Two months ago, the glistening guillotine blade above the earthly paradise that is Ferney forest dangled virtually unnoticed. Today, most of the Mauritian population is aware of and able to berate the great perils that the sanctuary faces as a result of administrative bungles, greed, lack of political will and an insidious quest for expediency.

A bit later today, Cabinet will be presented with the Seebaluck report that outlines the nefarious ecological toll that will be paid by the country if government decides to go ahead with the Road Development Authority?s (RDA) planned route through the Ferney valley. Next Tuesday, the prime minister will be holding a meeting with all the stakeholders to decide of the fate of the forest. A critical time indeed.

Admissions of mistakes are, as you will see, all the rage nowadays. Maybe our role models would care to indulge in an exercise of humility. After all, error is only human.

On Monday, French Foreign minister, Michel Barnier, demanded of Turkey that it acknowledges the massacre of over one million Armenians in 1915 during talks for its accession to the European Union. Although it is undoubtedly a stalling device ? the EU can?t remain an exclusively Christian club infiniment because of Turkey?s human rights record ? a ?mea culpa? from Istanbul would be cause for reflection on past crimes against humanity.

If government chooses to go ahead with the RDA?s plan, who amongst the decision-makers will volunteer to apologize to future generations for having annihilated 76 000 m2 of endemic forest having known that the country has less than 2% of such vegetation left?

Moreover, it would be more than fitting for a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) to enquire, during the UN conference that will be held here in January, on how Mauritius dares to host a conference on sustainable development when it so lackadaisically threatens myriad endangered species of flora and fauna with an administrative sword of Damocles .

Or, at the very least, the delegate could ask that the document that will come out of the conference be entitled the ?Mauritius Plan of Action That Will Have No Impact Whatsoever on National Policy?. I?m sure that?s one treatise on sustainable development that even the United States would ratify.

In a period of less than a month, a group of citizens concerned by the environmental implications of the south-east highway project called Nature Watch have come up with an alternate route that will not only spare the forest, but will also be safer and a lot cheaper than the RDA?s.

If there?s one thing that?s better than having to do a ?mea culpa?, it?s not making the mistake in the first place?