Topics:<\/b> Choices; Consequences; Cost; Foolishness; Mistakes; Past; Regret; Responsibility; Shame; Stewardship<\/p>\n
References:<\/b> Ecclesiastes 6:2; Luke 12:15; 1 Timothy 6:10; Hebrews 13:5<\/p>\n
Around the year 1900, two scientists from the Pacific Islands Company studied a piece of rock picked up on Nauru, a tiny Pacific Island east of New Guinea and twelve hundred miles from any sizable landmass. Instead of a fossilized rock, it was rich phosphate so valuable that it plunged Nauru violently into the industrial era.<\/p>\n
During the years that followed, the country was colonized by a succession of European and Asian nations, who turned the island into a strip mine. Nauru achieved independence in 1968, but the Nauruan government continued the mining practices that had, by then, brutalized the island.<\/p>\n
By the early 1980s, Nauru boasted the world\u2019s highest per capita income, but it didn\u2019t last. Midway through the 1990s, Nauru\u2019s wealth had been embezzled by corrupt financial managers, gambled away on risky investments, and squandered on extravagant luxuries. More than 70 percent of the island is a mined-out ruin, unable to offer the infrastructure or natural resources needed to support anyone. Nauru must now look for a new piece of land on which to relocate its population.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re on Nauru, there\u2019s a palpable sense of shame at what was done,\u201d said reporter Jack Hitt. \u201cThe Nauruans literally sold off their homeland for a pot of wealth that is now lost.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014This American Life<\/i>, \u201cThe Middle of Nowhere,\u201d Public Radio International, episode 253 (December 5, 2003)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Topics: Choices; Consequences; Cost; Foolishness; Mistakes; Past; Regret; Responsibility; Shame; Stewardship References: Ecclesiastes 6:2; Luke 12:15; 1 Timothy 6:10; Hebrews 13:5 Around the year 1900, two scientists from the Pacific Islands Company studied a piece of rock picked up on Nauru, a tiny Pacific Island east of New Guinea and twelve hundred miles from any … Continue reading “PACIFIC
\n ISLAND SELLS SOUL”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6487\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}