Prostituting our Nation

If you were really poor and someone came along and promised you LOTS of money to better yourself, BUT in exchange you had to stay by their side at all times and give them first poke at all your natural resources and talents anytime anywhere. By way of a binding clause, you would have to haul in all your mataqali and yavusa into the same deal.

Would you do it ?

Sort of like the meaning of PROSTITUTION

The figurative meaning of this word is as follows :

Unworthy or corrupt use of one's resources for the sake of personal or financial gain.

Thank you Mr Beddoes and Shamima Ali for standing up and speaking what the rest of us are thinking about Fiji applauding China for its brutal repression of the Tibet people.

Mr Beddoes says that the regime's support of the way China is handling the situation in Tibet is an endorsement of abuse of human rights.... and this show of support condoned the use of excessive force to resolve issues (as opposed to dialogue) ....and displays a lack of commitment to human rights, something evident since the coup.


Ms Ali also questioned the interim Government's stance on Tibet.

"It is obvious that this interim Government is protecting its own interests by placing its support behind the Chinese Government as they are now dependent on aid from China," .... and such support was a mere reflection of the lack of principled approach to human rights issues."

How shameful this regime's total lack of ethics and principles.

Fiji's military regime is a pathetic failure of a government and is clearly hell bent on prostituting its nation's assets and people.

Its time we did something.

In the meantime, please join INTELLIGENSIYA's virtual protest and show this regime we do not care for their prostituting our lives , our land & resources , our makabuna, our mana and our souls.

PART III - THE BOILING FROG SYNDROME VAKAVITI

PART III

Following on from yesterday's posting, this is the last part of my thoughts on the topic of boiling Frogs on this Good Friday.

Yesterday we were talking about tipping points , and that there has to come a tipping point which becomes the point of no return......

When the number of CRITICS of this gun-induced administration are being "investigated", it is a tipping point.

And Ms Wolf pints out that history shows things get quiet after that very very fast.

Everyone has to draw the line somewhere -- and this is also a lesson we need to learn from Germany.

How can so many good people have done nothing?

Because once you introduce state terror against the individual, you completely change the landscape of what we're willing to risk, understandably.

In conclusion we hope that it is not too late to act within the law of the land governed by a sane and sensible constitution to restore democracy.

If this is not available to us, after that next tipping point we are at the point of anarchy.

At this critical juncture, this is where we choose.



As Ms Wolf says, "History will look back and say, either we saved the country or we didn't.

Either we stopped it at a point where we could restore democracy, or we didn't, and someone else will be writing the histories.

We need to be looking to the future now so that there will NEVER be another time in our history where another thug can come along with a gun and systematically dismantle our checks and balances, and try to tell us what our new values, principles and societal rules should be.

The polite attempt to solve this illegal and immoral act by Voreqe and the Military council via legal debate in our courts this past weeks by Qarase's court action is our last bastion .

This will be our last chance for a principled and educated attempt at pointing out some commonsense as ultimately, in a democracy, it's the PEOPLE WHO DECIDE and the Power is in OUR capacity to act, what we can create together.

PART II : THE BOILING FROG SYNDROME VAKAVITI

To continue from yesterday ragone ... a little lesson from history.

In 1933, the Nazi Goebbels purged the entire civil service in Germany.

As Miss Wolf puts it, "it was a classic move in a takeover to purge the civil service, and ESPECIALLY the lawyers and the judges, and replace them with your own cronies -- that's a standard, recognized tactic."

Truly may I say, it is fascinating the parallels of whats happened here in Fiji.

"Another constant according to Ms Wolf is historically, it is an absolute constant for a would-be tyrant to invoke a terrorist threat -- guess who the terrorists are in Fiji ?

The 10 would be assasins? Ballu Khan ? Yes all them AND us - we too, the people as the more we oppose this regime the more we are seen as enemy of the State.

Ms Wolf also talks about how lies in a fascist shift serve a different purpose than they do in a democracy.

In a democracy, if people lie to deceive, they are answerable to the people - straight up.

In a fascist shift, LIES serve to disorient so the people are not sure how to make judgement because LIES in the service of a fascist shift make it hard for citizens to trust their own judgment about what's real and what's not.

"Once citizens don't know what's real and what's not real, they are profoundly disempowered."

There's another tipping point in closing down a democracy when the leaders no longer are accountable for disclosing the truth.

