PAPEETE WORKER PARADE
Sayoko and I cant take the bus into town today because a massive labor day parade is moving along the main road in front of our hotel. Burly grim faced men behind pickups, busloads of office ladies, mothers in mumus pushing baby carriages, wiry guys waving blue and white flags, kids in soccer shirts, are strolling towards a rally in central Papeete. Their T-shirts call for democracy and unity. People are filling the muggy air with shouts sirens whistles and bullhorned slogans. A line of white police, one with a machine gun, guard the hotel gate. A young worker chats amiably with a smiling cop. Most marchers are neither middle class nor French. Their ancestors lived here many thousand years before the Europeans arrived in their Bountys and steel warships. Once they were royalty. Now they build concrete condominiums, bus dishes, add swizzle sticks, march in worker parades.Papeete Sat 02/05/05