudly declaring- “I’m Fijian!”
Akuila Yabaki, the talatala who heads the Citizens Constitutional Forum, tells me CCF polling shows that only 20 per cent of i’Taukei want to share the name with other citizens. So the act of imposing it to describe the entire population doesn’t mean it has been embraced and it could be a long time before the majority of First Fijians are comfortable with the new arrangement.
To the other 80 per cent – and especially those who argue that I don’t have a right to be Fijian – I direct a personal plea: Yalo vinaka, please grant the rest of us the privilege of belonging in the land of our birth. We don’t seek to dispossess you, to deprive you of your land or your rights. We don’t seek to weaken your culture or your traditions. We acknowledge your central importance in national life. The other races in Fiji – your fellow citizens – just want to feel they also belong.
My late father always said; “Never underestimate the capacity of the Fijian people for forgiveness”. Now – a generation on – I, for one, hope that the i’Taukei can never be underestimated for something else – their capacity to share. Because time and again, we’re reminded that for all the hatred generated by Fiji’s politics, your average i’Taukei basically has a yalo vinaka – a kind heart. It’s what gets the country through its many challenges every time. Including, I hope, the challenge of forging a new identity for everyone.
You poor lamb. A little bit of verbal abuse and a few nasty comments leave you feeling bruised. Oh dear poor ickle pickle Graham let Mummy kiss it better.
What about the good people of Fiji who have got actual bruises and scars because they tried to explain why coups were wrong and dictatorship was not tight for Fiji.
You know violence is wrong but still you try to gloss over it by saying it is just buturaki. Nothing to worry about really, just boys being boys and if a few girls get in the way that’s just their bad luck because it is important the nothing derails the Dictator’s hold on power.
Oh and if the violence gets really nasty and the someone is killed and soldier who committed murder is let out of prison after a week or two that’s fine. It’s not a dictator interfering with the judiciary it just a commander looking after his boys so that makes it ok.
Oh Dear Uncle Fwankie I love you so. Pwease Pwease will you make everything better by locking up those bullies who have been so mean to me.
Sigh. See what I mean about the desperation? And you, whatever you name is, are a coward who hides behind your anonymity like a skirt. “Oooh, but I can’t use my real name or those big bad soldiers will come for me!”
Who’s the Mummy’s boy then? Faceless, impotent and irrelevant. Locked in the coward’s castle of cyberspace with the other loudmouths, smart arses and bully boys making a lot of noise and issuing their idle threats.
This piece was pitched at the nice people, not liumuri lamusona like you. Come out from under that skirt and show your face and then you’ll have my respect. “Oooh, but you know I can’t!” Woo-oo.
OOOh i am all bwuised
These people who “tried to explain why coups were wrong and dictatorship was not tight for Fiji.”, where were they on 14 May 1987 and on 19 May 2000 ?
Come on, tell me you hypocrite.
@ Mummy’s Boy….
Look who is your daddy now..its Dear Uncle Fwankie….I love you so. Pwease Pwease will you make everything better…..?
Oh yeah
But no more free lunch…ok
Pwease Pwease Dear Uncle Fwankie….I’m so used to free rides….
Oh no you don’t…and get out from underneath mummas skirt…don’t be afraid boy..
Oh no its just you shadow…don’t be afraid..
But Dear Uncle Fwankie, I am used to bullying other people with my friends and taking their meals…I and my fwiends didn’t have to work….and Dear Uncle Fwankie, we were used to throwing stones and hide behind mamma…it was fun…
Ok Mummys boy…your fun time is over
In 2014, what happens if the government that is elected turns around and tries to arrest your Uncle Frankie for treason?
Another coup?
or are you going to set up Graham’s Reconciliation Commission?
You see, 2014 will not be the end of the matter. Either Frankie will continue to pull the strings behind the scenes, or he will pull the strings in front of the scenes. Either way, Frankie and his army men won’t go away. And neither will Frankie’s enemies. Fiji will still be as politically unstable as before.
@ Petelo,
Election or no election and whatever, what is your problem you shameless moron
@ Petelo
You obviously havent been to Fiji coz if you did you will quickly realise that many people are happy with Frank…some are even calling for the elections to be cancelled as they are happy with the current government!
Go read the Lowy Institute Report on Frank’s popularity (have you ever heard of them?)
Stop behaving like that tub of lard, your PM Tuilaepa, who has never been to Fiji to assess the situation for himself, but keeps pissing into the wind to please his paymasters in Canberra and Wellington
You haven’t answered the question. What happens if the newly elected govt starts making noises that for true reconciliation to happen, the perpetrators of the last coup need to be brought to justice.
What then?
You can bet your bottom Fijian peso that Frank will not let that happen. That is why he is busying himself cleaning out all potential candidates who could ’cause trouble’ in 2014 and would possibly have a hope of winning ‘free and fair’ elections. He is likely to vet all possible candidates in 2014 and making them understand exactly what they are not supposed to do.
Frank’s immunity will be a source of friction between those who will harbour ill will about the events of 2006 and those who have benefited from Frank’s coup.
At the end of the day, coups solve nothing. They simply end up pass on grievances to the next generation. There are people out there in the vanua who are waiting for their time to get their hands on Frank and his mates. They will wait for 2014 to come and they will start plotting again. Old scores will be settled. Those are my suspicions based on the previous coups.
Could the real Petelo stand up please!!!?
That why we need a strong military in Fiji to keep those ethno-nationalist, racist hounds with a sense of entitlement that their snouts belong in the trough!
Vanua or no Vanua, Fiji is a multiracial and multicultural society…we have learnt from experience that the ‘tyranny of the majority’ does not work…..you dont understand this because Samoa is basically a monocultural and homogenous society…..with a political system based on their culture….great for small countries like Samoa, Tonga, Niue, Tokelaus etc, but wont work in Fiji.
