My existence in the virtual world

If there was only one single recommendation I would give to any new entrepreneur starting his carreer:  “life-long learning”.

We often talk of the need for “continuous education” in the context of total quality and of personal improvement, but we rarely speak of it as a governing principle of life.
I would argue that separate and apart from our jobs, we all have a moral obligation to learn and progress. And life-long learning is not so much about big campaigns and programs, academic degrees and credentials, as it is about short daily study sessions and small doses of relevant on-the-job training. Daily or periodic reflexions on lessons learned which will find application in the future.

I quote some lines below from Stephen Covey on the subject which is enlightening:
“The principle of balance is key to continuous learning. I recommend a balance between personal and organizational development; between current job-related needs and future requirements; between industry-related learning and general education. Make sure that your approach is systematic and based on feedback to you personally and professionally. Your learning should balance theory with practice, arts with the sciences.
Also make sure that your learning and development are motivated by a desire to be of greater service. Such “virtuous intent,” as Adam Smith called it in his book The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), is central to moral entrepreneurism. Far too many organizations exploit a person’s knowledge and training; likewise, many individuals exploit the training and education opportunities offered by their organizations. Such “hit and run” activity is expensive for both parties. So there is a mutual responsibility. Organizations make a tremendous investment in the learning and development of human resources. I believe that individuals who take advantage of corporate training programs ought to stay with the company long enough to supply returns on the investment.
Adam Smith talks about the “virtuous energies” that must be exercised by individuals and organizations. Both must feel a mutual responsibility for each other. If the free enterprise system is to function properly, said Smith, “all economic relations must be based upon internal individual virtue” and “a mutual caring one for another.”

My guess is that about 20 percent of the present work force is obsolete. And in another 10 years, another 20 percent could be obsolete if we don’t overcome the cultural norm that education ends when our schooling ends. We need a deep commitment to both personal and professional development on a continuous basis.
The individual must take personal responsibility for professional development, and not put it onto the organization. The proactive person will see the organization as a resource, also as a source of a feedback regarding what learning is most relevant. But the individual must make it happen.
As proactive individuals take more responsibility for their own learning and professional development, they begin to see the organization as a supplementary resource. They do not transfer primary responsibility to the organization. They do not expect their organizations to freely provide all the learning and training needed for them to excel in their jobs; however, they take full advantage of relevant training when it is offered, and they pay back their organizations by making significant value-added contributions.
A business can only do so much; the rest is up to the individual. As individuals, we ought to take into account the needs of the organization in our personal and professional development program; otherwise we may be developing for the wrong reason or the wrong time. Our personal development should be relevant to the economy, to the industry, to the company, and to our current assignment.
But we also need to develop in a general sense to avoid becoming obsolete if our company or function becomes obsolete. If our development is too job related, we are more vulnerable to market forces. While we need to be competent specialists in our current jobs, we also need to start and maintain a personal “general education” program.
I believe that is best done in one- to two-hour sessions every day of our working life. We also need about one day a month in training that is systematic and conceptually aligned not only with our present job, but also with our future contribution. I schedule myself for training about one day a month, and I also set aside one to two hours every day for general education.”

 One of the ways to keep me abreast of new developments was to join an executive club which purpose is to provide the executives a monthly seminar on topics of interest to them. Even now well after my retirement I keep on learning by attending the monthly seminars organised by Association Progres du Management.

