H1N1 is scaring the hell out of me.

The death count is 2 in Mauritius and I don't wanna add "till date". The first victim was a woman in her fifties and now a 4-year old girl. I wonder how many deaths it'll take for authorities to be a little proactive.

It seems like some mild measures have been taken by companies and schools to protect from any contagion, they were perhaps thinking that we're above all viruses. But now that the virus has made 2 victims and there are 29 confirmed cases of the flu, I guess radical solutions need to be adopted soon.

The Ministry of Health has arranged for what they call "flu clinics" in hospitals across the island. Those are simply sections reserved solely for the treatment of A H1N1 patients. We might use the word "quarantine" here, which is arguably, given the present situation, a good idea.

I hope that this virus is contained soon and that adequate information is sent out to the population. From what I have seen, the Ministry is sending suited-up untrained PRs to communicate news on how effective they were at preventing the virus from getting to our little island for 3 whole months.

Even though Mauritius got the virus 3 months after Mexico, we cannot call that an achievement. And now that the virus is here, it seems quite irrelevant to bring that up when people are worried about the death count. Strangely the death count itself was not much mentioned, only stuff like "what is certain about this virus is that it is uncertain" were emphasised on and I feel that there's no worst statement to trigger more panic among the population.

Hell, weren't they supposed to reassure and inform the population? I know there's still some hope we can cling on to.

All we gotta do is take up our precautions and not be careless when it comes to the flu.

Update - 14.08.2009 - The death of a 3rd person was announced early morning today. The victim is a 30 year old man.

Naraindranath Gopee, President of the Government Secondary School Teachers Union has made an appeal towards the State to temporarily close down all schools to prevent the propagation of the A H1N1 virus.

I hope his appeal is heard. Right some some secondary schools are carrying out staff meetings to analyse the state of health of students and to decide on what is to be done.

Where does all the money go?

Yesterday, at breakfast, we received the visit of a guy dressed in traditional clothes. The purpose of his visit was to collect donation money for the construction of a new temple in the village. I'm often skeptical about those visits as I'm not even sure that the temple for which the guy was asking a donation will really be constructed. During the past 8 years that we have been living here, we've all too often had similar visits and there still is only one temple in the village.

That makes me wonder whether all the past temple-construction projects had truly been dropped or whether those projects were just plain scams aimed at collecting a maximum of money from gullible religious blinds? After all, those who are asking for donations would not be accountable to anyone. Last time I checked, there were no records of any donation that each individual made.

When it comes to the donations that people make while praying, most of this money goes in the renovation of the temple itself or in the funding of religious events and probably as the "salary" of the priest presiding over the temple.

I know that religious functions can be important but wouldn't the temple be doing more constructive actions by using the donation money for charity organisations for example? Very few do it and it's actually disappointing to see that my religion is helping no one but itself...

Next time that I'll have the choice between helping out an organisation or a temple, the choice will be easy.

PAWS Anti Tick and Flea Treatment

PAWS Anti Tick and Flea Treatment is a new home service that PAWS will be offering.

We come to your house to treat your dogs as well as its environment against external parasites, on appointment.

Unlike the sterilisation services, this one is not free, which is really understandable, since it requires individual treatments.

The prices are as follows:

Rs 1250 for treatment of 1 dog + spray on a maximum 100 square metre garden (including dog bedding).

+ Rs 100 per additional dog


For 2 dogs: Rs 1,350 per treatment (dogs and environment)

For 3 dogs: Rs 1,450 per treatment (dogs and environment)

For 4 dogs: Rs 1,550 per treatment (dogs and environment)

and so on...

If you want to give your dog a nice little treat, that's one of the things to go for! You can contact PAWS by visiting their webpage.

Or you might like me, have opted for an effective DIY way for several years now. It's quite funny to see those little insects take the dip and never come back. :D I'm so cruel, I know.

