Strict village bylaws face review

by Theresa Ralogaivau

Fiji Times - Monday, April 26, 2010

EXISTING village bylaws that infringe on personal rights or expose people to harm and contradict State laws will be removed.

A consultation process on a set of village bylaws being proposed by the Fijian Affairs Board has covered 105 villages in the province. Roko Tui Cakaudrove Ro Aca Mataitini said villages had their own bylaws and these laws whether generated by the village or proposed by the province must be in line with government laws.

Laws forbidding same sex encounters, premarital legal age sex or extra marital sex were proposed for implementation at the council meeting last year and may be abandoned.

A law at Nukubalavu Village forbids the wearing of shoes in the village. Mr Mataitini said villagers have been told that laws that infringe on rights or expose people to harm would be removed.

or injury will have to be reconsidered.

"They can come up with any law but the final say rests with the government," he said.

The issue is up for discussion at May 25th and 26th provincial council meet at Yaroi village in Savusavu.

The consultation process on the laws proposed by the Fijian Affairs Board is expected to end in June.

Yaqona Sale to go Online

Fiji Village News - 23 April 2010

With the government calling on all industry stakeholders to look at new initiatives and ideas to develop Fiji's industries and increase export dollars, a leading local kava outlet is now getting ready to start selling kava online.

Lami Kava which has been in the kava retail business for the last 24 years said the overseas market for kava is now getting bigger with many Fijians living abroad.

Lami Kava Managing Director, Donnie Yee is hoping that he will get the necessary assistance to start off this new initiative.

Yee also said the company has come up with a unique style of packaging that will preserve the kava for months.

Fiji's kava industry is hoping that the government provides the necessary assistance to regulate the industry and try to boost kava exports.

Hopes are also high that the kava ban in some countries will be lifted.

There are some positive indications.

A few months ago a team conducted a Queensland University study on kava and it is advocating the establishment of a regional Kava Quality Control Mechanism to ensure that the quality of the kava to be exported meets the necessary standards.

Researcher Jerome Saris said they have also established that the kava pills that resulted in the overseas bans were really concentrated. 

Saris said the university is now looking for support to conduct an even bigger trial to test kava's depression relieving properties against standard anti-depressant medication.

The Agriculture Ministry is expected to comment on Lami Kava's new initiative and the future of the kava industry later today.

Messiah Flock Defiant

by Serafina Silatoga

Thursday, April 22, 2010

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Villagers of Nakawakawa in Bua look at the remains of Sairusi Nabogibogi's burnt house. Picture: SERAFINA SILAITOGA

FOLLOWERS of the Messiah Movement founded by the late Sairusi Nabogibogi have refused to move out of Nakawakawa Village in Bua.

Instead, they have called on the Tui Wainunu, Ratu Orisi Baleitavea, and the turaga ni yavusa (clan head), Naniu Drau, Ilieasa Ratusaki, to resolve the matter through dialogue.

The followers were told to move after arsonists burned a home built in Mr Nabogibogi's memory at the weekend.

Mr Nabogobogi, who was from Nakorotubu in Ra, formed the movement in the 1960s to promote communal living and farming.

Profits from communal farms were shared and used to build homes and develop a settlement at Selemi on the north-eastern coast of Viti Levu.

His mother was from Nakawakawa.

The group's senior member, Samuela Sigatokaicake, said the traditional leaders had not informed them about the ultimatum.

Ratu Orisi told the Fiji Times he gave the group two weeks to move out of the village as they had continued to treasure the property of Mr Nabogibogi.

Nakawakawa Village headman Tevita Kubi said the group should respect the wishes of the chief and move out.

But Mr Sigatokaicake claimed that his members had brought major changes to the lives of poor families in the village.

He said the group had opened a shop and started a dalo farming program aimed at improving living standards in the village.

Mr Sigatokaicake said the farming program had returned good earnings to their members and enabled them to afford educational expenses.

He added that Jesus Christ remained their God and they were members of the Methodist Church.

Cabinet Approves New Village Guidelines by FAB

Fiji Village News - 20 April 2010

A number of guidelines proposed by the Fijian Affairs Board for the registration of I Taukei settlements to be officially recognized as villages has been agreed to by Cabinet.

Cabinet based its decision on a submission by the Prime Minister, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama and these guidelines will be adopted as a By Law under the provisions of Regulation 2 of the Fijian Affairs(Tikina and Village) Regulation, 1996.

The Prime Minister said that over the years, requests have been received by the FAB for the official recognition and registration of indigenous settlements to be registered indigenous villages.

He added that no decision has ever been taken on these applications because no guidelines or rules have ever been developed and adopted, to be used as the criteria for assessing such requests to facilitate their registration, or otherwise as villages.

