Belau (Paperback)

~ Douglas Faulkner (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

BELAU The PROMISED LAND is about Douglas Faulkner’s efforts to save Belau from imminent destruction. Its islands and reefs are too fragile to be subjected to big development projects; projects that care little for beauty.

About the Author

Douglas Faulkner decided to publish BELAU The Promised Land because he did not want his ideas about massive development versus the environment to lie buried in the files of the United Nations. His last petition before the United Nations Trusteeship Council was presented in 1987, and the world and Belau which is a small part of that world still faces destruction. He believes that only if mankind sees that it is to its own best interest not to destroy the beauty of the planet, will the planet and mankind survive.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Xlibris Corporation; 1 edition (May 28, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738821888
• ISBN-13: 978-0738821887
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #6,562,302 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Recent history relevant to today, December 21, 2004

By	Mr. Walter A. Starck (Townsville, Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Belau, The Promised Land is a collection of verbatim records from seven meetings of the United Nations Trusteeship Council between 1981 and 1987. Five are records of the author's personal petitions to the council. The remaining two records detail the USSR representative's input on the same issue. Like the iconic image of the protester standing in front of a tank in Tianamen Square the author single handedly defied the might of both the U.S. military and the federal government to oppose establishment of a large U.S. military base amid the exceptional natural beauty of the Pacific islands of Belau (or Palau as it is know to the outside world).

Although now history and the base plans abandoned with the end of the Cold War this account is perhaps more relevant than ever for a variety of reasons. It not only documents the duplicity and indifference of powerful forces pursuing their own agendas but also reveals the reservations and the too often hidden humanity of persons of good will on all sides of the issue. It also shows that armed only with reason, facts, and good will an individual can make a difference.

In a time when opposing views rage Faulkner's Belau account is a salutary reminder to not only recognize the deceits of power but also that strength of conviction is no guarantee of correctness and that basic humanity exists on all sides of opinion.

As for Belau, although it dodged the threat of a Superport and was spared the collateral damage of the military base it is now exposed to the ravages of having become a popular tourism destination. Unspoiled natural beauty has come to have high economic value and the battle now is to find a balance between economic and esthetic or spiritual values. How much of each are we willing to sacrifice for the other.? As Faulkner reveals, this is not so much a battle against outside forces as it is one within ourselves and although his particular skirmish is over the war continues with no light apparent at the end of the tunnel. As a tactical account of a successful battle in the ongoing struggle for the human spirit Faulkner is well worth reading. If nothing else a recount of recent history helps us to remember that things are rarely as bad as we fear or as good as we hope and getting too excited over either is unwarranted.

In his classic photo book on Palau, This Living Reef, published in 1974 Faulkner somewhat prophetically wrote:
"For the moment Belau is a "new world", little touched by the occupations and diversions of industrial man. The reefs and islands have survived many geologic and climatic changes, but they may not be able to sustain the degradations of our unthinking carelessness. This is my only fear in bringing to light this world which I love. If we destroy this living reef, a great beauty and richness will go out of the world, and out of our lives."