FYI

I'm back in Portland, and have my old blog back. DiPoleMoment

Last day at work

Well, this is my last day at work, so probably my last post until I'm sitting in a wifi cafe in Portland. There will be more posts to this blog as I decompress this entire experience, remember things I never posted about and upload photos. Although I'm sure that I'm doing the right thing for both R and myself, it was not an easy decision and this is a weird time. All I know for sure is that I won't be spending the rest of my life wondering "what if?" about Fiji.

Conjunctivitis epidemic

This is the latest news on the conjunctivitis epidemic in Fiji. It has hit USP and you can see people around with swollen eyes. I am paranoid that I'll get it before I leave and it will screw up our flight plans. So I'm washing my hands all the time and using hand sanitizer like a lunatic. The University has e-mailed me these handy tips:

o wash your eyes when they feel dry or itchy with tap water - you
can do this every 3 to 4 hours;
o dry your eyes with disposable tissue paper - never use
handkerchief;
o use the eye drops every 3 hours but wash your eyes first;
o do not go near the infected people;
o do not touch other people's property. Keep to yourself;
o see the doctor straightaway if your eyes are infected.

With the second to last suggestion, I can't help but think of that guy from Office Space not wanting anybody to borrow his stapler. As if the e-mail's author was thinking "finally a reason to admonish people for using my stapler!" Of course I had to use somebody's stapler today (as mine has gone missing) but I used hand sanitizer immediately afterwards. As I look a computer all day long I'm subject to eye stress and now any slight change in the "feeling" in my eye is immediately contributed to "the conjunctivitis coming on". Yes, I've gone crazy.

Fessing up...

After an awful lot of agonizing thought and discussion, R and I have made the decision to come home to Portland. We actually made the decision a while ago, but I've kept it off the blog. Now that our leave date is so close (March 30th) it's hard to blog without referencing it. Besides, we've told some folks, but they also read the blog, where it hasn't been mentioned, so it was getting confusing.

The homesickness was simply too much for us. It wasn't that we would occasionally feel homesick, our homesickness ranged daily from merely noticeable to totally unbearable, but it was never absent. We were unhappy. R wasn't getting the education he wanted, my job wasn't a dream job, and Suva's a hard place to make a home. Life is too short to spend somewhere where you are unhappy. Especially when you have a home to go home to.

Human Rights

This is the text of an e-mail I just received. Note that one of the topics of the debate is IF HUMAN RIGHTS ARE UNIVERSAL! This is not the first time I have heard (actually read) this question being asked. It comes up in letters to the editor and interviews with Important People (tm) in the paper with alarming frequency. I find it disturbing that the existence of Human Rights is even questioned, but I'm glad that there are folks here in Fiji making the claim that they do indeed exist and are essential.

Debate: Respecting Human Rights: challenges in Fiji and worldwide

Date: Tuesday March the 21st at 6.30PM
Venue: Alliance Française
Entrance: free

At the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (21 March), the Alliance Française and the Regional Office for the Pacific of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
(OHCHR) propose a debate: Respecting human rights: challenges in Fiji and worldwide No country or region in the world is sparred from human rights concerns.
Fiji is no exception; but what are currently the main human rights challenges the country faces? Are human rights truly universal or should they be specific to the Pacific region? How can the human rights cause progress in Fiji?

Programme:

• 6.30PM The pain of others. At work for the UN Commission on Human Rights.
A film-documentary produced by the Swiss Television

• 7.00PM Debate: what human rights challenges for Fiji?

Speakers: Dr. Shaista Shameem, Director, Fiji Human Rights Commission Ms. Edwina Kotoisuva, Deputy Coordinator, Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre

Capital is dirty and filthier

Capital is dirty and filthier

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

THE capital is getting filthier by the day and there is a need to clean it as soon as possible...

Fijian Politics

I don't usually post about Fijian politics. Despite my best efforts to understand, it generally makes my head spin. This quote from Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama in today's Fiji Times sums it up nicely. [Speaking about Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downe] "He understands only Western politics. He does not understand Fijian politics. It is dirty politics at its worst. It is cannibalistic."