AuthorMartin Hladík

With the crisp fall air come the perfect conditions for visiting the scariest, spookiest and best haunted places in the world.

While some haunted houses can seem a little hokey — filled with actors dressed as ghouls, goblins, mad scientists, and Frankenstein’s monsters — there are several spots around the globe with real reputations for being truly haunted.

Some of these places are shrouded in mystery, with legends passed down for centuries. Others are much newer, but are steeped in their tragic pasts. Whether these places are from the 12th or 20th century, each has an interesting history — with plenty of sightings and creepy experiences. Even if you don’t have a ghostly encounter at one of these destinations, at least you’ll still get a fascinating history lesson out of your trip.

And ghost hunters everywhere are always trying to catch a glimpse of a ghost wandering a haunted hallway, hear mysterious voices in an empty room, or even feel a chill as their investigating a dark corridor. Luckily enough, there are a lot more reportedly haunted places that are open for public tours or even overnight stays than you might think.

No matter where you are in the world, there’s probably a haunted house, hotel, or old historical site that’s waiting for you to visit. Not only are there plenty of places to send a chill up your spine in the U.S. — from the Winchester Mystery House, in California, to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania — you can also jump across the pond for even more eerie destinations.

Ghosts, strange sounds and lights, and even UFO experiences have been reported at these famous places in the U.K., France, Germany, Romania and as far as Australia, the Phillipines and China. Here are some of the places you can go to give yourself a fright, just in time for Halloween.

Raynham Hall, Norfolk, England

This gorgeous country home also has a dark past. The mysterious “Brown Lady,” rumored to be Lady Dorothy Walpole, was reported to be one of the apparitions to be captured on film in the December 1936 edition of Country Life.

Poveglia Island, Venice, Italy

A short trip from Venice, the beautiful island of Poveglia has scars from being a quarantine zone for people suffering from the plague. In addition, the island was used in the early 20th century as an insane asylum. Ghost hunters claim this spot is a hotbed of paranormal activity.

Bhangarh Fort, India

Two hundred miles from Delhi, this abandoned fortress sticks out in the middle of the desert. Legend has it that a sorcerer cast a curse on the area after being rejected by a local princess.

Ancient Ram Inn, Wotton-under-Edge, England

This 12th-century inn is one of the oldest in the western world. It is believed to have once been a pagan burial ground, and boasts that it is haunted by more than 20 spirits, including ghost children, a pagan high priestess, and an incubus (not the band).

Port Arthur, Australia

There are many ghost tours around Port Arthur to satisfy worldly ghost hunters. The Tasmanian town was an 18th-century convict settlement, and a hotbed of paranormal activity.

See the rest here.

Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel (right) and incoming European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen © Getty

Despite Merkel, the cards are stacked against female managers finding success.

Frederike Probert’s job probably only exists because of the lowly place of women in German business. The former tech entrepreneur organises networking for female professionals because they are too busy trying to be ideal mothers when they are not in their male-dominated offices.

The cause of gender equality in German business received a boost last week when Jennifer Morgan was appointed co-chief executive of SAP, Europe’s largest software company. But in becoming the first woman to head a DAX30 business, the American was more the exception than the norm.

A survey carried out by professional services firm EY this year found only 8.7 per cent of senior managers in Germany’s 160 listed companies were women. As of this month, just four publicly-quoted companies in Europe’s biggest economy had a female chief executive prior to Ms Morgan’s appointment — DIC Asset, Hamburger Hafen und Logistik and GrenkeLeasing, and most recently, Thyssenkrupp.

At this rate, according to EY, it would take until 2048 for a third of management roles to be occupied by women.

“I wanted to do something to stop wasting time and bring successful women together to empower each other,” says Ms Probert, whose Hamburg-based Mission Female has 45 members spread across Germany’s biggest cities and in Zurich. “If you are a woman at executive level, you are often the only one, which means you are fighting for yourself, in a pool of men.” Rabenmutter, or “raven mother”, is a derogatory term for anyone deemed a neglectful mother in Germany.

“There is a medieval expectation that German women have to be this perfect stereotype who can deliver on every front outside the workplace,” says Xenia zu Hohenlohe, who juggles Considerate Hoteliers, her environmental consultancy, with bringing up two children.

This situation may seem surprising for a country that is led by the world’s most influential female political leader, chancellor Angela Merkel, and which next month installs Ursula von der Leyen, a mother of seven, in the top EU job as European Commission president.

The disparity stems largely from a conservative corporate culture and society.

Vuyiswa M’Cwabeni recalls being ad¬vised to dress differently shortly after starting work in Germany. The Zimbabwean-born Canadian bought the “boring grey suit and blue shoes” advised by her male boss, and her career took off, eventually landing her the role of chief technology and innovation strategist at SAP. Although Ms M’Cwabeni now dresses to her own taste, “traditional role models are still strong”, says Markus Heinen, head of people advisory services at EY for Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

This discourages men from taking up parental leave or other domestic chores, which adds to the pressures on working mothers who already face criticism for not staying at home. “With many companies arguing that “female candidates often don’t have the necessary management experience to qualify for senior posts”, Mr Heinen says “there is clearly a need to do more internally to prepare women for managerial roles”.

Until they do, German companies will fail to reap the benefits of improved performance associated with diversity of thought at the top.

Iris Plöger, an executive board member at the BDI, the main business lobby group, argues that German companies increasingly “understand that it’s valu¬able to have different views, leadership styles and approaches to problem-solving”. Yet she maintains that “it is more effective when companies come to this realisation themselves, rather than being obliged by law to change.”

The government says the introduction of quotas in 2015 for supervisory boards led to much of the belated progress. As a re¬sult, women now fill 34 per cent of supervisory board seats at all big listed German companies, up from 22.1 per cent in 2015. However, those are non-executive roles, overseeing separate man¬agement boards.

When asked to set a target for increasing female representation on those management boards, some 70 per cent of companies covered by the law set it at “zero”, according to the government. Franziska Giffey, family minister, last month announced plans for “sanctions”, expected to be fines, for companies that give a zero target with no explanation.

But even if there were no resistance to change from business, working mothers would still face the double whammy of unhelpful taxation and education systems. “You can have as many quotas as you want but if the state education system won’t comply”, progress will be stymied by a short school day, and a paucity of crèches, says Ms zu Hohenlohe. For many children, the school day often ends at lunchtime. Crèches are few and far between outside Berlin and the former Communist East Germany — where mothers typically worked.

Another problem is the “splitting the difference” tax system that penalises most working couples, especially mothers. “The partner with the lower income — and that’s usually the wife — ends up paying a higher marginal rate of tax than if she were taxed on an individual basis, because her income is tallied up with that of her partner,” says Katharina Wrohlich, head of gender economics at the DIW think-tank.

Austria, Sweden and Italy abolished a similar system in the 1970s but in Germany “there is no majority for reform” of a feature incorrectly perceived as a bonus for married couples, says Ms Wrohlich. The fact the gap in spousal income often occurs after a woman takes time off to have children helps explain why international organisations such as the OECD have “for years been complaining that the German tax system disadvantages . . . married women with children”.

For Julia Bellabarba, a couples therapist in Berlin, the real problem is that German society has “no script for being either a good-enough mother or a good-enough father”. “What I observe is that the mother works hard at her career, has a child, gets stressed trying to be a perfect mother, then tries to recruit her partner to be a perfect father, and the battles over parenting just escalate.”

Written by Leyla Boulton and Guy Chazan

We had an interview with Leyla Boulton in our magazine. Click here to read it.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2019. All rights reserved.

The study gathered information based on 50 most visited destinations around the world.

The study shows countries ranked on their level of danger, besed on many criterias such as whether women are safe at walking at night or legal discrimination etc.

The countries considered in the ranking are the 50 most visited countries around the world, so each continent is represented pretty well.

Each country is given a “Danger Grade” for each of the eight considerations and then ranked overall.

The eight key criterias are:

1. Non-partner sexual violence
2. Intimate partner violence
3. Legal discrimination
4. Intentional homicide of women
5. Violence against women attitudes
6. Safe to walk alone at night?
7. Global gender gap
8. Gender equality

The ranking below shows that South Africa is, by far and away, the most dangerous place for a woman to travel alone.

It’s quite interesting to mention that the top five most dangerous countries for women to travel come from different continents.

International Institute IFIMES prepared the analysis of actual political situation in the Western Balkans prior to the European Council meeting to be held in Brussels on 17th and 18th October 2019, where the date for the start of negotiations with Republic North Macedonia and Republic Albania for their EU membership shall be determined. From the comprehensive analysis “Western Balkans 2019: Does the EU push the Western Balkans countries to the Russian ‘hug’?” we present the most important and the most interesting parts.

Regular autumn meeting of the European Council (EC) shall be held on 17th and 18th October in Brussels. Although the importance of meeting of the EU leaders is focused on Brexit on October 31st 2019, the Western Balkans expects that the Republic of North Macedonia and the Republic of Albania get the date for the start of the negotiations with the EU.

The EU was made as peace project after the end of the World War II and it enabled to ensure permanent peace in Europe and long-term stability. In recent past, in the Western Balkans though, several wars were going on. Therefore, a fragile peace was established and temporary stability.

The analysts believe that the EU leaders must be aware of the fact that if they want the EU peace project to be continued, it needs to be implemented in the Western Balkans countries, because through the EU membership, it would be ensured that countries of that region achieve permanent peace and long-term stability. As long as the Western Balkans is an unstable region, the EU shall not be able to address the key issues and long-term strategic positioning in the international framework.

Is the Western Balkans a stepchild of Europe ?

European leaders have often confirmed their support to the Western Balkans and its Euro Atlantic road, expressing at the same time concerns about the impact of individual states in the region, particularly Russia, China and Turkey. The EU with its enlargement stalemate practically pushes the Western Balkans counters to Russian „hug“, to blame in the end those countries for their close relations and cooperation with Russia. However, some EU states always set new requirements and membership criteria for the Western Balkans.

Some experts have been pointing out that 15 EU member countries would not be able to fully meet the membership criteria now, which are required from the Western Balkans countries. They also note that Bulgaria and Romania were admitted to the EU membership, as well as Croatia recently, without imposing so strict requirements of the membership. In 2004 only 9,5 countries were accepted to the EU membership, because only half the Cyprus was accepted. The French region Corsica and the Italian region Sicily are also mentioned as those, where the EU regulations do not function at all as stipulated by the EU standards, regulations and directives.

(Non)functioning of the EU can be illustrated best on the example of the dialogue between official Belgrade and Pristina on normalization of the relations, which is mediated by the EU. Although so called Brussels agreement on dialogue was signed on April 19, 2013 the dialogue was terminated and its destiny is not certain.

The dialogue was held non-transparently, while on the other side the EU demands transparency from the Western Balkans countries, though the EU is non-transparent itself. It proved in the cases of tax evasion for certain transnational companies, which were happening in Luxembourg in times when its prime minister was the current president of the European Commission Jean-Cloud Juncker (EPP). There are numerous examples of non-transparency and unacceptable role of the EU.

The Unacceptable role of the EU – the case of Ursula van der Leyen

The latest example of an unacceptable role of the EU is disputable visit of newly elected president of the European Commission (EC) Ursula von der Leyen (CDU/EPP) to the Republic of Croatia. She will have to be more careful in future when it comes to the Western Balkans and actions of the European Commission. Von der Leyen said during the visit that she will work on bringing closer the Western Balkans countries to the EU. The Western Balkans is the part of the Europe and if the EU wants those countries to become EU members, it must precisely define the year of the enlargement, and not only send the statements about this; otherwise those countries will be forced to find some other solutions to take.

Croatia is typical example of new European behaviour. Actually, Croatia does not respect the decisions of international arbitration court regarding the cross-border dispute with Slovenia. At the same time, Republic of Croatia does not respect the decision of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Courts for the crimes perpetrated in the former Yugoslavia (MICT), by which certain highly positioned officials of Croatia and Croatian Democratic Party (HDZ) are sentenced by absolute decision for participation in the associated crime against Bosnia and Herzegovina. HDZ is a political party against which the process is ongoing at the district court in Zagreb. At the same time it should be added that the position of Serbian community in Croatia suddenly deteriorated after Croatia became full member of the EU. Serbian community was cooperative and important factor, which contributed that Croatia became the EU member.

