"Decide what’s right before you decide what’s possible." -- Brian Tracy http://amplify.com/u/grnd

"Personal leadership is not a singular experience. It is, rather, the ongoing process of keeping your vision and values before you and aligning your life to be congruent with those most important things." -- Stephen Covey http://amplify.com/u/ghl1

I am an Afrimist, jut like Edward B Mendy

If one is not an Afrimist, they are limited, as even if data screams at the them at the highest of decibels, with strong positive signals, they fail to hear the positive message. Even if this data comes through one of the other four human senses, they become blind, oblivious, deaf, and are devoid of the ability to taste the uplifting nuggets of good news.



It is for the very same reasons that business leadership in most companies, have failed over the recent past, to harness the high returns associated with the perceived risks of doing business in Africa. Many business, risk and financial analysts, have been suffering from 'herd mentality' when it comes to how they judge Africa, only to be pipped at the post, by off shore researchers, who have recently rated Africa, as one, on the high rise in most aspects that a risk-averse institutional & nation-states investor would be looking at.



The foresight (displayed by Pan-African leaders) that led to the revamp of the OAU (Organisation of African Unity) into the AU (African Union), as well as the formation of its project (NEPAD), as well as its business arm, the NEPAD Business Group, is paying off. The African Peer Review Mechanism is bringing a shift away from rulership to leadership, where leaders in Africa are behaving in ways that indicate their acceptance of sharp eyes of their constituencies.



The very same Mo Ibrahim Foundation, is a product of new African pride, supported by many, who want to leave a better legacy, and bequeth an Africa that the 7th generation will be proud of...



I repeat, I am an Afrimist too!

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Africa is not depressing

Thursday, 21 October 2010

On October 4 2010, the headline on the BBC's website announcing the results of the Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance read:  Africa democratic rights advances reversed, says report.

The article went on with an overall focus on the reversal of democratic advances outlined in the report. According to the BBC article, the index suggests that across Africa, economic and health gains are being undermined by declines in political rights, security and the rule of law.

The emphatic conclusion of the BBC article was that the results of the Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance 2010 report were 'depressing.'  According to the BBC article, the report points to the fact that 35 of 53 states have become less secure, while two-thirds of African countries show a declining performance in terms of human rights.

The BBC article, in my opinion, was a typical distortion and sensationalising of news out of Africa.  After reading it, I couldn't help but wonder whether the author of the article read the same report I read.  While it is true that there have been some reversal of democratic advances on the continent, as the index suggests, the report provided more good news than bad.

In addition to an unchanged average score in the report, Africa advanced in more areas that the index assessed than it regressed. In overall scoring, Africa advanced in two index group indicators while regressing in two others, a tie at worse. More importantly, the advances were made in the areas that matter most to Africans-our health, food in our bellies and overall development. African citizens are becoming healthier, have greater access to economic opportunities and are better off from a human development standpoint than they were five years ago.  That this economic growth and improvement in the life of the average African were achieved while Africa was receiving less help from the West and in a period of great economic upheaval in the world gives me hope that Africa's progress continues to gather steam, and is unstoppable.

The Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance ranks 53 African countries according to 88 indicators, ranging from corruption to education.  The index, which has been published since 2007, scores countries on a scale of zero to 100, sponsored by Sudanese telecoms mogul Mo Ibrahim.

The official press release on the report made the following observation:

In both Sustainable Economic Opportunity and Human Development there have been    improvements in many African countries. Importantly, no country has declined significantly in these categories. In Sustainable Economic Opportunity, 41 African states improved; ten of these were significant.    In Human Development, 44 of Africa's 53 countries progressed driven by improvements in most countries in the Health and Welfare sub-category. Two of the improvements in Human Development were significant.

The indisputable fact is: Africa is developing.  The development may be slow but it is sure.  This development is not just economic.  It can be found in just about any aspect of human development-politics, education, health, governance and other human development indicators.  While the road is not smooth and Africa incessantly experiences setbacks, the progress is incontrovertible.  The progress is seen in the resolve of Africans to improve their lot and of African policy makers to address the needs of Africans.  It is evident in the efforts being made to integrate the economies of the various regions of the continent.  It is demonstrated in the world's improved perception of the continent as a great place to do business, courtesy of African countries like South Africa, Egypt, Libya and Nigeria, as well as the BRIC countries, the World Cup press and the myriads of reports and publications incessantly touting the African economic renaissance.

