Voivoi, mat-making on Koro Island

http://fijisun.com.fj/2016/11/30/weaving-helps-with-revival-efforts-on-koro/  (I cannot copy article and photo.)
One initiative after the devastation of Cyclone Winston has been taken up by the women of Koro Island with help with coils of voivoi for making pandanus mats to sell.  The hurricane depleted the island of voivoi but now they are able to start this small home industry again.
from Fiji Times

Koro's 'silent' backbones

Shalveen Chand
Monday, September 19, 2016

THE people of Koro Island are living examples of resilience as they continue to build their lives after Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston.

Seven months after the super storm ravaged through the island on February 20, the focus is on getting the small island's economy back to where it was before TC Winston.

And in doing so, a program targeting women is slowly reaping rewards.

Koro is renowned for its mats and the supply of voivoi (Pandanus caricosus) leaves. After TC Winston, the price of 100 voivoi leaves have almost doubled as Koro was the biggest supplier to the markets.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has started a project which looks at raising the Koro women economic activity.

The project is headed by a son of Koro, Alifereti Bulivou, who is the co-ordinator of the project.

While voivoi project looks specifically at allowing women back into the economy, the home garden project targets supplementing food for the islanders.

In this project, UNDP supplied tools, seeds, organic fertiliser and also trained villagers on the proper ways of planting cabbage, pumpkins, watermelons, cucumbers, beans and other vegetables.

Right now each household has an abundant supply of vegetables mainly cabbage and pumpkins. Root crops such as the wild cassava, termed koula by the Koro people, dalo, yams and dalonitana are thriving again.

This was something new for the people of Koro as they had never known to have a garden beside their homes. The usual practice was to reap what nature had given and focus mainly on traditional foods such as root crops.

Mr Bulivou explained that with the voivoi project, the mission was to get voivoi suckers and women to plant them so they could start supplying voivoi again.

He said the women of Koro would sell the voivoi to UNDP who would then give it back to the women to weave mats which would be distributed to the markets again.

"We were able to buy suckers from within Koro and distribute it to the 14 villages, when we finished the first activity we managed to plant more than 6000 suckers and then we also carried out the home gardening activity, we supplied tools, some seeds, some traditional vegetable cuttings," Mr Bulivou said.

"As you can see the watermelon are growing quite well and the villagers have confirmed that they have started harvesting some of the vegetables as well, so it was for them to have daily and if there is something extra, then they can sell that.

"Not only for them to eat on a daily basis, if you look at the ration that was provided, it was mostly tinned food items, rice and flour, so we thought that this would be good for their daily diets and we were hoping as well that since their income generating activity has been affected they could also try and start selling some of these vegetables."

After the assessment, it was realised that the voivoi on the island had survived.

"The voivoi, fortunately enough, not all were affected. Some of them are beginning to harvest and the second part of the activity is to bring in dried voivoi leaves for the women to weave mats and we will look for the markets.

"Since they are beginning to harvest the voivoi, we have come in to check how many can we get locally here so we can buy it from Koro and supplement it from neighbouring Lomaiviti islands," Mr Bulivou said.

"So they earn money from selling the dried voivoi to us and then they can weave the mats which we will take to the market and the money is given back to them. This is for the 14 villages on the island.

"We need to look at what not only men are doing. It was common knowledge that yaqona and dalo were affected and when you look at the women, it is the voivoi. We can now clearly see that when the voivoi in Koro was affected, we could see the immediate increase in prices at the Suva market.

"We are also going to distribute two chainsaws for the villages and we have run chainsaw training as well. There are a few other things that is coming in, in co-operation with ION and Habitat for Humanity. We are assisting in carpentry training as well.

"I think the two organisations are going to help build a house in each village and this is what they are going to teach them the skills."

Looking further, UNDP is looking at bringing trainers who would be able to help the women diversify their voivoi products from just mats to things such as basket, placemats, souvenirs among other things.

Furthermore, the garden project has also helped minimise debris dumping. Corrugated iron which cannot be used for the house again, is used to fence the garden.

After the cyclone, a lot of animals especially pigs have also been out looking for food and unprotected gardens make an easy meal.

The house project by UNDP looks at carpentry. While the material for building homes slowly trickles, the people of Koro would face a problem with getting their carpenters.

Mr Bulivou said their projects were designed to fill the gaps in the areas of work already being done by other organisations and the Government.

Salote Biu, head of the Soqosoqo Vakamarama for Mudu Village said women of Koro have been the silent backbones of the family unit.

"We are always able to fill the shortfalls and ensure that we can support our families. This project is good and I am looking forward to be able to make money for the family."

"Things are hard but we are surviving and I think if we persevere, we would one day get back to where we were one day."

In Nacamaki, the head of Soqosoqo Vakamarama, Aqela Dibuna said through the sale of mats and voivoi, women from her village were able to earn $300 to $400 a month.

Tevita Vunileba from Mudu said home gardens made it possible for people in his village to have meals.

