In a word
Before it was associated with the realm of civil and postal aviation, the term “long-haul” was linked to the merchant marine lexical field.
It is back in 1681, during the Grande Ordonnance of the merchant navy lead by Colbert that the term “long-haul” was first cornered. These are renowned to be long journeys between France and Muscovy, Greenland, Canada, all the way to the outer banks of Newfoundland and the shores of America’s islands, Cape Verde, the cost of Guinea and all others beyond the tropic.
Thus, the adjective “long-haul” referred to the ships carrying out these long crossings and the noun “long-haul” applied directly to the seamen who were onboard.
The beginnings
It was in Mumbai, this magnetic city filled with an incessant yet enchanting chaos that we first met. Each day, 1500 new migrants* drawn to the city in search of employment or an opportunity to make it into the Bollywood industry, arrive to increase the boom of this largest Indian megalopolis. The town is literally exploding. Mumbai is paced by an incessant power struggle between earth and sea. The sea is tightening the peninsula in a vise, thus restraining new construction on an already saturated land. As if to retaliate, the city responds by unfurling each day more and more waste along its shores**. One can no longer smell the salty sea air, and the buildings hide the sea view as if it has just vanished.
At the core of the oceans, this struggle over land is called an island.
About the island
The topic of insularity has long been a subject of earnest interest and research, spanning a wide array of disciplines: geographers, geologists, biologists, linguists, anthropologists, sociologists, historians, political commentators and demographers. All have showed an earnest interest in the subject of insularity and the research lead to developing many theories on this specific topic. Writers, photographers and movie makers are not to be outdone: the island remains a timeless source of inspiration.
One can hardly determine the boundaries of an island, whether it be a boulder in Brittany or a continent island. In fact, a unanimous consensus on its very definition does not seem to exist; nor can we find a comprehensive list of islands on Earth.