Fiji is too complex for you to understand. So let us sort our own problems out, Just stay in Samoa and count your blessings.
Unless you have something constructive to contribute…please stay out….and please tell Tuilaepa that
We can argue about hypothetical situations till the cows come home
The easy answer, of course, is to have the immigrants integrate into Fijian society, like what happened in Samoa.
Half the country is descended from either European or Chinese immigrants/settlers/labourers in the early 20th century. But they all married Samoans and integrated into Samoan society. Even those who didn’t marry into Samoan families, have integrated into Samoan society.
The secret to national unity is in the bedroom. Indians and Fijians should’ve been shagging eachother silly in the plantations. Perhaps Chand’s pick up lines were lost in translation.
Those are my words of wisdom for today dear friends. Learn from Samoa, the guru of national unity in the south pacific.
@ Petelo
Hey Sole, you hit the nail on the head about the bedroom!
Ya, I agree that the bedroom is the key to integration….in more ways than one…what are we integrating?………LOL
Problem is that we in Fiji, unlike Samoa, were subject to the British colonial ‘divide and rule’ policy. This meant that all races were kept apart and left to pursue their own lifestyles independently. Any bedroom type engagements …very welcome as they are…..was frowned upon/discoraged.
The products of these bedroom engagements i.e. the half castes were treated with derison.
In Samoa they integrated them into their society; in Fiji they were left to fend for themselves…and in doing so created a legacy of independent, self reliant, hardworking people.
These racial barriers were maintained by Mara, Rabuka and Qarase governments. People here refer to it as a continuation of the ‘politics of colonialism’
Frank has come onto the scene and smashed all that edifce down..well hopefully.
Already, people in Fiji are engaging in the bedroom more vigorously now that the barriers have been removed. Needless to say, they enjoying their new found freedom!
@ Petelo,
Could the real Petelo stand up please!!!?
Ok it dosen’t matter…why.. because cowards are cowards and there is no other names for them…and what do you call a group of them…still cowards so it dosen’t matter.. ok Terry..but you guys are wellcome to this site.
Your arguement reminds me of “Revelation Wilson”, blaming Indians for not inter-marrying with other races…some warped logic for a multi-cultural society..boy you guys just get better
And the whole idea of intergration…through marriage…wow..
Ok lets have a look at it:
Indians have a very unique culture that we brought with us to Fiji.
And mix that up with the highly evolved Fijian Culture…and believe me bothe these cultures were not evolved because of sex. And together we had 2 great cultures side by side in the same country. Of course there were inter-racial marriages..but through love and respect for each other, not because some Samoan, Chinese or European said so. Or just because we had plantations….
And they bore children who were highly evolved and cultured…why bacause these were children of love and not just because “shagging by Chinese and European immigrants….now you see what I’m getting at. You probably don’t because you are the decendent of a shagger shagged….you still don’t get it….
Because most of you are decendants of bedroom and plantation shagged shaggers, you lack decent values and cultures otherwise you would not have come out with such filth.
And if you had values you would treat you own citizens with respect and diginity…get it.
You probably won’t because you are decendants of the bedroom and plantation shaggy shagged….the Europeans and the Chinese may have pissed on the shagged after shagg, thats why your brain is on piss all the time….and no wonder you let ANZ to come and shagg you all…..oh boy now go back to your plantation….daddy is waiting
Revelation Wilson has a point. The secret to national unity is in the bedroom. I’ve seen many beautiful fiji-indian girls in Fiji. One day I might come over to Fiji and turn them into Samoans.
@ Petelo or whoever the European or Chinese shagged shit brain you are..
If you cannot tell the difference between a Fijian girl and the gays…than something more seriously wrong with you all….like I said that European and the Chinese piss has got in your brains…
…or here is an idea….go and shagg each other in Samoa if you are not getting enough shagg from Tui….take wilson with you
Chand, you know that with the chinese DNA inserted into Samoans, that Samoa is now got the business acumen and the cultural security in its own identity to leave Fiji behind. The sleeping giant of the pacific is slowly rising. All because of inter-racial mixing.
Petelo, I love this logic. So thanks to literally sleeping with the Chinese, Samoa is now in a position to overtake Fiji. You’ve had a leg up ( or is it leg over?). Mate, it happened in Fiji long ago. Some of the biggest business names in the country are Fijian Chinese. Always playing catch-up, eh? It must infuriate you and my old mate TTT.
@ Petelo,
Could the real Petelo stand up please!!!?
Ok it doesn’t matter….
And why is that Mr Chand???? cowards….again!!!
Well lets add a couple more…..Chinese DNA eh
Suppose Petelo, Tui and TTT….have the same DNA and….you know what I mean…
Oh no please explain…
You see it was a dirty deal in the plantations of Samoa….and…
Oh no please stop……its getting dirty…but is this why, like the old saying “birds of a feather…thingi”
Ok Chand, now what happens with the Chinese DNA embedded and shagging have now started with ANZ…
Me thinks the Dirty Trio have gotten in their heads that they can now fly to the moon….and that would require shagging with the PNG’s
Anonymous – Do not be fooled by the Lowly report on Franks popularity. The report was a sham. Get real mate.Very few people are happy with Frank. More would like to see a quick end to this illegal regime. I know because I live in Fiji
and am in touch with what is happening on the ground!
Raibe, the Australian polling expert Sol Leibovic – who set up the highly respected and accurate Newspoll – supervised the Lowy Poll for Tebbut Fiji and the Lowy Institute and has endorsed its findings as being correct within the usual small margin of error. It was a precise and carefully chosen sample and all of the parties who conducted it stand by the results, even though it surprised them and especially the Lowy Institute, which hasn’t been Bainimarama’s greatest fan.