Like it or not, Africa is on an irreversible path of economic transformation and development that will overshadow any regression made in the political and personal safety areas.

By Edward B. Mendy Edward B. Mendy is an African lawyer educated and practising in the United States.  Mendy is an avowed Africa-optimist (Afrimist), who will be blogging for Africa - The Good News. Read more at www.sagoodnews.co.za

 

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Leadership Caffeine: Mistakes are the Raw Ingredients of Leadership Courage

Certainly, the more I became BOLD & Courageous, and in the process, committed leadership mistakes, the more the dreaded fear DISAPPEARED, and the less mistakes I made. I gained more courage, and personal confidence, fueled by a higher degree of self awareness, AND I am making my mistakes, without losing my self esteem, as I know they are LEADERSHIP Caffeine.

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Management Excellence Ideas and approaches in business performance excellence.

Leadership Caffeine: Mistakes are the Raw Ingredients of Leadership Courage

I’ve made a number of mistakes over the course of my leadership career that make my head spin and my stomach turn just thinking about them.  No life or death or business impacting mistakes, but, definitely some people and team impacting issues that created ill will and most definitely didn’t show me off at my leadership best.

Learning from those mistakes helped me evolve my thinking on the role of a leader and on my true priorities in supporting my business, my peers and my team members. While it would have been nice to skip these speed bumps, the lessons are forever burned into my cerebral cortex or wherever it is in our brains that those things are burned on to our hard drives.

Somewhere along the road to making my share of mistakes, an interesting thing happened to my fear of making mistakes. It disappeared! And don’t misinterpret the statement. I don’t seek out mistakes and I don’t not (double negative by design) care about mistakes, but, I just don’t fear them.  In fact, I’m more concerned about not riding on the cutting edge of what I believe to be the right thing for my stakeholders than I am about falling off and getting shredded in the process.

A leader preoccupied with the fear of making a mistake is playing not to lose versus playing to win. It turns out that developing personal courage is critical to developing as an effective leader.

. Doing the right thing promptly and fairly when it comes to dealing with performance issues. 2. Screwing up the courage to deliver the tough feedback everyday. 3. Accepting accountability for your own and for your team’s mistakes or performance lapses. 4. Supporting the person that you believe in to your core, in spite of the prevailing opinion from your peers or leaders. 5. Supporting a person that you believe in, in spite of the fact that she may not believe in herself. 6. Advocating a direction that challenges the traditional thinking (Prahalad’s “dominant logic”) while taking direct hits from the slings and arrows of, “We’ve never done it that way before.” 7. Being smart and confident enough to understand the politics of organization-life, and tough enough to avoid the traps and land mines that others attempt to draw you into on your journey. 8. Learning to say “no” to people and projects for the right reasons. “No,” may be the toughest word to learn in the leader’s vocabulary.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Writing this post is like cueing Sinatra’s, “My Way,” but Ol’ Blue Eyes had it right, in my opinion. You’ll make more than a few mistakes, and if you’re committed to developing as an effective leader, you’ll learn to quickly seize the learning opportunities, adjust your course as needed and move on to better performance. Here’s to our mistakes and the lessons learned as we develop our leadership courage! Read more at artpetty.com

 

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"Very few of us are authorities on the truth. About the closest that any of us can get is what we hope is the truth or what we think is the truth. That's why the best approach to truth is probably to say, ‘It seems to me...’" -- Jim Rohn http://amplify.com/u/ft4f

I wouldn't publish my whereabouts for the risk of getting my house burgled, or being known by unsavoury characters, where I could be 'chilling'...

