Bout tells all?
28 August 2010
The Bangkok Post
Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout has confirmed that Sirichoke
Sopha, a close aide to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, met him to make
inquiries into how ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra's plane could be
brought down.
He also alleged that the MP made inquiries into whether Thaksin was involved
in arms smuggling.
Mr Bout's wife, Alla, read his statement yesterday during a press conference
in Bangkok in which he proclaimed his innocence and elaborated on his
discussions with Mr Sirichoke on April 15 at Bang Kwang Central Prison.
Mr Bout said no tape recording had been made of the conversation.
He claimed Mr Sirichoke asked him whether Thaksin had paid to have an
aircraft smuggle arms from North Korea to Sri Lanka in December of last
year, before the shipment was seized in Thailand.
Mr Sirichoke quoted a foreign news report saying that Thaksin had flown to
Sri Lanka one week before the seizure.
Mr Bout alleged that Mr Sirichoke asked him whether Thaksin might have
bought the weapons to arm his red shirt supporters.
Mr Bout said he told the MP that he had no knowledge of such a plan and
that, "I would not like to fantasise".
Mr Bout said Mr Sirichoke showed him a picture of a private jet and said it
belonged to Thaksin. "He asked me how to intercept Thaksin's plane," he
said.
In the statement, read in Mr Bout's native Russian, the term intercept was
meant in the sense to "bring down".
"I told him that I could not teach him this," Mr Bout said.
Mr Sirichoke also allegedly asked Mr Bout about the state of Thaksin's
health and why other countries were uncooperative in helping to arrest and
extradite the former prime minister to Thailand.
"I told him I didn't know, and I also didn't know Thaksin too," Mr Bout
said.
He accused the United States of wrongfully portraying him as a billionaire
arms dealer with ties to a Colombian guerrilla group.
"I am not in possession of any Russian state military secrets," Mr Bout
said. "I have never worked either with Russian companies or state agencies."
Mr Bout is now awaiting extradition to the US after the Appeals Court on Aug
20 overturned a 2009 Criminal Court verdict against the move.
However, a second extradition request by the US on separate charges is
delaying the process.
Mrs Bout also showed a letter from the US signed by six US senators that was
sent to the Thai ambassador to the US, Don Pramudwinai, on Aug 18.She
claimed the letter was used by the US to pressure Thai authorities into
extraditing Mr Bout.
What's it all a Bout?
27 August 2010
I have not really
been following the story of Viktor Bout. But he has been the news headline
in Thailand all week so it is worth trying to find out what the fuss is all
about. He is said to speak six languages and go by at least seven different
aliases.
His nicknames
include the "Lord of War" and "Merchant of Death," Bout is a former Soviet
air force officer and linguist and is alleged to be one of the world's
biggest private weapons dealers. Weapons sold or delivered by Bout allegedly
boosted rebel wars in Africa, the Middle East and South America, with
customers including Liberia's Charles Taylor, Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi,
Afghanistan's Taliban and others.
In his defense it
is argued that his actions were well known and that he was used overtly or
covertly by governments - particularly the US, British and French - and the
United Nations who used his aircraft long after it was known who he was, and
what types of business he was engaged in. Douglas Farah defends Bout in his
extensive writing on Bout's deals.
His case has put Thailand in the middle of a turf battle between the United
States and Russia – both of which want Bout extradited to their country. The
pressure appears to have increased after the Appeals Court this week
overturned an earlier ruling by the Criminal Court and approved his
extradition to the US to face a string of criminal charges, including
terrorism.
A 75-seat jet carrying US marshals arrived in Bangkok on Monday to pick up
the Russian. But Bout is still in Bangkok. Yet the Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov was quoted by Moscow News online newspaper as saying he would
“do everything possible to bring Bout back to Russia”.
Most confusing of all the extradition case has spilled over into Thai
politics with allegations leveled against Democrat MP Sirichoke Sopha by
Puea Thai list MP Jatuporn Prompan.
Puea Thai MP Mr Jatuporn Prompan has accused Democrat MP and PM spokesman Mr
Sirichoke Sopha of visiting Bout at Bang Kwang maximum security prison in
April after office hours. During the visit, he claimed, the Democrat MP
asked the Russian to implicate former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in
involvement in arms smuggling in connection with a shipment of North Korean
arms seized some months ago from a plane which landed at Don Mueang airport
for refueling. He also claimed that the Abhisit government had offered Mr
Bout a deal but he refused.
Mr Sirichoke has admitted that he met Mr Bout but denied the quid-pro-quo
offer.
Sirichoke who is a
close aide to the prime minister said he wanted to ask Bout if he knew
anything about an airplane which landed in Bangkok on December 12, 2009,
with more than 30 tons of weapons onboard, purportedly being smuggled from
North Korea to Europe or the Middle East. Sirichoke said that Boout is close
to the Ukrainian pilot who flew the plane.
The plane's cargo was seized by Thailand, but the five-man crew - mostly
from Belarus and Kazakhstan - were eventually released with no independent
confirmation about who financed the smuggling operation, who sent the
Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane from Pyongyang, or where the weapons were
ultimately destined.
The Thai government denies interfering in the case. The government
definitely did not interfere in the extradition case involving Russian arms
dealer Viktor Bout as alleged by Puea Thai list MP and red-shirt leader
Jatuporn Prompan, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Thursday. "The
accusation is wrong," Mr Abhisit said.
The PM added that
"there are sources that suspect the arms trade may be some how linked to the
United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, but we will not accuse
anyone and will give everyone fair treatment." Although by making the link
Abhisit has already added to the implication that Bout, the arms shipment,
Thaksin and the red shirts are linked.
So did Abhisit
send Sirichoke to see Bout? Sirichoke is a the PM's representative. Why was
he visiting Bout? What was he offering and asking for?
Bout has been fighting extradition since his March 2008 arrest after a
Bangkok sting operation involving US agents posing as Colombian rebels.
Bout allegedly agreed to supply millions of dollars of weapons to
undercover US agents in Thailand posing as rebels from Colombia's Marxist
FARC group, which Washington considers a terrorist organisation.
A US indictment
accuses Bout of using a fleet of cargo planes to transport weapons and
military equipment to parts of the world including Africa, South America and
the Middle East.
It alleges that the arms he has sold or brokered have fuelled conflicts and
supported regimes in Afghanistan, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Sudan.
He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted in the United
States on charges including conspiracy to kill US nationals and to provide
material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organisation.
The USA describe
Bout as "one of the world's most prolific arms traffickers.
But the US attempt to extradite Bout "has descended close to farce, with
Thai agencies squabbling about how to proceed," reported London's Financial
Times on Wednesday. Bout meanwhile has submitted a written request to PM
Abhisit and the Bang Khwang prison chief asking for a halt in his
extradition to the US.
What I have not
worked out yet is a) why the Russians want him extradited and b) why he is
being held for two years in a Thai prison rather than on bail or under house
arrest. He does not appear to have been charged with any crime in Thailand.
Earlier today
(Saturday) Bout's wife held a press briefing with the Thai and foreign media
at the FCCT. The simple summary appears to be that she confirmed that the
Thai Government wanted to release Bout in exchange for testimony against
Thaksin.
So much for due
legal process.
Wacky UAE Races
25 August 2010
I always read with
amusement how the UAE will eliminate all deaths from road accidents in eh
next few years. Can a cat change its spots?
It is wild out
there. There are people driving who are completely fucking crazy - and I
have never used the f word on this website so it is here for emphasis.
In England I am
quite quick; I am in the fast lane on the motorway. On the Dubai to Abu
Dhabi race track almost everything is hurtling past me. And they hurtle past
me bumper to bumper; weaving between lanes; not an indicator to be seen.
Because it is really hard to drive, indicate and chat on your mobile at the
same time.
The speed limit is
120kph. I guess that means that the speed cameras will catch you if you
exceed 140kph. The speend cameras have either been switched off or the fines
are simply ignored.
There was a big
accident on the highway as we came back to Dubai. So guess what the morons
do. They all start driving up the hard shoulder so that they are not stuck
with the rest of us in four lanes of traffic. And what happens if the
emergency services want to get to the accident?
It is madness out
there. Total madness. And the authorities will never get it under any sort
of order or common sense. Because too many of the people who drive so badly
appear to be above the laws.
Bangkok blames
the international media
Alastair Leithead -
BBC College of Journalism
25 August 2010,
12:01
"The dust has settled in Bangkok after weeks of protest and a violent
crackdown in May that left 91 dead and hundreds injured.
But the anger is still simmering below the surface, with plenty of criticism
of international media coverage on newspaper letters pages and ex-pat
discussion boards.
I can tell you, there was a lot of anger out there. I suffered my first
'death Tweet' when someone half-heartedly threatened to "burn down the BBC"
the next time they were in London.
The red-shirts will be back for the next phase of what was something between
a class struggle and a not quite clear-cut case of political manipulation.
The poorer masses' folk hero and far-from-democrat Thaksin Shinawatra still
rattles the bars from his self-imposed exile outside Thailand, avoiding jail
for a corruption conviction.
Many people are still angry and still energised by what he did for them and
what he promises to do.
They aren't all dirt poor, but the core red-shirt supporters see the lives
of the rich elite in Bangkok and wonder why they don't get more of a fair
share.
Despite the government's efforts towards reconciliation, there is deep
division and a sense it cannot do anything right, however healthy the
economy may strangely be.
Media reform is the focus of a committee set up in the aftermath of the
fighting of 19 May. I asked the prime minister's spokesman why he felt the
work the government is actually doing towards targeting the poor is not
making an impact, and the answer was a little scary.
"That's exactly why we need media reform," he said.
Thailand suffers from self-censorship, primarily because of the lese majeste
laws which prevent open criticism of the king or the royal family. I can't
go into too much detail as I live in Bangkok and the closed world of lese
majeste investigations can result in 15-year jail terms.
The king is said to be above politics - not involved in these matters - but
his recent poor health has prompted questions as to where the country is
going next.
Thailand also suffers from real censorship. Tens of thousands of web pages
have been blocked; a special unit has been expanded to cope with the
monitoring. And much opposition media has been banned across the board and
labelled "hate speech".
Some community radio stations are guilty of 'hate speech', but a blanket ban
risks starving the angry of a vent for their point of view and inflaming the
very situation the government is trying to contain.
The continued State of Emergency in Bangkok and other provinces, and jailing
of red-shirt leaders, also forces the voices of criticism underground.
Thailand is especially polarised at the moment - even we foreign
correspondents, as outsiders, are labelled 'red' or 'yellow' - the colour of
the red's royalist, mass-protesting rivals.
The foreign media has been pilloried in the English-language press, often by
ex-pats rather than Thais. CNN took a lot more criticism than the BBC; very
little of it specific or justified. Social media, especially Twitter, saw a
frenzy of anti-media sentiment which at one point verged on a witch hunt.
The biggest criticism was that we were not covering the crisis deeply enough
- that, by missing out key details, our coverage was biased. We were also
wrongly accused of things by people who were clearly not watching our
output, which then became 'facts' in the Twittersphere.
If you've got this far in my blog post, you've done well - that stuff at the
top about Thaksin and who the red-shirts are and what they want is hard to
get your head around. And it's even harder to explain in the 20 seconds you
might be able to set aside for background context in a tight Ten O'Clock
News piece.
I even Tweeted a challenge for people to send - in one Tweet - a summary of
the background to the Thailand crisis ... and then to try to do it again for
people who had never been to the country.
I received some interesting answers and it went some way to helping explain
what the BBC's job is in Thailand. It is not a national TV channel. But in
the absence of unbiased Thai journalism - particularly on 19 May when the
violent events in the heart of Bangkok were not allowed to be shown live -
people looked to the international channels for news.
They were then disappointed not to be getting the in-depth analysis they
hoped for, and, perhaps more importantly, not getting the analysis which
fell in line with their point of view.
The daily Nation newspaper published complaint letters day after day - some
of them reprints of the same letters written by the same people.
On one occasion, I tried to confront the critics in an open discussion panel
at a university on media freedom. My comment "I struggle every day to ensure
I stick to the BBC's principles of balance, fairness and accuracy" was even
misquoted as "the BBC admitted it struggled to be balanced, fair or
accurate".
The dust may have settled for now, but the problems in Thailand have not
been solved. They will be back, and perhaps worse than before. The media
will again be attacked from all sides."
Sad but true
25 August 2010
Here is a sad
commentary from the Washington Post -
"Is it simply British to 'get smashed'?"
The Brits do like
to drink; it often comes as a shock to visitors and new residents.
many here contend Britain is literally drinking itself to death, with a
record 9,031 people dying from overdrinking in 2008, up 125 percent since
1992. Experts are warning of a national epidemic in liver disease.
One major survey
released in April showed the British to be the heaviest binge drinkers in
the European Union, with almost one in nine reportedly guzzling at least
seven drinks a sitting.
In many ways it is
worse when the Brits export their drinking; flights from Newcastle, Glasgow
and Manchester are notorious for drinking the bar dry. And they do know it
back; a group heading to Thailand on last weekend's flight from Newcastle
had already made the airplane smell like their local by the time we reached
Dubai. I would have hated to be responsible for cleaning that plane.
Now I hate to
sound like an old square; but surely these people don't leave their homes
looking in that condition; so why treat the floor of the airplane as a waste
disposal compactor?
Airlines should
all cease to serve alcohol; all stop on the same day; without exception -
sorry first class posh people and freebies. None for you either. It would
make airplanes a much safer and pleasant place to be.
But the article is
correct. A walk through Hartlepool on an Friday night is enough to show that
there are places and pubs you would not want to be near. By all accounts
Plymouth is even worse. And what are some of these people wearing? Whatever
it is it is usually many sizes too small.
There can be few
things that waste public money more than hospitalization due to alcohol. Yet
the annual number of alcohol-related hospital admissions - from slips and
falls to face lacerations from fights is up by 85 percent since 2003.
The British Beer
and Pub Association have a simple view: quote a spokesman: "Binge drinking
is British," he said. "Chaucer, Shakespeare and Dickens are littered with
references to heavy drinking. Harold lost the battle of Hastings because of
a big night on the mead. You're not going to change this by fiddling about
with a few laws."
Maybe not. But
something needs to be done.
