As the VIP jets descend on the sleepy Cook Islands for the opening of the 43rd annual Pacific Islands Forum, one critical guest will again be missing. Fiji’s Frank Bainimarama – the leader of the most influential island state – has been barred from successive Forum summits for the past three years. Yet whatever shape the formal proceedings in Rarotonga take, his name will be on the lips of many delegates behind the scenes – not least Hilary Clinton, who is making the first visit to a Forum summit by a US Secretary of State. Clinton knows that Fiji is too big to be ignored, too strategically important to be sidelined and that it’s high time its isolation was ended. This is almost certain to be the last time Bainimarama is excluded as America works this week to persuade its ANZUS partners, in particular, to bring him in from the cold.
Fiji was suspended from the Forum in 2009 when Bainimarama refused to bow to regional demands to hold an immediate election. Three years on, he’s implemented concrete steps – including work on a new constitution – to restore a purer democracy in two year’s time than ever existed before. Yet none of it has satisfied the two big players in regional affairs –Australia and New Zealand -who aren’t strictly speaking island states at all. They’ve maintained their dogged opposition to any weakening of the Forum’s attempts to bring Fiji to heel yet in doing so, have badly weakened the organisation itself.
It cannot be lost on Hilary Clinton that while Frank Bainimarama is sidelined from the Forum, he’s the current chair of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), that brings together the biggest and most influential island states – Papua New Guinea, Fiji, the Solomons, Vanuatu plus the Kanaks of New Caledonia. Last week in Fiji, Bainimarama hosted a gabfest of his own that also demonstrated the futility of barring him from the Pacific Forum. His Engaging With Fiji Summit brought together all of the MSG nations plus the Cook Islands – this year’s Forum host -and Tonga, the Federated States of Micronesia, French Polynesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, Timor Leste and Tuvalu. So much for isolating Fiji. Morocco, Kazakstan and Kosovo also attended the Fiji meeting, yet another sign that Fiji is looking to new partnerships – notably in the Non Aligned Movement – that bypass its traditional relationships.
Clinton knows that the Pacific Forum is a shadow of its former self so long as Fiji is excluded. Why? Because no Pacific plan of action can realistically be implemented without the country’s participation. It is too significant and too influential to be bypassed. It has also successfully defied all attempts by its bigger southern neighbours -Australia and NZ – to bring it to heel and has demonstrated a nimble dexterity to find support wherever it can. What is America to do? It has to act in its own strategic interests. And if that means an accommodation with the Bainimarama regime that is beyond that of its ANZUS partners then so be it.
The Australian spin is that Hilary Clinton’s attendance at the Forum summit underlines US President Barack Obama’s announcement in Canberra last November of Washington’s “pivot” towards the Asia-Pacific region. Yes, but the real reason is more pressing – a desire to counter and contain the growing influence that America’s global rival, China, has been exerting on the island states. It is not just Fiji that has been subjected to a Chinese charm offensive in the region backed up by wads of cash. Some $600 million dollars in “soft loans” has been showered on several Pacific countries, notably Samoa, and that buys hard influence.
The 15 Pacific leaders who are attending the Rarotonga summit have never had such high level suitors than those arriving to watch from the sidelines as “Dialogue Partners”. As well as the Clinton caravanserai – including US military aircraft that have to be based in neighbouring island states because Rarotonga Airport is so small – the Chinese are sending a high level delegation that reportedly includes one of the country’s vice premiers. And beyond the big suitors come a string of other delegations representing global players such as the European Union, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, the United Kingdom, Canada, Cuba, Israel, Singapore and Taiwan.
All up, some 41 countries keenly interested in the deliberations of fifteen regional players, some of whom – like Niue – have populations that could be sandwiched onto three or four jumbo jets. Yet the real elephant in the room over the next five days will be Frank Bainimarama’s absence. It has all gone on for far too long and Hilary Clinton is in the tiny Cook Islands on behalf of the world’s biggest superpower to start bringing it to a close.
let the irrelevant Pacific Islands Forum gho on without Fiji. I mean, it has beeen going on for the past 3 years without our paricipation. And we haven’t lost anything. In fact, we have gained heaps. I have been told that now Asutralia and New Zealand are going to make a formal submission to have Fiji reinstated in the PIF.
What a joke it will be. These two big idiots will ba making an ass of themselves.
Fiji should never join the Pacific Islands Forum.
