Expose ideas
Timoci Gaunavinaka,
Nausori.
A few years back I suggested on this column what I will again propose now.
While Government is fully commended for various reforms it has done in our education system, I believe that a huge number of our people today still lack exposure in various fields of opportunities and ideas.
This may confine our progress in whatever we do to obsolete, traditional or conventional methods while the developed world moves far ahead.
Imagine, if we can go to any DVD shop and purchase a disc that is in the English, iTaukei or Hindustani language explaining in detail with practical examples, how we can start a commercial farm.
There is a disc specifically for chicken farming, one for piggery, one for duck farming, one for goat farming and a separate one for cattle farming.
There could be separate discs for various vegetables, root crops, fruits and even fish farming taking into consideration our different seasons and soil types.
We can show this on TV but not everyone is free to watch it at the same time. In DVD format, our people can choose what to watch, rewind and replay and learn at their own pace and time.
There could be discs detailing how to start a small canteen, one on handicraft, one on food stalls and the basic principles of business. It must show interviews of people who are already successful in such ventures explaining every nitty gritty detail on how it is done; the licences necessary and where and how they may be obtained.
A separate disc on how to start an eco-tourism business explaining various legislation you must abide by, environment impact assessments, finer details on how such business must be managed and interviews of those who have successfully done it in Yasawa, the Coral Coast and other parts of Fiji.
There can be a disc on how to raise our children in the different stages of their lives. This may cover home work, road safety, drugs and its impacts, teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases and the troubles they will get into if they do this or that.
It should also cover how they can learn how to swim and various sports and their pros and cons.
There are dozens more things we can add to this list, and they may not be only applicable in Fiji but through-out our Pacific region. This can eventually become a fully-fledged industry on its own.
The Fiji Audio and Visual Commission may look into this and put in more additions and improvements to things suggested above and lay out a structure for such productions.
But please, do not sell these discs at extra ordinary prices which people can’t afford and therefore defeat the purpose of its development.
$3 or $4 per disc would be reasonable.
Imagine what this exposure would do to Fijians if we watch these discs showing people and places expose their various ideas and things we can do to improve our lives instead of watching “Archana”, “Shortland Street”, “Merlin”, “The Bold and Beautiful” and etc.
Unemployment is a concern in Fiji today, but it is not a result of lack of potential and opportunities or lack of resources.
It is a result of a lack of ideas, guidance and exposure.
Next elections
Amenatave Yaconisau,
Suva
I entirely agree with your ‘My say’ article by Nemani Delaibatiki (FS 28/8) that the next general election will be more intense than the first one.
True indeed! The big challenge then for the opposition party will be on policy matters where they are contradictory.
They obviously have their own preferences and would take a lot of effort for trade off or self cancellation.
Just to merely have a conspiratorial coalition is pointless.
Similarly, it’s also questionable if they will gain votes by joining together given these policy differences.
It doesn’t pay joining together, if they can’t iron out these differences.
It’s just foolhardy.
The values of followers are competely different and it may prove counterproductive in the end.
The SODELPA promotes purely one ethnic policy and class politics, National Federation Party and Fiji Labour Party are more towards the more favoured multi-racial and working class makeup along the lines of sugarcane farmers who recently had good consultations with the Prime Minister on the Sugar industry bills.
It certainly is not a matter to rejoice for followers to watch their emperors try to compromise issues that they hold dear in their hearts.
It certainly is a hard task and most followers resent it.
This could be a thing that dissolves the opposition’s unity.
I also agree with Mr Delaibatiki that there are a lot of disunity and internal disagreement within the SODELPA rank and file concerning policy issues and leadership splitting the youth wing and vanua.
I wonder whether the opposition will survive through these difficulties even without the trade unions support.
Who would trust a crocodile to teach his children how to swim? I wouldn’t.
Yaca’s gold
Savenaca Vakaliwaliwa,
Delta, BC, Canada
All Fijians who have “Savenaca” as their first name would like to thank Team Fiji Chef de mission Cathy Wong for working hard behind the scenes to get a gold medal for our ‘yaca’, Fiji Sevens Olympian Savenaca Rawaca.
Vinaka vakalevu Ms Wong for going that extra mile, which certainly paid off, that not only our yaca is over the moon, but his family, village and I believe the whole of Fiji.
Your name and what you have done will be remembered for a long time, as every time Rawaca looks at his gold medal, he will remember your name, Ms Wong, the woman whose initiative and boldness led to the issue of 13 gold medals and not the normal twelve to the winning Fiji Sevens team in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Fiji will really be the way the world should be, if we all have the same attitude of taking the extra mile to help and putting a smile on others.
Feedback: jyotip@fijisun.com.fj