82% of Poll Not Happy With Government

With respect to how it has been managing Mauritius since the last general elections. More than half of these are even extremely unhappy. Granted sample is quite small but it is a fact that people are not very happy in this country these days.

Body of Marie-France Pisier Found in Pool

Of her secondary residence in Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer yesterday. The Indochina-born actress was to participate in the special tribute to Jean-Paul Belomondo -- her French new wave co-star in the 1982 movie L'As des as -- at the 64th Cannes Film Festival which starts in 15 days. She was 66.

Half A Million To Attend Sai Baba's Funeral

On Wednesday. The 84-year old died yesterday in his hometown of Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh. The man who claimed to be a reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi leaves behind millions of adherents across the world and a trust worth Rs270 billion. 

Debate at Keats College

Bagatelle or Phase 2 of Midlands Dam?

Bagatelle Dam will hold 15 million m3 and cost between Rs 3.1-3.4 billion while Phase 2 of the Midlands Dam involves 17 million m3 and by my rough estimates should come with a tag of Rs1.2 billion. Isn't that getting 2 million m3 for a couple of billions less?

More Water Than Mare aux Vacoas

That's how much of the precious liquid Phase 2 of the Midlands Dam would have been holding these days if it had been built during Mamou (Chacha being already taken) Ramgoolam's second mandate.

How do I arrive at this? Simple. Given that Midlands Dam was 83.2% full on April 5th, it's not too much of a stretch to assume that its Phase 2 would have clipped a similar water level. At a capacity of 17 million m3 that translates to 14.1 million m3 or 13% more than the water currently in our 125-year old Mare aux Vacoas.

Why was Phase 2 not built? Guess that's what happens when you entrust critical economic positions to a toxic bean-counting duet.

2010: The Year in Review (Q4)

October: Father of test tube babies wins Nobel. Last hurdle preventing the Lutchmeenaraidoo/Sithanen debate cleared. Additional proof that you've been taken for a bean-counting ride presented.

November: Brazil elects first female President. Pamela asked to leave radio. 41% of poll says MMM would take 3 towns. STC's abnormal hedging loss increases by almost Rs2 billion.

December: Simpler process makes Passport Office really cool. Wikileaks reveal purpose of Marine Park. Bunwaree gets opportunity to be bold. Kozelidir Person of The Year 2010 attributed to the Forum page of Le Mauricien for providing a healthy space to the Mauritian Civil Society.

Read the review for Q1, Q2, Q3.

2010: The Year in Review (Q3)

July: Gyan's penalty hits the woodwork and denies Ghana opportunity to advance to the semi-finals. World expected to grow faster than Mauritius. Iker and Sara share tender moment with watching World. Flat tax spins public finances out of control. Mansoor doubles foreign debt in 3 short years. Free guide to abolition of private tuition published.

August: US to allow tax cuts for the rich expire. Democratisation of the economy to now take 1,000 years. What killed many IRS projects investigated.

September: Massive volunteer operation feeds 80,000 every day. Competition watchdog not happy with how insurance is bundled with loans. Mansoor circular found misleading nation.

Read the review for Q1, Q2, Q4.

ECB Hike Rates And Hints More on The Way

Main policy rate increased by 25 basis points on Thursday because of upside risks to inflation through second-round effects even though Europe is battling with a sovereign-debt crisis.

Find out more about the Monetary Policy of the ECB.

2010: The Year in Review (Q2)

April: Three-quarters of poll not happy with Berenger's performance as Leader of the Opposition. Worst economic management ever shrinks outgoing Finance Minister's political options. MMM implying 2 political dynasties in an alliance is ok, 3 is not. Sithanen dumped to increase Navin's odds of returning as PM. Amnesty International issues statement reminding us that ethnicity has no bearing on economic performance delivered. Indian Minister Shashi Taroor tends letter of resignation at second meeting with Manmohan Singh while here one minister gets ready to meet PM for the eighth time.

May: A former President climbs on soap box to remind partisan crowd son is candidate. One poll finds May 5 race close while another says 22% of voters decide 3 days before election day. Berenger's body language on radio show indicates he has lost the election. Voters give Ramgoolam new opportunity to shrug off neocon label. Bheenick back from the dead as rupee sent to hell. Myth of the strong rupee debunked.

June: Best places to deal in USD noted. Tutu and Shakira set Soweto on Fire. Lawyer says nomination process opaque. Boycott gets new definition. MPC worried inflation might be picking up. Competition Commission reports anti-competitive behaviour. Ways inequality was boosted. Real unemployment rate is 3% higher.

Read the review for Q1, Q3, Q4.

2010: The Year in Review

January: The civil society started the decade unsure about who they would be voting as PM later during the year but clear that Paglanomics had to be stopped. Ramgoolam's pathetic second mandate was analysed along the dimensions he said mattered most to us while Elvis is suspected to have commented on the budget. Tens of billions of rupees of FDI were unable to reduce unemployment to single-digits. The audit report will be late just when we needed it the most.

