Blog: London is burning - Whither Mauritian Society?

In an inter connected world it is fatuous to be a wishful spectator of the calamity which plagues European youth during these days of looting, daylight plunder, senseless violence and rioting. The 'indignant' youth of Spain showed their protests against strict economic measures being taken to avoid bankruptcy à la Greece.

Europeans have been living beyond their means and indulging in extravagance and excess. The budget deficit in European countries leading to heavy debt only reveals unprecedented consumption exceeding production. Europeans have adopted a parenthood style of overprotection of their children with the bonus of a freedom that they deemed modern and sophisticated. European youth have grown up in an atmosphere of resentment of foreigners. Islamophobia  is only an alibi for a more generalised xenophobia as immigration laws become more and more relaxed.

Schools have not taught European youth to be disciplined while children's rights flourished with almost unchecked and unmonitored freedom. Parents, who are themselves very young, did not bring up children in homes where values and traditions would be cornerstones of growth. Homes lacked the capacity to use the best of what the past offered to link the past to the future and forge continuity, which is the main characteristic of sustainable culture. The failure of both home and school has exposed a rudderless youth to the vagaries of economies. More and more it is becoming a general truth that there is a huge gap between rulers and the ruled. More and more governments are finding it difficult to govern. The Arab uprising has demonstrated the existence of a youth, or a population that has long been cut off from their leaders who have survived with the tools of violence repression, propaganda. Traditional social structures that no longer respond to the needs of a youth whom elders have spawned and brought up have been kept going by imprisoning dissidents, exiling protesters, silencing those who are alert to injustice perpetrated by unsuitable leaders.

Europe cannot accept the life of strict simplicity imposed by leaders on the countries that are heavily indebted. The structural adjustment of the budget means wage freeze in certain countries, higher taxes, more strict social welfare programmes in others or all at the same time. The shops that display consumer goods that debt would formerly pay for are now being looked. The jobs that were available yesterday are denied to a youth which finds it illogical that migrants have a better life than they. Norway's holocaust perpetrated by a decent young man who by all standards was educated is a reminder of the failure of a society of diversity in Europe. In Southall  today Sikhs are ready to take the law in their own hands to protect their places of worship.

In 1999 Mauritius experienced a similar dislocation of law and order. Shops and stores and were looted. Decent householders were found looting supermarkets and selling robbed frozen fish in their courtyard. The 'Malaise Creole' was a sign of protest of a community kept away from wealth and power for too long. The vandalism was a sign of protest against an economy closed to them. All over Europe a wave of youth-indignation is expected to spread in shopping malls of commercial centres which are usually haunted by a consumer public living on the fats of toxic debts. Our youth are penniless; they are facing a bleak future and they know there will be fewer jobs. The rich stores awash with light and displaying the trendy appliances, garments, brands cannot have the same buyers tomorrow. In fact the riots are expressions of powerlessness against a society that has been made for the rich, who will become fewer and fewer in a society wrecked by economies that have gone haywire. Why loot?

This youth who is indignant at establishment has learnt patience, perseverance in times of need because these virtues go together with a sense of responsibility which they have not cultivated. The youth feel that they have still been deprived of their rights even in periods of economic stress. Even their parents who have been guided by the greed for more and more money have resolved problems of relating at home with the help of money. Suffering in silence is not anybody's forte now, when in fact the strength of the individual lies in knowing when and how to suffer in silence. In this society one has to shout and vociferate one's pain when one cannot satisfy one's needs. If you have no money, borrow, for consume you will at all costs. We are guided by comparison with others. Pleasure should not be postponed. If it has to happen let it happen now. It is this hedonistic urge that we develop in our youth.

They loot because they have transgressed the line ethically separating their property from what belongs to others. The greed to consume needs abuse of force behind hoods and masks because the perpetrators of crime want to avoid arrest. They loot and destroy because they find the wealth of others as an offence. Foreign migrants who have jobs are well settled. They queue up at the cash register and can pay for what they consume. These become the 'accapareurs' of wealth that belongs to the European natives. One will be surprised to find among those arrested children from decent families. Decency is not genetically transmitted from parent to child.  This fire that has caught England will spread to Italy, Greece, France, Spain, Portugal and all those European countries that have lived to squander earned wealth and have depended on debts to celebrate life as though everyday was the last day of existence.

Mauritius must ensure:

• that its schools are equipped to discipline our youth;
• that our parents draw a charter of responsibility for their children. It is not enough to be responsible for studies which constitute only a part of life;
• that we do not lead a life based on comparison. I do not have to use a mobile phone simply because my more fortunate class mate has one;
• children must learn to bear the hardships of poverty like their parents. Parents cannot be paupers while their children are made to lead the life of a prodigal;
• children must grow up with values that make them recognize the incontrovertible unity of the family;
• children must not be made to suffer from the separation of parents. If parents cannot transcend their selfishness, children must participate in the decision making of the family torn as under. They must be explained why parents cannot live together and must be reassured of their personal security. Can they meet the parents who will not have their custody? When? Will they be able to go on with their everyday life? School, tuitions etc?

The riots are part of government's responsibility. Do we have jobs for school or university leavers? Social integration concerns the jobless, those who live in despair because they cannot afford the connections which make things so easy for their former classmates. If nature has unevenly distributed fortune, it is the responsibility of society, governments to correct nature's injustice. We cannot allow Ben Ali's to have a fleet of 250 sophisticated cars while his college going daughter had 10. When the poor becomes a witness of such ill-gotten wealth, revolt is the natural consequence. Parents are no longer able to exercise authority over their children. Mauritius has a tryst with destiny on this issue. Let it not be too late.