On Oct 5, following a request from the newly elected Movement Rodriguais (MR) to Cabinet, Rodrigues' Plaine Corail Airport was renamed Sir Gaetan Duval Airport.
Plaine Corail Airport was originally named after the locality (coral plain) on which it sits. In keeping with the island's green-themed tourism, the name was both fitting and discreet. Moreover, it was a neutral name acceptable to all. It worked well.
As an airport is the front door to a country, it makes sense to highlight that country's cultural heritage, and on rare occasions, its greatest local achievers. Here, the emphasis is on rare and local. So, unless people of the ilk of Mandela, Chavez, Ho Chi Minh or Ghandi happen to be one of the locals, it's wise to err on the side of caution. Names of geographical locations and the apolitical are generally safe bets. As one person's hero may be another's tyrant, political memorials are never the best options. Most don't last.
In our case, Rodrigues Airport would have sufficed. Or, as 95% of the island's population are of African origin, an African name would have been appropriate. Say, Omani Airport. Omani is Swahili for peace. Or better still, left it, as it was. As the saying sagely suggests: If it ain't broke don't fix it.
For all the razzle dazzle of MR's first year in office, with all its taxpayer-funded overseas junkets, it's hard to think of any substantial achievements. If truth be told, Rodrigues is haemorrhaging: The poor are living hand to mouth; youth unemployment is spiralling out of control; the exodus to join job-queues in Mauritius continues unabated; cost of living is at an all-time high; health services are in crisis; infant mortality rate is rising and half-nourished children are dropping out of school at an alarming rate. How much more woe can beset this small community? More to the point, given this dire state of affairs, what kind of warped logic puts renaming this small airport on the radar of urgent priorities?
What were the tangible benefits of renaming? Will it feed anyone, get us more doctors, make students smarter, and create jobs? No! Of course not, it was never about that; it was always about political payback, about the smug self-satisfaction of rubbing the opposition's nose in it. It was about honouring one political party over another.
Here, a Rodriguan movement, supposedly elected to serve Rodrigues, has made of it a private billboard. To grease its own political affiliations, MR has ripped the scab off an old wound and, in one fell swoop, inextricably linked the prospects of unsuspecting Rodriguans, to political outcomes in Mauritius.
It is argued that since Sir Gaetan and his Mauritian Social Democrat Party (PMSD) had a hand in enfranchising Rodrigues, and creating its ministry, a debt is owed to them. Really? Rodrigues' enfranchisement, if we can call it that, had much much more to do with broadening PMSD's political influence, than it did with empowering Rodriguans. It was a means to an end. That is, number crunching at the expense of gullible Rodriguans.
In 1976, those numbers made PMSD the pre-eminent kingmaker. Major parties came courting, hence, a deal was brokered to create and hand a ministry to PMSD. It was dubbed ministry for Rodrigues.' Though PMSD appointed its Rodriguan candidate as minister, it was in name only. For Rodriguans, the portfolio was as useful as astrology. And, it soon became Sir Gaetan's quasi-passport to strut around Europe, with an awestruck minister' in tow. Let's not crucify history here. If there is a debt, it is owed to Rodrigues with interest.
And another thing, when Sir Gaetan and PMSD came to Rodrigues to shore up their hold on the balance of power they came with thugs (tapeurs), brought demagoguery and blue coloured wine to hoodwink the electorate, and gave scaremongering a whole new meaning. What's more, they were there to secure the prerogatives of their sponsors:
T-Rex oligarchs fossilized in class privilege. That is the long and short of it.
When the plan fell apart in Mauritius, Sir Gaetan quickly converted to Labour and set out to deport Rodriguan union picketers who hadn't yet seen the light. Fortunately, when the blinkers began to come off, Rodriguans saw that the emperor had no clothes, and no gravitas. Thus, PMSD was routed in subsequent elections and sent packing, never to return, until now. Like a bad joke barbed with outrage revisited.
To capriciously emblazon a divisive political figure's name, attached to a feudalistic foreign title on our front door, denotes a level of wedge politics, the likes of which we have never seen before. It's the superimposition of a cultural identity over another with a borrowed brand. And, to add insult to injury, it implies quite explicitly, that from all the generations of Rodriguans who have ever lived and died, and from all those living today not a single Rodriguan in all of our history, could be found, worthy enough, to fit the bill.
This whitewashed aberration, reeking of arrogance, is as relevant to Rodrigues as PMSD is to socialism. It is the erasing of our history to make Rodrigues into something others want it to be. What next? 60-foot sculptures of Dulull and Guimbeau's heads carved into the side of Montaigne Croupier!
All things considered, nobody in their right mind can deny Sir Gaetan's flamboyant charisma, big-heartedness, sharp intellect, and remarkable political skills. He was a veritable virtuoso of forked-tongued politics; I guess it took a wolf to run with wolves. Indeed, his rabble-rousing rallies at Port Mathurin's football ground were part of my youth and, to this blue-flag-waving barefooted boy, they were as exciting as they were inspiring then. But looking back, I saw no one there worthy of iconic status.
At the end of the day, this controversial tribute, with all its political connotations will be revered and reviled. Moreover, it will spark debates of a conflict-ridden epoch which would have been better left to fizzle out, in the interest of unity. It's a modern day version of hanging an albatross around the neck. Will it last? We'll see.
