Today is Education Day, a public holiday in Kiribati. It is a day set aside to show respect and appreciation for teachers and their contribution to society. It is celebrated on World Teachers’ Day, a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) initiative.
Kiribati is an island country in the central Pacific. Its total land area is about 313 square miles spread over about 1.3 million square miles of ocean. The name is pronounced Kiribass, as -ti in the Gilbertese language represents an s sound. The name “Kiribati” was adopted in 1979 at independence. It is the Gilbertese rendition of Gilberts, the plural of the English name of the nation’s main archipelago, the Gilbert Islands.
The Gilbert Islands gained independence from the UK as the Republic of Kiribati on 12 July 1979. Then, in September, the United States relinquished all claims to the sparsely inhabited Phoenix and Line Islands, in a 1979 treaty of friendship with Kiribati and they became a part of Kiribati.
Kiribati is among the countries most endangered by climate change and associated sea level rise. It is an existential threat to the country and its people. Most of the atolls rise no more than 26 feet above sea level and the rising ocean levels are already reducing the arable land due to salt water encroachment. Two islets have already disappeared under water and the bulk of the country may be uninhabitable by 2050. High tides periodically inundate areas of the country.
Today is the birthday, in 1948, of Jamaican singer Millie Small, (Millie), who scored the 1964 US & UK No.2 single ‘My Boy Lollipop’. It remains one of the biggest-selling ska songs of all time, with more than seven million sales. She died on 5 May 2020 aged 72 after suffering a stroke. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiuPND4W6KM
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