What caught my eye is the picture chosen to depict the island paradise Fiji.

Gone are the white sandy beaches and coconut trees on a sunny day, that we are so used to seeing when promoting Fiji to the world.

I guess a change is good.

Also take time to critique the information

Of course I had to update my blog. How else could I survive the long waits inbetween posts, where there isn’t a comment that hits my mailbox, with a big “SOMEONE HAS LEFT A COMMENT! OH! MY! GOSH! PEOPLE ACTUALLY READ THIS CRAP!” heading. I have to admit it, I’m addicted to reading people’s comments on the blog. Its the only feedback I get from the readers, and it provides a colourful window into some of their thoughts and positions on said post, such as “Your blog sucks” or “who the shit are you guys,. Fiji is Fiji. Go to PNG or Solomon and get your butt kicked around…stop criticizing Fiji.” Free and fair speech I always say makes the world go round and blogs become crap.

In more interesting news, a few of the Saturday papers have this interesting competition going on, courtesy of the hard working folks at Training Productivity Authority of Fiji. Because TPAF is concerned with our nations productivity, they’ve stepped up and produced an icon/ambassador for productivity that’ll get kids all hyped up about slave labour camps and such.

Behold, Timi the Worker.

When it comes to educating kids about certain grown up and at times difficult to understand adult themes, nothing beats cute, fluffy, near huggable mascots and their giggly, stiff arm waving tactics. The more cute the avatar, the less aware children are to the fact that they’re been slowly imbued with whatever message is needed to be taught.

Timi however, is the exact polar opposite of all that is cute and fluffy. Aside from choosing a creature that most kids interact with on a daily basis with either a lens to burn them, mortein to kill them, or a swift palm to squash them, ants aren’t exactly what you may describe as ‘lovable’.

Nevertheless, Timi is a hard worker, and he doesn’t give a rat’s behind as to what kids think. And as with all hardworkers, he goes to work with his set of tools that include a garden fork which looks more like a vampire hunting multi-stake shotgun then anything to do with peaceful gardens and flowers. Beside his trusty hammer of justice and tied to his waist is a bag full of nails that double as ammo for said vampire hunting multi-stake shotgun. He also sports a nice hard hat.

But it was those eyes that got me. Those freaky, bulgy, win every stare contest eyes that drew my attention.

I don’t know about you, but those eyes are the stuff nightmares are made of. Long after the educated children will have grown up, those eyes will still haunt their dreams, with visions of piles and piles of documents yet to process, and deadlines of yesterdays fluttering around their head, while computers that sit on the desk sprout spam mail and deny access to microsoft word.

And all the while, those eyes watch the people struggle.

I wonder exactly how successful the education campaign went for TPAF.

Cellar Image of the Day

Urban Dictionary, ever the source of mental amusement, defines Balls of Steel as Extreme Courage or Manliness. Alternatively, you could go with Extreme Stupidity, depending on the situation at hand.

In this regard, we have a newcomer to the field that both FijiLive and Fiji Village hold sway over. ConnectMe is Connect’s new baby, and with the opening of their website, have released a set of adverts both on tv and print.

Their short 15 seconder (is it?) TVC’s are funny, but it’s their print adverts that gets my attention. Here is a scan of their advert that appeared recently in the media papers:

Quite the ad isn’t it? They might have well just sent this for print instead and posted the same message:

Either they’re so drunk with power that they don’t mind making print papers look bad, or someone has a funny bone from watching too many episodes of Seinfield and thinks that everyone will find this funny. The annoying part about this ad is that they’re quite right. Newspapers are fast becoming ‘yesterdays’ news, so to speak. The internet has brought in a whole new ball game, and it remains to be seen just how the print media will fare against hordes of overnight bloggers, the nth ‘connectme’ website, and online only newsgroups.

