Does Democracy And Economic Prosperity Have A Chance In Tunisia?

My American and British friends often ask me, "does democracy really have a shot at success in North Africa?" They are referring of course to the so-called Arab Spring uprisings three years ago, which began in Tunisia on December 17, 2010, when a young fruit vendor, Mohammed Bouazizi set himself afire to protest ridiculous laws that made it impossible for him to earn a living. Incredibly, only 28 days later the government of the dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali collapsed. Ben Ali and his wife fled to Khartoum with a plane-full of gold bars.

Of course, I am only an observer of these events from Senegal and France, though I feel, like all Africans, that I have a vested interest in the success of these democratic changes in North Africa, in the hope that they will be the harbingers of positive change throughout the continent.

Western donors and lenders were quick to respond to these changes in Tunisia. The interim government reached agreements with the EU, the World Bank, and the African Development Bank for emergency monies to create and support the new democratic government. The cash started pouring in, about $3 billion so far for Tunisia. It came also with a swarm of international policy advisors in Tunis to help leaders with little or no public sector experience run the ministries from whom most of the Ben Ali government had been fired. Unfortunately, much of their advice has been ignored by Tunisia's new crop of inexperienced politicians.

Excluding so many talented people from the Ben Ali regime was a mistake. Tunisia is especially blessed with talented technocrats who were no more responsible for Ben Ali than most American civil servants were responsible for Richard Nixon. Only one holdover from the Ben Ali regime, Abdelhamid Triki, a gifted manager and technocrat with no political baggage, was allowed to be a part of the new government. He had previously served as minister of planning and international cooperation. It was largely under his leadership and with his powers of persuasion that the Tunisian government was able to generate so much international financial support so fast.

Impossible To Be Broke If You Know This Secret

There is a law, older than the hills, practiced for thousands of years and recorded for posterity: it is the Universal Law of Financial Sustainability. It is enshrined as a foundation pillar of all monotheistic religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam; yet many people, including millions of practicing religious zealots, misinterpret and teach the principle selfishly. As a result: many teachers are blessed, but their students remain poor.

Think of this: the Covenant of Abraham, an everlasting tenet which offers: in alphabetical order--all spiritually obedient Christians, Jews and Muslims--preferences in wealth, health and other things, would make their God look like a liar if you were to judge by the lifestyles of many adherents. How many poor and sick Christians do you know? How many sick and poor Jews do you know? How many poor and sick Muslims do you know? Got the picture? Someone, somewhere is either not teaching the laws correctly, or there are millions who are appearing religious but are deficient in their part of the bargain. I can speak to those issues because I affirm that the God of Abraham, Isaac, Esau, Jeshua and Mohammed is alive, a permanent covenant-keeper and most of all cannot lie. Nowhere in any of His dictates can you find the word "maybe." He makes specific promises; you meet the requirements and HE MUST FULFIL THEM. It is written: "Let God be true, but every man a liar." In other words: the entire world can make statements that are incorrect; however, for our God, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR HIM TO LIE.

Choice Of Law In Syndicated Loans And Bonds

INTRODUCTION:

Any relationship between two entities, either persons or institutions, cannot be established except in accordance with some set of rules. These rules may be unenforceable norms or customs of a group or society, or some explicit laws having a binding and enforceable authority. A contract is a formal structure of a relationship between two or more parties, binding them together into a contractual relationship; and imposing upon them certain obligations and granting them certain rights over each other. In case of any problem with these obligations or rights, law of the land would come into action. But if the contracting parties belong to different lands, then there would arise a question as to law of which land should come into force. If the contracting parties have no earlier consensus over this issue, then it is more likely that the problem would remain unresolved; and one or more parties would suffer the loss. Hence, the need to decide at the time of making contract, as to which law would be followed.

CHOICE OF LAW IN SYNDICATED LOANS AND BONDS:

Similar is the case of the financial contract. 'Every legal issue under a financial contract must be determined in accordance with a system of law. An aspect of a contract cannot exist in a legal vacuum.'(1) Syndicated loans and bonds are mostly international in their character. They usually involve borrowers and lenders from various countries; and 'the greater the number of countries involved the greater the number of municipal systems of law which have to be considered.'(2) As there is not single set of International laws that could effectively govern the syndicated loans and bonds, it is necessary for the parties to these contracts to choose an agreed system of law.

Historical Hampi Provides A Soul-Soothing Experience

It is not every day that one gets a chance to break free from the clutches of mundane, unexciting and routine life in the city and holiday at an exotic locale far away. There was a feeling of sheer exhilaration at the prospect of a quiet break from the monotony of our urban existence. The combination of Dasara holidays and a weekend gave us an opportunity to undertake our long awaited holiday amidst the 12-15th century ruins of Hampi - the globally renowned heritage holiday destination sited 355 km from Bangalore.

We were team of five hardcore adventurers, campers and heritage admirers. Our team comprised of Kishore Patwardhan, Shiva Kumar, Sree Krishna, Mahesh V and myself. Fully fired up with anticipation we embarked upon our sojourn with an aim trek among the rocks and cliffs of Hampi, the headquarters of the Vijayanagar empire during the 13-15 centuries.

