Edward Victor and Sarah Smith interview award-winning CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera journalist, Afshin Rattansi, about newsgathering and his novel, “The Dream of the Decade – The London Novels” published by Booksurge and available on Amazon.com.
Edward Victor: Afshin Rattansi, your new book looks at -among other things- the way news is made in newsrooms. Given that you have worked at three top networks, the BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera, do you think there has been any change since you wrote your book?
Afshin Rattansi: A character in the third novel of the quartet reappears to work at a large media organization around the time of the war on Yugoslavia. That war was covered in an extraordinary way and was widely criticised afterwards. After all, reporting on hundreds of thousands of people dying in the heart of Europe is what journalism textbooks after World War II were written for and yet, anyone using TV news to find out what happened in Sarajevo would have been confused at best. It was only after the war that some excellent programmes were made.
“The Dream of the Decade” deals with unwitting bias or unwitting lack of balance. Every story was nuanced by the life experiences of the kind of people that get the jobs in newsrooms. Though the book deals with coverage of stories on the environment, healthcare and many other issues, the in-built bias of journalists reaches its apotheosis with regard to war reporting. Whether it be the wars on Latin American states in the 1980s or the war on Yugoslavia in the 1990s, it’s remarkable how hard it is for a viewer to hear a spectrum of views on any war.
Edward Victor: You also started the developing world’s first English language 24 hour satellite TV news and current affairs network, based in the Middle East. As the man in charge, did you use your experience to produce news differently?
Afshin Rattansi: I hope so. Though I was the editor of the channel, there were the constraints any manager would have on the way we broadcast news. Most recently, at the BBC, one realised the constraints on a very well established network when reporting the run-up to the war on Iraq. At the Dubai Channel, we came from a developing world perspective and concentrated on the financial background. “Follow the money” was the watchword when we covered, say the Ethiopia-Eritrea war or the privatisation of natural resource management demanded by the IMF. I always thought it was interesting that Business Week outsold The Economist and that Business Week magazine was often the best source for really getting a balanced view of a story. Everything from the most local – for example, food resources or crime prevention – to the most global – say, Kyoto, the drug trade or nuclear arms – usually has private profit at the heart of it.
Whether it be Hollywood or the matter of Palestine, following the money is a pretty good way for journalists to cover a story…and being very wary of Microsoft’s “copy and paste” functions when allied to Reuters and AP wire stories. Reuters, after all, is mainly a financial services company and though it has excellent journalists, their “daily wraps” of the main stories of the day will not be those that most concern ordinary people, certainly not the greatest proportion of humanity or the greatest audience.
Sarah Smith: Al Jazeera is launching an English language station. The expert on Al Jazeera, Hugh Miles, wrote about (in Al Jazeera : How Arab TV News Challenges America) how the Arabic language station hired you -as an award-winning journalist- once the channel became more successful and wanted to raise its profile. Will you be working for the English language station?
Afshin Rattansi: I certainly haven’t been approached. And whilst I think it has the potential to be something great – even building on the work that developing world international stations have been making since the Dubai Channel – I’m as yet unsure of the direction the channel is taking. They’ve taken on some excellent personnel. I think what will be critical – not only for sound editorial reasons – will be whether they can carve a niche that separates them from industry leaders such as CNN, the BBC and Fox. There are a lot of free-to-air international TV stations, now. But Al Jazeera Arabic was different because its perspective was shared by a swathe of people from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean that just wasn’t compatible with the big corporate names in news.
Sarah Smith: But why have you not wanted to be part of such an exciting project – given your published work on managing start-up TV stations, getting cable access, writing remits and so forth? You were, after all, the first ever English-language recruit to Al Jazeera.
Afshin Rattansi: So far, I’ve already been told that there is no place for me on the network so, obviously, they’ve missed something very important in the start-up of the new channel! But, more seriously, it has to be said that within the industry, there are some great journalists who, I would have thought, would have been ideal recruits. International TV station start-ups are always complex and perhaps management of the new station has a long range plan that involves more commercial BBC-style news at the beginning to gain market access. My first boss at the BBC, Paul Gibbs, is one of the directors of the new channel so I know that they have some heavyweights when it comes to knowing the industry. He will be commissioning programmes and at the BBC Business Unit was known for innovative strands of programming.
Sarah Smith: The channel has hired some journalists very much from the neoliberal right. David Frost who is a friend of Israel even checked with the U.S. and UK governments before he would take on a job at the station. Their head of news, Steve Clark, produced extremely right wing programmes that were pro-Israeli. Do you have any fears about the channel?
Afshin Rattansi: As I said, start-ups are always quite fraught. And one must remember that there are a lot of people who are willing the failure of Al Jazeera International. I know Steve and he seemed relatively sane! I certainly don’t think it can be said – as some are alleging – that the English language station has been hijacked by the CIA or something, as some are having it.
As to the more disturbing bits of news we get about the start-up of the English language Al Jazeera channel, I think we should wait and see. Frost is a big name and TV stations do need stars. With all the money being thrown at the new channel, let’s hope that they are getting the really top notch producers and reporters and not those who are merely the dregs of big, corporate news broadcasting, looking for a tax-free salary and a bit of sun!
Edward Victor: The book that concerns TV news in “The Dream of the Decade” has been compared to Evelyn Waugh’s “Scoop”. Should it be read as a satire or did any of the things in the book actually happen.
Afshin Rattansi: Of all the books in the quartet, perhaps that one, “Good Morning, Britain” is the most autobiographical. Alas, some of the crazier things regarding the naivety of reporters are basically true. I certainly remember a very posh reporter who was unaware of public healthcare and when he went to cover a story about hospitals went to the only hospital he knew – a very expensive private one – so that the whole report became an advert for how wonderful medical care was in the UK. I’ve also met my fair share of war correspondents who delight in the perceived Hemmingway persona, obscuring the issues of geopolitical power in any theatre of war.
Sarah Smith: What broadcast news services do you think are good and how can journalism in general get better?
