[ straighttalk |women in politics > · [ straighttalk |women in politics > pp.34-35 ... as...
TRANSCRIPT
Insert N°3 • Friday 19 MARCH 2010 [ T H I S I S M A U R I T I U S > pp. 36-37
The Telugu Community in MauritiusWhen differences no longer matter
[ S T R A I G H T T A L K | Women in Politics > pp.34-35
by Touria PRAYAGEditorial ]
International Women’s Day is over and we are back to the stark reality of the 364 other days. The debate and harsh ex-changes about women’s participation in politics have left us with a bitter after-taste.
There is no denying the fact that a true and legitimate demo-cracy cannot be achieved as long as women are excluded from positions of power. However, what saddens me is that we think we are unique as a country and that what has not worked for others is likely to work for us. Many of the countries which intro-duced quotas are now in the middle of reviewing them. In a few countries, quotas have led to creating the ‘queens of the political arena’ syndrome, where political parties are getting their specially chosen women on board to get the token number of ‘controllable’ women, enough to show that they are promoting women’s rights. Quotas have also led countries to not develop a political culture whereby women are integrated into the political system.
Instead of looking at ways of allowing more competent wo-men to participate fully in the workforce and have their legitimate place at the decision-making level, not because they are women, but in spite of being women, we are breeding a race of women who are not necessarily competent and are using their gender as their only weapon to get to power. It is true that many incom-petent men are power thirsty too, but no man has as yet asked me to vote for him just because he is a man. And that’s where the difference lies. The gender argument is of the same level of intellectual paucity as that of seeking power on the basis of one’s race or ethnicity.
There are many women like the Lindsey Collens and Nita Deerpalsings of this world for whom I would vote any day. They are intelligent and competent, and have ideals I can relate to which they are not scared of voicing out. But there are women who are dead against the decriminalization of abortion or the use of contraceptives. Some have no ideals that we know of because they are hedging their bets and increasing their chances of be-coming the queens of the political arena. Voting for them would mean sending women reeling back to the Middle Ages.
What worries me tremendously is that all this talk about quo-tas is beginning to lead to the emergence of many women who, because they cannot get a life, are jumping on the band-wagon of ‘social work’ convinced it will lead them to power just because they are women. What will their contribution be towards the bet-terment of the lot of other citizens? My guess is ‘not much’.
Please feel free to tax me with any label you like. The only one I feel I deserve is that of democrat, because if we are truly demo-cratic at the core, we ought to cast our precious and hard-fought-for right to suffrage on men and women from all communities with unimpeachable reputations and credible manifestoes. The aim of women should be no different from that of their male counterparts: to redress any existing imbalance, ethnic, econo-mic or gender based by pushing for a more egalitarian society. That can only be fairly achieved through equal opportunity, not through any form of discrimination.
The system of quotas, if implemented, is likely to hurt the country and that means hurting most that section of it which is the most vulnerable: women!
Home truths
Interview Chagos controversy:the British viewpoint
l’express p. 26Q U I C K R E A D ][ Friday 19 March 2010 • Insert N° 3
Celebrations ● Radio One
> Radio One celebrated its eighth birthday on March 12th. To mark the event, the day’s programmes were chan-ged and special ‘birthday presents’ offered to listeners du-ring each programme. These included iPods and kitchen equipment, as well as catamaran outings for two people.
● Independence and Republic Day> The celebration of the 42nd Independence Day
and 18th Republic Day of Mauritius. The traditional fl ag-raising ceremony was held at Champ de Mars on 12th March, followed by a display of cultural diversity, complete with the Chinese dragon dance, ballet, Marathi dances and much more. In his annual televised speech to the na-
tion on that occasion, Navin Ramgoolam spoke of his concern for law and order, the fi ght against drugs, education and the Chagos dossier.
● Ougadi, the Telugu New Year.
> Devotees who celebra-ted Ougadi on 16th
March spent the day preparing a traditio-nal meal, engaging
in prayers to welcome the New Year and having their
horoscopes read by a priest as per the tradition.
Political discussions> With parliament set to resume next week, and no
sign of any alliance, the MMM has said it will suspend negotiations with the Labour Party if no conclusion is reached by the end of the week. Meanwhile, Xavier Du-val has also been saying that there will be no alliance between the Labour Party and the MMM, as he sees the next government composed of the existing par-tners. Meanwhile sources say that Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam may announce the election date on the 1st May, but there is no confi rmation as yet. Thus political suspense is maintained until further notice.
Driving Licences> Amendments to the Road Traffi c Act concerning
the issue of driving licences will soon be introduced. Under the new system, people will only receive a tem-porary licence and must undergo a two-year trial pe-riod to get their permanent licence. The conditions are that within the two years, they should not be involved in any accident or breach of the highway code. Also, no more driving school licences will be issued due to concerns that there are too many driving schools for such a small po-pulation.
The Week at a Glance]
By Nad SIVARAMEN
The International Scene]
Blood in BangkokIn Thailand, street protesters
are using bloody tactics to draw attention to their demands on who should rule their country. They are shedding their own blood in front of the gates of Government House. This week, antigovernment demonstrators poured several gallons of blood “in a symbolic sacrifi ce to step up their campaign for fresh elections and to bring back Thailand’s ousted populist leader Thaksin Shinawatra from exile (...) Ac-tivists have threatened to resort next to what they call ‘biological weapons’,” the Bangkok Post reported. But the government appears unperturbed. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva vowed again Tuesday to stay in offi ce. For many observers, Thailand could come closer to resolving the political impasse if former premier Thaksin Shinawatra was involved in negotiations with the government.The red shirts’ act of pouring human blood as a political protest could lead to more violent actions in the days to come…
Mexico’s war on drug cartels.
Mexicans fi rst supported
the President Felipe Calderon’s military-led war on drug cartels but the streets and the polls now indicate a loss of confi dence in his strategy due to increasing numbers of drug-related deaths. Tuesday, Calderon paid a visit to the troubled border city of Jua-rez where three people associa-ted with the U.S. Consulate were killed over the weekend. With 2 600 killings in 2009, Juarez is Mexico’s most violent city. But Calderon was slammed by lo-cal people. Demonstrators held signs reading “government as-sassins” as Calderon arrived to meet offi cials and try to reassure Mexicans that his crackdown on drug gangs is the best way to curb their violent wars. “Calde-ron has no idea what he is talking about. He lives on another planet”, said one of many activists who believe the Mexican police are also involved in drug-traffi c-king, hence making the war on drugs a never-ending one, es-pecially when the demand does not seem to be on the decrease... Despite thousands of troops and elite police deployed across the country, drug violence has killed some 20 000 people since Cal-deron took offi ce in late 2006.
Legal victory for Egyp-tian Women
The Constitutional Court of Egypt backed the right of women to sit on the bench in the state’s administrative courts, despite conservatives’ opposi-tion. The ruling follows a dispute in the State Council, the top administrative court in Egypt, on whether women should be appointed to the courts. The Constitutional Court’s ruling, issued this week, stated that all citizens were equal before the law. This was followed by a de-monstration of joy by human rights organizations in Cairo.
Georgia: Panic after a TV hoax
There was panic in Geor-gia after a popular TV reported that Russia was sending troops to invade the capital and that the country’s president, Mikhail Saakashvili, was dead. The TV station, pro-government Imedi TV, later apologized to the pu-blic and stated the aim of the hoax had been to show how events might unfold if the presi-dent were killed. Imedi TV used archive footage of the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia and imagined how opposition
fi gures might seize power after an assassination of President Saakashvili. Many Georgians believed it to be a real news re-port - mobile phone networks were overwhelmed with calls and many people rushed on to the streets.
Twitter in China ?According to Twitter’s co-
founder, Jack Dorsey, the instant social networking and micro-blogging service could be avai-lable in China “as soon as some legal concerns” are resolved. Even though “progress” has been no-ted in negotiations to overcome
the legal hurdles, web users in China are rather pessimistic because their country is now known to be closed off from the rest of the world. Several social networking sites and search engines (including Google) have been blocked through the government’s use of Web cen-sorship laws that are typically enforced when citizens use Web services to speak out against the country. The protests to regain Internet freedom are multiplying by at least one hundred posts each day!
