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TUESDAY 15 JULY 2014 • [email protected] • www.thepeninsulaqatar.com • 4455 7741 inside Google smartwatches: CAMPUS LG G Watch, Samsung • QFBA distributes gifts to children at Gear Live and Hamad General Hospital Android Wear P | 4 P | 12 FOOD • Creamy dressings without the cream showcase the flavours of summer P | 6 LIFESTYLE • Medieval fans in Japan living out armoured dreams P | 7 FILM • Planet of the Apes climbs over Transformers to win US box office crown P | 8-9 HEALTH • Ten minutes without ANYBODY smartphone fuel anxiety • All that Jazzercise HOME? P | 11 LEARN ARABIC While much of the world worries about how it will accommodate • Learn commonly rapidly growing populations, some used Arabic words islands in the Pacific like Niue face and their meanings the opposite dilemma: how to stop everybody from leaving. P | 13 2 PLUS | TUESDAY 15 JULY 2014 COVER STORY BY NICK PERRY “People wanted to go away to look for a better University of Sydney, recalls speaking with a life,” Hetutu says. “People are still searching.” nurse who specialised in neonatal care and had t was a school once, but there are no chil- Other Pacific islands face similar struggles. returned for her father’s funeral. dren here anymore. The lonely building The CIA estimates the population of the Cook “There was no point in her being in Niue,” on this remote Pacific island now contains Islands is declining by 3 percent per year, a rate Connell says. “She could only be there if she Ionly a punching bag that someone has second only to war-torn Syria. was prepared to lose her high-powered skills, strung from the classroom rafters, and a note Tokelau and American Samoa are also los- and she didn’t want to do that.” scrawled on the chalkboard in Niuean: “Keep ing significant numbers of people. Even on Niueans see New Zealand as a land filled this place clean,” it says, “so it stays beautiful.” archipelagos like Samoa and Tonga where the with opportunity, says the Rev Falkland While much of the world worries about how population is steady, people are abandoning the Liuvaie, 52, a Presbyterian minister who moved it will accommodate rapidly growing popu- outer islands and moving to the main towns, to its capital, Wellington, seven years ago. lations, some islands in the Pacific face the where they can find better jobs, education and He delivers a weekly sermon in both Niuean opposite dilemma: how to stop everybody from health care. and English which he says gives many expats leaving. The exodus from Niue has been particu- their only opportunity to listen to their lan- The population decline on Niue, a lush larly acute because of its connection with guage. He says for the first few years he gave coral atoll about the size of Baltimore, has New Zealand. Niue is self-governing but in his services only in Niuean, until he realised been steady and relentless. In the 1960s, there free association with its wealthier neighbour many people had difficulty understanding him. were more than 5,000 people living here; today, to the south, and Niueans are automatically The oral traditions that were once strong there are fewer than 1,600. Fifteen times as New Zealand citizens. on the island are in danger of disappearing, he many Niueans, some 24,000, now live across While that relationship has lured away says. He remembers as a young boy going into the ocean in New Zealand, 2,400km away. thousands of young Niueans, it has also paid his grandfather’s bedroom at 5 in the morning, The stories, songs and language that devel- the bills for those who have remained. New before he went to work, to hear him tell stories oped into the Niuean culture over more than Zealand has helped establish a $44m trust about fishing and working in the bush. 1,000 years are at risk of vanishing. fund and gives annual aid that amounts to “It’s really hard. The more you stay away Speedo Hetutu, 54, attended the old school about $10,000 per resident, helping fund the from home, the more you embrace other cul- in the town of Avatele before it was abandoned government work that accounts for most of tures, especially the Western culture,” he says. and later used for workouts. There used to be the island’s jobs. Some Niueans living abroad “There’s nothing much you can do about it.” six primary schools on the island; now there send back remittances. Yet on Niue there is a sense of optimism, is only one. Other buildings where people used Many of those who left had goals that a belief the exodus might finally be halting. to work, pray or live now sit empty and in were simply too big for the