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How to Control Your Privacy With Foursquare and Other Geolocation Services

Geolocation is one of the hottest trends in social networking today. Users enjoy connecting with friends at nearby locations. Businesses are beginning to take note of the opportunity to tie their brick-and-mortar locations to their online marketing. In addition to the main local social networking applications—Foursquare and Gowalla—Google, Facebook and Twitter have added geolocation features to their services to tap into this trend. As users provide more information about their location, serious privacy implications are beginning to surface. For instance, a Webroot study released in July 2010 found that more than half of survey respondents who used geolocation services were worried their privacy was at risk.  Privacy Problems The first wave of criticism about the privacy implications of geolocation social networks followed the launch in February 2010 of Please Rob Me, which combined people’s physical location through geolocation services with data about their residence from other public data. When people were “checked in” at other places, unscrupulous individuals could find out and take advantage through Please Rob Me, though the site’s founders said they were only trying to demonstrate the problems posed by sharing geolocation data. In March 2010, the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a lawsuit with the FTC alleging that Google violated people’s privacy by making geolocation data available to the general public in its Google Buzz product. The geolocation privacy backlash continued with the launch of Facebook Places, which enabled users who had recently checked into a place to see all other users who had been there through the “Here Now” feature. This launch prompted the American Civil Liberties Union to put out a data sheet on how people could protect their online privacy and voice concerns about the practice of listing physical locations through geolocation services. Social Networks React An example of a Facebook Place To assure users that participating in geolocation social networking was safe and controllable, social networks began to provide additional privacy controls. This was likely in response to the concern and potential litigation regarding privacy and by the spate of violence through Craigslist connections. Twitter users can select whether to include their whereabouts for each message. Privacy advocates were never as keen to target it for criticism, though many of the same negatives exist for sharing location data in this way. Twitter also lets you delete your entire geolocation history, which makes users feel more comfortable with the choice to display location data. In response to the privacy backlash, Google made the option to make contacts private more prominent. It also allowed users to block Buzz followers directly from profile pages. Facebook addressed privacy generally after several separate privacy issues arose over information-sharing settings, but has yet to make public statements about the implications of Facebook Places on privacy. Potential Solutions Face2Face is a geolocation social networking service that restricts location data to user-specified friends. Startup geolocation companies are popping up to serve the supposed market need for a service with the best of both worlds. Once such company, face2face, markets itself as “a discreet way to let your friends know when you’re nearby.” It restricts geolocation data to specific friends set by the user, giving more control over the privacy question back to the end consumer. Another way to protect against negative uses of geolocation data is to take precautions to avoid tying your current physical location to your home address. Jason Falls gave this sound advice in a column he did on safety tips for Gowalla and Foursquare. In the Webroot study mentioned above, many users of social networks—geolocation social networks in particular—did not follow best practices to keep interactions on these networks safe. For example, 31% of survey respondents accepted friend requests from strangers. These types of shocking data points show that people are probably not treating online interactions with enough caution, especially those with a geolocation component. Geolocation social networks do raise some privacy concerns worth noting, but prudent use of each service, including understanding how to properly establish privacy settings, clears up much of the concern. As long as you’re smart about it, geolocated interactions will stay as harmless as other online social interactions. Location-based Social Network Users: What are ways you protect your privacy while enjoying these services? Have you ever had an issue with privacy on any of these services? Leave your comments in the box below.

See more at socialmediatoday.com

 

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The m-pesa account between Vodacom and one of the major banks in South Africa, is one good example of correspondent banking... Early entrants into these kinds of innovations, even in different business models and sectors, usually pay off, as late-comers usually find it difficult to justify the required cost and effort of collaboration...

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A new idea in banking for the poor

By teaming up with retail outlets in low-income, often hard-to-reach areas, financial institutions can create value both for themselves and their new customers.

NOVEMBER 2010 • Alberto Chaia, Robert Schiff, and Esteban Silva

Correspondent banking has become one of the most promising strategies for offering financial services in emerging markets. In this model, financial institutions work with networks of existing nonbank retail outlets—such as convenience stores, gas stations, and post offices—to deliver financial services. This approach can be especially powerful when serving the unbanked poor because of its ability to reduce banks’ cost-to-serve and reach low-income workers where they live. In Brazil, where the strategy has enjoyed its greatest successes, about 1,600 municipalities (approximately one-third of the total) are served solely by correspondent-banking outlets.

Correspondent (or agent) banking benefits a range of stakeholders. The poor gain convenient access to financial services in their own communities. Financial institutions reach a vast new customer segment. Agents increase their sales volumes and have an opportunity to develop deeper relationships with customers.

