Lallmatie.com Blog » Lallmatie & Mauritius

What’s new in 2012 – Road network improvement? A lot! Census Results

bhoot — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 19:46:19 +0000

I know it’s been months since I last blogged on Lallmatie.com – my work is taking up time, then I spent time with my love and family, then again work, friends, and so on. Well, I learned about SEO and have been applying it at work recently. So I said, let’s check how lallmatie.com is doing on website analyzers – and it has a damn good potential of becoming a popular site! So another challenge take, let’s do this!

Well, here in Mauritius – and especially the East, it’s good to know that we have some of the largest villages in Mauritius, according to last year’s census. These are:

3. Flacq and Bel Air (18k each – yeah, those who though Bel Air is a small village must learn their EVS again!)

5. Mahebourg

15. Lallmatie (10k)

Yup, I wasn’t going to miss Lallmatie, and what I mean Flacq or Bel Air, those figures do not include the nearby villages of Argy, Caroline etc. They’re purely these villages. So if you add the numbers of the nearby villages, you’ll see that Lallmatie (10)+Bon Accueil (7)+Brisée Verdière (6)+St Julian(3) gives the same size as the No 2 village of Goodlands, and almost the population of No 1 Triolet.

Roads are coming up good – with the Belle Rive to Quartier Militaire direct road works visible when you travel from Alma to Quartier Militaire; Salazie straightening and Ripailles road works for the new motorway. I’m so eager to drive on these roads and see how much time can be saved by bypassing the busy roads. No, I won’t say that it’s because of the minister in the region…

Recently traffic has grown so heavy on the usual roads near St Pierre – Moka and Reduit that the quickest way is to pass via Bagatelle if you are going from St Pierre to Reduit – in the morning (and in the peak 5 pm afternoon on Thursdays). I wonder why Thursday is the day of the week where you have the jammest Moka…

What do you think?

Scheme Encouraging Small Sugarcane Planters is a Waste!

bhoot — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 16:02:08 +0000

In a time where the big sugar estates are divesting from sugar production, how come the government is helping small sugarcane to save money for the next harvest? So contrary! Especially when we import so many vegetables from abroad, these same planters should be helped so that they switch to vegetables and fruit production. That would help in constructing our food security and Maurice Ile Durable… But at least, they’re helping people in need you’d say…

Bad Decision – Allowing less credits to promote from SC to HSC

bhoot — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 15:58:03 +0000

Among all the good decisions taken by the government these days, there comes one that goes backwards. Today the Minister of Education announced that only 3 credits will be required to promote SC students to take HSC, compared to 4 credits. This is bad, because these students who did not get enough credits are wasting their time, THEY ARE NOT GOOD AT ACADEMICS – They are definitely good at doing something else. Vocational courses is the way for them. Allow more entries to courses by the MITD and similar bodies, so that they can receive some tertiary education straight away. This would also be inline with the Tertiary education minister’s vision.

Put it simply, the system is already making failures at CPE level… Someone who is not good at studies can be good at other things e.g. you can get these people into construction indusry, arts, tourism industry and more… Why force the course of action or delay them by getting them into HSC, when they should be seeking tertiary or on-the-job education. The Second Chance scheme is a helper in this but contrary to the decision of allowing only 3 credits to take HSC…

http://lallmatie.com/blog/2010/03/24/the-ideal-education-system-for-mauritius-primary-middle-schsc-high-school/

Busy month + End of Tulsi on MBC + Budget 2011

bhoot — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 20:10:34 +0000

I feel bad not having blogged for weeks, and missed Ba’s funeral on Facebook. Here we are finally, the end of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, aka. Tulsi over here… Happy to see 112y+ Ba and 64y Tulsi finally disappeared. I hope nobody remembers them… They should remember the villains: Ansh, Trupti etc…

I’ll have to write a full blog on the goods and bads of the budget 2011… The grave thing is that the government is spending nearly 20B (90B vs 70B) over it’s revenues, in times that businesses and themselves have shouted crisis! There are some good measures for the middle class, and for taxing the upper classes more but… the actual minister is no expert in the matter, and simply cannot match the former finance minister!

Mansory Panamera on TopGear.com

bhoot — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 16:23:52 +0000

http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/mansory-panamera-2010-07?imageNo=5.

Action, Not Birth, Determines Caste – Religion, Politics & Management

bhoot — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 17:14:43 +0000

I was very pleased with the episodes of Mahabharat this week (Mahabharat 6 & 10 Sep MBC1). There were important lessons and teachings in each episodes. Given the recent uproar created by the infamous l’Express article on castes use in politics, I think it’s important that everyone understands that even in the times of Mahabharat (3000 years ago or so), it was accepted that people can determine their caste, by the job they do: their actions.

Karan told his father that he wants to become a warrior, a Kshatriya, changing from his father’s Shudra job of being charioteer. He will succeed in becoming a great warrior later in the series.

Another good lesson comes from Mama Shakuni to Duryodhan. Some people associate ‘Divide and rule‘ philosophy to colonial English, when the British East India Company used the divisions of small kingdoms in India to their advantage into conquering the big India. However, Shakuni gives the same advice over 3o00 years ago to his nephew. He mentions that together the Pandavas are stronger than he is, but one-on-one, Duryodhan can beat them.

