Quote:
Originally Posted by mudnut
It sounds to me like Fijians want their Island back before it is taken over by western interest with the help of the Indian (From India)population that seem to own all the comercial intrests in the country.The biggest shame is that their local saying(Don't do today what you can put off tomorrow) will be,eventually,a thing of the past.Whether they realize it or not they have allready eaten the slice of pie from the IMF that has put them in debt to the would be financial runners and backers of the afore mentioned foundation.Another piece of paradice will not be lost but over-run and gobbled up by the guise of progress."For the people by the people"was the biggest load of crap I've ever witnessed.The second biggest is "Why"Do small places like this need a millitary to start with?Big mistake giving a local the weapons in my opinon.Mudnut.
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Mudnut,
Remember that over 40% of the Fijian population is Indian and they have been there since the 1930's. Yes the ethnic Fijians are unhappy with the division of the spoils but it's a mistake to think that this is a recent problem. Virtually all if not all the unrest in the Pacific islands has as it's root cause, antagonism between one ethnic group and another. In many cases it was the creation of states that were effectively artificial that has led to these problems. As an example if you look at New Guinea and the Solomons you see this glaring error in those state's creation. Bougainville for instance is much more ethnically part of the Solomons than it is part of New Guinea. Having said that even within the Solomons there is much racial tension between the natives of Guadalcanal and Malaita and of course Irian Jaya ,or for that matter Bali, are in no way a good fit with the peoples of Java.
Regarding the military it is a fact of life that sovereign nations will want to have their own armed forces and who are we to deny them ? Where would you draw the line ? Fiji ?
Tonga ?
Indonesia ?
New Zealand ?
Australia ? i'm not saying I have all the answers but I think saying that it's a mistake to give a 'local' a gun is far to broad a statement. You might as well say that these people would be better off to still be under colonial
rule.
I am a staunch republican, having the Queen of
England as the
head of state of my country is offensive to me. On the other hand my mother , who is
English still believes in the idea of
England as the mother country and that replacing the Queen of
Australia with an Australian head of state would be a retrograde step.
Sorry, this has become too political I guess. Hope it's not offensive.
Andrew