Miss Nasinu, Hailey Qaqa, will now represent Fiji in the upcoming Miss Pacific Island Pageant at Prince Charles Park in Nadi from December 2 to 9.

The 23-year-old contestant from Taveuni was crowned TFL Miss Fiji last night at Suva’s Thurston Gardens, beating 10 other contestants. However, being gracious and humble, she paid tribute to her fellow contestants and the former Miss Nasinu, Ruci Marama.

She said: “Miss Nasinu 2016, Ruci Marama, after she passed her crown to me said a queen is there for a cause and not a pause. And I strongly believe with me being Miss Fiji, together with these fine ladies who are queens in their own right; we are here to serve you; we are here to help you; we are here to become a voice of advocacy and strength and a voice of warning to each other and to the nation as a whole.”

Miss Qaqa has been a Latter-day Saints missionary and is currently pursuing studies in Human Physiology and Anatomy with the University of California through distance learning.

Attorney-General and Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, who officiated as chief guest at the crowning ceremony, reminded the people of the important event coming up – COP23.

“Fiji is given the honour and privilege to become the president of COP23, which is being led by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.

“It is a great achievement for Fiji, which is primarily because of the great leadership of our Prime Minister. It is also the first time where the presidency has been given to a small island state, but it is being hosted in an industrialised country. It is a close collaboration between Germany and Fiji. What it symbolises also is that Germany represents the industrialised countries.

“We have unruly weather patterns, drought, severe cyclones, and various other changes in the climate change that we have not experienced before. We need to be aware of what is happening because of climate change and the challenge for all of us is what we can do to be able to meet these conditions that are created by climate change.”

Despite Fiji having negligible carbon footprint, he said we still, as a country, made a commitment that we would reduce our carbon footprints by 30 per cent by 2030.

“This means we will see more renewable energy. We are also looking at revamping the transport sector so the less diesel emissions come out, the less carbon and therefore Fiji becomes a lot greener,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.

Edited by Jyoti Pratibha

Feedback:  ashna.kumar@fijisun.com.fj