There’s nothing new on earth. Watching recent events unfold took me back to the days when Greek tragedies were first performed. They arose out of the ancient rites carried out in honour of Dionysos. No-one on Mount Olympos ever expected he’d have more followers than anyone on social media but that may explain the current interest in the tragic rise and fall of heroes. Aristotle held that tragedy was a cathartic experience, making people aware that there can be nobility in suffering but afterwards feeling a tremendous sense of relief. The tragedies were interspersed with Satyr plays, which made fun of the main characters. The actors, seemingly half-goat and half-human, wore large phalluses to emphasise their “satirical” nature. In a play, timing is all-important and, unfortunately, in the current production, the member for White Mountain came on stage too early.

It’s not just the Greeks and the Bard of Avon who are famous for their tragic – and comic – heroes. They’ve even inspired Kreol playwrights. Dev may have led the way but has now been outshone by the Sage’s version of All’s Well That ends Well, Tou inn terminn très bien. Except no-one’s sure how many acts there are to the current play. With all the experience of history behind us, we’ve learnt to be cautious as you never can tell what the relationship between cause and effect might be. Is there more to come?

“It is nought good a sleepyng hound to wake” and it’s easy to imagine who might agree with that. Mind you, there’re so many questions unasked: From what bank of information did the credit card leak come – and why and how? Why did the leak occur just before the Independence celebrations if not to destabilise the principal offices of state? Perhaps the inspiration came from Roman times when intrigue and conspiracies reigned. And unanswered: What’s been the role of various grey eminences, and others, one of whom seems to pop up again and again? By the way, whatever happened to Teeren Appasamy?

Thucydides and Aristophanes weren’t that keen on democracy as the demos, nowadays represented by crass media trolls, were easily swayed by demagogues and too often made ill-informed decisions. The worst were the death sentence passed on Socrates and the execution of six generals despite the fact they’d won the battle of Arginousai. The trial was highly irregular, the result of the politically charged environment during the war between Athens and Sparta, far more dramatic than the tiff between La Caverne and Belle Rive…

Madame’s book is very enlightening about past goings-on at Le Reduit, which make anything today seem rather tame, but what’s to be done now? Pliny the Elder favoured the use of oil on troubled waters, even if not very environmentally- friendly: “Everything is soothed by oil, and this is the reason why divers send out small quantities of it from their mouths, because it smooths every part which is rough.” There may therefore be a role for the government’s diving expert as a Deus ex Machina, although that sounds equally improbable.

The line between tragedy and comedy is sometimes very fine and perhaps the current play is adapted from The Comedy of Errors. At least in the country’s fiftieth year of Independence, only a demagogue can claim it’s become a banana republic – or the media wouldn’t have been able to make mention of current difficulties without journalists being interrogated at four in the morning. That kind of error would just show that Line Barracks needs emergency repair works – but that’s a separate tragedy.

Yours sincerely

Epi Phron