Monday, January 30, 2012

Etihad Airways stake in Air Seychelles gives 'realistic way forward' to the island carrier's future

30th January, 2012

Etihad Airways's 40% stake in Air Seychelles gives a much-needed second lease of life to Air Seychelles, who says the stake offers a "realistic way forward" for growth, critical as the carrier has scaled back almost its entire network. For Etihad, the opportunity to be a partner in building traffic to the Seychelles, a destination Etihad sees gaining prominence, especially from the alluring Chinese market. Etihad singled out the Seychelles' geographic positioning as a strength in linking the emerging Africa-China market, but it is difficult to see short-term development in that market.

Air Seychelles stake follows from Air Berlin stake

Etihad Airways, fresh from its acquisition of 29.2% in Air Berlin late last year, has announced the acquisition of a 40% stake in Air Seychelles. The Abu Dhabi-based airline will invest USD20 million into the carrier as one pillar of a deeper strategic partnership between them, aimed at rescuing the troubled African airline and providing Etihad with access to a lucrative tourism market.
Eithad Airways’ investment of USD20 million will be matched by a capital injection from the Seychelles Government. Etihad will also provide a shareholder's loan of USD25 million to meet working capital requirements and support Air Seychelles' network development.
Etihad will work in conjunction with Air Seychelles to develop a renewed fleet and network growth plan for the carrier. Certain key functions will be consolidated to reduce costs and optimise processes. Etihad will also provide access to its training facilities as well as other opportunities for personnel development. The agreement also gives Air Seychelles a presence in Etihad Airways offices, offering enhanced marketing opportunities.
The agreement also has a provision for a five-year management contract for Etihad Airways, under which the Middle Eastern carrier will implement “strategic measures” to encourage Air Seychelles’ long-term commercial growth. This has shades of Emirates’ experience with SriLankan Airlines. Emirates took a 40% stake in SriLankan in 1998 for USD70 million, later increasing its stake to 43%. Along with the share acquisition, Emirates took managerial control, a position it held for ten years
However, the relationship ended disappointingly in 2008. A very public disagreement between SriLankan Airlines management and the Sri Lankan Government resulted in the temporary withdrawal of the work and residents permit of Peter Hill, Emirates secondee and CEO of the carrier. This prompted Emirates to withdraw from the management agreement and sell its stake to the Sri Lankan government for USD53 million, almost USD20 million less than it paid for 40% in 1998 and around a third of Emirates’ estimate of the value.

A second lease of life for Air Seychelles

Etihad’s move is a major reversal of fortune for troubled Air Seychelles. The airline lost USD12.5 million in FY2010/2011 and in Dec-2011 the Seychelles Finance Ministry announced that it could no longer provide the carrier with “unsustainable” subsidies and underwrite its day-to-day operational expenses. The Seychelles Government has provided the carrier with USD27 million in loans and subsidies since Oct-2010.
Over the final quarter of 2011, the African island carrier announced it was adopting a major restructuring. It appointed its fourth CEO in four years, adopted a new corporate branding and repositioned its focus to concentrate on ‘high-end’ tourism. The airline also reduced its workforce by almost 20%, cutting more than 115 positions.
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The major element of its restructuring was the virtual abandonment of its long-haul network, dropped in favour of regional services. The airline suspended service to Singapore, the last remaining of the three Asian routes launched in 2010 and 2011. It followed this up by ceasing operations to London, Paris, Rome and Milan on 10-Jan-2012, excising more than three quarters of its long-haul capacity.
With the culling of its long haul routes, the carrier returned of four of its five Boeing 767s – three years prior to the expiration of the leases – and also cancelled its order for two 787s, which it was to lease from ILFC form 2014. 
Operations have been stripped back to Mauritius and Johannesburg using a Boeing 767-300 aircraft. Even these are not immune, as Mauritius capacity was cut in half on 16-Jan-2012 and service to Johannesburg will be suspended at some future date. The carrier will retain its numerous daily island connecting services between Mahe and Praslin Island.
Air Austral had planned to fill some of the void left by Air Seychelles’ capacity cuts, with a Seychelles-Paris CDG service to be launched in late Mar-2012. However, the Etihad/Air Seychelles agreement has caused a rethink at the airline and it has reportedly delayed the route launch.
Air Seychelles cuts have been so dramatic that the carrier is no longer the largest airline operating from Mahe International Airport, the major international airport in the Seychelles. Emirates now operates more international seats per week.
Mahe International Airport, seats per week by carrier (22-Jan-2012 to 28-Jan-2012)
Under the new partnership agreement, Etihad will seek to increase Abu Dhabi-Mahe frequency from four times weekly to daily, as well as providing new services to the islands. Further details have not been disclosed.
The carriers have also signed, a day after announcing the financial stake, a comprehensive codeshare agreement that will include Etihad Airways-marketed flights across Air Seychelles‚ network and Air Seychelles-marketed flights to Abu Dhabi and Etihad Airways destinations across Europe, the Middle East, the GCC, Asia and Australia.

