TROUKLER
The irony of an Irish ex-judge and an Irish ex-policeman in our midst
On the day of the coup d’etat (5th June 1977) President Michel, in battle fatigue smuggled into the country (together with six AK 47s) in a sofa set from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, was part of the gang rounding up foreign police officers and judges to be held in the police jail in Victoria before being summarily deported the same evening. One of the judges arrested that day was Chief Justice O’Brien Quinn, an Irishman.
Quinn was Attorney General in 1972 when Guy Pool placed the bomb at the Reef Hotel. He led the prosecution at Guy Pool’s trial. Just before independence Quinn became the Chief Justice upon the resignation of Sir George Souyave.
The decision of President James Michel to appoint two Irishmen – a retired judge with the surname O’Brien and a retired policeman with the surname Quinn - to investigate and report on the incident of October 3 when leaders of the SNP were brutally assaulted by members of the SSU, cannot be more ironic. Is there some kind of twisted fate in all this?
THE LONG AWAITED NEW ACCIDENT AND EMERGENCY UNIT!
After years of using substandard equipments and other outdated medical apparatus to the detriment of patients visiting the Accident and Emergency Unit at the Victoria Hospital, the long awaited new ACCIDENT AND EMERGENCY UNIT (AEU) finally opened its doors to the public earlier this month; Wednesday 15th November, to be precise. The Minister for Health, MacSuzy Mondon hailed the opening of the new Accident and Emergency Unit at the Victoria Hospital as an historic occasion, “for the first time in the history of health in Seychelles, our new Accident and Emergency Unit will have its own X-ray machine and ultrasound facility.” And the Minister described the unit as being “a precious jewel in our crown”.
It has taken the SPPF government almost thirty years; in the process they have wasted hundred of millions of rupees including foreign exchange, contributed into the economy by the taxpayers, in ill-fated projects at the Victoria Hospital. Minister Mondon must be commended for at least admitting that it has in fact taken her government a very long time, thirty long years, in realising this project. According to the Seychelles Nation of Thursday November 16th, ‘the new AEU unit will provide all the specialized emergency services in one place, it is all aimed at giving better treatment to patients and also providing ample space for both doctors, nurses and paramedical staff to work in’. With the opening of the new unit at the Victoria Hospital, the English River Casualty will now close after 8pm. Dr. Patrick Commettant, one of the Emergency Specialists at the Victoria Hospital welcomed the new facility emphasizing that the AEU is now in a position to meet international standard in the level of services that it will provide to the general public.
CASTRO TOO WEAK TO CELEBRATE BIRTHDAY
Unlike our own “national monument” who seemed as fit as a fiddle on his 71st birthday bash, the communist dictator of Cuba was shown on tv as a sick old man who has long passed his not so good days. He was too sick to attend a birthday bash held in his honour, just like we do here. It reminds all of us that time waits for no man and that no matter how grand or important you are, time eventually catches up with you. Fidel has ruled Cuba for the last 50 years under a rigid Communist/Marxist system reminiscent of our own 15 years under France Albert Rene. Castro was Rene’s hero and role model for many years and continues to be so today.
