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