This article by Graham captures the reality of the Forum – little breadfruit producing countries in the South Pacific countries being dictated to by bigger ANZUS countries telling the former what is best for them.
What has Fiji to gain by rejoining the Forum? To be dictated to once again by these larger countries telling Fiji what is best for her?
Until there is a change in attitude by these larger countries, Fiji should stay away from the Forum
Anonymous,
It has been confirmed that Australia and New Zealand has written up a draft resolution to submit to the Pacific Islands Forum for a possible reinstatement of Fiji to the Forum………. and with conditions of course !!
Hahahaheheheheeeeeeee. These Aussise pollies are not fair dinkum rats. They want us back in the forum because the US are going to skin ANZUS to their bones if they do not bring Fiji back into the fold of the PIF.
Now having realized that the forum is useless withouit the full and unhindered membership of Fiji, they are now going poke each others behind and try and lure Fiji back.
Like I said earlier, Fiji should never rejoin the Pacific Islands Forum, as long as our two clowns are in membership.
Remove them …. then we join the PIF.
Only then.
Thanks Jukebox
The next few days will tell us more about the Forum position on Fiji. Its too early as yet to comment so lets wait and see.
I am reading Obama has sent Hillary to order the small-time breadfruit growers (Samoa, Tonga, Niuie, Cook Islands etc) led by their paymasters in Wellington and Canberra, to change their tune with regard to Fiji.
In the greater scheme of things, more particularly in the realms of Grand Strategy, Fiji is just way too important to ignore. That has been the fallacy of the ANZ approach all along – in their neo-colonial blindness, they misread and misunderstood Fiji’s strategic significance to countries like the US, Russia and China etc. Their policy of excluding Fiji has only shown them up as being uninformed about the Pacific.
Fiji has forged on ahead without the need for the rest of the breadfruit growers in the Pacific.
The US too knows that more of their servicemen died in the Melanesian countries during WW2 than the rest of the breadfruit growers together. And the US does nt forget these kind of things too easily.
I expect a major policy announcment by Hillary with regard to the US position towards Fiji.
As the US Ambassador to Fiji, Frankie Reed, has said, the US-Fiji relationship is “too deep” to be ignored.
The next few days will be very interesting.
Stay tuned
Graham,
Looks like everyone has realized that PIF is so much irrelevant to Fiji. Thats why no one wants to post any thread on this. henceforth, I will stop all postings on this topic. PIF, from Fiji’s point of view, is now dead and buried. Full Stop !!!!!!
Play that funky music……my brother….we’re with you…..don’t stop..we’re reading…just cut me fingers removing roof tiles to run cables…..mrs doesn’nt like to take my dictation……says hears me enough singing in the house (read as..gimme a break)……makes lovely “uncivilised” chicken curry though…
Sooooo play that funky music…..oh yea bugger forum…blimey
Saturday, August 11, 2007
THE STORY OF LAPITA MIGRATION IN FIJI
We will never know for sure, of course, where the first people on Fiji’s shores actually landed.
We will never know for certain who they were, where they came from, or when they arrived.
But there is great interest in these questions both in Fiji and beyond and science is helping us get the best possible answers.
Where did the first people land in Fiji?
The best available scientific evidence that we have at present suggests that the first humans to see the Fiji Islands came ashore for the first time in the southwest part of Viti Levu Island. This is understandable. They arrived in large watercraft probably bamboo rafts which were difficult to manoeuvre through the maze of coral reefs close to many island coasts today. So they stayed outside the largest reefs and followed them along until they were so close to land that they crashed ashore.
If you look at a map of Fiji, you will see that the largest such barrier reef in the west of Fiji runs from west of the Yasawa and Mamanuca island groups towards southwest Viti Levu, where it meets the land for the first time without an intervening lagoon along the Rove Peninsula, just west of Natadola. If you did not know where to look for the earliest human settlement in Fiji, these factors might encourage you to look along the Rove Peninsula. You would not be disappointed.
For the Rove Peninsula is dotted with ancient settlements, dating from the Lapita era in Fiji between 550 and 1100 years before the birth of Christ (years BC). All of these settlements have been discovered in the past four years, by a research team from the University of the South Pacific and the Fiji Museum. The earliest and the largest settlement along the Rove Peninsula is that at Bourewa. All the available scientific evidence points to Bourewa Beach as being the first place that humans walked upon in the Fiji Islands.
