As of midnight, nurses around the country have walked off their jobs after a failed attempt yesterday afternoon by the military to bribe the nurses with promotions for 60 senior nurses.
Kudos to the nurses unions for refusing to be intimidated by the junta and standing their ground. In contrast to the nurses, the FPSA made a big song and dance about the pay cut and other issues and was actually the first union to file a strike notice, but in the end didn't follow through on all its threats.
Today, the military junta will experience the first real public test of its existence. While everyone will agree that nurses provide an essential service, this strike should make Bainimarama and his cohorts sit up and smell the dissent.
If anything, this will be the first time since the coup that an organized protest against the junta will take place.
How pathetic the interim public service minister Poseci Bune sounded when he lamented the state of the economy as the reason for it being impossible to restore the five percent pay cut on civil servants. Who put us in this situation in the first place?
Bula also called the deal put to the nurse yesterday afternoon as "major concessions". The union leaders promptly came out of the meeting and described it as nothing different to what has already been discussed.
Fiji has about 1600 odd nurses. About 1400 are going on strike, leaving some 200 or so nurses. What makes the junta think that offering 60 senior nurses promotions would lure them out of the strike?
And how odd it is for the junta to be putting on a brave face by saying the health services will "not be affected". Not be affected. With the permanent secretary of health Dr Waqatakirewa himself confirming about 90 percent of nurses will be on strike, how can the health service not be affected? The mind boggles.
It's heartening to see the nurses, most of them women, are not being bullied by men with guns and power making noises about what it's trying very hard to make out as a criminal act.
Realizing that the nurses had covered all their bases in filing for strike action, the interim ministers tried their best to derail the union efforts by openly saying they would cut their pay and hire new workers, implying they would sack them.
Thankfully, some could see right through the tough-talk. Pay cuts are normal for those on strike but it would be illegal to sack workers on a legitimate industrial action.
The junta also tried to discredit the efforts of the unionists by claiming their intelligence officers are reporting that criminal elements may take advantage of the strike.
A bit below the belt in trying to tarnish the nurses' industrial action but that's the military.
The junta has more coming - other unions under FICTU, including the Fijian Teachers Association and the Public Employees Union strike on Aug. 2.
- INTELLIGENT RESISTANCE -
Free. Fair. Fearless. Intelligentsiya is made up of Fiji Islanders who are libertarians in their own way and who cherish the free flow of news, ideas and information and will peacefully resist any attempts by the country's military rulers to stifle free speech. intelligentsiya will also bear witness, report and discuss human rights abuses by the authorities.
July 18, 2007
Snapping out of it together
It’s true we are all being subjected to waves, bouts, hi’ and lo’s of depression. There is no denying it and many psychologists will agree with me that it is certainly no laughing matter.
Take an on-line test to assess yourself here
What to do? For the love of God talk about it with people you trust but DO NOT keep it all bottled up inside. Rant, rave on the blogs but don’t let it get to you.
Yes the state of our beloved country is helter-skelter but we still have much to be thankful for—we have good health, we have filled stomachs, we have family, we have friends. Celebrate life and pause to be thankful for the small mercies.
OK so perhaps blogging is not making the waves as quickly as we wanted. Justice is coming but let’s keep it firmly embedded in our minds that if anyone/s is to face a panel of judges it certainly will not be any of us. It will be them, it will be them, it will be them.
So why do we do this…it’s for our people and this picture of a Bubu in the market perhaps say’s it all.
It is our people out there who (and you can bet on it) know exactly what’s going down but will choose to worry daily about sustenance for the day and scrounging the pennies to get on the bus. We cannot ask them to change their priorities—theirs is life and death, ours is the life of the country.
The onus is on us, yes I’m talking about you the urbanite and the rellies all over the globe to worry about the life of the country on behalf of our people out there. Is that not the essence of veikauwaitaki?
So if you love your country, deal with your depression and learn to quickly snap out of it. There is much to be done.
Let’s also celebrate what we collectively have achieved via blogging this week at least (1) a now ex-Post Fiji chairperson’s and (2) the now-ex Chairperson of ATS. Did you honestly think that the mainstream media got wind of this by divine intervention? Nah peeps they got their leads from the blogs.
We’ll get there people but let’s focus our energies on the courts and the census/boundaries farce.
Keep your chins FIRMLY up.
Take an on-line test to assess yourself here
What to do? For the love of God talk about it with people you trust but DO NOT keep it all bottled up inside. Rant, rave on the blogs but don’t let it get to you.
