Category: News Feeds

CSR Network executive director Willard Razawo said the 2019 Circular & Plastics Innovation Award recognised Africa Albida Tourism’s (AAT) zero tolerance of single-use plastic and the Victoria Falls Recycling initiative; while group marketing manager Nommy Vuma was awarded one of ten Top CSR Manager of the Year awards.

This year re-useable glass water bottles replaced single-use plastic bottles across the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge estate, and AAT chief executive Ross Kennedy hoped the hospitality group would be free of single-use plastic by 2021.

In addition, AAT, in partnership with Greenline Africa, launched Victoria Falls Recycling, last year, a project which recycles plastics, paper, beverage cans and glass.

The 2019 Zimbabwe National Responsible Business and CSR Awards, held on November 21, at the Rainbow Towers Hotel, are based on the contribution being made by individuals and organisations in the private and public sectors towards community development in Zimbabwe.

AAT chief executive Ross Kennedy said: “Being recognised for doing good things very well, especially when they make such a positive impact on the community, conservation and indeed society, is extremely rewarding and satisfying.

“Enormous respect and admiration must go to Andy Conn, Charlene Hewat and her team for their relentless endeavours to recycle and create opportunity and income for community members,” Kennedy said.
“We are also so proud to see our individual team members and colleagues at Africa Albida
Tourism recognised for their contribution, energy and dedication,” he added.

“We are fortunate to have a number of such people in our team, and offer Nommy our sincere congratulations and appreciation for flying the CSR flag very high for the brand.”
AAT operates a portfolio of properties in Victoria Falls, with its flagship Victoria Falls Safari Lodge celebrating its 25th anniversary next month. Other properties in the group’s portfolio include Victoria Falls Safari Club, Victoria Falls Safari Suites, Lokuthula Lodges-Victoria Falls and The Boma – Dinner & Drum Show.

Post published in: Featured

* The New York Bar is helping attorneys reach “high profits” by allowing lawyers to advise clients on legal issues related to marijuana. [Bloomberg]

* A Michigan lawyer has been sworn in as an attorney by the same judge who sent him to prison two decades earlier. [Detroit Free Press]

* Looks like Elon Musk won’t settle a lawsuit about his imfamous “pedo guy” tweet and will testify in his own defense. Wonder what type of experts Musk plans to introduce at trial. [Reuters]

* A NYC man has won $280,000 against a lawyer who called him an “a-hole” and a “jerk” online. Never thought an NYC jury would award so much money for such insults. [New York Post]

* The Oregon State Bar has allegedly mishandled the cases of a disbarred Oregon lawyer who is accused of stealing millions from her clients. [The Oregonian]

* The DC Attorney General has joined the pile-on against Juul, the maker of electronic cigarettes, over allegations it illicitly advertised to minors. [CNBC]

Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.

Mhondoro Ngezi (Zimbabwe) (AFP)

The logs were arranged in such a way that they were ready to be burnt into charcoal — a fuel that has become a substitute for Zimbabwe’s energy shortages, at a terrible cost to its forests.

“It hurts to see forests decimated like this,” said Chizema, who lives in Mhondoro Ngezi, in the centre of the country, 150 kilometres (90 miles) southwest of Harare.

Some loggers come from as far as Harare, “where we hear there is a big demand for charcoal,” he said.

“We, as elders, try to discourage the practice, but it’s all about money and survival.”

For nearly six months, Zimbabwe has been in the grip of chronic power cuts, sometimes running to 19 hours a day.

The price of cooking gas has increased more than six-fold since the start of the year, placing it beyond the reach of many.

For many lower-income urbanites, firewood and charcoal have become the go-to sources of substitute energy — and rogue logging is the result.

Zimbabwe is losing more than 330,000 hectares (815,000 acres) of forest annually, according to Abednigo Marufu, general manager of the Zimbabwe Forestry Commission.

That’s the equivalent to nearly half a million football pitches.

“Zimbabwe is losing quite a lot of trees and forests… everywhere because there is no electricity and our people need to feed themselves, they need heating in their homes,” he told AFP.

Even so, “agriculture is still the number one driver of deforestation,” he said.

A controversial land reform programme launched in 2000 saw a surge in the loss of forest cover as people cleared land for cultivation.

“Some of them started growing tobacco and cut down trees to use for curing their crop.”

The practice continues, as farmers view wood to be free compared to other options.

– Dilemma –

Authorities are confronted with an enforcement conundrum.

Charcoal production is outlawed in Zimbabwe but it can be imported from neighbouring Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi, with special permits.

But Marufu said no such licences had been issued for over a year, yet Zimbabwe was awash with charcoal.

