Friday, February 26, 2010

Let Cooler Heads Prevail/L'Express 26 February 2010

Let Cooler Heads Prevail…

Chetan RAMCHURN

I have always been fascinated by those who had the courage to go against the system for the powerless… and in my pantheon of martyrs, the likes of Biko ( whose murder was incidentally covered up as being death caused from self- inflicted injuries arising from a prolonged hunger strike) and Bhagat Singh have always been held in high esteem. Over the years I learned about the non violent path of combating an oppressor… how the Mahatma or Boitel would choose not to feed themselves to be heard and heeded. And to those who have the opportunity of going through the accounts of these hunger strikes, there is nothing quite as moving as a man with honest intentions who chooses the only recourse left to him.


Still, I fail to be deeply enthused by the Mauritian version of hunger strikes with the latest of them being that of Riche Terre planters. Not because I believe that their fight is unjust but simply because they have chosen a weapon that threatens to halt a country’s further development.

Diffi cult to make any sense out of the present mess. An issue that was already convoluted in 2007 fi nds itself further exacerbated with both sides claiming to be right. And since one of the sides in this slugfest is led by the Made in Mauritius Lee Kuan Yew, expect him to use these circumstances to project the image of a bold leader on a take no prisoners stance.

This new image can only be instilled by using some deeply philosophical lines such as “ To pa koner kan to pas manger to pou crever”. For once, I can’t even blame the country’s leader on his impatience with what he believes are hurdles to the country’s greater progress and prosperity.
However, we wish that our great helmsman were as bold and vocal against white collar criminals, corruption and malpractices.
The original sin The pecuniary demands of the planters might appear nonsensical to many. Still, they had an agreement that allowed them to use the land up to 2015 and have justifi ed their claims by evaluating the annual income garnered from these lands and multiplying it by the number of years left on their lease. To what extent are these people right or wrong, I do not know. But having associated themselves with l’enfant terrible of No. 5, they have made this a battleground for political interests and by using hunger strikes as bargaining chips, they have demeaned their own pursuit.

Something went dreadfully wrong at the beginning of the present year. The masses sided with Jayen Chellum, a man who had acted irresponsibly on a day where the fate of so many young souls is decided. Unlike many, I chose not to join the cohort of Government bashers and saw in this “ fight for justice” a heavy farcical touch. Most of my peers disagreed with me back then. But the repercussions are now very much real with a precedent that confi rms that in an electoral year, everything is tolerated. Now is the time to close Pandora’s box.


Today, as the concept of hunger strike is being fi rmly imprinted in the Mauritian psyche, my only wish would be to have an independent commission or fact- finding committee on the matter where the extent of truths and lies would be gauged and questions such as the following tackled: Have these lands effectively been occupied by all planters? Have the alternative terrains promised to growers already been provided to them? What would amount to a just and fair compensation to all parties concerned? Till these be answered, let cooler heads prevail.


“ In an electoral year, everything is tolerated.
Now is the time to close Pandora’s box.”

Friday, February 19, 2010

Robots apres tout/L'Express/19/02/2010

Robots après tout…

School used to bore me. For most of the time I spent there, I considered it to be a prison confining young bodies and minds within four walls for seemingly endless hours where we would be trained to learn everything by heart. This suited most of those around me perfectly but the idea of being a parrot never tempted me much, so I chose to remain human.

This meant that I was often the only carefree soul amidst frenzied ones which allowed me to keep my mind fully functional, or on a more comparative style, to paraphrase Kipling’s opening line of If, I was keeping my head when all about me were losing theirs. In my high school years, my understanding of the academic world had not changed.

I was in one of the “Star Colleges” where “la crème de la crème” was pooled and subsequently pitched against each other. Throughout these formative years, I witnessed some humorous incidents that still bring a smile to my face as I pen this column learners crying because they were not in the premier position in class, mindless competition between my peers resulting in depression or the greater belief in God.

As from the age of 16, the uncompetitive nature of my world seemed too appealing to make the journey to cold Curepipe every morning. Instead, I read everything that I could find at home. Luckily for me, my parents being both teachers, I had innumerable classics to choose from. And thus I discovered Poe and Faulkner among others. And I was happy being as I was… doing what I loved to do.

Not everyone shared my happiness though. I quickly learned that the system treated ‘nonchalant’ beings who were disenchanted with the memorised learning process as ‘rebellious misfi ts’ that had to be reformed. And who else to carry this noble task of administering the cold verdict than some unthinking teachers who had decided that if you did well you were intelligent and if you could not be moulded into a robot, you had to be treated with such encouraging lines that would do wonders to your confidence ‘Sa sujet la pou ban intelligents sa. Ou pou fail ou’.

