Vanuatu (previously known as the New Hebrides Islands) is an archipelago nation consisting of 83 islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, north of New Zealand and east of Australia.
Regions
Cities
Understand
History
The British and French who settled the New Hebrides in the 19th century agreed in 1906 to an Anglo-French Condominium, which administered the islands until independence in 1980. European settlers released several saltwater crocodiles on the island, although today's population on the island officially stands at 2 or 3 medium-sized individuals on the Banks Islands and no breeding has been observed. Despite its proximity to Papua New Guinea, crocodiles do not naturally occur on Vanuatu.
People
Climate
Holidays
Get in
By boat
Vanuatu's port cities are Port-Vila and Santo.
By plane
An international airport is located in Port-Vila, with flights from Nadi in Fiji by Air Vanuatu or Air Pacific . Air Vanuatu also has flights to Port-Vila from Auckland, Sydney. and Brisbane.
Get around
Bus
In Port Vila the buses are vans, which largely traverst the main road and go and stop where you would like them to go. Wave at them to stop one heading in the direction you want to go. They are plentiful within the city and outside the city you can usually arrange for a bus to meet you at a particular time. If one looks full, just wait for the next one. The buses are used by locals, but are very friendly, cheap, and easy to use by tourists. Fare is usually calculated per person.
Taxi
Taxis are plentiful within Port Vila. Fare is calculated per taxi.
Talk
English, French, a creole (Bislama) and over 100 local languages are spoken in Vanuatu. Knowledge of English and French is usually enough.
Eat
Lap-Lap
The traditional dish which you will most likely be offered once during your stay is a root vegetable cake called lap lap. Essentially this either manioc(kasava), sweet potato, taro or yam shaved into the middle of a banana leaf with island cabbage and sometimes a chicken wing on top. This is all wrapped up into a flat package and then cooked in hot stones underground till it all melts together into a cake. The best place to pick up some of this is at the food market in the town centre and should cost you about 100 vatu ($1.20AUD).
Tuluk
This is a variation of lap lap with the the cake rolled into a cylinder with meat in the middle. It tastes a lot like a sausage roll. You can find these again in the market (usually from mele village people) but they will be served from foam boxes to keep them warm.
Sleep
There is a choice of all levels of accommodation.
Resort
Mid-Range
Budget
Stay healthy
Malaria is endemic within some areas of Vanuatu, but not Port Vila. If you are venturing outside the resort areas, check with your doctor before you travel.
No matter what the locals tell you, the water in Port Vila and elsewhere in Vanuatu is not safe to drink. Unless you want to spend your holiday with stomach cramps, stick to bottled water. Stay away from food likely to have been washed in water.
Vanuatu (IPA: ˌvɑːnuˈɑːtu), officially the Republic of Vanuatu, is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago is located some 1,750 km (1090 mi) east of Australia, 500 km (310 mi) north-east of New Caledonia, west of Fiji and south of the Solomon Islands.
Vanuatu was first inhabited by Melanesian people. Europeans began to settle in the area in the late 18th century and in 1906 Britain and France officially claimed the country, jointly managing it through a British-French Condominium as the New Hebrides. An independence movement was established in the 1970s, and the Republic of Vanuatu was created in 1980.
History
Many of the islands of Vanuatu have been inhabited for thousands of years with the oldest archaeological evidence dating back to 1300 BC.
In 1606 a Spanish expedition led by explorers Luis Váez de Torres and Pedro Fernández de Quirós became the first from Europe to reach the islands which they believed to be part of Terra Australis. Europeans began settling the islands in the late 18th century after the British explorer James Cook visited the islands on his second voyage and gave them the name New Hebrides. In 1887 the islands came under the administration of a joint French-British naval commission. In 1906, the French and British agreed to an Anglo-French Condominium on the New Hebrides. Vanuatu suffered from the practice of blackbirding wherein half of the adult male population of some of the islands became indentured workers in Australia. Due to diseases introduced by the new European populations, the native population fell to a mere 45,000 in 1935.
During World War II the islands of Efate and Espiritu Santo were used as allied military bases. In the 1960s the ni-Vanuatu people started to press for self-governance and, later, independence. Full sovereignty was finally granted by both European nations on July 30, 1980. Subsequently, Vanuatu joined the UN in 1981 and the Non-Aligned Movement in 1983. During the 1990s Vanuatu experienced political instability which eventually resulted in a more decentralised government. The Vanuatu Mobile Force, a paramilitary group, attempted a coup in 1996 because of a pay dispute; There were allegations of corruption in the government of Maxime Carlot Korman. New elections have been called for several times since 1997, most recently in 2004.