He said the main worry were children and with the home gardens, the children were always fed.

"Right now, for our daily meals we have cabbage and tavioka most times but it is food and we are grateful for this project," he said.

Word pictures about place and food

Here is some nostalgia about place and food, many about Fiji. When you just pick up a golden cowrie shell, place it over an ear, you hear the tropical sea and can visualize memories of different scenes in your life.

Poems about place and food

At Nukutatava beside the shining sea
pearly oysters cling to the legs of mangroves.
We cut them off clean with old knives,
my sister-in-law, Evia and me.
They are moist, succulent for the midday meal
with lemons plucked from a nearby tree.

Near Nubunikavula village, - named moonlight,
Young men slash at the hillsides with cane-knives.
Women prepare black river mussels
with coconut cream, served in curved shells.
An old song-leader sings a hauling chant
with a rude metaphor, the men smile.

Nukualofa, the main town in Tonga
has tabu days when work is banned
but neighbours call with baked yams,
even a whole glazed piglet.
We feast then lie on pandanus mats.
Even the coat of many colours rooster rests.

In Davuilevu compound on a Sunday
the resident nurse invites me to a lunch
of creamy yams with squares of jellied seaweed.
This visitor baulks at the strong taste,
decides never again to eat that green stuff
yet years later I can eat it with delight.

Lautoka, is a city of sugar and spice.
The bride’s hands are decorated with turmeric.
and gold gleams from her throat and nose.
The couple circle the fire, the man leading
as the pandit drones in a monotone from the classics.
We wait, impatient for the spicy meal to follow.

Nukulau the transformed island
has become a prison for coup-makers,
heroes to some, devils to others.
The visiting pastor listens intently
to stories of grief and excuses.
They eat hunks of bread with warm tea

In a Geelong backyard the ground is hollowed,
smoke drifts towards the neighbours
but the Council has given approval
for the hangi, a lovo, a pit of many names.
After grey volcanic stones heat up,
wrapped dalo and pork is steamed
under gum leaves and a mound of earth:
A Fijian feast for a serious ceremony

In the flat Mallee lands of Hopetoun
abstinence was his Methodist rule
from the strict norm of his culture
but his new colleague opens up a wine bottle,
offers a new astringent taste.
Frowning he looks back over his shoulder.

Next to the former Pentridge Prison in Coburg
after worship in the heritage stone building
men cobo clap as they drink the kava
Women unwrap bland cakes and coconut pies
to accompany mugs of sweet milky tea
then lie on cream pandanus mats
like petals of flowers, to gossip.

At Queenscliff we park near old ragged pines,
waves glitter near the Rip,
the ferry a toy on the lip of the sea.
He chooses a fish to fry in the Trident shop,
then we straddle rough-cut table legs,
grateful for sun, salt and seafood.

Padre James Bhagwan at the Micah Conference

'Love your neighbour'

Padre James Bhagwan
Wednesday, November 23, 2016

ON Monday morning, I stood on the lawn of the Federal Parliament of Australia and urged the gathering in front of me to, "Love your neighbour".

It was my last of three days in Canberra and the conclusion of the Voices for Justice national gathering, convened by Micah Australia.

Micah Australia works with churches, Christian aid organisation and individuals to gather, inspire and empower Australian Christians as advocates, sharing God's heart for justice and raising a powerful voice with and for people in poor communities around the world.

Voices for Justice is Micah Australia's annual three-day gathering in Canberra, where Christians from across Australia are inspired and equipped to be agents of change in their communities and their world.

I was invited by Micah Australia, through a member of their coalition and our church partner, Uniting World, to be the keynote speaker.

Focusing on climate change, sustainable development and Pacific partnerships, I shared my first of three messages for the weekend reflecting on the gathering's theme "How Can Australia Be A Better Neighbour," asking the message "Who is our neighbour?"

Let's start with the much broader question of neighbour. The indigenous language of Fiji, neighbour is translated as kai noqu — "Kai noqu" may be used when one Fijian is generally addressing another Fijian that they share the same blood somewhere in their lineage.

In many ways, we are as clan-oriented as those in Jesus' original audience.

Most often, we look out first for our immediate and then extended family, and then close friends, and then those who are most like us or share our values or associations.

Like the priest and Levite, we tend to overlook and avoid those who are different from us.

But Jesus calls us to love those who are different from us as if they were our own kin … our own blood.

Jesus' answer, which is also based in the Torah:

Leviticus 19:18, 33-34 "… you shall love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord… When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God."

The reason we should love our neighbour, the alien, and the stranger is always the same: "I am the Lord your God."

Love others because God. Not "because God said so," but because God loves them.

So how do we expand our concept of neighbour to include others into our household?

I know that to speak of refugees in Australia was to touch a raw nerve. But in the face of climate change, as we already witnessing the first climate refugees — where will our neighbours go when the land has disappeared?

Where do our neighbours go when extractive industries reduce the places we envision as paradise into wastelands?

