The New Louvre - The acceptable face of the Emirates

While Qatar and Dubai are bywords for excess, vulgarity and human
rights abuses, the UAE's capital affects a higher calling. So,
alongside the Emirates Palace Hotel (1,022 crystal chandeliers), the
Grand Mosque (capacity: 40,000) and four million foreign workers,
there are galleries, museums, seats of learning – and the stated aim
of being a 'role model' for its neighbours. Has Abu Dhabi found a way
to blend petrodollars with principles

The Abu Dhabi Louvre looks like the top of a giant, primordial
eggshell pushing its way out of the sand. Its giant dome already
glisters under the sun, its construction workers moving like spiders
over five layers of cladding, steel and aluminium which will give this
extraordinary museum a combined weight of 7,000 tons, just a little
less than the Eiffel Tower. Already the concrete base of a man-made
lake spreads around the construction, for architect Jean Nouvel's
Louvre will be on a miniature island, its works of art transported to
its gallery through an underground tunnel, light sprinkled into its
interior as if through the fronds of palm trees.

Very romantic. Very French orientalist, I say to myself. Very Arab
too, perhaps. The idea is that art will move chronologically through
centuries inside the new Louvre, oriental and Western paintings next
to each other.

Abu Dhabi is so rich, and its ambitions so mystical, that people speak
in whispers.

But if all this is educational, what to make of the Sheikh Zayed Grand
Mosque? The truly gigantic carpet, the chandeliers, the fact that it
was constructed by men and materials from Morocco to China and can
hold more than 40,000 faithful – all give it the feel of cathedrals
built in the Middle Ages.

Abu Dhabi is the sensible, adult version of Dubai, the capital of the
United Arab Emirates, smaller than its neighbour, but probably the
wealthiest city in the world. It's still ruled by the al-Nahyan family
whose Bani Yas tribe migrated to the north Arabian peninsula Gulf
coast, opposite what is now Iran, in the late 18th century. So rich is
Abu Dhabi, with an oil producing capacity of 2.3 million barrels a
day, that even its total investments – statistics it prefers to keep
secret – must be calculated to the nearest £70bn. The total figure is
probably close to £650bn.

''I'm here as a servant of the country. I know if I don't want to be a
servant any more, I can get on a plane and go home."

Then he thought for a moment and captured the venality of it all.
"We're all here by invitation – or temptation."

Robert Fisk in Abu Dhabi: The acceptable face of the Emirates

Words Of H.I.M Emperor Haile Selassie I

“The outlook and attitudes of Our people have undergone drastic changes during this year. The nation has come to modernity and maturity. The people have been educated, not so much by formal, classroom instruction, but as a consequence of an increasingly broad and general exposure of life in the twentieth century and the world around them, Ethiopia has awakened. Ethiopians now demand more for themselves than their fathers possessed. They have acquired the desire to improve their lot and that of their children. They are willing and anxious to change.

This is what we have labored throughout Our life to accomplish: to bring our people to the point of awareness of the demands of modern life, to arouse in them the ambition to progress, to stimulate their latent desire for advancement and improvement.

This has now been achieved, and with the natural resources with which Almighty God has endowed our nation, the path to development has been cleared and it’s vistas lie before us.” 

H.I.M Emperor Haile Selassie I

BARONS OF POWER

A small group of powerful politically-connected tycoons controls billions in the insurance industry, writes John Kamau

Formerly Alico until it was acquired by CFC.

Kenya’s multi-billion shillings insurance industry is in the hands of a few politically connected ex-politicians and suave businessmen who sit on the boards either as chairmen or directors.

Investigations by The Sunday Standard show that the insurance industry has been a soft target for the well connected to make a quick buck.

As the companies continue to flourish and publish their annual financial statements, it emerges that the ownership of the industry reads like who is who in Kenya.

Although some of the best-known names have not been influencing how their companies access business, it is common knowledge in the insurance industry that invoking some of the names means or used to mean instant business.

And why not?

