Thursday, November 28, 2024

Ramgoolam Appoints Toxic Bean-Counter As BoM Governor

It came as a shock to people who had voted for the Alliance of Change as they haven't forgotten how Rama Sithanen had badly messed up their livelihoods during his last stint as Minister of Finance between 2005 and 2010 with an extreme version of trickle-down economics. It was so bad that he could not be given a ticket – a first for an outgoing FM – in GE1010 and didn't take the risk of running as an independent candidate. Of course before that the then PM had to give a second Presidential term to SAJ and help get PJ elected in the 2009 by-election to prove his goodwill before sealing an alliance with the MSM so as to avoid electoral mayhem. He was also not elected in GE2014 and GE2019 and that too in two different constituencies while for GE2024 the risk was too great for Ramgoolam to give him a chance to return to parliament.

The 70-year-old Sithanen has also made a number of disturbing statements. Here's one.

And here's some more.

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Book That Makes Mauritian Voters Smart As Hell Published


It's available in several locations worldwide since yesterday. The Mauritian diaspora will be able to understand GE2024 and politics in their motherland and elsewhere like never before.

Friday, October 4, 2024

Voter Survey for GE2024 Goes Live

Takes only a couple of minutes. We'd love to get your responses in this anonymous poll. And we'll publish the aggregate results.

Tuesday, August 20, 2024

Meet A 94-year-old Who Has A Gift For the PM

Ms. Dassyn was the first one to garland SSR when he was first elected in 1948. Now twenty-one years later she's the oldest elector in riding No.5 and on the same platform as him in Pamplemousses. They are meeting again for the inauguration of an ultra-modern hospital. So we discover on reading the chapter of Petals of Dust that starts on page 94.

The 357-bed hospital with 120,000 square feet of covered space has been meticulously planned and sports the first ICU of the island, an isolation ward among other important features and had become a necessity as a rapidly increasing population – the demographic bomb was in the midst of being defused – had reduced the beds/1,000 pax from 2.5 to 1.9 and was in line with government's promise and plan of upgrading the delivery of public health.

The 38-year-old Minister of Health who'd been in the job for two years – as well as eight in that of the General Secretary of the Labour Party – doesn't fail to give credit where it is due. He tells us that the foundation stone was laid in 1963 when Guy Forget had the portfolio while Harold Walter presided over almost all of the building work when he was in charge. There was even an arts competition. Architects, sculptors and labourers are thanked. He seemed to have had a lot of fun equipping the new gem.

The first time I went to the SSRNH I was quite impressed by the sophistication, scale of the facilities and ambiance there. Mind you this was the feeling of a boy who was probably in Standard III just waiting in the car. Many years later when I read Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's first impression of Brasilia – Oscar Niemeyer designed it as an airplane – I immediately thought of my first encounter with lopital di nor. "The impression I have is that I'm arriving on a different planet." 

Sunday, August 4, 2024

Suddenly, Mastering QM Becomes Fun


I've made an awesome book out of the QM pages of my much-appreciated CFA® Level 1 Lifesaver. You can download it on your Apple device if you have access to a particpating store. I suspect people heading to university or wanting to master QM will also love it. IA is also there.

Tuesday, May 21, 2024

World Celebrates Birth and Awakening of Lord Buddha


It's called Vesak and is understanbly the most important celebration any Buddhist can participate in. Hindus too celebrate Buddha's jayanti tomorrow May 22 as they consider him the 9th avatar of Vishnu. It's difficult not to consider him the successor of the previous avatar, Lord Krishna, when you take the time to carefully examine their recommendations given about twenty-five centuries apart. Especially the fundamental one that urges us to test what they prescribe. Happy Vesak Day!

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

The Jag! After 2016

The last time we took stock of the output there we had just finished the fifth part in our series on electoral reform. Since then we've added four more pieces in that thread and thirty-nine other posts till now. There were no articles last year though, the first time since 2016 but it's not the longest drought period on that blog. I have a good excuse. 2024 looks better with already two and both of them are in kreol. The first one was an analysis on six pledges of the LP/MMM/PMSD alliance – it uses four of our clips – and the last on why six titans of the Mauritius Labour Party are unlikely to vote for Navin Ramgoolam in 2024 or for the other two main parties for that matter.

Of course Covid-19 happened during this 7-year period which explains why we had pieces on the vaccination status and jabs to buy in 2022 after we had become less ignorant about viruses. That was also the year of the 75th anniversary of India's independence. We published one piece on the Gentle Elephant when it was Midnight on August 15 in Bharat. Two days earlier we wrote a post on faith which started with a tribute to an extraordinary actor that said goodbye during the pandemic. We also investigated who's been the longest-serving General Secretary of the MLP

Other pieces included celebrating the 90th anniversary of a maverick, the Pope's visit, ideas to roll back drug use, an interesting piece on transport policy, comments on the offerings in the 2019 general election, fact-checking a toxic politician, decolonisation, the Central Water Authority, the World Bank and economic miracles. Plus one on the importance of the national currency in determining the wealth of a nation and another on an infamous anniversary. And more.

That's a lot of good stuff to read don't you think?