Reaching Europe and China key for strategic agreement

For Etihad, the Air Seychelles partnership is another step to enhancing its operations in another growth market. It also offers expansion opportunities in other leisure markets in the Indian Ocean and Africa.
The Seychelles is a strong market for high-yield tourism traffic from Germany, France, Italy and the UK and is an increasingly important destination for Chinese nationals. Not only is the Seychelles an important leisure and stop-over destination for Chinese travellers, but there are increasingly important commercial ties, as Chinese money floods into African investments.
"Asia, and more specifically China, is increasingly important to the Seychelles national economy. Apart from the Seychelles strategic geographic significance as a stepping stone between China and Africa, the island nation is also an important trading partner for Chinese business and an increasingly popular leisure destination for significant numbers of Chinese travellers," Etihad said when announcing the deal.
There is potential to grow traffic between Africa and Asia, China in particular, and Ethiopian Airlines is so far the most aggressive in doing so. Air Seychelles would be unable to support in the short-term a Chinese flight without onward connections to other continental African points, which the carrier will lack after the Johannesburg service is suspended. Even if continental African flights are added, geography dictates that only southern African traffic can be more efficiently routed, in terms of distance flown, over Mahe than Gulf hubs or Ethiopian's hub in Addis Ababa. But those hubs can offer greater scale and points served, advantages that can easily undermine Mahe offering shorter connections by approximately 300nm to northern China or 700nm to southern China. 

Etihad-Seychelles agreement a 'realistic way forward' for beleaguered national carrier

Etihad has a successful history pursuing expansion through codeshare agreements and alliance partnerships. As of the end of 2010, Etihad had 28 codeshare and alliance partners, which contributed 13% of the carrier’s total revenue at the end of the year.
The agreement is another example of Etihad picking out a straggler from the herd. Both Air Berlin and Air Seychelles stakes were picked up at bargain prices. Prior to Etihad’s acquisition of a stake in Air Berlin, the carrier’s share price was at an all time low of EUR2.20. 
Air Berlin share price: 12 months to 29-Jan-2012
For Air Seychelles and the Seychelles Government, the deal injects USD65 million into the carrier at a time when its future looked bleak. The strategic partnership re-establishes Air Seychelles as a financially sustainable carrier and the relationship with Etihad offers both “international presence” and “strategic penetration”.
According to Joel Morgan, Seychelles Minister of Home Affairs, Environment, Transport and Energy, the deal represents a “game-changing strategic partnership”. It will put Air Seychelles on a sustainable growth trajectory and offers a “realistic way forward” for long-term commercial growth.

65 comments:

Anonymous said...

Total sell out of our future.

PL Communist are calling Khalifa their Saviour!

Jesus Christ is our Saviour!

Khalifa is a land grabber waiting for an opportunity of weakness to encircle Seychelles and take her, after Michel's failure over and over again and again, has compromised Seychelles.

Anonymous said...

They bankrutped our country,given themsleves big salries while calling on an emprovrsih citizens to do more sacrifice,now Michel call Etihad his savior.There is nothing in Pp's crooked action that deserve praises,failure was never consider as sucess nor bad mangement has ever provide sucess.

