Workers call for return of tea trolleys

[Croatia ppl]

British workers believe that a return of the venerable institution that is the afternoon tea trolley would make them more motivated in their jobs.

A survey of more than 1,000 office workers revealed that many miss traditional aspects of the working day in years gone by.

In particular, 26 per cent say that the tea lady – complete with a trolley loaded with tea and cakes - should make a return to British workplaces in the afternoons, as was the tradition in the 1980s and 1990s.

Many of those questioned also called for the revival of other traditions, including 39 per cent who wanted the full-hour lunch break to make a revival and 33 per cent who wanted an annual work outing.

Having a subsidised canteen, lengthy pub lunches and a sandwich man or lady would also be welcomed back into offices, according to the respondents, but 94 per cent would not want to see smoking reintroduced.

Some 59 per cent claimed that welcome additions to the working day would make their office more sociable, 55 per cent said it would be more relaxed and 28 per cent claimed to be more motivated when the tea lady was around.

On the other hand, 61 per cent say that long working hours is a modern-day work phenomenon they would be happy to see the back of.

Half also want rid of the trend to eat lunch at the desk, 38 per cent would rather do without so-called team-bonding days and a third do not like the move towards open-plan offices in 21st century workplaces.

The survey was conducted by recruitment agency Office Angels and managing director David Clubb said it should be taken notice of by employers.

"Office traditions will inevitably change and develop over time, with the different demands placed on staff and their working situations," he said.

"However, while the current office environment is very technology driven and fast paced this doesn’t have to mean soulless or unfriendly. Employees should be encouraged to interact with each other and could even create their own 'traditions', such as team lunches or a 3pm tea break."

The findings are the result of questions posed to 1,067 office workers in June this year.

[Diane]

At last count, Steve De Long has tasted wines made from 211 grape varieties. The licensed architect's latest discovery is biancolella, a white Italian grape found on the island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples.

``The wine was almondy and citrusy, nutmeg spicy,'' he says with a hint of triumph.

De Long and his wife, Deborah, created and publish De Long's Wine Grape Varietal Table. The cleverly designed chart describes how wines made from 184 white and red grapes taste. In 2005, the De Longs started the Wine Century Club for oenophiles like themselves who've tried wines from at least 100 grape varieties.

They're tapping into today's vogue for wines made from obscure grapes that are grown in unfamiliar regions. One of these is txakoli (pronounced CHA-koh-lee), a white that's now hot in New York and San Francisco. It's a spritzy, citrusy wine made mostly from the hondarribi zuri grape in Spain's Basque country. Or consider two newly popular reds from Austria: dark, spicy, cherry-flavored blaufrankisch and soft, fruity, peppery zweigelt.

In the past few years, I've spotted growing numbers of esoteric wines on retail shelves and restaurant lists. I trace the origin of this trend, which I believe is no passing vino- geek fad, to the craze for Austrian gruner veltliner that started a decade ago. So if you're still sticking close to top- 10 international classics such as cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay and pinot noir, it's time to loosen up and explore.

``Trying new grapes makes wine drinking fun and exciting,'' says Wine Century Club member Don Romano, who figures he's bagged close to 180. ``It's too bad when people are comfortable buying a $100 wine they've heard of but are afraid to try an unknown $15 Spanish grape.''

Exceptional Values

That brings me to the other reward for risking the unknown: saving money. Most of these wines offer new thrills for less than $20 and are exceptional values in a world where even indifferent California cabs can run $40 and up.

There are several thousand types of wine grapes worldwide. Italy's Ministry of Agriculture has cataloged 350 in that country alone, and it may be home to 1,000. Of course, some produce wines that are simple, rustic and pretty mediocre, yet top producers in Italy and elsewhere have been turning serious attention to the best local varieties. It's not just national pride; they're convinced that wines such as Italy's aglianico and Greece's xinomavro offer unique tastes in a world of same- old chardonnays.

Specialist Importers

The increased availability of these exotic grapes owes much to small specialist importers such as Andre Tamers of Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based De Maison Selections Inc. Tamers got so excited about Basque wines that he willingly spent several years convincing distributors to carry them.

``Now he's the king of txakoli,'' says Mani Dawes, co-owner of my favorite New York tapas bar, Tia Pol in Chelsea. ``We don't offer Riojas by the glass; people know about them already.''

