Anwar Buchoo (Blog)

So, do you like it on the edge of the table ?

I'm sure many of you must have come across some popular facebook status updates like :

Every person has 1000 wishes.  A cancer patient only has one wish, to get better. I know that 97% of my friends won’t post this as their status, but my (true) friends will be the 3% that do. In honor of someone who died, or is fighting cancer – post this for at least one hour….

To start, I don't think someone has like 1000 wishes, very untrue. On the other hand, a cancer patient does not have only one wish but many. 

Now, I consider this message very aggressive the way it's been written and is, to my humble consideration, far from being effective on people. 

I do not understand at all how can such updates on facebook help cancer patients or the cancer cause. Instead, I find that work on the field, being close to the cancer patients, contributing to organisations fighting the cause, empowering patients/parent by your personal (real) investment, gathering resource, these are concrete actions that should be done. 

I have lost dear ones with cancer within the last decade and I know what that suffering means to a whole family including the patient. It's better not to lecture me on that. But, it's not for that that I would post such aggressive messages on facebook.

There have been other status-update campaigns like :

I like it on the edge of the toilet seat or I like it on the edge of the table or bed .. etc

At some point, it was popular to make others aware of the color of your underwear each day (to fight cancer) on facebook. I mean that's really bullshit. How can crazy messages like these help the cause ?

My message to all people who want to really help the cause (and not just passing time posting status), you can help a patient in your local hospital or donate online to organisations like http://www.cbcf.org/en-US/home.aspx or http://supportus.cancerresearchuk.org/donate/

I'm sure 90% won't do it because it's more easier and cheaper to update a facebook status than to do actions on the field ! (no disrespect meant, whatsoever)

It's never sufficient to talk just for the sake of talking but you should walk your talk too ! Stop with such social hypocrisy.

The McDo "Sega" in Mauritius

After the recent opening of the McDonald outlet at Phoenix, I decided to pay them a visit a couple of days ago. Since last year, there have been quite some manifestations from the ISKCON/Kranti groups to oppose the opening of this beef-selling outlet. The reason is same as that of McDo in India, i.e. religious conviction of our Hindu citizens and this outlet being near a to-be temple.

I was there around 18h and the McDo parking was nearly full. At the entrance, there was a paper with a notice on it saying “We are not able to sell any Beef products temporary until further notice” (ed. ongoing case in court). When I entered, I was amazingly surprised to see all the communities of the society, sitting and eating. There were many Hindus, Christians, and Muslims.

While at the queue, there were two Hindu boys in front of me waiting their turn. Suddenly, one of them started talking, a bit loud, to the other saying

Guy 1 : “this place is not too ok to sit and eat, though ...” He continued “it’s got glass panes all over and people from outside can see us”.
To which the second guy added “yeah true, if my dad comes here and sees me.. gonna be in trouble. we can try sit in the corner (not that visible from outside)”.

But, finally, there they were, all burgers on a plate and walking to a table.

I, furthermore, noticed two police officers, on duty, in front of the McDo building. It’s the first time I saw this in Mauritius, where you got 2 police officers outside a restaurant for security purpose.

On a final note, today I heard that the Kranti group is calling for a boycott of Phoenix Commercial Centre, entirely. This made me smile while thinking that if people are not even boycotting the McDo outlet there, how can you get people to boycott the entire mall ? :-)
We just got to wait for the court's decision next week (previously 29/03) and hope that everyone gets satisfaction out of this. If McDo will be forced not to sell any Beef, fair enough I think, compared to a shut-down order.

For info, I ate my meal over there in a secure, hygienic and relaxing environment. The restaurant was nearly full, inside (raining outside). I guess all the recent “segas” about McDo did a great free publicity for this American QSR.

Ena dimoun mank rol dans sa pei la !

Tout problème ki ena dans sa pei moris la, bizin ena ene zafer rélizion ki rent en jeu !

Fran tou, bane socioculturels sa pei la (tou rélizions, pa ziss ene !) mari mank rol. ena dimoun p mort san manzer/ou ek la drog (tou rélizions enkor ene foi !), mai aucain sa bane socio-sipaki-moloyo la pa pou fer naryen. zot program, invite PM dan fonction, gagne privilez pou zot ek zot ti clik, fer ene ta tapaz, gagne couvertir media ek apres ene poil na pena dan le concret !

Si ene touriss vine moris, li a croir morisien mari relizieu ek sa kantiter mouvement relizieuz ena dan sa zil la. mai pa pou autan ki crime ou delinquence p diminier. ena bane homme relizieu (couma zot apel zot !) fight pou bane zafer nonsense net ena coup, fer rier tou. vraimem bane socio-sipaki-moloyo ti bizin apel plito "communalo-politik" !