Australia's
soap-opera election
24 August 2010
That's another
fine mess you got us into Stan Laurel used to say to Oliver Hardy. He could
have been speaking about the mess that is now the Aussie general election. I
am not sure that it really makes much difference in Australia but there is
still no government and no clarity on who will be the next Prime Minister.
But what the hung
election has done is highlight the role of the Queen's representative in
Australia, the Governor-General, and therein lies a major problem.
The
Governor-General, Quentin Bryce, must summon the Parliament to meet not
later than 30 days after the day appointed for the return of the writs,
which will be on October 27.
In theory, the Governor-General is entrusted with the responsibility of
deciding which party is most likely to be able to form a stable Government.
However, arguably the most important constitutional convention is that the
Governor-General acts on the advice of the Prime Minister.
The conventions provide that Julia Gillard, as the incumbent and caretaker
Prime Minister, gets the first opportunity to form a new Government.
Now, onto the
Governor-General who just happens to be the mother-in-law of Bill Shorten, a
Labor Member of Parliament. Mr Shorten, who is married to her daughter
Chloe. The reality is that while his connection to the Governor-General is
unfortunate, it is of no constitutional significance.
That has not
stopped Ms Bryce from seeking legal advice on whether her family link to
Labor powerbroker Bill Shorten creates a conflict of interest.
If Ms Bryce concluded that her relationship with Mr Shorten could be
perceived as a conflict of interest, the task of resolving a political
deadlock might fall to the longest-serving state governor, Marie Bashir in
New South Wales.
Out of the
Woods
23 August 2010
It was inevitable.
Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren confirmed today that their marriage is over.
The two appeared in front of a judge at Bay County (Florida) Circuit Court
in Panama City, FL. The terms of the divorce weren’t disclosed, except that
Tiger and Elin will share parenting of their two children, Sam and Charlie.
Here’s the statement issued on TigerWoods.com:
We are sad that our marriage is over and we wish each other the very best
for the future. While we are no longer married, we are the parents of two
wonderful children and their happiness has been, and will always be, of
paramount importance to both of us. Once we came to the decision that our
marriage was at an end, the primary focus of our amicable discussions has
been to ensure their future well-being. The weeks and months ahead will not
be easy for them as we adjust to a new family situation, which is why our
privacy must be a principal concern.
In other words, keep the press away from our family.
You can also
assume that the parasites (I mean lawyers) have done well because they both
get free advertising on Mr. Wood's web site: how many lawyers did she need?
Ms. Nordegren was represented by McGuireWoods attorneys Richard Cullen and
Dennis I. Belcher in Richmond, Scott S. Cairns in Jacksonville and Walter H.
White, Jr., and Josefin Lonnborg in London, assisted by Rebecca Palmer of
Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster, Kantor & Reed, P.A. Thomas J. Sasser of the West
Palm Beach, Florida firm of Sasser, Cestero and Sasser P.A.
Peter T. Mott of
the Southport, Connecticut firm of Brody Wilkinson, P.C., Mr. Woods’ long
time general counsel, represented Mr. Woods.
Tiger will play in The Barclay’s Championship this week. He will almost
certainly get a captain's pick for the Ryder Cup. It would ne no fun without
him there.
And then it should
be back to normal. The guy has had to control himself for months; I am sure
it is affecting his golf. It is hard to be good when you have been that bad!
Tiger may be
poorer; but he may also be back.
Truly, madly,
bloodily
23 August 2010
Anna Paquin and
Stephen Moyer, the stars of TV vampire series True Blood, have married in
Malibu a year after announcing their engagement, US celebrity magazines have
reported.
Paquin, 28, and British actor Moyer, 40, married at a private home in the
southern California beach enclave in a sunset ceremony on Saturday (local
time) attended by several of their True Blood co-stars, US Weekly and People
magazines said.
Paquin, who won an Oscar at the age of 11 for her supporting role in the
1993 movie The Piano, plays psychic waitress Sookie Stackhouse in the HBO TV
show to Moyer's vampire Bill Compton.
The actress, who was born in Canada and raised in New Zealand, made
headlines in April by declaring she was bisexual as part of a campaign for
gay rights.
The couple met on the True Blood set and have said their first kiss took
place on-screen.
Moyer, who has two children from previous relationships, said in the July
issue of Playboy that trust was the key to their relationship.
"We trust each other so implicitly that there's never anything hurtful; it
always comes from a loving place," he told Playboy.
"It's not as though people I've been with before haven't been loving, but
with Anna it's just about pure trust, on camera and off. I have never
trusted anybody like I trust Anna."
Guess Erik the
Viking is out of bounds now!
DSI - Dithering special investigators
23 August 2010
The dithering
Department of Special Investigation (DSI) said in Bangkok today that it
cannot at this stage reach a finding in its investigation into the deaths of
91 people killed in the violence between April 10 and May 21 during the
street protests by the red-shirt United Front for Democracy against
Dictatorship (UDD).
So they had a big
press conference to announce that they are going no where. The press
conference was held by Col Fuangwich Anirutthewa, secretary to the justice
minister, and Pol Col Narat Savetnant, deputy director-general of the DSI.
From its preliminary investigation into the 91 people who died all the DSI
could conclude at this stage is that the deaths were unnatural and caused by
other persons under Article 148 of the Criminal Procedures Code. I think we
all knew this.
The DSI knew only what caused their death and types of weapons used, but
could not yet say who killed them.
As for the cases involving two foreign journalists - Japanese Reuters
cameraman Hiro Muramoto, 43, and independent Italian press photographer
Fabio Polenghi, 45 - who were killed in separate clashes between soldiers
and protesting red-shirts, the DSI could only conclude that they were killed
by bullets of high velocity and the types of weapons used.
However, it could not yet conclude who fired the weapons due to lack of
witnesses at the scene, and some of their belongings such as mobile phones
and digital cameras had disappeared.
Muramoto was killed on April 10 during the clash at Khok Wua intersection.
Polenghi was shot near Ratchaprasong intersection on May 19.
On a report that the Japanese journalist was seen to have been shot by
soldiers, Pol Col Narat said there were no witnesses to confirm this.
He said the DSI had paid special attention to the two cases since they were
delicate and could affect Thailand's relations with Japan and Italy.
"The DSI cannot yet disclose details on the individual autopsies of those
killed. "We have not obtained all the information needed and many pieces of
the jigsaw are still missing. We can only say that we will establish the
truth."
"For now, we cannot yet make an overall conclusion on the death of the 91
people. We need more time to investigate in order to know who caused the
deaths," Pol Col Narat said.
The DSI deputy chief called for the mass media to give the authorities
concerned justice, saying that not all of the 91 were killed by the
authorities because "armed men in black" were also involved in the violent
incidents during the prolonged anti-government protests.
So a press
conference to say that no progress at all has been made. One thing is
certain. If there was even a hint that the foreign reporters had been killed
by red/black shirts then the DSI would be making relieved announcements.
BKK opens
disfunctional airport link
23 August 2010
At last. The
Bangkok AIrport rail link from the city is now open.
The Airport Link's City Line and Express Service systems will run every 15
minutes. The City Line will operate around the clock while the Express
Service will run from 6am to 1am.
The trains have a maximum speed of 160 kilometres per hour.
The City Line will make eight stops across the capital starting from
Phayathai before heading to the airport. It's fares start at 15 baht.
The Express Service is a 15-minute non-stop journey between the Makkasan
terminal and Suvarnabhumi and the fare is 100 baht per trip. However, the
fare will be raised to 150 baht after the airport check-in system are fully
set up at Makkasan station.
Now the problems
are: the fare is expensive if you are a group of two or more people - take a
taxi. Makkasan terminal is not connected to the BKK BTS or subway systems.
There is a
shortage of escalators at the terminal. There is only one lift so you will
have to queue.
Australia's
didgeridoo parliament
22 August 2010
A didgeridoo needs
a lot of hot air to blow it. So this is perfect for politicians that have
truly made a mess of this election and are now scrambling to claim any sort
of victory.
After Saturday's
election Australia is headed for its first hung parliament since World War
II after neither of the country's main political parties secured a clear
majority.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard and conservative opposition leader Tony Abbott
are now negotiating with a handful of rural independents and one Green MP.
Gillard, who became prime minister on June 24 when she toppled former Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd in a party coup, will remain caretaker until election
officials clarify the results in the 150 lower house seats, and until a new
government is formed.
To win outright, a party needs 76 of the 150 lower house seats.
The latest figures
from Australian public broadcaster ABC give Labor 72 seats and the coalition
69 seats. The Greens secured one seat and independents won three.
Five seats have
not yet been called.
Gillard suffered a
major voter backlash, but the ruling Labor Party still attracted just over
50 percent of the vote. The Brutus like assault on Kevin Rudd looks to have
back-fired heavily.
Abbott is within striking distance of forming government, and may have less
clout with Independents. He will not win support from the Green MP, and
Tasmanian Andrew Wilkie is no fan of the Liberal Party. The remaining
three independents have said they would enter negotiations with "a blank
sheet of paper." However, two of those independents are wary of Abbott's
plans to abandon a $38 billion national broadband network. Abbott will need
to convince them he can deliver policies that benefit rural Australians.
Assuming a government can be found then a new early election is unlikely
since there is no reason to believe a fresh election would deliver a
different result.
The three
independents, Bob Katter, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, are the talk of
Australia.
Another independent, Andrew Wilkie, looks on course to win the Tasmanian
seat of Denison, while Adam Bandt secured one seat for the Greens.
Counting of postal
votes could continue for up to two weeks, with four seats too close to call.
Simple pleasures in Seaton Carew
21 August 2010
I was in Durham
this morning to renew my passport. It is a nice, friendly town, shaped by
the River Wear and dominated by it's cathedral.
I drove back to
Hartlepool and onto Seaton Carew to see the coastline and there in front of
me was the
Seaton
Carew golf club.
It was 4.30pm. I
had no golf shoes; and was wearing a collarless sweater. But they took my
green fee; found an old set of clubs in the pro shop loft; gave me some old
balls and off I went.
I walked the
course; pulled my cart. It took just 2 and 1/2 hours and it was great fun.
It is a classic links course cut out of the sand dunes. The
wind was blowing quite hard and across the course. Yet I parred 5 of the
first 10 holes. OK th eback 9 was not quite so good. I was getting tired and
hungry! I have not played true links golf for years. It is so different. You
take a bit off he ball; it is not a power game; you play under or with the
wind. You pitch the ball in short to the green and let it run. The greens
are small and cut into the dunes; the bunkers are deep and best avoided.
It was great fun.
And yes this is
the industrial north so a power station at the end of the course is
acceptably ugly. The nearby waste tip is foul and sadly I was down wind of
it.
And today there
was a nearby post modern open air punk concert on the other side of the road
from the course; the neighbours must have been upset. It was loud. And again
I was downwind and the noise just blasted over the course.
Sky Sport
was
at the course in November 2009
"Seaton Carew has
everything any golfer would want, but most importantly it is a course which
could stand shoulder to shoulder with anything in Britain.
A Championship links is what awaits you at Seaton Carew, a small seaside
resort on the North East cost of England - just south of Hartlepool.
Established in 1874, Seaton Carew is the tenth oldest course, (although it
could even be as high as seventh), just ten year's younger than Royal North
Devon, which is the oldest in the country.
Founded by a highly regarded R&A member of the time, Seaton Carew is able to
rub shoulders with courses with much bigger reputations
For this venture to the coast, I am accompanied by my friend Roger West -
who is a Links virgin - having played for five years purely on Parkland
fare.
Despite having not played a Championship links, Roger and myself knew what
we would like to see, having already witnessed the wonder of Turnberry when
visiting for the Open Championship itself just a few months earlier.
Now many of you will be wondering just how Seaton Carew could be compared to
some of the most renowned courses in the world - well quite easily, but
whether it would compare favourably in the flesh would be another matter.
We turn up on a sun-drenched day, and Seaton Carew, like many links, has an
understated, but thoroughly pleasing club-house, which looks over the
first-tee and 18th - which already has it in my good books as this are a
must for me.
So having presented ourselves in the club shop, we find out that today we
are playing the Micklem Course. Seaton has 22 holes, the main and
most-prized course being the Brabazon, but there are a total of five
lay-outs with the Old Course, New Course and Bishop also in the repertoire.
Outstanding opening
We make our way to the first hole - The Rocket. A not too daunting opening
shot, although the cavernous bunkers green-side are already in our thoughts.
But we both negotiate the imposing green with decent approaches - indeed
Roger pars his first-ever links hole!
The stroke index 2 second hole, The Long Trail - bites us back immediately,
although I am thoroughly happy with a 6, whilst Roger's errant tee-shot
means a 9 is all he can do.
The third hole, as we get used to our surroundings, is the Doctor - a
165-yard par 3 with a crescent of daunting, hugely deep bunkers surrounding
the approach. This heralds my best shot of the day as I land within 12-feet
- Roger comes up short and has to make do with 6.
Seaton's opening is a true pleasure as we wind our way towards the turn.
Indeed Roger is also enjoying his foray - which includes a birdie on the
7th, Sandhills.
Having turned we find the Lagoon 11th, yet another brilliant par four, with
- as the title suggests - a Lagoon-esque feature on the right. Indeed Roger
is so intrigued he puts his drive in the middle of it!
Next up is The Gare - and my personal favourite - an uphill par four which
cuts through the Buckthorn Bushes which beautifully border Seaton. A
deliberate piece of design in the late 1890s which helped prevent the beach
intruding too much onto the course.
Now as we enter the final stretch of holes, this is where Seaton bares its
teeth - the 13th, Chapel Open, is a blind tee-shot over the Buckthorn. As
hard a tee-shot as you could dare for! We are now limping our way through as
hole after hole, the course takes its revenge for our earlier declarations
of how well we were playing it.
The final par 3, the 15th - Cosy Corner, is anything but! Still we had not
seen the true horrors to wait on the final run-in back to the club house.
The 17th is the club's signature hole. I had already read before playing
Seaton that Snag was one of the true great holes of British golf, one of the
changes made by leading golf course designer Alister MacKenzie - of Augusta
fame - in the course's infancy. Indeed some golf historians even suggest
that seeing the Snag is reason enough to visit Seaton.
And despite that sort of build up, The Snag doesn't disappoint. From the tee
you just have a glimpse of the fairway and green as again you need to go
over the Buckhtorn - but if you do find the fairway then the approach into
the green needs to be accurate with bunkers left and right. Indeed, I am
more than happy with my 5 as another stray tee-shot leads Roger to a 7.
