by Deepa BHOOKHUN

It is a truth universally acknowledged that some men, to justify their feeble existence, are sometimes wont to make much ado about nothing.

However acknowledged this truth is though, it is still utterly irritating when people, who don?t have anything to say, refuse to shut up or to back off. So much so that, despite the fiasco of the trade unions? demonstration of last Thursday, they are still going on and on about how low the wage compensation is and how everybody is unhappy and how everybody wants to go for a general strike.

Really? I don?t know who talks to them, our enlightened trade unionists, but the people I have spoken to, were so pleasantly surprised with the quantum of the compensation, especially as compared to last year?s Rs 135, that many of them half expected Government to lower the quantum, on Friday.

Which is why, despite the opposition?s support, there weren?t many people at the demonstration, which had an admittedly well inspired theme - empty pots and pans. Did they take heed? Did the absence of people with their empty pots and pans make the trade unionists and the opposition stop and take stock and think that maybe, just maybe, they should just go home and think of something more intelligent to do?

No. Trade unionists who have refused to sit on the National Pay Council, have declared themselves to be so happy with their scattered crowd that they will now go towards a general strike! Well go on, dear trade unionists, just you go on strike. Hopefully when they realise that nobody is paying any attention to them, they?ll take their pots and pans and return them to their wives? kitchens.

The little sunny party?s parliamentary puppet together with his dwarf of a leader were at last Thursday?s demonstration alongside members of the MMM. When the ?leaders? realised that things weren?t going quite as planned, they shamelessly took French leave. So what are they on about?

Oh I forgot. Vishnu ?Messiah? Lutchmeenaraidoo, the man who has the magic wand that Rama Sithanen hasn?t, has solemnly declared that the country has the means to pay a full compensation to poor people. We are, of course, to gather that it is only out of spite that Government didn?t pay.

This is what I mean by people who don?t know when to back off. Of course, I don?t think Rs 300 or Rs 400 is going to make anybody?s life better. Rs 800 neither for that matter. The problem is bigger and elsewhere and lies with the country?s finances and the sustained refusal of people - aided and abetted by politicians - to understand that things are very wrong and that we need to do something about it.

The funny thing is, judging by the reactions after the quantum of compensation was made public, one gets the feeling that people had started to grasp this and had expected less money. Only to be given more.

The question is; did Government do the right thing by giving the signal that already the economy has started to recover?