Monday, March 10, 2008

Counselling our PSEUDO-PATRIOTS!

Hi all,
I attended the counselling session today amnd looks like there will not be too many CSE students next year - hopefully quantity won't be much of an issue, consequently we might have quality....lol . I was helped by two CSE students namely Sundeep and Kritee who were really helpful as i believe a school leaver would be more at ease with them than us.

The thing was that these two were so 'cool'ly dressed that students thought our stand was that of Fashion Design and Textile.


'Prenant connaissance du contenu de la brochure.'

I would like to sincerely thank them for their presence. Well done folks! Really appreciated.

It's just a shame that you had a lecture afterwards and had to leave.

Today's most surprising facts are the following: There was a parents who was looking for a course for his daughter...and the daughter was not there...I have heard about voting by proxy-but this one is worse. Its something close to 'YOUR choice of a career path by PROXY' - cotte nou p aller camarade?

Worse still there were those 4-5 girls who had no idea about what they wanted to do as a career and they were in the counselling - i bet that since they are dis-oriented, a career orientation session would be more helpful to them - to give you an idea about how serious it was, they had no clue about 'WHAT FACULTY THEY WANTED TO JOIN'........aint that worrying - well all the taxes you we pay end up 'educating' those kids....Don't you dare tell me you don't pay taxes...whats the VAT you pay on your Phone Cards....

Hey oui... 'Quelle jeunesse!!!' But i am worrying about my old days...coz they are the ones who would be paying my pension...and my free bus fare...lol.

Well tomorrow I have a lab session with some students and I am anticipating a high rate of absenteism... The excuse they will come up with if the megashow and flag raising ceremony...They will try to come up with a cheap excus using a word they don'e even understand the meaning - and this word is patriotism.

I would like to repeat the wonderful words i came across on Avinash's Blog who quoted SRK in one of his interviews:

“Patriotism is when you do your best to succeed in whatever field you are. It has nothing to do with holding the flag of your country and singing glorious songs.”

Well to some of you, you might be singing tomorrrow...but is that really the best thing you can do for your country....think about it. You country needs 'programmers' so be in the labs tomorrow and we might sing glory to thee for 5 mins and then get better in programming for the remaining hour and 55 minutes... the choice is yours.

Are you flag holding singer or a true patriot!

JUST BE HONEST FOR ONCE....TO YOURSELF!

Sur ces belles paroles, je prends congé de votre aimable compagnie...

G@V!N

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

As usual this is a really nourishing blog lol.. hehe i was at the counselling session too!! haha well tellement zeleve ti come sa, tout nous pamphlete ti fini!! pheew thats trop superb! we are the best!! we are the champion, though ceki inn prend la pa conner qui pour fer ar pamphlette la! i hope banla think well and choose a course which they find cool and one said that one should choose a course in which he/she is passionate in!!


This was my first counselling session and am proud of me and also the team i had behind me haha.. Mr Gavin, Mr Razvi, Miss Kritee.
haha dnt forget CSE is like a lagare! from there u can go anywhere you want! hehe :P

Hope to get these kind of opportunity often and soon!!!
And about being patriotic i think it must be in the heart first then on the lips!

Those who gonna sing tomorow plzz sing it with all your heart!
I can say am patriotic because always i think how i can make this country progress and i know by the grace of God i'll do it one day!
Neverthless i saw many youngsters who are unpatriotic! where are the laureates who got the big big labourse??
where are hiding?? when they got the labourse they proudly said, am going to learn hard for my country haha well every year when i watch these people talking i laugh loudly! because they are worst than the politician! although the politician steal our money and stay in mauritius but they are the one who take the money and go abroad and never come back! thats life what to say!! they are i think un peu trop high level to come and help this mauritius!!

well cheers everybody, be proud of mauritius!
40years being free! free!! wow!! the sentence resounds in my heart! we are free! thats so superb!!!

well cya next time for another spicy comment haha!!

!! - SuNdeeP - !!

G@V!N said...

Well since some readers might not understand the 'CSE lagare... thing' I will clarify.
Sundeep came up with this Analogy that CSE is like a station, one you are done with CSE, you can join more or less any field in Computer Science.

As for the laureates, i believe that it is their right to stay abroad...provided they do not cheat/lie or pretend that they will be coming back. But to enforce that I think the bond they sign has to be valued and the conditions therein enforced.

It's a fact that they have better opportunities abroad, however they should be honest enough during their 'bling bling interviews' and state that if there is an oppportnity they will stay abroad.

