Christina Meetoo

On Media, Society and Mauritius

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Sithanen’s Budget Speech

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Picture from L’express

Avi having already written an interesting post on the content of the budget speech, I will focus on the communication/psychological aspects of that grand event that marks the local scene every year.

So, here are my thoughts point-wise:

– Our Minister of finance could not help using the usual tactic of leading people to believe (before the budget speech) that the measures will be very stringent and result in harsher conditions for most Mauritians so that the actual measures taken that are announced appear more acceptable, thus creating an artificial a sense of relief. Most people actually thought that VAT would be raised or that the number of goods under VAT would increase…

– As per local traditions, the pre-speech marathon of the minister was chronicled by all media outlets painting the picture of a terribly tired man who sacrifices his family and works till midnight, so much so that his wife demands Jacques Brel’s ‘Ne me quitte pas…’ to be aired (on Radio One). Yet he finds the time to get interviewed by all the radio stations, newspapers and the national TV station. No wonder he was tired!

– An obsolete tradition: the 2-hour long speech that is against all modern presentation approaches with a heavy veil of secrecy until the D-Day and H-Hour. It is time for our politicians to learn how to make a good presentation… Who can now have the patience to listen to (or worse, watch) a 2-hour long diatribe with no presentation aids whatsoever?

– Obsolete also are the reactions of our local trade unionists and opposition parties who did not fail to criticise the budget as being ‘pro-capitalists’ and ‘pro-private sector’. They could probably learn to videotape their reactions for re-use every year; it would save them time and energy. Trade unionists even decided to boycott the budget speech… and to follow the event on TV in another place (I wonder if they know what ‘boycott’ really means). As for the opposition parties, they were again ever so bland in their reactions… Never able to articulate any strong alternative!

– On gender: I note there’s a slightly innovative approach as Sithanen announced measures to encourage women to take up jobs traditionally occupied by men in the construction sector (e.g. mason, plumber, etc.) but he wasted it all by announcing triumphantly that he is going to improve women’s lives by reducing duty on microwave ovens, grills, kitchen hoods, etc. The kitchen is never very far… Who said that women’s feet are smaller than men’s so that they can stand more comfortably in front of the sink?

PM’s Odyssey in Hull on TV

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Every now and then, I try to have a look at the local TV news on MBC just to have a rough idea of what our national emblematic TV station is capable of. This is what I chose to do yesterday evening. So here are my thoughts on our flagship TV news bulletin.

There have been some improvements in terms of the image quality it would seem. Of course, the bulletin was greatly pre-empted by news related to the visit of our PM to Hull in the UK and it would seem that his communication experts have realised that they need to send a cameraman that can hold the camera correctly, provide nice framing and clear image with proper lighting. They have also sent a good journalist. In the past, it always used to be the outright pro-Labour who would benefit from the priviledge of accompanyng the PM on his trips and this has proved disastrous because coincidentally those people were also outright incompetent. I don’t know whether the journalist + cameraman/technician(s) that were sent to Hull this time are pro-Labour but at least they can deliver the goods (technically).

However, of course, propaganda-wise, it still is the same old song: PM is a wonderful person who meets important people in the UK who are all praise for the great guy. Seems that he worked (or completed internship?) for 2 years in a private hospital and he was a great doctor, a wonderful man specially in view of the fact that he was the son of a PM. Lots of people were interviewed from the handyman to the doctors to emphasise his greatness. Of course, mean people will probably say that those interviewed must have felt compelled to say positive things about our PM, that’s the effect of a camera…

But, what made me really smile was how the PM seized the opportunity to sing his own praises. He told a very lengthy story about how he saved a guy’s life and also emphasised how he would have earned 60,000 pounds today if he had stayed at the clinic as a doctor. This great sacrifice is justified by the fact that, as PM, he can transform a whole country. Lucky he didn’t say that he is actually putting Mauritius on the world map…

Badland & Julien Clerc concert

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The past week-end has been quite ‘cultural’ for me as I watched a movie in Caudan Star and attended a concert at the Swami Vivekananda Centre. We had received complimentary tickets for both (lucky week-end indeed, thanks to Khersley & Lindsay)…

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Badland, the movie

This is a quite long film (almost 3 hours) but you don’t really see the time pass by as it is very poignant and gripping. The scenario is well constructed, acting is excellent as well as film direction. There are some glitches (like a wound in the girl’s hand that appears completely healed in a scene then is shown again with a bloody plaster on it in the next one) but they are very minor.

