He concluded that elements of decline – corruption, a weakening state, poor economic management, skills and capital flight, politics dominated by ethnicity and factionalism, and lack of maintenance of infrastructure – are present in South Africa and will be exacerbated by proposed ANC policies.
Prince Bandar later recalled that he ate more pizza at late-night meetings during the autumn and winter of 1990-91 than in his entire life before or since.Although Mr Ottaway is reluctant to write the prince's political obituary, this is a story with clear elements of decline and fall.
Noticeably absent from this excellent reporting is one element of the decline of revenues -- the increasing pace at which corporations are dodging taxes by legally laundering their profits offshore.
A key element of this decline is the decreased production of new neurons by neural stem cells.
The old presumptions hold that some element of national humiliation and decline predisposes nations toward fascism, or at least the appeals of fascistic movements.
Academy officials said last month that they planned to preserve an element of surprise this year by declining to identify in advance the stars who will hand out the prizes.
Other elements of the show decline as well.
SpringOwl, in a 99-slide analytical presentation for the Yahoo board, put its finger on the elements of Yahoo's decline.
Some of its elements include the decline of party identification, the failure to solve key economic problems, individual financial corruption, general parliamentary behaviour, resistance to political reform, an unforgiving media spotlight, the rise of professional politicians of both sexes and the concomitant decline of perceived authenticity.
A global survey of compensation paid by investment-management firms, released last week, shows that there has been only a small element of pain-sharing to reflect the decline in market performance since 2001 much less than that suffered by investors.
