Raw materials and labour are mostly imported from China too.The result for Pacific islanders is a shiny stadium or gleaming new hospital without the benefits of either extra jobs or more money circulating in the local economy.
Begrudgingly, the SNP suggested the islanders should be free to set their own course and this has fuelled a fresh debate about devolution which could have great consequences for them and other local communities, however the referendum turns out.The modest islanders gainsay their importance.
Fine, say the islanders: the best way to conserve our fragile island is for you to stay away from it.Theme: that is the essential word here.
It was Nurse Barclay, unknown to him, who persuaded the islanders to leave.The strangeness of treesThat leaving, on HMS Harebell on August 29th, was not especially sad for him.
The EU allows Denmark to prevent foreigners (read Germans) from buying Danish summer-houses, while the Swedish-speaking Aland islanders, who are Finns by nationality, can keep their islands culturally (read ethnically) Swedish.Then there is the delicate question of the presidency.
Unexpectedly, one morning found us ushered into Carrot Bay's Seventh Day Adventist Church service, having stopped, en route to the beach in shorts, to watch the islanders arrive in their finery.
Senior Met officers, who suspect he may have gone there in lulls between spates of attacks, plan to fly out in the next couple of weeks to liaise with local police and make a public appeal to islanders for information.
There wouldn't be any malign repercussions if I did put my name to it, but it is in the bloodstream of islanders that the operation of local society is mutually exclusive with the confrontational nature of party politics.
On Tuesday, the supreme court threw out the appeals, paving the way for Spanish energy company Repsol to move forward with its exploration plans, which have drawn an angry response from islanders concerned at the impact on tourism.
Surely one of the oldest islanders (locals guess between 85 and 95), she serves local dishes in the dining room above her home.
Well, at least we have given the islanders something (apart, that is, from abolishing slavery, introducing a parliamentary democracy and setting up a pretty effective civil service).
