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Mauritians on the Move, American Style

A new goal: money to renovate Olivia RCA school

Mauritians living in the Washington, D.C-area have begun raising funds to renovate the Olivia RCA Primary School in Bel Air, near Flacq, as part of their ongoing efforts to support poor schools in Mauritius.

Olivia RCA will be the 4th school that Trait d'Union USA-Mauritius has helped over the past four years, working with both their counterparts at the Trait d'Union Canada-Maurice and with the Archdiocese of Port Louis.

Last year, the group donated $4,000, which was used to renovate the Notre Dame des Anges RCA primary school in Mahebourg. "Thanks to your generosity, the children of Mahebourg can now study in a much more conductive educational environment," Maurice Piat, Bishop of Port-Louis, wrote in a May 7 letter.

He said attention is now turned to making improvements to the Olivia school with the goal of providing the children "with a pleasant environment and make them feel proud of their school, thus instilling in them a desire to attend school and learn."

New toilets, a new roof and new wiring in the school are on the agenda.

Trait d'Union USA raises most of its donations at an annual dinner at the home of Suzanne Kon Kam King, who heads the group. The dinner, held June 7, featured Mauritian food contributed by many in the community, as well as karaoke and sega dancing. It raised $2,500 for the project.

An auction of items from Mauritius - pareos, a dodo bird souvenir, and food products from Mauritius - netted another $360.

Bishop Piat is planning to visit North America in October, making stops in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. From Oct. 15-16, he will meet with Mauritians in Washington, D.C.

Mauritian companies head to US for gourmet food show

Four Mauritian companies will be in New York City from July 8-10 to participate in the annual Fancy Food Show, which showcases unusual food products from around the world and attracts thousands of U.S. food buyers.

Planning to attend are representatives from Marlin Exports, Labourdonnais, TDM and Tropical Cubes. They will exhibit their products inside the "Africa Pavilion," which is being sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAid), an arm of the U.S. State Department.

"This year's Fancy Foods Show brings together tastes from all regions south of the Sahara - the hibiscus fields of West Africa, the coffee-covered central mountains, the vineyards of the Cape of Good Hope, the teeming coastal waters of Mauritius - ready to be sampled at the Africa Pavilion," according to a description on the website of the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT), based in New York.

NASFT says that a variety of products will be on exhibit from Africa, including tea from Kenya, wine from South Africa and chocolate from Ghana.

Since 1955, the Fancy Food Shows have been the marketplace for specialty foods, offering the opportunity for specialty food retailers, restaurateurs, supermarket and department store buyers, gift shop owners and others to discover new and unusual products.

Most exhibitors are entrepreneurs who created their recipes and started their companies.

Mauritius hits Broadway

Mauritius will soon be up on lights on New York's Broadway.

A play called "Mauritius," which opened about six months ago to critical acclaim in Boston will soon get its New York debut.

The Broadway production of Theresa Rebeck's play, which wraps a story around a rare collection of stamps from Mauritius, will open at the Biltmore Theatre on West 47th Street on Oct. 4.

It's the story of two half-sisters who inherit a rare stamp collection after their mother dies. Then the intrigue begins: who owns the stamps? Which of three dealers can be trusted with their sale? The main themes of the play touch on people's obsessions for certain things and the meaning that people put on small things in their lives.

The collection includes the priceless one penny post office and two penny post office. At one point during the play, the authenticity of the stamps are called into question

The play as been described as "tightly woven and full of surprises."

Mauritius is discussed several times in the play's dialogue, and the island becomes an image of escape for one of the sisters.

Rebeck told Weekend in a previous interview when the play premiered in Boston that she got the idea for the story while researching stamps and collecting and coming across information about the famous Mauritius post office stamps.

Trade and investment trip planned to Mauritius

The Corporate Council on Africa, a US-based organization that promotes American business investment on the continent, is organizing a trade and investment mission to Mauritius in November.

U.S. businesses are being invited to come to Mauritius for three days, Nov. 18-20, to visit Maurtian factories and have one-on-one meetings with potential business partners in Mauritius.

The mission will focus on textiles, sugar and tourism, and also the new sectors of seafood, agribusiness, IT, financial services and back office services.

The trip is being held in conjunction with the Corporate Council's annual U.S.-Africa Business Summit, which will take place in Cape Town from Nov. 14-16. This will be the first summit to be held in Africa. To capitalize on the presence of many high-level American business executives in Africa, the Council is sponsoring a series of country-specific trade and investment missions to various countries in Africa. The council has asked the Mauritius Business Association (MUSBA) to organize the trip to Mauritius.

