More
daunting tasks await them, like that of preparing our workers to succeed in
their transition to a more challenging work environment by acquiring new skills
and greater flexibility. Rather than 24/7 which will pick up its own momentum
in due time as the economy matures and as we continue diversifying in other
activities, I’ll prefer calling such fun and frolic by the more realistic “Port-Louis
By Night” – a profitable venture that will benefit our traders while
our workers already lured by the TINA (There Is No Alternative) policies of
gambling and bumper harvests will be the “dindon de la farce”. These
events had been cleverly planned to fall at the end of the month ensuring that
our dear workers delve deep in their pockets to provide a lifeline to our
traders. “Afin que l’économie
24/7 puisse fonctionner, le patronat et les syndicats doivent coopérer,” warns our Minister of Education.
At the
National Pay Council, when it is time to compensate the worker for his loss of
purchasing power, he is told that he will only get the equivalent of his
productivity and for the 24/7 economy model, he is expected to put in more
effort both in quality and quantity terms to boost his productivity. But the
worker is also concerned about his purchasing power, his employability and the
commitment of the patronat to provide the tools to boost his
productivity. If the patronat persists in providing peanuts, it will
only get monkeys; and meanwhile the show of fun and frolic moves on.
The issue of regionalisation in the education sector
seems to have seeped in back on the agenda and already the shutters are up and
some of the leading figures of the anti-regionalisation side have promptly
drawn out their weapons ready to nip it in the bud again. I do believe that
they will very soon, swiftly and delicately, be swept under some nice carpets
somewhere until some of our enterprising thinkers can find a version that is
more palatable to our middle class -- that same one that had already delivered
its verdict on this issue in terms of a massive vote against the
pro-regionalisation MSM-MMM regime. A class that benefits from the status quo
and will fight to its last member to preserve it; but it knows that its main
argument, namely that the system needs appropriate doses of competition and cannot
accommodate a process of levelling from the bottom, may no longer stand as the
pressure builds up among its own ranks that we are paying too high a price in
terms of quality and creativity and evidence from Finland, Germany, and even
Singapore shows that our system is too archaic to be preserved.
For example, in these economies, they have now created
pathways that enable students to move from vocational education to higher
education after working for a few years and are increasingly using technology and
distance learning in an effective way to improve productivity, efficiency,
reduce costs and improve access. We have no alternative but to overhaul our
education system from end to end if we do not want to doom it to mindless rote
learning and mediocrity.
They continue coming despite the present doom and
gloom in the climate of business affairs; they are buying like crazy;
understandably they should, given that we are giving away our prized
possessions for a few pennies. “Nou ti deza locater lepok coloniale, sa pé
retourner”. Instead of the new pillars that would have reinforced our
economic resilience and security, we are building our future on quicksand and
sowing the seeds for future recriminations by our progenies for putting in
place policies that are promoting economic apartheid – a pervasive threat to
our social and national cohesion.
The threat is the Integrated Resort Scheme (IRS)
together with the Real Estate Scheme (RES) that is sprouting everywhere --at Le
Goulet, Bel Ombre, Albion, Rivière Noire, Anahita, Savinia, Roche Noires… This
is not what we had bargained for when we supported our leaders in “Putting
People First” and the “Democratisation of the Economy”. We were told
that we had some unfinished business with our democracy; it had to be
democratized further, that the whole production chain has to be unbundled and
more opportunities would thus be opened to other stakeholders, especially the
small players.
These promises have gone haywire; the local landed
plutocrats have joined hands with foreign capital; we are being pauperized; the
dollar and the euro are appreciating and the plutocrats are enriching
themselves at our expense. We remain bystanders -- some of our own have been
bought in by the crumbs at the table and some of our workers, back from the 3
years of circulatory migration, will get jobs as maids and gardeners. We have
become strangers in our own land. That’s the new twisted version of Vision
2020.
HIV/AIDS: AOL joins the fight
There are increasing concerns
that the enduring fight against the scourge of HIV/AIDS is having some
setbacks. Some NGOs are highlighting some recent data that show a tendency for
relapse – a figure of 50 new cases every month is being quoted. According to
the recent literature on estimates, there are about 24,000 opiate users and out
of which 20,000 are injecting drug users (IDUs) in Mauritius, representing
approximately 50% of the total drug using population. Despite all the efforts
of committed NGOs the situation is not improving. The spread of the pandemic
continues unabated. We refuse to give in to despair.
