A DYING DISGRACE

15 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Letters

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A friend died recently; a man of 75 who had come to terms with a cancer diagnosis and decided to not put himself through the debilitating and nauseating side effects of chemotherapy and radiation. He decided, instead, to enjoy what he could of what life there was left for him. 

For quite some time that proved to be possible, despite his deep concern that his FNPF pension would soon be drastically cut – a concern that no doubt caused him great stress and hastened his demise.

 Unfortunately, the cancer wrecking his body caused him great pain. His last days were not at all easy, nor were they eased as they might have been: and that, to this writer’s mind, is an indictment of many in the world’s medical profession today.

 Aged 18, and about mid-way through a nursing course, I stood beside my ward Sister while she took instructions from a dying patient’s doctor. He said that he would neither increase the dose, nor the frequency, of the morphia being administered to ease the patient’s pain. We tidied the patient’s bedclothes, turned her pillow and made her as comfortable as we could, but it was clear that she was in distress.
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Press Statement from Lawyer for David Burness and Others v FNPF and AG.

15 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Press Releases

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PRESS RELEASE February 15 2012 

David Burness and other pensioners who are taking the Fiji National Provident Fund and the Attorney General to court over FNPF’s proposed pension cuts are fully supporting the petition to the Prime Minister to review government’s decision to slash FNPF pensions on March 1st 2012.

Lawyer for David Burness and Others in the court action, Dr Shaista Shameem said that her clients were supporting the petition to the Prime Minister because their hearing date of 8th February had been cancelled by the Court and no new dates had been set for the case to be heard.

She said her clients were disappointed with the High Court for not informing them or their lawyer about a new date for the hearing.  She said it was crucial that the case was heard before the new Decree slashing her clients’ pensions came into effect.

Daily telephone calls to the High Court Registry on the proposed date for the hearing were answered with a mere ‘we will let you know’ which is not satisfactory, Dr Shameem said. Her clients had a right to be heard without delay, especially when the February 8th hearing date had been cancelled without explanation other than information given informally that the judge dealing with the case, Justice P. Hettiaracchi,  had not yet returned from his leave.

Apparently Justice Hettiaracchi returned to Fiji last weekend but no further communication was available from the court on the status of Burness and Others’ applications for human rights redress. David Burness has now been joined by 13 other applicants to claim a rights violation in relation to their pension cuts.

Dates for filing of documents by Burness, FNPF and the Attorney General were set by the court in October 2011. However, neither the FNPF nor the AG met the deadline given by the court for filing their documents. No documents have yet been filed by the AG.

Dr Shameem said that the entire court process for the Burness case was both confusing and detrimental to her clients who had been praying for justice from the court.

Her clients were disappointed with such silence from the court system.

Yet another FTHF Dave Pflieger LIE ?

15 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Articles & Reports

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Fijians can be proud of their national airline and confident of its world renowned customer service.

That was the assurance by Air Pacific’s Managing Director David Pflieger with the selection of Global business, ‘Rolls-Royce’ Trent 700 engine to power its three new Airbus A330-200 aircrafts.

Air Pacific had announced last year the order of three brand new Airbus A Three Zero- 200s which will begin arriving in March 2013 and will be operated on flights to Fiji from Sydney, Auckland, Hong Kong and Los Angeles.

Pflieger said the trent engine is the only engine specifically designed for the A330 adding the two market leading innovators with superior safety service, operational and environmental performance track records will be ideal partners.

The agreement with Rolls Royce which also includes long term support services is valued at FS370 million Fijian dollars said Fast Talking High Flying Dave.

But International uncensored media say the cost is UK Pounds £210 million which is over F$600 Million Dollars

Who do you believe ????

Check out: Meanwhile, In the FTSE 100, Rolls-Royce (LON:RR.) caught the eye of investors as it reported another contract win. The turbine and engine manufacturer has secured an order worth £210 million from Fiji’s national carrier Air Pacific for Trent 700 engines to power three Airbus A330 aircraft.

This is the first time Air Pacific has selected Rolls-Royce engines and the contract includes long-term TotalCare service support, the group said.

FNPF Myths!

08 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Letters

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In case anyone may want to accuse me of being a political person, let me say that I have never been a member of a political party nor have I attended a political rally or meeting.

The intention of this letter is to correct two FNPF myths (they are really untruths to put it mildly). 

