The
Delamere-International Newsletter ©
Edition
of 31 October 2003 #128
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This Month's Sponsor
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IN THIS ISSUE
1. Business: Become employed as a professional sailor
2. Business: Mark Shuttleworth is handing out venture capital
3. Business: Report on Global Corruption
4. Business: Small business needed in Southern Africa
5. Business: South Africans Investing Offshore
6. Business: Special aid for small business in the UK
7. Business: The Chinese Currency
8. Business: The future of South African Currency
9. Education: Ancient World Mapping Center
10. Education: Center for International and Development Education
11. Education: Do you love poetry?
12. Education: Drawing from Life Caricatures and Cartoons
13. Education: Is it wise to keep wild animals as pets?
14. Education: Mark Twain Papers & Project
15. Immigration: Fewer people are leaving South Africa
16. Immigration: Trade with Africa
17. Real Estate: Property Prices In California, USA
18. Real Estate: Property prices in London are out of control
19. Travel: Is it safe to visit South Africa?
20. Travel: Report of an interesting trip to London
21. Travel: Worst Places to Visit or Live in the UK
22. Travel: The taste of Real Beer
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1. Business: Become employed as a professional sailor
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If
you can't afford to join a yacht club, find a way to crew on a
yacht. There is a general shortage of regular crew, and if you
are reliable and conscientious, you will soon be in demand.
To
read the full report on how to find employment, go to our NEWS
DESK link.
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2. Business: Mark Shuttleworth is handing out venture capital
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Wacky
toothpaste dispensers and railway tracks for the 21st century
are among the inventions that have captured the attention of Information
Technology (IT) billionaire Mark Shuttleworth.
The young entrepreneur who made his fortune in IT security and
then found fame by paying for a trip into space has been helping
other ambitious product creators and developers through his South
African firm HBD Venture Capital.
To read this report, go to our NEWS
DESK link.
Editor's Note: This entrepreneur, Mark Shuttleworth is
an example of how to start a small business and make a fortune.
If he can do it so can you, so we encourage you to visit our page
on Entrepreneurship
click on this link.
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3. Business: Report on Global Corruption
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This
week's report by the global corruption watchdog Transparency
International, in which most African countries feature in
the bottom half of the table, has generated widespread comment
across the continent. To read the full report go to our NEWS
DESK link.
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4. Business: Small business needed in Southern Africa
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Small
and medium enterprises (SME's) must be encouraged to grow and
help support African economic development, employment creation
and poverty reduction.
That
was the view of Reserve Bank Governor, Tito Mboweni, speaking
at the 5th annual African Development Finance conference on Thursday.
To
read the full report, go to our NEWS
DESK link.
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5. Business: South Africans Investing Offshore
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"Rand
is on top of the world", screamed a newspaper headline
this week, as our currency broke through the R7 a dollar barrier
on Wednesday. What has happened is that the Rand has returned
to the same dollar value it held towards the end of 2000, before
its still-not-properly-explained fall to over R13 a dollar at
the end of 2001.
The
relative strength of the Rand is good news both for the local
economy and for investors. For exporters it is a nightmare as
they are receiving fewer Rands per dollar and many people working
for major exporters, such as the gold mines, face the prospect
of losing their jobs. For importers it is great news of course
- everything they bring in has got cheaper.
People
who invested offshore when the Rand was trading at lower values
to the dollar are hurting every time the Rand gets stronger. But
for those who have been easing into offshore investments since
the beginning of the year, the future is looking rosy. To read
the full report, go to our NEWS
DESK link
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6. Business: Special aid for small business in the UK
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Enterprising
businesses in disadvantaged communities will receive over £6m
from a special scheme called the 'Phoenix Fund'.
The Fund helps new businesses overcome the lack of support available
in disadvantaged areas and has allocated more than £100m
since 1999.
To read the full report, go to our NEWS
DESK link
Editor's
Note: There are many sources of finance for small business,
and we have listed the most successful. Visit
our web page.
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7. Business: The Chinese Currency
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Quote
from Reuters: "Chinese President Hu Jintao said Beijing
was studying ways gradually to make the Yuan currency convertible.
It is currently pegged to the dollar and Washington is pressing
for a possible Yuan revaluation, arguing that the currency is
artificially weak."
We
have reports on hand that indicate that since China was admitted
to the WTO, one of the conditions of admittance, is that China
must allow its currency to float against all other major currencies.
