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Category: BUSINESS & FINANCE
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Here in London, we stayed up to 4am watching the excellent BBC US Presidential election results coverage. We saw the incoming results from what has been such a diverse and as many found, a divisive U.S. campaign, which has now ushered in a new era for American politics and governance.
Normally those from other nations may not bother to stay up to the wee small hours to watch such. However the the two candidates involved and the known baggage they brought with them to the campaign, did make this election race a fascinating spectacle for many around the globe.
Hilary Clinton the favourite, an experienced party apparatchik, who seems to have been around since her husband Bill was President over 15 years ago was the Democrats candidate. Her role as the powerful Secretary of State under President Obama, was regarded by many as a stepping stone to the White House but in the end this counted as nought.
Donald Trump, a billionaire businessman who had never held any political office and had failed badly in a Presidential bid in 2004, was the rank outsider.
He imposed his formidable personality on the election race, sweeping aside fellow Republican candidates and in effect bulldozing his way to be the only rival to Mrs Clinton and the Democratic Party.
The televised debates between Clinton & Trump were at times acrimonious with enough mud slung to make a decent sized football field!
They made compulsive viewing, more so than any other previous presidential debates.
History was being made.
Mrs Clinton had policies planned that she put to the people. Mr Trump was rather vague on the same. He however made some big bold promises to fix the big issues, not heard of before by the people.
Mr Trump’s antics and comments during the campaign will become the stuff of legend.
Any other candidate who acted his way, would have been bundled away, never to be seen again!
It was understandable that Mrs Clinton and the Democrats, initially thought that with the at times bellicose Mr Trump as her rival, election to the Presidency would be straightforward.
It became clear that Mr Trump in his rousing election speeches and promises during the debates, tapped into the visceral anti establishment mood felt by the majority of US citizens.
These disaffected citizens turned out en masse to vote for someone whom they see as a ‘new broom’ to sweep away over 15 years of distrust in the political system, the stagnation of the economy, jobs and the continued involvement in foreign conflicts.
Mr Trump had no political baggage and to use a cowboy analogy ‘shoots from the hip’.
In computer parlance ‘WYSIWYG’ (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get). This was so refreshing to many voters, fed up with dissembling anodyne politicians.
His various peccadilloes and outrageous statements did not matter to his voters.
As with the quote attributed to Oliver Cromwell nearly 400 years ago, we get Trump ‘warts and all’, nothing is hidden.
Noting the similar feeling between many British and US people, Mr Trump mentioned the momentous UK exit vote from the EU and said he would do a ‘Brexit’ 1000 times over if elected. He did!
As many know, Filipinos work in most countries in the world. Wherever they work and, certainly in the UK, Filipinos are regards as hard working, reliable, law abiding, unobtrusive and friendly.
Many are overqualified (being university graduates) for the work they do mainly in domestic service.
To prepare these maids made in Manila can enrol in an academy, which would train them in anything housekeeping.
Many came to the UK as excellent trained nurses and carers. Not so well known is that the Philippines has excellent technical colleges & universities and produced many computer technicians, programmers and coders who use their expertise around the world.
These workers, the carpenters, engineers, nurses, teachers and domestic helpers alike are known in the Philippines as OFW (Overseas Filipino Workers). They send millions of pounds to their families back home and contribute greatly to the national economy. Many international companies now outsource services to the Philippines too.
Maids Made in Manila
Stephen Sackur, a BBC correspondent has recently posted an interesting article about these workers & the growth in both the economy and population in the Philippines. Here is the article.
The Philippines has one of the fastest growing economies in Asia – but there aren’t enough jobs to go around. So every year the government teaches thousands of people the skills they need to get jobs abroad.
When I arrive at the state-run Housemaids Academy in Manila morning exercises are well under way. A squad of uniformed cleaners is poking feather dusters into all corners of the sitting room. In the kitchen trainee cooks are immersed in the finer points of salad preparation.
The academy has the feel of a soap-opera set – each room meticulously dressed to ape the reality of a grand residence. Below stairs is a classroom filled with old fashioned school desks. Here, I’m told, the trainee house servants take lessons in hygiene, respect and personal finance.
The Philippines government schools tens of thousands of maids, chauffeurs, mechanics and gardeners every year, with the express purpose of launching them into long-term service abroad.