Who were the first people in Fiji? We call them the Lapita people, after the place in New Caledonia where their distinctively-decorated pottery was found just over 50 years ago. They were the greatest seafarers of their times, crossing distances of more than 1000 km at a time when people elsewhere in the world could barely sail 100 km.
They were people of the sea, their diets mainly seafood, their preference for living being on boats or in houses constructed on stilt platforms raised above a coral reef.
But most remarkably, and most mysteriously, they have left us signs of a complex belief system that we shall probably never fully understand. For some of their pottery they made very finely, and decorated with intricate designs made from a series of tiny dots something we call dentate stamping. Some of the designs look like faces they have eyes, ears, and noses so perhaps they were intended to represent ancestors. It has been suggested that dentate-stamped pottery was only one element of this decorative scheme, and that the Lapita people were also fine wood-carvers, and tattooed their bodies with the same designs that we find on the remains of their pots.
But this may all be wrong. Recent research has found that almost all the decorative motifs found on Lapita pots can be interpreted as parts of turtles. One emerging idea is that the Lapita people had a belief system that was centred around the turtle.
Where did the first people in Fiji come from?
The people who landed at Bourewa must have been heartily relieved to touch dry land. They would have been at sea for several weeks probably far longer than they had expected to be. The taro and yams that they had brought to plant in the new land they had expected to find had long since died. The dogs and chickens they carried, if any still lived after their horrendous ordeal at sea, were as hungry and thirsty as the people onboard. Bourewa saved them, for the beach is fringed by one of the widest coral reefs in the whole of Fiji it is nearly 3 km broad and even today it is renowned as a source of food. Bourewa shellfish, octopus, and sea grapes (nama) are common foods for the modern inhabitants of the area.
There are many ways by which we can trace the migrations of the Lapita people, including language, genetics (DNA), and through their pottery. With the pottery, we can look at both its mineral composition and the designs. Studies of the minerals in the Bourewa pottery show so far that it was all manufactured locally but we are hopeful that one day we analyse a piece that we can demonstrate to have been made elsewhere. But analysis of the designs on the Bourewa pottery suggests a close affinity with the Lapita people of Solomon Islands, particularly those living at the time in the eastern outer Solomon Islands (Santa Cruz Islands). This is likely to have been the immediate homeland of the Lapita people who landed at Bourewa.
But we know from research elsewhere in the Pacific Islands that the earliest Lapita people lived in Papua New Guinea, on the offshore islands that are today known as the Bismarck Archipelago. In 2005, while we dug at Bourewa, we received spectacular confirmation of a Papua New Guinea origin for the Lapita settlers of Fiji. This came in the form of a beautifully-worked piece of obsidian, a volcanic glass that does not occur naturally in Fiji. This obsidian has since been traced to the quarries of the Kutau-Bao area of the Talasea Peninsula on New Britain Island in Papua New Guinea, which is some 3300km in a straight line from Bourewa. This obsidian was brought to Bourewa by its Lapita settlers an estimated 900 years before the birth of Christ.
When did the first people arrive in Fiji?
Just like most other places in the world, there have been countless migrations of people to Fiji from elsewhere. We remember many of these arrivals in different ways in pictures, in writing, and in oral traditions. But none of these memories are thought to be able to accurately recall arrivals that took place more than a few hundred years ago. The Lapita people lived in several places in Fiji.
We estimate that they occupied places like Natunuku (near Ba), Matanamuani (Naigani Island), and Naitabale (Moturiki Island) about 900 BC.
They may have lived on Yanuca Island (Nadroga) and Ugaga Island (Beqa Lagoon) slightly earlier.
They reached islands like Mago and Lakeba in Lau, and Yadua in Bua slightly later.
But the earliest ages for the Lapita occupation of Fiji all come from the Rove Peninsula.
It is estimated that the Bourewa settlement was established between 1260 and 900 BC. A second group of migrants appear to have arrived between 990 and 720 BC, and a third group after 830 BC.
Each group occupied a different part of the settlement. Recent research at Bourewa has concentrated on trying to understand how this Lapita settlement grew and eventually overflowed into adjoining bays. Satellite Lapita settlements were established close to Bourewa at Qoqo Island (Tuva River estuary) about 1000 BC and on Rove Beach about 850 BC.
The research team from the University of the South Pacific and the Fiji Museum is continuing its research into the earliest period of Fiji’s history, and an episode of Noda Gauna featuring the Bourewa site will be shown on Fiji One at 8pm on Monday August 13.
