hello everybody once again as you know
we are working on the next few country
episodes so while that happens we got to
give you another bill a week now usually
we do an administrative division videos
like we did India Russia Brazil but this
week something important happened for
those of you that kind of follow up with
international news some of you might
know that the new caledonia independence
referendum will be happening on November
4th what exactly does this mean and will
New Caledonia become a new nation or
stay with France and I'm super excited
because one of you guys the subscribers
is from New Caledonia we'll talk to him
soon but a little backstory we talked
about this in the France episode but
basically New Caledonia is an island
archipelago area in the sub-region of
Melanesia of Oceania currently it is
under a sweet generous or special
collectivity status with France this
means they can kind of still govern
themselves but France still steps in
when it comes to things like foreign
policy currency police military stuff
like that and it is kind of true that a
lot of their economic dependence lies on
France as of today when it comes to
their GDP about a fifth of it actually
comes from French aid which equals to
about 1.5 billion dollars however it's
not that simple they do also have about
25 percent of the world's nickel
reserves and there are fears that if
they were to become independent they
would kind of fall under the overarching
China's hegemony expansion that's kind
of already happened to Vanuatu they
built a war for warships but what it
basically comes down to are the
indigenous kayak people ice is the part
where you're gonna meet new caledonia
and geography Kenji
alright so hey Kenji how you doing good
good good yeah would you like to just
introduce yourself um so my name is
Kenji I'm 27 years old and I'm from New
Caledonia okay first of all is that your
house what is the thing you're in right
now not my house this is like
traditional pollination or Melanesian
kind of house we call it the favi nice
nice looks really cool okay so let's
just jump into it okay so the
independence movement how exactly did it
start and what exactly is it all about
can you explain so you know when the
French came to New Caledonia there were
actually people living in New Caledonia
the connect people they have their own
like system of culture their own society
languages and so on so I think it will
started when the leader
shomenuchi bahu
said that he's had enough of it you know
and so here we are now deciding whether
we want to become independent or remain
French what are the viewpoints of both
sides of this whole thing that's going
on in the vote well the people were
against independence think that without
friends we could lost a lot of
advantages that we have because French
gives a lot of money to us they provide
health care the military they create
jobs and stuff like this
and also a lot of people identify as
French and also a big thing is that
being a French citizen is a I mean a
good thing if I can say so on
international level you can travel you
can study in the European Union and
passports stuff like this now the people
who are in favor of the independence
there are many the connect people they
just consider that they have a right of
deciding for themselves so they want
their own nation they want to their
culture to be acknowledged I think that
in today's society they still face
prejudice and marginalization that's why
they want to become independent because
they want to govern themselves and they
don't see why a country like France
that's so far away should decide for
that yeah I mean it's like there's so
many socio-economic factors that play
into this but then again it always kind
of keeps going back to the cannot people
my question is in what do you think a
fully independent new caledonia would
look like well the truth is we don't
really know because we know that the
French Prime Minister it was Philip is
that whatever the results are France is
going to help New Caledonia transition
you know so everything that comes after
the 4th of November will have to be
negotiated for example if we talk about
the currency the currency that we have
now is the Pacific franc this currency
is it has a fixed rate with the Euro oh
that's the currency that's shared with
French Polynesia Tahiti right yes in
French Polynesia
oh yeah well awesome for sure yeah
everybody forgets them yeah people
always forget about them but they exist
yeah so after that if you want to have a
new currency we'll have to
with the European Union actually to
decide if it's still possible on
military because we don't know if
friends will still stay here to protect
us you know we we don't really know so
that's one reason why people are a bit
afraid of it of the independence because
it's a big thing that we don't know and
we probably have to apply for the UN
membership yeah so Kenji I guess I mean
just any final thoughts any last words
you just really think the whole world
should know about this whole situation
going on with New Caledonia I think that
the world should know that we've lived
relatively peacefully for thirty years
after the Civil War so I think that it
should stay this we should still
together in peace whether it's with
friends or without friends so yeah I
want everyone to know that we've made
we've made huge efforts to live together
come on it's not that hard just respect
everyone and everyone will respect you
that that's a big thing here we share
common values and and we should be able
to live together I like that I like that
yeah I also have just one little final
last extra question what are some things
about New Caledonia that you kind of
want to just teach people about like a
lot of people don't know much about New
Caledonia what are some cool things
about New Caledonia that you want the
world to know yeah we have a rub that
kind of look like a chicken a chicken
yeah yeah the chicken of Yangon laquida
Yangon
another cool thing that we have would be
the language we speak the French we
speak is a bit different than the one
spoken in France give some examples like
how are how is your French different
from like metropolitan France French
like the way we say goodbye for instance
or in France they would say always well
or value and we just say Dada Dada okay
yeah but yeah I mean I mean also not New
Caledonian so I don't really have too
much of a strong say in this whole thing
but I am glad that you watch the show
from new caledonia and that you are one
of the geographies and that you're able
to be in this episode it's it's honestly
like an honor to meet you because New
Caledonia so yeah thank you can G for
taking part in this whole video guys you
heard it from a New Caledonian geography
there's a lot of stuff going on and a
lot of factors that go into this whole
mix but I guess uh I guess we'll see
what happens
in New Caledonia thanks for watching
stay cool they do
[Music]