Boss Has A Message For Us

Pope’s Warning Turns One

Francis visited us exactly a year today and celebrated a wonderful mass in honour of Father Laval in Port-Louis. Later in the day he told a gathering of the civil society and the authorities to move away from the idolatrous economy we had been worshipping (understand by this speculative FDI, record inequality, national problems not solved, not enough regard for the environment and a degraded public health system because trickle down economics had made government run out of money).

Twelve months later, how much of this common sense has been heeded?

How Will You Use Your Free Electricity?

“Je suis là pour travailler dans l’intérêt du pays

et tant que je serais ministre,

il n’y aura aucune baisse du tarif.

Que ce soit bien clair.”

Ivan Collendavelloo, 2016

The one the CEB will soon supply to you if it does a very average job of using current technology to make us benefit from our geography and topography. See, the cost of producing electricity using wind and sun has decreased significantly while storage has improved enough – one option is a giant version of your smartphone battery – to bring renewable energy close to base-load status. So two things should happen very soon. One is that the cost of electricity – by the way we’re talking clean power here – should fall and two it will be free and even negative on a increasing number of days.

This will require that we tweak our weather reports so they inform us of the expected daily electricity production and its cost which will in turn determine for example when we wash one or two extra loads of clothes and run our businesses a bit more intensively. Other countries like Germany and the UK are already there. We should too. To crawl back from the deep mess we’re in. And not waste another five years.

References

1. Prices Go Negative in Germany, a Positive for Energy Users, New York Times, December 25, 2017.

2. Government Programme 2020-24, Comments, S. Jagatsingh, Forthcoming, 2020.

Mauritius and Global Warming

Pope Should Squeeze Botanical Garden in Tight Schedule

Because there might be a six-lane motorway and a couple of shopping malls right in the middle of it the next time he or his successor visits our island. Granted promoters would have promised to plant 300,000 trees or whatever in Mare Chicose but it will never be the same thing. Just like trips to Beau-Vallon have been ruined forever. 

What's Worse Than Termites?

How You Know the BLS is Not Subsumable

That's easy. Just check the democracy-shrinking bill on electoral reform that the PM will be bringing to parliament tomorrow. If a party doesn't line up at least 1/3 of women or men (see p6) it will lose its party status and will therefore not get any proportional representation (PR) seats. If a PR-MP crosses the floor his or her seat may be declared vacant under certain conditions. Clearly these are sanctions. But look for one if you don't line up candidates from more than one community and you will find none. Are there sanctions if names on the party lists don't reflect some of our diversity? Nope. Any sanctions if the best loser seats as defined in the dangerous proposal are attributed to members of one community? Ziltch.

We know that the BLS has deprived us of some really good oppositions. And that 50 years of progress is enough proof to do away with it because the best protection for any minority is policies that makes sense: progressive taxation, respect for the environment and solving national problems. But that's not what happening. Attempts are being made to fool us into believing that an autocracy will make us a united country. This is also what Rezistans ek Alternativ has effectively been doing for several years.

No Better Day To Ban Plastic Bottles

We know drinking from them is no good for our health. Or for mother earth. A cheaper and healthier alternative is to use old glass bottles at home to store boiled water. It tastes better too. You can even label it with your name. That's a much better decision as a citizen of a country of 1.3 million people and about nine amputations every week than to have a personalised can of soda. You can also buy a container and carry water with you when you go play.

Little things like this will make us more respectful of the environment and make spaceship Earth last a lot longer. Unless you are in a hurry to go live indoors on Mars forever. Like an idiot.

Travayer Transpor Dir Politisyins Kwar Pei La Pu Zot Papa

La School is Latest Victim of Flat Tax

In two ways. As a country trickle-down economics has made us seriously short of cash. The other is that the focus has changed. Culture, beaches and national priorities have taken a backseat to a concrete invasion.

We've become retarded in way too many fields. At a time when the pace at which the World is getting smarter is increasing.

Metro Express Not Needed, For Now

We should do it now otherwise it will cost more later I hear you say. The correct yardstick is its share of GDP otherwise we're blindsided by money illusion. Besides there are better choices. The first one is obviously to beef up the number and quality of buses -- fitting a number of them with catalytic converters will also improve air quality -- on our roads. And improving their schedules. Plus letting congestion pricing do a little bit of its magic. After making cars more expensive. Especially the larger ones. While making the smaller hybrid ones even cheaper. This should improve flow. And GDP. But not as much as restoring progressive taxation. Which should be the topmost priority.

Not sure whether a metro should run between Port-Louis and Curepipe. When it will be the right time to do it we might find it obvious to exclude these two cities. 

