Minutes after

Town goes wild over French

World Cop victory

By Patrick Decloitre

Minutes after

France won the World Cup final against Brazil, and although some 22,000 kilometers away from Paris, Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila main street was invaded by an unprecedented crowd of cheering and honking supporters who cele brated France’s victory as though it were their own.

Most government offices were inopera tional and several schools simply closed because students and teachers had not turned up anyway. This prompted a call from the Education ministry, who appar ently was not amused: it called on every one to go back to class for the afternoon.

Education minister Joe Natuman later said traffic laws had been broken by stu dents and teachers alike and school vehi cles had been used for the pro-French parade. This prompted a report to be filed later by the department of education.

"Vanuatu’s no longer someone's colony, but a free independent state”, Natuman was quoted as saying. He ques tioned whether schools here were being run by Vanuatu or by "another organisa tion”. Police even warned they would arrest anyone disrupting traffic or found

under the influence of alcohol. There were however no such reports.

Instead, at the end of the France-Brazil World Cup final, which was televised in the capital and radio broadcast nationwide, thousands with painted faces and holding French flags took to the main street and started gathering in front of the French Embassy.

They were walking, driving buses, taxis and private cars and organised an impromptu honking concert, shouting slo gans like ‘‘Allez France” or its pidgin translation "go Franis go”. It went on for the whole morning. Some even went to the extent of shouting "on a gagne” ( -i we won”), 18 years after this former condo minium of the New Hebrides gained its independence from France and Britain.

"We've had phone calls of congratula tion throughout the morning. This is incredible”, French Embassy officials said.

In the days leading up to the final, the French Embassy even had requests from supporters here who wanted more French flags. So 600 French flags were printed and handed out free to the locals. Vanuatu

President Jean-Marie Leye was in front of his TV set to watch the final.

“I think people are so happy because they still remember France is our mother country.

Even myself, at home, I was shouting when France won”, he said. However, the closest Vanuatu got to the World Cup was this year, for the first time, through its only assistant referee, Lencie Fred, who made it to the second last Holland-Croatia match for the third place.

Spontaneous generation of newborns named after World Cup heroes France’s victory in the World Cup also prompted a spontaneous generation : a growing class of newborns here have been named after the heroes of this French World competi tion. On tiny Epi island (100 kilometeres north of Port Vila), twins were born two hours before France became the World Cup’s new holder. Equitably enough, both finalists’names were retained, but slightly converted to close enough, not too unac ceptable Christian names : they were named Francisco and Bazil.

On Espiritu Santo island (250 kilome tres north of Vila), another newborn was christened in a more radical way, after France's hero of the final, Zinedine Zidane, who scored the first two of France's three goals, national radio reported here. ■