Publi-reportage de Rabin Bhujun?

Pravind Recaps Shaitanomics

Why Labour/MMM Alliance is Dangerous

I'll give you three reasons.

1. It wants to change our excellent system of government – one of our most precious assets – for something inherently unstable to satisfy the fantasies of a couple of politicians. We don't want to do this as it would open a can of constitutional worms. Our Westminsterian system of government has enabled four smooth changes of government since 1968. This has allowed us to forge ahead at a healthy pace until 2005. And established our reputation as a vibrant democracy.
2. It wants to make all kinds of dangerous changes to our electoral system on the basis of a very weak report which has been demonstrated to be flawed beyond repair. That includes party lists which shift the loyalty of MPs from voters to their leaders. And double candidacies which are a recipe to make arrogant politicians unaccountable.
3. Sithanen has been chosen as its Minister of Finance. His regressive 'reforms' which began in 2005 have thrown 22,000 Mauritians into poverty – that's 17% of all poor people – and thousands more into a 9-year L-shaped recession. And he has proved to us that he doesn't understand at least two things: how the economy works and percentages. That's a pretty big skills mismatch.

This alliance will never win a 60-0. Far from it. The political exhumation of the toxic bean-counter will not exactly help. But we will have to vote very wisely – for example Lalit is good, Rezistans not really and abstaining bad – and send a very clear and loud message that we don't want any of this nonsense.

Leopard Dead After Messing Up With Granny

This happened a few weeks ago in Uttarakhand -- a north Indian state which hugs the Himalayas -- after it attacked her, broke all its teeth and gave up. Granny used her sickle in the toughest of fights which lasted almost half an hour. Thousands lose their lives in India every year after encountering wild animals which are increasingly disorientated by the loss of their original habitat as human settlement expands.

And today a 20-year old man fell into a White Tiger's enclosure at the Delhi zoo while trying to click a picture and eventually lost his life. Some witnesses say the big cat didn't do anything for a good 10 minutes while the man pleaded for his life but dragged him only after people started throwing stones and sticks.

Lakor Travayis-MMM

Enn zelev katriyem kinn ekrir sa?

Loch Ness Monster Could Get New Passport

If the Scots vote yes in tomorrow's referendum. The UK would then be smaller than Uruguay if the 78,000-odd square kilometres that the monster calls home become a new country. Which translates into a drop of 11 spots -- to 91 -- in the list of the world's largest countries. Mauritius is at 180.

That's not the only referendum happening though: Catalonians will also decide what they want to do on November 9. But not before Brazilians try to elect a woman -- Marina or Dilma -- to another term as President on October 5th.

We need a referendum here too. About whether we want to give up our excellent system of government and electoral setup for some TINA-infected bean-counting galimatia.

World Holds Breath As Apple Returns to Flint

To make some big product introduction like a smart watch and maybe a good reason for us to throw away that box which we call TV. The Flint Center is where Steve Jobs introduced the Mac 30 years ago.

A new windowless building -- which looks like a hospital -- has been constructed just for today's event which begins at 9pm local time. In the meantime why don't you take a short trip down memory lane?

Why You Should Say No To Biometric ID

30 Nights of Free Music Start Today

The iTunes festival is back in London. And you can watch for free via iTunes. David Guetta plays on September 3, Lenny Kravitz on the 26th while Placido Domingo will close the festival. Plus of plenty artists in between. To provide you with earworms.

Of course on the 9th all eyes will turn to Cupertino when Apple is expected to venture into new product categories.

Firemen Extricate Victims of Road Accident

Still Think Ramgoolam is Not Made For Politics?

Or you might be in the mood for that dumb fairy tale that his dad had said he should never dab into politics. The way he's been controlling the local political chessboard for the past 10 or so years should be ample proof that he simply has no match for now. It's not that he's invincible. Rather his opponents are painfully too weak.

Granted the PM has matured quite a bit: he's been understanding the importance of monetary policy for a while now; foreign policy has become more skillful (the opposition simply cannot deliver this kind of performance) and the toxic bean-counting duet has been neutered. Yet, he still doesn't have a legacy that will not be sneezed at. After three terms.

That could change in a few weeks when he presents his first -- and much awaited -- budget.

Mauritian FB Pages With The Most Likes

I googled but didn't find any lists. But it's not difficult to get a rough idea:

Air Mauritius: 520,672; L'express: 207,879; Lux* Island Resorts: 123,358; MCB: 104,479; Beachcomber: 72,249; Defimedia Group: 45,843; PMSD: 31,432; ION News: 31,348; SBM: 30,213; MMM: 30,172; Parti Malin: 27,975; Mauritius Labour Party: 27,825; Courts: 25, 268; Le Mauricien: 18,863; Flying Dodo Brewing Company: 13,670; J Kalachand: 5,474; MSM: 5,055; MPCB: 2,710; Le Matinal: 1,564; Kozelidir: 288 (Yahoo!); Conserverie Sarjua: 177.

So the PMSD and Party Malin have more likes than the Labour Party. I guess these two parties will win by a landslide in the next general elections. MK looks like it will be the first company to hit a million likes. When you deal with more than 1 million passengers every year surely it's no big surprise that you are right on the top here. But likes don't necessarily mean a lot as people like pages for all kinds of reasons. And page administrators don't all do as good a job.

