South Africa does not have nearly enough doctors to service the country, and is likely to lose another 3 500 in the next 10 years, warns an economic research company.

The number of general practitioners in South Africa could drop by 12 percent and specialists by 16 percent, according to the latest research by Econex.

The count of 27 431 could drop to 23 849 by 2020 if the current state of affairs continues.

One of the paper’s authors, economist Mariné Erasmus, said they had focused specifically on doctors, looking at age profiles, training and attrition rates.

Referring to the planned national health service, the paper said, “South Africa does not have nearly enough doctors to deal with current demand and there is a large vacancy rate across the country… a decrease in the number of doctors over the next 10 years would therefore be detrimental to the delivery of care to the whole population.”

Currently there were 17 801 GPs and 9 630 specialists working in South Africa, achieving a ratio of 55 doctors per 100 000 people.

This was far short of the ratios in developed countries such as the US, Britain, and Australia.

But even against countries on a similar economic development level, such as Brazil and Mexico, South Africa still compared unfavourably.

Brazil has 185 doctors for every 100 000 people, the UK 230, Greece 500, the US 256, Australia 247 and Mexico 198.

The report said that the Western Cape had the highest number of doctors – 135 per 100 000 people – followed by Gauteng at 102, the Free State at 55, KwaZulu-Natal at 53 and Limpopo at a paltry 17.

Vacant posts across the country reflect 49 percent for GPs and 44 percent for specialists.

Erasmus said these figures were influenced by urbanisation and the location of teaching hospitals. It was a reflection of where most medical scheme members were and where the economic hubs were.

The College of Medicine of SA estimates 25 percent of doctors trained in South Africa no longer work here. The largest number of South African-trained doctors – 3 625 – were in the UK, followed by 2 828 in the US, 1 345 in Canada and 1 114 in Australia.

Erasmus said with the tightening of foreign immigration laws, more doctors would remain.

Meanwhile, moves by the British Home Office to tighten immigration laws would affect not only doctors, but all skilled South Africans.

That’s according to Robbie Ragless of Globalvisas.com

“This will affect South Africans who comprise a large number of skilled individuals entering the UK every year, most of whom would go over on the Tier 1 (highly skilled) visa.

“There were also proposals to get rid of this visa type. It would be replaced with an exceptional talent visa.” The new scheme was for scientists, academics and artists.

The British government recently said that next year it would introduce an annual limit of 21 700 non-Europeans entering the country as skilled workers, down by 6 300 from last year.

In addition the Home Office would also tighten the intra-company transfer route and restrict the “highly skilled” tier to entrepreneurs, investors and people of exceptional talent.

One of the reasons for the change was that the British government found a third of the “highly skilled” immigrants were actually doing low-skilled jobs once there.

Earlier this year Britain made it easier for South Africans to get working visas, allowing those with bachelor degrees, not just masters, to apply, but two years ago it scrapped the two-year working holiday visa for young South Africans, preventing thousands of people from spending the popular “gap year” in the UK.

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AngloGold Ashanti, the world’s third-largest gold miner, beat its guidance for third-quarter output and costs on Thursday, sending its shares up more than 4 percent.

Investors overlooked the company’s adjusted headline loss for the July-September quarter, which was largely due to the previously announced closure of its hedge book.

AngloGold has closed out instruments it used to hedge against the price of gold, allowing it to sell at market prices, boost its cash flow and profit margins and to push ahead on some of its growth projects.

“I’m quite happy with the results. They are managing their costs and the whole sector is also helped by very strong fundamentals,” said Abri du Plessis, an analyst at Gryphon Asset Management.

Chief Executive Mark Cutifani said he remained bullish on the price of gold, which on Tuesday hit a record high of $1424.10, and was trading at $1416.90 an ounce by 13:40 SA time.

“From a planning perspective we are guessing somewhere between $1300-1400 an ounce (over the next 12 months), but on the upside anything is possible,” Cutifani said.

AngloGold shares, up 14.3 percent so far this year, gained 4.4 percent by 13:40 SA time, compared with a 0.31 percent rise in Johannesburg’s Top-40 index.

Production rose 3 percent from the previous quarter to 1.162 million ounces, above its own forecast of 1.15 million ounces.

