“Fiji, the way the World should be”

R. Mugabe

It’s official: a man went out.

Neighbours reported that they saw him go out last night.

‘I thought he was just mad’, a woman opined while asking to remain anonymous.Another neighbour said he saw him open his door about ten o’clock.

‘Arreh, he went out’, he added.

When approached, the alleged man admitted to stunned reporters, ‘OK, yes, I went out’.

But he was unable to give a reason why.Asked if he would try it again, the man said, ‘yes, I think I like going out’.

Asked where he would go, the man said ‘out’.

“There is no need to speculate as to what happened, how it happened, what should have happened or what should not have happened. What is, is now, and the future,” Bainimarama said. (on Stuff today).

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’”
- George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 3

Then you’ve changed your statement from an absolute “has no redeeming qualities” to “might have redeeming qualities if there is an improvement in living standards”. That leaves a lot more room to argue about the merits of replacing the previous government, a course of action which seems to have the support of large numbers of Fijians.

[DPF: The important trend is the trend in freedom of speech. Even if he was Mother Theresa, he should be opposed for stealing a free press]

DPF – where is this increase of freedom in China? Freedom for capitalist robber barons to set up sweat shops?

What Fiji shows, more than anything else, is the folly of mixing incompatible races.

[DPF: Freedom from poverty for a start. Around 300 million Chinese have been lifted above the poverty line. Secondly citizens can criticise the Govt much more openly now - there are limits but they have shifted. Travel overseas also a lot easier]

The lesson is moving from colonial rule to democracy in situations where there is high risk of communal violence is not easy and leaving it purely up to those involved may not be a good idea.

So we should toss out the free trade agreement with China, and instead institute a set of sanctions towards them?

[DPF: Oh don't be stupid. Just because some countries are dictatorships is no reason not to fight against further countries joining them. The key thing is the trend. Over time China is becoming more free. Fiji is becoming less free]