Thank you, PM
Savenaca Vakaliwaliwa, Suva
It is touching and heart moving to watch our own Prime Minister on YouTube encouraging our boys, the Flying Fijians, before and after the Rugby Test between the Maori All Blacks and the Flying Fijians on Saturday.
After the 27-10 win, our PM again thanked the boys for a great performance and I believe he represents all the Fijian fans in saying thank you and vinaka vakalevu.
My younger brother, who recently suffered a stroke, managed to get to the ground using his walking stick to watch the game live, even though Fiji One was showing it live. Just one sentence came out from his mouth when he returned from watching the Flying Fijians victory: “mate na ilavo” (It was worth the money).
Now that our campaign towards the Rugby World Cup has begun with a sound victory over the Maori All Blacks, this historic win could be a sign of great victories coming up in the next two months.
Our Prime Minister has told the boys that the NZ Maoris will lift their game another notch in Rotorua this Saturday, but if our boys lift their game also, victory is assured.
Thank you Mr PM, thank you Flying Fijians and thank you all Fijian supporters.
Go Fiji, go.
Congrats, Flying Fijians!
Ronnie Chang, Nadi
Simply awesome!
Sweet, sweet victory 27-10 over the Maori All Blacks. Heartiest congratulations to our very own Flying Fijians.
Please bring the next best NZ 15s.
War on drugs
Simon Hazelman, Savusavu
The world is getting smaller with accessibility bringing things ever so closer.
A few days ago, a cargo ship owned by JP Morgan, one of the largest banking institutions in the United States, was seized in Philadelphia with nearly 20 tonnes (20,000kg) of cocaine worth more than US$1 billion on board.
Last month the US coast guard cutter, Munro, intercepted a suspected drug-smuggling self-propelled, semi-submersible vessel in international waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean and seized 16,000 pounds (7258kg) of cocaine. The Munro returned from a three-month deployment, during which it made 14 drug seizures totalling 39,000 pounds (17,690kg) of cocaine and 933 pounds (423kg) of marijuana.
Here at home a few days ago, officers from the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service (FRCS) and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) arrested a woman for allegedly importing 115 grams of the hard drug, methamphetamine, concealed inside a bottle of peanut butter that arrived from the United States of America. The estimated cost of the meth was $115,000 with a social cost associated to be around $210,000. Drugs have found their way to the four corners of the globe by all means possible.
Provided above are just a few examples of how drugs are easily being smuggled around the world which is in fact, a very small percentage of what is actually being smuggled. Drug trafficking has become a lucrative global trade and its distribution and sale seems to be growing with time. There is no doubt that the war on drugs has been a failure and will continue to be so.
William Frank Buckley, an American public intellectual and conservative author, summed up what I believe is the right approach to drugs when he quoted: “The cost of the drug war is many times more painful, in all its manifestations, than would be the licensing of drugs combined with intensive education of non-users and intensive education designed to warn those who have had an experience with drugs.”
This war is a holocaust in slow motion!
Feedback: jyotip@fijisun.com.fj