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Mauritians on the Move, American Style

The Mauritius-Florida connection: sun, sea and self-promotion

Mauritius and the U.S. state of Florida have a lot in common: beaches, great weather, year-round sun, a diverse ethnic population, millions of tourists, global trade and a healthy, pro-business economy.

In many ways, Florida can serve as a model for Mauritius as the island seeks to reinvent and retool its economy to participate in a global marketplace. That's the conclusion of Mauritian ambassador to the United States Kailash Ruhee after a visit to the "Sunshine State."

Ruhee joined 44 other ambassadors from around the world on a diplomatic tour organized by Ambassador Nancy Brinker, U.S. Chief of Protocol and initiator of the State Department's new "Experience America" tour program.

The diplomats met with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, brother of the president, visited the Florida Solar Energy Center at the University of Central Florida where they observed sunlight being used for everything from cooking food to heating water, and toured the Kennedy Space Center and the Port of Miami.

"One lesson from Florida is that they have made the whole state a Center of Excellence," the Ruhee said in an interview with Weekend. "We should make all of Mauritius a Center of Excellence, so that when someone arrives in the country they realize that this is a place that means business and that our institutions are at the cutting edge of their fields."

"If we get our act together, we could be an island of excellence and make sure that our institutions operate to the expectations of those who want to invest, do business or visit our country as tourists," he said.

Florida has adapted its "brand" image beyond tourism. "Two or three decades ago, when you thought of Florida, you thought of the beaches, the sun and the sea, just like Mauritius," the ambassador observed. "Now it's much more than that. Fun is part of it, but it's also business and investment."

At the Port of Miami, Ruhee observed how the port is investing heavily in infrastructure improvements and has fashioned itself as a "Gateway to the Americas" for trade to Central and Latin America and the Caribbean region. It is also promoting itself as the capital for the growing cruise ship industry.

"This is also within our reach," he said. "We can make Mauritius a gateway to Africa (for trade) and the cruise capital of Africa."

He said the port of Miami has also initiated new measures to inspect agricultural products, stop drug trafficking and monitor for possible terrorist activities.

Ruhee said this trip to Florida reflects a new dimension to Mauritius' approach to diplomacy with the United States. "We're now trying to align our strategy toward diversification of the economy, into financial services, seafood, the IT sector, outsourcing and legal services. I hope to convince some ministers to come here and talk to people in Florida. I'm very excited about the opportunities that the United States can offer for Mauritius."

The next trip under the "Experience America" program will be to California, and Ruhee says he hopes to participate. The program was designed to facilitate travel within the U.S. for the heads of foreign diplomatic missions and their staff members to enhance their understanding of the diverse elements of life in the U.S.

"When ambassadors have the opportunity to view new ideas, it enriches their experience beyond Washington," Ambassador Brinker, the chief of U.S. Protocol and organizer of the tour, said in an interview. "They can report back home what they have learned and seen. In return, the United States gets better relations with the diplomatic corps and this creates better understanding" among countries.

Book on Jewish detainees in Mauritius gets audience in Germany

The story of the Jewish detainees in Mauritius during World War II will finally get an audience in Germany. A translation of Geneviève Pitot's fascinating book, "The Mauritian Shekel," has been translated into German and was unveiled at a ceremony in Berlin on Feb. 21.

The book, originally written in French, was translated into English in 1998 in Mauritius and then in 2000 in the United States. The German translation was done by Peter Kohler of Bad Homburg, Germany, the husband of Mauritian Laurence Baissac.

Kohler was asked to do the translation by Vincent C. Frank-Steiner, the son of artist Anna Frank, one of the detainees who became the art teacher of Geneviève Pitot. After a year of giving art lessons at Pitot's school, Anna Frank stopped coming and Pitot lost contact with her.

"Fifty years later, by pure coincidence, I came across her pictures at an exhibition of the History of Jews in Berlin," she wrote in the forward to the Mauritian Shekel. "This encounter made me conscious of memories that had been dormant within me. I had a strong desire to meet someone who had known Madame Frank and could tell me about her." A structural engineer, Pitot had lived in London and then Frankfurt and spoke fluent German.

