Mauritius excluded from TOP 100 best countries in the World...
So what really went wrong?
- The massive presence of foreign workers while our own unemployment hangs around 8% should be an indication of the ineffectiveness of our labor force
- The lack of vision of our road infrastructure that is causing massive jam every morning for the past 20 years
- The escargot slow internet connection while we call ourself the Cyber island
- The mismanagement of public funds and inefficiency of the public sector
- The inefficiency of our educational system, where the teachers are making more money than doctors by conducting private tuition
- By wasting rs40m of public fund on "Mauritius, c'est un plaisir" promotional campaign which never took off
- the degradation of public security and moral ethics, causing drug addiction, rapes and robbery with violence to increase year on year
- the lack of discipline of the drivers & their "I don't give a fudge" attitude
- dirty roads, dirty beaches, ugly public infrastructures (new MBC building, what an eye sore!)
And we wonder why tourists to Mauritius is on the decline? Don't blame it on the sunshine, don't blame it on the moonlight, don't blame it on the good times, blame it on the EURO crisis... for how long?
Well this is the warning, the world is watching!!
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I won't discuss your arguments. Being a foreigner, it wouldn't be correct.
I guess you're talking about this report ? http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/15/inte … tries.html
Being a foreigner, you should say what you have on your mind, because Mauritians are just passive spectators that won't do anything about it!
It's a good thing Mauritius is not on the top 100 countries, because now I hope that these good-for-nothing will wake up and do something about it (hopefully!).
Are they so good countries to live in if your life there is so short?
maarion wrote:http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/16/go-to-the-head-of-the-class/the-loved-abroad-hated-at-home-nicolas-sarkozy.html
This newspaper is ridiculous.
Ridiculous indeed
It is a known fact that Finland has the highest rate of depression and suicide in the western world and nothing to write home about Pakistan or Ethiopia but that Newsweek depending on CIA data 
which is flawed ..............
as far as Julien keeping mum, good strategy
. As a foreign owner of a business on the island where his identity is known he can't show "the bravado" of the other posters who assume a pseudo or IBB handle on a public forum.
Madagascar can't be compared to Mauritius, we're more developed than they are,but an article like that might wake some people up here and make things a bit better for everyone who live in the island.
Could it be that they are throwing mud on us because of the Chagos issue??food for thought...
Anyway, that other list is interesting:
Doing business economy rankings
Mauritius is ranked #17 and #1 for Africa
In the "Atlaseco", a french magazine I read for 20 years, Mauritius is 100th out of 200, witch is , I believe, it's real rank.
Julien wrote:I don't understand this list.
Anyway, that other list is interesting:
Doing business economy rankings
Mauritius is ranked #17 and #1 for Africa
Julien, the list you're refering to the ease of doing business in Mauritius, as such Mauritius is considered to be "business friendly". The ease of setting up a company, obtaining the necessary permits & licenses, banking & financial facilities etc... though slow (as compared to Europe, China or the US) seems to be faster than the rest of Africa.
Whereas newsweek's report reflects the living environment as a whole and includes more variables such as educational system, public policies, corruption, health system etc... which I really believe are of better standard (relatively speaking of course) than some African countries. I'm very curious to know why Mauritius didnt make it and so should the Mauritian govt...
Doing business and living standards are not the same thing.If I have an offshore company here,i'd say "that's the best place to be" but when I live here, and drive on these roads, get stuck in traffic, dirty roads, corruption (some companies have to actually pay something to get their tenders ans licenses), education issues,etc that's something else.
I don't know if you've ever come across the "transactions" that go on when tenders are to be allocated, but I write a book on things that I've witnessed, but that's not something I can discuss at liberty here.
If they could use taxpayers money to good use, instead of wasting it, we might've been even better off than Singapore today!
Besides, Singapore is not, as far as I know, a democracy.
maarion is right for saying that Singapore is better located geographically than Mauritius, but so are Malaysia, Philipines and Indonesia. A country cannot grow without proper management of public funds and transparency. Take a look at other African countries like Zimbabwe, Angola, Nigeria, Congo etc... One of the reasons that Singapore is what it is today is because Singapore is one of the world least corrupted country. Unfortunately here, on the contrary it got worst. Mauritius lost 11 places on the Corruption Perception Index 2010 compared to 2009.
