The more I hear about Nauru, the more it feels like a made-up place. Most of the wealth of the nation came from mining bird poo for phosphates.
this post was submitted on 13 May 2026
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And now they make money running a detention centre for illegal immigrants to Australia where the conditions are apparently awful
They also lost most of their sovereign wealth fund investing in Leonardo the Musical.
oh god it's real
The project, a highly fictionalized account of Leonardo da Vinci's creation of the Mona Lisa, was developed by Duke Minks, an advisor to the Republic of Nauru and former road manager for the 1960s pop group, Unit 4 + 2, along with the group's lead singer, Tommy Moeller. At Moeller's suggestion, Minks convinced government officials to invest £2 million in the production, in an attempt to diversify the country's wealth from its historic major export, marine deposits rich in phosphates.
also
The Political Butterfly Effect told the story of the musical's production and discussed its links with Nauru's decision to act as an off-shore asylum seeker processing centre for Australia.
a play so bad you become a prison's prison
What a story! Sounds like it would make a good musical.
Sounds like a sound investment
This tickles my inner geography enthusiast. Straight onto Maps to see what the deal is.
Your comment made me want to look! I see they have their very own correctional facility as well as an Australian immigration detention center. Looks like most of the population lives on the edges of the island. Also some blurred areas that don't show much detail in specific areas.
Lots of interesting stuff for such a small island. I spotted a ruined WW2 Japanese bunker and coastal gun! I also just learned that the island was attacked by the Germans in 1940, which is crazy to me. I didn't know the German navy was operating that far out in the Pacific ocean.
What is this Naoero spelling?
The article explains it. Its the native name that they're looking to change to.
Naoero
So they recorded an Aussie saying 'no'?
Yeah, nah