5-Year Olds To Start School With Assessment

To see if they're ready. And if they're not the school will wait for them to be ready. That's what the Minister of Education told a radio station she plans of doing soon. There are at least two problems with this idea. One is how long is the school going to wait? And two parents -- knowing that there is an evaluation -- will start preparing their children for it. Probably a good one to one-and-half years before the test. So we're looking at toddlers taking private tuition.

Not good. Because our school system already takes away way too much of the light that each person is born with. And produces way too many obese parrots.

Four Reasons Top Taxes Are Too Low

One is obviously the low growth rates that Mauritius has clipped for the past few years: indeed 2015 is looking to be the 5th consecutive year that it will be under 4%. I don't think this has ever happened. At least not since independence. I am sure you remember that one bean-counter promised Bretton Woods-inspired robust average growth of 8% back in 2005. Which was the reason the tax structure was flattened.

Two is that tax receipts have literally stayed flat in real terms over the last 12 months. Indeed the MRA disclosed that it collected only 4% more in the last fiscal year. Which roughly matches the increase in the general level of prices. We've alluded to that before.

Three the MCCI said that more than a third of the businesses it surveyed recently are complaining that Government is not doing enough to improve their businesses. Well, with the silly flat tax Government has ensured that it would have less resources -- and the private sector would have more -- to drive the economy. If nothing much has happened and is going to happen Government should raise top taxes to move Mauritius forward. If we don't want to keep on waiting for Godot.

Finally the flat tax has increased inequality tremendously. You just need to compare the number of people thrown into poverty after Navin Ramgoolam's first and second mandate. We can also have a look at how real disposable income has changed for the richest and poorest 10% of our households for the same periods. That's pretty bad for our social fabric and for better economic growth.

There is of course another reason why top taxes should increase.

Ex-Pak Agent Says 26/11 Hatched in Pakistan

Tariq Khosa, former head of the Pakistani Federal Investigating Agency, made this explosive revelation and provided detailed facts to support it a few days ago. 164 people died in the November 2008 Mumbai attacks including our own CEO of SBM, Chaitlall Gunness. Mr. Khosa ends his article by asking if Pakistanis were "as a nation prepared to muster the courage to face uncomfortable truths and combat the demons of militancy that haunt our land? That is the question!"

Good question when one recalls the recent Peshawar massacre where 132 schoolchildren lost their lives.

US Companies To Disclose Pay Ratios in 2017

So has decided the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday. There is some flexibility in the way this can be computed but you will have to agree that the thrust is good given how pay packets have become disconnected from actual performance and talent.

The Indian Ocean Tiger should jump on the bandwagon. ASAP.

Did Etihad Airways Receive Subsidies?

No according to a former CEO of MK who works for the Gulf airline. Yes according to a group of American airlines who put governmental help dished out to Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad at $42 billion. Essentially by adding interest-free loans, capital injections, benefits of government guarantees, absorption of fuel-hedging losses and low airport charges.

A couple of months ago The Wall Street Journal mentioned that Eithad had sent a report to the US authorities acknowledging help of a little over $14 billion from its government. Some of that help was reported by the Australian Financial Review back in May 2014.

So I guess -- for our national strategic interest -- we should be very careful not to get mesmerized a bit too quickly. Air Mauritius has a brilliant future if it is allowed to operate on strong bases of meritocracy.

Shouldn't We Have One For Cecil?

Usain Bolts Back

New Top 10 Reasons why Mauritius IS the Best Managed Country in the World

No. 10. “Soit li ‘carry on’ dans la serenite, soit li pran so decision… d’ici la fin la semaine” – but no ultimatum was given – and everyone in the cabinet had an intellect level with known limits, except one.

No. 9. “Ca ministere-la ti capave faire 10 fois, 100 fois plis” – Does it not mean that the PM is satisfied between 1% and 10% by the work carried out by this particular ministry? Can we please have his level of satisfaction for the other ministries?

