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The following most moving, warm and touching letter was kindly
placed in our Fanning Island Forum by Belle Kurz, and I have taken the liberty
of including such a very important message to be shared on our Kiribati Home Page.

Subject:		Re: memories
Name:		Belle Kurz
Date Posted:		Feb 4, 08 - 9:58 AM
Email:		Moolaalaa@aol.com
Message:		Hello everyone. The residents of Fanning Island live in a Paradise, a Paradise in Peril. They have little or no medical or dental care, with no way of receiving help in time, if they become very ill. They need more than fond memories and a few dollars from cruisers who buy their crafts. Supply vessels do not come there often. They need basic things we almost all take for granted. They need an airlift of soil for a co-operative veggie garden, and electric power, so that they are not isolated from the rest of the world. Their children need school supplies (books, maps, writing tablets, etc.) They live at sea level, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Doesn't that tell us all something? These are wonderful, loving people, who are not asking for their entire world to be changed. But anyone with eyes to see has witnessed what they desperately need. When the United States left the island, so many many years ago, the cable station went with them. Even in the poorest towns of India, Mexico and African nations, the Internet is there. Some of these children will spend their entire lives on Fanning Island, and a Paradise it indeed is. However there can be more to life for them, besides coconut milk and no medical care. Dressing up for NCL tourists, who look down on their plight, while eating the buffet brought on land by the cruise ship. They can enjoy that food, for the most part, THEY HAVE TEETH. Each day when I wake up, I think of Fanning Island and its people. I have written countless letters trying to find help for them. I will never stop trying. Fanning Island is the most beautiful spot on this earth that I will see in my lifetime. I don't want to change that, even if I could. I only want to encourage people who have the means to help, to get involved. They sing and play the most beautiful native music, and they use every bit of their trees for the making of their huts. They are hard working people. Their children deserve to have basic medical care and attention to some means of sanitation. There are thousands of poor people in every country, and many do not have the things I have spoken of. However, they may have a way to move out. These residents do not. Please get involved. Before I went there, I found out all I could about the island and the people. Now that I have seen with my own eyes, I must continue to try to get basic help for them. Thank you for taking the time to read and listen to me. Belle

For further information about the Republic of Kiribati, please contact the following e-mail addresses:

sto@mict.gov.ki
secretary@mict.gov.ki

For Christmas and Fanning Islands, the rest of the Line Islands and the Phoenix Group, please contact:

Kiraren T Tebetanga
Tourism Development Officer
Tourism Office
Ministry of Communications, Transport and Tourism Development
Ronton, Kiritimati
E-mail: tourismxmas@tskl.net.ki


A Kiribati family living next to the sea re-enforce their property with a sea
wall made of sand bags to stop the 'king tides' from eroding their land
Click on the above image for more images courtesy of Greenpeace


Kiribati dancers, South Tarawa, Kiribati


Bathing lagoon, Christmas (Kiritimati) Island, Kiribati


Christmas Island, Line Islands, Kiribati - Operation Grapple 1957 (UK)


Kiribati & Tuvalu Association (KTA)
at the Great Dunmow Carnival 2004, Essex, UK


A 1957 image taken on the airfield at Christmas Island (Kiritimati),
Line Islands, Republic of Kiribati, during Operation Grapple {UK}
Photo: Courtesy of Ian Green

Kiribati singers and dancers welcome visitors

to Fanning Island, 25th February 2004

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Micronesia Music Anthology

Welcome everybody to Micronesia Music Anthology which is available on

Micronesia Music Radio

The anthology can be accessed by clicking on the 'Broadcast Schedule' after logging in to Micronesia Music Radio. This should allow you to determine when the anthology is available in your part of the world. For example, in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, Australia, the anthology is available at 12 noon each Saturday. In Kiribati, the anthology is available each Saturday afternoon at 2 pm; California at 7 pm each Friday evening; New York at 10 pm each Friday evening, along with Florida and Boston, Massachusetts, USA, etc.

The anthology runs for 90 minutes in which the traditional chants are introduced with many from Kiribati, including Banaba and Rabi, followed by the beautiful songs of Micronesia. Thank you!

