After the Bombs, Retrofitting Paradise

There's an interesting article in today's New York Times regarding the rebuilding of Vieques, an island off of Puerto Rico.

From the article:

John Hix, an architect from Canada, is providing an example of what a renewed Vieques could look like: spare, environmentally sensitive buildings of concrete, equipped with wooden shutters or overhead steel security doors. He has designed an addition to the Betancourts' restaurant, Café Media Luna, in the capital, Isabel Segunda. He has also created a seaside compound for Thomas H. Wright, the vice president and secretary of Princeton University, and his mini-resort, Hix Island Hotel, has been hailed for ecological sensitivity.

Some more info on the Hix hotel can be found here.

Hunting The Coconut Palm Killer in Panama

A husband-and-wife team of researchers spend years in Panama trying to stop the spread of Porroca, a disease that kills coconut palm trees.

From the article:

The Kuna Yala region of Panama is a 400-kilometer stretch of beaches and nearby islands. Since the 1600s, Kuna Yala has been home to the Kuna people, an indigenous group whose lifestyle and livelihood depends on the health and bounty of the native coconut palms. In 1994, an outbreak of Porroca--a disease that spread west from Colombia--began killing the coconut palms on which the Kuna depend.

The Sad Fate of Nauru

The Economist ran an article in December 2001 about the sad state of affairs in Nauru, the smallest independent republic in the world. From the article:

IT SITS, a tiny eight-square-mile speck, way out in the vast and lonely reaches of the Pacific, halfway between Hawaii and Australia. In 1798 a passing British captain, the first westerner to see it, dubbed it Pleasant Island. That old name sounds cruelly ironic now. Seen from the air, Nauru resembles an enormous moth-eaten fedora: a ghastly grey mound of rock surrounded by a narrow green brim of vegetation. On the ground, this unlovely impression is confirmed. Strip-mining has turned Nauru into a barren, jagged wasteland. The once-dense tropical vegetation has been cleared. The exposed rock reflects the heat of the equatorial sun and drives away rain.

Unlike many small, remote Pacific islands, Nauru possesses a valuable commodity, phosphate, a sought-after fertiliser ingredient. A high-grade supply was discovered in 1900. For a brief, heady moment in the 1970s, Nauruans were, astonishingly, among the richest people on earth. Now they are poverty-stricken, unhealthy and look set to be clobbered by international trade sanctions. The story of Nauru's descent from prosperity to penury is one of the most cautionary tales of modern development.

Things have not gotten any better since 2001. "Nauru . . . is in a state of flux," says a February 2003 New Zealand Herald article. " It wants to be seen to be co-operating with the international community, and the US in particular, but it does not know who to trust."

Also in February, all telecommunications links were cut off in and out of Nauru, the nation having gone broke after plundering its natural phosphate resources. (A fate that perhaps awaits larger nations... only a matter of time?)

Meanwhile, this week, an "Australian court has blocked an attempt by the US to repossess Nauru's only aircraft, an Air Nauru 737, saying it would contravene promises given by Washington to reward Nauru for cracking down on terrorism and for helping smuggle North Korean defectors to the West." From an article in the 2 August 2003 edition of the Australian Sunday Mail.

I'm reminded of the recent Steely Dan song:

It's high time for a walk on the real side
Let's admit the bastards beat us
I move to dissolve the corporation
In a pool of margaritas
So let's switch off all the lights
Light up all the Luckies
Crankin' up the afterglow
Cause we're goin' out of business
Everything must go

Talk about your major pain and suffering
Now our self-esteem is shattered
Show the world a mighty hidey-ho face
As we go sliding down the ladder

It was sweet up at the top
'Til that ill wind started blowing
Now it's cozy down below
'Cause we're goin' out of business
Everything must go

The Daily Log of Hawaii

What's going on in the Hawaiian Islands: The Hawaii Web Log. The blog has a kind of commercial vibe to it, as if you're reading a touristy restaurant menu that has facts and figures about Hawaii. Did you know...?

Still, the News section offers a handy daily section of headlines from Hawaii. But each mini newsblurb is followed by a snarky "Spin" interpretation. Some are funny and some, well, I guess you had to be there.