No. 8. “Zotte mange dans ene l’assiette et zotte faire malpropre dans ca meme l’assiette-la...” -- Surgeon General’s warning: Adding more terms to this sequence or reversing its order may cause serious damage to your health. Please do not try this at home without adult supervision.

No. 7. Dragons to replace koalas as the world’s cutest animals. And Mauritius subscribes to the one-koala policy.

No. 6. In an unconfirmed report, there are apparently plans for Le Reduit to be transformed into a giant nursery to recoup the cost of the renovation.

No. 5. 2 ships bang into one another in the harbour and you learn about it from the Prime Minister and neither from our coast guards nor port master – and people have the nerve to say that our institutions are not working!!!

No. 4. “Chef d’oeuvre de budget” to be hung at the Louvre instead of La Joconde.

No. 3. “The Medpoint accord was crafted in the interest of the country” – No kidding, I thought it was crafted in the interest of 3 people with 2 from the same family.

No. 2. The nation is divided as to whether the PM would disguise himself as a drag queen if he were to be invited to an evening hosted by the local gay community.

And the No. 1 reason why Mauritius is the best managed country in the world is

No. 1. July. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months for Mr. Berenger to organise General Elections. The others are June, January, September, April, November, May, March, October, December, August and February – with apologies from Mark Twain.

This was written end of May 2005. Recall that there were general elections the following July 3rd. You will need to beam yourself back to this period to understand a few of the reasons. Don't think this ever got published.

10 More Reasons why Mauritius IS the Best Managed Country in the World

No. 10. We are very aware that the last Mega-Tsunami occurred next door (Reunion Island) some 4,000 years ago.

No. 9. It’s OK to learn about cyclones on TV or Radio – it’s definitely not to learn about deadly Tsunamis from CNN.

No. 8. The SIDS conference took place as initially planned between August 30th and September 3rd 2004.

No. 7. The first three (militant?) budgets of the current government were unfortunately not understood by many because the presentations were not subtitled.

No. 6. Smart ideas and vision replaced by hollow statements such as “mood ek ambiance extraaaaaaaaaordinaire”.

No. 5. Meritocracy has been replaced by something way better – Mediocracy.

No. 4. Stray dogs are helping as much as they can with takeoffs and landings at Plaisance Airport.

No. 3. Traffic towards Port-Louis was wonderfully fluid (especially if you don’t have a TV/DVD in your car) on the first day of the SIDS conference. It’s however a mystery to many why school resumption was postponed by a whole week.

No. 2. “Riot panne fer pu donne biberon”. Ok fine. What about changing diapers?

And the No. 1 reason why Mauritius is the best managed country in the world is

No. 1. According to an unconfirmed report the endangered species have suggested that the controversial highway go through the nonsense hub (a recently renovated building in Port-Louis) instead. It has not yet been determined what percentage of these species are fanatics.

This was actually written in January 2005 which was a mere couple of weeks after the deadly South Asian Tsunami. You can forget about this fact if you want to feel as if you just ate funny mushrooms. Click the "Best managed country in the world" label for more context.

Paedophilia Cuts Across All Income Groups

Judging the Overall Quality of A Country's Policies

A shortcut is to chart the value of its currency over a couple of decades. And if we compare the latter to the level of exports -- let's say for Mauritius and Singapore -- we get an indication of the strength of the local entrepreneurial fibre. Of course we can use our good old policy matrix. Or have a look at the land use. Or the type of bets that are made and at what cost. Traffic congestion is also a pretty good indicator (Istanbul has the world's worst traffic). And how can we forget fiscal policy?

So I guess we can gauge the DNA of a country pretty fast, eh?

Will Fassbender Make A Good Steve Jobs?

Because the Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle has picked him for the iBio-based movie which comes out on October 9. Mr. Fassbender might be a good actor but he doesn't look like the Californian hi-tech swami. At all. When I was watching the trailer I thought Boyle might as well have picked Arnold Schwarzenegger. Which was one of the choices on gizmodo.

I would personally have picked Noah Wyle -- he did a pretty good job playing Steve before -- or Keanu Reeves. An edgy actor like Bale would have been good too but he backed down. Daniel Day-Lewis would have been a great choice.