« Ils ont donné de leur superflu, mais elle, de son indigence »

Il faut donner ce qui vous coûte quelque chose. Il ne suffit pas de
donner seulement ce dont vous pouvez vous passer mais aussi ce dont vous ne pouvez ni ne voulez vous passer, des choses auxquelles vous êtes attaché. Votre don devient alors un sacrifice qui aura du prix aux yeux de Dieu… C’est ce que j’appelle l’amour en action. Tous les jours, je vois grandir cet amour, chez des enfants, des hommes et des femmes. Un jour je descendais la rue ; un mendiant vint vers moi et me dit: « Mère Teresa, tout le monde te fait des cadeaux ; moi aussi, je veux te donner quelque chose. Aujourd’hui, je n’ai reçu que vingt-neuf centimes pour toute la journée et je veux te les donner. » Je réfléchis un moment ; si je prends ces vingt-neuf centimes (qui ne valent pratiquement rien), il risque de n’avoir rien à manger ce soir, et si je ne les prends pas, je lui ferai de la peine. Alors j’ai tendu les mains et j’ai pris l’argent. Jamais sur aucun visage, je n’ai vu autant de joie que sur celui de cet homme, tellement heureux d’avoir pu faire un don à Mère Teresa ! C’était un énorme sacrifice pour lui, qui avait mendié toute la journée au soleil cette somme dérisoire dont on ne pouvait rien faire. Mais c’était merveilleux aussi, car ces piécettes auxquelles il renonçait devenaient une fortune, puisqu’elles étaient données avec tant d’amour.

Ces quelques mots, m’ont fait questionner ma generosité apparante! Partager jus qu’a en souffrir : n’est ce pas cela l’amour en action ?

D’écrire un blog quotidien me coûte !

Just like Maximillen Brabec with whom I spent an insipiring day a fortnight ago, Peter Drucker, always seek a reply to the prime question: What is our Business?
I was pleased to read through again the legacy article written by Business Guru Drucker only a year before he left us in November 2005.

Answering the question, What is our business? is the first responsibility of leaders. That business purpose and mission are so rarely given adequate thought is the single most important cause of business frustration and failure. In outstanding businesses, success rests largely on raising the question, What is our business? clearly and deliberately, and on answering it thoughtfully and thoroughly.

With respect to the definition of business purpose and mission, there is only one focus and starting point—the customer. The customer defines the business. A business is not defined by the company´s name, statutes, or articles of incorporation. It is defined by whether customers are satisfied when they buy a product or service. To satisfy customers is the mission and purpose of every business. The question, What is our business? can be answered only by looking at the business from the outside, from the point of view of customer and market. Customers are only interested in their own values, wants, and reality. So, any serious attempt to state “what our business is” must start with the customers´ realities, situation, behavior, expectations, and values.

Who is the consumer? is the first and most critical question to be asked in defining business purpose and mission. It is not an easy or obvious question. How it is answered determines, in large measure, how the business defines itself. The consumer—the ultimate user of a product or a service—is always a customer. Each customer defines a different business, has different expectations and values, and buys something different.

It is also important to ask, Where is the customer? and What does the customer buy? If they ask the question at all, most managers only ask What is our business? when the company is in trouble. Of course, then it must be asked. And then asking the question may, indeed, have spectacular results and may even reverse what seams to be irreversible decline. But the question should be asked at the inception of a business—particularly for a business that has ambitions to grow. The most important time to ask seriously, ‘What is our business?’ is when a company has been successful. Success always makes obsolete the very behavior that achieved it. It always creates its own and different problems.

It is not easy for managers of a successful company to ask, What is our business? because everybody thinks that the answer is obvious. It is never popular to argue with success. But sooner or later, even the most successful answer to the question, What is our business? becomes obsolete. Few definitions of the purpose and mission of a business have a life expectancy of more than 10 years.

In asking, What is our business? managers also need to add, And what will it be? What changes are likely to have high impact on the characteristics, mission, and purpose of our business? And how do we now build these anticipations into our concept of the business—into its objectives, strategies, and work assignments?

Again the starting point is the market, its potential and trends. How large a market can we project for our business in 10 years—assuming no basic changes in customers, market structures, or technology? And, what factors could validate or disprove those projections?

The most important trend is one to which few businesses pay much attention: changes in population structure and dynamics. Populations used to change very slowly, except as a result of catastrophic events. Today, however, populations change drastically, affecting buying power and habits, and the size and structure of the workforce. Population shifts are the only events regarding the future for which true prediction is possible.

