Text/Akashi Xiaoai
Many friends may know what I am talking about after reading this title, the Republic of Nauru, referred to as Nauru, is located in the South Pacific Micronesia Archipelago coral island country, this island country with an area of 21.3 square kilometers, is the world's smallest island country. What is the concept of 21.3 square kilometers, at present, the largest real estate in China is 30 square kilometers, that is, the whole country of Nauru is not as large as a small area in China.
For thousands of years, Nauru has been inhabited by Adrift Micronesians and Polynesians, most of whom drifted to the island as survivors of shipwrecks and then settled there. They live a primitive hunting life as a tribe, and they also breed aquatic fishing shrimp and other seafood for a living.
On November 8, 1798, a British ship called the Snow Hunter (the American Hunter) first discovered the island during its voyage, and this time the small island hidden deep in the Pacific Ocean finally entered the vision of Western society.
The indigenous people of Nauru
The beautiful island scenery of Nauru fascinated the crew of the Snow Hunt, and after a simple exploration of the island and no resources were found, the sailors named it Happy Island and left in a hurry. Thus Nauru survived the hustle and bustle of the 19th century unscathed.
In 1888, the island was annexed by Germany and became a colony of the German Empire, originally known as Nauru, and incorporated into the German Marshall Islands Protectorate. But no matter what people call it, at least at this time the island's natural environment is relatively well preserved. Therefore, this small island has always been a paradise that many people yearn for, until one day, everything has changed dramatically.
Germany draws charts marked Nauru
One day in 1899, the British geologist Sir Albert Fuller Ellis found a "wood fossil" from Nauru in his office in Sydney, Australia, but he found that it was not a wood fossil at all, but a phosphate rock! Phosphorus is an important material for the production of fertilizers, so if the source of the mine can be found, then this is a myriad of wealth and resources. So Albert decided to go to Nauru for himself, and the treasure of Nauru finally came to light.
The white-capped gull is one of the most common seabirds in Nauru and is often caught by local aborigines and grilled
Albert thought that there were phosphate mines on the island, but he did not expect that there were so many phosphate mines on the island, and after observing the island, he was completely stunned, and 80% of the entire island was covered with this phosphate-rich phosphate rock.
Why are there so many phosphate rocks here? This has to start with Nauru's unique geographical environment.
Nauru is located at the equator, and for migratory birds, Nauru is one of the few places to stay in the vast Pacific Ocean, and naturally it has become a resting and breeding place for many birds, who have been resting on this isolated island for millions of years.
Therefore, the island also has a backlog of bird droppings for millions of years, and the bird droppings are rich in phosphorus, so year after year, generation after generation of seabirds live here, nauru's soil is becoming more and more fertile, the island's nitrogen and phosphorus and other elements are also becoming more and more abundant, and it has become a kingdom of plants and birds.
Under the action of alkaline groundwater, the soluble phosphate precipitated from bird droppings reacts with a large amount of calcium carbonate originally stored as a coral island, which makes Nauru so rich in a variety of apatite minerals.
This phosphate rock, commonly known as "guano phosphate rock", is a unique product of many coasts or islands where seabirds gather, except for Nauru, many islands where seabirds gather have such an environmental structure, and Nauru's guano phosphate rock is the most.
It wasn't long after the Discovery of the Nauru Minerals that the British were allowed to mine phosphate here. In the first 10 years of the mineral's discovery, Nauru exported hundreds of thousands of tons of phosphate, and soon after the outbreak of World War I, nauru became a target for various countries, and in November 1914, the British hired australian expeditionary forces to occupy the island, ending German rule.
The British replaced the Germans, but the British rulers did not rule Nauru for long, and other countries began to join the war for the island. After the end of World War I, Nauru was entrusted to the commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand, two British commonwealths, and the exploitation was also discussed by the three countries of Britain, Australia and New Zealand to divide the resources equally.
Nauru's port for exporting phosphate
As the saying goes, Piff is innocent, but he is guilty. Nauru, with its vast treasures, could not have lived for too long in an era of upheaval. In 1942, japan invaded Nauru, and Japan sent thousands of Japanese troops to garrison the island, and the number of thousands of soldiers had exceeded the number of local indigenous people, naturally for the island's continuous phosphate resources.
The nauruans on the island can imagine their lives, and in the face of Japanese artillery fire, the Nauruans were not opponents at all, and they could only become slaves of the Japanese invaders. Nearly half of indigenous peoples die from starvation, abuse and slavery.
In the days of enslavement, the Nauruans could only endure the bitterness of the breath, and by the end of the war, only about 600 indigenous people were left on the island. Nauru's already small land was also severely damaged by uncontrolled mining.
After the end of World War II, the island of Nauru was redivided and managed by Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, and phosphate mining continued continuously. These phosphate rocks are transported to Australia, New Zealand and England as fertilizer for crops and then used in agriculture or exported to other countries.
