Correspondent's Notebook

Australia’s romantic year sours

12 December 2008

The global mood has been battered in just a few short months, with wave after wave of bad financial news. In Australia, it is not just the global financial calamity that is the cause. The country began this year captivated and hopeful, the aura of optimism emanating from a new government making promises. Australia ends the year not without hope, but with the romantic edge taken off. Our Canberra correspondent Linda Mottram tracks the shifting national psyche.

PLEASE NOTE: Correspondent’s Notebook will be in recess until the week beginning January 19, 2009. Radio Australia wishes you a safe and happy holiday season.

Exploring Fiji’s squatter settlements

5 December 2008

This week, Radio Australia’s Pacific correspondent Campbell Cooney had the opportunity to visit a squatter settlement in Fiji.

More than 40 percent of Fijians live on, or under the poverty line. And to survive many live in squatter settlements and shanty towns.

One recent estimate claims that well over 10 percent of Fijians live like this, with that number expected to increase.