Breaking the Bubble

I am working on writing more... ENJOY!

Most Westerns have an idealized version of what characteristics make up Fiji and how it fits into the scheme of all the countries in the world. I have to admit, due to my laziness I have let the idealized imagine of Fiji stand through my writings and photos but… no longer! Fiji is more than a postcard perfect image of a beach, sand, resorts, and tanned beauties dancing in the sunshine. It is extremely complex and multilayered. It plays host to multiple ethnicities and unlike places akin to the US (where we claim to be multicultural but truly share a homogeneous culture) these differences are a large part of what makes Fiji so diverse. With hurdles like multiculturalism and living life on a tiny island, come other challenges that have had the salt of colonialism rubbed into their preexisting wounds.


History lesson:
The islands of Fiji are home to many different ethnic ancestries. Originally inhabited thousands of years ago by natives who sailed their way through the South Pacific from Southeast Asia, these ancestors dropped off descendents on many different islands including Samoa, Tahiti, Papua New Guinea, etc (there are TONS of island countries in the South Pacific). Eventually making their way to Fiji, different groups inhabited different regions of the island nation. This influenced the different ethnic groups of native Fijians and is the reason there are MANY dialects of the Fijian language as well as many varying details in rituals/customs. Following colonialism by the British, sugar cane farming was introduced to the country. Because the British felt the native Fijians were “unable”/”too lazy” to work (due to their laid back culture), they brought over indentured servants from India to work in the British sugar cane plantations. Indentured servants became the new politically correct term for slavery once slavery was outlawed in Britain and all of its colonies. It was overly cheap labor based on exploitation and broken promises. This practice, which happened for over 40 years, brought a huge influx of Indians into the country. Because the British practiced the concept of divide and conquer, they went out of their way to enforce policies that divided the two main ethnic groups. This divide ensured the two groups would not gang together to turn over British rule while increasing racial tension and hatred. Once the British gave the colony its freedom, the ethnic tension remained and created huge barriers for the countries journey toward peace. So far there have been multiple coup d’états including the two most recent being in 2000 and 2006. These coups were produced from the desire for change. Depending on which coup you are specifically referring to, the change desired can either be good or bad. In the most recent coup, what most people consider the “people’s charter” coup was a military takeover of the former government due to the racist policies it was enforcing throughout the country. The population is roughly divided 50/50 on ethnic lines with almost half of the population being Fijian and the other half Indo-Fijian (or of Indian ancestry). These ethnic lines also dictate religious lines and facilitate religious intolerance as well. The three main religions found here are sects of Christanity (roughly 50% of the population), Hinduism (roughly 35% of the population), and Islam (roughly 15% of the population). Ethnically, the three religions are divided so that almost all Fijians are Christians and the Indo-Fijians are either Hindus or Muslims. (Please keep in mind that these numbers are very rough estimates based off of actual statistics calculated by the Fijian census bureau)


Poverty:
Poverty has many factors globally and Fiji proves no exception. In most eyes, poverty can seem like a straight forward concept but in actuality the word poverty is a blanket term that encompasses many different types of issues that can sometimes seem unrelated. Not all poverty has to do with just being hungry. In fact, Fiji would be able to feed itself even if it were to be cut off from the global market completely (a trick most countries would never be able to pull off, no matter how much magic they used). Due to cultural networking and familial support systems, most people don’t go hungry. So you might be asking yourself… what does poverty really look like in Fiji? The inability to provide basic needs other than just food also defines elements of poverty. Poverty of accessibility, poverty of opportunity, poverty of freedoms, poverty of land, poverty of the mind and so on, label different types of poverty that can be just as debilitating as the inability to feed yourself or your family. One of the biggest contributors to poverty is in conjunction to land leases. Native Fijians generally own most of the land in Fiji causing large problems for anyone who is not a chief. The chiefs reside over all of the rights of different pieces of land. They then allow their people to live on their land. Let’s pretend one day you wake-up as a native Fijian and decide to move from your village to let’s say the urban city so your kid can go to school, you will have no place to build a house. You then move into a squatters settlement, or more appropriately deemed “informal living settlements”, which is simply defined as ‘unused’ land and thus free for people to use to live on illegally. These settlements, because they are unofficial and thus recognized by no one, typically don’t have running water or electricity and are built on the land that no one else wants to develop… also known as landfills, hazardous areas, or lands prone to natural disasters. Because you have little to no money (due to the fact that you moved from a small village maybe from an outer island or up in the mountains), you can’t build a house with traditional materials or hire a contractor so you’re forced to build a one room home out of whatever material you can find. The city is overcrowded with people in your exact situation and you have just as much luck as them to find one of the few jobs that are available. You’re uneducated because the government doesn’t regulate schools and you grew up in a rural village with a school that most of the world would call a joke (hence the reason you want to move to the city so your kid doesn’t have the same situation thrust on them). The money you make from working odd jobs adds up to the cost of your child’s school, bus fare, uniforms, and books… thank goodness you have one kid, because if you had two, they would probably have to attend school on alternate days so they could share the one uniform you have and only use one persons worth of bus fare (a very common thing among the impoverished trying to send their kids to school). Don’t even get yourself thinking about the health hazards caused by your living conditions. With a lack of money, your kids aren’t inoculated and if they get sick… getting to the doctor is going to be hard considering that the kid spent your bus fare money to get to school that morning. And all of that is if you are an indigenous or native Fijian… if you are an Indo-Fijian you automatically leave the starting gate of life 10 seconds late with 50 less cents in your pocket (figuratively speak, of course). And poverty doesn’t end there. The inability to access work, no matter who you are, is stifling. The most likely characteristic of someone who is unemployed in Fiji? Having a college education. Seems backward, right? If you have a university degree you are expecting to work a more skilled job for a higher salary and because of that, no one wants you. They don’t have a challenging enough job for you or the salary to pay you. With an economy dictated by the IMF, World Bank, and Western world’s standards it’s difficult to change the country’s economy so that its people prosper.


The good news is…
At the end of the day, you live in Fiji. It’s ecologically beautiful, the weather is nice, there is lots of sunshine, and life is relatively simple. And above everything else, you’re happy. It’s funny to think that statistically the happiest places on earth are typically the poorest, most underdeveloped and undernourished nations… is it because they don’t have the capacity or ‘standards’ to realize what they are ‘missing out on’ or is it because they’ve found some secret happiness to life that we can’t find because we are all too busy paving our own material path in pursuit of the always indefinable and unachievable ‘happiness’? Just some food for thought—

I am heading to the island of Beqa (pronounced Benga) for the week to spend time living in a rural village. I am really excited to get out of the hustle and bustle dirt of the city for some relaxing down time with the nations only fire walkers while also getting to practice my Fijian language skills, snorkel, and play in a waterfall. There will be plenty of pictures, don’t worry!

Love. Sarah