The 18th is not dissimilar to Snag, although the Bill Hector is straighter
and has fewer green-side hazards. This time the Buckthorn all the way down
the right swallows my drive! We both limp in with 6s.
We look back; after we both broke 50 on the front (43 & 48 respectively),
the second nine really did teach us a lesson. I came back with 50 and Roger
is just over 60.
But as we come off, we both feel as if we have wrestled with mother nature
and emerged just about even. As Roger confesses, the difference between
Links and Parkland golf is more than just chalk and cheese, they are two
totally different environments.
And what of the Seaton environment that we have just sampled?
Granted Seaton does not have the light house of Turnberry to gaze down upon
it, indeed many will condemn the industrial heartland which surrounds the
vista. But this is the North East of England - they are proud of their
heritage, and although views play an important aspect in any course, Seaston
itself blows you away with it landscape and the purity of its course."
America's
identity crisis
21 August 2010
By Rupert Cornwell
The Independent
Listening to the Great Mosque Debate, you'd imagine that minarets and domes
are about to rise on the exact spot where the Twin Towers stood – and that
at the appointed hour, a muezzin's voice will soon ring out, summoning a
city to bow to the faith of Mohamed Atta and his fellow hijackers.
The truth is a little different. Essentially, the New York authorities have
given planning permission for a proposed Islamic cultural centre that, apart
from a place of worship, will contain, inter alia, basketball courts, a
restaurant, and babysitting facilities, as well as a memorial to the victims
of 9/11. And all this is contingent on funding being secured for the
project.
Moreover, the 13-storey construction would be two blocks away from Ground
Zero. In a vast and variegated city, two blocks can feel like a dozen miles.
But why let facts get in the way of a good story, particularly when it's
election season and there is pandering to be done, prejudices to be stirred
and votes to be won? American politics is often an unedifying spectacle. But
rarely has it plumbed such depths as now in the midst of this typically
news-less August.
Even so, were this merely a matter of party politics, the affair would not
be so serious. The real risk is that it will reinforce the impression that
the US, contrary to every assurance given since 9/11, is opposed to Islam,
period. Which is precisely the argument of a certain Osama bin Laden.
Few here are making that point. But what are politicians elected for, if not
to lead? The 2001 attacks were of course a ghastly crime, still raw in the
public consciousness. But no one is asking America's politicians to commit
professional suicide by playing down the atrocity of the event. All that is
requested is a little honesty. Instead, especially if they are Republicans,
they pander.
No one used to make the point more often and more emphatically than George W
Bush that Bin Laden and the 19 hijackers of 9/11 did not represent all
Muslims. The 43rd president's reputation these days may be much diminished,
but a reminder from him now to this effect, apropos of the fracas over the
mosque, would have been timely. Alas, from the memoir writer in Dallas, not
a word – although, to be fair, some of his former aides have spoken out
against the nonsense spouted by party "leaders" who should know better.
Setting an especially tawdry example, predictably, has been the
ever-intemperate Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker who is flirting with a
2012 presidential run. To go ahead with the project would be comparable to
Nazis "putting up a sign outside the Holocaust Museum in Washington", he has
declared, adding that there should be no mosque near Ground Zero so long as
there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia.
Sarah Palin has also chipped in, tweeting to her followers that "Ground Zero
Mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation. It stabs hearts."
Mitt Romney, a near-certain 2012 contender, has taken an ostensibly more
statesmanlike approach, pointing to "the wishes of the families of the
deceased", and the danger of the mosque becoming a recruiting ground for
terrorists. In fact, victims' families are divided on the issue, with many
arguing that the project should go ahead as planned.
This chorus of competing voices, of course, bespeaks the current disarray of
the Republican Party, united only in saying "no" to anything proposed by
Barack Obama and Democrats. But the enduring economic crisis seems set to
hand them a resounding victory in November's congressional elections; if
whipping up a Ground Zero controversy brings in even more votes, why not?
And remember, this is a country where almost 20 per cent of the population
believe that Obama himself is a Muslim, according to a poll this week.
Sadly, the current president's performance has been little more impressive.
First he supported the project, only to backtrack the next day. He had
merely been talking about freedom of religion, he explained, "not the wisdom
of the decision to put a mosque there".
Harry Reid, the Democrats' leader in the Senate, who faces a tough
re-election fight this autumn in Nevada, has also come out against the
mosque as "not a good idea". Republicans do not have a monopoly of
pandering.
Both Obama and Reid would have done better to repeat the sentiments of New
York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, the most eloquent defender of the project
in its envisaged site – on the grounds of both freedom of religion and
freedom of property.
"We would be untrue to the best part of ourselves, and who we are as New
Yorkers and Americans," Bloomberg has said, "if we said 'no' to a mosque in
Lower Manhattan."
That, incidentally, is also a defining difference between the open society
of the US, and the intolerant Wahhabites in Riyadh.
Perhaps a compromise will emerge, and the centre will go ahead, but a little
further away, so as not to stir sensibilities unduly. That solution is
advocated by Bloomberg's Republican predecessor, Rudolph Giuliani; as the
man who led the city through 9/11, Giuliani's views may be persuasive. But
they would be a cave-in nonetheless.
For as David Ramadan, a Republican and an Arab-American, put it on public
radio here the other day, "If two blocks is too close, is four blocks
acceptable? Or six blocks? Or eight blocks? Does our party believe that one
can only practise his or her religion in certain places, which define
boundaries, and away from the disapproving glances of some other citizens?"
If that is the case, millions more Muslims around the world will
understandably take the view that America believes that Islam is an inferior
faith, to be circumscribed and marginalised. The extremists will indeed find
new recruits, and the meaning of 9/11 will be eroded. For Ground Zero is
indeed a place of unspeakable wickedness, but not a place of Christian
martyrdom. Among the victims that day were 300 Muslims as well.
Not quite as planned
20 August 2010
When I first
started work (before my lovely wife was born) I was sent on a three week
training program at Warwick University. Sitting alongside me in the middle
of the class were the splendidly cerebral Julian Ozone, the rogueish Stephen
Milner and the impish Maggie Hough. I dont know what became of Julian and
Maggie. In my mind Julian is sorting our the debt woes of third world banks
and is featured in the FT and Maggie is running a first rate charity
organisation with vaguely left wing leanings and being featured in the
Guardian and in the paper sold in shopping malls by job hunters.
Stephen meanwhile
found the woman of his dreams, a little older (his women always were!),
smart, very smart, and someone who wanted to make the world a better place
and worked so hard to do so.
Sadly she died far
too young in a coach accident while working with the UN in Jordan.
It was her funeral
today - I should be there. Instead 12 hours after my day started I have am
on a bus to Newguay hoping for a plane to take me to Leeds.
The day started at
4.30am. And I was at Plymouth AIrport in good time for the 6.30am flight.
But this is England. We sat on the airplane until 9.20am when they decided
to cancel the flight.
Now there are not
many flights from Plymouth. This is not a Dubai. This is a small provincial
UK airport with a smattering of domestic flights.
The weather hardly
lifted all day. A couple of flights got away - one to Gatwick, one to the
Channel Isles. Nothing landed.
So at 4pm we were
bussed to Newquay - never been there before. And then flew from Newquay to
Bristol and onto Leeds - arriving 11 hours late. Got grumpy at the hopeless
man at Europcar - wont rent from them again. A 90 minute drive to Hartlepool
- a bed at the Premier Inn and Penang Gai at a local Thai restaurant. Where
the staff do all speak Thai.
Rough day. And
feel bad that I did not get to the funeral. But this is summer in England
and I had given myself lots of time to get to the North.
Red
Shirt v Yellow Shirt: Thailand's political struggle
The supporters of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra are massing
again - By David McNeill in Lamphun
20 August 2010 -
The Independent
In northern Thailand, the world has been turned upside down. Men branded
terrorists are heroes, the police are the enemy and children wear T-shirts
hailing anti-government rebels. Driven from power, branded a criminal and
hounded by prosecutors, the exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra
is venerated here, his smiling features emblazoned on cups, flags and dolls
at a rally of his supporters in this provincial town. Polls taken in this
district put his support at more than 70 per cent.
Three months ago, Thaksin's Red Shirt supporters – many from this area –
were violently cleared from the Bangkok streets after occupying the city
centre for nine weeks. When the smoke had lifted, at least 90 people were
dead, 2,000 injured and the centre of one of Asia's most freewheeling,
laid-back cities resembled a war zone. Police have since arrested many of
the leaders and smashed their support network. But here in Lamphun, 420
miles and a political world away from the capital, the protesters are
preparing for their comeback.
"I am one million per cent certain that the Red Shirts will return," said
Sriwan Janhong, one of the movement's local leaders.
Like many of the leadership, he is fighting terrorism charges and was forced
last month to close his restaurant business in nearby Chiang Mai city. "When
you push people down, they come back violently," he warned.
At a rally in a warehouse, thousands of supporters pledged to fight back.
"The struggle won't end until the government allows free elections and
listens to us," said one, who identified herself as Dao. "We're showing
today that we're still alive."
Despite government claims to have restored order, Thailand remains more
bitterly divided than ever between these mostly poor people and the
country's conservative, military and royalist elite. The Reds accuse
conservatives of eviscerating Thailand's state in the name of protecting the
country's ailing king.
Their Yellow-shirted opponents say Mr Thaksin is manipulating this movement
from abroad to engineer a comeback. Most believe that the colour-coded
political struggle that has convulsed the country since Mr Thaksin was
dumped from power in a bloodless coup in 2006 will again erupt into
violence.
Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Prime Minister, has in effect declared war on the Red
Shirts since the Bangkok siege ended, drawing up draconian laws and
reshuffling the government and military to strengthen the anti-rebel ranks.
General Prayuth Chan-ocha, a key figure in the 2006 coup, is set to take
over as army chief. The authorities have been given a mostly free hand to
round up the rebels and their supporters. Some 40,000 websites have been
shut down, according to the Bangkok Post; website users, operators and
service providers have been arrested. The Red Shirts say some people have
simply been disappeared. "It's a witch hunt," said Dao, who works as a
foreign tour guide.
Dao and her colleagues are driven by anger at what they see as a political
system stacked hopelessly against them. It was people like her who turned
out five years ago in record numbers to vote Mr Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai
Party into power by a landslide. A year after the 2006 coup, they elected
his party back into office, despite the military government's best attempts
to move the constitutional goalposts. The army and royalists then used the
courts to dissolve the party and backed a new government led by Mr Abhisit's
Democrats.
Critics of the Red Shirts say that they are thugs and anarchists, led by a
man who became enormously rich while in office, killed thousands in his
battles against drugs and the restive south, and censored the press. But few
doubt that if Mr Thaksin were to return from exile, he would win again.
"They feel that they are not being fairly treated by the government, and
that is fuelling their resentment," said Surapong Tovichakchaikul, an
opposition lawmaker in nearby Chiang Mai province who attended the rally as
an observer. He rejects government claims that the Red Shirts who took over
Bangkok were terrorists or that their campaign is orchestrated from abroad
by Mr Thaksin. "He is a figurehead. Terrorists have bombs and guns – where
are these weapons? The government never seized any. They're just using that
excuse to ban them."
Around the nearby small town of San Kamphaeng in Chiang Mai province, where
Mr Thaksin and his family ran a silk business, his portrait can be found on
public walls and in local restaurants. This is the political heartland of
the businessman-turned politician, who made over a billion dollars when he
sold his stake in his giant telecom conglomerate, Shin Corporation. There is
little support here for the government's claims that he was kicked out for
tax evasion, selling off national assets and insulting the King. "He's a
politician, so he wasn't perfect, but he did a lot for ordinary people,"
said one shopkeeper. The government has taken little action against the
Yellows, who took over Government House and occupied the country's main
international airport for a week in 2008. "It's just complete double
standards," says Mr Janhong. "All the attention is on us."
Radio presenters debate if fascism is creeping into Thailand, recalling how
it arose in Europe as an elite reaction to the growing clout of the rural
and urban poor. The Reds say conservatives are using Thailand's arcane lèse
majesté laws to stifle protest and throttle debate. Few are safe from
increasingly wild accusations of insulting the king – rural peasants,
foreign reporters, even the political establishment. Lèse majesté is
punishable with up to 15 years in jail.
The world's longest-reigning monarch, King Bhumibol, 82, is in fragile
health, and has reportedly been in hospital for most of the last year. Some
believe that his death could be the trigger for the long-awaited showdown
between Reds and Yellows. One of the few places in Thailand where the King's
portrait cannot be found is at Red Shirt rallies. Instead, stalls in Lamphun
sell DVDs celebrating the Battle of Bangkok and T-shirts bearing the picture
of Khattiya Sawasdipol, the renegade Thai general who joined the Red side in
Bangkok and was shot dead. On the stage, one of the Red Shirts' core
national leaders, Jatuporn Prompan, was speaking. A veteran democracy
activist and a member of the Thai parliament, Jatuporn is one of the few
leaders not under lock and key. "Our fight will go on," he told the crowd.
"Death will not stop us."
Colour-coded rebels
The Red Shirts
The group, officially named the United Front for Democracy Against
Dictatorship, is largely made up of rural workers, students and activists.
While Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister, is a key figure, not
all the Red Shirts want him back in power. He became popular for funding
healthcare and education reforms for the masses, but was criticised for
leading a violent campaign against a Muslim insurgency.
The Yellow Shirts
The People's Alliance for Democracy was behind street protests that led to
the coup that ousted Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006. The loose grouping of
royalists (the yellow is the colour of the king) and businessmen accused Mr
Thaksin of corruption. Its leadership has links with the military and the
royal circle. After Mr Thaksin's allies won a post-coup election, the Yellow
Shirts staged fresh protests that led to another change in power.
The cockpit strikes back
18 August 2010
I read this on a
crew confessions forum - it is so good I had to share it:
On a DC10 in
Chicago, waiting for pushback. F/As call the cockpit; there’s some kind of
conflict in coach. Captain’s reading a magazine, I’m the plumber. He says
“go back there, boy, and see what the problem is.”