Meanwhile these guidelines are as follows:

• the proposed site must be on native land within the land boundary of its Parent Yavusa,
• the proposed village must be sited on native land where the landowning unit of the land concerned has agreed to surrender, in the traditional manner, ownership rights to such land and which would after registration be owned communally by the village, 
• the inhabitants of the village must be from the one Yavusa, and
•  have recognized and accepted a leader of the new village.

Over 80% in Rural Fijian Communities in Debt

Fiji Village News - 19 April 2010 Jeff Liew - UNDP Advisor

More than 80 percent of people living in rural Fijian communities are in debt as a recent study has found that borrowing in Fijian communities is pervasive and financial literacy is very low.

That is the revelation from the financial capacity Advisor for UNDP, Jeff Liew at the launch of the Financial Capability, financial Competency and well being in rural Fijian households survey carried out by the UNDP.

Liew said the survey which was carried out in a total of 14 villages in Naitasiri highlighted that in Fijian communities the ability to manage debt was very low, with 50% of the villagers not even understanding the meaning of loans.

Liew said this lack of financial literacy would see people falling victim to "get rich quick" schemes and other fraudulent activities.

Meanwhile, ANZ Chief Executive for Fiji Norman Wilson said that as part of their community program they are undertaking the Rural Banking Initiative which has seen over 70 thousand people take advantage since it started in 2004.

The research which was undertaken in 2007 and was this afternoon released jointly by ANZ and UNDP.

Vanua installs Turaga Na Ratu of Dawasamu

Samuela Loanakadavu

Fiji Times - Saturday, April 17, 2010

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Dawasamu chief Ratu Peni Waqa (above and right) drinks a bowl of yaqona after his installation as Turaga na Ratu of Dawasamu

THE tikina of Dawasamu in Tailevu officially installed Ratu Peni Waqa Veilave, 73, as their chief after 28 years of confusion and uncertainty.

On Thursday, more than 300 people from the eight yavusa under the title of the Turaga na Ratu gathered at the village of Delakado to witness this historic occasion.

The eldest in the king-maker clan of Voni, Nacanieli Lagilagi, told the Fiji Times the vanua of Dawasamu had been under a curse in the last 100 years because of a dispute over who should be in charge of the official installation of chiefs.

Speaking in Fijian, Mr Lagilagi said they knew what was going on because so many relatives of the title holder had died because of the king-maker's wrongdoing.

Ratu Peni is only the second chief to be traditionally installed by the yavusa Voni who are the rightful king-makers.

Mr Lagilagi said the past four chiefly title holders were installed by another group from the same yavusa and the result was death to the title holders and his family members.

He said Ratu Peni's father, Ratu Seva Veilave, had seen the worst of it in the 1970s when his brother died prematurely along with a sister-in-law and his 18-year-old son.

Mr Lagilagi said only a few weeks ago, Ratu Peni was admitted at the CWM Hospital but the cause of the sickness could not be determined.

He said it was only after the last meeting to confirm the installation ceremony was held, did he become well again.

The newly-installed Turaga na Ratu will spend four nights with all of the eight chiefs of the yavusa before he is taken back to his residence in Driti to assume his chiefly seat.

Assistant Roko Tui Tailevu Veresi Sakunitoga was also present at the installation.

'Where are the Elders'

Maneesha Karan

Fiji Times - Friday, April 16, 2010

People have lost their traditional culture which once helped raise respectful responsible youths.

This is the view of the president of Reclaiming Youth International, Dr Larry Brendtro, while conducting a workshop for youth workers and professionals concerned with the support and development of young people in communities at a three-day workshop at Studio 6 that ended yesterday.

"While the traditional culture can be identified as more close-knit, the Western culture depicts more of individuality," Dr Brendtro said. "In all traditional cultures, the kinship system was not the nuclear family. In the indigenous system, our father's brother was considered our father and likewise the mother's sister was considered the mother. So if something happens to the either of the parents, their kin would be there to protect and provide for the kid."

Unfortunately, such cases were rare in the present society, he said. The youngsters were under the elders constant guidance in the olden days, he said.

"The elders taught kids how to be respectful. However, in the Western culture, kids have two or one parent and the kid spends more time with their peers rather than at home.

"In the traditional culture, kids spent only 10 per cent of their time with their peers. Tradition taught how to respect the child and teach the kid to become responsible. They considered children as their property.

"Elders were expected to get the children to learn values. But now, where have all the elders gone?"

He said the lack of connection between children and elders made all children all the more vulnerable to be involved in unwanted activities such drugs and sexual activities.

"We have to create a system that will help do a better job to connect adults and move away from juvenile delinquents," Dr Brendtro, who is also a dean at Starr Commonwealth, a school for difficult youths, said.