The Importance of Having the Correct Mindset

Ni Sa Bula,

By now, most of you must be wondering where I've been. Lets just say (for the sake of those snoops from Delainabua who come in here from time to time) that I am somewhere that makes getting online kinda difficult.

However, that has not deterred me from watching Fiji's games on TV!!!! and what a match they played this morning!!! That was one heck of a game, and even better...one HECK OF A RESULT. Of course, if you were a Welshman, you'd disagree with me. But hey...that victory put me is such a good mood that I'm inclinded to let it slide...

It brought home a truth though. The importance of having the correct mindset.

We see it all the time with our champion 7s teams that rule the worldwide scene. Teams actually respect them, they try to avoid them when they can, and when they can't...well we all know and love that situation!!!! I saw it this morning, when a group of valiant young men, halfway across the world, far from home, decided to believe in themselves and actually shook the world.

We saw it when Tonga took the fight to the Springboks. We saw it when Samoa played England. It's the stuff that inspires, the souls of legends. It's what makes people believe, achieve and strive to be better than they are.

And Fiji can be like that. We are better than this piddling, insignificant regime makes us out to be. We don't deserve the crap this junta brings down on us, just like our boys didn't deserve this sort of crap that the Welsh media served them. Guess that's one editor that has his foot in his mouth right about now.

That is what we need to do. We need to have the correct mindset, we need to play with our hearts, with our pride. We need to live in such a way that this regime will end up eating their "jungle boots". We owe this to our children, and their children, and their children's children. Above all, we need to do this together. Individually it cannot be done. Collectively, we cannot be stopped. We need to ,in the words of a cetain Tongan forward, "pring out A-Game to da Springpoks!!!"

Nicky Little summed it up when he succicently said "It just depends whether we are sleeping under the coconut tree or rowing the boat." The question is, are you willing to row this boat? If so...break out your oars and pull.

Congratulations to the boys..and all the best in the 1/4s. I think you will go all the way and take the cup, and this is why. It's a prophecy that's been around for a while now.

God Bless Fiji,
Mawdsomething AKA FijianBlack

Deserving the Best

Ni Sa Bula,

After watching this evening's Close up , where the regime's Education (sic) Minister was pitted against the President of the Fijian Teachers Association, one of the striking unions, the idea of this post was born.

The Interim Minister, kept on rattling on about his "contingency plan" except when he detoured to rant about how he was an ex-officer (yeah..like that is something to be boast about) and how he always did thing to ensure success. Mr. Koroi ( the FTA President) was, however, calm, collected and evidently more intelligent, a fact borne out by the intellectual answers that he had for questions put to him by the show's host, and the regimes "head teacher".

The interesting point of all this (at least for me) was when Mr. Koroi was "accused" by the Interim Minister of "sabotaging the nation's education system". Now, the answer Mr. Koroi gave was the reason this post is here.

Mr. Koroi stated that his actions are not unequivocal, that he is carrying out the mandate of his members, a mandate that (if memory serves correctly) 79% of his members gave him by secret ballot. This makes him answerable to his members, who have the luxury (yes..in Fiji it is now a luxury) of voting him out if they don't agree with his modus operandi.

Now you have a twit, who along with the other twits in power now, are, to my immense chagrin, running the show. WHO ARE THEY RESPONSIBLE TO? WHO ARE THEY ANSWERABLE TO? If one was to believe Taniela Tabu, and it doesn't require a stretch of the imagination to do so, this government is answerable to the shadowy "Military Council" that is purportedly running this country.

Now, folks.....is this the best Fiji has to offer? Is this the best we can get, to manage the affairs of this nation? Are these people the smartest, the ablest, the wisest we have?

Not by a long shot.

How does being an officer qualify one to become a diplomat? A Commissioner of Police? A Prime Minister? Why should we suffer this outrage....of having substandard personnel running the affairs of this nation?

The difference between Mr. Koroi and Mr. Sukanaivalu brought home a real truth to me...that despite all it's faults, under a democratic system, the cream really does rise to the top. Granted people sometimes get it wrong, but not always, and seldom more than one. The current regime is an glaring example of this. We see their ineptitude in dealing with the strikes, with the sliding economy, with the dwindling tourist numbers, with the flailing sugar industry...the list just goes on and on.....

