Fly-by post

[blamebrampton]

Have been hammered by deadlines this month. I am juggling a few different jobs, and appear to be the only person left in publishing who can understand a range of craft patterns, which means that I am still miles behind wth everything that is not hitting print deadlines. Not to mention slightly cross-eyed from mental knitting ...

I am not ignoring your comments, I am appreciating them and internalising them before answering. It's different.

So, very briefly, Fiji has had another coup. Fiji has these semi-regularly and they are relatively civilised for the most part. This time, the 'government' has decreed that no media will be allowed to broadcast news that is critical of the current political situation and has put censors in many of the major outlets.

For the first few days, editions of broadcast and paper news were skipped. Then the journos decided that Gandhi was right and that passive resistance could make its point gently and pointedly. So they went back to publishing the news. Nice, safe news. Completely uncritical news. News such as: "Paint has apparently dried on his old couch, Max reports. Given the job of painting the couch, Max was excited at the prospect of the paint drying. But when asked how it dried, he was nonplussed.

" 'It just went on wet, but after about four hours, it started to dry. That was when I realised, paint dries,' the young scholar observed."

Find a few more here at the SMH coverage, or, for the full story, go to the Fiji Daily Post site and check out their local news. While the laid-back pace of Fijian life may trick you into thinking a few actual news stories are satires, the real comedy will soon be obvious to you. I curtsey respectfully in their direction.

In completely different and very sad news, the vicious and deadly Marysville fire, one of the fires that swept through Victoria in February, has been ruled arson and the police say they are close to charging a volunteer firefighter with lighting it. I have no words for this, and so go back to admiring the Fijians.
 

PS Thanks, Cal! You know why.

Comments

[jamie2109.livejournal.com]

Sorry about your deadlines. :(

And re the fires - it's funny but as soon as they mentioned it might be deliberately lit back when it happened, my first thought was someone in the CFA.

I'd never ever condone it and the person responsible should be put away until they die. I do know that there was a lot of disquiet in the services about the restrictions on backburning - which of course became even more difficult through the long years of drought. I can so see one unbalanced person seeing it as an opportunity to say - 'See? This is why we need to do controlled burns on a regular basis.' Which, never in a million years excuses deliberately setting fire to half the state and causing so much destruction of lives.

And a further sad aspect of human nature is that we're now finding that people who offered accommodation are starting to demand their properties back. This is having the effect of adding more stress to those that are trying to rebuild their lives, having to find somewhere else to live in an area that is already overcrowded with virtually no vacant housing available. It's a bit sad, really. I mean these people were generous enough to help out in the first place - rent free or a nominal rental - but now it seems that generosity only lasts so long. Some others that have not yet received any of the govt money, have had their rents raised to commercial levels, which is kind of hard. Two months seems to be the extent of some people's idea of generosity. I find it hard to completely condemn them as some may be suffering their own financial woes because of the lack of income from the property and maybe didn't expect things to go on indefinitely, but... my heart is still with the people who lost everything.

Hopefully, everything will be sorted out soon.

[shocolate.livejournal.com]

Man Gets on Bus

*is ridiculously impressed*

[i-autumnheart.livejournal.com]

Sadly, the arsonist-in-brigade thing is more common than it should be. The instances I've heard of, though, have all been people who had problems of the ooh-fire-pretty, or I-want-to-be-a-hero variety already, and so joined an organisation that would let them indulge that :(.

I know in NSW these days, you have to go through interviews and a background check and so on before you can join, but that's pretty new, and even then it doesn't pick up the latent ones.

I am loving the Fijian news articles, though! I'm really rather awed that they've been brave enough to resist censorship this way: in full view of the internet, no less. A definite mark on the plus side for the information age.

[azurelunatic]

Breakfast as usual!

[glass-violet.livejournal.com]

Cannot concentrate on Fiji, am too busy being horrified by Google Books travesty. How can it possible be legal? *is gobsmacked*

[drgaellon]

The FDP has gone back to posting real (if innocuous) local news. Nothing about the government, but they have reports of a fire, a robbery, a delayed shipment of supplies to an outlying hospital... looks like they did it for just one day, to make a point.

[meredyth-13.livejournal.com]

Well at least now I understand how the whole paint thing works ...

[arobynsung]

A volunteer fireman?
Why? I mean, other than the horrible dramatic irony, why?

I just read the Man Goes Out headline.
Fiji Daily Post wins.

[uminohikari.livejournal.com]

A-are craft patterns really that difficult to learn?

Also, Fiji journos are awesome :D

[deensey.livejournal.com]

OMG PAINT DRIES?

I personally like this one. Man goes out