Wet Feet and Open Minds

This just in from our International MoosRoom Division:   

Part I:  Fearing that climate change could wipe out their entire Pacific archipelago, the leaders of Kiribati are considering an unusual backup plan: moving the populace to Fiji.

Kiribati President Anote Tong told The Associated Press on Friday that his Cabinet this week endorsed a plan to buy nearly 6,000 acres on Fiji's main island, Viti Levu. He said the fertile land, being sold by a church group for about $9.6 million, could provide an insurance policy for Kiribati's entire population of 103,000, though he hopes it will never be necessary for everyone to leave.

...

Some scientists have estimated the current level of sea rise in the Pacific at about 2 millimeters (0.1 inches) per year. Many scientists expect that rate to accelerate due to climate change.

Fiji, home to about 850,000 people, is about 1,400 miles south of Kiribati. But just what people there think about potentially providing a home for thousands of their neighbors remains unclear.

...

Tong has been considering other unusual options to combat climate change, including shoring up some Kiribati islands with sea walls and even building a floating island. He said this week that the latter option would likely prove too expensive, but that he hopes reinforcing some islands will ensure that Kiribati continues to exist in some form even in a worst-case scenario.

"We're trying to secure the future of our people," he said. "The international community needs to be addressing this problem more."

...

Although like much of the Pacific, Kiribati is poor — its annual GDP per person is just $1,600 — Tong said the country has plenty of foreign reserves to draw from for the land purchase. The money, he said, comes from phosphate mining on the archipelago in the 1970s.



Yes, the money to acquire the 'escape-property' in Fiji comes from phosphate mining revenues generated during the 1970's.  Forty years later they continue to reap the financial rewards of the RAPE of their natural resources by evil multi-national conglomerates.   Bad Kiribatis, bad!



Part II:  Anote Tong is the leader of the central Pacific island nation of Kiribati. Mr Tong has attracted international attention by warning that his country may become uninhabitable by the 2050s because of rising sea levels and salination provoked by climate change. 

He has stated that Kiribati may cease to exist altogether, and that its entire population of 94,000 may need to be resettled with dignity, not as climate refugees. 

In 2008, under his leadership, Kiribati declared 150,000 square miles of its Phoenix Islands marine area a fully protected marine park, making it off limits to fishing and other extractive uses. This pristine ocean wilderness is the size of California and has been designated a UN World Heritage Site.




The pristine ocean 'wilderness' is now off-limits to fishing and other 'extractive' uses?  


Okay, let me get this straight - there's this little atoll / island-thingy in the middle of nowhere which has no industry, no products or services to speak of, and a monthly average income per person of approximately $133.33?  AND they have blocked ANY natural resources from being used surrounding the island, thus assuring their island nation's financial doom?


AND, digging a bit further into the two separate articles above, their population increased from 2008 from 94,000 to 103,000 in 2011?


I KNOW what their problem is!  


The islands are sinking under the weight of all the new humans being born in the Progressive Mecca of Kiribati!  Heck, they don't need relocation, they need free contraception and a boatride!

They don't need no stinking FIJI!  

They need Massachusetts!  Free health care, scenic waterfront, unemployment benefits (hey, they're all unemployed, right?) AND more Planned Parenthood locations than Starbucks stores line the streets of gold in the great Progressive State of Massachusetts. 


The United States of America needs more hard-resting, over-sexed, wildly reproducing, and under-paid immigrant citizens!  PLUS 103,000 New Democratic voters in Massachusetts?  Be still my heart. 

Welcome Kiribatis!  Welcome home to Massachusetts!

Um, when you all come here, can I have your atoll?  It looks really nice and I hear the fishing is EXCELLENT!

When Progressive Leaders rule the World we'll all be looking for somewhere else to live.  Just remember, I've got DIBS on Kiribati...  I found it FIRST.

Have a nice weekend folks.


p.s.:  In visiting http://www.fiji-island-holidays.com/fiji-culture.html, I learned the following:   

The majority of the population is a mix of Indigenous Fijian, and Indian but Fiji also has a small Chinese population which is more prominent in the capital Suva. 

The two main ethnic groups live relatively separately because of their different religious and cultural beliefs which are hard to blend together. 

Often they have specific Fijian or Indian villages each with their own primary schools but they tend to mix more as they become older, at high school and especially in the working environment. 


Just another reason for the Kiribatis to make Massachusetts their home - Barney Frank LOVES everybody!  He loves the assimilation of other cultures and other peoples into his home state.  And those fresh young Kiribatis; they cook up so sweet and tender!   Yumm-O!