GLANCING BACK...

INDEPENDENCE WITH A DIFFERENCE 

YOU rarely hear much about the Seychelles islands, actually some 90 islands strung across 600 miles of Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia.
And you’re not likely to hear much more about them even now, although the islanders recently gained independence from Britain and established their own republic. For Seychelles Islanders aren’t usually given to making waves – and why should they, since they live in an ocean of paradise that visitors have sometimes identified with the Biblical Garden of Eden.
One clue to the pace of life even now in the capital of Victoria can be gleaned from the fact that a clock still strikes every hour twice, the second time for anyone who may have missed the first chimes.
You know how it is so often these days with newly independent nations: Even before they got their sea legs they begin playing off with big powers, now flirting with this bloc, then with the other, hoping to be woed and won (temporarily) by the highest bidder.
But Seychelles President James Mancham told UN Secretary General Kurt Wald-heim that his nation will do everything it can to avoid get-ting involved in big power confrontations. Which, come to think of it, is rather a good idea, since the former Crown Colony has nothing resembl-ing an army, navy or air force.
Expounding on the theme of keeping a low profile, President Mancham said, “We may not have much of a role to play in major global issues, but “we’ll do our part on the international cocktail party circuit.”
All which should make the Seychelles Islanders members-in-good-standing when they finally join the UN, since according to the West German Ambassador, the General Assembly last year held more than 1,100 cocktail parties, luncheons, receptions, dinners and other social events.
Any country that can hold its own in that hectic pace is indeed doing its part to keep the world safe from whatever it is the UN keeps the world safe from, and to judge by their attitude so far the Seychelles will be a credit to the club.