Happy new year 2008

Helooooooo :p

Hmm didn’t mail ecards as it will endup as spam or junk which u may never read.

So check your ecard here:

http://pages.intnet.mu/roushweb/2008.html

Enjoy !

A not-so-far fetched perfect end of year…

Huloo…dear readerz…It’s indeed in great pain and suffering that am lingering my fingers over this keyword to type this post. And as i press each key…i feel like a burning sensation running over my whole body originating from my _____.

This morning i was feeling a bit hungry (i always feel hungry anyway and most of the time am eating something…but yet am not fat huh :p) . Went to give mum her lunch and seized the opportunity to buy myself 2 pairs of hot and spicy dholl puris :p (I know some people away from mauritius having there mouth watering uh , don’t u miss those dholl puris? )[The dholl puri price has gone up here, from R2.50 some 5 years ago, to R6-R7 today]

Well, I was asked the usual question : “met pima?” (include chili sauce?) To which I instinctively replied “wei, met tou!” (put everything).

Once at home, I unrolled my 2 pairs of delicious dholl puris and quickly swallowed both of them :p At that moment there was only a negligible burn in my mouth which was completely normal, I was eating dholl puris with chili right?

Little did I know (or i knew but deliberately chose to forget) the sufferings that follows :p  As the digesting process begun, so did the burning sensation…from mouth, it was now in my stomach and was gaining ground in the southernly direction and here i go for my first pay back…emergency!!!!! Bathroooooooom…..cleaaaaaar the wayyyyyyyyy! Fortunately the way was well cleared, I was alone :p

But thats not all, when you eat 2 pairs of dholl puri with chili, you have to pay interest as well :p And I went to the local bank 3 times already to pay And it’s still burning :S Unfortunately no ice cubes available

So now, forget about all the big dreams of a perfect end of year, i just want this burn to stop!!!!! That will be already a great end of year…its not gonna be perfect, but still a near-pefect :p (which makes us realise that we don’t need much to have a good time and lead a happy life…A good health is always the best thing that we can enjoy from!)

Ok guyz, leave you here, I’ve got another urgent appointment with the local banker….clearrrrrrrrr the wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! And yeah Happyyyyyyyy New yeaaaaaaaaar!

#end

James (Reduit) apparently visited by robber(s) last night!

First of all, merry Zmas to all of you Hope you are happy lots of fun. I wish to seize this opportunity to remind you that if you enjoying yourself, not everybody has this opportunity. Mind you, am not telling you not to enjoy but rather, try have a special thinking for others who are not as lucky as we are, pray for them.

I was on the university campus this morning, around 8am and I overheard a very sad news from 2 UOM workers, there has been a robbery apparently last night, Sunday 23rd of december 2007 at James’ place. Yep, the famous shop at Reduit known to almost all students of UOM! From what I’ve been able to grasp, The robber(s) threatened to kidnap or kill James’ child unless all money kept at home was given. Fortunately the child is safe, but the money gone. Today James’ wife opened the shop in the morning, most probably to sell bread to regular customers and closed shortly afterward.It’s gonna be a black christmas for James Family.

And one of the UOM workers added: “volere, bizin nouri zot, sinon la police pas pou ena travail…” As if we needed thieves huh??? :S

Once again, merry xmas u all

#end

What is this building and where is it located?

Well, just wanted to add a challenge to the MBB’s forum which can be accessed HERE .

On a regular basis, challenges consisting of pictures and/or riddles are posted there and members can participate.

Only members are allowed to access the challenges though, and membership is free, so register yourself if you haven’t yet.

In the meantime, what is this building about and where is located?

(thx to starkiss for the picture)

Because i am me!

People of planet earth, huaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalooooooooo :p

Been some time now that i’m feeling this laziness keeping me away from blogging…a common phenomenon among fellow bloggers i suppose and which can lead to death of blogs  if not treated in time.

And now is the time, the future president will never let this blog die as long as he is here!

So what’s up these days huh? Technically I’m in summer holidays, and as most people in december, I should have been enjoying myself. But no almost everyday, the future president wakes up and among the first things that comes to his mind : project! Oh yeah….even if I do not work so much on the final year project, it’s always on ,my mind. Fortunately I am not dreaming about it yet, but surely, this will come soon.

One thing: this time, ‘holidays’ are not boring for sure…but can we call that holidays? When you are working, the only difference being that you are on your own, in your room, instead of sitting and trying hard not to sleep while a lecturer is blablaring in a lecture theatre packed with some 80-100 students? Maybe its a new kind of holidays :p Where one should extract enjoyment from work (for workaholics maybe…but the future president is not among them :p).

I don’t know if other people doing computer science or other related IT courses feel the same, but I feel computer science has made me a more lazy guy :S Lazy not in the term “not working” but i find myself always looking for shortcuts; how things can be done as quickly as possible and with minimal effort from my part. Take coding for example…at first, i used to enjoy myself writing lots of lines (the more, the better i thought) and now…i barely write any code :S Why should i write stuffs already written by others? And that’s not all…even for assignments its like this. As for the plagiarism stuff…its simple to by-pass this negligible security barrier, you just rewrite in your own words or quote and reference with lots of links :p

I was lazy…computer science made me somewhat more professional in my laziness :p

Are YOU lazy?

Poverty and Crime: a vicious circle!

Poverty is the lack of essential needs to live that is the lack of proper shelter, clothing and food.

Poverty is living on a day to day basis with the uncertainty of what the future can bring.

Poverty is not being able to provide good education to children.

Poverty is the lack of freedom of expression.

Poverty occurs when the income of any family or country is less than the level of consumption. The root of poverty is MONEY. Lack of money can lead to people doing many bad actions and in turn result in bad consequences which end up impoverishing more people.