Pitot met Frank's son Vincent and realized that she couldn't answer his questions about why 1,600 Jews escaping Nazi persecution in Europe were detained at the Beau Bassin prison for nearly five years. "I was embarrassed to admit my total ignorance," she wrote. "We knew nothing about them nor the circumstances that brought them there."

Thus began her meticulous research that included interviewing detainees and their families, travels to Israel and the U.K., and scouring documents in Mauritius and London. She sought to understand the decision of the British government to deny the Jewish refugees entry into Palestine in 1940 and ship them to Mauritius, then a British colony, where they were housed at the Beau Bassin prison.

She found that Mauritians were generally friendly to the detainees, and despite restrictions on their movements, the detainees became known in Mauritius for their artistic and musical talents, performing concerts and participating in art exhibits.

"Nevertheless, some (Mauritians) were less kind in their attitude. Because they had influence in government circles, the detention regimen remained in force until almost the end of their exile. Although the wasted years spent in Beau Bassin were difficult for the detainees, they discovered the beauty of the island and the kindness of most of its inhabitants. They will never forget this. For this reason, Mauritians should also remember their unusual guests, who were surely not happy here."

For the German translation, Kohler worked from the original French text. The historical British documents cited in the book were translated directly from English, but he searched for the original diaries and other notes of the detainees in the German national library to cite them in their original version.

Kohler, an architect, said he especially enjoyed translating the "modes of expression from one language to the other, which enhance the difference in the way of thinking in the two language." But he regrets that Genevieve Pitot, who spoke German fluently, "can not read the translation and agree on it as she did for the English translation." She died in 2002.

The German translation includes a preface written W. Michael Blumenthal, director of the Jewish Museum in Berlin, and former U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Jimmy Carter. A native of Berlin, Blumenthal fled Germany with his parents in 1939 just before the outbreak of World War II and eventually settled in the United States. The postcriptum is by Vincent C. Frank-Steiner, Anna Frank's son.

The book was presented at a ceremony at the Centrum Judiacum, part of the Jewish Museum in Berlin, on Feb. 21. It is published by Hentrich and Hentrich, Berlin.

Mauritius ranks high in survey of economic freedoms

Mauritius is the bright spot in an otherwise dismaying report on economic freedoms in sub-Saharan Africa.

The sub-Saharan region made little progress toward economic freedoms in recent years, according to the 2008 "Index of Economic Freedom" published annually by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation.

The new report pegs the region's overall level of economic freedom at 54.5 (on 100-point scale in which a higher score represents greater freedom). That's significantly below the world average of 60.3 and makes Sub-Saharan Africa the poorest-scoring region for economic freedom in the world.

This matters, because the Index shows a direct correlation between economic freedom and prosperity. Countries with higher levels of freedom tend to have higher GDP per capita.

"Unlike regions that have a diverse range of free-market economies, in Sub-Saharan Africa there are only distinctions among less free economies," write Index editors Edwin Feulner, Kim Holmes and Mary Anastasia O'Grady.

Most of the 40 economies in the region are ranked "mostly unfree" in the Index, while "moderately free" economies are outnumbered almost two-to-one by "repressed" ones.

Mauritius had the best score in the region, and one of the best scores of all the 157 countries surveyed across the globe. It moved up 14 places in the world rankings to secure a spot in the top 20. The report says that Mauritius, Egypt and Mongolia were the most improved countries last year.

"Mauritius (18th globally), the second most improved economy in the 2008 Index, is the lone Sub-Saharan Africa representative among the world's freest economies," the editors write. Among the African countries, Botswana and Uganda also improved their scores.

Mauritius scores 10 percentage points or more above the global average in six areas and has blazed a trail for other countries by enacting effective tax reform and eradicating corruption.

"The environment is business-friendly, and licensing procedures are simple," the report says. "Virtually all commercial operations are efficient and transparent. Foreign investment is actively promoted, although land ownership is restricted to arbitration on a case-by-case basis. The top income and corporate tax rates are moderate, and government expenditures are moderate as a percentage of GDP. The judiciary, independent of politics and relatively free of corruption, is able to protect property rights exceptionally well."

