Strikes and protests in Martinique and Guadeloupe are

[malaise]

turning ugly. Police turned on striking workers today. I heard on BBC Caribbean that Sarkozy had sent French troops to the islands.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/caribbean/news/story/2009/02/090211_economiccrisis.shtml
<snip>
The French overseas departments of Guadeloupe and Martinique have become the latest Caribbean islands to protest the rising cost of living brought on by the global financial crisis.

Workers in Guadeloupe have been on strike since 20 January, demanding higher pay and lower taxes and fuel prices.

The industrial action has spread to neighbouring Martinique, where workers there are also demanding that authorities take steps to address the rising cost of living.

The French minister for overseas departments, Yves Jego, is in Guadeloupe, in a second bid to negotiate an end to the industrial action, which has brought the country to a standstill.
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1938 here we come again (the entire Caribbean erupted in protests in 1938).

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[donco6]

1. Everything on the islands is imported.

Fuel, water, basic foodstuffs. They're terribly vulnerable.

[malaise]

2. The French have been stealing water from the islands

and French Guiana for ages.
Still local people still eat a fair amount of local food, just like the rest of Caribbean people.
I was speaking with someone from Guadeloupe today and she says the nationalist movement is growing.
This will get ugly and spread.

[donco6]

3. I didn't realize that.

I go to St. Thomas a fair amount - I don't think they have water there. It's all rainwater in the showers and such.

I hope things don't get too awful. It's already a bit edgy there, on a good day.