The break is over

My brother-in-law left this morning with his wife. His son stayed back, against his will. He started crying as they left. But he has no choice. His parents have to resume duty tomorrow and they can’t leave him alone at home. They’ve postponed his ticket and there’s no way he can travel as the planes are fully booked during this period. He’ll have to wait for his grand-mother, expected back from the UK on 4 August after a three-month visit to her daughter in London, to fly back around the 12th.

On Sunday, in a partly cloudy sky with a light but cool breeze, we rallied the southern half of the island all the way from the centre where we live to the south-eastern coastal village of Mahebourg near the airport. We then linked to Le Morne in the south-west through the southern tips of Gris Gris, Riambel, Rivière des Galets, Baie du Cap, Macondé and La Prairie before looping back to the centre. The roads were unusually jammed, probably because of school holidays when people flock to the seaside, if not to the fairs, or both.

Delicious Chop Soy (Chinese cuisine), gratin with cauliflower and bread for lunch; some boiled manioc for the mid-afternoon tiffin; and we refreshed ourselves with sweet coconut water on our way back. It was a little more than a half-day 180-kilometre-drive. We reached home at around 7.00 pm, all exhausted.

* * *

I just got a phone call from Reunion. My guests have reached home in good shape despite a shuddering descent at Pierrefonds (Saint Pierre) airport due to bad weather. They are relieved that their son’s doing better now. I can gauge how terrible it is to part from your dear ones, albeit for a brief period. I’ve experienced it on two occasions. The first one when I had to rush back home to resume work (I wasn’t granted longer leave), leaving behind the whole family in the middle of a two-week holiday in Reunion island. And the second when my family had to leave me alone in Rodrigues island where I was on a tour of duty in 2003. This time they had to be back for school. On both occasions my younger son (then in his early teens, grown up anyway) burst in tears, catching the airport crowd’s attention. Well, that’s life.

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Lost your blogging groove?

You should have noticed, and I apologize for not having shown myself up. I haven’t been posting much last couple of weeks. My blog seems to suffer. I can’t figure out what’s happening exactly; may be too much of festive time. Oh! And it’s still half way to the usual yearly celebrations.

Well, it’s got nothing to do with these. I’ve been busy attending wedding ceremonies nearly every weekend. Last week it was my niece’s wedding and we had dinner two consecutive days, Saturday and Sunday – in traditional oriental style, although we skipped the Monday slot.

We had also to mark our presence in another wedding at the same time. But that’s not all. There’s my brother-in-law from Reunion Island. He’s here with his wife and son for a week. This means I’ve got to organize for lunch, dinner and outings. Yesterday I took a leave from work… to drive them to the seaside; and the weather was hectic – rainy and windy. We didn’t get in the sea; just had some informal football with the kids along the beach at Le Morne, the extreme south western tip of the island.

I’ve also noticed reduced traffic on my blog. What about you? I don’t know if it’s the time of the year or what. I think many people might be on holiday, or perhaps the middle of the year is just uninspiring. It’s winter time here right now and you don’t feel like staying long at the keyboard. And the days are running fast, faster than I can cope. It’s like my blogging’s frozen.

Anyway, if you find yourself in my situation, it’s likely you’ve lost your blogging groove. In such case I’d therefore refer you, if you’re interested, to Darren Rouse’s 7 Days to Rediscovering Your Blogging Groove project. It might help boost you up.

Have a nice time.

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Small Steps… Giant Leaps…

20 July is a day of remembrance. For various reasons. But I’ll single out two. Both are linked with what may be referred to as “small steps” that led to “giant leaps” in the history of mankind.

The first reason has to do with a child that was born on this day in 1919 in Auckland, New Zealand. That child later became a world famous figure. Named Edmund Percival Hillary he later became Sir Edmund Hillary. Nobody knew at that time that one day he would become an icon in the history of mountaineering. Several attempts were made in the 1950’s to attain the summit of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world (29,035 feet; 8,850 metres high). But Edmund Hillary became the first man, accompanied by the Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay, also called Norkey or Norkay, original name Namgyal Wangdi, to reach the culminating point at 11.30 am on May 29 in 1953. He was knighted shortly after that successful attempt.

