Dear Daughter,
I always had the feeling that wherever you are it cannot be as good as home. There is no better place than home. I am feeling sorry today to have had such feelings because now I am having that uneasy sentiment that this cannot be home. Indeed, I am not recognising it.
Is this the Mauritius that we fought and struggled for ? Is this the country that we were parading abroad, proud of its cocktail of races living in unity despite the diversity? Yes, as you said I am growing old, I need to change glasses; I did and I started looking at it through new glasses, through your eyes and everything became clear and I understood that wherever you may be, it is your choice to make the place a home, by your attitude, your values and by standing up to uphold them. Yes, thank you for lending me your eyes. It has revealed our underbelly, and a lot of people won’t like what I see. It also made me understand that the path that our country is taking depends a lot on the prism through which our people are seeing the world.
Is this the Mauritius that we fought and struggled for ? Is this the country that we were parading abroad, proud of its cocktail of races living in unity despite the diversity? Yes, as you said I am growing old, I need to change glasses; I did and I started looking at it through new glasses, through your eyes and everything became clear and I understood that wherever you may be, it is your choice to make the place a home, by your attitude, your values and by standing up to uphold them. Yes, thank you for lending me your eyes. It has revealed our underbelly, and a lot of people won’t like what I see. It also made me understand that the path that our country is taking depends a lot on the prism through which our people are seeing the world.
I was shocked; we are still stuck with Albert Memmi's alienating effects of "The colonised and the coloniser" where racism was central to the system and not an incidental detail; we refuse to grow out of ethnic thinking; we are so comfortable in our ethnic cocoons that we narcissistically enjoy wallowing in our own dirt and one-pointed thinking -the small mind; such thinking occasionally has to go public showing its true colours and providing a sense to our fake identity by aggressively "protège nu ban". We are no different from the “rodeur boutes” - the new generation of cronies that is being created and the unaccountable elites with their own vested interests. Who cares ? We will not mind joining the present vultures to pick the bones of the State. To hell with meritocracy, our community must reap its “boutes”. We have become consummate schizophrenics, perfecting it daily-being a fake Mauritian national and a true ethnic Mauritian. Le comble !!! We feel so proud about it!!! Everyone is complicit - we the people, media, politicians. There's no concept of “Mauritianism” anymore. There are no human rights but ethnic rights (recall LGBT). Our loyalties are now to our religion, our caste, our community and …
But dear daughter, I can see now why you, young people, cannot tag along with them, c’est repugnant !!! It may be true when you say that "they have made it a swirling racial stew pot of the 21st Century, as bad as Apartheid !!! ". Our rainbow nation has failed. I understand now why you want to stay far from such filthiness that encroaches on your level of sanity. The last time you were here, you gave me some hope that we can still '' sauver les meubles". But the recent events show that we may have gone beyond repair; a majority wanting to pursue their small minds even convincing those on the fence to join in and their newer trick is to send upfront their religious porte-parole-the shepherd or rather the paid piper of the enraged and the resentful communalists, guiding his flock in its fight for its legitimate ethnic rights and inciting it to thread the political needle providing fuel for the bonfire of historical tensions..., unconcerned that their ethnic schism is sundering our “paradisiac” Mauritius.
Most worrying of all, many people fail to see much of an alternative to the status quo. But still I think there is a way out !!! There is increasingly frustration and a groundswell of anger at our leaders who seem to be completely out of touch with community aspirations. And beneath the facade runs a wary, almost palpable, anxiety -as the country faces a make or break moment.
Now, it is the right time to sow an idea even if takes a while to take root. Clinging to a "lueur d'espoir", our untainted youth- their yearning for change, can be our greatest ally, especially some from the diaspora- can give us a helping hand. Please come forward, before it is too late, and rid us of these entrenched, complacent and self-serving old guards, who are ruining us and whose time is up - à la Macron. It is time for such a leadership to open people’s minds, ears, eyes and mouth to finally react and become the masters of their fates.
Kind Regards
