Lula Stops the Traffic

Many observers tip Brazil among the few countries to ride out the global economic downturn the least dazed. Such a feat would not have been possible without an enlightened leadership embodying vision, sovereignty and empathy as opposed to nincompoops who outsource their thinking to bean counters and the macro(economics) tribe, notorious for branding the likes of the World Bank. Here is how Brazil's maverick President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, also known as Lula, proves his mettle in the Financial Times:

" We could not grow, it was said, without threatening economic stability – much less grow and distribute wealth. We would have to choose between the internal market and the external. Either we accepted the unforgiving imperatives of the globalised economy or we would be condemned to fatal isolation.

Over the past six years, we have destroyed those myths. We have grown and enjoyed economic stability. Our growth has been accompanied by the inclusion of tens of millions of Brazilian people in the consumer market. We have distributed wealth to more than 40m who lived below the poverty line. We have ensured that the national minimum wage has risen always above the rate of inflation.

We have democratised access to credit. We have created more than 10m jobs. We have pushed forward with land reform. The expansion of our domestic market has not happened at the expense of exports – they have tripled in six years. We have attracted enormous volumes of foreign investment with no loss of sovereignty.

I hope for a world free of the economic dogmas that invaded the thinking of many and were presented as absolute truths. Anti-cyclical policies must not be adopted only when a crisis is under way. Applied in advance – as they have been in Brazil – they can be the guarantors of a more just and democratic society.

I do not give much importance to abstract concepts. I am not worried about the name to be given to the economic and social order that will come after the crisis, so long as its central concern is with human beings."

Dream, dream dream dream...

L'oligarchie dépigmentée

Une économie de marché qui concentre le pouvoir économique entre les mains d'une minorité ("market-dominant minority") et une démocratie qui renvoie le pouvoir politique officiel à la majorité appauvrie réunissent les conditions pour exacerber les tensions sociales. C'est du moins ce que postule Amy Chua, professeur de droit à l'université de Yale, après des études empiriques dans son livre "World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability".

D'emblée il faut dissiper l'amalgame racial en ce qui concerne l'hégémonie économique. Les Chinois en Indonésie, les Indiens au Kenya, les descendants d'Européens à Maurice, au Zimbabwe et en Martinique sont des exemples témoignant de la diversité ethnique dans le pouvoir économique.En effet, la concentration de la richesse a des origines plus historiques - souvent coloniales - et politiques. Quand l'Etat ne joue pas convenablement son rôle de régulateur, toutes les dérives sont possibles. Dépendant du degré, l'entente délictueuse entre certains membres de la politique, de la fonction publique et du secteur privé ("crony capitalism") peut être dévastatrice.

Avec le déclin économique, les sentiments d'humiliation et d'injustice que subissent les peuples remontent à la surface. L'ignorance et l'arrogance du pouvoir par rapport aux inégalités ouvrent une brèche que les démagogues exploitent à volonté. De plus, lorsque le schéma ethnique ou religieux s'associe dans la psyché collective à cet état des choses, les ingrédients d'un cocktail explosif sont, d'ores et déjà, disponibles.

La mondialisation est perçue comme un phénomène similaire où les États-Unis incarnent le "market-dominant minority". Toutefois, dans l'affrontement entre les radicaux, ceux qui brocardent uniquement les activistes de l'anti-mondialisation en épargnant le dogme du "Washington Consensus" véhiculé par le Fonds monétaire international manifestent peu de circonspection.

D'ailleurs, les militants lucides sont passés de l'anti-mondialisation à l'alter-mondialisation après Porto Alegre 2003. Preuve que la mondialisation est dorénavant acceptée comme un fait. C'est le modèle qui est contesté. Bref, au niveau international les choses commencent à se dessiner positivement. Comme toujours, les signaux d'un changement fondamental d'attitude doivent émaner des dirigeants éclairés.

Si on veut vraiment que la mondialisation soit soutenable tout en étant moins déstabilisatrice, il faut créer l'environnement qui permettra à ses bénéfices d'être répartis plus équitablement. En s'attaquant d'abord à la source de la corruption, en motivant les petites et moyennes entreprises pour qu'elles se multiplient et en accélérant la dérégulation des différents secteurs pour inciter les sociétés internationales les plus crédibles à s'implanter dans le respect des cultures locales.