50 years later this day marked the first moon landing day. And that’s the second reason for remembering this day. At 10.56 pm (EDT, Eastern Daylight Time) on 20 July in 1969 two US astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, became the first humans to set foot on the moon. As soon as Armstrong stepped out of the Eagle lunar landing module he said: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” They were accompanied in the moon mission by Michael Collins on board Apollo 11, launched four days earlier, on July 16.

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China-Mauritius cooperation – another milestone

Our Prime Minister’s visit to China during the last week has given a new dimension to the cooperation between the two countries. China has agreed to advance a credit of Rs 3.5 billions (around 50 million USD) over the next three years. “This agreement is of major significance to Mauritius,” said the PM, “as it marks China’s commitment towards Mauritius in this period of transition.”

The PM cherished the nearly trebled Chinese assistance compared to Rs 400 million (around 6 million USD) per year obtained previously.

This financial assistance will be vital in realizing a number of projects related to infrastructural development, which will include the construction of a fishing port, a new dam, a new link road from Verdun (village around the centre) to Terre Rouge (northern village near Port Louis) and a new town at Highlands (near the centre).

Other outcomes of the PM’s visit to the People’s Republic of China comprise promises for massive investment. Already one major group of companies, Shanxi Tianli Enterprises Group, has laid its footprints on the island with significant investment potential. The implantation of this group has necessitated the relocation of several small planters who earned their living for decades on the agricultural plot of land identified for allocation to the group.

In this period of difficult economic situation, with rising cost of living, opportunities like those from China and the discovery of potential hydrothermal sources in the territorial waters of Mauritius (which I mentioned yesterday) can only herald better days ahead. Provided they are managed judiciously.

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Gene Genie #11 is up

Gene Genie, the blog carnival of genes and genetic conditions, is up at Med Journal Watch. There’s quite a bit about genes – Junk DNA: from science to framing, Genes and diseases and New techniques.

My Childhood Asthma Probe is listed under Genes and diseases.

For upcoming editions see the Gene Genie carnival page. Gene Genie #12, which is scheduled for July 29, will be hosted by My Biotech Life. For any submissions clike here.

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Mineral wells in Mauritian waters

Significant hydrothermal sites have been discovered in the territorial waters of Mauritius, which extend to 200 nautical miles. Minerals like zinc, copper and even gold may be present. But we are only at the research stage.

That’s what Prof. Kensaku Tamaki said at the Fourth National Ocean Science Forum held under the aegis of the Mauritian Oceanography Institute (MOI) on 11 and 12 July at the Octave Wiehe Auditorium of the University of Mauritius.

Prof K Tamaki of the University of Tokyo led a research team during November to January last in collaboration with the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the Mauritian government and the MOI. The team comprising scientists from Japan, Mauritius, France, US, China and Indonesia found considerable amount of manganese, which indicates the existence of hydrothermal sources.

That reminds me of another research in our waters in the 70’s when an oil slick was discovered around Mauritius. Drilling works were initiated and lasted several months before they were abandoned due to sinking evidences.

Let’s hope this time we have positive outcomes. The ocean hasn’t revealed all the secrets yet.

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Financial Planning Blog

Just been listed in the Carnival of Financial Planning – July 12, 2007 Edition. This carnival as stated in the blog “focuses on efficient and sustainable personal financial planning practices that can lead to lifetime financial security”.

You’ll find posts about a wide range of finance issues from budgeting, debt management, estate planning, financial planning, financing a home, financing education, income, investing, retirement planning to savings and taxes.

Have a look and enjoy.

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Grammar, punctuation and spelling – Do they really matter?

Successful writing is about good writing. Good writing requires a mastery of the language in which you want to write. And even more if it’s not your first language. English is no exception. Grammatical, punctuation and spelling mistakes can make all the difference between a good stuff and a slush item.