The audit of events from the Word War II is ongoing in Croatia where the attempts are made to rehabilitate fascist and collaboration armies and present them as anti-fascist. Of enormous importance is the position of Jewish community, which still did not resolve the issue of returning its property taken from them. Audit of history contributed that the Jewish community and other anti-fascist associations independently and in fact separately celebrate anniversary of liberation from the concentration camp Jasenovac that was held by the Ustasha regime. Representatives of the Croatian state do not take place at those commemorations. Pro fascist appearances and speeches of the president of the Republic of Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović (HDZ) and her open involvement in internal affairs in the nearby Bosnia and Herzegovina are evident.

Croatia as the EU and NATO member did not resolve open border issues with any of the neighbours except for Hungary, since it inherited that border from former Yugoslavia.

Republic Croatia shall on January 1, 2020 start with the Presidency of the EU Council. The focus of its presidency will be the Western Balkans where it is in conflict with almost all states. Croatia does not recognize legal and legitimate election of the Croat Željko Komšić (DF) for Presidency member of Bosnian and Herzegovina from the Croatian population only because its favourite president of HDZ BiH controversial Dragan Čović (HDZ BiH) was not elected. Komšić was elected based on the same election law by which Mr Čović was previously elected. It became almost constant trend that Croatian officials misuse their EU and NATO membership when it comes to Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as to the Republic of Serbia. It is expected that similar situation will be soon in the Council of Europe (CoE), because secretary general of the Council of Europe is Marija Pejčinović Burić (HDZ), former minister of foreign affairs of Croatia.

The analysts find worrying the fact that the EU and NATO institutions did not react to the behaviour of Croatia when it comes to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, because it is evident Croatia misuses its EU and NATO membership. Many war criminals find their shelter in Croatia, including those who were sentenced by absolute decision in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the crimes they perpetrated, while Croatian secret services harass the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina living on its territory. Croatian police practices inhuman behaviour against the migrants (beating and torture) and performs illegal readmission of migrants from its territory to BiH, which was already alerted by the human rights organisations. Croatia strongly builds its relations with Russia despite the introduced sanctions of the EU against Russia. Croatia shall need help to face and overcome challenges and situations it is in. If it wants its chair mandate in the EU not to be doomed in advance, at least when it comes to the Western Balkans, it shall need help from the EU as well as from the countries of the region, because the experiences so far showed that „facing the self“ is the most difficult.

Trilateral Serbia – North Macedonia – Albania

In Novi Sad on October 10, 2019 trilateral meeting between president of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić (SNS) and prime ministers of North Macedonia and Albania, Zoran Zaev (SDSM) and Edi Rama (PS) was held. Declaration of measures for establishment of „small Schengen“ was signed between the three countries.

This declaration should help the entire Western Balkans region to start functioning in four key EU freedoms – freedom of movement of capital, goods, services and people.

Joint declaration foresees elimination of state border controls and other obstacles to simpler movement in the region until 2021, and also to enable citizens to travel in the region with personal ID card only as well as to find employments anywhere if they have the certificate of their qualifications.

Declaration also foresees recognition of diplomas in the region as well as better cooperation in combatting organised crime and support in cases of natural disasters.

President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić invited all so-called members of the Balkans six to accept the document about “small Schengen”, regardless of their differences referring to the recognition of Kosovo.

The prime minister of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev said that the initiative for economic networking of the countries in the region should be joined by all six Western Balkans countries (Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Kosovo).

Zaev said that North Macedonia supported the initiative because „much more needs to be done in economic networking. We are sending message that political relations in the region become simpler, that Balkans is not a barrel of gunpowder anymore but the region of stability and economic development, committed to the Euro integrations and improvement of the standard of its citizens“.

Last week the president of Serbia Vučić held in Belgrade trilateral meeting Serbia-Turkey-Bosnia and Herzegovina and the joint basis for commencement of works on highway Belgrade – Sarajevo was laid, which is one of the important infrastructure projects.

Experts believe that those are new positive moments arriving from Serbia and its president Aleksandar Vučić which should be welcomed and supported by the EU in order to continue and additionally intensify that trend of cooperation. It is expected that new and better era for the future of Serbia and the region shall start.

The Western Balkans as the new Višegrad Group

On the initiative of the Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, with the support of North Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, mutual cooperation in the Western Balkans region has been intensified. The Western Balkans leaders are aware of the need to take strong steps towards mutual cooperation, which will be aimed at creating better living conditions for citizens and, especially important, stopping the trend of mass displacement of population from the region.

Analysts believe that the countries of the Western Balkans must establish strong political, economic, cultural and any other form of cooperation and act jointly towards the EU, as a group of states with clearly defined requirements. When it comes to the EU enlargement, it is necessary to specify when the enlargement will take place, since it cannot be delayed indefinitely. It is important to emphasize that regional cooperation does not mean that the countries of the region have given up their European path and the EU membership, which Montenegro expresses as its concern.

In so doing, as an experience can serve the cooperation within the so-called Višegrad group of countries (Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia), which very often jointly act within the EU with clearly expressed demands and attitudes. Moreover, the Višegrad Group was formed to make it easier and faster for these countries to join the EU and NATO, which they did. Therefore, it is important for the countries of the region to act jointly towards the EU and / or other foreign policy initiatives, as a single approach is insufficient and does not guarantee success.

The date for the start of the negotiations with the EU for North Macedonia and Albania

At the EU Summit on 17 and 18 October 2019 in Brussels, the decision on the date for the start of negotiations should be taken. Although some member states were sceptical of assigning the date, in the end only France remained to approve the start of the EU negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania.

Analysts believe that the EU member states, including France, must show vision for the enlargement, because if the enlargements had not happened in the past, the EU would never have developed into such respectable regional integration. Given that the EU has 27 members (excluding the UK), there is always the possibility of different conditions and blockades, which should be avoided or not allowed by the member states. This is especially important in circumstances where other countries are trying to exert strong influence in the Western Balkans, above all Russia, China and Turkey. The EU hesitance can have strategic consequences in the Western Balkans and it is due to uncertainty about EU membership and pressures from the domestic public, that certain countries could change their geopolitical orientation.

Analysts believe that the reservations of France and its President, Emmanuel Macron (ALDE), when it comes to assigning the dates to start EU negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania show another absurdity of the European policy. Specifically, Macron’s La République En Marche Party is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in the European Parliament (ALDE), who are strong supporters of the enlargement, and that its member La République En Marche is blocking the enlargement. This is why ALDE is under a historic responsibility because President Macron belongs to ALDE. It is surprising to see French President Macron, who was seen as the new leader of Europe two years ago when coming to power. With the announcement of the blockade of the assigning the date for the start of negotiations for North Macedonia and Albania, Macron shows that he has no vision and disassociates with his political group ALDE within the EU, which is a strong proponent of the enlargement, thereby assuming a huge responsibility for the EU’s destiny and enlargement process.

In addition to the issue of stability in the Western Balkans region, it also concerns the credibility of European leaders. Namely, at the EU summit in June 2018, they decided that they would assign in 2019 a date for the start of negotiations to North Macedonia and Albania, if they meet conditions for the start of negotiations. For both countries, and especially for North Macedonia, this has been clearly achieved. If no date is set for the start of negotiations (the start of negotiations does not mean the EU membership), European leaders will eat their word and lose their credibility. This will also call into question (Robert) Schuman’s vision of the united Europe. In that case, one could even say that President Macron was working against the idea of his great countryman, who launched the project of today’s EU.

The EU has jeopardized the American interests as well

The dialogue between official Belgrade and Pristina was led by the EU as a mediator. The dialogue was a fiasco. No significant progress has been made in the last ten years since the Western Balkans region was left to the care of the EU. Other countries, especially Russia, China and Turkey, have strengthened their presence and influence in the region. Such action by the EU necessitated the return of the United States to the Balkans. The justified questions are, is the EU a reliable partner and can the EU overcome the internal crisis without strong support of the USA?

Analysts believe that of particular symbolic importance, and may be the last chance because of the credibility of the EU in the Western Balkans, is to save the Western Balkan countries from the “hug” of Russia, China and Turkey by assigning the start date of EU negotiations for North Macedonia and Albania, at the EU summit in Brussels, and to accelerate work on conclusion of a dialogue between official Belgrade and Pristina by signing a legally binding agreement, while the countries in the region intensively work on the regional co-operation started in the region.

Ljubljana, October 16, 2019

IFIMES is an international institute of the Special Consultative status with the UN. It has permanent representations with the Un in New York, Geneva and Vienna respectively.

It’s time to say goodbye to all those ignored RSVPs and discarded gifts you handed out after your previous parties. The time has come to prevent the snickering of the employees who know they are expected to show up and have a good time, even though some would rather run a marathon in the Amazon than spend a single minute making small talk with their supervisor.

As your employees have become more refined over time and their options more versatile, it’s no wonder the notion of the holiday party has completely changed over the years. This is an opportunity for your brand to shine while you give your teams exactly what they need to relax, unwind, and have some fun without worrying about their projects. Consider the following five tips to boost your party planning and to make the most of all of your future events.

Take it to the team

Whether you really want to organize this party for an actual holiday or you’d like to borrow a theme from one and celebrate during the general holiday season – you need to let your employees take part in the decision-making process. After all, they are the ones who are about to relinquish several hours of their free time, they deserve to choose how they’re going to spend it.

For starters, you can set up an introductory meeting where you can settle on a general theme, be it Halloween, Christmas, New Year’s, or anything that’s predominant and loved in your culture. Then, you can let your employees know when they can share their ideas with you, whether through an anonymous channel or during your one-on-one meetings. Take a few months before you settle on the entire organization, since this brainstorming can take time!

Don’t skimp on sips and food

Anything from the goofy celebrations of Halloween to classy Christmas parties deserves a menu that fits the palate of your employees. There’s no need to offer shrimp cocktail if they prefer spring rolls and mozzarella sticks, so it’s up to you to ensure variety and abundance in terms of your employees’ and clients’ favorite dishes and drinks.

Certain staples are always welcome, such as delicious burgundy wine which is considered a must-have for any holiday event. The main perk of these wines is that they are often easy to match to different meals, meat-based and plant-based alike, so all of your employees will be happy. Add to that a few signature cocktails and non-alcoholic sips, paired with a range of appetizing meals, and you’ll be good to go.

Book the right entertainment

Much like themes and food, the very content of your entire event will depend on what your employees enjoy the most. It’s also best to stick to the same piece of advice: keep things versatile. When it comes to entertainment, the same wisdom applies, since you’ll have all kinds of characters attending your event, and you want to go out of your way to make them feel comfortable and enjoy their time at the venue.

Booking a band for some smooth background music is a great way to set the tone of the entire event, but not much of actual entertainment. Add a pool table, karaoke, a magician, and perhaps make the event pet-friendly if you run such an office, and you’ll have loads of people laughing out loud, having the time of their lives. A dedicated photographer is always a good way to commemorate the event, so don’t forget to hire someone who knows how to work corporate parties.

Give your party a purpose

Brands today no longer exist simply because they run a solid business, but because they have a driving force, a purpose that propels them upwards. That same purpose can be used as the goal of your event, or at the very least as the catalyst to create one. This is another topic for your employee brainstorming sessions: what can be the key goal of your event?

Perhaps you can raise money for a local charity or a very specific person, or you can create a fund that will be used to provide materials, clothes, or books for kids in impoverished families. Then again, if the pet-friendly theme perseveres, you can collect funds for a shelter, or even turn it into an adoption event where the shelter dogs will be invited to woo their potential future owners.

Set boundaries, but keep it light

Finally, it’s important to remember that this is still a corporate, business event, and certain rules apply. Make sure to go over the rules and acceptable decorum with your employees, especially the most recent additions to your teams. Maybe a brief reminder of the proper etiquette is a good way to set some healthy boundaries without taking away any of the fun.

Ultimately, the success of your event will depend on how well you integrate these steps in your party plan. Make sure you are thorough in your efforts and that your employees are involved every step of the way, and you’ll soon perfect the art of event organization so that your future parties are greeted with joy.

By Peter Minkoff

Peter is a lifestyle and travel writer at Men-Ual magazine, living between Ústí nad Labem and Antwerp. Follow Peter on Twitter for more tips.

Do you want to travel the world full-time but just can’t figure out how people do it on such a tight budget? Well, we’re here to give you some insight into the world of budget travel and how you can do it too. Keep these tips in mind and you’ll get to see the world without breaking the bank.

Pick the right destinations

This is the most important part of traveling on a budget: choosing the right destinations. Of course, you want to swim in the Blue Lagoon in Iceland, but that country is super expensive. Before you create your itinerary, check whether destinations fit into your budget. Asia is a great place to explore, especially countries like Nepal, India, Vietnam and China. After some time living on a budget, you can throw in a lux destination like Hong Kong or Taiwan. Central America is also perfect for budget travelers. Not only fun and beautiful, destinations like Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua are also quite budget-friendly.