Ms Wolf indicates that in situations like this, what we need is a radical shift in consciousness as we need to understand right now that this is a crisis.

It's NOT business as usual.

It is scary at first, because people really do need to listen differently and watch differently now.

"People don't really don't understand what fascism looks like. They think it looks kind of like goose-stepping military and barbed wire everywhere.

It doesn't look like that."

"After a society is closed, there will often still be a judiciary. There will be journalism. There will be radio. There will even be television. There will be universities and students.

Many aspects of the institutions of civil society continue.

What happens, though, is everybody knows how far you can go before you lose your job, or how far you can go before getting arrested.

And it's actually very important for some dictators to maintain a facade of the rule of law, to maintain a facade of elections, and to maintain a facade of a working civil society system, because it gives the regime legitimacy.

You saw that in Italy and in Germany. You see it throughout Latin America." "We'd still have the Internet. We'd still have a judiciary. But it wouldn't be freedom."

"The surveillance of ordinary citizens is an absolute cornerstone of a closed society.

It's an absolute cornerstone to control the population." eg. in Viti the recent (re)formation of FIS (Fiji (un)Intelligent Services).



Then there is the control of the judiciary. If you control the referees, you control the game.

But what happens after get arrested, or someone we identified with is called 'inciteful', or after the first journalist or an editor is charged under the "Inciting Act", or after more people like experience break-ins, bashings and rapes in their own homes? Suspected bloggers' computer's taken. Their kids come home to find that their house has been broken into by the state.

As that begins to become not a bizarre exception but part of the landscape, based on the historical record, the kind of recourses we assume we have as free people protected by the Constitution will vanish, because people just aren't willing to take physicals risks -- understandably.

I, personally, as a mother and grandmother, am willing to risk arrest in a strong democracy, because I assume that my innocence will protect me, or the Constituiton will protect me, that the courts are fair, that I'll get good representation and I will not get hurt in prison.

But would I be willing to risk 1 or 2 nights in army barracks with uncouth unprinicpled men that pass for soldiers? In solitary confinement? No.

And history shows that it doesn't take many such cases to close down an open society.

There has to come a tipping point which becomes the point of no return.
_____________

Mataka ragone I will give you PART III as I was very much distracted watching counsel in the court case speaking in special english about how might is alright tonight. God save us.

THE BOILED FROG SYNDROME VAKAVITI

Today ragone while we wait anxiously for our late night Fiji One TV to broadcast the happenings today in Court , this Bubu has been thinking about why this case is so important for us not only in Fiji but for people everywhere that may one day be caught up in something as tragic as this.

PART I

Hannah Arendt wrote about the "banality of evil,"(a fascinating concept and if you wish another source of information please look at this link) and the reality is that really we sometimes find ourselves in a situation where we simply can't see what is happening to us.

There is a strange phenomenon that biologists refer to as "the boiled frog syndrome".

Put a frog in a pot of water and increase the temperature of the water gradually from 20oC to 30oC to 40oC…to 90oC and the frog just sits there. But suddenly, at 100oC, something happens: the water boils and the frog dies.

The point is that what is happening to our Constitution being dismantled and the encroachment upon our civil liberties is the same as the idea of a frog being boiled in water.

The frog doesn't realize, until it's too late, that the temperature just keeps rising.

And it dies.

To the average person, what is happening to us in Fiji is it just too much to comprehend, too much to think about, it's not what we're concentrating on, so in the end WE ARE the frogs being boiled.

We're busy looking after ourselves ourselves, or working, or being with our families, or going out to church and to drink grog with friends. It's only people who take an interest, or people who really follow whats happening, who are aware that we're being boiled.

Naomi Wolf, modern philosopher and writer, looking back through history says she found that the the practice of crushing an open society was essentially invented by Mussolini. It was then developed and elaborated on by the other great tyrants of the twentieth century, and then they studied each other. Hitler studied Stalin. Both of them studied Mussolini. Subsequently, the other dictators all over the world go back and look at what works. Basically these methods became a blueprint. Tyrants all over the world take the same basic steps.

In her book on libertarianism Ms Wolf says, " in Thailand the coup took a week. This is what they did -- boom, boom, boom.

It's like they had a shopping list (the blueprint of 10 steps) , and, really, they did, because, by now, people who want to crush a democracy know what to do.

