With no broadcast of the Oscars ceremony in Mauritius, we are far from being taken up by the Oscar frenzy, the event being one of the most prominent award ceremonies in the world... This year's Oscars totaled 39.3 million viewers in the United States alone and given we know it's broadcast in over 100 countries annually, we can only wonder about the number of individuals in front of their TV screen! But what about Mauritius ? Well, sadly, I doubt more than a thousand citizens of paradise island watched it wholly. Indeed, out of the 3 hours and 14 mins the 2012 Oscars lasted, only 2 mins and 20 seconds of raw footage of the ceremony along with flashing images of the Red Carpet Arrivals were broadcast on prime-time TV on the News last Monday! Talk about Mauritius becoming a fashion destination when we all know how the Oscars are now the pinnacle of fashion!
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Have you heard of the first ever Reality TV show in Mauritius...right, neither have I, until recently! Reality TV was nearly out in Mauritius but Giovanna came and pulled the lights off! Indeed, due to the Class 3 warning, the production of the "Reality TV Show" was put on hold until post-warning times...yet, Valentine's Day came and went by...with no "Perfect Couple"... Being a 3-day competition with 3 couples, although it would have been relatively short, the big finale scheduled for Valentine's Day was really one of the BEST thought events in the island by far! Yet, no one could have anticipated that a storm would come and blow the whole thing away. Weird thing is - how can a Reality TV Show be produced by a Radio company (Radio Plus) ? OK, you'll probably say because there is no private TV broadcasters in the island because the privatization or 'democratization' of the airs is still to be accepted by the government, since ages! Anyway, given the show was not going to be on TV, the producing team thought it would be nice for it to be 'seen' somehow - quite logical! So, they chose to broadcast it on TéléPlus, the Web TV of Défi Media Group. Wait, they have an ONLINE WEB TV!? Since when? Fact remains that ,APPARENTLY, some "Parmanand" and "Indianna", won the show! Second weird thing is - I keep having "No Results Found" when I click on LINK which clearly reads "Téléréalité de TéléPlus : Parmanand et Indianna, le coouple presque..." on the Google Results Page. How did they ever win if the show was cancelled ? Did the Reality TV Show did pursue after Giovanna went away ? Well, no matter what, nothing appears to have happened as planned for this first ever TV Show. Even if it did happen, let's face it,how many of us did really know about it? How many of us were ever going to go on Défi Media Group Web TV? Important Note : When you call something "Reality TV Show" , broadcast it on TV! Although i'm sure Radio Plus did keep advertising about the event on and on, but ,to my taste, it clearly wasn't enough! Let me know what you thought/think about this premier in Mauritius, although technically, it's never really happened...too bad Radio Plus and TéléPlus, better luck next time! Sine Cera As a major part of the pilgrims who chose to walk to Grand Bassin, I did that same route from Vacoas to the famous 'lake' and it was indeed a walk to remember... The long walk of about 14 km from Vacoas to Grand Bassin did not make me forget that I have to blog to work on! But ion these pious times, what else could I even talk about? The pilgrimage was indeed one of the most physical experiences in my nineteen years of life and was nonetheless also one of the most inspiring! Inspiring because of the amount of individuals helping others, giving food, sweets (yes, I even got Jelly Tubes! which I saved for dessert), water, juice and resting places! Maha Shivaratree might be the best example of Mauritian solidarity and represent in itself Mauritius! Indeed, I noticed people from cultural/religious backgrounds other than Hindu walking towards the famous Grand Bassin, some for the fun of it while others for the cultural/holy experience they receive out of it! Yet, everyone is offered juice, anyone can take the delicious "Ti Puris" and we are all welcomed to pray there! Youngsters, teens, adults and even elderly people were present to give a hand for the smooth running of the pilgrimage -they do not know pilgrims,nor will they ever will; yet, they were all posted along the way as demonstration of their support to the pilgrims and their all-time solidarity. Paper plates and plastic cups were given by thousand in good will but something was missing... While many of us did visit UoM during the Open Days this week, we are still trying to find out what to do next! This afternoon, the University closed its auditorium doors one last time to prospective students at 3 30 p.m. With lecturers from all Faculties and Departments, we cannot say that help/counselling was lacking but still... is it really worth it ? Having personally talked to many of the lecturers, I have to admit, my idea of UoM changed! They seem to be very open to conversation, friendly, and rapidly involved with prospective students - yet, this might have been quite an obligation to be 'inviting' for the Open Days - meant to arouse interest in student! But the fact that some were quite detached proves that those seemingly involved in specific student-cases were genuine. Needless to say that the University isn't only about lecturers! Indeed, the setting is also very important and needs to be considered! Weeks after HSC results hit Mauritian homes, ex-students are now at facing one of the most important times in their lives - choosing a career; a choice which could very well be the start of troubles... Although Giovanna did mess up the final hours of the Malaysia Education Exhibition 2012 Fair at Mer Rouge, many ex-students did get time to visit and grab some valuable info about how to apply for foreign universities, about scholarships available, about cost and tuition fees and about degrees offered! Indeed, in today's world, the act of choosing is getting more and more difficult because of the wideness of options made available by universities : ranging from Fashion Journalism to Midwifery to Actuarial Sciences, the amount of degrees worldwide is astounding! Yet, Mauritians tend to follow the trend and set their minds on pursuing accountancy, medicine, quantity surveying or Business Finance. But do you guys really know what the day of an accountant, of a doctor, a dentist, a quantity surveyor or a business admin is ? Before going for mainstream degrees to please your family or simply because you don't know what else to do, take some time off for yourself. Take time to reflect on life, on your dream life, on your future. Trust me, you haven't worked so hard for so long to mess it all up with one wrong decision now! Take time to analyse all variables, apply as soon as you can, ask for advice from genuine sources and THINK! If you are still a little lost, then you might find some help from Mauritius Job Prospects section on the Government website (so I was told!). Yet, finding that page on the super NOT user-friendly website which has tons of hidden pages which keep leading you to somewhere else until you finally end up downloading some Excel sheet! Well, in any case, my point is, if you are still doubting whether you should go for Finance, Media or Sciences, do scrutinize the future work sector landscape of Mauritius. Even if you plan on working abroad (hard in these difficult economic times but not impossible!), you still need to start working in the island before all your procedures go through and we all know of the Mauritian administrative slowness! Mauritius is on Class 3 Warning and Giovanna is said to be one of these BIG FAT naughty cyclones! But local news says it might curve south while NASA says otherwise...who to trust ? Click to redirect to wunderground.com It has been ages since we had one big fat naughty cyclone and after the island passed on Class 3 yesterday in the afternoon, Mauritius has been feeding on news updates about the climatic situation from our local services while I, as habit would have it, prefer international reports which fill my curiosity better! Indeed, wunderground.com and Science Codex both predict Giovanna to jump directly towards central Madagascar. The latter writes "NASA sees Giovanna reach cyclone strength, threaten Madagascar" with an explanatory paragraph about it's predicted weakening while crashing through the country-island and it's future re-development in the Mozambique Channel! To be noted that NASA unveiled its forecast as early as possible; on February 10th - that is at the point of cyclone formation. Too early to my taste... St Joseph's College has been very keen on trying to bridge the gap between the good, average and below average students, but is that really working ? Image from Isla-Mauricia, Flickr SC and HSC results for 2011 generations have been less than encouraging and seems to stagnate year after year, probably even decline generation after generation. With hopes from the Mixed Abilities System slowly fading to oblivion, the future seems bleak for the Saints... With the Mixed Abilities System (MAS) catholic schools across Mauritius believe that signs of general progress would soon appear. Yet years have passed, and, sadly, results are yet to be seen on the ever-fading horizon. With 77.27% and 78.91% pass rate percentages at SC and HSC levels respectively, there seems to be some black spot somewhere; specially when we keep in mind that from this same school were ranked 3 students, 2 in the Science side -one which is known for its shear competition - and 1 candidate in the Technical side - one reputed to be dominated by CSE! If we spare a minute to ponder over these facts,we will realize that there is a small yet very good group of students along with a larger less abled candidates who not only bring down the percentage of passes but also contribute to a bad