India’s school of maharajas now educating new elite
Stepping through the gates of India’s Mayo College is like journeying back 150 years. Yet, the school that was once reserved for princes now educates a new elite.Its history echoes with grandeur. The first student, the son of the Maharajah of Alwar, arrived in 1875 with pomp, seated in a palanquin and accompanied by 300 servants.”We try to preserve a certain tradition of the past,” said Saurav Sinha, principal of the school in Rajasthan’s Ajmer.”But only to the extent it enriches our culture, and lets our students remember who they are, and where they come from.”Nicknamed the “Eton of the East” and modelled after England’s elite boarding schools, Mayo was founded by the British viceroy, the Earl of Mayo, with the aim of fostering relations between Indian royalty and London.Today, among its 850 students aged nine to 18, only a few are descendants of royalty.They have been succeeded by the scions of ministers, business magnates, diplomats and senior army officers.Tuition fees run to around $11,500 a year — a fortune in a country where annual per capita income is about $2,300.This places Mayo among a rarefied dozen elite boarding schools in India — a stark contrast to the nearly 1.5 million other educational institutions in the world’s most populous nation, where more than two-fifths lack computers.For many families, the cost is justified.”It was clear to me to send my two sons here, because it prepares you for anything,” said Abhishek Singh Tak, who runs an events company in Jodhpur and is himself a Mayo alumnus.Standing before the school’s majestic main building, built of marble reminiscent of the Taj Mahal, he stated: “Everything I am today started from here.”- Military discipline -His sons Nirbhay, 10, and Viren, 17, now live in this luxurious cocoon for nine months a year.The younger dreams of Oxford; the elder aims for the University of Delhi or Sciences Po in France, hoping to become a diplomat.Although the strict military discipline that built Mayo’s reputation still prevails, recent years have seen greater emphasis on student well-being and self-confidence.Headmaster Sinha balances “immense respect for the heritage” with a resolve to keep the school “resolutely forward-looking and adapted to a rapidly changing world.”The 76-hectare campus is an oasis of ancient trees and lush lawns — a striking sight in Rajasthan’s desert.But students have little respite between rising at dawn and lights out at 9:30 pm.”We’re so busy that I don’t have time to think about my family,” joked Arrin, provoking laughter from his classmates.A year after leaving Mumbai, the 11-year-old seems content and at ease.”What I miss most is home-cooked food,” he said, standing straight with hands behind his back, as required.Rajesh Soni, head of the junior school, admitted the first months can be challenging. Mayo has therefore recruited psychologists and increased the number of female teachers and support staff.”The priority is to make it a place where happiness reigns, so they can explore and achieve their goals,” he said, adding that “everything is done to awaken their intellectual curiosity”.- Launchpad for ambition -Parents say the results speak for themselves.”My son has gained enormous self-confidence; he has become very independent,” said Daakshi Bhide, 38, a Mayo English teacher whose 10-year-old son boards at the school.Before classes begin, students wearing white shirts and navy blazers gather for morning assembly, where they say prayers and discuss current events.The curriculum, taught in English, is broad: science, foreign languages, literature, international relations, art and music.Afternoons are reserved for sports.Mayo offers around 20 disciplines — from polo and golf to swimming, shooting and tennis.Football has recently overtaken cricket as the campus favourite.The facilities are exceptional: an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a nine-hole golf course, and stables housing 60 horses.Arrin, whose parents are a doctor and a businessman, hopes to become a professional footballer.A die-hard Ronaldo fan, he sees Mayo as the first step.A third of students plan to study abroad — in Britain, Australia or the United States.Many want to contribute to India’s prosperity. Advaya Sidharth Bhatia, 17, hopes to launch a business at home and “help his country.”Sinha reiterated: “I have immense respect for this heritage, but Mayo must always look to the future.”For many, that future is exactly why they are here.
