Audit Report for FY 2012 Now Available

Here. Glanced at it quickly. It is saying that debt servicing has increased dramatically. Which is something we've highlighted before. But boy is this a report that's not the easiest to read.

Your comments?

Kozelidir Person of The Year 2012

Attributed to the CPE student for putting up with a badly designed learning process.

Biden-Ryan Debate Felt More Presidential

Than the one Romney won against Obama. Biden was definitely more confident and slammed his opponent with the 47% controversy. It was also a very relevant debate for us here in Mauritius because we are grappling with almost identical issues (save the military ones): low and unsustainable tax rates that create a debt mountain and hinder growth, competitiveness (btw, no one advocated any idiotic "competitive depreciation"), health care and even abortion.

The moderator, Martha Raddatz, did a terrific job: she was not complacent and asked many good questions that allowed her to stay in control of the hostilities. And fair.

Here's a chance for you to catch-up if you missed it.

Obama Meets Challenger in Debate

The first of three. They will be discussing domestic policy and veteran Jim Lehrer will moderate the hostilities. Starts at 9PM EST which means 5AM in Dodoland. So set your alarm.

Barack is going into this debate with a 4% lead over Mitt and on track to be the first $1 billion Presidential candidate this month. Or about 10% more than the GOP's total. Costly campaign, eh? Both sides will then buy huge amounts of advertisement time and space to try to make a difference on Tuesday November 6.

Obama Gets A Little Help From New Friend

Thank You London!

For the great emotions you provided for a little over two weeks. Watching Bolt run nine times was more than a treat. Along with Jamaican colleagues. Phelps made some more history. Brazil did not look hungry enough to win the men's football final. And Russia made an awesome comeback in the last game of the men's volleyball.

It was also fun guessing who would win the different events. It was not the Greek-god type of athlete who threw the javelin the furthest. Nope, it was a skinny Keshorn Walcott from Trinidad and Tobago. Who seemed to have the right combination of height, speed and shoulder muscle flexibility. Same for the decathlon  with Ashton Eaton. Quite nice to see Leonel Suarez finish third there -- he won the javelin and high-jump parts.

And the US won most gold this time: 48 or 10 more than China. Which won 13 less events than in Beijing. While Britain bagged 10 more gold than four years ago. Doesn't hurt to play at home.

Good thing we have the English Premier League starting on Saturday. To help get us out of any post-Olympic blues.

I Love Mauritius

Liverpool Ends 6-Year Trophy Drought

By winning the 2012 Carling Cup on a 3-2 penalty shootout against Cardiff City. Hopefully this will motivate them to finish in the top four league spots.

Sarkozy Joins Presidential Race

That was yesterday. He has 64 days to convince French voters to give him another mandate. That's 30 days more than the campaign of our last general election. His main rivals wasted little time to react.

Why American Manufacturing Has Been Relocating Abroad

It's not because of lower wages. But because of the overall costs of doing business. So says an interesting 3-part article by Carl Pope. And Barack Obama who will announce what he essentially intends of doing if he gets a second mandate in November when he delivers his annual report card to Congress tomorrow is expected to address these issues.

Indeed, the media has reported that the thrust of a second Obama term will revolve around education, manufacturing and innovation. Which is essentially what Steve Jobs told him he should work on back in October 2010 in order to avoid ending up as a one-mandate President.

How Sarkozy Wanted To Be Evaluated

Journalist Helping Democracy Work Better

How US Presidents Are Elected

Do you know how it's done? If  you do, you don't have to watch this simple clip. Interesting. 

France Loses AAA Rating

Ready For The International Year of Cooperatives?

That's what the United Nations calls it. We just see it as an another opportunity to cover additional ground that matters. 2012 will be an interesting year for Kozelidir: somewhere during September or October we should reach the 1,000 post milestone. Which will be around the time we turn 4.

Make the best of this new year. Take care of your health and be happy. We'll provide the right angle for the debates.

Sarkozy Deciphered By 18 Foreign Correspondents

How Much Sleep Should You Lose Over The Doing Business Rankings?

None. See, it's not correlated with any of our national priorities. But we just lost 3 spots I hear a few of you say. Indeed, but that's 3 times less than the 9 spots we lost back in 2007, the year of the... ahem... early harvest. Still, given that we don't want our friends at the Joint Economic Council to do anything foolish during the week-end here's something to cheer them up: Mauritius has moved up 50 places in the Logistics Performance Index in the last few years from a miserable 132nd spot. By the way, if you average out our rank in these two indices you end up with 52.5 which is very close to our 54th place in the recently published 2011-2012 Global Competitiveness Report. Which is a more comprehensive yardstick.

Sleep tight.

Obama Turns 50

He's been one busy President. Jumped in the worst crisis since the Great Depression and barely managed to avoid the US defaulting. And the world is becoming increasingly multi-polar with Chindia to play a larger role in many spheres.

And Obama will seek re-election next year.