Food prices in Hao, all Polynesian islands enjoy the benefit of subsidized food prizes. In the supermarkets you see those with a red sticker on it. These are flour, frozen chicken, tins with sardines and mackerel, rice etc ...basic food for the poor. Funny enough they also subsidize Cornflakes that are full of sugar. Not like the Polynesian would need any more sugar. They consume way to much. Hardly anybody drinks plain water. I see them with Coke or any other soft drink that cost around 5US$ a liter!! Never mind poverty here , if they want sugar then they buy it. Most of them are severely overweight and should stay away from this sweet stuff. Thats why Coke and even fruit juices are heavily taxed. Plain sugar is cheap only 80c US. But most of the time the 3 "Super" markets are selling it for 2 $ (200 Francs). But they are not allowed to jack up the red sticker food. The price for subsidized food should be the same everywhere. Sould yes, but in reality its often twice as much. This gets the local Mayor upset and i hear he goes to the stores and tells them to stop this price fixing scam among the 3 stores. They ignore this usually...until : he calls the government inspector from Papeete. If they get busted , they might get hit with a big fine , or maybe even closed down. This year the Majors office has called for an inspector 4 !! times already. He should fly into Hao and get the markets by surprise. But the Mayors office has a lot of people working , and the word gets out quickly that the thunder from Tahiti is coming on Wednesday or so . gives The merchants have enough time to do a night shift and remove all elevated prize stickers. This price tango has become a normal island routine. Then comes the local gossip: Its called "Radio Coco" and spreads like wildfire that the prices are down and the entire village runs to buy everything in the stores. As soon as the inspector is gone, the prices go back up again . I wonder how many times he will fly into Hao in the futur, if he never finds an elevated price. Yesterday the new High Commissioner visited the Island with his entourage. They raise the French flag and sing La Marseillaise and then the same with the Polynesian flag .The local band gets a payed performance and the Hao girls shake their hips in front of a few druling officials. The Mayor has a nice speech and explains in detail what he expects from the officials that represent the French State. Then comes "Le Haut Comisariat" and talks a lot into the microphone without saying anything. He already has tons of flowers around his neck and then they wrap him in local pareo and give him more flowers and shell necklasses. They even give him a Polynesian name "Visitor" for his years here. Then they march off and the locals show him all projetcs that need his attention , speak MONEY. Even 3 chiefs of Police from Tahiti and the "Administrator" came along. He also has a nice white uniform. He was here just a few weeks ago , but never mind the costs , he likes flying around and inspect his underlings it seems. Local gossip has it that not much come from such visits. A day for nothing with a big price tag. I guess this is politics. But i am often puzzled how the French waste money with their politicians. Off course Polynesia is sovereign almost independent state and has the same Polynesian officials that fly in for visits as well. The police is another puzzle for me . I just went on wikipedia and tried to understand why they have 2 different police departments in Hao. Both have different uniforms, cars and offices etc , but nobody really knows to whom to go to when the shit hits the fan. In Paris they even have two different riot police units. On Tv i have seen them fighting each other over who gets to blast his demonstration with what. One side uses tear gas the other side water and a third police unit is even trying to talk to the demonstrators. It makes no sense at all to have so many different police men in a small island. But this is France. With 8 cops in Hao and a population of 900 they cannot stop the general "thieving" in this small island. Everybody steals from everybody. Bikes, scooters, coconuts and mobile phones seem the main target. The moment you leave your house you run a chance that your neighbor collects the coconuts you have piled up. Coconuts are difficult to prove, they all look the same. Bikes and other goods are usually found but the law doesn't do anything. You have to do 20 hours of community service but the thieves never show up and thats the end of the story. Its hard to believe that a population that comes across as friendly and generous, has such a problem with their thieves. The other trouble in paradise is land. Everybody i mean EVERYBODY we met and talked to for a while, tells us that they have to go to court in Tahiti. Its always a land dispute. They feed lawyers and fly to court in Tahiti, just to fight a cousin that claims the house you are living in is on his land etc etc This comes from the fact that they never divide property up when somebody dies. The family clan keeps it. And so, trouble is not far. This system is a mess, but it was always like this and it will never change. Its pretty much the same all over the Pacific. With the exception that here its the French law but tribal customs are still in force. I wouldnt want to govern this place.