Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s independence leader, made two famous statements that are still regularly quoted. The first one is "the independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked with the total liberation of Africa". Ghana’s independence day on March 6 1957 did give added impetus to the independence struggle around the continent
Historian Martin Meredith records that when Ghanaian independence leader Kwame Nkrumah learned he was expected to take the lead at an independence ball he "groaned, complaining he could only dance the highlife". He might have felt the same way if he were still alive to attend this week’s official celebrations to mark Ghana’s 50 years of independence from colonial rule.
The bitter rivalry between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the country’s leading elder statesman has erupted into a public struggle for control over economic policy. Hashemi Rafsanjani, the president’s most influential opponent, set the scene for a power struggle by telling Iranian journalists that Ahmadinejad’s "trial period is over".
Franchising is one of the most popular business models in the world today, with its ability to duplicate existing successful small businesses in different locations and with different owners. It is especially popular among entrepreneurs who are going into business for the first time, as there is a considerable amount of training and support available.
Govin Reddy is in charge of managing the way 1,1-billion people perceive South Africa. Despite this, he’s relaxed enough to extend a hearty handshake and joke about not wearing a tie when we meet at the International Marketing Council’s offices in Houghton. As the IMC’s new country director for India, Reddy is back in Jo’burg for just two weeks to meet with the head office and other country directors.
A container ship is docked at Ghana’s Tema port, stuffed to the brim with frozen food products, including thousands of metric tonnes of poultry parts recently arrived from Brazil. These are unloaded into cold storage facilities until they can be transported to the capital, Accra, or elsewhere in the country. And then the electricity goes out.
International Women’s Day is a time when we take stock each year of the progress, or lack of it, on women’s rights. This stockÂtaking happens all over the world, involving both women and men, and it reveals some progress. Sadly, it also suggests that we still have a long way to go.
Small businesses have a disproportionately high failure rate in their first three years of operation. While franchises may be less likely to fail, they’re certainly not immune. "The three major reasons are: the wrong location, an ill-suited franchisee and an unproven concept," said Anita du Toit of Franchising Plus.
Reports suggesting that Iran has sought Saudi help in mediating its nuclear and other disputes with the Bush administration are wide of the mark. When President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad travelled to Riyadh at the weekend, he had a wholly different object in view: wrecking the ostensibly anti-Iranian coalition of "moderate" Arab states, plus Israel, painstakingly assembled by the United States in recent months.
Police in the cash-for-honours inquiry are examining details of meetings attended by Lord Levy, Labour’s chief fundraiser, at which the question of political honours may have been discussed, The Guardian has learned. Detectives are investigating whether Levy later suggested to colleagues that they should not draw attention to his involvement in the discussions because of the fevered atmosphere surrounding the inquiry.