By NAOMI LARKIN
Suva - Nazra Bibi can live with holes in the kitchen floor big enough for her small daughter to fall through.
She is used to walking on floorboards warped from repeated seasons of heavy flooding. She is accepting of her role as provider for six people.
But when her hours as a clothing machinist were cut, dropping her weekly pay packet from $F60.75 ($63.28) to $F48.60 following the rebel gunpoint takeover of Fiji's Government, she turned desperate.
"These times are very bad for us. It's very hard. We just want things to be the same as it was before."
Nearly two months after former Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and his ministers were taken hostage, Fiji's political unrest is strangling its economy and forcing people like Nazra Bibi and her family under the breadline.
The 27-year-old, who has two children and supports her husband and parents-in-law, lives in a small shack at Nadawa settlement, about 12km out of Suva. Their home - a delapidated corrugated-iron and wooden shed - is shared with fellow garment worker Sainaz Sakina Begum her husband and child.
Both women work at the nearby United Apparel clothing factory which, like most export industries in Fiji, has suffered the consequences of the May 19 coup. This has meant a cut in hours and a move from five days a week to four for the two women, and job losses for others.
Ranjit Solanki, owner of United Apparel and several smaller factories in Suva employing about 1400 people, said the garment export industry was worth between $F350 million to $F400 million a year to Fiji's economy.
It is one of the country's big three earners, along with sugar and tourism, and employs about 20,000 people.
Since May 19 the industry has shed nearly 2000 jobs. The cuts had been across the board.
"The worst time for us was when the trade bans were on. There would have been more job losses had the bans not been lifted," he said.
The bans, enforced by trade unions in New Zealand and Australia, meant members would not handle cargo off ships coming from, or bound for, Fiji.
A small number of workers had been given their jobs back after the bans were lifted last week.
Since then raw materials have been airlifted in to speed up the recovery. However, Solanki told the Weekend Herald there was no guarantee that, with the rebel takeover dragging on, the trade sanctions would not be re-enforced.
"With the trade bans many customers have diverted to other markets. In the short term the damage has already been done. In the long term we're just hoping that things will normalise in this country. All the Fijian manufacturers have to work twice as hard to build a relationship with their customers by delivering top-quality garments on time and prove to be reliable again.
"Once the hostages are released I think we should be okay."
The president of the Fiji-Australia Business Council and owner of Mark One Apparels, Mark Halabe, said the biggest hurdle for the clothing industry was regaining customer confidence. He predicted more lay-offs before the situation returned to normal.
The Ministry of Labour estimates that more than 5000 people have lost their jobs since the coup.
Tourism industry leaders this week warned that the country's top earner faces a catastrophe if the political crisis continues.
Hotel occupancy has dropped to less than 30 per cent as the industry enters what is traditionally its peak season.
Losses are estimated to be $F1.3 million a day. The first 15 days following the coup cost the economy about $F20 million in lost revenue.
The president of the Fiji Hotel Association, Hafiz Khan, said tourism industry projections for this year were set at nearly $F600 million but it was unlikely this would be achieved.
Big hotels might close if the hostage saga was not resolved speedily, he said, because they could not afford to operate with only 10 to 15 rooms in use.
Tourism Action Group chairman Damend Gounder said about 400 tourists were arriving daily compared with 1300 before George Speight and his soldiers from the Counter Revolutionary Warfare unit stormed Parliament. It would take time and a lot of effort to win back the trade.
Khan, who is also chairman of Fiji Sugar Corporation, said the sugar industry had lost between $F8 million to $F10 million during the past seven weeks. The industry contributes about $F300 million a year to the economy.
A National Farmers Union boycott on sugarcane harvesting as a gesture of support for Chaudhry was lifted last week and Khan said he believed the industry would be able to make up the losses.
The National Farmers Union had placed introduced a boycott on harvesting of sugar cane as a show of support for Mr Chaudhry and the hostages. They lifted it only last week, Mr Khan said.
Despite the ban the corporation began crushing at its mill in Ba about three weeks ago in a bid to jump-start the industry. Most of the mills were runing now and Mr Khan believed the industry could make up the losses.
New Zealand's High Commissioner to Fiji, Tia Barrett, said yesterday that the commission was still advising travellers to avoid Fiji.
nte Apart from the economy, the coup has brought huge disruptions to the everyday life of Fijians. A curfew still restricts their movements after dark and in one instance prevented families from farewelling soldiers leaving for peacekeeping duties in East Timor.
Sporting bans mean rugby fans have had to wave goodbye to long-awaited games against New Zealand and residents around Parliament have been instructed that he must leave their homes under a military enforced exclusion zone.
Schools around Suva have been closed for weeks at various times and a Ministry of Education survey this week found that attendance in most districts was below 50 per cent.
For Nazra Bibi and her family there is little sense in what the rebels are trying to achieve. If Speight achieves his goal of disenfranchising Fiji Indians life will be even harder.
But despite the trouble, Nazra Bibi is firm in her commitment that Fiji is still her place.
"We'd like to stay here."
Under seige: map of the Parliament complex
Images of the coup - a daily record
More than 50 rescuers were dispatched, with plans to deploy a helicopter.