Dear PM, before you put a price on my head…

An article on page 7 of News Now, describes Dr Richard L Munisamy, Director of We Love Mauritius as:

“…an outspoken critic of the flaws and lack of coherence…of the government…”

We would like to point out that we are 100% behind the concept of Maurice “Iles Durables”. Our activities are largely limited to promoting it amongst the youth and ensuring that other government policies and actions are congruent with it.

Red and Pink Coral – when it’s gone, it’s gone

Hot on the heals of sounding the death nell for bluefin tuna, CITES has failed to protect red and pink coral from unsustainable harvesting. After the fiasco of Copenhagen to fail to deal with climate change it is becoming clear that the world is being governed for the benefit of business and not people or people.

Bye Bye Bluefin

The latest meeting of the UN’s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has rejected Monaco’s proposal to ban the trade in bluefin tuna. Scientists say that over-fishing is pushing stocks of this iconic fish to the brink of collapse. Most disconcerting is the growing consensus that marine animals should not be regulated by CITES. Read more

We Love Mauritius screened the film “The End of the Line” last year to highlight the results of the unsustainable extraction of fish from our oceans. At current rates, some predict that stocks of all large fish will be in a state of collapse by 2050. We asked the British High Commission to help us put on more screenings, as one of the main conclusions of the film is that we need to create a vast network of Marine Protected Areas. They declined, which raises questions about the real motivation of Britain turning the Chagos Archipelago into a Marine Park.

US Prepares to Blitzkrieg Iran from Diego Garcia?

While the British talk of the Chagos Archipelago becoming a massive Marine Protected Area, it appears that the US is preparing its military base on main island to launch a devastating attack on Iran. Read more

In the event of such an attack, how are the Muslims of Mauritius likely to respond? Will US and British Citizens remain safe and welcome on Mauritian soil? We have strongly expressed our concerns to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London.

Prepare for Another Oil Price Shock

Five months ago, a report from the UK Energy Research Council predicted that global oil production would likely peak before 2030, with a significant risk of it peaking by 2020. Now the UK’s Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security is predicting rapid increases in the price of oil in 2014/15.

What will this mean for Mauritius when our Long-Term Energy Strategy (2009-2025), especially for the transport sector, depends significantly on imported petroleum?

Still Going Wrong on Human Rights

From corruption to child prostitution, from over-crowded prisons to sexual discrimination, the US State Department gives its verdict on Mauritius in 2009. Read the report

Exposing the Hidden Agenda Behind the CSR Fund

Having totally lost patience with the National CSR Committee (we did manage to last 5 months!) we have finally broken our silence on what we think of the policy that brought us the CSR Fund. You can find our views here: http://www.welovemauritius.org/node/29

Because We Love Mauritius has still not received a response to our application to be on the list of approved NGOs (made on 13 October 2009!), it is extremely difficult to obtain funding for our projects. This situation is unacceptable so we are starting to make waves about it.  As well as publishing our views on the CSR Fund we will be asking leading universities around the world for their assessment. We have made a complaint to the Office of the Ombudsman against Ali Mansoor, Rama Sithanen’s financial secretary, for failing to call the Committee to account.

We will keep you informed of future developments.

Saving Nemo

In April 2009, the Fisheries Division of the Ministry of Agro Industry, Food Production and Security issued an exceptional letter of authorisation to Marine Culture of Mascarene Ltd (MCML). It states that the company is authorised to:

“…collect up to 4000 units of live marine ornamental fish per month, to constitute a brood stock and the surplus to be exported.”