Alain Leveque
Plaine Corail Airport was originally named after the locality (coral plain) on which it sits. In keeping with the island's green-themed tourism, the name was both fitting and discreet. Moreover, it was a neutral name acceptable to all. It worked well.
As an airport is the front door to a country, it makes sense to highlight that country's cultural heritage, and on rare occasions, its greatest local achievers. Here, the emphasis is on rare and local. So, unless people of the ilk of Mandela, Chavez, Ho Chi Minh or Ghandi happen to be one of the locals, it's wise to err on the side of caution. Names of geographical locations and the apolitical are generally safe bets. As one person's hero may be another's tyrant, political memorials are never the best options. Most don't last.
In our case, Rodrigues Airport would have sufficed. Or, as 95% of the island's population are of African origin, an African name would have been appropriate. Say, Omani Airport. Omani is Swahili for peace. Or better still, left it, as it was. As the saying sagely suggests: If it ain't broke don't fix it.
For all the razzle dazzle of MR's first year in office, with all its taxpayer-funded overseas junkets, it's hard to think of any substantial achievements. If truth be told, Rodrigues is haemorrhaging: The poor are living hand to mouth; youth unemployment is spiralling out of control; the exodus to join job-queues in Mauritius continues unabated; cost of living is at an all-time high; health services are in crisis; infant mortality rate is rising and half-nourished children are dropping out of school at an alarming rate. How much more woe can beset this small community? More to the point, given this dire state of affairs, what kind of warped logic puts renaming this small airport on the radar of urgent priorities?
What were the tangible benefits of renaming? Will it feed anyone, get us more doctors, make students smarter, and create jobs? No! Of course not, it was never about that; it was always about political payback, about the smug self-satisfaction of rubbing the opposition's nose in it. It was about honouring one political party over another.
Here, a Rodriguan movement, supposedly elected to serve Rodrigues, has made of it a private billboard. To grease its own political affiliations, MR has ripped the scab off an old wound and, in one fell swoop, inextricably linked the prospects of unsuspecting Rodriguans, to political outcomes in Mauritius.
It is argued that since Sir Gaetan and his Mauritian Social Democrat Party (PMSD) had a hand in enfranchising Rodrigues, and creating its ministry, a debt is owed to them. Really? Rodrigues' enfranchisement, if we can call it that, had much much more to do with broadening PMSD's political influence, than it did with empowering Rodriguans. It was a means to an end. That is, number crunching at the expense of gullible Rodriguans.
In 1976, those numbers made PMSD the pre-eminent kingmaker. Major parties came courting, hence, a deal was brokered to create and hand a ministry to PMSD. It was dubbed ministry for Rodrigues.' Though PMSD appointed its Rodriguan candidate as minister, it was in name only. For Rodriguans, the portfolio was as useful as astrology. And, it soon became Sir Gaetan's quasi-passport to strut around Europe, with an awestruck minister' in tow. Let's not crucify history here. If there is a debt, it is owed to Rodrigues with interest.
And another thing, when Sir Gaetan and PMSD came to Rodrigues to shore up their hold on the balance of power they came with thugs (tapeurs), brought demagoguery and blue coloured wine to hoodwink the electorate, and gave scaremongering a whole new meaning. What's more, they were there to secure the prerogatives of their sponsors:
T-Rex oligarchs fossilized in class privilege. That is the long and short of it.
When the plan fell apart in Mauritius, Sir Gaetan quickly converted to Labour and set out to deport Rodriguan union picketers who hadn't yet seen the light. Fortunately, when the blinkers began to come off, Rodriguans saw that the emperor had no clothes, and no gravitas. Thus, PMSD was routed in subsequent elections and sent packing, never to return, until now. Like a bad joke barbed with outrage revisited.
To capriciously emblazon a divisive political figure's name, attached to a feudalistic foreign title on our front door, denotes a level of wedge politics, the likes of which we have never seen before. It's the superimposition of a cultural identity over another with a borrowed brand. And, to add insult to injury, it implies quite explicitly, that from all the generations of Rodriguans who have ever lived and died, and from all those living today not a single Rodriguan in all of our history, could be found, worthy enough, to fit the bill.
This whitewashed aberration, reeking of arrogance, is as relevant to Rodrigues as PMSD is to socialism. It is the erasing of our history to make Rodrigues into something others want it to be. What next? 60-foot sculptures of Dulull and Guimbeau's heads carved into the side of Montaigne Croupier!
All things considered, nobody in their right mind can deny Sir Gaetan's flamboyant charisma, big-heartedness, sharp intellect, and remarkable political skills. He was a veritable virtuoso of forked-tongued politics; I guess it took a wolf to run with wolves. Indeed, his rabble-rousing rallies at Port Mathurin's football ground were part of my youth and, to this blue-flag-waving barefooted boy, they were as exciting as they were inspiring then. But looking back, I saw no one there worthy of iconic status.
At the end of the day, this controversial tribute, with all its political connotations will be revered and reviled. Moreover, it will spark debates of a conflict-ridden epoch which would have been better left to fizzle out, in the interest of unity. It's a modern day version of hanging an albatross around the neck. Will it last? We'll see.
Alain Leveque
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