Our neighbours in Kiribati, Tuvalu are on the verge of become climate refugees.

Our neighbours in West Papua are suffering human rights abuses and loss of their way of life as their natural environment is being exploited. People who seek refuge are being turned away.

From a point of justice — be it climate justice or development justice — let us ask the question to ourselves, if we are the good Samaritan how long are we willing to care for those we find stripped of dignity, robbed of everything they have, lying bleeding and dying?

What is the good Samaritan found another man along that road the next day? And the next?

Would he begin to look at why that area was beset with violence?

Would he try to stir the powers that be to do something about the crime and poverty in the area?

Or would he just keep fixing the wounds, keep giving money to the inn keepers and allowing the thieves to prosper?

"While the parable of the good Samaritan provides a wonderful lesson in response to a specific question ("Who is my neighbour?"), we are left wondering how to advance life-giving communities alongside our neighbours.

Often as people of faith, we are often spectacular at following the Good Samaritan model of providing relief in times of crisis.

Yet we too often fail at the long-term work that is necessary for lasting social justice.

On Monday, 180 Christian advocates from Australia and the Pacific gathered at Federal Parliament to call on our leaders to make stronger commitments to ending global poverty and take greater action on climate change.

Micah Australia has negotiated more than 105 meetings with Members of Parliament throughout the day, where they heard from a diverse group of advocates including students, professionals, families, faith leaders; and Pacific ambassadors from Fiji, Kiribati and Tonga.

Before heading inside, advocates gathered on the front lawn to hear from Pacific leaders and pray for the day's meetings.

It has been an honour to join with fellow like-hearted, like-spirited and like-minded human beings for prayer, reflection, envisioning, speaking and acting for the compassion-filled humble justice that is loving your neighbour in the context of sustainable development and climate change... thanks Micah Australia, Uniting World and our gathering host, Hughes Baptist Church, for letting me share my Voice for Justice.

Our small nation, Fiji, was the first to ratify the Paris Agreement and almost immediately, as if to underline the importance of the convention on climate change, we were faced with Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston — a symbol of the earth's groaning and crying to the rising temperatures and sea-levels.

Battered and bruised, our leaders went to sign the Paris Treaty which is now enforced — but already in peril as those who have ears but cannot hear the groaning of creation either refuse to sign or plot to withdraw from the agreement.

Now, we prepare to lead discussions in 2017 at COP23.

At the same time how the Paris Agreement translates to our communities, how the mechanisms such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals translate into our responses to the continuous exploitation of our common home is still to be discovered.

"Simplicity, Serenity, Spontaneity"

* Reverend James Bhagwan is an ordained Methodist minister and a citizen journalist. The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Methodist Church in Fiji or this newspaper.

The Micah Conference participants together with Australian MPs on the front lawn of Parliament House. Congratulations to Pip Bergland and the Micah staff for such an outstanding event! Congratulations too to Vasiti Tebamare and Tinaai Teaua the star visitors from Kiribati who put their stories so courageously to the Australian parliamentarians! Maria Tiimon Chi-fang Namakaina and Vincent Sicari from Pacific Calling Partnership and the Edmund Rice Centre were thrilled to be involved!

Class Six results in Fiji not so good

The Fiji Times told it simply, other media reckons it's just not good enough, but results to me show that something is wrong in the teaching and management of preparing for Class Six exams.  At that level surely you would expect 90% pass rate in most subjects.  Some schools however do extra-curricula activities and give the children great opportunities to learn about Fiji and the environment etc. such as on the Coral Coast where this picture was taken.  Perhaps there needs to be a breakdown - school by school - of results.

Year 6 results out

Aqela Susu
Wednesday, November 23, 2016

PARENTS and guardians can collect their children's Year 6 results from their various schools and district education offices today.

The results were released by the Ministry of Education yesterday.

A total of 17,024 students sat for the exams with the ministry revealing a drop in the pass rate in mathematics and Na Vosa Vakaviti. This year's Year 6 students did better in English, general subjects, hindi, Urdu and Rotuman compared with last year's students.

About 71 per cent of students failed mathematics this year and about 44 per cent failed Na Vosa Vakaviti. The pass rate for the other subjects were 54 per cent for English, 47 per cent for general subjects, 46 per cent for Hindi, 38 per cent for Urdu and 65 per cent for Rotuman.

Education Minister Dr Mahendra Reddy said the results would give all students an opportunity to know where they stood.

Tui Labasa passes away

Marama na Tui Labasa passes away

LUISA QIOLEVU

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Update: 4:53PM THE late Tui Labasa, Adi Salanieta Tuilomaloma Qomate Ritova, will be laid to rest at the chiefly burial ground in Nasekula Village on Friday next week.

She had been bed ridden for a few months and later  passed away in her home last Tuesday.

Adi Salanieta is survived by one son, three grandchildren and  eight great grandchildren.

The preparations for the funeral will begin on Wednesday in Nasekula village - the home of the late Tui Labasa.

