Word: lite
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...sweat of black labor, the club's membership was, until a few years ago, closed to South Africa's blacks. But these days, there's a new breed of tycoon walking the club's wood-paneled corridors and sipping whiskey in its stuffed leather chairs. A black élite has crossed over from politics and the ruling African National Congress (A.N.C.): Rand Club members include Cyril Ramaphosa, 52, one of South Africa's richest men, who was once touted as a possible successor to Nelson Mandela, and Tokyo Sexwale, also 52, another politician turned capitalist...
...with gold-mining magnate Patrice Motsepe, 43, whose wealth South African newspapers put at more than $500 million, and banking and media tycoon Saki Macozoma, 47--form a quartet of rich, well-connected black businessmen who symbolize South Africa's new corporate élite. Although they work separately, Macozoma, Motsepe, Ramaphosa and Sexwale have been dubbed the Fabulous Four for their growing power and wealth, and between them, they have more than $1 billion worth of interests in some of South Africa's largest companies, from mining heavyweights Harmony Gold and Gold Fields to life insurer Sanlam and Alexander Forbes...
...Macozoma agreed in an interview to take on the critics. He argues that comparing the experiences of Russia and South Africa is "analytical madness." In Russia, he notes, the oligarchs snapped up state-owned assets at bargain prices; in South Africa, the new élite is making deals with private companies who are obviously profit motivated. "I find it very strange that people who profess to believe in capitalism criticize people who embrace it," Macozoma says. His work with the A.N.C. helped transform the color of South Africa's government, he says, and now he's doing the same...
Michael Shelby, the U.S. Attorney in Houston, says the Zetas' military discipline, arsenal and wiretap capability make them more dangerous than other drug groups. Adds José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, Mexico's deputy attorney general for organized crime: "You had soldiers from an élite force transferring all the heavy military mystique--the honor, valor, loyalty--to a drug trafficker." After the government captured Cárdenas in 2003, the Zetas had to strike out more on their own. They launched a lethal campaign against Mexican authorities and rival traffickers gunning for control over Cárdenas' former trafficking routes. Mexican officials insist...
...Russia in danger of falling apart? Last week Dmitry Medvedev, the head of the presidential administration, warned that Russia could disappear if the political élite did not "consolidate" around President Vladimir Putin. "The disintegration of the [Soviet Union] would seem like a kindergarten in comparison," he told the magazine Expert. A day later, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov mused in the tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets about 2008, when Putin is required to step down. "I can't see anyone other than Putin" running the country, Luzhkov said. After uprisings in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, some fear for Russia's own future...