Christina Meetoo

On Media, Society and Mauritius

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Exhausted

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Originally uploaded by Avinash Meetoo.

I have been doing so many things at work at the same time these days on top of fighting against a bad cold….

And I still have a lot on my plate:

    – Carrying on with normal lectures
    – Submission of exam papers
    – Marking of assignments
    – Marking of project reports
    – Marking of placement reports
    – Reading/Revision of dissertation drafts
    – Appointments with dissertation students
    – Finalising a short consultancy
    – Doing the administrative work
    – Dealing with requests / queries (including some silly ones)
    etc.

I hate end of semesters….

Should govt invest further in the sugar industry?

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Something has been nagging me since a week. It’s related to the economic decisions facing our country and it’s been triggered by two items I heard/read in the media (radio & print).

      – One is the news that the French govt will grant us some significant financial help (around Rs 1 billion) to implement the economic reform (a loan not a donation).

      – The other was an appeal by Jacques de Navacelle, President of the JEC (Joint Economic Council), on a radio to give priority to the sugar industry in the allocation of this financial help.

I can’t help asking myself the following questions:

      – Why should the money be allocated to an industry everybody says is no longer going to be a pillar of the Mauritian economy, an industry that has been facing tremendous difficulties (so much so that three factories are getting closed down as already planned)?

      – Why should the government help industrialists? Is there not a contradiction in the JEC’s discourse (it seems to be against the principle of social aid as far as the population is concerned but it propones the idea that industry should be helped)?

      – Why not invest instead in sectors that can actually create jobs, wealth and prosperity (a recent study indicated that the seafood hub and the land-based oceanic industries are the most promising for job creation)?

Avi has been arguing that there are many people in Mauritius who are in way or another connected to the sugar industry, that they need to get proper compensations and be helped to convert to another sector.

My estimations (from CSO stats) are that there’s approximately 10% of the labour force related to the sugar industry.

What do you think about this?

Lack of reading culture

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I am occasionally disappointed by students’ lack of reading culture. It would seem that most students in Mauritius do not like reading, I mean interesting reading (not the silly Mills & Boon/Harlequin/Danielle Steele type, nor reading of sensational news about celebrities or crimes).

Which to my mind is the same as saying that they don’t like to learn… You can’t learn things if you don’t like reading, can you?

One little anecdote:
I recently reminded a class of University students about a book I had cited very often to know if any had felt the need to purchase it (not an expensive buy: only Rs 525). Noone had of course. Worse, one student even asked whether it would be used for other modules, presumably to know if the purchase of the ‘commodity’ would be worth it!

Another one:
I’ve been advising all my students to take a subscription to a library such as The British Council or the Centre Culturel Charles Baudelaire since ages. Noone has yet…

Most tend to claim that books are expensive in Mauritius (I agree), that they don’t have much time to read as they work, have a family life, etc. (I won’t take that!)

Of course, one cannot blame them entirely. The system we operate in has never really allowed people (young and old) to discover the beauty of reading quality books and magazines. When they reach uni, it’s even more difficult to inculcate that culture.

Yet, sometimes it makes me feel like saying that we should not allow students in University if they do not like/love reading. I suspect that if that criterion were to be, we would have only a handful of students, if any!

Republic or Bazaar?

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Amidst the flurry of reactions following the mosque affair, there is one piece that I would like to signal to your attention. It was written by one of my colleagues at the Faculty and was published by The Mauritius Times.

It is worth the read and I cannot but agree with her that it is high time for the Mauritian society to set the norms for living together ‘en bonne intelligence’ as sane, rational and respectful individuals rather than in a highly competitive religious environment where the muezzin’s ‘azaan’, the pandit’s incantations, the christian churches’ bells and so on are pitched one against the other.

It is up to us to build a true Republic, not a bazaar…

Read her article here

Ahnee vs. de L’Estrac

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Gilbert Ahnee et Jean-Claude de l’Estrac se livrent en ce moment à une petite guéguerre d’éditorialistes. Et pan! Que je te tire dans les pattes!

ring.jpeg

Petite genèse:
Round 1
Jean Claude de l’Estrac publie un édito (il est de retour depuis 1-2 mois sur le devant de la scène et a même été ré-intronisé grand patron) ce dimanche 25 mars pour fustiger le déficit gouvernemental en matière de communication. Il cite une ‘consultante en communication qui conseille de grands groupes européens’ qui rappelle que ‘seule la cohésion des hommes assure la cohérence des actions’ et que ‘la communication interne prime sur la communication externe’.

C’est un assez bel exposé (émaillé de beaux termes et expressions tels que ‘aggiornamento’, ‘maïeutique’ et le sublime ‘accompagnement communicationnel systématique de la transition’ avec un bel éloge de Dominique Wolton qui a droit au titre de ‘un des plus grands experts mondiaux de la communication’)

En gros, pour traduire en termes simples (n’est-ce pas donc le devoir du journaliste?), il faudrait que les membres du gouvernement améliorent leur communication entre eux afin de pouvoir communiquer un message clair et cohérent à la population. Cela relève du sens commun. Malheureusement, ce principe n’est pas appliqué, ni au gouvernement ni même dans les entreprises mauriciennes d’ailleurs. La com interne, c’est vraiment le cadet des soucis de tous les chefs politiques, d’entreprise ou autres chefs tout court, ca c’est moi qui vous le dit!

Round 2
De l’exposé de Jean-Claude de l’Estrac, deux phrases retiendront l’attention de Gilbert Ahnee pour son édito d’aujourdhui (27 mars):
– Au mieux, quelques conseillers font de l’information dont notre consultante disait qu’elle est la « sœur ennemie de la communication ».
– Je note en passant que quelques pédanteries journalistiques sur la question sont tout aussi peu « signifiantes ».

La seconde phrase a probablement été ressentie comme une attaque directe par Gilbert Ahnee. Qui choisit de riposter par une mise en accusation relativement claire sur la double fonction de Jean-Claude de l’Estrac, à la fois éditorialiste et président d’organisme public (le ‘Empowerment Programme’). Gilbert Ahnee oppose ‘la bonne vieille information que privilégie le journalisme indépendant’ à cette communication d’attachée de presse.

Et termine son édito avec une belle chute:
‘Reste à savoir si ce sont aussi des sœurs ennemies, si c’est insignifiant ou pas.’

Quant à nous pauvres lecteurs, il nous reste à savoir si ce sont là des frères ennemis ‘insignifiants’ comme on dirait en Créole, c’est-à-dire, qui ne font que nous agacer 😉