Meet A 6-year Old

Yep, it's August 23 today so Kozelidir is one year smarter. We've reached 1,182 posts and nearly 3,700 comments. But as you may have noticed the pace of the posts and comments has slowed down for essentially two reasons. First let us look at posts.

I have a lot less time to blog here -- which would explain that only 45 posts have been published so far this year -- and because I had to resume writing more meatier stuff on the crucially important topic of electoral reform on The Jag! I already wrote 5 posts in 2014 there or 50% the total number of posts published between 2005 and 2008. That's been a lot of work but more should appear there soon.

Comments also flow in less often because those there already cover most of the interesting angles of the relevant posts. So there is little to add. People that are new to Kozelidir might also be intimidated by the quality of the discussion that takes place here. So they shy away.

See you in here!

Premier League Season Starts Today

Manu will kick off the league by welcoming Swansea City at 15h45. They got a great new coach: Louis Van Gaal. Arsenal will meet Crystal Palace at Emirates Stadium at 20h30. The two best teams of last season will be in action tomorrow. Liverpool, post-Suarez, will play against Southampton -- a team where it bought a number of players -- at Anfield at 16h30. And City will travel to Newcastle for the 19h00 game. Finally Chelsea -- Drogba has returned and they now have Diego Costa -- will visit newly-promoted Burnley on Monday.

The fun resumes!

Robin Williams Dead At 63

The funny man's body was found in his Californian home yesterday. He made millions laugh over decades. This has been his verse.

Stray Dogs To Join Work-for-Food Scheme

Those of New Delhi that is. A number of them will undergo training before working as guard dogs in the police force. The reward will be food. That's a smart idea because it will take them off the streets of the Indian capital -- which means fewer cases of fatal rabies -- and at the same time improve security of India's second most populous city.

There are as many as 200 million stray dogs in the world.

Run 5 Minutes Everyday and Live 3 Years More

That's what a new study concludes. It just has to be vigorous so as to give your system a jolt. Working out is good too. Or a swim. Or skipping rope to a 100 -- which shouldn't take you more than a minute-and-a-half.

And we'll surely get more useful info given that Google has launched a large-scale study of what makes us healthy. While Apple is expected to launch an iWatch in a couple of months.

Sithanen Says He's No Expert in Electoral Systems

That was Tuesday last on Radio+. And boy couldn't I agree more with him. You can have a Phd but still be no expert because you're too bookish. Or suffer from the great man's disease. Or you're kind of arrogant. He made that statement when his radio host was telling him -- scroll to 31:50 -- that there might be problems with his stupid amendment. Here's percisely what he said:

"Mo pa exper mwa, mo pe fer sa kado pu la popilasyon. U kone mo pe fer sa lor enn baz volonter. Mo pe donn enn kudmin. E u kone kifer mo pe donn enn kudme ? Li bon mo dir sa la popilasyon u kone. Parski pena exper. Dan lezot pei nwena enn panel de expert pu fer sa. U kone ?

Alor la wadire u pe met mwa u pe dir mwa mo bizin truv solisyon. U kone. Mo pe donn enn kudmin kuma enn sitwayin. Mo pa paye par guvernman mwa. Non non, u pe dir mwa ki exper. Mo pe donn enn kudmin pu mo pei. Dan lezot pei zot ena 25 expert. Bann profeser liniversite. E bann dimunn ki fer sa travay la. Nu pena sa. Nu pe seye mem dan bann kondisyon extreman difisil pu truv enn solisyon. Enn problem difisil. Maintenant si bann lezot dimunn ena solisyon la me nu pe donn enn kudmin..."

The snag is that Rama Sithanen has been introduced many many times as THE expert in Electoral Systems over the past 5-6 years -- he completed his degree in 2008 -- but I never heard him point out the error people were systematically making. What I have read though is an interview where he was saying who is an expert.

Why Sithanen Should Be Ejected From The Faugoo Committee

Here are a few reasons:

1. His flawed 2012 report on electoral reform has been widely discredited almost immediately after its publication. And many more flaws have been discovered since then.
2. Our excellent Constitution is the supreme law of the land and shouldn't be tampered with. Any amendment to it shouldn't be done in a hurry and should definitely not be entrusted to people like Dr. Sithanen who has funny ideas about democracy and who has proved to us on more occasions than one that he has serious problems in interpreting data objectively.
3. He has confessed that his mini-amendment is stupid: it works only if it is not used for the purpose it was proposed.

31% of Host Countries Won The World Cup

But Brazil didn't when it was organized there in 1950. It won 5 since then and there have been manifestations of the seleçao that looked out of this world but still didn't lift the trophy. That is to say it's kind of difficult to predict how a match will go. At least for mere mortals.

But not for Felipe Scolari who for example was hoping that Chile would not qualify for the World Cup because they have always been tough opponents. It appears to be a surprising statement until you watch the two sides play. So there are teams which seem to be naturally predisposed to give you a lot of trouble because of the size of the players, the game they play, the quality of passes, the discipline level and what not.

So when the auriverde meet the mannschaft Wednesday 00h00 to try to clinch their ticket to play the finals at the Maracana in Rio we're best to look forward for an exciting match. Given that the Germans have finished third or better 11 times. As long as Brazil wins that is.

And then on Thursday we'll have a rematch of the 1978 final.