A good week for António Guterres
Cheers to UN secretary-general António Guterres after the General Assembly voted to sideline the Mercator projection in favour of Equal Earth. Mercator’s map dates from 1569, an age that also entertained fire-eating salamanders, medical cannibalism and miasma theory. We sensibly discarded those ideas, so why cling to a map that shrinks Africa and inflates Europe? Only 457 years too late, the world has finally been put back into proportion. The US objected. How very 16th-century of them.
A bad week for Nigel Payne
You can’t blame Mr Price’s board, led by chair Nigel Payne, for its big shareholders all wanting pre-AGM closed-door meetings where, presumably, they get to say what they really feel about the business. But it’s hardly a good look for transparency, or for retail investors who aren’t on the pre-meet roster. And, given the voting results, the board has clearly made a hash of convincing anyone that its R9.6bn German purchase was a good idea.