No longer do I bear any grudge against those instructors. This so-called tradition of excellence which consists solely in the transforming of children into trained monkeys has been perpetuating itself long before my passage in academia and unless we get serious about it, shall continue in the future.

The myriad of issues that is correlated to the appropriateness of a country’s education system is daunting. The creation of mechanical beings that are only concerned about themselves and who like modern Daedaluses are proud of their own attainments and whose sole satisfaction in life consists in adorning some copies of paper credentials on their walls while remaining indifferent as the world around them sinks further into decadence.

An absence of interest in active citizenship where many prefer dowsing themselves in networking on Friday evenings exchanging visiting cards in vain attempts of avoiding what they loathe most: anonymity. Instead of thinking how we could do something for that country of ours and reject the status quo. I look at this young democracy of ours with its ever-increasing number of educated citizens but few of them bothering to think and question issues. Unconcerned about what is happening around them, only preoccupied about climbing the corporate ladder.

All we need is a bit of soul in our lives…and it starts with the way we raise our children.

Chetan Ramchurn

Friday, February 12, 2010

Ouver to lizier kamarade (Le Mauricien 08.02.2010)

Ouver to lizier kamarade

Hier tone voter, zordi tone blier,

Promesses in fair, zamais pou realiser,

Mafia in augmenter, la zistis p crier,

Ek toi? to lizier fermer.



Ouver to lizier kamarade.

Zordi anou esperer, ki ene lot dimain exister

Kot to kapav respirer, ek nou pays progresser

Kot asoir to tifi kav marcher, sans ki to bisin prier



Ouver to lizier kamarade.

Met n la main pou nou recreer

Pou ki dimain to zenfan pas plorer.


Ouver zot liziers kamarades


Chetan

Let the production of freaks continue (L'Express 12.02.2010)

Education : Let the production of freaks continue

Chetan Ramchurn

PONDERING on my scholastic journey, I now look at how things could have been better. I won’t indulge in any profound critique of what the past few Ministers of Education have tried to accomplish. Most of the endeavours initiated by them being inspired from Scandinavian best practices and going in the right direction, I would rather offer insights as a product of the system and my suggestions on how to improve the current state of affairs.

Scrap the elitist system: Finland, which is the benchmark as far as educational excellence is concerned, has a structure that thrives on equality whereby it willingly chooses to put those that do well and those that do not do so well together up to the age of 16. This form of impartiality which allows children to remain with the same cohort of friends also leads to the creation of a more humane cadre.

Rightly dubbed by experts as a “ philosophy of inclusion”, this is in line with the nine- year schooling principle. However, to achieve this, there is the need to eliminate our sordid obsession with assessments and as importantly to stop the public disclosure of results. Our discriminatory system, which in its state, is purely based on getting egos as infl ated as possible has been crippling our society for all too long.

Value teachers: Another vital condition for a novel knowledge system would be to enhance the value attached to knowledge imparters. Better salaries would be the fi rst step. This would act as a supplementary source of motivation for existing teachers and it would help attract high calibre candidates to teaching jobs. Greater accountability would also be required to ensure that corrective action is taken to help teachers.

In my own eyes and based on my personal experience, few teachers stood out. Beside being exceptionally good and creative at teaching, these educators treated pupils as human beings and not as mere machines trained to memorise everything.

While others were ever so ready to sound the hallali against those children that were not meeting their expected standards, these good instructors genuinely cared about their pupils.

Time for a mentality change for parents: this is a request to the parents reading this article. I would urge each and every one of you to accept your wards as they are and encourage them in order to nurture in them the desire to continuously discover new things and not be zombielike fi gures with no emotions at all who live and die by that all too limited book knowledge.

Another appeal would be to refrain from using children as a means of achieving your ambition. If you do so, you are

helping create future members of an unthinking majority where academic education is considered as an end in itself.

Limit the number of hours in class: While the Enhancement Programme is an attempt to cure the tuition issue, having students confi ned till 1730 does not bode anything good in the long term. Shorter timed classes are a must if we want to create a more conducive atmosphere to learning. Children cannot be expected to stay focused for this long. Cramming up minds has never been the best of ways to create educated citizens. Foster creativity in the classroom: The use of games, role play, storytelling and at secondary level the renditions of thought leaders are to be promulgated as early as possible. The dearth of moral education could in this way be addressed and greater profoundness given to academia.

Education cannot be the battleground for vested interests: the debate on the education of tomorrow cannot be perverted to cater for the vested interests of some people or ethnic organisations. This area is about our shared future. Kindly do not mess it up.

I’ll end my piece by quoting Socrates, “ I know that I am intelligent because I know that I know nothing”. Till this be understood, let the production of ‘ freaks’ continue.