Afshin Rattansi: I think there are some gold standards at the moment. One of them is BBC World Service radio which whilst showing little in the way of innovation and often obscuring power-lines, still manages to feel truly global. Obviously, CNN when my little brother
is anchoring is also excellent! I have to admit that Fox News, which is doing well in the ratings, at least puts its heart on its sleeve – tacitly admitting it has an angle. It is much more frightening to watch news which suggests that it is unbiased when it is.
Ultimately, it will be up to the kind of people employed in journalism. At the BBC Today programme – shortly before the editor was fired – there were the beginnings of a recruitment process that was genuinely based on grouping people from different backgrounds to be in the newsroom. In Dubai, there were journalists from every country East and South of Algiers. But it’s not just ethnic diversity, it’s class diversity. You wouldn’t find many frontline journalists at the BBC from London’s Peckham area, nor at CNN from Dixie Hills. Ironically, the ratings on programmes which employed them would do well as so little on TV reflects the aspirations and concerns of the majority. However, I don’t think advertisers are that interested in those with low disposable incomes. And, in the UK, which has weathered the dumbing down of international TV better than most places, executives at government-funded stations feel the need – for complex reasons – to compete with commercial content.
Daily Soccer News: your Daily Online Football Information Center
Are you into football? If you are, then you surely are in search for an Internet site that would give you every information you would want regarding the game. Football is undoubtedly the most popular ball game around the world. Sports fans have been following the latest developments and updates about the most popular and talked about global football tournaments.
Visit Daily Soccer News at Web address http://www.f8tballnews.com/ and get the latest news and updates about almost any well-known football team around the world. As a sports central online, F8tball News makes sure it is comprehensively covering any pertinent football news you need to get hold of.
Whether you aim to get latest football data about football tournaments in the US, in Australia, in Europe or just about anywhere, it would be helpful if you would log online to Daily Soccer News. While watching the live coverage of the game on live television is still the best experience, if you are anywhere but home and you want to get updates, the online site would pretty much do its job for you.
Football news
The main gist and focus of Daily Soccer News is provision of updated and latest news about football games, teams and personalities first hand. Because the Website acknowledges the fact that online users and football fanatics need to get informed the soonest as updates and football news unfolds, Daily Soccer News aims to be the first to tell football news immediately after developments happen. The site also is focusing in various scopes of football news like football transfer news, iconic strategies and football awards to recognize players’ competence.
Aside from the in-house pool of football news writers the Website has, Daily Soccer News is also soliciting news article contributions from football fans and online readers. In the Website, there is a ‘submit a story’ link wherein submission of news articles as contributions from just about anyone is facilitated. The news outputs would be screened and edited by the Website before posting so it is ensured that the stories and data are accurate and are reliable.
There is also a feature wherein other readers would be able to vote for particular news stories. Votes from readers are affirmation of the readability and comprehensibility of the football news articles from contributors. More importantly, news contributions have by-lines so that contributors and authors would hold the credit for the outputs. The by-lines could also serve as a good link to redirect users to the blogs or personal sites of the authors. Thus, posting stories help promote readers’ blogs.
Football bookmarking exchange
The popularity of Daily Soccer News as a football bookmarking exchange cannot be underestimated. All around the world, the Website is rapidly gaining traction. That is because football fanatics and online users are recognizing the reliability and effectiveness of the site as a tool to promote football and update football fans about the latest happenings in the sport.
As a football bookmarking exchange, the Website is more than a football news site. There are basically many other features offered by Daily Soccer News that have made the site the popular football information Webpage that it is today.
Aside from of course the new and popular stories and news posted, the Website is full of many other services. Live scores is one of them. Through the feature, anyone will be posted about the latest scores as games happen. If you could not secure access to live television, you could opt to log online and be updated o the dot about scores as the tournaments occur.
Through votes from readership, the top news articles are posted and identified on a daily basis. The purpose of this move is to help online users discern which news is ranked the most interesting and informative. As a reader, you could also cast a vote upon each article you have read as a form of appreciation and support to the writer. Contributors take these votes as somehow like a tap on the back, making them feel and gauge readers’ support.
There are also other reliable features facilitated by the Website like real-time soccer chat and tag clouds, that facilitate links to users’ specific blogs and personal sites.
Football based social bookmarking exchange providing the latest football news and gossip from around the World. Visit online resource for daily soccer news and Soccer Chat .
J Todd is back in the US with industry headlines from the European Union and the state of Nevada. Plus, the Poker Players Alliance launches another great tool! It’s the online gambling show you can’t refuse!
Why the health authorities are too scary about this virus H5N1?
It reminds some of the health researchers and scientists about the Black Death (Bubonic Plague) that broke out in China in 1300 and quickly spread to Europe. The death toll soon was in millions.
The scientists fear that this virus H5N1 has similar potentialities. However, the beginning of the devastation created by this virus is humble. The total death toll since its emergence is just 200! For the present, the rate of annihilation is slightly over 50% of the total persons affected.
For the Bubonic Plague, the carriers were the rats. For the bird flu, it is birds. The rats traveled in boats that carried the cargo from one country to another. Birds do it without the services of boats or jets. They are capable of flying from one country to another and now they show their damage capacity.
Having suffered the devastating Plague, why Europe is now worried is…this bird flu virus mutates at a fast rate! It hardly takes few months to develop itself in to a new virus, and the medical research is unable to catch up the virus in this marathon.
The true nature of these viruses is nothing but a guessing game. H5N1 is a deadly virus, and wants the return of at least 50% of the human beings that it attacks!
So, the bird flu has become the prize-coverage and the news related to it is given in the front page columns. The researchers see the latent threat in those fast multiplying and dividing viruses of bird flu.
The African, European and Asian countries could be the hotbeds for this disease. Will the bird-flu dance the death dance here? Some of the countries are in the process of conducting the mock-exercises, to tackle the eventuality of bird-flu. Those who are not much informed about the sequences and consequences of this disease do collect some introductory information about these viruses.