In mid cabin, a
40-ish woman is arguing with two F/As who are telling her there’s no more
room for hanging bags in the closet (remember those “up and away” hanging
closets?) so the bag would have to be checked. I take the garment bag,
assure the woman that I will personally get a gate check tag, and put it in
the cargo hold myself. I get a tag from the gate counter, go downstairs onto
the sub-freezing ramp in shirt sleeves and place the bag in a cargo module
about to be loaded.
Then I personally
take the claim check to her in the main cabin. She just glares at me and
says, “You f___cking assh_le.” Without saying a word, I went through First
Class, out the L-1 door to the jetbridge, then downstairs AGAIN freezing in
shirtsleeves, found her garment bag, ripped the destination tag off, then
walked over to an MD80 going I have no idea where and threw her bag into the
forward cargo hold.
Thawing out on the
flight deck, the captain’s still reading his magazine. “Problem solved,
boy?” “Yessir. All taken care of.”
Thailand’s
anti-corruption bureau is a paper tiger
16 August 2010
Financial Times
Why do so many of Thailand’s high-level corruption cases come to light
overseas in the United States rather than here in Bangkok?
The country lies about half way down Transparency International’s Corruption
Perceptions Index, ranked 84th out of 108 countries, a little worse than
Panama and not quite as bent as Lesotho, but prosecutions are rare. Two
recent cases being pursued in the US highlight this reality.
A federal judge in Los Angeles recently sentenced film producers Gerald and
Patricia Green to six months in jail for paying a Thai tourism official
$1.8m in bribes to secure the rights to mount the Bangkok Film Festival, an
event that earned them $13m from ticket sales and other receipts.
And then just last week, US Department of Justice accused two large tobacco
corporations - subsidiaries of Alliance One International and Universal Corp
— of giving bribes and junkets to officials from the Thailand Tobacco
Monopoly to persuade them to buy leaf at inflated prices.
Thailand’s National Anti-Corruption Commission does seem to be moving on the
allegations that Juthamas Siriwan, the former head of the Tourism Authority
of Thailand, and her daughter took the Green’s money in return for giving
them the Bangkok Film Festival franchise, but six months after the charges
surfaced in Los Angeles, neither has been formally charged.
Both Juthamas and her daughter Jittisopa deny any wrongdoing.
Prosecutions are rare unless you happen to be Thaksin Shinawatra, the
controversial former prime minister who was removed in a military coup in
2006. He’s been tried twice in corruption-related cases, and found guilty
both times. Earlier this week the Supreme Court rejected his appeal against
the seizure of Bt47.4bn of his assets.
Thaksin, who lives in exile to avoid the two-year sentence that was imposed
in an earlier court case, denies the charges and says the charges were
politically motivated.
Know the rules
16 August 2010
Just when the
mountain of opinion begins to build against sympathy for Johnson, the other
side of the brain begins to fight back.
The bunker, in
plain view, looks too bunker-ish to be mistaken for anything else. There’s
even a lip to it and a shape. Johnson himself, if he went out to see it
again, would have to agree.
And yet the Fredrick brothers felt sympathy for him, saying the moment was
intense and rushed and “chaotic,” with people everywhere, the hillside
densely populated, the features hard to discern.
Where, it can be asked, was rules official David Price to remind Johnson, or
Johnson’s caddie, Bobby Brown, about the unique nature of Whistling Straits,
that bunkers can be trampled by fans and still be considered hazards?
Surely, when heart rates are pumping, and major championships are speeding
to a finish, a rules official can give a nudge, or a suggestion, to save
Johnson embarrassment. It’s a fair question, and the PGA of America, surely,
should take some of the heat.
Except, it won’t.
“The walking official is there designed to help the player and answer the
player’s question,” said Mark Wilson, co-chairman of the PGA of America
rules committee. “But the walking official in stroke play is not there to
strategize every player’s stroke, or hover over a player who is making a
stroke. These are experienced tour players who, by and large, know the
rules.”
And then there is the question of logistics. When history looks back on the
Great Dustin Johnson Bunker Caper, the facts of geography and human traffic
will loom large. Thousands of fans were camped on that line of hills where
Johnson’s drive landed, and it almost took a fire alarm-styled evacuation of
hundreds of them to clear the way for Johnson to find his ball. The foot
traffic both obscured the nature of the bunker, making its features hard to
discern, and made Johnson’s line of sight to the green difficult to clear.
Even CBS’ David Feherty only stayed briefly at the scene, as rowdy fans
chanted his name and made it uncomfortable for him to linger.
And yet, inside
the locker room behind him, damning evidence hung. An 8x11 sheet of paper
was taped to the end of the locker stalls, easy to see.
The verbiage hurts Johnson’s case:
“All areas of the course that were designed and built as sand bunkers will
be played as bunkers [hazards], whether or not they have been raked. This
will mean that many bunkers positioned outside of the ropes, as well as some
areas of bunkers inside the ropes, close to the rope line, will likely
include numerous footprints, heel prints and tire tracks during the play of
the Championship. Such irregularities of surface are a part of the game and
no free relief will be available from these conditions.”
The language is free of ambiguity, the posting of the sheet in clear view.
Stumbling
in chains towards a poll?
By Chang Noi
Published on August 9, 2010 The Nation
"Do you laugh or cry? Kanit na Nakhon, in his new role heading a
reconciliation commission, asks the government to stop chaining up the
red-shirt detainees like oarsmen on a slave ship. After all, they gave
themselves up. The head of the department of corrections responds that
"developed countries" such as Singapore follow the same practice, and the
only problem is that the Thai prison outfit has short sleeves and short
pants so the chains show.
Somehow this
incident sums up the current situation. After the Songkran troubles last
year, the talk of reconciliation lasted only a few weeks. The pattern is
being repeated. The double standards are getting more blatant. The judiciary
activates the case against the yellow-shirt leaders over the airport
evacuation, but then it disappears again, and a few days later yet more
charges are loaded on the red-shirt detainees. One case for the dissolution
of the Democrat Party suddenly dissolves into thin air. The yellow-shirts
defy the Emergency Decree to hold protests over Khao Preah Vihear, and the
government spokesman says that's alright. Meanwhile even school children
suffer harassment if they dare to support the red-shirt cause.
What are the prospects for an election in this atmosphere? Were the
Democrats to lose their grip on power, they and their allies (both in the
Parliament and elsewhere) could only expect revenge - or to put it another
way, to be treated to the same double standards in reverse. That must reduce
their enthusiasm for holding an election that the Democrats would be hard
put to win.
Some are already saying that Thailand's days of electoral democracy are
over. After all, the results of the last three elections have been set aside
by court rulings, a coup, and parliamentary manoeuvring. What is the point
of holding another if its outcome could only be the same? Every time Abhisit
talks about prospects for an election, he adds a condition that the country
must be at peace to allow unrestricted campaigning. But since the
government's own aggression is making such a peace more and more remote,
this condition is Catch 22.
In this scenario, the current coalition hangs on to the bitter end of its
term in December 2011, and then some accident or unusual event provides an
excuse for the coalition to keep going. Some in the business community have
started talking enthusiastically about a "Chinese model" to justify
Thailand's transition to its post-democratic era. China is doing very well
with a free-market economy and an authoritarian state.
But there's a strong counter-argument that this is all fantasy. There is
plenty of evidence that the overwhelming majority of the Thai people want to
retain electoral democracy. The Chinese model works in China because the
state is seen as a moral guardian that commands people's trust, but nobody
imagines the same is true here. To override the constitutional requirement
for an election by the end of next year, the Democrats and their backers
would have to defy the weight of public opinion. They would also have to
suffer contempt and ridicule in the eyes of the world. Many of the
middle-class supporters of the Democrats want the country to be seen as
modern, sophisticated, and in line with international practice.
Just delaying the poll for a short time may make matters worse for the
Democrats. Six months later the 100 MPs banned on 30 May 2007 will come back
on stream.
But if there has to be an election, it somehow has to be won. But how? Or,
to put it another way, how much public money will be needed to ensure the
"right" result?
Here the role of the military is critical. Since 2006, the military has
considered preventing a pro-Thaksin government as a matter of national
security. That justifies the use of public money and personnel. Before the
last poll in 2007, military figures helped to set up political parties, run
disinformation campaigns against the opposition using military-owned media,
put pressure on local officials, conduct opinion polls on likely voting
behaviour, and issue orders to military personnel on how to vote. The new
army head-designate has promised to remove the army from politics, but that
remains to be seen.
The next most important resource for the Democrats is Newin Chidchob and the
Bhumjai Thai Party (BJT). The Democrats run some risks if they are involved
directly in the market for loose politicians. They also would have little
success in most of the northeast and upper north where defecting to the
Democrats would be political suicide. That's why the Democrats need the BJT.
Almost as soon as the Bangkok Six by-election result was in, the MP market
sprang to life. Supporters of both red and yellow have tried to spin the
result of the election as positive for their side, but in truth it showed
there was no emotional slide against the government after the May events.
Immediately the result was known, Newin was able to pry a handful of MPs
loose from Pheu Thai.The Democrats allotted BJT several juicy portfolios in
the coalition to enable them to build their patronage and their power. The
Communications Ministry is probably the single most lucrative portfolio. The
infamous bus project looks set to go through. Command of the Interior
Ministry has let them purge the ranks of governors and other local
officials, and place their own men in key areas. Newin can lure away MPs
with both the cash and the promise of local influence that can deliver
electoral success at the upcoming poll. Maybe.
In addition, the Democrats and their allies will work hard at destabilising
their opponents. Popular new leaders will somehow be kept under lock and
key. Restrictions on media will remain. The freezing of assets of alleged
financiers, which seems to have been a complete boondoggle, may be a model
for future projects of intimidation. The Election Commission might come in
handy."
Emirates winter
schedule changes
14 August 2010
There are some
extra changes to the Emirates Winter 2010/2011 schedule. These are mostly
effective from 31October 2010):
The big news is
that EK372/3 reverts to a 777; and EK 384/385 - from Dubai to Hong Kong via
Bangkok and vice versa will be operated by an A380. This is effective from 1
October 2010. This will be a disappointment to Thai staff on the main fleet.
Other changes:
Dubai – Bangkok EK374/375 Reduce from Daily to 6 weekly, Saturday night from
Dubai and Sunday morning from Bangkok is canceled.
Dubai – Houston NEW 2nd Daily service - see below.
Dubai – Los Angeles NEW 2nd Daily service - see below.
Dubai – Sydney 2 Daily NONSTOP service EK414/415 is temporary canceled. See
below.
Dubai – Tunis reduces from Daily to 5 weekly (Day x46)
Dubai – New York JFK EK201/202 A380 service returns, replacing 777-300ER
Dubai – Seychelles Increase from 6 to 7 weekly
There are other
changes is aircraft allocation but these are the known changes (for now) in
flight schedules.
EK414/415 is
expected to be reinstated in the 2011/12 operating plan as more aircraft
become available. The reason to suspend the flight has merely been due to
the availability of aircraft -- only the B777-200LRs can do IAH and LAX
nonstop without penalties and their deployment to these two destinations is
apparently more profitable than SYD on a relative basis.
One rule for
some (again)
13 August 2010
Gerald Green and
his wife, Patricia Green were sentenced yesterday in a federal court in Los
Angeles to sentenced to six months in prison and six months of home
detention following convictions for paying a Thai official $1.8 million in
bribes to win a contract to run the Bangkok International Film Festival.
Lawyers for the
Greens had asked for probation, citing Gerald Green’s poor health and
claiming that Thailand hadn’t been harmed by the Greens’ actions.
The couple was
found guilty in September of nine counts of violating the U.S. Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act and seven counts of money laundering. Prosecutors
argued they paid the former governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand
kickbacks through bank accounts in the U.K., Singapore and the Isle of
Jersey that were in the name of the official’s daughter.
Lawyers for the Greens said in court filings that when the couple ran the
film festival from 2003 to 2006, it brought in $140 million in income for
Thailand. The Greens’ festival work also put Thailand “on the film-makers’
map,” resulting in Werner Herzog shooting “Rescue Dawn” in Thailand and
Oliver Stone filming parts of “Alexander” there, the lawyers said.
Yes what they did
was wrong. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act exists for good reason. But the
only way this contract would be won was by paying off the TAT governor. If
not the Greens then someone else would have paid.
So the Greens go
to prison for paying bribes demanded by Thai government official. And what
have the Thais done to the TAT governor who demanded and took the bribes?
Absolutely nothing. Because that is still how contracts are granted in
Thailand.
EK double daily to Houston and LAX
12 August 2010
Updated:
The new flight
times are:
EK 213 DXB - IAH
0240 0905
EK 214 IAH - DXB 1145 1225+1
Aircraft: B777-200LR
*************************************
EK 217 DXB - LAX 0315 0745
EK 218 LAX - DXB 1000 1350+1
Aircraft: B777-200LR
What was not in
the press release is that the 3rd daily flight to Sydney EK414/415 will be
cancelled to free up aircraft and crews for the additional frequencies to
LAX & IAH. Funny how good EK is at announcing new routes and expansion but
fails to mention when services are reduced.
***********************
Emirates, the Dubai-based international carrier, has announced the launch of
second daily flights to Los Angeles and Houston.
Starting 31st October for Los Angeles and 1st November for Houston, Emirates
will fly non-stop to both cities twice a day using Boeing 777 aircraft.
Tim Clark, President of Emirates Airline said: “Emirates has experienced
very strong demand across all of its U.S. gateways this year, including very
healthy premium and business traffic. We are delighted to meet this
increased demand with the start of second daily services to both Houston and
Los Angeles.”
Emirates’ services play a significant role in supporting trade and tourism
between the United Arab Emirates and America. Since the airline launched its
first flight to New York in 2004, the value of trade between the two nations
has almost tripled, reaching US$12.7 billion in the 12 months to June 2010.
Home of the United States’ second largest exporter, Texas is a strategically
important trade hub and a key centre of the nation’s oil industry. In 2009,
Texan exports to the U.A.E. reached over $1.7 billion - representing export
growth of over 192 per cent since 2002.
Emirates currently
flies nonstop to four U.S. cities: New York, Houston, Los Angeles and San
Francisco. The airline will reinstate its flagship A380 aircraft on one of
its double-daily JFK services from 31st October.
Emirates was the first carrier to launch non-stop operations from Dubai to
both Houston, which started on 3rd December 2007; and Los Angeles, which
began services on 26th October 2008.
