Well, what is it going to be?

What a week folks. Fiji still does not have a President; despite the fact the illegal junta had already sworn in Epeli Nailatikau as Vice President before incompetent President Josefa Iloilo retired. The unjustifiable delay in appointing wannabe Epeli Nailatikau to the top position, shows Frank is getting counter advice from his shadowy advisers like Khaiyum, Chand, Punja and others who feel much safer hiding behind Frank’s skirt and controlling him, rather than Nailatikau, who will sell them to protect his own hide. Eveli Nailatikau must be seething because the done deal has not been honoured. Their common interests have shrunk to bare bones and their common denominator today is ‘self-preservation.’




It must be daunting for Eveli Nailatikau, Eveli Ganilau, Koila Nailatikau, Ului Mara and company to now realise the ‘naive’ Frank whom they manipulated to take over as Commander from Eveli Ganilau, eventhough there were other more senior Army Officers in line for the Commander’s position and thought they controlled, now is being controlled by others who have what they don’t have, which is money and influence. They now realise their chiefly status and family reputation no longer counts with those with monies and influence because these people know just how worthless and thoroughly incompetent they truly are.



Their redemption is to soro to the vanua of Viti because nothing else will suffice. The vanua whom they despised and took for granted is their only proper safe conduct and can play a huge role in their mitigation and can make a difference in their ultimate sanction.



Bottom line is, Frank will become President for life like Idi Amin of Uganda and no longer hide behind the veneer of Cabinet and prove to the world Fiji is already ruled by a Dictator!



What a turnaround from ‘clean up’ back in 2006 to ‘clean out’ in 2009. I challenge Eveli Nailatikau, Eveli Ganilau, Koila Nailatikau, Ului Mara and the people of Fiji for once to seriously consider what is going around you today and ask yourself, is this the Fiji I want for my children and grandchildren? If yes, relax and accept the consequences. If not, then what are you going to do about it? If nothing, relax and accept the consequences. If you are going to do something, when?

Tui Savu
President

People brought in by the military junta to eradicate corruption had gone their own ways to fill their own pockets.

People brought in by the military junta to eradicate corruption had gone their own ways to fill their own pockets.


The latest is the Manager Finance of the Native Land Trust Board who was suspended for 30 days for insubordination.

Usaia Tunaulu a former employee of the Finance Ministry had been given a 30 days suspension effective from August 7 pending investigation.
Mr Tunaulu reportedly made an arrangement with local car dealer Niranjans to lease out its new fleet to NLTB without the board’s approval.

However when the board found out the anomalies it halted the proposed transaction and called for a thorough investigation.

The board then wrote to the management of Niranjans saying that the decision on the proposed deal had been reversed with immediate effect.

In a letter dated July 1 this year the board conveyed its sincere apology to the company for the inconvenience.

“We wish to notify your office that the board has reversed its decision it made in relation to the proposed leasing of vehicles vide our purchase our purchase order dated 9th June with immediate effect.

The decision to terminate all dealings was made after due consultation and consideration of the Board’s policy affected by this deal hence we convey our sincere apologies for the inconveniences we have regrettably caused in the process,” said the letter signed by Tevita Kuruvakadua the Deputy General Manager Corporate.

The decision was relayed to all the finance staff and regional accountants last week in which they were reminded to strictly comply with any financial matters of the board.

The Managing Director of Niranjans Mr Nitish Niranjan was reported to have threatened the board to take legal action but this did not eventuate after the board formally apologized to the company.

Momi sells for a great loss

I say where there is smoke, there is fire. This is the outcome of Felix Anthony, James Dutta and coup supporters when they took over the reins of the legally appointed FNPF Board. The taxpayers of Fiji have lost some $39 million dollars plus the extravagant ex Directors Board Fees. Time will reveal the true cost of their blunder through their illegal appointments to the Board.  I wonder whether the new bidder is in any way connected to the illegal junta or any of the past or present directors? Only time will tell.

Felix Anthony and James Dutta should not think for a moment they will be spared when prosecutions against all coup perpetrators and supporters will commence because I know their countries of refuge will gladly give them up when extradition applications are filed within the respective jurisdictions. What goes round folks, comes around.

• Tui Savu.
• President.
  
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  <Epi.D
  SWM
  www.solivakasama.org
  
  

Another Fiji 5 star resort on the verge of receivership

The company developing the $300 million Fiji Beach Resort & Spa managed by Hilton says it is on the verge of going into receivership.

Neville Mahon, Auckland-based developer of the huge luxury property, has written to villa owners saying receivership of Denarau Investments is imminent.

Bank Of Scotland (BoS) and Auckland finance company Strategic had funded the project. Mahon says he has been unable to pay dozens of investors who bought villas at his Hilton Denarau Island project, planned to be eventually expanded and called Fiji Hilton.