Cash costs rose to $643 per ounce from $617 an ounce in the previous three months, still below guidance of $645.

The better-than-guided output and costs also helped mitigate the impact from a strong rand, which has risen nearly 28 percent since the start of 2009 and which has been a thorn in the side of African exporters.

PROJECTS PIPELINE

Africa’s top gold miner, which has operations across four continents, said output for the year would be 4.5 million ounces at a cost of $635 an ounce, at the lower end of its forecast of 4.5 million to 4.7 million.

Production for 2011 is likely to rise above the 4.5 million ounces as new projects come on stream, and as the company targets an increase of 1 million ounces over five years. AngloGold reported an adjusted loss of 321 US cents per share for the July-September quarter, compared with adjusted earnings of 35 US cents in the April-June quarter.

Headline earnings are the key profit measure in South Africa, stripping out some one-time and non-trading items.

The hedge book close-out hit adjusted headline earnings by $1.487 billion and is expected to result in a hit of around $1.045 billion in the October-December quarter.

The company said it had approved the development of the Tropicana gold project in Australia, in which it holds a 70 percent stake. First gold from the project is expected towards the end of 2013, with an annual attributable production of up to 343,000 ounces a year for the first three years.

Peers Gold Fields posted better-than-expected earnings for the July-September quarter, while smaller Harmony Gold returned to profit during the three months. – Reuters

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There are various styles of internet marketing. It is also known by different names like online advertising, marketing online, search engine marketing, web site traffic, search engine optimization, organic traffic, banner ads, text ads, AdSense. The list goes on and on and with every new technology addition, it is going to be all the more comprehensive.

But at the end of the day the whole point of an online advertising agency’s very existence is to bring a web surfer to a web page. The process of doing it has become very common as it’s been followed since quite some time. Advertising online has never changed, but how people learn about web pages or sites is changing. With newer technology of targeting traffic to a web page, it becomes easier to deliver geo-targeted ads. With keyword targeting displaying relevant ads becomes even easier and the success rate of click-through increases. The Internet marketing trend is just starting to explode as these technologies begin to be applied in all advertising media formats. Its application range from web pages, TV and radio and today even news print as well.

As with all market trends, online advertising agency is also seeing a lot of mergers and acquisitions because the trend has now began its climb towards 90% of advertising to be done through digital media. More and more companies want their advertisements to be technologically up beat. One important criterion which makes it favourable among the advertisers is that the digital advertising’s results are measurable. News print and magazines can boast the volume of readers, but that is a misnomer. How many times do people pick up a newspaper and read every advertisement or article written. So the click-through rate on print ads is probably much less than the readership they boast about.

With online advertising agency one thing is guaranteed that you can track down as to where most people are showing interest in a particular keyword and then targeting ads based on Geo-IP becomes easier and results are achievable. As more and more business units realize online ad agencies potential, you would see a lot less pamphlets and mail-outs jam-filling mailboxes. Less leaflets should help the environment although we might not feel as green without toilet paper manufactured from recycled materials. The future of Online Advertising Agency is very bright and it is going to gain major growth in its use in the coming years, just like anything else when we find a better, easier more convenient way of doing things eventually it becomes a rule. Online advertising or the Internet marketing has already taken shape. You visit just one website today, and you can see the effect by yourself. There is hardly any website which is without any ad. Be it a banner ad, text ad, or contextual advertising, there is something for visitors to click through to fall into the page that would serve the ultimate purpose!

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Amman, Jordan Michael Grubb and Kalindi – With Middle East fertility rates dropping, doctors in the traditionally patriarchal society have recorded an increase in the number of couples using biomedical developments to choose the gender of their children.

While some are seeking to balance out a family with children of both sexes, it appears the majority are willing to pay the relatively high cost of the procedure to ensure they have a male offspring.

“People here in Jordan would rather have males instead of females,” said Dr. Abeer Dababneh, head of the academic department at the Center for Women’s Studies at the University of Jordan.

“More and more couples are deciding not to have a large numbers of kids and they have to have a boy. They must have a boy. This is cultural; boys are more valuable than females,” she told The Media Line.

This was echoed by Dr. Antoine Abu Musa, a professor and medical doctor who works in reproductive technologies and reproductive medicine at the American University in Beirut.

