Global Voices » New Caledonia

New Caledonia: Controversy around the 1988 Ouvéa Hostage Taking Movie

Suzanne Lehn — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:26:37 +0000

French filmmaker Mathieu Kassovitz's movie “L'ordre et la morale” (”Order and morality”), that recounts the tragic 1988 hostage taking at the Ouvéa cave, is not welcome in New Caledonia. The blog Ecran Noir ('Black Screen') describes the local controversy around the film's release, here and here [fr]. After New Caledonia's one and only theater declined, the movie will finally be shown in the Tjibaou Cultural Center [fr] in the capital Nouméa, on Déc. 12.

New Caledonia: From Paris to Nouméa in a Microlight Plane

Claire Ulrich — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:13:43 +0000

Two French microlight planes enthusiasts, aboard the microlight Spirit of Noumea, are planning to re-live French aviators Paul Klein and Henri Martinet's groundbreaking 1939 plane journey from Nouméa, New Caledonia, to Paris. Their journey can be followed on this map and is also documented via their diary [fr] on the project's site.

Papua New Guinea: AIDS patients buried alive.

Lova Rakotomalala — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 17:27:49 +0000

Caledosphere links to an article in which people living with AIDS in Papua New Guinea (New Caledonia's neighboring country) were buried alive by their relatives because they could not afford their treatments and were also afraid of being infected (Fr).

New Caledonia: Miss New Caledonia pageant is soon

Lova Rakotomalala — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:05:06 +0000

Caledosphere informs us that the Miss New Caledonia contest is fast approaching. The Miss New Caledonia blog has been recently updated for the occasion with photos of the contestants (Fr).

New Caledonia by aerodrome

Jennifer Brea — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 16:55:38 +0000

5 minutes en Nouvelle Caledonie: Sebastian took a tour of New Caledonia by aerodrome and has the video to prove it.

New Caledonia: 6.65 Times More Expensive Than France

Alice Backer — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 12:16:25 +0000

Expat French blogger Katuali complains (Fr) about the ridiculous markup in prices on French products in New Caledonia, an Oceanian island which is technically part of France: “That there be taxes and custom fees is fine but from there to selling a product 6.65 times more than what it costs in mainland France, is it really worth it? To top it all off, it's a product that is supposed to be eaten fresh.”

New Caledonia: Bloggers' Meeting

Alice Backer — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 02:28:13 +0000

Katuali is (Fr) organizing a meeting of New Caledonian bloggers and proposes a tentative March 3rd date.

French Speaking Blogs of the Caribbean, Africa and Oceania in 2006

Alice Backer — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 04:56:51 +0000

Logo of the Madagascar Blogger's Meeting that took place January 5-6, 2007 in Antananarivo.

By and large French speaking blogs and bloggers of the world have reason to envy English, Spanish and Brazilian speaking counterparts in volume and in interaction with each other. Very few bloggers (Madagascar and Reunion being notable exceptions) are actually talking to each other, even when they come from the same country. However 2006 saw some interesting developments in certain parts of the French speaking world.

DRC
Until the election of interim President Joseph Kabila, the DRC-based blogs were quite active and vigorously in opposition of him. Most of the bloggers were journalists who turned to blogs to speak with diaspora or western audiences. GlobalVoices featured an interview of the most prolific DRC-based blogger, Tony Katombe of Le Blog du Congolais. We brought you blurbs from counterparts such as Prince du Fleuve du Congo Phillipe Liondjo and Etienne Ngandu. UDPS Liege, the blog of opposition party UDPS did its best to lead the blogging opposition to Kabila from Liege, Belgium. UDPS leader Etienne Tshisekedi never actually ran in the race so UDPS Liege spent much time justifying his choice.

Immediately after Kabila's election late November, activity dropped off for a while in the DRC-based blogs.

(Note that English speaking diaspora blogs such as The Salon have been doing a great job as well and generally brought a refreshing if moderate counterpoint to the staunchly anti-Kabila perspective of its French speaking DRC-based counterparts.)

Senegal
Blogs in Senegal had been relatively sleepy with spotty updates until Blog Politique du Senegal came along halfway through the year. Much like the blogs of the DRC, the blog is obsessed with their incumbent President (Wade) and has spent much time unveiling perceived excesses and failures of his administration. Humor is always present in these parts and posts were short and concise.