Overall, it is an excellent film about the traumatic and dramatic results of war on the psyche and life of American soldiers when they come back to the States. Jamie Draven plays the role of Jerry, an American soldier who has tremendous difficulties to adjust to normal life again. To make matters worse, his wife thinks he is an a**hole, they live in a sordid home and environment with three children and a fourth one is in the womb. Jerry commits something tragic (can’t say what… would be a spoiler) and as a consequence, engages in a drama-laden trip in his homeland with a constant refusal to accept full redemption leading to a tragic end for the only thing that could have saved him from himself (can’t say what again;-)
The penultimate flash scene could have been removed as it unrealistically questions the whole story’s existence. Whereas the whole film could shock audiences, that scene tries to come back on that jolt like they were not so sure about going the full length. Anyway, fortunately it was a very short scene which you could choose to ignore…
A word on the audience that night. Apart from me and my sister Liliane, I counted only 20 people in the movie theatre. All those stories about the decline of cinema-going ain’t unfounded!!! Badland is a harsh film though…

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Julien Clerc, the concert

Yeah, me and Avi we attended Julien Clerc’s concert! Not really our style of music but it was quite cool actually. The guy definitely has a good voice and knows how to use it and to get the audience to sing too (on ‘Quel Jeu Elle joue’). His lyrics are quite interesting as well, very poetic and the engaged type. Though I can’t stand ‘Femmes Je vous aime’ the other songs like ‘Utile’, ‘Melissa’, ‘Double Enfance’ were enjoyable.
A special word about the two musicians who were incredibly versatile (each one plays at least four different instruments – guitar, bass guitar, flute, synth, piano, melodica, etc.). Julien also played the piano very well (even made a mistake and humbly said ‘pardon, pardon’ before starting again the song…).
The Centre was actually quite packed though there were a number of places left. The technical setup was well done (some glitches in the filming though).

Ségo vs. Sarko

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Photo publiée sur le site du journal Le Monde.

Soirée très intense que celle d’hier de 23h00 à 1h00 avec le débat Sarko-Ségo (ou Ségo-Sarko, c’est selon) qui a permis de juger du calibre et de la personnalité des candidats qualifiés pour le deuxième tour de l’élection présidentielle.

Les analyses semblent divisées sur le résultat de ce face-à-face. Les éditorialistes plus marqués à droite et les sympathisants de l’UMP sont évidemment convaincus que Sarko a remporté le match et, à gauche, ils sont également convaincus que c’est Ségo qui a maté Sarko…

C’est Ségo qui gagne
Personnellement, je pense que Ségo a remporté le duel même si, à mon avis, elle aurait pu être un peu moins ‘pontifiante’, ce qui entraînait parfois quelques longueurs dans ses réponses alors que Sarko était plus bref et concis (parfois un peu trop).

En tout cas, après avoir vu son discours lors de son meeting au stade Charléty, j’avais été assez décue car elle apparaissait trop rigide, trop superficielle, trop ‘paternalisante’ avec ses gestes papaux surfaits, un sourire figé et des expressions abstraites et vides de sens.

Mais hier, elle a été étonnamment dynamique. Elle regardait tout le monde en face: la caméra et Sarko. Elle n’a jamais baissé la tête alors que Sarko a longuement baissé la tête (quand Ségo l’accusait d’être au summum de l’immoralité sur l’intégration des enfants handicapés à l’école publique) et semblait même chercher du secours du côté des journalistes (qui ont été cantonnés au rôle de gardiens du temps).

Madame Royal vs Monsieur Nicolas Sarkozy
Elle avait également un petit sourire qui éclairait son visage. Sobre, elle ne semblait porter aucun bijou alors que Sarko arborait une belle grosse montre de luxe… Sarko est tombé dans le travers du mépris avec ses ‘Madame Royal’. Il évite d’ailleurs toujours de mentionner le prénom de son adversaire alors que Ségo le fait (sauf vers la fin où elle a saisi son jeu).

Il est vrai que beaucoup disent que Sarko a fait montre d’une plus grande maîtrise des dossiers et des chiffres mais Ségo a aussi visiblement potassé ses sujets que ce soit les 35 heures, l’écologie, l’école, l’union européenne…

Par contre, je trouve dommage qu’elle n’ait pas choisi de mettre l’emphase sur son approche de la démocratie participative qui a donné des résultats dans sa région, surtout avec l’utilisation du Web 2.0. Je crois que le Web 2.0, malgré ce que l’on peut dire sur les dérives possibles (d’ailleurs les dérives sont bien réelles et plus graves dans le monde politique traditionnel), a un potentiel formidable pour l’exercice d’une démocratie politique plus vivante et dynamique….

