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An independent view of the world seen from Tokelau

The Independent New York Times

Tokelau, Saturday, December 13, 2008 Weekend Edition, editor - contact sumpinein@gmail.com

The US unemployment rate soared to 6.7% and is expected to go higher with companies announcing massive downsizings almost daily. The country has shed a huge 1.2 million jobs over the last 11 months, letting 533,000 people go in November alone. The last time figures such as this were seen was back in December 1974, when inflation and economic stagnation were occurring simultaneously resulting in stagflation. The number of job losses has obviously impacted hard on the US residential property market, and repossessions continue to rise at an alarming rate, in addition the commercial sector has seen a real slump in demand, with office, retail and hotel space all being affected. 

HIGH DEFAULT RATE FOR MODIFIED HOME LOANS IN USA

More than half of delinquent homeowners whose mortgages were modified earlier this year ended up re-defaulting within six months, a top bank regulator said Monday. Some 53% of borrowers with loans modified in the first three months of 2008 and 51% of those with loans modified in the second quarter could not keep up with payments within six months, according to U.S. The high redefault rate raises concerns about the long-term effectiveness of loan modifications, which many are pushing as a key solution to the nation's financial crisis. A record 1.35 million homes are in foreclosure, while the number of borrowers who have fallen behind on their payments soared to a record 6.99%, the Mortgage Bankers Association said last week. Meanwhile, 1.7 million homeowners have been helped in 2008 through the Hope Now Alliance, a coalition of lenders, servicers, investors and counselors working with delinquent borrowers on modifications and repayment plans. Modifications that include an interest rate reduction have a 15% redefault rate, said Bair, citing a recent Credit Suisse study.

BRITAIN TO JOIN EURO?

CULTURE

CREOLE STOMP

This band incarnates the traditional values of Cajun music in the USA. The Cajuns live mainly in Louisiana and are the descendants of Acadian exiles. Today, the Cajuns make up a significant portion of south Louisiana's population, and have exerted an enormous impact on the state's culture.

Every now and again a band comes along that redefines a genre of music and carries it even further...that group is Dennis Stroughmatt and Creole Stomp.  Always leaving audiences wondering "who are they?," and "where do they come from?," Dennis and CS are based in southern Illinois and happily tell audiences "we are from upper Louisiana."  While this may bring chuckles from many and nodding heads from others "in the know," this is the group that does represent "old upper Louisiana." Dennis learned to speak French and play French Creole music in a southeast Missouri French Creole community before moving to the state of Louisiana.  After returning to Illinois from Louisiana, Dennis began a long odyssey that eventually culminated in the forming of Creole Stomp in 2002. And since that time he and his band have carried the torch of French Creole music and culture across  North America performing a blend of music from the state of Louisiana and old upper Louisiana.  Their unique sound and mix of ancient and modern Mississippi River valley musical tradition positions them as the only band to encompass French Creole and Folk Music from the entirety of the old Louisiana Territory.  And although Dennis continues to play with many of his Louisiana based friends on occasion, you can always find him at the helm of Creole Stomp playing somewhere from San Diego to Boston

Read DEATH OF A FINANCIER by JOHN FRANCIS KINSELLA

Tom Barton, a City mortgage broker, decides to quit his business in the wake of the subprime crisis and arrives in Kovalam, in the south of India. In the Maharaja Palace he finds himself in the company of holiday makers from the UK, Scandinavia and Russia. Stephen Parkly, the CEO of a successful City bank, and his young wife Emma are taking a well earned year end break. Parkly falls gravely ill with a mysterious infection, whilst back in the City, unknown to him his mortgage and investment bank, West Mercian Finance is in grave difficulties. Ryan Kavanagh, a doctor, comes to Emma’s aid with the help of Barton, after an attempted cover-up by the Indian authorities, who fear for their tourist industry and more especially medical tourism, as the disease threatens the resort with the tourist season in full swing. Thousands of British tourists enjoying the sun are unaware of the pending disaster, many are equally unaware their savings about are to be wiped out in the West Mercian collapse.

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More books by John Francis Kinsella from Vincennes Books: Borneo Pulp, The Legacy of Solomon, Offshore Islands, The Lost Forest

Could this be the world's oldest living creature?