school public image. If the MAS should be applied, because, let's face it, the concept is a nice one, then the quota of below average vs good students should certainly be revised.Should the 50-50 quota be maintained, then results will follow the same discouraging trend... Hindu Girls' College wants it all - 100% pass rate at SC level and 'their' Laureate Eshna Jeebaun...but can are they really entitled to both ? Image from Google This morning's assembly was one very few students would have missed for a very special guest was present - Laureate Eshna Jeebaun from Queen Elizabeth College, and yet, not really from QEC... The school rector says "She is our laureate!" while introducing Miss Jeebaun, accompanied by her father. After expressing her unconnected, mild satisfaction towards the HSC results and putting forward the fact that 3 girls in all were ranked in the Economics and Technical sides, she admitted that HGC didn't reiterate their SC 100% pass rate! Indeed, it seems like the rector is yet to be satisfied. Although there is nothing wrong in wanting excellence, constantly pushing forward the limits of the students' expectation might not be very nice to hear on the spot by the students, although it might - with a big M - bear its fruits later on. After few more words of encouragement to her 'girls', the rector let out the bombshell saying "She[Eshna Jeebaun] is our laureate!". This line was received with applause although we wonder whether it did really deserved this reply. Indeed, Eshna was a student of HGC since her Form 1 but left for Queen Elizabeth College after her brilliant results at the SC level. While Eshna says she truly believes 'her roots are here[Hindu Girls' College]' and that HGC built her to what she is now, we wonder if she would have been ranked 4th in Mauritius had she stayed there. Even back in the days, she excelled in Languages and made the pride and glory of HGC by writing in the newspaper about her all-time favorite Harry Potter and now that she's a laureate, it seems HGC wants a piece of the glimmer and shine! If she was built there, why did she have to leave ? And now that she's left, why the need to come back on the front scene ? If we listen to Ashwin Thondee, Laureate of the MCB Foundation Scholarship in yesterday's blog post, the extra competition might have been the deciding factor at QEC - one which was apparently not present in HGC two year back. SO, can HGC really claim that she is their laureate!? What do you think ? P.S. We look forward to interviewing Miss Jeebaun although much has already been said on her Radio performance this afternoon. Sine Cera MODE-K has exclusivity - one of the 2011 Laureates, winner of the MCB Foundation Scholarship opens up after HSC results last Monday! From Le Matinal. Hello readers! We all watched/read the list of Laureates either on TV or in the newspaper, and we all wonder - what did they do ? Will that happen to me ? Can I really do something about it ? Well, I hope you'll find some answers in this post! Meet Ashwin Rishi Thondee from Royal College Curepipe and winner of the MCB Foundation Scholarship, one awarded to the student ranked after the laureates in the Economics Side! Interview : Q: Ranked 3rd, first feelings ? A: Honestly, quite surpirsed, I thought I'd be ranked, but clearly laureate was not on my mind - you know,stiff competition.But it felt just great...huge relie Q: So, MCB Foundation Scholarship will open doors for you , probably more than to the other HSC laureates- what you think of this statement ? A: LOL. Let me think...well i think that mcb is as good as the other top state scholarships. Though indeed better than the additional ones which have a limit on tuition fees. The MCB covers the airfares, university fees, accommodation, books and education materials, transport and even trainee-ships at MCB. Q: Does this means your scholarship is limitless ? You can chose any university? A: Huh, lol. Well, I think the additional scholarships offer Rs600 000 per year. Q: Everyone wants to know- are you an RCC 'pursang' ? A: Ha. Nopes. I come frm St Joseph's College. Q: Oh, so you moved from the Saints to the Royalists. Jokes apart, do you think you would have ranked 3rd if you hadn't moved? A: No. Q: Why? What is different in RCC? A: Trust me, SJC is good, but this extra competition pushes you to work harder, it motivates you..."ena ene competition saine" and in fact,. in my class, we were only 10 and we worked together. In the end, we all managed to be in the Top 15! Q: Moving on, you plan on coming back ? A: Yes, my family lives here. It's where I belong. Q: Very noble answer. So, were you ranked for SC ? A. No, in fact I didnt even get 6units nor 7, but 8! Q: Final question - what is your revision mantra? A: Continuous work always pays! |
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Kelvin
Fashion is a passion, writing another. So I thought - why not share them through a blog? Et voila! I hope you enjoy your time around here... |