Friday, May 29, 2009

End of CTI + Party

The CTI + Development Programme was exclusively designed for us, ACCA students, and I firmly believe that we have gained a lot in terms of employability skills.

In order to mark the end of this programme and the start of our ACCA course, we are organising a party. All of you are cordially invited and are requested to attend the party because we are organising it for the whole class.


If some of you are not in the celebration, it won’t be a complete success.

Appeal to all bloggers!

The blog is meant for us to share our ideas and views through posts and comments in order to display our employability skills. Though there have been lots of posts, few of you comment these posts.

Don’t consider blogging as an assignment. Instead, experience the thrill of blogging.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

The miseries of some become tragedies for others!


The above photo which was taken in 1994 during the famine in Sudan and which fetched Kevin Carter (1961-1994) the Pulitzer Prize depicts a vulture stalking a defenceless child.

Actually, the child was trying to crawl towards a United Nations food camp located about a kilometre away. After taking the photo, Kevin Carter went away leaving the child on his fate.

A few months after winning the Pulitzer Prize, he committed suicide. The experience of this photographer demonstrates how remorse can lead to depression and eventually to suicide.

Though, I can understand that Kevin Carter was reluctant to touch the child for fear of disease he should have taken the latter to the UN food camp instead of abandoning him as prey to that vulture.

This tragic situation reminds me of a famous saying which echoes through time:

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Part time jobs for students– Opportunities or traps?!

Beyond doubt, it is a financial boost for both the student and his family. He will be able to cover part, if not all, of his expenses on travelling, clothing…and the remaining amount will contribute to widen the budget of the family.

By performing part time jobs, students are able to bridge the gap between the educational institution and the world of work. They even accumulate experience and employability skills which might eventually help them to get a better permanent job than that they would have normally obtained with just their academic qualifications.

However, studying and working as a part timer demands a great deal of hard work and time management. The part timer will have little free time for himself, his family or his friends. Besides studies and work, all that he will be focussing on is sleeping in order to restore his energy and keep up with the pace.


What do you think of part time jobs for students???
I want your reactions!!!

Dinner Time: The perfect time to rebuild family togetherness

Dinner plays an essential part in maintaining the stability of the family. Yet, we see an ever-increasing trend within society to lessen the amount of time families spend together in enjoying an evening meal or dinner.
The evening meal may in fact be the only time families sit down together. When parents and children don’t set aside time to really have a conversation with each other, a key ingredient to maintain the family stable is lost.
Good food, good conversations and good laughter- that’s what family dinners are supposed to be made of. But, the most popular reason teenagers give as to why family dinners are not regular is that “parents work late”. The most common reason parents give is “conflicting schedules”. Other common reasons include “interference of teen activities” and “television watching that simply cannot be avoided”.
Challenging pressures and priorities may be making dinners together a thing of the past for many families. If this is happening to you, perhaps you need to think about what you are really missing!

Something worthy to be known


LISEZ ENTIÈREMENT. VOUS POURRIEZ APPRENDRE QUELQUE CHOSE !!!

UN
Donnez aux autres plus que
ce qu'ils attendent et...
Faites-le avec plaisir !

DEUX
Mariez-vous à un homme/une femme
avec qui vous aimez discuter.
En vieillissant, converser sera une activité
aussi importante que les autres.


TROIS
Ne croyez pas tout ce que vous entendez. Ne dépensez pas tout ce que vous avez et ne dormez pas tant que vous voulez.


QUATRE
Quand vous dites « je t'aime » soyez-en convaincu.

CINQ
Quand vous dites « je m'excuse », regardez la
personne dans les yeux.

SIX
Fiancez-vous au moins six mois
avant de vous marier.

SEPT
Croyez au coup de foudre.

HUIT
Ne riez jamais des rêves d'un autre. Les gens qui n'ont pas de rêves n'ont pas grand chose.

NEUF
Aimez profondément et passionnément.
Vous pouvez être blessé mais c'est
la seule façon de vivre intensément.


DIX
En désaccord, combattez dignement.
SVP pas d'insultes.