Sri Lanka: un concours de pêche pour limiter le nombre d’espèces invasives
Un concours de pêche a été organisé samedi par le gouvernement srilankais afin de capturer des espèces invasives de poissons telles que les têtes de serpent (ophiocéphales) ou les piranhas, qui menacent les écosystèmes locaux.Le ministère de la Pêche a lancé une campagne nationale en organisant ce concours dans un réservoir du district central de Kurunegala, où plus de 1.000 pêcheurs ont été invités à capturer uniquement les prédateurs introduits par l’homme et qui menacent les espèces autochtones.”Ce n’est pas facile de les attraper avec un filet, car ils sont très agressifs et leurs dents sont très acérées”, a souligné Kolitha Kamal Jinadasa, un représentant du ministère, en s’adressant à des centaines de pêcheurs lors de la compétition ciblant les têtes de serpent au réservoir de Deduru Oya.”En une journée, nous pouvons retirer un grand nombre de poissons du réservoir, puis nous pouvons contrôler leur population,” a-t-il ajouté.Le représentant a qualifié la journée de succès, bien que seulement 22 têtes de serpents entre deux et quatre kilogrammes aient été capturés lors de la compétitionN.A.V Sandaruwan, un pêcheur amateur de 37 ans, a remporté le premier prix de 200.000 roupies (56 euros) ainsi qu’une canne à pêche et un moulinet.”J’ai failli attraper un autre gros tête de serpent, mais il a réussi à s’échapper”, a-t-il rapporté.Les responsables ont également encouragé les pêcheurs à ramener leurs prises à la maison et à les cuisiner, bien qu’il ne s’agisse pas d’espèces habituellement consommées par les habitants.L’importation, la vente et le transport de quatre espèces — têtes de serpent, poissons-couteaux, garpiques alligators et piranhas — des espèces importées, sont interdits depuis samedi.Les personnes possédant dans leurs aquariums une des ces quatre espèces ont été invitées à les remettre aux autorités qui les confineront dans des aquariums gérés par l’Etat.Kolitha Kamal Jinadasa espère que la campagne aura des retombées positives sur le tourisme.Selon lui, les poissons-serpents, qui peuvent mesurer plus d’un mètre et se multiplient rapidement dans le réservoir de Deduru Oya, menacent les espèces endémiques de plus petite taille.
Guinea to vote in constitutional referendum boycotted by oppositionSun, 21 Sep 2025 03:02:13 GMT
Four years after the military seized power, Guineans will finally vote Sunday on a new draft constitution that would pave the way for elections but also permit the country’s junta leader to run for president, in a referendum boycotted by the opposition.The vote, which Guineans and the international community have been awaiting for years, opens …
Floating wind power sets sail in Japan’s energy shift
Close to a small fishing port in southwestern Japan, the slim white turbines of the country’s first commercial-scale floating wind farm glimmer offshore, months before a key project in Tokyo’s green-energy strategy begins.Still heavily reliant on imported fossil fuels, Japan has declared offshore wind energy a “trump card” in its drive to make renewables its top power source by 2040, and reach carbon neutrality a decade later.That’s despite rising project costs and fears over inadequate infrastructure to produce turbines en masse. Floating turbines are particularly well suited to Japan as its deep coastal waters make fixing them to seabeds tricky, while the country is also prone to natural disasters.”Floating structures are relatively stable even in the case of earthquakes or typhoons,” said Kei Ushigami, head of marine renewable energy for construction company Toda, a key player in the project. The eight turbines — sitting five kilometres (three miles) off the coast of the Goto Islands in waters up to 140 metres deep — will officially start turning in January.It’s hoped they’ll aid the archipelago in reaching ambitious new targets laid out this year that should see wind’s contribution to the energy mix soar to between four and eight percent by 2040 — up from around one percent today.But it’s a long, hard road ahead for resource-scarce Japan — the world’s fifth-largest carbon dioxide emitter — to wean itself off fossil fuels.In 2024, 65 percent of its electricity needs were met by coal and hydrocarbon-powered thermal plants, while just over a quarter came from renewables, according to Japan’s Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies.- Herculean task -Costs are also rising sharply, and at the end of August Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi pulled out of three key wind power projects deemed no longer profitable. Other project operators have asked for better support from the government.”It is important for the government to address shortcomings in the current bidding system, which failed to anticipate rapid global inflation after bids were awarded,” said Yoko Mulholland from the think tank E3G.The streamlining of regulatory processes and easing construction restrictions would “shorten lead times and also lower capital expenditure”, she told AFP.Hidenori Yonekura, from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, sees the nascent floating wind energy as a path to eventually lower costs, by installing more turbines in Japan’s vast Exclusive Economic Zone of 4.5 million square kilometres.The task, however, appears