Africa-Press – Mauritius. Hardly a week goes by without grim news about a new scandal, some crime having been committed, a person gone missing, or a corpse found lying by the roadside or abandoned in the bushes.
Not to mention other crimes and criminal acts perpetrated by our fellow countrymen. These happenings have shocked many and left them wondering about what is going wrong in our society and made our lives even more stressful.
Those who have probed these social problems may come up with different answers, but in our view it also has something to do with the hard times we are living in – resulting from the poor governance, the relentless decline in the standard of living, the precarious situation of not only low-income groups, but also the middle classes, growing unemployment, etc.
No wonder relative poverty has morphed into absolute poverty. The State has its own assessment of these problems and how they could be resolved, but it is important that our citizens begin to think in terms of reinventing or regenerating our neighbourhood communities and building resilience to tackle such problems.
Other signs of the growing disaffection with our present-day society has been the search for alternative ways of living to fight against, and cope with stressful lives and to seek new approaches to life and sustainable ways of living.
We come across many young people and couples who cannot find time to devote to their children or to prepare a home meal and have to queue up in supermarkets for evening meals. Fast food takes a toll on their health and that of their children.
The pressure of work coupled with traffic problems are responsible for many of these problems, but very often the insatiable need to make more money and to fulfill unlimited material wants is at the root of their difficult situation.
They cannot be blamed for they have been brought up in a consumer society where conspicuous consumption has become an end in itself. But we are equipped with agency with powers to control our thoughts and behaviour; we could take a step back and rethink our life goals.
Not surprisingly one must have come across people of all ages rethinking their life goals and resorting to new approaches considered beneficial for their well-being such as alternative medicine, vegetarianism, various forms of healing, meditation, yoga, healing crystals and stones, contemplative music and of course the different religious scriptures.
One common thread linking these various practices is the emphasis on intuition as opposed to rationalism and the intellect, holism rather than reductionism, religious syncretism as opposed to dogmatism.
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