By Touria PRAYA

When I last wrote about how unpatriotic some doctors were by preventing the country from opening up to foreign competencies (Who is afraid of the Wolf? L?express 25th June), I spent the rest of the day answering angry phone calls and had to respond to comments that I was not in a position to talk about patriotism. In my humble view, patriotism is not reckoned by the number of years spent in a country, less so sucking its blood and chasing every opportunity for freebies, instead of contributing positively to society and putting its interests before one?s own. So, I put the cap back on a frustrated pen, itching to disgorge bountiful ink about opening our borders to desperately scarce skills and rethinking realistically about the universal subsidies we unabashedly clamour for.

However, the refreshingly frank interview of Mr Mistry, economist, (l?express, 2nd February) has pushed me to ease the itching cap off my pen and bring the topic up again.

With a frankness which is disconcerting, at times brutal, Mr. Mistry, comparing us with the other 150 countries he has visited, raises two issues, which, if we keep gazing at our navel and thinking that the world owes us a living, will definitely prevent us from moving ahead, no matter what measures are taken by the government, and the Minister of Finance in particular, to redress the economic situation.

The first issue is about the barriers we are setting up to keep people out. ?You cannot say to the world: "We want to exploit all the opportunities you have to offer but you cannot come here,"? he remarks. It is difficult for those of us who are still living in the past, or constantly looking at it with nostalgia, to realize that ?that kind of asymmetry is no longer possible?. Not afraid of being explicit, Mr. Mistry even adds that we ?would essentially like the world to leave Mauritius alone and yet provide it with an income of 50 000 dollars.? We can unfortunately not, or no longer, deal with the world on our own terms.

That is not viable, if not downright unreal.

Far from suggesting that we should open the floodgates to unbridled immigration, I see no harm, quite the contrary, in benefiting from the mobility of skills in a globalised world. In fact, the brain drain the country has been suffering from could be negated by selective ?brain gain? of skilled foreigners who choose to make this country their temporary home. The second issue Mr. Mistry discusses is that of universal subsidies. We are so deep down perversely convinced that the government is a ?milking cow? that we walk out angrily on the streets at the slightest hint that the government may be envisaging withdrawing universal subsidies and intending to assist only the deserving disadvantaged. The exam subsidies are a case in point. Can anyone realistically make a cogent case for SAJ or Mr Rashid Beebeejaun, for example, to obtain help from the government with the exam fees of their children or grandchildren? Those who can afford to pay should have the dignity and humanity to do so, in order that assistance goes to the others who are really in need.

No welfare state can survive the constant milking by everybody. ?I think what you have to get down to is helping where the hurt is?, Mr Mistry sums up. Of course, when there is something free to be gotten, we all hurt ? unashamedly!