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Kiribati

Kiribati (en)


( Flag of Kiribati )	( Arms of Kiribati )

Motto : Te mauri, te ao te raoi tabomoa
( Gilbertese : "Health, Peace and Prosperity")

Official Languages Gilbertese , English

Capital

South Tarawa

Largest city

South Tarawa

Form of State Republic

- President Anote Tong

Area
- Total
- Water (%) Ranked ^170th
811 ¹km ²
1% ²

Population
- Total ( 2008 )
- Density Ranked ^179th
110 356 inhabitants.
136 inhabitants / km ²

Independence
- Date the United Kingdom
12 July 1979

Demonym Gilbertines (ines)

Currency Australian Dollar ³ ( AUD )

Time Zone UTC 12 ⁴ 13 ⁵ 14 ⁶

National anthem

Teirake Kaini Kiribati

Internet domain . Ki

Indicative
Telephone +686 ⁷

¹ outside lagoons
² only the atoll of Teraina hosts a freshwater lagoon
³ Gilbertese specific parts are used
⁴Gilbert Islands and Banaba
⁵Phoenix Islands
⁶Line Islands
⁷ and then 21 for Tarawa and 81 Christmas

Kiribati, , in long form or the Republic of Kiribati Republic of Kiribati, formerly known under the name of the Gilbert Islands , is an island state of Oceania consists of three islands of the Pacific Ocean : the Gilbert Islands themselves, the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands which must be added the island isolated from Banaba.

Kiribati is located astride the equator and international date line , in both Polynesia and Micronesia , south of the Marshall Islands and Hawaii and north of Tuvalu , and Samoa , the Cook Islands and French Polynesia.

Kiribati is made up of three islands main, comprising a total of 32 atolls and a " high island , Banaba , situated a little away, closer to Nauru. If the small land area makes it one of the smallest countries in the world (less than 811 km ^2), the dispersion of islands in Kiribati can claim a maritime area of 3.55 million km ^2.

Summary

/ / History

Main articles: History of Kiribati and philatelic and postal history of Kiribati.

The Kiribati have been inhabited for about two thousand years by a people Austronesian of Micronesia , speaking a single language, Gilbertese , episodic contact with Samoans.

The Kiribati have been "discovered" rather late, exhaustively by European explorers in fact only in the early ^nineteenth century. They owe their name to the Gilbert Islands (in French ) to Admiral John Krusenstern Adam who named them and to 1820 , named after the British Captain Thomas Gilbert , who had crossed in 1788.

In 1892 , the United Kingdom under its protectorate, the Gilbert Islands , the Ellice Islands (now Tuvalu ) and islands of the Union (until 1925 , became Tokelau ). They become a British colony on 12 January 1916 , also includes the islands Ocean ( Banaba ), Fanning and Washington (since 1901 ) - and Christmas (from 1919 ).

The Gilbert Islands are under (partly) the occupation Japanese during the Second World War , from late 1941. The Battle of Tarawa puts partially completed in November 1943.

In 1978 , independence was granted to the Ellice Islands, Gilbert separated since 1975 and who then take the name of Tuvalu ("eight islands together"). The Kiribati turn become independent in their "new" name on 12 July 1979.

During the 25 years of independence, the republic has experienced a democratic political life and eventually became a member of the UN in 1999. The overthrow of democratic Teburoro Tito , president re-elected for ^a 3rd and final term, resulted in the election of the opponent Anote Tong in 2003 , reelected in 2007.

Politics

Main article: Politics of Kiribati.

Kiribati is a republic parliamentary. The parliament of Kiribati, called Maneaba ni Maungatabu ("the common house of the sacred mountain"), is elected every four years and consists of 46 elected representatives including 44 (the last elections in August 2007).

The president called Te Beretitenti ("President" in Gilbertese) and is both head of state and government. He is elected by direct universal suffrage, among the three or four candidates nominated by parliament from among its members, according to the Borda count. He chose his vice-president and appointed his cabinet, not to exceed ten ministers. In 2007 , the president was Anote Tong (since July 2003 ) and Vice-President Teima Onorio.

Each of the 21 inhabited islands has its own local council that takes care of daily affairs. The atoll of Tarawa , where the capital South Tarawa , and most of the government, has three separate councils: Betio , South Tarawa and North Tarawa.

Subdivisions

Main article: Subdivisions of Kiribati.