Bottom line, we should be able to aspire to Singapore. That's always a popular tagline used by the politicians, they've talked the talk.........
richdaddy wrote:This is just sad. Mauritius pride itself to be the star and key of the Indian Ocean, the success story that African countries can inspire to, the "Singapore" of the region, the "destination de luxe" (luxury destination) for the rich & famous and yet accordingly to Newsweek, life is not even as good as countries such as Ethiopia, Zambia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Madagascar, Botswana, Nigeria or Cameroon. I've never been to the above mentioned countries except for Madagascar, so I'm not here to argue the validity of the report. This is quite a slap in the face for the tourism promotion authorities who has been trying to project Mauritius as a high-end destination, or for the investment promotion authorities labeling Mauritius as business friendly.
The ugly part of Mauritius is hidden but tourists do see it: dirty looking sellers on the streets....as if no police exists!!
2. Not so friendly public....unless it is for selling something....etc...
3. Portlouis company garden...very little maintainance: kaka zoizo lor banc!! bird shit on benches!! but the authorities seem to never come there!
So what really went wrong?
- The massive presence of foreign workers while our own unemployment hangs around 8% should be an indication of the ineffectiveness of our labor force
- The lack of vision of our road infrastructure that is causing massive jam every morning for the past 20 years
- The escargot slow internet connection while we call ourself the Cyber island
- The mismanagement of public funds and inefficiency of the public sector
- The inefficiency of our educational system, where the teachers are making more money than doctors by conducting private tuition
- By wasting rs30m of public fund on "Mauritius, c'est un plaisir" promotional campaign which never took off
- it's a place where the PM can insult someone live on radio and that same person defends the PM in the media and then becomes a minister
Well this is the warning, the world is watching!!
It's how they manage the country and the public funds, and the people in general that matters.When you look at our so called Democracy (I get the impression that our Govt is more like my way or the highway), you come to think that it would be better to have a good dictator than so called democratic government.
But it's the people here as well that are a problem.An e.g is that people still litter public properties.You see people keeping their rock sand on the road, preparing cement on the PUBLIC roads, throwing garbage everywhere. Certain people, especially on weekends, hold wedding ceremonies at their place,and the noise is just unbearable!!!And it can go on for days!!No wonder Mauritius NE fait pas bon vivre.
Bear with me. We are all familiar with "drivers" parking or stopping anywhere they want as long as they keep their hazard lights on (I've seen so many times on the freeway), or the amount of cars that do not have proper stop lights or tail lights at night, or the amount of hawkers blocking the sidewalk forcing pedesdriants to walk on the road and the list goes on... if only the police do their jobs properly, the population then would be more disciplined...
What I can say, and I think many Mauritians and foreigners in Mauritius will agree, is that all we can do is influence those in our circle of influence to behave in an appropriate manner and to take responsibility for our own actions. I really don't think it is worth spending too much time worrying about these macro level issues, as many will not be in a position to do anything about it. If this makes me a "good for nothing" Mauritian, so be it.
I don't have any influence on the policy makers either, they don't need us to tell them this since they can access the internet just like us. I agree that the report is somewhat flawed, but I also believe it carries some truth in it. I do think Mauritian should feel concerned about this since it brings negative publicity to our island. And it's when the public stops caring that's when "people" get away with things. Many issues or scandals went way of the dodo because of the lack of public interest, but that's just a humble opnion of an average Mauritian.
Mauritius also lags far behind most African countries on many VERY IMPORTANT issues. If you are women in this country you will know what I mean. Womens right and equality, for example, exists on paper and looks good in reports, but in reality hardly exist. Mauritius in its recent election increased its number of women in parliament by 2%, only after the intervention of the Best Looser system, and in spite of that still lags FAR behind its SADC neighbours. The SADC target for female representation in parliament and government is 50% by 2012 and was 33% by 2010. Mauritius hardly made it to 17%.
The same applies in all senior positions in government and one does not even have to speak of high positions in private corporations and board rooms, where female representation is even less.
The measurement of whether a country is a good place to live, surely can not only be measured from a mans point of view. The majority of a countrys population are women and children, neither of these two groups have much say in anything here. The rate of obesity and diabetes among children here are astonishing. Kids just dont have ANYTHING to do after school, and this leads to many evils. Like the fact that Mauritius also has the single largest drug problem in all of Africa.
This is a paradise, but if one always believe ones own propaganda one will never actually fix ones problems.
