RALPH VOLCERE’S WEEK

I WAS REMINDED OF LAUREL AND HARDY

On watching the first Face-A-Face program on SBC TV about the situation of the outer islands under the IDC and the leadership of one of the three Prince Charming, I sensed that something from my childhood eluded me so I made it a priority to watch the repeat last Sunday. In a flash it came back to me on the second viewing – it was like watching an interview with Laurel in the absence of his favorite side-kick Hardy who was finding it hard to function without the other half of their collective wits. This partnership has long since ended after their little toys (maserati) created a big scandal and had to be shipped back to the suppliers.

The Island Development Company (IDC) was created in 1981, with the noble objective to help attained food self-sufficiency. Twenty-five years after its creation the failures of IDC are obvious unless you had been living on planet “Opulence” and had just come down to be interviewed on Face-A-Face. If the population was waiting for IDC to feed them all the timber from all the trees in the country would have been insufficient for coffins to bury the dead, we would simply have starved. This reality is ignored and the interviewer seems unable to come up with questions which the public wants answers for the contribution made through taxation - another shame.

In that twenty-five years, IDC swallowed SR250 million of the taxpayers money; money that could have been put to good use creating jobs or invested in the education and health of the nation.  IDC has its own aircraft which is at the disposition of powerful people within the organization. This aircraft is known to have been on trips abroad coming back with goodies for the affluent.

Having failed in its first objective IDC embarked on another grand project, that of developing tourism on the outer islands. Projects initiated by IDC on Desroches and Alphonse turned out to be disasters and had to be taken over by foreign investors on the cheap considering the taxpayers precious contribution. Seychellois investors who showed an interest in these projects never got a hearing. Their approach have never had a response worthy of their rights under the Constitution – so much for “Sesel I pou Seselwa”. 

On these islands buildings stand uncompleted, some in a dilapidated state causing harm to the environment they now profess to be protecting and it is “business as usual” to use a popular quote from the program (Face-A-Face). The general public has treated this piece of personal propaganda with the contempt that it deserves. We all know that the islands has been the play ground for the well-connected and powerful somewhere to take the wife, the children and friends visiting from abroad to impress them in solicitation for favors, most times at the expense of the tax payers, burdening all our pockets.  

The guy could not look the interviewer in the eye, he was more interested in the penny on the floor, even if she was doing all she could to help raise his game. He failed to impress even the tiniest of grey matters. This interview for what it is worth has gone down in history as the worst in the short life of Face-A-Face; however the comical content made up for the loll and prevented widespread smashing of television sets across the country. It was full of contradictions and quarter truths; even the interviewer went red in the face from time to time listening to such compost. This was another exercise whereby people who have over the years enjoyed a monopolistic situation because of who they are, coming forward in an effort to legitimize past practices. Please have some respect for our intelligence!  

SOME CONTRADICTION AND POINTS OF CONTENTION:

1. To state that the Islands were not being developed by previous owners and they eagerly gave the islands back to Government is total compost.  All the islands in private hands, whether leased or owned, had major agricultural and fishing development potential.  Islands always sent salted fish (poisson sale) and other food stuff down to Mahe. IDC killed that completely!  Private companies and individuals (including Harry Savy his own Grandfather) were paid peanuts to give up their leases.  Why did he not mention how much these people had spent to develop the infrastructure on these islands, only to be paid peanuts by the Government - take it or leave it they were told!

2. To state that the Copra industry disappeared because of low prices on international market is also total guano, it disappeared because SMB wanted to be the ONLY exporter, thus no one wanted to do it at SMB rupee prices!

3. IDC brought in livestock that were not conducive to Seychelles islands - Mouton and Cerf?  IDC built a HUGE deer park on Desroches, and not one single deer was ever raised there!  IDC brought in equipment to make salt! Again, total failure. Today, vegetables have to be imported from Mahe to satisfy these islands!

4. Conflict of livestock and tourism! How can you have a chicken farm next to tourist chalets (especially on Silhouette)! Every time the wind blew, the tourist smelled the chicken MUCK!

5. Coetivy prawn farm - did they not realize the distance problem prior to starting the operation (for cargo and exports)?

