• About
  • Be Informed
  • Burness Case: Up-dates-scroll down
  • No Going Back
  • PETITION
  • The Destructiveness of Vanity

Fiji Pensioners

~ GREY POWER

Fiji Pensioners

Monthly Archives: January 2012

Politicians

31 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by fijipensioners in Daily Humour

≈ Leave a comment

The problem with political jokes is they get elected.  
            :Henry Cate, VII

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.  
            :Aesop
 
If we got one-tenth of what was promised to us in these acceptance speeches there wouldn’t be any inducement to go to heaven.  
            :Will Rogers

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.  [latin adjective]
            :Plato

Politicians are the same all over.  They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.  
            :Nikita Khrushchev

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I’m beginning to believe  it
            :Clarence Darrow

Why pay money to have your family tree traced; go into politics and your opponents will do it for you.  
            :Author Unknown

If God wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates.  
            :Jay Leno

Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel.  
            :John Quinton

Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.  
            :Oscar Ameringer

Advertisement

Answers Please Dave

30 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by fijipensioners in Articles & Reports

≈ 1 Comment

Nice looking aircraft on your desk Dave, but there are none meeting schedules in the Sky.

The flight to Sydney did not leave on Sunday, it was delayed until Monday, now it has been delayed until Tuesday morning at 3 am, is this the final delay for that flight Dave, and do you know the answer ?

No one is telling the truth about the old 747-400 stuck in the good old USA. Also given that you cancelled the domestic scheduled flights from Nausori to Nadi at 60 minutes notice it indicates that your problems are not confined to the international schedule.. In fact right now Dave not many people trust you or our airline, it is for sure the the Fiji Pensioners do not, we have been around a long time and seen enough BS Artists come and go to know one when we see one.

One last bit of advice Dave, you will never be able to fix a problem if you lie to yourself (and others) about not having one.

And for the FNPF, get our $400,000,000 back before it is lost forever.

Diabolical Daves Destruction Plan

29 Sunday Jan 2012

Posted by fijipensioners in Articles & Reports

≈ 1 Comment

Fast Talking High Flying Dave will be kept very busy talking his way out of the latest Air Pacific disruptions, and the current question is “Does Dave have a devious plan to destroy our national airline”. Certainly the situation at Air Pacific with flight schedules and staff moral is now the worst it has ever been in Air Pacific history, and we the pensioners as the largest investor in Air Pacific (US$200,000,000) Nearly F$400,000,000 have a right to be concerned and demand answers from the very vocal minister responsible, who coincidently not only encouraged the investment, but introduced legislation to cabinet to reduce our pensions.

He should now be ensuring that we are not being taken for a ride down the road to Air Pacific insolvency by FTHF Dave. After nearly two years on the Flight Deck, FTHF Dave should be asked why mismanagement requires Air Pacific to indulge in two costly wet air chartered aircraft at the same time.

We still have disruptions to flight schedules, just ask travellers to and from Australia, ask the passengers booked on Mondays flight to Tonga.

FTHF Dave may be able to talk the talk, but clearly he cannot walk the walk.

This from Saturdays Sun
“Air Pacific has charted an aircraft from Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings to reduce flight disruptions in the Nadi – Los Angeles flights.
This is as Air Pacific’s Boeing 747-400 scheduled to undergo engine change faces further delays in Los Angeles.
Air Pacific spokesman Shane Hussein confirmed Air Pacific has brought in the chartered plane to help them carry their passengers from Nadi to Los Angeles and from Los Angeles to Nadi.
“To minimise disruptions and inconvenience to our guests, we chartered an Air Atlas aircraft to service our Los Angeles – Nadi and Nadi – Los Angeles flights, at the times advised yesterday,” he said.
The B747-400 Air Pacific aircraft that usually services the Los Angeles route has been undergoing an engine change, resulting in the chartering of the Atlas aircraft.
Air Pacific has also chartered an Air New Zealand plane to ease flight disruptions for the New Zealand to Nadi and Nadi to New Zealand route. 

Hey Dave, what happened to Qantas, they own 46%, why is it they cannot help you?

The rest of the Sun article reads like a promotional advertisement for Atlas Air, could there be commissions at stake?

The Sorry State of the FNPF

27 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by fijipensioners in Letters

≈ Leave a comment

Dear Mr Kodagoda and associates 

I do not propose to go over the detail of the changes that you have announced in the FNPF reforms but only to comment on the more obvious contradictions, inequities and myths you have created. 

