Posts Tagged history

The most dangerous Island(s) in the world!

Posted by Wilson in funny, history, nature on June 10, 2009

You have to hand it to the talented guys at cracked.com. Billed as “America’s only humour & video site since 1958″, the digg regulars write what can be only described as the internet’s staple diet in terms of article format. Lists. Their “top X of (insert strange/funny/wierd/scary topic) so-and-so” articles cover a wide range of just anything that you can think of, from ‘competitive eating‘ to ‘baffling sports‘.
Cracked follows the traditional list formula, where they number increasingly strange facts about the particular chosen theme. And recently, they’ve written a real cracker of a list, ’6 Real Islands More Terrifying Then The One On ‘Lost”. For want of alot of giggles, click the link to read the article, and pay special attention to the number one island.
Onz ;)
And remember, while their write up is based (generally!) on facts, its all tongue in cheek mate. All fer fun.

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Blast from the Past: A Photographic Past

Posted by Wilson in Blast from the past, fiji, history on June 7, 2009


Blast From The Past is a weekly (or somewhere around that timeframe, as I claim ‘Fiji Time’ as my defendent) post of scans from a 1969 Fiji Times paper which also doubled as a 100 year anniversary issue look back at 1869. Every week one page scan will be posted, allowing you to have a read of issues, politics and topics that was the Fiji of the past.

Most of you may be aware of one of the oldest photography studios in Fiji (it was opened in 1904), Caines Jannif Limited, located opposite Suva Central in town. But what I wasn’t aware of was another photography company that operated back in pre-independence days, and seemed to be the major photo studio of its era. Of course, I say seemed to since buying a full page advert is as expensive as it was back then as it is now. If your company can afford a full page ad, then its safe to say that you’re a big player in company circles ;)
Stinsons Ltd comes out with all guns blazing in this ad that’s meant to pull at your ‘old is gold’ heart strings. Starting in the old days of 1869, thanks in part to Fiji Times, they’ve come a long way, photographing historic moments and places of Fiji, with their most prolific era around the 1940s and 50s, where they were official photographers for the movie “His Majesty O’Keefe” as well as the devastating hurricane that left 35 people dead, and 1,109 people injured.
Here’s one of their pictures of Victoria Parade in Suva. For more of their pictures, check out the Just Pacific’s website.

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Blast From The Past: Fiji and 1969/1869

Posted by Wilson in Blast from the past, fiji, history on May 31, 2009

1869 is a very long time ago. A very, very long time ago. During that time, celluloid was invented, the Suez Canal is opened in a grand ceremony, and Night at the Museum’s playground ‘The American Museum of National History’ is founded. More closer to home, the Fiji Times newspaper had just started out, a fledgling little newspaper, and as newspapers go, had much to report on, with history in the making. In those days, Levuka was still the centre of Fiji, Civil unrest is on the rise, Britian starts to take a very strong interest in the islands, and powerplay amongst the chiefs reached new heights with the introduction of weapons and foreign powers.
Pretty heady times indeed.
While being of long ago, copies of the papers have been kept over the years, and as luck would have it, I’ve managed to secure a scanned copy of an issue of the Fiji Times all the way from 1969, which is still quite a long time ago. As in, I wasn’t even born long time ago. In this particular issue, they’ve brought out the archives and reprinted the Fiji Times as per 1869, and as such, have granted the readers a chance to peer into the past and see what Fiji was like, in both 1869 as well as 1969.
Blast From The Past is going to be a new weekly (or somewhere around that timeframe, as I claim ‘Fiji Time’ as my defendent) post, and will go through 1 page a week, allowing you to have a read of issues, politics and topics that formed the news in those days. To read the page in detail simply click the picture to load a close up version.

