Paris2024-ID-pics-pictogrammes-ALE_EN Photo: Paris 2024 Organising Committee
Controversial Teahupoo judges' tower reef drilling almost complete
Drilling works on Teahupoo (Tahiti island), in preparation for the Paris 2024 Olympics surfing competition, is now "two thirds complete", French Polynesia's President Moetai Brotherson told local media earlier this week.
Late last year, the construction of new judges' tower was delayed due to a wave of protests locally and an online petition that drew thousands of signatures worldwide against feared damages to the coral reef.
The tower's plans and proportions were then reduced in order to minimise potential damage to the local environment.
A series of initial tests on site in December revived the controversy after significant areas of coral were damaged by a barge used to access the site, causing works to come to a halt.
The wooden tower used formerly for the surfing World Surging League (WSL) competitions was deemed obsolete, on safety grounds, and had to be replaced by the current aluminium tower project.
"After this controversy, I'm totally satisfied with the way works are now advancing (...) There was no coral piercing (...) Everything is going very well ", Brotherson said while on an official trip in Paris.
Before the Olympics surfing competition, the new aluminium will also be tested in real life situation during this year's WSL world tour competition at Teahupoo in May 2024.
Paris 2024's surfing events will take place in Tahiti between the 27 and 30 July.
French Polynesia’s President Moetai Brotherson in Paris. Photo: Tahiti Nui Télévision
Politicians selected for Canberra fellowship
Three French Polynesian politicians have been selected by the Australian government to take part in the "Canberra Fellowship" scheme.
The three MPs are Steve Chailloux, Tematai Le Gayic (who is also the youngest member a member of the French National Assembly), and Tepuaraurii Teriitahi.
A young lawyer, Raimana Lallemand-Moe, is also part of the group that is regarded by Canberra as representative of the French Pacific territory's "promising young leaders".
The other part of the French Pacific delegation hosted by Canberra includes five young leaders from New Caledonia (Nicolas Metzdorf, Naia Wateou and Yoann Lecourieux for the pro-France movement, as well as two members of the pro-independence movement).
During eight days, they will be part of a group of young Pacific leaders who will travel and visit Canberra, Sydney, Suva (Fiji, headquarters of the Pacific Islands Forum) in fact-finding mode, sometimes also attending briefs on Australia's Pacific diplomacy and advocacy programmes and policies.
"This programme's objective is to help them better understand and forge deeper links with Australia as a special partner (...) and to promote a better regional integration", Australia's consul-general in French Polynesia Alison Shea told local media.
Australia's Consulate-General in Papeete was inaugurated in October 2022 by Foreign minister Penny Wong.
Previously, only one Australian Consulate General, based in Nouméa, was dealing with the whole French Pacific.
French President Emmanuel Macron delivering a speech in Nouméa on 26 July 2023. Photo: Supplied/Screenshot
Macron's strong Indo-Pacific stance
French President Emmanuel Macron has defended his Indo-Pacific vision during the traditional New Year's good wishes ceremony to the French Armed Forces, last week, in Paris.
Macron said tensions in the Indo-Pacific zone were a matter for concern, simply because France is an integral part of the Indo-Pacific ensemble, both in the Indian and the Pacific oceans.
He recalled the French version of the Indo-Pacific was masterminded in 2018 and has since been developed in partnership with such key allies as India, Australia, Japan and the Arab Emirates.
"But we have also consolidated it and may I say entrenched it in our own (overseas) territories", he said, citing New Caledonia as an example of French army presence to defend France's sovereignty and "the capacity for our air force to deploy (from mainland France) to Oceania within 48 hours".
He also praised the recent South Pacific Defence Ministers' Meeting held in Nouméa early December 2023, where "France was the inviting power" and was able to strike "strategic partnerships with neighbouring armed forces.
"The year 2024 will see us maintain without fail the protection of our Overseas", he told the military attendance.
Female dog, Noiraude, undergoing sterilisation surgery at Mylène Vacher’s Paea clinic. Photo: Polynésie la 1ère
Massive dog sterilisation underway in Tahiti
A massive dog sterilisation campaign is underway in Tahiti, in a bid to better manage the estimated 500,000-strong canine population in French Polynesia, nearly twice as much as the human count.
Nearly a dozen local dog-caring organisations have for years joined hands to feed stray dogs, but also to lobby for systematic neutering in order to avoid less humane solutions applied in other countries, such as poisoning.
Most of the private initiatives in the Greater Papeete Area rely on private donations, fundraising, some subsidies and a lot of volunteering.
Private veterinary clinics also take part in the effort by offering dog owners a sixty percent discount on sterilisation surgery fees.
For families with very limited financial resources, they are just asked to "give what they can", a local vet told public broadcaster Polynésie la 1ère.
"There are so many stray dogs, it's almost a disaster, the only thing to do is to sterilise. It's humane and then the problem is solved", veterinary surgeon Mylène Vacher said.
Marama Bres heads the association “Les 4 pattes de Papara” (Papara’s 4 paws). Photo: Polynésie la 1ère
Another collapse for French Polynesia's daily
The only surviving and oldest daily in French Polynesia, La Dépêche de Tahiti, is reported to have collapsed again.
The five remaining employees have signed their letters of dismissal earlier this month, Tahiti Nui Televiksion reported.
The daily was already in dire straits in April 2022, when it was wound up by a Trade Tribunal ruling, but finally taken over by Naos company, headed by local businessman Patrice Colombani and revived with a skeleton staff of five employees, mostly working on its online version.
Announced plans to later re-develop the print version never eventuated
In New Caledonia, the only daily newspaper Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes, launched in 1971, faced with similar hardships, managed to restart as an online publication late 2023 after a hiatus of six months which had raised concerns regarding the French Pacific territory's freedom of expression and media diversity.
The new shareholders behind the project are a local company called GD Connexion, a subsidiary of local conglomerate Groupe Dang.