Re: Fiji -stop and go - (Reality check during my last trip there)
Aldo, The following paper on Fiji may be of interest to you: Scott MacWilliam, 2002, Poverty, corruption governance in Fiji http://peb.anu.edu.au/pdf/PEB17-1macwilliam.pdf regards, Grant.
Fiji -stop and go - (Reality check during my last trip there)
Fiji: Stop Or Go? As the plane comes in from the Pacific to land in Nadi, on the north- western tip of the main Fiji island, the whitcap-spreckled blue of the ocean yields to the sinuous white line of the breakers on the reef. The shallows are green or slate coloured, with brownish pockmarks or darker stripes tapering towards the shoreline. The sandy coconut-tree garnered beach is soon replaced by sugar cane. Cane everywhere in the plains and on the maze of volcanic hillocks that make out the landscape. The farms are scattered. In the distance, lave cliffs and jagged crests, losing themselves in the clouds. About 6000 years ago people left southern China for Taiwan, the Philippines and, skirting Papua New Guinea, sailed headlong into the Pacific to settle Polynesias islands - Fiji, Tahiti, Easter Island, Hawii, and finally New Zealand. The navigational skills used for this achievement were unrivalled until Western man entered the Pacific in the 16th century. Once avoided as the Cannibal Islands, Fiji was first visited commercially for its sandalwood and bêche-de-mer. Guns and germs decimated of the population. Commerce and religion then took tentative hold. 1875 he was forced into a Cession to the British Empire. Indentured labour first from Melanesia and then from India was brought over to work on sugar cane plantations. After WWI plantations were abandoned for smallholder cane production on land leased from the indigenous population. Thus a large Indo-Fijian minority emerged on the island. Independence came in 1970.The first constitution divided parties along racial lines. When the Labour Party (mainly Indian) achieved majority in 1987, it was toppled by a military coup. The 1997 constitution does away with racial separation. Though it provides for a government of national unity this does not resolve the underlying tensions. A second coup took place in 1999. The current PM has refused to form such a government, citing irreconcilable differences. The Supreme Court is to find on the legality of this exclusion. Traditional political power structures have been maintained (the Council of Chiefs). As the economy grows, the power conflicts within clans, among clans in the same region, among the islands etc. increase. Decisions are postponed and corruption is rampant, partially also because the smallness of the island does not allow for competition to emerge. 850000 people, on 18000 km2 of mainly volcanic islands and US$ 78000 income per capita (at PPP). Primary education is general, and health is considered good. Out-migration, particularly among the better educated, is strong - even though the impact is somewhat lessened by remittances. Indians and Chinese are still moving in. The Fijian economy is roughly as follows: Sugar cane, on which the livelihood of c.a 200000 people depends directly or indirectly. No longer competitive with mechanised sugar cane, the industry relies on the EU, which buys sugar at three times the world market price (Cotonou Agreement) - a practice which is not WTO- compatible. Also, the sugar mills need replacing. Insecurity of land tenure has created tensions, as well as lowering of the product quality. Unless all of these issues are resolved, the industry will self-destruct after 2007. Smallholder and subsistence agriculture Fisheries (mainly by third country vessels) earn 10% of value of fees. Subsurface gold mining; Mahogany (40000 ha). Manufacturing (textile 18000 workers altogether; food processing, copra). Tourism potentially a 600 million US$ industry (but c.a ½ would go to the airlines), if 300 rooms @ year are added to the existing 5000. Three models are emerging: (a) plantation style in the outer islands; (b) enclaves along the coast; (c) scattered lower cost (back-packer) tourism. Employment effects are low (compared to the investment): 1-2 staff per room, at wages of 10-12 US$ per day. Movie production. Fiji is a mix of decadence and development without transparence. Its situation is economically and socially precarious. Political stability is weak, corruption and poor governance prevalent. Three models of evolution are conceivable: (1) French model of integration (French Polynesia). A federative structure including Australia and New Zealand could provide the engine for development and stability (and orderly out-migration) at the price of abandoning political and economic independence. (2) Neo-colonial model, where the forms of independence are maintained, but the regional powers (AUS, NZ) would have and enforce their say yet with limited responsibilities. (3) Muddle through, with the ongoing risk of a political involution taking hold (as in other island states in the region), eventually leading to failed states. Given the size of the society and economy, a self-reliant development seems to me unrealistic. Stop or go? Fiji faces the deadline of 2007. If its
reality check
DEFLATION HITS NET IPOs The market has spoken: unless e-commerce companies begin showing profits, the money tap is going to dry up, and all that's left of dot-com euphoria will be a major hangover. According to research by Investor's Business Daily, 165 high-tech companies that went public since the beginning of 1999 are now trading below their initial offering prices, despite a 90% gain in the Nasdaq over that time period. Hardest hit are the business-to-consumer operations that hawk everything from PCs to pet food over the Net. "A lot of companies out there might just be the walking dead," says a senior portfolio manager at Munder Capital Management. "Access to capital is going to be a big issue." And where has the capital gone? A lot of it is sitting in the coffers of advertising companies, who've profited nicely from the dot-coms' desperation to build their brands. (Investor's Business Daily 6 Apr 2000) -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
WIRED Magazine Banned in Canada-- Serious Reality Check
To all,
The following text led to issue 2.04 of WIRED MAGAZINE being ordered off
magazine stalls all over Canada. The following post is the press release
by WIRED about their being baneed.
