In a fast paced world where turmoil has a grip on humanity, the heart is overshadowed by a senseless mechanism nourished by individuals drowned in superficial elegance while their roots are slowly but surely decaying.
The world is crazily dropping to ground zero. Syria among so many other countries are sending desperate shouts for help for going below ground with people witnessing their own death. Closer, Mauritius is going astray needless of an actual tsunami to wipe it off.
Mauritius is called a multi-cultural country with that oh so seemingly determining song; ‘‘Lame dan lame”. Are we really there? Descendants from the British, the French, slaves mainly from Africa and Madagascar, indentured labourers from India and Chinese migrators all wake up under the same sun rising up on a beautiful island every single day.
Before we all get classified under a denomination or a religion, we are human beings with blood running through our veins, with a mind, with a heart! I cannot recall when, but we stopped, most of us stopped operating out of our hearts, choosing the ways of the world.
What is this thing about ti dimounn, gran dimounn? Colour is just colour! Money comes and goes and is just money! A name is just a name! A status is just a status! If for few, some or most people, these things create an identity to them, it is head straight in a wall. We all come to life the same way and will all go to ashes.
Regardless of which religion, community we are from, whether we want it or not, we are individuals full of worth and value. We are individually unique and all have something positive to bring to this country and this world. Looking down on people takes pride, loving people for who they are and not what they represent takes humility.
We, pretty much all, complain about how life has turned nasty and dirty but are we making that extra effort to build the unity of the spirit? Are we deciding and choosing to look at each other with the eyes of the heart rather than judgmental and critical ones? This is a definite challenge here with enduring patience.
Whatever one sows, one reaps! Just to name a few, sowing kindness will bring about kindness, sowing honesty will bring about rewards, and sowing harm will bring about harm. Will this come back from an expected source? Uncertainty steps in here, but what is thrown to the world, is thrown back to us in whatever shape or form. Good or bad, it usually takes more time than wished, but results never miss us.
A daily detailed effort to walk in love (displaying gentleness, saying hello, thanking people for the simplest thing like giving you way on a busy road, among other values) would add value to life, to our life, to others’ life…but…that little connective “but” hinders progress in every way!
Mauritius is a beautiful island with precious heritage which is powerless before such lack of respect towards its identity. Modernity catches up with our country in such a violent way. Money is the drive. Fantastic rooted trees are soullessly being cut down, sugar cane plantations are dug up and public beaches are snatched from our reach, and these are few examples among others. Tourism is known to be the biggest money provider to the country! Money, Money, Money must be funny in a rich man’s world! Not really smart to take away all those treasures they come here for! Greed is the winner that takes it all.
What about those Mauritians who knock on the Prime Minister’s door for help and are left cornered? What about these people who are ill-treated simply because they do not suit society’s box? What about those people without shelter or without electricity? What about these dogs, astray, treated like mere objects by so many, while they have a heart beating and are full of affection, faithful, and maybe even more than us humans! What about these politicians who prophesize greatness on top of their mountains, brown-nosing the population, but whose actions interfere with their words? Words are meaningless without coherent actions.
Dan la pli par de ka, ene ‘ti dimounn’ ki pe rod led, pou fer li atann pli ou moin dan vid, me enn ‘gran dimounn’ pou gagn enn servis ireprosab! We definitely have the principles in the wrong compartments.
Most of our hearts have already stopped beating under the world’s opposition. Most of us walk by the world’s standards, sowing in its derailed route, thus reaping its shortcoming. Does that mean I am not proud to be Mauritian? No! I am very proud to be an island girl from such a beauty that is Mauritius but the handling of it is another story!
Cheers to the 50th Anniversary! Like Alanis Morissette sings…”Isn’t it ironic?”