Royal welcome

Spencer Robinson, Suva

There are only a few days to go before we welcome the royal couple to the capital city.

The artistic and attractive welcoming banners and posters displayed clearly within the city areas, including sites where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would be visiting, is commendable.

The authorities have been working hard to prepare the city for the royal visit through its cleaning and beautification initiative.

Well done and great work SCC.

On that note, let us all continue to work together to keep our cities and towns clean and tidy on a daily basis.

Have a great and blessed weekend.

Our Chinese and Muslims

Timoci Gaunavinaka, Nausori

Two issues causing suspicion among the iTaukei today are the Chinese and Muslims.

Some are asking why Government allows Chinese workers to work on several projects in the country when we have local labourers who can do the job?

Most of our labourers are trained and confined to a particular trade. These foreign labourers are multi-skilled and can do more. They have worked on mega projects and come with vast experience.

Constructing a bridge, a highway or a 26-storey building may not be the right training ground where our labourers are to be exposed in huge numbers.

We have the FNU School of Engineering and our various vocational training facilities to do that, but they may first need to be restructured.

By putting many of our local labourers to work and learn from the Chinese while the Chinese try to focus on a strict deadline and budget, it can delay the project and even bust its budget.

China is not going to fund the project to upgrade our infrastructures and on top of it also fund our bera vakalevu (clueless) or our vakavanua (laid back) attitude.

There are dozens of other countries China can send its aid and investments to and we should be grateful that they gave it to us.

By bringing some of their own labourers they ensure that those projects will be completed on time and within allocated budgets.

We as the nation receiving this aid must never be arrogant and try to dictate terms.

On the Muslim issue, claiming that they are trying to invade or dominate us is absolutely idiotic and insults the intelligence of any educated iTaukei.

They form less than 15 per cent of our population while we iTaukei form over 95 per cent of our military personnel.

We own more than 91 per cent of the land in this country, which is fully protected under the 2013 Constitution.

Where in the world has the weak, against such huge odds, conquered and dominated the strong?

As Christians we must never try to be so self-righteous.

Our religion also has its dark side in history.

When Christians invaded Jerusalem during the Crusade, they slaughtered all its Muslim and Jewish inhabitants.

When Muslims took it back under Saladin, they allowed Christians and Jews to live.

That part of history was also retold in the movie, Kingdom of Heaven.

Even Adolf Hitler was born and baptised as a Christian. He slaughtered more than 10 million people including six million Jews.

Just three decades ago, Christians were killing each other in Northern Ireland.

Today some of our talatala and priests have been convicted for rapes and child molesting.

Mainly Christian countries were amongst those who invaded Muslim Afghanistan.

Mainly Christian countries were amongst those who invaded Muslim Iraq under the false pretense of “Weapons of Mass Destruction” (WMD).

Hundreds of Fiji’s sons and daughters currently serving in Muslim countries today are alive and safe because Muslims do not see us as their enemies.

Yet some of us are today using the church and its social media networks to spread hatred against Muslims.

If Jesus Christ was walking among us today to see and hear all the acts and myths claimed under his name, he would have just said, “If this is Christianity, then I am not a Christian”.

Choose wisely

Dharmendra Kumar, Suva

Attending political campaigns during election time is like going to the municipal market to buy your favourite fruits and vegetables.

It requires careful attention – just like the way you would normally pick a bunch of bananas and look at its size, colour and skin texture.

The same goes with politics.

Choosing a candidate or party to vote for requires careful analysis. You must not choose a party or candidate because of association, friendship, kinship or because you were forced to do so.

How careful we do our picking has a huge bearing on the quality and calibre of politicians we elect as lawmakers.

The definition of high calibre per our good friends over in Oxford is, “The quality of someone’s character or the level of their ability”. Choose wisely.

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