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Some important resources and dashboards on COVID-19

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Here are a number of resources which might be useful while the whole world, including Mauritius, is fighting against the Coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease. First is covid19.mu, the official website which has been created by the Ministry of Health and Wellness of Mauritius with regularly updated information on the number of people having COVID-19 and the number of deceased people.

The next one is the official page of the World Health Organisation of the United Nations on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Next is an interactive dashboard from the World Health Organisation. It shows, country by country, the number of confirmed cases and deaths.

The next dashboard is made by the John Hopkins University & Medicine. It is very well made and shows trends as well as the number of people who have recovered in various countries. This is actually the dashboard which is linked from the covid19.mu website setup in Mauritius.

This free-to-read and regularly updated webpage from Financial Times gives information on cases and deaths but also on the humanitarian, societal and economic impact of the COVID-19 disease.

And, finally, Wikipedia’s page on the Coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease.

Mauritian geeks, let’s unite against COVID-19

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Now that the coronavirus has become reality in Mauritius and new cases of the COVID-19 disease are being found every day, it is time for us, geeks of Mauritius, to unite.

We, computer scientists, software engineers, makers, scientists, mathematicians, statisticians, etc. have an important role to play together with all the other professionals who are already working hard on finding solutions.

I am proposing that, should you have an idea or have developed a web app or a mobile app, that you believe could be useful in this difficult period to send me all the details, ideally in the form of a document (PDF or otherwise), of what you have done. My contact details are in my CV (most notably my email address which is )

I’ll then do my best to forward what you have sent me to the most appropriate people in Government.

For discussion among ourselves, may I propose the Mauritius channel on Reddit?

52em lane Lindepandans ek 28em lane Repiblik Moris

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Today is a wonderful day. Our country, Mauritius, is celebrating its 52 years of Independence and 28 years of being a Republic. That’s a tremendous achievement which we can all be very proud of, especially our grand-parents and parents who worked hard to make Mauritius what it is today: a reference for the region. Despite our humble beginnings 52 years ago, the country has come a long way and I am looking forward to further developments (provided we address the big issue of a lack of quality and competent people at the right places).

I was looking forward to be at Champ de Mars today for the official ceremony and subsequent concert. You see, since I became a Senior Adviser in Government three years ago, I have received an official invitation to be in the official stand but, up to now, I’ve always respectfully declined. The reason was, of course, that I was the only one invited and not my wife and my two kids. And, for me, celebrating independence without them didn’t feel right.

Since the kids were very young, Christina and I made it a must to celebrate Independence with them by being in the crowd at Champ de Mars. This allowed all of us to feel as belonging in a beautiful nation together with myriads of other people of different colours, beliefs and provenance. The above photo dates from 2011 when Anya was 8 and Kyan 6.

In 2012, from the crowd, we witnessed a wonderful and quite breathtaking display from the Groupement d’Intervention de la Police Mauricienne (GIPM) whose members regularly train with their French counterparts. We were quite proud of our little country and its people.

In 2013, Anya was the photographer and she took hundred of photos with her brand new digital camera (which, unfortunately, would die a few weeks later when she forgot it outside and our dog, Kiki, made a mess of it). Anya was 10 and Kyan 8.

In 2014, we had a wonderful display from the various sections of the Police Force and the kids were especially proud to be able to pose in front of the boat used by the Marine Commandos. To be honest, I didn’t even know such a unit existed but I suppose that they are the ones who intercept all those boats and skippers trying to bring in drugs from abroad.

2015 was wonderful as well and I managed to convince Kyan to climb on a Police vehicle. Christina and I were happy to note that both Kyan and Anya were growing up as true patriots: they were proud of our country and understood that they would be among the ones contributing to its development when they would be bigger.

In 2016, Christina was delighted to watch the majorettes of Queen Elizabeth College where she was a student in the 80s and 90s. The girls were very good and cause quite an impression on Anya and Kyan.

In 2017, Mauritius celebrated its 50th anniversary and the celebrations at Champ de Mars were impressive. For this wonderful milestone, I was invited by MBC to say “50 Fraz pou 50 an Lindepandans” on national TV.

But, on 12 March, it was raining quite hard and we had some difficulties seeing everything from the crowd. A lot of people were complaining. The photo of the display by the motorcycle riders of the Mauritian Police Force is of my phone which we had to use to see the display from above because, from where we were (i.e. in the crowd), we could’t understand what was happening. In addition to the rain and the fact that our viewpoint was bad, there was also the issue of my parents who were getting older and could only walk with some difficulty.

It is only then that I started realising that, maybe, things could be made better for the enthusiastic crowd of Mauritians not having official invitations (i.e. the 99.9% of people of the country).

We went again in 2018 with members of the family and it was a nice experience. We didn’t see much but we were just happy to be together carrying the beautiful flag of Mauritius.

In 2019, Christina, the kids, my parents and I decided not to go to Champ de Mars as we were renovating our house and it would have been tough to leave everything aside as works needed to be done on the day. But, in some ways, we were a bit relieved as well as it had become increasingly hard for us to see anything, especially when it rains.

A few days ago, Christina, who now has a knee condition, and the kids have been telling me that they were not very keen to go but I was adamant that I would be there, in the official stand and maybe for a last time because the future can be full of surprises… For the very first time in nearly a decade, I would be at Champ de Mars without my wife and my kids.

If only I knew that I wouldn’t be able to see the 2020 edition as it has been cancelled by the Prime Minister due to bad weather prevailing these days in Mauritius.

Anyway, to all of you, let me wish you a very happy “52em lane Lindepandans ek 28em lane Repiblik Moris”.

Mwa mo kontan mo Moris, mo zoli pei :-)