The real insult in this is that someone, somewhere, had the gall to think that they know what is best for us. The people best suited to choose who our leaders are, are we, the voters of this nation. We know what's best for us...and we know what we deserve. We do not need failed politicians, wannabee ministers, and in-it-for-the-money con artists telling us what we need.

Somebody once said " You can fool all the people some of the time, and you can fool some people all of the time, but you can't fool all the people all of the time!"

The time for being fools is over. This time, we need a better government. We deserve a better government. We deserve a government where our choices is reflected in the composition of our MPs. We deserve a chance to really shine. We can. And we will.........it's just a matter of when.

The FTA leadership is doing what it is supposed to do. It is standing up, and fighting for it's members, and protecting their interetst.

This government was not elected by any of us. Whose interests are they protecting?

God Bless Fiji,
Mawdsomething AKA Fijianblack

How Low Can You Go?

Ni Sa Bula,

No..I'm not talking about that congo line..although I wish I was. Seriously!!!

I'm talking about the way this nation we all loave and live in is sinking into the depths of economic, civil and moral depravity. We are now seeing things that were unimaginable, foreign to us just a few short months ago. What a short period of time!!!!

Firstly, we have to put up with crap like this stinker from Jo Koroi, who has put the interests of her party before the welfare of her granddaughter. Shame on you! This is her take on the economy: "...exports were increasing and imports decreasing. Bank interest rates were falling and the sugar industry was on the rebound." How do you like them apples? Especially when the Interim PM is saying that the deteriorating economy is the reason why his government (yes his!!! because it is definitely nobody else's !!!) is the reason why they cannot meet the demands of the nurses. Talk about contradiction!!! CONTRADICTION!!!! The height of hypocrasy, I say.

Then there's the suspension of people like Inoke Devo and Misieli Naivalu. In case any of you forgot, Misieli Naivalu was the same person who put the funeral of his wife on hold to finish conducting the 2006 elections in the North. That is sacrifice, country before self. How someone of that calibre can be accused of being corrupt is beyond me. Imagine the sacrifice this man made, on behalf of the nation? I've said it once, and I'll say it again...the FLP is full of people who are all soured up because they couldn't win the last 2 elections fair and square.

Mr. Langman says ''Even if Naivalu and Devo are not directly involved in the allegations, they are the people at the top and ultimately the hammer will fall on them,'' Thus, by the same logic, wouldn't that make Bainimarama guilty of the deaths of Verebasaga, Rabaka and Malasebe? After all isn't he at the top? Shouldn't the hammer fall on him? After all, while he was not "directly involved" wasn't he at the top when these killings occured? hmmm.....this stinks more and more.

So the nurses are on strike....and it's been declared legal. So why the paycut? Doesn't the law state that if a strike is declared legal, then shouldn't the strikers get their pay? Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place eh??? Go to Calanchini, he just might rule in favour of the strikers...don't go and the strike continues. I'm sooooooglad that decision is not mine to make.

This IG has set the bar impossibly low for the country, and is now trying to force the nation to "congo" under it. The nurses are saying it can't be done. The bloggers are saying it can't be done. The lawyers (well the ones worth their salt anyway) are saying it cannot be done. Anyone with any sense can tell that it can't be done.

The IG is asking "How low can you go?"

How low can you really go?

God Bless Fiji,
Mawdsomething aka Fijiblack

The Things We do for Love....

Ni Sa Bula...

Corny..I know..I know!!!

But hey..think about this for a moment.

Bainimarama,Chaudary, Shaista, Bernie, the whole lot of them, what do they love? Apart from themselves of course!!! They love power!!!They love the fact that now they can tell people to do what they want, when they want and how they want? You want to argue? Driti the enforcer will see that their will becomes your way.

Serevi loves this nation. He has given more than half his life to the services of our country, and has brought glory, fame and honour to our shores in a way that none of us could emulate...and he does this for free.

Some people love their grog. You know the type..the ones that are go wandering off at 2am, looking for another house that is still drinking grog to go and vakatinitini. The kind whose skin is a dead giveaway. The kind whose congregating call is the sound of that "obo", the clanging of the tabili.

