fijipina

fiji? san yun?

20 Apr 2010 1 Comment

by shallow in beach, holiday, resort, tradition Tags: fiji, fiji water, history, resorts, scuba diving, surfing

this is the most faq i get since i got here.

btw, i think the only reason my husband was attracted to me the first time we met was of all the girls he met so far in the philippines, i was the only one who knew where fiji was. admit it, ado…

so here’s a little fiji islands 101:

the republic of the fiji islands is a nation located in the south pacific flanked by vanuatu, new caledonia, tonga, tuvalu and new zealand. i bet you only recognize new zealand. perhaps tonga too, but only because you know asi taulava.

from fijibeachouse.

it has over 300 islands and over 500 islets. which is not a very remarkable fact for you, i’m sure, because you’re accustomed to over 7,100 islands (“high tide or low tide?”).

native fijians are of melanesian descent. they account for about half of the population. indo-fijians account for almost another half. then the rest: europeans, asians, arabs.

fiji children. from johnny jet.

the islands became a british colony in 1874. they brought in contract workers from india to work on the plantations (there was a policy then wherein native labor wasn’t allowed to keep from disrupting the culture). thus the large chunk of indo-fijian population.

fiji indians in 1953. from te ara.

they were granted independence in 1970, but became a republic only in 1987. it’s a young nation.

they operate under a parliamentary system where the prime minister is the head of government and the president is the head of state.

speaking of population, fiji has less than a million. imagine: the philippines has over 80 million, about 11 million in metro manila alone.

of course, in the world over, fiji is best known for its resorts…

…and surfing…

from surfers village.

…and scuba diving.

from le grand bleu.

oh, and… well, fiji water.