Letters
pp. 6-7 · Read in the full issue
Wireless local loop system
We take this opportunity to congratulate Fiji Telecom for intro ducing the wireless local loop system in Nasinu.
We hope that this system can also be easily used in other places with more dense populations.
This will alleviate the need for digging up trenches and the roads in the future. This system is easy to install and use.
With more effective use some localities can use systems such as this instead of the more expensive mobile phones.
Systems similar to this are in use in advanced countries like the UK. Hopefully the introduction of such systems will bring down the labour costs and the overheads.
This should bring down the local trunk call charges which are very high for a place like Fiji.
The Retailers would like to congratulate the Line Minister and Telecom for their vision in introducing such modem systems and keeping us all in touch with each other and the world.
Himmat Lodhia,
Fiji Retailers Association, Suva, Fiji
Stamp-lover
Hello there. I am a young stamp collector. I have not been able to find very many used stamps from Fiji or other nearby Pacific Island nations.
I would love to add some to my collection. Is it possible for somebody to set some aside for me?
Even if there might be some from other countries it would be great.
I realize this is no doubt an unusual request but I just thought I would ask with the hope that maybe I could get lucky.
Stamp collecting is a fun hobby and one of the things I enjoy in my spare time.
I thank you for your time and hope I might be fortunate enough to hear from you.
Alan Gorton.
8409 N.E. 140th Court.
Vancouver, Washington
98682 Usa.
Enough of seat-warmers
I am from Lau and no doubt proud to be one. However I would just like to respond to an article in The Fiji Times regarding alle gations against the Commissioner of Police by one of his inspec tors.
May I just say this; if Mr Savua were to go to Timbuktoo and recruit officers who will then go on to discharge their duties impartially and with zeal, then he will most certainly hear me cheering him on and wishing him all the best.
What Fiji needs now is people of courage and vision. Enough of seat-warmers and bum-kissers. And if Mr Savua were to get the people he needs, to fully discharge the marvellous deeds he is doing, from Ra then so be it.
Unorthodoxy, resourcefulness and meritocracy should be the order of the day.
After all, aren’t we all too familiar with the inertia and medi ocrity within the civil service.
In any case, the Lau-Vanua Levu alliance or the so called Tovata has not really acquitted itself majestically as we are so often asked to believe.
on page 7
*From page 6 In the last 28 years they have taken us 10 steps forward and 20 backwards.
So why not give the people from Ra or Kadavu for that matter, a chance to prove themselves; which is more than what the Labour-NFP Coalition had. They might just have a few surprises for us.
Jona Vuli,
Sydney, Australia.
Picture this I wish to advise you of my disappointment with how your mag azine use of photographs for the purposes of a story.
Especially when the photograph has no relevance to the story and the permission of the persons photographed was not sought.
I am referring to the story published in the May 1998 issue, written by Lisa Vainerere about gambling in the Cook Islands, “IN
The Name Of Charity”.
The photograph used pictures myself and my husband in the Banana Court some years back.
This picture being associated with a story about women prefer ring Housie Nights to Night clubbing upsets me indeed as I am in no way associated with any Housie events.
I do not go to housie. I am not a fan of gambling of any sort and would be more than happy if Housie and any form of gambling was banned altogether in the Cook Islands.
As well as the above it is just not right to use pictures of any
one for any story without their permission, you never know whom the person(s) photographed are, whai positions they hold in Government or in a Community.
My husband is the Head of a Government Ministry here in the Cook Islands, and he, as with myself, has no association with Housie or gambling.
I find your use of our picture for the above mentioned story and the caption used along with the photograph most unacceptable - “Women in the Cooks are increasingly attracted to Housie nights as an alternative to nightclubs such as this one in Rarotonga”.
Is this supposed to mean Women, “like this one”, are attracted to Housie nights as an alternative to nightclubs, or does “like this one” refer to the night-club? This sentence is misleading as it could be interpreted either way.
Jackie Tuara
Rarotonga Cook Islands
Human interest?
What happened to news about Tahiti and Hawaii. Are they no longer on the map?
Whatever happened to the great stories like the one they based the Academy winning movie “Mother Goose”, or the stories about Tom Neale on Suwarow. I miss these human interest tales.
Yours truly,
Michael H. Goldsen *More overleaf