The Lagilagi Housing Project is a partnership between families and PCN, where the families pay $12,000 over a period of 12 to 14 years for the construction of their own two or three bedroom home.

More than 70 families are currently occupying the units constructed in the first phase of the project.

Chairman of the board at PCN and consultant of the NGO, Catholic priest Father Kevin Barr, said phase two has started and that will house another 46 families.

Barr said there are also plans to have a Community Hall, a Kindergarten and Homework Centre, a small market, a Police Post, sports facilities and a taxi stand.

He said work on these extra services and facilities depend on the finance assistance they are able to foster with interested donor agencies and business communities.

$3 million was provided by the Government in 2014 for the completion of the remaining work of phase 1 and the commencement of phase 2.

Source

• fijitimes.com
• fijivillage.com
• Image: fijivillage.com

Barr was acting as a character witness for the former Prime Minster Mahendra Chaudhry.

Barr claimed "strong voices in the business lobby" wanted Chaudhry out of the way via the coup of May 2000 because he refused to indulge in "under the table" business dealings.

He recalled comments made by a prominent businessman in Suva (while Chaudhry was PM and Finance Minister) that Chaudhry "does not know how business is done in Fiji" and that unlike other Finance Ministers, "you could make your request, pass something under the table and get what you wanted, but this Chaudhry won't take something under the table and wants everything on top of the table."

Barr went on to question why those involved in the 2000 coup were not investigated despite calls to do so adding that it "appears to me to be an absolute lack of justice that this was never done."

He also criticised the "number of anti-union decrees" and treatment of unionists, and the continued lobbying by employers to keep "workers wages low."

"So, as I said above, it is in the interest of some powerful business people to have Mr Chaudhry out of the way," Father Barr said.

Justice Peter Madigan interrupted Barr's testimony and told him and Chaudhry's lawyer, Matthew Hutchings, that the comments were outrageous and that it was not a court of politics.

Barr then continued with the character reference saying that Chaudhry's record as Prime Minister and Finance Minister was outstanding.

When passing his sentence and highlighting the mitigation in the case, Justice Peter Madigan said Barr had launched into what can only be described as a political anti-government speech.

Madigan said Barr's statement only served to "cancel the work of the rest of the character evidence."

"More outrageously he cast disparaging remarks on the nature of these proceedings against Chaudhry by saying that it was a ‘sad attempt to discredit a great and honourable and a man of integrity for petty, vindictive reasons'."

The Justice said in the light of this contempt of court, he gave no weight whatsoever to Barr's testimonial.

Madigan said Chaudhry's lawyer, Matthew Hutchings must also be seen as a party to this contempt of court "because he had a typed a copy of Father Barr's antipathy."

A month ago Chaudhry was found guilty of having banked almost 1.5 million US dollars outside Fiji without the consent of the Reserve Bank of Fiji

He has been given until the end of next month to pay a fine of one point one million US dollars or he will be jailed for 15 months.
Source

• FijiVillage.com
• FijiToday
• Image FijiLive.com

Speaking as a panellist on the topic "Implementation of Socio-Economic Rights'" at the Attorney-General's 15th annual conference, he congratulated government on its initiatives and said the generous allocations for education would bring a radical change in parents' ability to send their children to school.

At the same time, Barr said he hoped assistance would continue as Fiji still had a long way to go "if we are to adequately address the basic socio-economic needs of so many people in Fiji today."

Source

• Fiji Times
• Image: MailLife.com

Based on the findings of the National Minimum Wage Baseline Survey, two dollars and thirty two cents an hour is now the proposed minimum wage.

Barr says the new proposed rate is a good start. "This is a transitional arrangement and I think it is a good start, I think it is excellent but hopefully it is not the final one. And as he (survey consultant) envisaged every two years - this will be re-visited and the formulas will be used again and perhaps strengthened a little bit."

Source

• The Fiji Times
• FBC
• Image: Radio Australia International

He was speaking at Pacific Conference of Churches Assembly. More than 200 delegates representing 34 churches and organizations are in Honiara for the week-long event.

Addressing the Assembly on Sunday Solomon Islands Deputy Prime Minister, Mannaseh Maelanga, also spoke about the important role for the Churches in address the issues of poverty, climate change and mining.

"These issues affect our people and we - governments and churches - must work together in these areas," Maelanga said.

On Saturday young Christian leaders made a similar call urging churches to take strong positions on the eradication of poverty and the protection of the environment.