Yes the state of our beloved country is helter-skelter but we still have much to be thankful for—we have good health, we have filled stomachs, we have family, we have friends. Celebrate life and pause to be thankful for the small mercies.
OK so perhaps blogging is not making the waves as quickly as we wanted. Justice is coming but let’s keep it firmly embedded in our minds that if anyone/s is to face a panel of judges it certainly will not be any of us. It will be them, it will be them, it will be them.
So why do we do this…it’s for our people and this picture of a Bubu in the market perhaps say’s it all.
It is our people out there who (and you can bet on it) know exactly what’s going down but will choose to worry daily about sustenance for the day and scrounging the pennies to get on the bus. We cannot ask them to change their priorities—theirs is life and death, ours is the life of the country.The onus is on us, yes I’m talking about you the urbanite and the rellies all over the globe to worry about the life of the country on behalf of our people out there. Is that not the essence of veikauwaitaki?
So if you love your country, deal with your depression and learn to quickly snap out of it. There is much to be done.
Let’s also celebrate what we collectively have achieved via blogging this week at least (1) a now ex-Post Fiji chairperson’s and (2) the now-ex Chairperson of ATS. Did you honestly think that the mainstream media got wind of this by divine intervention? Nah peeps they got their leads from the blogs.
We’ll get there people but let’s focus our energies on the courts and the census/boundaries farce.
Keep your chins FIRMLY up.
July 13, 2007
What have you done for me lately?
Don’t worry “Ex-Fiji Tourist” we were also floored when we heard Mr Bainimarama’s ironic pearls of wisdom to himself quipping “let me see what else have we done?”. What a bozo. If he was so passionately into the cause, these “achievements” should have been dripping off his tongue.
If there’s an apt response to this question from many people of Fiji, it would be this: NOTHING. They have done nothing-zero-squat-e sega-nahi, to progress this country despite all their rhetoric about noble intentions.
Much of the junta’s focus is intent on getting buy-in on THEIR charter, which is shrouded under a bogus “People’s Charter” title. The first few sections lament racial divisions in this country. We agree that race is an issue however when race is used to try and over-turn the wishes of the demographic majority in this country then there is a problem.
Therein lies the bone of contention regarding democracy. This junta will continue to refute democracy as a political ideology because it’s about the numbers game. Numbers that they know they don’t have and will probably try to skew via boundaries reforms and a new census.
Equally ironic are their allegations that past governments have flouted the race-card whenever they wanted votes. To our minds it appears that the same stunts are being pulled now.
More importantly however is that race issues will never, repeat, will never, be resolved by a top-down driven political agenda. Multiculturalism is nourished in our homes and inculcated by our societal environment, with our class-rooms being one key driver. Yet the educational incubators of our next generation continue to see schools that are divisively segregated, and this core area is but mentioned briefly in the Junta’s Charter appearing as less of a priority.
Some key steps being touted by this document to progress the Junta Charter are:
So much fluff via acronyms, un-mandated roles/responsibilities and levels of bureaucracies yet missing two core pre-requisites—money and international support.
So how does the junta aim to counter this? Drafting the buy-in of we, the peoples. They have begun by getting buy-in from some NGO’s. We would ask these NGOs who exactly they represent and if they could take a poll. More importantly do their “members” fully understand what this document means especially as it has not yet been translated in the Hindi vernacular? It’s all about numbers and by golly if we didn't know any better it would seem that this farcical document might be soon heralded as the beginnings of the new rules of our land.
His Excellency the President is being conveniently entrenched more and more in this mess and we would even boldly suggest that his presidential seal will see him, as an individual (since the GCC has been sacked) face the courts one day soon as the primary coup-ster.
No matter. Intelligentsiya rejects this Charter. We are resolute in our stand—we want Elections and nothing but Elections ASAP. We are not going to help this junta in any way as they forcefully took over the country, “nobly” stepped up to the plate and said they would bring in better days.
So, by all means, you have the floor Junta—all by yourselves—and we do mean every single one of you, those that we can see and especially those puppeteering behind the curtains.
If there’s an apt response to this question from many people of Fiji, it would be this: NOTHING. They have done nothing-zero-squat-e sega-nahi, to progress this country despite all their rhetoric about noble intentions.
Much of the junta’s focus is intent on getting buy-in on THEIR charter, which is shrouded under a bogus “People’s Charter” title. The first few sections lament racial divisions in this country. We agree that race is an issue however when race is used to try and over-turn the wishes of the demographic majority in this country then there is a problem.