For the state it’s a win-win. These economic exiles – there are are currently some 10 million of them – send back foreign currency which is the lifeblood of the Filipino economy. And the extraordinary exodus of labour acts as a safety valve in a country struggling to provide home-grown jobs for a population rising by more than two million every year.
“We are proud of what we are doing,” one of the trainee maids, Maria, tells me. “We are national heroes.” That was a phrase first coined in a government propaganda campaign, and it’s clear that the 20 young women now gathered around me – all immaculately uniformed and polite to a fault – desperately want it to be true.
“It can’t be easy leaving your families behind,” I suggest.
“We have no choice,” replies Evelyn, an elfin figure no more than 5ft tall. “I have a baby at home but no way to support him. The wages I earn in Kuwait will mean my mother can raise him.”
Many of the other trainees nod in sympathy – almost all, it seems, are facing the prospect of separation from their children for at least three years, possibly many more. Their reality will be prolonged servitude in an alien culture.
The mood in the academy has darkened. Half the young women before me are now weeping.
Alongside the remittances of overseas workers, there’s a new phenomenon keeping the Philippines economy afloat. It’s known as BPO, business process outsourcing – you could call it the rise of the call centre economy. More and more Western companies have moved their low-cost back-office operations to the Philippines.
“We’ve overtaken India,” Dyne Tubbs, a manager at Transcom call centres, boasts as we survey her army of Filipino telephonists handling calls on behalf of a UK parcels delivery company. It’s midnight in Manila, 4pm in London and the phones are red hot, as they will be until dawn.
“British companies love us because our English is not accented. The brightest graduates from our universities fight to get a job here. We only take the smartest kids. And after we’ve finished training them they even get your British sarcasm,” says Tubbs.
One third of the Filipino population is under 15 years old. The country may have found a unique niche in the global economy but current rates of economic growth, though impressive, will not sustain a population projected to double from 100 to 200 million within 30 years. Which is why Jane Judilla may just hold the key to the Philippines economic future. Jane isn’t an entrepreneur or a politician, she’s a reproductive health worker who spends her days in some of Manila’s most squalid slums.
Thanks to a law pushed through by the government last year, she’s now permitted to offer the poorest Filipinos free access to condoms, the contraceptive pill, even sterilisation for women who want it. The Catholic Church, which commands the loyalty of 90% of Filipinos, fought the initiative tooth and nail but the clerics lost.
Judilla introduces me to Sheralyn Gonzales, a whey-faced woman of 30 with 10 children and another on the way. I ask Gonzales whether she’s happy. “I’ll be happy when I’ve had the baby and can get sterilised,” she says. “My eldest has dropped out of school, and we can barely afford to educate the others. I tell my children to have two kids, then use contraception.”
If the next generation of Gonzales’s heed her advice their country’s future is promising. If not, tens of millions of young Filipinos may find themselves stuck in a poverty trap, still dependent on overseas labour as a means of escape.
It is amazing to see that England & Britain have some family owned and run businesses that from over 500 years ago are still trading today!
The UK’s Oldest Family Firms
Below is an interesting article By Lucy Wallis of BBC News.
Balson’s butchers shop pictured in the 1880s
Some of the UK’s oldest family businesses have survived for almost 500 years. What have they been doing right to make them so enduring?
According to the Institute for Family Business (IFB), there are around three million family firms in the UK.
It says the 10 companies below are thought to be among the oldest. Each offers an example to other family firms hoping to keep going for generations.
RJ Balson & Son – Butcher – Established 1515
If Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon had visited Bridport in Dorset, they could have eaten meat sold by Balson’s the butcher.
Records show Robert Balson rented a market stall in 1515 in the “Shambles” – an open-air meat market where animals were slaughtered and blood would drip into the gutter on the street. A messy scene, the word shambles later came to be associated with disorder.
Descendants of Robert continued to rent a stall there. The family survived the arrival of bubonic plague in the town during the 17th Century.
In the Victorian era tragedy struck the business. Owner Arthur Balson, started living with a married woman and her young son Tom. During a game, Tom pretended to shoot Arthur with a gun, but did not realise it was loaded and accidentally shot Arthur dead in 1859. The business was taken over by Arthur’s younger brother Richard.