Patrick Nunn is Professor of Geography at the University of the South Pacific and leads the research on the Rove Peninsula. The opinions that he expresses in this article are his own and not necessarily those of the University.
Great read nonetheless. Anything that ‘advances the analysis’ of our current situation is to be welcomed, whether it be a departure from the socio-political ‘stuff ‘ that Graham’s blog is concerned with.
I wonder what our the resident Fiji history expert in Canberra (the misfiring Professor Brij) thinks of this article?
Hasn’t Bruce Hill contacted him yet for a comment on Nunn’s Lapita thesis?
Ok, this is great stuff. But please tell us where does all this Lapita migration information, in particular the archaeological time line, fit into the Samoan claims that they are the original inhabitants of the South Pacific viz a viz Fiji?
Is there any archaeological or scientific evidence that suppprts the Samoan claim?
Look forward to your answer
Sorry, I know the question wasn’t addressed to me; but I wanted to take a stab at it anyway….
Most of the books I’ve read say that the Lapita peoples were the original settlers of the western pacific in particular….
They settled Fiji, Tonga and Samoa around the same time…
During the first decades/centuries of settlement…there was continuous trade etc….then at some point it sort of tapered off….
In that period of reduced interaction – the societies developed along their own lines…and Fiji in particular had further waves of settlement…
About 1000 years ago trade began to increase again…but by that point we had developed along our own lines…..Tonga and Samoa remained more similar as they did not have additional migratory waves like Fiji….
Anyway, thats how I understand it…..although there are competing theories…
Much more interesting than the petty political manoeuvering of the Forum – but how did it end up here?
Croz
Given the lack of coverage in our own media on the Forum, Grubsheet and you have performed a useful function in printing this informative article.
I hope the Pacific component can come up to the expectations of the high powered delegates.
But without Fiji the meeting reminds me of an attempt perform Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark
Good Morning fellas,,,,
Whats hot today????????????????
PNG wouldbe gaping hole, Fiji is just a holiday destination with an anoying military regime proporting to be government of the peorple for the people. This regime even while their are consudlations still cannot help itself from crticising and intimidating submissions, ‘guiding’ the chair and his staff and then having the final say on any recomendations. They can’t explain why Indians can’t even be bothered to make submissions and don’t trust the pople at all to determine their own destiny, their own instituions and their own candidates for elections without the military threatening to ‘step in’ when it suits if they feel ‘their legacy’ is threatened.
Hey weirdo, Don’t you know that Indians cannot make submissions to the Constitution Consultation simply because they do not belong here. They are not citizens of this country, Indians are citizens of India, you archaic moronic piglet.
Ooooops…… you probably meant Fijians of Indian descent…
Well, say it as such, you rat.
Get your fact right first, piggie.
?????
Hey weirdo, Don’t you know that Taukei cannot make submissions to the Constitution Consultation simply because they do not belong here. They are not citizens of this country, Taukeis are citizens of Africa you archaic moronic piglet.
Ooooops…… you probably meant Fijians of AFRICAN descent…
Well, say it as such, you rat.
Get your fact right first, piggie.
JUKEBOX-
If Indians do not belong here, are not citizens of this country because their ancestors came from India and therefore are citizens of INDIA-
THEN –
Taukeis do not belong here, are not citizens of this country because their ancestors came from AFRICA and therefore are citizens of AFRICA!!!
@Jukebox, why is it then that the Indians of Fiji still hold and take part in Miss India (Fiji).
@ Mark,
Now get back back to your hole and feed on your own droppings…..cheese is not for you……..you rat. And while there, say hi to Terry Petelo and co.
If you behave than in your next reincarnation you may be born as a mongrel..
Cin Cin for now.
@ Mark,
Maa….rk ki chooot.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
Fiji became a ‘threat’ to the powers to be when Voreqe decided to line up with China! The Aussies and their cousins from NZ thought that by using standover tactics Voreqe would run for cover, so Howard though lets send the Army, Navy & the Air Force & and an aircraf carrier to scare them-but someone who had dealt with the Fijians in the wars remembered that these mob were good both in running around the bush & killing and also reknowned in urban conflict also! Just in case they invaded Fiji they better be sure of one thing that the Fijian people didn’t turn on them as invaders-as Fiji wasn’t a conqured country! As a person said during a party in Suva with the ANZ mob just be careful that those who left these shores and live in your countrys don’t get a feeling that your killing their families or relatives back here because if you think Afghanistan is bad this could be a nighmare if they decided to return!