It is a shame to see our National Airline turn into a stooge Airline at the service of others.Pp puts foreign interests before that of National interests and they find it normal to give away what should belong to us.As long as we are rule by thugs without any understanding of modern economy and experience in a very competitve industry as the Airline industry we are doomed to fail under PP regardless what they do.

Thugs follow their own illusionary strategy base on the illusions they make in their little half-brain not on realities at hand.

Jeanne D'Arc

Anonymous said...

It is a total sell out and now UAE according to Pp gave a surprise visit to a school hoping that Seychellois will stop hating Khalifa and accept his colonization of our land .Seychellois are not monkeys Khalifa and do not think you can entice them by surprise visits and gifts for our country is not for sell and Pp illegal sell out will never be legititmate by Seychellois.
The best thing can do is respect our people,it culture,traditions ,stop meddling in our Ntional politcs,forced Pp to account all the money being gifted to them without keeping trace of any cent,stop anexing our patrimony,and be closer to the poeple not just to a handful of crooks stealing from the peoples' coffer, then may be he can have a change of gaining Seychellois love.History shows,in the past there have been many improtant people who exile to our shores they were all welcome and respected by Seychellois,WHY?Because in their first place they respected our people and did not meddle in our affairs.


Jeanne D^ARC

Anonymous said...

Etihad names Ball as Chief Executive and Cole as Chief Finance Executive for Air Seychelles.

Bram Stellar was only appointed last October as CEO.

Meanwhile, Air Austral has announced it will not be flying between Seychelles and France. AA cites lack of passengers, but that really means AA thinks the Etihad-Air Seychelles linkup has rendered the route unprofitable. It is perhaps an indication of how other airlines will react to the Etihad take-over of HM.

St Ange prefers to look on the bright side and talks about the Blue Panorama's link-up with Alitalia. But how long will Blue Panorama operate the Italy-Seychelles route, faced with an aggressive Etihad now in charge of Air Seychelles and is in a position to dictate Seychelles aviation policies.

Anonymous said...

http://www.arabiansupplychain.com/article-7067-etihad-executive-drafted-as-new-air-seychelles-ceo/

Anonymous said...

Ball and Cole. Two Aussie accountants at the helm of Air Seychelles ? Massive promotion for both of them.

Anonymous said...

Has Etihad sent its best personnel over or is the airline just throwing its weight around because it practically owns HM ?

Anonymous said...

How long with Qatar stay?

How long will Emirates stay?

Who will fly to Seychelles thru Abu Dhabi?

Abu Dhabi gets a fraction of of hub visitors that Emirates in Dubai gets.

The weekly visitors of Air Seychelles are direct flights.

Already the Seychelles Tourism market is suffering deeply because there are no direct flights from our main market Paris.

Michel and Morgan have signed off on a death wish for Seychelles Tourism.

That is the reality!

Prove me wrong.

Anonymous said...

It is fair to say that Bram Stellar will be compensated for the early termination of his contract, at the behest of Khalifa. But Stellar must be feeling rather cheesed off to be out of a job, so soon after leaving his job with Kenya Airways to join the much troubled Air Seychelles.

As Michel flies to India via Abu Dhabi on Etihad Airways (the national airline of the UAE, to give the airline its full name and tag), he should reflect on why Parti Lepep has grossly mismanaged this country.

Anonymous said...

Under James Michel, it has all been a parade of horrible experience for Seychelles.

Everything he touched, turned into Khalifa's possession.

Anonymous said...

With some of Etihad's executives moving over to Air Seychelles and Abu Dhabi's increasing bilateral relations with the islands, could we one day call the country UAE's eight emirate?

http://www.kippreport.com/2012/02/abu-dhabis-love-affair-with-seychelles-grows-stronger/

Anonymous said...

It is unrequited love. For all his money, Khalifa is finding out he cannot buy our love. The love affair is personal -- between James Michel and Sheikh Khalifa. All that Khalifa is doing is bailing out Parti Lepep for their incompetence. This country would have been better off without both Parti Lepep and Khalifa. We would have kept our dignity. Who is actually running what is supposed to be the "Seychelles Coast Guard base". This is more like a UAE military base in Seychelles.

Anonymous said...

