"ONE LINK"

Pregnant and anxious about the future, Tessa Dunlop turned to her Romanian mother-in-law for advice. What she heard put her own troubles in perspective
Finding some perspective in these chilly financial times should be easy for me; I spent much of my young adult life in one of the poorest countries in Europe - Romania.

It began as a gap year; I worked in a large psychiatric hospital for children and returned the following summer to teach English at Iasi University. It was the early 1990s, the country was broken and the population was in shock. Under Nicolae Ceausescu, they had been crushed by the cruellest of communist regimes and readjustment was proving painful.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/sep/22/1

LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambia's central bank has appointed South Africa's FirstRand to run a key commercial bank facing collapse due to poor management, a central bank spokesman said on Saturday.

Kanguya Mayondi said the central bank took over the operations of Zambia's Finance Bank on Friday because its viability was threatened by bad practices by shareholders, directors and management.

"In order to ensure a smooth possession period, the central bank has appointed its agents, seconded staff from FirstRand group to manage the operations of Finance Bank," Mayondi said.

http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE6BA03X20101211