Donations against donations
Pleasure to offer, joy to receive? That’s exactly it. On July 28, continuing his official trip to the Pacific, Emmanuel Macron stopped in Papua New Guinea. He announced a partnership of 60 million euros to help the country in its efforts to preserve the primary forest. The Papuasians knowing how to be grateful, he was showered with gifts in exchange.
Me neither totem
Papua New Guinea’s prime minister, James Marape, first presented the French president with a wooden totemic figure illustrating famous Papuan statuary art and reflecting his people’s attachment to their endangered forest. Then he offered Emmanuel Macron a particularly flashy nickname, “Champion of forest nations”, giving him the symbolic mission of defending the ecological cause around the world… Who said poisoned gifts?
Hull in stock
To survey the forest of the national park of Varirata, near Port Moresby, the capital, Emmanuel Macron had obviously adapted his outfit. Thus, on the steep paths, he undid his tie and dropped the jacket, ending in shirt sleeves. In order to walk with ease, he had given up his usual and strict black oxfords, putting on instead a pair of imposing black boots with capped toes guaranteeing him to absorb shocks without pain… A fall from a totem happened so quickly.
legendary pair
Note in the audience the presence of an iconic pair of shoes. In this case, these yellow sneakers are Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66. Created in 1968 in Japan, these passed to posterity in 1973, when Bruce Lee appeared in the film Operation Dragon thus shod, then experienced a revival of popularity thirty years later, in 2003, when Uma Thurman wore them in Kill Bill. Twenty years later, has fashion just reached the end of the world or is it time for a comeback? Your turn to judge.
sacred raffia
Finally, let us notice, in the audience, several children and teenagers in traditional dress. These notably sport a raffia loincloth which, in the primitive societies of Papua, has a particular meaning. When a child reaches the age of 4, she inherits her first loincloth. Woven by the men of the village, it symbolizes the end of the first age and even indicates, concretely, that the young girl can now make herself useful to the tribe… From the loincloth to the prison? Let’s not exaggerate.
