Letter to the Editor (27 February 2013) (not published by either Fiji Sun or The Fiji Times)
Dear Sir

I would like to encourage Ms Patricia Mallam that she is in good company defending the freedom of her child not to be coerced into attending any school religious ritual that she does not believe in.

More than a hundred years ago, the genuinely great Harvard University faced that same dilemma, reminded its current President (or Vice Chancellor) (Professor Drew Faust), in her morning prayer with the Harvard University community.

Faust remembered the contributions of a former President of Harvard (Charles Elliot) who not only converted Harvard from a mere “College” to a “University” but he fought for members of Harvard to have the individual freedom to attend or not attend religious rituals and prayers.

Readers may access her full speech here: http://www.harvard.edu/president/morning-prayers-2007   (and also read about this remarkable university administrator).

Faust, the President of Harvard University gave thanks that they had the opportunity to choose to pray rather than be compelled.

She observed: ” Our religious affiliations are far more varied than he (Elliot) ever could have imagined. … Let us continue in this new year our dedication to Harvard’s liberality as regards opinions, its devotion to ideals, and the preciousness in its sight of individual liberty.”

Ms Mallam, one day your daughter may get to Harvard, or some other great comparable
academic institution, where she will not only have freedom of religion, but also the respect of others for her right to be not compelled in others’ faiths. In the meantime, press on regardless.

Every public crisis and debate should makes us all think deeper about the purpose and practice of life, whether coup, constitution, democracy, and basic human right (including freedom of religion).

Professor Wadan Narsey

There are organisations, like Leadership Fiji, which perform a great service for society by trying to encourage young people to take up leadership roles in society- in all the areas that leaders are needed: economics, political, social, environment, etc.

I am not sure what they are doing these days: I used to be requested to speak (usually on economic policy issues) but those invitations stopped soon after the media censorship kicked in and I became persona non grata in the Fiji media.

I wonder however if Leadership Fiji (or other leadership programs) have ever have asked their young leaders to identify the FAILURES OF LEADERSHIP IN FIJI.

And surely, the bigger the mess any country is in, the bigger is the failure of leadership at various levels!

Of course, it would be difficult for the organisers to get their young people to confront such contentious issues in the current climate- they may soon find their program shut down or the organizers given free unplanned exercise around some playground somewhere.

However, one exercise they could set their young participants is to have closed sessions, without any organizers, under “Chatham House rules” (i.e. all discussions are unrecorded and confidential to the participants only) to discuss this very topic- what are all the failures of leadership in Fiji; and what should and can be done to help Fiji out of its current morass.

They might also like to do a tracer study of all their previous “young leaders” and find out how many still remain in Fiji. Or have the bulk of them also, like all our other tertiary graduates, taken their leaderships skills to Australia, NZ, US and Canada?

Professor Wadan Narsey
6 March 2013.

On Sunday February 3rd my son, walking to the nearby shops for that morning’s papers, found a little nestling lying in the road. It had just enough fluff and feathers to be identified as a baby wattled honey-eater. There were people nearby but they were showing no interest, so, knowing that a cat or a dog would likely kill it, Robert decided to try to raise it. At home he found a suitable plastic container, lined it with an old towel and, having made the bird a temporary home, he phoned me to ask my advice about feeding it. 

Years ago in the UK I came to know a woman who rescued injured birds. Her house was full of them, including a ‘recovery’ aviary in the garden. Two of her patients were permanent lodgers – a one-eyed owl and a black-bird with half a wing missing, could not be returned to the wild, and lived quite happily together, loose in the house for the most part. The rest of her patients were housed in a variety of cages dotted about her home. These patients were all fed on scrambled egg and the occasional supplement of worms. This kind woman also ensured that her charges each had a mirror to look into – she claimed that seeing what they thought was another of their kind would give them comfort. So I suggested that Robert add a mirror to his make-shift nest.

By Sunday evening the bird was taking scrambled egg from a pair of plastic tweezers – or rather, Robert was shoving the egg down its throat in imitation of an adult bird; and Robert had made up some sugary water in the hope that it would take it from a dropper. Come Monday the bird was still alive.

Robert had an appointment in Suva late that morning. Before he left for town he Googled rearing nestlings and returning them to the wild; he also contacted Kula Bird Park, who told him that hard-boiling the egg and finely chopping it might make feeding easier, and to make up honey-water rather than give the bird sugar. Shortly before he left for Suva he brought the bird around to our house.

 I’d become a bird-sitter, and it was both exhausting and terrifying. No way did I want this bird to die on my watch! None too well at the time, I was run ragged by this minute, rather ugly, almost featherless wee creature. It lay on the towel in the basket chirping constantly – loudly when it wanted to be fed; quietly and contentedly for a while afterwards – a very short while afterwards. I’d told Robert that if I were to be a bird-sitter I had the right to name the bird – so I named it ‘Beaks’ since we had no idea what gender it was. Beaks was with me for only three hours that day – it felt like three weeks. Continue reading →

AN aviation expert I am not, nor obviously am I privy to the “deal” that was struck with Airbus, but one of the main selling points of the A330 was its alleged superior fuel economy against similar aircraft.

Some interesting points on fuel economy come up with the A330 versus a competitor, the Boeing 767-400ER.

