the strange case of a very small place
A short history of Nauru.
Nauru is so small that a phosphate stockpile occupies a prominent position in the center of their national map. The CIA World Factbook describes the place as the world's smallest independent republic. In fact, Nauru is so very tiny that one of their national holidays (Angam Day) actually celebrates the times in history when the population reached 1500 people.
Almost nothing is known about Nauru before the arrival of English captain John Fearn in 1798, who upon discovering it while sailing from New Zealand to China christened it "Pleasant Island." And pleasant it remained for several decades. European whalers and traders began settling the island in the mid-nineteenth century, and their introduction of firearms and alcohol ignited a ten year war between the island's twelve native tribes. Germany, at the request of German settlers on Nauru, invaded in 1888. The British discovered phosphate on the island a decade later. Mining of the mineral quickly made the islanders wealthy. After World War I, control of the island was ceded to the victorious British under the aegis of the League of Nations.
The Japanese invaded and occupied in 1942, expelling hundreds of natives. John F. Kennedy's PT 109 was rammed and sunk near Nauru in August 1943 and the surviving crew swam from the wreckage to safety there. Upon completion of the Second World War, the island was turned over again to the British, this time as a joint trust with Australia and New Zealand. Nauru gained its independence in 1968.
Today, the prosperity earned from Nauru's only natural resource has been exhausted due to years of mismanagement and corruption. There's no phosphate left on Nauru. The world's smallest republic is now notorious for money laundering (for the Russian mafia, among others), tax fraud, and the sale of Nauruan passports to anyone with enough hard currency. Over the last two months, Nauru has been cut off from the rest of the world due to breakdowns in the nation's telecommunication systems. The presidential palace burned down. Finally, the national airline was grounded because Nauru is behind on the payments on the sole airline in the fleet.
Recently, the Sydney Morning Herald reported a plan to right the struggling nation. An Australian consortium called AFCON would be granted an exclusive 10-year license to issue banking licenses, oversee casino operations, and regulate travel documents in order to attract international investment. They would also have the power to issue passports to investors and to draft their own regulations. Native Nauruans would split profits with the consortium 50/50.
In other words, Nauru is set to become the Pacific Islands equivalent of Las Vegas. The plan is remarkable for its audacity, but should not necessarily be quickly dismissed. It is not unimaginable to picture this tiny island as the destination of choice for the Japanese, Australian, and American jet-set in a few short years. A visitor to America's casino capital in 1940 would have found only a small town of 8000, living mainly off the railroad industry. From there, a colossal city arose - with a population expected to reach two million in 2005. Could Nauru have a similar destiny?
04.03.2003 © ljr