Solomon Islands: Political System
The Solomon Islands are a parliamentary republic of democratic monarchy in the Comonwealth of Nations. See AbbreviationFinder for more information about Solomon Islands politics, and acronyms as well.
The official name of the country is:
| Solomon Islands |
The head of state is the Queen of England, who is represented by the Gerernal Governor, whose term of office is five years. The Prime Minister is elected by Parliament with an absolute majority for four years. He chooses his cabinet members from parliament.
The parliament is a unicameral parlement with 50 seats. Opposition members are often bought, just as others openly cast their votes to the highest bidder. In each election, around 50% of the members were therefore voted out by the people. But with little success.
According to topschoolsintheusa, the state is made up of nine provinces and the capital region: Central, Choiseul, Guadalcanal, Honiara, Santa Isabel, Makira, Malaita, Rennell and Bellona, Temotu and Western.
These provinces each have a provincial assembly with a chairman.
National anthem
The text and music of the national anthem of the Solomon Islands come from Panapasa Balekana.
The English version
| The English version | In the English translation |
| God save our Salomon Islands from shore to shoreBless all our people and all our Lands
With your protecting hands Joy, peace, progress and prosperity That men shall brothers be, making nations see Our Solomon Islands, our Solomon Islands Our Nation Solomon Islands stands for ever more |
God protect our Solomon Islands from coast to coastBless all our people and our land
With Your protecting hands Joy, Peace, Progress and Prosperity That all people be brothers, let all nations see Our Solomon Islands, our Solomon Islands, Our Solomon Islands exists forever. |
National flag
The national flag (country flag) of the Solomon Islands was officially introduced on November 18, 1977. Based on flag descriptions by Countryaah.com, the colors of the flag are interpreted as follows:
– The five white stars symbolize the five districts Eastern, Western, Malatia, Central Islands and Outer Islands.
– Blue symbolizes the ocean
– Yellow symbolizes the sun
– Green stands for the land and its natural resources.
- Check top-mba-universities for public holidays, sports events, UNESCO world heritage sites and major places to visit in Solomon Islands.
Solomon Islands: Known People
Alick Wickham (1886-1967)
Alick Wickham was born on June 1, 1886 in Gizo, Solomon Islands. In 1898, as a 12-year-old in Sydney, he presented a swimming style with which he beat all competitors. His swimming style, the crawl or crawl, caused a sensation at the Olympic Games in 1900. He had lived in Sydney from 1901 to 1927 and then returned to the Solomon Islands.
He died on August 11, 1967 in a hospital in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands.
Solomon Islands: animals
Mammals
Mammals are rather limited on the islands. Bats, rats, mice and fruit bats are numerous. The latter are also known as flying foxes. They are 6 – 40 cm tall, crepuscular mammals with a dog-like head and large eyes. They have a short tail, which is often completely absent. The fruit bats feed mainly on fruits, although some species are nectar suckers.
The northern woolly cuscus is the only Marsupialier from the climbing bag family that occurs on the islands. It becomes approx. 80 cm long, with the grasping tail taking 35 cm of it. The nocturnal tree dwellers are very variable in their coloration, the coat color changes depending on gender, age, state of health and occurrence. It is also widespread in northern New Guinea and on the Bismarck Achipel. The woolly cuscus feeds mainly vegetarian on flowers, leaves and fruits. However, caterpillars and grasshoppers are not spurned either. The opposum also appears here.
Birds
There are 23 different species on the islands, including railings and thrushes. The fruit pigeon and the beautiful collar pigeon are also found on the Solomon Islands. The latter is 45 cm tall and has blue-green metallic colored feathers. The blue-gray wreath of feathers around the neck, which also gave it its name, and the white tail feathers are striking. The sexes can hardly be distinguished from one another. They look quite similar, with the females being slightly smaller than the males.
The collar pigeon breeds on small wooded islands and is not only found in the Solomon Islands but also in the Philippines, New Guinea and Palau. It lives mostly near the ground in the tropical rainforests of the islands and can only rarely be recognized by its plumage. In addition to fruits and seeds, their diet also occasionally includes insects and small invertebrates. Although it should be protected as its population continues to decline, it is still hunted in the Solomon Islands.
The Pacific fruit pigeon is a bird up to 40 cm tall, sometimes referred to in German as the tonga fruit pigeon. However, this is not entirely correct, as it is not only common in Tonga and the Solomon Islands, but also in Samoa and Tuvalu as well as Fiji, the Loyalty Islands, American Samoa, Kiribati, Tokelau, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Cook Islands. Their diet mainly includes fruits and berries, but nuts are also on the menu.
