Charges withdrawn against two suspects

Happy New Year 2016
www.today.sc
Wednesday 30 December 2015
Newsline
n News
n Sports
n Business
n Life
n
2015 Presidential
election: CDWS shares its
(page
concerns
2)
n Chess: New horizon for
Seychelles chess
(page 4)
n
ICT: Are internet customers getting a raw deal?
(page 7)
SR 10/-
Record drug bust
Charges withdrawn
against two suspects
The two suspects
who are said to be
well-connected have
turned witnesses for
the prosecution.
T
he charges against two of
the five suspects arrested
on March 21 in connection
with the record seizure of 35.9
kilos of heroin at Souvenir in La
Misère were dropped on Monday.
In return, they have agreed to
turn witness for the prosecution
and have undertaken to “make
full and true disclosure of all circumstances” relative to the case.
This decision by the Attorney
General to offer the two suspects
a plea bargain caused quite a stir
amid lawyers involved in the case.
One of the suspects, Heather Longhurst, is related to a former Minister while the mother of the other
one, Andy Barbe, is said to work
for the ruling party.
The March drug bust is the biggest recorded in the country’s
history.
This newspaper has also learnt
that Mr Barbe was the driver of the
lorry that was carrying the drugs.
A lawyer told this newspaper
that he did not understand this
decision. “Why drop the charges
against two of them? This to me
says that the prosecution does not
have enough evidence to convict”.
In the offer made by the Attorney General to Ms Longhurst
whose lawyer is France Bonte,
it is said that the suspect is believed “to be indirectly concerned
and privy to commission of the
offences of importation of a
controlled drug against Vincent
George Florentine, conspiracy
to commit the offence of importation of a controlled drug, to
be charged against Theresette
Maryse Barbe and Daniel Rose
and corruptly promising, offering to give or attempting to procure an officer in employment
in public to be charged against
Theresette Maryse Barbe”.
Ms Barbe is a customs officer
while Mr Florentine who lives in
Dubai was arrested when he arrived in Seychelles. Mr Rose is
known to have communicated
with all four suspects but it is
unclear in what capacity.
Two more suspects are said
to still be at large and living in
Dubai. They have still not been
apprehended. They are believed
by the National Drug Enforcement Agency (NDEA) to be
among the largest importers of
heroin in the country.
r’s
a
e
Y
w
Ne
Special
Continued on page 2
Deportation of Mauritian lawyer
n
Ecole Française des
Seychelles: “So chaud show”
ends the first school term
(page 13)
“Immigration is lying”,
Eichler family says
“
How dare they compare a respected
lawyer to ATM fraudsters?” Maryse
Eichler de Saint Jorre and her daughter,
Gersende, who are friends of Sanjay Bhuckory, the Mauritian lawyer who was deported
from Seychelles last Sunday, are angry at
what they call “the lies of the Immigration
Department”.
They were reacting yesterday to claims
made by the Principal Secretary (PS) of the
ministry of Home Affairs, Michel Marie, on
Monday during a press conference seeking to
defend the decision not to allow Mr Bhuckory to enter the country.
“Sanjay is a distinguished lawyer and
would never have said to an immigration officer ‘let me into the country, and then I will
tell you why I am here’. They lie to hide the
truth”, Mrs Eichler told TODAY.
Continued on page 2
Mr Bhuckory was denied entry to Seychelles.
12.85
13.40
12.80
13.30
13.90
14.60
14.00
14.65
18.90
20.00
18.90
19.95
p2
Wednesday 30 December, 2015
2015 Presidential election
CDWS shares its concerns
C
The observer group presented its recommendations following the Presidential runoff to enhance integrity of the electoral process.
itizens for Democracy Watch
Seychelles (CDWS), the local
observer group, made a number of recommendations following
the Presidential runoff which took
place between 16, 17 and 18 December. These suggestions, it said, will
enhance the integrity of the electoral
process. On Monday, the mission
presented its preliminary report to
stakeholders during a press conference at the CEPS Conference room
at Orion Mall. The organization fell
short of declaring the Presidential
runoff transparent, free and fair, as
it acknowledged that the SNP was
contesting the results and it “would
therefore allow the legal process to
take its due course”.
The report was presented by Eline
Moses, the chairperson of CDWS,
who was also the mission leader.
Firstly, she said that CDWS recognized the need to have “an accurate,
inclusive and credible voters’ register” that will not disenfranchise voters. CDWS therefore recommended
that the Electoral Commission conduct a national voters census to update the register and also to make
provisions for advanced registration
for voters who reach the age of voting
right after the register is closed. “Suspension of the registration period
should occur as closely as possible to
Election Day so as to provide greater
opportunities for people to register”,
she said.
CDWS also reiterated the call
made by international observer
groups to have a fixed date for the
Presidential elections and to hold
polling on one day instead of three
“to address various concerns associ-
Nichole’s take on …
Winning some battles
but losing the war
By N.Tirant
A
s 2015 comes to a close and we prepare to sing out the old and ring in
the New Year, let’s spare a thought for the battles won this past year
and, more importantly, let’s not lose sight of the need to build up our
guard for we could still lose the war.
I’m speaking of course about those environmental battles in a country that
“prides” itself on its environmental sustainability as it boasts to being a world
champion of the environment. Our small size hides a big punch and an even
louder voice when it comes to climate change and the environment at any
international meeting as the latest COP21 in Paris has shown. We noisily
lay claim to being amongst the most vulnerable whenever the scepter of our
planet’s changing weather patterns is raised. And in our need for someone
to blame for it all, we are always quick to point an accusatory finger at the
developed world from where we buy everything we eat, wear and use on a
daily basis!
Meanwhile, the way we treat our environment here on the ground leaves
more than a lot to be desired as we continue to carve up our land and the seas
around us to build more and more of everything we want but may not need!
This year started out with much ado about what many saw as an environmental disaster in the making as arms went up over Baie Ternay where an
international carrier was about to plant a new décor of hillside luxury villas,
a beachside resort, acres of water features and even some water bungalows.
In the face of stiff opposition from environmentalists,civil society groups and
ordinary citizens,the president finally succumbed to good sense to publicly
announce that he had withdrawn approval for the “bling bling” project which
he’d previously lauded for its economic and job-creating value.
That battle won and the project effectively “shelved”, the Gulf carrier was
left licking its wounds even if a very long lease agreement still gives it title to
the land! What to do with the prime property that lies in a national park and
is home to endemic species and singularly beautiful natural features remains
a national dilemma. But that is another story!
Meanwhile, another bigger and even more difficult battle is looming. This
one will pitch citizens and environmentalists against people much closer to
the presidential heart. Has election victory given him the needed impetus
to please our Gulf benefactors who had threatened to abandon us had we
changed the Presidency?
Saving Police Bay and Grand Police may prove an even tougher axe to
grind than the rescue mission of Cap Ternay. That’s why, if it still matters to
us, the time for action is now.
In his budget address rushed through the national assembly in time for the
New Year, the newly-re-instated finance minister offered the nation a budget
that would “create opportunities and build resilience for every Seychellois”.
The Minister crunched economic data to put the 8% growth in tourism
down to the tourism board’s good marketing and promised citizens even more
benefits from value addition in the sector. The Victoria Carnival and the Creole
Festival had played an important role in attracting tourists to Seychelles and offer a new experience, he said, even if he offered no tangible evidence to support
the claim. And as a reward for their excellent work, their 2016 annual budget
allocation would be increased by SCR5 million to SCR85 million.
Even as he boasted that tourism arrivals were up 19% by the end of October, the minister didn’t consider that hotel statistics for the second quarter were still showing only 55% bed occupancy in our Mahé establishments.
He didn’t mention the fact that hotels – largely acknowledged as the larger
foreign-owned resorts – represented only 52% of the tourism establishments
whilst the local home grown guest houses and self-catering establishments
represent 21 and 27% respectively. The minister certainly made no mention
of the Police Bay project.
Instead, he promised that “the moratorium on big development” would
remain in force, although he made that promise conditional upon the results
of the “absorption capacity study of new tourism investment”. With the first
phase completed for the North of Mahé, the study, he said, would now proceed for the other regions.
All eyes are now on the next move. Meanwhile, our tourism vision is still
to make a Seychelles holiday “a unique experience” based on “an authentic,
dynamic and sustainable tourism product”.
Will the President truly champion our environment to stave off this impending onslaught of rich petro-dollars to create yet another “unauthentic
and non-sustainable” luxury resort or will he dedicate Police Bay and Grand
Police to the nation and people of Seychelles for posterity?
ated with the overall integrity of the
polling process”.
The local observer group also
called for improved counting and
management of results by proposing that results from each polling
station be announced and published
as and when they are ready. Mrs
Moses said the process of results
management is crucial to the integrity of the electoral process “in order
to eliminate the element of mistrust
that might arise”.
The group also questioned the secrecy of the ballot, as it said in some
instances votes of the disabled and
the elderly “continued to be compromised”. Mrs Moses gave the example of the North East Point special
voting station, where she said there
were reports of interference with
voters. “CDWS received reports that
a senior official at the North East
Point Home for the Elderly acted in
a partisan manner by withholding
ID cards”, further adding “some voters were not brought down from the
wards to cast their votes”.
Mrs Moses said the layout of the
polling booths may have also put the
secrecy of the ballot into question.
With regards to voting by disabled
people, the observer group recommended that the Electoral Com-
The assistance at CDWS press conference on preliminary findings
of the Presidential runoff.
mission and other partners “undertake effective and innovative voting
methods to ensure that people with
disabilities are able to vote autonomously and in secret”.
Another recommendation had to
do with voter education as CDWS
recognized this needed to be improved “to empower all eligible citizens to vote free from intimidation,
threats, coercion and voter buying
practices”.
In addition, CDWS pointed out
in its report that a person’s right to
freely choose his or her candidate
was violated countless times, especially in the last few days leading to
“Immigration is lying”, Eichler
family says
Continued from page 1
For the Eichler family, the matter is straightforward. “We have
known the Bhuckory family for 30
years and we invited him to Seychelles to discuss matters that are
important to us. Does one need a
GOP to discuss? And since when
does one need a letter of invitation to enter Seychelles? And when
did the identity of the person who
bought a ticket matter to an immigration officer?”, Maryse Eichler
asks.
