U L. 9 i. ^ i) Title: Insuta: international journal of isl. Cat. no: 211537 Date: 27 Feb 20 Subscr.ip ion no: Note: Iz^zs"? ite ati nal Jo .a of Islan Affairs »ssier s ands^ Research and ConceDts March 2009 ISSN 1021-02814 Year 18 Nol International Journal of island Affairs ISSN 1021 - 0814 YearlSNol March 2009 ^ Editaria l Board Editer: Fier Giovanni d'Ayala Editorial staff: l f . Mohamed-Nizar Larabi Jennv Marday Despairof a migrant in thé Island of Malta Scientifîc Advisory Committee: Prof. Godfrey Baldacchino Prof. Salvino Busutil, Malta Prof. Hiroshi Kakazu, Japon Prof. Nicolas Margaris, Greece Prof. Patrick Nunn, Fidji Dr. Henrique Pinto da Costa, Sao Tome e Principe Bibliothèque Publishedby INSULA, théInternational ScientificCouncil for Island Development, with thé support of UNESCO. Articles published in this journal do not necessarily reflect thé opinions of INSULA or of UNESCO. LavaHow - Mount Etnavolcano (Sicily) - photo by Material appearing in this journal cannot be reproduced Claude Grandpey vvithout thé prior permission of thé Editor. Library INSULA, thé International Journal of Island Affairs, is distributed free to INSULA's individual and institutional E-mail : members. For subscriptions and information, please +33(0)l45_68 Tel. -. Write to: 7,-Place deFontenoy 75007 INSULA C/0 UNESCO l, rue Miollis 75732 Paris cedex, France Tel: +33 l 45. 68. 49. 01. Fax: +33 l 45. 68. 58. 04. E-mail: insula@insula. org For More information our website is available: www.insula. org East^yi hèq<ue/ Li b rary UNESCO 7 place de Fontenoy l . 75352 PARIS 07 SP - FRANCE . l . / Editorîal / By Pier Giovanni d'Ayala ^ Dossier: 'Islands, Research and Concepts' On Islands and Isolation ByAbraham Moles Studying Islands, on Whose Terms? Pier Giovanni d'Ayala 14 By Godfrey Baldacchino -'or some years now there bas been a genuine insular space as a laboratory to investigate Expérience and Représentation of Islandness amongst Azorean Undergraduates Living on " boom in thé public interest for Island issues. coniplexity. There is in fact no way to know an Mainland Portugal: A debate on thé Insular Condition One of thé reasons, for, a capital one indeed, Island within a mono-disciplinary approach by EduardoBrito Henriques 27 but less perceived perhaps, is thé récent swift nor exercise upon a sound governance, from a sectorial point of view. Off-Shore Island Community Empowerment vis-àvis Globalization: thé Case of Matzu - development of thé information society together with its information and communication Taïwan 42 technologies. A move which bas strongly It is good to recall that surprisingly enough, by Yuung-Jaan Lee and Ching Ming Huang contributed to accentuate thé islands visibility mathematicians consider impossible to measure thé exact lengh ofan island's coastline because Thé Mediterranean, thé Island ofMalta and Irregular Migration bringing in ail homes connected with internet 55 features, news images at an unprecedented théisland, asreal objectin space,does not follow By Victor Malia Milanes pace. thé principles of Euclides plan geometry. Emergency Sad news also are promptly circulated. Islands, more than other spaces require imperiously a holistic approach. Thé matter No Luck for Haïti: Les Gonaïves, thé City ofDoom Hurricanes, tsunamis, climatic changes and 61 sea level rise hâve consistently shaped public itself imposes a global discourse. Thé Labyrinth By Pier Giovanni d'Ayala awareness on Islands vulnerability. is perhaps thé best metaphor of thé complexities of thé insular space. Islanders at Work Thé travel industry, increasingly attracted by island destinations was not left behind in Our Authors offer us a first, hardly Procida: International Youth Working at thé Promotion of thé Island Environment opening Windows on thé Island world. needed, Ariadne's clew. By Mario Lupoli 63 As usual, académie debates hâve simultaneously followed and anticipated this We may fed more at ease with such a Youth Challenges wavy movement of public interest. Recently niythical wire in hand, but let's not forget that By Jenny Marday 65 it has focused on « insularity, research and in thé hearth of thé island's labyrinth, in thé First World Conférence: Volcanoes, Landscapes and Cultures 70 concepts ». dark hides thé Minotaur, thé fearsome hybrid Insula, our journal took of course thé bail at of Nature and Culture. Only thé hero shall with his sword, reduce thé hybrid to its original Insula's Guest thérebound opening its pagesto a bunchof fine Interview with H.E. Mrs Laura Faxas, Ambassador, Permanent Delegate of thé Dominican authorsreflecting, such a polyhedralnurrow, thé understandable components. présent questioning about insularity. Insularîty Republic to UNESCO 72 as a concept, as an existential condition, a point Will our sword show such a sharpened Book Review 74 of view or as a metaphor. edge? Thé questioning could nevertheless proceed further focusing for instance on thé INTERNATIONALJOURNAL 0F ISLANOAFFAIRS Where it that small islands hâve something