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Mining mogul Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Resources Ltd (<keyword id="1432951" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="vrl" source="Orion">VRL</keyword>) has repaid USD 250 million in loans that the company took from <keyword id="120129" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="barclays-bank" source="Orion">Barclays Bank</keyword> and <keyword id="127691" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="standard-chartered-bank" source="Orion">Standard Chartered Bank</keyword>, according to regulatory filings. The company had earlier said it has enough means to meet debt repayment liabilities in the coming quarters as it looked to assuage investor concerns about its financial position. <br /><br /> VRL, the majority owner of Mumbai-listed mining and oil &amp; gas company Vedanta Ltd, repaid USD 150 million borrowed from Barclays Bank. <br /><br /> "The earlier disclosure was made pursuant to facility agreement dated June 16, 2022...between Twin Star Holdings (borrower), VRL and <keyword id="16815402" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="welter-trading" source="Orion">Welter Trading</keyword> Ltd (as original guarantors), Deutsche Bank AG acting through its Singapore Branch, and Barclays Bank PLC (as original lender), for the purposes of availing facility of an aggregate amount of USD 150,000,000 by the borrower from the original lender," the company said in a filing to BSE. <br /><br /> However, the said facility has been repaid and the encumbrance released, it said. <br /><br /> The company also repaid USD 100 million borrowed from Standard Chartered Bank. <br /><br /> "The earlier disclosure was made pursuant to facility agreement... entered into between Twin Star Holding, VRL and Welter Trading (as original guarantors), Standard Chartered Bank (Singapore) Ltd (as original lender), and Standard Chartered Bank (as arranger and agent), for the purposes of availing a facility of an aggregate amount of USD 100,000,000. However, the said facility has been repaid and the encumbrance has been released," another regulatory filing said. <br /><br /> Last month, VRL had said it is in the advanced stage of finalisation to tie up USD 1.75 billion through a combination of syndicate loan and bilateral bank facilities. <br /><br /> The company had said it has pre-paid all its debt that was due for repayment till March 2023, deleveraging by USD 2 billion in the past 11 months. <br /><br /> Further, it is confident of meeting its liquidity requirements for the quarter ending June 2023. <br /><br /> Headquartered in London, VRL is a diversified global natural resources company spanning across India, Zambia, Namibia and South Africa.<br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/vedanta-appoints-omar-davis-as-its-president-strategy/articleshow/98690407.cms">Vedanta appoints Omar Davis as its President-Strategy</a></strong><br /><strong><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/about-7-in-10-investors-unable-to-generate-even-benchmark-index-returns-says-samco-nielsen-survey/articleshow/98695748.cms">About 7 in 10 investors unable to generate even benchmark index returns, says Samco-Nielsen survey</a></strong>

Vedanta Resources repays USD 250 million in loans

<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>The Bank of Namibia just put out a great explainer on monetary policy that anybody can understand.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">On Wednesday, the Southern African country's central bank raised its benchmark repo rate 0.25% to 6.50%.</span></p><p>And its biggest concern explains exactly why central banks raise rates.</p><p>Here's the key portion of <a href="https://www.bon.com.na/CMSTemplates/Bon/Files/bon.com.na/42/426d7ed6-8e20-47c8-90d4-c294c3617ae5.pdf">the statement</a>:</p><p style="padding-left: 60px;">The decision was taken to contain high growth in household credit particularly that of installment credit. <strong>The MPC [Monetary Policy Committee] noted that a large portion of these loans continue to be primarily used to finance unproductive imported luxury goods, hence putting additional pressure on the international reserves of the country.</strong> With this increase in the Repo rate, the expectation is that the deposit-taking institutions will also increase deposit rates by the same margin, thereby encouraging saving.</p><p>Basically, people are taking out too many loans, too often, to too buy too many things they don't need.</p><p>This exactly what central banks don't want. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><br /></span></p><p>What central banks want is their economy to work. Central banks want people employed, inflation under control, and money moving through the economy with the appropriate ease.</p><p>Right now, the US Federal Reserve is keeping interest rates pegged near 0% in an effort to stoke economic activity.</p><p>Instead, it seems like Namibia has folks borrowing money to buy unproductive assets which the bank thinks pose a risk to economic stability. And so to combat this, the central bank wants to "tighten the screws," so to speak, on financial conditions. </p><p>And so to do this, Namibia's central bank raised interest rates by 25 basis points, or 0.25%.</p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Another other issue facing Namibia is that a lot of these loans are not being paid for in Namibian dollars, but in other currencies. The central bank doesn't specify which ones, but it notes that its reserves are still sufficient to defend the current exchange rates with the US dollar and the South African rand.</span></p><p>If the bank's reserves get depleted, the central bank will lose the arsenal it needs to defend the local currency if it starts to weaken. </p><p>However, the bank's overall assessment of the economy was positive - inflation is low and stable thanks to cheaper oil prices. It seems, then, that with<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> low prices but borrowing costs that are encouraging excessive borrowing, what the Bank of Namibia wants to avoid is a credit crisis. </span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-sachs-biggest-threat-human-race-technology-2015-5">Economist Jeff Sachs reveals the biggest threat to the human race </a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="NudmcxdTqsaXIuFZ0ILKnMz6ymYK9my_" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

It doesn't take a genius to understand why the Bank of Namibia just hiked interest rates