Hampi - a world heritage site

Hampi is a world famous heritage tourism destination and one of the 16 Unesco recognised World Heritage Sites in the country. Once home to a cultural efflorescence involving sculptors, musicians, artists, and artisans who worked together to translate the lofty vision of the Vijayanagar princes into enduring monuments, Hampi is currently an underdeveloped village which doesn't even have a proper tar road. The ruins sprawl over an area of 26 sq. km and are evocative of ancient Hindu kings' pomp and glory. The opulent palaces, temples and massive fortifications are built with such ingenuity that they blend naturally with their surrounding rock formations, and appear as though they have just grown out of them.

Sited on the banks of the graceful Tungabhadra, amidst massive boulders and craggy hills, Hampi was the capital of the ancient Vijayanagar empire which controlled the Deccan for over 200 years from 1336-1565 AD, and reached its zenith during the reign of Krishnadevaraya, its most famous emperor. Following the death of Krishnadevaraya in 1529 AD the neighbouring Muslim Bahamani rulers coalesced and attacked Hampi. The invading armies ran amok in the town, destroying its beautiful temples and monuments left the once grand city in ruins.

I Worked in Saudi Arabia

In 1985, I traveled to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for being hired as project accountant. I worked for a company engaged in trading large emergency generators (500 to 1000 KVA) installations and spare parts, projects for Airport and airfield lighting installations, and residential electrical connection installations. In this company, I worked with Saudis, Britons, French, Germans, Lebanese, Egyptians, Syrians and other Asian nationals.

During that time, there was a recession in the Middle East. Salaries of employees payments were being delayed for about two to three months. Some workers were sent back to their own countries, some companies just released their foreign workers to look for temporary jobs around the neighborhood to save air ticket and accommodation costs.

Some Asian foreign workers illegally left their employers for being not paid for their wages up to six months. They were illegally working secretly in other places in order to survive, through the help of Asian friends and other Arab nationals who were benefited for paying very low wages, sometimes not being paid for being illegal.

After working for one month, I was about to be sent back home to my country. I must do something to show that the company needed my services. I found out that they have no annual company budgets, wherein the preparation of budgets was one of my expertise in my previous employers.

While waiting for my airline flight departure schedule, I voluntarily worked on preparing budget for one of the company airport/airfield lighting installation, without any instruction from the management to do it.

While I was analyzing my budget presentation, the sales manager (Christian Lebanese) entered our office room and inadvertently seen what I was working. He became interested and told me to continue doing it and he will present it to the board of directors.

Marketing Criticism, Who Is To Blame?

Due to its close relationship with the customer, Marketing has been often criticized. From being misleading, to exaggerating, applying the corporate view only while focusing on the organization's benefit solely. This criticism may sound true to most, and is definitely worth to be responded to by marketing professionals.

Before discussing any type of criticism, let's start by the basics. What is marketing? While reviewing the definition on the web, I found mainly those that refer to marketing as the process by which companies determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines marketing as the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

As the head the business department of my company setting the marketing policy is one of my tasks. I surely do not find anything offensive at the first glance by reading the first definition. Some however may regard this as a proof that marketing exists for the sole purpose of executing a company process that targets customers. The answer to that however is found in the AMA definition, the marketing activity can be initiated by a person and not solely by a company. AMA sets the product as an offering that has value and not as a product or service that may be of interest.

Someone who has an offering (idea, product, belief...) and wants to put it out for the grabs is getting involved in marketing. It is an open invitation to be part of the offering. They can have a simple process or a series of complicated ones, which include communicating, delivering and exchange. The understanding of this simple definition does not mean that some corporations do not indulge into unethical activities; it simply reminds us that not all those who are involved in marketing are aiming to deceive the public.

Face the Ancestors

Artistic Discontinuity

Humanity has witnessed a sad interruption in the progress of human sciences and arts starting around the forth century A.D. This gap of almost a thousand years mainly started as a result if the restrictive nature of the Roman or Byzantine Empire which ruled much of the world in the middle ages. By the 3rd Century A.D., man was standing on the verge of unlocking the great mysteries of the universe surrounding him. Greco-Egyptian scientists in Alexandria had theorized significant scientific frameworks to mathematics, geometry, physics and astronomy. Philosophy, art, literature, drama and religion have also reached new heights with the marriage of Greek philosophy and the vast body of Egyptian knowledge accumulated and stored by Egyptian monks and scholars over 4,000 years of tedious progress on the banks of the Nile.

The Fayum portraits stand witness to the validity of the artistic side of this argument. The Fayum portraits date back to 1st to 3rd Centuries A.D. They represent a development of the Egyptian funerary tradition which had manifested itself before in wall carvings, masks, ornaments and artifacts found in tombs of ancient Egyptians. But the portraits are so advanced in their artistic style, that can only be compared to paintings of the masters who came 1,500 years later! ''It is not until 15 centuries later, in the faces painted by Titian or Rembrandt's depiction of his own features as he saw them reflected in the mirror, that the same artistry that characterizes many of the anonymous painters of the Fayum is witnessed again,'' Euphrosyne C. Doxiadis, a Greek artist and author of ''The Mysterious Fayum Portraits,'' wrote in an essay in the catalogue accompanying an international show for the Mummy Portraits titled ''Ancient Faces'' in 1997. So, how, when and why did the art of painting stood still, indeed seemed to be "forgotten"?

Sinful Art