The first and main untruth is that return on investments and or interest have been paid or credited to annuitants’ conversion amounts accounted for in the FNPF Annual Reports under the title “Pension Buffer Reserve”. 

Not a single cent of return on investment or interest has been credited to the Pension Buffer Reserve (pensioners account). Attached are pages of FNPF Annual Reports from 1975 (commencement date of the pension scheme) to 2010 (Addendum 1 to 18). There is no evidence that return on investments or interest has been credited or paid. 

It seems that the FNPF management and Board Members have advised and convinced Government of this untruth resulting in it being incorporated in the Fiji National Provident Fund Transition Decree 2011 (Decree N0. 51).
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NGO calls on govt to extend deadline

08 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Articles & Reports

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A non government organisation, Fiji Council of Social Services/Help Age Centre is calling on the government to extend the dead line to May for pensioners wishing to reach FNPF centres to discuss their options and to continue the payment according to the old system.

The Executive Director Hassan Khan said that the deadline which is 29th of this month should be extended to 31st May 2012 as flooding and extremely bad weather conditions have restricted the movements of older persons including the pensioners.

He said there is rush to get the papers in order before the deadline and there are many pensioners required to wait in long lines in the various FNPF centres which is bad for the health of both the FNPF staff and the pensioners, who are not able to wait in long lines due to ill health.  

He said there many pensioners on wheel chairs as well.

Khan said many pensioners are facing extra financial burden as they are required to make several trips to get their papers right and to avoid the long wait. 

He said it would also be a good idea for the FNPF to have JPs on hand to avoid the extra running around by the pensioner’s who are not aware of the JPs.

He said that the Fiji Pensioners Association had already called for such an extension and he hopes the request will be seriously considered.

GreyPower Comment = Wishful thinking

Pensioners Benefits

06 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in Letters

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It has been said a progressive society educates its young and cares for its elderly.

Whilst the current administration is working at excelling in the education of the young, it is virtually propelling the elderly into poverty.

Since there is no State pension of any consequence and the FNPF is failing its members by not planning adequate pensions for either now or for the future, the government should give favourable consideration to assisting pensioners in other ways. 

They could:

  1. Allow pensioners a 50% discount on water bills, or allow free water.
  2. Allow pensioners a 50% discount on power bills
  3. Allow pensioners 50% discount on all TFL calls (big FNPF shareholding here)

Also given that  $400.000.000 has been gifted to Air Pacific as an unsecured loan by the FNPF of pensioners funds, pensioners could be given a 50% discount on all air travel in return for funding the airline.

They could, but will they ? What do you think?.

 Rick Rickman

More Questions for FTHF Dave

06 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in Letters

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LAST year, Air Pacific announced it’s intention to purchase Airbus 330-200.

Its CEO, Dave Pfleiger, even thought it was a great marketing strategy to make the announcement in a grand scale.

I wonder if anyone thought of the considerable cost of changing from Boeing to Airbus, retraining pilots, engineers, support crew, ground handlers and building new hangars. It is mind boggling to think of the cost of these changes.

Dixon Seeto, of the tourism industry, announced the success of incoming tourists into the country and the success of other business houses in 2011, except for Air Pacific.

NICK WILSON
Suva

What’s In The Box?

01 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Daily Humour

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A little old lady went to the grocery store to buy cat food.

She picked up four cans and took them to the check out counter.

The girl at the cash register said, “I’m sorry, but we cannot sell you
cat food without proof that you have a cat.
 A lot of old people buy cat food to eat, and the management wants
proof that you are buying the cat food for your cat.”

The little old lady went home, picked up her cat and brought it back
to the store.
They sold her the cat food.

The next day, she tried to buy two cans of dog food.
Again the cashier said “I’m sorry, but we cannot sell you dog food
without proof that you have a dog.
A lot of old people buy dog food to eat, but the management wants
proof that you are buying the dog food for your dog.”

So she went home and brought in her dog.
She then was able to buy the dog food.

 The next day she brought in a box with a hole in the lid.

   The little old lady asked the cashier to stick her finger in the hole.

   The cashier said, “No, you might have a snake in there.”

The little old lady assured her that there was nothing in the box that
would harm her.

   So the cashier put her finger into the box and quickly pulled it out.

   She said to the little old lady,
   “That smells like shit.”
   The little old lady said, “It is. I want to buy three rolls of toilet paper.”

   Don’t mess with old people.

Politicians

31 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by in Daily Humour

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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

Answers Please Dave

30 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by 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.