Fiji
OFFICIAL NAME: Fiji Islands
CAPITAL CITY: Suva
POPULATION: 906,000 (2007)
AREA: 18,333 km²
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE (S): English, fiji, hindi, andre
RELIGION: Christians 52%, Hindus 38%, Muslims 8%, others 2%
COIN: dollars
CURRENCY CODE: FJD
ENGLISH NAME: Fiji
INDEPENDENCE: 1970
POPULATION COMPOSITION: Fijians 51%, Indians 44%, others 5%
GDP PER residents: $ 2277 (2007)
LIFE EXPECTANCY: men 66 years, women 70 years (2007)
INDEX OF LIVING CONDITIONS, HDI: 0.758
INDEX OF LIVING CONDITIONS, POSITION: 90
INTERNET DOMAIN NAME: .fj
Fiji, archipelago and republic of the Pacific until 1970 British
colony. Among the scattered and very small nations of the region, Fiji plays a
central role; the capital Suva houses several regional organizations and the
airport in Nadi is the center of flight in the western Pacific. Fiji's
traditional one-sided economy based on sugar exports is increasingly
complemented by light industry and tourist revenues.
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Fiji - national flag
The flag was adopted at independence in 1970 and remained unchanged after the
military coup in 1987. The flag was chosen after a competition and the light
blue color for the tablecloth was preferred so that the flag could be more
easily distinguished from the flags of Australia and New Zealand. In addition
to the British flag, Union Jack, the flag also shows Fiji's weapons with
symbols from both Great Britain and Fiji.
Fiji - geography
The Fiji Islands consist of two large and more than 300 smaller islands with
a 1.3 million. km2 large sea territory. The main island of Viti
Levu, together with the northern neighboring island of Vanua Levu, makes up 87%
of the area and houses almost the entire population. Just under 100 islands are
inhabited; several of them accommodate very small and isolated communities.
The population
consists of two almost equal groups, the native Fijians, who are a Melanesian
people, and Indians, who are descendants of the plantation workers who were
imported by the English to the sugar and coconut plantations from the late
1800's. and onwards. Together they make up 95% of the population; the rest are
mainly Chinese and various Polynesian groups. The latter include banaba on
the island of Rabi, which came here from Ocean Island in Kiribati in 1945 after
large parts of their island had been dug away by a British phosphate company.
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Fiji, especially since independence in 1970, has been marked both by
political rivalry between the two main groups and by significant efforts to
promote a common sense of Fijian nationality with less emphasis on
ethnicity. During the 1980's, the Indians came into the majority, on the
back of continued immigration, but after a Melanesian-oriented coup in 1987,
many of the highly educated Indians emigrated. Neither the Indians nor the
Melanesians form homogeneous groups. The Indians are divided by religious, caste
and ethnic differences with a Muslim minority and a group of Sikhs and
immigrants from Gujarat (north of Mumbai) centrally located in the business
world. The original Fijians are divided into a large number of clans, and a
traditional aristocracy of chiefs tries to preserve their power according to the
country's intricate constitution,
Nature and business
The two large islands are mountainous and largely covered by forest. Almost
all the islands are of volcanic origin, and many are surrounded by coral reefs,
which in many places form large lagoons. The climate is tropical, but
temperatures are dampened by predominantly easterly and southerly humid
winds. They cause large amounts of precipitation to the windswept shores and to
the highest mountains, which are covered with oak. rainforest. The slopes and
the lower islands get much less rain, and water supply is a problem on several
small islands. Characteristic of the landscape are large areas of secondary
forest, which is the result of centuries of relocation land use, where
pieces of forest are occasionally burned for cultivation.
Settlement and occupation are predominantly linked to a narrow, densely
populated coastal strip, while large areas in the middle of the islands are
inaccessible and uninhabited. Everywhere in Fiji, coconut palms are a supplement
to the economy, in addition, on many small islands main industry. Only 16% of
the area is arable land, and sugar cane is grown on more than a quarter of
this. In colonial times, Fiji's economy was completely dominated by sugar cane
and coconut; both are of declining importance, but sugar still accounts for up
to half of exports and is sold mainly to the EU under the sugar regime of the
Lomé Convention.
Fiji's central location in the Pacific region, together with a liberal
investment climate, has attracted a number of investments, and the
export-oriented textile industry in particular is growing strongly. In the
western part of Viti Levu there is a small gold deposit, from which 2-3 t of
gold and a bit of silver are produced annually.
