ALL this talk of alliances is perplexing. It’s hijacking the airwaves, hogging the front pages. The prospect of seeing Labour and the MMM join in unholy matrimony has become something of a monomaniacal obsession, a public health concern. A bit like mahjong in some places. Or Sergio Leone fi lms in others. It’s not our fault, mind you. People want to know! The future of the country is at stake here! Or so we’re told. So we do what we do best. We feed grist to the mill of your curiosity. Ours too, of course. Oh yes, this talk of alliances is a funny old thing indeed. And there’s no end in sight.

In this respect, the 21st century is no different from the last one. We feared the millennium bug. We cowered at the mention of the financial crisis. We spent sleepless nights worrying about swine flu. But these were mere blips on the timeline of history compared to the overpowering Alliance Syndrome. It was. It is. It will be. There’s just no escaping it. You might try to fumble around in the dark, searching for a true purpose to your life but you will never find one. Your soul beats in unison with the hypnotic rhythm of this awkward political courtship.

It’s sad really. But, then again, so are many other things. Like the state of our prisons. Or the realization that Mauritius will never qualify for the FIFA World Cup. Or even the decline of quality children’s TV. You win some. You lose some. Then you lose some more. Never mind that alliances have always been part of our landscape. They’ve come and they’ve gone, tossing us about mercilessly in their wake and dashing our hopes against rocks of cynicism. This one, if it happens, will be no different. Oh no, it’ll be more of the same. Fortunately Tom Waits will be still around to wail that he wants to take the long road home. Life’s small mercies and all that.

So what’s going to happen to us poor denizens of this house of horrors? There’s no telling really. All we can do is hold out our begging bowls and meekly ask for a bit of justice, honesty and accountability. And hope for the best. Or must we? Don’t we have a say in all this? Will we be forever condemned to the role of bystanders? No, actually! If you’re one of those who believes that the average person is decent then it follows that society should be a decent entity. But if that’s so, why are we getting such a raw deal?

Mull over that not-so-rhetorical question for a while. The answer isn’t pretty. In fact, it’s downright grim. But knowledge is power apparently. And it’s not really their fault, is it? It’s ours. Our laziness and complacency have emboldened the political class to an extraordinary degree. Rather than casting the money changers out of the temple, we supplied them with bed and board. More power to them, less to us. It’s the inverse-square law in full Technicolor.

We’ll have to smell the roses some day. Yet something tells me that it won’t be of our own accord. We’ll have to be dragged out of our stupor kicking and screaming. Oh well, at least we’ll have all this talk of alliances to keep us busy.

NicholasRainer