Since the Jomo Kenyatta and Moi regimes, those close to the presidency were able to build empires that revolved around the insurance industry and the Kibaki presidency is no exception.


Philip Ndegwa

The most notable success story in the 15-year Kenyatta rule through Moi and now Kibaki was the late Phillip Ndegwa, who was Kenyatta’s Finance Permanent Secretary and later on — from 1982 — Governor of Central Bank of Kenya.

Ndegwa’s family has built a fortune through the Insurance Company of East Africa (ICEA), which was incorporated in November 1964 with a share capital of less than Sh4 million.

Today ICEA is one of the best performing wholly Kenyan insurance companies. The Ndegwa family also owns ICEA building in Nairobi’s Kenyatta Avenue, Ambank House on University Way, Riverside Park with 150 apartments in Chiromo, the high cost Riverside Gardens on Chiromo Road and some 42 apartments known as St Austin Gardens off James Gichuru Road in Nairobi.

Other businesses associated with ICEA are Greenwood Lane Apartments in Mombasa and Mombasa’s Maritime Centre among many other single properties in Muthaiga and near Nairobi’s State House.

The Ndegwa family also owns Lion Insurance of Kenya, which is headed by James Ndegwa via Ndegwa’s flagship, First Chattered Securities.

By striking it rich via the insurance business, Ndegwa left many a politician eager to try their hands in the money-spinning empire. It is from Ndegwa’s experience that insurance became the target of those close to power.

Copycats have been many. No wonder when Narc came to power, Dr Chris Murungaru and Solicitor General Wanjuki Muchemi’s co-owned Canopy Insurance moved to expand its territory.

Because of the political heat that surrounds their two offices, Murungaru and Muchemi have of late erased their names from directorship of the company which is now held by Suntra Stocks as nominees.

Of the Kenyatta family, the best-known insurance business has been Blue Shield is run by Beth Muigai, the wife of the late Peter Muigai Kenyatta, a one time MP for Juja and assistant minister for Foreign Affairs.

Initially, during the Kenyatta era, Andrew Ngumba, a former Nairobi mayor, had some interests in Blue Shield, but this was because Beth Muigai also happened to be Ngumba’s sister.

Mama Ngina Kenyatta used to own shares in the First Assurance Company but industry insiders say she owns no interests in the company today. The Kenyatta family also owned Fairway Insurance Brokers, which has since closed down.


Jeremiah Kiereini
Of the Kenyatta era top shots, others who had interests in the insurance industry include former Attorney General Charles Njonjo and once-powerful head of civil service and secretary to the Cabinet, Mr Jeremiah Kiereini, who in 1991 acquired the controlling interest in Heritage AII Insurance Company through Credit Finance Corporation, a company in which they still have interests.

Originally the management of the parent Heritage Insurance Company — before it merged with African International Insurances in 1997 to form the modern day Heritage AII Insurance — were Jeremiah Kiereini, Julius Gecau, a former chairman of Kenya Power and Lighting, Ben Gethi, a former Commissioner of Police, and businessmen Madataly P Manji, P K Jani and E Bristow.

Njonjo and Kiereini today are directors of Heritage AII Insurance, the highest rated insurer in Kenya, although during the Moi presidency, Mr Joshua Kulei, Moi’s aide, is also a director.

Today Heritage is the second largest non-life insurance underwriter after Kenindia. It is also the second largest underwriter of life-business after Ndegwa’s ICEA.

The most interesting turnaround in the last few months is how Heritage, now managed by P K Jani, acquired Alico’s life business worth Sh6 billion and renamed it AIG. Elsewhere, the directors have ploughed their money into three insurance companies: Heritage Tanzania Limited, Strategies Insurance Tanzania Limited and Allianz Tanzania Limited.


Charles Njonjo
Exits Njonjo, enters another Kenyatta era magnate, Mr Joe Wanjui, who is also an insider in the Kibaki government. Wanjui, a former chairman of the giant East Africa Industries and now Chancellor of University of Nairobi is a director of UAP Provincial Insurance, one of the largest insurance companies in Kenya that he owns together with business magnate Chris Kirubi.

