As someone in IT one has to wonder what it is with this whole cyberisland story- most people in IT thought that it would mean good prospects but that is not the case. One has to wonder how government sells its cyberisland theory to foreign investors.

Could it be: good infrastructure? Look at the cybercity, but very expensive; good communication? It?s not that good, and it?s also very expensive;or perhaps, good labour at very low costs?

The third choice is probably what most investors like about investing here, considering they pay ten to twenty times less than what they?d pay in their own country. Now how could someone resist an offer like that, even if you consider that you could probably get it cheaper in India. Even Indians seem to be settling in Mauritius.

It is very obvious that government is investing in its cyberisland dream, mainly on the infrastructure front and they are benefiting from it. But how about investing in the people and making it worthwhile for us to work in the IT industry and keeping us from being exploited by foreign investors? In a lot of countries qualified IT people are top earners and are rated above accountants, people in marketing, and various other fields and these are countries that do not rate themselves are cyber whatevers, there are just normal countries, but now we have Mauritius which considers itself a cyberisland and yet here cyberemployees are rated alongside manual workers, salespeople, bank tellers etc. Was this the plan from the start???

Training institutions offering IT courses, or the university offering IT qualifications are often advertised in newspapers. And mind you these are not cheap! A lot of people who are not yet in the field will probably think this is a good investment, but take my word you may regret it three years later after spending a lot of time and money on getting qualified only to find that you are not really rated that high. Now how would that affect the Cyberisland dream? - you have the infrastructure but you don?t have the manpower???

I can?t really be over-critical of government because they don?t force us to take on the jobs that are being offered. But then again we do have to work and most people would just end up settling for whatever they can get which gives employees more power because if you turn down a job for whatever reason there will also be someone else who looks past whatever reason dissuaded you and accepts the job. Taking this into consideration most employers take advantage of that fact. So in the end it makes it very difficult to get what you were holding up for because someone has already accepted the job as it was offered to you. I can however blame government for the illusion they provide about the whole IT sector.

I think that it wouldn?t be fair if I didn?t mention that in Mauritius basically every sector is underpaid . I am not being biased against uneducated people in any way, but I find it quite frustrating if you consider that you spent so much time getting educated. Instead of going through all that you could have maybe dropped out of school at an early age and started working then. After years of experience, you would probably have reaped adequate benefits by the time your companions had completed their studies and were trying to build their future with some foreign investor.

Most of these foreign investors promise good jobs, but are they really that good??? Consider that before making any life-changing decisions!

P.S. Please note that I by no means encourage dropping out of school, I am very much FOR education. These are just my thoughts.