Therein lies the bone of contention regarding democracy. This junta will continue to refute democracy as a political ideology because it’s about the numbers game. Numbers that they know they don’t have and will probably try to skew via boundaries reforms and a new census.
Equally ironic are their allegations that past governments have flouted the race-card whenever they wanted votes. To our minds it appears that the same stunts are being pulled now.
More importantly however is that race issues will never, repeat, will never, be resolved by a top-down driven political agenda. Multiculturalism is nourished in our homes and inculcated by our societal environment, with our class-rooms being one key driver. Yet the educational incubators of our next generation continue to see schools that are divisively segregated, and this core area is but mentioned briefly in the Junta’s Charter appearing as less of a priority.
Some key steps being touted by this document to progress the Junta Charter are:
- The development of independent Report on “The State of the Nation and the Economy” (SNE);
- The set up of a 40-member National Council for Building a Better Fiji (NCBBF) by the President of Fiji;
- The set up of 6 national-level Task Teams (NTT) and a Technical and Support Secretariat (TASS). The 6 NTTs are supposed to look into:
- Good Governance,
- Growing the Economy,
- Reforming Public Service including Service Delivery,
- Reforming Public Financial Institutions,
- Looking at Access to Land and Land Utilization, and
- Social and Community Sectors.
So much fluff via acronyms, un-mandated roles/responsibilities and levels of bureaucracies yet missing two core pre-requisites—money and international support.
So how does the junta aim to counter this? Drafting the buy-in of we, the peoples. They have begun by getting buy-in from some NGO’s. We would ask these NGOs who exactly they represent and if they could take a poll. More importantly do their “members” fully understand what this document means especially as it has not yet been translated in the Hindi vernacular? It’s all about numbers and by golly if we didn't know any better it would seem that this farcical document might be soon heralded as the beginnings of the new rules of our land.
His Excellency the President is being conveniently entrenched more and more in this mess and we would even boldly suggest that his presidential seal will see him, as an individual (since the GCC has been sacked) face the courts one day soon as the primary coup-ster.
No matter. Intelligentsiya rejects this Charter. We are resolute in our stand—we want Elections and nothing but Elections ASAP. We are not going to help this junta in any way as they forcefully took over the country, “nobly” stepped up to the plate and said they would bring in better days.
So, by all means, you have the floor Junta—all by yourselves—and we do mean every single one of you, those that we can see and especially those puppeteering behind the curtains.
July 06, 2007
Priorities anyone?
There they go again. Stuffing up the country and the economy and internationally any semblance of self-respect that Fiji ever had.
It’s pretty obvious that inconsistencies will continue to abound from these goons and that the ride is going get bumpier.
But while Pearly Bernie is (a) away on the eve of a national strike and (b) frazzled by the questions regarding her jaunt to Dubai she maintains that she’s going to build bridges.
Well Lovey that’s fine but why not (a) start building bridges with your unions first and (b) why all the cloak the dagger?
But looky-look what we have here…while civil servants face a looming pay cut AGAIN there’s a whole troupe accompanying 2 Junta Ministers (who will obviously fly first class) and most probably donate much-needed $$$ to the Korean Airlines coffers….will the idiocy and lack of priorities ever end? Not any time soon as Discombobulated Bubu, Bainivore, Fuggedaboutit and Hydenceek pointedly continue to spell out.
Unconvinced? Read it for yourself…they make the news at the DUBAI SUMMER SURPRISES extravaganza.
No doubt Mahend will be seething quietly in his corner and biding his time as that’s much needed moula for his sugar pie out the window.
It’s pretty obvious that inconsistencies will continue to abound from these goons and that the ride is going get bumpier.
But while Pearly Bernie is (a) away on the eve of a national strike and (b) frazzled by the questions regarding her jaunt to Dubai she maintains that she’s going to build bridges.
Well Lovey that’s fine but why not (a) start building bridges with your unions first and (b) why all the cloak the dagger?
But looky-look what we have here…while civil servants face a looming pay cut AGAIN there’s a whole troupe accompanying 2 Junta Ministers (who will obviously fly first class) and most probably donate much-needed $$$ to the Korean Airlines coffers….will the idiocy and lack of priorities ever end? Not any time soon as Discombobulated Bubu, Bainivore, Fuggedaboutit and Hydenceek pointedly continue to spell out.
Unconvinced? Read it for yourself…they make the news at the DUBAI SUMMER SURPRISES extravaganza.
No doubt Mahend will be seething quietly in his corner and biding his time as that’s much needed moula for his sugar pie out the window.
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