Every successful politician knows that what really matters is not how things are, but how things appear. Legend has it that a well-known politician has a picture of a stork on his bedroom wall, as a reminder of how our minds work. You see, statistics show that the number of babies born in specific neighbourhoods is proportionate to the prevalence of storks there. The more storks, the more babies. For politicians with manipulative minds (meaning all of them), the stork example is a useful lesson in the art of public deception. 

Here is the actual explanation: storks like chimneys, so they prefer highly urbanised areas with more houses, meaning more chimneys – and also more people, including babies! There is no actual correlation between storks and babies, but the simple fact that the birds were so often seen circling the sky where kiddos were born was enough to create an impression that turned into one of the most powerful tales ever told in the world. The stork example teaches us that appearance matters more than the truth. 

Appearance is the weapon with which battles are fought, and elections won. And few leaders are as well-trained in the fine art of appearance maintenance – call it storkism if you wish – than ours. They just let the attorney general (the minister of justice!) ride out the storm in relative tranquility after a document signed by him in an alleged money laundering scandal was made public, putting the main focus on the journalists who broke the story instead. And we, the electorate, allowed them to do it. Now, we have even granted them some peace and quiet to ride out the storm. 

The uncomfortable truth is that the majority of us have already moved on to the next scandal – Tarolah’s parliamentary sexting. It is newer, it is juicier and it is – let’s be honest – more exciting in the minds of (too) many. It has a sexual element and video footage of funny tongue movements. How can a tremendously bigger but also dustier and more boring story about an alleged money-laundering minister even compete with that? It is tongues versus documents – and tongues always win. 

Our (albeit very human) national love for new scandals in combination with the electorate’s notoriously short memory has created the perfect storkism environment for our politicians. They can stork around freely, spinning their stories as they wish and survive any scandal, while we, the people, conveniently move on to the next one. In a scene in a famous musical, the lawyer tells his client, a sexy celebrity murderess who is upset that a newly-committed crime has stolen the attention away from her own court case, “this is Chicago, kid. You can't beat fresh blood on the walls.” 

This is Mauritius, kid. Our stork masters keep painting new blood on the walls, hoping that we will forget about the old blood that has dried there already. But don’t forget what a stork really is, folks. Just a bird that likes chimneys! 

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