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table center float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Eddie Mulholland</span></p><p class="caption">Britain's Queen Elizabeth tours a gold vault during a visit to the Bank of England in the City of London December 13, 2012.</p></div><p></p></div></div>The World Economic Forum's recently-released Global Competitiveness Survey offers a bundle of indicators to show the health of a country's institutions.</p><p>One of those is the perceived safeness of banks.</p><p>WEF used its executive opinion survey to ask "in general, how do you perceive the soundness of banks?"</p><p>So the measure isn't based on any objective economic or accounting measure, but rather by the perceptions of the population. The countries are ranked from 1 (banks need more money) to 7 (banks are generally sound).</p><p>The survey showed that people in the <keyword id="6354868" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="UK">UK</keyword> and US really don't trust their banking systems after the 2008 financial crisis. The UK was ranked 89 and the US came in at 49, below Honduras, Namibia and Peru.</p><p>We looked only at the 34 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, which are all considered relatively developed economies with democratic systems.</p>

The 11 countries with the safest banks, ranked by customers

<p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/one-planet"></a></p><div type="image" title="One Planet Banner Test" height="138" width="1100" msid="101225538" hostid="261" sizebytes="5076"></div><p>The film industry has a sustainability problem, and it's massive: The average tentpole production — a film with a budget over $70 million — generates <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/strategy-policy/policy-statements/sustainability" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2,840 tonnes of carbon dioxide</a>, the British Film Institute reported. About 3,709 acres of forest absorb that amount of CO2 in a year. </p><p>In 2015, the movie "Mad Max: Fury Road" <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/mad-max-namibian-desert-damage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">infamously damaged</a> Namibia's "fragile deserts," and Leonardo DiCaprio's 2000 film "The Beach<em>" </em><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/thailand-beach-from-the-beach-film-closing-after-damage-by-tourists-2018-5?r=US&amp;IR=T">led tourists to spoil </a>the movie's namesake location in Thailand. </p><p>With plastic water bottles littering sets, flights to shoot on location, and diesel generators powering lights and cameras, researchers have dubbed the entire movie business <a href="https://greenproductionguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/SPA-Carbon-Emissions-Report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a major contributor to the climate crisis</a>.  </p><p>But on the set of films like the <a href="https://www.insider.com/oscars-nominees-winners-list-academy-awards-2023-1">Oscar winner</a>"The Whale," priorities are starting to shift. </p><p>Hauling in experts from <a href="https://www.earthangelsets.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Earth Angel</a>, a sustainability agency that assists in reducing entertainment productions' negative environmental impact, creators of "The Whale" reduced plastic waste, repurposed food and set items, and contributed to local social projects. </p><p>Many production teams make <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/strategy-policy/policy-statements/sustainability" target="_blank" rel="noopener">little effort to report </a>their resource consumption or to adapt to the critical needs of the climate despite the fact that the movie industry's <a href="https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/mpisreport.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">greenhouse-gas record is larger</a> than other big polluters such as the manufacturing, clothing, and hotel sectors. Films such as "The Whale" may demonstrate how first-rate filmmaking doesn't have to come at the cost of the planet and could offer a climate-conscious model for the industry. </p><h2><strong>There's some progress across sets </strong></h2><p>Earth Angel provided movies including "Black Panther," "The Underground Railroad," and series such as Apple TV's "Severance" with on-the-ground set workers who manage water and waste, monitor energy usage, collect food donations, and repurpose material waste. They also work with production teams to try to limit a production's overall emissions. </p><p>"The Whale" was recorded in a studio, which kept energy consumption and transportation low. This decision gave Earth Angel an opportunity to help create a movie with minimal environmental impact — in the <a href="https://wearealbert.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Screen-New-Deal-Report-1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">average production</a>, transportation accounts for around 51% of a film's carbon emissions, while electricity and gas usage takes up about 34%.  </p><p>"We essentially did everything we could to keep materials out of landfill," Tamsin Hollo, an eco-coordinator who worked on the set of "The Whale," told Insider<em>.</em> Most of the days on set, Hollo was stationed beside a Zero Waste Station, which she said are "like normal trash stations but with <a href="https://www.insider.com/guides/home/how-to-compost#:~:text=Composting%20is%20the%20process%20of,amount%20of%20space%20you%20have.">compost</a> and recycling."</p><p>Hollo spent her working days scouring cast-and-crew food tables for compostable scraps, ensuring plant-plastic compostable tableware ended up in the right bins, and educating actors, sound techs, and runners alike on the merits of recycling and composting materials. </p><p>Describing her role as "caretaking," Hollo said she faced initial resistance from cast and crew members, but as filming progressed, she noticed a clear shift in behavior. "It comes to the point where it's normal for someone to go home and think, 'Why don't I have a recycling bin?'" </p><p>In an email to Insider, an Earth Angel spokesperson said that, on the set of "The Whale," Earth Angel diverted 5.4 tons of material — more than the weight of two SUVs — from landfills and repurposed 2.1 tons of materials as donations. They also gifted over 1,800 meals to food banks and community organizations while filming.</p><div type="image" title="An Earth Angel employee pulls a metal cart with aluminum cans filled with water" height="3534" width="4977" msid="101225541" hostid="261" sizebytes="3100068"></div><p>While sets would throw away excess food in the past, Earth Angel works with local partners to help deliver it to those in need. Because food on set is often perishable, it can't be donated to traditional food banks. Local coordination is needed to send the food to the right places.</p><p>After wrapping a recent show in Atlanta, Quinn Yawger, an Earth Angel eco-supervisor who oversees day-to-day project management on set, delivered leftover wood, PVC pipes, metal pipes, lumber, and other valuable items to the local nonprofit makerspace <a href="https://www.freesideatlanta.