Christmas Island - A beautiful island once under the jurisdiction of then British Singapore. The island location can be found here.
The island was a few times bigger than Sentosa and had a wide diversity of wildlife and fauna.
In 1957, sovereignty of the island was transferred to Australia for £2.9 million, an estimated value of the phosphate foregone by Singapore. (The island had phosphate resources). I don't really know the reason for this "sale". According to info from NLB, SG's impending independence caused the British to transfer ownership. (Don't understand why they so selfish....) According to my parents, the $$$ acquired from this sale is used to fund the building of Nicoll Highway... If this was true.... I can only say "....."
A small discussion with MJ, KKJ, YT and maybe YQ (don't think he was listening, he was dozing off -_-) earlier today at Mac with regards to the sale of Christmas Island suggest that the island should be sold for the $$$. Other reasons include proximity (KKJ) of island from SG, waste of resources to protect the island (YT) as well as opportunity costs (MJ who left as soon as he said this... wth).
My argument to not sell the island is only one: It belongs to SG, it is part of SG and therefore should never be sold. You don't sell your flesh just because it is useless or you can't maintain it (wateva there is to maintain, i don't know).
Christmas island is approximately the same distance away from SG and Australia.
Had the island not been sold, it could have been used as a base for military purposes. eg: Aircrafts. That way, there would have been less need for SG to use other countries air bases which is a more wasteful use of resources.
The island would have served as a better tourism attraction (better than Sentosa, which is 90% man made).
It is a mistake, in my opinion, to link everything in life to the economy. Know that the sale of an island never happened in Indonesia (despite it having so many undeveloped small islands). Why? That's because it is part of Indonesia's sovereignty. You don't sell/ throw away an island just because it is too far away/ difficult to maintain, manage.
There are many things in life that shouldn't be linked to $$$.
1 comment:
Hey, I wasnt sleeping at Mac kk.. i was listening too.. anyway i think that its been a decision made by the then british govt, not something we can reverse or anything.. unless you wan to create a China/Taiwan fracas. . Anyway, the guys' apathetic views towards this issue is probably due to the fact that it happened so long ago, cannot link with that place sia.. I was like WTF, is there such a place? if its a place we had more feelings for and the sale is being done at present times, views will be different.. anyway, why u suddenly bring up the issue of Xmas island anyway, kengy
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