60 years

1 June 2012

The English monarchy means little to me. As the New Statesman wrote this week: "it seems churlish to point out that awarding great privileges and pseudo-medieval deference to members of an otherwise undistinguished Anglo-German family ill befits a nation that wants to see itself as democratic, meritocratic and modern."

But many people love the royals, they are good for tourism, they may indeed be better than an elected President in a republic and if you have to have a monarch then you may as well have a decent hard working one.

The four-day Bank Holiday gives the country the opportunity to gather together to mark the Queen's historic 60-year reign.

I can remember her Silver 25th anniversary. I was still at university. In Redbourn, where my parents lived, there was a huge Elizabethan street party. 35 years later this will be a far bigger event with three days of events.

Up to a million people are expected to line the banks of the River Thames and nearby open spaces to watch a majestic 1,000-strong flotilla sail through London on Sunday. And stars like Stevie Wonder, Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Elton John will perform at a concert on Monday day in honour of the longest reigning monarch since Queen Victoria.

Almost six million Britons plan to throw a Jubilee party this weekend, according to a study. It really is an excuse for a four day party: bunting, Pimm's and gnomes have become sell-out products as people hold outdoor parties to mark the Diamond Jubilee.

Waitrose said sales of Pimm's were up by more than 260 per cent on last year, with trifle up 28 per cent and picnic or party paperware up 182 per cent.

The DIY retailer B&Q said it had sold 100,000 metres of Union Flag bunting, 10,500 jubilee cushions and 3,100 jubilee gnomes.

Sainsbury's reported sales of 364 miles of bunting and is expecting to sell nearly 10 million servings of strawberries.

Marks & Spencer said it had sold more than 50,000 commemorative jubilee biscuit tins and 31 miles of bunting – enough to line the Mall 155 times.

The Queen's great-great-grandmother Victoria is the only other British sovereign to have celebrated a Diamond Jubilee.

All the evidence suggests that Britain remains a nation which is overwhelmingly comfortable with the monarchy, and which feels that the qualities offered by a queen such as Elizabeth II are qualities which it values and would not wish to lose.

For those reasons, on the River Thames on Sunday, outside Buckingham Palace on Monday; at St Paul's Cathedral and along the route back to the Palace on Tuesday, and at countless street parties and beacon lightings, Britain will reaffirm its commitment and gratitude to its Queen. Across the commonwealth there will also be events and tributes.

And in all honesty the Queen has given sixty years of remarkable service to her country. Not all her family are quite such shining successes but the crown does appear to be in capable hands.

A special visual tribute will see Diamond Jubilee Beacons light up the night sky across the UK on Monday, with more than 4,000 expected to be lit in the UK and across the Commonwealth.

A St Paul's Cathedral service of thanksgiving will be the highlight of Tuesday, ending with the Queen appearing on Buckingham Palace's balcony to acknowledge the tens of thousands expected to fill The Mall. There will be a fly-past at 3.30pm UK time.

Prime Minister David Cameron, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince of Wales and other senior royals will join prominent individuals from the UK and abroad at many of the events.

The celebrations begin with the Queen enjoying her traditional outing to the Epsom Derby. As a passionate horse breeder, she rarely misses the famous race meeting and will take her usual place in the Royal Box to study the form - but we are told (with some scepticism) that she does not bet.

The Thames River Pageant takes place on Sunday. The 1,000 boats will be led by the “herald barge” which will carry eight newly cast giant bells — each one named after a senior member of the royal family.

The bells of the churches along the Thames will reply to the peal sounded by the barge as it sails downriver.

Next in line will be Gloriana, the £1.5 million rowbarge gifted to the Queen on behalf of the nation and with a team of 18 rowers led by Olympic champions Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Matthew Pinsent.

The crew also includes three injured soldiers who were part of a six-man Row2Recovery team that rowed across the Atlantic earlier this year, Lt Will Dixon, 27, Cpl Rory Mackenzie, 30, and Cpl Neil Heritage, 31.

Also on board, but as passengers, will be Major Kate Philp, who was the first British woman soldier to lose a leg in combat when her Warrior tank ran over a bomb in Afghanistan in 2008, former royal protection officer Andrew Child and former firefighter David Melrose, who was left paralysed when a beam crashed into his back while tackling a blaze at a golf club.

The Queen will pass a guard of honour of Chelsea pensioners as she heads for the royal barge, which she will board at Cadogan Pier after setting off on the tender from the former Royal Yacht Britannia.

She will be accompanied on the royal barge by the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.

A second herald barge will carry the Academy of Ancient Music, playing Handel’s Water Music. The Royal Marines herald fanfare team are next, followed by the Band of the Royal Marines, which will sail alongside dozens of Dunkirk little ships.

Others in the 10 musical barges are a pipe band, a Commonwealth chorus, the Mayor’s Jubilee band of young musicians and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, which will play classic British tunes such as Jerusalem and Land Of Hope And Glory as it brings up the rear.

This is an event that the Thames has never seen before and will unlikely see again.

As for the Queen - she is the 40th monarch since William the Conqueror; she has overseen 12 Prime Ministers during her reign; has attended 35 Royal Variety performances; has owned 30 corgis, starting with Susan — an 18th birthday present. She currently has three, Monty, Willow and Holly. She is the patron of 600 charities.

The threat to Thailand's internet economy

1 June 2012

Google has released a statement in English and Thai entitled “A threat to the potential of Thailand’s Internet economy” (การคุกคามต่อระบบเศรษฐกิจอินเตอร์เน็ตที่มีศักยภาพของประเทศไทย). Below are some excerpts from the statement in English:

"Today, a decision was made in a Thai courtroom that runs counter to the country’s exciting and important role in bringing a free, open and prosperous Internet to life. To summarise the case quite simply – a Thai woman who runs a website has been fined and sentenced to eight months in prison (though that sentence has been suspended) for offensive comments left on her site by users, comments that she removed once notified. Though she was only convicted on one of ten counts, convicting her for something she never wrote sends a clear message to the entrepreneurs and business leaders who run Internet platforms in Thailand that they can and will be penalized for the independent actions of users.

The precedent set by this decision is deeply concerning because Internet platforms, often referred to as ‘intermediaries’ – basically, the tools and sites many of us use every day to connect with friends, family and customers around the world, such as social networks, online marketplaces and web forums – are the foundation of the web.

Imagine if tomorrow your favorite online services decide to shut down because their owners, fearing prison time, start seeing the risks as far outweighing potential returns. We would not just lose the services we love or rely on, we would lose our ability to connect with the world, to innovate and to experience the opportunities available in countries that embrace the digital economy.

The Internet connects us and our ideas. A free and open Internet ensures that great ideas, the ones that spark innovation and have the potential to change our world for the better, have a platform to be seen, heard and shared.

Telephone companies are not penalized for things people say on the phone and responsible website owners should not be punished for comments users post on their sites. Unfortunately, Thailand’s Computer Crimes Act is being used in this case to do just that.

The Computer Crimes Act stifles innovation and deters investment in a country and a people full of potential. We understand this is not simple. It is complicated and it is often not black and white. But if there were transparent rules about how to identify and react to unlawful content, Thailand will have a more free and open Internet and in doing so, allow millions of Thais, from small business owners to students to civil servants, to connect with the world and grow the Thai economy.

Google is committed to Thailand and our Thai users. We are here for the long term. And we look forward to a future that keeps all of us connected."

6 reasons Spain will leave the euro first

Commentary: Spain is too big to rescue, and doesn’t want it anyway

30 May 2012 Wall Street Journal - Matthew Lynn

The euro debt crisis, like any really spectacular geoeconomic event, is spawning its own special vocabulary.

We’ve already had Merkozy, now relegated to the footnotes, and are slowly getting used to the clunkier Merlande or Merkellande, as the oddly matched pairing of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the French President Francois Hollande has been dubbed. The Grexit, short for Greece finally giving up on the single currency, has been trending for the last few weeks. And coming up next: the Spexit.

What’s that? It’s shorthand for Spain quitting the euro — and we’re going to hear a lot of it over what promises to be a turbulent summer.

The Spanish are a lot more likely to pull out of the euro than the Greeks, or indeed any of the peripheral countries. They are too big to rescue, they have no political hang-ups about rupturing their relations with the European Union, they are already fed up with austerity, and there is a bigger Spanish-speaking world for them to grow into. There are few good reasons for the country to stay in the euro — and little sign it has the will to endure the sacrifices the currency will demand of them.

Even with the fresh Greek elections looming, Spain has moved center stage in the euro crisis and is likely to remain in the spotlight for the rest of the summer. Its economy stumbles from bad to worse. The bond markets have turned on it decisively, pushing rates on 10-year bonds to 6.45%, close to the levels hit at the depths of the crisis.

The banking system is teetering on the edge of a full-scale run. Bankia has already had to be bailed out by the government, and there are fears that others might be in just as bad shape. In the entire recorded history of capitalism there has never been a property crash that hasn’t been followed by a banking crisis. Spain has a huge property crash, and it’s not likely to be the first exception to that rule.

Its economy is already back in recession, and is likely to shrink further. Unemployment is up to 24%. One in four Spanish households now have no breadwinner. Retail sales are now falling at 10% year-on-year. Yet the prescription from Brussels and Berlin is precisely the same as it has been for every other country struggling with the euro. Endure a deep recession. Let unemployment rise. Allow wages to fall until you claw back competitiveness.

In Greece, people have just about put up with it — until now. So have the Irish, the Portuguese, and the Italians. The Spanish won’t. Here’s why.

One: Spain is too big too rescue. When it comes to the crunch, the EU will always bail out the Greeks. Its economy is only worth 230 billion euros. It can be subsidized forever. If the Greeks vote for a government that rejects the bailout package, some more money can be thrown at them. Pumping 10% of gross domestic product into the economy only costs 23 billion euros — peanuts. That is not true of Spain. If the economy collapses, it can’t be rescued. It will have to do the hard work by itself.

Two: Spain has tired of austerity already. Remember, the protests against cuts began in Madrid a year ago with the “indignados” movement, which started sit-ins across major cities in 2011. The protests spread from there to Greece, and other euro-zone countries. The austerity had hardly even begun, yet already it has provoked strong opposition. The country faces many tough years in the euro zone, and there is little sign it is prepared for that.

