The Kind of Year 2009 Should Have Been (End)

July: You now know that texting is as bad as drunk driving. And that the great little country ain't dead yet. You should also doubt and discuss and start writing in our sexy language.

August: We should have been quite concerned about the ability of the economic reform to produce results. And paid a bit more attention to search results.

September: Ramgoolam should have shown he's a little bit more serious about MID and we should have adopted an economic constitution. We should not have forgotten how rich we are and why his airness is above the rest. And you should never cross a Nepalese bridge without our free guide.

October: We should have allowed miracles to immediately enter our lives and started to Samba.

November: Ramgoolam should have appointed new board members at the central bank and cancelled the tax on savings.

December: Maybe you should have been less surprised about couples breaking-up. Ramgoolam should have ended MEXA's blackmail and understood that the stimulus package did not save 5,000 jobs. Teachers should not have been inspired by MEXA.

Read the start of the review.

The Kind of Year 2009 Should Have Been

January: Berenger should have allowed Lutchmeenaraidoo to head the MMM. Oil prices should have come down by 25% to give our economy a breather. And our banks should have collapsed because there was a stimulus package ready to save them.

February: Board of MK should have been replaced with prudent persons while MP Dayal should have yelled for fact-finding committees over the STC and MK hedging scandals. Mansoor should have resigned from two more places and Hu should have been asked to stick around for good. Ramgoolam should have allowed his star candidate to run for office.

March: You should have ordered Mallaby's excellent book to get a good grasp on the World Bank. And you now have no excuses about not speaking up.

April: Our island should have sunk with all the terrible weather. No link was established between sporting the ancestor of havaianas and poverty-reduction. The Mauritian people should not have been kicked like that.

May: Island's international standing should not have been damaged. Government should have known better why firms die and get some hostage-negotiation training. Budget should have attracted a 1000 times more interest. We should have been spared those dead bones and external factors should have gotten their act together.

June: Work on fixing our balance of payments problems should have begun. Government should have improved the job dynamics in our economy. The King of Pop should have stayed a little longer.

Read the rest of the review.

Iceberg Still Not in Sight

5 dead out of 40 confirmed cases. That's 12.5% and according to the official numbers. The strangest part of it all is that the number of confirmed cases isn't rising fast enough to match the kind of stress our health system has been undergoing over the past couple of weeks. Our detection of the disease seems to have failed.

In the meantime, an increasing number of parents have assessed -- with the help of Google -- the risks better than our current slate of politicians and have decided to keep their kids at home until the storm has passed or official numbers start making more sense. Whichever comes first.

We will obviously need to set up a fact-finding committee to learn why the protocol did not spare each and every life that was lost.