Strange Pants

When the Fiji Times launched a redesign of their flagship newspapers a few months ago, I don’t think they were contemplating the sort of strong use of white space evident in today’s (Sunday, April 12, 2009) Sunday Times.

I guess this has been building since the powers that be decided to vet the news pursuant to the freshly minted Public Emergency Regulations 2009, which provide for the “control of broadcast and publications”. Pictured here are pages 2 and 3 of the Fiji Times.

That’s a whole lot of ‘control’, and not much ‘publication’. And below is the editorial page (page 6).

The national sense of humour seems to have suffered somewhat.

For those of you wondering how we got to this state of affairs:

• On Thursday, 9th April 2009, Fiji’s Court of Appeal ruled that the interim government was unlawfully appointed and that the appropriate course of action would be for the President to appoint an independent care-taker Prime Minister to take the steps necessary to bring Fiji to an election
• Appearing to accept the court decision, Bainimarama vacated his position as interim Prime Minister of Fiji that evening
• The next morning (Good Friday – 10th April 2009) the President, Ratu Josefa Iloilo held a press conference at which he read a prepared statement in which he claimed to revoke the 1997 Constitution and declared himself Fiji’s Head-of-State under a ‘new legal order’
• This extraordinary departure from the previous day’s court ruling was variously greeted with approval (Aiyaz Sayed-Khaium, Swani Maharaj, Shaista Shameem, Ropate Sivo) and dismay (Rev. Akuila Yabaki, various regional neighbours, Graham Leung, and Peceli Kinivuwai)
• Public Emergency Regulations came into effect and police and Ministry of Information officials moved into news rooms around Fiji to monitor content.
• Iloilo wasted no time appointing a new government, reappointing in Bainimarama as Prime Minister and swearing him in at 10am on Saturday 11th April. His entire interim cabinet were then reappointed and sworn in at 3pm on the same day.
• Fiji One news airs it’s major news bulletin at 6pm, prefaced by a notice that the content had been censored. The news reader refered to 2 stories that could not be broadcast.
• Bainimarama addresses Fiji in a televised speech, proclaiming a fresh start for Fiji, vowing to remove the politics from governance and promising elections before September 2014
• Soon after 8pm an email message was sent to members of SotiaCentral.com, a popular Fiji-based social networking site, stating:
  “The new Fiji Interim Government has issued regulations requiring publishers to first submit all content to Government officials for clearance before publishing it. Because you, not we, generate this content, we are unable to comply. Accordingly, sotiacentral.com has been taken down until further notice.”
  The site currently displays a notice to the effect that it has been taken offline by the owner.
• The 12 April edition of the Sunday Times hits the streets with large section of pages 2 and 3, and parts of page 6 removed and replaced with a notice: “This story could not be published due to Government regulations.”
• David Robie claims on his blog, Café Pacific, that the Fiji Times’ editorial management met with Major Neumi Leweni from the Ministry of Information, who told them that the Fiji Times would be shut down if they printed blanks again.
• Fiji TV does not broadcast any part of their usual news programs. A brief notice to that effect was displayed at 6pm.
• Fiji Times publishes it 13 April edition; notable for a complete absence of any coverage of the government. Their web site did not carry any news updates during the day.
• Communications Fiji Limited (CFL) station, Legend FM (heard at 5pm, could have been broadcast earlier) declares their inability to broadcast some stories due to the enforcement of the Public Emergency Regulations 2009.
• CFL stations and website run an interview with Major Leweni in which he states that they object to ‘negative’ reporting but refuses to clarify the parameters of said negativity.
• In the same interview, Major Leweni advises that a planned meeting of the Media Council would be pointless.
• Fiji TV airs a full, 1 hour news bulletin.
• 14th April: Shailendra Singh, writing for Pacific Media Centre, notes that journalist Sean Dorney from the ABC, along with Sia Aston and Matt Smith from New Zealand channel TV3, have been deported.

*Updated (13 April):* Added several new developments to the chronology.
*Updated (14 April):* Added link to Public Emergency Regulations. Added several new developments to the chronology.

Filed by Jachin Sheehy under Living-in-Fiji
Comment

Having previously written about products and companies misappropriating the name ‘Fiji’, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to add a new infringer to the list.

