Translator: Shadia Ramsahye Reviewer: Denise RQ
(Music)
(French) Good afternoon everyone.
(Mauritian Creole) Good afternoon everyone.
Good afternoon everyone.
My name is José Thérèse.
After studying music in Denmark
and performing in Scandinavian countries and Europe,
I returned to Mauritius, my country, in 1995.
I set up a music school in 1996 in a place named Roche-Bois
where I was born and grew up.
This school was meant for underprivileged children
who have not succeeded at the primary-level education,
at the CPE exams.
Some of them were on the streets,
they were spotted by dealers for drug trafficking and prostitution.
That was the main reason why I set up Mo'zar Atelier de Musique,
so these unfortunate children could have another chance
and a better and brighter future.
Some of them are now working in the music industry
in countries like France, UK, US, and other parts of the world.
Some are in famous conservatoires in the world.
Let's not talk about the project itself.
(Mauritian Creole) Now I'm going to speak
in Creole, my mother tongue.
When I was in Denmark,
a news story on television
was about how my country was becoming the tiger of the Indian Ocean.
I had not been home in ten years,
so I thought I should visit,
and see for myself whether my country has become a tiger.
As soon as I arrived at the airport, I said to myself, "Yes, a tiger indeed!"
The airport had changed a lot.
I took a cab, just to see.
That was some highway!
I said to myself, "Yes, a tiger indeed!"
I looked at buildings and said, "Indeed!"
Then, I arrived at a place called Roche-Bois.
When I left, it was a poor neighborhood.
When I came back, it was ten times poorer.
That was in 2013,
and people were still using open air toilets?
Is this really the tiger of the Indian Ocean?
People still handwashing clothes?
Is this really the tiger of the Indian Ocean?
I came to my country thinking that I would stay here for ten years,
that I would get tanned a bit, and after that go back.
- I saw so much poverty - that I just could not.
At that time, I had a friend who was a social worker.
He was following my career from home.
He said, "You came to Mauritius for holidays,
back at your parents' place in Roche-Bois.
Have you seen how bad this place got?"
I said, "Yes, I noticed."
He asked, "So, what can you do?"
At that time, 87% of kids were failing primary school.
The rest would barely pass.
He said, "José, see what you can do."
My friend's name was Marcel Poinen.
I said, "Marcel, I came here to relax, now you are asking me to do stuff."
I thought for a while and realized
that if I did nothing, then I'd be just as guilty.
I thought I'd create a small project.
I called it "Mo'zar Atelier de Musique".
What does "Mo'zar" mean? It means "My style".
This is me, this is my style,
just like you have your style, everyone has his.
I wrote down the project.
Some time later, my friend brought it to a trust fund.
The trust fund is called the Trust fund against exclusion.
He told me, "José, you know what?
Your project has been approved, you will get Rs. 250 000."
I said, "How would Rs. 250 000 be enough?
A piano itself costs Rs. 200 000, we'll have only Rs. 50 000 left."
At the time, I was getting a house built
so I could stay there for my six-month holiday.
My parents told me to add a floor to their own house instead.
I said to Marcel,
"Let's take the new house and turn it into a music school.
I'll rent another house and stay there instead."
Rs. 250 000 were not going to be enough,
so I added Rs. 250 000 more out of my own pocket,
so that's a total of Rs. 500 000.
We started building the house, we created a musical library.
We bought some instruments, we bought a piano.
I took five kids off the streets, away from drug dealers.
I could have gotten mobbed, I could have died.
I was taking their labor away.
I managed to take away five kids.
Five turned into ten, ten into fifteen.
I stopped at fifteen, for lack of resources and lack of money.
I started to work, we worked with the kids.
I told them, "Listen.
There this an exam called The Royal School of Music Examination.
It's a British certification. It's an international examination.
I will prepare you guys for this exam."
Some time later, over 600 students from Mauritius,
these 15 kids passed with distinction.
(Applause)
Those same kids did not pass primary school.
But they are not stupid.
Our education system created that.
Our education system has been faulty for years now.
No one believes so, and no one will want to.
I told these 15 kids,
"You've started getting your first certifications,
let's make an orchestra and start working."
We started performing in hotels, at private events,
the kids would get some money.
The rest we would keep for buying instruments.
We started taking more kids in.
We took five kids in, then 15, then 20.
Each would have his own instrument.
Twenty kids turned into 25 kids.
With them we worked, everybody making a living out of music.
At that same time,
I came up with a teaching method which I sent to the Royal School of Music.
They approved my method. Now everyone wants this method.
When I started my school, guess what people said?
"You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear."
That's how far it went.
I could take any students here,
and take them to any jazz festival in the world,
and they would be able to perform.
Today, two or three of them
have interviews
for entering the police corps.
You think they are stupid?
They had nothing to show for,
yet today, Mo'zar school
has to train teachers for music schools.
I took 20 of my students to the Reunion Island
to a big jazz festival.
They won the prize for the "Best Festival Band".
They are all certified by the Royal School of Music,
all of them here.
Are they stupid? How so?
We created this divide, it's us who are to blame.
Let's talk about Roche-Bois, where the school is found.
It's in a ghetto.
Everyone in Roche-Bois knows about the project and supports it.
Our instruments stay in the school,
none has ever disappeared from there.
Never has anything been lost.
Our students are working in Dubai as professional musicians.
Once we were playing in the streets at Caudan,
a conductor was passing by,
and signed up five students to perform in a circus in Austria.
Can you guess how much they are making?
Rs. 150 000. Even I don't get Rs. 150 000 per month,
at least not until now.
(Laughter)
Our project now is to build a real school
that would open, if God wills, in February.
We will have an auditorium, we will have everything.
I've waiting for this for 17 years,
it's only today that we are understanding the importance of this school
in the lives of these kids.
In that way I can take in more kids.
There is a future.
Music -- being a musician -- is a profession like any other.
If I had to choose
between becoming a lawyer and becoming a musician,
if I had chosen lawyer then I would have been unhappy.
I am happy today, and I am showing to my students
that music is a profession like any other.
There is a a way to fight poverty and exclusion.
Humans have created these divides,
and we humans have to solve them.
Now I'll perform this piece of music with my students.
Thank you.
(Applause)
(Music)
(Applause)
Thank you so much.
(Applause)