History Mauritius Times
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
65th Year -- No. 3573 Tuesday, May 5, 2020 www.mauritiustimes.com facebook.com/mauritius.times 16 Pages - ePaper MAURITIUS TIMES "There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed." -- Ray Goforth Interview: Vinaye Ancharaz, Economist "The Post-Lockdown Recovery Will Be Slow and Painful" 'In 2009, Mauritius was spared only because of its low degree of financial integration in the global economy. But this time around, the economic crisis is different' F See page 8-9 After Air Mauritius The Covid-19 pandemic is of our making Prof Frank Snowden advises that 'we have to reconfigure our cities, reconfigure our relationship with the environment, reconfigure our health care systems', though he adds, 'None of that will happen soon'. By Dr R Neerunjun Gopee F See page 3 A Touch of Authenticity About burden-sharing, SBM - Another case of frontliners and babus bad governance? If a banking group that doubles its payroll cost by Rs 1 billion in two years cannot leverage its bloated personnel to perform all the due diligence required in its operations, then it has a major problem on its hands By Aditya Narayan F See page 4 By Nita Chicooree-Mercier F See page 16 By S. Callikan F See page 5 Mauritius Times Tuesday, May 5, 2020 www.mauritiustimes.com Edit Page facebook.com/mauritius.times 2 Another Failure: Can it Face masks: what the Spanish flu can teach us about making them compulsory be an opportunity? Over 30 countries today are making people wear masks in public, s if it were not enough to stay done. despite serious doubts from scientists locked up under the threat of It is practically self-evident that having hould people be forced to wear face ACovid-19 and having to reconcile or not having efficiently functioning institu- masks in public? That’s the question fac- with the prospect of seeing the erstwhile tions can make the difference between a Sing governments as more countries jewel in the country's crown - Air Mauritius country which achieves and one which unwind their lockdowns. Over 30 countries - almost going under, we have now been does not. We need go no further than the have made masks compulsory in public, served with yet another depressing piece favourite and oft-quoted, by our leaders including Germany, Austria and Poland. This is of news: the current predicament of the themselves, of the example of Singapore, despite the science saying masks do little to State Bank Group following the publica- which has derived a lot more strength and protect wearers, and only might prevent them tion of its financial statements for the year thus acquired a much more trustworthy from infecting other people. ended 31 December 2019. The Bank has image on the international stage because Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, seen its profit going down year after year of the efficient operation of its institutions. has nonetheless announced new guidelines (from Rs 2.6 billion in 2017 to Rs 1.2 bil- Alas, we can't even begin to compare our advising Scots to wear masks for shopping or Red Cross nurses in San Francisco, 1918. Wikimedia lion in 2018, to Rs 15 million in 2019) for own country with it. Regardless of whe- on public transport, while the UK government is crowds wearing masks in the months after different reasons, but mostly due to non- ther their institutions belong to the public expected to announce a new stance shortly. Nicolle’s discovery. But many had begun to dis- performing loans running into hundreds of or private domain, Singapore and a few Meanwhile, US vice president Mike Pence has trust masks, and saw them as a violation of civil millions of rupees granted in past years to others have consistently and successfully controversially refused to mask up. liberties. dubious businessmen, based locally and aimed to pitch themselves to the highest This all has echoes of the great influenza Disobedience aplenty abroad. and very best levels of performance, not pandemic, aka the Spanish flu, which killed All this has been happening under dif- forgetting the ethical dimension. The out- some 50 million people in 1918-20. It’s a great San Francisco saw the creation of the anti- ferent governments with their appointees come is a Singapore that can justly vaunt case study in how people will put up with very mask league, as well as protests and civil dis- on the board of the Bank in different the image of a reliable place wherein to tough restrictions, so long as they think they obedience. People refused to wear masks in capacities, with its payroll increasing by do business, which in turn has con- have merit. public or flaunted wearing them improperly. Rs 1 billion from 2018 to 2019. There's no tributed to lift the country to the level of The great shutdown Some went to prison for not wearing them or citizen who wouldn't recoil in shame at the the top rankers of the world. Can we say refusing to pay fines. Bank's profit of Rs 15 million compared to of Mauritius that it has been benefiting In the US, no disease in history led to such England was different. Masks were only what allegedly has been pocketed by the from this kind of drive and efficiency from intrusive restrictions as the great influenza. advised as a precautionary measure in large These included closures of schools, churches, board members: Rs 32 million. The poor all its institutions? cities, and then only for certain groups, such as soda fountains, theatres, movie houses, performance of yet another profitable The downfall of what were considered influenza nurses in Manchester and Liverpool. department stores and barber shops, and State enterprise might send another sig- these two jewels in the crown gives a Serious questions about efficacy only arose in regulations on how much space should be allo- March 1919, and only within the scientific com- nal that public enterprises eventually are damning answer. cated to people in indoor public places. bound to fail - when this need not be so - munity. Most British scientists now united And yet they did have their years of There were fines against coughing, snee- against them, with the Lancet calling masks a thereby defeating the purpose for which glory, when they were headed by profes- they had been set up. zing, spitting, kissing and even talking outdoors “dubious remedy”. sionals motivated with a sense of na- – those the Boston Globe called “big talkers”. It must be reckoned that the absence tional purpose, supported by political These arguments were steadily being Special influenza police were hired to round up bolstered by statistics from the US. The head of state enterprises in certain strategic leadership that would not meddle in their children playing on street corners and occa- of California’s state board of health had pre- areas of activity has led to the emergence running. sionally even in their own backyards. sented late 1918 findings from San Francisco’s of private monopolies on the hooks of Unfortunately, that era was followed Shifting science best run hospital showing that 78% of nurses ultra-liberalism to the detriment of the by one where gradually political inter- became infected despite their careful wearing ‘public interest’. The state enterprise, it ference became the norm, and despite There was scientific debate from the begin- of masks. was thought at the time of their inception, ning about whether the masks were effective, regime change down the years and pro- Physicians and health authorities also pre- was to serve the ‘public interest’ by but the game began to change after French mises to the contrary it appears that the sented statistics comparing San Francisco’s breaking the hold of monopolies on the rot was too deep for the trend to be bacteriologist Charles Nicolle discovered in October 1918 that the influenza was much mortality rates with nearby San Mateo, Los local economy whilst also running on halted. It now falls to the present dispen- smaller than any other known bacterium. Angeles and Chicago, none of which had made commercially sound lines. It is deplorable sation to take a call that confronts it masks compulsory. Their mortality rates were that most of these institutions have been squarely: what is the legacy, let alone The news spread rapidly, even in small- either “no worse” or less. By the end of the pan- unable to live up to their mission - either image, that it wants to leave? If that is town American newspapers. Cartoons were demic in 1919, most scientists and health com- due to political interference in their run- clear in its long term view, the next query published that read, “like using barbed wire missions had come to a consensus not unlike ning, or because latterly their top brass is whether it can rise to the challenge of fences to shut out flies”. Yet this was just at the ours about the benefits of wearing masks. have been wanting in the moral and men- point that mortality rates were ramping up in turning these institutions around and Clearly, many of these details are relevant tal fibre that occupants in such positions restore the trust that they have once been the western states of the US and Canada. Despite Nicolle’s discovery, various authorities today. It’s telling that a frivolous requirement are expected to possess. As a result, associated with, so that the gain made by became such an issue while more severe rules there has been a clear failure on their part the so far successful management of the began making masks compulsory.