In a sentence, we can summarise it as: Poverty gives rise to crime and crime impoverish people!

Think about poverty, and one of the things that come to your mind is Unemployment…people having no job…thus families starving for they have no food. And here is specifically where politicians tend to exploit us and do some finger pointing at their rivals stating that the latter are responsible. Unfortunately this part is very tricky: There is no magic to get unemployed people a job, even if jobs were available, you have to have the qualified people! And qualified people are not obtained overnight; it takes time, months of training and even years.

And now unemployed people need to live, they need food, they need shelter, and they need clothing. Where do you think these will be obtained from, space? In a crude language, it will be “kill or die”. Killing here refers to committing crimes, like robberies, while die will mean starving yourself and your family as well.

But unfortunately, that’s not the end of the story my dear friends; these poverty-compelled ‘criminals’ often end up in jail serving for lengthy sentences while their family suffers even more with the loss of a potential bread-winner. If these families have kids, guess what they will be doing to survive…crimes of course!

Like most readings I have come across on the issue of poverty, I am almost certain that you are expecting me to spit something like “Education is the key”! and you will be wrong this time, unfortunately.

I would rather say, education is an important aspect to tackle in the fight against poverty BUT the real enemy is out there: Politicians and Businessmen! Do you really believe that poverty cannot be eradicated if everybody in this world wishes so? It can!!! But, there are people out there who are thinking…and they think: “what do I gain if there is no poor people?”, “Is it not more profitable to have poor people?”.

It is common knowledge that politicians are prime users (or rather exploiters) of poor people; just go to the talk shows of famous politicians during election period and listen how they artistically use the poor for their own benefit.

And businessmen, with all the millions of dollars given to the poor, why do I say they need poverty? As a matter of fact, these donations are not done because they are happy to do so; it’s simply a way for tax deduction! Next time you see Bill Gotes funding charities, know that his company had to pay the money anyway…

You want to eradicate poverty? Start by eradicating people who promote poverty!

 

Authors: Starkiss  & Roushdat.

#end

December Holiday activities @ UOM

Oh yeah, for those already in holidays, well happy holidays And I know many who still have exams incoming, “bon courage les jeunes”.

Well the Student Union is already busy preparing for end of year activities. And here’s some of the details: (please note that these are not finalised yet)

 Monday 17 December
Chasse Aux Tresor – 12 00 – 15 00
(Collect Registration form in Students` Union Office)
Barbecue Party – 18 00 – 21 00

Tuesday 18 December
Film Projection:
10 00 – 12 00 – Saw / Hostel
13 00 – 16 00 – Om Shanti Om

Wednesday 19 December
Outing - Ile Aux Aigrettes – Blue Bay, Organized by ISS & SU
(For more information, contact on 7786-606)

Thursday 20 December
Film Projection:
10 00 – 12 00 – Bourne Ultimatum
13 00 – 16 00 – Jab We Met

By the way, how are you people spending your holidays?

The policy implications of HIV/AIDS as a social problem in Mauritius

Today, 1stDecember 2007, on World AIDS day, I wish to share with you a nice piece of work that my sister has done as an assignment for university.Here it goes:

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus known mostly as the HIV is a retrovirus that infects cells of the human immune system. It destroys or diminishes the efficiency of our antibodies. During the first stage, the person has no really noticeable symptoms. However, as the infection progresses, the immune system becomes weaker, and the person becomes more susceptible to so-called opportunistic infections. The most advanced stage of HIV infection is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It can take 10-15 years for an HIV-infected person to develop AIDS. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Mauritius dates back to 1987 when the first HIV positive case was detected. Since then the number of recorded cases has continued to increase and according to statistics produced by the AIDS Unit of the Ministry of Health, the rate of progression was mild during the early years following detection. Since 2003, the country seems to be heading towards a critical phase with the rate of increase assuming an almost exponential trend. And it is predicted that it would become still sharper in the years to come. So, the causes of this trend and the social impact on the society should b analysed and ways have to be found to b able to counteract this crisis.

The number of HIV positive cases in Mauritius is predicted to rise to 10 000 by the year of 2010 from its current level which is around 2000.However, many HIV positive persons are known to be either unaware of being infected by the virus or deliberately conceal the truth status from the authorities due to the marginalization problem. Thus, in any society the real number of infected persons far exceeds the number officially registered. The estimate generated by one model recognised by UNAIDS and utilized by the AIDS Unit of the Ministry of Health would indicate the real figure for year 2010 to be around 25,000. So, it can be seen that the actual number and the real number has a large difference. Until 2002, the main mode of HIV transmission was heterosexual but nowadays the main route through which it occurs is through the sharing of injecting needles. Up to 95% of the newly current cases of HIV infection is contracted through injecting drug use. It has seen to be prevalent most among youngsters from 20 -25 years.

The modes of transmission of HIV/AIDS are:

• Having unprotected sexual intercourse(anal or vaginal or oral)
• Transfusion of contaminated blood
• Sharing of contaminated needles
• Between a mother and infant during pregnancy(child birth and pregnancy)

Now, let us examine some of the causes which have encouraged the spread of HIV/AIDS in Mauritius. Contrary to many African countries, where the main reason of HIV spread is due to sex, here, in Mauritius, the main reasons responsible for its spread is namely due to the prison inmates, drug users and sex workers and other factors too which have been contributing. According to the AIDS of the ministry of health, most of those who are HIV positive live in Port-Louis and in the region of Plaine wilhems. It accounts for 74% of the total HIV cases for the country. As we are a small country and the mobility of the population, the spread of the disease to the other districts can be much faster.