Fast Facts
- Named for: Fiji is the Anglicized pronunciation of the Tongan pronunciation of the indigenous’ name Viti.
- Capital: Suva
- Long/Lat: 18.1S/178.3 E (almost in the West), 5500 mi, 10 hours west
- Population: 926,000 (14 Castro Valley’s worth)
- Size: 7000 sq mi of land (411 CVs) but 75,000 sq mi total territory, 332 islands
- Avg temp in April: 89 F/31 C, tropics!
- Median household income: $6000 annually
- Ethnicity: 57% indigenous Fijians, 38% Indo-Fijians
- Main industries: Tourism, sugar cane, gold
Fiji is not a particularly small island, compared with others that we’ll see later, however, it is the smallest country beginning with F. It’s actually two big islands, plus 330 other small islands, some with and some without people. Plus, technically, a lot of water in between.
We might, perhaps, be tiring of the pronunciation issue. Fiji is called that because that’s what Captain Cook heard the Tongans call it, i.e., the name is not what the people who live there call it. But since their language isn’t ours anyway, they may not care how we butcher their name. They know who they are. Also, it always pleases me to remember that the arrogant colonizer Cook ended up clubbed to death because he opened fire on indigenous Hawai’ians who thought he had given them his boats. He said, “No, I take them back, you savages,” and they said, “Yeah, well you shot one of us, but while you’re reloading your fire stick, we avenge all our island brothers.” *whomp*
Continue reading “F is for Fiji”
