BOW WAVE 137

Taking Stock Edition

news and views on trade, insurance and risk

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Wavy Line	sam@wavyline.com
(c)2002 WavyLine.com	Issue No 137 08 Jul 02
Published free of charge to Readers
Editor: Sam Ignarski
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In this issue:

1. Welcome
2. Port Security Questions
3. British Innovation Group-Europe
4. Foot and Mouth Compensation Follow Up
5. Valuing Mutuality
6. And Finally...

1. Welcome

New Readers this week include:

Christophe Van Maele of Hessanatie Consult in Antwerp Niels Overgaard of Lloyd's Register of Shipping
Belgian Advocaat and English Solicitor Walter P. Verstrepen Simon Kemp of Clyde & Co
Air and Transport Lawyer Maryam Taher of Davies-Lavery Antonio Hernández of TRAINmar in Cuba
Ben.Maltby of the West of England P&I Club
KG Chen, R Gordon and M Dunn of Maritime Security outfit GMSS Michael Beihse in Canada

News of Readers

Julia Marshall is the Head of Marine and Transit Department in the London Office of Hill Dickinson. Her division and in particular the cargo, freight liabilities and policy unit hosts monthly seminars and networking lunches. So far they have covered the following topics:-

Conflicts of interests in insurance funded litigation; some aspects of insurance fraud; the use and abuse of general average; illegal immigrants in the freight industry and more recently the pitfalls of plain English.

contact Julia at:

JMM@HillDicks.com

Janet Fallon, used to be an underwriter with the TT Club and then the in-house lawyer with the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company. She is now engaged in developing the marine and international trade side with lawyers Weightman Vizards in Liverpool. Her spare time is spent in the English Lake District following her rather alarming hobby of sky-diving.

Contact her at:

Janet.Fallon@weightmanvizards.com

Poem of the Week:

With you for mast and sail and flag,
And anchor never known to drag,
Death's narrow but oppressive sea
Looks not unnavigable to me.

Robert Graves

Notwithstanding the impending season of holidays and vacations in the northern hemisphere, we intend to publish throughout the summer to those Readers who remain in their various offices and stations around the world. But Readers should also expect a degree of wandering from the transport and shipping point as we use the weeks ahead to think and take stock of things.

Enjoy.

2. Port Security Questions

Our growing file on Port Security Issues was augmented by a paper by S Perez Goldzveig of the firm of Davies-Lavery which knows a few things about governmental legislation applicable to ports and transport. It was this firm which recently challenged the power of the UK government to fine hauliers whose vehicles were found to contain Clandestine Entrants.

In his follow up to his Report On Expected Legislation in the US Relating to Port Security, Perez Goldzveig asks two questions:-

i) Have the authorities in the USA considered the commercial effects of this proposed anti-terrorisM legislation, especially the effects which it could have on those countries with trade with the USA but which do not have the necessary financial resources to comply with these future requirements?

ii) Bearing in mind that this legislation has been under consideration for some time and that the consequences for non-compliance could be commercially very serious, why are there so many representatives in industry worldwide who do not have enough understanding of this expected legislation?

Good questions both. For a copy of these papers contact him at

Sam.Perez@davies-lavery.co.uk

3. British Innovation Group-Europe

Dr Ian Pribane, the Convenor of this Group writes:

Birth on the Emerging Ground

"The worth and strength of a State depend far less upon the form of its institutions than upon the character of its men.

Samuel Smiles, Self-Help, 1875

Is the 3rd July market panic a sign of overvalued old stocks trying to find a proper value? Will we see it often? The fact is that science and technology have overtaken the traditional means of judging market expectations. The old practices are at the end of the line. Better systematic methods are needed instead of by ad hoc insertions.

Their symptoms are failing legacy systems. We can see them in business, public education and transport, fiscal discipline, justice the police and pensions. Only when problems are set on the highground of the emerging context, are proper solutions identified. This bigger picture of evolution includes advances on the frontiers of research.

At birth the newborn baby becomes an independent human being. The embryo lungs switch from secreting fluid to absorbing. Direct air breathing is essential. It is a radical physiological step. Now oxygen is supplied directly not by the mother via the umbilical cord.

Crying babies in a maternity ward herald healthy new life. It is genetic information that controls the phasing and rate of developments.

