We sometimes fail to appreciate the extent of our insignificance on the global stage. By denying our patent irrelevance, we deny ourselves the opportunity of optimizing our bargaining power in international fora. Unfortunately, the future of the country hinges, to a great extent, on the way Mauritius succeeds in exerting its powers of persuasion on the developed world. This is particularly true when it comes to the sugar reform.

The European Union (EU) has the money, you see. It has tons of it. For example, each and every European cow receives about $25 per day in terms of subsidies and other unfair practices that harm the developing world. It just doesn?t see why they should hand their cash to us. This is why we need to show the EU that, contrarily to what its members want to believe, it?s in their own interests to be extremely generous when it comes to Mauritius. It all boils down to realpolitik.

It?ll be difficult to beat the Europeans at a game that they?ve been mastering for centuries. Niccolo Machiavelli wrote his classic political treatise on conquest and control, ?The Prince?, in 1513. That?s almost 200 years before the French actively colonized the island! That gives you a small idea on their headstart.

Up until now, our naivety made us Manichean, which means that we saw the world in terms of good and bad. In turn, we thought that we would be vindicated if only we acted in a godly manner. If this approach allowed us to hang on to our innocence a little longer, it did us no great favours when it came to maximizing our weight on the international stage.

The time has come for us to forego the Manichean school of thought and enroll in the more realistic Machiavellian one. Yes, it?s time to give the Europeans a taste of their own bitter medicine. Next time our minister of Ago-Industry, Arvin Boolell, has to beg Brussels for a softer, more clement model of sugar-industry reform, he might as well cause a huge stink on Diego Garcia and Tromelin. These are episodes that the British and French would like the world to ignore. For too long, we?ve afforded them that luxury.

Although the British may appear to be on our side when it comes to the sugar reform, they are closer to their pockets than most. Ironically, those pockets are partly lined with the billions of dollars the Americans pay them to ?rent? Diego Garcia. A decade from now, the Americans will negotiate a new lease for Diego that will by far exceed, in monetary terms, the compensation that Mauritius is seeking for the end of the Sugar Protocol. We thus need to remove the kid gloves and hammer our point home until we obtain whichever sum we deem to be satisfactory.

The same applies to France, which has made no secret of its alliance with the stingier EU members. The next time that France downplays the effect that the end of the sugar protocol will have on our economy, Arvin Boolell could retort, Machiavelli-style, ?Balderdash! Your country regularly plunders our exclusive economic zone with your fishing vessels and you don?t even have the decency to compensate us properly for tearing down one of the main pillars of economy? Need I say more??

Next Saturday, Arvin Boolell will preside over a ?brainstorming? session on the reform of the sugar industry. The participants must understand that realpolitik is all about a means to an end. More important, they should be prepared to use it.