The span of history a giant tortoise can live through is vividly illustrated in a remarkable picture on the British island colony of St Helena in the year 1900. One of the men behind them (in our second picture) is believed to be an Afrikaner captured during the Boer War, which lasted from 1899-1902. The remote South Atlantic island, the final prison of Napoleon from 1815 until his death there in 1821, later housed a Boer War prison camp holding 6,000 inmates. The scene is thought to be the grounds of Plantation House, the St Helena governor's residence in the island capital of Jamestown, where three giant tortoises were brought as ornamental pets from the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean in 1882. The animals may have been 50 years old then, and so would be about 70 when the photo was taken – and one of the three, named Jonathan, is still alive. At a possible age of 175-plus he would be the world's oldest living animal. The previous oldest-known tortoise was thought to be Harriet, a giant Galapagos land tortoise who died, aged 175, in 2005 in Australia.

Lakeview Terrace

A gripping film about neighbourly hate that inverts racial stereotypes. Next door neighbour, (Eddie Murhpy) presents himself: “I’m your worst fucking nightmare, man. I’m a nigger with a badge.” When Chris and Lisa Mattson, a nice mixed-raced couple, move into their dream home on a quiet cul-de-sac in southern California, they discover their worst nightmare lives next door: a black cop with a badge and a hatred of mixed-race couples. Lakeview Terrace belongs to that genre of thrillers — Unlawful Entry, Fatal Attraction — in which good, white, well-off middle-class people have their lives invaded by former lovers, lunatics or the neighbour(s) from hell. But this is a film directed by Neil LaBute (In the Company of Men), a man who loves to press the buttons of his audience — especially the panic buttons of liberal-minded folk.

GREECE SWEPT BY RIOTS

Demonstrators clash with Greek riot police in the centre of Athens, Greece on 07 December 2008. Civil unrest broke out across Greece on 06 December as hundreds of demonstrators clashed with riot police in Athens and the northern port city of Thessaloniki in a second day of protests following the death of a teenaged boy shot by police.

ENGLISH CRICKET TEAM ARRIVE IN INDIA

THE INDEPENDENT NEW YORK TIMES PRESENTS A WEEKLY ROUND-UP OF STORIES AND PICTURES THAT HAVE MADE THE NEWS HEADLINES THIS WEEK

BANANA REPUBLIC

The Governor of Illinois was arrested yesterday for allegedly trying to sell Barack Obama’s vacated US Senate seat to the highest bidder. The arrest of Rod Blagojevich and John Harris, his chief of staff, cast a light on the home state of the President-elect, which has a history of endemic corruption.
 The charges include allegations that the Democratic governor, who has served two-terms, conspired with Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a former friend and political donor of Mr Obama, in schemes requiring individuals and companies to pay kickbacks in return for state contracts. Patrick Fitzgerald, the federal prosecutor in Chicago, said that the charges did not allege any wrongdoing by the future president. “I should make clear the complaint makes no allegations about the President-elect whatsoever,” he said. Mr Blagojevich, a Serb-American former shoeshine boy who married the daughter of an influential Chicago alderman, was handcuffed and taken into custody at his home at dawn after asking an FBI agent: “Is this a joke?” After a court appearance he was freed last night on a $4,500 (£3,000) bail. Prosecutors said that the FBI had taken exceptional measures, including tapping the home telephone of the governor since October, because of a sudden surge in alleged corruption. They said that Mr Blagojevich was trying to raise $2.5 million (£1.7 million) in campaign contributions by the end of the year before an ethics law came into force to restrict donations from people who do business with the state. “We are in the middle of a corruption crime spree and we wanted to stop it,” Mr Fitzgerald said. The FBI has issued a 76-page affidavit outlining the alleged attempt by Mr Blagojevich to extract a price for exercising his power to appoint a Senator to fill Mr Obama’s vacated seat. In a secretly recorded conversation he allegedly said that the Senate seat “is a fucking valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing”. In one taped conversation Mr Blagojevich allegedly compared his position to that of a sports agent shopping around for a sports star among rival teams. His proposed approach, he allegedly said, would be to ask: “How much are you offering, [President-elect]? What are you offering, [Senate candidate 2]? . . . Can always go to . . . [Senate candidate 3].” According to prosecutors he initially discussed trading the open Senate seat for a Cabinet post or ambassadorship in the Obama administration. Mr Blagojevich allegedly sought a quid pro quo for offering the Senate seat to a close aide of Mr Obama — believed to be his friend Valerie Jarrett, who later took herself out of the running and who will be a senior adviser at the White House. He then allegedly discussed a three-way deal where he would name Ms Jarrett to the Senate seat in return for a high-paying position with Change to Win, an organisation affiliated to the Service Employees International Union. The Obama administration would then do an unspecified favour for Change to Win. Mr Blagojevich said that he would prefer, however, to get Mr Obama to ask key donors such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates to set him up as head of his own charity, with $10-$15 million in funding, prosecutors said. Mr Blagojevich also allegedly suggested that Mr Obama could help to get his wife on to lucrative corporate boards. Concerned that Mr Obama did not want to pay to get his favoured candidate into the Senate, Mr Blagojevich allegedly threatened to keep the Senate seat or give it to someone who could offer him cash up front. In another secretly recorded conversation Mr Blagojevich claimed that he was offered a deal by an associate of an unnamed Senate candidate 5. “We were approached ‘pay to play’. That, you know, he’d raise 500 grand. An emissary came. Then the other guy would raise a million, if I made him [Senate candidate 5] a Senator,” the governor allegedly said.