(Extrait de lexpress.mu d'aujourd'hui, ci-après)

Un front commun hindou pour protester contre le restaurant McDonald’s à Phoenix

L’ensemble des mouvements socioculturels hindous de l’île se réunit à Phoenix à 11h30 ce mardi 25 janvier. L’objectif s’organiser pour empêcher l’ouverture d’un restaurant McDonald’s à Jumbo Phoenix.

Hare Rama Hare Krishna passe à l’offensive. Elle réunit ce matin l’ensemble des associations hindoues de l’île pour dire publiquement son opposition à l’ouverture d’un restaurant McDonald’s face à son centre, à Phoenix.
Le recours à un front commun hindou était envisagé dès fin décembre. Mais la direction de la branche locale de l’International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon) voulait avant tout discuter avec le promoteur du projet afin qu’une solution soit trouvée.

Il est inconcevable pour les fidèles que le fumet de boeuf parvienne jusqu’à leur temple alors qu’ils sont végétaliens. De plus, les écritures saintes hindoues décrivent la vache comme un animal sacré.

Le mouvement dit s’être adressé à la filiale du groupe Rogers - propriétaire du centre commercial de Phoenix - qui gère le site, ForeSite, le promoteur du restaurant n’ayant pas, ajoutent-ils, répondu à leurs sollicitations pour des discussions..
Une rencontre était à l’agenda vendredi dernier mais ForeSite ne s’y est pas fait représenter. ForeSite dit étudier le dossier avec ses consultants pour avoir une idée sur «les implications» du projet.

«Nous avons suivi toutes les procédures pour avoir le permis de construire le bâtiment qu’on a ensuite loué à McDonald’s. On est même allé au-delà des requirements. Le centre commercial a publié des notices dans les journaux comme le stipule la loi et on avait même installé un panneau sur le site», a expliqué Sanjiv Mihdidin, le directeur de ForeSite à lexpress.mu.

«Je ne vois pas où est le mal. Légalement, il n’y a aucun souci. Un voisin nous a écrit, on est en train de discuter avec nos consultants pour décider quoi répondre», a-t-il ajouté. Le restaurant de 250 couverts devant ouvrir ses portes à la mi-février, Hare Rama Hare Krishna ne veut pas prendre le risque de se retrouver devant le fait accompli.

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Taking a loan for your wedding? Think twice!

Everybody wants to take loans these days, maybe because of their ready availability from financial institutions. Some take a loan for housing, investment, car, studies or wedding and so on. I will be writing mainly about the wedding loan.

Well, there’s this couple who contracted a MRU 200,000 loan for their wedding. They both started to work and wanted to get married soon. They were somewhat short of money to perform the wedding. What to do? They were whispered the idea of taking a loan to accomplish their dream wedding ceremony. The guy and the girl gave it a thought and convinced themselves to go ahead with the plan. In any case, what could be the problem with that?

So, there they go. The money was in their bank account after having contracted a 7-year unsecured personal loan, at a high interest rate. They got married within the following weeks. They paid for: reception, rent of venue, food, beverage, entertainment, rental items, decorations, wedding cake, bride's wedding dress, wedding gifts, cameraman, photographer. Fortunately, they did not spend all the money and had some money left to pay for their honeymoon suite at a five star hotel. After all, they wanted it to be perfect!

More or less everybody was happy (for some guests, the ceremony was not to their standard!). Now, the couple starts living in the real world. In that world, they live at their parent’s place, squatting a small room. They cannot contribute financially to help their parent run the kitchen either (remember they contracted a loan and they’ve got their own expenditure). So, they continue living in such conditions, for at least, the next 7 years.

Photo courtesy of 501cweb

How to bribe a police officer in Mauritius

Acquaintance with a Subutex addict

Subutex is a word highly covered by Mauritian media these days. Just for info, it is sold as a pill and its main purpose is to prevent withdrawal symptoms from occurring in an individual by reducing or removing the desire to take drugs like heroin and methadone.

OK, I am not writing another common blog post about Subutex (you can easily google for them). 

It’s been almost a year now since I was searching for someone to do some work at my place. One day, I happen to meet that guy who is willing to do the work at a competitive price. I already knew a bit about the guy’s background and I agreed to give him the work. 

Day 1, he came to work at 11h and after working for 30 minutes, he asked me an advance pay of Rs300. I must admit that I was a bit surprised since he did not even work half day. I gave him the money and he went on a lunch break (after working for 30 minutes!). I did not ask him what he’s gonna do with it. 

