Visa for Ireland
The Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service,
INIS has announced that Nationals of Mauritius will be subject to an
Irish visa requirement as from January 1st 2010. No further explanation
has been provided for the reason of this change of policy at INIS.
Visa
and pre-entry clearance systems are at the core of immigration controls
and the inclusion of nationalities on lists of persons who require
visas is usually the result of experience regarding the nationalities
concerned.
There are currently over 5000 Mauritian nationals registered with the
Garda National Immigration Bureau, mostly as students. Taking the
population of Mauritius as being approximately 1.25 million this means
that 1 in every 250 Mauritian nationals is in Ireland.
Sugar strike off
The
Joint Negotiating Panel of the cane industry has decided to call off
the strike scheduled for Friday. This was announced by Ashock Subron,
a member of the panel and trade union leader, on Thursday. He said
that sugar workers have been assured that their attendance bonus will
not be removed and that the Labour Law concerning seasonal work would
be respected. Jean Li, Director of the MSPA said he was satisfied
with the decision of the panel.
Derivatives trading
Young
Mauritian graduates will soon have the opportunity to get training in
trading in derivatives. It will be organised jointly by GHF Holdings,
a global leader in proprietary trading, and MCB Capital Market.
The announcement was made at its seat GHF Futures, HSBC Tower, Ebène, on Thursday.
The
training will give participants the opportunity to compete with the
best traders in the world while remaining in Mauritius itself. So far,
18 university graduates have been recruited. Another 32 potential
traders will soon join in.
Vipassana meditation
A
ten-day residential course on Vipassana meditation, as taught by Shri
S.N Goenka in the tradition of Shri Sayagyi U Ba Khin, will be
conducted by Dr Shantuben Patel at the NIFT building in Arsenal from
December 2 to 13.
Vipassana is one of India's most ancient meditation techniques
which was rediscovered by Gautam Buddha more than 2 500 years ago. It
is a process of self-observation and aims at the highest spiritual
goals of total liberation and full enlightment, explains Dr Patel.
To participate in the meditation retreat, one has to follow the
precepts of morality, that is abstention from killing, stealing, sexual
activities, telling lies and intoxicants. Also, for the whole duration
of the course, there will be complete segregation between men and women.
Counsel quizzed
Counsel
Alvin Juwaheer, who is alleged to have designed a plot to exonerate
drug trafficker Anil Gooransingh, was questioned for five hours by
Hemant Jangi, Director of the Central CID (CCID) on Thursday.
Juwaheer denied the charges against him and has retained the services of Counsel Jacques Panglose.
To
recall, Rs 6 million worth of heroin was delivered to Anil Gooransingh
in August last by a South African, Johanes Jacobus Petrus Viljoen, 46
. It was Jacobus who revealed that Anil Gooransingh, former officer of
the anti-drug squad, was the one to whom he had delivered the drugs.
Viljoen is now in police custody, in Mauritius.
Caring for the needy
Sheila
Bappoo is happy that the Government is consolidating the social
security sector by making an additional provision of Rs 1 billion.The
budget provides for 17 measures for this. They include ,among others,
an increase of 3,5% on pension granted to the elderly, the widowed, the
orphans and to people who are disabled. The Government will also
shoulder the responsibility of paying the exams fees of SC and HSC
students for families with revenues not exceeding Rs 8 500. Motorized
wheelchairs will be given to disabled students from UOM and UTM to
facilitate their tasks, their taxi fares will also be refunded so as
not to penalize them.
A research centre for the study of the ageing population will be built
up along with the development of Care's strategy and Plan of Action to
address the need of the elderly . There will also be an extension of
the monthly Child Allowance in respect of children whose parents are in
receipt of other basic pensions.The SSR Recreational Centre for the
Elderly at Belle Mare, which had cost Rs 120 million will be
inaugurated on December 6.
No compulsory voting
Mauritius is not going to introduce compulsory voting at this stage, says Acting Prime Minister Dr Rashid Beebeejaun.
“Taking into consideration our democratic tradition and the deep
respect for personal freedom and given the fact that Mauritius is
recognised as a lively and politically literate society with a turnout
at general elections which is already high, we do not feel the need to
introduce legislation with a view to making voting compulsory,” he says.