“Patients come from the regional countries around [the Middle East] and most of them are interested in having boys because they don’t have any,” Abu Musa told The Media Line. “I would say that more than 80 percent of requests are to have male children.”

The technique is called Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis and it can be included as part of the process of in-vitro fertilization (IVF). The process was originally developed as a way of screening potential embryos for specific genetic abnormalities that could lead to the development of diseases in the future.

However, the technique also allows doctors to identify the gender of the embryo, and thus also gives parents the ability to choose whether they will have a boy or a girl. This option is having an impact throughout the Middle East where there is a strong cultural preference for having male heirs. This is because women are not allowed to be family heirs, nor can they carry on the family name.

However, gender preference is not the sole reason why couples decide to choose the sex of their child. According to Dr. Youses, an embryologist for Fakih IVF Clinic in the Emirates Hospital in Abu Dhabi, many couples are choosing to select the gender of their children for medical reasons or to balance out a family with a boy and a girl.

“The people who are coming have boys and want a girl or they have girls and they need a boy. They are interested in family balancing,” Youses told The Media Line. “Also, for medical reasons, some genetic disorders are transferred only to boys or girls so someone will choose the sex of the child that is not at risk.”

The procedure costs around US$4,000. Youses confirmed that the demand for the procedure has increased in recent years mainly due to the drop in the cost but also due the greater availability of IVF clinics.

Nationwide statistics on gender selection are not routinely kept by governments in the Middle East. However, Farah Hospital, the largest private fertility center in Jordan, recorded that the procedure was administered 500 times in 2009. That’s up from 380 procedures in 2007.

Also, a recent study sponsored by the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology explored gender preferences among women in northern Jordan. It found that 75 percent of the pregnant women participating in the study would have chosen the gender of their child if they had had the opportunity.

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Gaza, Palestinian Territory (TML) – The Palestinian Authority will begin in 2011 to punish Palestinians who accept work in Israeli communities built on land Israel acquired in the 1967 war.

The cities and towns in question are at the heart of the “settlement” issue, which is arguably the principle obstacle to the current round of U.S.-brokered peace talks between the Israelis, and Palestinians.

The first step in the P.A.’s battle against the Israeli communities was launched last January, when a ban on all “settlement products” came into affect in the West Bank. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad embraced the campaign, personally participating in a product- burning ceremony in the town of Salfit.

The Palestinian “Law to Ban and Combat Settlement Products” represents the second stage of the campaign. Issued in April 2010, the aim of the law is “to combat settlement goods and services built on the Palestinian territory.” But many Palestinians who understand the national political strategy of de-legitimizing Israeli building on land the Palestinians see as their nascent state feel the law will be too costly on a personal level.

Ziad, 37, a construction worker from the West Bank town of Sa’ir, is paving a sidewalk in the Israeli community of Efrat, south of Jerusalem. He is upset by the new decision.

“We come here to feed our children, not to play games,” he told The Media Line. “I have been working for Israel since I was fifteen. What shall I do, sit at home?”

Ziad says that if the P.A. was willing to provide workers with a proper monthly salary, he would be willing to quit his job.

“If I were paid 5,000 shekels a month (about $1,300), I would sit at home and be happy,” he said.

“But otherwise, let me work!”

Ziad’s co-workers speak of a rumor circulating in the West Bank, whereby the Palestinian Authority will pay each worker forced to quit his job a stipend of 700 shekels a month (about US $200).

“That’s barely enough to buy milk for two days,” Ziad says ironically. “I have seven children at home, what shall I feed them, dirt?”

‘Abir Kopty, head of the Israeli Media Unit at the Palestinian Media Center (PMC), admitted that the “Law to Ban and Combat Settlement Products” was somewhat vague, mentioning only “assistance to settlements” rather than explicitly referring to workers. She added, however, that the law does, indeed, ban Palestinian workers from accepting any work in the Israeli towns.

“The law is already in force,” she told The Media Line. “It is now primarily the responsibility of workers to find alternative workplaces.”

Kopty added that the P.A. economics minister has decided to defer enforcement of the law until 2011 in order to give workers time to find alternatives.

“There are initiatives by the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture, which has begun implementing agricultural projects in the West Bank,” she said. “In addition, a fund was established last year with public and private money, meant to support Palestinian workers.”

