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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (3017)	2/25/2002 12:55:21 AM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15516

Tropical storms have also long frightened the islanders - and now global warming appears to be bringing more each wet season. Talake vividly recalls Hurricane Bebe, which destroyed 800 homes on Funafuti in 1972. "At 5pm, I was at the airstrip up to my knees in water. Kids were paddling about in canoes. In the evening, when the wind turned west and began blowing really hard, the police came round telling people that the eye of the hurricane was coming. A few metres from our house, the water was up to our hips. At 9pm, we headed for high land with our kids. Another couple had got there before us and were hiding there under bamboo mats. They felt sorry for us and offered us shelter. We were lucky to survive. If the water really rises and you cannot find anything to hold on to, the current will take you away and then you die. So we worry about getting to that stage." Like many Pacific islanders, Tuvaluans are open and easygoing - as you have to be in the tropical humidity - and don't give the impression of being easily worried. They know all about the outside world. Many on Funafuti have travelled further and wider than westerners, working on ships around the world, getting an education in Fiji, or visiting relatives in New Zealand. Most are keenly aware of the likely effects of global warming and sea-level rise thanks, not least, to island radio (which alternates days of traditional Tuvaluan and Pacific Island songs with Britney Spears and Billy Ocean). Iopu Iupasi leans against a palm by a pigpen in the shade of his backyard. He worked at sea for 22 years before turning to traditional life. He fishes for snapper, yellowfin tuna, marlin, swordfish, and, at night, takes a torch and what looks like an oversized butterfly net to pluck flying fish out of the air on the pitch-black ocean. He has noticed the erosion on the islands such as Tepuka Savilivili. "I look at the small islands - before they were big ones, eh? Now it is all gone, so I think I believe in sea-level rise." He points to the rough coral shoreline, where his backyard ends. "My beach here used to be about four metres. Now it is nearly coming up to the house. We used to have sea walls, but it is useless. They don't work." Sam Vaiku stands under a blue plastic canopy where he is building a wooden fishing boat. Aged 70, he attributes his huge muscles to hard work and toddy - fermented and mildly hallucinogenic coconut milk - which he drinks in moderation at mealtimes. He has also noticed a loss of trees on the small islands around Funafuti where he fishes. But he has faith that the islanders will be spared Tuvalu is one of the most Christian countries in the world. Early missionaries reported how ready the placid Polynesian Tuvaluans were to convert compared with the "difficult" Melanesian peoples of Fiji and Papua New Guinea. While there is a neat mosque on the island, more than 97% of the islanders are Christians. "There is a strong belief in the story about Noah's Ark, and God's covenant that he will not flood the earth again," says Paani Laupepa, the assistant secretary of Tuvalu's environment department. "We are trying to explain the scientific facts to Christian people. It is coming through slowly." The Reverend Pitoi Etuati retreats into his sparse, white-washed church to escape his young children. Like most people on the island, he lives in a simple two-roomed house. His church is a large hall, with matting woven from pandanus leaves for his 1,000- strong congregation to sit on. Unlike many Tuvaluan clergy, he understands that, while the seas may not rise to cover the islands in his lifetime, "it is going to happen, if not in our time, then in the future". "Conservative Christians would say I am not a faithful pastor because I am giving up now. But we cannot think that, because we are Christian, God will do everything for us. You have faith, you work and accept. It might be God's ways to inform us that there will be a time when this island sinks, so we have to push our government to make arrangements so we can be refugees, if not in our time then for the coming generation." While Tuvaluans debate issues of faith, scientists in the region continue to argue over whether Tuvalu is yet experiencing rising sea levels. The National Tidal Facility (NTF), based at Flinders University in Adelaide, recently published figures from its tide gauge on Tuvalu that recorded no rise in average tide levels since record-keeping began in 1993. The findings were used by the Australian government in November last year to justify its rejection of Tuvalu's request that it admit a small number of islanders every year as "environmental refugees". (To add insult to injury, the Australians later informally asked Tuvalu whether it could find room on its 10 square miles for boat people refused entry into Australia. Tuvalu politely turned down the request.) From the article Going down BY Patrick Barkham Saturday February 16, 2002 The Guardian guardian.co.uk (Continued)