mcoleman117@hotmail.co.uk                                       RETURN

Dear Friends

The past month has been reasonably quiet and I have taken the opportunity to change my computer and technical devices. Those with any experience in this procedure will be aware of the frustrations involved. All is not finished, but this Newsletter is the first to be produced with the new technology. So far I have received 12 bookings for the Swanwick Conference. This is a good start and I hope that many of you will be contacting me in the near future. This conference is going to be very important as the starting point for the Marist Way in 21^st Century. We are very fortunate to have Fr Jan Hulsohf SM, Superior General of the Marist Fathers, as our keynote speaker. Fr Hulsohf has a wide knowledge and understanding of the Marist Charism for the 21^st Century. The effort to attend will be well rewarded.

       Place            Swanwick Conference centre

       Speaker       Fr Jan Hulshof SM (Superior General Marist Fathers)

       Cost            £125.00 (Single rooms. Private facilities)

                          Booking forms are now available.

                          Please contact me at the above address

WEBSITE As reported last month we now have a website. – http//maristway.org and a special Email address to go with it – webmaster@maristway.org. If people would like to contribute simply contact the Webmaster at the Email address. I am not a web browser but I was very interested with the result of my enquiry on Google – St Peter Chanel SM – I really didn’t know that so much information was available. Browsers keep browsing!

The Council for the Marist Way will meet in ND de France, Leicester Place

to plan the Swanwick Conference and prepare our programme for 2007.

The coup in Fiji is a very complicated affair.  The government that was removed by the army was legitimately elected, but it tended to be racist (that is, anti Indian), or at least overly favourable to the Fijians, and corruption was getting worse.  A number of those involved in the 2000 coup were in the government that has just been removed.  Part of the problem is that most Fijians are afraid of Indian financial power, won't stand for an Indian led government, they want policies that overly help them at the expense of other races, and they liked the 2000 coup.

There were many rumours of corruption, but not too much has been proven yet.  The ideals of the army leader who led the coup were quite good in many ways:  stop proposed discriminatory legislation, stop corruption. The problem is that he has removed a legitimately elected government.

Most Fijians are not in favour of the present military backed interim government.  Quite a lot of Indians are in favour, as they see the chance to right some old wrongs.

What will happen in the future is not yet clear.  I the army can prove widespread corruption in the old government, they will probably get the majority of people on side.  That has not yet happened.  There have been quite a few cases of people who speak out against the army being taken to the military camp, some of them have been beaten, one has been killed.  If they don't stop that sort of thing they will have very little or no support.

So we live from day to day, hoping that good will eventually come out of it.  Our Archbishop is reasonable upbeat about it all.  Some of the other church leaders have been more condemnatory, especially those who were close to the old government.

It looks as if tourism is starting to pick up again.  Tourism is the biggest income earner in Fiji.  After the coup many tourists cancelled, and there were no new bookings.  But the tourist numbers are starting to pick up again.  Some countries still have warnings out to the members not to travel to Fiji, but these have been lifted at least partly in the main tourism markets of New Zealand and Australia.

The new school year starts in just over a week (the long holiday is over Christmas time, in common with Australia and New Zealand).  After some uncertainties school is due to start on time.

John Crispin SM

M Coleman SM Marist Way Delegation Animator