<B>By Pooja JEETUN</B>

The Mauritian nation, a country so beautiful and so flamboyant with its cultural diaspora. We are a smiling nation, with hearts filled with warmth and hospitality. My heart and soul surge with immense pride when I think of my country, but not when I think of my people.

It is quite disappointing for me to say that our people have greatly failed in preserving their culture, their morality and their values. The wave shift towards materialism, hypocrisy, deceit and selfishness is very alarming. The political and economic aspects of the country are very much under scrutiny right now. At such a point in time, when so many issues are being discussed, you would expect our people to realise, to take a step back and actually think about what is going on.

But maybe that would be asking too much of the housewife, who just contents herself in doing her chores and looking after her children, or the government servant operating on a nine to four job, or even the university graduate sitting at home, waiting for a job to land at his feet. The bubble in which a majority of the population lives makes me grind in irritation and exasperation. We need to get out of that box, look at the world outside and think. Think, not with a mind that follows and takes in all the facts and accepts them, but with a mind ,which has its own opinion and analyses critically the happenings of everyday life.

The issue of free public transport for students is a very nice picture painted by the government to please its people. We should salute this institution for thinking so much about its people, for trying to ease the life of certain families with a poor background. If only that were the end of the story, we would be living happily ever after.

However, the press is screaming with letters and articles condemning this action. Have we taken the pain to know why? Has the average Mauritian taken the pain to think about the consequences? Are we not aware that, by implementing such dreams, we have started to dig our own graves? The country is already on the decline, and, as the minister of Finance reviewed recently, there will no light at the end of the tunnel for a long time. What we need to understand is that we need to bring the light to us. We either act now or follow rules foolishly and be damned.

This is merely one example of such controversial issues circulating in the streets of Mauritius. The unfair laying-off of so many hardworking executives and managers is yet another question. We proclaim ourselves a welfare state, a state with freedom of expression, a democracy. It doesn?t take a highly-qualified person to know that Mauritius is a very corrupt country. So many intelligent and high-calibre people working in highly-prized institutions have been asked to go. Any reasons why? Why do we need to take two steps backwards to take three more steps forward?

All in all, everything comes down to a single problem. Our mentality. We think we cannot change anything; therefore we accept it and take it as it comes. We do not walk on any principles; dignity is something we don?t possess. We will not hesitate to backstab someone for materialistic gains or to gain important in the eyes of a higher ranked person. We put the blame on someone else for our mistakes. Our friend?s problems are not our problems; thus we do not make a move to improve anything.

This typical laid-back and corrupt attitude has to be eradicated. Jealousy, hypocrisy and deceit crop up because we have a rotten mentality. We envy the person who has a big car, a posh house, a five-figure salary. But we will not do anything to achieve that. We will criticise, condemn and pick at every little thing.

But we will not change; we will perhaps get a promotion in five years and be content with it. We will complain that the government is not doing anything, but we will still sit in our veranda and sip tea for the rest of the afternoon. How can we expect a country to progress with such attitudes?

We flaunt that we have an educated population. Academics who know nothing outside their textbooks and their day-to-day lives are not educated. They are no more different than the illiterate beggar sitting at the corner of the street. A critical analytical mind is what we need to transform ourselves. It is the only way the country can think to move ahead. If one in a thousand people takes the initiative, half the work is done.

Forget the government, forget politics. These people are not here for us, but for their personal gain and status. Very few will work for the country. One cannot rely on a handful of ministers to change the economic and social state. These academics will come and go every five years and will wage their own personal wars.

What they do, every Mauritian can do, if offered the same post. What we need is the will and determination. We need to think and act. We do not want our country to go down history as one of those dilapidated ones, which once used to flourish. I believe in my country. But most important of all, I believe in my people.