SENTENCED TO BLINDING

TEHRAN: An Iranian man has been sentenced to be blinded under Islamic laws in retribution for blinding a woman by throwing acid on her face for rejecting his marriage proposal, press reports said on Thursday.
A Tehran criminal court on Wednesday issued the ruling against the jilted suitor identified as Majid, 27, who confessed to throwing acid on Ameneh Bahrami's face four years ago, Kargozaran newspaper said.
Despite years of treatment in Spain, Bahrami has lost sight in both eyes and still bears serious injuries to the face and body, the report said. The newspaper did not say whether the convict would appeal against the ruling that he also be blinded by acid.
Under the Sharia-based law practised in the Islamic republic, those convicted of causing intentional physical injury are punishable by "qisas", or the eye-for-an-eye Islamic penalty.

'We have saved the world'

Gordon Brown's slip of the tongue provoked hilarity in the Commons. Gordon Brown is preparing to offer billions in loan guarantees to struggling businesses amid Tory claims that his bank rescue scheme is not working. This autumn Mr Brown injected £37 billion into High Street banks to keep them afloat and offered taxpayer backing for bank lending of up to £250bn. To make matters worse Germany has lambasted Gordon Brown’s response to the economic crisis as “crass” and “depressing” in an astonishing attack as EU leaders prepare to debate how to recover from the recession in Brussels today.

Barack Obama’s grandfather was imprisoned and brutally tortured by the British

Barack Obama’s grandfather was imprisoned and brutally tortured by the British during the violent struggle for Kenyan independence, according to the Kenyan family of the US President-elect. Hussein Onyango Obama, Mr Obama’s paternal grandfather, became involved in the Kenyan independence movement while working as a cook for a British army officer after the war. He was arrested in 1949 and jailed for two years in a high-security prison where, according to his family, he was subjected to horrific violence to extract information about the growing insurgency.

 DUBAI ALCOHOL & SEX

The weekly Le Meridien brunch has become a byword for alcohol-fuelled over-indulgence. Crowds of young European expats pay just over £50 to eat as much as they can from the luxury buffet and drink as much champagne as possible. It starts at noon and by 4pm many customers are extremely drunk and dancing either on the small dance floor or on their tables. On July 4 this year, Acors and publishing executive Palmer  -  then strangers  -  met at the same Le Meridien brunch. For the past five months Acors, a father of one from Bromley, South London, and Palmer, from Oakham in Rutland, have been trapped in the oil-rich emirate as their case progressed through its court system. After being convicted of public indecency and having unmarried sex, they were sentenced to three months in jail. But two weeks ago the court of appeal suspended the sentences and ordered that they be deported. They are expected back in the UK next week.

CHINA DEVALUES

The central bank has shifted the central peg of its dollar band twice this week in a calculated move that suggests Beijing aims to offset the precipitous slide in Chinese manufacturing by trying to gain further export share abroad. The futures markets are pricing in a 6pc devaluation over the next year. "This is clearly a big shift in policy and we are now on alert," said Simon Derrick, currency chief at the Bank of New York Mellon. The move follows a Politburo speech by President Hu Jintao warning that China is "losing competitive edge in the world market".