Balson’s is now run by Richard’s great-great-grandson Richard Balson and uses recipes handed down through the generations.
On sale are ox cheeks and Bath chaps – a west country term for pig’s cheeks.
Offering personal and attentive customer service has kept shoppers coming back over the centuries. Balson says he helps sort out his customers’ problems from behind the counter.
“Usually if they’ve got a problem it’s because they are not eating enough meat,” he adds.
R Durtnell & Sons – Construction – Established 1591
Richard Durtnell managed to raise £360 in 1802 to buy his new builders’ yard
Since the financial crash of 2008 over 7,000 UK building firms have gone out of business, but Durtnell and Sons, based in Brasted, Kent, has remained in business since the reign of Elizabeth I. Spotting new ways of working has helped the company thrive and in the early 1800s, owner at the time, Richard Durtnell, made a crucial decision to bring together all the craftspeople he needed, such as glaziers and bricklayers, in one yard. As a result of this innovation, he became one of the first general builders.
“I remember as a child going to London, there was a lot of arm-waving out the window, ‘We built this and we built that,'” says Alex Durtnell, who recently took over the business from his father.
“Sadly there weren’t in-car TVs back then, so we actually had to listen to what dad was saying, and I thought: ‘How boring is that.’ Of course now I do the same thing with my children.”
C Hoare & Co – Bank – Established 1672
A painting of the Fleet Street banking house dated 1829
With two branches in London, this independent bank can trace its origins back to the reign of Charles II when founder Sir Richard Hoare began trading as a goldsmith and banker. His clients included diarist Samuel Pepys and Charles II’s widow Catherine of Braganza.
The bank’s headquarters in Fleet Street was built in 1829, where they issued cheque books and “washing books” or early bank statements. Since then the company has changed with the times, introducing online banking in 2008.
During World War Two, the headquarters was caught in a Nazi bombing raid, and staff had to use water from the bank’s well to extinguish the flames of the fire.
The tenth and eleventh generations of the Hoare family run the bank today and the company says the secret to their longevity is adhering to their core values and ethos – “to treat others as we would wish to be treated”.
Mornflake – Miller – Established 1675
Brereton Mill in Cheshire was also owned by Mornflake (image circa 1885)
William Lea started milling oats at Swettenham Mill in 1675 in Cheshire and 15 generations later the company is still trading.
“Obviously technology has moved on and we have new equipment, especially to keep up with the demand for our oats, but the general milling principle has stayed the same,” says current managing director John Lea.
Mr Lea says constant innovation, investment and commitment to consumers is the key to staying in business. Innovation became particularly vital during World War Two. With home-grown, sustainable food a necessity in the war, then-owner Philip Lea was ordered by the Ministry of Food to leave the RAF and return home to Britain to “feed the nation”.
As the family mills struggled to cope with the excess demand, a new mill and factory was built. It was one of the few construction projects not involving munitions to get the go-ahead during World War Two.
James Lock & Co – Hatters – Established 1676
Lock & Co’s shop in the 19th Century
Following the great plague of 1665 and the great fire of 1666, wealthy residents from the City of London moved to the west of the city in search of clean air. Entrepreneurial shopkeepers spotted the exodus and opened up businesses in the emerging West End.
Choosing the right location was crucial to establishing James Lock & Co. With a shop close to St James Palace, the firm became milliners to the gentry and the military.
Over the years customers included Admiral Lord Nelson, Sir Winston Churchill and Charlie Chaplin, but its most famous product was the very first bowler hat in 1850.
While its mainstay is traditional headwear, such as fedoras and Trilbies, the shop also makes sure it keeps up to date with the latest trends. So as well as holding Royal warrants to supply hats to the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales, Lock & Co says its hats have also been worn by Hollywood film stars and rappers.
Toye, Kenning & Spencer – Medals and regalia – Thought to have been established 1685
The metal work department of Toye, Kenning & Spencer in the 1930s
“It is an immense responsibility to take on a family firm like this. I think it’s very kin to a stately home, stately factory even,” says chief executive Fiona Toye.
Using traditional techniques, the company makes insignia and regalia, such as the ribbons and medals presented to awardees of OBEs and CBEs, and have even helped renovate state chairs for the Kremlin.
