Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Fireworks, firecrackers, etc.


It is the custom in MU to set off fireworks or firecrackers for celebrations like Christmas, New Year's, Divali, Chinese New Year.....bah, any festival or celebration in fact.
So, in this season of holidays, it is very common to see/hear fireworks around the island...EXCEPT I never expected to see what I saw last night.

I was driving down the motorway after work when, lo and behold, I saw fireworks being set off from a GAS STATION! It is to believe that Mauritians from Roche-bois have no clue whatsoever of the danger of lighting up fireworks in a highly inflammable area like a gas station. I had no time to check if they were being set off by kids or by "responsible" adults, but in any case, the gas station was open, so there must have been the said responsible adults around. An accident could so easily happen and the sad story would be on the headlines the following day claiming that nobody thought such an awful thing could happen.

In CA, the law prevents citizens to set off fireworks or firecrackers if it is not during the Victoria Day week-end (the w/end preceding May 25), Canada Day (July 1st) or New Year's Eve. Some provinces allow fireworks for Divali, but I haven't seen any on Divali during the 5 yrs I was there. It is justifiable why Canada would have such restrictions on fireworks: people do not realize until it is too late that what they are doing could put other people in danger. If such a law was to be implemented in MU, I bet a lot of Mauritians would be outraged that their kids do not know the pleasure of setting off firecrackers and fireworks. Safety comes first though, so I wish there could be something to be done about this....Right now, all I can think of is maybe stop by Roche-bois and kick some uneducated @ss over there. I must say that this particular region in MU could give me unlimited inspiration for blog entries. :P

It is on this happy note that I wish y'all a Happy New Year 2007.

Viva fireworks!

6 comments:

Ashvin Gunga said...

"Right now, all I can think of is maybe stop by Roche-bois and kick some uneducated @ss over there".

Carine, I don't think it is a good and feasible idea. I fear your @ss might get kicked there! Don't forget, it's Roche-Bois! HAHAHA!!!

inspirone said...

MRU has lots of laws only that no one cares to enforce them... Long live democratic ppl of Mauritius... Happy new year :)

Unknown said...

Happy new year !!!!.. am gonna set off some fireworks in my kingdom too .

However am still deciding which petrol station to choose from ...:P

Anonymous said...

hey,i suppose that u r a very educated person.But who gave u the right to judge people?For ur information,not all people living in roche bois are uneducated.Rather than ur idea of kicking ass,i would have thought that as u r so educated,u would have prefered a preventive campaign for fireworks.I want to remind u that people from roche bois may be poor but we are human beings.

From someone who lives in Roches Bois

Carine said...

Hello Anonymous,

I am sorry if I have offended you in any way, but you must maybe read the blog entry again. For your information, I never said ALL people living in Roche-Bois are uneducated, if you open your dictionary or go to dictionary.com, you would find that "some" does not in any way or form imply "ALL".

Also, I never said people from Roche-Bois are not human beings and I never even mentioned their financial status (read again!). This blog entry would have been the same had the fireworks been set off from a gas station in Quatre-Bornes or R-Hill, the focus being on the danger, not on pointing the finger on Roche-Bois, which by the way is spelled like this and not ROCHES BOIS, someone doesn't have to be very educated to know how to spell the place they live I think. But then that's only my very humble opinion.

Finally, I would like to point out that if you are offended by this blog entry it is only because of your OWN preconceived ideas on the place you live in coz if you do read the blog again you wouldn't find ANYTHING that causes prejudice to the people from Roche-Bois if it wasn't for the comment you posted.

Thanks for your comment and please visit again.

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