Bob Camille, Lawyer & journalist

I?ve been in Mauritius for nine months. The people are nice and welcoming. You can find a rainbow of languages. A conversation can start with one language and if you don?t understand or if you are having some difficulty, people easily switch to another. You also have very good communication facilities. In Mauritius you can enjoy yourself while working. You can enjoy the beaches and other tourist attraction places.

However, I have noticed that people are quite intrigued by the color of your skin. They want to know where you are from and learn more about your country. When I say that I come from Benin, people don?t even know where it is. They have never heard of it. The first question they usually ask is: ?So you are from Africa?? And?Is there violence or war in your country?? When they think of Africa, people tend to see it as a country where there is only war and violence. But I think that it is indeed a good thing that they question me a lot. It gives me the opportunity to to talk about my country.

The country is growing fast and buildings are popping up like mushrooms. It is preparing itself for a more service-oriented product market. The question which should be asked is whether the country is prepared to deliver such particular work forces too? Lots of training programmes that are available in the management sector and a lot, is being done to promote entrepreneurship. I want to promote the culture of entrepreneurship in my country by inspiring from the Mauritian model. I also intend to set up my own media outlet.

In Mauritius, it is quite disappointing that you don?t have a private television station whereas in Benin you have six private television stations and four will come on the market soon. We also have about 30 daily newspapers. I think that the level of journalism practised here is professional and independent. I also like the way the MBC is converging towards digital broadcasting.