La démocratie et le libre-échange, comme toute autre théorie certes, ne peuvent fonctionner dans un vacuum. Le piège à éviter justement, c'est d'en faire une fin en soi. Même si on doit admettre, de par l'évolution de l'histoire, qu'ils demeurent les meilleurs moyens pour générer la richesse. Encore faut-il les adapter à des contextes différents et les encadrer avec des paramètres favorisant la "corporate citizenship".

Nous verrons découler les solutions seulement lorsque nous cesserons de nous dérober à la réalité. C'est bien dans l'action que les bonnes intentions seront jugées.

The Case Against Oversimplification

It is never easy to represent succintly one's perception of the real world. It is a balancing act that must explore grey areas and sort them into a distinct pattern of different pieces connected to each other. In its basic dimension it is about common sense, in its more elevated dimension it is about wisdom. All in all, it ought to be everybody's quest.

Alternatively, propaganda is a synthesis of selective information that is meant to capture emotions of the target audience and modify its perception. Propaganda machines master the art of disseminating appealing slogans to twist reality. Their approach is always binary, doctrinaire and repetitive. It reduces everything to an either/or and us/them dilemma. It portrays one party in a positive light and the other in a very negative one.

That is why the view of Tarun Tejpal, writer and editor of Tehelka, is enlightening:

"The real challenge is to present complex things as complex things, and to urge everyone to read them well and to come to terms with them".

Put bluntly, we must not let ourselves be put off by thoughts that seem "congested" with intertwined ideas. We should give them a second and deeper look. Once the gist sinks in, we may or may not agree. Otherwise, we contribute to dumb ourselves down.

The devil is in the detail.

Reform As Propaganda

“There is no magic bullet. A country's economic institutions are a richly textured fabric. There would be big disappointment if a government abolished a quick employment regulation or two before breakfast and expected great things to happen. There are hundreds of things that have to change.”
Edmund Phelps, winner of the 2006 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

In spite of the social, economic and political instability it entails, globalisation continues to gather momentum. When assessing how different countries cope with globalisation in order to anticipate and mitigate the resulting imbalances, the quality of leadership proves critical.

As expected, Singapore tops the Globalisation Index 2006 measured by the consulting firm A.T. Kearney. Ireland and Denmark are among the five best performers. A closer look at how the three countries operate is revealing: it debunks many fallacies disseminated by members of Tina F.C., i.e. the “There-is-no-alternative” Fan Club.

One dogma suggests that if a country wants to successfully integrate global capitalism, its government must keep its “hands” off the economy and privatise its business activities. Ironically, the state-led approach has been the Singapore model. Today Temasek Holdings, the investment arm of the Singapore government, powers many global flagship companies. Another dogma suggests that when a country embraces economic liberalism, the Welfare State becomes redundant. Both Ireland and Denmark emphatically demonstrate the opposite.

According to the Quality-of-life Index 2005 established by The Economist, Ireland is the country that best reconciles economic and social imperatives to meet the aspirations of its citizens. Material well-being alone does not adequately reflect quality of life. Ireland would never have enjoyed such a quality of life had it not contained the impediments associated with modernisation, namely the breakdown of traditional institutions and the erosion of family values. After all, is not Ireland the land that swings blissfully between melancholy and joie de vivre?

Viewed through black and white lenses with no shades of grey, as in the case of members of Tina F.C., all our woes can be resolved in a sleight of hand; for an instant relief of our existential crisis, repeat religiously “république laïque”; to recharge our flawed “democracy”, simply “cut” a piece of “proportional representation” and “paste” it to the mechanism of “first pass the post”; to salvage our failed educational system, deride obsessively the streaming test at the end of primary schooling; to balance our abysmal national accounts, target everybody but the networks of patronage and fleece them.

Followership under the influence of the IMF
We are in the creative age. Only those nations groomed to “think global and act local’ will thrive. In a globalised setting your edge is basically how much more creative you are than your competitors because that is where you differentiate yourself. To the members of Tina F.C. faking to “think outside the box”, Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Computers, hailed as the most innovative company by Business Week, offers a candid rebuttal: don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.

The transformation of Mauritius is tributary to the inclusion of the following elements of change management: a project in which all stakeholders believe passionately in, the creation of an environment that stimulates a shift in mindsets and attitudes, the building of a strong and committed top team to drive the process and a leadership by example. Post-independent Mauritius has hardly experienced anything that even brushes with that. Or maybe, our successive governments, barring a few mavericks within, should jointly patent the ultimate brand of leadership; one exclusive of integrity, foresight, vision and empathy.