Before the Wanjui group took a controlling stake in the company in February 2001, UAP, an acronym for Union Des Assurance des Paris, was 60 per cent owned by AXA Insurance UK Plc and had a total asset base of Sh1.9 billion.

Kirubi got into the picture in 2001 after Acacia Fund, the first venture capital fund licensed by the government, bought 20 per cent shares in UAP. The company has recently moved to the Ugandan market where it last October acquired a majority stake in the country’s United Assurance Company.

Another company that has had links with the political elite is First Assurance Company, which is headed by Mirabeau H. Dagama Rose, who is also the chairman of Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA) where the Kenyatta family has a stake. Muhoho Kenyatta sits on the board of CBA but there is no evidence that CBA has links to First Assurance.

Kenya’s Vice President, Mr Moody Awori, has an interest in the Mercantile Life and General Assurance, which is a subsidiary company of the East African Building Society (EABS) Group which was founded in 1959 by the late Lallit Pandit with Sh5,000. Awori is a director of EABS, an association that started some 43 years ago, when EABS — read Pandit — lent Awori Sh25,000 to purchase a house in Lavington where the vice-president still lives.

Another of Kibaki’s insiders who is in the insurance business is Eddie Njoroge, the Managing Director of KenGen, and Sam Kamau. They have shares in Royal Insurance.

Cabinet minister Njenga Karume owns Pelican Insurance, although he is said to have little interest in its running often concentrating on the beer business while his colleague, Mr Njeru Ndwiga, has interests in Secular Insurance which was recently in the news after it won tenders in firms under his ministry.

The Aga Khan is also in Kenya’s business circles through the Jubilee Insurance, one of the oldest having opened doors in 1937 and which has of late expanded to Mauritius, Tanzania and Uganda.

With an authorised capital of Sh180 million, Jubilee Insurance has the highest shareholders’ funds in the Kenyan insurance industry and is quoted on the NSE. But the majority of the shares are owned by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED).

One time Alego-Usonga aspirant Edwin Yinda owns Liaison Insurance Brokers situated at State House Road’s Liaison Centre. Yinda is married to former Coast Provincial Commissioner Eliud Mahihu’s daughter, the former Sally Mahihu, and is a well-known Kanu activist in Nyanza.

Pius Ngugi of Thika Coffee Mills is a major shareholder in Kenya Alliance although a Mr Bill Martin holds a few shares.

Another major player in the sector is Nyeri-born Ashok Shah, the former chairman of the Association of Kenya Assurers who has a stake in APA Insurance together with a long-time Charles Nyachae ally, Mr John P. N. Simba, who is chairman.

Simba is today the chairman of the Nairobi University Governing Council. Last year, APA announced a pre-tax profit of Sh44 million.


The ICEA building which belongs to Insurance Company of East Africa

The company was formed following a merger between Pan Africa Insurance and Apollo Insurance companies. Simba is a former non-executive chairman of the National Bank of Kenya.

Business magnate Chris Kirubi has interests in AON Minet through the shares he owns at ICDC, where 15.66 per cent of ICDCI shares are registered under his name, another 6.02 per cent under Kiruma International and 5.47 per cent under International House Limited associated with him. He also sits on the board of UAP Insurance with Joe Wanjui.

Bethwel Mareka (BM) Gechaga is also a well-known businessman of the Kenyatta era. A former chairman of BAT (Kenya) Limited, Gechaga is today associated with Gateway Insurance Company.

Another tycoon in the industry is Stanley Munga Githunguri, the former chairman of National Bank of Kenya who today runs Geminia Insurance Company.

A multi-millionaire, Githunguri is the owner of Nairobi’s Lillian Towers and has twice tried his hand at the Kiambaa seat on a Kanu ticket. Another ex-banker with interest in the insurance is Ahmed Abdalla, who is the chairman of Corporate Insurance Company.

Abdalla sits on the board of Transparency International Kenya Chapter and is a former Executive Chairman of the Kenya Commercial Bank, an Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund and one time Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya.