With exactly the same seating configurations and similar numbers of passengers, the 767-400ER has much better fuel economy.

It burns 4.25gallons/ mile at cruise, 0.0173 gallons/ passenger mile compared to 5.44 gallons/ mile, .0215 gallons/ passenger mile for the A330.

Considering the distances that Fiji Airways intends to fly its aircraft, this will make a significant cost difference.

If the 767 had been chosen this would have left Fiji Airways with an all-Boeing fleet, another major costing advantage.

Perhaps the lower range of the 767 was the determining factor.

ALLAN LOOSLEY
Tavua

I WANT a political party that cares about all citizens equally. My political party should have strong moral values. I want my political party to believe in freedom. They should try and make the world a better place.

WISE MUAVONO
Lautoka

I do try to look after myself. Getting some exercise during the hot season is asking a bit much at my age, but we eat a balanced diet and take Fish Oil each day. If a sniffle is coming on I beat it right away with huge doses of vitamin C.

But early in December I began to feel unwell. The holiday season was upon us – I had a houseful of people to attend to, and so, as one does, I shrugged the feeling off and ‘got on with it’. However once the festivities were over; and loved ones had departed for other shores; and life had slowed to a more normal pace, I realised that I was very unwell indeed.

The symptoms were disparate and quite weird: nausea, dizziness, headache, lack of appetite, trembling, hot and cold sweats, racing heart-beat, terrible diarrhoea – and total lethargy. It was all I could do to put a foot on the floor each morning. I was feeling utterly dreadful.

A browse through the symptoms charts of our medical tome proved conclusively that I had every disease known to mankind; but, to my surprise, a pretty thorough check-up from the quack found nothing wrong with me at all. It was decided that the heat had got to me and I was firmly and kindly reminded that I am now in my seventieth year and must not expect to feel as if I were seventeen.

I bought an extra fan just for myself. I used cold packs. I rested. I tried to eat a little. I took cool showers: but I still felt awful. So, after another, very thorough, examination, I was sent to Suva Private for a stomach ultra sound; and there were dire mumblings about endoscopies and colonoscopies, and other nasty invasive procedures.

Then – about a month ago, my brother wrote from the UK asking if I was still taking Zyrtek, (our father had bequeathed to us his disfunctioning-sinus gene) and if so, was I OK. He had been advised by his ENT specialist to stop taking that pill in the belief that it was the cause of his chronic diarrhea.

He had been advised to use a sterile saline spray (Sterimer) and told me that it worked well for him. It is not available in NZ but a friend brought me a substitute (FESS). I dropped the Zyrtek and took up the FESS and within 48 hours my stomach, after years of problems, was back to normal. The saline spray subdues the hay-fever very well, too. So at least that problem was sorted out; but all of the other symptoms persisted – I still felt dreadful.

Then, all of a sudden, and for no apparent reason at the time, I had five straight days of feeling really good! Normal! Bright and perky! It was all behind me at long last. Perhaps it had merely been the heat after all. Wrong. Day six found me right back where I had started.

Back to lying flat on the bed at 9 in the morning, feeling nauseous and with a splitting headache, I tried to work back through the preceding five days. What had I done, or not done, that was different? Had I eaten out at all, and if so, what had I eaten? Indeed, what had I been eating? And there was the answer.

Sunday is cooked breakfast day, but on the other days of the week I breakfast on fruit and cereal – my favourite Nestlés cornflakes with pure honey and soy milk. But for five days I had been unable to find soy milk and so had not had cereal, boiling an egg or slicing tomato onto toast instead. However, on day five soy milk was back on the supermarket shelf, so on day six I was happily back into the cereal. And half an hour later I was feeling terrible.

I had a light-bulb moment! Remember those labels which carry allergy warnings? They go something like…Processed on machinery also used to process nuts, gluten, soy…WHOA!

Since I am allergic to grasses; and sensitive to mangoes and strawberries, that thought was cause for concern. Allergies and food sensitivities can come and go at any time for no apparent reason – that had been explained to me several years ago at the Auckland Allergy Clinic.

I spent most of that sixth day feeling utterly grotty; but next morning I awoke feeling as good as I ever did – before breakfast that is! So I tucked into avocado and tomato on toast and felt great for the rest of the day. I’ve been feeling great ever since.

My son has urged me to have just one bowl of cereal with soy…’to make sure’…but no way! No way do I want to have even one more day of feeling so totally wretched.

We are, indeed, what we eat – or swallow. For years I had taken Zyrtek for hay-fever, and for years I had been assured by doctors, and even a stomach specialist, that I suffered from IBS (irritable bowel syndrome). Phooey! I had been advised that dairy products would exacerbate the hay-fever, and told to avoid them – that was why I used soy milk. But I’m back eating yoghurt, and cheese occasionally, and I’m fine.

I am wondering how many people there are with inexplicable symptoms, and general malaise, who suffer as I did. If you are one of them, perhaps take careful note of what you eat and drink, and the medications that you take, and you might have an answer. It is also a good idea to take another look at the info sheet that comes with your medication. I always discarded the Zyrtek sheet with its box – but a quick Google proved that most of my adverse symptoms could be caused by the drug. As for soy – that can actually cause anaphylactic shock to those who are particularly sensitive to it.

 Sue