Act of God means

Jean Hatch, Suva

Many folks understand the definition of what an Act of God means. We are familiar with these in our lifetime.

However, (May 30 Fiji Sun, p.11) what you clearly avoid discussing is what this plays out like with a change of legislation that allows employers and Goverment to act swiftly without little explanation to reduce its workforce suddenly, or without responsibility financially to compensate directly for sudden employment loss.

That is what concerns the average Fijian right now.

And, more importantly, the Government’s role in buffering those sudden losses for its people, other than taking their limited FNPF funds from their retirement.

Everyone out here understands the nature of “plagues and pestilence”, hurricanes and earthquakes, natural disasters. But what we want to know as Fiji citizens is how our Government is planning on looking after folks who suddenly find the rug pulled out from beneath their feet without income to live and meet basic needs.

All the EU money and Australian and NZ aid - shouldn’t this be given directly to those in need, as soon as possible ?

Who wants to see more committees, or nonsense groups posing for photos about some new scheme that might help ? What folks need is money in their hands - to pay the bills, feed the kids, and get them back into school.

Not sitting passively like dummies, watching a TV programme that will not engage their active curious minds, when their Government needs to afford to get them back to school. And pay their teachers to do this. We mostly try to fathom God’s purposes, though it’s difficult in hard times. For sure. But, what we don’t need is patronising smoke screens.

A key thought is that one of God’s given purposes is also for Leaders to manage money well and tell the truth about that with transparency.

That’s what their people look to them for. Or, they vote them out next time round. Simple democracy at work.