Timings of the new
flights are not yet listed by Emirates - a 2.00am departure from Duabi would
be an early morning USA arrival; a 2.00pm departure would be an early
evening arrival. My guess is they will opt for an early morning departure
fed by flights from India and the GCC countries that arrive in Dubai between
11pm and 1am.
Double
standards?
An Emirati writer
noted on twitter today that "I know it's extreme but I think that Emiratis
who misbehave abroad should be banned from traveling to that destination for
a year."
This seems to miss
the point completely; after all Britons who misbehave in, for instance,
Dubai, can be jailed and subsequently deported never to return.
So any foreigner
traveling to the UK should expect to be prosecuted under UK law. And they
should be grateful that UK law is rather more tolerant than laws in the
Middle East.
The kissing couple
in Dubai is just one example; and the witness who made the allegation was
not even required to give testimony in court.
Meanwhile in
London two Middle Eastern businessmen were arrested after a £180,000
supercar spun out of control crashing into four vehicles, police said
yesterday in court.
Abdulla Saeed
Khalfan Al-Dhaheri, 28, and Sultan Khalifa Al-Muhairbi, 35, both from the
United Arab Emirates, were held after the smash in Lowndes Square in
Knightsbridge, central London, where residents have complained about boy
racers disturbing the peace at night....see the article below on Sheikh
Zayeed Road coming to Knightsbridge.
Lowndes Square is
home to some of London's wealthiest residents, among them Chelsea football
club owner Roman Abramovich.
According to
London's Evening Standard, the car - a new £180,000 Lamborghini with only
250 miles on the clock - was on loan from the Italian carmaker to a client.
No one was injured in the crash which happened in the early hours of July
25.
The two men
appeared at Isleworth Crown Court on Tuesday last week. Al-Muhairbi was
charged with dangerous driving and driving with no insurance and Al-Dhaheri
was charged with perverting the course of justice.
The men, who are due to appear in court again on October 12, are said to
have walked away from the pile-up, telling a passerby: 'It's all right,
we'll pay for the damage.'
A parked BMW was reportedly flipped over by the force of the impact.
Perverting the
course of justice is usually a jailable offense.
Goodbye to
Dubai
Joshua Hammer
in the New York Review of Books.
Gilded Cage
by Syed Ali
Yale University Press, 240 pp., $20.00 (paper)
Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success
by Christopher M. Davidson
Columbia University Press, 376 pp., $32.50; $19.50 (paper)
City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism
by Jim Krane
St. Martin’s, 356 pp., $27.99
In mid-May, with Dubai reeling from the effects of the global financial
crisis, I flew into town and took a taxi down the Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai’s
main thoroughfare, which runs parallel to the Persian Gulf. The evening rush
hour had not ended, but the road was clear of traffic; during previous
visits to Dubai I’d encountered gridlock day and night all along this
highway. As we approached downtown Dubai, we ran a long gauntlet of
illuminated skyscrapers, all built during the past few years. Covered with
garish architectural flourishes, many were unfinished, with exposed steel
girders and cranes frozen above them; almost all displayed TO LET signs in
their windows.
Just beyond this cluster I could see the Burj Khalifa, a tapering cylinder
of aluminum and glass that rises 2,500 feet above the city—the tallest
skyscraper in the world. Emaar, the government-owned real estate empire that
built it, had conferred upon it the slogan “I am the power that lifts the
world’s head proudly skyward, surpassing limits and expectations.” But the
Burj will also be linked forever to Dubai’s recent setbacks. The tower was
originally called the Burj Dubai, but the name had been changed before its
January 2010 opening to honor the president of the United Arab Emirates and
emir of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan. Dubai, with a
population of some two million people, is one of the seven federated
emirates on the Persian Gulf, each run by a sheikh, and oil-rich Abu Dhabi
is Dubai’s largest neighbor. Its sheikh had come to Dubai’s rescue last year
with a total of $25 billion in emergency loans. “Sheikh Khalifa saved
Dubai,” my taxi driver, a Pakistani, told me; but still “many people have
been forced to leave,” he said. “The situation is very bad.”
We turned off Sheikh Zayed Road and entered Jumeirah, one of the city’s
oldest and richest neighborhoods, the land of “Jumeirah Janes,” the
emirate’s wealthy expatriates. Here were villas hidden behind high
walls—including the late Benazir Bhutto’s home in exile—and quiet lanes
lined with date palm trees. Just off the beach, the Burj al-Arab, a white,
sail-shaped hotel, rose on a small artificial island, with $30,000-a-night
suites, a fifty-sixth-floor helicopter pad, and Rolls-Royces shuttling
guests down the causeway to the hotel entrance. Its image is much used to
promote Dubai. When the hotel opened, in 1999, the Guardian‘s architecture
critic described it as “fabulous, hideous, and the very pinnacle of
tackiness—like Vegas after a serious, no-expense-spared, sheik-over.” The
world’s only “seven-star hotel”—which reportedly has never made a
profit—competes with several other hugely expensive hotel-resorts, many of
them now short of customers.
My destination was far more modest: an $80-a-night bed-and-breakfast near
Jumeirah Beach. Dubai’s sheikhs have discouraged such guesthouses,
apparently to divert foreign visitors to its pricey resorts. But the owners
had managed to stay in business by cultivating a powerful patron in Dubai’s
ruling family. “We should be able to operate for the next five years,” I was
told by the co-owner, a South African, who predicted that her business would
grow as Dubai downsized its ambitions. She led me to an outdoor bar, where a
dozen expatriates were downing shots of aquavit, tequila, and vodka at a
birthday party.
The partygoers, well into their third hour of boozing, seemed to be typical
of the Western set in Dubai: a Russian couple who had left Moscow a decade
ago and had built successful careers planning “events” for property
openings; a thirty-seven-year-old English ad man whose marriage had
collapsed and who was cruising the nightclubs in Dubai’s Creek neighborhood
in a search for female companionship. The birthday boy, a half-British,
half- Palestinian Christian, was selling condominiums for a real estate
firm.
He admitted that he was an endangered species. At the peak of the bubble, in
2007, he told me, “about twenty-five hundred” property brokerage firms had
operated in Dubai. Many of these firms had collapsed when property prices
began to plummet in late 2008. Now, he said, only a few hundred such
companies were left. He and his twenty-four-year-old British girlfriend
lived in a condo on one of the “fronds” of Palm Jumeirah—a configuration of
artificial islands shaped like a palm tree, and the only one of three Palm
projects to be completed—and prided themselves on having survived the
shakeout. Dozens of acquaintances had lost their jobs, had their visas
revoked, and been forced to leave. An unfortunate few had been thrown in
jail for failing to pay their debts. “It’s the survival of the fittest now,”
he told me.
Deserted highways, empty hotel rooms, miles of unsold residential and office
space. These were not the images that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Makhtoum,
Dubai’s ruler, had in mind when he wrote his book about the emirate, My
Vision: Challenges in the Race for Excellence, which was published in April
2006. “Dubai’s proving to be one of the most successful development stories
in the world, and is being viewed increasingly in the Arab and Muslim worlds
as a source of pride,” a gushing press release issued by the publisher
declared. In the book, al-Makhtoum explained how Dubai had been transformed
in the course of two generations from a desert backwater into the ultimate
global city. He compared Dubai to Córdoba, the medieval capital of Arab
Spain, and praised its melting pot of nations and creeds that enhanced, the
release proclaimed, “human interaction and understanding.”
There was always much hokum in al-Makhtoum’s vision—a sense that his edifice
was as fragile as the dredged sand on which the Palms and the project called
the World—260 artificial islands shaped like the globe—were constructed.
Built on the easy cash of foreign lenders, Dubai has purveyed a bland,
everywhere-and-nowhere culture, spiced up with gaudy theme-park attractions
that defy the desert environment: elaborate water parks, dolphin petting
zoos, gigantic shopping malls done in faux medieval Arabian style. One of
the emirate’s most popular novelties is Ski Dubai, a fake Alpine wonderland,
complete with snow-dusted pine trees and an après-ski restaurant occupying a
corner of the Mall of the Emirates.
Through tax breaks, gigantesque architecture, a well-trained security force,
and spectacularly wasteful air conditioning, al-Makhtoum and his “Brand
Dubai” team managed to create a buzz and turn Dubai into a seemingly safe,
secure, friendly place to live. The Dubai fantasy peaked with the creation
of Dubai’s housing bubble in 2002, when al-Makhtoum encouraged foreigners to
buy property in the emirate. This unleashed a giant Ponzi scheme, fueled by
money launderers and speculators who typically “flipped” properties after
making a 10 percent down payment, driving up prices to absurd heights, and
leaving the final investor catastrophically exposed when the bubble,
inevitably, burst.
Moreover, the real estate boom was kept going by a Dickensian labor system
that was bound at some point to self- destruct. At the height of the boom,
tens of thousands of Southeast Asian laborers, banned by Dubai’s labor laws
from forming unions, were put to work for eighty hours a week to build the
Dubai fantasy and obliged to live in squalid residential camps in the
desert. There, according to a report in the Guardian, they were packed
“twelve men to a room, forced to wash themselves in filthy brown water and
cook in kitchens next to overflowing toilets.” Before the crash, workers had
begun to agitate for reforms; one target has been the kafala system, which
requires foreign workers to have “sponsors” to obtain a visa and mandates
their immediate deportation if they lose their jobs. A Kuwaiti government
minister called this system “human slavery.”
In late 2008, Dubai’s leaders clung to the hope that the emirate would
escape the widening financial crisis. The shift of some capital from the
West to the emergent economies of the Middle East and East—summed up by the
formula “Shanghai, Mumbai, and Dubai”—wrongly convinced many of them that
Dubai would keep riding high while Europe and America tumbled. By late 2008,
bankers had stopped lending money to Dubai’s heavily indebted real estate
firms, and the steep fall of property prices made it difficult for them to
continue servicing their debt. In February 2009, The New York Times reported
that real estate prices had dropped 30 percent in three months, and that
three thousand cars had been abandoned at Dubai International Airport by
fleeing expats. (Dubai officials disputed this figure.) In November 2009,
Dubai World, the gigantic investment company that runs a portfolio of
businesses and projects for the Dubai government, announced that it would be
unable to make a $10 billion payment on its $59 billion debt, roughly three
quarters of Dubai’s total debt of $80 billion. After global stock markets
fell the company laid off 10,500 employees worldwide, or nearly 20 percent
of its workforce. Only the last-minute intervention of oil-rich Abu Dhabi
saved Dubai from a potentially catastrophic default.
The emirate still has considerable resources, thanks to its strategic
position in the Persian Gulf, its well-developed tourism, and its companies
engaged in international trade. Emirates Airlines, Dubai’s carrier, recently
ordered thirty-two new A380 airbuses for its fleet, and it reportedly grew
by double digits last year. Dubai still has a sheen of glamour. It remains a
center for breeding and racing horses, many of which run at tracks in Europe
or in the Dubai World Cup, the world’s richest series of horse races. Sheikh
al-Makhtoum is an avid horse breeder, along with his second son, Sheikh
Hamdan, while one of his wives, Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, daughter of
King Hussein, participated in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney
representing Jordan in horse jumping. Still, Dubai may have lost “25 percent
of its economic activity” with the collapse of its real estate industry, a
British financial writer told me, and has plunged into a deep recession that
could linger for many years.
Dubai has long made claim to being a “world city,” a meeting place of East
and West, a bastion of moderation in a region prone to extremism. The
collision of nationalities—Iranians and Americans, French and Yemenis—in its
shopping malls and amusement parks can be exhilarating. But this souk-like
air of openness has a dark side. The desert entrepôt is a Mecca for illicit
enterprises ranging from human trafficking to arms smuggling. The term “five
khandred,” uttered in a mock Eastern European accent, is one of the classic
examples of Dubai-speak, referring to the going rate for the Russian
prostitutes who frequent hotel bars and shopping malls.
In 2001 a World Customs Organization report confirmed that Dubai was a major
smuggling route into Europe, and the US government accused Dubai the same
year of serving as a conduit for Taliban gold. (The UAE was one of only
three nations—the others were Saudi Arabia and Pakistan—to recognize the
Islamic fundamentalist government in Afghanistan.) The rogue Pakistani
nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan used Dubai to pass on nuclear components to
Libya and North Korea; the notorious Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout,
the “Merchant of Death,” operated a large cargo company in Dubai’s next-door
neighbor, Sharjah, and used it to funnel weapons to génocidaires in Rwanda,
Marxist guerrillas in Colombia, and, allegedly, al-Qaeda.
One alleged arms buyer was Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a fifty-year-old Hamas
operative based in Damascus who arrived in Dubai on January 19, allegedly
seeking to buy weapons from Iranian dealers. Whatever his mission, Mabhouh
checked into the five-star Al Bustan Rotana Dubai Hotel near the airport.
Twenty-four hours later, he was discovered dead in his room by members of
the hotel staff.
A murder investigation, ordered by Dubai’s veteran police chief, Dahi
Khalfan al-Tamim, revealed an elaborate plot. Al-Tamim’s team culled
thousands of hours of footage from Dubai’s security cameras, tracing an
assassination squad as it followed al-Mabhouh to his hotel, put on clumsy
disguises, murdered him (by suffocation, forensic tests revealed), then
slipped back out of the country. Using face recognition software, al-Tamim
was able to identify twenty-seven men and women who had participated in the
plot and name them, or at least name the Europeans whose passports had been
stolen—in Israel—and duplicated in a sophisticated case of identity theft.
Al-Tamim left little doubt that the murder was the work of Mossad, Israeli’s
counterterrorism and intelligence agency.
Al-Tamim is known as a crack investigator. Last year, he arrested the
killers of another well-known political figure, Sulim Yamadayev, a Chechen
exile and a former close aide to Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, who was
gunned down in the parking lot of the luxury Jumeirah Beach Residence on
March 30, 2009. “The security services here, despite lots of attempts to
discredit them and turn them into Keystone Kops, are damned good,” I was
told by a British correspondent who has lived for nine years in Dubai.