So you can question it has much as you like but this is what these people – a group of some one-thousand potential voters – told the pollsters. Now you can say they might not have been telling them the truth and that’s fair enough. But even it you allow for many of these being scared that their answers might be given to the government (and in any event they weren’t required to provide their names) it’s still a healthy proportion in the regime’s favour.
How do you know that the people you talk to – who you say all oppose the government – don’t tell you what you want to know? Or that you just hang around with anti-regime types, which I suspect is what really occurs when you express the views you do? Let’s see what happens in 2014.
@ Raibe,
Maybe the ground that you are treading on is full of hatred…did you consider moving on to a neutral ground. Or maybe pause for a moment. Get on the side and take your current glasses off and put a new one…just for one moment.
I did since 1987…I moved on to the sidelines (oh I’m sorry, I was forced to). And I observed and observed but I did not lose hope. May be you should do the same.
What is your vision for Fiji ( and don’t give me the democracy bullshit)…what do you want for the people of Fiji…( did you notice I deliberatly left “what you want for youself”). Come on mate tell us than we can have a meaningfull debate.
Ok democracy….did you want the Samoan concept ( the dogs and the rat colony wouldn’t want that concept).
Just pause for a moment brother….if we support a cause by this government that we think benefits the people of Fiji does not mean we are against you.
And just be wary of those who may be throwing a bit of money here and there seeking for support…just be wary of these people….I believe you when you say you are in Fiji…but what about those inciting, sitting comfortably having their host government provided burgers….do they think who Raibe is or care.
Just be careful of those using you as a tool for their selfish ends…..I think I care for you….kind regards
@ Raibe
So you are the guy on the ground with all the right info?
Strange, coz I went back to my village in Tailevu for a few weeks last month and they tell me a different story from what you trying to say. They all for Frank.
So I wonder which province you from and whether you can match the power of Tailevu?
Be careful, if you dont want to learn the lessons of Fiji history, you may well be forced to re-learn it!
Taura vakamalua tagane!
Some pretty personal stuff being shared but it takes a lot of courage to do that. I would like to think your life story, could have some parallels (however distant) to the main character ‘P.K’ in the movie “The Power of One”.
Tom,
What a co-incidence…this movie was on GEM yesterday. I just missed it because of committments but managed to just briefly watch it…..oh yeah parallels.
And I can see Graham coming out as a fighter for righteousness…you see most of us have as individuals or as communities been through some difficult times.
And because of experiencing these difficult times…we pray and wish that these things don’t repeat to those who have not suffered…I’m talking in general terms.
And those who have subjected others to painful experiences probably won’t understand…be it politics or otherwise…there are people like that in society and that brings me to GOD…..because of evil that we pray to GOD and seek his strength and guidance and protection.
And may the Lords blessings be with Graham always.
And this is why we need to fight for justice it may not be in the interest of a few…but we must, individually and collectively fight.
Thanks Tom and have a lovely day.
Thank you Tom and Chand but please. I am just a lowly and self serving hack on whose head nobility doesn’t easily sit. But I appreciate your comments.
Graham, I think what Chand means is that his aunties and uncles want to install you as the new Tui Hindi, sau ni vanua ko Nadi.
hindi is a language mate…. chiefly titles in Fiji are named after physical areas…….. Get your facts correct … as a fact all titles apart from academic ones are after physical locations!!
Yes I know Hindi is a language. However, Fiji-Indians don’t have centuries of connection to any physical location in Fiji, so Tui [Physical Location] would be a bit silly wouldn’t it?
They own their own language and culture, which they have brought to Fiji, so Tui Hindi it is then! …and possibly a Tui Urdu as well.
@ Rahul,
Welcome to this site. I’ve read your other blog and for your age you seem quite informed and keep it up mate.
And that brings me to this bloke named Petelo. Now I understand you could probably be less than half his age and probably have more than twice the intellect of this bloke. Now you can get to him or basically ignore, the choice is yours…but over time you will realise that this bloke is nothing but a block head.
Again the choice is yours, you can use him as a training ground for a comedy show or just ignore him. You will find him appearing from time to time as a sore in the dogs arse…but again the choice is yours.
You may again use him as a reference when dealing with primary school children….ie preparing them for school debates…a good target practice for a serious debate…like throwing a line as ” you know that other country known as Samoa…and the lap dogs….etc etc.”
But he will keep on appearing, like I said, a sore in the ……
Welcome Rahul
Yes Welcome Rahul.
Please be careful of Chand. He lost the court battle to become the Tui Hindi because, well… nobody likes him. He has been grumpy at me ever since. He was interviewed for the Tui Urdu title but he failed the religious test.
Thank you Graham, for standing your light and shinning it bright.
Continue the good work. Darkness and Negativity will be brought to the light and be judged righteously.
Fiji’s destiny is already written and no one can change it. The law is life and death.
If you change you will live and if you don’t you will die through self destruction.The changers are coming people. This has been ordained from above but many will try to go against it by their own ego and self righteous way. Negative self mindset will no longer survive in the new Fiji. Fiji is moving forward and upward.
Bula Graham
A very moving story but a question re “And – in a darker right of passage – I was also sexually abused like so many other children in Fiji.”
Was it someone from the Methodist Church or one of the Fijian chiefs on the island – was it an isolated incident or prolonged abuse. I am sorry for asking, but it pains to know the truth. I admire you, for many others would not want to associate with Fiji after subjecting you through the “darker right of passage
@ Sympathiser
Just because someone was sexually abused in a country, that dosent mean people will not want to associate with that country.
If we accept your argument, people will not be travelling to Australia, UK and the US etc where there is greater scale of sexual abuse.
Sexual abuse is a crime. Name me one country that is completely crime free!!
You sound like that other smart arse, ‘Registrar of Birth’ (see his inane comment below).