Seychelles President James Alix Michel gets Honorary doctorate from Indian University

http://www.indiaeducationdiary.in/showEE.asp?newsid=11682

Anonymous said...

Soon he would get the Noble prize of fakeonomy the way he has emptied our National reserve^s coffer and bankrutped our country.

Jeanne D'Arc

Pissedoff said...

Look at it this way Popol at least his honorary doctorate was bestowed upon him unlike certain jet fighter pilots...

Anonymous said...

Honorary doctorate in what ?

Anonymous said...

his degree is in:Corruption., murder of his own people.. Incompetence , bad governance, lying.., inflicting cruelty.hiring thugs. and praising khaliffa for giving our people sewer water to drink..destroying la digue..and our outer iskands..destroying air Seychelles...etccc

Anonymous said...

Is the inter-island also being run by Etihad?

Anonymous said...

You can assume that Etihad (the national airline of the UAE) is running everything.

Anonymous said...

Doctorate in Idiocy!

Anonymous said...

Doctorate in butchering.

Anonymous said...

Pissedoff
Your Dear leader,Michel the butcher is hard core criminal.How do one identify state criminal?Well,all state crimnals share unique characteristics,they all suffer from a psychopathological condition that can best be describe as"aggressive magalomanical narcissistic syndrome".Simply stated ,as state crimnals steal and accumulate more stolen wealth and aggrandize politcal power by killing,jailing and torturing they begin to fantasize that they are omnipotent and invincible.They convince themselves that the image they see in the mirror every morning is an awesome demigod to be worshipped and feared.They fall in love with the image in the mirror(narcissism) and begin to worship that image as an omnipotent deity(magalomania).They isolate themselves in an echo chamber cut off from the outside(disconnected from reality)and surrounded themselves with sycophants and yes-men who constantly tell them how great ,how powerful and how special them are.The state criminals become obssesed by the image in the mirrore and fantasize about the things they can do.They brood over fantasies of historic and heroic destiny.They become shamelsss,conscience-less and arrogant.They convince themselves that as demigods they are as near-perfect as any part-human ,part-god can get.They beleive they are special ,thus crave the constant admiration and reaffirmation particularly those they perceive to be superior to them.They beleive that because they are special they are entitled to absolute respect,honor and loyalty ,the approval and obedience of all.They loathe and fear criticsm because it represents rejections in their minds and destroys their fragile self-iamge of faultless demigods.

For further descriptions contact Pissedoff the butcher's personal secretary.

Jeanne D'Arc

Gratefull ex Air Seychelles expat staff member said...

Reading some of the comments just shows how stupid and ignorant some politicians and bloggers are.
You people in the Seychelles spend too much time under the coconut trees drinking jungle juice and fail to grasp as to what is happening in the world.
Airlines are collapsing all around the world and crying out for investment from richer countries like Qatar and AbuDhabi. You get it for practically free in Seychelles and you whine and complain.
Qatar airways was about to buy a stake in Spanair, Spain's second largest airline but pulled out at the last hour. The airline is now kaput and thousands have lost their jobs. Malev, Hungry's international airline collapsed yesterday with again thousands of jobs gone. Air Mauritius is desperately looking for an investor as they face collapse . You should all be celebrating that the impossible has been achieved for your national airline you bunch of monkeys!! I worked as an expatriate for Air Seychelles sometime back and was always amazed as to how unpatriotic some Seychellois were. I know work for Emirates and grateful these people give us jobs. Air Seychelles was a great little airline and was professionally run and made profits for the years I was there. We were few expats compared to here where more than 90 % are expats. There is no stopping Emirates, Qatar, Etihad, Oman Air, Fly Dubai etc... So you ungrateful idiots celebrate what you got and thank the stars that hou were chosen and not another airline. I have spoken to a number of my Seychellois friends at Air Seychelles and working here as well and they are so releived and happy. Now go back to hour whining and jungle juice ungrateful cretins!!!

Anonymous said...

