Japan
Tropica Lit Ibs
Letters
Japan and Fiji
WE Japanese find it very important that we should be more inter nationalised. The Japanese gov ernment is campaigning that more than 10 million Japanese should travel over seas for the purpose of internationalisa tion. What is “internationalisation” for the Japanese? When I look at most of the Japanese coming to Fiji, interna tionalisation seems to be spending money overseas or investing money over seas.
Since Air Pacific began its Tokyo ser vice, the tourism industry in Fiji has em ployed coordinators specialised in deal ing with Japanese tourists. Japanese tourists take it for granted that they should be served in the Japanese lan guage and in the Japanese way. It means that the Japanese tourist does not want to l>e adjusted to the country where they travel to and that they expect the people of that country to be adjusted to them because they have the money. In this sense, internationalisation could be de fined as Japanising the country by eco nomic power. In Fiji, a huge Japanese multi-million dollar resort project has been causing trouble to the residents of the area.
I’ve been living in Fiji for nearly two years, and I have a lot of lovely friends. 1 love the people and the nature of Fiji.
That’s why I don’t want to see this beautiful country and the life of the peo ple destroyed by the economic power of the Japanese. 1 know how much the en vironment of Japan had been destroyed and so many innocent people killed by the heavy pollution caused by the pro cess of rapid economic growth in the 19605. I don’t want to see the same tragedy in Fiji. I want the people of Fiji to study not only the success story of Japan but also the failure story.
Fiji is neither for tourists nor foreign investors. Fiji is for the people of Fiji who have created their own unique cul ture, language and custom. I have to admit that in this world, to improve the standard of people’s life, economic growth is essential. However, if Fiji makes a wrong choice and emphasises economic growth and neglects the pre servation of the environment and tradi tional lifestyle, than Fiji will be ruined, and controlled by foreigners in the fu ture.
Fiji is for the people of Fiji; Fight to protect this beautiful country.
Shigetoshi Takagi
japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, Town and Country Planning, Suva
Pearls
“PEARLS in Peril” (PIM June 1989) challenged the honesty of Mr Toma, the MP for Manihiki by reporting that he “maintains that the Island Council has a 30 per cent share in the Com pany, but a search of the company re cords in Rarotonga indicates that Yves Tchen Pan holds 95 per cent of the company.” The register of shareholders is kept at the Registered Office of the Company in Rarotonga, and this shows a transfer of one third of the capital of the Company by Yves Tchen Pan to the Manihiki Island Council in September 1988. On the $1.5 million invested by Yves Tchen Pan “from which locals de rived ancillary benefits”, those ancillary benefits totalled in excess of $600,000 spent in Manihiki in eight months, which is quite substantial for a total population of 600 men, women and children.
The most interesting omission is the article fails to mention the Marine Re sources programme was linked to a joint venture with an Australian entrep reneur, who the Island Council did not want operating in Manihiki for very good reasons. The offensive part of the article are the racial undertones in the portrayal of the Manihiki Island Coun cil as just a bunch of natives, who don’t know what they are doing.
The black pearl industry in Manihiki is one of the few success stories in the Pacific.
R W Tylor
Company Secretary Cook Islands Pearls Ltd Rarotonga
Robie
I’M not quite certain when I began read ing Pacific Islands Monthly. It must be more than 15 years ago. Those who chronicle the lives of peoples and coun tries in your vast area, become reliable, informative friends. One comes to watch for the bylines with anticipation.
Of these friends your pages offer readers, I can think of none finer than David Robie. Because I long ago served my time as a newspaperman and as a foreign correspondent to a weekly Mex ican newsmagazine, perhaps I may be allowed to pronounce Robie a journalist’s journalist. He is balanced, thorough and courageous, and he writes extraordinari ly well.
Galal Kernahan
Newport Beach California
Paradise
My wife and children lived with me O, this was many years ago Beside a sunny tropic sea In scenes my boys will never know.
Between the reefs along the shore We swam, or waded through a gap.
The ocean was our only store Our island home, Elugelap.
A ship came to our land one day.
A white man in a navy cap Persuaded us to go away And so we left Elugelap.
And now there is no trace of land, Nor coral reef beyond the foam.
There are no palms, no hills of sand; The seas have covered up our home.
Now, sharks and flying-fish abound Where once we set our lobster trap, And there remains no fishing ground Where once there was Elugelap.
No-one can calculate our loss.
You will not find it on the map.
There is a hole, a mile across Where once there was Elugelap.
Ralph A Lewin
California,
Usa
Penpal
I READ with great interest the request from a young man in Paplia New Guinea for a pen pal in your October 1988 issue. I, too, would like to issue a similar request to the readers of your fine magazine. Incidentally, I had read your magazine when I was a high school student in Hawaii back in the 19605, and only recently rediscovered it through a pen pal in Australia who was kind enough to send me copies of it.
I am a 41-year-old housewife, mother of four, still interested in corresponding with people all over the world, especially in the Pacific Islands. I have numerous hobbies and am particularly interested in writing to other women near my age, but will answer all the letters I receive from people of any age. Can your readers help me?
Thank you for maintaining the excel lent level of quality of your magazine through the years and I look forward to hearing from some of your readers.
(Mrs) Virginia C Mccaffey
11107 Rhode Island Avenue South, Bloomington, Minnesota 55438,