Ambimama - India

I went for a marriage function yesterday. The auto driver knew the place faraway and took me without any problem. More than the language, the taxi and auto-rickshaw drivers should be well aware of the city’s roads and places. The Government of Maharashtra is insisting that its’ taxi drivers should know Marathi and must be living in Mumbai for 15 years. Today he has relaxed the rule that they should know any local language Gujarathi or Hindi.

The Bombay Taximen’s association, the oldest in the city, had condemned the decision with its secretary A L Quadros saying it was unacceptable and politically motivated. A sizeable section of over two lakh taxi drivers in Mumbai comprise migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Uttarakhand. About 4,000 new taxi permits are given each year.
MNS chief Raj Thackeray had been in the forefront of an anti-migrant campaign in the state last year and had come in for severe criticism from several political parties.
Mumbai has grown by its’ citizens attitude for working and this kind of political interference is not welcome.

Here is a heroic failure. Martin Bromage dies in Channel due to his microlight failure. He set off for his eight-week trip. But it lasted less than a day.

In the long and noble tradition of men and women seeking to circumnavigate the world by air, none has fallen so tragically short of his target as the British tree surgeon Martin Bromage.
Aiming to raise £150,000 for the soldiers’ charity Help for Heroes, he was expecting the trip to last eight weeks. “I have done a few adventurous trips in Europe in the microlight and I just thought to myself, why not push it that bit further?” he said.

He set off yesterday morning from Gloucestershire Airport at Staverton in a microlight for the 11,000-mile round-the-world trip and did not even make it to France before he crashed into the English Channel five hours later. His body was recovered last night by a Portuguese tug boat about 20 miles west of Le Touquet.
Bromage, 49, married with two sons, had set off on Monday morning with the sort of bravado displayed by countless solo fliers down the years, going back to Amelia Earhart, who herself disappeared on a round-the-world flight 72 years ago (though on that occasion she was accompanied by a navigator).

“There is a real sense of freedom: ¬ you can feel the wind and smell the atmosphere. You can’t do that in a plane.” Among his last words before he took off were: “I’ve always had an appetite for adventure and I relish a challenge.” A spokesman for the charity he was hoping to help said: “His willingness to try something extraordinary and help others at the same time made him a remarkable supporter.
“We would like to pay tribute to a wonderful man who will be missed by all who knew him.”

Once I first bought my Cadbury chocolate when I was young. I went to the shop again and again. The wonder is still today - the Cadbury’s chocolate tastes the same!
Cadbury’s has been brought by Kraft and I fear I will not have my Cadbury chocolate quality any more. Kraft’s £11.7 billion offer to Cadbury’s makes me wonder.

The First Post says:
Unions warned a Kraft buyout could trigger substantial job losses among Cadbury’s 45,000-strong worldwide workforce, which included more than 9,000 in Britain.
Chocolate connoisseurs have been concerned that Kraft will cut corners that diminish its product, particularly in Ireland where Cadbury products like Golden Crisp and Tiffin surpass its British selections.

The takeover is the biggest deal in the sweets sector since Nestle bought Rowntree in 1988. Kraft maintains it is “eager to build upon Cadbury’s iconic brands and strong British heritage”.
Just one day since Hershey were rumoured to be preparing a bid for Cadbury, the British confectioner has agreed terms overnight with original suitor Kraft for £11.7 billion. After more than four months of public verbal sparring, the British chocolate maker, which dates back to 1824 when Quaker John Cadbury first introduced cocoa-based hot drinks to his tea shop, joins a long list of UK brands that have fallen to foreign takeovers in recent years. Among them are Boots, Jaguar Land Rover, P&O, Pilkington, Corus and ICI.

The deal was done as Kraft faced a midnight deadline imposed by takeover authorities to make a final offer. Led by chief executive Irene Rosenfeld, who has been in London selling the deal for more than a week, Kraft’s bid represents a five per cent premium over the value of Cadbury at its current share price of 807.5p.

There was a comment on my article in 2007, taken from a news article in The Indian Express. I cannot verify the sincerity of the sender Mohammed nor the article in the newspaper. However I submit my apology to Mohammed s/o MANNADI BARAKATH. He has commented why I am not writing about other indecent acts carried on daily in my blog. I cannot do this as I do not own a Newspaper and it is not humanly possible.

The article was covered under the title “DMK embarrassed: Activist Barakath of Mannady arrested on charges of being a hawala conduit for the LTTE” on March 11, 2007 at 7:47 pm • Filed under News

I do not have any partiality towards any one and I write my blog about whatever I feel. This is the reason why blog exists and I feel sincerely apologetic if I have crossed my limit.

More than one million people have been affected in Haiti earth quake and 1000s have died. This is the second largest after China’s where 10 times people were affected. The pictures shown in TV show the nature’s wrath in brief. China had already sent Rs.1 crore in relief and has sent people for relief work. Haiti is near Mexico and Mexican govt. has given Rs.4 crore.

Once France’s richest colonial possession, Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world.
Haiti is in the western half of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. In the 18th century Haiti became the richest in the French-speaking due to coffee and sugar plantations run on slave labour.

Haiti became independent in 1804 from France. It has plundered throughout its history and It got off to a bad start immediately following independence.
Desperate for international recognition, Haiti eventually agreed in 1838 to pay reparations to France in order to compensate slave owners and their heirs. The sum, 150 million francs, is estimated at $21bn in today’s money, and kept Haiti in debt to France for the next 80 years.
In 1915, the United States occupied the country, fearing the growing influence of the German community there. A period of stability followed, although the introduction of chain-gangs to improve the country’s infrastructure was deeply unpopular in a country founded by slaves.

The US’s primary legacy when it pulled out in 1934 was a strong, well-organised military. For the next 50 years the country would be governed by military dictatorships epitomised by that of physician Francois Duvalier.
‘Papa Doc’, as he was known, seized power in a military coup in 1956.
The US tacitly supported him because of Haiti’s strategic location close to Fidel Castro’s Cuba, and for fear that it would also turn communist.

There are large populations of Haitians today in Miami, New York and French-speaking Montreal as well as on other Caribbean islands.
Haiti has never really recovered from this brain drain which led to a serious lack of teachers and doctors.
Now I understand why the US is really interested in helping Haiti. We do not have a choice, but to help Haiti now.