Letters to the Editor
The prayer below has been sent to us by one of our devoted reader requesting that we publish it. We print it for the benefit of all our patrons. May this prayer serve as enlightenment to the populace, “God Bless All Freedom Loving Seychellois!” to borrow a quote from Christopher Gill.
Psalms 10.
A PRAYER FOR JUSTICE
Why are you so far away O Lord?
Why do you hide yourself when we are in trouble?
The wicked are proud and persecute the poor; catch them in the traps they have made.
The wicked man is proud of his evil desires; the greedy man curses and rejects the LORD.
A wicked man does not care about the LORD; in his pride he thinks that God doesn’t matter.
A wicked man succeeds in everything, he cannot understand God’s judgments; he sneers at his enemies.
He says to himself, “I will never fail; I will never be in trouble”
His speech is filled with curses, lies and threats; he is quick to speak hateful, evil words.
He hides himself in the villages waiting to murder innocent people.
He spies on his helpless victims; he waits in his hiding place like a lion.
He lies in wait for the poor; he catches them in his trap and drags them away.
The helpless victims lie crushed; brute strength has defeated them.
The wicked man says to himself, God doesn’t care!
He has closed his eyes and will never see me.!
O LORD, punish these wicked men!
Remember those who are suffering!
How can the wicked man despise God and say to himself, He will not punish me”?
But you do see; you take notice of trouble and suffering and are always ready to help.
The helpless man commits himself to you; you have always helped the needy.
Break the power of wicked and evil men; punish them for the wrong they have done until they do no more.
The LORD is king for ever and ever. Those who worship other gods will vanish from his land.
You will listen, O LORD, to the prayers of the lowly; you will give them courage.
You will hear the cries of the oppressed and the orphans; you will judge in their favour; so that mortal men may cause terror no more.
This prayer is being sent especially to the parents, wife and siblings, especially the child of the young man who was tortured which featured in the Weekly the last two weeks.
May GOD give them strength and as for our leaders and all the rest of our oppressors may this prayer, open their eyes and know that the LORD GOD is our KING and not them.
I hope Meriton shakes my hands and does not kiss me!
SIR, I read the Weekly regularly to get a dose of Truth since I know the journalists at SBC, though they are real journalists, are not allowed to side with Truth but rather are forced because of their need to earn a salary to be human Teleprompters in order to give a face to SPPF deception. Rarely do they ever question what the Government says. They just repeat what they are forced to repeat. I find that shameful on the part of the Government, especially after studying in Russia which today is freer then Seychelles.
When President Michel addressed sportsmen going to Madagascar this year, I noticed the sense of division that prevailed and sense of lack of enthusiasm and sincerity towards one another. As Mr. Michel spoke, I could sense our sportsmen and women did not believe a word he was saying. The Leader of The Opposition Mr. Ramkalawan represents 46% of the population and many youth, it is a shame that Mr. Michel did not have the courage to ask him to say a few words and perhaps join hands to rally a common front in the Games. As Michel spoke, the rewards for divisional politics were being reaped by himself. It is a bitter harvest Mr. Michel. It will get worse. Today, even the sportsmen are doubting Michel’s words. It is useless to address them. We believe Michel does not meet the mark to run the race.
Now Editor Sir, we count on our Athletes to bring home some glory and moments of joy to our People, as we face Michel’s economic disasters ahead. Before we left, milk went up about 40% lettuce is SR78.00 and our allocation at the bank was only $400.00, after Minister Faure promised in December to raise it in the year. More lies. He needs us to play sports, but he does not need us to be treated at least the same as he treats his foreign friends, that get Carte Blanche over our little country, and we Seychellois must live as second class citizens in our own land.
I will not vote for SPPF again. I will play my heart out in the games and do my best, when I come home I hope Meriton shakes my hands and does not kiss me. It is very unhygienic to do that, especially since he is known to greet everyone with a kiss. Even People he does not know in the 25 Districts. As a sportswoman, I care about hygiene and health a lot.
We want you to take politics out of sports! Stop using us!
Now back to the Games
Gold Medal 4Seychelles Not U!
A Sportswoman
Seychellois workers rights
SIR, I have been watching with dismay at the treatment that private businesses are being treated with respect to theirs workers. As I work as a private contractor most of work comes from private businesses and individuals. To meet my contract obligations I have a number of workers that I employ. There are native Seychellois citizens. The way the government treats us private businesses vs. foreign owned businesses is not fair. Indians and Chinese contracts bring in their own foreign labour. These foreign workers receive housing and food and are paid less than our Seychellois workers. Also they do not pay Social Security. This means that they are able to under price on contracts being tendered in Seychelles. The foreign workers are not paid according to Seychellois laws and are not subject to site inspections as are local contractors.
If I were to give my workers food e.g. samoosas and lemonade snack in the morning, a 20 Rupee take-away and lemonade for lunch, then I have to pay social security on these items. This means I have to pay extra just to feed my workers. Should I not declare this I can be fined or even imprisoned. It is the case when a dis-satisfied worker goes to report me to the authorities. The foreign workers work long hours including weekends without any overtime. This is not the same as local Seychellois who have to be paid overtime and given transport. On these items I again have to pay tax and social security.
In other words trying to treat a Seychellois worker fairly like the foreign competition is punished here in Seychelles. The only way to get around this is go and ask for favours from the “gro pwason” in the SPPF. They will grant you “favours” in shielding you from the law. Rather than work towards making the business playing field the same for everyone, they use this as a means of gaining political influence. Is this then not another sign of corruption in Seychelles? Where is the “Pou lanmour Sesel” in acting this way? When are child and grandchildren grow up they will be strangers in their own country because of the unfair system of treatment that the government has in place for the workers.
Jess
The young lady was sent back because she came from an African country and she was black!
Sir – Le Nouveau Seychelles Weekly gets better and better, you are tackling matters previously regarded as taboo subjects. I found your editorial article of two weeks ago about the treatment by immigration and customs control of people from Africa to be factual.
Last year my daughter’s friend from Kenya visited. She had six hundred (USD600) US dollars in her possession as her pocket money. She was coming over for only a week. The immigration officer at the airport refused her entry on the basis that she did not have enough pocket money. The young lady was coming to stay at my house, Mr. Editor; my family was going to provide her with a roof over her head for seven days for free with free food. In fact she hardly needed any money. The young lady studied with my daughter in Manchester, UK. She helped my daughter with money when her allowances from the Ministry of Education did not get there on time. We wanted to treat her to a holiday in Seychelles at our home as a thank you gesture and she had USD600 as spending money on her on arrival. They spoiled it all for us.
How they got to that decision to refuse her entry I find it hard to understand, because our own government dispense through the local banks only four hundred US dollars (USD600) per head to Seychellois travelling on overseas holiday. The young lady had two hundred dollars more than what we give our own people for trips aboard. My family firmly believes that the young lady was sent back because she came from an Africa country and she was black!
Thank you for the space.
(An angry citizen)
