The Next Generation

“Education, education, education” has long been a mantra of Reef Conservation Mauritius so how are they getting the message across to the current generation of students? To find out, we paid a visit to “Nauticaz”, a facility provided by Attitude Resorts at Marina Hotel, Anse la Raie and operated by Reef. It comprises a small class room which doubles as a laboratory, a library and a beautiful marine aquarium.

We were introduced to one of the instructors who exemplifies the old adage that “the best way to learn is to teach”. Olivier Eyries is a French university student on a short internship in Mauritius organised by AISEC who wanted to find out more about the environment. His task was to take students from Hampstead Junior School, Pamplemousses on an informative tour of the surroundings.

MTPA Outsourcing

We were somewhat surprised to discover that Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) has become a two-way street for Mauritius. Not only are European call centre jobs coming to our shores but the work of the Mauritian Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA) is being outsourced to the UK – more precisely to the hopeful candidates of the Miss England beauty contest. The MTPA has taken our idea of offering a free holiday to pageant winners one step further by requiring them to promote Mauritius as part of the competition. Brilliant!

In fact we were contacted by one of the contestants, who asked us to write a short note in this blog. Eisha is half Indian-half Irish and represents the county of Norfolk. She is familiar with the local Mauritian community through her parents who both work in psychiatric care (hmmm…). She has been fundraising for charity at the same time as introducing people to Mauritian cuisine by selling massepain cakes door-to-door and cooking curry for her workmates.

Who gets to decide which candidate has brought the most publicity to Mauritius? MTPA Director Dr Karl Mootoosamy. It seems that he is unwilling to outsource that task. Anyway good luck Eisha!

Old King Coal

Few countries are at greater risk from man-made climate change than Mauritius. The Maldives may be more dependent on their beaches and Bangladesh on its agricultural land, but can we afford to lose either? Low lying countries and island states are quite rightly joining their voices this week at Rio+20 to call for global agreements to cut greenhouse gas emissions. So why is our government undermining the cause by repeatedly declaring its commitment to coal?