ONZE
Ne jugez pas les autres par leur famille.

DOUZE
Parlez lentement mais pensez rapidement.

TREIZE
Quand quelqu'un vous pose une question à laquelle vous ne voulez pas répondre, souriez et demandez:
« Pourquoi veux-tu savoir ? »


QUATORZE
Rappelez-vous que les grands amours et les grandes réalisations impliquent de prendre des risques.

QUINZE
Dites « Dieu te bénisse »
quand quelqu'un a éternué.

SEIZE
Quand vous perdez, ne perdez pas la leçon.

DIX-SEPT
Rappelez vous les 3 R : Respect pour vous ; Respect pour les autres ; Responsabilité pour toutes vos actions.

DIX-HUIT
Ne laissez pas une petite dispute
blesser une grande amitié.

DIX-NEUF
Quand vous réalisez que vous avez fait une
erreur,prenez immédiatement les mesures
pour la corriger.

VINGT
Donnez aux autres une deuxième chance.
Tout le monde peut faire des erreurs.
Ce sont des humains.


VINGT ET UN
Faites l'amour aussi souvent que possible.

VINGT-DEUX
Souriez quand vous décrochez le téléphone.
Votre interlocuteur l'entendra dans votre voix.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Fighting against Global Warming

Global Warming is the warming up of the earth. With global warming on the increase, species and their habitats on the decrease, chances for ecosystems to adapt naturally are diminishing. We may even have adverse health effects from warmer temperatures. In general, No one need great introduction about Global Warming since everyone has heard about it, but the sad part is that, not everyone is willing to do something about it. If no action is taken, sooner our world will be much less pleasant and we can come across various natural calamities. At that time it might be too late.

As it is said ‘prevention is better than cure’. So, we as young people in the society, we should contribute a lot in creating awareness to people about the cost of global warming and try to reduce pollution. Why should it be us?? Firstly, we are well aware about its consequences and secondly, our future depends on our present.

In Mauritius, the government has already launched a campaign about the environment. I believe that we should add up to it and promote the use of products which cause no or little pollution in our society. If each country make a campaign as such and each every individual take the responsibility of protecting their environment then definitely pollution will be reduced significantly!!!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Analysis of Swine flu

Transmission of Swine Flu
As with other flu like illnesses, Swine flu is spread as follows:
  • Coughing
  • Sneezing
  • Kissing
  • Touching infected objects
  • Touching nose, mouth and/or eyes with infected hands
Swine Flu Symptoms

Symptoms of Swine flu may include all or some of the following:
  • Fever
  • Muscle aches
  • Lethargy
  • Coughing
  • Headache
  • Sore throat
  • Runny nose
  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Diarrhoea
  • Lack of appetite

Complications of Swine Flu


Those at higher risk include those with the following:
  • Age of 65 years or older
  • Chronic health problems (such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease)
  • Pregnant women
  • Young children

Complications (for all patients but especially for those at higher risk) can include:

  • Pneumonia
  • Bronchitis
  • Sinus infections
  • Ear infections
  • Death

Prevention of Swine Flu

  • Covering nose and mouth with a tissue upon coughing and sneezing followed by proper disposal of the tissue
  • Avoiding contact with ill persons
  • Avoiding the urge to touch nose, mouth and eyes in general
  • Staying home from work and/or school upon onset and for the duration of symptoms
  • Assuring adequate and thorough hand washing and use of alcohol based hand cleansers (in the absence of proper hand washing facilities)
  • Providing tissues in common areas of homes, common and public areas
  • Encouraging pursuit of medical evaluation at earliest onset of symptoms
  • Use of masks to those who are exhibiting symptoms or who are ill
  • Maintenance of a 3 to 6 foot perimeter around a coughing patient


Treatment of Swine Flu

One of the ways to lessen the symptoms of pandemic flu is to treat infected people with antiviral medicines, which have been used against the current swine flu. However, the drugs must be administered at an early stage to be effective. Testing has shown that the swine flu can be treated with the antiviral medicines oseltamavir (brand name Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza).


