Fiji Race 2010

[Guest]

Port Denarau Marina Today

 

 

[Guest]

A little reminder of why you are sailing to Fiji

 

[Bullrush 0]

I have just updated the RAYC website with the latest race info: www.rayc.org.nz

 

New info on: Denarau Marina Info, Fiji Arrivals, Customs and Quaratine, Air Pacific airfares, Post Race Onshore Activities, Rosies Tour's - Fiji tours and day packages, latest entries/expressions...

 

Please feel free to PM me or ring the RAYC Race Office (524 9945) if you require further info.

 

Janine

[Bullrush 0]

Hi All!

 

RAYC are hosting an evening on 'Storm Tactics' this Thursday 15th, from 7pm onwards. Free entry, cash bar . Bar open from 5pm.

 

All welcome - see you there!

[Guest]

Who is talking?

[Rangi1 50]

John Lidgard - aka Fossil

[Guest Brucey]

Is it just me or is Fiji becoming a less desirable destination, especially the main land.

 

Is it safe? Just last week they passed even more draconian laws regards what the press can print. How would we know what sort of sh*t goes on there? The press sure wount be reporting it.

 

Have heard of a couple of skippers who wont go there on principal.

 

I know Musket Cove is a great destination, but outside F1J1 where is the next most desirable pacific destination?

[Guest]

Fiji is harmless unless you are a Fijian. I've been thru 2 Coup's in the islands and during both everyone went out of their way to make sure the pale skins didn't get harmed or even stressed. They know very well where the money comes from and the implications of hurting a non-national. From a lot of experience I would have zero issues going and even taking my kids to Fiji tomorrow. In fact we are all going in the July school hols, knot to the main island though, to many annoying taxi drivers

 

Knot going there on principal is only hurting those they are trying to support and is just silly.

 

Northern Tonga is nice. Get in quick before the tourists feck that over as well.

[Guest]

Is it just me or is Fiji becoming a less desirable destination, especially the main land.

 

Is it safe? Just last week they passed even more draconian laws regards what the press can print. How would we know what sort of sh*t goes on there? The press sure wount be reporting it.

 

Have heard of a couple of skippers who wont go there on principal.

 

I know Musket Cove is a great destination, but outside F1J1 where is the next most desirable pacific destination?

 

It is a shame that Fiji is getting so much bad press in Australia and New Zealand and unfortunately this is being compounded by very poor and deliberately misleading media in both countries. The law that was passed last week ensures that media is locally owned and is far from draconian on an international level. You may remember when Rupert Murdoch became a citizen of the USA - this was for the same law as passed in Fiji - you had to be a national to own/run any media. You want to discuss bad media, I wrote a few letters to the editor to NZ and was told they would not be printed as against what the paper believes is going on?

 

This last coup was completely non violent and there have been no cases of any politically motivated violence since. Fiji is a very safe country that is continuing to operate and rapidly changing for the good of all of its people. The current government is working with the people to formulate the Peoples Charter (A constitution based on equity and equality), bureaucracy is being reformed with the elimination of corruption and the country is gearing up to move forward. Tourist numbers are improving again and we will see in excess of 550,000 visitors this year.

 

This is an exciting time for Fiji which is a country with many underlying racial and cultural issues that until solved will not allow for democracy in its true sense. If only the NZ and Australian governments would understand these issues and work with the Fiji Government to assist in moving forward rather than using dirty tactics to try and force change. Did you know that NZ has sent several tertiary students (who were studying to gain knowledge that could assist Fiji) home as they were in some way related to someone in the Army or Government. Should the NZ government be using the future of Fijis children as collateral damage - does this seem fair when we are making fair trade agreements with communist China (with a woeful human rights record) and standing back watching civilians get slaughtered in Thailand?

 

I am a Kiwi living and working in Fiji. My wife is pregnant and we can not wait to bring our child up in Fiji for the first few years before considering retuning home. I certainly would not start and raise a family in a country where I there was even a small chance that we would be unsafe. Maybe some food for thought?

[Guest Rocket]

Fiji is a great place - NZ needs to get their head out of their %^&e about "democracy". "Democracy" in a tribal setting is very different from our vision of democracy. If we hae such a problem with non-democratic nations why do we love Singapore.

 

Bainarama is part of the solution not part of the problem. Always pretty safe off the mainland... Probably only Suva has a problem and that is economic - you are more at risk in Bali.

[Guest]

I thought this country was one of the great advocates for one man one vote. Christ we were even the first to let the women out of the kitchen and down the road to vote.

 

Some poor indian who has been dragged over to work the sugar cane, works his arse off in his new (forced) country, and he doesnt have the same rights? How would it go down here if the indigonous people wanted to be the only ones who can own land?

 

Well call me old fashioned but my grandfather went to war for fredom of speach and equal rights. NZ was so instumental in change by boycoting Sout Africa because of the apartied. it is just the same if they are both black, the opresor amd the opressed.