OETZI'S FIRST AID KIT

A 5,300-year-old mummified iceman unearthed in the Alps may have been carrying a prehistoric version of tin foil and an ancient first aid kit. Scots researchers found fragments of different mosses in the stomach of Oetzi, whose remains were found in the Italian Alps in 1991. The discovery baffled scientists, as mosses have no nutritional value and would not be eaten. But analysis has revealed he may have used one type of moss, known to have antiseptic properties, to dress a wound.
Another type could have been used to wrap a snack of red deer and ibex meat, like a Neolithic version of tin foil. Professor James Dickson, senior research fellow from the University of Glasgow, revealed Oetzi is the first glacier mummy to have fragments of mosses in his intestine. He said: “Mosses are not nutritious or palatable, so you can’t say he was eating it. My explanation is that it was in contact with the food he was carrying or perhaps wrapping it.” Oetzi had suffered a deep gash on his right hand shortly before he died and a fragment of Bogmoss discovered in the stomach may have been used for its antiseptic properties. Professor Dickson said: “Bog mosses were used as wound dressings right up until the Second World War. “We don’t know if prehistoric people knew of these properties, but my opinion would be that they did.” The research is published in the  journal Vegetation History and Archaeobotany.

 WOOLIES GOES BUST 30,000 JOBS TO GO

A high street symbol in the UK Woolworths begins a closing down sale today after administrators admitted that efforts to keep the chain intact have come to nothing. The retailer was put into administration two weeks ago after it was overwhelmed by mounting debt.
 Now, the administrators, from accountancy firm Deloitte, are having to settle for selling chunks of stores from the 815 outlets under the Woolworths umbrella.  Woolworths started life as a penny and sixpence store, but became the place where generations of teenagers would buy a pop single or a bag of pick 'n' mix sweets. Deloitte has already cut 450 administrative jobs at Woolworths offices in London and Castleton, near Rochdale. The chain employs about 30,000 in total.

BRITISH PRESS MOCKS 'FLASH GORDON' BROWN

BARACK OBAMA AS POP ART

Obama art - graffiti art about the president elect is springing up across America and beyond, while paintings of Obama are among big sellers at the Miami art fair.

FOR TOURISTS ONE EURO ALREADY EQUALS ONE POUND

 

DETROIT STILL WAITING

Detroit depended largely on SUVs for sales and profits for many years. But those vehicles were very popular, and there was very little competition from foreign automakers. In 2002, General Motors sold more than 2.8 million light trucks including 1.2 million SUVs. That was an increase of 6.2% from the year earlier. That same year, GM sold 2.3 million cars, a drop of almost 9% from the previous year. When gas prices spiked in 2007, buyers suddenly shifted to smaller cars. That was quickly followed by an economic crisis that drove down sales of all types of vehicles. But trucks remain an important part of Detroit automakers' product strategies. Even with marker share for cars increasing, GM sold more trucks than cars in October General Motors Corp reported a 41 percent drop in overall U.S. sales for November, saying continued economic uncertainty was hurting consumer confidence. The sales results, reported on Tuesday, came as the No.1 U.S. automaker was set to submit an extensive restructuring plan to Congress in support of a $25 billion rescue package for the auto industry. GM sold 154,877 vehicles in the U.S. market in November, compared with 263,654 a year earlier. The company said it was extending a "Red Tag" sale with lower vehicle prices and cash-back offers through Jan. 5. GM expects first-quarter 2009 production in North America to be down 32 percent from a year earlier, based on a plan to build 600,000 cars and trucks in the period, it said. "The consumer is scared and sitting on the sideline. We need appropriate economic stimulus to get the consumer back in the game," GM U.S. sales chief Mark LaNeve said in a statement. GM estimated that industry wide U.S. vehicle sales dropped 34 percent in November, extending a downturn that has accelerated amid financial market turmoil.

Celebrity crunch: property firm to the stars, aAim, goes bust

The plummeting property market claimed a host of celebrity victims yesterday when companies whose investors include Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir David Frost and Grant Bovey collapsed into administration. The Times has learnt that aAim, a £3 billion property investment company backed by HBOS and chaired by Sir David, has gone into administration. It is feared that shareholders will lose all their investments. aAim spent billions of pounds on properties in Britain and mainland Europe, before the market fell last summer. Property prices in Britain have dropped by as much as 35 per cent since then. aAim had a number of well-known sponsors. Sir Alex, the Manchester United manager, was still listed as a founder shareholder and investor last night. “I have been impressed by the energetic team, their clarity of vision and by the consistent high returns they have delivered,” Sir Alex is quoted as saying.

