The right to know: every young person growing into adulthood has the right to the truth concerning his or her queries. This must be so, independent of the nature of the question, whether it be personal (an adopted child of 15 who wants to know his biological parents), sexual (a girl of 8 who asks where babies come from - no, not cabbages!), social (a 16-year old from a disadvantaged suburb of Port-Louis who asks why he cannot get what other well-connected youngsters of his age get).

This is particularly true in the political field, where more often than not, the man in the street only gets what ?they? think he ought to know. Obscurity remains in many areas, despite our wonderfully free press, since at source there may not be transparency on questions such as these: who or what was responsible for Kaya?s death? What was the ?real? deal over Diego Garcia at the pre-independence talks? How serious was the electoral promise of 2005 that all Mauritians would be involved in and benefit from the new deal? What was the decisive, ?interior? motive, which led the USA to attack Iraq? Why was the WTO created?

At almost 90, English playwright Harold Pinter was awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature. He used the occasion of his acceptance speech to make an extraordinary plea about truth and the right to know, especially as regards the involvement of the USA in world politics. Here are a few excerpts from what should be mandatory reading for all sixth-formers.

On political language, as used by politicians : ?On the evidence available to us, they are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.?

?As every single person here knows, the justification for the invasion of Iraq was that Saddam Hussein possessed a highly dangerous body of weapons of mass destruction, some of which could be fired in 45 minutes, bringing about appalling devastation. We were assured that was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq had a relationship with Al Quaeda and shared responsibility for the atrocity in New York of September 11th 2001. We were assured that this was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq threatened the security of the world. We were assured it was true. It was not true?. ?The truth is something entirely different?.

On the US foreign policy since the end of the Second World War, Pinter believes that it is obligatory upon us to subject this period to scrutiny, because: ?Everyone knows what happened in the Soviet Union and throughout Eastern Europe during the post-war period: the systematic brutality, the widespread atrocities, the ruthless suppression of independent thought. All this has been fully documented and verified. But my contention here is that the US crimes in the same period have only been superficially recorded, let alone documented, let alone acknowledged, let alone recognized as crimes at all. I believe this must be addressed and that the truth has considerable bearing on where the world stands now.?

Strong words from a Nobel Laureate! Is Pinter right in his outright condemnation of the USA? Does he not dwell only on the negative actions of a few politicians and forget the extraordinary cultural, scientific, social and economic richness of America? (and for that matter of Russia?). So where is the truth? My advice to young people is to keep an open, critical mind. That?s the only way to begin to uncover the ultimate truth. And truth will liberate you!

Dr. Michael ATCHIA [email protected]