The vanishing lies
L’express.mu, Mauritius
Dec 17 2004
Two months ago, the glistening guillotine blade above the earthly
paradise that is Ferney forest dangled virtually unnoticed. Today, most
of the Mauritian population is aware of and able to berate the great
perils that the sanctuary faces as a result of administrative bungles,
greed, lack of political will and an insidious quest for expediency.
A bit later today, Cabinet will be presented with the Seebaluck report
that outlines the nefarious ecological toll that will be paid by the
country if government decides to go ahead with the Road Development
Authority’s (RDA) planned route through the Ferney valley. Next
Tuesday, the prime minister will be holding a meeting with all the
stakeholders to decide of the fate of the forest. A critical time
indeed.
Admissions of mistakes are, as you will see, all the rage nowadays.
Maybe our role models would care to indulge in an exercise of
humility. After all, error is only human.
On Monday, French Foreign minister, Michel Barnier, demanded of Turkey
that it acknowledges the massacre of over one million Armenians in
1915 during talks for its accession to the European Union. Although it
is undoubtedly a stalling device – the EU can’t remain an exclusively
Christian club infiniment because of Turkey’s human rights record – a
“mea culpa” from Istanbul would be cause for reflection on past crimes
against humanity.
If government chooses to go ahead with the RDA’s plan, who amongst
the decision-makers will volunteer to apologize to future generations
for having annihilated 76 000 m2 of endemic forest having known that
the country has less than 2% of such vegetation left?
Moreover, it would be more than fitting for a Small Island Developing
State (SIDS) to enquire, during the UN conference that will be held
here in January, on how Mauritius dares to host a conference on
sustainable development when it so lackadaisically threatens myriad
endangered species of flora and fauna with an administrative sword
of Damocles .
Or, at the very least, the delegate could ask that the document that
will come out of the conference be entitled the “Mauritius Plan of
Action That Will Have No Impact Whatsoever on National Policy”. I’m
sure that’s one treatise on sustainable development that even the
United States would ratify.
In a period of less than a month, a group of citizens concerned by
the environmental implications of the south-east highway project
called Nature Watch have come up with an alternate route that will
not only spare the forest, but will also be safer and a lot cheaper
than the RDA’s.
If there’s one thing that’s better than having to do a “mea culpa”,
it’s not making the mistake in the first place…
–Boundary_(ID_nx3PlH1F9JaDrHrKQWfw+g)–