Some past related posts:
Some News From PAWS
PAWS

Mauritian Bloggers Event: Flic en Flac

Only 10 days remain before the bloggers meeting.This time it's going to be at the Flic en Flac public beach on the 11th July starting at 10 a.m. This event is open, so that bloggers can bring in their friends and even relatives. If you seek more details or wish to confirm whether you will be coming, please visit the event's Facebook page or send me a mail at contact @morinnbuzz.com

As Yashvin has said in this blog post for the event, the proposed activities for that day are Treasure Hunt, Beach Volley, Tug of war, Beach Soccer among others...

We are indeed very eager to announce that the Treasure Hunt is going to be sponsored by NEMESYS LTD, which is a Mauritian company specialising in affordable domain names, web hosting, SSL certificates, web design, and online marketing services.

The content of the treasure case is still a surprise for now. Secrets secrets! :D

So dudettes and dudes, I really hope we will be in great number at Flic en Flac on the 11th. I'm so totally looking forward to that day! :D

P.S: We have 2 free places with us, so we can give a ride to those residing at Goodlands, Petit Raffray or Port Louis. Just send an email on the address above.

Nemesys Ltd did not sponsor our treasure hunt as they felt that we should have complied to certain conditions, which was not possible for us to do

.

For whom the wedding bells toll?

Let me tell you right away that this post is not about me getting married. :P Though some people were literally assaulting Jev and I with questions regarding our wedding last night. You see that's one of the issues of going out with someone who happens to be a family friend and who is remotely related to one of my relatives; we get to be invited to the same wedding ceremonies and sometimes this gives rise to some awkward situations. However, looking back on all those incidents, I tend to find them funny.

Anyway, coming back to wedding ceremonies, I have tremendously enjoyed that of last night. It felt great to prepare for the wedding, find the right clothes to wear, do my hair and all those beauty stuff which I do all so rarely.

The wedding ceremony was great, very traditional, which I really love.

However, there is one factor that really annoys me in all the weddings I attend, which is the real loud music. I wonder if there is some kind of inter-wedding decibel competition organised every year. At first there was the loud music which made any conversation impossible, then came the band. Damn, I'm sure I'm going to suffer from deafening silence if I keep on attending weddings.

Whatever happened to the good old Shehnai in Hindu wedding ceremonies? A light background music makes the whole wedding atmosphere even better. I wonder why people don't opt for that kind of music more often.

You might argue that Shehnai players in Mauritius are rare and not really affordable by all. But then there exists the CD versions of Shehnais or for the sake of the health of guests ears wedding organisers might consider reducing the decibel a little.

It's not because of the latest hit music that people actually attend weddings...

Bloggers under the sun - Next bloggers meeting

Dudettes and dudes, thanks a lot for the suggestions you made on Yashvin's post and here, on this blog, in the previous post regarding the next bloggers' event.

As per the suggestions and feedbacks received, it seems that most of us want to hang out in an open area and get into some outdoor activities. We live in a beautiful island, why not make the most of one of our beaches?

Moreover Nav has made an awesome suggestion, which goes thus:

All bloggers get togeher in a sort of team building exercise and build a 6ft Sand castle? :)
A meeting with a meaning: “Global Warming: It won’t stop us building our castles” (that would be fitting given global concerns surrounding global warming, and the impact on tourism perhaps, in Mauritius)

We could go along with a similar line of thought, by organising a "meeting with a meaning".

We might also organise some fun team-building activities on the beach, which would enable us to get to know each other better.

I know all these must be sounding a little messed-up for now. So let's get into the proposals for the next bloggers event right away.

What we propose is this:

Venue: Flic en Flac beach.

Date : Not yet finalised - Probably a Saturday in July.

Activities proposed: A real treasure hunt with a real treasure to discover :D, beach volley, sand-castle construction competition, fake bowling and all those stuff you can do at the beach. :p

Of course, all these are still in proposal mode. Nothing is still final yet. We yet again need feedbacks regarding the venue and date to finalise the event.

So please do tell us whether you would be free to attend the meeting in July and whether the venue is accessible to you.