“How do you then know what charcoal is imported and locally produced?” Marufu asked rhetorically.

A lot of the older indigenous mopani trees have been reduced to stumps. AFP journalists saw numerous darkened patches where the logs had been piled and burnt into charcoal in the forests at Mhondoro-Ngezi.

Best Muchenje has been the district’s forestry officer for the past two years.

“Deforestation was already bad when I came here,” he told AFP.

“But the power crisis has worsened the situation, (and) the mopani tree is a target because it is hard and produces quality charcoal.”

Mopani is one of the country’s iconic indigenous trees that easily survive hot and dry conditions.

The law allows those living in the sparsely populated villages to cut trees for personal use and not for commercial purposes.

– ‘Forests or humans’ –

But for unemployed villagers like Enia Shagini, lack of money forces them to risk being fined or even jailed for cutting down trees for charcoal.

She sells a 50-kilogram (110-pound) bag for the equivalent of less than 50 US cents (40 euro centimes).

“We have children to send to school,” said the mother of three, bemoaning a crackdown on illicit charcoal production which has widely been ignored.

In the capital, charcoal vendors at the Mbare market, just a few minutes’ drive from downtown Harare, display dozens of 50-kilo polythene bags of charcoal for sale.

Prudence Mkonyo claimed she got her charcoal from Nyamapanda, near the border with Mozambique.

“It’s difficult bringing the stuff to Harare,” she said.

“We ferry it on trucks at night but sometimes you have to deal with the police at roadblocks. You need to be prepared to pay them bribes when you get stopped.”

She sold her charcoal at the equivalent of between US$2.50 and US$3.00 a bag, but sales are slow.

People are struggling with unemployment and the country’s worst economic crisis in a decade.

“There isn’t much money going around so business is really bad. Some people are burning discarded plastic soft drink bottles for cooking.”

While the law is clear on production of charcoal, the government is in a dilemma.

“It’s a very complicated issue,” Nqobizitha Ndlovu, newly-appointed minister for the environment and climate change, told AFP.

“We acknowledge the shortage of electricity and that gas is expensive, so wood and charcoal are alternatives. So while we are worried about forests, we also worry about human beings.”

“Elephant populations are going down significantly, except for the Southern African region, and yet the world is trying to teach this very region how to conserve its wildlife,” he said. “Really, the irony.”

As CNN recently reported, Zimbabwean officials are legally capturing elephants in Hwange National Park and shipping them off to China in tiny crates. Elephant experts interviewed by CNN said the highly intelligent and social animals are ill-suited for confinement.

Asked if he was bothered by the possibility that young elephants being traded to zoos and theme park are traumatized by the experience, Ndlovu said it was not a new phenomenon.

New Frontier Data, the authority in data, analytics, and business intelligence for the global cannabis industry, just made public its Zimbabwe hemp and cannabis cultivation study, Hemp Cultivation in Africa: Zimbabwe – A Case Study (2019), presented to the Zimbabwean government in May of 2019, ahead of Zimbabwe’s hemp legalization announcement at Victoria Falls’ New Frontier Data-led InterCannAlliance event.

The study, the second part of a series, examines the risks and opportunities in an emerging Zimbabwe hemp industry. New Frontier Data is looking to partner with other African nations and deliver similar market assessments and implementation studies, fostering responsible practices and clear understanding of potential socioeconomic impacts of hemp and/or cannabis legalization in traditionally agro-based Sub-Saharan economies.

“Agro-based Sub-Saharan nations, many of which, like Zimbabwe, primarily produce tobacco for Chinese consumption, are facing declining demand, which could cripple their economies within the next decade. Leaderships such as that of Zimbabwe are smart to be thinking ahead and exploring other crops presenting minimum transition cost and rising demand,” noted Giadha Aguirre de Carcer, New Frontier Data Founder and CEO. “Hemp cultivation, especially given the explosive demand arising from neighboring European nations, presents a unique opportunity to Zimbabwe and other African nations well positioned to meet such demand cheaper, and possibly faster, than current suppliers from Canada and Latin America.”

Following the New Frontier Data-led InterCannAlliance Africa event in May 2019, Zimbabwe Minister of Justice Ziyambi Ziyambi announced his cabinet’s interest and plan to develop a regulated cannabis framework.

