State House Anytime Now

Fuel, the Beijing Debrief & all things Chinese…or is it Arab?

Orderly had a nice break for a few days as he nurtured his friendship with ‘Jam’ (the Irish wolfhound) during Mr. President’s escapade to Beijing. But another day brings another calamity. He has to figure out how to take on the latest fuel shortage crisis. With Danny and Co nowhere to be seen, he has to plan ahead… perhaps another trip to Abu Dhabi.

Orderly: Nihao Sir! Mr. President. We have no gas in the tank! We need to broker another loan fast. The influx of the gas guzzlers in the Presidential motorcade and all the other zippy numbers on the road is causing havoc to our fuel stock.

Mr. President: We have to make provisions to get to those Arabs fast. Let’s book the next available business class seats on Emirates to visit our generous Emirs. We have given them all these prime real estate and they are now forever indebted to us…

Orderly: Will get the flight booked Sir. So how was Beijing? You had such a lifetime opportunity that could not be missed! This will be on top of your list together with the Papal Audience. You also had the opportunity to dine with all the leaders who came from far and wide…

Mr. President: What a great feast it was my man! Did you see the beautiful round tables with the lovely blue peacocks in the centre? I thought we were having roasted peacock on the menu! But it was the famous Peking duck. What a delicacy! Luckily it wasn’t any Ramaduck…

Orderly: Sir your surprise visit to Beijing was well covered by SBC and Nation! It was great to see you in the Bird’s Nest doing the famous slow motion wave when our delegation marched past. Shame you did not have a flag to show the patriotism...

Mr. President: No I left this to Bush (George & Laura) to show off their ‘Stars & Stripes’ as they had a bigger delegation of stars. I looked pretty cool in my suit with my little flag-pin on my lapel though, don’t you think?

Orderly: Well Sir, at least you paid a personal visit to our athletes to boost their confidence. All this went down well with our people locally. At least it justifies the expenses for this trip in our times of crisis!

Mr. President: It was indeed a lightning visit. Did not even have time to visit the Great Wall! I tell you we need to really nurture our special relationship with the Chinese. This is where it all happens. Even Bush and Sarkozy are pretty impressed. I did take this opportunity to rub shoulders and shake some hands. Shame I did not get to see our buddy Mugabe. But a date is set with him soon as we look at re-entry into SADC.

Orderly: Sir we have scored well on the sporting front. With the great success of the CJSOI games and now your presence at the Beijing Olympics, we have hit both the regional and the world stage. What a moving opening ceremony. The fireworks display almost took my breath away.

Mr. President: It gave me goose bumps! Orderly these Chinese are so creative and smart. What an impressive dragon shaped Capital Airport, an exceptional glowing Water Cube and of course the unique Bird’s Nest. This is where the future is my man. We need to be looking East. We have ordered two copycat twin otters for Air Seychelles from them. So if we cannot get our ‘Dreamliner’ on time, I think the Chinese will have a solution pretty soon. These guys can copy anything!

Orderly: Sir, sorry to disappoint but we need to focus on the Middle East. We need fuel badly. So the Sheiks should have priority over the Chinese right now. We need to focus on the crisis at hand.

Mr. President: Yes Orderly. We are close to brokering a deal for our tankers. We will lease them to the Arabs and they can ship the oil all the way to China! You see, there are always opportunities to wheel & deal at these special occasions such as the Beijing Olympics.

Orderly: Brilliant idea Sir! We can request Capt. Adam to get the tankers to swing by on the way from the Gulf to China and leave us a few drops of this precious black gold to prop up our stock.

Mr. President: Yes, we will do it with all our ‘Pioneer, Patriot, Progress & Pride’! We will do it the ‘Seychelles Way’.

Orderly: Very well Mr. President Sir. I will place a call to our Sheik friend and tell him that this time we have a deal. We will not visit him with the begging bowl anymore…

Orderly leaves the President nursing his mug of piping hot Arabica coffee while he withdraws to his office to put his newly acquired BlackBerry to good use. Plenty of emails to attend to as the next flight out is in 48 hours… Phew, this Presidency is really in overdrive! Crisis? What crisis??