Starting out as artisan silk weavers in London’s East End, adapting to change and appealing to new markets has been the key to business survival.
In the 1850s, soldiers in the Crimean war wore bright red coats with detailed trimmings so they could be seen by their battalions amidst the smoke of the battlefield and Toye and Co were making this type of regalia by the late 1870s.
By the 1860s the company had already spotted opportunities for making silk trimming for working men’s groups like friendly societies, so when the military turned to khaki uniforms from the 1880s, the company spotted another gap in the market with other societies like the Freemasons.
The company also made epaulettes, a sash and a hat for leading suffragette Flora Drummond – nicknamed “The General” – in 1908, and embroidered four ornate banners for Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953.
“Family firms are experts at evolving, ensuring they remain competitive over the generations and relevant in the modern world,” says Fiona Graham of the IFB.
With the high costs of manufacturing in the UK, the firm may have to adapt to change again by moving production of some of their lower value stock overseas.
Folkes Group – Property and manufacture – Established 1697
Specialising in commercial property development and investment, this West Midlands-based company is now run by Constantine Folkes, the ninth generation to run the business.
Folkes evidently feels that staying true to the family’s roots has been crucial to keeping the business going. He still lives in the area where the firm was first created.
Berry Bros & Rudd – Wine merchants – Established 1698
Established by widow Bourne as a grocer’s in the neighbourhood of St James’s, London, the business supplied the new and popular coffee houses in the area.
In the middle of the 18th Century the tradition of weighing distinguished customers on the company’s scales began. Among those weighed were Beau Brummell and Lord Byron.
In 1838, owner George Berry, became a special constable along with the future Emperor Napoleon III. During his exile in Britain, Napoleon III used the company’s cellars to conduct secret meetings ahead of his return to France.
The day after the sinking of The Titanic in 1912, the business received a letter from the White Star Line shipping company saying 69 cases of their spirits and wine had been lost on the ship. However the letter did not make any reference to the loss of life.
While preserving tradition, the company has stayed relevant in modern times by spotting new international opportunities, such as introducing wines from China to the shop in 2013.
Salts Healthcare – Healthcare products – Established 1701
Former locksmiths John and William Salt started the business in the early 1700s manufacturing surgical instruments, but the company seems to have been adept over the years at responding to gaps in the market and social change.
In World War One they made artificial limbs for injured soldiers and now specialise in ostomy and orthotic products.
Aspall Cyder – Cider makers – Established 1728
A document dated 1729 contains information on the purchase of apples
Tracing their history back to the Crusades as associates of the Knights Templar, Aspall Cyder is now run by Barry and Henry, the eighth generation of Chevalliers. According to their family tree, King Henry I can be counted as their great-grandfather, 26 times removed.
The business began when Clement Benjamin Chevallier, from Jersey, inherited Aspall Hall in Suffolk, but started to miss his favourite alcoholic drink.
Apple trees from Jersey were planted in the grounds and the brewery is still located at Aspall today.
As well as their long heritage, the company is not afraid to pioneer new techniques, producing vinegar as well as cider and apple juice.
Mining for minerals, precious stones and metals from our small planet earth has been undertaken by humans since around 4000 BC, when our stone age ancestors mined stone such as flint to make axes and tools. Since then we have plundered our planet for any mineral that could be used for fuel, manufacturing for most of what we use today including ever increasing demands electronic goods, smartphones, tablets computers and jewellery.
Our earth has only a finite amount of these resources in terms of minerals and metals which are becoming scarcer and harder to mine, alternative sources are now being looked at beyond our pale blue dot of a planet!
Asteroids which orbit our sun and sometimes wander close (not too close we hope) to earth are thought to contain an abundance of the stuff we need.
With more nations and private enterprises now launching space craft and looking to develop fast evolving space related technology, instead of visiting these heavenly bodies to map, take amazing photos and get the odd sample, these new space industries want to mine asteroids. Instead of the famous Californian Gold Rush of the mid 1800s and misquote “There’s gold in them thar hills”. We may say there is gold and more in them space rocks.
The BBC reported that a new venture is joining the effort to extract mineral resources on asteroids.
The announcement of plans by Deep Space Industries to exploit the rare metals present in the space rocks turns asteroid mining into a two-horse race.