Some key findings from the study include:

• Combined tax revenues from domestic sales and exports over a five-year period could reach nearly $19 million
• Based on prevailing rates of cannabis use, there are more than 1 million consumers in Zimbabwe who collectively spend over $200 million each year on cannabis
• Cannabis and hemp cultivation can reinvigorate the agricultural sector, highway systems, and overall population wellness and healthcare

Learn more about New Frontier Data’s research on the Zimbabwe hemp and cannabis market here: http://newfrontierdata.com/ZimbabweCaseStudy

About New Frontier Data:

New Frontier Data is an independent, technology-driven analytics company specializing in the cannabis industry. It offers vetted data, actionable business intelligence and risk management solutions for investors, operators, researchers and policymakers. New Frontier Data’s reports and data have been cited in over 80 countries around the world to inform industry leaders. Founded in 2014, New Frontier Data is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with additional offices in Denver, CO, and London, UK.

New Frontier Data does not take a position on the merits of cannabis legalization. Rather, its mission and mandate are to inform cannabis-related policy and business decisions through rigorous, issue-neutral and comprehensive analysis of the legal cannabis industry worldwide. For more information about New Frontier Data, please visit: https://www.NewFrontierData.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191125005865/en/

Post published in: Featured

Findings from the 12th Annual Law Department Operations Survey

Findings from the 12th Annual Law Department Operations Survey

BLICKSTEIN GROUP & ABOVE THE LAW

(You’re pretty close to convincing me to amend the Sixth Amendment so that it provides for an impartial jury OF WOMEN.)

A child of the ’90s, I always wanted to be an attorney, likely as a result of my exposure to network television programs. Shows like Ally McBeal, L.A. Law and, of course, Law and Order, made being a lawyer look suspenseful, profitable, and even glamorous. High-rise offices, mysterious fact patterns, and intraoffice love affairs were enough to get me to commit to the answer of “lawyer” when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up.

Honestly, at the time, I had little idea as to what being a lawyer entailed. Growing up, I did not know any lawyers. My parents were schoolteachers, and my friends’ parents were police officers, fire fighters, and small-business owners. To me, becoming a lawyer — that was making it big. That was the ultimate sign of success.

As a child, I saw television portray attorneys as successful individuals, comfortably compensated, and always busy. The prime-time episodes did not show the grittiness of lawyering, the exhausting law school experience, the excessive student loans, the mundane internships, or the employer frustrations. Yet despite now having witnessed the grave differences between real life and fiction, I could not imagine having any other career.

This past week, I had the privilege of returning to my high school to speak to the senior public-speaking class regarding my career path. The class, filled with ambitious students reminiscent of my own classmates, seemed honestly interested in my law career. Many of them stated confidently that they wanted to become lawyers. Niceties aside, they asked pertinent questions about which cases I found interesting, how I was trained, and, of course, how I was paid. What  interested me the most were their specific desires to practice in specific fields including divorce, criminal defense and personal injury (sadly none stated elder law or trusts and estates).

I questioned the students who had expressed their desire to become attorneys. I wanted to know why they had chosen the field and why, at the age of 17, before any college coursework, they were so convinced that it was right for them. The consensus was that being a lawyer was deemed a good job and one that presented itself as stable and successful. Interestingly none of the students were able to specifically tell me what being a lawyer entailed. The day–to–day of lawyering was unknown. I explained that sometimes I write, sometimes I argue, and often I meet with clients and try to problem solve.

Without a doubt, stories of litigation entertained the students and promoted many questions. The drafting and research, not so much. In speaking about my educational path, I noted that I had always wanted to become a lawyer but had also loved theater, which became my undergraduate major and also the subject of a graduate degree before law school. Although I took a break from my childhood plans, I eventually returned to them and went to law school. Speaking with the students made me think about why. It was not easy to go to law school. I had a young family, I had a baby, I had loans, and I had other responsibilities. In thinking about it, the answer I came to was simple and in many ways the same as it was when I was in high school.

To me, being an attorney means being educated. The law requires that you learn how to write, something I emphasized to the students. It provides a method for thinking and analyzing. You may not always like the legal subject that you are studying, but being a lawyer gives you a path to attack the subject. The education promises success -– at some level — and a membership in an exclusive club. A legal education leaves you more intelligent, more worldly, and , hopefully, compensated.

One student commented that I seemed happy with my career choice. And I am. Part of that goes to the fact that I work for myself, I set my own expectations, and I control what I do. The other part is reminiscent of my childhood goals, and I cannot explain who or what or why I lawyer, except that for me it represents the gold standard in education and, with that, the embodiment of success.

Cori A. Robinson is a solo practitioner having founded Cori A. Robinson PLLC, a New York and New Jersey law firm, in 2017. For more than a decade Cori has focused her law practice on trusts and estates and elder law including estate and Medicaid planning, probate and administration, estate litigation, and guardianships. She can be reached at cori@robinsonestatelaw.com.