Well since my post in September last year the tension around Israel./Iran eased somewhat, caused in the main by similar war-like activity in other areas, this does not mean however it has gone away. Obama is back in power as expected and we should expect pressure from his administration for this Israel/Palestine crisis to begin to reach some sort of settlement. Staged wirthdrawals from Afghanistan will again redirect attention to that area.
The US 'fiscal cliff' disaster was averted, again as we would have expected, but nonetheless their woes continue unabated and increasing, which in essence means our little domain down here will be far down the pecking order insofar as global recovery is concerned.
Latest local GDP data is doom and gloom with forecasts for 2013 being lowered already to as little as 2.5%, at which level we are actually economically receding. At the very least this negativity will contribute to an increase in unemployment in SA, a fundamental that we simply can not afford.
Mangaung gave us nothing to hope for except hearsay and more subterfuge and of course that we can expect 'more of the same'. What has happened to the famed and costly NDP?
Strategy, as we all know is completely dependent upon implementation and review - we have heard nothing further on either score. Whilst we continue to have these leadership crises we will continue to flounder as a country, lower GDP, higher unemployment, downgrades of country and its banks - sounds calamitous.
With no leadership from the top echelons of the country it is again left to business to fathom out a path forward on its own, for its own people. Strategy becomes critical in these scenarious, so plan, plan, plan your way forward every step of the way and carefully.