According to Kopty, about 25,000 Palestinians work in Israeli settlements. These workers comprise 9.9% of the total Palestinian work force in the West Bank, according to the Arab daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat.

The workers on Ziad’s construction site say that Israel only allows Palestinians over the age of 30 who have children to work inside of Israel, but that exceptions are made for work in the post-1967 territories, where younger men can also receive work permits.

‘Issa, a 54-year-old worker, is frustrated by political decisions that do not take into account the needs of simple day-laborers.

“We, the general public, are powerless,” he complained to The Media Line. “The ‘big guys’ decide everything. We can protest, but it’s useless. If they want us not to work here, let them give us an alternative.”

“When there was a closure [on the West Bank] and we sat at home for two months, the Palestinian Authority did nothing for us,” Ziad adds. “Nobody gave us money.”

Asher, a Jewish supermarket worker in Efrat, believes the Palestinian law is unrealistic and could never be implemented.

“It’s completely irrelevant,” he said to The Media Line. “The Palestinians will revolt. It simply makes no sense.”

“I have been working with Palestinians for 38 years,” added Asher. “Neither side has any choice but to work together. No Jew is willing to work in construction, so what can we do, bring Thai workers in again?”

Ayyash, a construction worker sitting on the sidelines, displays a more stoic attitude towards the new law.

“Our livelihood comes from Allah,” he says. “Not from the Jews or the Arabs.”

©2010. The Media Line Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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Kathmandu, Nepal (AHN) – American couple Haydn Hilling and his wife Edvige Hilling desperately want to take their adopted Nepali child home. Three weeks ago, the Nepali authorities approved their adoption petition. They are now waiting for the decision from another authority — the American Embassy in Kathmandu.

The Hillings, with their two-year-old adopted son Kailash, are mounting a campaign to have their voices heard. But the United States goverment recently imposed an adoption ban on Nepali children citing “malpractice in adoption process,” according to the Katmandu Post.

Following the approval from the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, the couple went straight to the embassy seeking approval of their adoption process to take Kailash home. However, their request was turned down by embassy officials who said that they were dissatisfied with some of the adoption documents. “I am really disappointed and embarrassed,” she told the Post, who already has a seven-year-old adopted daughter Liliann.

She added that there was no valid reason to suspect the documents that were already approved by Nepali authorities. The Hillings have already spent more than one-and-a-half years getting the necessary paperwork required to adopt Kailash, but now the process has come to a standstill.

The ban went into effect on August 6. “In order to protect the rights and interests of certain Nepali children and their families, and of US prospective adoptive parents, the Department of State and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) have jointly decided to suspend adjudication of new adoption petitions and related visa issuance for children who are described as having been abandoned in Nepal,” American officials said in a statement.

The couple is in such a bind that it can neither leave the child in the orphanage from where it brought him, but they are running out of time to stay in the country. “We cannot think of leaving the child in a destitute home as we have developed a close bond with him,” said Haydn. “We are having a tough time deciding what to do.”

Their daughter Liliann, within a short span of time, has started playing with her prospective brother and snuggling up to him in bed as if he were her blood sibling, the couple admits.

The couple is struggling to convince Liliann why her brother is unlikely to be allowed to travel to their new home. “It is a violation of our rights,” said Haydn. “The U.S. officials should trust the Nepali authorities’ investigation and protect our right to adopt the child.”

Envige even went on to say that she would leave the U.S. and stay in Nepal if Washington does not allow them to take the child home. Haydn said he was ready to hand over the child if his biological parents are found. “Kailash had been staying in Sagarmatha Orphanage for two years without knowing about his biological parents,” he said.

Documents show that police had found Kailash unclaimed in the capital and handed him over to the orphanage. The U.S. State Department maintains that the ban was taken to protect the rights and interests of Nepali children and their families. However, Haydn says the decision is not in favor of the children as it is the right of the children to live in a good environment and lead a healthy life. Haydn is now planning to return home, leaving his wife in Kathmandu to convince the embassy officials.

He says he will take the child home at any cost. “I am ready fight a legal battle for the rest of my life to take the child home,” he said. As luck would have it, the HIllings couldn’t have a child even after 20 years of marriage. They had decided to adopt a child from Nepal. The Haydn couple is not alone. There are several American couples facing a similar situation in Nepal, according to another U.S. citizen Mark Barrett, who is a prospective father of Nepali children. They all hope that their call will be heard by the US authorities.