Three: Spain has a real economy. The Greeks understandably feel nervous about life outside the euro zone. They don’t really make anything. Spain is a successful economy with a perfectly respectable industrial base – its export to GDP ratio is 26%, similar to the U.K., France or Italy. Only last week the Japanese car-maker Nissan announced a major new investment there. Spain’s problem was a deranged currency that created an insane property bubble, which burst with calamitous results. But there is no reason for Spain to fear it doesn’t have a prosperous future outside the euro. It has plenty of successful export industries.

Four: Spain is politically secure. For many countries, euro membership is more about politics than economics. The Greeks stay in because it locks them into Europe (rather than being part of the Turkish sphere of influence). Latvia wanted in because it made it part of the EU rather than being dominated by Russia. For the Irish, it is about separating themselves from Britain. The Germans stick with the euro because the EU still represents a break with its troubled past, even if that is fading for the younger generation. For the French, the currency boosts their influence in a world where medium-sized Europeans states don’t count for much anymore. But Spain does not have any of those issues. It can take or leave the euro and the EU depending on whether it works or not. And right now it clearly isn’t working.

Five: Spain has bigger horizons. The Spanish economy looks partly to Europe. But it looks just as much to the booming Spanish-speaking economies of Latin America (and indeed the huge Hispanic market in the U.S.). Rather like the U.K., Spanish business has always looked to the global rather than the European market. Why tie yourself to a failing project when there are much bigger opportunities out there?

Six: The debate has already started. There is already a serious discussion underway in Spain about the future of the currency. Plenty of mainstream economists and pundits are arguing that the real problem is the euro, and Spain will only recover once it gets the peseta back. The taboo has been broken. That isn’t true in Greece, where even the far-left Syriza party still clings to the idea that it should stay in the euro.

For all those reasons, the Spain is the nation within the single currency that might conclude first that a negotiated departure from the single currency is a logical step. It might not be alphabetically correct, but the Spexit will come before the Grexit.

BKK airport to be expanded (at last)

30 May 2012

Airports of Thailand Pcl is to spend about $1.9 billion over the next five years to expand capacity at Bangkok's overcrowded Suvarnabhumi airport by a third, its president said on Wednesday.

AOT which runs the country's six main airports, aims to boost capacity at Suvarnabhumi by 15 million to serve up to 60 million passengers in 2017, Anirut Thanomkulbutra told reporters.

The $4 billion airport, which opened in September 2006 on what was once flooded marshland known as "cobra swamp", is expected to serve about 51 million passengers in AOT's fiscal year ending in September 2012, up from 48 million a year earlier and above annual capacity put at 45 million now, Anirut said.

Construction is due to begin in 2015. Some 80 percent of the budget will come from AOT's cash and the remaining 20 percent from a domestic loan, he said, adding it had hired ECM Consortium to manage the expansion.

Bangkok's old Don Muang airport, which these days is used by private planes, budget airlines and freight carriers, will take some of the strain from July 2012 when some scheduled commercial operations will move back there, Anirut said.

"Don Muang will be opened in July and serve both domestic and international airlines and we aim to have about 8 million passengers a year," he said. The question is who if anyone wants to move there. Maybe Orient Thai and Nok Air. But Air Asia does not want to leave Suvarnabhumi.

The airport operator made a net profit of 2.99 billion baht in the second quarter ending March 31, up more than two-thirds from a year earlier, thanks to the growing number of developing-world travellers and growth in low-cost air travel.

Passenger numbers to Thailand through its six airports are expected to reach 70 million this fiscal year, up from 66 million last year, Anirut said.

Webmaster Sentenced in Free-Speech Case

30 May 2012

A Thai court sentenced a local webmaster Wednesday to an eight-month suspended sentence for failing to act quickly enough to remove Internet posts deemed insulting to the country's royalty in a case widely seen as a test of freedom of expression in this Southeast Asian nation.

Google and human rights groups reacted strongly. Taj Meadows, a spokesman for Google, said in an e-mailed statement that the verdict was “a serious threat to the future of the Internet in Thailand.”

Courts in Thailand have with increasing frequency jailed people convicted of lèse-majesté, as royal insults are known. But the verdict on Wednesday was different: Chiranuch Premchaiporn, who was sentenced to a suspended one-year prison term, was not the author of the offending comments. She managed the Web site that hosted them.

“Telephone companies are not penalized for things people say on the phone and responsible Web site owners should not be punished for comments users post on their sites — but Thailand’s Computer Crimes Act is being used to do just that,” Mr. Meadows said.

The Computer Crimes Act is controversial in Thailand partly because it was enacted in 2007 by an unelected government installed after the military coup in 2006. The act also has a far-reaching extraterritorial feature built in: an American citizen was sentenced to two and a half years in prison last year for uploading from his computer in the United States a translation of a book banned in Thailand. He was arrested during a visit to Thailand.

In Ms. Chiranuch’s case, Judge Kampol Rungrat, who had postpones his judgment for one month, ruled that she was liable for the delayed removal of one out of ten comments posted on Prachatai, a popular forum for discussions about politics and culture.

But the judge appeared ambivalent in making the ruling. Prosecutors could not prove that Ms. Chiranuch “intentionally supported” the insulting comments and it would be “unfair” to expect that a webmaster could immediately remove offending comments from a Web site, he said. Under the law, however, it was nonetheless Ms. Chiranuch’s “duty and responsibility” to remove them, the judge ruled.

Ms. Chiranuch had argued that she removed the comments as soon as she was made aware of them. The judge agreed in all but one instance and said leaving a comment for 20 days was beyond a reasonable period of time.

Benjamin Zawacki, a Thailand researcher for Amnesty International, the human rights group, said the case was a disincentive for anyone wanting to start up an Internet business in Thailand.

“International media corporations need to sit up and take notice. Even ‘liking’ something on Facebook could have legal implications,” he said.

The Chiranuch case centers on the larger question of responsibility for speech in the digital age.

Faced with a torrent of digital content — 72 hours of video are uploaded onto YouTube every second — some governments are trying to put the responsibility for policing offensive or illegal content on intermediaries like Facebook, YouTube or any services that allow or encourage public participation of their sites.

Some governments seek to control the Internet directly. China, Cuba, North Korea, Singapore, Syria, and Vietnam are among countries with significant controls over politically-related content. Iran is seeking to build a “halal” Internet. 

In Thailand’s case, control over the Internet has been closely intertwined with the issue of the monarchy. King Bhumibol Adulyadej is 84 and Thais are anxious both about succession and the future of the institution overall. Successive governments have stepped up enforcement of the country’s lèse-majesté laws.

Human Rights Watch said in a statement that Wednesday’s conviction had “added to a climate of fear and self-censorship in Thailand’s media” and marked a “new low in Thailand’s intolerance of free speech.”

The ruling did show leniency toward Chiranuch Premchaiporn, who faced up to 20 years in prison for 10 comments posted on her Prachatai news website, but it still sends the message that Internet content in Thailand must be self-censored. It is probably a rather different ruling from that which would have been handed down a month ago and it is likely that the ruling was influenced by a significant outcry from the international media.

Ms. Chiranuch was initially given a one-year suspended sentence that was immediately reduced to eight months. She also was fined 20,000 baht ($625), which she quickly paid with help from supporters and colleagues who handed her cash.

Thailand's freedom of speech reputation has taken a battering in recent years, with its standing in the Press Freedom Index issued by the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders sliding to 137th out of 179 last year from 65th in 2002, when the ratings were initiated.

Husband accused of killing Japanese stewardess in Dubai

29 May 2012

The Emirates crew portal had nothing more than a note of condolence on the death of a Japanese cabin crew.

The local media however does pick up the story and provide a little more information. Dubai Public Prosecution told 7DAYS newspaper that a 29-year-old Tunisian man called police saying he had found his 28-year-old Japanese wife in the bathroom at their flat in Al Nahda, Dubai.

“He claimed he had returned to the flat and found her dead so he called police. Our forensic doctor confirmed criminal intent because the woman had been strangled,” a prosecution official said adding that “our doctor said the woman had been murdered eight hours before police were called.”

Rather strangely, the police appear more concerned about the nature of the couple's relationship than probing the cause of death. Officials in the Family and Juveniles section of Dubai Public Prosecution are now probing the relationship between the pair. The Tunisian suspect gave a document that was in Japanese and claimed it was a marriage certificate.

“Some witnesses and friends of the couple have denied they were married so we contacted the Japanese Consulate to translate the document and make sure it is authentic,” the official said.

“If we discover the two were having an illegal affair then we will refer the case to Deira Public Prosecution because it will be out of our jurisdiction.

Meanwhile Al Bayan Arabic language daily quoted police sources as saying the Tunisian man had been arrested on murder charges after forensic examination showed the victim had been strangled from the back.

The sources told the paper that a film taken from the building’s security cameras showed the man leaving his apartment nearly half an hour after the estimated time of death of the woman.

They said police arrested the Tunisian after he gave contradicting statements and that his marriage document presented to the police was not official as it was in Japanese language and signed only by the couple.

The film showed that the victim had returned home from work around 6.05am and her presumed husband left about 6.40am.

“The film showed that the defendant was the only one who was in the apartment at that time….forensic examination showed that the woman was strangled from the back neck and her lean body shows that the defendant could have forced her on her stomach, grabbed her legs by his and strangled her from the back,” the paper said, quoting a police source.

“The man claimed he found his wife dead when he returned home from work in the evening….the examination showed she died in the morning nearly eight hours after he reported her death.”

The paper said police also found a large sum of money and jewellery belonging to the stewardess in the defendant’s car.

It is always sad to read of young people dieing far from home; her family must be distraught and hopefully justice will focus on prosecuting her murder.

Update: The first thing my wife asked when she read this is was the girl's husband also cabin crew. The answer appears to be yes - and if the notes on PPRUNE are to be believed he is still flying. While innocent until proven guilty is sacrosanct the company needs to protect its staff and a grounding on full pay while the investigation continues would be the minimum the company should do.

EK scales back flights due to A380 delays

29 May 2012

The knock on effect of a slow down, and even a rethink, of A380 deliveries to Emirates is beginning to show across the airlines network.

While the airline is committed to route launches to Ho Chi Minh City, Washington, Barcelona and Lisbon there are also reductions being made elsewhere in the network and no new route announcements.

The first casualty is to reduce frequency on the DXB-LAX route from twice daily to just once daily from August 1st. The airline will be terminating the earlier EK217/218 roundtrip, which is operating with B77W and keep the daily EK215/216, which is currently operated with the B77L.