Youth delegates from Maohi Nui (Tahiti) have asked young people at the assembly to join their quest to ensure that France does not conduct further nuclear tests in the region.

"What has happened in our islands with nuclear testing must never be allowed to happen again," Maohi Nui representative told delegates.

Source

• Island Business
• Image: PCC.org.fj

Barr, who has lived in Fiji for over 30 years, is an Australian citizen and his work permit expires at the end of the year. Radio New Zealand International reports that he is considering taking out Fijian citizenship now that the laws allow dual citizenship.

He says he has retained his Australian citizenship so that he can continue with his Australian pension "because as you get older you need some money to live. "

"I guess we'll wait and see what happens when the time comes but I'd like to stay on in Fiji because as I said this is my home and this is where my friends are and I am very much attached to the Fijian family that I stay with."

Barr has expressed gratitude that the deportation order for breaching his work permit has been revoked by Fiji's Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama.

The deportation order was issued after Barr wrote a letter to a local newspaper in which he jokingly suggested that a proposed new Fiji Flag could use a small version of the Chinese flag, to replace the Union Jack "to show that our old allegiance to Britain is being replaced with a new allegiance to China."

Also a confidential letter which Barr had written to the Archbishop and a few close friends found its way into the hands of what Barr calls "anti-government bloggers" who, he says, "publicised it widely and made me appear to be anti-government."

On Sunday the Fiji Times reported that Archbishop Elect, Father Peter Loy Chong, said that no church should be directly involved in politics.

"The church is not trained to handle political events such as elections and therefore it will have no direct role in such affairs," Chong said.

According to Chong "The Roman Catholic Church will have no influence on party politics nor influence the choice of its members for the purpose of enhancing a political party's victory in any elections."

Barr has confirmed that he was rung by Bainimarama after the comments about the flag appeared. Bainimarama told him the letter was irresponsible coming from a community leader.

Bainimarama then swore swore at him and accused him of being anti-government and told him to go back where he came from, before hanging up the phone.

The telephone conversation was followed by several abusive texts.

Source:

• The Fiji Times
• Australia Network News
• Pacific Scoop
• Pacific Media Centre
• The Fiji Times
• Image: Pacific Scoop

Representing the Peoples Community Network in a seminar titled "The Challenges of Poverty to the Constitution" held at the University of the South Pacific He said 60 per cent of the workers in full-time employment earned wages below the poverty line and 15-20 per cent of the people lived in squatter settlements.

"Poverty is a man-made problem which we ourselves can solve if we really want to," he said.

Barr said the constitution should address the rights of all the people to their basic needs.Source

Source

• The Fiji Times
• Image: WNN

Father Kevin Barr of ECREA said they had conducted awareness programs and workshops for their members on how they could make their voices heard.

He said workers had raised concerns because they believed that Fiji could not have peace without justice.

"Our main message today (Friday) is justice and peace," Father Barr said.

ECREA is a Non Government Organisation based in Suva, Fiji Islands. Founded in 1990 by the late Reverend Paula Niukula, with the aim to address the social, religious, economic and political issues that confront Fiji.

ECREA is guided by the principles of:

• Social Justice & Equity
• Integral Human Development
• Servant Leadership

Its website provides information about its programmes, resource centre and more.

Source

• The Fiji Times
• ECREA
• Image: WhoTalking

However the Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment has not received any formal notice of Barr's resignation.

On Sunday night, Minister Jone Usamate said neither he nor his permanent secretary Taito Waqa had received any formal resignation.

On Friday Barr told the Fiji Times that he had resigned from his position in protest for workers on poor wages and because of the decision to put on hold the 10 new Wages Regulation Orders (WROs) 2012 until October-end this year. He said another reason for his resignation was because the government was allowing employers to dominate the 10 Wages Regulations Orders without taking into consideration the plight of the workers.

He said the employers were given utmost priority in Fiji while the workers had been suffering with low wages.

"For how long will the workers suffer and for how long will they live in poverty?" he asked.

Fr Barr said many studies had proven that low wages in Fiji were one of the biggest factors leading to poverty.