Source: AFP/Getty
Protests from the streets
Melissa Louis
Protesters pour blood on the streets of Bangkok.
l’express
Events]Ballroom DancingGet your dancing shoes on and sign up for ballroom dancing courses offered by Simon Cruwys of the David Academy of Dancing in collaboration with Immedia. Simon Cruwys has been dancing for 30 years and is part of the UK’s Imperial Society for Teachers of Dancing (ISTD). He will be coaching social dancers and running ISTD courses for dance teachers from Satur-day 27th March to Saturday 3rd April. For registration and further information, contact Immedia on 2081030 or by email at [email protected]
Art ExhibitionsAn exhibition of 35 oil paintings by Thierry Montocchio is being held at the Imaaya Art Gallery at Pointe aux Cannoniers. Thierry Montocchio makes use of knife painting techniques, which he learned after a chance meeting with the French artist Marc-Antoine Goulard in Paris. The exhibition will run until 27th March. For more information contact Imaaya Art Gallery on 263 1628.You can also head to the Colour Attitude gallery in Moka for an exhibition by Gilberte Marimootoo-Natchoo, who makes
extensive use of shades of bronze and copper, evo-king the warmth and mysticism of the earth. The artist also uses her fi ngers and everyday ob-jects like cardboard and matchsticks ins-
tead of paintbrushes. The exhibition will run from 19th to 25th March.
27 DressesIf you feel like spending a quiet evening in front of the television, watch 27 Dresses (27 Robes), a romantic comedy starring Katherine Heigl & James Marsden. The movie is about Jane, a romantic, selfl ess woman who has been a bridesmaid no less than 27 times. Until the day her younger sister Tess captures the heart of Jane’s boss-with whom she’s secretly in love! Catch it on Friday 19th March at 20.00 on Canal + Family.
A view from the bridgeA view from the bridge, a play written by Arthur Miller in the 50s will be on at the Alliance Française in Bell Village this mon-th. The story is set in Brooklyn, and tells of the troubles faced by Eddie Carbone as he hides two clandestine immigrants in his home. An extremely dark tale, which is being staged to com-memorate the fi fth anniversary of the death of
Arthur Miller. You can see the play on 19th March at 19.00.
p. 27 [ Q U I C K R E A D Insert N°3• Friday 19 March 2010
“Roder bout”– someone whose main aim in life is to angle for professional advancement or material gain on the sole merit of his political affi liation or obsequiousness; a parasite.Initially used to describe the countless hangers-on who circle politicians in the period preceding the elections in order to get a cushy job in a ministry or parastatal agency, the term “roder bout” now refers to anyone who depends on bootlicking, rather than his social or professional abilities, to get ahead in life. With the elections looming, “roder bout” will be coming out of the woodwork in their droves.
N.R.
The Prime Minister, Navin Ramgoolam greets MSM leader, Pravind Jugnauth at the Reduit garden party on the occasion of National Day.
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Kreol korner]
Drawings by Stephane BENOIT
NAD
EN C
HETT
Y
l’express [ Friday 19 March 2010 • Insert N° 3 p. 28I S S U E S ]
THE signs of unhappiness or dysfunctional behaviours, harmful to the individual or to society, are by a long stretch far more prevalent in the so-called developed nations of the West and in Japan (basically the OECD countries). Thus, there appears to be empirical evidence to suggest an inverse correlation between material wealth and level of happiness. Of course, this is a simplistic conclusion, as it is impossible to defi ne and measure hap-piness in an absolutist manner. Ask a hungry man if he’s happy and you will immediately see that things are not as simple as they may appear superfi cially. Nonetheless, material wealth seems to produce happiness concordant with the well known law of the science of economics, namely diminishing returns.
Gross National Happiness
Furthermore, the ‘hap-piness scientists’ have mea-sured that the ‘curve of happiness’ rises very steeply, even nearly vertically, as soon as basic human needs are satis-fi ed, and plateaus very quickly beyond that. The ‘beyond that’ is, of course, the hedonistic treadmill of the rat-racers, the sated, the blasé, the jaded, etc. Paradoxically and sadly, there-fore, economic progress and its trapping of material plenti-fulness have failed to buy Wes-tern world citizens ‘happiness’. It is hardly surprising then that some enlightened political leaders and economists, most notably in the Kingdom of Bhutan, have thought it fi t to measure national achievement
Africa : our hinterland of
Salt of the red earth
Would you risk your life for Rs900 000? If your answer to this question is no, then it seems safe to assume that you’re part of an overwhelming majo-rity. After all, what’s the point of jeopardizing your existence for money that you might not even get the chance of actually spending? Yet on the face of it that’s exactly what ex-Riche Terre planters seem to be doing. Or is it? There’s a lot more at stake here than a few million rupees.
The Prime Minister has a point when he says that there will always be those who oppose pro-gress. Yet it’s not progress per se that’s at the heart of this debate. Rather, his government’s vision of progress and the way it has gone about imple-menting it is the issue here. To compare the shady Jinfei Economic Trade and Cooperation Zone to Singapore’s nonpareil road infrastructure as he did on Tuesday is a bit of a stretch, at best. Many Mauritians are preoccupied by the project and go-vernment hasn’t shown the slightest inclination to address their concerns. That’s not very nice.
It’s equally worth evoking the way the autho-rities went about informing the planters, some of whom had occupied the land since the 1940s, that their presence was no longer desirable. In February 2007, the lessees received a letter from the ministry of Agro-industry notifying them that government had “decided to resume possession of the State land” and requesting that they “quit and vacate the plot by 30th June, 2007”. Without wanting to stand on ceremony, it’s easily understandable that the eviction notice didn’t go down too smoothly in the community.
Navin Ramgoolam has also accused the hun-ger strike of having been orchestrated by some less than reputable individuals who are using the pro-test to further their own base interests. Imputing motives is always a surefi re method of discrediting one’s adversaries. Yet this time-tested tactic has the unfortunate tendency of cutting both ways.
In “From indentured labourers to liberated nation”, his excellent book about public policy and small planters in Mauritius, the University of Mumbai’s P.S. Vivek damningly describes the eviction of the land’s historical tenants in 2007 as “shocking”.
“This anti-planters act by the current govern-ment in the name of development was deplorable. The proposed direct foreign investment of $500 million was in fact a pretext to promote the per-sonal agenda of some individuals in positions of power. Who could believe that the stated objective for the displacement of 250 small planters and their families (over 1 200 people) was to generate employment for 5 000 people over a period of fi ve years starting from June 2007”, he wonders.
Agriculture has been at the heart of the country’s development for longer than we care to remember. And small planters are the unsung he-roes to whom we owe this success. Navin Ramgoo-lam would do well to remember this. Jilting them to accommodate a monolithic industrial entity was bad enough. Refusing to negotiate with them is in-sulting, dangerous even.
Left Field]By Nicholas RAINER
l’expressInsert N°3 • Friday 19 March 2010 p. 29 I S S U E S
and progress not through the usual indicators of conventio-nal economics, such as Gross National Product (GDP) per capita, but by a qualitative measure of Gross National Happiness. This is no laughing matter. The aphorism that ‘mo-ney can’t buy you happiness’ may be demonstrably true af-ter all. I am inclined to believe it is. I have watched Africans at work and at play. I have done the same with Europeans. I can vouch that Africans, no matter how outwardly ‘poor’, are still the happiest people I’ve ever known personally, to the extent that I am attuned to sensing degrees of ‘happiness’. Their secret? Commensalism, mutualism, ‘ubuntu’ – Africans don’t exist outside other fellow human beings. Descartes said “I think therefore I am”. To
the African, he/she is because you are – in other words he/she exists only in relation to you. That has been traditio-nally their central credo and has fashioned their ethos. The concept of individual private property is also alien to tradi-tional African culture; land be-longs to the community and to those who work it. Of course, with Western, and increasin-gly Eastern, infl uence all this is changing, and Africans are swelling the ranks of the mate-rialistic grabbing consumerist millions of this world.
Stereotyping of Africans
This essay would be incom-plete without mentioning that feared species of African, the ubiquitous bureaucrat. He epi-
tomizes the ugly face of Africa, and sadly that’s the one the visitor fi rst encounters when entering the country (if he’s ‘lucky’ enough to be allowed to do so that is!) and which shapes his fi rst impressions and crafts his stereotyping of Africans in general as being incompe-tent, rude and corrupt. I have suffered grave administrative victimization and harassment, intimidation, humiliation, ex-ploitation, abuse, insult, even arbitrary deportation, at the hands of these all-powerful functionaries and their fear-some rubber stamps, without which nothing and no-one moves. Rules are made and unmade arbitrarily, without any consideration whatsoever as to their sense and practicality. In fact, one quickly acquires a conviction that rules are made and changed to infl ict maxi-mum inconvenience and diffi -culty to those subject to them, or to extract the maximum benefi t from those making or applying those rules, and the two are not always necessarily indissociable, for unavowable reasons which are nonetheless obvious! The entry visa which most African countries impose on foreign visitors is a perfect illustration of bureaucratic iniquity and inanity at it best. One day it is delivered at the point of entry, the next not, at the whim and fancy of the omnipotent person on duty at the time you happen to arrive. If you are refused an entry visa for no apparently valid reason, you may be fortunate enough to be deported on the next
available fl ight the same day, after waiting in the ‘comfort’ of the airport police detention centre; if you are not so, you are squarely detained without access to your telephone, with little water and food (not ‘free’ either, mind you!), little, or no access, to washing facilities, for days on end until they decide what to do you with you (once you run out of money, you are no more of interest to your hangman!).
