Nice
Neat.
It’s hard not to root for micronations even though I know literally nothing about them. I hope Naoero figures out how some way to navigate sea level changes without selling their soul.
I think I have mixed attitudes towards microstates, since it’s a pretty ill-defined category that encompasses a pretty broad mix of different societies: money laundering tax havens Monaco and Liechtenstein are microstates, but so are the historical AES states of Grenada and Seychelles. I have infinitely more support for the latter than the former.
In the wave of countries attempting to change their exonyms to match their endonyms. IMO Nauru → Naoero seems more likely to take off as a new name than Turkey → Türkiye, given that people already rarely talk about Naoero and are accordingly less attached to the old name; the new name doesn’t contain any special characters; and it also doesn’t seem to be motivated by weird right-wing nationalist brainworms… Or rather, Naoeroan politics are largely non-partisan, and it can be difficult to ascertain the beliefs of the politicians behind this name change, so if there are any right-wing nationalist brainworms behind this name change, then they feel less consequential given Naoero’s size and position and economic situation and all.
Aside from the rising sea levels; and the phosphate crash tanking the island’s standard of living, leaving the land largely uninhabitable and the people infamously poor, unemployed, and unhealthy; Naoero is also notable for having a really terrible offshore Australian “immigration detention facility”. A civil war in Naoero, largely brought about by the introduction of guns and booze to the island by colonial powers, killed a third of the population in the 19th century and paved the way for the island’s annexation by Germany. Naoero today is also one of five countries to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia. This recognition is often accused of being “checkbook diplomacy”, i.e. that Naoero only recognizes these countries because it receives foreign aid from Russia in exchange. See also Naoero’s flip-flopping policy around Kosovo, the SADR, and Taiwan. Whether the “checkbook diplomacy” accusation is fair isn’t for me to decide, but it seems to mainly be promoted by Western bourgeois media to delegitimize Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
In any case, how do you think Anglos are gonna pronounce Naoero? Just keep pronouncing it the same as Nauru but with a new spelling?
Naoero seems more likely to take off as a new name
I’d agree. Personally I will never ever say “Türkiye” after this exact moment because my keyboard doesn’t use that letter and I had it handy here by copy and pasting yours. But Naoero is easy.
In any case, how do you think Anglos are gonna pronounce Naoero?
Probably the ones who already had reason to talk about it will just keep saying it the way they’re used to, and people hearing about it for the first time will ask chatgpt “how the fuck do i say naoeaoro” and then parrot whatever nonsense it says
An interesting thing is that Naoero’s national anthem, despite being in Naoeroan, actually uses the Anglicized spelling Nauru in the title and lyrics! It’s a good anthem IMO, although some people note that it sounds suspiciously similar to “O Canada” at times. But yeah, I wonder if the name change to Naoero will make them change the anthem, too. It’s a peculiar thing, though, using the Anglicized spelling like that — imagine if the Irish anthem was like “Sinne Fianna Fáil, atá faoi gheall ag IRELAND…”
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Oof, a tragic history and a present…
Beautiful