Haiti and its Diaspora
Much of the exciting news in Haitian blogs has been in English: 3rdworldgirl, for example or even AyitiToma who unfortunately posted just once. But what a post that “Open Letter To Haiti” was! Roody Edme, however spotty, started a very promising blog Ailleurs Vu d'Ici on which he bombarded us with well written and well informed posts on New Year's Eve. It seems the blogger was saving his best goodies for last. And best yet his commentary is not just limited to Haitian affairs but spans the planet! Call this blogger anything but ill-informed.

By far the most consistent current affairs blog was Collectif Haiti de Provence, the France-based blog of a collective of Haiti and France-based organizations.Though the blog started the year by posting news stories, two individual voices, Deky Lakyel and JoJo began commenting each story, firing daily at the current president, his interim predecessor and the UN Mission (MINUSTAH). Their main preoccupation: “Insecurity” a literal translation of the French “Insecurite” which has taken the form of kidnappings first aimed at political figures and now at random civilians, increasingly children. But the bloggers also balked at poor governance and incompetence on the part of elected or appointed officials, one issue most agree is a major weakness of Haitian government.

Yon Ayisyen rarely made it online to grace us with his smart take on things once Preval got elected, probably because, as he explained to GlobalVoices in an interview, he did not have an internet connection at home. That is too bad because until the election, he made sure to dissect and demystify many a newsworthy phenomenon, including authorities' many claims leading up to the election that they had actually done something about the many kidnappings that were plaguing the capital. Yon Ayisyen also watched the elections closely and uncovered shameful irregularities that took place under international observers' noses.

Towards the end of the year, India-based Natif Natal started a blog on musings about Indian society from the perspective of an outsider.

Some dialogue started among certain English speaking Haitian diaspora bloggers (Reveiled, Karlito's Blog, kiskeyAcity) who attempted A Skypecast for Haiti which had to be postponed but whose later incarnation might discuss an aggregator. Those same bloggers all networked with each other on MyBlogLog, along with Haiti-based Marcel Salnave Jr. who started a blog this year, Parlons Peu, of his father's journalistic works from the 40s and 50s.

French Overseas Departments and Territories
While the blogospheres of French speaking Oceania (Tahiti, French Polynesia and New Caledonia) and of Guyane in South America are still dominated by and large by expats from France, locals actually took to blogging in Martinique, Guadeloupe and especially in La Reunion, the rare French speaking blogosphere that speaks to the local reader.

Martinique's highlights are daring and often controversial lesbian blogger Le Blog de [Moi] whose favorite topics are coming out (or not), sexuality and pop culture (her logo is a creolized Rosie The Riveter) and tech blogger InternetRapide.com who devoted himself to following the expansion into Caribbean markets of local Telecom giant Digicel, among other tech-related developments.

Guadeloupe blogs focused more on local politics and issues of nationhood. Toto M'a Tuer's pet issue was what he described as corrupt local governance while Convention pour une Nouvelle Guadeloupe (the blog of a political party of the same name) highlighted all dates relevant to the formation of the blog's preoccupation: a Guadeloupean nation and national identity distinct from the French. Rotarian Jean-Claude Halley from Guadeloupe Attitude spent more energy on local high art, including the chronicling of the life, music and newfound popularity in France, Guadeloupe and Cuba of historical Guadeloupean figure Chevalier de St-Georges.

La Reunion's very self-aware blogosphere (complete with an aggregator and a local audience) were the topic of Global Voices article Reunion: Actively Blogging. Indeed, prolific local blogger Pierrot Dupuy explained to GV that this French overseas department has more computers per capita than continental France.

Madagascar
Indian Ocean water must contain a special tech mineral. Madagascar though lacking La Reunion's aggregator and French ressources, managed to pull together a very cohesive and active blogosphere with a collective blog Malagasy Miray, over a dozen active bloggers (this does not include their growing crop of English and Malagasy speaking bloggers), a blogger's meet January 5th, “Malagasyscopy”, a “communal post” on Malagasy identity abroad to which over 20 Malagasy bloggers contributed their 2 cents. One wonders whether this incredible momentum is not owed to the government's recent efforts to refurbish the country's image but active, enthusiastic diasporans probably deserve credit too.

Diasporans
Some of the best Francophone bloggers are actually based in the West where they cast an overarching eye on not just their homelands but issues of whole continents. Sanaga Peregrinations, a blogger of Cameroonian origin comes to mind whose blog goes back and forth between French and English and whose topics span technology, current affairs and who took a close look at the DRC elections. Togolese origined, France-based Kangni Alem is another. The blogger loves to wax poetic on African literary issues but also weighs in on general African politics. His blog received over two dozen comments a post, a testament to its appeal and reach.

