Global Citizenship
1st Quarter 2019
•
The Education Issue
Educating for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Global Education Hotspots: Where Global Citizens Send Their Children 01 9 7 7 2 5 1 794008
ISSN 2571-7944 Published Quarterly
Why International Clients Still Bank in Switzerland
The Value of Having a Dedicated Family Law Practitioner
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Contents Upfront 5
From the Editor
7
Contributors
8
News and Updates
14
Events
Columns 20 Kochenov Citizenship vs. Personhood 21
Brexit Protected Rights for EU Citizens in the UK
22 How to Understand the Impact of Brexit on Your Taxes 23 Diogenes The Seven Deadly Sins
38
24 On Trend Global Education Hotspots: Where Global Citizens Send Their Children
Opinions 28 Ethnomathematics and the Diversification of Mathematics Teaching 30 Why International Clients Still Bank in Switzerland 32 Too Small To Fail 36 Why Investing in Fine Art is Different From Investing in Traditional Asset Classes
Cover Story 38 Educating for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
42 2 | Global Citizenship Review
Country Review 42 Switzerland: A Peak Above the Rest
Features 50 Interview Marc Effron 52 Why the EU Should Encourage Investment Migration 54 Tax Implications of Funding Studies Abroad 55 Finding What Makes a Good Reader in a Rapidly Evolving World
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58 The State of Education Philanthropy 62 The Value of Having a Dedicated Family Law Practitioner 64 Investment and Sustainable Development in Education 66 The World Ultra Wealth Report 2018
58
68 Taxation of Swiss Residents 70 In Celebration of the Written Word
Global Life 73 Global Citizen Dr. Juerg Steffen 76 Property Andermatt • Swiss Alps
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78 Marco Polo The Silo • Cape Town 80 Culinaria IGNIV • St. Moritz 81 Medicus Thomas Colin Campbell, PhD 82 Books 84 Reflections Johann Pachelbel
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68 1 Quarter 2019 | 3 st
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UPFRONT
From the Editor
An Education
T
IMAGE: Henley & Partners
he Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s second Goalkeepers Data Report, which reviews the progress made to date on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, is full of insights, with one of the most encouraging being that more than one billion people have managed to escape extreme poverty since 2000. While this is a commendable achievement that should instill in us a sense of collective achievement, there remains a great deal more work to be done. Acknowledging the centrality of education in the pursuit of greater equality and justice, governments, corporates, institutions, civic society, and high-networth individuals (HNWIs) globally are increasingly turning their attention to improving education-related access, outcomes, and performance. It is in this spirit that this first edition of the Global Citizenship Review for 2019 is dedicated to education. On Trend looks at education hotspots around the world and the drive to increase diversity and internationality in schools, while our Cover Story highlights the importance of global citizenship-centered curriculum design in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In Features, we profile some of the organizations and HNWIs making an impact in education philanthropy. We also look at Switzerland, with articles underscoring its long-standing appeal not only for families seeking quality education for their children but also for businesses looking to establish themselves in a stimulating jurisdiction that offers numerous benefits. Business immigration consultant Stephane Tajick offers a compelling argument for why the EU should embrace, rather than fear, investment migration programs. Among his considerations is the significant foreign direct investment arising from such programs in EU countries. Tajick also highlights these programs’ ability to attract specialized talent and rare skills, which further bolsters struggling economies and contributes to regional prosperity. In Global Citizen, Swiss wealth-planning expert Juerg Steffen shares the milestones of his professional journey to date, and there is no mistaking his firm commitment to excellence and his serious determination to succeed. We hope that reading about this impressive individual will inspire you to map out your own goals — both professional and personal — and the steps necessary for achieving them. May 2019 be your best year yet.
Dr. Christian H. Kälin Editor in Chief
1st Quarter 2019 | 5
UPFRONT
Global Citizenship
Editor in Chief Dr. Christian H. Kälin
Jim Rogers Singapore
Online Visit globecit.com or issuu.com/ideos_publications
Managing Editor Janine Droux
Correspondents Jennifer Lai China and North Asia
Subscribe Visit globecit.com or email subscriptions@gc-review.com
Dominic Volek Southeast Asia
Advertise If you are interested in advertising in Global Citizenship Review, please write to adverts@gc-review.com
Senior Editor Monwabisi Mhlophe Publishing Designer Wade Hunkin
Andreas Keller Middle East
Editorial Board Ghada Alatrash Canada
Polina Kuleshova Russia/CIS
Laura Austin USA Dr. Tony Gao China Nadine Goldfoot UK Prof. Dr. Christian Joppke Switzerland Dr. Parag Khanna Singapore
Irina Curbelo UK/Europe Amanda Smit Africa Domenic Presutti North America Andrea St. Bernard Latin America/Caribbean
Feedback Comments and suggestions, praise, and criticism are welcome. Please write to editor@gc-review.com Publication information Global Citizenship Review (ISSN 25717944) is published quarterly by Ideos Publications Ltd., Zurich, Switzerland © 2019 Ideos Publications Ltd. This periodical and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright and applicable terms and conditions of the publisher.
Global Citizenship
1st Quarter 2019
•
The Education Issue
Educating
Prof. Dr. Dimitry Kochenov Netherlands
for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Dr. Robert W. Kuipers Switzerland Marnin J. Michaels Switzerland Kamal Rahman UK
6 | Global Citizenship Review
Global Education Hotspots: Where Global Citizens Send Their Children 01 9 7 7 2 5 1 794008
ISSN 2571-7944 Published Quarterly
Why International Clients Still Bank in Switzerland
The Value of Having a Dedicated Family Law Practitioner
UPFRONT
Contributors 28
30
32
Dr. Karen François
Michael O. Martin
Director of the Centre for Logic and
Executive Director, TIMSS & PIRLS
Philosophy of Science, Vrije
International Study Center at Boston
Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
College, USA
Dr. Ariel Sergio Goekmen
Frederick M. Hess
Member of the Executive Board
Director of Education Policy Studies
Wealth Management Switzerland
American Enterprise Institute, USA
Schroder & Co Bank AG, Switzerland
58
James Breiding
Brendan Bell
Author of Swiss Made: The Untold Story
Research Assistant, American
Behind Switzerland’s Success and Founder
Enterprise Institute, USA
and CEO, Naissance Capital, Switzerland
58
Doug Woodham
Clare Wiseman
Managing Partner, Art Fiduciary
Family Law Partner, Irwin Mitchell
Advisors, USA
Private Wealth, UK
36
38
55
62 Dr. Fernando Reimers
Winston Chesterfield
Ford Foundation Professor of Practice
Director, Wealth-X Custom Research
in International Education, Harvard
UK
Graduate School of Education, USA
66
Stephane Tajick
Renato H. Bloch
President and Chief Advisor, Stephane
Founder and Senior Partner
Tajick Consulting, Canada
Bloch Law Offices, Switzerland
52
68 Alice Vink Senior Associate, Stephenson Harwood LLP, UK
54 Ina V. S. Mullis Executive Director, TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center at Boston
55
College, USA
1st Quarter 2019 | 7
UPFRONT
News and Updates Antigua and Barbuda to Accept Bitcoin Payments for Citizenship-by-Investment Applications As part of its attempt to fully embrace cryptocurrencies, the Government of Antigua and Barbuda will begin accepting bitcoin as a valid payment in citizenship-by-investment applications. The move comes after an amendment to the twin-island nation’s Citizenship-by-Investment Program Act, which is, according to various media reports, intended to make the application process “convenient for citizenship seekers who own cryptocurrencies”. According to Prime Minister Gaston Browne, the use of bitcoin “expands your market because we have a number of cryptocurrency investors who may be quite willing to take up our citizenship but would only pay in cryptocurrencies. [As such] if you do not accept the cryptocurrency then you would be literally locked out of that market”. The decision also supports the Antiguan Government’s efforts to improve its reputation for being a tax haven and of being at greater risk of money laundering than other countries in the region. Currently, applicants using bitcoin will need to pay about 12 coins.
In a recent memorandum by St. Lucia’s Citizenship-by-Investment Unit, the body announced that it would no longer accept applications “from Iranian citizens resident in Iran and elsewhere”. The decision follows reports by due diligence firms affiliated with the program that they are unable to complete the necessary checks mandated by the Government of St. Lucia. In addition, the memorandum indicates that “the sole domestic bank [in St Lucia that facilitates banking for the Citizenship-by-Investment Unit]…will not facilitate inflows of funds that are coming out of Iran” in applications for St. Lucian citizenship. St. Lucia follows Malta in officially banning applications from Iranian nationals as a further indicator of the strong push by citizenship-by-investment program host countries to improve the credibility of the industry and the rigor with which applications are scrutinized. In addressing the ban, Prime Minister of St. Lucia Allen Chastanet said: “The issue with Iran is determining the source of funds as well as being able to confirm whether the information that the applicant is giving us is correct. We cannot do it ourselves and the agencies that would normally do the third-party background checks for us are themselves struggling with that...The sources of information from the banks in Iran aren’t trusted sufficiently, so therefore it would make the application process virtually impossible.”
Grenada Citizenship-by-Investment Unit Appoints Thomas Anthony as CEO The Grenada Citizenship-by-Investment Unit (CIU) has announced the appointment of Thomas Anthony as its CEO. A banker with over 25 years’ experience, Anthony has significant expertise in due diligence best practice and in the administration of citizenship-by-investment programs. He previously served the Antigua and Barbuda CIU in the position of deputy CEO. On the announcement of his appointment, Anthony said: “[I am] looking forward to reconnecting with old friends and colleagues and furthering the relationships formed over the past five years.”
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IMAGES: Shutterstock; cip.gov.ag
Iranians Banned from Applying for St. Lucian Citizenship
UPFRONT
“It’s amazing that we allow people to have gigantic amounts of money…The state should take some of that…The fact that people aren’t for an estate tax is mind-blowing to me” Bill Gates expressing his support for the collection of estate taxes
2018 Sees Sharp Increase in Population of Ultra HNW Individuals Leading high-net-worth (HNW) market researcher Wealth-X announced the findings of its annual World Ultra Wealth Report 2018, an insightful look into “the state of the world’s ultra wealthy population”. One of the key findings of the report is that the number of individuals with wealth of USD 30 million or more increased by almost 13% to reach 255,810. The previous year noted an increase of 3.5%. In addition, the combined net worth of this population increased by 16.3% to reach USD 31.5 trillion, which was supported by improved individual net worth performance across all seven regions. Other key findings of the report include an increase in “the share of women in the global ultra HNW population”, who now account for 13.7%, and the dominance of Hong Kong as “the world’s largest ultra HNW city”, taking over the reins from New York. Testament to these findings, “the fastest growth was in Asia, which posted an increase in ultra wealth of 27%”. In anticipation of future trends, World Ultra Wealth Report 2018 expects that the “global ultra HNW population is forecast to rise to 360,390 people by 2022”.
IMAGES: Shutterstock
IMAGES: Shutterstock; cip.gov.ag
Malta Individual Investor Program Funds Support Cancer Charity At an event in London attended by the President of Malta H.E. Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, the Government of Malta announced plans to support the Puttinu Cares charity using funds generated by the Malta Individual Investor Program (MIIP). A representative of the charity indicated that the funds would be used in the provision of free accommodation to patients and their families seeking treatment in the UK. Several other high-profile government officials were also in attendance, including High Commissioner for Malta in the UK Joseph Cole and Parliamentary Secretary for Reforms, Citizenship, and Simplification of Administrative Processes Julia Farrugia Portelli. According to Portelli, “there is a reality behind the citizenship-by-investment program that is making a big difference in the lives of vulnerable people and is helping noble causes, which is hardly known by the public. [Malta] IIP applicants are helping a lot of NGOs by providing regular financial contributions”. Since its launch in 2014, the MIIP — widely regarded as the industry gold standard — has contributed over EUR 3.6 million to charitable causes.
1st Quarter 2019 | 9
UPFRONT
Thailand Issues Residence Cards to Heroes of Cave Rescue Mission The Government of Thailand, through the Thailand Privilege Card Company — the government body responsible for the granting of Thai residence permits — issued residence cards to the individuals who were involved in the heroic effort to save a team of young soccer players who were trapped in a Thai cave in mid-2018. The permits have been granted under a new category, called Elite Friends of Thailand, set up specifically for this purpose. There are currently seven other categories through which one can qualify for an Elite card, with the most popular being Elite Easy Access, Elite Super Extension, and Elite Family Excursion.
New Zealand Prohibits Foreigners from Purchasing Real Estate In August 2018, the Government of New Zealand passed legislation prohibiting the purchase of real estate by foreigners after finding that international interest was pushing the price of real estate beyond the reach of locals. This comes amid significant interest in local real estate from buyers in the US and China. While the government intends that the new law will work to decrease property prices and improve affordability, the International Monetary Fund has not shown support for the move and has, instead, encouraged the government to reconsider its position. Various reports indicate that roughly 3% of non-commercial real estate in New Zealand is purchased by foreigners. Individuals from Australia and Singapore, as well as those with residence status in New Zealand, are exempt from the ban.
In September 2018, the CEO of the Malta Residency Visa Agency Roderick Cutajar announced some amendments to the Malta Residence and Visa Program (MRVP). The most relevant change for applicants is that the required USD 250,000 investment is no longer applicable only to government stocks but can now “be made in debt or equity securities listed on the Official List of the Malta Stock Exchange. Investment in these securities may also be achieved through an investment in collective investment schemes that are licensed and are on the Official List of the Malta Stock Exchange”.
Growing Interest in UK Tier 1 Program In spite of the tumultuous Brexit climate and the UK Home Office’s planned reform of the program, the UK’s Tier 1 Investor and Entrepreneur Visa offerings are seeing a steady growth in interest. For the period Q1 to Q3 2018, over 990 visas were issued compared to fewer than 950 for the corresponding period in 2017.
10 | Global Citizenship Review
IMAGES: Shutterstock
Changes Announced for Malta Residence Visa
IMAGES: Shutterstock
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UPFRONT
Qatar Boosts Effort to Become Global Financial Hub In late 2018, Qatar announced an ambitious plan set to see the country rising in prominence as a global financial hub. Included in the plan, which is set to launch in Q1 2019, are enticing incentives for international businesses that set up base in the capital Doha, including free offices, seed capital covering operational expenses for five years, and various tax benefits. The CEO of Qatar Financial Centre (QFC), Yousuf Al Jaidah, has also indicated that participating companies will “have full access to government tenders and unlimited access to the local market be it corporate or retail”. The only stipulation is that companies agree to spend 10 years in the country. According to the QFC, some of the benefits of doing business in the country include support in establishing business operations, a “thriving and ambitious environment” that supports growth, a “legal environment based on English common law”, competitive tax, and onshore jurisdiction. In recent years, Qatar’s business environment has enjoyed great gains, with 2017 records indicating an 80% increase of businesses in the country. This bodes well for Qatar’s aim not only of creating 10,000 new jobs for locals but also developing its reputation as a business-friendly nation in spite of ongoing regional diplomatic and trade challenges. The QFC’s program will be supported by a well-endowed fund of USD 2 billion as availed by the government.
Fewer Individuals Are Claiming Non-Domiciled Taxpayer Status in the UK According to figures released by the UK tax authority, fewer individuals are claiming non-domiciled taxpayer status in the UK. For the period 2015–2016, this number was 118,000 but dropped to 91,100 for the period 2016–2017, reflecting a difference of roughly 23% as well as the lowest record in the past decade. Of this number, 76,600 are UK resident (down from 84,400) and 14,300 are non-UK resident (down from 33,600). Despite the decrease in the number of non-UK domiciled tax payers, taxes collected from this group in the period 2016–2017 were the highest to date, accounting for over GBP 9 billion. Some tax experts believe this is evidence of why the UK government should encourage more high-net-worth individuals who are non-UK domicile to register as UK domicile.
In Q1 2019, Editor in Chief of Global Citizenship Review Dr. Christian H. Kälin will launch his highly anticipated book Ius Doni in International Law and EU Law. Providing a comprehensive analysis of the ius doni concept in both international and EU law, Kälin’s latest work explores in detail the legal and political concepts of citizenship and introduces a new term for what is already an increasingly common and accepted practice of granting citizenship on the basis of substantial contributions to a state. Kälin, a frequent writer and speaker on the subject of investment migration and (co-) author of several other publications, including the Global Residence and Citizenship Handbook and the Henley & Partners – Kochenov Quality of Nationality Index, is widely regarded as the industry’s foremost thought-leader.
12 | Global Citizenship Review
IMAGES: Shutterstock
Investment Migration Industry Pioneer Launches New Book
IMAGES: Shutterstock
UPFRONT
“When it is complete, Brexit will slow the momentum of trade integration that has done so much to create a global middle class and lift hundreds of millions from poverty around the world. In short, this will be the biggest win to date for country-first populism.” Ian Bremmer
IMAGE: Shutterstock
Declining Interest in Portugal’s Golden Visa Portugal’s Immigration and Border Service has released data revealing a decline in interest in the country’s golden visa offering. Following a very successful year in 2014, when 1,526 residence permits were issued, only 766 permits were issued in the following year. 2016 saw significant gains, as 1,414 permits were issued; however, this number dropped to 1,351 in 2017. In the first half of 2018, 816 permits were issued; however, the fact that only 47 permits were then issued in the month of July — the lowest number in two years — raises alarm bells. The country with the most interest in the offering has been China, with almost 4,000 permits issued since the launch of the program. China is followed by Brazil (almost 600 permits issued) and South Africa (roughly 260 permits issued), with significant interest noted from nationals of Turkey, Russia, and Lebanon.
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Events
On until 30 March Hamilton: An American Musical UK 30 January–3 February La Folle Journée France Named after the Pierre Beaumarchais play The Marriage of Figaro, La Folle Journée takes place every spring in the northwestern French port city of Nantes. With 250 classical music concerts scheduled over five days, La Folle Journée has become the largest classical music festival in the country since its inception in 1995. Founded by René Martin with the vision being to produce concerts for diverse audiences, La Folle Journée shows are roughly 45 minutes in length. The primary venue is La Cité, Nantes Events Center. A key highlight of this annual event is that guests can interact with top attending composers and musicians — a sure appeal for any classical music enthusiast.
14 | Global Citizenship Review
2 March Veuve Clicquot Masters Polo South Africa The glamorous Veuve Clicquot Masters Polo Cape Town 2019 is an exciting event for lovers of all things polo, champagne, and sunshine. Set in the magnificent winelands region of the Western Cape and held at the exclusive-access Val de Vie Estate, the high-fashion event bubbles over with Veuve Clicquot, gourmet canapés, and networking opportunities (plenty of international guests, media, and prominent business leaders frequent the event). The designated VIP area, decorated in Veuve Clicquot’s signature yellow, is serviced by private butlers and offers the best view of the polo pitch, allowing guests to fully unwind and enjoy the day’s ongoings.
IMAGES: Shutterstock; La Folle Journée; Veuve Clicquot Masters Polo
The highly awarded musical about one of America’s founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton, is performed by a supremely talented British cast until the end of March in the specially revamped Victoria Palace Theatre in London’s West End. The unanimously critically acclaimed show by LinManuel Miranda — the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize and Tony, Grammy, and Emmy awards — follows the life of buccaneering Hamilton through a fusion of hip-hop, blues, rap, R&B, and Broadway. Born in the Caribbean island of Nevis, Hamilton — whose face is shown on the USD 10 note — is a prominent figure in American history, having contributed to the ratification of the US constitution and the establishment of the country’s banking system in his role as the country’s first Secretary of the Treasury.
20–23 March Art Dubai UAE
IMAGES: My Art Guides; Art Basel; Shutterstock
IMAGES: Shutterstock; La Folle Journée; Veuve Clicquot Masters Polo
UPFRONT
Rightfully regarded as the foremost platform to revel in art in the Middle East and North Africa, Art Dubai is held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of the Emirate of Dubai. Sponsored by luxury watch and jewelry brand Piaget and Swiss private bank Julius Baer, the 13th edition of Art Dubai will showcase not only gallery halls but also an extensive program that includes the Global Art Forum, various education initiatives, performances, film screenings, and sessions crafted by the festival’s expert curators. Attracting collectors, patrons, curators, and over 100 visiting museums, Art Dubai is a key event on the global arts calendar.
29–31 March Art Basel Hong Kong Hong Kong Held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the seventh instalment of Art Basel Hong Kong is again set to be a highlight in the calendar of art-savvy global citizens around the world. The event is a culturally important show that offers a prominent platform for artists in the Asia and Asia-Pacific regions. This year’s show will have Galleries, Insights, Discoveries, Kabinett, and Encounters sections, each displaying expertly curated sculptures, installations, and other creative works. There will also be a vibrant film program, curated by the esteemed Li Zhenhua, Director and Founder of Beijing Art Lab, and a Magazine exhibition that will make any collector’s heart skip a beat.
4-6 June Investment Migration Forum Switzerland Ranked as one of the leading fora for the investment migration industry, the Investment Migration Forum will once again gather industry elites, academics, and government officials to take part in sessions addressing topics such as global migration policies, competition for talent, and investment migration developments across regions. The Investment Migration Forum allows industry stakeholders to network and receive direct updates from leading industry professionals, academics, and thought-leaders in the growing field of residence- and citizenship-byinvestment. Hosted by the Investment Migration Council, the event will gather about 300 participants from 40 different countries.
