Monthly Archives: December 2011

‘Come on Mr Umaria: you have the power to help these people’.

30 Friday Dec 2011

Posted by in Grey Power Editor, Letters

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Experience proves that letters to The Ed complaining about a retail outlet that advertises in their rag will never see the light of day. Therefore, knowing that Fijipenioners.com is widely read; and well aware that it is up to us silver-surfers to fight injustice and push and shove to get things put right, here goes! 

The Fiji Times, Thursday 29th December reported, front page, that vendors at the junction of Mead and Princes Roads, Tamavua, were illegally selling produce on the side of the road. At first they set up across the road from MH Superfresh – proper little stalls, too. Last year they were chased away by the SCC. They returned. 

So the SCC erected stubby pine poles, and placed old tyres and planted them (so tacky), thereby making it impossible for stalls to be erected. So the sellers moved across the road to the MH Superfresh verge. 

Enter the SCC in the voice of Mr Chandu Umaria. Now, special administrator Umaria is rightfully praised for the many improvements implemented by the SCC. There is no doubt that many of them were overdue, especially the works along theSuvasea-front, which when finished will benefit everybody. However, in the matter of the sellers at the top of Mead road, he is just plain wrong, unjust, and far from the truth. 

Umaria claims that their presence is illegal, that he has spoken nicely to them, but if they do not move the police will be called in. He says that ‘residents living in the area had complained about the food sales’ and adds ‘It’s unhygienic. The food sold there is exposed to dust and vehicle fumes’.
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More News For FTHF Dave

29 Thursday Dec 2011

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The S E G of Fast Talking High Flying Dave

Dave, probably no one has ever told you, but the secret every good CEO knows, is build a good management team before delegating total control. Something it appears you have failed to do.

Clearly you have got so used to the PER system where the only news is good news, as a result you have lost your grip on reality.

At this very moment 29th December 2011, there is an elderly Samoan lady who is a resident of Australia who has been sitting in a Hotel in Nadi for 3 days waiting to get back to Australia because one of her relatives has died.

So far there have been three delays of her flight and one cancellation, and this to AUSTRALIA, and the poor woman having paid money to Air Pacific is now trying to book on another airline even though she cannot afford to do so.
(Breaking News) There will now be a chartered flight to Melbourne  tomorrow Friday.

In the meantime the Air Pacific flight to New Zealand has been delayed 14 hours.

So Air Pacific Christmas Chaos continues and we wonder who you will blame Dave?, Father Christmas ??

Why Dave did you choose what would be the busiest and most critical time for Air Pacific to take your holiday?, hardly the action of a top of the line CEO.

FTHF Dave Does It AGAIN

28 Wednesday Dec 2011

Posted by in Articles & Reports

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It is worth noting a number of passengers were delayed for FIVE DAYS, and that Fast Talking High Flying Dave did not sign the circular because he was busy resting in the USA for his Christmas Holiday;

26th December 2011-12-29

Honoured Guest

On behalf of Air Pacific, I would like to sincerely apologise for the fact that your Christmas or vacation plans were seriously disrupted this past weekend, and I would like to offer you the following gifts to try to make up for the trouble that we may have caused you or your family. 

A F$400 voucher (attached) which is good for travel on Air Pacific by 22 December 2012, as well as a small holiday gift ( a small bottle of body lotion) for you or a loved one will be handed to you. 

In addition, while it may provide little comfort at this point, I would like to explain the lengths that our team went to in an attempt to get you to Nadi as you had originally planned.
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Daves Gone for Christmans

24 Saturday Dec 2011

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The Worlds Friendliest CEO 

The Kings New Clothes, well we all know the story about the Kings New Clothes, because the King believed the BS he was told, he walked Buck Naked through the streets of the city thinking he was wearing perfect robes.

