The Flying Fijians

26 Monday Sep 2011

Posted by in Grey Power Editor, Letters

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The Flying Fijians never took off. There is no shame in losing to a better side, if one has put in the hard yard, works as a team, and plays with a passion to win. Sadly this is not what happened at Eden Park on Sunday 25th September.

Our team never got out of first gear, they lumbered instead of running, they failed even to jump or lift in line outs, on more than one occasion they ran into each other when receiving a simple pass, in fact their first half performance was so bad and so slow one wonders if they had sat up all night drinking Kava.

On their performance at Eden Park they would not have won an Australian First 15 Schoolboy competition.

As to the Fiji coach Domoni mumbling about emotion getting to the team, what about the emotions of enthusiasm and passion to win, has he considered that?.

He and the selectors should keep in mind they were given $2.6 million dollars of Fiji taxpayer’s money for the team to compete in the RWC, and from the selected teams performance they clearly left the best team and the best coaches in Fiji to watch in horror.

Greybeard

$33.5m write back on FNPF assets

25 Sunday Sep 2011

Posted by in Articles & Reports

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WHILE the write back on the Grand Pacific Hotel was $4.5million, it is understood the Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF) sold its 75 per cent shareholding in the property at a much higher price.

This week the fund through its chief executive Aisake Taito announced a $33.5m write back on assets for the year ending June 2011.

The write back was also because of the revaluation of the Natadola InterContinental Hotel to $133m, an increase of $29m from the last valuation which had resulted in a $301m write -down on the property.

The FNPF sold 75 per cent of its shares in the Grand Pacific Hotel Limited to its new joint venture partners from Papua New Guinea – the National Superannuation Fund and Lamana Development Group.

“FNPF has recovered $4.5m from what was written down earlier in 2009 and the value of our 25 per cent shareholding in the new project should increase in future,” said Mr. Taito.

Mr Taito said the rehabilitation work for GPH was a two-staged process. The first, was the partial sale of the shares to the joint venture partners and the second was the redevelopment work for the new hotel which would commence soon.

He said that the outcome of the investment achievements was in addition to the other major reforms currently undertaken by the fund.

Ross McDonalds Response:

An article in the Fiji Sun of 15 September 2011 “$44.5m write back on FNPF assets”  following an announcement by FNPF CEO Mr Aisake Taito deserves comment. 

According to the article FNPF have written back $29m on the Natadola Intercontinental Hotel following their previous write down by $301m.  The write down was in line with a “valuation” of the property that had valued it at significantly under the FNPF book value. 

This raises questions about the “valuation” FNPF obtained.  Presumably FNPF are using fair market value.
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A Valued Explanation

22 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by in Grey Power Editor

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The question is what value are we talking about.  There is market value, insurance value, written down value, estimated value, book value, historical value, unimproved capital value, second hand value, realisable value etc etc ……………..and so the list goes on and these are all different values for different purposes.  Valuations may be a crafty calculation, one based on statistics, or purely an estimate, or best guess at the time. There are many many  ways to value, the list is endless.   These values are used for a variety of different purposes, consequently the long list of values for this, or value for that.  

A good example is  market value which most of us think we understand.  Whist you may get a market valuation from a valuer for your property which is his best estimate based on what is happening in the market,  the real market  value is what you can sell the asset for, that is what someone will pay you for the property, which may be very different from the valuation you have been given. It can be more, it can be less, it may depend on who wants to buy, or it may depend on how hard you bargain, it also depends very much on whether you are buying or selling and a myriad of other reasons..
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We are pleased to report…..

22 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by in Grey Power Editor, Letters

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We are pleased to report that Grey-power was able to pull a string and somebody, not without influence, took a copy of the Vodafone ad offering an appalling game titled ‘Suicidal Squirrels’ to a Vodafone big-wig who was extremely unhappy about it. 

Vodafone will now ‘investigate’ the game and withdraw it. But this begs the question of who is ultimately responsible for game sponsorship. A Vodaphone employee found and promoted the game. It was advertised for downloading. 

That game, and doubtless countless others, promoted cruelty to animals and suicide – that is the bottom line. And it is not we, the silver surfers of this world who are responsible for the violent games and movies available to young people today. It is supposedly sensible, educated people within the workforce of the game invention organisations who are promoting this mindless mayhem. Young people take it on board because they assume it is ‘cool’!
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