The tail that wags the elephant

摘要

On a local bus trundling round the south of the island, Mauritius does not feel like the centre of a balance-of-pay-ments scare in India. Beaches slip by and a conductor sits puffing below a no-smoking sign. But remote Mauritius, over 1,000 miles (1,600km) from Africa, is no tinpot dot on the map. It is odder and more impressive than that. Mark Twain said it was so beautiful that God modelled heaven on it. Half its people are Hindus, descended from Indian labourers brought over when Britain ruled the island. France once ran Mauritius, too: hence its Gallic Creole and baguette-munching office workers dressed to kill. Strangest of all, Mauritius is the world's financial gateway to India (see chart 1). It is the tail that wags the elephant.