It's in you to give....

As we approach the New Year's eve w/end, I have heard a lot about the NOT-drinking-and-driving campaign here in MU. This week after Christmas, the news have been about how the police force stopped vehicles on Christmas eve for alcohol tests and how many drunk drivers were tested.

We all know that we shouldn't drink and drive, yet some drivers still do it because they either think they are above the law or because they think their tolerance for alcohol is better than most people. What these drivers do not realize is that by driving under the influence of alcohol, they not only put themselves in danger, but they put the lives of other people in danger too. Most often than not, in road accidents involving drunk drivers, the innocent are more hurt than the drunk driver himself. The Don't-Drink-And-Drive campaigns usually try to remind people of those risks come the holiday season.

That said, the Canadian Blood Services (CBS) usually have a massive campaign to make people donate blood during the holidays. Here in MU, I haven't heard that much about giving blood although I am sure the need for blood is even more critical during this period. The blood banks in MU already run low most of the time, so it is only normal that during the holiday period, with people getting busier at home and with parties, fewer donors have the time to go to a blood collection point and unfortunately more accidents occur during this period meaning more people needing blood.

Since the blood collected can only be used within 35 days, every healthy person who can donate blood should be encouraged to do so to relieve the need for blood nation-wide. Blood to spare is something most people have... yet, there is still not enough to go around. It is something money can't buy, only something one person can give to another. In fact, one blood donation may help save up to three lives.

As the CBS campaigns usually say: "It's in you to give. Give the gift of life, donate blood."

If nothing else, that could be your good deed for the coming year.

The first entry

Here we go, my first blog.
Ok, it's not good to start with a lie, I do have a blog on Mauritius Interactive (MI) but then it is for members only. Although it's free sign up, not a lot of people would go through the trouble, especially if they think it's for sino-mauritians exclusively (which it is NOT).

But this is exciting and the idea came from Javed.
I still do not know what I will blog about, I had trouble with the title!
But since people notice that I often refer to my years in Canada, I think I will not run out of topics to compare Canada and Mauritius.

This morning, for example, there was an accident on the motorway (we would say highway in CA) on the opposite direction and some drivers ahead of me were causing a traffic jam on this side of the road because they were slowing down to watch! Ok, maybe traffic does slow down a little bit in the opposite direction in CA, but imagine a huge traffic jam in both directions on 401 on a Thursday morning because of an accident in ONE lane? Just not thinkable. Come on people, just move on, you can read about the accident in the newspapers later on.

I just got started...