Well as laways you are trying to put the blame on others typical communist they never to blame.There are in the world many Airlines bankrputing but it is also ture that most of these Airlines are privately owed and it is ture that when it comes to National Airlines most govenremnt help their National Airline to surlve becuase it have to do with more than just an Airlkine but employment and so on.In our situation and a small country which economy is highly depend on tourism Our govenremnt should have done all necessary to save our line,becuase without it our tourism industry are directly affected tooo,the two works had in hand if not it is bound to fail.Stop putting blamea on others for your failures and if you do not have solution the best thing to do is quit and make space for profeesional and citzens with qualification and expereince.

Jeanne DÂrc

Anonymous said...

It is the expats staff that brought Air Seychelles to its knees. They were not working for Seychelles.

Anonymous said...

Exapts contributed in Air Seychelles failures and bankrutpcy,due to the fact that : they are none Nationals and the devotion to the company is in any case that of a National.(No dose of patriotism in them).Is is also true that most expats earn gross salary and in most cases paid in foreign exchange thus another finacial burden on the airline,not to mention all the perks like free housing,health insurance paid by the company,free travelling tickets to visit their homeland,those with familes ,the company must pay for them too and take most of their expenses,high bonuses and but not to forget some hold dubious qualification and expereince in the field .For a small Airline like ours this produce an extreme fianacail drubans which in time become unsustainable for the company.

jeanne D'Arc

Pissedoff said...

Grateful ex Air Seychelles expat staff member;

Well said mon ami but please allow me to correct you on one or two things!
The people of Seychelles are grateful for all those things being done in the interest of our economy that is why they again elected President Michel to office.
There are no “some politicians and bloggers” on here saying these things. It is only Gill and his lackey Jean Paul Isaac and maybe SFP’s “just for laughs ambassador” and three other office clerks that can neither spell nor construct a full sentence to place on this blog! Isaac is himself Jeanne D’arc and Ti Johnny all in one while Christopher also writes in the name of his brother Leonard.
Isaac is an out of work office admin clerk who is too lazy to look for proper employment and fancies himself as a jet fighter pilot after many years of practice on Windows 98 – yes Windows 98 Flight Simulator and a self proclaimed politician after a few years as an office admin clerk and leaflet distributor cum janitor at the SNP office of Arpen Vert. He had this notion that he would rise within the SNP ranks and eventually fell out with Ramkalawan because he never rose beyond his admin status to be selected as a member of the central committee.
Gill in turn was a disgraced out of work politician who infamously holds the record as the first floor-crosser and original Judas in Seychelles politics. He kissed his uncle James Mancham on the cheeks at 8:00 am and before lunch he was crossing the floor in the assembly. SPPF who are weary of vipers shunned him and he ended up spending his time filling the empty columns of Seychelles weekly with badly written political gibberish for 10 rupees an article. These two very bitter men somehow by some random twist of fate got together and assembled a motley crew of cannabis smoking losers to form SFP and they are the ones who have misguided idea that they speak on behalf of the Seychellois. They are tolerated because Seychelles is a democracy that respects individual freedom of speech and expression and of course we are also waiting with bathed breath for that faux pas by Jeanne D’arc/Jean Paul Isaac when they will be sued to the hilt up their lanis (anus to you my good friend!). So please continue to read this rubbish being produced by these losers until that day comes when we will partake a very cold beer to celebrate the stripping of Jean Paul’s and Gill’s lanis in compensation by one of their vindictive targets!

Pissedoff I dir ou my good friend the expat who is a friend and grateful ex employee of Seychelles, take care and good luck and keep in mind that mon pti pei Sesel will always be grateful to those who have rendered upon them services conscientiously!

Pissedoff said...

Pissedoff wishes to make a correction in case the moron Jeanne D'arc places him in her league of morons!

I meant to say: "bated breath" but Words auto correction changed it.

Anonymous said...

Pissedoff
Bated breath is not eve na real word.Baited breath makes little sense either.How can breath be bated?With worm.If Pissedoof would have used Abated (meaning to bring down,lower or depress okay),Abated breath would have made sense but not bated.
Donot confused the butcher with those words he was just awarded a degree in nothing.

Jeanne DÂrc

Jeanne D'Arc

Anonymous said...