Learn how to save

If you’re a master in spending wisely, you’ll get to travel the world and not work a day in between your trips. Traveling on a budget requires smart spending strategies! It might sound easy to hold back on spending, but just remember how many people you have in your life who are in debt and spend all their money paying for it. In order to travel without spending too much, you need to know your limit. Sure, partying in Berlin or Vegas might be fun, but can you really afford it? You might have money to stay a few more days in Bali, but are you willing to sacrifice the rest of your trip just to prolong your stay in such an expensive destination? The way you save before and during your trip will determine how far you can go on your budget.

Spend smart

Oftentimes, cash is your only option while traveling, especially if you’re going through more rural parts of your destination. However, using cash might not be the smartest way to pay. If you want to save up some money, find a practical travel credit card that will provide you with benefits when booking online, earn you miles and get you some cash back. So, before you embark, make sure to grab a travel card and spend smart.

Wait for cheap flights

If you don’t have the time to spend hours and hours in front of your computer waiting for affordable tickets, you can check out some websites that allow you to compare prices and show the cheapest flights you can find for your destination. Some even have notification systems in place that inform you when flights drop to your budget level.

Do free things

Wherever you go, you’ll be able to find amazing free things to do. These will allow you to explore the destination yet save a bunch of money (most entrance fees and activity prices are grossly overpriced). In order to find these freebies, just Google ‘free things to do in’ and enter your destination. You’ll be blown away by how many amazing museums, walking tours, hikes, religious sites and local events are 100% free. Pro tip: if you’re friendly, locals will often invite you to have coffee or beer with them just to practice their English or chat about your travels.

Get to work

If you’re willing and able to work while you travel, you’ll explore the world in no time. Working while abroad is the best way to keep your trip going without breaking your bank. Make some money doing an easy job, save something for traveling and move onto the next one. Of course, you’ll need to experience in finding quick jobs, but there is more than one way. You can live as a digital nomad if you have certain computer skills that allow you to freelance and earn your paycheck. A lot of other jobs require visas and work permits, but you can often find a way to skip these. Many hostels are willing to exchange work for lodging, but you can also try your luck as a babysitter, personal fitness trainer, tour operator or English tutor. Some people are lucky enough to find work on a private yacht which means you have to work for 6 months but you also get to travel for 6 months!

Try woofing

Woofing is a new way to earn money while traveling. World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms is an organization that connects laborers with farmers looking for help on their properties. If you’re willing to lend a hand on the farm for some food and lodging, sign up with WWOOF and you’ll get the opportunity to find work in over 100 countries all over the world.

If you save smart, spend smart and work smart, you’ll get to travel the world, experience new things and meet new people without spending all your life savings. So, study these tips, pack your bags and start the adventure of a lifetime!

By Peter Minkoff

Peter is a lifestyle and travel writer at Men-Ual magazine, living between Ústí nad Labem and Antwerp. Follow Peter on Twitter for more tips.

Nobody in the financial industry could have missed how notable the attention has been in all recent regulations paid to the conflict of interest and its mitigation. All those MiFIDs, IDDs, MCDs and other Directives, have substantial parts dedicated to so called “inducements”. This is a euphemism for preventing the advisors (distributors) from taking too much money that would skew their advice and recommendation to clients. Because even a little kid knows that those essentially undesirables in the financial world (we love Fintech!) will recommend even the worst product with the highest commission, right? Wrong.

As with many presumptions of current consumer protection dogma, this cliché has very little empirical backing. Considering investments, as the most observed segment, even scholarly literature is deeply divided, as to whether higher commissions lead to worse advice or not. Seeing this and the huge costs incurred by the colossal inducements’ regulation, I decided about two years ago to take a look at the situation in Central-Eastern Europe. That “wild East” of the European Union, which is not empirically mapped at all. So, what was our journey and what have we found?

Our research, which will be published in a few months in one of the prestigious European journals, was based on the examination of a total of 2,066 advised sales realised between 2013 and 2015. Using a quantitative model, we have examined whether, in those sales, the amount of commission paid to the final adviser had anything to do with the costs, yield or volatility of the recommended investment product. Participating companies were divided according to their sales model (MLM, pool or flat structures) and their size, to make results most granular. We certainly had many expectations regarding the outcomes, but what we found surprised us all. Although we have observed a relationship between commission and sold product costs, this was for the biggest part of the market (MLMs) compensated (for the investors) by significantly higher returns from the recommended funds.

How can we interpret such an outcome? Well, simply put: the majority of financial advisers recommend products with higher fees, but also higher returns. Does this suggest the consumer detriment that the Brussels legislators’ are claiming? Hardly. Because, on the negative side of the equation, the consumer must also add the costs of the regulation itself. Which are, unsurprisingly, enormous and are already pushing smaller companies out of business. Sceptics might ask: is this not the true goal of the regulation storm that we are enduring, despite the rhetoric about “smart regulation? Only time will tell.

Notes:
The paper referred to above can be accessed here and the previous author’s work on the topic at both here and here.

By Jiří Šindelář
Broker Consulting, a.s.
former Deputy Chairman of FECIF

It’s the Cayman Islands, according to data collected from thousands of expats around the world. The cost of living in the capital George Town is 41% more expensive than New York. The other most expensive countries include Bermuda, Switzerland and Norway. Everywhere else in the world rates cheaper than New York. See more here.

After several months of mass protests, which started in December 2018 due to bread and fuel shortages, the Sudanese finally achieved the ouster of their long-term dictator Omar Al-Bashir who has been overthrown by the army. Since 1989 his uninterrupted ruling has been marked by oppression of the black and non-Muslim population.

In July 2008 he was charged by the Hague-based International Criminal Court with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the Darfur war.

Sudan was on the brink of civil war between the protesters on one side and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on the other side. The Forces are commanded by another war crimes suspect Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, a self-proclaimed general who never served as a soldier nor received any military education. He was granted his military rank by President Al-Bashir in return for his services in Darfur that he performed with extreme cruelty. RSF is composed of former members of the Janjaweed militias which have committed most brutal crimes and atrocities in Darfur since 2003 with at least 300,000 killed and three million civilian population displaced.

In their massacre attack in Khartoum on 3 June 2019, shortly before the agreement was achieved between the ruling military council and the opposition, RSF killed 128 peaceful demonstrators. General Dagalo has established good relations with Saudi Arabia where he is in charge of recruiting Sudanese mercenaries to fight on the side of Saudi coalition in Yemen. The Sudanese army has remained neutral in the current crisis and thus proved its professionalism.

Doubts about the capacity of transitional government

After long and many times interrupted talks and following the intervention by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, the Constitutional Charter was signed between the opposition coalition and the military council on 17 August 2019. The coalition called Forces of Freedom and Change unites the Sudanese Professionals Association, the National Consensus Forces, Sudan Call and the Unionists (DUP).

The agreement should pave the way to the formation of civilian government after almost have a century of military rule. Despite great optimism among the citizens doubts are still present about the capacity of the transitional government to limit the army’s and especially the RSF’s influence on politics.

After the ousting of long-term President Al-Bashir an agreement was reached between the military council and the opposition on 11 April 2019. This represents a new chapter in Sudan’s modern history that has already seen three civil wars: the conflicts between the northern part of Sudan and the southern Sudan region from 1955 to 1972 and from 1983 to 2005, and the ethnic cleansing in Darfur and south Kordofan from 2011 till present.

So far Sudan has avoided the Egyptian scenario

The process of transition to democracy brings along challenges such as new domestic and foreign policy, economic reforms, protection of rights and freedoms and a balanced foreign policy, all of which would enable Sudan to be removed from the international community’s black list and sanctions.

The transition process necessitates fair elections and a new or modified constitution. The democratic process would trigger political and economic reforms whose consequences would especially hit the army and its interests. The recently agreed period of three years and three months would be enough for a smooth transition. The opposition coalition and the army have thus avoided the radical overnight changes as was the case in Egypt where such quick changes led to the military coup in 2013. Sudan’s experience in limiting the army’s role with cooperation rather than with confrontation is important for the whole Arab world and for the Arab Spring. +

After tough negotiations the opposition made a very difficult decision to appoint General Dagalo, who is charged with war crimes, as the vice president of Transitional Military Council.

Pursuant the Constitutional Charter the opposition coalition and the military council agreed that the Transitional Council would be Sudan’s highest body. The Council comprises 11 members (five from the army, five from the opposition coalition and one independent member). The mandate for forming the government was entrusted to an experienced economist Abdullah Hamduk, who served as Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNEC) from 2011 to 2018.

Of course, not all issues have been completely resolved. Within the opposition there are still strong fractions that have reservations about the agreement, while some have not even joined the opposition coalition.

There are four factors that enabled Sudan to overcome the difficult phase of unrest and civil war with the least possible losses in comparison with the events in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and also Algeria where it is still not clear whether the Algerian army will take complete control over the country like it did in Egypt or it will allow a democratic transition of power following Sudan’s model.

Four positive factors

Four key factors contributed to the resolution of the situation in Sudan:

Firstly: The patriotic Sudanese army refused to shoot at the protesters, except for its D-unit. Despite the conflicts and mistrust among the army and the opposition coalition they continued with the negotiations to reach the agreement and to meet at least the minimum expectations of the protesters.

Secondly: Sudanese opposition is comprised of relatively strong political parties with a long tradition, political maturity and wisdom. Their activists from the civil society maintained the initial momentum, so the protests, did not devolve into anarchy and consequently the army and RSF did not quell the uprising. During the protests and negotiations the opposition coalition was patient in resolving the critical issues. They agreed to the acceptable and realistic solutions in order to resolve the severe economic and ethnic problems in the country. They did not demand that the army be excluded from the political process and agreed to share power with the army during the transitional period. Thus they avoided the mistakes made by the opposition protesters in other Arab Spring countries.

Thirdly: Probably the most important factor was that Sudanese opposition prevented the army from abusing the local and social vulnerability of minorities and tribes. Unlike during the previous civil wars in South Sudan, Darfur and elsewhere, they focused on uniting the whole nation with the aim to ensure a better future for them and for their future generations without any discrimination.

Fourthly: Most of the credit for reaching the agreement goes to the Ethiopian Prime Minister Ali and his assiduous mediation activities in the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). Both Prime Minister Ali and the OAU prevented the interference of some Arab countries such as United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia and their financing of the military junta to carry out a coup, as was the case in Egypt where they provided over 12 billion dollars to remove the democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi in a coup that took place on 3 July 2013.

Once the 17th fastest growing economy in the world

Sudan, which was the largest African state until the Republic of South Sudan gained independence, is now the third biggest country in Africa (following Algeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo) with a surface of 1,886,000 km2.

According to estimates from 2010 Sudan was the 17th fastest growing economy in the world. Its fast development, which was mostly based on high income from oil (despite international sanctions), was mentioned and described in The New York Times article from 2006. After the separation the Republic of Sudan lost 80% of its oil fields that remained on the territory of the Republic of South Sudan. Being a landlocked country South Sudan has to rely its oil exports on the pipelines running through Sudan’s ports on the Red Sea coast. It also lacks the oil processing facilities that remained in the northern territory. In August 2012 Sudan and South Sudan signed the agreement on the transportation of South Sudan’s oil through Sudan’s pipelines to Port Sudan. Today Sudan produces about 250,000 barrels of oil per day. Until the secession of South Sudan in 2011 Sudan’s economy depended substantially on oil exports.

Agriculture was Sudan’s main source of income in the past, employing over 80% of the population and accounting for one third of the economic sector. The country has 16.9 million hectares of irrigated agricultural land. Sudan is the world’s third biggest sesame producer following India and China, while cotton is its main export crop. Nile is the main source of irrigation. The country has 643 km of coastline along the Red Sea. There are still unexploited possibilities of fishery, coastal tourism and tourism in the three national parks.

The main factors preventing Sudan’s economic growth in agriculture are frequent droughts and instability due to the civil war.

Sudan has rich mineral resources including asbestos, chromite, cobalt, copper, gold, granite, gypsum, iron, kaolin, lead, manganese, natural gas, nickel, oil, silver, tin, uranium and zinc.

The new Sudanese transitional government needs international support for reforms and economic development and for rescheduling of public debt towards IMF and other international lenders.

As far as its internal policy is concerned, the new government needs inter-ethnic and inter-tribal peace and consensus. Besides Arabs which represent 54% of the 36 million population in Sudan there are 597 Arabized ethnic groups with more than 400 different languages and dialects.

