Nauru is known as "the country that ate itself" according to this source.
Why? 80% of its land area was mined.
Why? It was covered in phosphates and bird poop. Specifically, phosphate-rich bird poop, called guano (Wiki), from which phosphate was extracted. It is used in fertilisers.
Nauru was once "covered with a thick layer of guano", that is, in a thick layer of shit. Valuable shit. And here is where the contemporary positive meanings of the word "shit" come into play. "Good shit", "wicked", "sick": all words that have had their meaning reversed from negative to (bluntly speaking) positive. It is not as if the negative meaning has slipped completely, as these words still depend upon their original meaning, toothskin-like - "good shit" used to describe drugs would still imply the damaging after-effects. "Wicked" does not mean "good" and certainly would not compare to the Biblical idea of "Good (versus Evil)" but then "good" is an extremely ambiguous and indefinite concept in itself.
And corruption... Nauru is corrupt.
(But this shit was good shit.)
Nonetheless, we can say that Nauru has a fuck-tonne of shit, from which it *made* a shit-ton of money. And that shit-ton of money is quite *literally* a shit-ton. Although it is not quite that...
I could work out all the iterations.
shit-ton of money (Nauru *was* rich)
tons of shit-money (Nauru mined guano)
tons of shit money (Nauru is corrupt)
Ah! Phrasing!
Why? 80% of its land area was mined.
Why? It was covered in phosphates and bird poop. Specifically, phosphate-rich bird poop, called guano (Wiki), from which phosphate was extracted. It is used in fertilisers.
Nauru was once "covered with a thick layer of guano", that is, in a thick layer of shit. Valuable shit. And here is where the contemporary positive meanings of the word "shit" come into play. "Good shit", "wicked", "sick": all words that have had their meaning reversed from negative to (bluntly speaking) positive. It is not as if the negative meaning has slipped completely, as these words still depend upon their original meaning, toothskin-like - "good shit" used to describe drugs would still imply the damaging after-effects. "Wicked" does not mean "good" and certainly would not compare to the Biblical idea of "Good (versus Evil)" but then "good" is an extremely ambiguous and indefinite concept in itself.
And corruption... Nauru is corrupt.
(But this shit was good shit.)
Nonetheless, we can say that Nauru has a fuck-tonne of shit, from which it *made* a shit-ton of money. And that shit-ton of money is quite *literally* a shit-ton. Although it is not quite that...
I could work out all the iterations.
shit-ton of money (Nauru *was* rich)
tons of shit-money (Nauru mined guano)
tons of shit money (Nauru is corrupt)
Ah! Phrasing!
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