The future of Private and Public pension provision in the next five Essay

The future of Private and Public pension provision in the next five years in Mauritius - Essay Example Pension system is Mauritius was established in the early 1950s, non-contributory pensions are now received by the majority of the residents aged over 60 (Willmore, 2003, Vittas, 2003). Since 1974 pension coverage in the country has been universal, i.e. there is a fixed division into four age groups (60-74 years old; 75-85; 86-99 and 100+, due to overall longevity in the state). The average basic universal pension is about 57 USD (Bailey, 2004, Gopee, 2006). In Mauritius, non-occupational pension consists of several components, such as Basic Retirement Pension, the National Pensions Fund and the Civil Service Pension Scheme and is regulated by strong legal basis (Philip, 1995). Non-occupational pension schemes include basic retirement pension, financed from general taxes, and its current ratio constitutes 3 per cent of annual GDP, but an estimated ratio for 2020 is 6 per cent (GAD, 2001a), due to the ageing trends in population structure. National Pensions Fund is also a part of non-occupational pension provision, as the NPF is an obligatory model which takes into account all private sector organizations employees, excepting those who gain very low wages and some workers involved into sugar industry. Compulsory contributions constituting about 3-9 per cent of overall earnings result in the accumulation of points on the basis of the declared cost of a point for the certain period (Willmore, 2003). National Savings Fund is a third compone nt of non-occupational pension provision and requires of participants certain contributions (2-3 per cent of income) on the mandatory basis (Mauritius Modernizing and Advanced Pension System, 2004). The NSF funds are normally invested into government security, thus the resources themselves are not accumulated, but spent immediately after the employee’s contribution. The other universal social aids and assistances under the NPS’s responsibility include: 1)

Conflict Diamond Speech or Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Conflict Diamond - Speech or Presentation Example In the late 1990s, this trade caught the attention of the world as the protracted conflict in Sierra Leone reached its devastating climax. It is not just Sierra Leone that has suffered – diamonds have fuelled or exacerbated conflicts in Angola, Liberia, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo. These diamonds are regularly produced through the forced labor of men, women and children, or stolen during violent attacks on legitimate mining operations (geology.com). They have, on several occasions, been the main source of funding for brutal rebel groups. Due to the huge amount of money at stake in the illegal diamond trade, bribes, threats and torture often accompany the mining. In Liberia, between 1989 and 2003, there were two civil wars which killed perhaps 250,000 people, while displacing a further 1.3 million (globalwitness.org). Former Liberian President Charles Taylor has used his diamond mines to fund a military campaign against civilians in L iberia and Sierra Leone, and is currently on trial in the International Court of Human Rights. In Ivory Coast, a civil war was sparked off in 2002, and even now, the country remains divided, with widespread human rights violations. Sierra Leone is perhaps the worst example of what blood diamonds can do to a country. Legitimate diamonds once provided the mainstay of the government’s revenues. Gradually, as rebel groups in the east of the country gained control over the mines, these revenues were reduced to nothing. By August 1993, even before the civil war had escalated, the total revenues reaching the government in Freetown amounted to some $8,000 (Dowden, 294). Meanwhile, in the mines, children were being sent down into tiny tunnels, while soft gravel above them regularly collapsed and buried them. The greed engendered by the illegitimate trade in diamonds led to a breakdown of traditional society. Visiting a village in 1993, Richard Dowden spoke to a local doctor who commen ted, ‘There is no trust – not even between these brothers who dig together. We have many killings. A lot of people disappear’ (296). Once Civil War broke out, all this worsened. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) ruined the country’s interior. Bankrolled by diamonds, it raided villages, killing the inhabitants or cutting off their hands. Children were forced to become soldiers, and to kill their families and take drugs. They murdered and raped their way through the country, so that, by the end of the war, it was at the bottom of the United Nations Development Index. Let us consider the alternative. If diamonds are mined legitimately, under license from a popularly-elected and accountable government, and processed legitimately, and sold legitimately, to Western jewelers who insist upon certificates confirming the provenance of the diamonds, the revenues from these sales will be fed back into the revenues of the resource-rich states. A country currently re eling from decades of devastating war can use such revenues to build and rebuild schools, hospitals, roads, railways, and even to rebuild lives, by offering those scarred by the conflict a second chance. By taking the diamonds out of the hands of brutal militias, and into the hands of legitimate governments, we can promote sustainable development in a troubled and impoverished region. For confirmation of this, we need only look to those African countries which have managed their