PROVISIONAL CANDIDATE
UNITY FIJI'S ASHWEN GIBSON BLAKE
Age: 58 years old Occupation: Life in my corner of the world is multifaceted and cannot be confined to any one occupation. I am a mother and grandmother and our home is also the site of our Mercy entrepreneurship as a strategy for self-funded transformational community development and wealth creation. As a Community Rehabilitator, our vision for national debt eradication and uprooting poverty mindsets, is to free the people we serve to live according to their personal passions and dreams.
Then what is often mistaken as a “hobby” in essence becomes life span innovation and a platform for creative ingenuity and innovation. Our community work stimulated a deeper investigation into the impact of injustice and stateinfluenced co-dependency and poverty. My current interests concern the emerging influences of neurological science and cognitive psychology in unlocking creative ingenuity and developing critical thinking in citizenry. I am involved in counselling, mentoring, teaching and training, and my own diverse development was forged as a Financial
Counsellor and Planner and all aspects of publishing, hospitality, catering, farming and as a Shepherd in Christ. My life demonstrates an inner core that harnesses and seeks to master the many opportunities life presents. Character development and values are a significant aspect to my training and mentoring work.
Marital Status: Married Residence: Pacific Harbour Where from: Suva Education: Suva Grammar High School, University of Otago, New Zealand and Postgraduate and other studies in Fiji.
Hobbies: I am a fledgling artist and I love cake decorating, flower arrangements, interior decorating and landscaping. All of these platforms offer me a canvas for statements that arrest and startle and provoke deeper thinking and reflection. I spend myself completely in the exercise of that creation to present something that is “one-off.”
What are the three main issues you will be highlighting for this General Election and why?
1. Demystifying poverty and unveiling possible reforms associated with its eradication for transformation development and wealth creation. This includes provoking dialogue, using every day examples of systemic injustice, and the role that regulators and businessmen play in extending the impact of governance and education in the quality of life for Fijians. Real life injustice stories pinpoint that it is not just the responsibility of executive administrators and courts, but community leadership at all levels to avert the prevailing demise of disenfranchised Fijians by recognising uncommon needs as they present and before they are veiled in a file. Justice in governance enforces diversity of the Fijian identity and holds a key to eradicating in the very least what is “unintentional poverty”.
2. Demystifying education and debunking its development lies. Tertiary Education in the form of Formal Trainer Coaches or Employer Trainer Coaches ought perhaps to partner reform as households explore family talent for the unlocking of enterprise beyond livelihood and hobbies. Passion-bound development goals open doors for national debt alleviation.
3. Embracing and engaging the nation in reconciling our national identity and its cultural impact True national heritage is the evidence of sustained national development freely expressed and celebrated in the media, arts, trades and professions. I hope to broker national remorse and to encourage healing of any grief, the result of muzzled critical thinking and the expression of originality that inspires us to remain compacted together by the restraints of truth-driven peace.