Business Unusual

Malaysia’s 1MDB fund raised $6,5 billion in bonds with reportedly $4 billion (about R60 billion) being looted and shared among those that set up the fund and the Prime Minister of Malaysia. The story thankfully reveals that the scam was discovered and that many involved are facing the consequences, but it has left Malaysia with a debt of over $7 billion. The lessons for South Africa include just how long it takes to prosecute cases like this and how sentences may not seem to fit the scale of the crime, it also shows that even if you do expose the corruption you may not get to prosecute everyone.  Image credit: Siftography on 123rf.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

They say the first casualty in a conflict is the truth. For those wanting to help, knowing who or where to send help is a challenge.   In the disputed elections in Kenya in 2007, the access to phones and ability to send a message or email started the modern shift for how to help in a crisis. An open source website called Ushahidi (Swahili for witness) would collect the reports from those witnessing violence in order for those areas to be avoided.   It has grown to be a regular service deployed during or after a disaster to gather local information to better coordinate the recovery. From fires to floods to conflicts the app has grown to help clear the fog of war and allow those looking to help to best direct their efforts.    Since then, the mobile phone has become as useful as a weapon in a conflict and as vital as water in a disaster.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Perhaps digital contracts that automatically trigger the sanctions for failure to meet the undertakings will keep the populists and strongmen from sending their and other countries to the brink. Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One company has seen their business soar during the lockdown - ecommerce site Shopify. Business Unusual looks at the resourceful founder that has seen his start up grow to at one point become the most valuable business in Canada.  Audio credit: Recode Image credit: ShopifySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

They may be millions of years old, but they are still new to humanity image credit: PexelsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When we read about the build up to previous wars, it looks like the outcome could be predicted, but at the time it looked very different.  Are we in a situation now that looks like posturing and rhetoric that will settle down or will future generations look back and wonder how we missed the obvious signs? image credit: PixabaySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Inflation occurs if you make more money available but keep the supply of goods the same or if the money supply is stable but there is a drop in supply and it can also occur when the money supply and the supply of goods are the same but faith in the currency is reduced through increased debt and poor exchange rate or political instability. Right now we have all three in place in various economies. The US has increased money supply dramatically, almost half of all the money that has ever existed in the US economy was added in the last two years. South Africa has also drastically increased how much money is available in the economy. We also had lots of supply shortages which add to the problem including a reduction in oil supply pushing petrol prices higher. For countries like Venezuela and Turkey the political situation has added to the woes.  Deflation is effectively the opposite and although it is the consequence of negative inflation, it is bad as you compromise growth. You would rather use disinflation

The Edelman Trust Barometer is an annual survey in 28 countries of about 35 000 people to determine what the current levels of trust is in four key institutions - government, media, business and NGOs. What is trust A simplified version is that it is the belief you hold about someone that they will or won’t do something, a second element relates to the justification in doing or not doing something.  Psychologically, it would be a measure of your competence and warmth. When we come across people who do what they say and are engaging and persuasive about why, we will trust them. Generally, we tend to trust someone until they show they are untrustworthy in part because we actually met them, but modern life has you know and even interact with many people you never meet and so either resist trusting someone because you did not get to meet them or trust someone that had you met them you might not trust, or worse through manipulation you trust them falsely. Audio credit: Reuters Image credit: Pixabay  

Long delays and massive costs aside, this is epic engineering. In the end the telescope would weigh over six tons and be as high as a multi-storey building. It would detect infrared light and so would need a sunshield which turned out to be about the size of a tennis court. You can’t fit a double decker bus on a tennis court on top of a rocket. You certainly would also struggle to accelerate it to supersonic speeds and hope for anything to survive. So you need to make the largest, most expensive and complicated origami you can imagine. It proved to be so complex that in the end there were 344 single-point failures. A single- point failure is one that scuppers the entire mission if the failure occurs.  Anyone who has seen Don’t Look Up will understand that throwing objects into the air high enough that they don’t fall back is not easy and when you have 24 years of effort and over $10 billion in spending then the reality that just a single electronic bolt release failing would render the