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Freeside Atlanta</a>. </p><p>Yawger saw raw materials from industry waste transform into items such as tables, outdoor furniture, bowls, and benches. "It was special to see that second life and the positive impact it made on people, as well as how excited the crew got about it," she said. </p><p>While these solutions are a positive shift at the production level, they are small compared to the industry's overall carbon footprint. With massive incoming profits — and a lack of accountability around greenhouse-gas emissions — there's little incentive for studios and producers to change, Yawger said. </p><p>"It's about more people valuing the Earth and understanding the impact we're having on the world," she said. "Fifty years from now, it's not going to matter what the newest blockbuster is because we're all going to be in a place where we're not going to enjoy it in the way that we used to." </p><h2><strong>Shifting mindsets </strong></h2><p>The film-and-entertainment industry has known about its waste problem since at least 2006, when <a href="https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/publication/sustainability-in-the-motion-picture-industry/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a landmark study</a> from the University of California, Los Angeles put the industry under the spotlight and found that the California entertainment industry was responsible for <a href="https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/mpisreport.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">8.4 million metric tons</a> of carbon dioxide.</p><p>"It revealed the film industry was the second most polluting behind aerospace," Jennifer Sandoval, the director of service development at Earth Angel, told Insider. "It was ahead of hotels, ahead of retail." </p><p>Sandoval said that during this time, requests for sustainable-production services began to pick up.</p><p>While only some movies have sustainability workers as part of their crews, production companies and studios are beginning to realize their impact, Sandoval said. </p><p>Show-business heavyweights from across the board are adapting their sustainability goals to meet <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/consumers-care-about-sustainability-and-back-it-up-with-their-wallets" target="_blank" rel="noopener">consumer expectations</a>. The industry giant Netflix — which, in 2021, reported it had accumulated a carbon footprint of roughly <a href="https://about.netflix.com/en/sustainability" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1.5 million metric tons</a> — said it will cut its emissions in half <a href="https://about.netflix.com/en/sustainability" target="_blank" rel="noopener">by 2030</a>. NBCUniversal pledged to be <a href="https://www.nbcuniversal.com/environment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">carbon-neutral by 2035</a>. And in 2018, the world's first "<a href="https://unfccc.int/news/un-helps-make-film-production-climate-neutral" target="_blank" rel="noopener">climate-neutral</a>" film, "Bosque de Niebla," was released in Mexico; rather than aiming for zero emissions, it purchased carbon offsets through a <a href="https://offset.climateneutralnow.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">United Nations scheme</a> allowing businesses to fund emission-reduction projects. The jury is still out on the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/24/carbon-offsets-are-a-licence-to-pollute#:~:text=While%20forest%20protection%20should%20provide,forests%20but%20all%20natural%20ecosystems." target="_blank" rel="noopener">merits of offsetting</a>.</p><p>But it isn't always easy getting everyone on board. </p><p>The sustainable option often involves extra steps, such as putting trash in the correct bin or finishing a water bottle before grabbing another — or better yet, reusing it. This meant Sandoval's team often faced resistance on set, which she credits to the grueling 12-hour days that actors and crew typically work.</p><p>"The reality is, even with sustainability people on set, you need the whole crew involved because everybody has some sort of impact, everybody has waste, everybody uses fuel, everybody uses energy," she said. </p><p>Typically, energy presents <a href="https://greenfilmmaking.com/2017/10/energy-american-sets/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one of the biggest challenges</a> in curbing the future environmental damage of films. "Plastic and trash are very visible in the film industry, and people can understand why we need to change things," Yawger said. "But energy is a hidden form of waste."</p><p>This can make it hard to convince production companies to switch to sustainable solutions such as renewable-power generators, which can have higher initial start-up costs. "You don't see the return on investment right away," Sandoval said.</p><h2><strong>A more sustainable future </strong></h2><p>For the industry to curb its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/net-zero-carbon-neutral-negative-climate-company-goals-2023-2">carbon footprint</a>, it must incorporate sustainability at the beginning of production, Sandoval and Yawger said. "It all starts for us in pre-production, and assessing where we can help," Yawger added.</p><p>Developing effective energy strategies, building a circular economy — one that is sustainable from the very start of production right up until the audience views a film in theaters — in film, and eliminating all single-use plastics in movies will have the greatest impact, Sandoval said.</p><p>But it has to start in the writer's room, where sustainability-focused crew members can read a script and look for opportunities to insert new dialogue and make adjustments. These changes might help drive a more climate-conscious narrative or simply enable Earth Angel to swap out a character's plastic water bottle for a reusable one. </p><p>"From the very beginning, before they start building or buying their materials, is there a way we can design it to be more sustainable?" Sandoval said. </p><p>This, and climate storytelling — movies and shows that focus on the climate crisis itself — will have their own role to play. </p><p>"What is unique to film is its ability to influence," Sandoval said. "Normalizing sustainable behavior on-screen can actually have a massive influence on the general public."</p><p>"In the end, we are heading towards crisis and this industry, like every industry, has to be doing everything we can."</p><p><em>This article is part of "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/the-great-transition" rel="">The Great Transition</a>," a series covering the big changes across industries that are leading to a more sustainable future. For more climate-action news, visit Insider's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/one-planet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">One Planet</a> hub.</em></p>