A long-term African friend once remarked that the most diffi cult countries to enter are the ones no one wishes to go to! He is so completely correct, but that’s little comfort to me who have to travel to these countries not because I want to, but be-cause I have to. What irks and infuriates me most with this visa issue is that I have many times arbitrarily been denied entry into some African country or other as a citizen of another African country, whilst my Eu-ropean fellow travelling com-panion walks into the country unimpeded and welcomed with open ‘warm African hospita-lity’ (read servility and obse-quiousness towards the white man, still decades after decolo-nization and ‘liberation’ from his yoke). African Union, I hear you say? ‘Free movement of fellow African citizens in Africa’? Not for tomorrow, I can assure you; not in my lifetime for that mat-ter. How can one dream of eco-nomic, even less political, union, when insurmountable bureau-cratic obstacles stand in the way of intra-African movement of bona fi de citizens? Without free
movement of people, economic and political integration of Afri-ca will remain a mere chimera, peddled by feckless and mega-lomaniacal politicians in search of an agenda or platform.
Fellow Africans and fellow sufferers
Having read the above may beg the question of what keeps me going back to Africa despite the travails narrated. Two rea-sons: fellow Africans are also fellow sufferers and victims of these mindless, heartless and ruthless African bureaucrats, and for them it’s even worse, for it’s their daily lot – I’m just a short term visitor; secondly, as I mentioned above, once inside the country, the kindness, hospi-tality, friendship, warmth, gene-rosity, contagious cheerfulness, sincerity, with which these fel-low African sufferers welcome you makes you quickly forget your earlier travails.
So, happy travelling in Africa and hearty thanks to ordinary Africans! Continue to be happy!
NAP
“that feared species of African, the ubiquitous bureau-crat, epitomizes the ugly face of Africa, and sadly that’s the one
the visitor fi rst encounters.”
“Without free movement of people, economic and political
integration of Africa will remain a mere chimera, peddled by
feckless and megalomaniacal politicians.”
Traditional costumes and artefacts play an important role in African ceremonies.
opportunity
l’express
INTERVIEWWITH
● It’s been fi ve months since the British govern-ment launched the consulta-tion process for the creation of a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Chagos. Did you expect the proposal to cause such an uproar?
The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) is obvious-ly a very sensitive issue here. There will soon be elections in Mauritius, as there will be in the United Kingdom, and the reaction has to be seen in that context. I would say I was a little surprised by it. I think some of the reactions, particularly in the media, have been predicated on a misunderstanding of what the consultation process is about, all the more so because in Mauri-tius there are limited established consultation procedures.
● In the UK, consulta-
tions are very widely accep-ted and operated. When we launch a consultation it’s an attempt to gather infor-mation and hear views from stakeholders in order to in-form decision-making. It’s not refl ective of a decision that’s already been taken. A lot of the reporting of and discussions on the BIOT issue in Mauritius seems to have assumed a decision to establish the MPA has already been taken. The best response to a consulta-tion process is to engage in it and to provide views. Wi-thout views, it’s diffi cult for all stakeholders to be heard when a decision is taken.
You seem to think that all this sabre-rattling is part of an attempt by government to drum up some support against a common enemy, so
to speak, before the elections. I wouldn’t describe it in those
terms. That’s your expression not mine. I would however say that it’s a politically sensitive pe-riod and things have to be seen in that light. When people read the consultation document they will see that a lot of the concerns that have been aired in the Mau-ritian press are not legitimate. For example, some worry that the MPA consultation is a way to prevent the islands ever being ceded to Mauritius. However, the document makes it clear several times that if the British government were to establish an MPA, it would have no bearing on the commitment we made in 1982 to cede the islands to Mau-ritius when the archipelago as a whole was no longer needed for defence purposes. It’s very clear that any decision, if there is one, will not affect the sovereignty is-
sue. It’s also written very clearly that this is without prejudice to the ongoing court case at the Eu-ropean Court of Human Rights (ECHR) brought by the Chagos Refugee Group (CRG).
● What’s the current sta-tus of the project?
The deadline of the consul-tation, which initially was Fe-bruary 12th, was extended until March 5th. One of the reasons we did that was to ensure that we could hear the views of in-terested stakeholders in Mauri-tius. We held consultations here via teleconferencing. Anyone who wanted to give their views could do so. The independent facilitator of the consultation is collating all the views and sum-marizing them and will present them to the UK government as a document, which will then be used to inform the decision-ma-king process.
● Part of the Mauritian government’s beef with the MPA has been that it doesn’t recognize the BIOT and, by extension, the legitimacy of any decisions it makes. That’s not really going to change, is it?
We’ve made it very clear to the government of Mauritius that we would have welcomed their contribution to the consul-tation process, be it directly to the independent facilitator or in the context of the UK-Mauritius bilateral talks. For the instant, the government of Mauritius has not formally provided its views, although obviously we track its statements in the media and at public speeches.
● Speaking of which, the third round of the talks, which was meant to be held
p. 30[ Friday 19 March 2010 • Insert N° 3 I N T E R V I E W ]
“The MPA project gives scope for everyone to work together”
John Murton,
British High Commissioner
in January, has been cancel-led because of the situation surrounding the MPA. Are there any signs of a thaw?
Once again, we made it clear from the beginning of the consultation process that we were looking forward to the third round of talks and that we’re happy to discuss ideas relating to an MPA in the Indian Ocean. We await a time when the Mauritian government feels they can come to the table for discussions.
● Any indication when that will happen?
No, you’ll have to ask the Mauritian government.
● Doesn’t the non-parti-cipation of Port Louis in the consultation rather under-mine the process?
Any consultation process benefi ts from the contributions of the largest possible range of people. We can’t force people to submit their views to the process. Having said that, we’re obviously very aware of the Mauritian government’s views on an informal basis.
● Did the Chagossian community and, more pre-cisely, the GRC participate in the consultation process?
They came to the High Commission to submit their views, both on paper and orally.
● Certain environmen-tal NGOs have proposed a “fourth MPA option” that “explicitly considers the fu-ture possibilities of resettle-ment”. What’s your take on this?
It’s proof of the consultation process working. The document makes it clear that there are three broad options in the framework but it also asks participants if they can identity any other op-tions. If people come forward with fourth, fi fth or sixth options, that’s part of the process.
● One of the reasons why the project is viewed with suspicion is because the sto-ry of the Chagos reads like a litany of tragedies in which people were sacrifi ced on the altar of geopolitical consi-derations. What makes the MPA any different?
It’s a transparent process! Our objective is to preserve the environment in the Indian Ocean. In many areas, the UK is at the forefront. The UK has been at the forefront of nego-tiations to achieve emissions re-ductions for developed countries under the Kyoto Protocol pro-cess. That’s not to say that we’re perfect; every country has made environmental mistakes in the past, but in a range of areas the UK is at the forefront of global environmental policy.
The MPA is very much in keeping with that. You only have to look around the world to see that there have been cases where fi sh stocks have declined terribly and the establishment of MPAs can aid in their regeneration and conserve the sea beds. We’re keen to advance to environmental protection in the BIOT area and we’re consulting on whether an MPA is the best way to go about that. It’s as simple and transpa-rent as that.
I appreciate that the Mauri-tian government and ourselves do not share the same views on sovereignty but it doesn’t change the parameters of the debate because we’ve made it very clear that it doesn’t alter our commitment to cede the islands when they’re no longer needed for defence purposes. Not does it alter the parameters of the issue of Chagossian resettlement.
● What’s the US govern-ment’s stance on the project?
I can’t speak on the behalf of the American government.
● The US hasn’t exactly been totally honest with the UK with regards to extra-ordinary rendition and its nuclear stockpile. Has that created tension between the two countries?
You know very well that the US and the UK are very close allies. We share many defence interests. As with all relationships, there are issues to discuss from time to time.
● Isn’t it paradoxical that the UK wants to create an MPA in a region that houses nuclear weapons?
I don’t think it’s paradoxical. The base in Diego Garcia bene-fi ts the security of the whole In-dian Ocean and Mauritius is a benefi ciary of that. The consulta-tion process will see the expres-sion of a wide range of views, including those of people who believe that it’s better to have an MPA than none at all and vice-versa. There are credible scientists out there who will say that, com-pletely separately from the issue of the base, an MPA will advance marine conservation in the area.
● Do you really believe that the two issues be so cli-nically dissociated from each other?