Guest: Richard Mulholland | Owner at Missing Link See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Guest: Graeme Codrington | Futurist and Partner at TomorrowToday See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At 27, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has accomplished more than most can in a lifetime For those outside the crypto-world Bitcoin is likely the only new fangled form of money you have heard about. There are thousands of coins and platforms. Many are simply copycat versions hoping to catch unwary investors but some do offer new ways to imagine how finance, business and even governments can operate.  Buterin became intrigued with Bitcoin after his father introduced him to it at age 17. He was so intrigued he started writing for a Bitcoin publication and got paid as you might expect in Bitcoin. At the time he made less than $4 dollars per submission. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Politicians and pharmaceutical companies could have done more to tackle Covid-19 In December 2019 Business Unusual considered the disruption that could come from a pandemic. It came on the back of growing anti-vax behaviour from small sections of communities that did not only believe vaccines were not helping, there was a growing belief that they would cause harm.  As a consequence outbreaks of diseases that were on the verge of being eradicated were making a comeback with outbreaks that in some cases warranted drastic public action.  In December 2019 Samoa had a measles outbreak that affected 3% of the population. It followed a drop in vaccine use and showed how a virus with just a bit of complacency could run amok. It took a curfew and the cancellation of public gatherings with most civil servants being redeployed to administer vaccines for the month. By the end of December they had managed to vaccinate 94% of the nation.  It was not the first lesson we have had about what happens when a viru

Food production is a megabusiness and while you may know dozens of food brands, they all come from just a handful of companies.  This is a short history of how a biscuit formed an empire. Image credit:See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The long term solution may be to reduce the need for overhead cables or get rid of them all together. It was the height of the cables that caused the scandal with the trains South Africa bought that were too tall. Removing the cables would not only solve that issue but cable theft too. The solution is to use hydrogen and a fuel cell in the same way a diesel electric train operates, rather than diesel to run a generator, the hydrogen fuel cell generates electricity, is silent and only produces water as a by product.  The range for the current versions is about 600km. That would still need some hydrogen stations to be created along the route for cross country trips but they may be run by solar plants that can create hydrogen from water or simply moved there by train.  Image credit: Casey Horner UnsplashSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

South Africa is at COP26 to discuss how to avoid a climate disaster, this is the plan.  The Presidential Climate Commission was tasked to both move South Africa towards a low carbon economy while managing the impact from potential disruption to jobs.  The idea of a just transition looks to both deal with how to lower our CO2 emissions and give those employed and dependent on those industries to maintain or ideally improve on the current conditions. While the focus is on the energy sector, carbon emissions include agriculture, manufacturing, mining and transport.  The plan would need to address emissions across the board to achieve the first of the two key jargon terms. Net-zero and zero-carbon. In trying to achieve this the measures may use mitigation or adaptation. The time frame to achieve the goal is 2050. That is 29 years from now, for most South Africans that is longer than their lifetimes. For those that are older it is about the time since South Africa has been a democracy. If you consid

Bots are often the reason sale items appear and sell out almost instantly This story begins with the latest Xbox that looks like a small fridge, Microsoft the makers of the Xbox said that if they could win a Twitter battle of brands they would turn the meme fridge into reality and after winning the contest in April released the mini fridges for a limited sales run in October. Lots of people wanted one, most did not manage to get one, but quite a few were seen for sale on auction sites at much higher prices.  The fridges were not bought by fans, but by a new kind of middleman that uses bot to buy high demand items to sell for a profit. Xbox has since made the fridge available again from December; those sales too seem to be plagued by bot purchases.  Guest: Colin Cullis | Product Owner at Primedia Broadcasting  Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on UnsplashSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As cities grow and land becomes more expensive so too does being able to afford a burial. Cremation allowed for less space to be used, but the CO2 and potential pollutant impact on dealing with 60 million deaths a year may make it a less favourable option.  Here are some alternatives. Photo by Noah Buscher on Unsplash See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Despite the bad news associated with big tech, this is something to celebrate The first challenge as older South Africans will recall is getting connected. Many young South Africans may still struggle with access and cost, but like anything that you can supply in volume, you get to get it for less.  This is the first critical tipping point for progress.  The first fibre cables came online only in this century even though the first undersea cable arrived from Europe in the 1800s, but in the two decades the increase has been incredible. Image credit: Photo by JJ Ying on UnsplashSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Taiwan is a significant economy but only 14 countries acknowledge it as a country. China and some in Taiwan want to see the countries reunited others would prefer the two remain neighbours. Depending on what happens, it will not only impact the citizens of the two regions but perhaps everyone. Photo by Christian Lue on Unsplash  Audio credit: Blue OriginSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.