ENDY JAY
The regular reader may have noticed that, of late, I have been fairly present in the columns of ‘Forum’. Granted, it was deliberate, but let me make it clear it was not my intention, far from that, to add my voice – still less to be assimilated to where I do not belong – to that chorus of recriminations that is steadily gathering momentum, that barrage of heavy artillery from varied quarters with, strangely enough but expectedly from that ‘strangest’* team at the helm, the ammunition provided on a silver salver by those targeted, those ones often retreating in a disorderly manner unwilling to engage fully in the tussle, abusing of the privilege of office, or hiding behind the advantage of numerical strength, a superiority attained with just over one third of the electorate but reigning as overlords under a system we still call democracy.
True it is, I have added my voice to stigmatize an almost uninterrupted chain of events from scandals to abuses of power, through nepotism and favouritism, but directing the spotlight toward a different focus, and certainly not out of allegiance and still less to jump on that bandwagon that seems to be rallying these days almost every sector of activity – including, inevitably, a fair share of sycophants and ‘roder bout’ -, where many are acting with full heart content to pummel, as it were, the incumbents manifestly with an axe to grind, albeit some, irrespective of allegiance, with justifiable motives, a manner to demonstrate, through the media, how disenchanted and downhearted they feel as the drama of ineptness and inconsistence unfolds before their stupefied eyes, and in the process winning the approval of the silent majority. That ineptness of the army of neophytes, not the right mix we can trust to measure up to the challenges of the unprecedented times we are through, under a leadership that has achieved the feat in only a few months of provoking that grand coalition, irrespective whether it lasts or ‘Parti Malin’ taken on board. And I’ll take the risk to say it will last long enough to attain the target, inasmuch as it can be a question of their own survival, and the more so they are likely to gain broad-based support in their endeavour.
This sudden burst of activity was sparked by COVID-19, its real significance apparently escaping attention and its full bearing still to be determined, that have led many experts of world standing to concede it had already changed the face of the world, while the WHO only days ago reminded the pandemic is accelerating to dishearten political rulers who are making plans and devising strategies to attempt to bounce back from the shambles left behind by the first wave. Especially the ones who just before the pandemic were feeling one’s oats, bragging and chest-thumping, but suddenly cut down to size not really knowing how to proceed as from now.
To better grasp the full consequence of the present imbroglio, let us limit ourselves to what is taking place here – which epitomizes, for that matter, the global situation -, making abstraction of all those barking, and analyse some comments of late, taken at random, that indicate clearly we have no alternative than to engage in some sort of unknown avenue without precisely knowing where we are headed for. One uncommitted person writing in these columns only days ago spoke of ‘…il est maintenant question de survie’ On the other hand, one leading captain of the tourist industry, commenting on the opening of our frontiers, had this to say: ‘…Mais les risques demeurent les mêmes si nous ouvrons le 1er août, le 1er septembre ou le 1er novembre. Il serait utopique d’attendre le risque zéro pour prendre une décision.’ And the Minister of Tourism added his grain of salt to crown it all: ‘La réouverture des frontières présente autant de risques que d’opportunités.’ And here lies the gordian knot!!!
Does it require an uncommon brightness to grasp the full significance of that submission to the unknown for some opportunities possibly to be nullified by the risks. We are no longer, and the entire planet along with us, in a mode of advancement, economic progress, upgraded standards of living, but in a struggle for survival that nevertheless, saddeningly so, will lead us to somewhere humanity has never been, a situation where no one may possibly rejoice over the woes of others, especially those vultures still under the nostalgia of their heydays of ‘maja karo’. Hence the frequent use, in my notes, of such terms as ‘writings on the wall’, ‘signs that cannot lie’, or ‘our times’. The times to see that increased agitation of the ‘sea of humanity’, that prompted my frequent presence of late in these columns to stress that point of ‘appointed times’. ‘Why now’?
But let it be clear in everybody’s mind. My comments on the woes in the offing are not ‘une voix dans le désert’. They add to the warning sounded worldwide of the impending calamities by, so to speak, a charging cavalry plodding the inhabited earth. Though, admittedly, the notes in these columns constitute a drop in the ocean, yet contribute to accomplish that Bible prophecy: ‘But I ask they did not fail to hear, did they? Why, in fact into all the earth their sound went out, and to the ends of the inhabited earth their message. » (Book of Romans chapter 10, verse 18).
Having put the records straight, whatever I may contribute in the future, on what constitutes the gist of the present note, will always rest on the infallibility of the prophecies of the Holy Bible to continue to sound the warning, whatever the response, until we reach that ‘Grand Finale’ (the title of one of my recent notes): ‘And when it comes true – and it will come true – they will know that a prophet has been among them. » (Book of Ezekiel chapter 33, verse 33).
* Strangest in the manner they are governing – irrespective of performance -, the level to which they have lowered the no-longer august National Assembly where a non-elected person dictates his terms, that tendency to control everything and everyone, the dubious strategy when it came to replace the second in command given the axe and the empire he intended to erect now in the process of dismantling, that latter move seen as grasping a straw for survival. A government with ‘une façon de faire’ as no previous one, allergic to all forms of criticism and never shy to alter the rules of our democratic traditions to suit their purposes, all these adding up to confirm the forerunner ‘signs’…!