Management needs to anticipate changes in market structure resulting from changes in the economy, from changes in fashion or taste, and from moves by competition. And competition must always be defined according to the customer´s concept of what product or service he buys, and thus must include indirect as well as direct competition.

Management has to ask which of the consumer´s wants are not adequately satisfied by the products or services offered him today. The ability to ask this question and to answer it correctly usually makes the difference between a growth company and one that depends on the rising tide of the economy for its development. Whoever is content to rise with the tide will also fall with it.

Asking What will our business be? aims at adaptation to anticipated changes. It aims at modifying, extending, and developing the existing business. But there is need also to ask, What should our business be? What opportunities are opening up? What might we create to fulfill the purpose and mission of the business by making it into a different business? Businesses that fail to ask this question are likely to miss opportunity.

Just as important as the decision on what new and different things to do is planned, systematic abandonment of the old that no longer fits the purpose and mission of the business, no longer conveys satisfaction to customers, no longer makes a superior contribution.

A key to deciding what our business is, what is will be, and what it should be is systematic analysis of all existing products, services, processes, markets, uses, and distribution channels. Are they viable? Will they remain viable? Do they still give value to the customer? Do they still fit the realities of population and markets, of technology and economy? If not, how can we best abandon them—or at least stop pouring in further resources and efforts? Unless managers address these questions seriously and act on the answers to them, the best definition of “what our business is, will be, and should be,” will remain a pious platitude. Energy will be used up in defending yesterday. No one will have the time, resources, or will to work on exploiting today or making tomorrow.

Defining the purpose and mission of the business is difficult, painful, and risky. But it alone enables a business to set objectives, develop strategies, concentrate its resources, and to be managed for performance.

The first lesson of my NLP seminar with John Seymour was entitled Building Rapport. In any human interactions, building and maintaining Rapport is the first action. To be able to exchange or converse with an interlocutor in the best way, one has to develop excellent communication skills. Is it more important to be a good sender of information or receiver? It is just as critical to listen as to speak. Is there an art to being a good listener? Yes. Does it come naturally? I think not. In fact, research indicates that we hear half of what is said, listen to half of what we hear, understand half of it, believe half of that, and remember only half of that.

Patti Hathaway in her book “the change Agent” quotes an old Chinese proverb: “From listening comes wisdom and from speaking repentance.” Her writings inspired me in this blog.

How important are the nonverbal aspects compared to the actual words we use when communicating? Your words are about 7 percent of your communication, tone of voice 38 percent, and body language about 55 percent, and yet, most communication training centers on the use of words.

Often we fake attention because our thought-to-speech ratio. We can think five times faster that the other person talking. Now you can do something productive with that extra lag time in your thought-to-speech ratio.

Tom Peters notes: “Good listeners get out from behind their desk to where the customers are.” Do you give your full attention to the people who talk to you? If not, learn a powerful, technique that will improve your listening and help you gain rapport with anyone you meet. This technique comes from the science of neuro linguistics programming, developed by John Grinder and Richard Bandler. By incorporating NLP into the way we work with people, we can “read” people more sensitively, establish a positive relationship more quickly, and respond to them more effectively.

NLP offers a myriad of techniques to improve our ablities to become a better communicator. Mirroring is one example. We tend to like people who are like us. If we look like someone (and 93 percent of who that person is, is nonverbal), they will subconsciously say to themselves, “I like this person. They are just like me.” And, if we like someone, we trust them and want to do business with them. Think about the potential this has for promotions, building business, and building relationships and friendships.

