Sunday, March 18, 2007

Week Four

Week Four

Right now I am in the swing of things regarding subjects. I am really enjoying the subjects this semester. Human rights raises more questions more than answers as you dig deeper into what really are human rights. The lecturer is an Aussie, which is nice, and she is always referring to facts about Australia and wanting me to back her up. The migration subject is good and looks at what development issues there are around types of migration and what it might possibility look like in the future. My final subject is an independent research subject, which is probably going to stretch me the most. At the moment I am looking at the correctional service here in Fiji and what legislation is about it, whether they focus on the offender or the victim, as it would be with restorative justice. I think I will be working with a couple of organisation that work in the prison, one being with a reverend who once was an inmate and has been going into the prison for 25 years. He has a focus of just being someone that inmates can talk to as this is what helped him the most being able to hear out loud his thoughts. The other organisation is Prison Ministries, which has a focus of rehabilitation through conversion. They run the Alpha course with the 40 days of purpose course. These courses are compulsory for every inmate that gets put in prison. This is an approach that the first guy totally doesn’t like and the have confrontations all the time. So I really hope it works out and I am looking forward to see what my thoughts will be at the end of it all. Both organisations have invited me to visit the prison weekly so I think it should be an interesting semester you will understand if I can take pictures of the prisons.

There is no real important news that has happened lately, though I have been kite surfing a bit but not as much as I would like. The wind season doesn’t start until April – May, so I will just have to be patient. I think I will go surfing in the Easter break and maybe during the semester break. This semester has a complete different feel compared to last semester. Again I think it will be learning and growing experience. I am glad I have come back because there are things that I have been thinking about that I may not have at home and things I would like to follow up upon returning home to Australia.

I hope everything is fine at the places wherever you are at and I look forward to returning home with many stories.