In quantum physics the future affects what is happening now. The Australian scientific philosopher Huw Price shows this. He asks why the past affects the future, and not the other way round? In Time's Arrow and Archimedes' Point: new directions for the physics of time. Balancing the future and history should begin healthy development.

A breed of Earlybird entrepreneurs has begun this. They align their attitude, vision and wits in the All-The-Way-Agenda. This strategic move consolidates their expectations and assets. It is their key to the quantum world of unprecedented opportunities. For your password to Earlybird self-help thinking contact Ian at:

IanPriban@compuserve.com

4. Foot and Mouth Compensation Follow Up

Our correspondent Pat Gardiner has sent in his latest instalment on his on-going campaign in relation to the Foot and Mouth Crisis in the UK

In Bow Wave 55 we published this...

"Bow Wave Reader's Experiences at the Hands of Officialdom

Many readers will know Pat Gardiner through his website which chronicles the Port of Felixstowe past present and future. He lives in East Anglia in country surroundings, keeps a small collection of animals and has recently suffered the attentions of MAFF, the ministry in the UK which deals with agriculture.

He sent us this press release:

"Ministry Official caught red-handed faking blood tests.

Another food scandal

See http://www.users.waitrose.com/~patgardiner/page18.html/

It is quite clear the officials concerned have misjudged the man and the dangers of bringing out the stubbornness in him.

In a later update he wrote:

'As you can see, I strongly smell a cover-up. I've taken the whole thing to the Select Committee of the House of Commons, all properly addressed in the required 20 copies.

They can ask MAFF why they are deliberately refusing a police investigation. I think the answer will be coughs and splutters. There is every sign of extreme panic.'

If this kind of thing is widespread, are the underwriters who are paying out on claims in the know? We rather doubt it."

Last week on 04JLY02 he sent us the results of this lobbying....

It looks like the chickens are coming home to roost, yesterday in Parliament.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-10-346023,00.html

"Mr Bender appeared defensive and at times uncomfortable during a grilling by the Public Accounts Committee. MPs appeared unconvinced by his assertions that the outbreak had been handled effectively and were dismayed that he was not prepared to make any apologies for the department’s lack of preparedness and financial controls.

He was asked by Alan Williams, the Labour deputy committee chairman, whether he knew how many of the 59 farmers who received more than £1 million each in compensation from the Government had also taken out insurance for the disease.

Mr Bender said he would supply a note to the committee. But Mr Williams snapped: You don’t even know and haven’t even asked if they’ve got compensation as well as insurance. You’ve paid out £1.1 billion in compensation and you come here and you cannot even answer a simple question. I find that unbelievable. He demanded an urgent note on the issue. "

See Pat Gardiner's site on life after shipping at:

http://www.go-self-sufficient.com

5. Valuing Mutuality

This week your editor took himself off to the lunchtime speaker meeting of Insurance Solutions Ltd to listed to Charles C Catt speak on the enduring qualities of mutuality. He is associated with the International Co-operative and Mutual Federation whose members continue to grow and expand their activities. The membership consists of 120 insurance groups from 65 countries and makes up about 10 per cent of the world insurance market. Perhaps, he argues, it is to do with the fact that over the last half of the 1990s the mutuals outran the PLCs in the non-life sector in these respects:

Premium Growth 2.5 % vs 2.7 %
Expense Ratios 19.6 % vs 24.4 %
Claims Ratios 73.0 % vs 70.2 %

See the ICMIF's site at:

http://www.icmif.org/

6. And Finally,

Many thanks to Jasim U Ahmed, the CEO of Bangladesh Container Lines, for this addition to the Lessons of Numerology, which we received before the last game was played.

Brazil last won the World Cup in 1994. Before that they won it in 1970. Add 1970 and 1994, it equals 3964. Argentina last won the World Cup in 1986. Before that they won it in 1978. Add 1978 and 1986, it equals 3964.

Germany last won in 1990. Before that they won in 1974. Add 1990 and 1974, it equals 3964.

So going by this logic, the winner of the 2002 World Cup is the same as the 3964 - 2002 = 1962 World Cup. The 1962 World Cup was won by Brazil.

BOW WAVE is published each week to around 7200 Readers in the transport,insurance,shipping and finance industries.

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