Fakeonomy never meant success it is pure failure.A small country totally bankrutped, its National reserve emptied,having an astronomic debts,Increasing new loand thus extra debts,a forseeing inflation declared by Laporte,Afif spendinf US40,ooo to pay FITCH an known company fto conducting a report on Pp econom becuase according to AFIF "Standard and POOR)always asks for credibilty and a communist regime hates such terminologies such as Accountability,transparenca,credibilty and so forth, it means providing records base on facts which Pp cannot provide it does not keep records nor audits.In other words AFIF chose FITCH because FITCh has agreed in return for cash to conduct an economic report which would favored and praised Pp economic supposedly success, base on information provided by PP in order to give Pp some life .IMF,WB,EIB have spoken and it is not an unknown company like FITCh that will change the facts.I can also understand AFIF hates of Standard and POOR the latter a few years back conducted and produced a report on Airseychelles IDC,SEPEC that was so precised of the way PP served themselves and the extent of corruptions in theswe companies ,that PP never made public.FITCH will not change and cannot contradict reports by niether IMF,WB,EIB who are directly baling us and know how bad our economy is under PP thugocracy.Voodoo economy may work in Africa for practicing voodoo is common place not here in this country.

Jeanne D'Arc

Anonymous said...

8.46 PM
My answer to these nonsense, is it proves that knwoledge will always dictate ignorance.

Jeanne D'Arc

Anonymous said...

Let me replace the word "dictate" by "govern",else Piseedoff might thing there is something to do with Dictators.

Jeanne D'Arc

EX Air Seychelles Expat said...

What a load of gibberish and nonsense some of you dish out. If the Seychelles think that they can do it alone without expats then you deserve not to have an airline. NO airline worth it's salt today is devoid of expatriates. We have Seychellois expats here in Emirates and they are not discriminated against. When I was at Air Seychelles the company had a Par Excellence program whereas every Air Seychelles staff member was made to feel part of the HM Family. I have worked for a few airlines and I can honestly say it is the best program I have come across in any airline. One of the principal reasons I did leave HM was because of the growing uneasiness created by publications attacking us the expats. When I was told by my Seychellois friends that Capt Savy had left and most key expatriate managers had their contracts terminated I knew the airline would collapse and this fear was shared by most of the Seychellois pilots here at Emirates. Now you tell me how well have you done since you got rid of the expat management team last year!! Yes it was a disaster and what was once a profitable and proud airline went down the tube and fast ! I still have great Seychellois friends at HM who are as good as any expat but HM can NEVER do without expats. You should also learn to respect the good Seychellian aviation professionals you have in your country. Just thank your lucky stars that you have some Aussies now to clean up the mess and you would do well to try and get back your Seychellian professionals you cast aside. Get real and grow up !!!!!

Seychellian or Seychellois?? said...

Is is Seychellois or Seychellian, can't remember. I am sure it is Mauritian and not Mauritiois ?

Anonymous said...

You can make the different then you probably have got the message too.I like the fact that you use Seychellois as example for it tells something very improtant , namely that pseoudo -Seychellois to the likes of Ramdoss,Siva is not the same being Seychellois Rasin.

Jeanne D'Arc

Anonymous said...

We ddid not create an Airline to import Expatirates but to transport mainly tourists to our shores.I think we can make it without expats for we exist as a nation over 250 years now anddid all what we needed to do alone else we could have stayed a colony which would have produced the same effects as importing expats.We also have thousands of unemployed Seychellois ,should not our people be given and trained to do the jobs first before even thinking about expats?Expats may be import but not to do gardening jobs,not to be drivers,not to be fishermen or nay job our people could have done,In some case if really necessary in cases where we donot have experts okay but not the politcs Pp is following now which consist of importing cheap labor which destroy the standard of living of our people and are then gifted our passports in order that they can srtay here forever to produce ethic and religious conflicts to help Pp politcal objective which is to stay forever on power.

Jeanne D'Arc

Anonymous said...

let me simplify thing:I am sure Sesel pou seselwa is not the same Sesel Pou Arab.

Jeanne D'Arc

Anonymous said...

Now we are told HM collapsed because a few of its arrogant, overpaid and underworked expats had left. HM's problems started under incompetent David Savy and equally incompetent team of expats. The problems of HM were irreversible by the time they left reluctantly. HM was not the national airline of Seychelles. It was the personal airline of Savy and his expats.

