From The Crowd

31st January

A decade of Greg’s life lost – When he woke up in 2017, he thought it was 2005

Greg Harvey woke up one morning in August 2017 thinking it was 2005. “I was in a panic because I thought I was going to be late to uni,” Mr Harvey said. Mr Harvey could...

30th January

Aunty Va calls it a day – Counselling for the past 28 years

She has decided to call it a day after being a counsellor for almost three decades. Originally from Serua Island, Vasemaca Naverebalavu Natoga has been counselling people with different issues for the past 28 years. Being the second eldest in a family of three boys and three girls, she had a very strict upbringing with...

28th January

Parasite infection – Cats, raw meat and pregnant women

Toxoplasmosis is an infection caused by a single-celled microscopic parasite called toxoplasma gondii. Clinical signs in cats Most cats infected with toxoplasma gondii show no signs of disease. Occasionally, however, a clinical disease called toxoplasmosis occurs, often when the cat’s immune response cannot stop the spread. The disease is more likely to occur in cats...

Cybersecurity shocking data breaches

Cyberspace continues to dominate our privacy issues and as reported by Techrepublic.com and others, data leaks affecting both personal and professional data grew in 2022 and will continue into 2023. Huge data leaks impacting millions of users occurred in 2022, such as the WhatsApp leak and more recent Twitter leak exposing more than 200 million...

Improve accountability in the ‘mataqali’

If we want the iTaukei to improve in the running of business and contribute more to the national economy, we have to ensure that the mataqali becomes accountable to its members in its operation. In the traditional social structure of the iTaukei, there are units such as confederacies, vanua, yavusa, mataqali, koro, tokatoka, family and...

A true patriot of Fiji

Allen Lockington lived a life that touched so many people and it’s hard to know where to begin. He is the man with a generous nature who has left us to live among angels in heaven. A man who did the nation proud. Someone who always thought about his fellow citizens and a champion of...

Petty-minded agitators – Treating democracy with disdain and contempt

Late Thursday evening, through an extraordinary Gazette notice, Speaker of Parliament Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu notified the people of Fiji that the FijiFirst parliamentary Opposition member Dr Mahendra Reddy’s seat was now vacant. Dr Reddy resigned only four days after standing shoulder-toshoulder with former Attorney- General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum while he dished out one of his usual...

Allen Lockington – man with the golden heart

Allen Lockington, who had a heart that touched thousands of people, left a legacy that will be hard to fill. He will be accorded a King’s funeral in his beloved city today. Expect a massive crowd at the Girmit Centre today as Fijians will converge to pay their last respect to a legendary writer and...

A true inspiration – Allen our local hero

Bula readers! This week we received the sad news that our local hero Allen Lockington passed away. I wrote an article in May of last year about this individual who was compassionate, caring and a true son of Fiji. Here are some excerpts from my assessment of this hardworking social worker who had received so...

Rule of law – Maybe a time for Aiyaz to reflect

Breakfast they say, is the most important meal of the day. But last Wednesday it was possibly also the most dangerous. Because that’s when many people were likely to be reading The Fiji Times and choking over their corn flakes. They could have been reading more pontification from the former Attorney General about “constitutionalism” and...

27th January

30 years in a story – ni-Vanuatu women relate their struggles

ON August 30, 1992, three ni-Vanuatu women were on a plane back home to Port Vila after attending a workshop in Suva with grassroots women from across the Pacific region. Three days later, the Vanuatu Women’s Centre (VWC) was born. These three remarkable women were Merilyn Tahi, the co-ordinator of VWC until February 2021, Elizabeth...