Medicine, recovery work
Metformin statement
BHARAT Morris’ letter regarding the NFP leader’s response on the Health Minister, to apologise or resign, is mindboggling.
Does Mr Morris know how many people use metformin in Fiji on a daily basis and why they need metformin as compared with other drugs as mentioned by the Minister for Health? Mr Morris do you know how many people are suffering from diabetes, heart condition who need regular dose of metformin? I am not talking about Panadol or asprin.
I believe what the Minister for Health uttered in Parliament regarding metformin is a shame because he is a medical doctor and was superintendent at CWM Hospital before he became a minister. Mr Bharat should perhaps take a lesson on the doctrine of ministerial responsibility. I believe if the same would have been said in Australia or New Zealand, there would have been a massive protest inside the House and outside.
As for Simon Hazelman’s suggestion that simply acknowledging that there is a problem somehow makes the problem go away, it is absurd to even suggest that everything will be fine as long as the minister says so. Ministers cannot act with impunity and shy away from being responsible for their departments — especially one as important as the Health Ministry.
APENISA VATUNIVEIVUKE
Suva
Post-cyclone recovery work
I REFER to the Australian High Commissioner John Feakes’ commendation of the Government’s recovery efforts in the North — post cyclones Yasa and Ana (FT April 6).
Mr Feakes says he had recently travelled to Labasa and has seen the recovery efforts. He says he wants to “congratulate the government for the immense amount of work that has been sustained over recent months and the recovery efforts are visible for all to see”.
Regrettably, I cannot share his views in so far as the cane belt areas of the North are concerned. I have been to Vanua Levu thrice after the cyclones and have seen very little post-cyclone recovery work carried out there.
I believe the rural community, be they canegrowers or subsistence farmers, have not received any assistance from the government to carry out repairs to their damaged homes or rehabilitate their cyclone-ravaged crops. They have been left to fend for themselves.
The rural roads badly damaged by the cyclones, remain unattended in many affected areas. Likewise, no work has so far been done to repair the damaged railway lines connecting the Labasa mill to farms in the Daku and
Wainikoro sectors. With cane harvesting to begin soon, the hundreds of farmers in these sectors are seriously concerned about their livelihood.
Mr Feakes acknowledged the resilience of our people in the affected areas to bounce back from the “terrifying cyclones” but let me add that being resilient does not mean that they don’t experience stress, emotional upheaval or suffering.
The people I am concerned about are the small farmers who do not have the financial means to sustain the extensive damage caused to their homes and crops by the two super cyclones within weeks of each other.
I believe they deserve to be assisted but it seems have now been abandoned by a government which is looking the other way.
MAHENDRA P CHAUDHRY
General Secretary
National Farmers Union, Suva