Then there's people like me. People who blog. People who are willing to debate this farce that we are now stuck in, and are willing to do so in public. People who speak out. This includes those who write in the Letters to the Editor, those who express their sentiments on air. People like Graham Leung, Shameema Ali. People who, in their own way love this country and are willing to do something to protect her. People who can say what is true and right and must be said, even if there is a risk to one's personal safety.

Now this one is the humdinger...the big kahuna..the million-dollar question.

What do you love?

Do you love Fiji enough to stand up with the rest of us to stand up with us and say "Enough!!!"

Are you willing to speak up and tell this regime that we will tolerate this no longer, that this has gone on long enough, and that we must right the wrongs that are now tearing our nation apart?

Can you?

Will you?

Why don't you?

What do you love? The potential that Fiji has? Or the present that you endure? It's a choice that we must make as individuals, but live out collectively.

Remember...alone you are a drop...but together we are the ocean.

God Bless Fiji,
Mawdsomething

Once Again Into the Breech....

Dear friends....ni sa bula.

I apologise for being away from this forum for so long. I am no longer in Fiji, and I'm glad that my anonymity worked, or I might be another person stopped at our international airport like Graham , Laisa or Shamima. However, my family still resides there, I still carry the sky blue passport, and I am still proud to be a Fijian.

Now that I am not in Fiji anymore, one can see things more clearly. It's definitely a case of stepping back to look at the big picture...and it is not a pretty one. From outside, Fiji is now a definite member of the Melanesian "Arc of Instability" , the grouping of Melanesian nations that are in various stages of unrest. Mind you, our Polynesian next-door neighbour seems to have caught this virus..with a further extension to their current State of Emergency, the 8th since last year's crisis in Nuku'alofa.

But back to our backyard.

One could go on lamenting the problems that now besiege us. We could spend years around the tanoa talking about this problem, and how it is affecting our country. That is what we have been doing and what we are doing.

The reason we, the people of this nation are suffering is because we, the people allow it. Maybe we hate confrontation. Maybe, we like what this government is doing. Maybe, we fear the repurcussions if we stand up. Maybe, we want to do something, but we don't know how to do it.

We need solutions to our problem. We all know that there is a problem, and we need to solve it, and fast. If we don't, we will be stuck in this conumdrum for a lot longer than we need to be. So put your thinking hats on..and put in your ideas in the comments section. As we keep on harping about democracy, we might as well be democraticatic about the selection of the next course of action. So that means, people, that the most popular idea for resisting this regime wins.

So pound those keys....and let's make them remember.

God Bless Fiji
Mawdsomething AKA Fijianblack

Empowering Fiji’s future “crap detectors”

courtesy of EnufDictatorship..... a suggestion for a long term solution.

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“The solution of adult problems tomorrow depends in large measure upon the way our children grow up today. There is no greater insight into the future than recognizing that, when we save children, we save ourselves.”
Margaret Mead

In the past weeks and month, either in Fiji or around the world citizens have in some ways acknowledged and celebrated our children and our youth. In Fiji, celebrations have included clean-up campaigns (the garbage kind), games, mini lectures on community policing, training on developing an understanding of union rights, etc.

We all believe and support the idea that our youths of today are the leaders of tomorrow. Therefore, if we have to consider our current problems as a country, we also have to consider how we are preparing those we believe to be the future leaders of our country. We have to ask ourselves are we providing the best skills, knowledge, characteristics and attitudes that will develop these children and youth into wise, successful and responsible leaders. In short, are we really empowering our children, in order, for them to be able to lead our country to a prosperous future?

No one disputes that education starts from home. On the other hand, we also believe that “it takes a village to educate a child.” To this end, we believe and support the idea that schooling contributes to this education. Therefore, we have built schools where we hope that our children and youth will further develop the necessary lifelong skills, knowledge, characteristics and attitudes they need to prepare themselves for their future whether it be gracing the corridors of parliament, government offices, educational institutions, hospitals, financial institutions or toiling the land and sea. Most importantly to consider as well is that the decisions these youths will make in their future will affect those of us who are currently middle-aged or approaching old age.
Is our school system empowering children and youth?
Ernest Hemingway in one of his early interviews was asked to identify the characteristics required for a person to become a “great writer.” After Hemingway disparaged a few possibilities provided by the frustrated interviewer, the interviewer finally asked, “Isn’t there one essential ingredient that you can identify?” Hemingway replied, “Yes, there is. In order to be a great writer a person must have a built-in, shockproof crap detector.”