This is just a few months after reducing Houston to a single daily flight. With LAX there may also have been capacity issues on the route, prompting EK to redeploy the capacity elsewhere in the network.

It is likely that Emirates will replace the currently scheduled B77L with the B77W for the sole remaining flight increasing economy seats from around 216 to 275 depending on load retsrictions.

Emirates is also reducing frequency on the DXB CPT route from twice daily to daily from September 01 onwards when the early morning rotation EK772/773 will be suspended. This is a surprise as the South African routes always appear very well supported. The second flight is due to be re-instated from 1 December 2012.

The reality is that EK reacts quickly, very quickly, to changing needs in the business. The commercial and marketing departments are very capable.

As to the A380 rumours: One new one says that EK is going to return 11 A380s to Airbus and won't take them back until it is permanently fix. There would be no new deliveries in 2012 and 2013. This is just a rumour so don't shoot the messenger.

Meanwhile it is clear that there are two A380s - A6-EDV and A6-EDW - that are still sitting in Toulouse awaiting delivery. Delivery dates for these aircraft are still unknown. I presume until Emirates and Airbus come to an agreement. Until then I'd expect A6-EDX and A6-EDY to be held as well.

Airbus A380 wing flaws may cost USD$629m

 29 May 2012 - Reuters

European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. has cautioned that delivering 30 Airbus A380 superjumbos this year will be a challenge and that fixing wing cracks on the double-decker airliner will occupy the company for years.

Airbus is being forced to devote more attention to its flagship aircraft just as the manufacturer struggles to keep its A350 wide-body program on track and the company prepares for a management switch at the beginning of next month. Airbus said the A350 program, aimed at competing with Boeing Co. (BA) (BA)’s new 787 and bestselling 777 aircraft, remains “very challenging”

After discovering the cracks last year, Airbus diagnosed the issue, saying it stemmed from a combination of manufacturing processes and materials, and is now working on a two-step fix for cracked wing brackets.

For now, the approach involves inserting a piece where the wing bracket isn’t sufficiently strong. This is temporary. Eventually, Airbus will address the issue by changing the materials and process used to manufacture the wing. It can’t put that change into practice until the European Aviation Safety Agency gives approval.

The wings for the A380 are built in Broughton in the U.K., where Airbus employs more than 5,000 people. The structures are partly made from carbon fiber material and are transported by road and river to the sea from where they are shipped to the Airbus headquarters in Toulouse in France for final assembly.

Airbus is now in discussions with A380 customers about deliveries and it is clear that many deliveries are now being delayed.

Airlines eager to put their new A380s into service can fly the planes without immediately fixing wing brackets, as EASA directives require fixes only after a certain number of landings and takeoffs. Some airlines may prefer to insist that Airbus make the fix first, before they accept delivery.

Airbus says that repair costs look set to climb towards EUR€500 million (USD$629 million).

EADS subsidiary Airbus reported the cracks in January, leading to checks on the worldwide fleet of A380s, which authorities say are safe to fly.

Airbus chief executive Tom Enders said the discovery inside the superjumbo's wings, where new lightweight carbon-composite materials and traditional metal meet, showed the difficulty of pushing technical boundaries in the ultra-competitive industry.

"Certainly when it was designed some 10 years ago, it was an innovation. We thought it was a great idea to make wings lighter with a hybrid (of) carbon-fibre ribs and metal ribs. It was supposed to bring a lot of weight reduction, and to a certain extent it did," Enders told a group of aviation journalists.

The A380 was designed in the early part of the last decade. At the time, the aircraft needed to lose weight, in part because of efforts to make it quieter, which required larger and heavier engine fans.

To drive down weight, a decision was made to mix metal and lightweight carbon components inside the wings, but engineers could not tell how this would stand up to extreme temperatures.

"We were confident at the time that we had mastered the technology, that we were selecting the right materials (and) understood their properties and the interface between carbon fibre and metal," Enders said.

"We found out the hard way that we didn't know everything we should have before taking this decision."

The willingness to tackle the issue head-on in his last major media appearance before stepping up to chief executive of parent EADS later this month, contrasts with the industry's usually conservative tone and marks efforts to draw a line under a damaging episode for the world's largest civil plane maker.

People familiar with the matter said EADS and two groups of auditors had been brought in to assist with an investigation which Enders launched in February.

Airbus will also be looking for certainty that similar problems could not crop up elsewhere.

The problem comes at a time when Airbus and rival Boeing are investing billions of dollars in a more radical technological leap towards new lightweight aircraft such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the future Airbus A350.

Boeing was hit with composite-related fuselage problems on its 787 Dreamliner and had a potentially serious fire on a 787 test flight.

Both the 787 and A380 have been declared airworthy but authorities have ordered a tighter timetable of regular checks on the A380 until a permanent fix is introduced.

A350 head Didier Evrard said extra fatigue tests would be carried out on the company's future A350 test planes during development.

The A380 cracks were found in L-shaped components called rib feet, which connect the wing's skeleton to the outer skin. Airbus said it had decided to change the type of aluminium alloy used for the parts to one less brittle.

It takes a year for completely fresh wings to work though the production system, and it will not be before 2014 that entirely fresh aircraft will start rolling off assembly lines.

Meanwhile, the cost of the mistakes made a decade ago under a mainly different management team appears to be rising.

Last week, EADS took EUR€158 million of provisions for the cost of retrofitting planes already built, while getting ready for a permanent fix in 2014.

The question is will there be airlines that defer deliveries until they can be made with the permanent fix already in place.

Reconciliation, whitewash and the PAD - another day in amazing Thailand

27 May 2012

These are strange times in Thailand. A reconciliation bill has been proposed by the leader of the 2006 coup, now a politican, that will basically take Thailand back to 1 January 2006 as though none of the events of the last 6 years ever happened.

His bill proposes that:

Gen Sondhi Boonyaratglin, MP, coup leader and now leader of Matuphum Party, has proposed the bill and it was listed on the agenda to be considered in the House session next Wednesday.

Ms Yingluck said the bill was proposed by Gen Sondhi. She says that her Pheu Thai party did not have any resolution on the matter as the government's priority at the moment is to administer the country.

One of the key clauses of the bill is that it paves the way for the return of Thaksin Shinawatra. And predictably this has yellow shirts, multi-coloured shirts, the PAD and the Democrats in a terrible state. Though of course they all benefit hugely from this bill.

Ms Yingluck said that any proposal which could lead to national reconciliation should be considered and the entire process will be concluded within parliament with a majority vote from the people's representatives.

But this is not reconciliation; this is a whitewash.

The Democrat Party on Saturday reaffirmed that it will oppose the reconciliation bill; not surprising really as it was the coup that put the Democrats into government.

The Democrat party spokesman Chavanond Intarakomalsut explained that the proposed bill has a "hidden agenda" to help Mr Thaksin and nothing in the two-page bill indicates that this is for the general public, instead allowing for Mr Thaksin to return to the country without having to serve a jail term and returning his seized assets to him.

But the bill also grants amnesty to those who ordered the May 2010 crackdown including 91 deaths.

Mr Chavanond added the party's legal team is now considering a petition to the Constitution Court to rule whether or not the drafted bill violates the law. It is remarkable how political debate in Thailand turns so quickly and so often to threatened and real legal action.

Opposition and Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva also said the opposition would move to oppose the reconciliation bill, as it believes the legislation aims to whitewash individuals who committed wrongdoing in connection with Assets Examination Committee (AEC) cases.

Thaksin remains hugely divisive; but behind the scenes (see below) there are indications of a reconciliation between the Royal family, the privy council and the Shinawatras.

Of course what the Democrats and the opposition want is a reconciliation law that excludes Thaksin, and his AEC case, but includes every other wrong doing that occurred under their watch.

Now to add to the fun People's Alliance for Democracy leader Sondhi Limthongkul returned to the rally stage yesterday to address a large gathering of yellow shirts protesting against a proposed reconciliation bill, saying his next public appearance will be his "final battle".

The PAD have called for a massive rally of supporters on Wednesday at the Royal Plaza to march on parliament where the House of Representatives is expected to begin deliberating the proposed bill.

The PAD of course occupied Bangkok's airports in 2008. The reconciliation bill would grant amnesty to anyone involved in that occupation. As though it never happened. Yet to the PAD "the draft bill goes against the rule of law and one of PAD's established principles. The PAD is justified in holding the rally," PAD leader Somkiat Pongpaiboon said.

He said it was nothing but a blatant attempt to whitewash the crimes of deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and help him to avoid imprisonment.

What was Thaksin's crime - it is worth remembering that he was sentenced in absentia to two years in jail by the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions in 2008 for helping his ex-wife Khunying Potjaman na Pombejra buy prime state land in the Ratchadaphisek area.

Not much of a crime compared to either the occupation of international airports or the killing of 91 Thai and foreign civilians.

Expect some further drama this week.

What does the King's trip mean?

27 May 2012

Amid widespread anxiety in Thailand about his health, King Bhumibol Adulyadej made a rare visit outside his hospital suite on Friday in what senior Thai officials described as a demonstration of his improved fitness.

It was the first time in two years that the king, who is 84, had traveled outside greater Bangkok, Thai television said. The king has suffered from a number of illnesses not completely explained by the palace.

The palace did not offer an official explanation for the trip, which was broadcast live on national television, but the head of the Thai Army, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, said the trip was an opportunity for all Thais “to see that the king is healthy and can proceed to visit the people once again.”

Unusually the King was dressed in his military uniform for this trip signifying his rank as supreme commander of the army. 

In a very staged event and in the deeply reverential tone used in Thailand when publicly discussing royalty, the narrator of the live telecast said the visit was an opportunity for the King's subjects to show their “loyalty, respect and care for their beloved king.”

The king, the world’s longest-reigning monarch, has made very few public appearances over the past two years. And political turbulence in recent years has included countless accusations that some Thais are not respectful to the king.

The area that the king visited is royal land now partly used as a reservoir, one element in a royally inspired plan to lessen flooding in Bangkok.

Palakorn Suwanarat, a member of the king’s privy council, said on Thursday that the king would be leaving the hospital soon. The king will stay in his palace, Mr. Palakorn said, because he is “back to good health.”

But the reality is that the King is 84 years old. Frailty is part of the aging process.

The Nation newspaper eulogised that "millions of people were glued to their TV sets and rejoiced at the sight of His Majesty. Many of them were moved to tears. "I love him so much," Napaporn Thaveethanakij, 76, said from her home in Samut Prakan, tears of joy glittering in her eyes."

