On the streets of Numei (the capital of fresh Caledonia) on fire cars // Flickr.com source, David StanleyDo you remember what you did on May 15th? Most of us are most likely already in the fog. any people know that they had pizza for dinner, others that they had something to do or school. Meanwhile, French president Emmanuel Macron announced a state of emergency in any part of his country that spring evening.
However, the overcrowding floods do not tremble with concern about theirs, as after reading the above introduction could be concluded, the shaky nature of the future, as they are separated by a safe distance from the epicentre of day-making decisions. To clarify, we are talking about a position on 2 different ends, 2 different oceans. The fresh Caledonia, about the unrest in question, is nearly 17,000 kilometres distant from Paris.
Constitution! Constitution!
Riots in this overseas territory of France have erupted against the background of constitutional changes announced by the president of the country. They are intended to let people of European origin to participate in elections to local provincial governments, if they live in a given region for more than 10 years. This evidence pushed the Indigenous community of fresh Caledonia, which itself is referred to as the Kanaks, to speculate that the amendment of the basic law would reduce their function in shaping local policy for the North.
How easy it is to know how to exchange harsh words had happened before. This time, unfortunately, not necessarily dull objects went into motion. The crowding between indigenous people and the inflow started on the night of Monday 13 May to Tuesday 14, however, Wednesday events were the origin of the escalation of tensions to the level unprecedented on this tiny island for about 25/30 years.
Some light on the darkness of history
The current dismays of islanders are to any degree caused by postcolonial trauma and are derived from a long tradition of independency tendencies. 171 years ago, in 1853, the azure waters of the coast of fresh Caledonia were reached by visitors from a land so distant that the natives could not even dream of the immensity of their space. At that time, no of the parties could have imagined how long the planet would cut together these anti-podic cultures.
For most of that time, they co-existed without affecting each another besides much. This changed completely erstwhile large nickel decks were discovered in this exotic part of the planet in the 1970s. It was then that the French government decided to change its policy towards the archipelago. He began to encourage the society of the central part of his country to intensify the process of settling there so as to have more hands to work on the site and the anticipation of increased control of the residents of the de facto colony.
New lineup, fresh trouble
Initially, this demographic solution did not hinder the cultural Kanakos, as their capital and abroad capital began to flow with the Europeans. The standard of surviving rose as rapidly as social prosperity, but everything has a price.
As early as 15 years after the French initiative, the percent of indigenous peoples in the population was 47%. It may seem that this is just not saying besides much percentage, but many residents ( rather rightly) considered it an first sign of a negative trend for them. This was because, behind the citizens of Napoleon's homeland, representatives of the surrounding countries began to arrive on the island in order to benefit from the chance to get far more than average salaries for the region.
This condition was conditioned by the fact that from a legal point of view fresh Caledonia was not a colony, but the same part of France as Paris, Marseille, Lyon or Bordeaux, so that investment on the island took place on the same principles, beneficial for entrepreneurs, as in Metropolis.
For comparison, even today, erstwhile the GDP per capita ratio in Poland is $18.7 thousand, in this part of France it is already at around $37,000.
Our land, our law
The problem with Indonesians and Vietnamese arises erstwhile it comes to local self-government. Since most Asians who prosecute work end up at the farms of the French descendants, their political representation in regional government usually supports the page on European roots in voting. specified actions are not in the taste of indigenous Caledonians, who believe that in this way they give back most of their power to erstwhile colonial forces. It was for these reasons that president Macron's decision met the violent reaction of the islanders.
As we now know, respective twelve law enforcement officers and more than 300 civilians suffered injuries, more than 100 people were arrested, and six people died as a consequence of a wave of force involving protests overflowing through the archipelago. Importantly, the leaders of the independency movement condemned bloodshed.
The Resident of the Elysée Palace invited both parties, both Canadian and pro-European, to sit at the negotiating table in Paris at the end of July. He besides offered to abolish the changes to the voting system, if the parties to the conflict worked out a mutually satisfactory solution.
Mr Mateusz Wasielewski