Al-Tamim is also an Arab nationalist and a foe of Israel. But Dubai has
always been quietly open to doing business with Israel (as has Abu Dhabi),
allowing many Israeli entrepreneurs to set up shop here. These include a
diamond import-export firm, run by the Israeli jewelry magnate Lev Leviev,
that distributes gems to many nations in the Middle East. In fact, Israeli
companies have also struck major deals with the UAE to strengthen their
security facilities. One such firm is Asia Global Technologies, with offices
in Zurich and Abu Dhabi. Founded by Mati Kochavi, a US-based Israeli who
made a fortune in real estate before diversifying into security after
September 11, the company also has a management team made up of retired
Israeli generals and Mossad agents, according to a recent article in Le
Figaro. AGT has built a series of “smart” security walls—equipped with
sensors, facial recognition software, and other advanced technology—to
protect fifteen oil installations in the UAE and the Emirates’ border with
Oman. The reported price tag: $3 billion. Abu Dhabi also acquired, according
to Le Figaro, two surveillance aircraft from Radom Aviation Systems in Petah
Tikva, a suburb of Tel Aviv, apparently to allow it to eavesdrop on
communications on three islands seized by Iran in the Persian Gulf.
Al-Mabhouh’s murder threatened to unravel a delicate and mutually bene-
ficial relationship with Israel. After two weeks of daily press
conferences—during which he called for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s
arrest—al-Tamim was apparently told by higher-ups to stop talking. He has
hardly spoken with the Western press since, though in a recent interview
with the emirati newspaper Gulf News he said that Meir Kagan was being
pressed to leave his job as Mossad chief because “the Mossad certainly does
not accept losers.”
Syed Ali’s Dubai: The Gilded Cage, one of three books that have recently
been published about Dubai, reveals the often ugly reality behind its
façade. Ali minces no words in criticizing Dubai’s “plastic” culture: its
“grotesque grandiosity”; its environmentally wasteful architecture; its
abusive treatment of the “socially degraded” workers who made possible its
growth; its repressive, antidemocratic regime that has banned critical
bloggers and jailed opponents; and its transient population that makes a
“Faustian bargain,” giving up democratic freedoms (the right to vote, free
speech, the right to criticize the government), for a standard of living one
might not get in Arab or South Asia countries, or even in the UK or US.
Ali, who was deported from Dubai apparently after asking too many questions,
and whose book is the only one of the three under review to deal at length
with the current financial crisis, accuses Western journalists of buying too
easily into the Dubai myth, largely smitten with “the idea of Dubai as an
open playground for Westerners and as the land of opportunity for
third-world migrants.”
Associated Press correspondent Jim Krane’s City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream
of Capitalism occasionally falls victim to such credulity. Krane is
particularly taken with Mohammed bin Rashid al-Makhtoum, or “Sheikh Mo,” as
he is known in Dubai, the man who became ruler on January 4, 2006, upon the
death of his elder brother, and the same year was appointed prime minister
and vice-president of the United Arab Emirates. He has, Krane writes, “the
entrepreneurship bravado of Richard Branson, the city-building prowess of
Robert Moses, and the social engineering ambition of Ataturk.” Others,
including Syed Ali, have portrayed the sheikh as a megalomaniac who seduced
the Western press while tolerating human trafficking and organized crime—and
ignoring Dubai’s ballooning debt. In recent years, Mohammed became fond of
taking fellow billionaires such as Bill Gates around Dubai, boasting that
the mini-cities that were springing up before their eyes—on landfill dumped
in the sea—represented only “10 percent” of what he planned to accomplish.
It was a seductive pitch, and it set off one of the greatest speculative
binges in history.
Independent Dubai came into being in 1833, when eight hundred members of the
al-Bu Falasah section of the ruling Bani Yas family of Abu Dhabi split off
to settle alongside the Creek—a saltwater inlet from the Persian Gulf. As
laid out in rich detail by Christopher Davidson in his careful study, Dubai:
The Vulnerability of Success, the most prominent members of this clan were
the al-Makhtoum family, which took control of the desert backwater. Thanks
to their support of a lucrative gold-smuggling trade, the backing of the
British colonial rulers, and the immigration of sizable numbers of Iranian
and Indian merchants, they developed their domain into a modest trading hub
by the middle of the twentieth century. Yet Dubai remained almost completely
undeveloped. In City of Gold Krane provides a portrait of the place through
the eyes of George Chapman, an English soldier and adventurer who was hired
by a Dubai-based trading firm, Gray Mackenzie, in 1951:
Lurching into Dubai village, Chapman could see the orange light of kerosene
lamps. The flickering glow revealed the ragged outlines of palm-thatch
barasti shacks and adobe houses sprouting vents like oversized chimneys. Men
in beards and rough turbans led camels through the sandy lanes. The air
smelled of smoke and dung…. Dubai…sat in darkness. Literally. At night the
town gave off so little light that it couldn’t be seen by those aboard a
plane flying overhead or a ship passing offshore.
This began to change after 1966, when Dubai struck oil, fifteen miles
offshore, giving Sheikh Rashid al-Makhtoum, father of the current leader,
the resources to undertake a sweeping transformation. Sheikh Rashid, a
self-educated man who spoke only Arabic, and whose most prominent features
were “a crooked hawk’s nose and beady eyes,” was skeptical of modernization,
Krane writes, but also “openly disdainful of the stagnant past.” Rashid
ordered Dubai’s Creek dredged in 1961, making it the most accessible port in
the Middle East; he gave the city electricity, built the first luxury hotels
and dry dock facilities, and turned Dubai into an international shipping
center. He also joined with neighboring emirates to form a loose federation.
Rashid died in 1990; his son Makhtoum, a Western-educated military pilot and
horse-racing enthusiast, became the emirate’s de facto leader, and
accelerated Dubai’s growth. One measure of the city’s transformation under
his leadership was the expansion of Dubai’s airport, “a flyblown patch with
an open concrete shed where sweaty officials hand-stamped passports” in
1969, according to Krane. It grew in two generations into the world’s
eighth-largest airport, with 118 carriers serving 202 destinations and
nearly forty million passengers. Many of those passengers were expatriates
who had been seduced by Mohammed’s promises of near-limitless growth, and
who became gullible participants in the real estate bubble. Krane is
particularly good at capturing the hysteria that accompanied the building
boom:
Developers sold tens of thou- sands [of properties] by brandishing drawings
of dream neighborhoods with homes, trees, elevated trains, and European
families strolling with ice cream cones. It took a leap of faith to trust
that empty desert would be converted into the renderings on display. But the
theoretical homes sold out in hours, years before structures would be built.
Values shot into orbit. In the speculative secondary market, prices on
luxury homes quintupled in five years, with properties sold repeatedly
before completion. Blocky three-bedroom homes overlooking an artificial lake
in The Meadows launched for around $350,000 in 2003. Five years later, they
cost $1.8 million.
Today, a large number of similar real estate projects have been canceled,
and many stand half or one-quarter filled. Last year Nakheel—the most
aggressive and risk-prone of Dubai’s government-owned real estate
entities—announced plans for a kilometer-high skyscraper that would surpass
the Burj Khalifa, but that, too has apparently been shelved, as has Sheikh
Mohammed’s bid to host the 2016 or 2020 Olympics. (This was always a long
shot since from June through August the average daily temperature in Dubai
hovers around 125 degrees.) The government’s World project may be the most
spectacular example of Dubai’s failures: 70 percent of its islands have been
sold at prices between $20 and $65 million apiece, but many developers have
gone bust and virtually no building has taken place. One veteran journalist
assured me, “the World will never be built.”
In May, Dubai World reached an agreement with most of its lenders to
restructure debt worth $23.5 billion, leaving it with debts of $14.4
billion, racked up through such ill-advised acquisitions as the struggling
clothing chain Barneys and the Queen Elizabeth 2 luxury liner. Last
November, the chairmen of Dubai World and of Emaar were removed from the
board of the Investment Corporation of Dubai, the emirate’s principal
investment arm. Other top executives in half a dozen companies have been
forced to resign.
Even so, Dubai’s slick public relations machine insists that all is
business-as-usual: a press man took me to the 126th-floor observation deck
of the Burj Khalifa, from which I could gaze upon half-finished skyscrapers
and the empty islands of the World. He told me that all 160 floors had been
sold long ago, though the place was still eerily deserted. At the Hotel
Atlantis, a grotesque, faux palazzo that dominates the outer crescent of the
Palm Jumeirah, my escort assured me that the 1,539-room hotel has enjoyed an
average occupancy rate of “92 percent” since its opening. After touring the
$7,000-a-night Neptune and Poseidon suites (each bedroom faces a giant,
shark-filled aquarium) and its $35,000, seven-bedroom Presidential Suite, I
was given a free pass to “Aquaventure”—a huge water park where tourists are
propelled on inner tubes through artificial rapids and channels through a
man-made jungle.
As I floated down a fake river with a concrete ziggurat looming over the
scene, I took note of the heterogeneous makeup of both the hotel staff and
tourists. Lifeguards from Kenya and China chatted up tourists from the
Palestinian territories, Turkey, France, and the United States. Dubai
welcomes everyone, its admirers say, building bridges between people. In
fact, a longtime friend, an Egyptian-American who has lived in Dubai for
several years, told me: “Here, Americans stick with Americans, Brits stick
with Brits, Indians with Indians. Everyone keeps to his own kind.”
Bankers, journalists, real estate brokers, and others I spoke with believe
that it will take five years for building to begin anew in Dubai, and they
question whether the city can retain its allure meanwhile. Many doubt that
Dubai’s financial problems have been fully revealed. “What is the extent of
the debt, and what is the ability to service it while the economy recovers?”
a South African businessman who’s lived here for years asked me. “People are
terrified that it’s been papered over.” And if Dubai’s “formula of tax-free
economic zones and mass tourism doesn’t work,” a long-time resident told me,
“people who have been emulating it throughout the Middle East will say,
‘What the hell do we do now?’ There are a lot of angry young people out
there, and the whole region will go up in smoke in ten years if they can’t
find employment for them.”
During the past few months, I was told, Sheikh Mohammed has been trying to
confront his dream’s collapse. He has said little publicly about the
economic meltdown, other than issuing a handful of sunny pronouncements
about Dubai. “Sheikh Mo is an angry man,” I was told by a source who knows
him well; he feels “betrayed” by the real estate promoters who had assured
him to the end that their ventures were healthy. According to my source, the
sheikh has been taking long solo drives in his Mercedes at night, stopping
in front of construction sites, and gazing pensively at the many vacant and
half-built skyscrapers. Mohammed recently completed his autobiography for a
US publisher with the assistance of a ghostwriter, but, a source in
publishing said, he had refused to add a chapter about the bursting of the
real estate bubble, the debt crisis, and the bailout by Abu Dhabi. He saw no
reason to discuss these sources of humiliation. As a result, I was told, the
book will never see the light of day.
Banyan Tree cites
political risk for sale
11 August 2010
Luxury resorts
operator Banyan Tree on Wednesday said its subsidiary is selling a hotel in
Thailand for S$110 million.
Laguna Resorts & Hotels is selling the "Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket" to Dusit
Thani Public Company.
The expected gain on disposal for Banyan Tree is S$68.4 million.
The excess of the sale proceeds over the book value is expected to be some
S$70 million.
On this basis, the sale proceeds amount to about 2.7 times the book value of
the hotel being sold.
Banyan Tree said the sale proceeds may be used for areas like overseas
investments and repayment of bank loans.
It added that the move will help reduce its exposure in Thailand.
This is in line with its strategy to diversify its assets away from
Thailand, given the country's increased political risks.
To date, Banyan Tree owns and manages about 30 hotels and resorts worldwide
Sheikh Zayeed
Road comes to Knightsbridge
10 August 2010
The Daily Telegraph reports today on the super-rich Arab
racers taking theor acrs for a late night spin around Knightsbridge.
Residents say
their night-time peace is being shattered by the super-rich racing their
sports cars through the streets.
They claim residential roads surrounding the world-famous department store
have become “like the starting grid of 24 Hours of Le Mans” since the Qatari
royal family purchased it in May.
The culprits are
thought to be wealthy Middle Eastern visitors who use the area as a
“fashionable meeting place to show off their toys” in the small hours.
Bugattis, Ferraris and Lamborghinis roar around the neighbourhood – where
properties command an average price of around £1 million – until 3am on a
daily basis, revving their engines to ear-piercing levels.
However, those living within earshot of the “cruising” parties are
exasperated after repeatedly suffering sleepless nights and have now joined
together to stop the noise.
This week they forged a campaign group, and have their grievances to Boris
Johnson, the Mayor of London, claiming the police and council have failed to
act.
They are also complaining to the embassies of Qatar, the UAE and Saudi
Arabia, and hope to persuade many of the sheikhs themselves to wield their
influence in the matter.
Karen Morgan Thomas, who lives on Sloane Street and is leading the campaign,
said: “It’s simply not possible to sleep because of the racket these super
cars cause.
“Dozens of neighbours have approached me to vent their anger, saying their
lives are being devastated by the noise – one woman has even resorted to
sleeping pills.”
The mother-of-one, who is a managing partner of a leading executive
consultancy firm, added: “Getting a decent night’s rest is a fundamental
human right and those responsible are acting in a most inconsiderate
fashion. It’s immensely frustrating because the authorities are doing
nothing to stop them.”
Bruce Beringer, 62, a solicitor and management consultant, who lives on the
same road, added: “It’s like having the starting grid to Le Mans right
outside your bedroom window.
“Dozens of these cars do laps around Knightsbridge right through the night
and the excitement for the drivers seems to be seeing how loud they can rev
their engines. The area is fast becoming a very unpleasant place to live.”
The influx of super cars coincides with the so-called “season” when many
members of Middle Eastern high society visit London in July and August.
Hisham Alireza, 40, a Saudi Arabian construction company owner who visits
his second home in Basil Street, adjacent to Harrods, each summer, said most
of those driving the cars are from wealthy Arab families.
He said: “Most come from Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Frankly, those of
us who have homes in this area are appalled and embarrassed by their
behaviour and want to see it stopped.
“The problem is that they come from very closed societies where the men and
women are not allowed to mix, so when they come to London in the summer,
they go wild. It is a sort of courting ritual.
“Since the Qataris bought Harrods, it has become a fashionable place for
them all to meet and show off their toys.”
In response, one councillor acknowledged: “The cause of the problems is
simply that Harrods and its environs have become the destination of choice
for a large proportion of Middle Eastern visitors in summer.
