Page 22 - IB September 2018 Edition

Politics
mangroves.
“If you take this, what will be
left for us?”
But Bainimarama is under pres-
sure at home after 12 years of
leadership first as a dictator and
then as an elected Prime Minister
who swept to power on a raft
of supposed freebies including
education, bus fares and health
services.
Cash handouts to people in the
farming and fishing sectors as well
as material for rebuilding after
a devastating tropical cyclones
have put additional pressure on an
economy which must repay loans
for new roads.
In lieu of a tax hike, money for
the repayments and handouts
must come from extractive indus-
try – fisheries, forestry and mining
– which will ultimately impact the
environment and the climate.
Prior to COP23 Bainimarama
said the climate crisis could not Atonina Loata wants state action to stop environmental destruction. will be before Fiji’s climate change
be ignored.
“It’s hard to find any part of the
world that is unaffected by a changing ria, India and Bangladesh.
climate,” he said, listing Atlantic storms
battering Ireland, wildfires in California,
22 Islands Business, September 2018
At the time, United States Presi-
dent Donald Trump, had signalled
his intention to withdraw from the
Paris Agreement.
Bainimarama made no direct
mention of the withdrawal. But
his Climate Change Ambassador
in Bonn Justice Nazhat Shameem
expressed hope.
“We hope we will all stay, as
we say in the Pacific, in the same
canoe, going in the same direction
and paddling at the same speed,”
Khan told Reuters.
“It would be the best possible
solution if President Trump stays
in the canoe.”
Those were noble Pacific senti-
ments.
Unfortunately, the words were
mouthed by a diplomat on behalf
of a leader who had already aban-
doned his colleagues in the Pacific
canoe and decided to row alone.
Only time will tell how long it
canoe is dashed against the rocks
Portugal and Spain, and floods in Nige- of Western-style development by the
waves of greed and corruption.
There was no mention of Fiji’s neigh-
bours of Tuvalu and Kiribati. r netrika66@gmail.com