They're pouring four txakolis from De Maison instead, as well as bargains such as 2005 Pucho, an unoaked red made from the mencia grape in the trendy Bierzo region. So many customers asked Dawes where they could buy the wines that she opened a wine shop, Tinto Fino, last fall.

What else is poised to take off? I've long been a fan of southern Italian varieties such as Campania's nutty and smoky white, fiano di avellino, and the newly collectible Umbrian red sagrantino di montefalco, with its violet scent and rich, spicy flavors. My first tastes of many sagrantinos came from the all- Italian list at New York's I Trulli, which also expanded into a wine shop, Vino.

Let the Sommelier Choose

In fact, cutting-edge sommeliers at hot restaurants and wine bars are among the best guides to the latest obscure labels worth drinking. At San Francisco's CAV Wine Bar & Kitchen, for example, wine director Pamela Busch offers a weekly tasting flight of several of her 325 offbeat selections. Two recent ones featured superb Greek wines, including my white favorites, edgy assyrtiko and fragrant moschofilero, and exotics from Croatia and Slovenia, whose wines are just beginning to trickle in.

Dozens of boutique retailers in major cities now have good, handpicked selections of obscure wines. One shop that makes it easy to be adventurous is Bottlerocket, which opened last year in New York's Flatiron district. Wines are arranged on 18 themed kiosks by how they'll be consumed. So instead of grabbing that sauvignon blanc to serve with your striped bass, you might be tempted to pick up the Italian arneis next to it.

More grapes are coming. Bernard Magrez, who owns 35 properties worldwide, including Bordeaux's Chateau Pape Clement, says he was astonished by the quality of a Japanese wine he'd tasted made from koshu, an indigenous white grape.

``It was aromatic like sauvignon blanc but with the complexity of a sauvignon-semillon blend,'' he says. It was so good that he's working on a joint-venture bottling with Japanese winery Katsunuma, whose Aruga Branca koshu wines are served in business and first class on Japan Airlines flights.

[Diane]

According to the report, published by the World Bank and the International Financial Corporation (IFC), Morocco pursued reforms undertaken these years and achieved some measurable progresses in 2006 :

However, labor code is still rigid, high taxes are supported by medium-size enterprises, and there is a legal procedures weakness for investors and creditors.

Morocco made progresses in investment sector, like foreign direct investment, financial sector development, infrastructure, and free trade level.

Doing Business in Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Egypt is the top reformer in the world for 2006/07, finds Doing Business 2008—the fifth in an annual series issued by the World Bank and IFC. Egypt outpaced other reformers worldwide and in the Middle East and North Africa in making it easier to do business, with improvements in five of the 10 areas studied by the report.

Saudi Arabia —the seventh-fastest reformer globally and second-fastest in the region—joined the ranks of the top 25 countries worldwide on the ease of doing business. It had reforms in three of the 10 areas studied. The country has made starting a business more accessible by eliminating what had been, in U.S. dollar terms, the highest minimum capital requirement in the world.

The Middle East and North Africa saw 25 reforms including three negative changes—in 11 of its economies. The region ranks fourth in the world—behind Eastern Europe and Central Asia, South Asia, and the OECD high-income countries—on the pace of reform.

Rankings criteria
The rankings are based on 10 indicators of business regulation that track the time and cost to meet government requirements in business start-up, operation, trade, taxation, and closure. They do not reflect such areas as macroeconomic policy, quality of infrastructure, currency volatility, investor perceptions, or crime rates. Since 2003 Doing Business has inspired or informed more than 113 reforms around the world.

“The report finds that equity returns are highest in countries that are reforming the most,” said Michael Klein, World Bank/IFC Vice President for Financial and Private Sector Development. “Investors are looking for upside potential, and they find it in economies that are reforming—regardless of their starting point,” he added. Large emerging markets are reforming fast: Egypt, China, India, Vietnam, and Turkey all improved in the ease of doing business. The report also finds that as more countries simplify regulation to make it easier to do business, more entrepreneurs are going into business.

Besides Egypt, the other top 10 reformers this year are, in order, Croatia, Ghana, FYR Macedonia, Georgia, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, China, and Bulgaria. Reformers made it simpler to start a business, strengthened property rights, enhanced investor protections, increased access to credit, eased tax burdens, and expedited trade while reducing costs. In all, 200 positive reforms—in 98 economies—were introduced between April 2006 and June 2007.