Some people call that abrain drain, and once a laureate i know actually called that a brain circulation, and said that the Mauritius will benefit from the taxes he pays when he is on holidays in Mauritius...i.e. 3 weeks every year...

So his brain will only be circulating from Europe to Mauritius only once every year...and his brain will be in Mauritius for 3 weeks only...

Well if a laureate thinks like this...where are we heading!!!

Staying abroad after your studies have been financed by the tax-payers may not really be unpatriotic...probably just selfish and dishonest!

Just a big joke!!!

Anonymous said...

I sincerely think that the only way to succeed in life is to be passionate about what you do.

As many young people read this blog (and this includes you Gavin :-) ), I would like (as an older person) to offer this advice: "Life is short. Don't waste time doing something that you don't like. The most important thing in life is to be happy..."

As for the laureates and scholarship holders not coming back to Mauritius, I think that getting a scholarship is NOT a reward. Rather it's when your country is investing for the future. And we should be like real ruthless investors. If there is no return on investment (i.e. the person decides to stay abroad), then there must be some kind of compensation (i.e the bond must be paid). People should stop treating laureates like demi-gods. They are just young people with potential who still have a lot to prove...

To finish, I would like to say that I find it great that some students have helped us during the counseling sessions. Kudos to them.

Anonymous said...

About the laureates:
I agree that the investment for the government on education of these guys (the laureates) is far above that on the rest of the students. So, it follows that as real patriots, everybody should work in their motherland as some of the comments are implying.

But then, I ask myself if most people who are critisising laureates of being unpatriotic, are not infact pointing fingers at themselves.

Personally, I believe that MOST of the people complaining are doing so because they themselves did not have the opportunity that the laureates have got.

Just imagine companies like Microsoft, Google, the NASA ect. propose interviews an eventual jobs to those who are complaining. I strongly doubt that the latter will refuse.

Of course, the genuine patriots will refuse but what about, say the genuine Computer Scientist?

G@V!N said...

Hi Anonymous,
Thank you very much for your comment.

I think you got the essence of the comments wrong.

Point 1
It was never mentioned that everybody should work ‘in their motherland’
In fact, as I quoted,

“Patriotism is when you do your best to succeed in whatever field you are. It has nothing to do with holding the flag of your country and singing glorious songs.”

No where is it mentioned that the patriots should be in their motherland, as u said. In fact if they have the opportunity to work abroad and get better, then it is only logical that they do so. However, if the ‘patriot’ has signed a document whereby one CONDITION of the scholarship is that he should return - it is only honest that he keeps his word.

Point 2.
We are not ‘criticising the laureates’…far from that…it is true that they should have worked hard to achieve such results. However the Scholarships they have obtained stipulates that they should return to Mauritius after their studies and contribute to the development of the country. Unfortunately, most, if not all of them find crafty ways of playing with the system. I fail to understand what you mean by ‘in fact pointing fingers at themselves’.

Point 3.
‘Personally, I believe that MOST of the people complaining are doing so because they themselves did not have the opportunity that the laureates have got’.
Well to that comment, I would say that life is all about choices. ‘MOST of the people complaining’ have in fact studied abroad (either self-financed or even scholarships), got excellent results, topped their classes or even Universities, and received prizes, …… So talking about missed ‘opportunities’…

Point 4.
Well for this issue, (apart from some grammatical mistakes- I'm joking…I understood what you meant). I think I have more or less answered that above.
I will personally take the offer from Google or NASA and go abroad if need be.

You seem to infer that being a Computer Scientist and Patriot are mutually exclusive things…

I think that Mauritius would be very proud to have its people working in those prestigious companies like Goggle and NASA.

I am not saying that we would be less proud if a laureate was working there…. However would we be proud of someone who is working at NASA and has no word…

I will leave that to your interpretation. People think that a Scholarship is a ‘reward’ for hard work- this is terrible wrong. In fact it represents an investment on someone who has demonstrated academic excellence in a field.

Like all investments, we expect a return. And the Return on Investment will happen when the person returns to put his knowledge and skills at the ‘service’ of the people who invested on him, i.e. every single person who has contributed to his Scholarship.

Anonymous said...

Well said Gavin.

I'll repeat this again:

"Getting a scholarship is NOT A REWARD. Rather, it's the state investing and expecting a return on investment"

Those who have not understood this should not get a scholarship.

I'm not saying that the person should obligatorily return to Mauritius. I'm only saying that if he/she decides to stay abroad, he/she has to pay the bond he/she legally adhered to.