Specifically, this is how you mirror: First, match the other person’s voice tone or tempo. If they talk fast, you talk fast. If they talk slowly, you talk slowly. When I speak in New York, I can’t speak quickly enough. If I’m in southern Texas, I slow my pace down to match their pace. One way to help you match the other person’s tempo is to match the other person’s breathing rate. Pace yourself to it. Match the other person’s body movements, posture, and gestures. If the person you’re mirroring crosses his or her legs, you cross your legs. If the other person gestures, you gesture. Of course, subtlety is everything. You may want to wait several seconds before moving.

The process of mirroring is natural. You do it naturally with people you like and have built rapport with.

Muhammad Yunus was made a Nobel Prize winner in 2006 and had been honoured by the world Press for his deeds. What can we learn from his action and drive in the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh which we could copy here in Mauritius? Micro Credit may well be a remedy to the “casseur” plague that some of the under privileged of Mauritius are suffering from. According to INSEAD: Social enterprise, Using micro credit to help to lift the poor out of poverty is still posting dramatic growth. In China, this idea had been used for centuries. Even in the early days of the arrival of Chinese traders in Mauritius, they had the same cooperative union system amongst themselves.

Kashf is an example of lesson learned from Yunus. It’s a non-profit organization which has been posting dramatic growth while focusing on providing micro credit and social support services to women entrepreneurs at the bottom of the so-called wealth pyramid.

Since its launch in 1996, Kashf has grown to become the third-largest microfinance institution in Pakistan with some 69 branches, more than 135,000 customers and about 90 million US dollars in outstanding loans.

Today, I spoke to Dharamjeet Bucktowar who has been involved with credit union for years in Mauritius. He told me that micro financing is progressing. The cooperative movement gives support to any group wanting to operate a micro finance project. However, he would have expected a much greater expansion of the cooperative movement. I am pleased to learn that Caritas is still involved in promoting this type of Social Enterprise. The funds available in the Paroisse de Ste Therese which I saw the inception now runs in million of Rupees. This is thanks to the motivation of the leaders and the able management of a few willing contributors.

Why not teach credit union at school and start a model credit union at the University of Mauritius? I would suggest to Dharamjeet to start Credit Union in all tertiary institutions of the country as a practicing ground.These students would certainly learn first hand to enhance their leadership,organizational,managerial,and communications skills.

Bill Catlette authored the book “Contented Cows give better milk” and in 2007 a new book: “Contented Cows MOOved faster.” What would you expect from a guy with such a name? Bill did not have to stretch his imagination to find a metaphor to support his stories and teachings to his audience on the very touchy subject of maintaining the work force and reduce employee’s turnovers in this era of employability. I almost fell out of my chair when I read the author’s name of the summary of his first book.

The 12 point ideas you can turn into action that I have retained from the “Contented cows”could be very helpful if you want better milk from your contended cows:

1. You will be surprised to figure out the cost of employee turnover? All told the cost of a replacement could be worth 150% of a person’s annual salary.

2. Identify an exemplary competitor. It makes sense that employers in your industry face challenges similar to yours. Filter for things like compensation and frilly-fad perks, and focus on leadership and other workplace practices that withstand the test of time.

3. The next time an employee attends any kind of training, ask them ahead of time to be prepared to tell you three new concepts or skills they learned from it, and one thing they will begin doing differently as a result. Don’t approach it like a grilling, but emphasize the need to transform learning into performance, and your desire to support them in their development.

4. Identify a major business challenge or opportunity in your company (declining sales, changing customer demands, new government regulation, emerging markets, or hey, even employee turnover), and invite people to form a task force to help you tackle the issue. Make sure the task force takes ownership for finding solutions. Then reward them (with real money) for results that make it to the bottom line.

5. Go do someone else’s job for a day. On a recent Southwest Airlines flight, I noticed a “flight attendant”, slightly older than the rest, and out of uniform. Turns out he was a pilot. That day, from coast to coast, he cheerfully went up and down the aisle dispensing peanuts, smiles, and a great attitude about the lessons learned from those he called “the people who really keep this plane in the air“.