The late Tui Nayau never wanted Australia or NZ to be part of the Forum because he was well aware of their type of politics and the Forum would become splinted along special groupings especially with countries like Samoa who sure as predicted became the the mouth piece for NZ! Fiji you can bet if its ever to return to the Forum will be ever pushing for the Forum to be made of of developing countries not developed ones-this has to be the way to go back to sensible ways of making achivements for the South Pacific people instead of becoming a country such as Australia or NZ who, no matter what they say, are at the backing and call of the USA!
well well! china is going to make its big announcement at the PIF !! But wait Hillary will have the shot!!!
@ varanitabua – mate if your referring to late Tui Nayau – Ratu Kamisese Mara. it was he who wanted ANZ to be part of PIF, he even wrote in his own memoirs that cant region cant not really go anywhere without ANZ. btw i agree that fiji should be brought back to fold. i dont like out PM tuilaepa handling of this he should show more of the pacific way. samoa and fiji have a longer history than with ANZ
By its response to the Fiji crisis, the PIF has scripted itself into increasing irrelevance, especially after 2014 when Fiji will rejoin the international diplomatic community and start asserting its international influence through sub-regional organisations/groupings such as the MSG, PISDS, EWFS etc.
Fiji will never rejoin the Forum in its current form with ANZ dominance. And by staying away Fiji will be doing regional island countries a favour – leading it into a new future – once again Fiji leading the way out of the morass and neo-colonial practices that are rampant in the Forum.
Fact is that the Forum needs Fiji more than the Fiji needs the Forum.
People in Fiji laugh their heads off at the idea of a Polynesian sub-grouping promoted by Tuilaepa, yet without the modern means of communicating with each other without a cable link. They raise the issue of linking up with the c Southern Cross cable terminal in Fiji in the hope that Fiji will forget all the vapid and under the belt shots by Tuilaepa against Fiji.
Well m friend Fiji will let you link up but they will make you pay out of your noses to enjoy that link. Samoa’s breadfruot and palusami sellers in Apia market can pay exhorbitant rates to get that link – they can halp pay for the new four lane hoghway linling Suva to Nadi, in the same way Tonga will pay for the Labasa-Nabouwalu highway through access fees to the Southern Cross cable junction/terminal at Vatuwaqa.
The Fijian Republic needs to chart its own independent path in how builds its strategic international partnerships. Fiji from now onwards has be really selective of its foreign engagements and accordingly calibrating its unique path and relationships based on its own vital national interests and NOT the dictates of Australia, New Zealand or distant United States.
Fiji must remain pragmatic and be choosy and be prepared to shun former colonial racist bullies who were so eager to impose ‘smart sanctions’ and plan but failed in two naval invasions (1987- Operation Morris Dance’ and ‘black hawk down’ 2006) in the last 25 years.
I think there is fear of China’s naval and economic power in the Asia Pacific and US militarist repositioning of its naval power in Pacific and Indian Oceans means there is renewed orgy to recreate ‘allies’ to contain this imagined Chinese threat or presence in the South West Pacific.
It comes as no surprise how quick Wellington and Canberra turned 360 degrees in the last 2 months on Fiji after they received clear and loud orders from Washington’s State Department, that Fijian republic must be ‘engaged’ to prevent it from falling under ‘Chinese sphere of influence ‘.
It seems that Australian National University’s think tanks in Canberra and Washington are living in past of that old Cold war mindset when ‘Red menace’ of the Soviet Union and that loony Libya’s or ‘Cuban influence’ in the South Pacific was the common rage in the 1980s.
Fiji must pick and choose its own strategic alliances and multilateral arrangements and regional or world forums or military intelligence and strategic alliances with other republics like Indonesia, China, France,South Africa, Korea,Argentina, Nigeria, India or Singapore.
The days neo- colonialism of black birding,slavery and Gun-Boat diplomacy is long long gone and this is something Australian and New Zealand Governments must come to understand that Fijian republic cannot be lectured to or bullied any more and Fiji does not need your aid money…Its far prudent to spend your tax payers hard earned dollars on the impoverished and oppressed indigenous Aboriginal populations who are still denied their basic dignity in the 21st century.
@ Ali Khan
You make some good point here. But I think we have to acknowledge that the US is the oly superpower in the world today and that under Obama it is focussing its efforts in the Asia-Pacific region to counter growing Chinese influence.