Herculean: to meet the 2040 wind target, around 200 15-megawatt turbines a year need to go up.But “the infrastructure is not yet in place”, warned Yonekura. “Japan lacks turbine manufacturers and large production sites.” – Fishers’ livelihoods -Construction companies also face technical challenges with these still-novel systems: defects discovered in the floating structure of a wind turbine at Goto meant Toda had to make replacements, delaying the project by two years. Coexistence with local industries, especially fishing, is also crucial. Toda said it had conducted an environmental assessment and found a pilot project had “no negative impact on fish”. Fishermen also receive part of the revenue from electricity sales and some of the property taxes generated by the project, while some have been hired to monitor the construction site with their vessels. But according to Takuya Eashiro, head of the Fukue fishing cooperative in Goto, the wind project was imposed “from the top” and presented as “a done deal”. Nevertheless, “fishermen understand the importance of such a project for Japan”, he said.The National Federation of Fisheries Co-operative Associations protested to the government after Mitsubishi withdrew, reminding them that fishermen had worked with these projects, hoping for positive economic impacts. As fishing becomes less viable owing to warming sea temperatures, “some hope their children or grandchildren will find jobs in wind turbine maintenance”, said Eashiro.
In New York, an anti-fascist superhero rises — at the Met
The Statue of Liberty makes a cameo in the Metropolitan Opera’s season opener, invoking a time when New York stood as a beacon of hope for Jews desperately fleeing Nazism.The image from “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” — which kicks off the Met’s 2025-26 cycle on Sunday — resonates at a time when President Donald Trump’s government is cracking down on the media and immigration.The opera tells the fictitious tale of Joe Kavalier’s escape from Nazi-occupied Prague in 1939 to Brooklyn, where he joins forces with cousin Sam Clay to try to raise funds to attempt to save Kavalier’s family.Their money-making venture? A comic strip featuring an superhero called “The Escapist,” who fights fascists. Tenor Miles Mykkanen, who plays Clay, calls the work “a 21st century opera with stories that we want to hear nowadays and stories that affect our lives, which I don’t think we can say about a lot of the standard repertoire.”- ‘Never done with fascism’ -The ambitious piece, based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel published in 2000 by Michael Chabon, alternates in music and sets between Prague, Brooklyn and the fantastic world of The Escapist.The meditation on love, loss, family and the necessity of art comes on the heels of other recent Met productions that have sought to reinvent the medium.The world of professional boxing, a magical realist universe evocative of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the debate over the death penalty in American and the ravages of the AIDS era have all been handled on the Met’s stage.But “Kavalier & Clay” represents the first work in the Met’s 142-year history that revolves around a comic book superhero — a pop culture mainstay that may provide an entry point for those who may not usually try opera.Chabon’s book was the first time “a big serious art form like the novel had taken comic books so seriously,” said composer Mason Bates.”We still embrace superheroes because we are never done with fascism and authoritarianism,” he said. “We long for the simplicity of a good guy to fight back.”- ‘The stuff of opera’ -With a huge symphonic burst, the opera starts in the ominous fog of Nazi-occupied Prague at night before shifting to Clay’s Brooklyn brownstone and his bustling office.The novel was published at more than 650 pages, necessitating a heavy streamlining by librettist Gene Scheer. Choruses and dancers come and go in a quickfire staging that includes frequent jolts of animation beamed to a busy stage.Some moments link worlds, as when Kavalier reads a letter from his mother, who is shown as he imagines her in Prague.New York is “the city of freedom and hope,” she tells her son, who is played by baritone Andrzej Filonczyk, before the tone shifts.”I want you to forget us,” she adds, leaving a crestfallen Kavalier as Prague inevitably darkens further.Bates, who is known for works that combine symphonic and electronic music, said he immediately thought “Kavalier & Clay” would work as opera, a medium of “storytelling on a grand scale” he said.”You’ve got desperation, passion, art, Nazis and superheroes,” he said. “Mix all that together. That’s the stuff of opera.”Bates pitched the idea to Met General Manager Peter Gelb, who greenlighted the commission in 2018. For director Bartlett Sher, the opera is landing at a moment when the rise of fascism in World War II and the response of artists to that calamity feels particularly resonant.People go to theater and opera “to learn from our own history who we are,” said Sher.He said he is especially moved when characters “talk about what it means to be an immigrant fleeing a country politically and the refuge you seek in the United States.”That allows the audience to “think to ourselves, ‘Well, is that who we are?'” Sher added.
