Speaker of the House Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu shared his experiences with the Fiji 7s team and how our boys slept on the verandas at the Sydney Airport while they were travelling to Dubai last year. This is so sad, indeed! As a result, the boys were fatigued from the lack of proper rest, resulting in their poor outing in Dubai. According to honourable Lalabalavu, there was no money. This must stop. FRU must ensure that our 7s team is well-looked after when they are on tour. The boys must be given pocket allowances. After all, they are making so many sacrifices to ensure Fiji’s flag is flown on the 7s arena. If they are treated well, they will perform. Singapore 7s is coming up. I’m urging the Sports Ministry to start thinking about incentives that will boost the players to win the Singapore and Madrid 7s titles. It’s also sad that the promise that was made to Jerry Tuwai has not been fulfilled. I hope that Jerry’s family will get good news. Repeka Nasiko’s shameful story (FT 10/4) on the Fiji 7s team sleeping out on the outside decks of the Sydney International Airport should not really come as a surprise. I thought the women’s team
were the ones normally treated with some contempt. Sydney Airport closes to the public nightly at 11.30pm and reopen their doors at 2.30am. Either FRU were ignorant of this or they just didn’t care

The ground floor of my house is about 15 metres below the site on Princes Rd where Water Authority of Fiji was at work day and night last week repairing damage done by Horizontal Directional Drilling gone wrong that was instigated by a telecommunications company. I guess that is why I usually get at least a trickle of piped water during WAF service disruptions when houses up on Princes Rd run dry. The water cut last week was the longest I’ve experienced here in over 20 years and I felt sorry for everybody on higher ground that spent several days without even a trickle and had to depend on water trucks. WAF’s Seru Soderberg did an outstanding job with video updates explaining what was happening on Princes Rd, and maybe the unnamed company at fault will eventually be forced to reimburse WAF for costs of the HDD fiasco. But how can hundreds of households in Suva that suffered lack of water last week be compensated? I already held a grudge against the offending company, for buying up rights to HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series broadcasts and preventing everyone from watching the entire series live on TV for free as we have done for decades.
Wouldn’t it be smart public relations for the big telecommunications company to be better and make amends now by allowing us to watch live HSBC Sevens on commercial TV again?