Google (google.mu) p casse pake mo dire mwa. Mo cam Leenakshi (Ki reste Bel Air) fek signale moi ki google p suporte langage Kreol Morisien ensam avec francais ek anglais.

Mo penser ki li ene pas dans la bonne direction coumsa mo cav apprane ecrire nu kreole plis bien. Ena bannes phrases assez comik couman “Bann zouti linwistic”, “konecte”, “Klicker pou dekonecter”. Selman mo tire chapo ar google. Deza grace a google map mo cav chek chemin aster zots p reconet nu langage. Siloyeee!

As announced at the University of Technology Mauritius’ (UTM) last convocation, UTM has the ambition to set up a Medical School. The project is being materialised by the signing up of an MoU with DYP Worldwide Ltd and it should start operating as from August of this year with postgraduate courses. The portfolio should include General medecine, Surgery, Pediatrics, Gynecology, Orthopedics, Radiology, Anesthesia, Psychiatry, Ophtalmology, Skin and VD. A campus is to be constructed at Rose Belle.

I do think that competition is a good thing and I do hope that it has for effect of lowering costs of medical education. Another fundamental aspect is the quality of graduates produced by the School. Questions have been raised in the past about the quality of other medical school graduates and this had for effect of lenthening the period of internship. Let us hope that the school produces doctors and specialists that people would trust their lives on.

I have always wondered in isolation why the rich are rich and why the poor are poor? Why do western countries live in abundance whereas the others lag behind?

Why is it that us of the developing world have to suffer the consequences of the financial crisis caused by excessive liberalism from western nations? The answer most probably is that it is they who have the money and we depend on them. We have our goods and services and the only people capable of buying the same are the westerners.

But how have we reached this state of things? I would be tempted to go for the theory that through colonialism westerners have exploited the riches of others and have as a result been able to put themselves in a position of dominance. They have successfully imposed their culture upon us.

But I guess the overriding factor is their curiosity and ability to innovate. It is this characteristic that have brought people to explore and go beyond known limits. Not only in the geographical sense of it but also intellectually.  Human kind has always sought to extend the boundaries of knowledge and it is the same knowledge that has enabled nations to have the tools and capability to dominate others.

The formal method of extending boundaries of knowledge is Research. It is my firm belief that richer countries have attained this position of dominance through research. Research is about creating knowledge but also inspiring ourselves of what others have found. Westerners through their curiosity have traveled and met civilisations who were willing to share their knowledge, ideas and inventions, for example the numeric system from the Middle East, zero from South Asia or the infamous gun power from Central Asia.

Through research they have found fundamental theory which when applied generates wonderful inventions from the safety pin to the iphone or less wonderful ones like sophisticated missiles or fighter jets. They are willing to market those inventions  and ideas to us.  In a legitimate quest of a better standard of living we willingly adopt those inventions and thus end up in a position of being dominated.

An example, why has Mauritius Telecom been forced to ally with France Telecom? Simply, I believe, MT do not have the necessary technological capacity to follow suit with recent  developments in the telecommunications sector or MT alone cannot afford to acquire the same. Such an alliance has enabled us today to enjoy ADSL, video on demand etc. We are indeed dependent on them.  It really ends up in a vicious cycle.

But we do have a way out and it is invariably through our own research. We would have been the master of our own destiny. All above ends up into one conclusion, we should invest more into the local research community. There is quite some potential around and should be encouraged. Give them the tools and means they can make wonders. Percentage funds allocated to Research & Development againts GDP is lower in developing countries. It again goes to the legitimate argument that richer countries have the money and thus can afford to invest in R&D, but this argument condemns us to remain in the vicious circle.

More and more bright minds are immigrating where their talent shall be put to good use. Why not give them the incentives to stay?

• gutentag, welt! #
• is runing jaunty! #

Is into micro-blogging

I must say I was outraged when I read the story about five young men being denied access to a club (Zanzibar in Grand Bay) due to their skin colour (Express Dimanche of this week).

Quote:


Un groupe de cinq garçons refoulé à l’entrée d’ une boîte de nuit un samedi soir. Rien de bien inquiétant, sauf lorsque le vigile informe que leur couleur de peau est le motif de ce refus.

How can Mauritians be denied access on their very own soil in the 21st Century on such grounds? It is not just nightclubs, certain hotels do systematically deny access to Mauritians.

I do hope that the Equal Opportunities Act provides enough safeguards against such acts and that the authorities do not hesitate to enforce the law.

Notwithstanding the money they generate, I believe that businesses that resort to such acts do not deserve to exist. A suggestion is that their trade licenses are not to be renewed.

As for us, we can boycott and find ways to gather evidence against them.

I have put my 17 incha acer 9300, bought one and a half years ago, to rest. It stopped charging after it fell down from my bed with the adapter plugged in. I am the culprit here since I dozed off and somehow it fell down. I guess the power connector got damaged. The warranty had expired and I nevertheless sent it to the local distributor, i.e Harell Mallac, for repairs.

Support from Harell Mallac, Pailles, was a nightmare. They took the laptop for diagnosis and it took them nearly 3 weeks to provide me with a quote. I did have to go there regularly to get updates since their phone line was always busy. They did not even bother to call me when the quote was ready. My heart did skip a heartbeat when I saw the figure, approx Rs 31,000 for replacing the mainboard and battery. I decided to decline the quote and take back my laptop after paying the mandatory Rs500 diagnosis fee.