Some new NGOs like the ART OF
LIVING (AOL), rich from its experience in Africa, Iraq, Palestine and its
partnership with UNAIDS, have joined the fight . It also operates a De-Addiction
Research Centre in Kolkata based on the Therapeutic Community model with the
objectives of (1) physical and therapeutic treatments in achieving de-addiction
and abstinence from drugs and alcohol, (2) helping patients to develop a
positive attitude to take appropriate decisions independently, (3) helping them
to rehabilitate socially and for gainful employment, (4) assist family members
to understand the dynamics of drug- and alcohol-dependent individuals, and (5)
conducting research and training to handle the problem. It has also initiated
community based programmes for treatment of alcohol and drug abuse in several
cities in India -- in Himachal Pradesh, in Kashmir, Delhi, Chandigarh and
Faridkot, Barnala and Ludhiana in Punjab and Jhansi and Meerut in UP. In these
programmes, on average 100-200 patients have sought treatment in the
de-addiction camps.
The Art of Living HIV course
appears to hold great promise as a therapeutic complement to traditional HIV
treatment. Participants also reported a reduction in fear, depression, and
loneliness. Interestingly, the techniques of the Art of Living HIV course have
been shown to significantly reduce the stress hormone, cortisol, a very
important finding for those living with HIV-1 infection, since reducing
cortisol levels can help improve immune system functions. According to Texas
A&M University, research on patients who have followed the practices taught
in the Art of Living HIV course has demonstrated: decreased plasma cortisol
(stress hormone), increased plasma prolactin (well-being hormone), mental
alertness with simultaneous relaxation, and increased natural killer cells in
the immune system.
The
Art of Living people are bringing in their new approach and proven techniques
to support the local campaign to combat HIV/AIDS. Using their own funds,
they have started a de-addiction programme at Terre Rouge and they aim to cover
other afflicted areas soon. We will need more of such NGOs in the future, those
which are always at the forefront in the battle for the downtrodden – be it
Poverty Alleviation, the Millennium Development Goals, Mission Green Earth or
HIV/AIDs. This is an NGO that believes in “…serving: that is the right
direction for every individual… Human beings have the unique gift of being able
to connect with others. Even birds and animals have this ability. An elephant
forms a bond with the mahout. Dogs and cows form bonds with their owners. Every
creature has this strength; it is especially strong in human beings. We have to
nourish this aspect in ourselves – to become one who has no enemies… This is
not difficult. We only need to have this intention… We have to instil a sense
of belongingness in society. No one should be an untouchable in society, even
in politics.”
Exchange rate
For the whole year of 2008, a
comparative analysis with other countries showed that the rupee was excessively
appreciating against the Euro and not depreciating enough against the dollar.
Nominal Exchange rate changes (%) for 2008
|
Nominal Exchange rate changes (%) from Jan to July
2009
|
|||||
Textile producers
|
Rs to Euro
|
Rs to $
|
Rs to Euro
|
|||
Indonesia
|
-10
|
-30
|
3.9
|
|||
Malaysia
|
0
|
-9
|
-5.2
|
|||
Pakistan
|
-9
|
-29
|
-10.0
|
|||
Thailand
|
-2
|
-5.6
|
-3.4
|
|||
South Africa
|
-30
|
-51
|
+14.6
|
|||
Tunisia
|
-13
|
-15
|
+3.9
|
|||
Morocco
|
-2
|
-13
|
-0.1
|
|||
Egypt
|
10
|
0
|
6.9
|
|||
Turkey
|
-33
|
-35
|
-0.1
|
|||
Mauritian Rupee
|
5
|
-5.5
|
-5.7
|
|||
Appreciation = +ve
|
||||||
As for the period June to July
2009, the trend has reversed as far as the Euro is concerned; we are one of the
few countries that is registering excessive depreciation. It is thus not
surprising that we are not hearing much from the exporters lobby these days.
The good days of 2006 and 2007 are back; you recall the fillip that they got
from an excessive depreciation of the rupee and we collected its resulting
effect -- the spoils of a high inflation of 10.1% in 2006 and 8.8% in 2007.
As for the trend against the
dollar, we have more or less the same trend as in other countries over the same
period.
Trend of currencies to the $
Inflation
When the inflation rate was 10.1%, we were provided
with a whole set of international data to show that it was all because of
imported inflation -- a result of the surge in commodity prices. Now that
inflation has come down to less than 7%, a similar exercise reveals that we are
not doing well at all in denting the inflationary pressures. This is to some
extent confirmed by the third survey on inflation expectations carried out by
the Bank of Mauritius in June 2009. 56.8% of respondents found the inflation
rate to be high where 13.6% judged it to be too high. 50% of respondents also
indicated that prices of goods and services have gone up and 47.8% expect
prices to go up as too. Though respondents expect a drop in inflation in the
short term, they anticipated a pick up in the medium term to around 7.5% in
December 2010.
Inflation rate (%)
China
|
-0.5
|
Britain
|
+1.7
|
Euro area
|
+0.4
|
France
|
+0.4
|
India
|
+5.2
|
Indonesia
|
+4.2
|
Malaysia
|
-0.4
|
Singapore
|
-0.2
|
South Africa
|
+6.6
|
Mauritius
|
Around 7.0
|