The European countries are well versed in wars. After having suffered the death and devastation in two major World Wars, the health authorities of these nations are now tuning themselves to face this weaponless war!
This recent outbreak of the bird flu has taken the scientists and the researchers in Europe scurrying for the panic buttons. A decade ago, very few knew what this bird flu was. Now, the economists, scientists and the politicians are all worried about it. World Health Organization has given the top priority to devise ways and means to tackle this disease.
And finally, Bill Gates opens the gates to sanction additional grants in the cause of preventing the bird-flu!
Award-winner Interview: Patrick Cogny, Genpact Europe
SSON: Why was Romania selected by Genpact – what was it about the country, and about the specific Bucharest location, which attracted the planning team?
Patrick Cogny: For us it’s a lot about the talent pool: the cost-effectiveness and range of the talent pool. When we did our due diligence a few years ago we found a population that had very good multilingual skills. Even beyond our employees, the people are very good with languages generally – even with English for example, which is not one of the main languages we serve from there. So the multilingual aspect is very important. And then we need to be in a country we can safely operate from – “safely” meaning in full compliance, being totally ethical and conform to our values. When we were doing our due diligence, Romania was just about to enter the EU and had done a lot of work on everything that supports compliance and ethical constructs; they’d really done their homework on that.
SSON: How independent are Genpact Romania’s operations from other Genpact organisations worldwide? Are there any activities, for example, which are only (or can only be) carried out in your center?
PC: We operate our centers as a fully integrated network, so we try to do exactly the opposite to that. For most of the clients we have, we operate both from the Bucharest center and other global centers. Now [the Bucharest center] is specialised in the multilingual processes, so there’s a logic for what we put there; but very often it works in conjunction with, for example, English-speaking processes hosted out of India. We would offer English-language and continental European languages from the two locations as an integrated process. Now, at the same time we are a pretty high-expertise, high-knowledge-based team, so we’ve invested a lot in growing the local talent and the local expertise; we wouldn’t call that “independent” but we’ve developed local teams of subject-matter experts while remaining part of a global network.
SSON: Genpact Romania won Best BPO Provider at the 2008 Shared Services Excellence Awards in Sitges earlier this year. Why do you think the judges selected you above the rest of the competition?
PC: That’s a question for them… I think we’ve been successful on the market front, so we’re considered to be the – or one of the – largest providers in the geography. And part of that is that we’re celebrating our sixth year in Europe: not that many other providers have invested that early, so it gives us a distinct advantage. We’ve learnt some things the hard way. The second thing is that we’re very customer-centric, generally speaking. The culture that we’re promoting with our teams and that is really the fabric of our whole organisation is to put the customer first – and that can sound like just a good slogan, but I think it is recognised.
Some things we do well, some things we don’t do well, but when something goes wrong we are all hands on deck to tackle it, to fix it – and to fix it to customer satisfaction, not just to the contract. So going beyond the contract – because our contracts are pretty complex, if you just stick to just what’s in the contract you’ll rarely satisfy your clients. You need to go beyond what’s in the contract. Sticking to what’s in the contract might get you good business but won’t get you the client recognition. We think it’s very important to get that, because client recognition is what enables us to grow our business.
SSON: What are the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome during your time at the helm, and what do you see as being the biggest challenges to Genpact Romania over the next few years?
PC: A couple of things. This industry is extremely immature, it’s a young industry, and very complex – sometimes more complex than it should be, because things have not been strictly defined. That’s one of the biggest challenges: managing that complexity. The second challenge that we’re facing – that everybody’s facing – is managing the talent; it’s a big area of focus because we have to grow the talent in the geographies we’re going to, we have to retain the talent, we have to be an employer of choice. And these are markets and talent pools that overheat very rapidly because they’re not very large: unlike India, which has a huge talent pool, the talent pools for multilingual resources are not very large.
SSON: What impact do you see the credit crunch having on the industry?
PC: Short-term, it’s like everybody else: it’s a huge pressure on our customers and increased stress on the whole system. Medium-term it actually creates a lot of opportunities for us because it puts a big premium on companies restructuring and investing in their core business, and relying on partners to run business processes that are their own core business. So I think it’s actually going to boost the BPO industry going forward.
SSON: And do you think outsourcing in general is going to change significantly over the next few years? I’m thinking specifically about the move from BPO to KPO.
PC: That’s nothing new. We’ve had an Analytics practice for example for a long time, we’ve done LPO for a long time. What happens there is that when you work with a client and that client is happy with the service you’re providing, then the natural evolution is that they give you more and more high-end work. We see that as an integral part of the growth with our customers.
SSON: Do you see KPO being an increasingly important part of your business in terms of proportion of revenue, or the proportion of headcount?
PC: It is already pretty high. I don’t know how much exactly it will grow, but it’s something that will continue to grow for sure. And again the typical cycle with the client is that the client will start with the more transactional processes, and when the client becomes more comfortable with outsourcing in the first place, and the partnership with us in the second place, the partnership grows up the value chain. So that’s not a new phenomenon. It’s something which will continue to be important for us.
SSON: Finally, what advice would you give to a company just starting out on an outsourcing journey, in order to make that journey as smooth as possible?
PC: There are some obvious things. First of all, particularly to Europe, people need to get out of the captive model, which has been, say, 80 per cent of the shared service centers in Europe. There is ample data now which shows that setting up a captive is a very difficult task. Also, contrary to a few years back, there is now a big slate of providers to ensure you can get very competitive offers; you’re never going to be a prisoner of your outsourcing provider. I would encourage every European company to look at outsourcing rather than the captive model, and there’s very well-documented data to explain why.
The main thing is who you select as your partner, obviously, because those processes are not commodity processes; you will have to work with the company you engage with and select as a partner to transform your processes over time. You’ll get the labor arbitrage, you’ll get the initial productivity just by selecting an outsourcing provider, and you’ll get some good commitments; but the real value of the relationship will be how you work together in the long run. SLAs are like hygiene factors; then you start to work on things like how the end-to-end processes really meet your business objectives as a client – because at the end of the day do you really want your provider to work on turnaround time per document, or do you want your provider to help improve your cashflow? Well clearly you want the second and not just the first. You do want the turnaround time improved, but that’s just the starting point.
