South Africa is working towards establishing a publicly-funded universal health service and now, amid the coronavirus pandemic, is the time to implement it
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/ 10 November 2008
Disillusioned by plunging stock markets and failing banks, or caught out by the unforgiving boom-bust capitalist cycle?
Schoolchildren in Bhutan are warned — one word of disrespect against their teacher, and they will be reborn as a dog, for the next 500 lives. Respect for authority is inculcated from an early age in the secluded Himalayan kingdom, where the king is revered as a Buddha and democracy seemed almost an experiment too far.
In the inner sanctum of the ancient white-walled fortress, dozens of red-robed monks prayed by the light of butter lamps, as the incense swirled. A handful of Western tourists self-consciously shuffled in. With a deep throaty mumble, the older monks recited the ancient Buddhist scriptures laid out before them on the wooden floorboards, interrupted only by a blast on long trumpets.