The Mayans haven’t given the world much time, but doomsday gloom is hardly new, says Ted Harrison.
Sitting under a pair of mango trees and sipping coconut water, Toolsy Poorun (87) says he thought he would live in Terre Rouge forever. But then Chinese investment came to this part of Mauritius. Poorun, who lives in the suburbs of the Indian Ocean island’s capital Port Louis, now finds himself caught up in China’s African push.
South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki said he opposed a threatened African Union-backed assault by the Comoros archipelago’s troops against the rebel island of Anjouan, saying it should be given time for a poll. Hundreds of federal troops have amassed on nearby Moheli island vowing an imminent assault on hilly, wooded Anjouan.
The Indian Ocean island of Madagascar has reduced the destruction of its protected forests eight-fold as it tries to preserve its unique wildlife and earn more from tourists, conservation officials say. The world’s fourth largest island aims to keep six million hectares, or about 10% of its surface area, as nature reserves.
Her blonde hair dripping with salt water, top Austrian kitesurfer Gabi Steidl cuts through the translucent, emerald green waves of the Indian Ocean. Kitesurfing — a hi-tech hybrid of surfing and kite-flying — is fast winning converts: riders harnessed to kites who stand on boards and skim, surf or even leap, often hanging in the air for several seconds.
Giant tortoises doze in the shade as rare lizards slip under bushes and endangered birds chatter in the sunlit trees overhead. On a small wooded island off southern Mauritius, environmentalists are trying to turn back time to an era before humans ever set foot on the volcanic Indian Ocean archipelago.