President Michel recently made his way down to Providence Industrial Estate skipping the luxury condominiums at Laguna Condos which is owned more or less by SPPF Princes and Princesses and met up with the hard working men and women that are trying their best to keep things going in spite of failure looming all around us.
Many were honest with President Michel and expressed concerns over the lack of Human Resources. Young people do not want to work. Well, they have no incentive to work.
Many complained about needing foreign labour to make businesses run well and expressed concern that this is costly. It is. Some mechanics complained about the lack of materials and parts available in the Country. Well, this is not a new problem. It has been with us now for 15 years, even in the days when a barrel of oil was $18.00 on the international commodities market.
After receiving a ear full of complaints, Mr. President looked into the SBC camera and said, “Everything would have been fine but the price of oil is too high”. Without proposing any solutions to our dire straits , the President said he will beautify the Industrial Estate. This will likely involve planting Palm trees next to garages, adding a new park . Basically, just move dirt around here and there, but they will not add lights, you can forget about parts and raw materials to work with. The Police will be able to patrol when the area has been beautified. How lovely!
Mr. President’s comments were a little like a Captain saying: The ship has hit a reef and everything would have been fine if the reef was not in the way. Well, in life there are many reefs. In the life of a national economy there are many obstacles. Leaders must face them all and propose real and sound solutions. They also must lead by example and not lead only with nice words.
Our ship of state has hit a reef. The days of nice words are over. We need concrete no nonsense proposals and we need it now. While SPPF are taking some measures that are overdue, they are not taking the ones that affect their pockets. Nor have they stopped victimizing other Seychellois that do not support them. SPPF punished people that see clearly and reward the blind for not seeing. You wonder why our financial affairs are upside down.
All successful governments faced with crisis Seychelles face today have cut government spending, reduced taxes, encourage more investment, retrain the work force wherein necessary, eliminate wastage in Government, reduce the Army in size and expenditure. The formula is not new. We may also consider bringing in some solar panels to replace electric heaters for the sake of humanity and those expensive barrels of oil. In
Leaving the BMW home was a good move. Taking the Subaru to