Day 2, he came a bit earlier, at 8h. He looked really tired and could not talk much. He asked me an advance pay for the day and if I could drop him to some place. I said, wait, he did not even start working this time. I asked him what he is going to do with it. He did not reply. He told me that it would be quicker to go by car than walk.

We headed to a ghetto where he asked me to leave him on the road and to pick him back there, in 15 min. When he came back, that was a totally different person. Very strong, normal behaviour, no more tired! He worked till 20h that day. 

I asked him what he took. He did not hesitate this time, he told me Subutex. He paid a visit to the dealer in the ghetto and bought 2 “bits” of Subutex. I did not know that Subutex pills were sold in bits. A pill is segmented into 8 exact bits. Each bit is sold at Rs150 (a pill Rs1200). He had to take 2 bits per day (sublingual) to feel “alright”. 

I asked him why not go for the methadone governmental project to get rid of the addiction. He told me that he used to take heroin. When he went with Subutex, this removed the desire (“yen” in creole) to take heroin. But, now, he is stucked with Subutex. If he goes for methadone and if that did had an effect to remove desire for Subutex (if any…), he asked me, then what substance will remove the desire/yen of methadone? 

He told me that he started taking drugs with friends while he was working at a hotel and now he needs to work to satisfy those desires. He can’t even contribute much to the household. He’s, also, married. 

There are many prejudices about these people in the society. We must all realise that if we don’t give them work, they will surely end up by stealing or killing someone for money. We should not blame others and discharge our responsibility just by saying that we are not concerned by this. We can never say that our children will not be drug addicts one day! 

Disguised caste system among Mauritian Muslims

I wanted to post for so long on this sensitive topic and here I am, finally. So what really is casteism? In general terms, it describes the hierarchical arrangement of individuals into divisions of power and wealth within a society. This exists among many religions.

Although it appears that in Mauritius there are lesser manifestations from such Muslim groups, they still do exist. Here I’m referencing to groups that call themselves “Sunni-Surtee”, “Mehman” and so on. Ok, to understand the origin of these groups, we should go back in time (a little bit).

At the beginning, there was a group of traders who came to Mauritius, from north-west of India. This Muslim group is divided in two: the Surtees (from Surat) and the Mehmans (from Kutch). Both of them are from the state Gujarat. Although being a minority, they were influential and economically powerful communities to be settled in Port-Louis. Unlike other Muslims, they did not come here under contract. They were “free”.

Up to now, everything seems more or less normal.

Moreover, they considered themselves high-class and were highly endogamous (up to the point of marrying only with spouse from their town in India). They did not marry with Muslims of indentured labor background (the “Calcutteea”).

So, why (in our modern Mauritian society) do these Muslims (some, not generalising here, of course) continue to adhere and use such names to designate themselves? Can’t they be plain and simple Muslims like others? Can’t they marry other Muslims outside their groups (though I must admit this is happening slowly nowadays)?

They have been here for a long time now (more than 5 generations I must say), but why do the young “members” are still so excited to call themselves “Sunni-Surtee” or “Mehman”? Come on seriously, you still consider yourselves to be high-class? You must face it (one day I hope so) that you are Mauritian Muslims, who, as a matter of fact, don’t speak Gujarati but Creole!

I’m not against any of these groups (and I’ve got many relatives in these groups). Simply, you just need to realise that your ancestors left their respective towns because they understood that they would earn much money in Mauritius, then. Otherwise, if they were really satisfied with their towns/cultures/socio-economic conditions, they would never have left for Mauritius.

So, please bear in mind that Mauritius is the country you need to be proud of. Instead of being within your closed sectarian circuit, break through it and mix up with others! All together as one we will fight sectarianism/casteism (disguised or not)! And God knows best.

Planning to have kids soon?

If you are a newly-wed couple (1 year or so), you've probably been shot with the question "so, when are you planning to have kids?" many times. I don't quite understand why are they so willing to know when you'll be having child/ren!
I, personally, don't care about these people and my answer is generally the type: "you'll be the first one I'll inform about it. I swear, even before my wife knows!"
Then why am I posting this? Because there are some people who are so depressed by the idea of not having kids that they even decide to commit suicide! (and trust me on that).
Why do they become so depressed/frustrated? It's because of these people who are curious about others' lives. Not only that, but they also pressurize the couple with their freaky thoughts!

So please, stop interfering into others' lives and if you happen to be the "victim", stop listening to these craps. Most of these people don't even have a family or have already been divorced. La vie est beaucoup plus simple que l'on croit!

(that was my first mobile post, hope it renders well)