Lepep Tram Unlikely Biggest Project Ever

Kind of obvious if you have listened carefully to some of the numbers used by Minister Bodha on the same day George Chung deemed that the controversial tram project was basically riskless. As you might not have the figures mentioned six months ago to show the savings over two projects – not exactly the same ones – that were initially promoted by the Labour Party are copied in the table below. 

Given that the road decongestion program (RDP) will spend about Rs3 billion every year for a handful of years and that it will not be the first time nor the last that billions will be wasted to fight the traffic Frankenstein – which is growing bigger thanks to policy-making which is very clumsy – it shouldn't take long before you hear Mr. Bodha's successors announce that the RDP has overtaken the tram project.

The thing is that these unnecessary projects – which constitute the silly response to problems caused by a growth in the car pool which has been left unchecked for way too long – will not only make Mauritius weaker but will also make her uglier. It will make her weaker because as Intel has reminded us a car stays idle over 90% of the time and that hardly makes it a productive investment. Especially when you consider all the other problems of having too many of them. This explains why Singapore has been shrinking her number of cars to levels not seen in eight years. Mind you we're talking here about a country which has nine people to every car and a GDP per capita more than five times ours. Here we have like six people to every car and foolishly think that we can handle more. And that too when heavy road-users already describe several parts of our road network as an overcrowded barracoon.

These projects will definitely make Mauritius less attractive. Just ask any of the 270 trees of the Promenade Roland Armand. That's too heavy a price to pay for things that don't qualify as smart development especially when we know that the Bus Rapid Transit is a much better alternative that will immediately bring much-needed relief to road users. We should also start to act as a middle-income country – and soon a fifty-year old – by protecting our world-famous views. Just like London has been doing for more than a century. Which explains why the Leadenhall Building had to be built like a cheese-grater.

The least Pravind Jugnauth can do is to organise a referendum on such an important national issue. Making good on one electoral pledge will not only deepen our democracy it will also help avoid total political disaster in the next general election.

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.

Usain Bolts Back

30 Nights of Free Music Start Today

The iTunes festival is back in London. And you can watch for free via iTunes. David Guetta plays on September 3, Lenny Kravitz on the 26th while Placido Domingo will close the festival. Plus of plenty artists in between. To provide you with earworms.

Of course on the 9th all eyes will turn to Cupertino when Apple is expected to venture into new product categories.

The Most Watched Event

The Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics holds the verifiable audience record of 984 million people. That's different from the estimated audiences of billions of people tuning in that are sometimes thrown our way. Which is almost twice the 530 million who watched man help humanity make a giant step. For sure back in 1969 there were a lot less people on Spaceship Earth. The 2006 FIFA World Cup Final attracted over 700 million people. Or 300 million less than the audience of the 2011 Cricket World Cup semi-final between nuclear archrivals India and Pakistan.

And what about the most watched events of the last Olympics? Usain Bolt's 100m win tops the list if you exclude opening and ending ceremonies. His 200m victory is at no 8. The wins of two women -- Jessica Ennis and Sally Pearson -- are also in there.

Looking up in the sky doesn't count?

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.

Selecao Could Grab Elusive Title Tomorrow

When they meet Mexico at Wembley. Indeed the five-time World Cup winners, eight-time Copa America champions and three-time Confederation Cup snatchers returned home twice with Olympic Silver. The timing couldn't be better: Brazil will host the World Cup in 2014 and the next Olympics. Besides they are currently at their lowest FIFA ranking: 13.

The match starts at 18h00.

Jamaicans Set to Sweep 200m

With three terrific sprinters. Usain Bolt breezed through the heat of his favorite event today. Yohan Blake too looked impressive. And so did fellow countryman Warren Weir. There were three athletes under 20 seconds in Beijing four years ago. We could have more tomorrow for the semis and on Thursday for the final. All this should push Jamaica up the medal rankings by several spots.

That's a nation of 2.9 million people. Just in case you're wondering.

100m Final Could Be Fastest Ever

And that for a number of reasons. First, going into the semis there are seven athletes who have sub-9.90 times this season. Second the track seems to be fast. Third athletes often lower their personal bests in such finals because everybody is running fast -- the case for half of the sprinters in the Beijing finals four years ago with only two runners taking more than 10 seconds to cover the distance. Finally there is one Usain Bolt running and he could beat his own world record of 9.58s simply because he is reaching the age of peak-performance or could benefit from a slightly faster wind or reaction time.

It's not impossible that Jamaica sweeps the dash. And it would make for a wonderful celebration too. Indeed independent Jamaica turns 50 in a few hours.

Man Catches Up With Woman After 48 Years

Which is what Michael Phelps did yesterday when he matched Larisa Latynina's record of 18 Olympic medals. And she was standing ready to present Phelps with the extra medal that broke her own tally. Unfortunately Olympic rules don't allow this.

I didn't know about this until a few days ago. I thought Phelps was the record holder since Beijing. You learn something everyday. In any case, here's Larisa in action.

Elizabeth Plays Own Role in 007 Clip

China Already Ahead in Medals Count

At the end of the first day. And they are still topping the charts as Day 2 draws to a close. They've got 6 gold and a total of 10 medals. The US is second and Italy is 3rd. In all 21 countries have won medals.

I watched Brazil beat Belarus a little while ago. For sure they've got some great talent like Neymar, Pato, Oscar and Thiago Silva in there but I was wondering if they would be able to beat La Roja in the next World Cup. Well Japan has beaten Spain a few days ago. And Senegal won 2-0 against Suarez's Uruguay. Let's see.

Also watched a great women volleyball match between Brazil and Turkey. The Turkish ladies put in a great fight and they were about to start the 4th set when I went to snooze (Brazil won 3-2).

Man, Olympics are great!!!

World To Pause For Billion-Rupee Ceremony

1.3 billion to be precise. Which starts in about four and a half hours in one of our planet's most exciting cities and will involve 15,000 people. The artistic director for this mega-event is none other than Danny Boyle. We shouldn't be surprise then that A.R. Rahman will be pitching in with something to rock the stadium.

And while you guess who will light the flame here's some music to get into the mood.

Meet Mr Near-Perfect Landing: Kohei Uchimura

He's already done something no one has done before: win three gymnastics world championships back to back. The New York Times says he's set to soon become the greatest who ever lived. Don't forget to watch him in London.

Mauritius Has 11 Athletes in London Olympics

One less than at the Beijing Olympics. You probably know the triathlete Fabienne St-Louis and the beach-volley champs Natacha Rigobert and Elodie Li Yuk Lo. And Aurelie Halbwachs who will participate in cycling events. Plus a few other athletes in swimming and track and field. Good luck to all of them and may they follow in Bruno Julie's footsteps.

South Africa has 133 athletes (3 less than in Beijing), Madagascar 7, Kenya 50 (they sent 2 less 4 years ago but had an amazing medals rank: 13). India is sending 83 people (compared to 57 in China) while China is sending 382 (vs 639 when it was the host country). That's barely bigger than the Japanese delegation (303). Russia has 443 athletes (they are always a big team). USA has probably the largest one (indeed 536).

And finally Great Britain will be represented by 556 athletes. The fun begins in a little less than seven days. If you're taking the opening ceremony as yardstick.