<B>By Surendra BISSOONDOYAL</B>

Children like listening to stories. The stories, if they are well told, usher them into worlds that excite their imagination. It does not matter if the children think that genies really come out of bottles, when they are summoned, to grant them their wishes. This is part of the education process they have to go through.

Today the small and the large screens have taken over the role of story telling from parents and teachers. Cartoons bring to life not only stories about Donald Duck and Alice in Wonderland but also stories using the latest scientific discoveries and technological inventions.

Story telling is an art but when used by unscrupulous adults it can distort facts, in particular historical facts. Many leaders from the ancient world, whether they be kings or warriors, sectarian or religious leaders, have had stories woven around their personalities, stories which have been added or magnified over the centuries to give them an aura of invincibility or immortality. In some cases even the events referred to in the stories have no historical foundation.

Today many political and religious leaders do not hesitate to exploit the credulity of their followers by inventing stories about their ?exploits? and their prowess and how they worked very hard --- in a particular case for three long years --- for which they should be entitled to a lifetime achievement award. Others use stories about their ?dear leader? to keep the irreplaceable leader in permanent power and the people in submission and abject poverty.

As children we listened in rapt attention to such stories as the one about the Big Bad Wolf and the Little Red Riding Hood. Today some adults, in order to regain their lost popularity, want to revive old stories about the Big White Man and the Poor Little Labourer or Dehumanised Slave, stories which have a real historical basis. But today capitalism and exploitation have no colour. They can be white, black, brown, yellow or a combination of these.

A magician knows how to make his audience believe that he can pull out a chicken from an empty bag. His audience like to be transported to this make-believe world, thinking that it is real. Our Finance Magician makes white appear black and black appear white, and when he leaves the stage after ?strutting and fretting his hour? upon it, we come back to our senses and realize that we had been fooled and that he had been dipping into our pockets.

Mauritius is ?shining?, he tells us. Foreigners who love Mauritius and Mauritians are bringing in lots of dollars, euros and pounds which will be used to better the lot of the common man. But these currencies only transit in Mauritius and then disappear, just like our prime land which becomes very private unapproachable property.

The BJP-led Indian government was proud to tell the people that India was ?shining?. Stories about how business and FDI were coming to India to make it prosper struck their imagination. But poor people were left by the wayside in this development. In the end, in the 2004 General Election, the feeling of elation did not seep through to the lower strata of the population, and the ruling coalition lost the election.

We are reminded of the story about how a battle was lost for want of a nail. For want of a nail, the story goes, the (horse)shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the horse was lost and for want of a horse the battle was lost. In the case of Mauritius we must imagine similar stories once all our prime land is taken over by foreigners and the price of what remains skyrocket. For want of a piece of land a vote was lost, for want of a vote a seat was lost and for want of a seat the election was lost. Such stories add spice to life and make history palatable for some and unpalatable for others.