Typical birds are birds of paradise, cassowaries and parrots, such as. B. the parrot. This bird, which is also found in New Guinea, the Moluccas, the Sunda Islands and in the north and east of Australia, is between 35 and 40 cm tall. Males and females can be easily distinguished by the color of their feathers. While the female has a red basic color, the male is green. Their diet includes fruits and vegetables.
Cockatoos, honey eaters, hornbills and sea eagles are common on the small island of Uepi Island.
A special bird is the big foot hen that can be seen on the dormant volcano of Savo. These inconspicuous birds are about 30 cm long and have a simple gray-colored plumage. They can usually only be recognized by the prints on the large feet and the melodious duet singing of the couples. What is special about the large footed chicken is that it does not hatch its eggs itself, but uses various external heat sources. It deposits them near hot springs or in places where the magma reaches relatively close to the surface of the earth. This is where the chicks develop and are left on their own after they hatch. Its diet consists mainly of insects, but snails, seeds and fallen fruits are also on the menu. Since the bird, also known as Malau, is not very adaptable,
Endemic (only occurring in the Solomon Islands) is the Solomon Owl, which belongs to the owl family.
Reptiles
Much more common than mammals are the reptiles and amphibians in the Solomon Islands. Lizards, skinks, snakes and sea turtles are numerous, as are frogs and toads.
At 76 cm, the wound tail skink is the largest species in the skink family and is also known as the Solomon Islands giant skink. The smooth, overlapping scales are typical of skinks. The wrapped-tail skink has a strong, very agile prehensile tail as well as strong legs with well-developed claws. Equipped in this way, these nocturnal reptiles move mainly in the treetops and hardly ever stay near the ground. Their diet is predominantly vegetarian.
Monitor lizards are also found in the Solomon Islands. Two types are the barbed-neck monitor and the mangrove monitor. The latter is about 1.80 m long and is one of the few salt water tolerant monitor lizards. Therefore, it can also colonize habitats such as brackish water and mangrove forests.
The saltwater crocodile is very impressive in terms of size. It is the largest living crocodile, with the longest animal ever measured being about 8 meters long. The saltwater crocodile lives in coastal waters, mangrove swamps and at river mouths and is relatively widespread. Its distribution area includes the coasts of Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Burma and Cambodia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Bismarck Islands and Australia. This crocodile has been protected since the late 1970s.
You can also find the Pacific Boa (also under the names Pacific Tree Boa, Pacific Boa, South Sea Boa)
Insects, spiders
There are around 130 different species of butterflies in the Solomon Islands. You have to be careful of the fever mosquito, which transmits the disease malaria.
Poisonous animals
Centipedes and scorpions can be dangerous. However, these tend to be hidden and are therefore not so easy to find.
Solomon Islands: plants
Trees
On the coasts of the Solomon Islands, mainly mangroves and coconut palms grow, while the interior of the islands is dominated by dense rainforests.
Crops
The pulp of the sago palm is very rich in starch and is therefore often used as food. The juice of the coconut palm is tapped and fermented into palm wine within just one day. This can be further processed into a syrup or candy by boiling it for a short or longer period of time.
In addition to coconut and oil palm groves, there are also cocoa plantations and rice fields.
Medicinal plants
Chewing betel nuts is not only widespread in the Solomon Islands. The fruits of the betel palm, which can be up to 30 m high, are wrapped in the leaves of the betel pepper together with lime and slowly chewed. The dye contained in the fruits turns the saliva red and, with permanent use, the teeth black. The beggar nuts are said to have a slightly intoxicating, stimulating and euphoric effect. They also stimulate salivation, have a laxative and diuretic effect and are supposed to suppress the feeling of hunger
Poisonous plants
The constant chewing of beggar nuts stimulates the oral mucosa and can lead to the formation of benign tumors and ultimately also carcinomas. Allegedly, 8-10 g of the nuts are also said to be fatal by causing cardiac arrest or respiratory arrest.
More plants
There are a total of 4,500 different plant species on the Solomon Islands, most of which belong to the orchids. The sago palm grows in the fresh water swamps. In terms of evolution, it is a further development of the ferns and thus belongs to the cycad family. The light brown trunk is spherical when young, but can become tree-high with age. It carries feathery and dark green fronds that can reach a length of 8 m over time.
The evergreen, about 1.5 m high ribbon bush has flattened, about 2 cm wide branches that are 1 mm thick and leafless. They appear clearly structured and give the plant a rather bizarre appearance. The white flowers, on the other hand, are small and inconspicuous. In winter the ribbon bush bears red fruits. Although it is a tropical plant, the ribbon bush can also handle low temperatures down to 0 °C very well.
The sago palm is native to Southeast Asia. The betel palm was also imported from India.
