The electronic revolution may have turned the world into a small village, globalization remains just a slogan. Nations are putting up fences, and making their borders more inviolable. Xenophobia is on the rise, and few countries welcome migrants. But not a small island tucked away in the vast Pacific. Here is where everyone is welcome.
In the heart of the Pacific lies one of the least populated Islands. The territory of the United Kingdom is the remotest and the world’s inhibited Islands, laying half way between New Zealand and the Americas. It spread over several hundred miles of ocean and have a total land area of about 47square kilometers. It has a population of just 50 people, and now the residents are inviting people from elsewhere in the world to come and settle in their island. Welcome to the world’s beautiful place on earth!
Pitcairn is one of the 14 Overseas Dependent Territories of the United Kingdom. It lies in the vast wilderness of the Pacific and a 1000 km away from the coast of New Zealand and 1000kms away from the United States.
Pitcairn is a combination of four Islands, Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno. The Island was discovered in 1606 by Portuguese sailor Pedro Fernandes de Queiros.
He named the Island La Encarnacion which means incarnation.
The remote Pitcairn Islands were largely populated in the late 1700s, when the mutineers on the HMS Bounty washed ashore.
Now the island is dying out due to rapidly ageing population and with no children having been born there for more than four years. The inhabitants are desperately trying to attract new residents.
Pitcairn officials are trying to raise the population in the Island up to 80 percent for the next three years.
And they are appealing the people and trying to woo the new people to join their tiny community.
But it looks like a distant dream, with all their all effort, till today only one man applied to make the move to the island, located some 3,000km from New Zealand and 1,000km from Tahiti.
The Island is believed to have been inhabited by Polynesians for hundreds of years, who happened to have lived on Pitcairn and Henderson.
But the first European encounter came when Capt Philip Carteret’s HMS Swallow stumbled across it in 1767.
The bulk of the island’s ancestors arrived 22 years later, when the HMS Bounty arrived, led by Fletcher Christian.
The eight mutineers from the vessel settled on the island with six Polynesian men and twelve women from Tahiti that they brought with them.
But these settlers did not last long within four years, four mutineers, ten women and their children remained and all the others were murdered because of ill treatment or jealousy.
The Island is spread over across an area of 47square kilometers of area. Fewer than 50 islanders live in the isolated rock in Adamstown. The smallest capital in the world, and the average age is now more than 50years.
Pitcairnians are appealing for more people to boost the population, and many enquiries are coming, but only one person has applied to move in to the island.
The main reason for no one moving to the island is due to its isolation and because island has no jobs to offer.
The island has been surviving on government aid since 2004 and now the islanders are trying to become self-sufficient again.
The island is located in the Pacific Ocean and due to its strategic location, it is very important and was added to the territories of the United Kingdom.
The small population in the Island is mostly the descendants of the mutineers of HMS Bounty.
Most of the islanders are carpenters. They make living by selling local products.
The Islanders even used to sell stamps to raise funds but, of course, collecting stamps is not as popular as it was once.
They produce their own crops on the Island; their main food consists of vegetables and fruits available in the forest.
Apart from that, natural honey is a staple diet for the Pitcairn islanders.
The land is rich with honey, and the excess honey is exported and sold in the markets in London.
Fishing is the occupation for the Islanders. The fish is another staple diet along with sweet fresh potatoes grown in their farm.
The Island is surrounded by Pacific Ocean, and large number of fish is found in the shallow waters of the Island.
Many of the young in the Island have already left for nearby New Zealand for better work and living conditions.
The Island has huge reserve of flora and fauna, and the islanders believe that the development of tourism in the island alone can save them.
But due to lack of interest from the UK, the tourism is in the crawling stage.
In the last 5years, only one visitor visited the Island. Tony Probst, 56, from San Francisco in the United States has made the long trip to the island on four occasions since 2010, spending up to a month in Adamstown.
Adamstown is the only town in the Picarian Island. The town has many shops, but the electronic shop in the town is closed as the old owner left the place and moved to Scotland.
Almost all the owners are old. Many feel that if no one willing to come to the island, soon all the shops will shut down.
Health care in the island is free. Due to lack of facilities the islanders are airlifted to nearby hospitals in the New Zealand.
If more young people come and settle in the Island, Pitcairn Island can go to its olden golden times.
And many islanders are in the hope that more people would come and settle in the island in the coming years.
This Island is an epitome of an idyllic isle, thousands of miles from civilization where the worst noise pollution comes from the azure sea gently lapping the shore.
The Islanders are calling you not for money. And if you are persuaded to live there for beauty and nature, Pitcairnians are welcoming you with their folded hands.
Come and settle in paradise, Welcome!