She was 86-years-old at the time of her passing.

http://fijisun.com.fj/2016/11/21/tui-labasa-to-be-buried-at-sautabu-on-friday/

Have a heart and don't be so mean

from Fiji Village:NFP wants ban to be lifted on Professor Brij Lal and Dr Padma Lal

By Dhanjay Deo

Tuesday 08/11/2016

Professor Biman Prasad

The National Federation Party is calling on government to use the 100th anniversary to commemorate the arrival of the last ship carrying indentured labourers to lift the indefinite ban on former Fiji citizens Professor Brij Lal and Dr Padma Lal from entering Fiji.

Party’s leader Professor Biman Prasad says it will be a symbolic gesture on the part of Government if the Head of State President Jioji Konrote, while launching commemorative events in Suva tomorrow makes an announcement to this effect.

He says after repeated attempts to seek the truth from government, the former Immigration Minister Timoci Natuva admitted last July that the decision to put Professor Brij and Dr Padma Lal’s names on the list of people prohibited from entering Fiji came from the Prime Minister’s Office.

Prasad says this ban is an insult not only to Professor Lal and his wife, but also to all right‑thinking and law‑abiding citizens and to the Indo‑Fijian community whose historical background right from the days of indenture has been well researched and documented by Professor Lal.

When contacted this afternoon, Director of Immigration Nemani Vuniwaqa said that government’s stand on Brij Lal and Padma Lal has not changed.

He adds they have not received any new requests from these two individuals.

Meanwhile, Biman Prasad says this is nonsense talk as both individuals had made their applications last year.

Reformation Day and All Saints Day

A poem I wrote this week picks up on the themes of the coincidence of halloween, All Saints Day and Reformation Day.
The Protesters

October 31 2016  Geelong

After the wind and rain, I sit in the gazebo

as Cohen’s Alleluia (KD  Lang) plays on my phone,

then the heartbreak of Tears in Heaven.

Where have all the dead gone, I ponder,

and finger the purple pelagoniums for remembrance.

They call this day All Hallows or even All Saints Day,

 but I am confused. The cool air wavers between winter and spring,

 but where is the line between earth and heaven,

between a broken world and godliness?

I pick up my golden cowrie shell, search for visions.

The Progressives don’t even ask about heaven

in the thin space between New Age and belief,

 just protest like reformers have done so in the past.

I touch my lucky charm, a golden butterfly necklace

bought at an Op-shop in Maldon for nostalgia.

 I lack confidence that all will be well;

Julian of Norwich said so but I have doubts.

I peer at my scattered notes, found through Google,

about Reformation Day, of Halloween, of probable fictions.

October 31 1517 at Wittenberg

She sweeps the large stone steps of Castle Church,

and touches the stolen black bread from the kitchen

pocketed in her apron.  She is the unloved servant.

Uncle Martin in his priestly robe approaches, says

‘Hilda, you can help me. Find a hammer and nails.’

 She obliges and watches his urgent movements,

nailing a thick parchment to the church door.

Marks dance but she is unlearned. Uncle Martin reads

‘Disputio pro declaration.’ Another nail is hammered.

‘Vituitis undulgentiarum. ‘Another hard hammering.

Her uncle switches to the colloquial,

‘Hilda, this is for you. No more paying for indulgences,

They do not buy a key to open the door to Eternity,

Your father, my brother, is not in peril of hell.

The Pope intends to build a basilica in Rome

with the collections from people like you.

I do protest. Works and money is not how it’s done.

Our Heavenly God is about faith and grace.’

‘Ninety five thesis,’ he declares,

his accent is now educated not local.

She continues sweeping the dried oak leaves

and pine cones to make each stone clean and shining,

proud of her task at the Castle church in Wittenberg.

Then Uncle Martin brushes her forehead with a gentle kiss

and ambles downhill in the shadow of the church.

October 31 1277, the Crags, Ireland

The Travellers have arrived with coloured caravans

for the Samhain festival. They light clay lamps

they call dya and chatter of a Festival of Lights

but for Drusilla it is a festival of Darkness.

Costumes are meant to frighten the ghoulies,

even though the Priest tells her ‘Don’t be afraid ,

hold a pebble in your hand, an apple pip,

a grain of wheat. Tighten your cape around you.

Feel the earth with your bare feet.

Tie a rosemary wreath over the  kitchen heath.’

But will all of this protect her from wandering ghosts?

She stands beside her black horse above the castle,

the McDonnells, her kin, her dyed blue cape flying

as she looks down on the smoky bonfire,

both pagan and priestly. Confused she turns away

to leap on her horse, ride in the wind,

protesting the priest’s superstitions,

as the moon leers at her fears.

Ten miles from Tara undated, around 205 AD

They named her Tlachtga, born on the New Year

of the Great Fire Festival where children run about

holding firesticks now the bone-fire is raging,

burning up the bones of the animal sacrifice.

They bow to the Sun God  with the cycle of heat and cold.

The altar is made of rough-cut wood and fine stones,

 and driftwood gathered from the shore.

