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Fiji Pensioners

Monthly Archives: May 2014

YOU Can Live Longer

16 Friday May 2014

Posted by fijipensioners in Articles & Reports

≈ 7 Comments

Sense of purpose ‘adds years to life’
By Helen Briggs.

old captain

Having a sense of purpose may add years to your life, regardless of what the purpose is, research suggests.

Not only does it contribute to healthy aging, but it may also stave off early death, according to a study of 7,000 Americans.

The research, published in Psychological Science, applies across adult life, says a US-Canadian team.

It may be because purposeful people look after their health better and are physically fitter, they believe.

The study tracked the physical and mental health of more than 7,000 US adults aged 20 to 75 years.

Their purpose in life was assessed by the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with three statements:

  • Some people wander aimlessly through life, but I am not one of them

  • I live life one day at a time and don’t really think about the future

  • I sometimes feel as I’ve done all there is to do in life.

When followed up 14 years later, the researchers found purposeful people had outlived their counterparts, even when controlling for other factors such as negative mood.

Read the full article at this link:
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-27393057

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USP Dictatorship ?

16 Friday May 2014

Posted by fijipensioners in Letters

≈ Leave a comment

Prof WN

Creeping totalitarianism at USP: an open letter to USP Council and Member Governments

Dear Sir,

When individuals do not resist small steps taken by dictators to limit their freedom, the restrictions become stronger, until one day, totalitarianism becomes the norm for the whole group.

It is especially hard to counter this when the dictators are friends one has known for more than three decades, working together to build the same institution.

USP stakeholders need to inquire if this is happening at The University of the South Pacific, deeply undermining not just its ethics, transparency, accountability and good governance, but also undermining all the universal principles which have characterized great universities over the centuries (see link below to Masefield).

While many organisations, like the FNPF, include protection of “whistle-blowers” in order to tackle internal governance problems, we all know it is extremely difficult for vulnerable individuals to “blow the whistle” on those in positions of absolute authority.

USP management recently warned all staff that they:  “must never communicate directly with the members of the University’s Executive Committee or Council over any matter.  A breach of these requirements may amount to … “gross misconduct” and may give rise to disciplinary action (including possibly, in serious cases, dismissal).” (my emphases).

I remind that USP is NOT a private company, “owned” by the Vice Chancellor, or Council Chairman, or even the Executive Committee of Council.    USP is a “public company” whose real governing body is the entire USP Council, acting on behalf of the tax-payers of the region.

Yet USP management has today virtually become the owner rather than the employees.  Moreover, the governing structure is such that USP Council may now be systematically denied information which could throw USP Management in bad light, especially if the USP Vice Chancellor and sometimes the Chair of Council have a vested interest in such matters.  Continue reading →

Man Under Fire

10 Saturday May 2014

Posted by fijipensioners in Articles & Reports

≈ 1 Comment

ASK 5More calls made for AG to resign as Minister for Elections

More calls have been made today for Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum to resign as Minister for Elections after he took up the General Secretary’s post in the proposed FijiFirst.

THIS IS SO WRONG, WHEN WILL THE OPPOSING POLITICAL PARTIES GET IT RIGHT ?

THIS MAN HAS HIS FINGERS IN SO MANY GOVERNMENT MINISTRIES WITH COMMERCIAL AFFILIATIONS THAT HE SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO BE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:

ATTORNEY GENERAL, MINISTER FOR JUSTICE OR MINISTER FOR ANTI CORRUPTION.

REMEMBER THIS WHEN YOU VOTE

Ministers for Elections, and Party Officials.

09 Friday May 2014

Posted by fijipensioners in Letters

≈ 3 Comments

2A_GIF_Vampire_01Dear Sir,

According to news reports Mr Aiyaz Khaiyum is reported to be justifying his remaining as Minister for Elections while also being General Secretary to the proposed Fiji First Party by claiming that Rabuka in 1999 and Qarase in 2001 and 2006 were also in a similar position.

While it might raise some eyebrows a teensy weensy bit to see Khaiyum justifying his behaviour today by referring to similar behaviour by previously maligned “old politicians”, there are some profound differences, other than age and maturity.

Rabuka and Qarase were lawfully elected Members of Parliament, Ministers and Prime Ministers while Khaiyum holds all his ministerial positions courtesy of Rear Admiral Bainimarama’s illegal military coup and an unelected government.

