Barely 1% of our electricity was produced with coal in 1996, the first year of Ramgoolam as Prime Minister of Mauritius. When he left office in 2000 that amount had increased by about 20 times. By 2005, when it was Federation 2's turn to tell us ce n'est qu'un au revoir, they had increased it by a further 30%. And since Ramgoolam's return the share of coal in electricity production has reached new heights every single year and ended 2008 at 44.1%.
Berenger is now saying that a Ptr-MMM alliance is gonna save Mauritius. Yeah, right!
These are the sorts of stats(any many more on other issues too)we need when we evaluate policies especially during elections campaigns. But hang on...this is Mauritius...and the issues on the discussion agenda will be but mere gossips....nous banne so banne....blanc noir....protege icc ou la bas...garde pouvoir dans nous la mais etc. Not to mention that there is no debate at all, we are bombarded with pre-recorded monologues(very boring and full of rhetoric)!
ReplyDeleteI would like to see a journalist(and a good one too)ask ramgoolam to comment on this bar chart.And make sure the man doesnt dodge the issues.Can we do this, nope, not at all, this is mauritius!!!
Hello Anonymous, I perfectly agree with your suggestion of quizzing the PM or any other aspiring PM/Minister with statistics like this. I think the level of the debate would improved significantly.
ReplyDeleteI had raised the issue with Sanjay once.Consider all the radio journalists who host economic debates but yet do not have well researched statistics. They cannot corner their guests in any way making the latter pour out series of spurious arguments that unfortunately make people believe they are the most competent gurus on earth. Sithanen is a fitting example.
Hello Anonymous 2, you're right about this. In fact when I wrote the comment I had in mind the long interview sithanen gave on MBC TV some time ago(2-3 years ago)(he was quizzed by saminaden of lexpress and i dont remember who else)....I still remember sithanen saving the same thing over and over again whilst the journalists just listened to him...no one had the guts to ask the real questions.....have they never ever seen a debate of the french tv or the bbc debates for example....have they ever seen Mr Jean Marie Cavada at his best when he was a journalist. Many people dont even come close to realising how poor our written(not to mention mbc) press is overall. many of our journalist are just good at using cliches...like....LSE trained economists...worked at World Bank...and bla bla bla.In many ways we are still in the 1950 in Mauritius....but wait...in the 1950 the elite were smarter in Mauritius...just look at one the memorable interviews dr Harazeesing did with SSR(MCA did show it once)and you will be impressed by the humbility and knowledge of these two!!!
ReplyDeleteOur politicians are spared from the hard real issues and questions...in part thats why we are in such a mess today.
Since we have so much incoming solar radiation, why don't we go for this kind of solar farm: it produces high-efficiency steam-generated electricity, excess steam can be directed to (energy voracious) heavy industries, while condensed vapour gives them free drinking water...
ReplyDeleteOr this, or this...
ReplyDeleteNon? Pena kass mem??
Yep, bizin kone kot nu pe ale do.
ReplyDeleteWi, tu sa lenerzi sa bul dife avway nu la gaspiye. Pe handikap CEB pe vini mem. Pu gagn dimal ler somey kase.
Will Osman have this on a slide at Rio+20?
ReplyDeleteMo pa sir zot konn senn PRB-la. Enn carbon tax ti pu bon non?
ReplyDeleteEnn ti-lartik interesan lor kalite ler dan dife ki ban abitan Delhi respire. Ti pu bon gete kuma kanser pumon finn evolye isi dernye 20 banane.
ReplyDeleteE kalite nu loksizen pa bizin valorise? Apre li pa neseser MK fer pert pu nu lindistri turism fer profi.
ReplyDeleteZot pe swiv sa deba la?
ReplyDeleteHmm... Mr Dowarkasing now works for Greenpeace, no less!
ReplyDeleteAnd he ends his articles by stating that out of 196 countries participating to that COP21, only 195 of them ratified the agreement - can you spot the absconder?
It's much ado about nothing - who cares about these things, really?
By the way, Beijing is now seriously claiming Delhi's top spot in air pollution - are we trying to ape them in the name of devlopma?
One thing is for sure, though: this 'Lepep' government is aping the previous 'Alliance Sociale' one by saying something and then thoroughly reneging it: as example, copy-pasting from the Bourbonnais (page 39 here) announced with bells and whistles by Navinchandra, saki'nn vomi (as from 14:12), re-mixer ek re-avale.
Bon appetit!
Just saw that all Dutch electric trains are 100% powered by wind energy. Meanwhile in the Indian Ocean a minister is practising aquatic taekwondo...
ReplyDeleteCO2 emissions per capita during the same period as above chart increased from 1.72 metric tons to 3.03 metric tons.
ReplyDeleteSo EIAs are supposed to make sure that human health and our environment are protected. How do then explain that so much coal has been used since 1996 to produce our electricity? While renewable energy projects were booming elsewhere...
ReplyDeleteBooming everywhere, except in the USA, the champion CO2 producer...
ReplyDeleteOh this guy...
ReplyDeleteNegative electricity prices for several hours in California while a Minister here wants to jack up water charges and doesn't want to lower how much we pay for electricity???
ReplyDeleteBritain spends a full day not burning any coal to produce electricity after a couple of centuries. For Mauritius it's the reverse: we were producing only 1% of our power with coal back in 1996. Switzerland, Belgium and Norway don't use coal at all.
ReplyDelete