30/3 and 3/5 Are Our 9/11s

11 people died on 30 March 2013 after 15 centimetres of rain fell on Port-Louis. That's 83% of the 2,996 people who died in the US on September 11, 2001 after adjusting for population. And 34 days later another 11 of our fellow Mauritians perished in a bus accident.

11 people dying in Mauritius is roughly equivalent to the 10,600 lives that were lost in India during the 2004 tsunami. So basically in 2013 we were hit by two deadly tsunamis within about a month.

We cannot forget what happened. Which is why we should refer to them as 30/3 and 3/5 so they stay in national conversations for as long as possible. Just like there is 26/11 for Mumbai and 7/7 for London.

Firemen Extricate Victims of Road Accident

2013: The Year in Review (Q3)

July: The book Steve Jobs read once every year. How high should top tax rates be? Bus conductor sues CNT for Rs15 million. Rezistans should ponder over alternatives.

August: How Robin Sharma beats laziness. Michio Kaku on civilisation paths. Civil service hostage of Finance Ministry.

September: Terminal 3 launched to a difficult crowd. Harbour bridge project should be scrapped. Ballmer finds quick way to make a billion: resigning from Microsoft. Inpe zafer ki totalman inprevizib. Wanted: new devil's advocate. Understanding our recent budget deficit numbers. Indian cinema turns 100. Better income distribution is route to shorter workweek.

Read the review for Q1, Q2 and Q4.

2013: The Year in Review (Q2)

April: Cellphone turns 40. Iron Lady dead at 87. Boston Marathon ends in carnage. Human computer dead at 73. Manu wins 20th, Ivanovic to be tested for rabies.

May: India welcomes friend back as Chinese Premier. Manraj report to cost an extra billion. One famous Himalayan hug turns 60.

June: Why Club M will miss World Cup in Brazil. Amazing ad gets 2013 WWDC started. Confederation cup offers sneak preview of next World Cup. How long things take. ACIM makes serious arguments to the MPC, the Financial Secretary a fool of himself, again. State flip flops on the CNT.

Read the review for Q1, Q3 and Q4.

How Our Standards Bureau Can Save Lives

By making sure, for example, that no buses that are unfit for our roads are allowed to operate. It seems strange that NTC buses kept having problems over several years yet they were not left in their garages.

Also I don't understand how in the past as many as 400 people have been victims of food-poisoning after eating from the same street vendor. That's just one example. There have been many.

Here's another one. Fans burning down houses and killing twins. Standards need to be rigorously enforced.

Rose-Hill Transport Takes Service To New Levels

With its two brand new Yutong semif-floor buses which are according to Mr. Sharma structurally stronger and provide a more comfortable and secure ride. For only Rs6 more. They come with a camera and will set RHT back by Rs4 million a piece. Kind of happy to see this given what I said five years ago.

In the meantime the NTC is buying buses via a tender. Shouldn't we scrap this process and empower the CNT to buy buses that make sense?

Inpe Zafer Ki Totalman Inprevizib

1. Guvernman pu fer 7,500 a 9,000 zelev fel zot legzame CPE ankor en fwa byinto. Eh wi, sa li pu en mari sirpriz sa. Nu pu totalman etone. Anfin, ziska mem kantite zelev fel lane prosen.
2. 11 dimun mor dan inondasion le 30 mars. Non, u pe fer erer: zame u ti truv en PPS bloke dan so loto divan la rad le 13 fevrier. Aret reve kamarad!
3. 11 dimun mor dan en bis CNT. En kut fluk sa papao. Aksidan Montebello 2009? En deziem kut fluk sa do matlo.
4. Kupir dilo rekumanse ankor. Pa fot guvernman sa. Se u fot. U pa pe priye bondie ase pu fer lapli tonbe. Se usi inpe so fot: li pa kon viz kuma dimun. Nu dan guvernman nu pu kontinie ogmant pri dilo ziska u aret servi dilo uswa ziska u la priyer marse.
5. Lekonomi pan rebondi kan lekonomi mondial fin sort dan resesion an 2009. Kifer u prese kumsa, ein? Fin gayn zis kat an depi resesion mondial fin fini. Li pu bizin rebondi dan prosen sinkant banane. E pa bliye ki se akoz ban kondision extern ki nu dan fatak. Apre aret plinye. Nu dan byin isi gras a reform. Pena bomb be tom lor u latet ek anplis nu pe travay dir pu polision vin kuma dan lasin. 
6. Flat tax fin zet 22,000 dimun dan lamizer. Phiu, en kwinsidans sa mo burzwa. Sat mao pu may lera vit vit la. Pa trakase.
7. Buku milyar FDI pa fin redwir somaz mem. Get sa, pa akoz u ena en degre liniversite ki u pa pu kapav vin enn bon zardinie dan en proze IRS. Wena bel swa: u kav netway pisin usi. Apre ler u rant lakaz pa bliye ekut nuvel pu apran listwar u pei kuma bizin.