Rabuka’s and Qarase’s governments annually published all the Auditor General Reports on their respective governments’ revenue collection, expenditure and public debt borrowing, thereby showing their willingness to be accountable to the voters (and taxpayers) of Fiji.

In contrast, Bainimarama and Khaiyum, arrogantly refuse to release the Auditor General Reports, showing their utter contempt for the basic principle of accountability of all Ministers (including the Minister for Elections) to tax-payers for the last eight years (two normal terms of government), and also suggesting to voters with any active brain cells, that this government has a lot to hide.

There is therefore a mountain of difference between an elected accountable Minister of Elections holding a political party position, and an unelected and unaccountable Minister such as Mr Khaiyum.

Even more so when the same Minister for Elections (Khaiyum) is also the source of a totally unreasonable and unpopular Electoral Decree and Constitution, which has been unilaterally imposed on the voters of Fiji, supposedly setting the election rules, but which apparently cannot be applied to Bainimarama’s yet- to-be-registered Party, its yet-to-be-confirmed Party Leader, and yet-to-be-confirmed Secretary General Khaiyum. Khaiyum also has appointed his own personal choice of Supervisor of Elections who does not have the slightest chance of being called “old” anything.

This is like the manager of a street fighter insisting on being the referee of a boxing match with the opponents having to follow all the Queensberry rules set by the manager himself, with the rules not applying to his own street fighter.

Or perhaps a more colourful analogy splashed with lots of red, this situation is comparable to a smooth and suave Count Dracula insisting on being the General Manager of the Blood Bank.nurp-draclee

Professor Wadan Narsey 
Suva

Party Vice President Comes Clean – Almost

09 Friday May 2014

Posted by fijipensioners in Articles & Reports

≈ 9 Comments

BP PassWe suppose it was to be expected, after all the name Fiji First Party was filched in a way, since it had been registered before, and so it seems that it is flexible in the general standards of its officials,

Frank should know better as a naval man, particularly as a Rear Admiral, than to leave himself, and his party, open to broadside volleys.

He has been more than flexible in allowing his favoured media outlets to breach decrees that his administration has imposed, so his party VP may have thought it acceptable not to disclose embarrassing information.  

Could it be Frank, that some of your trusted advisors are treating you like a mushroom, keeping you in the dark and feeding you fertiliser just to keep you happy. ???

Look around Frank, the information is everywhere, check out the following links they all make interesting reading.

Finally Frank consider the old saying “One cannot build castles on shifting (or shifty) sands.

Check out these links Frank:

http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/AATA/1993/209.html?stem=0&synonyms=0&query=bijai+prasad

http://www.fijileaks.com/2/post/2014/05/the-new-fiji-first-vice-president-bijai-prasad-mahendra-chaudhry-spat-goes-deep-and-far-and-involves-the-haryana-secret-millions-in-australia.html

http://fijitoday.wordpress.com/2014/05/08/fiji-first-party-vice-president-bijai-prasad-called-a-liar-by-australian-court-and-stripped-of-his-australian-citizenship/

Now is the time to take that Huge Leap Forward and become transparent in all the administration does, not after the elections, NOW.

Free Press For Fiji

07 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by fijipensioners in Articles & Reports

≈ 3 Comments

ShacklesFiji’s Press Freedom Day: self-censorship continues

Professor Wadan Narsey
7 May 2014

As part of the World Press Freedom Day celebrations, the USP School of Journalism (headed by Pat Craddock) held a Panel Discussion at USP on Friday 2 May 2014, to discuss the topic “Media Freedom and the Fiji General Election”.

This certainly was progress of sorts in Fiji, in the run-up to the elections planned for September. But who would have thought that the media reports on the panel discussion would themselves illustrate very clearly how self-censorship continues in Fiji, quite contrary to the MIDA Chairman’s guarantee of protection of the media?

Panelists included Ricardo Morris (publisher of the Republika), Seona Smiles (former Fiji Times senior reporter), Netani Rika (former editor of Fiji Times), Rachna Lal (senior journalist from Fiji Sun), and Ashwin Raj, Chairman of the Media Industry Development Authority (MIDA).

The chairperson of the panel was Stanley Simpson, former journalist and a former graduate of the USP Journalism program. Continue reading →

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