Flag of Nauru
As democracy and self-government began to rise, Nauru began to fight for independence and control of phosphate. The United Nations had proposed to relocate Nauruans to the island of Chtis north of Australia, which was strongly opposed by the Nauruans. The Constitution was adopted on 29 January 1968. On 31 January, the Republic of Nauru was granted the consent of the United Nations to declare its independence.
Independence was liberating for Nauruans, but for Nauru the advent of an era of self-sufficiency meant an increase in environmental destruction.
The island's phosphate rock is not a non-renewable resource. As mentioned earlier, these phosphate rocks are derived from bird droppings, and as long as the environment on the island is maintained, birds can continue to rest here, and a reasonable mining system can fully achieve sustainable development. But will the Government of Nauru do this?
The answer is no, nauruans feel that they have survived for so many years to become a daughter-in-law for many years, and they have guarded such a big treasure, so how can they afford to enjoy it?
Therefore, in the first year of the Nauru government taking over, nauru's phosphate mine mining in that year exceeded the sum of the thirty years of German mining, and with the large-scale mining of Nauru phosphate ore, the wealth in the hands of Nauruans naturally soared, and the whole country entered a carnival-like splurge.
The nauru House, a financial centre established by the Government of Nauru in 1977 in Melbourne, Australia, is now sold
Since the beginning of 1970, the export of phosphate rock has brought at least $120 million a year to this small country, and Nauru's per capita GDP reached $35,700 in 1975, which is 4.5 times the per capita GDP of the United States in the same period and 200 times that of Our country.
For a time, Nauru also ranked the country with the highest per capita income in the world. Originally, in addition to mining, Nauru also had fishing and farming, and the people on the island would also catch some fish and plant coconuts. But these profits are really small profits in the face of the mining proceeds. So these are gradually abandoned, Nauru as a Pacific island country, and later Nauruese people want to eat fish and buy canned fish imported from Australia.
So by 1980, 2,156 of the 7,000 Nauruans were involved in the excavation of phosphate mines. So what are the rest of them doing? The Nauru government also established the best welfare system at that time, Nauru did not have any taxes, the government took care of all the expenses of the people, housing is free, water and electricity are free, it is worth mentioning here that there is no fresh water resources on the island of Nauru, although the rainfall is very high (the average annual precipitation is 1500 mm), but the soil is very permeable, can not store water, so Nauru has not built a reservoir, where does the fresh water come from?
import! Yes, fresh water is imported. There is also free medical care, free communications, and free education. The country of more than 8,000 people also has a civil service system of more than 1,500 people, so to answer the above question, what are the remaining Nauruans except miners and civil servants? The answer is to do nothing. Because everything depends on the state, the people of Nauru do not attach importance to education, and they cannot even think of any use of education.
In Nauru, life is too good, and obesity has become the biggest problem affecting the health of Nauruans. During Nauru's richest period, the average life expectancy of Nauruans was only 55 years.
Unworking and uncontrolled eating make Nauruans almost all fat
Nauru's phosphate resources are also becoming less and less after a large number of phosphate ore exports, which has forced the Nauru government to start looking for a new path of economic development, and Nauru has set up a trust fund with 3.6 billion Australian dollars (about 18 billion yuan) saved from the sale of phosphate ore. However, due to various reasons such as corruption and the imperfect rule of law, Nauru's investment also failed.
Officials and politicians on the island of Nauru are also extremely corrupt, and a large number of expensive assets such as private yachts and private jets are a manifestation of their complete disregard for income and financial management, after all, the greedy money is not spent in vain.
If a succession of investment failures seriously injured Nauru, the depletion of phosphate mines was a fatal blow. The environment in Nauru has been severely damaged by uncontrolled mining, even to the point where seabirds are no longer resting in Nauru.
By the 1990s, Nauru's phosphate mining industry had fallen all the way. After 2000, Nauru emptied the entire island and eventually excavated and exported 500,000 tons of phosphate ore. Until 2004, Nauru's phosphate ore resources were only 22,000 tons, and Nauru finally tasted the consequences of sitting on the mountain.
In order to save itself, Nauru had to take some dark ways to support the economy, and the government of Nauru, which could not be sold, finally began to sell national sovereignty, and Nauru began to use its status as a sovereign state to provide tax avoidance and money laundering services for international capital. In addition, Nauru can even sell diplomatic passports, which were once popular among terrorists.
After all, Nauru has more than 10,000 people, and it is not so difficult to survive by asking for food between countries. Now nauru is once again under Australian control in order to survive, and Nauru has become a concentration camp for Australian refugees.
Looking at nauru now like a dilapidated island land after a rain of bullets and bullets, it is difficult to imagine that this was once a paradise, seabirds have moved away from their former homes, Nauru people have eaten the lesson of sitting on the mountain, Nauru has become poor and dilapidated, and anxiety and despair are the punishments that every local person must bear. The only good thing is that the incidence of diabetes and obesity has declined in recent years.
Children in Nauru play on the ruins of a demolished luxury hotel
The story of Nauru is extremely ironic, it tells us that luxury causes failure, resource exploitation cannot be blind, and national education must be grasped firmly, otherwise there will be magical acts like Nauru.