I don’t think they’re as op-positional as some people would suggest. One of the things that you see around the world, par-ticularly in the BIOT, is that the creation of military bases has created the conditions for the marine environment to fl ourish. If you compare the reefs in the BIOT with those around the rest of the Indian Ocean, you’ll see that they’re in pristine condition. It’s an unintended consequence
of the base, but a consequence nonetheless.
● Let’s imagine a scena-rio. The UK goes ahead with the MPA and the ECHR rules in the CRG’s favour thus giving them the right to resettle. Can you catego-rically aver that the MPA won’t hinder their chances of returning to the archipelago?
Again, I’ll refer you to the consultation document. It’s a simple answer, but it’s a very im-portant one. It notes that the pro-cess is without prejudice to the judgment of the ECHR. It also states that following recent court cases in the House of Lords, the current position under the law of the BIOT is that there is no right of abode in the territory: “Under these current circumstances the creation of an MPA would have no direct, immediate impact on the Chagossian community. However, we recognize these circumstances may change fol-lowing any ruling that might be given in the proceedings pending before the ECHR.” The UK go-vernment will respect the end result of the legal process of the ECHR.
● The plan has also been described as a last ditch at-tempt by the UK to dash any hopes of resettlement ahead of the renewal of the lease of Diego Garcia in 2016. Is there even a remote chance of the base outliving its use-fulness?
The UK government is sure of its sovereignty over the BIOT but we commit to cede the is-lands when the archipelago isn’t needed for defence purposes. That commitment hasn’t chan-ged and nothing in the process affects it. It’s as simple as that. If you look at the exchange of letters between the UK and US governments with regards to the BIOT and the base, it’s clear that the current 50-year lease ends in 2016 and it will be renewed for a further period of 20 years unless either party objects.
● How would you like to respond to all of those who have imputed less than res-pectable motives to the UK government?
Judge us by what we say and not through the prism of Perfi -dious Albion.
● But can you unders-tand where those who do speak of Perfi dious Albion are coming from?
If you look at the history of the issue you’ll see that even if we’ve had disagreements we’ve acted in good faith. We’ve paid two rounds of compensation to the Chagossians for the way in which they were deported. The Foreign Secretary has said on
several occasions that we regret the way it was done, that we ac-cept it wasn’t right. I think that particular issue of compensation is closed.
● The Chagossians don’t seem to think so…
They’ve pursued the UK go-vernment through the UK courts using UK legal aid. They’ve won several cases but they lost the im-portant one when the Appeals Court ruled that full and fair compensation had been paid to the Chagossians in 1973 and 1982. In 1982 their own lawyers had advised them that what was being offered was a full and fair settlement for the wrongs they had suffered. We disagree with Chagossian community on the issue of return but we’ve had free and fair discussions in court, which is proof of the democratic and judicial process at work. It went to the highest court in the UK which ruled in favour of the government.
● Where exactly did the Orders in Council fi t in the democratic process?
In the UK, laws are made by the government of the day using the procedures that are open to them. The Orders in Council have been used with regard to the governance of the BIOT and the Law Lords upheld the validity of that.
● What’s your rela-tionship with the Chagossian community in Mauritius?
It’s not widely known but we have a good working relationship with the Chagossian communi-ty. We provided almost half the funds for the construction of the CRG resource centre in Pointe-aux-Sables, we’re going to be do-nating computers to the centre. In addition the British Council will be delivering English lessons at the centre. We’re working with a British NGO to bring two vo-lunteers over here to work at the centre full time. We’ve paid for compassionate visits to BIOT for the Chagossian community, and for teams of masons to restore the graves there.
I think the CRG’s reaction to the consultation process has to be seen in the context of the period we’re in.
● Do you think that coo-ler heads will prevail once the elections are over?
I’m optimistic that the concept of advancing envi-ronmental protection in the Indian Ocean gives scope for everyone to work together. Once the consultation docu-ment is read in the calm light of day people will see this. In that sense, the MPA needn’t cause huge political diffi culties.
Nicholas RAINER
“Don’t judge us
through the prism of
Perfi dious Albion
Military Might vs
Island Paradise
l’expressInsert N°3 • Friday 19 March 2010 p. 31 I N T E R V I E W
Have you noticed how when election times approach, all man-ner of issues and
problems and anxieties and injustices that had simply laid low, suddenly roar back into life ? Of course you can imagine why ! This is the time when , according to standard econo-mic theory, the demand for a commodity ( votes) suddenly spikes, whereas the supply re-mains doggedly fi xed . Unless you should think tortuously of stuffed ballot boxes , imperso-nation or, more ghoulishly, the voting dead; the scene is set: demand for the stuff goes up and , accordingly, will raiseits price .
Quite suddenly then, as voters catch the wind; the 2000cc cars with darkened win-dow panes, fl anked by nervy and loud motorbikes, ridden by ample bodied policemen in uniform , in-variably hiding behind sunglasses, become real trip wires. Especially since these motorcades have got the cheek to create the illusion of pockets of space in otherwise clogged-up traffi c, only to lap it up themselves; a grand idea of men undedicated to suffering by the side of their fellow men. The fi rst “reinion de kartie” take place and all manner of gripes and grievances (no shoes yet !) get li-terally thrown at the incumbents who, invariably, had been very modestly exercising their visiting rights when the votes market was in the doldrums. Speeches by of-fi cialdom where the Minister, the Vice Prime Minister ,the Director of whatever, the UN representa-tive, maybe some ambassador or the other, all salute one another’s
presence and , sometimes, work and , unless they are forgetful, the strong support and original ideas of the Prime Minister, gradually will give way to sneering speeches targeting all and sundry adver-sary, fi ve-letter words(shorter ones would still be politically in-correct!), empty slogans( did you know the word originally des-cribes a Scottish highlands battle cry ?) , vainglorious claims ( how many days to change our lives this time ?), oversimpli-fi cations ( if milk prices go up, government will get the blame, if iron bars go down it may be pre-sented as an “electoral bribe”), a cultured respect for hard truths
and calls for effort, to the point where they will be both moth-balled in reverence and simply mummifi ed. The silly season ,like the best of soaps, will elicit which parties will welcome new partners between the sheets and whether it will happen with lights on or not .The “coze coze” tactics of Ramgoolam have been a marvel to behold , keeping every suitor on hold, all smiles, no bite, but it bears certain risks, of course, since nobody is quite as vehement and nasty as a jilted suitor . We have already seen how hunger strikes bring an inordinate amount of attention. We might, yet again, sample “burned tire” episodes
as a means of focusing minis-ters’ attentions to local issues. In this tensed up mood, even long overdue public works become a cause of blame as already sticky traffi c fl ows get diverted to even worse, albeit temporary, bouts of inconvenience….
There might be the publi-cation of a “manifesto” or two , but the debate of ideas will most probably be minimal. Politicians have ensured it is this way and they will not lament the situation, for not many of them have great ideas, anyway ! They fi nd it more convenient , if not expedient, to delve in caste and religious mat-ters ( selling the illusion that if
you vote for your brethren “X” , it is for your own good , whe-reas the only defi nite good done is to “X” of course !), political point scoring , small-minded attacks on big ideas (NRPT for example). Who will tackle the real questions : law & order, ap-pointment by merit, democrati-zation of the economy , but for who ?, corruption, productivity as the only sane avenue to better standards of living, waste ma-nagement, education as the pri-vileged pathway out of poverty, renewable energy, the dangers of the nanny state, government of the people or government for the party, traffi c issues?
On the stock exchange of shares, when demand outpaces supply, you call it a bull market . On the stock exchange of votes, we are entering a bull market. Unfortunately it comes along with its fair share of bullshitting. We all know from whom ….
The unfortunate charac-teristic of the B…S… mar-ket, moreover, is that however much the over-supply, the B…S…ting does not quite seem to melt to oblivion. Ac-tually stopping short of obli-vion, it just cheapens our lives beyond belief ! As to the sup-pliers of BS , for one reason or another, they never seem to be put out of business; yesterday’s losers becoming tomorrow’s alternative for “change” and dynasties settling in to illustrate how demanding and unrewar-ding public offi ce really is……so they would have us believe !
Welcome to silly season 2010 !
PAF
l’express [ Friday 19 March 2010 • Insert N° 3 p. 32L ’ E X P R E S S Y O U R S E L F ]
SILLY SEASON : ELECTORAL STOCKS FLY !
In his interesting article in the last Weekly (The dan-ger comes from the South) my good friend Prem Saddul failed to mention that the suggestion about tsunamis caused by falling ice blocks from Antartica was (as far as I could ascertain) fi rst made by me at a scientifi c/political gathering in 2002. Precedence in science is
the rule ! The occasion was the last but one plenary of the UN SIDS Conference at Domaine les Pailles, co-chaired by our PM at the time(Berenger) and a senior UNEP colleague. All this is on record.