It would indeed be more appropriate to talk about followership than leadership. That Singapore has never been under International Monetary Fund (IMF) programmes from 1980 to 2002, and till today for that matter, speaks volumes. Mauritius, on the other hand, has spent about 23% of its time over the same period under the influence of the IMF. These figures, arguably much higher today as far as Mauritius is concerned, are excerpted from the findings of William Easterly in his latest book “The white man's burden: why the West's efforts to aid the rest have done so much ill and so little good”.

The book by William Easterly, a professor of economics at New York University,  shall make a far more enlightening reading for our policymakers rather than say, “Globalization and its discontents” by Joseph Stiglitz, “The end of poverty” by Jeffery Sachs or even “The world is flat” by Thomas Friedman. If top-down transformation by outsiders is self-defeating, a combination of domestic top-down policies with bottom-up reciprocity has the potential to unleash the crucial synergy.

As long as the government does not question the status of insiders of our system, who live by entrenched privileges, policies are doomed because they are opposed by insiders, who fear that they may be the next on the list, and outsiders, who consider them as discriminatory and continue to dream of becoming themselves insiders. A doctrinaire approach to policymaking may foster short-term economic expansion but when it simultaneously disintegrates social cooperation, it inhibits value creation through productivity gains and retards competitiveness growth.

The bogeymen setting the cart before the horse
In conformity with the bigotry of the IMF and the World Bank, members of Tina F.C. believe that a violent disruption in the form of a “shock therapy” is a quick fix that will reap rewards in a couple of years. “Reform” as spun by the government in reality refers to a few half-baked measures expected to revive our ailing competitiveness. This bland and reductive thinking, that confuses means and end and vice versa, is alienating citizens and polarising the Mauritian community further. “Democratisation” and “Empowerment”, at their worst, are akin to window-dressing.

The government rightly claims that our labour market must be revamped to become more flexible. But where are the evidence and the benchmark? When “hiring and firing” of employers can happen from one day to the next, companies surely get a decided competitive edge over rivals. Is it the one and only factor in the “flexibility” paradigm?

Denmark’s “flexicurity” blends a flexible labour market, generous social security and an active labour-market policy with rights and obligations for the unemployed. Workers pay high taxes, but trade job security for a guarantee, should they be laid off, of time-limited but generous unemployment benefits that they can live on and a promise that they will get new jobs fast. About a fifth of Danish workers lose their job in any given year but most find a new job quickly. The mechanism rests on perpetual dialogue and mutual trust.

The implementation of the National Pay Council (NPC) is a glaring example of how despicable a government can get. The concept per se is sound. But the NPC should not arbitrate the dispute regarding compensation for declining purchasing power that is not, as the government would have us to believe, totally inflicted by global capitalism. Despite the annual inflation-adjusted compensation granted to them, the majority of Mauritians has been subsidising uncompetitive players through a wage cut as persistent and self-inflicted rupee depreciation feeds into a vicious circle that offsets the compensation.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) basket of goods and services identified to compute CPI inflation does not have the same relevance for people with different pay levels. As their expenditure patterns vary, so does the weightage of the items in the basket. That is why the Singapore Department of Statistics regularly publishes CPI inflation for different income groups instead of relying on a general average figure. What's more, because of the high income divide, an inflation rate of 10% largely under-estimates the impact of price hikes on low-income earners.

In an open economy like ours, the exchange rate is the main determinant in the variation of consumer prices. To make things worse, the current government provoked a massive currency slide coupled with a sudden removal of subsidies on flour with all its knock-on effects. Under these circumstances, it would be criminal to link the compensation of an ever-declining purchasing power to productivity and the capacity of employers to pay the compensation. Reasonably, to be coherent with its policies, the government should have settled for a non-negotiable full compensation for incomes below Rs 16, 500. As for the NPC, it could show its mettle by arbitrating a collective bargaining for end-of-the-year bonuses.

The need for a makeover starting at the top
A lean and efficient government is the incarnation of a clean and smart government. That is a far cry from what the IMF and the World Bank actually promote. When “leaders” indulge in the blame game, like flying the “economic patriotism” flag or grumbling about the “laid-back workforce”, they unwittingly reveal their incompetence. One of the roles of a government is to provide more certainties for households and businesses alike. Gross Domestic Product growth, no matter how dazzling, is futile when it is unable to dent joblessness and inequalities, to overcome structural mismatches and distortions and to boost purchasing power and morale.