Fine Arts Department deputy director general Sureerat Wongsangiam said the trip would be recorded in the National Archives of Thailand.

In a sign of the growing truce Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra presented the King a title deed of the paddy field where Their Majesties had harvested a rice crop in 1996. "My family and I would like to present the plot that covers 7 rai and 3 ngarn to His Majesty," Yingluck said. The Shinawatras had acquired the land only a few days previously.

The Democrats were quick to make political capital from the visit with their spokesman Chavanond urging the government to show sincerity by expressing a clear stance towards lese majeste moves and websites, plus politicians who criticise Article 112 of the Criminal Code about lese majeste offences, as well as cable TV and local radio people making comments that border on lese majeste.

You have to love how the so called Democrats are the first in the queue to muzzle any openness of speech and expression.

How symbolic was this visit and is the King truly returning to the Palace. If he does then suggestion of a rift in the royal family appear to have been healed and the role of the army in managing political affairs in Thailand will have strengthened.

Will Emirates invest down under?

27 May 2012

Arabian Business reports that Qantas Airways, seeking to turn around losses on international flights, is looking at getting separate licences for its international and domestic businesses amid interest from Emirates Airline in an enhanced tie-up between the carriers.

Qantas has a group looking at whether a split licence would be the best way of running the businesses after announcing a restructure May 22, CEO Alan Joyce told a media event in Sydney on Saturday.

“We’re exploring that as we speak” he said. While Qantas’s constitution and a 1992 Australian law cap foreign investment in the carrier at 49 percent, second-ranked Virgin Australia Holdings recently separated its international and domestic businesses to get around similar rules.

Qantas earlier this week said it will split its businesses into domestic and international units, a move that could lead to Emirates buying a stake in the Sydney-based carrier’s domestic service, according to Deutsche Bank.

Tim Clark, president of Dubai-based Emirates, the largest international airline, this week said both carriers would benefit from a tie-up, the Australian Financial Review reported.

“If I was a shareholder I’d love that,” Neil Hansford, chairman of consultants Strategic Aviation Solutions, said by phone yesterday from Salamander Bay, Australia.

Emirates could take a stake of as much as 30 percent in a Qantas domestic unit, with its share of debt and equity worth as much as A$1.9bn, Sydney-based Deutsche Bank analyst Cameron McDonald wrote in a May 24 note.

This is despite Thierry Antinori, Emirates' executive vice president for passenger sales, telling reporters in Lisbon on May 24 that the Dubai-based carrier has no interest in buying stakes in other airlines,

Goo Goo Ga Ga

25 May 2012

In case no one had noticed - Lady Gaga is in Bangkok.

And the Thais have come over all sensitive.

Miss GaGa gets off her airplanes and send this tweet to her 24 million followers: "I just landed in Bangkok baby! Ready for 50,000 screaming Thai monsters. I wanna get lost in a lady market and buy fake Rolex."
 
And the Thais are up in arms. "We are more civilised than you think," tweeted DJ Suharit Siamwalla, who has a ticket to tonight's show but now plans to boycott it. Sadly - no you are not!

"She came to our home, but instead of admiring us she insulted us," a commentator on the Pantip.com Web forum said.

Note to all those offended: tip: if you are worried about your image, then clean it up.

We walked out onto Silom around 11am yesterday and there was some poor farang getting the shakedown from the police in a little hut opposite soi 15 - an area notorious for the thai litter police while less than five yards away was a table top on the pavement where guys were selling porn dvds. Copies of course.

But it is a classic Thai response: either ignore the problem...or pretend that something obvious doesn't exist. It's all about the unfortunate concept of "saving face" at all costs.

As for Thailand's image - go and protest the folks who made "Hangover 2."

Time to plan a velvet divorce for the euro

23 May 2012 By Gideon Rachman Financial Times

As I read the umpteenth article on the “Grexit”, a phrase from the film Marathon Man ran around my head. In this cult-thriller, Laurence Olivier plays a war criminal turned dentist who tortures Dustin Hoffman by drilling through his dental nerves without anaesthetic. As he does so, he asks repeatedly “Is it safe?”

“Is it safe?” is the question European leaders have been asking themselves for months, as they contemplate Greece leaving the eurozone. Late last year I found myself discussing this very question with a senior European politician. He had noticed that I had written repeatedly that the eurozone was a flawed construction that was likely to collapse. If that was the case, I was asked, would it not be better to break the whole thing up now?

At this point, I heard myself becoming shifty and evasive – “The trouble,” I replied, “is that I keep being told that a break-up would cause a catastrophe. Until I can tell you convincingly why that’s untrue, I can’t responsibly advocate it.”

But prevarication is no longer good enough. In the coming months, Europe may be forced to decide.

So – to answer the question that I dodged back in December – yes, I do think that it would ultimately be better if the eurozone broke up. This might not involve a complete reversion to national currencies. A hard core of euro-users, centred on Germany, might survive. But the current euro will have to go.

It is true that the transition from here to there will be painful and dangerous. My colleague Martin Wolf laid out an updated version of the full horror scenario in Friday’s FT – involving a breakdown of law and order in Greece, and financial collapse across Europe. How could anyone responsibly run that risk?

The answer is that the alternatives to eurozone break-up are inherently implausible and deeply unattractive. At the weekend G8 leaders called for Greece to stay in the eurozone. Their present plan seems to involve some magical mix of stimulus and austerity that restores both budgetary balance and growth. But even if they can agree a real plan and even if it works – and neither outcome is likely – the eurozone’s structural problems would remain.

Without the option of devaluing their currencies, uncompetitive economies are left with “internal devaluation” – otherwise known as wage cuts and mass unemployment. It is true that countries such as Greece badly need economic reforms. But these reforms – conducted within the straitjacket of monetary union with Germany – are causing political and economic turmoil.

The real problem, however, is political. The euro does not have a political union behind it so it simply lacks the key institutions needed to make monetary union work. There is no strong central government to enforce budgetary discipline and no large federal budget to fund transfers from rich to poor areas. And, as we are discovering, there is no euro-wide bank-deposit insurance scheme.

In theory, the eurozone might rectify this error by moving to a real political union. But the idea of a permanent transfer of sovereignty from Athens to Brussels has been rejected by all sides in Greece. Meanwhile, in Germany, the idea of a transfer union – involving a permanent gush of subsidies from northern to southern Europe – remains anathema.

Even if EU politicians were able to overcome such objections and create a real federal union, this giant new entity would essentially hollow out the powers of national democracies. Sacrificing national self-rule on the altar of the euro is inherently objectionable – and would invite a nationalist backlash across Europe. This “cure” for the ills of the euro would be worse than the disease.

Since the long-term alternatives to the break-up of the eurozone lack credibility, it is necessary to think about how to manage such an event – rather than simply dismissing it as too dangerous to contemplate.

Unfortunately, the break-up plans that Europeans are already drawing up behind closed doors are too limited.

They envisage a Greek exit, followed by a determined effort to throw up a firewall that prevents other countries being sucked into the crisis. This has unfortunate echoes of the past two years, during which the EU has consistently tried and failed to confine the crisis to Greece.

In fact, the exit of Greece would unleash contagion, by making it clear that membership of the euro need not be permanent. Markets would inevitably round on the next vulnerable countries.

Allowing the fate of the euro to be driven by a succession of market panics would be the worst possible way of breaking up the single currency. It would involve the loss of billions of euros of public money as the EU burnt through its firewall. The political and economic turmoil that followed would cause public panic and discredit the politicians in charge.

It would be infinitely preferable if EU leaders were to make a rational assessment of which countries are willing and able to stay in the euro – and announce plans to work on an amicable and orderly divorce between the stayers and the goers. Only by acting in this way might they finally achieve their oft-stated goal of “getting ahead of events”. Almost all euro-users adopted the currency without a referendum, and they could leave the same way.

It is true that even a “velvet divorce” for the eurozone would involve enormous dangers. But at least it would offer a believable exit from the present maze. As a (very) German proverb puts it – “Better an end with horror, than a horror without end.”

Chen arrives in America

20 May 2012

A quick update on Chen Guangcheng who has now arrived in America with his wife and two children.

The lawyer and his family touched down at Newark Liberty International Airport almost exactly a month after his escape from house arrest sparked a diplomatic struggle that reached the highest levels of the US and Chinese governments.

Still walking on crutches after breaking his foot during the escape, Mr Chen said that his new position as a law student at New York University would give him a chance "for reparation in body and spirit".

He also struck a conciliatory note towards the Chinese government, possibly out of fear of antagonising the security officials still holding supporters who helped him flee eastern China for the refuge of the US Embassy in Beijing.

"I am gratified the Chinese government dealt with the situation with restraint and calm," he said.

However, he vowed to keep fighting for human rights in China and said: "I hope to see that [the government] continues to open discourse and earn the respect and trust of the people."

The 40-year-old, his wife and two children spent the day resting in their new apartment in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, which the university had stocked with Chinese food ahead of their arrival.

Well-wishers left presents at his building, including a large stuffed Snoopy toy, but only Jerome Cohen, the professor who secured his place at the law school, is believed to have seen him.

Bob Fu, a US-based human rights activist who has been one of the key voices lobbying the American government to help Mr Chen, said that the dissident would be thinking of supporters in China who may be left more vulnerable by his departure.

Mr Fu also expressed concern that the Chinese government would continue to monitor Mr Chen in New York, saying he had several "suspicious encounters" and was some times followed after his own flight from China in 1997.

The State Department refused to comment on whether it was providing the Chen family with protection.

Mr Chen, who helped exposed the forced abortions carried out under China's one-child policy, had been held prisoner in his own home for nearly 20 months before escaping on April 22 and making his way to the US Embassy.

After initially saying he wanted to stay in China, he changed his mind and asked to come to the US, beseeching the help of Hillary Clinton and making two dramatic calls to a Congressional hearing in Washington.

While China has accused the US of meddling in its internal affairs, authorities are thought to be pleased to have Mr Chen out of the country, in the hope it will reduce his impact as a dissident.

A380 speculation in Dubai

18 May 2012

There is some A380 speculation running around Dubai and it should worry Airbus.

The suggestion is that EK will stop accepting any deliveries of new A380s because of the issues with wing cracks. Apparently the last 3-4 aircraft (two of which are ready for delivery) will be accepted by EK to make the fleet up to 25 A380s in total, but then no further aircraft will be accepted until a permanent fix is found for the A380.