Almost half of the world's 20 "repressed" economies are in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Zimbabwe, Guinea-Bissau and the Republic of Congo. The region ranks last in eight of the 10 categories of economic freedom, and it performs especially poorly when it comes to property rights and freedom from corruption.

Overall, in a region marred by government failure, 15 countries saw their economic freedom scores increase, while 25 lost ground.

To compile the Index, the editors measured 157 countries across 10 specific factors of economic freedom. The higher the score, the lower the level of government interference. All countries were graded on a scale of 0 to 100.

The 10 freedoms measured are: business freedom, trade freedom, fiscal freedom, government size, monetary freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom, property rights, freedom from corruption and labor freedom. Ratings in each category are averaged to produce the overall Index score.

Getting a view of alternative sources of energy

Mauritius is sending a three-member delegation to an international conference on renewable energy to be held in Washington, DC, March 4-6.

The goal is to learn more about the latest technology in renewables - things like biofuels, wind and solar power, geothermal and hydropower - to see if they can apply to the energy needs and opportunities in Mauritius.

The Washington Renewable Energy Conference, organized by the U.S. government, will bring together government leaders, civil society representatives and private companies to discuss ways to expand the use of renewable energy sources, especially in light of the harmful effects now being shown of global climate change. It is the third international conference on this topic; the first two were held in Beijing, China and Bonn, Germany.

Representing Mauritius will be Abu Twalib Kasenally, the Minister of Public Utilities, and two technical staffers from the Central Electricity Board (CEB).

"They are coming to take stock of the latest technologies in renewable energy," Kailash Ruhee, Mauritian ambassador to the United States, said in an interview with Weekend. "Renewable energy is especially important to us. We have already invested in co-generation of bagassse and we're looking at ethanol production (from sugar cane). Solar and wind area tangible alternatives for Mauritius."

Mauritian officials also want to determine if the island can qualify for a new energy program at the World Bank called the Clean Energy Technology Fund. Kasenally will meet with the head of the energy sector at the World Bank to further discuss this program.

Ruhee said Mauritius has also held preliminary discussions with a company in Texas that is interested in setting up an assembly plant for solar energy equipment in Mauritius.

Selling seafood from Mauritius

For the first time, Mauritius will have a presence at North America's largest seafood show, to be held Feb. 24-26 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Thon des Mascareignes will have a booth at the show to introduce their products to prospective American buyers. About 18,000 seafood buyers representing restaurants, food companies and gourment stores are expected to attend this year's show.

Thon des Mascareignes also participated in the Fancy Food Show last July in New York City.

Ferme Marine de Mahébourg is also expected to attend.

Bush talks AIDS, malaria, security in Africa

President Bush wrapped up a five-country tour of Africa this week on generally a positive note, as he strives to cement his presidential legacy with several foreign policy successes and remind Americans that his tenure can be marked by more than the war in Iraq.

American presidents normally look to overseas travel during the last year of their administrations to prop up their images, as they find themselves increasingly irrelevant back home as the presidential campaigns focus attention on who will be the next occupant in the White House.

In Africa, Bush does have a good story to tell. This is especially helpful to him, coming at a time when America's image is at a low point around the world.

Bush has, in fact, has been one of the friendliest U.S. presidents to Africa, increasing U.S. aid to fight AIDS and malaria, even though his Republican party has traditionally been hostile to foreign aid experts say.

He has also redirected U.S. foreign aid and development funds to African countries that are efficient and fight corruption under what are called Millennium Challenge grants.

Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Bush has also elevated the importance of Africa in fighting world terrorism by creating AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command. It will oversee American military operations and relations in Africa and strengthen efforts on the continent to fight terrorism.

The United States also has other interests in Africa: securing oil supplies and challenging China's growing economic growth on the continent.

Bush enjoys enormous popularity in Africa, much more than he currently does at home, and he was greeted warmly everywhere he went: Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, and Liberia. The president preferred to focus on what is working well in Africa, rather than on crises and disasters.

Who ever comes next in the White House will be under pressure to keep these good relations going.

a m e r i c a n   s c e n e

WEEK-END --- dimanche 2 mars 2008