“Per se, they are doing nothing wrong. However, the weight of their presence
and their activities is causing us great annoyance and harm. Under their new
Qatari owners, I cannot see Harrods discouraging these visitors.”
They added that the council was seeking a meeting with the owners of Harrods
to raise their concerns.
Kensington and Chelsea Council said it was powerless to act because it does
not have jurisdiction over noise nuisance on the highways.
A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said: “Officers at Kensington and Chelsea
are tackling the issue of anti-social behaviour, specifically from drivers
of high performance cars in Knightsbridge.”
She added that police are monitoring drivers of sports cars in the area and
carrying out spot checks to ensure they have the correct documentation and
that their vehicles are road legal.
A Harrods spokeswoman said staff were unaware of the complaints raised by
residents. She said: "We always take any concerns from residents seriously
and regularly attend local forums to discuss issues relating to the
Knightsbridge area."
Last month traffic wardens clamped a £1.2 million Koenigsegg CCXR and a
£350,000 Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SuperVeloce belonging to the owners
of Harrods.
It really just
sounds like a late night drive down Sheikh Zayeed Road.
Build
that mosque
The campaign against the proposed Cordoba centre in
New York is unjust and dangerous
8 August 2010 -
The
Economist - Lexington
What makes a
Muslim in Britain or America wake up and decide that he is no longer a
Briton or American but an Islamic “soldier” fighting a holy war against the
infidel? Part of it must be pull: the lure of jihadism. Part is presumably
push: a feeling that he no longer belongs to the place where he lives.
Either way, the results can be lethal. A chilling feature of the suicide
video left by Mohammad Sidique Khan, the leader of the band that killed more
than 50 people in London in July, 2005, was the homely Yorkshire accent in
which he told his countrymen that “your” government is at war with “my
people”.
For a while America seemed less vulnerable than Europe to home-grown
jihadism. The Pew Research Centre reported three years ago that most Muslim
Americans were “largely assimilated, happy with their lives… and decidedly
American in their outlook, values and attitudes.” Since then it has become
clear that American Muslims can be converted to terrorism too. Nidal Malik
Hassan, born in America and an army major, killed 13 of his comrades in a
shooting spree at Fort Hood. Faisal Shahzad, a legal immigrant, tried to set
off a car bomb in Times Square. But something about America—the fact that it
is a nation of immigrants, perhaps, or its greater religiosity, or the
separation of church and state, or the opportunities to rise—still seems to
make it an easier place than Europe for Muslims to feel accepted and at
home.
It was in part to preserve this feeling that George Bush repeated like a
scratched gramophone record that Americans were at war with the terrorists
who had attacked them on 9/11, not at war with Islam. Barack Obama has
followed suit: the White House national security strategy published in May
says that one way to guard against radicalisation at home is to stress that
“diversity is part of our strength—not a source of division or insecurity.”
This is hardly rocket science. America is plainly safer if its Muslims feel
part of “us” and not, like Mohammad Sidique Khan, part of “them”. And that
means reminding Americans of the difference—a real one, by the way, not one
fabricated for the purposes of political correctness—between Islam, a
religion with a billion adherents, and al-Qaeda, a terrorist outfit that
claims to speak in Islam’s name but has absolutely no right or mandate to do
so.
Why would any responsible American politician want to erase that vital
distinction? Good question. Ask Sarah Palin, or Newt Gingrich, or the many
others who have lately clambered aboard the offensive campaign to stop
Cordoba House, a proposed community centre and mosque, from being built in
New York two blocks from the site of the twin towers. Every single argument
put forward for blocking this project leans in some way on the misconceived
notion that all Muslims, and Islam itself, share the responsibility for, or
are tainted by, the atrocities of 9/11.
In a tweet last month from Alaska, Ms Palin called on “peaceful Muslims” to
“refudiate” the “ground-zero mosque” because it would “stab” American
hearts. But why should it? Cordoba House is not being built by al-Qaeda. To
the contrary, it is the brainchild of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, a well-meaning
American cleric who has spent years trying to promote interfaith
understanding, not an apostle of religious war like Osama bin Laden. He is
modelling his project on New York’s 92nd Street Y, a Jewish community centre
that reaches out to other religions. The site was selected in part precisely
so that it might heal some of the wounds opened by the felling of the twin
towers and all that followed. True, some relatives of 9/11 victims are hurt
by the idea of a mosque going up near the site. But that feeling of hurt
makes sense only if they too buy the false idea that Muslims in general were
perpetrators of the crime. Besides, what about the feelings, and for that
matter the rights, of America’s Muslims—some of whom also perished in the
atrocity?
Ms Palin’s argument does at least have one mitigating virtue: it
concentrates on the impact the centre might have, without impugning the
motives of those who want to build it. The same half-defence can be made of
the Anti-Defamation League, a venerable Jewish organisation created to fight
anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry. To the dismay of many liberal
Jews, the ADL has also urged the centre’s backers to seek another site in
order to spare the feelings of families of the 9/11 victims. But at least it
concedes that they have every right to build at this site—and that they
might (only might, since the ADL hints at vague concerns about their
ideology and finances) genuinely have chosen it in order to send a positive
message about Islam.
The Saudi non-sequitur
No such plea of mitigation can be entered on behalf of Mr Gingrich. The
former Republican speaker of the House of Representatives may or may not
have presidential pretensions, but he certainly has intellectual ones. That
makes it impossible to excuse the mean spirit and scrambled logic of his
assertion that “there should be no mosque near ground zero so long as there
are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia”. Come again? Why hold the
rights of Americans who happen to be Muslim hostage to the policy of a
foreign country that happens also to be Muslim? To Mr Gingrich, it seems, an
American Muslim is a Muslim first and an American second. Al-Qaeda would
doubtless concur.
Mr Gingrich also objects to the centre’s name. Imam Feisal says he chose
“Cordoba” in recollection of a time when the rest of Europe had sunk into
the Dark Ages but Muslims, Jews and Christians created an oasis of art,
culture and science. Mr Gingrich sees only a “deliberate insult”, a reminder
of a period when Muslim conquerors ruled Spain. Like Mr bin Laden, Mr
Gingrich is apparently still relitigating the victories and defeats of
religious wars fought in Europe and the Middle East centuries ago. He should
rejoin the modern world, before he does real harm.
More DAE
cancellations
6 August 2010
Does DAE still
exist? Is anyone at home?
Middle Eastern
lessor Dubai Aerospace Enterprise has cancelled orders for seven Airbus A350
and 18 A320 aircraft. The 25 aircraft are no longer listed on Airbus'
backlog figures.
Airbus has
disclosed the information in its latest order and delivery data, released
today, covering the first seven months of this year.
DAE Capital's
entry has been reduced to 23 A350s, from a previous figure of 30, while its
70-aircraft order for A320s has been cut back to 52.
Boeing's latest
order figures similarly indicated reductions in the backlog attributed to
DAE Capital.
The move brings to
more than $8 billion the catalogue value of apparent DAE cancellations,
totalling 50 aircraft, revealed in Airbus and Boeing data published in the
past 24 hours.
There must be some
business left for DAE. The aviation industry has turned around dramatically
with profits being declared and new orders placed. But DAE like too many
Dubai companies says nothing and does itself a disservice in the process.
Behave, you silly cow !
6 August 2010
Of course she has
given her story to
The Sun newspaper.
5 August 2010
Really. The UK
media is all up in arms again because a British tourist got dragged to the
police station for running through the Dubai Mall in a bikini - and a week
before Ramadan as well.
The unnamed
British holidaymaker was buying clothes and gifts in the mall fully dressed
but in a low cut top. She was stopped by an Arab woman and criticized for
wearing revealing clothing.
The Daily Mail reported that the women became involved in a heated row
and the incensed Briton told the Arab woman to mind her own business and
stepped out of her clothes to walk around in her bikini. Mall security
intervened, the police were called, and the holidaymaker was arrested.
The Daily Mail
story already has over 175 comments and they are scary - the worst of
bigoted comments.
How dopey can you get. You would get stopped walked around a British city
centre mall in a bikini. As
the Kipp
report said - take your choice of "stupid, thoughtless, rude,
insensitive, disrespectful, arrogant, childish, vulgar, insulting, selfish."
She has been lucky. Charges have not been pressed and so far she has not
been named. Though it is unclear how the Daily mail got the story. Did they
pay for the story?
There are too many
people who go to the mall dressed inappropriately. This is the UAE, and
although the rules can be unclear sometimes and not consistently applied
there are signs all over the mall reminding people to dress respectfully.
It really does not
matter where you are - in any country it is your duty to show respect to the
law, rules and acceptable behavior of the country you chose to visit. If you
can’t deal with that, don’t travel.
If you go to a
movie in Thailand you are expected to stand for the King's anthem before the
movie. If you don't you can expect action to be taken against you. You dont
have the right to sit; as you dont have the right to cause offense in a UAE
mall.
The Brit was
charged with indecency and forced to surrender her passport. But after
spending an hour explaining her behaviour to a judge in a Dubai police
station the charges were dropped.
She is due to fly home tomorrow. And no doubt will be offering her story and
some pictures to the British press.
I get the feeling
this may have been a stunt. She is very lucky that she is not spending far
more time here awaiting a trial date.
Double
standards
4 August 2010
It is hardly worth
bleating on about this - but it is outrageous:
The Bangkok Post
reports that the prosecution on Wednesday again deferred, until Oct 7, its
decision on whether to indict nine leaders of the People's Alliance for
Democracy (PAD) for the 193-day seizure of the Government House compound in
2008.
Kaiyasit Pitsawongprakan, director-general of the Criminal Litigation
Department of the Office of the Attorney General, said the prosecutors
deferred the indictment decision because police had not yet finished
questioning the additional witnesses presented by the suspects.
After all - they
have only had two years to conduct their investigation; and not much of an
investigation is required when this was all played out 24/7 on Thai
television.
In this case, nine PAD leaders - Sondhi Limthongkul, Maj-Gen Chamlong
Srimuang, Pibhop Dhongchai, Somsak Kosaikuk, Somkiat Pongpaiboon, Suriyasai
Katasila, Chaiwat Sinsuwong, Amornthep Amornrattananont and Therdphum Jaidee
- have been charged with illegal assembly and inciting unrest in violation
of Articles 116, 215 and 216 of the Criminal Code.
Notice that unlike
the redshirts the PAD leaders are not charged with terrorism; after all they
only used armed force to take over and shut down the country's international
airport.
Compare this to
last week's announcement that the Department of Special Investigation (DSI)
indicted 26 people it allegedly found to have been involved in acts of
terrorism in the April/May red shirt protests.
Cathay Pacific
makes money and orders new jets
4 August 2010
Cathay Pacific
today reported a sharp rebound in earnings and said it planned to invest
heavily in 36 new aircraft, underscoring the rapid recovery in air travel,
particularly in Asia, as the global economy picked up steam this year.
Cathay, which is based in Hong Kong and is seen as a bellweather for the
airline sector in Asia, said net income for the first half of 2010 totaled
HK$6.84 billion dollars (US$881 million), up from HK$812 million during the
same period last year and well above what analysts had expected.
The results
included HK$2.17 billion worth of gains from the sale of stakes in sister
company Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co. (0044.HK), and in Hong Kong Air
Cargo Terminals Ltd.
The airline said
it has signed a letter of intent to purchase 30 Airbus A350-900 aircraft,
and plans to exercise purchase rights for six Boeing 777-300ERs.
The total value of the aircraft purchases is about HK$75 billion ($9.7
billion) at list price, says the Oneworld carrier. The A350s, to be powered
by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines, have a catalogue price of about $7.8
billion. The General Electric-powered 777s have a list price of $1.6
billion.
Cathay expects the A350s to be delivered between 2016 and 2019. The
A350-900, which will enter service in 2013, will "form the backbone of
Cathay Pacific's future mid-sized wide-body fleet", says the carrier.
It will operate the aircraft across its route network, including on non-stop
flights to Europe and North America.
"The A350-900 is a perfect fit for the development of our fleet - a mid-size
long-haul aircraft that is fuel efficient, environmentally friendly, and
provides the kind of capacity, range and operating economics that we need to
complement and enhance our existing fleet," says Cathay's CEO Tony Tyler.
"The delivery schedule fits our requirements very neatly. The 30 new
aircraft will be deployed to replace older aircraft and grow our fleet to
meet the challenges of the future."
Under the letter of intent with Airbus, Cathay will pay a non-refundable
commitment fee of $4.5 billion for the A350s, says the airline. It plans to
make a further announcement once it enters into a formal purchase agreement
with the airframer.
Separately, the airline agreed to exercise purchase rights for six
777-300ERs, on top of 30 777s already on firm order.
Cathay has received 18 of the 30 777s and expects the remaining 12 to arrive
by 2013. By 2013 the airline's passenger 747s will likely have all been
phased out or converted to freighters.
The aircraft will be operated on routes to North America and Europe, says
the airline, which has a fleet of 128 wide-body aircraft currently.
Thailand update
3 August 2010
There are a whole
series of rather bizarre stores from Bangkok this morning:
It starts with a
friend of mine announcing an expat baby boom due to the April and May
protests. This sudden rush pf pregnancies is apparently the result of
offices being closed; husbands at home; the curfew; trips to Hua Hin etc to
escape the protests etc etc
The second story
is
confirmation from Reuters that HM the Queen of Thailand thanked the Thai
woman, Napas Na Pombejra, who called CNN biased.
The Queen's letter
says:
"I read your
letter to CNN. I feel proud of you that you stood up as a Thai person to
respond to the foreign journalists in a forthright way, politely and
clearly, which made the world community reconsider the reliability of CNN.
I greatly admire you for your help upholding the nation’s reputation."
It is signed by the Queen and dated 24 July 2010.
This was
Bangkok Pundit's critique of the original letter which was frankly
little more than a series of allegations without evidence or substance.
I want to say more
about this but my dear reader can come to your own conclusions.
Then there is
paranoia from the Nation as it reports about an explosion-like sound. "An
explosion-like sound was heard at the front of the soi, where the prime
minster's house is located, early Tuesday, his birthday anniversary. The
explosion was heard at 5.30 am at the front of Soi Sukhumvit 31. The chief
of the security officers for Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva rushed to
inspect the scene and coordinated with police to investigate."
What - a car
backfired? BKK is a loud city. There was no explosion.