Sudan’s legal system is based on Islamic Sharia law. After the 2005 Naivasha peace agreement that ended the civil war between north and South Sudan, Khartoum introduced several measures to protect the non-Muslims. The use of Sharia law in Sudan does not comply with the tradition of Sudanese people and with the modern times. Sudanese Muslims are divided between Salafism and Sufism, therefore the use of Sharia law which favours the Salafis is not appropriate for Sufis and Darfurians who belong to Sufis.

Analysts believe that Sudan’s foreign policy should turn away from supporting terrorism and start to cooperate closely with the international criminal court in order to achieve the lifting of international sanctions. The Sudanese army should urgently withdraw its 10,000 soldiers from Yemen. The Yemen war is illegal and illegitimate pursuant to international law and it undermines the reputation of the Sudanese army.

The International Institute for Middle-East and Balkan Studies (IFIMES) in Ljubljana, Slovenia, regularly analyses events in the Middle East and the Balkans. IFIMES has prepared an analysis of the situation in Sudan and examined the possibilities for resolving the tensions and appointing a civilian-led transitional government. The most relevant and interesting sections from the comprehensive analysis entitled “Sudan 2019: A difficult path to Sudanese democracy” are published above.

The Czech Republic’s quality of life has been rated 24th out of a total of 149 countries in the 2019 Quality of Life Index, representatives from the Deloitte company revealed to local press this morning.

The country jumps two positions over 2018, when the Czech Republic was rated #26, and also leapfrogs the USA for the very first time. The United States came in at #26 in this year’s Quality of Life Index.

“Even the richest countries have weak spots they must address,” Deloitte President Josef Kotrba told ČTK.

“Worldwide, we should be concerned about the decline of personal rights. It is even happening in the cradle of democracy, like the USA.”

To determine scores in the 2019 Quality of Life Index, countries were ranked according to three main categories: Basic Human Needs, Foundations of Wellbeing, and Opportunity. These categories included sub-indices such as Personal Safety, Medical Care, Environmental Quality, Access to Basic Knowledge, and Personal Freedom.

The Czech Republic ranked highest in the Basic Human Needs category, coming in at #15 of the 149 countries surveyed, and ranked #24 in Opportunity and #31 in Foundations of Wellbeing.

In a number of subrankings, however, the Czech Republic ranked at or tied for #1. These included Undernourishment (2.5% of the population), Access to Electricity (100%), Adult Literacy Rate (99%), Mobile Telephone Subscriptions (119%[!]), and Early Marriage (0%).

As in most of these surveys, Scandinavian countries dominated the top of the quality of life rankings, with Norway taking the #1 position. Denmark, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden rounded out the top five.

New Zealand (#7), Canada (#9), Japan (#10), and the Republic of Korea (#23) were the only non-European countries to rank in the top 25.

Czech neighbors Germany (#8) and Austria (#20) also rated highly in the new Quality of Life Index. The Czech Republic ranked ahead of its other neighbors in the 2019 Quality of Life index, however, with Poland coming in at #33 and Slovakia at #35.

“If we compare the countries of the Visegrad Four, the Czech Republic is far ahead of Slovakia, Hungary and Poland,” Kotrba added.

Among the 149 countries surveyed in the index, the lowest quality of life was found in African nations South Sudan, Central African Republic, Chad, Eritrea, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

These are the world’s top 25 countries according to the 2019 Deloitte Quality of Life Index:

1.Norway
2.Denmark
3.Switzerland
4.Finland
5.Sweden
6.Iceland
7.New Zealand
8.Germany
9.Canada
10.Japan
11.Netherlands
12.Australia
13.United Kingdom
14.Ireland
15.France
16.Luxembourg
17.Spain
18.Portugal
19.Belgium
20.Austria
21.Slovenia
22.Italy
23.Republic of Korea
24.Czech Republic
25.Estonia

Article source

Czechs living in rented homes spend more than homeowners, according to a study by the Partners consulting agency, presented on Wednesday. On average, Czechs renting a home pay 1800 crowns a month more than those who own their home. At the same time, flats are rented mostly by people with lower income.

People who live in their own flat or house spend around 27 percent of their income on housing costs. Those who are renting from private owners pay spend some 37 percent of their income and those renting a municipal apartment spend around 27 percent.

“According to the rules of financial literacy, the ideal housing costs should not exceed 30 percent of your income,” financial adviser of Partners consultancy, Vladimír Weiss, told the Czech News Agency.

The costs of living include rent or mortgage payments, as well as water, energy and other fees.

The survey suggests Czechs prefer to live in their own homes. More than three quarters of those asked regard it as an undisputable advantage, while another 13 percent think it is a major advantage.

Two thirds of respondents who took part in the survey have a flat in private or cooperative ownership, most of them between the ages of 31 and 50 with higher education. One third of people who took part in the survey live in rental accommodation.

People between the ages of 20 and 30 are most pessimistic about the chances of home ownership. Most of them blame the sharp increase of apartment prices which exceeds the growth of salaries. They also believe that home ownership will increasingly become available only to a small group of people.

Based on the recommendation of the Czech National Bank, Czech banks are no longer providing 100-percent loans.

“It is a slightly paradoxical situation. While banks are decreasing interest rates to make mortgages more accessible, the Czech National Bank has been releasing recommendations that make mortgages less affordable,” Vladimír Weiss of Partners Consultancy told the Czech News Agency.

According to data provided by Fincentrum Hypoindex, the average mortgage interest rate dropped in July to 2.68 percent, from 2.76 percent in June. The rate went down for a sixth consecutive month. The mortgage interest rate reached its minimum in December 2016, when it stood at 1.77 percent.

Source: Prague Monitor

Financial literacy and education are key elements of the path to economic growth and social inclusion in the European Union. At the same time, it is important to remember the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted on 25 September 2015 by Heads of State and Government at a special UN summit, which includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 2030 Agenda, a world-wide landmark achievement, highlights the importance of ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promotes lifelong learning opportunities for all, as it is recognized by its Goal 4.

Nowadays an increasingly important aspect of education concerns financial literacy and education. To begin with, it is necessary to make a distinction between the two concepts. According to the OECD, financial literacy is a combination of awareness, knowledge, skill, attitude and behaviour necessary to make sound financial decisions and ultimately achieve individual financial well-being; whereas financial education is the process by which investors improve their understanding of financial products and services and, through information and objective advice, develop the skills and confidence to become more aware of financial risks and opportunities, to make informed choices, to know where to go for help, and to take other effective actions to improve their well-being.

If we consider the European context, the EU contains in itself the world’s best performers (Nordic countries) as well as the countries that score below global average (Romania, Portugal) in financial literacy rankings. Also, for Italy the results are not encouraging; according to a G20 report on adult financial literacy with questions surveying knowledge, behaviour and attitudes in financial topics, Italy ranked only 19th. This evidence shows that there is still considerable scope for improvement, especially in Southern and Eastern European countries.

Financial literacy and education should therefore be an integral part of the policy agenda of the EU institutions and Member States, as they can help tackle some critical social problems. The first one is the pressure on the pension systems, caused by a rapidly ageing population, which requires empowering occupational and personal insurance systems. Another critical issue is mortgage-debt and its impact on the total debt of households. Finally, financial literacy is functional to inclusive growth.

As more and more EU citizens are asked to make their own decisions about such issues, financial literacy is vital for their life-time welfare. All these problems are especially sensitive in the case of young people and their future, both as investors – especially when they have to plan their savings for retirement – and as household owners.

Europe is facing a serious problem of an ageing population, especially in some countries such as Italy. This problem is also evident in the financial sector. Investors and their financial advisors are getting older year by year. According to the statistics of Assogestioni – the Italian association of asset managers – the average age of people investing into mutual funds is 60 (2018), with a general increase over the past; it was 52 years in 2002 and 58 in 2013. In 2018 the share of investors between 26 and 35 years has consequently decreased from 15% to 6%. Similarly, the average age of Italian financial advisors is 51 (2018), whereas only 11% of them are under 40.

This evidence clearly shows that it is necessary to promote financial education and advice among young people, both as potential investors and financial advisors. Financial education, being pivotal towards delivering fundamental social values, can be described as a process which enables citizens to enhance their knowledge of financial concepts and products, understand the risk-return trade-off and find the most suitable solutions to their needs and dreams. This process shall be considered a life-long activity which should begin at a young age.

The starting point is financial planning, based on a life-cycle perspective. Financial advice can be seen as a fully-fledged service which complements financial education, as it is aimed at providing citizens with personalized and integrated solutions (investment management, tax planning, retirement, family and health protection) according to a life-cycle perspective. However, financial education and advice can perform their social roles and achieve their inclusive goals only if we consider that, according to the above-mentioned statistics, it is crucial to get young people involved with tailored initiatives. For instance, policy incentives aimed at promoting job opportunities in the financial sector are vital for the future of the profession of financial advisors. At the same time, financial education needs to be promoted, starting from school age.

Italy provides some positive examples. Since 2009, ANASF and PROGeTICA have been organizing “Economic@mente® – Metti in conto il tuo futuro”, a financial education programme for high school students. Economic@mente® provides students with a set of skills, based on their personal experiences, in order to teach them how to manage their future savings throughout their life by means of simulations, practical classes and tests.

In light of this evidence, the framework is crystal clear. It’s time to act and everyone is called upon to contribute.

Vania Franceschelli
FECIF Vice-President & Foreign Affairs, ANASF

Technology can give advisers ‘opportunities that can revolutionise’ the sector

Advice has overtaken investment performance as the most valued aspect of an IFA or wealth manager’s offering and this means consumers need to have the best experience money can buy.

In a bid to stand out from the crowd, wealth companies are looking to virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) to bolster their interactions with clients.

John Gamble, director of professional services at tech provider C5 Alliance, told International Adviser: “AI and VR technology presents us with opportunities that can revolutionise our everyday lives.

“It can be used to enhance customer experience, especially in the finance sector, where advisers are dealing with clients from all over the world.”

Gamification

Virtual reality is used in many different sectors and is now becoming part of the weird and wonderful world of wealthtech.

Financial services tech provider Synechron, which wrote a masterclass article in June on client prospecting, has developed a virtual reality wealth journey accelerator which enables investors to visualise their own financial plans.

Answering yes/no questions on their retirement goals; they experience a personalised, VR-simulated journey to visualise their financial future – including home, holidays, health, and insurance.

“A key challenge facing many financial advisers and wealth managers today is that the ongoing advisory experience focuses on communicating investment returns rather than really engaging with clients,” Ben Musgrave, head of digital UK at Synechron, said to IA.

“By using VR, financial advisers and wealth managers have an opportunity to use innovative technology to fully engage with their clients, creating a highly-immersive experience that is ideal for identifying and gamifying goals, building relationships and communities, reinforcing positive behaviours, and generally delighting customers.”

Ben Goss, chief executive of Dynamic Planner, also told IA: “Visual tools like cashflow are powerful means of bringing potential futures to life.

“Today, systems use numbers and graphs, but VR provides an immersive experience which could help bring choices to life: ‘Save more now and you retire in this lovely, three-bed place in the sun. Save less and it’s this one bed’.”

AI

Elsewhere, AI is also becoming a fundamental aspect of a client’s experience with an IFA, including onboarding, which has already adopted the tech to improve accuracy, limit fraud and reduce manual intervention.

AI can play a vital part in terms of helping clients understand their investment appetite and make better decisions.

“The assessment of ‘attitude to risk’ will have far greater sophistication,” Thomas Lowe, head of product at Winterflood Business Services, told IA. “Artificial intelligence will be able to assess client’s biodata and tailor questions related to their profiles.

“While more distant on the horizon, artificial emotional intelligence will be able to understand client’s reactions to questions by reading facial expressions, which will then be utilised to determine assessment questions.”

Goss added: “Technology will do more of the heavy lifting.

“Probability-based models are already widely used to crunch the numbers and help build suitable strategies, which are more likely to succeed.

“As data sets grow, AI’s pattern recognition capabilities will be able to provide ever more valuable insights and assistance for advisers to spot potential opportunities and issues.”

Confusion

David Miller, investment director at Quilter Cheviot, said to IA, that using AI should not be confused with robo-advisers, which merely automates conventional ways of managing money.

Miller also discussed the future of AI in the wealth space.

“The reality is that hybrid solution, using a combination of human and artificial intelligence, are evolving; investment managers have access to huge amounts of information and perhaps without even realising it are using AI models to aggregate and simplify and, of course, all of us use ‘intelligent’ search engines like Google as part of daily life, “ he added.