But implementing correspondent strategies can be tough. It may be hard to build networks of partners that can fulfill the correspondent role. The economics are still uncertain for players that don’t offer a range of services. And because the strategy is relatively new for financial-services providers, it is difficult to know exactly what will work in each particular community.

We came to similar conclusions in our own research. In Mexico, the all-in cost of offering savings accounts (including marketing, opening an account, and per-transaction costs) through correspondent outlets is about 25 percent lower than offering them through traditional branches (exhibit). Correspondent models thus help organizations serve low-income consumers at a lower cost, which is particularly important because people in the segment typically transact in small sums.

The use of correspondent agents is leading to a significant expansion of low-income workers’ physical access to financial services:

Brazil: In 2000, nearly 30 percent of Brazil’s municipalities had no access to formal financial services. But between 1999 and 2003, the government revised its regulations to allow correspondent banking and facilitated its expansion by improving the country’s interbank transfer system. By 2004, every municipality in Brazil had access to formal financial services, and about 1,600 (one in four) were served only by the correspondent network.

Mexico: More than 5,000 correspondent outlets, supported by 11 banks, have sprung up since the government authorized correspondent banking in late 2009. The government is using it to build a basic financial-services offering through more than half of the 23,000 state-owned Diconsa stores. Since 2009, a pilot program using point-of-sale devices and fingerprint-based identity cards has delivered government payments to nearly 200,000 households. Mexico’s government could use the network to reach two million or more beneficiaries4 and to add savings and insurance to the range of services it provides.5

Kenya: M-Pesa, a successful mobile-money transfer service in Kenya, depends on physical locations that operate like correspondent outlets to give users quick and convenient opportunities to withdraw or deposit cash. Its approach involves exchanging cash for float (in an electronic form issued by the mobile operator) at one of the organization’s 16,000 retail outlets, also known as agent points. This capability is a critical component of all mobile-financial-services offerings, since consumers must be able to convert digital funds to cash, and it is much more cost effective for providers to fulfill this need by tapping into existing physical networks than to build their own from scratch.6

Perhaps above all else, correspondent banking is still relatively new in the context of financial inclusion. The rules of the game vary by geography, and the game itself changes as the strategy develops: competition is increasing, the regulatory landscape is shifting, and customer attitudes are evolving. While uncertainty opens opportunities for innovative institutions, it also presents risks, particularly for companies that can’t refine their approaches by incorporating what they learn during implementation.

Guidelines for success

The success of organizations in countries such as Brazil, Kenya, and Mexico suggests a path for the next generation of correspondent-banking models. Drawing on these experiences, as well as on our research, we have identified four guidelines that can help organizations implement successful correspondent strategies.

Move quickly to capture early-entrant advantages

In Brazil, the bank Bradesco gained a significant advantage in 2001 by quickly securing exclusive access to distribute financial services through the agencies of the country’s post office, Empresa Brasileira de Correios e Telégrafos. That gave the company a network of 5,532 post offices, including more than 1,700 in municipalities that lacked banks.7 Through Banco Postal, a wholly owned subsidiary, Bradesco extended correspondent services to the entire network in just five years.8

Build the partner network rigorously

Providers can use a cost curve analysis to understand the relative expense and potential reach of different channels in different communities of varying population densities. Such an analysis of the Mexican market suggests that correspondent banking would be a good way to expand capacity in large cities and the only viable option in small villages. But it would be more difficult in midsize towns where large retail networks are scarce. This kind of evidence can help financial institutions understand how to configure a correspondent network so they can find retail partners that provide the appropriate reach into the communities they want to serve.

Organizations can build trust over time by providing a consistently high-quality experience. Those that already operate correspondent networks and have a good reputation with the customer base may gain trust more easily when they open new correspondent locations. Likewise, financial institutions that are starting up networks may benefit from identifying and prioritizing partners that have good relationships with target consumers to increase the likelihood of their using correspondent services once they are available.

Create diversified product offerings

Providers must develop product offerings that not only attract consumers but also generate sufficient value to sustain banking operations. Correspondent partnerships that offer more than bill-payment services and savings accounts are likelier to thrive than those that do not.

Direct-deposit services also offer value for both consumers and providers of correspondent services. Much like government transfers, the electronic payment of salaries or pensions is convenient for consumers. Such products could also serve as the foundation for credit offerings based on expected cash flows from employers. In Brazil, the volume of payroll-linked loans grew by more than 110 percent annually—four times the pace of credit cards—in the first four years after regulators authorized the products, in 2003.

