Pacific geopolitics..

Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Thu 7 Oct 2010 08:16
Thursday 7th October 1610 Local 0510 UTC
 
22:29.15S 158:08.05E   
 
Having self diagnosed my partial insanity from a confirmed case of the "channels" I am now able to function sensibly again and "normal" service is resumed.
 
Our passage to Mackay has so far been uneventful. The winds started near to 30 knots and decreased steadily over the first two days. By 0330 today they were 8 knots directly behind us - hopeless for us and regrettably I reached for the engine in the middle of the night and have been motoring ever since. The forecast is for even lighter and variable winds for the next 24 hours but we will take an update soon and hope for some pressure.
 
The passage west to Australia from New Caledonia is studded with various mid ocean reefs which I have carefully studied on paper and electrinic charts and maintain a 4 hour plot on the paper charts from my 4 hourly log book entries. It is my regular practice to maintain a log while on major passages logging all the normal information. These past couple of days with a steady high over us it has been incredible to note the perfect daily symetry of the diurnal variation in barometric pressure.
 
The only other thing of note on the passage has been the incredible rise of the sea mounts from over two kilometers deep right to the surface in the case of the Lord Howe Seamounts which we passed through last night, leaving 30 miles between us and the reefs.
 
This is of course an extremely conservative margin in the benign conditions we were in. However almost 200 miles to the east lies a seamount which comes up to 69 metres from over a 1000 metres that lay right on our track. The sea was slight with the lightning winds and the 69 metres was a peak, so I was not overly concerned about passing near by it, so I held my course, deep down the light ESE wind which would have taken us several miles to the south of the submerged 1000 metre mountain peak, according to the charts. I was also plotting on the paper chart. However we passed right over the top of it. Even though it is well charted and I would always doubt the position, I wouldn't doubt the depth so was not overly concerned but noted that it was actually about three miles out of position according to where GPS placed me on the paper chart and the electronic chart. Later I took some other readings of depth contours on other banks and found the differential to be over four miles in one case! 
 
So those who wish to pass near by reefs and islands in the black of night in mid Pacific be warned - the half mile margin that some people think is OK is absolutely not enough. If you are not certain give these reefs a ten mile berth at least.
 
Now a little more about New Caledonia. All across the Pacific I have been trying to understand what is going on with the French holding these overseas territories and the political and cultural factors at play in the various islands. Obviously they (the French) originally wanted, like all other colonists, strategic territories and additional resources for the empire building phase of their own countries evolution. Nobody was more guilty of this behaviour than Britain, or was it England?
 
In modern times it was handy to have a bunch of atolls exactly on the other side of the world from ones own back yard, to experimentally blow up with atomic bombs. But other than that I don't understand why the French are all over the Pacific. In each place we have been there is no doubt that there is an independence movement by "indigenous" people to take back their islands. When I speak with my French friends about this however, they offer a surprising take on things. They invariably consider all these territories to be France and some have asserted that the people are therefor French. But from my limited survey most have surprised me by saying it is the obligation of France to remain in these territories, whether they like it or not, to support the people who would otherwise for now be unable to support themeselves economically. France are still in their colonies in the Caribean too. They have the Crozen Islands, the Kerguelen Islands and Reunion in the Indian Ocean. However they seem to think they are doing the right thing by standing by these posessions rather than, as Britain did, just up and leave (albeit mostly at the behest of the indigenous population). What is the right thing to do? I see there are merits in both points of view. However if the majority of people now classed as citizens want autonomy or independence in a country that at one time was a separate cultural and political entity then the colonist certainly has no right to remain, though I think it has an obligation to maintain financial support in an agreed reducing plan.
 
In New Caledonia which apparently is the largest source of Nickel in the world (OK that explains something...) the Kanaks are the indigenous Melanesian people. They number only about 30% of the population and of course consider the island theirs. The "indigenous" white Europeans, called "Caldoches", who have been there for many generations and have built the industry and wealth of the island, seem also to consider the island theirs and don't really consider themselves French. Then there are the "Metros" that's people recently or temporarily living there, and generally are from France, and not appreciated by the other two main population groups.
 
Now there is a debate and political move to independence, which if there is one person one vote cannot satisfy the Kanaks. This is of course a similar political dilema as existed in South Africa, Northern Ireland, North America, Australia and New Zealand to name but a few countries. Whose country is it now? And how can the country stand on it's own two feet economically when under the suppression, intentional or otherwise of the colonists, they have never had the chance to evolve their own economic, administrative, educational, social and political systems? In addition the indigenous culture has been suppressed. Pride in ones own history and culture is a neccessary foundation for the confidence required for independent self determination. But in many islands we have seen a "renaissance" of indigenous culture. Ring any bells?   
 
Finally a bit of trivia. The Great Barrier Reef of Australia if the longest barrier reef in the world, the Great Sea Reef in Fiji the third and the reef round New caledonia is the second longest in the world.