When his country needed him most, Palauan Francis Toribiong came along and helped the Pacific island nation find its place in the world and become an independent, forward-looking 20th-century state. And he achieved this, improbably, via the sport of scuba diving. This is the inspiring tale of an absolutely unique life, written by Simon Pridmore and illustrated with images of the beautiful islands of Palau, above and below the water.
Available in paperback or ebook on: Amazon, Apple, GooglePlay and Kobo
ASIN : B08BVWT9XZ
Language : English
Paperback : 314 pages
ISBN-13 : 979-8649236508
Item Weight : 14.9 ounces
Dimensions : 6 x 0.71 x 9 inches
Toribiong was born poor, had no academic leanings and had no talent for diplomacy. Yet he was driven to succeed by a combination of duty, faith, a deep-seated determination to do the right thing and an absolute refusal ever to compromise his values. And, as well as all that, he was Palau’s first-ever parachutist—known by islanders as “the Palauan who fell from the sky.” In giving him this title, people were speaking both literally and figuratively.
Toribiong was so completely different from all of his contemporaries in terms of his demeanour, his ambitions and his vision, that it was as if he had come from outer space. Palau had never seen anybody quite like him and there was no historical precedent for what he did. He had no operations manual to consult and no examples to follow. He wrote his own life.
Toribiong was the first Palauan ever to seek and seize the international narrative. No Palauan, in any context or field, had previously thought to go out into the world and say: “This is Palau—what we have is wonderful. Come and see!” This is his astonishing story.
