Harmless Insanity

This is the Caribbean island of Montseratt in the West Indies. In the 17th century, Britain colonized the island and held on to it ever since. But the British didn’t consider the consequences of building their paradise around a volcano (probably because they were too busy benefiting from the sugar and rum economy they built entirely on slave labor).

In 1995, the Soufrière Hills volcano woke up. The island’s capital city of Plymouth was buried in more than 12 metres of mud. The island was mostly wiped out except for a small unaffected area on the northern tip. With it’s most recent eruption in 2010 and another expected next year, most Montserratians started new lives in the UK where they were granted full British citizenship. Only a few thousand residents remain, rebuilding life on the northern tip, forbidden to visit their old homes in the restricted southern exclusion zone. Under a thin layer of earth, Monserrat is still burning underneath.

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