Redesign of Coat of Arms Overdue

Seriously Mauritius. A dead and lazy bird on the left. An imported animal on the right. Both dressed in colonial tailcoats. A dead industry in the middle. A boat that we haven't used to go to work for at least a week. Hopefully it's not one of those boats that was involved in large-scale human trafficking. 3 palm trees. A key that will now be appropriate only when our independent country turns 52. And a star (mullet argent). Plus the 200-plus-year old reason why the British seized the island: Star and Key of the Indian Ocean. That was before the birth of the Wright brothers and Santos Dumont.

This beauty was apparently designed in 1906 by Johann Van Der Puf, the Mayor of Johannesburg. Might have been relevant then. But is definitely not now. We should organise a design competition. To get rid of this embarrassment.

Brazil and Croatia Meet in Their First Match, Again

Eight years after Germany. But not before the opening ceremony where JLo will sing the 2014 World Cup anthem and Iron Man pays tribute to national icon Santos Dumont. We'll have some pretty huge matches early in the competition: a re-run of the 2010 Final at 23h00 on Friday, England will play Italy 02h00 on Sunday and Germany will meet CR7's side on Monday 20h00.

Not every Brazilian is happy about their country -- where more than a third of the population lives in poverty -- spending $11 billion to host the Copa do Mundo. Indeed there have been protests for a year about the huge price tag as locals believe some of it is the result of wrongdoing. For example they can hardly understand why over $300 million had to be spent on a brand new stadium in Manaus where only a few games will be played. And allegations of the 2022 World Cup being bought doesn't help.

In any case you can always sniff out the latest financial statements of the FIFA while you wait for those late matches.