This festival is of the wilting Sun, the harvest over.

Now they want plenty with the next harvest

not paucity of bare earth and eating grass.

Her tangled red hair looks afire as sparks spray out. 

She picks up a smoking branch from the Great Fire

to take back to the kitchen hearth, for safety. 

Her namesake Tlachtaga was a goddess of death and rebirth,

of sun and lightning, but also a real woman

daughter of a powerful Druid Mug Ruoth.

and she had died birthing three after a rape.

The new Tlachtga will do better than that.

October 31 2016 Geelong

Now the wind and rain start up again

so I leap from the back garden gazebo,

drop my golden cowrie shell and its visions,

no longer dreaming of Halloween and All Saints Day,

or Luther hammering his thesis to the Castle Church door.

I will be a Protester, not of theology and God

 but of the darkness that has emerged in these times,

mud and slush so evident, yet hope

for the emergence of the brilliant waterlilies

catching light and opening out goodness.

Fixed

A bit of help from someone who knows has enabled me to post again on babasiga, so I'll send something soon.

Kava drinking in Fiji

from the Fiji Times:

Kava demand worry

Matilda Simmons
Saturday, September 17, 2016

Lai Esava (left) and George Lee during a kava session in Nabua yesterday. Picture: RAMA

RELIGIOUS leaders have expressed concern over the demand for kava by Fijians in the country.

A report carried out by this newspaper on Thursday stated that Fijians spent an estimated $750,000 a day on kava or 11 tonnes according to market price.

Leaders say the figures are disturbing and highlights the extent of consumption among the Fijian communities.

"We wonder if people have the right priorities in their spending," said Father Kevin Barr, from the People's Community Network.

Virend Lal, the national secretary of the Shree Sanatan Dharm Pratinidhi Sabha said while he was shocked at the figures, he said they've noted a high consumption among its members.

He said during a 13-day mourning ritual often practised by their community, families would spend $2000 to $3000 on kava to entertain guests.

"While we don't say kava is bad, we're asking our members to drink within their limits," he said.

The Methodist Church in Fiji secretary for communication Reverend James Bhagwan said overindulgence in things such as kava could be categorised as substance abuse.

The Fiji Muslim League President, Hafiz Khan described the consumption rate as "hugely excessive" and expressed his doubts on the figure, however, he said any kava consumption in any event was a "wastage of money," and this has seen a lot of social issues among Fijians.

Phoebe Mills

Many students in the Fiji Methodist schools will remember Miss Phoebe Mills their teacher such as at Ballantine and Dudley. I knew her in Dudley and we ate together at the teachers' cottage.  She died this week aged 102 in Queensland, Australia but there will be a Memorial Service at Butt Street in Suva.

Phones not books in the future?

Amazing! Now the Big Bosso wants to stop buying textbooks for the schools in Fiji but give all the children smart phones! Not every hill and valley in Fiji has access to these devices, and certainly not all material is allowed to be downloaded.

In the Fiji media today:

Smart Phones To Replace Textbooks: Reddy

September 05

12:502016

Students will no longer carry their textbooks to school as Government plans to supply smart phones to all students in the near future.

The development was revealed by Minister for Education Mahendra Reddy. He was addressing more than 500 students and members of the public during the launching of the National Library Week in Labasa on Saturday,

Mr Reddy said this was in their attempt to blend learning into what has been termed as the advanced technological era which the global community is encountering.

“At some point in time we want every child in the country to have a smart phone, so that we put a lot of applications which you log onto and download all materials that you want to have access to including all your textbooks,” Mr Reddy said.

“We want you to access your textbook through the learning gadget in your hand, so you do not have to take your bagful of textbooks every day.”

Mr Reddy said it was important to be on par with the rest of the world.

“I have in my little gadget, BCC and CNN. Every two to three hours, I open it and read what is happening around the world,” he said.

“I like to keep myself abreast with the world, and it is amazing to see how we can update ourselves with Fiji, the region and world through a little application.

“The Ministry of Education in this accord understands that empowering education in all sectors of the community will lead to a peaceful, prosperous and vibrant united Fiji.”

Edited by Rusiate Mataika

For a discussion on this topic go to http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=334766  and also a story from the Fiji Times.  They jump here, they jump there, do they know what they are doing?:

Tablets for students

Litia Cava
Wednesday, September 07, 2016

e

PLAGUED with challenges of printing textbooks last year, the Ministry of Education has an alternative for Year 12 and 13 students from next year — tablets.

Education Minister Dr Mahendra Reddy said his ministry would introduce the use of tablets to replace the "big textbooks" students carried to school.

This new education tool is apparently part of the ministry's digital literacy program, which would allow students access to news around the world and educational materials on the internet, Dr Reddy added.

The ministry will load all learning materials in the tablets and the total project cost would be about $250,000.

He said while the tablets would give students access to the internet, certain websites that would have negative impacts would be blocked off.

