The local blogs are my favourite read (besides the world of warcraft ones, but that’s another story for another day) and are always checked out first at the beginning of the day. I’ve scored the net for local blogs, and have a few that keep me intrigued/afloat/wondering.

The curious thing is the local blogging scene is relatively…quiet. With the exception of a few blogs that posted more times a day then I could actually keep up with (“Why Fiji is Crying” made my head hurt with the ALL CAPS TITLES), blogging is a slow but steady past-time. Heck, even I’m guilty of long breaks inbetween posts.

Blame Fiji Time

Below is a screenshot of what I currently have under my RSS Feed. I’ll give a brief rundown of the following blogs, though bear in mind this isn’t no Roger and Ebert review, just an idea of what the local blogsphere (or at least the ones I’ve come across) is like.

And This Just In… : Politics and humour go hand in hand with this quirky look at the local current affairs scene. We’re talking legal action from Jesus and Allah against Fiji’s interim minister Lekh Ram Vayeshnoi for his ‘god-sent’ comments, and even ‘friend cut’ from both the leaders of Australia and New Zealand with Fiji’s interim prime minister Frank Bainimarama. Read with a pinch of salt and a mischevious wink.

Awesome Cake: A young local bloggger who’s also a killer cartoonist, Awesome Cake is all heart and insightful musings of life from another point of view. After all, if he says …don’t count your chickens before they hatch into dinosaurs…”, you’d better believe it.

Babasiga: A great read from Peceli and Wendy, a fijian and australian couple who’s love for Fiji is reflected in most of their posts. This blog is also the most in touch with the local rural lifestyle, and is a worthy RSS watch for anyone interested in seeing how the locals live out their lives.

Blog In Fiji: Humour, crazy pills and monkeys rule this site, but while jokes are aplenty, there’s a certain underlying hard hitting truth to whats to be said within these pages about the condition of Fiji. Recommended read if you like serious issues examined by monkeys holding microscopes. And typewriters.

Digital Fiji: Blogging about the digital development in Fiji can be quite a daunting task, considering the somewhat turmulant stability of the country as a whole, but Digital Fiji takes it all in stride. Examining issues such as the attempted “May Day” bloggers event, Internet Safety, and even Fiji’s own geek t-shirts, if it’s IT and it’s local, it’s most probably here.

Fiji Rugby Blog: Ah, the game that evokes the most love/hate feelings with us Fijians. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Fiji Rugby Blog seems to be the only blog of its kind to be all about Rugby in Fiji. With breakdowns of the games and their players, this blog should be on your list if your interest lies in the oval ball.

I am NOT amused: Another personal blog, this one is on my watchlist because of two things: (a) this person plays world of warcraft, and (b) this person plays world of warcraft…from Fiji. While there are countless other local “WoW” players, this one keeps a tab of what goes on with her character online. AV pains, Gruul’s Lair bitching and Horde bashing. If you understood that last sentence, then you’d know what this blog is all about.

Intelligentsiya: The one that started it all. It was through this site that everyone in Fiji became familiar with the term “Blog”, and were famed for their anonymity as well as their direct resistence towards the current regime. Anyone who had a blog online was jokingly asked if they were associated with these guys. You know you’ve hit the big times when your blog has its own Wikipedia entry.

Lunch in Suva: A brilliant idea this one. A blog that reviews all the great restaurants in Suva, with a screenshot of the dish, a rating system out of 5, and a wide variety of food tasted. They haven’t been posting in awhile, but they’ve gone through quite alot of restaurants so far. A worthy read if you’re wondering where to eat next time its lunch hour in town.

Mayvelous: While Mayvelous isn’t an actual word there’s no knowing what surprises May will come up with next. After all not only is she a Web Developer, but her brother is a serious trip who’s often unpredictable conversation choices lead to strange conclusions…

Oceanic: User Experiences From the South Pacific: You’d think that any owner of a big design company would have little time to read blogs, let alone write one. This guy is different. Not only does he have an online blog which talks about the impact of technology on the people of the pacific, but he writes articles themed around said influence for the local Fiji Times. (Corrected – thanks Jonathan).

Promoting Suva: Your one stop shop for all events that are going on in Suva. This site has a comprehensive breakdown of all the happenings, from little coffee shop get-togethers, to the day-by-day events for a major show or festival. Bookmark this one already if you’re a Suva person.

