The ATM comes to Tuvalu

It might have been the largest chocolate cake ever cut in Tuvalu and with good reason On April 15 a new machine was installed outside the National Bank of Tuvalu No one had ever seen anything like it Hit Enter and it blew paper money out through a slot It was known as an ATM machineMr Siose Teo the bankrsquos general manager was beside himself with excitement ldquoItrsquos a great achievementrdquo he gushed as the Prime Minister Feleti Teo sliced through the giant chocolate cake ldquoItrsquos a transformative switch It will open doors for economic empowerment of the people of TuvalurdquoHe was referring to the 11200 people who are citizens of TuvaluTuvalu is so little that itrsquos not even a dot on the map However if you blow up the Google screen by pressing the button several times you will see a dot somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean between Hawaii and AustraliaHit a few more times and the single dot will expand to reveal nine dots and at greater magnification 33 Of these islets only one could be called large a ringshaped atoll somewhat like a long orange peel encompassing a lagoon and colourful reefs A mobike ride from one end to the other along the islandrsquos only road takes about 20 minutes The island is 20 metres wide at its narrowest and 400 metres at its widest That fortunately is sufficient for a runwayLetrsquos talk about Bombai Click the QR code above to join my WhatsApp group to share your Bombai stories for my bookmdashand perhaps answer some of my Bombai questionsYou guessed right we are at Funafuti International Airport in the capital of Tuvalu Its airline code is FUN and only three flights land here every week all from Fiji Each landing is celebrated with sirens and everyone comes out to cheer On other days children play rugby and men play board games on the runway while flies buzz around dogs asleep nearbyNow that there is an ATM Tuvalursquos shoppers will take their first step into a cashless economy Everything will be gloriously digital Tuvaluans can use their newly acquired ATM cards to draw cash from the five newly installed ATMs or swipe to pay at any of the 30 pointofsale terminalsThere might not be that much to buy though Goods and groceries take at least three weeks to reach Funafutirsquos little port ldquoWhen the stores run out of onions we cook without onions for three weeks when the next shipment will arrive from Australiardquo says a residentAlso the wonderful benefits of not needing paper money will not extend to the 5000 or so Tuvaluans who do not live on Funafuti but on one of the other islands They will wait for the weekly boat and travel seven hours across open seas to reach the cashspitting machine that is propelling Tuvalu into the futureThis is a good place to ask the question why does Tuvalu the secondleast populated country on the planet after Vatican City even need an ATMAn Asian Development Bank briefing from 2019 described Tuvalursquos banking sector as ldquoeffectively unregulatedrdquo though they probably meant lsquoineffectivelyrsquo ldquoKey reform priorities are instituting effective banking oversight and expanding access to financial servicesrdquoOne of the remedies it appears was bringing in ATMsThere is no question the ATM transformed everyonersquos life when it was introduced 58 years ago Muggers and pickpockets instantly went out of business since pockets were always empty Withdrawing and depositing money became effortless Mainly the ATM made shopping easier and over half a century we got used to itThen a new phenomenon emerged banks worldwide began shutting down ATM machines closing branches and downsizing their staff claiming that they were ldquoresponding to changing customer preferencesrdquoBy withdrawing those services they are gently guiding youmdashand billions of other consumersmdashtowards digital banking Behavioural economics has a term for it nudgingPaying by UPI was even more fun than a debit card Since I no longer saw actual money there was a sense of buying something for nothing I frequently found myself overshopping merely because it was cashless It felt freeA report from the American Psychological Association found that ldquoour brains remember cash spending but we are less able to recall spending on cards making us spend as if itrsquos play moneyrdquoldquoThe true motive is corporate profitrdquo notes a report in The Guardian ldquoThe nudge requires two parts First they must increase the inconvenience of cash ATMs and branches They seek to make people lsquolearnrsquo that they want digital and then lsquochoosersquo itrdquoThe happy residents of Tuvalu however have one problem larger than being on the fringes of the worldrsquos digital economy With most of its land just a metre above sea level Tuvalu is prone to flooding With sea levels rising experts predict that there may be no Tuvalu left 50 years from now Tuvalu is sinkingDepressed and frustrated Simon Kofe Minister of Justice Communication and Foreign Affairs announced that the country would upload a digital version of itself to the metaverse and thus survive climate changeThe world and its leaders have made supportive noises but not offered anything significant to help the country stay above waterThey did install ATMs though The Tuvaluans can spend their final years shoppingYou can reach C Y Gopinath at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paperatOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params