Investors are owed $1.2 million for last-quarter 2008 payments and have been complaining for months but Mahon told them he had funding problems.

BoS had provided a $45 million loan facility and taken over the first mortgage from Strategic Finance, he said. He wanted to pay Strategic $55 million over four years but needed an extra $14 million to keep going.

"There are virtually no investors or financiers willing to invest or lend into Fiji," Mahon said.

He and business partner Gregory Shanahan have been developing the property throughout this decade and the Hilton has been running it for some years. By 2007, the hotel had 240 rooms and 150 villas operating and Mahon had expansion plans to make the resort Fiji's best.

Now, he said his future is uncertain.

"Both Gregory Shanahan from this office and I have worked tirelessly since January to try and negotiate a solution. No one wins out of a receivership apart from incurring huge fees. So this is very much a last resort given I have dedicated 12 years of my life, at some times exclusively, it comes with great regret," Mahon said yesterday.

Mahon said he had done all he could and receivership was the only option.

Fiji's military coup in 2006 resulted in the resort struggling to make ends meet and hotel occupancy plummeting, he said. Lower room occupancies and room rates, the need to honour guaranteed payments to owners and the expenses of running the resort meant income sank, he said.

Mahon is the head of Greenlane-based Lausanne Project Management.

Villa buyers came mainly from Auckland and Christchurch, he said, but Australians have also bought. In 2007, properties at the resort were fetching $460,000 to $4 million.

Strategic in moratorium but in July said debenture holders would get all their money back despite its loan book souring further in the six months to June.

Strategic chief executive Kerry Finnigan said yesterday his firm had loaned $75 million to Mahon for Fiji's Hilton and the funder was just protecting its interests. "The long and short of it is that it was his project that has had a cost blowout," he said.

BIDS FOR MOMI BAY BUT NO SALE

The partly built Momi Bay resort in Fiji failed to sell under the hammer yesterday.

The luxury resort, which was financier Bridgecorp's largest project, was passed in at just over $40 million.

Scott Cordes, a Bayleys spokesman, said late yesterday afternoon that negotiations were continuing after the auction at Bayleys' Fiji office at 1.30pm yesterday.

Bidding opened at $30 million and paused at $35 million for negotiations, Cordes said. Bidding then continued from $41 million.

"After that, bidding paused for negotiations with the highest bidder," Cordes said.

At least two bidders were at the auction and he said he expected negotiations to result in a sale but this might take some time.

Read it here http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10593166

Posted by rawfijinews

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<Epi.D
SWM
www.solivakasama.org

Fiji Water: So cool, so fresh, so bad for the environment? -- DailyFinance

Fiji Water: So cool, so fresh, so bad for the envThe story of Fiji Water, as detailed in a startling and detailed investigative piece in Mother Jones magazine this month, seems familiar. Leafing through the story, I found myself trying to remember where I'd read this tale before; like an old melody at the back of my brain, it hovered, just beyond memory.

Suddenly it came to me: it's Dole, it's West Indies Sugar Corporation, it's the old, old story. A company located in a lush, tropical location with a totalitarian government that welcomes foreign interests with deep pockets. It doesn't tax them, gives them access to the country's most precious natural resources, and stands by with heavy artillery in hand, protecting them while they strip the country.
Meanwhile, the country's citizens struggle with terrible poverty, hunger and squalid conditions. The only part of the story that Fiji Water has not yet repeated is the inevitable depletion of the resource -- in this case, a 17-mile-long aquifer to which Fiji Water has "near-exclusive access" -- and the subsequent abandonment of the country.

What makes this story so difficult to swallow is how eagerly the U.S. seems to have embraced Fiji's co-owners Stewart and Lynda Resnick. On this side of the Pacific, the pair cheerfully line the pockets of any political figure in sight (they supported both McCain and Obama in the past election) while selling Fiji's best, cleanest water at a huge profit. On the other side of the ocean, the people of Fiji suffer under terrible water conditions that have led to outbreaks of typhoid and parasitic infections.


It appears that America has embraced the Resnicks: Lynda brags that she knows "everyone in the world, every mogul, every movie star." These relationships have proven handy, as the Resnicks have reaped $1.5 million a year in water subsidies for their almond, pistachio and pomegranate crops in the U.S.

These agricultural water subsidies must be viewed in context: the pollination of almond "monoculture" crops like the ones the Resnicks grow is considered to be one of the major reasons that bees are suffering stress and succumbing to colony collapse disorder. And the Resnicks control an enormous amount of California water infrastructure that was built by public funds. They have a 48 percent interest in the Kern Water Bank, which was meant to collect water from aqueducts and the Kern River and to redistribute this water in times of drought.

