nPostednon October 26, 2015
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| Nauru is a tiny nation (third smallest in the world) located on a phosphate rock island in the South Pacific. |
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Accordingnto Wikipedia, the Nauruan word “angam” means a lot ofndifferent things: jubilation, celebration, to have triumphed over allnhardships, to have reached a set goal, and coming home!
Accordingnto Wikipedia, the Nauruan word “angam” means a lot ofndifferent things: jubilation, celebration, to have triumphed over allnhardships, to have reached a set goal, and coming home!n
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nSo…whatnare Nauruans celebrating?
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nItnturns out, recovery from near-extinction!
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nThennation of Nauru is a pretty small island, and there was a time innhistory when the population was so low, the Nauruan ethnic group wasnconsidered to be in danger of dying out altogether.
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nItnwas just after World War I, and the German troops had left thenisland. Nauru had been placed under the authority of Australia, NewnZealand, and Britain, and an Australian administrator held a censusn(a population count). He was upset to discover that the populationnwas as low as it was. He gathered together the Nauruan chiefs andntold them that, if they were to survive as a people, they had to getntheir population up to at least 1,500.
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nThenadministrator even offered rewards: he said that, when the populationnreached 1,500, a public holiday would be declared, and the baby whonhelped the island attain that number would be declared the Angam Babynand would receive gifts.
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nItntook thirteen years, but finally, on this date in 1932, the AngamnBaby (person #1,500) was born. It was a little girl named EidegenegennEidagaruwo.
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nTherenwas a lot of celebration that the goal had been reached!
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nButnyou probably know that there were twonWorld Wars, and when World War II occurred, Nauru was occupied bynJapan. Most of the Nauruans were evacuated to another island, andntragically, many of them died of malnutrition or disease. Ironically,nthe Angam Girl Eidegenegen was one of the people who died.
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nAtnthe end of the war, after the surviving Nauruans returned to theirnhome, it turned out that the population was again well below thenmagic number of 1,500. The people realized that they should worknagain to increase their population. This time it didn’t take as manynyears: on March 31, 1949, Bethel Enproe Adam was born, making thenpopulation of Nauru once again 1,500. n
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nNotenthat, although Bethel was born in March, the people stick with thenoriginal October 26 date as the official Angam Day.
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nInbet you are wondering how many Nauruans there are now, more than halfna century later. Well, the population now in 2015 is more than 10nthousand people, and about 58% of them are of Nauru ethnicity (thenrest are other Pacific Islander peoples with a few people of Europeannor Chinese ancestry). So that means that there are almost 6 thousandnethnic Nauruans!
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nWhyn1,500?
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nIntried to read up on population science, which brought me to websitesnlike this one, and itnseems that the biggest problems for small populations are:
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n(1)nlack of genetic diversity and the resulting inbreeding, which cannlead to people with more susceptibility to disease and sometimes evennproblems with fertility, and n
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n(2)nvulnerability to extinction due to a disaster. A volcanic eruption,ntsunami, or plague can more easily kill all the residents of annisland, for example, if there are only 360 people than if there aren3,600 people!
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nIncouldn’t find any evidence that 1,500 people is the recognized numbernyou need to ensure a people’s survival. But I did find an article claiming that 5,000 is a magic numbernfor the “minimum viable population” for a variety of creatures.
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| Nauru’s current population is quite young, compared with populations of some other nations, such as these: |
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- To learn more about Nauru, check out this earlier post.
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nAlsonon this date: n
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nCerealnmanufacturer C. W. Post’s birthday
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nMulenDay
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nAnniversarynof the opening of the Erie Canal
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nPlannahead:
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nChecknout my Pinterest boards for:
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:
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nNovembern holidays
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nNovembern birthdays
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nHistoricaln anniversaries in November
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