Higher rankings on the ease of doing business are associated with higher percentages of women among entrepreneurs and employees. “Increased regulatory reform leads to especially large benefits for women,” said Dahlia Khalifa, Doing Business spokesperson. “Women often face regulations that may be aimed at protecting them, but that instead force women into the informal sector, where they have little job security and few social benefits.” Women in the United Arab Emirates and Yemen are forbidden to work at night. And now so are women in Kuwait, because of a new law passed in June 2007.

[Diane]

In my column yesterday, I said it is getting more difficult to do business in the Philippines, primarily because of the increasing red tape and time-consuming, if not costly, procedures. If you are a business taxpayer, you have to go to the Bureau of Internal Revenue and other collection agencies 47 times in a year, to pay taxes, and spend as many as 195 hours doing so.

In the meantime, most of the world is simplifying its procedures for doing business.

In Asia, China was a standout in regulatory reform in 2006/07, according to the latest World Bank survey of doing business in 178 countries. In that survey, the Philippines ranked 133rd, down from 121 in 2006. Singapore is No. 1, where red tape has been cut to almost nil and corruption is also almost nil.

The top reformer in Asia and among the top 10 in the world, China introduced far-reaching protection of private property rights and a new bankruptcy law. Not surprisingly, China attracts $50 billion in foreign investments yearly.

Worldwide, the top 10 reformers are, in order, Egypt, Croatia, Ghana, FYR Macedonia, Georgia, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, China and Bulgaria.

Singapore, for the second year running, tops the aggregate rankings of 178 economies on the ease of doing business. Worldwide, the top 25 in the rankings are, in order, Singapore, New Zealand, United States, Hong Kong, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Australia, Iceland, Norway, Japan, Finland, Sweden, Thailand, Switzerland, Estonia, Georgia, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Latvia, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Austria.

Asia accounts for two of the top 10, with Singapore ranking first and Hong Kong, fourth. Other top-ranking economies in the region are Thailand (15), Malaysia (24), Fiji (36), Tonga (47) and Taiwan (China) (50).

Worldwide, Eastern Europe and Central Asia are the leading reformers, with three countries from the former Soviet Union—Estonia, Georgia and Latvia—all in the top 25 on the ease of doing business. South Asia, led by India, has also picked up speed in reform, outpacing East Asia and the Pacific.

Worldwide, 200 reforms in 98 economies were introduced between April 2006 and June 2007, says the World Bank.

In Asia, the most popular reform was to ease access to credit, with improvements in China, Indonesia, Micronesia and Vietnam. The second most popular was to simplify business startup, with action in Laos, Malaysia and Timor-Leste.

“Equity returns are highest in countries that are reforming the most,” says Michael Klein, World Bank/IFC vice-president for financial and private sector development.

“Investors are looking for upside potential, and they find it in economies that are reforming—regardless of their starting point,” he adds. Large emerging markets are reforming fast: China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Turkey and Vietnam all improved on the ease of doing business.

The report also finds that as more countries simplify regulation to make it easier to do business, more entrepreneurs are going into business.

Other notable reforms in East Asia and the Pacific:

Fiji introduced judicial reforms to improve court efficiency.

Laos implemented border cooperation agreements that would help speed up trade and eased licensing requirements for new businesses.

Malaysia streamlined business start-up, reduced corporate income taxes and simplified online tax filing.

Micronesia implemented its first secured transactions law and launched a unified online registry for all security rights in movable property. The registry covers all types of creditors and debtors.

Mongolia put in place new laws for corporate income, value-added and personal income taxes, introducing a new flat tax for individual income. It also reduced the top marginal rate for corporate income tax from 30 percent to 25 percent.

Thailand introduced an electronic one-stop shop for traders, cutting the time to import and export by five days.

Higher rankings on the ease of doing business are associated with higher percentages of women among entrepreneurs and employees.

“The benefits of increased regulatory reform are especially large for women,” stresses Justin Yap, an author of the report. Women often face regulations that may be aimed at protecting them but that have a counterproductive effect, forcing them into the informal sector, where women have little job security and few social benefits. “These regulations can take work away from willing workers and business opportunities away from potential entrepreneurs,” he adds.

The WB rankings are based on 10 indicators of business regulation that track the time and cost to meet government requirements in business start-up, operation, trade, taxation and closure. They do not reflect such areas as macroeconomic policy, quality of infrastructure, currency volatility, investor perceptions or crime rates.

Since 2003 Doing Business has inspired or informed more than 113 reforms around the world.