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What spurred my interest in this topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8Sfk_F1ZAo The British island territory Tristan Da Cunha is the most isolated settlement on Earth, with just one major village and a population of 266 people. In 1961 the island's volcano summit erupted and the entire population had to be evacuated to England for two years. Most returned to the island in 1963. This video is an interview with a girl who wishes she could stay in England since it offers so much more, especially for women. If you're wondering, she is now an old woman who still lives on the island. I've done a bit of research and this place is so fascinating:
I'd love to know more about Tristan and other places with small populations and practically no immigration. I want to specifically exclude places like Antarctic research stations since people are generally only there for a limited time and aren't from there. I'd like to know about the history of these places, what life is like, what weird or awesome traditions, customs or beliefs they have, what kind of unique issues they face, and how they've been impacted by contact with the 'outside world'. bowser fucked around with this message at 06:48 on Aug 22, 2016 |
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Aug 16, 2016 03:52
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That seems way bigger than Pitcairn Island, which I think only has about 50 people on it.bowser posted:I'd like to know about the history of these places, what life is like, what weird or awesome traditions, customs or beliefs they have, what kind of unique issues they face, and how they've been impacted by contact with the 'outside world'. If you aren't aware, Pitcairn Island was settled by the crew that mutinied aboard the Bounty, along with some Tahitian lovebuddies they picked up along the way. Their main defining tradition/custom/belief is child molestation, with about half the male population including the mayor arrested and tried for it under British law, which they unsuccessfully tried to argue didn't apply to them despite their use of it for their entire legal system sans having sex with children. Unique issues they face are that surprisingly no one wants to move there and the few younger people there are bailing, so they're going to slowly get too old to man the longboats to unload ships etc. There is one consulate official job on the island, and in the job description it specifically states that whoever gets the job and therefore has to live on the island can't bring any family members under the age of 16 with them, and visitor advice is that no one should ever bring children to the island full stop. Moving well away from island child sex offender retreats, there are some pretty cool little islands as part of the 200 or so in the Cook Islands, where the population is one tiny little fishing village. My friend lives on the main island and one of his friends made a trip out to one of the more remote islands and took a whole lot of chocolate with him. The pearl farmers on the island gave him about 50 black pearls of generally decent quality in exchange for the chocolate. So if you ever go somewhere remote, bring chocolate as your primary unit of trade.
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Aug 16, 2016 04:35
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You could look into the northern communities of Canada, up in Northwest Territories or Nunavut. They aren't quite as isolated as an island in the middle of the ocean, a lot of them are completely inaccessible six months of the year because of winter, and extremely difficult to get to otherwise.
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Aug 16, 2016 15:15
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Gibbo posted:You could look into the northern communities of Canada, up in Northwest Territories or Nunavut. They aren't quite as isolated as an island in the middle of the ocean, a lot of them are completely inaccessible six months of the year because of winter, and extremely difficult to get to otherwise. A friend of mine is an RCMP officer in a fly-in reserve in Manitoba (only road-accessible in winter with an ice road). That's quite an experience, from what I've heard...
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Aug 16, 2016 16:46
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PT6A posted:A friend of mine is an RCMP officer in a fly-in reserve in Manitoba (only road-accessible in winter with an ice road). That's quite an experience, from what I've heard... drat. Who'd he piss off to end up with that assignment?
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Aug 17, 2016 06:32
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You could also look into islands that are part of the Philippines. I went there for medical relief after typhoon Yolanda and the smallest island we went to was over an hour boat ride across the ocean. The population was about 800, but there are smaller and more remote islands. Poverty was a huge problem, which only makes isolation more of an issue. There was no medical care on the island, if someone needed a doctor they had to wait for a fishing boat to become available to take them to a bigger island. The typhoon had destroyed everything on the island, the only structure that was intact was the steeple on the church, and they contributed that to a miracle. I don't know if you're interested in my experience there or if you're looking for more broad, historical things. I can certainly write more.
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Aug 17, 2016 06:50
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Koivunen posted:I don't know if you're interested in my experience there I am!
