It’s A Nouvo Seychelles!Minister Patrick Pillay, after just returning from CUBA on an official visit to keep the stock of Cuban doctors in Seychelles, held an Honorary Consul’s Conference last week which culminated in an evening cocktail of exquisite champagne and fancy finger food on the State House lawn. When being interviewed by SBC, he jovially declared “we are in a Nouvo Seychelles”.
We must take the Minister’s words with a fistful of salt. Let us not forget Minister Pillay was also the Minister of Health and Minister of Education for the SPPF. We do not have to discuss what state he left these Ministries. Personal experience will speak louder than any article in this Paper.
Nouvo it is. While the Minister dishes out fancy words for us to go with his fancy food and fancy champagne, we are indeed in a Nouvo Seychelles today. As one observer told me, who is well placed in a very convenient position, if Seychellois do not know who James Michel is by now, they will know him in five (5) years. What a painful lesson it will be for the loyal SPPF supporters who feel let down, down-trotted, down and out, by SPPF deception, and their failing to live up to their Party Manifesto within just 6 months after a National Assembly Election and only one (1) year after a Presidential Election. Such a turn around is contrary to civilized modern democratic practices.
To reassure his support base of the Nouvo Seychelles theme, Mr. President is making rounds in the districts to say hello to old forgotten militants and ask them to make more sacrifices for the Nouvo Seychelles we are in today. Mr. President takes SBC camera men along with him to make sure they get each shot of him in a living room, in a District, to televise to the whole Country. This type of staging makes Michel look as if he is reaching out to the simple man and intending to makes him look like a working President. Well, if we were indeed so successful from all his hard work, we would not need a President of a Country showing up at our door steps each weekend to say hello, to just keep everyone in line.
In true fact, we are not doing very well under Mr. President. Hard work does not replace Smart work for the betterment of our lives. A man can dig a septic tank hole with a shovel and that is hard work. But a man or woman can also write a computer programme for Airbus 380 XXX and that is smart work. The values of these two works are very, very different. Michel’s Finance policies created by himself and the SPPF have destroyed the Seychelles economy and ruined our lives. The ruin is about to set in and the dream is now over. His hard work is more like digging the septic tank example then writing a computer programme example to us today. SPPF just needs their most loyal supporters to hold on, in spite of their failures. The Country needs these supporters to let go of SPPF and join the voices in Opposition to this regime. The SPPF breaks their promises to us all regardless of political colors, more than we have grains of sand on the shores of Anse Georgette, which we do not have access to under Mr. President’s rule.
At this time it is important for us all Seychellois and SPPF alike to remember those nice, lovely words of Mr. France Albert Rene in the last Rally held on
Many SPPF believed Rene, they danced in the streets of Victoria after the rally with their Bakke YA YA on their heads, their red umbrellas given to them by Communist China and brand new 100% cotton, red tee-shirts. But, as Rene drove off in his motorcade to his quiet home overlooking the dark blue Indian Ocean, Mont Fleuri, Plaisance, Mamelles, St Louis, Bel Air, Mont Buxton, SPPF supporters all walked home sweating after a good eve celebration of wealth and success falling upon us all, just after the National Assembly Elections. It was a Party! But it celebrated nothing!
Today we have arrived at our “Destin” in Minister Pillay’s Nouvo
If a fisherman sold a packet of fish for Rupees 50.00 last year before Elections and this year he keeps the prices the same as Danny Faure insist, his packet of fish is now worth Rupees 6.00 in Purchasing Power Parity today compared to last year for that Fisherman. Too bad for an SPPF fisherman who believed Rene and his mumbo-jumbo. Our “Destin” has become our reward of doom for all our efforts. Soon it will not even be worth the effort to go check on fish traps beyond mere domestic consumption.
Now for those whose brain still tells them to support SPPF, their stomach will soon start giving their brains orders and they will drop SPPF like they have never been dropped. That is why in a late night meeting, it was decided that GST on a list of SMB imports would be removed quietly to keep the support base from starving to death before the next Elections. Hungry SPPF who have been deceived, open your eyes, SPPF is your past, not your future!
If a Truck Driver charged you Rupees 150.00 for a trip last year and he charged the same this year he would earn Rupees 18.00 in real terms on a Purchasing Power Parity to last years Rupee for the same job. This truck driver’s Nouvo Seychelles is the destruction of his livelihood, only to be replaced by an expat construction company that streamlines trucking service, cement service and building, all into one company and one service. You must pay in US Dollars though. This Nuovo Seychelles Minister Pillay talks about, no Seychellois truck driver voted for, either courageous-enlightened Opposition or fearful- tricked SPPF.
The days of the independent Seychellois businessman is ending fast under Mr. President’s Nouvo Seychelles. Mr. President says he is running the Government like a business. Yes, perhaps like an entomologist (person who studies bugs, rodents like roaches termites, rats) his business is the exterminating business. Soon we will all be done in and wiped out. When we are told to go to SENPA to start a business it will be worthwhile to remember last years Rupee 50,000.00 loan is now worth 6,000.00 only. So you may as well stay at home, start a small farm to feed the kids. If you live on Roche Caiman, since they will not let you farm outside, try asking for a farmers block at Sans Souci around the grounds of L’Exile or along Mr. President’s perimeter. He has lots of former Government land there and I am sure he will oblige someone ambitious and hard working to cultivate the unused land. Just make sure you pack a few kilos of “Lan grenn” (fertilizer) on your next trip from Mauritius, like many farmers do in Nouvo Seychelles.
As the Minister toasted to a Nouvo Seychelles on the State House lawn with fancy champagne, I could only think about a young boy who went to the shop with Rs.4.00 for lemonade and he was told it cost Rs.8.00 now. The little boy simply bowed his head and walked out slowly, disappointed. SPPF has failed this boy. It’s up to his Parents now to see the failure and make a difference in the boy’s life. In the meantime, on Sunday, around lunch, when all Seychellois families and friends gather, make a toast with warm water to Minister Pillay - for at least he is able to drink champagne on our behalf, in the Nouvo Seychelles....since there is not enough champagne or fine crystal glassware to go around for all of us.
Writer's Note: Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) is a term used in Economics to compare currency values against what those currencies at a given time and date can buy. In this case we have compared Seychelles Rupee today against a Euro versus one and half years ago, at the official rates. The Black Market Rates will make another Article. The variance in parity is called: INFLATION which can be reduced to an ascertainable percentage. For