Monday, July 20, 2009

The Great Little Country is Still Alive

And kicking. Funny what happened today. I had an interesting conversation with a friend in the afternoon about the Afro-Mauritians. You know the script: with the advent of independence in 1968 and the successful campaign to instill fear about an impending Hindu hegemony many of them emigrated. His interesting point was that most who left* were the elite of that community so that those who were staying back were probably deprived of role models for a long time. In the process Mauritius lost a lot of her most talented teachers and civil servants. The other interesting comment he made was that two of the people who had the greatest influence in changing the course of his life were a Creole teacher and a Muslim neighbour (he happens to be a Hindu). That must probably ring true to a lot of us.

And then a little while after that conversation I checked Gilbert Ahnee's editorial only to find out, somewhat amused, that he was echoing a similar feeling after recovering his E61 thanks to one Vikash who went out of his way to find the rightful owner of that Blackberry beater.

All of this got me to recall a car accident I had a few years back. I was stunned but less than half a minute later I heard a voice (hmm, so God speaks kreol after all?) asking me to get out because enough gas was dripping in the wrong places and he feared the worst. I was too clumsy to do that by myself and that skinny guy immediately sensed that and pulled me out as if I was a feather. His name was Akbar.

*emigration amounted to 15,881 from 1968 to 1974 according to official figures.

5 comments:

mamoujee said...

For all these little blessings, God gives us all a huge cross to carry since independence : dynasty, dynasty and dynasty..... of Ramgoolam, Duval, Boolell, Mohamed, Ringadoo,and all fils a papa. It's time to burn that bloody cross!

Bruno said...

You had a car accident ... wow :S scary

SANJANA said...

hello kozelidir team. This blog is very democratic- freedom of speech.
keep it up! our paradise land is turning into an animal farm with a high rise of crimes. Even the police force is not secure. Policemen too have to get secured. Even our local police stations have no security. How about we poor, unsecure citizens? Though of police force on the road, the number of crimes, accidents hasn't reduced. IN other countries, we can hardly see policemen on road, yet there is security thanks to hidden cameras. Instead of investing in unnecessary things, we could have invested in the security of police officers, police stations with better equipment and hidden cameras everywhere in our paradise which is still alive., thanks god! we are still free from explosives.

another thing, the country which was once a very united one, is gradually becoming a nation of division. each religion has its own voice. WHAT'S THAT? MY COUNTRYMEN? God is the same but we pray HIM in different forms. So why so many voices? God didn't create religion, it was created by human beings. i respect every religion coz i believe only in humanity. The blood of every human being is red, SO? WHY THIS DIVISION AND VOICES?
hope our paradise land will be back to square one, not paradise lost. let it not sink like titanic.

SANJANA

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Enn lot son de klos. Antrevi tre interesan.

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Asterla monn al konpran sa foto la. Avan mo ti zis truv enn ti tifi ki pe priye. Ek vi ki ena tu kalite dimunn dan moris (kreol koz bhojpuri dan vilaz) ek (sinwa koz hindi dan len) pann truv nanye de spesyal. Nice. Fer mwa rapel mo granmer ti pe amenn nu prie kot Per Laval lontan.