1st Quarter 2019 | 15
UPFRONT
14–27 January Australian Open Australia
16 February–5 March Venice Carnival Italy
Event Review
T 12–14 November 13th Global Citizenship Conference UK
he Concordia Annual Summit is a gathering of preeminent leaders from the public, private, and non-profit sectors who aim to drive groundbreaking, sustainable solutions to pressing global issues via cross-sector col laboration. The 2018 event took place at the Grand Hyatt New York from 24–25 September and explored compelling themes such as global migration, the implications of
16 | Global Citizenship Review
blockchain technology, the political middle, and disaster preparedness. In 2018, Concordia endeavored to display the inclusivity that lies at the heart of the organization by giving voice to exceptional individuals who would not usually have access to such a large and diverse forum. Key speakers included H.E. Monica Geingos, First Lady of the Republic of Namibia; Kristalina Georgieva, CEO of the World Bank; H.E. Iván
IMAGES: Shutterstock; Concordia
2018 Concordia Annual Summit
16–20 February Fashion Week London UK
Above: Advisor to US President Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump discussing job creation and economic development in the US on the first day of Concordia’s 2018 summit
IMAGES: Concordia
IMAGES: Shutterstock; Concordia
UPFRONT
Duque Márquez, President of the Republic of Colombia; Malika Saada Saar, Senior Counsel on Civil and Human Rights for Google; Premal Shah, Co-Founder and President of Kiva; and H.E. Michel Temer, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil. Highlights of the impressive program included the Presidential Panel on Supporting Economic Resilience of Small Islands — with citizenship-by-investment programs being posed as a solution — and Henley & Partners’ roundtable discussion between Dr. Juerg Steffen, Group CEO, Dominique Bolli, Head of Government Advisory, and Domenic Presutti, Managing Partner, Henley & Partners Canada, on Global Migration Planning and Overseas Wealth Management, exploring how alternative citizenship has become an essential lifestyle solution for high-net-worth individuals.
Above: Concordia’s annual summit is regularly attended by heads of state and civic society leaders. Pictured above is H.E. Duško Marković, Prime Minister of Montenegro
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UPFRONT
Top: CEO of the IKEA Foundation Per Heggenes talks to actress and UNHCR High Profile Supporter Nomzamo Mbatha Above: Secretary General of Amnesty International Kimi Naidoo addresses the crowd
Individual and organizational members benefit from the unique environment where they hear from leading experts across the sectors. They are informed on partnership developments, connect with a network of global leaders, and find opportunities for creating partnerships that align with their areas of interest. Each year, Concordia brings together hundreds of leaders by organizing regional events, private meetings, briefings, and the Annual Summit. Members are afforded unique opportunities such as concierge services and private roundtables, which are exclusive conversations with Leadership Council Members or select speakers to receive insight from today’s top thought-leaders.
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IMAGES: Concordia
The plenary session, Beyond a Refugee, emphasized that refugees are human beings with hopes and ambitions, and showcased how the world refugee crisis presents opportunities for visionary companies and foundations to learn about and invest in sustainable development. During a discussion entitled Ending Modern Slavery: The Power of Collaborative Action, high-level business, government, and civil society leaders stressed the plight of the approximately 40.3 million people currently living in slavery, including 16 million working in the private sector — more than at any other time in history. They presented the benefits of taking action and highlighted concrete steps leaders can take to ensure shared prosperity in future. The 2018 Summit built on the success of previous events, held annually in September since the inaugural Summit in 2011, which focused on the fight against terrorism and combating the breeding of extremism. Last year’s Summit dealt with the shifting political landscape and how government and business can collaborate to advance the UN General Assembly’s Sustainable Development Goals. Concordia is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization that fosters, elevates, and sustains cross-sector partnerships for social impact. As convener, idea incubator, and partnership broker, it aims to create a global community where challenges are solved collaboratively and inclusively.
IMAGES: Concordia
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THE POWER OF CHOICE
COLUMNS
Kochenov
Citizenship vs. Personhood
C
itizenship is an abstract proclamation in law that someone has a status of belonging to an authority, based on the authority’s decision, irrespective of the personal traits of the citizen. Personhood, in contrast, is less legally fictitious: it is about looking, precisely, at the kind of human being in front of us, whatever the authorities have or have not abstractly proclaimed. The cleavage is best illustrated by the absurd practice of naturalizations and is getting more and more contested in contemporary constitutional law. Naturalizations are increasingly dependent on the elaborate rites de passage in the form of culture and values tests, which settled foreigners are required to pass to acquire the formal status of citizenship. The assumption behind such tests is as problematic as it is commonplace: the culture from across the border is a barbarian non-equivalent of our own. Putting this assumption into practice is even more difficult, however, than embracing it rationally, as the core value of any liberal democracy today is tolerance. In this sense, testing the specificity of the highly unique Danish culture and of the even more unique Swiss one amounts, in fact, to testing one and the same thing. What such tests supposedly are testing, then, is whether someone is ready to concede that they are a secondrate human being since they are used to having their croissant plain, as opposed to with cream, in the morning. Making a citizen is an ideology-inspired legal exercise, implying a choice among the available bodies who could be useful for the achievement of the goals of the authority at any given time. Those bodies that are less useful are simply excluded and do not exist in the eyes of the law. Exclusions can run along any lines: geography of origin, race, religion, education, language, time. The citizenship’s capacity to exclude is its core function, which means that, in the ‘golden days’ of citizenship — the mythical days of the concept’s unquestioned authority — the exclusion at the level of the legal status could only rarely be questioned: equality is among citizens, remember?
As a consequence, working with citizens the authority enjoys an almost universal carte blanche: you create ethnic electorates, you assign the status of those who are not white enough to your liking to the ‘ancestral homelands’ as apartheid South Africa did, and/or you declare those you send away as ideologically or racially deficient as non-citizens. The long history of flagrant discriminations is rich and diverse. Under the citizenship paradigm, the core question, before looking at rights, entitlements, duties, and equality claims, is, Who is a citizen in this society? Those who are not citizens are entitled to nothing and this is legally and politically right, even if frequently also morally unjust. Not the same at all with persons: recognizing the person as a figure of importance for the purposes of constitutional law, however humble this relative innovation can seem, in fact revolutionizes the legal understanding of our society since it opens up for criticism and legal contestation the status assignment decisions that cannot, in the majority of cases, be contested under the citizenship paradigm. It also flips the sequence of the status-rights interactions. The core question here is why this person is not entitled to a particular right. A simple “she is not a citizen” answer will no longer suffice under the personhood paradigm: a substantive analysis will clearly be required. It goes without saying that the distinction between the ‘status’ and ‘rights’ taken by lawyers for granted is profoundly artificial and is not on all occasions justifiable. The two logics – citizenship and personhood – find themselves in a stark opposition to each other. The cleavage runs between taking either legal or social facts as a starting point, thus providing a choice between parallel realities and their respective truths. This is the legal recognition of social facts in the growing array of contexts that pushes personhood as such, not necessarily connected to the formal status of citizenship, to prominence, with the far-reaching implications for the relevance of the classical normative picture of citizenship which we know from political theory textbooks.
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IMAGE: Supplied
Prof. Dr. Dimitry Kochenov, Chair in EU Constitutional Law, University of Groningen, Netherlands; Chairman, Investment Migration Council, Switzerland
Brexit
Protected Rights for EU Citizens in the UK Nadine Goldfoot, Partner, Fragomen Worldwide, UK
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he continued extensive reporting of a potential nodeal Brexit has caused worry among UK and EU nationals living in the EU and the UK respectively. The UK Secretary of State has sought to reassure EU nationals that they will not be asked to leave the UK, even if no withdrawal agreement can be reached by 29 March 2019.
Ongoing Negotiations
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The UK’s negotiations with the EU are continuing. After earlier talks failed to yield an agreement, Prime Minister May made a public statement on 21 September 2018 that the rights of EU citizens living in the UK would be protected in the event of no deal. What remains to be confirmed is if in the event of no deal the transition period will be honored in full, with free-movement rights recognized up to 1 January 2021, or if there will be differentiation between EU nationals residing in the UK by 29 March 2019 and those arriving after that date. Elsewhere, the UK and Norway have agreed to put in place a comprehensive citizens’ rights agreement. Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg added that the two countries were “very close” to agreeing on a deal to mirror any Brexit deal that is concluded. Prime Minister May commented that “people from the European Economic Area, Norwegian citizens, and those others who are living in the UK, and who have made their life choice to be in the UK” will be able to stay. Current residency rights for British citizens in the EU are expected to apply until December 2020; however, those rights could change in March 2019 if Britain leaves the EU without an agreement. The UK government is meanwhile urging UK citizens living in the EU without registration documents to take action to guarantee their post-Brexit residence rights.
The Settlement Scheme Is Now Up and Running The UK’s settlement scheme is in force and the second phase of testing select applicant groups concluded in December
2018. EU citizens working at 12 National Health Service trusts and students and staff from three Liverpool universities took part in the first managed live trial. The Home Office has published the results of testing in the 1,053 trialed cases, which appear to confirm a short, simple, and user-friendly system. The evidential requirements appear to have been light, with 85% of applicants not having to provide additional evidence. Decisions were made solely on automated checks against Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs data or through applicants’ existing permanent status (in 93 cases). The remaining 15% of applicants provided additional evidence to demonstrate their residence. Nearly two thirds of those had to provide additional evidence for part of their residence, with the rest of the time demonstrated through automated checks. Two thirds of applicants voluntarily provided detailed feedback, which 94% agreed (strongly or moderately) that the application process was easy to complete and 3.5% neither agreed nor disagreed. The Home Office believes that improvements made through the testing phases will mean that the system operates smoothly once it opens to EU applicants in 2019.
The Future UK Immigration Landscape We await details of the immigration system post-Brexit to be formalized in a future White Paper and an Immigration Bill that we understand will be consistent with the UK government’s intention to end free movement in the UK. The UK government has endorsed the view of the Migration Advisory Committee that the post-Brexit system should not distinguish between EU and non-EU nationals, save as may be required by the negotiation outcomes.
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How to
Understand the Impact of Brexit on Your Taxes James Quarmby, Partner and Head of Private Wealth, Stephenson Harwood LLP, UK
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he UK has been in the EU for so many years that in which individuals and businesses in the UK are taxed. most people are unaware of the degree to which This could be both good and bad. law, finances, and society have been changed by For instance, the EU has strict rules on what it calls the never-ending flow of legislation from Brussels. fundamental freedoms. Most of us know about the “free For instance, VAT is an EU invention. In order to be a movement of people” as this crops up frequently in heated member state of the EU, a country must not only introduce debates about immigration. However, more relevant to VAT but also apply its rules uniformly in accordance with taxation is the “free movement of capital” and the strict EU guidelines. Furthermore, VAT receipts collected “freedom of establishment”. These freedoms have forced by the UK cannot just be kept or spent — they must be HMRC to relax certain parts of the UK’s tax system that remitted to Brussels in accordance with a strict formula. were seen as discriminatory against foreigners. This has So, if the UK leaves the EU, it would potentially have been particularly relevant for British people with foreign complete control over the VAT system and could either spouses (or vice versa) or people with properties or keep VAT (and potentially keep all the receipts) or change businesses abroad. it as it sees fit. Potentially, VAT could be The UK’s law of succession has also abolished and replaced with a homebeen heavily influenced by the EU, most grown goods and services tax. Whether recently by way of the introduction of The UK’s law this will be more generous to taxpayers the EU Succession Regulation. of succession has than the current system will probably Previously, citizens of an EU member depend upon the state of the UK’s state were subject, on death, to the also been heavily finances after Brexit. succession law of their home country Apart from VAT, EU member states but not in respect of property held influenced by the EU theoretically have sovereignty over abroad. For example, British citizens their own tax systems. Having said with holiday homes in France would that, quite a lot of the UK’s corporate tax system is heavily often be flabbergasted to learn that they could not leave regulated by EU laws, including, for instance, the rate their property to whom they wished upon their death. The at which corporation tax is charged and the extent to French state would instead determine who the beneficiaries which reliefs and incentives can be given to local would be in accordance with their strict forced heirship businesses. This influence extends into the realm of rules. Under succession regulation, British persons can now personal taxation — not so much the rates of tax charged elect for UK law to be applied, even over the French property. but the manner in which the tax system is administered. EU law has been woven into the fabric of our lives in the Much of the UK’s pension law, for example, is heavily UK over the past 40 years, and the UK’s removal from this influenced by Brussels. framework will have far-reaching effects for individuals, If the UK leaves the EU, then, there is no doubt that, their families, and businesses. Whether this change will be unless the UK stays in some kind of common market with positive or negative for families and finances is unknown the EU post-Brexit, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs at this stage. What we do know is that there will be a change (HMRC) will have far greater freedom to change the way — whether we like it or not.
Diogenes
The Seven Deadly Sins
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onsciousness, as the most prominent human characteristic, includes knowledge of good and of evil. This knowledge is regarded as being so essential that its moment of acquisition is considered to be a pivotal point in the process of becoming human. At that very point of acquisition, a certain creature — now called man — is forced to bid farewell to the paradise of animal ignorance and plunge into an entirely new state of self-awareness. And henceforth, the knowledge of good and evil is a very prominent constituent of all human thinking: It is the basis of all laws written and non-written. Violation of such laws may illicit as a consequence some form of punishment, and different societies have had, and will likely always have, divergent opinions as to what is good and what is bad. The long history of mankind has taught society that not every trespass against the law is of the same gravity, but that there are wrongdoings that inherently bear grave consequences — be it for individuals, societies, or entire civilizations. These are known as deadly sins. Deadly sins are so termed because each one of them is dangerous enough to destroy not only the lives of single individuals but also the collective life of an entire society. According to Christian teaching, the Seven Deadly Sins are the cause of all other sins. Pride is generally considered to be the first and the most serious of all deadly sins because it is the cause of the undoing, and legends about the fallen angel, the tower of Babel, and the fate of most mighty rulers and empires paint a clear picture. Envy is a tragic covetousness towards the happiness of others. In its final instance, envy induces the highest degree of hatred toward those who are happy, be it a single person or a nation. Cain’s crime is probably the most famous example of envy, and the leading cause of most wars has been envy.
Wrath is the result of uncontrolled behavior caused by the temporary, or even long-standing, absence of clear thinking. Wrath very easily ends in hatred and disaster. Its most tragic manifestation is the desire to seek vengeance, because of course every vengeance seeks another vengeance. Sloth is the unwillingness to try hard. An old wisdom pertains that the reluctance to try hard is the greatest enemy of man. The assertion is rather convincing when one considers that every living creature can only subsist if it tries hard, in its own way, to eke out a living. Greed is the rapacious desire and pursuit of material possessions. It is manifest in living for temporal satisfactions and rejecting those with an eternal value. In the mire of this world, greed cannot satisfy — it only can lead to a new greed of a higher order. Gluttony is the sin of eating and drinking excessively for eating and drinking’s own sake, essentially neglecting the spiritual and intellectual pleasures of these acts. Lastly, lust is the unbridled longing for sexual pleasure, which, at its worst, can assume the form of rape and bestiality. Sexuality is a bliss thanks to which we all exist. When unbridled, it is a type of pleasure that can lead people to hell. Its only positive trait consists in the fact that it is not entirely egocentric. In his Purgatorio, Dante allows the penitents to be purged of their lustful thoughts and thus become eligible to be granted salvation. For that reason, lust is considered the least of the deadly sins. While knowledge of these deadly sins is a product of early Christian teaching — having been formulated in the early Christian period (with the Greek version formulated in the fourth century) — what they refer to does not have much to do with religion but more to do with what can endanger orderly living together in a society.
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On Trend
Global Education Hotspots: Where Global Citizens Send Their Children Harvard University, which has been Times Higher Education’s top university since 2011, boasts having produced 47 Nobel laureates, 32 heads of state, and almost 50 Pulitzer prize winners.
In 2018, Switzerland-based Le Rosey, which is the world’s most expensive board, began recruitment in London, marking its first international foray in its 135year history.
According to the Programme for International Student As sess ment’s latest triennial study in 2015, Singapore is the top performing country when it comes to 15-year-olds taking assessments in Science, Mathematics, and Reading.
For parents looking to provide their children with a truly global education, Think Global School is a traveling high school that sees scholars living in four countries a year. For 2019/2020, selected countries are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Peru, Australia, and Italy.
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ne of the main reasons for migration among high-networth individuals (HNWIs) is schooling and education opportunities for their children, along with safety, security, and business opportunities. This is according to Knight Frank’s 2018 Global Wealth Report, which further found that almost half of respondents with clients in Africa said wealthy families were becoming more likely to look abroad for a good school. For Latin America, the figure was 45%, the Middle East 40%, and Asia 38%. New World Wealth’s 2018 report, titled Global Wealth Migration Review, moreover found that the main reason millionaires are leaving China and other Asian countries is to educate their children in Western or Australian schools that they believe will give their offspring better education and networking opportunities to develop their careers.
American Freedom At the age of 13, the son of wealthy Taiwanese businessman Joseph Tsai was sent to one of the most expen sive schools in the US, namely Lawrenceville School, where annual tuition costs up to USD 62,000 a year. Tsai then went on to finish his doctorate at Yale University and cofounded Chinese retail technology giant Alibaba. American universities
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are highly sought-after institutions, with many international HNWIs using prestigious American schools such as Lawrenceville, Hermon and St. Albans as stepping stones to ultimately enrol their children in the Ivy League. Founded in 1810, Lawrenceville School in New Jersey is also well known for its athletics and includes other impressive alumni such as former CEO of The Walt Disney Company Michael Eisner. Northfield Mount Hermon is the third most expensive boarding school in the US. The co-ed establishment has some of the best facilities in the country: its performing arts center is exceptional, and the extra-curricular program is especially extensive. Notable alumni include academic Edward Said. St. Albans in Washington DC is labeled the most expensive in the country and boasts an exceptional level of prestige. The all-boys’ school enjoys a near-peerless academic reputation especially renowned for its English literature teaching, with notable alumni including American author and intellectual Gore Vidal and former US Secretary of State John Kerry. Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings 2018 report found that Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (ranked 30th)
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Above: Switzerland’s Le Rosey is the world’s most expensive boarding school, boasting main and winter boarding facilities in different cities, well-equipped libraries and classrooms, and auditoriums and halls with modern design
East Meets West is the most international American university, followed st by Harvard University (51 ) and Carnegie Mellon International enrolment in Australia peaked in 2017, with University (57th). While the Institute of International 13% growth over the year before, according to a 2017 Education’s 2016 report, titled Open Doors Report on finding by market intelligence agency ICEF Monitor. Half International Educational Exchange, found that the number of these students are from China, with most entering the of foreign students at US colleges and universities surpassed higher education sector. one million for the first time that year, O vera ll, Aust ra lia is nearly 4 in 10 higher education renowned for its education institutions in the US reported a small system. In fact, according to The US reported a but striking dip (–2%) in international Australian Bureau of Statistics small but striking dip in undergraduate enrolment after a data on “export income to decade of steady growth. By region, Australia from international international undergraduate education activity in 2017”, the students from China and India, making up nearly half of all international country’s third-largest export enrolment after a decade students, sank from 25% to 23% and in the previous year was of steady growth, with 27% to 23% respectively. In a 2017 international education, which survey, published under the headline grew from USD 16.6 billion to the highest declines from Will International Students Stay a record high of USD 20 students in the Middle East Away?, media company Inside Higher billion. As highlighted by the Ed found that the highest declines in Times Higher Education’s undergraduate applications (39%) global university rankings, the were from students in the Middle East. Australian National University is ranked 10th, with the With immigration and political tension making the US University of Melbourne 16th and the University of New less favorable to some nationalities, Australia, Canada, South Wales 23rd on the list. and the UK are growing in popularity for migrating An estimated 11,000 millionaires moved to Australia HNWIs, especially those Asian citizens seeking Westernlast year according to New World Wealth’s 2018 report, style education and exposure. making it the number-one country for millionaire
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migrants. The US ranked second with 10,000, followed Global Wealth Report notes that some of the biggest by Canada with 8,000. The report found that millionaires drivers for British education are a relaxed currency, are looking mainly for a good education for their children quality of life, and access to leading universities. Oxford and personal safety for the entire family. and Cambridge are ranked number one and two in the In terms of secondary education, Cranbrook School world by Times Higher Education, respectively. At the in Sydney is Australia’s most reputable independent boys’ same time, both institutions are ranked eighth and ninth school. It is also the most expensive. Dating back to 1918, as being the most international. Imperial College London, the school has commanded much respect over the years furthermore, is ranked the fifth most international for academic and sporting excellence. Today, students university, with more than half of its 15,000 students graduate with a badge of prestige, with famous old boys being foreigners, hailing from more than 125 countries. including billionaire James Packer and Olympic gold Asian Prestige medal-winning swimmer Murray Rose. Canada, similarly, presents HNWIs with a plethora of In Asia, Singapore and Hong Kong are regarded as having attractive schooling options. Well known for its relative the region’s most international universities. The University safety and political stability, institutions such as St. Michaels of Hong Kong, for instance, has embarked on a mission University School, Upper Canada College, and Appleby to become “Asia’s Global University”, which includes the College provide some of the world’s highest standards. goal of 50% of its undergraduates being given two Tuition at St. Michaels University School, for instance, will opportunities to study outside Hong Kong during their cost USD 50,000 per annum, but the school has the largest degree by 2019, and for all students to have this opportunity advanced placement program in Canada, uniquely focusing by 2022. Overall, Hong Kong’s leading university has on bringing university-level more than 20,000 students, with academic skills to the classroom. almost 8,000 from abroad, and Alumni typically go on to study at is ranked the third most Some of the biggest prestigious Canadian universities international tertiary institution drivers for British education such as the University of British by Times Higher Education. Columbia, McGill University, and Another very sought-after are a relaxed currency, the University of Alberta, or schooling system is that of abroad to the US. Singapore. According to Times quality of life, and access As noted by the Global Wealth Higher Education, the National to leading universities Report, although Canada, Australia, University of Singapore (NUS) is the US, Switzerland, and a number Asia’s top-ranked and most of other countries all attract international university. Many students from overseas, the UK’s private boarding schools students are drawn to the academic excellence and global are still seen as the gold standard by many, according to exposure, especially to the West. With English as the specialist education advisors who help HNWIs find the right primary language of instruction, many government schools for their children. The report cites data published agencies and private sector companies also offer full by the UK’s Independent Schools Council — accounting for scholarships for top students to pursue their undergraduate about 80% of the total number of pupils in independent and graduate studies at foreign universities such as those schools — which reveals that global demand for British in Australia, the UK, and the US. education has risen strongly over the past 10 years, particularly Besides the globalized education focus and overall from China but also from Africa and Russia. quality, another driver for students studying in Singapore Known for its near-royal status, Hurtwood House in is ultimately to acquire residence. Singaporean citizenship Surrey is regarded as Britain’s most pricey boarding comes with a plethora of privileges, such as job and school. The institution is famed for its arts facilities and financial eligibility. The majority (82%) of international for putting on lavish productions, including a recent students in the country who applied to obtain permanent staging of the musical Grease, which had a budget of residence were successful, according to Professionals in USD 105,000. Founded in 1853, Cheltenham Ladies’ International Education referencing the country’s minister College is another well-regarded school in the UK. of home affairs Josephine Teo. According to Times Higher
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Education’s website, the percentage of international students is 34% and 33% for NUS and Nanyang Technological University, respectively, the latter of which is ranked the sixth most international university.