Gersende Eichler was the one
who went to the airport to pick
up Sanjay Bhuckory and his two
children. “I waited and waited
and when at about 8pm, I realised
that our friend was still not out,
I spoke to an immigration officer
and asked him whether there was
any problems. He told me that the
reason they would not let him in
was because ‘your brother paid for
his ticket and now your brother is
not here and we think he is here to
do illegal work’”, she said.
“I am ashamed at the way our
country has treated this gentleman. We have known each other’s
family for 30 years and we had organised his trip here and booked
him into a hotel. My son Henry
had already planned to be in Thailand but what bearing does this
have on anything?”, her mother
concluded.
polling day. “A team of CDWS observers was deployed to investigate
and witness an incident of vote buying at Providence, involving 15 ID
cards”, she said, adding that the mission also received reports regarding
the use of state resources, including
“the disbursement of public funds
and subsequently observed long unusual queues of people at the Social
Welfare Agency”. CDWS said that on
polling day itself there were reports
that some voters received phone calls
or text messages “urging them to cast
their vote in a particular way or to refrain from voting”.
In line with these infringements
Eline Moses, CDWS mission
leader and Chairperson presenting preliminary report on
the Presidential runoff.
on voters’ rights, CDWS urged that
voters’ education should be enhanced to include illicit conduct by
both voters and political parties. Its
final report is expected to be released
in three months time.
The Presidential runoff was the
third election observed by the local observer group since its creation
in 2011. It deployed eight regional
teams to observe the voting process
on both outer and inner islands. It
is the last local mission to present its
preliminary report after the Association for Rights, Information and Democracy (ARID) presented its report
last week.
Charges withdrawn
against two suspects
Continued from page 1
The case was set to be heard
in November but was postponed
several times because “there was
a murder case and then there
were the elections”, sources tell
this newspaper.
The date was eventually set
for 12 January but the prosecution asked the court on Monday
to withdraw the charges against
two of the suspects.
The street value of the consignment represents around
ten times the amount of heroin
seized annually and has been
evaluated at SCR112 million.
The drugs were brought into
the country by air sometime in
March and are believed to have
arrived from the Middle East.
The NDEA got wind of the consignment and set up an operation
at the airport and at La Misère.
The drugs were concealed in two
boxes containing safety equipment. At the time, the NDEA
said that, “the seizure represents
the biggest seizure of drugs in the
history of the state. This seizure
has dealt a severe blow to a major
criminal drug cartel”.
p3
Wednesday 30 December, 2015
Letter to the Editor
Disclaimer
The views and comments expressed are those of the writer and not necessarily those of this newspaper
2015 Presidential election
Unacceptable state of affairs
My first impression (primae impressionis) of the 2015 Presidential election was that it would be
fraught with irregularities because
the people running the elections
wanted Parti Lepep to win. This
was very obvious to most people as
they watched the Electoral Commission team and the SBC do all
in their power to make sure James
Michel was given every advantage
over the opposition parties. This
is a shame on our nation which
is still run as an autocratic nation
with most important decisions being taken by the President and yet
at the same time he tells us our democracy has matured. Each time
he loses a point like when the Public Order Act was repealed he says
our democracy has matured. I am
trying to find where this maturity
has manifested itself. I expected
our legal system to be based on the
English Law system from which
our laws derived and not from a
plurist system where the Elections
Act can be used in contradiction
to our Constitution. No precedent
can come into conflict with our
Constitution. In my mind, predictable fidelity to our Constitution is
more important than fidelity to a
precedent.
To the citizens of Seychelles our
Constitution is supreme law. No
other act, laws or by-laws howsoever created and for whatsoever
purpose should have the effect of
over-writing the contents of our
Constitution. Our Constitution was
created as a result of a referendum
when the people were given the
chance to spell out the contents for
the legal team, mainly from the Attorney General’s Office, to write the
contents in legalese to make sure
that there were no loopholes. If
there are loopholes or areas where
one lawyer can argue it says “this”
and another lawyer argues it says
“that” then we must replace the current Attorney General as a matter of
urgency because clearly he and his
team have failed to write the contents of our Constitution in a manner that is clear and precise with no
ambiguities. Lawyers always like to
argue because while they argue they
get paid, yet the English language is
a very descriptive language derived
from Latin and Greek and what you
want to say in English can be very
clearly stated.
The Constitutional Court was
formed not as a body to make
changes to our Constitution but to
enforce the contents of our Constitution. There should have been
no room for precedents to have
been set in the interpretation of
our Constitution. Only the voice of
the people of Seychelles in a referendum can change the contents of
our Constitution. The 2015 Presidential election has shown us that
we do not yet have full democracy
in Seychelles. The behaviour of the
Electoral Commission, in particular Hendrick Gappy, and the SBC,
to boot, shows we still operate under an autocratic system because
when the court ordered the Electoral Commission to give the opposition parties a softcopy of the voters register, it ran to State House
to get James Michel’s permission.
Why? James Michel cannot overrule the court but it shows the allegiance is one of autocracy. We still
rely on favours and inducements to
get things done and impartiality is
only a word in the English dictionary.
The first irregularity we observed was when Charles Morin
announced that IDC’s big plane
was out of service and he could only
use IDC’s smaller planes, which
could not take all the observers to
the outer islands. This man is supposed to be a world renowned negotiator and he couldn’t negotiate
a larger plane from someone else,
especially since we have a national
airline that flies to and from our
outer islands and we have so many
private planes parked at our International Airport. This is the first
rat people said they could smell.
Then people could not understand
why in countries with millions
of inhabitants spread over hundreds of outer islands, they manage to run their election in one
day whereas we need three days.
This is the second rat people could
smell. Then when the votes were
counted at the end of the Second
Round, you would have thought
that Hendrick Gappy would have
had his legal team at hand for him
to ascertain whether the 50% the
winner is supposed to achieve was
based on votes cast and not on
valid votes. He should have ascertained his facts in advance and if in
doubt he should have postponed
the announcement.
In jurisprudence parlance, a
precedent is set by a ruling of a
High Court and all other similar and like cases can rely on the
precedent in the future. Judges
are obliged to respect precedents
under the “stare decisis” principles which in this instance mean
that any contested case relating
to proportional representation of
our National Assembly would follow the precedent set in the case
of David Pierre’s appointment to
our National Assembly in 2011.
This precedent was not wide ranging and all encompassing and the
legal team advising the Electoral
Commission, and Henry Gappy
in particular, should have known
this - if not they should go back
and study law again. This would
have avoided egg on the faces of
James Michel and the Electoral
Commission because the winner
announced was not the winner
in law. The National Assembly
precedent can in no way apply to
Presidential elections because the
two are not similar by any stretch
of the imagination save that they
are both political matters. In fact
a super-stare decisis precedent
is a precedent immune to being
changed to cover other matters.
A court cannot overturn or
change its own precedent and certainly cannot now say “oh by the
way, we meant it to apply to presidential elections as well”. Sorry,
that horse has already bolted. If
the Elections Act was different
from our Constitution then by
now someone amongst our brainy
lawyers and advocates should have
picked this up. Hendrick Gappy
should have been advised that
when our Constitution says “Votes”
it means all votes cast because our
Constitution gives us the right to
go into a voting booth at election
time and protest that we do not
wish to vote for any of the candidates by spoiling our ballot paper.
This does not mean we did not cast
a vote, we did but it was a vote cast
in protest which is still our birthright. How on earth Mr Gappy
and his advisors could believe they
could change the meaning of the
contents of our Constitution, God
knows.
The Electoral Commission is
not guided by the Elections Act,
it is guided foremost by our Constitution and then for details by
the Elections Act, provided always
that our Constitution remains
the supreme law. They tried to
do this with the Public Order Act
and they failed and now they are
trying to cite the Elections Act as
their defence. This will not wash
and even a layperson can see that
some kind of shenanigans were at
play. Courts throughout the world
follow the “stare decisis” principle
and it means Hendrick Gappy announced a winner when in fact
there was no winner because neither contestant achieved 50% of
the votes cast. Now the opposition party must take the Electoral
Commission to our Constitutional
Court, which cannot vary its own
initiative (sua sponte) for Hendrick Gappy’s mistakes to be rectified. This means there was no clear
winner and the elections must go
into a third round.
As a layperson I do not know
whether the precedent set in the
David Pierre case was considered
as “orbiter dicta” (other things
said) or “ratio decidendi” (reason
for the decision). I expected to find
an exegesis (interpretation) of this
precedent but my research failed
to unearth it.
Illegal vote buying activities by
Parti Lepep
There are widespread allegations that Parti Lepep members
engaged in illegal vote buying activities and this was confirmed by
both the local and overseas observers in their preliminary reports.
Several people I spoke to said they
were offered SCR5 000 to surrender their ID cards until the election was over. This in itself, when
evidence is produced, will render
the second round of voting illegal
and therefore null and void. Not
only that: if the evidence is conclusive this prepares the grounds
for all opposition parties to sue
Parti Lepep for damages of their
losses and costs incurred in running their election campaigns for
both the first and second rounds.
It also paves the way for any citizen and/or group of citizens to sue
Parti Lepep for damages for their
losses because some people took
time off work and had to drive to
the polling stations and queued up
for hours all in vain and they are
entitled to be recompensed. The
law is the law and the law is not put
on one side during election time.
Some smart lawyer should create
a case for the people in the same
way that claims were filed against
Sheikh Kalifa in the delo kaka case
at La Misère.
In my research, I have not found
any claim preclusion (res judicata) which either Parti Lepep or
the Electoral Commission can use
in their defence. Neither could I
find anything on preclusion from
claims covered under the principle
of “collateral estoppels” that they
can rely on for their activities and
the manner in which the election
campaigns were run. The people
of Seychelles expect their legal
system to operate without fear or
favour and in a fair manner and
when a mistake has been made we
expect acknowledgement and acceptance of guilt which in almost
all cases produces forgiveness.
We do not expect so called smart
lawyers to keep arguing while our
country has been plunged into an
irretrievable depth of hate in our
society known for its fairness, tol-
erance and mutual respect. The
whole world laughed at us when
we had a one man octopus as our
opposition party and now people
are putting the face of James Michel on the Miss Universe contestants where the wrong candidate
was declared the winner and the
crown had to be handed back to
Miss Philippines, the right winner. We have become the laughing
stock of the world.
