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Leadership Intelligence Bulletin
24 January 2012
Final word
Final wordThose sneaky little buggers

The sun was about to come up when I arrived at the office the Monday morning before last, ready to get my week off to a flyer after my computer was re-formatted at end of the previous week because, like me, it was starting to show its age and slowing down to a crawl. And then, nothing seemed to be working properly so I  had to read my newspapers – slowly -- to allow time for the IT-boffins to arrive.

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Leadership development - Issue 104
Leadership development - Issue 104Learning from the worlds best

With the co-operation of the The LR Management Group, we can now bring you the leadership training tool 50 Lessons, which is a powerful force in the world of corporate learning. 50 Lessons is the worlds premier multimedia business resource, offering more than 1 000 personal and authentic video lessons from internationally respected business leaders. It can assist you to increase the utilisation and return on investment of your learning programmes immediately!

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Cricket watch
Cricket watchGraeme Smith emulates Mark Twain

South Africa would have mixed emotions about the series win against Sri Lanka in the one-day internationals.The sustained excellence of AB de Villiers and good performances by LonwaboTsotsobe as well as the resurrection of Graeme Smith would surely be celebrated. But the Proteas still have some fine tuning to do in their approach to one-day internationals.

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Accounting
AccountingGlobal standards increase in popularity

The Association of Certified Accountants’ (ACCA) international survey: “Towards greater convergence,” indicates that support for global standards among CFOs and investors, across the US, Europe, Asia and the Middle East has increased since the start of the global economic crisis. Although CFOs and investors were not part of the survey, “it is highly unlikely that the opinions of South-African-based CFOs and investors would be out of synch with their global counterparts,” says Nadine Kater, head of ACCA South Africa.

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Internet blackout
Internet blackoutMuch more than just online piracy at stake

The online community was buzzing last week about the blackout protest on Wednesday by major American websites against proposed anti-piracy legislation. It was, however but one battle in a much wider cyber war as governments and regimes across the globe are battling to come to grips with the ever growing power the World Wide Net in its social network manifestations is giving to the citizens and groups or organisations in their midst.

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Out of Africa
Out of AfricaWhen is Africa good enough?

When South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma recently addressed the UN Security Council in New York, he touched a very raw African nerve: Why, he wanted to know, is not a single African country a permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC), the very council South Africa is chairing this month as a non-permanent member. The question is all the more poignant coming at a time when the International Monetary Fund has come, begging bowl in hand, to Africa and other emerging markets to help bail Europe out of its current financial mess.

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Nigeria
NigeriaGiant on a keg of gunpowder

A wind of disgruntlement is blowing across Nigeria. There are fears that, unless President Goodluck Jonathan steadies the ship of state, divisions within the polity and the rising discontent could be hijacked by political opportunists to cause something more catastrophic. Unless something urgent happens, the Nigerian state may be headed for complete failure, writes Uche Igwe.

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Rugby watch
Rugby watchAt last - now let's get on with the game

After a painfully drawn-out process, word from the inner sanctuary of South African rugby is that Heyneke Meyer is in the inside lane to be named Springbok-coach on Friday. According to sources, Gert Smal was one of the favourites for the position, but ultimately opted out of the race because he was not free to select his assistant-coaches, a decision that apparently infuriated him.

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Zimbabwe:
Zimbabwe:Is this the final curtain-call?

A decision to be taken by President Mugabe in a few days’ time holds serious consequences for a very shaky coalition government in Zimbabwe. Observers are already predicting that it might be the final curtain-call for Zimbabwe’s government of national unity as the terms of office for the Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander General Constantine Chiwenga and Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri expire at the end of January.

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Financial crisis
Financial crisisRating agencies take centre stage - again

The decision  by credit ratings agency (CRA) Standard and Poor’s on Friday 13 January to downgrade the ratings of nine euro-zone member states, including France, has angered European politicians, rekindled accusations of an American conspiracy against on the European currency and brought fresh calls that the wings of the agencies should be clipped. But, the lack of credible alternatives seems to suggest that a solution to unsatisfactory financial regulation probably lies elsewhere.

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Opinion
OpinionIs fracking worth the risk?

The most recent of two moratoriums imposed by minister Susan Shabangu on the use of the fracking-technique to explore for natural gas expires in February. At this stage there is no indication which way the minister will go on the issue, but the latest developments globally clearly call for extreme caution. Pollution of drinking water might not be the biggest danger from what is essentially human-induced earthquakes.

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SA education
SA educationHigher education's "Eskom syndrome"

South Africa was shocked two weeks ago by the death of a woman when prospective students stampeded in a desperate race for admission at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). Various reasons have since been offered why thousands of young South Africans cannot be accommodated at the country’s 23 universities and some controversial solutions have been proposed. But the underlying cause seems to be  similar to what caused South Africa’s electricity crisis: poor planning and inadequate infrastructure investment and development.

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Presidential jets
Presidential jetsA political storm in a teacup?

When the South African Air Force recently sent a second plane along as back-up for the official presidential plane, Inkwazi – a Boeing 737-7ED (BBJ) – taking President Jacob Zuma to an important meeting in New York, it elicited much media coverage and strong words of protest from the opposition Democratic Alliance – bemoaning the waste of taxpayers’ money. Is the criticism justified, or just  political point-scoring when most other countries have far more elaborate and costly head-of-state transport arrangements.

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Media releases and previous articles:

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