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European Excellence Switzerland is found to be the most popular destination for international students. This is partly due to the fact that it’s surrounded by five big European countries, including Germany and France, and accommodates most common European languages along with English. In terms of Swiss tertiary education, the country outperforms all other countries when it comes to its international exposure. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne ranks as the most international university in the world, according to Times Higher Education. The institution prides itself on research in science and technology, welcoming professors and staff of over 120 nationalities. The university is followed by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, which boasts 19,000 students from over 120 countries and is the top university in Europe. The country is also renowned for its luxurious boarding schools. In fact, ten of the world’s most expensive boarding schools are in Switzerland. St George’s International School, for instance, is a boarding school nestled in the Alps and home to about 480 students who can graduate with either the International Baccalaureate or the American High School Diploma. Students at Aiglon are required to participate in morning meditation and can take part in art programs, sports, expeditions, and humanitarian work. The school says 30% of its students join universities ranked in the top 25 in the world, including those in the Ivy League, MIT, and Oxbridge, after graduating. Annual fees at these institutions are north of USD 100,000 — more than double that of the top British schools. Le Rosey is well-known as the world’s most expensive boarding school, where students get to live at the 14thcentury Château du Rosey and have access to a private nautical center on Lake Geneva, a spa, and afternoon horse-riding or skiing. The roughly 70 acre campus contains boarding houses, academic buildings with about 50 classrooms and eight science laboratories, and a library with 30,000 volumes. The campus also includes a theatre, three dining rooms where students dine in formal dress, two cafeterias, and a chapel. Each morning, students have a chocolate break in true Swiss style. It is known as the school of kings and counts — among its alumni
Above: Pictured here is the National University of Singapore, which is the largest and oldest institute of higher learning in the country, having been built in 1905
are the Shah of Iran, Prince Rainier of Monaco, and King Farouk of Egypt. International higher education is becoming more exclusive, in terms of high fees and shifting immigration policies. The US-based National Science Board’s Science & Engineering Indicators 2018 shows that the number of international students at US universities declined in 2017 after years of substantial growth. This is mostly attributed to the policies and sentiments of President Donald Trump. As geopolitics continue to play a role in migration policies, smaller and relatively stable countries such as Australia and Canada experience an influx of HNWIs and students, mostly hailing from China and India. Only time will tell how these countries will manage to attract wealth and skills on the one hand, and curb the reliance on foreign countries while increasing overall infrastructure and capacity on the other.
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Ethnomathematics and the Diversification of Mathematics Teaching Dr. Karen François, Director of the Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science and the Doctoral School of Human Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
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s a field of enquiry, ethnomathematics started in the 1960s, its subject being the mathematical practices of so-called illiterate or, more politically correctly, non-literate peoples, holding that mathematical ideas are pan-human and are primarily developed within cultures. Based on their empirical investigations, mathematician Marcia Ascher and anthropologist Robert Ascher1 demonstrated that the local mathematical practices in question and ‘our’ Western ones are equally complex. Brazilian mathematician and educationalist Ubiratàn D’Ambrosio was the first to propose a research program for ethnomathematics. As the intellectual father of the research field of ethnomathematics, D’Ambrosio provided in the late 1990s a more extended version of the concept of ethnomathematics, with his aim being the encompassing of a range of cultures. He presupposed “a broader concept of ethno to include all culturally identifiable groups with their jargons, codes, symbols, myths, and even specific ways of reasoning and inferring”.2 Following this, the research interests of the newly founded discipline pertain to the development, transmission, and distribution of mathematical knowledge as dynamic processes embedded in socio-cultural contexts. An important implication is that Western mathematics is also considered as having developed, and as continuing to develop, within a particular, contextual reality — not detached from it.
otherwise culturally framed background knowledge of the pupils who ‘fail’. The answer is clearly to reset the curriculum to meet the diversification of intuitions and (slightly) other reasoning styles and practices of peoples. Small differences allow people to cope with reality and survive, notwithstanding the manifest differences in perspective on reality. An interesting example, as studied with Navaho Native Americans by the anthropologist Pinxten, is language differences and their implications for mathematical reasoning. In the verb-languages of this world (those languages that are without a genuine noun category, that is) the intuition is that of a world of events or processes, rather than things or static phenomena. Now try to imagine set theory without ‘objects’ like sets and elements but rather built up on changes and events.
Ethnomathematics and Mathematics Education Ethnomathematics or the implementation of local mathematical practices in the formal mathematics curriculum is in line with the social turn within learning theory and the emphasis on the fusion of the learning process into a sociocultural environment. Social sciences
The Impact of Cultural Differences on Mathematics Education Globally International comparative research on mathematical literacy reveals cultural and language background biases. François and Pinxten 3 started to discuss cultural biases in mathematics curriculum and international comparative research, questioning whether dropout rates could be understood and hence mended against the intuitive and
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have developed, during the last decades, three main learning theories, each of them with a specific focus on the learning process. Whereas behaviorism focuses on the input-output mechanisms, ignoring the black box in between, genetic psychology mainly focuses on the black box and what is going on in the student’s mind. The socio-cultural theory considers the environment in which the learning process is taking place. The social turn within the learning theory became of interest in the field of mathematics education mostly as a reaction to the huge dropping out of pupils with a specific socio-cultural background. Sociocultural theory elaborates on the learning theory of the Russian Lev Vygotsky and his concept of a zone of proximal learning as developed in the 1970s. The concept can be understood as the cognitive field of the pupil, which can be spotted at the fringe of the background knowledge and the out-of-school worldview. It is the zone of learning where the pupil will be able to connect insightfully to new knowledge because of the intrinsic relation between background knowledge and new inputs. Background and out-of-school
knowledge are integrated in formal learning as a stepping-stone for acquiring new knowledge, new meanings, and new mental frames.4
Mindful Education beyond the Classroom Ethnomathematics is a practice that goes beyond the classroom — it is the practice and the knowledge that pupils learn out of school. Social learning theory emphasizes that pupils do not come to school as empty barrels. They do bring their background and out-of-school knowledge into the classroom. Teachers, at all levels, have to invest igate the backg rou nd knowledge that children actually bring to school and they have to investigate how to introduce pupils’ learning context in the teaching of mathematics at school. Ignorance concerning the local culture, local practices, and knowledge may well explain the gap between success and failure in a formal mathematics classroom. Indeed, when we agree that children are raised throughout the world in the particular meaning production processes and mental f ra mes of t hei r pa r t ic u la r environment, it is important and
sensible (that is, possibly beneficial) to take into account — and even actively study — the contents and the learning strategies of the out-ofschool knowledge and skills the child possesses and uses when first coming into contact with what Western educators call mathematics education. 5
Endnotes 1 Marcia Ascher and Robert Ascher, “Ethnomathematics,” in Ethnomathematics: Challenging Eurocentrism in Mathematics Education, ed. Arthur B. Powell and Marilyn Frankenstein (Albany: State University of New York Press – SUNY, [1986] 1997), 25–50. 2 Ubiratàn D’Ambrosio, “Ethnomathematics and its Place in the History and Pedagogy of Mathematics,” in Ethnomathematics: Challenging Eurocentrism in Mathematics Education, ed. Arthur B. Powell and Marilyn Frankenstein (Albany: State University of New York Press – SUNY, [1986] 1997), 13–24. 3 Karen François and Rik Pinxten, “Multimathemacy: Time to Reset?” (Mathematics Education and Life at Times of Crisis. Proceedings of the Ninth International Mathematics Education and Society Conference – MES – Vol. 2, 480–490), ed. Anna Chronaki. Book Series: Mathematics Education and Society. Volos, Greece, 7–12 April 2017. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid.
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Why International Clients Still Bank in Switzerland Dr. Ariel Sergio Goekmen, Member of the Executive Board Wealth Management Switzerland, Schroder & Co Bank AG, Switzerland
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he Swiss banking industry is in a stronger and more sound position than it has been for a long time. In the lead-up to the annual Bankers Day in 2018, the Swiss Bankers Association published its Banking Barometer with some highly satisfactory results: • Stable aggregate operating income of all banks with CHF 63 billion in 2017/2018 • Gross profits rose by 12% and the annual profit by 24% (to CHF 9.8 billion) • Assets under management rose nearly 10% to CHF 7.3 billion — a new post-financial crisis record • A market share of 27.5% in cross-border banking confirms Switzerland’s global leading position
Why Switzerland? Switzerland, as a non-EU member state, is faced by numerous competing finance centers, leading to fitness in questions of margin pressure, digitization, and cybercrime. Why then should an international and ultrahigh-net-worth individual choose a Swiss bank to manage their wealth, obtain advice, and potentially increase their asset base?
Success Factor: Performance and Price Transparency
With its share of foreigners accounting for 25% of the national population, Switzerland practices integration and multiculturalism
The Banking Barometer is, naturally, not enfeebling itself with a naive good-weather forecast in the vein of Voltaire’s novel Candide: “Tout va pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes (All is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds)”. There are some administrative obstructions and bottlenecks: • The automatic exchange of information with foreign authorities • Basel III: Revision of the capital adequacy regulation • Customer and investor protection: FinSA, FinIA, in dealings with EU clients: MiFID II • Recognition of Swiss stock market equivalence
These administrative burdens, together with the continual renewal of IT infrastructure, are major cost items that have risen steadily in recent years with an unabated
Performance is central to the advisory and management activities of banks and wealth managers. The banking center has made investments in both IT and its international and domestic professional employees with low fluctuation rates. This is why customers continue coming to Switzerland today — on the one hand, they value the transparency of the price–performance relationship and, on the other hand, they appreciate the professionalism of the Swiss private banker. Furthermore, regulatory developments over the past few years mean that customers’ costs must be declared openly. In order to avoid conflicts of interest between customers and advisors, and thereby strengthen trust, this development is to be welcomed unconditionally.
Success Factor: True Internationality Switzerland is one of the most international countries in the world. With its share of foreigners accounting
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Substantial Challenges
upward trend. Nevertheless, there remain ample reasons why international clients should bank in Switzerland.
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for 25% of the national population, Switzerland practices integration and multiculturalism. Many Swiss work abroad for a time, meaning that, when they return home, they know from personal experience how to conduct business abroad. In many cases, well-educated Swiss nationals are conversant in three to four languages. In addition, as Swiss bank employees are required to have knowledge of technical investment issues, Swiss banks and their client advisors are professionally equipped to organize everything from a partial IPO to a succession plan in detail.
Success Factor: Political Stability Foreigners may mock the Swiss for their direct democracy and quarterly referendums at national, cantonal, and municipal level; however, these very checks and balances render a stable political environment where no party truly dominates politics, meaning party politics have a disciplinary and equilibrating effect on outcomes. Additionally, Swiss labor law is more liberal than that of most nations. The legal foundations of the Swiss Code of Obligations are stipulated in 70 articles,1 meaning a work contract for a banker occupies only two pages. This is aided by a social partnership between employers and employees that has created a productive national work ethos that makes strikes a rarity.
Success Factor: Dual Educational System In addition to internationality and political stability, Switzerland has yet another invaluable strength: A dual educational system that
consists of an academic track (the Matura), followed by university, and of a practical vocational education track, an apprenticeship with vocational secondary school training followed by an advanced technical college degree. The educational standard of Swiss universities ranges from very high to excellent, with Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule ranked 7th best in the world (and 3rd in Europe) by QS World University Rankings. 2 The Swiss vocational and commercial apprenticeship is an internationally highly respected institution. Here, students begin life in earnest at 16 years of age. Owing
Swiss banks have worked diligently to create IT-secured systems that accommodate the tax circumstances relating to customers’ countries of origin to their professional experience, such a trained labor force is in higher demand than are university graduates immediately after their academic studies. For example, UBS and Zurich Cantonal Bank are operationally run by practitioners who started their careers with vocational training. What relevance does all of this have for Swiss banking? For starters, clients can be assured that their service providers have a wealth of experience and, due to having started their careers early, are well attuned to their professional responsibilities.
Success Factor: Tax Swiss banks have worked diligently to create IT-secured systems that accommodate the tax circumstances relating to customers’ countries of origin. This is achieved at the level of wealth management via the selection of appropriate investments that are suited to customers’ tax requirements. The requirements are also met by providing customers with tax statements. This specialized knowledge is unique worldwide. It is thanks to Switzerland’s performance culture, its true internationalit y, its political stability, and its powerful dual educational system that the Swiss economy, and with it the Swiss banking system, has gained renown as a global leader. The French philosopher Voltaire once said: “Si vous voyez un banquier suisse se jeter par la fenêtre, sautez derrière lui: vous pouvez être sûr qu’il y a quelque profit à prendre (If you see a Swiss banker jump out of a window, follow him — there is surely money to be made)”. 3 Today, good private bankers tend to focus on investment performance, customer needs, and the customer experience, which is why transparent communication and declaring conflicts of interest are key to customer satisfaction. Endnotes 1 gesetze.ch/inh/inhsub220.htm 3 September 2018 2 ethz.ch/de/die-eth-zuerich/portraet/ rankings.html, QS Ranking 3 September 2018 3 Wenn sie einen Schweizer Bankier aus dem Fenster springen sehen, springen sie hinterher. Es gibt bestimmt etwas zu verdienen, dicocitations.lemonde.fr/citations/ citation-34509.php, 3 September 2018
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Too Small To Fail
James Breiding, Author of Swiss Made: The Untold Story Behind Switzerland’s Success; Founder and CEO, Naissance Capital, Switzerland
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arren Buffett, probably the world’s most successful investor, has attributed much of his good fortune to the lottery of life, tracing it to being born “in the right country at the right time” — namely, America in 1930. Some six decades later, in 1988, The Economist wholeheartedly agreed with a study finding that the US was the most desirable place to spend a lifetime. But as with all lotteries, odds change. Redoing the analysis in 2013, the magazine put the US in the humble 16th spot on the global roster, below Taiwan and just above the
UAE. Surging into the top ranks this time around were small countries with populations of fewer than 20 million, such as Switzerland, Singapore, and Ireland. The Economist had a point. Small countries now make up 11 of the top 15 advanced economies in terms of income per capita. They hold four of the top five spots in the World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness league. And, in 2016, they took 14 of the top 20 scores in the UN Human Development Index. What explains their remarkable ascendance?
Smaller Is Getting Better
1988 Rank
Country
Score
Rank
Country
Score
1
US
93
1
Switzerland
82
2
France
86
2
Australia
81
3
West Germany
85
3
Norway
81
4
Italy
84
4
Sweden
80
5
Canada
83
5
Denmark
80
6
Japan
82
6
Singapore
80
7
Hong Kong
77
7
New Zealand
80
8
UK
77
8
Netherlands
79
9
Sweden
75
9
Canada
78
10
Netherlands
74
10
Hong Kong
78
11
South Korea
74
11
Finland
78
12
Austria
73
12
Ireland
77
Above: According to a 2013 analysis by The Economist, in 1980 the US was considered the leading destination to spend a lifetime. Interestingly, it found that by 2013 the leading destination was Switzerland, with the US relegated to 16th (Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit)
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IMAGE: Supplied
2012
IMAGE: Supplied
OPINIONS
Crawling Between the Toes of the Elephants
The World’s Happiest Countries
Though there is almost infinite variety among the many small nations of the world, the most successful share 6. Netherlands 1. Norway certain common attributes, conduct their economies more openly, and rely heavily on foreign trade for their 2. Denmark 7. Canada survival. Their economies are more exposed and thus sensitive to new opportunities and threats, making them more alert and adaptable. Their consumers are exposed 8. New Zealand 3. Iceland to a greater variety of new products and their societies are more likely to attract talented immigrants. With this openness tends to come greater tolerance, enabling more 9. Sweden 4. Switzerland level playing fields, often irrespective of gender, religion, or sexual preference, thus creating larger pools of talent. Since it is their human rather than natural resources 10. Australia 5. Finland that determine their competitiveness, smaller states maintain education systems that better reflect the needs of industry. Teachers enjoy public respect and higher pay, Above: Several of the world’s happiest countries are in the list and are better able to work in tandem with parents to of the top 12 destinations to spend one’s life as detailed on develop student skills. The children, in turn, grow up to page 32. Norwegians are said to be particularly happy thanks embrace meritocracy and egalitarianism, not privilege and to their access to education, enjoyment of cultural freedom, elitism. They learn at an early age to place more value on opportunities to attain wealth, and exposure to beautiful scenery (Source: World Happiness Report 2017) the community over the individual, on collaboration rather than rivalry, and on social norms rather than regulations. Not just the universities, but also vocational schools and apprenticeship systems equip them with the skills they combined, but in the decades since have turned this need for a solid foothold in the middle class. vulnerability into a source of vigilance, flexibility, Small countries also draw strength from their historical and renewal. status as underdogs bullied by larger Along with resilience, these neighbors. Fifty years ago, newly experiences have instilled useful modesty. Hardly a history lesson in independent Singapore lost its Since it is their mandate to host port facilities for Great Britain passes without children human rather than Britain’s Royal Navy at a time when being reminded, for good or ill, of its past empire and the exploits of Admiral its industrial base was weak to nonnatural resources existent. Switzerland stood face to Nelson or Winston Churchill. France face with imperialist giants through cherishes its legacy as La Grande that determine their Nation, while Bismarck embodied the most of its modern history, devising competitiveness, mantra Deutschland über alles. The survival strategies such as neutrality to head off invasions. Denmark is but Chinese characters for “China” mean smaller states maintain a shadow of its former imperial self, “magnificent” and “center”, reflecting education systems their belief that the world revolves having lost vast swaths of territory through diplomatic mishaps and around Beijing and that countries like that better reflect the military defeats, but it has rebounded Korea and Japan are provincial to learn how to do more with less. satellites. In the US, Donald Trump’s needs of industry potent battle cry “make America great The Dutch found within themselves the ingenuity to deter the encroaching again” helped pave the way to his North Sea and applied it to building a global mercantile election. In an increasingly competitive world, modesty empire. The Finns lost more soldiers per capita in World often provides a distinct advantage. After all, people prefer War II than the Americans, the British, and the French counterparts whom they can like and trust.
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OPINIONS
Greater humility breeds fewer conflicts. Smaller mortgage their children’s futures. Debt levels tend to countries have learned the advantages of avoiding be substantially lower and concern for the environment geopolitical rivalry on the global stage, thus sparing stronger. Switzerland leads the world in clean energy themselves the hefty cost of military spending and the production, and Denmark is working toward becoming temptation to demonstrate its results. They have become CO2 -neutral by 2025. the virtuosos of soft power, skilled at achieving their We vs. Me Societies goals not by aggression but through negotiation — not coercion, payment, or government fiat. (One notable Since the 1960s, traditionally cohesive institutions such exception is Israel, a country that has arguably thrived as family, marriage, military, and religion have weakened. because of conflict). Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam argued in Large countries tend to approach competition — be it Bowling Alone in 2000 that we have become increasingly in sport, war or business — with a winner-take-all mindset. disconnected from one another and social structures Yet mutuality brings greater rewards. Small countries have — whether the PTA, church or political parties. These realized the value of mutual respect and collaboration in loosened or, in many cases, broken bonds have been a changing world, compared with hard-nosed rivalry. To accompanied by a proliferation of new identities with take just the most obvious example, reciprocity is regard to gender, generation, race, sexual preference, fundamental to trade, allowing both sides to benefit from and ideology. It has been popular during the past few their dealings. Cooperation rather than domination decades to celebrate diversity with the steady beat of the becomes the key to success. old slogan — E pluribus unum, or Counterintuitively, smaller countries “out of many, one” — as though its often shun the perceived advantages of benefits were infinitely linear. But Small countries economies of scale, opting instead for recent events suggest that identity more decentralized systems that instill has been blurred, which ultimately have realized the value a greater sense of self-reliance and begs the question: Who exactly are of mutual respect empower people at the subsidiary level, “we the people”? where costs and benefits of government and collaboration in Towards Smaller, Nimbler services are more readily ascertainable. Nation States a changing world, These systems give voice to their citizens, foster the sense of shared community, These models will only grow in compared with hardand even spur domestic competition relevance. For most of the past among government agencies. century, many nations enjoyed a nosed rivalry There is an even more fundamental win–win environment and grew grassroots advantage to living in a wealthier from a more efficient smaller state. Notwithstanding their propensity for global market and the easing of trade barriers. Now, earning higher incomes, citizens of these countries tend however, according to Gideon Rachman, the foreign to be less avaricious. In fact, the qualities of greed and affairs commentator at the Financial Times, nations self-interest are currently undergoing a major face a more zero-sum world where self-interest assumes reevaluation by economists. Since as early as the midfar greater importance. 18th century, thinkers — most notably David Hume Societies will have to cope with slower growth and — have argued that such impulses drive economic do more with less. The haves will come under greater progress. But new evidence shows that citizens of smaller scrutiny and criticism from the have-nots. Studies show nations place less value on money for its own sake than that we are far more likely to feel empathy toward those their counterparts do in larger nations, which strengthens with whom we feel a sense of belonging. In these societies and economies on the whole. instances, policies that redistribute wealth find more They also seem to be more willing to sacrifice for ready acceptance, as Scandinavia demonstrates. The the sake of tomorrow. Rather than kicking the can down Danish, for example, believe that taxes are a necessary the road, smaller countries have shown more willingness investment in a better society. Yes, individuals have to embrace long-term problems today in order not to rights, but in order for the collective to be cohesive,
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OPINIONS
Changing Dynamics of State Formation
they also have duties. When a sense of belonging wanes, and an array of ethnic and national groups in the societies might begin to view taxes as an annual Middle East, for example, will be tempted to push for punishment for creating wealth and thus an infringement autonomy or to use such recalibrations to bargain for to be avoided — or at least minimized through myriad better social contracts under existing structures. loopholes. Citizens may polarize themselves between To stretch the point somewhat, why couldn’t the “those who do”, and “those who mooch off those who six million people living in the Miami conurbation do”, making it an unwieldy task to join forces with Cubans and Puerto devise policies that redistribute Ricans to create a Novo Havana as income to reduce inequality. a proud vestige of the Spanish Smaller countries Supr a n a t ion a l gove r n a n c e empire at its zenith? Why shouldn’t have learned the structures like the EU, as well as Californians seek independence? societies that feel uncomfortably Indeed, a vote on Californian state advantages of avoiding placed in regional groupings that sovereignt y has already been are legacies of an obsolete epoch, slated for 2019. Proponents argue geopolitical rivalry may find it more difficult to stay that California is subsidizing on the global stage together under these circumstances. ot her s t ate s a nd wou ld b e If smaller, nimbler, and less better off as a separate, nimbler, heterogeneous societies confer empowered entity. competitive advantages, then there will likely be more While these ‘Davids’ may prevail over ‘Goliaths’, of them in the future. Legacy nation groupings they are by no means utopias. On the contrary, they burdened with incompatible ethnicity, language, and too are laboratories struggling to deal with complex traditions could experience deepening fault lines, as and challenging problems affecting us all, from climate recent crises in the EU already provide a hint of things change to immigration, inequality, pollution, obesity, to come. The likes of Catalonia, Quebec, Scotland, and terrorism.
