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.

  

Also on this date:

Comedian / actress / writer / producer Tina Fey's birthday  

Constitution Day in Norway

Pirate Barti Ddu's birthday

Anniversary of the discovery of Jupiter's belts

Galician Literature Day

Author Anna Brownell Jameson's birthday

Plan ahead:

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• May holidays 
• May birthdays 
• Historical anniversaries in May

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

• June holidays
• June birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in June
  
  

January 31, 2012 - Nauru's Independence Day

Two things make Nauru unique—it is the world's smallest republic, and its economy has been based on bird poop!

Nauru during WWII

With just 8 square miles (or 21 square kilometers) of land and not too much more than nine thousand residents, Nauru is a small island in the South Pacific Ocean. It was settled by Micronesian and Polynesian people, and it was taken over by the German Empire in the late 1800s and by Japan during World War II. In between the World Wars and after WWII, it entered into trusteeship of Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. On this date in 1968, it was granted independence.

Phosphate fields of Nauru

Nauru had its heyday because of an unusual resource: bird droppings! For thousands of years, bird droppings called guano mixed with marine sediments and formed natural fertilizers from phosphate rocks. Unfortunately, the mining of this resource was of the strip-mine variety, and so the fertile land was depleted and the landscape destroyed. For a while the island made a mini-boom from illegal money laundering, but international pressure and government officials cracked down on that “industry.” Now the island is quite poor and dependent on aid from Australia. Once called “Pleasant Island” by British visitors, the island is now struggling to regain a reputation as being pleasant.

According to the Nauru tourism website, people can enjoy deep-sea fishing, swimming, and scuba diving. But there hasn't been a lot of tourist development on the island. There is one airport, and flights only come in once a week. There seems to be only two hotels and only a few restaurants. (In comparison, my little hometown, which is just a rather boring suburban town in Southern California, is more than three times larger than Nauru in land area, has more than seven times the population, and has at least five hotels.)

Also on this date:

Anniversary of first U.S. satellite in space 

Chess composer Sam Lloyd's birthday