Thursday, August 28, 2008

World Bank As Usual

How much more of the World Bank (WB)'s costly poison can Mauritius afford to take? I don't know about you guys but I find the WB's "stick" Port Louis toll aimed at the "carrot" bus way in line with its long tradition of disconnect from the real world. It's not mere drivel, it's drivel upon stilts!

5 comments:

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Sithanen has sabotaged Ramgoolam's government with so much passion that 2010 will be an uphill battle for the PM. This has been the general feeling of the population, Labour and Opposition MPs and some cabinet members for a long time now. Ramgoolam has yet to prove to Mauritius that he has at least 2 grams of leadership.

akagugo said...

Oulala... This painful issue cropped up again during the debate between Joe and Anil on Radio Plus last week. Anil was adamantly "pour le bus-lane", Joe had a broader view to integrate feeder bus-lines with light metro railway. Anil tried to justify his rejection of the metro by quoting experts' reports which indicated the very high cost of a trip by metro. Strange, because the same excuse of impossibly high costs is being brought forward for motivating people to leave their cars and travel by bus... Which is which? Stanger still, bus fares are higher than metro in Singapore... Who is lying to the Dodolander here?
By the way, Joe forgot / failed to ask Anil if the bus fares on the bus lane would also be "mufta" for students, pensioners, etc... and if the already enormous budget of 690 million rupees for providing free transport by bus will then need to be increased... If yes, from where would the government have to get the funds...?

SR said...

Thank you for your time akagugo. Mauritius needs more alert citizens like you to expose the ongoing lies. Too much of our money is being squandered through joyrides or otherwise. No efficiency. No transparency. No accountability. Let alone vision! Remember, for e.g, that road taxes have been hiked without any improvement whatsoever in traffic flow. But buzzwords such as "la caisse vide" or "pena kas" remain as ubiquitous as ever.

Kranti said...

Ki zot pe kozé? Si bannes ministeres mette zot dans La Vigie ou bien Belle Rive avec so Parlement, traffic jam diminue par environ 50%. MAIS zot pas conné ki appelle vested interests? Ki pu arrive sa bann grand grand buildings ki bann financiers politiques fine construire? Pas bizin rann zot!

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

How is the poison level these days? The media is still putting Bretton Woods crap on a pedestal but is being seriously challenged by citizens who are not exactly fond of bunkum.