Choirs, Coups and Long Canoes

Where do you go to find a spirited Christmas celebration? Give me Fiji any day. As the temperature teases the freezing tick on the thermometer and our two cats, Max and Moritz stalk the house looking for non-existent pools of light, my mind drifts on the trade winds to Fiji sunshine. I am a great fan of Fiji. I courted my wife on a cruise of Fiji's islands in 1997, but ten years earlier I went there to do a documentary for American Public Radio and NPR that was supposed to have been a Christmas special featuring Fiji's magnificent a capella choirs, but ended up as a rather strange tale of island politics: two coups d'etat, me being suspected of being CIA, a strange encounter with a drunken German arms dealer, unzoweiter, unzoweiter...but that's a long story.

The program was an hour long, but I have shortened and updated it. A major part of the 16 1/2 minutes features the music of the Fiji islands, recorded on both trips, ranging from a Fijian drinking song to familiar Christmas carols sung in Fijian. I would guess that there are few Fijians who cannot sing...magnificently. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, peace and joy during this holiday season.

Listen MP3 16:30