Letters To The Editors, 17th, May, 2018

TV standards

Rashika Kumar, Nausori

I am appalled by the standard of TV shows and levels of censorship on Fijian free-to-air TV stations.

Imagine my horror when watching TV with my parents last night (May 15th) when I see a sex toy on the TV show on a televi­sion station.

It was so embarrassing. Everyone was scurrying to find the TV remote. Please apologise to your viewers.

The other television station isn't blame­less either. It's perfectly fine for them to show apparent sexual acts for all to see on shows, but God forbid same sex couple kiss­ing?

They go through a lot of trouble to cut out a two to five seconds scene!

There are inconsistencies when beeping out curses like 'son of a b---h' and 'b-----d' on both the TV channels.

Sometimes they think it's acceptable for such words to be used, sometimes they think it isn't.

This reminds me of the weekend before last when I was watching a movie and the 'N' word was not beeped out. That word is a lot more offensive than the words they did decide to edit.

Now my question is, who gets to decide what is acceptable and what isn't on our free-to-air channels?

Shouldn't there be a set standard for all TV channels decided by the Media Industry Development Authority (MIDA)?

I honestly hope I do not get embarrassed again while watching television with my family.

Healthy lifestyle

Wise Muavono, Lautoka

Inescapable, universal, uplifting: The only certainty in life is that it will one day end, but the onus is on each individual to living a long healthy life.

So for the benefit of our loved ones and ourselves, making a sustainable lifestyle change would be the key to a longer and healthier lifestyle.

It's never too late to change our daily life­style choices.

Dietary and lifestyle modification togeth­er with physical activity is the way to go. Making it part of our daily routine will help us live longer and feel better.

Hopefully, this letter will motivate you to stick with your current healthy daily habits and inspire you to make lifestyle changes.

Especially if you're living a sedentary life­style.

Quality of English

Savenaca Vakaliwaliwa, Suva

The Ministry of Education is concerned about the quality of English, which led to the Education Minister and Attorney Gen­eral revealing in Parliament that the quali­ty had significantly deteriorated and added the issue needed improving.

We are not told if this concern is on both written and spoken English or written only.

I would say that Fijian students across the board have a good sense of spoken English because that seems to be the normal lan­guage some of them are communicating with.

But when it comes to written English, this is where our weakness lies. And if a large number of teachers flunked the English test conducted a couple of months back, then we can assume students will have the same problem.

We all should be glad that Fiji has reverted to the old system of education where stu­dents are tested every year and move up to the next class.

One clear result of moving up students without any tests is what we are now hear­ing in Parliament from the Minister of Education, “the deteriorating quality of English”.

On the other hand, our education system allows the teaching of the iTaukei and Hindi language in the hope that we can all function better in Fiji speaking and writing in our own preferred language of commu­nication.

Telecommunication and information

Neelz Singh, Lami

The purpose of World Telecommunica­tion and Information Society Day is to help raise awareness of the possibilities that the use of the internet, other information and communication technologies (ICT) can bring to societies and economies.

As well as ways to bridge the digital di­vide.

May 17th marks the anniversary of the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention and the creation of the Inter­national Telecommunication Union.

2018 Theme: Enabling the positive use of Artificial Intelligence for All.

Despite all challenges Fiji’s Technology and Infrastructure Comprehensive inter­net access, reliable mobile communica­tions networks and a secure electricity sup­ply – we only learn to truly appreciate these achievements of our age.

In recent years there have been significant progress in Information and Technology, made possible by tremendous advances in contributing fields such as: Machine Learning, Computing Power, Storage Ca­pacity and Cloud Computing and My App Based Software among others.

AI-based technologies are already emerg­ing as a key component of proactive tools and applications being used to help people lead better lives by improving healthcare, education, finance, agriculture, transporta­tion, and a wide range of other services.

The theme will focus on the potential of Artificial Intelligence to accelerate the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Feedback: jyotip@fijisun.com.fj