As you may know, the .nu in this site’s address [before 2011 Mar 28] refers to Niue: one of a number of tiny states – most of them in the Pacific Ocean – that bring in the odd shilling by renting out name-space. (When I wanted a domain, Niue happened to be cheapest.)
Now it appears that its link to reality may become even more tenuous.
Niue’s status as a nation is under question after the cyclone that hit the tiny Pacific nation, causing more than $50 million damage.
In the aftermath of the storm, some island leaders are calling for a return to New Zealand governance, and expect the population to fall from about 1200 native Niueans to an unsustainable 500 people.
Such a drop would likely render the nation unviable. Niue currently receives $8m in aid a year from New Zealand . . . .
One wonders how often that “nation” became “unviable” during its first thousand years of habitation; and in what sense a “nation” so dependent on foreign charity is considered “viable”, whatever its size.
2011: The link is dead; the story has been copied here and there, e.g. Sophont blog.