Today is National Culture and Senior Citizens Day, a public holiday in the Republic of Kiribati. The elders in Kiribati are an important part of society. Elder men are called Unimwane, and elder women are called Unaine.
Rather than the more familiar high chief structure, many of the islands were ruled by councils of Unimwane who met in Mwaneaba (meeting houses) to discuss and address all kinds of social, economic and political issues. The decisions made by the Unimwane are believed to be the best because they are made after careful deliberation by the oldest, wisest and most experienced members of the community.
Even though many decisions are now made by the courts and government of the country, the Unimwane association still plays an important role as a sounding board for many decisions.
Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the central Pacific Ocean. Its permanent population is over 119,000 as of the 2020 census and more than half live on Tarawa. The state comprises 32 atolls and one remote raised coral island, Banaba. Its total land area is 811 km2 (313 sq mi) dispersed over 3,441,810 km2 (1,328,890 sq mi) of ocean.
The name is pronounced /ˈkɪrɪbæs/ KIRR-i-bass, as -ti in the Gilbertese language represents an ‘s’ sound. Similarly, the name of its people, the I-Kiribati, is pronounced /iːˈkɪrɪbæs/ ee-KIRR-i-bass.
The name Kiribati was adopted upon the country’s independence in 1979. It is the Gilbertese rendition of Gilberts, the plural of the English name of the nation’s main archipelago, the Gilbert Islands.
Kiribati is one of the most vulnerable nations to global sea level rise. According to projections by the end of the century, the sea level will be higher than all of the islands of Kiribati. In 2014, President Tong finalized the purchase of a 20 km2 (7.7 sq mi) stretch of land on Vanua Levu, one of the larger Fiji islands, 2,000 km away. A move described by Tong as an “absolute necessity” should the country’s territory be completely submerged under water.
How Brits and Aussies drive while visiting the states…
Isn’t that the whole purpose of brakes?
Geologists…
BADA BiNg!
I need to get in shape. If I were one of those victims in a crime show, my chalk outline would be a circle.
I wanted to have a nice summer body for people to look at. But I realized I like food more than I like people.
Hospital regulations require a wheel chair for patients being discharged. However, while working as a student nurse, I found one elderly gentleman already dressed and sitting on the bed with a suitcase at his feet, who insisted he didn’t need my help to leave the hospital. After a chat about rules being rules, he reluctantly let me wheel him to the elevator. On the way down I asked him if his wife was meeting him. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘She’s still upstairs in the bathroom changing out of her hospital gown.’
Cops just left. They said if I’m going to walk around my house naked, I have to do it inside.
Nurse: Do you smoke, drink, or use drugs? Patient: Yeah, I’m down for whatever. We should hang out sometime.
I love when people say “be yourself”, like I haven’t already been doing that and scaring everyone off.
Wife: My husband said the doctor told him I can suck out his kidney stone. After three days of trying, I think he lied to me. Husband: 😁
You are told Socialism is bad by the same people who said Segregation was good.
If you want to bring prayer into schools but not free lunch, you better stop pretending this is about Jesus. He would have fed the kids.
“Just cleared out some space in the freezer”, sounds so much more productive than, “I just polished off another pint of ice cream.”
My wife just texted me a selfie, asking “Does this dress make me look fat?” I texted, “NOO!” Autocorrect sent, “MOO!”
Space alien: Take me to your leader. Earthling: You’ve sort of come at a bad time.
In the Life Alert commercial, the lady said she fell and waited 8 hours for her friend. Why didn’t the cameraman help her?
Smart planning takes time. Stupid is immediate.
Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I am not yet completely sure about the universe.
Friendly reminder to MAGA that actual Christians would never build or celebrate the construction of concentration camps.
I want to open a TWO dollar store for people that enjoy the finer things.
Today is the birthday, in 1961, of American country music singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor Toby Keith. His chart-topping debut ‘Should’ve Been a Cowboy’, topped the US country charts and was the most-played country song of the 1990s. The song has received three million spins since then, according to Broadcast Music Incorporated. Keith released 19 studio albums and charted 61 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including 20 No.1 hits. In June 2022, Keith announced that he had been diagnosed with stomach cancer, he died in his sleep in Oklahoma, on 5 February 2024, at the age of 62. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKZqGJONH68
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