Some things I’ve touched in past columns, but still they make you want to, hmm?!

I know it’s not a Tucson regional business issue but ever since our son went to work for a government program in Fiji I’ve been paying attention to the news from the South Pacific island nation. In addition to worries of floods, hurricanes and tsunamis recently, last month, after a court in the country ruled the military-run government that took power in a December 2006 coup d’état was illegal, the government repealed the constitution, kicked out the judges and assumed all powers.

On top of that, like pretty much every other country in the world, the economy is an issue in Fiji. The value of the Fijian dollar was devalued 20 percent three weeks ago and is now worth about 45 cents U.S. That’s down from 69 cents when I wrote about it in July 2008.

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The coup led by Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, who has now been named the country’s prime minister, was the fourth Fiji has had since 1987. There is much to be concerned about. Bainimarama has refused to allow elections, as he had initially promised. On the other hand, the coup, at least in part, stemmed from issues of the constitutional  government being racist against the 38 percent Indo-Fijian population whose arrival in the country dates back to the 19th century. About 57 percent of the population of about 930,000 is indigenous Fijian.

So I get it that coups by dictators are bad and elections are good. The governments of Australia and, especially New Zealand, have been heavy-handed in their opposition toward the Fijian government — almost to the point of being bullies about it.

Do you suppose they’re just emulating what the United States would do?

TUSD’s dropouts

A study released April 22 ranked Tucson Unified School District the second best in the nation for improving its dropout rate between 1995 and 2005 by nearly 23 percentage points. Even though the starting point was fewer than half of high school students graduating, the fact that TUSD got to a graduation rate of 71.6 percent might be something to at least commemorate, immediately followed by a self-challenge to raise it to 99 percent. But not in TUSD, where officials dismissed the report saying it was based on meaningless formulas.

The report, funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was put together by America’s Promise Alliance, a partnership of corporations, nonprofits, policymakers and advocacy groups. So plenty of others paid attention to it, even if TUSD didn’t. And then we wonder why companies don’t think much of Tucson.

At least Tucson isn’t Philadelphia where the graduation rate jumped just over 23 percentage points but they’re still only graduating about 62 percent of their high school students. 

Special interest?

Why is it called a special interest when businesses support a cause but it’s not a special interest when a government entity wants something?  

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. Contact David Hatfield at dhatfield@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4237.