A five-star commodityThe scene is set to perfection. A five-star location, a five-star hotel, a five-star spa.

Enter spa client, a “tourist”, one of the hottest commodities to land on the island these days. At least that’s what everybody tells you. Hotels know this so well that they try everything they can to keep the tourists on hotel property. A tourist! HOORAY! What more could hungry tourist-hunters ask for? The sweet smell of essential oils wafting through the poolside cabana maybe?

Enter Beautician Babita. A five-star Mauritian in terms of manners and hospitality, a five-star beauty and a five- star representative of this country, maybe one of the only real natives this well-kept tourist will ever encounter. The only problem is that she is not five-star, no, not by a long shot and she doesn’t even know it.

As far as she (and her family who sacrificed to pay for her studies), knows, she has in her possession certificates signed and validated by what the government has deemed an “approved learning institution”.

Hmmm. Exactly how do you approve a learning institution that teaches “standing room only”, literally? Actually an institution that is not more than a two-seat beauty salon. An institution that can only be likened to a toilet in the most generous of terms when you consider that the unwashed white drape on the beauty lounge is grey and stained. That the “implements” used here have never known a good sterilizing and which would probably be turned down for use by a veterinarian. An institution run by a school director (a.k.a certificate signer) who, when asked to show a school textbook, can only provide a few handwritten pages that have long lost a beginning and end.

And yet, according to the newspaper ad and the certificates issued by this place, this is where dreams are realised. Don’t shrug with a smile and tell me that “this is Mauritius”. Don’t tell me that the proprietor of the school is just struggling to make ends meet when she arrives late in a brand new “4 x 4”. And don’t tell me it’s about bribes and favouritism either.

Improvement in tourism can only teeter on rhetoric for so long. Don’t quibble about whose fault it is and which government generation allowed it to fall through the cracks... you don’t need a massive government study to figure this one out! Grab a newspaper, requisition a bus pass and visit the so-called government approved learning institutions that are advertised using your stamp of approval. If they are using your name in vain, heave your legal books at them and shut them down!

Meanwhile, back at the cabana... our beautician Babita has finished her “deep tissue massage”... early. Let’s just say that the spa client (luckily a retired physiotherapist who knew better) opted out of what was supposed to be a relaxing massage (after 5 minutes of bruising) for the hotel buffet instead. Having just avoided a spa service that could have caused a massive heart attack, Babita’s client won’t be back and the hotel is noticing. Let’s just say that Babita won’t have her job much longer and the paperwork has been put in for a “qualified” foreigner to fill her place!

You see the two-week training that Babita took for deep tissue massage normally runs a full two years in other countries. No, Babita may not have been able to afford the two-year training. But, given a properly investigated and monitored curriculum, she may have been able to get training that could have gotten her a job, which in time may have provided the funds to further her studies.

Beautician Babita. Who would have thought that this five-star Mauritian would have been our front line representative to the world through a tourist? Help her to do her job by doing yours. Do a five-star job.

<B>Angela KEESSOONDYAL</B>