Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Stealing a Nation

If you live in the UK, there will be an interesting programme called "Stealing a Nation" that will be broadcasted on ITV1 on wednesday the 6th of October 2004 (11pm). This document contains proofs of what happened to the Ilois of Diego Garcia. Also, in Mauritius, the illois have written a letter to the Queen demanding their rights. They are willing to sleep outside the British High Commission in Mauritius and strike of hunger. Hopefully the British government will apologise on this fact as well just as Tony Blair did concerning going to war on basis of WMD in Iraq. What can we really do for these people. I think the first step is to let as many people around the world know their sufferings.

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Flora of Mauritius

Dear readers This is part two of the unique species of Mauritius. Although there are many more plants that can be found in Mauritius only, I will point out only four. These are The Trochetia This Bush plant is an endangered species. It's flower is the emblem of Mauritius

picture from josie et claude
Talipot This unique plam tree only flowers once in a life-time (some says every 100 years). As far as I can recall, this last happened about 15 years ago
picture from encyclopedia of mauritius
The Black Ebony Ebony itself can be found in many countries. However, the black ebony is unique in Mauritius. It almost got extinct since the time of the dutch while they were exporting the woods to europe. It use to be the finest wood for furniture and even to build ships. This young black ebony tree is the only picture I could find
picture from institute for environmental and legal studies
The Flamboyant If you have ever been in Mauritius, you may recall these trees along the sides of many major roads. We also call them "Bouquet Bananee" because they flower around new years time.
picture from nilesh.doosoye.com
I know that this is a brief post but feel free to comment or contribute