As you say Fiji’s foreign policy needs to be pragmatic , Indeed it has to be and a dose of ‘political realism’ ala the Hobbesian model in international relations is what is required.
In other words we need to align ourselves with a powerful ally to protect our national interests. The choices of that ally are obvious; either the US or China.
Which one will it be?
Most of Asia are following the US out of fear of China. I am inclinned towards the US because of Fiji’s long relationship with it and the fact that the US has democratic values that we aspire to.
That does not mean we engage with it in its strategy of ‘containment’ of China in the way that Japan, South Korea, Phillipines, Australia etc are – they have individual security alliances with the US – but in participation in other multi-lateral arrangemnets that advance our national security interests eg maritime surveillance, negotiaions with Tonga to sort out the disputed Minerva reef boundary etc. These are the sorts of areas that we can usefully engage the US in.
U.S. secretary of state Hilary Clinton urged to act on Fiji regime’s violation of human rights
Statement from the family of Dr Mere Samisoni
The family of the prominent Fijian businesswoman, who had to attend court eleven times in five weeks in order to win permission to travel overseas for urgent medical treatment, has called on US secretary of state Hilary Clinton to bring Suva’s military regime to account for their violation of human rights and abandonment of the rule of law.
Dr Mere Samisoni, 74 and a member of parliament in Fiji’s last elected government that was deposed by military coup in 2006, was charged by the regime in January with incitement to political violence. Last month she applied to the courts for bail variation to seek urgent medical treatment linked to a dental condition.
Magistrate Usaia Ratuvili granted the request on 15 August, saying the Court was satisfied she would return to the country after her treatment. But when the State filed a motion of stay in the High Court, Justice Sailesi Temo criticised prosecutors that their complaint was not supported with strong factual foundation, adding that he was ‘sick and tired of lawyers coming to Court without studying or researching their cas
US are no fools- They would know this lady well! Weather its supplying bread to coup thugs in 2000 or being a absolute racist.
Maybe Mere Samisoni Family forgot Mere’s good Christian deeds during the Speight coup but best still is her Hot Bread Kitchen was closed during the march thru Suva and the subsequent looting. Now she is court with the type of behaviour the Speight mob did in Suva including the planned burning? Isa o Adi Mere tooth problems well eat less white bread and more tavioka! Don’t know what all the fuss is about when you have false teeth?
always interesting to read commentary about those not wanting Aus NZ US etc in forums… but guess who have their hands out when they come with their ideas and expect others to pay for them…..who pay the bills? Don’t ask for handpouts and we can do without you. But no…you will just go cap in hand to China looking for money and where were they when you get flooded…nowhere. I was one all for a total blockade of fiji Air, Sea and Communications. The they can go to Iran and Zimbabwe for any assistance who are always stranglyvocal when it comes to words of support but actually never pay for anything. Look North…go for it.
@ Mark
You say you supported a total air, sea and communications blockade of Fiji.
What exactly did Fiji do to Australia to deserve such a blockade?
After all we (Fiji) didnt attack Australia or harmed any of its citizens.
Why suport a military solution to an internal Fiji problem that is none of your business in Australia?
Mark (the night nurse and commode cleaner in Sydney) has been listening too much to the likes of John Baledrokadroka, Tevita Mara, Suli Dauniveidulu and the late J.Tui who were advocating a ‘scorched earth’ policy against Fiji.
Interestingly, Mere Samisoni, who is now crying out for help from a foreign country (the US) flew to Melbourne last year to be part of the plot to overthrow the current government in Fiji. This from a woman who fed the ethno-nationalist thugs and hostage-takers in Parliament in 2000.
Someone should tell Hillary that
Mark the present Govt in Fiji couldn’t give shit to the funds from Aussie! Its the reason why when the yearly expenses account for Fiji comes up they sometimes haven’ even gone past halfway with fund usage! You are more than welcolm to give us funds but you ain’t deciding what is to be done last time you came with your bigtime project of several millions when Qarase led -you changed the whole Health Infrastructure-guess what after you left it went back to what is was! Sometimes we just need to talk to the locals and not just butt in when when we feel like doing something ‘good”. No diffrent from the way you throw money at the Aboriginal problems well just have a look around has it solved any problems? You talk otf the military taking over in Fiji in Australia they now using the ARMY to force feed civilians to take up HEALHCARE in Aboriginal commnities, now thats some dangerous move! Would love your comment on that issue alone mate! Its already 200 years-only thing that has change for the Aborigines is they dying in larger numbers! The Western concept of solving problems is “MONEY” Really? What about common sense-what no longer common!