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way
Why Investing in Fine Art is Different From Investing in Traditional Asset Classes Doug Woodham, Managing Partner, Art Fiduciary Advisors, USA
D
mitry Rybolovlev thought he’d been ripped off when he paid Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier USD 127.5 million for Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi in 2013 once he learned Bouvier had paid between USD 75 and USD 80 million for it. But after Salvator Mundi’s sale in November 2017 at Christie’s for USD 450.3 million, it was hard to argue he’d overpaid. Google searches for “investing in art” hit a 12-month peak just after the sale, suggesting a new wave of investors may be circling the art market, which is already stacked with consultants, data providers, wealth managers, and lawyers who advise clients on how to approach fine art as an asset class. Talk of art as an asset class is not quite new. One early art investor was the British Rail Pension Fund, which decided to invest approximately USD 70 million, about 3% of its holding at the time, into fine art and collectibles between 1974 and 1981 in an attempt to diversify its portfolio and hedge against inflation. Due to careful buying and smart timing in its purchases and sales, it generated solid returns. But today’s casual art buyers may not fully appreciate the profound differences in how the art market functions compared with the market for stocks and bonds. Here’s a look at how those differences affect the risks and returns of being an art investor.
Even so, the ease of buying hides the challenges of selling. Galleries are typically reluctant to resell work they have already sold once because they stand to make more money selling new work by that artist. Top auction houses want to sell proven names, meaning artists who are out of favor or those whose careers have yet to take off will not be considered. Negotiating auction house consignment agreements is also a complicated and nuanced process that disadvantages the infrequent consigner. Lastly, selling is a moment of truth when title, authenticity, and condition issues that may have been overlooked — or worse, not disclosed — at the time of purchase come to a head. Compare that to the ease of opening up an E*TRADE account, where you can trade shares of Sotheby’s (BID) with far greater facility and speed than is required to unload an actual artwork at Sotheby’s.
Buying Art Is Easy, but Selling Is Hard The art world is a wonderful place with many delightful things to look at and buy, from a USD 2,000 print by KAWS to a USD 30 million painting by Picasso. With more galleries, art fairs, and online portals than ever before, spending money on art is easy. While a few popular artists may have waiting lists, most artists have work available for sale at the galleries that represent them. Buying art at auction is also easy because anyone who passes a basic credit check can bid, and the object goes to the highest bidder with no questions asked. No lists, no relationships to build and foster, and no feelings or egos to manage.
Above: Bidding agents at the auction of Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi in November 2017
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IMAGES: Supplied; Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images
s d
OPINIONS
IMAGES: Supplied; Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images
OPINIONS
Trading on Non-Public Information Is an Important Driver of Returns
There Are No Reliable Art Market Price Indexes for Measuring Risk and Returns
Stock and bond prices adjust constantly to reflect new information. An unexpected increase in quarterly earnings may cause a company’s stock price to jump, while a lowerthan-expected monthly jobs report may cause government bond yields to fall. Because information is so valuable, securities law makes it a crime to trade on material, nonpublic information. Publicly traded companies are also required to disclose relevant information to all investors at the same time to avoid giving a select few an advantage. These rules do not apply to the lightly regulated art market comprising private art galleries, individual collectors, and artists. In fact, it’s rather the opposite: Knowledgeable insiders may trade their information to others in the hope of making a sale. What if a dealer knew that a major museum was planning to stage a mid-career retrospective for a little-known artist in two years? She could offer that information, alongside a few paintings, to a prospective collector. If an auction-house specialist knew that hardto-detect forgeries were starting to plague a certain wellknown artist’s market, he could alert loyal clients. Those in possession of market-moving information are free to use it for personal gain in the art industry. Being an art market insider with access to important tips and whispers has always been, and will likely continue to be, an important determinant of returns. Those without this privileged access are at a significant disadvantage.
Investors around the world rely on indexes like the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index to define the securities that make up an asset class and to understand historical risks and returns. For example, the S&P 500 index tracks the stocks of 500 large companies. It is a powerful tool because it is investible — investors can buy a mutual fund or exchangetraded fund that mimics the S&P 500 index and be confident they will get returns in line with it. Or they could buy a more expensive actively managed mutual fund of large companies and use the S&P 500 index to evaluate the manager’s performance. Unfortunately, it is not possible to create an investible art index for three reasons. First, roughly half the art market’s annual sales (USD 63.7 billion in 2017) are automatically off limits for the purposes of creating an index because they occur in the gallery market, where public price disclosure is not required. Second, indexes that researchers have built using repeat sales of artworks at auction, such as the Mei Moses Art Indices (recently purchased by Sotheby’s and now known as Sotheby’s Mei Moses), paint an incomplete picture of the market and the movement of prices over time. For example, suppose someone bought a Richard Diebenkorn drawing at auction in 1998 and then resold it 15 years later at auction. The annualized rate of return on this repeat sale is a data point used in the construction of the Mei Moses indexes. While a clever idea, very few objects round trip at auction relative to total auction turnover, probably less than 2% of annual transaction volume. Moreover, because only art that has gone up in value typically reappears at auction, these indexes suffer from what is called survivor bias, which can cause them to overstate returns and understate risk. Third, even if those indexes accurately captured the performance of the auction market as a whole, there is nothing in the real world you can buy to replicate that performance. For most investors, stocks and bonds are enough. But for some, the prospect of putting something wonderful on their walls that may also produce great financial rewards is a siren call leading them to consider investing a portion of their wealth in art. Before committing serious capital, investment-oriented new collectors need to understand and embrace the sharp differences that exist between the art market and more traditional asset classes.
The Art Market Is Illiquid Save for Top Names that Regularly Appear at Auction Liquidity is a measure of how quickly an asset can be converted into cash without the sale affecting the price. Cash is, by definition, the most liquid, with real estate, fine art, and collectibles among the most illiquid. Works by 52,105 living and deceased artists appeared at auction in 2017, as reported by the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report. While this number gives a sense of the breadth of the market, much more interesting is that only 1% of these names accounted for the majority of sales value (64%). Like many talent markets, the art market is characterized by a winner-take-all dynamic in which the top names capture most of the rewards with the rest selling for far less. As a result, there is very little liquidity in the art market other than for the handful of stars whose work appears regularly at auction. By contrast, stock investors can sell company shares with relative ease.
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COVER STORY
Educating for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Dr. Fernando Reimers, Ford Foundation Professor of Practice in International Education Harvard Graduate School of Education, USA
H
omo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto. To be human is to live so that nothing human is foreign to us. Such was the aspiration expressed by Terence in his play Heauton Timorumenos several centuries ago. Such aspiration was also shared by Erasmus in the 16th century: “My own wish is to be a citizen of
the world, to be a fellow citizen to all men — better still a pilgrim”, and by the other humanists who saw in religious fanaticism and chauvinistic nationalism the root of much violence. Building on these cosmopolitan roots of humanism, the intellectual architects of the Enlightenment — John Locke, Adam Smith, Emmanuel
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IMAGE: Shutterstock
Educational institutions must empower global citizens to address rapid global changes. Many predict that the Fourth Industrial Revolution, resulting from increased and ubiquitous automation and the development of AI, will eliminate many of the jobs currently available. Together with neurotechnological and genetic developments, these changes will create new opportunities as well as serious challenges that require a heightened commitment to placing humans at the center and empowerment as a goal1
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COVER STORY
Kant, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau — proposed a cosmopolitan project of societal improvement based on collaboration of ordinary people across all boundaries. It was in such a way that the three institutions created by the Enlightenment to advance such a project — democracy, public education, and the modern research university — all benefited from transnational collaborations and solidarity. The public school was predicated in great part to promote a cosmopolitan vision, and Jan Comenius was the first to propose the idea of educating all. A few decades afterward, Erasmus made his intellectual contributions, largely to provide ordinary people the means to resolve their differences in peaceful ways and thus to avert conflict. Comenius should know about the bigoted roots of conflict as he had to leave his native Moravia as a result of pervasive religious intolerance at the time, prompting his neighbors to set his house on fire. On the long journey to escape religious intolerance, Comenius lost his wife and sons to poor health resulting from the dire conditions of his journey. He would end his life in Amsterdam, as a refugee, declining the offer to become president of Harvard University so he could write his thoughts of how education for all was the only avenue to peace.
To others who understood the possibilities that global citizenship offered us to advance humanity, the risks of bigotry and chauvinism were equally clear. In 1925, Teachers College Prof. Isaac Kandel gave a speech to the association of secondary school principals in which he made a vigorous case for global citizenship education in the US. Kandel argued that, unless schools in America prepared students for international understanding, the nation would become not a force for peace but a force for instability in the world.2 Kandel gave his lecture a mere seven years after the end of World War I and fourteen years before the next major global conflict. Born in Romania and an immigrant to the US, he knew the pain and suffering caused by the violence of war and might have sensed, at the time he gave his speech, the fragility of peace, how conflict is never too far away, and how peace requires the cultivation of the dispositions to make peace possible. The awareness of the devastation and suffering caused by World War II is reflected in the creation of the UN, the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the inclusion of education as a human right in the declaration. Undergirding the declaration were the values of freedom, equality, and global solidarity. This was the cornerstone of much of the work of governments and of the global institutions created after World War II. But these values are increasingly challenged by populist and nationalist movements with strong xenophobic and intolerant undertones. An emerging populist ideology challenges the cosmopolitan aspirations of public education, and of global citizenship education in particular. Populists challenge the very idea of universal human rights and the very notions of globalism, global solidarity, and collaboration. If nationalism is the new organizing force, the notion of in-group and out-group is defined by citizenship, not by membership in humanity, a challenge to the very idea of global citizenship. If populists succeed in dismantling the global order built following World War II, this will reduce our ability to address global challenges. As populists renege on their commitment to collective action in addressing global challenges, this will create a social context in which teachers will find it increasingly difficult to teach about such global challenges. Concomitant with the rise of nationalism and populism is a rise of hate groups and expressions of hatred in many parts around the world. In the US, there is a documented increase in intolerance expressed in and around schools
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COVER STORY
and universities in the form of more explicit expressions of anti-Semitism, white supremacy, Islamophobia, and hatred towards people of color and immigrants. 3 In this context, it is urgent that educators redouble their efforts to educate students for global citizenship. The inclusion of this as one of the targets in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provides a helpful window of opportunity. In an attempt to contribute to these efforts, I have recently published three curriculum resources that have been adopted by public and private schools in a number of countries around the world to support global citizenship education. The following five principles underpin these resources.
good’. The SDGs offer an aspirational vision of a world that is inclusive, in peace, and sustainable. Each of the 17 goals included in the framework was adopted by more than 150 world leaders at the UN General Assembly in 2015, and the goals drive a series of specific targets, each spelt out in ways that are measurable, providing, in short, a compact for global citizenship.
Leverage Improvement Networks to Design Curriculum
The second principle underlying the design of these resources is that the task of curriculum design, particularly when it involves domains that are novel or complex, is one that requires collaboration with colleagues. While we may cherish the ideal that each teacher should be able to develop Start with the End in Mind When Designing their own curriculum, in practice the work of teaching is Curriculum structured in such a way that it A powerful approach to developing seriously limits how much time can curriculum is to start with an be devoted to curriculum design. If nationalism is the ambitious end in mind — which is to Professional networks have a new organizing force, educate global citizens. While most distinct advantage as a way to curriculum planning begins with leverage collective intelligence. They the notion of in-group direction in terms of the knowledge can adapt dynamically to feedback and out-group is defined or competencies that it is aligned to, resulting from rapid cycles of it seldom extends that end into a experimentation, and they can by citizenship, not by larger vision that informs the selection augment the learning resulting from of such competencies. As a result, similar cycles taking place membership in humanity, while there may well be an implicit concurrently in multiple settings. In a challenge to the very long-term vision that provides this sense, professional networks direction to the competencies that have an inherent potential for idea of global citizenship guide the development of curriculum, learning and adaptation that eludes such a vision is not public and more conventional forms of therefore the central hypothesis that guides such curriculum producing curriculum and textbooks. (‘if students gain these competencies they will be able to Learn by Doing achieve the following’) are not public knowledge, and therefore untestable. An alternative approach makes the The third principle is that professionals must necessarily two key hypotheses that undergird any curriculum public experiment as a way of creating new knowledge. An and therefore the subject of professional and public improvement network is simply a large laboratory that accountability. Those key hypotheses are: first, that if we allows continuous experimentation in the search for engage students in particular learning experiences, they solutions to complex challenges. The epistemology will gain certain capabilities; and, second, that if they gain that undergirds this principle is that professional such capabilities, they will be able to achieve particular knowledge must draw on practice; it cannot be long-term results, with consequences to them and to the generated in the absence or be devoid thereof. Teaching communities of which they are members.These resources is a profession not only in that those who practice it align curriculum with a public, ambitious, and nonmust master expert knowledge to guide their work but partisan vision that has been endorsed by governments also in the sense that they must contribute to the globally. This is as close as we can get to a public compact development of such expert knowledge. For such reflecting humanity’s shared aspiration of ‘the common practice-based knowledge to become professional
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COVER STORY
17 Goals to Transform Our World
1. No Poverty
7. Affordable and Clean Energy
13. Life Below Water
2. Zero Hunger
8. Decent Work and Economic Growth
14. Life on Land
3. Good Health and Well-being
4. Quality Education
9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
10. Reduced Inequalities
15. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
5. Gender Equality
6. Clean Water and Sanitation
11. Sustainable Cities and Communities
12. Climate Action
16. Partnerships 17. Responsible for the Goals Consumption and Production
Above: Illustrated above are the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, of which goal four is quality education and seeks to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” by 2030
knowledge, that is, knowledge available to others in the profession, it must be public — not private — knowledge. A professional network is one way to make the knowledge that emerges from practice subject to the essential scrutiny for it to become publicly accepted. Furthermore, reliance on the principles of design-based thinking and of improvement networks provides a context for systematic experimentation and testing of those hypotheses that are implicit in any curriculum.
The Power of a Problem-based Education A fourth principle is that some of the capacities necessary to thrive in the 21st century are best gained by engaging students with real problems and by inviting students to try out solutions to those problems. Increasing evidence suggests that problem-based education — that is, education that gives students opportunities to develop their agency and breadth of skills — is essential to preparing them for the demands of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The Power of Collaboration in Diverse Teams Finally, preparing students to successfully seize the opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and
achieve the SDGs will require unprecedented collaboration at all levels. If there is one skill all learners will need to develop, it is the skill to collaborate. Global citizenship is essential for seizing the enormous possibilities and addressing the great challenges of our times. While cultivating it is the task of educators, the global community is equally responsible for supporting and encouraging, in a collaborative manner, the education of global citizens to whom nothing human is foreign.
Endnotes 1 Klaus Schwab, The Fourth Industrial Revolution (New York: Crown Business, 2017) 2 Isaac Kandel “International Understanding and the Schools” (address delivered before the National Association of Secondary School Principals), in Isaac Kandel, Essays in Comparative Education (New York: Teachers College, 1930), 228–235 3 Southern Poverty Law Center, “The Trump Effect: The Impact of the 2016 Presidential Election on Our Nation’s Schools,” 28 November 2016, splcenter.org/20161128/ trump-effect-impact-2016-presidential-election-our-nationsschools. See also Southern Poverty Law Center, “Hate Map,” accessed 5 May 2017, splcenter.org/hate-mapPaper 2016/3
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COUNTRY REVIEW
Above: Chapel Bridge, or Kapellbrücke, crosses the Reuss River in the Swiss city of Lucerne. Chapel Bridge, which is one of Switzerland’s most popular tourist attractions, is among the oldest wooden bridges in Europe, having been built in 1333
Switzerland
A Peak Above the Rest The current population of Switzerland stands at approximately 8.4 million inhabitants. Of these, about two million are foreign nationals with residence rights in the country — almost 25% of the total population. Indeed, Switzerland is in many respects a country shaped and defined by immigration. Since the second half of the 20th century in particular, the country has transformed into a magnet of sorts for immigrants coming from other European countries primarily, but also from every corner of the earth.
Origins of the Swiss Residence Program Switzerland is not a member state of the EU. However, the country has constantly been developing close contractual economic relations with the EU directly and with its mem-
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IMAGE: Shutterstock
S
witzerland is one of the world’s most attractive countries to live in. Historically, the nation has maintained political neutrality since 1515, a policy that has fostered a highly stable socio-economic environment. The combination of the country’s rich cultural heritage and liberal social attitudes has given rise to one of the most independent and well-organized societies in the world. Switzerland boasts a multicultural and multilingual society, with four official languages and a growing tendency toward teaching English at the elementary school level. The ideal union of political and economic stability, low crime rates, strong public services, excellent communications and transport links, and relatively low tax rates makes Switzerland an appealing choice for business and residence alike.
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COUNTRY REVIEW
Unlike many other European countries, Switzerland has never launched a specific residence-by-investment program for non-EU/EFTA nationals as a means of drawing capital and business or real estate investment to the country. This does not mean, however, that investment migration is not possible for non-EU/EFTA nationals wanting to relocate to Switzerland. On the contrary, if a foreign national establishes a company in Switzerland and is employed by that company in a senior position, a residence and work permit can be issued, provided that the granting of such a permit is in the overall interest of the Swiss economy. There are no clear rules defining this economic promotion program. The key criterion is the creation of new jobs, for which highly skilled domestic employees will be recruited. Other criteria for this program include the opening up of untapped markets, the securing of export sales and economically significant links abroad, and the creation of fresh tax revenue (with the exact criteria being case-specific). Additionally, financially independent persons who are not gainfully occupied in Switzerland but who agree to pay a certain minimum in net annual taxes may acquire ber states individually. This ongoing engagement has enabled a residence permit — provided, again, that the granting Switzerland to pursue a policy based on openness and close of residence to a potential taxpayer is in the fiscal interest economic cooperation with its European neighbors, includof the residence-issuing canton. The annual taxes that ing on immigration issues. In terms of the immigration of must be paid in order to qualify for this specific immigration EU citizens to Switzerland (and the emigration of Swiss category vary considerably from canton to canton. The citizens to the EU, in turn), the most important agreement minimum tax amounts payable, moreover, are substantial. signed to date has been the Agreement on the Free MoveThey may start at CHF 200,000 per annum for those ment of Persons (AFMP). The residing in more remote areas, AFMP basically lifted pre-existing but they can go up to a minimum restrictions on EU citizens wishing of CHF 1 million for those The combination of to live or work in Switzerland and residing in more prestigious implemented the same regime of locales. Given this considerable the country’s rich cultural the free movement of persons that financial requirement, only heritage and liberal social applies in the EU. The rules of the applicants with a high-net-worth agreement pertain to EU citizens and income are eligible to apply. attitudes has given rise to as well as to citizens of European The annual taxes payable under one of the most independent Free Trade Association (EFTA) this option are normally fixed in states (namely, Iceland, Liechtena lump-sum tax arrangement. and well-organized stein, Norway, and Switzerland). This special taxation arrangement As a result of the AFMP, EU and is negotiated on an individual societies in the world EFTA citizens enjoy the enforcebasis and is decided upon by the able legal right to obtain Swiss tax authorities of the canton residence, provided they can prove that they are able to of residence. cover their costs of living in Switzerland (by way of being In other words, even if not intentionally implemented employed, self-employed, or financially independent, as or officially promoted as such by the state, Switzerland the case may be). does in effect offer non-EU/EFTA citizens a kind of
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COUNTRY REVIEW
‘immigration-by-taxation’ program, whose aim is to attract noteworthy taxpayers seeking to establish residence in Switzerland. In the majority of other countries with investment migration programs in place, some sort of minimum investment — in favor of public foundations or channeled into real estate, business, or financial assets — is required. In the context of the Swiss tax residence program, ‘minimum investment’ means ‘minimum annual direct taxes payable’.
