Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Ramgoolam Publishes His White Paper, Finally

And he is giving you 42 days to read it and to send your submissions compared to the 389 days it took him to get it out. This kind of defeats the purpose of having a white paper. The deadline will definitely have to be extended to September.

Saw that the proposal of the government contained in the report is based on the perverse and dangerous Sithanen electoral galimatia. Oh boy! Labour is braindead!

Thursday, March 13, 2014

So, Where is Flight MH370?

Tomorrow it's going to be a week since the plane stopped responding. A massive international search and rescue operation -- including repositioned Chinese satellites -- hasn't really brought any answers to the families of the 239 people that were on board.

This reminded me of the time when a plane on which my dad was travelling was hijacked. When he returned safely I eventually went up to him to ask how it all went. I was especially curious because I had been told the story of the daring raid at Entebbe before and had found it amazing.

Yeah, so he told me it went ok. That he negotiated with the hijackers and pleaded for stuff some of the women needed or whatever. Our local newspapers carried the story.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

The Jag! Returns After Almost Six Years

Who would have thought, eh? But I didn't have any choice as I wanted to write a bit longer than what's acceptable on Kozelidir. I must say it felt strange to post something there. And unlike the previous pieces, it doesn't have a nice quote -- still juggling with a few in my head.

The latest post should be considered as a draft as I have more stuff to add. But I couldn't resist putting it out for you to start enjoying.

There is someone who used to be literally addicted to The Jag! and who's not there anymore. So I'll dedicate this one to Burty David.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Ramgoolam's Cake

Quite funny to hear the PM on TV say that we first need to make the (national) cake before distributing it. Funny because it's almost nine consecutive years that he's been baking one. That's an amazingly long time to bake a cake -- if you know how to bake one that is -- when you remember how long it took us to defuse the demographic bomb. Or how long it took the American economy to create her middle class.

We know for a fact that the cakes that we've been making since 2005 are the smallest in decades. Which can be attributed mostly to the incompetence of the bean-counting duet. We also know that the poorest segment of our citizens have seen their share of the cake shrink so that those who already had too much can get more. That's complimentary of the regressive effects of the flat tax of the same toxic pair.

Labour should get another baker-in-chief.

Monday, March 3, 2014

Burkas and Sarees Don't Make Rapes Less Likely

The Times of India wrote that a statistic about this was aired in the first episode of the second season of Amir Khan's Satyamev Jayate. I didn't watch the whole episode so I can't confirm that. But here it is for your benefit.

Why Berenger's Electoral Reform Proposal is A Dangerous Flop

He wants to increase the number of MPs in our Parliament by more than 45%. That's totally ridiculous because anyone with an internet connection knows that our Parliament is already too big. By one yardstick we shouldn't have more than 12 MPs. We already have 5 times more than that. That's more than enough.

Berenger wants the bulk of that increase -- 20 out of 28 -- on a party list. That's dangerous and quite perverse. The Economist recently reminded us that party lists shift MP loyalty from voters to party leaders. Given the performance of our political actors over the past several years the last thing we want to do is to ask them to stop being accountable to us.

The MMM leader has been in the political landscape for 45 years. It's time for him to retire. And allow something that his party has been bereft of for a very long time to make a much needed comeback: fresh bold ideas.