Tampering with ballot papers
is an act of treason
People became suspicious at the
way these elections were carried
out and I wrote an article asking for
the ballot papers of the first round
to be audited. Now the opposition
parties must obtain a court order
for an audit to be carried out on
the ballot papers of the first and
second rounds. This follows allegations that the ballot papers in the
second round suffered mysterious
alterations in numbers, the numbers did not add up, and the type
of pens used to mark the ballot papers were inconsistent. It is alleged
some ballot papers were marked
with ballpoint pens instead of the
markers provided by the Electoral
Commission. The court has no alternative but to afford verification
and order an audit of the ballot
papers because not only are the
opposition parties requesting this
but citizens of Seychelles must be
afforded this verification otherwise
we will have unacceptable disturbances in Seychelles which we do
not want but at the same time the
Court must accept that we are not
stupid and we have our fundamental rights and we want to see that
the ballot papers were not tempered with and no act of treason
was committed.
The audit must be carried out
by a different team of people and
not the Electoral Commission.
Only representatives from each
political party together with some
laypeople, the judiciary and the
police must attend the audit and
anything mysterious or untoward
must be recorded and then the
Court make a ruling. The media
must be allowed to be present and
not just SBC since people do not
trust SBC because of the biased
way in which they covered the
elections.
If after a recount it is deemed
there was no tempering with the
ballot papers and that Wavel Ramkalawan won then James Michel
must surrender the Certificate
and move out of State House. If
the ballot papers are found to have
suffered alterations and the numbers do not add up then there is no
winner because Mr Ramkalawan
cannot be appointed President using defrauded ballot papers which
means a new election will have to
be called and legal action taken
against the Electoral Commission
and its members for fraud because
they were the organisers and custodians of the ballot papers. This
also paves the way for claims for
damages by all the opposition par-
ties and every citizen of Seychelles
for damages for their losses.
If fraud is proven then several
people will go to jail because we
cannot continue to hurt each
other and get away with it. In
the meantime if a new election is
called Hendrick Gappy and his
team have to be replaced for obvious reasons.
Reflections
The time is now for us to reflect
on our past and to take appropriate
steps to eradicate the evil elements
in our society that have plagued
our life for so many years. Let us
move into a modern Seychelles
where our achievements are based
on hard work and brain power
and not on favours and inducements. We have an opportunity to
make Seychelles the jewel of the
Indian Ocean using the resources
we have in our midst rather than
rely on taking a begging bowl to
our neighbours for pittance and
in return we sacrifice our dignity
and sovereignty. We need to create
a strong National Unity Government with the best brains we can
gather to work as a team and we no
longer rely on the “scratch my back
and I will scratch yours” modus
operandi. Deep in your heart you
know what I am saying.
Contributed by:
Barry Laine FCIM, FInst SMM,
MCMI, MBSCH
[email protected]
www.academyofhighperformance.sc
Wednesday 30 December, 2015
p4
Chess
New horizon for
Seychelles chess
Seychelles is currently hosting the African Chess junior championship.
By AH
3
7 junior chess players from
all over the African continent are currently in Seychelles taking part in the African chess junior taking place in
the National Cultural Centre in
Victoria.
Players from Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Egypt, Kenya,
Madagascar, Morocco, Nigeria,
Somalia, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and hosts Seychelles are battling it out over
nine rounds of the competition
which started on Monday and
should end on January 5. The
competition is being organized
by African Chess Federation,
which has come to Seychelles
with all its officials and umpires
to make sure that the tournament runs smoothly.
There are 24 male and 13 female players taking part and
they are using the Swiss system of play. That means that
the boys will play only boys and
girls only girls over nine rounds.
Each player will play each other
at least once. “That means that
there are no team competitions
as each player will be vying for
himself. For example a Seychellois player will face each other
somewhere along the way,” explained Dericka Figaro, a member of the local chess federation.
On Monday they played one
round whilst on Tuesday they
played two rounds each. Sey-
chelles is being represented by
five players and although they
are not expected to win titles
against some young African giants, they are expected to put
up a good performance and this
competition is expected to boost
up the sport locally in the future. The players will be vying
for the best three in the competition in the two categories, but
for most of them the main aim is
to score enough points to boost
their ratings or move to another
level. The participants will be
fighting hard for rankings such
as candidate master, or world
FIDE master or even a world international master.
In fact this competition
Young African Chess players are battling it out at the African chess Junior in Victoria.
boasts some world international
masters from Egypt for and they
are seen as the favourites.
Miss Figaro said that it is an
honour for a small federation
like Seychelles to be hosting
such an important chess tournament. “We are only hosting and
helping out in the organization
of the championship, but each
country and player have had to
pay for their airfares and accommodation so it has not cost
us a lot to host this major event,”
she explained.
Sports for All
Berjaya resort scoops best team award
Teams were rewarded for their participation in various workplace sports activities.
By AH
S
ince the start of the year,
various sports activities
organized by the Sports for
All unit of the National Sports
Council have gathered momentum. To this effect a new body
called SWASH was formed to
regroup the various workplaces
which take part in the activities.
During 2015, two main sports
events were organized, namely
volleyball and football, in which
over 15 workplaces took part.
Competitions were organized
separately for Mahé, Praslin and
la Digue.
And after a year of intense
battles aimed mostly at keeping
employees healthy and boost
their morale, the NSC rewarded
the winners during a gala evening.
In the volleyball category for
Mahe, the NSC came out as the
best team for ladies ahead of
Ephelia Resort and Nouvobanq.
As for the men, Ephelia Resort
came out first, ahead of MLUH
and Ship Air. On Praslin, Acajou
ladies were the best in volleyball
beating Education and Indian
Ocean Hotel, whilst for the men
Education was the best team
finishing ahead Land Transport
and Acajou Hotel. The best volleyball team for La Digue was
Orchid, who finished ahead of
the District Administration Office and JJ Spirit.
As for football, MCB was the
best team on Mahé, finishing
ahead of Berjaya Resort and Air
Seychelles. On Praslin the best
football team was Seychelles
Land Transport beating Indian
Ocean Hotel and Acajou for the
trophy. Whilst on La Digue the
best football team was Gregoire
Company, with L’Union Estate
second and Self Employ third.
Before the main league started the teams took part in a one
day tournament and the winner
for football was Eden Bleu while
The winners with NSC officials during the prize giving ceremony.
the ladies volleyball tournament
was won by SNYC and for the
men it was MLUH.
There were also individual
prizes for the best in football
and volleyball. In football the
best goalkeeper was Antoine
Nicette who works for MCB
Maée. And the best scorer was
won jointly by Thomas Alexis
and Ronny Bamboche, both
form Air Seychelles. The best
volleyball player for ladies went
to Julia William who works for
NSC on Mahé. She won the
prize ahead of Isanne Rose from
Acajou Hotel on Praslin where
as the best male volleyball play-
er award went to Roy Labiche
from Ephelia Resort, finishing
ahead of Sonny Athanase who
works for the ministry of Education on Praslin.
And the most coveted prize of
the night went to Berjaya Resort
who won the best organization
of 2015. The prize was collected
by Gerard Marie. “This is a big
success for us because we put
the health of our workers first at
Berjaya. We encourage our staff
to at least take part in one sports
activity. We train two to three
times a week in football and volleyball so we are satisfied,” said
Mr Marie.
Gracing the occasion that
night was the CEO of the NSC,
Giovanna Rousseau, who called
on government to invest more
in sport and sports infrastructure, saying that a healthy nation means a healthy workforce.
She said that she is trying to
instill in the NSC management
the concept of a person being
active from the cradle to the
grave, meaning staying active
throughout your whole life. “It
was always a pleasure for me
on Fridays seeing all the teams
playing at the Mont Fleuri playing field as well as on La Digue
and Praslin,” she said.
NSC Chief Giovanna Rousseau presenting the trophy of best workplace to Gerard Marie from
Berjaya Resort.
p5
Wednesday 30 December, 2015
Courtside with Francis Remy
“Cardiovascular diseases are the number one killer in Seychelles”
The head of the Sports for All talks about his busy year, his passion for helping people and the challenges he faces to make the unit one of the most efficient in the country.
BY: AH
After a very busy year for the Sports
for All unit, and having completed most
of your programs for the year, are you
and your team in a more relaxed mode
now?
Yes, we are a bit more relaxed now. We
are now doing our reports and starting to
think about next year. We are now focusing
more on the administrative side and updating a few things to make sure that we end
the year properly.
Did you organize the Christmas Gift
exercise this year?
Oh yes we did. In fact, we completed
most of our scheduled programmes. We
are left with only one picnic for the group
involved in the nature walks this year. And
we will be organizing this very soon. Otherwise, it is mission accomplished for this
year for my team.
The Sports for All unit has been described as one of the most active NSC
departments this year. As its head how
would you describe 2015?
The staff has really worked its socks off,
it’s been very dedicated and may I say that
it’s a ladies team, with me being the only
male in this unit. When we say that we are
going to do a project we make sure that it is
done and is done well. A committed staff is
the key for the Sports for All Unit, it is well
disciplined and delivers.
What is the role of the unit?
Sports for All is a concept that was initiated in the late 1980s when the regionalization policy in sports was set up. Before
it was called mass sports then it changed
to Sports for All. People complained that
during the weekend and especially on Sundays of a lack of sports activities. As a result, sports events were organized for them
on Sundays only and it targeted people not
involved in sports teams. Then it evolved
with the aim of making sure that the majority of people in Seychelles are involved in
an activity so as to live a more healthy life.
We started developing specific programmes
so as to be better prepared compared to before when we just asked people to come to
a venue without any proper planning. The
objective of the Sports for All concept is to
ensure that people are involved in one or
more activities so that he or she can exercise
every day. We have developed many programmes and that is why for example you
see so many people walking every day, the
fitness trail is packed every day after work
and people are involved in exercise classes
many times a week.
How do you develop these programmes?
We study the trends and look into what
people expect from us. We also work with
our partners and listen to them, notably the
ministry of Health. For instance if the ministry says that obesity amongst children is
becoming a major problem then we act on
it and develop programmes for children, or
people are ageing faster or workplaces complain that their staff is unfit. We follow these
trends and make programmes based on the
needs of the country. We analyze the state
of the people and develop programmes to
suit them. We try and develop programmes
for all levels of society.
How would you rate the response to
your activities?
We are satisfied. Our staff is motivated by
the good response and that is why they are
happy to give up all their weekends to come
and run the activities. At the Sports for All
unit, we get only one Saturday or one Sunday
off to spend with our families each month.
