For a pound of rice
- By The Rambler
- Published 11th April, 2008
Rice, the staple food adopted by the whole Mauritian population since
centuries, in not produced in Mauritius. If some of our flour, the
other staple food of Mauritians, is produced here, the wheat to make it
from grows in alien fields. There was a feeble attempt in the past to
produce rice locally, especially during the war, but the idea was soon
given up for practical reasons.
A shortage of these two commodities on the world market is now having dire consequences on our own survival as a rainbow nation, whatever that means. China, which had agreed to supply us with flour for our daily bread and other purposes, has just imposed an embargo on that commodity. They prefer to use it to feed their own one billion and more mouths.
Rice producing countries like India, Vietnam, Cambodia and Egypt have also recoursed to a slowdown in exports. Thailand is also joining the club. These countries have been forced into such an action in order to satisfy the local demand.
This clearly shows that we are in for a lot of trouble in a not too distant future. Our predicament is further aggravated by the fact that we have not only to cater for the local population, but also for our tourist industry. If we want tourists to come, we must also be able to feed them. Elementary. But where do we get the rice and
flour to do it
with? Not so elementary.
Maybe we should give some serious thought to changing our eating habits so that we start depending less heavily on these two items. But changing a habit that has grown over centuries does not happen overnight. In the wake of the 1982 general elections, the new leaders of the country had suggested that we should shift to things that could be produced locally, like manioc and patate. This created such a discontent and uproar among the population that, according to legend, when the new Prime Minister went to a “Haldi” ceremony in a village somewhere, the hosts served him a meal made up of manioc and patate.
In the meantime, it would be sheer stupidity to keep relying on the foreign producers for our supply of rice and flour. One way out in the immediate would be to look up to the beneficence of India and plead on the basis of the emotional, cultural, and other ties that bind our two peoples to get them to make an exception in our case.
Then also, we could perhaps consider exploring and exploiting the MMM triangle of Mauritius, Madagascar and Mozambique, and start walking the talk. It's high time we concretized the talks of cooperation in the field of food production.
We should activate whatever agreements and understandings with these two countries and use the lands they are supposed to put at our disposal for cultivating rice and wheat.
A shortage of these two commodities on the world market is now having dire consequences on our own survival as a rainbow nation, whatever that means. China, which had agreed to supply us with flour for our daily bread and other purposes, has just imposed an embargo on that commodity. They prefer to use it to feed their own one billion and more mouths.
Rice producing countries like India, Vietnam, Cambodia and Egypt have also recoursed to a slowdown in exports. Thailand is also joining the club. These countries have been forced into such an action in order to satisfy the local demand.
This clearly shows that we are in for a lot of trouble in a not too distant future. Our predicament is further aggravated by the fact that we have not only to cater for the local population, but also for our tourist industry. If we want tourists to come, we must also be able to feed them. Elementary. But where do we get the rice and
Maybe we should give some serious thought to changing our eating habits so that we start depending less heavily on these two items. But changing a habit that has grown over centuries does not happen overnight. In the wake of the 1982 general elections, the new leaders of the country had suggested that we should shift to things that could be produced locally, like manioc and patate. This created such a discontent and uproar among the population that, according to legend, when the new Prime Minister went to a “Haldi” ceremony in a village somewhere, the hosts served him a meal made up of manioc and patate.
In the meantime, it would be sheer stupidity to keep relying on the foreign producers for our supply of rice and flour. One way out in the immediate would be to look up to the beneficence of India and plead on the basis of the emotional, cultural, and other ties that bind our two peoples to get them to make an exception in our case.
Then also, we could perhaps consider exploring and exploiting the MMM triangle of Mauritius, Madagascar and Mozambique, and start walking the talk. It's high time we concretized the talks of cooperation in the field of food production.
We should activate whatever agreements and understandings with these two countries and use the lands they are supposed to put at our disposal for cultivating rice and wheat.
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3 Responses to "For a pound of rice" 
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said this on 14 Apr 2008 12:11:41 AM MUT
when it will reach that far, we will all be sharing.
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said this on 12 Apr 2008 4:42:26 PM MUT
Easy to criticise, what happens happens. It all started in 1980 and is the actual PM who is to be blamed for what is going on?
Best is to ignore all critics and to start producing our own rice and flour, there is enough potential investors to develop our agricultural demand and needs for the welfare of the Mauritian nation. DR PM & DR Beebeejaun knows what is important for a human being. Kind regards Karen |
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said this on 11 Apr 2008 3:18:02 PM MUT
Yes, how many Shylocks are there at Govt House? SAJ has always been right on many terre-a-terre facts. When someone is hungry and is seeing spouse & children gapping for food, what can we expect from that person? Calling them "communalistes" does not help and it is a coward way of running away. These cowards die many times before their deaths may be you are right to say "la vermine ne creve jamais". I know Dr Rashid Beebeejaun is very human and as a properly qualified doctor in medicine he understands the needs for food for the body. He is not a Shylock! Please DPM, you are probably the last hope for our people; please do something pulling out our country from falling into civil war because of food shortage. Thank you.
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