The Maldivian Exit Plan
I was reading the news this morning and an interesting note on the Maldives caught my eye. The recently elected president has begun setting aside a portion of the nation’s tourism revenue to start buying land. Specifically, land to be a new Maldivian homeland.
It seems that most of the islands comprising the country sit no more than 4 feet above sea level. Rising oceans as a result of global warming threaten to swamp the island nation entirely.
I would like to offer my own humble suggestion as to where the Maldivians might relocate: the Hawaiian island of Molokai. This actually makes a lot of sense if you think about it.
- Fishing is a primary industry of the Maldives so an island is in order
- The Maldives only have a land area of 115 square miles. Molokai is 260 square miles. It would be nice for the Maldivians to be able to stretch their legs.
- If you’ve ever been to Molokai, you know how sparsely populated it is. The entire resident population is only 7000 versus the 300,000 in the Maldives.
- Molokai just can’t seem to make a go of tourism despite it’s natural beauty and proximity to Honolulu. The last major tourist draw, Molokai Ranch, recently closed leaving most of Molokai’s population on government assistance. The Maldivians clearly understand solid tourism marketing and service fundamentals given their booming tourist industry.
So that’s my thought. President Nasheed, consider Molokai as the warm waters of the Indian Ocean lap menacingly at your shores. At this point, you could probably pick it up on the cheap.
