Christopher Gill’s Column

A Professional Business – Negative Quagmire

Christopher GillThese days we hear a lot about running Government like a business. That sounds good, but when you do that, you need the right people running the Government to get proper results which will benefit the People of Seychelles the most. The right people who run businesses successfully and can run a government along the same successful lines are those that know what a business is and have run businesses from conception to realization successfully, without hand outs from Government or from international organizations to make bumpy rides soft. Smart thinking and hard work is indispensable in business as opposed to just hard work. Grave diggers work hard. But they do not work smart. It is better to have an excavator or back hoe do the job than three (3) men. In Seychelles today, our leaders are like those grave diggers, digging holes for us to jump into and be buried with their mistakes and sins. Seychellois, be you SPPF or SNP open your eyes, see the obvious. Your leaders are digging our economic, financial and political graves for us as a free, democratic, prosperous Country. We will all pay for their sins and fumbling errors.

Standard and Poor’s Down Grades Seychelles to “Negative”

By the end of last week, Standard and Poor’s financial house in London, down graded Seychelles long term rating to a “Negative”. This means the Seychelles current economic and financial policies under the SPPF, if they persist, the Country will unlikely be able to perform on its long term obligations. This is worse than a “B” rating which means: HIGH RISK. If the SPPF were doing a good job and running the Country like Mr. President says, “like a business”, Standard and Poor would have given us a report of STABLE for our long term future outlook. Standard and Poor are narrowing their vision on to the SPPF mishandling of our finances because they ventured on to the INTERNATIONAL BOND MARKET without first putting our financial house in order. When you do that, things go bad, very very fast and they get worse faster, then you can say “Mon’n Peye Tou Nou Det”.

Standard and Poor’s said that if there is a continuation of fiscal slippages, arising from expenditure overruns and if our heavy debt burden is not reduced, it will downgrade Seychelles again. This is the complete opposite of what Mr. President said when he came back from seeing the POPE. In that interview with SBC, he said, “I am happy to announce that we have paid all our debts”. It is not nice to lie after just meeting the Pope of the Catholic Church at the Vatican. It is very unchristian and shows you were not sincere when you gave Pope Benedict a gift of coconut boxes made in Seychelles, on behalf of the People of Seychelles. A gift in vain is a thought in vain.

 Tourism GST Going To 10% and Beyond

On Sunday, the SBC televised a meeting with Ministry of Finance bureaucrats and Mr. Louis D’offay from the Seychelles Hotel Association (SHA) advising us of an increase in GST from 7% to 10% then on to 12% and 15 % every year after 2007. In an attempt to plug the holes in their sinking economic financial ship, the SPPF are “killing the goose that lays the golden egg” for Seychelles. Since they gave us 12 months notice of the increase, they say it is professional! Professional my goose! There was nothing professional about the Titanic taking on an iceberg. There will be nothing professional about tour operators and hotels selling Seychelles and rooms overseas with the highest GST in the world taxed on the industry.

Mr. Afif says this exorbitant tax is for Government providing infrastructure for the hotels to succeed. Well, then why do we still have roads not paved, no sewer hook ups, no adequate water supply till today after spending $30 Million on a desalination plants on Mahe, Praslin. Why do we not have adequate electricity grids to run our hotels. Instead we have to walk about in evenings regularly and lie to tourist and tell them, “ah two bats were making love on the electric wires and they got caught ...sorry about the blackout!

Mr. Afif wants us to pay more for GST but the Government cannot bring crime under control to prevent our hotels from being robbed, burgled and ransacked. Our Guests cannot enjoy the beaches and nature trails without first being robbed or knifed for what little possessions they carry with them while on holiday.

While Government increases GST for hotel establishment up to 15% does Mr. Afif and Mr. Faure knows that most tourists pay for their stay with credit card. Those card services charge them 17% to 21 % per charge and after 30 days some cards add another 30% on outstanding bills. This increases the cost of a holiday to exorbitant figures. As the price of fuel goes up the prices of airline tickets will soar and make Seychelles an unattainable destination for many. If Governments in Europe impose a Carbon Foot Print Tax on long haul flights, as they see you increase GST surcharge, the trend of increasing visitors to Seychelles will reverse. Why the Minister Ask? Because there is just so much money someone is willing to spend on a holiday and secondly, the trend in Europe today, is not to take just one big long trip per year to holiday, but to take 3 or 4 shorter trips per year. Guess what Minister? Seychelles is not a short trip.

As for Restaurants, did the SPPF Minister ever think that 15% GST on a restaurant plus 12% GST for goods purchased and served plus 15% standard service charge for waitresses will mean a 42% increase in the cost of a bill. If the bill is settled by credit card, add another 21% which makes the bill 63% over and above the real establishment charge. SPPF is killing the goose that lays the golden egg. It is also crushing the eggs so no one gets to enjoy them, not even themselves. That is not good business sense. Good business sense not only keeps the goose alive, but it encourages the goose to produce more and more eggs, not less. What can you expect from a bunch of political science (communist type) school teachers and postal clerks. For restaurants it will be our waiters, bartenders and waitresses and their families that pay the immediate price for SPPF’s mumbo-jumbo professional taxation scheme.

 Opposition Quagmire

As the SPPF assault the good People of Seychelles with their debunked economic policies, the Leader of the Opposition has forsaken the value of a unified opposition to offer the People of Seychelles ample “kan-kan” to pass the days as we make our way to our graves.

The Leader of The Opposition has taken up the cause of Taiwan, Glorieuse Island, and Tromlin Island beyond the position of the Taiwanese and the USA in the Pacific Ocean and the French and Madagascar and Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. We have little or no contact with Taiwan except for Paul Chow’s numerous visits there. What is more important to us is the formation of a Communist China-Seychelles Policy for the Opposition, not what we think on Taiwan. We all have different views on Taiwan because we can afford to. On Communist China and Interference in Seychelles Affairs, we do not have the luxury of variance in the Opposition. Communist China keeps SPPF in power.

As for Glorieuse and Tromlin, the only contact I ever had with these islands was when I was in La Reunion doing one of those emergency shopping trips and medical treatment excursions to keep my family and businesses up to speed. It was late afternoon and my wife was spending too much time in a St. Denis pharmacy for my own personal comfort. So I told her I would go and have a beer in the tavern near by and asked her to meet me there when she was done picking up medicines we do not get in Seychelles beyond the UN-WHO quota.

In the tavern, I sat next to two French sailors that were going on and on about the beautiful women of Tromlin Island. I listened carefully as the French sailors went on about these big rounded sexy-lovely dames. Out of curiosity I interjected and asked them what nationality were the women? The larger more drunk sailor turned around and said, “Seychelloise” mon ami! I was shocked. He went on to explain, on Tromlin Island, there are no women, we court the DU-GONGs (sea-cows) that come from Aldabra-Seychelles and holiday around Tromlin during their mating season; and we take advantage of their natural tendency to copulate during this season....  since we are so desperate. They are not fussy with us and do not ask questions. We French love them for they are so exotic and different! The Indian Ocean is large and can become a very lonely place….the sailor finished. Luckily my wife called me out of the bar and we went on with our day in St. Denis, but I was quite disturbed by the story during the night. Our poor misguided Du-Gongs!

The wardens on Aldabra are put on notice, our sea cows are going beyond our territorial waters to do very un-natural things with some French sailors based in St. Denis. The Leader of The Opposition has protested French claim to the area...seriously now!

May God Bless All Freedom Loving Seychellois! 

November 9, 2007
Copyright 2007: Seychelles Weekly, Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles