Gas Chambers Not Essential For Holocaust

The British didn't need one to kill 35 million Indians. The Turks didn't need one to slaughter 1.5 million Armenians. The Pakistani army didn't need one to murder 3 million citizens of Pakistan. The Germans didn't need one in Namibia. The French didn't need one in Algeria. And that's not even an exhaustive list. For all this reasons the UN should remember all Holocausts on January 27, not just one.

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.

How Does Norway As a Football Powerhouse Sound?

Thanks to being one of the four countries to have won the women FIFA World Cup the oil-rich country is just behind Uruguay on a World Cup per capita basis because of its small population. Germany is third and the only nation to have lifted the trophy in both the men and women versions of the tournament. Argentina and France with their two trophies are next in the ranking after Italy but ahead of Brazil because five trophies are not enough to compensate for the 209 million souls of the South American country with a land mass larger than continental USA. Japan is last among the eleven countries but this could change with its shrinking population especially if its women team in four years is as good as this year’s and doesn’t exit the tournament because of a very controversial penalty. Uruguay can sleep tight for roughly another eight years – or until the first general election on planet earth with one billion eligible voters – and that too if Norway wins the next three tournaments as Germany is not a threat for the next 90 years. 

A Polling Station Atop Mont Blanc, Almost

At 15,256 feet the one in Tashigang, Himachal Pradesh is now the world's highest and only 521 feet shy of the Franco-Italian roof but 856 feet higher than nearby Hikkim, the previous record-holder. One of over a million polling stations it has been set up for any of the 48 people that are allowed to vote there on May 19, the last of seven days of voting in the 2019 Indian general election. But it will not be as exclusive as the one erected in a remote Gujarati forest solely for Mahant Darshandas.

There will be an extra 85 million eligible voters -- roughly the population of Germany -- bringing the total to 900 million who will be tasked to elect 543 MPs in as many single-member constituencies (SMCs). 543 is unchanged from 5 years earlier -- our local political bonobos should take good note. India will have to wait for the 2029 election to cross the billion-voter mark. By that time she would have just overtaken China as the most populous country on spaceship Earth.

Voting starts today. Results will be proclaimed on May 23.

What's Not Happening During the Russian World Cup

The loss of the pre-eminent position of Uruguay as a football powerhouse. At two World Cups for a population of 3.5m it has won almost 24 times more of these tournaments per capita than Brazil. Italy, its closest rival which won the trophy four times but which didn't qualify for Russia 2018, has 0.066 cup per million inhabitants. That's 8.6 times less than the homeland of Luis Suarez. The Mannschaft is in third place with four victories but would not have overtaken the Italians even if they had not crashed out of the group stage and gone all the way to get the prize from Vlamidir Putin on July 15. Blame it on its population which is more than a third larger.

This doesn't mean that there can't be any movement in the rankings. Indeed six of the countries who are in the knockout stage and have not won the World Cup yet have populations of less than 12m. That's small enough for any of them to take Italy's spot. Plus two of these countries, Croatia and Sweden, are the teams which have impressed the most so far. A sixth title for the Selecao – the favourite at the bookies – will not improve their fifth position. They will just get a bit closer to Argentina which they might meet in the semis.

As for Uruguay should it grab its third title it will increase its cup to population ratio to almost the level it was when it shocked Brazil in the Maracana in 1950. Finally it's been eight years since a new country last added its name to the select list of World Cup winners – the newest member of the eight-nation club joined twelve years after the seventh. That's not exactly the longest we've had to wait to see this group grow. 

SEG Found to Have At Least Two More Giant Flaws

SEG stands for the Sithanen Electoral Galimatia and the first giant flaw is that government formation could take a lot more time after the polls reveal their secrets. How much more time? Well you can look at some of the recent experiences of countries where the electoral setup is either a proportional representation (PR) system or a mixture of PR and First Past The Post (FPTP). This is summarised in the table below. So including a dose of PR might leave us without a new government for as long as six months. This compares pretty unfavourably to the seven days it took us here in 2014.

And there is worse. If no government is able to emerge from a general election for a given period of time we may need to vote again as it's going to happen in Italy soon. Plus I believe the cost of a general election is in the neighbourhood of Rs300m. The cost is even greater for sticking with a caretaker government in the meantime as it would not feel it has popular support to carry out important work. Mauritius cannot afford so much uncertainty. That's for sure. God bless our FPTP system.

What about at least another giant flaw? Stay tuned.

Chuttoo Says Labour Laws Harm Mauritian Workers

Interesting debate where we learn that the hire-fire provision in our labour laws started in 2008. That's the period our very basic welfare state was being messed up by a toxic bean-counter. Mr. Chuttoo also refers to the practice of co-determination by Germany. Which is essentially about integrating workers' opinion in the decision-making process.

Why wouldn't you want your staff to help make the workplace better and where more competitive products/services are delivered? And align interests of all stakeholders? As the trade-union boss reminds us this makes it easier to freeze wages when it's needed as workers know they'll profit in any upside potential. Naturally this is easier in Deutschland where a strong mark has made Germany a very wealthy country and where policies are crafted in the interest of all Germans. Not of the weakest exporters. Not of the 1% only. And certainly not of foreigners.

Currency Policy Incompatible With Feline DNA

GDP per capita for Mauritius was only $9,142 at the end of 2015. That placed us at spot 68. We would have done a lot better had we not adopted a policy of 'competitive depreciation' for the better of thirty years. If we had kept our currency fixed at its 1985 level -- which was not too much to ask from a Tiger -- then we'd be 32 spots higher. Or just above the Arabia of the Sauds. And in the company of other high-income countries.

We were also stuck below the $10,000 threshold because the Sithanen flat tax has broken our economy. Had we kept on growing at 5.5% since 2006 we'd be seven notches higher. Fourteen if the 8% growth rates promised by the bean-counter had materialised.

In the meantime another Tiger has confirmed her stripes. A combination of high growth rates and systematic currency appreciation -- 60% over the thirty-year period -- has pushed Singapore ahead of Germany, Sweden and even Denmark.

Only dimwits will believe that 'competitive depreciation' is painless.

FPTP is a Special Kind of PR System

One that comes with a majority prize. It's a great system as it generates stable government after stable government. This has enabled Mauritius to achieve what it has. Its disadvantage is that a few times the prize may get too big. As we've seen in 1982, 1991, 1995 and 2000. But on the first three of those occasions the alliances did not last very long: between nine and twenty-one months. Which means that our first-past-the-post (FPTP) system saved us from going to vote a number of times because it's not a system which is vote wise and outcome foolish. Plus there are smart ways of correcting the most extreme of its scenarios without resorting to totally undemocratic devices like party lists that would rob voters of an important weapon: the final word to dump a politician.

Adding PR seats to our FPTP setup is not an option as we've seen what happened in Rodrigues election after election. It will eat away the stability that the majority prize provides and which is necessary for governments to operate properly. Besides our parliament is already too big. 

A European joke captures well how lucky we are to have the FPTP system here:

What is European paradise?

British parliamentary system (FPTP)

German engineering

French cuisine

Italian romance

And European hell?
Italian parliamentary system (PR)
French engineering
British cuisine
German romance

Britain has had 20 governments in 100 years. Italy, 20 governments in 5 years.

In fact Italy has had 62 governments between 1946 and 2013. But you get the point.

Can Mauritius Do Better Than 56th in Maths?

That's how we did in the 2009 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) survey. That puts us in the company of Thailand but a lot better than Qatar (80th) and Ghana (88th). But kind of far from the UK (28th) and Germany (16th). I think it was the only time we ever participated in this interesting exercise. Germany has used her PISA experience to improve her education system. Surely if its valuable to the exportweltmeister it will be for us too. Besides don't we pride ourselves on being quite good in the Queen of Sciences?

Speaking of mathematics there's also an important competition that we seemed to have missed since it was first organised back in... 1959. The 58th edition of the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) will take place in Rio de Janeiro between July 12 and 23. 109 countries have already confirmed their participation. Including plenty of African nations like Algeria, Botswana, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, South Africa and Tanzania. In last year's competition Thailand came out 12th. Even Syria will be in Rio. So should Mauritius. Details are at http://www.imo-official.org/.

Amri Was Known To German Authorities

Which is prompting some to wonder if this is not a failure to connect the dots. Mr. Amri was the middle-east refugee who drove a truck into a Berlin crowd killing 12 and injuring over 50. Parallels have been drawn with the Nice attack which happened six months earlier when another driver slammed a heavy truck into a large crowd causing 86 to lose their lives and almost 450 injuries.

Merkel is under heavy pressure after welcoming a million refugees last year. The options that Germany is looking at includes deporting high-risk individuals back to their home countries. Federal elections are due between August and October 2017. And the Chancellor will be seeking a fourth term.

How Inflation Routinely Kills People

The first way is by making many people poor enough that their life expectancy falls because of degraded living conditions. Besides poor people have a lot less access to the kind of medical options that richer people have. For example because he had a Gulfstream V Steve Jobs was able to seek a liver over a much bigger distance -- wherever his plane could take him in 6 hours -- than someone without a jet.

Inflation is also a key driver of inequality. Especially that we now know that the inflation of the poor is about 3% higher than the headline number. Inequality will bring people to the streets -- like in the Arab Spring and elsewhere -- and clashes may cause loss of lives.

