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Looking at the current situation in Polynesia, first of all, it is important to talk about the ecological situation:
There is a lot to do in the areas of energy supply and waste management.
But there aren’t enough qualified politicians to take care of these issues –
in fact they aren’t “real” politicians…
Since 2004 there have been numerous changes of government.
Nothing is moving forward and the people are waiting and waiting,
observing the political wheeling and dealing.
And that is not really what people should have to witness.
For the youth of today it is difficult to help build this country -
having seen politicians like that who don’t set a good example.
So many young people can’t imagine staying here,
they want to leave the island to live and work abroad.
So we are losing well educated young people whom we need here to build the country.
Now let’s talk about economic development:
We import an enormous amount of products from abroad because we don’t produce enough here.
We need to produce more locally in order to become self-sufficient –
but we are very far from that at the moment.
We produce very little. We export vanilla but it’s too expensive to compete with Madagascar.
Although the Polynesian vanilla is very good quality…
The Noni-fruit is exported in small quantities and some pearls, but they have lost their value.
With the global financial crisis, tourism has gone back dramatically – we can feel the impact.
We have very few tourists.
Officials claim we are down to 50 percent of the capacity we have,
but personally, I believe we are below 20 percent.
They don’t want to scare the people by telling them, that the economy is devastated.
So an “administration economy” has been created –
more than 45% of the working population is directly or indirectly employed
by the territorial and the French administration.
That might be very “interesting”… but won’t help us become independent.
We should be creating enterprises that produce locally.
An important factor for Polynesia to gain economic independence is self-sufficiency.
If you consider that Polynesia consists of 120 islands out of which about 80 are inhabited,
it is important to think about self-sufficiency.
If we have energy supply problems tomorrow, boats won’t be able to deliver resources to the islands anymore.
We need to think about insular self-sufficiency.
As conventional (fossil) energy sources are running out,
we need an independent energy supply – investments in clean energy.
Politicians consider becoming self-sufficient to be taking a step backwards.
But the opposite is the case: We are moving forward.
We won’t have the same resources available to us in the future.
We need to take our traditions and at the same time adapt to modernity
and take on board new technologies.
Europe can help us with this. In Polynesia we are lacking resources -
technology and qualified people.
The youth could go abroad for training but should be encouraged to return.
Also Polynesia should stop being so pessimistic and should instead feel patriotic and say:
"We want to succeed and create a positive future – young and old people - together"
instead of getting caught up in infertile self-criticism.
I think Europe can help us with cutting edge technology
for instance in renewable energy, medicine, education and other areas.
We are only 320,000 inhabitants – in Europe that’s a small town.
We are like a small town somewhere in the countryside which needs input from the big city
but at the same time we have a lot to give as well.
We can exchange life lessons that we have learnt – and so enrich each others’ understanding.
Global politics is mainly driven by men, naturally we - the women want to interrupt them and say:
"Wait a minute – Mother Earth (La Terre, Die Erde) – is feminine!"
I believe that we (the women) have a great solution
and the men should not forget that we are here and waiting to help and to do our bit.
Up until now men take the power and don’t entitle the women to participate,
which leads to known consequences and all the mess that we have created.
And we don’t know whether this is irreversible or whether we can still change the world.
We need to trust in the women – that is of crucial importance.