Sparker, it sounds to me as if those Fijians drank methanol, not ethylene glycol. Methanol is noted for being consumed by people who don't know better because like most alcohols, it makes them drunk, and that is often an attractive feature. Not long afterwards it makes them permanently blind, and if they've had a large dose they sometimes die. I've read of cases where incautious railwaymen put a methanol tanker on a siding in a depressed area. Some of the locals, seeing the "alcohol" labels, have fallen on it like starving wolves and suffered accordingly. They had no idea they were drinking poison.
Ethylene glycol also makes people drunk, but it does not seem to make them blind (though it may make them dead). Here is a report on its toxicity:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethylene_glycol_poisoning