I decided to go laptop hunting. I wanted something different from the heavy 17″ Acer 9300. I still have nightmares when I recall the pain I had when I dragged the 17 incha around in South Africa last year. I always wanted a laptop which could stand charged for more hours.

I did consider a Macbook at first but I was put off by the price. Then my eye caught a cute little laptop, notebook I should say, MSI Wind U 100 at Home Appliances, les Halles.

It did stand out from other laptops due to its size. Its around the size of a standard diary and weighs less than a Macbook Air. It features Intel’s “tiny” Atom 1.6Ghz processor, 2 gb of RAM and 160 Gb hard disk. The Wind also includes a wifi card, ethernet, bluetooth, a webcam, a card reader, 3 usb ports and a VGA port. There’s no DVD drive though. It comes with Windows XP Home preinstalled. The price tag was Rs25,000 vat included.

After reading some positive reviews on the net, I decided to go for it. I bought mine’s directly from my friend Zaheer at the distributor, Compuspeed, in Port Louis.

After a period of adaptation with the small screen size i.e 10 inches and the keyboard, I must say I am delighted with its performance so far. It boots quickly and runs office applications like a breeze. Aptana IDE and toad runs ok too and I even have Oracle XE running in the background. Its highly portable and I am writing this very post lying down in bed with the laptop resting on my tummy. Battery time is 4-5 hours depending on usage. This laptop coupled with myT’s wireless capabilities or with MTML’s evdo ADSL is my dream come true.

As a bonus with hakintosh possibilities available, the Wind U100 is deemed to be a potential MacBook air killer. Can’t wait to take that for a shot. I need an external dvd drive though.

Zordi kan mo ine ale Centre Commercial de Phoenix (aka Jumbo Phoenix), bizarrement mo fine resenti ene sentiment de fierte kan mo fine truv sa:

Central Electricity Board (CEB) p vane 3 ampoules economiques (11W-18W) a Rs40.

Sa kalite initiative la fer ki nu servi nu resources electrique dans ene maniere plis efficace ek de ce fait nu cav diminuer nu consomation courant ek par extension paye moins.

Li montrer ki l’authorite p guet divant ek ki vraiment quelque part li ena development durable a coeur.

Bisin felicite zots pou sa iniative la ek aussi pou ki zots ine oser seye truv bannes solutions pou diminuer nu consomation energie.

Bannes la ine oser met summer time diboute pou guetter sipa li cav done banes resultats. Mo pas conner sipa li ene success mais mo tire chapeau parceki bannes la ine seyer.

Pas fini tanne dir ki bannes la p etudier posibilite laisse bannes consomateurs produire zots propre electricite dans zots lacaz ek vane surplus, si ena, ar CEB. Ena legislation p vini lor efficience aussi.

Mo penser nu cav fer encor plis mais en meme temps mo reconet ki nous dans la bonne voie!

Photos courtesy of Roshan Gunoo

Much ink has been poured over the fuel hedging issues of Air Mauritius. Many have blamed the top management of Air Mauritius over “wrong” fuel hedging decisions. I am no fuel hedging expert but I wonder whether the decision to sign the hedging contract was “wrong” given the context at the time it was signed.

At that time the price of petrol reached about $150 per barrel from the usual $40 per barrel. Most of western media claimed that the increasing demand from developing countries were to “blame” for the increases in energy and food prices. The “experts” were predicting that the price would reach $200 at the start of this year.

This volatility in oil prices puts airlines at risk. Fuel hedging is a financial tool that can help stabilise the price of oil for the duration of the contract.

Wikipedia defines fuel hedging as:
A contractual tool used by some airlines to stabilize jet fuel costs. A fuel hedge contract commits an airline to paying a pre-determined price for future jet fuel purchases. Airlines enter into such contracts as a bet that future jet fuel prices will be higher than current prices or to reduce the turbulence of confronting future expenses of unknown size. If the price of jet fuel falls and the airline hedged for a higher price, the airline will be forced to pay an above-market rate for jet fuel.

Air Mauritius simply choose to believe the expert’s predictions that oil prices would go up and signed a hedging contract. Paying $105 per barrel is really a deal compared to $200 per barrel at predicted market prices. Frankly speaking had I been in the decision maker’s boots at that time and given the context, I would have taken the exact same decision. I would have signed the hedging contract.

Now that the oil prices have reached the same $40 per barrel as before, Air Mauritius is paying oil at a higher price than the actual price. Fine but still I fail to understand how they can be in a difficult situation as a result of this. Maybe an expert may help me understand this one.

My point is, when they signed the hedging contract they knew that they would pay $105 for the 2 years to come and this should have been budgeted for. They should know in advance where they are going to get the money to buy this oil. Would it be the lost of competitive advantage with airlines who chose not to go for a hedging contract? or is it more of the decrease in arrivals due to the financial crisis?

Anyway more airlines are facing the same fuel hedging issue as Air Mauritius. Examples are Air China, Southwest Airlines and Polish Airlines. I do not think I can blame top management of Air Mauritius on this particular issue. Maybe on other things like their hefty bonuses etc .. :S