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Jamie Liddell has worked in journalism since he was a 17-year-old cub reporter for The Tico Times, Costa Rica’s highly regarded English-language weekly newspaper. Holding an MA in English from Clare College, Cambridge University, Jamie came to SSON from the world of overseas property publishing where he worked on the industry’s best-selling publications for the UK and Ireland, and gave seminars at consumer and b2b exhibitions and conferences internationally.
The credit crunch and the sharp loss of confidence since the failure of Lehman Brothers a fortnight ago claimed four victims in the European finance sector over the weekend and another major US bank.
In the latest of a stunning series of rescues, the Belgium Government and the regional administrations in that country, are reported to have agreed to rescue the Dexia bank, a Franco-Belgian financial group. Dexia has a big funds management business in Australia.
There’s no sign of a cost figure as yet, but local media said it could be as high as 7 billion euros, or close to $A12 billion.
It came 24 hours after the Belgium Government was involved in the rescue of Fortis, which also has operations here. That will cost 11 billion Eurosa for the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments.
Fortis, the Dutch-Belgium giant was bailed out, Hypo Real Estate, a big German property lender was also rescued by emergency funds from competitors and Bradford and Bingley in the UK was nationalised after parts were sold off.
The Icelandic Government took over Glitnir, the country’s third largest bank which had expanded via short term borrowings, setting off the biggest fall in the country’s stockmarket in its history and forcing an associated investment company in Britain into administration. That was the bankl’s biggest shareholder and its failure threatens other companies in which it had shareholders.
And as the debate in the US Congress unfolded, Wachovia, the country’s sixth-largest lender, was rescued by Citigroup, with the US government take a $US12 billion stake in the country’s largest bank.
The German government bailout of Hypo Real Estate will cost an incredible €35billion, or around $US55 billion.
Central banks, led by the Fed revealed more liquidity swaps around midnight last night, our time.
A total of $US330 billion in swaps was done with major central banks to boost the amount involved since Lehman Brothers failed to a massive $US630 billion.
The Fed also boosted its inter US domestic funding system called Term Auction Facilities to its banking system, increasing the amount to $US75 billion for each auction and revealing a total of $US350 billion in special auctions in November.
Australia’s RBA did a $US20 billion US dollar swap with the Fed in addition to the $US10 billion swap done last week.
All the new swaps are timed to end next March as central banks seek to calm markets and provide enough liquidity to handle the end of the quarter (today) and then the end of the year.
Fortis was the biggest shock, a mystery as the Financial Times put it this morning.
An apparently sound financial group with no real problems except one of confidence, plenty of assets and liquidity, but suddenly weak. .
And the worrying thing about the these near misses was the speed by which they emerged: it’s clear the credit crunch post the Lehman failure is gathering pace around the world and moving offshore from the US where the attention has been.
The Fortis rescue saw a horrible word revealed: ‘multinationalised’ which means a company taken over by more than one national government.
Given the way the credit crisis is going, it could very well become a word we hear more of.
It popped up yesterday to describe the way that Fortis was rescued from probable collapse by a trio of European governments that joined together in a rare cross-border move to bail it out.
Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg are pooling 11.2 billion euros ($US16.3 billion) to rescue Fortis, which late last week was feared to be on the brink of insolvency following large credit-related write-downs and heavy selling of the group’s shares, even though short selling is banned in Belgium and Holland.
Each country’s government will take equal-sized stakes in Fortis’ banking operations in that particular country: Belgium will acquire a 49% stake in Fortis’s Belgian banking units for 4.7 billion euros (or $US6.8 billion), and the Netherlands will buy a similar-sized stake in Fortis’s Dutch banking operations for 4 billion euros ($US5.8 billion).
Smaller Luxembourg is extending a loan of 2.5 billion euros ($US3.6 billion) that can be converted into a 49% interest in Fortis’ banking business in that tiny country.
And, under the terms of the bailout, Fortis will have to sell off the pieces of ABN Amro it acquired last year in a joint bid with RBS of the UK and Santander of Spain.
That triumvirate was the antithesis of the move by the three governments to save Fortis, which would have never found itself in this position, had it withdrawn from the ABN adventure when the credit crunch started.
Similarly, RBS has been forced to sell assets, raise new capital and cut costs because of a combination of subprime losses and the cost of funding its share of the ABN bid, which remains unfinished.
RBS has raised over $US30 billion and it now seems that a buyer for Fortis share of the ABN assets will have to be found.
RBS has no resources and Santander has just helped rescue the depositors in mortgage banker Bradford and Bingley after buying Alliance and Leicester a few months ago, also in the UK. It is also coping with a property crunch in its home market of Spain.
So Fortis might not be out of the woods yet, unless one of the governments wants to buy the ABN assets (highly unlikely).
Fortis is the largest European company so far to be dragged down by the credit crunch.
The bailout will hurt Fortis’ largest shareholder, China’s Ping An Insurance which owns a 5% stake. The Chinese group helped Fortis earlier in the year by buying 50% of Fortis funds management business.
Ping An will be diluted and it says that it will now end plans for that billion-dollar acquisition of a part of Fortis’ asset management business. Ping An paid $US2.7 billion for 4.2% of Fortis in 2007 and upped its interest to 5% in March.
Ping An shares are down 18% since last Thursday when news of Fortis’ problems erupted without much in the way of warning in Europe the night before. They were down 9% in Hong Kong yesterday.
Fortis posted a 49% second-quarter profit decline due to credit-related write-downs, which cut earnings by 918 million euros ($US1.3 billion) in the first half.
Fortis had suspended its half-year dividend and had planned to sell shares to recapitalise. But that wasn’t enough.