Forfeit89: (I added this in later) Call the Grammar Police but he won’t give a damn. A free mind with his thoughts on the express train, L. Cass has surely got a whole lot of drama going on. But when he sorts his out, he certainly won’t take shit from anyone else. Emos, the Alliance and non-smokers all get their fair share in the bashing limelight. And the line isn’t going to get shorter any time soon…

Interestingly enough, alot of the ‘freedom’ blogs have slowed down recently in terms of posting, with even the most popular resistence site Why Fiji is Crying having shut down its doors. I think the WordPress guys finally wised up and shut it down, though the actual reasons may remain unknown.

Political blogs aside, if there are any other local blogs that I’ve missed out that are worth a mention, let me know.

PS: And if you get traffic from this post, please remember us the next time you go out. A jug of beer would be nice. Or two.

Of course, lately it hasn’t been all roses and awesome try scores in the IRB circuit. With the attention that local bloggers have been receiving from the government, this particular news submission caught my eye on Digg:

Fiji declares war on bloggers and open internet access, click to help!

Hurray! Fiji’s been featured on Digg with a healthy 854 diggs! I was both surprised to see Fiji on Digg, as well as slightly disappointed that it had to do with current affairs instead of having something to do with Ryder. After all, what will all those overseas people think of us now?

…

I simply had to scroll down the page to see what they thought Here are some of the funnier comments on the article:

“uhh i clicked…
not so sure if it helped…”

“I love their water : )”
(Blog note: Great. That’s all they’ll ever think of us as? FVB needs to work more harder…)

“Quick let’s invade them and fuck up the island with our own ideals.”

“There is only a handful of computers in Fiji so I don’t think this was a hard thing to do. They most likely went hut to hut.”
(Blog note: Damnit. I think FVB was abit too successful at showing Fiji as all huts and beaches…huts? wtf? XD)

“Digg effect for the Fiji Government anyone?
http://www.fiji.gov.fj
Just visiting would send a democratic message…”
“yea! lets help the Fijians by fucking up their only website!”
(Blog note: -_- I’m really starting to lose hope here….)

But by far my favourite comment of this whole charade would have to be this one:

“who the fuck is fiji?”

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Behold, the entrance of a new player…Kidanet! Which is owned by none other then Fintel. Who are in the same circle as…Connect/Telecom. Don’t know how that quite works out…two competing companies under one umbrella company. Wish I hadn’t skipped Economics back in high school…

These guys would have slipped under my radar if it wasn’t for the fact that their adverts basically screamed three magic words:

No. Download. Cap.

At first I was like…bull. No chance in hell is an ISP going to put that kind of advert without that little niggly fine print.

A quick check at their website reveals that yes, they do have a freaken no download cap no limit package! That was almost too good to be true.

Oh well. A good friend of mine once told me that “If it’s too good to be true, it usually is.” And in this case…it was

At the bottom of the page was a link called “Acceptable Use Policy”. What the hell was that? The link was basically self explanatory…

Now, I know I’ve ranted on about how Connect basically provided for pirates and sucked when it came to bandwidth provision but this is a new low.

I mean when Connect says “Go above your download limit and we will severely cut down your Internet speed to 56k!!….but you can still surf” thats fine. That I can deal with.

But when Fintel says “We have no download limit mate! Download away! Please! But uhhh…should ever the case arise that you are clogging up our lines with your multiple downloads of Grey’s Anatomy season 1 as well as the latest pr0n, then we will bring the mighty hammer of corporate doom down on your ass via a nasty sounding letter. And thats not all. If, by some twist of fate, you happen to be in Lautoka visiting your maintenance girl, and miss the letter…then you can kiss your Vivid subscription goodbye.”

Now that, I’m not cool with. Not the vivid subscription. Just the whole “its up to us when you step over the line, you won’t know it, but when it happens…we’ll let you know” thing. I don’t know, I’m the type of person who likes to make sure that everything is laid out in black and white before I sign my life away.

By now you’ve probably figured out that I ain’t jumping on the Kidanet bandwagon. Ah well. If any of you have a better picture to paint of Kidanet and their infamous “Acceptable Use Policy”, then let us know

PS: I was browsing their page where they were offering ZOMG A FREE EPISODE OF THE FORCE!!!!1!1! -_- The thing I don’t get is…apparently the website spell checker was sick on the day that the body text was typed up…and seems to be still sick till now…

This guy must have must have read my previous blog entry concerning the use of the Internet He’s my hero.

