Showing posts with label Micronesia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Micronesia. Show all posts

December 24 - Yap Constitution Day in Micronesia

  Posted on December 24, 2021


This is an update of my post published on December 24, 2010:






Micronesia is the name given to a group of thousands of small islands in the Pacific Ocean. Nearby are the many islands of Melanesia, Polynesia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.




Many of the islands included in the region called "Micronesia" make up the sovereign nation of the Federated States of Micronesia. One of the country's four states is Yap, which celebrates the writing of its constitution on this day.


One of the things Yap is notable for is its stone money or Rai stones. These disks of calcite are pretty big, compared to most currency such as U.S. coins and bills. The Rai stones wouldn't fit in a wallet or purse. That's because they are from 1 to 12 FEET (30 centimeters to 4 meters) in diameter!!!


The value of the Rai stones depends on their size and their history (most stones were brought from other islands many, many years ago). The least valuable are the smallest - still, a foot-wide disk of stone is not a convenient coin to jingle in one's pocket!

Most of the time, these stones are not moved when ownership changes. People just know who each of the 6,500 stones belong to!

Of course, nowadays the people of Yap use Western-style money. As a matter of fact, they use actual Western currency: the Federated States of Micronesia uses U.S. dollars as its official currency! Still, the Rai stones are used in traditional and ceremonial exchanges and are seen as national symbols.



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November 17 – Presidents' Day in the Marshall Islands


Posted on November 17, 2018


Many nations have presidents. And many of those nations that have presidential governments have a special day that celebrates their presidents.

Today just happens to be Presidents' Day in the independent nation of Marshall Islands.

(Note: Marshall Islands is an independent republic, but it is in "free association" with the United States, which means in part that the U.S. has promised to defend that nation, and Marshall Islands allows some of its land to be used for U.S. bases.)

Hilde Heine
Anyway, I wanted to point out that, in 2016, a woman named Hilda Heine became Marshall Islands' first female president.

I wondered where we humans are at with electing women to top positions, and I discovered that 76 out of 195 countries have had a female president / prime minister / head of government. The nations that have not include most of the Middle East, much of Africa, a few nations in Europe and in South America, Russia, Mexico, and...glaringly...the United States.
Come on, United States, you can do this!!!
Heine was born in Majuro, which is now the capital of Marshall Islands, in 1951. She attended college in the U.S. (bachelors from University of Oregon, masters from University of Hawaii, and doctorate in education from University of Southern California - USC). She was a classroom teacher and counselor before becoming an elected representative in the government and then Education Minister. And then...

President!

More cool stuff about Heine: She founded the feminist group Women United Together Marshall Islands, and she works to halt climate change.

Climate change is especially important to low-lying island nations like Marshall Islands, because they are already losing land and homes as the sea levels rise. Here is an article from two years ago...







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May 17 – Constitution Day in Nauru

Posted on May 17, 2017


Recently, we discussed the small nation (small in land area and population - it's not small in "scattered over the surface of the Earth" measurements!) of the Federated States of Micronesia, which celebrated its Constitution Day.

Well, not all of the islands of Micronesia are gathered into that nation. Some examples of other Micronesian nations are Palau and Kiribati and today's constitution-celebrant, Nauru.

This island nation is waaayy small. It's just one island, with about 21 square km (8 square miles) in area. The island is surrounded by a coral reef - so much so that there is no good seaport on the island. (There are a few breaks in the reef that allow small boats to approach the island.)

Nauru is a phosphate rock island. Phosphate is useful in fertilizers and to make supplements in animal feed; phosphorous is also used in certain chemical industries. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, with the strip-mining of phosphates going full-tilt, Nauru was the wealthiest nation, per person, in the world.

Old cantilevers are rusting in the ocean
surrounding Nauru, part of the phosphate
mining-and-export operations of the past.
But now most of Nauru's phosphates are gone. The wealth is mostly gone, too. 

And the ugly mining operations devastated 80% of the land and killed off about 40% of the marine life! 

In its need for some source of income, Nauru has become a tax haven and money-laundering center. Also, Nauru has accepted money from the Australian government to host refugees and asylum-seekers in the Nauru Regional Processing Center. I am sad to report that the conditions there are horrific, and there have been riots, hunger-strikes, and human rights violations.  

The pinnacles in the water make for an unusual and quite lovely
beach...but it makes ENJOYING the beach and ocean unsafe. 

During World War II, Japan took over Nauru, and there is
still wreckage left from the war. Here you see artillery that was
used to shoot down Allied airplanes.


  

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Galician Literature Day














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