Antivirals will help to:

  • Reduce the length of time you are ill by around one day
  • Relieve some of the symptoms
  • Reduce the potential for serious complications such as pneumonia

Antibiotics play an important part in the response to a pandemic. While antivirals may reduce the number of complications, there are still likely to be significant numbers of complications occurring in a pandemic. Some of the most common include bacterial infections in the respiratory tract and lungs. Antibiotics are needed to treat such complications. Antibiotics can be used to treat people in the community if they develop complications. In hospitals, antibiotics can be used to treat the sickest patients and may reduce the length of hospitalisation.

(This article is a compilation of information obtained from different websites. The symptoms, treatments...mentioned do not come from my personal deduction. And the pictures used come from the internet.)

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Food for thought!

If you believe you’re not happy, look at them!

If you think you’ve a low salary, what’s his?

If you believe you don’t have many friends…

When you lose hope, think of this man…


If you believe life is a suffering, do you suffer as much as him?

If you’re not satisfied with your means of transport, what do you think of theirs?

If you think that life has been unfair with you, did she receive a better treatment?





Live life as it is!
(The materials and images that I have used in this post have been extracted from a powerpoint presentation which I obtained from the Amnesty International Mauritius Section.)

Friday, May 15, 2009

Leadership Basics

Past experience has shown that no team can ever achieve success without having to deal with conflicts. And conflict management is a skill which needs to be mastered by every leader.

A team consists of human beings who all have personal feelings, beliefs and varied potentials. A good leader needs to take all these into consideration
.

The moralization of capitalism: A joke!

Today, with the financial crisis which have turn into an economic crisis and which will probably lead to a social crisis, all the members of the G20, which possess about 80% of the world resources, have agreed to take some measures in April 2009 during the London summit to 'moralize capitalism' in order to prevent a future financial crisis and they have even advertise these yardsticks to the world as a great historic advancement in the financial sphere. Let me tell you that this is just a great bluff!

Indeed, on the socioeconomic ground, capitalism cannot be moralized because any moral component like income parity and social justice was excluded from the basic foundation of capitalism since its creation. In fact, capitalism is based on market liberalism, individualism as well as on money, money and still money. This may not yet changed. Today, in the current globalized context, the wage differentials between the poor and the rich worldwide is wider as never and the safety nets of the have-nots are constantly diminishing. Unfortunately, the measures taken by the G20 to 'moralize capitalism' will not solve these desperate problems.

You may ask me what are these contestable measures? I will tell you right now. There were 2 main decisions taken at the London summit. Firstly, the 20 most industrialized nations have decided to impose a strict regulation control on financial activities, specially on the speculative market and secondly, they were resolved to eliminate all fiscal paradises. Try to tell me how these resolutions will reduce high income disparity or, otherwise, will protect the socially vulnerable groups. In fact, I strongly believed that these actions have just been taken to bring business confidence, which is highly important in the real economy, on the world market so as to stimulate investment. This is not a moralization process. Indeed, the terms 'moralize capitalism' has just been used as a propaganda slogan to tranquillize the population by generating the notion of moral responsibility.

Besides, I also want to point out that these 2 resolutions, specially that one concerning fiscal paradises, were insincerely adopted. Let me explain. Some powerful countries of the G20 have negotiated toughly about some points concerning the set up of a fiscal paradises' black list. For instance, China has required that Hong Kong does not form part of the black list while the UK and the USA has demanded the same thing for London and Delaware respectively and this has been accepted by the G20! This is revolting that Hong Kong, London and Delaware, which are huge fiscal paradises, certainly less known than Luxembourg, Switzerland or Bahamas by the general public, do not figure in this black list. Now, no one can tell me that the G20 is convicted when it talks about the ' moralization of capitalism'. It just wants to give the impression.

Finally, the funny part is that this G20 summit, where 'historical decisions' have been supposedly taken about fiscal ethics, was held in London, a fiscal paradise. It is as if an alcoholic anonymous meeting is held in a bar...

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Raped and incest... If it happened to you?

RAPE-A terrible reality destroying the life of innocent children. It affects mostly emotions and sexual relationship backgrounds. Being a child most of them do not realize that they have been abused and that it should be reported.

Pregnant? Of your own father? Dramatic, sad, pity, disgusting…. Few words to describe the situation of these “baby girls”…And the to be born baby??? His mom is at the same time his sister and his father his grand father. He will not be psychologically stable… what to do then? Abortion? - It’s illegal in Mauritius! Suicide? - Ending two innocent lives for a criminal? Or leave with this burden?
I think that in this case, abortion should be legalized and that these little moms’s should be assisted psychologically their whole life….. Support them, don't judge them!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Be a leader, join the leaders!

You’re all aware that 10 students from our class are standing as candidate. Well, I’m one of them. We’ve already talked with all of you and you’ve all promised to vote for us.

But just voting is not enough! You need to help us in campaigning and lobbying as the 80 votes we’re getting from our class is insufficient for us to win. We require 100s of vote to crush our competitors.
Don’t just participate, commit yourself!!!
Hello friends:-) Well I'll like to comment on the energized and enriching outing we had on Thursday 7th may. I must admit that till today i still don't know each and every students' name yet after that very day i no more hesitate to approach any student in case of any kind of query. I firmly believe that all the future students of CTI should undergo that mind blowing program and I'm sure that I'm not the only one having this belief...
LONG LIVE CTI&CTI+...what say dudes??

Monday, May 11, 2009

CTI SU Election

From 14th to 20th of May the CTI Student Union election will take place. It is a matter of pride to note that out of the 21 candidates, 10 of them are from the ACCA 2009 group. It is indeed a highly motivating fact to have the participation of our group in the institute's activities. I hope that we win this election with flying colours and we all work for the betterment of our institution. May most of our ideas, if not all be implemented and we build a better atmosphere at CTI.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Can Germany be served as a model for U.S?

Can Germany be served as a model for U.S?

There are different types of capitalism- What we need and what we can build is a capitalism more attuned to the national concerns. Larry Summers, President Obama’s senior economic adviser. I quote, ‘’ Those who just as in the 1930s tried to learn the lesson that market capitalism didn’t work and needed to be replaced with an entirely different model.’’ Germany is the world's leaders in exports. Why? Why is not America?

Why did the government of U.S provided easy refinancing? There are too many questions popping in my head. My opinion is that maybe since the 11th of September, Americans lost confidence in the economy, in their country, they no longer felt safe anymore. What could make them forget their actual hurries and worries? Money... Maybe,the government of the United States dealt in toxic debts with no collateral securities and made refinancing easy to make people have money easily and regain confidence in the economy again and spend/ overspend like they used to do!Well that's a personal observation!

Reagan-Thatcher favored finance over domestic manufacturing. The outcome is now a negative balance of trade with a business community less and less attuned to its concerns with America’s productivity. A business community less concerned with America’s productive capacity. America opted for Finance while Germany in production.

Germany has favored domestic manufacturing and the social aspects over finance. It didn’t succumb to the financialisation that swept UK and Britain and raised their capital earning and banks rather than market.

Why can't Germany be used as a model for United States? I will be delighted to have views and opinions on that subject that really passionates me!
Impact of Financial Crisis on ACCA students.

As we all know the most recent Global Financial Crisis emerged in September 2008 with the failure or merger of several US based Financial Firms along with the insolvency of additional companies, recession and declining stock market prices around the globe.

Beginning with the failure caused by the lack of several risk controls for bad debts and frauds, large Financial Institutions in US and Europe faced at 1st a credit crisis and eventually a slow down in economic activity. This crisis rapidly developed and spread into a global economic shock which is the big issue of Financial Crisis as it is known.

This Financial Crisis resulted in the closure of numerous banks, businesses and many other financial institutions. The main victims are businesses. With respect to this, no one performing individual jobs like doctor, or lawyer is targeted - it is indeed mainly business concerned personnel. As such it is very alarming when we give a glance at the number of managers, accountants, directors being made redundant. So, we as ACCA students, are we directly concerned?? Obviously!!!

