aw. I didn’t see that bit before.

One of the ultimate objectives of the change I propose is very selfish. If everyone is pretty much happy with the things are, they’ll leave me to be happy the way I want to be. Trying to solve the problem at its very roots rather than endlessly fixing the symptoms. I’m still a cruel, merciless, evil bastard (if provoked) even if I’m proposing that everybody be “nice” for a change. and plans change. all the time. I’m pretty good at taking into account new factors as it happens..

http://technosailor.com/2008/12/29/words-that-must-die-in-2009/

Someone very close to me likes to joke that what mauritians really need is a good dose of porn to release their frustration. I concur. Back in the days, we were sneaking Playboy in classes instead of playing truants and getting drunk in the streets.

Eddy.

It’s true that Mauritius is less safe now and people are reluctant to go out. Of course, things are not (yet) out of control but I fear for the future. The main culprit, according to me, was that person who allowed casinos and betting companies to open their outlets in the middle of towns.

Sometimes, when traveling at night, and especially on Fridays and Saturdays, I don’t even recognise Quatre-Bornes with its hundreds of parked cars and prostitutes everywhere. Same for Rose-Hill.

Something must be done or else the future is bleak. The authorities must think big.

Change brought the current state of affairs. Everyone seems to forget that a few years ago, Mauritius was a much safer place. I used to ride a bike all over the country and at very unusual times without any fear of being attacked. Nowadays, I already fear for my wife’s safety when she travels to Mauritius.

[1] For some good ol’ times anecdotes, see below.

Yes, we need CHANGE. Even if it is cliche, I will say reiterate it: change starts with oneself and at home.

I will be in Mauritius for the first two weeks of February, but I don’t have high hopes to be surprised by a big positive change. I am dreading the inadequacies of the system, not being returned the courtesy of a “please” and “thank you”, and the gratuitous swearing in the presence of women and children — by women and children, in some cases.

To Avinash Gunnessee:

“Until I myself went for holidays in Ireland. I stayed there for 3 months and I rented a room with an irish couple.”

Three months in a room rented from an Irish couple is not a typical setting, so you may have had a flawed image of how “white” people live. Most britons that I have met have been very hard-working. A simple example of that fact: entire sections of big department stores like Debenhams are managed by teenagers working part-time. When was the last time you saw a school-goer in Mauritius working for his pocket money?

[1] – I must say that I have probably seen the best of mauritians while riding my bike between 1996 and 2001. A few cases:

Blown tyre on my way from a friend’s place in Pailles at around eight in the evening. Tyre goes completely flat at GRNW, and my closest friend lives in Cassis. I push the motorbike uphill to Cite Valleejee (and I’m talking about a heavy-ish Honda H100S) and knock on a stranger’s door, asking him to keep it for the night. I then walk to my friend’s place for some help. Next day, I pick up my bike, and the keeper refuses my thank-you gift.

Blown tyre near Casernes Centrales while it’s pouring. Again, I knock on a stranger’s door and ask the lady to safeguard my motorbike for some time. The next day, I knock at the door with a few packs of biscuits to thank her.

Blown tyre in — wait for it — Souillac, and I live in Baie-du-Tombeau. I call for a friend to pick me up. In the meantime, it’s getting late, and I wait under a tree without being troubled by anyone.

On Pere-Laval pilgrimage, I walked from Baie-du-Tombeau with my then-girlfriend and the family’s maid, and we were the only three on the road.

These times are long gone, and it will take a lot to bring back that level of safety. Sad, I know.

Eddy.

The best way to live life is to live selfishly and to aim at enjoying sadistic pleasures at seeing others who makes the wrong choices suffer.

+$3|v3n

but it does annoy me how things are being done here. Blame it on some kind of compulsion to fix inefficiencies but living here could be much much nicer that it is right now. Especially without the endless bickering at the top. And how many of those below just lap up that crap like it’s mana from the heavens.

I’m not a politician. I would much rather the place run itself on its own rather than having random idiots messing things up…

All for the sake of a simpler life…

As you all know, at that time last year we were persuaded we were leaving Mauritius and something funny happened: we fell in love with our little country again… There are a lot of positive things that can be done here provided we can forget about all those negative thoughts that keep poisoning our lives: communalism, jealousy, laziness and our sense of inferiority.

I agree with Yaasir. Let’s move. Let’s be positive. Let’s help each other out.

All things can be change. The easy solution suggested to everything these days is to pack up and leave for elsewhere. I would like to do that too actually. somewhere with a cooler climate. where food is good but cheap along with everything else. maybe a house in a wide field with tall grass which would go dry and yellow in the autumn so the wifey and I can roll around in it. I’d have at least half a dozen cats roaming about in that field and a bit of snow in the winter would be nice too.

But we can make this place better too. It doesn’t take a genius to see that. Then again, maybe it does. Still, I am convinced it can be done. But it needs that you all please get off your asses and start helping each other out.

bizin move on and leave em at it.