Above: The Gothic style Cathedral of St. Pierre was built in Geneva around 1160. Initially a Roman Catholic church, the building became a Reformed Protestant church in 1533
Under the lump-sum taxation regime, a ‘lump-sum income’ is assessed based on the tax resident’s living expenditure, rather than on his or her effective worldwide income. To qualify for the Swiss residence-by-taxation option, applicants must have a clean background, must have no gainful occupation in Switzerland, must move their main domicile to Switzerland, and must be able to guarantee a minimum annual taxable income. Additionally, applicants must not be Swiss citizens, must not have been residents or have had gainful occupation in Switzerland over the past ten years, and must not carry out active gainful occupation in Switzerland while being taxed under the lump-sum taxation regime. If spouses move to Switzerland and wish to benefit from the lump-sum taxation option, both partners must fulfil the above requirements. Under the residence-by-taxation program for non-EU/ EFTA nationals, a Swiss residence permit (‘residence permit B’) is granted, valid for one year. The annual renewal procedure is simple and straightforward and would normally be initiated a few weeks before the expiry date of the permit. After 10 years of Swiss residence, permanent residence (‘residence permit C’) can be applied for, provided that the applicant has a clean criminal record. Under certain conditions — specifically, where applicants have been successfully integrated into the society and have a minimum knowledge of the local language — permanent residence may be obtained after five years of uninterrupted Swiss residence. In order to apply for naturalization in Switzerland, individuals must be C-permit holders and must have resided in Switzerland for at least 10 years. A number of additional requirements must also be met: minimum language skills, knowledge of the country, familiarity with Swiss habits and customs, cantonal and/or municipal minimum presence requirements, and so on.
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IMAGE: Shutterstock
How It Works
Above: Staubbach Falls in Lauterbrumen is Switzerland’s third highest waterfall at roughly 330 m high. The fall’s name is derived from the droplets of water sprayed creating dust, or staub
Why Swiss Residence Today?
IMAGE: Shutterstock
IMAGE: Shutterstock
COUNTRY REVIEW
The Swiss residence program may be technically complex, but it is nonetheless an option that wealthy non-EU/ EFTA nationals — including British nationals, following Brexit — should explore. Like other citizenship and residence programs, it offers a consolidated alternative to the nationalism and populism gripping so many countries in the world today. Rather than a blip on the overall political radar, the nationalistic turn in the US, the UK, and a growing number of European nations (including Austria, Poland, and Hungary) seems here to stay. With heightened populism comes a rejection of the establishment, including long-standing trade and travel agreements, and a rise in anti-immigration and
protectionist sentiment. This ‘new normal’ presents a major threat to global citizens living in the affected regions. As a result, the appeal of investment migration has probably never been stronger. For individuals who feel that the policies being promulgated by their governments are not aligned with their own values and goals, citizenship or residence in an alternative jurisdiction provides a useful, even critical, means of diversifying sovereign risk. It allows individuals not to be pigeonholed or limited by policies with which they do not agree. The consistently safe, stable, and apolitical Switzerland, through the Swiss residence program, provides a promising entry point to this resilient society and thus the means to counter the effects of threats to personal and professional security.
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COUNTRY REVIEW
Switzerland One of the oldest countries in Europe, Switzerland enjoys a stellar reputation, superior quality of life, and awe-inspiring natural features
Country Information
SFr Languages
Currency
Economy
Population
German, French, Italian, Romansh
Swiss franc
Export-oriented
8,4 million (World Bank, 2016)
Switzerland is a pleasant European nation known for, among other things, its heritage of 26 cantons. Historically, the nation has sustained political neutrality, a policy that has led to a highly stable socio-economic environment. The combination of the country’s rich cultural heritage and liberal social attitudes has given rise to one of the most independent and well-organized societies in the world.
Basel Zurich
Bern
Geneva
Switzerland
Quality of Life With a reputation of being safe, efficient, and clean, offering a diverse lifestyle, excellent transport infrastructure, and world-leading education, it is no wonder that the 2018 Mercer Quality of Living Survey, which ranks 221 international cities, ranks three Swiss cities among the top 10 for quality of living: Zurich (2nd), Geneva (8th), and Bern (14th).
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Phenomenal Pharma Switzerland is home to two of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, Novartis and Roche, which, in 2017, recorded total revenue of USD 57.37 billion. Switzerland’s pharmaceutical industry accounts for over 5% of GDP and almost a third of exports.
COUNTRY REVIEW
Tax Benefits Switzerland has a multi-layered tax system. Taxes are levied on federal, cantonal, and municipal levels, and each canton determines its tax rates. The cumulative cantonal and communal tax rates may vary, currently ranging between less than 10% and more than 30%; on the federal level, a maximum tax rate of 11.5% applies. In addition, net wealth taxes are levied at cantonal and municipal level. A person resident in Switzerland is liable for tax on federal, cantonal, and municipal levels on worldwide income and net wealth.
• Lump sum taxation regime available
Country Rankings
Economy and Markets
6th
Henley Passport Index
2nd
2018 Henley Passport Index
9th
Quality of Nationality Index
5th
2016 Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index
• No inheritance or gift tax for spouses and children • 7.7% value added tax
Human Development Index
Exports USD 279 Billion
2017 Human Development Index
6th
Gold, Packaged Medicaments Technology, Base Metal Watches
Travel Freedom Ranking Henley & Partners – Kochenov Quality of Nationality Index 3rd Edition
Henley & Partners – Kochenov Quality of Nationality Index 3rd Edition
ND-GAIN Country Index
• Competitive tax rates
2
nd
Imports USD 277 Billion
Good Country Index 2017 Good Country Index
Business-Friendly Switzerland is business-friendly by tradition, and its 26 cantons offer companies a wide range of options and opportunities. The country provides headquarter base to numerous international organizations such as the World Trade Organization, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and International Labor Organization.
Gold, Packaged Medicaments Motor Vehicles, Jewelry (Source: Observatory of Economic Complexity, August 2018)
Banking Base The Swiss have a unique banking system that provides customers with privacy and safety of their identity and money. Available to anyone, Swiss accounts are backed up by the safest currency in the world and a solid economy. Some of the largest banks in the world, including UBS and Credit Suisse, are based in Switzerland.
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© UNHCR/Ola Kabalan
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Interview
Marc Effron Global Citizenship Review spends time with leadership and talent management specialist Marc Effron, whose insights into cutting-edge educational research could transform work-place productivity
publication of your latest book, 8 Steps to High Performance: Focus on What You Can Change (Ignore the Rest)! How did the book come about and what are its key topics? Marc Effron (ME): I wrote 8 Steps to High Performance because I wanted to help more people perform better at work but was frustrated by the scattered, and often wrong, advice offered by typical leadership and management books. Those books often focus on doing only one thing better, leaving the reader to figure out how much that thing matters and if other factors matter as well. Very few of those books are based on hard-core academic proof and some are just thinly disguised sales tools for a consulting firm’s products. The goal of 8 Steps to High Performance was to integrate the most powerful, scientifically proven information in one place and provide highly practical guidance about how to apply it. I reviewed thousands of scientific articles to find the most conclusive findings about what drives performance at work. The eight steps capture those insights in one easy read.
GCR: 8 Steps to High Performance has been described as “the definitive guide to high performance”. What’s your interpretation of high performance? ME: A high performer is someone who consistently delivers results and behaviors that are better than 75% of their peers. That’s a very high standard and it’s meant to differentiate between those who work hard and
behave well, and those who consistently excel in everything they do.
GCR: As President of Talent Strategy Group, can you tell us a few areas in which you are a high performer? ME: Well, since I reject the notion that anyone should focus on their strengths, I’d rather describe which of the eight steps I still need to work on. I need to do a better job of Step 4: Connecting so that I build more and deeper relationships with key leaders in my field. I also need to work on Step 6: Fake It so that I worry less about how I want to show up in front of clients and more about how they need me to show up.
GCR: In your experience with large, global brands, what are the common influencers — positive and negative — on employee levels of motivation? ME: Motivation is a combination of the environment the company provides and what different individuals need. That means that there’s no such thing as a universally motivating environment, but there are a few factors that create a strong foundation for motivation. The first factor is a company that employees are proud to work for. This typically means that it has a strong brand, interesting products or services, and/or a clear mission. The second factor is that managers show interest in and concern for the well-being of their team members. This doesn’t mean coddling employees — in fact, just the opposite. High performers will value a manager who is direct with them about their performance and
50 | Global Citizenship Review
IMAGE: Talent Strategy Group
Global Citizenship Review (GCR): Bravo on the
behaviors and challenges them to perform at a higher level. The third factor is that employees feel they have a chance to learn and grow. Most importantly, a high performer doesn’t rely on their company to motivate them. They understand that they’re responsible for their own performance independent of the environment and that they are free to prove themselves elsewhere if their current employer doesn’t recognize their capabilities.
IMAGE: Harvard Business Review Press
IMAGE: Talent Strategy Group
FEATURES
talent receives the most significant investment. For most employees, the best development is being in a big challenging job with stretch goals. Those factors will make any job developmental.
GCR: What are your thoughts on the future of talent
management and the negotiation of the relationship between employer and employee? ME: The relationship between employer and employee will likely become shorter and more intense with the use GCR: What are some practical steps that companies, of contingent workers and the increased prevalence of irrespective of size, can take to foster a culture of natuAI. The gradual but continuing increase in contingent ral and inspired high performance among teams? workers (consultants, gig workers, etc.) suggests a drop ME: First, they can set expectations and accountabilities in the average tenure of a “connection” to a company. for how teams will behave. This means that they clarify This will make the relationship feel more contractual the few behaviors they expect teams to show both within but should also allow a sharper focus on performance. the team and to other teams. If I hire someone for six months Next, they can set very clear to get a job done, there’s a clear and specific goals and metrics for metric and deadline. If that person Companies should each team. Goals are a powerful were an employee, I might let them carefully differentiate their motivator of higher performance take eight months or ten because a nd t he met r ic s a l low for there are always good excuses why development investment so friendly competition. High — not the work hasn’t been done. that their most promising unreasonable — goals send a That shorter relationship will strong signal to team members also likely be more intense because talent receives the most that performance is valued and my company will know much differentiated. more about my work st yle, significant investment Perhaps most important is personality, preferences and aligning those goals to the core effectiveness. They’ll use AI to mission or purpose of the company. The teams’ emotional turn that information into insights they can use to better commitment to high performance will grow when they direct my performance and behaviors. On the positive see their work as part of a larger corporate purpose. side, that might mean that they’ll find person-specific ways to try to keep me engaged. On the negative side, GCR: In the book, you discuss the importance of individual it might mean that they tell me who to network with growth. To what extent should companies invest in the or what meetings not to attend because they precisely individual, and maybe even personal, development plans understand how to make me more effective. of employees? ME: We know from science that high performers are GCR: Moving away from the professional sphere, how always building their capabilities and aligning them can one apply 8 Steps to High Performance in a personal, with what their organization needs in the future. But, away-from-work reality? as I say in the book, you shouldn’t outsource your ME: The first two of the eight steps (Step 1: Set Big professional development to your company. You should Goals and Step 2: Behave to Perform) can make your create your own professional development plan and personal life even more successful. Ask yourself: If I work with your company to fulfill it. They may support wanted to make my relationship with my spouse, partyou in some areas and you may need to take independent ner, parent, or child twice as strong as it is today, action in others. what big step would I take in the next 30 days? Set Companies should carefully differentiate their that as your big goal, put an action plan behind it, development investment so that their most promising and execute.
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FEATURES
Why the EU Should Encourage Investment Migration Stephane Tajick, President and Chief Advisor, Stephane Tajick Consulting, Canada
R
esidence- and citizenship-by-investment is not a new concept, and the scrutiny that such programs have been receiving is not novel. As the supply and demand for residence- and citizenship-by-investment programs have increased in recent years, so has interest from media and governments the world over. The existence of residence-by-investment (RBI) can be traced as far back as when immigration began to be legally considered in certain countries, with residence to a country typically granted to those who own property or elective residence granted to those in possession of significant wealth. Similarly, citizenship-by-investment (CBI) programs have a long history, having existed in Europe for decades: Cyprus’s Cyprus Investment Program is one of the longest surviving, at over 15 years of age. Many countries in Europe offer fast-track naturalization to foreigners who make an exceptional contribution to the country. Most EU member states have articles in their citizenship law that permit accelerated naturalization for individuals making an exceptional contribution in the sphere of art, science, or sport. To illustrate, think of a rising football star who enjoys swift naturalization so that he can represent his host country at international level. In some cases, this privilege can be extended to an economic contribution. Today, only two CBI programs are active in the EU, although this number increases marginally, to three, if we consider Bulgaria’s fast-track naturalization option for investors to the country. Additionally, Montenegro and Moldova — both outside of the EU — have recently joined the ranks of European countries participating in the investment migration industry. In reality, however, many other countries in Europe use their exceptional contribution clause to naturalize investors. Austria, for example, is well documented in this regard, and the practice is also common in eastern European countries such as Poland. What differentiates CBI offerings from other naturalization routes for investors is that CBIs are vastly more explicit in their marketing of citizenship in
exchange for investment and their granting of citizenship is regulated differently. In this regard, RBI and CBI leave the sphere of immigration policy and enter the sphere of economic development policy, making investment migration programs strategic fiscal and economic development tools that, when properly used, can have a significant impact on the finances and economy of a country. Widespread negative sentiments towards RBI are normally ill-founded, as many detractors confuse RBI with CBI. In Europe, RBIs provide only temporary residence, very much the same as any other legal form of immigration. For individuals who have been granted temporary residence, the journey to permanent residence and/or citizenship is the same as for any other immigrant. The only difference, however, albeit a significant one, is the level of due diligence that is applied to RBI and CBI applicants, who face a more stringent process than any other category of immigrant. For example, RBI and CBI applicants are often required to pay thousands of euros for the country to perform extensive background checks on them. This thinking is likely underscored by the perception that wealthy individuals are more prone to be of worse repute than typical immigrants, but of course this is unfounded. The irony is that there are a number of countries that don’t require a police report from applicants in other categories when they apply for temporary residence; some countries only require the applicant to declare their past crimes. Because of common government budget constraints and a complementary lack of resources, many applications for temporary residence don’t undergo background checks to verify whether the applicant is indeed of good character. There is also the uninformed notion that terrorists and criminals are able to obtain EU citizenship thanks to CBI programs; however, this has not proven to be the case. The level of due diligence checking performed when applying for Maltese and Cypriot CBI is incomparable to any other naturalization process in Europe. Despite this knowledge, Maltese nationals have been making a lot of noise about the Malta Individual Investor
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National Debt in EU Countries in Q1 2018 in Relation to GDP
Greece
180.4%
Italy
133.4%
Portugal
126.4%
Belgium
106.3%
Spain
98.8%
France
97.7%
Cyprus
94.7%
Euro area
86.8%
UK
85.8%
EU
81.5% 0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
125%
150%
175%
200%
Above: For many EU member states, RBI and CBI programs provide valuable relief to ailing economies with certain programs generating roughly EUR 500 million a year in cash donations (Source: Statista 2018)
Program. Some on the island voice their discontent rather vociferously, claiming that the Maltese government has compromised the country in an effort to restore fiscal balance to the budget (it is well documented that RBI and CBI programs can provide a healthy boost to the GDP of host countries). Certain segments of society view this as losing a part of their dignity. But this, as we have seen before, is a temporary sentiment when the benefits of investment migration offerings begin to bear fruit. A CBI program in an EU country can collect roughly EUR 500 million a year in cash donations. For a small EU country, government debt amount can equate to nearly 100% of GDP. As such, the choice to consider RBI and CBI — and thus to benefit from such an endeavor — can be a simple one when facing drastic austerity measures and a massive loan repayment. In this context, the EU should encourage member states to develop such programs. Not only would this alleviate pressure on the EU from having regularly to bail out struggling member states and being the bad guy in the story for demanding austerity measures, but participating countries would not have to deal with the harsh effects of austerity measures. We are in an age in which talent is the most coveted resource for advanced economies. European countries have jumped on the startup bandwagon in the hope that they will attract the head office of the next Google or Facebook. The rush for talent is reminiscent of that of the oil rush a century ago and gold centuries before that. Thanks to
today’s technology, an intelligent mind can create wealth at a pace and level not seen before, and everyone wants to benefit from this. The global investor is the crème de la crème of talent and resources, and every such individual is expected to have a far greater economic impact than any other class of immigrant, due to their ability to make investments, create employment opportunities, and facilitate trade and engagement. In the current European economic climate, every country is proactively seeking to attract talent. The big economies of the UK, France, Switzerland, and Germany tend to win at this, while smaller economies such as Croatia, Bulgaria, and Latvia can struggle to attract and retain talent. It is a reality that the EU must face that countries with small populations must find innovative competitive advantages in order to prosper. In the past, these small nations found a niche by becoming tax-friendly jurisdictions in order to attract entrepreneurs and investors. This has caused grievance as European superpowers saw their tax money disappear into their small neighbors. The beauty for the EU is that RBI and CBI are made to attract wealth and talent from outside the union and so can transform smaller economies at no cost to the EU. The EU is slowly waking up and realizing the significant pot of gold it is sitting on: its ability to attract talent from all around the globe and the value of its passports. The important step, now, is to figure out how to make the best possible use of both.
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Tax Implications of Funding Studies Abroad Alice Vink, Senior Associate, Stephenson Harwood LLP, UK
F
or many around the world, the falling of leaves from trees marks the end of summer and the inevitable start of the academic year. Every year, as students of all ages return to their studies, those from abroad face a number of additional considerations if they, and their families, are to avoid the tax traps and pitfalls that can accompany studying in a foreign country.
Show Me the Money The first question is where the money to meet any fees will come from. The best way to answer this question is to ask your tax adviser what the tax consequences will be of meeting school fees. For parents of minor children (those under 18 in most jurisdictions, although this can extend to those under 21 in some countries), payment of their school fees may trigger a tax liability for the parent in the jurisdiction of study. This is most often the case in jurisdictions with specific anti-avoidance rules that catch payments of otherwise untaxed foreign-source income or gains when they are used in that jurisdiction for the child’s benefit, especially if the parent is also a tax resident in that jurisdiction. If a family trust is paying the fees, consider asking the school or other educational establishment to invoice the trust directly. An invoice addressed to the parents, paid by a trust, may result in a tax charge if the parents are deemed to have received a trust distribution and that distribution carries tax consequences. Invoicing the trustees avoids any inadvertent distribution being made to a parent. This is particularly recommended where the parents are higher-rate taxpayers in the jurisdiction of study.
Home from Home Many families like to purchase houses, either for the family — especially where the students are minor children — or for the children themselves, in the case of university students. Any purchase is likely to trigger property taxes of some description and these should be investigated before any
property is bought. Alternatively, the family may look to find other regular accommodation in the jurisdiction of study (for example, rental property). In addition, prolonged presence of a supervising adult in a jurisdiction may be sufficient to bring them within the tax net of that jurisdiction. It may also act as a connecting factor for family members attempting to remain tax resident outside that jurisdiction. In the UK, for example, the presence of a spouse and minor children, and the availability of accommodation, are both connecting factors for the statutory residence test. Buying a property will also bring the owner within any local estate or capital taxes on death, sale, or other disposal (such as gift). It may be worth considering renting a property, at least in the short term, or considering other holding structures to mitigate this potential future tax liability. Again, this is something to discuss with your tax adviser before purchasing real estate in a foreign country.
Something Left to Live On For university students, in particular, parents may wish to provide cash to fund their child’s living expenses. Care should be taken, since any gift from an individual could have estate or gift tax consequences in the home jurisdiction. If a family trust will provide additional cash to the student abroad, advice should be taken from a local advisor to confirm whether there will be tax implications for the student of that distribution in the jurisdiction of study. In some circumstances, a loan may have a better tax outcome than an outright gift from either an individual or a trust. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to funding study abroad. The tax implications will be determined by the rules of the home jurisdiction and the jurisdiction of study. Since every jurisdiction has its own set of rules, regulations, and anti-avoidance measures, tax may be triggered in the most unlikely of scenarios and it is vital that advice is taken early in the process so that the position is planned for appropriately.
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Finding What Makes a Good Reader in a Rapidly Evolving World Ina V.S. Mullis and Michael O. Martin, Executive Directors, TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center at Boston College, USA
T
he Information Age is fast paced and constantly were the top performers, and other countries that excelled evolving, with each year bringing new were Hong Kong SAR, Ireland, Finland, Poland, and developments to sectors like technology and the Northern Ireland. Although the average reading achievement medical fields. More than ever, it is imperative for score differences from country to country were small, there educators to ensure that students have the core skills was a substantial range in achievement from the topthey need to succeed in such a world, and reading is at performing countries to the lower-performing ones. the root of acquiring all such skills. It was on this principle For countries that participated in previous PIRLS cycles, that the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study the trends show that students became better readers in (PIRLS) was founded. both the short and long term. In the five-year interim PIRLS, a study of the International Association for the between PIRLS 2011 and PIRLS 2016, 18 countries saw Eva lu at ion of E duc at ion a l higher average achievement. In the Achievement (IEA) — an international 15-year interim from PIRLS 2001 to cooperative of national research PIRLS 2016, 11 countries had higher The Russian institutions and government agencies achievement, seven countries stayed Federation and Singapore based in Amsterdam — and directed about the same, and two countries by the TIMSS & PIRLS International saw performance drop. were the top performers, Study Center at Boston College, As the use of digital devices and other countries that assesses global trends in reading became ubiquitous across the globe, achievement for students at the fourth the IEA and Boston College created excelled were Hong grade. It is at this crucial stage that ePIRLS as a companion to PIRLS children in many countries transition 2016. This innovative assessment of Kong SAR, Ireland, from learning to read to reading to online informational reading uses a Finland, Poland, and learn. Inaugurated in 2001 and simulated internet environment to administered every five years, the present fourth grade students with Northern Ireland latest iteration of PIRLS in 2016 authentic school-like assignments on included 50 countries and 11 regional science and social studies topics, entities such as states, provinces, or language groups. monitoring how well they can read, interpret, and critique PIRLS aims to provide countries with the best policyonline information. Students navigate within and across relevant information about improving teaching and web pages containing text and visual data before answering learning and helping young readers become accomplished comprehension questions. and self-sufficient readers. PIRLS and TIMSS, the Trends Singapore was the top performer on ePIRLS out of 14 in International Mathematics and Science Study, comprise countries, followed by Norway and Ireland. However, students the IEA’s core cycle of studies on student achievement. in all 14 countries proved to be good to excellent readers of online information, demonstrating the ability to integrate The Global State of Reading information across web pages and interactive features and PIRLS 2016 delivered a positive outlook on student readers evaluate how graphic elements support content. A Take the internationally, with students in a number of countries ePIRLS Assessment feature released after the study was performing very well. The Russian Federation and Singapore completed allows the public to try out the digital assessment.
