Portal:Oceania
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Culture · Geography · Health · History · Mathematics · Nature · Philosophy · Religion · Society · Technology
The primary use of the term Oceania is to describe a continental region (like Europe or Africa) that lies between Asia and the Americas, with Australia as the major land mass. The name Oceania is used, rather than Australasia, because unlike the other continental groupings, it is the ocean rather than the continent that links the nations together. Oceania is the smallest continental grouping in land area and the second smallest, after Antarctica, in population.
Two-thirds of the nation's population of 56,429 (2003) lives on Majuro (which is also the capital) and Ebeye. The outer islands are sparsely populated due to lack of employment opportunities and economic development. Life on the outer atolls is generally still fairly traditional.
Rongorongo is a system of glyphs discovered in the nineteenth century on Easter Island that appears to be writing or proto-writing. It has not been deciphered despite numerous attempts. If rongorongo does prove to be writing, it would be one of only three or four known independent inventions of writing in human history.
Some two dozen wooden objects bearing rongorongo inscriptions, some heavily weathered, burned, or otherwise damaged, were collected in the late 19th century and are now scattered in museums and private collections. None remain on Easter Island.
The objects are mostly tablets made from irregular pieces of wood, sometimes driftwood, but also include a chieftain's staff, a bird-man statuette, and two reimiro ornaments. There are a few very short petroglyphs which may also be rongorongo. Oral history suggests that only a small elite were ever literate, and that the tablets were sacred.
- 7 June: The Niuean general election results in three new members of the legislative assembly but leaves no single candidate for the premiership with a clear majority.
- 7 June: Joseph Kabui, President of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, dies of a suspected heart attack.
- 29 May: The Tongan government has promised that political reform will begin in June, and be in place for the 2010 elections.
- 26 April: Nauruan elections are held after the dissolution of Parliament on April 18. Marcus Stephen's government is returned to power.
- 15 April: Gaston Tong Sang becomes President of French Polynesia after a motion of no confidence in the government of Gaston Flosse.
- 30 March: Aloha Airlines, a Hawaii based airline which operates interisland and trans-pacific flights, has suspended all passenger services effective 31 March 2008, due to bankruptcy.
|
|
Here are some Open tasks:
|
To see Wikipedia in one of the other languages used in Oceania:
