Young professionals: What are the obstacles to the Mauritian Nation?

This Saturday, Mauritius is celebrating its 48th Independence anniversary. We are all proud to be Mauritians. But the question to be asked is : Are we a real Nation? Today, what are the main hindrances barring us from becoming a Nation? Young professionals debate. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"13167","attributes":{"class":"media-image wp-image-21673 alignleft","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"261","height":"242","alt":"Youngpro-vanisha"}}]]Vanisha Rajaysur: “Inspired leaders will aspire for a better society” 29-year old Vanisha Rajaysur is zealous about a better Mauritian nation. Having embraced the financial world as Human Resource Manager and also an aspiring member of JCI City Plus, she believes that we are still living in a ‘crying nation’, where sheer ignorance of choosing the best leaders has heavily impacted on individuals losing their true self and identity as a Mauritian. “In the search of excellence for a better future, it is quite unfortunate to see that many companies nowadays are still adopting easy way of hiring people through nepotism whereby the best individual’s skills are left unexploited.” She states that as a matter of fact, capable individuals who can contribute towards a positive nation are “psyched up” by internalising hatred, as they feel despaired when their expectations of being worthy to society metamorphoses into defeat. “It cannot be denied that an individual’s own life is the object of his existence and when the society itself creates a ‘rhetorical trust’ on his own self, those ‘crippled actors’ of society feel estranged by becoming shapeless and unidentifiable to his own Mauritian culture,” she argues. “The orchestration of their emotions which began with the expectation of provoking a diffusion of their emotional state ends up with sorrow, compelling them to lose the notion of a nation. This gives rise to a commercialisation of their emotions whereby they become resistant to societal changes, as they feel like failing in their achievements. If companies recruit on meritocracy by uniting their best assets through their heart and mind by gluing them together in a pluri-cultural nutshell, individuals will not be alienated. It is just a matter of time and mentality change. One should remember that inspired leaders will always aspire for a better Mauritian society,” she concludes. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"13165","attributes":{"class":"media-image wp-image-21671 alignright","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"209","height":"223","alt":"Youngpro-jashveer"}}]]Jashveer Bundhoo: “Young blood can definitely do much better” 30-year old Jahsveer Bundhoo is a Network Engineer for a telecommunication company. He argues that those in government will say we are a nation while the opposition of the day will say we can do better. “The Truth is, we youngsters we cannot compete with the big parties financially. Thanks to massive and sustainable donation from generous unrecorded sources.” Jashveer believes that financing of political parties does not allow Mauritius to be a real nation. “Now is the time to come with a law on financing of political parties. Accounts for parties need to be audited and made public. This is where we lag behind as a true nation. Opportunities should be provided to young leaders. Young blood can definitely do much better,” he maintains.   [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"13163","attributes":{"class":"media-image wp-image-21669 alignleft","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"198","height":"216","alt":"Youngpro-Avinash"}}]]Avinash Raghoo: “Mauritian society is indistinctly a loose fabric” Head of Implementation & Rollout at Sagemcom (Mauritius) Ltd, Avinash Raghoo affirms there are three major hindrances to building a Mauritian nation: lack of social cohesion due to ethnic diversity, adoption of an extrinsically influenced culture and a society nurtured to value individualism. “Our country is referenced around the world as a shining example of a nation of ethnicities coexisting relatively peacefully with a politically stable democracy. However, Mauritian society is indistinctly a loose fabric of various ethnicities split by politics, and whose segregation has been institutionalised in the Constitution. The prime illustration of ethnicity predominating our national identity is the Best Loser System,” he explains. “Though our cultural pluralism is appealing as a national hallmark, our individual cultural identity is shaped more extrinsically than intrinsically: we consume more imported products and services than those which are locally produced and in so doing, contribute to our relatively high national trade deficit. ‘Buy Mauritian’ is a dead slogan.” Avinash believes the Mauritian nation should be built around common and unifying aspects of a cultural landscape. “The most alluring product of our cultural mix is our bilingualism of English and French, a national treasure envied by many countries around the world. Our government, society and education system should reinforce that distinctive quality as a unifying engine of cultural identity, and work towards removing all elements of ethnic polarisation in our Constitution. Only then will we be able to proudly say ‘Maurice Mo Pays.’ ” [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"13166","attributes":{"class":"media-image wp-image-21672 alignright","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"213","height":"206","alt":"Youngpro-Navin"}}]]Navin Dussoruth: “Political realities endorse the idea of rampant communalism” Head of Private Equity and Risk Management for a leading fund administrator in the Global Business Sector, Navin Dussoruth explains that being a multi-cultural country appears to be a peaceful rainbow nation but political realities endorse the idea of rampant communalism, thus making us live with ambiguities. “The fact that we are a multicultural country does not subsume that we are a nation. Brotherhood, respect, tolerance and fair representation of communities seem to be fading gradually and in its place came a sense of passive racism which is gaining momentum. During elections, people tend to vote for communities rather for the party or manifesto, much to the applause of politicians. How can a nation prosper with such sentiments?” Meritocracy, he says, is far from being the norm in many fields, especially when it comes to recruitment and promotion. “For instance, candidates are not chosen on the merit of their competence but rather on their caste, culture, bank balance, lobby from sociocultural organisation and family name.” [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"13164","attributes":{"class":"media-image wp-image-21670 alignleft","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"195","height":"235","alt":"Youngpro-hemprakas"}}]]Hemprakas Dhotah: “There are a number of hindrances” Accountant and Owner of a consulting business, Hemprakash Dhotah says there are a number of hindrances which stall the emergence of a true nation. “Mauritius has a plethora of historical values which still need to be shared to each and every citizen. There is no way to determine where you could end up, if you do not know where you started. An appreciation for history is important for a number of reasons, including, but not limited to: avoiding a repeat of past mistakes – guidelines for making and changing laws (hopefully) for the betterment of modern society.” Hemprakash personally believes that youth empowerment has been outlined for some time now. “The ‘how’ to empower youth to be change agents will happen by letting them be kids and develop their own ideas – wherever they are in the range of potential social good actions. Youngsters should seize opportunities through multiple platforms offered to them, to contribute towards a better Mauritius. Over the past decade, ‘empowerment’ has become the buzzword in business, evaluation and youth development. Our country needs to provide more opportunities to young people to develop the required competencies to become successful contributing members of their communities and be able to experience and exercise power.”

THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE

Habit 1: Be Proactive You can’t keep blaming everything on your parents or grandparents. Proactive people recognize that they are “response-able.” They don’t blame genetics, circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behaviour. They know they choose their behaviour. Reactive people, on the other hand, are often affected by their physical environment. They find external sources to blame for their behaviour. If the weather is good, they feel good. If it isn’t, it affects their attitude and performance, and they blame the weather. Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind It is based on imagination – the ability to envision in your mind what you cannot at present see with your eyes. It is based on the principle that all things are created twice. There is a mental (first) creation, and a physical (second) creation. The physical creation follows the mental, just as a building follows a blueprint. If you don’t make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, then you empower other people and circumstances to shape you and your life by default. Habit 3: Put first things first To live a more balanced existence, you have to recognise that not doing everything that comes along is okay. There’s no need to overextend yourself. All it takes is realizing that it’s all right to say no when necessary and then focus on your highest priorities. Habit 4: Think win-win Think Win-Win isn’t about being nice, nor is it a quick-fix technique. It is a character-based code for human interaction and collaboration. Most of us learn to base our self-worth on comparisons and competition. We think about succeeding in terms of someone else failing – that is, if I win, you lose; or if you win, I lose. Life becomes a zero-sum game. There is only so much pie to go around, and if you get a big piece, there is less for me; it’s not fair, and I’m going to make sure you don’t get anymore. We all play the game, but how much fun is it really? Habit 5: Seek first to understand, then to be understood Communication is the most important skill in life. You spend years learning how to read and write, and years learning how to speak. But what about listening? What training have you had that enables you to listen so you really, deeply understand another human being? Probably none, right? If you’re like most people, you probably seek first to be understood; you want to get your point across. And in doing so, you may ignore the other person completely, pretend that you’re listening, selectively hear only certain parts of the conversation or attentively focus on only the words being said, but miss the meaning entirely. So why does this happen? Because most people listen with the intent to reply, not to understand. You listen to yourself as you prepare in your mind what you are going to say, the questions you are going to ask, etc. You filter everything you hear through your life experiences, your frame of reference. You check what you hear against your autobiography and see how it measures up. And consequently, you decide prematurely what the other person means before he/she finishes communicating. Do any of the following sound familiar? HABIT 6: Synergise To put it simply, synergy means “two heads are better than one.” Synergise is the habit of creative cooperation. It is teamwork, open-mindedness, and the adventure of finding new solutions to old problems. But it doesn’t just happen on its own. It’s a process, and through that process, people bring all their personal experience and expertise to the table. Together, they can produce far better results that they could individually. Synergy lets us discover jointly things we are much less likely to discover by ourselves. It is the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. One plus one equals three, or six, or sixty – you name it. HABIT 7: Sharpen the saw Sharpen the Saw means preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have – you. It means having a balanced program for self-renewal in the four areas of your life: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual. Here are some examples of activities: Physical: Beneficial eating, exercising, and resting Social/Emotional: Making social and meaningful connections with others Mental: Learning, reading, writing, and teaching Spiritual: Spending time in nature, expanding spiritual self through meditation, music, art, prayer, or service