The constitution of 12 July 1979 (Table 2, 132) does not divide the republic into archipelagos or districts, but gives an exhaustive list of islands which compose it, with their official spelling (and variants permitted: cf. feature of Geography Kiribati ). The islands of the Line and Phoenix , however, are grouped administratively under the jurisdiction of one department decentralized (Line and Phoenix Group Development Ministry), based in London ( Christmas ).

Geography

Map of Kiribati

Main article: Geography of Kiribati.

Kiribati consists of three islands: the Gilbert Islands (17 islands) to 1 500 km north of Fiji , the Phoenix Islands (8 islands) at about 1800 kilometers south-east of the Gilbert Islands and Line Islands ( 11 islands, of which 3 are inhabited) to about 3300 kilometers east of the Gilbert Islands and an isolated volcanic island in the west Banaba. The latter is the former island phosphate , known as Ocean Island, annexed the 26 September 1901 , then attached to the colony by the British - who have also made their administrative capital (exhausted phosphate deposits in 1979, the year of independence). The Line Islands also include the island Jarvis , the Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll, but these are administered by the United States.

The 33 islands (which are all atolls except Banaba ) are divided into three archipelagos:

Gilbert Islands : Abaiang , Abemama , Aranuka , Arorae , Banaba , Beru , Butaritari , Kuria , Makin (formerly Little Makin) Maiana , Marakei , Nikunau , Nonouti , Onotoa , Tabiteuea , Tamana , Tarawa
Phoenix Islands : Birnie , the Canton (or Canton or Abariringa), Enderbury , Manra (or Sydney), McKean, Nikumaroro (or Gardner), Orona (or Hull ), Rawak (or Phoenix), Winslow Reef. Canton is only permanently inhabited by some sixty residents came from Gilbert since the late 1930s, while a new attempt at colonization on Orona has been underway since 2001.

Line Islands : the island Carolina (or Millennium Island , so named in 2000 for being the first land where the sun ^of the third millennium rose), Filippo Reef, Flint Island, the Christmas Island or Kiritimati, the oldest ^Economy

Main article: Economy of Kiribati.

Kiribati has few natural resources except fish. Deposits of phosphate have been exhausted commercially exploitable at the time of independence. The copra and fishing now account for the bulk of production and exports (including the form of aquarium fish ). They amount to little more than 6 million Americans - compared to imports, 44 million in 1999.

The GDP of Kiribati reached 80.2 million USD in 2006 . The economy has fluctuated widely in recent years and has not progressed at the pace of population growth. Economic development is severely limited by lack of natural resources, skilled workers (with the exception of seamen, trained by the Marine Training Centre in Betio and high demand in Germany and since 2001, the United States) weak infrastructure and remoteness from international markets.

The international airlines have become problematic, especially since that Air Kiribati has finally given up (March 2004) the only plane that enabled him to connect the Fiji and Tuvalu (an ATR 72s ) and the single charter (a Boeing 737 ), provided by Aloha Airlines , which connected on it every week Honolulu to Christmas. So, the only company that currently connects to the world Tarawa remains Air Marshall Islands , from Majuro ( Marshall ) - and, on occasion, Air Nauru , when his single jet is not in receivership. Air Kiribati, government-owned company, provides, for better or worse, internal links between the Gilbert Islands (except Banaba ), but is unable to directly link the Phoenix or Line Islands. The main airports are Bonriki ( South Tarawa ) and the Christmas Island whose technicality is ( IATA , ICAO code , runway length, runway width, height, latitude (Dec); longitude (Dec )):

Bonriki International (TRW - NGTA - 2011 m - 43 m - 2 m - 1380-173150)

Christmas Island (CXI - PLCH - 2103 m - 29 m - 1 m - 1990 to -157,350)

The tourism provides more than a fifth of GDP , but remains fairly limited, mainly because the airline difficult (two major hotels in South Tarawa where one of them is a government hotel, another hotel in government Christmas ).

Foreign financial aid, largely from the United Kingdom , the Australia and Japan , provides an important complement to the economy (between a quarter and half of GDP in recent years, 15.5 million U.S. 1995). But these are mostly fishing rights paid by the European Union , the South Korea and now in Taiwan , which represent the bulk of revenue.

Most have Gilbertines subsistence activities (fishing, growing vegetables and fruit) that improve their daily lives.

Telecommunications are expensive and the service is clearly inadequate. There is no access service and broadband national airline, which has a monopoly TSKL Internet offers one of the most expensive rates in the world.

Since early 2007, Kiribati had started in the marketing of flags of convenience by registering at Tarawa boats of all backgrounds, hoping to diversify their economic resources.

