NO EGGS FOR CORONATION
WHEN King Charles of England is crowned as the new king of Great Britain on May 6, 2023 the British people will suffer a severe shortage of eggs. Not only has the price of eggs shot up steeply they have been rationed to three eggs per person due to the shortage. This is a bit like the famous queen of France, Marie Antoinette, asking the people of France to eat cake if they had no bread. Thanks to the exit of the UK from the European Union and curbs on imports, there is also a severe shortage of tomatoes and potatoes in the UK and these are being rationed. Never mind that that the British now have an long distance Indian origin prime minister in Rishi Sunak (more of a son-in-law of India via Africa).
INDIA OVERTAKES CHINA
THE latest United Nations data shows that with 142.86 crore people in India, we are now the country with the largest population in the world. Thanks to China’s former rigid police of controlling its population by permitting one child per couple – it’s population took a downward turn (with many girl children being aborted or murdered). While China’s population is declining till recently when the policy of one couple one child was taken down, in India nearly 50% of its booming population at below the age of 25 years. China is now insisting that its population is less but the quality of the Chinese labor is better. A tit for tat response to which we Indians may have no response except to nod our heads, perhaps!
COVER UP CASINO HOARDINGS!
THIS is vastly amusing. Every time there is a major cultural or government event in capital city Panaji there is a rush policy of covering up the huge advertising of casinos, especially those put up down the Dona Paula circle down to Miramar beach and the Campal promenade and all the way along the Mandovi river…so we presume in the case of the three-day G20 Health Summit taking place in Goa all the delegates visiting Panaji did not get to see the tempting casino hoardings. The casino hoardings were covered up with white paper or linen cloth! This is such an absurdity for we are sure the representatives visiting Goa for the G20 Summit Health meetings are coming from countries which host casino businesses…casinos are nothing new to them. Some of them may have preferred to visit a casino instead of being bombarded with cultural extravaganza and Goan arts and crafts.
MUMBAI HOSTS FIRST APPLE STORE
TIM Cook, the chairman of Microsoft, was personally present to welcome the first customers at his exclusively company-owned Apple store in Mumbai located at the smashing Reliance Mall at the Bandra-Kurla complex. Unlike other IT companies, Microsoft prefers to market its products through its own personalized stores. The second IT store opened on April 19 in Delhi where Tim Cook was expected to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Microsoft is competing with Google and Twitter for new artificial intelligence application. There are reservations about whether this new artificial intelligence will be too smart for users. The new Apple store in Mumbai has 100 plus employees able to speak 20 plus, plus languages. Apple has shifted a large part of its production base to India which gets 2% of its global revenues, estimated at $s394 billion from India.
MOBILE CHARGING DISASTER!
BE careful while you rush to charge your fancy mobile phones. In recent experience a 16-year-old boy from Bareilly was using his top brand phone while it was also charging. The young man was also wearing a smart watch being charged at the same time. The report making the rounds is that when he took a phone all he got a serious shock – because of the double charging going on. Our opinion: Smarter the phone, greater the risk to life.
GANJA TO BE LEGALISED
THE state of Uttar Pradesh, which is the largest producer of ganja, is now planning to legalize it. Ganja is a major source of revenue and it is generally believed to be more of a recreational and medical drug than a dangerous narcotic. There areas in the United States as in Chicago ganja or cannabis is legalized and it may be obtained freely without a medical prescription. You can also get cannabis on a medical prescription in several countries now. In India, however, ganja continued to be a narcotic drug and if you were caught with it – it was a punishable offence. In Goa secret and not so secret trance parties ganja is traded in widely because that’s where one is supposed to begin in one’s transportation to experiences of another kind. The harder drugs are for the far more experienced in drugs addicts.
COMMANDO TO RESCUE
WE would like to congratulate Horseshoe Bar & Restaurant which completed 43 years on April 19, 2023. Way back in the 90s, the present Santa Cruz MLA Babush Monserrate wanted to start a Goan version of the popular game of matka. Goan matka was to replace Mumbai matka which was facing some problem. Matka is the cheapest form of gambling in which depending on investment, which may be as little as Rs10, if you are lucky you may get Rs500.
We know many journalists and lawyers who used to visit the Horseshoe because the owner Vasco Silveria,, a former commando from Libya, was a very friendly person. Rudolf & Gang had warned OHeraldo chief reporter Anthony Fernandes not to write about the Goan matka. Anthony defied the warning and carried a story. The very same evening when he was having a drink at the Horseshoe he was beaten up with iron rods and chains. Though there were several lawyers and journalists present at the restaurant nobody came to help Anthony — except the owner Commando Vasco Silveria.