Politics
Politics
Vanuatu has a republican political system which is currently headed by a President who has primarily ceremonial powers and who is elected for 5-year terms by a two-thirds majority in an electoral college. This electoral college consists of members of Parliament and the presidents of Regional Councils. The President may be removed by the electoral college for gross misconduct or incapacity. The Prime Minister, who is the head of government, is elected by a majority vote of a three-fourths quorum of the Parliament. The prime minister, in turn, appoints the Council of Ministers, whose number may not exceed one-fourth of the number of parliamentary representatives. The prime minister and the Council of Ministers constitute the executive government.
The parliament of Vanuatu is unicameral and has 52 members who are elected every four years by popular vote, unless dissolved by a majority vote of a three-fourths quorum or a directive from the President on the advice of the Prime Minister. The national Council of Chiefs, called the Malvatu Mauri and elected by district councils of chiefs, advises the government on all matters concerning ni-Vanuatu culture and language. Government and society in Vanuatu tend to divide along linguistic French and English lines. Forming coalition governments, however, has proved problematic at times owing to differences between English and French speakers. The Supreme Court consists of a chief justice and up to three other judges. Two or more members of this court may constitute a Court of Appeal. Magistrate courts handle most routine legal matters. The legal system is based on British common law. The constitution also provides for the establishment of village or island courts presided over by chiefs to deal with questions of customary law.
Foreign relations and military
Vanuatu has joined the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique, la Francophonie and the Commonwealth of Nations.
Since 1980, Australia, the European Union, the United Kingdom, France, and New Zealand have provided the bulk of Vanuatu's development aid. Direct aid from the British to Vanuatu has ceased since 2005 following the decision by the British to no longer focus on the Pacific. However, more recently new donors such as the US Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) and the Chinese have been providing increased amounts of aid funding. In 2005 the MCA announced that Vanuatu was one of the first 15 countries in the world selected to receive support - an amount of USD 65mm was given for the provision and upgrading of key pieces of public infrastructure.
Vanuatu retains strong economic and cultural ties to Australia, the European Union (in particular France) and New Zealand. Australia now provides the bulk of external assistance, including to the police force, which has a paramilitary wing.
Vanuatu's military consist of a small, mobile corps of 300 volunteers. The Vanuatu Police Force (VPF) includes the paramilitary Vanuatu Mobile Force (VMF). Total military expenditures are not available.
Geography
Physical geography
Vanuatu is an archipelago of 83 islands, of which two — Matthew and Hunter — are also claimed by the French overseas department of New Caledonia. Of all the 83 islands, 14 have surface areas of more than 100 square kilometres, from largest to smallest: Espiritu Santo (3956 km²/1527 mi²), Malakula (2041 km²/788 mi²), Efate (900 km²/350 mi²), Erromango (888 km²/343 mi²), Ambrym (678 km²/262 mi²), Tanna (555 km²/214 mi²), Pentecost (491 km²/190 mi²), Epi (445 km²/172 mi²), Ambae or Aoba (402 km²/155 mi²), Vanua Lava (334 km²/129 mi²), Gaua (328 km²/127 mi²), Maewo (304 km²/117 mi²), Malo (180 km²/70 mi²) and Anatom or Aneityum (159 km²/65 mi²).
Most of the islands are mountainous and of volcanic origin, and have a tropical or sub-tropical climate. The nation's largest towns are the capital Port Vila, which is situated on Efate, and Luganville, on Espiritu Santo. The highest point in Vanuatu is Mount Tabwemasana, at 1879 m (6158 ft), on the island of Espiritu Santo. There are several active volcanoes in Vanuatu, including Lopevi as well as several underwater ones. Volcanic activity is common with an ever-present danger of a major eruption, the last of which occurred in 1945. Rainfall averages about 2,360 millimetres (94 in.) per year but can be as high as 4,000 millimetres (160 in.) in the northern islands.
Vanuatu is recognised as a distinct terrestrial ecoregion, known as the Vanuatu rain forests. Vanuatu is part of the Australasia ecozone, which also includes neighbouring New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands, as well as Australia, New Guinea, and New Zealand.
Administrative divisions
Since 1994, Vanuatu has been divided into six provinces:
Economy and demographics
Economy
The economy is based primarily on subsistence or small-scale agriculture, which provides a living for 65% of the population. Fishing, offshore financial services, and tourism (with about 50,000 visitors in 1997), are other mainstays of the economy. Mineral deposits are negligible; the country has no known petroleum deposits. A small light industry sector caters to the local market. Tax revenues come mainly from import duties and a 12.5 percent Value Added Tax (VAT) on goods and services. Economic development is hindered by dependence on relatively few commodity exports, vulnerability to natural disasters, and long distances from main markets and between constituent islands. A severe earthquake in November 1999, followed by a tsunami, caused extensive damage to the northern island of Pentecote, leaving thousands homeless. Another powerful earthquake in January 2002 caused extensive damage in the capital, Port-Vila, and surrounding areas, and also was followed by a tsunami.