February: 65% of a poll says Sithanen will not stay on as Finance Minister. Union bosses ask PM not to renew Mansoor's contract. The latter cuts the FS to size while Sithanen's university buddy is said to second-guess Parliament. The real reason behind the HR guidelines is analysed. The share of coal in electricity production is now 49 times larger than when Navin first became PM. He also makes a U-turn to announce that the death penalty will be reintroduced.

March: Titmuss never won any Nobel. Lousy economic polices forces a twice shy Ramgoolam to consider the MSM as a potential ally. The job creation record of the two zinku compared. The PM dissolves Parliament and invites voters to a 35-day campaign.

Read the review for Q2, Q3, Q4.

Kuma Pu Regle Problem Dilo

1. Met laru anba Maro-Vakwa apre buz li kot lapli tonbe
2. Rekumans priye selman sakula diman bondie viz inpe kuma dimun
3. Mont pri dilo par 10-20% parski sa pu rempli Maro-Vakwa tudswit
4. Lans en enhensment program pu ban minis – fer cabinet miting fini dimans tanto
5. Fer ban fib optik sarye dilo
6. Fer tu tax vin zero kumsa guvernman pu gayn kas pu ranz en lot rezervwar
7. Fer pers tu ban tiyo kumsa delo pu aret perdi
8. Ranpli en de avion sitern ar dilo lapli apre fer zet sa dan Maro-Vakwa tu le zur
9. Fer Moris vin dan dis premier dan sa gran gran gran renking kiapel Doing Business la
10. Dir ban turis amen zot prop dilo

Why Free Laptops Have Not Been Distributed Yet

Almost a year after they were promised by A2A. Because of budgetary restrictions says Minister Bunwaree. So that's essentially the same reason why Ramgoolam had to cut Mansoor to size last year when the FS wanted to freeze 2,700 promotions on the eve of the general elections. And it's the same dumb stuff Ministers said Sithanen had been singing to them between 2005 and 2010.

Now 42 police sergeants are going to court because their promotions are overdue by about a year too. No money here too?

Kozelidir Free Guide To Understanding The Infamous Stimulus Package

We did not need one in the first place as our banks were making record profits and did not have toxic assets on their balance sheets thanks to the relative primitiveness of their operations. Besides what was marketed as proof that the Sithanen/Mansoor reforms had been successful was merely a flash in the pan. The trouble we got into here was instead due to the work of a White Swan.

The ASP, for sure, could have been more transparent. But it didn't take long before it became redundant.

Claims of it saving as many as 4,700 jobs are easy to disprove while MPs now want hear from Mansoor.

And a lot of people want to hear from Cader.

MPs Want Answers From Financial Secretary

About the Rs340 million of public funds that were injected into Infinity BPO via Sithanen's infamous stimulus package. See, BPO is a growth industry so technically it should be the last quarters from which request for government aid should have come from.

Which would explain why MP Deerpalsing has asked, albeit belatedly, for the monitoring committee of the ASP to explain how they've been... monitoring these significant public monies that were apparently invested to save... jobs.

Proposed Hike in Water Charges Has No Basis

Beebeejaun's intention of raising the price of water by 10-20% is not justified. See government has already been abusing us with prohibitive fuel prices for way too long. Add to this one Ramgoolam who promised in November 2007 to change his name if we kept paying punitive electricity prices. Not only prices didn't go down but they went up by a full 10% last year. And the PM has kept his name.

Enjoy the vision.

Coordination Allowed BOM To Increase Repo By Only 0.5%

With the Treasury that is. See pump prices go down by a couple of rupees tonight and this enabled the MPC to raise its policy rate by only half a percent to 5.25% to help set monetary conditions to a level which is not consistent with double-digit inflation by the end of 2011.

So it looks as if Pravind Jugnauth has understood that his last budget was inflationary. And he is not the only one to have made an about-face on the price-stability issue. Indeed, gran frer gran malelve appears to have also recently discovered the joys of low inflation.

Basant Roi Can't Figure Out Big Rise in Foreign Debt

So he said on Radio+ a few minutes ago. He finds this the more surprising given that the banking system has been witnessing excess liquidity for some time now. Government could instead have borrowed locally. What does the FS have to say about this?.

He also mentioned that he enjoyed working as Governor with Paul Berenger in Cabinet as the latter never meddled in the affairs of the Bank of Mauritius. Give us a break!

Boolell: We're Not Here To Serve Fat Cats

That's what he said at the Annual General Assembly of the Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry a few days ago. He added that our economic policies need to be reviewed and highlighted anti-competitive behaviour by some economic players.

Sounds good. But is this something that he has now carved on his DNA or just another speech to fool us?

Repo Rate Raised By 50 BPS To Prevent Second-round Effects

As widely expected, well, save the JEC. BOM's primary objective being price stability it had little choice to raise the repo rate to 5.25% as inflation had been on the rise after Pravind Jugnauth's budget. Besides monetary policy operates with a lag and inflation is like...radioactivity.