The Resnicks and their Paramount Farms and Paramount Citrus could use the water to irrigate their fields (which are already subsidized by the government), or they could sell it to municipalities. According to critics, the Resnicks are "trying to "game" the water market the way Enron gamed the energy market.


So the Resnicks are not known for their even-handedness with politicians or water, and their practices in the U.S. are not the greenest of all possible greens. In fact, they could share responsibility for many of our environmental woes. They could have a hand in California's future water shortages, during which they could profit gloriously. All the while, they are loudly and proudly marketing Fiji Water as the most environmentally friendly bottled water company in the world.

This, of course, is not saying much. Bottled water is notorious for its position in top five lists of "what not to do" for the planet. One day, future civilizations will look back on this decade and wonder in disbelief why it was that we pumped water out of one part of the planet, encased it in plastic, then encased it again for shipping, and spent many many non-renewable resources to bring it to another part of the planet where clean water was already plentiful. It's patently ridiculous.

The story is disturbing because of the truths it tells us about ourselves and our society. It's not just the water thing. It's the marketing. Lynda Resnick has been repeatedly described as a marketing genius for her ability to transform Fiji Water into a must-have accessory for environmentally-conscious celebrities and politicians, despite its heavy use of plastic and questionable commitment to environmentally sustainable practices.

What's more, the company is not, as Anna Lenzer writes in her follow-up to the story (after Fiji Water spokesman Rob Six defended his company) doing anything about the military junta now controlling Fiji. "A UN official . . . in a recent commentary . . . singled out Fiji Water as the one company with enough leverage to force the junta to budge."

The commentary, by the way, was titled "Why Obama should stop drinking Fiji water."

DailyFinance

MSG meets in Suva, backs Fiji

The very presence of the MSG in Fiji today proves they condone Frank's treason! PNG is going through their own domestic problems and Solomon Islands have just gotten over their ethnic tension resulting in RAMSI, so why haven't they learnt to uphold the rule of law?

 How can they meet in Fiji with this illegal junta and not have the decency to meet with deposed PM Qarase and get his view on whether they should include Fiji on the regional trade talks.

A food for thought, if Fiji was included back into the regional trade talks, who actually would be its beneficiaries? Fijians, I seriously doubt it, so is the MSG really acting in the best interests of its fellow Melanesians? It is these shadowy figures behind the idiot Bainimarama who are exploiting him for their own selfish gains! Bainimarama, Mara, Ganilau, Nailatikau, etc are all small fish to these sharks!

Tui Savu

President SWM

Concerted Action Needed Now to Help Stabilize Pacific Economies, Says ADB

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - Economic growth in the Pacific region in 2009 is expected to dip below earlier forecasts, but will remain positive at 2.8%, says a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) publication released today (23 August 2009).

The situation remains bleak, however, for the majority Pacific Island economies. If the resource-rich nations of Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste are excluded, then economic growth in the Pacific is forecast to contract by 0.4% this year.

The second issue of the Pacific Economic Monitor says five Pacific economies - Cook Islands, the Fiji Islands, Palau, Samoa, and Tonga - are projected to contract in 2009, due to weak tourism and remittances.

The Monitor is a quarterly review of 14 Pacific Island nations that provides an update of developments and policy issues in the region.

While the global economy is showing signs of stabilizing, the delayed impact on the Pacific from the economic downturn in the USA, Australia and New Zealand - the region's major trading partner economies - may mean Pacific economies are yet to hit bottom.

The report says the speed of economic recovery will depend on the ability of the region's governments to adjust to the economic deterioration.

"The economic and fiscal impacts of the global economic crisis appear to be larger than expected in some economies," says S. Hafeez Rahman, Director General of ADB's Pacific Department. "There is a strong case for concerted action to stabilize some of the region's faltering economies and support reforms to achieve sustainable economic recovery."

The recent recovery in the international prices of some key commodities, particularly crude oil, is helping to lift growth expectations in Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste. Falling log prices will however yield zero growth for Solomon Islands in 2009.

Australian tourists are beginning to return to the Fiji Islands. This could slow tourism growth in the Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu for the rest of the year. Moderate growth in tourism is expected in all major Pacific tourist destinations in 2010.

During the first half of 2009, inflation eased across the Pacific, with the exception of the Fiji Islands, because of devaluation. However, the recent rise in crude oil prices may push up inflation in the remainder of the year.

The Monitor uses data from Australia, New Zealand, USA, and Asia to supplement data from the region and provide more up-to-date assessments and broader coverage of the Pacific economies.

BY ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK: NEWS RELEASE

SWM
http://www.solivakasama.org/