6. Sit on the footlocker. Major General Melvin Zais, Commander of the 101st Airborne Division in Viet Nam, circa 1968, once said in a speech to future officers, “If you’ll get out of your warm house and go down to the barracks…and just sit on the footlocker…you don’t have to tell ’em they’re doing a great job. Just sit on the footlocker and talk to one or two soldiers and leave. They’ll know that you know that they’re working hard to make you look good.“

7. Conduct a survey. Go out there right now and find out how you’re doing in the morale department. If you’ve waited for the appearance of a dark cloud over your place of business, or if your fears of defections leave you feeling like the chair of the Republican party, you’re too late. Regularly (and formally) assess employee attitudes, morale, and perceptions of the work environment through the use of a survey. Feed the results back to everyone (as in, everyone) within one month.

8. On the premise that great places to work start with great people (kinda like baking a cake, isn’t it?), start measuring, managing, and rewarding each manager’s hiring performance over time. This IS part of your business metrics isn’t it? (If all you’ve got to say is “we measure employee turnover,” then, to borrow an expression from a currently popular game show, “You’re the weakest link. Good bye.”) Ditto if that portion of a manager’s bonus potential tied to quality of hiring is less than 25% of the aggregate.

9. Identify one person on your team who seems to be bored – underchallenged in their work. Ask them to develop an idea for a meaningful project they would like to work on. Involve them in as much of the detail as possible. Ask them to develop a budget, identify resources, timelines, and expected outcomes, and then get out of their way.

10. Show peoples the fruits of their labor. Find a meaningful way to show people how the product they make, service they support, or work they do is actually used, and enjoyed, by your customers. One company we work with meets this challenge with field trips. Yes, field trips. Like when you were in school. They make highly technical medical supplies. You know, tubes, valves, that kind of thing. The work is tedious, painstaking, and, well, boring.

The first step in combating complacency was to build some task variety into the job. Then, the plant manager started arranging tours of a nearby hospital, where the assembly workers could see their products at work, saving lives, and delivering drugs and pain relief to patients.

The assembly workers came back so excited that the office staff wanted to be a part of it too, so they chartered a bus for themselves. Now, everyone in the plant makes a couple of trips a year, to keep reinforcing the message, “What we do here is important.”

11. Engage a promising employee in a well-structured career development plan. Learn about their career aspirations and aptitudes, then explore available directions and opportunities. Involve them in a plan to begin taking concrete steps toward achieving that goal.

12. You undoubtedly spend tons of money on internal corporate communications. Here’s a little pop quiz you can use to see if it’s working. Ask the next 10 employees you happen to bump into to write down the company’ s top 3 business priorities. If the answers are all exactly the same, give us a call; we’d love to congratulate you (for real.) If they aren’t, you had better get busy, because as former NFL head coach Jimmy Johnson once put it, “confused players aren’t very aggressive.“

All right. We’ll make it a baker’s dozen.

The next time one of your employees does something they didn’t have to do, purely out of a sense of commitment to the team or the organization, write ’em a note. Yes, get a note card, and a pen, and write it out by hand, even if your handwriting is lousy. Put the note in the envelope with their next paycheck. Make this a habit.

According to the Helsinki-based World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) of the United Nations University, if you own more than US$ 61000 (Rs. 183000) worth of assets, then you are in amongst the richest 10 percent of adults in the world.This study is on personal wealth & house hold wealth.

2 percent of the world richest inhabitants own half of the world’s wealth. Where is the social justice? Where is the equitable distribution of wealth?

Surprisingly, household debt is relatively unimportant in poor countries. As the authors of the study point out: ‘While many poor people in poor countries are in debt, their debts are relatively small in total. This is mainly due to the absence of financial institutions that allow households to incur large mortgage and consumer debts, as is increasingly the situation in rich countries’

Wider goes on to note that ‘many people in high-income countries have negative net worth and—somewhat paradoxically—are among the poorest people in the world in terms of household wealth.’