Bus Conductor Sues CNT For Rs15 Million

Ram Bundhoo says that he and his colleague driver, Ganesh Deepchand, who was among the 10 who lost their lives in the Blue Line bus 4263 AG 2007 on Friday May 3 -- the death toll now stands at 11 -- had repeatedly reported mechanical problems with that particular bus.

Ashwin Dookun gave an interview as Chairman of the CNT on Sunday where he recommended that Anil Bachoo take his retirement. He was sacked the next day.

State Flip Flops On the CNT

First it reallocates routes to private companies because a number of the CNT buses are apparently unfit for our roads. That seemed to have been discovered right after 11 people died recently in a gruesome accident in Soreze. And then workers strike because they feel it's a disguised attempt to privatise their organisation essentially asking why would the most profitable lines be transferred if not to further weaken the company.

Government then u-turns under pressure and hands back the lines. The strike stops but then on Friday Cabinet maintains the reallocation of the routes saying it cannot play with the security of passengers.

Now, isn't that funny? Tolerance for killer buses doesn't seem to be uniform among cabinet members. It would be interesting to find out the safety features of the CNT buses compared to let us say those of the official cars that are provided to Ministers. And about the operational history of each of the buses that the CNT bought over the last 20 years or so. Not bad either if we could be told what exactly was done after the accident in Montebello in 2009 where four people lost their lives.

By the way, how come the state buys sophisticated transport equipment like the Airbus A-340 and then buys crap for the travelling citizens. That too after an early harvest and a bumper crop?

Is the TINA Disease Spreading To The CNT?

That's a potential conclusion on reading Le Matinal which is announcing that the state has decided to privatise the organisation because it is making losses and has debt. The article adds that planning is not needed: only vision is needed. Really?

I disagree. For sure people differ in their ability to read the tea leaves and peer into the future but planning is a building block of basic management. If you're not gonna -- or are not able to -- do anything else you should plan.

How Can a Casino Lose Money?

I don't have an answer to that. What I do note though is some kind of give-your-public-institution-a-bad-name-and-hang-it disease that has been afflicting our country for too long. Take the CEB for example. It was declared absolutely dependent on private capital about a decade ago and found guilty of all kinds of sins one of which apparently seemed to have found its way back into the 12th report the NESC has just released.

A craving which eventually translated into higher electricity prices for us and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to seriously degrade the competitiveness of Mauritius Inc. That situation was so ridiculous that it even got a gullible Ramgoolam to do his chess-thumping routine nearly two years ago. What he termed a historic agreement then has still to make iota of difference for a super majority of voters.

Same issue at the CNT. How can it not be profitable? Well if you had a look at the types of buses that they've been putting on the roads for ages compared to the types of cars that they've been allowed to purchase you could be getting closer to a hint.

We know for a fact that the private sector doesn't have a monopoly over common sense or good management for that matter. We've seen proof of that again with the recent and controversial stimulus package: it seemed to be such a marvellous thing as long as it remained opaque. But the private sector can take some comfort in not having designed such an absurd scheme.

What's next? The privatisation of the anti-drug and smuggling unit?

U Ki Pu Vinn Dir Mwa Ki Bis Bizin Met Lor Larut?

Se seki enn General Manager CNT ti aparaman dir so minis enn zur byen lontan de sela. General Manager u konn li: zordi zur li sekreter zeneral parti travays. Be etan donne ki job la inn revinn disponib eski pa ti kav remet Deva Virahsawmy laba pou enn ti letan pou li remet bis ki bizin lor nu larut. Si u rapel byen enn lepok nu ti ena bann bon bis lor nu sime. Zot ti sort zapon ek zot ti apel Hino ek Isuzu. Zot pa ti larg lafime kuma sa bann dinozor ki roule zordi zur la.

Parey kuma ler inn vinn pli respirab dan bann plas piblik avek interdiksyon sigaret, ti pu bon regler sa problem bis polyan enn fwa pour toute. En fet guvernman ti kav met ban konvertiser katalitik a so fre lor sa bann vehikil fimigen la parski li pu ekonomiz plis ki sa lor fre la sante bann sitoyens. Inpe kuma ti fer a Santiago o Sili.

24/7: Ene Ti Kestion

Si nu anvi lekonomi turne 24/24 7 zur lor 7 eski ban bis usi pa ti bizin rule tut la nwi? B CNT inn desid pu aret fer bis ruler 21h. Amwin kiken pu transport travayer dan so Aston Martin a partir never aswar...