The economic hell of the Paradise
Months by months, the catastrophic pointers about
Polynesia accumulate without the local politicians learn from it.
The
official missions succeed investigation reports. The French Polynesian numbers underline
it clearly. The account is overall and irrevocable: the situation is disastrous
and gets worse from day to day.
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| Front page of the daily paper The News of Tahiti on December 15th, 2010 |
One of the main conclusions of
this account (realized by an institute whose accuracy can’t reasonably be
questioned) is terrifying: 42% of the Polynesian homes are living on or under
the poverty line, as defined by the official international criteria.
Poor being in French Polynesia
To understanding well the situation
and the inferences of the data supplied by the AFD, it should be noted that the
official monetary poverty line for French Polynesia is established by the
international authorities on "48.692 cfp of monthly income by consumer
unit", that’s 408 euros a month and a person.
So, according to these criteria and
outcomes of the investigation, "19, 7 % of the Polynesian households have
an income situated below this monetary poverty line". This figure became
established on 18 % in 2 000.
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| The Polynesian paradise is not for everybody... |
Other figure is nevertheless
worrying: 28, 2 % of families are considered as poor people in terms of living
conditions and near half of the homes of the Country (47, 2 %) consider that
their income is unstable.
Poverty and living conditions in French Polynesia
The state of general decay of French
Polynesia, its
infrastructures and its institutions, is significant. But, its percentage, even
noteworthy, remains unknown because no serious survey was published on this
subject, about Polynesian families living in unhealthy housing and environment.
Let’s be clear: thousands of people,
in Tahiti, live in slums. For example, during the night of 16-17 December 2010,
a fire damaged four fare (houses) of iron sheets and wood of recovery, making
53 homeless persons. None of these houses had building permit.
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| Inside of a Polynesian social housing in Papeete |
Faced with these few elements, another
amount sends shivers down your spine! It’s particularly revealing of the level of
corruption, clientelism and injustice which governs the current Polynesian
society: three quarters of the allowances and social benefits are perceived by
not poor households.
The enquiry shows nevertheless and very
explicitly that transferring 4, 3 % of the assets of these households would be
enough to maintain all the others above the poverty line. How much values the
amount of the helps illegally poured?
Only 6, 1 % of the Polynesian
households were this day affected by no shape of neediness. It means that 93, 9
% of the households knew or knows at least an aspect of the poverty.
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| A fare as there is so much, in Tahiti and on islands |
It’s interesting to compare: half of
the country’s people have a budget of 48 692 cfp (408 euros) to live monthly
while the elected representatives of the Assembly of Polynesia perceived 800
000 cfp (6 704 euros) in net compensations. That’s to say 16 times more. Not to mention the advantages going along
with.
Also let’s remind, in this Country,
there’s any unemployment benefit for anybody, except the government members.
The instruction and the poverty
The lack of instruction is,
unquestionably, the determining factor most standing of the monetary poverty.
For example, having the high school diploma divides by two the risk of poverty.
Yet the scholarly failure among the autochthonous populations reaches, at least
disturbing proportions even if, even there, the local authorities beware to
lead the slightest serious and thorough inquiry on the subject.
So the rate of illiteracy is worrisome
at least, and many children drop out of school totally between 12 or 13 years,
at the entrance to the middle school, when it hasn’t happened sooner.
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| A graph which says length… |
Nevertheless, in Polynesia as in
metropolitan France, the schooling is required until 16 years.
The identikit picture of the poor
Polynesian household thus takes shape so: he lives in a social housing of type
HLM, the head of the family considers as a ma’ohi* above all, low level
educated, is unemployed or inactive or, if he has a work, it’s as not a wage
earner. This home includes six members at least and it’s often a single-parent
family.
Polynesia and the future
While the Polynesian population
sinks slowly but surely into the poverty, elected representatives used to beef
among themselves and don’t vote for the national budget 2011. Such deficiency
impacts with economic penalties on the people of this already benighted
country. It is indeed necessary to know that, if the income tax does not exist
in French Polynesia, the fiscal pressure is there stronger than in metropolitan
France.
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| In Polynesia, places of worship are always in perfect state… |
No sector of the economy resisted
during the last six years of an instability owed exclusively to the appetite of
power and money. The damage, the delay,
is imputable to a corrupt political class, maintaining its power, living at
everyone else's, and far from the realities which knows the population.
Nothing indeed allows, this day, to
hope any improvement before the elections of 2013. And even then…
Lexicon: *Ma’ohi: (or Maohi) native, who is not foreign, indicates the Polynesian
people. The Ma’ohi are the inhabitants of origin of French Polynesia, the
Maori those of New Zealand. But it is well the same colonizing people native of Asia.
An
article of Julien Gué
Translated from French by Vanaa Teriitehau