“For now, the onus is on using all the tools at our disposal, including AI, to generate the best customer outcomes that we can.

“AI may be able to beat humans at games like chess and Go, but investment is far more complicated and so humans still have the edge for now.”

By Robbie Lawther

At the end of the parade, a few dozen people release yellow balloons into the sky and distribute leaflets saying “The yellow vests are not dead.” The police disperse them, quickly and firmly. Moments later, hundreds of “Antifa” anarchists arrive, throw security barriers on the roadway to erect barricades, start fires and smash the storefronts of several shops. The police have a rough time mastering the situation, but early in the evening, after a few hours, they restore the calm.

A few hours later, thousands of young Arabs from the suburbs gather near the Arc de Triomphe. They have apparently come to “celebrate” in their own way the victory of an Algerian soccer team. More storefronts are smashed, more shops looted. Algerian flags are everywhere. Slogans are belted out: “Long live Algeria”, “France is ours”, “Death to France”. Signs bearing street names are replaced by signs bearing the name of Abd el Kader, the religious and military leader who fought against the French army at the time of the colonization of Algeria. The police limit themselves to stemming the violence in the hope that it will not spread.

Around midnight, three leaders of the “yellow vest” movement come out of a police station and tell a TV reporter that they were arrested early that morning and imprisoned for the rest of the day. Their lawyer states that they did nothing wrong and were just “preventively” arrested. He emphasizes that a law passed in February 2019 allows the French police to arrest any person suspected of going to a demonstration; no authorization from a judge is necessary and no appeal possible.

On Friday, July 19, the Algerian soccer team wins again. More young Arabs gather near Arc de Triomphe to “celebrate” again. The damage is even greater than eight days before. More police show up; they do almost nothing.

On July 12, two days before Bastille Day, several hundred self-declared African illegal migrants enter the Pantheon, the monument that houses the graves of heroes who played major roles in the history of France. There, the migrants announce the birth of the “Black Vest movement”. They demand the “regularization” of all illegal immigrants on French territory and free housing for each of them. The police show up but decline to intervene. Most of the demonstrators leave peacefully. A few who insult the police are arrested.

France today is a country adrift. Unrest and lawlessness continue to gain ground. Disorder has become part of daily life. Polls show that a large majority reject President Macron. They seem to hate his arrogance and be inclined not to forgive him. They seem to resent his contempt for the poor; the way he crushed the “yellow vest” movement, and for his not having paid even the slightest attention to the protesters’ smallest demands, such as the right to hold a citizen’s referendum like those in Switzerland. Macron can no longer go anywhere in public without risking displays of anger.

The “yellow vests” seem finally to have stopped demonstrating and given up: too many were maimed or hurt. Their discontent, however, is still there. It seems waiting to explode again.

The French police appear ferocious when dealing with peaceful protesters, but barely able to prevent groups such as ‘Antifa’ from causing violence. Therefore, now at the end of each demonstration, “Antifa” show up. The French police seem particularly cautious when having to deal with young Arabs and illegal migrants. The police have been given orders. They know that young Arabs and illegal migrants could create large-scale riots. Three months ago, in Grenoble, the police were pursuing some young Arabs on a stolen motorcycle, who were accused of theft. While fleeing, they had an accident. Five days of mayhem began.

Democracy receding

President Macron looks like an authoritarian leader when he faces the disgruntled poor. He never says he is sorry for those who have lost an eye or a hand or suffered irreversible brain damage from extreme police brutality. Instead, he asked the French parliament to pass a law that almost completely abolishes the right to protest, the presumption of innocence and that allows the arrest of anyone, anywhere, even without cause. The law was passed.

In June, the French parliament passed another law, severely punishing anyone who says or writes something that might contain “hate speech”. The law is so vague that an American legal scholar, Jonathan Turley, felt compelled to react. “France has now become one of the biggest international threats to freedom of speech”, he wrote.

Macron does not appear authoritarian, however, with violent anarchists. When facing young Arabs and illegal migrants, he looks positively weak. He knows what the former interior minister, Gérard Collomb, said in November 2018, while resigning from government:

“Communities in France are engaging in conflict with one another more and more and it is becoming very violent… today we live side by side, I fear that tomorrow it will be face to face”.

Macron also knows what former President François Hollande said after serving his term as president: “France is on the verge of partition”.

Macron knows that the partition of France already exists. Most Arabs and Africans live in no-go-zones, apart from the rest of the population, where they accept the presence of non-Arabs and non-Africans less and less. They do not define themselves as French, except when they say that France will belong to them. Reports show that most seem filled with a deep rejection of France and Western civilization. An incressing number seem to place their religion above their citizenship; many seem radicalised and ready to fight.

Macron seems not to want to fight. Instead, he has chosen to appease them. He is single-mindedly pursuing his plans to institutionalise Islam in France. Three months ago, the Muslim Association for Islam of France (AMIF) was created. One branch will handle the cultural expansion of Islam and take charge of “the fight against anti-Muslim racism”. Another branch will be responsible for programs that train imams and build mosques. This autumn, a “Council of Imams of France” will be established. The main leaders of the AMIF are (or were until recently) members of the Muslim Brotherhood, a movement designated as a terrorist organisation in Egypt, Bahrain, Syria, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — but not in France.

French President is aware of the demographic data. They show that the Muslim population in France will grow significantly in the coming years. (The economist Charles Gave wrote recently that by 2057, France will have a Muslim majority). Macron can see that it will soon be impossible for anyone to be elected President without relying on the Muslim vote, so he acts accordingly.

Macron apparently sees that the discontent that gave birth to the “yellow vest” movement still is there. He appears to think that repression will be enough to prevent any further uprising, and so does nothing to remedy the causes of the discontent.

The “yellow vest” movement was born of a revolt against exorbitantly high taxes on fuel, and harsh government measures against cars and motorists. These measures included reduced speed limits – 90 km/h on most highways — and more speed-detection cameras; a sharp rise in the penalties on tickets, as well as complex and expensive annual motor vehicle controls. French taxes on fuels recently rose again and are now the highest in Europe (70% of the price paid at the pump). Other measures against the use of automobiles and motorists still in force are especially painful for the poor. They were already chased from the suburbs by intolerant newcomers, and now have to live — and drive — even farther from where they work.

Socio-culturally disenfranchised

President has made no decision to remedy the disastrous economic situation in France. When he was elected, taxes, duties and social charges represented almost 50% of GDP. Government spending represented 57% of GDP (the highest among developed countries). The ratio of national debt to GDP was almost 100%.

Taxes, duties, social charges and government spending remain at the same level now as when Macron came in. The debt-to-GDP ratio is 100% and growing. The French economy is not creating jobs. Poverty remains extremely high: 14% of the population earn less than 855 euros ($950) a month.

“How else to explain that the post-WWII come-and-help-our-recovery slogan Gastarbeiter willkommen became an Auslander Raus roar in a matter of only two decades. Suddenly, our national purifiers extensively shout ‘stop überfremdung of EU, we need de-ciganization’ of our societies, as if it historically does not always end up in one and only possible way– self-barbarization. In response, the socially marginalized and ghettoized ‘foreigners’ are calling for the creation of gastarbeiterpartie. Indeed, the first political parties of foreigners are already created in Austria, with similar calls in Germany, France and the Netherlands. Their natural coalition partner would never be any of the main political parties. We should know by now, how the diverting of the mounting socio-economic discontent and generational disfranchising through ethno engineering will end up, don’t we?” – warned prof. Anis H. Bajrektarevic years ago in his brave and farsighted essay ‘Denazification urgently needed in Europe’.

Consequently, our top executives pay no attention to the growing cultural disaster also seizing the country. The educational system is crumbling. An increasing percentage of students graduate from high school without knowing how to write a sentence free of errors that make incomprehensible anything they write. Christianity is disappearing. Most non-Muslim French no longer define themselves as Christians. The fire that ravaged the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris was officially an ‘accident’, but it was only one of the many Christian religious buildings in the country that were recently destroyed. Every week, churches are vandalised — to the general indifference of the public. In just the first half of 2019, 22 churches burned down.

The main concern of Macron and the French government seems not to be the risk of riots, the public’s discontent, the disappearance of Christianity, the disastrous economic situation, or Islamization and its consequences. Instead, it is climate change. Although the amount of France’s carbon dioxide emissions is infinitesimal (less than 1% of the global total), combatting “human-induced climate change” appears Macron’s absolute priority.

A Swedish girl, Greta Thunberg, age 16, — nevertheless the guru of the “fight for the climate” in Europe — was recently invited to the French National Assembly by members of parliament who support Macron. She delivered a speech, promising that the “irreversible destruction” of the planet will begin very soon. A Baby-revolutionary added that political leaders “are not mature enough” and need lessons from children. MPs who support Macron applauded warmly. She received a Prize of Freedom, just created, which will be given each year to people “fighting for the values of those who landed in Normandy in 1944 to liberate Europe”. It is probably reasonable to assume that not one of those who landed in Normandy in 1944 thought he was fighting to save the climate. Such minor details, however, seem beyond Macron and the parliamentarians who support him.

Macron and the French government also seem unconcerned that Jews — driven by the rise of anti-Semitism, and understandably worried about court decisions infused with the spirit of submission to violent Islam –continue to flee from France.

Kobili Traore, the man who murdered Sarah Halimi in 2017 while chanting suras from the Qur’an and shouting that the Jews are Sheitan (Arabic for “Satan”) was found not guilty. Traore had apparently smoked cannabis before the murder, so the judges decided that he was not responsible for his acts. Traore will soon be released from prison; what happens if he smokes cannabis again?

A few weeks after the murder of Halimi, three members of a Jewish family were assaulted, tortured and held hostage in their home by a group of five men who said that “Jews have money” and “Jews must pay”. The men were arrested; all were Muslim. The judge who indicated them announced that their actions were “not anti-Semitic”.

On July 25, 2019 when the Israeli soccer team Maccabi Haifa was competing in Strasbourg, the French government limited the number of Israeli supporters in the stadium to 600, not one more. A thousand had bought plane tickets to come to France to attend the match. The French government also banned the waving of Israeli flags at the game or anywhere in the city. Nonetheless, in the name of “free speech”, the French Department of the Interior permitted anti-Israeli demonstrations in front of the stadium, and Palestinian flags and banners saying “Death to Israel” were there. The day before the match, at a restaurant near the stadium, some Israelis were violently attacked. “The demonstrations against Israel are approved in the name of freedom of expression, but the authorities forbid supporters of Maccabi Haifa to raise the Israeli flag, it is unacceptable,” said Aliza Ben Nun, Israel’s ambassador to France.

The other day, a plane full of French Jews leaving France arrived in Israel. More French Jews will soon go. The departure of Jews to Israel entails sacrifices: some French real estate agents take advantage of the wish of many Jewish families to leave, so they buy and sell properties owned by Jews at a price far lower than their market value.

Fighting the ghost

Macron will remain as president until May 2022. Several leaders of the parties of the center-left (such as the Socialist Party) and center-right (The Republicans) joined The Republic on the Move, the party he created two years ago. After that, the Socialist Party and The Republicans electorally collapsed. Macron’s main opponent in 2022 is likely to be the same as in 2017: Marine Le Pen, the leader of the populist National Rally.

Although Macron is widely unpopular and widely hated, he will probably use the same slogans as in 2017: that he is the last bastion of hope against “chaos” and “fascism.” He has a strong chance of being elected again. Anyone who reads the political program of the National Rally can see that Le Pen is not a fascist. Also, anyone who looks at the situation in France may wonder if France has not already begun to sink into chaos.

The sad situation that reigns in France is not all that different from that in many other Euriopean countries. A few weeks ago, an African cardinal, Robert Sarah, published a book, Le soir approche et déjà le jour baisse (“The evening comes, and already the light darkens”). “At the root of the collapse of the West”, he writes, “there is a cultural and identity crisis. The West no longer knows what it is, because it does not know and does not want to know what shaped it, what constituted it, what it was and what it is. (…) This self-asphyxiation leads naturally to a decadence that opens the way to new barbaric civilizations.”

That is exactly what is happening in France — and Europe.

Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.

Earlier version published by the GeterstoneInstitute under the title France Slowly Sinking into Chaos

The unbearable heat of the sun beating down on the melting asphalt. The city seems a bit emptier than usual, perhaps because everyone has gone to a tropical vacation – or they’re just hiding in air-conditioned apartments and offices. You lose a liter of sweat on the way to work and on the way back home. Things seem hopeless as you just can’t leave on your vacation for another month. Or worse, you have already been and the images of the seaside chill have already started disappearing from your brain. Don’t give up just yet – let us go over all the good things the summer brings to the city life!

