Thursday, May 20, 2010

Where Were You On February 6, 1975?

Because that was the day a pretty little thing called Gervaise spent the day crossing Mauritius. If you were old enough not to have been in diapers then you probably ate some faratas on that day.

The damage to our economy was extensive as you can imagine. You may also wish to take a look at a manuscript that Mr. Padya filed about one aspect of the intense tropical cyclone here.

So 1975 was not a boring year at all: February we get Gervaise and three months later students are on the GRNW bridge.

12 comments:

  1. Thanks Sanjay for reminding our so-called young generation the real facts about the Mauritian economy. Thanks also for the Padya document. But most of all, a real thany you for your TAMBO paper. I am rather new to Kozelidir (became aware of its existence from a newspaper article not too long ago) and have missed all these important debates. I think Navion should be faxed a copy which might help him a lot for the writing up of his famous "Discours-Programme" to be delivered on 8 June by the President.

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  2. @Anonymous: Welcome to Kozelidir! It's important to put our economic history on a firm footing. And we'll be delighted to have your views going forward. TAMBO was widely circulated among lawmakers on both sides of our National Assembly.

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  3. Thanks for kind encouragement. I know that Maurice Paturau has published a "Histoire economique de l'Ile Maurice" in 1988. It covers a limited period and moreover, the author has passed. The book is out of stock ever since and I have not been able to know what's inside that book. So there is a real need for a more complete version of the Economic History of Mauritius. Th author is well known for his "Byproducts of the Cane Sugar Industry" (Elsevier, £90) which is sort of a bible in Brazil and Cuba.

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  4. @Anonymous: Google didn't find anything about the "Histoire Economique de l'ile Maurice" but the one on sugar cane is available from affiliated sellers on Amazon at USD400+. The book description looks indeed interesting.

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  5. I WAS STATIONED ON THE USS ENTERPRISE AT THE TIME, WE ARRIVED AT PT LOUIS SHORTLY AFTER THE STORM. OUR SHIP SUPPLIED THE CITY WITH AS MUCH FRESH WATER AS WE COULD PRODUCE, ALONG WITH WORK DETAILS TO ASSIST IN SOME OF THE CLEAN-UP AND REPAIRS IN THE AREA.

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  6. As I recall, the cyclone lasted about four days - two days with the winds from one direction, about 4 hours in the eye, and then another couple of days with the winds from the opposite direction!

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  7. Imagine this scenario applied to Dodoland's experts in prediction... Météo, Serzan Sipaki (exper en blokaz traffic), MAM, ek biensur san-zoublié l'inénarable et vénérable Matam Kwok (ek so bann ti kamouad prévizionis ki contan ranpli paz prémié zournal sak lané).

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  8. Bann chiant_tist-la pann ekut zot prop sinial. Wai, li importan verifie bann previzion (inkluan bann sondaz). Bon pa saem derule ek bann zurnalis ki fer pronostik lor lekurs?

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  9. RIP Mr. Padya who was the first Mauritian to head the Met Services.

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  10. This is the level of risk we expose ourselves to when wandering outside during a cyclone.
    Nice side note: you'll see that Dodoland does not hold a monopoly in the production of the crazily zig-zagging type of motorcyclists...

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  11. Impressive. So a tsunami is a fast-moving giant guillotine and a cyclone several packs of flying guillotines?

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  12. Pa kone si pa Carlos pe amenn enn gato ar li.

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