The people who live in a democracy don't know what these ten steps are. Otherwise, we would absolutely be thronging the streets right now. We might realize that we're in a state of crisis."

"People are so accustomed to their democracy and in their mindset, democracy is so much the resilient rule, they really don't understand how easy it is to close down a democracy, once certain checks and balances are dismantled, and certain pieces are set in motion.

Democracies are like babies - they take nurturing but they are easy to pull down and harm."

Stalin and Goebbels both developed the notion that criticism is unpatriotic and bordering on treason.

And as part of the State cracking down on this one starts to see broader and broader use of accusations of treason and espionage, you start to see the expansion of the term traitor, treason, espionage. (And in Fiji's case, the extreme use of the word "incite" and Teletubbies new word "inciteful" - big fool) . "

"All these things including dismantling parliamentary democracies and constitutions, and crushing pro-democracy uprisings are like part of a game plan, all part of a blueprint. "

She takes Berlin 1931 as an example. ' It was a perfectly normal society with a Parliament and a Constitution. Society functioned with lawyers, accountants, people going to work everyday. People went to the markets and caught buses etc. etc.

People were leading their normal everyday lives as the pending catstrophe tightened around them.

In Italy, in the early 1920s, people just couldn't believe it. And in Germany, from 1931-1933, they just couldn't believe it.

You read the memoirs, and people were saying, surely, no one's going to go for this. Surely, this can't last. Surely, no one will put up with these thugs goose stepping in the streets like this. Surely, we will all come to our senses.

History asks the question what would have happened if the people of Germany had risen up then and confronted the abusers of parlimentary process and of the Constitution at the time?"

"In a modern society a fascist shift , or a shift to a closed society doesn't happen overnight, and it doesn't happen even in a clear line on a graph that's left to right diagonally.

It happens in what Malcolm Gladwell would call tipping points.

You can chart it, and there may be pressure, pressure, multiple assaults, and, then, a key event that would be like a vertical line on that chart. And then you're looking at another reality.

The really important thing to understand, in the way democracies can really curve down, is democracies can reach a point of no return.

And it's sudden when that happens.

And it's disorienting."

Ms Wolf is making the point that , we need to realize that the day we made it legal, essentially, for the state to legalise that "might is right" , this will become one of those vertical lines on the chart.

The day the President of this country gets to decide that we are enemy No. 1 because of our differing opinion to him, then this is going to be another one of those vertical lines as dissent will close down pretty quick as people are just not that brave when they start to get physically hurt or their families are threatened.

"And that's how society is closed down."

Suddenly, there's news of someone getting arrested or deported or being at risk or being threatened. Or someone being taken in to be paraded in front of a Court of Judges , or in front of someone calling himself the Attorney General. Someone getting sued under the "Inciteful" Act for publishing something in the Fiji Times.

"And the next day, there are still newspapers. There's still online blogging and news. There are still so many aspects of normal society.

But what there ISN'T is freedom, because people are scared.

And that's why we need to WAKE UP NOW! "

If this seemingly biased court of judges decides that might is right and Baini was justified in doing what he did on Dec 5th 2007, the classic danger signs must ring out and surely deafen us all.

We must realise how dangerous it is to have a leader relegate for himself or herself the power to seize people and to militarize civil society.

Or to declare a state of public emergency or to make it easier to define a threat to public order.

Or to attempt to halt an entire population in its tracks , and engineer societal change in one foul swoop.

"These are classic signposts that democracy activists around the world recognize as flashing warning lights."

"When despots are trying to close down an open society, and Orwell pointed this out, they call something the opposite of what it is.

Goebbels, for one, was a master of saying something the opposite of what it was.

If you read Mein Kampf, and look at Hitler's speeches, he is continually invoking democracy and freedom, democracy and freedom, the rule of law.

He continually said : "I'm upholding the rule of law, and simplifying democracy."

Shades of Bainimarama and his " I'm here to uphold the rule of law and good governance, accountancy, transparency blah blah blah"

Yeah sure BAI.
___________

I will post the next part of these thoughts tomorrow.

Like putting Dr Goebbels in charge of the Fiji Human Rights Commission

The illustration is taken from the Fiji Silenced Blog Site, a must see for an excellent and a more than accurate pictorial summary of our daily reality in Fiji.

http://fijisilenced.blogspot.com/

This depiction couldn't have depicted our sorry situation better as we see plainly that we have in the Dr Shyster our very own Dr Goebbels in charge of the Fiji Human Rights Commission.