Former Coast PC Eliud Mahihu owns Madison Insurance. White Corporate Insurance was initially owned by the late businessman Mohammed Aslam and Prof George Saitoti was believed to own shares in the company.

Jimna Mbaru, a pioneer African stock trader and former chairman of the Nairobi Stock Exchange, today runs Occidental Insurance of which he is the chairman.

Mbaru, who vied for the Starehe seat on a Safina ticket in 2001, is the brains behind Dyer and Blair Investment Bank.

Boma Insurance is associated with a brother to the Director General of National Security Intelligence Service, Wilson Boinett.

Boma was in the news last year when it appealed during the tendering of insurance to the Kenya Police Airwing forcing the Office of the President to re-tender.

Although Mathira Kanu aspirant Peter Kuguru used to have an interest in Invesco Insurance, he has since sold his shares.

In the company that had insured City Hall before one of the wings burnt down in 2002.

In Parliament, P G Muriithi, the Nyeri Town MP, is associated with Consolidated Insurance and is said to have done roaring business during the Kanu days.

Another company that performed well was Kabage and Mwirigi, which is associated with Karanja Kabage.

Kabage is also the chairman of First Reinsurance Brokers and is remembered for leading a consortium of entrepreneurs who bought Stagecoach Bus Company in 1999 together with former Kenya Power and Lighting Company chief executive Samuel Gichuru and Mr Stanley Murage, a former PS for Transport and Telecommunications who is now the policy adviser to President Kibaki.

Another Kanu supporter with an interest in Insurance is Paul Gogo, who runs Sifa Insurance Brokers on Nairobi’s Lenana Road.

Kisii politician Leo Matundura runs Lema Insurance Brokers and was a 1997 runner-up in the Kitutu-Chache by-election on a Ford Kenya ticket.

Rumaku insurance Brokers is run by Ruth Kulundu, a relative of Cabinet minister Dr Newton Kulundu, while Prime Mover Insurance Brokers is headed by Titus Ngahu, an NAK activist and former Kenyatta University student leader. It is believed to be associated with key personalities in the Mt Kenya region.

Although June Moi used to run two companies during her father’s presidency, they have since closed shop. The two are Liberty Insurance and Simba Insurance.

Other high profiled companies that have closed shop include Ajay Shah’s Access Insurance and Lake Star Insurance associated with politician and former nominated MP, Ezekiel Barngetuny.

And the list is far from exhaustive. With only 212 licensed insurance brokers last year, and 34 insurance companies in Kenya, the control of this lucrative sector is, however, left to those who have muscle in and outside the corridors of power.

BARONS OF POWER

Symptoms’ za freedom

Like the brother Yeshua Ben Josef gave proof humanity cannot stand the nakedness of truth,

Look at what Adam did after they ate the fruit, even in death they still wanna clad you in a suit.

Of this endless pursuit I could give more proof but what is the use?

Coz you see them architects of this here society,

Influenced by left wing spirituality

Sealed upon mankind a perpetual calamity,

Damming the majority to live blindly in endless pursuit of vanity

Bent on eliminating each other with such barbarity.

Crack babies

War fare

Starvation,

And if you believe them nuclear annihilation,

And all for what? To satisfy some baldheads dream of world domination.

What we need is a revolution

A different perspective of this here our situation,

We need to do all that we can, we need to turn the hourglass,

We need to stop looking at our sisters like just a piece of ass,

We need to protect and preserve mother earth,

We need to open our prayer books and have another glance,

Open our hearts and chant another psalm

And just for once,

Lets take our ego and indiscretions and at the going down of the sun under supervision of the first star let us strike a match and watch them burn….. now won’t that be fun.

By Dongagah

False Pride - KRS ONE

Okay now, listen to this

A mystical teacher sat by the seaside
It was about five o'clock 'coz we heard the free ride
Anyway, the teacher was talking in stride
Sitting upon a rock that was wide
And warning against false pride
"Come to where I reside!" a woman cried
And the teacher replied, "Do you serve your fish fried?"
"Yes," she replied, "With potato salad on the side"
And the teacher replied, "Well, where do you reside?"