You need a dose of reality
In answer to your question, I was sexually abused at a young age by someone in a church institution my father had supervision of who was i’Taukei. I didn’t tell my parents and they died without knowing. I’m sorry about your own experience but I don’t need to tell you that It happens all the time in Fiji. So often that it doesn’t even seem to be regarded as exceptional. Which makes it all the more tragic.
Graham
You are a child of accident of history. It just happened that you were born in Fiji because your lovely father was a talatala in Fiji – it seems that is the problem with your critics – it reminds me of those Peace Corp volunteers – just because their children are born in Fiji did not make them Fiji citizens. After all, your parents returned to Australia and as you stated previously you chose Australian citizenship over Fiji one because of family commitments.
The citizenship rules in many countries state the following:
Even if you were born in a country, you will not be a citizen if neither of your parents was a citizen or legally settled here at the time of your birth. This means you are not a citizen of Fiji if, at the time of your birth, your parents were in the country temporarily, as missionaries.
@ Registrar of Birth
Ya, but what does the laws of Fiji say?
If you born there you have a birthright.
Many people who were born in Fiji are reclaiming that right by taking up Fiji citizenship. Fiji is encouraging such people to do so.
Stop being a smart arse!
“Registrar of Births”, I suppose if you think that 20 years was “temporary” – (my parents came in 1952 and left in 1972) – and then my father came back to Suva for another five years from i1989 till 1992 – then it’s temporary.
Let’s turn it around. Your parents come to Australia for almost a quarter of a century and you are born there. But I say to you as an Australian with Australian parents that that’s not long enough for you to be ever considered an Australian.
You logic is breathtaking. But it’s something I’ve come to expect. I can’t help you because you can’t be helped.
One Qarase Govt policy in the works was dual citizens only for the i-taukei while rest could go to hell – one of several blatantly racist legislations in the pipeline.
SDL govt also had a draconian media law ready for implementation – so much for numbskull writing under “mama-boy” championing SDL as beacon of democracy. Get bloody real! Are you an adult or high school student? if the former, it’s time you get out of your high school mentality.
Many people, not just indos, but people other races, were sick of the SDL, which had among its ranks some dubious characters. I do not have time to go into details save to say that the coup should not have happend but the SDL govt was asking for it, and is as culpable as Bainimarama for what transpired because pathetic governance.
We are all paying the price for the SDL’s stupidity and arrogance – govt was full of people and hangers on desperately trying to get rich and bent on humiliating and pushing out to sea the Indos. Coup put gross abuse of power by SDL to an abrupt halt – can you blame some people if they were relieved?
Some people are willing to tolerate some abuse by Bainimarama, just as you, mama boy, were willing to tolerate abuse by SDL, so spare us your pretentions and sanctimonious crap about democracy you hypocrite.
The coup may be a case of from the frying pan into the inferno, as some ‘smart ass’ has put it, but didn’t the moronic SDL govt see it coming, or was it too damn arrogant and too sure of itself? coup was bloody staring SDL in the face! The thinking apparently was, ‘if we bash the indos, military and the Kaiviti will be behind us; we will be untouchable. Boy, did it backfire.
some continues to peddle the line that coup happened ’cause of Bainimarama’s personal reasons, and try to portray Qarase as a saint. give us a break.
Coup happend for many reasons, but in essence, Qarase and the SDL unleashed Bainimarama.
Not everyone was fooled by Qarase-stye democracy like mama’s boy. For the likes of racist mama’s boy, coup has been a great travesty because they shared Qarase ideology of bashing the indos.
Under Qarase we had tyranny under the guise of democracy but this concept is beyond mama’s boy, with his high school mentality. Or maybe he was one of the beneficiaries of Qarase.
Mama’s boy would be well-advised to go and do a research about ‘how democratic is Fiji democracy?’ The he can return with a more thorough understanding of the situation than now, and we might be spared his naivety.
Can anyone tell me who are behind coup 4.5. I know they are former media people working for Qarese, but few names would be good.
Komai
The citizenship rules were changed by an illegal regime to accommodate the likes of Graham Davis, and I am sure he had a hand in the citizenship rule change after giving Frank TV time on Australian TV. It seems Sympathiser was saying if he was abused, he would not want to go back to Fiji, I may be wrong! Who cares who is behind C4/5?
Now you are really stupid, aren’t you? I was a Fiji citizen from Independence until 1994. I gave it up according to law. And now I get it back again. Simple, straightforward and direct. I had no dealings with government on this. I paid my money like hundreds of others have. In the queue with everyone else. Got a problem? Talk to them, not me.
The people who are behind Coup 4.5 are despicable. They pose as “democrats” but regularly censor contributions from people with whom they don’t agree. They also turn a blind eye to racism, carry exhortations to beat people who they don’t agree with and have even allowed the publication of instructions on how to make bombs.
This whole farce takes place behind a cloak of anonymity that makes them among the biggest cowards in cyberspace. They are not democrats but fascists who stand for the restoration of indigenous supremacy and racism.
They also have no regard for the facts. They publish stories that are lies. And the wonder of it all is that respectable people of the stature of Wadan Narsey and Victor Lal don’t have the moral clarity to reject their values and the vile hatred they promote. They give succour under their own names to people who aren’t worthy to lick the soles of their feet because they won’t put their names to the campaigns they wage.
It beggars belief that Indo-Fijians like these two hang out with people who call them mynahs or mongoose. They are hanging out with cowards and scum. But apart from that, Coup 4.5 is OK.
@ Registrar of Birth aka ‘Smart Arse’
There you go again, raising that hoary old chestnut of an illegal government making rules etc.
Give us a break.
