Covid-19 Damage Across Africa Not Uniform

Two Extra Dumb Reasons We Need Party Lists

One is that if there's a party that gets the most votes but not a majority of the seats that could be a "recipe for political riots and civil unrest". Voters in Mauritius don't give two hoots about vote share. They just pick the best candidates in every riding. Doesn't matter if they're from three different parties. And the party which elects the most candidates forms government. That's it. Of course a party can grab power without getting the most votes. That's definitely possible given how the number of voters in our constituencies vary. In 2014 the largest (No.14) was 2.71X bigger than the smallest (No.3). But we couldn't care less.

Besides the recipe for riots and unrest is well known: poverty and inequality. Like we saw one spring six or seven years ago across North Africa and the Middle East and next door. We even had a former Minister in Tunisia at that time who had to stay indoors because of what was happening on the streets. It didn't look like the people were mad because they had trouble grasping how the D'Hondt method works.

The second mari dumb reason is that an electoral system is fair when it "ensures that the top guns of the parties are returned to the Assembly... On the other hand, the public would have considerable difficulties to understand constituency elections without the participation of these stalwarts; such contests would lose some of its “panache” and legitimacy [emphasis mine]."

So 22,000 people thrown into poverty over five years, record inequality, savings at a 30-year low and a trillion-rupee GDP gap because of a stupid and low 15% flat tax is panache? And we should return the massively incompetent and the toxic? The mess of the trickle-down garbage was big enough that no major party wanted to take the oversized and unnecessary risk of having the outgoing Finance Minister as their candidate in 2010. Which was a first. And he didn't even run as an independent candidate. Didn't get elected four and half years later either. That too after changing for a 'safe' riding.

God bless the FPTP.

Riots Break Out in Reunion Over Cost of Living

Chez Nous, Vous Etes Chez Vous

This is how our sister island is marketing herself these days. I saw the clip which seemed to come straight from Home. Unsurprisingly, I just found out that it had been produced by Yann-Arthus Bertrand. Nice. Nice. Nice. And, nobody had to explain anything to me.

The copy on YouTube is not that good. You're better off catching it in here.

Why Mauritians Everywhere Snub MK

Price is probably the most important factor. You know our national airline got its commercial policy upside down when it costs the same to travel to Reunion Island and to the UK and when Mauritians established in Australia start thinking that it might be cheaper for them to fly to the moon than to their zil.

Another important reason is that we don't feel that we are travelling on the national airline because there is not much that reminds us that we are. For instance outgoing crew messages are not aired in creole and some flying staff find it perfectly normal to engage in a bilingual and unearthly conversation: you speak in kreol, they reply in french.

The Birth of a Sister Island