In the UK, Santander is now busy sorting out what it now owns from the dismemberment of Bradford and Bingley, which was once the 8th largest mortgage bank in the UK.
Santander will take over the $A44 billion in deposits business and branch network of B & B.
It paid $US1.1 billion for the assets and 197 branches.
B&B’s $A110 billion in mortgages and loans were nationalised.
Santander already owns Abbey, and recently bought Alliance & Leicester.
The mortgages and loans will be put with those from the nationalised Northern Rock. That will mean the US Government will own well over $A330 billion in unwanted mortgages and loans from the two failed former building societies.
The B&B assets are concentrated in the buy-to-let and so called low doc mortgages, which have rising arrears rates, much worse than even Northern Rock. It was a big funder of investor housing finance for homes and flats in recent years in Britain.
B&B’s share price has plummeted.
A year ago its share price was around $A6.60 but had dropped to around 45c A. It’s not known if the shares will have any value. Northern Rock shareholders who held on still have no idea if their shares will every have any value.
The bank will be nationalised using special legislation the Treasury put through when it took Northern Rock into public ownership earlier this year.
In Germany, Hypo Real Estate Holding, the country’s second-biggest commercial-property lender, will scrap its 2008 dividend after securing a “multi-billion-euro” credit line to rescue it from the turmoil on financial markets.
35 billion euros, a mind staggeringly large amount, is the size of the bailout, raising questions as to just how a German blue chip stock could get it so wrong.
The provision of the bailout loan by a group of German banks (organised by the Government) means Hypo Real Estate will have to slash the value of the goodwill of its stake in Depfa Bank, which is based in Ireland.
That will mean omitting the dividend.
Hypo’s problems have been gathering pace but emerged over the weekend when the Financial Times German website reported that it was on the brink of collapse and needed some cash urgently.
“The new credit facility is a far-reaching and innovative approach which allows us to adjust our funding structure in order to accommodate the current malfunctioning of the international money markets,” chief executive Georg Funke was quoted as saying in the statement. “Hypo Real Estate Group will not need to go back to the unsecured money market for its refunding in the foreseeable future.”
The company was reportedly borrowing short in wholesale markets to lend long through the Depfa bank for commercial property, amongst other things. The credit crunch cut off the source of funding
Hypo Real Estate didn’t name the lenders or say how much money it received.
That figure came from Government sources and it was one of the biggest sums so far for an individual financial group. Around $A55 billion. Hypo has three fixed interest financial products listed on the ASX here (one a floating rate note and two with specified coupons).
The company had entered into talks with the banks “in response to the extremely challenging conditions on the international money markets following the Lehman Brothers collapse and other market disruptions.”
The German lender was spun off from HVB Group in 2003. It shocked with unexpected write-downs on collateralized debt obligations in January which saw the shares plunge 35%.
Hypo Real Estate said last month that second-quarter pretax profit plunged 95% because of further markdowns on debt-related investments.
Hypo Real Estate sought new investors earlier this year to shore up its balance sheet and a group led by J.C. Flowers & Co., the US buyout firm bought 24.9% of Hypo Real Estate in June for about 1.13 billion euros. (nearly $A1.9 billion). J.C. Flowers has lost $US1.5 billion in the rescue.
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After my 4 year relationship ended with my boyfriend Ewan, I dragged my sorry butt around feeling sorry for myself for months. I remember thinking I would never find another man to notice me the way Ewan did. I thought I would never fall in love again; I was depressed and hid out at home.
My older sister came over one day, smiled at me and said, “ I know it may seem hopeless now, you’re probably heart broken and devastated, but there will be others. You’ll see”
I couldn’t believe she could say something so ridiculous; Ewan was the love of my life!!!
I did however discover the computer and started chatting online with men all around the world. I “met” Marco in Italy, Jean-Paul in France, Shaun in Ireland and Glen in the UK. I even flirted with one man in Australia! I enjoyed flirting with all of these men online and wrote back and forth with all of them regularly. It got to a point where that was my only excitement of the day and I would rush home to check my emails.
Amongst all the men I met online there was one young man that was very persistent, I rarely gave him the time of day as I was 24 and he was only 19 yrs old but when I was bored, he was ALWAYS available for a chat.
The funny thing was that he was actually one of the most mature guys I spoke with. He had good insight, listened intently and we actually shared a lot of intimate details with one another. I remember being shocked to hear that he was still a Virgin! He was an American in the Air Force, which I found exciting but again, he was only 19 and living in North Dakota so I found that part about him incredibly boring. The time came when I decided enough was enough and I was done with my hiding out. It was time for adventure again. Other than my 19 yr old chat buddy, I didn’t tell anyone else, not even my mother that I had made up my mind and was going to travel to Europe!
Within a week, I began researching flights, and travel packages. I hooked up with Sherry, a girl from work who had also recently broken up with her boyfriend and we decided to travel together.
About a week before I left, I shocked everyone with news of my impromptu trip to Europe and even finally told all of the men I had been chatting with that I would soon be in there own native country! I had a knot in my stomach the whole flight into the UK and wondered what it would be like meeting these “strange” men. Would they be very different from all the Canadian men I had dated????
I quickly learned while in London that nope, they weren’t very different at all. Both Glen from London and Shaun from Dublin were going to meet me in London on different days and of course, neither one of them showed up! Cowards. They turned out to be all talk! I left Great Britain with Great Disappointment in regards to those men. I was also disappointed after getting into a big argument with Sherry in London Square. I fought with her for not wanting to go out and visit the local pubs or any of the dance clubs. She was so dull. I did however get to enjoy all the yummy Brits I got to gawk at while visiting all the “touristy” places. I got to visit Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and left with tons of cheesy souvenirs and photos. I even spent some time in a Fish n’ Chips place flirting with the local wildlife for a couple of hours. So, in the end London wasn’t an entire loss and damn, how I loved that sexy British accent.