Well the PER works pretty well the same way, and now it has extended to Fast Talking High Flying Dave, because he is assured of no bad PR in the press, he has gone on Christmas Holidays in USA with a total disregard of over 200 of Air Pacific customers who have been stranded in Limbo ( some kept in transit in Hong Kong, for over 48 hours ) all have spent a total of 6 hours on the runway in an aircraft that proved incapable of flight. They have had to wear the same clothes for 48 hours because they cannot have access to their luggage…

Where is CEO Fast Talking High Flying Dave?, well the Lucky PER Protected CEO is on a well earned Christmas Break, probably Buck Naked in a Hotel Suite in Hollywood standing in front of a mirror admiring his new clothes, while a few hundred travelers wonder why on earth they booked a Christmas season  flight on the Worlds Friendliest airline, and vowing never to do so again.

Can the board of FNPF please withdraw the loan offer IMMEDIATELY !!!, it might be appropriate to rename Air Pacific “ Murphys Airline” since Murphys Law is “ANYTHING THAT CAN GO WRONG WILL”. But FTHF Dave will be OK, because he will be protected by his Minister

Greybeard

Suddenly there’s a seven-year crisis

22 Thursday Dec 2011

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FNPF consultants Shauna Tomkins and the guitar-playing Geoff Rashbrooke (The Windy City Strugglers) have been engaged in a propaganda blitz aimed at justifying the actions of the Fund in reducing pensions.

Those of us who attended the May symposium that began the FNPF’s “consultation” on pensions, remember Ms Tomkins as a patronising, voluble and aggressive, smarty pants. She talked down to the locals and didn’t seem to be interested in answering too many questions.

 In a torrent of comment with Mr Rashbrooke in the Fiji Times recently, Ms Tomkins did nothing to repair the FNPF’s credibility.

In fact she succeeded in raising the question that will haunt the FNPF from now on: Where lies the truth?

Ms Tomkins and Mr Rashbrooke are obviously eager to please their client, the FNPF. So they won’t give an inch to the pensioner victims, most of whom are middle and working class.  Let them whistle. If they can’t afford bread, let them eat cake.

In their propaganda deluge, Ms Tomkins and Mr Rashbrooke have aligned themselves with the FNPF’s preferred method of communication: confuse the pensioners and the public; lay on the inconsistencies and discrepancies, and contemptuously push to one side the anguish felt by many of those being oppressed and discriminated against.  People don’t like change.  Tough, they’ll just have to get used to it.

Greybeard invites you now to consider just one of the inconsistencies that marked the recent utterances of Ms Tomkins and Mr Rashbrooke.

We are all acutely aware that the FNPF, from the start of its “consultations”, stressed that it could continue till 2050 or 2055 as it was presently structured.  Why then, we asked, was there such a mad rush to chop our pensions in advance? There has never been an answer to that.

But now Ms Tomkins and Mr Rashbrooke have reworked the math. They have thrown away without explanation the 40 or 45-year timeframe for the FNPF’s bankruptcy.

Their new claim is that the FNPF could be insolvent within seven years! In one fell swoop, 2050-2055 has become 2018!

So the FNPF, Ms Tomkins and Mr Rashbrooke got it wrong earlier. They were way out in their calculations. How very strange that the seven-year threat has only just surfaced. After all these months, it has appeared from nowhere. 

Is it any wonder that those who have been picked out for special treatment no longer believe what the FNPF says?

Where does the truth lie?

_______________

Racism

22 Thursday Dec 2011

Posted by in Daily Humour

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A customer asked, “In what aisle could I find the Guinness?”   
The shop assistant asks, “Are you Irish?”
The guy, clearly offended, says, “Yes I am.  But let me ask you something,
If I had asked for Italian sausage, would you ask me if I was Italian?
Or if I had asked for German Bratwurst, would you ask me if I was German?
Or if I asked for a kosher hot dog would you ask me if I was Jewish?
Or if I had asked for a Taco, would you ask if I was Mexican?
Or if I asked for Russian Vodka, would you ask if I was Russian?”

The shop assistant says, “No, I probably wouldn’t.”

