Lately there has been a lot of talk about 'Rasinism' and the superiority 'Seselwa Rasin' should have with regards to employment, salaries and other legal rights compared to the so-called 'Seselwa Fabrike', i.e foreigners with either citizenship obtained through marriage, duration of residency or simply through the EDA, i.e passports purchased directly or indirectly through for example investment in property like those at Eden Island. The inventor of the term 'Rasinism', a term deriving from the word 'Rasin' meaning root, says it is pure patriotism, but to others it seems to have more in common to pure racism or is surely one step in the very direction that we Seychellois have moved away from the last 3-4 decades.
I myself being closer to my late 30s than the mid 30s see a big difference in the mentality of the Seychellois with regards to racism which was fairly common before when one could often hear white people refering to 'sa bann mazanbik'(literally: those niggers) or other directly racist comments when for instance a lighter skinned person married a darker individual and one could hear comments where the question was raised as why the lighter individual could not find one of his/her own kind. In the early days of the US satellite base at La Misère another form of racism occured, but that was more due to envy of the 'Yankees' who literally carried away the girls to the tune of the Andrew Sisters' hit Rum & Coca Cola. Today, after the Yankees have gone home the Arabs, one particular bearing the name of Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has become the new Yankee everybody is asking to go home, especially after a sewage leakage occured at his construction site polluting a river that supplies drinking water.
The fact that all drinking water in Seychelles is cleansed before reaching household taps seems to be irrelevant in this case. It is also not the fact that fecal excrements entering the river that seems to be the problem, but rather the fact that it is the excrements coming from 'Malbar'(Indians) that has been made the main issue. The construction company responsible for the site is said to be operating without a licence and the site itself which is to be a foreign embassy is also protected by international laws of diplomatic character which again makes the case even more sensitive. The point is however that the issue has become more of a 'Rasin vs Fabrike' issue rather than a case about the violation of environmental laws and laws regarding employment in Seychelles.
It seems that there is a rage today amongst Seychellois where there is an anger upon all foreigners working in Seychelles be they rich Arabs or poor Indian construction workers. In a time of hardship it is often seen that many look for scape goats to blame the economical situation on, especially power hungry politicians who want the support of the people. We Seychellois, at least the younger generation, have taken a step away from the racism many of our parents practised, especially the white elders whom many have been buried with the racist mentality they were raised with, the same one their parents and grandparents were brought up to practice and had done so since the Slavery period.
Today, discrimination in Seychelles is more of a political thing rather than a racial thing and all colours stand together in each their respective political camp as both couples and families are split down the middle due to political belief. There is now however a new type of discrimination knocking at our doorstep: Rasinism. Rasinism has become a popular term and as said above it is defended as a patriotic term, but to the opinion of many, myself included, it is closer related to racism rather than patriotism. A blogger on another site for instance posted a message where he/she proudly bragged that an Indian had recieved a painful beating. The poor soul lost an eye in the attack in addition to a large sum of money. The blog was as disgusting as it can get when a human finds it funny that another gets a beating where he loses his eyesight on one eye and makes reference to the JJ Spirit and urges youth to attack Arabs next time. The article made by the People, http://www.thepeople.sc/index190210.html, shows a man on a hospital bed and to me anyone who can laugh at such a sight is either sick or full of an inner hatred.
The type of behaviour described above is just the type of effect 'Rasinism' can lead to. Those old enough to remember, or those who know history, shoulf be familiar with what happened in Germany in the 30s where the Jews were persecuted by angry German Rasins who also then called it patriotism. The Serbs practised their own Rasinism before and during the Balkan War as did Robert Mugabe's supporters when they attacked and took over white owned farms who were the backbone of Zimbabwean economy. Are we also on our way to drag Rasinism to the same extreme? After all, every journey starts with one step and I can already see that Rasinism is a step back towards racism which we as Seychellois are reputated to have distanced ourselves from.
Rasinism/Racism must not under any circumstances be tolerated and we as a people must use every means we have in order to overwin it and teach ourselves and our children otherwise else we may just as well become the Zimbabwe of the Indian ocean and our paradise turned to hell.
Patrick X
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