Dr Reddy said the ministry was still in talks with information technology (IT) experts on how to block websites that would have a negative impact on the children.

He said they were also in talks with IT experts to ensure that the blocked websites were not in any way unlocked.

"We cannot ignore the various developments in the IT sector otherwise we will become irrelevant and we do not want our children to be irrelevant and therefore, we will look at how we can develop from the IT," Dr Reddy said.

He said the ministry was also looking at ways of providing data for the tablets, however, once implemented, parents would also be able to top-up the data on their children's tablets.

Dr Reddy said the accessibility and use of the tablet should not be a problem as about 90 per cent had access to electricity.

He said students who were out of network coverage areas would not have problems as their devices would be preinstalled and programmed with textbooks, exam papers and solutions.

But Dr Reddy said students would have to replace the tablets if they were damaged.

National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad said after the one laptop per child policy to the one learning device per child, the ministry now wanted to introduce tablets.

"A few days ago, the minister announced that school texts will now be available on mobile technology in the near future, replacing textbooks.

"And the minister chose the launch of National Library Week to make this announcement.

"This means that the minister doesn't believe in books and libraries."

Opposition spokesman for education, Mikaele Leawere, aired serious concern over the announcement as well.

He said the Government should focus on reconstructing cyclone-affected schools instead of introducing tablets.
-------------------And a letter to the Editor of the Fiji Times:

TABLETS FOR STUDENTS

Finau Naigulevu Turaga, Nadi Airport | Wednesday, September 14, 2016

INSHARE

Irrespective of where we are, I believe some poor decisions seem to override some leaders most of the time.

With electronic tablets for our students, what about maintenance, safe keeping, security and cost?

Was a survey conducted to gauge its longevity and practicality? The authority's selective actions show lack of sincerity to solve issues.

When rolling out ideas, could the authority ensure that all schools in Fiji have this, whether it be milk, Weet-Bix, or tablets. Also what about schools without basic needs, ie, blackboards, roofs, water tanks, toilets and proper classrooms? Do they get electronic tablets too?
---------
from the Fiji Times letters:

TABLET ISSUE

Ian Mcleod, Nadi | Saturday, September 17, 2016

In a report in The Fiji Times on September 4, the Education Minister Dr Reddy is reported as saying that children in Fiji should read a lot of books and make use of libraries to improve their literacy rate.

Very commendable! However, a very short time later a plan is put forward to provide Year 12 and 13 with tablets, I believe which is about the surest way to destroy literacy every way one likes to think. I believe the average teenager has enough trouble using a pen as it stands now.

Within a week we see a gentleman on television making the statement that tablets were the only way forward and that books and libraries are a thing of the past (his words). Everything we know about our past has come from great libraries.

During this interview it was apparent that this person was being extremely evasive when asked on proposed costs of the devises and problems, batteries, re-charging, loss or damage. Who will be responsible? Further he stated that the expected life of the item could be four years or less. So this whole exercise would have to be re-financed all over again in that time.

Rev Manasa Lasaro passes away

Ex-church leader dies

Losalini Bolatagici
Wednesday, August 31, 2016  from Fiji Times.

Rev Manasa Lasaro has died in Suva.

His death was announced by church president Reverend Tevita Banivanua yesterday.

Mr Lasaro, who was from Tavea, Lekutu in Bua, died at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital on Monday night.

A former student of Ratu Kadavulevu School in Tailevu, Mr Lasaro served as church president from 1993-1995 and later served in various church departments before his retirement in 2012.

"With his background in sociology and passion for social work and community development, Rev Lasaro's wider ministry can be described as grassroots-based.

"Aside from his national leadership roles, he was involved in the establishment of many social empowerment initiatives, including the early squatter relocation programs in Suva, which resulted in many people being resettled at Narere, Howell Rd and Jittu Estate. Communities, before this, were transferred to the State," Mr Banivanua said.

He said during his time as a lecturer at the Pacific Theological College, Mr Lasaro taught three ministers who would go on to lead the Methodist Church in Fiji.

They included himself, Reverend Ame Tugaue, and the late Reverend Dr Tuikilakila Waqairatu.

Mr Banivanua said Mr Lasaro's legacy continued today with his son, who served in the Saukasa Circuit of the Bau Division.

In 1987, Mr Lasaro led a movement within the church that led to the ousting of then Methodist Church president Reverend Josateki Koroi.

After more than 20 years, a reconciliation ceremony was held in 2013 as the church mapped a new way forward.

Mr Lasaro was survived by his wife, Nanise, three children and grandchildren.

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Here is an excellent eulogy about Rev Manasa.
Reverend Manasa Lasaro: A True Servant Leader

A tribute by Reverend Iliesa Naivalu, 
Secretary for Christian Citizenship and Social Services Department, 
Methodist Church in Fiji.

Profile for the late Reverend Manasa Lasaro that has been printed and aired worldwide and the eulogies at the funeral service, may not in any way express the whole facts about a man who tried to stay true to the call of his Master all throughout his ministerial life. Neither any effort from any of us can fully cover the broad spectrum of a man as significant as Reverend Manasa.

