Paris Nord station was its usual mid morning bustle and chaos, but the sight of what looked for all the world like riot police directing the taxi queue was quite a shock until the realisation dawned that these were in fact a new breed of touts, offering to whisk Eurostar travellers through the traffic on the back of a motor bike.
Few business trips can have been quite as surreal as the past few days in Singapore, not so far away from the unfolding and ever-worsening events in Japan. Save for CNN and BBC World’s rolling coverage and some intense print media material in The Straits Times, it seemed almost as though the drama might be happening on another planet.
The acres of demolition rubble surrounding the faded glories of the Ferencváros football stadium on the outskirts of Budapest speak volumes for the state of the Hungarian economy. This stalled reconstruction project is one of dozens pointed out by the driver en route into town, all of them abandoned for lack of cash.
The street signs in Cochin proclaim Kerala as “God’s Own Country”, a boast eagerly embraced by well over 1.5m tourists every year, split neatly between foreigners and India’s rapidly growing middle class. Even a short visit confirms to visitors that they have wandered into an experience in sharp contrast to the sights, sounds and smells to be endured elsewhere in India.
The year just past looks likely to go down in the annals of the insolvency and restructuring market as the oddest in most current professionals’ careers. Travelling the world, the theme has been consistent: we have just experienced an insolvency-lite recession and we seem to be having a job creation-free recovery, assuming that there is any genuine sustainable growth out there.
Experiencing India just a few weeks after visiting South Africa provides a fascinating comparison of the relative impact of the billions spent in each country following the Commonwealth Games and the soccer World Cup.
Below you will find a gallery of photographs kindly and beautifully taken by Martin Prager. Click on the thumbnails to view a bigger picture. If you would like the file sent to you, please email jo.hancock@begbiesgn.com quoting the file number.
Enjoy!!
Returning to Argentina after ten months and just two weeks after the surprise death of its so-called “real” President, the husband of the incumbent and widely-despised Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, and in the week when the IMF was ignominiously shut out of successful debt repayment negotiations with the Paris Club of sovereign creditors was to find a curiously uncertain national mood.
Stood at the Harbour in Buenos Aires
How to capture the spirit of the BGN World Meeting in the beautiful and beguiling city of Buenos Aires in November 2010? The answer comes in two simple words – quality and fellowship.
South Africa is truly one of the world’s great destinations, offering a sublime climate, stunning scenery, the best in tourist experiences, and the finest in food and wines, all alongside a sophisticated business environment and natural resources that are the envy of most of the world.