Political Quotes

“I offer my apologies to my colleagues and to the American people, for these somewhat rough sketches of limited artistic value in terms of what they represent. On my immediate right is a picture of what an atomic nuclear explosion looks like as it was exploded by the French Government on Moruroa Atoll in the South Pacific in 1973. On my extreme right is a little chart, and this is not the Polynesian version of a Christmas tree, Mr. Speaker, but I just want to demonstrate to the American people that Moruroa Atoll looks like in the South Pacific. One of these little dots inside this volcanic formation on which the atoll sits constitutes one of 181 nuclear bomb explosions that have already taken place in this atoll in the South Pacific. Already the French Government has conducted five nuclear explosions since French President Chirac announced a change of testing policy in June of last year. Mr. Speaker, the islands of French Polynesia were what Westerners would call colonized by France, after some 500 French soldiers with guns and cannons subdued the Tahitian chiefs and their warriors in the 1840's. I was in Tahiti recently. I joined with some 40 other Parliamentarians from the Pacific, Asia, South America, and Europe. Led by the mayor of the town of Fa'aa, Mr. Manutahi Temaru, we joined together for a demonstration in the streets of Papeete, Tahiti, to oppose the resumption of French nuclear testing in the South Pacific.”