This island society is made up of many things and multiple behavioural patterns but recent observations can disturb anybody’s peace of mind.
A husband who tells family members that his wife is practically in a vegetative state to justify putting her away in a home. A family member phones the sick wife and is able to have a conversation with her – lies!
A woman goes to Europe for work and sends money back home for savings only to find that her own sister has used it to buy land for herself – deceit!
Another woman works hard to save money into her bank account and is surprised when the bank informs her that her husband has transferred all the money to his personal account – treachery!
The truth is that these are life situations in a sick society. Jealousy in families is ripe and is the cause of so much dishonour between family members. So much so that the family unit is being torn apart. Relations are discredited due to lack of morals.The loss of values and the materialistic attitude has torn down the curtain of decency. No holds barred situations where hate turns humanity into a terrifying ugly demon.
Today, truth still prevails but has a difficult job to win the battle.
Since moving here,I’ve been shocked at the level of treachery and dishonesty in Mauritius – it’s bad enough to cheat strangers, but to do it to your own family! We have heard so many stories about stolen money and property (as in real estate). Our ex-next door neighbour bought an old house and sent money from France so that her daughter and son-in-law could renovate it. When she came on holiday, she found that they’d used the money to renovate their house, buy a 4-wheel drive and refurnish their house. She said “She’s my only child – she would have inherited the house anyway”. And it broke her heart. A lot of Mauritians think in the moment – they have no consequential thinking.
And I bet the answer some would give to that is “people need to be more religious” – as if religious people cannot be as crooked as anybody else. And, well, we all know how religion and politics can happily mix together in Mauritius, no doubt for the benefit of each and everyone. In fact those who were supposed to act as examples have very often failed, and this is one of the reasons behind the moral decay we are facing today.
There is a good article on morality in Mauritius in the youth newspaper “Insight” by Krishna Athal. View on URL : http://insightnewspaper.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/philosophy-concern-the-decline-of-morality-in-our-society/
It is now a different era where greed and decadence are very prevalent in soceity. People used to respect each other and we often hear our elders say that they never used to lock their doors and that they used to help each other! Modern soceity has made a lot of us very selfish and has fostered the feeling of self preservation!. Nowadays, people are out for what they can get!, sometimes at the expense of others!, morality is an alien word in this world of greed! There are however still decent folk around in our soceity and hopefully, they will be able to influence others to revert to the way of life which will improve our nation and our attitude to each other!.