Conduct pilots that can be rapidly implemented and continually refined

The learning curve for correspondent banking in the context of financial inclusion is steep. Organizations should expect to make mistakes when they develop their models. The most successful operations design processes that enable them to learn from their mistakes and to develop solutions as they proceed.

Safaricom, a telecom provider, took a similar approach to piloting when it developed its M-Pesa mobile-payment service. Originally conceived as a platform for receiving and making payments on small loans, M-Pesa partnered with the local microfinance company Faulu to gain access to clients. Piloting suggested that the service would undercut Faulu’s offering but that the population would value general payment and remittance services. M-Pesa redefined its value proposition as a result, and today it is one of the world’s most successful mobile-money transfer services.12

Pioneering organizations around the world are demonstrating the value of correspondent banking. As the strategy evolves, it will become increasingly important as a way to develop scale in financial inclusion. It is not only an effective alternative to building new branches but also an important adjunct to mobile financial services, providing cost-effective outlets for cash-in, cash-out services. Experience suggests that early entrants gain the most. Organizations that start now could promote social and economic benefits for poor people by dramatically expanding financial inclusion and thus helping a growing number of low-income workers gain access to financial tools that they can use to improve their lives. Read more at www.mckinseyquarterly.com

 

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"Enterprise is always better than ease. Every time we choose to do less than we could, this error in judgment has an effect on our self-confidence. Repeated every day, we soon find ourselves not only doing less than we should, but also being less than we could. The accumulative effect of this error in judgment can be devastating." - Jim Rohn http://amplify.com/u/fmn7

"Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him." -- Booker T. Washington http://amplify.com/u/fgtn

Certainly, it takes a lot before one dreamer becomes a visionary, then a person endowed with foresight, then a pragmatist, whilst others just watch from the sidelines, throwing obscenities... Your desktop support person, will load your facebook account on your Company profile, as part of onboarding!

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Zuckerberg talks Facebook Messages, mistakes, social revolution

The revolution will not stop at e-mail -- in the future, nearly every company will be more social, Facebook CEO tells Web 2.0 Summit

By Sharon Gaudin

November 17, 2010 06:00 AM ET

Computerworld - Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg says that in the future, messaging will be much more simple than today's e-mail.

Zuckerberg took on the topic of Facebook's new messaging system in a wide-ranging on-stage interview at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco Tuesday evening.

In his discussion with John Battelle, the founder of Federated Media, Zuckerberg also talked about the company's data portability squabble with Google, a potential IPO, mistakes he's made and the social networking revolution.

"SMS and IMs are so much simpler than e-mail," Zuckerberg said. "You don't have to remember an address or pick a subject line or say, 'Hey, Mom' at the beginning or 'Love, Mark' at the end. Messaging in the future will resemble that a lot more. It's just more natural."

Zuckerberg's remarks come just one day after he announced that Facebook is launching Facebook Messages. The system is set up to handle the convergence of different kinds of messages -- e-mail, IM, SMS and Facebook messages -- and bring them together under one social umbrella. (See our visual tour of Facebook Messages.)

Data portability

When Battelle moved on to ask Zuckerberg about Facebook's spat with Google over the issue of data portability, Zuckerberg defended Facebook as an "open" network but also said that it's a complicated issue and he's not sure they've got it figured out.

"The view there is that everyone owns their own information and has the ability to export it. If you want, you can download all that in a .zip file," Zuckerberg said. "E-mails are different than a social network. If you think about it, your e-mail information is clearly yours.

"Maybe a photo that I took and tagged you in is more in the [gray area]. I'm not sure we're 100% right on this. We're trying to think through these things and be respectful," he added.

A social revolution

In another part of the interview, Zuckerberg said he envisions a future where there are a lot of social networks that people are actively involved in.

"Long term, if you buy my vision for the next five years, the vast majority of the social ecosystem will not be Facebook, but we'll work with them," he said. "If we do that, we'll be enabling. That's the bigger long-term opportunity. The biggest part of this has to be uncharted territory."

Mistakes made

"Oh man, I've made so many mistakes running a company so far," he said in response to an audience question about being a young entrepreneur. "If you can think of a mistake, I've probably made it or will in the next few years.