 

Get your head out of the sand, he is a dictator. Fiji can never give one man one vote or the melanesian Fijians will loose control and the Subcontinent Fijians will take over.

 

Apartied by another name.

[Guest]

Thanks Bull. That is the way I understand things in Fiji.

[Guest]

meanwhile...can anybody help Edwin find a berth to Fiji in this race.

 

the following footage was taken during my Rum tasting last weekend, knot sure why I kept calling it the Suva race, must of been too much coke.

 

click on the link below to view Edwin's achievements and contact details.

 

cheers

 

http://www.edwinsail.com/

 

[Guest Rocket]

Bull you capture one end of the thought continuum perfectly.

 

I am however suggesting that there is a possibility that blind dogma "one man one vote" perhaps is not the best approach in a tribal situation. Just cos our forefathers went to war on that basis doesn't make it right today.

 

The problem in a tribal situation particularly with an economically disadvantaged and not well educated population is that hint of democracy does not equal democracy. Do we really know that a democracy is the answer everywhere? Maybe Singapore has a better way (of course you have to have a gifted leader)...

 

I note that in our business lives we dismiss democracy as for fools and head straight to dictatorship with a strong dictator leading the charge. So maybe just maybe in 20 years time Fiji under Bainarama might have climbed out of its hole and be on the improve - might even go past NZ given our propensity to support the right of the majority of the population to sit on their arses supported by a hardworking minority safe in the belief that they are owed a living and an equal vote.

 

Personally when it comes to voting I reckon you should get the same amount of votes as you paid tax in the last 5 years - yes a vote every 5 years of unequal weighting. Maybe then you would have a society governed by those chosen by the members of society who are prepared to contribute and have a stake in the future....

[Guest]

I'm still a bit surprised Bull thinks NZ is a democracy and doesn't appear to have any problem with the Apartheid that is alive and well here also. Shades of the 1981 mass hypocrisy all over again or is that still?. Oh well.

 

Anyway, does anyone know the smallest boat entered in the race so far?

[Guest]

I thought this country was one of the great advocates for one man one vote. Christ we were even the first to let the women out of the kitchen and down the road to vote.

 

Some poor indian who has been dragged over to work the sugar cane, works his arse off in his new (forced) country, and he doesnt have the same rights? How would it go down here if the indigonous people wanted to be the only ones who can own land?

 

Well call me old fashioned but my grandfather went to war for fredom of speach and equal rights. NZ was so instumental in change by boycoting Sout Africa because of the apartied. it is just the same if they are both black, the opresor amd the opressed.

 

Get your head out of the sand, he is a dictator. Fiji can never give one man one vote or the melanesian Fijians will loose control and the Subcontinent Fijians will take over.

 

Apartied by another name.

 

I suggest you read a bit more about the history of and reasons for Bainimarama's coup and study the FBI/Indigenous demographic split before engaging in more emotive waffle.

[Guest]

I note that in our business lives we dismiss democracy as for fools and head straight to dictatorship with a strong dictator leading the charge. So maybe just maybe in 20 years time Fiji under Bainarama might have climbed out of its hole and be on the improve - might even go past NZ given our propensity to support the right of the majority of the population to sit on their arses supported by a hardworking minority safe in the belief that they are owed a living and an equal vote.

 

Personally when it comes to voting I reckon you should get the same amount of votes as you paid tax in the last 5 years - yes a vote every 5 years of unequal weighting. Maybe then you would have a society governed by those chosen by the members of society who are prepared to contribute and have a stake in the future....

 

Yes Rocket, you do need a leader, they are generally called the President or PM.

 

And yes both a business and a country can, and in fact usually are run best as a dictatorship, as to stop and debate all decisions is a futile waste of time, and you will never get consensus. But if the shareholders (and surely all the citizens of Fiji are its shareholders) don’t like the results their dictator (PM or CEO) is producing they fire him.

 

I must say I do like your idea of giving votes proportional to the taxes paid, kind of a Darwinian process of survival of the fittest. Feck that would get the Labour Green and Maori parties squirming. While it may produce results in the short term of wealth and productivity, I suggest that history and human nature suggests that in time the incoming privileged few, who inherited all the power would become fat lazy and take unfair advantage in time.

 

At least it would silence all the fukin tree huggers and do-gooders who have no idea of the real world though.

 

I suggest you read a bit more about the history of and reasons for Bainimarama's coup and study the FBI/Indigenous demographic split before engaging in more emotive waffle.

 

 

 

Sorry Pwederall? Didn’t mean to waffle, please enlighten me. I thought the Melanesian Fijians was now a slim majority of the population, now the 20k+ Indians who could have left since 1980. If so why the constant Coup’s to override the peoples elected representatives by the “Fijian Elite”? And IMHO those who try to muzzle the press, have something to hide from their people.