Obviously further speculation points to EK cancelling the remaining A380s in favour of ordering more B777s. This seems unlikely. The A380s generate significant revenue when they are flying and they are hugely popular as a 'flagship' aircraft.

That said, Airbus is expecting one-off charges to implement a retrofit solution to the A380 wing-rib cracking problem to reach €260 million ($330 million) over 2012.

The airframer's parent, EADS, revealed in its first-quarter results that it had already taken a €158 million charge relating to fixing 71 in-service A380s - a fix which, it says, is "more complex" than originally anticipated in March this year.

The company is still expecting to deliver 30 A380s this year. EADS will continue to treat the matter on a one-off charge basis. But that number has to be suspect as airlines wait for a permanent rather than temporary solution.

The 30 figure is even more unlikely given that EADS only handed over four A380s delivered in the first quarter of 2012.

EADS says the final wing-fix solution was finalised over the "last few days" and discussions are taking place with certification authorities.

Once the changes secure approval from the European Aviation Safety Agency, implementation of the retrofit will begin towards the end of this year with initial deliveries in 2013.

But while implementation of the line-fit solution will take place around the same time, the lead times mean that the first A380s with the line-fit fix will be delivered in 2014.

There has been no announcement from Emirates but given the chaos caused by A380 repairs to Q1 and Q2 schedules it would not be a surprise if deliveries are delayed.

What does it mean to be Canadian?

18 May 2012 By Lorraine Mallinder for the BBC - The reality is - what does it mean to be Canadian - you know who Blue Rodeo are and can hum along to "Try" !

Canada is anything but a homogenous Commonwealth state; nearly one million indigenous people rub shoulders with immigrants from around the world, including many from Asia. What does it mean to be Canadian now? What are the traits which help make up modern-day Canada?

In 2009, Hollywood actor Billy Bob Thornton, plugging his music on a radio show, seemed to be in a most undiplomatic mood. With apparent disdain, he dismissed his Canadian audiences as "mashed potatoes with no gravy".

"Oh, we've got some gravy up here as well," came the host's riposte, immediately turning him into a national hero. A beleaguered Thornton cancelled his tour and left the country.

The host had a point. This is, after all, the land of fries and cheese curds slathered in gravy, a French-Canadian classic called poutine. With mid-winter temperatures dipping to, say, -30.9C (-24F) in towns such as Yellowknife, it's a must. Canadians need food which sticks to their ribs.

Defining this nation of six time zones is not easy. What could an English speaker in Vancouver possibly have in common with a francophone 3,000 miles (5,000 km) away in Quebec City? What, for that matter, could either have in common with a Gaelic speaker in easterly Nova Scotia? And, that's without taking into account the 200-plus ethnic groups across the land.

John Ralston Saul, author of several books on Canadian culture, believes his country has a distinct approach to identity. "They accept that difference is actually quite interesting. What makes it possible to live together is agreement on things like ethics and public policy. Not agreement on accents and religion," he says.

While most Canadians live in a narrow corridor hugging the US border, one thing they must never be considered is American. Indeed, when polled on national identity, Canadians defined themselves by characteristics such as free healthcare (53%) and by being more polite than their southern neighbours (15%).

Lately, the country's gaze seems to be turning back to Britain. The ruling Conservatives are strengthening ties with the monarchy, hanging the Queen's portrait in federal buildings and restoring the 'royal' prefix to the country's navy and air force.

After last year's honeymoon visit by Will and Kate, over two-thirds of Canadians said they believed the couple would help keep the monarchy relevant.

It's all part of what Noah Richler, author of the book What We Talk About When We Talk About War, calls a battle for Canadian identity. Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, he says, is currently re-defining the country as a "warrior nation" harking to battles ranging from the colonial War of 1812 to Afghanistan and Libya.

He believes the return to the crown is part of this. "It's a farce. To suddenly go back to having a royal label, that's good for marmalade. It doesn't serve an independent state," he says.

Mr Harper's recasting of the nation's identity has gone down especially badly in Quebec, where the vast majority of the country's francophone population lives. In 2011, during the royal visit to the province, two-thirds of respondents in one poll said they wanted to get rid of the monarchy. Back in 2009, Prince Charles' official visit to the province was marred by egg-throwing anti-monarchy protesters.

Bilingualism, a political priority under the premiership of Pierre Elliott Trudeau in the 1960s and 70s, is a core element of the country's identity. Today, 17.4% of Canadians are able to conduct a conversation in both languages, a marked increase on the 13.5% reported in 1971. "Is there enough? No. Should there be more? Yes. People take it for granted now, but if you want to be a cabinet minister or a supreme court judge, you have to be bilingual," says Mr Ralston Saul.

Just to confuse matters, immigration has added more than 200 other languages to the mix, with one-fifth of the population speaking a mother tongue other than English or French. Immigration is currently at a 75-year high, with newcomers accounting for two-thirds of the country's recent population growth.

More than half come from Asia, with a substantial proportion from Europe and Latin America. Most head to the bright lights of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, though there is also increasing interest in the province of Alberta, where oil jobs beckon.

Canadians, generally open-minded and tolerant, have mixed feelings about immigration. According to a recent poll, nearly two-thirds want their country to become a melting pot like the US, a unified culture into which newcomers must assimilate.

The country's attitude towards newcomers is changing - recently, the government introduced new rules allowing employers to pay temporary workers 15% less than the average wage, provoking an outcry from immigrant rights groups.

"The very nature of our open multicultural society is being changed. For all of our history, we have been the welcoming country that offered immigrants a new start. Paying one group less than another… cleaves the idea of Canada being a place of refuge and generosity," says Mr Richler.

What about the country's original population? Canada's relationship with its more than one million First Nations people - native Indian, Metis and Inuit - is a controversial issue.

In 2011, the Red Cross was called on to the remote reservation of Attawapiskat, Ontario, where residents were struggling in sub-standard housing without electricity or plumbing. Nearly half of Canada's native people live in homes needing major repair. In other areas too, such as health and education, people of the First Nations invariably come last.

But, behind the headlines, Mr Ralston Saul maintains a different story is emerging. "There are enormous problems, but the interesting thing is that there's a remarkable new aboriginal elite, whether in universities or politics. They're gaining more and more legal power, with more influence over the use of the land," he says. "My message is that everybody had better get used to it. It's good because it will take Canadians back to the roots of their identity."

Canadians are a highly connected population, with nearly three-quarters of the population on social networking site Facebook They are also well-informed, with the vast majority (89%) following current affairs frequently.

Four in ten consider jobs and the economy to be the country's most pressing concern, ahead of healthcare and the environment.

No surprises, then, when Mr Harper was re-elected with a majority last year on a jobs and growth ticket, having successfully steered the country through the global financial crisis.

Under his stewardship the country is also becoming tougher on crime.

Recently approved crime laws will usher in minimum mandatory sentences for drugs offences and a crackdown on young offenders.

Is Canada really such a dangerous place? Not according to official figures, which show that the crime rate has gone down substantially over the past decade.

Yet, in a recent survey, roughly half of Canadians agreed with government plans to build more prisons.

Overall, however, it appears a contented country, with a high quality of life.

Canadians love to give back too, devoting some of their free time to raising funds for good causes, stocking food banks and tidying parks.

In 2010, nearly half of the adult population gave more than two billion hours of their time to volunteer work.

"The defining trait of being a Canadian is understanding our good fortune, knowing that we're not actually better than anybody else," Mr Richler says.

"We're not better than the Americans. We're not better than the Britons. But, in a way, we're fundamentally lucky."

Apocalypse Fairly Soon

18 May 2012 By PAUL KRUGMAN New York Times

A simple and clear analysis of the Euro crisis; how we got there; how we might get out and the risks if we do not.

"Suddenly, it has become easy to see how the euro — that grand, flawed experiment in monetary union without political union — could come apart at the seams. We’re not talking about a distant prospect, either. Things could fall apart with stunning speed, in a matter of months, not years. And the costs — both economic and, arguably even more important, political — could be huge.

This doesn’t have to happen; the euro (or at least most of it) could still be saved. But this will require that European leaders, especially in Germany and at the European Central Bank, start acting very differently from the way they’ve acted these past few years. They need to stop moralizing and deal with reality; they need to stop temporizing and, for once, get ahead of the curve.

I wish I could say that I was optimistic.

The story so far: When the euro came into existence, there was a great wave of optimism in Europe — and that, it turned out, was the worst thing that could have happened. Money poured into Spain and other nations, which were now seen as safe investments; this flood of capital fueled huge housing bubbles and huge trade deficits. Then, with the financial crisis of 2008, the flood dried up, causing severe slumps in the very nations that had boomed before.

At that point, Europe’s lack of political union became a severe liability. Florida and Spain both had housing bubbles, but when Florida’s bubble burst, retirees could still count on getting their Social Security and Medicare checks from Washington. Spain receives no comparable support. So the burst bubble turned into a fiscal crisis, too.

Europe’s answer has been austerity: savage spending cuts in an attempt to reassure bond markets. Yet as any sensible economist could have told you (and we did, we did), these cuts deepened the depression in Europe’s troubled economies, which both further undermined investor confidence and led to growing political instability.

And now comes the moment of truth.

Greece is, for the moment, the focal point. Voters who are understandably angry at policies that have produced 22 percent unemployment — more than 50 percent among the young — turned on the parties enforcing those policies. And because the entire Greek political establishment was, in effect, bullied into endorsing a doomed economic orthodoxy, the result of voter revulsion has been rising power for extremists. Even if the polls are wrong and the governing coalition somehow ekes out a majority in the next round of voting, this game is basically up: Greece won’t, can’t pursue the policies that Germany and the European Central Bank are demanding.

So now what? Right now, Greece is experiencing what’s being called a “bank jog” — a somewhat slow-motion bank run, as more and more depositors pull out their cash in anticipation of a possible Greek exit from the euro. Europe’s central bank is, in effect, financing this bank run by lending Greece the necessary euros; if and (probably) when the central bank decides it can lend no more, Greece will be forced to abandon the euro and issue its own currency again.

This demonstration that the euro is, in fact, reversible would lead, in turn, to runs on Spanish and Italian banks. Once again the European Central Bank would have to choose whether to provide open-ended financing; if it were to say no, the euro as a whole would blow up.

