The recent floods and the effects of climate change in the past few years should have taught us a lesson, but few were taking heed, least of all this regime ! The tourism lobby, the land mafia , the development model, with its heavy reliance on Real Estate Schemes(RES), adopted by most political parties and the lack of a long term vision of this incompetent regime on climate change issues have all played a part in the mindless destruction of our country's ecosystems.
We are all well aware that most of the EIA reports conceal the impact of the massive smart cities and other construction projects -including the metro and the unplanned, disparate and even superfluous drains -on our green spaces, our wetlands, our biodiversity ..- the long-term irreversible damage ! “Nou zoli pei” is being buried under concrete destroying our wildlife, our caves, our forests, our biodiversity...
We are paying the price today for the double standards of this regime prioritising immediate short term benefits over long term environmental damage while faking concerns at the world stage about protecting our forests, our biodiversity , of developing sustainable projects that generate carbon credits. Such grandstanding is backed by precious little , mere hogwash and lip service.
Besides the the non-stop flow of populist fare served in generous doses to lull the short-sighted, the gullible, cronies and chatwas, this regime ( as well as past ones)has failed us in our development, in our sustainable vision, and they're only damaging our island, casting a desolate pall over our country making it even more vulnerable.
We have to reiterate again and again for our readers the following extracts from from "Mauritius for Sale" by Adi Teeluck, Kugan Parapen, Jérome Lafrance, David Sauvage, Sooress Awoter et Nalini Burn.
“La terre est un élément crucial à tout model de développement de tout pays. De la politique des terres se construit la capacité de tout pays à s’auto-déterminer…..A Maurice nous voyons que en sus du fait que le statut des terres n'a jamais était remis en question malgré son indépendance, ….Aussi, la question des terres aujourd'hui ne revêt pas uniquement de la question agricole où sociale. La manifestation des catastrophes climatiques liée à la crise écologique globale devrait pousser tout gouvernement responsable et soucieux du bien-être de son peuple vers une politique de mitigation et de résilience. Pour cela, l'élément terre y est central. Cela est d'autant plus pertinent quand nous prenons la réalité des états insulaires qui sont au devant de la crise climatique avec la montée des eaux, les précipitations subites et intenses, le débalancement des saisons et ses effets sur les cultures vivrières etc. …Nous comprenons aussi en quoi cette politique des terres créée des dynamiques pour la destruction du patrimoine naturel du pays pour faire place à des parcs immobiliers à forte valeur ajoutée….”
It’s time for us to articulate the country’s own long-term, holistic vision for its future and the needed changes and reforms to our present economic model of development and the accompanying political system-an alternative model of development with ample creative ideas on developing the local economy, culture, education, sports, the fishing industry ,….while integrating environmental constraints. That’s our only hope for better future outcomes by pursuing a bold vision of an alternative economic and political system -a change of the status quo for alternatives which are actually far more resilient, sustainable and inclusive, far more oriented towards achieving quality growth than the race to the bottom and far more targeted towards improving happiness and welfare indices…..