From February to December our staff works
during the weekend. Even on the days we are
supposed to be off we get workplaces asking
us to assist them in some of their activities
and we cannot say no as it is our job. So this
is what motivates us every weekend and
even during the week we often finish work
very late. Apart from their jobs, our staff also
conducts private exercise classes. The people
are happy and that makes us happy.
Would you say that the unit has surpassed expectations?
Yes, it has come to a point where we
cannot even meet the demand so we have
to work on a new structure so as to satisfy
everyone. For example, a few years back
when we organized nature walks we simply
saw a group of people hiking on the main
roads. This is no longer the case; nowadays
nature walks take place in the mountains,
forests or on nature trails. These days you
will find the people doing nature walks at
unexpected times, during the week, or as
a family outdoor activity. The concept of
hiking on the road is long gone; people are
now more into real nature walks. And this
shows that our programmes have been well
appreciated and people are more nature
conscious now.
What are the programmes your unit
organizes?
Our programmes are for different age
groups. We start with baby gym, from nine
months to three years of age. We organize
activities for kids during the holidays and
this time we are concentrating on swimming, we have programmes for senior
citizens and a major programme to fight
obesity in schools. We have a programme
on fitness training for all schools and this
takes places every three months, we have
a programme for workplaces and this has
become a very big event in the country. We
have the regional sports programme for all
the districts as our staff sit on the districts
‘teams and each time they have activities
they ask for our help and in turn we organize their activities.
We organize regional sports activities
every month and we also organize events
on La Digue and Praslin regularly. We have
about 19 programmes per year and now we
are re-introducing the Seychelles fitness
test. We had stopped this test so that we
could develop our other programmes and
now that they have been established we are
in a better position to do these tests as more
people are engaged in a physical activity every day. The fitness test will be for all
age groups with each one having their own
criteria. Next year we will also be putting
emphasis on the youth. We have developed
programmes for most age groups except for
the youth. We are currently preparing the
equipment to send to the various districts
such as mats for badminton so that by January some districts will be able to offer their
youths the chance to learn and play badminton. We will also have table tennis and
some other sports which should attract the
youth.
Earlier you mentioned that you have a
group of dedicated workers. How many
are you and do you need more hands to
implement the many programmes you
have mentioned?
There are eight of us and each person is
responsible for a specific programme and
it’s up to them to develop and manage their
activities. They also liaise closely with the
many committees in the country. And now
that we will be moving more into the districts we will have to sit down and discuss
with the ministry of Local Government on
how best to tackle the activities so that the
staff can better organize themselves. The
National Sports Council is also putting in
place new structures for sports on a regional basis, so will be focusing more on young
people between 15 to 20 years of age. There
are over 30 sports federations and associations in Seychelles, so we are trying to put
in place some programmes within these
associations as we know that there are so
many places available for young people. So
our thinking is that three quarters of the
youths who want to take up a sport can do
so.
Do you get the necessary support from
the sports authorities and what is your
funding like?
The Sports for All unit is a branch of the
NSC and we are allocated a budget. We
started with a very small budget but over the
years the NSC and government have seen
that we are giving a lot and so our budget
has gradually increased. I expect that this
year that we will have more funds for our
activities. We have to take into account that
the percentage of people involved in high
level sport is minimal, so the majority of
people in the country are involved in mass
sports. So to deal with them and make sure
that we have a healthy workforce and population we have to deal with the masses. We
expect to get more funds to be able to make
our plans work. The base or the core of the
country consists of people not involved in a
high level sports , so we really have to focus
on them as we need a healthy population
and workforce and this in turn will cut costs
on health related problems. Generally we
get the good support from the NSC management and also from the Sports ministry
as we work closely with the federations and
associations. We also have to fight for the
same vehicles and venues to conduct our
activities. So we have to come together with
them so as to coordinate our activities better and not be stepping on each other’s toes
as we have to share the same infrastructure.
So yes, we do get the support and we expect that next year we will get even more
support from the relevant authorities,
workplaces and the districts. Our staff is already involved in many activities and works
with many organizations in the country
plus they are also involved in many exercise
classes and I expect the support they get to
increase even more next year.
Is your staff qualified for the demanding jobs they are engaged in?
I would say that my staff leads by example. They follow courses and are trained
by the NSC’s training unit. They are also
experts in their different domains. And
every time there is an opportunity for further training we send them. In the fitness
world, one has to be updated all the time as
things are constantly changing. What may
be a good exercise today for a particular
sport may not be good anymore in a year’s
time. So they have to be on the lookout all
the time and that is why we put a lot of emphasis on training.
As the person in charge of the unit,
how do you approach the challenge of
organizing all these activities and being
in charge of the administrative side of
things as well?
It is indeed a big challenge as the expectations from the public are very high.
I have been responsible for many sports
associations so I always try to overcome
these challenges and this helps me do my
job well. I never rest on my laurels and
always try to satisfy everybody. As much
as possible if someone comes to me for
help I will never refuse to help; even if it
is difficult and challenging I always try to
find ways to do things. It is simply having
a good heart and I thank god for keeping
me healthy so that I can do my job well.
Every day is a challenge for me especially
given that I work with people. Today, I can
be with a healthy person and the next day
he or she may not be healthy anymore. So
we have to be on the alert and look for new
ways of doing things all the time so as to
deal with the new eventualities that keep
coming our way.
How do you manage your time between your job, your family and your responsibilities as head of the table tennis
association?
It does take all of my time and for this I
want to thank my family especially my children for their understanding and support.
They understand that if this weekend I am
not working I will be involved with table
tennis. I try as much as possible to manage
my time well and to have a proper planning. I am also the head of the African zone
7 for table tennis so at times I have to go for
meetings abroad and develop programmes
and write reports. Plus I am also on some
other committees. One thing that will mark
me for the rest of my life is that I headed
two different associations in an Indian
Ocean Games. At that time, I was the head
of the judo association and at the same time
I headed the table tennis association. I do
not know if anybody has done it before but
that was one of the highlights of my sports
career. So I feel that I have done a lot for my
country up to now.
Many chairmen have given up their posts
after a few short years and I have been the
head of table tennis for 12 years now. When
I started table tennis was in a bad shape
and we have worked hard and given Seychelles gold medals in table tennis at the
Indian Ocean Games so that is how hard I
have worked to bring success to my sports.
I am somebody who loves to work hard
and this is something that has been instilled in me and my family by my parents.
I’ve been doing voluntary work since I was
16 years old so if I had taken money during all these years I would have been a little
millionaire by now! I simply enjoy doing
voluntary work and helping develop the
youth of this country. I am also a fitness instructor with CAR which deals with youth
going through drug rehabilitation and this
is also one of my passions. I give a lot of
my time to the church as CAR falls under
them. I also do yoga classes. And I enjoy all
of them especially helping the youth.
What satisfaction do you get from your
dedication and hard work?
A lot. It is not material satisfaction but
the only thing I ask the young athletes
is to win medals and when they do this it
brings joy to my heart. I work with somebody abusing drugs and once that person
becomes clean it makes me happy. Material
gains are not that important to me because
we have to use them and then leave them
when we die, whereas spiritual and moral
values are much more important as you can
carry them into the afterlife.
You once worked with the now defunct
National Youth Service and then here at
NSC. How was that?
I have always been a hard worker. In
my family we all work hard. I come from a
family of six and we all do our part and we
know where we come from and we are all
very focused. Our mum disciplined us very
well and supported us all the way. I knew all
along what I wanted to do since I was a kid
and at the age of 19 I started working in that
direction and when I saw that it did not fit
me I left. Then I started again until I found
the one job which was best suited to me and
here I am. I have always been a sportsman.
I played football in the first division with
Anse Etoile when I was a teenager fresh out
of NYS and I was a top boxer so working in
sport is something amazing for me.
I was also trained and specialized in human services so I also enjoy working with
people. I have worked hard all my life.
Any last message?
Cardiovascular diseases are the number
one killer in Seychelles so my message is
that we need to exercise. People have the
choice to do any kind of exercise but bear
in mind that your health is your responsibility and no one will take care of it but you.
Put your health first, take the first step then
you can seek help from others. Your health
starts at home and we have to continue the
battle to educate the young ones and even
the older ones to make sure that they are
not the next victims of diabetes or other
complications related to cardiovascular
problems. So please take care of yourselves.
p6
Wednesday 30 December, 2015
English Premier League
Arsenal regain top spot; Improved United draw with Chelsea
Tottenham Hotspur go third with later winner at Watford
A
rsenal regained top spot in
the Premier League as they
beat Bournemouth 2-0 on
Monday night while Manchester
United’s winless streak stretched
to eight as they were held 0-0 by
Chelsea.
Gabriel and Mesut Ozil scored
to lift Arsenal one point above
Leicester, who host fourth-place
Manchester City on Tuesday night.
Tottenham are third after a 2-1
win at Watford while Manchester
United manager Louis van Gaal
vowed not to resign after their
draw with Chelsea left them sixth,
five points behind the top four.
Two days after losing 4-0 at
Southampton, Arsenal bounced
back with a comfortable win over a
Bournemouth side struggling just
above the relegation zone.
Gabriel put them in front on 27
minutes, and Ozil doubled their
lead midway through the second
half while goalkeeper Petr Cech set
a new Premier League record with
his 170th clean sheet.
“We were focused from the
start,” Arsenal manager Arsene
Wenger said. “It took us a while to
get going, but we were in control of
the game and did very well.”
At Old Trafford, United dominated possession and hit the woodwork twice but were unable to find
a way past Thibaut Courtois in the
Chelsea goal.
The German celebrates after his goal confirmed Arsenal would
return to the top of the Premier League table.
Juan Mata and Anthony Martial
were the unlucky ones to hit the
bar and post, respectively, while at
the other end, Juan Mata blasted
over Chelsea’s best chance.
It is United’ worst run since
1990, leaving them sixth and
champions Chelsea 14th, but Van
Gaal said he would not be stepping
down.
“Will I resign? On the contrary,”
he said. “When the players can give
such a performance with a lot of
pressure, there is not any reason to
resign for me.
“Maybe the media wants me
to, but I shall not resign. It’s not a
question of staying - it’s a question
of fulfilling my contract.”
“I can only work with my players, and you can see they are fighting for me. Even after this result
the fans were applauding, so I cannot say I’m very much concerned.
In this football world you never
know, but I’m fully confident in the
board and my players.”
