In the jungle...

...terrible jungle, the people sleep and the lions eat everyone.

Election fever has started in Mauritius (and in England too). Parliament has been dissolved and Mauritians will find out on May 1st when they will have to choose between the hot pan and the fire. It's getting harder and harder, but I have forbidden myself to be cynical about politics. Politics is after all about our rights, our money, our futures. Being dismissive about it only sends the message that politicians, those individuals who are in power only because we give them permission to, can do whatever they want with that power and that we won't mind.

In the beginning of beginnings, politicians are only there because the average citizen decided that he wanted to use his time to care for his family, his personal interests and his backyard and delegate the management of defence and national policies to a chosen body. That the State is today much more than that, that it seeks to be an identity-definer, that it decides who has access to medical care, that it decides when it is acceptable to die, are merely consequences of a certain kind of evolution of the Leviathan.

The keyword here is delegate. Delegation of tasks has never implied delegation of responsibility. We allow others chosen by us and informed by our preferences, to accomplish certain tasks. The responsibility for our well-being is never with them; it remains ours. We are still accountable for who is steering the rudder of our lives.

May our elected servants never forget where they stand, or they might find the chair slipping back when they try to sit.