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Youtube Video of the Month – Cannibals Incorporated

Posted by Wilson in ...ofthemonth, Samoa, annoying, fiji, history, travel on January 7, 2009

Ah Fiji. Home to the king of rugby sevens, smiling locals, white, sandy beaches, and seasonal coups. It’s quick to get washed up in the hype that is living in today’s fast paced society, but one mustn’t forget one’s origins and what humble beginnings they had before Mcdonalds and company rolled in.

Sure you could visit the city library and catch up on your reading, but with today’s more visual-oriented society, who cares about stuffy old books and cramped up libraries when you can watch old videos of the Fiji of the past?
And what better to showcase Fiji’s past then this delightful video courtesy of James A. Fitzpatrick’s Traveltalks: The Voice of the Globe called Fiji and Samoa: The Cannibal Isles. Since this video isn’t time stamped, I’ll take a wild guess and place the making of the video around the 1940s, when stern, near patriotic voice overs where the common practice. Why the time stamp?
If you’ve ever wanted to see and find out what Fiji was like ‘back in the day’, this video has it all layed out for you. See the ‘savages’ in their natural surroundings of houses built from grass and topped with thatched roofs. Witness the spectacle of the natives indulging in what is ‘their only form of amusement, the mekimeki’. Marvel at the ‘bushy haired members of the Fijian Band’ as they play ‘the white man’s music’ on instruments that are ‘no longer strange to them’.
And that’s not all! Samoa is included in this accurate doco, and doesn’t miss much in way of detail. With Samoa’s fales being described as ‘mere cirlces of pillars, roofed by cones of thatch’, Samoa is certainly the picture of simple living, with ‘no gods swift to anger and strong to punish’ to disturb the tempo of life. Cute.
I have to admit, I do miss the old days. Thank God the gods for technology.
PS: Still trying to figure out why only Fiji and Samoa were singled out as the ‘Cannibal Isles’, since other Pacific Islands indulged in the diet of the ‘long pig‘. Perhaps it was something to do with our appetites.

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6 Signs Fiji is nearing ‘Civilization’ Quality

Posted by Wilson in ISP, Tourists, fiji, history, internet, lifestyle, television on September 9, 2008



Having come in contact with several tourists over the past few weeks and hearing their impressions of Fiji, it dawned upon me how far we’ve progressed from its days of head hunting, neighbour eating, and selective afro growing. A simple stroll through town will reveal important looking businessmen sealing important deals on their important cell phones, while children hum along to the latest hip hop/pop/reggae tunes with the help of their iPods. Giggling teenage girls compare their latest trendy buys from fashion stores around the corner, and in the midst of this all, various street modded cars zoom around, blaring ‘Gasolina’ through their daddy bought speakers.


Sure we see these things everyday, but to the first time tourist, first impressions last. Out of curiosity, I decided to take a look around and tried to see things from their point of view. When a tourist first sets foot on our land, he/she would run through a mental checklist that may include whether or not the locals have electricity, (running off assumption here folks, feel free to think otherwise) running water or anything that represents said ‘civilization’.
Of course, as all locals know, Fiji passed that test a long time ago, and then some. While I’d like to think that we’ve come a long way, lets take a look at exactly how much has progressed since good ol’ Bligh set sea-weary eyes upon our infamous shores.
1) We got McDonalds

Nothing says global commercialization like Mcdonalds. When you can open up a small version of 1st world ideals in the remotest parts of the world, Fiji doesn’t seem that far off from everyone else. Considering the fact that the first branch was opened in Nadi, the gateway to Fiji (thanks in no small part to their airport), the golden arches are a welcome sight to all incoming tourists familiar with fast food and the slightly creepy mascot. When the second branch opened in Suva, we knew they were here to stay.

2) We got Internet


The world became that much smaller when the internet was brought to Fiji. From that fateful day when Telecom introduced the concept of shared communication, we were never the same. Imagine – now we could keep in touch with the rest of the cool people from around the world via MSN! Now we could read the latest news of what was going on continents away and not have to wait for the 6pm local news! Email made itself at home with both business houses and private homes alike, spam and all. Porn was no longer restricted to the tattered, well thumbed magazines that were a few years old, but was readily available in all its full, DVD quality glory! Of course, the hourly disconnects were a pain, as were the high phone bills due to the numerous reconnection attempts the computer modem made to the overloaded telecom server, but it was a small price to pay for downloaded seasons of The Simpsons and Takashi’s Castle.