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Aug 17, 2016 06:56
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Gibbo posted:drat. Who'd he piss off to end up with that assignment? RCMP officers are required to do a limited-duration posting, and he wanted to get his out of the way early and quickly, so he'd have more control over where he went both for his limited duration posting and his future postings. Whereas some limited-duration postings are up to five years, generally for small communities that nonetheless aren't particularly isolated, this one lasts two years I think, and then he's done. So, yeah, he actually chose it (from a list of possible postings) himself. Also, he's something of a crazy person, inasmuch as spending two years in an isolated First Nations community is something that would appeal to him on the basis that it's one helluva adventure. And in winter I'm told he gets to patrol on snowmobile, which he rather enjoys. I believe he also works crazy amounts of overtime, and banks it instead of getting paid extra, so he takes vacations for 30-45 days at a time several times per year. While some people are definitely counting the days 'til the end of their posting, he seems to at least not mind living there. Apparently the people who resent being sent to such a place are the sort who just wanted a police gig in the Lower Mainland, whereas he actually seems to care about getting to know the people in the community and helping them when they need it -- you know, the sort of person who should actually be involved in doing community policing.
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Aug 17, 2016 16:23
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Scudworth posted:I am! Ok! I was in the Philippines for two weeks after the typhoon and every day would visit a different remote location, so we were only on that particular island for a day. Not a lot of time to learn about the intricacies of life there, especially since there had just been a horrific natural disaster that obliterated everything. We were a medical team of eight people and took a small outrigger boat to the island. The trip out was about an hour. When we approached the island, little kids swam out into the ocean to meet the boat. The beach was full of all these gorgeous shells, someone picked one up, and the kids took that as a cue to start collecting and bringing us shells. By the end of the day we had bags of shells that they wanted us to take, and families and brought us enormous conches bigger than my head as gifts. A woman walked halfway across the island through debris just to bring us a two liter of Coke. They wanted to bring us into what was left of their homes and show us around. One woman had hid under her mattress as her house was lifted off and blown apart. Surprisingly there were very few serious injuries, very few deaths, mostly just wounds that we could treat on site. We set up a triage station and did check ups on nearly the entire population of the island. There was a woman who spoke Tagalog on our medical crew who took a lot of the kids and had group sessions that focused on caring for the psychological trauma of living through the typhoon. The main part of the island, the village center I guess, was just a beach landing for fishing boats, a one room school, and a chapel. There were a couple other buildings for gathering but no stores, no electricity, no plumbing. The typhoon had destroyed everything except the steeple, and they viewed that as a miracle. The houses had cement foundations and had been made out of wood and palm, and every single house was gone. Some had been built on wooden stilts so there wasn't evidence that they had ever existed. There were small farms so the island had access to fresh food, but a lot of fruit trees had been destroyed. I am a blonde white lady, and most of the kids had never seen a white person in the flesh before. They would follow me around and call me a princess, they wanted me to hold their hands and pick them up. I spent most of the day with the kids and doing wellness checks in people's homes, or what was left of them. We had brought hard candy and red licorice, which they had never had before. As far as medical care, it was non existent. If someone needed a doctor they had to wait for a fishing boat to bring them back to the bigger island that had a clinic. The nearest actual hospital was a few hours by car, which is impossible for most people to have access to even on the bigger island. We had gone to the island with a doctor who does visits to the island once every few weeks by themselves and will bring people back if necessary. There was a kid who had severe cleft palate who was about 14 months old, the family would never be able to afford surgery so that's how they will live unless a charity provides it. Dental hygiene was extremely poor. There's no running water and most drinking water is contaminated so instead they drink Coke. Sugar is an ingredient in lots of foods, even vegetables and main courses. There was a woman who was pregnant who had no prenatal care and was dangerously hypertensive, we took her back with us. Lots of asthma, there is no waste disposal so any kind of garbage gets burned every day. Lots of untreated hypertension and diabetes. Also lots of alcoholism. The whole relief mission was an incredibly powerful experience, but the island was the most moving. The generosity and kindness they showed us even though they had literally just lost everything was so humbling. I would go back there in a heartbeat.