At the present time the Chinese government keeps their currency
the Yuan pegged to the US Dollar for strategic reasons in order
to keep their exports cheaper than other leading exporting nations,
especially from the Far East.
This
situation will not, and cannot go on for much longer. When China
allows their currency to trade freely, its value will increase
rapidly because of the recent economic growth that has taken place
in China this past 10 years. There are strategic ways to benefit
from this increase in value of the Yuan, especially against the
US Dollar. If you wish to find out more, please contact us.
Editor's
Note: Visit our web page on Investing
in Currencies.
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8. Business: The future of South African Currency
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"The
ongoing appreciation of the local currency and the drop in the
interest rates were a testimony that South Africa's economy was
in good standing," Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin
said on Saturday.
Addressing
delegates at the final day of a National African Federated Chambers
of Commerce (Nafcoc) meeting at Sun City in the North West province,
he said the Rand would no longer be a weak currency any more and
exporters and importers should adapt to this. To read the full
report, go to our NEWS
DESK link.
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9. Education: Ancient World Mapping Center
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Located at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the
Ancient World Mapping Center is funded by the UNC College of Arts
and Sciences and the American Philological Association.
The
Center is primarily designed to promote the usage of cartography
and geographic information science within the field of ancient
studies. The Center's main web page begins with a host of recent
news events related to ongoing research dealing with the ancient
world from various fields, including geography, archaeology, and
history.
Equally
helpful is the New Sites and Finds area, which gathers together
new and useful sites dedicated to investigating various aspects
of the ancient world. Of course there is also the map room area
where visitors can download any one of a number of detailed maps
(many of which have been created by the staff at the Center) of
the ancient world. Some of these maps include those of Byzantine
Constantinople, Ptolemaic Egypt, and several of ancient Greece.
Visit this
site
From
The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2003.
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10. Education: Center for International and Development
Education
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Located at UCLA, the mission of the Center for International and
Development Education (CIDE) is "to provide quality information
on a variety of issues related to international and development
education."
To
help achieve this goal, the CIDE has developed this Web site,
which contains a number of publications, information about ongoing
research projects, material on practical initiatives and a detailed
list of links to other relevant institutions and organizations.
The
news section of the site is useful, as it contains brief news
pieces about recent events dealing with study abroad programs,
new networks between universities across the world, and the role
of universities in developing nations. The reports section is
divided into sections dedicated to study abroad, humanitarian
relief, and teacher training reform (among others) and contains
recent works on these various subjects.
The
site is rounded out by a good selection of outside links to like-minded
institutions and centers, such as the Comparative Educational
Society of Europe and the Center for Higher Education Policy
Studies. Visit
this site.
From
The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2003
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11. Education: Do you love poetry?
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The
Online Poetry Classroom
Poetry
is one of the oldest forms of human expression, and can be found
in almost every part of the world, manifesting itself to express
every type of emotion, whether it is hope, sadness, or exuberance.
This
persuasive and helpful Web site was developed by the Academy
of American Poets in order to provide both professional development
for high school English teachers and a virtual teaching community
that offers free access to poetry resources, including poems and
classroom-tested curricula. The curriculum section includes 17
teaching plans, along with a teacher forum area where colleagues
can share ideas about what works (and what doesn't) in terms of
teaching poetry.
A
section titled "What to Teach" includes lists
of poems that are ideal to teach to students, and a number of
fine themed online exhibits that address movements such as the
Harlem Renaissance, the Modernist poets, and the general development
of American poetry in the 20th century. Visit
this site.
From
The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2003.
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12. Education: Drawing from Life Caricatures and Cartoons
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From
The American Art / Portrait Gallery Library Collection.
Drawing
on the extensive holdings of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
and the National Portrait Gallery, this online exhibit presents
a sample of the rather diverse set of cartoon and caricature books
in their holdings.
Beginning
with an introductory essay by Kent C. Boese, the exhibit continues
on with biographies of the artists whose work is featured in the
exhibit (such as Charles Dana Gibson and William Allen Rogers).
Visitors can proceed to view featured books, cartoons and caricatures.
The
individual cartoons and caricatures can also be browsed via a
drop-down subject menu with topics ranging from adultery to World
War I. Visitors will want to be sure to take a look at the images
from the Mutt and Jeff comic strip by Harry Conway "Bud"
Fisher and Charles Dana Gibson's Gibson Girl. The exhibit concludes
with a bibliography of related works and suggestions for further
reading. Visit
this site.
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13. Education: Is it wise to keep wild animals as pets?