Son Hyeong Min was the hero
for Tottenham as he grabbed a late
winner to keep them in touch with
the leaders in the Premier League
on Monday.
The South Korean fired through
the legs of Heurelho Gomes with
one minute of the 90 remaining to
give Tottenham a 2-1 win at Watford, who played the last 30 minutes with 10 men.
Belgium international Courtois was already diving the right way
when he kept out Herrera’s effort with minimal fuss.
“The victory is very important
for us, we worked hard to try and
win, and are happy because Watford are a difficult team and beat
Liverpool recently,” Tottenham
manager Mauricio Pochettino
said.
Spurs are now four points off top
spot, and Pochettino admitted that
winning the title was not impossible.
“In football a lot can happen,” he
said. “The most important thing is
we believe, we have a strong squad
to fight for it.”
Andy Carroll headed a late winner as West Ham beat Southampton 2-1 to go seventh, but Crystal
Palace lost points in fifth as they
drew 0-0 at home with Swansea.
Goodison Park saw seven goals
as Stoke edged out Everton 4-3 in
a thriller to move into the top half,
Marko Arnautovic winning it with
a late penalty to move his side up
to ninth, three places above Everton.
“It’s a tough ask, playing Saturday then Monday over the Christmas period, (but) I thought we
were excellent and scored some
great goals,” Stoke manager Mark
Hughes said.
Norwich pulled away from trouble with a 2-0 win over bottom
side Aston Villa, while West Brom
edged out third-bottom Newcastle
1-0 in the afternoon’s other match.
Tottenham Hotspur substitute Son Heung-min scored the winner for
Spurs against Watford with a delicious flick in the 89th minute.
Formula 1
Two years on silence surrounds Michael Schumacher
The 46-year-old suffered an injury during a skiing holiday in 2013, with very little news being leaked out regarding his recovery
F
ans from around the world
would love to hear some
good news, or some news
at all, on record Formula One
world champion Michael Schumacher and his recovery from a
life-threatening ski accident.
Tuesday marks the second anniversary of the accident in the
French Alps, and the Schumacher family and his manager Sabine
Kehm have relased virtually no
details on his condition over the
months and years.
Privacy was always important
for Schumacher in his racing
days, and according to his media
lawyer, Felix Damm, the public
has no right to information in the
first place after his accident.
“The accident itself was an
event of contemporary history
and could be reported on,” Damm
told dpa.
“But there is no such requirement once the recovery starts
and the public is spatially excluded - it happened in a hospital and
now at home.”
The seven-times F1 champion
Schumacher suffered grave head
injuries when he fell on a rock
in a skiing accident in France on
December 29, 2013.
He spent months in an induced
coma, was moved from hospital
to a rehabilitation clinic in June
2014, with his rehabilitation continuing at home in Switzerland in
September that year.
Only the family and the closest
friends know how Schumacher is
doing shortly ahead of his 47th
birthday on January 3.
It was only last week that
Kehm had to deny a magazine
report that Schumacher could
walk again, saying speculation
of this nature was “irresponsible” because “for Michael in view
of the severity of his injuries the
protection of his privacy is very
important.”
It also raised “false hopes” for
fans and well-wishers, she added.
There are many of those
around the world as Schumacher remains the most successful
driver in the sport he competed
in 1991-2006, and again 2010-
News of Michael Schumacher’s recovery from a head injury, suffered
skiing two years ago, has been scarce.
2012.
Schumacher won a record seven world titles, a 1994 and 1995
double with Benetton and then
famously five in a row with Ferrari 2000-2004. Also unrivalled
are his 91 race wins and 68 pole
positions in 308 grands prix he
competed in.
Kehm has always been reluctant to raise any kind of hopes,
speaking of progress here and
there but always highlighting the
grave nature of the injuries which
even a helmet Schumacher wore
on that fateful day could not prevent.
Damm said that questions
will always remain because “you
won’t be able to say: I will make
a statement and clear up all open
questions.
“Instead,
every
statement
would lead to new questions.”
While Schumacher recovers
his children are entering the
spotlight.
His daughter Gina is a successful western rider just as his
wife Corinna, and 16-year-old
son Mick Schumacher had his
debut in Formula racing this
year.
His first Formula Four practice sessions on the German
track in Oschersleben generated
huge media attention, and he is
expected to continue in the same
series in 2016.
But no one will expect any comment from him on his father who
continues his rehabilitation at the
family home on Lake Geneva, far
away from the public eye.
Wednesday 30 December, 2015
p7
ICT
Are internet customers getting a raw deal?
If a petition launched online is to be believed this is indeed the case. The petitioners expect government to do something about it, citing Mauritius as a neighbouring country where
the service is affordable.
M
any take the time to
complain about what
displeases them without
doing anything about it, perhaps
due to the view that nothing will
get done through the power of
one. However, it would seem that
Seychelles has recently discovered
the power of many and as such,
the petition is now being wielded
as a force for change.
One such petition currently has
the local telecoms industry in its
sights. Why, you ask? Well, according to the petition, internet
bills are unreasonably high. Wavel
Woodcock, the man behind the
petition, says that “the people of
Seychelles are paying exorbitant
prices for internet services in Seychelles”. According to the petition
preamble as it is found on Facebook, Mr. Woodcock claims that
“many (in) Seychelles have complained about the high prices of internet data and the high monthly
fee they have to pay for broadband
internet packages”, before making
the comparison to “other countries
in the region, notably Mauritius
our neighbouring country (where)
you can get unlimited monthly
The petitioner hopes that government will step in to bring down the price of internet data.
internet package(s) for less than
1000 Mauritian rupees”.
As if that were not enough, Mr.
Woodcock says that “Seychelles
has the most expensive internet
services in Africa,” where sometimes “internet services (can) cost
more than the average salaries of
the Seychellois people”. In fact,
some people have complained of
monthly internet charges in excess
of SCR5 000 and even as high as
SCR25 000. As a result, Mr Woodcock is demanding that something
is done to “look (at) the companies
that are overcharging and stealing
from the Seychellois people,” as he
puts it, because, internet usage is
“not a luxury”!
But is the issue really as cut and
dried as the petition makes it out
to be? TODAY reached out to
three of the local internet providers to give them the chance to respond to the claims. The CEO of
Airtel was travelling at the time
of going to print so was unable to
respond, whilst Intelvision never
responded to our query.
Cable and Wireless Seychelles
(CWS) did reply however. The
company recalled that 3GB of
data cost SCR550 three years ago,
compared to SCR175 now. “Already in itself, this shows that the
cost of internet in Seychelles is on
the way down making this service
cheaper for customers”. Since the
beginning of 2015, says CWS, an
additional broadband allowance
of 50% has been given customers, as well as free internet from
midnight to 6am and customers
can also get 365% more value on
mobile internet bundles.
The service that CWS provides is
“already regulated” and due to the
great investment in technology in
the country “the speed of internet
in Seychelles is now the fastest in
Africa according to independent
bodies,” says the company, making it faster than South Africa and
even Mauritius. On the subject
of Mauritius, CWS said that it is
“difficult to compare Seychelles
to specific countries as conditions
are never the same. For example,
Mauritius had its first submarine
cable 15 years ago and now has
three such cables, with a population much higher than Seychelles, this country although
offering unlimited internet has
a connection speed which is still
significantly slower than Seychelles”.
Mr. Woodcock says that he
has received a lot of “likes” on
his Facebook feed for the petition and at the time of going to
print, 38 people had actually
signed the petition. However,
can a signed petition, no matter
how many people get behind it,
realistically compel government
to act? Mr. Woodcock believes
so. “It depends how much noise
is made by the public,” he said,
elaborating that “when people
voice out their concerns, change
can happen”. The status quo cannot continue, he said as “you cannot have a middle-income worker having to pay more than half
their salary” for what has become
an absolute necessity.
To access the petition, go to:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/government-must-regulate-internet-services.html
Wednesday 30 December, 2015
p8
Wednesday 30 December, 2015
p9
Sharing is caring
Bringing Christmas cheer to those who need it most
The festive season is all about giving. Spendless Boutique expressed this spirit in the form of multiple shopping bags for the residents of old people’s homes and a new en-suite
master bedroom for a deserving young man with the help of International Food Solution.
family members just don’t come
to see them. So this event allowed them to have fun.” She
added that some of their guests
said that they had “never had
this experience in their entire
lives and no one had ever done
such a thing for them” and this
made sacrificing their Christmas
day for the elderly all the more
worthwhile.
This event was purely an act
from the heart, explained Mrs.
Wybrow, as this was not part of
B
the corporate social responsibility (CSR) that is required by law.
This Christmas gift, however,
was not the only act of kindness
to come from the Wybrows before the end of year. Mrs Wybrow
told TODAY that she and her
husband and her accountant
Ashwin Bhanderi approached
International Food Solution Pty
Ltd to assist Joshua Joseph, a
disabled 17 year-old. “Our accountant told us that International Food Solution was looking
The shop features a vast array of clothing at low prices.
etween 10am to 12pm
on Christmas Day, when
most people were either
at church or spending time with
their families and loved ones,
Designated Minister Vincent
Meriton along with the owners
of Spendless Boutique, Barbara
and Jon Wybrow, were spending time with some 100 residents
from old people’s homes from
across Mahé. Mrs. Wybrow said
that this year they decided to
bring these elderly people to the
shop to “let them take what they
need”. By the end of the event,
each had around two to three
bags full of clothes. She said that
they also took hats, purses and
jewellery. The purpose of the visit, explained Mrs. Wybrow, was
to offer the residents the oppor-
tunity to choose several pieces
of clothing items for themselves
free of charge.
Mrs. Wybrow remarked that
their elderly guests were very
appreciative of Spendless Boutique’s gift to them. “We were
pleased to see their joy. Some
of these people stay in homes
and no one visits them, either
because they have no family or
Joshu Joseph and his family with representative of International Food
Solutions.
to help somebody locally who really needed the help and we were
looking for someone at the time
to help Joshua,” she explained.
She went on to explain that upon
seeing Mr. Joseph’s plight, “International Food Solution donated SCR25 000 for his needs”.
This money, explained Mrs.
Wybrow, went towards building a master bedroom for Mr.
Joseph with an en-suite bathroom with all necessary amenities for somebody who is
physically impaired. The bedroom will afford Joshua Joseph greater mobility and allow for easier access for those
entering his bedroom. Mrs.
Wybrow went on to explain
that the room will now have
enough space to put in an additional bed for Mr. Joseph’s
mother, who needs to attend
him during the night as well.
