concerns and responsibilities. i thank my wider family who share my patronym for stoically accepting their lot when they have had to take part of the flak as i have never ceased being publicly lambasted and pilloried, and called all manner of names – some of which you cannot mention in polite company – since i traded the comfort and anonymity of the civil service mandarinate for the hurly - burly of politics and the unrelenting public spotlight in an unforgiving environment where fair comment has long lost the battle against outrageous libel and quasi - criminal defamation. some, closely - related, regret the shared patronym and have been known to disown the connection. i understand. lately, others – quite unrelated – claim a close relation. such is life. my professional career was much enriched by my interaction with colleagues from the world bank, the imf, the commonwealth secretariat, and elsewhere. i thank michel devaux and paul blay, both of the world bank, and both here tonight, for the great support they gave in the dark days when mauritius was a patient in intensive care, undergoing structural adjustment in the early 1980 ’ s, and for their friendship ever since. i thank bishnu persaud for his support in equally - critical work on small island - states. i thank percy mistry for being a goading critic and a constant source of encouragement. i thank mihaela smith, and through her, the entire network of the commonwealth partnership for technology management, for always pushing me in new directions at that critical interface where academia and technology intersect the world of politics. i thank ian downing for being such a great master of ceremonies tonight. i thank maurice lam and the board of investment for sponsoring this event. i thank the banker for having provided the reason to bring us all together. and thank you very much, all of you, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, for gracing the occasion with your valued presence. finally, beyond those i have mentioned and all of you present here tonight, i am also grateful to all those who, one way or another, extended some moral support to me in times of need. i am referring here, in the words of luther king, to all those “ people who make a successful journey possible – the known pilots and the unknown ground crew. ” thank you for your attention. bis central bankers ’ speeches

can plough our own furrow and seek salvation in our own different ways. regardless of one ’ s size or location, we can all aspire to the premier league. we have in our midst this evening my venerated tutors and mentors from my undergraduate days at oxford and a bevy of dignitaries – indeed this is the kind of moment that you absolutely must share with family, friends, partners, colleagues from international institutions, and all those who walked part of the way with you in your life, personal, social, professional, or a mixture of all of them. i thank you all for your presence here to - night. as i landed at heathrow the other day, my mind drifted off to my first days in england when i was a carefree student, from a remote island colony, a rural country boy from a village with no electricity, no telephone, and little running water, who had never spent more than a couple of nights away from home, and who could read and write latin and greek better than his peers. i was more interested in satisfying my deep curiosity for all the novelties that i was discovering. i wasn ’ t really thinking of my future. in fact, i was wondering what to do with my life. i was barely out of my teens, not yet twenty. i had a prized seat at merton college, one of the oldest – if not the oldest – at oxford university. i was going to read greats … but i was going through an existential crisis. i had successfully resisted my parents ’ calls to pressure me to become a lawyer or a medical doctor, the prestigious occupations that attracted the six “ laureates ” of which i was one. i was quite aware that a university education was not vocational or professional training. but i could not help asking myself, was there much mileage left in the classics? i had just been reading some maupassant short stories. the punch line of one of them was fresh on my mind : le latin ne nourrit pas son homme! there used to be an outfit called mauritius students unit, operating from a small office in upper montagu street, off baker street, run by an energetic lady called miss rittner. she set up an interview for me at merton. peter chellen, also with us tonight, used to work at the unit. i found myself on the short train journey to oxford – and soon wondering whether i had alighted at the wrong destination when the first