GDP growth rose less than 3% on average in the 1990s. In response to foreign concerns, the government has promised to tighten regulation of its offshore financial centre. In mid-2002, the government stepped up efforts to boost tourism. Australia and New Zealand are the main suppliers of Vanuatu's foreign aid. Vanuatu is a tax haven that does not release account information to other governments and law enforcement agencies. Pressure is however being brought to bear on the Vanuatu government to adhere to international norms to improve transparency in this respect. In Vanuatu, there is no income tax, no withholding tax, no capital gains tax, no inheritance taxes, and no exchange controls. Several file sharing groups such as the providers of the KaZaA network of Sharman Networks and the developers of WinMX have chosen to incorporate in Vanuatu to avoid regulation and legal challenges.
The ninth season of the reality TV series Survivor was filmed on Vanuatu, entitled - Islands of Fire. Two years later, Australia's Celebrity Survivor was filmed in the same location used by the U.S. version.
Demographics
Vanuatu had a population of 205,754 (July 2005 estimate from the CIA World Factbook). Most of the population is rural, though Port Vila and Luganville have populations in the tens of thousands. The inhabitants of Vanuatu, or Ni-Vanuatu, are in majority (98.5%) of Melanesian descent, with the remainder made up of a mix of Europeans, Asians and other Pacific islanders. Three islands were historically colonized by Polynesians. About 2,000 Ni-Vanuatu live and work in New Caledonia. In 2006, the New Economics Foundation and Friends of the Earth environmentalist group rated Vanuatu as the most happy place to live of 178 nations all over the world using the Happy Planet Index.
Culture, language, music and religion
Culture
Vanuatu culture retains a strong diversity derived through local regional variations and through foreign influence. Vanuatu may be divided into three major cultural regions:
Young men undergo various coming-of-age ceremonies and rituals to initiate them into manhood, usually including circumcision.
Music
The majority of Vanuatu people play music in a traditional way, which includes the knowledge of slit drums and slit gongs, as well as various musical instruments performed in village dances and ceremonies.
The most popular musical genre in Vanuatu, both rural and urban, is known as "string band" music; it combines guitars, ukulele and popular songs.
More recently, the music of Vanuatu, as an industry, grew rapidly in the 1990s, and several bands have forged a distinctive ni-Vanuatu identity. Popular genres of modern commercial music which are currently being played in town include zouk music, and Reggaeton. Reggaeton, a variation of hip-hop rapped in Spanish, played alongside its own districtive beat, is especially played in the local nightclubs of Vanuatu, with mostly an audience of Westerners and tourists.
Languages
There are three official languages: English, French and Bislama. Bislama is a pidgin language – and now a creole in urban areas – which essentially combines a typically Melanesian grammar with a mostly English vocabulary. It is the only language that can be understood and spoken by the whole population of Vanuatu, generally as a second language.
In addition, about 110 indigenous languages are still actively spoken in Vanuatu. The density of languages per capita is the highest of any nation in the world, with an average of only 2000 speakers per language. All of these vernacular languages belong to the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian family.
Religion
Christianity is the predominant religion in Vanuatu, consisting of several denominations. The Presbyterian Church, adhered to by about one third of the population, is the largest of them. Roman Catholic and Anglican are other common denominations, each claiming about 15% of the population. Others are the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Church of Christ, Neil Thomas Ministries or "NTM", as well as many other religious sects and denominations.
Because of the modernities that soldiers in World War II brought with them when they came to the island, several cargo cults developed. Many died out, but the John Frum cult on Tanna is still large, and has adherents in the parliament.
A clutch of villages on Tanna are also known to worship Great Britain's Prince Philip. Villagers believed in an ancient story about the pale-skinned son of a mountain spirit venturing across the seas to look for a powerful woman to marry. Prince Philip, having visited the island with his new wife Queen Elizabeth, fitted the description exactly, and is therefore revered and even held as a god around the isle of Tanna.
Islam in Vanuatu is made up of about 200 converts.
Education
In Port Vila and two other centres are locations of the University of the South Pacific, an educational institution co-owned by twelve Pacific countries. The Vanuatu campus is the only law school in the university.
Miscellaneous topics
References
External links