Based in Providence and
specialising in wholesale and
retail supply of food products,
International Food Solution
is not new to attending to the
plight of the needy as they
“like to contribute to those
people who actually need it”.
The company was a monthly
contributor of foodstuffs to
the St. Elizabeth Convent and
Orphanage.
Wednesday 30 December, 2015
p10
International
The tax sleuth who took down a drug lord
Gary L. Alford was running on adrenaline when he arrived for work on a Monday in June 2013, at the Drug Enforcement Administration office in the Chelsea neighborhood of
Manhattan. A tax investigator, he had spent much of the weekend in the living room of his New Jersey townhouse, scrolling through arcane chat rooms and old blog posts, reading
on well after his fiancée had gone to sleep.
Source: The New York Times
T
he work had given Mr. Alford
what he believed was the answer to a mystery that had confounded investigators for nearly two
years: the identity of the mastermind
behind the online drug bazaar known
as Silk Road — a criminal known
only by his screen name, Dread Pirate
Roberts.
When Mr. Alford showed up for
work that Monday, he had a real name
and a location. He assumed the news
would be greeted with excitement. Instead, he says, he got the brushoff. He
recalls asking the prosecutor on the
case, out of frustration, “What about
what I said is not compelling?”
Mr. Alford, a young special agent
with the Internal Revenue Service assigned to work with the D.E.A., isn’t
the first person to feel unappreciated
at the office. In his case, though, the
information he had was crucial to
solving one of the most vexing criminal cases of the last few years. While
Silk Road by mid-2013 had grown
into a juggernaut, selling $300,000
in heroin and other illegal goods each
day, federal agents hadn’t been able to
figure out the most basic detail: the
identity of the person running the site.
It ultimately took Mr. Alford, 38,
more than three months to gather
enough evidence to prevail upon his
colleagues to take his suspect seriously.
After he convinced them, though, the
man he identified, Ross W. Ulbricht,
was arrested and Silk Road shuttered.
The night of the arrest, Mr. Alford got
an email from one of the other special
agents at the center of the case: “Congrats Gary, you were right,” it said.
Mr. Alford’s experience, and the lag
between his discovery and Mr. Ulbricht’s arrest, were largely left out of
the documents and proceedings that
led to Mr. Ulbricht’s conviction and
life sentence this year. Previous examinations of the Silk Road investigation have generally focused on the role
played by special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the
Department of Homeland Security,
who infiltrated the website, arrested
important deputies and gathered
reams of crucial information, but not
enough to find Mr. Ulbricht — until
Mr. Alford came along.
The other agencies involved in the
investigation declined to comment on
Mr. Alford’s work, but several people
briefed on the investigation, who were
not authorized to speak about it publicly, confirmed the basic outlines of
Mr. Alford’s story.
Back in the summer of 2013, it was
not hard, even for Mr. Alford, to understand why it took him time to win
over the others on the case. He had
joined the investigation relatively late
and was on a team that hadn’t previously found much of value. He also
lacked the sophisticated technological
experience of colleagues at the F.B.I.
On a more personal level, Mr. Alford
could come across as overeager.
But Mr. Alford also detected the sort
of organizational frictions that have
hindered communication between
law enforcement agencies in the past.
Within the I.R.S., Mr. Alford had
heard tales of his agency being ignored
and overshadowed by more prominent organizations like the F.B.I. The
story that resonated with Mr. Alford
most strongly was that of the tax agent
Frank J. Wilson, who brought down
the gangster Al Capone, but who was
forgotten in the movie versions of the
investigation, which tended to focus
on Eliot Ness, the flashier Bureau of
It ultimately took Gary Alford more than three months to gather enough
evidence for colleagues to take his suspect seriously.
Prohibition agent.
“They don’t write movies about
Frank Wilson building the tax case,”
Mr. Alford said in an interview at
the I.R.S.’s Manhattan headquarters.
“That’s just how it is.”
Mr. Alford grew up in the Marlboro
public housing projects of Brooklyn
in the 1980s, a short, half-black, halfFilipino kid in a tough neighborhood.
His father, a math teacher, would cite
the power of the subject to teach his
son how to prevail over difficulties. “If
you get the right answer, the teacher
can’t tell you anything,” Mr. Alford
remembers his father saying. That attitude led Mr. Alford to study accounting at Baruch College and then to the
I.R.S., where his skeptical, lone-wolf
approach worked well.
It was Mr. Alford’s supervisors at the
I.R.S. who assigned him in February
2013 to a D.E.A. task force working
the Silk Road case. The Strike Force,
as it was known, had so far had little
luck finding meaningful leads. Mr. Alford’s superiors hoped he could bring
his youthful energy and doggedness
to the project.
Mr. Alford started by chasing down
leads on low-level Silk Road vendors
selling Bitcoin, but he was too ambitious to keep his attention focused on
small-time criminals. Whenever he
had a free moment, he would read
up on the origins of Silk Road and its
nearly mythical leader, Dread Pirate
Roberts, who ran the business and espoused his radical free-market ideology on the site’s message boards.
“I’m not high-tech, but I’m like,
‘This isn’t that complicated. This is
just some guy behind a computer,’”
he recalled saying to himself. “In these
technical investigations, people think
they are too good to do the stupid oldschool stuff. But I’m like, ‘Well, that
stuff still works.’ ”
Mr. Alford’s preferred tool was
Google. He used the advanced search
option to look for material posted
within specific date ranges. That
brought him, during the last weekend
of May 2013, to a chat room posting
made just before Silk Road had gone
online, in early 2011, by someone with
the screen name “altoid.”
“Has anyone seen Silk Road yet?” altoid asked. “It’s kind of like an anonymous Amazon.com.”
The early date of the posting suggested that altoid might have inside
knowledge about Silk Road.
During the first weekend of June
2013, Mr. Alford went through everything altoid had written, the online
equivalent of sifting through trash
cans near the scene of a crime. Mr. Alford eventually turned up a message
that altoid had apparently deleted —
but that had been preserved in the
response of another user.
In that post, altoid asked for some
programming help and gave his email
address: [email protected].
Doing a Google search for Ross Ulbricht, Mr. Alford found a young man
from Texas who, just like Dread Pirate
Roberts, admired the free-market
economist Ludwig von Mises and the
libertarian politician Ron Paul — the
first of many striking parallels Mr. Alford discovered that weekend.
When Mr. Alford took his findings
to his supervisors and failed to generate any interest, he initially assumed
that other agents had already found
Mr. Ulbricht and ruled him out.
But he continued accumulating
evidence, which emboldened Mr. Alford to put Mr. Ulbricht’s name on the
D.E.A. database of potential suspects,
next to the aliases altoid and Dread
Pirate Roberts.
At the same time, though, Mr. Alford realized that he was not being
told by the prosecutors about other
significant developments in the case
— a reminder, to Mr. Alford, of the
lower status that the I.R.S. had in the
eyes of other agencies. And when Mr.
Alford tried to get more resources to
track down Mr. Ulbricht, he wasn’t
able to get the surveillance and the
subpoenas he wanted.
Mr. Alford said the Manhattan federal prosecutor overseeing the investigation, Serrin Turner, seemed to want
to find Dread Pirate Roberts more
than anyone. But Mr. Alford said that
Mr. Turner was working with multiple agencies on the case and did not
seem to put much weight in the evidence that Mr. Alford was finding —
leading to heated conversations.
“I’m not saying I’m right; we just
need to look into this guy fully,” Mr.
Alford remembers telling Mr. Turner.
A spokesman for the United States
attorney’s office in Manhattan, where
Mr. Turner works, declined to comment.
When Mr. Alford visited the main
F.B.I. team on the case, later in the
summer, it became clear that the team
wasn’t aware of Mr. Ulbricht as a suspect — and also had no serious candidates of their own. Mr. Alford mentioned that he had a suspect in San
Francisco, but no one followed up.
One of the other agents present
for that meeting, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity, said that he
and the others in the room had little
reason to ask for further information
from Mr. Alford, given the lack of
progress made by the D.E.A. Strike
Force to which he was assigned. “No
one was taking them seriously,” the
agent said. “I obviously wished we had
asked more.”
When Mr. Alford went back to the
D.E.A. office in Chelsea and complained about the meeting, a fellow
I.R.S. agent in the group suggested it
was time for Mr. Alford to give it up.
“You’ve told them what you know.
They didn’t do anything,” the agent
told him, according to a person briefed
on the conversation. “Forget it.”
Instead, Mr. Alford decided to review his findings again. In early September, he asked a colleague to run
another background check on Mr.
Ulbricht, in case he had missed something.
The colleague typed in the name
and immediately looked up from her
computer: “Hey, there is a case on this
guy from July.”
Agents with Homeland Security
had seized a package with nine fake
IDs at the Canadian border, addressed to Mr. Ulbricht’s apartment
in San Francisco. When the agents
visited the apartment in mid-July, Mr.
Ulbricht answered the door, and the
agents identified him as the face on
the IDs, without having any idea of his
potential links to Silk Road.
Mr. Alford’s colleague asked him, “Is
this stuff interesting to you?”
“You are making my day,” he said.
As she read out the details, the report grew more intriguing. Without
the agents mentioning Silk Road, Mr.
Ulbricht told them that “hypothetically” anyone could go on a site called
Silk Road and buy fake IDs.
Armed with these new findings,
Mr. Alford phoned the prosecutor,
Mr. Turner. There was a pause in the
conversation while Mr. Turner typed
Mr. Ulbricht’s address into his own
computer. Then Mr. Alford heard a
shouted profanity from the other end
of the line — the clearest sign of interest he had heard yet, he says.
Mr. Ulbricht’s home address, it
turned out, was a few hundred feet
from an address that the F.B.I. had
turned up in its investigation: a cafe
from which Dread Pirate Roberts
had signed in to Silk Road.
Mr. Turner arranged a conference
call the same day with Mr. Alford
and two agents on the case — an
F.B.I. agent, Christopher Tarbell,
and a Homeland Security agent,
Jared Der-Yeghiayan.
Both agents declined to comment
for this article, but according to two
people briefed on the investigation,
the crucial moment in that conference call came when Mr. Alford
described some of Mr. Ulbricht’s
interactions on message boards
for programmers, while using the
screen name “Frosty.” Mr. Tarbell
stopped Mr. Alford and explained
that Frosty was the name of the
computer from which Dread Pirate
Roberts had been logging in to the
Silk Road.
