I have regularly been told (sometimes not in a nice way) that it?s very easy to criticize when one sits in an air-conditioned office and one doesn?t have first-hand information or experience about an event. I?m happy to report that this lacuna has been taken care of; I therefore readily acknowledge the criticism.

I have been privy to an incident that took place on Tuesday in Roche-Bois. I won?t go into the details of the incident but it involved theft, the subsequent indignation of the victims of the theft that led them to take on the robber, wrestle with him, retrieve the stolen objects and arrest him with the help of inhabitants of the locality. Three things happened afterwards that are the basis forthis column.

The inhabitants of Roche-Bois, upon hearing the racket made by the struggle with the thief, came out to help. They immobilized the robber, held him and had such a go at him for giving a bad name to their locality. ?People already think Roche Bois is a bad place! And now you come here and spoil our reputation even further!? they reproached the thief. In the meantime others helped one of the victims who was slightly injured while one of the inhabitants profusely apologized to the victims because he felt bad such an incident had happened in ?his? area. It is worth noting that the thief was not an inhabitant of Roche-Bois.

The officers from Roche-Bois Police Station came within minutes of someone calling 999. Efficient, no nonsense guys, they readily arrested the robber and asked the victims to accompany them to the police station. Once there, state bureaucracy being what it is, it took the officers two hours to take three statements from the victims and to ask them to formerly identify the robber.

Those guys, despite all their goodwill, are unfortunately hindered in their work by poor logistics. Their lives are all about fat books ? occurrence books, diary books and what not. There is only one computer at the station but it is not for them to use. They don?t have drinking water at the station, let alone coffee. The bureaucracy is so cumbersome that it took six police officers (the senior ones helping the juniors) to put in their efforts so that the whole exercise could be completed in what is considered a reasonable amount of time ? two hours.

Next stop: Jeetoo hospital in Port Louis. Carrying her Form 58, one of the victims went to get treated. It was about eight thirty at night and the casualty department was packed with people.

Irrespective of all the ill-mannered people and of the tedious nature of their job, the nurses, doctors and pharmacists employed by the State, all without exception, proved that good and caring customer and professional service can be made available in a State hospital.

It all took just one hour.

Shall we leave it at that?