More than retail or hotels, the film industry is destroying the planet. But sustainable sets like Oscar winner 'The Whale' may offer a new way forward.

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>In March of 2012, Kristin Addis quit her job as an investment banker in Southern California.<p>Before she left, she'd been earning six figures a year, including her commission. However, she remembers, she wasn't happy with her lifestyle.&#xa0;</p><p>"It was hard for me when our paid time off&#xa0;was only 14 days per year," she tells Business Insider. "We'd go to the office puking&#xa0;our guts out because we didn't want to use our vacation time&#xa0;being sick. I felt back then like even if I wanted to, in that 14 days, I wasn't really allowed to take it all at once. I felt like 'What is this money worth if I don't have the opportunity to spend it on what I want?</p><p>"I thought there had to be more to life than that."</p><p>So she set out to find it.</p><p>Less than a year later, Addis bought a one-way ticket to Bangkok, planning to <keyword id="6354692" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Travel">travel</keyword> overland through Southeast Asia. Since then, the now-29-year-old has largely stayed on the move, documenting her journey through her blog <a href="http://www.bemytravelmuse.com/">Be My Travel Muse</a>, and sharing the expertise she's gathered in her book "<a href="http://www.nomadicmatt.com/the-guide-to-fearless-solo-female-travel/">Conquering Mountains: The Guide to Solo Female Travel</a>," produced with <a href="http://www.nomadicmatt.com/">Nomadic Matt</a>'s Matt Kepnes.</p><p>Addis spoke to Business Insider about her post banking life: what it looks like, the reality of working on the road, and how she affords it.</p>