Anonymous said...

By the time the likes of Bissessur left Air Seychelles, the airline was on its knees.

Anonymous said...

GILL I HOPE THAT YOU WILL NOW START TO RESPECT OUR POLICE PEOPLE BECAUSE YOU HAD TO RUN TO THEM FOR PROTECTION AND YOU EVEN BEGGED THEM TO COME TO OUR MOSQUE TO WARN US OFF FROM MARCHING TO YOUR OFFICE ON SATURDAY!
NEXT TIME YOU WON’T BE SO LUCKY BECAUSE WE WILL COME DOWN TO YOU NO MATTER WHAT!
RESPECT US AS SEYCHELLOIS AND RESPECT OUR CHOICE OF RELIGION.
WE DO NOT HARRASS OR THREATEN YOU OR YOUR FAMILY SO LEAVE US ALONE!

Anonymous said...

I am rather confused, much like Sir James Mancham I would think. If there is a love affair between us and Sheikh Khalifa, why do we need an association to promote friendship between Seychelles and UAE ? I would have thought love trumps friendship. Is Mancham talking about a loveless love-affair that he needs to nurture ?

What Mancham calls "visible signs of deep friendship", others would call veiled signs of exploitation.

This "love affair" has not been going for long and already we are behaving as if it is in deep crisis. We think Khalifa has got more out us than we have got from UAE and no amount of propaganda would change our view.

Anonymous said...

Love has its price for the like of Khalifa...

Anonymous said...

To the ungrateful EXPAT..I hope you are back in your own country.. after YOU have exploited an insulted us in Our country..consider yourself lucky to have enjoyed one of the most beautiful places on earth.. Ia m sure you were well paid with full benefits of all sorts.. you must belong to that old colonial era where your KIND used and abused those in the countries you decided to illegally claim as yours History has proven that YOUR KIND is responsible for a lot of countries woes..bad governance etc after you lot have ruled and raped its people. GO BACK AND GOOD RIDDANCE!

IF Britain..had interfered when RENE illegally took over we would not be in that filthy mess we are in today..but they chose to support the TRAITOR as well as the US.. FRANCE Etc..

Some of you foreigners..not all.. are so damn arrogant!and racist and think you are superior! Seychellois have produced more intelligent and degreed people per capita than a lot of you lot and unfortunately because of you some of us are living in exile!GO do an 'examen de conscience"before you insult us!

Anonymous said...

Insulting Seychellois is their own land while feeding them and making them millionaires show what kind of society we could have if we donot Stop PP importation and colonization of our land by foreigners.They would turn us into slave.

We should not be compalining about them but doing all to send them back to their homeland.Let us take SCULLY as example,this guy has been given blank card to abuse the rights of Seychellois,being paid a fortune in POUND STERLING to rod the freedom of our people,Not enough,under SCULLY Hamna rIGHTS VIOLATIONS are deteriorating especially now that SCULLY has himself become a HARD DRUG consumers.Look how thin he has become from sniffing KOK!
I remeber a Russiam oligar snapping a Seychelles in victoria for he concidered that the Seychellois Rasin who was having a cigarrette was dsiturbing him with the smoke.We KHALIFA who think becuase of his billions he has a legitimate right to rape our environment,take virgin landscape turn it into a dessert,shit in our river and do what he want above our law.You have RAMDOSS who in the day light faked elelction to put hmeslef at the helm of our Commmercial instituions thus deliberately importing hundereds of his Indain borthers each year to colonize our land.YOu has Khalfia family member who raped our Environemnt on Praslin to built an ugly Hotel call RAFFLE.You have SIVA who have been gifted our Citizenship and even a Diplomatic passport in order that he can abuse our instituion.You AHVE mUHAMMED afif A mALDIVIAN REFUGEE WHO ESCAPE TO OUR SHORE AFTER HIS FAMILY WAS overthrown now holding inportant position in our instituions though he is not even qualified.The list is long ,Seychellois must do everthing to control and when necessary get rid of those colonizators for if we donot bring order in our homeland we will end up like the FIJIAN whose insitutions are illegally under the contorl of Indianex- refugees .

