25 Apr 06 The Story of Nauru Island
There was a recent article in the Economist about Nauru, an 8 square mile Island in the South Pacific about 400 miles off the coast of Australia. The island had a large natural supply of high grade phosphate, used to make fertilizer. The article tells quite a tale of extreme exploitability, corruption, and gluttony. It’s a much faster read than your average article in the Economist, very gripping.
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Nice little grab.
I like your quick ascerbic reach, cybernaut!
I linked you. I wrote this stuff on my blog.
Take a moment, pilot, to calibrate your dial. Blog a bit of horizon. Bring it home. Get G’Local. Explore the impatience beneath these wings… Wonder what OUR government does with $$$.
NYNerd noticed “…a much faster read than your average article in The Economist; very gripping.”
And I agree. In one page. In one page I learned that everybody is doing nothing.
The Story of Nauru Island
I’m just a curious guy who always have liked to know about remote places,
usually so different from our societies and lifestyles (at least in their beginnings).
When I was a child I read about Nauru and found it to be a paradise, idillic place, away from
everywhere and self-sufficient despite being such a tiny nation. That was during the early 80’s.
Nauruans used to be happy in their little island,
had their customs and celebrations, lived on their own resources (phosphate mining). I was too
young to understand how this all would end up once phosphates were mined out.
I have been seeking for current information about Nauru these last weeks, and I have no words to
express my concern about the situation Nauru is going through now. Nauru has run out of phosphates,
the money from decades of mining has blown away because of corruption and mismanagement. Nauruans present
one of highest heart-disease rates due to their westernized lifestyle.
Nauru, once called the Pleasant Island, is nowadays far from being a paradise. Nauruans have lost their little island,
severely devastade by mining, and face an uncertain future even as a nation. Some would blame original exploiters
for environmental disaster (Great Britain, Australia, etc.) as they mined out about 2/3rds of the phosphates. But the truth
is that after becoming an independent republic Nauru kept on mining the phosphates until recent exhaustion.
This is not to put the blame on any country or company. The Nauru tale must make all of us think deeply about what
we are doing whith our planet. Sustainability is the key word.
Can you all imagine Nauru now as it was in 1900?.
What a wonderful place it would be, what a fantastic example of a society, of a nation.