You dont seem to grasp the idea that Legitimacy is also derived from the EXPECTATIONS OF THE PEOPLE that governments will look after their welfare. Go enrol in ‘Politics 101’
The dual citzenship idea is not new. It was raised in previous parliaments in Fiji. The late Senator ‘Kovana’ Vakalabure of Natewa was one of its most trenchant critics. He rejected the idea on the illusion that it would threaten ethnic Fijian paramountcy…the idea of the paramountcy of Fijian interests was the ideology that the Mara, Rabuka and Qarase governments based their policies on. The ideolgy promoted ethnic Fijian ethno-nationalism.
The idea of dual citzenship was resurrected again one evening after Frank turfed out the ethno-nationalist under Qarase in 2006, when a group of concerned Fiji citizens sat around a tanoa in Walu Bay somewhere to discuss ways to improve Fiji’s economy.
That group wrote up a paper that was presented to the Bainimarama government. The paper presented compelling economic and social reasons for justifying the issue of dual citizenship. It had nothing to do with Graham Davis et al.
How do I know? Well, I helped draft that paper and am happy to send you a copy. (Graham, I am happy to send you to publish on this site for people to judge the integrity of the arguments of that paper)
To even suggest that it was written specifically with Graham Davis in mind is being mischevious. By doing so you are trivilaising and personalising the whole issue.
It is an indication of a small mind that where you cant win an argument on the strength of your ideas, you reduce to a personal level and attack people. You are indeed an arsehiole for doing so.
There are people in Fiji with noble ideas as to how to better Fiji’s current condition. You are not part of that group. You snipe negatively from the sidelines and offer nothing constructive. You are therefore an arsehole in my books.
Now go take a laxative and wait for that moment of reckoning.
Komai, it would be good to get the submission you mention. If you have an email copy it’s grahamdavis@grubstreet.com.au Or you could send a hard copy to me at P.O Box 1272 Rozelle, NSW, 2039.
Congratulations for being a prime mover behind a great idea. I know several former citizens who have become successful business people abroad who are either starting businesses in Fiji or are planning to in the knowledge that they can come and go. This can only be good because what Fijians need most of all is jobs.
Graham
Thanks, I wonder if that i-taukei sex abuser is around – he might be an old man but he needs to be brought to justice.
In answer to one of the questions you replied, “I was sexually abused at a young age by someone in a church institution my father had supervision of who was i’Taukei.”
I hope the horrible experience has not made you hate i-taukeis — you know there are a few also in the Indo-Fijian community.
I am sure the revelation to us will have made you a much stronger man – God guide you!
Registrar, did it sound like I hate i’Taukei in the piece I wrote? In fact I have a great love and respect for them as a people and think I made that clear. So many people in Fiji have been sexually abused that I don’t thing I’m special at all. We all know it happens far too often.
The important thing is that we recognise that these are human failings and nothing to do with race. There are bad individuals, not groups of bad people who can be identified by skin colour. I don’t like some i’Taukei because of who they are, not what they are. Just as I don’t like some Aussies and Kiwis.
@ Registrar of Births:
Analise this:”I hope the horrible experience has not made you hate i-taukeis — you know there are a few also in the Indo-Fijian community”
Just out of curiosity, did someone from the Fiji-Indian community sexually abuse you?
If you have been, than I will pray for you and pray that finally justice will be done….people will pay for their crimes, whoever they are.
Registrar…like the “immigration officer”….well well..whoever..you seem to have a blockhead mentality….that your knowledge does not extend beyond your nose…sexual abuse is not confined to a particular group or country or nationality.
But I can see you sarcasm…what a sorry being you are? Thank god your opinion will only confined to those around you….we will move on.
Mark 9: 42
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”
I am sure the mighty Lord has taken care of the sex abuser and has punished him in his own sweet way
Graham
I am sure neither you nor the Fiji SUN would open your pages for Victor Lal and Wadan Narsey to write some of the things they have written, especially what Victor has disclosed about the present lot in Fiji, even though some might be unpalatable to us.
I read all the blogs and make up my own mind what to believe and what not to believe on the blogs.
In one of your earlier postings, The Politics of Hate, you had written as follows:
The wonder is that some of 4.5′s content is written by respected journalists and academics who are Indo-Fijians to boot. There are contributions from the Oxford-based Victor Lal – arguably Fiji’s finest investigative journalist – and from the economist Professor Wadan Narsey, currently working in Japan after falling out with his superiors at the University of the South Pacific.
Grubsheet recently asked Professor Narsey how he could possibly have anything to do with a website that carried overtly racist content. His response was that he’d been told by the “journalists” at 4.5 that it was preferable to allow people to “let off steam than have them bottle it up”
I wonder if you have ever asked the two Indo-Fijians to write for your blog – I gather that Grubsheet is a blog which is intended solely to carry your own opinion pieces on Fiji?
Anyway, as an Indo-Fijian I would not want to read anything from these two traitors of the Indo-Fijian community. They should be thrown into Naboro – to feast with George Speight and Laisenia Qarase who migh be joining Speight in the not to distant future.
Well 4.5 reader, I don’t think they should be put in Naboro with George and his boys. I happen to like both of them, Victor especially. They’re among the smartest people in Fiji. We just disagree politically and I don’t understand their association with racists and bomb makers.
I also don’t appreciate Wadan describing me as “foreign”. Talk about a pot calling the kettle black. He hangs out with people who refer to Indo-Fijians obliquely as imported pests.
You’ve correctly identified my basic problem with running their pieces. This is my blog. Wadan has his own too with all of his own stuff on it. But I think he uses 4.5 to get a bigger audience whereas I’m not so hung up about numbers than to mix with fascist spivs and thugs. You could say that’s because the Fiji Sun often picks up my pieces but they pick and choose as they like and I have no say over that.
Victor and I actually exchange friendly emails, even though we strongly disagree about some things. I think both men are very talented people. It’s just a shame they’re batting for the wrong team. 🙂
@Coup Four Point Five Reader..