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The term clean is relative; it depends from person to person. People have different standards when it comes to cleanliness. Imagine if everybody has a strict standard of sparkling mirrors, spotless sinks and floors, dirt-free bathrooms, and pristine furnishings, one might not be able to finish cleaning forever. Just like the thought of staying in a hotel your whole life, chambermaids making your bed and cleaning your whole room, but this can’t be possibly real.

When you start a window cleaning business you should be able to point out the extent of the services that you would be offering. Decide if you just want to cover the basics like floors and windows or if you would want the whole house, including the ovens and chimneys, to be cleaned.

Next thing to consider is your financial capability, can you open a business using your own money. Some businesses do not need to start independently. There is a lot of existing business that offers franchising. But before you choose to franchise or go independent, you need to carefully think things out.

In the cleaning industry in US, franchising is not that strong compared to other industries. Some cities only have 10% franchises. The other 90% consists of small independent business operators. What’s good about a franchise is that you are investing on a proven system. They have already made their name in the industry. This means you have a high chance in succeeding in the cleaning business that you’ll put up. But a franchise also has its down side. It can limit the growth of your business as you become more established. Of course you need to stick with the main policies of the business that you franchised. Sometimes, a franchise owner could also suffer financially.

Before you make up your decision whether you want to acquire a franchise or put-up an independent cleaning business, you should check the target market that you want for your business and see what their complexities are. Household and offices are the easiest market that you could provide cleaning services with. This market is not complicated and obtaining a franchise is alright. But if you want to deal with more complex markets such as industrial cleaning, then you should be going independent. To give you some idea and help you decide whether you will be franchising or not, read the notes on the disadvantages and advantages of franchising below.
Advantages:

* Franchise offer early support during the set-up phase of your cleaning business, as well as in your first few years in the business. Entrepreneurs having little experience in the business get a full start-up kit. It usually comes with complete equipment, training, and marketing assistance.

* Independent business owners are alone in the start-up phase of the business. Some business starters struggle and have a hard time in the early phase of the business lifecycle.

* Related experience and some mentoring would help independent operators. Extensive research in the field of the cleaning business will also be needed.

* A franchise comes with a brand. This is important because many people are already familiar with the brand; this means you’ll easily get recognized. People will accept your business easily especially if the brand you carry has a good reputation.

* A franchise gives business owners a higher chance of success.

Disadvantages:

o The franchisee will be locked into a deal of ongoing obligations. You need to pay fees and are required to buy supplies from the franchiser or their own affiliates. In early stages of business wherein your income is limited, a cost effective choice is to invest your money in your own independent business instead of having to pay a company for all the things that you need.

o A franchise might limit the growth of your company. Franchisers place many restrictions on what your business could do. And as a franchisee you need to stick with the rules and regulations based on the agreement you’ve signed. You may miss out on other opportunities for your business. Independent operators on the other hand could do anything that they want in their business.

o Acquiring a franchise doesn’t guarantee success. Franchises fail sometimes. Some common complaint of franchisees with their franchiser is that they do not regulate the number of franchisees in a particular area. It is possible to open many franchisees in a community. And this is not good because they would all be competing for customers. It is impossible that all of them would succeed.

If you decided to go independent and your business attains success, you might eventually think of expanding your business. Getting a lot of accounts over the years in different cities might be too much for you to handle. Offering your business for franchising might be a good choice. You do not need to invest additional money for acquiring equipment and hiring employees anymore but at the same time you could earn additional income.

o You could teach other budding entrepreneurs on how to start up with their cleaning business. You could provide them start and build up kits as well as share your experiences on this type of business.

o Low cost franchises are good at times of recession. People who were laid off from their jobs and wants to put up a business on their own with the money that they saved could easily acquire a franchise.

o Cleaning business is an interesting business model. You will never run out of customers because people will at least once a week seek your service. Nobody wants a dirty house or office right? Everybody wants their windows, floors, and furniture clean but sometimes busy people don’t have time to do it on their own. It is nice to know that cleaning services is just a phone call away.

Author: John F Smith
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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