The latter reacted to my suggetion stating that it appeared to him unlikely, being given the relatively
weak impact even a gigan-tic ice block detaching and failling into the Antarctic sea would have(compared to the awsome power of earthquakes) but conceded that further research would be needed there.
As to the second part of my proposal at that meeting (that early warning buoys be also installed to the south of
New-Zealand, Australia, our Indian Ocean islands and South Africa), this proposal received unanimous nods, as the international community was on the verge of deve-loping ocean-based tsunami warning systems. And as is generally accepted in setting up early warning systems for natural catastrophes, all pos-sibilities must be catered for
and no loop-holes left. I am not aware that
the existing tsunami early warning system for the In-do-Pacifi c region includes protection for us from dan-ger coming from the south !
Dr Michael ATCHIA(previously a Programme Director
with UNEP)
Deep ImpactEarly warning of Tsunamis.
The inevitable posse of policemen accompany an offi cial car.
l’express
In spite of attempts to silence the consumer movement or to force us to toe the line, the Institute for Con-
sumer Protection will not back out down.
ICP, founded in 1983 by a group of activists, later extended its activities to consumer protec-tion in 1985. For many years, the ICP has been run by an un-offi cial collegial leadership but throughout the past decade, it has evolved into an effective full-fl edged consumer organisation. Today, the vision of the ICP is to ensure the observance of all consumer rights by providers of goods and services.
In view of the complexity of the market place, technology and impact of liberalisation, the consumer needs to be protec-ted. ICP’s activities are geared towards protecting consumers from unfair trade practices and advocating for basic consumer rights. Our fundamental purpose is to ensure that consumer rights are not violated and we also strive to promote consumer awareness. In that respect, ICP has recently launched its website which aims at generating a maxi-mum amount of awareness that could be helpful for an ordinary person to be well informed about his/her rights as a consumer and
to identify anti-competitive prac-tices in the market place.
ICP also represents consu-mers on various offi cial bodies. Through its specialised de-partment, MAPBIN, ICP runs breastfeeding counselling clinics in the fi ve Regional Hospitals. MAPBIN is the only NGO in-volved in the promotion, support and encouragement of exclusive breastfeeding, thus contributing to the enhancement of infants’ and mothers’ health. MAPBIN
is also involved in protecting maternity, calling for the ratifi ca-tion of the Maternity Protection Convention 2000 and monitoring compliance with the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes. MAPBIN is an active member of the International Baby Food Action Network, being part of the IBFAN Africa Executive Committee, and of the World Action for Breastfeeding Action (WABA).
ICP’s association with Con-
sumers’ International and CUTS International has helped us to acquire a global footprint. Our various active involvements in competition events organised by CUTS International has enabled the ICP to have a better insight into issues affecting consumers worldwide. These workshops help consumers’ organisations in the African countries and other regions to have a coherent and holistic approach towards protecting consumers’ interests.
ICP is an active participant in the African Teleconference Dialogue as well as the Health Action In-ternational (HAI Africa).
The establishment of an independent price surveillance commission, “Observatoire des Prix”, was an initiative that was proposed by the ICP. The setting up of such a body will ultimately benefi t consumers through low-er prices and access to precise pricing information. This will al-so help identify anti-competitive behaviour.
Consumers gain a lot from healthy competition in the mar-ket mainly for two reasons; fi rst competition enables fi rms to op-erate effi ciently while it also of-fers consumers a greater choice of products at lower prices. To ensure that consumers enjoy maximum benefi ts, competi-tion must be maintained in the market. ICP is proud to be a reference on Competition Law for consumers.
The biggest challenge ahead is to build capacity among con-sumers to enable them to be as-sertive of their rights. Our new website and the new related communication tools are geared towards this objective.
Anishta BARATRAM, ICP Chairperson.
Insert N°3 • Friday 19 March 2010 p. 33 [ L ’ E X P R E S S Y O U R S E L F
ICP looks to the future with confi dence
The May 2009 Budget provided for all profi table fi rms to either spend 2% of their profi ts “on CSR activities” approved by Government or transfer these funds to Government. By almost all accepted defi nitions, CSR has two main features:
It is voluntary, i.e. goes beyond what is provided by legislation.
It concerns essentially what a company and its agents do in their everyday operations in the process of generating its profi ts, not what it does with these profi ts once they have been generated - the latter being called phi-lanthropy. Great care is usually taken that CSR is an integral component of corporate culture.
It should be said that these two as-pects are not comprised in the Budget’s provisions, which should more cor-rectly be characterized as “compulsory philanthropy”.
That the Budget terminology concerning CSR is at variance with in-
ternational usage is per se a semantic point of little interest. However, there is a real danger that the Budget mea-sure, if its application is not adjusted, may tend to discourage, rather than encourage, true CSR initiatives in the long run.
Companies having been forced to engage in the compulsory philanthro-py mode, (going by the name of CSR) may well feel less inclined to develop genuine CSR initiatives (i.e. voluntary actions beyond legislative provisions, in their day to day operations)
To illustrate: > A company may be considering
developing a scheme for the employ-ment of the disabled-a typical CSR feature. Pursuing this project would require considerable efforts involving changes in attitudes and corporate culture throughout the company; it would not qualify as CSR under the budget provision. Top management may fi nd it much more convenient to
deal with the “disabled” issue by giving a cheque to a home for the handicap-ped- at the same time meeting the re-quirements of the 2% law;
> An enterprise engaged in the dis-tribution of bottled products may be thinking of setting up collecting points for glass containers and a recycling sys-tem. The corresponding detailed logis-tical arrangements are time consuming and involve many actors in the marke-ting and distribution structure. It would have direct and indirect before-profi ts costs, which would count under the 2% law. Will this company not be tempted to abandon this project, and feel that its environmental responsibility can be sa-tisfi ed much more simply, if it devotes part of its 2% to funding an NGO with an ecological bent- be it the protection of dolphins?.
In general, meeting the present 2% legal requirements will essentially be decided by a few decision makers at the Board level, or one or two senior advi-
sers-sometimes through a foundation, managed at arm’s length, while the in-volvement of the operational structure of the company is neither needed nor likely.
To summarize, the budget provi-sion on the use of the 2% is a welcome measure with many positive features, including placing the social and envi-ronment responsibility of enterprises high on the agenda. However, as Mauritius gropes its way towards ap-plying the noble objectives of CSR, it is hoped that adjustments may be made in modalities of application of the legal provisions and incentive systems, so as to promote genuine CSR -alongside philanthropy. The involvement of com-panies in CSR in their day to day activi-ties and the practice of voluntarism are important principles which should be specifi cally encouraged.
Philippe [email protected]
Corporate Social Responsibility and 2% of Company Profi ts
l’express [ Friday 19 March 2010 • Insert N° 3 p. 34S T R A I G H T T A L K ]
Is one in three the way towards emancipation? Our guests look at the question from various angles.
Women in Politics
And it is solely because I respect you immensely that I do not believe that quotas are needed for you to prove to the masses that there should be more women in parlia-mentarian positions...provi-ded they are competent. As a fi rm proponent of equal op-portunities, I am in favour of choosing the best candidates irrespective of caste, creed, colour and gender and thus fi rmly against any system of seat allocation on criteria other than merit.
Le vrai débat de fond that would have been of interest to voters, instead of the pe-titioning for one out of three candidates in constituencies, would center around the bet-terment of the lives of Mau-ritian women in society. How, in a non-demagogic way, we would fi nd ways to provide protection to women from falling prey to humiliation of any type that would encom-pass the inequality of pay, the poor treatment of women in some communities, or sexual predation of any kind. All of these real issues have been forgotten, sacrifi ced I dare say, on the altar of gender
equality for the selfi sh needs of a few.
Global female represen-tation in politics stands at a low 18%. Shares have been introduced in a number of countries across the world and have taken the forms of voluntary, constitutionally guaranteed ones and reserved seats. The results? Mixed. Legislators in Rwanda saw in quotas a formidable way of ensuring that women, who had been heavily victimised during the genocide, would be given the needed aid to ensure that they would play a greater role in the Rwan-dan society and help soothe some of the great pain that had been caused to them.
Albeit Rwanda, where there were pressing needs to be dealt with, the imposition of quotas has not been com-mensurate with the greater emancipation of women in these societies. Has this ra-tioning helped in altering the lives of women in other legis-lations for the better? I doubt it. Did Indira Gandhi’s Prime Ministership create greater equilibrium between genders in India? Certainly not.
