A leading Fijian opposition lawmaker is delighting new social media followers with his wide-eyed discovery of Twitter, even as the nation is experiencing heightened political tensions.
National Federation Party president Pio Tikoduadua on Monday announced that while his Twitter account had been created a while ago, it had been run by his staff until now.
“This is my first week of actively using it,” he wrote. “I have discovered what a ‘retweet’ and a ‘quote tweet’ is. I hope to engage with you more! God Bless Fiji.”
Since then, Tikoduadua has been documenting his parliamentary engagements, as well as his faltering attempts to use the platform, bringing joy to his followers.
Tikoduadua’s posts, which include questions to followers about how notifications work on Twitter, as well as courteous replies to criticism, have offered respite from the political tension, as well as considerable amusement.
Ahead of the Rugby sevens Olympic quarter-final on Tuesday which saw Fiji trounce Australia 19-0, he wrote: “Bula friends, I hope that your evening is going well as we all wait for Fiji’s game. Today I learn that ‘FFS’ does not mean ‘Fiji First Supporters.’ God Bless Fiji.”
Fiji First is the name of the nation’s ruling party.
In another post, Tikoduadua responded to a follower whose Twitter handle is KitKat who wrote that “You may be new here sir, but tweeting like a real OG!!!!!”
“Bula KitKat,” came the lawmaker’s formal reply. “Please explain what ‘OG’ means. I’m assuming it means ‘Old Girl?’”
When user Mama Dragon explained it meant “Original Gangster” and was a compliment, he replied: “Bula Mama, thank you for that important clarification. These terms are confusing!”
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited