Noulakaz

The blog of Avinash, Christina, Anya and Kyan Meetoo.

Archives for January 2009

Empowering poor people with Linux

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20090131-empowerment

In today’s issue of Samedi Plus, one tiny article caught one of my eyes:

E-Inclusion Foundation: aubaine ou piège?

Le ministère de l’informatique a récemment mis sur pied un programme intitulé “E-Inclusion Foundation”. Destiné aux familles pauvres, il s’agit d’un programme de distribution d’ordinateurs “refurbished” qui ne sont plus utilisés par des pays développés.

Certains, pourtant, se demandent si une personne “computer illiterate” ne se retrouvera pris dans un engrenage négatif, dans le sens qu’il apprendra à travers des méthodes dépassées, qui ne sont plus utilisées dans le domaine de l’informatique.

I agree. But not because the computer is old as hinted.

 

The reason why I think this is not a good idea is that the computer is not important anymore. What is essential now is an Internet connection.

I wonder how many of those computer illiterates buying refurbished computers are rich enough to afford paying for a monthly ADSL subscription (please don’t mention 56k…)? Does it make sense to have a PC if you do not have an Internet connection? No! We’re in 2009 and everything interesting and valuable is online now.

One possibility

In a certain way, I prefer the Net PC from Mauritius Telecom. It’s available at Rs 4300 with a monthly subscription of Rs 490. Thirty hours of broadband Internet connection are available monthly (and this is much better than nothing.) Unfortunately, it comes with Windows, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook Express, Internet Explorer and Adobe Reader only. Bloody hell! As if the whole idea is to create a bunch of secretaries!

 

What would be perfect is something like the Net PC but powered by Linux with an enormous collection of open source software preinstalled (including internet, office and multimedia software and compilers/interpreters.) I believe that solution would be close to perfect and will empower poor people much more than giving them old computers with no Internet connection or a Net PC with secretarial software only.

If only I was the current Minister of Information and Communication Technology…

A new generation of politicians

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20090120-barack-obama-capitol

Today is an historic day: George W. Bush will vacate the capitol. Phew. How could someone with an IQ of 91* rule the world is one of the most profound questions I’ve asked myself in my whole life. And the only reason I can think of is that he cheated (or, more probably, someone cheated for him.) During his term, he started two wars killing thousands of innocent civilians and wrecked the economy of the whole planet (and he invented a lot of words.)

 

Of course, today is historic for another reason too: Barack Obama will become President of the United States of America in exactly 3 hours and 13 minutes. And I have big hopes that he will inspire countless of young, intelligent and honest people to get into politics. And the old, stupid and dishonest will have to leave. My country, Mauritius, needs that… urgently.

* this is an urban legend.

Air Mauritius: Where did it go wrong?

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20090114-air-mauritius

For years, Air Mauritius was one of the most admired companies in the whole country. In 2009, Air Mauritius is suffocating. Analysts predict that, for the 2008-2009 financial year, Air Mauritius will declare losses of around Rs 1,000,000,000 after having made a profit of Rs 675 million during the previous financial year.

Where did it go wrong?

 

  • Reason #1 is the hedging contract for kerosene negotiated by Air Mauritius until August 2010. This means that the company will suffer massive losses in 2009-2010 too. No wonder the Chairman of the Board as well as the financial manager have resigned… and others might follow.
  • Reason #2 is the worldwide recession. People are travelling less now because they do not want to spend their hard-earned cash on something which is not essential. I was talking to a friend yesterday who was telling me that Air Mauritius airplanes are routinely half-full (or half-empty depending on your mindset.)
  • Reason #3 is that the Air Mauritius service is, ahem, crap. When travelling from Malaysia in  2007, we had to endure an airplane which smelled of piss. No wonder people prefer Emirates. [I don’t want to be mean but I also have to say that, given the large number of beautiful girls in Mauritius, I don’t understand why so many Air Mauritius air hostesses are so ugly. Maybe this is a consequence of Reason #5.]
  • Reason #4 is the fact that Air Mauritius wastes too much money on trivialities: huge catering bills, reduced price and even free air tickets to all personnel, etc. In fact, I’m sure a lot of people perceive Air Mauritius as THE place to work if you love to brag. It is THE bragging company par excellence.
  • Reason #5 is the fact that a large number of the employees recruited every year are (i) political agents or (ii) family members of prominent political agents or politicians. This has been the rule for years now as far as I know. This implies that a substantial proportion of the workforce might not have the required aptitudes to do their job properly. [This is not specific to Air Mauritius. We all know that.]

One way forward is for Air Mauritius to stop being THE bragging company. Air Mauritius should become humble and realise that it is a tiny airline with substandard service and should do its best to enhance its products. Of course, this means that the top brass there should stop believing they are demi-gods and start working instead (and they should also take a pay cut.) Last but not least, the Air Mauritius trade unions leaders should be intellectually honest enough to say that some employees are not contributing anything to the company and should be fired… without golden parachutes.

Will that happen? I have some doubts.