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The
Project to Prevent Wild & Exotic Pets, offers publications,
resources, and advocacy pieces presenting arguments against keeping
wildlife as pets.
You
can find materials "to post, distribute, or present in your
local community, at club meetings, schools, religious institutions,
and other organizations," such as Web banners, flyers, and
ads to place in newspapers. Includes a lovely "Slide Show"
featuring wildlife in their natural habitats, plus a teacher's
guide and materials suitable for children. From The Association
of Sanctuaries (TAOS). Visit
this site.
Copyright 2003 by Librarians' Index to the Internet,
lii.org.
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14. Education: Mark Twain Papers & Project
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The
Mark Twain Papers contain the private papers of Samuel Langhorne
Clemens (Mark Twain) that he himself segregated and made available
to his official biographer, Albert Bigelow Paine.
The
site includes a brief description of holdings, a bibliography
of works published by the Mark Twain Project, searchable databases
listing all known letters to and from Mark Twain, and links to
online exhibits. From the Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley.
Visit this site.
Copyright
2003 by Librarians' Index to the Internet, lii.org.
Editor's
Note: Visit
our web page on the current books in print written by Mark
Twain.
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15. Immigration: Fewer people are leaving South Africa
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Over
the last two years, we has seen the number of private families
moving out of South Africa decline by about 40%.
During
the last year Elliott International has seen a 25% decline in
the number of families moving out of the country, following a
fall of 16% the previous year. To read the full report, contact
our firm
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16. Immigration: Trade with Africa
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Texas
already leads the nation in trade and commerce with Africa. More
than 1,000 Houston companies do business there, and 60 have significant
subsidiaries on the continent, according to the city of Houston.
The city may have a way to go before it becomes a de facto commercial
capital to Africa the way Miami is for much of Latin America,
but it is becoming increasingly important to African commerce
and diplomacy. And the city is becoming a significant starting
point for affluent Africans seeking to do business in the United
States. To read the full report, go to our NEWS
DESK link
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17. Real Estate: Property Prices In California, USA
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The
median price of an existing home in California is expected to
climb 13% in 2004 to a record $414,100, (R2,898,700) up from an
estimated $366,450 this year.
In
August, California's median sales price broke the $400,000 mark
by rising 5.6% from the previous month to hit a record high of
$404,870, according to the state real estate group. The price
increase represents a whopping 21.1% gain over year-ago figures.
Editor's
Note. Compared to the exchange rate in South African Rands
an approximate R7 = $1 it is amazing how many South African are
buying properties in the California area.
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18. Real Estate: Property prices in London are out of control
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Across
southern England, particularly in and around London, young professionals
with respectable jobs and good incomes are finding it harder to
buy a home.
Britain is the epicenter of a real estate boom - and perhaps a
bubble - with the fastest-rising housing prices in the world.
Visit
our Real Estate page
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19. Travel: Is it safe to visit South Africa?
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South
Africa is now no longer the murder capital of the world, according
to new government figures that show a drop in the number of killings
per year. To read this report, go to our NEWS
DESK link
Editor's
Note: Read the latest information on travel to South Afrcia
from Europe and the USA. Visit our Travel
Page
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20. Travel: Report of an interesting trip to London
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You
can see Big Ben clearly from the top of the London Eye. Today,
the name Big Ben incorporates the massive bell and clock in St
Stephen's Tower of the Houses of Parliament.
In
a city built only with straight lines - other than the rounded
steeple - a large, revolving wheel from which people could gaze
out and down upon the city, was an inspiration. And so the London
Eye came into being. To read our full report, go to our NEWS
DESK link.
Editor's Note: British
Airways are currently offering great deals from most
countries. We encourage you to check the latest prices and compare
visit British
Airways
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21. Travel: Worst Places to Visit or Live in the UK
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These
50 towns or cities have been selected for the dubious distinction
of inclusion in a book called 'Crap Towns: The 50 Worst Places
to Live in the UK', published on Saturday. To read the full report,
go to our NEWS
DESK.
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22. Travel: The taste of Real Beer
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This
site is all about brewing beer, drinking beer, beer history, pubs,
brewing industry news, discussion boards, beer festivals, and
more.
The
site also includes regional and city guides to breweries (micro
and national), pubs, and brewpubs. Searchable for "whatever
in the beer world you are looking for." Visit
this site
Editor's Note: This item is dedicated to our senior partner
who has always enjoyed a pint of "Double Diamond."
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This month's quote
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Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
By Mark Twain