Fiji’s no exception. While I can’t exactly speak for the 70s and 80s period (and library research doesn’t sit well with me…something about those book cases…), I can recall a major franchise to hit Fiji back in the early 90s. They say the quickest way to a man’s heart was through his stomach. The same could be said about impressing the locals with the ways of the infamous fastfood label industry.

Mcdonald’s opening in Nadi didn’t go too well with me, and grumblings from fellow suva mates as to why that ‘town in the west’ got the major upgrade, leaving Suva in dark were shared across the city. But hey, Fiji in general was now a certified First World Poser! Tourists can now come to Fiji, despair at the lack of support for credit cards, cable TV and bums who clean your car windows for money, but then feel almost at home again with the familiar rounded M gleaming in the distance.

You have to love the power of Franchise.

Following the opening of Mcdonalds, other franchises, some albit unknown, made their presence known. It was to be the golden age of business franchise branch opening here in Fiji, and at first, nothing could go wrong. When KFC played their ads on TV, you could close your eyes and imagine yourself watching television in Sydney, auzzie accents and all. When Eagle Boys Pizza announced their home delivery pizza system, it was just like in the movies even. Life was great.

However, all good things must come to an end, albit in this case, with somewhat of a whimper. When Eagle Boys Pizza opened, not in the heart of the main city of Suva, but rather on the outskirts, in a suburb called Valelevu, I was slightly taken back. Somehow, I just couldn’t see a snazzy jazzy pizza parlour such as Eagle Boys Pizza survive in an area that isn’t known for its spending power compared to say, a more upper class region such as Tamavua. My gut told me this was all wrong. The boss for the branch didn’t seem to think so.

“Valelevu has quite a large population,” he said in a tv interview, “There should be no problem operating in an area such as this.”

Last month, without so much as a notice, they closed down. Edit: Apparently the pizza boys closed down a lot earlier then previously mentioned (thanx for the tip Picky Eater (: ), almost 18 months ago infact. Ouch.

And the bigger irony is that the video store beside them, another (auzzie?) franchise was also in dire straits.

Apparently, being Ezy wasn’t enough to keep the franchise afloat. While they too opened with a flurry of activity and branches fiji-wide, slowly but surely, they came under fire from the one form of competition that holds a special place in alot of locals. Piracy. That, and trying to go up against Rowell, who weren’t really pirates per say, but their VCD prices were of pirate quality, with some movies going as low as a dollar. Compare that to Video Ezy’s $4.99 a night rental fee, and you can see why they struggled to hold up against the ever resourceful Rowell.

In Video Ezy’s defense, they were doing Fiji a favour by bringing in movies that most video stores, with the exception of IMDVD, would shy away from, the ones with little or no action, indie flicks etc. Sadly enough, like indie flicks, artistry doesn’t quite mean popular.

Last month Video Ezy had to close down their Lautoka Branch, with their Tamavua and Ellery Street branches already shutdown. While the company director Uday Singh has already written to the relevant authorities on the piracy issue, somehow, something tells me that not much is going to be done about it unless:

(a) Comsol is silly enough to try its hands at distributing rugby matches that were shown on Fiji TV, and attrach police/Fiji TV/media’s attention resulting in a great hullabaloo that’ll resonate for say…oh I don’t know…less then a week before everything reverts back to normal.

(b) Certain pirate movie stalls will be closed down swiftly at a Show/Festival/Gathering by FAVIA, resulting in a great hullabaloo that’ll resonate for say…oh I don’t know…a few days before everything reverts back to normal.

Does this mean that overseas franchises are doomed here in peaceful, coup-happy Fiji? Nonsense! Mcdonalds is alive and well, with its steady supply of teenage obese diet of burgers and coke, and a few blocks away, KFC clucks away merrily, although they seem to be less popular then the magic M. We’ll have to see how this goes.

Is there any other overseas franchise that has opened here in Fiji, and is thriving/failing?

PS: Maya Dabha not taken into account, since they’ve only just opened…and Rizwan doesn’t take too lightly to their lack of door opening attendees, dry roti, oily rice and orange/red chicken ;P