I thank Michel Devaux and Paul Blay, both of the World Bank, and both here tonight, for the great support they gave in the dark days when Mauritius was a patient in intensive care, undergoing structural adjustment in the early 1980’s, and for their friendship ever since. I thank Bishnu Persaud for his support in equally-critical work on small island-states.
I thank Percy Mistry for being a goading critic and a constant source of encouragement. I thank Mihaela Smith, and through her, the entire network of the Commonwealth Partnership for Technology Management, for always pushing me in new directions at that critical interface where academia and technology intersect the world of politics.