Since 1946, that is to say, since the colony of Martinique was transformed into a department overseas, the opposite of everything and everything has been tried to "develop the local economy." First there was the support, ruinous to the sugar economy, replaced quickly by the support, just as ruinous to the banana economy. Support both from the local authorities, the French state, and later the European Community. A triple source of grants for nothing that engulfed a huge number of billions of francs and euros, half a century. Creole has a figurative expression to describe this phenomenon: dlo nan panyen chay, which means carrying water with a basket.
Each year, in fact, our big planters békés and our farmers, our patrons of the building, our small and medium businesses, our fishermen, our road hauliers etc. shout to the total disappearance of their business, to their ruin, if an authority does not assist them without delay. Every year! So tired of war, in addition to any grants-will, they invented the tax exemption supposed "to attract investment in the overseas" as the saying goes, tax exemption, which in reality only served to allow the French richards not to pay tax by buying boats or homes in the sun and causing a deadly and irreversible land speculation in a country as large as a handkerchief.
There is little that the owners of supermarket, hardware stores and auto dealers not to cry poor. And for good reason!
Or rather what is the cause, the real cause of this disease recurring?
What beating down irretrievably any effort to set up an economy any less viable and dynamic in our country?
My answer will make more of a scream, but I am truly convinced that this is due to the existence of that famous night differential of 40% hard-won in 1946 by our parents servants.
Only two people had the courage to say: first, in the 80's, Max Elysee, head of the theater chain of the same name, a man of right but open, intelligent, long time general counsel of Fort-de-France and candidate for mayor of the latter. Immediately he was burned, dropped sharply, by almost all the local body politic, the people left early. Main argument of his critics: Elysee is a capitalist who made huge profits and obviously needs no extra pay for living, then the second despiser of 40% in the 90's, was nationalist activist Guy Cabort Masson, who, through multiple texts and articles pointed the finger at what he called nicely "colonial bonus." Cabort was, in turn, dedicated to public obloquy. Reason: the leftist independence was not credible and sought to establish a Castro regime in Martinique, he had already rebelled during the war in Algeria by deserting the French army in which he was an officer to join the FLN .
But the-club of those who violently rejected the proposal of Max and Guy Cabort Elysée-Masson was the fact that neither of these men was official. Understood: they had nothing to lose in the removal of 40%. Now I, as an academic, I am. So when I call for the removal of 40%, no one can oppose the fact that I have nothing to lose. Yes, I have to lose an amount equivalent to almost half of my salary, which is still not there, yet I accept it!
And why?
Because 40% is the cancer that eats the economy Martinique (or whatever replaces them) for half a century.
Like any cancer, the disease first became silent and insidious. At first, officials have seen their incomes Creole almost double overnight. They bought new cars, land in order to build the villa of their dreams, they have furnished villas with ostentation, they even, for certain, acquired a pied-à-terre in Paris or Bordeaux where their children lived in the time of their studies, they were able to travel throughout the Caribbean and throughout the world. During that time, their extra pay irrigated the economic Martinique.
Irrigating its metastases, should I say ...
Indeed, the backbone of the system based on 40%, creating what Edouard Glissant has called an "economy-an excuse." A pretense of economy or an economy of false pretense, as you will. Indeed, how to talk seriously economy in a country where the rate of import coverage by exports rose from 54% in 1935 to ... 3% in 2009. Yes, three percent! To speak to Sonson Ti: proceeds from the sale of our rum and our banana and tourism revenues cover only 3% of purchases we make on the outside, 3% of the goods we import. Everything else, the 97% so we are provided by financial transfers from France and Europe, including 40% (but subsidies to farmers and Allowance "unfortunate").
To be clear, the departmentalization has Martinique in bankruptcy.
The first consequence of metastases caused by 40% is the existence of a generalized inflation. For Ti Sonson understand: it is because the dealer knows he can sell beke of 4 / 4 to 30 or 40,000 euros it is important, because the negro or mulatto lawyer knows that the client may pay that just to begin to address his case, he claimed at the outset between 1,000 and 1,500 euros deposit, because the greengrocer buyer knows that she found it sells its pound of yam to 4 or 5 euros etc ... Everyone knows that there is a huge financial mass circulating in the country, financial mass without any counterpart in the real economy, but is highly useful for the development this shadow play, this economic excuses already mentioned. Everyone knows that this money comes from elsewhere, in France and Europe, but we prefer not to think about that too. It is used without flinching, the waste, employment crazy things. Poisoning himself at the same time slowly.
Martinique was a plantation colony. She became, as of 1946, a colony of consumption.
And there are still amazed at the blindness of our unions and our political parties who have never thought seriously about this strange transformation and have never looked for ways to get out. On the contrary, trade unionists and political slogans have had two in his mouth: "continuation of benefits acquired" and "catching up with the mother country." And on the specific issue of 40%, they fought for territorial officials in category C who did not receive this bonus colonial can get it. Worse, some Trotskyists, who are not, it is true, to an action by opportunistic, demanded nothing less than the spread of the premium for all workers from Martinique. Certainly, the creation of the premium immediately generated, and that in 1946, a kind of social divide between those who received and those who do not receive. But do not exaggerate either: those who do not receive (Beke, lawyer, greengrocer) quickly found a way to pump this extra pay. We can even say that these kinds of people live only through 40% of civil servants. Remove 40% and 4 / 4 to 30,000 euros will remain on their arms, their 1000 or 1500 euro deposit to defend yourself in court or to pound yam 4 euros will find more takers!
What is needed is the political courage to request the removal of 40% consider that prevent any economic policy any less viable in our country. That lead to overconsumption hallucinating the benefit of which goes straight into the pockets of big bosses Békés and color. Destroying our tiny crumb of Martinique by 500 m2 for everyone to build his villa to him. Which prevents the erection of a reliable and cost effective public transport to the extent that anyone, including welfare recipients, can buy his own car. Which is above all that any product manufactured home is automatically two or three times more expensive than outside, and thus virtually unsellable (or unexportable). And finally promotes the "genocide by substitution" because without this premium colonial hexagonal few officials ask their transfer to the West Indies.
The 40% is a poison. Economic cancer. It is necessary to fight against this shock therapy.
Ablation, pure and simple ...
Attention! I'm not saying that the patient will be cured is to say that all the economic problems of Martinique will be automatically resolved. I say that at least half of these problems will be solved, which is not bad.
What politician from Martinique, what union, what activist, what artist, what has the intellectual courage to say?
To me, anyone who struggle to maintain the 40% is objectively favor of keeping the French colonial rule in Martinique.
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