--Nathan Newman
===
Subject: WIRED Text Banned in Canada - Revised 4/4/94
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
=-=-=-=-=Copyright 1993,4 Wired Ventures, Ltd. All Rights Reserved-=-=-=-=
-=-=For complete copyright information, please see the end of this file=-=-
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
WIRED 2.04
Electric Word
*
Paul and Karla Hit the Net
^^
Recent events in Canada have proven once again that - for better or
worse - the information genie has escaped into cyberspace and can't be
put back in the bottle. When an Ontario judge issued an order barring
media coverage of a sensationalized murder trial, Canadians used the
Net to break the ban.
The case concerns Paul "Bernardo" Teale and his wife, Karla Homolka
Teale, who were each charged in the grisly murders of two teenagers.
Paul Teale now stands accused of 48 sex-related charges, while Karla
Homolka entered into a plea bargain: She pleaded guilty to
manslaughter and is expected to testify against Paul.
The nonstop press coverage prompted Paul Teale's lawyer to ask for a
media gag order until the conclusion of his trial, on the grounds that
it would be impossible to impanel an impartial jury. Faced with the
concurrence of the Crown, the Court and Karla, Paul Teale's lawyer
switched camps. But it was too late!
Despite legal intervention by several major Canadian media outlets,
the court imposed a ban on the publication of the details of the
crimes.
At first the ban had its desired effect. When the US television show A
Current Affair featured the case, it was banned in Canada, and
Canadian cable stations blacked out CNN coverage of the case.
With the conventional media halted, the infosphere took over. First,
two BBSes in Toronto began to post daily details of the trial. In
August, an irregular posting directly to newsgroup "control"
("approved" by "Justice Kovacs") created alt.fan.karla-homolka.
By December, after phone calls by law-abiding Net surfers to systems
managers, the Usenet group had been banned by systems managers and
university officials at sites all over Canada.
After the banning of alt.fan.karla-homolka, two new Usenet groups were
created: alt.pub-ban and alt.pub-ban.homolka.
Some Net users theorized that if they cross-posted all over the Net,
the Royal Canadian Mounted Police would be in the impossible position
of scrambling through cyberspace plugging leaks. One Net dweller
jokingly proposed the ideal tactic: "The solution is obvious. Take the
discussion to rec.sport.hockey. You silly Canadians would never ban
that group."
Other curious Canadians searched the pay-per-view news and magazine
databases on Nexis and CompuServe for stories published by US
newspapers. Most of the banned articles were re-posted verbatim to
alt.true-crime, a group overlooked by the Mounties.
As the infosphere grows to encompass the planet, the question is no
longer whether certain information is too sensitive to be made public.
The real question becomes whether it is even possible to keep certain
information out of cyberspace. In the Teale-Homolka case, the ban was
not so much broken as rendered irrelevant by the voracious online
community: It is estimated that one in four Canadians knows the banned
facts.
- Anita Susan Brenner and B. Metson
* * *
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This article may be redistributed provided that the article and this
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be resold or redistributed for compensation of any kind without prior
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Reality Check: Canada Checks in!
Whee! First attacks on Economists as have genetic tendencies then the Barrows Hall gang at Berkeley tossing barbs at we friendly World Series Loving Canadians. Sorry to have to set the record straight re WIRED. WIRED was not banned in Canada. I have a perfectly good copy of it here on my desk with the other Mister Bill (Gates not Clinton) on the cover. W, not exactly perfectly good. It is missing pages 27/28 and 29/30. Canada didn't ban the book, only those pages with the "Paul and Karla Hit the Net" article which those lurking behind Sproul Hall had the gall to send here in violation of Canadian law. (Look out your window, those are Mounties massing on the other side of Strawberry Creek.) Through some fluke which the Clipper Chip would no doubt prevent, I also have pages 27/28 and 29/30 sitting on the other side of my desk so I can confirm, for research purposes of course, that the illegal version Newman sent across the boarder is identical to the illegal version on the banned pages. I should say that at least I think that is what I see on my desk since it might be dangerous for me to be definite about these things. BEYOND THAT THE APRIL 1994 ISSUE OF WIRED IS WORTH READING. It has a good and long impressionistic article on the economy of Moscow and an article on the Antitrust case against Microsoft, the article written by Wendy Goldman Rohm. The virtual workspace may not be just where the work is done, it is where the reportable action is as well. I think I have to go now, I seem to hear a man in uniform pounding on my door with a billy club. Sam Lanfranco, True North Proud and (Information) Free. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Reality Check: Canada Checks in!
On Thu, 7 Apr 1994, Sam Lanfranco wrote: Whee! First attacks on Economists as have genetic tendencies then the Barrows Hall gang at Berkeley tossing barbs at we friendly World Series Loving Canadians. Sorry to have to set the record straight re WIRED. WIRED was not banned in Canada. I have a perfectly good copy of it here on my desk with the other Mister Bill (Gates not Clinton) on the cover. W, not exactly perfectly good. It is missing pages 27/28 and 29/30. Canada didn't ban the book, only those pages with the "Paul and Karla Hit the Net" article which those lurking behind Sproul Hall had the gall to send here in violation of Canadian law. Thanks for the correction, Sam. I'm glad the censors in Canada have the surgical precision of a smart bomb, wiping out civil liberties and the free press in careful measure. The censoring of USENET groups seems to have been slightly less surgical. I am curious. Do you approve of this censorship, especially the attacks on direct e-mail messages on the Internet? I know the right to a fair trial is important, but it is chilling to give the government the ability to completely shutdown coverage of legal trials. I can imagine that the government would have loved to shutdown coverage of the Rodney King LA Police trials in the name of a "fair trial." It also brings up the interesting issue of how an international communication system like the Internet is going to interact with national laws and censorship. --Nathan Newman, squirming with a bit of pride over the US First Amendment
