In recent years, the global temperature has been rising, and while people continue to promote environmental protection, the living environment of the earth is also deteriorating.
Among them, the problem of sea level rise brought about by climate warming has brought countless troubles to many island countries on the ocean.
In the vast Pacific ocean of the southern hemisphere, there is such a small country with an unknown name, with a land area of only 26 square kilometers, which is the fourth smallest country after the Vatican, Monaco and Nauru.
01 Tuvalu's past and present lives
Like many countries discovered by Europeans in the Age of Discovery, Tuvalu was discovered by the Spaniards who drove their ships around the world in this situation, when Spain was strong at sea and had the blessing of the steam engine, and drove the ship to the South Pacific.
In 1568, a Spanish navigator named Denella first discovered the archipelago of nine small islands.
This was the first time the natives of tuvalu had seen other races, and the aborigines were happy and excited and welcomed.
But what the simple aborigines did not expect was that these guests were not honored guests, but a series of jackals who dragged them into the abyss.
With the changes in the world and the world situation, the glory of the Spaniards in the Age of Discovery has gradually been overshadowed by the British, and the rapid rise of the British Empire, which claims to never set the sun, has squeezed the old neighbors who were once powerful and almost have no living space.
In order to spend money on peace, many seafaring countries surrendered their overseas territories as their own protection fees, that is, during this period Tuvalu was officially changed to a British colony.
In order to build the Tuvalu Islands, the British at the beginning also invested a lot of effort, but over time they found that Tuvalu not only had no resources, but even called poor and white, except for the endless sea, there was almost nothing to use.
Britain, once the most colonized country, apparently looked down on Tuvalu's small profits, and soon lost interest in it, and even did something about capturing the inhabitants of Tuvalu and taking them to nearby islands as slaves.
Because Tuvalu was not a delicious fish in the eyes of the British at that time, coupled with the two world wars that completely fell to the altar of the British Empire, and many colonies occupied earlier became independent, the status of Tuvalu, which was more obedient in the Pacific, also rose.
At this time, tuvaluans were not stupid, they saw the changes in the world situation and did not want to be slaves to the British, after many contacts and efforts, Tuvalu finally declared independence in October 1978.
However, the so-called independence of the Tuvaluans at that time was not really independent, and the governance and de facto control of the Tuvalu Islands was always in the hands of the British Governor-
This is like a puppet in the hands of others, even if the surface is bright and beautiful, there is always a thread behind the other person's invisible back that is pulled in the hands of the other party, according to our words, it is like a fish in the throat.
Therefore, in 1986, the Tuvalu government formally stripped the British Governor of his rights by amending the Constitution, formally separated the British power from Tuvalu, gained real freedom, and truly held the management of the country in the hands of its own people.
Tuvaluans think that their good days are finally coming, but they do not understand that the governance of the country is not so simple, and they have no experience, and they know almost nothing about the prospects for national development.
Soon the shortcomings of the Tuvalu state began to stand out, the land area of the islands was not concentrated, the small area of land was scattered in the Pacific Ocean, and the land of bullets was divided into nine provinces to manage the chicken feathers.
Trying to improve the country's economy, with no valuable resources available but fishing, Tuvaluans find that apart from freedom and independence, there is almost nothing to eat, not even food.
To put it mildly, Tuvalu is one of the least developed countries in the world, or to put it mildly, one of the most extremely poor countries in the world.
So what is the economic situation in Tuvalu?
In what ways is the state's fiscal revenue realized?
02 What is Tuvalu's economy like?
Many people mention that Tuvalu knows that it is a Pacific archipelago country composed of 9 islands, but this statement is obviously not rigorous, and the fact that Tuvalu's so-called 9 islands is basically not much sense, in terms of size and area alone, it is only 9 islands and reefs at best.
This also means that all traditional industries or modern businesses that can quickly improve the economic level cannot be fully developed, and it is even more difficult to improve the economy through the industrial chain.
In addition, Tuvalu's geographical conditions are not very favorable, if only the natural resources are not good, then it can also be changed through a certain man-made environment, such as the development of planting industry to let people eat first.
However, tuvalu does not have this basic geological conditions, the whole country is composed of coral islands and reefs, although the terrain is flat, but the soil composition is mainly composed of limestone and coral rock, even if there is abundant rainfall every year, but this sieve-like soil environment can not retain the water to support the growth of crops and plants.
Therefore, tuvaluans have basically no better methods and conditions in terms of diet and farming.
Many people may wonder if they cannot grow and have no minerals to exchange, but what did the Tuvaluans make a living before they were discovered?
According to available sources, the early Tuvaluans relied on coconut and bread trees, which were less demanding of the soil environment, as their cash crops and rations.
The only bit of foreign exchange income generation is to rely on the processed products of coconuts to complete, such as raw ya, coconut oil, dried coconuts and other agricultural products, because the way is single, so the income is not rich.
And the local people are left with the last way to survive, that is, fishing.
This is also a rare industry and advantage for Tuvalu, the sea around Tuvalu is rich in tuna, this fish is loved by people around the world, good quality natural price is not cheap, so Tuvaluans can barely maintain the life of the islanders by fishing and exporting coconut products.
In fact, Tuvalu's fishing industry is not as developed as we think, in fact, Tuvalu's fishing industry is backwardly equipped and has no related processing facilities, which is not comparable to the professional fishermen of ordinary countries who often go out to sea to fish.
As for other supplies, such as rice noodle sugar and meat products and dairy products, vegetables and fruits, Tuvalu is dependent on imports, and now all the daily necessities of Tuvalu's residents need to be imported, which also causes a single diet structure, too much intake of fat and meat.