Be afraid ... be VERY afraid.

Come on Fiji. Support our Real Prime Minister and our fight for the road back to democracy.

This just posted on SOLIVAKASAMA'S SITE and I fully support their sentiments. Come on people go to the court and show your support!

We need your support

This man got overthrown as Prime Minister and leader of the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua Party by the Military on the 5/12/2006.

He is now engaged in a Court Battle challenging the legality of his overthrow.

In the process, he nolonger is just the deposed Prime Minister nor just the leader of the SDL Party, but he has now become our symbol for democracy, freedom and basic rights guranteed under the laws of Fiji.

One of the main arguments from the Government side in the current court case is that the majority of people support the Illegal Interim Government.

We now urge you to go down to the Court House Complex and miantain a peaceful vigil outside the Court Houses. Spread the word out to all your relatives, friends and associates out there in the hinterland and the surburbs of Suva. Come out in numbers and show your support for Mr Laisenia Qarase and his Legal Team. Demonstrate to the Judges and the Whole World that the majority do not support the illegal Interim Government.

Or put your money where your mouth is and send a donation to the SDL Party to help pay the very expensive QC’s that Mr Qarase had to hire for the court challenge.

The Bank Details are:

Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua Party

Account SDL A/C 05622165.

(Unfortunately we could not establish which bank this account belongs to. Would appreciate some help from bloggers via email to solivaksama@gmail.com)

We need you help to support Mr Laisenia Qarase and all Fiji Citizens who are victims of these tyrants and their crime against the Nation.

Exiting Gracefully

Isa oi lei ...Shaista Shameem aka the Shyster aka Mistress of Scam and Sham just can't help herself.

Supposedly the defender of Human Rights in Fiji , she should have been the first out of the ranks to step forward and publicly acknowledge the fantastic International Award of Courage that our Virisila was proud to accept on behalf of her efforts to champion Fiji Human Rights.

Instead in an unprecedented fit of hissing and biting, this is what the quack had to say:

“In Fiji the USA buys off the NGOs with tin badges and a handshake.”

Unbelievable.

Nasty.

Horrid woman.

My makabunas (clever little things they are these days) sometimes say to me , Bu what is wrong with this picture ? Now I know what they mean.

You know what they say luvequs. there comes a time ..... eh ?

Exiting gracefully ? Is there any hope that she can - at all ?

The Choro Tax Investigation Sham - Whitewash Galore

Ooooweeeiiiii.

4 days to do a tax investigation forensic audit . Well well well ! Thats for Choro-ry.
Now lets see .... Fatiaki ? Its only taken 15 months. Hmmm - funny that and still nothing . People still hunting for "proof".

Air galore - as opposed to Whitewash galore.

James Bond himself would be pushed for a script at this juncture.

Need I say more ?
______________

Well Done Fiji Times reporting what everyone is thinking in today's Editorial :

A foregone conclusion
Wednesday, March 12, 2008

THE conclusion of the inquiry into interim Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry's tax matters was foregone.

Once the terms of reference were made known at the weekend, even a blind person would have been able to see what the three-member team would say in its report.

There was no mention in the terms of reference of the $A1.6million at the centre of the tax issue.

There was no mention of who provided the money or, indeed, where these mysterious funds may be at this time.

Nor was there any attempt to find out how involved a foreign power has been in the internal politics of this sovereign nation.

It is obvious from Mr Chaudhry's bank statements that over $A500,000 was deposited in his account by a Sydney-based consulate general of a foreign government.

This government has always decried the attempts of Australia, New Zealand and the United States to influence our affairs.

This time, however, it has been deafeningly silent.

More troubling is the fact that this team was chosen, provided a terms of reference and started work without the public being informed that the inquiry would take place.

By the time the interim administration announced the team's terms of reference, the report had been prepared and was ready for dissemination.

This is rich, coming from a regime which espouses transparency and accountability.

Last week this newspaper approached several members of the administration to seek information on this matter.

At no time was any information forthcoming on the issue.

This secrecy does not augur well for the regime or the nation.

Neither does the fact that at least one member of the inquiry team has been contracted by the interim Attorney-General to provide tax advice on a project involving the State.

But the exercise has now been exposed for what it was - a sham.

