And what of the storm that has darkened the skies of a tiny dot of an island country in the middle of the Pacific? Should it concern most Americans? How about the folks in Europe? or Canada? Oh, but certainly Australia, New Zealand and maybe, just maybe the rest of the Pacific island countries. Maybe even Japan or Korea where Fiji had been drawing many of its tourists in recent years.
But why should it be of any concern to any of us outside this little country for which a cartographer’s dot is often expanded to enhance our view of its place on the globe?
It should concern us because we’re all part of this global community of the human race in the one village that truly matters…Earth.
It should concern us all that a small band of thugs has stepped around any faith in a newly placed democratic government, one elected by their own people, to take matters into their own hands through brutality and terror.
It should concern us that no matter how "peaceful" or "carnival"-like the atmosphere is within the Parliament compound, or how circular the logic is of the coup’s leader, Speight, he and his band of not-so-merry-men have succeeded in emboldening the opportunists and borderline racists among the general population to release their inhibitions and good sense to the winds of hate. Much of the city of Suva lies in ruins as do the lives of the storekeepers, the now unemployed, and many of those who shopped there.
How does the Fijian, or Indian, or European, or "half-cast" or any other resident purchase goods in a store burnt out and looted? How does one pay for the goods if the store you worked at is burnt out and looted? To what purpose could any of it serve except the selfish greed of some foolish people?
Pity the poor tourists who had arrived, foreign cash in hand to spend in the streets of Suva Friday morning from a P&O Cruise ship in port that morning. Did they manage to get their duty-free delivered to the ship? Did they manage to pick up a few "memories" of their albeit brief, yet briefer still, visit to "Paradise?" What stories they’ll tell of looters grabbing things from the once beautiful new Jack’s Handicrafts store in town, and then thieves offering to sell it to them on the streets.
How sad. How it breaks my heart, and yet I still hold true to my knowledge that there are calmer, saner people among all races in Fiji who will prevail. I know them, lived with them, still hold these friends and colleagues dear to my heart for the "family" that I was part of and still share. For that is how it is in Fiji… it’s all about family. And sometimes families squabble. Between different families, and within the same family.
As a former expat living in Fiji, it took a long time to become part of Fiji. And after six years, our friends and "family" there didn’t believe we were actually going to leave. But we had to. Family responsibilities to our children and our parents back in the states lead us to the decision to leave. It was a painful choice to make for we felt very at home in Fiji among our adopted family. Going back last year was a rewarding experience for me, especially to learn that my "family" in Fiji still welcomed me.
But what of the news back here in the states? Such a small place in the world that Fiji holds is insignificant in the relative whirlwind of world news. On the first day, news reached me with a brief report on the 6 am (EST) morning show of our National Public Radio (NPR). Though I don’t get cable television (I refuse to pay for the honor of being advertised to), I heard that CNN covered it on air for just a little while. So that left me waiting for the 9 am airing of the BBC World Report on NPR. The British love a good story, at least on the radio. I remember hearing their report of Chauhdry being named Prime Minister last year just weeks before I was to take a group of college students to Fiji for an "educational/cultural" tour. My first thought then: "oh shit" and I worried about a coup back then. Never mind that we had thousands of dollars in airline tickets that could not be changed. We went, and the radicals behaved themselves. I truly appreciated their cooperation in that matter.
But since that first day, Friday, May 19th, there has been almost nothing on the television and just a few brief and uninformative reports on the 9 am daily BBC report on NPR. My local newspaper, the Flint Journal (aka Flint Urinal), has managed to keep a paragraph in the paper almost daily since last Friday. I’m not sure if that’s due to their acknowledgement of a local link to Fiji (I’d just had an art exhibition, which was covered by the newspaper, where Fiji played a major role in the subject matter). Or it could just be their habit of picking up wire service shorts. More indepth and up-to-date news has managed to reach me in other ways.
This is the age of the world wide web, and I’m truly thankful for it in times like this. Attempts to close down international lines in Suva failed to keep the news from getting to the web. New media, including mobile telephones and satellites, has succeeded in keeping the channels of communication open. It took no time at all for me to find news online within minutes of that first 6 am (US-Eastern Standard Time) report last Friday on the radio. I’m sure if I’d been aware of it sooner, I would have found some news online six hours earlier, when instead I slept in peaceful oblivion. I’d only just sent email out the day before to a few friends and noted that, with the upcoming scheduled march, I hoped that calm heads would prevail. My hopes were dashed… at least for now.
Instead some early emails from friends came in. I rushed some back to them and others with my maternal worrying coming through. They wrote back again. As news reports came in, the coconut wireless was traded for the invisible threads of the internet. Email and news was sent out in bulk and I, in turn, passed it on to others not on the original list. The relay of news still continues as I pass it on to friends and family who had also spent time in Fiji and knew friends still back there. On this side of the Pacific, the email among us shared our anxious thoughts and fears for our friends’ safety. The email and news coming out helped alleviate some fears on the one hand but added to the heartbreak on the other.
For their efforts, I must commend the reporters and technical staff of the fijilive.com website as well as the University of the South Pacific journalism professor, his students, and Pat Craddock, Senior Audio/Radio Producer for USP’s Media Centre. It didn’t take them long to get to work. Their tireless efforts have taken them through many long nights and it isn’t over yet.
And for them and others who have kept the email and news reports flowing to the outside world, know that they face risks. For it is not without repercussions that they will have performed their tasks. Spite is a common feature among power-hungry bureaucrats. And every bureaucrat has their island of power that they jealously guard in Fiji. This character trait of territorial behaviour will become more pronounced in the weeks to come. Those who cannot see the value of what was done in the name of freedom of information may instead choose to punish the informers. It is a different way of thinking than in other parts of the world where the likes of Woodward & Bernstein here in the US were heralded for uncovering the dark secrets of Nixon’s corruption. In Fiji, they’ve threatened to muzzle those who speak out and "embarrass" the corrupters, most definitely if the corrupters are the ones who hold the power.
As I sit and watch from afar, my telephone line constantly busy from the stream of online information, photos, video, and audio that I absorb, I cannot but feel helpless to assist my friends and "family" back in Fiji. I send them words of encouragement, praise for their efforts, a catharsis for them to release their anger via email, allowing words that they fear releasing to each other on the streets. But I cannot send them food when their cupboards are bare nor hold them when they cry tears of anguish for their loss. It is not a loss just for Indians in Fiji, though their loss is one of security for the future. It is a loss for all in Fiji whose trust in one another has been shattered, as sure as the glass on Marks Street. I wish them the strength to go forth and put reason in the place of selfish greed, and return trust to the place where fear and anguish has taken hold. May God be with you all.
Mara J. Fulmer
May 24, 2000
11:35 pm EST
Note: Mara J. Fulmer was Art Director (Senior Graphic Artist/Acting Senior Photographer) for the University of the South Pacific Media Centre and Adjunct Lecturer in Journalism at USP during her tenure there from Sept. 1991 to July 1997. She is now Associate Professor in Graphic Design at C.S. Mott Community College in Flint, Michigan.
Contacts may be made by emailing: mara.fulmer@lookinglassdesign.com or mfulmer@edtech.mcc.edu. Tel: 810/695-4908 (H) or 810/232-3431 (college).
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