Vanuatu deputy PM Joe Natuman and family visits Beachcomber Island
Tomasi Boginiso,
Nasinu The Deputy Prime Minister of Vanuatu Joe Natuman visited Beachcomber island for the day to celebrate a family member’s birthday. They were hosted to lunch and the unforgettable hospitality of the staff of Beachcomber. Earlier last week his daughter got married at the Anchorage Hotel. Mr Natuman thanked the staff of Beachcomber and will always return if coming back to Fiji. they are too busy posting trash on Facebook. The parents seem to have no control of them at home.
There is no civic sense of responsibility. I have seen people constantly throw trash from moving vehicles and will litter up the beaches when they go for a picnic. This happens despite daily messages to keep Fiji clean. Society today has become numb to the chaos around us: The corruption, starvation, and the proposition that climate change is going to kill a large number of us yearly by 2050 don’t faze us into action but a one-minute video of freezing in motion. That we can do. And with such flair. The modern society has become seriously sick, 70-year-old lecherous men raping kids, fathers molesting their daughters have become so commonplace. It is a far cry from when a shopkeeper in Nadi twisted my ears for whistling at a girl. And for good measure, he reported my egregious crime to my father who took me to task. Yes, back in time everyone cared for each other. It does take a village to raise a child. But now the teachers can’t even chastise an errant student, because his father will file a complaint. So can we really blame the teachers who are looking the other way if the young students are smoking and doing drugs? There are so many things that is wrong with the society today. Back then when there was a function in a village, every one would pitch in to help. Now if someone dies, the only reason people would go there for 13 or 16 days is that they will get free kava. What a disgrace. When the Gita is being recited, no one will be there. But as soon as the bhajans begin, all the men would come out to indulge. I am at a loss to understand why anyone with a modicum of commonsense would give kava to a bunch of people who are not there in his time of need but just come to leech of him. So I asked my cousin whose wife had passed away. He told me that if he did not provide yaqona, no one would come to his place. And I looked at the people around and asked him, do you really want these people who just come and inconvenience you at your time of grief? The phrase “retrogressive metamorphosis” come to mind.
It is my fervent hope that this will be a slap across the face to take action because it’s not too late for us to change our ways. In the meantime, I pine for the good old days shown in “Back in Time”.