 

Fiji is not that different to Tonga for that matter, there too there is a bent system which protects a privileged few, always has been. I guess the major difference is that the Indians were taken over there, promised much, given very little, worked hard and earned some, only to have it taken away.

 

Rocket is probably right, Fiji is safe as, if you are white. (As long as u aint cute if Robin B is around)

 

x

[Guest]

Sorry Pwederall? Didn’t mean to waffle, please enlighten me. I thought the Melanesian Fijians was now a slim majority of the population, now the 20k+ Indians who could have left since 1980. If so why the constant Coup’s to override the peoples elected representatives by the “Fijian Elite”? And IMHO those who try to muzzle the press, have something to hide from their people.

 

Fiji is not that different to Tonga for that matter, there too there is a bent system which protects a privileged few, always has been. I guess the major difference is that the Indians were taken over there, promised much, given very little, worked hard and earned some, only to have it taken away.

 

Rocket is probably right, Fiji is safe as, if you are white. (As long as u aint cute if Robin B is around)

 

x

A paper that was recently written by a professor of demographics at USP (and suppressed by the regime here) showed that FBI % of pop. has dropped from close to 50% pre 1987 to close to 30% now. FBIs were more likely to vote which is how they came to power but I would suggest that given the statistics now they would be unlikely to rise to power as a race based party today. FBIs are generally equal or a little higher on the socio economic ladder here (no evidence, just my observation) and interestingly, feel considerably safer post Bainimarama. There was a bit of temple burning about 18 months ago but this appeared to be no more than youth vandalism. I have only ever seen friendship between the two major races here and often sit around the grog bowl as the only kaivulagi with equal numbers of FBI & Fijians. (one of the reasons I was late to bed last night). Bainimarama's action was taken to rid the government of corruption and proposals to vest too much power in the hands of indigenous people through a foreshore & seabed issue similar to NZ's.

[Guest]

Just spoke to a mate who is Fijian of Indian/Czechoslovakia decent and spends 6 months in NZ and 6 back home. His Great grandfather was sent there in the 1800's, he's knot sure why but thinks as a worker. On the way he married an Indian lady.

 

He says -

The NZ and Aussie media is full of sh*t and lots of it.

Banamarma is good for Fiji and if he gets the boot the people of Indian and other descents will get screwed badly. Barnie wants 'one people' of Fiji knot us and them.

By far the majority of people Indian decent are descended from people who arrived, some voluntarily some knot so, well over 100 years ago.

Also most today regard themselves as 'Fijians', if pushed into a specific type they will say 'Ethnic Fijian' which includes all others like those who came a while ago from Pakistan (quite a few apparently), the EU and even NZ.

The Fijians and ethnic Fijians get along very well and there isn't any divide.

A very very small number of people are sh*t stirrers, just like in any country.

When he was last there 6 weeks ago he saw 3 Fijian lads beat the crap out of a ethic Fijian stall owner. The Army (almost all Fijians) came along and beat the crap out of the 3 who beat up the ethnic dude. {Ed's note: swift justice if knot a tad harsh}

Most people in NZ are stupid as they believe the media.

He also says go visit, it's good for the people of Fiji and he promises you'll have a wonderful safe time.

[Guest]

Sorry Pwederall? Didn’t mean to waffle, please enlighten me. I thought the Melanesian Fijians was now a slim majority of the population, now the 20k+ Indians who could have left since 1980. If so why the constant Coup’s to override the peoples elected representatives by the “Fijian Elite”? And IMHO those who try to muzzle the press, have something to hide from their people.

 

Fiji is not that different to Tonga for that matter, there too there is a bent system which protects a privileged few, always has been. I guess the major difference is that the Indians were taken over there, promised much, given very little, worked hard and earned some, only to have it taken away.

 

Rocket is probably right, Fiji is safe as, if you are white. (As long as u aint cute if Robin B is around)

 

x

A paper that was recently written by a professor of demographics at USP (and suppressed by the regime here) showed that FBI % of pop. has dropped from close to 50% pre 1987 to close to 30% now. FBIs were more likely to vote which is how they came to power but I would suggest that given the statistics now they would be unlikely to rise to power as a race based party today. FBIs are generally equal or a little higher on the socio economic ladder here (no evidence, just my observation) and interestingly, feel considerably safer post Bainimarama. There was a bit of temple burning about 18 months ago but this appeared to be no more than youth vandalism. I have only ever seen friendship between the two major races here and often sit around the grog bowl as the only kaivulagi with equal numbers of FBI & Fijians. (one of the reasons I was late to bed last night). Bainimarama's action was taken to rid the government of corruption and proposals to vest too much power in the hands of indigenous people through a foreshore & seabed issue similar to NZ's.

 

Sorrry forgive my ignorance on this topic but what does FBI stand for? Thought it was an American inteligence organisation (I know a contradiction in terms isnt it)

 

Really, so it required a Coup to stop the Melanisian Fijians being discriminatory to the Indian Fijians?