She said, "Up on the hillside, it's not a far ride
If you came to have dinner, I would be so gratified"
The teacher replied, "It's six o'clock, seven o'clock, you decide"
She replied, "Seven o'clock, do you like stir-fried?"
She was mystified and felt so dignified
The teacher was coming to the house where she resides
So she purified with pesticides
Called her friends up nationwide
Some of her friends were tongue-tied, they felt so glorified

She made steamed fish, baked fish, fish that was fried
Soup, steamed vegetables, potato salad on the side
You could smell the bread in the oven far and wide
Natural juices and water purified
Organic fruits brought from the countryside
With silver forks and knives placed side by side
You could not be dissatisfied
Looking out the window, staring at the mountainside
You would have died

6:59 she's swollen with pride
As the moment intensified, there's a knock from outside
She opens the door, for the teacher has arrived
But to her surprise, it was a bum who cried
"Please, I smelt the bread from outside
One piece" and then she replied
"The teacher is coming, he's soon to have arrived
You're making me look bad, come on now, step aside!"
The bum then replied
"When I say I'm hungry I haven't lied
Give me some of that chicken that you just fried"

She replied, "Chicken, fried?
No that's for the teacher, you're not purified
Then she slammed the door and went back inside
Sat on the couch with the TV Guide
She looked at the clock, it was 7:09, then 7:30
He still hasn't arrived
Eight o'clock, she's on the downside
Nine o'clock, by now she's teary-eyed
She's pissed off and her anger multiplied

She cried, then fell asleep dissatisfied
Next day she woke up, and was preoccupied
With meeting the mystical teacher who lied
Where could he hide?
She ran down by the seaside
He was there teaching about false pride
"You lied" she replied, "You lied
You said you'd be there at seven o'clock, you lied"

He replied, "No, I have not lied
I came at 6:59, and you told me to move aside
I asked for bread and the chicken that was fried
And you said, that I wasn't purified"
She replied, "I wasn't notified
I had no idea that you was the bum that cried"
And the teacher sighed, then replied
"This concludes our lesson on false pride"

Songwriters
PARKER, LAWRENCE KRSONE

Letter from the future to Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, with whom it all began

Letter from the future to Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, with whom it all began