A number of reasons could logically be drawn against quotas. Besides fl ou-ting the very pillars of equal opportunities, they cast doubts on the mettle of those women chosen. Yes, Mauri-tian politics remains a male citadel but this bastion can be broken by encouraging more competent women to make
their voices heard in the po-litical cauldron. Before I get assailed with accusations that I am leaving the fairer sex in an unwinnable battle, let me reassure you, it is as diffi cult and even more so for an opi-nionated male member to be heeded on issues such as po-litical fi nancing or corruption in any of the leading parties in Mauritius.
Simplistic solutions offe-red to a most pertinent issue, but truth be told, this has all been part of the Mauritian pre-elections landscape for long. Offering rabble-rou-sers supremacy above thin-kers and allowing those with egotistical motives to impose themselves on other grounds than competence.
The one out of three candidates per constituency campaigners would no doubt enhance their credibility with additional information on why should this be done with details on how it will improve the lives of women in the Mauritius.
Let this show médiatique be replaced by more thought-provoking debates. Absit invidia.
Allowing those with egotistical motives
to impose themselves on other grounds
than com-petence.
Chetan RAMCHURN
Market Research Analyst
Femmes, je vous aime…
l’express
Enhancing women’s poli-tical participation, strengthe-ning women’s positions in politics, increasing women’s representation in politics! All these issues are based on the premise that having women in key policy making posi-tions is vital in the fi ght for gender equality as they will endeavour the advancement of women’s issues. The quota system has been benefi cial for the representation of ‘mi-nority groups’ and it has pro-ved an effi cient mechanism to ensure women representation in many countries such as Rwanda and other Sub-Sa-haran countries.
However, the quota sys-tem does not ‘de facto’ ensure and reinforce the active poli-tical participation of women in politics. Women’s political representation is one thing but their active political parti-cipation is quite another. This system tends to increase the
numerical representation of women but does it really em-power women? Our politician women tend to be more so-cial workers than policy ma-kers and how does the system address the question of gen-der imbalance in decision and policy making?
The quota system has a quantitative impact but the qualitative dimension of women representation and participation should not be overlooked. Given the patriarchal nature of our political system, having a seat at the National Assembly or Cabinet or at decision making levels does not ensure that wo-men’s voices will be respected and considered in a male domi-nated world. We can question whether women will have the power to make their voice heard or will rather be ‘mouton de Pa-nurge’ who will abide by their Party’s decision which are in majority men.
Also will women have the
political will to challenge gen-der inequalities, advance and promote the gender agenda or will the Party’s interest take precedence over the women’s agenda.
As stated by Maha Sy Diallo, former Vice-President of the Senegalese National Assembly, ‘quotas can only be a transitory solution not a cure for the making of a true democracy’. The main social, cultural and political barriers to women’s participation in Mauritian political life still have to be addressed if we want them to actively partici-pate in decision making and policy making.
It is one thing for women to ‘have a ticket’ but ano-ther question still has to be addressed: knowing Mauri-tians’ voting behaviours, are they ready and willing to give their votes to women or will they rather consider it a ‘was-ted vote?
In the Muvman Libe-rasyon Fam we have asked ourselves whether the WIN demand for political par-ties to fi eld a woman candi-date out of every three will help emancipate women. We answer “Yes, but …” It will advance our struggle but only on condition that it is accompanied by a wo-men’s program. On its own, the demand means no more than the rising to positions of power of a handful of elite women within what are es-sentially patriarchal struc-tures of power. And while it may be diffi cult to change these patriarchal hierarchies, that, as it happens is, diffi cult or not, what the work of the women’s movement is.
And MLF is busy pre-paring such a program. We have for the past 6 months been holding meetings with women outside the MLF to discuss precisely this: a new Manifesto for women’s libe-ration for 2010.
Before the last elections, a collective of women called for women candidates on the basis of a two-point program: No to business lobbies fi nan-cing parties! No to comm-munalo-religious lobbies that the Best Loser system
embodies! This program has the merit of pointing to why women are not chosen by the party “chiefs”.
A Manifesto is of course, much broader, and goes beyond elections.
Some demands are im-portant to women as women, like changing the law so as to stop the Police Commissio-ner sending his men after wo-men who deal with unwanted pregnancies as best they can. The women’s movement already shares this demand. What other demands do we have as women? That is what we are discussing.
Other demands that we are discussing come from women as working people: the right to a secure job with a secure pay; the right to withhold our labour (what with slavery abolished for 175 years!) and ultimately for women to be free from having to sell some of our living hours to another hu-man being in exchange for the wherewithall to feed our children. This causes so much suffering to women. Do we agree on this?
Still further demands are for women as centres of the hearth: a roof over her head for every woman! Our de-mand is not for women to replace men as “chef” de fa-mille”, but for women to be recognized as the centre of the hearth. As the providers
of meals, we demand food se-curity. This means democra-tic control over land. 42 years of independence and still no land reform. The next world food crisis and women will be worrying about food again.
Women also want peace. We want the military base on our land closed. We want the people of Chagos to be free to return to all their islands, for us all to be united in one country again. This means we oppose the trickery of the Marine Protected Area there.
Yet, even with a fi ne Ma-nifesto, the real change only comes as women, in more and more associations, in greater and greater numbers, understand it, contribute to its development, agree with it, and mobilize behind it. That is the real work before us today. This is what poli-tics really means. It means agreeing on demands, on demands that come from an understanding of the reality in which the broad masses of women live their everyday lives, and on a road-map for how to mobilize so as to make these demands come true.
“One woman in three”, while not something that anyone could possibly be against, will on its own not emancipate us, that is for sure. What we need is parity on the basis of a program.
Insert N°3 • Friday 19 March 2010 p. 35 [ S T R A I G H T T A L K
Lindsey Collen
Muvman Liberasyon Fam
Sophie Le Chartier,
Co-ordinator, S.O.S. femmes
For A Women’s Manifesto
The Quota System and resulting questions
“One woman in three”, will on its own
not emanci-pate us, that is for sure.
Having a seat in the National Assembly
or Cabinet…does not
ensure that women’s
voices will be heard.
‘I am a Hindu and my wife is Telugu, but there is no diffe-rence,’ says Shyam
Sungkur, a doctor we in-terviewed in the Hari Hara Devasthanam Temple; this temple situated in Midlands we were told was a Telugu temple. To our questions he adds, ‘The religion is the same, the outfi ts are similar, there are few differences in the cuisine and we all pray to the same God in the same way.’ It was on the occasion of the celebration of Ougadi, an occasion believed to be the Lunar Telugu New Year.
Both Shyam and his wife, Jeshina were adamant that there is no difference, al-though he classifi es himself as a Hindu and she as a Telugu .
As it turned out, they are probably right. The major difference between the Telu-gus and the other Hindus is a linguistic one. The Telugus come from the state of Andra Pradesh where Telugu is spo-ken. However, in Mauritius and nowhere else, it would seem, although all the Hin-dus come from India and are Hindus by faith, they tend to classify themselves according to their linguistic and cultural heritage rather than to their religion. So a Tamil may tell you he is not a Hindu but a Tamil. The Marathi is not a Hindu either but a Marathi.
Each community has by and large tended to keep to itself and children are brought up conscious of the heavy weight of their ances-tral culture. At school, this
is enforced by the different classes children go to, each trying to learn her ancestral language and culture.
The sense of belonging to the community is confi r-med by Papaya Goorimoor-thee, a lecturer at the MGI. Having been a Telugu teacher himself before he converted to teaching Indian music, particularly the ‘Mridanga’, he stresses the linguistic and cultural identity which diffe-rentiate the Telugu commu-nity from the other Hindu communities.
‘God cannot be asso-
ciated with a language,’ he concedes, ‘but we have our differences. Our weddings are different in the sense that our women do not wear the sindhur (red powder worn in the hair to show that a wo-man is married) but wear the ‘cordon zon’ (a yellow thread collar) instead. Our ladies wear the pulloo (the ‘tail’ of a saree) on the right instead of the left and our cuisine, espe-cially our cakes are different. There are some varieties of cakes which are typical of the Telugu community.’
However, of all the Hin-
Papaya Goorimoorthee
Papaya Goorimoorthee, a teacher of Indian music, accompanies his group of dancers on the “dhol” (drum).
l’express p. 36[ Friday 19 March 2010 • Insert N° 3 T H I S I S M A U R I T I U S ]
The Telugu Community in Mauritius
When differences
Sense of belonging
to the community
du communities in Mauri-tius, the most open to others seems to be the Telugu com-munity. Though, according to Papaya, marriages out-side the community used to be rare, he thinks that things have changed a lot recently.But he can still tell a Telugu just by looking at one.
Chandra Veeranah, a fast food merchant confi rms both the difference and the openness towards other com-munities. He also gives the example of the temple where we were, which was set up by Telugus but which is being
used as a place of worship by other Hindus.