Beware of ICE on roads: how migrants in Texas help each other avoid raids
These days, Martina Grifaldo begins her mornings by posting a special Facebook message for her immigrant community.”May everyone who goes out today make it home safely,” Grifaldo writes in Spanish to her 171,000 followers.The Facebook page, managed with fellow activist Francisco Mendoza, aims to warn migrants where possible raids are happening in real time using photos and videos submitted by community members.Since President Donald Trump began his immigration crackdown after returning to power in January, federal authorities have increased their detention of undocumented migrants, asylum seekers, and even those with Latino features who have US citizenship or permanent residency.Social media has flooded with pictures and videos of these arrests, some of which turn violent, despite uproar from civil rights groups.Several times a week, Grifaldo, 62, goes out on patrol before the crack of dawn to monitor areas where immigration authorities usually operate in Houston, the fourth most populous city in the United States and the largest in the southern US state of Texas.”We start around 5:30 or 6 am with a ‘good morning’ message, and people send each other blessings. Then we ask: how are the roads?” said Grifaldo, director of the nonprofit Alianza Latina Internacional.- ‘Terrorized’ -US Immigration raids are carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, with images of frozen water becoming synonymous with migrant detentions.A common roadside warning sign, “Beware of ice on roads,” now carries a double meaning for Latino communities.”In our posts, we put a picture of an ice cube next to an image of a police officer, and we ask the public to help report” where they are, Grifaldo explained.Through their own observations and submissions from followers, Grifaldo and her collaborator Mendoza share information about raids taking place in the city.On several occasions, ICE agents carrying out raids did not identify themselves, did not wear official uniforms, and did not even show arrest warrants.This makes Grifaldo and Mendoza suspect that the raids are sometimes carried out by bounty hunters, though federal immigration officials have denied employing such methods.Even so, it is common for ICE agents to wear masks, military-style vests, and use violence when carrying out raids.”Every time we go out and check the reports, and we see them, we see how they treat our people, we feel… terrorized, because at any time it could happen to us,” said Mendoza, 57, head of Disaster Management at Alianza Latina Internacional.Grifaldo, who works as a public notary and researcher, volunteers her time to conduct the patrols along with Mendoza, a Mexican immigrant himself who runs an air conditioning and plumbing business.- ‘They keep us informed’ -As the pair drive in their truck, they continue to broadcast live on their page.They later stop for a bite at a fast food restaurant, invited by local employees in a show of thanks for their work.”I respect them because they are taking risks for us,” said Elizabeth, a 35-year-old woman who works at the restaurant and is seeking legal status in the United States.She came to the United States from El Salvador over a decade ago with her mother and son.”I take care of my mother, who has fallen ill. Imagine if she was waiting for me, and I did not come home,” she continued.Mendoza said it was “heartbreaking” how America treats migrants.”Undocumented people pay so much taxes… and we don’t receive anything back,” Mendoza told AFP. Undocumented workers paid $97 billion in taxes in 2022 alone, according to Americans for Tax Fairness.As Mendoza and Grifaldo conduct their patrols, they inspect work vehicles, such as vans and pickup trucks, that appear to be abandoned, as they can be left behind by migrant workers who have been detained.By the late afternoon, they wind down their patrol, and Grifaldo pens another message for the Facebook page:”Good night, warriors. Even though it’s hard, we have to rest. Tomorrow will be another day to continue resisting.”