Yet financing isn’t enough. Italy and, in particular, Spain must be offered hope — an economic environment in which they have some reasonable prospect of emerging from austerity and depression. Realistically, the only way to provide such an environment would be for the central bank to drop its obsession with price stability, to accept and indeed encourage several years of 3 percent or 4 percent inflation in Europe (and more than that in Germany).

Both the central bankers and the Germans hate this idea, but it’s the only plausible way the euro might be saved. For the past two-and-a-half years, European leaders have responded to crisis with half-measures that buy time, yet they have made no use of that time. Now time has run out.

So will Europe finally rise to the occasion? Let’s hope so — and not just because a euro breakup would have negative ripple effects throughout the world. For the biggest costs of European policy failure would probably be political.

Think of it this way: Failure of the euro would amount to a huge defeat for the broader European project, the attempt to bring peace, prosperity and democracy to a continent with a terrible history. It would also have much the same effect that the failure of austerity is having in Greece, discrediting the political mainstream and empowering extremists.

All of us, then, have a big stake in European success — yet it’s up to the Europeans themselves to deliver that success. The whole world is waiting to see whether they’re up to the task."

A Greek tragedy

18 May 2012

The drachma could make a comeback if Greek elections on 17 June do not provide a solution to the crisis.

How would Greece leave the eurozone?

Greeks go to the polls again on 17 June after the vote on 6 May proved inclusive. The new election is seen as a referendum on the euro. If the anti-austerity Syriza party wins control and cannot force Germany to relax its opposition to lower and slower cuts, there may be no option but for Greece to leave the eurozone – or be kicked out.

So it's down to democracy then?

Not quite. If outflows from the Greek banks continue at this current pace then the instability could force Greece out of the eurozone before the election.

What would happen if Greece left?

It would have to be carried out almost overnight – most likely over a weekend. The banks would have to shut their doors, bank accounts would be frozen and capital controls imposed to stop any more money leaving the country. The new currency would be likely to lose at least 50% of its value relative to the euro so any saver in Greece who has left their money in a bank will instantly find it is worth considerably less. Opinion polls show that while Greeks do not want austerity, most of them want to stay in the euro – which explains why savings are still sitting in Greek banks.

What will the new drachma look like?

Unless a load of forgotten drachma are found in a vault, Greece will need to print a new currency. It is possible that the authorities have thought ahead as Slovakia did when it split from Czechoslovakia in 1993, printing a new currency and hiding it away in London until it was needed. A more likely option could involve tweaking euros already in circulation in Greece. Some suggest a D could be emblazoned across euros, while others suggest corners could be clipped off. It would also need a new symbol for currency traders on the money markets. Before the euro, the drachma was known as GRD and by the numeric symbol 300 for international trading. The financial markets – and their computers – would need a new symbol for the currency quickly so that it could be traded.

Would it only have an impact in Greece?

The key question and hardest to answer. It could cause mayhem, just as the collapse of Lehman Bros did in 2008: sparking a wave of market panic and the biggest global recession since the 1930s. Marchel Alexandrovich, of Jefferies International, is so concerned that he reckons Greece should be "persuaded and paid to stay in the euro, which would much cheaper than the alternative".

My peace prize is bigger than theirs

17 May 2012

So Dubai progresses from the biggest tower to the biggest peace prize. Which may be noble but is already being over-hyped before it has first been granted. The prize is that  "Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum World Peace Award."

The prize, which will be awarded every two years, will honour those who have made outstanding contributions to international peacekeeping issues.

The excess hype comes from officials for the new peace award who have said the prize will be “more distinguished” - and worth more money - than the famous Nobel and Gandhi Peace awards. Sort of my prize is bigger than yours and must be better!

His Excellency Dr Hamad bin Sheikh Ahmed Al Shaibani, Chairman of the board of trustees for the Award outlined the goals of the award saying: “The world is now facing many troubles and here in the UAE we have safety and security for all people. This award will be a reward for contributing to world peace,” he said.

“We expect it will be more distinguished than other peace awards, like Nobel and Gandhi awards, because the prize will be worth more financially.”

“The award strives to recognise and acknowledge those who dedicate themselves to noble causes pertaining to world peace. We want to spread the inspiring values of Islam throughout the world because we believe that Dubai is an exemplary emirate by harmoniously accommodating over 200 nationalities who exist in peace,” Al Shaibani said.

I suspect this prize will be seeking candidates from the Arab countries and the Muslim world countering a perception of the Nobel prize as a western prize won by government heads of state.

The first award will be presented in 2014 and every two years from then. Al Shaibani said the board still had to decide on the mechanism for the award and whether there would be just one award or a series of categories.

The Nobel Peace Prize, bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel, is presented yearly on December 10 each year (the anniversary of Nobel's death) and is worth about $1.5 million. The Gandhi Peace Award is an annual award and cash prize bestowed by the peace education organisation.

The difference here is that the Nobel Prize has a legacy and a history that goes back to 1901. The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded 92 times to 124 Nobel Laureates between 1901 and 2011 – 99 times to individuals and 23 times to organizations. Since International Committee of the Red Cross was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1917, 1944 and 1963, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954 and 1981, that means 101 individuals and 20 organizations have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

You cannot just buy prestige, history or reputation.

The UK's hopeless visa process

16 May 2012

To: Mr. Damian Green, The UK Immigration Minister
Mr. Dominic Jermey The British Ambassador to the UAE
Mr. Guy Warrington, The British Consul in Dubai
Entry Clearance Manager at the British Embassy Abu Dhabi, PO Box 248, Abu Dhabi, UAE, or by e-mail to visa.abudhabi@fco.gov.uk

Dear Sirs,

Visa Applications to the United Kingdom

For many people in Dubai, in the UAE and in other nations, their first contact with the United Kingdom is the visa application process. This process is seriously flawed and in Dubai it is made particularly unpleasant as it involves dealing with an outsourced agency that is inefficient and which poorly represents the UK.

My wife is from a country that requires her to have a visit visa to travel to the UK. She has already received two previous two-year visas. She has holidayed in the UK on a number of occasions. She has been employed in the UAE for six years as cabin crew for the country's largest airline and thereby in her employment makes regular additional visits to the UK.

Yet to apply for a new UK visa she once again is required to complete an eight page form, provide evidentiary documents, a letter from her company, provide details of her last 10 years of travel to the UK and elsewhere and provide evidence of flight and hotel bookings.

Here is the simplest of suggestions: for applicants that have previously been granted a UK visit visa then surely a much simpler application process is justified that asks whether the applicant has any change in personal circumstances including their employment. If there is no change then you already have all their personal data on record. Why ask for it once again? This would allow the agency to devote more time and provide a faster service to new applicants.

As cabin crew her situation is more difficult because of the poor processing times. These times have deteriorated significantly since the use of VFS Global to process applications. By virtue of their work cabin crew (and pilots) need their passports at all times. Occasionally they have three of four off days when they can carry out administrative tasks such as visa applications. These should be among the easiest applications to process. The crew are already frequent travellers and have full time employment to return to.

So crew by default have to apply for the premium visa service at an additional cost of AED275. The main benefit of the premium service in Dubai is that no prior appointment is necessary so crew can apply for a visa when their flying roster allows them to. But this is no guarantee of a fast service. A further AED 360 will then get you a priority service. In reality a priority service is no more than any potential visitor to the UK should receive.

The performance targets are embarrassing: Your targets state that 90 per cent of non-settlement applications within 3 weeks, 98 per cent within 6 weeks and 100 per cent within 12 weeks of the application date. If you substituted days where it says weeks you would be providing a respectable quality of service.

Unfortunately there is no avoiding a visit to VFS Global; a company which (with a number of honourable exceptions) employs staff who are rude and untrained. They represent the UK very poorly and you should be both aware of this and taking corrective action.

A comparison of visa costs and access is interesting: the UK visit visa currently offers two countries: the UK and, courtesy of a recent waiver scheme, Ireland. The Schengen visa covers 25 countries. The Schengen visa application form is three pages long; that for the UK is eight pages.

As for UK visa fees they are now close to extortion and significantly more expensive than USA and Schengen visas:

A two year visit visa is:           US$446 (AED 1,636)
Premium service:                    AED 275
Priority Service:                      AED 360 (this was recently withdrawn by VFS in Dubai and then re-instated).
Prime Time Appointment:        AED 180

Without the cost of a prime time appointment a two year UK visa application is approximately US$600. For comparison a USA visit visa fee is a simple once off payment of US$160 (AED587).

A Schengen tourist visa application costs: (Source: http://www.vfsglobal-fr-ae.com/tourist_visafees.html)
Visa Fee:                    AED300 (the visa may be single or multiple entry)
VFS Processing Fee:    AED 80
Premium Service Fee: AED150

A more radical solution would be to admit the UK into the Schengen region allowing much greater freedom of movement for visitors and business travellers across Europe.

Remember these are all people that want to travel to the UK to spend money in your country, your stores, hotels and restaurants etc. They do have a choice.

The current visa process is alienating and expensive (especially for families). Many applicants must give up on visiting the UK and decide to go elsewhere.

Sadly the visa application process also comes down to prejudice. The UAE admits Britons for thirty days which can be extended. There is no visa requirement. There is no fee. The same courtesy does not exist in return despite the significant spending of UAE citizens in the UK.

The same with Thailand; a country that provides a home for many Britons and again provides 30 days visa free access.

The UK introduced visas for South Africans in 2009. In the same year, visas were abolished for Taiwanese traveling to the UK. How can those decisions by justified? And why should the Taiwanese (a state not recognised by the UN) be treated differently from Chinese citizens?

If the country insists that visa have a valid role in border control and security then at least make the process pleasant, efficient and fairly priced. Given the benefits to jobs and investment the visa rules, and application processes, need to be radically reviewed.

Yours faithfully,

Robert Scott


Lufthansa loss brings change in the air

16 May 2012 The Financial Times


Christoph Franz is seeking to bring some order to the sprawling empire created by his predecessors.

Lufthansa’s chief executive is busy selling assets and cutting costs at Europe’s largest airline by revenue after it slipped to a €13m net loss in 2011, his first year in charge.

The eurozone crisis, high fuel costs and intense competition all took their toll on the company last year, as well as regulatory decisions led by the ban on night flights at Frankfurt airport, the German airline’s cargo and passenger hub.

“The night flight ban – that is the German equivalent of not creating a third runway in Heathrow,” says Mr Franz, in a light-hearted but ultimately serious comparison with how the UK government has angered British airlines by refusing to allow runway expansion at London’s Heathrow airport.

