From The Crowd

5th February

Behind the News: State media and independence

This week, one of the stories that caused a media storm had to do with the salary and bonuses paid out to Fijian Broadcasting Corporation CEO, Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum. A shocked FBC chairman, Ajay Bhai Amrit,...

OPINION: Living a meaningful life

I had a chat with my son-in-law last month about our jobs (mine were years ago). I wasn’t surprised when we shared the same sentiment about life and work: the things we do daily that don’t give us joy. I felt relieved when I learned that he did not find his job meaningful. The longer...

4th February

OPINION: Fiji’s leadership, the coalition Government

The coalition Government has been in place for over a month and we have witnessed some encouraging feats as well as lessons that we must heed. Emerging from sixteen years of a restrictive and authoritarian government, the coalition Government is the long-awaited salve to a self-censoring and hurting nation. There have been some very significant...

OPINION: It’s your freedom – so speak up and step up

Five weeks on from Christmas Eve, I think most of us are still a bit stunned at what has happened. A new government came to power in dramatic circumstances. It took not one but two SODELPA management board meetings to change it, with razor-thin margins. The same drama extended into Parliament. There was definitely a...

3rd February

Kiribati rejoins forum

A defence and security expert says there is still a lot of work to do to fully mend Pacific regional unity even with Kiribati stating its intention to rejoin the Forum. The Micronesian country’s shock withdrawal in July last year rocked the foundations of Pacific regionalism and raised questions about the power dynamics and politics...

31st January

A decade of Greg’s life lost – When he woke up in 2017, he thought it was 2005

Greg Harvey woke up one morning in August 2017 thinking it was 2005. “I was in a panic because I thought I was going to be late to uni,” Mr Harvey said. Mr Harvey could not remember the past 12 years of his life. “Then I noticed the house all looked different. We’d had the...

30th January

Aunty Va calls it a day – Counselling for the past 28 years

She has decided to call it a day after being a counsellor for almost three decades. Originally from Serua Island, Vasemaca Naverebalavu Natoga has been counselling people with different issues for the past 28 years. Being the second eldest in a family of three boys and three girls, she had a very strict upbringing with...