New Caledonia, 22,000 km from Paris, no one cares. But Australia, New Zealand, China and the USA don't care. What can France do, if not follow orders from Brussels and Washington? Report in Nouméa and the neighborhoods.
By Christophe Grangeon
Since May 13, Caledonia is not going anywhere. Because she has nowhere to go. Two populations rub shoulders and look at each other like dogs and talk to each other only because it is absolutely necessary. Nouméa is still burning, slowly, in small pieces of neighborhoods… in disorder. The populations who have stood their ground look at their interests, weigh the pros and cons. Stay, leave… And this doesn’t just apply to white people. All communities are haunted by doubt. Javanese, Japanese, Wallis, Caledonians, Vietnamese, metro… white, black, yellow… And some Kanaks also ask themselves the question: the bush or France? Black and white, here as elsewhere, only exist in grayscale.
The police come to the houses in the morning
On the Melanesian side, those who were able to repatriate their young people try not to send them back to the capital to avoid them coming back too damaged… to spare themselves the anguish of parents who know that their children have a weapon at home. hand. The teenagers who have not left are still flitting between roadblocks and police custody.
The police reign painfully in difficult neighborhoods, a judicial guerrilla has set up. Surveillance cameras and social networks have spoken. The police go to houses early in the morning to seize the stolen equipment that people are still passing on with family or friends. The jubilant looting of the Sunday bandits, biftons in hand facing the objective, is paid for a few months late, interest included. Everyone meets at Camp-Est to speak to the rioters on familiar terms. We know that residents in prison are not taught good manners. It is tomorrow that we are addressing.
The smell of trash and burning tires
The neighborhoods are not calm at night, young people have their summer camps at the roadblocks and their teeth at the police. A minor is practical, he doesn't argue, he doesn't think much and he doesn't go to prison… a weapon of choice. That’s what the school holidays were for. Molotov cocktail at night, calm and littered with rubble during the day, the streets come alive and calm to the rhythm of the nightlife, like a tide. The smell of trash and burning tires lingers in the air.
South Nouméa, on the other hand, is doing well and I would even say more… but I don't dare… it's a varnish. When you talk to people, your heart is on edge and sometimes the tears are behind you, at the turn of a question that seemed appropriate. But the circumstances are no longer there. They were shattered like the rest… trust, sunshine, friendships. So, we eat an ice cream facing the sea or enjoy the breath of the trade winds.
The precipitous economic impact. The SLN is sinking… and two.
The economic impact is terrible. Words are no longer enough to describe bankruptcy. What everyone ignores or pretends to ignore is that the riots came at the right time to sweep the debt under the rug. Rushing grandma down the stairs, rolling her eyes… child's play, because she could no longer stand up. Oh, yes! the country's economy had been on its knees for years on a drip from France, which has always paid for everything. The lack of magnificent management that the country has suffered for decades has no equal. I am giving an example, just one will be enough to explain the extent of the political nullity. Enercal, the company that lights and cools us, the most expensive electricity in the world, is also subsidized by the government. That is to say that part is paid in proportion to our consumption and the other is paid by… our taxes… and undoubtedly a little from France. Except that there is only an intention which was never honored… subsidy, never paid. Enercal is bankrupt, the unmaintained network is on the verge of… electricity failure. A law is passed so quickly, the taxpayer will pay for the disabilities of people who will never take a cent out of their pocket. More than 30% increase planned over 3 years… by decree of the above-mentioned incompetent people…
A lack of vision and greed
The riots were only the straw that made the amphora overflow… but at the right time. The moment when everything became untenable. One war after another and we forget to point out the culprits of the last one. It's still practical. From the economic perspective, we can call it a set-up, well-orchestrated propaganda, a charade… Unfortunately, there is not as much ingenuity or intelligence on the part of our politicians on both sides. There is far more shortsightedness and greed than anything else. History does the rest, blind, led by incompetents.
If we focus on the effects of the riots, they threw a staggering old lady down the stairs… certainly. But this is not the only consequence, far from it. They have added to a certain fall a kinetic energy from which the economy will recover in the long term. The effects are comparable to a paving stone thrown into the pond, the propagation wave takes time before reaching the shore. Many businesses that did not burn will close due to lack of economic fabric. And many employees will not find jobs. Aid will be cut or eliminated due to lack of money coming in from the economy. Redistribution is a matter that goes in circles… So many people who will find themselves in the streets tomorrow. And the weight of the street was yesterday the weight of fear, tomorrow it will be the weight of misery. Without these riots, the economy would have collapsed… but silently. There it is no longer a shipwreck, it is the crash of Molotov cocktails coming to knock on our doors.
The Nickel file
And with poverty, its procession of plunder and insecurity. Soon bars will appear on our windows to become prisoners inside the houses. And in the streets, will we have to go out with weapons or bodyguards? What about the children who walked to school yesterday and played alone in the parks?
To finish with the economic aspect, there is the Nickel file. KNS, the factory in the North turned off its oven at the beginning of August, cutting itself off from potential buyers who had also been ousted by politicians on the pretext that they wanted to import labor… we understand them a little. So many fewer jobs. And in the south, the SLN, a historical society, is at half mast; nickel operations on the East Coast have been banned. A closure is imminent. The SLN is Cafat, the local social security fund… No need to say more. If it closes, there will be nothing left of our economic fabric and also of our French social model. And those who benefit fully are of course the North and the islands.
(Next article: “Saint-Louis, pray for them” (2/3)
