Doing Business in South Africa

[Excerpt] This brochure illustrates important features of doing business in South Africa. The legal system within which business operates is closely based on overseas, particularly English, models. The concepts and rules will be familiar to overseas investors and trading partners

Underlying construct of empathy, optimism, and burnout in medical students.

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to explore the underlying construct of measures of empathy, optimism, and burnout in medical students. METHODS: Three instruments for measuring empathy (Jefferson Scale of Empathy, JSE); Optimism (the Life Orientation Test-Revised, LOT-R); and burnout (the Maslach Burnout Inventory, MBI, which includes three scales of Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Personal Accomplishment) were administered to 265 third-year students at Sidney Kimmel (formerly Jefferson) Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. Data were subjected to factor analysis to examine relationships among measures of empathy, optimism, and burnout in a multivariate statistical model. RESULTS: Factor analysis (principal component with oblique rotation) resulted in two underlying constructs, each with an eigenvalue greater than one. The first factor involved positive personality attributes (factor coefficients greater than .58 for measures of empathy, optimism, and personal accomplishment). The second factor involved negative personality attributes (factor coefficients greater than .78 for measures of emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization). CONCLUSIONS: Results confirmed that an association exists between empathy in the context of patient care and personality characteristics that are conducive to relationship building, and considered to be positive personality attributes, as opposed to personality characteristics that are considered as negative personality attributes that are detrimental to interpersonal relationships. Implications for the professional development of physicians-in-training and in-practice are discussed

South Africa (2009) - Salient Contemporary Features in Facts and Figures

South Africa is a demographically diverse country where many divisions (still) tend to coincide with racial boundaries, beset by a wide range of socio-economic problems typical of developing countries and otherwise stemming from its colonial past and a discriminatory past policy of apartheid. The paper describes the country's salient features in facts and figures in order to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of society in terms of demography, education, employment, public health care, poverty, housing, crime and the economy. The picture presented tends to be on the dark side, but also hopeful for the future thanks to inter alia a strong globalised economy

The SAMREC Code 2015 – some thoughts and concerns

This paper is intended to document recent personal thoughts, opinions, and debate around the South African Mineral Resource Committee (SAMREC) Code (2009) (the Code) and its current usage by competent Persons. Admittedly, some debates are as old as the SAMREC Code itself and have been ‘parked’ as no consensus could be reached by members of the SAMREC Working Group. Some of the more critical issues currently under examination are the definition of Competent Person and the potential registration of Competent Persons, the current re-write of the Code and the introduction of reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources, and Mineral Reserves on an ‘if not why not’ basis, noncompliance to the Code and discipline, the role of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange Readers Panel, and the valuation of mineral assets based on scoping studies

The SAMREC Code 2015 – some thoughts and concerns

This paper is intended to document recent personal thoughts, opinions, and debate around the South African Mineral Resource Committee (SAMREC) Code (2009) (the Code) and its current usage by competent Persons. Admittedly, some debates are as old as the SAMREC Code itself and have been ‘parked’ as no consensus could be reached by members of the SAMREC Working Group. Some of the more critical issues currently under examination are the definition of Competent Person and the potential registration of Competent Persons, the current re-write of the Code and the introduction of reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources, and Mineral Reserves on an ‘if not why not’ basis, noncompliance to the Code and discipline, the role of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange Readers Panel, and the valuation of mineral assets based on scoping studies

Investment in Education for The Nigerian Economic Development

This study examines investment in education for economic development of Nigeria. Education has been recognized globally as a veritable and strategic venture pivotal to economic transformation of any nation. The study made use of secondary data sourced from Ministry of Education, National Universities Commission (NUC) and Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) and an Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression method was used to analyze the data obtained to show the relationship between enrolments and funding. The result shows that the education sector contribute significantly to economic development as measured by the Gross Domestic Product although the sector is still underfunded most especially the basic and senior secondary levels in view of geometric increase in yearly enrollments and poor infrastructural facilities. The study recommends that the government at all levels should invest more in education and also collaborate with private sector through Private Public Partnership (PPP) initiative to accumulate the much needed funding that will pave way for technological development. It will also guide against brain-drains and significantly alleviate overdependence on aids from the developed nations and educational organizations