As many people know, some of the "super powers" of the world (i.e. the US, France, England, etc.) not only have their own country but still maintain multiple territories as well. Today, most territories function on their own, but maintain the statues of being a territory. Some, however, still maintain some financial reliability on their motherland.
One thing that has come up recently is the question of how much financial aid should be given to various territories that are held by France? With the global financial crisis, along with the specific EU crisis, how much is too much when it comes to helping its territories? These territories are know as the DOM (Département d'outre mer) that include Martinique, Guadeloupe, and French Guinea. These territories essentially have the same status and benefits of a regular French citizen. Without boring anyone too much with the history of France and its territories, the DOM are what they call "
ultra-peripheral regions", which basically means they have a "structural handicap". Essentially, what these territories need is constant aid from its governing nation. The problems that can arise is a false sense of independence and once problems arise, such as the financial crisis of the EU, problems arise much faster and greater than imagined.
The question then arises, what happens in the situation of a financial crisis? Is it up to the governing territory to also pull its territory out of the financial crisis when they, themselves are already struggling? Who is responsible in this whole process? Should the territory step up and handle it on its own? Should there be more requirements of sorts put on the territories themselves to ensure that they can survive on their own?
I obtained my information from the following article:
EU Crisis Article
Any quotations used are taking from this article. The article is quite lengthy so don't feel obligated to read the whole thing by any means. Hopefully I have explained it well enough for everyone.
Jeeze! I had no idea that France still had so many territories! I knew that they had a couple, but not that many! That's extremely interesting! So what happened to the culture of the land after colonization? Has it melded with the French culture into a "new" FrenchX hybrid?
ReplyDeleteAside from that, I feel like if the French went out of there way to colonize and claim these lands as there own, then they need to support them. Since they overtook the reigning power before and replaced the previous government with there own, it is an obligation to provide for France's many "children". If they are going into debt from this, maybe they should relinquish some of the colonizes.
I just learned about this from your blog, so these are my opinions from not really knowing the subject and just learning about it from you. Just a disclaimer. :)
I think that according to finance 101...any person or group that cannot meet their own needs doesn't need to be giving money away, but I know that countries want to be generous with support and aid to build trust with other countries. Good to have friends in this world!
ReplyDeleteGreat topic!
ReplyDeleteI'm not an expert on the duties of both country and territory, but essentially, like you said, the DOM need a lot of help from France. It's true what Jason pointed out that it's not a good idea to spend more when one is already in debt, but since the DOM are under France's protection, I think there is a feeling of responsibility (and should be - you claimed a territory and still have some control over it; support it). I think if the territories were moving toward indpendence there should be less responsibility of the motherland for financial support. But while a territory is still under the umbrella of its "possessor," I think the responsibility still remains. Just my non-expert opinion.