An old Pastor told me decades ago, ‘People should focus on what they do have, not what they don’t have.’ This gem stayed with me and is the central component of this column.
ISLAND NATION NUMBER ONE, FIJI
Nestled in the tropics, this nation treads water in its prosperity with tourism, agriculture, and export of products such as bottled water. The people are benefiting from British colonisation.
They’re mainly Christian, infectiously happy, and welcoming. The legal system is steady, fair, and equitable.
Although the limited job opportunities in fishing, forestry, and minerals are causing migration to larger neighbouring countries, the nation possesses significant potential for deep-sea mineral resources, particularly seafloor massive sulphides (SMS). These deposits are rich in copper, gold, lead, silver, and other valuable metals, but this of course needs enormous investment to mine.
Like any remote tropical nation, the untimely arrival of cyclones, typhoons or hurricanes can immediately cause a negative impact on tourism and agriculture and indeed the lives of local inhabitants.
Another problem for Fiji, like all remote island nations, is the high cost of importing fossil fuels necessary to feed the nation’s generators and fuel stations, and then the distribution to all remote parts of the country, increases this cost significantly. In Fiji, the importation cost of fuel is already above one billion dollars per annum. This, of course, is the major economic handbrake on the nation’s prosperity.
With all the advantages and disadvantages of any nation, the biggest element in their prosperity is the calibre of leadership, and luckily for Fiji, Sitiveni Rabuka, an ex-military man with bravery awards, is a true leader.
Addressing his nation’s largest economic handbrake, Rabuka has last month announced that Fiji is engaged in dialogue with Deployable Energy of Houston Texas, in the possibility of using Micro Modular Nuclear reactors (MMRs), with Lloyds Register of London undertaking the approvals process. High-level numbers already show that these MMR nuclear solutions will give an economic and proven base load power for his two main islands and distant remote islands, such as Rotuma. Rabuka knows controlling Fiji’s energy security is far more important than risking their prosperity with expensive fossil fuel importation, which could be quickly cut off in an increasingly troubled world, and would bring Fiji to its knees.
Focusing on what Fiji has, Rabuka is revitalising shipbuilding necessary to address skills shortages. Fijians have a long history of peace-keeping in the Middle East, are known for their hardworking and friendly attitude and of course their rugby skills. The new shipyard in Lautoka will train steel and aluminium welders, electricians, carpenters, plumbers, draftsmen, technicians, and administrators. Ships are the key element in any island nation transportation network.
ISLAND NATION NUMBER TWO – AUSTRALIA
This huge island nation is actually a continent, but is failing to tread water in its prosperity, despite huge inherent wealth of minerals, agriculture, tourism, and exports. The people are still benefiting from British colonisation, being mainly Christian, but are becoming increasingly unhappy and angry. The legal system is weak, Woke, has difficulty in defining a woman, or issuing penalties that remotely resemble deterrents in the ever-increasing crime sweeping our country.
Although there are many job opportunities in all sectors, the industrial relations imposed by this present government have caused the collapse of over 32,000 businesses during this government’s tenure and many other businesses have already moved to other countries.
Australia is rich in copper, gold, lead, silver, uranium, thorium, and other valuable metals, but investment in mining is significantly and constantly stifled by obstructive red and green tape.
Weather events in this huge nation of ours cause regional negative impacts, but these often dwarf in comparison to government-imposed policies.
A problem for Australia, is the high cost of importing fossil fuels necessary to feed the nation’s fuel storage. Disruption to this supply line and its risky 14-day reserve, is an easy attack option for any adversary.
With all the advantages and disadvantages of any nation, the biggest element in the country’s prosperity, is again the calibre of leadership. Unluckily for Australia, Anthony Albanese in three short years, has already overwhelmingly proven to be a hopeless leader and should be foisted off as permanent ambassador to a central African economic basket case, such as Burundi, where he can show them how to plummet even further.
In failing to focus on what Australia has, such as huge quantities of uranium, thorium, gas, and coal, Albanese has swallowed the Net Zero fantasy of the UN, and is myopically focused instead, on wind turbines and solar panels from China. This policy alone is destroying the national economy and the disposable income of all residents at the same time.
Australia has had a long history of defence activities with key allies such as the US and UK, but as we are presently trading insolvent, our already inadequate defence capability has no sign of being boosted. Scary! Even the pre-election promise of 12 new ships morphed into a half-billion-dollar waste on the Voice.
By ignoring repeated calls to at least lift the existing nine bans on nuclear and investigate the merits of such power, even in SMRs and MMR technology, Albanese has already continued to deplete baseload power and is driving the dwindling manufacturing capability into the ground. Albanese doesn’t know that controlling Australia’s own energy security is far more important than risking the nation’s prosperity with expensive fossil fuel importation, which if cut off in an increasingly troubled world, would bring Australia quickly to its knees. Watching this level of stupidity should terrify the wits out of every Australian.
The tiny nation of Singapore, with outstanding leaders such as Lee Kuan Yew, has become an economic powerhouse for its six million residents, with tough and clear leadership. Interesting to note that Lee Kuan Yew predicted that Australia would become the poor trash of the Asia-Pacific region, with their self-centred policies of laziness and socialism. And yes, Singapore is already considering nuclear SMRs!
Fiji, with a much larger land mass than Singapore and only one million residents under Rabuka’s leadership, is ensuring that the nation’s prosperity will increase, yet Australia’s economy is going south, so don’t be surprised to see them passing each other soon in the prosperity ratings.
Timely for an Easter message – island two is being self-crucified. Island one is being resurrected.