Off to France next to meet Jean-Paul where I was sure to be captured by the allure and romance of Paris! Sherry didn’t really have any interest in meeting the locals and got extremely sick on our way into France. I was tired when I arrived and I remember riding in a bus to my hotel. It was raining, Sherry and I weren’t talking and my heart ached to be in Paris with my ex boyfriend Ewan. Still feeling somewhat let down by men, I didn’t notice I was traveling alongside the river Sienne, nor did I even notice the beautiful architecture until I saw “it”. It was raining and I was blankly looking out the window of the bus when I spotted it. Various buildings covered it and I saw just the tip of it at first, but then I saw it a bit more and a bit more until finally, we turned a corner and there it was in all it’s glory.
I was speechless. Nothing could have prepared me for the magnificent structure that was…the Eiffel Tower. I felt a lump in my throat, my eyes and nose burned a bit and I cried a little. Yes, I cried. All of my life I had seen the Eiffel tower in movies and in photos and here I was looking at in REAL life. All of the heartache and pain I had gone through in my childhood had almost convinced me that I would never get to view such real beauty. Almost as if I had never been deserving enough to experience something I had only ever read about or dreamed about. Only “normal” people got to travel and see such things, not me!!! At that moment, I forgot all about old Glen and Shaun who hadn’t shown up in London and I silently wept in the back of the bus by myself. I didn’t know it at the time but I had just begun another chapter in my book of life and discoveries around men.
So, I met my online Frenchman, Jean-Paul in Paris AND his girlfriend, that’s right his girlfriend. Oh and his friend he brought along to throw in my path. I was pissed off at first but as the night went on, I really got to know the friend that Jean-Paul had brought along and started thinking things were gonna turn out quite well actually. His name was Olivier and he was incredibly cute. I ditched Jean-Paul and his chick and spent the rest of my time in France, seeing the sights with Olivier. He held my hand and spoke to me in that incredibly romantic French accent. I had the time of my life.
I saw the Louvre, the Arc de Triumph, and the Moulin Rouge and finally came the day when Olivier took me by the hand and led me to the Eiffel Tower. The elevator was rickety and scary and I held on to him tightly because I was SO “frightened”. Well no, not really but it worked like a charm. We went alllll the way to the top and the adrenaline rushed through me. Here I was at a place I had only dreamed of, one of the most romantic places in the world and I was with a European man. My heart pounded. I was in awe of how much of Paris I could see from up here.
As we stood there together, quietly, Olivier suddenly took me by the shoulders and gently turned me around so I could look into his eyes.
His French accent killed me, “jur ice are sew bewtifool,” he said to me as the wind blew through my hair.
My God, I couldn’t believe this was real. I closed my eyes so he could kiss me and all I felt was the wind blowing again before he gave me a gentle, little kiss on the forehead.
A kiss on the forehead?!?! What the fuck was that? I was expecting something hot and heavy!!!! I blankly stared at him. He just smiled again, turned me around to look out from the tower and he wrapped his arms around me. I stood there kinda confused but shrugged it off and just enjoyed myself.
That night we went to a dance club and after dancing the night away, he drove me back to my hotel and went on and explained how he had “strong” feelings for me but didn’t want to fall in love with a stranger he would never see again. So he hugged me tightly and gave me a kiss on my cheek. Hmph. “ What a rip-off” I thought to myself.
On my last day in France, we were very “huggy” with each other and he took me out for lunch. I told Oliver how much I had appreciated his company, how I couldn’t wait for him to visit me in Canada in one day and I left without every feeling his French lips on mine.
On the train into Italy however, I smiled at my little romantic interlude with this Parisian cutie and all I could hear in my head was, “ jur ice are sew bewtifool.”
Italy came and went but not without experiencing the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican City, the Roman Coliseum, the catacombs, the Spanish steps and of course the delicious Italian food, wine and MEN!
As soon as I got off the train in Rome, I saw the most beautiful man I had ever seen in my whole life. He was drop dead gorgeous and the men there just kept on getting better and better. To this day I don’t know if I have ever seen such “gorgeousness” again! I’m talking male perfection.
I remember meeting up with Marco in Rome. He was SO Italian! He met Sherry and I for a bit of sight seeing but she complained of being tired and wanted to go back to the hotel room. By this time I was really pissed off at her but I realized that Sherry was not on the same journey as I. She wasn’t there for the same reasons as I. I was on a new path of discovery and I wasn’t going to let my incompatible travel partner get in the way of that journey. After being in a four year relationship with Ewan, I was ready to let go and really have some fun. So we dropped Sherry off at the hotel and I left with Marco to enjoy Italy. I spent all of my time with Marco enjoying Italy; he was from Naples and showed me what the locals did and how different Italian culture really is from ours. I had SO much fun. On my last night in Rome, Marco took me out for a celebratory night!
We spent the evening drinking wine and dancing the night away. He took me to a fabulous Italian restaurant. We laughed and flirted like crazy; he was a singer and had the most incredible voice. He surprised me with a signed CD and he looked great on the cover! I loved listening to his Italian accent but by now I couldn’t even recognize my own accent. I had met and shared rooms with other English-speaking people on my travels but they were all Americans and Australians and I had started talking like them. I had been in England the longest, spent so much time with Olivier in Paris and now trying to make my way around Italy, my once “Canadian, eh” accent was some garbled French/ Italian/ Aussie/ New Yorken type of mush.
I continued to dance on though, not caring what I sounded or looked like. I was flying back to Canada the next morning at 9am but I didn’t give a shit, this was my last night in Europe so I partied away with Marco until about 3am!
By the time we left the dance club, it had started to lightly rain. It was still incredibly warm out so the rain was actually refreshing but Marco and I weren’t dressed for rain so I remember him taking my hand and we ran down the cobblestoned streets to his car. Just before reaching his car he quickly stopped, pressed me up against a building and kissed me. I closed my eyes and let this Italian stranger kiss me and feel me up all over. He kissed me and kissed me and I just let the rain come over us. I didn’t give a rat’s ass anymore and it wasn’t like I was going to sleep with him or ever see him again. I don’t know how long that kiss lasted before we were back holding hands and running in the rain again. Once more I was in a movie, a romance novel, running through the streets of Rome with a sexy Italian man after a night of wining and dining and it just didn’t seem real.
