A Kerala Curry in Cardiff wins the Tiffin Cup 2008!

Haven't updated life in France lately because every day there are too many of the same old strikes to write about.

So switching continents to post the all Kerala hartal yesterday -calm except for the occasional stone throwing!
one more hartal

Unbelievable AND Good News

Air India is, incredibly, lowering fares to Kerala.

Although they are lowering their fares up to 83%, I realize I should not get too excited - we may not see that much of a savings with all of the added extra surcharges and government taxes.

Kerala crackdown on spiritual fraudsters.

Wondering what their criteria will be...

Strike Watch

Fisherman have been striking for going on two weeks now, teachers are still on strike, and I believe another group as well.

Demonstration today-10,000 expected to start at 14:00 at the Place de l'Opera and move to the Place de la Republique. Think I'll

Strike Watch

Today the education nationale has planned a strike but I am not sure what exactly that means- stay tuned!

Most schools were not equipped to handle students today so I wonder what working parents did with their children?

They are protesting lay-offs throughout the system and marching or driving from Place de l'Italie to Place de la Republique, fortunately I am heading west not east.

Oh-oh - another chikungunya outbreak

Due to the early unseasonal rains, Here is the first report of a suspected chikungunya outbreak-not good news considering monsoon won't start for another few weeks.

Strike Watch

Boulogne-sur-mer - fishermen striking to protest the hiking of the price of cabillaud or as we call it - codfish.

In Bordeaux, public transport on strike, hoping for better pension or work conditions.

In addition, there is some renovation on railtracks reducing available tracks, making this long week-end - which includes war celebration of May 8 with religious celebration of Pentecote on Monday, May 12th, and to include next year, May 9-another holiday to be declared by the European Union. But I forget why.

All-India hartal

All India bundt today to protest the drastically increasing prices of everyday items-most drastic being, of course, the 96% increase in the price of rice, the staple of at least 2 billion of the planet's population.
Living in a Communist state, yesterday (May 1) was (goes without saying) a holiday. So long week-end for a lot of workers- and, as long as they left yesterday, probably lots of family visits. Traveling on a strike day can be hazardous if you run into any political zealots, and you most probably will.

Leaders from Kerala appealed to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to exempt the state from the strike, to not hurt the common man even more. But I just tried to reach the Emirates office in Kochi and all I get is answering machines or fax lines. They are most definitely closed.

Well-camoflaged, somewhat curious, sun-bathing skink

For all you reptile lovers, the best way to attract reptiles is by creating a wall of rocks (actually any pile of rocks will do) as have my neighbors. Plenty of unreachable corridors for slipping away from curious bystanders and hungry predators, and flat well-exposed surfaces serve as the perfect loungechair for their daily sunbath. This skink didn't seem to mind posing for photos, as I was quite close.



If only the resident chameleon were a little less shy. He lives in this pile of rocks as well, but after nearly colliding with him last week on the road (he was trying to cross over to the field while I was on my way home), he has been far too elusive for a photo op.

Envirofit-the sooner, the better

I always suffer from my trips to the 'big city', in this case, Kochi, a good two-three hour jaunt depending on the roads-which are dependent on the weather, and traffic. It usually includes the sight of at least one overturned car, truck, or auto-rickshaw. Yesterday it was a jack-knived truck flipped on its side, now acting as cornucopia, spreading rivers of the gravel it had been transporting over most of the highway.

Besides the aches from the jostling of what feels more like trails than super-highways, what I suffer from most is a splitting sinus headache. I can only wonder at the tolerance of the urbanites who live in the kind of pollution that Indian cities are renowned for, and particularly the lowly auto-rickshaw driver-who probably contributes to the problem more than the rest put together.

Of course, I don't have to travel that far to become asphyxiated. The local town (a mere 10-minute drive) is just as bad on a mini-scale. And this is not from industry, but purely diesel buses and cars, and the ever-ubiquitous rickshaws.

I am encouraged to see that help is on the way from Envirofit International. They have developed a "Direct In-cylinder (DI) fuel injection retrofit kit for two-stroke engines that is cleaner and more fuel efficient than the replacement four-stroke engines." This kit"reduces carbon monoxide emissions by 76%, carbon dioxide emissions by 35%, and hydrocarbon emissions by 89%. At the same time, fuel use is reduced by 35% and oil by 50%."

Right now, it looks like they have only been adopted in the Philippines, I wonder how long it will take for India to catch up. I pray that it will be today.