Troukler
A lesson from the French Revolution
As everyone knows, Seychelles Breweries has, in the recent weeks, been having problems supplying the local market with soft drinks such as Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Orange etc... The shops are only selling soda water; heck, even bottled water is rare these days. But I guess the infamous “State of the UNREAL” address forgot to mention this: “Napa Factor”!
Seybrew has only been selling to the restaurants and hotels and not to local shops. Thus, we now understand that the tourists are more important than the local Seychellois. They are the bread and the butter, so it now seems. What do you think Mr. Rene? So while we eat our old staple diet of “rice, ‘bouyon bred’, a little lentils with grill mackerel” and have a drink of “delo sale PUC a la chlorine”, the tourists and of course the “pti group” (privileged few) who can afford to visit the hotels and restaurants are eating fillet mignon and splurging on diet coke!
On the bright side, let us hope that the forex from these meals will eventually enter into our banking system, hopefully by the millions, just like it was said in the “State of the PRISON” address. I believe when Marie Antoinette was told that the peasants had no bread in pre-revolutionary France, she said “Well, let them eat cake.” Maybe it is time to remind one and all that Marie Antoinette’s head was chopped off by those same angry peasants!
And while we are on the drink issue, at least the Seybrews were flowing at Port Glaud and Anse Aux Pins the Sunday before last. Let the SPPF election campaign start again, right where we left it last year. Who cares about the comments of alcohol abuse in the “State of the DRUNK” address last month! Free beers and burgers were being dished out, with the loud speakers blaring out the usual political songs. Adults and underage kids were partaking of the usual SPPF generosity before the elections; I guess the recipients of the freebies (?) were wishing that we could have elections every week!
Meanwhile, the “poor” tourists from the Cunard Liner QE2 who were out and about on bus tours were being told that the natives of Seychelles were well-off and had parties like this every weekend, paid for by a generous SPPF Government. However, the shops are empty, prices have gone through the roof, still “napa forex” and hospitals and schools are out of supplies. But who cares? Let us dance our sorrows away, drink a lot of free Seybrews paid for by King Prawn, Queen Emerald, and Island Prince. After all, 70 million US Dollars can buy a lot of beers, burgers and votes. And in their drunken stupor, the electorate will surely forget their pain and suffering and will vote for more of the same (pain and suffering) for the next five years. I guess Marie-Antoinette was right! There is plenty of “gateaux” to go around; you just have to be in the right party (mood)!
Identity Card Crisis or Windfall?
People wishing to obtain new identity cards will find out that the “SOCIAL SECURITY OFFICE, ID SECTION” is out of plastic identity cards again, which is usually the case around election time. In a “go-with-the-flow” move, identity cards are being issued on ‘Department of Legal Affairs’ note pad letter head addressed to: “to whom it may concern”. Troukler has been advised plastic cards will be available after 6-8 weeks. We now understand that anyone with an Internal Affairs note pad ID will be able to vote, and wonder what the cost is.
Illegal cigarette re-exporting
It has been brought to our attention that the export of State Express 555 cigarettes to Seychelles are not permitted by the manufacturer. This occurred after the British American Tobacco (BAT) found that such cigarettes destined for the Seychelles market had found their way to the Far East. This is against the agreement made with the company by a Seychelles State enterprise, which was the official agent for the product. I wonder who is responsible for such a great idea?
WELCOME TO THE LAND OF ‘NAPA’
Whilst most of us mere mortals had to be contented in the land of ‘napa’ for Easter our not so sympathetic President decided that this was an opportune moment to take the whole family to a well deserved Easter break to Doha and Singapore where caviar and champagne is alleged to have been consumed in large quantities. Great timing, Mr. President!
