Mauritian FB Pages With The Most Likes

I googled but didn't find any lists. But it's not difficult to get a rough idea:

Air Mauritius: 520,672; L'express: 207,879; Lux* Island Resorts: 123,358; MCB: 104,479; Beachcomber: 72,249; Defimedia Group: 45,843; PMSD: 31,432; ION News: 31,348; SBM: 30,213; MMM: 30,172; Parti Malin: 27,975; Mauritius Labour Party: 27,825; Courts: 25, 268; Le Mauricien: 18,863; Flying Dodo Brewing Company: 13,670; J Kalachand: 5,474; MSM: 5,055; MPCB: 2,710; Le Matinal: 1,564; Kozelidir: 288 (Yahoo!); Conserverie Sarjua: 177.

So the PMSD and Party Malin have more likes than the Labour Party. I guess these two parties will win by a landslide in the next general elections. MK looks like it will be the first company to hit a million likes. When you deal with more than 1 million passengers every year surely it's no big surprise that you are right on the top here. But likes don't necessarily mean a lot as people like pages for all kinds of reasons. And page administrators don't all do as good a job.

Privy Council Orders New MCB/Lesage Trial

Before a differently constituted court. That's because it thinks that Lesage was denied a fair hearing. Have a look at the interesting judgement.

Did We Need One in the First Place?

An additional stimulus package that is. I don't think so when you realise that our two largest banks have cashed in record profits in 2008: Rs3.7 billion and Rs2.1 billion for MCB and SBM respectively. That's an increase of 53% and 41% over the preceding year and twice their 2005 levels. I've already addressed why our banking industry has been spared (read this). So there's no trouble here unlike what has been going on in the United States and in the UK.

What we need instead is a government that solves problems. And that's the most important yardstick to measure the performance of any country. For instance previous governments did defuse the demographic bomb, implement free education and create the middle class. We need these kind of governments and not governments that have substituted brilliant work with dumb MBC reports.

Ex-Governor's Memory Playing Tricks on Him

This is the impression I got on skimming through an interview of Basant Roi that was published in a newsletter earlier this week. In it the guy who was in charge of the Bank of Mauritius for a little over eight years stated that the independence of our central bank had now been thrown out of the window.

Kind of funny to come from the person who was Governor precisely when the independence of the institution he had been entrusted with was murdered during the MCB-NPF saga before being hanged in the second half of 2006 when the rupee was allowed to freefall despite the record FDI.

And the hansard contains interesting replies that will kind of support the view that when it comes to degrading our institutions Berenger has no match. Except maybe Sithanen.

Today of course is a great day to read a few pages of The Great Crash for at least an extra reason: John Kenneth Galbraith would have turned 100.