©
Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2005
Taken
from the news section in
www.onestopenglish.com
Now many Tuvalans are fat and
suffer from high blood pressure and
diabetes.
Other Tuvalans discovered that it was
too expensive for them to keep their
cars, and that anyway cars are not
really necessary in a country that is
just 26 sq km in area. There is now a
huge rubbish dump in the middle of
this tropical paradise,
full of old cars
and other waste.
The Tuvalans also spent large
amounts of money telling the world
about their situation. Tuvalu joined
the United Nations, at a cost of $1.5m
a year. The Tuvalan delegation at the
United Nations was especially active
in supporting the Kyoto protocol to
fight global warming. But while the
political system argues about global
warming,
the sea keeps rising, and
the Tuvalans keep spending their
dollars.
All Tuvalans know that they will
probably not die of old age on their
islands. The solution to the problem
is not so simple, however. They
cannot move to the nearby island of
Kioa, because it will not take any
more immigrants. Australia doesn’t
want to let the Tuvalans in, and New
Zealand will only take a small
number each year. When the islands
are finally
covered in water, the
Tuvalan nation will probably be split
up.
After the eight months he spent in
Tuvalu, Lindsay is not sentimental
about white sands and turquoise
waters. "There are no more paradises.
Tuvalu is trying to keep its sense of
social solidarity in the face of
progress. Nowadays even paradise
has a price".
The Guardian Weekly
25-03-2005,
page 18
©
Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2005
Taken from the news section in
www.onestopenglish.com