En bref, elle est apparue ferme mais démocratique, humaine mais capable de ‘colères saines’, et dotée d’une intelligence du coeur. Lui est apparu autocratique, méprisant, capable de calculs froids, et intelligent. Il a essayé de dérouter son adversaire en jouant sur la séduction au final en montrant qu’il est capable de la flatter pour son intelligence (sous-entendu, surtout pour une femme) mais elle n’est pas tombée dans le piège; elle a choisi de rester sur le débat d’idées et souligné la divergence dans les styles.

World Press Freedom Day

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Today 3rd May is World Press Freedom Day and the focus this year is on Press Freedom, Safety of Journalists and Impunity. The 3rd May was chosen in 1993 by the UN General Assembly to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom, to recognise the contribution of reporters and to society and to evaluate the status of press freedom in the world.

In this context, a number of findings about the status of press freedom in the world are interesting to look at:

– Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières) has a yearly report in which it rates countries performance on indicators such as the number of attacks against journalists (assassinations, imprisonments, threats, etc.) and media (censorship, pressure, search warrants, etc.). Conclusion: the top countries for 2006 are from Northern Europe (Finland, Iceland, Ireland and Netherlands) and the three worst are Erythrea, Turkmenistan and North Korea. Denmark which was leader in 2005 has clearly suffered from the affair about the caricatures of Prophet Mahomet.

As for Mauritius, it has slightly improved its ranking (unless it’s the others who are worsening!) from 34th in 2005 to 32nd in 2006. It has also moved up one place on the African continent from 4th to 3rd mainly because South Africa goes down from 31st to 44th in the world ranking.


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– “Two journalists killed every week over last 10 years”, says a journalist safety survey released in March 2007 by the International News Safety Institute. The Top bloodiest countries over the past 10 years have been Iraq (138), Russia (88), Colombia (72)…

– According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, African countries top the list of worst countries for press freedom. Ethiopia is the country where freedom of the press has the most deteriorated as its ‘government launched a massive crackdown on the private press by shutting newspapers and jailing editors’. Two other African nations are also on the dishonour roll: Gambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

– And Freedom House’s report on the Freedom of the Press in 2007 said that in terms of population, only 8% of the world’s inhabitants live in countries that enjoy a free press, while 39% have a partly free press and 43% do not have a free press.

Journalists quick to bury UOM

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Wicker Coffin

Originally uploaded by Heaven on Earth Bristol.

Lately, the local press pundits have been reveling in their criticism against the University of Mauritius and to celebrate the wonderful initiatives from the private sector, which according to them, heralds a dazzling academic future for Mauritius. The gist of their discourse is that the University of Mauritius is obsolete and that those private universities will save Mauritius….

If you don’t believe me, read

Although one can appreciate the fact there exist such ventures, one cannot deny that for the time being that there are major differences between those private universities and the University of Mauritius. As an academic of this institution, I am the first to acknowlege that there is a lot of room for improvement, that there are many incoherent decisions, that there are administrative bottlenecks, that there may be some lecturers who are not up to standard (according to students’ feedback), etc.

Let’s compare like with like
Yet, if you compare those private institutions with UOM, it is clear that

    – the programmes offered by UOM are developed by the institution whereas the private institutions rely on distance education programmes franchised to them by foreign universities
    – consequently, lecture materials in private institutions are not developed and tailor-made for Mauritian students
    – lecturers there are not really lecturers, they should be called tutors rather as they do not develop the material; they only use D.E. manuals provided to them by the foreign university. One can even ask whether they actually master the content of the subjects they teach…
    – the academic staff of the private institutions do little or no research as opposed to UOM

Also, I am quite intrigued by the fact that no journalist has cared to investigate the rapidity with which that Eastern University got its authorisation to bear the appellation of university (something the DCDM Business School which is now renamed Charles Telfair Institute does not even have).They were probably too busy doing the promotion of the Charles Telfair Institute….

In a nutshell, I would tend to say that, except for one or two programmes of study (e.g. I acknowledge that the DCDM Design course is good as it has a hands-on practical approach), those institutions are far behind the University of Mauritius. These institutions are here to make money basically, to exploit the unmet demand of people who need diplomas and degrees to get jobs.

Still, the University of Mauritius needs to improve, that one cannot deny.