And then I read the newspapers. Reality dawns on me that it will take far more than a free education system to inculcate in many of our citizens the basic notion that we are all responsible for our actions and that nobody owes us a living.

Newspaper reports gave a harrowing account of the plight of some women aged between 30 and 40 living in tiny shacks with up to 10 children that they have produced with men who have no understanding whatsoever about fatherhood; some of these women are now grandmothers and the infernal cycle continues its relentless and unabated course to noxiously infect the next generation. Very few of these children attend school and many have become addicted to glue sniffing; the girls invariably follow in the footsteps of the mother and they too become pregnant at an early age thereby destroying the few chances that they had to lead an independent adult life. We are bringing up a generation of feral children who show a natural disposition to be violently destructive and whose behaviour falls outside the norms of civilised restraint and decency.

Whose fault is that? Not the mothers apparently. The culture of always blaming someone else for our irresponsibility has thrived in Paradise Island and these women often resort to blaming God for making them have so many children. One of them apparently saidthat "Mo pa ti anvi mem gayn ankor zanfan. Bé sa inn arivé, ki mo pou fer? Mo pa pou gayn ankor. Aster fini! Mé si arivé mo gayné, bon Dié ki pou décidé".God is to blame, so that's all right then! One wonders however why it took the birth of six babies for her to come to that ludicrous conclusion. Perhaps it may be appropriate here to tell people in these desperately tragic situations that God has nothing to do with their shameless irresponsibility in making children when they have no hope in hell of looking after them properly. Opening and closing your legs is a matter of personal choice and I am sure that God has far better things to do than to witness the wilful abandon of individuals to sensuous delectation and enjoyment without any form of contraception whatsoever, however pleasurable the exercise might be for the participants.

But do we just condemn these feckless mothers who find dependency on the horrible men that they become attached to the most logical course of action in their world of deprivation and unrelenting poverty? Or do we at the very least try to salvage something from a desperate situation and try to stop the children from following the path of irresponsibility trailed so shamelessly by their parents? I already have a nightmare vision of various ONGs organizing a conference that will be significant only for the number of buzz words that it engenders; we will have a brain storming session first to find ways to empower women to think out of the box and reclaim their independence so that they can have full ownership of their bodies and respect their individuality and take control of their lives. (Readers who have some difficulty with these buzz words have only to read any interview by Cader Sayed-Hossen in order to get the full encyclopaedia of these words designed primarily to camouflage a lack of imagination). The participants will then take full advantage of the hospitality provided and share more buzz words over a nice drink and food paid by the taxpayer. And then nothing will happen and the mothers and their children will disappear again from the national consciousness until some traumatic event startles us momentarily from our convenient amnesia.

So, what can be done? Unfortunately, we are only too aware of the disgusting but what can I do mentality of over promoted, incompetent sycophants who are only too happy to grab the enormous salaries and expenses without fulfilling the basic responsibilities of the job. During the sixties and seventies, Mauritius faced a population growth that was unsustainable for a newly independent country trying to find its way in the world. The Mauritius Family Planning Association (MFPA) was formed and under the leadership of Naik managed to start a national movement to make people plan their families in a more realistic manner. All that was done with a fraction of the facilities and staffing enjoyed by MFPA these days.

It is obvious that the only possible way of altering the behaviour of the people living in such desperate circumstances is to go to them and help them in their surroundings. It is highly unrealistic to expect people whose unbridled procreation is symptomatic of their irresponsibility to travel to the nearest clinic for advice and help; they will not do it and it is therefore incumbent on the authorities to go to them instead of hoping that they will eventually see the error of their ways and travel some distance for help and guidance. I am sure most people will accept this as a common sense approach. How does the Director of the MFPA respond to this? She claims that it cannot be done because of lack of resources and in the meantime the MFPA will continue with its causeries de sensibilisation that will never be attended by any of these women, not even in a month of Sundays. One would have expected the only organization charged with implementing procedures for proper family planning to at least make a plea to the government to make contraception freely accessible to those who need them the most; or to say that as these people are too irresponsible and cannot be trusted to take the pill every day, provisions should be made for free intra-uterine devices and/or Depo-Provera injections which last for up to 13 weeks. No, all that we get is but what can I do and lack of resources; I bet you they have no problems whatsoever in knowing exactly what to do when it comes to finding the resources to finance the many missions that those at the MFPA embark on as a matter of routine.

A group called L'Action Familiale advocates la methode naturelle, and I can only assume that this entails things like body temperature to indicate the state of fecundity of the woman. Yes, I can see how this will be effective with people whose lives are so disordered that they will remember to locate the thermometer in time before passion consumes them…or perhaps it has to do with the rhythm method but, believe me, the only rhythm worth following is the divine voice of Mohammed Rafi singing one of the old favourites…Like the MFPA, L'Action Familiale too cannot visit these unfortunate people in their slums, presumably because it will distort the rhythm of their daily routine…

It is becoming increasingly apparent that we are sitting on a demographic time bomb whose potency is strengthened daily by the twin destructive forces of poor education and grinding poverty, which is then compounded by the inability of the MFPA to target its resources effectively to those who need them most. People with nothing to live for and existing in soul destroying circumstances will resort to short term measures to provide momentary relief from the sheer drudgery of their daily lives. Casual and unprotected sex and indulgence in all manners of mood altering chemicals provide a transitory refuge from a miserable life and the fugaciousness of such escapism rapidly becomes an addictive feature of a life without hope. Our problems as a nation will become intolerable when such despair transforms itself into nihilistic destruction of everything that our society stands for, and the rapid increase AIDS due to casual and unprotected sex.

Education remains the cornerstone for individual development and the enhancement of one's life chances. We do not have to look very far for a policy that encourages school attendance whilst simultaneously relieving poverty; it is also politically successful as the recent reelection of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil was largely based on that policy. The Bolsa Familia was implemented by Lula and gave poor families a monthly grant of one thousand rupees on condition that their children attend school—a prime example of welfare in return for responsible behaviour, as opposed to the provision of welfare benefits in Paradise Island in return for nothing; or perhaps more demands for even more welfare, again in return for nothing!

It is no use saying that this is not our problem, that irresponsible people deserve all the bad things that happen to them. The time will unfortunately come when those who can see no way out of their miserable circumstances will take by force the things that the rest of us try to get in a responsible and legal manner. Already, the rise in violent crimes is a precursor of the terrible vision of a society under siege from those who feel they have no part to play in the proper functioning of that society.

It will then be too late to realize that the problems of the poor are also our problems and that the common bond that binds all of humanity has to mean primarily that we give a helping hand to those who for whatever reasons are incapable of looking after themselves.

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