The guy says, “Well then, because I asked for Guinness, why did you ask me if I’m Irish?”

The clerk replied, Because you are in Bunnings

AN OPEN LETTER TO GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL By Frederick Forsyth

22 Thursday Dec 2011

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PERMIT me to begin this letter with a brief description of my knowledge of, and affection for, your country. 

I first came to Germany as a boy student aged 13 in 1952, two years before you were born. After three extended vacations with German families who spoke no English I found at the age of 16 and to my pleasure that I could pass for German among Germans.

In my 20s I was posted as a foreign correspondent to East Germany in 1963, when you would have been a schoolgirl just north of East Berlin where I lived.

I know Germany, Frau Merkel, from the alleys of Hamburg to the spires of Dresden, from the Rhine to the Oder, from the bleak Baltic coast to the snows of the Bavarian Alps. I say this only to show you that I am neither ignoramus nor enemy.

I also had occasion in those years to visit the many thousands of my countrymen who held the line of the Elbe against 50,000 Soviet main battle tanks and thus kept Germany free to recover, modernise and prosper at no defence cost to herself.

And from inside the Cold War I saw our decades of effort to defeat the Soviet empire and set your East Germany free.

I was therefore disappointed last Friday to see you take the part of a small and vindictive Frenchman in what can only be seen as a targeted attack on the land of my fathers.

We both know that every country has at least one aspect of its society or economy that is so crucial, so vital that it simply cannot be conceded. 
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Fiji Sun: Fiji First with Seniors Plan.

21 Wednesday Dec 2011

Posted by in Grey Power Editor

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We say: Peter Lomas,  get your blinkers off– or go back to Journalism School for a refresher! Also we recommend 1 tablespoon of imodium daily for several months. 

Fiji Sun: Fiji First with Seniors Plan.  (GreyPower substitute title: “Fiji First with Pension Cuts- Plan to Kill Seniors off”)

Fiji yesterday became the first country in the Pacific to launch a policy to safeguard the elderly  (GP: safeguard the elderly from getting FNPF pensions)

The 4 year plan to foster development in the care and welfare of senior citizens was launched in Suva (GP: in case they live longer than anticipated by the FNPF and Government)

The Fiji National Policy on Ageing was launched by UNFPA subregional director Dirk Jena. (GP: This UN agency clearly does not know the first thing about breaches of the rights of elderly persons by FNPF and Government, particularly their right to be heard in a court of law without interference of the judiciary by the executive- someone should tell HE Ban Ki Moon about the UNFPA’s ignorance in the Pacific and support for human rights violations in Fiji)

Speaking at the launch Mr Jena said the policy “truly is a pioneering practical homegrown document”  

“It is a  forward looking framework of preventative measures”  Mr Jena said.   (GP: Mr Jena will enjoy his own healthy UN retirement plan when the time comes, so what does he care what happens to the elderly pensioners in Fiji- this comment is a good example of telescopic philanthropy of the UN senior executives) 

The 4 main visions of the policy include:
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The Sick Joke is on The Pensioners

21 Wednesday Dec 2011

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What on earth are Fiji’s current FNPF pensioners to make of the inauguration of The Fiji National Policy on Ageing which was launched on the 19th December by the United Nations Population Fund Pacific sub-regional director Mr Dirk Jena? 

What are we to make of the reports on the launch in yesterday’s Sun and Fiji Times? Bizarre comes to mind and of course Ironic – but more to the point would be Sick Joke because 2012 has been declared the Year of the Ageing, and to commemorate this the government has decreed that many pensioners will be pushed into poverty.

What irony – we are the first country in the Pacific to launch a policy to safeguard the elderly while at the same time planning to cut the pensions of most of our current pensioners as a Year of the Ageing joke in March 2012. 

The 4 main ‘visions’ of the policy include ‘Recognition of the contribution of older people to the social, cultural, economic and political sectors of society’. It is a pity that the board of the FNPF does not agree.
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