A woman who quit her job as an investment banker built a new life traveling the world on her own

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div>In March 2012, Kristin Addis quit her job as an investment banker in Southern California.</p><p>Less than a year later, she bought a one-way ticket to Bangkok, planning to <keyword id="6354692" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Travel">travel</keyword> overland through Southeast Asia.</p><p>Since then, the now 29-year-old has largely stayed on the move, documenting her journey through her blog, <a href="http://www.bemytravelmuse.com/">Be My Travel Muse</a>, and sharing the expertise she's gathered in her book, "<a href="http://www.nomadicmatt.com/the-guide-to-fearless-solo-female-travel/">Conquering Mountains: A Guide to Solo Female Travel</a>," produced with <a href="http://www.nomadicmatt.com/">Nomadic Matt</a>'s Matt Kepnes.</p><p>"For a few years there I was living off the savings," Addis <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kristin-addis-be-my-travel-muse-2015-11">told Business Insider</a>. "Thankfully I was keen to save for a rainy day back when I was 22 or 23. I remember it was the 11th hour, I had been on the road for almost two years, and I got a contract that was good for $600 a month guaranteed for one year. That was really the piece I needed."</p><p>It still wasn't enough to fully cover her expenses, but it gave her a cushion to look for more work, Addis said of that first contract. "Little by little, I was able to start turning down the lower-paying freelance roles, and now it's rare that I take one."</p><p>Between affiliate sales from her website, sales of her book, and work with tourism boards and brands, she said she earns about 40% of her banking salary, and it's growing. She said she has a strict policy of only endorsing or working with products she comes across on her own and likes, and of working with brands and bureaus in unique ways that allow her readers to learn from her experience.</p><p>Addis said <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-kristin-addis-feels-richer-earning-just-40-of-her-old-salary-2016-5">she works longer days now</a> than she ever did in California, but manages her schedule to accommodate periods of being "off the grid."</p><p>"Figure something out that you're really really good at, and figure out a way to market that skill online," she advised people who want to seek a similar adventure, supporting themselves through long-term travel. "Or if it's more mechanical or physical, consider a working holiday, or teaching English, whatever skill you have that you can be creative about and use around the world, because chances are pretty good that you can figure out a way."</p><p>And, she said, ease yourself into the nomadic lifestyle. "You're more adaptable than you think, so if you really want to travel the world on a shoestring, just try it, even try for a shorter term. If you like it, you can save up to travel for longer."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-your-sex-life-changes-age-bat-sheva-marcus-2016-8">Here's how much sex you should be having as you get older</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="84bzMydTo2Z9L39vECp_xwCyVcwLDX9-" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

A former investment banker who quit to travel the world gives her best advice for people seeking adventure

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div><em>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Chinas-Second-Continent-Migrants-Building/dp/0307956989">China's Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa</a>" By Howard French.Knopf; 304 pages.</em></p>
<p>"NI HAO" and "chi ku" may be the two commonest phrases in this riveting worm's-eye account of the Chinese in Africa. They mean, respectively, "hello" and "eat bitter".</p>
<p>The first is relentlessly used by Howard French, a veteran American reporter with a Ghanaian wife who has been based in both Africa and China for the New York Times and speaks Chinese, enabling him to converse with an array of Chinese people in Africa, from rugged bricklayers in Zambia and brothel madams in Liberia, to engineers in Mali and farmers in Mozambique.</p>
<p>The second phrase is used by many of Africa's new Chinese diaspora to denote their ability to live rough in remote and inhospitable places and to work staggeringly hard, qualities that the continent's previous roaming visitors, principally from Britain, France and America, seem to have lost, at least in Chinese and African eyes.</p>
<p>The numbers are hard to pin down. Mr French reckons that the million cited in his book's title may be an underestimate. Most of them, he says, came to work on big projects, then stayed on as adventurous entrepreneurs on their own or in family groups. Chinese companies bring far more of their own people to work in menial jobs than Western companies would ever do.</p>
<p>Mr French says that in 2011 China's parliament debated a proposal, admittedly fanciful, to deploy as many as 100m people in Africa. The rumour circulating widely in Africa that many of the more roughneck types of Chinese incomer are prison labourers is, he says, entirely baseless.</p>
<p>The trade and investment figures are hard to verify, too. According to one source used by Mr French, "China's Export-Import Bank extended $62.7 billion in loans to African countries between 2001-2010, or $12.5 billion more than the World Bank." Other figures go even higher. What is clear, at any rate, is that Chinese people and money have flooded into Africa in the past decade, chiefly to buy raw materials to fuel China's roaring economy.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>What is tantalisingly unclear is whether the Chinese economic onslaught is the result of a methodical policy fashioned in Beijing as part of an imperialist venture to promote "Chinese values" and dominate the continent as Europeans did a century ago, or whether it has become a self-generating process fired up by individual Chinese who are simply keen to enrich themselves without the slightest intention of kowtowing to the authorities back home.</p>
<p>The conversations recorded by Mr French in a dozen of sub-Saharan Africa's 48 countries leave an impression that strongly supports the second thesis. Indeed, many of the Chinese in Africa excoriate the Communist Party back home and have dared to start new lives far away precisely to breathe fresher air--much as pioneers from Europe did when heading to the new world or to the dark continent. Many cite the Chinese ruling party's corruption as a spur for seeking a freer climate elsewhere and even say that Africa is a lot less corrupt by comparison.</p>
<p>At the same time, many Chinese in Africa have intensely nationalist feelings, often expressed in crudely racist terms. They tend to stick together, perhaps even more tightly than other incomers in the past. They are wary of joint enterprises with Africans, except at the highest level, where presidents and generals come into play.</p>
<p>Africans are routinely derided by the ordinary Chinese, in virtually every country Mr French visits, as lazy and incompetent; "90% of Africans are thieves," says a leading entrepreneur in Namibia. In Liberia a Chinese hotelier explains that his compatriots generally bring their own towels for fear of using one previously used by "hei ren" ("black people") as they are lumpenly known.</p>
<p>Far from embracing Chinese values, many Africans have become wary of them. In Guinea, writes Mr French, "there was mounting resentment over the way China was seen to be...despoiling the environment, dispossessing powerless landholders or flouting local laws, fuelling corruption, and, most of all, empowering awful governments."</p>
<p>The dumping of cheap and shoddy goods is another source of complaint, and poor safety standards at work yet another. In Namibia, a local activist says Chinese businessmen often pay their labour a third of the official rate. Illegal fishing, ivory-smuggling and logging by Chinese operators are rife. African worries about such activities and behaviour are gaining ground across the continent.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Some African leaders, by contrast, plainly like the Chinese approach to government and big business, which puts human rights and transparency totally to one side, while ritually uttering the official mantra of "win-win": Africans and Chinese benefit equally.</span></p>
<p>The presidents of Angola and Zimbabwe are notorious examples, but others abound. Moreover, if Western donors or investors try to lay down conditions on such matters, African leaders have become adept at threatening to "go east".</p>
<p>As a massive transactional process, China's entry into Africa has been a dramatic success, and many of those roads and bridges are useful. But as an ideological and cultural undertaking, Mr French's masterly account suggests that it is getting nowhere.</p>
<p>Click <a href="https://subscriptions.economist.com/nwcd">here</a> to subscribe to The Economist</p>
<p> </p>

