“GOD is dead, God remains dead and we have killed him”, the enigmatic words of the German Philosopher – Friedrich Nietzsche. In a predominantly God and rugby obsessed nation like our own, these words are tantamount to blasphemy, heresy and as my late mother would typically retort, “rebuke it luvequ (my son), rebuke it!” However, at the risk of being ostracised, I would argue that Nietzsche’s words are relevant if not evident in Fiji today.
Before, the conservative and the religious among you, yell, scream or start praying and “rebuking me”, as I suspect my late mother would, let me explain. At one point or another we can agree that most Fijians see ‘God’ as the source, the means out of which morals are drawn. Attached to this is religion as its organised structure, from which these morals are referenced, studied, recited and praised. “God” in such a regard is understood and accepted as being the supreme entity, ever present, ever powerful, although invisible in homes and in whispered conversations.
Yet we would wonder where our morals have gone, when we read of the most horrendous cases of sexual violence that seem to “spring eternal” in our print dailies, court system and conversations around the tanoa. Take for instance the 29-year-old father that raped his seven-month-old daughter early last year or just as of this week, the accused 65-year-old for allegedly raping his six-year-old grandson.
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