... and what's standing in the way isn't some kind of nefarious plot from Paris to eradicate them. It's good old fashioned centralist boneheadedness and economic neoliberalism.
I certainly agree there! In general I just hold a more cynical and pessimistic view of France's aims than you, though I'm admittedly biased by past actions back under Mitterand and Chirac in the South Pacific.
Rwandas developmental model is to invade and loot your large, resources rich but unstable neighbor and export their resources while guilting western governments and NGOs to fund your social services. I suppose that counts as government intervention for development but I don't think it very applicable to a Pacific island with no suh neighbour to invade.
Absolutely, and it's certainly not applicable to New Caledonia. Just making the point that in all cases it was only possible due to the strong government, be it Botswana reinvesting its Diamond wealth, Bangladesh building their textiles sweatshops from the ruins of genocide, Singapore exploiting its position as a trade hub through the authoritarian benevolence of LKY, or Rwanda recovering from genocide by looting the Congo like a Belgian.