While Mr Franz is powerless to overturn the night flight ban at Frankfurt that will reduce Lufthansa’s annual earnings by €40m, he is starting to take some drastic steps to improve profitability.

BMI British Midland, the loss-making UK airline that Lufthansa took control of in 2009, was sold last month to International Airlines Group, parent of British Airways.

BMI has struggled on multiple fronts, and Lufthansa blamed the €199m operating loss at its UK subsidiary last year for pushing the group into the red.

Mr Franz insists Lufthansa was always going to find it difficult to mount a strong challenge to IAG at Heathrow – even though BMI has the second largest portfolio of take-off and landing slots at the capacity-constrained airport after BA.

“Though it’s an important portfolio, it’s still too small with regard to market share,” he says.

He should know when to cut and run because the 52-year-old is well-versed in restructuring. He was involved in Lufthansa’s turnround following the first Gulf war, when he served in the office of Jurgen Weber, the then chief executive.

In 2004 he became chief executive of Swiss International Air Lines, where he cut costs before its acquisition by Lufthansa.

The restructuring now being implemented at Austrian Airlines, which Lufthansa bought in 2009, has parallels with what happened at Swiss.

Austrian ran up a €62m operating loss in 2011, and the airline’s pilots were told last month that they must transfer to Tyrolean Airways, a regional airline controlled by the Austrian flag carrier.

The pilots face having to work longer hours and are being asked to switch from attractive final salary pensions to less lucrative defined-contribution schemes.

But Mr Franz’s restructuring skills may well find their severest test in Lufthansa’s home market of Germany.

Air Berlin, easyJet and Ryanair, the low-cost carriers, are encroaching on Lufthansa’s short-haul routes, while Gulf airlines led by Emirates are putting pressure on long-distance flights between Germany and Asia.

Mr Franz is seeking to fight back against the budget airlines by stripping out duplication between Lufthansa’s point-to-point short-haul services and Germanwings, the group’s German low-cost carrier, which recorded a €52m operating loss in 2011.

With greater coordination, he is hoping the group can maximise profitability through Lufthansa’s premium fares and Germanwings’ low-cost structure. If not, he suggests Lufthansa could decide to abandon its premium brand positioning on short-haul routes.

This decision may be accelerated by the likely rejuvenation of Air Berlin, the loss-making German airline which last year secured Etihad, the deep-pocketed Abu Dhabi carrier, as its largest investor.

Mr Franz complains that Lufthansa is not competing on a level playing field with the Gulf carriers, highlighting how these state-controlled airlines benefit from government-funded hub airport infrastructure.

But he sees little or no chance of any redress. “The [European] airlines are fairly weak to defend their interests,” he says.

While he may have to spend much of his time improving Lufthansa’s efficiency in the face of a competitive onslaught, Mr Franz is keen not to be seen as a simple cost cutter.

He says he is willing to consider deals, albeit in a more cautious manner than his predecessors, and will examine the case for buying Transportes Aéreos Portugueses, the Portuguese carrier that is a leading European provider of flights to Brazil.

“Buying airlines is . . . exciting,” he says. “I do not perceive myself in [the role] of a pure cost cutter.”

South China conflict looms

15 May 2012

More for a month, the Philippines and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have been deadlocked in a sovereignty dispute off the Philippine main island of Luzon, around Scarborough Shoal.

This latest dispute which began with a Philippine warship challenging private Chinese fishermen/poachers (depends on your point of view) in the waters around the shoal, has evolved into something on which no less than the credibility of America’s commitment to peace and security in the Pacific hinges.

The U.S. has two major interests at stake in the impasse: the security of treaty allies and freedom of navigation.

The Chinese fishing boats that precipitated the crisis left the shoal for home early in the conflict, as has the Philippine naval vessel that sought to apprehend them. Sending a naval vessel to deal with a law enforcement issue was either a tactical mistake or, as the Philippine government maintains, a matter of expediency for a nation strapped for maritime resources. Either way, a subsequent decision by Philippine authorities not to return it to the disputed area after replenishment was a gesture intended to de-escalate the conflict.

On the PRC side, the state media have been in hyper zenophobia mode. The Global Times has written openly of possible conflict. Rumors of war preparations (denied by the PRC Ministry of National Defense) and unconfirmed media reports of PLA Navy warships en route toward the Philippines have only added to the sense of crisis.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry continues to publicly declare its sovereign rights to Scarborough Shoal and the waters around it. It has summoned the Philippine chargé d’affaires three times to protest. And although it remains to be seen whether the PRC can successfully leverage its considerable economic strength in such diplomatic disputes, suspension of tours to the Philippines by Chinese tourist agencies, cancelled air flights to Manila, and increased scrutiny of agricultural imports from the Philippines at Chinese ports raise concerns that it intends to try.

The U.S. has long been neutral on the sovereignty issues involved in the South China Sea. Unfortunately the South China Sea is a maze of conflicting territorial claims involving six active claimants.

This is not to say, however, that the U.S. is neutral in the current standoff between the PRC and the Philippines. America has very specific treaty obligations to the Philippines, and other treaty allies in the Pacific are assuredly watching very closely to see how it executes those obligations under the current circumstances.

The U.S.–Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) “recognizes that an armed attack in the Pacific Area on either of the Parties would be dangerous to its own peace and safety and declares that it would act to meet the common dangers in accordance with its constitutional processes.” It envisions three contingencies:

An attack on the territory of the Philippines (or the U.S.);
An attack on the “island territories under its (the Philippines or the U.S.) jurisdiction in the Pacific”; or
An attack on either party’s “armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific.”

The implications of the first are obvious; it is not in any way in play in the current conflict. For the second, the USA does not consider Filipino claims beyond its recognized borders subject to the treaty. In the current month-long standoff, the third part of this equation is very much in play.

In 1979, American Secretary of State Cyrus Vance confirmed in an official letter to Philippine Foreign Secretary Carlos P. Romulo that the MDT covers an “attack on Philippines armed forces, public vessels or aircraft” even if such attack does not occur in the “metropolitan territory of the Philippines or island territories under its jurisdiction,” thus separating the issue of territorial sovereignty from attack on Philippine military and public vessels. The Philippine ships currently deployed off Scarborough Shoal are “public vessels.”

What this series of statements means in the current context is that if any Philippine “public vessel” comes under Chinese fire, such an act will result in the U.S. invoking the treaty. Invoking the treaty does not mean automatic armed response, but by invoking it, the U.S. formally recognizes the attack as “dangerous to its own peace and safety and declares that it (will) act to meet the common dangers.” The attack triggers formal bilateral consultations under the treaty to determine an appropriate course of action. (There is nothing uniquely tentative about the U.S.–Philippines MDT in this regard. All of America’s security treaties in the region contain similar diplomatic nuance and consultation mechanisms.)

Formally invoking the treaty would require a response that could range from diplomatic censure to armed defense of Philippine vessels. The decision over what specific response to choose would be a political one and dependent on the circumstances of the conflict. Declaring Chinese activity in the South China Sea “dangerous to peace and security,” however, would have powerful effects in and of itself. With such a declaration on the table, it is difficult to imagine life as usual in the U.S.–China relationship.

It would be a huge change to regional (in)stability if the Chinese were to provoke such a response from the USA. At least not now. It will happen; but China is not ready yet.

On its face, the PRC’s asserting sovereignty so close to the Philippines—as it has done so often over the past year and a half—is suspect. Its famous nine-dash map encompassing virtually the entire expanse of the South China Sea and repeated official references to “indisputable sovereignty over the islands of the South China Sea and their adjacent waters” are reflective of an expansive extra-legal claim.

The dispute over Scarborough Shoal, per se, is not the problem for the U.S. The problem is the nature of the Chinese claim that encompasses it. If the nine-dash map reflects a claim to all the water within it, then freedom of navigation is a right controlled by the PRC, and the U.S. Navy and international shipping sail there only at the PRC’s forbearance.

This is why China’s assurances that it will honor freedom of navigation in the South China Sea regardless of sovereignty disputes have fallen on deaf ears in Washington. Developments over the past three years have only confirmed American concerns about the way the PRC views the rights of others in these waters. Since the Impeccable incident of 2009, the Filipinos and others have been subject to multiple incidents of Chinese violations of their navigational rights.

In 1951, the U.S. signed a security treaty with the Philippines. The Obama Administration has done much over the past three years to indicate America’s continued commitment to it. The current impasse over Scarborough Shoal is the first real test of these efforts. If the Administration mishandles this situation, not only will America’s commitment to the security of the Philippines and freedom of navigation be called into question, but so will the very credibility of its position in the Western Pacific. That will not be good for anyone on either side of the Pacific. As I said China may not challenge this now. But it will in time.

Background:

Scarborough Shoal or Scarborough Reef (Chinese name: Huangyan Island; simplified Chinese: 黄岩岛; traditional Chinese: 黃岩島; pinyin: Huáng​yán​ Dǎo​; Philippine name: Panatag Shoal, Bajo de Masinlóc), more correctly described as a group of rocks or very small islands plus reefs in an atoll shape, rather than as a shoal, is located between the Macclesfield Bank and Luzon Island of the Philippines in the South China Sea.

The shoal was named after the East India Company tea-trade ship Scarborough which was wrecked on one of its rocks with everyone perishing on board on 12 September 1784.

The shoal forms a triangle-shaped chain of reefs and rocks or very small islands 55 kilometres (34 mi) around with a total area including shallow water areas of 150 square kilometers. It has a lagoon with area of 130 km² and depth of about 15 metres (49 ft). The shoal is a protrusion from a 3,500 m deep abyssal plain. Several of the rocks or small islands including "South Rock" are 1/2 m to 3 m high, and many of the reefs are just below water at high tide. Near the mouth of the lagoon are the ruins of an iron tower, 8.3 m high. To the east, the 5,000 - 6,000 meter deep Manila Trench separates the shoal from the Philippine archipelago.

It is about 123 miles (198 km) west of Subic Bay. The nearest landmass is Palauig, Zambales, on Luzon Island in the Philippines, 137 miles (220 km) away.

Three new projects in Dubai approved

13 May 2012 (via WAM)

Three prestigious projects were approved on Sunday by Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Director General of Dubai Municipality Eng Hussain Nassir Lootah announced at a press conference at the Municipality.