The Mass Immigration Of Chinese People Into Africa Is Almost Entirely Driven By Money

<p>The <keyword id="80195" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Sports-Illustrated">Sports Illustrated</keyword> Swimsuit Issue <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013_swimsuit/models/">traveled to all seven continents this year to shoot the magazine</a>. Editors, photographers, and models went to some of the most beautiful, exotic places in the world which made for some wonderful scenery.</p>
<p>Let's take a <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013_swimsuit/video/">tour of where they went...</a></p>
<p>In Australia, <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013_swimsuit/video/antarctica.html">SI went to White Haven beach</a>. They had to take a sea plane to get there. The shoot was super windy, which the models said was difficult, but it allowed photographers to grab images like this:</p>
<p><table class="image-container" width="200"><tr><td><div class="image"></div><p class="source"><a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013_swimsuit/video/australia.html">SI Video Screengrab</a></p></td></tr></table></p>
<p>For North America, <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013_swimsuit/video/bahamas.html">SI traveled to the Bahamas</a>. On the island, models recreated famous SI Swimsuit covers wearing nothing but body paint. This one is the recreation of the 1996 cover with Tyra Banks and Valeria Mazza:</p>
<p><table class="image-container" width="200"><tr><td><div class="image"></div><p class="source"><a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013_swimsuit/video/australia.html">SI Video Screengrab</a></p></td></tr></table></p>
<p>Now on to <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013_swimsuit/video/chile.html">South America where SI went to Chile</a>. Here the models posed in front of Moai statues on Easter Island. Archaeologist think that these <a href="http://architecture.about.com/od/greatbuildings/ig/New-Wonders/Easter_Island_peoples.htm">r</a><a href="http://architecture.about.com/od/greatbuildings/ig/New-Wonders/Easter_Island_peoples.htm">epresented a God or a mythical creature</a>:</p>
<p><table class="image-container" width="200"><tr><td><div class="image"></div><p class="source"><a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013_swimsuit/video/australia.html">SI Video Screengrab</a></p></td></tr></table></p>
<p>Next up, <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013_swimsuit/video/china.html">SI traveled to China in Asia</a>. Instead of going to someplace like the Great Wall, SI went to Guilin and the scenery was gorgeous. The models and editors and photographers had to climb through rocky terrain to get to some of the shoots:</p>
<p><table class="image-container" width="200"><tr><td><div class="image"></div><p class="source"><a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013_swimsuit/video/australia.html">SI Video Screengrab</a></p></td></tr></table></p>
<p>In Africa, <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013_swimsuit/video/namibia.html">SI went to Namibia</a> which has miles and miles of sand dunes:</p>
<p><table class="image-container" width="200"><tr><td><div class="image"></div><p class="source"><a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013_swimsuit/video/australia.html">SI Video Screengrab</a></p></td></tr></table></p>
<p>In Europe, <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013_swimsuit/video/spain.html">SI went to Spain</a> where they shot with backdrops like the famous Plaza de Espana and Plaza de Toros in Sevilla:</p>
<p><table class="image-container" width="200"><tr><td><div class="image"></div><p class="source"><a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013_swimsuit/video/australia.html">SI Video Screengrab</a></p></td></tr></table></p>
<p>And of course, <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013_swimsuit/video/antarctica.html">Kate Upton braved the cold in Antarctica</a>:</p>
<p><table class="image-container" width="200"><tr><td><div class="image"></div><p class="source"><a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013_swimsuit/video/antarctica.html">SI Video Screengrab</a></p></td></tr></table> <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013_swimsuit/video/"></a></p>
<h3><strong><a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013_swimsuit/video/">Watch all the behind the scenes videos of the swimsuit shoots over at SI &gt;</a></strong></h3>

Go Around The World With The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue

<div><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5em;">A wonderful map created by William Samari, Ray Yamartino, and Rafaan Anvari of <a href="http://thedoghousediaries.com/">DogHouseDiares</a> illustrates </span><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5em;">what every country does better than every other country.</span></div>
<div><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5em;"><br /></span></div>
<div><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5em;"><span>They </span><a href="http://thedoghousediaries.com/maplesyrup">collected the information</a> from various sources and </span><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5em;">sprinkled in some quirkier rankings </span><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5em;">since many countries led the world in multiple things.</span><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></div>
<div>
<p>"Myanmar leads the world in 'Speaking Burmese.'  That's kind of a silly thing but still true," Anvari told BI. "UK leads in fascist movements, but that's all movements in history, not active movements."</p>
<p>(Some of the categories are hard to read so we published the full list below the map.)</p>
<p><div class="image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><a href="http://thedoghousediaries.com/">DOGHOUSEDIARIES</a></p></div></div></p>
<table dir="ltr" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<div><strong>Country</strong></div>
</td>
<td><strong>Leads World In…</strong></td>
<td>
<div><strong>Measure</strong></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Afghanistan</td>
<td>opium</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Albania</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Algeria</td>
<td>middle paleolithic flake tool techniques</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Andorra</td>
<td>reading</td>
<td>rate</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Angola</td>
<td>speaking umbundu</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Antarctica</td>
<td>emperor penguins</td>
<td>endemic</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Antigua and Barbuda</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Argentina</td>
<td>exporting soccer players</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Armenia</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Australia</td>
<td>deadly animals and melanoma</td>
<td>total and per 100,000 people</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Austria</td>
<td>mohnflesserl</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Azerbaijan</td>
<td>software piracy</td>
<td>avg per computer</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bahamas</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bahrain</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bangladesh</td>
<td>peacekeeping</td>
<td>total and per 100,000 people</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Barbados</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Belarus</td>
<td>wisents</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Belgium</td>
<td>relaxing</td>
<td>%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Belize</td>
<td>destroying the ozone</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Benin</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bhutan</td>
<td>farming</td>
<td>%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bolivia</td>
<td>brazil nuts</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bosnia and Herzegovina</td>
<td>having land mines</td>
<td>total per sq mi</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Botswana</td>
<td>diamonds</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Brazil</td>
<td>making coffee</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Brunei</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bulgaria</td>
<td>living the american dream</td>
<td>rate</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Burkina Faso</td>
<td>illiteracy</td>
<td>rate</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Burundi</td>
<td>unsatisfied</td>
<td>index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cambodia</td>
<td>long alphabet</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cameroon</td>
<td>killer lakes</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Canada</td>
<td>maple syrup and asteroid impacts</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cape Verde</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Central African Republic</td>
<td>expensive internet</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Chad</td>
<td>not wasting electricity</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Chile</td>
<td>staying married</td>
<td>crude divorce rate (per capita)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>China</td>
<td>co2 emissions and renewable energy</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Colombia</td>
<td>rain</td>
<td>avg</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Comoros</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Congo, Democratic Republic of</td>
<td>pygmy chimpanzees</td>
<td>endemic</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Congo, Republic of</td>
<td>saving energy</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Costa Rica</td>
<td>happiness</td>
<td>index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)</td>
<td>malaria</td>
<td>deaths per 100,000 people</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Croatia</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cuba</td>
<td>baseball</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cyprus</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Czech Republic</td>
<td>beer consumption</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Denmark</td>
<td>education</td>
<td>index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Djibouti</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Dominica</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Dominican Republic</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ecuador</td>
<td>endangering plants</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Egypt</td>
<td>africa cup of nations</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>El Salvador</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Equatorial Guinea</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Eritrea</td>
<td>african cycling</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Estonia</td>
<td>prevalence of women</td>
<td>sex ratio (total)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ethiopia</td>
<td>employing children</td>
<td>percent</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Federated States of Micronesia</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Fiji</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Finland</td>
<td>drinking coffee</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>France</td>
<td>tourism</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Gabon</td>
<td>sun-tailed monkeys</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Gambia</td>
<td>not spending money on military</td>
<td>total reserves</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Georgia</td>
<td>khachapuri</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Germany</td>
<td>almost winning the world cup</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ghana</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Greece</td>
<td>olive oil consumption</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Greenland</td>
<td>personal space</td>
<td>pop per sq mi</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Grenada</td>
<td>olympic medals</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Guatemala</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Guinea-Bissau</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Guyana</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Haiti</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Honduras</td>
<td>homocide</td>
<td>rate</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Hong Kong</td>
<td>high IQ</td>
<td>avg</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Hungary</td>
<td>canoeing</td>
<td>total and total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Iceland</td>
<td>penetrating the internet</td>
<td>percent</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>India</td>
<td>movies and low prices</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Indonesia</td>
<td>volcanoes</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Iran</td>
<td>brain drain</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Iraq</td>
<td>not safe for journalists</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ireland</td>
<td>quality of life</td>
<td>score</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Israel</td>
<td>r&amp;d</td>
<td>% of gdp</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Italy</td>
<td>UEFA competitions</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Jamaica</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Japan</td>
<td>robots</td>
<td>per 10,000 manufactoring workers</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Jordan</td>
<td>large falafel balls</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Kazakhstan</td>
<td>uranium</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Kenya</td>
<td>flowers</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Kiribati</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Kuwait</td>
<td>highest valued currency</td>
<td>exchange rate</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Kyrgyzstan</td>
<td>walnut forests</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Laos</td>
<td>solar energy</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Latvia</td>
<td>eco-friendly</td>
<td>index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Lebanon</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Lesotho</td>
<td>mortality</td>
<td>rate</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Liberia</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Libya</td>
<td>heat</td>
<td>avg</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Liechtenstein</td>
<td>teachers</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Lithuania</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Luxembourg</td>
<td>generosity</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Macedonia</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Madagascar</td>
<td>lemurs</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Malawi</td>
<td>malawisaurus</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Malaysia</td>
<td>caves</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Maldives</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Mali</td>
<td>kulicoro firefinches</td>
<td>endemic</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Malta</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Marshall Islands</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Mauritania</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Mauritius</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Mexico</td>
<td>getting struck by lightning, cartels and boxing</td>
<td>total and total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Moldova</td>
<td>alcohol consumption</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Monaco</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Mongolia</td>
<td>velociraptor bones</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Montenegro</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Morocco</td>
<td>couscous</td>
<td>none</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Mozambique</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Myanmar</td>
<td>speaking burmese</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Namibia</td>
<td>wealth inequality</td>
<td>wealth gini</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Nepal</td>
<td>not killing themselves</td>
<td>per 100,000 people per year</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Netherlands</td>
<td>tall people</td>
<td>avg male and female height</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>New Zealand</td>
<td>sheep and rugby</td>
<td>totaland total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Nicaragua</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Niger</td>
<td>making babies</td>
<td>births per woman</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Nigeria</td>
<td>yams</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>North Korea</td>
<td>censorship</td>
<td>index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Norway</td>
<td>democracy</td>
<td>index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Oman</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Pacific</td>
<td>white shark cafe</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Pakistan</td>
<td>field hockey</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Palau</td>
<td>swimming with jellyfish</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Palestinian Territory</td>
<td>not having cancer</td>
<td>per 100,000 people per year</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Panama</td>
<td>defenselessness</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Papua New Guinea</td>
<td>linguistic diversity</td>
<td>index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Paraguay</td>
<td>drinking tea</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Peru</td>
<td>sandboarding</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Philippines</td>
<td>social media</td>
<td>percent</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Poland</td>
<td>kielbasa</td>
<td>subjective</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Portugal</td>
<td>graduating high school</td>
<td>rate</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Puerto Rico</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Qatar</td>
<td>GDP</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Romania</td>
<td>download speed</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Russia</td>
<td>raspberries and nuclear warheads</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Rwanda</td>
<td>women in parliament</td>
<td>% of seats held</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>San Marino</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sao Tome and Principe</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Saudi Arabia</td>
<td>oil</td>
<td>total reserves</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Senegal</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Serbia</td>
<td>water polo</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Seychelles</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sierra Leone</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Singapore</td>
<td>science</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Slovakia</td>
<td>making cars</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Slovenia</td>
<td>casinos</td>
<td>per 1,000 inhabitants</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Solomon Islands</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Somalia</td>
<td>pirates</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>South Africa</td>
<td>ostrich</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>South Korea</td>
<td>workaholics</td>
<td>hrs per year per person</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>South Sudan</td>
<td>inflation</td>
<td>rate</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Spain</td>
<td>organ donation</td>
<td>rate</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sri Lanka</td>
<td>cinnamon</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sudan</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Suriname</td>
<td>forests</td>
<td>percent</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Swaziland</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sweden</td>
<td>atheism</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Switzerland</td>
<td>employment</td>
<td>rate</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Syria</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Taiwan</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Tajikistan</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Tanzania</td>
<td>national parks and wildlife</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Thailand</td>
<td>rice exports</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Timor-Leste</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Togo</td>
<td>bad driving</td>
<td>road death per 100,000 cars</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Tonga</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Trinidad and Tobago</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Tunisia</td>
<td>gun control</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Turkey</td>
<td>apricots</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Turkmenistan</td>
<td>corruption</td>
<td>index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Uganda</td>
<td>young people</td>
<td>median age</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ukraine</td>
<td>population control</td>
<td>percent</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>United Arab Emirates</td>
<td>prevalence of men</td>
<td>sex ratio (total)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>United Kingdom</td>
<td>fascist movements</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Uruguay</td>
<td>eating beef</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>USA</td>
<td>falling off beds and chairs, getting killed by lawnmowers, nobel laureates and eating hot dogs</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Uzbekistan</td>
<td>being double landlocked</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Vanuatu</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Vatican City</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Venezuela</td>
<td>miss universe</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Vietnam</td>
<td>economic growth</td>
<td>index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Western Australia (ocean)</td>
<td>deadly shark attacks</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Western Sahara</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Yemen</td>
<td>gender gap</td>
<td>index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Zambia</td>
<td>rhodesian giraffe</td>
<td>index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Zimbabwe</td>
<td>commercial bank prime lending rate</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>