Is Ougadi a Hindu festival then? Contrary to what we have always believed, Ouga-di is in fact the Hindu Lunar New Year and last Tuesday, the Hindu community cele-brated the year 2067. Howe-ver, in the Mauritian context, Ougadi has always been asso-ciated with the Telugus. The rest of the Hindus celebrate New Year on Sankrati, which, according to scholars, in fact marks the beginning of Utta-rayana, the sun’s movement northward for a six-month
period or the harvest season. Are the people attending
the Ougadi celebrations at the temple mostly Hindus or Telgus? The doctor says Hindus, the lecturer and the merchant say they are mainly Telugus. Swami Partha Sa-rathi Andra, a Telugu who comes from Andra Pradesh, is happy to tell us that the people who come to that temple are 90% Hindus. A lesson in openness and in-tegration.
Touria PRAYAG
Arrival in Mauritius
The Telugus arrived in Mauritius relatively late. In 1830, some 900 Telugus arrived here as labourers.Minister Mahen Gowressoo says that his ancestors came to Mauritius around 1843. Telegus were still arriving as late as 1867. They came to Mauritius on contractwith the British for the construction of rail roads on the island.In fact, the British brought mostly Telegu artisans from Andra Pradesh. The rail network was very important for the deve-lopment of the island. It was used mainly to transport sugar to Port-Louis, but also to carry sugar cane from the fi elds to the factories.The Telugus did not only construct the railways, but had to teach the job and share their knowledge with others.Descendants of these artisans were not given the same work as their fathers.The job was transferred to another ethnic group and the des-cendants of the Telegus who chose to stay became labourers.Because of the nature of their work, they were posted in dif-ferent parts of the island and today we have around 80 000 Telugus in the island.This community was completely cut off from its roots till the sixties. In fact,Ougadi was not even celebrated until 1962. It was pundit Dharmanand Gunnaywho introduced Ougadi in Mauritius after having spent 14 years in India.Telegus were closely associated with the struggle for inde-pendence. Some of the well_known Telugus in Mauritian po-litics are Sir Veerasamy Ringadoo, Dev Virahsawmy, Vishnu Lutchmeeraidoo, Ravi Erigadoo and Mahen Gowreesoo.The Mahatma Gandhi Institute Archives on Indian migrants have enabled Mauritian Telugus to locate the village their an-cestors came from in Andra Pradesh.But today, it is mostly towards Hyderabad, the capital city of Andra Pradesh that Mauritian Telugus and the Telugu dias-pora around the world are turning their eyes.The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) of Hyderabad is as famous as that of New Delhi and Hyderabad is fast growing into another Bangalore.Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam stated as far back as 2008 that strong ties are needed with Andra Pradesh to strengthen our ICT sector.
Raj JUGERNAUTH
The Mridanga is a type of music which differentiates the Telegus from other Hindus.
l’expressp. 37 Insert N°3 • Friday 19 March 2010 [ T H I S I S M A U R I T I U S
no longer matter
l’express
Have any plans of employing a fo-reigner to work in your company?
Things might get a little bit more complicated as from now- Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam announced on Independence Day that as from now, “only foreigners who have expertise we lack will be al-lowed in”.
If this initially sounded like good news- especially to those who felt the country was slowly being invaded by an army of aliens- the truth is slightly more complicated.
In fact, so much so that one wonders if the new measures are actually going to make a difference. “Of course they will make a difference, both psycho-logically and in practice,” insists Finance minister Rama Sitha-nen, the father of “opening up”.
Let’s go back in time. In 2006, the Minister of Finance announced that Mauritius would henceforth open itself up to the world and welcome foreigners who wished to come and work here. Four categories of temporary residents were created- the investors, the pro-fessionals, the self-employed and the retired non-citizens.
The investors were requi-red to have a turnover of Rs 3 million a year (obviously this would be at the end of the fi nan-cial year so basically there’s not much screening that is done at the beginning). The professio-nals needed to fi nd a job that would pay them a minimum of Rs 30,000 a month and the self-employed needed to set up a business that would give them a turnover in excess of Rs 600,000 a year and the retired non-citizens needed to transfer $ 40,000 during the year.
This scheme proved very popular. Some 5000 people took advantage of it, most of them French, South African and Indian nationals- a fi gure that’s not insignifi cant for a po-pulation of 1.2 million.
The problem started with the attitudes of some of the ex-patriates, who started forming little clans and who refused to integrate with the rest of the native population. Business people on the other hand, star-ted complaining that the fi nan-cial requirements to qualify for a permit were too low to attract serious foreign investors, that the investors who did take ad-vantage of the scheme were small ones and most of them didn’t have a serious business
plan. The uproar eventually led
the government to review these conditions. A discussion was held at cabinet level and the decision was taken to tighten things up.
These new conditions took effect immediately- as in a few weeks ago and they are now as follows- investors now need to have a turnover of Rs 4 million instead of Rs 3 million but they also need to invest an initial sum of $100,000 and to have a company. Also prospective investors need to submit a bu-siness plan to the Board of In-vestment (BOI).
Occupational permits would then only be given to “people actively involved in the management of the company”.
This tightening of conditions will make a signifi cant difference, believes Minister of Finance Ra-ma Sithanen, who admits there was “abuse of the conditions be-cause maybe the conditions weren’t spelt out clearly”.
Professionals on the other hand, will need to fi nd a job that proposes to pay them at least Rs 75,000 a month, as op-posed to Rs 30,000. They also need to submit their CV as well as proof of their qualifi cations and professional experience to the BOI. This category was the most popular one among expatriates- 3300 people were
granted occupational permits from October 2006 to July 2009. It’s not clear if the fi gure was infl ated because the “pro-fessionals” weren’t required to submit proof of their qualifi ca-tions and experience.
Foreigners who propose to come here as self-employed are now required to invest an initial sum of $35,000 as well as having a turnover in excess of Rs 600,000 a year. Also they can only operate in the services sector.
Retired non-citizens will be required to transfer $40,000 at the beginning of their stay and submit proof of subsequent transfers of the same sum every year.
So far so good. Except that in the new conditions, the “ex-pertise” clause is nowhere to be found. Yet, this is precisely what the Prime minister announced on TV.
Minister Sithanen seems slightly uncomfortable about the whole “expertise” thing. “How does one decide on exper-tise? If a person proposes to open a restaurant that serves food no other restaurant in Mauritius serves, would you call that an expertise that we don’t have? If a foreigner makes nice curtains that we don’t have here, what do we do?” asks the minister rather pointedly.
So who will decide this? “A
sub-committee of the BOI on which sits a representative of the Prime Minister’s Offi ce and the Ministry of Labour among others”, says Sithanen.
The Minister of Finance says there won’t be any obliga-tion for prospective employers to advertise in the newspaper and then make a request for the recruitment of a foreign na-tional if and when they haven’t been able to fi nd a suitable local employee.
It will be left to that sub-committee to determine whether or not a person can come and work in Mauritius.
“We need to be careful not to fall into the other extreme, that is make rules so stringent that we end up closing up the country”, adds Sithanen.
Which brings us to the other part of the prime ministe-rial declaration- “foreigners will have to understand that we have our very own way of life and they will have to adapt to the Mauri-tian way of life and integrate in the community”.
“Too right”, comments Sithanen.
How will government ever implement such a thing?
Even Rama Sithanen (who usually has an answer for everything) is not quite sure how to go about this one.
Deepa BHOOKHUN
p. 38S O C I E T Y[ Friday 19 March 2010 • Insert N° 3
Expatriates revisited
Is living a life of luxury in Mauritius about to become more diffi cult ?
This tigh-tening of
conditions will make a signifi cant difference
The World Bank rai-sed its 2010 growth and infl ation fore-casts for China and
recommended a tighter moneta-ry policy as well as a stronger ex-change rate to restrain infl ation expectations and asset bubbles.
The bank revised its projec-tion of gross domestic product growth this year to 9.5 percent from 8.7 percent in its previous China Quarterly Update in No-vember and 9.0 percent in a re-gional report released in January.
For 2011 the bank penciled in GDP growth of 8.7 percent -- exactly the same rate China enjoyed in 2009 as the economy responded to massive monetary and fi scal stimulus.
“In China the economy has held up very well during the glo-bal crisis and growth prospects for this year and next year remain quite good,” Louis Kuijs, senior economist in the bank’s Beijing offi ce, told a news conference on Wednesday to issue the report.
Growth this year of 9.5 per-cent, which was the median fo-recast of economists in a recent Reuters poll, would vault China past Japan and make it the world’s second-biggest economy.
UBS also raised its 2010 GDP forecast on Wednesday, to 10 percent from 9 percent, citing the momentum of domestic de-mand and a likely recovery in net exports back to pre-crisis levels.
