World’s passports

ARVIND Mani writes thought provoking letters. His “World’s passports” item (FT 10/5) had me wondering where Fiji ranked in the latest Henley and Partners passport index.

So I looked it up: Fiji ranked 59th out of 107 countries or somewhat better than average with visafree access for our sky blue passports to 88 destinations globally.

Unfortunately most of those 88 are other small tropical countries, which should be no surprise.

Wealthy countries generally eschew giving visafree access to nationals of poorer countries and most of the world’s wealth is concentrated outside our tropical belt of the globe.

Equatorial Singapore is the exception.

With a per capita Gross Domestic Product ten times greater than ours, Singapore ranks first in the passport index. Singaporeans can travel visa-free to 190 destinations around the globe or virtually anywhere they want.

Fiji does well to seek advice from Singapore where exceptional leadership has fostered unprecedented economic growth since independence with just three prime ministers in the past 70 years.

However, Singapore ranked a dismal 151st in the latest Press Freedom index where Fiji ranked 52nd and Fiji best not strive to emulate Singapore in all things.

With population density more than 160 times greater than Fiji’s, the crowded island city-state has nowhere to build except up.

Singapore’s proliferation of skyscrapers contribute to per capita CO2 emission six times greater than ours.

Fiji has no urgent need for multistorey buildings of steel, glass and concrete that tower above coconut trees and pollute our living environment.

So why the current boom in multistorey construction here?

WILLARD MILLER

Suva