By EAC SecGen @rsezibera Shikamoo Mwalimu. Next week, the Summit of Heads of State of the East African Community will take place in Nairobi, Kenya. The Community is currently chaired by Uhuru Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya. Yes sir, you may share this news with Mzee Kenyatta and Mzee Milton Obote when you see them. The East African Community did not die permanently in 1977; it has been resurrected and is thriving. I am writing to seek your wisdom and blessings. You see, when the Summit meets, they will be deliberating, among other things, on the best way to start a constitution-making process for the Federation of East Africa! Yes, the debate is back. You remember those many years ago, in 1963, when you offered to delay Tanganyika’s Independence to give chance to East Africa to get its Independence as a federal entity? You feared that entrenched sovereignty and the trappings of national authority would blind us to the strategic imperatives of building a united East Africa capable of harnessing all its resources for the socio-economic development of its citizens. You were worried that narrow parochial concerns would lead to the marginalisation of our continent. You saw clearly that Independence within the borders of colonial constructs would simply reinforce the colonial enterprise, marginally tweaking the relationship between the former colonies and the metropole, while leaving the colonial enterprise intact. Well sir, you were right. Can you imagine that by 2005, the entire GDP of East Africa was only $40 billion — the wealth of one modern high net worth individual? That our fragmented economies remained stuck in the mud for decades, trying to produce more cotton, coffee, and raw minerals for the consumption of the Western world? The harder we worked, the poorer we became, until we were told that the only solution was to reduce our investments in health, education, infrastructure and energy. We did need macroeconomic discipline, Mwalimu, but we balanced our books on the backs of the poor. We were too weak to resist, our valiant struggle against apartheid notwithstanding. We all agreed to take the medicine. Our current leaders have decided to reverse the trend. They have decided to go back to the future. And they are succeeding. East Africa is now a Customs Union, and we are slowly turning it into a Single Customs Territory. Beyond the free movement of goods, the region is now slowly but surely turning into a Common Market, and plans are underway to build a Monetary Union. Shared investments in infrastructure are gaining momentum. Remember when you decided to invest in the Tazara railway against all opposition? You may be saddened to hear that line now carries less than 10 per cent of what it did in its heyday. I am glad to report however that for the first time in over 100 years, Kenya and Uganda are beginning to lay a new, modern railway line. Rwanda and Burundi are determined to follow suit. Investments in energy generation are on the rise. East Africa is determined not be a dark region, both figuratively and literally. Do you know, Mwalimu, that since East Africa decided to deepen and widen its integration, its GDP is now over $100 billion and growing? Over 700,000 students are enrolled in 344 institutions of higher education including 161 universities. This is a sharp rise from the 160,000 enrolled in the 1990s. They pay local fees across the region, and 2015 is the target year for turning East Africa into a Common Higher Education Area. There were those who kept telling you that East African integration would benefit Kenya to the detriment of Tanzania and Uganda. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose… Yes, we do speak French and Chinese, in addition to Kiswahili, our lingua franca. But my apologies Mwalimu. I forgot to inform you that Burundi and Rwanda are now members of the Community. You remember the pan-African discussions you used to have with Prince Louis Rwagasore of Burundi and Mwami Mutara Rudahigwa of Rwanda? The pan African seeds they planted have come to fruition. But I digress. There still are some people who are fixated on intra-EAC competition rather than co-operation. They would like to see more barriers to trade. The naysayers refuse to see, for example, that Tanzania has recorded the fastest growth in intra-EAC exports, that Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi have all seen their exports to Kenya and the rest of East Africa grow. They fail to appreciate that Kenya is now a major source of “foreign” direct investment in the EAC, displacing the Western powers of yesteryear. That intra-EAC trade has risen to over 26 per cent from less than 10 per cent a decade ago — and that it is qualitatively better than trade with the rest of the world, consisting of trade in value added products, and not the raw materials we export to the West, the East, the North and the South. When we show them the data, they change the terms of the debate, raising the bogey of land. Do you know, Mwalimu, that in recognition of the sensitivity of land ownership, use and management, the East African Common Market Protocol has made it very clear that land is a national and not an East African issue? Yet, merchants of fear whip up the peoples’ emotions, that other East Africans are only interested in taking over their land. They refuse to see it as a factor of production, derailing all attempts at making it produce wealth for their nations or the region. They get dizzy, trying to walk backwards on a fast moving economic escalator. They are so fearful that they want to hinder the free movement of people. Do you know it still is more difficult for Africans to move, live and work in Africa than for non-Africans? So, this is the context in which the Heads of State Summit will meet this coming week. They refuse to simply accept what is, and want to invest in what can be. They want to turn East Africa into a federal entity, believing that economic integration is not enough. They want to follow in your footsteps, Mwalimu. By EAC SecGen @rsezibera

Generation that refuses to grow up! Forever Young

The other day I had lunch with my father, who was in London on business. He took me to his favourite pub and somewhere between the tomato soup and the mains he started a conversation that he has, until now — miraculously — avoided.

He glanced nervously at the waiter and sank his glass of wine before launching in, asking me what my plans are for life: Did I see myself settling down and starting a family? Am I saving up to buy a house? What is going to be the next step in my career?

There was a pause as I looked at him blankly and shrugged, before muttering that immortal phrase, loved by teenagers across the land: ‘I dunno.’

Except I’m not a teenager. I am 34. 

When he was my age, my father was putting my six-year-old sister and eight-year-old me through prep school, and had another three-year-old daughter at home. He had been running a business for ten years, owned a house and had a pension.

In short, all the usual trappings and responsibilities of a middle-class man of that generation.

I, on the other hand, live in a rented flat with my youngest sister and have few savings to speak of. I certainly don’t have a pension.