“Oh, that’s interesting,” Mr. Turner
deadpanned.
“That’s the guy,” Mr. Tarbell said.
The agreement among the agents
on the phone that day allowed Mr.
Alford to get his wish to put Mr.
Ulbricht under full surveillance.
Within days, the agents had established that Dread Pirate Roberts
was logging into the Silk Road just
moments after Mr. Ulbricht was going online in his apartment.
In New York, Mr. Turner and Mr.
Tarbell began writing up the complaint against Mr. Ulbricht. In it,
they referred to Mr. Alford as Agent
1.
On Oct. 2, Mr. Tarbell and Mr.
Der-Yeghiayan helped apprehend
Mr. Ulbricht at a public library in
San Francisco. Mr. Alford could not
be there because of travel-budget
restrictions that applied to him but
not other investigators on the team.
After the arrest, though, his role
in the case was recognized with a
plaque from his superiors featuring
a quotation from Sherlock Holmes:
“The world is full of obvious things
which nobody by chance ever observes.”
p11
Wednesday 30 December, 2015
Marine Species
Species of the week: Semicircle angelfish
In this installment of this weekly feature by WiseOceans, we introduce the Semicircle angelfish.
“WiseOceans is a marine education and conservation organisation, passionate about spreading
awareness of our seas and cele-
brating the wonderful marine life
found here in Seychelles. WiseO c e a n s Ma r i n e E d u c a t o r s a t Fo u r
Seasons Resort Seychelles teach
g u e s t s a n d s t a ff a b o u t c o r a l r e e f s ,
helping everyone to love and look
a f t e r t h e o c e a n . w w w.w i s e o c e a n s .
c o m”.
Scientific name:
Pomacanthus semicirculatus
Common name:
Semicircle angelfish
Habitat:
Coral reefs
Diet:
Algae, tunicates, sponges
Did you know…?
• There are over 80 species of
marine angelfish (there is also a
family of freshwater angelfish,
although they are not closely
related)
• The semicircle angelfish inhabits the Indo-Pacific region.
The prefer areas where they can
shelter in caves and boulders
• The juveniles and adults
look completely different. The
juveniles begin to change when
they reach 8-16cm in length
Semicircle angelfish Seychelles Nov 2015 ©TM WiseOceans.
• A blue base to the scales
gives a speckled appearance
which helps with camouflage
underwater
• Generally they are solitary,
but sometimes seen in pairs
• Angelfish use colour, pheromones and movement to com-
municate with one another
Semicircle angelfish, Pomacanthus semicirculatus, also
popularly known as koran
angelfish or half-circle angelfish, is commonly found in
the Indo-Pacific. They prefer
coastal reefs with abundant
coral growth that provides lots
of hiding places. They are usually found swimming around
the reef by themselves, occasionally in pairs. However, they
don’t like other angelfish and
can be aggressive towards one
that might swim by. Their diet
consists of sponges, tunicates,
algae and other encrusting animals and they have been known
to live for 21 years!
Just like all other angelfish,
the adult and the juvenile do
not look alike. Adults are rather
large and can grow up to 40cm,
they have green to gold bodies
with blue spots and yellow lips.
It’s easiest to identify them by
their bright blue margin. The
juvenile, on the other hand, are
blue-black and are marked from
the top to the bottom with narrow white stripes. The stripes
are fairly straight towards the
head but they become increas-
ingly curved closer the base of
the tail. The last curve is very
much like a “c” and this is where
the semicircle angelfish gets its
name from. The juvenile prefer
shallow protected areas. They
are very timid and very hard to
spot.
The semicircle angelfish are
not a threatened species, but
are popularly caught for the
aquarium trade. Such collection of specimens does have a
negative impact on local populations and can eventually endanger a species.
Juvenile semicircle angelfish 2, Seychelles July 2012, © AH WiseOceans.
p12
Wednesday 30 December, 2015
Lifeline
Celebrity Profile:
Joy Mangano (1956–)
Lemmy, Motorhead frontman, dies aged 70 after
cancer diagnosis
Joy Mangano is an American inventor known for such products as Miracle Mop and Forever Fragrant.
Source: Biography.com
Motorhead frontman Lemmy
has died aged 70, two days after
learning he had cancer, the British band has announced.
Lemmy formed the rock group
in 1975 and recorded 22 albums,
including Ace of Spades, as he
became one of music’s most recognisable voices and faces. The
band said on its Facebook page:
“Our mighty, noble friend Lemmy has passed away after a short
battle with an extremely aggressive cancer.”
Lemmy was born Ian Fraser
Kilmister in Burslem, Stoke-onTrent, in 1945.
He acquired the nickname
Lemmy while at school, although he claimed to have had
no idea where it came from.
US artist Ellsworth Kelly
dies aged 92
US artist Ellsworth Kelly dies
aged 92
Influential abstract artist Ellsworth Kelly has died at the age
of 92.
According to dealer and gallery owner Matthew Marks, he
died of natural causes at home
in New York.
Known for vibrant works with
geometric shapes and bright colours, the artist had retrospectives at New York’s Guggenheim
and the San Francisco Museum
of Modern Art over his career.
In 2013, he was presented
with the National Medal of Arts
by US President Barack Obama.
Miracle Mop
Cleaning up after three kids
is not often inspiring work, but
Mangano took her frustration
with one aspect of it, mopping,
and spent a couple of years developing a product that would
help take the sting out of the
thankless task. She called it
the Miracle Mop, and in 1990
Mangano created a prototype
and had 100 of them made, the
end of a development process
that had cost almost $100,000
that she had saved and borrowed.
With a little advertising and
a lot of boots-on-the-ground
salesmanship, Mangano managed to sell a few thousand of
the mops that first year, with
her children helping her fill the
orders. The product—whose
simple premise paired durability with easy wringing—was
getting a small foothold in the
market, but the next step would
take the Miracle Mop and Mangano to the next level.
Early Years
Joy Mangano was born on
Long Island, New York, on February 15, 1956, and raised in
Huntington. Mangano would
go on to be known as an inventor of practical household products, and she got started with
her ideas at an early age: While
working at an animal hospital
as a teenager, Mangano devised
a fluorescent flea collar for cats
and dogs to make them easily
visible to cars at night (Hartz put
a similar product on the market
a year later).
After high school, Mangano
went to Pace University in New
York, graduating in 1978 with
a BA in business administration. After college, she went on
TODAY in History
December 30th is the 364th day of the year
1916: Rasputin
murdered
1922: USSR
established
TV Shopping
The next level was found on
TV, when in 1992 Mangano
pitched the Miracle Mop to
QVC executives. It hit the air
without its creator and didn’t
do very well, so Mangano suggested that if she appeared on
the broadcast the next time, the
mop would move. And move
it did: Her first appearance on
QVC helped the Miracle Mop sell
out—more than 18,000 mops in
less than a half an hour. But that
was just the beginning, for both
the Miracle Mop and Mangano’s
success. She has since sold millions of Miracle Mops and has
created scores of other products,
such as Rolykit, Huggable Hangers and the Piatto Bakery Box.
In 1999 Mangano sold her
company, Ingenious Designs, to
the parent company of the Home
Shopping Network (HSN), and
she stayed on as the company’s
president.
In 2014 it was reported that
Mangano’s rags to riches life
story would be coming to the big
screen in a David O. Russell biopic, Joy, starring Jennifer Lawrence as Mangano. The film is
slated for a Christmas Day 2015
U.S. release and has already
earned Golden Globe nods for
best picture, comedy, and best
actress.
Film
Game of Thrones tops list of
2015’s most pirated shows
For the fourth year running, fantasy series Game of Thrones has topped a list of the
most pirated TV shows.
Source: BBC.com
Georgian prisoner freed
after TV contest
An inmate has been released
from a Georgian prison after performing in a TV song contest.
Teona Kolbaia was jailed for
armed robbery in 2012, but this
year she was allowed to sing in the
Voice of Georgia, whose studios
she visited under guard.
In the show aired live by Imedi
TV, Ms Kolbaia was defeated by
another contestant, and thus failed
to make it to the quarterfinals. But
after the judge announced his decision, Prisons Minister Kakha
Kakhishvili took to the stage to declare that she was freed on parole.
“We’ve been keeping a close eye on
her,” the minister said, adding that
a parole board decided to free Teona. He also thanked the TV show
for helping her reintegrate back
into society.
to hold a variety of jobs while
getting married and having
three children. By 1989, Mangano was divorced and living in
Smithtown, New York, and she
found that her first idea would
be inspired by the daily grind of
housework.
Synopsis
Joy Mangano was born on
Long Island, New York, in 1956
and earned a BA in business administration from Pace University. Frustrated with household
mopping, Mangano invented a
new kind of mop, the Miracle
Mop, and when she appeared on
QVC to sell it, the mop served
as a launch pad for success. She
went on to invent several other
products, and in 1999 she sold
her company, which has hundreds of millions in sales, to
HSN.
On this day in 1916, Grigory
Rasputin, a self-fashioned Russian holy man, was murdered by
Russian nobles eager to end his
sway over the royal family.
Rasputin won the favour of
Czar Nicholas II and Czarina
Alexandra through his ability to
stop the bleeding of their haemophiliac son, Alexei. Although
the Siberian-born peasant was
widely criticized for his lechery
and drunkenness, he exerted a
powerful influence on the ruling
family of Russia.
In the early hours of 30 December 1916, a group of nobles lured
Rasputin to Yusupovsky Palace,
where they attempted to poison
him. Seemingly unaffected by the
large doses of poison placed in his
wine and food, he was finally shot
at close range and collapsed.
A minute later he rose, beat one
of his assailants, and attempted to
escape from the palace grounds,
where he was shot again. Rasputin, still alive, was then bound
and tossed into a freezing river. A
few months later, the imperial regime was overthrown by the Russian Revolution.
On this day in 1922, in postrevolutionary Russia, the Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics
(USSR) was established, comprising a confederation of Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine and the
Transcaucasian Federation. Also
known as the Soviet Union, the
new communist state was the
successor to the Russian Empire
and the first country in the world
to be based on Marxist socialism.
During the Russian Revolution of 1917 and subsequent
three-year Russian Civil War, the
Bolshevik Party under Vladimir
Lenin dominated the soviet forces, a coalition of workers’ and
soldiers’ committees that called
for the establishment of a socialist state in the former Russian
Empire. In the USSR, all levels
of government were controlled
by the Communist Party, and
the party’s politburo, with its
increasingly powerful general
secretary, effectively ruling the
country.