P.S: Just a little note for those living in the North near Goodlands and Petit Raffray or even Port-Louis, if indeed the final venue is Flic en Flac, we will have 3 (now 2) free places with us, so we can give you a ride, just let me know by mailing me at contact@morinnbuzz.com so we can talk about where to pick you etc... ;)

Here comes FaceTube.mu

Before proceeding, note for the slow: I find FaceTube.mu lame and this post is to explain why I find it lame.

Just when you were thinking that Mauritius lacks a good social networking site, where you can only meet Mauritians and see all the pains associated with damn vain youngsters, you gotta stand corrected, cause here comes FaceTube.mu, a self-proclaimed "Facebook Mauritius".

First, I would like to congratulate the creator of Facebook Mauritius for the awesome domain name. I mean Facetube.mu, it's not everyday that you get that kind of inspiration for a domain name. To me, it evokes thoughts of colonic irrigation, especially if you try the creole accent but for other, less twisted people it might mean "awesome site".

Then, you might not be able to see it now, but this site is so damn useful. Instead of remaining on Facebook to socialise with your friends and have an opportunity of meeting more people and sharing more information, you get to use your facebook account to connect to FaceTube and meet a small circle of people of whom you might already be fed up. Ah! Such a joy!

So dudettes and dudes, no need to say that I was tremendously excited the moment I got the happy little spam email in my inbox some minutes ago. I was about to commit the horrible act of deleting the email when I thought better of it and got enlightened (and the best laugh of my life) by visiting FaceTube.

Now I'm wondering what the guys behind FaceTube are planning next, cause logically, something worst than that does not exist.

Is that a Google PR update?

It seems that a Google PR update has just operated; I noticed today that morinnbuzz.com has a PR 3. It's not that I'm elated about this, I usually don't give a damn about PR and stuff. However, it wasn't all joyful when we lost the PR 3 after moving to morinnbuzz.com from morinn.blogspot.com. Now that the PR is back, I'll have no grudge against the fact that the new domain wasn't mapped.

If you guys wish to check your PR, here we go:

Just enter you blog URL below

Check Page Rank of any web site pages instantly:

Do share your PRs dudettes and dudes!

Free Garbage Bins

This even made it to the news in brief on MBC tonight; the intensive cleaning campaign at Petit Raffray and the fact that the Ministry of Environment is giving out free garbage bins to the village's inhabitants. Something similar was organised in New Grove.

We got our bin yesterday and Azou was the first to sniff it, as you can see

I think that giving out free garbage bins to Petit Raffray's people is a good initiative on the part of the Ministry. Perhaps the people might now start realising that garbage is meant to be in bins and not on other people's ground.

Having lived in Petit Raffray for almost 8 years now, I have witnessed the aggravation of this dumping issue. The people take great care into transporting their garbage from their house to leave it near my place. Had they taken the same care into putting those garbage in a bin in front of their house to facilitate the scavengers job, the place would have been a hell lot better.

Anyway, dudettes and dudes, I cross fingers, wishing that this is the beginning of a solution to this issue.

A related post:
My Savanna is being polluted by stupid people

Suggestions for a next bloggers meeting...

Anyone in for a next bloggers meeting?

Let's go back a little in time...

The previous bloggers meeting was held at Mc Donalds, Port Louis, on Saturday March 14 this year and the event was promising, to say the least. Around 25 bloggers were present and we all shared some nice moment, though we lacked time to get to know each other more.

Another meeting was supposed to be held during university vacations and here we are, in mid university holidays and it's high time to start rolling and planning the next meeting.

I don't know about you dudettes and dudes, but I am as enthusiastic as for the previous meeting 'cause there are some stuff that I'd like to do for the next one. For instance, I would like to:
Be a little more talkative.
Get to know more about everyone present
Get there on time! :p

Coming back to the next bloggers meeting, Yashvin has proposed that we come up with suggestions about the venue. As per what he added in the comments below;

1. First of all, we should find a place to hold the meeting, which should be easily accessible and convenient to most of us.