As I reflect on the current situation at home, I can honestly say that Fiji has suffered enough “crap” for so long. The “crap” I am referring to here includes all the wrong, inconvenient, intolerable financial, cultural and political mistakes, which have allowed our country to “run down”, to reduce to chaos and uselessness. These include amongst other things nepotism, corruption and coups. Norbert Wiener calls this “entropy.”

I then wonder is the schooling system, which is seen as the second most important institution assisting in the children/youth’s education dynamic, interesting and “new” enough to contribute in the promotion of empowering them to become experts at “crap detecting.” By “crap detecting”, it means “people who have been educated to recognize change, to be sensitive to problems by change, and who have the motivation and courage to sound alarms when entropy accelerates to a dangerous degree.”

How can we empower children then?
When children are empowered, not only are they aware of their freedom but also they develop a will to exercise it, and the intellectual power and perspective to do so effectively. Therefore, our children have to be encouraged to question, question, and question. That is, empower them to be active inquirers and problem solvers.

These questioning skills are developed through inquiry teaching and learning. A review of the methods of teaching currently used in schools and the content should be undertaken. The traditional didactic, textbook only, chalk and board, teacher-knows-all approach should be changed to transformative inquiry, all different sources, teachers-and-students-are-all-learners approach. The content of what to be taught should be relevant, significant and up-to-date.

Children bring into the classroom a wealth of knowledge from their own experiences. These have to be taken into account when teaching them. They are not empty vessels waiting to be filled-up. In addition, beginning from early childhood education (kindergartens), children have to be encouraged to take action. Modest things that are already in place in schools like picking up rubbish, cleaning classrooms, etc have to be extended to school/class/group/individual projects, whereby children research issues that affect them like poverty, illiteracy, truancy, children’s rights, animal rights, health, etc. Then they should make plans to take action in their community either to raise awareness of these issues or to combat them.

Moreover, the development of attitudes like respect, tolerance, empathy, etc and personal characteristics like caring, open-mindedness, etc have to be specifically targeted when teaching academic and non-academic lessons either inside or outside of the classroom boundaries.

Finally yet importantly, parent education have to be encouraged and promoted because after all parents are partners in education.

To conclude, I leave you youths of Fiji with a quote from the late US President Ronald Reagan,
“We (Fiji) need you; we (Fiji) need your youth, your strength and your idealism, to help us make right what is wrong.”

God bless our youths! God bless Fiji!

Keeping Our Eye On The Ball.

Ni Sa Bula,

I know... I know...I didn't post over the weekend. I apologise. I spent the weekend unwinding, and taking a step back to look at everything from another perspective. While doing this, something jumped out at me, something that I think needs to be brought to the nation's attention.

Lately, the news has been filled with items about the attempts to block the blogs, of blogs being hacked, of blogs being moved and of blogs being, well....blogs. The FHRC has also jumped on the IG anti-blog bandwagon, claiming that blog posts are in violation of the Constitution. Guess what Shameem...... your entire Government is in violation of the Constitution. Also what do you make of this sort of comment from one Mahendra Chaudry?

"We did not have a culture of rigged elections in Fiji before Qarase,"

Doesn't this "damage the reputation, dignity, privacy, or rights and freedoms of other individuals" and shouldn't you also prosecute Mahen for making this sort of allegation in the media? If you prosecute him, and hold him in a cell for saying the things he has said about the electoral process, then in our view, you would be qualified to make statements about the things we are saying. At the moment, you are nothing more that the IG's lapdog, barking from behind it's skirts. Please focus on your efforts to prosecute the murderers of Rabaka and Verebasaga, so that their families can find closure and peace.

Of course, I haven't said anything about the elephant in the room....your idol, the Interim Government, who is by far, the largest damager of human rights, reputation, dignity and freedom of the citizens of this nation. They have killed, tortured, detained, hurt, slandered and maimed innocent people, and they try to sell this to us in the name of a "clean-up"!!!! What lies!!! What an insult to our intelligence!!!! What a total load of crap!!!!

