Karl At 200

So he got the boom and bust cycles and inequality right but missed the ability of capitalism to reform itself and the establishment of welfare states which boosted upward social mobility and improved lives. He didn't foresee Marxist regimes killing people on a horrendous scale either. After ideology had become an opium or tool of deception for too many of his followers. But the most interesting thing about Marx was the healthy dose of scepticism he kept about ideas including his own (read with a free subscription). He was relatively unknown during his life with between nine and eleven people attending his funeral.

The MMM started out as a Marxist-Leninist party. Would you believe this? While a recent breakaway faction with interesting initials wants to privatise water.

Kuma Parti Lalit Diferan

UoM Students Unconvinced By Sithanen Electoral Proposal

With one student getting an ovation after rightly concluding that his reform proposal doesn't solve anything. Others have concluded that his explanation was opaque. I guess a bit like his stimulus package and economic policies.

I hope he was brave enough to explain the main purpose of his proposal: reduce the democratic space. Something which would have helped some of Karl's children see clearer.

Arab Spring Spills To Unlikely Place: Israel

And the 3-week old protest shows no sign of slowing down. The people are not happy because they feel their government has stopped listening to them. So it's not about whether Karl Marx is a prettier boy than Adam Smith. It's not about whether one God is better than another. Nope, it's about living conditions that have become increasingly unbearable.

I wonder if they have a toxic duet there too.

Karl's Children Find Own Opium: Ideology

Many people who got intoxicated with Marxism in their youth and thought they could do better than the Labour government of Seewoosagur now say that their former political foes have done an awful lot for the country with the little means they had and that despite adverse circumstances. They also say that the MMM never missed an opportunity to betray its ideals just like Navin is betraying the ideals of the founding fathers of the Labour Party. They add that we now have the worst-performing team of all time.

I believe most of the right-thinking citizens of Mauritius will agree with this. We also didn't have any parliamentary opposition for the past 5 years and this has considerably weakened our democracy. And Berenger is no longer acceptable as Leader of the Opposition.

The tragedy is that some of the few interesting potential agents of social transformation, while being proud about not believing in God, don't even realise that they have been pitiful prisoners of ideology. For too long.

Breaking-free from that could certainly do them and Mauritius a lot of good.