In fact, at the time I was taking my ACCA exams in London, more than ten years ago, this was already common. We would have Malaysian students calling their friends at home, or receiving calls from them, telling them what topics came out. Due to the time difference the Malaysian would then have about 2-3 hours to revise said topics.

Of course, as we came aware of such events, the Mauritian students would try and find Malaysian friends who would pass on such valuable information. It was thought more as a levelling the ballgame between foreigners than cheating together. Evidently, it was not fair to other candidates.

However, there’s only so much it can help you with if you had not seriously studied before. The 3hrs cramming of main points can help achieve a pass mark if you’re a borderline failure, but if you’ve been a lazybum for the whole semester, you can’t expect miracles (normally). These students were more concerned with a passmark rather than winning the top prize remitted to the world’s best students.

Anyway, it is interesting that they’ve been using Facebook as one of the means of transmitting the tips. I guess the users must by now have changed all their personal data and probably deleted personal pictures. But how successful would the Mauritian government be in tracking them and what kind of punishment would be meted out to them? I still remember the government last year blocking the site and having the site administrators pull down the fake profiles of senior local political figures.

Don’t get me wrong. Although I am not celebrating, it doesn’t mean I think the independence thing is crap or that we would have been better being a British colony. It’s just that the annual show we have back home for independence day is so bad and boring. And oftentimes politicized.

Here in China, the Mauritian embassy is inviting the Mauritians to a reception in Beijing that evening. Nothing much, but then it’s always been like that. At least they’re holding a little something. Under the previous Embassador, we sometimes didn’t have any celebration, and the explanation I obtained from unofficial sources was that the government at the time didn’t allocate any fund to that respect, and that our dear Embassador was losing face towards other Embassadors on that account.

Well, I’m glad to have received an invitation to the reception, but I will have to decline, as it’s on a workday, and (more importantly) I am in Shanghai, and not Beijing.

À partir de 2009, tous les foyers mauriciens devront avoir un décodeur pour capter la Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) en numérique. “Les Mauriciens devront obligatoirement avoir un décodeur pour capter ces émissions” …. d’ici 2015 la télévision analogique sera appelée à disparaître dans le monde. Un calendrier a déjà été préparé par l’International Telecommunication Union. Pour l’Afrique, la date arrêtée est de 2011-2012. Mais pour Maurice, précise-t-il, cela se fera dès 2009.

I might be wrong, but the way I understood the article, analogue TV channels are going to be stopped, and the local populace will be forced to fork out to buy a decoder box. Maybe as from next year. (Note: digital channels already being offered by MBC for a certain fee)

I support the move to offer digital channels to the Mauritians, and to make them pay for that. After all, those who want better variety of programmes and entertainment are already subscribing to satellite channels, and they have no problem in finding that extra money.

But I am totally against the MBC’s plan to force people to subscribe to their digital channels. We are already imposed a monthly (quarterly? annual?) fee to have to watch real crappy programs (90+% of the contents sucks, no decent local production, the foreign movies are of yesteryears). Now we will have to pay for a decoder box? I don’t care if they say it’s a one-off charge, these things will need to be updated/upgraded constantly, and they can break down. No need to say that we will probably end up disclosing some info about ourselves on registering. They are an additional charge to the low-income families.

If there is no more analogical (sp?) channels, am I allowed NOT to pay the monthly TV fee if I only watch channels from other satellite providers? After all, I won’t be able to WATCH OR RECEIVE MBC if I don’t have the decoder box. Right? So would I still be charged for a service I can’t receive?

Will the people in Mauritius really care about what I just wrote? Probably not. Nowadays we have become really apathetic and just put our hand into our pocket to pay while grumbling about poor or useless services. We are currently paying a TV fee irrespective of whether we do watch the MBC on the charge that our TV sets can receive the broadcasted channels. We will just accept the changes, think the MBC is more crap than ever (because we will hopefully see the programmes more clearly), then get on with our lives. After all, that article is over 6 months old, and nobody said anything meanwhile.

Servihoo article: Here

Went to Ngyone as usual last Saturday (the 10th). I had a small bottle of beer and chatted with friends. After sipping about half of it I felt kind of drunk and hot. I had to wash my face, but still felt drowsy. I spent some time dozing on one of the sofas. Later I went to the bar and stood by some friends.

I suddenly ’slept’ and collapsed on the ground. My friends thought I was joking, then realised something had happened to me. They took me to another sofa to recover. I have no recollection of sleeping, just that at one time I felt people talking to me in my ’sleep’ and dragging me up to my feet before taking me to a sofa. My friends said that they thought I was joking at first when I fell down in an unnatural way. It was as if all my muscles stopped working and I just crashed down.

Now, I am not a heavy drinker, but I am not one who will be drunk after ONE bottle of beer. The only plausible explanation is that my drink was spiked.

Whether it was aimed at me or someone else (there was a girl standing not far from me at the bar, so maybe she was the intended victim), nobody knows. But one thing is for sure. We have to be careful about our drinks when outside.

I wonder if these drugs are easily available and how much they cost. I never got people trying to sell these to me. Unlucky me.

I went to Flic en Flac to have dinner with a good friend of mine. He wanted to meet me to discuss something. After dinner and chatting with some other friends, I went back to get my car at the parking outside. It was already pitch black and the security guard nowhere to be found. I drove the car back home and after parking it safely in the garage, I went to close the garage doors. To my utter surprise, I found a big smear/mark on my left front bumper and the left blinker’s glass broken. The blinker still works. Fortunately.

I feel like using a baseball bat and hit that a..hole’s head into a heap of mush.

OK, if the driver was a woman, please change the words to whore and c*nt.