2. If ever that place has to be paid for, we must take into consideration that most of us are students.

So I would invite you all to voice out any suggestions freely. :)

Regarding the date of the next meeting, it has not yet been set. But it will most probably be once again held on a Saturday to fit the schedule of those of us who are working, have school or are on training or placements.

We sincerely hope to hear some positive responses from you blogging dudettes and dudes. ;)

For any suggestions or queries, my email address is contact @ morinnbuzz.com

To know more about the previous meeting: First Bloggers' Meeting 2009, Promising

The Big Issue

Ever heard of The Big Issue? I'm sure you must have and if you haven't, The Big Issue is a magazine which offers a huge help to homeless and vulnerably housed person.

From the magazine's website you can read:

The Big Issue exists to offer homeless and vulnerably housed people the opportunity to earn a legitimate income. We produce a weekly entertainment and current affairs magazine which vendors buy from us for 70p and sell to the public for £1.50, keeping 80p for themselves.

The magazine first started out in the UK in September 1991 by John Bird and Gordon Roddick. The magazine is now published in eight countries. It is written by professional journalists and sold by homeless persons. The vendors, of course, have to abide by some codes of conduct to be eligible to this offer. For instance, they will have to be clean of alcohol or drugs while they are acting as Big Issue vendors.

I personally greatly admire the Big Issue initiative. Imagine offering the homeless and needy the opportunity to earn a living, and in this case they are really earning it. It's not a grant, it's not charity. They are employed and they get their due.

In Mauritius people are often blaming the authority for not providing enough help, this is no news. It would actually be great if we could do something like The Big Issue around here or in any country for that matter.

Ah dudettes and dudes, do you think I'm unrealistic to be thinking about the Big Issue in Mauritius?

Sources:
Big Issue
Wikipedia

Animal defender? Really?

Ever since the Dengue fever cases have made it to the news, I can't stop killing mosquitoes. I killed an overall of 3 or 4, bare handed. I can't believe I did that. Not that I'm saying I'm the nicest person around. It's just that, I've been thinking about the implication of my deeds.

I am an avid animal lover and defender, basically. I always make it a point of honour to protect animals, especially dogs, and this has even brought me into arguments with people; some woman who was letting her son hit a dog, it's a long story.

But then I am the worst kind of hypocrite to be preferring dogs to mosquitoes. One of the major criticisms that have been formulated towards animal defenders is that they are always on the frontline to defend cute animals such as dogs, cats, rabbits and hamsters from vivisection and scientific experiments but they are barely there for "pests" such as rats and flies.

I guess this is true, at least in my case it is...

Damn expo

Today Jev and I went to the Orange Expo at the Swami Vivekananda Conference Centre, Pailles. We did not plan to go there before; it's just that today we had nothing else planned.

I did not want to say anything negative about the expo (yeah really) but I'll be lying if I said I had a good time.

In fact, nothing really caught my attention at the expo, except the bimbos they hired to look after inquisitive persons, I wonder where they got them from. Ah and the flowers and plants looked genuine (except the fake grass). I think Orange really put a lot of effort in buying real flowers and plants for that expo or were they taken from the natural places nearby?

Anyway as I'm talking about the girls and flowers it must be quite clear that the purpose of the expo itself did not strike me much, unless if you consider the Orange sitara singer who was screaming at the top of this voice to an Atif Aslam song. That was enough to make us leave. I wanted to take some flowers in the process but I was so much in a hurry and so scared to lose my precious ears, you see.

Ah dudettes and dudes, you must be thinking that my day had been a total waste, but not quite, not quite. I killed a damn tiger mosquito today and that freaking cheered me up.

Anyway dudettes and dudes, did you attend the expo or were you about to do it tomorrow and now have doubts about it because of my post? Do let me know...

Potential Dengue Fever alert

I learnt today by going through this post that a few cases (around 8) of Dengue fever might have been recorded in Mauritius.