I think you got it wrong…let the editors of those newspapers decide but didn’t you post on this site without censorship. I’ve written manytimes on your favourite blogsite and to date nothing has been posted…not even an edited version. Now that’s what you may call debate but nah…not us the fair go ones…we don’t hide.
By the way all soup4.5 readers are welcome to this site to have a debate…including Wadan and Victor…we’re waiting
Oh…can you guys be brave enough to at least put a name…a family name.
Graham,
you gave me a real dilemma when you said this. “Come out from under that skirt and show your face and then you’ll have my respect.”
It’s such a difficult choice
1- Do I want the respect of a self important, hypocritical old wind bag, a beating and be remanded in prison to await an unfair trial?
Or
2- Do I NOT want the respect of a self important, hypocritical old wind bag, NO beating and NOT be remanded in prison to await an unfair trial?
Give me a minute it is really difficult to decide. Oh I know I’ll go with option 1 my real name is wait for it
Mummy’s Boy.
Sorry Graham I just had visions of the fist of a big burly bullying dictator heading towards my handsome visage. I guess I will just have to live without your respect and keep hiding behind the skirt.
I’ll just have to make do with my freedom
Oh, you are so poetic, Mummy’s Boy, and so sure of your “handsome visage” And you call me self important?
I might be a “hypocritical old windbag” but you – dear boy – are still a coward.
The real difference between us is that I’m a real person and you aren’t. A phantom, behind a pseudonym, behind a skirt.
“Mummy’s Boy”
Freedom???what freedom…you don’t have the freedom man….a coward sitting in the corner of a room with a computer…afraid of his shadows. The only freedom you have is to annonymously hurl abuse and hide…some freedom
Your freedom to loot the nation…to rule is over..man…whoever you are…you’re gone man…..your’e afraid boy…..who is your daddy now???
Get out of you hole and look around….yea that’s your daddy….uncle Fwank
@Graham
Where on earth do you get this idea that some of us think Frank is the Devil incarnate? The man personifies dedication and love for his country – who else would refuse to take annual leave for 20 years in order to answer the call to duty? I can’t think of anyone – can you?
But seriously, I don’t agree with a lot of what you say but you give it a nudge and thats not such a bad thing.
Chand,
At least Victor Lal and Wadan Narsey write under their real names – why dont you identify yourself – Full Name, Home Address, Country of Residence. If you cant come out, as Graham always states, of the coward’s castle, than bugger off from this site. Will you or will you not identify yourself. I am too scared to identify myself the fear of getting beaten up but you seem to be a really macho fella or lassie – be man, take up my challenge or just shut up
@Fiji Sugarcane ,
My name is Chand and I am an Indo Fijian…and for your information, I am a Fijian
Yeah..a Fijian…your blood curling now….
Hello coward…..fiji sugarcane eh…..and will be bashed up….. no you are a coward with the lines ” I am too scared to identify myself the fear of getting beaten up..” heard it before mate….just cowards…has beens and beneficiaries of the previuos regimes…running around now like a chicken whose head has been cut-off.
And why do myou care about the Wadan and Victor, I’m sure they can speak for themselves….but you….oh no….can’t even identify who you are…….
Some one once said …”…brave enough behind the scenes and coward enough not to come out..”
Fiji sugarcane…..no you are bitter man…just bitter that your looting priviledge has been taken…no more free ride..seqa….cowards
I did not vote for either of the two parties – SDL or FLP but I welcomed the multi-party government under Laisenia Qarase. The coup occurred because Mahendra Chaudhry was determined to wreck the workings of that government. All the controversial Bills could have been devoted and voted upon in Parliament. If it was passed, than Mahend could have pulled out of the multi-party Cabinet. I dont believe that for us to acquire changes we want, we should run to the military to change government. If force has been acquired to achieve dual citizenship etc than the other side must be also allowed to deploy its own force to get back what is has lost. But that is not the way to go – lets wait and see if Fiji’s problems will be solved – you chaps are making out as if Indo-Fijians have been living like the down-trodden Palestinians, or other persecuted minorities in Fiji. Come, off, people, it is an insult to Fijian geneoristy. As for Komai, you should sent that paper to C4/5 to put it up for all to read – for as you know this blogsite carries only Graham Davis opinion pieces. It seems Indo-Fijians living abroad (and Fijians) are the ones who are clamouring for dual citizenship. Frankly speaking, we dont want you chaps in Fiji – to come and feed on us (in the name of economic contribution) and than take the next fight back to your countries of residence if Fiji goes to the dogs.
@ Multi-racilaist,
Just too bad that you are on the other side of the fence….quite frankly you and your opinion don’t matter anymore.
You don’t know enough about economies and and your only biff seems to be with the Fijians….well too bad. I’ve lived with ordinary i-Taukeis and I know their generosity and the goodwill and it was a 2-way relationship.
And you fail to see and understand that the current situation is not about Fijians only but ordinary i-Taukeis as well….for all peoples of Fiji.
Too bad you have lost all your priviledges and the only comfort you can find is with chicken soup 4.5.
We will continue to encourage a lot more people to take dual citizenship and you can do nothing about it….I know of a lot i-taukeis who have and will be taking it as well…those who left the shores immediately after the 87 coup.
Yeah continue insulting Fijians…but hey who cares about has beens…someone who probably has not worked all his life….a free loader…leeching on ordinary i-Taukeis.
The i-Taukeis have now got their freedom from parasites like you….
We will continue to contribute and see that Fiji prospers….a nation for all people.
Oh welcome to grubsheet where you will be given a fair space to air your views…however miniscule it may be.
My name is Chand, formely an Indo Fijian and now proudly Fijian…thank you my i-Tauke brothers and sisters, for you will forever be in our hearts. Bless you all.
