What Will Nauru Do?
August 13, 2006 12:27 AM Subscribe
Nauru was once a lovely place. Despite its small size and isolation, Nauru's story is one of monumental dimensions. Things have gotten pretty grim. But it looks like Naurans may get a reprieve of sorts. Will it be pretty?
Google earth has really good imagry of Nauru, just type it into the search bar. Pretty sad.
posted by delmoi at 1:05 AM on August 13, 2006
posted by delmoi at 1:05 AM on August 13, 2006
Why don't they try to model themselves more after Vanuatu?
Vanuatu has moved heavily into financial services; I was running some client money a few years ago, and it came down the Vanuatu or Grand Cayman. We chose The Caribbean soley because my partner was based in North America, but Vanuatu seems so idyllic I've been thinking along the lines of retiring there.
posted by Mutant at 1:37 AM on August 13, 2006
Vanuatu has moved heavily into financial services; I was running some client money a few years ago, and it came down the Vanuatu or Grand Cayman. We chose The Caribbean soley because my partner was based in North America, but Vanuatu seems so idyllic I've been thinking along the lines of retiring there.
posted by Mutant at 1:37 AM on August 13, 2006
So what exactly is going on in the north of the island that Google has to block?
posted by Deathalicious at 3:30 AM on August 13, 2006
posted by Deathalicious at 3:30 AM on August 13, 2006
As Jimbob has mentioned, in recent years the island has been part of the Australian government's so-called "Pacific solution" to a perceived influx of refugees. For a year or so before the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the government's response to a surge of Afghan and Iraqi asylum seekers was to ship them to detention facilities in Nauru's desert-like central plateau.
It isn't out of the question that the area to the north of the island is being blocked for security reasons, but Google Earth's coverage of remote pacific islands is relatively low-grade compared to the standard of its coverage of, say, North America. It's more likely to be simply missing data.
posted by Nasty Canasta at 4:56 AM on August 13, 2006
It isn't out of the question that the area to the north of the island is being blocked for security reasons, but Google Earth's coverage of remote pacific islands is relatively low-grade compared to the standard of its coverage of, say, North America. It's more likely to be simply missing data.
posted by Nasty Canasta at 4:56 AM on August 13, 2006
If I recall correctly (TDTG = Too Drunk To Google), the Australian government has spent in the order of tens of millions of dollars keeping two refugees in detention in Nauru. And the Australian populace thanks them for this and re-elects them.
(Pours another Coonawarra shiraz)
posted by Jimbob at 5:20 AM on August 13, 2006
(Pours another Coonawarra shiraz)
posted by Jimbob at 5:20 AM on August 13, 2006
Here's one of the better This American Life shows with a really good piece on Nauru.
posted by ensign_ricky at 7:18 AM on August 13, 2006
posted by ensign_ricky at 7:18 AM on August 13, 2006
An excellent contribution...your links brought to my attention an issue of which I was previously unaware. Thanks for posting this.
posted by NYCinephile at 8:31 AM on August 13, 2006
posted by NYCinephile at 8:31 AM on August 13, 2006
Strange that they built the airstrip on the beach where it has to be seawalled when there's so much unusable land in the interior. Does (or did) the mining operations produce particulate matter harmful to aircraft?
posted by George_Spiggott at 8:41 AM on August 13, 2006
posted by George_Spiggott at 8:41 AM on August 13, 2006
Vanuatu has moved heavily into financial services
Nauru tried that. It didn't work out so well. But at least they're not a pariah anymore.
posted by owhydididoit at 9:08 AM on August 13, 2006
Nauru tried that. It didn't work out so well. But at least they're not a pariah anymore.
posted by owhydididoit at 9:08 AM on August 13, 2006
During Nauru's post independence salad days, few on the island had reason to complain.
What's meant by "salad days?" That's the third time I've seen it used.
posted by nervousfritz at 12:10 PM on August 13, 2006
What's meant by "salad days?" That's the third time I've seen it used.
posted by nervousfritz at 12:10 PM on August 13, 2006
I lived in Nauru for three years from '92, when my dad worked there. It seems irretrievably broken, and my dad's opinion is that it is only a matter of time until it becomes absorbed into Australia and all the Nauruans get given Australian citizenship. I seem to remember that this has been offered, but the president of the time refused it. He could afford to, because all the politicians already have Australian passports, and send their kids to real schools in Australia, while the other people on the island are actually stuck.
