Servile, dites-vous ?

Votre billet du lundi 10 novembre sur L?art comme imitation de l?art m?a surpris. Désagréablement, je dois préciser. Peut-être en raison des limitations regrettables qui le caractérisaient.

J?y ai trouvé un curieux acharnement, voire un véritable mépris à l?encontre d?artistes qui, en puisant dans leur génie propre, ont souhaité à l?invitation de la National Art Gallery rendre hommage à un grand peintre.

Même à grand renfort de doctes citations, je ne ferais pas injure à Amrita Dyalah, Emmanuel Richon et Sunita Beekharee en supputant un seul instant qu?ils aient essayé de ?copier servilement le maître?. Je ne doute pas un seul instant que les 17 exposants aient eu du plaisir ? même si, à vous lire, il ne s?agirait que d?une imitation de plaisir ? à faire émerger de la toile ou du cadre des ?uvres authentiques.

J?ai cru même reconnaître les coups de pinceaux si particuliers de Danièle Hitié, les totems, pas et oiseaux propres à Jeanne Gerval-Arouff, les coloris privilégiés de Reshma Luchoomun.? Et je suis personnellement sorti de cette exposition humblement heureux qu?aucun des peintres concernés ne se soit effacé pour céder toute la place à Gauguin. Au contraire ils ont su contribuer, en utilisant des outils de peintre, à prolonger les enseignements reçus et les enrichir par des éclairages nouveaux, personnels, îliens.

Peut-être faut-il alors avoir un regard plus simple, plus spontané et moins savant devant ces 22 tableaux qui sont autant d?exercices de relecture du style Gauguin ! Peut-être faut-il, plus souvent qu?on ne le pense, remiser les grandes affirmations des anciens aux dictionnaires ou répertoires auxquels ils appartiennent et laisser parler les yeux et les sens. Car nous parlons ici de peinture et non de science encyclopédique !

Merci toutefois de m?avoir appris que Philostrate a existé et qu?il a écrit sur Apollonios. Mais, dites-moi, aurait-il conclu de façon aussi péremptoire que la National Art Gallery et l?art pictural mauricien ont reçu une ?une première gifle nationale ?? Francis Blanche ou Pierre Dac ? excusez le niveau de mes citations ? diraient qu?il faut se méfier car ce genre de leçon se fait en aller-retour?

Robert FURLONG

Give a chance to sex workers to lead a healthy life instead of criminalizing them. They are human beings and have rights. They have rights to a decent living free of HIV/AIDS.

Various reasons have been advanced why HIV/AIDS affect more women than men - lack of care, gender discrimination, women are more exposed to sexual relation and poverty. But unfortunately the issue of reused needles by sex workers who are on intravenous drugs has never been on the agenda of the authorities.

Women are the primary caregivers in Mauritius and sex workers are among them. Contrary to the general belief, sex workers are very sensitive and loving people. ?They care for their children and the carers of their children, that is, the grandmothers?, said a social worker. The future of many children is at stake. Their drug-addicted mothers are sharing needles and thus endangering not only their own lives but that of their children.

Even in the drug addict?s community there is a big gender disparity. There are more stigmas attached to women who are drug addicts. ?Women do not go to the pharmacy to buy syringe,? said the social worker. Anyway most pharmacies refuse to sell syringes without a prescription. ?If I start selling syringe over the counter the queue of drug addicts in front of my pharmacy will be out of control?, said a pharmacist.

Do we have the right to adopt an ostrich policy of putting drug addicts and sex workers in jail instead of looking for solutions? It will be interesting to know how many drug magnates are in jail and how many of them are on intravenous drugs. If they were, they would certainly not share needles.

It is a fact that Mauritius is an international platform for illicit drug trafficking, especially heroin. The number of people using intravenous drugs is estimated to 10,000. (Source: Observatoire Géopolitique des Drogues). According to PILS all of them share their needles. 98% of them are hepatitis C positive that means the door is opened to AIDS!

?I know for sure that intravenous drug users share the same needles. With women it is even worse. They are so poor that they cannot buy needles. I have witnessed 50 persons sharing the same needles. The only place where they can procure syringes is on the black market and this is too expensive for them. We teach them how to clean their needles but very often the needles are in such an appalling state that they are difficult to clean. Anyway by then it is too late as they may have already contracted HIV/AIDS?, said the social worker from PILS.

If nothing is done for them the authorities will soon have to face the burden of heavier costs for preventing HIV infections than the cost of running a Needle and Syringe Programme. The Australian programmes, which have been in operation since 1986, have been very effective. The level of HIV infection among people who inject drugs has remained very low due to this programme.

These Programmes also encourage injecting drug users to dispose of their used syringes correctly and according to research there has not been any damage by discarded injecting equipment. Members of the public are taught what to do if they tread on a syringe.

Mauritius has a lot to learn from these programmes not only in terms of useful referral drug rehabilitation and education for the drug users themselves but for members of the public in general. Discarded syringes however used they may be can be a severe threat to the health of the public especially children, in poor region, who play in dumping grounds.

?No condom, no sex? or ?negotiation for safe sex? no longer applies in Mauritius. Sex workers are provided with condoms and clients do ask for condoms according to PILS. The time has now come to say ?negotiation for safe needles.?

Neglecting these needles can make our official figure of 397 cases since the first outbreak of HIV in 1987 reach alarming proportion.

The government of Mauritius is demonstrating great willingness to address HIV/AIDS. Laws have been put in place for free antiretroviral drugs. The Government has announced a law that will be passed early next year to protect people living with HIV/AIDS in their place of work and to give them a pension when they can no longer work. A ?National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan 2001-2005? was approved and signed by Government in August 2001. But are laws enough?

Up to now the roaring tiger of the Indian Ocean has not been able to produce a rehabilitation center for women although drugs affect both men and women. Very often both the Centre de Solidarité (which caters for drug addicts) and PILS do not know where to send women for rehabilitation especially sex workers. ?Our residential centers are for men only?, keeps on saying the Director, Audrey D?Hotman. She is now fighting tooth and nail to have a center for women.

Women shelters run by Government and Non Governmental Organizations are reluctant to accommodate sex workers. ?Very often during our counseling sessions, we come across sex workers who have children, are on drugs and are hepatitis C. They want to go for rehabilitation but we do not know where to send them.? Said the Director of PILS. In the minds of the Directors running these shelters sex workers will have a bad influence on their residents.

According to medical experts these women must be weaned off drugs, get treatment for their hepatitis C and it is only then that they can be given antiretroviral.

Special Aids Unit, free counseling, free antiretroviral, free condoms are not enough. Comparing Mauritius with other sub Saharan countries where HIV/AIDS has reached alarming proportion is an ostrich policy. Mauritius has its own problem. The intravenous drug community is a wake up call for the authorities to take urgent action on reused needles before the situation gets out of control.

Loga Virahsawmy