Too Small To Fail
June 24, 2010 4:36 PM   Subscribe

The world's fourth-smallest country, Tuvalu, is famous for selling its sexy-looking internet domain, .tv, and for the threat of sinking (or not). Now it has joined the World Bank, becoming its 187th member. Anyway, if it needs help, bailing it out would only cost $12m.
posted by chavenet (10 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I've never been there, but Tuvalu has had a special place in both my heart and my trivia bladder for as long as I can remember.

Maybe it's that their chief industries are fishing, coconuts, & tourism. Maybe it's that their capital is named Funafuti. I'm not really sure why, but whatever the reason, it's my favorite of the tiny countries.

Though I am thrilled that postage stamps is a major source of income for San Marino.
posted by aubilenon at 4:54 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


Do they take PayPal?
posted by cjorgensen at 4:56 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


Twelve dollar-minutes?

Tuvalu: call me. We can talk.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 5:21 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


Nations of Wal-Mart
posted by Joe Beese at 5:45 PM on June 24, 2010


I just edited the "Economy of Tuvalu" Wikipedia article to remove the word "first" from the paragraph about DOT.tv, since back in 1994 I was actually the first guy to suggest to the Prime Minister of Tuvalu that my company could run the .tv domain for him and share the profits with the country. Somewhere I have the fax that I got back from his office asking for more information and a proposal; I'm still not sure if I wish I'd followed up or not!
posted by nicwolff at 6:02 PM on June 24, 2010 [4 favorites]


I don't think Tuvalu needs the kind of bailing out you do with money.
posted by mhoye at 6:55 PM on June 24, 2010 [3 favorites]


Damn that Pinot Grand Enwick!
posted by Evilspork at 7:58 PM on June 24, 2010


*I* invented emoticons, nicwolff. So there. (Ok, I was around the guy who probably invented them, but I'm not sure, could've been me for all I know)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:04 PM on June 24, 2010


1. The title of this post is brilliant and the post itself is very well structured.

2. The author of that Herald-Sun article, despite some, albeit biased in that British rag way, makes a good, yet, unconvincing point. But, really, "warmists?" I realise that exists, but, Fuck You, Andrew Bolt, wholeheartedly. Still, not a bad article for a rag. Kind of like a talk on using hemp as a building material I attended the other night, reversed.

3. *Manute Bol* apparently invented the phrase "My bad." A friend of mine also invented slightly flavoured athletic-AWESOMEWATER apparently. Oh well. Yeah, you should have followed up on the .tv thing.
posted by converge at 12:30 AM on June 25, 2010


It is also one of only four countries where the last letter of its name is alphabetically one after the first letter of its name.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 1:20 AM on June 25, 2010 [1 favorite]


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