The other venture, Planetary Resources, went public with its proposals last year.
Advocates of asteroid mining hope it could turn into a trillion-dollar business, but some scientists are highly sceptical of the idea.
Deep Space Industries wants to send a fleet of asteroid-prospecting spacecraft out into the Solar System to hunt for resources.
These spacecraft, which the company has dubbed “Fireflies”, would use low-cost CubeSat components and benefit from discounted delivery to space by ride-sharing on the launch of larger communications satellites.
The Fireflies would have a mass of about 55 lb (25 kg) and be launched for the first time in 2015 on journeys of two to six months.
The company then wants to launch bigger spacecraft – which it calls “Dragonflies” – for round-trip visits that bring back samples.
These expeditions would take two to four years, depending on the target, and would return 60 to 150 lbs of material from target asteroids.
Planetary Resources was the first firm to announce asteroid mining proposals
“Using resources harvested in space is the only way to afford permanent space development,” said the company’s chief executive David Gump.
“More than 900 new asteroids that pass near Earth are discovered every year. They can be like the Iron Range of Minnesota was for the Detroit car industry last century – a key resource located near where it was needed. In this case, metals and fuel from asteroids can expand the in-space industries of this century.”
Asteroids could yield precious minerals such as gold, platinum and rare-Earth metals. But some are also thought to harbour water ice, which could be used as a raw material for the manufacture of rocket propellant or even breathable air.
The other firm in the mining race, Planetary Resources, has backing from several billionaire investors, including Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, software executive Charles Simonyi and film maker James Cameron.
That company wants to start by launching orbiting telescopes that would identify suitable asteroid targets for mineral exploitation.
However, some scientists struggle to see how cost-effective asteroid mining could be, even with the high value of gold and platinum.
Also what percentage of asteroids would contain material worth mining?
They point out that an upcoming Nasa mission to return just 60g (two ounces) of material from an asteroid will cost about $1bn.
It has been alleged that the eldest daughter of Janet Lim-Napoles has aspiration to climb the social ladder by becoming a representative of the Overseas Filipino Workers Family Club in the senate.
With what appears to be currently going on with the Napoles clan, putting herself into the limelight should be the last thing Jo be doing right now. She is one brave woman or just thick-skinned?
Apparently she comes highly recommended by her cohorts. She was previously third in line but her chances are improving as the invalidation of the second candidate, Johnny Revilla, in view of his American citizenship, was being sought by the OFW Family Club (OFWFC).
Roy Senerez, Jr was meant to replace Revilla but has decided to bow out to avoid any political dynastic controversy as his papa already holds high office.
Senerez, Sr is vouching for Jo Christine. Apparently she was known to all his children and a good woman.
The elder Señeres said Jo Christine, a longtime friend of three of his children, had been involved with the OFWFC for a long time.
He said she had been active in the group and had even provided tickets for the repatriation of Filipinos abroad.
Apparently Jo Christine is a philanthropic Napoles; very charitable.
(As an aside, did you or your family use your own money to aid the repatriation of Filipinos Senor Señeres?)
Anyhow, I would like to know where Jo Christine got the money; Did she have an ulterior motive? Did she use the tainted money from the Pork Barrel to feed her ambition?!!! Just asking!
I hope the goings-on with the OFWFC does not in any way affect the OFWs.
With Jo Christine prospective appointment, would it be like letting the fox into the henhouse?!!! LOL
This situation is becoming one of those Greek’s tragi-comedy!
I think OFWs deserve better representations that the Seneres and Napoles friendships can provide!
Whilst I admire Mr Seneres Sr’s loyalty to his friends, he should be acting as a political representative of the OFWs first and foremost and always put the betterment of the OFWs and their family at the forefront of his psyche, after all that is his job description. There is loyalty and LOYALTY.
Balson’s butchers shop pictured in the 1880s
Richard Durtnell managed to raise £360 in 1802 to buy his new builders’ yard
A painting of the Fleet Street banking house dated 1829
B
Lock & Co’s shop in the 19th Century
The metal work department of Toye, Kenning & Spencer in the 1930s
A document dated 1729 contains information on the purchase of apples
Mining Asteroids A New Venture
Planetary Resources was the first firm to announce asteroid mining proposals
