Letter to the Editor [a work in progress]
Rent from DeepDyve- Letter to the Editor [a work in progress]
Dear Sir,
So many people have asked me, What is wrong in Fiji? What is the real situation? I feel that it is time to face facts.
It is crucial that we all try to understand the situation. It is crucial that we understand that understanding is crucial to the situation. The situation is crucial. Almost as crucial to understanding that we must understand what the hell is going on before we take sides.
Taking sides is wrong. It is wrong to take sides.
the looting was wrong. the taking of hostages wrong. the raping was wrong. of mind and body and innocence wrong. the demoralizing, manipulating, ridiculing was wrong. the power-cuts water-cuts pay-cuts budget-cuts wrong. wrong. wrong.
the buying of new vehicles wrong. the starving of the children wrong. the shutting down of schools wrong. the laying off of workers wrong. the politicians song and dance to fill their own pockets wrong. wrong. wrong.
the colonial pricks got it wrong. fillingtheirpockets / foolingthenatives / fillingtheirpocketswrong / the missionaries thinking they saved us wrong. the land-rape cultural-rape identity-rape all wrong. taking the land from the people wrong. [End Page 289] abuse on the cane fields wrong. the bureaucracy was / is wrong.
the high taxes wrong. the high cost of living wrong. the scaling of marks wrong. the irrelevant education system wrong. the landowners being shagged of their dues wrong. the indian cane farmers relocated wrong. it’s all wrong.
theideathatsomeonelikeme(part-everything)cannotbelongiswrong. that Fiji can’t be home wrong. that part europeans are dumb wrong. that Fijians are lazy and can’t run businesses wrong. that indians are money faced wrong. that chinese are drug dealers and pee on their vegetables wrong. that rotumans are excess baggage wrong. that only God can save Fiji WRONG!
It is crucial that we all try to understand the situation. It is crucial that we understand that understanding is crucial to the situation. The situation is crucial. Almost as crucial to understanding that we must understand what the hell has gone wrong before we take sides.
Taking sides is wrong. It is wrong to take sides.
The fact that it’s all about power is wrong. We must understand that understanding is the key to life. The key to understanding what is right and wrong. Accepting that we are all wrong. We got it wrong and for the most part we are still wrong.
p.s. So what do we need? We need to be taught to understand the simple things, like Living. Love. Acceptance. Gentleness. Humility—That in the end these make a life worth living. We need to understand that understanding is crucial to the situation. The situation is crucial because we don’t understand.
Citizen 657,924
Suva [End Page 290]
Cresantia Frances Koya is a member of the Fiji-based Niu Waves Writers’ Collective, vasu Pacific Women of Power, and the MamaHanua Initiative; she lectures in education and Pacific studies at the University of the South Pacific. She published a collection of poetry titled Of Schizophrenic Voices in 2002, and is working on two more collections, “Without Apology,” and “Marking Their Stories On My Skin,” examining ethnicity, social commentary, and diaspora. Her works primarily focus on the multimedia experience.