For more than 40 years he had committed himself to that call in serving tirelessly for the flocks in local churches and circuits, lecturing in theological training colleges and held leadership roles for the Methodist Church and a government institution.

He was one of the youngest General Secretary and President of the Methodist Church at the age of 46 and 49 respectively.

For those who did not know him, especially certain media outlets and lately the bloggers often referred to him as firebrand, radical, revolutionary, nationalist or even racist. They usually view him from a negative angle with the very limited perspective they had about the man.

But for the thousands who knew and lived closed to him over the years, he was an epitome of a true servant leader (Philippians 2: 5-11), who served tirelessly for the good of all people. His focus was always on the salvation of the souls and that church members live a Christ centered life both in words and deeds. Much of his time was spent in caring for the downtrodden, the under privileged and the outcasts.

His views and actions depicts a life that was well grounded on a daily encounter with the Lord Jesus through his daily reading and studying the Bible accompanied by earnest prayers. His many sermons were always based on the Cross and the cost of carrying that Cross.

Being trained in the United Kingdom with a Master’s Degree in Sociology, he upheld the social stand both of Jesus Christ and John Wesley, which became the mark of his ministerial vocation over the years.

Since the early eighties he worked closely with the Government departments and NGO’s in setting up youth and women’s income generating schemes. He initiated community cooperation on crime prevention among youths which resulted with the lowest crime rate in Nawanawa and Nasinu areas in as many years.

In his six years as General Secretary and President of the Methodist Church, never did he move to the church leader’s residences at Pender Street but opted to live among the people at his own residence in Nawanawa Road, Nasinu.

It is indeed amazing to find a community such as Nawanawa that has been molded by both the vision and work of a single man who had a great influence on the members when they were teenagers in the eighties; when they became parents in the nineties and as of now become grandparents.

Their children and grandchildren have followed their footsteps. Through his regular training and constant supervision of pastoral works for local pastors, church members have been well grounded in the Word of God, taught in the discipline of the church and live out their faith through witnessing while families live a simple life of love and care and become better citizens attaining good education and better employment.

At times, he was found to be at loggerheads with leaders of previous governments. As a church leader he would not accept certain government policies lying down but would counter them with the stand of the Scriptures and the Church. So it was a clash of beliefs and perspectives. State policies are created by men who exixt by the whims of the voters while Christian Ethics is based on the Community of Faith’s belief in a triune God and base their stand on the unchangeable Word of God, the Bible.

He was not against any particular government leader. Beginning from Ratu Mara’s government right to the current government, Rev. Manasa was the prophetic voice of the Methodist Church along with his counterparts from other Mainstream and Evangelical/Pentecostal churches.

He worked closely with Father Kevin Barr because they had the same interests and concerns on the ills of society and fought for social justice. Governments come and governments go, such noble people fight on without bulging an inch from what they accept as God’s foundation for the people’s wellbeing and dignity.

On several occasions he was seen standing with squatters under the rain when heavy machinery moved in to evacuate the settlers. He negotiated with landowners for squatter resettlement in Namadai, Howell Road and Jittu Estate (now known as Lagilagi Housing).

He was a man of great courage. He feared no one but only God. True to his Wesleyan heritage, he usually backed his arguments on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the tradition of the Christian Church and his compassion for fellow human beings.

When questioned in 1989 on what action would he take if the army use their weapons on him, he replied that he was not afraid of guns because some of his relatives died in both World Wars and many Christians have shed their blood on what they believed.

Three times he was thrown to Police and prison cells and once in an army barrack. In 2009, he was asked by presenter Campbell Cooney, from an overseas media whether he will bow down and change his stand after he was being detained in the Army Barrack and the Police Cell, Rev Manasa replied, “We stand by those very high principles, those moral, spiritual and ethical principles that we stood by.”

The late president Rev. Tuikilakila Waqairatu was very restless on his first night in a Military cell in 2009. He couldn’t sleep and after midnight he looked around the room with much anxiety and self-pity for being in such a situation.

Then he looked down at the two other roommates who happened to be sleeping peacefully on the bare floor. They were former presidents, Rev. Tomasi Kanailagi and Rev. Manasa Lasaro who were in their early seventies and late sixties respectively. It was a night of reckoning and encouragement for the young president. But as for Rev. Lasaro, that was quite normal.

Rev. Lasaro was a man of humor who would change a tense situation to a much lighter one. During his detention at Vaturekuka Correctional Block in Labasa in 1989, the Methodist Divisional Superintendent, Macuata, Rev. Jovilisi Duvuloco was the only person allowed by the Police to visit Rev. Manasa Lasaro.

The security was tight as Rev. Jovilisi was being escorted by both the Police and the Correctional Officers. The Commanding Officer Northern at the time sat at the head of the table, while the two men of the robe occupied each side of the table. Discussions were tense because hundreds of ministers, local pastors and also Rev. Manasa Lasaro’s relatives from both Bua and Macuata had already converged in Labasa at the time.