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When evaluating reading performance by gender, PIRLS 2016 reinforced findings consistent since PIRLS 2001 that showed girls are stronger readers than boys, on average. The gender gap does not appear to be narrowing. Girls outperformed boys in 48 of the 50 countries, with an average difference of 19 points. Similarly, in ePIRLS, girls outdid boys in 11 of the 14 countries, with an average difference of 12 points. There was no significant difference between genders in the remaining countries on either assessment, meaning there was no country in which boys were the stronger readers.
What Makes Good Readers? Educators and policy-makers who seek solutions to challenges signified by poor reading performance look to the extensive data collected in the PIRLS questionnaires. In 2016, 319,000
students, 310,000 parents, 16,000 teachers, and 12,000 schools participated in PIRLS. All students and their parents, teachers, and principals completed questionnaires about students’ home and school experiences in learning to read. Those data show that students who engaged in literacy learning from an early age have benefits over their peers that last through the fourth grade. Students with parents who engaged them often in early literacy activities such as reading, telling stories, and teaching them to write were better readers. Higher reading achievement also was related to having parents who enjoy reading, more digital devices in the home, and more home resources that support learning (such as books and educated parents with professional or technical jobs). Reading competency was tied to the academic orientation of schools as well. On average, students were
Reading Performance by Country in PIRLS 2016
Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Country Russian Federation Singapore Hong Kong SAR Ireland Finland Northern Ireland, Poland Taipei, England, Norway Latvia Sweden Hungary Bulgaria
Score 581 576 569 567 566 565 559 558 555 554 552
Rank 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
Country US Italy, Lithuania Denmark Macao SAR Netherlands Australia Canada, Czech Republic Slovenia Austria Germany Kazakhstan
Score 548 576 547 546 545 544 543 542 541 537 536
Rank 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33
Country Slovak Republic Israel Portugal, Spain Belgium (FI) New Zealand France Belgium (Fr) Chile Georgia Trinidad and Tobago Azerbaijan
Score 535 530 547 525 523 511 497 494 488 479 472
Rank 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44
Country Malta UAE Bahrain Qatar Saudi Arabia Iran, Islamic Republic of Oman Kuwait Morocco Egypt South Africa
Score 452 450 446 442 430 428 418 393 358 330 320
Above: According to PIRLS 2016, the top performing countries with respect to reading are the Russian Federation, Singapore, and Hong Kong SAR. The least performing countries are South Africa, Egypt, and Morocco (Source: TIMSS and PIRLS 2018)
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stronger readers if they attended schools that had more affluent than economically disadvantaged students, a higher proportion of peers with early reading and writing skills, and instruction that was not affected by reading resource shortages. Students who reported a positive sense of school belonging tended to have higher reading achievement, as did students who attended schools with positive environments where principals and teachers reported greater emphasis on academic success. PIRLS found that the majority of fourth grade students internationally were in safe school environments. However, students in schools with disorderly environments exhibited lower reading achievement than their counterparts. In PIRLS 2016, 62% of the students were in schools that teachers found very safe and orderly, while 3% were in schools that teachers reported as less than safe and orderly. Bullying, unsurprisingly, has a negative association with reading achievement — 57% of the students reported never or rarely being bullied, but the 14% who reported being bullied about weekly had an average achievement 39 points lower. The climate in schools internationally is generally positive, but two issues that stand out are inadequate nutrition and frequent absence. More than one in four students in PIRLS 2016 — an astonishing 26% — arrived at school hungry every day, with an average achievement 32 points lower than peers who never felt hungry. The 15% of students who said they were absent at least once every two weeks also underperformed their peers. There is considerable research indicating that positive attitudes toward reading and high achievement are related, and in a bidirectional way — that is, better readers may enjoy reading more and, thus, read more often than poorer readers. This can lead to better development of reading comprehension skills and strategies. Of the PIRLS 2016 students, 84% liked reading, 95% were engaged in their reading instruction, and 80% were confident in reading.
Outlook for 2021 and Beyond With their focus on the contexts of learning at school and home, the PIRLS data show that seeking to improve the teaching and learning of reading is a complex affair that requires examination of education systems from multiple vantage points — there are no easy answers. We do know that good readers have home environments that support literacy learning, an early start in literacy learning, attend well-resourced schools with well-trained teachers, and possess positive attitudes toward reading.
Fourth Grade Students’ Attitudes Toward Reading Most students very much liked or somewhat liked reading
43% Very Much Like Reading
41% Somewhat Like Reading
16% Do Not Like Reading Above: Fourth grade students who participated in PIRLS 2016 displayed very positive attitudes toward reading, which has been found to be beneficial for improving reading performance generally (Source: TIMSS and PIRLS 2018)
As the de facto global standard for reading achievement at the fourth grade, PIRLS is an invaluable resource for countries to monitor system-level achievement trends in a global context. PIRLS serves not only to inform countries of how well their students read but provides data to help them pinpoint any weaknesses in their education systems and stimulate reform. Administered regularly over time, PIRLS can be used to monitor the effectiveness of any new educational policies. With more than 70 countries and regions signed on to participate in the next cycle, PIRLS 2021 is well underway. This iteration of PIRLS will offer a completely digital version that presents a variety of reading texts in an engaging and visually attractive computer-based format, which will motivate students to read and interact with the texts and answer questions about them. As always, the PIRLS texts will address the two overarching purposes for reading that account for most of the reading done by young students inside and outside school — for literary experience and to acquire and use information. PIRLS 2021 will again include the assessment of online informational reading. Countries that have participated since the inception of PIRLS in 2001 will have 20 years of trends in reading achievement to analyze after 2021, giving policy-makers a wealth of information to inform evidence-based educational decisions. What students should know to succeed in school and the workforce has evolved over those two decades, but what remains unchanged is that, before mastering STEM subjects or the latest technologies, students must be able to read well.
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The State of Education Philanthropy
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ducation is an engine of opportunity. That is why, around the world, the fortunate have invested in education when seeking to give back. In the US, famous individuals such as Bill Gates have led the charge on 21st-century school reform. In other places, the names are different but many of the motivations and ambitions are the same. While there’s much to admire about these efforts, they also need more scrutiny than an appreciative public and grateful policy-makers tend to give them.
Philanthropy in the US In the US, philanthropy plays an outsized role in education. The share of the world’s ultra-rich who live in the US, along with tax laws that encourage charitable giving and the
nation’s creedal commitment to opportunity, have yielded a vibrant philanthropic role in educational improvement. Consequently, US foundations tend to be larger than foreign foundations, and philanthropic giving to US education is enormous by international standards. The top 10 donors gave a total of about USD 800 million in 2016 to US K–12 education, with more than half of that provided by the top two givers — the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation. Those are big numbers, but they’re dwarfed when the spending is considered alongside the total public investment in US schools. Total philanthropic spending on K–12 schools in the US is somewhat less than USD 5 billion a year, or well under 1% of US school spending. Indeed, all reported
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Frederick M. Hess, Director of Education Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute, USA Brendan Bell, Research Assistant, American Enterprise Institute, USA
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Sources of Charitable Giving in the US by Sector 2017
Corporations 5% Bequests 9%
Foundations 16%
Individuals 70%
Above: In 2017, individuals accounted for the largest chunk of charitable giving, giving a collective USD 286.65 billion, or 70% of all charitable giving for the period. Foundations accounted for USD 66.9 billion, bequests USD 35.7 billion, and corporations USD 20.77 billion (Source: National Philanthropic Trust 2018)
These new philanthropic efforts experienced mixed results. In one ambitious reform, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, also known as the Gates Foundation, invested more than USD 200 million in a seven-year Effective Teaching Initiative. The goal was to help school systems evaluate teachers more effectively and then use those systems to revamp teacher training and pay. A 2018 RAND Corporation evaluation, however, found the venture to be a disappointment, reporting that it didn’t “achieve its goals for student achievement or graduation”. Charter school efforts found more success, with the aid of hundreds of millions in support from the Gateses, Waltons, and many other foundations. These quasi-autonomous schools posted positive results on reading and math tests, offered examples of outstanding performance, and grew from 2,000 schools in 2000 to more than 7,000 by 2018. Put simply, there’s little evidence that there is any one right way to give to education or assurance that a given strategy will make a difference for students.
International Education Philanthropy national giving to US K–12 education was less than 25% of what New York City alone spent on its schools in 2016. In the international arena, things look different than they Philanthropic contributions are just a drop in the ocean. do in the US. According to the Foundation Center, in 2016, Yet, while philanthropic funds are just a sliver of overall the three nations besides the US with the largest amount school spending, they can matter greatly when used to shift of total private foundation giving for primary and secondary policy or promote particular reforms. How has this education were the UK (USD 27 million), Switzerland philanthropy affected schooling in the US? (USD 11.7 million), and Australia (USD 5.2 million). While Back in the 1990s, in the US, all eyes were fixed on the much smaller in their total giving than their counterparts USD 1.1 billion Annenberg Challenge. Launched by in the US, the foundations in these nations can have a similarly Ambassador Walter Annenberg at outsized impact for two reasons: a 1994 White House ceremony, the First, the philanthropic gifts can go US foundations massive gift failed to spur obvious a long way because of the relative educational improvement. Commitpoverty of many recipient countries, tend to be larger than ted to bottom-up reform across a which are in the developing world; foreign foundations, and host of communities, the effort was and second, policies in many of frustrated by the sticky realities of the recipient nations are heavily philanthropic giving to US ineffective schools and dysfunctioninfluenced by what donors do. education is enormous by al policies. When a new generation What are these providers doing of billionaires jumped into educawhen it comes to education giving? international standards tion philanthropy in the first decade Most of their efforts can be grouped of this century, the disappointments into one of three buckets. of Annenberg helped influence their thinking. Having • They invest in creating better schools made billions in technology, energy, and retail, they shared One appealing investment is the effort to expand an impatience, an entrepreneurial bent, and a focus on educational opportunity by building new schools. measured outcomes. They focused more on systems and UK-based researcher James Tooley, for instance, policies than on pedagogy. These donors often eschewed has reported that the majority of children in traditional education staff in favor of hires with managecountries such as India, Ghana, and Nigeria are ment or policy backgrounds. schooled in low-cost private education and benefit
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quality either by recruiting higher-caliber teachers or by increasing quality of training. As one example, since its founding in 2007, Teach for All — a network that includes the US-funded and operated Various Teach for America — has recruited and trained more 23% than 50,000 teachers through partnerships with Religion locally led and funded country-level affiliate 31% Health organizations. With backing from more than 50 9% different philanthropic organizations, Teach for All now has about 15,000 current teachers in 48 Grantmaking Education nations.3 The organization boasts that, across all Foundations 14% 11% network partners tracking data, on average, 73% of Human Services its alumni are working in education or in support of 12% disadvantaged communities.4 • They invest in constructing better systems Above: In 2017, educational organizations and related Other funders have been focused on improving initiatives received a significant share of charitable giving for educational systems and policies around the world. the period, accounting for 14% of all giving in the US (Source: National Philanthropic Trust 2018) The US-based Michael & Susan Dell Foundation has invested in “comprehensive system reform” in India. 5 The effort includes strategies to create a greatly from the presence of even cheap private more robust, market-based model of education that schools. Tooley’s work has been the impetus helps parents choose better schools by providing behind much philanthropic support for private more data on educational options and quality. This schooling in the developing world. effort encompasses projects that can store data for An influential example is more than two million students Bridge International and 100,000 teachers, making it Academies, a network of possible to monitor school quality In 2016, the three schools that first opened in and track academic progress. The Kenya in 2008 and has raised UK-based Paul Hamlyn nations besides the US with over USD 140 million in Foundation, which spends more the largest amount of total financial backing from than USD 30 million a year on donors including Facebook education and healthcare issues in private foundation giving founder Mark Zuckerberg India and the UK, has taken a for primary and secondary and the Gates Foundation.1 different approach. In India, it Bridge now has over 500 has invested in Childhood education were the UK, schools and educates over Enhancement Through Training 100,000 children across and Action (CHETNA), an Indian Switzerland, and Australia India, Kenya, Liberia, venture that helps enroll street Nigeria, and Uganda. Relying children in school. In a 2010 on a central team to prepare content and monitor evaluation, it was reported that CHETNA’s student progress, Bridge equips its teachers with outreach had helped enroll and support more than tablet computers and downloadable daily lesson 1,000 children in schools and training programs plans. The network has displayed strong academic across the Indian state of Jharkhand. 6 results. In Kenya, for instance, 86% of children Lessons Learned score well enough to pass into secondary school 2 compared with a national average of 76%. Education philanthropy is set to play an increasingly • They invest in providing better teachers outsized role around the world in the years ahead, as the Some funders have focused on improving teacher importance of schooling increases and the affluent seek to Division of Charitable Giving in the US 2017
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IMAGES: Handout/Mike Lawrence/Getty Images for Gates Archive
Above: Bill and Melinda Gates at the second annual Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Goalkeepers event in September 2018. The event hosts influencers from around the world with the aim of developing solutions to address global causes
expand opportunity. Given this, there are at least two crucial lessons that we should keep in mind. • Philanthropists should embrace critical feedback Either because of philanthropists’ choices about who is in the boardroom, or because of reformers’ fears of speaking out, philanthropy is too often greeted by acquiescence and reflexive cheerleading. After all, nobody likes to offend rich people, especially generous funders writing cheques. But prickly scrutiny is healthy. It raises hard questions and points out overlooked problems. Philanthropists do well to listen carefully and view such feedback as a valued resource. • Philanthropists should care whether investments actually work It’s easy for philanthropists to get caught up in the excitement of a new idea. But education philanthropy is inevitably about outsiders trying to change schools, teachers, and systems in someone else’s community. This is necessary and important work, but it also requires that funders do
everything they can to ensure they’re doing more good than harm. This means monitoring their efforts, studying outcomes for students, and taking every opportunity to ask what is or isn’t working. We need to value the energy that a new generation of philanthropists brings to education reform while also hoping that they proceed with an awareness of lessons learned and with the thoughtfulness that can increase the odds that their generous gifts will indeed help to improve children’s lives. Endnotes 1 economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2018/06/21/bridgeacademies-battles-its-enemies 2 economist.com/taxonomy/term/76972/Shocks%20and%20 absorbers?page=3088 3 teachforall.org/network-partners 4 See brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/FINAL-TeachFor-All-Case-Study.pdf 5 msdf.org/initiatives/school-system-transformation/ 6 phf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ChildhoodEnhancement-through-Training-and-Action-2010.pdf
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The Value of Having a Dedicated Family Law Practitioner
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he work of a family lawyer typically revolves around relationship breakdown. That doesn’t just mean divorce, although of course that’s part of it. A family lawyer will deal with the financial consequences of divorce and separation — the division of assets and the question of ongoing provision (maintenance) and what the arrangements should be for any children. Family lawyers also represent people who have lived together but are not married, and in such cases where there are children, we advise on what financial support may be provided by the parent who no longer lives with the family. Importantly, and perhaps less well-known, is that family lawyers also help people plan and protect themselves and their families in the event that a relationship breaks down in the future. This might include advising on prenuptial or post-nuptial agreements, cohabitation agreements, and the manner in which assets such as property or businesses are owned during a marriage. It’s not unusual for parents to want to provide for their adult children before they get married or move in with a partner, in which case a family lawyer will work to ensure that certain assets remain in the
family, especially where these have been gifted or inherited. Family lawyers also assist those who want to start a family and may be considering assisted fertility, surrogacy, or adoption to ensure that legal parenthood is secured. Family courts in England and Wales have a wide discretion when it comes to dividing assets on divorce. Everything that each party owns, no matter where it came from and when, must be disclosed and taken into account. The court’s first consideration is the welfare of any minor children. Generally speaking, wealth generated during a marriage (“matrimonial assets”) will now be divided equally. Assets owned before the marriage or inherited by one person will often not be shared in the same way, but the court can and will invade if a party’s share of the matrimonial assets does not meet their financial needs and/or the needs of the children. Depending on how your finances are structured, this might mean that a court could make orders against business assets, trusts, or inherited wealth. Nuptial agreements entered into before or after a marriage can limit the impact of this and provide more certainty for both parties. If such agreements are created willingly, without
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Clare Wiseman, Family Law Partner, Irwin Mitchell Private Wealth, UK
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misrepresentation, fulfil certain criteria, and do not result in an unfair outcome, the courts will generally uphold them, so it’s very wise to consider this with your family lawyer. Such advice and/or agreements should also form part of your inheritance planning for passing wealth to future generations. It might not seem romantic to think about what will happen if your marriage doesn’t work out, but the unfortunate reality is that about 42% of marriages end in divorce. With subsequent unions the statistics are even worse. Where a couple has international connections — perhaps they are foreign nationals or own property in different countries — relationship breakdown can be far more complex. One person might want to move abroad and take the children with them; there may be a dispute as to where the divorce and financial matters should be dealt with; or there can be difficulties enforcing orders against assets located abroad — sometimes with catastrophic consequences. The tax consequences of moving assets between jurisdictions can be significant; however, if specialist legal advice is taken before a relationship breaks down, the risks can be addressed. Family solicitors do much more than just advise on family law. They need to have a good understanding of each individual client’s specific circumstances. For example, solicitors need to understand whichever business their client (and their client’s partner) is engaged in. They will have commercial knowledge and a grasp of corporate structures and trusts, pensions, and complex remuneration packages. International law experience and contacts around the world may also be necessary. Each family’s case is different because every family is different, with their own history, personalities, and wishes for the future. The better your lawyer knows you, the more able they are to tailor their approach to your needs. They will also be able to spot issues before they become a problem and limit potential damage. Unexpected things happen, but when they do you will already have someone to whom you can turn, one you trust and who understands your situation.
What to Look for When Seeking a Family Law Practitioner When choosing a family lawyer, there are various things to think about. • What kind of lawyer do you want? Some family lawyers are trained in collaborative law, which is a particular way of reaching an agreement with a former partner through lawyer-supported negotiation that avoids going to court. There are
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also mediators and arbitrators among us who bring different skills and experience. Expertise: Within the area of family law there are lawyers who have particular specialisms, for example in farming cases, technical international disputes, or complex prenuptial agreements. Some have litigated cases in the highest courts. Geography: You will probably wish to meet your lawyer at least once. If there are court proceedings, you and your lawyer will usually be required to attend hearings, and it is often helpful if your lawyer knows the local court and judiciary. Cost: Do you need a lawyer based in the city who likely has high overheads and corresponding fees? In some situations, it will be appropriate, but in others this may not give you any additional benefit. The best lawyers in the country are not all in major economic hubs. Their team: Do they work within a team enabling the work to be done at a level and cost appropriate to the issues? Also, does the team interact closely with professional colleagues in other disciplines such as tax and trusts (at both international and domestic levels), property, corporate, and pensions to provide a complete and holistic service? Professional memberships/accreditations: Family lawyers who are members of an organization called Resolution have signed up to a code of practice to deal with family disputes in a civilized way. Reputation: You can look at what the legal directories say, which includes endorsement from other lawyers and clients. You may also have personal recommendations. Rapport: It’s essential that you get on with your lawyer and can have a good working relationship with them. You need to trust them and feel they understand and support you; any personality clash between you and your lawyer will not make your situation any easier. If you are looking for a lawyer at a traumatic time, you don’t necessarily want to have to tell your story more than once, but if you can face it, it’s not a bad idea to see more than one family lawyer before you decide who to instruct. However, bear in mind you should never choose one lawyer over another just because you prefer their advice: the best lawyers will give you a straight answer — even if they know it’s not what you want to hear.
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Above: Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, a keen advocate for advancing educational opportunities, is pictured here visiting Rohingya child refugees in Bangladesh
Investment and Sustainable Development in Education
UNESCO The UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has outlined seven different targets for education that it hopes to achieve by 2030. In order to achieve these targets, the body has singled out three key
Foundation
The Coca-Cola Company has shaped a large part of its corporate social responsibility around education. While it provides USD 3 million worth of funding each year to US students, its partnerships offer millions of dollars of regional scholarships across the
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IMAGE: Jordanian Royal Court via Getty Images
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he UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals strategies. The first strategy is to build effective learning (SDGs) are encouraging both industry and environments that are both safe and inclusive for all individuals to participate in charitable work in children. The second strategy is to improve access to order to make an impact on global scholarships in developing countries growth. Education is the fourth SDG so as to encourage vocational and is arguably the driving factor training and tertiary qualifications, Coca-Cola behind many others, including and the third strategy centers on allocates 1% of its environmental awareness, economic teachers, whom the organization growth, healthcare, and the reduction has identified as needing training operating income of injustice. This article takes a look and support in order to work at some of the organizations and more effectively. to corporate social individuals making an effort to responsibility annually Coca-Cola Scholars improve education globally.
IMAGE: Jordanian Royal Court via Getty Images
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globe. In fact, Coca-Cola allocates 1% of its operating income to corporate social responsibility annually, which has resulted in almost USD 70 million worth of support being spent on more than 6,000 US citizens alone since 1989. The international contributions that Coca-Cola has made to educational institutions also reach Australia, India, Turkey, Colombia, Argentina, Greece, Ukraine, Malaysia, South Africa, Mexico, Japan, Germany, and many more.
IMAGES: Pan Media Agency/FilmMagic; Michelly Rall/WireImage
Global Partnership for Education The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is one of the most impactful NGOs working to improve education in all facets. With a reported USD 462 million in donor contributions in 2017, the GPE was able to ensure access to primary education for 77 million children across the world. The organization’s commitment to sustainable development is seen through its focus on out-of-school children, early childhood care, children with disabilities, gender equality in education, and countries afflicted by strife. Since 2003, the partnership has also allocated USD 4.9 billion in grants to regions particularly affected by conflict or war, helping children to access safe learning environments and receive the much-needed care and attention that they are otherwise unable to experience.
