Blogs & Ecology

Oceanic writes about the debate over the culturally inappropriate ads in Fiji.

A government infrastructure project in Fiji was delayed after local residents demanded that workers in the project should come from the local community.

A few members of Fiji’s blogosphere have begun to lash out at what they see as double standards from the international organizations and countries preaching democracy to the Pacific Island nation that has been ruled by military leaders for the past two years.

Since the beginning of December, two separate governmental delegations have arrived in Fiji to assess the political situation and try to prod Commodore Voreqe “Frank” Bainimarama into holding elections as once promised.

Few people give more mileage to anniversaries than journalists and bloggers. Fiji’s military coup led by Commodore Voreqe “Frank” Bainimarama hit its two-year anniversary December 5, and bloggers around the region (and countless commenters to the blogosphere) have spent the past few days gathering thoughts and opinions on the country’s past, present and future.

Let’s begin with one of the few bloggers expressing qualified support for using the military regime to make necessary constitutional changes in Fiji.

A few Fiji bloggers have sharply criticized the country’s military government for allowing the armed forces to overspend its allocated funds in the past fiscal year by more than 50 percent.

Image source: Getty Images

As reported in the Otago Daily Times, the noticeable impacts of climate change on area coral reefs and a recent starfish outbreak are not as bad as previously thought due to noticeable changes in the Fijian lifestyle. From 2000-20006 the size of the reefs around the Lau Islands reduced by 50% but changes in dietary and industry around the island have actually given the reefs a chance to recover, a little. ...

For the second time this month, Fiji’s military government has threatened to send a newspaper editor and its publisher to prison for publishing a letter to the editor alleged to be in contempt of court.

In mid-October, the Fiji Times and Fiji Daily Post printed a letter from a certain Vili Navukitu of Queensland, Australia complaining about a recent high court ruling that legitimized the actions of the country’s president in dissolving the Parliament, and the elected government of Laisenia Qarase, immediately following the December 2006 coup that brought into power Commodore Frank Bainamairama.