Jeanne D'Arc

Gill face your demons said...

Obviously Seychelles has it's share of pea brained individuals and amongst it's ranks SFP politicians. They see fit to insult foreigners yet are able to fill their bellies because of foreigners. Gill why don't you accept only Seychellois in your hotel? If you have such a distaste of us why do you hold a foreign passport? You must hate yourself because you speak the local lingo so badly and have a half baked American accent. Albeit you may be the product of a one night stand between your Seychellois mother and a tracking station lad. A Mancham you are certainly not and this was just a ticket to the political arena. There is a deep underlying psychological reason why you lash out at expatriates yet you crave to be a bone fide foreigner. You messed up and your unhappiness permeates in everything you do. Do your family a favour and go see a shrink and come to terms with your sexuality, your identity and hatred against the world. It is ok to be Gay. It is ok to be a barstard.just be yourself whoever that is. Can't you see you are being used? In a way we have to have pity as you are in your own right a victim. But you have no right to inflict hour unhappiness onto others especially your mother, wife and children.

Anonymous said...

Mesan Expats inn araze. Zot per Seselwa ya reveye dan sa kosmar ki zot patron inn met nou ladan. Alors pli bon fason pou donn kredibilite sef se kras karakter bann pti seselwa ki pe rod LAVERITE. Bougla i kwar tou seselwa i vire paray bann boug Air Seychelles.

Eski ou kapab pran ou lopinyon e met li dan ou trou fiyon. :)

Akoz? Akoz ou esklav ou saler e ou pa partaz menm valer ki bann seselwa.

Anonymous said...

I wonder what has happened to the "Vieling" website, it has mysteriously disappeared online. Enteresan, I wonder why

Anonymous said...

Closed down by Gill.

Anonymous said...

Pissedoff

A nation takes it idenpednet to be independent esle we could have stayed a Brit. colony.Secondly,the people took the independent because they wanted to do what they want by their own force without foreign intervention.A country as an indenepdent state has as proirity to improve the wel-fare of its people thus they should have priority of the benefits that their country produce.When Indai chased the Brit. it was for the same reasons as nay other indenedpent nations.So why do you think Seychelles must produce jobs for foreigners instead of its own people?Why do you think we should let Khalfia colonize our land whne he denfence his own Land for ecteranl influences?

Pissedoof ,you should really go back on the schools bunch,foryou have not undersrtand what is indenependce nor soveiregnty.

Bring Dr Michel the butcher with you as tuitor.

jeanne D'Arc

Anonymous said...

EXPATS

Can andanger National Soveiregnty.Fiji is a good example of how a Nation's soveiregnty can be robbed very fast by expats particualrly when their is no law and rule in place to control them.Germany also is another good example.Having legally imported thousands of Turkish National as labour workers in the 60,s and 70^s without any clear rule,today Germany has over 4 millions Turks living in Germany and they are so much in numberes that the German governemnt cannot even tell them to repatriate,for they might take gus like we saw in KOSOVO whereby Albanians hâd out numbered Serbian that at last KOSOVO where given to them. NOw Kosovo has become a second state for Albanian after thereal state of albanian (Albania).We can see also the same thing in the UK where there are towns that have become teemed with Pakistanis that one think and get the feeling you in Pakistan.The british has allow them to come without control on their shores,never integrated to Brit.culture ,tradition though they were a Brit colony and now there are some of them who even want the Brit to introduce SHiria law in UK for Muslims .In of word many of those Expats particularly people from Asian in more cases never Expatriate only to work but to live forever in others countries ,use and abuse the host country social,health,education to benefits them while refusing to intergrate and learn about the host country's culture and tradition.

Having said that ,a controlled and defined policy can work but it must be such that it never allow Expats Like RAMADOSS to be gifted our nat.passport or stayed on our shores forever after his contract finished.Esle we will have problem in the future by having Expats who would like to claim our land theirs,and even want to rule us as some Indian wanted to do in Fiji which resulted in a Coup D'etat by a Native.

Our country did not have those kinds of problems to dealt with ,thus we should not create it ourselves.

Jeanne D'Arc

Jeanne D'Arc

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