Success of the mission will depend on how many U.S. businesses decide to go on to Mauritius after the summit.

Similarly, the Mauritius Board of Investment (BOI) is planning a trade an investment mission to the United States in October.

Mauritius still waits for 3rd Country Fabric decision

Progress comes in little steps when it comes to convincing Congress to grant Mauritius Third Country Fabric benefits under AGOA.

There appears to be general support in the new Democratic-controlled Congress for approving this derogation, but the legislative vehicle to move it through has not yet been identified.

The Mauritius-U.S. Business Association (MUSBA) submitted testimony to the Senate Finance Committee saying that Mauritius desperately needs to be included among the lesser developed African countries that are allowed to use 3rd Country Fabric in the manufacture of clothing for sale in the United States.

The testimony was submitted to the committee as part of a May 16 hearing held to review U.S. trade preference programs.

MUSBA President Paul Ryberg said that while U.S. trade with lesser developed African countries under AGOA "has been blossoming, the apparel sector in Mauritius has withered. More than 30 apparel factories have closed in the past three years, costing more than 30,000 jobs." He said U.S. apparel imports from Mauritius have dropped 45 percent since 2004. "Today, Mauritius exports much less apparel to the U.S. than it did before AGOA."

Ryberg explained that in addition to problems in textiles, the country is also losing its preferences in sugar. In response, the Mauritian government has embarked on a reforms to make the country more globally competitive. This program includes market liberalization/free trade, fiscal discipline, improving the investment climate and measures to increase foreign direct investment.

He said "because the factory closings ad job losses in the apparel sector have continued, the special LDC provision is needed now more than ever."

Ryberg asked that the derogation for Mauritius be extended through 2012, and that it be retroactive to Oct. 1, 2006.

Fulbright scholars heading to Mauritius

The U.S. Fulbright program is again sending scholars and students on 10-month study projects to Mauritius.

In announcing its new batch of grant awards, the prestigious U.S. exchange program will fund travel and research for one American university graduate and for one university professor.

Natalie Tarallo, who just graduated from Hamilton College in New York, plans to use her grant to research young people's involvement in politics in Mauritius, most specifically how a person's ethnic background affects his political views and party affiliation.

"Through observation, interviews and participation to discern and analyze the place of and role of ethnicity in Mauritian youth political identities as a model for other young multi-ethnic democracies," according to a news release from Hamilton College.

She will do her research at the University of Mauritius, in secondary schools, community organization, youth centers and the youth arms of political parties.

Mauritius has been a popular destination in the past for American college students and professors under the Fulbright program. Since 1998, 17 U.S. scholars have done research projects on the island.

They have conducted a variety of projects, including researching the development of a free market economy in Mauritius, the effect of globalization on textile workers, domestic violence, marine conservation and the relations between different ethnic groups on the island.

In another Fulbright program reserved for U.S. university professors, Sinha Subhash from Auburn University in Georgia will come to the University of Mauritius to study modeling kinematics, dynamics, stability and mechanical vibration.

William Wallick, an associate professor in the Department of Health Administration and Human Resources at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania, is currently in Mauritius lecturing and researching at the University of Mauritius. His topic is human resources management in Mauritius and the United States.

Proposals involving Mauritius are given preference for funding if they directly support Mauritius or enhance Mauritius-U.S. relations, according to the U.S. State Department, which administers the program.

The 60-year-old international exchange program, which is funded by Congress, offers graduate students, scholars and young professionals an opportunity to conduct research, take courses or teach around the world.

The program also offers students from other countries the same academic opportunities in the United States. About 50 Mauritians have come to America under the Fulbright Junior Staff Development Program and the Senior Africa Research Program. Deadlines for applying for these programs for 2008-2009 is June 27.

Air Mauritius expands U.S. services

Air Mauritius has closed its only U.S. office and handed over its U.S. ticketing and reservations services to a U.S. travel agency, which has offices in Chicago, Houston, New York and Los Angeles.

Air Mauritius said in a statement that this new arrangement will "enhance the services provided to its valued American passengers and travel professionals. Close working ties with United Airlines help North American passengers connect easily and smoothly over the Atlantic to Air Mauritius' European gateways."

The company says that reservation hours and sales support are available on a toll-free number from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. five days a week. By the end of the year, these hours will be expanded to 12 hours a day, six days a week throughout the country.

a m e r i c a n   s c e n e

WEEK-END --- dimanche 17 juin 2007