In his editor’s note Jean Claude de l’Estrac last Sunday mentioned the WIDER study to highlight how difficult the task of ‘democratisation de l’economie’ is hard to achieve. The question would seem to be: let us create wealth before proceeding to a more equitable distribution. “Wealth breeds wealth: poverty breeds poverty” goes the popular wisdom.

Is it possible to work on both score concurrently? The ideal would be to generate wealth whilst planting the seed to a better social justice? Some would argue that you cannot have your cake and eat it! Could we work towards growing the cake so that the slice of each one will be larger?

Ce Dimanche l’Eglise fête la Sainte Trinité. Un peu compliqué de comprendre le mystère de la Sainte Trinité : un Dieu en 3 personnes distinctes ! J’aime l’éclairage de Sainte Thérèse sur le sujet. Elle dit que: « Moins je comprends ces choses, plus je les crois, et plus elles me donnent de dévotion. Dieu soit à jamais béni ! Amen. » Apres tout, ce que je demande c’est une foi plus grande en Dieu car bien de choses dépassent ma compréhension. Je ne suis que poussière devant immensité de Dieu et de Son amour infini. 3 pour moi c’est le chiffre de la croissance : 3 c’est magique. Vive la Trinité !

Sainte Thérèse d’Avila (1515-1582), carmélite, docteur de l’Église
Relations, n° 33 (trad. OC, Cerf 1995, p. 407)

« Reconnaissant la gloire de l’éternelle Trinité, en adorant son unité toute puissante » (Collecte)

La vérité sur la très sainte Trinité m’avait été exposée par des
théologiens mais je ne l’avais pas comprise comme je le fais à présent, après ce que Dieu m’a montré… Ce qui me fut représenté, ce sont trois Personnes distinctes, que l’on peut considérer et entretenir séparément. Je me suis dit ensuite que le Fils seul s’est incarné, ce qui montre clairement la réalité de cette distinction. Ces Personnes se connaissent, s’aiment et communiquent entre elles. Mais si chaque Personne est distincte, comment disons-nous qu’elles n’ont toutes trois qu’une seule essence ? De fait, c’est là ce que nous croyons ; c’est une vérité absolue, pour laquelle je souffrirais mille fois la mort. Ces trois Personnes n’ont qu’un seul vouloir, un seul pouvoir, une seule souveraineté, de sorte qu’aucune d’elles ne peut rien sans les autres et qu’il n’y a qu’un seul Créateur de tout ce qui est créé. Le Fils pourrait-il créer une fourmi sans le Père ? Non, parce qu’ils n’ont qu’un même pouvoir. Il en est de même du Saint Esprit.
Ainsi, il n’y a qu’un seul Dieu tout-puissant, et les trois Personnes ne forment qu’une seule Majesté. Quelqu’un pourrait-il aimer le Père, sans aimer le Fils et l’Esprit Saint ? Non, mais celui qui se rend agréable à l’une de ces trois Personnes, se rend agréable à toutes les trois, et celui qui offense l’une d’elles offense les deux autres. Le Père peut-il exister
sans le Fils et sans l’Esprit Saint ? Non, parce qu’ils n’ont qu’une même essence, et là où se trouve une des Personnes se trouvent les deux autres, parce qu’elles ne peuvent pas se séparer.
Comment donc voyons-nous trois Personnes distinctes ? Comment le Fils s’est-il incarné, et non le Père ou l’Esprit Saint ? Je ne l’ai pas saisi ; les théologiens le savent. Ce que je sais, c’est que les trois Personnes ont concouru à cette oeuvre merveilleuse. Au reste, je ne m’arrête pas longtemps à des questions de ce genre ; mon esprit s’attache aussitôt à cette vérité que Dieu est tout-puissant, que l’ayant ainsi voulu, il l’a pu, et qu’il pourra de même tout ce qu’il voudra. Moins je comprends ces choses, plus je les crois, et plus elles me donnent de dévotion. Dieu soit à jamais béni ! Amen.

