FIJI: IF BICULTURALISM IS THIS EXPLOSIVE, HOW BIG A BOMB WOULD MULTICULTURALISM BE?

Racism has become so identified with whites that the term has become a synonym for white racism. In order for the racism practised by non-whites to be indicated, it is usually denoted as "reverse racism". The idea of racism expressed by other races has become so difficult to process that it's easier to simply abandon it. It just doesn't fit the narrative we've all had drummed into us. This perhaps is the  reason why non-white racism seems to have become as rare as rocking-horse turds.

Besides, the universality of the distrust of the Other really doesn't bear thinking about. If we were to dwell too long on the possibility that what has been labeled as "racism" - a scourge to be rooted out like a troublesome weed wherever it is found - is in fact an inherent part of human nature that always was and always will be, we may be drawn more to a world of reality and away from the world of fantasy in which our overlords struggled so mightily  to corral us.

This is perhaps the reason we don't hear a lot about Fiji, apart from its role as a tourist destination. Unfortunately for Fiji however, its tourist industry has been in decline for several decades due to political unrest in the islands. This is something we do hear about from time to time as roving TV reporters much prefer real action as opposed to, say, looking silly as they so often do in lonely postings outside of where something barely newsworthy might have happened hours before. But the newshounds are fickle lovers and as soon as the dust has settled in Fiji it is again quietly forgotten about. However trouble in Fiji doesn't evaporate simply because the news cycle has rolled on to perceived greener pastures. On the contrary, trouble brought to the islands more than 100 years ago by the British in the form of indentured labourers essentially press-ganged from the lethal poverty of India is a permanent component of Fijian society.

Between 1879 and 1916 when the system was abolished, more than 61,000 Indians were brought to Fiji. Why did they agree to be wrenched from their ancient homelands and become only slightly better off than slaves labouring in fields halfway around the world? The alternative - starving to death - provided not much competition. The indentured Indians, or Girmitias from Girmit from Fiji Indian dialect meaning indenture agreement, were victims of cascading misfortune that began with the British changing the Indian constitution to effectively cut many millions out of land ownership. Members of the resulting armies of vagabonds were subject to imprisonment. For this to be punitive it therefore obviously needed to be a worse fate than simply starving. The mind baulks at just how bad this would have had to have been to deter the malnourished from wanting to get into jail. Sealing the indenture deal for those who might have been wavering, although this would have to have been a very small minority given the other options,. was an upfront payment. After debts were settled, family and friends were helped out, it's not difficult to imagine these unfortunate souls fairly leaping onto the the ships that would take them to Fiji with whatever money was left. Don't worry, they were probably told, there's plenty more where that came from.

Why did the British need to go so far afield to conscript labour for work in Fiji? Wouldn't it have been easier to offer the the native Fijians the same deal? The Indians were brought in for the same reason that labourers had to be brought from as far away as Japan to work in American owned sugar-cane and pineapple fields in Hawaii: the islanders would no doubt have thought back-breaking work for foreign bosses, paid with money they didn't need was the definition of insanity. A hunter and gatherer life, topped up with a little subsistence farming and cannibalism in a bountiful environment, which had served their people well for the best part of 1,000 years, would continue to do so, thank you very much.

After abolition of the system in 1916, the Indians were offered paid fares back to India. Many accepted, but many opted to stay. After all, by now many had been born in Fiji and it was now India which was the foreign country. The ones who stayed quickly began to make their mark. Being a race which had created one of the earliest civilizations as opposed to the Melanesian natives who had, although performed remarkable feats of sea-voyaging, not bothered too much with civilization building, the Fijian Indians were far better positioned and mentally equipped for profiting from a Fiji now opened up to a much wider world than the natives had ever known. They also knew the value of money, and more importantly, how to accumulate it. This, the supposed  root of all evil, and the one-sided possession of it, became the root of Fiji's mutual animosity.





The situation that eventually arose in Fiji was as inevitable as an egg following a chicken, or was it a chicken following an egg? By the modern era, Indians comprised 46% of the Fijian population but dominated the economy. This unsurprisingly was a thorn in the side of the native, Melanesian population that would lead to a festering infection. Countering the Indians economic power was the type of power so endearing to Chairman Mao - the type that comes from the barrel of a gun. The army was 100% Melanesian.

The first real surprise to the outside world that everything in Fiji wasn't just pork-roasts, nubile, swaying dancers and lazing beside impossibly blue lagoons was the military coup that occurred in May 1987. The coup was led by Lieutenant Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka. The overthrown government led by Prime Minister Bavadra was a left of centre, multi-ethnic affair supported mostly by Fijian Indians. This to the indigenous Fijians, seeming like their Indian cohabitants had effectively wrapped up both economic and political power, was a bridge too far and racial discrimination was claimed as the justification for the coup.

In November, a second coup, or round two of the first coup, ended Fijian monarchy and in October a republic was proclaimed. The neighbours weren't impressed and both Australia and New Zealand introduced economic sanctions against the unrecognized regime. This however did little to hose down a racial fire.

The die was cast. Fiji staggered on into a future of economic and political turmoil and animosity which caused many Fiji Indians with business acumen to flee.

In 2000 the first Fijian Indian Prime Minister was held hostage in parliament by nationalists for 56 days and riots tore through the streets of Suva.

Currently rankling the indigenous Fijians is the fact that Ambassador Nazhat Shameem Khan, the permanent representative to the UN and other offices in Geneva is an ethnic Indian. There appears to be no end to the conflict.



One feels compelled to sympathise with both the Indians and Melanesians of Fiji, because neither were responsible for the racial divide destroying their country. The had it done to them by the British. They cannot be said to be as foolish as those who have done it to themselves, although the inevitable tragic results will be the same or worse.

Here in Australia, for example, Lib/Lab politicians and their lap-dog media and educational apparatchiks never tire of telling us we are the most successful multicultural society in the world. So what? Who cares? We didn't know it was a competition and, moreover, we didn't ask to be entered into it, or in fact for multiculturalism in the first place. It came from the top down - shoved down our throats. Not even immigrants were asking for it, that is, apart from immigrants of one particular race.

But it is hoped their smirking self-congratulations and warm moral glow can be enjoyed while they can because these are early days and the end result is sure to disappoint. Every multicultural experiment carries within itself the seeds of its own disaster. Unfortunately it is axiomatic that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The disaster isn't a matter of if but simply when.

Yes, the current situation appears to be bubbling away quite nicely, but that's because the economy is still as strong as can be expected, the white majority hasn't yet been knocked off its perch or even been seriously threatened and the Chinese haven't yet commandeered the economy like they did in Indonesia, Malaysia and South Vietnam and the Indians did in Fiji. But of course all this will change.

The difference between our fragmentation painted over with an illusory harmony and Fiji's political, social and economic dysfunction is simply time. In Fiji, much more time has elapsed since different races were forced to share the same territory. Trouble has been allowed sufficient time in which to brew and become lethal.

All that is need for the same inevitable result in Australia is simply more time.