Wear summer clothes

Hey, even if you have a dress code, a heat wave is nothing to sneeze at! Wear as little or as colorful clothes as you want – at least to the entrance to your offices. And let’s not forget the casual Friday, which is an excellent excuse to show off that chic thing you bought the other day. The important thing is, it’s summer and you can wear it short, feeling the sun on your skin. Just watch out when the sun index is high – make sure to use sunscreen generously on your skin.

Wake up with the sun

Normally the sun has a tendency to wake you up – why not jump the gun and get up early, before the scorching heat kills your every desire to actually go outside? If you’re looking to get some exercise going, really early morning is your friend. Get some weather-appropriate gym wear and hit the treadmill or go for a run or a swim while most people are still in their beds. Not only is it refreshing, but there are no crowds either!

Make a work get-together

You are spending a lot of time together with your colleagues at work. It is summer and you are all in this together – stuck behind desks, in (hopefully) air-conditioned offices. Why not doing something together that will make the day go by faster and recharge your batteries? If your office building has a yard or a rooftop – organize a picnic for lunch instead of a visit to the local cafeteria. Or go together for a lunch in the park.

Find another way to get to work

If you are lucky enough to be living in a city with good public transportation and cycling path and you are still coming to work by car, what are you even doing with your life? Not only is cycling one of the best things you can do for your body and mind, but you can learn new ways to get to where you work or even find shortcuts that are impossible to take in any other form of transportation. And if you have options to commute via trains, buses or subway, you can even use the extra time for reading or catching up with the news, so that you don’t feel the need to do it when you get to the office.

Make good use of your weekends

Working in the long summer days is already tough enough, don’t overdo it. Keep your weekends clutter free – don’t take on work that you don’t absolutely have to. Go out and enjoy the cool, fragrant nights of the summer and meet new people. Or leave the city for two days, run to the nearest body of water and go for a swim to cool off. Do whatever you want, just make it active and happening outside – your brain will thank you once you get back to work on Monday.

By Peter Minkoff

Peter is a lifestyle and travel writer at Men-Ual magazine, living between Ústí nad Labem and Antwerp. Follow Peter on Twitter for more tips.

“It’s the way life is lived in those countries.”

If you’re feeling low, it may be time to book a trip to Finland.

The results of the seventh annual World Happiness Report have revealed that residents of Finland are the happiest in the world — for the second year in a row. But it’s not something inherent in Finnish DNA, according to the researchers.

“It’s true that last year all Finns were happier than rest of the countries’ residents, but their immigrants were also happiest immigrants in the world,” John Helliwell, co-editor of the report and a professor of economics at the University of British Columbia, told CNN. “It’s not about Finnish DNA. It’s the way life is lived in those countries.”

And that same sentiment can be extended to countries geographically near Finland. Despite winters without much sunlight, Scandinavian residents are the happiest in the world, according to this report. The following most happy countries were Denmark, Norway, Iceland and The Netherlands.

The report, which is produced by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, ranks 156 countries around the globe based off of “how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be.” Categories considered include wealth, life expectancy, social support, freedom to make life decisions and levels of government corruption.

While Scandinavia may have reason to celebrate, the rest of the world is not so happy. According to the report, world happiness has fallen in recent years, largely driven by a significant decrease in India. Emotions like worry, sadness and anger have increased throughout Asia and Africa in that same time.

The U.S.’s ranking in the survey slipped from 18 to 19, which researcher credit in large part to rampant “compulsive pursuit of substance abuse and addictive behaviors,” including consumption of digital media and gambling.

“We are living a moment of transition to a new age and this generates a sense of uncertainty,” Andrea Illy, Chairman of illycaffè and Member of the Board of Fondazione Ernesto Illy, which co-sponsored the study, said in a statement.“Social happiness is therefore even more relevant, in order to give a positive perspective and outlook for the present and for the future.”

Will this summer see a new Europe or the return to the “good old continent”? What are the challenges for our profession and our clients?

It will not have been easy but finally, Ursula von der Leyen was elected as head of the Commission and Christine Lagarde took the lead at the ECB, leading some commentators speaking about a new Europe.

But beyond the symbolism represented by these two nominations, should we anticipate a real renewal of the European Union – and what can we, as professionals, and our clients expect from the new team?

Our continent bears both the name of a Phoenician princess first loved by Zeus, and then given by him to another, and that of an icy moon of Jupiter. Will our new leaders prevent us from ending up as an abandoned and forgotten land of the Gods and bring us, after Brexit, to – at least economically – equal play with the other great powers?

What should we expect? A change in European policy and strategy or an extension of the one already implemented?

An analysis of the past 5 main leaders of the Union and the President of ECON, the commission which mostly deals with the subjects which concern us, is quite instructive.

While the new President of the Commission is a heavyweight of the German CDU, 3 times Federal Minister and, at times, imagined as being able to take over from the Chancellor, the Governor of the ECB is well known to have been a great advocate, as well as one of the most robust French Ministers of Economy and nothing less than Director General of the IMF.

Regarding the 3 men who complete the management team, we find Charles Michel. The former Belgian Prime Minister who was able to form and run a government in a country in the midst of a political crisis becomes the President of the Council, that is to say the “chamber” made up of the representatives of the Governments. Josep Borrell, a Catalan ex-Spanish Foreign Minister who has the distinction of also being Argentinean takes over our diplomacy. Finally, David-Maria Sassoli takes the Presidency of the Parliament; he is a former Italian journalist, classified between moderate socialism and the centre right, known to be a “facilitator” of trade.

With regards to the financial institutions of the Union, the ECON will be chaired by Roberto Gualtieri, an Italian socialist, historian by trade, who is involved in exchanges and negotiations with Latin America and, particularly, Brazil.

The 3 ESAs (the high-level EU regulators for Banking, Finance and Insurance) and the DG FISMA (Directorate for Stability and Financial Services), have not, for now, changed their leaders. They are presently headed up by Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and French individuals.

What conclusions can we draw from the reorganisation?

First of all, it is not a reorganisation of substance!

Although some of the people have changed, the main civil servants are not, or not yet, concerned.

The policies are very new, even for 4 of them, who are “heavyweights” in their respective countries, often with major international expertise. However, they represent traditional, pro-European and even classic parties.

There is probably no inflexion of policy and logic to be expected with regards to the European project itself and what concerns us in the foreground, the internal market. The rise of new parties, anti-European or those with a wish for a different Europe will probably not have major consequences in the short term.

On the other hand, it is at the international level that the message and the claims of the Union seem very different. The newly established personalities seem to have been chosen for their connections and particularly good knowledge of other countries and cultures.

Overall it seems obvious to me that if the style can change, it will only be necessary to rely on the quality and personal perception of these leaders to open up new voices or think about new ways of doing things, but that in any case, the direction followed will remain the same.

So we should remember the programme that was announced to us: to begin with, there is the plan to revise the PRIIPS Regulation at the margin, since some of our opinions, which were not heard at the time, have ended up appearing as obvious corrections to make. Of course, the banking union project will still progress. Finally, more specifically in relation to our professions and our offerings to clients, the Capital Markets Union and all related projects such as PEPP, financial education, digitalisation of finance and savings, alternative financing methods and regulation, although very advanced, are yet to be completed and were recently announced as priorities.

The programme promises to be loaded and the stakes for both our members and their clients are considerable.

Of course, all the leaders and representatives of FECIF’s member organisations and the entire executive board team, will continue to carry the voice of our advisors and intermediaries and we will aim to organise, from September, a series of meetings with the new personalities in charge of, or important to, our sector.

Before then, I wish a very good month of August to all.

David Charlet
FECIF Chairman

Women on TV shows are always killing it at the office, they attend countless business dinners and still manage to have amazing bodies. But of course, in reality, ladies who are juggling demanding jobs and other life responsibilities often struggle to find enough time to exercise on a regular basis. However, just because it is difficult, doesn’t mean it is impossible! Here are some nifty tricks and full-body exercises which will help you stay fit and healthy without having to sacrifice your career.

New and improved squats

You really don’t have to spend hours at the gym. Instead, focus on exercises that work the whole body in a short amount of time like these modified squats. Just grab your hand weights, stand hip-width apart, and squat down by bending your knees at a 90-degree angle. Keep in mind that your torso should bend forward slightly. As you come up out of the squat, lift the hand weights up over your head to a full extension and kick one leg out to the side at a 45-degree angle at the same time. Come back to standing position, repeat, but this time kick the other leg.

Woodchopper

If you have ever seen a lumberjack at work you will easily get the hang of it. At the beginning of the exercise, you should be standing with your feet hip-width apart with your weight on your left leg. Grab your hand weight with both hands and hold it up by your left shoulder. Make a chopping motion down toward your right hip while allowing your feet and knees to pivot.

Lunges with a twist

We all know that doing lunges is not as easy as it seems, and this exercise spices things up even more. Lunge forward on your right leg but while extending your arms straight out in front of you, hold that position for a second and then raise your extended arms above your head. Come back to standing position and do 15 reps on each leg.

A five-minute routine you will love

Who says exercising has to be boring? Since this exercise routine is only five minutes long, you can do it during a commercial break or while watching your favourite TV show. Simply do 20 squats, 15 mountain climbers, 10 push-ups and 5 burpees and you will work up a sweat in no time.

Short but intensive workouts

Instead of jogging for days focus on simple workouts that have a strong impact and don’t take much time you will be able to squeeze them into your busy schedule. For example, get on your treadmill and run uphill for 15 minutes or turn to Tabata training where you perform a high-intensity exercise for 20 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds, for 8 rounds. The point is to exercise smarter, not longer, so focus on high-intensity workouts that hit different muscle areas. You can also try resistance band exercises which allow you to get a challenging workout in no matter where you are.

Back to the childhood

Jumping rope is not just for little girls, you know? In fact, it is one of the most effective cardio exercises out there, even more than jogging. In addition, it burns more calories per minute than swimming or rowing, so definitely give it a try. At the beginning keep it simple and jump with two feet at once, then alternate your feet, jump on one foot, then graduate to double-unders and criss-cross. When you have mastered all of that, you can get creative. The best think about skipping rope is that you can do it anywhere, at a park, the back room of the office or at home.

Workout early in the morning

Exercising in the morning will help you clear your head and prepare you for the following day. This is the time of the day when you have the most energy, so you will easily do those lunges, squats or burpees. On the other hand, after a hard day at the office you probably will be easily waylaid by the prospect of your couch or a glass of wine, and working out will be the last thing on your mind. If you don’t feel motivated enough to exercise before work, try to find a morning fitness crew that will give you that boost you need to complete your goals.

Keep your gym clothes at the office

Even if you are dedicated to getting to the gym before work, there will be those days when you just hit the snooze button and roll out of the bed at the last second. For those emergencies keep your sneakers and workout clothes in a bag under your desk at work, so you will be able to jog home whenever needed.

In order to get in shape, you don’t have to spend half of your day at the gym. Instead, squeeze short but intensive full-body workouts into your busy schedule and soon you will see the results.

Claire Morgan is a marketing consultant and lecturer who, thanks to her integrated approach to business, stands behind many digital strategies of renowned brands. She enjoys travelling and passionately blogs about the latest marketing and lifestyle trends.

Recent research in the UK has shown that 20% of people – more than 10 million people! – say they’ll work until they’re physically unable to do so, while around 6% – another three million people – say they expect to work until they die! The picture across Europe cannot be much different.

See more here.

Superheroes wouldn’t be much without their sidekicks. When the going gets tough and they can’t defeat evil all by themselves, they count on their trusty sidekicks to help them save the day. In this story, the superhero is your metabolism and the sidekick is you. Without your help, it can’t take care of your body or keep you healthy and fit. No matter how busy you are, you simply need to make time for your second and most important job: taking care of yourself.

1. Rest up for the bad guys

What crime-fighting team wins at the end of the day if they’ve only got forty winks of sleep last night? Resting up so you can defeat the bad guys is absolutely necessary. Though you wouldn’t think that your metabolism is what’s affected by a lack of sleep, it actually suffers greatly. This is because sleep deprivation leads to an increase in the production of cortisol. For those who don’t know, this hormone is responsible for creating stress.

You don’t need to be a doctor to know how bad stress can affect your gut. From constipation to causing a nervous tummy, bloating, loss or increase of appetite, stress can damage your gut in many ways. As well as all that, it can also cause inflammation which just further complicates your tummy health. Eight hours are the optimal amount of sleep for many people but don’t be afraid to get more if your body needs it. If you don’t manage to get enough sleep over the night, you should definitely make time for a nap the following day.

