IF WE FAIL OUR CHILDREN TODAY, WE FAIL THEIR TOMORROW. J.W.   |16 September 2021

We are all together in the same boat

Ecology & the economy are really both sides of the same rupee.

If we cannot sustain our environment and develop another 2 pillars to our economy, then soon we will not be able to sustain ourselves.

The real challenge facing us is an essential paradigm shift from the elites “modus operandi of inverted logic” to a mobilizing system that empowers people at all levels, combined with our willingness to sacrifice today for our future generations.

We can make a start by a simple act of offering 4 hours of voluntary work in the local community, when multiplied by thousands it can start transforming our country.

The ultimate moral test that faces each and everyone of us in Seychelles is what kind of world we leave our children; will it be one of continued greed, pollution, corruption and exploitation? Or, will we be handing over a healthy ecosystem which is at one with the 3 pillars of economic activities which generate wealth!

We will unfortunately be entering a period of hardship, both internationally and nationally; a time to support and be kind to each other, irrespective of colour, belief and race, for this has been our strength in the past and will be our strength in the future.

Each week we will feature a different policy, a non-fiction or fiction story or a joke; for humour and laughter are great healers in times of crisis. The first story is fiction and is about our endemic Tropic Bird:

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You may wish to know the reason behind the tropic bird carrying the olive branch instead of the biblical dove; perhaps, you may have put it down to the tropic bird being emblematic of Morne Blanc, this is partly true. But, in reality it goes something like this and is entitled: ‘Noah stands upon the burning deck.’

For the Lord made it rain for forty days and forty nights, except for North Mahé and the La Gogue regions where they had a drought and a hosepipe ban. The nights were the worst, you couldn't see it, you could only feel it; most of the population on Mahé were just feeling it, they had nothing else to do, being stuck inside.

Finally the waters abated and Noah sent forth a raven, yea the raven went forth and stayed forth; because it was verily knackered after that long flight. Noah then sent forth his dove which plucked off the first olive branch that grew. But it returned not, and Noah was pretty plucked off too. Unknown to him, the dove had been shot down on the glorious night of the twelve; night flying had been banned and so had night hunting. For, the French chassers had partaken yet again, of the forbidden Ton Yves Rum before they ventured forth into that fateful night, a night packed full of darkness, so packed that one couldn’t even see a Paki. And lo, for the dove had been indeed flying low to avoid radar; it was hit upon by a stray bullet as the hunters were pissed as usual, and the dove falleth from the sky above, into the Indian Ocean below, whereupon the gallant tropic bird plucked the branch from the ocean and flew onwards towards the Ark. And lo and behold: Stopover (escale) flights were born.

Meanwhile Noah had been busy every night begating; for the women on board were bored, and would not goeth without; so they begat within, they begat in the wheelhouse, they begat in the stalls like animals, they begat in the poop at the stern, they begat everywhere. During the day, Noah was busy doing nothing; slumped in the doorway of the wheelhouse completely knackered. He had been busy creating a Nation.

And the Lord appeared upon one of those days in all his enlightenment and called unto Noah: “What have you been doing with all your birds Noah!”

And Noah while full of foreboding, intrepidly replied: “Lord I knowa, nuthin!”

The Lord of good humour who loved all wisecracks upon earth, answered unto Noah: “Be careful Noah; that what thou utterest, doesn’t come true!”

Later that self same fortuitous day, Noah observed from upon high the return of the bird, whereupon he understood the true message from God. Yet, what landed upon the wheelhouse he understoodeth not one bit; for there appeareth before him a miracle: The sacred Dove, symbol of the Holy Ghost; that had been turned into an elegant Seychelles Tropic Bird, clearly the Lord worked in mysterious ways! Forthwith, Noah in supplication went down on his knees and offered thanks unto the Lord for this miraculous apparition. Then he gave thanks by partaking of the wine and eating of the olives; he then took a pitcher of olive oil and poured it upon the blessed wheelhouse announcing: “This is God’s house, how He’s going to get in though, is entirely up to Him!”

So, space being at a premium in the wheelhouse, it came to pass that Noah built an altar on deck, the silly bugger, and in gratitude he gave a burnt offering to the Lord.

And the Lord was angry and said: “The deck is on fire you twit, and this offering is burnt! You're just like that Englishman Warren, he can’t cook either, he burns everything too, and those compatriots of his? They wouldn't even be able to cook a Jeanne d'Arc without burning her. Behold now, your Ark's hold’s on fire; don’t just stand there Noah, upon the burning deck!”

So Noah sweareth quite a lot at Lot, and asks for more rain to put the fire out, and he promised that if He delivereth a deluge, he will indeed invent the microwave oven for the British! Finally after the storm the rain abated, and upon sighting land, the Ark anchored in Anse Royale bay, upon which Noah verily bestowed upon the land before him, saying: “I shall call this the ‘Garden of  Eden,” a status that would remain so, until ‘Democracy’ was dictated by the IMF.

The still smoking animals two by two together with the crew, who were also enveloped in fumes, disembarked with Joy, for she had been begat after a course of hormones and at a time when sleeping arrangements were well dodgy.

Upon seeing this disembarkation the local Rastafarians of South Mahé, who had been smoking too much weed, were very much taken aback, at once confirming not only their paranoia, but filling them with too much alarm. The latter started going off like clockwork, and the former fed the fear of being clocked for ‘speed’ and having to do time.

And L. Bongo Ras Clot Maga Dog demanded: “Efdat lot all smok like dat mon, derewont be ‘much’ left fah wi, let alone ‘high grade’; wi will affi pray to ‘Jah’ mon!”

From upon high, the all seeing and all hearing Lord asked: “Who is this ‘Jah’ man?”

The Rastas below who were high; answered in unison: “Yah ‘Jah’ mon!”

 And so hereendith our first lesson together!

© James Warren 1st Oct 2016-