Your FNPF Reforms 

In announcing your reforms to FNPF you have chosen the harshest way of restructuring FNPF and so it seems to deliberately make pensioners suffer.  This will bring hardship and anxiety to some 3,600 of your pensioners who will now receive a significantly reduced pension.  This does not seem to worry any of you?  In addition your consultants have contradicted themselves in  public statements.  This simply brings into question all of your credibility. 

There were, and are other ways of resolving the FNPF problems, that would not have created the hardship and difficulty you have inflicted on pensioners.  It is obvious you do not understand this, or just don’t want to understand or listen to this.  With the exception of Mr Taito,  neither you or your associates have been brave enough to argue your case openly in the public domain and have pursued a bunker mentality in your reaction to the widespread criticism against your proposed reforms. Mr Taito unfortunately fell dramatically short of what was required. He was defiant, defensive and  antagonistic in responding to genuine enquiries of concern that your reforms will bring.  Your public relations efforts in this respect have been a disaster.  One wonders if you cannot manage a public relations exercise how you can then have the nous to make the momentous decisions you have? 

The consultative process has been something of a sick joke, as evidenced by your inability to respond to, or even give the courtesy of an acknowledgement to the  many letters and emails, that have all been written expressing genuine concern at the impact of the changes.  You may have disagreed with these views but you could have at  least had the courtesy to send a simple acknowledgement. 

I have acknowledged to you,  I am a concerned and  interested party, just as I said in an earlier email that both you Mr Kodagoda,  and  you Mr Taito, would be concerned if your employer decided to reduce your remuneration package by more than 50%.  I now hope they do this and you will then know how we feel when we have subscribed to FNPF for some 30 years or more just to find that our contract has been torn up and our pension half of what it was contracted for and should be. 

I am sure you will  have already discarded me as one of those selfish few looking after their own interests,  but let me say again, I have every right to be concerned at your reforms and to protect my interests and to fight for the pension that I have saved for over the past thirty years or so for my retirement, and I make no apology for this. 

Our Contract with FNPF 

Your consultants said in their advice to you that FNPF was contracted to existing pensioners. You have ignored this advice. They further recommended that in restructuring FNPF,  funds should be set aside to provide for the existing pension liability, separate from future pension liabilities.
Continue reading →

FNPF FOLLY

26 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by fijipensioners in Grey Power Editor

≈ Leave a comment

Silver surfers – have you seen the FNPF full page ads in the papers? They cost around F$1000 – and you are paying for them! 

Let’s look at the claims:
The FNPF Life Pension is as good a retirement product as you can get anywhere else in the world. 

Only if your pension is not arbitrarily cut! 

  • Starting at 8.7% at 55 years the rates increase the older you are when you opt for pension. 

These muppets can’t even speak English!

  • Not only are these rates of a lifetime (tax free and no administration fee), your pension is also for life. 

(More bad English). That’s what they told us when we were forced to join up. But that has changed – and can just as easily be changed again. Beware the reduced pension all you new pensioners.

  • Make a smart choice now – it’s a choice about the rest of your life!

Yeah – tell us about it! That’s what we thought when we signed up all those years ago!

The ad goes on…If you are a current pensioner you need to be validated, counselled and choose your preferred option under the new pension scheme before 29 February, 2012. 

We do NOT need to be validated – we are already valid human beings. Perhaps we might need to be identified. 

Counselled? Counselling is for people who are at a loss. We are not at a loss. Our contracts have been broken and we know exactly where we stand, and we are going to fight for our rights tooth and nail. Pensioners are intelligent and expect to discuss their options – they do not require counselling 

The ad ends…All correspondence to be addressed to the Chief Executive Officer. Yeah – we all know that will end up in the WPB! 

And by the way – a Savusavu pensioner went to the FNPF office yesterday to discuss his options and was told that the new pension date would be April 1st – interesting! Phone calls to the FNPF in Suva today elicited no better info than that Feb 29 is the cut off date and ‘pension reforms have already started’. 

Watch this space… 

Last Nail in FNPF coffin for pensioners by Dr Wadan Narsey

26 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by fijipensioners in Articles & Reports

≈ Leave a comment

FNPF Transition Decree – last nail in FNPF coffin for pensioners

by Dr Wadan Narsey

The illegal President has signed the unlawful “Fiji National Provident Fund Transition Decree” which trashes lawful contracts between FNPF and pensioners, takes away their basic human rights to personal property, and removes their basic human right to take their just FNPF grievances to court (while it shamelessly claims that no one’s human rights are adversely affected by this Decree).

The FNPF Transition Decree claims in Part 2, that:
“the principal object of this Part is to ensure that the arrangements for the provision of annuities by the Board are sustainable, non-discriminatory, and do not involve cross subsidy of one group (pensioners and annuitants) by another (FNPF members).”