The World Bank now ex-pects consumer prices to rise by 3.7 percent on average this year -- it had forecast 2.0 percent in November -- and by 2.8 percent in 2011.
“We think that infl ation risks remain modest, in large part be-cause of the global context. No-netheless, the macro stance needs to be noticeably tighter than in 2009 to manage infl ation expec-tations and contain the risk of a property bubble,” the Washing-ton-based lender said.
Meeting this year’s target of 7.5 trillion yuan in new loans -- down from a record 9.6 trillion yuan in 2009 -- would be impor-tant to anchor infl ationary ex-pectations. Higher interest rates would make the tightening more convincing, the bank said.
“The world economy is still very subdued, but China’s growth has been strong and, unlike in most other countries, overall out-put in China is, according to our calculations, rather close to its po-tential -- which means there is not a lot of spare capacity,” Kuijs said.
As for the yuan, a stronger ex-change rate would help dampen
infl ation pressure by lowering the price of imports and toning down demand. It would also help reba-lance China’s growth toward ser-vices and consumption and away from industry and investment.
“Over time, more exchange rate fl exibility can enable China to have a monetary policy in-dependent from U.S. cyclical conditions, which is increasingly necessary,” the report said.
Yet the bank coupled its stress on the need to contain infl atio-nary expectations with a warning that wrestling infl ation down to very low levels might hinder the relative price changes required in such a rapidly growing economy.
“For instance, China needs to increase administrative prices for resources and utilities that are ne-cessary to adjust the structure of the economy. And higher prices for agricultural products and higher migrant wages can help boost rural incomes and reduce urban-rural inequality...” the bank said.
“It would be unfortunate if such desirable developments were suppressed because of concerns about moderate infl ation.”
China has set a 3 percent infl ation target this year, but the bank said a rate of 4-5 percent is not a major problem in many emerging markets in the throes of reform and development.
The bank described the price risks facing China this year as re-latively modest. The big dangers were higher asset prices and strai-ned local government fi nances, stemming from unprecedented lending by state-owned banks unleashed to prop up growth.
Overall, China’s prospects are much less uncertain than a year ago at the peak of the fi nancial crisis, the report said.
Kamlesh BUCKORY
World Bank tells China to tighten policy
U.S raises pres-sure on the yuanChina said on Wednesday it would not waver in sticking to a stable exchange rate and was being made a “scapegoat” after the U.S. Congress threatened to seek duties on Chinese goods unless it revalues its yuan.The heat in the long-running dis-pute over China’s exchange rate regime is rising quickly, with a bipartisan bill introduced on Tuesday in the U.S. Senate that aims to press Beijing to let its yuan currency rise.The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, added to the pressure on Beijing, saying that the yuan is undervalued.Focusing on the yuan will not help to solve problems in the Sino-U.S. bilateral trade rela-tionship, a Chinese Commerce Ministry offi cial told Reuters.“We oppose the over-emphasis on the yuan’s exchange rate,” the offi cial said, when asked about the bill. “The yuan’s exchange rate is not a magic potion for solving global economic imba-lances.”In Geneva, a senior China di-plomat said the U.S. lawmakers were unfairly blaming Beijing for their own woes.“They should not blame the problems they have by fi nding a scapegoat in China,” He Yafei, China’s new ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, told a briefi ng.The apparent hardening of posi-tions drove the yuan to a three-week low against the dollar in the offshore forwards market, imp-lying just 2.4 percent of apprecia-tion over the next 12 months.
l’expressp. 39 [ B U S I N E S S Insert N°3 • Friday 19 March 2010
Nation of slaves!
I hope you had a very happy Independence Day. What in fact did you do last Friday? Anything patriotic? No? Did you at the very least sing the national anthem? I did. I went to a birthday party and after we sang happy birthday to the birthday boy, I suggested we sang to our motherland. All the other guests joyfully approved and we all stood, hands on our hearts and sang to the health and prosperity of our beautiful nation. It was a truly emotional moment, honest.
The moment was marred by a group of people who chose to disrespect this sacred day. A group of Indian expa-triates thought it would be funny to sing their national an-them. “Nooooooooooo!” I shouted in horror. “Not today!” My reaction it seemed amused them and they interpreted it as a request to sing even louder.
Understandably peeved, I decided nonetheless to calm down. At dinner however, a woman called Dharna Hassija, owner of a clothes shop bearing her name and also the lea-der of the Indian singing band, tried to speak to me. I told her it would be better if she didn’t as I was still upset at the earlier affront to my country’s national day.
She said something along the lines of “get over it” and then lectured me on how I should “not be ashamed of my roots”. I deemed it wiser not to explain to her the impor-tance of separating the two in a country like Mauritius- and especially on Independence Day; she wouldn’t have understood.
As if to prove me right, she said to me (after I said so-mething crass, having been suitably provoked), “you came here as slaves. I chose to come here”.
I kid you not, that’s what she said to me. Inexplicably, impossibly, nobody else chose to take offence.
We walked out.
I ask you- what would you have done?
I imagine it’s hard to say unless you are actually facing such a situation and I guess you can’t for the life of you imagine why an expatriate would say such a thing to you and to people she socializes with, as well as the people she depends on to buy her clothes might I add.
When she said “You came here as slaves”, she was pro-bably referring to every Mauritian except the Francos. It’s a shame the immigration services don’t make them take a history course before granting them a residence permit.
This woman’s silly remarks only serve to show how ignorant she is and at the end of the day, this is neither about her nor about other expatriates, who I am sure don’t share her dazzling views on the people who have made this country.
No, this is about us.
Do we take pride in who we are, in our shared history, in the path we have traveled, in the way we have overcome all the odds?
Are we a proud nation that inspires respect in others?
The odds are, we aren’t. Otherwise we wouldn’t let people treat us in such a way.
By Deepa BHOOKHUN
High-Heeled]
Industrious factory workers at their machines.
This eminent car-diologist founded Lifescan with his colleague,the late
Dr Omar Uteem. The centre is the first of its kind in Mauritius. Mauritius has no reason to envy other countries when it comes to cardiology, says Dr Hingun. We can be proud of the progress made in this area, with the pri-vate health sector focusing on early detection- the key to saving lives.
At Lifescan, the 64 slice scanner, introduced in Mau-ritius three years ago, allows an accurate diagnosis to be made within seconds. This method, says Dr. Hingun, is one of the best non-invasive methods used to rule out the risk of coronary heart disease.
There are four risk fac-tors which cause heart disease, explains Dr. Hingun. The culprits are diabetes, smoking, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Methods for iden-tifying high-risk patients in-clude a resting ECG scan, or a stress test, involving a treadmill. But these
methods are not entirely re-liable and respectively bear an 80% and 20% risk of missing the problem.
However, the risk drops to 1% with the three-dimensional scan. Dr. Hingun says their aim at Lifescan is to identify the individuals who are most vulnerable: people who live with one or more of the four risk factors and often display no symptoms of coronary heart disease.
So who should get a check up? Dr. Hingun says that people who have two or more of the risk factors need to get a check up, ensuring that problems are dealt with in the early stages. When there is mi-nimal damage, correcting the risk factors can ensure that obstruction in the arteries will not worsen over time. If the patient can give up smoking if he is a smoker or lose weight when overweight, the outlook improves tremendously.
I join two technicians behind a glass screen as they position the equipment to take pictures of a patient‘s heart, as the latter is lying
down inside the scanner. A non toxic colouring agent is injected into his body to en-sure visibility, and the scan-ner takes thousands of images and feeds them into a compu-ter, reconstructing a three-di-mensional image of the heart on the screen. The whole ope-ration takes fi ve seconds.
Five minutes later, the patient can view the three-dimensional images of his heart. It’s like taking your heart and placing it on the computer screen, says Dr. Hin-gun. The quality of the image is striking, and each of the main arteries can be viewed individually to see if there is any obstruction, called plaque burden.
I leave the clinic refl ec-ting on Dr Hingun’s state-ment, Mauritius has one of the highest rates of heart di-sease in the world due to bad eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle. Lifescan is about preventive medicine, but prevention begins with how much you love your heart. Melissa Louis
l’express [ Friday 19 March 2010 • Insert N° 3 W E M A R K T H E S P O T ] p. 40
At the heart of the problem with Dr Cassam Hingun
‘Mauri-tius has no reason to
envy other countries when it
comes to cardiology
Dr Cassam Hingun, cardio-logist, owner and director of Lifescan Medical Centre.
A patient enterring the scanner which will give a rapid indication of the condition of his heart.
Meeting Dr. Cassam Hingun at Clinique Ferriere, Curepipe, turned out to be an insider’s perspective on cardiology. He is the owner of Lifescan- a medical imaging centre that uses cutting edge technology for the early detection and preven-tion of heart disease.