INVEST,INVEST, INVEST!

THE GREAT DEPRESSION

REAL ESTATE DOWNFALL DRAMA

DRAMATIC PICTURES OF F-18 CRASH IN RESIDENTIAL SAN DIEGO SUBURB

An Australian, who works as a mailman in the US, has told of his escape when a fighter jet crashed, killing at least three people. Bill Dusting, formerly of St Kilda, said he managed to dive for cover as an F/A-18D Hornet slammed into a San Diego street, flattening houses and killing residents. Mr Dusting, 48, was on his midday mail round of the middle-class neighbourhood near Miramar navy base when he heard the loud pop of the pilot ejecting from the jet. "I heard a bang, bang and I thought someone was shooting at me," Mr Dusting said. "I looked up and saw the parachute and then I saw the jet, which was pretty much heading straight at me." Mr Dusting said he sprinted away from the house. "I'm running and it's coming closer and I thought, 'Damn, it's coming at me like a magnet' but I chose the right direction, running right instead of left," he said. Moments later, he said the jet appeared to smash through the front door of the house, then into another two homes before crossing the street and crashing into at least two more houses. "When it hit the first one it virtually evaporated and then the smoke ... the flames trailed from the house next to it, behind it and the flames trailed across the street," he said. Mr Dusting said it was "absolute carnage" and compared the scene to a war zone in Iraq. He said the first house usually had trucks parked outside and he had believed no one was at home. He rang emergency services. Three people have been reported killed and one other remains missing. Mr Dusting has delivered mail in the area for 15 years after moving to the United States to marry his wife. He said residents of the area were used to the sound of jets overhead from the Miramar base, made famous by the movie Top Gun. Mr Dusting said it had been a quiet morning in the neighbourhood and he was the only person on the street when the jet careered into the ground. Within minutes, distressed neighbours were running to the scene. "I've never seen such a quick response from police, fire department and obviously some very secret black vehicles with black windows coming in because you can imagine what's going to go down with this being a navy crash," he said. Mr Dusting said he was still in shock, felt lucky to be alive and was about to call his 89-year-old mother in Australia. "When I saw everything was totally cool I just lost it and got home, laughed, cried and I'm just getting it together now," he said. "You've got no idea how close it was. Looking at some of the pictures ... at where the shrapnel was and where I must have been, it must have been a good dive."

READING DEATH OF A FINANCIER

THE CREDIT CRUNCH SONG

CORPORATE JET CUT BACKS

It is the great company jet fire sale. Everything must go – and quickly. For the credit-crunched giants of corporate America, living on the generosity of the taxpayer, it ill behoves executives to fly luxury class, and a string of expensive aircraft are finding their way on to the market. The bosses of the big three Detroit car-makers were making a self-flagellating road trip yesterday from Motor City to Washington, where they will plead for a $34bn (£23bn) government hand-out this morning, a fortnight after being ridiculed for turning up at their last meeting on $20,000-per-flight corporate jets. And Citigroup, which just 10 days ago palmed off up to $306bn in potential losses on to the US government, was also reported to be selling two of its fleet of aircraft, decked out with lush dining chairs and a well-stocked kitchen. The sales threaten to usher in an era of penury for a cadre of executives who are used to flying on the company jet not just for business trips but also on holiday. For the American public, bitter at forking out more than $1trn so far during the credit crisis to bail out Wall Street banks and other companies, it offers one small signal that boom-time corporate excess is being curbed. A small Maryland broker is hawking two Dassault Falcon jets understood to belong to Citigroup, the banking giant brought to the brink of bankruptcy last month by billions of dollars of losses on sub-prime mortgages. The government has already put in $45bn from the bailout fund and promised more if necessary.
Since food prices began to rise 100 million more people have been pushed into poverty, according to the World Bank, with as many as two billion on the verge of disaster. Almost half the world's population, let's remember, live on less than $2.50 per day. Millions die annually of hunger and starvation, and more than a billion do not have access to fresh water. With the world financial crisis these numbers are poised to rise dramatically with population growth, dwindling natural resources and higher consumer prices across all goods and services. So as the stock market tumbles and the world economy falters, it's important to remember that it's more than financial losses we are talking about, it's the loss of life.