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Nauru

Nauru

Bec
2004-09-17 15:40:20

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day, I hired a taxi to take me around the island. The cabdriver, who had come from the Philippines 15 years ago, explained to me that the island was dying because it would run out of phosphate before five years. He was hoping to emigrate to Australia but he was not too hopeful because that country has not yet offered to relocate Nauruans when the phosphate runs out.

This is the government owned Menem Hotel where business persons, the U.N. and N.G.O. personnel stay when they visit Nauru (How do you like that "business persons" instead of "business men"?)

Hardly any tourists come here but I suppose this is where the well heeled ones would stay if they came this far off the beaten track.

Nauru has been admitted to the United Nations in 1999. Can you imagine that! The vote of the Nauru Ambassador at the General Assembly of the United Nations weighs as much as that of China or of India that each have over 100 000 times more population! Who knows, maybe the value of that vote will replace the phosphate revenues when they peter out.

Ministers might get rich, but someone has to do the work and no self-respecting country can be without a bureaucracy so here are the administrative offices of the government just next to the Parliament Buildings.

The Japanese invaded Nauru during W. W. II for strategic reasons. They deported 1200 Nauruans to the state of Chuuk in Micronesia, which they also controlled. Only 700 survived long enough to come back home after the war. The pillbox guarding the rocky beach on this photo is one of the last traces of the Japanese occupation.

Mining shovels destroyed 90 percent of Nauru's surface but a small area around Buada Lagoon was preserved as a reminder of what the island looked like a long time ago.

Most houses around the island are modern and appear to be comfortable but they are all more than 10 years old.

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