2. Watch your diet

Heroes need to have strict diets if they’re going to defeat evil. It’s the food you put inside you that determines how healthy your gut is and how well your metabolism is doing. That being said, you need to avoid inflammatory foods. Though not all people are or need to be vegetarian or vegan, it’s still important to limit the dairy and meat you put into your body. These products might be delicious, but they make it really hard for your tummy to digest.

Saturated fats, sugar, and starch are all linked to an inflammatory response of your bowels. This can lead to improper nutrient absorption, and in some cases, it’s even the cause of more serious illnesses. Among them are Crohn’s disease and inflamed bowel syndrome. Ideally, your diet should include between 20 and 25 percent of meat, while the rest should all be plant-based products. Don’t forget to take in high-fibre foods, too. They’re excellent for aiding digestion and will help your metabolism a lot.

3. Use the secret weapon

No superhero team is going to win the big battle without having a secret weapon. In this case, we’re talking about natural gut health supplements. As a busy individual, you can and should do your best to eat healthily, but sometimes that simply won’t be possible. To help your metabolism and stay on the right track, you can take the supplements and keep things running smoothly.

With natural supplements, you won’t have to worry about anything out of the ordinary happening. You’ll feel less full, be more energetic, and most importantly, your metabolism will be working the way it’s supposed to. Supported digestion is something each and every one of us should take into consideration due to the lifestyle we all share. Aside from junk food hindering your health, stress and worry can also make it harder for you to digest or give you strong stomach aches.

4. Be physically ready

Have you ever seen a superhero that wasn’t fit? It’s your job to get in shape so that your metabolism can reap the benefits. Exercise is great for many things, and improved digestion is one of them. Aside from prompting the production of happy hormones, regular exercise also gets your blood pumping, thus bettering your blood flow and giving your body what it needs. Your tummy functions better and has no problem digesting food, while also helping with cramps and bloating.

Your wellness journey may not be easy in the beginning, but it will be worth it. The most important thing you need is determination and motivation. You can start slow with just a few easy sessions per week and then build up your routine. Remember that sticking to it is much more important than giving your all at the very start and tiring yourself out. After all, slow and steady wins the race. Try starting with Yoga or Pilates, as these activities can relax you better than anything else. They also help you stretch and are very pleasant for your tummy.

5. Avoid kryptonite

You can’t expect to achieve success when your biggest weakness holds you back. Though that’s kryptonite for Superman, it just might be antibiotics for you. The thing with antibiotics is that they help us, but they’re also very strong and can destroy our stomach if we use them too much. Today, we tend to just pop an antibiotic whenever we feel bad but this shouldn’t be your first solution. Antibiotics can complicate your digestive system a lot, which is why you should avoid them when you can.

Instead of turning to them, you can look for plant-based medicine and maybe even some natural remedies. When you do need to take antibiotics, make sure you take probiotics with them. This will help your bowels and tummy heal faster and aid digestion. As well as trying to avoid antibiotics all-together, you shouldn’t start taking another just after you’ve finished one.

Conclusion

Though the battle against tummy aches and bad health may seem long and futile, with the right tips, you can gain the upper hand. Your metabolism is a very important part of your body’s clockwork, and without taking care of it, the whole system can easily fall apart. To live a happy and healthy life, you’ll need to devote a lot of attention to helping the hero your body needs and deserves.

A CFO’s mastery of the financial skill is a given; however, such a skill alone is not enough to become a successful corporate leader. The finance function is a core component of the operational structure. It serves as a guardian of the shareholder’s resources by providing financial stewardship, making effective value-creation decisions, managing the financial risk and practicing good corporate governance. Consequently, a successful leader in this area needs to be armed with a variety of additional skills, including: an awareness of organisational and personal psychology, ability to manage a variety of stakeholders, a strong and effective communication skill, and possess an astuteness akin to politics. This course is designed to develop and fortify the CFO’s skills and acts as a primer for the attendee to become a more visionary and charismatic leader.

By the end of this MasterClass participants will:

• Gain commercial insights, perspectives that feed into decisions making
• Learn how to lead through change, business transformation and performance optimisation
• Be able to communicate business insights, decision choices more succinctly and intelligently
• Get to know more about how to use diplomacy and politics to generate consensus and decisions
• Understand your leadership style and linking it to financial objectives
• Learn how to evaluate the practical implications of investment decisions and acquisitions
• Acquire the skills to drive innovation, organisational transformation and cultural change

Join our CFO Leadership Masterclass on 24-25 September, 2019 in Budapest, Hungary led by Raheen Sacranie, a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAEW) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), in the UK!

For more information, please visit our website and request the Agenda!

You are about to have an interview for a job you want so bad, and you are not sure what to wear? With so many possibilities nowadays, the options can seem endless, and you want to look perfect, just like you want to make a good impression on whoever is going to interview you. You do not want to blow this opportunity, and you know that one of the things your potential employer is going to look at is how you are dressed. Read about some things you can wear in order to leave a good impression.

First of all, be sure to look professional

We cannot choose the perfect timing for our interview, but we can choose what to wear. In order to look like we know what we are doing and be confident, we need to look professional. This means you cannot really wear something you would when going to a supermarket – for example, flip flops. You do not need to look extremely classy, but also avoid appearing in something that makes you look like you do not even care about the outfit. Maybe a simple blazer and jeans would be perfect for the occasion, because no one can look shabby in a blazer.

A neat casual look is not a bad idea

Blazers are not the only thing that makes people look good for their interviews. You can also look amazing if you wear something casual like a nice pair of women’s sneakers. However, pay attention to what you will combine them with. As a matter of fact, you can even combine a nice blazer and sneakers, but be sure you look neat and like a serious candidate. Also, you can wear a shirt without a blazer, depending on the weather. If it is hotter, you will not want to sweat a lot.

Wear something that makes you feel comfortable

Whatever you wear, be sure you feel comfortable in it – if you have a favorite T-shirt that is adequate or jeans, or basically any other item of clothing, feel free to use that. It can be something that brings you luck. However, it should definitely be more formal than a sweat suit, shorts, leggings or an outfit you would wear when going to a gym or when you are at home doing chores, and more importantly – it should definitely give you a lot of comfort. You will know exactly what to say and feel more relaxed during the interview if the clothes you wear are something you feel good in.

Do not try to be provocative

A job interview is not an occasion for a dress that, for example, has no back, is too short or is see-through. This also goes for shorts, tops without straps, or any item of clothing that reveals too much. Remember, you are not going to a club, you have to look appropriate, so do not try to experiment too much with clothes you would wear when going out with friends, and so on. Even if it is too hot outside, if you wear something too revealing, you risk looking inadequate.

Avoid T-shirts with inappropriate sayings

We like when our clothes express a certain message, so wearing T-shirts, tops, blouses or hoodies with words and different sayings we are keen on is something we find enjoyable. However, it may not be the most appropriate thing to do when you dress for a job interview, especially if the sayings are something provocative. Also, if you wear something too shiny, with too many details and too colorful, it might look like you are not professional enough and like you are not taking this opportunity seriously. You want to avoid making a negative impact, so leave those kinds of clothes for different occasions.

Basically, with so many choices nowadays and so much incredible fashion, you have plenty of options when choosing a perfect outfit for your upcoming job interview. Yet, remember these several tips if you do not want to make a mistake and leave a bad impression. Any employer would rather choose someone looking professional, clean and neat and someone who seems confident. You will feel more confident if you wear something you are comfy in. Also, avoid inappropriate items of clothing, like the ones that are too provocative or that have sayings that are not exactly adequate for the occasion.

By Peter Minkoff

Peter is a lifestyle and travel writer at Men-Ual magazine, living between Ústí nad Labem and Antwerp. Follow Peter on Twitter for more tips.

In today’s fast-paced world, it can seem impossible to balance work and life without sacrificing bits from either. People are more career-driven than ever before and they want to achieve their dreams at any cost. However, some things just aren’t worth sacrificing. A proper balance is necessary in order to remain happy and productive. A big part of success is how you handle this balance.

1. Draw out your plans

Every success story starts with a good plan. You can’t go on a journey without knowing where exactly you’re headed. If you know what your endgame is, you’re able to prioritize and make the right decisions that will get you there in a good timeframe.

What are your hopes and dreams? At the end of the day, we all have some kind of goal that keeps us going. All that dedication and work aren’t all for nothing. However, figuring out what drives you can be tough. If your ultimate goal is to develop a very successful career, work should be your main focus. On the other hand, what if having a successful career is a way for you to achieve happiness and comfort? Are you more interested in the ends or the means of reaching those ends?

A lot of people fight with these thoughts, which is why it’s so important for you to take a step back and get a good grip on what it is you really want. Once you have that figured out, formulating a good plan should be your next step.

2. Don’t push yourself too hard

We all know that one person that works a little too hard for their own good. The effects of overworking yourself are very noticeable. If you have big dreams for your future, you might think it’s justified to give your job 110% of your dedication. You might think that this is a good work ethic in practice, but it’s going to do you a lot more harm than it will good in the long run.

A proper work ethic requires a particular type of balance. To achieve your ultimate goals, you need to have a clear head to start with. If you’re overworking yourself to the point of stress, you’re not actually reaching your goal any faster than you would with less work. Everyone has their breaking point and it’s important that you don’t get anywhere near it.

If you think that you have to sacrifice your personal life or health in order to get ahead at work, you’ve got the wrong idea. The most successful individuals you’ll run into all have a very well-balanced schedule that includes things that aren’t related to work. Sure, sometimes you’ll have days that feel extremely work-oriented, but that shouldn’t become a habit. There’s a time and place for work and it should always be limited to some extent.

3. Keep your friends close

Too busy to go out with friends? We all have busy days, there’s nothing wrong with that. Do your friends have to schedule an appointment three weeks in advance just to see you? That’s when you know you have a problem.

Humans are inherently social animals. Most of the activities we participate in include other people. Spending time with people is an actual need that is etched into our brains. Sure, we can fight it and spend most of our days alone, but the need is still very much present. Sometimes, you might not even notice that you really need to spend time with others.

You should never leave your friends on the back burner in favour of your career. You can never be too busy for friendship. Try to make some time for them at least once a week. Go out for coffee or drinks. After all, what good is success if you have no one to share it with?

4. Remember that you’re only human

People make mistakes. Even the most dedicated among us aren’t perfect. The only difference is who can keep the illusion going longer. Instead of pretending that you’re a machine, you should shatter that illusion and admit to yourself that you can’t always succeed. One of the metrics of success is repeated failure. A successful individual has failed more times than the unsuccessful one has even tried.

To be more specific, don’t beat yourself up over work and deadlines. An impeccable record isn’t your main goal, high-quality work is. Some factors are simply out of your control. If you catch the flu right before you have to finish a major project, how will you manage? A stubborn person might try to power through and deliver sub-par work. Others would stress out and lose their focus.

There’s no shame in asking for help. If you’ve nurtured your work relationships, you can always consult a coworker for help with a project. One shaky deadline doesn’t make you lazy or bad at your job. Discuss your situation with your boss and they’ll probably try to find a nice middle ground to help you out. Open communication at work will do you a lot of good.

5. Never neglect physical health

Balancing your career and personal life is hard enough on its own, throwing exercise into the mix seems almost like an impossible task. When you come back home from a busy day, the last thing you want to do is hit the gym, right? Even something as relaxing as yoga might take away too much of your time to be worth the hassle. However, this line of thinking won’t get you anywhere.

Physical exercise is a crucial part of our overall health. You heard that right –overall health. It’s not just a way to keep your body in shape and prevent your joints from hurting every time you leave your desk. Exercising does wonders for mental health and relaxation as well. Your body craves physical activity in order to feel right. Neglecting this aspect of your health won’t do a lot of good for your motivation and productivity. Even if an exercise regime takes an hour of your time each day, you can count on the boost of hormones and adrenaline to give you an additional push towards your other goals.

If you’re really strapped for time during your day, you can try to incorporate exercise into other activities. Walking is a severely underrated physical activity. Throw on a pair of earbuds with your favourite music, don your running shoes and simply walk wherever you want to go. If this is a bit too slow for your pace, you can always ride a bike instead. There’s no shortage of electric bicycles online that will get you where you want to be in a jiffy. Not only are you going to skip any and all traffic jams in your way and get to your destination faster, but you’re also getting the perfect workout along the way. All of this while not losing any productive time from your day. Even if you get tired, the electric part of the bike can take over and make the trip easier.

