Port Louis, Mauritius - Being a Singaporean married to a Mauritian and living here for the past 20 years, I wanted to give a copy of the autobiography of the UPF Founder Rev. Sun Myung Moon to the President of Singapore during his four-day visit here in early June.
Three weeks before his arrival, I read in the papers that the president of Singapore, Hon. S.R. Nathan, had been invited for a state visit by the Mauritian government. I felt a deep desire to give him the book but did not know if it would be possible to arrange for such an opportunity. There were no plans for him to meet the Singaporeans here since there are very few of us.
Knowing that the newly appointed CEO of HSBC in Mauritius is a Singaporean, I made an appointment to meet her and asked if there would be an opportunity for Singaporeans to greet the president, perhaps at the airport or his hotel. I also gave her a copy of the autobiography.
The day before the president was to arrive, I received a call from her in the late afternoon to contact all the Singaporeans in town because the president invited us for lunch the day before his departure. During that meeting we presented him with a scale model of a ship, and I gave him a copy of the book. Mauritians are well-known for their skills in constructing scale models of ships that visited these islands off the east coast of Africa over the centuries.
Later that afternoon, Mr. Chris Mackey from England and I had an appointment with the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mauritius, Mgr. Maurice Piat, and gave him a copy of the book. While the majority of Mauritians are Hindus, people from many cultures have made these islands their home, and 27 percent of them are Roman Catholics.
My husband, Mark Chung To, would often receive some inspiration about meeting Christian pastors, school principals, journalists, judges, and government officials, and we would contact them and present them with a copy of the book.