The tiger mosquito strikes again

The Dengue fever is caused by the same tiger mosquito which brought the Chikungunya fever back in 2006.

In this case the same precautionary measures as those put in place in times of Chikungunya apply; including the use of mosquito repellents(sprays, coils and bracelets), preventing the accumulation of water in the immediate environment or the use of lemongrass (citronelle) or products derived from this plant as a means to keep mosquitoes away.

Image from Lemongrass World

I really hope you take up all your precautions dudettes and dudes especially if the reported cases are confirmed as really being of Dengue fever after the official report is received from South Africa in about 3 days. As per what I read, the symptoms of Dengue fever would be similar to those of Chikungunya. Having experienced the Chikungunya fever in 2006, I can tell you it was not even slightly pleasant.

Update (12/06/09): 229 dengue patients have been registered in Mauritius so far. It has been confirmed that it is a benign form of the Dengue Fever.

The Mauritian population is advised to take good care and to repel mosquitoes to its best.

Messed up seasons

Even though we Mauritians have officially entered winter on the 15th of last month, the weather seems to be playing tricks on us. Initially it started out cold and then recently it's so hot that one would think we're in deep December. We only lack the louder-than-your-neighbours' fire-crackers and weird people shouting in the streets to think that New Year is near.

Where the hell is the cold, chilling winter? Okay, I know we never actually had that in Mauritius.
Let me phrase it differently; where the hell is the relatively cold winter?

I want to wear socks and sleep peacefully under tonnes of blankets.

I don't want to hear mosquitoes' symphonies in my ears again. Cause contrary to what people believe, mosquitoes aren't great singers.

So dudettes and dudes and the seasonal aliens, do you think that the weather is getting hot too, or I am the only one?

Tracking your own life?

Recently I have developed an obsession for my teeth. I don't know when this has started and I wanted to find out. So I typed "tooth" in the searchbox on this blog's navbar above and got quite a few posts in response and I started reading them.

I was greatly surprised by some of the stuff I read. I could not even remember that I had actually written those posts plus they reminded me of events and incidents I had totally zapped from my memory (not intentionally).

When I first started blogging, I always thought that there would be a time when I'll be reading my old posts and be amazed by whatever has happened in my life. I guess this time has started pointing its wicked nose. :p

So dudettes and dudes, have you ever gone through your blog's archives and discovered stuff you had forgotten about?

My mothers day weekend

We went to Mahebourg to meet my grandma and spent some time there. The atmosphere was cozy and friendly, nothing fancy.

Curry at grandma's place

On our way, I got to see "the pyramids" at Plaine Magnien. To my amazement, there were lots of people there. I did not take any photos. I photographed Lion Mountain instead, which I feel is a more worthwhile scenery.

We then passed the Naval Museum of Mahebourg, which has recently featured a lot in the local news due to the death of its director. I was sincerely thinking that some people wanted to remake the Da Vinci Code, Mauritian style before knowing the actual facts of the incident which is a lot more gruesome than the Da Vinci Code.

Heading towards Mahebourg, Lion Mountain in the backdrop.

Before that, on Saturday I made caramelised almond slices with corn flakes and some fruit jelly. Both were received really well by my relatives. Guess they were hungry.

Caramelised almond flakes

Fruit Jelly

Right now I am feeling so sleepy. I think I'm catching a fever or something. See you when I recover dudettes and dudes and my happy aliens.

Oh! And how did your mother's day go?

A mother's day advert

Have you noticed this mothers' day advert? When I first saw it I kind of found it cool. It reminded me of the photo shoots from America's Next Top Model where the top model wannabes had to adopt poses which suited the "haute couture" standard.

And then eventually my opinions became divided about this poster.

Why depict a zombie-like posh mom (who clearly does not seem to be happy with the gifts she has just received) for a mother's day advert?

And have you noticed the expression of the children? The girl in the front is okay, but look at the boy at the back, he seems to be totally unhappy, with a blank expression and handing the gift in blind servitude.

