Trouble in Paradise
In the South Pacific lies the world’s smallest island nation. With just 8.1 miles of greenery jutting above miles of deep blue ocean, this little dot of an island of less than 10,000 residents is so isolated, there is no other land to view no matter where you stand on the island.
Sarah Palin cannot see Russia from this picturesque island. In fact, the closest neighbor to the Republic of Nauru is Australia, more than 300 miles away.
Not many people visit Nauru. But those that do are at first awestruck by its beauty, its countless coconut trees and majestic wrap-around white sand beaches that so few westerners have set foot on.
What seems like Heaven on earth suddenly changes the moment you meet the island residents. They are not lepers or hideous creatures that God saw fit to place on one of the most remote lands of the earth, far away from His more civilized beings.
No, the scary part is that the residents of Nauru are just like us. They look like us and they act like us. We westerners have become their downfall. And do you know what the scariest thing of all is?
The people of Nauru foretell what is becoming of us! To look at what became of them in just 10 short years, thanks to us, is to see our own not-too-distant future.
This is not speculative or a warning as to what could be. It is already happening to us just as it happened so quickly to the malnourished people of Nauru.
ONCE UPON A TIME…
There was a time when the people of Nauru were fit and as healthy as could be. The women would gather coconuts and root vegetables while the men were hunters, always bringing home fresh fish from the bountiful ocean that surrounded them.
Known for its plentiful phosphate deposits, mostly used as an active ingredient for cleansers of aluminum and vinyl, the island prospered at a time it didn’t need to. Back then, the people were free to live off the abundance of nourishment provided by the land and sea.
That idyllic scenario slowly diminished as the tiny island’s population approached its current 10,000. Soon, self-sufficiency gave-way to western commerce. We finally got our hooks into one of the last great unspoiled civilizations in the world. The consequences have been dire.
Fish and fresh coconut and root vegetables have been replaced with western culinary classics like deep fried chicken, Coca Cola and canned meats, such as spam, beef and mutton. Makes your mouth water, doesn’t it?
With such processed western foods high in taste, sugar and fat, the island residents thought they died and went to heaven. Prophetically, since this dietary transition over the past decade, the people of Nauru now die and go to Heaven much sooner than any other people in the world.
According to the World Health Organization, males on Nauru now have a life expectancy of just 58.0 years. Females can expect a lifespan of 65.0 years. No one on Nauru seems to die of old age anymore.
Another startling change is the quality of life that Naurus have in advance of their premature death. Whereas modern disease was virtually unheard of little more than just 10 years ago, diabetes, arthritis and heart maladies are now rampant throughout the island. If this sounds familiar, it’s no fluke.
Most alarming is that children on Nauru are contracting Type 2 diabetes in their youth, almost unheard of around the world until recently. Now, it is starting to happen to our very own children.
The World Health Organization reports are shocking. 97% of men on Nauru are now either overweight or obese. The women are close behind at 93% and type II diabetes and heart disease have now afflicted 40% of the island’s population.
With the island of Nauru so distant from us, it would be easy to ignore the plight we have wrought on them. The problem is that they are a mirror of us and we cannot escape unscathed without immediate and urgent action.
The roles are now reversed. Over the past decade, they became like us at warp speed. Now, we are becoming just like the people of Nauru. The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta tells us that we are becoming an obese society at an alarming rate. Our children are becoming fatter than ever before and they have the chronic diseases and ailments to prove it.
The problem both here and on Nauru is both dietary and our mutual sedentary lifestyle. For us today, take-out of every fast-food imaginable makes unhealthy eating so convenient and easy.
For the once proud male on Nauru who battled the elements and nature to provide sustenance for his family on a daily basis, it has become much easier to simply open up a can of spam. Here’s the difference:
Nauru and its people have adopted western culture and it is killing them. Ironically, what we learn from them could save us from ourselves.
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Up Next: Why immigrants want to become Americans but not be like Americans.
