A survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers reveals that there is a serious lack of skills and knowledge among pension fund trustees and that few funds have a policy on how to manage conflict of interests among trustees. These are the issues at the heart of the Fidentia scandal. In many cases, especially with smaller pension funds, people’s retirement money is left in precarious hands.
Recently, French studies at Wits University invited Aminata Sow Fall, a leading woman writer from Senegal, to talk about African literature, the issue of language and the state of French-speaking Africa. When most of the former French colonies became independent in the 1960s, it was a time of euphoria and great hope for the future of Africa, writes Veronique Tadjo.
Twenty-five years after the Solidarity crisis that engulfed Poland and marked the beginning of the end of eastern European communism, the country’s leader at the time, General Jaruzelski, is facing ruin. The hard-right government of the twin Kaczynski brothers — Prime Minister Jaroslaw and President Lech — is determined to strip him of his rank and pension.
”Master is crapping,” M said, with a glint of mischief in her eye that belied her otherwise deadpan expression. Not having returned to my host’s place the previous night, preferring instead to dance part of it away at a gay disco near Bangalore airport and the rest trying to sleep on a friend’s lounge floor, I felt it necessary to check in.
For decades Samy Swasebard has been wandering around Europe, peddling pots and pans. He always returns to Strasbourg, where he has lived for 40 years. ”This is my favourite place, the place I call home,” says the 72-year-old, a retired Teflon salesperson. ”And if it wasn’t for Europe, between them the Germans and the French would have destroyed this place.”
Northern nations such as Russia or Canada may be celebrating better harvests and less icy winters in coming decades even as rising seas, also caused by global warming, are washing away Pacific island states. A draft United Nations report to be issued in Brussels foresees unequal impacts from warming: tropical nations from Africa to the Pacific, are likely to bear the brunt but those nearer the poles.
Turkey was not invited to Europe’s big birthday bash despite being an official candidate for EU membership. Ankara expressed disappointment at a ”missed opportunity”. Media reaction to the perceived snub was sharper. ”In the 1990s, the EU was a giant organisation governed by prominent leaders,” said leading columnist Mehmet Ali Birand.”
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Year-on-year new-car sales kept on declining last month although total vehicle sales were up, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) said on Monday. Naamsa said 36 041 cars were sold in March — compared to 37 496 in the same month last year. This represented a decline of 3,9% or 1 455 units.
Zimbabwean police have asked a special police branch to maintain order during Tuesday’s two-day general strike called by the country’s main labour body, a spokesperson said. ”The National Reaction Force … will be deployed in all problem areas to ensure that there is law and order during this illegal stayaway,” police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena said.