Officially out of confinement!

We are officially 'free' again, and can timidly venture out onto the beach, social distancing is still encouraged of course!

The population of French Polynesia is now said to be Covid-free. The kids are al back at school full-time (this was less well received, we like two-day school weeks!). Oh well, will just have to eat those taro scones all by myself...

There have been no further Covid positive-tested individuals in Tahiti since last week, bringing the grand total number of cases to 60. All the recent cases have been people already in quarantine (i.e. arrived from elsewhere since lockdown). However, the very same day that our official Covid counter struck 0, an Ecuadorian fishing boat radioed in, wanting to anchor in the Marquesas, it turns out 29 of the 30 crew are Covid positive; one of them in particular is suffering with severe respiratory problems and has been air-lifted to hospital in Tahiti and is being kept in isolation! So, we can all circulate freely, but having so efficiently kept the disease at bay, we still remain vulnerable and concerned. Difficult to imagine international flights starting up again, though supposedly it will happen in July, under increasing pressure from the local airlines and hotel companies. International tourism does respresent well over 10% of our GDP, not to mention all the other economic activites that depend on tourist money (arts and crafts, pearls, agriculture, fishing etc.).
Amusingly enough our President has been talking about promoting agriculture and a more sustainable economy. A surprisingly pro-independence stance, in a country where dependancy on European/French imports and financial assistance has always been encouraged; the value of imports exceeded exports by 45:1in 2018!
This change of heart may have something to do with the French government, in great financial difficulty itself, limiting the amount of financial aid available. Whatever the motivation, it can only be a positive step for an island nation like ours, brimming with natural resources. Like many, I hope that this crisis will allow us to more clearly set a course for a more sustainable future... On our side of things, we are also setting a new course. The crisis, while difficult for us financially, arrives just as we are moving forward with our sawmill project. After a good while stuck on Tahiti's dock, Viriamu's new toy has just arrived! More about our adventures in sawmilling to follow...

It's exciting and hopefully it will help us be more self-reliant: tourism is all well and good, but it needs to go hand in hand with the development of renewable economic resources, this is not the first crisis in the tourist industry that we have experienced, but it's definitely the worst.
Lockdown has inspired many Polynesians to turn back towards traditional crops, like taro.
Here's just hoping that the President's words are genuine and that the country will continue in this direction...even when Covid is behind us...