Coronavirus
By David P Carroll
We live in a scary
World today
It’s different than
Before
No more hugs kissing
Our happiness gone away
Like never before
The virus has taken our
Loved ones away
Families suffering
Like never before
The fear of the unknown
Has arrived
The worry of what will happen
Tomorrow to you and me
Coronavirus on our mind’s
Coronavirus everywhere
Our lives in danger
Like never before
We practise social distancing
Every day to keep the virus
At bay as we shop in different ways
Were asked to stay at home
Like never before
When will this
Virus ever go away
But I promise
I’ll love and pray for everyone
Suffering
Every day.
We will not yield
By Atish Boolaky
Moscow
I am a student of International Relations and Diplomacy in a state university in Russia. I have to point out that unlike the United States, the Russian Federation is not ousting foreign students but instead is taking good care of all students, even providing free medical care in case one gets infected with the coronavirus.
On the other hand, however, I really do not understand how despite the fact that the Mauritian government put up a flight for Mauritian nationals to fly them out from some countries, nothing has been done by the Embassy of Mauritius in Moscow. They just issued two statements and sent both via email saying that there would be some flight arrangement, one of which was supposed to reach Dubai on the 11th. But they omitted to mention that Russian borders were closed at that time.
We were provided with absolutely no feuille de route as to how to exit Russia. Then I got to know that there are some special flights which are exiting Russia but the tickets needed to be bought through the Embassy. I did my inquiry and I found out that that was indeed the case. For an answer to my query, embassy officials suggested that we should on our own inquire about the availability of tickets. We never could obtain those air tickets and we were left without any assistance from the Embassy.
We were later informed by the Embassy that three people were able to exit Russia by transiting in Belarus, Ukraine and Germany to go to Dubai. This raises the question: did the Embassy have the information as to how other Mauritians have been able to buy air tickets to travel back home, and if so why that information was not communicated to us?
We will continue to fight for our right me to travel back to our homeland, the country where we were born. We will not yield because Mauritius is a sovereign and democratic country, and it is our constitutional right to be able to come back to our homeland.
* Published in print edition on 17 June 2020
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