Ari Wong Kim from young soldier to decorated veteran Photo: ©Outremer la 1ère
Last French Pacific Battalion soldier laid to rest
The last soldier of the so-called "Pacific Battalion" was laid to rest late October in the French city of Deauville, with military honours and in presence of a strong contingent of French Polynesians currently engaged in the French Army.
Ari Wong Kim, 99, has joined the 300-strong contingent of voluntary French Pacific citizens who had responded to General de Gaulle's 18 June 1940 London call to resist German occupation of France.
After a short transit in Australia, the contingent was sent to African (Palestine, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia) and European (Italy, France) battlefields, where about 75 of them died.
French Polynesia's Wong Kim, of Chinese ascent, should not have been allowed to join this group to fight in Europe, as he was only 16, but he impersonated his elder stepbrother's identity (Tetua Teauparere) to pass the recruitment process.
The funeral was marked by Polynesian chants from the numerous French Polynesian soldiers, who said the late Wong Kim was a "father figure" who made them "proud to be Tahitian".
In a message posted on X (formerly Twitter), French President Emmanuel Macron expressed France's "gratitude and immense respect" for Wong Kim and "all his brothers-in-arms".
Wong Kim was made Chevalier in the Legion of Honour in September 2020.
The "Pacific Battalion" was often nick-named the "Guitarists' Battalion" because of the strong representation of Polynesians who had brought with them their ukuleles.
Apart from French Polynesia, it also consisted of volunteers from New Caledonia, Wallis-and-Futuna and the New Hebrides (then a French-British condominium which became independent Vanuatu in 1980).
Google's new undersea cable to benefit French Polynesia
Google's recently-announced new trans-Pacific undersea cable, to be also funded jointly by Australia and the United States, will also benefit French Polynesia, its President Moetai Brotherson said.
The project will entail the creation of several Google-endorsed data centres and an engineers' academy "to train our younger generation to the digital industry jobs", Brotherson told local media.
"This is quite something, this is extraordinary", he said.
Under the deal, announced in October during an official White House visit by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Canberra will contribute $50 million and Washington is adding another $15 million for Google to lay the cables.
More aid for cyclone-stricken Vanuatu
More aid is flowing into Vanuatu, where tropical cyclone Lola struck the North-eastern islands on 25 October.
Initial reports and surveys have indicated substantial damage to the islands of Ambrym, Pentecost and Malekula.
Under the Vanuatu government's request for assistance to the three partners of the "FRANZ" agreement (France, Australia, New Zealand), France says it has contributed by triggering the European Union's civil protection plan, consisting of an assessment of damage and priority areas in need of assistance.
This involved, in addition to similar assistance brought in by Australia and New Zealand, aerial damage assessment flights with the New Caledonia-based Falcon-200 Guardian.
The surveillance jet plane was said to have performed two flights of four hours each over priority-defined zones (as directed by Vanuatu's National Disaster Management Office (NDMO), Nouméa-based French authorities said in a release on 7 October.
A French army helicopter "Puma" from French Armed forces in New Caledonia (FANC) also brought a medical team to isolated areas and in some cases, transported the most serious cases to Port Vila's central hospital, the same sources said.
The helicopter also transported Vanuatu's Prime Minister Charlot Salwai for an aerial assessment of the most affected areas, as well as telecom technicians and equipment to repair damaged communications systems.
The "FRANZ" agreement was signed in 1992 between French, Australian and New Zealand armed forces.
It aims at increasing coordination among the three partners in a scenario of humanitarian and relief assistance to natural disaster-affected neighbouring Pacific island countries.
Meanwhile, the European Union has announced the release of some US$215,000 in humanitarian aid in response to the impact of tropical cyclone Lola in Vanuatu.
The assistance aims at helping 10,000 people in the provinces of Malampa, Penama and Shefa, some of the hardest-hit areas.
The funding, channelled via UNICEF, will serve to address the most pressing humanitarian needs, including water and sanitation, child protection, health and nutrition.
Ruling party MP gets her knuckles slapped for tabling integrity Bill by surprise
A member of French Polynesia's pro-independence Tavini Huiraatira majority within the Territorial Assembly has got her knuckles slapped last week as she had managed to table a Bill without prior consultation within her own ranks.
Hinamoeura Morgant-Cross, a younger generation MP, was elected for her first term in May 2023.
Citing her own Tavini party's electoral manifesto during the last campaign, she drafted a Bill intending to "limit the number of mandates in order to allow a renewal of the political class and to avoid abuse".
With the apparent aim to get rid of life-long career politicians, her Bill was proposing to allow not more than two mandates for a local MP.
But the controversial Bill was swiftly withdrawn from the agenda by Territorial Assembly Speaker Antony Géros, upon request by Tavini President Oscar Temaru, who said it should be discussed beforehand at a "majority (group) committee".
Géros, who is also the Vice-President of Tavini, recently mentioned what he termed the "juvenile" group which now forms a significant part (close to sixty percent) of the new elected Tavini MPs.
Asked by French public broadcaster Polynésie la 1ère, who said the Bill's intention was part of Tavini's list of pledges, he flatly denied. "Never, never" he said, adding that "there are several ways to explain what we hear".
"If I had spoken to the majority Committee, my Bill would have never even made it to the Assembly's floor (...) Now at least there is a debate", Morgant-Cross told local media after her setback.
She added the privileges and indemnities MPs received were cutting them from reality.
"We get (a monthly allowance of) 558,000 French Pacific Francs (about 5,000 US dollars) (...) Maybe in one year's time, I will have completely changed because power changes people", she said.
