Comments on: Losing Paradise

By: Kiribati’s policy for “migration with dignity” | Development Policy Blog

Kiribati’s policy for “migration with dignity” | Development Policy Blog — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:02:32 +0000

[...] Church leaders look to larger Pacific neighbours like Fiji or Solomon Islands (which already host Gilbertese communities relocated from the British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice islands in the 1950s), though this [...]

By: Kiribati’s policy for “migration with dignity” | Inside Story

Kiribati’s policy for “migration with dignity” | Inside Story — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 04:32:07 +0000

By: pieter broeks [jnr}

pieter broeks [jnr} — Sat, 21 May 2011 13:48:19 +0000

I lived in gizo as a child .My father was stationed there .He managed the wharf and the local super market for bp coperative stores as a new zealander of moari decent i found that i had an interesting bond with the gilbert islanders that lived in several villages and when my parents and brothers and sisters went on a 3month oe to europe i stayed behind and lived in Titiana with a local family and became so entrenched in the culture and the micronesian way of life that when my family returned from europe i stayed on with my adopted family an refused to go home to gizo town .Eventually a year later as a 11year old i was dragged kicking and screaming by my parents back to nz when my fathers contracts came to an end.We ended up in Ohakune in nz .from paradise to living freezing hell for a whole year i refused to wear shoes and would trudge through the snow to school in jandals in protest at being taken away from my people in gizo I read with anguish that my gilbert islander family and the beautiful village of Titiana have been destroyed in a tsunami.As and adult i wander back in my aging memories and remember the sleepy island time paradise i was torn away from.Lazy days floating around aqaua green lagoons catching a fish for tee and sleeping with my friends on a tiny island that we had paddled out to in aleaky canoe .The stress of of being an adult in western society constant expectations from family and business associates,god damn i wish i could just escape back there forever never to return.!!!