Talk:Palau

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 Palau was a good article nominee, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. There are suggestions below for improving the article. Once these are addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.

Date of review: 2007-12-21
Micronesia
Micronesia Portal
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Contents

[edit] mismatch?

I moved the following text here since it seemed rather misplaced in the "history" section and didn't seem to be referring to anything in the article. Angela. 02:42, Aug 30, 2004 (UTC)

articles: "Independent Histories of Human Y Chromosomes from Melanesia and Australia Dr. Manfred Kayser Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Department for Evolutionary Genetics Inselstrasse 22 D-04103 Leipzig, Germany email: kayser@eva.mpg.de books:

  • Legends of Palau Vol I & II
  • History of Palau: Heritage of an Emerging Nation

[edit] Demographics

Micronesians, Polynesians, Indo-Europeans, Asians (mostly from the Philippines) and Europeans...

Who are Indo-Europeans in this context?

Probably people of mixed Indian and European ancestry. 203.171.95.32 10:39, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

No, it means people who speak an Indo-European language, in all likelihood. — N-true 14:22, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Language

The official languages of Palau are Palauan and English, except for three states (Sonsorol, Hatohobei, and Anguar) where the local language is official instead of Palauan... Is this a typo? Should the second official here be english? --Crid 16:47, 28 August 2005 (UTC)

No, it's correct. On the 3 mentioned Islands, the local languages are the official ones. — N-true 14:22, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Trusteeship / Creation of new nation

I changed the initial paragraph of this article to say that Palau emerged from U.N. trusteeship administered by the U.S.A., rather than that it "gained independence" from the U.S.A., because Palau was never a territory of the United States. Rather, the U.S.A. held Palau in trusteeship granted by the United Nations, following military occupation while Palau was a colony of the Empire of Japan during WWII. —Ryanaxp 16:56, Jun 15, 2005 (UTC)

What's differlent from League of Nations mandates and United Nations Trust Territories?--210.230.7.103 04:57, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Capital

I've heard from various sources that Palau is constructing a new capital city on the main island. Is this true? bob rulz 02:45, July 19, 2005 (UTC)


121.55.192.54 00:07, 18 April 2007 (UTC)Yes a new capital has been completed on the village of Melekeok on the main island. It has been called by many as the most beautiful capital building in the entire pacific. The design features many local features along with western features such as the huge dome that have surpassed their original purpose and have become icons of democracy.

[edit] job in palau

[edit] Matriarchal?

Is that right, and does someone have a better source?


I added a source for the matrilineal part, but the more recent patrilineal statements in the article could not be corroborated from the post I found. This is not to say its not out there somewhere, it just can't be found at either my source (government website) or the other source given. I await anxiously for someone else to find a source for that assertion.

YuriSapiens (talk) 20:25, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Dead link

During several automated bot runs the following external link was found to be unavailable. Please check if the link is in fact down and fix or remove it in that case!

  • http://www.palauanpride.com
    • In Palau on Sun Jul 16 21:16:04 2006, Socket Error: (-3, 'Temporary failure in name resolution')
    • In Palau on Mon Jul 17 16:16:49 2006, Socket Error: (-3, 'Temporary failure in name resolution')
    • In Palau on Thu Jul 27 00:55:42 2006, Socket Error: (-3, 'Temporary failure in name resolution')

maru (talk) contribs 04:55, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Small edit made

I added some internal links under the "History" section. "australia", "polynesia", "Asia", "melanesia" an others.--Sowsearsoup 20:02, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Proposed WikiProject

There is now a proposed WikiProject dealing with the area of Micronesia at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals#Micronesia. Any interested parties should add their names there, so we can see if there is enough interest in this project to try to officially start it. Thank you. Badbilltucker 21:20, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Flora and fauna

This is not mentioned at all, although we know it exists because of the beautiful gallery pictures. I came here hoping to link to some articles I've been working on, but there's nowhere to place such things, or even a link to a Biota of Palau -type article. Totnesmartin 21:04, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Scouting in Palau

Can someone render "Be Prepared", the Scout Motto, into Palauan? Thanks! Chris 05:58, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Is Japanese official in Angaur?

See Talk:Japanese language#Disputed. CutieNakky 17:02, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Failed "good article" nomination

Upon its review on December 21, 2007, this good article nomination was quick-failed because it:
had a virtual or complete lack of reliable sources
thus making it ineligible for good article consideration. According to the Verifiability policy, "Material that is challenged or likely to be challenged, and all quotations, must be attributed to a reliable, published source." There are only 7 sources with two (30%) to travel guides. A severe lack of sources for an article this length is apalling, with nearly every section unreferenced. Any editors who wish to bring this up to GAN standard, I suggest citing more sources (at least 40, considering this is a country), but not only that; reliable ones too. Some sections like Nuclear-free constitution also have fact tags placed on them. If you wish you can take this to reassessment to get it discussed by other reviewers and/or other editors. I encourage you to do the steps listed and resubmit when finished. Thank you. Regards, Rt. 17:16, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Palau History

Not a word mentioned of the German Rule 1899-1914. Why? The Germans found phosphate at Angaur Island and developed the deposits, even built a small railway there. During the Japanese Rule 1914-1944 Palau Islands become a " tropical paradise " for the Japanese tourists. No mention of the Japanese built Koror electric tramways at all. If this is the level of Wikipedia one should be shamed of this kind of information. Peharps one expert in history of Palau is re-writing the main article. The history of the Palau do not start in 1944 when the Americans occupied the islands. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.115.118.82 (talk) 17:21, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Recent Scientific Discoveries

There probably ought to be some information in the article on recent skeletal remains found on the islands.

Although an initial find in a cave suggested to some the existence of a new species of human, nicknamed "hobbits" recent discoveries of thousands of human skeletons in caves have made it more likely that the small size of the skeletons may be due to founder effect and insular dwarfism, although they exhibit many features which appear very primitive.

Discovery of Palau Bones - National Geographic

Lee-Anne (talk) 11:02, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

The research done at Palau is as of yet extremely preliminary. The archaeological data collected so far has consisted of one 1m x 1m x 50cm excavation and recovery of surface bone material - all of which has been extremely weathered or otherwise compromised. The analysis of the osteological materials in the original article [1] consists to a great extent of dodging statements such as "The pelvic girdle is represented by three specimens, two of which are measurable" and "we have discovered several relatively complete crania, but all of them are heavily embedded in calcium carbonate." All this, of course, is not to mention that a majority of the article is comparing the Palau skeletons to H. floresiensis as opposed to exploring the samples on their own merit, and the conclusions drawn are more about the "hobbits" than about the Palau burials.

I would also like to make clear that the Palau bones were not ever said to be (to my knowledge) the "hobbits" (H. floresiensis) themselves, as H. floresiensis was from Java, not Palau.

Whatever decision is finally made concerning this topic, I would ask two things: 1) extreme caution and skepticism be used, including both arguments for and against, and introducing the shortcomings and unreliability of the research so far conducted, and 2) the link to and information from the original article at PLoS ONE be used, as opposed to the National Geographic website.

YuriSapiens (talk) 19:49, 4 April 2008 (UTC)