I recently read an article Grammatical Griping by Victoria Grossack at Fiction Fix, which I want to share if you are interested in furthering your basics about punctuation, spelling and grammar. For many it may sound like “it doesn’t matter much”. Whether English is your first language or not, there’s still something that you can add up to what you already have in your knowledge stock.

Here’s in a nutshell what Victoria Grossack talks about:

- Punctuation, which has to do with the proper use of periods and commas, colons and semi-colons, dashes and hyphens, apostrophes, helps us convey the meaning we want to; not something else.

- Misspellings can be as funny as irritating in what otherwise could be a good read. Spellcheckers cannot always catch all our mistakes.

- Subject-verb agreement, use of pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs are all that can make up grammatical mistakes if not used properly.

There’s also a number of links that offer more in-depth treatment of the issues mentioned above. An example is How to Use English Punctuation Correctly. Another one is How to Use Apostrophes.

Incidentally The Care and Feeding of Apostrophes is another interesting and informative site mentioned at Nick Daws’ Help With Apostrophes.

Hope that makes sense.

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Childhood Asthma Probe

ORMDL3. Does that mean anything to you? Perhaps only a set of letters and a figure. That’s all. Idem for me too. Not for scientists though. It seems to be the culprit. It’s a gene found in a more significant amount in the blood cells of children with asthma than in those without. This higher level of ORMDL3 could increase the risk of having asthma by about 70%.

That’s what a group of researchers from Imperial College London, along with others from UK, France, Germany, USA and Austria, have concluded after a study carried out on more than 2000 children.

Childhood asthma is a common chronic disease. 10% of children in the UK are currently affected. It’s a tough time indeed, for the children as it is for the parents. Therapies have hitherto been limited to attenuating the episodes of asthma, without significant progress into its cure.

Deep probe has yet to be effected into the exact causes of asthma. It is not well understood how ORMLD3 exacerbates the risk of asthmatic conditions in children. But the combination of genetic and environmental factors provides a definite clue.

The researchers compared the genetic makeup of childhood asthmatic and non-asthmatic patients. They probed into the mutational behavior of the nucleotides, the building blocks of genes making up the DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid – a self-replicating material present in nearly all living organisms carrying the genetic information). Mutations were observed and the researchers unveiled those specific to childhood asthma.

The new findings will, it is hoped, pave the way for the development of new therapies. For further information see links below:

More about the gene linked with childhood asthma.

What is asthma?

How can I treat my asthma?

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Released… after 114 days of living nightmare

The world was awakened with the good news of the release of BBC reporter Alan Johnston this morning. “Alan Johnston freed” reads the latest entry in the BBC Blog Network, The Editors.

Captured on 12 March in Gaza by the Army of Islam group, Mr. Alan Johnston, 45, was released early this morning. He was handed over to the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza City. He is now in the British Consulate in Jerusalem waiting to fly back to UK.

“I literally dreamt many times of being free and always woke up back in that room,” Mr. Johnston said shortly after his release.

The reporter describes his captivity as a frightening experience as he was uncertain how it’d end. He said he had fallen ill from the food but was not tortured during the captivity period. It was hard for him to believe he’d be freed as he said he was “in the hands of people who were dangerous and unpredictable”.

Thanking his colleagues and all who supported him throughout his captivity, he cheered at the overwhelming international campaign for his release. “The thing you don’t want is to be left behind, buried alive, and have the world go on around you,” he said.

Several hundreds of thousands of people around the world had petitioned and rallied for his release.

“It’s been 114 days of a living nightmare,” said his overjoyed father Graham soon after his son’s release.

Answering to questions in the UK Parliament new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: “The whole country will welcome the news that Alan Johnston, a fearless journalist whose voice was silenced for too long, is now free.”

Hats off Mr. Johnston for your perseverance and bravery during 16 weeks’ tough times. As we say in French: “Tout est bien qui finit bien”. (All is good that ends well).

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