Lepep Tram Unlikely Biggest Project Ever

Kind of obvious if you have listened carefully to some of the numbers used by Minister Bodha on the same day George Chung deemed that the controversial tram project was basically riskless. As you might not have the figures mentioned six months ago to show the savings over two projects – not exactly the same ones – that were initially promoted by the Labour Party are copied in the table below. 

Given that the road decongestion program (RDP) will spend about Rs3 billion every year for a handful of years and that it will not be the first time nor the last that billions will be wasted to fight the traffic Frankenstein – which is growing bigger thanks to policy-making which is very clumsy – it shouldn't take long before you hear Mr. Bodha's successors announce that the RDP has overtaken the tram project.

The thing is that these unnecessary projects – which constitute the silly response to problems caused by a growth in the car pool which has been left unchecked for way too long – will not only make Mauritius weaker but will also make her uglier. It will make her weaker because as Intel has reminded us a car stays idle over 90% of the time and that hardly makes it a productive investment. Especially when you consider all the other problems of having too many of them. This explains why Singapore has been shrinking her number of cars to levels not seen in eight years. Mind you we're talking here about a country which has nine people to every car and a GDP per capita more than five times ours. Here we have like six people to every car and foolishly think that we can handle more. And that too when heavy road-users already describe several parts of our road network as an overcrowded barracoon.

These projects will definitely make Mauritius less attractive. Just ask any of the 270 trees of the Promenade Roland Armand. That's too heavy a price to pay for things that don't qualify as smart development especially when we know that the Bus Rapid Transit is a much better alternative that will immediately bring much-needed relief to road users. We should also start to act as a middle-income country – and soon a fifty-year old – by protecting our world-famous views. Just like London has been doing for more than a century. Which explains why the Leadenhall Building had to be built like a cheese-grater.

The least Pravind Jugnauth can do is to organise a referendum on such an important national issue. Making good on one electoral pledge will not only deepen our democracy it will also help avoid total political disaster in the next general election.

Berguitta To Spend Day in Mauritius

It's been almost eleven years since a significant rotating air mass made it to our Met's cyclone Hall of Fame. For a visit of an intense cyclone you have to go back eighteen years when Connie checked us out for three days at the end of January. Only about 10% of cyclones actually go over us -- Berguitta would be the sixth since 1945. The last chick to do this was Christelle, a moderate depression, twenty-three years ago. It gets even more interesting if you want to find out when was the last intense cyclone that crossed Mauritius. This singular honour goes to Claudette which ruined Xmas 1979 and threw Mauritius into an economic depression -- GDP contracted by 10% in 1980. This was a scary time to grow up. Especially if you had tasted another pretty little thing called Gervaise four years earlier.

Given that it's been thirty-eight years since a cyclone got to know us up close and personal there is a good chance that one in every six Mauritians will experience something new in the next twenty-four hours. Oh yeah one last thing. As the airport will be closed tomorrow, Berguitta has organised her own means of transportation.

By-Election Experience Makes Strong Case For Return To 40 SMCs

Like it was in 1959 and 1963. Because as we've seen in riding no. 18 recently when electors vote for only one candidate in a constituency – SMCs stand for single-member constituencies – political parties immediately understand the need to put good candidates. And this kind of setup makes it easier for better debates between candidates from many parties to happen.

Plus we know our parliament is too big just by comparing to other countries. We also know it's too big for a simple reason. A referendum should be organised to let the people decide.

Trust you've noticed that candidates in a by-election don't have to declare in which one of four 'ethnic groups' they fall into.