Survey and care
Political will
PLEASE allow me to raise my personal opinion regarding the finding by the World Bank in its Economic Update for March 2024, released in Samoa, which stated that Fiji’s debt “highest in the region” and “poor literacy and numeracy skills in some Pacific countries is because of the qualities of their teachers”. (FT 07/03)
While I may have agreed with some of the matters raised by the World Bank regarding the above, however, I would like to question the purpose of the World Bank in investing in these surveys for us here in the Pacific.
Can’t we the Pacificians do the survey for ourselves instead of the World Bank?
Why I ask this question is because I can read in this Economic Update the dominant views of the World Bank on our Pacific Islands, and to me that indicates their dominance as well on what it would want us to do rather than us determining our own destiny.
If we want real independence as Pacifica communities, then we’ve got to have the political will to do our own surveys for our countries for we know best what we can do to address our issues.
Only in this way can we have the correct narratives of our reality and we can be rest assured that we will have correct policies in place to navigate us peacefully in the vast challenging ocean we live in. KOSITATINO TIKOMAIBOLATAGANE Navua
Duty of care
SAVUSAVU my beauty! Savusavu my heart!
Savusavu has had many a heartbreaking incidence of death of loved ones, including one that tore every heart in our little community at the passing of a beautiful budding mother of two young boys and all as a result of a lack of “duty of care” by our health workers and in particular our doctors who have been sent to our shores to make life healthier for us.
A recent incident where the pains of an elderly woman was ignored for close to three hours by the physician in charge, has caused the people of Savusavu to lash out on social media in the hope to find that someone in government with a flair for “duty of care” to do something about their plight.
For too many times the cries of the people of Savusavu has been ignored and the ministry has fought tooth and nail to defend the actions of its employees and in so doing have sent us the message that it’s OK in the medical profession to have a passion for a lack of “duty of care”.
The people of Savusavu went to lengths to upgrade the hospital to make the place bearable to work in for its workers and stay in for its patients.
I’d say that a lack of “duty of appreciation” is also called for by the doctor concerned who probably didn’t bother to do a little research into the history of the hospital and into the community of Savusavu where the people do care!
If you feel that there is no closure in this message, then that is exactly where we as a people are left — hanging in the balance!
Is anyone listening?
Does anyone truly care?
NOLEEN BILLINGS
Savusavu