The Islands Formerly Known as Gilbert...Kiribati Quiz

Answer: Ellice Islands

The Gilbert and Ellice Islands became a Protectorate of the British Crown in 1916. The Gilberts had actually been under British control since 1892, and been home to British settlers since the early nineteenth century.

Answer: It is the only actual island, as opposed to atoll or reef

Banaba, also known as Ocean Island, is the only actual island to be part of Kiribati. All the other land is made up of atolls and reefs. Politically, Banaba has been controversial; it is the remotest from the rest of Kiribati, and administered from Fiji by a body called the Rabi Council.

Answer: Christmas Island

If one could say "kiritimati" aloud in a Kiribati accent, it is actually pronounced "kerissemess" (sort of!) which rather gives the game away! During the 1950s, the UK carried out nuclear testing on and around Kiritimati. Since the mid 1970s, however, the entire island has been a protected wildlife sanctuary.

There is another Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean (administered by Australia).

Answer: Kiribati vanishing completely if global sea levels rise slightly

President Tong made his remarks in a speech in 2008. Scientists have determined that an overall rise in sea levels of less than two metres would be enough to make the entire country of Kiribati disappear beneath the waves. The Government of Kiribati has appealed to both Australia and New Zealand to make arrangements to take in the people of Kiribati when the time comes.

Answer: 1999

The Ellice Islands gained independence as Tuvalu in 1978. Although the Gilbert Islands became Kiribati in 1979, it wasn't until 1983 that the United States gave up all claims to some of the islands which form the country.

Answer: The President

"Te Beretitenti" is the Gilbertese word for the president of the country. Every adult citizen gets to vote for the president, and then the president selects his or her cabinet members from the forty-four elected members of the House, known as the Maneaba ni Maungatabu.

Answer: It is located in both the eastern and western hemispheres of the earth.

Kiribati is located across the meridian at 180 degrees; it is the only country in the world to straddle the line. The International Date Line was famously "bent" around Kiribati to allow the whole country to be in the same day at the same time. Without this arrangement, some of the islands could be in a different week, month, year or even decade to the rest!

Just in case you were wondering...
Saudi Arabia has no rivers and is larger than Kiribati.
I made up Gilbertii prosimiensii!
I have never heard of orange granite either, and all of Kiribati (except Banaba) is formed of coral.

Answer: They vanished under the sea

The South Pacific Regional Environment Program is based in Samoa, and was founded in the 1980s to address various issues which affect the land and people of the South Pacific.

Source:www.sprep.org/

Answer: Caroline Island

The moving of the International Date Line to let all of Kiribati share the same time zone paid off for the tourist industry there when Caroline Island became the first land in the world to reach January 1st 2000. Reporters and television crews from all over the world arrived to film the dawn arriving, and the newly renamed Millennium Island had its place in history assured.

Answer: Guano export

The island of Banaba is one of the "big three" phosphate islands of the South Pacific (Nauru and Makatea are the other two). Guano collection on Banaba ceased in 1970, after around 90% of the surface material of the island had been removed. Although the industry is no longer viable, the money made in the past is used for the benefit of future generations of Kiribatian people, especially if the worst happens--the country being lost to rising sea levels and the people are all left as refugees.