Tuesday 17 December 2013

Pensions Week (RIP)


The final print edition of Pensions Week. Some fine words about the benefits of an online edition with a new title (Pensions Expert). But surely this is an admission of poor circulation, high print costs and a saturated market dominated by Professional Pensions?

ADDENDUM 18/12: Tweet from Pensions Week- they are still doing a print edition as 'Pensions Expert' so I don't have to search them out online. Pleased to hear it! Keep up the competition with Professional Pensions you guys!

Monday 9 December 2013

More than Pensions......

THE REASON I'VE BEEN AWAY FOR THREE WEEKS. LIFE IS MORE THAN PENSIONS.....

You drive for 5 hours from Johannesburg, through the mountains and over the Swaziland border. What greets you is quite breathtaking. Bulembu is an old mining town. When the mines closed nearly ten years ago, the 10,000 population moved out. Bulembu became a ghost town. Until someone had a vision of what could be.

Today a Christian trust owns the whole town. All 4,000 acres. The population is back to 2,000. There are successful industries in wood production, water bottling, honey production, a bakery, a dairy, successful tourism. All from nothing.

Most of all, there are 350 orphans saved. Bulembu has become a centre for rescued children. With the worst HIV rate in the world at around 40%, and an average age expectancy of just over 30, Swaziland is slowly dying. Children die daily. Bulembu is changing the statistics.

Their aim is to be a sustainable community for 2000 children by 2020. Their shirts carry the slogan ‘experience transformation’. And they are. In restoring a town, they are transforming a nation.