By Marrian Rema and Ingrid Cosnier, Port Moresby 2015 Games News Service
PORT MORESBY, July 15 – Singing, fireworks and canapes rang in Bastille Day at the Port Moresby 2015 Games Village as athletes and officials from French-speaking New Caledonia, Tahiti and Wallis and Futuna gathered in celebration of France’s national day.
Bastille Day commemorates the Storming of the Bastille, a pivotal event in the French Revolution, which took place on July 14 1789.
The event was witnessed by excited athletes, French families living in PNG, businesses and sponsors.
Titaua Maurin (TAH), President of the Athletics Federation of French Polynesia, was grateful for the opportunity to celebrate Bastille Day in PNG.
“Back home on July 14 we have celebrations, military marches and so on, so I am really pleased to be here to celebrate July 14. Tonight we had speeches of course, but my favourite thing was the Papuan Orchestra and their version of the Marseillaise (French national anthem), which was really good.”
“We are honoured that the French Ambassador invited us for this celebration knowing that we are not home to celebrate it,” va’a paddler Clarisse Faitaliha Tokotuu (WLF) told the Games News Service.
The French Ambassador to Papua New Guinea, Pascal Maubert (FRA), said celebration is a means of building relationships between people.
“Celebration should be a feast of friendship, just like the Games,” Maubert said.
“The Games gives great opportunity for contact between people and is a key to our partnership.”
PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill (PNG) said friendship between French-speaking Pacific islands and PNG had never been better.
“More French businesses and more French people are coming to PNG like never before,” O’Neill said. “This will increase to many thousands of families in the future because of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).”
O’Neill said that the PNG LNG project will grow the economy and create more job opportunities.
“Last June I was in France and 30 businesses expressed confidence about doing business in PNG,” he said. “In the next year or so PNG will be opening an embassy in Paris,” Mr O’Neill declared, to applause from the crowd.
The entertainment included Polynesian dancers, the famous Bougainville bamboo dance, and a firework display.
GNS mr/ic/jc/jl for more information visit www.portmoresby2015.com