As from this week the hunting season has started in Mauritius. Before trying out hunting, I had always disdained this activity thinking of the cruelty of killing a poor animal with a gun and more over calling this activity a sport. After two hunting trips at Bel Ombre hunting ground, I understood the purpose of this activity without which we would not have the joy of tasting venison in Mauritius. The cruelty which seemed to be connoted to this activity could be weighted against the benefits of rearing deer and the conservation of nature. Deer hunting of in essence in Mauritius is a way of preserving nature whilst providing sporting activities and some economic activities. Without being a hunter, I would miss out my delicious cholesterol free red venison if there was no more hunting!

Much light is thrown on this activity with its historic back ground in the issue of the Mauricien this week.

Il était une fois le Cervus timorensis russa…

La saison de la chasse aux cerfs s’est ouverte hier et le restera jusqu’à la fin d’août, quatre mois durant lesquels quelques amateurs pourront ainsi se livrer à leur passion. Alors que, pour la majorité des Mauriciens, ce sera l’occasion de déguster plus aisément ce gibier particulièrement apprécié, une viande ne tombant sous le coup d’aucun interdit d’ordre religieux. Histoire de l’élevage d’un animal dont l’introduction sur l’île date de plus de trois siècles et demi, à l’époque même de l’introduction de la canne à sucre.

C’est en 1639, alors que l’île était gouvernée par le Hollandais Adrian Van Der Steel, que le vaisseau Keppel, en provenance de l’île de Java, débarqua sur l’île les premiers cerfs, à Grand-Port, afin de pourvoir les colons en viande fraîche, après qu’ils eurent exterminé le Dodo. Ces premiers cerfs, de l’espèce des Cervus timorensis russa, sont aujourd’hui encore la seule espèce élevée à Maurice. Après avoir été mis en liberté dans la forêt la plus proche, ils s’adaptèrent si bien à leur nouvel environnement que, une cinquantaine d’années plus tard, le gouverneur Lamothius faisait savoir à ses supérieurs du Cap de Bonne Espérance que, le cerf étant en surabondance, à Maurice, la viande de celui-ci pourrait être conservée par salaison et expédiée en grande quantité au service de la Compagnie.

En 1710, après le départ des Hollandais, les quelques individus mis en liberté au pied de la Montagne du Lion au sud-est de l’île, proliférèrent si bien que les Français, à leur arrivée en 1722 trouvèrent des animaux très gras, principalement dans la région nord-ouest de l’île qui devait devenir Port-Louis. L’extension de la canne à sucre nécessita cependant la migration des cerfs sur les terres avoisinantes et impropres à toutes cultures. La chasse, alors sportive et récréative, était en ce temps pratiquée sans réglementation. Celle-ci devait apparaître quatre ans plus tard, en 1726, concernant notamment la diminution du nombre de chiens utilisés en battues.

En 1749 la chasse sportive est abolie, la viande de cerf devant être disponible en quantité nécessaire au ravitaillement des quelque 120 vaisseaux mouillant annuellement à Port-Louis. Le retour de la chasse récréative, en 1790, voit l’arrivée de nouvelles réglementations, concernant notamment la période durant laquelle elle est autorisée (du 15 mai au 30 août), ainsi que la délimitation des terrains de chasse de chaque propriétaire. De 1790 à 1870, les parties de chasse s’organisent de mieux en mieux. De grandes battues sont mises en place avec la participation de nombreux porteurs de fusils, rabatteurs avec leurs chiens, piqueurs-fusils et autres. Les parties de chasse, qui jusqu’alors duraient une matinée, avec déjeuner sur le mirador, se prolongèrent sur deux jours – les chasseurs couchant dans les bois -, alors qu’apparaît, par ailleurs, une exploitation plus judicieuse des forets avec notamment la création de plaines plus ouvertes.

