There’s a high number of lethal road accidents in Mauritius. Sometimes they’re so frightening that one is led to believe that people have not learnt the appropriate lessons. These accidents continue to haunt everyone. Today you can’t say that you’ll return home in the same shape as when you went out. Drivers are getting more and more careless, arrogant, inconsiderate and irresponsible, and they’re putting the lives of innocent citizens at risk.

Life is fast-paced and speed is just a manifestation of it. People are in a hurry in nearly everything – to catch the bus, to do the shopping, to cross the road, to reach their destination before others, to attend the workplace or a party. Haste is claiming the lives of people and causing untold suffering to relatives as well as sending shock waves through the nation. Our roads have become a dreadful place.

<B>Burglary</B>

Old people who live alone are easy targets for burglars. They break into houses hoping to obtain in a few minutes what others have been working hard to obtain over months. In case the person raises an alarm or puts up a struggle of sorts, he is brutalised and even murdered. These days you can’t say that you’re safe in your own house. Our society is undergoing rapid transformations and with this process comes the mentality of some people who look down on work as a source of income and loot others instead.

You may come home one fine afternoon to discover to your horror that your belongings are gone. You’re sure you closed the door before leaving. You’re sure you unleashed your dog. You’re sure you reminded your neighbour to keep an eye on your premises. Yet the lamentable state of your rooms tells you that someone has been smart enough to fool you. People are finding fresh strategies to vanish with your possessions. You feel you can’t trust anybody anymore. You report the matter to the police, fully knowing they will take their time to investigate and nab the culprit. Meanwhile, all you can do is cry your heart out and tear your hair. An alarm is very practical and is more than ever a necessity. You never know when it may save a life.

<B>Risk of attack at night</B>

Walking alone at night to reach your home after a day’s work and overtime? Strolling around for some fresh air? Think twice. You may come across dangerous individuals. The reasonable thing is always to go out accompanied, for it’s hard to make out what’s going on in the minds of people. And if you ask for help, you’re exposing your vulnerability. Someone may not hesitate to take advantage of this. Teenagers must make it a point to inform their parents where they are going, with whom and when they expect to be back.

You may park your car in a safe place and lock the doors carefully. However, there’s no guarantee that, when you come back, your car will be the same as before. Some individuals have developed a knack for stealing things from cars. They watch your movements, they know your habits. And they make a clean job of it. The place you thought was safe because it was well frequented turns out to be the place where you lost your documents, your money, your cassette player and what not. You can’t help feeling that there’s an ominous presence breathing down your neck, watching you closely. It’s enough to poison your existence.

You can’t be sure either that you’re buying reliable products on the market. The customer who is naive and too busy to check the expiry date on articles he buys may end up with food poisoning and other problems. Shopkeepers must make sure that such products are withdrawn. It’s much better to incur a loss and protect the health of customers, isn’t it? But how many of them think this way?

<B>Employment</B>

Moreover, you can’t be sure that your job today will be there tomorrow. Especially if you’re in the textile sector, for instance. The employers may one day decide that they’ve had enough of it here and may set up business elsewhere. The worker is left to begin again from zero. And this won’t be easy with debts to reimburse, children growing up and prices escalating. It’s always disturbing to think about an uncertain future for yourself and your family.

<B>Juvenile violence</B>

“In certain colleges, indiscipline is going from bad to worse and we can’t control badly-behaved students. It’s terribly difficult to work with them. I do fear that if I take action like scolding them or reporting them or giving them arrest classes, they might deflate the tyres of my car or scratch nonsense on it. They may even be walking with a cutter…” comments a female teacher working in a boys’ secondary institution. Cigarettes and drugs apart, violence in schools is very much a reality. It’s time to think over the idea of bringing parents to play a more prominent part in their wards’ education: regular meetings with the staff, open discussions about issues concerning children, the need for moral education classes, how parents can contribute to diminish the problem of indiscipline at school…

Such a communication exercise is needed if we want our children to be responsible citizens now and in the future. Teachers alone can’t deal with such a vast and delicate issue like indiscipline. Parents must collaborate. The problem of indiscipline must be addressed with the seriousness it deserves. If "world-class quality education" begins somewhere, it is here.

<B>Suresh RAMPHUL</B>