Mauritius will be poised for globalisation after an extreme makeover starting at the top. Our civil society and media are still too weak a fourth estate to offer a counterbalance. Neocons of all hues will continue to sell the illusion that they are the genuine progressives and those who do not bow to their proselytism are self-hating citizens, but the Internet and its tools such as the Blogosphere, Wikipedia and YouTube are creating a new reality, where information flows less asymmetrically.

Data Miners of the World, Unite

Asked about the paucity of statistics while he was implementing the policies that turned postwar Hong Kong into a thriving global financial centre, John Cowperthwaite replied: if I let them compute statistics, they’ll want to use them for (scenario) planning. Governments should not collect them, lest they be provoked into attempting to remedy perceived ills - and mess things up.

Asked about some of the measures he would advocate for a turnaround, Nassim "Black Swan" Taleb replied: I don’t like scenario planning, because people don’t think out of the box. I would also ban the use of statistics because unless you know statistics very, very well, it’s a dangerous, double-edged sword.

Statistics are always relative. They depend on the elements factored in their computation, and these are never constant. That is why dogmas such as 1) Value Added Tax (VAT) reduction automatically boosts consumption, 2) exchange rates invariably affect exports and 3) Pay Research Bureau (PRB) provision is systematically inflationary are all flawed.

Any addiction to per capita income and gross domestic product (GDP) is either an expression of a cynical or a reductive mind. The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), devised by the think tank Redefining Progress, offers a far better gauge about how real Mauritius is faring because it also includes other critical components - namely income distribution, crime, environmental damage, public infrastructure and leisure facilities - on which sustainable development and well-being are based.

As a matter of fact, we do not need statistics that feed trite debates and act as a smokescreen to incompetence. Nevertheless, using them smartly is key to decipher patterns and measure supply and demand to reduce inadequacies and improve flow everywhere.

Le Baccalauréat International comme complément avant-gardiste

Que ce soit intellectuellement, culturellement ou psychologiquement, le système éducatif traditionnel dispensé par l'Etat et le privé ne répond plus aux exigences de la mondialisation. C'est le cas à Maurice comme dans plusieurs autres pays, même les plus développés. Il y a eu certes des tentatives pour remettre en phase nos écoles et nos collèges, mais elles se sont échouées sur des ajustements superficiels et contradictoires. On serait même tenté de parler de décrochage, tellement le fossé s'est creusé.

Une transformation mal ficelée et mal agencée butera toujours sur une résistance, surtout si la structure de base a été rongée par plusieurs années de conflit entre conservateurs de différents bords. Il n'existe pas de modèle idéal. En revanche, il y a des programmes qui s'efforcent d'adapter leur pédagogie aux attentes de nos sociétés en mutation permanente. Ce sont les programmes du Baccalauréat International (IB), notamment le Programme primaire (PYP), le Programme de premier cycle secondaire (MYP) et le Programme du diplôme (DP).

Le siège social du IB se situe à Genève, en Suisse. Des chercheurs internationaux à l’université de Bath, au Royaume-Uni, déconstruisent l'évolution de la pédagogie aux quatre coins du monde (de la Scandinavie à l'Inde en passant par la Nouvelle Zélande) et formulent des recommandations régulières au Centre des programmes et de l’évaluation basé à Cardiff, toujours au Royaume-Uni.

Depuis son lancement en 1968, le IB a connu une progression constante. Si à l'origine le IB était destiné aux enfants des diplomates, des cadres et militaires expatriés, aujourd'hui la communauté du IB regroupe plus de 665 000 élèves et 2 424 établissements scolaires répartis dans 131 pays, avec une forte concentration en Australie, au Canada, au Royaume-Uni et aux Etats-Unis. La scolarité est financée par l’État (dans plus de 50% des cas) ou des fonds privés.

Sans la diversion occasionnée par la politique étrangère, Tony Blair, grand admirateur du IB, aurait très probablement converti la grande majorité des établissements britanniques. En effet, il est difficile de résister à la déclaration de mission du IB: "développer chez les jeunes la curiosité intellectuelle, les connaissances et la sensibilité nécessaires pour contribuer à bâtir un monde meilleur et plus paisible, dans un esprit d’entente mutuelle et de respect interculturel".

En mars dernier, la Voice of America titrait "Le IB prépare les étudiants américains pour la mondialisation". Contrairement aux idées reçues, le IB n'est pas conçu exclusivement pour les enfants les plus brillants, son approche très ludique est une incitation à "apprendre à apprendre". Bien entendu, la relative petite communauté du IB lui confère une certaine agilité, facilitant ainsi la mise en place des programmes.