Like their old neighbour Nauru not far away, Tuvaluans are caught up in the cycle of obesity, and the number of obesity-induced diabetes is also high.
Tuvaluans who have lived in these conditions for a long time have no health at all, and the vast majority of them lose their lives at a young age because of malnutrition and lack of medical conditions.
You may not imagine that in today's world of worrying about aging, the average life expectancy of Tuvaluans is only 50 years, which is really regrettable.
To this day, Tuvalu's economy has not improved much, and it is still the island nation that is too poor to lift.
But unlike the Nauruans, who eat and wait to die, Tuvaluans still have some room for improvement, and they are also actively expanding their economic development channels, such as some Asian countries that use fish as their main food to issue fishing licenses to sell fish resources in their own waters.
As one of the poorest countries, Tuvalu has also provided certain preferential treatment and assistance to tuvalu, and Tuvaluans have established their own trust fund to enjoy certain interest relief advantages, which has also become an important pillar and income of their national production.
It is worth mentioning that today, when the world enters the information age, Tuvaluans' demand for the network is almost zero, which means that Tuvaluans do not need the network domain name classified by the country.
So a few years ago, Tuvaluans, with the "help" of Canadians, began their own way of renting out domain names, relying on dividends and relatively large annual revenues.
However, the opposite of this matter is that Tuvalu's external media and diplomatic environment have also been controlled by Western countries for a long time, and tuvalu is now one of the few countries in the world that has not established diplomatic relations with China.
In addition to these economic sources, the annual foreign aid, as well as the sale of stamps, commemorative coins, sightseeing and tourism, etc. are important sources of income for Tuvaluans.
Although it may seem that incomes are small and gdp is not high, Tuvaluans also consume very little, they can basically maintain self-sufficiency, even if the economy is not sufficient, it does not greatly affect the lives of the people.
So what is so strange about the country of Tuvalu that has to be mentioned?
03 No army? No, there are many more basic components that Tuvalu doesn't have!
In many national encyclopedias, Tuvalu is defined this way: a country of extreme poverty.
Long-term financial dependence on foreign aid is not the biggest drawback, but Tuvalu's lack of infrastructure is beyond human imagination.
In this island nation with a population of about 10,000 people, Tuvalu's nine islands and nine provinces together have 12 schools, 1 hospital, 1 bank, 4 small shops, and basically no entertainment facilities for spending money except for an ordinary 5-kilometer road.
The only airport in the country is located in the capital Funafuti Island, and the airport's aircraft terminal is only one place in Fiji.
Most importantly, in this era when the whole world is advocating the protection of national and national sovereignty, the military, as the most important measure of a country's strength, is of course the more the better, the more sophisticated and more secure.
But it's hard to imagine a country in the world that doesn't have any army, and yes, Tuvalu is on the list again.
The responsibility for the security and security of the country rests solely with the police, and the police in Tuvalu are therefore among the most prestigious professions.
Since the founding of Tuvalu, the country has never had an army, and the 30 police officers responsible for guarding the country and 10,000 people are distributed in 9 provinces according to specific needs, which is an average of 3 police in a province.
However, in addition to the capital, other provinces hardly meet the standard of 3 police officers, and most of the time these police officers are concentrated in the capital to take charge of various tasks.
You can understand that the police in Tuvalu can be soldiers who defend their families and defend the country, or they can be the neighborhood committee aunts who deal with the shortcomings of their parents, and even act as the gold bodyguards of the national leaders.
Although the business is complicated, the good thing is that the workload is not large, and most of the time can be idle, watching the civilians who come and go to look at them with respect and envy, this status and sense of achievement is a sight that other countries and regions cannot feel.
But even though Tuvalu's police are still happy, there are still some troubles that tuvalu has to pay attention to.
04 Tuvalu is about to disappear? What is the future?
On December 26, 2004, for many, it was an unforgettable day when a large number of holidaymakers lay on the scenic beaches of Indonesia enjoying a comfortable Christmas holiday, but on this day, one of the few disasters in human history occurred, the Indian Ocean tsunami.
Many people lost their lives in the disaster, and the tsunami was a wake-up call for natural disasters for many island nations.
Due to the geographical environment, it is entirely necessary for Tuvaluans to worry about this, the tsunami is only a small probability event, and the most urgent need to solve is the increasingly serious global warming problem, so to speak, there is not much time left for Tuvaluans to solve the problem.
Faced with rising sea levels and increasing carbon dioxide emissions, Tuvaluans are caught up in and deeply worried that it is much more important to submerge the country than to have enough to eat.
To this end, in 1991, 35 island countries, including Tuvalu, jointly formed a coalition dedicated to the United Nations, calling on all countries in the world to pay attention to the problem of global warming, hoping to reduce carbon emissions, and calling on countries to move towards a double carbon era.
However, until 2001, the trend of global warming still did not ease, and Tuvalu was disappointed and actively embarked on the road of self-rescue.
According to foreign media reports, Tuvaluans decided to buy a piece of land in New Zealand specifically for the resettlement of more than 10,000 of their own nationals, but because of their own shyness, and the Fact that Western countries and New Zealand are not cooperative, this plan has not been put into practice so far.
epilogue
However, the situation in Tuvalu is not as harsh as we have seen, and the number of migrant workers in Tuvalu has continued to increase in recent years, and more than half of the nationals have been living abroad for a long time.
Therefore, how to solve its own dilemma and pull the people out of the dilemma of being submerged are all urgent problems for the Tuvalu government to solve.