"The Facebook story is an example of if you're building a product that people love, you can make a lot of mistakes," Zuckerberg said. "I think the lesson is that you should focus on building something that people like and is valuable."

When asked about when he'll be taking Facebook public, Zuckerberg replied, "Don't hold your breath."

Read more about Web 2.0 and Web Apps in Computerworld's Web 2.0 and Web Apps Topic Center. Read more at www.computerworld.com

 

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They dream more, and they view risk-taking in less averse ways than their older versions. They are more mobile, and do not think twice to leave their current employer if the next will provide for their peripheral needs.



They are good at the fundamentals, and challenges for the 21st Century (knowledge) worker...

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Why Gen Y is Better at Your Job Than You Are

Maybe the reason that young people are optimistic in the face of a poor job market is that young people can probably do your job better than you can.

The truth is, the older set-I’ll let you define that-has a bunch of shortcomings when it comes to competing with today’s workforce. Management consultant Stephen Denning has a great little history of management in his new book, The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management.He points out that managers of the 20th century were trained to supervise people to get them to do stuff, to perform tasks. But now that most people are knowledge workers and not semi-skilled workers, we need managers who inspire, motivate, and encourage collaboration-managers, even, who care about the well-being of their employees and strive to make the workplace meaningful. And that’s not a corporate world where the older set is generally comfortable.

Yup, I’m arguing that Gen Y - that age-group that gets dumped on for acting all entitled - can teach you something about making it in the modern workforce. A lot, actually, because Gen Y is more prepared and has an advantage over older folks with far more experience. Here are areas where Gen Y can run circles around you:

1.  Productivity

Young people can find information faster and sort information faster than older people. For example, young people are more likely to use the best tool at the best time: They collaborate on wiki-type tools with ease. They crowdsource. They’re aces with downloading software onto the company laptop to become more productive and efficient. Think about it: Younger people don’t utter the phrase “information overload” because they don’t feel it; they benefit from the plasticity of the brain, which has adapted, over their Internet-based lives to process information faster.

2.  Communication

It’s popular to worry that Gen Y can’t write and talk face-to-face, but that’s nonsense. It turns out that young people are better communicators than everyone else. A large and long-term study at Stanford shows that the process of writing online, for a large audience, throughout childhood, is a terrific way to learn to write effectively - far more so than the process of writing for a single reader (i.e., the classroom teacher). And while most generations wrote only for school assignments, Gen Y-ers have been writing constantly ever since they could type, which means since they were little kids. The Stanford study concludes that living online makes Gen Y’s communication skills sharper and more effective than those of older generations.

3.    Career mobility

Here are some sectors that are getting absolutely killed right now: Banking, manufacturing, real estate, and construction. Sure, young people are in those fields-and others, for that matter, that have been hard hit-but these sectors are crowded with Baby Boomers. And Baby Boomers just aren’t as comfortable as their younger colleagues when it comes to job-hopping. I realize it’s generally easier to job-hop when you’re younger, for all the obvious reasons, but I older people just have to lower their salary expectations, be open to the idea of changing fields, and realize that the in-demand jobs now require skills where years of experience don’t matter: tech communications analysts, self-enrichment educators, are occupations that are booming right now.

4.  Career resilience.

Young people use entrepreneurship as a career safety net. And when they don’t earn enough money, they are likely to move back in with their parents, which is probably not a bad thing for them to do (Parents: comments below please).  This means that when young people can’t find a job they like, they make their own, and that makes it easier for them to ride out a lousy economy.

So what can you do if you’re feeling nervous about job security? Congratulate yourself for being realistic. There is no job security anymore; and we all know that age discrimination against baby boomers is rampant (sorry, but it’s true). But here’s the key: No matter how old you are, you can learn Gen Y skills. Learn to communicate as they do, and learn to collaborate as they do. Stop worrying that the younger crowd is getting the jobs you want, and start thinking more like a Gen-y-er. And if you want to know what generation you a really fall into, take this test. Read more at www.bnet.com

 

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Way to go SA! Let us go where others dare not to go!

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SA to commercialise electric car

Tuesday, 09 November 2010

Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele made the announcement while addressing a G8 ministerial conference on global environment and energy in transport in Rome.