Mauritius Adjusts to Ban of Plastic Bags

In one grocery store I checked there were no paper bags to put your bread in. Some people just placed theirs on the damp cashier conveyor belt. You can only guess the source of that humidity. Our sister island Rodrigues has banned plastic bags for 18 months now. I wonder if we've learned everything we could from their experience?

It's a good move to ban these plastic bags. We should get rid of this nuisance next.

Tant vakwa here I come.

Waiting Better Than Massive Bat Culling

Our flying fox had been red-listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) because its population was expected to decline by about a third in the next twenty one years. Culling 18,000 bats is equivalent to exterminating 20% of the species -- in a few weeks -- if you think there are 90,000 of them. Additional pressure that the endemic bats might find impossible to bear. But wait. Not everybody agrees there are 90k bats: the IUCN puts the actual figure closer to 50,000. Which would mean that the operation under way will be eliminating a third of Zorro Volador Negro de Mauricio.

Projections of the IUCN may also be too optimistic as meteorological data appears to have become increasingly shaky: cyclones and hurricanes have been showing up in places great-grandmothers never thought possible. Plus we've seen several cyclones lining up in our neck of the ocean in the not-so-distant past.

The upshot of all this uncertainty is that we need to tread super cautiously. For sure there seems to be more bats now -- Mauritius has been spared by strong cyclones for several years -- but more people are netting their trees. Which should give government pause to consider other mitigating measures that have been tried elsewhere. Especially given that bats are not the only fruit predators in town. And in any case many of them will not survive a major cyclone.

Should the State Buy the Tamarin Salt Pans?

Because Mauritians have a strong emotional connection with them? Maybe. We have to decide how much we want these 40 or so acres to keep on eliciting those special feelings in us. Each time we see them. Maybe 10 acres are enough to keep our souls happy. Maybe not. Just like we have to reflect on the quality of the decision to use so much coal on an island with one of the world's best air quality. Not very smart for the poster child of sustainability, eh? It's like running a central bank like a tabazi. While the owners of the salt pans have every right to find ways of optimising their assets we have to realise that in Mauritius our land use is not exactly world-beating. Maybe we got carried away with the toxic mantra of 'grot' at all costs?

It's never too late to do good though. Let's immediately liberalise the importation of sugar to help make it easier for us as a country to preserve important parts of our souls. We've been there before with La Vallee de Ferney. 10 years ago. Let's do it again!

First Vishnu Budget in 25 Years Now Available

Given that it was supposed to be a 75-minute budget I listened to most of it. It's a lot more pleasant than those that were presented between 2005 and 2010. There are a number of interesting things like gaming houses leaving city centres and the ban of plastic bags. Which has been in force for over nine months in Rodrigues. And they have increased their lead having recently announced the sorting of garbage like some countries do. Promising to implement the report which looked at making banking practices fairer is also not a bad idea.

Of course it's not a no-tax budget. Government has already quietly depreciated our rupee -- 12.8% as of today's speech -- and kept petrol prices higher than they ought to have been. The steady depreciation will make sure that Mauritius doesn't benefit from the collapse in oil prices. Again.

There are also other problems with this budget. Like inequality is likely to persist. More on this later.

What did you think?

Stray Dogs To Be Put To Sleep

The Ministry of Environment has identified 42 public beaches where these loose dogs are a problem. So they are going to catch them and euthanise them after three days if they are not adopted. Stray dogs are not only a problem on beaches. They are literally a problem everywhere in Mauritius.

But aren't there any alternatives to killing them so fast? Maybe not for those who have rabies. The rest could benefit from what has been done elsewhere.

How To Clean Up Mumbai Smartly

Bird Nest Telling Us Something

That we are using way too much paper and plastic and throwing it everywhere. I don't know how typical this one is but when you come across more have a look and tell us what you find. Because twenty-five years ago they were made of almost 100% natural stuff. Not good.

2012: The Year in Review (Q3)

July: Barclays chairman quits over Libor-rigging. Scientists say bump in data is cosmic molasses. Kuma Pyongyang TV kav sanz biltin linformasyon. Ramgoolam rat enn lot randevu ek listwar. Ki groser enn telefon bizin ete? Court says Galaxy not as cool as iPad. And how many speak kreol in the air? Do we know how to manage an airline? It's not geography, stupid.

August: Politicians, not our democracy, tired. Dekortikasyon lingwistik JT promye ut. Singapore never chased growth desperately. How low taxes have degraded our environment. 18 miners die over pay dispute. CSR not a good yardstick for our altruism. State proudly hatching traffic frankenstein. Humanity experiences biggest blackout. Mauritius at 56th spot in PISA math ranking. Meet the ABS.

September: Obama gets a little help from new friend. Indian PM worth 10.73 crore. iOS 6 dumps Google Maps.

Read the review for Q1, Q2, Q4.

La Crise Financiere A Bon Dos