Meanwhile everyone's favorite non elected Deputy Prime Minister (in charge
of security affairs) Suthep Thaugsuban says that "there are no reasons to
lift the emergency decree yet." Mr Suthep is head of the Centre for the
Resolution of Emergency Situations (CRES).
He added that intelligence units had been instructed to integrate themselves
to promptly prevent some group of people from creating violence in the
business areas of Bangkok. If I am reading that correctly it means that
their are government spies reporting on their colleagues from workplaces
throughout the city.
Best of all he
said that the CRES will continue distributing CDs containing the
government's explanation of the recent political violence. "Some senators
oppose the plan but I believe the CDs will help improve the situation and
prevent others from distorting the truth," he said.
So the government
can explain the recent political violence but has been unable to progress
its investigation into the deaths of two journalists and some 90 Thai
citizens. So what exactly are they explaining?
And finally the
Crime Suppression Division police on Tuesday arrested a 60-year-old man for
sending SMS messages considered offensive to the monarchy to many important
people, including Prime Minister Abhisith Vejjajiva.
Ampol Tangnopkul was arrested at his house in tambon Khlong San in Samut
Prakan's Bang Bo district with three mobile phones in his possession.
Mr Ampol had been blacklisted as a hard-core member of the red shirts of
Samut Prakan province by the Internal Security Operations Command, the
officer said.
Thaiger Air?
2 August 2010
A few more details
emerged today on the new low cost airline alliance between Tiger Airways
Holdings Ltd., the budget carrier part-owned by Singapore Airlines Ltd., and
Thai Airways International.
51 percent of Thai
Tiger Airways Pte. will be owned by Thai Airways and another local company.
The airline is due to start operations in the first quarter of next year,
the carriers said in a statement. Tiger Air will own 49% of the new venture.
The airline will fly domestic and overseas routes of up to five hours.
Simply put; the
airline will be operated as a Tiger Airways franchise with Tiger Airways
planes, crews, training etc. The 51% Thai structure gives the company a
legal structure in Thailand and the Thai Airways stake gives the Thai
airline a cash flow for no risk. No one has said how much of the 51% is held
by Thai Airways and who the other Thai partner is.
Thai Airways still
has a 39% stake in the LCC, Nok Air, which was established by Thai some
years ago and flies to a llimited number of domestic destinations.
Tiger Air already has operations in Singapore and Australia. The airline
will compete with AirAsia, the region’s largest discount carrier, which
already has a hub in the Thai capital through Thai Air Asia and plans to
list shares on the local stock exchange.
The new airline
will fly domestically and to destinations throughout India, China and SE
Asia.
The Tiger Airways group is controlled by Singapore Airlines, which has
membership of the Star Alliance in common with Thai International.
Tony Davis and Ryanasia principal Declan Ryan will sit on the Board of Thai
Tiger as nominees for Tiger Airways. Declan Ryan was one of the founding
shareholders of both Tiger Airways and Ryanair.
Thai Tiger will operate a consistent Airbus A320 aircraft fleet in line with
other airlines in the Tiger Airways Group.
AirAsia Chief Executive officer Tony Fernandes was unphased and told
Bloomberg that “we deal with competition every day.”
There is also “no change in plans” for a possible dual listing of AirAsia’s
shares in Thailand or the initial public offering it is considering for its
Thai unit next year, he said. AirAsia has ordered 175 A320 planes from
Airbus SAS, making it the biggest Asian customer for single-aisle models for
the Toulouse, France-based planemaker.
Including short-haul routes, budget carriers may account for 30 percent of
Asia-Pacific capacity by 2015 from 20 percent now, estimated Derek Sadubin,
chief operating officer at the Sydney- based Centre for Asia Pacific
Aviation.
This is a late
entry into a relatively small market. Domestically Thailand is well served
by Thai and Air Asia. The two money making routes are BKK to Chiang Mai and
BKK to Phuket and these are already served by Air Asia, Nok Air, Thai
Airways and Bangkok Airways.
Internationally
Jetstar, Air Asia and Tiger already serve Singapore. Air Asia serves most
other major destinations in SEA and has an increasing network into India and
China. Negotiating new rights for Tiger on these routes may be problematic.
Boeing gets earful of 777 advice from a customer with
clout
1 August 2010 Dominic Gates - Seattle Times aerospace reporter
One Boeing customer may have more influence than any other outsider on the
crucial decision facing the company this year concerning the future of its
star wide-body, the 777.
Tim Clark, president of giant Dubai airline Emirates, wielded his clout 10
years ago to define the long-range 777-300ER that is flying today. The
resulting plane is the largest and best-selling aircraft in the 777 family.
Now the 777's biggest buyer is exerting his influence again on the strategic
choice ahead for Boeing: To head off a looming competitive threat from the
fuel-efficient, mostly composite A350-1000 that Airbus has in development,
Boeing executives say they will either modify and improve the 777 or invest
much more to go for an all-new plane.
In April, Clark met with Lars Andersen, the former head of the 777 program
who came out of retirement late in 2009 to head the Boeing team that will
make the decision by year-end.
"I said, 'Lars, you may run out of the room screaming, but this is what we
want,' " Clark said in an interview this month at the Farnborough Air Show.
His prescription is an airplane the precise size of the 777-300ER but able
to fly several hundred miles farther with a full 55-ton payload.
And should Boeing go for new or improved? He'll buy an improved version if
it delivers that performance. But in the interview he also laid out an
alternative concept he has pitched to Andersen: a new, large twin-engined
jet family.
He also delivered a surprising judgment: He thinks Boeing executives
shouldn't see their key 777 model under serious threat from the slightly
smaller Airbus A350-1000.
"They think it'll take out the 777-300ER," Clark said. "People like me are
saying, 'It's not going to do that. And as your largest customer, don't
worry about it.' "
Emirates is an airline completely off the industry charts.
Many air carriers parked jets and deferred orders last year. Yet, even as
the Dubai economy wobbled in the global financial crisis, the extraordinary
growth of Emirates has not slowed.
At the Berlin Air Show in June, Emirates stunned its competitors — the big
international airlines such as British Airways, Australia's Qantas and
Germany's Lufthansa — when Clark ordered 32 Airbus A380s, bringing the
carrier's total of superjumbo jet orders to 90.
Emirates already has 86 Boeing 777s — the largest 777 fleet in the world —
and had 16 more scheduled for delivery before it announced a massive order
for another 30 at Farnborough last week.
Analyst Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group said Emirates' "fast growth
rates make them a big player in any future 777 update or replacement
decision."
Not only is it the biggest 777 customer, "they're also the second-biggest
A350 customer. That makes this a one-airline horse race for the two
manufacturers," he said.
What Clark wants
Clark said that back in 2000, when Boeing's leadership gave the go-ahead to
develop the 777-300ER, he told program chief Andersen that the original
design of this new long-range version wasn't good enough.
He demanded that Boeing make changes to raise the allowed takeoff weight and
boost the engine thrust.
GE duly developed a version of the GE-90 engine with 115,000 pounds of
thrust — more than any engine in aviation history. That enabled Boeing to
design a heavier, higher-capacity airframe with the required range.
"I said, 'Lars, if you want us to buy this airplane, this is what you have
to do,' " said Clark. "He went away and pulled a rabbit out of a hat, and we
bought a lot of them."
So what is Clark telling Boeing today?
To fly his ultralong range, high-capacity routes, Clark plans to simplify
his fleet to just three wide-body types — in order of increasing size, the
Airbus A350, the Boeing 777 and the Airbus A380.
In the three-class luxury-cabin layout Emirates wants, those planes
respectively carry 320, 354 and 489 passengers.
Clark is not interested in the Dreamliner, which is too small for his
routes. He sees the 777-300ER as an ideal size for that middle slot in his
fleet. In 2017 he'll start retiring his older 777s, he said, and he'll want
more than 70 new ones of the same size over the following four or five
years.
"We really, really like that aeroplane," said Clark, an Englishman. "Without
a replacement for the (777-300)ER, we have one almighty hole. ... We have to
have a solution."
Clark said his advice to Boeing is to develop a new family of twin-jets
larger than the largest Dreamliner. He recommends the base size be that of
the 777-300ER, and that Boeing develop a shrunk version and a stretch
version that will offer him options at roughly 300 seats, 350 seats and 400
seats.
Today, Emirates flies the 777-300ER from Dubai over the North Pole to the
West Coast of the U.S. to as far south as San Francisco. But to fly that
distance, the jet cannot be fully loaded — Emirates has to take out 20
seats.
For the new model, Clark wants planes that can fly nonstop from Dubai to Los
Angeles with a full load.
"I say to the guys, 'Listen, if we order $60 billion worth, don't worry
about spending $15 billion to $20 billion on a new airframe (and) engine,'
." Clark said. "If you get it right, that line will last you 30 years."
Of course, that decision is not quite as easy for an airplane manufacturer
as he makes it sound.
Boeing's board would have to sign off on a multibillion-dollar gamble, and
hope to earn the money back over decades. And, said analyst Adam Pilarski of
Avitas, it's possible that "the Emirates bubble will burst eventually and
those hoping for all the deliveries will be bitterly disappointed."
Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney pointed out that Emirates' requirements
are heavily skewed toward bigger airplanes, and its needs often differ from
other airlines'.
"I'm pleased to hear his comments on the A350," said McNerney in an
interview at Farnborough. "But there are those who don't have as long and
thick routes as he does who see the A350-1000 in a more competitive light"
against the 777.
"We are listening to (Clark). But we'll have to make the final decision on
777 in light of the entire market," McNerney said. "Satisfying Emirates, I
am sure, is going to be part of that decision."
New LCC for Thailand
1 August 2010
Thai Airways said
today that it plans to form a new low-fare airline with Singapore's Tiger
Airways Holdings Ltd, adding to Asia's crowded budget airline market.
The two airlines will hold a joint news conference in Bangkok on Monday to
announce the signing of a memorandum of understanding for the new airline,
said a Thai Airways official, who declined to provide further details.
Reuters reports
that the The "Thai Tiger" joint venture will be 51 percent owned by Thai
Airways and 49 percent owned by Tiger, according to a source with knowledge
of the deal who declined to be identified.
The new carrier will operate routes that will not overlap those run by Thai
Airway's current low-cost affiliate Nok Air, the source added.
So presumably the
intent will be to fly international routes as Nok Air operates domestically.
The obvious target is Thai Air Asia which dominates the international LCC
flights from Bangkok and Phuket.
Thai Airways is 51 percent-owned by the Thai government. Tiger is 49
percent-owned by Singapore Airlines (SIAL.SI) and part-owned by Singapore
state investor Temasek.
Emirates takes
first A380 to China
1 August 2010
15 years ago
Beijing airport boasted a single old terminal; mainly domestic flights; a
growing link to Hong Kong, and lots of delays.
Now it is the
fastest growing and maybe most modern airport in the world. The new terminal
three built for the 2008 Olympics is enormous. There is a new third runway.
And now Emirates is taking its A380 there on a daily basis as flight EK306.
Ek started flying
to China seven years ago and it is a fair bet that EK will progressively
grow its operations to China in the future.
Among the VIP guests who flew to Beijing aboard Emirates' A380 was the
Consul General of Chinese Consulate, H.E. Gao Youzhen; Head of HR & Admin.
of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Mr Kang Xun; the Managing
Director of China Construction, Mr Yu Tao; President of SINOPEC, Mr Shengli
Fan; the Managing Director of COSCO, Mr Wei Zhao and the Managing Director
of Phoenix Travel, Ms Zhao Fang.
The 517 seat A380 operates as EK 306 departing Dubai daily at 04:10 hrs,
touching down in the Chinese capital city at 15:10 hrs. The return flight,
EK 307 takes off from Beijing Capital International Airport at 23:55 hrs,
landing at Terminal 3, Dubai International Airport at 04:20 hrs the
following day.
Currently Emirates operates double-daily services each to Beijing, Shanghai
and Hong Kong, and daily services to Guangzhou; while the airline's fleet of
11 A380s are currently operating on services from Dubai to London Heathrow,
Paris Charles de Gaulle, Toronto, Seoul, Bangkok, Beijing, Jeddah, Sydney
and Auckland.
Blackberry
blackballed
1 August 2010
The latest move
from the the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority in the UAE looks like
another step in the demise of the UAE as a business centre.
The TRA has
announced that Blackberry Messenger, Blackberry E-mail and Blackberry
Web-browsing services in the UAE will be suspended as of October 11.
Yet Blackberry is
the most widespread, widely used, business mobile device. The issue appears
to be that all other phones route their data through UAE servers, so in the
case of a court/police case or complaint, histories can be pulled. Remember
the case of the Emirates crew where text messages were recovered by a court
order to support evidence of a claimed affair.
But BBM routes off shore. And that for the UAE is an issue; but is it about
security or control.
The suspension is a result says the TRA of the failure of ongoing attempts,
dating back to 2007, to bring Blackberry services in the UAE in line with
UAE telecommunications regulations.
The UAE telecommunications operators, Etisalat and du, are both government
controlled.
Blackberry is the
most efficient way of getting corparate email for roaming employees.
Etisalat and du
have both said that they will be announcing alternative mobility solutions.
But people have already subscribed to Blackberry's monthly fixed price and
to annual contracts. So what happens now. Do Etisalat and du apply new
roaming data charges. Basically tens of thousands of devices have been
rendered basically unfit for purpose overnight.
The UAE argues that Blackberry data is immediately exported offshore, where
it is managed by a foreign, commercial organisation. Blackberry data
services are currently the only data services operating in the UAE where
this is the case.
Commenting on the announcement, the TRA director general Mohamed Al Ghanim
said: "With no solution available and in the public interest, in order to
affect resolution of this issue, as of October 11, 2010, Blackberry
Messenger, Blackberry Email and Blackberry Web-browsing services will be
suspended until an acceptable solution can be developed and applied."
"We informed both Etisalat and du that providing the option of alternative
services to ensure the continuity of service from October 11 to its
subscribers - both individuals and organisations - is the most important
priority." Mr Al Ghanim added.
The fact that they
have given over 2 months notice suggests that there is still time for a
compromise solution.
I suspect the
solution will have to come from RIM; the Blackberry manufacturer. The UAE
cannot be the only country that has concerns over the use of an essentially
private secure network; China comes to mind. As do Singapore and Thailand.
