<B>Henri Grignon, ?Chief Executive Officer?, I.P. group of companies</B>

I discovered Mauritius as a tourist in 1990, and fell immediately under the charm of the place,whose quality of life I appreciate. In Europe, where working under constant stress means little or no family life, I could hardly find such satisfaction. Now, I enjoy my family and quality of life in Mauritius.

Yet, in my opinion, there is too much tolerance, which is not good for the economy where there is too little respect. We tend to accept too much when it comes to social respect i.e. that the neighbour celebrates his daughter?s graduation by letting of fire crackers at 2 a.m. hence terrorizing our 3 month old baby - would it not be a simple act of respect to warn us a week before so that we could go away for the weekend? In ?boutiques? or any queue for that matter, people pass before you and the shop keeper throws back the change with not even a thank you. Police cars race at full speed (without a blue light) or park wrongly ? yes we tolerate this? However, if we had more respect then we would surely not have to tolerate this. Leading by example would not be a bad thing for the future of Mauritius.

The culture of economic respect can translate at the office or work place again leading by example. I can?t say that it is always encouraged. In our company, I.P.(www.i-p.mu), we try to ensure that people are paid for what they do. My feeling is that, except in two or three of the major corporate bodies, where one would have a board of directors that reflect a better structure to lead different ethnic groups without prejudicing corporate policy in making a reasonable profit. You can?t expect people to be motivated if you don?t pay them enough.

After nearly 40 years (in 3 months) of independence are we still living in a colonial economy? Maybe we should think about it!