• The Fiji Times
• The Fiji Times
• Radio New Zealand International
• Image: The Fiji Times

Two years ago I wrote:

"Unlike the 1987 and 2000 coups which were carried out in the name of ‘indigenous Fijian rights', this coup was in the name of multiculturalism. Moreover, while the 1987 and 2000 coups sought to protect the economic interests of certain business and traditional elites, this coup aimed to address corruption and economic mismanagement and see that the economy works in the interest of all Fiji's people (35% - 40% of whom live below the poverty line). Moreover, the Bainimarama government says it wants to return Fiji to real democracy and that his coup was a coup to end all future coups."

How well have the aims of the 2006 Coup been fulfilled?

I guess the big question now is how well have the aims of the December 2006 coup been fulfilled?

Combatting racism

In terms of combating racism and making everyone in Fiji respect multiculturalism, a lot has been achieved. The racist legislation of the Qarase era which provoked the coup has been withdrawn. People of all races living in Fiji are now called "Fijians" (with the indigenous Fijians being referred to as i-Taukei). The divisive aspects of elections has been done away with so that now we are to have one person, one vote. The names of schools identified according to race have been changed. Of course, as many say, it is easy to pass legislation against racism but changing the mentality of the people is another matter and takes time. But there have been very positive moves to address racism. However, as some point out, the army itself is still a racially based institution dominated by indigenous Fijians and so does not really represent multi-culturalism.

Class divisions have increased

Presumably racism has been fought for the purpose of making Fiji a more inclusive nation. However, while racism and racial divisiveness has been addressed, it would appear that class divisions have increased. Fiji is still a country with deep inequalities (as the 1997 Fiji Poverty Report states in its opening sentence). Income inequalities have increased with the lower 30% of the population earning roughly 10% of all wages and the upper 30% earning roughly 60% of all wages. Poverty and inequality have increased. A number of pro-poor programs have been introduced (such as free bus fares for those whose parents combined income is below $15,000, free text-books for schools, food stamps for those on social welfare) BUT these have been negated by policies introduced on the advice of the World Bank and the IMF (such as increasing VAT, devaluing the currency by 20%, and privatizing/corporatizing various entities - including basic services such as water and electricity). All these policies have impacted heavily on the poor only 3-4% of whom are covered under Social Welfare programs. Read more

• Fr Kevin J Barr in Croz Walsh's Blog
• Image: fijilive

He says that the number of people living in squatter settlements is likely to increase. Many now living in the settlements used to work in the sugarcane industry and have moved into the towns because there was no longer any work available in the rural areas.

While many are earning a wage, in most cases it is not enough to lift them out of poverty. 80% are earning less than F$100.00 a week and F$185.00 dollars is considered to be the poverty line.

Social obligations remain and people still have the desire to help their families. They continue to send money home to their villages and to support their churches, and this is making Fiji's poor poorer

Barr says he has received complaints from some pastors that, as a result of being people being taught to budget by the Peoples' Community Network, contributions to the church have decreased.

Fiji has a significant poverty problem, with estimates that 30 per cent of its population live in absolute poverty, with 15 per cent living in one of over 200 squatter settlements, the majority in the capital Suva.

Listen to Interview with Fr Kevin Barr on Pacific Beat

• Image: Screen Shot Sydney Morning Herald

"We have an unprecedented opportunity for the two organisations to come together and speak with one voice and I feel that is something that both organisations should work towards," he said.

He was speaking at the Fiji Trades Unions Congress 44th Biennial Conference in Nadi on Friday 11 May.

Kevin Barr was also scheduled to address the National Federation Party's working committee on social Justice issues when it met on Saturday.

Source

• Fiji Times
• The Fiji Times
• Image: Fiji Times

Key issues discussed in the booklet include:

• The "scandalous" aspects of wealth and poverty in the US and other countries;
• The current growing uprising against capitalism in many parts of the world;
• The benefits for everyone of having greater equality in a society;
• The need for greater sharing, compassion and concern for the common good and how this message is affirmed in the major religious traditions of the world; and
• The need to rethink what real development is all about and what economic system will best promote authentic development.

Source

• The Fiji Times
• Image: Kester Brewin

"A few months ago I wrote a little booklet on forgiveness and in it quoted the story of a Jewish Rabbi in New York who in his final sermon in the synagogue did not speak of his accomplishments but rather asked for forgiveness from his congregation," he said.

"So I took this opportunity to ask forgiveness for all the times I was angry and impatient, for all the times I didn't give you the attention and concern you deserved and for the times I failed in compassion and understanding and didn't get around to visiting those who were sick or in prison."

• The Fiji Times Online
• Image: The Fiji Times Online