That night, after making out in his car, he dropped me off at my hotel but not before asking me to spend the night with him. We had barely just gotten to know each other; did he actually think I was going to sleep with him??? Well of course he did! Why not? I had given him every indication that I was going to. Even though all along in my mind I knew that I wasn’t going to sleep with Marco, I realized none of my actions displayed that and he left a sad, lonely Italian without ever getting his piece of Canadian ass. But hey, for the record, I didn’t get my piece of Italian ass either!
LESSON LEARNED: Humans are resilient and even though after a broken heart you may feel like you’ll never love again, the truth is, you will. You will. It is important however that you do things on your own again to discover what you are passionate about. After a long-term relationship ends, go out and re-learn what makes your heart sing. Be comfortable in your own skin and learn to love yourself unconditionally because despite different cultures and customs, men really are the same globally. I learned the men I attracted and how they treated me was largely determined by how I was treating myself at the time. I also learned to be careful of what my actions were telling a man. Are you letting him lead when really you want to rip his clothes off? Are you giving him all the signals that you want to sleep with him when really you don’t? Men don’t get hints. Ask for what you want. As for them, men are action oriented and if you really want to know what a man is saying, watch his actions. His words may tell you he wants you or he may promise you the world but when it comes to the “nitty gritty” believe his actions not necessarily his words and THAT is true, throughout the continents, sorry guys, you’ve been exposed!
Author of the E-book and creator of the successful workshop by the same name, The Man Safari.
Central & Eastern Europe it Outsourcing Review ‘2007
Europe has enormous potential for development of IT Outsourcing industry. In accordance with expertsâ opinions this region will definitely keep the appreciation of the customers from all over the world for yet another decade. It will attract new clients by professionalism of the experts, low labor cost, friendly legislation as well as by geographical vicinity and cultural connection to the Western Europe.
The main objective of this research conducted by the Ukrainian Hi-Tech Initiative with the support of ITONews.eu, news portal, Baltic Outsourcing Association (Lithuania), JNN Consult Ltd (Bulgaria) and Employersâ Association of the Software and Services Industry (Romania) is formation of the complete view on the potential of CEE region – the promising cluster for nearshore IT Outsourcing for the Western European countries and offshore IT Outsourcing for the US.
Main indicators of IT Outsourcing industry development (market volume, number of IT professionals, number of IT companies providing outsourcing services, cost of one professional for the end customer) take Central and Eastern Europe to the level of such global outsourcing centers as India, China, and Russia. The data, presented by the largest IT companies and national IT Associations showed that in 2007 IT outsourcing market volume of CEE region reached 3 bln US dollars. Among 16 examined countries, the leading in market volume were: Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic. The scope of final IT products served as the basis for the calculation of market volume. Ukraine, Romania, Belarus, Poland and Bulgaria were in the lead regarding the number of IT companies. When calculating the number of IT companies, considered were the IT and software development companies providing outsourcing services with more than 10 employees. Central and Eastern European region is satiated with the small companies undergoing intensive development. Low threshold was taken purposefully in order to provide a complete market snapshot for each country.
The attempt was made to calculate also minimum and maximum annual cost per service of one IT professional for the end customer in each of the countries. Among the most âexpensiveâ countries were Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czech Republic and Estonia. When calculating the number of professionals, considered were only those IT specialists that are involved into IT Outsourcing less administrative personnel. Other estimation data sources were general information about each country such as population, as well as review respondentsâ feedback on the number of companies and the average number of employees in each of them. Ukraine, Romania, Belarus, Hungary, Bulgaria were the countries with the greatest number of IT professionals.
Independent experts Christian Berner, Natasha Starkell, Parvis Hanson, and Maryna Yaroshchuk provided their views on the IT Outsourcing markets of Central and Eastern European region. The research was conducted in August – February 2007-2008. National IT Associations and largest IT companies from 16 countries of the region kindly responded to the research. The full version of the research âCentral & Eastern Europe IT Outsourcing Review â2007â is available at the website â www.ITONews.eu
Gazprom-ukraine Dispute Could Leave Europe Out in the Cold
By Jason Simpkins Associate Editor Money Morning
Russiaâs state-run energy monopoly, OAO Gazprom, is warning its European customers that a dispute with Ukraine could lead to supply disruptions, as the Eastern European transit state siphons off supplies to meet its own energy needs.
Representatives from Gazprom and Ukraine are negotiating a deal for 2009 natural gas purchases, but Gazprom insists that a new deal cannot be reached unless Ukraine pays off approximately billion in debt to the company.
Gazprom says Ukraine owes .6 billion in gas imports for the months of November and December, as well as 0 million in late fees and fines. The company also says that if Ukraine does not satisfy its fiduciary obligations by Jan. 1, it will cut off supplies to the European state.
âIf Ukraine doesnât repay its debts before the end of the day December 31, Gazprom wonât have any grounds for pumping gas there,â said Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexei Miller. “From 10 a.m. on Jan. 1, Gazprom will completely, 100%, cease gas supplies to consumers in Ukraine.”
However, 80% of Europeâs gas supply is transited through Ukraine and Gazprom has warned that the country may resort to siphoning off gas en route to customers in other parts of the continent, as it did during a similar dispute in 2006.
In January 2006, Russia cut supplies to Ukraine completely for a period of three days causing gas volumes across Europe to fall, as Ukraine scrambled to satisfy its demand. This occurrence came close to repeating itself last March, when Gazprom again threatened to cut supplies to Ukraine.
Gazprom made good on its threats by reducing natural gas deliveries to Ukraine first by one-quarter, and then by half. However, supplies to the rest of the Europe were left undisturbed and the Russian oil monopoly restored deliveries of gas to Ukraine in full as soon as the country agreed to pay Gazprom 0 million.