This fetching mode of transportation is the Roketa MC-04 Fiji 150CC Moped.

Roketa didn’t just stop at nicking Fiji’s name either: Aruba, Bahama[sic], Maui, Bali, Carpi, Sicily, Catalina and Jamaica are all doing double duty as moped names.

The company is based in Nanjing, China, with US distributors in California and Texas so any disputes about names may bounce around a bit before finding the right jurisdiction.

On the positive side, at least Roketa is selling an eco-friendly ‘Fiji’. A 150cc engine means you can run on the smell of an oily rag … there are lawn mowers out there with bigger engines.

Filed by Jachin Sheehy under Living-in-Fiji Interesting-Finds
Comment [1]

As part of recent family cost-cutting measures, we got rid of our water dispenser and bought a water filter to make the best of the Suva’s tap water.

The results have been educational.

Here is the ceramic dome in the first stage of the filter at the beginning of the week. Tap water has to seep through the micro-pores in this dome before it gets to the various other stages of the filter.

And here it is after a hard week filtering Suva’s sparkling, treated tap water:

That’s a thick layer of silt people!

Now I’m all for developing resistance to the local bugs by way of a little exposure … but that’s a lot of silt to be gulping down with your daily hydration.

This is the rather basic 14 litre filter I got from Carpenter’s Hardware for about $50.

What about you? Sticking to the tap water? Got a filter? Or do you drink only the purest mineralised water bottled at a natural aquifer fed by dew drops from virgin rainforest?

Update: (15 March) Others have noticed! Seona Smiles column in the Sunday Times this week is dedicated to the art of feeding the filter. Go read it. She has better writing; I have better pictures.

Filed by Jachin Sheehy under Living-in-Fiji
Comment [4]

Have you noticed shopkeepers and cashiers checking your change more carefully of late? Perhaps since Fiji’s new coins were unleashed on the 16th of February?

This comparison of Fiji’s old and new coin series should explain.

The 50cent coin has lost it’s distinctive shape. It’s now almost the same size as the old 20cent coin.

The new 20cent coin is about the same size as the old 10cent coin.

The mismatched size similarities between the wrong denominations of the new and old coins is driving me up the wall.

This is why the taxi driver who drove you home last night was in a good mood (he got fifties instead of twenties from a customer); and also why the driver who brought you to work this morning was in a foul mood (he gave his new fifties to his last fare as change, instead of twenties).

According to this Reserve Bank press release, the old coins will hang around until April 30th, so let the confusion reign for a few more weeks.

Once the old coins are gone, we will all be able to rejoice in coinage that is cheaper to mint (Yay! for our tax dollars) and less weighty in the pocket. On the downside, these fellows now have unique electromagnetic signatures that mean we aren’t going to be able to stuff orphaned NZ and Aussie coins in the parking meters any more.

Filed by Jachin Sheehy under Living-in-Fiji
Comment [4]

The Peninsula International Hotel recently started a Google AdWords campaign.

The ad links to http://www.peninsula.com.fj … an empty shell of a site making generous use of the world’s favourite filler text

If the site had accidentally been promoted from a staging server to a production box one could understand. But why anyone would want to advertise a site in this condition is a bit of a mystery. A white page with an email address and phone number would be more effective.

The agency responsible for this little clown act seem quite happy to link to themselves from the bottom of each page (with a little keyword stuffing).

As a publicly available, advertised website for a hotel, it’s a bit of a failure. Of course, if they were aiming to capture the market for Google searches for lorem ipsum peninsula then they’re on the right track.

Which brings me to the crux of the matter: the use of lorem ipsum as filler text.

A quick search for lorem ipsum suva and lorem ipsum fiji reveal more sites struggling to fill content holes.

Web agencies, and web teams take note: do not use lorem ipsum as filler text. If your client (internal or external) can’t provide the copy for a page or section, leave it out.

37signals have a chapter in Getting Real about why lorem ipsum filler is a bad idea. If you still need filler text to push the client along, try this trick from Peter Harkins

Update: (15 March) The site that prompted this article seems to have been taken down for the time being. Thanks to @bhavinm for the heads up.

Filed by Jachin Sheehy under Living-in-Fiji Interesting-Finds
Comment [1]