|
A NEW INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ORDER:
BASIC PROBLEMS AND THE 1943 KEYNES PLAN
A. P. Thirlwall
We live in a very divided and chaotic international economic environment that favours the strong at the expense of the weak. According to the 1987 World Development Report, the average
level of per capita income in the developed industrialised countries is nearly $12,000 per annum compared to $270 in 30 very low income countries, and $1,300 in 60 middle income countries. There are also large
discrepancies in other indices of welfare such as literacy, life expentancy, housing provision, and other basics needs. There are nearly three billion people living in primary poverty, and nearly one billion suffer
various states of malnutrition.
THE ``THREE FIJI’S `` THESIS: A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF A NEO-EMPIRICIST-NATURALISTIC ANALYSIS OF FIJI’S POLITY
Nii-K Plange
Empiricism, which takes observed phenomena and processes as given, almost natural, and primary units of explanation, has long dominated social scientific thought and
analysis. In the South Pacific it appears in the works of several authors on Fiji who subscribe to what is known as the ``Three Fiji’s Thesis`` . This thesis is a variation on
the poly-ethnic society theme where observable ethnic or ‘racial’ categories - in Fiji’s case, European, Fijian and Indian- provide the primary units for explaining Fiji’s socio
-economic and political developments and crisis. Hence the ``Three Fiji’s`` .Diffrences between the three ‘races’ are first identified and then underlined as
significant in producing socio-economic and even political diffrences.
WARMING OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC REGION SINCE 1880:
EVIDENCE, CAUSES AND IMPLICATIONS
Patrick D. Nunn
The Earth’s climate is a tropical issue at present, largely because of concerns about how the ``greenhouse effect`´ may change the environment. This paper is an attempt
to remove some of the misunderstanding which surrounds this subject by showing what evidence there is to support the belief that the South Pacific regiuon has been
warming recently, to what causes this may be attributed, and what the consequent implications are for the region’s future.
REGIONAL PROTESTS AGAINST NUCLEAR WASTE DUMPING IN THE PACIFIC
Yoko S. Ogashiwa
A Japanese government proposal for dumping nuclear waste in the Pacific Ocean created one of the most controversial issues in the Pacific Island Countries (PICs).
Even though the proposed dumping site was situated far from most of the PICs, they vigorously protested against the Japanese plan through various channels. The efforts of
the Japanese government to appease the PICs drew strong reactions. Eventually the protests of the PICs led to the announcement by the Japanese government to halt the
plan. Although the decision of the Japanese government may be a temporary one, it represented a significant victory for the small island states in their struggle with a big
power. This paper documents the PICs’ reaction to the Japanese plan, and the methods used to pressurized the Japanese Government.
PRIVATE SECTOR EFFICIENCY-PUBLIC SECTOR EFFICIENCY:
Evidence from the Suva-Nadi Highway Reconstruction Project
Ganesh Chand
Arguments for privatization rest on the belief that private sector production and distribution systems are relatively more efficient than their public sector counterparts.
The foundation for this belief is embedded in the neoclassical orthodoxy of the ‘invisible hand’ : if each and every economic entity maximized its own objective
function in a perfectly competitive market economy, the society’s welfare will automatically be optimized. But given that the fundamental requirement of this doctrine
-a perfectly competitive market economic affairs are put forward: in the presence of market imperfections, it is argued, the state serves a useful purpose in deliberating on
the necessary requirements that will provide the second best, third best and other lower order solutions to the welfare promlem.
FIJI’S COLONIAL HISTORY AND CAPITALISTS DEVELOPMENT: A REVIEW ARTICLE
Wadan Narsey
In the development literature, there is no shortage of studies which include that colonialism was the major cause of underdevelopment of colonies. Thus, to name only
a few, Palme Dutt (1957), Barratt Brown (1970), Brett (1973), and Bagchi (1982), while having different emphases on the contributory mechanisms, generally agree that
colonism resulted in the commanding heights of the colonial economies being dominated by expatriate capitals, who had prefential access to colonial resources
which were denied to indigenous groups.The colonies were thereby subordinately integrated into the imperial economy: where industry had existed, an effective
deindustrialization took place; colonial markets were taken over, while the production and consumption patterns of the colonial economy were restructed and geared for
exports of mainly primary products to, and imports from, the metropolitan economy; industriliasation, except of the most elementary form, was discouraged; wages were
artificially kept low in order to bolster profits; and far ffom capital was extracted from them.
THE IMPACT OF TOURISM ON A VILLAGE COMMUNITY:
A CASE STUDY OF VOTUA VILLAGE; NADROGA/NAVOSA, FIJI
Michael Sofer
In the late 1970s tourism was promoted as a sector which could generate empolyment and increase greatly needed foreign earnings for the evolving South Pacific island
states. In a situation where links with the global economy faced obstacles of small size, distance from markets and isolation from technological development, income derived
from tourism seemed to be an appropiate response to a worsening balance of trade. Moreover, in the small South Pacific states where options for development and wage
employment are few, the expansion of the tourist industry seemed to offer one of few viable opportunuties.
AN EXPLORATORY SURVEY OF COMPUTER INSTALLATIONS USING ACCOUNTING APPLICTIONS PACKAGES IN FIJI
Norman Gilroy
This paper describes an initial survey of small computer systems of firms in Fiji using accounting software. The surveyors were primarily concerned with researching
productivity gains and looses experienced in the installation of accounting computer systems. Given an absence of previous research in this area, the survey was intended
to be exploratory in nature, and attempted to identify, though not to quantify, costs incurred in computer installations, such as capital investment, staff, training, recurrent
expenses in supplies and overheads, disruption of routine, loss of data, loss of control and displacement of personnel. The surveyors also hoped to recognise productivity
gains brought about by rapid processing of data, and improved decision making based on timely and accurate financial reports.
|