island. Professor That’s thanks to more tourism money coming disrepair. John Connell, a South Pacific expert at the in and a renewed sense of national pride. Pacific island of Niue hit by exodus PLUS | TUESDAY 15 JULY 2014 3 the Southern Hemisphere winter tourist season. Tourism Director Vanessa Marsh says Niue attracts diverse groups from wedding parties to ham radio enthusiasts, who find the isolation reduces signal interference. Niue’s clear waters attract divers and sport fishermen. Connell remains skeptical about the power of tourism to reverse Niue’s population loss. He says the island’s elevated, rocky coastline means it lacks the sandy beaches many holi- daymakers seek. He says the tourists he met there tended to be people sail- ing the world, hardy backpackers or those trying to tick off 150 countries from their “bucket list.” Mark Blumsky, a former New Zealand businessman and politician who runs several tourism-related enterprises, is more optimistic. He Roy Pavihi, 26, is part of a youth moved to the island permanently group that’s learning to make canoes, after marrying a woman he met dur- using traditional tools like chisels and ing a diplomatic posting there. modern ones like electric planers. He He says the lifestyle is remarkable. works from a building near the old Take the jailhouse, located on one side Avatele school, where it seems the of the golf course. The last inmate, in roosters never stop crowing. He says trouble for arson, spent his time tend- he thinks the project is encouraging ing the golf greens and improving his people to stay. handicap before being released a year “We need to follow the skills of our or two back, Blumsky says. forefathers,” he says. “Our village was He says there are stunning coastal renowned for fishing and canoes.” walks, opportunities to see humpback It’s a way to keep the old knowledge whales and plenty of swimming holes. alive, and comes with a bonus: catches It would be unusual, but not of wahoo, tuna and mackerel for those unprecedented, for an island’s popu- who master the vessels. lation to simply pack up and leave. One person who was never tempted Connell says one of the more famous to leave is Maihetoe Hekau. At 73, she cases was St Kilda, off the west coast remembers when families had little of Scotland, where in 1930 the last 36 or no paid work, and instead tended islanders requested evacuation to the their plantations, raising taro, tapioca Scottish mainland. and bananas. more than 10. and its investments in tourism are He notes there are examples of A Niuean proverb has it that if you These days, she says, she uses a tab- helping the country become more places that have survived despite keep your bush knife sharp — or stay let computer to keep in touch with self-sufficient. predictions they would not, including motivated — you will clear yourself a her children, most of whom live on This year, most Niuean govern- the Pitcairn Islands, home to about bigger plantation. the island. In 2003, Niue became the ment workers had their five-day 50 people. Although she attended high school first country to offer all residents free work weeks reduced to four days at “It’s far too early to write off Niue,” in New Zealand, Hekau says she Wi-Fi, one of several technological the same pay. The government says Connell says. “But it has to be at risk.” always loved the relaxed lifestyle on upgrades that islanders say make the it helps people spend more time in AP Niue, and figured it was the best place isolation easier to cope with. their communities, while critics say to raise a big family. New Zealand is gradually reduc- it was because the budget is stretched How big? She laughs, embarrassed ing its aid to Niue, arguing that and there was no money for promised to say. More than 10? Yes, she says, its contributions to the trust fund raises. Niue Premier Toke Talagi remains bullish on his country’s future. “I know that some people tend to look at us and say, ‘Well, you’re not viable,’” he says. “You need to define Our task at the present exactly what you mean by that. We were viable before anybody else came moment is to use here. We were independent before tourism to try to create anybody else came here.” opportunities so that “Our task at the present moment is to use tourism to try to create people in New Zealand, opportunities so that people in New or anywhere around Zealand, or anywhere around the world that Niueans are living, will the world that Niueans consider Niue again as a place for are living, will consider them to come back and live,” he says.

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