Fiji coup d'etat

Our daughter Helen gave me a little job over the Easter weekend. She had my hot glue gun with a spare stick of glue on her car seat ready to return after work on Wednesday. Parked at her work the car turned into an oven and melted both glue sticks into the fabric of her car seats. Google is your friend for stuff like this. I followed what seemed the most sensible instructions from a long list and was successful in getting it all out.

Method: Heat up glue with a hair drier or heat gun. Remove most of the glue with a table knife. Reheat the remnants again and sponge off with rag and mineral turps. Repeat until all removed.

The recent coup d’etat in Fiji has demolished democracy in that island state. I guess that not many people are aware of the background of the the coup. Fijian indigenous people are almost a minority population in their own country. The 2007 census has Indigenous Fijians as 56.8%, Indians as 37.5% and others making up the rest of the population.

The British colonial masters brought the first Indians to Fiji in 1879 and over the following 37 years 61,000 others were brought in as indentured labour to work in the sugar industry. It has been said that the colonials didn’t employ native Fijians for fear that it would ‘destroy their way of life’, but it is more likely that the Indians were more used to such employment than Fijians.

Since those days, Indians have prospered and populated to the point where there has for many years been resentment and some racial discord. Indians own most of the businesses and (did) hold high positions in the Judiciary. The customs and religions of the two main groups differ so much that it sets them apart.

I know that if Australia ever had such a large influx of migrants of a single ethnic group, there would be much more trouble than there is in Fiji at the moment.