Such phrases are also in the draft FNPF Act, and the drafters have no idea (or they don’t care) how internally inconsistent all these phrases are even within their Decrees (elaborated below).

The Decree makes a pathetic attempt to justify itself by referring to IMF, World Bank, ILO and “actuarial experts” who we know all recommended reductions of future annuities, but none recommended the breaking of lawful contracts and basic human rights to property nor of denying recourse to justice for existing pensioners.  

These agencies need to be publicly challenged as to whether they lend their support to this unlawful Decree which undermines laws of contracts and fundamental human rights of pensioners in Fiji.

The Decree has five Parts:

Part 2:  Terminates the current pensioners’ claims
Part 3:  Share investment scheme (not commented on here)
Part 4:  Protections  (what a farce).
Part 5:  Regulations (not commented here)

Part 2:  Trashing lawful contracts

Despite the FNPF CEO’s strange claim that pensioners do not have a “contract” but an “agreement”, the facts all suggest that pensioners do have lawful contracts approved by the elected Fiji Parliament:

I remind again, Article 4 of the FNPF Act states that the FNPF Board shall be a body corporate and shall, by the name of “The Fiji National Provident Fund Board”, have perpetual succession and a common seal …. The Board may sue and be sued in its corporate name and may enter into contracts.
Continue reading →

The Wolf You Feed

24 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by fijipensioners in Grey Power Editor

≈ Leave a comment

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.  He said, “My son, the battle is between 2 “wolves” inside us all.
One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.” 

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?” 

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

Distraught Senior Citizen

18 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by fijipensioners in Daily Humour

≈ Leave a comment

   A distraught senior citizen phoned her doctor’s office.
     “Is it true,” she wanted to know,  “that the medication
     you prescribed has to be taken  for the rest of my life?”

 “‘Yes, I’m afraid so,”‘ the doctor told her.

 There was a moment of silence before the senior lady replied, 
“I’m wondering, then, just how serious is my condition because this prescription is marked

     ‘NO REFILLS’.”

A Bit of Fun

13 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by fijipensioners in Daily Humour

≈ 1 Comment

Ladies! Do you despair of ever finding a comfortable bra that does its job properly? A bra that lifts, and has comfortable straps, and doesn’t form armrests under one’s armpits. A bra that bestows a bit of cleavage – well, when you’ve not much else to show off, a nice pair of uplifted pointy boobs would do wonders for sagging self-esteem, now, wouldn’t it. 

Today’s fashions are very odd indeed, don’t you think? Starting at the top, the female head of hair looks as if hours went into the washing and styling, then it was pushed backwards through a hedge. Men seem to favour the ‘hedgehog’ look like that sports-casting fellow on CNN.
Continue reading →

Surrender your Credit Cards NOW

12 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by fijipensioners in Articles & Reports

≈ 5 Comments

On 5 January 2012 Reserve Bank of Fiji confirmed the implementation of the Credit Card Levy (CCL) as announced in the 2012 Budget. The Credit Card Levy will be implemented with effect from 1 January 2012 by all commercial banks issuing credit cards.

Key features of the Credit Card Levy
• A charge to customers at the rate of 2 percent on the outstanding balance at the end of each month (commencing January 2012).
• The imposition of the CCL is based on the month end balance (i.e. debt), irrespective of the statement date or due date for payment of the balance. Hence you have to pay an extra 2% on all your purchases.
• The month end balance is inclusive of any interest and other bank charges. So you pay an additional 2% on all bank charges.

NOTE: This only applies to credit cards issued by Fiji Banks so the Government is deliberately penalising Fiji Citizens.

Save this expense by giving up your Credit Cards and take out a Debit Card, or pay cash.

The Muppets who dreamed up this levy clearly do not appreciate it will increase the use of cash, which will increase the sale of Brown Paper Bags, which in turn will result in Black Money Cash on which taxes will be avoided, end result… We all lose… Corruption is not Dead…….. Neither is Bureaucratic Stupidity and Greed 

← Older posts

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • September 2022
  • June 2022
  • February 2021
  • August 2020
  • February 2020
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • October 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • November 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011

Categories

  • Articles & Reports
    • Link Information
  • Daily Humour
  • Health Hints
  • Letters
    • Grey Power Editor
    • Letters to FNPF
    • Unpublished Letters
  • OBITUARIES
  • Polls & Surveys
  • Press Releases
  • Quotations
    • Remembrance
  • Recipes

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Fiji Pensioners
    • Join 34 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Fiji Pensioners
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...