Cependant, même si dans sa dimension abstraite le IB suscite un enthousiasme débordant, l'engagement des enseignants, des parents et de la direction y est plus déterminant que dans la méthode traditionnelle. Parce que l'enseignant agit beaucoup plus comme un guide que comme un émetteur de formules et rhétoriques à mémoriser et pondre sur un papier d'examen. De fait, l'apprenant IB est un chercheur. Les parents de ces élèves, même les plus avisés, sont tentés de comparer la méthodologie IB et la méthodologie traditionnelle. D'où l'importance de leur éclairer la voie avec d'autres repères palpables.

Actuellement, le IB n'est proposé que dans le privé à Maurice; deux établissements offrent le DP et un autre offre le PYP. Le MYP devrait logiquement être disponible à l'avenir. La majorité des établissements à travers le monde n'offre que le DP avec parfois un autre diplôme traditionnel en parallèle. Depuis quelques années il y a un engouement vers le programme complet du IB (PYP, MYP, DP) afin d'imprégner une cohérence une méthodologie qui est loin d'être conventionnelle, même si elle demeure très flexible et libérale. Ce qui sous-entend qu'on ne peut pas vraiment se référer à une école type IB.

Le IB épouse totalement la "glocalisation", un concept savant qui signifie agir localement pour se doter des aptitudes (empathie, cosmopolitisme, quête du savoir et de son application, intelligence critique, sens de la responsabilité, esprit d'initiative etc.) pour affronter les défis de la mondialisation. Pas étonnant que le développement d'une telle personnalité attire l'attention des universités, surtout américaines. Il faut aussi noter que l'université d'Oxford, par exemple, accepte la candidature de postulants IB à partir d'une note de 38 à 40 (incluant un mémoire et un engagement communautaire), la note maximale étant de 45.

Le gouvernement mauricien pourrait intégrer le IB dans un plan stratégique échelonné sur plusieurs années. Il est tout à fait envisageable de créer des établissements régionaux disons en 2012, le temps d'obtenir l'accréditation et de former les enseignants. On introduirait ainsi des enfants en pré-primaires et en premières années au PYP, lesquels poursuivraient ensuite leur scolarité MYP et DP. Simultanément, les étudiants ayant obtenu leur School Certificate auraient l'option de s'orienter vers le DP uniquement.

Même si le IB est bien rôdé il faut surtout veiller à ce que son implémentation se fasse en cherchant l'adhésion de toutes les parties (étudiants, enseignants, parents, direction, board etc.) et en évitant de mettre la charrue avant les boeufs. Ces conditions réunies, il n'y a aucune raison pour que le IB ne puisse pas conquérir un grand nombre de Mauriciens. N'empêche, il devra évoluer côte à côte avec le système traditionnel pendant encore très longtemps. Et c'est tant mieux, cela pourra rassurer et donner un choix aux parents réfractaires.

Néanmoins, le système traditionnel ne peut plus exister dans sa forme actuelle. Tous les enfants mauriciens doivent pouvoir débuter leur scolarité de la manière la plus équitable, les enseignants doivent être revalorisés et les programmes scolaires doivent être revus de fond en comble. Bref, le IB a suffisamment d'atouts pour agir comme source d'inspiration décisive. L'essentiel est de dégager une notion de l'excellence. La finalité est de ne pas enfermer les adultes de demain dans un ghetto culturel et intellectuel.

The Mauritius Consensus

Any observer emancipated from the blinkers of partisan politics, from the intoxication of the "Mauritian miracle" and from the relativism of benchmarking with countries trapped in an even more "autistic" state than we are, would cast doubt over our achievement as a nation since our independence. So would the thousands of Mauritians who have sought greener pastures abroad and the thousands more presently tempted by emigration sirens. What went wrong?

So as not to taint further the credibility of our political masters since 1968, it must be acknowledged that among the many misguided policies endorsed by our successive governments, there have certainly been many that are forward-looking too. What has been conspicuously missing is a strategic plan that synergises all the policies as they are implemented so that the benefits of one policy do not weaken the benefits of another. A piecemeal and haphazard approach can only yield short-term gratification.

Reality Check

Through the compulsive demise of cross-border regulations and with technological breakthrough, the world is moulding itself into a "global village". Subtly but in dynamic terms, globalisation is shaping our lifestyle. Arguably, even if it wants to, a nation cannot stop the disruptive impact of globalisation, it can only strive to minimise it, without downplaying it, while endeavouring to grab the opportunities it unleashes.

