Read Online Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia by David Vine - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: David Vine
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For most who didn’t get a home or had to sell theirs, however, conditions remain poor. A 1997 WHO-funded report described how housing varies “between the decent”—that is, compensation housing—“and the flimsy”—homes like those occupied since the earliest days in exile, usually built with a metal roof and walls of metal sheeting or perhaps some combination of wood and concrete block, with kitchen and sanitary facilities located outside the home and generally lacking running water and electricity. 1
Even with the improvements some enjoyed when they obtained a concrete-block house, most still live in conditions that are among the worst in Mauritius and the Seychelles. Overcrowding remains a serious problem. Most are still concentrated in the poorest, least desirable, most disadvantaged, and most unhealthy neighborhoods. Many live with dangerous structural deficiencies and limited access to basic services: 40 percent are without indoor plumbing and more than one-quarter lack running water. 2 Generally housing problems are more critical for those in Mauritius than for those in the Seychelles, in line with wider national differences. In Mauritius,the islanders’ housing conditions are broadly comparable to those found in the poor townships of South Africa.
Compounding their housing difficulties, most Chagossians still struggle to find work. At the time of my 2002–3 survey, just over a third (38.8 percent) of the able-bodied first generation and less than two-thirds (60.6 percent) of the second generation were working. 3 In many households, only a single adult had a job. Other households relied on multiple income earners, from teens working in factories to elderly women doing laundry for neighbors, to support a family. 4 Median monthly income was less than $2 a day: far below the median incomes for their Mauritian and Seychellois neighbors. 5
Of those who are employed, many still have jobs at the bottom of the Mauritian pay scale, characterized by high job insecurity, temporary duration, and informal employment commitments. Chagossians are still primarily employed in manual labor: as dockers and stevedores in the shipping industry; as janitorial, domestic, and child care workers; as informal construction workers and bricklayers; as factory workers. Some find various piecework employment, often to supplement other jobs, including stitching shoes, assembling decorative furnishings, and weaving brooms from coconut palms.
In general, those born in Mauritius and the Seychelles or who left Chagos at a very young age seem to have been more successful in securing employment and better remunerated jobs than their elders. These groups have little if any memory of Chagos and experienced less disruption in their lives as a result of the expulsion (although I stress that this is a relative distinction). And in contrast to most of the first generation, which received little if any formal education in Mauritius or the Seychelles, this group has had at least some chance to benefit from the Mauritian and Seychellois education systems (however discriminatory they are).
In part because the group in the Seychelles is composed disproportionately of islanders who arrived in the first years of their lives, islanders in the Seychelles are, economically speaking, generally better off than their counterparts in Mauritius. While some are living in the most impoverished conditions in the Seychelles, significant numbers enjoy secure public sector employment as bureaucrats, teachers, and police officers. By contrast, the rare few that have government jobs or similarly stable employment in Mauritius are notable for having escaped the impoverishment facing the vast majority there.
The different economic outcomes in the two nations is a complicated matter that can only be understood with extensive comparative study. Some of the difference is surely attributable to higher standards of living enjoyed in the Seychelles (per capita GDP is roughly
Even with the improvements some enjoyed when they obtained a concrete-block house, most still live in conditions that are among the worst in Mauritius and the Seychelles. Overcrowding remains a serious problem. Most are still concentrated in the poorest, least desirable, most disadvantaged, and most unhealthy neighborhoods. Many live with dangerous structural deficiencies and limited access to basic services: 40 percent are without indoor plumbing and more than one-quarter lack running water. 2 Generally housing problems are more critical for those in Mauritius than for those in the Seychelles, in line with wider national differences. In Mauritius,the islanders’ housing conditions are broadly comparable to those found in the poor townships of South Africa.
Compounding their housing difficulties, most Chagossians still struggle to find work. At the time of my 2002–3 survey, just over a third (38.8 percent) of the able-bodied first generation and less than two-thirds (60.6 percent) of the second generation were working. 3 In many households, only a single adult had a job. Other households relied on multiple income earners, from teens working in factories to elderly women doing laundry for neighbors, to support a family. 4 Median monthly income was less than $2 a day: far below the median incomes for their Mauritian and Seychellois neighbors. 5
Of those who are employed, many still have jobs at the bottom of the Mauritian pay scale, characterized by high job insecurity, temporary duration, and informal employment commitments. Chagossians are still primarily employed in manual labor: as dockers and stevedores in the shipping industry; as janitorial, domestic, and child care workers; as informal construction workers and bricklayers; as factory workers. Some find various piecework employment, often to supplement other jobs, including stitching shoes, assembling decorative furnishings, and weaving brooms from coconut palms.
In general, those born in Mauritius and the Seychelles or who left Chagos at a very young age seem to have been more successful in securing employment and better remunerated jobs than their elders. These groups have little if any memory of Chagos and experienced less disruption in their lives as a result of the expulsion (although I stress that this is a relative distinction). And in contrast to most of the first generation, which received little if any formal education in Mauritius or the Seychelles, this group has had at least some chance to benefit from the Mauritian and Seychellois education systems (however discriminatory they are).
In part because the group in the Seychelles is composed disproportionately of islanders who arrived in the first years of their lives, islanders in the Seychelles are, economically speaking, generally better off than their counterparts in Mauritius. While some are living in the most impoverished conditions in the Seychelles, significant numbers enjoy secure public sector employment as bureaucrats, teachers, and police officers. By contrast, the rare few that have government jobs or similarly stable employment in Mauritius are notable for having escaped the impoverishment facing the vast majority there.
The different economic outcomes in the two nations is a complicated matter that can only be understood with extensive comparative study. Some of the difference is surely attributable to higher standards of living enjoyed in the Seychelles (per capita GDP is roughly
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