to do with thé size of thé human body and that we rediscoverin someway what we -^ know ah-eady ofindividuals: thé fact they are basically in some kind of dialectical opposition to thé whole? Were it that thé ^ inhabitants of thèse islands / By Abraham Moles f would intrinsically hâve a kind ^ of community of their own, largerthan thé home, lesserthan thé nation? Were it fînally that thé islands would contribute to «ny a entre l'homme etles lieux un rapport subjectifextrêmement puissant, réel ofman that is not so mais aussi rêvé contre lequel se brisent toutes les tentatives de réduction à une a humanity brittle in thé small islands that in G explicationpurement rationnelle etobjective, enparticulier dutype économique». thé cast country? J. Bonnemaison l ?' An island is thé most quotation of John Donne: "No Cultural ecology would be thé man is an Island, intire of it interaction of différent species simple, thé most natural » he very existence of islands Islands do not comply with this are; hère shores andborders are expression of a topological self; every man is a pièce of thé of culture within a limited condition. Thé essence of thé confounded. But, in themselves i is disrespect to thé authority division in thé uniformity of continent, a part of thé main: is area or territory that encloses thé small islands, right in thé a limited amount of resources. of thé state. Thé power and thé State is continuity, it reigns ofit space, it is a breakin continuity, a clod be washed away by thé l middle ofthé sea and isolatedby majesty ofstates are by essence controls thé whole ofa territory. it is a topological scandai for sea, Europe is thé less, as well In an island, resources of any l continuous variables. Uniform This "essence" undergoes a sharp nature, are severed from thé chief thé social power. Islands are as ifapromontorie were, as well kind are obviously limitée: thé l es" on thé area of their respective discontinuity over thé unlivable territory, they never belonged to "morphological anarchists" as if a manor of thy Friends or ecological principle applies territories and thé meaning of extension ofwaters that surround thé unity ofthé whole; they hâve and thé people who live in of Thine owne were; any man's quite necessarilyas a regulatory l them does not suffer that there thé island. Nevertheless, there their unity oftheir own, they are them do participate -whether death diminishes me, because factorto anyexchange as well as be any dismption between their are large states in large islands: différent. they accept it or not- from l am involved in Mankind: and to ail forms of transactions. England has been a famous this permanent questioning of thercfore never sen to know from regalian value and thé places îs- where it has to manifest itself. example, Japan orAustralia still thé "central" power. For sure, whom thé bell tolls; it tolls for Thé German defmition of there are many types ofislands: thee. islands (in Brockhaus) includes large or small, remote or close, Should we deliberately not only thé conventional sunny or foggy, poor or rich, misinterpret it, shouldwe, on thé idea " a part of land which is and thé concept of "isolation" contrary, replacethé words ofthé surrounded by water on ail applies very differently to humanist by thé assumptions of sides", but also thé idea that ail thèse catégories. But it is thé psychologist: every man is water, and especially thé sea, clear that thé social System an island entire of itself: ail of permeates thé whole of thé is, by essence, continuous in us are distinct from thé others, island, -atleast thé major part of its nature ( its gradient) up are pièces of an archipelago, it-, that thé island is submitted to to thé well délimitée borders separate atoms ofa whole: if an some kind of marine condition. and that any material cleft in islet is taken over by a tide, thé This would exclude, in a rather <çn- thé space appears as being an archipelago stays thé same, as if imprécise but clear, way, places hindrance to its functioning. it were a city where only some like Australia or Greenland When a German sovereign friends are singledout. Thédeath which, definitely, do not fulfill makes his capital in an island of any man does not changeme, this condition. inside a lake, his déviation from for l am not involved in thé whole thémie complicates thépraçtice mankind. And therefore do not What is thence thé effect ofit ( Herren-Chiemsee). corne to ask: "for whom thé bell ofsea, ofsurroundingwater, on tolls?" For it tolls, only for your thé land? it is one of thèse latent Remember thé famous friend. factors that contingent and at INTERNATIONALJOURNAL 0F ISLANDAFFAIRS Thé "island" is another thé economical sensé. Drawing archétype, -aminor one,because this remark a little forward, we statistically islanders together should logicallybe ledto consider with thé overall area of islands a new division of thé nations of is restricted versus théimmense thé world, thé ones which hâve areas of thé continental shapes.