The schedule can also be accessed here

Supporting Web site to the anthology:

Micronesia Music Anthology

GOSPEL MUSIC

Pacific Islands Radio is very pleased to be able to advise that a collection of some of the most exciting and absorbing gospel music from the Pacific Islands is now being featured on Pacific Music Radio (FM mp3PRO Stereo), Pacific Islands Radio 33K (24 kbps) as well as Pacific Islands Radio 28K (16 kbps).

With an extended running time of three hours, the gospel collection has proved to be extremely popular and features music of a number of very talented artists such as Bata Teinamati, Betania Gospel Singers and Emmaus Family Singers (Republic of Kiribati), Lia Osborne (Fiji), Vanessa Quai (Vanuatu), Aoloau Youth Choir (Samoa), and The Auckland Pacific Gospel Choir.

Please monitor the Broadcast Schedule of the above three Pacific Islands Radio stations for the availability and time of the Gospel Music collection. At present, this exciting collection is available every Sunday from 12 midday to 3 pm Australian eastern standard time.

For further information, please visit the following:

http://www.pacificislandsradio.com/index.htm

Thank you everybody and Best Wishes

A KIRIBATI POEM

KIRIBATI, ABAU KIRIBATI

Like a shimmering string of pearls on a clear blue sea
So strong and yet so delicate you mean so much to me
I miss those coral atolls where gentle breezes flow
A land of remarkable people where friendships seem to grow.

Kiribati, Abau Kiribati I always think of you
Wherever I may travel across the sea so blue
And deep inside me I know that it will be
Kiribati, Abau Kiribati you always think of me.

Your sons and daughters travel away to distant lands
They leave their homes and families so that they will understand
To study truth and knowledge in sadness and in pain and then
Kiribati, Abau Kiribati you welcome them home again.

Kiribati, Abau Kiribati may God�s blessings be on you
To give you strength and courage to see the future through
And may our blessed people hold their heads up high
Kiribati, Abau Kiribati I will love you till I die.

Poem by Jane Resture

		Pacific Islands Radio 33K (24 kbps)
		Pacific Music Radio 32 kbps mp3PRO FM Stereo
		Pacific Islands Radio 28K (16 kbps)
		Micronesia Music Radio 33K (24 kbps)

Jane's Pacific Islands Radio Stations broadcast selected

Playlists of Pacific Island Music continuously 24 hours a day,

7 days a week. The Playlists include many tracks from almost all of the

Pacific islands of Oceania. I sincerely hope that you enjoy listening to

our beautiful and traditional Pacific Island music.

^{Post Message on Message Board}

^{Read Messages on Message Board}

The following poem was inspired in this case by the frigate bird, as shown on our Republic of Kiribati national flag, flying over the ocean to the backdrop of a tropical sunrise. The frigate bird carries messages from place to place and symbolises freedom and power. Looking at the Republic of Kiribati flag, the seventeen rays of the sun represent the seventeen islands of the Gilbert Group including Banaba. The three waves in the lower half of the flag stand for the Gilberts, Phoenix and Line Island Groups. The vast ocean over which the bird is flying is a reminder that Kiribati is a sea territory with far more water than land.

In making a wish upon the frigate bird and the flying fish, it is hoped that they will carry a message of peace from place to place both over and under the vast Pacific Ocean. It is also hoped that this message is one which will allow the people of the Republic of Kiribati, including Banaba, as well as the rest of the world, to live in peace, prosperity and harmony.

My Wish
by Jane Resture

The frigate bird
The flying fish
It is time for us
To make a wish

And I wish for the sunrise
To be beautiful each time
With days that are perfect
And nights so sublime

And I wish for the sunset
To be like a long red sail
Each and every day
And you and I will always stay

Whatever we wish
Will surely come true
And I wish for happiness
For me and you

And I wish for the world
To live in peace
To live and love as one
To a simple beat

And I wish for us all
To have our lives full of love
Full of joy and happiness
And eternal love

(E-mail: jane@janeresture.com -- Rev.10th February 2008)