Individuals of Impact Azim Premji, the second richest man in India, moved USD 12 billion of his USD 19 billion fortune into his philanthropic ventures in March 2018. Among these ventures is the Azim Premji Foundation, which works with district-level institutes in the country and funds the nonprofit Azim Premji University. The goals of the foundation are to collaborate with rural schools to target under privileged students, support the public school system in
its effort to uplift those who are struggling to access quality education, and engage senior education officials regarding long-term reform. In another part of the world, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan has been an education activist for many years, and her latest initiative in the global space is the Queen Rania Foundation, which officially launched its Edraak K–12 platform for online learning in September 2018. This platform is free to use throughout the Arab world and, importantly, hosts all its content in Arabic to ensure that home-language learning is achieved. Not only does the platform focus on children but it also has support and resources for parents and teachers. A recipient of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2017, Mei Hing Chak (also known as Zhai Meiqin) is one of China’s richest women and has been donating to charities throughout her journey into wealth. As the president of HeungKong Group Ltd, Chak and her husband are worth approximately USD 1.4 billion, enabling the company’s charitable foundation to fund the construction of over 1,500 libraries for public educational purposes and offer loans to female entrepreneurs in the country. She has also provided funding for the living and educational costs of orphans and disabled children in China. In South Africa, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls has seen seven years of graduates pass through its doors since it was established in 2011, with over 100 girls having had the opportunity to pursue tertiary studies to date. Praised by Bill Clinton as being “an example of how to give back to the world”, some of the main requirements for acceptance at the well-equipped school include academic excellence and family financial constraints, with Winfrey herself seeing to all the learners’ learning and living expenses.
Above: Oprah Winfrey at the opening of her Leadership Academy for Girls in 2011 (left), on which she has spent over USD 40 million establishing, and celebrating the graduation of the first class, many of whom have gone on to complete tertiary education internationally (right)
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The World Ultra Wealth Report 2018
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espite their collective wealth, at a 2018 population of 255,810,1 ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) individuals are a small market in absolute terms — even for niche luxury brands that are created for the most discerning consumers. Though many of these elite organizations covet the patronage of this consumer group for the prestige and spending power they bring, they can be a difficult group to understand and target with effective luxury marketing initiatives. Some luxury marketing teams have taken a direct approach to shining a light into the world of UHNW individuals, in order to understand them as a separate group of consumers. At Porsche, Marek Grzebin is responsible for a dedicated UHNW-focused strategy team formed because of these clients’ fundamental value to the business; “They are spending a lot, buying very, very expensive models, and spending even more on personalization. We need to treat them differently.” This recognition of difference and perceived value does not always mean that luxury marketing teams specifically
engage this group, particularly if their larger target audience has greater aspiration potential — luxury hospitality being a prime example. These brands need to ensure they welcome those who can afford the experience at the same time as maintaining an association with an elite audience of influence. Adelina Wong Ettelson, Head of Residences Marketing at Mandarin Oriental, recognizes UHNW individuals as “a natural and organic segment for a five-star luxury hotel group” — albeit one they do not actively target. However, their influence is undeniable. In the modern world, the individual influence of powerful people is one of the greatest tools brands have available. “These people are very, very successful,” says Grzebin. “They are role models and they are influential in their communities.” Being able to attract the custom of the most discerning consumers in the world is especially advantageous for brand image. “Other people looking up to them see that they can afford any car on earth,” says Grzebin, “but they drive the car they drive because they love it.”
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Winston Chesterfield, Director, Wealth-X Custom Research, UK
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It is not, however, a one-way relationship; UHNW individuals can be highly demanding and, being able to make additional resources available, they expect more from luxury brands. For them, the garden variety of luxury product or service may not be sufficient, or even desirable, and it can be a constant battle to attract and keep them. “The main challenge,” according to Wong Ettelson at Mandarin Oriental, “is how to engage and stay relevant to UHNW individuals… they are interested in personalization and sophisticated yet authentic offerings.” Grzebin at Porsche agrees: “We are seeing a very strong, solid demand for the limited editions and special models — this target group doesn’t want anything off the shelf. And even when they buy a limited model, they personalize it even further.” While this can be good for business, it does present problems when supply fails: “When they don’t get a limited model they want, they get disappointed, writing letters to our board members” — a natural hazard of upsetting the best-connected individuals in the world. To appeal to them beyond product then becomes ever more important, to ensure they feel special and appreciated. This is particularly valuable when UHNWs get to experience things not ordinarily available, and certainly not accessible to everyone — even those with comparable resources. “They are always looking for money-can’t-buy experiences, and this is something we try to provide,” says Grzebin. However, this can be difficult to achieve when you don’t fully understand what makes them tick, what matters to them: “It’s very much about personal contact, so very one to one,” says Grzebin. How easy is it to get close enough to UHNWs to understand them? To provide them with moments of delight in experiences they value and can’t get elsewhere? It is a paradox, says Wong Ettelson; they want to be known, but not known: “It has been increasingly challenging to reach and connect with UHNW individuals. Privacy is a real concern and yet they want to be alerted to what they care about from our hotels and residences. We have to find the balance between catering to their needs while also respecting their privacy.” An important question to consider is whether the recent annual addition of 30,000 individuals — almost three times the UHNW population of Hong Kong — to the world’s ‘hard to please, hard to know’ UHNW population is alarming. “On the one hand it would be easy to say so,” says Porsche’s Grzebin, “but we will not be the right brand for every new UHNW…and we will not just develop a product simply because the population is growing. This wouldn’t be the Porsche way.”
This points to another issue that tends to rear its head when luxury marketing professionals analyze this fast-growing but still rather tiny group — the assumption that they are one amorphous group and are all relevant target consumers because they have great wealth in common. The reality is that the population of UHNW individuals is not only truly diverse — a microcosm of the wider world’s cultural, educational, and commercial variety — but is also changing, albeit gradually. Historically, ultra wealth has been associated with older men, a reflection of the time it has traditionally taken to build industrial and commercial empires, but now there is greater age diversity as fortunes are begun by younger individuals and built in shorter time periods. Our archetype of the Asian Industrialist in World Ultra Wealth Report 2018, for example, shows an average age in the late 50s — young for UHNW wealth, and a far cry from the octogenarian titans of the first industrialist age. Another development that proves the evolution of this group is the record high of nearly 35,000 females in the global UHNW population, with a growth rate of 31%: “Women as a high growth segment is encouraging,” says Wong Ettelson. Grzebin agrees and notes that they have already seen increased interest from UHNW women in certain parts of the world; “We have, on average, the highest number of female customers in China, for instance, compared to Europe and North America.” Over the next four years, Wealth-X estimates the fastest growth will be achieved in the Asia-Pacific region (with a compound annual growth rate of 8.3% 2018–2022), a continuing trend in recent years. “The general trend of UHNW growth in Asia is consistent with our experience,” claims Wong Ettelson. And it is not just a China story; six of the top ten fastest-growing UHNW populations are in the Asia region. Are luxury brands worried they aren’t prepared for a population of UHNW individuals that is bursting through the 300,000 mark in a little over a year? Cautious optimism seems to be the tone, balancing client satisfaction — all of whom will expect VIP status — with commercial and brand success. This will be challenging, thinks Grzebin; “Even if we don’t need to offer them something that is expensive to make them happy — speaking to a designer, getting behind the scenes access — we can only open doors for a few. It becomes almost impossible if you have to offer such exclusive money-can’t-buy-events for 5,000 people.” Endnote 1 Wealth-X, World Ultra Wealth Report 2018
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Taxation of Swiss Residents Renato H. Bloch, Founder and Senior Partner, Bloch Law Offices, Switzerland
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s a federal state, Switzerland has no uniform limited tax liability is based solely on an economic system of taxation. Due to the existence of the connection to the tax-collecting jurisdiction. Non-residents federal and cantonal levels of taxation, as well as usually enter such limited liability on taxable income differing regulations among the various municipalities, derived from immoveable property located in Switzerland taxation in Switzerland can be a complex issue. The or from a Swiss permanent establishment. Confederation and all 26 sovereign cantons have their Taxation of Personal Income own laws for the collection of taxes, as do the approximately 2,300 independent municipalities. Swiss residents are liable for federal, cantonal, and According to the Swiss constitution, cantons have fiscal municipal taxes on income from all sources on a sovereignty and full right of taxation, to the exception of worldwide basis. Recurring and non-recurring income some sources allotted at federal level and the limitations of any kind is deemed income for income tax purposes. set by tax treaties concluded between the Confederation Federal and the variety of cantonal tax statutes do differ and other countries. International double taxation issues in their treatment of exemptions, allowances, and are dealt with by way of doublepersonal deductions; however, taxation treaties, and cantonal and most of them apply the same municipal taxes account for a general principles in determining Swiss residents are significant part of the total tax gross income. liable for federal, cantonal, burden. The Confederation ensures Income from all categories is most of its revenue from indirect usually combined and taxed at one and municipal taxes on taxation, while the cantons and rate. However, annuities, pensions, municipalities rely primarily on and other retirement monies income from all sources direct taxes. All cantons apply usually benefit from more favorable on a worldwide basis current-year assessment. income tax treatment. Income from real estate comprises, inter Tax Liability and Jurisdiction alia, the deemed rental value of Income and net-wealth tax liabilities of individuals result any apartment or house owned and occupied by the from connection to the taxing jurisdiction. The extent of taxpayer. The income progressive tax rates vary from an individual’s tax liability depends on whether their canton to canton, and the tax burden depends on the attachment to the tax-collecting jurisdiction (Confederation, multiplicator factor applied at municipal level. canton, and municipality) is based on personal or solely Income from Swiss immoveable property is fully taxable economic factors. Tax liability is unlimited in the former under federal and cantonal income tax statutes. This income case and limited in the latter case. includes rental or lease payments, which are the deemed Unlike other countries, in Switzerland citizenship has rental or lease value of immoveable property used by the no bearing on tax liability. Irrespective of whether tax taxpayer. Income from moveable property covers all receipts liability is limited or unlimited, worldwide income and from property, life interest (usufruct) in moveable objects, net wealth are taken into account for assessing the tax or assets that cannot be considered as part of immoveable rate on Swiss income and wealth. Individuals are subject property. This category of income includes interest and to unlimited tax liability as residents if they have their dividend payments or other benefits derived from any form permanent or temporary residence in Switzerland. A of investments (loans, savings, accounts, bonds, capital
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stock, and other securities) and receipts from the rental or lease under any form of moveable objects. Also, deemed interest, the difference between an obligation’s nominal value and its redemption price, is taxable. Royalties, payments for the use of, or the right to use, intellectual property, are usually business income. They are considered as investment income only if the rights are part of the taxpayer’s private net wealth. In the case of dividend interest that supports a withholding tax, tax withheld is credited against the taxpayer’s final tax liability. As a general rule, capital gains are taxable only upon realization. Depending on the level of taxation (federal, cantonal, municipal) and the kind of assets involved, (moveable or immoveable, private or business), capital gains may be entirely tax-free, subject to special gains taxes, or included in taxable income.
IMAGE: Shutterstock
Taxation of Investments At federal level, no tax is levied on the net worth of individuals. The net-worth tax is levied by the cantons and municipalities on the fair-market value of total taxable assets, less liabilities, and standard deductions according to personal circumstances. The net-worth tax base includes almost every type of asset held by individuals, including immoveable property, intangible personal property, securities, cash redemption value of life insurance policies, investments in proprietorships or partnerships, and other beneficial interests. Certain assets (personal and household effects, etc.) are exempt from taxation. In computing the value for net-worth taxation purposes, taxpayers may deduct from the total market valuation of
their taxable assets any mortgages and other liabilities and a generally allowed tax-exempt amount. Net-worth tax rates are progressive in most cantons. They range from approximately 0.04% to 0.9%, imposing thereby a much lesser burden than income tax. Resident taxpayers who have an unlimited tax obligation pay the cantonal networth tax on all assets, except extra-cantonal and foreign immoveable property and assets attributable to an extra cantonal or foreign permanent establishment. If an individual owns assets in several cantons, the assets located in a particular canton — less a proportional part of the taxpayer’s liabilities — will be subject to the taxes of that canton. Generally, intangible property is considered to be located at the residence of the taxpayer. To conclude, Swiss-resident individuals are taxable on worldwide income and assets. Income derived by residents from foreign businesses, foreign permanent establishments, and property abroad is exempt from income tax but it must be declared for the determination of the tax rates (exemption with progression principle). Switzerland, while being an investment country globally acknowledged for its political and economic stability, high level of innovation, and worldwide recognition, is not a tax haven. It places itself in the medium/high ranking at EU level and several discussions are ongoing at a political level about taxation of rental income of real estate occupied by the owner, about fair tax treatment of married couples versus unmarried couples, about federal tax harmonization to avoid inter-cantonal tax competition and, in general, about the Swiss tax system’s position from an EU and international perspective.
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FEATURES
Above: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro (left) receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017. The awarding committee described Ishiguro as being one “who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world”
In Celebration of the Written Word Nobel Prize in Literature Awarded to authors since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature is considered one of the oldest and most prestigious awards in existence. The will of the Swedish inventor and funder of the Nobel Prizes, Alfred Nobel, described that the award was to be given to the “most outstanding work of literature in an ideal direction”. While the Nobel Prize sometimes recognizes individual work, it mostly seeks to praise an author’s collection of literature in its entirety. The name of the laureate is pronounced by the academy each year in early October and the winner is awarded a gold medal, a diploma with a citation, and a sum of money that is determined by the income of the Nobel Foundation in that year. The Nobel Prize in Literature was not awarded in 2018.
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IMAGES: JONAS EKSTROMER/AFP/Getty Images; Shutterstock
D
espite the increasing digitization and automation of the modern world, the written word and the consumption thereof remains one of the most popular pastimes for individuals across the globe. According to a study published by Literary Hub in 2017, super readers, defined as individuals who read more than 80 books a year, at the age of 25 will read between 4,500 and 4,800 books in the remainder of their lives. This is quite the feat considering the continuous proliferation of program streaming and mobile device usage. The art behind the conception and writing of books, regardless of the genre, continues to be celebrated widely thanks to multiple annual prizes across regions, countries, and languages. The list of renowned literary awards is truly expansive, and they continue to increase in diversity in the types of authors and works they seek to honor and highlight. There are, however, some literary awards that have truly blazed the trail in their longevity and capacity to evolve.
Man Booker Prize One of the most anticipated and respected literary awards, the Man Booker Prize for Fiction is known for having launched the careers of many successful authors around the world. The prize is awarded annually to the best novel written in English and published in the UK. In 2014, the Man Booker Prize widened its scope to include international novels published in the English language. In 2018, the Prize celebrated its 50th anniversary, and the organization remains committed to its founding objective — to increase “the reading of quality fiction and to attract ‘the intelligent general audience’”.
IMAGES: Frank Augstein -WPA Pool/Getty Images; themanbookerprize.com; digitalbookworld.com; thehugoawards.org; societyofauthors.org
IMAGES: JONAS EKSTROMER/AFP/Getty Images; Shutterstock
FEATURES
Publishing Innovation Awards Celebrating excellence and innovation in digital content, the Publishing Innovation Awards each year honor worthy recipients in fifteen categories that demonstrate the advance ment of the digital publishing industry. Introduced by Digital Book World, the prize aims to showcase the various creative approaches to design, the integration of technology, and e-reading experiences that are driving the digitization of literature. The inaugural Digital Book Awards was held in 2011 at the Digital Book World Conference + Expo and presented awards in five categories: fiction, non-fiction, reference works, children’s books, and comics.
The Hugo Award The Hugo Award is considered one of the highest honors for science fiction and fantasy writing. Named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder and pioneer of the sci-fi magazine Amazing Stories, the prize was first awarded in 1953 and became an annual affair from 1955. The Hugo Award is managed by the World Science Fiction Society and the award categories since its inception over 65 years ago have increased to over a dozen, including books and other forms of dramatic works. J.K. Rowling is a recipient of two Hugos;
Above: Anna Burns was awarded the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2018 for her novel Milkman (2018). The Northern Irish author, of No Bones acclaim, is the the 50th recipient of this adored award
for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2000) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2001).
Women’s Prize for Fiction One of the most respected awards in the literary world, the Women’s Prize for Fiction honors the best full-length works of fiction produced by women from across the world. Also known as the Baileys Prize (the award is sponsored by Irish whiskey brand Baileys), the award was inspired by the 1991 Man Booker Prize, when no female authors were shortlisted despite close to 60% of novels published during that year having been written by women. At the time, research also showed that the literary achievements of female writers were not acknowledged by the existing major literary prizes. Subsequently, representatives from all corners of the publishing industry — including authors, publishers, booksellers, journalists, and even librarians — came together to discuss the matter and establish an award that is aimed at honoring the works of women specifically.
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GLOBAL LIFE
Above: Dr. Juerg Steffen is the CEO of globally represented residence and citizenship planning firm Henley & Partners
Global Citizen
Dr. Juerg Steffen IMAGE: Henley & Partners
“I like pressure…especially the tasks that seem to be almost impossible”
I
f you are fortunate enough to secure some time in Juerg Steffen’s diary and have him regale you with an account of his professional journey to date, it is almost certain that you will walk away feeling very inspired — or possibly like an underachiever. From very early in his life, Juerg has cultivated a determined and ambitious approach to his work, which explains why, today, he is the CEO of Henley & Partners, a firm that
is widely regarded as being the pioneer of the investment migration industry. When Juerg tells the story of how he and his close university friends organized a massive university party that was attended by a crowd of almost 12,000 and featured Run DMC as the evening’s entertainment, it is clear to see that this wealth planning expert has been entrepreneurial, business-savvy, and visionary from a young age.
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Born in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1970, Juerg is one of three successful business — a real testament to his resilient and children. While his siblings pursued medical professions ambitious nature. — his twin sister is a dentist and their older brother a On a less serious note, Juerg also remembers very fondly doctor — Juerg was quite certain that he wanted to pursue his first few days in the country having to deal with no a career in private banking. luggage, no electricity at his accommodation, and no To kickstart his banking career, a 19-year-old Juerg confirmed office space from which to work — which secured holiday employment at a local private bank while meant calling clients from telephone booths in parking studying economics at university. Not quite satisfied with areas — as well as having to build credibility in the tightly the idea of sitting in a lecture hall and being dictated to, knit community of Nassau, where trust was the order of Juerg’s ambitious streak prompted him to convince his the day and many outsiders struggled to break in. But all superiors at the bank to take him on, on a part-time basis. of this enthralled him immensely — Juerg says: “I like He remembers fondly that his life was so consumed with greenfield operations. I like to build up things. I am a his interest in banking work that in the evenings he builder” — and fueled his work habit that persists today, preferred to study at the office. of which he shares mischievously: “I just love working… During a year-long break from his economics studies, It’s like a hobby. I just love to make business and work.” Juerg worked almost full-time assisting one of the bank’s With his sunny Bahaman days behind him, in 2004 board members and helping to formulate guidelines, Juerg moved back to Europe, where Germany’s tax amnesty policies, and regulations, an unlikely program had recently been established role for a new professional but one in to encourage wealthy citizens with which he thrived and found great accounts abroad to repatriate their Upon graduating pleasure. Having been impressed by funds to the country. At that time, a from law school, Juerg Juerg’s contribution to developing significant portion of German wealth important documents for the bank was invited back to the was held in Switzerland, where Juerg and noting his precision and attention himself was based, which inspired bank and, at 28 years to detail, Juerg’s boss suggested he Juerg to develop an onshore German continue with his studies and pursue product line for clients interested in old, took on the role law, which explains how Juerg leveraging the amnesty. returned to university at the age of But Juerg also felt the need to of head of front office 23. Shortly after, Juerg and a friend improve his wealth planning support, reporting started a company with the aim of knowledge and set his sights on selling imported medical equipment, working for leading global wealth directly to the CEO which — together with his party manager UBS. In the mid 2000s, “I planning gig and part-time work at went to UBS, knocked on their door, the bank — left him very little time to focus on his and said ‘I would like to work for you in wealth planning’,” academics. The approach of his final exams was a startling Juerg says. He chuckles as he tells this story and realizes wake-up call, inspiring Juerg to take seriously the the temerity of approaching a bank to hire him despite remainder of his studies — which he did determinedly. having “not much of a clue” about the sector he was Upon graduating from law school, Juerg was invited interested in. Nevertheless, and rather surprisingly, UBS back to the bank and, at 28 years old, took on the role of brought him on board, having been impressed by his head of front office support, reporting directly to the charm and personality. The condition of his employment, CEO. He went on to stay for a total of almost 15 years at however, was that he would have to complete a master’s the bank, which included stints managing a subsidiary degree specializing in wealth planning, which the banking bank in Guernsey and establishing, as well as running, giant funded and Juerg pursued during evenings another in the Bahamas. Remembering his time there, and weekends. Juerg reflects on the challenges he encountered considering He speaks enthusiastically about his time at the bank, the changing legal and regulatory landscape following the his face beaming and voice rising in an obviously then-recent 9/11 attacks and a world beset by anxiety and passionate and authentic manner. “It was amazing. I insecurity. Nevertheless, he persisted and established a never learnt as much and in such a short time anywhere
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IMAGE: Henley & Partners
GLOBAL LIFE
At the relatively young age of 35, Juerg was fast making a name for himself and caught the attention of one of Europe’s wealthiest families, with one of the largest single family offices and wealth of over EUR 20 billion at the time. The family approached Juerg to come on board and advise their members in Switzerland. Juerg moved to Austria a few years later for personal reasons and took on the job of head of the wealth planning department of the subsidiary of a leading Swiss bank that was eager to fortify its resources with an experienced senior banker from Switzerland. Once again finding himself in a position of needing to grow his local client base, Juerg commenced plans to publish another book, this time focusing on advising high-networth clients regarding relocation to Austria. This saw him approaching and building relationships with several key expert peers, one of them being Dr. Christian H. Kälin, Group Chairman of Henley & Partners. Despite initial hesitation to leave the bank and accept an offer of employment at Henley & Partners, Juerg relented and soon found himself in Singapore setting up Above: Juerg is pictured here with the former Minister the firm’s Southeast Asia operations. He says: “It was of Tourism for the Government of Thailand, Kobkarn very difficult at the beginning. I didn’t know anybody. Wattanavrangkul I had never been in Singapore. But I survived and after a few months I had the first client.” Juerg relished the else as with the UBS wealth planning team,” Juerg opportunity to start something from nothing, another shares. It was a highly charged and inspired time for greenfield endeavor, and is rightfully considered a catalyst the broader team too, with business doing exceptionally of the firm’s continued success in the region. well. Juerg made great professional strides aided by his Now the CEO of Henley & Partners, Juerg has played developing combined tax and legal a pivotal role in growing the firm expertise. “We were an amazing a nd, indeed, the investment team…I did a lot of relocation and migration industry at large; Henley Now the CEO inheritance planning for the cross& Partners now has 30 offices of Henley & Partners, border we a lt h m a n a gement worldwide and a staff complement department and wrote financial of over 300. His leadership of the Juerg has played plans for wealthy clients to help firm is highly praised as it navigates a pivotal role in them optimize their wealth over the the choppy waters of industry medium to long term.” growth, growing public interest, growing the firm Juerg developed an interest in and increased media discussion relocation planning and, realizing about the value of residenceand, indeed, the that the literature on the topic was and citizenship-by-investment investment migration sparse, successfully convinced the programs generally. professors of his master’s class to One thing is certain: with Juerg industry at large allow him to focus on this for his bringing over 30 years of corporate thesis. Indeed he did, and Juerg later experience, a natural inclination to published it as the book Relocation to Switzerland: An work hard, and a tenacious, ambitious, and Introduction for For High Net Worth Individuals entrepreneurial approach to handling challenges, Henley and Entrepreneurs. & Partners is in good hands.