He adds that compulsory voting still remains a controversial issue.
More from Lottotech
Lottotech
has launched its second product, Quick Win, at the HSBC Tower, Ebène,
on Thursday . From December 3, a number of games enabling winners to
get life-improving prizes, would be made available to the public. La
Faya and Gold Chest are the two introductory games which would consist
of scratching relevant cards that would be put on sale at Rs 40 and Rs
20 respectively. La Faya, involving symbol match, allows a bet of Rs 40
for a win of Rs 500 000, and Gold Chest, consisting of money match,
allows a bet of
Rs 20 forRs 100 000.
To recall, Lottotech had launched its first product, Lotto on last October 29, and up to now there has been no jackpot winner.
Dstv services
New DStv Subscriber Support Services was launched at La Bastille, Sufrene Hotel, on Wednesday.
MultiChoice
Africa Limited, the pioneer of pay television in Africa, strengthens
its commitment to Mauritius through the appointment of Vitiro, to
provide customer support services to DStv subscribers.
Gilbert Vas and Roselys Collard, Vitiro directors said: “The
partnership between MultiChoice and Vitiro will ensure that DStv
subscribers in Mauritius have the best home television experience
possible.”
Jobs for the disabled
A Job and Training Fair for Persons with Disabilities was organised by the Mauritius Employers' Federation, in collaboration with the Training and Employment of Disabled Persons Board (TEDPB) and the Ministry of Social Security, National Solidarity and Senior Citizens Welfare and Reform Institutions at Cyber Tower 1, Ebene on Wednesday. The objective of the fair was to facilitate networking between employers/training providers and persons with disabilities. The TEDPB is encouraging employers to value people with disabilities through this fair which had seen the participation of many people, potential employees and employers.
Unhappy Mrs World
Sarah Delord-Cuniah, our Mrs Mauritius, has not been ranked among the 10 finalists of Mrs World beauty contest which took place in Vietnam on Sunday. It is a Russian woman who was crowned Mrs World 2009. Mrs Mauritius said that although she was satisfied with her own performance, she was none too happy with the fact that she did not receive any kind of encouragement from the local organisation that had sent her to participate in the contest. She deplores the fact that she stayed for two weeks in Vietnam without receiving a single call from the organisation to support and encourage her in any way.
World Cup trophy on show
In the context of its African tour, the World Cup trophy reached Mauritius on Monday . It was officially presented the next day at Four Points Sheraton hotel at Ebène. The public has had the opportunity to see the trophy at Swami Vivekananda International Convention Centre at Pailles from 9 h 00 to 18 h 00.on Wednesday November 25.
This major event was organized by Coca Cola and the FIFA. According to Marketing Operation representative of Coca Cola, “the fact that the next World Cup Competition will be held in the African continent, in South Africa, we have thought it good to bring the trophy to Mauritius. The main objective of this historical event is to enable Mauritians to see the golden trophy in front of them and to take pictures with it.” Some 4000 people, all winners of a contest organized by Coca-Cola, had the privilege to take pictures with the trophy. Children from different ‘écoles de foot’ around the island, were also allowed access to visit the trophy. The golden trophy is 36 cm high is made of 18 carat gold and weighs 6.175 kg. It was displayed in a glass casing.
US Chargé d'affaires
R. Barrie Walkley will be the acting Chargé d'affaires at the American Embassy in Mauritius until the arrival of Mary Jo Wills who has been nominated for the job. Walkley had been the former American Ambassador in Gabon.
He has also worked in several other places like Papua-New Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, London, Islamabad, Yaounde, Pretoria and Lahore. He had been the spokesperson of the United Nations in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. Walkley studied at the University of California in Los Angeles and at the University of California in the South. He had twice been the recipient of the 'U.S Presidential Award'.
Gokhool on SMEs
Dharam Gokhool, Minister of Industry and Scientific Research, says that the SME's have to be performing if they are using resources that the State has granted to them. He made this statement on Tuesday morning at the opening of a meeting organised jointly by Enterprise Mauritius and the Mauritius Commercial Bank. “We must make sure that the SME's bring results as they are using the resources of the state. At the same time, we must support the enterprises that are in diffulty,” added the Minister.