The prerequisite for citizens to integrate globalisation comfortably is a domestic system that has successfully integrated them. That is an environment where a decent standard of living comes as a reward for diligence and talent expressed on a level playing field. For a right-minded Mauritian, this is hardly a depiction of post-independence Mauritius. If your interlocutor does not concur, you can be sure that she is just a ruthless self-seeker!

Fundamentally, our model of development revolves around privileges. At the local level, the modus operandi is essentially determined by a citizen's skill to activate her social network: the common citizen thrives through small privileges, the mighty citizen cruises through big privileges. Not surprisingly, goods and services are even bartered in some circles. All in all, a collective schizophrenia persists where on the one hand "refuseniks" lag behind and on the other hand, "cheerleaders" indecently exploit the rigged contest.

At the international level, our economic expansion has been secured through a series of negotiated privileges from "developed" countries to access their markets with dissimulated reciprocity. The problem with preferential treatment is that the more you get, the more you expect. To maintain a status quo as long as possible, the end then justifies the means. No matter how smart our "economic diplomacy", our survival in the post-privilege era will ultimately depend on our tireless efforts to improve our real competitiveness.

The predominant "nou" and "bann-la" mindset pervades every sphere of our society. In the process, the whole political system is perverted: it particularly offers disenchanted citizens a democratic wishfulfilment of booting ineffective governments out during periodic elections while cynical voters and candidates, a minority one would like to believe, merely participate in a bid to rode enn bout.

In the absence of an adequate mechanism of checks and balances and of an electoral system conducive to the emergence of alternative voices, our "democracy" itself is hijacked. What a waste for the so-called beacon of civic responsibility and its absolute disregard of how much citizenship and civility are subsequently trampled on!

How much louder the wake-up call before our political, business and intellectual elites whistle the end to the pas-moi-li-sa game, restrain their greed and wrestle their conceit? Yet the protectionist impulse and the downbeat mood are distinct symptoms of a nation dreading the future. The longer we ignore the symptoms the fitter we will be to join the league of "sick states of globalisation". The more we procrastinate before dealing with the root causes, the longer it will take to defuse the social time bomb.

Placebo Effect

The enlightened leadership that the great majority of Mauritians have been yearning for is still elusive. A leader must not only have a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities of globalisation but also a precise assessment of our own failings and intrinsic potential. Everybody, indiscriminately, must be aware of where we are heading and must be constantly reminded of how we are getting there with all the stages clearly defined. Globalisation is a multidimensional phenomenon that can only be embraced with hybrid and contextualised domestic policies. It does not matter which economic thinker we draw our inspiration from, be it Karl Marx, Adam Smith or Amartya Sen. All our policymakers need is to focus on how to sustain our momentum for growth, not the growth rate per se.

This will happen when policies are implemented with a win-win perspective, rather than coercively and doctrinally. "Conjoncture internationale" cuts both ways and the prospect of creating a "second miracle" derives more from fetishism than anything else. Consensus cannot rest on a flimsy foundation and an abstract concept, but around the whole package. We have no alternative than to shift our paradigm from our delusive model of development to an inclusive society operating with global, predictable and transparent norms.

Policymakers have a primal mission to prevent us from drifting further away from English language and the American dollar or increasingly the Euro, not because we are mesmerised by "God save the Queen" and Britney Spears or Carla Sarkozy, but because they are the medium of exchange in the "global village". The wider the gap grows, the greater the number of Mauritians who will remain entrenched in their "local village" that an exposure limited to "Bollywood", "Premier League" football and French-centric intellectualism can only exacerbate. Little wonder our "debates" emanate more hot air than they light up our way.

To cope with the pluralism that globalisation fosters, albeit under Western hegemony, we need to celebrate it jointly with our roots to build a "composite identity", otherwise an inward-looking "borrowed identity" with a binary psyche that sees "bijoux" everywhere will flourish! Pragmatism, not to confuse with realpolitik, must be the engine of our policies. We must not hesitate to travel as far as Canada, Finland or New Zealand, for example, to seek fresh ideas and befriend new people instead of relying exclusively and desperately on the benevolence of the few "pays amis" or the one-size-fits-all "expertise" of the World Bank.

Whether global capitalism becomes a rollercoaster or a bandwagon ride will depend firstly on the solutions we devise for ourselves, secondly on how the people chairing our institutions safeguard our rights and finally and crucially on how civil society and the media keep our politicians on their toes. Simply put, we must make our mediocrity history.