A Letter from Kurdistan

I recently arrived here in Mozambique to undertake a 2-year contract on a VS0 (Voluntary Service Overseas)-type basis. The broad philosophy of this work is that skilled foreign staff should be placed in Government structures of developing countries where they can work on a local salary alongside local people. It is hoped that they should not only complete a particular project but also pass on some of their experience to those they are working with. I have a placement with the parastatal construction company, CETA, a general civil engineering contractor in the provincial city of Beira. I have been seconded and sponsored by Gifford & Partners, for whom I worked in the UK for the past 6 years. C.M. Collings

After thinking back over this period, I have realised that the revolution in the design of structures has been nearly as great as the revolution in transport that took place in the previous half-century, which started with horses and ended with jet aircraft! E.W.H. Gifford

The first rule of successful debt collection must always be that ‘prevention is better than cure’. A few simple, and relatively cheap, measures applied in good time can frequently save much grief later but, even when disaster does strike and a debt appears to be ‘bad’, some welldirected persistence can literally pay dividends. D.J. Cude