I just want to thank all of you for your
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07 Saturday Jan 2012
Posted in Daily Humour, Grey Power Editor
03 Tuesday Jan 2012
IN a long article (FT 17/12), Shauna Tomkins and Geoff Rashbrook, consultants to the Fiji National Provident Fund, say that statements continue to be made about the FNPF reforms that are simply untrue.
The duo went on to make many claims.
One of these denies that the FNPF has contracts with existing pensioners.
Ms Tomkins may have forgotten that she is a party to a report to the FNPF which acknowledged that contracts are in place.
In fact she recommended that the FNPF should allocate funds to meet the payments promised under the existing contracts.
Many of the pensioners now facing a major reduction in their income argued strongly that the FNPF is breaking their contract.
Clearly this is a matter for the courts to decide except that pensioners have been denied their fundamental right to seek legal redress. This is an act of discrimination against them.
Ms Tomkins should explain why she has associated herself with such an injustice.
The article has a crucial disclaimer. It indicates that the comments by Ms Tomkins and Mr Rashbrook are opinions not intended as legal or financial advice.
PRATAP SINGH
ERONI VULI
Suva
02 Monday Jan 2012
Posted in Grey Power Editor
No Notification of delays, no apologies and no vouchers. FTHF Dave has done it again, after the Sydney Nadi flight suffered delays, the flight departure of the Air Pacific flight to LA Sunday night was delayed by nearly 3 hours, but passengers were not notified and as a result they checked in on time and had to spend long boring hours in the departure lounge while Fast Talking High Flying Dave was still parading in front of his mirror in the Kings New Clothes, with no worries about his passengers missing their connecting flights from LAX.
Look out FTHF Dave, the PER is being lifted from the 7th January and the press might, just might, find the balls to tell the truth about how successful your management decisions and techniques are proving to be.
If FTHF Dave is not held to account, who is ??????????, the Air Pacific board who appointed him ??
02 Monday Jan 2012
Posted in Grey Power Editor, Letters
The Fiji Times, Sunday January 1st 2012 page 21. Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka apologises to the peoples of Fiji in a large paid advertisement.
Without a doubt that would have got a lot of people talking once they’d recovered from their midnight revelling.
As the man says, it is not new, he’s done it before. But this time it is…a formal and more comprehensive public statement…that Sitiveni hopes will make history…for all time.
As if the man hasn’t already made history! 2 coups, charging into parliament, shut-down-Sundays, curfews, and a much publicised extramarital affaire should be history-making enough, one might think.
So what is this all about? Pssst! most likely more history-making! The clue lies in the ultimate paragraph…My road to redemption is difficult and not yet complete…
So is he planning a carefully orchestrated comeback? Is he aiming at a return to politics? Does he have his eye on a cosy seat in the house?
Is Sitiveni planning to complete his redemption by way of an about-face and the virtual undoing of his tragedy of 1987?
What better way than to set in motion a ‘mea culpa’ campaign’, secure a swathe of votes, gain a seat, and then tell the world he is not only forgiven, but wanted, needed and even loved?
Well, give it a go, Siti! And seeing as you lost your pension, maybe, when you have gained the right to earn another for yourself, you might, perhaps, remember the rest of us who are losing theirs. Of course, we didn’t lose out ‘your way’ – we worked for ours, but…
Sega na leqa!
30 Friday Dec 2011
Posted in Grey Power Editor, Letters

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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29 Thursday Dec 2011
Posted in Grey Power Editor
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.
25 Sunday Dec 2011
Posted in Grey Power Editor
24 Saturday Dec 2011
Posted in Grey Power Editor
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
22 Thursday Dec 2011
Posted in Grey Power Editor
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?
_______________
21 Wednesday Dec 2011
Posted in Grey Power Editor
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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