Reflections on the May Day initiative

From the desk of Cassandra

I sincerely hope readers will momentarily indulge me when I smugly point out how relatively (and selfishly) happy I am to be safely quarantined from that loathsome oaf; Bainimarama, by a goodly stretch of some of the planet's deepest ocean.

Because they should also know that even that mighty barrier does not render me entirely immune to spontaneous metamorphisms strangely and silently induced by the advent on 5th December last of that dizzyingly dyslexic and deadly dangerous dictator.

Take, for example, May Day. Your correspondent must confess that until a few weeks ago he regarded observance of International Workers Day as a little too Bolshevic for his liking.

But no more! The excellent brainwave - so effectively taken up and promoted by Intelligentsiya and other freedom blogsites - to use May Day 2007 as an instrument of passive protest against Fiji's ruling illegal junta has put paid to such misgiving, or, more candidly, such pretensions.

So I hereby enthusiastically join the chorus: Go Fiji!

And in that spirit, May I share a few thoughts about the general significance of May?

Firstly, this May - Tuesday the 14th to be precise - will mark the 20th anniversary of Fiji's first coup. This will, of course, be an anniversary of dubious merit. On the one hand, it was a blow to a young democracy, but one from which we were able to recover pretty damned quickly.

On the other, it provided a paradigm that was to be adapted for their own opportunistic motives by egotistic rat-bags from the lunatic fringe such as George Speight and Voreqe Bainimarama.

Secondly, who recalls that lovely children's song "Here we go gathering nuts in May?" No, it's not a song about collecting nuts of either the botanical or human - think dictators - variety. "Nuts" is a corruption of "knots", which means "bunches", in this case - bunches of flowers.

So, to enhance the beauty and peacefulness of your passive protest this Tuesday, why not use part of the day to gather some flowers? And while you're doing that you might like to silently pray to God that there'll be no need for a similar observance in 12 months' time.

If that transpires - and I am praying it won't - then I respectfully suggest we drop the idea of using May Day as a peaceful protest. Instead, as a nation, we should shout in unison: "Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!"...and hope to hell that someone out there hears us.