Blog Mauritius
Blog: Children of Freedom
Is it not amazing how we Mauritians have all embraced freedom? Only 45 years ago, in a bitterly fought general election to determine independence of our country, some 44% of our brothers and sisters voted against. The other day at Ilot on the occasion of the celebrations of the 45th anniversary of independence, the Prime Minister explained that they were misled by those who did not want to part with their privileges and domination.
09 Mar 2013, Le Matinal
Blog: How far have feminists been successful?
Women today are shy of being called feminists because of the negative stereotypes associated with the word. While universal, unconditional women’s suffrage, equal pay for equal work laws, educational rights, diminishment of mandatory gender roles, are among the victories of cultural feminism, there are areas like the absence of power over reproductive rights, the number of sexual assault and harassment cases which indicate more concretely the intrinsic inadequacy of the freedom for equality which feminism is expected to bring.
09 Mar 2013, Le Matinal
Blog: What society expects from leaders
The world offers a wide variety of specimens of leaders. While many inherit the vices that power or absolute power can proliferate in terms of management of self and delegated authority, a few stand out because many combine qualities that make them rise above the stereotype.
28 Feb 2013, Le Matinal
Blog: It’s war!
The leader of the Labour Party, Navin Ramgoolam, has declared war against the opposition particularly Sir Anerood Jugnauth and his son Pravind and the traditional media. It is a political war, but still war.
28 Feb 2013, Le Matinal
Blog: An eye for an eye…
After weeks of living in that comfort zone that the Ramgoolam regime was coming to an end soon the traditional press, an ardent supporter of the MMM and whatever group supports the MMM, the opposition, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, the bloggers who are experts at potted thinking, are now having to revise their view in the wake of the Labour Party Congress held last Sunday.
28 Feb 2013, Le Matinal
Blog: Dire need for greater mental sanity
One of the foremost problems of our society is the frightening increase of mentally sick beings. Many have to be sent to psychiatric wards and similar institutions - to say nothing of the growing number of acutely neurotic and mentally unbalanced persons who are officially considered sane and yet whose psychological abnormalities and vagaries induce still more conflicts and mental-emotional disturbances in their children and marriage partners.
21 Feb 2013, Le Matinal
Blog: The Recent Flood and the Real Issues
The recent and ongoing torrential rains have created havoc mainly in the north and the south. Roads, buildings, private residences have been flooded. As is usually the case in Mauritius particularly under a Labour government the traditional press, the opposition and a large chunk of the public squarely put the blame on the government. As if it is the fault of the government that nature has unleashed such copious rains on the country. Surely a MMM/MSM government will have the power and authority to command Mother Nature when rains should come and where.
21 Feb 2013, Le Matinal
Blog: Revealed!
If the CT Power project were implemented in 2009, the consumer would have saved Rs 1.2 billion yearly and CEB would have avoided investing Rs 5 billion. The country would have saved more than Rs 8.6 billion. This fact was revealed by Mr. Balraj Naroo, chairman of CEB in a radio interview. The CT Power project would have cost only Rs 7 billion.
21 Feb 2013, Le Matinal
Blog: What Our Youth Should Know At 18?
The system is so narrowly geared to examinations that merit lies in grabbing troves of A+ by wearing a blinkered view of life. Had it not been for the rare privilege of a stable home, many academically successful youth would have been unrelieved rogues, as many are.
15 Feb 2013, Le Matinal
Blog: The League of Racists
Now that the press has been given a free licence to write on the private life of a Hindu woman and to associate that woman with a high profile politician on mere suppositions and rumours thanks to a judge of its own choosing after dragging Judge Domah in the mud, the traditional press, is having a field day.
15 Feb 2013, Le Matinal
Blog: The Mirror
It is so easy to accuse and label the one holding the mirror showing your real face and identity, a racist. And pushing the argument a little further, a casteist, a communalist. Such label sticks. It hurts. Nobody wants to be known as a racist.
15 Feb 2013, Le Matinal
Blog: Understanding performance
At a time when SC and HSC results become the yardsticks for accountability, we should know that the pass rate paraded by schools gives a warped perception of the school. 95% pass rate includes passes without credit passes. Seven and eight units are poor performances in terms of knowledge and skills. Such students usually scrape through at A level because their poor grasp of basic concepts blocks understanding of complexities at upper levels.
08 Feb 2013, Le Matinal
Blog: No power shedding! Thanks to coal
I wish all those who are so passionately opposing the CT Power project realize how much harm they are causing to the poor, the SME's, the production machinery of the country, particularly all those involved in export industry. Thousands of jobs and our prosperity depend on electricity produced by coal.
08 Feb 2013, Le Matinal
Blog: The sexual behaviour of leaders
There is an apprehension in the media to confront a live issue - does the sexual behaviour of our leaders matter to the extent of disqualifying them of active political life if there are suspicions of a violation from the norm. Why should it matter that a political leader should have an exemplary, i.e, stern, austere and even puritanical, attitude to sex while the pilot is free to indulge in promiscuities right and left.
31 Jan 2013, Le Matinal
Blog: « Public figure », « full disclosure » and Hon. Judge Balancy’s « recusal refusal »
Via her Attorney, Nandanee Soornack lodged a letter of ‘complaint’ against Hon. Judge Eddy Balancy with the Hon. Chief Justice Bernard Sik Yeun requesting Judge Balancy’s recursal from the Nandanee Soornack’s case on the ground he is allegedly close to one of the two press groups, namely La Sentinelle Ltd, in which his relatives Guy Balancy and Jean-Luc Balancy were employed. Guy Balancy was the editor in chief of l’Express. In addition, as reported, Ms Soornack’s Attorney pointed out in his letter that the Judge also made various statements in the press. Ms Soornack is under no legal obligation to …
25 Jan 2013, Le Matinal
Blog: Back to Business
It was high time. The country had to go back to business. After the extensive New Year festivities, since Christmas till Sankranti on the 14th of January, and the scandals which had made headlines continuously for a month, good sense has started prevailing.
25 Jan 2013, Le Matinal
Blog: An exerciser for the retiree
I hardly knew words do not have to be taken for their face value, because words' faces change disguises like those of men. Old age is for rest and ultimately I reached the crest of the hill when the autumn of life weakens your limbs, introduces jabs of ache in your bones and muscles and I seemed to have an instinctive leaning for seating pleasures.
25 Jan 2013, Le Matinal
Blog: The Systematic Lynching of Nandanee Soornack
Never before in the history of Mauritius have we witnessed such a lynching of a Hindu woman by the press.
25 Jan 2013, Le Matinal
Blog: Nandanee Soornack’s Case – Challenges facing Hon. Judge Eddy Balancy
Although Judges do have personal beliefs and inclinations, in delivering judgements they tend to shed such beliefs and inclinations and apply the law. Hence, it makes no difference which judge has been appointed to replace Judge Domah in the Nandanee Soornack’s case in which he issued an interim injunction on 5th January 2013 forcing Le Mauricien Ltd and La Sentinelle Ltée press groups to respect Ms Soornack’s « right to privacy » and that of her family.
22 Jan 2013, Le Matinal
Blog: Nandanee Soornack v/s Le Mauricien Ltd, La Sentinelle Ltée & others
« In order to enable the judiciary to discharge its primary duty to maintain a fair and effective administration of justice, it follows that the judiciary must as an integral part of its constitutional function have the power and duty to enforce its orders and to protect the administration of justice against contempts which are calculated to undermine it ». Privy Council case of Gilbert Ahnee & Othrs. v. The DPP (1998).
20 Jan 2013, Le Matinal