Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum intent on flouting international trade rules

The illegal and treasonous Attorney General and Tourism Minister Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum reveals another shoddily thought out plan by the military regime to retain more tourist dollars.

In an attempt to curry favour with Ba landowners,  Khaiyum launches a grand plan to "Buy Fiji Made" which was probably derived from his mate Sada Reddy's Central Bank monetary policy of June 2009.

Only problem is that it's called protectionism and thereby flouts the norms of free trade. Not even the US is immune.

International world leaders have already vowed to holding protectionist pressures in check and Fiji can ill afford to be hauled up to the WTO to defend itself in an international trade dispute.

Erroneous police report raises ire of Biausevu Village

Illegal and treasonous Police Chief Esala Teleni and his chief cheerleader spokesman, Atunaisa Sokoimuri are under the spotlight for releasing an erroneous police report.

Village headman of Biausevu village in Nadroga, Ratu Siriaki Matabogi raised his concerns about media reports based on police reports that identify his village as the location of a recent drug bust.

Matabogi refutes those claims and asserts that the actual scene of the drug bust is in fact a fair distance away from Biausevu village. Ratu Siriaki in turn fears for the reputation of his village because of their reliance on daily tourism activities.

The village headman has requested that the police correct their erroneous report and Sokoimuri has responded to this news promising to clarify and correct their report accordingly.

Watch Fiji TV's news piece about Biausevu village below.

As if that wasn't enough, we can again credit the Police Force for publicising alarmist statements on the 8 year old girl who was recently indecently assaulted and allegedly raped.

Sokoimuri's statement said that the victim had a "brink of death" diagnosis and perhaps contributed to the Ministry of Health unnecessarily firefighting falsely rampant rumours.

From the police website:

Police spokesman Atunaisa Sokoimuri said all schools have the responsibility in ensuring the safety of their students during school hours especially for primary schools.

“These measures should have been in place because it should be the norm, this incident could have been avoided if someone was around school.”

“It is said that such an incident has to happen for schools to realize how vulnerable their students can be if not supervised.”

“But let it be a warning to all out there who cannot control their sexual urges that you will face the wrath of the law under the new Crimes Decree 2009 if found guilty of rape.

The victim was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time as the alleged perpetrator now in Police custody lay in wait in the toilet with the intent to commit the crime.

And if that was not enough, the perpetrator proceeded to beat the helpless young girl to the brink of death. She is on life support now at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital Intensive Care Unit with major injuries to her head.

Whether this was done to silence her or further satisfy an inner social ill or psychotic need remains to be answered. But the question remains how can we prevent something like this from ever happening again?

Pacific Islands News Association website blocked

We've had our eyes on the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) for a while because of their flakey approach to Bainimarama's military regime.

Yesterday Radio New Zealand reported that the PINA website was blocked and that they were changing their Internet Service Provider.

In a fantastic ass-save about-turn, PINA's Manager Matai Akoula takes to Radio Australia's air waves to quickly deflect blame from the military regime while also managing to sell the regime's perspective that Bainimarama's draconian Singaporean influenced Media Decree is a much better option compared to a Chinese influenced one.

Listen here:

Fiji Sun's attempted April Fool's Day prank

Happy April Fool's Day folks!

Expert to investigate case of disappearing animals in Namosi
3/1/2010

An overseas expert will visit Fiji to conduct research into several incidents involving the disappearance of cattle and other animals from land adjacent to a deep section of the Navua River in Namosi Province.

A number of cattle, pigs and poultry have vanished without a trace after going down to the bank of Fiji’s third largest river to drink.

The location is near the village of Seganidua, about 15-kilometres inland.

The village headman, Mr Yacasega, confirmed the incidents and claimed he had himself recently seen a bull being dragged under the water by a monster of some kind. A fierce struggle followed and within a minute or so the bull had gone.

He added that it was difficult to clearly see the creature in question as it was well after sunset and visibility was poor.

Local wildlife authority, Dr Vuniwai Nimanumanu, said there could be a number of possibilities, at least two of which pointed to invasive species not native to Fiji.

He stated that as the area is close to where Anaconda II was produced several years ago, a snake used in the filming may have escaped from the film set into the jungle and grown to a large size. Another possibility is a large Green Iguana, of the introduced species that is currently being eliminated in Cakaudrove.

An unlikely possibility is a crocodile which might have travelled to Fiji from the Solomon Islands on ocean debris, as has been recorded to have happened several times in the 1800s. (In fact, one of these crocodiles was reported to have claimed nine lives, according to R A Derrick in his book, The Fiji Islands.)

A further possible perpetrator could be a rogue Bronze Pointer shark, a species known to regularly move up into freshwater from the sea and to inhabit deep pools on several of Fiji’s major rivers. Sharks have been reported at locations in the Rewa River, over 50 km from the sea.

Dr Nimanumanu stressed just how critical it is to keep invasive animal species out of Fiji as these threatened our indigenous animals and birds, which are found no where else in the world.

World authority on invasive species, Dr Lirpa Loof, of McDonald’s University in Scotland, will arrive in Fiji today to commence investigations into the mystery disappearances. His report is being anticipated with much interest and expectation.