Our golden girl
I had to relook at the words in red and read through the article to make sure that I did not require a visit to the eye clinic.
The number 46 represents extreme ends.
It is sheer jaw-dropping jubilation and sadness.
Has 46 gold medals slipped from being placed beside Fiji’s name?
Forthcoming Olympics gold medals, Commonwealth Games gold medals, regional and World Championships gold medals.
In Fiji’s sporting history, we have heard “Golden Boy”.
What about “Golden Girl”?
Mohammed Imraz Janif, Natabua, Lautoka
Onus on you to change
The Fiji Times (19/8) notes healthcare professionals discussing non-communicable disease trends.
If 80 per cent of Fijians die prematurely of NCDs, one wonders what is going wrong?
With a low-level national functional literacy and the high volume of health promotional material on advocacy, yet not understood.
Who is ultimately irresponsible, for this mismatch?
Our health providers do not have a living NCD health policy after UN endorsement eight years ago.
No NCD programs are monitored or evaluated to determine alignment.
The equation tilts towards a disjoint health system.
Confused?
Neil Sharma, Suva
Four million trees
As Fiji bravely and very optimistically strives to attain planting 4,000,000 trees in four short years or 2740 trees per day, every day, here are a few pointers, I would like to share with all concerned in the decision-making process of this bold national initiative.
To help improve the daily living standards and economic wellbeing of all rural communities, I make this humble suggestion to the Extension Service Unit of our own Agriculture Department, to consider, where possible, subject to soil types, weather and availability of land-based on population.
Is it worth implementing the commercial farming of these: – Ivi; – Vutu; – Wi; – Dawa; – Kavika; – Moli kana; – Star apples; – Guava; – Lemons; – Limes; – Oranges; – Tamarind; – Jackfruit; – Various mango varieties; – Cherry guavas; – Pawpaws; and – Soursop.
Proper training, controlled commercial farming methods, monitored pruning of trees, proper harvesting to avoid bruising, quality packaging and storage, marketability, etc.
All the above can be served daily in all our hotels, resorts, restaurants, cruise vessels, hospitals, correctional centres, homes for elderly, etc.
They are also excellent cash crops for all our roadside stalls and ease stresses from poverty.
Food for thought for all future generations and preserving our local fruit…..some are hardly seen nowadays. Fiji can easily take a page out of foreign countries who handle commercial farming of various fruit and nuts, etc., but on a mini scale, for starters and eventual steady expansion.
Please do not flood our markets, under any circumstance.
Good luck Fiji Agriculture Ministry and small micro business enterprises.
Ronnie Chang, Mountainview, Martintar, Nadi
WAF issues
It’s really a concern to note from the dailies about people being affected with water supply in many interior parts of the Western Division.
More damaging is to note the materials that have been delivered to project sites and left there either to deteriorate or become unusable.
All in all it’s a loss to the government when it comes down to effective service delivery.
It’s high time many projects in Fiji need proper planning and execution.
With all these it’s disheartening to say that WAF needs serious audits.
In addition, it can be concluded that at one end WAF is under-resourced to attend to sewerage and water complaints and on the other huge amount of materials are put to waste.
To me it’s serious as the equations do not balance.
Food for thought!
Time to do things right!
R K Singh, Lautoka
Burnt cane
Spot on Simon!
The question was, why bring in harvesting machines without a separator device, then advising don’t burn cane?
Such intelligence!
Dan Urai, Lautoka
Singapore of the Pacific
I have read that the Prime Minister and the Attorney-General want to make Fiji the Singapore of the Pacific.
Well, Singapore will gradually raise its retirement age to 65.
Their current retirement age is 62.
If we want to be like Singapore, now is the time to start.
Allen Lockington, Kava Place, Waiyavi, Lautoka
Electricity and addiction
Is it possible for our electricity authorities to determine the amount of electricity taken up through the charging of mobile phones?
Social media is taking up so much of people’s time, energy and efforts that some have likened this to enslavement.
Some provide updates and comments on anything and throughout the day that they need to recharge their phones often.
Speaking to an elderly lady the other day, she said that it’s like an increasing number of people are becoming enslaved to their mobile phones.
If there are such statistics available in the future, then one should be surprised with the results.
People are becoming addicted to their mobile phones.
Floyd Robinson, Toorak, Suva
RWC support
Gone are the days of criticising or nay slayings, this is the most right time to support and pray over our RWC (Rugby World Cup) squad as a nation.
What good would it bring if we continue with our negative comments over selection process or others.
I request the people of Fiji to rally behind the boys and the officials for the games are just around the corner.
Toso Viti.
Paaak!
Waisale Moce, Nadarivatu
Silence there
The silence on the alleged Parliament assault case is ear-shattering.
The buzz, however, travels the grapevine.
Dan Urai, Lautoka
Long hosepipe
While having a basin of kava at the Lautoka market, I heard someone ask where he could buy long hosepipe from.
Someone said at a certain hardware store.
When he asked how long was the longest, someone quickly chipped in and said, “Four years long”.
Wow, that sounded like a very long pipe.
Allen Lockington, Kava Place, Waiyavi, Lautoka
Our traffic woes
On Tuesday, 20/8, I was travelling from Wailada to Koronivia and got into traffic snarls, some small by the FRA (Fiji Roads Authority) ever-repairing crews and some big by the Fiji Police Force.
Now there is a daily queue towards Lami from the Delainavesi bridge.
Not to be outdone, the Delainavesi Police Post put on a good chokepoint and caused a traffic snarl from Lami towards Suva.
I then got pulled over at the Laqere police checkpoint which now seems to be of a daily occurrence.
This was after being in the queue for about 25 minutes.
On enquiring with a very young officious Fijian police officer I was told they were looking for stolen vehicles, expired registrations and fine defaulters.
I asked was this the best Fiji Police Force could offer to combat such issues, without the collective punishment that checkpoints offer, his reply was “this was how we do it in Fiji”.
If anyone Googled “ANPR / LPR systems” (automatic number-plate recognition or licensed plate recognition systems) one will find a myriad of relatively affordable systems on offer, even an open source for free configurable ANPR software.
I would suggest that the Fiji Police Force and LTA (Land Transport Authority) collaborate to fund recent USP/FNU software graduates to do systems integration on some affordable hardware along with free software to come up with a mobile working ANPR/LPR solution that does not cost an arm and a leg.
It will be interesting to note if the Fiji Police Force had even bothered to enquire with their NSW Police Force (New South Wales Police Force) counterparts in Australia who use this technology on durability and affordability.
Our isolated traffic lights that need to be networked, ANPR/LPR systems which can be a covert system of law enforcement are just two areas where tech solutions can make a significant impact.
Is this why our PM is making such a song and dance about the Green Climate Fund (GCF) so that these tech solutions can be implemented?
Then I agree with him entirely but not with his position that current climate changes is largely because of human activity.
Yes there is climate change; what is not debatable is how very little of it is because of human activity.
Mareko Vuli, Wainibuku Rd, Nakasi
Type of mosquito
How will I know whether a mosquito is a Wolbachia one or not?
If any mosquito buzzes around me expecting a blood meal, it will just end up getting smacked, sprayed or fumed whether its a good one or not.
Maybe, they should have an identification sign or an ID card, which I could check first before they bite!
Despite this, I would like to commend the Government for including Fiji in this pilot project.
Who would have thought that you need a mosquito to eradicate the disease carried by another one.
After all these years, we have at last come up with this brilliant and very effective eradication method.
I just hope that our grog swipers don’t kill off all the good ones before they complete their mission.
Edward Blakelock, Admiral Circle, Pacific Harbour