3 Icons Die in Their Nineties

The first one is Patrick Macnee who played the suave character of John Steed in The Avengers which aired for the first time in the early 1960s. And was very popular in Mauritius in the 1970s. Mr. Macnee passed away on June 25 in California at 93.

Our second icon is none other than -- please watch with a fog light, garlic or a cross coz u never know -- Count Dracula aka Christopher Lee. Man, did he look scary on TV! Mr. Lee who also played Saruman -- and was told to consider playing 007 -- in the Lord of the Rings died on June 7th at 93 too.

Finally our last nonagenerian is Edmond Malinvaud a household name for anyone who has done a fair bit of econometrics. His magnum opus, Methodes statistiques de l'econometrie, was not the easiest book to read but many considered the time spent mastering at least a few parts of it a valuable investment. That was especially true when the book came out in the 1960s. Mr. Malinvaud whom I had the good fortune of meeting passed away on March 7 at 91.

From Paris, Rawat Gives His Side of the Story

What Will Municipal Voters Do?

Vote for the MMM because Lepep ended up with about 10 MPs more than what was necessary? Or stick with Lepep based on what they've achieved in the first five months of their mandate? The plus points are mostly the increase in pension payments and fully subsidising the SC/HSC exams. The appointment of Ms. Fakim as head of state is definitely a history-making event but that doesn't really change the lot of the victims of the neocons.

The main negatives are the significant depreciation of our rupee while the BOM supposedly waited for the budget to set the tone, the joke of the Finance Minister claiming that his bland budget was a no-tax one, not passing on the collapse of oil prices and of course the BAI affair. The latter has embroiled Government into a thick cloud of confusion and suspicion that is not going away any time soon. Indeed the BAI saga is so far looking more like a political vendetta than a ponzi scheme. That's especially evident when you consider the kind of help our Governments have dished out to hubris-infected companies in the past. There have also been surprising statements by the President of the Bar Council and many are not happy with how the biometric ID project has evolved.

We'll find out on Monday how voters weighed the facts.

A Woman At Le Reduit, Finally

Tomorrow Ameena Gurib-Fakim will make history by ending a long streak of male Presidents. Ramgoolam of course had three chances of putting a woman as head of state. But he didn't. Maybe it's because he was too busy turning our vibrant democracy into a plutocracy. Maybe he was suffering from a really bad case of kotomilitis. 

But women still have to grab the following important posts:

1. Prime Minister
2. Minister of Finance
3. Chief Justice
4. Commissioner of Police
5. Commander (SMF)
6. Governor, Bank of Mauritius
7. Postmaster General
8. Financial Secretary (doesn't matter if she's from another planet)
9. Electoral Commissioner
10. Leadership of major political parties
11. Chief Executive Officer of our largest corporations

Go Women! Go!

Read The Manou Bheenick Affidavit Here

Two Beautiful Minds Die in Taxi Crash

Probably because they were not wearing seat belts. The first beautiful mind is John Nash, Jr. whose breakthroughs in game theory earned him a Nobel while his work with partial differential equations was rewarded by nothing less than the prestigious Abel Prize only a few days ago. The other beautiful mind is his wife Alicia who cared for him long enough until he emerged from a very long encounter with schizophrenia.

Kozelidir Quiz [1]

The above chart shows the weight of sugar in our economy over the last 39 years. Can you identify the three events?

The Rawats Hit Back

With Laina Rawat asking the commercial division of the Supreme Court to restrain the two receivers of Bramer Bank, Andre Bonieux and Mushtaq Oosman, in a number of ways. She claims the Bank of Mauritius acted in a way which is contrary to its own statutory obligations, natural justice and basic management principles. Ms. Rawat also believes that the receivers have a conflict of interest and are therefore not in a position to carry out their duties as per the law.

On his side Basant Roi has called the revocation of Bramer Bank's license on April 2 our Lehman moment. He obviously doesn't know what he's talking about.