6. It is not IDC’s job to protect the islands against foreign vessels or poachers!  This is the job of the Coast Guards and the Seychelles Police!

7. Seychellois such as Guy Savy of Bird Island approached IDC to develop a simple (a la Bird Island) hotel on Platte and also Assumption, but was turned down.

8. Desroches had plots advertised in the Nation (about 7/8 years ago) to be leased to individuals. Today, only one house has been built for J. J even has a jeep on Desroches.

9. We had bird eggs every year from Desnoeufs (from his Grandad Harry Savy). Eggs were sold to the public. Today, boxes come down off the islands and “partage avecs tous grand dalons” and high Government officials first.

10. Silhouette - IDC failed to state why certain individuals got the lease for Grande Case without putting it up for tender giving everyone equal chance?

11. For the 2nd hotel at Grande Barbe, how come it is his brother Francis who got the lease along with the Maldivian company? Two hotels on the island all controlled by them! Again, where was the tender?  How come all of a sudden there is an invitation to tender for Grand Police? Maybe they don’t like the ghosts that live there!!!

12. Who approved the 60 year lease for the 30 plots to be given to STAR in lieu of payment owed to that company?

13. IDC plane... failed to state whether his friends (and himself) pay for the IDC plane when they fly down to the islands for their pleasure weekends.  Also, who pays for Salmar fuel and other costs when it goes down with the gang to the islands?  Surely the ex-President is no longer entitled to such privileges?

14. How come there was no tender or invitation for Seychellois firms to take up the management of Desroches or Alphonse Hotels when MK Resorts pulled out?  How come IDC representatives went down and got Naiade (another Mauritian firm) to take over these two islands?

These are the questions for now. We want some real answers in a fresh program. In general, IDC has only spent money to develop airstrips and certain expensive infrastructure on these islands.  Meanwhile, millions have been lost due to mismanagement, white elephant projects and personal enjoyment of the islands!  And we the people have paid for the entire extravaganza! How long will this continue?

“THE BETRAYAL OF THE MOTHERLAND!”

There is absolutely no doubt that you have heard a hundred times before, the raison d’être for the creation of a locally based international airline: “We need to have our own carrier to bus in visitors to our country; we cannot rely totally on others for this crucial service in building the tourism industry and the economy”. This statement makes perfect sense; anyone who argues differently must have their heads checked for possible loose screws.

This was then, now we have to deal with the realities of the present time. Generally nothing happens by magic, a plane cannot fly on its own and it is equally hard to fill that plane with passengers. This is where the people being handsomely paid for the privilege have been inconsistent in delivering. Despite the presence of highly paid individuals from Mauritius, France and South Africa the ‘National Carrier’ keeps performing well below par and that despite the good service on offer in-flight. The man in the cockpit at The Creole Spirit is more interested in preserving his good name with regular public relation exercises through TV interviews aimed at projecting personal image rather than that of the company he serves.

Excuses we have had plenty: bird flu, tsunami, chikungunya, the war on terror. Very soon we shall be told about typhoid or it is going to rain tomorrow. When there is no-one else to blame, blame it on “Mother Nature” or the weatherman. Surely other countries in the region must be suffering the same fate as we are as far as global natural disasters are concerned. Why it is then that visitors keep over flying Seychelles on their way to Mauritius? Surely, there must be a very good reason – has the Captain investigated this phenomenon? Or is he unknowingly helping them thrash us? This is what we do best: scoring own goals.

In their effort to increase the number of visitors to the Seychelles, the people leading the push have been hiring the services of our nearest cousins to lend us a hand. Unsurprisingly, we have been paying them large salaries in foreign exchange and in so doing, helping them help their motherland. Air Seychelles has for some time now been carrying visitors all the way from London and back to spend a week or two in the sunshine of Mauritius, whilst occupancy in our hotels remains well below capacity. And they have the guts to pretend that they are serving Seychelles above all else. This we find hard to swallow! In Mauritius we are known as ‘tourist four hundred’ because of the limit on travel allowances imposed upon people traveling abroad by this government. It is high time we rid ourselves of the tags inherited through the bad management of the economy by certain people within this Administration.                                         

Ralph Volcere