The Fiji Times » Opinion

Editorial comment – Encouraging news

The revelation that Qantas and Jetstar announced last Friday that they have several new international flights from November in light of increased bookings from Australians is encouraging. One of their most popular destinations we are told is Fiji. We are told there was an increase of 200 per cent in bookings for Jetstar flights following...

From the Crowd: Coming out

WHILE many of us are still under all sorts of lockdown restrictions, we who are in Sydney due to various reasons or Acts of God, are facing the delightful prospect of rejoining you. I would certainly give up the delightful freedoms now permitted in parts of Australia for a glimpse of family. Included in that...

Letters to the Editor – Sunday, October 24, 2021

Headlines in the Times I REFER to the letter by Bharat Morries ( FT 21/10) asking why opposition political leaders quite regularly find their way to The Fiji Times front page headlines accompanied by big pictures. Mr Morris, my two cents take is that they attract readers like me to know about important issues concerning our...

Editorial comment – Water safety

The revelation that an 11-year-old student is alleged to have drowned in the Sigatoka River earlier this week will once again raise the issue of water safety. The victim, according to police, travelled from Suva with her parents, and had gone swimming without their knowledge. Police spokesperson Ana Naisoro said the victim had been warned...

Carotid stenosis

Sound like a carrot smoothie … it is actually the abnormal narrowing of a blood vessel in the neck. This blood vessel supplies the brain with oxygen and nutrient to function. To understand this medical condition we have to go back to the basics of the human anatomy (study of the normal human body and its functions)...

Diagnosing the state of Fiji’s health system

Hospitals are the primary ultimate healthcare facility. The anecdotal evidence suggests that Fiji’s health system and facilities are in pretty poor shape. Drug shortages are commonplace, health infrastructure is in a deplorable condition in some places, and new hospitals that were commissioned years ago are either incomplete or still remain inaccessible to customers. To add to the problem, constructive criticism...

Gareth Baber leaves a mark and an impression

Olympic Sevens gold-winning hero and our head coach Gareth Baber is to join Edinburgh as skills and assistant attack coach. The 49-year-old Welshman will move to Scotland in December, having been in his role as Fiji 7s head coach since January 2017. The former Cardiff Blues coach had a spectacular spell with Fiji, guiding our national 7s...

Letters to the Editor – Saturday, October 23, 2021

Trek up Mt Korobaba Ana Madigibuli, via this week’s Kaila! newspaper, shared the exciting and thrilling experiences of the 20 youths from Kauvula Place as they went on a hiking expedition to Mt Korobaba. Most of the youths experienced their first hike that day, leaving their homes as early as 4am with different expectations of...

Sport post-COVID

Sport ground to a halt in April as our country was hit by the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. And now, nearly half a year later, I’m looking ahead to tomorrow – the return of competitive sport in the form of football’s Digicel Premier League. Really? Well, you’ll find out my concerns as you...

Benefits of starting young

The following article is part of Consumer Council of Fiji’s (CCoF) Project Financial Resilient Fijians (Project FRF) which is being implemented through partnership with United Nations Capital Development Fund’s (UNCDF) Pacific Insurance and Climate Adaptation Programme (PICAP). The project aims to help Fijian consumers become more financially resilient in the face of natural perils. When...

Promises, promises … Now even one of these can jail you

I’m old enough to remember when politics was fun. In my short career as a Fiji Times reporter I was in the thick of the 1982 General Election. It was a more innocent time in some ways – after all, no one was looking over their shoulder and wondering if there would be a coup...

Editorial comment – Sticking to the rules

The reopening of the containment borders in September started a chain of events that saw a slow return of foot traffic in most urban centres around the country. It then kick-started a rather quick return of traffic around the country as people lapped up the return of freedom to travel. Now with sports set to...

Justice for sorcery – Accusation related violence in PNG

Jesten Jessy was bedridden with symptoms consistent with COVID-19 during the pandemic. Later, he recalled that he had seen a woman doing something, involving sugarcane sprouts. A magic spell to give him fever and weakness? So, while she was sleeping, he beat her to death with a piece of timber. Not every case like this...

Letters to the Editor – Friday, October 22, 2021

Life-long lessons! The pieces compiled by Litia Cava and Wanshika Kumar titled “Life-lessons of pandemic” and “Bainivalu’s love for flowers”, respectively, (FT 20/10) shred life-long lessons. The stories inspired girls and women. In her article, Litia shared the story of Alisi Merenayara who went out of her way to assist her husband in meeting their...

Editorial comment – Our children’s education

There were some interesting figures released when the Fiji Bureau of Statistics carried out the Fiji Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey in March and April this year. It stated 31.7 per cent children of secondary school age were not attending school when the survey was done. It revealed that 28.2 per cent children of upper secondary...

COVID-19 recession – The impact on the Pacific region

The socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 are devastating communities in the Pacific and Timor-Leste as much as the virus itself, and sometimes to an even greater extent. World Vision surveyed 752 households (with an average of six people per household) in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste and Vanuatu in late 2020 to better understand the...

Letters to the Editor – Thursday, October 21, 2021

Source of information For Donald Campbell, who was part of the 10 winners of the September draw, The Fiji Times has been his source of information. Donald described his relationship with the newspaper which enabled him to know what was happening around the country. He said he was aware of what was happening around the...

Editorial comment – Safety first

USA Today reported an interesting case of death by COVID-19 the other day. The death from COVID-19 complications of former US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday, it said, could add fuel to those who oppose vaccines, considering his family said he was fully vaccinated. In reality, though, it stated, Mr Powell’s death at...

Political crises in Vanuatu and Samoa – Tells us about their past and future

In recent months, both Vanuatu and Samoa have endured political crises. To a casual observer in Canberra or Wellington, their travails might seem part of a common political malaise that affects much of the Pacific. This isn’t the case though. The polities of the Pacific have similarities, but they differ in important ways: different dynamics,...

Letters to the Editor – Wednesday, October 20, 2021

152 reasons to smile! I read Sekaia Waqaniburotu’s story titled ‘152 reasons’ (FT 19/19) with great interest. Sekaia, who is a retired schoolteacher, never missed a day reading the newspaper, and now that he is retired, he asks his family members to buy him a copy of the newspaper on their way back home. Sekaia...

Editorial comment – Road to big things

TREKKING through rugged terrain for hours by foot to catch public transport will soon be a thing of the past for villagers of Nakida in the district of Nagonenicolo, Naitasiri. This follows the construction of a new road linking them to Nawaisomo Village. As our report on Page 2 yesterday pointed out, Minister for Infrastructure...

Letters to the Editor – Tuesday, October 19, 2021

‘Surprise’ win for Saratibau! Vasiti Saratibau, who is an avid reader of The Fiji Times and was among the 10 winners of The Fiji Times 152nd anniversary promotion September draw, was on cloud nine. She shared that she never missed out on buying the newspaper every morning. She shared that she never missed a day...

Editorial comment – A reminder for us all

The fact that four people are recovering in hospital after they were involved in three separate road accidents at the weekend should attract attention. In fact it should keep us on our toes. It should encourage us to be proactive whenever we are out on the road. Any accident on our roads must raise concern....

Point of Origin: Brothers part ways – Two districts believed to be from the same family

Descendants of the two districts of Tunuloa and Natewa in the province of Cakaudrove are believed to have come from the same family tree – two brothers who arrived in the area in the early days before Christianity. When the brothers arrived, they settled at Naqarautu, now known as Naqaravutu or Qaravutu Village. According to...

Opinion

Letters to the Editor – Monday, October 26, 2021