@ Multicultralist
You sound as though you own Fiji!
Whoi the F@#$ are you?
I am taukei from Viti Levu…Tailevu to be precise. So where the F@# are you from you leech?
What have you contributed to Fiji?
Have you done military service, served overseas etc? Well I have …total of 36 months in fact in uniform. I can give you my regimental number if you wish.
So dont try and claim Fiji for yourself you moron.
Kakua so na va’kilakila baleta ni o iko o tamata macawa! Sega ni dua na betemu.
Go back to Chicken Soup 4.5. Thats where you small minded norons belong
As least Komai has put his thiughts down on paper and presented it formally to the government and we have seen the result – more our own people returning to Fiji, including ex British Army types, to gfo back to their country of birth to male a positive contribution.
You hav enot even read his submission on dual citizenship and yet are prepared to make judgement.
O sa tamata ulukau dina.
Kawa ni tamata macawa o iko va’taki tamamu!
Multi-racilaist, you come off it.
We are not making out as if Indo-Fijians have been living like the down-trodden Palestinians, that’s rubbish.
We are just fed up of being targeted and blamed for everything. You are either unaware of Qarase govt legislation blatantly discriminating Indos, or you don’t care, either way I don’t give a damn.
Criticising corrupt Qarase govt is not an “an insult to Fijian geneoristy”; part of the problem is people like you with your paternalistic attitude towards Fijians.
Every man and his dog like you believes indos should quietly pay their taxes and shut up and put up – we are just sick of this attitude.
Nothing was handed to us on a platter and we do not owe anyone a living.
Indians did not come to Fiji on their own accord. They were brought here. Those Indians that can are getting out. Indian numbers are declining fast.
For god’s sake, we are leaving. You will have your ‘Fiji for Fijians’ soon. All will be well.
Indian birth-rates have been lower than Fijian birth-rates since the late 60s. How does this fit ‘Indian takeover of Fiji theory’, can someone please explain? Indos are down to 37 per cent per cent of the population; in another 20 yrs they will decline by another 10 per cent.
Biggest threat to i’taukei is not Indos, it’s lack of progress in education, marijuana consumption, alcoholism and high prison population.
Why isn’t anyone addressing these issues?
Why are Fijians facing these problems on a proportionately higher level than other races? Especially when Fijians have always ruled the country and own all the resources. Whose failure is it? Parents? Church? Chiefs? Govt?
Or are the Indians to blame?
Really, what have fat cat church leaders been doing? Too busy consorting with politicians? Chasing senate positions? Angling for hefty govt grants? Too preoccupied preaching hatred from the pulpit? Too busy blaming the obvious scapegoats, Indians?
Young Fijians in jail is the biggest threat to Fijian culture and lotu, and causing immense pain in Fijian families and problems in Fiji as a whole.
Fijian leaders will better serve their people if they devote their energies to this ‘real’ problem rather than ‘imagined’ Indo threats based on paranoia and romanticism and over-glorification of culture while hypocritically enjoying nice western lifestyle.
Problem with too many Fijian leaders is they are full of talk, no action; too busy trying to get rich; conveniently blame Indians to divert attention away from own failures.
Please dispense with the tedious, out-dated Indian bogey myth. Indian threat, if there ever was one, is long gone. After Mara, this has been a struggle between elite Fijians for wealth and power.
Fijian leaders have commandeered native resourcesfor their own benefit but target easy scapegoat Indians based on a lifetime of practice.
Open your eyes multiracialist!
Graham
I’m sorry if you were abused, it should especially never happen to any one, let alone a child.
I think that it’s very brave, no, courageous of you to openly share this terrible incident and assault, so don’t worry about detractors here.
I hope that you have had help and if not, I’d be happy to recommend a good Hypnotherapist in Sydney who can help you get past the event and to heal.
Your forgiveness is testament to Fijians capacity to forgive, which your Father mentioned to you.
Without meaning to be flippant, can we then deduce that your personal experience, may have shaped your response to this latest coup, given that you appear to protect a violent offender, Frank Bainimarama ?
Could it be, that as a child, you blamed yourself, as is often the case with victims of sexual assault ?
I hope the perpetrator has stopped assaulting.
Thank you Mark. I appreciate your concern. It was a very long time ago and I have far more recent reasons to be displaying signs of trauma. I think it is a far more common experience for children growing in Fiji than most people imagine. Take a look at the following link – 132 cases of reported child sex abuse in just the first five months this year:
http://www.fijilive.com/news/2012/07/132-child-abuse-cases-in-5-months/45497.Fijilive
Now, they are the reported cases. Can you imagine the number that go unreported, as in my own case? It’s clearly a national epidemic.
It may seem crass for me to use this to justify my identification with the Fijian experience against those who say I have no right to comment because I’m “foreign”. But as a Fiji experience, it’s about as grassroots as it gets.
We all deal with these things in our own way. I just got on with life – didn’t say anything to rock my little world – and I think that may well be the common Fiji experience. But undoubtedly being sodomised as a child against your will and being forced to give oral sex is bound to have some effect on you.
I think there’s one psychiatrist for the whole of Fiji. So God help those who have really bad experiences at the hands of family members like their fathers or uncles. At least mine was out of my immediate circle and was a one-off. I was just a wide-eyed little white boy who wound up in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Language, please people! Chand? Let’s not descend to the stream of obscenities that are a feature on other sites. You can be insulting, so long as it’s not racial, without being crude. OK?
@ Graham,
To me it was a right of reply to the insults hurled on Indians by “Petelo”, the patriot Samoan….I’m on for fair debate but when it gets to insulting my race, I intend to take them head on…I’m sorry but I would. Just to let it be known that my biff is with Petelo and the gang…a majority of Samoans are good decent people.