There is hope that the current altercation will be resolved without incident, as Ukraine has already paid .52 billion of the supposed debt. NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy, the countryâs state-run energy company, made the payment Tuesday to RosUkrEnergo AG, the Swiss-based trader that imports the gas from Russia. But that payment was still short of the billion being sought by Gazprom.
Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov puts the chance that the dispute will be resolved by the Jan. 1 deadline at 30%, according to the AFP. Kupriyanov said that a âcrisis scenarioâ is more likely because Ukraineâs delay has produced âa whole layer of complex issues.â
âOur Ukrainian partners have officially notified us that, in case no contract is signed on gas supplies for Ukraine itself, it will block the transit of our product to principal consumers in Western Europe,â Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said. âWe believe that this is an absolutely improper position both from the economic and from the legal point of view,â he said, adding that if transit agreements were breached, there would be âserious consequencesâ for Ukraine and âconsumers in European Union countries.â
Kiev, May 6, 2008 – By the results of the “Central & Eastern Europe IT Outsourcing Review ‘2007”, conducted by Ukrainian Hi-Tech Initiative with the support of information portal ITONews.eu, Baltic Outsourcing Association (Lithuania), Employers’ Association of the Software and Services Industry (Romania) and JNN Consult Ltd (Bulgaria) – in 2007 IT Outsourcing market of the Central and Eastern Europe reached a volume of 3 bln. US dollars.
The research was conducted in August-February 2007-2008. National IT associations, as well as the largest IT companies, from 16 countries of the region responded to the survey. The main goal of the research was getting a whole overview of the potential of CEE as a cluster of provision of the nearshore IT outsourcing services for the EU countries and offshore outsourcing services for the USA.
The research examined key development indicators of IT Outsourcing market in Central and Eastern Europe region: market volume, number of professionals, number of IT companies providing outsourcing services, cost of one professional for the end customer. Independent experts Christian Berner, Natasha Starkell, Parvis Hanson, and Maryna Yaroshchuk provided their views on the IT Outsourcing markets of Central and Eastern European region.
In accordance with experts’ opinions, main indicators of IT Outsourcing industry development take Central and Eastern Europe to the level of such global outsourcing centers as India, China, and Russia.
The data, presented by the largest IT companies and national IT Associations showed that in 2007 IT outsourcing market volume of CEE region reached 3 bln US dollars. Among 16 examined countries, the leading in market volume were: Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic. Ukraine, Romania, Belarus, Poland and Bulgaria were in the lead regarding the number of IT companies. The attempt was made to calculate also minimum and maximum annual cost per service of one IT professional for the end customer in each of the countries. Among the most “expensive” countries were Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czech Republic and Estonia. Ukraine, Romania, Belarus, Hungary, Bulgaria were the countries with the greatest number of IT professionals involved into IT outsourcing less the administrative personnel.
As Victor Maznyuk, President of Ukrainian Hi-Tech Initiative, noted, this research was conducted for the medium and small companies which purchase IT Outsourcing services. We hope that free distribution of this research will help SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) companies in selecting right partners in the Central and Eastern Europe.
The full version of the research “Central & Eastern Europe IT Outsourcing Review ‘2007” is available at the website www.ITONews.eu.
Ukrainian Hi-Tech Initiative
Ukrainian Hi-Tech Initiative is a leading Ukrainian alliance of offshore software development and IT outsourcing providers. The mission of the alliance is to promote Ukrainian software development companies in the global market.
Hi-Tech Initiative provides the Ukrainian software developers with the opportunity to enhance their business in the areas of IT outsourcing and offshore programming by using the partner network and marketing channels of the Initiative in the external markets.
Ukrainian Hi-Tech Initiative provides the services in establishing partnerships, collaborating in IT projects implementation, assisting in BPO between Ukrainian and western companies.
Ukrainian Hi-Tech Initiative is an organizer of annual Ukrainian Outsourcing Forum – IT business forum dedicated to promotion and development of Ukrainian software development and outsourcing market.
ITONews.eu
ITONews.eu – information analytic platform about IT Outsourcing in Central and Eastern European countries. The main aim of ITONews.eu is to show activities of IT companies, providers of outsourcing services the most widely and impartially, and to serve as a place for IT outsourcing services providers and customers meetings.
The portal, that started its work in 2008, contents daily updatable news, press-releases, analytic materials, information about global and regional events concerning IT outsourcing.
ITONews.eu gathers, analyzes and distributes information about IT outsourcing markets in CEE countries. The main objective of the information portal is formation of the complete view on the potential of CEE region – the promising cluster for outsourcing services provision and creation of common information flow from Central and Eastern Europe.
Europe as a whole is an interesting destination for someone on vacation. The entire continent offers culture, adventure, history and fun to those who travel there on vacation.
When planning a trip to Europe, it would be wise to find cheap flights there. Most of the time, you can find cheap flights to Europe that are even cheaper than domestic flights in the U.S. Like all flights, to find these flights, you have to be patient, you have to start looking well in advance and you have to have the time to do the research necessary. Putting in this effort will reap benefits because at the end of it all, getting cheap flights to anywhere in Europe will mean that you have extra cash to spend while on vacation, or even to splurge on shopping or a better hotel.
There are many factors to consider before you go out searching for cheap flights to Europe. When do you arrive? What kind of weather is there? Are they offering the tickets at these discounted rates because the weather is bad? What kind of documentation or visas do you need? Is the airline going to land at your destination or do you have to land at the closest airport and then take a train there? Are departure dates okay with my plans? There are very many questions to ask when planning a trip like this one.
Always make sure that the details of your trip match what you have planned, especially when using a third party to book the cheap flights to Europe for you. Make sure that the tickets are correct in terms of destinations, and how your names appear on the ticket. If they don’t match your passport you can be denied entry into the country you wish to visit.
Peter Gitundu Researches And Reports On Airlines. For more information on cheap flights to Europe, Visit His Site At CHEAP FLIGHTS TO EUROPE