I don't know what kind of message they are trying to pass with this advertising campaign but if it involves mothers who do not show any reactions to the gift they receive and children behaving like zombies, I'd better keep out of this. Haha!

Even though the concept of this advertising is original and it changes from the regular "happy-family" adverts, I don't think it suits the whole mother's day spirit.

Ah anyway dudettes and dudes and my posh aliens, what do you think about this?

P.S: I haven't yet bought a gift for my mother! Is it too late? :S

Vinivi's milk round

Yesterday I attended a presentation from the guys of Vinivi to students at the University of Mauritius regarding the company's structure and IT job prospects in the organisation.

The guys doing the presentation were Gilles Granger, the founder of Vinivi and Jevin O. Sewaruth, developer, who has joined the organisation less than 1 year ago.

Gilles Granger started by talking about Vinivi, which is a startup, having been founded in 2006 by himself along with Jean Francois Topige. The company is currently working with 85% of French on-line travel agencies and the website holds the 2nd most significant collection of hotel videos in the world.

Presently, Vinivi has an employee count of 14 and the IT crew is recruiting up to 2 new members. Potential candidates for the job, as per Gilles Granger, should be "geeks", not what is derogatorily said about geeks but rather those having a passion for programming, and more specifically for stuff like .Net, SQL, Ajax, Javascript and API, among others.

As a leader of the organisation, Gilles Granger seems to be very motivating and inspiring, placing an emphasis on the job requirements and profile of future employees right from the beginning. He also stated that past experiences of employees is of little interest to the organisation, it is more driven by the potential of its people and what they can accomplish in the future.

Moreover, Vinivi is a flexible organisation, having very little hierarchy. Being small in terms of employees and flexible implies that it can easily adapt to changes in business situations. These also favour communication as well as team work and encourage employees at being pro-active and good decision-makers.

On my part, I particularly liked Vinivi's dress code, which is casual wear and which says a lot on the organisation's culture. :D

Gilles Granger surrounded by inquisitive students after the presentation

As for Jevin, he talked briefly on the projects he has worked on since joining Vinivi and about what his job consists of. He also replied to a few questions, like what Panoramio is about, for instance. Damn! I did not know about panoramio before yesterday.

Anyway, I was quite proud of him, after knowing about the stuff he did, even though I barely understood most of it.

On the overall, I really enjoyed the casual tone of the presentation, which, dabbed with a spontaneous sense of humour of the interlocutors, grabbed the attention of the audience till the end.

I'd like to wish good luck to Vinivi for their recruitment and selection process and if ever you wish know about the vacant job, mail at : emploi AT vinivi DOT com.

That's me ending this post. So take care dudettes and dudes and my aliens. :)

Save the Mauritian geckos.

Today I was going through a local weekly magazine when I came across an article about Mauritian geckos and how those creatures are supposed to be on the path to extinction. No need to say that I was elated at this news. Okay, I'm just kidding. :D

Though I can't make myself agree with any reason why someone would want to save a gecko, I guess its survival is important. It forms part of the fauna of our island and one just can't think of the latter without remembering those lovely colourful parasites, huh?

(a male Phelsuma ornata here in the picture, don't ask me how I know it's a male, a friend gave me the info but I have a feeling it's got something to do with its markings)

So those Mauritian geckos, also known as Phelsumas are being chased out of their territory by a gecko who was brought from Madagascar and who goes by the name of Phelsuma Grandis. The Phelsuma Grandis is mostly green and can reach up to 30 cm long. It differs a great deal from local Phelsuma mostly from the distinguishing characteristic that it is a lot freakier than usual local ones.

So according to the article, if you were to find a Phelsuma Grandis in your garden or anywhere else, do chase it away and make sure it does not reach other local Phelsumas. In theory this is all very interesting, but how do they expect people to do that really? Do you imagine yourself shooing away giant green lizards and protecting local ones? Haha! I don't!

Anyway dudettes and dudes and my spooked aliens, do tell me if you managed to spot a Grandis and how you dealt with it. :D