Salon du Tourisme

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

  

A few photos from the Salon du Tourisme which took place this weekend.

Mayotte is involoved in several programs such as the Vanilla Islands Program, there's one about the Indian Ocean as well... the general idea is to try and convince tourists that Mayotte is a nice place to spend a holiday.

Unfortunately, this point of view is not shared by most of the population. Most white expats would like to turn Mayotte into a touristic destination, mainly because it would mean more development, more shops and such, more money for the country and more flights to and from Mayotte, which would allow them to go back to France more often. A few Mahorese people and companies would like people to come and visit and send more people. But most Mahorese would rather the whites went back home and stayed there, instead of trying to force their culture and their standards on this small country. The local people don't really want overbearing mzungus telling them to clean their streets and instructing them on how to behave... because these standards are white standards, enforced by white people for more white people, and that's fostering quite a bit of (understandable) resentment. The general opinion seems to be that the island got along just fine before the mzungus arrived, and why should we change anything just because you want us to, especially as you'll be gone in a year or two.

It's a long debate, it's been a long debate for a while now. It got worse when Mayotte answered YES to the referendum asking if they wanted to become a French department. They've had the initial gifts of large amounts of money to spend on the country. They spent it on the employees at the Conseil Général. Now, they're getting the other half of this mixed departmental blessing: taxes. All of a sudden, they're not so keen on being French. But they don't want to go back to belonging to the Comoros islands either, as they've spent the last few years lording it over them.

Quite honestly, I'm starting to look forward to going back to Europe.