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for Australian Information Economy To:Business Review Weekly FORUMS, Sydney, NSW Conference: Information economy Date: Tuesday, June 06, 2000 12:37 AM Australia, New Zealand and other 'first world' countries will benefit from the disaster which has befallen our tropical paradise. Many Fijians, of South Asian, Indigenous and other communities, who are hard-working, ambitious and skilled in 'Information Technology', will be looking to Australia, for opportunities denied them at home. Alas, Fiji will lose these talented individuals, who will reluctantly leave their homeland for the sake of their children's future prospects. Case in point: In the field of Medicine, an Indo-Fijian, residing here in Canada [since the last coup in '87], is to be awarded the prestigious 'Order of Canada', for his excellent work in Diabetes Research. Dr. Yogesh Patel could have brought this honour to the Fiji Republic, had circumstances been otherwise. Besides the 'well-educated' Fijian migrants, the Australian and other governments should also encourage the displaced sugarcane farmers to come and work for mutual prosperity. We are only seeking a chance to succeed. Please open your doors to us. |
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Sunday August 04, 2002 Indo-Fijians remain discriminated against despite their contribution to the development of Fiji. 'They are discriminated against economically and politically and were twice ousted from political power through military and civilian coups,' said University of Sydney's Ph.D candidate, Carmen Voigt-Graf at a seminar organised by the University of the South Pacific's School of Social and Economic Development and the Centre of Development studies. Ms Voigt-Graf said hopes that they would eventually be accepted and allowed to feel at home in Fiji have waned over the past few decades. She said almost one-third of the total Indo-Fijian population lives outside Fiji a proportion that is likely to rise. It is nevertheless predictable that a considerable part of the Indo-Fijian population will remain in Fiji in the long-term, probably out of necessity than choice, she said. She said an Indo-Fijian transnational community has therefore been formed in Fiji due to the global Indian Diaspora and secondary migration after the military coups. Ms Voigt-Graf said the migration history of Indo-Fijians was determined by forces beyond their control and in the process, been transformed from an Indian Diaspora in the Pacific into a new transnational community stretching across the Pacific. Ms Voigt-Graf's presentation was titled 'From Indian Diaspora to Indo-Fijian Transnational Community- Applying a Transnational Perspective to Indo-Fijian Migration' and was based on her Ph.D. thesis in Geography recently submitted to the University of Sydney and the seminar. She said instead of seeing Indo-Fijian as mere victims of history; she emphasised that they made the best of their situation. 'Arriving largely as illiterate workers, they made their way into most economic sectors through educational achievement from the second generation onwards. She said after resettling in a country like Australia, many Indo-Fijians experience for the first time the feeling of being welcome and highly value the security that nobody tells them that this is not their home. Mahendra Chaudhry's comments concerning racism in Fiji - Oct-Nov, 2004 official position on the racial situation in Fiji |
IN MEMORY OF
the sudden passing
on of Mr. Arvind Singh
of Fijiwala.
Mr. Singh
succumbed to a heart attack,
Jan 30th 2001 5:00pm Vancouver time.
He was a
dedicated community worker
with a motto of "service to
all in need".
