Editorial
PRESIDENT MICHEL TAKES EASTER BREAK IN DOHA AND SINGAPORE….
Easter has come and gone and although there was nothing much to shout about here, a fiasco quickly developed on our airwaves when SBC was ordered to declare Saturday a public holiday as an unplanned afterthought, to the surprise and consternation of many.
President James Michel also decided that this would be an opportune time to take in the luxury of Doha and Singapore with the whole family; a decision criticised by many as “unsympathetic.” Whilst the people of Seychelles were left to ponder their bleak existence and future in paradise over the Easter season and giving careful thoughts to the forthcoming elections, this was the least of the president’s concern.
A shocking story also developed over the Easter break which puts our stark reality in perspective. A Seychellois woman coming all the way from England to donate a kidney to her brother who was to undergo a kidney transplant in India was told by the Ministry of Health, only after she had arrived in Seychelles, that she will have to meet all the cost of the said treatment herself with no assistance from the government.
The two incidents above illustrate the mediocrity of our dire existence in Seychelles.
Rumours have also surfaced that the government is secretly planning to hike up the price of fuel from Rs.7 a litre to Rs.12 a litre after the elections in May. Many are wondering if things can ever get worse than what we are currently experiencing in Seychelles.
One always has this dreaded feeling in the pit of one’s stomach that the worse is always around the corner and the way things are going you definitely have to be an eternal optimist to have any kind of hope that things will eventually improve in Seychelles. In fact, there is a rapid deterioration of everything around us and it is clear that it would take a miracle on a grand scale to pull us through the difficult times ahead. Reminds us of Cinua Achebe’s “Things fall Apart”. An eternal optimist? I am certainly not, are you?