Shakuni suggests that apart from the virtues, conspiracy can prove useful in battle. When the enemy is stronger that you are, you must first identify what your strengths are. Then identify the weaknesses of the enemy so that you can strike there. That’s how Duryodhan is able to beat Bheem by using the latters eating habit. Compare with the SW of SWOT analysis in Management…

Now I think that the politicians in Mauritius are really preaching unité national. After all, they are the models themselves, making coalitions, networks. Each party comprises of cross-religion and castes members. However, for the orthodox people who still vote on castes, they use a divide and rule approach, where it is easier to manage small blocks of the voters, compared to a large group. That’s also the approach in conventional management, where big companies (e.g. GML, Rogers..) have created specialised small firms to handle different activities…

Mauritians do work together well, at least, the youngsters do. I do, my friends from other religions do as well. We accept each other’s cultural differences, and learn the good things from each other, as well pointing the bad sides. E.g. women oppression in distorted ideas from Hinduism and Islam. Let’s hope that the current generation is stronger than the few of us who are still cultivate caste-communial differences negatively…

Tulsi Lessons/Kiyosaki – When in Business, Build Your Team

bhoot — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:23:52 +0000

I was glad to be home early this Wednesday, it had been days since I came back early enough to have a glimpse of Tulsi. I had hoped that my people have stopped watching it (too bad, at least I dreamed). I was surprised to see that Mihir had been arrested and was being questioned like an ordinary suspect. Here is what are missing:

In his 40 years of business, he did not have legal counsel. Businesses usually work with at least one legal firm, which would provide lawyers to defend the company and yourself… Where did that go? On top of that, rich people may have an army of lawyers!

More missing are his political contacts. How is it possible that such a big businessmen does not know any politician powerful enough to prevent the police (CBI here) from treating him like a criminal. He was even handcuffed in public…

Robert Kiyosaki said in his book (Rich Dad Poor Dad) that when you’re in business, you should have your team. This means, having a legal contact, accountant, financial advisor etc. You would at least need to have basic knowledge to be able to converse with them (they are not employees, contacts, partners). His advice comes from observing how the rich behave.

Well, if you are still not getting the real essence behind this serial is showing… JUST DON’T DO LIKE THE VIRANIS!

Gold Remains One of the Safest High Yield Investments – Mauritius Dodo Coins

bhoot — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:39:16 +0000

Mauritians have access to investing in gold since over 20 years with the introduction of The Dodo coin in Rs 100, Rs 250, Rs 500 and Rs 1000 face values. It must have been in 1990′s, while a kid reading MCB Rupys magazine that I came to learn about it. The Dodo coins were a symbol of patriotism. A few years later, their prices has grown from Rs 1000 to Rs 8000… It came to my mind that hmm, gold prices have increased… Little did I guess that they’d keep on increasing. The Dodo gold coin prices grew an amazing 25%+ per annum* compound over the last five years! Or 14.5% p.a. for the last 10 years.That might not exactly sound high yield to you, if you are a pro investor getting over 50% p.a. but it’s consistent. I read earlier that Gold prices rise about 20% p.a. while real estate gets 15% p.a. in USA (pre-crisis).

*Get the latest and past prices of The Dodo gold coin from the Bank of Mauritius website: http://bom.intnet.mu

Rs 100 face value – 3.41g of gold - Rs 5155 to Rs 1000 face value (34.05g) at Rs 49,120.

BTW, the BOM site is really BOM!

Anelka Out – Should the Coach be Blamed?

bhoot — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 19:11:14 +0000

As surprising as it may seem, MBC commentators did not even once mention that Domenech might be the one to blame for this situation. Have they all forgotten the fate of France in the World Cup 2002? France went out before the round of 16… with a loss from a small team…

Well in 2002, there were still many remnants from the 1998 team. Big team players… the selection I remember and line up was uhuh… Canal+ criticised a lot if I remember well… Domenech was almost thrown out… How did he stay? And make such a comeback in 2006 (and the fall with Zidane)! It was a well motivated team…

Now he’s fallen again… You don’t put out a winning player in such a critical stage… Cause, like expected, it demotivated the team. It shows a lack of trust. Would Anelka just swear for no reason?!

Zidane agreed here:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-soc-wcup-zidane-france,0,2020632.story

Can FIFA World Rankings Be Used to Forecast World Cup Results 2010?

bhoot — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:27:31 +0000

FIFA has a global ranking of countries since many years, the list being updated on a monthly basis. I say it gives a good idea of their national teams performance. Can this be used to forecast results? But, this is football, other factors also need to be taken into account with this world cup: managers, South Africa’s playing home despite a ranking of 83 in May 2010 vs Brazil still No.1. Other factors would be current form, the team formation and strategy, team lineup, weather conditions, referee and the players spirit!

If you check the ranking for May 2010 from this site:

http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/lastranking/gender=m/fullranking.html#confederation=0&rank=193

You’ll see that these top the list (rank, name, points)
1 Brazil 1611
2 Spain 1565
3 Portugal 1249
4 Netherlands 1231
5 Italy 1184
6 Germany 1082
7 Argentina 1076
8 England 1068
9 France 1044
10 Croatia 1041

I said, let’s try to make a forecast of the results in each group based on these rankings only. I have not followed the teams this year, so i don’t know how well each has been playing: so I’ll stick to the rankings only. If two similarly ranked teams are playing, I’ll give them a draw. If a team has barely won any match, I’ll assume that it’ll try harder in the third/last match of the group. These will give a ranking as follows:

Group A: Uruguay, South Africa (or France)
Group B: Argentina, Greece
Group C: England, Serbia
Group D: USA, Germany
Group E: Cameroon, Slovakia
Group F: Italy, Netherlands
Group G: Brazil, Chile
Group H: Spain, Portugal

I’ll skip the 8th finals, with the quarter finals as:
1. Uruguay vs Argentina
2. England vs Germany
3. Cameroon vs Italy
4. Brazil vs Spain

Well, I hope to get some half of the results correct. Then we’d have a final of Argentina/England vs Cameroon/Brazil/Spain? Argentina may be as a winner or if an African team to win…