The biggest of the three is Dubai Safari Project, in Al Warqa 5, Aweer Road, on an area of 400 hectares includes Dubai Safari, Butterfly Park, golf courses, entertainment and recreational areas, Lootah said.

Dubai Safari facility that covers 60 hectares of the total area is aimed at establishing the best center for wildlife in the world, providing a variety of environments appropriate to different animals, attract visitors from different parts of the world and use modern interactive methods in control and movement to ensure the distinctive and unique experience for visitors.

The stages of project include site preparation, preparing internal roads and infrastructure, gardening, landscaping and water bodies, transfer the existing zoo in Jumeirah to the new location and other facilities such as means of transport, restaurants, rest areas ... etc.)

Director of General Projects Department Eng. Mohammed Noor Mashroom explained the second project, Dhow Wharfage Development at Deira Corniche, is aimed at constructing additional integrated infrastructure to facilitate an increase in dhow trade through Dubai, which will make Dubai the economical center of import and export activities in the region.

The project consists of a comprehensive wharfage of 3 km in length between the Deira Corniche and Palm Deira, in front of Hayatt Regency Hotel. The wharfage will be divided into 30 loading/unloading areas, which will allow around 400 dhows of different sizes to berth at the same time.The project provides a loading/unloading area of 90,000 m2, which is more than half the loading/unloading area existing currently in Dubai Creek; and facilitates loading/unloading of cargo of more than 1.7 million tons per year.

The wharfage was designed with a depth of 7 meters below the low water level and with all necessary anchorage elements; this will allow Dubai Creek to receive and anchor bigger dhows which couldn’t enter before. This project includes new quay structures and associated dredging and reclamation, including the supporting services and infrastructure such as entry and exit reporting wharves, administrative and control buildings, sailor’s facilities and re-fuelling wharf.

All safety precautions have been followed according to international standards through providing an integrated fire fighting network as well as security services, police, rescue and civil defense facilities and berths. The project works include providing all major services including internal roads, water, electricity, telecommunication, and sewage networks. Also, a lighting network will be provided for the whole wharfage area which will facilitate cargo handling work during the evening hours.

Construction of the project will require the excavation and dredging of 390,000 m3 of sand from the seabed adjacent to the wharf site, and this amount will be re-used for the reclamation works of the wharfage. According to the project plan, construction works will commence at the beginning of June 2012, with the completion and operation of Phase 1 (60% of the wharf) after 12 months, and the second phase will be completed by end of year 2013.

Head of Coastal Engineering Unit Eng. Ibrahim Mohammed Ibrahim Ali Juma explained the project of Completion of Business Bay Canal and its Connection to the Sea.

Ibrahim said that the aim of this project is to revive Business Bay Canal as a part of an integrated marine system which will improve the environmental state of the canal, as well as the upper part of the creek. Also, this project will enhance the economical state of the area adjacent to canal by transformation into an attractive business waterfront. It will also provide a chance to use the Business Bay Canal for navigation. It will create a unique water body suitable for leisure navigation purposes

A complete hydrodynamic study has been done by Dubai Municipality to ensure proper water circulation in both Business Bay Canal and the inner part of Dubai Creek, as well as, the efficiency of the near future inclusion of Meydan canal in the overall system.

The project consists of two phases:

Phase 1: involves the connection of Business Bay Canal with sea through a pipeline system connecting the sea to the side of canal adjacent to Sheikh Zayed Road.

The pipeline system of an overall length of about 3 km will be realized by adopting “Micro-Tunneling” technique, which will allow the pumping process to proceed without impacting any existing utilities or services as well as not requiring any diversions to be done to roads or services lines.

Also, the water intake will be done using the “Pipeline Intake” technique, which does not require the construction of any breakwaters, thus preventing any harm to the coastal and marine environment.

Phase 2: Completion of the canal waterway through connecting the existing lagoons.

This phase consists of carrying out the dredging works for the remaining parts of the canal, estimated by an amount of 750,000 m3. In addition, the canal quay wall of a length of 1.2 km will be completed.

The duration of design works will be 7 months and the implementation works will be 18 months.

Blue moon tweeting

13 May 2012

So Manchester City win the Premiership for the first time in 44 years. The Guardian's match report starts: "The only word to describe it is bedlam. Manchester City are the champions of England but where do you start? How, seriously, can it be possible to sum up the raw, shredded emotion of those final, exhilarating moments, the scale of what it means and the sheer drama that unravelled before the party could begin and the Premier League trophy was in Roberto Mancini's hands?" For a neutral - this was raw, astonishing drama. For anyone connected to either of the Manchester teams it was an emotional, gut wrenching, wringer !

As tweeted during the match:

Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

Etihad's investment in Manchester City now looks like one of the great branding bargains - massive global exposure....mabrook indeed.

43m Mick Twister‏@twitmericks Retweeted by Robert Scott

Ferguson & Man United/Are starting to get quite excited/Until the last minute/When Man City win it/Mancini & co now delighted. #mcfc #mufc

49m Catboy‏@Catboy_Dubai Retweeted by Robert Scott

Looking forward to tomorrow's UAE headlines regarding Abu Dhabi winning the Premiership, like they won that Oscar earlier this year.

49m Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

Wonderful, articulate interview from Vincent Kompany - final proof that Manchester City really deserve this.

56m Sport 360°‏@Sport_360 Retweeted by Robert Scott

Breathless, brilliant, bewildering..... nothing, and we mean nothing, beats the sheer drama of the English Premier League.

54m Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

It will probably be September before Manchester City fans can truly believe that they won the premiership....congratulations....

59m Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

Sergio Aguero will get the freedom of at least half of Manchester - wonderful gutsy goal to finish the season....

1h bangkokpundit‏@bangkokpundit Retweeted by Robert Scott

Unfucking believable.

1h Sport 360°‏@Sport_360 Retweeted by Robert Scott

Not quite sure we can believe what we've just seen.. Manchester City win the league with two goals in the final four minutes of the season.

1h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

@gerald_d I know I know.......clairvoyant !!

1h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

QPR are safe as Bolton only drew at Stoke. Well done Mark Hughes.
 
1h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

Love a duck !!

1h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

So true..............and Dzeko as well....RT @gerald_d: One last twist?

1h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

Late heroics from Paddy Kenny - all is forgiven.....

1h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

Does one man make a football team - city have also looked a far lesser team without Yaya Toure......

1h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

Anton Ferdinand - outstanding today....bet John Terry is impressed.......
 
1h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

@Sport_360 Good job it is only a game..... :)

1h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

@gerald_d Good job I was never a betting person - my predictions are useless.....

1h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

@gerald_d Indeed - heroic stuff from QPR !

1h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

Horrible from Man City - zero imagination. Badly needs Adam Johnson - some pace and width. Look clueless at the moment.
 
1h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

Dzeko on for Man City - when did he last score ??

1h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

If linesman genuinely saw the Barton elbow on Tevez then fair play to him - did a great job - just shown it on tv - correct decision.

1h Henry Winter‏@henrywinter Retweeted by Robert Scott

Traore great run down left, beat Kompany, crossed for Mackie to score with a downward header. Unbelievable game. Unbelievable final day

1h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

Only Man City could implode this badly with so much at stake - badly need to change something - Barry and De Jong wont win it for them....

1h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

Ho ho ho - brilliant from QPR !!
 
1h talkSPORTDrive‏@talkSPORTDrive Retweeted by Robert Scott

Barton elbowed Tevez, shown red, then kicked Aguero, head butted Kompany, went for Ballotelli #helmet #melt #newsnight

1h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

Have to assume that was Mr Barton's last appearance in the Premiership.....

1h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

Barton - brain - disconnect ! Meltdown. Commentators having apoplexy. But City still have work to do.

1h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

@gerald_d I do indeed - there is some really awful last day defending around the league.....

1h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

Well done @dutweets - the tv picture is about 5 seconds ahead of the very poor sound #fail

1h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

And people say that Lescott is an England defender !!! Awful.

2h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

Biggest football game of the season and the Du TV feed is useless - sound and pics totally out of synch - typicallu useless @dutweets
 
4h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

@gerald_d Sunderland 1 Man U 1; Man City 4 QPR 0; Stoke 1 Bolton 2. You read it here first !!

6h Robert Scott‏@rascottdotcom

@gerald_d Man City are the only team who could blow this - though for a neutral I am happy for Man City to win - time for a change :)

Amazing Thailand - Warrant sought to open Karun's car

13 May 2012

The Bangkok Post reports - without any sense of irony or humour - that Police have sought a court warrant to force open a car in which People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) core member Karun Sai-ngam has locked himself and is refusing to get out.

Pol Col Apichart Sirisith, deputy commander of the Crime Suppression Division, said since Mr Karun insisted on remaining in the car after it was brought to the CSD headquarters in Bangkok from Buri Ram he had ordered police investigators to seek a court warrant to force open the vehicle.

A combined police force this morning broke through a cordon of PAD supporters to arrest the former senator but he locked himself in his car which was in Pakhonchai district and refused to get out.

Police had to use another vehicle to tow the car, with Mr Karun remaining inside, from Buri Ram to the CSD headquarters on Sunday afternoon.

Mr Karun is wanted along with other leading PAD members on several charges in connection with the seizure of Don Mueang and Suvarnabhumi airports in late 2008.

He has refused to surrender to hear the charges while other PAD leaders have given themselves up to police and been released on bail.

Note that it is four years since the airport occupations and not one person has yet been brought to trial or sentenced.

One story - two versions

12 May 2012

There is something a little unethical about a commercial newspaper taking an article from another newspaper; editing it and then still publishing it with the same credit to the author.

On the left is the original Guardian article by Jane Kinninmont; on the right os the version printed three days later by the Gulf News without any indication that it has been edited. I have highlighted the differences; references to Bahrain, the UAE, Qatat and Saudi Arabia were all removed.

Yesterday the article's author noted : "Today's Gulf News has reprinted a piece that I wrote for Guardian.com last week - but has deleted all the bits about the Gulf" and added: "My article talked about cosmetic reforms in Syria, Mubarak-era Egypt and Bahrain. Gulf News has reprinted it without the para on Bahrain!" and that "Gulf News also deleted a line noting that in Arab world only Saudi Arabia, UAE & Qatar lack any kind of parliaments. #censorship"

Today the Gulf News editor tweeted: "sorry for late reply. There was an editing lapse. We did not censor. Full version on web now@rupertbu @gulf_news @janekinninmont @seerwan"

Of course not - no censorship - we just removed the bits that we did not agree with!