Of course if inflation is very high things can get very ugly. And that too on a horrendous scale. Like in 1930s Germany where hyperinflation helped put a little guy with a moustache in power. And the world eventually went to war: between 50 and 85 million people died in WWII.

No wonder then that Central Banks have been setting inflation targets for more than 25 years now -- roughly the period of time Lutchmeenaraidoo was not Finance Minister. With the blessings of their governments. As inflation is a major reason why politicians lose power. In fact we owe it to Governor Basant Roi for one of the best descriptions of inflation so far -- he likened it to radioactivity. Which makes it all the more interesting to check his inflation record. And compare it to Manou Bheenick's.

31% of Host Countries Won The World Cup

But Brazil didn't when it was organized there in 1950. It won 5 since then and there have been manifestations of the seleçao that looked out of this world but still didn't lift the trophy. That is to say it's kind of difficult to predict how a match will go. At least for mere mortals.

But not for Felipe Scolari who for example was hoping that Chile would not qualify for the World Cup because they have always been tough opponents. It appears to be a surprising statement until you watch the two sides play. So there are teams which seem to be naturally predisposed to give you a lot of trouble because of the size of the players, the game they play, the quality of passes, the discipline level and what not.

So when the auriverde meet the mannschaft Wednesday 00h00 to try to clinch their ticket to play the finals at the Maracana in Rio we're best to look forward for an exciting match. Given that the Germans have finished third or better 11 times. As long as Brazil wins that is.

And then on Thursday we'll have a rematch of the 1978 final.

Mauritius To Get Own Fukushima

That's an intriguing possibility when you have a look at the Integrated Electricity Plan for the next 10 years published by the CEB. Stop at the second paragraph of page seven to read that "as implausible as it may appear, nuclear technology is a generation option".

I'm sorry but it's not an option for us because there are way too many idiots walking around in Mauritius. Besides we won't even need a tsunami to trigger our own nuclear disaster: we can count on a few centimetres of rain, can't we?

Not a bad idea to get inspired by Germany which less than ninety days after Fukushima had announced that they would be phasing out nuclear power within ten years.

Bundesbank To Accept Tiny Bit More Inflation

From its current level of 2.1%. Which means that the Buba could exceptionally allow price levels to increase to a max of 3%. This should help its European trading partners improve their trade relationships with the continent's growth engine. Think of it as Germany accepting to be a tiny bit less competitive -- by willing to take up a little more inflation than usual and that for a short period too -- to help pull its neighbours out of the current crisis. That will not make the German economy grow faster. Nope. It will more likely, albeit barely, reduce the strong clip at which it has been growing as of late.

Bean-counters, rent-seekers and other clowns who advocate a persistent rupee depreciation should not construe this as a justification for Mauritius to take up more inflation. Our inflation rate is already on the high side. Besides monetary policy has never been a substitute for a blatantly ridiculous land use.

French Banker Wants Britain Downgraded First

This comment by Banque de France Governor Christian Noyer is causing ripples and is considered to be retaliation to Britain's use of its veto to torpedo the French-German initiatives to save the Euro. Noyer cited the better economic fundamentals of France. The British responded that the markets believe the UK has a credible plan for deficit-reduction. Which would explain why they are able to borrow at lower yields than France.

2011: The Year in Review

January: African leaders get wonderful opportunity to benefit from advice that could be lethal to their political careers. Water problems confirm Ramgoolam's economic model is junk. Planning maverick barely recognisable because Labour Party forgot who she was. State could have spent our money better. Bunwaree makes access to A-level education easier.

February: IMF analysis too bland to pick up social volcanoes that had been brewing right under surface of Arab world. Journalist remembers SSR's last public meeting. Minister magic needed at earth's driest place. Union boss wants price of basic foodstuffs controlled.

March: Nobel puts feet in mouth. Powerful earthquake sets off deadly Tsunami in Japan. BRIC and Germany say no to military action in Libya. Boolell says he's not there to serve fat cats. Proposed 10-20% hike in water charges has no basis. MPs want answers from Financial Secretary. Free guide to understanding the infamous stimulus package published.

Read the review for Q2, Q3, Q4.

Two-time Champs Meet Two-time Runners-up

Uruguay and Holland will both try to clinch their third ticket to a World Cup Final in Sunday's fiesta at Soccer City. Difficult to say who will win when we look back at the hair-raising quarter-finals when Gyan's penalty hit the woodwork. Or when remember how a brilliant selecao collapsed in 15 short minutes and were rather unrecognisable from then on.

Germany looks pretty good on paper after having thrashed England and other big favourite Argentina. But this is the World Cup and you just never know. For sure if you wait for the ball to come to your feet like Christiano Ronaldo did then for sure it makes sense that you have already gone home. Just like Dunga was absolutely right to leave Ronaldihno and Ronaldo behind.