3) We got MTV



Albit on a pay channel, but still! To prove that Fiji is up-to-date with all that is ‘hip’ and ‘cool’ (makes alien ears sign with fingers), we brought MTV to our shores, and the corruption of the future generation began anew. To be honest, it was (correct me if I’m wrong) the Coca-cola Power Jammer that started it all, but the influence of MTV cannot be denied. Even today, we can see the influence of such a life style, with krump and local hip hop in full bloom. Where will this all go from here? Who knows?

4) We get Movies before Australia and New Zealand (sometimes)

For serious? Well…to the best of my knowledge, yes. We, the little country in the middle of the pacific, constantly pushed around by the upper powers of the 1st world country watch dogs (or so the left wing conspiracists would like to believe), by some strange powers that be, have Hollywood movies that open first at our beloved Damodar Village cinemas first, before they even see the light of the projector in Australia and New Zealand. I may have to check now to see if that still happens, but when I was growing up, it was common knowledge to people who had just arrived from Australia or New Zealand that movies that had already run their screening course in Fiji were just beginning to open there. This, I believe, is something worth investigating :)

5) We got more than one television channel

The ultimate pointer when deciding whether Fiji is still in the dark ages or has settled amongst the stars. One locally produced television channel in a country is mandatory, when the infrastructure has been set up by the local government and set in motion. We were there once. Fiji One Television dominated the … television landscape for so long, it seemed almost blasphamous to even think of having an additional station take up space on our local tv screens. Who out there was brave enough to take on the titan that was Fiji TV? Not only did they bring us ER, Seasame Street, and X-Files, but for a time (all too brief in my opinion) they provided BBC free to air during off peak hours. That was awesome. However, after showing Hercules reruns again and again, another channel didn’t look so bad, and with the government breaking open the tv market, it was only a matter of time before Mai TV stepped in to provide an alternative. And we were happy.
6) We got four two lane roads (corrected because I’m a noob)



This particular point is something close to my dear heart. In the dark ages of single lane roads between Suva and Nausori, traffic jams were such a common occurance that I began to believe that all of civilization ran on roads such as ours. Seeing multi-lane roads in the US through movies was an eye opener to what we were missing out here. Then, lo and behold, the government (then :P ) stepped in and began the arduous task of building a highway that had – what? 2 lanes? No. Way. But it happened! Now queues are a thing of the past (in the old queue places, but with poor planning, bottling up of traffic happens else where now =_=)! Now we can speed through certain parts of the Kings Road on our superior 2 lane road, confident in the knowledge that this is how it’s done overseas. This is how Uncle Jone in California drives to work. On a road with more then one lane. Beautiful.
Bear in mind though that this post doesn’t reflect the real thing when it comes to Fiji and its development pace. We’ve still got a long way to go if we want to look anything like Australia/New Zealand in terms of the advancement of society. Look at this as merely an observation more tongue in cheek then mirror reality, and make your own hypothesis from there.
Agree? Disagree? There’s the comment button ;)
PS: I’ve posted a poll on the right, asking you people what you think was the most important development that brought us in sight of being nominated as a country that isn’t missing out much on some of the creature comforts easily afforded by our neighbours.

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The Death of a local Franchise

Posted by Wilson in advertising, crime, history, news on May 13, 2008


At times, living in Fiji reminds me that we’re still way behind in getting first world goodies, such as fast Internet, Superhighways, IMAX Cinemas, and the most recognizable of them all…big name merchandise. Generally, the sign of progress for most third world countries is seeing exactly how many franchise names they have. The bigger and more well known, the more chances of seeing clues of civilization.

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

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