A 2007 to Look Forward To
As critics predict that 2007 will be the stage to a web 2.0 explosion, there is every reason to believe that Francophone blogs will only get more numerous and better connected. The Blog Africa 2.0 has made it a point to chronicle each step the African internet takes in that direction and will no doubt continue doing so. Plus, Global Voices is preparing to launch Project Lingua which should bring Global Voices content in French to French speaking bloggers, a step which if successful, will only enlarge their cross-pollination and exposure to other more active linguistic communities on the web.

Most links above are to Global Voices translations of the blogs. You can find direct links to individual blogs in the translations.

New Caledonia: Lagoon as Potential World Heritage Site

Alice Backer — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 17:06:28 +0000

5 Minutes en Nouvelle Caledonie writes (Fr): “France will present on January 31 at Unesco, a request that the Caledonian lagoon be made into a world heritage site. A joy for Caledonia which has been lobbying for this for a while … Final verdict June 2008. “

New Caledonia: At the Beach

Alice Backer — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 21:15:03 +0000

Two Caledonia-based bloggers have been to the ocean this week and brought back breathtaking pictures too. Sebastien Merion has just (Fr)come back from a week-long sailing excursion that involved sun, rain, a stopover at the Goa isles but thankfully no brush-up with Hurricane Xavier. Meanwhile Katuali (Fr) went to the beach at Thio, a two hour drive away from Noumea…for work!.

New Caledonia: Fete du Boeuf

Alice Backer — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 03:58:19 +0000

Says Sebastien Merion from 5 Minutes en Nouvelle Caledonie:

J'ai l'impression de revenir direct des States, mais non, ce n'était que le village de Païta et sa fameuse fête du bœuf !! On s'y serait cru, ambiance chapeaux de cow-boy et musique country, il y avait un paquet de monde. Pour notre part c'était la première fois qu'on assistait à un rodéo, à vrai dire ça ne m'avait jamais attiré ce genre de show mais je voulais y aller pour faire des photos et j'ai été pris au jeu, ça m'a bien plu finalement, c'est un truc à faire. Bon, par contre, en bon végétarien que je suis, on a pas assisté à tout, genre castrage des bêtes et dégustation de testicules de taureaux ! Non, merci ;-))
Je vous ai fait une petite vidéo du rodéo et des photos bien sûr. Les taureaux de 800 kg m'ont impressionné, surtout quand ils défoncent la barrière de sécurité et que vous êtes à quelques centimètres derrière !

I feel like I am coming back from the states but no, it was only the village of Paita and its famous Fete du Boeuf [CowFest]!! You would have thought you were there though, cowboy hat ambiance and country music, there were tons of people. For us, it was the first time that we attended a rodeo. Truth be told, this type of show had never attracted me but I wanted to go to take pictures and I was hooked, I actually enjoyed it, a must-see. But I am vegetarian so we did not watch the whole thing, like castration of the animals and tasting of testicles! No thanks ;-)) I made a video of the rodeo and brought back pictures… The 800 kg bulls impress me, especially when they pierce through the security fence and you're only inches behind!”

Photo montage by Sebastien Merion.

New Caledonia: Miss Caledonia Dethroned for Nude Photos

Alice Backer — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 03:56:42 +0000

Sebastien from 5 Minutes en Nouvelle Caledonie deplores (Fr) that Miss Caledonia was recently stripped of her crown and prevented from participating in the Miss France contest because of artistic nude pictures.

New Caledonia: Surfer Video

Alice Backer — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 23:15:32 +0000

Sebastien from 5 Minutes en Nouvelle Caledonie posts (Fr) a video of surfers on the beaches of Meridien and Anse-Vata.

France, DOM-TOM: Victory against housing discrimination

Alice Backer — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 22:16:18 +0000

Reunion-based Pierrot Dupuy, himself the father of a victim of housing discrimination in France announces (Fr) advocacy group CollectifDOM's legal victory in the area of housing discrimination against French citizens from the French Overseas Departments and Territories (DOM-TOM) living in France. From here on, landlords can no longer ask for proof of a mainland French bank guaranty as a criterion to select tenants.

New Caledonia: Video of Kanak and Polynesian Dance Show

Alice Backer — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 21:00:36 +0000

Sebastien of 5 Minutes en Nouvelle Caledonie posts a video of Kanak and Polynesian dances performed during a 14 Juillet [July 14] celebration.