Chand, I understand your sense of grievance but you’re not an Indian. You’re a Fijian of Indian descent. You eat goat curry and fresh mango achar and Petelo eats canned fish and bully beef. And you live in a dynamic, evolving country that matters and he lives in a self satisfied backwater that’s a client state of the Kiwis and only survives with the remits of the gang leaders of LA. Who would you rather be? 🙂
@ Chand
Brother, dont allow yourself to be worked up about Petelo.
He’s is alright and playing the Devils Advocate…entertainingly provocative but really harmless….plenty Samoans prefer to live in Fiji….they have their own Church here in Suva…..go to Naiqaqi on a Sunday morning and hear their wonderful hymn singing…their church is behind the old St Andrews Presbyterian Church in Gordon Street.
God Bless bro
Thanks for the wise advise brother…god bless..
Yeah Chand, listen to your Tui Hindi, Ratu Sir Graham Davis, sau ni vanua ko Nadi. Don’t swear in the house of the Tui, and sit down on the floor when you talk to me.
And go to church. Pious said there is a good church on Gordon Street, behind the old St Andrews Presbyterian Church. When you go to that church, ask for forgiveness for your uncle bainimarama. Just remember to pray in Samoan because God, after all, is a Samoan.
@ Petelo
Sole, good to see Tuilaepa give those IRB ‘old farts’ a blast for the refereeing bias against Manu Samoa and other Pacific island teams.
I thought Manu Samoa won that game against the Springboks last year. Many fans in Fiji upset at that one…..and we were expecting the Manu to knock over Scotland. But referee ruled otherwise.
Wonder what the IRB can do against the leader of a country expressing an opinion about refs?
Graham,
Appreciated your article – but my eyebrows were raised by the following sentence: “All of our houses in Fiji were on hills with spectacular views because the missionaries had long ago worked out that this was the best place to get the cooling sea breezes and escape the occasional tsunami.”
Is this poetic licence? I know of just one small Suva tsunami in 1953, and a possible smaller one near Labasa a 100 years earlier. Far more likely to be to avoid floods which are an annual occurrence – but there is a lot of hysteria about tsunamis in Fiji today and I’m sure neither you nor the early methodists would like to add to it.
Liam
Liam, nice to hear from you and you may be right about this. I have just been reading the journals of the Reverend Thomas Williams, who was a Methodist missionary at Lakeba, Somosomo and Bua in the 1840s and 50s. I was astonished at the number of earthquakes and earth tremors he reported, which tends to indicate that perhaps the seismological instability at the time was greater than the present day.
But, no, he doesn’t report a tsunami, though what I said was more than merely poetic licence. Williams journal tells us in dramatic detail that Tubou village was flooded by a huge tidal surge during a hurricane that caused a lot of damage, distress and several deaths. I suspect he may have lived at or near the place where we lived more than a century later.
Being on high ground used to be regarded as far more desirable than the current fad for absolute waterfronts. And we know that tsunamis are an ever present danger in Fiji, though because of the outer reefs, nothing like the danger they present in places like Hawaii.
Graham, great and touching article. Its really sad to know what the incident of sexual abuse you encountered. I only hope that you will forgive that person. I personally want to thank your parents for sacrificing theirs lives for the good of the Fijians and thank you for your passion for better Fiji. Your parents has done a great sacrifice and contribution here for better Fiji and no wonder you still carries such passion. I often pray that the good LORD continues to bless and protect the descendents of foreign Christians missionaries to Fiji. I care for you guys a lot for the sacrifice your parents have done for us, the British, Australians etc. Further, I always respect and admire the Australian people and the standard you have reached. One of my close friend and personal mentor happen to be a Australian. His humility and compassion for the Fijians always touches me. He was not born in Fiji but still had that love and care for us. He is one of the first person to recognise my ability and encourages me to pursue further studies at University. I was born and raised in the village. Two times I failed my university entrance exams, shame and always look down on me but Robert by his encouraging words uplifted me. Thank you for your contribution to Fiji Graham. Your parents have planted you as a seed to make positive contributing for building a better Fiji. I know you will be drive by your conscience, conviction and passion for better Fiji not by the negative comments by your critics. After all, we are all answerable to one person alone, not the people. He is the God of your Father, the God of Israel after your life on earth ends. We all want to build a better Fiji for our children and future generations. However, this is only possible if we all have the same clean heart and mind, vision, passion, care and love for our nation and her people. If we can all put aside our small petty politics, bickering, jealousies etc and see the bigger picture and move toward together in unity on the basis of building a better Fiji for us, our children and future generations. We cannot be leaders all the time and every time. There are only specifics leaders for specific time and we do not control that but the LORD. True leaders are chosen and not elected.
Thank you, Joseph. I am very touched by your posting. It reflects precisely the nobility and yalo loloma of the i’Taukei that I referred to. My own experience is nothing. It is the destination that we are all trying to reach as a nation that matters. Because this will determine the quality of Fiji for future generations. With every best wish.
I am only a recent subscriber Graham and I appreciate your insightful blog. I am Fiji born, Nurse Morrisons too, went to boarding school overseas at 8 years of age, but to this day have a love for the nation of Fiji. I have returned to Fiji for visits almost yearly since the late 90’s for business and mission. I could not believe what Qarase was doing to the nation. I am not an advocate of coups either but my personal belief is Frank’s intervention has given the nation a chance to reverse a sure and swift demise. My personal questioning when there tells me most are very much behind Frank. Time will tell. In the meantime keep up the good work!
Thank you Graham for this wonderful piece of linkage to the homeland.I applaude you for claiming your inherent right to your identity. I am a i-Taukei and in my books you have the God given right to be called a Fijian, period. Only the bigoted, prejudiced and narrow-minded morons would perceive otherwise. Keep up the good fight!