Vers 1860, les grands propriétaires de chasse ont adjoint à leurs terres celles de la Couronne qui y sont contiguës. Sur leurs vastes domaines où ils détiennent presque tous les droits de chasse, ils mettent en place leur propre réglementation visant à la conservation et à la reproduction de leurs troupeaux : pas d’abattage de biches ou de daguets, certains allant même jusqu’à empêcher l’abattage des trois-cornichons. Sur les hauts plateaux, le développement de hardes de cerfs est à son apogée. Les véhicules circulant entre les 15e et 17e miles, sur la route de Port-Louis à Grand-Port, étaient souvent obligés de s’arrêter pour laisser passer les troupeaux…

Expropriation

Cet apogée des troupeaux cervidés va être suivi d’un déclin dû, en 1878, à la peste bovine, qui va contaminer les cerfs ; à ce fléau va s’ajouter l’expropriation des terres incultes pour le reboisement, ainsi que le morcellement et la location des grandes terres de chasses, sans discernement. Les habitants des hauts plateaux se réveillent chaque matin avec des cadavres de cerfs sur leurs pelouses… Des nouveaux clubs de chasse se forment, mais avec un abattage systématique du gibier sans stratégie de conservation. La population de cerfs, presque complètement décimée, doit sa survie à sa résistance et à son aptitude à s’adapter. À ce constat, au tournant des XIXe et XXe siècles, quelques propriétaires souhaitant développer au mieux leurs terres, importent les nouvelles espèces de pâturages que sont le raygrass et l’herbe d’argent (Ishaemum Aristatum L.) Ces propriétaires ayant à cÅ“ur le développement du cerf se regroupent le 25 mai 1921 et forment la “Société des Chasseurs”.

C’est à partir de 1950 que, quelques propriétaires, fatigués de la migration de leurs hardes de part et d’autre de leurs balisages décident de clôturer leurs terres. Ainsi paraissent les premiers élevages extensifs appelés “chassés” avec le suivi du troupeau d’une année sur l’autre, la mise en place des quotas de chasse pour la gestion du nombre et de la qualité du gibier.

Entre-temps, la Première Guerre mondiale et la crise économique de 1929, voient la mise en place d’une réglementation, en 1939, qui oblige de nombreux propriétaires à mettre de la venaison sur le marché pour l’approvisionnement, en viande fraîche, de la population.

L’église de France célèbre Sainte Jeanne d’Arc le 30 Mai de chaque année. Qu’avons nous à apprendre un événement passé entre 1412-1431 ? J’ai eu l’occasion de voir des films sur Jeanne d’Arc et de lire les récits de sa vie.

Je vous livre aujourd’hui un texte succinct qui résume l’essentiel de son exploit et les vertus pratiquées par elle.

Les étapes de la vie de Jeanne sont connues de tous : Dom Remy, Reims, Paris, Compiègne, Rouen, autant de noms auxquels s’attache le souvenir de tel ou tel événement d’une épopée qui ne dura que deux années et s’acheva par la mort atroce d’une fille de 19 ans sur un bûcher.

Jeanne séduit par sa simplicité, la justesse de ses répliques, l’absence du souci de jouer son personnage, une énergie dans sa décision, un courage dans l’action, que tempère toujours la tendresse d’une fille de son age pour ceux qui souffrent. Elle séduit par sa recherche obstinée de la paix et son respect de l’adversaire. Mais elle s’impose surtout par sa disponibilité absolue à la volonté de Dieu. C’est pourquoi elle domine le procès de Rouen de toute la limpidité de son âme, la fermeté de sa foi, la vigueur de son attachement à l’Eglise et à ce q’elle croit.

Si seulement nous pourrions avoir des chefs d’entreprises à l’image de Jeanne ! Simple, humble, juste, energetique, decideur, courageux, determiné et tendre !