This is part of SA's plan to move towards a low carbon economy across all modes of transport.

"Our automotive sector would be profoundly affected by the long-term shift from the internal combustion engine to cleaner technologies, such as electric vehicles.

The Joule is South Africa's first homegrown electric car and hit the international spotlight in 2010 to rave reviews.

"These measures entail high-level coordination with relevant government departments, investors and development finance institutions, to ensure a coherent and coordinated approach to the development of the sector," he said.

Sourced by SA - The Good News via BuaNews Read more at www.sagoodnews.co.za

 

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It is good news indeed, not only for the South African economy, but for the environment, as well as contribution to the reversal of anthropogenic impact on climate change in Africa.

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Clean Technology Fund to invest millions in SA

Friday, 05 November 2010

The World Bank's Clean Technology Fund has identified South Africa as a key nation to invest in to harvest renewable energy in the future.

The World Bank's Clean Technology Fund plans to invest $85 million in renewable energy and co-generation projects in South Africa, according to an advertisement in the Business Day newspaper on Friday. The fund said it had $50 million available for wind and solar renewable energy projects and $35 million for co-generation, where waste energy and gases are used to produce power. The $85 million was part of a total $150 million allocated for investment in South Africa, with the remainder being managed by the African Development Bank. South Africa's state-owned power utility Eskom has said it will conduct more research in clean technology as it seeks a new World Bank loan to finance renewable energy power projects.  The World Bank in April approved a controversial $3.75 billion Eskom loan to develop a coal-fired power plant in South Africa despite the lack of support from the country's key Western allies. Sourced by SA - The Good News via Reuters Read more at www.sagoodnews.co.za

 

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"Success is not a pie with a limited number of pieces. The success of others has very little bearing on your success. You and everyone you know can become successful without anyone suffering setbacks, harm, or downturns." -- Denis Waitley http://amplify.com/u/eygs

"Whereas knights of old wore armor of plate, the modern knights of the air wear the invisible but magic armor of confidence in technology" -- Mike Spick http://amplify.com/u/estt

"Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ‘Make me feel important.’ Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life." -- Mary Kay Ash http://amplify.com/u/eme4

"Waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality, nothing will do, and with them everything." -- Benjamin Franklin http://amplify.com/u/egxv

Poor school for poor kids has 100% matric pass rate

With the same, and even more resource constraints as other schools, with probably teachers who mostly have received the dreaded Bantu Education (my source of learning in my formative years), truly, this school has shattered the myths.



All school Principals should be sent to this school, to learn what education management is all about. SADTU leadership should also go there, and create a learning environment for their members in the Port Elizabeth area.



We are letting our children down, by poorly managing their learning processes.

Amplify’d from www.timeslive.co.za

Ethembeni breaks the mould

Poor school for poor kids has 100% matric pass rate

Feb 10, 2010 10:01 PM | By Jonathan Jansen

Jonathan Jansen: I simply did not believe the principal when she made the announcement: "For the past 12 years, no child in this school has failed matric."

I would not readily believe that kind of claim from any top-notch school in the country; I certainly found it difficult to believe at the Ethembeni Enrichment Centre, situated in a run-down area of Port Elizabeth.

Nothing in the school suggested that the children had a fair chance.

Jonathan Jansen

The school building was run-down and the classrooms were barely furnished. The driveway to the school was a rocky, narrow passage that you could exit only by reversing.

The school hall was packed with a few hundred eager faces, the children virtually sitting on top of one other on the floor.

Something was going on here that I did not see in some of the plush schools of Eastern Cape.

How did the teachers and the principal create this high-spirited learning environment? The answer was, as usual, disarmingly simple, and was reflected in what the school calls "non-negotiables", the specifics of which were pasted onto the walls:

Class attendance is compulsory; Students must be punctual; Students must complete all given homework; Students must keep the school grounds neat and tidy; and Parental involvement's essential. There you are. Nothing complex. Nothing requiring millions of rands. Nothing requiring years of research. And no hand-wringing nonsense about if children were taught in their indigenous tongue, academic results would improve.

"Our medium of instruction is English," says the school brochure, pure and simple.

"Ethembeni" means "place of hope". Read more at www.timeslive.co.za

 

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