This Funny World Map Shows What Every Country Leads The World In

<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Instagram</span></p></div><p></p></div>Lyft cofounder Logan Green has a big idea: to change the transportation infrastructure of our cities, </span>one mustachioed car at a time.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">How? By becoming the Airbnb for driving. </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">When you want to catch a ride across town, you just open up the app and let Lyft know. Then a Lyft user - anybody registered in the app with a free seat in their car, as signaled by a <span style="background-color: #ffffff;">pink </span>mustache on the grill - will come pick you up. </span></p>
<p>As Green tells Business Insider, Lyft lets users leverage of all the "unused inventory" that they're carrying around in their cars, i.e., <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/lyft-a-startup-that-helps-strangers-share-car-rides-just-raised-60-million-from-andreessen-horowitz-2013-5">empty seats</a>.</p>
<p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">Since last year, Lyft has grown from two cities in the U.S. to 34. </span>To date, Green says that tens of thousands of drivers have joined Lyft, who together have given millions of rides. At the end of each ride, the user is prompted to pay the driver, and 20% goes back to Lyft. Rates depend on the city and are usually less than cab rides - here's a look at <a href="http://www.lyft.me/help?article=1263247" target="_blank">San Francisco</a> and <a href="http://www.lyft.com/help?article=1263242" target="_blank">Boston</a>.  </p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">With <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/lyft-250-million-investment-2014-4">a recent $250 million dollar investment from</a> </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Andreessen Horowitz and other venture heavyweights - <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/lyft-250-million-investment-2014-4">bringing the overall investment to a whopping $333 million</a> - Lyft is ready to expand even more, including internationally. </span></p>
<p>As Green explains in the below conversation, the idea behind Lyft has been buzzing inside him since his Los Angeles youth, was crystallized on a trip to Zimbabwe, and realized after pivoting Zimride, the startup that Lyft sprang from.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">This interview has been condensed and edited.</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p><strong>Business Insider: How did your early life lead to Lyft?</strong></p>
<p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Lyft</span></p><p class="caption">Lyft CEO Logan Green</p></div><p></p></div>Logan Green:</strong> I've always been fascinated with how transportation systems work and how cities are designed. I grew up in LA, and it's one of those cities designed around cars instead of the people that live there. I spent hours every day stuck in traffic, having the experience of looking around and seeing one person in every car.<br /> <br /> When I went to the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2002, I decided I wanted to leave my car at home and create an experiment with my own life. I'd only be able to find creative solutions to transportation if I felt the pain of trying to get to downtown at 10 o'clock at night. <br /> <br /> That kicked off my work with different transportation programs. I worked with the local university and technology group to create our own homebrew Zipcar system, where we outfitted six Priuses with a cell phone link and RFID reader. People could make online reservations for the car and walk up to the car and swipe their card, just like the Zipcar experience. After spending a couple years working on that, I came away with one of the best feelings - seeing how people can use what you had built, and how a little bit of tech could change a transpiration resource. </p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">In <span>March 2005, </span>I was appointed to the board of the Santa Barbara metro transit district. I was incredibly optimistic about how public transportation can be the solution to help people live in the city and not need a car. I spent three years on the board, and realized the reality of every transit district in the country. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">In Santa Barbara, we lost money on every trip. When people got on a bus in Santa Barbara and paid $1.25, that covered about 30% of the trip. Even if we had a full bus, we were losing money. We tried raising rates, tried sales tax, but public transit was stuck.</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p>Fifty years from now, public transit is going to look the same if not worse. There's nothing built into the model to allow it to improve.</p>
<p><strong>And you took a trip to Africa?</strong></p>
<p>While I was on the board and I was witnessing this dynamic that made it hard for public transit to change, I took a trip to southern Africa with a friend, just for fun. We traveled around South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and into Zimbabwe.<br /> <br /> Zimbabwe was going through total economic chaos. Inflation was about 1,000%, day over day. Money was evaporating out of people's hands and bank accounts. Nobody could afford to drive. People were using fuel as currency.</p>
<p>Most people didn't have cars, but even if they did, nobody would use fuel to run a car. The streets were eerily quiet. The government didn't provide any sort of public transit. Out of that necessity, the country traveled by shared taxis, via a microbus that an entrepreneur would get their hands on and drive on popular routes. Soon as one filled up, someone else would get another bus. <br /> <br /> I loved how this incredibly efficient transportation system came out of necessity. It was, in a way, a crowd-sourced, grass-roots public transit network.</p>
<p>When I came back and graduated, I had been thinking about these ideas a lot and thinking about how to adapt that idea to make sense in the U.S. <br /> <br />But in the U.S., the problem is that everyone has a car, with one person in every car. Then the question was, how do we open access to all these existing seats, all this existing inventory on the road? </p>
<p><strong>That led to founding <a href="http://www.zimride.com/">Zimride, the service that allowed users to share rides between cities</a>. What happened with Zimride?</strong></p>
<p>We built Zimride into a small business, with 150 university and corporate clients. We found a couple of use cases where it worked well: It worked really well for college students sharing rides on weekends and Thanksgiving and spring break. It worked well for a carpool matching service for corporate campuses. <br /> <br /> But the scale was not there, we were not replacing public transportation. We were not growing as fast as we wanted it to grow. <br /> <br /> We had been building up Zimride for five and a half years. During a hackathon, the mobile team came up with a couple concepts for something radically different than what Zimride had been. They were thinking about how the service worked and designing it for a mobile first experience.<br /> <br /> After spending a few weeks on it, we launched Lyft as an experiment in June 2012. </p>
<p><strong>What happened?</strong></p>
<p>It popped. We couldn't keep up with demand. All the graphs took off like we hadn't seen before, repeat rates, frequency of use, other metrics. With Zimride, every ride was hard fought, with Lyft the growth took off like nothing we had seen before. <br /> <br /> A few months into it, we made the decision to pivot the whole company and go after the Lyft opportunity. It was a no-brainer decision, but surprising that five years after pushing Zimride that this other thing took off so much faster. <br /> <br /> <strong>What was different with Lyft? </strong></p>
<p>We refer to Lyft as a 'mullet app': simple up front, a lot going on in the back. Zimride was a much more complicated experience; people had to search for the ride that was best for them. The amount of friction and drop off was enormous.</p>
<p>With Lyft we run criminal background checks on every driver. We do a DMV check on every driver. We have a million-dollar insurance policy on every ride, and the five-star rating system. The Lyft system does the work of sending you the best match. Mobile forced us to rethink the user experience and do something people would be able to carry out on in a <span style="background-color: #ffffff;">couple of seconds on the m</span>obile phone. By stripping out all the work the user had to do and putting that on the company, we were able to create a much better user experience. </p>
<p>We wanted to build a marketplace that people would use twice a day, that millions of people across the country, eventually across the world, would use every day. Zimride had a great following but didn't have the opportunity to do that.</p>
<p>Lyft had the possibility to do that at scale, to change the transportation infrastructure in our cities. That's what we've always wanted to do - and it's what Lyft is on-track to be able to do. </p>

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