They do have schools on the island, of course, but they are not that good, mainly (I think) because the kids have to learn english at the start. Most of the teachers are foreigners - Canadians and Brits, when I was there. School went from 9am till 1pm. I have a feeling we mainly attended to keep us socialising, because we also had to do distance education from Australia. Our school was on the beach, which was off-limits but we went there at recess. At the equinox one year we nearly drowned, and my brother lost his thongs in the waves.
The island had a tough time in World War II, and they have a public holiday commemorating the day the population reached 1000 again after the war. I was at a Catholic school, so we also had memorial days for the priests who were killed during the occupation. We had a school trip to the swimmable beach at the break in the reef, and had athletics days where everyone ran barefoot except us. There's no traffic lights on the island, but there's enormous free-roaming pigs and packs of pitbull dogs. While we were there they opened the Menen hotel, an enormous place. We went to a party at the President's house when his daughter (granddaughter?) got married, and the house and grounds were simple enormous. There must have been hundreds of people there, all his relatives and everyone at all important. It was outdoors, and all the kids went swimming (in or out of their good clothes). The lagoon is still beautiful,
Diabetes is very common, and the Nauruans have terrible eating habits - the favorite snack at school was Oxo, essentially stock cubes. They'd just eat it out of a jar. One of my teachers lost a foot because of his diabetes. They haven't really adjusted to modern life - at the beginning of last century, they were still climbing to get coconuts and eating birds they caught. A lot of the work on the island was done by foreigners, mostly Kiribatis who all lived (maybe had to?) in a compound. There was a whole district that was owned by the mining company and all the foreigners lived there, so we had friends from Israel and Serbia and Poland and NZ and all over. This area was full of proper western houses, but I visited a Nauruan friends house once and it was a couple of rooms, all tiny and dark (not a traditional house like in the photos of the first link, either).
posted by jacalata at 7:13 PM on August 13, 2006 [3 favorites]
They do have schools on the island, of course, but they are not that good, mainly (I think) because the kids have to learn english at the start. Most of the teachers are foreigners - Canadians and Brits, when I was there. School went from 9am till 1pm. I have a feeling we mainly attended to keep us socialising, because we also had to do distance education from Australia. Our school was on the beach, which was off-limits but we went there at recess. At the equinox one year we nearly drowned, and my brother lost his thongs in the waves.
The island had a tough time in World War II, and they have a public holiday commemorating the day the population reached 1000 again after the war. I was at a Catholic school, so we also had memorial days for the priests who were killed during the occupation. We had a school trip to the swimmable beach at the break in the reef, and had athletics days where everyone ran barefoot except us. There's no traffic lights on the island, but there's enormous free-roaming pigs and packs of pitbull dogs. While we were there they opened the Menen hotel, an enormous place. We went to a party at the President's house when his daughter (granddaughter?) got married, and the house and grounds were simple enormous. There must have been hundreds of people there, all his relatives and everyone at all important. It was outdoors, and all the kids went swimming (in or out of their good clothes). The lagoon is still beautiful,
Diabetes is very common, and the Nauruans have terrible eating habits - the favorite snack at school was Oxo, essentially stock cubes. They'd just eat it out of a jar. One of my teachers lost a foot because of his diabetes. They haven't really adjusted to modern life - at the beginning of last century, they were still climbing to get coconuts and eating birds they caught. A lot of the work on the island was done by foreigners, mostly Kiribatis who all lived (maybe had to?) in a compound. There was a whole district that was owned by the mining company and all the foreigners lived there, so we had friends from Israel and Serbia and Poland and NZ and all over. This area was full of proper western houses, but I visited a Nauruan friends house once and it was a couple of rooms, all tiny and dark (not a traditional house like in the photos of the first link, either).
posted by jacalata at 7:13 PM on August 13, 2006 [3 favorites]
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posted by Jimbob at 12:59 AM on August 13, 2006