That’s right. Valentina. Those who have a good memory will definitely feel a click in their minds. Valentina, famous during the 1990 to 2003 era. Why?

Not because of its people’s warmth, helpful and welcoming nature.

Not because of its strategic positioning on the map of Mauritius. Situated along the motorway and Phoenix roundabout, near Phoenix centre less than 1 km away, Valentina has more facilities such as transport facilities compared to, let’s say, the cybercity. Yeah, that’s right! You don’t get buses that go to and from the south of the island at the bus stop of the cybercity. But, at Valentina, you do. You get tons of buses (every 5-10 min in the afternoon and an average of two buses every three min during the peak hours in the morning). I still remember I had to wait 30 min to even see a bus at the cybercity and I had to wait another 30 min simply because the latter was a “private one”.

And certainly not because of the fact that, in the 1950s, Valentina was one of the purest, most enjoyable and most blessed places to be and to live in. Almost like in paradise. I have not seen paradise and probably never will, but this is a way of describing the Valentina of the 50s. The old ones remember the exotic fruits such as strawberries that were available there. That was 50 years ago!

I will now tell you why Valentina was famous from 1990 to 2003. Simply because of the high level of first class pollution, which led to numerous protests from the inhabitants.

(1) Noise pollution, which disturbed the peaceful environment.

(2) Air pollution, which wrecked the atmosphere, blackened the houses and polluted the lungs of the young generation who were breathing that poisonous gas.

(3) Water pollution, which coloured the colourless river (which had been a place of amusement in the past with teenagers taking a bath in the pure, refreshing water). Today, if you take a bath in Valentina River, then you may as well go home and take a bath again.

And the fishes. . . Well, they are gone. From time to time, you may see one or two peeping out, afraid that a coloured liquid may come and kill them.

Where do these three types of pollution come from? From the industries located in the industrial zone behind Valentina.

(1) Noise pollution arises from the heavyweight machines (where are their silencers? Aren’t they supposed to have silencers?)

(2) Air pollution arises from those charcoal things used to generate energy to run the heavyweight machines (guns?)

(3) Water pollution comes from the dyeing process of factories expert in the making of T-shirts and the pollution of rivers.

I won’t spell out names. I don’t want to pay damages.

OK, OK, I’m sorry. I’m very deeply sorry. I know that everybody is more concerned about the “aedes albopictus” - the chikungunya thing - the World Cup and the winter season and I should not bother you about my personal problems. I just wanted to make you aware that the Valentina-pollution problem still remains. I also wish to point out that the previous government was more caring than the current one. None of our three elected candidates have put their small feet in Valentina since the 2005 election! We just don’t exist for them…who cares about them anyway!!

I have just got 700 words; therefore my letter is eligible to appear in l’express newspaper, which by the way is doing a fantastic job. Thank you for your kind attention and for bearing with me. Note that I have written in the simplest vocabulary form possible so that nobody gets any difficulty in reading it and maybe because I have been “polluted” by this pollution since I was young and this may have destabilised me. Who knows?

<B>Irshaad LALLMAHOMED</B>