Demographics

Demographic changes between 1961 and 2003 (figure in FAO , 2005). Population in thousands.

Main article: Demographics of Kiribati.

Residents are Gilbertines (in Gilbertese , I-Kiribati). They are high population growth (+ 2.3% per year, 4.3 children per woman) and a little above the 110 000 inhabitants in 2008. Non-urban densities are among the highest in the world, including Betio, on the atoll of Tarawa. While the English is the language used by the constitution to the laws and official acts, the Gilbertese (te taetae or Kiribati) is the usual vernacular, widely spoken by all inhabitants of the republic (a language Austronesian , descendant of Proto-Oceanic, accepted at par with English in the constitution of 1979). Only a negligible minority also speak tuvalu (0.3% of the population, are descendants of the Ellice islanders stayed behind in the separation of Tuvalu in 1976). The Gilbertese is also spoken in Tuvalu (on an island, Nui ) in Fiji (Rabi) and Solomon , and by some expatriates in New Zealand and the United States ( Hawaii ). The Christianity is the main religion in the country, sometimes mixed with some residual practices of ancestral beliefs (animist type). The majority of Christians are Catholic (Diocese of Tarawa and Kiribati) Kiribati Protestant Church but (KPC Congregational) is very well represented, more than one third of the population (as the Mormons and Protestant churches like the Adventists and the Church of Christ, the latter a very small minority). Faith Baha'i is also very common, especially at Tarawa and Christmas (less than 3%). In the census of 2005 , when religions were reported, the distribution of 92 533 Gilbertines was as follows:

51 144 Roman Catholics;
KPC 33 042;
^7th Day Adventists 1756;
Baha'i 2034;
NGC 364;
Mormons 2910;
Others 1238;
No 23, non-listed 22.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Kiribati.

Sir Arthur Grimble , long after Robert Louis Stevenson , has made known to the world this unique culture through popular shows on BBC and books like Pattern of Islands. The major scientific works were first made by Henry Evans (Harry) Maude (the first British resident commissioner to be also an anthropologist). In France, work has mainly been done by Jean-Paul Latouche, former president of the League of Oceanistes (Museum of Mankind). Language Gilbertine was first described (and written) by the Rev. Hiram Bingham Jr. in the late ^nineteenth century and codified throughout the ^twentieth by missionaries (mostly French and Catholic) as the Reverend Father Ernest Sabatier and comprehensive Gilbertese-French dictionary (Tabuiroa, 1952-1954), translated into English by Sister Olivia (edition of the South Pacific Commission). If lack of funds, written literature remains underdeveloped, especially the songs and dances (te Mwai), highly codified, and especially dear to Stevenson , are the preferred mode of artistic expression Gilbertines. In his doctoral thesis Tradition, Change and Meaning in Kiribati Performance work as the first comprehensive, Mary Elizabeth Lawson wrote Gilbertines describe how their dances as bai n Abar, something of our land, something which finds its origin bakatibu the ancestors (1989, 79).

The inhabitants of the Marshall and Caroline neighbors, the Gilbertines are recognized experts in outrigger canoes , known for their extreme speed and maneuverability (cf. We, the Navigators). If maneaba (communal house) is the major center of community life and spirit of the Katei ni Kiribati (Gilbertine way), people (you aomata) are expected to uphold the old codes known as te Bunn (protection), you Karek (listen to the opinion), you Beti (stay away from danger) te boia (loved), you reita (keep a good relationship), you BAEM (stay with his group). Very traditional society where broadcast television is not showing, however, literacy is very important.

Language

Main articles: Gilbertese , Austronesian languages and Oceanic Languages.

Language Group Pacific , then down former speakers parties Taiwan and has traveled throughout the Indies (speaking Proto-Austronesian (family Austronesian ), like other Malayo-Polynesian) language that is part of the subgroup Micronesian s 'South Pacific (English: Nuclear Micronesian) but seems to have been influenced, later, by the Polynesian languages themselves ( Samoa and Tuvalu especially).

Spoken by just over 100 000 people (in addition to English, taught in late elementary school and understood by young people and urban dwellers), the Gilbertese language is a dialect has a low (if it does is different accents and minor peculiarities which separate the island from the southern North) with the exception of Banaba , whose language is also represented in Rabi ( Fiji ). A dialect of Gilbertese is also spoken in Nui ( Tuvalu ), populated by Gilbertines who appear to have replaced the Polynesian population initially installed.

