Cleone - in Mauritius

I don't think I really got the measure of Mauritius.

For a start, the Lonely Planet says that it got its independence from France in the 1960s - surely they mean Britian? Most history indicates that Mauritius was ceded to the UK in the 19th Century by the French, and that it gained its independence from us in the 1960s, not from France. All though they speak French, and the education is mainly in French, Government business is entirely in English, there is a British High Commission (and the High Commissioner has a very smart Residence with a beautifully tended garden) rather than an Embassy (so they must still be in the Commonwealth), they drive on the right (ie the left-hand) side of the road and the legal system is British. Whilst I hope my evidence is pretty conclusive (no case to answer, me lud), it's understandable why the normally quite accuarate Lonely Planet is mistaken; by any standards Mauritius is an interesting but curious place, with a dose of societal schizophrenia.

Politically and ethnically (and no doubt financially) Mauritius is dominated by Indians. Leaving aside the true natives, those of European extraction now form less than one percent of the population, and the government and professional institutions are dominated by Indians. Creole is the lingua franca, French is the language of commerce and fashionable socialising and English is resolutely the language of government. Nothing official is ever written in anything else. And Mauritians - all of them, whatever their age or origins - seem very happy to speak all three languages fluently and find nothing odd about it. It's economy is, presumably precariously, now founded on tourism, which it does pretty well, with sugar cane, once king, relegated to a poor second place. The revenue from that will dry up once their current agreement with Norway expires. Then, like most other sugar cane producing countries, the cane-fields will presumably give way to weeds, and they will save a huge amount of water currently used for irrigating this crop, not that they are short of this commodity.

If you were to holiday in Mauritius, staying in your beautiful beach-side hotel, you might well go diving. World ARC staff arranged a bargain trip for a group of us in one such place. It was a beautiful, well equipped establishment with excellent and knowlegeable staff and a happy as well as efficient atmosphere. Our four dives were the seaward side of the coral reef. Between this reef and the shore should be some perfect snorkelling. There is not; some years ago all the corals were bull-dozed away at low tide to enable safe water-skiing, which, ironically, is now banned inside the reef! There are arches and caves on the seaward side, and technically the diving was good. But there were precious few fish. We had noticed a large number of Chinese fishing vessels anchored in the harbour when we arrived. Some years ago, the Mauritian government accepted a deal that allowed the Chinese to build them a long quay - we saw huge numbers of cars, minerals, containers and other goods being unloaded there. In return, the Chinese were given fishing rights, and their vessels use Port Louis as a base, bringing more cash into the local economy. Unfortunately, the quay is sited so that it deflects the swells into the once sheltered yacht basin during storms. And the fleet has fished so intensively that the reef fish are all but gone, sharks and all. Many of these Chinese fishing vessels now sit idly rusting away in the harbour - it's not worth their while going out any more. It's hard not to be cynical about both the Chinese and Mauritian Governments, one for what appears to be exploitation for short-term gain and influence, and the other for naivete.

The basis of the island is still farming; as well as abundant sugar cane a wide variety of vegetables are grown. But the best crop now is the tourists, and these are well tended. There are good hotels, resorts, shopping malls, beaches and lots of bars and restaurants, with reasonable prices (all in Mauritian Rupees - I wonder how long they will last? Many places quote prices in Euros, which are readily negotiable). It's a beautiful island, with friendly people, great entertainment, and lots of interesting and picturesque sights to see. We enjoyed our visit to a colonial Creole mansion, with its mixture of Indian furniture and European clocks and beautiful gardens.