FOUNDING EDITORIAL TE AO MAOHI



te ao maohi means the world of the maohi - the natural world.
some people claim this name is used only by supporters of political independence from france.
if this is true, then it is also true that the official name of polynésie française is increasingly used only by those who support continued dependence.
in this context, "La Polynésie française" is no more politically neutral than "Te Ao Maohi" as a name for national identity.
like it or not, france has abused its colonial powers.
let's not even start with the nuclear debate.
or evidence of deep and historic levels of corruption reaching 12,000 kilometres, all the way back to the highest powers in paris.
just the fact france avoided proper due process under united nations programmes for self-determination is self-evident of power and its abuse.
no different from other metropolitan powers like the united states and the united kingdom abusing their vassal territories during the 1950's and 60's.
"french" polynesia however is almost alone in the pacific as one of the last 'significant' territory of any size to remain one. only papua to the west of new guinea looms larger on the united nations shame-0-meter and members states handling of self-determination in the region.
part of the problem over the decades is that english speaking media regard french polynesia as foreign, to be paid even less attention than hurricanes and coups across the rest of the region.
in fact, tahiti is something of a news hole.
agence france presse - made famous in the region by stalwart freelancer michael field - refused to accept english stories about tahiti, saying they had their own correspondents.
however those reporters were all french language journalists, employed in newspapers, radio and television stations closely allied with government.
safe to say, very little reached the english parts of the pacific about what was really going on in papeete.
and that is where this news blog comes in.
avaiki news agency aims at providing comprehensive links in french and english to news of the day in tahiti, from ngos as well as established news sources.
naming this news blog te ao maohi might be evidence, if any is needed, that this blog is anti-flosse, anti-french and pro-independence. certainly, the former president personifies much that is wrong with french politics.
however the funny thing about corruption is that those who expose it are often no more immune to its charms.
as former judge eric halphen noted after being booted from a top level investigation into corruption, "corruption has no colour." or, in this case, name.
he also said justice does not exist in france.
disturbing indeed.
as an independent news agency, avaiki will do its job to ensure that corruption in the political workings of this fascinating and utterly delightful archipelago are exposed.
under any name.