One of the first World Bank missions to visit the country, led by Jean Baneth, opined “… this country exudes an air of hopelessness.” Another Nobel prize-winner, V.S Naipaul, titled an analytical piece on Mauritius “The Overcrowded Barracoon.” And a French writer followed suit with a book entitled “Maurice – Quelle Independence?”  BIS Review 31/2008  1  It will take me too long to take you down the road we have travelled over the last four decades.
I have been part of the journey, occasionally as an observer, but mostly as a doer, a mover or “agent provocateur.” Suffice it to say that the prophets of doom and gloom have been proved utterly wrong, that the Malthusian nightmare has been exorcised, that Mauritius is now the poster boy of the IMF and the World Bank when it comes to successful economic development in Africa.