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Page d'accueil  Articles par Alain Leveque |
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Alain Leveque - Articles sur ArticlesBase.comAlain Leveque is a writer living in Melbourne Australia who promotes the self-determination of the people of Rodrigues island.
Anti-tobacco Hysteria Kills Free ChoiceStrange times! When folks we hardly know get to rule our lives, well, they do. Every new regime eagerly enacts more laws while rarely repealing old ones. In the bargain, those with delegated authority inevitably stack on more regulations, more ordinances, more rules, and more bylaws too. Rodrigues Sea Cucumber PlunderFollowing an impassioned hue and cry about sea cucumber harvesting, resident environmentalists on the Indian Ocean Island of Rodrigues, citing overexploitation, petitioned for a moratorium. But, neither the stonewalling regional government nor the strangely muted opposition seem keen to rock the fishermen's boat. Cri De LiberteIl n’y eut jamais de onzième commandement qui accordât aux Anglais le droit divin de léguer à perpétuité notre vie, nos terres et notre pays à l’île Maurice. Notre peuple n’a jamais été la propriété privée de quiconque; nous n’avons jamais été du bétail propre à être passé des mains d’un propriétaire à l’autre. Rodrigues Collides With RealityTrue to form, Latin-quoting mini-Lord Actons are now quibbling over the academic quirks of demarcation and jurisdiction. No need. Mauritian laws reign supreme. Expensive, convoluted, make-it-up-along-the-way legal interpretations, when applied to Rodrigues are like gloves – tailored to fit the hands. The verdict always precedes the trial. Why you ask? Well, because when one people make the laws that govern the lives of another people, without that other’s consent – there is no appeal. That’s it. Australian Elections 2007 - Dislodged From the LodgeWho can forget the misuse of the senate to rubberstamp Dickensian industrial relations laws? Or the desperate ‘Black-Kid-Tampa’ policy that put soldiers in aboriginal settlements and undermined native title? Or David Hicks abandoned in a hellhole in Guantanamo Bay? Or the Haneef affair that tainted and diminished us all? Rodrigues: Freedom on a LeashOther small islands, including Nauru and Tuvalu with populations of less than 10,000 are already independent states. Yet, when it comes to Rodrigues island, with a history written in the teeth of suppression, whole perches of critics still squawk about it being too-small, too-poor, and not-yet-ready. In fact, as an independent state, on top of fishing licenses, it would become eligible to aid from international sources, now closed to it because of its status. Rodrigues: the Albatross Has LandedFor all the razzle dazzle of MR’s first year in office, with all its taxpayer-funded overseas junkets, it’s hard to think of any substantial achievements. If truth be told, Rodrigues is haemorrhaging: The poor are living hand to mouth; youth unemployment is spiralling out of control; the exodus to join job-queues in Mauritius continues unabated; cost of living is at an all-time high; health services are in crisis; infant mortality rate is rising and half-nourished children are dropping out of school at an alarming rate. How much more woe can beset this small community? More to the point, given this dire state of affairs, what kind of warped logic puts renaming this small airport on the radar of urgent priorities? Casino: Rodrigues' Palace of TearsAt the risk of being branded a killjoy, it’s important enough to highlight the difference between private poker games and full-blown casino gambling. The former is played privately, more or less among friends and occasionally at funerals, a Rodriguan tradition which the authorities sometimes – tolerate – and rightly so. The latter is State sanctioned gambling – accepted – as a legitimate business, which draws in and dazzles the mums and dads who had never gambled before, while kids wait impatiently in the wings to be of legal age, all agog to don their Sunday-best, so they too, can try their hand at the roulette table. After all, it’s legal. Hence, with a stroke of a pen, the State blurs the line between what society tolerates and what it accepts. Our Father - Ramgoolam be Thy NameThe Mauritian Prime Minister's 2007 visit to the island of Rodrigues.
Over the years, world leaders, heads of state, governors, a prince and a pope too, have visited our shores and, from time to time, we’ve been honoured to receive the odd poppadom oracle and wandering guru. All the same, rumour has it, that Prime Minister Ramgoolam’s recent return visit to Rodrigues was the daddy of them all – the piece de resistance, so to speak. Word on the jaundiced grapevine puts it somewhere between Macarthur’s return to the Philippines and the Second Coming. Emasculation of the Rodriguan PeopleEven, if we factor in, the fabricated nonsense of manifest destiny, of Eurocentric history, of divine rights and accept imaginary lines drawn by colonialists, on a map, to be real - In the twenty first century, would anyone, who can see beyond the end of their nose, still believe Mozambique to be a district of Portugal? Would anyone not carved out of chocolate, still accept Indochina to be the rightful possession of France? Then, why are the children of Rodrigues still being forced to baa in unison, to recite the mind-numbing absurdity, that Rodrigues is a district of Mauritius?
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