VIRISILA - A True Daughter of Fiji

Virisila Buadromo - you are an amazing lady!

Congratulations my girl - we the people of Fiji are so proud of you!

For those of you that do not know, Virisila Buadromo has just received an International Women of Courage medal from Condaleza Rice in the USA as part of the Annual Secretary of State's Award for International Women of Courage in recognition of her outstanding quest for the protection of human rights in Fiji.

The award stated that the eight women selected from around the world, all shared a commitment to the non-negotiable demands of human dignity – the conviction that no culture, no religion, and no tradition of any nation provides license for treating women as objects or instruments to be commanded by another.

Virisila , you are a huge inspiration to all of us in Fiji.

We hope the some of us can find more inspiration from your ability to highlight our plight and our fight against the military regime in Fiji.

For a full description of this award please see this link.

Today's lesson - TRANSPARENCY

Today ragone, our lesson is on TRANSPARENCY.

Over the past months, how many times have we heard Frankie talk about government being transparent ?

Many times eh ragone. You are right.

And I must say the more big a deal he made about being "transparent", the more suspicious I became that he was hiding something.

So lets start with the meaning of this big word:

_________________

Dictionary.Com Says: "The full, accurate, and timely disclosure of information."

Oxford English Defines being transparent: Ignoring definitions that involve degrees of opacity to light... "Frank, open, candid, ingenuous." and "Easily seen through, recognized, understood, or detected; manifest, evident, obvious, clear." and "Obvious in structure or meaning; that can be extrapolated from surface structure; "

Wikipedia on Transparency: "

In sociology, politics, ethics, law, economics, business, management, etc., transparency is the opposite of privacy; an activity is transparent if all information about it is freely available.

Thus when courts of law admit the public, when fluctuating prices in financial markets are published in newspapers, those processes are transparent.

When military authorities classify their plans as secret, transparency is absent.

_________________________

So what examples just in the last few days , have we seen ragone, of this word "transparency" being ABSENT:

1) Interim Minister of Defensiveness Ganilau revealing he can't say why Hunter got deported because it's a secret and because he was a threat to National Security (Fancy that - 6000 men with guns against the Lone 'white man' Hunter - woooooeeeeiiii)

2) Bainimarama saying he doesn't have to tell the people of this nation anything - until HE's ready. (Dou !)

3) Teletubby's Gestapo telling the Gone iTaukei and the BLV they aren't allowed to discuss issues of National importance and exchange views (directly contrary to the directive that Frank has given to the Nation that everyone must be involved in "moving the country forward". I mean - why suppress debate? The encouragement of debate would increase the chances of transparency surely ?)

4) Nacewa, the President and Baini all refusing to appear in court. (Transparency TRULY absent here as one would have thought if they had the courage of their convictions- as they keep telling everyone- they would appear in court head held high to tell us and the world about the proof they had that we heading down the 'wrong' path, and why we should bow down and believe them once and for all)

Well ragone, thank you for attending this important lesson today.

I'm sure in the coming days you will be able to fill me in on all the other examples you can think of that shows the absence of this big word from the interim authority in Fiji today. See you next week..

Where did the Love go?

Congratulations Voreqe, Military Council, Chodo-hohoho, Ganilasu, Nailatikutu, Aiyarsi, Shamimis and Co.

We are making HEADLINES all over the world for all the wrong reasons.

Let me count the ways your publicity seeking STUNTS are stacking up for you :

NEW ZEALAND EDITORIAL

THE AUSTRALIAN-1

THE AUSTRALIAN-2

NZ HERALD

RADIO AUSTRALIA

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE - Asia Pacific

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

LIVE NEWS.COM

INTERNATIONAL PRESS INSTITUTE

MARIANAS NEWS - MICRONESIA

EARTH TIMES

REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS

THE NATIONAL - PNG

NIU FM

CHINA

INTERNATIONAL PRESS - ITALY

CANADA

NEWSTALK ZB

PR INSIDER - AUSTRIA

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

MICHAEL FIELD (My hero)

SAMOA

CAFE PACIFIC

Just to name a few.

Bloody Wananavu !

Maybe the Fiji Dictatorship clowns really DO think we are just an island ! OMG !

Goodbye tourists Isa Lei ...... Goodbye Investors ... Goodbye Employment ....
Gdby...economy ...moce luvequ ....
Glug glug glug