I have recently acquired a new pet peeve. I take the motorway to go to work and get back home everyday. Here, in our small island, the speed limit is a mere 90km/hr. Which is easily exceeded by most cars and lorries on the road.

Many drivers consider themselves to be an ace behind the wheel and are loath to give way. And patience is sometimes tested to its limit during traffic.

My pet peeve is the drivers who stick to the right (fast) lane while doing a mere 70-75km/hr. And flashing them is of no use. Come on, let others go through (and drive to their death?). I accept that sometimes a relatively slow vehicle will be overtaking a more slow vehicle, and will hold the fast lane for a while. I also understand if there is a fast approaching turnaround and you need to turn right, you will keep the right. But otherwise it’s plain bad manners to stay in the fast lane doing 70 when the left side of the motorway is free and no close, slow vehicles in front of you.

I’ve overtaken on the left a couple of times although I really hate doing that. But it looks like things ain’t going to get any better soon. Oh oh, time for me to drive home again. Ciao.

So what are the news? My mother’s trying to feed me like one tries to feed a turkey before Thanksgiving. :D (Moi ki ti croire mo pou kapav plati ventre ene ti p :P)

Forgot about how bad traffic in and out of Port Louis can be. Got to work late 3 days in a row while trying to figure out the best route to get to work. Ok, first day I left home around 8.45am, when I was supposed to get to work around 8.30 ;) Anyway, now I’ve decided to go Mt Signaux then at Bel VIllage turn left to Pailles. Not going to be on the motorway directly from Caudan. One good thing though, more drivers seem to have adopted the ‘defensive driving’ method. More polite compared to Chinese drivers. Something one of my Chinese colleagues mentioned to me yesterday.

Also read about the government’s schemings. Nothing has changed. The latest outburst about tourists having to pay for Ilot Gabriel moved the focus away from the debate about Pamplemousses Garden no longer being free as from next month. The protestations about the island not being free + being poorly managed (some endemic trees have apparently been destroyed) have led to the government stating that they don’t have the fund/resources to protect and maintain these sites, and that the demande de bail’ was done in due form. Well, I don’t know much about these things, but I am quite surprised to see that more than half a year had gone between the company’s request to undertake the ‘bail’ and the submission of their plan for Ilot Gabriel. Aren’t companies supposed to have a thought out plan before submitting such requests?

Anyway, since the weekend, it has been our dear PM accusing and being accused of being racist. What’s new about that? Our dear politicians have been using the race card for years, if not decades. It’s just like the waltz that happen everytime before/after elections. Parties merging, making alliances and then deciding to break up to court their previous ‘opponents’. And one wonders why so many people have little faith in the governement (whoever might be ruling the country).

I have also learnt to get used again to the water shortages meaning no water supply for several hours a day (and practically all night). Almost no water/electricity shortage in China in the big cities of Beijing and Shanghai …..

Still seething with one of banks charging my bank interest income at source. Will be withdrawing a big lump and take it with me to China on my next trip. Now I have to figure out the Tax return and fill it before the end of the month to claim a refund. Plus I never got my tax refund from some 3-4 years ago. :WTF: :(

Still awaiting my new laptop. It’s been a disappointment not receiving it even though I spent a week in Hong Kong. I thought that after confirming the quotation, I would get in easily during the 7-8 days I spent there. I was wrong.

Not only did we miss on the straightforward confirmation because my friend’s staff were leaving on an induction course for a week and they were preoccupied with the arrangments, but the laptop company also didn’t supply the laptop on time after confirmation either. I thought we could get it the eve of my departure or the morning of the flight itself, but it was a fruitless wait.

Now I am using my brother’s Toshiba. It’s not a bad computer except for the fact that my brother put the darn thing on secure mode and I cannot install or update anything. I keep getting asked for admin password, and my brother says he can’t remember the password. It’s not a problem for him as he uses his index scan to identify himself as admin, but it means I can’t even install msn messenger.

And to add to that, the Nomad connection is still pretty bad, my msn web messenger keeps getting disconnected and trying to log on again is a real pain in the neck. My brother is saying he will cancel his Nomad for Emtel’s new wireless internet connection service (or some similarly named Emtel service). I don’t know if I will still be here to enjoy that as I believe my future boss wants me to move back to Shanghai within weeks.

Well, we”ll wait and see on that bit. But I’m quite frustrated now as I can’t chat or install programs, and I forgot a cable back in China for my external hard disk. Which means I can’t access all my pictures, files and movies…. I am spending all my time playing PSP as a result. (Which reminds me, Aadil’s blog doesn’t seem to work, looks like I won’t be able to try and get a free Linux CD from the local Linux organisation while I’m in Mauritius)

Oh well, at least I will get to my future workplace’s HO on Wednesday and start work…. In theory.

Will be arriving back in Mauritius on 31st. Going to internet cafe to check mails everyday, so not posting anything this month.

I just heard from a Mauritian who’s currently in HK that it’s no longer possible for Mauritians to get an F-visa through visa agents there. That’s really bad news. Like many people here in China, we are here on an F visa (business visa). This does not allow us to work officially, but many people prefer this as it’s 6mths (instead of a max of 3mths for L-tourist visa). Furthermore, some people do work with the F visa which is more grey in that area than an L visa.

Anyway, even though I’ve never worked in China (whatever visa I had), I was planning on continuing this business of making a short trip to HK to extend my visa every 6mths and have peace of mind for that period. If it’s L visa, we’re not going to have more than 1mth visa. I won’t be able to stay in China if that’s the case.

I do hope that my job offer gets formally approved and completed soon. I’ll be in deep trouble if my visa expires beforehand. I will probably end up with the unattractive option of a fast marriage to a local to be able to stay here otherwise.