A civil servant was sitting lost in thought in a corner of the South Nias Regency Hall. He occasionally looked at the vast expanse of grassland ahead of him. A light breeze failed to calm him. "I want to cross to Sumatra Island," Idial Harita, the resident of Pasar Teluk Dalam, South Nias Regency, said softly. "They say Nias is soon sinking."

The rumor about Nias' descent now circulating indeed made Idial anxious. Just im