Therefore, the basic question imposed is - what do you think is our future on the work market both on local and international scenes? Do we really need to worry about....?

Monday, May 4, 2009

Swine flu

Swine flu has become an international threat which is growing more and more dangerous. It started in Mexico and spread to US first and then to all kind of countries. For instance, England,Scotland.Australia or Spain has already been exposed. There are already around 200 deaths in Mexico and it seems to be going on a rise. It is now on a level 6 threat ; global pandemic.
The question that is on everyone's mind is :Will it spread to Mauritius? Will we be next on the list of the victims of this epidemic? Some epidemiologists have commented that no one is safe; it IS an international danger after all. What are the precautions can be done now? I don't think we are safe,even if we are far away from these countries There is also an epidemic of "meningite" in Africa as well.
Tourists are also a problem. What do we do with the tourists that come form these infected countries? Do we let them in or not? I don't know if our country can afford to lose more tourists at this time where there is another impending doom on us: THE RECESSION. The WHO already made a conference saying that pig can be imported and consumed without any risks. When the meat is cooked,the virus is inactivated. So a refusal to import pig is not necessary. This virus is from a human to human transfer now.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Setting up an Amnesty Group at CTI

I’ve noticed that several students in our class are former members of Amnesty Student Groups and others are quite concerned about human rights. So, we could use the experience of some and the enthusiasm of others to launch the first Amnesty Group at CTI.

Amnesty International Mauritius Section (AIMS) requires a minimum of 5 members to register a group but past experience makes me believe that there should be about 20-25 volunteers for the group to function properly. In Mauritius, at the university level there’s only one Amnesty Group known as the Amnesty Campus Team (ACT) which has been set up by students from the University of Mauritius. I think that if we launch our group, we will soon outpace them.

I wish to point out that I’ve been a member and activist of AI since 2007. I’ve participated in and organised lots of activities. I was the President of the RCPL Amnesty Club during 2008. After leaving school, I’ve joined the Youth Coordination of AIMS and I’ve been on internship for 3 months at the Section. Last March, I was elected in the Accountability Control Committee (ACC) for 2009/2010 at the AGM of AIMS and I’m in constant contact with the Section. So, it won’t be difficult for us to register our group.

All those who wish be a member of an Amnesty Group at CTI contact me!

Saturday, May 2, 2009

The Innovators steal the show!

I’ve seen dozens of PowerPoint presentations but theirs really impressed me. The activities they have proposed are original/creative, and I bet we shall all have lots of fun if their project is selected.
There’s no doubt that we should all feel inspired by the professionalism they have displayed in preparing and presenting their work.
Still, I feel that something was lacking. If Ash had worn a tie and the girls had been in pant or skirt suits it would have been awesome.

Friday, May 1, 2009

"Iraqi Refugees in Mauritius"

Here’s something which doesn’t occur every day. Six catholic Iraqis were caught and held captive on our island for the past few months on charges of possession of false passports pressed against them. These individuals were fleeing their country as they were being persecuted because of their religious beliefs.

Their lawyer sought help from Amnesty International Mauritius Section (AIMS) which referred their situation to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The Iraqis were then granted the status of refugees. Consequently, all charges have been dropped against them and they are looking forward to obtaining political asylum in Australia.

I wish to point out that the Head of Faculty of Humanities at CTI, Mrs Touria Prayag, has largely contributed to this successful intervention as benevolent interpreter for AIMS.

Our First Team Building Activity - “The Tallest Straw Tower”!

27/04/09 – I guess you all remember this date, don’t you? As for both of us, it was a really memorable first day at CTI! We had so much fun especially while trying to construct the tallest tower with straws, matches, paper pins and string. Who would have thought that one could learn so much from such an activity?! It taught us how working in a team could make us achieve what would not have been possible doing by oneself. Through this activity we learnt that good planning and organization are the prerequisites of success in a team.

Shamianah and Mohishma