As for the idea of marriage and children, well, it’s exactly that: just an idea — it’s no closer to being a reality than it was when I was 23.

My ‘life plan’ as my father so sweetly called it, goes as far as this weekend.

‘Don’t you think you should start thinking about these things?’ he asked. ‘You do know you’re not 20 any more, don’t you?’

I’m not sure that I do.

While I am a fully paid up member of adult society in many ways — I pay taxes, cast my vote and give money to charity — in other ways, I am in hopeless denial about my age.

Though I had always assumed that, by now, I would have found the love of my life and settled down, by choice or by fate (I still don’t know which) that hasn’t happened.

As a result, I behave in much the same way I did ten years ago, spending my money today rather than putting it aside for the future. Always grabbing one more night out with friends before the invites dry up.

The thought of saving up the deposit for a flat is so daunting that I choose to throw money away on rent, instead.

I haven’t yet had to grow up so, well, I haven’t.

Reckless, irresponsible and immature? Yes. But at least I can take comfort in the fact I am not alone.

Last week, I read that there is even a name for people such as me. We are the ‘Peter Pan generation’; a sizeable group of 25 to 40-year-olds who exist in a state of extended adolescence, avoiding the trappings of responsibility — marriage, mortgage, children — for as long as possible.

‘Our society is full of lost boys and girls hanging out at the edge of adulthood,’ says Professor Frank Furedi, a sociologist who has been studying this phenomenon, at the University of Kent.

‘Another word sometimes used to describe these people is “adultescent” — generally defined as someone who refuses to settle down and make commitments, and who would rather go on partying into middle age.’

These people, he says, might live with their parents until they are in their 30s, choose to put off getting married as long as they can — or even remain single well into adulthood, continuing the life they had in their early 20s.

You only need to look at the statistics to observe this intriguing trend.

Back in 1970, men typically got married at 24 and women at 22. Currently, the average age at which people marry is 32 for men and 30 for women. 

“Why are the lives of my generation so utterly different from those of our parents?”

A recent report shows that the number of women getting married in their late 30s and 40s has almost doubled in the past decade.

Meanwhile, the average age for starting a family today is 28 for women, up from 24 in 1970 . And, thanks to IVF and fertility treatment, more and more women are delaying starting families until they are 40.

What’s more, many more of us are deciding not to marry at all. Figures released by the Office for National Statistics at the end of last year show that more than half of women under 50 have never been married — double the figure recorded 30 years ago.

As for taking on the commitment of buying a house, in the Eighties the typical first-time buyer was 29. Today they are 38. And, according to a report by LV Insurers, by 2025, the average age of a first-time home-buyer is forecast to be 41.

So why has all this come about? Why are the lives of my generation so utterly different from those of our parents?

Well, you could blame the economy. Taking that first step of becoming an adult — buying a house — is harder than ever. Every day we see new headlines about adults having to move back home with their parents to save the sizeable deposits now needed to buy a property.

Three million 20-to-34-year-olds now live with their parents. A third are men and 18 per cent are women. And that three million total is an increase of 20 per cent between 1997 and 2011, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Even those who don’t live with their parents are more likely to be financially reliant on them. According to a report earlier this year, more than 13 million parents paid out £34billion in loans and gifts to offspring who are well into their 40s.

My parents are not in a position to help me financially, and I find the task of saving for a deposit to buy a flat so onerous, and the reality of what and where I could afford to buy so depressing, that I’ve made the (very childish) decision to not even think about it.

“People are scared of thinking of themselves as adults. They cannot see anything good that comes with being an adult; all our cultural values are with youth.”

Which may hint at the real problem. Professor Furedi, who is in his 60s, says we cannot blame the economy — or property prices — for what he calls the ‘infantalisation’ of today’s adults.

‘If you read the newspapers, all you hear is that young people’s lives have never been as horrible as today — which basically requires historical amnesia, because that is not the case. Recession and economic depressions have happened across the past century but, in my generation, the important thing was that you struck out on your own — even if you faced serious economic hardships and you were broke all the time. Now people make excuses,’ he says.