Tourism
Fiji has long been a leader in the region's growing tourism
industry. Especially around the international airport in Nadi, at the nearby,
Indian-influenced Lautoka and on the small Mamanutha islands west of it, there
are large hotel facilities that offer especially Australian tourists wide coral
sand beaches, scuba diving and golf. Several facilities have led to conflicts
with local landowners and traditional fishing interests. Often, the tourism
industry exhibits a clear ethnic threefold division of companies with foreign
companies as owners, Fiji Indians as middle managers, and Fiji Melanesians for
the rougher work. The structure can be found throughout Fijian society and is
due, among other things, to the restrictive Fijian land laws, which have
referred the Fiji Indians to the other sectors of the economy. The political
unrest following the coup attempt in 2000 was a disaster for the tourism
industry.
Fiji - language
The official languages of the Fiji Islands are standard Fiji
and English. The Fiji language, which includes two quite different dialect
groups, belongs to the Austronesian language family. The standard language is
based on the dialect of the small island Bau, which is pronounced [mbau], as the
traditional spelling has b for [mb], d for [nd], etc. Since
approximately half of the population are Indians, Hindi is widely used alongside
English.
Fiji - Constitution
The Republic's Constitution of 1990 introduced a two-chamber system giving
the Melanesians the right to the post of Prime Minister and to 37 of the 70
seats in the House of Representatives. Fiji Indians have 27 places, other ethnic
groups, Chinese and Europeans, 5, Rotuma Island 1. The upper house has 24
seats reserved for Melanesians, 9 for other ethnic groups and 1 seat for
Rotuma. The president elected by a council of chiefs must be Melanesian. There
is extensive local, including economic autonomy, in Fiji's 14 provinces.
Fiji - history
The archipelago was discovered and colonized in the second millennium BC. of
Austronesian-speaking peoples of the Western Pacific. Later migrations from
other islands made Fiji a meeting place for Melanesian and Polynesian cultural
influences. The hierarchically organized village communities were traditionally
bound together by exchanges and trade. But war was also an integral part of
life.
The Dutch Abel Tasman (1643) and James Cook (1774) were the first European
seafarers to visit Fiji. From the beginning of 1800-t. different groups of
Europeans came to the islands: beachcombers, merchants, Christian missionaries,
and settlers in search of land. The access to firearms enabled a few chiefs to
monopolize power.
In 1874, internal fighting and rivalry between the imperialist states led to
British takeover, and Fiji was a colony until 1970. The first British governor,
Sir Arthur Gordon, and his successors sought to protect the Fijians. They were
allowed to retain control of most of the land and took part only to a limited
extent in capitalist development.
To secure labor for the sugar plantations of the white colonists, more than
60,000 Indians were introduced between 1879 and 1916. Many of them were set on
modernization and in time came to dominate the business life of the colony. But
they could not own land like the Fiji Melanesians, thus making a significant
contribution to Fiji's ethnic conflict.
At the independence in 1970, the new state got a democratic constitution that
was to ensure the political balance with Melanesians in the leading role. At the
1987 elections, however, a coalition of Fiji Indians came to power, and a
strong-willed fear among the chiefs and within the Melanesian-dominated military
led to a military coup. The government was ousted and the constitution
suspended. Many Fiji Indians left the country and a civilian government ensuring
absolute Melanesian control was introduced.
The political rivalry between Fiji's two major ethnic groups, the Melanesian
Fijians and the Fiji Indians, continued through the 1990's and culminated in the
spring of 2000, when the Melanesian businessman George Speight (b. 1957) with a
group of soldiers took the ethnic mixed government as hostages.
He sought to implement a constitutional amendment that would allow only
Melanesian Fijians to hold political office. The coup attempt was followed by
widespread unrest with looting of Fiji Indian businesses and assaults. In
addition, Fiji was temporarily suspended from the Commonwealth. The coup
attempt failed and the leaders were sentenced to prison terms. Fiji, however,
remained politically unstable. The government's proposal for an amnesty for the
coup leaders from 2000 helped trigger a military coup in December 2006, after
which coup leader Frank Bainimarama came to power.
In 2009, Fiji was again suspended as a member of the Commonwealth, as
Bainimarama, despite promises to do so, had not re-established democracy.
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