Tuvalu Notebook
Giving Definition to the World "Isolation"
Tuvalu's Food Shortage Requires Rationing
Recently on Tuvalu: Funafuti was in the throes of a food shortage in July and August. The shops were all out of frozen foods. There was no chicken, meat and eggs, and the only vegetable available was carrots. There was no flour, so there was no bread of any sort. Rice was also out for a few days but by playing dice with supplies for the outer islands a ration of rice became available in the Funafuti Fusi, the retail outlet of the Tuvalu Cooperative Society, Tuvalu’s main supplier.
Shareholders in TCS were being rationed to two kilos (4.4 lbs) of rice per day per shareholder, while stocks lasted. That staple of Pacific Islands, cabin biscuits, was also rationed. The only meat available was salt beef, which comes pickled in brine in plastic buckets.
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What happened was the ship that brings cargo to Tuvalu was delayed when its loading cranes broke. The government temporarily abandoned outer island service with its vessel Nivaga II, which was sent to Fiji to bring back some food cargo. By the time of the eventual arrival of the container vessel, Tuvalu had been on short rations for more than two weeks.
As Tuvaluans put up with a short supply of imported foods, they also learned that bills from the national telephone company were also in short supply. Tuvalu Telecommunications Corporation announced recently on Radio Tuvalu that it had not presented bills to customers since November 2000. Bills for December 2000 have now been issued and payment was required within two weeks or international service will be cut off. And two weeks from that, national service will be cut, leaving only local calls available.
The availability of public telephone services in Funafuti is limited to a single card-operated instrument that is housed inside the Telecom office. But the Telecom office is only open during the daytime, so consequently for people without home phones there is no service overnight. There are no operator-connected calls at any time. A non-subscriber may only make an international call by direct dialing using a card during the period of time that the Telecom office is open.
It is interesting to note that a break-in at the Education office in Vaiaku had been undertaken for the sole purpose of using the telephone.
