How the World's Richest Country Bankrupted Itself

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I went to Nauru on a ship in 1978, delivering 1500 tonnes of fresh water and then loading 35,000 tonnes of phosphate. Four of us the boat ashore to look around and whilst walking along the road a local passed by and offered us a drive round the island. I was 20 at the time and it seemed like a paradise, now 45 years later, I'm feeling sad for Nauru.

"In the end, the government of Nauru learned absolutely nothing from their mistakes."

I remember learning about this place like 20 years ago in college when a class when it was brought up in a class discussing the rush for Guano (phosophrus ore) in the Pacific in the mid 1800s. By that time, it was thought they were going to take their sovereign wealth fund and just move off the island back then, but no one knew how badly they botched fund. Our professor basically put it like this: They sold of their own island, piece by piece, until there was virtually nothing left.

I still remember reading a newspaper in the early 90s about Nauru, the wealthiest nation and the wealthiest island in the world. It's insane how it changed within such a short time.

I was thinking they could have used a portion of the profits from the phosphate to refurbish the depleted land as they went. Ships could leave with the phosphate, and instead of coming back empty, come back with topsoil. Topsoil would cost a tiny fraction of what the phosphates sold for but would have enabled them to start cultivating the land. That way they wouldn't have been dependent on outside food and would have gradually restored the tourism value of the island. That's just one idea. Regardless of the specifics, I think they really ought to have invested into developing the island rather than dumping money into foreign assets.

The sad cycle is that some people are in a rich country and think, "it won't hurt them if i skim some off this off", then when things go bad people think, "this place is screwed no matter what i do, so i might as well get rich off them. Besides if i don't rob them, someone else will." And so goes the world.

I feel pity for the people of Nauru. The elders were greedy and the children will live in poverty on a destroyed island.

I lived in Palau in the early 1980s and went to school in Singapore. One time, the school scheduled a flight on Air Nauru. My dad told them, "Absolutely not!" It was well known that you could get stranded or have very delayed flights if you flew on Air Nauru. One time the president's wife forgot her purse and the plane turned around and went back to get it when they were nearly to their destination. I sure would have been ticked off to almost be to my destination only to be turned around and flown back to where I started. Thank you for a great overview of the history of Nauru.

I remember reading in the mid 1970s about Nauru being the richest country in the world. It was with its investments that a phosphate refining plant was set up in Paradip on the east coast of India. A few years later I read that Nauru is running out of phosphate and has decided to demolish the president's official residence so that it could be mined from the grounds below. I also read of wasteful habits of the government that had crippled the economy. The writing was on the wall. It was just a matter of time before the once prosperous nation became bankrupt. It is truly a moral lesson to all humanity.

When I heard the intro saying this used to be the world's richest country but it was also a tiny island I asked myself "Is this about bird poop island." 8 minutes later: "Yeah, it's bird poop island."

It's a shame no one had the foresight to include in the mining contract a clause to require the developers to import top soil to restore the land as they worked, run those ships loaded both ways. Perhaps they couldn't restore all, but much could have been put back to gardens/farms/Forrest.

The polar opposite to how Norway manages its oil revenue

The moral of the story is that wealth build on bird poo will not last long. However, wealth build on human talent will last longer.

This feels like when you mess up a game of Tropico

I went to International School Manila in the 1980's. Right next to our school in Makati was a skyscraper called the Pacific Star, whose logo was the same bright star as on the flag of Nauru. We used to joke that one could arguably fit all Nauruans in that one tower. I remember seeing the arc welders high up in the tower while it was under construction.

Phosphate is a key ingredient in fertilizer and is also found in animal feed supplements, food preservatives and industrial products. Florida produces the most phosphate any state – half of all production in the U.S.

I often wonder why countries like Nauru even bothered with independence. The writing was surely on the wall that phosphate was a poisoned well.

Nauru should not have rejected the Australian proposal to relocate its entire population to Curtis island 30 times larger and just 12 kms off the coast of a major economy like Australia 🤦‍♂️

Now I understand what a dissident ment when he said "our country will go the way of Nauru"