6. Consistency is key

When you’re a busy bee, life can get pretty hectic. Your life and career are constantly intermingling and your schedule suffers for it. It can be hard to remember all the things you have to do in a day, which can lead to some panic before deadlines. If you end up losing out on some important activities, that could spell trouble.

One day you’re balancing everything perfectly despite the stress and on another one, you’re up to your neck in work and you can’t get a good night’s sleep. It can happen, but is the work always to blame? If you aren’t organizing your time properly, you could end up cramming a lot of work into a small time frame.

Without a proper routine, you can easily find yourself lost in your work. This could end up disrupting your sleep schedule or your fitness routine. One missed day becomes two and two easily become more. Eventually, you forego a lot of the things you planned out for your week. This is something you should definitely avoid.

No matter what, make sure you’re doing right by your schedule. If you’ve decided to continue your workout sessions, you have to stick by them every day. Don’t start neglecting your hobby because you procrastinate with work. If you start looking at these “extra-curricular” activities like they’re just as important as work, you’ll probably find that little bit of extra time to do them.

Conclusion

People like to think that success requires forfeiting other elements of your life. However, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. With a couple of small changes to your line of thinking, you can achieve success and not sacrifice any of the important things that make up your everyday life.

By Mianna Korben

Our modern lives could not be more hectic with the long work hours, not enough family time, and time lost commuting. As if all these obstacles weren’t enough, we are also faced with the imperative to stay fit or not get sick at least. This is really something that should be our priority despite the busyness of our schedule. Eating right, getting enough exercise, and taking care of our well-being are essential goals that must be met if we have any business aspirations. If we are sick and sluggish, no work will get done and we’ll have to cancel all the tasks and project, That is why the following 5 tips will help you stay fit and healthy regardless of busy your daily schedule is.

Try to eat cooked food

We have no doubt that there are numerous fast food joints near the place where you work and like a moat of your colleagues you are tempted to grab a meal there. Although this is a time-effective solution, it is unhealthy to eat fried or fast food every day. The food you eat, especially the lunch as a meal, needs to be thermally processed, i.e. cooked. There are numerous ways you can consume cooked food in the office. Firstly, you can find a nice restaurant nearby that serves ready-made meals. Secondly, you can prepare the food at home and then put it in Tupperware to heat it up in the office kitchen. Finally, there are companies that prepare hot meals and deliver them to the office doorstep. Whichever of these three ways you choose, remember that there is no excuse for adopting an unhealthy diet at work.

Ditch alcohol

Getting drunk every Friday night might be something your friends practice and so far you have find it hard to say no to them. Before the next weekend begins and you go shopping for booze, you need to know that alcohol is rich in calories but it is deprived of any nutrients. This means that you will experience more than a hangover the following morning, as your brain will slow down and you will feel exhausted and sluggish. Don’t get is wrong, alcohol is not entirely bad to your health, but too much too often is definitely not a practice (pun intended) that will help you stay in shape. A glass of wine or beer after work is fine but anything more than that will have a negative effect on your overall health.

Exercise regularly

An unhealthy diet combined with alcohol is especially dangerous if you lead a sedentary lifestyle. Basically, you need to burn calories on a daily level, so even taking a walk through the park or taking the stairs instead of the elevator counts as a form of body exercise. If you want to burn more calories and lose some weight, you can always pick up a new sport like running, skating or football or you can join the gym as a more benign alternative. We say “benign” because you can easily injure yourself and sprain an ankle or strain a calf if you don’t warm up properly. Remember, besides getting fit, your second equally important objective is not to hurt yourself and to stay healthy before all.

Drink plenty of water

An integral part of adopting a healthy diet is taking in enough water. The minimum of two liters of water a day is there for a good reason, as your body needs to stay hydrated in order to tackle of the mental and physical hardships a busy day throws at you. These eight glasses might seem like a lot but if you drink them with enough time apart, you won’t even notice them. Grab a simple bottle, fill it up at home, and store it in the fridge at work, you can always grab a sip when you need it the most. Also, when you’re packing water for the kids, be sure to pack an extra litre or two for you and your spouse.

Get enough sleep

What if you extended the workday until midnight and then got up at 6 AM to get an important project finished before you left for work? Although this might seem like a great idea for a worker behind schedule, sleep time really isn’t something that you should cut short because of a busy schedule. Those six to eight hours of sleep a day our body uses to regenerate, so depriving yourself of sleep is the worst case scenario in terms of your health. The boss is screaming at you at work and the children are screaming at home, which are stressful situations that your brain can process only during sleep.

As you have seen from the 5 ways to stay fit and healthy even if you have a busy schedule, you needn’t cancel any of your appointments or change your lifestyle. All you need is to go back to the basics and exhibit enough self-discipline.

Claire Morgan is a marketing consultant and lecturer who, thanks to her integrated approach to business, stands behind many digital strategies of renowned brands. She enjoys travelling and passionately blogs about the latest marketing and lifestyle trends.

There’s a quote that says, “Trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair”. This is nowhere truer than in the financial world, where a person’s quality of life relies on decisions made by the experts in whom they place their trust.

As a financial adviser, your ability to build trust translates into composed clients and is the foundation upon which you grow your business. It’s useful to recognise the behavioural traits that underpin trust. Over the last seven years in my role at PortfolioMetrix, I have worked with top IFAs to understand how they succeed in their business. I have observed their approach to client relationships and in turn have learnt how to develop my own relationships with them.

From my experience, I have identified four key elements that appear to be essential to establishing trust: authenticity, competency, consistency and empathy. These elements govern the confidence clients have in the financial planning ecosystem.

Authenticity

Authenticity is at the heart of building trust. It’s one thing to claim a value proposition, but does your business behaviour stand up to this under scrutiny? Your clients will not simply take what you say at face value but will form their own opinions through their direct experiences. Our clients hold a mirror to us, which either confirms or rejects what we think we are projecting. Authenticity requires us to be humble about our abilities, be open to learning opportunities and patient in achieving our selected goals.

Competency

Competency is critical to establishing confidence in what you say and that it can be relied upon. Competency is a function of skill, your experience and the rigour of your logic. Your competency needs to be of high quality and communicated effectively. Clients value your expertise and rely on you to help them understand sometimes complicated concepts. This is true for the adviser/investment manager relationship too. We need to ensure that every investment decision is made in a robust manner that can be simply communicated. The effectiveness of our ability to project competence underpins confidence in us.

Consistency

Consistency is about the messages you deliver to your clients; it requires that you are upfront, accurate and transparent in every area of your business. In demonstrating that you are authentic and competent, it is critical that you deliver this message in a consistent manner, every time. Consistency provides comfort to your clients and projects reliability. When it comes to investment management, consistency is important not only in building confidence and trust with clients but also in achieving predictable outcomes.

Empathy

Last, but by no means least, empathy is the catalyst that takes relationships above a technocratic level. Establishing rapport creates a safe space for clients. Your relationship with your clients will succeed or fail based on your ability to not only understand and interpret their needs and circumstances, but to identify and relate to them. Innate empathy is what makes so many financial advisers good at what they do. At PortfolioMetrix, we constantly think about what we do from the perspective of our clients and adapt our actions to reflect their needs.

There is a golden thread that runs through these key elements, which is so integral to building trust in a financial advice business. The greater the trust relationship, the greater the value created and the greater the impact we have on the lives of clients and, importantly, our own self-esteem and sense of achievement.

Olivia Geldenhuys
PortfolioMetrix Head of Support, Europe

Summer is almost around the corner, and if you can’t wait for this amazing season to arrive already – welcome to the club, you definitely aren’t the only one! Here’s a list of five must-have fashion items every girl should get for her summer vacation, so keep on reading to learn more about these. Just check them out and enjoy!

A simple yet effective white button-down

An ordinary white button-down is a true wardrobe staple for both women and men, and guess what? It’s essential for your summer trip, too, so make sure to pack it next to your one-piece swimsuit. Of course, fabrics play a huge role here, so try to pick a button-down made from lightweight fabrics such as linen, chambray, or rayon, which will keep you cool both in dry heat and humidity. Since white is a classic summer color, you should go for it as it goes with literally anything, which is what makes it so versatile and wearable. The long sleeves will protect you from the sun and you’ll look like you’ve jumped straight out of a fashion magazine if you pair it with big glasses and a cool hat, so embrace your inner fashionista and opt for such an outfit this summer!

A flattering one-piece swimsuit

Needless to say, a swimsuit is the first thing you’ll pack when going on a summer trip, and this should be no exception. However, why wouldn’t you skip the traditional bikini this year and opt for a one-piece instead? First of all, this type of swimsuit is the best if you’re a fan of water activities such as snorkeling or surfing. It’ll stay on your body no matter what, which often isn’t the case with a bikini top. Apart from keeping you covered (and decent), a well-fitting one-piece swimsuit can also double up as a cute top for daily walks by the beach – especially when you pair it with cute denim shorts. All you need to do is to pick a piece that perfectly fits your body shape!

A gorgeous maxi dress

Another fashion must-have you’ll love to rock this summer is a maxi dress, which is a truly timeless piece that will never go out of style if you ask us. In fact, maxi dresses have been a huge hit in the fashion industry for years now, which just confirms their dominance and how much ladies actually love them. So, if you don’t have one already, you should check out the best online clothes shops and find a fabulous maxi dress that perfectly fits into your personal style. Obviously, black and white are probably the best choices as these are the easiest to combine, but if you want to spice up your combos a little bit, you can always go for a beautiful floral print that’ll make it even more perfect for summer. The last thing you should do is to match your gorgeous dress with a nice pair of leather sandals or romantic wedges, accessorize with a long necklace embellished with pompoms, and you’re good to go!

A trendy kimono robe

Kimono robes are making a huge comeback this season, and you know what? We absolutely adore them simply because they can take the entire combo to a whole new level, transforming it from a casual one to an elegant yet sexy one. If you want to go for a sleek and fashionable night look, all you have to do is to get a black kimono robe and accentuate your waist with a stylish belt. This color will add a touch of glamour and elegance to whatever you’re wearing, but if that’s too much for you, feel free to pick any color you love. Apart from that, a kimono robe can also be a great addition to your lingerie, so ensure to have good underwear to pair it with!

A stylish pair of leather sandals

Last but certainly not least, a trendy pair of leather sandals is another fashion essential you simply need to have on your summer vacation. This is particularly true for flat ones with eye-catching details such as edgy studs or colorful pompoms, and the best thing about them is the fact that they’re extremely stylish yet so comfortable at the same time. You can wear them with anything that comes to your mind, from mini and maxi dresses to one-piece swimsuits and denim shorts, so don’t forget to pack them under any circumstances. Just be sure to get a pair that features cushioned sole, as that’s the only way for you to wear these babies for hours without any pain or pinching!

Each of these five fashion items is an absolute must when it comes to your upcoming summer vacation, so don’t wait any longer and get them before you start packing. These pieces will allow you to stay trendy and stylish while embracing your inner fashionista and it doesn’t get better than that, right?

By Peter Minkoff

Peter is a lifestyle and travel writer at Men-Ual magazine, living between Ústí nad Labem and Antwerp. Follow Peter on Twitter for more tips.

Extraordinary people, extraordinary stories

The Czechoslovak Talks is a project that embraces the life stories of Czechoslovaks around the world – the stories of the personal ups and downs, the opportunities and obstacles, and especially the life experiences that we would like to preserve for future generations.

The project was created in 2016 by the Dotek Endowment Fund. This endowment has supported the development of relations between Czech and Slovaks living abroad and Czech and Slovak institutions since 2008. They have had the chance to meet with many Czechoslovaks from around the world who have told their life stories, and these stories should not be forgotten. This is why they have decided to create an independent project that will record these stories.

Goal of the project

The memories that they collect should be an inspiration and a lesson in life, especially for future generations. The main objective of the project The Czechoslovak Talks is to preserve the life stories of Czechoslovaks from around the world. These narratives should be in the form of stories and distributed as separate publications.

Comic Book

A unique comic book called “Stories of our Czechoslovaks” was created for the 100th anniversary of the establishment of independent Czechoslovakia. See the first part here.

We would like to bring your attention to an exciting new way of supporting the International Trebbia Awards. In cooperation with the powerful fund-raising portal known as GoFundMe, the reach of the Trebbia award is being expanded globally.

You can watch a short preview of the Trebbia story

If the mission interests and inspires you, please join and donate by clicking on the link below:

Link for donation

The names of all Donators will be mentioned in the upcoming newsletter!

See the photocoverage of last year’s event in our magazine.