Rev. Duvuloco was trying to get a message from Rev. Manasa to be conveyed to those outside and those at Church headquarters in Suva but realised it was difficult because of the presence of the Prison Commanding Officer Northern in the room.

To the other two men’s surprises, Rev Manasa abruptly ended the discussion and requested the CO Northern to offer a prayer. Rev. Jovilisi wondered as why a spiritual task as important as a prayer was given to the Commanding Officer Prison and not to him. As chief shepherd in the North at the time, Rev. Jovilisi believed it was only appropriate that he should pray for Rev Manasa in that dire situation.

While the CO was sweating trying to offer a sound prayer in the hearing of the two high ranking church ministers, he wasn’t aware that Rev. Manasa had secretly passed a piece of paper under the table to Rev. Jovilisi. The piece of paper contained his instructions to the hundreds of people who had waited patiently around Labasa and the thousands who were waiting in Suva.

Until today, after the passing of both ministers, I wonder whether the CO Northern at the time ever knew of leaked information that had been transmitted through the gates of his prison on that day. Even to the more than 20 police officers who guarded the vicinity knew nothing about it. In such situations, Rev Manasa’s short stint with the Fiji Police Force became handy.

He once was invited to be a guest for a Methodist Church function in the interior of Cakaudrove. Church members in that area were waiting to accord him a traditional ceremony of welcome. They were not awqare that Rev. Manasa had stopped at a Catholic village where he had linkages and invited some elders to get into the front and passenger seats of his twin cab. He moved to the back with other elders as they travelled up to their destination.

On their arrival, the Methodist members moved closer towards the vehicle to perform the ceremony of welcome. They were taken aback and felt embarrassed when they could not see the chief guest, the two front seats were fully occupied by Catholics who had coloured shirts instead of ministerial or church attire.

The event turned into an exchange of vulgar languages as the two villages were ‘tauvus,’ all to the laughter of their chief guest who was lying flat with the others at the back of the vehicle. The hosts then turned their anger to Rev. Manasa as why he brought the Catholics who would only spoil their function. The meeting began two hours behind schedule as the two parties revel on their traditional connections especially when Rev. Manasa was related to both sides. Well that was typical of Talatala Manasa.

To the thousands of church members at Nawanawa Church, Nasinu Circuit and the whole Davuilevu Division, Rev. Manasa was seen as a father, a local pastor, a church elder, a leader of the people and a statesman. But all in all, he was a friend to all ages as he was well acquainted with almost all members of the more than ten churches in the Division.

I attended the annual general meeting of the Davuilevu Division last May as a representative of the Church’s head office and I was struck by the respect members of the Division accorded him and his beloved wife Nanise.

In his 20 years in the Church office, he was liked by all staff as he had personal attachment to them all. He was a man with a great heart who was fond of giving and not receiving, and even giving beyond his means.

Rev. Manasa had a wide linkage in the Vanuas of Bua, Macuata and Cakaudrove. He knew almost all his kinship and for everyone from the three Provinces I met in the office was related to Rev. Manasa one way or another.

He was a visionary and a leader. He was the backbone in the construction of one of the biggest churches in Fiji, the Ratu Kadavulevu School Chapel in Tailevu and the first ever Methodist disable-friendly church, the Nawanawa Methodist Church in Nasinu which also houses a library and a multipurpose hall.

In the past 30years, he was always busy reading and writing both during his working days and after he retired; Library staff at Pacific Theological College would give witness to this and those who visited his home at any time of the day during his retirement would always find him in his library.

He strongly supported ministerial development through higher education. But he also warned ministers to be mindful of the Divine Call to be true servants of God in serving the spiritual needs of the church members. Giving illustration to big empty churches in the western world where they have ministers with masters and doctoral degrees, he would challenge the Methodist ministers in Fiji as what is the purpose of having higher and colourful academic attires when they are not able to fill the empty pews in their local churches.

Something about Rev. Manasa was that he never stood up to defend himself. He would just voice his belief or to defend the stand of the Church in any issue and that’s about it. Damaging words hurled upon him from the media and those who opposed him, even from some of his own ministerial peers sadly fell on deaf ears.

Rev. Manasa had a very big heart, too big to be resentful of anyone who may have hurt him. He loved all people both young and old. He silently accepted all that happened to him when he was thrown to police and prison cells or at the army barracks because he knew that was part of his call into the Ministry of God. Vengeance is God’s not his.

He found the world to be too small and one’s lifetime to be too short to harbour hatred for fellow human. Towards his departure he was at peace with himself and all those around him knowing that he had done his part in life.

For I am already being poured out like a drinking offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

To Radini Talatala Nani the children and grandchildren, we give praise to God for such a jolly good man, a loving father and grandfather and a gift to our nation. Thank you all for your courage and humility all over the years. May our ever gracious Lord give you peace and blessings as we celebrate the passing of such a faithful man of God.