Kiribati drown under water

Kiribati: SLOWLY DROWNING Kiribati, an island republic in the South Pacific, is sinking under the sea. The indigenous inhabitants can do nothing to stop it. They feel the world has left them in the lurch. Blog b y Carsten Stormer, 2010 and Translated from German and edited by Roger Gwynn. The Reverend Baranite Kirata is sitting in his fishing boat. He takes a nylon line out of a toolbox, feels the hook with the tip of his forefinger and throws the line into the ocean. “In the old days we used to live very simply here,” Baranite declares. “Our community was quite happy as it was, with no telephones, no television sets, just the sea and the fish.” The old days, meaning just a few years earlier. Nowadays modern things are coming in, imported from China, Japan, Australia — TV sets, fridges, computers, mobile phones, motorbikes, and quantities of tinned food, plastic containers, plastic bags. Rubbish ends up on the beaches, where it sits and rots or floats around on th...

Every day the state goes under water