sholto
Tiger Tourism to End in India
Published April 28, 2010 | India’s environment ministry has ordered local states to wind down tourism in the core areas of India’s Tiger reserves as fears that the noise and disruption of tiger tourism is undermining the health and long term survival. With numbers of Tigers in India ranging from 1500 to 800 in the wild, it is clear that the wild cat will stay wild no longer unless it is given some break from the constant tramp of 4x4s and elephants following them around.
In Kerala, only the Periyar Tiger Reserve will be effected and it is not even clear whether there are any tigers in the reserve any more. In Northern India, the big hotel groups with their fancy safari lodges are going to really suffer.
Keeping Chickens Safe
Published January 6, 2010 | Every villager knows that small chicks are at risk from all sorts of predators – especially fish eagles who swoop down and carry them away. Just keeping track of them in the garden is hard unless you paint them bright colours. Nowadays, many villagers cannot be bothered keeping chickens, but if you see small chicks in the market, they are often brightly coloured for that reason.
India Grows even more than expected.
Published November 30, 2009 | Its not for nothing that they call economics the dismal science – with the credit crunch it seems anything economic seems dismal as anything. Not for India today who announce an annual growth rate of 7.9% above what they had forecast. ”As upside surprises go, this was a big one,” said the HSBC economist Robert Prior-Wandesforde.
Some of this came from good things – an increase in agricultural output was good to hear but the output increase in services owed much to a 12% pay hike for civil servants and army officers which is not such a good thing as the Indian government services remain chronically inefficient and bureaucratic.
We Keralites cannot complain as we trudge our way towards a new state government next year which is likely to be Congress dominated and will sweep away, we hope, the seriously nepotistic practices of the present shower.
India is taking off – maybe soon Dubai nationals will be coming to Kerala for jobs rather than the other way around. Now that would be good news seeing overweight Gulfites breaking their backs on Indian road repairs.
Ave at Dream Hotel Cochin
Published November 28, 2009 | Visited the Ave Nightclub at Dream Hotel Cochin and discovered that trance music may work in Miami, but it does not work in Cochin for the many slightly predatory young men hanging out around the bar and watching the slightly odd antique film about Wimbledon playing on the screen. The only dancer was considered too drunk by the staff to be allowed to dance, even though his stoned movements were a joy to watch.
What they need to do is employ staff who look like they are really enjoying themselves and are bopping a little and play cool Bollywood trance music then maybe the place will jive.
Smart but not original
Published November 27, 2009 | Listening to the state government talk about the Kochi Smart City project, you would think it was the most amazing and original idea on the planet and coming close to fruition.
The truth is somewhat different. Name any major or minor metro throughout India and they seem to be hatching a smart/tech city and promising to make themselves the new Hyderabad or Bangalore. Original it is not. You do wonder where the companies and clients for these smart cities will come from.
Even more problematic for Kochi Smart City is the project’s reliance on their co-partner for funding – Dubai. Everybody is in denial about the problems of funding (including Dubai) but Dubai’s semi default on their bond payments reveal the abyss the state’s finances are staring into. Dubai still proclaims their commitment to the project but even Kerala’s aging first minister seems to have twigged about their financial state and this from a man who seems oblivious to the astonishing graft and corruption that permeate every layer of Kerala’s governance at present.
So will Kochi Smart City go ahead? Locals in Kochi are pretty disparaging and cynical, but then they have seen that even a bridge takes a decade to build. The problem for Kochi Smart City is that it grows more and more irrelevant the longer it takes to build.
For Dubai companies, the old days of ‘grand projets’ all over the world with other people’s money seem over.
In Ernakulam, what most companies would like now is an infrastructure that works and internet access that is reliable and fast so we can compete with the already build smart cities. Will Achanandurian champion that? Probably not! Back to sleep old man!
Entertaining is tiring…
Published November 18, 2009 | Lola (a pug) is officially our chief entertainment officer. She certainly does no work but mobs around the office saying hello to each and everybody and exploring under every desk. When a comfortable chair becomes available she takes the opportunity to undertake some desk time, except in her case she droops her eyes, rests her head and falls fast asleep.
Fast asleep then wet on a Houseboat
Published November 17, 2009 | Went to sleep in the evening in the bows of the boat underneath the moon on a lovely warm evening. I woke in the darkness to a tremendous roaring and before I was wide awake a tremendous rain shower crossed over the houseboat soaking me.
I leapt up, dragged out a rain cover and then returned to sleep. By which time of course the rain had passed over and it was suddenly a little cold. Awoke next morning quite happy.
MI5 Visits Cochin
Published November 17, 2009 | I wonder if the local police knew that Britain’s security chief visited Kerala in March. Dame Stella Rimington (now an author) visited Fort Cochin (staying at Malabar House) and the tea gardens. Did she have a special security detail? Did the Naxalites know? Does anybody really care?
She wrote a short article in the London Daily Telegraph which is the first we knew about it. But the question Keralites could be asking (if they were conspiracy theorists) is whether this is the start of a concerted effort by Britain to regain their Raj Empire starting from Kerala and moving North. Remember Lord Clive started from Madras/Chennai and so it all makes historical sense. Surely a hartal is called for – what is the LDF government waiting for?