unemployed
p. 22 · Read in the full issue
Affluent but unemployed
ON one level, Nauru is a reductio ad absurdum of the modem conception of a nation state. Less than 6000 people clinging to the fringes of a coral island, driven from the uplands by phosphate mining, and threatened by the rising oceans as a result of global warming.
Yet it has an export income and GNP which is the envy of many larger nations. With its massive overseas in vestments, it almost looks like Kuwait
under Iraqi occupation a banking
system without a territory.
Its reserves would not cover the cost both of reclaiming territory, and main taining the Nauruans with one of the highest living standards in the world. In addition, the government has been spending heavily.
Air Nauru has lost hundreds of millions of dollars, and the Nauru Pacific shipping line probably lost even more.
The national debt and the Island’s trust funds have been coverging while govern ment spending has often outstripped income.
Even if their pursuit of the claim against Australia for restitution is suc cessful, it is unlikely to solve the social and economic problems of such lop-sided development where being a citizen is a passport to unemployed affluence. □