PS: The lady at the bottom is Laisa Vulakoro, a local singer who was big in the live performance circles. Wonder if she uses the net as well…

However. The local ISPs don’t really seemed to have put THAT much thought into making an anti-piracy stand. In fact…I think they’re pretty much fueling the idea without even knowing it.

Don’t believe me? Check this out. Below is an advertisement from the country’s biggest ISP (and the only megalomaniac, monopolistic one) advertising their new amazing “Connect with Connect” Internet deals…

Noticed anything unusual? Normal bunch of people all gathered around, using their own PCs and laptops to connect to the “wuuuuuuunnderful!” Internet…

However, upon closer examination….

“I’m always downloading cool music!” …. ? O rly?

Lets take a moment to examine all the possible LEGAL avenues of downloading music from the Internet LEGALLY and music that is actually on the top 40 charts and not some obscure indi hippy free download band desperate for attention.

1) Apple Online – These guys are great! They offer the latest albums, singles all in one convenient – oh no wait…you have to pay for it. Oh…no problem…they only cost like $1 each….thats cheap! Awesome! Oh … no wait…they require a credit card for an online transaction….

Do you know how hard it is to obtain a credit card from one of the banks around here? They ask so many questions about your work and whether or not you’ve fucked your boss, require so many legal documents that range from your last pay slip to a ‘permission to fuck your daughter’ form, and then when they’re happy – they slap the biggest interest rate ever on the card.

An average fijian does not have access to a credit card. Period. Unless of course if they own a big import company or stay overseas where obtaining a credit card is about as easy as standing on your front porch and have them hand deliver it to you.

2) Napster – They offer music too! And the latest ones as well! Wow! Lemme just….oh no…wait…credit card required for an online – nevermind…

Now…on the other hand….the FREE alternative which includes P2P software, a large sharing (at times viruses as well) community are as follows:

1) Limewire – Hmmm….doesn’t require a credit card

2) Emule – No credit card here…

3) Bittorrent – Nope. Can’t see the Master Card logo anywhere here…

As you can see, gentle, law abiding, tech-savy citizens who use the ever easy to obtain credit card to purchase music online are almost…non-existent here.

Is it safe to say that, theoretically, if we were all to have credit cards with affordable interest rates, we’d be all buying music from the real deal?

Hell no. We’d just borrow the CD from our friends and rip it straight to MP3 onto our hard drives Some of us anyways.

And don’t even get me started on movies…

PS: Upon further inspection of the advert in question, I couldn’t help but notice this part:

Oh yeah. Right. First off, unlimited downloads sounds like you’re using a really nice phat piece of broadband that’ll have your downloads within the minute.

No.

What they really meant was – Unlimited Downloads & High Speed Internet using our Ultra Uber phat 128k line which is quickly and mercilessly cut down to 56k after hitting the download cap of what? 750mb. Isn’t that great.

And by the way, just what is it you’re downloading? I thought so

Nope.

For games it was always the same thing.

“Woah! You’ve got Prince of Persia? ….. borrow?”

And then we’d all pull out our plastic boxes of floppy disks and exchange them eagerly. A few years later its the same thing.

“Woah! You’ve got Need for Speed: Carbon? …. borrow?”

Out come the blank dvds and pats on the back.

However, times do change, and none more so then the access to purchase original games. Thanks to IMDVD, anyone can now order original PC games and be a proud owner of a original games, (though one game in particular only because its an online game) as well as support the industry!

Videos were slightly different, but still invovled…less originals then there were movies. My fondest memories of childhood was going to the neighbourhood store and picking out 2 or 3 action movies (pirated of course and at times, shot in the cinema), and at least 1 tape full of, apparently, Saturday morning cartoons from a television network in Australia. Someone had simply left the record button on, and basically taped everything that could fill up 3 hrs, advertisements and all. It was there that my love for toys that I couldn’t possibly obtain here grew as well. I still like them Transformers toys…

Now we’ve got a whole swag of video stores, all boasting original movies for hire, and I like that. Nothing beats a good old original. Of course, nothing also beats 8 pirated movies for $20 from that good ol’ computer store Comsol Fiji. Those guys copies are usually the latest movies still screening, and if their copies are slightly fuzzy…its ok because you pay only like $2 for one.

Hopefully, with the increased westernization of Fiji, that’ll mean more access to original software, movies and games, and with more cheap alternatives, piracy will be for once removed from this country and we can all fully support the Entertainment Industry worldwide…

Of course, people hope there will be peace in the Middle East too. Good luck with that.