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Do your homework!
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Yes we can!
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The French island of Martinique was on strike for over a month and just settled a couple of weeks ago. The Batten-Bowmans, being both strong union supporters and much farther south for the duration, were not personally present for the event. This will not prevent us from passing on gossip, rumors and the comments of random passers-by. Use at your own risk.
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Violence?
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Our first hints something was afoot came from the US State Department warnings. They seemed concerned about the possibilities of US Citizens being caught up in the "unrest" and their warnings were duly passed on by the various HF Radio nets. This had the presumably unintended effect of reinforcing the strike by promoting a total US Tourist boycott. The second hint was the vast number of French boats entering St. Lucia (just 20 mi south of Martinique) They would cruise in, empty the island's fuel tanks and grocery stores and head back. Sometimes they paid for their purchases. This did not endear them to locals. Charter boats were sent out with just enough fuel to get to St. Lucia and instructions to load up on fuel there. Chaos, even by West Indian standards, ensued.
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| Picturesque Martinique |
On the radio we got reports from cruisers that were there. Generally, non-French speaking cruisers found the whole thing a little baffling as activities were conducted in French and were generally held in the capital city of Fort de France. They reported shortages of nearly everything, particularly of fuel (cooking fuel as well as diesel and gas). The airports were shutdown and commerce seems to have come to a halt. One cruiser stumbled into the well publicized "violence" where a counter demonstration of the "employer's union" was met by activists from the Committee against Exploitation. There seemed to be a general agreement to ignore the clueless man in the Hawaiian shirt.
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| Restored Municipal building, Ste. Pierre |
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Small plot farmer |
It was a general strike against the rise in the cost of living. The demands were for a 200/Euro/month raise for everyone and lowering of the price of a list of 200 items (mostly food). These absurd demands have largely been met. The entire Caribbean is suffering a general rise in the cost of living but the French Islands have some peculiar characteristics that may favor this kind of activity. Besides being French. The island of Martinique is owned, lock stock and barrel by 2% of the population called "Beke". This not unusual concentration of wealth has the added twist that these rulers are nearly all white. They live in one heavily protected area of the island and their children attend private schools. They are the direct descendants of the old plantation owners. A bit like having Miss Scarlet still running the auto dealership, the grocery store and the rum distillery. The English Islands had a near complete collapse of the plantation economy and their islands were largely abandoned by the owners who had mostly been absentee anyway. In the 60's and 70's, while Great Britain was dumping colonies willy-nilly, the French stubbornly held on to theirs. Remember Vietnam, Algeria anyone? The beke still seem to have a great deal of influence in Paris and particularly with the current conservative government. That government spends a great deal of money on the islands which externally look like a tropical version of Europe. Turn a corner back in the bush and it is a West Indian island, however. Great poverty, great roads. The police are imported from France and get tropical duty pay and the teachers are likewise white imports. Many years ago, Martinique was the first French territory to display the tricolor. Liberte, Fraternite, Egalite were immensely appealing concepts to slaves. Still more than a slogan carved on the walls of city hall.
Knowing from US media that terrible hardships were being worked upon the hapless population of Martinique, Eaux Vives decided to help them recover from their economic setback. A sort of private stimulus plan, if you will. At last report, we were engineless in St. Lucia. We sailed up to the boating center of Le Marin in Martinique and the quiet waters of the mangroves to effect repairs. Our engine was quite improved by the rather smelly and messy process of pumping all our diesel through a series of fuel filters into a plastic barrel after applying biocide. Yep, hardy little critters were living in the tank and their remains clogged the inlet tube. While we were there we asked our rigger to look into why the furler was sticking. Upon dismantling, it proved to be irreparably rusted out. 2 Boat Units*. The new furler looks quite sporty. We then sailed up to visit our Swedish Volvo mechanic to get a blessing on our repairs and perform the 2000 hour maintenance on the boat. 1 Boat Unit. Everything is good and it is much more comfortable sailing knowing you can get out of trouble by "hoisting the iron Genoa." That's sailor talk for "turn on the engine."
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Its a boat! |
*Boat: "break out another thousand"
c'est bateau: its the same old stuff.
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