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GLOBAL LIFE
Above and opposite page: Holiday Village Andermatt Reuss is a classic expression of Swiss elegance. When visiting the resort, property owners can fully relax and take in the sublime surroundings of the spectacular Swiss Alps no matter the season
Property
I
n the heart of the Swiss Alps lies Andermatt, one of the smaller yet widely popular all-year-round sking destinations encompassing an expansive 1.4 million 2 m . The exclusive Holiday Village Andermatt Reuss resort offers an abundance of high-end facilities and a diversified range of sport and leisure activities year-round, but perhaps its most attractive attribute is the opportunity for foreigners to buy property without restrictions. The village is ideally situated with outstanding access to both national and international transportation routes — the north-south Autobahn A2 can be reached in just a 10-minute drive. Catering to sports enthusiasts throughout the seasons, Andermatt is the picture-perfect location for mountain climbing, hiking, and biking in the summer months. The new 18-hole championship golf course centerpiece has been designed to adhere to strict
environmental standards and promises an unforgettable golfing experience with nature at its best. During the winter months, the snow-covered region entices skiing, freeriding, snowshoe trekking, and sledding enthusiasts from all corners of the globe. With over 120 km of slopes, 22 ski lifts, and approximately 30 runs, the SkiArena Andermatt-Sedrun is one of the largest ski areas in Central Switzerland featuring slopes for both expert skiers and beginners. Streets and walks in Andermatt are short, and the holiday village is car-free (an underground garage offers plenty of parking space). The ski lifts, shops, restaurants, and public facilities are easy to reach by foot no matter the season, and these are well integrated into the village life of Andermatt. The Piazza Gottardo in the holiday village adds to this convenient and easy approach to daily living, and the meeting
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IMAGE: Andermatt Swiss Alps
Andermatt • Swiss Alps
IMAGES: Andermatt Swiss Alps
IMAGE: Andermatt Swiss Alps
GLOBAL LIFE
spot is widely considered the heart of the holiday village and the starting point for all manner of activities. Further amplifying the resort’s appeal is a breathtaking open-air theatre used for an array of cultural events that are intrinsic to Andermatt’s character, with an indoor pool and exquisite new restaurants completing the overall picture. Holiday Village Andermatt Reuss offers an alluring combination of apartments, chalets, and hotels with real estate investment options ranging from one-bedroom apartments to exclusive penthouses. With almost 500 apartments and 25 private chalets on offer, there is enough variety to suit the unique needs of any discerning buyer from around the world. Each of the properties available in the holiday village offers a combination of modern architecture with the unique character of traditional Swiss alpine living. As the owner of an apartment, one has the option to rent out one’s apartment when it is not in use or to have it serviced in preparation for the next visit. Along with assistance with property rentals, real estate investors at the development have access to exclusive benefits that include a concierge service to arrange restaurant reservations and book ski and golf lessons. Housekeeping, laundry services, and property maintenance are also available to ensure the utmost level of convenience and attention to detail. Sustainability has been at the core of the development from the beginning, ensuring that the project has a solid
foundation considering the environment, government authorities, residents, and the preservation of the surrounding culture and history. All properties on the resort are in accordance with the MINERGIE® standard, the Swiss label for quality and sustainably designed buildings with minimal energy consumption. Further underpinning the concept of sustainability is the reinstatement of the car-free zone at the center of the village, and the fact that the planning and construction of the golf course and resort were developed with the close cooperation of environmental organizations. Holiday Village Andermatt Reuss offers a harmonious integration of tradition-rich village characteristics and luxurious modernity that highlights nature, leisure, and sports — the ultimate way to experience the wonder of the Alps.
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GLOBAL LIFE
Above and opposite page: The Silo Hotel, which opened in early 2017 in Cape Town, South Africa, has redefined the luxury African hotel experience with its fine attention to creative detail and charming embrace of the city’s spectacular setting
Marco Polo
W
hen the 57 m-high grain silo complex was first unveiled in 1924, it was considered the tallest building in sub-Saharan Africa, marking a significant development in the region’s architectural aspirations. In 2017, the redeveloped Cape Town building was again the subject of widespread prominence when it gained international renown as the home of not only the then recently established Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa — showcasing the largest collection of contemporary African art in the world — but also The Royal Portfolio’s Silo hotel, a uniquely creative expression of African luxury in the heart of the ‘Mother City’.
Externally, The Silo is already more attractive than many of its industry peers thanks to its 5.5 m pillowed window bays, designed by Thomas Heatherwick (of Heatherwick Studio acclaim). However, it is the hotel’s interior that is the true marvel: From the ground-floor lobby area, one is welcomed by eclectically colourful, deeply textured, and aesthetically diverse art pieces whose beauty is amplified by the bare, industrial-feel walls that harken back to the building’s former life. Six floors above the lobby are The Silo’s reception and concierge desk, the plush Willaston Bar — so named after the first ship to export grain from the original
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IMAGE: The Royal Portfolio
The Silo • Cape Town
silo complex — and the vibrant Granary Café, which is highly regarded for its modern take on formal dining. Available at the hotel are eight silo rooms, six superior suites, seven deluxe superior suites, four family suites, two royal suites, and a penthouse that all offer varying views of Cape Town’s old harbour, the breathtaking Table Mountain, which was inaugurated as one of the ‘New 7 Wonders of Nature’ in 2012, the distant horizon of the Atlantic Ocean, and Robben Island, the site of 18 of Nelson Mandela’s 27 years of incarceration. The Royal Portfolio describes the single-bedroom penthouse as being “the jewel in the crown” of The Silo. It boasts walk-in closets, a private treatment room, a study, a
cinema, and a dining room table that can accommodate 10 guests. Above the dining table is an elaborate gold and crystal chandelier — one of 80 in the hotel that were handmade in Egypt — that reflects light in an inspired decorative manner, while the penthouse’s extended private balcony allows guests to take in the picturesque mountainous backdrop. The Silo’s inventive approach to décor and styling, which is the result of the intelligent work of The Royal Portfolio’s co-founder Liz Biden, will appeal to travelers who have a discerning eye and appreciate the culturally diverse heritage and evolution of contemporary African art. The city’s much-loved summer sunsets are a highlight for anyone visiting Cape Town, and The Silo’s sky terrace is designed with just this in mind, with the rooftop bar — described by CNN as being “the real show stopper” — adding immense appeal. For a truly rejuvenating experience, guests can arrange for a spa treatment on the terrace, including treatments with 24-carat gold, making for an all-round luxuriant experience. The hotel also has its own library, a boutique art store, and an exclusive gallery located in the hotel’s private parking entrance called The Vault, which showcases local art that is available for purchase. In the short time that The Silo has been in operation, the hotel has received numerous accolades, including the National Geographic Traveller Big Sleep Awards 2018 prize for ‘Design Den’, while Forbes listed the hotel in its article on ‘Cool Design Hotels Around the World’.
IMAGE: The Royal Portfolio
IMAGES: The Royal Portfolio
GLOBAL LIFE
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GLOBAL LIFE
Culinaria
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reflection of the warm and homely feel of its name, IGNIV (‘nest’ in Romansh) in St. Moritz is the second fine-dining sharing experience restaurant by acclaimed chef Andreas Caminada. Following in the footsteps of the IGNIV at the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz, the restaurant’s counterpart in the Alps raked in Michelin stars only months after its launch. IGNIV opened its doors in Badrutt’s Palace Hotel in the Swiss ski resort at the end of 2016 and offers exquisite views of the lake along with a truly unique culinary experience. The three-Michelin-starred Swiss chef believes his newest establishment is an embodiment of the value of sharing, comfort, and social exchange working in harmony with exquisite food. “We want to bring people together around the table, to get them eating together, speaking to each other, sharing ideas, memories, and moments while sharing and enjoying our food,” explains Caminada. Steering away from the concept of ordering from a classic menu, the newly starred restaurant offers varied dishes to enjoy as a group. Served from an open kitchen, the food presented in small dishes, pans, and platters and placed in the center of the table ensures that guests can serve themselves and relish the meal uninhibited. Heading up the pass of this modern kitchen is 31-yearold chef Marcel Skibba who, along with his 15-person team, transforms regional produce into communal fine-dining.
Skibba is familiar with the culinary expectations of Caminada, having worked with the top chef since 2015, and he continues to work as a sous chef in the three-starred Schloss Schauenstein in Fürstenau when IGNIV St. Moritz is closed for the summer and autumn seasons. Skibba, who is regarded as one of the most promising chefs within the Swiss culinary world, believes dining should be a holistic experience: “With IGNIV, we are serving not only excellent food but also an entertaining atmosphere.” The atmosphere at ‘the nest’ is elegant, modern, and intimate — catering for only 40 guests at capacity. The dining room has been decorated by star interior designer Patricia Urquiola, who used top-quality materials and determined a sophisticated warm color palette. The restaurant easily lends itself to a relaxed family dinner, dinner with friends, or a business lunch. IGNIV offers a three-course sharing menu with the option to add three or five more surprise components. Items on the appetizer and entrée menu include eggs royale, red cabbage, langoustine, duck liver, and veal, while dessert offerings consist of citrus fruits and some mysterious dishes. All products used in the restaurant are of Swiss origin unless otherwise indicated. Included in the price of each sharing experience at IGNIV is a CHF 2 donation to chef Caminada’s Uccelin Foundation, which is dedicated to fostering talent in the gastronomic industry through mentoring and financial support.
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IMAGES: IGNIV
IGNIV • St. Moritz
Medicus
Thomas Colin Campbell, PhD
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IMAGE: One Green Planet
IMAGES: IGNIV
GLOBAL LIFE
ailed as an all-time bestseller in health and nutrition, The China Study is one of the most influential works questioning dairy- and meat-rich Western diets. The book broke ground when it was first published in 2004 and is often cited as having propelled plant-based eating into the mainstream. The China Study details how researchers found that a high consumption of animal-based foods is associated with chronic disease — particularly cancer — and that those individuals sustained by plant-based diets are much healthier. The research is grounded in a 20-year partnership of Cornell University, Oxford University, and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, and was co-authored by now-famous American biochemist Thomas Colin Campbell (PhD). Campbell is one of the Western world’s top scientists on plant-based diets and overall nutrition, having published over 300 research papers. He has himself followed a “99% vegan diet” for almost two decades. He is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University, is the founder of the highly acclaimed CNS and eCornell Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate, and serves as the Chairman of the Board for the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies. Campbell obtained his BSc in 1956 at Pennsylvania State University, after which he attended veterinary school at the University of Georgia for a year. In 1958, Campbell completed his master’s in nutrition and biochemistry at Cornell University and his PhD in nutrition, biochemistry, and microbiology three years later. While it was only in 1980 that he went on to initiate the massive so-called China–Cornell–Oxford Project, prior to that Campbell spent some time as a research associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and 10 years at Virginia Tech’s department of biochemistry and nutrition. Campbell’s mastery of plant-based nutrition earned him an honorary professorship with the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine. He is also a member of the US National
Academy of Sciences “expert panels on food safety”, has worked as a senior advisor to the American Institute of Cancer Research, and serves on the advisory board of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. The biochemist went on to publish Whole (2013) and The Low-Carb Fraud (2014), which touts a whole-foods plant-based diet consisting mainly of vegetables, fruits, and grains as the ideal healthy diet to prevent chronic diseases such as cancer. Campbell refrains from using the terms veganism or vegetarianism, arguing that these are too ideological. Instead, he speaks of plant-based nutrition and, instead, considers this as being more anchored in empirical science. In a 2011 interview with the New York Times, Campbell explained that, up until The China Study, nutrition was studied out of context. The study encouraged him to use a “diametrical” lens and consider the environment when assessing the links between food and nourishment. “The problem is that we study one nutrient out of context. That’s the way we did research — one vitamin at a time, one mineral, one fat,” Campbell is quoted as saying. “But I learned that protein is not quite what we thought it was. We’ve distorted our diet seriously through the ages, and we have all the problems we have because of that distortion.” More recently, in 2018, through the non-profit T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies, the scientist took on a more outspoken activist role in the health and science community, declaring that “the war on cancer has failed” mainly because the underlying science of the disease is being misunderstood. Supporters of the highly respected Campbell have launched a petition to have the octogenarian scientist nominated for a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, stating that “we know of no person more deserving of such recognition and no other issue as important to the health of people and this fragile planet we all call home”. To date, almost 7,000 signatures have been received.
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Books
Relocation to Switzerland: An Introduction for High Net Worth Individuals and Entrepreneurs Dr. Juerg Steffen Ideos Publications
book dedicated to understanding the complexities that such a relocation entails has been published. Relocation to Switzerland: An Introduction for High Net Worth Individuals and Entrepreneurs provides an overview of topics ranging from immigration law, customs, taxation, inheritance law, and health insurance. It also seeks to answer a plethora of questions, such as “Which canton is the most attractive from a tax perspective?”, “What is the difference between a residence permit and permanent settlement?”, and “Which items can one bring duty-free to Switzerland in the course of a relocation?”. The book also provides highly insightful advice as to matters surrounding the purchase of property as a foreigner, the processes required to become a citizen, and the locations of some of the country’s leading schools. In short, Relocation to Switzerland: An Introduction for High Net Worth Individuals and Entrepreneurs is a one-stop overview of key factors affecting a relocation and provides a well-weighted basis for considering a relocation to the Alpine destination. Global citizens interested in relocating to Switzerland will be well advised to read this book; so too will their advisors and trusted professional service providers. While the idea of relocating to Switzerland may seem attractive, this book is sure to make it a more realistic one, which naturally increases the likelihood of a successful move.
Anyone seriously considering moving to Switzerland should read this book Martin Naville, CEO, Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce Switzerland
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IMAGE: Ideos Publications
T
he recently launched Relocation to Switzerland: An Introduction for High Net Worth Individuals and Entrepreneurs by Dr. Juerg Steffen is a comprehensive compendium written in cooperation with some of the best Swiss law firms, private client advisors, and professionals in various fields. Packed with up-to-date legislation, relevant statistics, and useful facts, this book builds on Steffen’s vast experience as a consultant, private banker, and now CEO of residence and citizenship planning firm Henley & Partners. Interest in Switzerland as a place of residence has only grown in the past years — currently about 25% of the population in Switzerland is non-Swiss. There are many reasons for this attraction: Switzerland maintains a level of direct democracy unrivalled in the world; it is consistently ranked in the top three in many rankings of competitiveness, innovation, human development, and press freedom; and it has the longest record of policy neutrality of any country in the world, having not participated in any war since 1815. While there are plenty of reasons, essentially everyone has their unique and highly complex mix of reasons for relocating. Such a move is usually not taken lightly, and it is definitely not something to be done on the spur of the moment. Navigating the many topics linked with a relocation can be daunting at times. It is then prescient that a new
Educated: A Memoir Tara Westover Penguin Random House
Origin Story: A Big History of Everything David Christian Little, Brown and Company
Moneyland: Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How to Take It Back Oliver Bullough Profile Books Ltd.
IMAGES: Penguin Random House; Little, Brown and Company; Profile Books Ltd
IMAGE: Ideos Publications
GLOBAL LIFE
Educated is a coming of age story formed on the fringes of American life in which Tara Westover, born in the mountains of Idaho in September 1986 as the seventh child of survivalist parents, captures a world of end-ofdays paranoia. This gripping memoir tells the tale of a young Westover breaking the chains of her family’s doctrine to transform her mind and life through books. This intriguing work is set apart from other stories of extreme American life by the author’s perceptiveness and ability to articulate and reflect on her eccentric childhood, colored in by accounts of working in her father’s junkyard, her self-taught herbalist mother, her violent elder brother, and the family’s staunch disapproval of modern medicine and education. Overcoming incredible odds and recreating herself through sheer willpower and perseverance, Westover eventually earned a PhD in History from the University of Cambridge. She now lives in London.
In Origin Story: A Big History of Everything, historian David Christian skillfully weaves together 13.8 billion years of history into a single, digestible historical narrative. While many historical accounts zoom into a sliver of history and examine it from particular angles or unusual contexts, Christian does just the opposite. He goes wide, as wide as one can go — from the dawn of time into the far-reaching flickers of the future. The author, a professor at Australia’s Macquarie University, masterfully encapsulates the “big history” of the universe in this book. Big history — a field of which Christian is a pioneer — aims to construct a meta-narrative from many scientific and historical disciplines. While examining mankind on a universal scale, this global origin story not only enthralls with science and planetary detective work but also prickles the mind with thoughtexpanding questions on a grand scale.
Oliver Bullough’s latest book Moneyland maps out the unsettling state of global wealth in the 21st century. The journey begins by puzzling over how a public servant, former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, was able to accumulate vast amounts of wealth while only ever having a recorded salary of USD 2,000 per month. In order to answer this question, Bullough digs deep into the chaotic underworld of offshore property ownership, a sea of money that flows freely across borders, and the legal loopholes that allow all this to happen. Not only does the book reveal this “moneyland ratchet”, but it also unpacks the financial and political motivations behind these actions and the conflicts they can instigate. By giving voice to these otherwise invisible processes, Bullough presents a clear and precise argument: the current global state of wealth needs to be recognized as a threat to our collective well-being until reformed and regulated.
1st Quarter 2019 | 83
GLOBAL LIFE
Reflections
Johann Pachelbel
student, who in turn passed on Pachelbel’s teachings to his younger brother, Johann Sebastian. Pachelbel married Barbara Gabler in 1681, but tragedy followed just two years later when she and their infant son died from the plague. In the same year, 1683, Pachelbel’s first work was published — ‘Musicalische SterbensGedancken’ (Musical Thoughts on Death) — understood to have been born from this heartbreaking experience. In 1684, Pachelbel wed Judith Drommer; together they had two daughters and five sons, two of whom — Wilhelm Hieronymus and Charles Theodore — became distinguished organ composers. Another son, Johann Michael, became an internationally famed instrument maker, and his daughter Amalia was a celebrated painter and engraver. In 1690 Pachelbel moved yet again, to Stuttgart, where he was a musician-organist at the Württemberg court. He fled to Gotha during the Nine Years’ War, however, and became the town organist. He declined positions in Stuttgart and at Oxford University while in Gotha, but accepted the position of organist at St. Sebaldus Church, Nuremberg, and spent his remaining years in his hometown. During this period, he published another great work, ‘Hexachordum Apollinis’ (Six Strings of Apollo). Pachelbel died, aged 52, in 1706. Although he achieved great fame during his lifetime, when Baroque music declined in popularity, Pachelbel was virtually forgotten until 19th-century music historian and musicologist Julius August Philipp Spitta began to research him. A renewed interest in early Baroque music in the middle of the 20th century led to Pachelbel’s works being studied and performed again.
The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them. 84 | Global Citizenship Review
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B
aroque composer and organist Johann Pachelbel was a significant writer of sacred Protestant music and a musical innovator of the chorale prelude and fugue. From the remarkable trove of his compositions, Pachelbel is perhaps best known for his magnum opus Canon in D major. He is also widely acknowledged for his indirect musical influence on Johann Sebastian Bach and for elevating the south German organ tradition and introducing it to central and north Germany. Born in 1653 in Nuremberg, Germany, to Anna (Anne) Maria Mair and Johann (Hans) Pachelbel, a vintner, the young Pachelbel displayed exceptional academic ability and musical talent. After terminating his studies at the University of Altdorf prematurely due to financial difficulties, he was awarded a scholarship at Gymnasium Poeticum in Regensburg. Pachelbel moved to Vienna, Austria, in 1673 and served as deputy organist at St. Stephen’s Cathedral. It is thought that he studied under Johann Kaspar Kerli during this time as his music shows traces of Kerli’s influence. Italian music was in vogue and Kerli was influenced by the Italian composers. Pachelbel, too, had a keen interest in contemporary Italian and Catholic Church music. In 1677, Pachelbel moved to Eisenbach in Germany, where he was a court organist and befriended Johann Sebastian Bach’s father, Johann Ambrosius. Pachelbel moved to Erfurt in 1678 when his employer died and he was soon employed at the Predigerkirche, where the Bach family held great sway. During his 12 years in Erfurt, Pachelbel established himself as a leading organ composer and great music teacher. Johann Christophe Bach was his
IMAGE: cmuse.org
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