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Aug 18, 2016 09:42
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Koivunen posted:There's no running water and most drinking water is contaminated so instead they drink Coke. Because of sea level rise contaminating the freshwater table or something else? Obviously, they bring the soda in by boat, but how much how often? Just guesstimating that a person drinks about a liter a day, that would be 400 2-liter bottles per day for the community. That's about 1750 pounds of liquid per day, assuming Coke is about the same density as water.
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Aug 21, 2016 01:48
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I live in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the smallest jurisdiction of the United States. One of these islands, Saipan, is a functional city of 45,000 people, reliant on tourism from Japan, Korea, and China. Two other islands, Tinian and Rota, have about 2,000 people apiece. Before 2008, the Commonwealth had its own immigration law. Saipan used it to bring in Chinese and Filipino workers to staff resort hotels and garment factories, but Tinian and Rota essentially recreated the Confederate States of America: they used immigrant labor as plantation slaves to grow peppers, plantains, and other cash crops. Unless the immigrants were young, female, and pretty, of course. The Feds got sick of this (and got sick of frequent diplomatic protests from Manila) and revoked the Commonwealth’s authority to govern its own immigration. Today, Tinian and Rota are still farm-oriented, but with their cheap labor gone, and more of the islands declared off-limits for agriculture by federal environmental protection laws, the populations are shrinking. Many young people go to college in the mainland U.S. They can get in-state tuition at a number of western universities (Boise State and Oregon State are popular choices). Long-time residents and government retirees are also buying up parcels of land in the mountain states, where it’s cheap. A Chinese investor is proposing a megacasino on Tinian. It’s almost certainly a scam. The military is proposing to expand operations on Tinian. It’s almost certainly not a scam. There are a number of tiny islands north of Saipan that are volcanically active and inhabited only by a few surly fishermen. The islands have a mayor, who lives on Saipan: you vote for mayor of the Northern Islands by filling out an affidavit that says you would live in the Northern Islands if they were developed. Every election ends up in court because someone challenges whether a voter would actually live in the Northern Islands if they could. The government is proposing a settlement program for Pagan, the largest of these islands. Pagan is very pretty but totally impractical to reside upon. It’s about 250 nautical miles from Saipan, has a half-ruined WWII airstrip, no port, no fresh water, no electricity, no sewage, and is outside the range of the Coast Guard. The homestead program is the brainchild of the lieutenant governor, whose daughter owns a freighter. Rumor has it that the settlement program exists solely so his daughter’s freighter can win a contract to supply Pagan at public expense. The military also wants to use Pagan for operations, probably naval bombardment. Many people here are furious and are trying to prevent the Commonwealth’s government from negotiating with the military to lease or sell the island. These people aren’t familiar with the concept of eminent domain, which would allow the military to buy Pagan at its fair market value over the Commonwealth’s objections. And what do you think the fair value of an uninhabited island is?
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Aug 21, 2016 08:26
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I'm in the casino business and quite a few of my coworkers left for Saipan last year, where a new mega-casino was hiring like mad. Can you tell me anything about that? Are my coworkers doing alright?
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Aug 22, 2016 12:30
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The island breeze only kinda cancels out the crazy secondhand smoke.
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Aug 22, 2016 13:42
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cheerfullydrab posted:I'm in the casino business and quite a few of my coworkers left for Saipan last year, where a new mega-casino was hiring like mad. Can you tell me anything about that? Are my coworkers doing alright? Maybe, maybe not. The casino is still under construction. Lots of people went right back to the States because in August, we were clobbered by a supertyphoon that tore the roof off the power plant. (I was on generator power for 81 days.) The “temporary casino” is doing well financially. Its business model relies heavily on VIPs. Your coworkers should not expect to keep their jobs for long. The casino investors, who are from China, are looking for investor-class visas. This requires them to employ a certain percentage of U.S. citizens for a period of time. After that period expires, they no longer have to employ U.S. citizens. When that happens, all the Americans will be fired and replaced by less expensive Filipinos.
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Aug 22, 2016 21:24
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echopapa posted:When that happens, all the Americans will be fired and replaced by less expensive Filipinos. Just like Canadian casinos
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Aug 23, 2016 01:18
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