It is an inflected language (with more suffixes than prefixes) for some grammatical categories, in which particles personnel (mostly) play an important role and who is also a limited euphony. 13 letters (and as many phonemes): A, B, E, I, K, M, N, NG, O, R, T, U and W. Palatalization before I and T to U (in some regional accents). The modern spelling tends to distinguish two different A, one preceded by a W not delivered after B and M (eg instead of mwaneaba maneaba). The word order is mostly type VOS (Verb-Subject-Object) with an object that immediately follows the verb. Examples of simple sentences:

e bati te groin (there are many women, built verb prefixed pronominal e, he / she ', and followed thee, Art, and groin,' woman ', cognate of wahine)
I te ika kana (I eat fish, verb kana prefixed pronoun I, in capital letters as in English, ika fish)
e matu Nareau (Nareau sleep, verb preceded maturation of e Nareau Gilbertine ancestral deity)
Antai aram? (what's your name? of ara name followed by the possessive suffix-m, 'your').

Of the languages of Oceania , read the article by Franoise Ozanne-Riviere, "Languages of Oceania and History" in the Pacific: a world scattered, edited by Alban Bensa and Jean-Claude Riviere, L'Harmattan , 1998. ( ISBN 2-7384-7251-6 )

Sports

Sports: soccer and volleyball national teams but especially themselves. One true stadium Bairiki ( South Tarawa ), with bleachers.

Olympic flag bearer: Meameaa Thomas (a weightlifter ). Official Name NOC: Kiribati National Olympic Committee Foundation: 2002 Recognition by the IOC : 2003

Officials:

NOC President: Birima'aka Tekanene
NOC Secretary General Willy Uan
Participants in Athens : 3 athletes (two males, one female). Two sports: athletics and weightlifting.
First participation in Olympic Games : 2004

Holidays and Celebrations

Public Holidays
Date	French name	Local Name	Notes
January ¹	New Year's Day
Variable	Good Friday
Variable	Easter Monday
April 18	Day of Health
July 12	National Day		lasts until July 14 inclusive
August 7	Youth Day
December 25	Christmas	Kiritimati	and the December 26

Timezone and Flag

The islands straddle the meridian 180 , which determines the change of day (the change of date line ) so that by 1995 , in anticipation of the changeover to the year 2000 the authorities decided to change the time zone the two eastern islands (formerly the republic was cut in half and lived on two dates at once, which was not always practical for the people: the title of "Kiribati space-time is also given that in 1988 the monograph Benedict and Joel Antheaume Bonnemaison Atlas Islands and South Pacific states). Instead of being the last to leave the year 1999, the inhabitants of the Gilbert Islands (Kiribati) became the first to enter the year 2000 and the following year, in the new century and new millennium. Incidentally, their flag so evocative showing the sun at the horizon of the waves is a symbolic meaning that equates to Janus with two faces looking at both past and future. This flag is based on the arms taken to the Gilbert and Ellice Islands in 1937, a drawing of the then resident commissioner (1932), Sir Arthur Francis Grimble. It represents a rising sun (otintaai) flown by Commander (you eitei), which emerges from the waves of the Pacific. The sun shines rays of 17 (the 16 Gilbert Islands and Banaba). The waves of the Pacific are cut into three parts, like the three islands of the state (Gilbert, Phoenix and Line Islands). The frigate (Fregata minor), which is a traditional messenger and respected, is the emblematic bird of I-Kiribati (ethnonym Gilbertines vernacular).

Codes

Kiribati has the code:

KI , according to the standard ISO 3166-1 (list of country codes), code alpha-2
. Ki , according to the list of Internet TLDs ( top level domain )
KIR , according to the standard ISO 3166-1 (country code list)
KIR , according to the list of country codes IOC
KIR , according to the list of international codes of plates ,
KIR , according to the list of country codes used by NATO , alpha-3
KR , depending on the list of country codes used by NATO , alpha-2 code,
Q3 , according to a list of prefixes ICAO aircraft registration ,

References

This designation comes from studies and assumptions, old and new, based on the size of the atoll and terrestrial samples: they must however be confirmed or refuted.
2007 Pacific Almanac

Pacific Islands Forum
Members	Australia Cook Islands Fiji Kiribati Marshall Islands Federated States of Micronesia Nauru Niue New Zealand Palau Papua New Guinea Samoa Solomon Islands Tonga Tuvalu Vanuatu
Associate Members	New Caledonia French Polynesia
Observers	United Nations Commonwealth Secretariat East Timor Tokelau Wallis and Futuna

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