Mauritius excluded from TOP 100 best countries in the World...

Hi,

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

Julien, Foreigners have opinions as well....and the report is much based on the perceptions of foreigners living here as well...

Dear Julien

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!).

It's strange because some african countries are inside the list of the 100 bests and you can see they have a life expectancy of 42 or 45 year only, in Mauritius the life expectancy is 70 and a little more, so I doubt the validity of the report.

Are they so good countries to live in if your life there is so short?

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/16/go-t … rkozy.html

This newspaper is ridiculous.

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.

I agree with maarion, I visited Madagascar couple of years ago and life is not that great over there. Plus they've been having political trouble since last year. Unfortunately the newsweek report is read by people all over the world, so imagine the negative publicity that comes along with the report, especially for people that have never been to Mauritius. It's sad because Mauritius tourism already is in a slump thanks to the euro crisis... I sincerely hope Mauritius can bounce back.

I agree with all of the above. Seriously we don't need Newsweek to tell us that roads are a mess here, and that corruption is high, and that we're still 40 years behind Singapore.

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...

I don't understand this list.

Anyway, that other list is interesting:
Doing business economy rankings

Mauritius is ranked #17 and #1 for Africa

I think that list don't include very little countries, you can't see Monaco, for exemple, nor Seychelles.
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.

Has anyone seen yesterday's l'express, caricature of the PM and the newsweek magazine?

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...

I agree with Richdaddy.

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!

I disagree, Singapore wealth comes from its exceptionnal localisation as a port, and Mauritius, much more remote, have not the same oportunities.

Besides, Singapore is not, as far as I know, a democracy.

Singapore actually is a representative democracy, but the main political party has been wining elections since its independence in 1965.

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!!

Whether Singapore is a democracy or not or whether ii is well situated or not has nothing to do with standard of living.

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.

Actually the problem might be partly the govt's responsibility. I'd like to believe that there are proper laws to regulate the legal system in Mauritius. But if these laws are not enforced properly, it's no use.

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...

I'm sure I can't be the only who is really not all that bothered by this Newsweek article or the Mo Ibrahim index, or Transparency international's corruption index, etc.    For all the complaints, there is not all that much wrong in the island, and I have yet to visit a country without its advantages and disadvantages. However, the reality is that I am neither a policy-make nor do I have any influence on those who are, so I try not to spend too much time dwelling on the negatives.  If anyone does have the necessary influence, I would certainly like to think that they wouldn't need to vent on an Internet forum, but would be making good use of that influence.

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 wouldnt call the average Mauritian "good for nothing" either, however everyone has his/her share of responsibility. But I also wouldnt call discussion in a forum "venting", since this is one of the platform for it. It's more to discuss about the issue with like-minded people, that's the beauty of democracy and freedom of speech right? If you feel it's a waste of time, may be you shouldnt be on this forum.

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.

I have to say I agree with richdaddy on that.

Been fun reading the comments.. Yes Mauritius does MANY things right and is on the forefront of much in Africa, but sometimes one has to step back a bit and stop believing one's own propaganda.
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.  Women's 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 man's point of view. The majority of a country's 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 don't' 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 one's own propaganda one will never actually fix one's problems.

Women is politics and high profile jobs is just ridiculous when we know that they represent 50% of the population.Is it because women cannot do better or because of the Glass Ceiling??

Maybe you guys should first read the article on newsweek before coming to any conclusions. Quote "For this special survey, then, NEWSWEEK chose five categories of national well-being—education, health, quality of life, economic competitiveness, and political environment—and compiled metrics within these categories across 100 nations.". The Important wordings here are "across 100 Nations". Which means that when Newsweek conducted this survey, they did not consider ALL countries in the world. Hence Mauritius not on the list.
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.

Sacchin, actually the important wordings are in the title of the report "Newsweek ranks world's best top 100 countries". My take is that they included all the countries in the world and only list the TOP 100 instead of all of them.

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.

The title of an article is almost all the time misleading. It is the content of the article which matters. As mentioned in the article, it says across 100 nations, not all nations in the world. If we go by your take on it, Mauritius is then worst that Madagasgar, Ethiopia etc..Does that make any sense to you? Madagascar, a country ranked 145 over 182 in the Human Development Index (Ethiopia ranked 171, Mauritius 81)and 121/133 in the World Economic Forum (Ethiopia 118, Mauritius 57). GDP per capita, MAuritius $6838, Madagascar: $932 and Ethiopia: $954. Do you see where I'm going with this?

Like I said the survey is flawed, but don't forget that's how Mauritius is being perceived. Like I also mentioned I wouldnt trade life in Mauritius with Madagascar or Ethiopia in a million years, but that's how we're being perceived. We who live on the island know the reality of it, the good and also the bad. And the issues that I've pointed out are, imo, if dealt with can bring progress to this country. I think people should feel concerned that Mauritius lost 11 places on the Corruption Index. It's not too bad as compared to other African countries, but doesnt mean that we should rejoice because of that...

Please dont use GDP per capita as any yaurd stick..  In countries with small populations GDP per capita in often much higher than MUCH richer countries with larger populations.  ONE mauritian Billionair can completely change the stats for Mauritius as is the case in many counrties such a Gabon for example.   Looking at the actual income groupings of people and where they fall in the sceme of things in a country is much more valuable as a measure where a country has a good "quality of love" for ALL its people.

Sachin, you are spot on.

"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

lol, richdaddy & sagooboy you should just let them win.

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...

Well, Rocksolid, even if you're leaving Mauritius, let me welcome you on expat blo!
Where are you going to now?

Just saw this topic. And yes as a mauritian I agree with it!

Apparently in Mauritius I'm not the only one to think like this...

lexpress.mu/services/archivenews-15189-so-what

If you need more convincing I'll be happy to comply... a french tourist put a posting on routard.com of her recent visit to Mauritius which was I would assume to be her last one. To my surprise when I went to the website, I saw some more chilling stories told by other tourists.

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

I guess unemployment is high due to the elders' difficult access to education in the previous 20-30 years, who are now in the job field. They are not highly certified.

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.

Possibly this thread says more about the quality of journalism than it does about the quality of life in Mauritius though. I wonder if they have only included countries over a certain land mass. Regardless of how you present it and the criteria you stipulate, you cannot be selective when creating a 'top 100' list.

I lived in Mauritius when the Navy was there in 1975 for two years, and all the things that are “wrong” with it were the same then;  massive governmental corruption was the order of the day, yet it was all the wrong things that made it so right!  A friend who held significantly high office within UK police 👮 spent time in Mauritius working with government officials and representatives from other countries about 15-20 years ago, in an attempt to reduce police corruption, without much success I feel.

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.

Hi!! Great article! My wife is a beautiful Creole from Mauritius, and we are soon going to live there and semiretire with her kids! If you know any business opportunities on the island, let me know! Lance Clark, Durban, South Africa.  **