In the decades after it was established, the Russian-dominated Soviet Union grew into one
of the world’s most powerful and
influential states and eventually
encompassed 15 republics. In
1991, the Soviet Union was dissolved following the collapse of
its communist government.
A
Series six of Game of Thrones is due to begin in April.
ccording to Torrentfreak,
the season five finale was
illegally downloaded 14.4m
times. More than half of those came
in the week after its US premiere.
The Walking Dead and The Big
Bang Theory rounded up the top
three, with 6.6m and 4.4m downloads respectively.
Earlier this year, Game of Thrones
broke a record when more than
258,000 users shared the show simultaneously.
The HBO drama was mainly
downloaded on BitTorrent.
The number of illegal downloads
is almost twice the eight million
people who regularly watch the
show legally in the US.
The first four episodes of season
five leaked online before they aired
in April, after one pirate uploaded
content from the DVD screeners
sent out to critics for review.
Game of Thrones was nominated
for 24 Emmy nominations in July
and, earlier this month, was nominated for the Golden Globe for best
drama series.
Series six is due to begin in April.
p13
Wednesday 30 December, 2015
Ecole Française des Seychelles
“So chaud show” ends the first school term
Parents and friends gathered at the ICCS for the French school end of year concert to hear a message of peace and
protection of the environment.
Pupils from kindergarten performing during the show.
I
cultural backgrounds.
Students interpreted popular reggae song “Starvation”, originally by
“The pioneers”, Michael Jackson’s
“Heal the World”, Julien Clerc’s
“Laissons entrer le soleil”, among
others, as they invited the guests to
join them in sending the message
of love, peace and tolerance.
Other songs performed highlighted the need to protect the environment; “Reduce, re-use, recycle”, “Ca
chauffe”, “Ne pollue pas”, “C’est ma
terre”, by Christophe Mae. Local
artist, Jose Charles, accompanied
by Ralf Amesbury, sang “Annou
protez li”, from his latest album released earlier this year.
“Laissons entrer le soleil” originally by Julien Clerc being interpreted by students.
t was one and a half hours of
fun, music and dance at the International Conference Centre
Seychelles (ICCS) on Wednesday
16 December as the Ecole Française des Seychelles ended its first
term with a musical show entitled
“So chaud show”.
Parents and friends packed the
auditorium, which was filled to
capacity, to see the more than 250
students from kindergarten to secondary, sing and dance to popular
French, English and Creole songs
“Protection of the environment also features in our syllabus and coincidentally our
show relates to the United Nations COP21 conference which
has just ended in Paris, France
with countries signing a new
climate change agreement”,
said Mr David, who expressed
focusing on peace around the
world and the need to protect the
environment.
“We have chosen the peace theme
to highlight the need for more tolerance towards others especially
following the sad incident in November which claimed the lives of
many civilians in Paris”, said the
school’s director Phillippe David.
He added that the topic was part
of the school’s curriculum as the
school caters for students from all
corners of the world, with different
The finale, “Heal the world”.
Students performing a sega by popular local artist Jose Charles.
his satisfaction at the students’
performance and the parent’s
continued support towards the
school. He wished everyone a
wonderful new year.
The end of year show was also
attended by the French ambassador to Seychelles, Lionel
Majesté-Larrouy.
Wednesday 30 December, 2015
Open space for playing. Spacious parking
space. Road touch just 2 min walk from
public beach. Rental: 5500/- + vat
2 Bed rooms, hall and kitchen situated st
joseph estate, Grand Anse, Praslin -1 st floor
Near by mini market
Near le relax st joseph guest house
Aristocratic neighborhood suitable for family accomodation down stair garden view
from balcony surrounded by guava, passion
fruit, lemon, coconut trees, and varieties of
flower plants
Adequate parking space
Contact us: 2 52 38 50 / 2 51 77 21
Premises equipped with pilgrim security
system
Just 2 min drive from main road, 3 min
walk from main road |Near by airport
Rental: 5500/- + vat
21 Jan – 19 Feb
You seem to be looking for
hidden meanings in everything you see and hear.
Is it right that you are this
suspicious? Maybe, but
more likely there is no great
conspiracy, so try to think
rationally and in all situations deal only in facts.
23 July – 22 Aug
Your can-do attitude will
impress people in positions
of power but don’t make
promises you might find
hard to keep. And if you
have already made some
kind of rash promise there
may still be a way to get out
of it if you act quickly.
20 Feb – 20 March
Take what you hear today
with a large pinch of salt
because someone is trying
to mislead you. Even those
who can usually be trusted
to tell you the truth will be
tempted to make things up,
just for the fun of it, so stay
mentally on guard.
23 Aug – 23 Sept
It’s not like you to keep a
low profile but with your
ruling planet Mercury
under the influence of
Mars today that might
be a good thing to do. Try
not to draw attention to
yourself, either at work or
in the world at large.
21 March – 20 April
There may be obstacles
blocking your path no matter which way you turn, but
don’t let it get to you. Come
the early days of the new
year your life will be far less
encumbered by things and
by people you wish were not
there.
24Sept–23Oct
Most of the time you are cautious about what you say but
sometimes you go right the
other way and leave others
open-mouthed with astonishment that you could be so
outspoken and outrageous.
Think before you speak over
the next 24 hours.
21 April – 21 May
There is a danger today that
you will be too assertive and
say something that annoys
people in positions of power.
Try to engage your brain before you open your mouth.
Better still, don’t open your
mouth at all for a while.
24 Oct – 22 Nov
It might be wise to keep your
opinions to yourself over the
next 24 hours. The planets
warn that if you say anything
that others consider to be
over-the-top or in poor taste
it could cost you dear. Not
everyone shares your offbeat
sense of humour.
22 May – 21 June
With Mercury, your ruler,
squaring up to Mars, planet
of conflict, it is odds-on you
will find yourself falling out
with someone today. Nothing bad is likely to come of
it so long as you don’t say or
do anything that cannot be
taken back later.
23 Nov – 21 Dec
Mercury, planet of communication and the mind, is at
odds with Mars today, and
as this link cuts across the
money angle of your chart
any mistakes you make
could prove costly. Don’t
give up information you are
not obliged to reveal.
22June–22July
Cosmic activity in your opposite sign of Capricorn makes it
seem as if everyone is ganging
up on you, but appearances
can be deceptive. No matter
how hard done by you may feel
over the next 24 hours just stay
calm and let the storm pass.
22 Dec – 20 Jan
With both Mercury and Pluto moving through your sign
you have no fear about expressing yourself. However,
you might like to think twice
before saying anything that
could be seen as rude or derogatory today. Others may
choose not to laugh it off.
Must sell – owner leaving
Land at Mare Anglaise, 2168 sqm, with
fully furnished 3 bedroom house, beautiful sea view, large storage, all serious
offers considered. Call 2568484
Down
1. Alloy of copper and zinc
2. Walk unsteadily
3. A Hindu deity
4. A prickly woody vine
5. Hades
6. Pocketbook
7. Bread from heaven
8. Adult male deers
9. Speak clearly
10. News coverage
11. Not closed
12. Withered
13. Historical periods
21. A low dam
25. A musical composition
27. Cheroots and panatelas
28. Not me
30. Operatic solo
31. Join metals together by heating
32. Augments
33. Waistband
34. Murres
35. Skin an orange
36. Rampart
37. Royal Air Force
41. Male sheep
44. Motives
46. Vagabond
50. Tall woody plants
51. Leavening agent
53. Empower
54. Type of vine
55. Become liable to
56. Excrete
57. Sun
58. Used to tie a shoe
59. Slender woodwind instrument
61. Pimples
62. A son of Noah
Yesterday’s solution
Across
1. Tattle
5. Stitches
9. Jagged
14. A tributary of the Rhine River
15. French for “State”
16. Outcast
17. Wild African sheep
18. Goddess of the moon (Roman
mythology)
19. Classical music theatre
20. Scribbling
22. Ice cream _____
23. Apportion
24. Ancient Assyrian city
26. Frozen
29. Capital of Canada
33. Having a higher rank
38. Approached
39. Region
40. A wild dog of South America
42. Decorate with gold leaf
43. A range of mountains
45. Fools
47. Headgear for a horse
48. Chinese revolutionary
49. Excessively quick
52. Negate
57. Decreases in velocity
60. Logical thinking
63. Forbidden
64. Every single one
65. Small freshwater fish
66. Fruit of the oak tree
67. Anglo-Saxon slave
68. Burden
69. Unpleasant odors
70. Stalk
71. Verruca
1. What is Nigeria’s official language?
2. Which desert’s edge is found at Nigeria’s northernmost borderland?
3. What is Mexico’s most commonly used language?
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4. Indonesia has the world’s largest area of what vegetation: Date-palm; Mangrove;
Tea; or Cotton?
5. Turkey’s international telephone calling code is: 60; 70; 80; or 90?
6. What sort of snake is named after a huge serpent killed by Apollo?
7. What word creates five new words when it prefixes the following: box, piper, pit,
Grand Anse, Praslin
Tel: +248 4237 441
Fax: +248 4237 442
stone, and storm?
8. The F1 function key produces what in most computer systems: Full-screen; Refresh;
Editor - Deepa Bhookhun
[email protected]
Help; or Shut-down?
9. Titicaca is the largest lake in: Africa; South America; Australia; or Sweden?
10. At 2014 how many years ago was the year MDCCXIV?
Quick Quiz Answers: 1. English 2. Sahara 3. Spanish 4. Mangrove 5. 90 6. Python 7.
Sand 8. Help 9. South America 10. 300
2 Bed rooms + hall + kitchen,
2 Bathrooms, master bed room
Situated opp. Le relax beach resort, grand
Anse Praslin, Suitable for family accomodation, Surrounded by badamier trees,
How To Play
The objective is to fill the blank squares with the correct numbers
•Every row of 9 must include all digits 1 to 9 in any order
•Every column of 9 must include all digits 1 to 9 in any order
•Every 3 x 3 sub-grid must include all digits 1 to 9 in any order
Fill the other empty cells with numbers between 1 and 9
A number should appear only once on each row, column and 3 x 3 region
Business Development Manager - Veronica Maria
[email protected]
ISSN: 1659-7265
Wednesday 30 December, 2015
p15