Google News has been a favorite site of mine for several years when I want to find news articles about a particular topic, or see a variety of takes on a topic. As those who use Google News know, it also features various international versions on the bottom of the page one might selet.
Several weeks ago, I decided to check out a few of the international Google News sites. Those sites included South Africa. Since then, each time I hit Google News I now get the South African version. This isn’t a serious issue. The news on the page is in English and I’d say less than a third of the stories are about Africa while the rest are primarily international or U.S. stories you’d normally see on Google News. It is also easy enough to scroll down to the bottom and click on the U.S. version. But I don’t understand why the South African site has hijacked my Google. I want my American Google dammit!
Speaking of Google News, I think maybe it was there where on Saturday I found a news article about a potential coup in Fiji. Granted, the story is not one that would shake loose a lot of international interest unless you regularly travel to Fiji, are planning to go or have relatives (or live) in Fiji. I spent a night in Suva, Fiji, when I was on a Navy destroyer about 28 years ago. While I thought the place was pretty in a tropical way, it seemed rather dismal over all. Nonetheless, I decided to see what little I could find on the Web about Fiji and its military history. Interestingly enough, it seemed that the first modern military operation it undertook was with the Ku Klux Klan, according to the Republic of Fiji Military Forces Web site:
“In 1872 the Royal Army successfully undertook its first operation against the Klu Klux Klan, a political organization of white settlers at Levuka which had offered armed resistance to Cakobau’s government.”
By Cakobau, I take it they mean the Fijian chief and warlord, Seru Epenisa Cakobau, who ceded his island to Queen Victoria. According to his Wikipedia entry, Cakobau also was a reformed cannibal. I suppose he found the British who made the long journey to the Pacific island a bit too difficult to clean before eating.