If you want a real indication of surveys, then check the ones from reliable organisations such as Environmental Performance Index, Economic Freedom Heritage Foundation/The Wall Street Journal,Transparency International, World Bank Group, United Nations Development Programme etc.. You will then see that after all Mauritius is not so bad.
There's no ambiguity there, man.
Like I mentioned previously I do believe the survey is flawed, but we shouldn't just brush it off. I would prefer to live in Mauritius as compared to Madagascar, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso etc... anyday. But for a country to progress we must compare ourself with better things. The government itself likes to take Singapore as role model, yet we're not even close to what Singapore is after so many years.
My work is directly linked to how the international community sees Mauritius, I had to come up with very "creative" reasons as to why Mauritius didnt make the list. As the government is making much effort to promote the island to BRIC and as the tourism sector is feeling the weight of the Euro crisis, we do not need this kind of publicity. Mauritius indeed is not that bad after all, however I doubt the homeless people at Dubreuil would agree with that though.
"Raw data for 100 countries were normalized on a 1-100 scale (except in Education, see note above) according to the following:"
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/15/worl … ology.html
Mauritius is the bestest country in the world to live in. Where freedom of speech is not trampled on, where the gap between rich and poor is tiny, where the national tv is not the propaganda tool of the government, where ministers would never make racist comments in public, where very few rapes happen, where the public health system is efficient & professional, where there's no corruption at all, where applications for permits are dealt in a timely manner, where internet connections are always reliable and never disrupt businesses, where roads are kept clean & nice to drive, where all the streets are well labelled so that you know exactly where you are, where the education is so good that inspired students are taking tuitions after normal school hours, where tourists are safe to walk on the streets, where the hotels are not overpriced and the service is so pleasant, where people wont treat you different because of your skin color
Just in case you didnot get my point, I was being sarcastic. Anyway I'm leaving next week after spending 5 years in Mauritius. Good luck to the rest of ya...

Where are you going to now?
lexpress.mu/services/archivenews-15189-so-what
Mauritius which was once a paradise is quickly deteriorating and losing its magic (and appeal). Unless we wake up and stop being complacent about it, it's not gonna get any better. This is not to scare you, but to prevent further incidents. Just be careful that's all...
lexpress.mu/story/10398-mauvaise-publicite-pour-la-destination-maurice-sur-le-site-de-voyage-du-routard.html
routard.com/forum_message/1624221/insecurite_a_maurice.htm#2098572
The younger generation - my generation - who are still students will most probably have a prosperous job experience in the upcoming years and unemployment will be greatly decreased. Well, that's my point of view and prediction of what can happen.
I love driving in Mauritius; it’s an amazingly surreal experience which I look forward to each year. It’s also where I learned to drive so it’s not shocking for me. Yes they do the most ridiculous things as drivers but that is my Mauritius!
I love the higgledy piggledyness of Mauritius and I adore my Mauritian friends, each and every one of them, for their love and generosity of spirit that I’ve never found elsewhere. My friends all work very hard even though past retirement age, because pride dictates they continue to provide for themselves. Their families believe likewise.
My only constructive criticism is the general dumping of rubbish and anything no longer required, although we have a similar more extreme problem with this in UK. So who am I to judge!
Yes I agree there has to be progress but from my perspective, the influx of monied residents who cannot live without all their home comforts is beginning to change the whole Mauritian ethos for me .. the upmarket car showrooms stand out in their vulgarity ... this is my opinion remember! I would give anything to be able to return to live on my island 🌴 home, but we now have obligations which heartbreakingly prevent us. I loved the fact we could not always buy basic items in Mauritius and then had to use something else; that was a part of life in Mauritius. Now Super U sells every possible item, and more! As much choice as here in UK. The other supermarkets such as Jumbo, are much the same!!
Please please don’t let this beautiful idyllic island 🌴 end up being just another version of the same! Stop trying to change everything and embrace the differences.
I apologise for the lengthyness of this response and intend no offence but I feel very passionate about Mauritius.
Reason : please share your contact details via your private message. For your job search, plz post in the job section.
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This news has been featured on CNN and some UK news channels. As of 12/10/17 there were over 680 cases mostly in the capital. 67 people have died of it. It is mostly pneumonic plague but there were also 156 cases of bubonic plague on 12/10/17. Plague is a yearly occurrence in Madagascar but this year is worse than usual.
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