Please tell your masters, Shaista...to shut their mouths. We are tired of their lies.

Another favourite lie of the IG is the claim that the economy was going down under the leadership of the deposed Government.

Can anyone tell me, if the economy was really on the slide, why would there be high-rise buildings sprouting all over Suva? How ironic that the FHRC is housed in one of these? Would there be multi-million hotel developments in the west, and the north? The backlog of $2.6 billion worth of tourism-related projects is another indicator of the fact that investors had confidence in Fiji's economy, that they saw it as a worthwhile place to invest their money. We also saw sporting events for the region like the SPG 2003 being hosted in Fiji. Even sports like sailing, power-lifting and netball had selected Fiji as the venue of their respective world meets. All that came to a sudden and definite stop with the greedy, inconsiderate power grab of a small group of narrow-minded, unforgiving men and women, who in one fell swoop, took us back to a place we had turned our backs on 3 times in the past.

Bainimarama and his cultish followers still harp on about the events of 2000. I guess for all their fasting and praying, the FMF has not learnt the simple Christian truth, that unless you forgive, God will not forgive you. They are also trying their utmost to distort the truth. Thank God that we have blogs, where each of us can, with a little time and dedication, broadcast our views to the world. The worst part of it is that within their ranks are the children of the late Rt. Mara. The fact that his son and daughters are involved with the FMF makes me wonder if they are that guillible, that they cannot see that Bainimarama was the one who removed their Ratu from the Presidency. He could have backed the old man on the hill, and stood by him when the chips were down in 2000. That the children of one of Fiji's greatest statesman (I do not wish to dive into the allegations relating his ancestry, his modus operandi...I will stick to the verified facts of his life) are in arms with the architect of his demise, speaks volumes of their gullibility, and their greed. I prefer to think that they are just guilible, because the alternative is too horrifying to consider. To imagine that they are guilty of patricide is a path I do not wish to take because that is what they are guilty of, if they know exactly what Bainimarama did on the naval ship in the Suva harbour during the 2000 crisis. If my own father was in that position, I would move heaven and earth to get to his aid. If I commanded the largest regiment in the FMF, trust me, there would be blood spilt before I let anyone do those things to my Ratu, especially if he represented law and order. But that is just my opinion....

Now this one just got me all tied up on knots, I couldn't stop laughing at the irony of it. Read the following line, that has been replicated in countless media outlets all over the world.

"the anonymous blogger known as Fijian Black"

I am FijianBlack. I am not anonymous. I have a name, an online presence, and the world at large can read and see my views whenever they so desire. That is not anonymity. The fact that my online persona cannot be linked with my physical being is a result of the situation we face in Fiji. We are threatened with acts that anyone who retains his/her sanity would not want to be subjected to. They killed Sakiusa Rabaka on the suspicion of his involvement in marijuana smoking. Imagine what they will do to me, and my family!!!! While I have considered this, and now believe that it is more costly to me to stay silent, that I must speak out, believe me, I put myself, and my family on the line every time I post. I believe, however, that Fiji is worth the sacrifice, that the hope that we can rise out of this quagmire, and become great again, and take our place in the echelon of civilized nations will one day come true.

So I blog. We blog. We are doing what we are supposed to be doing. We are doing what the FHRC, the Judiciary, the Government should be doing. We are looking out for the rights, the dignity, the freedom, of the people of Fiji. We bring to the world's attention, the failures, the flaws, the mistakes of this regime that is illegally ruling over this nation, oppressing it's people, and riding roughshod over their will.

And that must be our focus. We must focus on the weaknesses, the shortcomings, the failures of this regime. The single, largest shortcoming of this regime is that it is illegal. Why do they need the guns, if they are certain of their legitimacy? Why have they taken over all arms of the Forces, of the various branches and agencies of Government, if they were sure that what they are doing is right? Why are they scared of having elections? WHY??????

We must ask these questions. We must probe, and dig, for unless we see things as they truly are, and not as this IG says it is, we will never heal our nation. And our children will be doomed to repeat our mistakes, because we were too lazy to learn from them.

God Bless Fiji,
mawdsomething.