@ Mark
Just to pick up on a point made by Varanitabua, trouble with you Aussies is that you think that by throwing money at a problem it will go away. That has always been the case with the Aboriginals/indigenous Australians.
You are clearly of that mindset – you make a point that you Aussies give us so much money and you expect the problem to go away. When it dosen’t you pfer no other solution than an air, sea and communications blockade! What kind of neo-colonialist policy is that?
For many years Australia particpated in the phosphare mining on Nauru and Banaba. They depopulated the place and left it in a moonscape. All this to enrich farmers in Australia with cheap fertilisers.
So it is about time you started compensating Pacifc Island countries by your extractive policies. You have a moral obligation to compensate Pacific island countries for exploiting them in the first.
We will atke your money in that spirit i.e. as compensation for past rip offs that Australia perpetrated in terms of their extraction of mineral resources (guano from Nauru and Banaba etc) and the exploitation of human capital (viz the blackbirding trade etc).
@ Mark, do you actually think that your country doesn’t borrow money too? How do you think your economy stays afloat, mate most aussies live on credit cards and monthly installment payments on almost everything. You bark loudly showing no signs of intelligence, you generalise and talk as if money grows on trees in aussie with no attempt to provide factual quotation basing from actual relevant sources.
Have you any idea the state of the your economy??? You’re nothing but the US laptog and if you look at history aussie seems to have a habit of being someones bitch.
For future refrence before you actually bark try and do a research of well everything otherwise you come across as a very insecure short tempered little man with even little intelligence.
Pious good one-completely forgot these mob also sold us the CSR sugar mills with all the machinery just about broken down and if that wasn’t good enought they didn’t pay taxes for the infamous Emperor Gold Mines in Vatuloula! Sometimes it does you good to keep your trap shut just incase you awaken the demon in some of us! Mark we take your money my foot it belongs to the Aborigines you killed to claim their land!
@Mark
Are you the same Mark who used to steal toilet paper from Sydney’s public shit houses for your collection? You sure sound like him.
The Pacific Forum is irrelevant to Melanesian Countries. It has been Hi-jacked by Australia nd New Zealand as a place to seduce and compromise Pacific Leaders.Now the US has joined the feeding frenzy! It is like a room full of black cats on rocking chairs.
Melanesian Countries are better off concentrating their efforts on MSG. MSG is the heartbeat of Melanesia. God forbid that they should allow the wolves, Australia and NZ, to compromise them again with their aid dollars. By George! PNG should have enough Kina to carry the MSG single handedly for the next 20 years!
Folks, google “ERASMUS BARANIAK” and below is what you get….
Keith Jackson & Friends: PNG ATTITUDE
Words & issues from Papua New Guinea | Site funded by Jackson PR Associates: Asia Pacific public relations specialists
« On PNG coffee, commodities & community engagement | Main | Self-centred exploitation is leading to the Earth’s peril »
19 September 2012
A Melanesian view of Aussie values – who exactly are you?
ERASMUS BARANIAK
Ok here is my take on the issues ERASMUS BARANIAK…..take a role, political or otherwise and use Fiji as an example of how you guys can counter the Aussie influence in PNG…….Try a look north policy…I know you guys are a bit screwed between the Ausies and Indonesia (through Irian Jaya)……and the Ausies are using you guys against each other……(like a divide and rule)…..there has to be a cleanup….for too long you guys have been a proxy colony of Australia…..with so much natural resources what the f@#k are you guys doing….hiding somewhere in singapore??? and blogging is not the answer..
Fiji’s strength is in its military and and the pride in its people and the current leaders have balls (Bano excluded…no pun intended).
So stop fighting over f@#k^ng pigs and women and do something useful.
To start with buy bacon from us..
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Chand,
dont get too excited. We Melanesians have been on our lands for over 70,000 years. We didnt just sail in yesterday. We will deal with whoever, friend or foe, that comes to our shores, and continue living on our lands. We are here for the full 80 minutes brata. So dont let your impatience get the better of you and treat your big brother’s generosity with disdain. That would be a mistake. Pork in in my blood, dont get excited over bacon. Listen to me, if we are to face the world together, to think like Melanesians. But then I suspect you may not be Melanesian, or your approach would certainly have been different.
Vinaka Vakalevu.
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