He believes there are much bigger psychological factors at play — and that the root of our refusal to grow up is fear.

‘People are scared of thinking of themselves as adults. They cannot see anything good that comes with being an adult; all our cultural values are with youth and the further we move away from that, the more anxious we become,’ he says.

He believes that the trend for adults to read books aimed at children and teenagers (such as Harry Potter, Hunger Games and Twilight), the popularity of cartoons such as the Simpsons, and the rise of adults playing computer games, are symptoms of this desire to escape adulthood.

‘People convince themselves that their immature behaviour is an attempt to become carefree, but it’s born out of fear.

‘We now have a culture in which people are frightened of what the future might hold and are terrified of taking risks.’

This can apply to leaving home — or even falling in love. ‘People now avoid or postpone thinking about making a commitment to others for fear they will get hurt,’ he adds.

So am I scared of being a fully-functioning adult? Scared of financial and romantic commitments?

Maybe, although I think it’s more the case that I have convinced myself that I don’t need to grow up — or settle down — just yet.

While my parents’ generation went straight from education to working and starting a family, all in their early 20s, we have a window of opportunity that means we can play around for a bit longer.

Contraception and changing societal attitudes mean that we don’t have to think about getting married and having babies straight away — and our career opportunities are myriad.

When my mother was coming of age, she had three choices: she could become a teacher, a nurse or a secretary. Her three daughters’ lives, however, are very different.

We went to university and were told there was nothing in the world we couldn’t do. We rose the career ladder, travelled the world and had a freedom she could only imagine.

We were — and still are — spoilt for choice. And many people would argue that this is not a good thing.

Just over ten years ago, a groundbreaking book by Alexandra Robbins and Abby Wilner coined the term ‘quarterlife crisis’ to describe the anxieties of a generation of 20-somethings who had the world at their feet, but no idea which direction to step in.

We were, according to the authors, ‘suffocated by choice, responsibility and self-doubt’.

“The decisions on whether to marry or not marry, start a family or not, travel or stay put, stick in your existing job or find a new one can make us overwhelmed, anxious and depressed.”

Another more recent report, from Greenwich University researcher Oliver Robinson, found that the ‘demanding nature’ of 20 and 30-somethings means we ‘are not happy with a mediocre, ploddy, conventional life’ — in other words, the kind we think our parents have.

But we’re not that happy with our freedom either.

Actually, the decisions on whether to marry or not marry, start a family or not, travel or stay put, stick in your existing job or find a new one can make us overwhelmed, anxious and depressed.

Of course, there is one decision that a woman — even of the Peter Pan variety — cannot put off for ever, and that is whether to have a child.

For years, I was too busy working and having fun to even think about it — and now, even at 34, I have no idea if I want to be a mother. No maternal urges have kicked in yet and, besides, there is not exactly a line of suitors waiting at my door.

Either way, I fool myself into thinking that I don’t have to decide just yet and cling to any headline about women having their children at 41 and 42 as proof that, yes, there is plenty of time.

But is there? The obvious truth is that fertility plummets in your 30s and I am worried that I will wake up one day and regret that I missed the boat on babies altogether.

I talk about these issues with my fellow eternally young friends, but I’ve noticed, recently, that we are fewer in number than we once were.

For while I have a handful of friends who, like me, are still busy living for the now, there are many more who have, almost without me noticing, found ways to buy the house and start a family.

They are very happy in their new phase of their life, while I am still clinging on to the old one.

In fact, I’m starting to think that there is a very real danger that, before long, I’ll be the last guest at the party, dancing alone, long after the music stops. And I don’t want that.

It reminds me of another less than flattering soubriquet for women such as me — TWIT (Teenage Women in their Thirties).

Apparently, we’re propping up bars across the country, hoping the dim light disguises our wrinkles and that our Topshop outfits help us to blend in with the 20-somethings around us. And that’s a very sad thought. Perhaps it is time to finally grow up. 

By: Marianne Power admits she's one of them