Resonancia Magnética 3 Teslas

As has been noted in Chapter Three, the perception of time for most Boumā people was very different to my own. While for me, productivity requires an element of urgency which is future-focused, this was seldom so for my participants. Ravuvu explains that a general indigenous Fijian attitude is that priorities lie with the events of today and contentment in the present: the future will take care of itself. Someone who worries about the future is said to be ocaoca (anxious/annoyed) (Capell, 1968, p. 157). Accumulation of surplus is pointless. This attitude is conveyed in the following expressions: ‘”[m]aroroya me qai kena na qele’ (to keep it only to feed the earth) or [m]aroroya me qai kena na baca” (to keep it only to feed the worms)’ (Ravuvu, 1983, p. 107). Ravuvu explains that this attitude functions to reduce frustration, stress, and conflict between kin and others and suggests that an overly ambitious nature, particularly one that means the individual spends less time enjoying the fruits of their labour with others is considered ‘morally unacceptable’ (ibid) as it is antithetical to the vanua.

While some researchers do value the inclusion of local perceptions of time such as Laverack’s (2003) methodology for building community capabilities in Fiji, Workman (1993) suggests that

many researchers view differences in language, customs, perceptions of time, values for non-economic development and resistance to change as problems to be over-come. This is short-sighted. Cultural differences, especially differences in world views, can provide the impetus to create more useful research for development efforts and also increase our knowledge about the world (p. 24).

Ingold argues that non-industrialised people still ‘retain a large measure of control over the rhythms of their working lives’. For these people he says,

time is intrinsic to the array of specific tasks that make up the pattern of a quotidian activity of a community…[and that]…the formal logic of

capitalist production undermines this task-orientation by establishing an absolute division, in principle, between the domains of work and social life’ (2000, p. 323).

Some indigenous Fijians’ perceptions of time are now being challenged with the introduction of programmes developed to enhance productivity and encourage entry into the market economy. This can have a profound impact on the vanua at village level. In Lavena village, for example, some families are managing to maintain a life almost separate from the rest of the community. They limit or avoid ‘ere’ere and ca’aca’a va’a ‘oro for a more individualistic, self-determined life. These families may be regarded as more ‘successful’ in a Western sense of the term but to many in Vanua Boumā, individual pursuits of any kind are perceived as immoral and, to some, may be abhorrent (see also Nabobo-Baba, 2007, 2007a). Therefore, these vūvales74 _{may be}

criticised by other members of the community (see also Tomlinson, 2004). This was the case with one notable family who, after attending a series of courses on time management and business management (among others) at the Tutu Agricultural College75_{, successfully juggled four sources of income to support their own vūvale.}

Their ‘success’ was met by a mixture of admiration and criticism from their yavusa. Comments to me were never made with specific reference to the family. These were made as general statements although I knew very well who they were talking about. Here is one example of the kinds of comments I heard in talanoa:

If you live in a village you have to live va’a vanua Otherwise, don’t live in a village.

Live somewhere else.

The majority of comments I heard in Lavena indirectly criticising families like these involved the comment that they seldom attended village meetings, and park and village clean-up days. Others praised them for their productivity and their ability to provide for

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their family comparing them to the ‘lazy’ ones in the yavusa who did little but ‘drink their children’s education away’ referring to the over-consumption of yaqona in the yavusa76_.

A number of community members told me about a government-run programme that was implemented to improve productivity across Fiji. The programme sounded very good, although somewhat regimented. However, the community could not adjust their lifestyle to match the programme and after one year, it was rejected. A Waitabu woman describes the programme and why she thought it failed:

We used to wake up at 5 o’clock in the morning and prepare breakfast

and by 8 o’clock

every man in the village

was supposed to be out in the plantation.

And we were divided up into four groups: All the stronger groups

mixed with the weaker ones so we could help one another.

If there was a funeral or a wedding everything would be provided as a community.

I said we wouldn’t be able to do it

unless they [the government] kept coming back and reviewing the program.

People are used to their own lifestyle and their own timing.

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We did this for about a year

and although the majority liked the idea The stronger ones really couldn’t work with the weaker ones

and said it was a waste of time. And the weaker ones

were really breaking the program

because they kept drinking grog after 10 o’clock. So the program didn’t work.

It was really a good program. I miss it.

I saw it as a way we could build our own home,

we could build our own church. We could do just about anything we wanted to do.

The whole community

could have benefited from this program.

We would have been able to support ourselves.

But they [Boumā people] only live for today and tomorrow they find it difficult

to plan too far ahead into the future. It didn’t work

because they couldn’t adjust their timing.

I suspect that it was more than time management, forward planning, and kava abuse that caused the program to fail. The program sounded so regimented that it also

contradicted many in Boumā’s call for ‘individual human rights’ that had emerged largely through formal education in the 1970s as discussed in the previous chapter.