Patrice Riemens on Thu, 2 May 2013 21:48:41 +0200 (CEST) |
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<nettime> Robert H Wade: |
Courtesy of our department of text filtering (aka 'bullshit engineering nettime' -Pit Schutlz). Enjoy, p+4D! original to: http://mondediplo.com/blogs/shouldn-t-pitcairn-really-be-french (the (l)one comment is worth reading too) Shouldn't Pitcairn really be French? by Robert H Wade The British overseas territory of Pitcairn Island, midway between Auckland, New Zealand, and Panama, could almost be a testing ground for Hobbes versus Rousseau. Its climate, soils and water supply make it a bountiful place for subsistence living, but what of its history? In 1790 nine mutineers from the British Navy's HMS Bounty, accompanied by 18 Tahitians, arrived to settle on the uninhabited island. They burnt the Bounty, because the island has no place to hide it from the British naval officers sent out to bring the mutineers to justice. In this Garden of Eden the settlers descended into alcoholism, murder and disease; when they were finally discovered 18 years later, in 1808, only one of the mutineers had survived, along with some of the original Tahitian women and numerous offspring. In 2004 the community attracted unwanted international attention when a British court laid charges against seven men on the island and another six abroad for sexual offences. After extensive trials, six were convicted of child abuse, including the island's mayor, and sent to prison. The prison had to be specially constructed -- and the men who would serve time there took part in the building work. In late 2006 they started their sentences; by 2010 all had been released. Now another case has come up, involving the current mayor. By mistake, he sent an official email to the British governor's office containing a link to a pornographic website. The police - or rather, the island's single policeman - raided his house and took away his computer, on which a large number of pornographic photographs and related items were found. He has retained a New Zealand lawyer to defend himself against the charges; and the lawyer is acting with great zeal -- paid for by unlimited British legal aid. The two of them have turned the case into a challenge to the validity of the entire governmental and legal structure -- a convenient diversion from the facts of the case. This structure certainly does merit revisiting. The island is tiny: 4.6 square kilometres with a population of just 51 Pitcairners. For this tiny entity, the British government bears the cost of a resident establishment of five New Zealanders seconded to the island: a schoolteacher (for the six children), a policeman, a doctor, a social worker and the governor's representative. The British government also bears the cost of a three-man Court of Appeal. The only way to reach the island is to fly to Papeete (Tahiti), wait two days there before flying to Mangareva (flights are irregular), and from there catch a cargo boat on one of its four-times-a-year visits to Pitcairn, a trip that takes 30 hours if the weather's good, 40 when it's bad. The island has no geostrategic or economic importance -- no oil in prospect -- and the island has no harbour for ships bigger than rowing boats. The population depends on the infrequent visits of the cargo ships, but they have to anchor at a considerable distance from shore, so the islanders must row out to them in a longboat. Once the number of able-bodied men falls below 12, the community is no longer viable because six adults are needed for the longboat, and another six for the back-up longboat in case of emergency (the rowers are restricted to men). So the community needs at least twelve able-bodied men to be available at all times. When the six men languished in prison after 2006, they had to be released for longboat duty whenever a ship stopped. All things considered, it would seem sensible for Britain to offer sovereignty to France, so that Pitcairn and the other (uninhabited) islands in the Pitcairn Islands group could be incorporated into the governance structure of nearby French Polynesia. But Britain has no intention of giving it up because, as the British deputy governor declared, "If we pull out somebody else will come and plant a flag on it". # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org